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Issue no. 35, 2005
Published: Nov 18, 2005 |
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 US to keep control of domain names | | $100 laptop to aid developing countries | | Machines and objects to overtake humans on the internet: ITU | | Sony rootkit accused of GPL violation | | Light gives new material magnetic personality | | Sound waves target new applications | | Chaos protects networks in Athens | | Shoot first, focus later | | High-tech photos give new meaning to 'talking pictures' | | Japanese image software targets suspicious acts | | UR r@ is in the trap |
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| US to keep control of domain names |
The US will keep control of the domain-name system that guides internet
traffic under an agreement reached on Wednesday, resolving a dispute
that threatened to fracture the global computer network.
Negotiators at the UN World Summit on the Information Society said they
had agreed to set up a forum to discuss internet issues and explore ways
to narrow the technology gap between rich and poor countries. But that
forum will have no power to regulate the internet or wrest control of
the domain-name system from the US, as many countries had sought.
Under the agreement, the US-based Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) will continue to oversee the domain name
system. ICANN cannot make any changes to the domain-name system without
approval from the US Department of Commerce.
But businesses, technical experts and human-rights groups will be
allowed to participate along with governments in the new forum, which
will first meet in early 2006. Though the forum will not have any power
of its own, it could pressure ICANN and other internet groups to change,
one independent observer said. |
| Reuters
Nov 16, 2005 |
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| $100 laptop to aid developing countries |
A wind-up $100 laptop designed for children in developing countries
could be in production next year. MIT's Nicholas Negroponte plans to
have millions of the computers made by the end of 2006.
The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power
consumption and will let children interact with each other while
learning. The foldable lime laptop was unveiled at the World Summit on
the Information Society in Tunis.
Nicknamed the green machine, it can be used as a conventional computer,
or an electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at the back
of the machine or a touchpad on the front. It can also be held and used
like a handheld games console and can function as a TV.
There has already been firm interest in the machines from governments,
though no laptops have yet been manufactured. A working model is likely
to be produced in February. |
| Ananova / BBC News
Nov 17, 2005 |
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| Machines and objects to overtake humans on the internet: ITU |
Machines will overtake humans to become the biggest users of the
Internet in a brave new world of electronic sensors, smart homes, and
tags that track users' movements and habits, the UN's International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) predicted. In a report entitled 'Internet
of Things', the ITU outlined the next stage in the technological
revolution where humans, electronic devices, inanimate objects and
databases are linked in real time by a radically transformed internet.
Currently there are around 875 million internet users worldwide, a
number that may simply double if humans remain the primary users of the
future. But experts are counting on tens of billions of human and
inanimate 'users' in future decades. They would be tied into an all
pervasive network where there would be no need to power up a computer to
connect - anytime, anywhere, by anyone and anything, the report said.
The report laid out economic opportunities, a huge expansion of the IT
industry and applications in a wide range of fields from health to
entertainment. But it also warned of challenges, including privacy and
data protection issues, and a battle for common technical standards.
Tighter linkages would be needed between those that create the
technology and those that use it to cope with its forecast new world.
'In a world increasingly mediated by technology, we must ensure that the
human core of our activities remains untouched,' the report concluded. |
| Physorg / AFP
Nov 17, 2005 |
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| Sony rootkit accused of GPL violation |
The technology that Sony BMG used to prevent piracy of audio CDs is
itself based on stolen code, according to two software writers from
Germany and Finland respectively who looked into the application.
First 4 Internet, the developer of the controversial XCP anti piracy
technology that Sony deployed on some of its CDs, is believed to have
included software that is governed by the General Public Licence. Under
terms of that license, First 4 Internet is obligated to release the
software that uses the GPL-code, which it did not do. The software
writers examined the binaries for the XCP software and found numerous
references to functions that were taken from an application called
mpg123 as well as other applications governed by open source license.
The XCP technology came under fire after security experts unmasked it as
a major security risk. After weeks of pressure Sony last Friday said it
would stop shipping CDs with the technology and would take back any CDs
that consumers had purchased. When a user inserts an infected CD in a
Windows system, the CD installs a new media player, digital rights
management technology and a rootkit which hides the technology from both
the user and the system. The GPL code was found in the media player. |
| VNUnet UK
Nov 18, 2005 |
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| Light gives new material magnetic personality |
If visible light caused magnetism, paperclips would clump together every
time you flicked on your office lamp. Paperclips may be safe for now,
but researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, have sculpted gold
into a material that becomes magnetic in a cockeyed way when exposed to
light. Their innovation could lead to nanolasers, ultra-sensitive
chemical detectors, or even a lens that could focus on details far
tinier than the best lenses used today.
The researchers arranged tapered gold pillars, just around 80 nanometres
tall and 100 nanometres wide at the base, in pairs on a glass slab. The
nano-size and spacing were just right to interact with light waves,
which are a few hundred nanometres long. When red or green light shone
on the pillars, it excited the electrons in the metal, which began to
vibrate in opposite directions - the electrons on one pillar would go up
while the electrons on the other pillar would go down.
Each pair of pillars acted like a tiny circuit with its own magnetic
field. Together, the pairs produced a magnetic field strong enough to
make the whole slab respond negatively to the light’s magnetic field,
That is, within the material the magnetic field points in the opposite
direction of the field applied by the light, the researchers report. |
| ScienceNow / Nature
Nov 16, 2005 |
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| Sound waves target new applications |
Physicists in France have developed a new form of 'touch-screen'
technology that relies on detecting the sound waves that are produced
when a solid object is tapped by a finger. The technology could be used
to make virtual keyboards and intelligent shop windows, and may also
have applications in security and education.
When the surface of a solid object is tapped, sound waves reverberate
through it. Different points on the surface produce slightly different
sounds and therefore has a unique acoustic 'signature'. Now, researchers
at French start-up Sensitive Object and colleagues of the University of
Paris VII, have shown that this signature could be exploited in a new
variation on traditional touch screens.
They demonstrated their technique in a glass plate, which they tapped at
various positions and detected the resulting sound waves with a simple
sensor connected to a PC. The new technique relies on a process called
acoustic time-reversal that allows sounds waves to be reversed and sent
back to their origin. However, rather than reversing the sound waves,
the new technique calculates where the sound came from in the first
place. In this way different positions on the surface can be related to
different actions. A tap at one position might switch on a light, while
a tap at a different position could turn on a CD player. |
| PhysicsWeb / Appl. Phys. Lett. 87 204104
Nov 11, 2005 |
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| Chaos protects networks in Athens |
A team of European scientists has shown that chaos can be used to
encrypt and send data in a commercial fibre-optic network. Although
chaotic communication has been demonstrated in the lab before, this is
first time that it is has been made to work with a real fibre network.
The team, which is part of the EU-funded OCCULT project, has embedded
the data in a chaotic signal, sent it a distance of 120 kilometres, and
then decrypted it at the other end. They transmitted data at rates of
2.4 gigabits per second over a network in Athens, Greece.
The researchers used of a pair of laser diodes that were driven by
nonlinear feedback so that their outputs became chaotic. Data is
embedded in the output of the laser at the transmitter, which makes
eavesdropping very difficult. Moreover, since chaotic signals contain a
wide range of frequencies, they are robust to interference effects. At
the receiver, the chaotic output from the second laser - which is
synchronised with the first laser - is subtracted to leave the data. |
| PhysicsWeb / Nature (437 343)
Nov 17, 2005 |
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| Shoot first, focus later |
Blurry snaps could be a thing of the past with the development of a
digital camera that refocuses photos after they have been taken.
In an ordinary digital camera, a sensor behind the lens records the
light level that hits each pixel on its surface. If the light rays
reaching the sensor are not in focus, the image will appear blurry.
Now, researchers at Stanford University have figured out how to adjust
the light rays after they have reached the camera. They inserted a sheet
of 90,000 lenses, each just 125 micrometres across, between the camera's
main lens and the image sensor.
The angle of the light rays that strike each microlens is recorded, as
well as the amount of light arriving along each ray. Software can then
be used to adjust these values for each microlens to reconstruct what
the image would have looked like if it had been properly focused. Any
part of the image can be refocused - not just the main subject. |
| New Scientist
Nov 16, 2005 |
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| High-tech photos give new meaning to 'talking pictures' |
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how valuable would it be if
someone added a sound track? Italian start-up Zanetti Studio is
preparing a new photo printer, called Speekysmart, that imprints a
magnetic strip to the side of a piece of paper or photograph. The
recordable tape, named Speakpaper, can capture a few seconds of
conversation or music recorded at the moment the photo was taken.
A mouselike handheld reader, also developed by the company, can record
or replay the audio track. The user wipes the reader past the magnetic
strip, as someone might swipe a credit card when making a purchase.
Currently the strip can record four to five seconds of audio. But the
goal is to get the magnetic strip to hold up to three minutes of
recording time. The Speakpaper technology also adjusts to the speed that
the reader is swiped and can stop itself or resume without altering the
message, according to company documents. |
| CNET News
Nov 17, 2005 |
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| Japanese image software targets suspicious acts |
Mitsubishi Electric has unveiled PC software to effectively track
someone acting in a suspicious manner out of numerous images captured by
surveillance cameras.
The DX-PC55Pro software analyses various behavioural patterns of people
in images taken by cameras, and can pinpoint people who display
suspicious behaviour, including remaining in one place for a long period
of time or entering an off-limits area. The software is also capable of
displaying close up facial photos on a PC screen.
If facial image data are stored in a computer system in advance, the
DX-PC55Pro helps the user identify people. |
| The Japan Times
Nov 15, 2005 |
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| UR r@ is in the trap |
Retrieving dead or injured vermin from traps - surely one of the most
unsavoury of housekeeping tasks - is set for a high-tech makeover.
Instead of someone having to make regular check of traps to see they if
contain a dead rat or mouse, the novel trap developed by UK pest control
firm Rentokil sends out a text message to summon a pest controller.
Inside its white plastic enclosure, a pressure pad senses the weight of
an animal's paw, and closes the door if the footfall matches the weight
of a rat or mouse. Squirrels or small rabbits are spared. Gas released
from a carbon dioxide capsule then kills the vermin humanely.
Once the capsule has been set off, a built-in cellphone unit sends a
text to the nearest pest controller. By ensuring the trap is emptied as
soon as the animal is caught, it can be reset quickly, so ensuring more
vermin are caught. |
| New Scientist
Nov 17, 2005 |
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