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walktalker · 27-08-01, 07:14 PM

Can DNA IDs Heal Bosnian Wounds?
A few years ago, there wasn't much hope for family and friends in their search for missing loved ones. Thousands of Bosnian Muslims were massacred in places like Srebenica. Finding and identifying them was extremely difficult, if possible at all. Now, thanks to remarkable advances in DNA testing, the remains of many of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 missing in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be positively identified. It offers Bosnians valuable assistance in the difficult task of moving on from the horrors of the brutal 1992-'95 war.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46309,00.html

Campus Music Trades Continue
College students intent on sharing music and movie files over the Internet are in for a surprise when they return to school -- they'll have fewer restrictions on their swapping. Eighteen months ago, the Napster file-trading application was so popular -- it had nearly 70 million registered users -- that universities across the country erected firewalls to restrict student access to the program that was clogging university networks with music files. Those firewalls became moot earlier this year when Napster was shuttered, thanks to a court-ordered injunction ruling the service violated federal copyright laws. The injunction figured to relieve the universities struggling with the bandwidth issue. Instead, Napster's demise made it tougher to restrict the flow of bandwidth-eating music files.
http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,45807,00.html

Scarfo: Feds Plead for Secrecy
Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to drape a curtain of secrecy around a case involving electronic surveillance of an alleged mobster. Its classified eavesdropping technology is so sensitive, the U.S. government claims, that "national security" will be at risk if details are revealed to the public or defense attorneys for Nicodemo S. Scarfo, the alleged mastermind of a loan shark operation in New Jersey. Justice Department attorneys have gone so far as to invoke the 1980 Classified Information Procedures Act, a little-used federal law usually reserved for espionage cases, in a 13-page filing last week with U.S. District Judge Nicholas Politan.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46329,00.html

DSL Behind in Broadband Race
High-speed Internet access over ordinary telephone lines is a technology that was to pave the promised information superhighway -- but for most consumers it's become a road to nowhere. While the acceptance of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology -- which transforms telephone wires into high-speed pipes connected to the World Wide Web -- has increased, the rate of growth has fallen short of industry predictions. Analysts say that the technology has been stalled by a lack of compelling extras such as games or video services, rising prices, and the failure of many Internet start-ups providing the service. As a result, telephone-based Internet service will continue to trail rival cable-television based services, analysts said.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46347,00.html

Firms Craft Cell Phone Policies
Attorney Jane Wagner was so busy talking on her cell phone while driving that she thought the teen-ager she had struck was a deer. It wasn't until the next morning, when she heard that a hit-and-run driver had killed a 15-year-old girl, that Wagner realized what she had done. Whether Wagner was making work-related calls when the accident occurred is a matter for the courts to decide, but a $30 million suit against her firm is causing some employers to restrict mobile-phone use on the road, ahead of legislation by most states.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46326,00.html

Vietnam Keeps Lock on Net Access
Vietnam's communist government has allowed all businesses, including foreign firms, to supply Internet service but will retain its monopoly in the Internet access provision, an industry official said on Monday. An official from the Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunications (DGPT) said firms of all economic sectors could become Internet Service Providers (ISPs), once they obtained a DGPT license, following a government decree issued last week. The decree would come into effect early next month. The official told Reuters that DGPT, which is responsible for Internet management in Vietnam, was working out licensing procedures including conditions to license ISPs.
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46332,00.html

Marketing First for Last Vampire
If you're a vampire, you're well advised to stay far away from Saya. The gut-slicing female protagonist of Blood: The Last Vampire makes Buffy look like a rank amateur. But if you're a computer-animation junkie, you'll find plenty to intrigue you about the first animated feature release to seamlessly blend Japan's unique "anime" style with computer animation. Not least is distributor Manga Entertainment's decision to stream the movie on the Web for 24 hours this Tuesday. Manga will simultaneously show the film at theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and sell DVDs online and at Suncoast Video. "If people thought it was great online, hopefully they'll go and tell their friends who didn't see it," said Manga president Marvin Gleicher. "This is a different way to market a film."
http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,46312,00.html

Internet banned in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's Taliban militia banned the Internet on Saturday and ordered the religious police to punish users according to Islamic law, the official radio station reported. "Within the territory of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, no governmental or non-governmental, domestic or international NGO (non-governmental organization) or individuals can exploit the Internet," Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said in a decree broadcast on radio Shariat. Omar said the ministry for the promotion of virtue and the suppression of vice, otherwise known as the religious police, had been authorized to punish Internet users. "The ministry is duty-bound to chase the violators of this decree and punish the violator in accordance to Sharia law," he said.
http://www.nando.com/technology/stor...p-962641c.html

Tech Leaders Feeling Neglected
Texas computer mogul Michael Dell and his fellow high-tech executives raised twice as much money for George W. Bush's presidential campaign as their Democratic counterparts raised for Al Gore last year. But now, with the sputtering technology industry threatening to drag the nation into a recession, policy observers and tech executives have begun to wonder if the president -- a former oilman -- will pay more attention to the fuel of the "new economy": information technology. Aside from weighing in on stem cell research, Bush has devoted scant attention to Silicon Valley, critics say. Vice President Dick Cheney also has appeared detached--in contrast to Gore's high-profile championing of technology policy during the Clinton years.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-082701info.story

Study: Pentagon shouldn't share airwaves
The Defense Department got some support Wednesday for its view that it shouldn't give up its airwaves to make room for the communications industry, as congressional auditors said changes now could pose a threat to national security. Supporters of the mobile communications industry say those airwaves are essential to fill the high demand for such services as high-speed Internet access everywhere, mobile phones and handheld computers. But the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative branch, said that if the Defense Department makes room for new wireless products before more research is conducted, it could endanger the nation because of potential interference with Pentagon equipment.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/w...aves-study.htm

Big Borders bookshop is watching you
IT'S supposed to be the sedate home of book lovers, coffee drinkers and the chattering classes, but Borders, the high street bookseller, has been attacked by human rights organisations for using high-tech surveillance equipment to spy on their customers. The company is to become the first retailer in the world to introduce a controversial security scheme, normally used to trap football hooligans, paedophiles and terrorists, to photograph customers as they enter stores. SmartFace -- known as FaceIt in the USA -- keeps a database of 'unique digital face-maps' that will check customers' pictures against those of known shoplifters. The advanced CCTV technology can locate individual faces within crowds, track a targeted face and then match it against images of suspected criminals kept on its database. The American-based retailer has 11 outlets in the UK, including stores in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Only UK stores are participating in the SmartFace pilot.
http://www.sundayherald.com/18007

Sparks over static: An age-old problem still vexes makers of tech devices
As natural phenomena go, static electricity seems less cataclysmic than an earthquake or a tornado. An annoyance, maybe -- socks clinging together, flyaway hair, or the zap felt after shuffling across the floor and touching a doorknob. But that tiny spark can also do big damage to delicate electronics. Earlier this month, a lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed in San Francisco, alleging that Palm Inc. failed to disclose that static electricity passing through its personal digital assistants could damage computers connected to the device's cradle. The Santa Clara handheldmaker, which has sold more than 13.7 million of its devices, declined to comment on the suit.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...27/BU81251.DTL

Delhi children make play of the net
In the slums of Delhi, an experiment has shown how illiterate street children can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computers and the internet. The aim of the experiment, funded by the Indian Government, local institutions and the World Bank was to see what role computers might play in educating India's illiterate millions. The results were startling, showing how much children with little or no English and no computer training at all could achieve.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1502820.stm

Confusion over copyright and free speech
Dimitri Sklyarov is an unlikely poster boy for American freedom. The Russian programmer was arrested after he spoke at the "Def-Con" hacker convention in Las Vegas about a program, offered for sale by his employer Elcomsoft, which cracks the encryption in Adobe's e-book software. Interest in Sklyarov is high because his case raises many of the most controversial issues in relation to how the law will apply to new technologies. Sklyarov was in Russia when he cracked the Adobe program, and the question of whether or not his actions were illegal under Russian law is properly an issue for Russia's courts. But his case also raises issues of free speech and copyright
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/com...0827/comp2.htm

"Black box" recorder developed for operating theatres
A British doctor is developing a black box recorder for operating theatres, but some are concerned that the system might put more pressure on surgeons. The black box recording system would monitor almost everything that takes place in an operating theatre. Electromagnetic or ultrasonic sensors placed on a surgeon's hands would record precise movements during surgery. The system would also take recordings from medical equipment and capture conversations between doctors during an operation. It would even monitor who is going in and out of the theatre at any time.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991197

More news later on

27-08-01, 07:14 PM	#2
walktalker The local newspaper man Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Montreal Posts: 2,036	Can DNA IDs Heal Bosnian Wounds? A few years ago, there wasn't much hope for family and friends in their search for missing loved ones. Thousands of Bosnian Muslims were massacred in places like Srebenica. Finding and identifying them was extremely difficult, if possible at all. Now, thanks to remarkable advances in DNA testing, the remains of many of the estimated 20,000 to 30,000 missing in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be positively identified. It offers Bosnians valuable assistance in the difficult task of moving on from the horrors of the brutal 1992-'95 war. http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,46309,00.html Campus Music Trades Continue College students intent on sharing music and movie files over the Internet are in for a surprise when they return to school -- they'll have fewer restrictions on their swapping. Eighteen months ago, the Napster file-trading application was so popular -- it had nearly 70 million registered users -- that universities across the country erected firewalls to restrict student access to the program that was clogging university networks with music files. Those firewalls became moot earlier this year when Napster was shuttered, thanks to a court-ordered injunction ruling the service violated federal copyright laws. The injunction figured to relieve the universities struggling with the bandwidth issue. Instead, Napster's demise made it tougher to restrict the flow of bandwidth-eating music files. http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,45807,00.html Scarfo: Feds Plead for Secrecy Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to drape a curtain of secrecy around a case involving electronic surveillance of an alleged mobster. Its classified eavesdropping technology is so sensitive, the U.S. government claims, that "national security" will be at risk if details are revealed to the public or defense attorneys for Nicodemo S. Scarfo, the alleged mastermind of a loan shark operation in New Jersey. Justice Department attorneys have gone so far as to invoke the 1980 Classified Information Procedures Act, a little-used federal law usually reserved for espionage cases, in a 13-page filing last week with U.S. District Judge Nicholas Politan. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46329,00.html DSL Behind in Broadband Race High-speed Internet access over ordinary telephone lines is a technology that was to pave the promised information superhighway -- but for most consumers it's become a road to nowhere. While the acceptance of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology -- which transforms telephone wires into high-speed pipes connected to the World Wide Web -- has increased, the rate of growth has fallen short of industry predictions. Analysts say that the technology has been stalled by a lack of compelling extras such as games or video services, rising prices, and the failure of many Internet start-ups providing the service. As a result, telephone-based Internet service will continue to trail rival cable-television based services, analysts said. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46347,00.html Firms Craft Cell Phone Policies Attorney Jane Wagner was so busy talking on her cell phone while driving that she thought the teen-ager she had struck was a deer. It wasn't until the next morning, when she heard that a hit-and-run driver had killed a 15-year-old girl, that Wagner realized what she had done. Whether Wagner was making work-related calls when the accident occurred is a matter for the courts to decide, but a $30 million suit against her firm is causing some employers to restrict mobile-phone use on the road, ahead of legislation by most states. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,46326,00.html Vietnam Keeps Lock on Net Access Vietnam's communist government has allowed all businesses, including foreign firms, to supply Internet service but will retain its monopoly in the Internet access provision, an industry official said on Monday. An official from the Directorate General of Posts and Telecommunications (DGPT) said firms of all economic sectors could become Internet Service Providers (ISPs), once they obtained a DGPT license, following a government decree issued last week. The decree would come into effect early next month. The official told Reuters that DGPT, which is responsible for Internet management in Vietnam, was working out licensing procedures including conditions to license ISPs. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46332,00.html Marketing First for Last Vampire If you're a vampire, you're well advised to stay far away from Saya. The gut-slicing female protagonist of Blood: The Last Vampire makes Buffy look like a rank amateur. But if you're a computer-animation junkie, you'll find plenty to intrigue you about the first animated feature release to seamlessly blend Japan's unique "anime" style with computer animation. Not least is distributor Manga Entertainment's decision to stream the movie on the Web for 24 hours this Tuesday. Manga will simultaneously show the film at theaters in Los Angeles and New York, and sell DVDs online and at Suncoast Video. "If people thought it was great online, hopefully they'll go and tell their friends who didn't see it," said Manga president Marvin Gleicher. "This is a different way to market a film." http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,46312,00.html Internet banned in Afghanistan Afghanistan's Taliban militia banned the Internet on Saturday and ordered the religious police to punish users according to Islamic law, the official radio station reported. "Within the territory of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, no governmental or non-governmental, domestic or international NGO (non-governmental organization) or individuals can exploit the Internet," Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar said in a decree broadcast on radio Shariat. Omar said the ministry for the promotion of virtue and the suppression of vice, otherwise known as the religious police, had been authorized to punish Internet users. "The ministry is duty-bound to chase the violators of this decree and punish the violator in accordance to Sharia law," he said. http://www.nando.com/technology/stor...p-962641c.html Tech Leaders Feeling Neglected Texas computer mogul Michael Dell and his fellow high-tech executives raised twice as much money for George W. Bush's presidential campaign as their Democratic counterparts raised for Al Gore last year. But now, with the sputtering technology industry threatening to drag the nation into a recession, policy observers and tech executives have begun to wonder if the president -- a former oilman -- will pay more attention to the fuel of the "new economy": information technology. Aside from weighing in on stem cell research, Bush has devoted scant attention to Silicon Valley, critics say. Vice President Dick Cheney also has appeared detached--in contrast to Gore's high-profile championing of technology policy during the Clinton years. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-082701info.story Study: Pentagon shouldn't share airwaves The Defense Department got some support Wednesday for its view that it shouldn't give up its airwaves to make room for the communications industry, as congressional auditors said changes now could pose a threat to national security. Supporters of the mobile communications industry say those airwaves are essential to fill the high demand for such services as high-speed Internet access everywhere, mobile phones and handheld computers. But the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative branch, said that if the Defense Department makes room for new wireless products before more research is conducted, it could endanger the nation because of potential interference with Pentagon equipment. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/w...aves-study.htm Big Borders bookshop is watching you IT'S supposed to be the sedate home of book lovers, coffee drinkers and the chattering classes, but Borders, the high street bookseller, has been attacked by human rights organisations for using high-tech surveillance equipment to spy on their customers. The company is to become the first retailer in the world to introduce a controversial security scheme, normally used to trap football hooligans, paedophiles and terrorists, to photograph customers as they enter stores. SmartFace -- known as FaceIt in the USA -- keeps a database of 'unique digital face-maps' that will check customers' pictures against those of known shoplifters. The advanced CCTV technology can locate individual faces within crowds, track a targeted face and then match it against images of suspected criminals kept on its database. The American-based retailer has 11 outlets in the UK, including stores in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Only UK stores are participating in the SmartFace pilot. http://www.sundayherald.com/18007 Sparks over static: An age-old problem still vexes makers of tech devices As natural phenomena go, static electricity seems less cataclysmic than an earthquake or a tornado. An annoyance, maybe -- socks clinging together, flyaway hair, or the zap felt after shuffling across the floor and touching a doorknob. But that tiny spark can also do big damage to delicate electronics. Earlier this month, a lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed in San Francisco, alleging that Palm Inc. failed to disclose that static electricity passing through its personal digital assistants could damage computers connected to the device's cradle. The Santa Clara handheldmaker, which has sold more than 13.7 million of its devices, declined to comment on the suit. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...27/BU81251.DTL Delhi children make play of the net In the slums of Delhi, an experiment has shown how illiterate street children can quickly teach themselves the rudiments of computers and the internet. The aim of the experiment, funded by the Indian Government, local institutions and the World Bank was to see what role computers might play in educating India's illiterate millions. The results were startling, showing how much children with little or no English and no computer training at all could achieve. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1502820.stm Confusion over copyright and free speech Dimitri Sklyarov is an unlikely poster boy for American freedom. The Russian programmer was arrested after he spoke at the "Def-Con" hacker convention in Las Vegas about a program, offered for sale by his employer Elcomsoft, which cracks the encryption in Adobe's e-book software. Interest in Sklyarov is high because his case raises many of the most controversial issues in relation to how the law will apply to new technologies. Sklyarov was in Russia when he cracked the Adobe program, and the question of whether or not his actions were illegal under Russian law is properly an issue for Russia's courts. But his case also raises issues of free speech and copyright http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/com...0827/comp2.htm "Black box" recorder developed for operating theatres A British doctor is developing a black box recorder for operating theatres, but some are concerned that the system might put more pressure on surgeons. The black box recording system would monitor almost everything that takes place in an operating theatre. Electromagnetic or ultrasonic sensors placed on a surgeon's hands would record precise movements during surgery. The system would also take recordings from medical equipment and capture conversations between doctors during an operation. It would even monitor who is going in and out of the theatre at any time. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991197 More news later on __________________ This post was sponsored by Netcoco, who wants cookies, cookies, cookies and, you guessed it, more cookies