The Newspaper Shop -- Friday edition

[walktalker]

There's always a time to read

WiFi software tracks you down
Positioning technology company Ekahau has released an updated version of its software, which allows devices to be physically tracked when they are connected to an 802.11 WLAN network. The Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE) 2.0 can locate 802.11-connected wireless PDAs, laptops and other terminals -- including voice over IP telephones -- to, the company claims, within about a meter. The technology marks another potentially useful application for increasingly popular low-cost 802.11 WLAN equipment, also known as Wi-Fi. Ekahau's offering first hit the market in April last year, after development by a team at the University of Helsinki.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-962587.html

Microsoft, Panasonic make CDs versatile
Microsoft and Panasonic are trying to get PCs and consumer-electronics devices to play well together when it comes to digital media. The two companies will announce on Friday a new technology designed to let consumers easily sift through and open photos, music files and other digital content stored on a compact disc, whether they're using a PC or a consumer-electronics gadget such as a CD or DVD player. Consumer-electronics devices have traditionally differed from PCs in the way they display and open digital files on CDs, making crossover use of compact discs a random and confusing experience for consumers, according to Michael Aldridge, a Microsoft spokesman.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-962497.html

Pop-ups pushed down at Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves banned pop-up advertisements from its search site, making it the latest Web operator to discontinue the consumer-loathed ads. Ask Jeeves, which operates search sites Ask.com and Teoma.com, stopped pushing pop-up ads to its visitors on Monday, and it cut back on banner advertisements that appear throughout the site. The move was in response to visitors' criticism and part of the site's new focus on providing targeted ad links in search results, said Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management. The search service joins several other sites on the anti-pop-up bandwagon. The ads, which spawn a new browser window when Web surfers visit a Web site, will not be sold by top Web property America Online, which this week described its new AOL 8.0 Web software as free of the intrusive commercials.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-962641.html?tag=fd_top_1

Small Webcasters get fee reprieve
Small Webcasters won't immediately have to pay new, potentially steep royalty fees due next week, the group responsible for collecting payments said Friday. The new rules for Webcasters, under which Internet radio stations will be required to pay about a 14th of a cent for each song they stream to each listener, are scheduled to go into effect on Sunday. Small companies, which had complained the fees would put them out of business, were close to winning separate rules in a compromise Congressional bill. The measure was blocked before the Senate adjourned Thursday night.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-962652.html?tag=fd_top_2

Linux company plans German lab
Linux NetworX, which sells supercomputers made by connecting numerous small Linux systems, has begun a partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute to develop new technology and increase its European presence. Linux NetworX, based in Salt Lake City, counts among its customers several national laboratories, genetics research company Sequenom, Motorola and Boeing. The Fraunhofer Institute employs 110 scientists to work on mathematics with commercial applications, best known in the Internet realm for its patents in MP3 digital audio encoding. Under the partnership announced Thursday, Linux NetworX and the institute will jointly research technologies for linking Linux systems into a supercomputer "cluster."
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-962606.html?tag=fd_top_4

Digital TV will soon be mandatory. For chip makers it's prime time
Federal regulators watch television just like the rest of us. So it was no surprise that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission this summer voted to mandate digital tuners in new TVs. We'll be able to watch that high-definition broadcast of The Tonight Show from any room in the house without a cable or satellite connection -- although a high-definition image of Jay Leno's chin might be a bit alarming in the confines of, say, a bathroom. In addition to this consumer "benefit," the action will likely benefit chip makers that are expanding into the digital TV market and may eventually help calm Hollywood's fears of digital piracy.
http://www.herring.com/insider/2002/...tv-101702.html

SETI@home director denies funding crisis
SETI@home's director has moved to dampen fears the project is in danger of closing, claiming its chief scientist was "probably just in a pessimistic mood" when he e-mailed Australian scientists with a gloomy prognosis for its future. The director, David Anderson, told ZDNet Australia "we all have to devote a lot of our energy to raising money...sometimes it can be a bit discouraging. "[Chief scientist] Dan [Werthimer] was probably in a pessimistic mood...Dan speaks for himself," Anderson said.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/com...0269164,00.htm

Are electrical appliances dangerous to your health?
For decades, power companies and official scientific entities such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization have been telling the public that there are almost no credible health risks from electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that emanate from power lines, power transformers and every single appliance that runs on electricity. The official public-health-agency position is that, aside from a small increased risk of childhood leukemia, consumers are perfectly safe no matter how many appliances litter their homes and offices, or how many power lines exist nearby. But a newly completed $8 million, seven-year study by the California Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF) Program has something quite different -- and quite alarming -- to say.
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/local/

Can a Hacker Outfox Microsoft?
Microsoft only announced Palladium -- its initiative to build anti-copying technology into the hardware and operating system of a PC -- a few months ago. It's already causing a great deal of consternation among cypherpunks and hackers. But a comment by Peter Biddle, Microsoft's product manager for Palladium at the 11th USENIX Security Symposium this past August revealed that software companies might not be able to use Palladium to fight piracy or enforce the terms of software licenses. Eager to allay fears about the scope of Palladium, Biddle insisted that the impetus behind Palladium was solely to secure digital entertainment content and that he knew of no way that it could be used for the enforcement of software licensing. This assurance was made while he spoke on a panel at the USENIX Symposium.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55807,00.html

Terror Turns Real for Horror Site
Matt Rexer admits that he was hoping to raise a little hell on his website. But the sudden appearance this week of a message purporting to be from Osama bin Laden, head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, on Rexer's Clive Barker fan site truly spooked the horror film fan. The message that turned up on Rexer's site congratulated the "... Islamic world for the heroic operations of courageous jihad carried out by its pious fighter children in Yemen, against the tanker of the crusaders, and in Kuwait, against the American invasion and occupation forces," and was signed "Osama bin Mohammad bin Laden, your brother." Rexer's site isn't the only one forced to act as an unwilling al-Qaida content host, according to online antiterrorist activist Andrew Weisburd.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55848,00.html

Why 6-Legged Bots Rule
Dean Kamen has a problem. Sometime next year, the celebrated inventor aims to start selling his much-hyped Segway Human Transporter to the general public, and already the sharks are circling. Whereas Kamen views his self-balancing scooter as a device that will revolutionize personal transport and even change how urban landscapes are planned, personal injury lawyers take one look at the Segway, aka IT, and see lunch. One group of Washington, DC, attorneys emblazoned this phrase across their Sue-It.com Web site: "Get ready to Sue-It!" The Segway's primary weakness — inherent in any upright device with wheels — is lateral instability. Hit a nasty pothole at top speed (12.5 mph) and the Segway is likely to do what far less sophisticated scooters do — toss you off the side. In May, a member of Atlanta's auxiliary police fell off a Segway while going up a driveway; he was hospitalized with a knee injury. So who does Kamen turn to for ideas on how to improve the Segway's design? A biologist.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.11/bots.html

Digital Radio: Small Guys' Ruin?
The noise big radio conglomerates are making about digital radio is likely to drown out community radio stations -- dashing small broadcasters' hopes that the new technology would boost their signal. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission endorsed digital broadcast technology for radio stations. Immediately, iBiquity, the company that makes the in-band on-channel (IBOC) system, began working with stations in the largest U.S. markets, outfitting them with transmitters that will allow them to broadcast digitally before the end of the year. The move was hailed as a great success by the National Association of Broadcasters; however, it has likely left low-power radio stations and small niche programs out in the cold.
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,55757,00.html

Living in an Artificial World
Typical technology conferences focus on the latest gadgets and gimmicks designed to make daily activities easier, faster and more convenient. But at the annual PopTech conference, there are no vendors hawking their wares or cavernous exhibit halls filled with crowds of people listening to the latest pitch. Instead, about 400 big thinkers will gather in this small coastal town for a weekend of reflection and discussion about the many ways that technology affects society. "People tend to sort of zip through the year and never pause and think about 'how is this technology changing me?'" said Anthony Citrano, one of the founders of the conference.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55867,00.html

Lost? Map's On, Not Up, Sleeve
By donning fatigues made out of special fabric and a pair of nighttime goggles, soldiers could discreetly view detailed field maps as infrared images on the surface of their uniforms. The military suit is one of the real-world applications of a technology project at the University of Arizona, where a team of scientists is designing electronic pictures that can be printed onto flexible, organic nanofilm. The process enlists a regular inkjet printer and a charged battery. The nanofilm is made out of layers of conduction polymer containing light-emitting polymers (LEPs) that glow green when excited by a charge.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,55528,00.html

Tiny optical disc could store five movies
Two years from now the world's smallest optical disc will let your cellphone store five two-hour movies, squirrel away 25,000 digital photos or hoard 48 hours of MP3 music. New Scientist has learned that the electronics company Philips has been secretly researching the technology in Britain at its research centre in Southampton. It uses a miniature optical disc that records, plays back and erases data using the same precision blue lasers that are being developed for the next generation of high-definition video recorders. The Philips disc has no catchy name yet, so the system is known as SFFO, short for Small Form Factor Optical. In Japan last week, Philips demonstrated SFFO discs to convince sceptics that it really is possible to store four gigabytes on a three-centimetre disc, and to make a drive as small as a memory card that can read it reliably.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992930

Prion diseases' deadly action revealed
The likely cause of cell death in brains infected with prion diseases has been revealed for the first time, say US researchers. The diseases, which include mad cow disease and its human form vCJD, are currently untreatable. But the understanding of their molecular mechanics could lead to therapies. The brains of prion disease victims are full of empty spaces where healthy neurons once thrived. They are also clogged with clumps of prion protein (PrP) in a misfolded form called PrPSc. PrPSc is thought to be the infectious agent, but not the cell killer. "Now our work provides a mechanism for how PrP, a normal protein present in everybody, becomes extremely toxic to humans," says researcher Jiyan Ma, now at Ohio State University. All mammals, including humans, make PrP.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992939

Voiceprints provide mobile encryption keys
The uniqueness of everyone's voice can now be used to lock up data extra securely on mobile phones and portable computers, thanks to a prototype system developed by US researchers. The system could render stolen devices useless. Existing voice identification systems rely on a person's voiceprint alone before granting security clearance. A typed password can also be used, but this must be easy to remember and so may also easy to guess. The new system goes further by combining the two. It combines a spoken password and the voiceprint of the speaker to generate a cryptographic key. This is then used to encrypt data automatically.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992942

Airport noise damages children's reading
The noise from nearby airports impairs children's reading ability and long-term memory, a new study has revealed. But the effects are reversible, say environmental psychologists who took advantage of a switch of airports in Munich, Germany to conduct the first before-and-after study of the problem. Gary Evans at Cornell University, New York, and colleagues monitored reading, memory, attention and speech perception in schoolchildren before and after the opening of the new international airport in the city and the simultaneous closure of the old airport. Children aged between 8 and 12 and living near the airport sites were monitored six months before the airport switch, and one and two years afterwards. Two control groups were also assessed, making a total of 326 children.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992944

Mars lander undergoes drop test
A simulated Mars landing took place at a remote airfield in Shropshire, England, at dawn on Friday, in a crucial last test for the UK's first Martian probe. The trial run tested the parachute that will slow the Beagle 2's rapid descent to the red planet's surface. It was a success, with a dummy payload safely carried to the ground from a height of 90 metres. A prototype of the unique parachute design underwent testing in Arizona in September, but Friday's experiment tested the final design. Colin Pillinger, head of the Beagle 2 project and from the Open University, told New Scientist: "It opened really perfectly. It demonstrates the absolute capability of Lindstrand Balloons to make the real thing."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992945

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[TankGirl]

Originally posted by walktalker
Living in an Artificial World
Typical technology conferences focus on the latest gadgets and gimmicks designed to make daily activities easier, faster and more convenient. But at the annual PopTech conference, there are no vendors hawking their wares or cavernous exhibit halls filled with crowds of people listening to the latest pitch. Instead, about 400 big thinkers will gather in this small coastal town for a weekend of reflection and discussion about the many ways that technology affects society. "People tend to sort of zip through the year and never pause and think about 'how is this technology changing me?'" said Anthony Citrano, one of the founders of the conference.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,55867,00.html

Interesting stuff...

"We've become increasingly fascinated with the way humans tinker with the world they live in," Citrano said. "We're hitting this cusp where people can just change anything."

Yet at the same time people manipulate their world online, for example, the ability to develop this technology is threatened, said Bruce Damer, author of Avatars: Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet and a first-time speaker at this year's conference.

"I would say that the message of today is the health and viability of cybersociety in the face of large monopoly players; laws that may restrict freedom of expression or content; intellectual property restriction on innovation such as software patents; a dry well of investment capital and a government-perceived need to control and monitor communications," Damer said.

"When it comes down to it, the whole infrastructure and the people in it and their trust in it -- that future is being challenged right now from almost every aspect," he said.

Originally posted by walktalker
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- tg

[walktalker]

Originally posted by TankGirl

Interesting stuff...




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- tg

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[theknife]

Originally posted by TankGirl

Interesting stuff...

- tg

Indeed - fascinating stuff. It's great to see the collective consciousness being raised, as people continue to resist the domination of a corporate culture that wants them to sit still like good little consumers and buy whatever ideas, art, content etc that's put in front of them.

[SA_Dave]

Didn't this interest you too TankGirl?

Originally posted by walktalker
Voiceprints provide mobile encryption keys
The uniqueness of everyone's voice can now be used to lock up data extra securely on mobile phones and portable computers, thanks to a prototype system developed by US researchers. The system could render stolen devices useless. Existing voice identification systems rely on a person's voiceprint alone before granting security clearance. A typed password can also be used, but this must be easy to remember and so may also easy to guess. The new system goes further by combining the two. It combines a spoken password and the voiceprint of the speaker to generate a cryptographic key. This is then used to encrypt data automatically.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992942

[multi]

Originally posted by theknife


Indeed - fascinating stuff. It's great to see the collective consciousness being raised, as people continue to resist the domination of a corporate culture that wants them to sit still like good little consumers and buy whatever ideas, art, content etc that's put in front of them.

hi knife
i couldnt agree more...
they may even start to make up some of their own..!