New law makes computer, TV makers pay for recycling

(www.seattletimes.nwsource.com)

OLYMPIA — Manufacturers of televisions and computers will foot the bill for recycling and safely disposing of their products once they are discarded under a measure signed into law Friday by Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Under the new law, manufacturers will have to establish a program to collect, transport and dispose of old electronic products. Household consumers, schools, charities, small governments and small businesses will be able to drop off their e-waste without charge once the program is fully implemented, by Jan. 1, 2009.

The proposal was prompted by the state Department of Ecology's two-year study of recycling alternatives for the products.

"With the upcoming switch to high-definition television, now is the time to put this program into place in our state," Gregoire said before signing the measure.

Gregoire vetoed a section in the bill that would prohibit the export of e-waste to certain other countries, saying the state did not have the authority to restrict exports.

Maine recently passed a similar law, though consumers pay $2 a piece to recycle their products. A California law requires payment of a disposal fee when a TV or computer monitor is purchased, while Maryland assesses registration fees from computer makers and disburses the proceeds to municipalities for use in collecting and recycling old computers.

Nineteen other states and New York City have electronic recycling bills pending this year, said Suellen Mele, with Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation.

"This is landmark legislation," said Mo McBroom, with the Washington Environmental Council. "It's the biggest advancement in recycling in over a generation."

Washington residents discard more than 1 million televisions and monitors each year, according to Ecology. Nationally, about 2 million tons of e-junk are disposed of each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

An average computer monitor contains six pounds of lead, which can seep into waterways and poison the environment.

Manufacturers like Philips, Panasonic and Sharp opposed the law and sent several letters to Gregoire urging her to veto it.

The companies argued that the law unfairly burdens them with financing the entire system and puts them at a competitive disadvantage to foreign producers that can be difficult to track down and may not pay for their share of recycling.

"This is a matter of survival for the companies," said Ric Erdheim, senior council for Philips Electronics and spokesman for the Electronics Manufacturers Coalition for Responsible Recycling. "Where are we going to get the money to pay for all of this?"

In her signing letter, Gregoire said she is asking Ecology "to work closely with all affected stakeholders to ensure that this bill is implemented in a fair and equitable manner."

Other bills Gregoire signed Friday include a crackdown on driver-training schools that would strengthen the authority of the Department of Licensing to oversee such operations.

The measure also increases the training requirements for an instructor's license and would require inspection of each driver-training school and its business practices. Staff would have to undergo criminal-background checks.

Gregoire also signed a measure that makes it a felony to have sex with animals. The law was prompted by a widely publicized Washington state case in which a man died of injuries suffered while having sex with a horse. The measure makes bestiality a Class C felony, which is punishable by a maximum five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Anyone videotaping such acts also could be convicted under animal-cruelty laws, as could anyone permitting such acts to take place on his or her property.

COMPUTER CHIPS COULD PREVENT LOSS OF BAGGAGE

(www.morningsentinel.mainetoday.com)

No one who travels by air was surprised at the announcement this week that the airline industry set a record last year for losing more luggage than ever.

An estimated 30 million bags were lost in 2005 and 200,000 of them were never found.

Most of the misconnected suitcases were returned to their owners in little more than a day.

It also should be no surprise that the problem is getting worse, not better, according to SITA, Inc., an international company that tracks this problem.

The answer, SITA says, is baggage tags that include a tiny computer chip to help airlines keep track of bags. They are being used in a few areas, and they work, SITA reports.

Anyone who has had the experience of arriving at a destination without his or her luggage will embrace the proposal.

In the meantime, we suggest extra frequent flier miles for your suitcase if it goes to Hawaii while you land in Omaha.

Dock laptop for desktop comfort

(www.tmcnet.com)

Desktop computers have all of comforts of a full-sized keyboard, mouse, and big monitor. Don't try to slip one into a backpack or brief case, however, when you're on the move.

You can do that easily with a light-weight laptop or notebook computer. With a laptop, you need only one computer for home, office, school, a vacation cottage or anywhere else you can imagine.However, many people don't like the downsized features that come with all but top-of-of-the line "desktop-replacement laptops."

Those include a downsized keyboard, a touchpad pointing device instead of a mouse, and a smaller monitor.I've been using a wonderful solution to that comfort-or-portability dilemma at work. It is a computer docking station that transforms an ultra-light laptop into a full-sized desktop.

A docking station is a platform or frame into which you install a laptop computer. The laptop slides into the docking station and plugs into a master connector. That one connection gives the docking station full access to the computer.

You don't have to connect or disconnect a power cord or Internet cable, for instance, every time you dock and undock the laptop.Docking stations also contain outlets for connecting a full-size keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, printer, and other devices.

Some have built-in CD and DVD drives, enhanced sound systems, and other features.Once inserted in a docking station with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, a laptop essentially becomes a desktop.

Undock, and you've got a portable computer with all the files ready to go.Some people own one laptop computer, but have docking stations at home, in the office, in a dorm room at college, on a vacation home or boat. It's just like owning several desktop computers.

Different kinds of docking ports are available in local stories and online outlets.Basic models cost under $100.

Prices can soar, especially if you have to buy a new monitor, keyboard, speakers, and mouse to use with the docking station.Many old monitors, keyboards, speakers, and mice will work just fine with a new docking station. Keep that in mind when you're trying to decide what to do with old computer gear.

Why not plan on "re-purposing" the gear? Store the old equipment in case you do decide on a laptop and docking station in the future.The old gear may seem clunky.

However, it may be perfect for a second or third docking station in a rarely used location like a summer cottage.Pay special attention to security if you decide on the docking station solution.

I mean the physical security of the hardware. Both the laptop and the docking station can be inviting targets for thieves.Don't make yourself an easy target. Secure the docking station to a desk.

For the laptop, buy a security cable -- a lockable steel cable that connects to a slot in the computer's case.Keep the cable locked whenever you are away from the desk.

Caring For Your Eyes In The Digital World

(www.medicalnewstoday.com)St

udies have found that the majority of people who work at a computer experience some eye or vision problems, and that the level of discomfort appears to increase with the amount of computer use.

But, increased use of smaller, portable work and recreational gadgets such as Personal Digital Assistants, laptops and cell phones used for text messaging and Web access may also be contributing factors to the visual fatigue and discomfort experienced by millions, according to a leading expert.

"The unique characteristics and high visual demands of computer work and play make many individuals susceptible to the development of eye and vision-related problems," notes Dr. Jeffrey Anshel, a practicing optometrist and author of Visual Ergonomics in the Workplace. "With the proliferation of portable electronic devices such as laptops, palm pilots and video game players, it's no surprise that eye care professionals are seeing more patients who complain of ocular discomfort."

Indeed, a national survey of doctors of optometry found that more than 14 percent of their patients present with eye or vision-related symptoms resulting from computer work. Furthermore, in a survey of more than 2,000 current and former contact lens wearers, time spent in front of a computer (41 percent) was the activity most frequently mentioned as causing discomfort while they were wearing their lenses.

Staring at a computer monitor or the small screens on most devices can lead to a variety of ailments, including headaches, eyestrain, blurred vision, dry and irritated eyes, neck and/or backache and sensitivity to light.

"Eye stress and strain may be caused by a combination of individual visual problems, improper viewing habits and poor environmental conditions, such as glare, improper workstation set up, dirty screens, poor lighting and viewing angles," explains Dr. Anshel, who has helped companies and government agencies, including Mitsubishi, American Airlines, 3M and the Department of Labor address the high stress area of vision demands in relation to working with computer monitors.

"Uncorrected or under-corrected vision problems can be major contributing factors to computer related eye stress, affecting visual performance and comfort," cautions Dr. Anshel.

"The good news is that many potential eye and/or vision problems can be reduced or eliminated by appropriate adjustment and placement of computer monitors, lighting control, good preventive vision care habits and regular professional eye care." Dr. Anshel offers the following advice to help prevent or reduce the development of vision-related problems.

For additional tips, take the "Eye Q's and Views" interactive quiz at http://www.computerquiz.jnjvision.com.

-- REDUCE GLARE - Extraneous light, or glare, is the greatest source of eyestrain for computer users. No matter where your computer is relative to a window, adjustable shades, curtains or blinds should be used to effectively control light levels throughout the day. Avoid facing an un-shaded window since the difference in brightness between the screen and the area behind it may be cause eye stress and discomfort. Consider using an anti-glare screen to reduce reflections.

-- CHECK YOUR CONTACTS - When working at a computer, people spend a lot of time concentrating and blink less frequently - about three times less than normally, according to studies. "Computer work is particularly stressful for contact lens wearers," says Dr. Anshel. "Long non-blinking phases may cause the surface of contact lenses to dry out, which can lead to discomfort and a loss of visual clarity." He recommends talking to an eye care professional about ACUVUE® OASYS™ with HYDRACLEAR™ Plus. In a clinical study with 335 contact lens wearers, nine in 10 (89 percent) patients wearing ACUVUE® OASYS™ said that their eyes felt comfortable, even when watching TV or using a computer for a long time.

-- ADJUST YOUR MONITOR - Ideal monitor placement is dependent on several factors including an individual's physical make-up and visual capabilities, work tasks and other workstation design elements. For maximum eye comfort, Dr. Anshel recommends placing the center of the screen five to nine inches below your horizontal line of sight. "You should be looking just over the top of the monitor in your straight-ahead gaze," he says.

-- TAKE A BREAK - "Our eyes were not made to see at a close distance for hours at a time without a break," says Dr. Anshel. A preventive approach to reducing visual stress includes occasionally looking away from the screen of your computer, PDA or portable game player. Dr. Anshel recommends the 20/20/20 rule. "Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes. Focus your eyes on points at least 20 feet from your terminal. Keep your eyes moving while looking at objects at various distances," he says.
-- CONSULT YOUR EYE CARE PROFESSIONAL - The American Optometric Association highly suggests yearly eye exams to ensure ocular health. For individuals whose jobs may require extensive time in front of a monitor, Dr. Anshel suggests a comprehensive eye examination soon after beginning computer work and periodically thereafter. "If, at any time, you experience any vision problems or discomfort, talk to your eye care professional," he adds.

About ACUVUE® OASYS™ Brand Contact Lenses with HYDRACLEAR™ PLUS

ACUVUE® OASYS™ is a breakthrough for contact lens wearers when their eyes feel tired and dry in challenging environments, such as long hours of computer use, frequent ground or air travel, or everyday exposure to heated or air conditioned surroundings. It is the first contact lens made from senofilcon A, a new silicone hydrogel material that is 50 percent smoother than currently available silicone hydrogel lenses. In addition to its smooth feel, the new lens also features an improved formulation of the unique HYDRACLEAR™ technology that combines high performance base materials with a moisture-rich wetting agent. ACUVUE® OASYS™ block greater than 96 percent of UVA rays and 99 percent of UVB rays, meeting the highest UV-blocking standards for contact lenses.† *

ACUVUE® OASYS™ are indicated for daily wear vision correction and approved by the FDA for up to six consecutive nights/seven days of extended wear. As with all contact lenses, eye problems, including corneal ulcers, can develop. Some wearers may also experience mild irritation, itching or discomfort. Lenses should not be prescribed if patients have any eye infection, or experience eye discomfort, excessive tearing, vision changes, redness or other eye problems. Consult the package insert for complete information. For further information, call 1-800-843-2020 or visit http://www.acuvue.com.
Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
The VISTAKON division of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc., specializes in disposable and frequent replacement contact lens brands, including ACUVUE® ADVANCE™ Brand Contact Lenses with HYDRACLEAR™, ACUVUE® ADVANCE™ Brand Contact Lenses for ASTIGMATISM for people with astigmatism, ACUVUE® OASYS™ Brand Contact Lenses with HYDRACLEAR™ PLUS, ACUVUE® Brand and ACUVUE® 2 Brand Contact Lenses; 1-DAY ACUVUE® Brand Contact Lenses; ACUVUE® Brand BIFOCAL Contact Lenses; ACUVUE® Brand TORIC and ACUVUE® 2 COLOURS™ Brand Contact Lenses. ACUVUE®, ACUVUE® ADVANCE™, HYDRACLEAR™, ACUVUE® OASYS™, ACUVUE® 2 COLOURS™, ULTRA COMFORT SERIES™ and VISTAKON® are trademarks of Johnson & Johnson Vision Care, Inc.
† Helps protect against transmission of harmful UV radiation to the cornea and into the eye. * WARNING: UV-absorbing contact lenses are NOT substitutes for protective UV-absorbing eyewear such as UV-absorbing goggles or sunglasses because they do not completely cover the eye and surrounding area. You should continue to use UV-absorbing eyewear as directed.

NOTE: Long term exposure to UV radiation is one of the risk factors associated with cataracts. Exposure is based on a number of factors such as environmental conditions (altitude, geography, cloud cover) and personal factors (extent and nature of outdoor activities).

UV-Blocking contact lenses help provide protection against harmful UV radiation. However, clinical studies have not been done to demonstrate that wearing UV-Blocking contact lenses reduces the risk of developing cataracts or other eye disorders. Consult your eye care practitioner for more information.

NASA computer will peer into concrete

(www.casperstartribune.net)

What do you do with one of the world's fastest computers?

You can forecast hurricane patterns. Or simulate how stars form, how nuclear bombs explode, or how a spacecraft handles solar winds.Or you can learn to mix concrete.Don't laugh.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., are using a million hours of processor time awarded to them on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's fastest supercomputer to analyze the billions of possibilities created by the collisions of tiny particles of sand, gravel and cement whenever a cement truck pours a sidewalk.

The different size and shape of each particle -- which scientists blow up to the size of weather balloons on their projection screens -- have a profound effect on the strength and durability of concrete and the time it takes to harden.

All of these, in turn, are critical factors when engineers create the right recipe for what has become a prime structural material in some of the world's tallest buildings.

The use of concrete dates to the Roman Empire, but thousands of years later, many of the material's properties remain a mystery.

"Several things about it are not really understood -- the durability, for one thing, is really not known how to predict," said Edward J. Garboczi, a member of the NIST team working on the project.

NIST is trying to create concrete that's more durable and easier to pour at construction sites.For the $10 billion concrete industry, the research is vital.

"You'll find steel in buildings, you'll find asphalt in roads and you'll find wood in houses, but you'll find concrete in all of those," said Iyad M. "Ed" Alsamsam, a structural engineer with the Portland Cement Association, an industry group whose members work with concrete and cement.High winds are less likely to sway skyscrapers that use concrete as a framing material, he said.

NIST researchers need NASA's supercomputer because of the nearly incalculable variations that go into making a typical batch of concrete.Concrete is a mixture of sand, gravel and cement.

The cement is made by mixing and heating limestone, clay and other materials.

There are national guidelines for the ingredients of cement, but they are fairly broad. Moreover, the sand and gravel that go into any concrete mix are locally quarried. So the exact mineral content of any two batches can vary, Garboczi said.

The particles that make up the mix also come in all shapes and sizes, which affect the durability of the finished concrete. Cement particles can range from 10 microns to 200 microns across (25,400 microns in an inch). The stones that make up the gravel can be anywhere from a half a millimeter to 2 inches in diameter.

There also are at least 40 types of additive mixtures -- polymers and materials such as corn syrup -- sold commercially to give concrete specific properties, such as strength, durability and curing time.

"Concrete can be different every time you make it, depending on what you're making it from," said William George, the NIST computer scientist who oversees the project.With 10,240 processors, NASA's supercomputer -- named "Columbia" -- is the nation's fourth most powerful in industry rankings, said Bryan Biegel, deputy chief of NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division.

The $120 million computer takes up 15,000 square feet in a temperature-controlled room at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

"The computer's named in honor of the Columbia crew," Biegel said.NIST researchers can already use a smaller cluster of the agency's 3,000 computer processors to simulate what happens when small pieces of concrete are mixed, George said.

But with Columbia, NIST will be able to scale up the work, modeling concrete blocks 10 times bigger and using the supercomputer to see -- for the first time -- how the size, distribution and shape of particles affect the flow and durability of concrete.

NIST will use the models as the basis for computer simulations in its Immersive Visualization Laboratory -- a large, dark room where computer simulations are projected onto garage door-sized screens.

They show what happens when millions of particles of sand, cement or any of concrete's ingredients are mixed and poured.In that lab, micron-sized particles of sand, created during a concrete research project in 2003, look like balls the size of weather balloons on screen.

Polymer fibers, millimeters long in real life, look like huge necklaces of pearls.

With a visor linked to the computer, the images become three dimensional and can be set in motion and manipulated, making viewers feel as if they have stepped onto a futuristic "holodeck."

The detail will be much greater with the help of the Columbia supercomputer.Meanwhile, concrete experts say this project is long overdue.

"There's a lot, lot, lot we have to learn," said Surendra Shah, a civil and environmental engineer at Northwestern University in Illinois.

"We should have been doing this 20 years ago, but people haven't realized the importance of the research.

"Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service

Microsoft Calls for Computer Revolution

(www.robots.net)

mmm.bbb sends us a link to an Economist article on a report issued on the future of science over the next 14 years. Among other things it claims that computer science is bringing about a scientific revolution.

Computers, the report says, need to be integrated into every field science and become more than just tools. Intelligent computers "will soon play a role in formulating scientific hypotheses and designing and running experiments to test them." More news on the report can be found in a Techworld.com article.

The report itself, titled Towards 2020 Science (PDF format) was created by a panel of scientists brought together by Microsoft Research Cambridge, so perhaps it's no suprise it calls for scientist everywhere to buy more computers.

In addition to the report, a roadmap of challenges (PDF format) that computer science must meet by 2020 was also created. For a quick summary of the 82 page report's 7 main findings, read on.
The 82 page report provides a one page summary of their seven greatest findings but even the summary reads like a it was produced by one of those Dilbert memo generation scripts.

1. The transition of computers from a tool that supports scientist to a machine that 'does' science represents a revolution in science.

2. Computing has become as important to biology as math is to physics.

3. Computer science "concepts and tools" forms a "golden triangle" with "math and statistics"
and "computing platforms and applications" that will accelerate key breakthroughs in science.

4. It is "vitally important" to integrate conceptual tools from computer science into all sciences.

5. Computers will lead to a "transformation of the scienctific communication paradigm"

6. Better understanding of biological systems will result in new developments in computer science.

7. All scientists should be computer literate so more money should be spent on computers and computer training.

IBM researchers build carbon molecule computer

(www.pcpro.co.uk)

A group of US researchers at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center claim to have built the first computer circuit on a molecule.

Using 12 field effect transistors stretched along a single carbon molecule in the form of a nanotube, the scientists managed to run the logic circuit at some 52MHz.

That will hardly set the world alight with today's Gigahertz PCs. However, the researchers were not interested in building processors at this point, rather they wanted to test the switching speed of their design.

They were impressed with the results. The 52MHz achieved is some 100,000 faster than any previous recorded speeds for carbon nanotube circuits.

Making advances in nanotube technology is seen as the pathway to keeping up with Moore's Law: that the complexity of computer processors will double every 18 months.

Chip makers such as Intel and AMD have taken the manufacture of circuits down to 90nm and smaller in the bid to up the transistor density and complexity of chips in tune with this 'law', but they will at some point reach the limits of the material they are working with: silicon.

When working at such a small scale, electrons can jump from one track or path to another, and resistance is increased.

The researchers said that nanotube circuits offer negligible resistance, and current can flow extremely quickly, while the likelihood of electrons jumping from 'tube' to 'tube' is very low.

DNS servers do hackers' dirty work

(www.news.com.com)

In a twist on distributed denial-of-service attacks, cybercriminals are using DNS servers--the phonebooks of the Internet--to amplify their assaults and disrupt online business.

Earlier this year, VeriSign experienced attacks on its systems that were larger than anything it had ever seen before, it said last week. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company, which helps companies do business on the Web, discovered that the assaults weren't coming from commandeered "bot" computers, as is common. Instead, its machines were under attack by DNS (domain name system) servers.

"DNS is now a major vector for DDOS," Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher said, referring to distributed denial-of-service attacks. "The bar has been lowered. People with fewer resources can now launch potentially crippling attacks."

Just as in any DDOS attack, the target system--which could be a victim's Web server, name server or mail server--is inundated with a multitude of data coming from multiple systems on the Internet. The goal is to make the target unreachable online by flooding the data connection or by crashing it as it tries to handle the incoming data.

Such attacks were once the tool of bored teenagers who got a kick out of seeing Web sites crumble. But these days, DDOS attacks are sometimes used by criminals looking to extort money from online businesses--especially those on the margins, such as gambling sites and the adult-entertainment industry.

"We're past the era where denial of service simply happens because kids are looking for a good time," Kaminsky said.

Unlike a commandeered PC, a DNS server is a valid and good citizen of the Internet. The systems play a critical role in connecting Web users, mapping text-based domain names such as www.cnet.com to the numerical IP addresses used by computers.

In this new kind of attack, an assailant would typically use a botnet to send a large number of queries to open DNS servers. These queries will be "spoofed" to look like they come from the target of the flooding, and the DNS server will reply to that network address.

Using DNS servers to do their dirty work offers key benefits to attackers.

It hides their systems, making it harder for the victim to find the original source of the attack.

But more important, reflecting an attack through a DNS server also allows the assault to be amplified, delivering a larger amount of malicious traffic to the target.

Amplified response

A single DNS query could trigger a response that is as much as 73 times larger than the request, according to a recent paper by Randal Vaughn, a professor of information systems at Baylor University, and Gadi Evron, the manager of the Computer Emergency Response Team at Israel's ministry of finance.

"Relatively small DNS requests can be employed to cause significantly larger replies from a name server to the spoofed IP address," Vaughn and Evron wrote.

What happens during a DNS reflector and amplification attack could be compared with trying to jam up somebody's mailbox, said Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of DNS and chief scientist at secure DNS provider Nominum. A basic way to do that would be to write and mail a lot of letters. However, those letters would be traceable, and you would also have to spend a lot of time writing.

"A better way to do it would be to send in response-request cards--the kind you find in magazines--circle everything and fill in the target's address," Mockapetris said. "That would make more junk show up in the mailbox and eliminate the obvious link to you." And that's what is happening with this type of DDOS attack, he said.

It is generally possible to stop the more-common bot-delivered attack by blocking traffic from the attacking machines, which are identifiable. But blocking queries from DNS servers brings problems in its wake. A DNS server has a valid role to play in the workings of the Internet. Blocking traffic to a DNS server could also mean blocking legitimate users from sending e-mail or visiting a Web site.

"That's why this is a nasty attack," said Rob Fleischman, the chief technology officer at Simplicita, a Denver-based security start-up. "The DNS system is an area that is going to be under more attack. It is going to have closer scrutiny and more security."

At the heart of the problem are so-called recursive name servers, which are DNS servers that allow queries from anyone on the Net. There are about 7.5 million DNS servers, and estimates on how many are left wide open to queries range from 600,000 to 5.6 million, according to Vaughn and Evron's report.

"People who are running these open servers need to clean up their act. They are--witting or unwitting, lazy or just don't care--participants in these attacks," Mockapetris said. "They are the Typhoid Marys of the Internet."

To protect their systems, organizations with DNS servers can disable the recursive feature that lets anyone look up addresses. Alternatively, they can manage the server settings so that the recursive feature is available only to insiders. Internet service providers, as well as businesses and individuals, are among those who run DNS servers.

Targets of DDOS attacks could protect themselves using technologies to ward of DDOS attacks, which are sold by vendors including Prolexic Technologies.

In the early days of the Internet, recursive DNS servers served mobile users and cached people's requests for Web site addresses, making the Net scale much better, Mockapetris said. An example of the latter was the day Jerry Garcia died in 1995, he said.

"Everybody was going off to find every Grateful Dead Web site everywhere in the world," he said. "The first person to do that would cache it in the DNS server of their access provider, so the next person would not have to go out to Katmandu to look it up."

But fast forward 10 years, and recursive servers should be something of the past, Mockapetris said. "Now people are looking for ways to attack the network, and the open recursive servers can be used as unwitting cat's paws in a denial-of-service attack," he said.

"Once upon a time, everybody just trusted everybody, and you would say, 'Fine, use my server.' Now you have to be more careful about that."

Kaminsky agreed. "If you are a DNS administrator, you shouldn't be providing recursive services to the Internet anymore. It is unfortunately no longer a responsible thing to do," he said.

Increasingly, DNS is going to be used in attacks, experts said, and their administrators can no longer afford to be lazy.

"There are multiple of these kinds of storms that are rising, and service providers and enterprises need to figure out how to make sure that their sea walls, dams and dikes and levees are high enough to withstand them," Mockapetris said.

Computer Solutions achieve Microsoft Gold certification

(www.businesstimes.com.mt)

Computer Solutions, a leading provider in ICT solutions, is proud to announce that it has just been awarded the prestigious Gold Partnership Status by Microsoft.

The Gold Partner benefits will enhance and evolve the service Computer Solutions offers to its customers.

Microsoft Gold Certified Partners are the elite Microsoft Partners who possess the knowledge, skills, experience and commitment to help implement technology solutions that match the customers’ business needs.

Computer Solutions passed the highest level of requirements from Microsoft and has demonstrated the most robust, efficient and scalable implementations of Microsoft technologies.

It has achieved this through its high levels of completed customer reference projects, employee certification and Microsoft Competencies, all of which were independently verified by Microsoft.

The certification recognises a Microsoft Competency in Networking Infrastructure Solutions.

The Gold Partner Status demonstrates Computer Solutions’ commitment to the development of Microsoft technologies.

Furthermore, it is now in a better position to provide its customers with a superior and more powerful level of technical support through its larger skill and knowledge base.

Through its enhanced partnership and in line with its corporate strategy, Computer Solutions can ensure that every customer will receive excellent value from their IT investment.

For further information call Computer Solutions on 2552 2000 or email info@computersolutions.com.mt

The scientific method: Computing the future

(www.economist.com)


The practice of science may be undergoing yet another revolution


WHAT makes a scientific revolution? Thomas Kuhn famously described it as a “paradigm shift”—the change that takes place when one idea is overtaken by another, usually through the replacement over time of the generation of scientists who adhered to an old idea with another that cleaves to a new one.

These revolutions can be triggered by technological breakthroughs, such as the construction of the first telescope (which overthrew the Aristotelian idea that heavenly bodies are perfect and unchanging) and by conceptual breakthroughs such as the invention of calculus (which allowed the laws of motion to be formulated).

This week, a group of computer scientists claimed that developments in their subject will trigger a scientific revolution of similar proportions in the next 15 years.

That claim is not being made lightly. Some 34 of the world's leading biologists, physicists, chemists, Earth scientists and computer scientists, led by Stephen Emmott, of Microsoft Research in Cambridge, Britain, have spent the past eight months trying to understand how future developments in computing science might influence science as a whole.

They have concluded, in a report called “Towards 2020 Science”, that computing no longer merely helps scientists with their work. Instead, its concepts, tools and theorems have become integrated into the fabric of science itself. Indeed, computer science produces “an orderly, formal framework and exploratory apparatus for other sciences,” according to George Djorgovski, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology.

There is no doubt that computing has become increasingly important to science over the years.

The volume of data produced doubles every year, according to Alexander Szalay, another astrophysicist, who works at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Particle-physics experiments are particularly notorious in this respect. The next big physics experiment will be the Large Hadron Collider currently being built at CERN, a particle-physics laboratory in Geneva. It is expected to produce 800m collisions a second when it starts operations next year.

This will result in a data flow of 1 gigabyte per second, enough to fill a DVD every five seconds.

All this information must be transmitted from CERN to laboratories around the world for analysis. The computer science being put in place to deal with this and similar phenomena forms the technological aspect of the predicted scientific revolution.

Such solutions, however, are merely an extension of the existing paradigm of collecting and ordering data by whatever technological means are available, but leaving the value-added stuff of interpretation to the human brain. What really interested Dr Emmott's team was whether computers could participate meaningfully in this process, too. That truly would be a paradigm shift in scientific method.

And computer science does, indeed, seem to be developing a role not only in handling data, but also in analysing and interpreting them. For example, devices such as “data cubes” organise information as a collection of independent variables (such as the charges and energies of particles involved in collisions) and their dependent measurements (where and when the collisions took place).

This saves physicists a lot of work in deciphering the links between, say, the time elapsed since the initial collision and the types of particle existing at that moment. Meanwhile, in meteorology and epidemiology, computer science is being used to develop models of climate change and the spread of diseases including bird flu, SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and malaria.

Roboboffin

Stephen Muggleton, the head of computational bio-informatics at Imperial College, London, has, meanwhile, taken the involvement of computers with data handling one step further. He argues they will soon play a role in formulating scientific hypotheses and designing and running experiments to test them.

The data deluge is such that human beings can no longer be expected to spot patterns in the data. Nor can they grasp the size and complexity of one database and see how it relates to another.

Computers—he dubs them “robot scientists”—can help by learning how to do the job. A couple of years ago, for example, a team led by Ross King of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, demonstrated that a learning machine performed better than humans at selecting experiments that would discriminate between hypotheses about the genetics of yeast.
And it is in biology that computing science is likely to have its greatest impact.

The report argues that cells and complex cellular systems can be seen as information-processing systems, so there is a natural fit between them and computational logic circuits.

That could lead to new developments in biology, biotechnology and medicine, as well as in computer science.

It is, perhaps, hardly unexpected that if 34 scientists with an interest in computing are asked to comment on the importance of computer science, they will find that it is, indeed, “The Future”. Even so, the team's case is a respectable one.

Indeed, this week's issue of Nature has given it “earthquake coverage”—devoting several pages to news and comment about the report. And Microsoft Research Cambridge also announced that it will provide €2.5m ($3m) to support research that addresses policy areas outlined by the report, which include a reform of the education system and the creation of new kinds of research institutes.

This is, admittedly, a small sum. If Microsoft wants the world to take its claims—and those of the scientists it commissioned to think about such things—seriously, then it should put more money where its mouth is. Otherwise the old guard might hang around rather longer than expected.

Microsoft Windows delay seen damaging computer sales

(www.tech.monstersandcritics.com)

San Francisco - Shares of Microsoft led a sharp selloff of technology shares Wednesday after the world's leading software maker said it was postponing the release of its next-generation Windows operating system until after the 2006 holiday season.

The delay could seriously damage sales of computers in the US over the Christmas period, in which manufacturers like Dell and Hewlett Packard typically sell some 30 per cent of their annual consumer totals.

Gartner analyst Rob Smulder told Bloomberg News that the shortfall in sales could surpass 4 billion dollars.

Microsoft said it will still introduce the corporate version of Windows Vista in November, but that it was forced to delay the consumer versions as it sought to balance security needs with ease of use.

Vista is the first major update since Windows XP was introduced five years ago. Microsoft has already delayed the launch several times and was forced to cancel key updates to the programme in order to schedule its introduction by the end of 2006.

The news sent shares of Microsoft down some 70 cents, or almost 3 per cent, to below 27 dollars in morning trading on New York's Nasdaq Stock Market.

At the same time, shares of rival Apple, which uses its own operating system, rose more than 1 per cent on expectations that it would gain from Microsoft's stumble.

Vicious Computer Worm Wreaks Havoc in Japan

(www.dailytech.com)S

Software

Taking your work home with you isn't such a good idea anymore in Japan


A computer worm called Antinny is working its way through Japanese computers and shows no sign of slowing.

The worm which attaches itself to computers using Winny file-sharing software (the Japanese equivalent to Napster) is spreading rapidly.

Many Japanese carry their work home with them, so work-related information often mingles with their home PCs which contain Winny software. As a result, security traders, doctors and even law enforcement officers are finding out the hard way what happens when Antinny invades a PC.

The list of betrayed secrets is long and getting longer: personal details of 10,000 prisoners from a Kyoto prison officer's computer; information about crime victims, informants and statements from suspects uploaded from a policeman's home computer; access codes to 29 airports from an airline pilot's PC; and the details of surgical procedures on 2,800 patients at a private hospital from the computer of a clerk. All have found their way onto the Internet.

The origins and author of the virus are still not known even though variants of the virus have been around for a few years.

The Japanese military has responded to the threat by ordering all personnel to ditch Winny software on personal computers and refrain from bringing sensitive materials home with them. Considering that Japan's Self Defense Forces were probably the hardest hit by Antinny, this should come as no surprise:

Perhaps most embarrassing have been the leaks from Japan's Self-Defense Forces, including data on surface-to-air missile tests and details of "Battle Scenario Training" for a simulated crisis on a transparently code-named "K Peninsula."

Transmeta discloses work for Microsoft, Sony

(www.eetimes.com)

LONDON — Transmeta Corp., a processor technology developer and licensor, has disclosed that its engineers have been providing design services for Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp.

Transmeta (Santa Clara, Calif.), signed series of agreements with Microsoft in May 2005 under which the company provided the services of approximately thirty engineers to work on “a proprietary Microsoft project,” Transmeta said in a 10-K form filed March 16 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to cover its 2005 financial results.

Transmeta added that the work had been “substantially completed” and that the company was negotiating the provision of additional services for 2006 although it did not necessarily expect the work to be at the same level as provided in 2005.

However, Transmeta’s design services are not thought to be related to ‘Origami’ Microsoft’s design of ultracompact personal computer, according to online reports.

In the case of Sony Transmeta said it had provided the services of approximately 140 engineers to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Sony Corp. under design services agreements entered into on March 31, 2005.

With Sony Transmeta said that although first stage contracts end on March 31, 2006, the company does expect to continue to provide services to the Sony Group after March 31, 2006.

Transmeta said that the two alliances are “strategic” although independent of and unrelated to each other.

“We intend to continue to seek additional strategic alliance opportunities and related agreements with these or other parties to provide engineering services that leverage our microprocessor design and development capabilities,” Transmeta said in the 10-K.

The advantages of computer docking stations

(www.rocklintoday.com)

Desktop computers have all of comforts of a full-sized keyboard, mouse and big monitor. Don't try to slip one into a backpack or brief case, however, when you're on the move.

You can do that easily with a lightweight laptop or notebook computer.

With a laptop, you need only one computer for home, office, school, a vacation cottage or anywhere else you can imagine.

However, many people don't like the downsized features that come with all but top-of-of-the line desktop-replacement laptops. Those include a downsized keyboard, a touchpad pointing device instead of a mouse, and a smaller monitor.

I've been using a wonderful solution to that comfort-or-portability dilemma at work. It is a computer docking station that transforms an ultra-light laptop into a full-sized desktop.
A docking station is a platform or frame into which you install a laptop computer.

The laptop slides into the docking station and plugs into a master connector. That one connection gives the docking station full access to the computer.

You don't have to connect or disconnect a power cord or Internet cable, for instance, every time you dock and undock the laptop. Docking stations also contain outlets for connecting a full-size keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, printer, and other devices. Some have built-in CD and DVD drives, enhanced sound systems and other features.

Once inserted in a docking station with a monitor, keyboard and mouse, a laptop essentially becomes a desktop. Undock, and you've got a portable computer with all the files ready to go.

Some people own one laptop computer, but have docking stations at home, in the office, in a dorm room at college on a vacation home or boat. It's just like owning several desktop computers.

Different kinds of docking ports are available in local stories and online outlets. Basic models cost under $100. Prices can soar, especially if you have to buy a new monitor, keyboard, speakers and mouse to use with the docking station. Many old monitors, keyboards, speakers and mice will work just fine with a new docking station.

Keep that in mind when you're trying to decide what to do with old computer gear. Why not plan on repurposing the gear? Store the old equipment in case you do decide on a laptop and docking station in the future.

The old gear may seem clunky. However, it may be perfect for a second or third docking station in a rarely used location like a summer cottage.

Pay special attention to security if you decide on the docking station solution. I mean the physical security of the hardware. Both the laptop and the docking station can be inviting targets for thieves.

Don't make yourself an easy target. Secure the docking station to a desk. For the laptop, buy a security cable _ a lockable steel cable that connects to a slot in the computer's case.
Keep the cable locked whenever you are away from the desk.

Computer virus shakes Japanese work habits

(www.upi.com)

TOKYO-- Japan's military ordered all personnel to remove the file-sharing software Winny from computers to prevent exposure of more secrets online, a report said.
The order is an effort to battle two years of damaging military and personal information that computer virus Antinny has put on the Internet.

The Japanese tradition of taking work home and doing it on personal computers has spread the digital worm -- a longstanding practice the virus is changing, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Last week, the Japanese military banned personnel from taking military data home and ordered them to remove Winny from their home computers. Now, the military says, it needs 56,000 more computers.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe also urged the public to stop using Winny.

Isamu Kaneko, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the Napster-like file-sharing Winny, said he has a patch he's trying to patent.

"If I hadn't been arrested (in May 2004), I could have dealt with it," Kaneko told the newspaper outside his trial on copyright infringement charges. "And this problem wouldn't have happened."

Hackers get Windows XP on Apple computers

(www.seattlepi.nwsource.com)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- As expected, hackers have found a way to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system on new Macintosh computers, winning an ad hoc contest and a $13,854 cash prize to boot.

Or, make that dual-boot - the way to make a computer switch between two operating systems.
Some users of Apple Computer Inc.'s Macs have clamored for such a solution since Apple said it would be switching its computers to Intel Corp.'s chips, putting the feat within reach.
Their reasons vary, but a common denominator is that they would like to run Windows-based programs on their Macs.

Colin Nederkoorn, a shipping broker in Houston, says he just wants to streamline his work: instead of using his Apple PowerBook computer for some programs and a Windows PC for other tasks, he'd like to just use one machine.

That's why Nederkoorn, 23, started a contest back in January to goad programmers, soliciting donations for a cash prize for anyone who came up with a hack.

Late Thursday, the prize went to two San Francisco Bay Area software developers, Jesus Lopez, 33, of Alameda, and Eric Wasserman, 41, of Berkeley.

Lopez said he did most of the technical work - spending late nights and weekends on the challenge - while Wasserman, a devoted Mac user, introduced him to the contest in February and supported him in the process.

Lopez, who never even owned a Mac computer until he had to get one to assume the challenge, said in an interview Friday his previous tinkering projects were all personal.

"But this is something that I feel a lot of people could use, and that the tech community will benefit from this," he said.

On Friday, Nederkoorn's Web site was busy with collaboration between developers working to improve upon Lopez' work. Nederkoorn said the so-called "Windows on Mac" project is open-sourced, meaning anyone can build on it.

The hack, which is downloadable from the Web site, still takes some tedious labor and technical know-how, but Nederkoorn predicts an easier version for mainstream computer users might be available within a year.

"It should be as easy as two clicks at some stage," he said.

When Apple introduced its first Intel-based computer in January, company officials said Apple has no intention of selling or supporting Windows on its machines, though it has not done anything to preclude people from doing it themselves.

"If there are people who love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that's OK," senior vice president Phil Schiller said at the time.

For Gates, A Visa Charge

(www.washingtonpost.com)

When the Senate comes back to work next week, it is scheduled to take up the issue of immigration. And that is what brought Bill Gates to Washington for a rare visit last week.

The Microsoft billionaire does not love this capital, but he decided to add his personal voice to his Washington office's lobbying effort to expand the number of foreign-born computer scientists allowed to work in this country under a special program known as H-1B visas.

In an interview sandwiched between his meetings on Capitol Hill, Gates told me the "high-skills immigration issue is by far the number one thing" on the Washington agenda for Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally. "This is gigantic for us."

Since autumn 2003 Congress has limited the number of people admitted annually on H-1B visas to 65,000. To qualify for such a visa, an applicant must have at least a bachelor's degree, specialized knowledge and a job offer from a U.S. employer. The visa is generally good for six years, with the possibility of applying for extensions.

So great is the demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world that in August 2005 the last of the visas available for fiscal 2006 were issued. That means a 14-month shutdown of the program, until October of this year.

"It's kind of ironic," Gates told me, "to have somebody graduate from Stanford Computer Science Department and there's not enough H-1B visas, so they have to go back to India. . . . And I have people who have been hired who are just sitting on the border waiting."

The draft bill that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter has been preparing for floor consideration would expand the annual H-1B limit from 65,000 to 115,000. By excluding dependents (who now are counted against the cap) from the total, it might mean the entry of as many as 300,000 people a year -- one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population.

As Gates said, these are highly paid, highly qualified individuals. Salaries for these jobs at Microsoft start at about $100,000 a year.

Their counterparts can be hired more cheaply in China or India, he said, but Microsoft does 85 percent of its research and development work in the United States because it wants its computer scientists interacting directly with its program managers and its marketing people on its own campus.

Gates said he has a hard time understanding the logic of those who decry the outsourcing of American jobs yet are reluctant to facilitate bringing the high-skill people who are catalysts for economic growth to this country. "People just shake their heads at what kind of a central planning system would say having 65,000 smart people come in, that's okay, but 70,000 smart people, no."

President Bush and his administration support the expansion of H-1B visas. And Gates, in turn, is enthusiastic about the White House and bipartisan congressional efforts to boost the teaching of math and science in American high schools with the long-term goal of expanding the supply of qualified Americans for these jobs.

He is backing that effort both with gifts of technology from the company and grants of $300 million a year from his foundation for innovation in high schools. "But the benefit of things like that has got a fair time lag," he said, "and the next four or five years, it really hangs in the balance: how many of these talented people we want to hire, and who want to come here, can we hire?"

The answer is by no means certain. Opposition to the H-1B program grew during the dot-com bust, when groups representing domestic electrical engineers and computer technicians argued that foreigners were taking away their jobs.

In 2003 they succeeded in cutting the quota by two-thirds, from 195,000 to 65,000, and they continue to oppose its expansion.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unemployment among computer and mathematical operators is less than 3 percent. Gates said, "If you're graduating from a reasonable university in this country, with a degree in computer science, you have many job offers."

Still, there is reluctance -- especially in the House of Representatives -- to lift the ceiling on H-1B visas in an election year.

The House has responded to public pressure to close the borders to illegal immigration and seems incapable of distinguishing that problem from the value of encouraging high-skill workers to bring their talents to the United States.

That's why Bill Gates comes to Washington.

New Virus Seeks Ransom for Computer Files

(www.sci-tech-today.com)

The Trojan "is bold as brass, scooping up your valuable data and locking it away until you agree to pay the ransom to the criminals who have 'kidnapped' your files." said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for the security firm Sophos. "Companies who have made regular backups may be able to recover easily, but less diligent businesses may be in a quandary about whether to cough up the cash."

In the equivalent of a holdup in cyberspace, a new computer bug locks up a user's file with encryption and demands a $300 "ransom," security experts say.

The so-called "ransomware" Trojan was discovered Saturday by the security firm LURHQ, which said it was based on a similar scheme perpetrated 15 years ago.

Users whose computers are infected receive an e-mail stating that their files have been encrypted and will not be unlocked unless they transfer $300 to a special account.

In poorly written English, the message said, "Do not try to search for a program what encrypted your information -- it simply do not exists in your hard disk anymore. If you really care about documents and information in encrypted files, you can pay using electronic currency 300 dollars. Reporting to police about a case will not help you."

LURHQ said it was not clear how the Trojan was spread, but experts said it could be through infected e-mails or from visiting certain Web sites.

"Infection reports are not widespread, so it is not believed this is a mass threat by any means," LURHQ said.

"Malware of this nature is actually more successful when it is delivered in low volumes, as it is less likely that antivirus vendors will have detection for it, and more attention means the likely closing of the accounts used for the anonymous money transfer."

The Trojan "is bold as brass, scooping up your valuable data and locking it away until you agree to pay the ransom to the criminals who have 'kidnapped' your files." said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for the security firm Sophos.

"Companies who have made regular backups may be able to recover easily, but less diligent businesses may be in a quandary about whether to cough up the cash."

However Sophos and LURHQ discovered the password -- C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/VC98 -- a code disguised as a file.

"So there should be no need for anyone unfortunate enough to have suffered from this ransomware attack to have to pay the reward to the criminals behind it," Cluley said.

Computer expert to aid Curtin child probe

(www.breakingnews.iol.ie)

An international computer expert will aid an Oireachtas Committee investigating allegations Judge Brian Curtin was in possession of child pornography, it was confirmed today.

After a lengthy legal battle, the Circuit Court judge’s advisors have contacted the All-Party Oireachtas Committee by letter to consent to the handover of the computer.

Chairman of the Oireachtas committee, Denis O’Donovan, said: “Someone of international repute, a computer expert will be brought in to examine it.

I imagine Judge Curtin will want to engage someone to oversee the procedure.”He confirmed: “We have received the letter.

It is a positive development insofar as it is a voluntary engagement by his legal team.“There was an outstanding order in December 2004 to obtain the computer and the hard drive.

We will endeavour to get all the materials gardai were holding.”Judge Curtin’s legal team has also sought assurances about the security of the computer and the conditions in which it has been kept since it was seized from his home in May 2002.

The Cork South West TD said: “If that is an issue for him we can get confirmation from gardai.”

The chairman said senior members of the gardai could be called before the committee to reassure the judge as to the safe-keeping of the materials.“We wrote to gardai in June 2004 to do nothing with the computer and keep it in safe keeping until we had further information,” he said.

The committee, which was set up in May, 2004, was halted six months later, when Judge Curtin challenged an order to produce his computer and its software.Last week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the parliamentary committee to investigate the alleged actions of the judge.

The Circuit Court judge was acquitted of charges of possessing child pornography in 2004 after the warrant used to search his house was found to have been out of date.He had challenged the constitutionality of the Oireachtas committee which was set up to investigate his behaviour in the wake of the verdict.

Chief Justice John L Murray said he was satisfied that the committee would be able to accord the judge his full rights to justice and fair procedures.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Oireachtas committee had a right to examine the computer, which allegedly contained pornographic images and is currently being held by gardai.Mr O’Donovan said the committee had not met in full since December 2004 due to the judicial review.

The chairman said the committee would be meeting in private next Tuesday to discuss the group’s work.“We were stopped in our tracks by the judicial review procedure in the High Court which stopped it for 15 months,” he said.

“We have a duty to both houses of the Oireachtas to compete the work and we will do that as vigorously as possible.”

Computer viruses a growing concern for UK companies

(www.businessweekly.co.uk)

Infection by viruses was the biggest single cause of the worst security incidents for UK companies in the past two years, accounting for roughly half of them, a new survey shows.

Infection by viruses was the biggest single cause of the worst security incidents for UK companies in the past two years, accounting for roughly half of them, a new survey shows.

Two-fifths of these were described as having a serious impact on the business, according to findings from the 2006 Department of Trade and Industry’s biennial Information Security Breaches Survey, conducted by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The research showed that virus infections were more likely to have caused service interruption than other incidents. Usually the disruption was minor but roughly a quarter of companies questioned who reported a virus as their worst incident had major disruption, with important services such as email down for more than a day.

The majority of UK businesses surveyed have a broadband link to the Internet (88 per cent) and as a result, the threat from malicious software such as viruses has never been greater. UK businesses have responded and now almost every company uses anti-virus software.

Despite the increased threat, fewer companies had viruses than in the last two surveys. Infection rates have dropped by roughly a third since two years ago. While the number of companies infected has fallen since 2004, the average number of infections suffered by those affected has risen to roughly one a day. Several businesses reported hundreds of infections a day.

A quarter of UK businesses are not protecting themselves against the threat caused by spyware.

As a result roughly one in seven of the worst incidents involving malicious software related to spyware that can download onto a computer when the user visits an unscrupulous website.

Two years ago, a small number of viruses dominated, for example Netsky and Bagle/Beagle.

In contrast over the last year, no single virus has caused widespread damage. Instead the nature of viruses – and the motivation of their writers – has changed. Some malicious viruses, known as ‘bots’, take over machines turning them into ‘botnets’ used for cyber crime and cleaning up the problems can take weeks of effort.

Virus infections tended to take more effort to resolve than other incidents sometimes taking over 50 days’ work to fix.Chris Potter, the partner from PwC leading the survey, said: “Today’s viruses have become more insidious.

These programmes lie hidden on infected machines, gather information and target their strikes at valuable data.

“Cyber-criminals now use virus infections to get in under the radar of businesses and steal confidential data.

“The damage that viruses can cause extends beyond systems and ultimately can affect a company’s customers, business relationships and reputation in the marketplace. The threat has never been greater.”

MIT researchers extend computer life without batteries

(www.pcworld.idg.com.au)

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to extend the power life of mobile computers.

Instead of using batteries, they draw power from an electronic device called an ultracapacitor. The approach is still several years away from being used as the main electricity source for commercial laptops and handhelds, but is already used for backup power in many small consumer products.

"A number of electronic devices already use commercial ultracapacitors for specialized functions," said Joel Schindall, a professor in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"For example, a clock radio may use an ultracapacitor as a keep-alive source in case of power failure, and even the old Palm III used an ultracapacitor to retain its memory while the AA batteries were changed."

The new technology could shake up the retail computer business, where computer makers already compete for market share by boasting of more power-efficient machines.

Chip makers battle for business by launching more efficient processors like Intel's Centrino and Advanced Micro Devices' Turion, trading high performance speed for mobile endurance.
Hewlett-Packard Co. also says its customers demand longer run-times.

The company announced Monday that its HP Compaq nx9400 notebook will run on three levels of battery packs. Those range from the standard, four-hour unit to a substitute battery that adds five more hours, and a clip-on, supplementary battery that adds another 10 hours.

The speed at which a battery charges is also important to users. HP says its enhanced, lithium ion battery can gain 90 percent of a full charge after just 90 minutes of being plugged into a wall outlet.

By comparison, a consumer with a cell phone powered by MIT's ultracapacitor could gain a complete recharge in just a few seconds, Schindall says.

The new device is called a nanotube-enhanced ultracapacitor, or NEU. It works by applying nanotechnology to an existing electrical device; the capacitor.

Generic capacitors store energy as an electrical field. That is more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions. Even more efficient is the ultracapacitor, a capacitor-based storage cell that provides quick bursts of instant energy.

The drawback is size -- ultracapacitors need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge.

The MIT researchers solved this problem by taking advantage of the enormous surface area of nanotubes; molecular-scale straws of carbon atoms that enable ultracapacitors to store electrical fields at the atomic level. Storage capacity (and charging speed) in an ultracapacitor is proportional to the surface area of the electrodes, so the nanotubes provide a great leap forward.
Despite this promise, researchers say they still have three to five years more work before they can replace a computer's main battery.

One drawback is that the ultracapacitor provides direct current power. That is suitable for running power-off functions like a laptop's clock, but most desktop devices use alternating current for their main operations.

High cost could also be a problem at first, because of low quantity production and meager capital investment in manufacturing facilities, he said.

On the other hand, the device could clear these hurdles by finding customers across a variety of businesses. From cell phones to automobiles, the ultracapacitor could supplement fuel cell power sources by acting as an emergency reserve for peak power use.

"The eventual implications are profound," says Schindall.

Microsoft works on computer foot pad

(www.dailytimes.com.pk)

Ever feel like you’re not making good enough use of your feet when you’re catching up on your e-mail or sorting through all those digital pictures you took on that last vacation? Computer scientists in Microsoft Corp.’s research division have developed a color-coded “dance pad” with buttons you can tap with your feet — or jump on — to scroll through electronic files.

It may never make it to store shelves, but that’s no concern to Microsoft, which spends billions of dollars a year researching far-out technologies without worrying about whether the gizmos will ever make it to store shelves.

Every year, the software giant holds an internal trade show where hundreds of researchers show off their work.

On Tuesday, Microsoft Research offered a sneak peek at its “Step User Interface” technology, one of more than 150 concepts that will be featured at its two-day TechFest beginning Wednesday.

“This is just one off-the-shelf piece of hardware we can use,” A.J. Brush, the lead researcher on the project, said after demonstrating the technology.

“Now we’re looking at broadening, thinking about accelerometers or other things you could strap onto your feet so you really could be just sitting at your desk and kicking your e-mail away under the desk.”

Asked if he could envision any truly practical uses for such technology, Kevin Schofield, general manager of strategy at Microsoft Research, paused, then enthusiastically said: “I can envision a lot of things!” ap

Police secrets leaked by computer virus

(www.noticias.info)

Leaked data included names of sex crime victims

Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus and spam analysis centers, have reminded internet users of the importance of computer security after media reports revealed that sensitive police information has been leaked onto the internet from a virus-infected computer.

According to the Japanese press, information about 1500 individuals, related to police investigations over a three years, was leaked from a virus-infected computer belonging to an Okayama Police investigator.

The data is said to have been distributed to users of the Winny peer-to-peer file-sharing system. Winny is the most popular file-sharing network in Japan, with over a quarter of a million users.According to the report, the leak occured because the policeman was storing data about investigations on his personal computer.

The PC was infected with an unnamed computer virus which is said to have enabled Winny users across Japan to access the sensitive information.

The exposed data included the names of sex crime victims."It's bad enough when an individual has data stolen from them by a virus, but a police force being the victim is a real cause for concern," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

"This incident acts as a timely reminder that all organizations need to take computer security seriously. If you allow your employees to put sensitive company data onto their own home computers, you are running the risk that they will not be as well defended as the PCs within your business."

Sophos recommends companies protect their email gateways, desktops and servers with an automatically updated consolidated solution to defend against the threats of viruses, spyware and spam.

About SophosSophos is a world leader in integrated threat management solutions, developing protection against viruses, spyware, spam and policy abuse for business, education and government. Sophos's reliably-engineered, easy-to-operate products protect more than 35 million users in more than 150 countries.

Through 20 years' experience and a global network of threat analysis centers, the company responds rapidly to emerging threats - no matter how complex - and achieves the highest levels of customer satisfaction in the industry.

PC Laptops Unveils its ``Totally Awesome Customer Support Program'' for Owners of Totally Awesome Computers Brand Personal Computers

(www.tmcnet.com)

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah.- PC Laptops Begins Offering Free Lifetime Labor and Service Support to Owners of Totally Awesome-Brand Personal Computers PC Laptops today unveiled its "Totally Awesome Customer Support Program(TM)" to provide owners of computers made by Totally Awesome Computers with free lifetime labor and service support.

PC Laptops' "Totally Awesome Customer Support Program" is an extension of the PC Laptops' long-time, industry-leading "no questions asked" free lifetime labor and service support policy for owners of its self-proclaimed "best laptops on the planet."

Today's announcement was made in response to the fact that Totally Awesome Computers officially closed its doors on Friday, March 3, 2006, shuttering eight store locations in the greater metropolitan Salt Lake City area.

"My greatest concern in this entire situation has been for those individual and business owners of Totally Awesome-brand personal computers," said Dan ("The Laptop Man") Young, president and founder of PC Laptops.

"That's why we've decided to provide the same industry-leading free labor and service support to owners of Totally Awesome-brand personal computers. That's also why we made the conscious decision to formally expand into desktop and server computers, as well as to extend job offers to more than two dozen former employees of Totally Awesome Computers.

" Under terms of its "Totally Awesome Customer Support Program," PC Laptops will deliver "no questions asked" free lifetime labor and support on any Totally Awesome-brand personal computer.

The hardware components within all personal computers typically carry manufacturer warranties of between one to five years.

In the case of component failure within a Totally Awesome-brand personal computer (such as the failure of a hard drive, mother board, graphics controller, and the like), PC Laptops will also assist customers in coordinating with component manufacturers to ensure the best possible outcomes for replacing or upgrading such components that are still under manufacturer warranty.

"The response from the community over the weekend has been very positive, almost overwhelmingly so," Young said of PC Laptops' decision to provide free labor and service support to owners of Totally Awesome-brand personal computers.

"But TAC customers asked us over and over if we would provide free labor and service support beyond 90 days for their Totally Awesome-brand personal computers, so that's why I've decided to include all TAC computers within our industry-leading free lifetime labor and service support policy."

PC Laptops invites any owner of a Totally Awesome-brand personal computer to bring it into any of the six PC Laptops stores located in Utah along the Wasatch Front mountain range for a free diagnostic and check-up.

For journalists interested in additional information about PC Laptops' expansion and customer service plans, please call David Politis (801-523-3730: work or 801-556-8184: cell) or Russell Page (801-523-3730: work or 801-787-8435: cell), both of Politis Communications. About PC Laptops PC Laptops focuses on delivering a high level of local, personal service to differentiate itself in a crowded personal computer market.

The company sells industry-leading portable and desktop computers to customers around the world via its Web site (www.pclaptops.com) and toll-free number: 877-596-SAVE (7283).

Totally Awesome Customer Support Program is a trademark of PC Laptops, LLC.