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Rich pickings for hi-tech thieves
Viruses, trojans and other malicious programs sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change.
The shift is happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of cash, steal valuable data or take over home PCs. Viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are getting rarer. Instead programs are now crafted for directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat the new wave of malicious code.
The growing criminal use of malware has meant the end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious programs. Before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. But many of the viruses written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package.
"You cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to," said Pete Simpson, head of the threat laboratory at security firm Clearswift. Now viruses are just as likely to spread by themselves like worms, or to exploit loopholes in browsers or hide in e-mail message attachments. "It's about outright criminality now," said Mr Simpson, explaining why this change has come about. He said many of the criminal programs came from Eastern Europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. Former virus writer Marek Strihavka, aka Benny from the 29A virus writing group, recently quit the malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers, phishing gangs, and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. No longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to rivals in the underground world of malware authors. Not least, said Paul King, principal security consultant at Cisco, because the defences against such attacks are so common. "In many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now," he said. Few of the malicious programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written, many are much more pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users into installing a program or handing over important data. "If you think of criminals they do not do clever," said Mr King, "they just do what works."
As the tactics used by malicious programs change, said Mr King, so many firms were changing the way they defend themselves. Now many scan machines that connect to the corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core network.
Many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. As well as using different tactics, criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more transparent. "The main motivation now is money," said Gary Stowell, spokesman for St Bernard software. Mr Stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very high. With almost any phishing or spyware attack, criminals are guaranteed to catch some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. So-called spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take over machines for their own ends, to steal key data from users or to hijack web browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. In some cases spyware was being written that searched for rival malicious programs on PCs it infects and then trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine. | tech |
Blog reading explodes in America
Americans are becoming avid blog readers, with 32 million getting hooked in 2004, according to new research.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, showed that blog readership has shot up by 58% in the last year. Some of this growth is attributable to political blogs written and read during the US presidential campaign. Despite the explosive growth, more than 60% of online Americans have still never heard of blogs, the survey found. Blogs, or web logs, are online spaces in which people can publish their thoughts, opinions or spread news events in their own words. Companies such as Google and Microsoft provide users with the tools to publish their own blogs.
The rise of blogs has spawned a new desire for immediate news and information, with six million Americans now using RSS aggregators. RSS aggregators are downloaded to PCs and are programmed to subscribe to feeds from blogs, news sites and other websites. The aggregators automatically compile the latest information published online from the blogs or news sites. Reading blogs remains far more popular than writing them, the survey found. Only 7% of the 120 million US adults who use the internet had created a blog or web-based diary. Getting involved is becoming more popular though, with 12% saying they had posted material or comments on other people's blogs.
Just under one in 10 of the US's internet users read political blogs such as the Daily Kos or Instapundit during the US presidential campaign. Kerry voters were slightly more likely to read them than Bush voters. Blog creators were likely to be young, well-educated, net-savvy males with good incomes and college educations, the survey found. This was also true of the average blog reader, although the survey found there was a greater than average growth in blog readership among women and those in minorities. The survey was conducted during November and involved telephone surveys of 1,324 internet users. | tech |
Software watching while you work
Software that can not only monitor every keystroke and action performed at a PC but also be used as legally binding evidence of wrong-doing has been unveiled.
Worries about cyber-crime and sabotage have prompted many employers to consider monitoring employees. The developers behind the system claim it is a break-through in the way data is monitored and stored. But privacy advocates are concerned by the invasive nature of such software.
The system is a joint venture between security firm 3ami and storage specialists BridgeHead Software. They have joined forces to create a system which can monitor computer activity, store it and retrieve disputed files within minutes. More and more firms are finding themselves in deep water as a result of data misuse. Sabotage and data theft are most commonly committed from within an organisation according to the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) A survey conducted on its behalf by NOP found evidence that more than 80% of medium and large companies have been victims of some form of cyber-crime. BridgeHead Software has come up with techniques to prove, to a legal standard, that any stored file on a PC has not been tampered with. Ironically the impetus for developing the system came as a result of the Freedom of Information Act, which requires companies to store all data for a certain amount of time.
The storage system has been incorporated into an application developed by security firm 3ami which allows every action on a computer to be logged. Potentially it could help employers to follow the trail of stolen files and pinpoint whether they had been emailed to a third party, copied, printed, deleted or saved to CD, floppy disk, memory stick or flash card. Other activities the system can monitor include the downloading of pornography, the use of racist or bullying language or the copying of applications for personal use. Increasingly organisations that handle sensitive data, such as governments, are using biometric log-ins such as fingerprinting to provide conclusive proof of who was using a particular machine at any given time. Privacy advocates are concerned that monitoring at work is not only damaging to employee's privacy but also to the relationship between employers and their staff. "That is not the case," said Tim Ellsmore, managing director of 3ami. "It is not about replacing dialogue but there are issues that you can talk through but you still need proof," he said. "People need to recognise that you are using a PC as a representative of a company and that employers have a legal requirement to store data," he added. | tech |
New delay hits EU software laws
A fresh delay has hit controversial new European Union rules which govern computer-based inventions.
The draft law was not adopted by EU ministers as planned at a Brussels meeting on Monday during which it was supposed to have been discussed. The fresh delay came after Polish officials had raised concerns about the law for the second time in two months. Critics say the law would favour large companies over small ones and could impact open-source software innovation. "There was at one point the intention to put the item on today's agenda. But in the end we could not put it on," an EU spokesman told the Reuters agency. He added that no date had been chosen for more discussion of the law.
In December, Poland requested more time to consider the issue because it was concerned that the law could lead to the patenting of pure computer software. Its ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the Directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented Inventions changed so that it excludes software patenting. Poland is a large EU member, so its backing for the legislation is vital. The EU says the law would bring Europe more in line with how such laws work in the US, but this has caused some angry debate amongst critics and supporters. In the US, the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. This means that the US-based Amazon.com holds a patent for its "one-click shopping" service. Critics say a similar model in Europe would hurt small software developers which do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies. But supporters say current law does not let big companies protect inventions which they have spent years developing. | tech |
Savvy searchers fail to spot ads
Internet search engine users are an odd mix of naive and sophisticated, suggests a report into search habits.
The report by the US Pew Research Center reveals that 87% of searchers usually find what they were looking for when using a search engine. It also shows that few can spot the difference between paid-for results and organic ones. The report reveals that 84% of net users say they regularly use Google, Ask Jeeves, MSN and Yahoo when online.
Almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less, if they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden. According to figures gathered by the Pew researchers the average users spends about 43 minutes per month carrying out 34 separate searches and looks at 1.9 webpages for each hunt. A significant chunk of net users, 36%, carry out a search at least weekly and 29% of those asked only look every few weeks. For 44% of those questioned, the information they are looking for is critical to what they are doing and is information they simply have to find.
Search engine users also tend to be very loyal and once they have found a site they feel they can trust tend to stick with it. According to Pew Research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine, 48% use two or three and a small number, 7%, consult more than three sites. Tony Macklin, spokesman for Ask Jeeves, said the results reflected its own research which showed that people use different search engines because the way the sites gather information means they can provide different results for the same query. Despite this liking for search sites half of those questioned said they could get the same information via other routes. A small number, 17%, said they wouldn't really miss search engines if they did not exist. The remaining 33% said they could not live without search sites. More than two-thirds of those questioned, 68%, said they thought that the results they were presented with were a fair and unbiased selection of the information on a topic that can be found on the net. Alongside the growing sophistication of net users is a lack of awareness about paid-for results that many search engines provide alongside lists of websites found by indexing the web. Of those asked, 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results they see when they carry out a search. Only 18% of all searchers say they can tell which results are paid for and which are not. Said the Pew report: "This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results." Commenting Mr Macklin said sponsored results must be clearly marked and though they might help with some queries user testing showed that people need to be able to spot the difference. | tech |
Games firms 'face tough future'
UK video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles, the industry warns.
Fred Hasson, head of Tiga, which represents independent developers, said that more UK firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. Three leading UK video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. Microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the market and some analysts predict that Xbox 2 will be released in the US before the end of 2005.
The new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. Mr Hasson said: "In the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent developers." He said there were about 150 independent developers left in the industry and more were likely to close. "Once the cull has finished its likely to present those still standing with great opportunities," he said.
Mr Hasson said the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. That figure was endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the BBC News website - Codemasters, Climax and Rebellion.
"As consoles get more powerful, the content gets more detailed and that means more cost," said Gary Dunn, development director at Codemasters, which develops games in house and also publishes titles. Jason Kingsley, chief executive of Rebellion, said the transition from the current generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because "the production quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger". He added: "We have been through five technology transitions and survived so far. "Each one has involved the death of some people. All companies said they were investing in new tools - called middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control.
Simon Gardner, president of Climax's Action studio, said: "We are investing in superior tools and editors. We are investing upfront to generate this content without the need for huge teams. "It's vital we avoid huge teams." He said Climax was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation titles. Mr Dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming, development and artistic talent. "If companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams, at some point the talent is going to run out." Mr Hasson said games developers were beginning to realise that they had to be more "business-like". "There are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. "Some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop." | tech |
Microsoft makes anti-piracy move
Microsoft says it is clamping down on people running pirated versions of its Windows operating system by restricting their access to security features.
The Windows Genuine Advantage scheme means people will have to prove their software is genuine from mid-2005. It will still allow those with unauthorised copies to get some crucial security fixes via automatic updates, but their options would be "limited". Microsoft releases regular security updates to its software to protect PCs. Either PCs detect updates automatically or users manually download fixes through Microsoft's site. Those running pirated Windows programs would not have access to other downloads and "add-ons" that the software giant offers.
People who try to manually download security patches will have to let Microsoft run an automated checking procedure on their computer or give an identification number.
Microsoft's regular patches which it releases for newly-found security flaws are important because they stop worms, viruses and other threats penetrating PCs. Some security experts are concerned that restricting access to such patches could mean a rise in such attacks and threats, with more PCs left unprotected. But Graham Cluley, senior consultant at security firm Sophos, told the BBC News website that it was a positive decision. "It sounds like their decision to allow critical security patches to remain available to both legitimate and illegitimate users of Windows is good news for everyone who uses the net," he said. Windows Genuine Advantage was first introduced as a pilot scheme in September 2004 for English-language versions of Windows.
Microsoft's Windows operating system is heavily exploited by virus writers because it is so widespread and they are constantly seeking out new security loopholes to take advantage of. The company is trying to tackle security threats whilst cracking down on pirated software at the same time. Software piracy has cost the company billions, it says. The company announced earlier in January that it was releasing security tools to clean up PCs harbouring viruses and spyware, which 90% of PCs are infected with. The virus-fighting program, updated monthly, is a precursor to Microsoft's dedicated anti-virus software. Last year it introduced the Windows XP Counterfeit Project, a UK-based pilot scheme, which ran from November to December. The scheme meant that anyone with pre-installed copies of the operating system in PCs bought before November could replace counterfeit versions of Windows XP with legal ones for free. It is also increasing efforts to squash software piracy in China, Norway and the Czech Republic, where pirated software is a huge problem, by offering discounts on legitimate software to users of pirated copies Windows. "China in particular is a problem, with piracy estimated at 92%," said Mr Cluley. | tech |
Nintendo handheld given Euro date
Nintendo's new handheld console, the DS, will launch in Europe on 11 March, the company has announced.
The portable games machine, which features touch-screen control, will retail for £99 in the UK (149 euros). Nintendo said 15 games would be available in the UK at launch, with prices ranging from £19 to £29. More than 2.8 million DS consoles have been sold since it first appeared in the US and Japan at the end of 2004. Rival Sony has said it will launch its first handheld console, the PSP, in the US and Europe before the end of March. The PSP is expected to compete for a large part of the same handheld market, despite Sony's assertion that the machines are aimed at different consumers.
The 15 games available on the European launch date will include Nintendo's Super Mario 64 DS, as well as titles from third-party developers such as Ubisoft's Rayman DS.
More than 120 games are in development for the new console, Nintendo has said. The DS is backwards compatible with the Game Boy Advance, allowing the earlier machine's back catalogue of 700 games to be played. Additionally, a short-range wireless link for multiplayer gaming is built in to the DS, with a "download play" option which allows a group to play against each other, even if just one person owns a copy. Other features include a short-range messaging application called Pictochat, and a built-in microphone which is used in Sega's launch title Project Rub. Nintendo has also announced a media adapter, which will allow the console to play music and video on the move.
The launch price of £99 (149 euros) compares favourably with the US price of $149, according to John Houlihan, editor of the Computerandvideogames.com magazine. "It's a very, very competitive price point. There are some innovative features, and Nintendo has created quite a buzz," he says. "However, the line-up of games could have been stronger. Everyone wanted to see the eight-player Mario Kart DS, for example."
Mr Houlihan believes that there is likely to be an audience for both the Nintendo DS and Sony's new PSP, with the former aimed largely at a younger audience and the latter expected to be marketed as a multimedia device. "The PSP is a sexy bit of kit, but Sony's attitude to the PSP has been very understated in Europe, so far," Mr Houlihan said. The worldwide handheld software market had an estimated worth of $2.6bn at the end of 2004, according to industry analysts Screen Digest.
In the past, games consoles and handhelds have generally launched much later in Europe than in other parts of the world. However Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said the company was "pleased to have offered such a short period of time between the US and European launch". "Europe is an extremely important market for Nintendo," Mr Iwata added. Nintendo raised its sales targets for the DS console last December after selling a million in the US and Japan in just a few weeks. | tech |
Smart search lets art fans browse
If you don't know art but know what you like, new search technology could prove a useful gateway to painting.
ArtGarden, developed by BT's research unit, is being tested by the Tate as a new way of browsing its online collection of paintings. Rather than search by the name of an artist or painting, users are shown a selection of pictures. Clicking on their favourite will change the gallery in front of them to a selection of similar works.
The technology uses a system dubbed smart serendipity, which is a combination of artificial intelligence and random selection. It 'chooses' a selection of pictures, by scoring paintings based on a selection of keywords associated with them. So, for instance a Whistler painting of a bridge may have the obvious keywords such as bridge and Whistler associated to it but will also widen the search net with terms such as aesthetic movement, 19th century and water. A variety of paintings will then be shown to the user, based partly on the keywords and partly on luck. "It is much more akin to wandering through the gallery," said Jemima Rellie, head of the Tate's digital programme. For Richard Tateson, who worked on the ArtGarden project, the need for a new way to search grew out of personal frustration. "I went to an online clothes store to find something to buy my wife for Christmas but I didn't have a clue what I wanted," he said. The text-based search was restricted to looking either by type of garment or designer, neither of which he found helpful. He ended up doing his present shopping on the high street instead.
He thinks the dominance of text-based searching is not necessarily appealing to the majority of online shoppers. Similarly, with art, browsing is often more important than finding a particular object. "You don't arrive at Tate Britain and tell people what you want to see. One of the skills of showing off the collection is to introduce people to things they wouldn't have asked for," he said. The Tate is committed to making its art more accessible and technology such as ArtGarden can help with that, said Ms Rellie. She hopes the technology can be incorporated on to the website in the near future. BT research is looking at extending the technology to other searching, such as for music and films. | tech |
Warning over Windows Word files
Writing a Microsoft Word document can be a dangerous business, according to document security firm Workshare.
Up to 75% of all business documents contained sensitive information most firms would not want exposed, a survey by the firm revealed. To make matters worse 90% of those companies questioned had no idea that confidential information was leaking. The report warns firms to do a better job of policing documents as corporate compliance becomes more binding.
Sensitive information inadvertently leaked in documents includes confidential contractual terms, competitive information that rivals would be keen to see and special deals for key customers, said Andrew Pearson, European boss of Workshare which commissioned the research. "The efficiencies the internet has brought in such as instant access to information have also created security and control issues too," he said. The problem is particularly acute with documents prepared using Microsoft Word because of the way it maintains hidden records about editing changes. As documents get passed around, worked on and amended by different staff members the sensitive information finds its way into documents. Poor control over the editing and amending process can mean that information that should be expunged survives final edits. Microsoft, however, does provide an add-on tool for Windows PCs that fixes the problem. "The Remove Hidden Data add-in is a tool that you can use to remove personal or hidden data that might not be immediately apparent when you view the document in your Microsoft Office application," says the instructions on Microsoft's website. Microsoft recommends that the tool is used before people publish any Word document. A tool for Apple machines running Word is not available. Workshare surveyed firms around the world and found that, on average, 31% of documents contained legally sensitive information but in many firms up to three-quarters fell in to the high risk category. Often, said Mr Pearson, this sensitive information was invisible because it got deleted and changed as different drafts were prepared.
However, the way that Windows works means that earlier versions can be recalled and reconstructed by those keen to see how a document has evolved. Few firms have any knowledge of the existence of this so-called metadata about the changes that a document has gone through or that it can be reconstructed. The discovery of this hidden information could prove embarrassing for companies if, for instance, those tendering for contracts found out about the changes to terms of a deal being negotiated. The research revealed that a document's metadata could be substantial as, on average, only 40% of contributors' changes to a document make it to the final draft. Problems with documents could mean trouble for firms as regulatory bodies step up scrutiny and compliance laws start to bite, said Mr Pearson. | tech |
Net regulation 'still possible'
The blurring of boundaries between TV and the internet raises questions of regulation, watchdog Ofcom has said.
Content on TV and the internet is set to move closer this year as TV-quality video online becomes a norm. At a debate in Westminster, the net industry considered the options. Lord Currie, chairman of super-regulator Ofcom, told the panel that protecting audiences would always have to be a primary concern for the watchdog. Despite having no remit for the regulation of net content, disquiet has increased among internet service providers as speeches made by Ofcom in recent months hinted that regulation might be an option. At the debate, organised by the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), Lord Currie did not rule out the possibility of regulation.
"The challenge will arise when boundaries between TV and the internet truly blur and then there is a balance to be struck between protecting consumers and allowing them to assess the risks themselves," he said. Adopting the rules that currently exist to regulate TV content or self-regulation, which is currently the practice of the net industry, will be up for discussion.
Some studies suggest that as many as eight million households in the UK could have adopted broadband by the end of 2005, and the technology opens the door to TV content delivered over the net. More and more internet service providers and media companies are streaming video content on the web. BT has already set up an entertainment division to create and distribute content that could come from sources such as BSkyB, ITV and the BBC. Head of the division, Andrew Burke, spoke about the possibility of creating content for all platforms. "How risque can I be in this new age? With celebrity chefs serving up more expletives than hot dinners, surely I can push it to the limit," he said.
In fact, he said, if content has been requested by consumers and they have gone to lengths to download it, then maybe it should be entirely regulation free. Internet service providers have long claimed no responsibility for the content they carry on their servers since the Law Commission dubbed them "mere conduits" back in 2002. This defence does not apply if they have actual knowledge of illegal content and have failed to remove it. The level of responsibility they have has been tested in several high-profile legal cases. Richard Ayers, portal director at Tiscali, said there was little point trying to regulate the internet because it would be impossible. Huge changes are afoot in 2005, he predicted, as companies such as the BBC offer TV content over the net. The BBC's planned interactive media player which will give surfers the chance to download programmes such as EastEnders and Top Gear will make net TV mainstream and raise a whole new set of questions, he said.
One of these will be about the vast sums of money involved in maintaining the network to supply such a huge quantity of data and could herald a new digital licence fee, said Mr Ayers. As inappropriate net content, most obviously pornography viewed by children, continues to dominate the headlines, internet regulation remains a political issue said MP Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat spokesman on IT. Mr Allan thinks that the answer could lie somewhere between the cries of "impossible to regulate" and "just apply offline laws online". In fact, instead of seeing regulation brought online, the future could bring an end to regulation as we know it for all TV content. After Lord Currie departed, the panel agreed that this could be a reality and that for the internet people power is likely to reign. "If content is on-demand, consumers have pulled it up rather than had pushed to them, then it is the consumers' choice to watch it. There is no watershed on the net," said Mr Burke. | tech |
Voters flock to blog awards site
Voting is under way for the annual Bloggies which recognise the best web blogs - online spaces where people publish their thoughts - of the year.
Nominations were announced on Sunday, but traffic to the official site was so heavy that the website was temporarily closed because of too many visitors. Weblogs have been nominated in 30 categories, from the top regional blog, to the best-kept-secret blog. Blogs had a huge year, with a top US dictionary naming "blog" word of 2004. Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks about six million blogs and says that more than 12,000 are added daily. A blog is created every 5.8 seconds, according to US research think-tank Pew Internet and American Life, but less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months.
Nikolai Nolan, who has run the Bloggies for the past five years, told the BBC News website he was not too surprised by the amount of voters who crowded the site. "The awards always get a lot of traffic; this was just my first year on a server with a bandwidth limit, so I had to guess how much I'd need," he said. There were many new finalists this year, he added, and a few that had won Bloggies before. Several entries reflected specific news events. "There are four nominations for the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog, which is a pretty timely one for 2005," said Mr Nolan.
The big Bloggies battle will be for the ultimate prize of blog of the year. The nominated blogs are wide-ranging covering what is in the news to quirky sites of interest. Fighting it out for the coveted award are Gawker, This Fish Needs a Bicycle, Wonkette, Boing Boing, and Gothamist. In a sign that blogs are playing an increasingly key part in spreading news and current affairs, The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog is also nominated in the best overall category. GreenFairyDotcom, Londonist, Hicksdesign, PlasticBag and London Underground Tube Blog are the nominees in the best British or Irish weblog.
Included in the other categories is best "meme". This is for the top "replicating idea that spread about weblogs". Nominations include Flickr, a web photo album which lets people upload, tag, share and publish their images to blogs. Podcasting has also made an appearance in the category. It is an increasingly popular idea that makes use of RSS (really simple syndication) and audio technology to let people easily make their own radio shows, and distribute them automatically onto portable devices.
Many are done by those who already have text-based blogs, so they are almost like audio blogs. Three new categories have been added to the list this year, including best food, best entertainment, and best writing of a weblog. One of the categories that was scrapped though was best music blog. The winners of the fifth annual Bloggies are chosen by the public. Public voting closes on 3 February and the winners will be announced sometime between 13 and 15 March. | tech |
Latest Opera browser gets vocal
Net browser Opera 8.0, due for official release at the end of next month, will be "the most accessible browser on the market", according to its authors.
The latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. The voice features, based on IBM technology, are currently only available in the Windows version. Opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create "style sheets", its developers say. This will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. But the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people, so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. "Our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone," said Opera spokeswoman, Berit Hanson. "So we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users."
Another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width, which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling.
The company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using Opera with a handheld device. The company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. "Our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural," said Ms Hanson. "People are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard, so this makes the web a more hands-free experience." Unlike commercially available voice recognition software, Opera does not have to be "trained" to recognise an individual voice. Around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. The voice recognition function is currently only available in English. Opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. Opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from Norwegian telecoms company Telenor. Its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms. | tech |
Web radio takes Spanish rap global
Spin the radio dial in the US and you are likely to find plenty of Spanish-language music. But what you will not find is much Spanish-language hip-hop.
Hip-hop and rap are actually quite popular in the Spanish-speaking world, but local artists are having trouble marketing their work abroad. But now, a US company is bringing rap and hip-hop en espanol to computer users everywhere. Los Caballeros de Plan G are one of Mexico's hottest hip-hop acts. They have a devoted fan base in their native Monterrey. But most Mexican hip-hop fans, not to mention fans in most of the Spanish-speaking world, rarely get a chance to hear the group's tracks on the radio.
"You can't really just go on the radio and listen to hip-hop in Spanish... it's just not accessible," says Manuel Millan, a native of San Diego, California. "It's really hard for the Spanish hip-hop scene to get into mainstream radio. You usually have a very commercialised sound and the groups are not really known around the country or around the world." Millan and two friends set out to change that - they wanted to make groups like Los Caballeros de Plan G accessible to fans globally.
Mainstream radio stations were not going to play this kind of music, and starting their own broadcast station was economically impossible. So, Millan and his friends launched a website called latinohiphopradio.com. The name says it all: it is web-based radio, devoted to the hottest Spanish language rap and hip-hop tracks. The site, which is in both in English and Spanish, is meant to be easy to navigate. All the user has to do is download a media player. There are no DJs. It is just music streamed over the net for free. Suddenly, with the help of the website, Los Caballeros de Plan G are producing "export quality" rap.
The web might be just the right medium for Spanish language hip-hop right now. The genre is in what Millan calls its "infant stage". But the production values are improving, and artists such as Argentina's Mustafa Yoda are pushing to make it better and better. Mustafa Yoda is currently one of the hottest tracks on latinohiphopradio.com. "He's considered the Eminem of Argentina, and the Latin American hip-hop scene," Millan says. "He really hasn't had that much exposure as far as anywhere in the world, but he's definitely the one to look out for as far as becoming the next big thing in the Spanish-speaking world." Currently, the Chilean group Makisa is also in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10, as is Cuban artist Papo Record. "Every country's got it's own cultural differences and they try to put those into their own songs," Millan says. Latinohiphopradio.com has been up and running for a couple of months now. The site has listeners from across the Spanish speaking world. Right now, Mexico leads the way, accounting for about 50% of listeners. But web surfers in Spain are logging in as well - about 25% of the web station's traffic comes from there. That is not surprising as many consider Spain to be the leader in Spanish-language rap and hip-hop. Millan says that Spain is actually just behind the United States and France in terms of overall rap and hip-hop production. That might be changing, though, as more and more Latin American artists are finding audiences.
But one Spaniard is still firmly in latinohiphopradio.com's top 10. His name is Tote King and Manuel Millan says that he is the hip-hop leader in Spain. On his track Uno Contra Veinte Emcees, or One Against 20 Emcees, Tote King shows he is well aware of that fact. "It's basically him bragging that he's one of the best emcees in Spain right now," Millan says. "And it's pretty much true. He has the tightest productions, and his rap flow is impeccable, it's amazing." Latinohiphopradio.com is hoping to expand in the coming year. Millan says they want to include more music and more news from the world of Spanish language hip-hop and rap.
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production. | tech |
Movie body targets children's PCs
The body that represents the US movie industry has released its latest tool in its campaign to clamp down on movie file-sharing, aimed at parents.
The Movie Association for America's (MPAA) free Parent File Scan software lets parents check their children's computers for peer-to-peer programs. It will also list all movie and music files they have on their hard drive. Parents then have the choice to remove programs and files. The MPAA said files found would not be passed on to it. "Our ultimate goal is to help consumers locate the resources and information they need to make appropriate decisions about using and trading illegal files," said Dan Glickman, MPAA chief. "Many parents are concerned about what their children have downloaded and where they've downloaded it from."
But some computer users who had tested the latest software reported on some technology sites that the program had identified Windows default wav files as copyrighted material and wanted to delete them. Movie piracy cost the industry £3.7bn ($7bn) in 2003, according to analysts. The MPAA said in a statement that it would continue to provide easy access to similar tools in the coming months to combat "the deleterious effects of peer-to-peer software, including such common problems as viruses, Trojan horses and identity theft".
Mr Glickman said that the film industry was embracing "digital age technologies", like Movielink and CinemaNow, which are legal movie sites. "But legal services such as these need a chance to grow and thrive without having to compete against illegitimate operations that depend on stolen property to survive," he added. The industry body also said it had launched a second round of legal action against online movie-swappers across the US, but did not say how many were being sued. Its first set of lawsuits were filed in November 2004. It also started a campaign against operators of BitTorrent, eDonkey and DirectConnect peer-to-peer networks. The first convictions for peer-to-peer piracy were handed out in the US in January. William Trowbridge and Michael Chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music, movies and software. | tech |
Norway upholds 'Napster' ruling
A Norwegian student who ran a website which linked to downloadable MP3 files has been ordered to pay compensation by the country's Supreme Court.
Frank Allan Bruvik was ordered to pay 100,000 kroner (£8,000) to the music industry in Norway. He was a student when he set up his napster.no site, which allowed users to submit and receive links to MP3 files. Bruvik had earlier been cleared on appeal after a lower court had found for the music industry. Music industry bosses in Norway said the ruling would help build confidence in the internet as a distribution medium.
Frank Allan Bruvik set up the napster.no website as part of a school project in 2001 while studying computer engineering in the Norwegian town of Lillehammer. The website was not associated with the napster.com site in the USA, which had been operating since 1999 and was already facing legal action.
Bruvik's site was online between August and November 2001, and while it did not host any music, at its peak it was providing links to more than 170 free files on other servers. As well as providing links, the site allowed those visiting it to submit links that could later be accessed by other visitors. A legal complaint for copyright violation was filed by groups including Norway's performing rights society, Tono, and the Norwegian branches of Sony Music and Universal Music, who saw it as an important test of principle.
A Norwegian court ruled in 2003 that Bruvik would have to pay 100,000 kroner to the music industry, but the country's Court of Appeal cleared him, saying that the copyright violation occurred when others posted the music. However, the Supreme Court stated that the music was clearly published in violation of copyright law It added that the case was decided based on the responsibility for abetting an illegal act, and that Bruvik's actions were premeditated. Norway's music industry said it was satisfied with the ruling, because showed that music piracy would not be accepted.
Meanwhile, in the USA a further 717 lawsuits against people alleged to have traded copyrighted songs were filed this week by the Recording Industry Association of America. The suits, brought on behalf of the major record companies, cite the individuals for illegally distributing music via unauthorized peer-to-peer services such as KaZaa and eDonkey. As with preceding cases, the fresh action was made against so-called "John Doe" defendants, who are identified only by the codes given to their computers' internet connections. | tech |
The future in your pocket
If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun.
The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year. To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable. The 3 network launched in 2003, Vodafone launched its consumer service in November, Orange followed in early December and T-Mobile and O2 are due to launch in 2005. The main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up.
Already the extra capacity in 3G networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators. But the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue. "Show me an operator that believes their voice business can sustain them, and I'll write their obituary" said Niel Ransom, chief technology officer at Alcatel.
Instead operators are likely to push all other things that 3G phones can do such as video messaging and other multimedia capabilities. Already camera phones look set to challenge digital cameras and are likely to win more fans as multi-megapixel devices go on sale. But 3G will not have everything its own way. It will face competition from emerging technologies such as Wimax. This wireless technology can boost data transmission speeds up to 75 megabits per second and works over distances of up to 30 miles. Kent is likely to be the site of the UK's first Wimax network which is due to go live in 2005 and it could be the way that rural areas get high-speed net access. Analyst firm Telecom View predicts that Wimax will steal a lot of market share from 3G and will be a clear winner. Bob Larribeau, principal analyst at Telecom View, said the better return on investment offered by technologies such as Wimax could dent the possible returns of 3G networks. And the growing ubiquity of wi-fi must not be forgotten either. The technology is popping up in more places than ever and its wider use is only held back by the price differences across countries and suppliers.
Moves to unite mobile and fixed phones look set to get more emphasis in 2005 too.
For a start, BT looks set to roll out its Bluephone project during the next 12 months. The service revolves around a hybrid device that uses the mobile networks when you are out and about but switches back to the fixed line when you are at home. Fixed line phones will also start to get much more serious competition from a technology that has the formidable name of Voice over IP (Voip). Voip routes calls via the net instead of the fixed line phone network. Anyone with a broadband connection, which is now more than 50% of the UK's net using population, can use Voip and could slash their monthly phone bills if they used it. Telecommunications regulator Ofcom has declared 056 to be the area code for Voip calls and 2005 is likely to see a lot more consumer-focused Voip call services starting up. Home broadband services will also start to increase in speed as dwindling numbers of new users signing force the pace of competition. If 2004 has been the year of the portable music player, they 2005 looks like it will be the year of the portable media player. Motorola has just announced a deal with Apple to produce a phone that works with the iTunes service and other hybrid gadgets that sport a big memory and lots of other functions will become commonplace. The pace of advancement in storage media will continue mean that the cost per megabyte of memory will plummet. Some of those devices will sport huge hard drives letting you store more data than you ever wanted or knew you had. Convergence could mean that single-function devices start to dwindle in number. Instead every gadget will be able to do almost anything and communicate almost any way you want. The only downside is that consumers will face a series of tough choices as they are confronted by a bewildering array of gadgets each with an enormous numbers of features and vast data holding capacities. But that is the kind of problem most gadget fans can live with. | tech |
What high-definition will do to DVDs
First it was the humble home video, then it was the DVD, and now Hollywood is preparing for the next revolution in home entertainment - high-definition.
High-definition gives incredible, 3D-like pictures and surround sound. The DVD disks and the gear to play them will not be out for another year or so, and there at are still a number of issues to be sorted out. But when high-definition films do come out on the new format DVDs, it will profoundly change home entertainment. For Rick Dean, director of business development for digital content company THX, a high-definition future is an exciting prospect. He has worked on the Star Wars DVD trilogy, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Indiana Jones. "There was a time not so long ago when the film world and the video world were two completely separate worlds," he told the BBC News website.
"The technology we are dealing with now means they are very much conjoined. "The film that we see in theatres is coming from the same digital file that we take the home video master," he says. But currently, putting a master feature film onto DVD requires severe compression because current DVD technology cannot hold as much as high-definition films demand. "As much as you compress the picture data rate wise, you also take qualities away from the picture that we fight so hard to keep in the master," he explains. "I would love to be able to show people what projects that we worked on really look like in the high-def world and I find it very exciting."
High-definition DVDs can hold up to six times more data than the DVDs we are used to. It will take time though to persuade people who spent money on DVD players to buy the different players and displays required to watch high-definition DVDs in 18 months' time. Mr Dean is confident though: "I think if they see real HD [high-definition], not some heavily compressed version of it, there is such a remarkable difference. "I have heard comments from people who say the images pop off the screen."
High-definition will mean some changes for those working behind the scenes too. On the whole, producing films for high-definition DVDs will be easier in some ways because less compression is needed. Equally, it may mean Hollywood studios ask for more to be put onto the average DVD. "When we master movies right now, our data rates are running at about 1.2 gigabits per second," says Mr Dean. "Our DVDs that we put out today have to be squashed down to about five or six megabits per second. "That's a huge amount of compression that has to be applied - about 98%. So if you have anything that allows more space, you don't have to compress so hard." Studios could fit a lot more marketing material, games, and features, onto high-capacity DVDs. Currently, an entire DVD project can take up to three months, says Mr Dean. Although the step of down-converting will be bypassed, this will realistically only save a day's work, says Mr Dean. One of the most time consuming elements is building DVD navigation and menu systems. On the fairly complex Star Wars disks, making sure the menu buttons worked took 45 human hours alone. If studios want to cash in on the extra space, it could mean extra human hours, for which someone has to pay. "If the decision on the studio side is that they are going to put a lot more on these disks, it could be more expensive because of all the extra navigation that is required." And if studios do focus on delivering more "added value content", thinks Mr Dean, ultimately it could mean that they will want more money for it. Those costs could filter down to the price ticket on a high-definition DVD. But if the consumer is not willing to pay a premium price, studios will listen, thinks Mr Dean.
High-definition throws up other challenge to film makers and DVD production alike. More clarity on screen means film makers have to make doubly sure that attention to detail is meticulous. "When we did the first HD version of Star Wars Episode I, everybody was very sun-tanned, but that was make-up. "In the HD version of Episode I, all these make-up lines showed up," explains Mr Dean. The restoration of the older Star Wars episodes revealed some interesting items too.
"There are scans of a corridor [on the Death Star] and fairly plainly in one of those shots, there is a file cabinet stuck behind one of the doorways. "You never used to be able to see it because things are just blurred enough during the pan that you just didn't see it." What high-definition revolution ultimately means is that the line between home entertainment and cinema worlds will blur. With home theatre systems turning living rooms into cinemas, this line blurs even further. It could also mean that how we get films, and in what format, will widen. "In the future we are going to look towards file delivery over IP [internet protocol - broadband], giving a DVD-like experience from the set-top box to the hard drive," says Mr Dean. But that is some time off for most, and for now, people still like to show off something physical in their bookshelves. | tech |
Mobile games come of age
The BBC News website takes a look at how games on mobile phones are maturing. A brief round-up follows but you can skip straight to the reviews by clicking on the links below.
If you think of Snake when some mentions "mobile games" then you could be in for a bit of a surprise. This is because mobile games have come a long way in a very short time. Even before Nokia's N-Gage game phone launched in late 2003, many mobile operators were realising that there was an audience looking for something to play on their handset.
And given that many more people own handsets than own portable game playing gadgets such as the GameBoy it could be a very lucrative market. That audience includes commuters wanting something to fill their time on the way home, game fans looking for a bit of variety and hard core gamers who like to play every moment they can. Life for all these types of player has got immeasurably better in the last year as the numbers of titles you can download to your phone has snowballed. Now sites such as Wireless Gaming Review list more than 200 different titles for some UK networks and the ranges suit every possible taste. There are ports of PC and arcade classics such as Space Invaders, Lunar Lander and Bejewelled. There are also versions of titles, such as Colin McRae Rally, that you typically find on PCs and consoles.
There are shoot-em-ups, adventure games, strategy titles and many novel games only found on handsets. Rarely now does an action movie launch without a mobile game tie-in. Increasingly such launches are all part of the promotional campaign for a film, understandable when you realise that a good game can rack up millions of downloads. The returns can be pretty good when you consider that some games cost £5. What has also helped games on mobiles thrive is the fact that it is easier than ever to get hold of them thanks to technology known as Wap push. By sending a text message to a game maker you can have the title downloaded to your handset. Far better than having to navigate through the menus of most mobile operator portals. The number of handsets that can play games has grown hugely too. Almost half of all phones now have Java onboard meaning that they can play the increasingly sophisticated games that are available - even the ones that use 3D graphics.
The minimum technology specifications that phones should adhere to are getting more sophisticated which means that games are too. Now double key presses are possible making familiar tactics such as moving and strafing a real option. The processing power on handsets means that physics on mobile games is getting more convincing and the graphics are improving too. Some game makers are also starting to take advantage of the extra capabilities in a mobile. Many titles, particularly racing games, let you upload your best time to see how you compare to others. Usually you can get hold of their best time and race against a "ghost" or "shadow" to see if you can beat them. A few games also let you take on people in real time via the network or, if you are sitting close to them, via Bluetooth short-range radio technology. With so much going on it is hard to do justice to the sheer diversity of what is happening. But these two features should help point you in the direction of the game makers and give you an idea of where to look and how to get playing.
TOO FAST TOO FURIOUS (DIGITAL BRIDGES)
As soon as I start playing this I remember why I never play driving games - because I'm rubbish at them. No matter if I drive the car via joystick or keypad I just cannot get the hang of braking for corners or timing a rush to pass other drivers. The game rewards replay because to advance you have to complete every section within a time limit. Winning gives you cash for upgrades. Graphically the rolling road is a convincing enough evocation of speed as the palm trees and cactus whip by and the city scrolls past in the background. The cars handle pretty well despite my uselessness but it was not clear if the different models of cars were appreciably different on the track. The only niggle was that the interface was a bit confusing especially when using a joystick rather than the keypad to play.
FATAL FORCE (MACROSPACE)
A futuristic shooter that lets you either play various deathmatch modes against your phone or run through a series of scenarios that involves killing aliens invading Earth. Graphics are a bit cartoon-like but only helps to make clear what is going on and levels are well laid out and encourage you to leap about exploring. Both background music and sounds effects work well. The scenarios are well scripted and you regularly get hints from the Fatal Force commanders. Weapons include flamethrowers, rocket launchers, grenades and at a couple of points you even get chance to use a mech for a short while. With the right power-up you can go into a Matrix-style bullet time to cope with the onslaught of aliens. The game lets you play via Bluetooth if others are in range. Online the game has quite a following with clans, player rankings and even new downloadable maps. | tech |
California sets fines for spyware
The makers of computer programs that secretly spy on what people do with their home PCs could face hefty fines in California.
From 1 January, a new law is being introduced to protect computer users from software known as spyware. The legislation, which was approved by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is designed to safeguard people from hackers and help protect their personal information. Spyware is considered by computer experts to be one of the biggest nuisance and security threats facing PC users in the coming year. The software buries itself in computers and can collect a wide range of information. At its worst, it has the ability to hijack personal data, like passwords, login details and credit card numbers. The programs are so sophisticated they change frequently and become impossible to eradicate.
One form of spyware called adware has the ability to collect information on a computer user's web-surfing. It can result in people being bombarded with pop-up ads that are hard to close. In Washington, Congress has been debating four anti-spyware bills, but California is a step ahead. The state's Consumer Protection Against Spyware Act bans the installation of software that takes control of another computer. It also requires companies and websites to disclose whether their systems will install spyware. Consumers are able to seek up to $1,000 in damages if they think they have fallen victim to the intrusive software. The new law marks a continuing trend in California towards tougher privacy rights. A recent survey by Earthlink and Webroot found that 90% of PCs are infested with the surreptitious software and that, on average, each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. Currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as Spybot and Ad-Aware. | tech |
Web helps collect aid donations
The web is helping aid agencies gather resources to help cope with the aftermath of the tsunami disaster.
Many people are making donations via websites or going online to see how they can get involved with aid efforts. High-profile web portals such as Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Amazon are gathering links that lead people to aid and relief organisations. So many were visiting some aid-related sites that some webpages were struggling to cope with the traffic. An umbrella organisation called the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has been set up by a coalition of 12 charities and has been taking many donations via its specially created website. It urged people to go online where possible to help because donations could be processed more quickly than cash donated in other ways, meaning aid could be delivered as quickly as possible. The site has so far received almost £8 million, with more than 11,000 donations being made online every hour.
Telco BT stepped in to take over the secure payments on the DEC site and provided extra logistical support for phone and online appeals after it was initially crippled with online donations. It has also provided space in London's BT tower for one of the call centres dealing with donations.
Some of the web's biggest firms are also helping to channel help by modifying their homepages to include links to aid agencies and organisations collecting resources. On its famously sparse homepage Google has placed a link that leads users to a list of sites where donations can be made. Among the 17 organisations listed are Oxfam, Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) and Network for Good. Many of the sites that Google lists are also taking online donations. Online retailer Amazon has put a large message on its start page that lets people donate money directly to the American Red Cross that will be used with relief efforts. Auction site eBay is giving a list of sites that people can either donate directly to, divert a portion of their profits from anything they sell on eBay to the listed organisations or simply buy items that direct cash to those in the list. Yahoo is proving links direct to charities for those that want to donate. The Auction Drop website is asking people to donate old digital cameras, computers and other gadgets they no longer want that can be auction to raise cash for the aid effort. Sadly, the outpouring of goodwill has also encouraged some conmen to try to cash in. Anti-fraud organisations are warning about e-mails that are starting to circulate which try to convince people to send money directly to them rather than make donations via aid agencies. Those wanting to give cash were urged to use legitimate websites of charities and aid agencies. | tech |
Mobiles rack up 20 years of use
Mobile phones in the UK are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend.
Britain's first mobile phone call was made across the Vodafone network on 1 January 1985 by veteran comedian Ernie Wise. In the 20 years since that day, mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of Britons own a handset. Mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline.
The first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in New York but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. The UK was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. The first call was made from St Katherine's dock to Vodafone's head office in Newbury which at the time was over a curry house. For the first nine days of 1985 Vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the UK. Then on 10 January Cellnet (now O2) launched its service. Mike Caudwell, spokesman for Vodafone, said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase, cost about £2,000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes.
"Despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s," he said. "They became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk." This was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. He said it took Vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. "It's very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people," he said. "Cellnet was forecasting half that." Now Vodafone has 14m customers in the UK alone. Cellnet and Vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the UK until 1993 when One2One (now T-Mobile) was launched. Orange had its UK launch in 1994. Both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. The analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. Called Global System for Mobiles (GSM) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. Mr Caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things, such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular. | tech |
Blogs take on the mainstream
Web logs or blogs are everywhere, with at least an estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow.
These online diaries come in many shapes and styles, ranging from people willing to sharing their views, pictures and links, to companies interested in another way of reaching their customers. But this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical eye over news events, often writing about issues ignored by the big media or offering an eye-witness account of events. Most blogs may have only a small readership, but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people to have a say in the world of politics. The most well-known examples include Iraqi Salam Pax's accounts of the US-led war, former Iranian vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi exclusive insight into the Islamic Republic's government, and the highs and lows of the recent US election campaign. There are already websites pulling together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs, like wikinews.com, launched last November.
The blogging movement has been building up for many years.
Andrew Nachison, Director of the Media Center, a US-based think-tank that studies media, technology and society, highlights the US presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs. "You could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power, to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before," he says. "And blogs were a key part of that transformation." Among them were blogs carrying picture messages, saying "we are sorry" for George W Bush's victory and the responses from his supporters. Mr Nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers, TV and radio. "We have to acknowledge that in all of these cases, mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas," he told the BBC News website. "But they followed the story, they didn't lead it."
Some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this emerging competitor, raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs.
Others, like the French newspaper Le Monde, have applied a different strategy, offering blogs as part of its content. "I don't think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. It is in transition, as society itself is in transition," says Mr Nachison. However, he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper. "The one-to-many road of traditional journalism, yes, it is threatened. And professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse," says Mr Nachison. "The notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what's acceptable for public consumption and what isn't, that's gone forever." "With people now walking around with information devices in their pockets, like camera or video phones, we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories."
It seems unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger.
But the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing, in a web already overloaded with information. Blog analysis firm Technorati estimates the number of blogs in existence, the so-called blogosphere, has already exceeded five million, and is growing at exponential levels. Tools such as Google's Blogger, MovableType and the recently launched beta version of MSN Spaces are making it easier to run a blog. US research think-tank Pew Internet & American Life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. But experts agree that the phenomenon, allowing individuals to publish, share ideas, exchange information, comment on current issues, post images or video on the web easily, is here to stay. "We are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other," said Mr Nachison. "And there's going to be bad that comes with the good." | tech |
Honour for UK games maker
Leading British computer games maker Peter Molyneux has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours list.
The head of Surrey's Lionhead Studios was granted the honour for services to the computer games industry. Mr Molyneux has been behind many of the ground-breaking games of the last 15 years such as Populous, Theme Park, Dungeon Keeper and Black and White. He is widely credited with helping to create and popularise the so-called god-game genre.
Speaking to the BBC News website Mr Molyneux said receiving the honour was something of a surprise. It's come completely out of the blue," he said, "I never would have guessed that I'd have that kind of honour." He said he was surprised as much because, not too long ago, many people thought computer gaming was a fad.
"It was thought to be like skateboarding," he said, "a craze that everyone thought would go away." Now, he said, the gaming world rivals the movie industry for sales and cultural influence. "Britain plays a big part in it," he said. "It's one of the founding nations that made the industry what it is." Mr Molyneux has been a pivotal figure in the computer games industry for almost 20 years. His career started at Bullfrog Studios which in 1987 produced Populous one of the first God-games. The title gave players control over the lives a small population of computerised people. Mr Molyneux said that his involvement with the games industry started almost by accident as back in the early days game making was more a hobby than a career. "I thought everyone would treat Populous as weird," he said, "but it became a huge international success." He left Bullfrog in 1997 to set up Lionhead Studios which was behind the ambitous and widely acclaimed game Black & White. One of the next titles to come from Lionhead puts players in charge of a movie studio and tasks them with producing and directing a hit film. The veteran game maker says he has one problem still to solve. "Being an absolute geek I've got no idea what I'm going to wear when I go and pick it up," he said. | tech |
Bush website blocked outside US
Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush.
The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning. Since then people outside the US trying to browse the site get a message saying they are not authorised to view it. The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp.
The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney failed.
By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. The site can still be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site. The pattern of traffic to the website suggests that the blocking was not due to an attack by vandals or politically motivated hackers. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. On 21 October, the George W Bush website began using the services of a company called Akamai to ensure that the pages, videos and other content on its site reaches visitors. Mike Prettejohn, president of Netcraft, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites. | tech |
Blogger grounded by her airline
A US airline attendant is fighting for her job after she was suspended over postings on her blog, or online diary.
Queen of the Sky, otherwise known as Ellen Simonetti, evolved into an anonymous semi-fictional account of life in the sky. But after she posted pictures of herself in uniform, Delta Airlines suspended her indefinitely without pay. Ms Simonetti was told her suspension was a result of "inappropriate" images. Delta Airlines declined to comment.
"I was really shocked, I had no warning," Ms Simonetti told BBC News Online. "I never thought I would get in trouble because of the blog. I thought if they had a problem, someone would have said something before taking action." The issue has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. Ms Simonetti was suspended on 25 September pending an investigation and has since lodged a complaint with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). A spokesperson for Delta Airlines told BBC News Online: "All I can tell you is we do not discuss internal employee issues with the media." She added she could not say whether a similar situation over personal websites had occurred in the past.
Ms Simonetti started her personal blog in January to help her get over her mother's death. She had ensured she made no mention of which airline she worked for, and created fictional names for cities and companies. The airline's name was changed to Anonymous Airline and the city in which she was based was called Quirksville. A large part of the blog contained fictional stories because Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti.
The images were taken from a digital camera she had inherited from her mother. "We often take pictures on flight or on layovers. I just though why not include them on my blog for fun. "I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them," Ms Simonetti said. She has also claimed that pictures of male Delta Airline employees in uniform are freely available on the web. Of the 10 or so images on the site, only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight "wings". "They did not tell me which pictures they had a problem with. I am just assuming it was the one of me posing on seats where my skirt rode up," she said. The images were removed as soon as she learned she had been suspended. As far as Ms Simonetti knows, there is no company anti-blogging policy. There is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without approval from management, but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear.
Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton, said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their employees. "There are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers," he said. It was crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed clearly, was reasonable, and enforced fairly in company policy. "You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore," he said. Mr Matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog. "One of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it suits them, but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross the line." He speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of Ms Simonetti in uniform were posted. "Whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly is prohibited, and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that line," he said. Ms Simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to discontinue their blogs. One of them was asked to stop blogging by his company before any action was taken. "If they had asked me just take down the blog, I would have done it, but that was not been given to me as an option," she said. "This blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a policy about it. If I had known it would cost me my job, I would not have done that." | tech |
Camera phones are 'must-haves'
Four times more mobiles with cameras in them will be sold in Europe by the end of 2004 than last year, says a report from analysts Gartner.
Globally, the number sold will reach 159 million, an increase of 104%. The report predicts that nearly 70% of all mobile phones sold will have a built-in camera by 2008. Improving imaging technology in mobiles is making them an increasingly "must-have" buy. In Europe, cameras on mobiles can take 1.3 megapixel images. But in Japan and Asia Pacific, where camera phone technology is much more advanced, mobiles have already been released which can take 3.2 megapixel images. Japan still dominates mobile phone technology, and the uptake there is huge. By 2008, according to Gartner, 95% of all mobiles sold there will have cameras on them.
Camera phones had some teething problems when they were first launched as people struggled with poor quality images and uses for them, as well as the complexity and expense of sending them via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Services). This has changed in the last 18 months. Handset makers have concentrated on trying to make phones easier to use. Realising that people like to use their camera phones in different ways, they have introduced more design features, like rotating screens and viewfinders, removable memory cards and easier controls to send picture messages.
Mobile companies have introduced more ways for people to share photos with other people. These have included giving people easier ways to publish them on websites, or mobile blogs - moblogs. But the report suggests that until image quality increases more, people will not be interested in printing out pictures at kiosks. Image sensor technology inside cameras phones is improving. The Gartner report suggests that by mid-2005, it is likely that the image resolution of most camera phones will be more than two megapixels. Consumer digital cameras images range from two to four megapixels in quality, and up to six megapixels on a high-end camera. But a lot of work is being done to make camera phones more like digital cameras. Some handsets already feature limited zoom capability, and manufacturers are looking into technological improvements that will let people take more photos in poorly-lit conditions, like nightclubs. Other developments include wide-angle modes, basic editing features, and better sensors and processors for recording film clips.
Images from camera phones have even made it into the art world. An exhibition next month in aid of the charity Mencap, will feature snaps taken from the camera phones of top artists.
The exhibition, Fonetography, will feature images taken by photographers David Bailey, Rankin and Nan Goldin, and artists Sir Peter Blake, Tracey Emin and Jack Vettriano. But some uses for them have worried many organisations. Intel, Samsung, the UK's Foreign Office and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in the US, have decided to ban camera phones from their buildings for fear of sensitive information being snapped and leaked. Many schools, fitness centres and local councils have also banned them over fears about privacy and misuse. Italy's information commissioner has also voiced concern and has issued guidelines on where and how the phones can be used. But camera phone fears have not dampened the manufacturers' profits. According to recent figures, Sony Ericsson's profits tripled in the third-quarter because of new camera phones. Over 60% of mobiles sold during the three months through to September featured integrated cameras, it said. | tech |
Games 'deserve a place in class'
Computer games could enhance learning and have a legitimate place in the classroom, say researchers.
Academics from the Institute of Education at London University found that "games literacy" was a key skill for youngsters. As well as being used in different areas of the curriculum, games are a legitimate area of study in their own right, researchers say. Pupils should also be able to create their own games, they say.
"Like all games, computer and video games entertain while promoting social development, and playing and talking about games is an important part of young people's lives," said project manager Caroline Pelletier.
"Games literacy is a way of investigating how games are means of expression and representation, just like writing or drawing," she said. The researchers conducted two studies into the impact of games on education, the first looking at how they can be used in different curriculum subjects to enhance learning. Researchers found that girls were often excluded from the male-dominated world of game playing. "Without first-hand experience of how much fun a game can be, they have little motivation to play and remain disengaged from an engrossing and sociable activity," said research fellow Diane Carr.
The second project looked at how games can be integrated into media education and concluded that writing games should be a core part of studying them. Sixth-form teacher Barney Oram already teaches computer games alongside the more traditional study of film, TV and popular music at the A-level course he runs at Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge.
For parents, the idea that computer games could be brought into the classroom environment, could cause controversy. Dr Andrew Burn, associate director of the Institute of Education's Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media moved to reassure anxious parents. "Games are a legitimate cultural form that deserve critical analysis in schools just as film, television and literature do," he said. "But we also want to argue that full understanding only comes when children have the tools to create their own games." The games industry welcomed the report, saying it showed how games had a positive impact on children. "At a time of hysterical and inaccurate reporting it is heartening to see the cultural, social and educational value of computer and video games being assessed intelligently," said Roger Bennett, director general of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association. "This report is further evidence, if it were needed, about the excellence and imagination that thrives in gaming. They have much to offer to the education of our children and they have much to offer as a career." The three-year research project, which is being presented at a seminar on Tuesday in London, was partly funded by the Department of Trade and Industry. | tech |
Nuclear body seeks new tech
The computer systems used to monitor the world's nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of inspectors.
A spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than 20 years old. Such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material worldwide. The agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and software. "A major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate, secure online access to information," said project manager Livio Costantini.
IAEA inspectors make around 3,000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities worldwide. They are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants, to carry out environmental checks, and also to look for any signs that nuclear material is being smuggled in or out of the facility.
The computer system inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits, for instance, was built in the 1970s and largely paper based. An IAEA spokesman said this was extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle in a haystack. The organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in November, aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous inspection data, design blueprints of nuclear facilities, even satellite images of the plant. Where possible, it hopes to link the system with national records of the import and export of nuclear materials. Further analysis of these could help spot potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries, according to a spokesman.
Computer specialist at the IAEA, Peter Smith, would like to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques, more familiar to video games players, into the inspector's toolkit. "The commercials you now see have people are moving around in a virtual world," he said. "If we could have that on our laptops, we could be walking through the plant seeing, on the laptop, how the plant should look. "And if there's a door in the wall that is not on our laptop, then we have a problem." The IAEA estimates the total cost of the four-year project to upgrade its technology will be $40m. So far it has only received $11m from the US and the UK. "Failure to replace the hardware and software, and to integrate fully all the information system components will carry large risks," said an agency statement. | tech |
Web logs aid disaster recovery
Some of the most vivid descriptions of the devastation in southern Asia are on the internet - in the form of web logs or blogs.
Bloggers have been offering snapshots of information from around the region and are also providing some useful information for those who want to help. Indian writer Rohit Gupta edits a group blog called Dogs without Borders. When he created it, the site was supposed to be a forum to discuss relations between India and Pakistan. But in the wake of Sunday's tsunami, Mr Gupta and his fellow bloggers switched gears.
They wanted to blog the tsunami and its aftermath. One Sri Lankan blogger in the group goes by the online name Morquendi. With internet service disrupted by the tsunami, Morquendi started sending SMS text messages via cell phone from the affected areas of Sri Lanka. "We started publishing these SMSes," says Mr Gupta.
"Morquendi was describing scenes like 1,600 bodies washed up on a shore, and people burying, and burying and burying them. People digging holes with their hands. And this was coming through an SMS message. "We didn't have visual accounts on radio or on TV, or in the print media." Soon, thousands of web users around the world were logging on to read Morquendi's first hand accounts. In one message, Morquendi wrote about a Sri Lankan woman who was running home with a friend when the wave hit. "She was being swept away," Morquendi's message read. "She grabbed a tree with one hand and her friend with the other. She says she watched the water pull her friend away." Mr Gupta says the power of Morquendi's text message blogs was palpable. "He was running around, looking for friends, burying bodies, carrying bodies," Mr Gupta says of Morquendi. "I can't even begin to imagine the psychological state he was in when he was sending us reports, and doing the relief work at the same time. "He was caught between being a journalist and being a human being."
Others blogs are helping to spread information about relief efforts. Dina Mehta is an Indian blogger who's helping with the newly created South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. She says the blog is not meant to be filled with first person accounts. "What we're doing is we're building a resource," she says. "Anyone who says, OK, I want to come and do some work in India, volunteer in India, or in Sri Lanka or Malaysia, this is the sort of one-stop-shop that they can come to for all sorts of resources - emergency help lines, relief agencies, aid agencies, contacts for them etc."
Ms Mehta also says she wishes that governments in the region would realise the power of blogs. "Imagine if they had this resource available to them, if there was a disaster, how quickly you could funnel aid in, and get people to help," she says. Bloggers in the United States are also getting involved. Ramdhan Yadav Kotamaraja is originally from India, but now lives in Dallas. Mr Kotamaraja wanted to help those affected by the tsunami by pooling money with concerned friends. So, he set up an online payment system on his website. Then, says Mr Kotamaraja, the blogging world found out. "All my blogger friends started linking up my site, and I saw a lot of people other than my friends. I'd say 70% of the donations came from people I don't know. "It's simply unbelievable to me, that people that I don't know will come and start donating." News spreads quickly on weblogs, a phenomenon that helps bloggers expand their audience and scope. In Sri Lanka, blogger Morquendi is recruiting others to help. One recruit calls himself Heretic. In one of his latest posts, Heretic asks: "Have you ever seen fishing trawlers on the road? Ever seen a bus inside a house? "Well," Heretic writes, "that was just the least affected areas - so you can just imagine - or can you?" He concludes: "Keep it blogged."
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production. | tech |
Pandas benefit from wireless net
The world's dwindling panda population is getting a helping hand from a wireless internet network.
The Wolong Nature Reserve in the Sichuan Province of southwest China is home to 20% of the remaining 1,500 giant pandas in the world. A broadband and wireless network installed on the reserve has allowed staff to chronicle the pandas' daily activities. The data and images can be shared with colleagues around the world. The reserve conducts vital research on both panda breeding and bamboo ecology.
Using the network, vets have been able to observe how infant pandas feed and suggest changes to improve the tiny cubs' chances of survival.
"Digital technology has transformed the way we communicate and share information inside Wolong and with the rest of the world," said Zhang Hemin, director of the Wolong Nature Reserve. "Our researchers now have state-of-the-art digital technology to help foster the panda population and manage our precious surroundings." The network has been developed by Intel, working closely with the staff at Wolong. It includes a 802.11b wireless network and a video monitoring system using five cameras to observe pandas around the clock.
Before the new infrastructure arrived at the panda park, staff walked or drove to deliver floppy disks across the reserve. Infant panda health was recorded on paper notebooks and research teams in the field had little access to the data. To foster cultural links across the globe, a children's learning lab has been incorporated in the network, in collaboration with Globio (Federation for Global Biodiversity Education for Children), an international non-profit organisation. It will enable children at local primary schools to hook up with their peers in Portland, Oregon in the US. "Digital technology brings this story to life by enabling a global dialogue to help bridge cultures around the world," said Globio founder Gerry Ellis. | tech |
Search wars hit desktop PCs
Another front in the on-going battle between Microsoft and Google is about to be opened.
By the end of 2004 Microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a PC hard drive. The move is in answer to Google's release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop PCs. The desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as Google, AOL, Yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files.
Microsoft made the announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial analysts to talk about its first quarter results. John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be available for download by the end of the year.
"We're going to have a heck of a great race in search between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo," he said. "It's going to be really fun to follow." Microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of rivals, many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. The program could be based on the software Microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of Lookout Software in early October. On 14 October Google released desktop search software that catalogues all the files on a PC and lets users use one tool to find e-mail messages, spreadsheets, text files and presentations. The software will also find webpages and messages sent via AOL Instant Messenger.
Many other firms have released desktop search systems recently too. Companies such as Blinkx, Copernic, Enfish X1 Technologies and X-Friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer.
Apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called Spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the Tiger operating system. Due to follow are net giants AOL and Yahoo. The latter recently bought Stata Labs to get its hands on search software that people can use. Microsoft is also reputedly working on a novel search system for the next version of Windows (codenamed Longhorn). However this is not likely to appear until 2006. "The recent activity in the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based web search," said Kathy Rittweger, co-founder of Blinkx. "Finding information of our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage amongst the billions that exist."
Desktop search has become important for several reasons. According to research by message analysts the Radicati Group up to 45% of the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages and attachments. JF Sullivan, spokesman for e-mail software firm Sendmail said many organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their organisation and the way the work. "The key thing is being able to manage all this information," he said. Also search is increasingly key to the way that people get around the internet. Many people use a search engine as the first page they go to when getting on the net. Many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for information no matter what other program they are using. Having a tool on a desktop can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. For companies such as Google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are looking for is worth huge amounts of money. But this invasiveness has already led some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools. | tech |
Home phones face unclear future
The fixed line phone in your home could soon be an endangered species.
Research by handset maker Nokia shows that more and more people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. According to the study, more than 45 million people in the UK, Germany, US and South Korea now only use a mobile. It showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call charges are lower, but most of those questioned said the future was definitely mobile.
The Nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were used for different purposes. Home phones were used for longer calls but conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter, between mobiles and to friends. In the UK 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was still cheaper to use than a mobile. However, when pressed few could say with accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. In the US and Germany many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively high speeds. In all the countries where interviews were carried out, older people were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. Women aged 50 or above almost never use a mobile phone, the research found.
The move to mobile was most pronounced in South Korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they moved house.
Many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the "cosiness" of making a call there. Nokia said these findings had implications for mobile operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap, reliable and providing good call quality. The survey also showed that it is not just voice calls that are going wireless. Some of those questioned said they were looking to use a mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years. Polling firm Mori interviewed more than 6,000 people in the UK, US, Germany and South Korea for the survey. | tech |
Podcasts mark rise of DIY radio
An Apple iPod or other digital music players can hold anything up to 10,000 songs, which is a lot of space to fill.
But more and more iPod owners are filling that space with audio content created by an unpredictable assortment of producers. It is called "podcasting" and its strongest proponent is former MTV host and VJ (video jockey) Adam Curry. Podcasting takes its name from the Apple iPod, although you do not need an iPod to create one or to listen to a podcast. A podcast is basically an internet-based radio show which podcasters create, usually in the comfort of their own home. They need only a microphone, a PC, and some editing software. They then upload their shows to the internet and others can download and listen to them, all for free. Using technology based on XML computer code and RSS - Really Simple Syndication - listeners can subscribe to podcasts collected automatically in a bit of software, which Mr Curry has pioneered. The latest MP3 files of shows can then be picked up by a music playing device automatically.
Mr Curry records, hosts, edits and produce a daily, 40 minute podcast called The Daily Source Code. He wants to make podcasting "the Next Big Thing" and says it is an extension of his childhood love of radio gadgetry. "I was always into technologies and wires," he explains. "My parents gave me the Radio Shack 101 project kit, which allows you to build an AM transmitter and subsequently an FM transmitter. "I had my mom drive me around the block, see how far it would reach on the car radio."
Mr Curry is American, but he grew up in the Netherlands where he hosted illegal, pirate radio shows in the Dutch capital. He tried university in the US, and ended up back in Holland where he hosted a music video show. He spent the next seven years in New York where he worked at MTV hosting the Top 20 Video Countdown, but spent most of his hours tinkering with this new thing called the internet. "At a certain point in 1995, I was driving in on a Friday afternoon, beautiful blue sky, one of those beautiful days thinking, this is so stupid. "You know, I'm going do the Top 20 Countdown, take the cheque, go home, and sit on the internet until three in the morning. "So, after I finished the show, I quit. I said, on air, it's been great, I've been here for seven years at that point, there's something on the internet, I've got to go find it, and I'll see you later."
But Mr Curry's technology and broadcast interests started to gel a couple of years ago when computer storage was growing exponentially and high-speed internet connections were becoming more widely available. The MP3 format also meant that people could create and upload audio more cheaply and efficiently than ever before.
Most importantly, Mr Curry says, people across the globe were bored with the radio they were hearing. "Listen to 99% of the radio that you hear today, it's radio voices, and it's fake, it's just fake." He wanted to make it easier for people to find "real voices" on the internet. He wanted software that would automatically download new audio content directly onto players like, iPods. Mr Curry is not a computer programmer, so he asked others to create one for him. No one did, so he tried to write one himself. He finished it a few months ago and says it "totally sucked." He put it up on the net as open source software and now dozens of coders and audio junkies are refining it; the result is a work in progress called "ipodder". Doug Kaye, a California-based podcaster, praises the former MTV VJ for what he has done. "Adam created a simple script that solved what we call the last mile problem. Ipodder takes audio from the web and brings it all the way down to the MP3 player," he explains. "People can wake up in the morning, pick up their iPods as they go to work or before they go exercise, and discover that there's all this new content automatically put onto their players." It is created an explosion in podcasting content and podcasters are springing up in Australia, Finland, Brazil, even Malaysia. One couple broadcasts theirs, The Dawn and Drew Show, from Wisconsin in the US, sometimes even from the comfort of their own bed. Topics range from the comfort of their bed, to the latest films or music and have thousands of listeners.
Already, websites are springing up that point listeners in the right direction of good podcasts.
Chris McIntyre runs Podcast Alley and says that there are good sites out there but that not everyone has the technological know-how to simply listen. "If I were to tell my mom, or my mother-in-law to copy an XML or RSS file to their podcast aggregator, they would think I was speaking a foreign language," Mr McIntyre says. Along with technical challenges, there may be legal challenges to podcasters who air their favourite, albeit copyrighted, music. Some in podcasting also worry that too much attention may turn what they see as the "anti-radio" into something that is more like conventional broadcasting. Already there is interest in podcasting from the corporate world. Heineken is doing its own podcast now, and so is Playboy. For his part, Adam Curry's pressing ahead with his own vision of what podcasting should be. He loves doing The Daily Source Code because it is about introducing good music and cool ideas to new audiences. He has even been called the Ed Sullivan or Johnny Carson of podcasting which, he says, "is a badge I'll wear with great honour. "To be the Johnny Carson, or Ed Sullivan of anything is wonderful. And you know what? You don't need a hell of a lot of talent. "You just have to be nice, have your ears open, and let people shine. And that's good for me."
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production. | tech |
Sony wares win innovation award
Sony has taken the prize for top innovator at the annual awards of PC Pro Magazine.
It won the award for taking risks with products and for its "brave" commitment to good design. Conferring the award, PC Pro's staff picked out Sony's PCG-X505/P Vaio laptop as a "stunning piece of engineering". The electronics giant beat off strong competition from Toshiba and chip makers AMD and Intel to take the gong.
Paul Trotter, news and features editor of PC Pro, said several Sony products helped it to take the innovation award.
He said Sony's Clie PEG UX50 media player with its swivel screen and qwerty keyboard "broke the design rules yet again". Other Sony products that helped included the Vaio W1 desktop computer and the RA-104 media server. Mr Trotter said Sony's combining of computer, screen and keyboard in the W1 was likely to be widely copied in future home PCs. The company has also become one of the first to use organic LEDs in its products. "While not always inventing new technology itself, Sony was never afraid to innovate around various formats," said Mr Trotter.
Other awards decided by PC Pro's staff and contributors included one for Canon's EOS 300D digital camera in the Most Wanted Hardware category.
Microsoft's Media Player 10 took the award for Most Wanted Software. This year was the 10th anniversary of the PC Pro awards, which splits its prizes into two sections. The first are chosen by the magazine's writers and consultants, the second are voted for by readers. Mr Trotter said more than 13,000 people voted for the Reliability and Service Awards, twice as many as in 2003. Net-based memory and video card shop Crucial shared the award for Online Vendor of the year with Novatech. | tech |
Portable PlayStation ready to go
Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) will go on sale in Japan on 12 December.
The long-awaited handheld game playing gadget will cost about 19,800 yen (145 euros) when it hits the shelves. At launch 21 games will be available for the PSP, including Need for Speed, Ridge Racer, Metal Gear Acid and Vampire Chronicle. Sony has not yet announced when the PSP will be available in Europe and the US, but analysts expect it to debut in those territories in early 2005.
Fifa 2005 is back at the top of the UK games charts, a week after losing it to rival Pro Evolution Soccer 4. Konami's Pro Evo dropped only one place to two, while the only new entry in the top 10 was another football title, LMA Manager 2005, in at number seven. Tony Hawk's Underground 2 held its own at three, while Star Wars Battlefront inched up to four places to four. There was good news for Disney, with the spin-off from the Shark's Tale film moving up the charts into number eight.
Fans of the Gran Turismo series in Europe are going to have to wait until next year for the latest version. Sony has said that the PAL version of GT4 will not be ready for Christmas. "The product is localised into 13 different languages across the PAL territories, therefore the process takes considerably longer than it does in Japan," it said. Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation 2 is still expected to be released in Japan and the USA this year.
Halo 2 has broken video game records, with pre-orders of more than 1.5 million in the US alone. Some 6,500 US stores plan to open just after midnight on Tuesday 9 November for the game's release. "Halo 2 is projected to bring in more revenue than any day one box office blockbuster movie in the United States," said Xbox's Peter Moore. "We've even heard rumours of fan anticipation of the 'Halo 2 flu' on 9 November." | tech |
Viewers to be able to shape TV
Imagine editing Titanic down to watch just your favourite bits or cutting out the slushier moments of Star Wars to leave you with a bare bones action-fest.
Manipulating your favourite films to make a more personalised movie is just the beginning of an ambitious new 7.5m euro (£5.1m) project funded by the European Union. New Media for a New Millennium (NM2) will have as its endgame the development of a completely new media genre, which will allow audiences to create their own media worlds based on their specific interests or tastes. Viewers will be able to participate in storylines, manipulate plots and even the sets and props of TV shows. BT is one of 13 partners involved in the project. It will be contributing software that was originally designed to spot anomalies in CCTV pictures. The software uses content recognition algorithms. The three-year project will work on seven productions as it develops a set of software tools that will allow viewers to edit content to their needs.
One of the productions will be a experimental television show where the plot will be driven by text messages from the TV audience.
Participants will text selected words which will impact how the characters in the drama interact. It is being developed in Finland and will be shown to Finnish TV audiences. Another team will work on the BBC's big budget drama of Mervyn Peake's gothic fantasy Gormenghast. It will be re-engineered to allow people to choose a variety of edited versions. "The BBC is allowing us access to the material so that we can prove the technology and the principles," explained Dr Doug Williams of BT, who will be NM2's technical project manager. "The TV at the moment is a relatively dumb box which receives signals. This project is about teaching the machine to look at content like Lego blocks that can be reassembled to make perfect sense," he said. "At the moment we have interactive gaming and a limited form of interactive TV which usually means allowing audiences to vote on shows. We are hoping to occupy the space in-between," he added.
NM2's co-ordinator Peter Stollenmayer explained that the new genre would radically alter the role of the audience.
"Viewers will be able to interact directly with the medium and influence what they see and hear according to their personal tastes and wishes," he said. "Media users will no longer be passive viewers but become active engagers." It will also be important that the tools are sophisticated enough to obey the complex rules of cinematography and editing said John Wyver, from TV producer Illuminations Television Limited, which is also involved in the project. "It's not just a matter of stringing together the romantic or action portions of a production," said Mr Wyver. "The tool has to know which bits fit together both visually, by observing the time-honoured rules that go in editing, and in terms of the story." "Only then will the personalised version both make sense and be aesthetically pleasing," he added. Mr Wyver is planning a production entitled The Golden Age, about Renaissance art. It will allow viewers to create a so-called media world based on their own specific areas of interest such as poetry, music and architecture. Other productions that the NM2 team will make range from news, documentaries to a romantic comedy drama. | tech |
Games maker fights for survival
One of Britain's largest independent game makers, Argonaut Games, has been put up for sale.
The London-based company behind the Harry Potter games has sacked about 100 employees due to a severe cash crisis. The administrators told BBC News Online that selling Argonaut was the only way to save it as it had run out of cash. Argonaut warned that it was low on cash 10 days ago when its shares were suspended from trading on the London Stock Exchange.
Argonaut has been making games for some 18 years and is one the largest independent games developers in the UK.
Along with its headquarters in north London, it operates studios in Cambridge and Sheffield. Argonaut was behind the Harry Potter games which provided a healthy flow of cash into the company. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. Signs that it was in trouble emerged in August, when it warned it was heading for losses of £6m in the financial year due to delays in signing new contracts for games. Those new deals were further delayed, leading Argonaut to warn in mid-October that it was running out of cash and suspend trading of its shares on the London Stock Exchange. As part of cost-cutting measures, some 100 employees were fired. "When the news about the £6m loss came out, we knew there were going to be redundancies," said Jason Parkinson, one of the game developers sacked by Argonaut. "A lot of people suspected that Argonaut had been in trouble for some time," he told BBC News Online. Mr Parkinson said staff were told the job losses were necessary to save Argonaut from going under. At the start of the year, the company employed 268 people. After the latest round of cuts there are 80 staff at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge.
Argonaut called in administrators David Rubin & Partners on Friday to find a way to rescue the company from collapse. It spent the weekend going over the company's finances and concluded that the only way to save the business was to put it up for sale. The administrator told BBC News Online that the costs of restructuing would be too high, partly because of the overheads from the company's four premises across the UK. It said it was hopeful that it could save some 110 jobs by selling the business, saying it had had expressions of interest from several quarters and were looking for a quick sale. The administrator said it would ensure that staff made redundant would receive any wages, redundancy or holiday pay due to them, hopefully by Christmas. | tech |
Pompeii gets digital make-over
The old-fashioned audio tour of historical places could soon be replaced with computer-generated images that bring the site to life.
A European Union-funded project is looking at providing tourists with computer-augmented versions of archaeological attractions. It would allow visitors a glimpse of life as it was originally lived in places such as Pompeii. It could pave the way for a new form of cultural tourism.
The technology would allow digital people and other computer-generated elements to be combined with the actual view seen by tourists as they walk around an historical site.
The Lifeplus project is part of the EU's Information Society Technologies initiative aimed at promoting user-friendly technology and enhancing European cultural heritage. Engineers and researchers working in the Europe-wide consortium have come up with a prototype augmented-reality system. It would require the visitor to wear a head-mounted display with a miniature camera and a backpack computer. The camera captures the view and feeds it to software on the computer where the visitor's viewpoint is combined with animated virtual elements. At Pompeii for example, the visitor would not just see the frescos, taverns and villas that have been excavated, but also people going about their daily life. Augmented reality has been used to create special effects in films such as Troy and Lord of the Rings and in computer gaming.
"This technology can now be used for much more than just computer games," said Professor Nadia Magnenat-Thalman of the Swiss research group MiraLab.
"We are, for the first time, able to run this combination of software processes to create walking, talking people with believable clothing, skin and hair in real-time," she said. Unlike virtual reality, which delivers an entirely computer-generated scene to the viewer, the Lifeplus project is about combining digital and real views. Crucial to the technique is the software that interprets the visitor's view and provides an accurate match between the real and virtual elements. The software capable of doing this has been developed by a UK company, 2d3. Andrew Stoddart, chief scientist at 2d3, said that the EU project has been driven by a new desire to bring the past to life. "The popularity of television documentaries and dramatisations using computer-generated imagery to recreate scenes from ancient history demonstrates the widespread appeal of bringing ancient cultures to life," he said. | tech |
Fast moving phone bugs appear
Security firms are warning about several mobile phone viruses that can spread much faster than similar bugs.
The new strains of the Cabir mobile phone virus use short-range radio technology to leap to any vulnerable phone as soon as it is in range. The Cabir virus only affects high-end handsets running the Symbian Series 60 phone operating system. Despite the warnings, there are so far no reports of any phones being infected by the new variants of Cabir.
The original Cabir worm came to light in mid-June 2004 when it was sent to anti-virus firms as a proof-of-concept program. A mistake in the way the original Cabir was written meant that even if it escaped from the laboratory, the bug would only have been able to infect one phone at a time.
However, the new Cabir strains have this mistake corrected and will spread via short range Bluetooth technology to any vulnerable phone in range. Bluetooth has an effective range of a few tens of metres. The risk of being infected by Cabir is low because users must give the malicious program permission to download on to their handset and then must manually install it. Users can protect themselves by altering a setting on Symbian phones that conceals the handset from other Bluetooth using devices. Finnish security firm F-Secure issued a warning about the new strains of Cabir but said that the viruses do not do any damage to a phone. All they do is block normal Bluetooth activity and drain the phone's battery. Anti-virus firm Sophos said the source code for Cabir had been posted on the net by a Brazilian programmer which might lead to even more variants of the program being created. So far seven versions of Cabir are know to exist, one of which was inside the malicious Skulls program that was found in late November. Symbian's Series 60 software is licenced by Nokia, LG Electronics, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung, Sendo and Siemens. | tech |
Joke e-mail virus tricks users
A virus that disguises itself as a joke is spreading rapidly across the net.
Anti-virus firms are issuing high-level warnings about the new version of the Bagle e-mail program that seems to be catching a lot of people out. The Windows virus grabs e-mail addresses from Microsoft Outlook and uses its own mail sending software to spread itself to new victims. When it infects a machine, the Bagle variant turns off security measures that usually protect PCs.
The new variant is called Bagle.AT, Bagle.BB and Bagle.AU and the attachment bearing the virus code is labelled as either "joke" or "price".
The body of the virus usually contains nothing but a smiley or emoticon. The virus can strike computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP. Users will be infected if they open the attachment that travels with the e-mail. As well as plundering Microsoft Outlook for e-mail addresses to send itself to, Bagle.AT also tries to turn off the firewall and security centre services on Windows XP machines. BBC News Online has received five warnings about the virus from security companies. Finnish company F-Secure gave the virus its second highest threat level. "We've had several reports all over the world," said Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research for F-Secure. Security firm Network Box said that it stopped more than 30,000 copies an hour of the virus as the outbreak reached a peak. Black Spider said it had stopped more than 1 million copies of Bagle.AT since the outbreak began at 0630 BST (0530 GMT). Anti-virus firms urged users to be wary of unexpected e-mail messages bearing attachments and to update their software to ensure they are protected against the latest threats. | tech |
Progress on new internet domains
By early 2005 the net could have two new domain names.
The .post and .travel net domains have been given preliminary approval by the net's administrative body. The names are just two of a total of 10 proposed domains that are being considered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Icann. The other proposed names include a domain for pornography, Asia, mobile phones, an anti-spam domain and one for the Catalan language and culture.
The .post domain is backed by the Universal Postal Union that wants to use it as the online marker for every type of postal service and to help co-ordinate the e-commerce efforts of national post offices.
The .travel domain would be used by hotels, travel firms, airlines, tourism offices and would help such organisations distinguish themselves online. It is backed by a New York-based trade group called The Travel Partnership. Icann said its early decision on the two domains was in response to the detailed technical and commercial information the organisations behind the names had submitted. Despite this initial approval, Icann cautioned that there was no guarantee that the domains would actually go into service. At the same time Icann is considering proposals for another eight domains. One that may not win approval is a proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic websites. A similar proposal has been made many times in the past. But Icann has been reluctant to approve it because of the difficulty of making pornographers sign up and use it. In 2000 Icann approved seven other new domains that have had varying degrees of success. Three of the new so-called top level domains were for specific industries or organisations such as .museum and .aero. Others such as .info and .biz were intended to be more generic. In total there are in excess of 200 domain names and the majority of these are for nations. But domains that end in the .com suffix are by far the most numerous. | tech |
Argonaut founder rebuilds empire
Jez San, the man behind the Argonaut games group which went into administration a week ago, has bought back most of the company.
The veteran games developer has taken over the Cambridge-based Just Add Monsters studios and the London subsidiary Morpheme. The Argonaut group went into administration due to a severe cash crisis, firing about half of its staff. In August it had warned of annual losses of £6m for the year to 31 July.
Jez San is one of the key figures in the UK's games industry. The developer, who received an OBE in 2002, was estimated to have been worth more than £200m at the peak of the dotcom boom.
He founded Argonaut in 1982 and has been behind titles such as 1993 Starfox game. More recently it was behind the Harry Potter games for the PlayStation. But, like all software developers, Argonaut needed a constant flow of deals with publishers. In August it warned of annual losses of £6m, blaming delays in signing new contracts and tough conditions in the software industry. The group's three subsidiaries were placed in administration a week ago, with Mr Sans resigning as the company's CEO and some 100 staff being fired. After the latest round of cuts, there were 80 workers at Argonaut headquarters in Edgware in north London, with 17 at its Morpheme offices in Kentish Town, London, and 22 at the Just Add Monsters base in Cambridge. Mr San has re-emerged, buying back Morpheme and Just Add Monsters. "We are pleased to announce the sale of these two businesses as going concerns," said David Rubin of administrators David Rubin & Partners. "This has saved over 40 jobs as well as the substantial employment claims that would have arisen had the sales not been achieved." Mr Rubin said the administrators were in talks over the sale of the Argonaut software division in Edgware and were hopeful of finding a buyer. "This is a very difficult time for all the employees there, but I salute their commitment to the business while we work towards a solution," he said. Some former employees are angry at the way cash crisis was handled. One told BBC News Online that the staff who had been fired had been "financially ruined in the space of a day". | tech |
Dozens held over ID fraud site
Twenty-eight people, including a Briton, have been arrested after a global operation against a website allegedly involved in identity fraud.
Those arrested are accused of operating Shadowcrew.com, which investigators claim was a global clearing house for criminals involved in credit card fraud. A 19-year-old man from Camberley, Surrey, was arrested by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit but has been bailed. Operation Firewall, led by the US Secret Service, involved seven nations. The British teenager was arrested on Wednesday but details only emerged on Friday. He has now been bailed to return to a Surrey police station in December. All 28 people detained globally are suspected of being involved in an internet-based network which stole people's identities and used computers and websites to defraud credit card companies. The authorities in the US, who have indicted 19 people in Newark, New Jersey, estimate the fraud caused losses of more than $4m. Assistant US Attorney Scott Christie said several people had been arrested in Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Poland and Sweden. Mr Christie said one of the ringleaders was believed to be a Russian, Anatoly Tyukanov.
Investigators from 30 law enforcement agencies worldwide spent 15 months looking into the activities of three websites - Shadowcrew, Carderplanet and Darkprofits. The US Secret Service was first tipped off in July 2003. An NHTCU spokeswoman said the American investigators went undercover on the Shadowcrew website and discovered some of the site's 4,000 members were using it for organised crime purposes.
She said criminals were using the websites to traffic counterfeit credit cards and false identification information and documents such as credit cards, driver's licences, passports and birth certificates. The websites shared tips on how to commit fraud and provided a forum by which people could buy the information and tools they needed to commit such crime, she said. The Shadowcrew site, which has now been taken over by the US Secret Service, listed several discussion groups, in English and Russian, including one on hacking, spam and online anonymity tools. The head of the NHTCU, Acting Detective Chief Superintendent, Mick Deats, said: "This investigation has resulted in the significant disruption of organised criminals using the internet for profit.
"We believe that the suspects have trafficked at least 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers, leading to losses by financial institutions running into the millions." Chief Supt Deats went on to warn: "The internet offers huge legitimate benefits for modern society; however with it brings powerful opportunities for those seeking to abuse those benefits for criminal gain. "Your identity is one of the most precious commodities. Criminals who try to steal the personal and financial information of ordinary citizens as well as the confidential and proprietary information of companies engaged in e-commerce, will be targeted by law enforcement." | tech |
Robots learn 'robotiquette' rules
Robots are learning lessons on "robotiquette" - how to behave socially - so they can mix better with humans.
By playing games, like pass-the-parcel, a University of Hertfordshire team is finding out how future robot companions should react in social situations. The study's findings will eventually help humans develop a code of social behaviour in human-robot interaction. The work is part of the European Cogniron robotics project, and was on show at London's Science Museum.
"We are assuming a situation in which a useful human companion robot already exists," said Professor Kerstin Dautenhahn, project leader at Hertfordshire. "Our mission is to look at how such a robot should be programmed to respect personal spaces of humans."
The research also focuses on human perception of robots, including how they should look, and how a robot can learn new skills by imitating a human demonstrator. "Without such studies, you will build robots which might not respect the fact that humans are individuals, have preferences and come from different cultural backgrounds," Professor Dautenhahn told BBC News Online. "And I want robots to treat humans as human beings, and not like other robots," she added.
In most situations, a companion robot will eventually have to deal not only with one person, but also with groups of people. To find out how they would react, the Hertfordshire Cogniron team taught one robot to play pass-the-parcel with children.
Showing off its skills at the Science Museum, the unnamed robot had to select, approach, and ask different children to pick up a parcel with a gift, moving it arm as a pointer and its camera as an eye. It even used speech to give instructions and play music. However, according to researchers, it will still take many years to build a robot which would make full use of the "robotiquette" for human interaction. "If you think of a robot as a companion for the human being, you can think of 20 years into the future," concluded Professor Dautenhahn. "It might take even longer because it is very, very hard to develop such a robot."
You can hear more on this story on the BBC World Service's Go Digital programme. | tech |
Concerns over Windows ATMs
Cash machine networks could soon be more susceptible to computer viruses, a security firm has warned.
The warning is being issued because many banks are starting to use the Windows operating system in machines. Already there have been four incidents in which Windows viruses have disrupted networks of cash machines running the Microsoft operating system. But banking experts say the danger is being overplayed and that the risks of infection and disruption are small.
For many years the venerable IBM operating system, known as OS/2, has been the staple software used to power many of the 1.4m cash machines in operation around the world. But IBM will end support for OS/2 in 2006 which is forcing banks to look for alternatives. There are also other pressures making banks turn to Windows said Dominic Hirsch, managing director of financial analysis firm Retail Banking Research.
He said many cash machines will also have to be upgraded to make full use of the new Europay, Mastercard and Visa credit cards that use computer chips instead of magnetic stripes to store data. US laws that demand disabled people get equal access to information will also force banks to make their cash machines more versatile and able to present information in different ways. Todd Thiemann, spokesman for anti-virus firm Trend Micro, said the move to Windows in cash machines was not without risks. Mr Thiemann said research by the TowerGroup showed that 70% of new cash machines being installed were Windows based.
Already, he said, there have been four incidents in which cash machines have been unavailable for hours due to viruses affecting the network of the bank that owns them.
In January 2003 the Slammer worm knocked out 13,000 cash machines of the Bank of America and many of those operated by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. In August of the same year, cash machines of two un-named banks were put out of action for hours following an infection by the Welchia worm. Incidents like this happen, said Mr Thiemann, because when banks start using Windows cash machines they also change the networking technology used to link the devices to their back office computers. This often means that all the cash machines and computers in a bank share the same data network. "This could mean that cash machines get caught up in the viruses that are going around because they have a common transmission system," he said. "Banks need to consider protection as part of the investment to maintain the security of that network," Mr Thiemann told BBC News Online.
But Mr Hirsch from Retail Banking Research said the number of cash machines actually at risk was low because so few were upgraded every year.
Currently, he said, a cash machine has a lifetime of up to 10 years which means that only about 10% of all ATMs get swapped for a newer model every year. "Windows cash machines have been around for several years," he said. "Most banks simply upgrade as part of their usual replacement cycle." "In theory there is a bigger threat with Windows than OS/2," he said, "but I do not think that the banks are hugely concerned at the moment." "It's pretty unusual to hear about virus problems with ATMs," he said. The many different security systems built-in to cash machines meant there was no chance that a virus could cause them to start spitting out cash spontaneously, he said. Banks were more likely to be worried about internal networks being overwhelmed by worms and viruses and customers not being able to get cash out at all, he added. A spokesman for the Association of Payment and Clearing Services (Apacs) which represents the UK's payments industry said the risk from viruses was minimal. "There's no concern that there's going to be any type of virus hitting the UK networks," he said. Risks of infection were small because the data networks that connect UK cash machines together and the operators of the ATMs themselves were a much smaller and tightly-knit community than in the US where viruses have struck. | tech |
Attack prompts Bush site block
The official re-election site of President George W Bush is blocking visits from overseas users for "security reasons".
The blocking began early on Monday so those outside the US and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. But keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. Many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses.
The policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. Scott Stanzel, a spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said: "The measure was taken for security reasons." He declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. The barring of non-US visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. In early October a so-called "denial of service" attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of PCs. The attack made the site unusable for about five hours.
About the same time the web team of the Bush-Cheney campaign started using the services of a company called Akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. Akamai uses a web-based tool called EdgeScape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. Typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages, video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. Geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. Readers of the Boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the George W Bush domain name. Ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. There are now at least three working alternative domains for the Bush-Cheney campaign that let web users outside the US visit the site. The site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the US. Some web users in Canada also report that they can browse the site.
The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites.
Netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 October attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in London, Amsterdam and Sydney have failed. By contrast Netcraft's four monitoring stations in the US managed to view the site with no problems. Data gathered by Netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. Mike Prettejohn, Netcraft president, speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs, and traffic, in the run-up to the election on 2 November. He said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. Managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. However, simply blocking non-US visitors also means that Americans overseas are barred too. Most American soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the US military's own portion of the net. Akamai declined to comment, saying it could not talk about customer websites. | tech |
Loyalty cards idea for TV addicts
Viewers could soon be rewarded for watching TV as loyalty cards come to a screen near you.
Any household hooked up to Sky could soon be using smartcards in conjunction with their set-top boxes. Broadcasters such as Sky and ITV could offer viewers loyalty points in return for watching a particular channel or programme. Sky will activate a spare slot on set-top boxes in January, marketing magazine New Media Age reported.
Sky set-top boxes have two slots. One is for the viewer's decryption card, while the other has been dormant until now.
Loyalty cards have become a common addition to most wallets, as High Street brands rush to keep customers with a series of incentives offered by store cards. Now similar schemes look set to enter the highly competitive world of multi-channel TV. Viewers who stay loyal to a particular TV channel could be rewarded by free TV content or freebies from retail partners. Broadcasters aiming content at children could offer smartcards which gives membership to exclusive content and clubs. "Parents could pre-pay for some content, as a kind of TV pocket money card," said Nigel Whalley, managing director of media consultancy Decipher.
Viewers could even be rewarded for watching ad breaks, with ideas such as ad bingo being touted by firms keen to make money out of the new market, said Mr Whalley. Credit cards that have been chipped could be used in set-top boxes to pay for movies, gambling and gaming. "The idea of an intelligent card in boxes offers a lot of possibilities. It will be down to the ingenuity of the content players," said Mr Whalley. For the BBC, revenue-generating activity will be of little interest but the new development may prompt changes to Freeview set-top boxes, said Mr Whalley. Currently most Freeview boxes do not have a slot which would allow viewers to use a smartcard. Some 7.4 million households have Sky boxes and Sky is hoping to increase this to 10 million by 2010. Loyalty cards could play a role in this, particularly in reducing the number of people who cancel their Sky subscriptions, said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. | tech |
The Force is strong in Battlefront
The warm reception that has greeted Star Wars: Battlefront is a reflection not of any ingenious innovation in its gameplay, but of its back-to-basics approach and immense nostalgia quotient.
Geared towards online gamers, it is based around little more than a series of all-out gunfights, set in an array of locations all featured in, or hinted at during, the two blockbusting film trilogies. Previous Star Wars titles like the acclaimed Knights Of The Old Republic and Jedi Knight have regularly impressed with their imaginative forays into the far corners of the franchise's extensive universe, and their use of weird and wonderful new characters. Battlefront on the other hand wholeheartedly revisits the most recognisable elements of the hit movies themselves.
The sights, sounds and protagonists on show here will all be instantly familiar to fans, who may well feel that the opportunity to relive Star Wars' most memorable screen skirmishes makes this the game they have always waited for. The mayhem can be viewed from either a third or first-person perspective, and you can either fight for the forces of freedom or join Darth Vader on the Dark Side, depending on the episode and type of campaign as well as the player's personal propensity for good or evil.
There is ample chance to be a Wookie, shoot Ewoks and rush into battle alongside a fired-up Luke Skywalker. In each section, the task is simply to wipe out enemy troops, seize strategic waypoints and move on to the next planet. It really is no more complicated than that. Locations include the frozen wastes of Hoth, the ice planet from The Empire Strikes Back, complete with massive mechanical AT-ATs on the march. There are also the dusty, sinister deserts of Tatooine and Geonosis, as well as the forest moon of Endor, where Return Of The Jedi's much-maligned Ewoks lived. The feel of those places is well and truly captured, with both backdrops and characters looking good and very authentic. It is worth noting though that on the PlayStation 2, the game's graphics are a curiously long way behind those of the Xbox version. The pivotal element behind Battlefront's success is that it successfully gives you the feel of being of being plunged into the midst of large-scale war. The number of combatants, noise and abundance of laser fire see to that, and the sense of chaos really comes over.
Speaking of noise, Battlefront is a real testament to the strength of the Star Wars galaxy's audio motifs.
The multitude of distinctive weapon and vehicle noises are immensely familiar, as are the stirring John Williams symphonies that never let up. There is also a particularly snazzy remix of one of his themes in the menu section. It has to be said if the game did not have the boon of being Star Wars, it would not stand up for long. The gameplay is reliable, bog-standard stuff, short on originality. There are also odd annoyances, like the game's insistence on re-spawning you miles away from the action, an irritating price to pay for not getting blown up the second you appear. And some of the weapons and vehicles are not as responsive and fluid to operate as they might be. That said, it is still great fun to pilot a Scout Walker or Speeder Bike, however non user-friendly they prove. Whilst it is firmly designed with multiplayer action in mind, Battlefront is actually perfectly good fun as an offline game. The above-average AI of the enemy sees to that, although given the frenetic environments they operate in, their strategic behaviour does not need to be all that sophisticated. Battlefront's novelty value will doubtless wear off relatively fast, leaving behind a slightly empty one-trick-pony of a game. But for a while, it is an absolute blast, and one of the most immediately satisfying video game offerings yet from George Lucas' stable. | tech |
'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3
Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards.
It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month.
But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest. | tech |
Gadget show heralds MP3 season
Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas.
With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. "The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island," said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one.
For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations.
But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. "He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him," said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. "Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis," said Mr Irish.
For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. "What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them," said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. "Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves," said Mr Irish. "Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks." | tech |
Commodore finds new lease of life
The once-famous Commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a US-based digital music distributor.
New owner Yeahronimo Media Ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of Commodore computers. It also plans to develop a "worldwide entertainment concept" with the brand, although details are not yet known. The groundbreaking Commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s.
In the chronology of home computing, Commodore was one of the pioneers.
The Commodore 64, launched in 1982, was one of the first affordable home PCs. It was followed a few years later by the Amiga. The Commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system, even to this day. The brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. Commodore International filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to Dutch firm Tulip Computers. In the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to Atari, which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games, formerly known as Infogrames.
Tulip Computers sold several products under the Commodore name, including portable USB storage devices and digital music players. It had planned to relaunch the brand, following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. Commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for Windows PC, Apple Mac and even PDAs so that the original Commodore games can be still run. The sale of Commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m. | tech |
Broadband in the UK growing fast
High-speed net connections in the UK are proving more popular than ever.
BT reports that more people signed up for broadband in the last three months than in any other quarter. The 600,000 connections take the total number of people in the UK signing up for broadband from BT to almost 3.3 million. Nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. Britain now has among the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of Europe.
According to figures gathered by industry watchdog, Ofcom, the growth means that the UK has now surpassed Germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. The UK total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people, compared to 6.7 in Germany and 15.8 in the Netherlands. The numbers of people signing up to broadband include those that get their service direct from BT or via the many companies that re-sell BT lines under their own name. Part of the surge in people signing up was due to BT stretching the reach of ADSL - the UK's most widely used way of getting broadband - beyond 6km.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. The standard speed is 512kbps, though faster connections are available. "This breakthrough led to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up demand that existed in many areas," said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. BT Retail, which sells net services under its own name, also had a good quarter and provided about 30% of the new broadband customers. This was a slight increase on the previous three months. Despite the good news about growth in broadband, figures from telecommunications regulator Ofcom show that BT faces increasing competition, and dwindling influence, in other sectors. Local Loop Unbundling, (LLU), in which BT rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer's home or office, is growing steadily. Cable & Wireless and NTL have announced that they are investing millions to start offering LLU services. By the end of September more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called Carrier Pre-Section (CPS) services, such as TalkTalk and One.Tel, which route phone calls across non-BT networks from a local exchange. There are now more than 300 different firms offering CPS services and the percentage of people using BT lines for voice calls has shrunk to 55.4%. | tech |
Slim PlayStation triples sales
Sony PlayStation 2's slimmer shape has proved popular with UK gamers, with 50,000 sold in its first week on sale.
Sales have tripled since launch, outstripping Microsoft's Xbox, said market analysts Chart-Track. The numbers were also boosted by the release of the PS2-only game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The title broke the UK sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. Latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677,000 copies.
"It is obviously very, very encouraging for Sony because Microsoft briefly outsold them last week," John Houlihan, editor of Computerandvideogames.com told BBC News. "And with Halo 2 [for Xbox] out next week, it really is a head-to-head contest between them and Xbox."
Although Xbox sales over the last week also climbed, PS2 sales were more than double that. The figures mean Sony is reaching the seven million barrier for UK sales of the console. Edinburgh-based developer, Rockstar, which is behind the GTA titles, has seen San Andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. In comparison, blockbuster films like Harry Potter and The Prisoner Of Azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the UK box office. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King took nearly £10m over its opening weekend, although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets.
Gangster-themed GTA San Andreas is the sequel to Grand Theft Auto Vice City which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. The Xbox game Halo 2, released on 11 November in the UK, is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. The original title won universal acclaim in 2001, and sold more than four million copies.
Mr Houlihan added that Sony had done well with the PS2, but it definitely helped that the release of San Andreas coincided with the slimline PS2 hitting the shelves. The run-up to Christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. Microsoft's Xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. The sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand, since GTA San Andreas has an 18 certificate. Sony and Microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. "Both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience, plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales," said Mr Houlihan. | tech |
Seamen sail into biometric future
The luxury cruise liner Crystal Harmony, currently in the Gulf of Mexico, is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology.
As holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes, their ship's crew is testing prototype versions of the world's first internationally issued biometric ID cards, the seafarer's equivalent of a passport. Along with the owner's picture, name and personal details, the new Seafarers' Identity Document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder's fingerprints. The cards are due to be issued in February next year, in line with the revised UN Convention on Seafarers' Identity Documents of June 2003. Tests currently under way in the Caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers, produced by different companies in different countries, are working to interoperable standards. Results of the current tests, which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities, will be published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) by the end of November. Crystal Cruises, which operates the Crystal Harmony, is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology.
Authenti-corp, the US technology consultancy, has been working with the ILO on its technical specifications for the cards.
"If you're issued a seafarer's ID in your country, you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in, say, my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed," Authenti-corp's CEO, Cynthia Musselman, told the BBC's Go Digital programme. She said French, Jordanian and Nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new ID cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. It aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. The convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor's wellbeing and, therefore, it says, to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. "By increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection, the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world," said Ms Musselman. "It should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in, and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are, in fact, seafarers." | tech |
US duo in first spam conviction
A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers.
It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses.
They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was "a snake oil salesman in a new format", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A "Fed-Ex refund processor" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an "internet history eraser". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. "He's been successful ripping people off all these years," AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term "outrageous" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent. | tech |
US blogger fired by her airline
A US airline attendant suspended over "inappropriate images" on her blog - web diary - says she has been fired.
Ellen Simonetti, known as Queen of the Sky, wrote an anonymous semi-fictional account of her life in the sky. She was suspended by Delta in September. In a statement, she said she was initiating legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination". A Delta spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday that Ms Simonetti was no longer an employee. Delta has repeatedly declined to elaborate on what it calls "internal employee matters". A spokesperson reiterated this position on Wednesday, confirming only that Ms Simonetti was no longer with the company. The spokesperson also confirmed that there were "very clear rules" attached to the unauthorised use of Delta branding, including uniforms. Ms Simonetti announced on her blog she had been fired on 1 November.
She said in an official statement: "As a result of my suspension and subsequent termination without cause by Delta Airlines I am moving forward with filing a discrimination complaint with the Federal Government EEOC [US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission]." She added she had also hired a Texas-based law firm to initiate legal action for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages." Ms Simonetti told the BBC News website she had received no warning or further explanation when she was suspended on 25 September. Queen of the Sky has received a lot of support and advice from the global blogging community since news of her suspension was brought to light on the BBC News website and others.
Her story has highlighted concerns amongst the growing blogging community about conflicts of interest, employment law and free speech on personal websites. The blog, which she started in January as a way of getting over her mother's death, contains a mix of fictional and non-fictional accounts. Queen of the Sky developed over the months as a character in her own right, according to Ms Simonetti. In the postings, she made up fictional names for cities and other companies she mentioned to protect anonymity. But some postings contained images of herself in uniform. Of the 10 or so images only one showed Ms Simonetti's flight "wings". She removed them as soon as she was informed of her suspension. "I never meant it as something to harm my company and don't understand how they think it did harm them," Ms Simonetti said. A legal expert in the US speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images were posted.
Delta has been hit recently by pressures of rising fuel costs and fierce competition. It has said it needs to cut between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs and reduce costs by $5bn (£2.7bn) a year. Analysts had warned recently that the airline might have to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy prevention. Last week, it struck a $1bn cost-cutting deal with its pilots which could save it from bankruptcy. The deal would see pilots accept a 32% pay cut in return for the right to buy 30 million Delta shares, unions said. And on Monday, it negotiated a deal to defer about $135m in debt which was due next year, until 2007. The airline also said it had agreed the terms of a $600m loan from American Express. | tech |
Gates opens biggest gadget fair
Bill Gates has opened the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, saying that gadgets are working together more to help people manage multimedia content around the home and on the move.
Mr Gates made no announcement about the next generation Xbox games console, which many gadget lovers had been hoping for. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and runs from 6 to 9 January. The latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies will all be on show over the three days.
Mr Gates said that a lot of work had been done in the last year to sort out usability and compatibility issues between devices to make it easier to share content.
"We predicted at the beginning of the decade that the digital approach would be taken for granted - but there was a lot of work to do. "What is fun is to come to the show and see what has been done. It is going even faster than we expected and we are excited about it." He highlighted technology trends over the last year that had driven the need to make technology and transferring content across difference devices "seamless". "Gaming is becoming more of a social thing and all of the social genres will use this rich communications. "And if we look at what has been going on with e-mail, instant messaging, blogging, entertainment - if we can make this seamless, we can create something quite phenomenal."
Mr Gates said the PC, like Microsoft's Media Centre, had a central role to play in how people would be making the most out of audio, video and images but it would not be the only device. "It is the way all these devices work together which will make the difference," he said. He also cited the success of the Microsoft Xbox video game Halo 2, released in November, which pushed Xbox console sales past PlayStation in the last two months of 2004 for the first time in 2004. The game, which makes use of the Xbox Live online games service, has sold 6.23 million copies since its release. "People are online and playing together and that really points to the future," he said. Several partnerships with device and hardware manufacturers were highlighted during Mr Gates' speech, but there were few major groundbreaking new technology announcements. Although most of these affected largely US consumers, the technologies highlighted the kind of trends to come. These included what Mr Gates called an "ecosystem of technologies", like SBC's IPTV, a high-definition TV and digital video recorder that worked via broadband to give high-quality and fast TV. There were also other deals announced which meant that people could watch and control content over portable devices and mobile phones.
CES features several more key speeches from major technology players, such as Intel and Hewlett Packard, as well as parallel conference sessions on gaming, storage, broadband and the future of digital music. About 50,000 new products will be unleashed at the tech-fest, which is the largest yet. Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers the CEA on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. That trend is predicted to continue with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. | tech |
GTA sequel is criminally good
The Grand Theft Auto series of games have set themselves the very highest of standards in recent years, but the newest addition is more than able to live up to an increasingly grand tradition.
The 18 certificate GTA: San Andreas for the PlayStation 2 could have got away with merely revisiting a best-selling formula with a more-of-the-same approach. Instead, it builds and expands almost immeasurably upon the last two games and stomps, carefree, over all the Driv3r and True Crime-shaped opposition. Even in the year that will see sequels to Halo and Half-Life, it is hard to envisage anything topping this barnstorming instant classic.
The basic gameplay remains familiar. You control a character, on this occasion a youth named CJ, who sets out on a series of self-contained missions within a massive 3D environment. CJ can commandeer any vehicle he stumbles across from a push-bike to a city bus to a plane. All come in handy as he seeks to establish his presence in a tough urban environment and avenge the dreadful deeds waged upon his family. To make things worse, he is framed for murder the moment he arrives in town, and blackmailed by crooked cops played by Samuel L Jackson and Chris Penn. The setting for all this rampant criminality is the fictional US state of San Andreas, comprising three major cities: Los Santos, which is a thinly-disguised Los Angeles, San Fierro, aka San Francisco and Las Venturas, a carbon copy of Las Vegas. San Andreas sucks you in with its sprawling range, cast of characters and incredibly sharp writing.
Its ability to capture the ambience of the real-world versions of these cities is something to behold, assisted no end by the monumental graphical advances since Vice City. The streets, and vast swathes of countryside, are by turns gloriously menacing, grungy and preppy. Flaunting awesome levels of graphical detail, the game's overall look, particularly during the many unusual weather conditions and dramatic sunsets, is stupendous. The outstanding bread-and-butter gameplay mechanics provide a solid grounding for the elaborate plot to hang on. Cars handle more convincingly than ever, a superb motion blur kicks in when you hit high speeds, and there's more traffic to navigate than before. Park your vehicle across the lanes of a freeway, and within seconds there will be a huge pile-up. Pedestrians are also out in force, and are a loquacious bunch. CJ can interact with them using a simple system on the control pad. They will pass comments on his appearance and credibility, aspects that the player now has control over. Clothes, tattoos and haircuts can all be purchased, and funding these habits can be achieved by criminal means or by indulging in mini-games like betting on horses and challenging bar patrons to games of pool. The character will put on or lose weight according to how long he spends on foot or in the gym. He will have to pause regularly in restaurants to keep energy levels up, but will swell up as a result of over-eating. And at last, this is a GTA hero who can swim.
At a time when games are once again under fire for their supposed potential to corrupt the young, San Andreas' violence, or specifically the freedom it gives the player to commit violence, are sure to inflame the pro-censorship brigade. Developers Rockstar have not shied away from brutality, and in some respects ramp it up from past outings.
When hijacking a car, for example, CJ will gratuitously shove the driver's head into the steering wheel rather than just fleeing with the vehicle. Indeed, the tone is darker than the jokey Vice City. The grim subject matter here hardly lends itself to gags in quite the same way as the cheesy 80s setting of the last game. This title, incidentally, is set in 1992, but that is really neither here nor there apart from the influence it has on the radio playlists. The wit is still present, just more restrained than in previous outings. A further reason for this is that the incredible range of in-vehicle radio stations available means you will spend less time happening upon the hilarious talk radio options, where GTA games' trademark humour is anchored. The quality of voice acting and motion capture is simply off-the-chart. The game's rather odious gangland lowlifes swagger and mouth off in a way that rings very true indeed. It is a testament to San Andreas' magnificence that it has a number of prominent flaws, but plus-points are so numerous that the niggles don't detract. The on-screen map, for instance, is needlessly fiddly, an unwelcome change from past editions. There is also a very jarring slowdown at action-packed moments. And the game suffers from the age-old problem that can be relied upon to blight all games of this genre, setting you back a vast distance when you fail right at the very end of a long mission. But the gameplay experience in its entirety is overwhelmingly positive. You simply will not be bothered by these minor failings. San Andreas is among the few unmissable games of 2004. | tech |
BT offers free net phone calls
BT is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in December.
The Christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the UK via the internet. Users will need to use BT's internet telephony software, known as BT Communicator, and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their PC. BT has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers.
People wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a BT Together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. The offer will be limited to the first 50,000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles, non-geographical numbers such as 0870, premium numbers or international numbers. BT is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. "People already using BT Communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their PC," said Andrew Burke, director of value-added services at BT Retail. As more homes get high-speed access, providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. "Broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and BT wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services," said Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "BT Communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now BT is waving the flag a bit more for it," he added.
BT has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. Reports say that BT has lost around 10% of market share over the last year, down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. BT is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. It currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers. | tech |
When invention turns to innovation
It is unlikely that future technological inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did in the past.
When history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and transistor, they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people's lives substantially. But, says Nick Donofrio, senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at IBM, it was not "the thing" itself that actually improved people's lives. It was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention brought with it. The car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in cities, giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs, whilst having mobility and access. "When we talk about innovation and creating real value in the 21st Century, we have to think more like this, but faster," Mr Donofrio told the BBC News website, after giving the Royal Academy of Engineering 2004 Hinton Lecture. "The invention, discovery is likely not to have the same value as the transistor had or the automobile had. "The equivalent of those things will be invented or discovered, but by themselves, they are just not going to able to generate real business value or wealth as these things did." These are not altogether new ideas, and academics have been exploring how technologies impact wider society for years. But what it means for technology companies is that a new idea, method, or device, will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so that people see the value that innovative technology has for them.
We are in a different phase now when it comes to technology, argues Mr Donofrio, Industry Week's 2003 Technology Leader of the Year. The hype and over-promise is over and now technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work, make sense, make a difference and life gets better as a result.
"In the dotcom era, there was something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. "Somebody had a new thing that would awe you. You weren't quite sure that it did anything, you weren't quite sure if you needed it, you weren't quite sure if it had value for it, but it was cool." But change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting their daily lives, he says, will come about slowly, subtlety, and in ways that will no longer be "in your face". It will creep in pervasively. Nanotechnologies will play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways, through new superconducting materials, to coatings, power, and memory storage. "I am a very big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment, in an incredible network infrastructure," says Mr Donofrio. Pervasive computing is where wireless computing rules, and where jewellery, clothes, and everyday objects become the interfaces instead of bulky wires, screens and keyboards. The net becomes a true network that is taken for granted and just there, like air. "People will not have to do anything to stay connected. People will know their lives are just better," says Mr Donofrio. "Trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people will not know." Natural interfaces will develop, devices will shape your persona, and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out the finances.
Ultimately, there will be, says Mr Donofrio, no value in being "computer illiterate". To some, it sounds like a technological world gone mad. To Mr Donofrio, it is a vision innovation that will happen. Behind this vision should be a rich robust network capability and "deep computing", says Mr Donofrio. Deep computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts of data, and integral to this concept is supercomputing. It has value, according to IBM, because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with valuable solutions, like how to refine millions of net search results, finding cures for diseases, or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates.
But pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of diversity of contexts, commands, and requirements of a diverse world. As computing and technologies become part of the environment, part of furniture, walls, and clothing, physical space becomes a more important consideration.
This is going to need a much broader range of skills and experience. "I am confident that the SET [science, engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills," he says. "If I am right about what innovation is, you need to be multidisciplinary and collaborative. "Women tend to have those traits a lot better than men." Eventually, women could win out in both life and physical sciences, he says. In the UK, a DTI-funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on SET industry boards. IBM, according to Mr Donofrio, has 30%. "Our goal is for our research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and technology to begin their career." The whole issue of global diversity is as much a business matter as it is a moral and social concern to Mr Donofrio. "We believe in the whole issue of global diversity," he says. "Our customers are diverse, our clients are diverse. They expect us to look like them. "As more and more women or underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions, it becomes and imperative for us to constantly look like them." | tech |
Firefox browser takes on Microsoft
Microsoft's Internet Explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited Firefox 1.0 web browser, which has just been released.
Few people get excited when some new software is released, especially when the program is not a game or a music or movie player. But the release of the first full version of Firefox has managed to drum up a respectable amount of pre-launch fervour. Fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an advert in the New York Times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. The release of Firefox 1.0 on 9 November might even cause a few heads to turn at Microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant's Internet Explorer browser.
Firefox has been created by the Mozilla Foundation which was started by former browser maker Netscape back in 1998. Much of the development work done since then has gone into Firefox which made its first appearance under this name in February. Earlier incarnations, but which had the same core technology, were called Phoenix and Firebird. Since then the software has been gaining praise and converts, not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Rivals to IE got a boost in late June when two US computer security organisations warned people to avoid the Microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability.
Internet monitoring firm WebSideStory has charted the growing population of people using the Firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of IE. Before July this year, according to WebSideStory, Internet Explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. That figure had remained static for years. In July the IE using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of October stood at 92.9%. The Mozilla Foundation claims that Firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the Windows- using, net-browsing population. Firefox is proving popular because, at the moment, it has far fewer security holes than Internet Explorer and has some innovations lacking in Microsoft's program. For instance, Firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. It blocks pop-ups, has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed.
One of the most powerful features of Firefox is the many hundreds of extras, or extensions, produced for it. The Mozilla Foundation is an open source organisation which means that the creators of the browser are happy for others to play around with the core code for the program. This has resulted in many different add-ons or extensions for the browser which now include everything from a version of the familiar Google toolbar to a Homeland Security monitor that keep users aware of current threat levels. Firefox, which used to be called Firebird and before that Phoenix, also has a growing number of vocal net-based fans. A campaign co-ordinated by the Spread Firefox website attempted to raise the $50,000 needed for a full page advert in the New York Times. The campaign set itself a target of recruiting 2500 volunteers. Ten days in to the campaign 10,000 people had signed up and now about $250,000 has been raised. The ad is due to run sometime in a three-week period in late November/early December. The surplus cash will be used to help keep the Mozilla Foundation running. Microsoft is facing a growing challenge to IE's hold on the web using population. from alternative browsers such as Opera, Safari, Amaya and even Netscape. | tech |
Halo fans' hope for sequel
Xbox video game Halo 2 has been released in the US on 9 November, with a UK release two days later. Why is the game among the most anticipated of all time?
Halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. A science fiction epic, Halo centred the action on a human cyborg, controlled by the player, who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. Remembrance of Things Past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as Larry Niven's Ringworld and the film Starship Troopers, it fit the bill perfectly. Halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive, had tremendous audio, using Dolby Digital, a decent storyline, instant playability and impressive physics.
But what marked Halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming.
Produced by Bungie software, renowned for their innovation in gaming, it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by Microsoft and became an Xbox exclusive. Claude Errera, editor of fansite Halo.Bungie.Org, said: "Bungie got everything right. They were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. "Nothing distracts you when you were playing. There was nothing in Halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be." He added: "Graphically it was superior to everything else out there.
"It also had a depth to it that made it stand out." Halo was unusually immersive, sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. It also capitalised on the growing popularity of LAN gaming in the PC world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together, allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time.
The game instantly cultivated an online following, which continues today with a score of Halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel, Halo 2. Errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website, which attracts 600,000 page views a day from Halo fans eager for the latest news.
When the Xbox launched on November 15 2001 in the US, Halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. "Halo is the most important launch game for any console ever," wrote the influential Edge magazine in its review, giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. The game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game, it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. "The first time I played it I just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun," said Errera, remarking on the level of detail in the game.
The game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. "It blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of Halo," said Errera, referring to a fan who had created a video of Master Chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. Video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game's amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. Speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. When early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. Errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. "It does not feel like a game release any more. Somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in Microsoft's history. "We're all just hoping that Bungie has got it right again."
Halo 2 is out on 9 November in the US and 11 November in the UK | tech |
Players sought for $1m prize
UK gamers are getting a chance to take part in a $1m tournament thanks to one of the country's top teams.
The Four-Kings clan is staging a Pop Idol type competition to find new members who can take on the world's best in the lucrative tournament. Four-Kings hopes the open qualifiers will turn up gamers good enough to beat all comers at the Painkiller game. Top players also get a contract with the Four-Kings team which will pay travelling expenses for the contest.
UK gamers have until 12 November to register their interest in taking part and can sign up via the Four-Kings, Jolt.co.uk and Painkiller tournament websites. Philip Wride, who co-manages the Four-Kings team, said online qualifiers will be held from 16-28 November to find the best eight players of the Painkiller game. He said the clan was running the contest because Four-Kings does not currently have any players that excel at Painkiller. These eight players will be brought together in London on 3-5 December for the Bloodline Tournament that will find the best two players.
The event will be filmed and the final cut made available online for others to watch. The movie is being put together by Simon Bysshe who has shot many other films about pro-gaming that have been widely shared online. Said Mr Bysshe: "Painkiller is a new game and the opportunity is there for a new player to step up." Painkiller has been described as a game that adds a few modern touches, such as improved graphics, to the old-fashioned first-person shooter. These two players will be put forward as the UK's entrants to the Cyberathlete Professional League $1m Painkiller contest that will take place throughout 2005. The event is being billed as the CPL World Tour and will be arranged around ten separate tournaments at different locations around the world. Travel expenses to all the stops on the tour will be paid by Four-Kings for the two UK players who make the grade. The top prize at each stop on the world tour will be $15,000. A further $150,000 will be given to the winner of the Grand Final due to be held in December 2005. Mr Wride said any gamer that wins a few tour stop tournaments and the grand final will have a very good year. The first stop on the world tour will be Istanbul, Turkey from 10-13 February. A total of $50,000 in cash prizes is on offer. The CPL has said that it picked a one-on-one game such as Painkiller to make it easier for spectators to follow the action. Counter-Strike, by far the most popular online game, pits teams against each other and can be confusing to follow if those watching are not familiar with the layout of the maps on which it is played. The decision to pick Painkiller was greeted with surprise by many gamers, as it was widely expected that Doom 3 would be chosen as the one-one-one title. | tech |
US top of supercomputing charts
The US has pushed Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine.
It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, under the US Department of Energy. IBM test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The previous top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocked up 35.86. The Top 500 list was announced on Monday and officially charts the fastest computers in the world.
It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second.
Once completed in 2005, Blue Gene/L will be more powerful than its current prototype. "Next year with the final Blue Gene, four times what it is this year, it is going to be a real step up and will be hard to beat," said Erich Strohmaier, one of the co-founders of the Top500 list. It will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers.
In second place was Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at the US space agency's (Nasa) Ames Research Center in California. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) in October. It will be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The defeated Japanese contender, the Earth Simulator, which was listed in third place, losing the top spot it had held since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity.
Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, US, in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh. | tech |
Text messages aid disaster recovery
Text messaging technology was a valuable communication tool in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster in Asia.
The messages can get through even when the cell phone signal is too weak to sustain a spoken conversation. Now some are studying how the technology behind SMS could be better used during an emergency. Sanjaya Senanayake works for Sri Lankan television. The blogging world, though, might know him better by his online name, Morquendi. He was one of the first on the scene after the tsunami destroyed much of the Sri Lankan coast. Cell phone signals were weak. Land lines were unreliable. So Mr Senanayake started sending out text messages. The messages were not just the latest news they were also an on-the-ground assessment of "who needs what and where". Blogging friends in India took Mr Senanayake's text messages and posted them on a weblog called Dogs without Borders. Thousands around the world followed the story that unfolded in the text messages that he sent.
And that's when Mr Senanayake started to wonder if SMS might be put to more practical use. "SMS networks can handle so much more traffic than the standard mobile phone call or the land line call," he says.
"In every rural community, there's at least one person who has access to a mobile phone, or has a mobile phone, and can receive messages." Half a world away, in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Taran Rampersad read Morquendi's messages. Mr Rampersad, who used to work in the military, knew how important on the ground communication can be in times of disaster. He wondered if there might be a way to automatically centralise text messages, and then redistribute them to agencies and people who might be able to help. Mr Rampersad said: "Imagine if an aid worker in the field spotted a need for water purification tablets, and had a central place to send a text message to that effect. "He can message the server, so the server can send out an e-mail message and human or machine moderators can e-mail aid agencies and get it out in the field." He added: "Or, send it at the same time to other people who are using SMS in the region, and they might have an excess of it, and be able to shift supplies to the right places."
Mr Rampersad and others had actually been thinking about such a system since Hurricane Ivan ravaged the Caribbean and the southern United States last September. Last week, he sent out e-mail messages asking for help in creating such a system for Asia.
In only 72 hours, he found Dan Lane, a text message guru living in Britain. The pair, along with a group of dedicated techies, are creating what they call the Alert Retrieval Cache. The idea is to use open-source software - software can be used by anyone without commercial restraint - and a far-flung network of talent to create a system that links those in need with those who can help. "This is a classic smart mobs situation where you have people self-organizing into a larger enterprise to do things that benefit other people," says Paul Saffo, a director at the California-based Institute for the Future. "You may be halfway around the world from someone, but in cyberspace you're just one click or one e-mail away," he said, "That's put a whole new dimension on disaster relief and recovery, where often people halfway around the world can be more effective in making something happen precisely because they're not right on top of the tragedy." It is still very early days for the project, though. In an e-mail, Dan Lane calls it "an early proof of concept." Right now, the Alert Retrieval Cache can only take a text message and automatically upload it to a web-page, or distribute it to an e-mail list. In the near future, the group says it hopes to take in messages from people in affected areas, and use human moderators to take actions based on the content of those messages. But there's still another challenge. You have to get people to know that the system is there for them to use. "It's amazing how difficult it is to find someone to pass it along to, and say, look this is what we're trying to do and everything like that," says Mr Rampersad. "So the big problem right now is the same problem we're trying to solve - human communication." He is optimistic, however. He thinks that the Alert Retrieval Cache is an idea whose time has come and he hopes governments, too, will sit up and take notice. And he stands by his motto, courtesy of Michelangelo: criticise by creating.
Clark Boyd is technology correspondent for The World, a BBC World Service and WGBH-Boston co-production. | tech |
Putting a face to 'Big Brother'
Literally putting a face on technology could be one of the keys to improving our interaction with hi-tech gadgets.
Imagine a surveillance system that also presents a virtual embodiment of a person on a screen who can react to your behaviour, and perhaps even alert you to new e-mails. Basic versions of these so-called avatars already exist. Together with speech and voice recognition systems, they could replace the keyboard and mouse in the near future. Some of these ideas have been showcased at the London's Science Museum, as part of its Future Face exhibition.
One such avatar is Jeremiah. It is a virtual man, which you can download for free and install in your computer.
His creator, Richard Bowden, lecturer at the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing at the University of Surrey, refers to Jeremiah as "him", rather than it. "Jeremiah is a virtual face that attempts to emulate humans in the way it responds to activity. He is very childlike, he likes visual stimulus," he told the BBC News website. "When he sees children running and laughing and waving at him, he smiles at them. If you ignore him, he gets angry. If you leave, he gets sad. And you can also even surprise him." Jeremiah is not actually intelligent. It works on vision, reacting in a preset way to the information provided by a surveillance tracker system. It is not able to talk or to hear you, at least not yet. The Surrey team is already working on Jeremiah's next version, that will replace the human face with an underwater and more interactive creature: Finn the fish. "I am interested in the interaction, providing the ability of a system to watch what's going on and make decisions based on that," explained Dr Bowden.
The research comes at a time when people are having to cope with an increasing number of hi-tech gadgets.
Experts say a much more natural way to interact with these devices, such as a virtual human, could make it much easier to make the most of all those new gizmos. "If you get up at three o'clock in the morning, and you go downstairs, there are probably two things you are going to do: either going to the bathroom, or maybe you are going to make a cup of tea," said Dr Bowden. "Now if the system can watch your behaviour over time, it can learn this, so it would predict what you are going to do, turn on the lights for you, or, before you even get to the kettle, it could have switched it on." You might even be able to tell your home surveillance system that you will be going away on holiday, and ask if it could make sure that the house is secure once you have left. This might sound like a scary vision of an Orwellian future. But it might all depend on the face that is watching you. "When we put the surveillance cameras in our centre, a lot of people were very unhappy about the fact that there was a system watching them," said Dr Bowden. "But when Jeremiah's camera went in, nobody minded, because although it's still watching them, they could see what it was watching." | tech |
Football Manager scores big time
For the past decade or so the virtual football fans among us will have become used to the annual helping of Championship Manager (CM). Indeed, it seems like there has been a CM game for as many years as there have been PCs.
However, last year was the final time that developers Sports Interactive (SI) and publishers Eidos would work together. They decided to go their separate ways, and each kept a piece of the franchise. SI kept the game's code and database, and Eidos retained rights to the CM brand, and the look and feel of the game. So at the beginning of this year, fans faced a new situation. Eidos announced the next CM game, with a new team to develop it from scratch, whilst SI developed the existing code further to be released, with new publishers Sega, under the name Football Manager. So what does this mean? Well, Football Manager is the spiritual successor to the CM series, and it has been released earlier than expected. At this point CM5 looks like it will ship early next year. But given that Football Manager 2005 is by and large the game that everybody knows and loves, how does this new version shape up?
A game like FM2005 could blind you with statistics. It has an obscene number of playable leagues, an obscene number of manageable teams and a really obscene number of players and staff from around the world in the database, with stats faithfully researched and compiled by a loyal army of fans. But that does not do justice to the game really. What we are talking about is the most realistic and satisfying football management game to ever grace the Earth.
You begin by picking the nations and leagues you want to manage teams from, for instance England and Scotland. That will give you a choice not just of the four main Scottish leagues, but the English Premiership all the way down to the Conference North and South. Of course you might be looking for European glory, or to get hold of Abramovich's millions, in which case you can take control at Chelsea, or even Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan ... the list goes on a very long way. Once in a team you will be told by the board what they expect of you. Sometimes it is promotion, or a place in Europe, sometimes it is consolidation or a brave relegation battle. It might even be a case of Champions or else. Obviously the expectations are linked to the team you choose, so choose wisely. Then it is time to look at your squad, work out your tactics, seeing how much cash, if any, you have got to splash, having a look at the transfer market, sorting out the training schedule and making sure your backroom staff are up to it. Then bring on the matches, which are once more available in the ever-improving top down 2D view. With the exception of the improved user interface on the surface, not much else seems to have changed.
However, there have been a lot of changes under the bonnet as well - things like the manager mind-games, which let you talk to the media about the opposition bosses. The match engine is also much improved, and it is more of a joy than ever to watch. In fact just about every area of the game has been tweaked, and it leads to an ever more immersive experience.
With a game that is so complex and so open-ended, there are of course a few glitches, but nowhere near the sorts of problems that have blighted previous releases. With so many calculations to perform the game can take some time to process in between matches, though there have been improvements in this area. And a sport like football, which is so high profile and unpredictable itself, can never be modelled quite to everybody's satisfaction. But this time around a great deal of hard work has been put in to ensure that any oddities that do crop up are cosmetic only, and do not affect gameplay. And if there are problems further down the line, Sports Interactive have indicated their usual willingness to support and develop the game as far as possible. In all there are many more tweaks and improvements. If you were a fan of the previous CM games, then FM2005 might make you forget there was anything else before it. If you are new to the genre but like the idea of trying to take Margate into the Premiership, Spurs into Europe, or even putting Rangers back on the top of the tree, FM2005 could be the best purchase you ever made. Just be warned that the family might not see you much at Christmas.
Football Manager 2005 out now for the PC and the Mac | tech |
Musicians 'upbeat' about the net
Musicians are embracing the internet as a way of reaching new fans and selling more music, a survey has found.
The study by US researchers, Pew Internet, suggests musicians do not agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing. While most considered file-sharing as illegal, many disagreed with the lawsuits launched against downloaders. "Even successful artists don't think the lawsuits will benefit musicians," said report author Mary Madden.
For part of the study, Pew Internet conducted an online survey of 2,755 musicians, songwriters and music publishers via musician membership organisations between March and April 2004.
They ranged from full-time, successful musicians to artists struggling to make a living from their music. "We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry," Ms Madden told the BBC News website. "We always hear the views of successful artists like the Britneys of the world but the less successful artists rarely get represented." The survey found that musicians were overwhelming positive about the internet, rather than seeing it as just a threat to their livelihood. Almost all of them used the net for ideas and inspiration, with nine out of 10 going online to promote, advertise and post their music on the web. More than 80% offered free samples online, while two-thirds sold their music via the net. Independent musicians, in particular, saw the internet as a way to get around the need to land a record contract and reach fans directly. "Musicians are embracing the internet enthusiastically," said Ms Madden. "They are using the internet to gain inspiration, sell it online, tracking royalties, learning about copyright."
Perhaps surprisingly, opinions about online file-sharing were diverse and not as clear cut as those of the record industry.
Through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), it has pursued an aggressive campaign through the courts to sue people suspected of sharing copyrighted music. But the report suggests this campaign does not have the wholehearted backing of musicians in the US. It found that most artists saw file-sharing as both good and bad, though most agreed that it should be illegal. "Free downloading has killed opportunities for new bands to break without major funding and backing," said one musician quoted by the report. "It's hard to keep making records if they don't pay for themselves through sales." However 60% said they did not think the lawsuits against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters. Many suggested that rather than fighting file-sharing, the music industry needed to recognise the changes it has brought and embrace it. "Both successful and struggling musicians were more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their music, rather than make it harder for them to protect their material from piracy," said Ms Madden. | tech |
Broadband takes on TV viewing
The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests.
Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net
The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year.
The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. "Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing," said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. "As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones." The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany.
The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time.
A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. "Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio," said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian. | tech |
Freeze on anti-spam campaign
A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold.
Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words "Stay tuned". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign.
Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial.
Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline.
The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, "Stay tuned". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. "Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up." | tech |
ITunes user sues Apple over iPod
A user of Apple's iTunes music service is suing the firm saying it is unfair he can only use an iPod to play songs.
He says Apple is breaking anti-competition laws in refusing to let other music players work with the site. Apple, which opened its online store in 2003 after launching the iPod in 2001, uses technology to ensure each song bought only plays on the iPod. Californian Thomas Slattery filed the suit in the US District Court in San Jose and is seeking damages.
"Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice," the lawsuit states. The key to such a lawsuit would be convincing a court that a single brand like iTunes is a market in itself separate from the rest of the online music market, according to Ernest Gellhorn, an anti-trust law professor at George Mason University. "As a practical matter, the lower courts have been highly sceptical of such claims," Prof Gellhorn said. Apple has sold more than six million iPods since the gadget was launched and has an 87% share of the market for portable digital music players, market research firm NPD Group has reported.
More than 200 million songs have been sold by the iTunes music store since it was launched. "Apple has unlawfully bundled, tied, and/or leveraged its monopoly in the market for the sale of legal online digital music recordings to thwart competition in the separate market for portable hard drive digital music players, and vice-versa," the lawsuit said. Mr Slattery called himself an iTunes customer who "was also forced to purchase an Apple iPod" if he wanted to take his music with him to listen to. A spokesman for Apple declined to comment. Apple's online music store uses a different format for songs than Napster, Musicmatch, RealPlayer and others. The rivals use the MP3 format or Microsoft's WMA format while Apple uses AAC, which it says helps thwart piracy. The WMA format also includes so-called Digital Rights Management which is used to block piracy. | tech |
Microsoft gets the blogging bug
Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging.
It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online.
MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. "This is a simple tool for people to express themselves," said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained. | tech |
Broadband fuels online change
Fast web access is encouraging more people to express themselves online, research suggests.
A quarter of broadband users in Britain regularly upload content and have personal sites, according to a report by UK think-tank Demos. It said that having an always-on, fast connection is changing the way people use the internet. More than five million households in the UK have broadband and that number is growing fast.
The Demos report looked at the impact of broadband on people's net habits. It found that more than half of those with broadband logged on to the web before breakfast. One in five even admitted to getting up in the middle of the night to browse the web.
More significantly, argues the report, broadband is encouraging people to take a more active role online. It found that one in five post something on the net everyday, ranging from comments or opinions on sites to uploading photographs. "Broadband is putting the 'me' in media as it shifts power from institutions and into the hands of the individual," said John Craig, co-author of the Demos report. "From self-diagnosis to online education, broadband creates social innovation that moves the debate beyond simple questions of access and speed." The Demos report, entitled Broadband Britain: The End Of Asymmetry?, was commissioned by net provider AOL. "Broadband is moving the perception of the internet as a piece of technology to an integral part of home life in the UK," said Karen Thomson, Chief Executive of AOL UK, "with many people spending time on their computers as automatically as they might switch on the television or radio." According to analysts Nielsen//NetRatings, more than 50% of the 22.8 million UK net users regularly accessing the web from home each month are logging on at high speed They spend twice as long online than people on dial-up connections, viewing an average of 1,444 pages per month. The popularity of fast net access is growing, partly fuelled by fierce competition over prices and services. | tech |
'Blog' picked as word of the year
The term "blog" has been chosen as the top word of 2004 by a US dictionary publisher.
Merriam-Webster said "blog" headed the list of most looked-up terms on its site during the last twelve months. During 2004 blogs, or web logs, have become hugely popular and some have started to influence mainstream media. Other words on the Merriam-Webster list were associated with major news events such as the US presidential election or natural disasters that hit the US.
Merriam-Webster defines a blog as: "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks". Its list of most looked-up words is drawn up every year and it discounts terms such as swear words, that everyone likes to look up, or those that always cause problems, such as "affect" and "effect".
Merriam-Webster said "blog" was the word that people have asked to be defined or explained most often over the last 12 months. The word will now appear in the 2005 version of Merriam-Webster's printed dictionary. However, the word is already included in some printed versions of the Oxford English Dictionary. A spokesman for the Oxford University Press said that the word was now being put into other dictionaries for children and learners, reflecting its mainstream use. "I think it was the word of last year rather than this year," he said. "Now we're getting words that derive from it such as 'blogosphere' and so on," he said. "But," he added, "it's a pretty recent thing and in the way that this happens these days it's got established very quickly."
Blogs come in many different forms. Many act as news sites for particular groups or subjects, some are written from a particular political slant and others are simply lists of interesting sites. Other terms in the top 10 were related to natural disasters that have struck the US, such as "hurricane" or were to do with the US election. Words such as "incumbent", "electoral" and "partisan" reflected the scale of interest in the vote. Blogs also proved very useful to both sides in the US election battle because many pundits who maintain their own journals were able to air opinions that would never appear in more mainstream media. Speculation that President Bush was getting help during debates via a listening device was first aired on web logs. Online journals also raised doubts about documents used by US television news organisation CBS in a story about President Bush's war record. The immediacy of many blogs also helped some wield influence over topics that made it in to national press.
This is despite the fact that the number of people reading even the most influential blogs is tiny. Statistics by web influence ranking firm HitWise reveal that the most popular political blog racks up only 0.0051% of all net visits per day. One of the reasons that blogs and regularly updated online journals have become popular is because the software used to put them together make it very easy for people to air their views online. According to blog analysis firm Technorati the number of blogs in existence, the blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. Technorati now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million. Some speculate that less than a quarter of this number are regularly maintained. According to US research firm Pew Internet & American Life a blog is created every 5.8 seconds. Another trend this year has been the increasing numbers of weblogs that detail the daily lives of many ordinary workers in jobs that few people know much about. In many repressive regimes and developing nations, blogs have been embraced by millions of people keen to give their plight a voice. | tech |
New Year's texting breaks record
A mobile phone was as essential to the recent New Year's festivities as a party mood and Auld Lang Syne, if the number of text messages sent is anything to go by.
Between midnight on 31 December and midnight on 1 January, 133m text messages were sent in the UK. It is the highest ever daily total recorded by the Mobile Data Association (MDA). It represents an increase of 20% on last year's figures.
Wishing a Happy New Year to friends and family via text message has become a staple ingredient of the year's largest party. While texting has not quite overtaken the old-fashioned phone call, it is heading that way, said Mike Short, chairman of the MDA. "In the case of a New Years Eve party, texting is useful if you are unable to speak or hear because of a noisy background," he said. There were also lots of messages sent internationally, where different time zones made traditional calls unfeasible, he said. The British love affair with texting shows no signs of abating and the annual total for 2004 is set to exceed 25bn, according to MDA. The MDA predicts that 2005 could see more than 30bn text messages sent in the UK. "We thought texting might slow down as MMS took off but we have seen no sign of that," said Mr Short. More and more firms are seeing the value in mobile marketing. Restaurants are using text messages to tell customers about special offers and promotions.
Anyone in need of a bit of January cheer now the party season is over, can use a service set up by Jongleurs comedy club, which will text them a joke a day. For those still wanting to drink and be merry as the long days of winter draw in, the Good Pub Guide offers a service giving the location and address of their nearest recommended pub. Users need to text the word GOODPUB to 85130. If they want to turn the evening into a pub crawl, they simply text the word NEXT. And for those still standing at the end of the night, a taxi service in London is available via text, which will locate the nearest available black cab. | tech |
DS aims to touch gamers
The mobile gaming industry is set to explode in 2005 with a number of high-profile devices offering a range of gaming and other features such as movie and music playback. Market leader Nintendo, however, is releasing a handheld console that it says will revolutionise the way games are played.
The first striking thing about the DS is how retro it looks. Far from looking like a mould-breaking handheld, it looks more like Nintendo dug out a mould from a 1980s handheld prototype. The lightweight clam shell device opens up to reveal two screens, and when switched on it instantly reveals its pedigree. Both screens are crisp and clear while the bottom of the two is touch sensitive. Nintendo has given developers free rein to utilise the dual screens and ability to control the action by simply touching the screen.
The Japanese gaming giant hopes the DS will maintain the firm's pre-eminence in an increasingly-competitive mobile gaming market.
Nintendo first launched its GameBoy console in 1989 and has dominated the market ever since. But its lead can no longer be taken for granted. Sony will enter the market later this year with its PlayStation Portable, while start-up companies Gizmondo and Tapwave Zodiac are also offering hybrid devices. "We believe the DS will appeal to all ages, both genders and gamers of any skill," said David Yarnton, Nintendo Europe's general manager said at the recent press launch for the handheld. With its two screens, wireless connectivity and backwards compatibility with the GameBoy Advance, the DS certainly has a number of unique selling points. It went on sale in the US in mid-November priced $150 and Nintendo says sales have exceeded expectations, without giving detailed figures. Japan and Europe will have to wait until the first quarter of 2005 to get the device. With more than two million pre-orders for the device in Japan, Nintendo is confident it will keep its number one spot. But will the device prove to be as revolutionary as claimed? The game ships with a demo of Metroid Hunters - a 3D action title which can be played alone or with a group of friends using the machine's wireless capabilities. It certainly looks impressive on the small machine and plays smoothly even with a group of people.
The game can be controlled by using the supplied stylus to aim. The top screen is used to navigate the action while the bottom screen offers a top-down map and the ability to switch weapons. It is certainly a unique control method and while it makes aiming more controlled it can be a little disorientating. Super Mario 64 DS is a faithful re-creation of the Nintendo 64 classic with a host of new mini-games and new levels. The game looks stunning on the portable machine and the sound too is impressive for such a small machine. One thing is for certain. Hardened gamers will have to learn to adapt to a new way of playing while it could prove to be an accessible way in to gaming for novices, Ultimately the success or failure of the device lies in the hands of developers. If they manage to create titles which use the Nintendo DS's key features then a whole new market of gamers could open up. The fear is that the touch screen and voice recognition are treated as little more than gimmicks. | tech |
No half measures with Half-Life 2
Could Half-Life 2 possibly live up to the hype? After almost two years of tantalising previews and infuriating delays it's safe to say that this is the most highly-anticipated computer game of all time.
Fortunately, it doesn't merely live up to its promise, but exceeds it. No-one who plays the finished product will wonder why it took so long. The impression is of a game that has been endlessly refined to get as close to perfection as could realistically be hoped. All the money - or indeed time - is on the screen. The player sees things through the eyes of Gordon Freeman, the bespectacled scientist who starred in the original 1998 Half-Life. Having survived that skirmish in an desolate monster-infested research facility, he's back in another foreboding troublespot - the enigmatic City 17. It has the look of a beautiful Eastern European city, but as soon as your train pulls in to the station, it's clear that all is not well here. Sinister police patrol the unkempt streets, and the oppressive atmosphere clobbers you like a sledgehammer. A casual smattering of the nightmarish creatures from the first game makes this an even less pleasant place to be.
You are herded around like a prisoner and have to mingle with a few freedom-fighting civilians to gather information and progress in your task. It is not immediately explained what your objectives are, nor precisely why everything is so ravaged. Finding out step-by-step is all part of the experience, although you never fully get to understand what it was all about. That does not really matter. HL2 does not waste energy blinding you with plot. Underplaying the narrative in this way is gloriously effective, and immerses the player in the most vivid, convincing and impressive virtual world they are likely to have seen. There are no cut-scenes to interrupt the flow. Exposition is accomplished by other characters stopping to talk directly to you.
Whereas the highly impressive Doom III felt like a top-notch theme park thrill-ride, wandering through Half-Life's world truly does feel like being part of a movie.
Considering its sophistication, the game runs surprisingly well on computers that only just match the modest minimum specifications. But if ever there was an incentive to upgrade your PC's components, this is it. On our test machine - an Alienware system with an Athlon 3500+ processor and ATI's Radeon X800 video card - everything ran at full quality without trouble, and the visual experience was simply jaw-dropping. It is not simply that the surfaces, textures and light effects push the technical envelope without mercy, but that such care and artistic flair has gone into designing them. The haunting, grim landscapes become strangely beautiful. Luckily you get time to pause mid-task and marvel at the awesome graphical flourishes of your surroundings. So impressive are the physics that you'll find yourself hurling bits of rubbish around and prodding floating corpses just to marvel at the lifelike way they move. There are puzzles to be solved along the way, pitched at about the right difficulty, but most progress is achieved by force. Freeman is quickly reunited with the original game's famous crowbar, and an array of more sophisticated weapons soon follow.
Virtually anything not nailed to the floor can be interacted with, and in realistic fashion. You will be wowed by the attention-to-detail as you chip bits of plaster off walls, chase a pigeon out of your way, or dodge exploding barrels as they ping around at deadly speed. At times Half-Life 2 feels like one of those annoying people who are unfeasibly brilliant at everything they turn their hand to, and in a curious way, its unrelenting goodness actually becomes almost tiresome. Running around on foot is great enough, but jumping into vehicles proves even more fun. Human foes are rendered just as well as alien ones. The stealth sections are as exhilarating as the open gun battles. In gameplay terms, HL2 somehow gets almost everything perfect. And without resorting to the zombies-leaping-out-of-shadows approach of Doom III, it's all incredibly unsettling. The vacant environment is distinctly eerie, and at one point I even caught myself hesitating to go down a murky tunnel for fear of what might be inside.
The game does have a couple of problems. Firstly, the carefully-scripted way that you progress through each level might irk some people.
A lot of things are meticulously choreographed to happen on cue, which makes for exciting moments, but may be an annoyance to some players and limit the appeal of playing again once you've completed it. If you like things open-ended and free-ranging, Far Cry will be a lot more pleasing. But the real downside is the hassle of getting the game to run. Installing it proved a life-draining siege that would test a saint's patience. Developer Valve has rashly assumed that everyone wanting to play the game will have an internet connection and it forces you to go online to authenticate your copy. The box does warn you of this anti-piracy measure, but does not say just how many components have to be downloaded. The time spent doing this will depend on your connection speed, the temperamental Valve servers and the time of day, but it can take hours. It would take a mighty piece of work to feel worthwhile after such annoyances - but luckily, Half-Life 2 is up to the challenge. It is surely the best thing in its genre, and possibly, many will feel, of any genre. The bar has been raised, and so far out of sight that you have to sympathise with any game that tries to do anything remotely similar in the near future.
Half-Life 2 is out now for the PC | tech |
Games win for Blu-ray DVD format
The next-generation DVD format Blu-ray is winning more supporters than its rival, according to its backers.
Blu-ray, backed by 100 firms including Sony, is competing against Toshiba and NEC-backed HD-DVD to be the format of choice for future films and games. The Blu-Ray Association said on Thursday that games giants Electronic Arts and Vivendi would both support its DVD format. The next generation of DVDs will hold high-definition video and sound. This offers incredible 3D-like quality of pictures which major Hollywood studios and games publishers are extremely keen to exploit in the coming year. In a separate press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba announced that DVD players for its technology would be on the market by the end of 2005.
"As we move from standard definition video images to high-definition images, we have a much greater need for storage," Richard Doherty, from Panasonic's Hollywood Laboratories, one of the pioneers of Blu-ray, told the BBC news website. "So by utilising blue laser-based technology we can make an optical laser disc that can hold six times as much as today's DVD." A Blu-ray disc will be able to store 50GB of high-quality data, while Toshiba's HD-DVD will hold 30GB. Mr Doherty added that it was making sure the discs could satisfy all high-definition needs, including the ability to record onto the DVDs and smaller discs to fit into camcorders. Both Toshiba and Blu-ray are hopeful that the emerging DVD format war, akin to the Betamax and VHS fight in the 1980s, can be resolved over the next year when next-generation DVD players start to come out. When players do come out, they will be able to play standard DVDs too, which is good news for those who have huge libraries of current DVDs.
But the support from Vivendi and Electronics Arts is a big boost to Blu-ray in the battle for supremacy.
Gaming is a $20 billion industry worldwide, so is as crucial as the film industry in terms of money to be made. "The technical requirement for game development today demands more advanced optical-disc technologies," said Michael Heilmann, chief technology officer for Vivendi Universal. "Blu-ray offers the capacity, performance and high-speed internet connectivity to take us into the future of gaming." EA, a leading games developer and publisher, added that the delivery of high-definition games of the future was vital and Blu-ray had the capacity, functionality and interactivity needed for the kinds of projects it was planning. Sony recently announced it would be using the technology in its next generation of PlayStations. Mr Doherty said gamers were "ravenous" for high-quality graphics and technology for the next generation of titles. "Gamers, especially those working on PCs, are always focused on more capacity to deliver textures, deeper levels, for delivering higher-resolution playback."
He added: "The focus for games moving forward on increased immersion.
"Gaming companies really like to focus on creating a world which involves creating complicated 3D models and textures and increasing the resolution, increasing the frame rate - all of these are part of getting a more immersive experience." Fitting these models on current DVD technologies means compressing the graphics so much that much of this quality is lost. As games move to more photo-real capability, the current technology is limiting. "They are thrilled at the advanced capacity to start to build these immersive environments," said Mr Doherty. Currently, graphics-intensive PC games also require multiple discs for installation. High-definition DVDs will cut down on that need. Likewise, consoles rely on single discs, so DVDs that can hold six times more data mean much better, high-resolution games. Blu-ray has already won backing from major Hollywood studios, such as MGM Studios, Disney, and Buena Vista, as well as top technology firms like Dell, LG, Samsung and Phillips amongst others. While Toshiba's HD-DVD technology has won backing from Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. "The real world benefits (of HD-DVD) are apparent and obvious," said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video. Mr Cardwell added that rapid time to market and dependability were significant factors in choosing to go with HD-DVD. Both formats are courting Microsoft to be the format of choice for the next generation Xbox, but discussions are still on-going. Next generation DVDs will also be able to store images and other data. CES is the largest consumer electronics show in the world, and runs from 6 to 9 January. | tech |
File-swappers ready new network
Legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down.
One site behind the success of the BitTorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. A test version of the new Exeem program will be released in late January. But doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are "quality copies".
In late December movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the BitTorrent network. The legal campaign worked because of the way that BitTorrent is organised. That file-sharing system relies on links called "trackers" that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. Shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the BitTorrent network. One of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the BitTorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or TV programmes they claimed to.
Now the man behind suprnova.org, who goes by the nickname Sloncek, is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed Exeem. In an interview with Novastream web radio, Sloncek said Exeem would combine ideas from the BitTorrent and Kazaa file-sharing systems. Like BitTorrent, Exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. Like Kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. There will be no centrally maintained list. This, said Sloncek, should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. The Exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. An early public version of the software should be available before February. Sloncek said that currently only a Windows version of the software was in development. There were no plans for a Linux or Mac version. He said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. Despite Suprnova administrator Sloncek's involvement with Exeem, the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called Swarm Systems that is based on Caribbean island Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Users of the Exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files, Sloncek told Novastream.
Dr Johan Pouwelse, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology who studies peer-to-peer networks, said Exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. But, he said, it would struggle to be as popular as BitTorrent and Suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. "Exeem cannot prevent pollution," he said. "The rating system in Exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings," he said. Studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine Kazaa by putting in fakes. By contrast moderators on Suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. "The moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that's full of crap like Kazaa," he said. "There is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity," he said. Mr Pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. When big files were being shared moderation systems were key, said Mr Pouwelse. He added that the legal attacks on BitTorrent had driven people away from sites such as Suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. "It's hard to compete with free," he said. No-one from the Motion Picture Association of America was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development. | tech |
Online games play with politics
After bubbling under for some time, online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004.
The US presidential election provided a showcase for many, aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. Experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. The first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the Iowa Game, commissioned by the Democrat hopeful Howard Dean. More than 20 followed suit, including Frontrunner, eLections, President Forever and The Political Machine, which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign, including having to cope with the media. Others helped raise the stakes during the Bush/Kerry contest by highlighting a candidate's virtues or his vices.
The phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games, a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers.
"When I started researching political games at the university, about five years ago, I thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen," said Gonzalo Frasca, computer games specialist at the Information Technology University of Copenhagen. "I must admit that I was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved," added the Uruguayan-born researcher, who has so far created games for two political campaigns. Many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. The aim is to comment on international news events via games.
The ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way.
"Video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new, but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation," Mr Frasca told the BBC News website. This was the case with the one he created for a political party in Uruguay, Cambiemos, an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country's problems could be solved by working together. "It's up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games." Ultimately, Dr Frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes, fears and beliefs. "Children learn a lot about the world through play. There is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up."
But experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns.
This is hardly surprising, compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. Only a few years ago, most politicians did not have a webpage, while now it is almost a must-have. Dr Frasca said: "Political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. They represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them." "It will not replace other forms of political propaganda, but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns." | tech |
Broadband challenges TV viewing
The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests.
Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings. The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark. The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research. It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net
The report by Nielsen/NetRatings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year.
The biggest jump was in Italy, where it rose by 120%. Britain was close behind, with broadband users almost doubling in a year. The growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on, fast-net subscription plans. "Twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in Europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing," said Gabrielle Prior, Nielsen/NetRatings analyst. "As the number of high-speed surfers grows, websites will need to adapt, update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones." The total number of Europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year, the report showed, with the biggest rise in France, Italy, Britain and Germany.
The ability to browse web pages at high speed, download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time.
A study by analysts Jupiter Research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. In homes with broadband, 40% said they were spending less time watching TV. The threat to TV was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up, in particular the UK, France and Spain, said the report. It said TV companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years, with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. "Year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where, when and how Europe's population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for TV, newspaper and radio," said Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillian. | tech |
Freeze on anti-spam campaign
A campaign by Lycos Europe to target spam-related websites appears to have been put on hold.
Earlier this week the company released a screensaver that bombarded the sites with data to try to bump up the running costs of the websites. But the site hosting the screensaver now displays a pink graphic and the words "Stay tuned". No one at Lycos was available for comment on latest developments in its controversial anti-spam campaign.
Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" campaign was intended as a way for users to fight back against the mountain of junk mail flooding inboxes. People were encouraged to download the screensaver which, when their PC was idle, would then send lots of data to sites that peddle the goods and services mentioned in spam messages. Lycos said the idea was to get the spam sites running at 95% capacity and generate big bandwidth bills for the spammers behind the sites. But the plan has proved controversial.
Monitoring firm Netcraft analysed response times for some of the sites targeted by the screensaver and found that a number were completely knocked offline.
The downing of the sites could dent Lycos claims that what it is doing does not amount to a distributed denial of service attack. In such attacks thousands of computers bombard sites with data in an attempt to overwhelm them. Laws in many countries do not explicitly outlaw such attacks but many nations are re-drafting computer use laws to make them specific offences. Lycos Europe now appears to have put the plan on hold. The site hosting the screensaver currently shows a holding page, with the words, "Stay tuned". The numerical internet address of the site has also changed. This is likely to be in response to spammers who have reportedly redirected traffic from their sites back to the Lycos screensaver site. The campaign has come under fire from some corners of the web. Many discussion groups have said that it set a dangerous precedent and could incite vigilantism. "Attacking a spammer's website is like poking a grizzly bear sleeping in your back garden with a pointy stick," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "Not only is this screensaver similar in its approach to a potentially illegal distributed denial of service attack, but it also is in danger of turning innocent computer users into vigilantes, who may not be prepared for whatever retaliation the spammers care to dream up." | tech |
Halo 2 sells five million copies
Microsoft is celebrating bumper sales of its Xbox sci-fi shooter, Halo 2.
The game has sold more than five million copies worldwide since it went on sale in mid-November, the company said. Halo 2 has proved popular online, with gamers notching up a record 28 million hours playing the game on Xbox Live. According to Microsoft, nine out of 10 Xbox Live members have played the game for an average of 91 minutes per session.
The sequel to the best-selling Need for Speed: Underground has inched ahead of the competition to take the top slot in the official UK games charts. The racing game moved up one spot to first place, nudging GTA: San Andreas down to second place. Halo 2 dropped one place to five, while Half-Life 2 fell to number nine. Last week's new releases, GoldenEye: Rogue Agent and Killzone, both failed to make it into the top 10, debuting at number 11 and 12 respectively.
Record numbers of Warcraft fans are settling in the games online world. On the opening day of the World of Warcraft massive multi-player online game more than 200,000 players signed up to play. On the evening of the first day more than 100,000 players were in the world, forcing Blizzard to add another 34 servers to cope with the influx. The online game turns the stand alone Warcraft games into a persistent world that players can inhabit not just visit
Europe's gamers could be waiting until January to hear when they can get their mitts on Nintendo's handheld device, Nintendo DS, says gamesindustry.biz. David Yarnton, Nintendo UK general manager, told a press conference to look out for details in the New Year. Its US launch was on Sunday and it goes on sale in Japan on 2 December. Nintendo has a 95% share of the handheld gaming market and said it expected to sell around five million of the DS by March 2005. | tech |
When technology gets personal
In 2020, whipping out your mobile phone to make a call will be quaintly passé. By then phones will be printed directly on to wrists, or other parts of the body, says Ian Pearson, BT's resident futurologist.
It's all part of what's known as a "pervasive ambient world", where "chips are everywhere". Mr Pearson does not have a crystal ball. His job is to formulate ideas based on what science and technology are doing now, to guide industries into the future. Inanimate objects will start to interact with us: we will be surrounded - on streets, in homes, in appliances, on our bodies and possibly in our heads - by things that "think". Forget local area networks - these will be body area networks. Ideas about just how smart, small, or even invisible, technology will get are always floating around. Images of devices clumsily bolted on to heads or wrists have pervaded thinking about future technology. But now a new vision is surfacing, where smart fabrics and textiles will be exploited to enhance functionality, form, or aesthetics. Such materials are already starting to change how gadgets and electronics are used and designed.
So MP3 players - the mass gadget of the moment - will disappear and instead become integrated into one's clothing, says Mr Pearson. "So the gadgets that fill up your handbag, when we integrate those into fabric, we can actually get rid of all that stuff. You won't necessarily see the electronics." Wearable technology could exploit body heat to charge it up, while "video tattoos", or intelligent electronic contact lenses, might function as TV screens for those on the move. However, this future of highly personal devices, where technology is worn, or even fuses with the body itself, raises ethical questions. If technology is going to be increasingly part of clothing, jewellery, and skin, there needs to be some serious thinking about what it means for us as humans, says Baroness Susan Greenfield. At a recent conference for technology, engineering, academic and fashion industry experts, at the Royal Society in London, neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield cautioned we "can't just sleepwalk into the future".
Yet this technology is already upon us. Researchers have developed computers and sensors worn in clothing. MP3 jackets, based on the idea that electrically conductive fabric can connect to keyboard sewn into sleeves, have already appeared in shops.
These "smart fabrics" have come about through advances in nano- and micro-engineering - the ability to manipulate and exploit materials at micro or molecular scale. At the nanoscale, materials can be "tuned" to display unusual properties that can be exploited to build faster, lighter, stronger and more efficient devices and systems. The textile and clothing industry has been one of the first to exploit nanotechnology in quite straightforward ways. Many developments are appearing in real products in the fields of medicine, defence, healthcare, sports, and communications. Professional swimming suits reduce drag by incorporating tiny structures similar to shark skin. Nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings give fabrics antibacterial and anti-odour properties. These have special properties which can be activated in contact with the air or UV light. Such coatings have already been used to stop socks smelling for instance, to turn airline seats into super stain-resistant surfaces, and applied to windows so they clean themselves. Dressings for wounds can now incorporate nanoparticles with biocidal properties and smart patches are being developed to deliver drugs through the skin. But Baroness Greenfield is concerned about how far this more personal contact with technology might affect our very being. If our clothing, skin, and "personal body networks" do the talking and the monitoring, everywhere we go, we have to think about what that means for our concept of privacy. Mr Pearson picks up the theme, pointing out there are a lot of issues humans have to iron out before we become "cyborgian". His main concern is "privacy". "We are looking at electronics which are really in deep contact with your body and a lot of that information you really don't want every passer-by to know. "So we have to make sure we build security in this. If you are wearing smart make-up, where electronics are controlling the appearance, you don't want people hacking in and writing messages on your forehead." As technology infiltrates our biology, how will our brains function differently? "We cannot arrogantly assume that the human brain will not change with this," warns Baroness Greenfield. There have already been successful experiments to grow human nerve cells on circuit boards. This paves the way for brain implants to help paralysed people interface directly with computers. Clearly, the organic, carbon of our bodies and silicon is increasingly merging. The cyborg - a very familiar part-human, part-inorganic science fiction and academic idea - is on its way. | tech |
Microsoft gets the blogging bug
Software giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the world of blogging.
It is launching a test service to allow people to publish blogs, or online journals, called MSN Spaces. Microsoft is trailing behind competitors like Google and AOL, which already offer services which make it easy for people to set up web journals. Blogs, short for web logs, have become a popular way for people to talk about their lives and express opinions online.
MSN Spaces is free to anyone with a Hotmail or MSN Messenger account. People will be able to choose a layout for the page, upload images and share photo albums and music playlists. The service will be supported by banner ads. "This is a simple tool for people to express themselves," said MSN's Blake Irving. This is Microsoft's first foray into blogging, which has taken off as a web phenomenon in the past year. Competitors like Google already offer free services through its Blogger site, while AOL provides its members with journals. Accurate figures for the number of blogs in existence are hard to come by. According to blog analysis firm Technorati, the so-called blogosphere, has doubled every five and a half months for the last 18 months. It now estimates that the number of blogs in existence has exceeded 4.8 million, although some speculate that less than a quarter are regularly maintained. | tech |
Doors open at biggest gadget fair
Thousands of technology lovers and industry experts have gathered in Las Vegas for the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
The fair showcases the latest technologies and gadgets that will hit the shops in the next year. About 50,000 new products will be unveiled as the show unfolds. Microsoft chief Bill Gates is to make a pre-show keynote speech on Wednesday when he is expected to announce details of the next generation Xbox.
The thrust of this year's show will be on technologies which put people in charge of multimedia content so they can store, listen to, and watch what they want on devices any time, anywhere. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet. Highlights will include the latest trends in digital imaging, storage technologies, thinner flat screen and high-definition TVs, wireless and portable technologies, gaming, and broadband technologies. The show also includes several speeches from key technology companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett Packard among others. "The story this year remains all about digital and how that is completely transforming and revolutionising products and the way people interact with them," Jeff Joseph, from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) told the BBC News website. "It is about personalisation - taking your MP3 player and creating your own playlist, taking your digital video recorder and watch what you want to watch when - you are no longer at the whim of the broadcasters."
Consumer electronics and gadgets had a phenomenal year in 2004, according to figures released by CES organisers, the CEA, on Tuesday. The gadget explosion signalled the strongest growth yet in the US in 2004. Shipments of consumer electronics rose by almost 11% between 2003 and 2004. That trend is predicted to continue, according to CEA analysts, with wholesale shipments of consumer technologies expected to grow by 11% again in 2005. The fastest-growing technologies in 2004 included blank DVD media, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs), and portable music players. "This year we will really begin to see that come to life in what we call place shifting - so if you have your PVR [personal video recorder] in your living room, you can move that content around the house. "Some exhibitors will be showcasing how you can take that content anywhere," said Mr Joseph. He said the products which will be making waves in the next year will be about the "democratisation" of content - devices and technologies that will give people the freedom to do more with music, video, and images. There will also be more focus on the design of technologies, following the lead that Apple's iPod made, with ease of use and good looks which appeal to a wider range of people a key concern.
The CEA predicted that there would be several key technology trends to watch in the coming year. Gaming would continue to thrive, especially on mobile devices, and would reach out to more diverse gamers such as women. Games consoles sales have been declining, but the launch of next generation consoles, such as Microsoft's Xbox and PlayStation, could buoy up sales. Although it has been widely predicted that Mr Gates would be showcasing the new Xbox, some media reports have cast doubt on what he would be talking about in the keynote. Some have suggested the announcement may take place at the Games Developers Conference in the summer instead. With more than 52% of US homes expected to have home networks, the CEA suggested hard drive boxes - or media servers - capable of storing thousands of images, video and audio files to be accessed through other devices around the home, will be more commonplace. Portable devices that combine mobile telephony, digital music and video players, will also be more popular in 2005. Their popularity will be driven by more multimedia content and services which will let people watch and listen to films, TV, and audio wherever they are. This means more storage technologies will be in demand, such as external hard drives, and flash memory like SD cards. CES runs officially from 6 to 9 January. | tech |
Who do you think you are?
The real danger is not what happens to your data as it crosses the net, argues analyst Bill Thompson. It is what happens when it arrives at the other end.
The Financial Services Authority has warned banks and other financial institutions that members of criminal gangs may be applying for jobs which give them access to confidential customer data. The fear is not that they will steal money from our bank accounts but that they will instead steal something far more valuable in our digital society - our identities. Armed with the personal details that a bank holds, plus a fake letter or two, it is apparently easy to get a loan, open a bank account with an overdraft or get a credit card in someone else's name. And it is then a simple matter to move the money into another account and leave the unwitting victim to sort out the mess when statements and demands for payment start arriving. Identity theft is an increasingly significant economic crime, and we are all becoming more aware of the dangers of leaving bills, receipts and bank statements unshredded in our rubbish.
But, however careful you may be, if the organisations you trust with your personal data, bank accounts and credit cards are not able to look after their databases properly then you are in trouble. It is surprising that it has taken the gangs so long to realise that a well-placed insider is by far the simplest way to break the security of a computer system. In fact, I suspect that the FSA is probably very late to this particular party and that this sort of thing has been going on for rather a long time. Has anyone checked Bob Cratchit's family links to the criminal underworld, I wonder? And it is hardly likely to be only banks that are being targeted. Health authorities, government agencies and of course the big e-commerce sites like Amazon must also offer rich pickings for the fraudsters. The good news is that better auditing is likely to catch out those who access account details that they are not supposed to. And as we all become aware of the danger of identity theft and look more carefully for unexpected transactions on our statements, banks should have good enough records and logs to trace the people who might have accessed the account details. Fortunately there are now ways to keep bank systems more secure from the sort of data theft that involves taking a portable hard drive or flash memory card into the office, plugging it into a USB slot and sucking down customer files.
Companies like SecureWave, for example, can restrict the use of USB ports just to authorised devices or even to an individual's personal memory card. These solutions are not perfect, but it does not feel like a wave of fraud is about to wash away the entire financial system. However the warning does highlight one of the major issues with e-commerce and online trading - the security or otherwise of the servers and other systems that make up the 'back office'. It has been clear for years that the real danger in paying for goods online with a credit card is not that the number will be intercepted in transit but that the shop you are dealing with will be hacked.
In fact I do not know of a single case where an e-mail containing payment details has led to card fraud.
There are simply too many e-mails passing over the net for interception to be a sensible tool for anyone out to commit fraud. CD Universe, Powergen and many other companies have left their databases open and suffered the consequences. And just last week the online bank Cahoot admitted that its customer account details could be read by anyone who could guess a login name. Whether it is external hackers breaking in because of poor system security or internal staff abusing the access they get as part of their job, the issue is the same: how do we make sure that our personal data is not abused? Any organisation that processes personal data is, of course, bound by the Data Protection Act and must take proper care of it. Unauthorised disclosure is not allowed, but the penalties are small and the process of prosecuting under the Act so convoluted as to be worthless in practice. This is not something we can just leave it to the market. The consequences of having one's identity stolen are too serious, and markets respond too slowly. After all, I bank with Cahoot but it would be so much hassle to move my accounts that I did not even consider it when I heard about their security problems. I doubt many others have closed their accounts, especially when there is little guarantee that other banks are not going to make the same sort of mistake in future. The two options would seem to be more stringent data protection law, so that companies really feel the pressure to improve their internal processes, or a wave of civil lawsuits against financial institutions with sloppy practices whose customers suffer from identity theft. I have never felt comfortable with the US practice of suing everything that moves, partly because it seems to make lawyers richer than their clients, so I know which I'd prefer.
Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Go Digital. | tech |
'Brainwave' cap controls computer
A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer.
Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions," said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought.
The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed.
Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. "The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis," said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character. | tech |
'Brainwave' cap controls computer
A team of US researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step closer.
Four people, two of them partly paralysed wheelchair users, successfully moved a computer cursor while wearing a cap with 64 electrodes. Previous research has shown that monkeys can control a computer with electrodes implanted into their brain. The New York team reported their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The results show that people can learn to use scalp-recorded electroencephalogram rhythms to control rapid and accurate movement of a cursor in two directions," said Jonathan Wolpaw and Dennis McFarlane. The research team, from New York State Department of Health and State University of New York in Albany, said the research was another step towards people controlling wheelchairs or other electronic devices by thought.
The four people faced a large video screen wearing a special cap which, meant no surgery or implantation was needed.
Brain activity produces electrical signals that can be read by electrodes. Complex algorithms then translate those signals into instructions to direct the computer. Such brain activity does not require the use of any nerves of muscles, so people with stroke or spinal cord injuries could use the cap effectively. "The impressive non-invasive multidimensional control achieved in the present study suggests that a non-invasive brain control interface could support clinically useful operation of a robotic arm, a motorised wheelchair or a neuroprosthesis," said the researchers. The four volunteers also showed that they could get better at controlling the cursor the more times they tried. Although the two partially-paralysed people performed better overall, the researchers said this could be because their brains were more used to adapting or that they were simply more motivated. It is not the first time researchers have had this sort of success in brain-control experiments. Some teams have used eye motion and other recording techniques. Earlier this year, a team at the MIT Media Labs Europe demonstrated a wireless cap which read brain waves to control a computer character. | tech |
Europe backs digital TV lifestyle
How people receive their digital entertainment in the future could change, following the launch of an ambitious European project.
In Nice last week, the European Commission announced its Networked & Electronic Media (NEM) initiative. Its broad scope stretches from the way media is created, through each of the stages of its distribution, to its playback. The Commission wants people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered seamlessly, when on the move, at home or at work, no matter who supplies the devices, network, content, or content protection scheme. More than 120 experts were in Nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support from companies such as Nokia, Intel, Philips, Alcatel, France Telecom, Thomson and Telefonica. It might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct competition are keen to work together. But again and again, speakers stated they could not see incompatible, stand-alone solutions working. A long-term strategy for the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required.
The European Commission is being pragmatic in its approach. They have identified that many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that NEM encompasses. The NEM approach is to take a serious look at what is available and what is in the pipeline, pick out the best, bring them together and identify where the gaps are. Where it finds holes, it will develop standards to fill them. What is significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. This is bound to please, if not surprise, many individuals and user organisations who feel that the wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above those of the consumer. Many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for the Commission will be to identify a solution for different Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes. Currently DRM solutions are incompatible, locking certain types of purchased content, making them unplayable on all platforms. With the potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place globally, the prize for being the supplier of the world's dominant DRM scheme is huge. Although entertainment is an obvious first step, it will encompass the remote provisions of healthcare, energy efficiency and control of the smart home. The 10-year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that the EC has been funding for a number of years.
Simon Perry is the editor of the Digital Lifestyles website, which covers the impact of technology on media | tech |
A decade of good website design
The web looks very different today than it did 10 years ago.
Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear. But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use. Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today. "Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today," he said. "Some have gone away because users have changed and 10% have changed because technology has changed."
Some design crimes, such as splash screens that get between a user and the site they are trying to visit, and web designers indulging their artistic urges have almost disappeared, said Dr Nielsen.
"But there's great stability on usability concerns," he told the BBC News website. Dr Nielsen said the basic principles of usability, centring around ease of use and clear thinking about a site's total design, were as important as ever. "It's necessary to be aware of these things as issues because they remain as such," he said. They are still important because the net has not changed as much as people thought it would. "A lot of people thought that design and usability was only a temporary problem because broadband was taking off," he said. "But there are a very small number of cases where usability issues go away because you have broadband."
Dr Nielsen said the success of sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay and Yahoo showed that close attention to design and user needs was important. "Those four sites are extremely profitable and extremely successful," said Dr Nielsen, adding that they have largely defined commercial success on the net.
"All are based on user empowerment and make it easy for people to do things on the internet," he said. "They are making simple but powerful tools available to the user. "None of them have a fancy or glamorous look," he added, declaring himself surprised that these sites have not been more widely copied. In the future, Dr Nielsen believes that search engines will play an even bigger part in helping people get to grips with the huge amount of information online. "They are becoming like the operating system to the internet," he said. But, he said, the fact that they are useful now does not meant that they could not do better. Currently, he said, search sites did not do a very good job of describing the information that they return in response to queries. Often people had to look at a website just to judge whether it was useful or not. Tools that watch the behaviour of people on websites to see what they actually find useful could also help refine results. Research by Dr Nielsen shows that people are getting more sophisticated in their use of search engines. The latest statistics on how many words people use on search engines shows that, on average, they use 2.2 terms. In 1994 only 1.3 words were used. "I think it's amazing that we have seen a doubling in a 10-year period of those search terms," said Dr Nielsen.
You can hear more from Jakob Nielsen and web design on the BBC World Service programme, Go Digital | tech |
2D Metal Slug offers retro fun
Like some drill sergeant from the past, Metal Slug 3 is a wake-up call to today's gamers molly-coddled with slick visuals and fancy trimmings.
With its hand-animated sprites and 2D side-scrolling, this was even considered retro when released in arcades four years ago. But a more frantic shooter you will not find at the end of your joypad this year. And yes, that includes Halo 2. Simply choose your grunt and wade through five 2D side-scrolling levels of the most hectic video game blasting you will ever encounter. It is also the toughest game you are likely to play, as hordes of enemies and few lives pile the pressure on.
Players must battle soldiers, snowmen, zombies, giant crabs and aliens, not to mention the huge, screen-filling bosses that guard each of the five levels.
The shoot-anything-that-moves gameplay is peppered with moments of old-school genius. Fans of robotic gastropods should note the title refers, instead, to the vast array of vehicles on offer in a game stuffed with bizarre hardware. Tanks, jets and submarines can be commandeered, as well as cannon-toting camels, elephants and ostriches - more weaponry on offer than in an acre of Iraq. Doling out justice is a joy thanks to ultra responsive controls, and while this is a tough nut to crack, it is addictive enough to have you gagging for that one last go. And at a mere £20, Metal Slug 3 is as cheap as sliced, fried spuds, as the man says. Of course, most of you will ignore this, lacking as it does the visual fireworks of modern blasters. But at a time when blockbuster titles offer only a fresh lick of paint in favour of real innovation, Metal Slug 3 is a fresh gasp of air from an era when the Xbox was not even a twinkle in Bill Gates' eye. | tech |
Casual gaming to 'take off'
Games aimed at "casual players" are set to be even bigger in 2005, according to industry experts.
Easy-to-play titles that do not require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile devices will see real growth in the coming year. The trend shows that gaming is not just about big-hitting, games console titles, which appeal more to "hardcore" gamers, said a panel of experts. They were speaking before the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and technologies for 2005. The panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just women, a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer demographics.
Casual games like poker, pool, bridge, bingo and puzzle-based titles, which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices, were "gender neutral" and different genres attracted different players.
Greg Mills, program director at AOL, said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-year-old males, while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. Games like bridge tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers.
But hardcore gamers who are more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec PCs, like Half-Life 2, or Halo 2 on Xbox, also liked to have a different type of gaming experience. "When hardcore gamers are not playing Halo, they are playing poker and pool, based on our research," said Geoff Graber, director of Yahoo Games, which attracts about 12 million gamers a month.
With the growth of powerful PC technology and ownership, broadband take-up, portable players and mobile devices, as well as interactive TV, casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005, according to the panel. The focus for the coming year should be about attracting third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer titles, they agreed. "We are at a time where we are on the verge of something much bigger," said Mr Graber. "Casual games will get into their stride in 2005, will be really big in 2006 and will be about community." With more people finding more to do with their gadgets and high-speed connections, casual games would start to open up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. Key to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked.
Portal sites which offer casual games, like AOL, Yahoo, and RealArcade, as well as other games-on-demand services, allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against the same people. This aspect of "community" is crucial for gamers who just want to have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time immersed in £30 to £40 console or PC titles, said the panel. About 120,000 people are expected to attend the CES trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 January. The main theme is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other, allowing people to enjoy digital content, like audio, video and images, when they want, and where they want. | tech |
'Ultimate game' award for Doom 3
Sci-fi shooter Doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony, the Golden Joystick awards.
It was the only title to win twice, winning Ultimate Game of the year and best PC game at the awards, presented by Little Britain star Matt Lucas. The much-anticipated sci-fi horror Doom 3 shot straight to the top of the UK games charts on its release in August. Other winners included Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas which took the Most Wanted for Christmas prize. Only released last week, it was closely followed by Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month.
But they missed out on the prize for the Most Wanted game of 2005, which went to the Nintendo title, The Legend of Zelda. The original Doom, released in 1994, heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3D graphics. It helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. Doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). The top honour for the best online game of the year went to Battlefield Vietnam. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was handed the Unsung Hero Game of 2004. Its release was somewhat eclipsed by Doom 3, which was released on the same week. It was, however, very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. Electronic Arts was named top publisher of the year, taking the crown from Nintendo which won in 2003. The annual awards are voted for by more than 200,000 readers of computer and video games magazines. Games awards like this have grown in importance. Over the last six years, the UK market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1,152m in 2003, according to a recent report by analysts Screen Digest. | tech |
Gadget show heralds MP3 Christmas
Partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this Christmas.
With Apple's iPod topping wish lists again, there may not be enough iPod minis to go round, predicts Oliver Irish, editor of gadget magazine Stuff. "The iPod mini is likely to be this year's Tracey Island," said Mr Irish. Stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the iPod is at number one.
For anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market, Stuff and What Hi-Fi? are hosting a best-of gadget show in London this weekend. Star of the show will be Sony's Qrio Robot, an all-singing, all-dancing, football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations.
But he is not for sale and Sony has no commercial plans for the robot. "He will greet visitors and is flying in from Japan. He probably has his own airplane seat, that is how highly Sony prize him," said Mr Irish. Also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. The event will play host to a large collection of digital music players, from companies such as Creative, Sony and Philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable iPod from Apple. Suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless Christmas are unlikely to come true as MP3 players remain the most popular stocking filler, said Mr Irish. "Demand is huge and Apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on iPod minis," said Mr Irish.
For those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented, the Gizmondo, a powerful gaming console with GPS and GPRS, that also doubles up as an MP3 player, movie player and camera, could be a must-have. "What is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them," said Mr Irish. This Christmas, gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. "Women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves," said Mr Irish. "Gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks." | tech |
Supercomputer breaks speed record
The US is poised to push Japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with IBM's prototype Blue Gene/L machine.
It is being assembled for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) lab. DOE test results show that Blue Gene/L has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. The current top machine, Japan's NEC Earth Simulator, clocks up 35.86. Due next week, the Top 500 list officially charts the fastest computers in the world. It is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called Linpack which measures calculations per second. The speeds will most likely make it the fastest computer system on the planet, yet the chip technology powering the machine is the kind which can be found in familiar devices such as games consoles.
The US Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham confirmed that the machine had reached the breakneck speed, according to the Linpack benchmark. Until the official list is published, however, Blue Gene/L's position will not be confirmed, and there are expected to be some other new entries. But the test results raise the bar of supercomputing enormously and signal a remarkable achievement. Surpassing the 40 trillion calculations per second (teraflop) mark has been considered a landmark for some time.
The IBM Blue Gene/L is only a prototype and is one 5th the speed of the full version, due to be completed for the Livermore labs in 2005. Its peak theoretical performance is expected to be 360 teraflops, and will fit into 64 full racks. It will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power, a big problem for supercomputers. The final machine will help scientists work out the safety, security and reliability requirements for the US's nuclear weapons stockpile, without the need for underground nuclear testing. The Earth Simulator has held on to the top spot since June 2002. It is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. But in September, IBM said that another Blue Gene/L machine clocked up 36.01 teraflops, marginally surpassing the Earth Simulator's performance. This was achieved during internal testing at IBM's production facility in Rochester, Minnesota, though, so was not an official record. Another giant to enter the fray is Silicon Graphics' Columbia supercomputer based at Nasa's Ames Research Center in California. It would be used to model flight missions, climate research, and aerospace engineering. The Linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 teraflops in October.
Supercomputers are hugely important for working out very complex problems across science and society. Their massive simulation and processing power means they can improve the accuracy of weather forecasts, help design better cars, and improve disease diagnosis. IBM's senior vice president of technology and manufacturing, Nick Donofrio, believes that by 2006, Blue Gene will be capable of petaflop computing. This means it would be capable of doing 1,000 trillion operations a second. "When you get a computer as large as a petaflop, you can start to think of simulations that might complement the physical world," Mr Donofrio recently told the BBC News website.
"You can start to be more proactive, more interactive and more innovative." One area where Mr Donofrio sees supercomputing - and Blue Gene machines in particular - as crucial is health. He believes the machines can help scientists understand one of the greatest challenges of the 21st Century: protein folding. "Health is one of the most important problems, not just mapping the human genome, but also protein structures. "We are a great believer in simulation. It gives you another tool," he said. Once the structures of proteins are understood fully, then drugs can be tailor-made to fight diseases more effectively. Compared with the current fastest supercomputers, Blue Gene is designed to consume one 15th the power and be 10 times more compact. Since the first supercomputer, the Cray-1, was installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976, computational speed has leaped 500,000 times. The Cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). The Blue Gene/L machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. Started in 1993, the Top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. It is presented at the International Supercomputer Conference in Pittsburgh. | tech |
Gadgets galore on show at fair
The 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a geek's paradise with more than 50,000 new gadgets and technologies launched during the four-day event.
Top gadgets at the show are highlighted in the Innovations Showcase, which recognises some of the hottest developments in consumer electronics. The BBC News website took an early pre-show look at some of those technologies that will be making their debut in 2005.
One of the key issues for keen gadget users is how to store all their digital images, audio and video files. The 2.5GB and 5GB circular pocket hard drive from Seagate might help. The external USB drive won a CES best innovations design and engineering award and is small enough to slip into a pocket. "It is the kind of storage that appeals to people who want their PCs to look cool," said Seagate. "It is all about style but it also has lots of functionality." "It is the first time you can say a hard drive is sexy," it said. In the centre of the device is a blue light that flashes while data is being written to ensure users do not unplug it when it is busy saving those precious pictures.
Universal Electronics' NevoSL is a universal controller that lets people use one device to get at their multimedia content, such as photos, no matter where it is in their house. It can also act as a remote for home theatre and stereo systems. Working with home broadband networks and PCs, the gadget has built-in wireless and a colourful, simple interface. Paul Arling, UEI chief, said consumers face real problems when trying to get at all the files they own that are typically spread across several different devices. He said the Nevo gave people a simple, single way to regain some control over digital media in the home. The Nevo won two awards at CES, one as a Girl's Best Friend award and another for innovation, design and engineering. The gadget is expected to go on sale before the summer and will cost about $799 (£425).
Hotseat is targeting keen gamers with money to spend with its Solo Chassis gaming chair. The specially-designed chair lets gamers play in surround-sound while stretching out in their own "space". It is compatible with all the major games consoles, DVD players and PCs. "We found that kids love playing in surround sound," said Jay LeBoff from Hotseat. "We are looking at offering different types of seats, depending on the market success of this one." The chair also lets people experience surround sound while watching videos, with wireless control for six surround sound speakers. And a drinks holder. The chair, which looks like a car seat on a skeletal frame, should go on sale in April and is expected to cost $399 (£211).
Satellite radio is big business in the US. In the UK, the digital radio technology is known as DAB and works on slightly different technology. Eton Corporation's Porsche designed P7131 digital radio set will be launched both as a DAB radio in the UK as well as a satellite radio set in the US. DAB sets have been slow to take-off in the UK, but this one concentrates on sleek looks as much as technology. "It is for the risqué consumer," said an Eton spokesperson. "We are proud of it because it has the sound quality for the audiophile and the looks for the design-conscious consumer." The Porsche radio is set to go on sale at the end of January in the US and in the first quarter of 2005 in the UK. In the US is it expected to cost $250 (£133).
The average person has a library of 600 digital images estimates the Consumer Electronics Association, the organisation behind CES. This is expected to grow to a massive 3,420 images - or 7.2GB - in five years' time. One gadget that might help swell that collection is Sanyo's tiny handheld VPC-C4 camcorder which is another innovation in design and engineering award winner. It combines high quality video and stills in a very small device. It takes MPEG4 video quality at 30 frames a second and has a four megapixel still camera. Images and video are stored on SD cards, which have come down in price in recent months. A 512MB card will store about 30 minutes of video and 420 stills. The device is so tiny it can be controlled with one thumb. Because images and video are stored on SD memory, it is portable to other devices and means other data like audio can be stored on the card too.
Wearable technology has always promised much but failed to deliver because of lack of storage capability and poor design. MPIO's tiny digital USB music players come in an array of fashionable colours, taking a leaf out of the Apple iPod mini book of design and reflecting the desire for gadgets that look good. Slung on a cord, the player would not look too geeky dangling discreetly from the neck. Although the pendant design was launched three months ago, the device emphasises large storage as well as good looks for fashion-conscious gadget fiends. An even dinkier model, the FY500, comes out in May and will store about 256MB of music. The range of players recently won an International Forum design award 2005. | tech |
Broadband in the UK growing fast
High-speed net connections in the UK are proving more popular than ever.
BT reports that more people signed up for broadband in the last three months than in any other quarter. The 600,000 connections take the total number of people in the UK signing up for broadband from BT to almost 3.3 million. Nationally more than 5 million browse the net via broadband. Britain now has among the highest number of broadband connections throughout the whole of Europe.
According to figures gathered by industry watchdog, Ofcom, the growth means that the UK has now surpassed Germany in terms of broadband users per 100 people. The UK total of 5.3 million translates into 7.5 connections per 100 people, compared to 6.7 in Germany and 15.8 in the Netherlands. The numbers of people signing up to broadband include those that get their service direct from BT or via the many companies that re-sell BT lines under their own name. Part of the surge in people signing up was due to BT stretching the reach of ADSL - the UK's most widely used way of getting broadband - beyond 6km.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line technology lets ordinary copper phone lines support high data speeds. The standard speed is 512kbps, though faster connections are available. "This breakthrough led to a dramatic increase in orders as we were suddenly able to satisfy the pent-up demand that existed in many areas," said Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale which provides phone lines that other firms re-sell. BT Retail, which sells net services under its own name, also had a good quarter and provided about 30% of the new broadband customers. This was a slight increase on the previous three months. Despite the good news about growth in broadband, figures from telecommunications regulator Ofcom show that BT faces increasing competition, and dwindling influence, in other sectors. Local Loop Unbundling, (LLU), in which BT rivals install their hardware in exchanges and take over the line to a customer's home or office, is growing steadily. Cable & Wireless and NTL have announced that they are investing millions to start offering LLU services. By the end of September more than 4.2 million phone lines were using so-called Carrier Pre-Section (CPS) services, such as TalkTalk and One.Tel, which route phone calls across non-BT networks from a local exchange. There are now more than 300 different firms offering CPS services and the percentage of people using BT lines for voice calls has shrunk to 55.4%. | tech |
US duo in first spam conviction
A brother and sister in the US have been convicted of sending hundreds of thousands of unsolicited e-mail messages to AOL subscribers.
It is the first criminal prosecution of internet spam distributors. Jurors in Virginia recommended that the man, Jeremy Jaynes, serve nine years in prison and that his sister, Jessica DeGroot, be fined $7,500. They were convicted under a state law that bars the sending of bulk e-mails using fake addresses.
They will be formally sentenced next year. A third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, was acquitted. Prosecutors said Jaynes was "a snake oil salesman in a new format", using the internet to peddle useless wares, news agency Associated Press reported. A "Fed-Ex refund processor" was supposed to allow people to earn $75 an hour working from home. Another item on sale was an "internet history eraser". His sister helped him process credit card payments. Jaynes amassed a fortune of $24m from his sales, prosecutors said. "He's been successful ripping people off all these years," AP quoted prosecutor Russell McGuire as saying. Jaynes was also found guilty of breaking a state law which prohibits the sending of more than 100,000 e-mails in 30 days, Virginia State Attorney General Jerry Kilgore reportedly said. Prosecutors had asked for 15 years in jail for Jaynes, and a jail term for his sister. But Jaynes' lawyer David Oblon called the nine-year recommended term "outrageous" and said his client believed he was innocent. He pointed out that all three of the accused lived in North Carolina and were unaware of the Virginia state law. Spam messages are estimated to account for at least 60% of all e-mails sent. | tech |