VIVACE R&T project delivers major improvements for future Aeronautical

A Virtual Aeronautical Collaborative Enterprise" (VIVACE) Research and Technology project focuses on simulation and modelling techniques for aeronautical products during their design and development phases with the objective of reducing development time and costs .

The final results of VIVACE are presented at a public Forum held in Toulouse from 17th to 19th October.

VIVACE is a very large European Commission co-funded R&T project, grouping 63 companies and research institutions from the aeronautic sector such as Airbus, Rolls Royce, Snecma, Thales… It was launched in January 2004 and will be fully completed at the end of 2007.

Major innovation and progress has been developed within the scope of the project in seven key areas of the product development process, providing solutions in "Design Simulation", "Virtual Testing", "Design Optimisation", "Business and Supply Chain Modelling", "Knowledge Management", "Decision Support" and "Collaboration in the Extended and Virtual Enterprise".

Through industrial simulations of a part of the aircraft, of the engine or of a development process, reflecting both the Virtual Product and the Virtual Extended Enterprise, major improvements have been obtained in terms of processes, methods and tools.

VIVACE contributes to answering the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) Vision of halving the time to market for new products, increasing the integration of the supply chain and maintaining a steady and continuous fall in travel costs. By using the latest innovations in advanced simulation and modelling techniques, it will provide the means to get the best possible knowledge about the product prior to its physical development, thus reducing the development cost, shortening time to market and further improving product quality.

More information on the VIVACE project can be found at: www.vivaceproject.com

Technorati : Airbus, R&T-project

Verizon Admits to Emergency Wiretapping

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In an Oct. 12 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Verizon officials said they acted under the emergency provisions of FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). The committee is seeking information about the country's telecom carriers' cooperation, including possible violations of U.S. privacy laws, given the Bush administration's admitted domestic wiretapping program.

AT&T, of San Antonio, Texas, and Qwest Communications, of Denver, also responded to the committee's request for information, but provided no details, pointing out that they are under a federal order to not disclose any information about their activities.

"The United States, through a sworn declaration from the director of national intelligence, has formally invoked the states secrets privilege to prevent AT&T from confirming or denying certain facts about alleged intelligence operations and activities that are central to your investigation," Wayne Watts, AT&T's general counsel, wrote to the committee.

Qwest officials wrote a similar response.

However, New York-based Verizon provided details that show the Bush administration's interest in obtaining customers' electronic communications.

"Verizon would receive a classified written notice that the attorney general has authorized the emergency surveillance, stating the time of such authorization," wrote Randal S. Milch, senior vice president of legal and external affairs at Verizon. "We would provide the assistance requested as expeditiously as possible. If we do not receive a FISA order to continue the surveillance within 72 hours of the attorney general's authorization, the surveillance would be terminated."

Verizon also noted that in 2005, it cooperated with more than 90,000 legal requests backed by subpoenas or court orders issued by local, state and federal government officials. In 2006, Verizon responded to about 88,000 such requests, and through the first nine months of 2007, it had cooperated with 61,000 requests.

Verizon, AT&T and Qwest all contend they acted legally in reliance on existing federal, state and local laws.

"Current law … provides a complete defense to any provider who in good faith relies on a statutory authorization," Verizon wrote. "If the government advises a private company that a disclosure is authorized by statute, a presumption of regularity attaches."

All three carriers are involved in what AT&T characterized as a "maelstrom" of litigation over the domestic spying program. The New York Times first broke the story of the administration's warrantless wiretapping and USA Today later added that the National Security Agency is using information provided by telephone carriers to data mine tens of millions of calling records.

AT&T and others asked about government access to records. Click here to read more.

AT&T said the issue of disclosing its alleged participation in the domestic spying program rests with the White House, which is also seeking immunity for carriers in the legislation before Congress.

"Our company essentially finds itself caught in the middle of an oversight dispute between the Congress and the executive branch relating to government surveillance activities," AT&T wrote.

"Applicable legal rules make clear that much of the information you seek is under control of the executive and that disputes of this kind need to be resolved through accommodation between the two political branches of the government."

House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, said the carriers' response proved to him that the White House, "as the sponsor of this program and the party preventing the companies from defending themselves-is the entity best able to resolve the many outstanding issues. I look forward to meeting with representatives of the administration in short order, and I am hopeful that they will be forthcoming with the information Congress needs to properly evaluate this program."

Technorati : Verizon communication system

Broadcom unveils integrated 3G chip,

Broadcom Corp (BRCM.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it had developed an integrated third-generation (3G) high-speed wireless cell phone chip ahead of bigger rivals Texas Instruments Inc (TXN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O: Quote, Profile, Research), sending Broadcom shares up as much as 3 percent.

Shares of Texas Instruments and Qualcomm both fell about 2 percent after Broadcom said it developed a single chip with a baseband -- the cell phone's main processor -- and a radio receiver as well as FM radio and Bluetooth, a short-range technology used for wirelessly linking handsets to headsets

Chipmaker Broadcom said Monday that it has developed a new processor that integrates all key 3G cellular and mobile technologies onto a single chip.

The processor that operates at extremely low powers will enable cell phone makers to build new 3G phones in more compact form factors with very long battery lives at a fraction of what it costs today, the company said.

The new 3G "Phone on a Chip" supports the four next-generation cellular technologies used throughout the world: HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access), HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), and EDGE (enhanced data for GSM evolution). It also can transmit and receive FM radio for playing music on a car stereo. And it supports Bluetooth technology and processing capability for a 5-megapixel camera.

Broadcom claims it is at least a year ahead of competitors, such as Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, in terms of integrating so much functionality into a single chip. The company also said the chip is already available to a select group of Broadcom customers.

In 2006, Broadcom had only about 1.4 percent of the cell phone chip market. By contrast, TI and Qualcomm each had about 20 percent of the 2006 mobile phone chip market, according to iSuppli.

The new chip could help boost Broadcom's market share against these competitors, especially in Asia where operators are rolling out faster networks much more quickly than they are here in the U.S. market. Broadcom has been aggressively trying to get a greater share of the cell phone market for the past few years. And as a result, the company has been embroiled in a series of legal fights with rival Qualcomm.

Broadcom won an important battle earlier this year, when the U.S. government banned Qualcomm and its partners from importing devices that use Qualcomm's 3G technology, because part of the technology has been found to infringe on patents held by Broadcom.

Technorati : Cellular chip

Microsoft developing (OCS)office communication server 2007

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Microsoft Corp. is looking for develop their office communication server

While most enterprise IT shops today still don't know what Unified Communications really is, information systems leaders at Global Crossing in 2005 had a pretty good idea of what it was and how the company could benefit from it.

ADVERTISEMENT On Oct. 16, Global Crossing IS leaders will participate in the launch of Microsoft's UC platform and demonstrate how their UC implementation via Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 helped improve worker productivity by streamlining exception handling.

Microsoft Corp. is expanding its work with enterprise telephony vendors to make its Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 work more closely with office phone systems.

On Tuesday, at the launch of OCS, the company plans to unveil a formal program to certify interoperability between IP (Internet Protocol) phone systems and OCS. As part of that, Microsoft will discuss a specification to let enterprises migrate one building at a time to its software-based unified communications system and still have calls go across the organization as if on the same PBX (private branch exchange). Two models of Cisco Systems Inc.'s popular ISR (Integrated Services Router) branch-office platform will be among the products certified for this type of interoperability, according to Zig Serafin, general manager of Microsoft's Unified Communications group.

Microsoft's initiative, called the OCS 2007 Open Interoperability Program, will formalize work that has already been going on with some third parties. As that work has expanded, it's reached a point where it needs to be more organized, Serafin said. The idea is to let customers know what will work with OCS, and Microsoft will provide a table on its Web site where potential customers can check the certifications of third-party products.

Although promoted as an effort to coexist with the IP (Internet Protocol) phone systems now established or taking root in enterprises, the program also will make it easier for customers to migrate away from dedicated communications systems and phones themselves, the company acknowledges. Voice call control is new to Microsoft's unified communications system with OCS 2007, but the software giant envisions a day when separate platforms such as Cisco's CallManager won't be needed, industry analysts say.

Cisco, Avaya Inc. and other vendors have already moved the voice call-control functions of traditional circuit-switched PBXes (private branch exchanges) into server software, but they sell that software along with IP handsets and other gear. Microsoft intends OCS, together with Office Communicator 2007 client software or special OCS phones made by Polycom Inc. and LG Electronics Inc., to ultimately replace those dedicated systems.

There are three methods of interoperability that will be certified under the program.

- SIP CSTA (Computer Supported Telephony Applications) is based on a standard by the European Communications Management Association (ECMA). It lets users control calls through the Office Communicator client on the PC, though in most cases still using the handset and PBX.

- OCS Coexistence lets the user pick up a call on either the existing handset or a client that uses OCS, namely Office Communicator or a special OCS phone.

- Direct SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) interoperability allows for some parts of an enterprise to use traditional or IP PBXes and others to use OCS, with transparent connections between them using gateways, according to Microsoft. SIP is the emerging standard protocol for exchanging information on voice, videoconferencing and other communications sessions.

Microsoft has already certified gateway products from five vendors for Direct SIP interoperability, Serafin said. Among them are Cisco's Integrated Services Router 2851 and 3845. In fact, all ISRs with voice capability can interoperate with OCS, according to Mike Wood, [cq] director of product marketing in Cisco's access routing group. Gateways from Dialogic Inc. also have already been certified.

As a newcomer to telephony, Microsoft will take time to displace many standalone telephony systems, so interoperability will be critical, analysts said.

Most enterprises that adopt OCS still have phones connected to PBXes and will dial through the PBX, said Brent Kelly, [cq] a senior analyst at Wainhouse Research LLC. To start, most OCS users will keep their PBXes in place and take advantage of CSTA to gain the click-to-call benefits of OCS, he said.

"Right now, OCS doesn't have a voice model that's good enough for the enterprise," Kelly said.

However, there are a number of barriers to interoperability, too, said IDC analyst Nora Freedman. While Direct SIP interoperability is a good idea, it will take a long time to really work because SIP is so new, she believes.

"We're still battling proprietary SIP extensions from all the notable vendors," Freedman said.

Meanwhile, CSTA could be a distraction for enterprises trying to make the transition to unified communications because it brings yet another standard into the picture, she said. And for now, it's hard for early adopters to get theses kinds of systems put together, she added.

"Now we have a wealth of product but a drought of system-integrator experience in this," Freedman said. Resellers are working feverishly to build up their expertise, she said.

Microsoft's plan for telephony is bold, looking to eventually eliminate OCS as a separate product and make it, and telephony itself, just a set of features in applications, believes Zeus Kerravala [cq] of Yankee Group Inc. But for the time being, the job at hand is making OCS work with existing phones, he said.

"The first phase is just to get it out there,"

Technorati : communication server

Bussines @c stocks today

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		U.S. Company to Invest USD 50mln in Coffee Farm, Roasting Facility
		IT Dept may acquire space at WTC to open LTU
		VASCO Officially Introduces UK Banking Market Card Readers During London Banking Summit
		Deccan Chronicle allots 8.32 lakh equities on FCCBs conversion
		Enterprise Applications Databook is Designed to Help You Gain Insight into Key Technology Investment Patterns and Trends in Target Markets
		RIL Jamnagar plant shut for maintenance, supplies unaffected
		Wacker to invest up to 400 mln eur in Chinese siloxane plant - CEO
		Hero Honda rolls out 20 millionth bike; aims better sales
		Cookson makes open offer for 20 pc in Foseco India
		Punj bags Rs 389 cr pipeline order from Qatar Petroleum
		SC stays criminal proceedings against JJ Irani
		Covidien, BioSynthema In Exclusive Deals For Neuroendocrine Cancer Therapy Technology- Update
		NSEFULLLIST
		Hero Honda flags off bike-a-thon in Mangalore
		London shares open mixed, near seven-year high, Northern Rock slides
		RIL to spend USD 9bn in Jamnagar, adopt aggr. Growth strategy
		CRR hike would effect margins: HDFC
		Australia's AGL Energy ratings not immediately hit by cut in FY guidance - S&P

Technorati : Bussines @c stocks t

Fiber-Optic Future For Norwich

As the dispatcher calls the volunteer department, a computer prints a picture and exact directions and sends them electronically to the responding station or even to a portable computer in the firetruck as it speeds out of the station bay.

Imagine a fire call to the city central dispatch for a remote location within the city limits.

That would be one way a municipal fiber-optic network could help city agencies and the general public, said John Bilda, general manager of Norwich Public Utilities.

NPU went out to bid Wednesday on installing a fiber-optic telecommunications system in the city that would connect all schools and municipal and public-utilities facilities, including automated sewer pump stations, hydropower units and electrical transformers.

The 32-mile, $2.4 million network would snake through the city in two main loops, with several spurs from the main loop lines to connect more remote systems.

The network, Bilda said, would send data 600 times faster than current speeds along privately owned data lines, and do it more reliably.

Mayor Benjamin Lathrop called officials of the city-owned utility "visionaries," dating back 104 years to when the city took over by eminent domain a private electric and gas company and converted it to a public utility.

"They were visionaries then, with the (public water) reservoirs and all," Lathrop said, "and by exploring what they did all those years ago to move their city forward. It's impressive. Our utility has done wonders."

Immediate plans would have the fiber-optic network serving only Norwich government entities - adding in agencies such as the Uncas Health District, Three Rivers Community College and Norwich Free Academy - and would provide internal communication only within Norwich borders.

A teacher in a Norwich school could draw a line on a computer and have it automatically appear simultaneously on so-called smart boards in every school in the city. But all the sites would still use AT&T for telephone service and 99 Main - the city's Internet provider - for access to "the outside world," Bilda said.

NPU plans to create wireless hot spots in key locations, such as downtown, that would be available to the public, Bilda said.

Expanding the network to local businesses and residents could follow. NPU plans to apply to the state Department of Public Utility Control for permission to offer service, according to the resolution approved by the City Council Monday.

Bilda couldn't say when that might occur, but he said the cable to make it possible could be in place by next summer. The rest could depend on the DPUC licensing process and the city's desire to open it up to the community.

NPU is a pioneer in municipal fiber-optics installation in the state, but not the first, Bilda said. About five years ago, the town of Manchester helped write the law that now allows NPU to move forward.

DPUC spokeswoman Beryl Lyons said no other city-owned utility has applied for a state license to offer fiber-optic broadband to the general public. Only the few municipally owned utilities that own their own utility poles would be able to tackle the project, she said.

Groton Public Utilities launched its own for-profit cable television company, Thames Valley Communications, three years ago. The cable television and computer broadband company now has 7,000 customers in Groton city and town, and the Groton portion of Mystic and Gales Ferry, said Carl Andersen, marketing director.

Andersen said it has taken longer than expected to get permission to build on poles outside the Groton Public Utilities service area.

NPU owns all its utility poles and many underground utility conduits in the Norwich Business Park.

NPU has no plans to start a cable television company or become an Internet provider or telephone company. Rather, Bilda said, the network would allow NPU and other city entities to greatly consolidate telephone service, buying one telephone-trunk service line from AT&T and using its own fiber-optic network to hook up to numerous telephones and computers.

One of the utilities' aims is to save on its telephone bills. "We're doing this to stay in business," Bilda said.

The city plans to continue to use 99 Main as its Internet provider, but city computers would be able to communicate with one another much faster and at higher capacities.

If the fiber-optic service is expanded to local businesses and the public, Bilda said, NPU would not make it a for-profit venture. Ten percent of the gross revenues would be turned over to the city, a deal that dates back to the founding of the public utility.

If Norwich wants to venture into cable television or telephone service, the City Council would have to authorize the move. Bilda said the initiative would have to come from NPU constituents.

"We want to do whatever the community wants us to do," Bilda said. "This provides the backbone for any of these services to happen."

At least two downtown business owners are counting the days when fiber-optic broadband data transmission service might be available.

Mike Sullivan, owner of 99 Main, said his company has been the city's Internet provider for 11 years. He said the connection would enable him to offer high-speed fiber-optic Internet connections to local small businesses that can't afford the high-speed T-1 lines that are now the standard for high-speed connections.

Fiber optics would far surpass T-1 capacities, Sullivan said. The smallest fiber cable can transmit data at a rate of 155 megabytes per second, while a T-1 line sends at one megabyte per second. Slower DSL lines are still the standard for home and small business use, he said.

Brian Kobylarz, owner of Tele-Cine Productions, served on the initial focus group NPU established several years ago when utility officials first started looking into expanding to cable television and fiber-optic broadband services.

Kobylarz said any business with electronic data needs would benefit. He produces high-definition videos and films for industrial, business and government entities.

Fiber optics would give him quicker, better quality transmissions of video clips to production studios "miles or hundreds of miles away."

Kobylarz, who also chairs the Downtown Neighborhood Revitalization Zone Committee, envisions the fiber-optic network attracting high-tech businesses to the downtown.

"Major corporations have realized the benefits of this technology for many years now," Kobylarz said. "The business model says this is the right thing to do. What we are doing in Norwich is the first step. It will be a better step when it begins to open up to the business community. That will spur economic activity and will attract new and better businesses to the area."

Technorati : Fiber-Optic

BT creates Wi-Fi community

BT and Fon have finally confirmed their long-expected partnership, thus creating the largest Wi-Fi community in the world.

Fon was founded in Spain in early 2006. Broadband users who sign up to Fon's community agree to share their Wi-Fi connectivity through a separate, secure channel. They do this either for a 50 percent cut of the fees charged to their visitors or for the privilege of being able to surf other users' connections for free, though the community has since changed its rules to allow its members to do both.

One of the biggest hindrances to Fon's expansion has been resistance from Internet service providers, whose terms and conditions have tended to prohibit sharing of broadband connections.

Now BT, the largest ISP in the United Kingdom, has given its approval. By doing so, the telecommunications company has effectively extended its Openzone Wi-Fi network across the 3 million BT Home Hubs--or at least those Home Hubs whose users agree to share their broadband connection.

It is not yet clear whether BT users who share their connection will get remuneration for doing so, though it is likely that they will gain access to BT's new nationwide wireless network, plus Fon's global network of almost 200,000 hot spots. It is currently unclear whether BT's business customers will be offered the same deal.

BT has also invested an undisclosed amount in Fon and gained a seat on its board.

"This is the start of something very exciting for BT," Gavin Patterson, the managing director of BT Group, said Thursday. "Today we are launching a people's network of Wi-Fi, which could one day cover every street in Britain. We are giving our millions of Total Broadband customers a choice and an opportunity. If they are prepared to securely share a little of their broadband, they can share the broadband at hundreds of thousands of Fon and BT Openzone hot spots today, without paying a penny."

Patterson continued. "We have built a public Wi-Fi network and 12 wireless cities already, but today, we are saying to customers: let's build a Wi-Fi community together, which covers everywhere and serves everyone."

Martin Varsavsky, Fon's founder and chief executive, said, "From the beginning, Fon users believed in the concept of sharing and in the people's ability to participate in building something important that would benefit everyone," he said. "With BT Fon, those beliefs have proved to be well-founded."

Rumors that BT and Fon were in talks about the deal have been circulating for over six months, but Thursday's announcement is the first official confirmation of the tie-in. The collaboration between the two companies also raises the possibility of a comprehensive global network of Wi-Fi sharers--with the blessing of ISPs.

Fon has inked similar deals with Time Warner Cable in the United States--though that service is yet to be rolled out--and Neuf Cegetel in France, so BT broadband customers who agree to share their connectivity will soon gain free access to their counterparts' broadband in those countries.

Robert Lang, Fon's European chief, told CNET News.com sister site ZDNet UK on Thursday that Fon had compromised, in that its users will have to pay, albeit at a discounted rate, to use BT's Openzone hot spots and Wireless Cities hot zones, rather than gaining access for free.

The deal means that users of BT Fusion dual-mode handsets will be able to use those devices in far more locations around the world than had previously been possible. Fon also has a software client that can be used on Nokia's Wi-Fi-enabled N series handsets.

source : www.news.com

Technorati : Wi-Fi

Google looking at privacy protections for users

Critics say the DoubleClick buyout may give Google too much power over online advertising

Google Inc. the world's Web search leader, told U.S. Senate lawmakers yesterday that the company is pursuing new technologies to protect the privacy of Internet users as it seeks to acquire advertising company DoubleClick Inc. ("see: Congress to scrintinize Google-DoubleClick acquisition")

Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, testified that the company was looking at the Internet display advertising business with a "fresh eye and evaluating whether changes can be made to innovate on user privacy in this space."

Critics say Google's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, an advertising tools supplier, may give the company too much power over online advertising. Google stores mounds of data on Internet-surfing habits of users and uses the information to make money by selling advertisements.

As a general matter, Drummond also sought to address antitrust concerns about the deal, describing it as pro-competitive.

Drummond sought to assure the lawmakers that Google was exploring new privacy protection technologies.

He cited as an example a possible new technology that Google called "crumbled cookie" in which information about an Internet user would not be connected to a single piece of identifying code, known as a cookie.

Google was also exploring better ways of providing notice within advertisements to identify who was responsible for them, Drummond said.

"We have consulted with numerous privacy, consumer and industry groups in developing these ideas and have endeavored to be responsive to their concerns," he said in written testimony for a Senate Judiciary subcommittee.

Technorati : Google, forusers, looking, privacy, protections

High-tech chewing gum could end sticky streets

A non-stick chewing gum that will wash easily off concrete surfaces could save authorities millions, claim researchers. Amidst a new "plague" of gum litter in areas with smoking bans, they say their product could spell the end of sidewalks covered in chewing gum "cud" and cut city cleanup costs.

People chew gum for all sorts of reasons - to pass the time or freshen up their breath, for example. In fact, hunter-gatherers appear to have enjoyed this pleasure back in the Stone Age, and recent studies have even suggested that chewing gum can improve memory performance.

Recently, as a result of smoking bans in places such as Ireland and the UK, people have turned to gum to help them kick their cigarette addiction. Consequently, gum sales have skyrocketed, says Kerry Page of Straight plc, a company based in Leeds, UK, that sells special chewing-gum disposal bins and helps recycle the collected cud into construction materials.

But the increased popularity of chewing gum has left an unpleasant mark on the cityscape - namely it increases the amount of cud that ends up stuck to the sidewalk. Page notes that some places in Ireland saw as much as a 30% increase in gum litter once the country's smoking ban went into effect.

Sales surge

The problem of "gum pollution" has "long been considered a plague in Britain," says Page. Removing just one wad of gum from the pavement can cost anywhere from 10 pence ($0.20) to as much as £1.50 ($3.00), she adds. In the late 1990s, the UK government estimated that it spent over £150 million a year to clean up chewing gum. Page suspects that number has "gone up massively" with the recent surge in chewing gum sales.

Terence Cosgrove at the University of Bristol, UK, says he and his colleagues have come up with a solution to this sticky situation. They have designed a special gum ingredient that repels the cud from dry surfaces, such as concrete.

The researchers came up with the new ingredient they call "Rev7", by linking up two compounds already found in products such as toothpaste and various cosmetics. One of the compounds is attracted to water, while the other is repelled by water.

Rev7 works, says Cosgrove, because the water-loving regions of the ingredient migrate to the outside of the chewing gum in a person's mouth. As a result, if it is spat onto the sidewalk, it is not attracted to the dry concrete.

Chewing the cud

In preliminary trials, developers chewed the gum - which comes in both mint and lemon flavours - for 20 minutes and then stuck it onto paving slabs. Two days later, they found that rain had washed away the gum, but the cuds of traditional chewing gum they had placed as controls remained stuck to the surface.

A second test on the gum suggests that it will disintegrate if left in water for a few months - which could mean it would naturally disappear from surfaces over time. Cosgrove's team placed a regular piece of gum in a container of water and their non-stick gum in another container. After seven weeks, the traditional gum remained intact, but the Rev7 gum had broken into small fragments resembling the snowflakes inside a "snowglobe".

Cosgrove has now helped start a company, called Revolymer, to market the non-stick product, now called "Clean Gum", and hopes it will become available in 2008. "It has a good chew and it certainly holds together in the mouth," he says of the product, which he presented at the BA Festival of Science in York, UK, this week.

MORE NWES.....

Chewing gum gave Stone Age punk a buzz

Most people would go cold at the thought of finding a lump of 'used' chewing gum. But not Bengt Nordqvist of the Swedish National Board of Antiquities. He has found what could be the world's oldest wad of second-hand gum. A teenager who may have been trying to get high, spat it onto the floor of a hut in southern Sweden 9000 years ago.

Nordqvist found three wads of chewed birch resin in the bark flooring of a hut used by hunter-gatherers on the island of Orust. Dental experts say the imprints on one, well-preserved piece come from a fully grown person whose teeth had not been worn down by the stresses of Stone Age life. 'It could only have been a teenager,' says Nordqvist.

The site is especially well preserved. It was flooded as sea levels rose after the last ice age, and covered by a layer of fine clay. Then, as the land 'rebounded' after the weight of ice was lifted, the site rose above water again. Its clay cap kept air away from many organic objects that would otherwise have rotted.

Besides the gum, and the remains of wooden huts, Nordqvist says he found 'thousands of hazelnuts', axes, and the bones of wild boar, deer, beaver, and small beluga whales. Camp dogs chewed the bones, and excreted the meal. 'Any dog owner would recognise the droppings,' says Nordqvist. 'It's a very rare find.'

The gum was probably medicinal. Birch resin contains zylitol, a disinfectant now sold by Finnish firms as a natural tooth cleaner. But it may have served another purpose. John Bryant of the University of Alaska in Fairbanks says Athabaskan Indians in North America chew birch gum 'the way Andean people chew coca leaves. It gives them a buzz.' Bryant suspects that the buzz was caused by terpenes, which are found in the essential oils of many plants.

Some Scandinavians still experiment with birch gum, but Bryant advises against it. He sent some to the National Cancer Institute in the US, for testing, and the gum turned out to be toxic. 'The mice did not do very well,' he says.

The gum also does not taste very good, say Norwegians who have tried it. Nordqvist says some ancient cultures seem to have mixed birch resin with honey, but the Orust gum seems to have been chewed on its own.

So has it lost its flavour? 'I don't know,' admits Nordqvist. 'I haven't tried it.'

.

Technorati : High-tech, chewing, end, gum, sticky, streets

International Privacy Standard proposed by Google

This seems to me like it will be good for global businesses as a universal standard will allow a more streamlined approach to how to handle individual data.The world's largest Internet search company wants to create new ways to help keep Internet users safe.

Search giant Google Inc. will propose on Friday that governments and technology companies create a transnational privacy policy to address growing concerns over how personal data is handled across the Internet.

Google's global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, will make the proposal at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in Strasbourg, France, dealing with the intersection of technology with human rights and ethics.

Fleischer's 30-minute presentation will advocate that regulators, international organizations and private companies increase dialog on privacy issues with a goal to create a unified standard.

Google envisions the policy to be a product of self-regulation by companies, improved laws and possible new ones, according to a Google spokesman based in London.

"We don't want to be prescriptive about who does that and what those standards are because it should be a collaborative effort," the spokesman said.

Other organizations have already made progress on privacy standards, he said. For example, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) created a nine-point Privacy Framework designed to aid countries without existing policies.

Google today proposed that governments and technology companies need to work together to create an international method that details how the personal information of users should be handled on the Internet. Google's Peter Fleischer, chief privacy officer, challenged members of the United Nations to help make sure user privacy remains safe.

"People look to us to show some leadership and be constructive," Fleischer said before speaking before the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. "By supporting global privacy standards, there will be a debate and part of that debate will be what are motives our."

A large problem is that privacy standards can vary greatly among countries, something that can cause issues for companies that operate in many countries. Along with not having a federal privacy law to protect consumers, laws in the United States often vary state-by-state: another roadblock that will likely need to be fixed.

Another problem facing companies such as Google is that many of the laws are extremely out of date when compared to how the Internet has progressed. An Internet law created by lawmakers just 10 years ago cannot fairly be used today.

"Privacy laws have not kept up with the reality of the internet and technology, where we have vast amounts of information and every time a credit card is used online, the data on it can move across six or seven countries in a matter of minutes," Fleischer said.

Assuming that data is passed through a small handful of information in a short amount of time, companies need to create a safeguard to make sure the data remains safe -- especially since a lot of nations have minimal data protection laws, Fleischer added.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) recently created a privacy framework that organizers hope will help nations modify existing laws that deal with user privacy and protection. However, much work must be done due to legal gray areas and loose translation of the privacy framework - for example, general principles are highlighted, but nations are responsible for their own enforcement.

Google already has spoken with Yahoo! and Microsoft over privacy standards, and now plans to speak with regulators from a number of different nations.

At a time when Google is worried about government regulation and laws over privacy, critics of the search engine company claim its recent acquisition of DoubleClick Inc are concerned Google now has the ability to store too much user data. Due to rising pressure from European officials, Google agreed to hold cookies up to two years only - the company originally scheduled cookies to be deleted in 2038.

Some other privacy standard

The P3P standard

The P3P specification has a double nature. On the one hand it is standardizing technical issues to facilitate the exchange of privacy meta information. On the other hand it requires the website to provide certain information necessary to enable the user of do-it-yourself privacy protection (e.g. the entity processing the data, types of collected data, purpose of collection and the type of processing). Requiring this information P3P sets a (minimum) privacy standard.

By offering a P3P policy, websites are giving a binding promise to their users that they will follow the P3P standard as a whole. It is part of the promise to provide the information required by the P3P specification truly and comprehensively. It also includes a careful interpretation according to the P3P specification of what personal identifiable data actually is. All things considered using P3P means agreeing on a legally binding (minimum) privacy standard between the parties.

Legal Privacy Standard

Some countries have their own data protection laws requiring i.e. special user information or allowing data use for special purposes only. These legal privacy standards are especially within European Union member states higher than the P3P specification's requirements (e.g. which information has to be provided in the P3P policy).

The relations between the P3P privacy standard, other legal privacy standards and the parties involved are illustrated in the following chart.

Technorati : International Privacy Standard

700MHz open-access conditions sued by Verizon

US FCC auction of a thousand wireless licences for the 700MHz frequency after Verizon Wireless has challenged the rules of the game.

The FCC has attached open-access requirements to a 22 megahertz block of spectrum for the auction in mid-January.

Most of the mobile phone industry hated the idea of attaching conditions to any of the 700 MHz spectrum, but AT&T liked it.

Winning bidders of the 22 MHz worth of licenses are allowed to use any devices and application on their networks, as long as they don't harm the rest of the spectrum. Fighting against the FCC is legally messy and will take ages. Verizon suing will mean that the auction could be delayed for years.

Verizon claims FCC action "violates the US Constitution, violates the Administrative Procedures Act … and is arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law."

The move might create a backlash against Verizon. Lawyers approached by RCR News said that the rules were designed to allow consumers, for the first time, to use their handsets with any network they desire, and download and use the lawful software applications of their choice.

People might get miffed that Verizon is using the court system to try to prevent consumers from having any choice of innovative services

India to enter the arena of 2.5 billion dollar satellite launch business.

The 49 metre long rocket carrying 2,130 heavy satellite blasted off from Sriharikota island at 6:20 two hours late of the scheduled time due to the signal problem at the third cryogenic stage. As the rocket was just about to lift off the signal from the ground system failed to come some seconds ago.

INSAT-4CR replaced INSAT-4C which was destroyed last year in July after some technical failure. The satellite has 12 wideband channels or transponders significant in providing services in telecommunications, television broadcasting and meteorology. This is to be known that internet congestion has become common phenomenon due to increased traffic.

This was the fifth launch of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle series rocket. In April ISRO also launched an Italian satellite for the first time charging fees for it stepping in commercial launch market. Till yet space technology has not been used commercially at extensive level barring few cases.

Amid the hopes for future and fears of the past the successful launch of the largest domestic communication satellite system of Asia, INSAT-4CR (INSAT series) by the GSLV FO4 on Sunday laid down the path for India to enter the arena of 2.5 billion dollar satellite launch business.

This successful launch not only opened the door of global satellite launch business but will also cater to the upward-moving domestic telecommunications demand. ISRO Chairman told that they are receiving enquiries from foreign customers.

ISRO chairman, G Madhavan Nair expressed a sigh of relief over Sunday's successful launch and said that Indian rockets are as reliable as any other launch vehicle in the world.

He termed the whole phenomenon as high drama. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated ISRO Chairman.

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INSAT-4CR promises a boost to digital communications.
Promising a boost to digital communications in India, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched its latest communications satellite, Insat-4CR yesterday.

Facing a series of delays caused by technical glitches, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-F04 lifted off at 6.20 p.m. from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, India.

Around 17 minutes after launch, and about 5,000 Km from the launch station, the vehicle placed India's INSAT-4CR into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Though the fifth flight of the 49m tall GSLV, it was the fourth successful one. The second operational flight, GSLV-F02, with INSAT-4C on board, carried on July 10, 2006, did not succeed.

The third satellite in the INSAT-4 series, INSAT-4CR, weighs 2,130 Kg and has a lifespan of 10 years. Carrying 12 high-power Ku-band transponders, the communication satellite is expected to boost direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcasts, Video Picture Transmission (VPT) and Digital Satellite News Gathering (DSNG) in India.

INSAT-4CR is now orbiting the Earth in GTO with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 168 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 34,710 km with an orbital inclination of 20.7 degree with respect to the equator, ISRO officials revealed.

INSAT-4CR was developed by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore with a cost of Rs. 150 crore, while, the GSLV was designed and developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. The cost of the vehicle was Rs. 160 crore.

The satellite will be monitored by the ground station of the ISTRAC located in the Indonesian island of Biak. Further, the ground stations at Lake Cowichan (Canada), Fucino (Italy) and Beijing (China) along with the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka will monitor the wellbeing of the satellite and its orbit raising operations.

In the days to come, INSAT-4CR's orbit will be raised from its present elliptical GTO to the final Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. There, it will be co-located with KALPANA-1, INSAT-3C and EDUSAT.

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