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2003/07/04

(CNN) -- Anecdotal evidence that the world's weather is getting wilder now has a solid scientific basis in fact following a dramatic global assessment from the World Meteorological Organization.

A study released Wednesday by the WMO -- a specialized climate science agency of the United Nations -- says the world is experiencing record numbers of extreme weather events, such as droughts and tornadoes.

Laying the blame firmly at the feet of global warming, the agency warned that the number and intensity of extreme weather events could continue to increase.

Citing examples, the WMO said the 562 tornadoes which hit the United States in May this year was a record -- far higher than the previous monthly peak of 399 in June 1992.

Far colder and wetter conditions than normal also prevailed in the eastern and southeastern part of the U.S. for much of May and June.

And a pre-monsoon heatwave which hit India earlier this year caused peak temperatures of between 45 and 49 degrees Celsius (113 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit), killing more than 1400 people.

In Sri Lanka, heavy rainfalls from Tropical Cyclone 01B exacerbated already wet conditions, causing flooding and landslides and more than 300 fatalities.

Last month Switzerland experienced its hottest June in at least 250 years while in the south of France average temperatures were between 5 and 7 degrees Celsius (9 to 13 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the long term average.

England and Wales also experienced their hottest month since 1976.

On their own none of these events is truly remarkable. But when viewed together they represent a clear and alarming trend towards wilder weather, according to the WMO.

"These record extreme events [high temperatures, low temperatures and high rainfall amounts and droughts] all go into calculating the monthly and annual averages which, for temperatures, have been gradually increasing over the past 100 years," the WMO said in its statement.

Warning

The WMO normally confines itself to issuing scientific reports and statistics compiled from climate data.

However, the weather events of 2003 had proved so remarkable, officials say the organization felt compelled to issue a generalized warning of the emerging pattern.

The WMO said new analysis of data for the northern hemisphere showed the increase in temperature in the 20th century was likely to have been the largest in any century during the past 1,000 years.

"It is also likely that, in the northern hemisphere, the 1990s were the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year," it said.

"While the trend towards warmer globally averaged surface temperatures has been uneven over the course of the last century, the trend for the period since 1976 is roughly three times that for the past 100 years as a whole.

"Global average land and sea surface temperatures in May 2003 were the second highest since records began in 1880," the WMO warned.

Last year much of Australia was hit by the longest drought in recorded history, which devastated crop yields and sparked continual bushfires which threatened major cities.

Conversely, many parts of China and East Asia were hit by severe flooding resulting in thousands of deaths.

2003/07/10

CNN) -- The Wi-Fi revolution is coming, and if you are away on business it could be a useful tool for you.

Now if you hang out at the airport waiting for a long-haul flight you will see a new rush: A pre-boarding frenzy to download email.

"Wireless fidelity" is allowing an ever-increasing number of laptops and personal digital assistants (PDA) to log on to the Internet with broadband speeds -- cable-free -- in airports, VIP lounges, planes and hotels worldwide.

Do you have a Wi-Fi -- 802.11b -- network card or Intel Corp.'s Centrino mobile tech for your machine?

Then you have access to the Web -- that is if you happen to be in the right place, known as a hot spot. And if you're lucky, it could even be free.

High-speed and short-range, this type of radio technology is making the worldwide Web the world's wireless Web for out-of-office execs.

The momentum for Wi-Fi is beginning to reach a critical mass in the travel industry with corporate travelers leading the way.

More than 20 million people are expected to be using wireless Internet access worldwide by 2007, U.S. officials said at a recent United Nation's International Telecommunication Union conference.

It helps that tech developers are focusing on high-traffic hubs such as hotels and airports, which is good news for those looking for unfettered Internet access on the road.

At the conference, negotiators tentatively agreed to allocate more of the world's airwaves to the Wi-Fi standard, as well as more frequencies to airlines that want to offer in-flight email and other Internet services.

A handful of European and U.S. airlines namely Lufthansa, SAS, United and Delta have already signed up to turn their fleets of planes into large Wi-Fi hotspots. British Airways and Japan Airlines are also considering it.

The two-way email service uses an on-board server, a satellite link-up and a routing system that relays signals to and from wireless networking cards in passengers' laptops.

Some airlines will charge a fee, others may not. In a CNN online poll the majority of respondents said they would only use in-flight email if it was free.

Major airports and hotels across Europe have already installed or are considering turning their businesses in to Wi-Fi hotspots and the growth is still phenomenal.

According to the research firm Gartner, there are about 71,000 such hotspots worldwide, with up to a third in Asia, mostly in Korea. Yet the majority are still in the United States.

Sniffing it out

Already companies offer free software that allows you to "sniff out" the airwaves for available commercial, private, and free wireless networks for when you are traveling.

Try free Wi-Fi sniffer programs like Boingo or NetStumbler, while Freenetworks or Boingo have listings on their Web site on where the global hotspots are.

Wi-Fi ZONE also allows users to search a database of about 1,600 hotels, airports, restaurants and other wireless access points in 23 countries.

It helps that manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Intel, Sony, Toshiba and others are now equipping laptops, PDAs and other electronic devices for wireless network connections.

And in the U.S, computer company Dell recently teamed up with wireless phone and data provider T-Mobile to try and speed up the proliferation of high-speed wireless Internet access with incentives for customers.

T-mobile is the U.S.' largest commercial Wi-Fi network operator with 2,600 public hotspots.

The excitement over Wi-Fi is due to the fact that it is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise lagging technology market.

2003/07/12

SEOUL, Korea (Reuters) -- South Korea's top mobile phone operator is offering a new service that allows cell phone users to download a sound it says repels troublesome mosquitoes.

The sound should be capable of clearing the insects within a range of one meter, said SK Telecom Co, which claimed it had worked during tests.

Mosquitoes are a common irritant during the hot, humid summers in Korea.

Subscribers will be able to download the sound, which will cost 3,000 won ($2.54 US), via the firm's wireless Internet service from Monday. The sound plays constantly and is faintly audible to the human ear.

Repelling the bugs will use up to 30 percent more of the phone's battery power, said SK, which controls more than half of Asia's third-largest mobile market.

2003/07/14

LONDON (Reuters) -- Microwave radar from satellites could be used to find buried archaeological treasures, underground buildings and even mass graves.

Scientists at Ben Gurion University in Israel have shown that such radar can see below the surface of dry ground and locate objects under tons of sand.

"Buried objects can be detected from airborne systems," Dan Blumberg, a researcher at the university, told New Scientist magazine this week.

He and his colleague Julian Daniels provided proof of the theory by burying squares of aluminium at varying depths in the Negev desert and using radar sensing from an aircraft to detect them.

The researchers said their findings suggest that ancient river routes lie under centuries of sand in the Sahara desert which could explain desert oases.

"Mapping river channels buried in sandy areas can improve our understanding of the geological and climatic history of the region," Daniels said.

The researchers are planning more studies with the longest possible microwave length which is called P-band to find objects buried deeper in the sand. So far they have delved only 40 centimetres (16 inches).

But they said the technique only works in very dry areas, about 15 percent of the Earth's surface, because liquid can absorb the radiation.

"Blumberg hopes that as well as archaeological remains, the method will in time be used to find fossils and geological structures," the magazine said, adding that it could show underground buildings, pipes and mass graves.

2003/07/15

CHICAGO (AP) -- The grounds of the Museum of Science and Industry had the look of pit row on race day Sunday, but the cars crossing the starting line bore more than a passing resemblance to giant envelopes on wheels and their fuel comes from the sun, not the pump.

The American Solar Challenge started when a team from Kansas State University became the first from 20 U.S. and Canadian colleges to hit the road in a 2,300-mile race that will end in about 10 days in Claremont, Calif. Drivers will spend most of their time on the way to California on historic Route 66.

"The strategy is to go as fast as you can and look for potholes," said John Blessing, a crew member for KSU's car. "You really feel every pothole, that's the truth."

The race sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Energy features cars that were years and, in some cases, well over $100,000 in the making. Made of the lightest and strongest materials the students can find, including the Kevlar used to make bulletproof vests, the cars can weigh as little as 400 pounds, students said.

The cars' sleek bodies rest just inches off the ground, allowing them to slice through the wind efficiently. The vehicles are powered by the 3,000 or so small solar cells that cover them.

They can easily travel over 50 mph and can climb past 70 mph under the right conditions, students said.

2003/07/18

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- In the cable industry's latest move to combat competition from satellite TV, Charter Communications will soon introduce its most feature-packed cable set-top box yet.

The box, to be released in the fall, records programming onto a hard drive, has a built-in DVD player and can serve as a media center for digital photos and music. The dual-tuner device supports two TVs, allowing users to simultaneously record two different shows, or watch one program in one room while playing another show in another. It also supports high-definition television, video-on- demand and pay-per-view services.

Transferring files from PC

The device also has Ethernet or wireless networking capabilities, so users can transfer digital music or photo files from a desktop computer. The machine can feed stored music or photos to a computer -- but not television programs, because of built-in copy-protections.

Cable companies have toyed with introducing such all-in-one boxes for years. A handful of small pilots have been conducted in select cities, but faced with the costly gamble of deploying new boxes customers might not wildly embrace, cable providers have hesitated on bigger launches.

Charter thinks the market could be ready.

Rivals from the satellite and cable industry have begun offering pieces of the various functions or services -- but none yet in an all-in-one set-top box, said Kip Simonson, Charter's executive vice president of marketing.

Will competitors follow?

St. Louis-based Charter, the nation's third largest cable provider, was to announce Wednesday that it has ordered 100,000 boxes, which are made by Motorola and powered by Digeo's Moxi software platform. Charter said the first commercial rollout of the Motorola Broadband Media Center will be for digital cable customers in Rochester, Minnesota.

Charter officials would not disclose customer prices or plans for other markets.

Still, "an order of 100,000 units from a major cable company validates that there's a market for this product," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research. "Now we'll see if other operators, such as Comcast or Cox, will be interested in doing the same."

Growing market for DVRs

The rollout bodes well for the overall fledgling market of digital video recorders, or DVRs -- and not so well for the makers of stand-alone units, such as TiVo or ReplayTV, which have strong loyalty among users but have been slow to gain mass market adoption.

DVRs allow users to record shows onto a hard drive, and to pause, forward, and rewind live broadcasts.

Satellite operators EchoStar and DirecTV have offered set-top boxes with built-in DVRs for several years. Time Warner, a division of CNN's parent company AOL Time Warner, was the first cable company to deploy DVR-equipped boxes last year.

Two Media Center models are available. One has a single tuner and a 40-gigabyte hard drive. The other has two tuners, an 80-gigabyte hard drive, broadband capability, and a built-in DVD player.

2003/07/26

WASHINGTON(Reuters) -- Scientists are wrestling with individual atoms to develop molecule-sized computers, tiny cancer-fighting robots that travel the bloodstream and stain-resistant trousers.

Nanotechnology -- the science of manipulating materials billionths of a meter wide -- has emerged as a promising new field that could lead to stunning advances in years to come.

Boosters claim that nanotech-derived products may some day cure disease, slow the aging process and eliminate pollution.

Making better sunscreen

But for now, the human race will have to settle for tennis balls that keep their bounce longer, flat-panel displays that shine brighter and wrinkle-free khaki slacks that resist coffee stains.

"People are saying, 'Geez, this isn't Star Trek yet; this is just pants that don't stain,' but you've got to start somewhere," said Howard Lovy, news editor of the nanotech industry journal Small Times. "I'm wearing nano-pants as we speak."

Those stain-resistant pants and bouncy tennis balls have their advantages, thanks to a fundamental principle of small science: Different scales lead to different results. Just as a silver necklace may sparkle against your skin but tiny silver particles in your bloodstream will turn your skin blue, common substances like sunscreen and rubber take on entirely different characteristics when assembled at a molecular level.

Sunscreen makers have found that zinc oxide -- the dense white cream lifeguards put on their noses -- turns transparent and silky when made from smaller particles, which cover the skin more thoroughly and do not reflect light.

Procter and Gamble has added tiny zinc oxide particles to its Olay Complete UV Protective Moisture Lotion, a product aimed at mall matrons rather than beach bums.

"It goes on really light and sheer and doesn't leave a residue, so therefore people are much more apt to use it on a daily basis," said Maria Burquest, a Procter and Gamble product spokeswoman.

Used in tennis balls

Wilson's Double Core tennis balls claim to retain their air pressure twice as long as normal tennis balls because of a rubber core that uses tiny "nanoclay" particles to form an airtight seal.

On the ski slopes, VailSoft's Cerax "racing polymers" claim to provide greater speed and control than conventional ski waxes due to a nanotech structure that holds up in a wide variety of snow conditions.

Eastman Kodak's EasyShare LS633 digital camera features a brighter, more power-efficient display built from specially designed carbon-based molecules. Such "OLED" displays should soon show up as television sets, computer screens and eventually printed on flexible plastic sheets that can be woven into clothing.

Getting into pants

Probably the most visible nanotech product to date are the stain- and wrinkle-resistant slacks developed by Greensboro, North Carolina-based Nano-Tex LLC and sold by Eddie Bauer, Lee Jeans and several other retailers.

Billions of tiny whiskers create a thin cushion of air above the cotton fabric, smoothing out wrinkles and allowing liquids to bead up and roll off without a trace.

The whiskers are added by dipping cotton fabric in a proprietary chemical solution before the fabric is cut, said Nano-Tex spokeswoman Dolores Sides. Because the particles are so small, they easily penetrate the fabric and coat each cotton thread completely without changing the way it looks or feels, she said.

The company has developed similar stain-resistant products for synthetic fibers and upholstery. One new product wraps synthetic fibers in an organic, cotton-like substance to create a garment that combines the longevity of polyester with the comfortable feel of natural fabric, she said.

The "nano-care" pants have sold well since they were first introduced in 2001, an Eddie Bauer spokeswoman said, even though they cost $10 more than ordinary khakis. The company now offers nano-care shirts as well, and plans to introduce stain-resistant jackets in the fall, she said.

2003/07/30

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- In sectors ranging from aviation to mobile communications, Europe has come from nowhere to challenge the United States where it once dominated.

Now, experts are wondering if Europe may again be poised to catch the Americans napping -- this time in space.

At the end of May, the European Space Agency announced it had secured backing from its member states to launch Galileo, an independent European satellite constellation that will rival the U.S. military's GPS global positioning system.

For a quarter of a century GPS satellites have hovered 12,430 miles above the earth's surface, sending signals that are now essential for guiding mountain climbers, pilots and army generals alike.

In the war in Iraq, an estimated 60 percent of the bombs used by the United States were GPS-steered weapons.

And GPS-based timing information facilitates international financial transactions and plays a key role in the functioning of the Internet.

But GPS now looks vulnerable.

Seizing opportunity

Because the United States has focused on its military applications, Europe is seizing an opportunity to build a new system tailored to civilians, which now outnumber military users 100 to 1.

In contrast to GPS, which is run by the Pentagon, Galileo will be run by civilians. It promises greater continuity and broader coverage than GPS, potentially giving it a leg up in key applications such as traffic management.

"The United States could end up ceding leadership in civil navigation to Europe," said Jeffrey Bialos, former head of the U.S. delegation for negotiations on GPS and Galileo and an official at the Pentagon under the Clinton administration.

Sovereignty at stake

U.S. officials have accused Europe of creating an unnecessary duplicate system and worry about plans to position Galileo signals on the same frequency used by GPS for military purposes.

Europe's answer has been that Galileo will be a purely civil system. But comments from top European officials demonstrate that strategic considerations have been paramount in going ahead with the project.

In December 2001, French President Jacques Chirac said European countries would become "vassals" of the United States if they did not build their own navigation system.

More recently, wars in Kosovo and Iraq reinforced the notion in European capitals that continued dependence on GPS could compromise European sovereignty.

Concerns that the United States could deliberately jam GPS signals that Europe has come to depend on also grew during the Iraq conflict, in part because of the transatlantic tensions sparked by the war.

"The war in Iraq underscored how weak Europe is in using space applications for defense and security purposes," said European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, speaking in Paris at the end of June.

Broader European drive

David Braunschvig, a managing director at Lazard in New York and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes Galileo would be made available to a future unified European defense force if it takes shape.

For example, future European peacekeepers and soldiers in areas like the Balkans could use Galileo to define their positions or guide their weapons.

"Galileo is positioned as civilian but could easily evolve to become strategic," said Braunschvig, who co-authored a recent article in Foreign Affairs magazine on Galileo and GPS.

Galileo is only one element of a broader European drive to bolster its role in space and lessen its dependence on the United States.

Unhappy with the quality of satellite imagery supplied by the United States during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Germany has embarked on a program to build radar observation satellites that will complement those already operated by the French.

Pledging more money

In late May, European governments pledged more than $1.1 billion to help the Ariane-5 satellite launcher program better compete with U.S. rivals like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

Europe's drive must be put in perspective. It currently spends about $6.8 billion annually on space versus U.S. expenditures of $36.8 billion a year.

The United States accounts for some 95 percent of the money spent around the world on military-related space projects.

But Europe's space initiatives -- and a concurrent space drive in China -- come at a time when control of space is at the center of a debate on future U.S. military policy.

A 2001 Space Commission, chaired by U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, warned that the United States was vulnerable to a "space Pearl Harbor" and urged measures to ensure Washington's continued dominance in space.

2003/08/01

(CNN) -- Seeing a rise in hacker activity that could be a prelude to a broad Internet attack, security experts Thursday urged computer users to protect their machines by installing a free patch offered by Microsoft.

The Homeland Security Department warned it has detected an increase in hackers scanning the Internet to find vulnerable computers.

"That's a sure sign the intruder community is actively interested in finding out who they can exploit," said Jeffrey Havrilla, an Internet security analyst at the government's CERT Coordination Center, which monitors computer security.

Concerns mount

The vulnerability affects almost all computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system software. The flaw, involving so-called "buffer overflows," can fool software into accepting insecure commands that could let intruders steal data, delete files or eavesdrop on e-mails.

Experts worry that home computer users and corporations might delay installing the needed patch and as a result leave their computers open to attack.

"They can take complete control of a machine. They can take it down. They can reformat the hard drive. They can scan for information," said Dan Ingevaldson, engineering director at Internet Security Systems in Atlanta.

New tools tested

Government experts said hackers have tested new tools in recent days to seize unsecured computers.

Internet security firms issued similar warnings, saying they've seen increased chatter in hacker discussion groups and chat rooms about how to take advantage of Windows' vulnerability.

"We are expecting something sooner rather than later," Ingevaldson said. "But there's no horizon on some of these things."

Uncertain about attack

Security watchdogs said there is no way of knowing if or when an attack might take place. They urged users not to gamble and install the patch quickly.

The latest versions of Windows XP prompt users to do this automatically, but those with older versions should visit www.windowsupdate.com to get the download.

2003/08/03

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (Reuters) -- Hand-held computers used to store phone numbers, medical and credit-card information leave millions of gadget lovers fully exposed to identity-theft and other crimes, security experts said Saturday.

Software is now widely available to allow people to steal passwords and other information from popular Palm-based computers, especially when they connect to other computers to share data, said Bryan Glancey, a manager at wireless security services provider MobileArmor of St. Louis, Missouri.

While millions of people now rely on handy electronic scheduling and address books, few carry sufficient security protections to prevent identity theft if the hand-held is lost or stolen, as is commonplace.

Simple programs exist to uncover even hidden data, Glancey said. Other software allows people to steal data while remaining at some distance from the victims, he added.

"Don't put any secure information on your PocketPC or your Palm," Glancey warned after a speech on the subject at DefCon, the largest annual computer security conference in the world. "They don't have any security features built in," he said.

While mobile computers are vulnerable, they are also powerful enough to be used to launch attacks on other users.

Paul Clip of Internet security consultant AtStake told attendees at one workshop session here how people could use Palm Pilots to test for vulnerabilities in wireless networks.

Clip cited reports of criminals using hand-helds to steal anti-theft car passcodes that are transmitted by infrared radio waves over short distances.

2003/08/07

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- The European Union has accused Microsoft of still abusing its dominant position, and says it is giving the company a final chance to defend itself.

The European Commission says Microsoft is unfairly using the "overwhelmingly dominant position" of its Windows operating system in personal computers to monopolize the market for server software.

It also alleges that Microsoft's inclusion of Windows Media Player in the Windows operating system hurts competing audiovisual software such as Apple QuickTime and Real Networks.

"In light of this evidence, the Commission's preliminary conclusion is that Microsoft's abuses are still ongoing," it said in a statement.

EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said the charge sheet sent to Microsoft also identified "appropriate remedies," including additional code Microsoft would have to disclose to competitors in the low-end server market to ensure a level playing field.

It also would have to either offer a version of Windows without the Media Player, or agree to carry rival players with Windows.

"We are determined to ensure that the final outcome of this case is to the benefit of innovation and consumers alike," Monti said.

The EU's executive Commission has been investigating Microsoft for four years.

Commission spokesman Tilman Lueder told reporters that Microsoft could face fines if the abuses continue. "We have now a very strong case. The case as it stands now is too strong to ignore," he said.

Microsoft has argued its 2002 settlement with U.S. authorities, combined with additional steps it has taken voluntarily, answer the charges about media and server software.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company was examining the Commission's statement, but said it was unfortunate that the investigation would now take longer.

"We are exmaining its contents thorougly now to assess the concerns in detail," spokeswoman Tiffany Steckler told Reuters.

"We take this investigation very seriously and will work hard to focus our efforts, responding to concerns and bringing this to a positive resolution."