Diamond Age Solutions News for the IT Industry

Thu Feb 23 15:58:38 NZDT 2006

Today Index

British authorities are asking Microsoft to build a back door into the encryption system to be used in the forthcoming Vista operating system:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm

An executive summary of the recent EMA TCO study on Linux Systems Management:
http://www.osdl.org/newsroom/studies/EMA

The Nokia 6136 phone has both GSM and WiFi connectivity, with smooth handover of calls between the two. Expected to be available Q2 2006:
http://press.nokia.com/PR/200602/1034442_5.html

EEYE Digital Security discovers a critical bug in Windows Media Player. An unchecked buffer overflow in WMP allows malware to be embedded in BMP files:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=29698

Now even phishing sites are getting themselves valid SSL certificates. One wonders what SSL certification fees are actually for:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2006/02/the_new_face_of_phishing_1.html

PalmSource reveales details of its Linux-based mobile phone OS, ALP. This can run legacy Palm OS apps, Java apps, and native Linux/GTK:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4663700447.html
http://www.access.co.jp/english/press/060214.html

Symbian cuts its license fees by as much as 50 percent to a minimum of $2.50 per phone:
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=reutersEdge&storyID=2006-02-13T142332Z_01_L13361768_RTRUKOC_0_US-SYMBIAN-SIEMENS.xml

Tel Aviv University researchers use the hollow protein fibrils damaged by Alzheimer's disease to cast nanowires from silver and other materials:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180203358

An improved form of the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) called FIRAT is produced that is 100x faster and can reveal details on surface interaction:
http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=858

And finally. A flash-mob sparks what could be the world's largest pillow fight in San Fransisco. No injuries, no cops, lots of smiles:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/02/15/BAGCJH8EI11.DTL

News collated from various sources by Vik Olliver for Diamond Age Solutions Ltd. The views presented in this document are the personal opinion of the collator, and should not be taken as any more than that.