Wiping data ‘hits flu prediction’ – BBC

Forcing Google to delete user data after six months could dent its ability to predict pandemics such as swine flu, said the search giant’s co-founder.

Larry Page said he thought more debate was needed around the issue of storing user data.

The European Commission wants data ditched after six months but Mr Page said there were benefits to users.

“More dialogue is needed [with regulators],” he told UK journalists at a Google event in Hertfordshire.

Data clash

He said Google’s ability to plot and predict potential pandemics would not be possible if the firm had to delete search data after six months.

“When we released data about Mexico flu trends we had a whole debate,” he said.

“We were worried we would cause panic. But we decided the benefits outweighed the cost.”

Mr Page said deleting search data after six months was “in direct conflict” with being able to map pandemics.

In a demo to journalists, Google showed that it had been able to spot a potential pandemic ahead of government agencies because it was using search data.

On its website about spotting flu trends, the firm says: “Our up-to-date influenza estimates may enable public health officials and health professionals to better respond to seasonal epidemics and pandemics.”

Mr Page said the less data companies like Google were able to hold the “more likely we all are to die”.

The European Commission has argued that holding on to search data runs the risk of third parties being able to build profiles of individuals even when some identifying information is deleted.

In September 2008, Google said it would anonymise data after nine months following pressure from Europe on the issue. Previously it had kept data, including IP addresses and search terms, for 18 months.

European advisers recommend that search engines should not keep data for more than six months.

Previously, Google argued that it had to keep data for longer to comply with requests for help from law enforcement agencies.

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Facebook and the Whopper deal

Facebook is happy, right? What is a good example to agencies of Madison Avenue, how a great brand can be a real benefit for users. This is the future of advertising. Or it could be Facebook, if not halt, the data cited:

We encourage the creativity of developers and brands with help of the Facebook platform, but we must also ensure that applications to users’ expectations of privacy of users. This activity, which facilitates the application is contrary to the privacy of users of the application of people, if a user deletes a friend. We have succeeded in developing solutions. Meanwhile, we have the necessary measures to ensure the confidence of users of Facebook, is maintained.

Someone said before the sale of seal on this item? All that the user will receive a message disse tells which contributes to the spread Virally application. Without the implementation of this feature is less potent. There is no privacy, but only a decision of Facebook, people should not be warned, if you as a friend.

Facebook and the Whopper deal

How Intel are slashing prices

Some of the chip maker in Taiwan on the basis of customers, including Micro-Star and Gigabyte Technology, said they were the leaders of Intel, that the price cuts in July were 23.Desperate time of desperate measures. Rival Advanced Micro Devices since last month its market share by more than 20 percent for the first time in four years. Even in the last month, Dell bought AMD chips for its computers for the first time.

Intel cuts its prices

BBC iPlayer now available on Mac – BBC

The BBC has created a version of the iPlayer that works with both Mac and Linux computers.

The two systems, which have been able to stream BBC programmes via the iPlayer for a year, will now be able to handle downloads.

The BBC, working with Adobe, has developed the new version, known as BBC iPlayer Desktop.

The Corporation also ran tests of a system to help ISPs cope with increase in traffic generated by the iPlayer.

Lab edition

The iPlayer is the BBC’s online media player that lets viewers stream programmes for up to seven days after broadcast or download and watch them for up to 30 days.

When the iPlayer first launched the BBC was criticised for producing versions that only worked with Microsoft’s Windows XP and which used Microsoft’s digital rights management (DRM) system to enforce viewing restrictions.

The BBC’s head of digital media technology, Anthony Rose, who is responsible for delivering the next generation of BBC iPlayer, said the structures put in place by the BBC Trust on how the iPlayer can operate meant DRM was a necessity.

“The BBC Trust said we could make content available for seven or 30 days after broadcast,” he said. “The ability to take things away after some time requires DRM.”

The new version of the iPlayer has been written with Adobe’s AIR technology which aims to make it possible to create applications that can be downloaded to your computer, rather than just embedded in browser web pages as is possible with the widely used Flash software.

Those who want to try the new player must first install Adobe AIR and then get the trial version by signing up to be an iPlayer Labs tester via the iPlayer site.

A beta version of the BBC iPlayer Desktop that uses the Adobe AIR technology was made available on 18 December with a finished version likely to be released in February 2009.

The cross-platform nature of Adobe AIR means the iPlayer will work with Open Source and Apple Mac computers “out of the box” on 18 December, said Mr Rose. It fulfilled the Trust’s demand that the iPlayer be “platform neutral”, he said.

Mr Rose said the iPlayer now supported three separate DRM technologies: Microsoft, Adobe, and the OMA standards for mobiles.

“We may embrace other DRMs as needed,” said Mr Rose, adding that putting the iPlayer on phones, game consoles and many more computers was helping to drive the success of the application.

Traffic congestion

At the same time, said Mr Rose, the BBC has carried out tests to help ISPs mitigate the bandwidth demands of iPlayer users.

In early 2008 ISPs complained that the popularity of the iPlayer was putting a strain on their networks and forcing up their costs.

Net provider Plusnet published figures which suggested the cost of carrying streaming traffic increased from £17,233 to £51,700 per month largely because of the iPlayer.

The BBC has worked with British company Velocix to test a system which puts servers in ISPs that store, or cache, the most popular iPlayer programmes.

Mr Rose said smart software in the iPlayer would check these caches to see if the programme a user wants is loaded locally on a caching device near the user. Streaming from within an ISP’s network cuts the cost of transporting that traffic for both the BBC and the net supplier.

It was up to ISPs now to get hold of the caching boxes and install them, said Mr Rose.

“The BBC is not building its own content delivery network,” he said. “But we can help move the market in this area.”

Mr Rose said it would establish commercial relationships with ISPs that use the caching technology in the same way it did with other firms that carry or broadcast BBC content.

Repairs begin on undersea cable – BBC

A French crew has begun to repair two undersea cables in the Mediterranean that were severed on Friday, disrupting internet and phone communications.

A robot submarine will locate the ends of the cables on the sea bed and bring them to the surface to be re-connected.

They were cut somewhere between Sicily and Tunisia, probably by an anchor.

Egypt says it has been able to restore most of its communications by re-routing services, but other parts of the Middle East remain badly affected.

Experts have warned that it may be days before the fault is fixed and that the knock-on effect could have serious repercussions on regional economies.

Lengthy process

Experts from France Telecom Marine arrived at the site of the damage to the SEA-ME-WE4 and SEA-ME-WE3 lines on board the cable ship, Raymond Croze, at 1330 GMT on Sunday, spokesman Louis-Michel Aymard said.

We have to fix the cable fibre by fibre, and it’s a very huge cable Louis-Michel Aymard France Telecom Marine

They then sent a remotely-operated submarine robot called “Hector” to the sea bed to begin the search for the two ends of each line.

It is unclear how long it will take, as a ship anchor could have dragged them several kilometres from their normal positions.

Once located, the cable ends will be brought to the surface by the robot and repairs will be carried out in a special facility on the ship – a process that could take days.

“We have to fix the cable fibre by fibre, and it’s a very huge cable,” Mr Aymard told the Associated Press.

France Telecom said it expected to repair SEA-ME-WE4 by 25 December and SEA-ME-WE3 by the end of the year.

The third line believed to have been severed in the same incident, FLAG, is not operated by the same consortium and will be repaired by another ship.

Earlier this year, the same line was damaged off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, severely disrupting internet and phone communications for many in the Middle East for days, although only two lines were snapped then.

Europe backs mobile roaming cap – BBC

European telecoms chiefs have backed plans to make it cheaper to access data while on a mobile phone abroad.

The measures will slash the cost of sending a text while abroad and reform the way phone operators charge for data calls made when customers roam.

The changes to charges are due to come in to force across the EU’s 27 member nations from July 2009.

Some nations and industry groups said the changes could mean higher charges for other services.

Costly calls

“We want to avoid so-called bill shock, when someone gets back from a holiday and gets a nasty surprise,” said Luc Chatel, French minister for industry and consumer affairs.

Operators have plenty of margin Viviane Reding

Many people have incurred high data download charges for using their phone when abroad to get a photo or watch a video.

The initial proposals to cap data roaming charges were made by EU Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding.

On 27 November the package of measures won the backing of EU telecoms ministers at a ministerial meeting.

The rules put a retail price cap of 11 euro cents (9p) on texts sent while roaming – a substantial cut on the European average of 29 euro cents (24p). The ministers backed a cap of 1 euro per megabyte (83p) on the price of downloading data – though this applies only to the charges operators levy on each other.

Also included in the rules is a mechanism that will allow for connections to be cut if a data bill hits 50 euros (£41).

Operators’ fears

Not all ministers were equally happy with the EU proposals.

“If operators don’t get their revenues from roaming then they will get it from somewhere else,” the Czech Republic said.

The GSM Association, which represents operators, declared its “disappointment” that the measures were deemed necessary.

“In the current economic climate governments should be working to encourage investments,” said a spokesman.

“The biggest concern is extending the use of retail price regulation which is a very extreme step and could deter investment in new services,” he added.

“The real cost of transmitting an SMS on roaming is less than one cent,” said Commissioner Reding. “I believe there is ample room between one cent and 11 cents which is the ceiling which will be fixed.”

“Operators will be able to provide 25 to 50 cents per megabyte and we set one euro per megabyte,” she said. “Operators have plenty of margin.”

She added that traffic had jumped 30-35% on voice calls since EU tariffs cut the roaming charges by 50-60%.

Research suggests that phone owners would use their phones more overseas if worries about high charges were eased.

20% of the people questioned by research firm TNS said confusion over roaming charges stopped them using their phone overseas. If offered a fixed price for roaming data 17% of those questioned by TNS said they would be more likely to use their phone more while abroad.

Now the proposals have won the backing of EU telecoms ministers, the proposals pass to the European Parliament.

However, it is not expected to raise any significant objections and the measures are expected to come in to force in July 2009.

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Europe’s 10bn euro space vision – BBC

Member states of the European space agency (Esa) have agreed a 10bn-euro budget at their meeting in The Hague.

The figure, which covers the next three to five years, represents a substantial increase in funding.

Ministers said the investment in space would help European industry pull through the current economic downturn.

The new money will help build new Earth observation satellites, maintain Esa’s participation in the space station, and fund probes to the planets.

“The decisions of this ministerial conference are very important just in the middle of an economic crisis,” said Peter Hintze, the minister who led the German delegation.

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“Because money paid for high technology is good money for the European economy; and I think it will help us to leave the economic crisis [behind] and to gain new economic strength,” he told BBC News.

It took the science ministers from Esa’s 18 member states two days of intense discussions to arrive at the budget figure.

Agency officials had drawn up a “wish list” valued at 10.4bn euros and hoped to get at least 90% of that figure. It the end, their expectations were exceeded, with the meeting approving a budget line of 9.9bn – over a billion more than the commitments made the last time the ministers met in Berlin in 2005.

“I never expected that,” conceded Esa director general Jean-Jacques Dordain.

“It demonstrates that the member states, number one, believe in what space can do for the citizens; number two, they believe in Esa as a successful organisation; and number three, that in a period of economic crisis, this is the right time to invest into the future.”

In 2008, Europe attached its Columbus lab to the space station

The two biggest contributors were Germany, at 2.7bn, and France at 2.3bn. The Italians contributed just over a billion; the UK just under a billion.

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The new budget will allow Esa to grow its basic science programme, at 3.5% a year, whilst at the same time starting a number of new programmes.

Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket, which has come to dominate the commercial launcher market, will now be upgraded to allow it to carry heavier payloads than its current nine-tonne limit.

Ministers agreed to put almost 1.4bn euros into its ongoing activities at the International Space Station – the single biggest “ticket” on The Hague agenda.

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The second phase was approved of the world’s most ambitious environmental monitoring project, known as GMES. This will take the “pulse” of the planet and requires a series new Earth observation satellites to be launched.

A project to build the next generation of meteorological satellites was also funded. This project actually received more money than was requested, such was the interest from France and Germany.

A study will work out how a re-entry capsule can be added to Europe’s ATV

In addition, Europe will now take the first step in a plan that could eventually lead to a manned spaceship based on its highly successful unmanned space-station cargo-vessel, known as the ATV.

A feasibility study will be undertaken to work out how a re-entry capsule could be added to the freighter, first to bring materials safely back from the space station but eventually, also, humans.

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“The configuration of the capsule would be designed taking into account the manned version,” said Simonetta Di Pippo, Esa’s director of human spaceflight.

“So once we’ve done the first step with the cargo version in, say 2017, we can move quickly towards the manned capsule because the configuration was the right one from the beginning and we won’t have wasted time and money passing through the cargo version,” she told BBC News.

Agency officials cautioned, however, that a crew ship was a long-term goal and depended on the money being available in the future to build it, and on the need for such a spacecraft given that the objectives of European space nations could change in the next few years.

In any case, a manned ATV would not fly before the end of the next decade.

Still time

One of the key decisions for the UK at this meeting centred on ExoMars, the robotic rover Esa intends to send to the Red Planet in 2016 to search for microbial life.

The mission has been delayed because of its high cost and the meeting was asked to make good the shortfall that exists in the one-billion-euro budget.

Not all the money was promised in The Hague, but most observers here thought the funding would be made up in time. The UK science minister Lord Drayson said the important point was that ExoMars had been accepted by member states as an important mission for Esa.

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“This is a really exciting project,” he told BBC News. “It builds again on the UK expertise in robotics. We expect to have a key part of the technology which enables the mission to take place, and it will be fascinating to see whether we do find evidence of life on Mars.”

On the robotics theme, the meeting also saw the agreement of Jean-Jacques Dordain to put an Esa research centre in the UK. This will focus on space robotics and climate change science.

In another significant move, Britain pledged 121m euros to the Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (Artes) programme. This will go into the development of ever more sophisticated satellite payloads – a particular strength of the UK.

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Woman cleared of MySpace bullying – BBC

An American woman, accused of driving a teenage girl to suicide by bullying her on MySpace, has been cleared of one of the most serious charges against her.

Lori Drew, 49, was found not guilty of accessing a computer without authorisation to inflict emotional distress.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on another conspiracy charge.

She was convicted on three minor counts of violating the website’s terms and conditions.

Drew, from Missouri, was accused of posing as a boy on MySpace to befriend 13-year-old Megan Meier, who hanged herself after their virtual relationship ended.

The court in Los Angeles heard that Lori Drew was aware Megan suffered from depression and was emotionally fragile.

Drew was charged with violating MySpace’s terms of use, which ban users from assuming false identities and harassing other members.

The case is the first in the US relating to cyber-bullying.

Lori Drew could receive up to three years in prison when she is sentenced.

She would have faced a maximum 20 years if convicted of the more serious felony charges.

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