SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it has posted online more than 14,000 pages of preliminary versions of technical documentation for underlying software code in its software programs.
The underlying code, or protocols, are built into Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
In February, the world's biggest software maker, faced with regulatory concerns in Europe and customers struggling with complex computer systems, said it would publish information so rival programs can work better with Windows, Office and other major products.
With Tuesday's disclosures, Microsoft said it will have published more than 44,000 pages of underlying code documentation to which it had been committed.
(Reporting by Duncan Martell; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
Four innovations and their creators have been shortlisted for the world’s biggest technology prize, the 2008 Millennium Technology Prize.
But what are they and what impact have they had on the world?
DNA FINGERPRINTING
The DNA fingerprinting technique developed by British geneticist Sir Alec Jeffreys has revolutionised the field of forensic science, and police detective work.
It has also played an important role in the resolution of paternity and immigration disputes.
DNA fingerprints are examined all around the world, even in portable laboratories, and the equipment for genetic fingerprinting is being made by dozens of companies globally.
Sir Alec discovered the technique for DNA fingerprinting in a “Eureka” moment while examining an X-ray that formed part of a DNA experiment, analysing genetic markers for fundamental human studies.
What the experiment revealed, unexpectedly, were extraordinarily variable DNA patterns showing simple inheritance in his technician’s family’s DNA. Sir Alec realised the importance of this discovery, which was in effect a biological identification method.
“That moment changed my life,” he says. And it led to the development of techniques that would fundamentally change this area of science.
Sir Alec is Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester and continues to work at the genetics laboratory.
ERBIUM-DOPED FIBRE AMPLIFIER (EDFA)
The innovation of Prof David Payne, Dr Emmanuel Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles, has transformed global telecommunications, particularly the world of high-speed and long-distance communication.
Amplifiers are need to boost degraded light signals as they travel through the fibre.
The EDFA eliminated a key problem of amplification in the 1980s, namely the need to convert the light into an electrical signal and then resend with a new laser.
The work or Desurvire, Giles and Payne reduced the cost of creating long-distance fibre-optic networks and “unleashed” the bandwidth of long-distance fibre-optics networks.
The EDFA has led to the rapid rise of the global net, impacting business, education and leisure for billions of people.
The breakthrough of the three scientists was to use the heavy element erbium, which was perfect for amplifying the signal of light used in fibre optic networks.
The first commercial application of the EDFA was in underwater communication cables. The amplifiers sit inside torpedo-like repeaters that are placed in cable every 500km to 800km.
The introduction of these amplifiers led to the depression of the communication satellite markets.
EFDAs are now found in fibre optic networks around the world and the latest amplifiers are the size of a match box.
THE VITERBI ALGORITHM
Dr Andrew Viterbi’s innovation has touched the lives of potentially billions of people. His algorithm advanced the design and implementation of modern wireless communication systems by simplifying the complex and convoluted world of signal processing.
The algorithm is an error-correction scheme for digital communications and is now used every day in billions of mobile phone calls, satellite communications, wireless networks and even MP3 players.
He published his algorithm in 1967 but it did not find an application until computing power became powerful enough to deal with the massive calculations needed to apply it.
Taking the advice of his lawyer, who felt there was no general application for the algorithm, he did not patent it.
He co-founded Qualcomm, helping develop the popular CDMA standard, which is a rival to GSM, and is in use in 3G networks around the world today.
BIOMATERIALS FOR CONTROLLED DRUG RELEASE
Prof Robert Langer is a pioneer of many new technologies, including transdermal delivery systems, which allow the administration of drugs through the skin without needles or other invasive methods.
His work in drug-releasing polymers eventually led to the creation of a novel way to treat brain cancer.
His research into polymers has allowed for more accurate and controlled release of drugs into the body.
Polymers include plastics, DNA and proteins, and while they are mostly thought of as plastics, polymers comprise a large class of natural and synthetic materials with a variety of properties and purposes.
Prof Langer’s breakthrough was to create a three-dimensional matrix structure for polymers which allowed the drug molecules to pass through and into the patient’s system.
His work has also brought about significant advances in tissue engineering, including synthetic replacement for biological tissues.
He has more than 600 issued and pending patents, has published approximately 1,000 articles and 13 books, and is known as the father of controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering.
The creator of DNA fingerprinting heads the shortlist for the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize.
Professor Alec Jeffreys is joined by Prof David Payne, co-inventor of an optical amplifier which transformed telecommunications, on the list.
Prof Payne’s co-inventors, Prof Emmanual Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles, are also finalists.
Dr Andrew Viterbi, whose algorithm aids communications, and biomaterial pioneer Prof Robert Langer are also contenders.
The Millennium Technology Prize, a kind of unofficial Noble Prize for technology, is one of the most prestigious awards for innovation and is given every second year for a technology that “significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future”.
The prize is awarded by the Technology Academy Finland, an independent foundation established by Finnish industry, in partnership with the Finnish government.
The winner of the prize receives 800,000 euros, while the creators of the other innovations will each be awarded 115,000 euros.
Previous recipients include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world wide web, and Prof Shuji Nakamura, inventor of blue, green and white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the blue laser diode.
Sir Alec’s development of techniques for DNA fingerprinting are used around the world by forensic scientists to assist police work.
“No other development in modern genetics has had such a profound impact worldwide on the lives of many millions of people,” said the Technology Academy.
His creation of the technique has been described as a “Eureka” moment, when he looked at the X-ray of a DNA experiment he was working on in September 1984 and saw both similarities and differences in his technician’s family DNA.
Sir Alec heads the department of genetics at the University of Leicester, UK.
Prof Robert Langer, who is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is a pioneer in biomaterials and has been shortlisted “for his inventions and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have saved and improved the lives of millions of people”.
Italian-American engineer Andrew Viterbi has been shortlisted for his creation of an algorithm that makes billions of phone calls every day possible on mobile networks.
The Viterbi algorithm, said the Academy, was “the key building element in modern wireless and digital communications systems, touching lives of people everywhere”.
Three scientists have been shortlisted for their work in developing technology which made possible the creation of a high-speed global fibre-optic network.
In the mid 1980s Prof David Payne, and his team at Southampton University, was in competition with Dr Emmanuel Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles at Bell Labs to develop an optical amplifier that could solve the inadequacies of fibre optic cables of the day.
The two teams developed an optical amplifier, called an erbium-doped fibre amplifier, which was power efficient and enabled light to travel along cables without having to be transformed into an electrical signal and then resent with a new laser.
Prof Payne was first to publish a paper about erbium-doped fibre amplifiers, but Dr Desurvire, now at Thales Research, and Dr Giles, now director of optical subsystems at Bell Labs, were first to make it a working tool.
The amplifier transformed the telecommunications industry and is now a vital part of the global optical fibre network that acts as a backbone to the net.
The winner of the prize will be announced on 11 June.
Looking to expand its line of identity management products, Hitachi has bought a majority ownership interest in M-Tech Information Technology, a vendor of password management software.
Hitachi already sells authentication products that identify the patterns of the veins in a person's finger to confirm the user's identity. The company expects that the M-Tech products will help expand this product line by giving the company new software to help manage functions on the back end.
This finger-vein authentication system is used by about 80 percent of the Japanese financial institutions that have moved to biometric log-on systems for their automated teller machines, Hitachi said in a statement released Monday.
Hitachi also hopes to use the M-Tech software in “joint offerings and other initiatives with Hitachi's biometric, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), smart card and other security-related technologies,” the company said.
M-Tech sells P-Synch and ID-Synch, two applications that allow customers to manage passwords and create new user credentials on the network. M-Tech's products are used by about 700 companies worldwide, including Barclays Bank, Shinsei Bank and Sears, Roebuck.
M-Tech was founded in 1992 and is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hitachi has now renamed the 140-person company Hitachi ID Systems.
GENEVA (Reuters) - Google technology first envisaged as a video game backdrop has been adapted to raise awareness — and potentially financial support — for the plight of refugees and vulnerable people once far from the public eye.
The search engine's Google Earth platform, a mapping service that allows users to move through three-dimensional satellite images of city streets and countryside, now offers a close-up view of U.N. refugee camps and aid projects.
Rebecca Moore, head of Earth Outreach for Google, said the browsable, high-definition pictures of humanitarian crisis zones stood to captivate a mass audience that may not otherwise see them.
Many of the 350 million people who have downloaded Google Earth use it to scan for holiday destinations or to see what other corners of the world look like from above. The sharp satellite images are updated about every month, though in some places they are older and in others no public shots exist.
Moore told a packed audience of aid experts at the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) headquarters that they could add video interviews of refugees, photographs of displacement crises and educational text to the satellite backdrop to educate even casual users about unfolding crises.
“Use Google Earth to tell your story,” she urged.
While zooming through images of refugee camps in Chad, Iraq and Colombia — showing various levels of detail, from broad topography to shots of tents — she said developers first made the tool as a backdrop of “the ultimate video game.”
“We realized that Google Earth had the potential to be a much more significant and meaningful tool,” she said.
CRISES
Former Irish President Mary Robinson, who also served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the technology could help the public better understand displacement crises.
“We need all the communications possible to change the dynamic, to make this something very personal,” she told the UNHCR audience by videolink.
Geneva is home to the U.N.'s European headquarters, U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organisation, international health financiers including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and major humanitarian aid providers including the Red Cross.
All are engaged in continuous and active fundraising efforts to draw in money for their operations.
Karl Steinacker, head of the UNHCR's field information and coordination support section, said the U.N. agency was seeking to “systematically map” all its approximately 150 refugee camps.
“This is the first time we are using these maps for public information,” he said, noting UNHCR officials could also use the data to ensure that camps are well-designed and working well.
The images — which are not live transmissions — also offer a bird's eye view of troublesome areas, such as those where rapes are occurring or where people are falling ill from malaria, Steinacker said.
Some U.N. experts said the satellite images could help aid providers see where communities of displaced people have moved to, and where aid ought to be dispatched to. But others said the technology appeared to have less value as a tool for workers in the field who lack access to high-speed computers and Internet.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Charles Dick)
GENEVA - Internet search giant Google Inc. unveiled a new feature Tuesday for its popular mapping programs that shines a spotlight on the movement of refugees around the world.
The maps will aid humanitarian operations as well as help inform the public about the millions who have fled their homes because of violence or hardship, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which is working with Google on the project.
“All of the things that we do for refugees in the refugee camps around the world will become more visible,” U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone said at the launch in Geneva.
Users can download Google Earth software to see satellite images of refugee hot spots such as Darfur, Iraq and Colombia. Information provided by the U.N. refugee agency explains where the refugees have come from and what problems they face.
Although not all parts of the world are displayed at the same high resolution, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has made an effort to allow users to zoom in closely on refugee camps.
In the Djabal refugee camp in eastern Chad, which is home to refugees from the conflict in neighboring Darfur, Google Earth users can see individual tents clustered together amid a sparse landscape, and learn about the difficulty of providing water to some 15,000 people.
Google says more than 350 million people have already downloaded Google Earth. The software was launched three years ago and originally intended for highly realistic video games, but its use by rescuers during Hurricane Katrina led the company to reach out to governments and nonprofit organizations.
Google Earth has since teamed up with dozens of nonprofit groups seeking to raise awareness, recruit volunteers and encourage donations.
Among them are the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the U.N. Environmental Program and the Jane Goodall Institute.
“Google wants to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Samuel Widmann, the head of Google Earth Europe.
The company estimates that 80 percent of the world’s information can be plotted on a map in some way.
Rebecca Moore, who heads the Google Earth Outreach program for nonprofit groups, said the company does not control the information published using the software.
Google is considering offering a stand-alone version of its mapping software that can be used by aid workers in the field who do not have an Internet connection on hand, she said.
Google said it will also provide nonprofit groups in several countries with training and free copies of its $400 professional mapping software, an offer it plans to roll out across the globe over time.
___
On the Net:
UNHCR’s Google Earth maps: http://www.unhcr.org/googleearth
Google Outreach: http://earth.google.com/outreach
San Francisco - Mainsoft on Tuesday is launching a product that supports Microsoft's ASP.Net AJAX technology on Java-supported platforms such as Linux.
Through Mainsoft for Java EE version 2.2, Visual C# and Visual Basic developers can use ASP.Net 2.0 components from Microsoft to build Java pages with sophisticated user interfaces and client-server communications, Mainsoft said. Developers can add server controls to ASP.Net applications. Ported applications offer equivalent performance on Java as the original application.
Mainsoft has invested more than $14 million technology to make ASP.Net run cross-platform, the company said. With the 2.2 release, developers can use Microsoft's Visual Studio development environment and ASP.Net AJAX to develop enterprise applications and deploy them on Windows or Java EE (Enterprise Edition) servers or both. They can be run on Linux as well.
“We take .Net source code to Java byte code,” said Yaacov Cohen, Mainsoft president. “By doing that, we are actually extending the Java platform by bringing the Visual Basic and C# languages to the Java platform.” Developers can use existing .Net skills.
Mainsoft ASP.Net AJAX extensions allow developers to build ASP.Net AJAX-enabled Web applications and port existing Web applications to run natively on Tomcat and IBM WebSphere application server.
Also featured in version 2.2 are algorithms that optimize conversion of numbers to strings. Because Internet protocols such as XML and HTML are text-based, software programs must spend a lot of time converting numbers to text and text to numbers. Performance tests by Mainsoft indicate the combined algorithms make .Net conversion speeds 40 to 260 percent faster and deliver three times the conversion speed of equivalent Java APIs.
Mainsoft for Java EE is the result of a collaboration with the Novell-run Mono project, which provides an open source implementation of Microsoft .Net technologies.
San Francisco - IBM believes it will prevail both with the U.S. International Trade Commission and in U.S. courts in a patent spat with Asustek Computer of Taiwan.
Asustek filed suit against IBM
GENEVA (AFP) - The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday unveiled a new partnership with Internet giant Google to help track refugees from Iraq to Darfur and raise public awareness of its work.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched its new service using the “Google Earth Outreach” programme, which allows organisations to add their own data and information as a “layer” on top of the existing Google Earth service.
The UNHCR layer shows three of the agency's main refugee operations — Iraq, Darfur and Colombia — as well as providing an overview of its structure, mandate and wider operations.
Users can click on an icon of a camp for Darfur refugees in Chad, for example, and read pop-up windows detailing everyday life for the refugees, their histories and the challenges aid agencies face in ensuring their health and livelihoods.
“Google Earth is a very powerful way for UNHCR to show the vital work that it is doing in some of the world's most remote and difficult displacement situations,” said UNHCR Deputy High Commissioner Craig Johnstone.
“By showing our work in its geographical context, we can really highlight the issues we face and how we tackle them,” he added.
Johnstone stressed that the agency had to change how it works to keep pace with technological developments as well as the increasing complexity of refugee issues, with economic migration and displacement due to climate change adding to traditional patterns of refugees forced from their homes by conflict.
“We're putting more people out in the field, trying to be as slim as we possibly can at the headquarters level, really working extremely hard to stay abreast of change,” he told a presentation of the new Google service at the agency's base here.
“The opportunity to work with Google to sort of help us in that process I think is a fantastic opportunity for the UNHCR,” he added.
Rebecca Moore, head of the Google Earth Outreach programme, said the aim was to addresss what to many people is an abstract construct, and “take” them there on a virtual trip, so they can gain an intuitive understanding of what is at stake.