Goodbye tailback
November 18, 2008
By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News
With the relentless rise in geo-locative services - those that exploit location data - it’s about time we used global positioning satellite (GPS) systems to get us out of a jam.
The potential for GPS systems to track traffic snarls will be on show at the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in New York this week, where one of two systems that went into operation earlier this month will be showcased.
Besides improving traffic reporting, the information that the systems glean can also help to route traffic, assist town planners and fine-tune future assistive driving technologies.
Current municipal traffic monitoring systems study individual stretches of road that use induction loops to sense the passage of cars, or complex camera systems that capture licence plates.
In order to keep maps up to date, an even more expensive approach is in place, employing fleets of sensor-equipped vehicles constantly driving around. The data can take weeks to be entered into digital maps.
By contrast, the new approach is instantaneous and practically free in terms of infrastructure - because the information the system uses comes from mobile phone and sat-nav device users directly.
“One of the reasons we’re so excited about community data is the sheer volume of it,” says Rik Temmink, vice president for product management at TeleAtlas, the digital mapping subsidiary of sat-nav manufacturer TomTom.
“In the past we received user feedback, but it was a drip-feed of ad hoc reports. Now we get literally billions of GPS measurements every week - it’s unprecedented and really exciting for us.”
Anonymised data
Earlier in November, TomTom released the newest models of its sat-nav devices, with a service known as HD Traffic.
The basis of the system is a constant stream of real-time location data, that in large part comes from mobile provider Vodafone’s data centres.
As handsets move, their signals are re-routed to the nearest mobile masts. The “hand-off” from one mast to the next provides an indirect signal of movement, and the rate of those hand-offs represents a speed.
The idea of using mobile phone hand-off data as a means of traffic reporting has been around for a while, but these new efforts will see thousands of people contributing to the reporting, with both mobile handset and GPS data.
TomTom’s software anonymises the data as it arrives. Then, employing digital maps provided by its subsidiary TeleAtlas, it forms aggregated estimates of road speeds that can quickly point to traffic jams if compared with historical data.
The new TomTom devices are also themselves connected to the mobile network, so that as each device reports its GPS co-ordinates every few seconds, it contributes to the stream of speed data.
At the moment, the majority of the information comes from Vodafone hand-off data, but Rik Temmink, vice president of product management for TeleAtlas, believes the fraction will shift as GPS devices become more prevalent.
Traffic trials
At the ITS conference, a different initiative that is taking root in Northern California, with the same goal in mind, will be shown off.
"This is a service that should run on a whole range of devices"Quinn Jacobson, Nokia Research Center
Last week the Mobile Millenium project was opened to the public. The project is a collaboration between Nokia, the digital mapping company Navteq, the California Department of Transportation, and the University of California, Berkeley.
In February, the project - then called, less ambitiously, Mobile Century - saw 100 Berkeley students driving along a stretch of road, armed with GPS-enabled Nokia handsets.
Having worked out the details for turning the resulting GPS data into traffic information, the team has expanded the trial, allowing the northern California public to download a small piece of software to any GPS-enabled phone.
The team is working also on a system to ensure that user privacy is kept safe, by only collecting GPS data when users are near “virtual trip lines” - specific locations in public spaces - instead of a constant monitoring system.
Quinn Jacobson, from the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, says a wider rollout of the service will happen next year, and sees the approach finding its way into other applications.
“The mobile device is your digital companion,” Mr Jacobson says. “So we see navigation, route planning, and the calendar all tying together, and that’s when it gets really interesting.”
For example, your phone might see that you have a meeting coming up and warn you that traffic snags mean you should leave extra time to get there.
Because Nokia owns Navteq, which can provide the real-time maps to other manufacturers, Jacobson does not see the development as a Nokia-only enterprise.
“We believe that this isn’t just for our handsets; this is a service that should run on a whole range of devices, just as Mobile Millennium runs on a number of handsets.”
Crowd wisdom
More than just optimising routes around traffic jams, the data stream that the approach generates shows its strength in numbers.
Most obviously, the traffic flow data can be fed back to transportation authorities for town planning or to optimise the phasing of traffic lights. The data might also be used in advance of natural disasters, to ensure the best use of escape routes.
The future will see driver-assistive technology for crash avoidance and simple convenience. Cars might, for example, turn the headlights around a curve automatically, illuminating the road better.
But that means the car must know the curve is coming, which in turn means that digital maps have to be incredibly true to life.
“We believe we can do that from these GPS measurements because we have so many of them,” says Mr Temmink. “None of the individual points is accurate but through statistics, if you have 10,000 points, the average will be super-accurate.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
Jerry Yang to quit as Yahoo boss
November 18, 2008
Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley
Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, is to stand down as the internet portal’s chief executive officer.
His departure follows lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has seen its share price collapse to about $10.
Earlier in the year he fought off a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft which offered $33 a share.
Mr Yang also told the workforce that he would be participating in the search for his successor.
“I will always do what is right for this great company,” Mr Yang wrote in an e-mail to employees.
The BBC was told that Mr Yang made the decision to leave as chief executive officer last month. No names were given as to who will succeed him.
The company, based in Sunnyvale, California, said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by chairman Roy Bostock.
“Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level,” said Mr Bostock.
low shares
Earlier this month at the recent Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Mr Yang surprised the industry when he told conference attendees that Microsoft should still buy the company.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We’re willing to sell the company,” he told a packed audience.
The declaration came hours after Google had pulled out of an internet advertising deal with Yahoo amid increasing scrutiny from the Department of Justice.
Mr Yang said he was “disappointed” Google had pulled out of the partnership.
Mr Yang’s e-mail to employees ended with the words: “All of you know that I have always and will always bleed purple” - in reference to the predominant colour on the company’s logo.
Yahoo’s shares closed on Monday at $10.63, giving the company a valuation of only $14.7bn
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
Watching the hi-tech detectives
November 17, 2008
By Dominic Casciani
BBC News home affairs reporter
As fast as detectives delete one website selling your stolen credit card details, another pops up. How do police track these online identity thieves
Sixteen storeys up in an anonymous London tower, the people inside this office aren’t admiring the view of the capital’s financial heart.
They’re hunkered down over laptops, delving link-by-link into another world - the e-crime that attacks the bricks and mortar of Britain’s finances.
“Paul” is a field agent with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), the secretive national policing department that’s often dubbed Britain’s FBI. But the doors Paul tries to smash through are not bolted from the inside.
The doors that interest him are virtual gateways to international rackets plotting to steal your financial identity. No stab vests and baseball caps - just a lot of mouse clicks. It’s like that fairground game Whack-A-Mole. As fast as they hit one target, another replaces it.
“Quite simply, organised criminals are able to get at data on machines where there’s been no attempt made to secure the PC and prevent an attack,” says Paul.
“These websites are selling data harvested from computers. That data is being packaged up and sold on for a price.”
It starts with a hack of personal data from PCs which have no defences. And then, like a horde of uninvited guests to a teenage house party, they’re trashing the place. Everything is vulnerable, passwords, usernames, credit card details - even your mother’s maiden name has an online value.
We looked at one forum where “Donkos” sells his wares back to criminals in the West: “Santa has nice goodies for you,” declares Donkos with a smiley emoticon. On sale are UK log-ins and associated data. Donkos boasts of account details for major UK banks.
Other retailers offer “dumps” - the encoded information on a credit card. “Visa/master £1,” reads the small ad. “Amex/Discover $3 each Â? cheap price, buyer support.”
Other ads promote “fresh” credit cards with a US$21,000 credit limit - yours for $180 each. “Me deal with serious people only!!!!!”
Reprinted cards
Criminals with the right kit drop by these marketplaces and pick up the identities, says Paul. They reprint credit or debit cards and take money as quickly as possible.
HOW MUCH IS BEING LOST- £1.7bn personal losses in 2006
- $1trn global losses
- £224m UK card losses, 2007
- Est 25,000 fraud websites, 2007
Source: Reports quoted in Hansard
UK identities sold for £80 onlineAccording to Get Safe Online, an officially backed campaign body, a full British financial identity can sell for as little as £80.
“The personal data is easy to find and sell,” says Paul. “But for many criminals it’s very risky because there are a lot of rip-offs and scammers involved.”
One online trader makes it abundantly clear with an angry emoticon: “NO free tests or demos, I want a reputated business [sic] not jokes!”
Easy money
Bryn Wellman, a self-styled “Prince of Thieves”, was part of a gang calling itself the Shadowcrew, trading identities and impersonated account holders to get hold of new cards. When arrested, he had some £10m of instant credit at his personal disposal, say investigators.
A year on and the challenge has not lessened. Investigators know some online identity fraudsters are now so brazen they will take hacked details, change a billing address and order high value goods to a safe drop point.
The rip-off takes a few hours and the team move on. Goods are delivered, cards are destroyed, no trace is left.
The rackets selling your identity online are hardly working in the shadows. The markets we saw at Soca were so mouthy in their sales pitch they could have been standing in the street with a loud-hailer.
And it’s this virtual two-fingers to law enforcement worries many experts.
Soca has been trying to join the dots in these scams, particularly with direct on-the-ground action in Nigeria and elsewhere.
But officials are not quite sure how much money is being lost through online identity theft. One 2007 estimate suggested £1.7bn.
Apacs, the financial body responsible for clearing UK bank payments, has warned of the growing menace of phishing - attempts to extract personal information through bogus emails.
MPs from all sides have accused ministers of sticking their heads in the sand, and earlier this year a House of Lords committee questioned a 2006 decision to merge the National High-Tech Crime Unit into Soca.
Critics say the new focus on international crime, coupled with a decision that account holders should refer claims of fraud to banks rather than police, leaves a gap in the national defences.
The Home Office has now changed course. In summer it told the Lords’ committee it has recognised computer crime “does not sit comfortably” with traditional local policing.
Ministers promise a £7m specialist computer fraud team at Scotland Yard to help police around the country conduct investigations. They also promise to ratify a 2001 convention to help police around the world work more closely on combating internet identity theft.
So while Paul and his Soca colleagues are involved in today’s skirmishes, there is a very long war ahead
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
UK identities sold for £80 online
November 17, 2008
By Dominic Casciani
BBC News home affairs reporter
Internet fraudsters sell complete financial identities for just £80, according to an online safety group.
The details packaged and sold online include names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as credit card numbers.
With six out of 10 people now managing finances online, experts say the public needs to do more to prevent e-crime.
The figure comes in data released as part of a week highlighting ways to protect identities online.
The Get Safe Online group, which is backed by police, government and banks, says ID theft is a serious problem because of an international trade in stolen identities and data.
Online marketplaces, often sited in countries with lax controls against e-crime, sell bundles of data harvested in concerted attacks against poorly defended computers in wealthier nations.
The safety group estimates that nearly half of all computer users in the UK are vulnerable because they are not using defensive measures such as a firewall, or up-to-date software which can identity malicious programs.
Crucially, warn experts, too many people use the same password for key websites, making it easier for bank details and other sensitive data to be gathered.
Criminal websites shown to the BBC by the Serious Organised Crime Agency were selling personal information for as little as £5 per piece of data or £80 for an entire package.
The data on sale at any one time typically includes names, credit card numbers and information in a card’s magnetic strip needed to create working clones.
Tony Neate of Get Safe Online said fraudsters buying details online try to use personal information to make money as quickly as possible.
“Online criminal activity can be a sophisticated business, but each of us can take steps to prevent ourselves from becoming a victim,” said Mr Neate.
“If internet users invest a relatively small amount of time and money in ensuring they are fully protected and up-to-date, the risk of such financial loss is almost negligible.”
Banks say phishing attacks are rising - 10,000 alone in the first quarter of 2008.
These are typically emails which look like they have come from a bank - but in fact ask the recipient to log in to a fake website.
Nick Staib of HSBC said: “If your financial reputation has been compromised through identity theft, this could have an impact on your ability to obtain credit or borrow money in the future. Even with an explanatory note on your credit record, you may be viewed as high-risk.”<p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
Ubuntu to debut on smartphones
November 17, 2008
Mobile phone chip designer Arm has announced an alliance with the makers of the Ubuntu open source software.
The deal will produce a version of the operating system for small net-browsing computers known as netbooks.
It marks a departure for Arm, which before now has been best known for designing the chips inside smartphones and feature phones.
The new operating system for Arm-powered machines looks set to be available in April 2009.
Battery power
Rob Coombs, director of mobile marketing at Arm, said he expected to see the first devices running the version of Ubuntu by the time of the Computex show in June.
The devices will be based around the Arm7 architecture and, in particular, the Cortex A8 and A9 processors.
“It’s significant in that it is taking Arm onto larger screen formats,” he said.
The resultant netbooks were likely to sport screens up to 25cm (10in) across and be able to run good quality video, web browsers, and the well-known suite of Open Office programs, said Mr Coombs.
Equally, he said, these netbook devices would have the long battery life enjoyed by many mobiles.
“They’ll be for people who want a small internet-centric device,” he said.
Small form-factor notebooks have proved hugely popular with many people looking for a small device that they can use to go online while out and about.
The interest in the market sector is being driven by devices such as the XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child project and the Eee machine from Asus.
Arm produces chip designs that firms such as TI, Qualcomm and many others turn into processors that power 70-80% of the world’s mobiles.
Arm-designed chips also drive many smartphones such as the G1 - the first phone powered by Google’s Android software.
The tie-up with Arm builds on Canonical’s announcement in May 2007 that it would develop versions of Ubuntu specifically for low-cost note books
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
Tower of power lights up London
November 15, 2008
By Flora Graham
Technology reporter, BBC News
Artists are lighting up London’s South Bank with 1200 wind-powered lights as part of a digital arts festival.
The Aeolian tower - which means moved by the wind - is a 15m steel structure located next to Waterloo Bridge.
The tower is covered with hundreds of tiny wind-powered LEDs. Each one made of a plastic turbine, controlling circuits and three red LEDs.
The designers aim to show how renewable energy can be used to power sustainable art and design.
As wind blows over the tower, swirling patterns of light reveal the strength and direction of the breeze.
“We want to visualize the invisible, making people realize that there’s a lot of energy out there that we’re not using,” said Zena Bruges from Jason Bruges Studio, which designed the tower.
The designers chose the location next to Waterloo Bridge because of the complex wind patterns that come off the River Thames and the bridge, said Gabby Shawcross, one of the tower’s creators.
The lights need a gentle wind of about 3mph (4.8kph) to reach full brightness.
A 2.5m square panel of lights is also on show inside the BFI delegate centre. Since the panel is indoors, the lights are powered with two industrial fans.
These lights are connected to a laptop, which controls the lights so that they can display patterns and messages.
“The result of this could be a low-resolution, wind-powered billboard,” said Ms Bruges.
The team is working with architecture students from the University of Westminster to develop a wireless version of the technology that will allow the lights to be controlled remotely.
These lights wouldn’t need power or data cables, so designers could apply them to any surface in any location, said Mr Shawcross.
The Aeolian Tower will be in place from 14 -16 November as part of the One Dot Zero - Adventure In Motion festival at the BFI Southbank in London
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
YouTube pulls Columbine videos
November 14, 2008
By Siobhan Courtney
Interactive reporter, BBC News
YouTube has removed a number of videos glorifying the Columbine High School killers, after a BBC investigation.
Videos found on the site praised Dylan Harris and Eric Klebold - also known as “Reb” and “Vodka” - for carrying out the shooting, in which 13 people died.
The killings, in Denver, Colorado, nineyears ago, were romanticised in some of the videos which have now been removed.
A YouTube spokesman said the volume of content submitted meant not all can be checked before reaching the site.
Romanticise
The Six O’clock News has discovered that nine years on from America’s worst high school shooting there is a thriving online community obsessed with teenage gunmen Harris and Klebold.
Many tribute videosfound on YouTube romanticise the killers who shot 12 pupils, a teacher and wounded 23 others before shooting themselves.
The BBC’s investigation found it is not only American teenagers who are fascinated with the Columbine killers.
One 17-year-old video maker called Levi, from the North of England, said: “I made the video to raise awareness and I in no way shape or form meant it to look like that [a glorification of the killers].
“I wanted to show different sides of them, the personal sides of them, rather than glorifying it. I wanted to people see behind the killers and see they were real people.”
Levi’s video was one which the BBC showed YouTube - a team of moderators then removed it because it breached the site’s guidelines.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, said it was grateful to the BBC for bringing the videos to its attention.
Peter Barron, Head of Communication for Google UK, owners of the site said: “We do not tolerate videos that glorify school shootings and have removed the videos that fall into that category”.
Morality
Mr Barron said it was impossible to pre-moderate the huge volume of material (13 hours every minute) which YouTube receives, and it relies on their users to flag up videos that need reviewing.
But Brian Rohrbough, whose 15-year-old son Danny died in the massacre, said he was worried about the effect such videos had on teenagers.
He said: “YouTube should maintain a certain degree of morality. A picture of my son lying dead in the sidewalk was used in a music video [not on YouTube] almost immediately after Columbine.
“This is the type of thing that our culture promotes.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation
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