Monday, December 24, 2001		Latest in IT world

A Thai software site has launched a downloadable program which it says will keep mosquitoes at bay by emitting a low-frequency sound from computer speakers.Thaiware.com programmer Saranyou Punyaratabunbhu said his anti-mosquito program that has been downloaded 15,000 times, produces a sound which is inaudible to humans but which hampers the irritating insects' ability to fly."Instead of having to plug in extra mosquito-killers, you could just use your computer to drive them away," Saranyou told The Nation newspaper according to AFP, adding that he was inspired by existing devices that used the same concept."You'd just be using your computer for more purposes than normal," he added. When a mosquito flies into a zone where low-frequency sounds in the 15-20 KHz range are being emitted, a sort of "turbulence" is created that makes it difficult for them to fly, the report said. Messages posted on a thaiware.com bulletin board generally gave good reviews of the program, but some users said it caused headaches, particularly at the lower 15 KHz level.

Adobe Systems, whose copyright infringement claims against a Russian programmer has generated worldwide protests, is facing its own infringement problems, AP reports.A US District Court judge in Los Angeles tentatively ruled last week against the San Jose-based maker of graphics and publishing software and ordered it to stop selling InDesign and any other products that allegedly violate the copyright of software owned by Trio Systems LLC. Trio Systems, based in Pasadena, has established a "likelihood of success on the merits" of its copyright infringement lawsuit against Adobe, the judge stated in granting the preliminary injunction."We're disappointed with the court's order," Adobe spokeswoman Holly Campbell said . "We disagree with its findings, but we will comply with it." Campbell acknowledged that Adobe's InDesign 1.5 version and InCopy 1.1 version contain Trio's underlying software code, but would not comment on specific allegations that Adobe violated a licensing agreement with Trio.

Softbank Corp and Yahoo! Japan Corp said that they would use the Internet telephone technology and their fast-growing broadband network to offer the lowest telephone call rates in Japan from next spring.Softbank said it would offer uniform rates of 7.5 yen (about six cents) per three minutes to any destination in Japan and abroad, sharply undercutting telecom giant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp (NTT) and other competitors.Users would also have to pay a 390 yen basic monthly charge.Unlike other VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) services, which carry phone calls over the Internet, Softbank's phone service, called ‘BB Phone,’ works through a special telephone terminal adapter that allows users to connect a normal telephone and dial regular phone numbers. Other VoIP services require the use of software on a personal computer.

A recently uncovered security hole could give hackers full access to Unix servers from IBM Corp and Sun Microsystems, experts told AP as per news report in The Straits Times. Though no major breaches have been reported so far, the flaw could be used in worms that automatically seek out and infect vulnerable systems, said Dan Ingevaldson of Internet Security Systems (ISS). "The worst-case scenario would be some kind of worm that had advanced scanning logic, like Nimda and Code Red," he said, referring to damaging worms that affected Microsoft-based computers this year. In some cases, the highest level of access could be granted. Patches are now available to fix machines running Sun Solaris and IBM AIX operating systems, Ingevaldson said.