City turns to lasers for fast trades

2 May 2013 Last updated at 13:13 ET

In the world of computerised financial trading, every second counts and superfast fibre-optic networks may no longer be quick enough.

Laser beam technology originally developed for the military is being rolled out to shave time off trades.

It will compete with new microwave networks that are increasingly being used by traders.

The company behind it, Anova, said it would be as fast as microwave networks and as reliable as fibre.

"There is more money being poured into this... space than at any time in its history," said chief executive Mike Persico.

The company has formed a joint venture with AOptix, which was founded by two California scientists who developed the laser technology for the US military to improve communication between fighter jets.

Initially the system, which combines lasers and wireless dishes, will be rolled out on short-range US and UK networks, with the first long-haul route between the UK and Germany being added later.

High-frequency trading (HFT) is driven by complex algorithms that allow traders to jump ahead of competitors by exploiting minute discrepancies in price on exchanges in different cities.

Market volatility

In such trading, every millisecond counts and the competition to provide ever-faster trading networks is fierce.

The first microwave connection between London and Frankfurt was turned on last October by Perseus Telecom.

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• Originally used in the 1970s for phone networks
• Microwave networks rely on dishes that are installed on buildings and mobile phone towers
• Signals can be disrupted by bad weather
• They have limited capacity

According to the company, the system cut about 40% off the time taken to complete a trade compared with traditional fibre-optic networks.

They cannot entirely replace fibre optics because the signal can be disrupted by bad weather and the network has limited capacity.

HFT in Europe is believed to account for nearly 40% of total equities trading, generating 6.7tn euros (£5.6tn) a year.

The method is controversial and has also been blamed for causing market volatilities, such as the notorious flash crash in May 2010 that wiped 10% off the value of the stock market in minutes.

Increasingly regulators are looking at ways to bring in tougher rules for such trading.

Other technologies that may be used in future to help make trades even faster include the use of drones as platforms for wireless links.

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World's smallest flying robot built

2 May 2013 Last updated at 14:05 ET By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC News

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See the tiny robotic flies in action

Scientists in the US have created a robot the size of a fly that is able to perform the agile manoeuvres of the ubiquitous insects.

This "robo-fly", built from carbon fibre, weighs a fraction of a gram and has super-fast electronic "muscles" to power its wings.

Its Harvard University developers say tiny robots like theirs may eventually be used in rescue operations.

It could, for example, navigate through tiny spaces in collapsed buildings.

The development is reported in the journal Science.

Dr Kevin Ma from Harvard University and his team, led by Dr Robert Wood, say they have made the world's smallest flying robot.

It also has the fly-like agility that allows the insects to evade even the swiftest of human efforts to swat them.

This comes largely from very precise wing movements.

By constantly adjusting the effect of lift and thrust acting on its body at an incredibly high speed, the insect's (and the robot's) wings enable it to hover, or to perform sudden evasive manoeuvres.

And just like a real fly, the robot's thin, flexible wings beat approximately 120 times every second.

The researchers achieved this wing speed with special substance called piezoelectric material, which contracts every time a voltage is applied to it.

By very rapidly switching the voltage on and off, the scientists were able to make this material behave like just like the tiny muscles that makes a fly's wings beat so fast.

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As an insect's wings move through the air, they are held at a slight angle, deflecting the air downward.

This deflection means the air flows faster over the wing than underneath, causing air pressure to build up beneath the wings, while the pressure above the wings is reduced. It is this difference in pressure that produces lift.

Flapping creates an additional forward and upward force known as thrust, which counteracts the insect's weight and the "drag" of air resistance.

The downstroke or the flap is also called the "power stroke", as it provides the majority of the thrust. During this, the wing is angled downwards even more steeply.

You can imagine this stroke as a very brief downward dive through the air - it momentarily uses the weight of the animal's own weight in order to move forwards. But because the wings continue to generate lift, the creature remains airborne.

In each upstroke, the wing is slightly folded inwards to reduce resistance.

"We get it to contract and relax, like biological muscle," said Dr Ma.

The main goal of this research was to understand how insect flight works, rather than to build a useful robot.

He added though that there could be many uses for such a diminutive flying vehicle.

"We could envision these robots being used for search-and-rescue operations to search for human survivors under collapsed buildings or [in] other hazardous environments," he said.

"They [could] be used for environmental monitoring, to be dispersed into a habitat to sense trace chemicals or other factors.

Dr Ma even suggested that the robots could behave like many real insects and assist with the pollination of crops, "to function as the now-struggling honeybee populations do in supporting agriculture around the world".

The current model of robo-fly is tethered to a small, off-board power source but Dr Ma says the next step will be to miniaturise the other bits of technology that will be needed to create a "fully wireless flying robot".

"It will be a few more years before full integration is possible," he said.

"Until then, this research project continues to be very captivating work because of its similarity to natural insects. It is a demonstration of how far human engineering ingenuity has reached, to be mimicking natural systems."

Dr Jon Dyhr, a biologist from the University of Washington who also studies insect flight, said these flying robots were "impressive feats of engineering".

"The physics of flight at such small scales is relatively poorly understood which makes designing small flying systems very difficult," he told BBC News, adding that biological systems provided "critical insights into designing our own artificial flyers".

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Dark web drug site hit by hacker

2 May 2013 Last updated at 14:50 ET

An "underground" website famed for selling drugs and other illegal items has been targeted in a cyberattack.

It appears the site suffered from a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack over the course of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Silk Road is only accessible through Tor, a service which allows users to browse anonymously online.

Several US politicians have called for the marketplace to be shut down, without success.

DDoS attacks involve flooding a website with more traffic than it can handle, therefore knocking it offline.

After two days of intermittent service, Silk Road's administrators told users on Wednesday morning the site was back in action - but said they could not rule out further downtime.

"Silk Road is open and accessible," said the site's administrator, writing under the user name Dread Pirate Roberts.

"As soon as the attacker finds out, he will likely change his tactics and try to take the site down again.

"Hopefully he won't be able to, but time will tell."

Possible motives

Prior to the site's recovery, owners speculated that the attack had exposed deep-rooted vulnerabilities in the Tor network.

"It's looking more and more like a restructuring of the Tor software or even the Tor network will be required to mitigate the kind of attack we are under," one update read.

Tor is a channel for people wanting to route their online communications anonymously.

It has been used by activists to avoid censorship as well as those seeking anonymity for more nefarious reasons - leading it to be known as the "dark web".

Speculation has spread over possible motives for the attack - including the possibility that a competitor is looking to set up a rival site on the network.

Silk Road takes its name from the historic trade routes spanning across Europe, Asia and parts of Africa.

The website has gained a reputation as being an online black market, with illegal goods being sold openly.

Carnegie Mellon University estimated that over $1.22m (£786,183) worth of trading took place on the site every month.

Payments for goods are made with the virtual currency Bitcoin, making it hard to track users buying drugs.

However, one Australian man using the site to sell drugs was arrested in February.

In a statement, local police said the arrest proved they were "one step ahead" of criminals on online networks.

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Tablet computer sales are soaring

2 May 2013 Last updated at 16:30 ET

Tablet computer shipments soared in the first quarter of 2013, growing by 142.4% compared with the same period in 2012, according to analysts IDC.

Figures suggested more tablets were shipped from January to March 2013 than in the entire first half of 2012.

Apple remains the biggest brand in the market with a 39.6% share.

The figures come just days after Blackberry boss Thorsten Heins predicted tablets would be dead by 2018.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the chief executive said: "In five years I don't think there'll be a reason to have a tablet any more.

"Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model."

According to IDC, there were 49.2 million tablets shipped in January, February and March.

Apple's iPad range accounted for 19.5 million of those devices.

While that was nearly 8 million more tablets than for the same period last year, it still meant that the US firm no longer dominated the market with the 58% share it used to have.

"Sustained demand for the iPad Mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than expected first quarter for Apple," said IDC's Tom Mainelli.

"In addition, by moving the iPad launch to the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple seems to have avoided the typical first-quarter slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March."

Other analysts have noted that many newer tablets - particularly 7in (18cm) models - were selling at almost cost price, leading to minimal profits despite the boom in units shipped.

Samsung proved the second most popular vendor with 8.8 million tablets shipped and a 17.9% market share, according to IDC.

Copycats

Blackberry's own tablet, the heavily delayed Playbook, has failed to meet sales expectations since being launched in late 2011.

Mr Heins told Bloomberg that Blackberry would only consider releasing another tablet if it could be profitable.

Instead, the company is focusing on its revamped smartphone range.

"I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat," Mr Heins said.

But IDC's figures suggested that it would be unwise to write off the tablet format just yet.

"With growth fuelled by increased market demand for smaller screen devices, tablets have shown no sign of slowing down," the analyst firm said.

It pointed out that Microsoft, a relative newcomer to the tablet market, was making modest yet promising progress with its Surface range of tablets - 900,000 units were shipped in the first quarter.

However, the analysts warned that other Windows-powered tablets were struggling to gain traction, with only 1.8 million units sold across all vendors.

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LinkedIn shares hit by weak forecast

2 May 2013 Last updated at 21:35 ET

Shares of LinkedIn fell more than 10% in after-hours trading in New York, after it issued a weaker-than-expected forecast for the current quarter.

It said it expects revenues of between $342 to $347m (£220m to £223m) in the April to June quarter. Most analysts had expected a figure closer to $359m.

That raised concerns that LinkedIn's pace of growth may be slowing.

The weak forecast came despite the firm reporting that first quarter profit more than quadrupled from a year ago.

LinkedIn made a net profit of $22.6m in the three months to the end of March, up from $5m during the same period a year earlier.

'Very small scale'

An increasing number of users of social networking sites are now accessing these portals on their mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs.

The screens of these gadgets are much smaller, compared with traditional PCs and laptops.

Continue reading the main story

The stock is somewhat a victim of its own success"

End Quote Kerry Rice Needham & Co

As a result, social networking sites which rely heavily on advertising revenue for growth, are being forced to come up with solutions to be able to sell adverts on the mobile versions of their portals.

LinkedIn said that its revenue in the current quarter will be impacted as it looks to adopt a new approach to advertising, especially in the mobile segment.

"We are seeing some encouraging early signs, but it's of a very small scale right now," said Steve Sordello, head of finance at LinkedIn.

However, there have been some signs recently that some firms may have been able to find a solution to the issue.

On Wednesday, Facebook - the world's biggest social networking firm - reported that mobile advertising now accounts for almost 30% of its overall advertising revenue.

Victim of success?

LinkedIn, a social networking platform focussed on professionals, has enjoyed tremendous success since its launch.

Continue reading the main story

It now has 218 million registered users, with an increasing number of professionals and firms using the portal for recruitment purposes.

Revenue from its Talent Solutions, which offers recruitment tools, rose to $184.3m in the January to March quarter, an 80% jump from a year ago.

Driven by its growing popularity, the firm's financial results have consistently topped market expectations in recent quarters.

As a result, it has seen its share price surge more than 80% in the past 12 months.

Analysts said that investors had become used to the company beating market forecasts and that the weaker-than-expected guidance for the current quarter had disappointed them.

"The stock is somewhat a victim of its own success," said Kerry Rice, an analyst with Needham & Co.

"They had a really big acceleration in [the] fourth quarter. So I think the market kind of expected similar results in [the] first quarter and throughout 2013."

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US military to adopt Android phones

3 May 2013 Last updated at 05:54 ET

Samsung phones running a secure version of Android have been approved for use by the US Department of Defense.

The approval is the start of a process that will see many different types of mobile devices used by US soldiers.

Approval for other Android devices as well as Apple phones and tablets is expected in late May.

Before now, ailing phone maker Blackberry was the only firm whose products were approved for use by US service personnel.

Fast growth

The approval of Samsung phones was the first step of a strategy that would let soldiers use many different types of devices, both smartphones and tablets, during their tours of duty, said DoD spokesman Lt Col Damien Pickart.

The approval would not necessarily result in orders for gadgets, he said, but meant different groups within the DoD could now buy the devices most appropriate to their needs.

The US DoD has about 600,000 smartphone users, said Col Pickart, about 470,000 of whom were using Blackberry handsets. The remainder was split between people using both Google Android and Apple phones in a series of trials to assess whether the devices could be used securely.

According to one report on Federal News Radio, the approval of other handset makers is part of a US DoD plan to more than double the number of secure mobile devices used by its armed forces by 2014. Alongside this will be built a secure system to manage all these devices and their associated app stores. Commercial bids to provide this are currently being assessed.

Blackberry handsets dominate within the US military because, before now, it was the only make to meet the Department's stringent security demands.

Samsung phones were among the first to win approval because of work done on a hardened version of the Android operating system called Knox that also met those security requirements. Gadgets that run Apple's iOS 6 operating system as well as other Android phones are currently undergoing testing by the Defense Information Systems Agency and are expected to be approved by the end of the month.

At the same time Samsung won approval, Blackberry 10 smartphones and Playbook tablets were also ruled safe to use on military networks.

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Phisher pupils hack class computers

3 May 2013 Last updated at 06:54 ET

A group of pupils at a middle school in Alaska took control of their classroom computers after phishing for administrator privileges.

They asked teachers at Schoenbar Middle School, for 12 to 13-year-olds, to enter admin names and passwords to accept a false software update, according to reports.

The pupils used those details to access and control classmates' PCs.

Classmates then complained that their computers were not responding normally.

Associated Press said that at least 18 pupils were involved in the phishing, which gave them control over 300 computers allocated for student use at the school in the Alaskan town of Ketchikan.

Those computers have now been seized.

"I don't believe any hardware issues were compromised," Casey Robinson, the principal, told community radio station Ketchikan FM.

He said: "No software issues were compromised. I don't think there was any personal information compromised. Now that we have all the machines back in our control, nothing new can happen."

Mr Robinson added there would be a review of the way that devices are maintained.

"How we do business is definitely going to have to change when it comes to updating programs and resources that we have on the machines," Mr Robinson said.

"Yes, something new is going to have to happen."

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Warner Bros sued in viral cats row

3 May 2013 Last updated at 08:12 ET

Warner Bros is being sued for the alleged unauthorised use of two cats that have achieved internet fame.

Clips of Nyan Cat and Keyboard Cat have each spurred tens of millions of views since appearing online in 2011 and 2007 respectively.

The complaint alleged that the cats were used without permission in Scribblenauts, a series of games on the Nintendo DS and other platforms.

Neither Warner Bros or 5th Cell, the game's developer, have commented.

Court documents alleged that Warner Bros and 5th Cell "knowingly and intentionally infringed" both claimant's ownership rights.

"Compounding their infringements," court papers said, "defendants have used 'Nyan Cat' and 'Keyboard Cat', even identifying them by name, to promote and market their games, all without plaintiffs' permission and without any compensation to plaintiffs."

Japanese pop

The Keyboard Cat was first partially created in 1984 by Charles Schmidt, who filmed his cat Fatso "playing" a electric keyboard.

More than two decades later it was put to music and uploaded to YouTube in a clip called "Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat" - internet users would often use Keyboard Cat as way of mocking subjects in videos.

Nyan Cat, designed by Christopher Torres, is described in court documents as "a character with a cat's face and a body resembling a horizontal breakfast bar with pink frosting sprinkled with light red dots, flies across the screen, leaving a stream of exhaust in the form of a bright rainbow in its wake".

A YouTube video combining the cat animation with a Japanese pop song was the fifth most-viewed YouTube clip in 2011.

Both Mr Torres and Mr Schmidt own copyrights and trademarks of the characters.

They have called for an injunction preventing the sale of Scribblenauts until the matter has been resolved.

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Google edition adopts 'Palestine'

3 May 2013 Last updated at 08:34 ET

Internet giant Google has changed the tagline on the homepage of its Palestinian edition from "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestine".

The change, introduced on 1 May, means google.ps now displays "Palestine" in Arabic and English under Google's logo.

Using the word Palestine is controversial for some. Israeli policy is that the borders of a Palestinian state are yet to be agreed.

In November, the UN gave Palestine the status of "non-member observer state".

The decision by the General Assembly was strongly opposed by Israel and the United States. Previously, Palestine only had "observer entity" status.

It followed an unsuccessful Palestinian bid to join the international body as a full member state in 2011 because of a lack of support in the UN Security Council.

Palestinians in general seek recognition for the state they are trying to establish and the adoption of the name Palestine.

Israel considers any formal use of the word Palestine as pre-judging the outcome of currently stalled peace talks. In much of Israel's official terminology the West Bank is referred to as Judea and Samaria.

'Right direction'

In a statement given to the BBC on Friday, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said: "We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries.

"In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations."

The Palestinian Authority (PA) welcomed Google's decision.

"This is a step in the right direction, a timely step and one that encourages others to join in and give the right definition and name for Palestine instead of Palestinian territories," Dr Sabri Saidam, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the BBC.

"Most of the traffic that happens now happens in the virtual world and this means putting Palestine on the virtual map as well as on the geographic maps," he added.

Dr Saidam said that since the UN vote on 29 November, the PA had written to international companies, including Google, asking them to replace their usage of "Palestinian Territories" with "Palestine".

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Planning changes to boost mobile web

3 May 2013 Last updated at 13:00 ET

Mobile firms could find it easier to put up masts and antennas under suggested changes to planning rules.

The changes would let operators fix more antennas to walls and promote use of tiny "microcells" that help boost network capacity.

Operators would also be encouraged to share masts to limit the need for new base station sites.

The UK government has proposed the changes to help accelerate the roll-out of high-speed mobile networks.

Government figures suggest that the demand for the use of the mobile web is due to increase 80 fold in the next 17 years. However, said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), regulations governing how quickly operators can deploy masts threatened to slow efforts to add capacity.

The government has proposed a series of measures that, it claims, would let operators expand networks quickly but avoid the need to install new masts as much as possible.

"Demand for mobile broadband in particular is increasing at a phenomenal rate," said communications minister Ed Vaizey in a statement announcing the consultation. "We need to ensure that businesses and individuals can access this as soon as possible, if its full potential as a driver for growth is to be realised."

Under the proposed changes to planning permissions, operators would be able put masts further back from the edge of a building to make them less visible from the ground, and it would be more straightforward to mount antennas on walls to avoid the need for new mast sites. The proposals also keep in place safeguards that stop masts being put up in protected areas, said the government.

The consultation, which is being run in conjunction with the Department for Communities, begins on 3 May and runs until 14 June. The DCMS said anyone with comments could email them to the department.

In February, the UK government concluded an auction for spectrum that can support fourth-generation mobile services. So far, only Everything Everywhere has launched 4G services but other operators are expected to launch rival services in late 2013.

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