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Chinese PM sees ‘Asian century’
THE Chinese premier toured India’s hi-tech capital during his recent visit to India and called for closer cooperation between New Delhi and Beijing to launch an “Asian century” of information technology.
India’s software skills combined with China’s dominance in hardware could trigger a tectonic shift in the global technological landscape, Wen Jiabao said at the offices of Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s biggest provider of software development and outsourcing services.
“Cooperation is just like two pagodas. One hardware and one software. Combined we can take the leadership position in the world,” said Wen, who arrived in Bangalore late last week from Sri Lanka on a tour of South Asian nations.
He visited the Bangalore offices of Huawei Technologies, China’s largest telecoms firm, which employs 800 Indian and 30 Chinese and plans to invest $100 million in the country. He also toured India’s national space agency and the Indian Institute of Science and Technology in Bangalore.
China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, is a manufacturing hub for mobile phones, textiles, cars and industrial equipment and is eyeing cooperation with India to expand its access to software. “If India and China cooperate in the information technology industry we will be able to lead the world and when that particular day comes it will signify the coming of the Asian century of the IT industry,” Wen said.
India’s software sector contributes four per cent to the country’s gross domestic product and grew 43 per cent during the fiscal year to March 2004. The industry is expected to earn $75 billion by 2008.
European mission to Mars
European scientists want to land on Mars. More than 100 researchers announced recently that they plan a robot mission in 2011 to tackle the most dramatic question in space science: Is there extra-terrestrial life?
The flight, part of the European Space Agency’s Aurora programme, will be a testbed for an even more ambitious international robotic mission in 2016 to collect rock and soil samples from the Martian surface, and return them to laboratories on Earth.
The Mars sample return mission in its turn will be a technological rehearsal for the biggest adventure of all: An international attempt to establish a human foothold on Mars in 2030.
The 2011 proposal was the fruit of a two-day workshop in Birmingham, attended by observers from the US space agency, Nasa, and space scientists from Canada and 15 European countries.
“The scientists said: ‘We want to focus on getting to the surface of Mars, and exploring in three dimensions: not just going across the surface but also beneath the surface. We can do that in more than one way’,” remarked David Parker of Britain’s Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the body that channels government money into space science.
“The final point is not just doing the first mission. We need to take the next step, and secure for Europe an exciting role in the first mission to bring samples back from Mars, and we want to do that, starting in 2016, and we are ready to do it in collaboration with Nasa.” — Dawn/The Guardian News Service
Fake update leads to virus
An e-mail being circulated widely by hackers, purporting to be a Microsoft Windows update alert, directs computer users to a fake website where a Trojan virus is installed, according to some network security experts.
The security firm Websense said it began receiving reports last week about an e-mail claiming to be from Microsoft, coincidentally after the software giant announced it was offering security updates. “This e-mail spoofs users into thinking that they must update their Windows software,” Websense said.
“Upon clicking on the link, users are forwarded to a fraudulent website. This website is hosted in Australia, and was up at the time of this alert. The website appears very similar to the real Windows Update site.” But when a user attempts to perform the update, a Trojan horse virus is installed that allows hackers access to the infected computers, the company said.
The British-based security firm Sophos also issued a warning about the scheme. “This criminal campaign exploits the public’s rising paranoia about the security of their Windows computers. If users fall for it they may put themselves at risk of being spied upon or having their credit card and online banking details stolen,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. — Sci-tech World Report
Fuel cell venture
The engine-maker Rolls-Royce and a Singapore consortium signed an agreement the other day to invest $100m in developing a power system based on fuel cell technology. Rolls-Royce will provide 75 per cent of the money, with the consortium — consisting of the Economic Development Board, Temasek Holdings and Accuron Technologies — contributing the rest.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, held in Singapore, Sir John Rose, the Rolls-Royce chief executive, said: “A prudent approach to this exciting but still embryonic venture dictated a need to look for partners who could shorten the odds on success with both funding and relevant technical skills.”
A fuel cell produces electricity by combining fuel and air in an electrochemical reaction. The technology dates back to the 19th century, but has few commercial applications because of its high costs. Rolls-Royce began looking into fuel cell technology in 1992, and in January 2003 established a wholly owned subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems Ltd, to manage its future research and development activities in the field. — Dawn/The Guardian News Service
Debate over ‘planet’
German astronomers have published a photograph of an object 450 light-years from Earth that they say could be the first taken of a planet outside our solar system. The finding has spurred debate over whether the object qualifies as a planet — and claims from competing astronomers that they already produced an image of a different possible planet a year ago.
At issue is the mass of the object, which circles a million-year-old star named GQ Lup. If the new object’s mass is greater than 13 times that of Jupiter, it would be considered a brown dwarf — a failed star — and not a planet.
The astronomers estimated the object’s mass by measuring its brightness, a technique based on models that are still poorly developed. “I am pretty sure that it’s a planet,” said the lead author, Richard Neuhaeuser, director of the Astrophysics Institute and University Observatory in Jena, Germany. — Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) Los Angeles Times
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