Church of TED

16 July 2011 Last updated at 08:07 GMT By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, TEDGlobal, Edinburgh A dancing robot took centre stage at TEDGlobal this year There aren't many places where you get to see a dancing robot and a woman dressed in a black suit threaded with mushroom spores on the same stage, but that is just a normal day at TEDGlobal.

Beyond the eclectic nature of its speakers, the conference is unusual in many ways and has become something of a cult for its followers - appropriately known as TEDsters.

There is both a big and little TED. The first is held in the glamorous location of Long Beach, California. The second has been taking place in Edinburgh this week, after several years in Oxford.

Delegates can watch the show in chill-out pods

Delegates love the coolness of the event; to borrow from a well-known beer commercial - if Apple did conferences it would probably be something very like TED.

It is something of an elitist club - attendees pay ?5000 for the privilege of watching speakers talk about technology, entertainment and design.

Those three subjects make up the acronym TED but these days the talks are much wider.

Politics, history, economics and ecology were all on agenda in Edinburgh, with China's meteoric rise to power proving a major talking point.

Opera singer Danielle de Niese moved the audience

Nadia Al-Sakkaf, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, gave a moving speech about her desire for a democratic Yemen.

Philip Blond, architect of the Big Society idea talked about how society was broken, although there was little insight into how his big idea was going to fix it.

Meanwhile philosopher Alain de Botton talked about the need for religion 2.0 - with one particularly enthusiastic Tedster suggesting later that TED itself could be the new church.

Intermingled with the speakers was dance, opera and music performances.

Social experiment

This mix of intellect and emotion seems to be a defining feature of TED, which also offers its high-powered, wealthy audience a range of social and cultural distractions, including this year a launch party at Edinburgh Castle.

Delegates are invited to pick a badge based on their mood

There is also a sense of being part of a huge social experiment. They are encouraged to network furiously in case "the person that can change your life is sitting next to you".

Where other conferences offer delegates a feedback form, TED invites the audience to select a badge that most reflects their mood. Options include 'My ideas were challenged', "I was inspired and acted on it" and "What am I doing here?".

The badges are housed in plastic tubes and at the end of the week TED will assess which was the most popular. Current winner at the time of writing - "I said what I believe".

TED began life as an elitist club for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs until it was bought by British publisher Chris Anderson in 2001 and turned into a non-profit organisation dedicated to ideas worth spreading.

He angered some TED purists by agreeing to post videos of all the speakers online for free after the conference. It has opened the event out to a much wider audience and has spawned TEDx, localised independent conferences set up by volunteers around the world.

This summer TED is also pondering how it can spread its ideas in schools and an announcement on TED ED is due in the autumn.

Despite the changing nature of the organisation, the conference remains a curiously closed experience. Tweeting is not allowed in the auditorium and there are no question-and-answer sessions to let the audience challenge speakers.

But TEDsters, as befits members of a cult, hold little truck with criticism. They embrace the week-long event as an oasis of intellectual and emotionally stimulation.

Mushroom death Artist Jae Rhim Lee wants people to take a more ecological approach to death

Cutting-edge tech remains at the heart of TED.

The dancing robot did more than just prove that it could move with great elegance. Rezero, as it is known, is part of a family of ballbot robots whose design offers a range of real world applications, from guides around museums to intelligent trolleys in hospitals.

Net activist Rebecca MacKinnon gave a call to arms speech about preserving the internet from censorship, including the self-imposed censorship of corporates operating in China. Meanwhile security expert Mikko Hypponen spoke of the need to embrace rather than arrest hackers.

On the final day, pilot Anna Mracek Dietrich unveiled her flying car - or roadable aircraft as she prefers to call it. The craft, complete with folding wings, could be on the road by the end of this year.

And the mushroom suit? Artist Jae Rhim Lee wants to spread the idea of decompiculture - which encourages people to allow their dead bodies to be eaten by mushrooms as an altogether more organic way of dying.

She has, apparently, already got some volunteers although whether the TEDsters will be putting their bodies forward is doubtful. They seem too keen to embrace life and all it has to offer.

View the original article here

Magic carpet

14 July 2011 Last updated at 11:55 GMT By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News The researchers decided to replace all synthetic substances and chemicals with organic materials When a carpet gets old, users usually throw it away.

And in our increasingly recycling-aware society, a carpet is one of those things that usually does not get re-used - it is simply burned.

That could soon change, say researchers.

An international team of scientists has come up with a method to make wool carpets from all-natural materials that can be re-processed after a life cycle.

Although wool and cellulose fabrics are biodegradable, most modern carpets have another ingredient holding fibres together.

It is a bonding agent called latex - and because of it, carpets usually end up in an oven.

The new project, funded by the Dutch government, is called Erutan - or "nature" read backwards.

Continue reading the main story

It's a natural solution - sheep eat grass, from the sheep we get wool, and from the wool we make a carpet with natural ingredients”

End Quote Dr Yvar Monasch Best Wool Carpets It is a joint venture of three Dutch companies - James, Best Wool Carpets, and Bond Textile Research, working in cooperation with three technology developers - Research Institute TNO in the Netherlands, Technical University of Graz in Austria (TUG) and Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya in Spain (UPC).

The researchers decided to replace all synthetic substances and chemicals with organic materials, enzymes and polymers.

In the end, they managed to get an all-natural carpet that looks and feels exactly like any other wool carpet, and has the same characteristics in terms of its flexibility, durability and life span.

"It's a natural solution - sheep eat grass, from the sheep we get wool, and from the wool we make a carpet with natural ingredients," Dr Yvar Monasch of Best Wool Carpets told BBC News.

"After use - and it depends where the carpet is used, as in hospitality it is only used for about three years, but at homes it can be used for 15-20 years - we'll take it back and re-process the raw materials."

This way, a second-life carpet could be produced, he explained. Alternatively organic waste could be used as a sort of a fertiliser in agriculture.

No latex

Different partners are responsible for different stages of the manufacturing process.

The team uses wool from New Zealand sheep - and cleans it without any detergents

The major innovation, according to the team, is swapping synthetic ingredients for organic ones - and getting rid of latex.

This is done by UPC in Barcelona, with Dr Tzanko Tzanov heading a team of researchers.

He explained to BBC News that in an ordinary carpet, there is usually a layer of latex on the back side, necessary for "gluing" the fibres to the backing fabric and keeping the dimensional stability of the carpet.

Some 1.2 kg of latex is normally required per square metre.

After a carpet's life cycle, it is usually impossible to take the latex off in order to recycle the product.

But the Erutan group decided to eliminate this substance altogether - and replace it with an organic adhesive.

"Our adhesive is based on natural compounds such as lignin or tannic acid," said Dr Tzanov.

Continue reading the main story

If you look at the future of our world, the shortage will be in raw materials if we continue to burn everything that we use”

End Quote Dr Chris Reutelingsperger Bond Textile Research Lignin is a basic biopolymer that is a natural waste product from paper industry and a compound of many materials, including wood.

It is normally burned for energy - but Dr Tzanov's team used biotechnology - oxidative enzymes - to convert it into an organic "glue".

"All this happens at about 50?C, instead of 150?C as for latex," he added.

Enzymes are proteins that catalyse, or increase the rates, of chemical reactions, and they are used to speed up a natural process.

With this enzymatically-generated adhesive, the scientists were able to bond linen - the main component of the backing fabric and a natural cellulose material - with wool fibre in a matter of minutes.

"It's the same as when you did your laundry in the washing machine 20 years ago - to get it as clean as a modern machine gets it now, it would take you a really long time," said Dr Monasch.

"But with enzymes in washing powders everything has gotten faster, you use less water, it's much better for the environment and those enzymes come from nature."

Natural manufacturing Dr Tzanko Tzanov (right) and Carlos Diaz (left) are hoping their carpets will revolutionise the industry

But the scientists did not want to stop at changing basic ingredients - they decided to make all other processes associated with manufacturing eco-friendly as well.

For instance, the researchers from Technical University of Graz in Austria came up with a way to wash dirty, greasy raw wool from New Zealand sheep without any detergents, salt or any other chemicals.

Again, they clean it with enzymes.

The wool dying method is also innovative, using natural dyes.

"We're not sticking to synthetic dyes anymore - and though natural dyes are often not quite stable, by binding them to clay platelets - a kind of carrier for the dye - the stability of those dyes improves dramatically," said Dr Herman Lenting from the research institute TNO.

Recycling carpets Besides natural manufacturing process and ingredients, another important idea is recycling used carpets.

Instead of ending up in incinerators, the products would be shredded and re-used - and to make sure people actually bring their old carpets back, the company is prepared to pay them.

"Today, most carpets are very much welcomed by the garbage industry because they burn really well," said Dr Chris Reutelingsperger from Bond Textile Research.

"So either they burn it in their own ovens or they sell it to concrete industry to burn it as well, so it's only being used as energy - whereas we can re-use the raw materials in actual products again.

"And if you look at the future of our world, the shortage will be in raw materials if we continue to burn everything that we use."

View the original article here

Simple tech aids developing world

15 July 2011 Last updated at 01:54 GMT By Jane Wakefield Technology reporter, TEDGlobal, Edinburgh Technology can be empowering in the developing world TEDGlobal is a conference which puts the sharing of good ideas at the heart of its ethos.

Many of those ideas are about making improvements to everyday lives.

Each year the TED organisation chooses a group of new fellows - individuals whose ideas it regards as particularly inspiring.

The BBC has talked to three of them, all of whom share a desire to transform lives in the developing world.

The lab-on-a-chip is created from Lego bricks

Jose Gomez-Marquez has taken an unusual approach to making medical devices for the developing world

Rather than stripping down complex medical equipment, he uses toy guns and Lego.

"Toys have amazing mechanical parts. To get a part made from scratch could cost hundreds of dollars but I can go to a market and find toys very cheaply," he said.

So the trigger of a toy gun can be taken apart and attached to an IV drip to provide a sound alert when the drip is running low.

Lego bricks can be moulded to create tiny conduits for medicines in simplified labs-on-chips.

And nebulizers can be made out of bicycle pumps.

Mashing up technology is the key to his Innovations in International Health team which is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Collaboration with the wider medical community is also important, but the key to the success of his designs is talking to those on the ground who will use the equipment.

By cooperation with health care workers in Nicaragua, Mr Gomez-Marquez came up with a system to persuade TB patients to take the medicines they needed to help cure them.

Health workers suggested that a good incentive would be offering patients mobile phone top-ups, so he designed test strips which, once used, revealed a code which people could text to receive phone credits.

Mr Gomez-Marquez is also creating kits for field workers, with a range of parts that they can use to build their own makeshift medical equipment.

"I couldn't build them a clinic but I can provide them with a Lego kit for them to make their own devices," he said.

Users can send a text and will receive a list of nearby goods

Femi Akinde decided to create SlimTrader when he realised that he couldn't buy a plane ticket online when he was in Africa.

"Consumers aren't able to access data, and goods and services don't tend to be online anyway," he said.

To combat this dual problem, Mr Akinde decided to link retailers with customers via a platform that everyone could access - text messaging.

SlimTrade is in the early stages of development but hopes to launch in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria over the coming months.

The service will allow, for instance, a farmer trying to source fertilizer to send a text message and get a response from SlimTrader outlining all the distributors near to where he lives.

"He can find someone who is a credited distributor so he knows he won't be sold fake fertilizer, which is a very big problem. And he doesn't have to leave his house," explained Mr Akinde.

Mobile phone usage is exploding in Africa and it has allowed mobile banking to take off, bringing previously undreamt of financial services to people.

By tying businesses to customers in a similar way, one of the biggest gaps between the developing and developed world can be closed, explains Mr Akinde.

"Buying online is something the Western world takes for granted. I don't buy anything unless I can find it online," he said.

And in Africa, instant access to a range of services can be really transformational.

"It means people can plan a trip ahead of time and they won't have to travel great distances and not know whether they are going to find what they want at the end," he said.

Manuel Aguilar had a lightbulb moment

In Guatemala, 20% of the population has no access to electricity.

It was not a problem that affected Manuel Aguilar who had moved to the US to study and then went on to work in the financial markets.

But one day he had a lightbulb moment.

"I was helping rich people get richer and I thought my skills could be better used," he said.

Back home in Guatemala, he founded Quetsol, an energy company offering a simple solution to the lack of electricity.

The firm makes kits, which consists of a battery, an LED lightbulb and a small solar panel. So far it has sold 1,000.

The battery also offers a socket which allows people to charge their mobile phones, something that was far from easy before.

"People used to have to walk two hours to charge their phones and pay for it," said Mr Aguilar.

In the next few months Quetsol plans to launch a 30 watt battery which will allow people to power a computer.

"It will give families internet access and education for their kids," said Mr Aguilar.

At ?240, the kit isn't cheap but the company had done a deal with the biggest bank in Guatemala which allows people to pay $13 a month.

"That is what they would have spent on candles," said Mr Aguilar.

Despite the surprising simplicity of the kit, there is little to rival it in the country and Mr Aguilar hopes his personal approach will pay dividends.

His mobile phone number is printed on the back of the battery pack and he prides himself on customer service.

"If something is wrong with the kit we tell them to take it back to where they bought it and they will get a new one. They have never had service like this before. It is about treating the customer with respect," he said.

View the original article here

Quake still rattles Sony Ericsson

15 July 2011 Last updated at 09:37 GMT Android smartphones are central to Sony Ericsson's line-up Sony Ericsson has blamed the the Japanese earthquake for a 50m euro (?44m; $71m) loss during the three months to June.

The mobile phone maker said the quake last March had caused "supply chain constraints", which meant that about 1.5m phones were not ready for sale.

Smartphones now make up more than 70% of Sony Ericsson's total sales, up from just 40% at the end of last year.

Sales of smartphones using Google's Android operating system grew 150%.

Sony Ericsson estimates that it now has an 11% share of the Android smartphone market - by both value and volume.

During the first quarter of the year, Sony Ericsson had managed to achieve net profits of 11m euro, but on an extremely slim operating margin of just 2%.

During the past few years the mobile phone firm has seen a steady erosion of its share of the mobile phone market, losing out to Apple with its iPhone models and quickly growing Asian rivals like Samsung and HTC.

The company has gone through a cost-cutting exercise, including making 4,000 staff redundant.

Sony Ericsson is a 50-50 joint venture of Japanese entertainment electronics firm Sony and Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson.

Ericsson's shares fell 1.3% on news of Sony Ericsson's losses.

View the original article here

Mobile 'pinging' raises legal questions

14 July 2011 Last updated at 10:39 GMT Designated police officers can ask mobile networks to "ping" a customer's location. A former News of the World journalist's allegation the newspaper paid police to track mobile phones raises serious questions about the UK's eavesdropping laws, according to experts.

Sean Hoare said it was possible to "ping" a handset's location for ?300.

While there is no firm evidence to support the accusation, if true it would undermine safeguards within the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

The law outlines a system of checks intended to prevent it being abused.

Police can ask mobile networks to determine the location of a phone, based on information from nearby radio masts.

Only a handful of officers in each force is authorised to make such enquiries, and their requests are supposed to be approved by a senior colleague.

Poor compliance

The system is regulated and audited by the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Sir Paul Kennedy.

In his most recent report, Sir Paul found in 10% of cases where law enforcement bodies sought communications information, there was poor compliance with the rules.

Such audits are based on a sampling of police requests - something that leaves the system open to abuse, according to solicitor advocate Simon McKay, author of Covert Policing: Law and Practice.

"The resources of the commissioner empowered by statute to review it are fairly restrictive, so circumstances dictate that a tiny proportion of authorisations obtained will ever be reviewed meaningfully or critically by the commissioner," he told BBC News.

Mr McKay added he would not be surprised if leaks had been made in return for cash.

Continue reading the main story

Mobile phone networks have the ability to locate their customers' handsets.

At a basic level, they can determine which cell the phone is using. In a city, that might narrow-down the location to a few hundred metres. In the countryside it could be several kilometres.

It is also possible to triangulate the position of a phone more precisely using its relative position to several masts.

Additionally, many modern phones contain GPS technology to help determine their exact longitude and latitude.

Mobile operators are reluctant to discuss exactly what level of detail they are able to provide to law enforcement, although there are examples of police tracking criminals, accident victims and missing persons by their mobile phones.

"You are generally dealing with people that are experienced in using and deploying covert policing techniques and therefore their tradecraft equips them particularly well to minimise the risk of detection," he said.

Freedom law

A new law, currently being considered by parliament - the Protection of Freedoms Bill - would require judicial approval for some Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) disclosures, but not those requested by police.

The BBC approached the government to see if it planned to ask Sir Paul to re-examine the safeguards around police use of RIPA.

A Home Office spokesman said it would not be taking such action before the prime minister had outlined the terms of reference for his two enquiries into the phone-hacking scandal.

Daniel Hamilton, the director of campaign group Big Brother Watch, said he was happy to wait, provided there was eventually a review.

"I would have preferred if action had been taken earlier and intercepts had not been used on such a wide basis, but I think it makes sense now an inquiry has been set up and we have received assurances from the PM and the police that there will be a thorough investigation.

"I hope at the end it will be an opportune time to revisit these processes," he said.

View the original article here

Spotify finally launches in US

14 July 2011 Last updated at 09:30 GMT Spotify users are able to sync their tracks with mobile devices. Streaming music service Spotify is set to launch in the US, after thrashing out deals with the major record companies.

Its American service had previously been put on hold, apparently because the labels were not convinced about its ability to make them money.

About 10 million people use Spotify across parts of Europe, with one million paying for its premium service.

The company has reduced elements of its free product, ahead of the US launch.

In April, limits were introduced on the number of times users of the basic version could play tracks.

Total listening time was also reduced to 10 hours per month for the free service.

The move was widely seen as a pre-emptive concession to the American record companies which are uneasy about moving to ad-funded or subscription-based distribution.

Paying pennies

Research suggests that services such as Spotify, Last.FM and Rhapsody yield relatively low returns for artists.

Music industry analyst Mark Milligan calculated an average pay-per-play figure on Spotify, based on the Ben Rodgers Band, of $0.004 (?0.002).

Cracking the United States might make the numbers more attractive, according to Giles Cottle, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media.

"They will only get their model to work if they successfully launch in the US.

"It works if you get a large number of plays and you can get a lot of people to sign up to the premium service," he said.

Despite industry trepidation, Spotify has attracted high profile fans.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described it as "pretty amazing", while soundtrack composer and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor took to Twitter to express his excitement about the US launch.

Spotify is likely to face competition in the US from online jukebox Pandora which claims 100 million registered users.

Premium membership of Spotify in the US costs $9.99 (?6.19) - considerably cheaper than the UK price of ?9.99 and 9.99 euro in mainland Europe.

View the original article here

Pentagon hit by huge cyber attack

14 July 2011 Last updated at 23:01 GMT The deputy defence secretary said future cyber attacks could even cause deaths The Pentagon has admitted it suffered a major cyber attack in which thousands of files were taken by foreign hackers.

Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn said that in a March attack and other breaches, hackers had taken information on "our most sensitive systems".

The admission came as the Pentagon rolled out a strategy for strengthening US cyber capabilities and addressing threats and attacks in cyberspace.

The plan would treat cyberspace in a similar manner to land, air and sea.

"In the 21st Century, bits and bytes can be as threatening as bullets and bombs," Mr Lynn said, unveiling the plan.

In a speech at National Defense University in Washington, Mr Lynn said about 24,000 files containing Pentagon data were stolen from a defence industry computer network in March, marking one of the largest cyber attacks in US history.

Extracting files

He said at least one attack - a previously revealed 2008 penetration of classified computer systems - had come from a foreign intelligence service, and in an interview ahead of the speech said the Pentagon believed the March attack had been perpetrated by a foreign government.

Previous cyber attacks have been blamed on China or Russia.

Continue reading the main story

Keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye”

End Quote William Lynn Deputy Defense Secretary "We have a pretty good idea" who did it, he told the Associated Press news agency.

In his speech, he said some of the stolen data was "mundane, like the specifications for small parts of tanks, airplanes, and submarines.

"But a great deal of it concerns our most sensitive systems, including aircraft avionics, surveillance technologies, satellite communications systems, and network security protocols," he said.

Mr Lynn said cyber attacks in the future would not only focus on stealing data but also damaging US defences or even causing deaths.

He added that virtual intruders have previously tried to extract files related to missile tracking systems and the Joint Strike Fighter.

Though nations like China and Russia have been blamed for many previous cyber attacks, the Pentagon fears terrorist groups could eventually strike American computer networks and steal data.

"Keystrokes originating in one country can impact the other side of the globe in the blink of an eye," Mr Lynn said.

'Too aggressive'

He added that information technology has become so important to the US government that it "virtually guarantees that future adversaries will target our dependence on it".

Mr Lynn said the Department of Defense Strategy for Operating in Cyberspace was defensive, countering earlier criticism that the strategy might be too aggressive.

In a release accompanying the new strategy, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said it was "critical to strengthen our cyber capabilities to address the threats we're facing".

The news comes one month after the Pentagon said it was building its own "scale model" of the internet to carry out cyber war games.

View the original article here