Schools focus on cyber bullying

14 November 2011 Last updated at 01:17 ET

Almost 650 schools across Northern Ireland are to explore the impact of cyber bullying this week.

It is part of this year's anti-bullying week which begins on Monday.

According to Department of Education research in Northern Ireland, 15.5% of Year 6 pupils and 17% of Year 9 pupils surveyed have experienced cyber bullying in recent months.

Three-quarters of teachers in post-primary schools surveyed said cyber bullying was more prevalent.

Lee Kane, Regional anti-bullying co-ordinator, said anti-bullying week provided a channel for teachers and parents to challenge all bullying methods:

"We are overwhelmed by the interest from both schools and parents in this year's anti-bullying week," he said.

"It is a clear indication of the concerns that exist in relation to cyber bullying.

"Anti-bullying week is a great opportunity to reinforce key anti-bullying messages for all of those involved in schools - pupils, teachers, support staff and parents."

Cyber bullying can be exhibited through the use of mobile phones, online gaming, email and social networking.

Anti-bullying week will run until Friday.

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Steam game service hit by hackers

11 November 2011 Last updated at 06:25 ET

The Steam video game service, used by 35 million people, has been compromised by hackers.

Its owner and operator, Valve, uncovered an intrusion into a user database while investigating a security breach of its discussion forums.

The attackers used login details from the forum hack to access a database that held ID and credit card data.

Valve said that, so far, it had no evidence that credit cards were being misused or Steam accounts abused.

Losing trust

The defacement took place on 6 November and the Steam forums were taken offline when Valve learned of the attack.

At first the firm said the discussion groups were offline for maintenance.

However, a message posted to the front page of the forums by Valve boss Gabe Newell on 10 November has revealed that the sites were shut down because of the defacement.

Valve's investigation of that incident revealed that the "the intrusion goes beyond the Steam forums".

The initial investigation showed that the attackers gained access to a Steam database that held "user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information".

Valve has not said whether this was the full database of Steam's 35 million active accounts or a subset of that total.

Mr Newell said Valve had no evidence that the encrypted credit card information or personal information on gamers had been taken. However, he added, "we are still investigating".

He said it had only discovered that a few forum accounts had been compromised and used to carry out the defacement.

But Mr Newell added that all forum users will be required to change their passwords when the discussion site re-opens, which the firm is trying to achieve as quickly as possible.

He advised users to change passwords on other accounts if they are the same as the one used for the Steam forums.

"I am truly sorry this happened, and I apologize for the inconvenience," concluded Mr Newell.

Code changes

Steam is a gaming service that lets people buy, download, play and chat about a huge variety of games, only some of which are made by Valve itself.

About 1,500 titles are currently available on Steam including Skyrim, LA Noire and Modern Warfare 3 as well as many independent and free games.

Security expert Paul Ducklin, writing on the blog of security firm Sophos, handed down advice about what to do following the breach.

He said users should change passwords, monitor credit card statements, consider removing card numbers from Valve's servers and sign up for the Steam Guard security service.

He also urged users to insist businesses take steps to make it much harder for hackers to penetrate their systems and use stolen data.

"Community pressure has persuaded many businesses to improve their password-handling code," he said.

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Facebook privacy overhaul, report

11 November 2011 Last updated at 06:55 ET

Privacy campaigners have welcomed a report that Facebook is to ask users to opt into any changes in the way it uses their personal information.

The social network previously announced alterations to its members' settings without asking for fresh consent.

The website is changing its policy after an investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook is not commenting on the story at this time.

The report suggests the site has also agreed to privacy audits by an independent organisation over the next 20 years.

However, it says the FTC does not prescribe how consent should be obtained.

Suspicion

"Facebook has historically been extremely resistant to transparency in its own operations, so we welcome measures that would force the company to obtain express consent of its users," said the London based advocacy group Privacy International.

"However, it seems likely that the FTC's demands will only present a temporary obstacle in the path of Facebook's ambitions to collect its users' information.

"Faced with reams of small print, most users are likely to automatically agree to policy changes, with each change bringing us one step closer to Zuckerberg's vision of a privacy-free future."

The website's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was questioned about the firm's privacy policies on the US television network PBS' Charlie Rose show earlier this week.

"You have control over every single thing you've shared on Facebook," he said, "You can take it down."

He also said other search engines and advertising networks gather "huge amount of information" about internet users through cookies, which he claimed was "less transparent than what is happening at Facebook".

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Illegal game downloads 'up 20%'

By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat technology reporter Big budget games like CoD: MW3 can lose millions through illegal downloads <!-- Empty - Wide embedded hyper -->

The number of illegally downloaded video games has gone up nearly 20% in the last five years.

Figures from research firm Envisional also suggest the top five games from 2010 were pirated online almost a million times.

Industry executives are worried these figures mean a generation of people will expect to get games for free.

But some gamers dispute industry claims about how much of a problem online piracy is.

Illegal 'testing'

Newsbeat met Sam who illegally downloads around 100 titles a year and ends up buying around 50 of them.

"I buy games because I've pirated them, if I don't get to try them I never would have bothered picking them up."

Sam, who didn't want to give his surname, says he's not put off by the threat of being fined or sent to prison.

"I've never been fined. I've been doing this since I was 14 and I'm now 23.

"Games that I enjoy I purchase, ones that I don't enjoy I delete."

But the video games industry says all piracy is theft full stop and the answer lies in offering fair-priced alternatives to illegal downloads.

Andy Payne, chairman of the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE) believes it's something the industry is already doing.

"You can be playing that game every single day for a year.

"Look at FIFA, Modern Warfare, Black Ops, those games people are playing all the time. That's great value."

Jobs threat

Earlier this year video game executives told Newsbeat online piracy costs the industry hundreds of jobs and millions of pounds.

However, UKIE is reluctant to give a similar estimate for either, saying it is nearly impossible to get an accurate figure.

It is keen though to emphasise that big blockbuster titles can cost millions of pounds to produce.

"[Some] 200, 250 people sat in a studio for two years building the latest Modern Warfare 3," says Andy Payne.

"This costs real money."

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UK PM hails growth of Tech City

10 November 2011 Last updated at 08:48 ET

The British Prime Minister has unveiled an interactive map of East London's technology cluster, revealing more than 600 firms in the area.

The Tech City map highlights the expansion of Old Street's "silicon roundabout". By comparison there were around 200 tech firms based there last year.

The government said it was acting to support the area's success.

However, some businesses claimed they did not want the attention.

"One year ago we made a major commitment to helping the tech cluster in East London grow," said David Cameron.

"The successful growth we see today is thanks to the talented, creative entrepreneurs who have decided to set up there.

"As a government, we are determined to continue doing everything we can to help support and accelerate this growth."

Support

Downing Street highlighted a 225% rise in the research and development tax credit offered to small and medium sized enterprises, a doubling of capital gains tax relief to �10m for start-up owners and an "Entrepreneur Visa" to help attract talent.

The government is now asking investors and business leaders to tell it what else can be done to cut red tape.

It hopes the cluster will continue to expand further east to the capital's new district, Olympic Park.

Telecoms equipment maker, Cisco, used the occasion to announce it is partnering with a local university to create a centre to research "smart infrastructure".

Intel also revealed it will create a high performance computing cluster to offer local firms the chance to sample its latest technologies.

'Go Away'

Online music service Songkick tweeted that "Our CTO just met with David Cameron to discuss Tech City, apparently 'he was genuinely engaged in helping tech start-ups'".

However, others expressed reservations about all the interest.

"The cluster has arisen spontaneously. It's at a delicate early stage," Andy Bell, chief creative officer of Mint Digital, wrote in a company blog.

"It takes an arrogance for the government to assume that its heavy hand can help it grow. The best thing the government can do is get out of our hair and use the money to reduce their funding gap or, if they really want, throw a big party."

Other tech firms said that they were concerned local rents were starting to rise as big industry players - such as Google - moved into the area.

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Warcraft suffers subscriber slump

10 November 2011 Last updated at 06:19 ET

Almost a million people have stopped paying for World of Warcraft in the last three months.

The sharp drop in subscribers was revealed by Activision Blizzard during talks with analysts about its latest financial results.

At the end of September, WoW had about 10.3 million subscribers, down from 11.1 million at the end of June.

Experts put the decline down to competition from new titles but said WoW was still very resilient.

Free fight

World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers have been on a steady decline from the peak of 12 million they hit in 2010.

Blizzard's boss, Mike Morhaime, said the biggest decline in player numbers was seen in the Asia Pacific region, with significant falls in China.

He said Blizzard had expected to lose subscribers over the last few months as the keenest players exhausted the fresh content that the Cataclysm expansion added to the game in late 2010.

Despite this, claimed Mr Morhaime, WoW remained the most popular subscription game in the world.

WoW has kept its subscription model even though there has been a general move to free-to-play by its rivals. These include Warhammer, Lord of the Rings Online and DC Universe Online.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

Its 10 million plus player-base remains hugely significant"

End Quote John Walker Rock Paper Shotgun

Blizzard has gone some way to embracing this change by letting gamers play for free via an account that limits them to WoW's opening sections, caps how much cash they can accumulate, and restricts what they can do with characters.

The game maker has also unveiled ways to make sure veteran players stay involved. Last month it announced players who commit to a new 12 month subscription would get a free copy of Diablo III, early access to the next expansion for WoW, and a flying horse to ride around in the game.

Despite the decline in players of Wow, Activision Blizzard's results were strong with record third-quarter results up 16% over the same period in 2010.

Games journalist John Walker from gaming site Rock Paper Shotgun said WoW had weathered similar dips in the past when there were other strong titles gamers wanted to play.

At the moment WoW faces competition from games such as Arkham City, Skyrim, Battlefield 3 and Activision's own Modern Warfare 3.

"People tend to only want to give their monthly tithe to one game, and so they'll often slip away to see what's new, before slinking back to Warcraft," he said.

But, he added, the fact that millions still regularly played a seven-year-old game showed its resilience.

"If anything, WoW's persistent success with its subscription model is actually bucking any trend that we may be seeing, even if the numbers have dipped slightly," he said.

"While it's offering a sort of faux free-to-play model for its early stages now, there's no doubt that its 10 million plus player-base remains hugely significant."

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ARM unveils new GPU chip design

9 November 2011 Last updated at 20:43 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter

British computer chip designer ARM has unveiled its latest graphics processing unit (GPU) for mobile devices.

The Mali-T658 offers up to ten times the performance of its predecessor.

It paves the way for faster games and other more complex software on smartphones and tablet computers.

ARM hopes to expand its share of a rapidly-growing market. Demand for its mobile GPU designs lags behind that for its central processing units (CPUs).

The most high-profile use of its GPU to date is in Samsung's award winning Galaxy 2 handsets. They use chips based on the T658's older brother, the Mali-400 MP.

A recent review by the influential website AnandTech rated the 400 MP the fastest GPU available in a smartphone today.

ARM says manufacturers are likely to have its new design in use in around two years.

"It all comes down to user experience," said Jem Davies at ARM's Media Processing Division.

"Faster graphics performance with snappier, more responsive user interfaces, more immersive game play and a whole range of new applications which are being enabled by the capabilities of GPU computing."

Calculations

GPU cores offer specialised processing capabilities that bolster the power of the main CPU.

A GPU's key function is to take all the polygon co-ordinates described by a piece of graphics software and work out how to draw, colour and shade them. It then uses this information to determine what colour each pixel of the screen should be as the image changes dozens of times every second.

The more powerful the GPU, the more detail is possible. Top of the range games can require millions of polygons on screen at the same time to create 3D-like environments.

To maximise performance, manufacturers can link several GPUs together.

ARM's previous design allowed up to four cores to be connected.

The Mali-T658 doubles the maximum to eight, with each core offering double the arithmetic capability of its forerunner.

"It's all about power," said Mr Davies.

"The idea is that when the full performance is required, you power up all of those cores. But having a multi-core architecture means that when the performance needs are lower, we can power some of those cores down."

This allows ARM to play to one of its strengths - its reputation for lower energy consumption.

Console quality graphics

The firm claims the new technology will offer battery-powered mobile handsets roughly the same graphics performance as Sony's Playstation 3 console.

However, its rival Imagination Technologies has made similar assertions about its upcoming PowerVR designs. Like ARM, the firm is headquartered in the UK. Its current architecture is used by Apple in its iPhone and iPad products.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

More immersive game play and a whole range of new applications... are being enabled by the capabilities of GPU computing"

End Quote Jem Davies ARM Holdings

California-based NVIDIA and Qualcomm also talk up their GeForce and Adreno technologies.

But whatever the firms' claims, customer expectations are hard to beat.

"You have cinema, you have high definition, you have hugely complex CGI movies on HD screens in your lounge," said Ian Smythe, director of marketing at ARM's Media Processing division.

"You expect this high quality experience from every screen that you look at. And so the user experience has to be of that sort of quality.

"Reproducing a CGI movie - which is generated on a server farm where it takes a day to render a frame with 50,000 processors - being able to reproduce that in a mobile experience is clearly a challenge."

Speech recognition

GPUs are particularly good at what are termed "parallisable" tasks - processes that can be broken down into several parts and run simultaneously because the outcome of any one calculation does not determine the input of another.

This is particularly suited for applications offering augmented reality, allowing users to overlay graphical information over live images of whatever their devices' cameras are facing.

Other potential uses include image processing, pattern matching and speech recognition.

Competition among the GPU designers is helping drive computing power to new heights, making possible processes unthinkable on previous generations of handsets.

However, developers need to code their software to take advantage of the graphics processors if they are to make the most of the accelerated performance on offer.

That is a challenge when different devices use different designs.

"At the moment many of the speech recognition applications that are out there are solely relying on the CPU," said Mr Davies.

"Very few are taking advantage of the acceleration of the GPU - and that's clearly an area of growth for us."

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.wales domain name wins support

9 November 2011 Last updated at 11:17 ET

A survey of Welsh businesses and consumers suggests a majority of both support the nation getting its own domain name.

The move would offer website owners the chance to end their address with .wales and .cymru, instead of .uk.

Internet regulator ICANN will allow countries and other organisations to apply for the new names from January.

Supporters say it could help with branding, but critics warn it may increase the opportunity for fraud.

The poll was commissioned by the not-for-profit domain registry service Nominet. It suggests 69% of consumers backed the move and 59% of Welsh businesses and other bodies.

The poll used a sample of 1,003 individuals - 21% of whom were Welsh speakers - and 250 senior decision makers in Welsh organisations

However the survey suggested splits over which name to take.

"On the consumer side there was a slightly higher preference for .cymru," Nominet's director of business development, Glenn Hayward, told the BBC.

"Among businesses there was a much stronger preference for .wales to help them market themselves outside of the country."

Costs

Nominet suggests one solution would be for the both name to be registered. Website addresses ending in either suffix could then direct users to the same place.

However, ICANN is charging $185,000 (�116,045) per application and is refusing to let Wales be a special case.

The Welsh business minister, Edwina Hart, said last week that she is not considering paying for either application.

Nominet is in discussions to cover the costs and says it would set up a local office if its efforts succeed.

However, a rival bidder, dotCYM, says giving Nominet control would amount to selling off the country's identity.

Benefits

The London Economics Wales consultancy carried out the poll as part of a wider study.

"A Welsh domain name can play a positive supporting role in activities aimed at raising the brand profile of Wales and encouraging exports and inward investment," the report says.

"It can also provide a constant stream of low level but free advertising."

However the study also warns that such publicity comes at a price.

It says businesses and other brand owners will need to take defensive measures to prevent third parties operating sites with their name. They will also face additional marketing costs to publicise their new addresses.

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Adobe job cuts cloud Flash future

9 November 2011 Last updated at 06:39 ET

Software developer Adobe Systems is cutting 750 jobs, while reports say it is halting development of its Flash Player plug-in for mobile devices.

The firm said the job cuts were being made in Europe and North America and represented more than 7% of the company's workforce.

The firm said it was axing the posts to help it put more focus on digital media and digital marketing.

It had no comment about the Flash Player report.

Flash is used to run movies, games and other applications. The plug-in works on Android devices and Blackberry's Playbook tablet, but Apple has barred it from iPhones and iPads.

Apple's late former chief executive, Steve Jobs, attacked the code for being unreliable, a security threat and a drain on battery life.

Adobe responded by saying the plug-in would "continue to be the dominant tool" for media on the internet.

However, reviewers also criticised its performance on other devices and Microsoft recently announced it would not support the product on the tablet interface of its upcoming Windows 8 browser.

Leak reported

Tech website ZDNet said it had seen an email briefing sent by Adobe to its partners.

"We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version of device configurations," it read.

"Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and Playbook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates."

The report said the firm would now focus on the alternative HTML5 technology and its own AIR product.

A spokeswoman for Adobe was unable to confirm the report.

Adobe is expected to give more details later in the day at its annual analysts' conference.

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More ISPs asked to block Newzbin2

9 November 2011 Last updated at 07:21 ET

Virgin Media, Sky and TalkTalk have been asked to block access to Newzbin2, a members-only group which provides links to pirated films and music.

BT has already barred its customers from accessing the site, following a court case brought by the Motion Picture Association.

The MPA is now extending its net in a UK-wide crackdown on piracy.

TalkTalk said it was "considering its response". Sky and Virgin Media signalled they would obey court orders.

Legal battle

"There are some elements of the order, for instance that we have to pay the costs of implementing it, that we think are inappropriate," Andrew Heaney, head of regulatory affairs at TalkTalk, told the BBC.

BT has estimated that the block against Newzbin cost it around �5,000 to set up.

"In a sense it wouldn't be worth having a legal battle over that but it the costs get a lot more we may reserve the right to contest it in the future," Mr Heaney said.

The MPA confirmed that it had written to the major ISPs.

"We are involved in constructive discussions but we are not going to comment in detail at this stage," said an MPA spokesman.

Virgin Media acknowledged that it had also received a letter as a preliminary step towards a formal court order.

"The recent Newzbin2 ruling clarifies the legal process for content owners to challenge alleged copyright infringement," said a Virgin Media spokesman.

"As a responsible ISP, we will comply with any court order addressed to us but strongly believe such deterrents need to be accompanied by compelling legal alternatives."

Sky also indicated that it was likely to comply with any court order.

"When presented with undisputed and legally robust evidence of copyright breaches, we will take appropriate action in respect to site blocking," said a spokesman.

Workaround

The MPA has hailed the Newzbin block as a victory in its ongoing fight against piracy which it estimates costs the industry billions of pounds each year.

It has vowed to implement similar blocks against other sites offering links to pirated movies.

Newzbin said on the day that BT's block began that it was "unaffected" because it had issued a software workaround. It claimed the code was being used by over 90% of its members.

In response, the MPA said that despite ways to get around the block, it was hopeful that the move would deter the "vast majority of customers".

Web blocking appears to be the new weapon of choice for the creative industries. On 4 November BT received a letter from the BPI, the UK's music industry trade body, asking it to block access to BitTorrent file-sharing website The Pirate Bay.

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