Friday 26 December 2003

Microsoft aims to make spammers pay According to this BBC story, Microsoft researchers have come up with a way to slow down spammers and make them 'pay' for e-mails. The idea is that each time someone wants to send message they have to 'pay' by solving a cryptographic puzzle. For individual mail senders that's not a problem as it only adds 10 or 20 seconds to the time needed to send a message but to people sending bulk it limits their ability to send messages. There is no mention, however, about how this affects genuine mass mailers such as newsletter publishers. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition] 9:03:36 PM    comment []  Google It!

The Beagle is silent It's early on St Stephen's Day but as of yet there is no word from Beagle 2, the European Space Agency Martian lander. The probe was due to establish contact early on Christmas morning but Nasa's Mars Odyssey orbiter failed to detect a signal. While the lack of a signal means the probe could have been destroyed on impact, scientists are optimistic that the failure to establish communications could be due to other factors such as a mis-aligned antenna or the probe landing outside the expected area. Unfortunately, it's not just a question of listening continuously. There are only certain windows of opportunity to listen for the signal. The second of these was yesterday afternoon however the Jodrell Bank radio telescope failed to pick up the signal. The next opportunity is later today when Odyssey will again try to establish contact. Meanwhile, the Mars Express orbiter appears to have successfully entered Martian orbit. It is currently in an inclined elliptical orbit but will fire its engines again next week to manoeuvre into a polar orbit. 12:16:51 AM    comment []  Google It!

© Copyright 2004 David Stewart. Last update: 01/01/2004; 11:17:06.