2011
Year of the Hare
Islamic calendar 1431-32

World population tops 8,000 million
Serious hunger riots in Africa, China, India, and South America
New viral diseases cause growing concern
Tuberculosis deaths still over 4 million
High-power pulsed lasers spread: terrorists shoot down satellites


Artificial personalities clear gridlock in videotelephony services - employees lobby for limitations and conditions
Don't waste your energy - Enbody heat exchange and storage outfits
Enbody suit malfunction leads to tragic hypothermia death in Swiss Alps
ManMaker potency automat reduces need for alcohol, mood drugs
EU bugging virus scandal forces limits on telephony - confidential calls to be routed through separate secure network
TRANSCAP Translation Helmet/ Patent Application No. FIN-2019-01-14-M-4497
Finnish and Swedish maritime authorities satisfied with early results of ice-melting pumps

Sociology Today - 3.2.2011

Artificial personalities clear gridlock in videotelephony services - employees lobby for limitations and conditions

In the last two or three years the use of artificial personalities has spread into several fields. In videophone service functions they have only been in operation for a couple of months, but already the harsh critical reaction has surprised many analysts.

The artificial personalities used to man videophone service switchboards are autodidactic programmes designed specifically for this task. The basic configuration is carried out in the manufacturing plant prior to delivery. The programme learns in the workplace, by listening to calls arriving at the service desks, since in the majority of services almost all questions are standard enquiries. After a fairly lengthy acclimatisation period the artificial personality learns to recognize stock questions, however they may be phrased. It also learns how to respond with follow-up questions to determine details that may be necessary, and sets its onscreen expression to match the individual situation - showing compassion, worry, determination, etc. as required. Artificial personalities have been taken up by vidiphone service providers primarily on cost grounds, as they are cheap to buy and run. Equally, it has now become difficult to find sufficiently service-minded staff to fill the vacancies.

One example is offered by the Glasgow-based dietary specialists Health and You PLC, who launched vidiphone counselling services 11 months ago using human operators. The company had great trouble attracting staff, the lines were undermanned, and from the outset there were long waiting-times and complaints from customers reached a point where the company's image was beginning to suffer. Health and You turned instead to MacPeach, and ordered 120 of the company's ARTISAN artificial personae. They have now gone through basic training, and the first started work yesterday.

The response has been very mixed. Health and You are satisfied with the way the experiment has gone so far, and are hoping to recoup some of the losses of earlier months, but employee organizations have demanded that the use of APs - as they have been called - should be subject to a number of conditions and restrictions. The most significant condition, and in fact a relatively long-established demand, is that companies should reduce AP strength on the workforce when the employment situation worsens. Unions have also called for companies to pay a form of social welfare contribution for the use of artificial personalities, and that this would be set aside to cover redundancy settlements in the case of downsizing, or if the company goes into liquidation.

Interestingly, the public reaction has also varied greatly. Some people are simply happy that they can get through more quickly, while others complain that in certain instances the AP does not understand the question, particularly if the caller has a thick Glaswegian accent. In these cases, the customer has to wait until a member of the human staff becomes free to answer the query. Some clients have grumbled that the artificial personalities do not understand humour or irony, but will lock up for several minutes trying to parse the caller's enquiry and find a suitable behavioural response model from their files.

Advertisement from Compumedia 12.3.2011

Don't waste your energy - Enbody heat exchange and storage outfits

Now your Communicator can work everywhere, everywhen - free power from your own body heat!

YES! You, too, can store the heat emitted by your body 24 hours a day!

Enbody outfits resemble an artificial skin, and store the excess heat emitted by your body before converting it into useful electrical energy. Because it is the extra heat - and only the extra heat - that is removed, you always remain comfortable in your snug-fitting Enbody gear. The Enbody outfit includes hat, undershirt, undertrousers, gloves, and socks or stockings. The most important items are the hat, gloves and socks, since up to 80% of excess body heat escapes via the head and limbs.

The heat energy absorbed by your Enbody is passed through a transformer unit, to which you can for instance hook up your personal communicator. The energy charge is sufficient to power up two halogen hand-torches for full-time use, or to maintain routine operation of a communicator, regardless of your location. You can also buy a separate plasma accumulator to collect energy for future use.

The stretch fabrics used in the Enbody outfits are soft to the touch and feel comfortable against the skin, and are the result of years of laboratory development on a discovery made some 15 years ago, namely "plastic cotton". The American company Agracetus Inc., a subsidiary of W. R. Grace and Co., succeeded in creating a genetically engineered cotton plant, combining the preferred appearance and texture of cotton with some enhanced fibre properties. Essentially, the cotton plants were modified to produce a specific biopolymer (polyhydroxyalkanoate), within the normally hollow centre (or lumen) of the cotton fibres, creating what is basically a cotton fibre with a polyethylene-like core. Since then, the plant has been further developed to generate cores of various different plastics - and one of these is employed in Enbody to transfer heat for conversion into useful energy.

Enbody outfits are available in a range of models and attractive colours, in stretch sizes from XXS to XL. Work is under way on a new virtual surfacing, which will allow users to change their Enbody colouring and patterns to suit their moods or specific requirements - for example while out hunting or on military exercises.

Learn more about Enbody and pick out your own model from the video on the CompuClassifieds site: sat.web. ML76-331-ENB.

News item from Compumedia 26.3.2011

Enbody suit malfunction leads to tragic hypothermia death in Swiss Alps

A French tourist wearing a heat-exchanger bodysuit was found dead of hypothermia yesterday in a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps. The tourist, whose name has not been released, was reportedly in the area to watch and report on birds of prey living above the tree-line. The man's Enbody suit was designed to take in the body's excess heat and convert it into electrical energy, allowing him to power cameras and communicators. According to early reports from Swiss police, the apparent cause of the accident was a programming fault in the suit. The Enbody interpreted the chilly Alpine hut conditions as tropical heat of around 40oC and removed from the victim's body so much heat that he died of hypothermia while he slept.

In its advertising, Enbody has claimed that their suits accurately regulate the amount of heat taken out of the body according to the ambient temperature, leaving the wearer warm and comfortable. The manufacturers have expressed their apologies for the incident, but have also observed that the outfits have passed all the stringent trials required by EU's Testing Authority. "Unfortunately we seem still not to have been able to overcome the possibility of a human error in the manufacturing process", said a spokesman for Enbody.

Angry French consumer organizations have already called for the immediate suspension of all sales of Enbody suits pending a full inquiry.

MediWebCast 18.7.2011

ManMaker potency automat reduces need for alcohol, mood drugs

The ManMaker potency packs introduced onto the market two years ago have dramatically reduced the use of alcohol and drugs in several countries, according to a survey carried out on behalf of the Paris Medical Academy.

According to the exhaustive study, the health and mental well-being of men afflicted with erectile dysfunction problems have on average shown marked improvements after they began using ManMaker potency automats. At the same time, users have reported that they less often resort to alcohol or designer soft drugs (such as MindUp or Heaven) and have reduced the doses of these substances that they take. Most respondents further stated that their self-confidence was up, and that their social life had improved. More than 12,000 men were interviewed in 19 countries.

Two years ago the French L'Institute de la Psychologie began marketing of a self-adjusting potency autopack. Worldwide sales of the pack, which internationally goes under a number of names - ManMaker, StiffUpperLip, Stondis, and Le Coq Sportif among them - have exceeded 110 million units, and demand appears to be firm.

The device is in two parts, comprising a dispenser capsule implanted at the root of the penis and a remote control clock and keypad. The capsule contains 350 doses of a concentrated pharmaceutical compound which both heightens the sense of sexual arousement and relaxes and widens the arteries in the penis, allowing blood flow into the organ to increase, and at the same time compressing the veins that carry blood away from the penis. The principle is similar to that used in the now-banned late 20th century drug Viagra®, but the associated problems with users also taking nitroglycerin for angina pectoris (chest pain due to heart disease) have now been successfully overcome. The effective duration of a single ManMaker dose is a maximum of two hours, but the user may regulate the moment and duration of his erection using the remote control pad.

Many organizations campaigning on behalf of "natural life" have demanded the potency packs be banned as unnatural artificial aids, but thus far only Great Britain and Ireland have drafted legislation to restrict sales.

EU Genetech Monitoring Bureau - internal memo 5.11.2011

EU bugging virus scandal forces limits on telephony - confidential calls to be routed through separate secure network

Notice to all personnel:

As a result of the phone-bugging viruses discovered in several EU offices and departments last week, restrictions are to be placed on telephone behaviour within the GMB. Henceforth with immediate effect, all confidential calls must be routed through the secure administrative network.

Virus sightings have come from an increasing number of departments in the last six months. The so-called chain-letter viruses are capable of implanting themselves on all terminals that are to industrial standards DIN 6007 and upwards. They are capable of attaching themselves in dormant form on system speech-recognition units for later activation, and can evade detection by all conventional anti-virus sweeps, even including recent versions of VirusDel C.

The virus that infected offices last week is apparently a professional variant of the hoax virus that caused widespread confusion last year by adding its own often irrelevant or obscene comments to telephone conversations over infected lines. The latest version sends e-mail to thus-far untraceable addresses.

According to the Union's Data Protection Agency the virus is extremely hard to combat, as it is of the "shapeshifter" or "chameleon" variety, and is able to alter its ID and converse with any other viruses present in the network. When the virus encounters an anti-virus shield, it automatically removes itself from the machine it has entered. At the same time, it requests some other virus present nearby to transport it back to the host machine after a random waiting period.

The DPA and numerous international IT suppliers are working to find patent solutions to the problem of fending off the virus permanently. The DPA has nevertheless already commented that no material advances can be made until Microsoft takes the problem seriously and removes from its operating systems the oxygen that the virus requires - in the form of certain properties of the software. Microsoft is clearly reluctant to do this, as then a considerable part of its own applications would cease to function. The DPA has in any case taken the step of opening talks with other operating systems manufacturers for replacement systems in the event that Microsoft refuses to make the necessary changes.

In addition to the order to use secure admin networks, the DPA has issued a list of other security measures. Industry-standard PCs may no longer be used for telephone calls. Also, such machines may not even be close at hand when telephone conversations are in progress. It must also be noted that encryption of data transmissions provides no security against telephone bugging or virus attacks. The present strain of viruses can copy for themselves from host-machines the user's rights and can therefore break open encryption keys and access files at will.

There are two alternative channels open for telephony alongside the secure networks. One is the mobile phones of the long-established GSM network, and the other is the Nokia Memoryphone or "monsterphone". Both of these are at the present time safe channels of communication. The data connection on the ageing GSM network is so slow that the virus is unable to get a foothold there and communicate within it. The Nokia phone, on the other hand, has software supplied by the Nokia subsidiary GeoWorks, and is apparently immune to virus penetration.

Report on patent testing EU/ASCO/JT/2011/11/21

TRANSCAP Translation Helmet Patent Application No. FIN-2019-01-14-M-4497

Patent application no. : FIN 2019-01-14-M-4497
Manufacturer/Applicant: Micronokia Ltd
Tester: EU Testing Authority/Simulation Dept./Jack Tree
Outside referral agency/agencies: University of London, Faculty of Applied Linguistics

1. Description of the device

TRANSCAP combines four functions in a single unit: - a speech recognition program featuring a fractal transformer, - a delay-transmit-receive module (DTR module), - a translation module with vocabulary and context files, - a voice simulator to convert the translated text back into speech in the second language.

2. Use of the device

The Transcap unit is placed on the head like a cap or helmet. Both parties to the conversation to be translated must be wearing similar devices, or loudspeakers will be required, causing possible disturbance to people in the immediate area. The use of two Transcap units guarantees undisturbed two-way communication, even with relatively high levels of background noise (Factory-floor Benchtest @ 65dB).

Subjects A and B speak different languages. Subject A's speech - for example Mandarin Chinese - is picked up by the speech recognition programme, and passed through the DTR module, which contains a loop memory with filters for all installed languages and dialects. The delay process is necessary since delivery rates and syntax can vary dramatically between languages. The DTR module transmits in digital form the ready-slowed message in Chinese to the DTR module of Subject B, which translates it into B's own language, for instance German. Subject B hears the German translation of the message, converted into analog form, through his headset.

According to the licence (EU-RFD-RLP-2019-11-11-ASO-Y) granted to this device on the basis of the EU Radio Frequency Directive, the transmitter signal is permitted a maximum range of 10 metres, but for example at natural meetings and conferences (but not, however, in virtual environments), the signal may be amplified by up to five times using a fixed P.A. system.

Test results

In technical terms, the device corresponds fully to the requirements of the Radio Frequency Licence. A maximum transmission range of 9.87 metres was recorded. When the Transcap headset is being worn, other sounds from the environment become inaudible. We recommend for this reason that the device may not be employed under such conditions where use might constitute a danger to the wearer - for example in traffic, or in working environments where the work is directed by oral commands. The manufacturer has notified us of an improved model that allows for 2-track listening, and this will be released next year.

The translation function of the device was basically satisfactory between all languages installed in the hologram memory. The translations were often somewhat rough and ready, but all were perfectly understandable. A greater problem was encountered in the uncomfortably long waiting-times required for delivery. For example, in the process of translating German into Chinese, the pauses between translated sentences were almost as long as the sentences themselves. On the other hand, in field tests when Subject A was speaking Chinese for translation into German, the speaker periodically had to wait, as the loop memory reported that it had not been able to translate the sentence quickly enough into the receiver's language. Also the speed of delivery of the speaker has an impact on the length of waiting-times.

Certain expressions containing regional dialect or new coinages of words were not translated in an understandable manner. A further problem is that of translating nuances, and the cross-cultural issue of gauging the strength of certain expletives in translation. The translation module did not, for example, provide sufficiently colourful or powerful translations in numerous languages for the Anglo-Saxon expletive "fuck" in all its forms as noun, verb, adjective, or as part of a complex phrasal verb such as "Is it you that's been fucking around with my camera?". The manufacturer defended the charge by commenting that the term in question - whilst still taboo in certain cultures - has become familiar worldwide and it was thus not necessary to give a comprehensive translation.

Recommendations

We recommend that the patent application be approved, subject to the following conditions:

1. The device may not be used by the driver of a moving vehicle, in orally-directed work, or under any similar such conditions where the limits on hearing background sounds may represent a danger to the wearer. This warning must be printed - in the relevant language - on the right-hand earpiece of the device.

2. The device is not suited for precise translations, for example in official simultaneous interpretation of important virtual or natural meetings and conferences. This condition must be displayed prominently in the Transcap Help Files.

Jack Tree

Head of Department /EU-ASCO-1984-06-18-SSO
Testing Authority, Simulation Dept.

Appendices

- Two models of the Transcap 1.0
- 3-D program of module structure
- Matrix of available languages and delay-relationships
- Copy of Radio Frequency Licence

Compumedia Trade Digest 31.12.2011

Finnish and Swedish maritime authorities satisfied with early results of ice-melting pumps

The new system designed to keep the Gulf of Bothnia (an arm of the Baltic between Sweden and Finland) free of ice has been in operation for four weeks. Although the recent unusually low temperatures recorded over the Christmas holiday have frozen the Gulf solid almost as far south as Vaasa, the fairway for shipping using the northern ports remains open. The low-revolution pumping system installed on the sea-bed appears to be a complete success, despite many early doubts over the project.

The maritime authorities of the two Scandinavian countries have installed roughly 50,000 slowly-revolving pumps under the main shipping lanes and in the ports leading to and from them on both sides of the Gulf. The action of the pumps lifts the bottom water - at a temperature of around +4oC - to the surface, and thereby prevents the surface from freezing over. The pumps can be powered by natural and renewable energy sources, since even a sluggish turnover of the water is sufficient to prevent ice formation.

The Swedish and Finnish maritime authorities have experimented with three natural sources of energy - wind power, solar power, and heat exchangers drawing energy from the natural temperature of the water. For example on the Finnish coast, solar collector farms have been erected to the south, windmills slightly further north, and at the very top of the Gulf, in the Kemi and Tornio area, power stations using thermal energy from the waters of the Baltic.

Usko Jaala, Director of the Finnish Board of Navigation, was in enthusiastic mood at a press conference held today in Oulu. Jaala noted that if the system continued to work as smoothly as in this first month, only one icebreaker would be required by the northern ports, serving traffic during extreme conditions or when drift ice temporarily blocked fairways. This will bring substantial budget savings that will pay off the entire cost of building the pump system in the space of just three years. After this it will be possible to lower tariffs to shipping on this route, which will naturally sharpen the competitive edge of ports in the Gulf of Bothnia.

Contrary to expectations, the EU has not provided financial backing for the venture. Russia blocked support by the European Commission by exercising its right of veto. Russian authorities fear that wintertime sea traffic into its own ports on the Kola Peninsula (e.g. Murmansk, which currently also provides access for shipments to and from Russian Karelia) will move to the easier and cheaper Bothnian ports, thus reducing income from harbour and cargo charges.

Hannula I. & Linturi R. 1998: 100 Phenomena.
Yritysmikrot Oy, Helsinki 1998. Copyright notices ISBN 952-9508-18-2