Monday, December 2, 2002		Newsscape

WESTERN Railway has launched a unique Global Positioning System, a satellite navigation system informing passengers about the arrival of the next station, exact distance of the speeding train and the approaching station. The system has been installed in the executive class coach of Shatabdi Express and plans are afoot to install them in other trains as well, DRM Kishore Kaushal announced in Mumbai last week. Passengers would be informed about the approaching station through the means of a visual signboard. The board would display the name of the approaching station when the train is 20 km from the station. PTI

Japan’s entry in the world supercomputer arena has maintained its premier ranking in the latest list, the system’s director said at a conference in Baltimore, USA. The Earth Simulator, as it is called, has yet to reach its full potential, according to Tetsuya Sato, director-general of the Earth Simulator Center at the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in Yokosuka City. The system ran a benchmarking programme at more than 35 trillion floating-point operations per second, also called teraflops—only 87 per cent of its theoretical maximum. It ran actual atmospheric modelling software at more than 26 teraflops. "Primarily the Earth Simulator should be devoted to the reliable prediction of global environmental changes, such as global warming and el Nino,"Sato said. The Japanese system is faster than the next five supercomputers combined, according to the rankings compiled by researchers in Germany and the USA. UPI

A terrorist attack or other disaster could disrupt the Internet like severe storms at airport hubs tie up air traffic, according to a study by Ohio State University researchers. It showed that major cities that serve as Internet nodes would continue to have access in most scenarios, although it would probably be less functional. But small and medium-sized cities that link to the Internet through these hub cities could be disconnected from the entire network. "If you would pick up an octopus, all of its tentacles would come up with it," said researcher Morton O’Kelly. "The major Internet nodes have tentacles that connect to many other cities. If you destroyed a major Internet hub, you would also destroy all the links that are connected to it." The researchers said that after the September 11 attack in New York, some areas around the city had Internet access cut off and several major Internet services and e-business providers were left without service for nearly two days. AFP

The government is likely to issue notification for the setting up of Cyber Regulations Appellate Tribunal before the end of 2002, paving the way for setting up of the full-fledged body as provided under IT Act 2000. The government is working towards it and before the end of the year the notification would come for the setting up of Cyber Regulations Apellate Tribunal, official sources have said. The current status of the proposed tribunal is that the Ministry of Communications and IT has approved it and is under submission to the Law Ministry for detailed discussions. The Cyber Regulations Apellate Tribunal would hear appeals against the order of Controller of Certifying Authority (CCA) and Adjudicating Officer. PTI