世貿係你老頭?

港產Wi-Fi批政府扶植不力

本土研發未優先採用 港府：須守世貿規定

【明報專訊】政府公布支援包括創意科技的六大產業發展，但一間3年前成立的本土科技公司指出，港府未有如其他國家般，優先採用本地研發的高科技產品，外判工程的承辦商亦選用較貴、技術較差的外國貨。政府回應指政府採購須遵守世貿規定，確保海外及本地標書公平競爭。

泰爾科技研發的Wi-Fi基站覆蓋範圍可達一公里，比其他國際對手50至150米遠，大大減低大範圍裝設Wi-Fi的成本，獲得數個國際和本地科技獎項。發展中國家如越南、馬來西亞亦採用其技術，為窮人提供廉價或免費Wi-Fi上網。

產品覆蓋廣 外國受歡迎

但公司總裁連智洪指出，雖然技術在發展中國家深受歡迎，美國矽谷部分區域亦有採用，但香港政府和企業卻不選用，「我們到非洲推介產品，客人問你們的產品這麼多，港府有採用嗎？」連智洪解釋，高科技產業研發成本巨大，回本期亦較長，需要政府協助才能在市場上站穩陣腳。「政府協助高科技發展，一般以資助、稅務優惠和採購等形式。美國、韓國、台灣、新加坡等地都極力保護本土工業，例如美國政府工程如需使用外國貨，須先證明本地沒有相關技術，或外國貨便宜超過一成。這些國家亦是世貿成員，受採購協議規限。」

商務及經濟發展局回應稱，政府採購以公開、公平和經濟效益為原則，而由於香港已簽署世界貿易組織政府採購協定，要確保海外及本地供應商公平競爭。協助開發本土市場方面，科學園提供支援包括市場推廣、投資及商業配對服務。發言人承認，政府外判工程的招標合約，由外判商決定中標者誰屬，政府無權決定。

業界：小公司難躋身投標名單

連智洪指出，一般政府工程都外判予承辦商，承辦商為了保險，就算較貴或質素較差，都寧願用外國貨，不信任本土貨。他認為政府希望推動高科技產業，應先帶頭使用本土貨，「不一定要大舉購入我們的基站全部裝在政府物業，我們可免費提供基站供政府試用，如裝在禮賓府和政府總部試驗，以起帶頭作用」。

同屬科學園租戶的集訊軟件科技有限公司行政總裁羅耀宗指出，政府有投標名單，名單上大部分都是大公司，規模較小或新公司較難躋身其中。

明報記者 何雪瑩

It is very unfair indeed

1) How do you prevent your own employee to make unfair investment?
2) How do you monitor your own employee to make unfair investment?
3) Is it a crime to use your money to buy and sell continuously in the market? If borrow money to make investment based on someone else’s idea, how unfair can it be?
4) Is it fair for investment banks that make big investment and at the same time relase investment information and reports on the stock maket?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aFeyqdzYcizc

Goldman Sachs Loses Grip on Its Doomsday Machine: Jonathan Weil

Commentary by Jonathan Weil

July 9 (Bloomberg) — Never let it be said that the Justice Department can’t move quickly when it gets a hot tip about an alleged crime at a Wall Street bank. It does help, though, if the party doing the complaining is the bank itself, and not merely an aggrieved customer.

Another plus is if the bank tells the feds the security of the U.S. financial markets is at stake. This brings us to the strange tale of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Sergey Aleynikov.

Aleynikov, 39, is the former Goldman computer programmer who was arrested on theft charges July 3 as he stepped off a flight at Liberty International Airport in Newark, New Jersey. That was two days after Goldman told the government he had stolen its secret, rapid-fire, stock- and commodities-trading software in early June during his last week as a Goldman employee. Prosecutors say Aleynikov uploaded the program code to an unidentified Web site server in Germany.

It wasn’t just Goldman that faced imminent harm if Aleynikov were to be released, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti told a federal magistrate judge at his July 4 bail hearing in New York. The 34-year-old prosecutor also dropped this bombshell: “The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.”

How could somebody do this? The precise answer isn’t obvious — we’re talking about a black-box trading system here. And Facciponti didn’t elaborate. You don’t need a Goldman Sachs doomsday machine to manipulate markets, of course. A false rumor expertly planted using an ordinary telephone often will do just fine. In any event, the judge rejected Facciponti’s argument that Aleynikov posed a danger to the community, and ruled he could go free on $750,000 bail. He was released July 6.

Market Manipulation

All this leaves us to wonder: Did Goldman really tell the government its high-speed, high-volume, algorithmic-trading program can be used to manipulate markets in unfair ways, as Facciponti said? And shouldn’t Goldman’s bosses be worried this revelation may cause lots of people to start hypothesizing aloud about whether Goldman itself might misuse this program?

Here’s some of what we do know. Aleynikov, a citizen of the U.S. and Russia, left his $400,000-a-year salary at Goldman for a chance to triple his pay at a start-up firm in Chicago co- founded by Misha Malyshev, a former Citadel Investment Group LLC trader. Malyshev, who oversaw high-frequency trading at Citadel, said his firm, Teza Technologies LLC, first learned about the alleged theft July 5 and suspended Aleynikov without pay.

‘Preposterous’ Charges

Aleynikov’s attorney, Sabrina Shroff, told the judge at the bail hearing that Aleynikov never intended to use the downloaded material “in any proprietary way” and that the government’s charges were “preposterous.”

Goldman isn’t commenting publicly about any of this, though it seems the bank’s bosses want us to believe there’s no need to worry. On July 6, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a “person familiar with the matter” saying this: “The theft has had no impact on our clients and no impact on our business.” Note that this person was so familiar with Goldman that he or she spoke of Goldman’s clients as “our clients” and Goldman’s business as “our business.”

By comparison, last Saturday, while most Americans were enjoying the Fourth of July holiday, Facciponti was in court warning of looming threats to Goldman and the financial markets.

“The copy in Germany is still out there,” the prosecutor said, according to an audio recording of the hearing. “And we at this time do not know who else has access to it and what’s going to happen to that software.”

Secret Software

“We believe that if the defendant is at liberty, there is a substantial danger that he will obtain access to that software and send it on to whoever may need it,” Facciponti said. “And keep in mind, this is worth millions of dollars.”

By “millions,” it’s unclear if that would be enough to match Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein’s $70.3 million compensation package for 2007. Or perhaps millions means thousands of millions, otherwise known as billions.

Facciponti said the bank told the government that “they do not believe that any steps they can take would mitigate the danger of this program being released.” He added: “Once it is out there, anybody will be able to use this, and their market share will be adversely affected.” All Aleynikov would need to get the code from the German server is maybe 10 minutes with a cell phone and an Internet connection, Facciponti said.

Judge’s Ruling

The hole in Facciponti’s argument was that the government offered no evidence that Aleynikov had tried to disseminate the software during the month prior to his arrest, after he downloaded it and had left his job at Goldman. That’s the main reason the judge, Kevin N. Fox, cited in ruling Aleynikov could be released on bail.

“We don’t deal with speculation when we come to court,” Fox said. “We deal with facts.”

Meantime, it would be nice to see someone at Goldman go on the record to explain what’s stopping the world’s most powerful investment bank from using its trading program in unfair ways, too. Oh yes, and could the bank be a bit more careful about safeguarding its trading programs from now on? Hopefully the government is asking the same questions already.

(Jonathan Weil is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Globalization?

貪平採購 引起四宗事故
大陸黑心晶片玩殘美軍

05/10/2008

【本報訊】中國偽劣商品除禍害普通消費者，甚至連美國軍備都中招。美國媒體報道，中國出口的「黑心晶片」或對美軍構成安全威脅，部分小型軍品供應商為謀取暴利，涉嫌以低價買入中國「山寨廠」生產的翻版偽劣電子零件，轉售到美國國防部，從而安裝到美國的軍事武器。
據美國《商業週刊》報道，這些「黑心晶片」之所以會流入美國軍品市場，是因為早在克林頓政府以來，美國為了節省開支，批准國防部在一九九四年修改軍品零件只能向原廠及其授權廠商購買的規定，從此一些從事軍品買賣的小貿易商如雨後春筍般冒出。

報道指出，位於廣東汕頭市潮南區的貴嶼，是世界最大的電子廢物拆解處理集散地。

內地廢物處理商人回收的舊電子零件，經過塗改零件生產日期和偽裝之後，通過美國的一些小貿易商，以低廉的價格回流進入了美國國防部。

據估計，美國國防部為了維繫機齡在十至二十年間的戰機、船艦繼續活動，每年花費大約三十五億美元（約二百七十億港元）購買軍事備用晶片。

一些從中國進口的小貿易商出售的晶片價格低廉，往往成功取得國防部的定單。

15%替代零件屬假貨
報道說，透過對四宗懷疑因「黑心晶片」引起的軍方事故，經調查證實問題產品全來自中國。負責調查的美國海軍航空系統官員恩斯特估計，美國軍方買進的備用、替代零件中，至少有一成五是假貨，美國軍備已存在安全隱患。

Old News is So Exciting

Google 恐惹一身蟻
舊聞當新聞 累聯合航空股價狂瀉 2008年9月15日

【明報專訊】聯合航空上周因一篇02年申請破產保護的「陳年報道」被當成「即時新聞」，導致母公司股票遭狂沽，股價瞬間急瀉七成，市值蒸發80億港元。儘管聯合航空旋即發表聲明澄清，令股價大反彈，但直至上周五收市，股價亦未回復舊觀。美國證券交易委員會已就事件展開「初步調查」，結果竟發現，以使用智能程式代替編輯排列最熱門新聞的「Google News」，可能是罪魁禍首之一！事件不僅令Google非常尷尬，甚至還有可能惹來「一身蟻」。

凌晨1次搜尋 舊聞變「熱門新聞」

專家表示，這次聯合航空股價因謠傳暴瀉，給投資者上了寶貴一課，讓大家感受到電腦自動化的「威力」，以及它可以帶來的「災難」，最重要的是——無論如何優秀的電腦程式，始終都及不上人腦。Google News服務是Google其中一個最引以為傲的互聯網工具。Google聲稱，公司的Googlebot系統，可根據新聞點擊多寡，自動羅列最新最熱門的新聞，毋須人手編輯。

根據初步調查顯示，整場事件的起因，始於一名網民登入了《南佛州太陽哨兵報》的網站，在昔日報道資料庫中，查看一篇聯航在2002年的破產新聞。這名網民瀏覽報道的時間，是9月7日(上周日，美東時間，下同)的凌晨，由於該時段的網絡流量極低，即使該篇舊報道當晚只有 1次的點擊率，亦足以登上該報網站內商業新聞分類的「熱門新聞」名單中。

Google摘取 輾轉傳到彭博

當天凌晨1時37 分，Google的新聞程式自動掃描該報網頁，發現這則位於「熱門新聞」的連結。Google事後稱，由於程式掃描《太陽哨兵報》網站時，無發現任何標示這篇是舊聞的標記，結果程式就自動將這篇報道分類入「新聞」而非「舊檔案資料」。3分2秒之後，Google的讀者可經由Google News登入《太陽哨兵報》網站觀看這則「新聞」。

及至翌日早上，佛州「收益證券顧問公司」(ISA)的員工使用Google搜尋新聞時，發現了這篇報道。ISA公司過去10年一直有份負責提供「第三方新聞內容」給彭博通訊社。當天ISA負責篩選新聞內容的記者職員，按慣例以「2008、破產」等關鍵字，搜尋Google News，結果發現了這則「破產大新聞」，於是隨即根據報道，撰寫了一份投資簡報，於10時53分發送到彭博內部網絡供訂戶參考。

雖然理論上只有訂戶才能閱讀到內文，但一般用戶仍是能夠看「聯航申請破產保護」這標題。彭博通訊社向具公信力，不少人一看到這個標題，二話不說就立刻拋售聯合航空股票。短短5分鐘內，聯合航空股價便狂瀉了33％。

彭博的新聞記者也留意到聯航股價異動，於是開始準備報道。周一早上11時06分，聯合航空發表聲明否認，但在此之前，一名彭博新聞員工也找到了《南佛州太陽哨兵報》這則破產「新聞」。 結果，彭博還是於11時07分發布了一則標題指聯合航空傳出破產、股價暴跌的報道，令市場更恐慌。

聯航澄清無用 瀏覽暴增致股價暴跌

雖然彭博在收到聯航澄清聲明後，於11時08分急急撤稿，再於11時16分作出澄清。但就在同一時間，Google的電腦程式Googlebot在有關聯航新聞的瀏覽量暴增後，也再次發揮了「威力」，令聯航破產新聞登上榜首，最終令聯航股價全面崩潰暴瀉，在納斯達克於11時30分宣布暫停聯航股票交易一句鐘時，聯航股價已由開市時的12美元，跌至僅得3美元。恢復交易後，聯航股價雖回升到11美元，但仍然未回到停市前水平。

Retire of “Give Blood Save Life”

幹細胞製出人造血
取之不竭 盼代替捐血

2008年8月21日

【明報專訊】美國科學家突破醫學局限，開創先河研究出採用胚胎幹細胞大規模造血的辦法，並已準備在兩年內進行臨脇實驗，盼可解決目前血庫捐輸供應不穩定的問題，亦可避免接受輸血者意外感染疾病的風險。

減低捐血感染疾病風險

美國麻省「先進幹細胞技術」(ACT)研究小組希望，今次突破將標誌幹細胞研究走出象牙塔，首次廣泛應用於臨脇治療。他們在《血液》期刊發表報告稱，他們打算在兩年內，將這種幹細胞炮製出來的血液，用於臨脇測試，期望新技術最終可全面取代捐血。

用幹細胞炮製出來的血液輸血，將可消除經由輸血而感染乙型肝炎、愛滋病又或克雅二氏症(CJD，即瘋牛症)等疾病的風險。專家特別指出，負O型血是唯一能適合捐予各類血型人士，但血庫又經常缺乏的一種血型，如果能利用幹細胞造出負O型血，就有望能夠源源不絕地為全人類提供所需要的安全輸血治療。

鎖定負O型血 可為任何人輸血

領導研究的蘭扎(Robert Lanza)說﹕「對於大量失血的病人，血液供應不足可令他們陷入性命危險。胚胎幹細胞代表一個能夠無限繁衍擴充的細胞源，可為人類提供幾乎取之不竭的紅血球源泉。只要鎖定負O型血液的相關幹細胞，就能培育出適用於所有人的血液。這可說是胚胎幹細胞臨脇應用的一大突破。」

蘭扎的研究團體，破天荒成功誘導胚胎幹細胞分化成「血液母細胞」(Blood precursor cells)，然後再令它們發展成攜帶氧氣在身體循環的紅血球。研究顯示，這些培育出來的紅血球，跟天生紅血球的生物功效相同。蘭扎說﹕「我們用一個6孔培養皿，就能培殖出1000億個紅血球細胞。儘管仍要繼續研究，但我們肯定可以在1、2年內，用它們作臨脇試驗。」

雖然現時實驗用的是胚胎幹細胞，研究員有信心稍後能以來自成人的「誘發性多功能幹細胞」(IPS)複製血液，從而避免因使用胚胎組織所引發的倫理爭議。然蘭扎直言，當前一大問題是經費難求，其公司最近更被迫裁員。他說﹕「我們有一陣子連電話線都被切斷。雖然艱難境仍將持續，可是我們這兒的人都相信能夠克服難關。」

泰晤士報/路透社/美聯社

Dreaming in Code

There is no going back
…
Brooks’s Law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
…

Digital Signatures

Hong Kong Post, with the support of the Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau, has issued smart cards to Hong Kong Post e-Cert subscribers to promote the formal launch of the Electronic Service Delivery (ESD) Scheme on January 19, 2001

Give Me Undelete

Larger file systems
Persistent preallocation
Delayed allocation
More subdirectories
Journal checksums
Online defragmentation
Undelete
Faster file system checks
Nanosecond timestamps
ibm

Your Windows is Not Safe

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2004379751_msftlaw29.html

I See

No wonder the conversation is sometimes interrupted

DSO