Sweden develops disposable computer

Sweden has developed a disposable paperboard computer, which maker Cypak AB says can collect, process and exchange several pages of encrypted data.

TechWeb quotes Strina Ehrensvard, Cypak marketing director, as saying the disposable computer will be used initially in industrial-specific applications as an enhanced and secure RFID device.

"Today, in pharmaceutical and courier packaging as a data-collection device; tomorrow maybe for interactive books, lotteries, passports and voting cards."

The report says the Cypak product utilises RFID technology that is based on printable sensors and electronic modules. The components are integrated on a variety of products, ranging from packaging and plastic cards to adhesives. In healthcare applications, Cypak says the paperboard computer time-stamps medicine dosages, which can be integrated with a patient`s electronic diary.

Macromedia says it will begin experimenting with Linux support, releasing versions of its development tools that work with the open source operating system.

ZDNet reports that Kevin Lynch, Macromedia`s chief software architect, says the company will begin by offering optimisations to allow the main set of tools for creating Flash content (Flash M) to work smoothly with Wine, an emulation program that allows Windows programs to run on a Linux PC.

Macromedia says depending on developer interest, the next step will be to produce Linux-native versions of Flash MX and other applications.

The SCO Group has confirmed that three more companies - Computer Associates, Leggett & Platt and Questar - have purchased licences for its intellectual property, allowing them to run Linux without fear of SCO legal action.

CNET says the three licensees were named in a February letter to IBM from SCO`s attorneys in connection with the companies` legal dispute over Linux and Unix. Representatives of the three companies have confirmed the licences, but didn`t say they agreed with SCO`s assertions that Linux violates SCO`s Unix intellectual property.

A federal judge in New York has followed a similar ruling in California by ordering a Missouri company to stop making and marketing DVD-copying software.

Associated Press reports that the company, 321 Studios, says it has already shipped new versions of the software to comply with the California ruling, well before this week`s injunction sought by Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox.

In last month`s ruling, the California court agreed with claims by other Hollywood studios that 321`s DVD-copying products violate the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bars the circumvention of anti-piracy measures used to protect DVDs. The company has argued its products merely give consumers fair use of the movies they have bought, including backing up expensive copies of children`s movies in case the originals get scratched.