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Digital Planet: 19/08/2008

Factual: Science & Nature

19/08/2008

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 19/08/2008

Ghana Telecom controversy, captcha authentification, Siggraph game expo, brighter LEDs

Ghana Telecom to be sold to Vodafone. Captcha authentification. Siggraph computer game show. How to make brighter LEDs.

GHANA TELECOM - VODAFONE

After months of intensive debate, Ghana's parliament has finally approved the sale of a large stake of the national telecommunications company, Ghana Telecom – or GT – to the British mobile firm, Vodafone. 

Gareth talks to Nii Narku Quaynor, the convener of the African Network Operations Group and a Professor at Cape Coast University in Ghana, about why the sale has ignited real passions, including demonstrations outside the parliament building.

CAPTCHA AUTHENTIFICATION

If you've ever authenticated yourself signing up to a new email account or maybe an online purchasing service, the chances are you've done a CAPTCHA. That's an acronym by the way that stands for Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart. 

A CAPTCHA is one of those slightly squiggly looking words that you're asked to type back in to the system. With millions of us performing this feat of character recognition every day, a team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is using this effort to help transcribe ancient texts. Luis von Ahn explains the process. 

NEW GAMES AT SIGGRAPH

Jon Stewart tries out some of the latest computer games being demonstrated at the giant graphics industry show, Siggraph, held in Los Angeles last week. Some of the games are more like real life as they use touch as well as sight and sound.

BRIGHTER LEDS

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles campus are working on the next generation of super bright light emitting diodes, or LEDs. Professor Yang Yang of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science tells Gareth that as they're produced on a plastic material they're cheaper and quicker to manufacture.

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