MoD to auction off radio spectrum

17 December 2012 Last updated at 11:04 ET

The Ministry of Defence says it will auction some of the radio frequency it owns in a move that will increase the capacity for 4G mobile services.

The spectrum being sold is below the 15GHz frequency, which is seen as the most useful type because it can be used for a wide range of communications.

Mobile phone and broadband suppliers are seeking access to more spectrum.

Demand for this is mounting, fuelled by rising use of data-hungry devices such as smartphones and tablets.

The sale, which will take place in 2014, will give private operators the chance to buy more spectrum to support the introduction of fourth-generation (4G) mobile services to people in cities, towns and villages across the UK., which will allow much faster download speeds.

Alternatively, the spectrum could be used by fixed-line operators to provide wireless access to broadband services.

The EE mobile phone network, formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile, is the only UK operator already offering 4G.

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This move has been anticipated for several years, with the government's spending review in 2010 recommending that some of the most valuable public sector spectrum should be released by 2020.

The MoD, which controls around three-quarters of that, was the first government department to act on the review.

But any hopes that the MoD may be able to keep some of the up-to-£1bn that analysts say the sale could raise are in vain, even though the MoD budget is facing further cuts in the coming years, as made clear in the chancellor's recent Autumn Statement. The money raised by the auction will go to the Treasury.

Boosting access

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) says it owns a lot of spectrum - around 75% of that which is publicly held.

It says it does not need all that and that the part up for sale is being cleared of military users.

It is currently used for a broad range of services including defence, emergency services, transport and science.

The minister for defence equipment, support and technology, Philip Dunne, said: "We welcome this opportunity to free up much-needed spectrum.

"We hope that the sale will help drive the roll-out of new generation networks and universal access to broadband, both of which are vital to the UK's prosperity."

The government has been planning to take this action for some time.

It said in its 2010 spending review that at least 500MHz of public spectrum below 5GHz would be released by 2020 for new mobile communications uses.

Mixed forecasts

Recent auctions of extra capacity have proved successful in the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland.

In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor, George Osborne, said he expected to raise £3.5bn from a separate auction of spectrum coming up in the spring of next year.

That is way above the regulator Ofcom's estimate of £1.3bn.

Analysts are divided over the potential value.

Consultants PwC think Mr Osborne's figure - which was supplied by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility - is within its own estimated range of £2bn-£4bn.

But Matthew Howett, regulation analyst at telecom consultants Ovum, said it was too difficult to estimate what companies would be willing to pay.

"Trying to guess how much money a spectrum auction can raise is a bit of a fool's game," he said. "It depends on bidding strategies and you don't know how people will behave when they go into an auction

"We were all taken by surprise when the government came out with the £3.5bn value."

Ofcom's deadline for bidders to register an interest in buying new spectrum was 11 December and five companies are thought to have done so.

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Demo plan to aid god game project

14 December 2012 Last updated at 07:21 ET

A struggling video game project on crowdsourced funding website Kickstarter is planning to release a demo to drum up support for its pitch.

Project Godus launched on 21 November seeking £450,000 in 30 days to produce a modern update of a "god-game".

In such games players are the divine power overseeing virtual people inhabiting an artificial world.

Despite backing by UK gaming legend Peter Molyneux, Godus needs to raise almost £160,000 in seven days.

The playable demo should be available on 14 December, said Mr Molyneux in an interview with tech news site Ars Technica.

The demo would give players a taste of the godly powers players enjoy by letting them mould the landscape and see how the rest of the virtual world reacts, he said. He also admitted the code was "not the most beautiful piece of computer interaction ever".

Early video of the demo has also been released by 22 Cans, the game studio Mr Molyneux founded to put Godus together.

The stress of raising almost 40% of its funding in a week had left Mr Molyneux "sitting in a corner shaking slightly with fear and trepidation", he told Ars Technica. He said he hoped the demo would be enough to get people pledging cash so 22 Cans can complete work on the game.

Mixed success

Mr Molyneux is widely seen as the creator of the god-game genre having pioneered it in a title called Populous. He was also behind later examples such as Dungeon Keeper and Black and White.

Many game firms have turned to Kickstarter to raise funds for gaming projects, saying they prefer to appeal to the public for cash rather than go to an established publisher.

However, games have enjoyed mixed success on the site. Some, such as Star Citizen, raised far more than they asked for but many others have failed to hit their targets.

Other UK games makers are finding it tough to raise cash via Kickstarter. Elite Dangerous, a reboot of the classic space trading and fighting game backed by its original creator David Braben has 21 days to raise almost 40% of its ambitious £1.25m goal.

In a worse position is Dizzy Returns, a recreation of the classic games that featured an adventuring egg also backed by its creators, that has seven days to raise more than £300,000.

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US will not sign UN 'net treaty'

14 December 2012 Last updated at 07:50 ET

The US, Canada, Australia and UK have refused to sign an international communications treaty at an conference in Dubai.

The countries had objected to calls for all states to have equal rights to the governance of the internet.

But the breaking point was the addition of text relating to "human rights".

It marks a setback for the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which had said it was sure it could deliver consensus.

"It's with a heavy heart and a sense of missed opportunities that the US must communicate that it's not able to sign the agreement in the current form," said Terry Kramer the US ambassador to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (Wcit).

"The internet has given the world unimaginable economic and social benefit during these past 24 years."

Negotiators from Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Finland, Chile, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Kenya have said they would need to consult with their national governments about how to proceed and would also not be able to sign the treaty as planned on Friday.

In total 89 countries have signed the treaty and 55 have either reserved the right to do so later or ruled out ratifying it altogether.

Censorship claims

The ITU had organised the 12-day conference in order to revise a communications treaty last overhauled 24 years ago.

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Telecoms analyst Dr Jerry Sanders says reducing spam was one of the things the treaty was hoping to tackle

It said the document would help nations co-ordinate efforts against spam and widen access to the web.

However, much of the discussions ended up focusing on whether or not countries should have equal rights to the development of the internet's technical foundations.

In particular many attendees believed it was an anachronism that the US government got to decide which body should regulate the net's address system as a legacy of its funding for Arpanet - a precursor to the internet which helped form its technical core.

However, the US said this allowed it to ensure that technical experts could make "agile, rapid-fire decisions" about the net's development as part of multi-stakeholder organisations.

It added that other references to net might also be used to legitimise censorship and other interference in the operation of internet service providers (ISPs) and cloud-based operations, such as Google and Facebook.

Its view was supported by the internet and web pioneers Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee who warned any changes posed a "disruptive threat to the stability of the system".

Russian proposals

A proposal from Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Sudan calling for equal rights for all governments to manage "internet numbering, naming, addressing and identification resources" was eventually shelved.

But there was fresh controversy on Wednesday night after an alternative non-binding resolution was debated which suggested the UN agency's leadership should "continue to take the necessary steps for ITU to play an active and constructive role in the development of broadband and the multi-stakeholder model of the internet."

This was opposed by the US and European nations who repeated their argument that the treaty's regulations should not stretch to internet governance.

As debate continued into the early hours of Thursday morning the conference's chairman, Mohammed Nasser al-Ghanim asked for a "feel of the room" noting afterwards that the resolution had majority support, while stressing that this was not a formal "vote".

Matters were also complicated by an African bloc of countries calling for a paragraph to be added to the treaty's preamble relating to human rights which stated that: "These regulations recognise the right of access of member states to international telecommunication services."

The US and its allies suggested this as an attempt to extend the treaty's regulations to cover internet governance and content.

'Bad agreement'

After a break for sleep, Iran called for a vote on the African proposal which was carried by 77 votes to 33. This was in spite of the ITU's earlier pledge that disputed issues would only be resolved by consensus and not a majority vote.

The organisation's secretary-general attempted to salvage discussions, but soon after the US, Canada and UK said they could no longer ratify the treaty.

"My delegation came to work for revised international telecommunication regulations, but not at any cost," said the head of the UK delegation Simon Towler.

"We prefer no resolution on the internet at all, and I'm extremely concerned that the language just adopted opens the possibility of internet and content issues."

Despite this setback, the ITU's secretary-general Dr Hamadoun Toure insisted that those countries which did sign the treaty would benefit from other achievements including " increased transparency in international mobile roaming charges and competition".

Stopping spam

At a press conference on Friday the ITU said it was "puzzled" as to why countries had objected to the human rights text and denied there was an attempt to "hijack the internet".

It highlighted a section that had been added to the treaty explicitly stating that it did not address content-related telecommunications.

The final document published on Friday does refer to an aspiration that "all governments should have an equal role and responsibility for international internet governance".

But the ITU stressed that this text was non-binding and only featured in the treaty's appendices following the US's efforts to exclude it from the main regulations.

It also reflected on the fact that the main text does say that "member states should endeavour to take necessary measures to prevent the propagation of unsolicited bulk electronic communications," a reference to email spam and other unwanted messages.

The ITU said that this was about finding technical solutions to parties sending "a million emails and flooding the pipes" rather than deciding what content should and should not be allowed to get through.

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No UK charges for Gary McKinnon

14 December 2012 Last updated at 12:12 ET

Computer hacker Gary McKinnon, whose extradition to the US was blocked, will not face charges in the UK, bringing to an end a 10-year legal battle.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC said the chances of a successful conviction were "not high".

Janis Sharp, Mr McKinnon's mother, said the news was "amazing" and she was grateful the case was "all over now".

Mr McKinnon, 46, admits accessing US government computers but says he was looking for evidence of UFOs.

The US Department of Justice said it would continue to collaborate with the UK government on a "wide range of shared concerns".

Mr Starmer announced the decision not to prosecute some three months after Home Secretary Theresa May stopped Mr McKinnon's extradition.

Low 'conviction prospects'

The US authorities tried to extradite Mr McKinnon to face charges of causing $800,000 (£487,000) worth of damage to military computer systems and he would have faced up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

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Gary McKinnon's mother: ''It's been life destroying, it's difficult to explain how bad it's been, and to have this over is amazing''

Mr McKinnon, who had been fighting extradition since 2002, has Asperger's syndrome.

In October, the Briton was permitted to stay in the UK on human rights grounds after medical reports showed he was very likely to try to kill himself if extradited.

In a statement, Mr Starmer said: "The potential difficulties in bringing a case in England and Wales now should not be underestimated, not least the passage of time, the logistics of transferring sensitive evidence prepared for a court in the US to London for trial, the participation of US government witnesses in the trial and the need fully to comply with the duties of disclosure imposed on the CPS.

"The prospects of a conviction against Mr McKinnon which reflects the full extent of his alleged criminality are not high."

He concluded: "Against this background, the joint CPS/police panel recommended to the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police that he should not commence a new criminal investigation into Mr McKinnon. The Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has accepted that advice."

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To have this over is amazing - Gary's gone through enough."

End Quote Janis Sharp Gary McKinnon's mother

Following the decision not to bring charges in the UK, Mr McKinnon's mother said: "I'm very pleased and glad Gary's not going to have to go through another long term of trauma.

"I would love more than anything now for Mr Obama to give Gary a Christmas pardon."

She told BBC News: "Gary admitted to the intrusion, he always denied the damage. I feel the 10 years have been gruelling, it's been life-destroying. It's difficult to explain how bad it's been.

"To have this over is amazing. Gary's gone through enough. Other people have been accused of more serious hacking in this country and they've been given a £1,000 fine and a very short community sentence.

"Gary regrets what he's done. He wishes he hadn't done it. He wishes he hadn't upset the Americans. We all regret it. But I'm grateful to Theresa May that this is all over now."

Mr McKinnon's lawyer Karen Todner said she had "mixed feelings" about the decision.

She said: "I am pleased he is not going to be prosecuted because I wouldn't want to think he would ever spend any time in prison given his mental situation.

"But I am disappointed because the extradition warrant is still outstanding because he can't travel anywhere outside of the UK and will have this hanging over him until it's resolved.

"We have discussed approaching president Obama and asking for a pardon."

The US Department of Justice said its "law enforcement relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom has always been predicated on trust, respect, and the common goals of protecting our nations and eliminating safe havens for criminals".

It added: "Notwithstanding the home secretary's decision in the McKinnon case, our extradition treaty serves the interests of both our nations, and the United States values our continuing collaboration with the CPS and British law enforcement authorities on a wide range of shared concerns."

Risk of suicide

US authorities have described Glasgow-born Mr McKinnon's actions as the "biggest military computer hack of all time" that was "calculated to influence and affect the US government by intimidation and coercion".

Mr McKinnon lost appeals in the High Court and the House of Lords against his extradition, but two years ago a High Court judge ruled Mr McKinnon would be at risk of suicide if sent away.

Earlier this year Mrs May put the decision on hold, in order that Home Office appointed psychiatrists could conduct an assessment of Mr McKinnon's mental state.

The psychiatrists concluded Mr McKinnon would be likely to take his own life if he was sent to face trial in the US.

Mr McKinnon was arrested in 2002 and again in 2005 before an order for his extradition was made in July 2006 under the 2003 Extradition Act.

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Automatic net porn block rejected

15 December 2012 Last updated at 09:10 ET

Ministers have rejected plans to automatically block internet access to pornography on all computers, saying the move is not widely supported.

A public consultation found 35% of parents wanted an automatic bar while 15% wanted some content filtered, and an option to block other material.

But the government says internet providers should encourage parents to switch on parental controls.

Claire Perry, the MP who led the campaign, said she was "disappointed".

The NSPCC said parents' voices were not being heard.

There were more than 3,500 responses to the 10-week consultation - which included those from members of the public, academics, charities and communication firms as well as 757 from parents.

Respondents were asked to answer "yes", "no" or "maybe" to three separate questions about how internet service providers (ISP) could play a role in limiting access.

An automatic block would mean users would have to actively request that pornographic content was made available by their ISP.

Mrs Perry, the Conservative MP for Devizes in Wiltshire, led the campaign and handed over a petition to Downing Street containing more than 115,000 names.

She chaired the cross-party Independent Parliamentary Inquiry on Online Child Protection which concluded in April that government and ISPs needed to do more to keep children safe online.

She told BBC News she was "obviously disappointed that the opt-in option has been rejected" but she added: "Clearly that was not the preferred choice of the 3,500 people who responded to the consultation and we have to base policy on what's been received not what we want."

'Sea change'

She said she was pleased internet service providers would have to actively encourage and prompt parents to switch on filters which will block adult sites to children and verify the age of the person setting up the controls.

She said the exercise had helped to obtain a "sea change in attitude" from ISPs.

The report said there was "no great appetite among parents for the introduction of default filtering of the internet by their ISP - only 35% of the parents who responded favoured that approach".

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"Start Quote

There is also a risk from 'over-blocking' - preventing access to websites which provide helpful information on sexual health or sexual identity"

End Quote Government's report

Some 13% said they favoured "a system where you are automatically asked some questions about what you want your children to be able to access".

And 15% answered "yes" to a system that combined the previous two approaches where some harmful content, such as pornography, was automatically blocked but parents were also asked about what other content their children could access.

The NSPCC said the figures showed that half of the parents who took part in the consultation wanted some sort of automatic block on online pornography.

But the report said an automatic ban - or "opt-in" - approach could lead parents into a "false sense of security" because it could not filter "all potentially harmful content".

'Over-blocking' risk

It also did not "deal with harms such as bullying, personal abuse, grooming or sexual exploitation which arise from the behaviour of other internet users".

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"Start Quote

Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online"

End Quote NSPCC

It added: "There is also a risk from 'over-blocking' - preventing access to websites which provide helpful information on sexual health or sexual identity, issues which young people may want information on but find difficult to talk to their parents about."

About 70% of the 78 voluntary and community sector organisations that responded answered "yes" to an automatic block while a strong majority of respondents from all other groups answered "no".

While a large majority of the 77 information and communication businesses questioned were against all forms of control, they gave most support (about 18%) to the second approach, in which parents decide what they want their children to access on the internet.

The report found that, taking respondents as a whole, the majority were against all forms of control with more than 80% answering no to each of the three questions.

It praised the the four main ISPs - BT, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky - for signing up to a code of practice, offering customers a choice of whether to apply filters, but said providers should go further and actively encourage parents to turn them on.

'Right direction'

The NSPCC said that while the government's response was "a step in the right direction in making the internet safer for children" it was "disappointing" it had not gone further.

"The best option to protect children is for adult content to be automatically blocked by internet service providers," head of corporate affairs Alan Wardle said.

"Hardcore pornographic videos are just a few clicks away and a quarter of children have been sent unsolicited sexual material online."

He said it was vital new measures were rolled out to new and existing customers "quickly".

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, which is opposed to default filtering, said: "This is a positive step that strikes the right balance between child safety and parental responsibility without infringing on civil liberties and freedom of speech.

"The policy recognises it is parents, not government, who are responsible for controlling what their children see online and rightly avoids any kind of state-mandated blocking of legal content."

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Wind farm impact to be examined

15 December 2012 Last updated at 10:20 ET By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

The developer behind a planned offshore wind farm on the south coast of England says it will look to see how it can "mitigate" the concerns of campaigners.

Questions have been raised about the impact on the view and cultural significance of its location.

It will be off a stretch of coastline known as the Jurassic Coast.

Navitus Bay Development has revised its plans - the farm will be smaller and further out - but local MP Richard Drax said they were still not sufficient.

The coastline is one of just eight in the world to be awarded World Heritage Site (WHS) status by Unesco, and concerns have been raised over whether the title would be revoked if the wind farm goes ahead.

The site currently attracts 16m tourists a year to the area, according to its official website.

The 95 mile (152km) long Jurassic Coast gets its name because some 175 million years of geology are visible in its rocks.

218 turbines

In an interview with the BBC, Navitus Bay Development director Mike Unsworth said "regular discussions" had taken place with the local WHS steering group about maintaining the coastline's status.

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We have moved the northern boundary further south which provided greater navigational safety for recreational sea users"

End Quote Mike Unsworth Navitus Bay Development director

"The feedback we've had is that the designation is for its natural geology," he said.

"They've said it's unlikely that [the WHS] designation will be impacted by the development. But what they have also said is the setting of the WHS - in terms of how you view it or what you view from - is a concern to them. We continue to look at how we can mitigate that."

Following various criticisms, the developers now propose that the wind farm, known as Navitus Bay, should only have 218 turbines no more than 200m (600ft) high.

The firm's original plans were for 335 turbines up to 210m high.

Mr Unsworth said the site would now also be 3km (1.8 miles) further away from Bournemouth than previously planned, in order to minimise its visual impact.

The new proposals will be put back out to public consultation in 2013.

'Too close'

Mr Drax, Conservative MP for south Dorset, said there were still problems with the revised plans.

"The key problem, I think... is the fact it's so close to the coastline," he said.

"The recommendation from the EU is about 23km (14 miles). This will now be about 14km (9 miles) - it's just too close. Despite the fact there will be less of them we are still going to see these vast structures off one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world."

But Mr Unsworth said: "What I said to Richard [Drax] was, come to the next round of consultations, have a look at the new photo montages, take a view at that point and then provide us with fresh feedback."

Meanwhile, the Corporation of Trinity House, which looks after sea farers, had advised that the farm could affect a popular navigational channel.

The navigational channel is by a lighthouse called Hurst Point which is used by local boats and fishermen, said Trinity House.

In response, Mr Unsworth said: "We have moved the northern boundary further south which provided greater navigational safety for recreational sea users."

The Navitus Bay project is a partnership between energy firms Eneco Wind (UK) and EDF.

The construction of the wind farm could create 1,000 jobs and bring £100m to the local economy, the developers claim.

Mike Unsworth was interviewed on BBC Radio Solent programme The Big Dorset Brunch.

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Robotic arm 'mind control' hailed

16 December 2012 Last updated at 22:14 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Unrivalled control of a robotic arm has been achieved using a paralysed woman's thoughts, a US study says.

Jan Scheuermann, who is 53 and paralysed from the neck down, was able to deftly grasp and move a variety of objects just like a normal arm.

Brain implants were used to control the robotic arm, in the study reported in the Lancet medical journal.

Experts in the field said it was an "unprecedented performance" and a "remarkable achievement".

Jan was diagnosed with spinocerebellar degeneration 13 years ago and progressively lost control of her body. She is now unable to move her arms or legs.

Robo-arm

She was implanted with two sensors - each four millimetres by four millimetres - in the motor cortex of her brain.

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I don't know how to say it any other way, [the movement is] way better than anything that's been demonstrated before"

End Quote Prof Andrew Schwartz University of Pittsburgh

A hundred tiny needles on each sensor pick up the electrical activity from about 200 individual brain cells.

"The way that neurons communicate with each other is by how fast they fire pulses, it's a little bit akin to listening to a Geiger counter click, and it's that property that we lock onto," said Professor Andrew Schwartz from the University of Pittsburgh.

The pulses of electricity in the brain are then translated into commands to move the arm, which bends at the elbow, wrist and could grab an object.

Jan was able to control the arm after the second day of training and over a period of 14 weeks became increasing skilful.

The report said she gained "co-ordination, skill and speed almost similar to that of an able-bodied person" by the end of the study.

Prof Schwartz told the BBC that movements this good had not been achieved before.

"They're fluid and they're way better, I don't know how to say it any other way, they're way better than anything that's been demonstrated before.

"I think it really is convincing evidence that this technology is going to be therapeutic for spinal cord injured people.

"They are doing tasks already that would be beneficial in their daily lives and I think that's fairly conclusive at this point."

Sense of touch

The field of harnessing a healthy brain to overcome a damaged body is advancing rapidly.

Earlier this year, Cathy Hutchinson used a robotic arm to serve herself a drink for the first time since her stroke 15 years before.

In both studies the results were achieved inside a laboratory so are of little help in the home.

Researchers are now trying to mount the arm on Jan's wheelchair so she will be able to use it in her everyday life.

There are also attempts to give sensation to the prosthetic arms to restore a sense of touch.

In a review researchers Gregoire Courtine, Silvesto Micera, Jack DiGiovanna and Jose del Millan described the control of the arm as "highly intuitive and probably responsible for the unprecedented performance of the brain-machine interface".

They added that the system was a "remarkable technological and biomedical achievement" and that such designs were getting closer to a point which "might soon become revolutionary treatment models" for paralysed patients.

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Wonga offers loans at web checkouts

17 December 2012 Last updated at 07:57 ET

Online loans company Wonga has begun offering "buy now, pay later" services directly on retailers' websites.

Until now, loans from Wonga, which have been highly criticised due to an annual interest rate of 4,214%, have been available only through its own site.

The company has partnered with furniture firm Cotswold Company to launch its Paylater service.

A spokesman for Wonga said it intended to roll out the service to other retailers soon.

"Essentially, Paylater is providing an alternative to credit cards," he said.

"It takes the cost of your purchase, you pay an upfront fee of 7%, then there are three payments over subsequent months that cover the outstanding costs."

It means for an item that costs £100, a buyer will pay an initial fee of £7, followed by three monthly payments of £33.33.

'Legal loan shark'

The interest rates on Paylater are considerably lower than on its core business - short-term "pay-day" loans.

This side of Wonga's business has been highly criticised, with one MP calling the company a "legal loan shark".

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, also led a campaign to have the firm's advertisements taken off the websites of teams in the Football League.

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Consumers should familiarise themselves with exactly how much they may have to pay back in charges"

End Quote StepChange Debt advice charity

In May, Wonga was criticised by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for using aggressive and misleading debt collection methods.

Speaking on Wonga's latest offering, debt advice charity StepChange told the BBC: "As with any form of credit, StepChange debt charity would urge people to carefully consider whether they absolutely need to use it.

"Crucially, consumers should familiarise themselves with exactly how much they may have to pay back in charges, interest and fees, and whether they can afford to make those repayments."

US expansion

Wonga's move will see it come into direct competition with the likes of Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies that have taken their services online.

The planned expansion comes ahead of speculation that Wonga has its sights set on breaking into the US market as soon as possible.

A report in the Times newspaper earlier this month suggested Wonga had made a swoop to buy On Deck Capital, a US specialist online retailer.

But a Wonga spokesman dismissed the report as "rumours and speculation".

In 2011, Wonga chief executive Errol Damelin signalled his intent to expand the loan service worldwide.

"We built a platform that is definitely extendable and over time we will definitely be expanding the reach of the business to bring the service to customers around the world," he said during an interview with financial news service Bloomberg.

"The US has very particular regulatory constraints which make it an awkward market at the moment. We continue to look at the space and we will try and find a way to be able to bring the service to US consumers whenever we can."

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Nasa to test 'sleep-inducing lights'

17 December 2012 Last updated at 08:01 ET

Nasa is to test colour-changing lights on the International Space Station (ISS) as part of efforts to help astronauts on board sleep.

The US space agency will initially swap a fluorescent panel with a solid-state lighting module (SSLM) containing LEDs which produces a blue, whitish or red-coloured light depending on the time.

It says the move may help combat insomnia which can make depression, sickness and mistakes more likely.

The test is due to take place in 2016.

News site Space.com reported that the equipment is being made by Boeing and the project has a $11.2m (£6.9m) budget.

Body clock

Studies on Earth suggest humans and other creatures follow what is known as a circadian rhythm - a 24-hour biological cycle involving cell regeneration, urine production and other functions critical to health.

Research indicates that it is regulated by a group of cells in a portion of the brain called the hypothalamus which respond to light information sent by the eye's optic nerve, which in turn controls hormones, body temperature and other functions than influence whether people feel sleepy or wide awake.

The aim of the experiment is to simulate a night-day cycle to minimise sleep disruption caused by the loss of its natural equivalent on the station.

When the SSLMs are coloured blue the aim is to stimulate melanopsin - a pigment found in cells in the eye's retina which send nerve impulses to parts of the brain thought to make a person feel alert.

Blue light is also believed to suppress melatonin - a hormone made by the brain's pineal gland which makes a person feel sleepy when its levels rise in their blood.

By switching from blue to red light - via an intermediary white stage - this process should be reversed, encouraging a feeling of sleepiness.

Nasa has previously warned sleep problems among its crews on other missions were also common.

"On some space shuttle missions up to 50% of the crew take sleeping pills, and, over all, nearly half of all medication used in orbit is intended to help astronauts sleep," it said in 2001.

"Even so, space travellers average about two hours sleep less each night in space than they do on the ground."

Evidence from Earth

Derk-Jan Dijk, professor of sleep and physiology at the University of Surrey, said Nasa's test reflects the latest findings closer to home.

"It hasn't been until recently that we started to realise that artificial light, as we see it or are exposed to it in the evening, will have an effect on our alertness and subsequent sleep.

"It turns out there are receptors in the eye which are tuned toward blue light. Adding blue light to artificial lights visible during the day can actually help us to be alert, but if there is too much blue light in the artificial lights at night that may disrupt sleep.

"So, varying the spectral composition of light does make sense from a circadian perspective, and better regulating artificial sleep-wake cycles may indeed benefit astronauts' sleep in space."

Nasa adds there could be spin-off benefits for the population at large.

"A significant proportion of the global population suffers from chronic sleep loss," said Daniel Shultz at the Kennedy Space Center.

"By refining multipurpose lights for astronauts safety, health and well-being in spaceflight, the door is opened for new lighting strategies that can be evolved for use on Earth."

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The Pi Store opens

17 December 2012 Last updated at 09:22 ET

Another landmark today for what must be one of 2012's most successful new technology products, the Raspberry Pi. You've seen Apple's App Store, Google Play and Amazon and Windows online shops for apps? Well, now there is a Pi Store.

The people behind the ultra-cheap computer have decided to harness all that geek enthusiasm sparked since the Raspberry Pi's launch in February and create a one-stop shop where anyone can share games, applications and tools developed for the computer.

Eben Upton, the former Cambridge computing academic who came up with the idea for an affordable device that would encourage a new generating to get coding, has just blogged about the new store. He says he hopes it "will provide young people with a way to share their creations with a wider audience, and maybe to make a little pocket money along the way".

If that does happen, it will also provide useful evidence that the Raspberry Pi is reaching the audience at which it was originally targeted. Interest in the device has far exceeded expectations - the team thought originally that they might get 10,000 out this year, but I'm told more than 750,000 are now in the hands of users around the world. One user has compiled a map charting the Pi's global spread.

But my suspicion is that the main buyers so far have been 40-somethings who look back with nostalgia to their teenage years messing about with a BBC Micro or a ZX Spectrum. When I spoke to Mr Upton this morning, he confirmed that this was pretty accurate - "there's a strong bias towards adults who are computer literate" - but said that was changing a bit.

"Schools that are lucky enough to have an enthusiastic ICT teacher - or even a physics teacher - have been getting them."

But he accepts that the Raspberry Pi foundation, having successfully launched the hardware, now needs to focus on its original educational objective. The uncased device and the lack of much educational support is intimidating for teachers who are not particularly techie.

There are big plans to change that in 2013. "The intent is to have something that can go into a generic classroom environment," he said.

By the time Raspberry Pi celebrates its first anniversary at the end of February, more than a million will have been sold - an amazing achievement for what has been a shoestring operation dependent on voluntary efforts and the enthusiasm of the community. The next step is to build a more professional organisation which can fulfil the original vision - to transform the way children use and understand computers.

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