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Task one. Get ready to translate first four passages and to give a summary of the text. Pirate file-sharing goes 3d
06 February 2012 by Jacob Aron
LAST week saw the launch of a new category on The Pirate Bay, the controversial file-sharing site known for making copyright material freely available. Alongside music, films and e-books, the site offers "physibles" - digital objects that assume a physical form thanks to a 3D printer.
At the moment such printers are the domain of hobbyists, spitting out small plastic trinkets, but improvements in the technology mean more complex materials and shapes will soon be possible. Could The Pirate Bay's move open the door for a new wave of piracy as people scan objects using a 3D scanner and share them online?
The prospect may seem unlikely, but remember that MP3 players were a niche market until free music from the likes of Napster fuelled demand for the iPod. So perhaps file-sharing could do the same for 3D printers, bringing them into people's homes.
The music industry responded to illegal file-sharing with digital rights management (DRM) techniques that prevented a song from playing on an unauthorised device. Could companies that sell physical products do the same?
One option is placing a marker on objects that a 3D scanner could detect and which would stop it operating. In 2002 University of Cambridge computer scientist Markus Kuhn discovered this technique is already used to prevent banknotes from being photocopied, but he says it would not work for 3D scanners as pirates could simply cover the marker with tape.
He suggests borrowing an alternative method from music DRM. Some companies watermark their audio files by encoding copyright information in frequencies outside the range of human hearing, which are normally discarded by compression algorithms. Kuhn says the equivalent in physical objects is the mechanical tolerances used in manufacturing - one side of an object might be specified as 300 ± 1 millimetres, for example. A marking algorithm could etch a tiny pattern in the unused section that a scanner would detect.
TASK TWO. Discuss the given abstract.
After years of confusing consumers with multiple, slightly different versions of the same operating system, Microsoft announced today that Windows 8 will come in only four versions: One for home use, one for business, one for devices running ARM chips, and one for large enterprises that buy in bulk.
For most people buying an operating system for a traditional desktop or laptop, the choice will be between just two versions. The version called simply "Windows 8" is designed for home users. "Windows 8 Pro" is for business users and includes features for encrypting a file system, virtualization, and domain management.
"Windows RT" is the new name for what had been called Windows on ARM. You won't be able to purchase it on its own; it'll come preinstalled on PCs and tablets that run ARM processors. Windows RT won't be able to run traditional X86/64 desktop software. Instead, it'll run touch-oriented apps based on Windows Runtime (or WinRT), Microsoft's programming model for mobile apps. Apps for the touch-oriented Metro interface are built using Windows Runtime. Windows RT will come with special touch-oriented versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.