The European Commission has proposed that no new taxes should be levied on electronic trade and existing taxes should be adapted to enable e-commerce to be treated simply as the provision of a service. The Commission hopes that electronic trade can develop without a heavy tax burden and within a clear framework throughout the EU. The recent reduction in the costs of telephone calls to ISPs in Ireland would certainly appear to be a step in the right direction although if we ever see the introduction of free local calls, as is currently the practice in the United States, the growth of e-commerce would certainly accelerate at a considerably faster rate then at present.
While away a wait: Bored with the world wide wait? Losing hours each week to dead links and gindingly slow servers? Well no more because Zing Networks has come up with a unique answer to the problem. They have developed the Zing Player, which can be downloaded at www.zing.com and used to view entertaining clips while waiting for other unrelated pages to download. Users can select from one of 11 channels to get brief music clips, cartoons, jokes or even information about cars. Most clips last a mere three to five seconds so will not interfere with other online content. And for those of you who would rather not whittle away your time on such frivolous matters, Zing also offers French and Spanish lessons.
New email threat: Eudora, the most widely-used program for sending and receiving email, has a security flaw that could enable a hacker to ruin data or plant a virus on computers that run the software. The security breach came to light a little more than a week after flaws were revealed in two other popular email programs, Microsoft's Outlook and Netscape's email client that comes with its Communicator suite. A Eudora user reported the bug earlier this week, according to the San Diego-based Qualcomm which produces the software. The flaw would be triggered when the user clicked on a hostile hyperlink in an email message. Instead of linking to a Web page, the action would execute the attached file, which could then cause havoc.
Y2K Okay: A Federal Aviation Administration official told the US Congress last Thursday that top FAA officials intend to fly coast-to-coast on January 1st, 2000 to show that the computer-driven air traffic control system hasn't been made unsafe by Y2K computer problems. Ray Long, director of the FAA's Y2K program, assured the House committee on technology that the agency will be fully and safely operational by the end of 1999.
High speed baby bells: There is expected to be increased incentive for investment in broadband services after the US Federal Communications Commission ruled last week that the regional Bell operating companies, or Baby Bells, can set up affiliate companies to offer high-speed data services. Pressured by public demand, the FCC has sought to act as a catalyst for increasing bandwidth for data. Consolidations in the telephone industry, the increasing appetite for bigger pipelines for data, and competition from the cable industry are all fueling a race to provide higher-speed services.
Lake over: Lake Communications has announced the acquisition of Topology systems for an initial sum of £5.6 million and intends to merge Topology with its own networking business, employing 50 people. Topology's traditional strength in the financial services arena complements Lake's presence in the food and distribution sectors and now the combined customer base includes such blue chip clients as Aer Lingus, Avonmore Waterford Group, Bank of Ireland and Irish Distillers.
Web express: Trans Web Express, a suite of utilities for the localisation of HTML and online HTML-based Help systems, has been launched by Berlitz International as freeware. Trans Web Express is designed for testers, engineers, translators, and project managers working with localised HTML files. Its utilities include facilities for accurate analysis of HTML projects, functional and visual comparison between the original and localised files, and editing facilities. The program is available from www.berlitz.ie/twe
Transistors take off: IBM has developed a new process for building high-speed transistors that could boost the performance of computers by as much as 35 per cent. The company describes its "silicon-on-insulator" or SOI technology as a key advance in chip technology which will allow the development of more powerful voice-recognition software, smaller cell phones with much longer-lasting batteries and entire new classes of portable devices for accessing the Internet. SOI can require as little as one third of the power used by current chips.
Funny `cos it's true: You may have already received this but just in case you haven't: A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realises he is lost. He spots someone below, lowers the balloon and shouts: "Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?" The man below says: "Yes you're in a hot air balloon, hovering 30 feet above this field." "You must work in Information Technology," says the balloonist. "I do," replies the man. "How did you know?" "Everything you have told me is technically correct," says the balloonist "but it's of no use to anyone." The man below says, "You must be in upper management in some business." "I am, but how did you know?" "Well", says the techie, "you don't know where you are, or where you're going, but you expect me to be able to help. You're in the same position you were before we met, but now it's my fault." Boom boom.
Gates to be deposed: Microsoft lawyers request to a federal judge to limit the US government to no more than eight hours of deposition with Bill Gates has been rejected. In response to the Justice Department's request last week that Gates be made available for two consecutive days of testimony, Microsoft accused the government of "gamesmanship" aimed at disrupting the company's efforts to prepare for a landmark antitrust trial, set to begin next month. Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson rejected the request saying he had no intention of placing "a time restriction on the length of time that Mr Gates will be deposed".
In brief: Telecom Eireann and RTE have announced the appointment of N. M. Rothschild & Sons as financial advisers on the sale of their shareholding in Cablelink. . . The Irish Emi- grant, now available free of charge, sent out the 600th edition of its popular news digest last Monday. . .