Eircom is to become the first corporate research investor in MediaLabEurope to be opened in Dublin next year. Under the three-year programme involving a 5 million euro investment, Eircom will benefit from the leading edge research of MediaLabEurope (MLE) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The plan will see Eircom and personnel from both MIT and MLE focusing on research into the development of e-business markets, the building of leading-edge multimedia applications and the advancement of Information Age technologies in schools, towns and communities throughout Ireland.
Increasing E-Commerce: There has been an increase in the use of e-commerce by Irish medium and large enterprises but many firms are not taking advantage of e-commerce because they believe it irrelevant to their business, according to a new study by 3Com Ireland. The study found that 58 per cent of large Irish organisations claim to be trading online compared to 39 per cent last year. While 28 per cent of medium-sized companies are currently trading online, an additional 41 per cent have plans to do so in the near future.
Virtual Business Booming: The US government has issued a report on online shopping which shows that retailers rang up $5.3 billion in sales in the last three months of 1999. The sales figure marked the first in a series of quarterly estimates of goods and services sold over the Internet.
Leap Year Non-event: Fears that computers might fail to recognise February 29th, 2000, proved to be as groundless as those about the millennium bug. Few problems were reported though Japanese businesses suffered a series of mishaps involving more than 1,000 ATM machines. Elsewhere Dutch computers could not transmit weather information to the media while merchants in New Zealand had trouble verifying banking transactions.
Designers On 5K: A competition to design Web pages of less than 5K in size is drawing entries from all over the world, despite offering a prize of only $50. The competition calls on designers to submit self-contained pages or whole sites that are no more than 5K in size, including all HTML, scripts, pictures, and style sheets. Pages will be judged on aesthetic appeal, function and the originality of the idea. The deadline is April 2nd and further information is available from www.sylloge.com/5k/.
Cybersex Addicts: Hundreds of thousands of Net users show compulsion for porn sites, X-rated chat rooms or other such material online, according to a new study. Researchers say there are at least 200,000 "cybersex compulsives" with millions more at risk. "This is a hidden public health hazard exploding, in part, because very few are recognising it as such or taking it seriously," according to the psychologists at Stanford and Duquesne universities.
Cracks On The Inside: The US government is seeking advice from computer cracker Kevin Mitnick on how to keep its own networks safe from intruders. A Senate panel asked him to explain ways in which crackers infiltrate sensitive systems and to suggest solutions. Mitnick, prohibited from using any computer or even a mobile phone for the next three years, was released from prison in January after almost five years.
More Than A Game: PlayStation2 mania threatened to spin out of control last Friday as police asked shop owners in Tokyo to disperse crowds that lined up to buy the new machine. Hundreds of people camped out in Tokyo's "Electric Town" hoping to be among the first get their hands on the new machines which went on sale on Saturday. See Gamezone.
Diminishing Data: Web advertising firm DoubleClick has decided not to amass a giant online database of people's names and Internet habits. Weeks of legal actions and government probes into DoubleClick have placed the online ad company at the center of a growing clash between businesses seeking to exploit the Internet's pervasiveness and those fearful of the consequences.
Nuclear Computer: Compaq's Alpha processor and Tru64 UNIX technology has been chosen by the French Atomic Energy Commission to provide the engine behind Europe's most powerful computer. The machine will be capable of handling five trillion operations per second.
In Brief...Farmsoft, a new Irish Agri-Software provider, has developed a Department of Agriculture accepted Herd Register software package system. . . Trintech has announced record fourth quarter and fiscal year revenues for the period ended January 31st 2000. . . SmartForce and ProsoftTraining.com are to collaborate on the creation of an eLearning environment. . .