In what is being billed as a world first, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and smart card technology are to be employed for an e-commerce application as part of the eircom Ennis Information Age Town project. WAP technology enables mobile phone users to browse the Internet on the hoof and, as part of the trial, Bank of Ireland Visa Cash cardholders will be able to load credits onto their cards using their mobile phones. The smart cards can then be used for small purchases as well as in parking meters, vending machines and cardphones. Up to 100 Nokia 7110 WAP phones will be used in the trial which is set to last until April 2000.
19 Degrees Of Separation: Despite the fact that there are more than 800 million documents now online, any two randomly-chosen Web pages are separated by just 19 clicks, according to findings published in the current issue of the journal Nature. The study was conducted by University of Notre Dame professor Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, who constructed a robot that collected all the links on a Web page and followed them to their destination. The process was repeated over and over again. Using statistical tools, he worked out the average distance between two random pages.
Feed The World Wide Web: A UN-funded website, www.netaid.org, which aims to fight hunger and poverty worldwide has been launched with the aim of making it easier to contribute resources and learn more about poverty. Former South African president Nelson Mandela, speaking from Johannesburg, said the Internet should help poorer communities gain knowledge and resources to improve their conditions
Sheep Wars: Hackers calling themselves the "Hardcore Highland Haxxors" vandalised the Web site of Scotland's regional government, replacing a picture of First Minister Donald Dewar with that of nationalist leader Alex Salmond. Among other things, the hackers declared war on Wales, accusing it of stealing 5,000 Scottish sheep.
Not Taking Care Of It: Argos will not be honouring thousands of orders placed on their website for £3 Sony TV sets. Aros blames a software glitch for the appearance of the bargain-basement prices. The 21-inch television sets should have been priced at £299.99, a figure that was rounded down to £3.00 by the generous software. Word spread quickly with many customers placing multiple orders. After consulting its lawyers and the Advertising Standards Authority, Argos decided not to honour the orders because it had not confirmed they had been accepted and thus no contract existed.
Y2K Watch: At midnight on New Year's Eve in New Zealand, 13 hours before the new millennium dawns in Ireland, a UN-backed emergency watch will kick off online to monitor the Y2K situation. The Y2K watch is the work of the World Bank-funded International Y2K Co-operation Center, which plans to collect data from 170 or more national Y2K co-ordinators and flash colour-coded reports on everything from energy and communications to financial and government services and air, land and sea transport.
Far East Crossing: Fibre optic cable company Global Crossing is collaborating with Microsoft and Japanese Internet firm Softbank to build a $1.28 billion, 11,000 mile land and undersea telecommunications network in Asia. The joint venture seeks to take advantage of an anticipated explosion in Internet use across Asia, the companies said in a joint statment.
History Lesson: A Brief History of the Future: the origins of the Internet by John Naughton has just been published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Described as the first attempt to tell the story of the Internet all the way from pre-ARPANET days to the explosion of the World Wide Web and the Microsoft antitrust trial, it also covers the history of Unix, the pre-history of the Web, the origins and rise of Usenet and Fidonet and the evolution and significance of the Open Source movement. More information can be obtained from www.briefhistory.com.
Catching Some Rays: Corporate computer buyers appear hesitant about using a new bare-bones machine from Sun Microsystems that needs no software upgrades. Sun is promoting its Sun Ray as a niche product for repetitive tasks such as entering and retrieving computer data or handling customer service phone calls.
Frozen Out: The Iceland supermarket chain is launching what it claims is the UK's first, nationwide, free, grocery shopping service on the Internet. From the beginning of October, surfers will be able to order groceries through the Iceland website 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Their orders will be transmitted to the nearest store and delivered on the following day.
In Brief...Dell is acquiring storage networking company ConvergeNet Technologies in a deal worth about $340 million. . . ICL Ireland is to integrate its training services with the KnowledgePool consortium. . . PostGEM says it will become the first Irish-managed Network Service Provider to supply customers with independently verified service level agreements and performance reporting following the signing of a contract with Data Edge. . . Internet Publishing Services, a new venture between the Irish Farmers' Association and Interactive Multimedia Systems, has been launched to respond to the needs of organisations in rural Ireland who wish to publish information online but lack the necessary resources. . .