The Taoiseach enhanced his reputation for technological aptitude last week when he placed his first official voice over internet protocol (VOIP) phone call. Mr Ahern made the call at an event at which Interoute Telecom announced a £27 million investment in Ireland's VOIP network, part of a major $1.8 billion investment in VOIP and fibre links in Europe. Interoute says that this will mean the creation of 120 new jobs this year, and that it plans to revolutionise the cost and quality of Irish telecommunications, reducing prices by a minimum of 55 per cent. Under VOIP, voice is transmitted as packets of data over fibre optic lines, bypassing costly long-distance call charges on traditional phone lines. Interoute has designs on rejuvenating the voice-only services sector, which has lately declined in popularity.
Team Effort Pays Off: IOL took the award for "Best Internet Infrastructure Product" for its IP adapter (IPAD) at the Internet Commerce Expo awards in Boston. Aimed at small to medium businesses IPAD, part of IOL's Team Internet product, allows customers to control Internet access by limiting the amount of time users spend online or blocking unsuitable sites. Users are connected via just one telephone line, saving on the cost and time involved in setting up a number of separate connections.
Heil Follows Pfeiffer: Less than a fortnight after the dismissal of Compaq chief executive Eckhard Pfeiffer, the company senior VP Michael Heil has resigned. A former general manager of worldwide sales at Compaq, Heil is said to have been snapped up by newly-formed data-network company, CommcoTec. The latest departure comes with news that the company's share price has halved this year, with lower-than-expected first-quarter earnings which the company blamed on weak demand for its PCs, falling prices, and sluggish sales of its big servers and workstations.
Mime Artists: Entropy has been appointed Irish distributor for MimeSweeper, the software by Content Technologies that scans a company's incoming email for viruses, including macro viruses. MimeSweeper also offers control over Web and other network connections. Info: www.entropy.ie or www.mimesweeper.com
What's Inside Intel? Intel appears to be unable to get the privacy monkey off its back, as more problems emerge from its decision to embed a serial number in its Pentium III processors. Following complaints from privacy advocates in January, Intel rushed out software which enabled users to hide the number on the chips. But a small Canadian software company, Zero-Knowledge, has developed a program to make even the new hidden serial number visible without the owner's knowledge. Intel has reacted by convincing the makers of Norton AntiVirus software to include the Zero-Knowledge program on its list of malicious programs.
Flying Flowers: Kainos Software has been awarded a £1 million pound contract to develop call-centre systems for Britain's largest mail order florists. Flying Flowers group says it hopes to increase its sales with the new customer management system as it says its current telephone order system is under pressure. This is good timing for Kainos, which has just opened an office in Dublin.
Irish Prime: Dublin mathematician John Cosgrave has discovered the largest known "Irish" prime number, which at 49,642 digits comes in at number 40 in the world prime league table. He found his record Irish prime - defined as a prime found in Ireland - when preparing for a lecture on Proth's theorem at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra. Using the Yves Gallot Proth prime search, Mr Cosgrave set his PC to do an overnight calculation and was delighted to discover his record prime (21*2 164901 + 1) waiting for him the next morning.
Finger Fashions: Wearable computers may become the "must-have" fashion items of the near future, if a new keyboard-less typing system takes off. The new typing system developed by Stanford computer scientist Vaughan Pratt, dubbed "thumbing", involves the use of one-handed sign language on a specially-designed glove, fitted with sensors. The thumb is used to tap on various parts of the hand and fingers, each of which corresponds to a keyboard character. Dr Pratt predicts that his system will overcome difficulties currently experienced with hand-held computers, where efficient touch typing is still a fantasy.
In Brief...The Year 2000 Problem - Survival Strategies for SMEs, a video aimed at advising small and medium businesses on how to deal with Y2K has been released by Esperanza Productions and the Irish Computer Society. . . The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has kicked off the campaign to combat software piracy with a message to 2,500 Irish companies requesting assurance, via a declaration form, that their software is legal and that they have sufficient user licences. . . Acco-Rexel's new Net-friendly Webracer might bring the mouse into the second millennium with natty features like pre-set web site buttons and a single power-scroll button. . . After due consideration, Sun Microsystems has decided to locate its new European Software Centre facility at East Point Business Park in Dublin. . . Compaq is introducing no less than six new additions to its Presario range of home PCs. . . Internet Financial Services Company Enba has chosen Trinity Technology Group as its supplier of Sun products as it prepares to tackle the UK retail-banking market. . . Iona has introduced Orbix for CICS, which allows for the integration of CICS-based mainframe applications in business. . . Pythoness Software has released CopyGenie, a Windows Explorer add-on that allows users to span files over several diskettes or split large files. . . Invest-Tech has introduced Exl-Plan, a new range of financial planners for Excel. . . Tele Danmark has selected Siemens as the supplier for its country-wide deployment of ADSL services