A roundup of today's other stories in brief.
Charity donation from spammers
The Golden Spider internet awards have agreed to pay €500 to charity after repeatedly spamming a Dublin businesswoman. Maryrose Lyons of Brightspark Consulting received six e-mails asking her to sign up for the awards despite asking to be removed from their mailing list.
Ms Lyons formally complained to the Data Protection Commissioner who intervened in the case. The money will be paid to Daisyhouse, a charity which provides housing to homeless adults.
Fineos deal with Canadian bank
Fineos, the provider of software to the insurance sector, has won a deal with Royal Bank of Canada which will see its Fineos Claims product used to administrate the bank's disability insurance business. The multi-year contract was won in partnership with IBM.
Shortage of IT workers forecast
New research has found that the European Union could run short of people with the right computer skills as soon as 2010. The study for the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies (Cepis) estimates that 250,000 new IT workers will be needed each year but the supply will be just 180,000.
Cepis says that as a result the EU could lose its competitive advantage and technology development could move to other regions.
Cicero deal with Polish firm
Dublin-based Cicero Networks is providing its software to Polish alternative operator Mobilna Telefonia Internetowa to enable it to offer a voice and data service that runs on both 3G and Wi-Fi networks. Ross Brennan, chief executive of Cicero, said the deal was significant as it was the first time its software was being used to carry voice over IP traffic on a 3G network.
Innovation lab opens in Tallaght
A new €1 million 1,000 sq m innovation laboratory has been opened at the Institute of Technology Tallaght which will house research projects in the areas of information and communications technology, engineering, software development and laboratory science. Capable of running up to 15 projects simultaneously, the first tenant is an Enterprise Ireland-funded partnership with Global Security Devices.
3PlayPlus to relay BBC shows
3PlayPlus, the operators of the HomeVision triple play broadband service, has signed a deal with BBC Worldwide which will gives its customers access to a library of more than 350 hours of video on demand programmes from the broadcaster's archives. Programmes available include Doctor Who, Spooks, Waking the Dead and the BBC's famous wildlife specials.
Online Christmas shopping grows
New research from the Business Software Alliance has found that online Christmas shopping is on the rise in Ireland and it is increasingly being done on company time. Irish workers say they will do one-third of their Christmas shopping online up from a quarter a year ago. One-third will do the shopping from their work computer - up from 28 per cent a year ago.
Updated version of XNA
Microsoft has released an updated version of its XNA Game Studio, which is designed to simplify development of Xbox 360 and Windows games, which adds the ability to create online, cross-platform multiplayer games.
