Microsoft is to shut down the Irish section of its online service MSN (the Microsoft Network). It has selected Ireland OnLine (IOL) as "the service of choice" for its subscribers, and recommends that they transfer to IOL by April 30th. IOL says it will waive its normal £25 (ex VAT) sign-up fee. Existing MSN email accounts will remain active until August 1st. - info: http://setup.uk.msn.com/membersonly/iol/
Demon For Sale?: Share prices of BT and Scottish Telecom (a unit of Scottish Power) jumped on Friday after market speculation that either could be about to buy UK online service provider Demon Internet. Demon has around 170,000 dialup subscribers and is valued at around £65 million sterling.
Historical Links: The broken link mentioned in last week's review of the 1798 CD-Rom Fellowship of Freedom has been corrected. The National Library says the original disks were withdrawn and modified ones are now being distributed.
Freeware Summit: Publisher Tim O'Reilly has organised a high-level summit tomorrow morning to expand the acceptance of popular freeware. Some of the creators of Linux, Perl, Apache, Sendmail, Perl and Mozilla are expected to attend (see www.oreilly.com).
Xerox Cuts: Office equipment giant Xerox is to cut about a tenth of its workforce or 9,000 jobs, through voluntary reductions and sackings. In Europe it will move from country-centred operations to a more "pan-European" structure. Dublin, Cork and Dundalk are among locations it is considering for its new European HQ and manufacturing facilities.
Many Vistas: British company Alta Vista has sued Digital for trademark infringement over its popular AltaVista search engine. Just to confuse things, this is unrelated to the case Digital took against California firm AltaVista Technology.
Iridium On Target: About nine tenths of Iridium's 66satellite constellation are now in orbit after its latest launch on Wednesday. Its global communications network will combine the low-flying satellites with land-based wireless systems, and should undergo "commercial activation" on September 23rd.
Deal Scrutinised: The European Commission is to review Microsoft and Sony's proposed alliance to incorporate each other's technologies in both companies' products. The two want to accelerate the convergence of PC and TV technologies - Sony would use Microsoft's Windows CE operating system and Microsoft would license Sony's Home Networking Module.
Usenet Ruling: Playboy has won another online copyright victory, against a subscription service which automatically filtered images from Usenet feeds. In an important ruling, a US District Court in Texas said automated Usenet filter services were publishers, therefore responsible for copyright violations on their sites.
In Brief...Gateway 2000 is to provide free Windows 98 upgrades to consumers buying its PCs before the official launch on June 25th. . . The winner of this year's £1,000 Intel Excellence in Electronics Award is Sean Mullery, a student at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. . . Cisco has opened a customer sales and Support Centre at East Point Business Park in Dublin. . . Psion has cut UK prices on its Series 3c palmtop and PsiWin package by £50. . . 3Com subsidiary Palm Computing has won trademark infringement cases against Microsoft in Germany and France for calling handheld PCs "PalmPCs". . . Seiko will launch its $285 Ruputer wristwatch - "the world's first wearable PC" - on June 10th. . . Ireland's second largest computer company, Horizon, is to buy PC distributor Gericmar for an undisclosed sum. . . Excite has bought online classifieds company Classifieds2000 for $50.2 million. . . Reclusive screen star Hedy Lamarr (85) is suing Corel for using her name and image on its Web site without her permission. . .
PSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) has established an interesting Y2k "Rumor Center" on its new Y2k Web site at http://www.cpsr.org/program/y2k/rumors.htm
After the Year 2000 problems, what about the Dow Jones 10,000? Many software programs can only handle a maximum of four digits, so what happens if and when the industrial index hits five figures? No. of computers that have been installed in Ennis schools by Telecom Eireann as part of the Ennis Information Age Town project:
470
No. of teachers and students in the town:
over 5,500
Ratio of people to PCs:
Source: Telecom Eireann
European countries rank highly on scientific output, but don't do so well in turning the research into commercial products:
The EU spent 1.8% of gross domestic product on research in 1996, compared with 2.8% by Japan, 2.5% by the US, and 2.2% by South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan.
Source: European Commission
www.irish-times.com/irish-times/special/peace/index.htm
The peace treaty, reactions, analysis and the complete text of speeches given by the talks participants.
www.watchthisspace.com
Live video feed from today's Irish Grand National.
www.pbs.org/teletubbies
The Teletubbies' new Stateside site.
beta.yahoo.com
Get a sneak preview of Yahoo's redesign, with more news headlines on its front page.
pop
Privately Owned Pensions.
http://www.emailaddresses.com/
Directory which tracks sites offering free email.
rtmarkhttp://www.taketotheweb.com/
Take To The Web, designed with the new starter or novice user in mind
wwrecipes.com
World Wide Recipes delivers free recipes by email every day.
www.macromedia.com/software/fireworks
Free beta copies of Macromedia's Fireworks, the first major graphics software package addressing the specific needs of Web production. It marks a move away from the DTP model (of the likes of Photoshop) and includes functions which cater for the Web's need to cut down bandwidth, add interactivity, animate GIFs etc.
kooltek
http://whatsfunny.farfan.com/
New Internet comedy guide.
dungarvan
Martin Whelan's net site about the History of Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
www.ulster.org.uk
The Ulster Cyber Community is "committed to democratic self-determination in Northern Ireland. Our principal interest is to promote Ulster British culture, history and politics on the Internet."
www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/stories/122997n3.htm
Editor & Publisher article about how much newspapers lose online - KnightRidder's 32 web sites generate $11 million in ad sales but cost them $27 million; the New York Times lost $12 to $15 million. Where are all the millions going?
www.paranoia.com/rtmark
Subversive, thoughtful and often very funny too, rtmark helps fund "the intelligent sabotage of mass-produced items".
April 13th: Live coverage of Blackburn Rovers against unstoppable Arsenal at www.football.guardian.co.uk (8 p.m.).
April 15th: Brendan O'Reilly (Sybase/Powersoft) on "Prototyping with Java". Irish Java User Group, 6.30 p.m., Usher Lecture Theatre, Arts Building, TCD.
April 15th: Online chat with Diane Ackerman, poet and author of the best-selling Natural History of the Senses, at www.barnesandnoble.com (1 a.m.)
"The problem right now is a very simple one. What we basically got is a tower of Babel."
- Apple boss Steve Jobs talking to a TV broadcasting convention about managing the change from analog to digital transmission. He argued that Apple's QuickTime was a solution to competing digital standards for producing video images.
Computimes is edited by Michael Cunningham. Email only (no attachments, faxes or letters please) to computimes@irish-times.ie (private correspondence should be marked Not For Publication).
