A Japanese bank's public relations exercise backfired badly when it emailed an insulting computer virus to fund managers around the world. Announcing plans to merge with the Industrial Bank of Japan and Dai-Ichi Bank last week, Fuji Bank emailed a memo with the news and virus attached to dozens of investors, the Financial Times reported. On the 14th of every month the virus will display a message from Fuji Bank calling the user a "stupid jerk". It also changes some of the names in the message to Dr Mountain Dew. Saying they had never seen anything like it before, officials at the bank have denied suggestions that the virus might have been the work of employees opposed to restructuring.
Ready Or Not? Ireland is among the countries best prepared to deal with the millennium bug, according to an international study from the Gartner Group. However, the Year 2000 World Assessment found that although 90 per cent of businesses are in the final stages of planning, most have focused their efforts on the first quarter of 2000, leaving themselves vulnerable to catastrophe later in the year.
Going For Gold: Finalists in the 1999 Golden Spider Irish Internet Awards will be holding their breath as the winners are announced at an awards ceremony in Dublin on Thursday. Now in its third year, the Golden Spiders has reported a 100 per cent increase in entries this year in all 13 categories. It is organised by dot.ie magazine and PostGEM, and the full list of finalists is available at www.spiderawards.com.
Nein Kampf: German media giant Bertelsmann has stopped selling Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf in its online bookstore worldwide. The company's German and Dutch services have never offered the book because it is banned in Germany, but the company came under increasing pressure from the German authorities, who said that Germans would be able to buy the book from its US sites.
Chinese Whispers: Chinese women are to be surveyed on their attitudes to the Chinese government population control policy in complete privacy on a secure Web site in the US. Lord David Alton of Liverpool says that responses to his survey are already flooding into www.anonymizer.com/china, which uses military-grade cryptography to keep participants' identities confidential. Alton says he will use the survey for a report on Chinese one-child-per-family policy next year.
Shaping The Future: The technology law unit at A & L Goodbody Solicitors is inviting submissions from interested parties on the Government's consultation paper on e-commerce, contracts and electronic signatures. Goodbodys welcomed the report's recommendation for a light regulatory approach to e-commerce, but the company is concerned that any new legislation arising from the report must balance the requirements for security and certainty in the e-commerce environment with flexibility and scope for growth. Submissions can be made to Goodbody's web site at: www.algoodbody.ie/techlaw
Working It Out: The QBC isn't the only new thing on the road this month. The Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition's ComputerGym is starting a nationwide tour this week. ComputerGym is a mobile computer classroom, library and workshop which will travel to 450 schools around the country promoting the Esat Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. - info: youngscientists@esat.ie
Transaction Complete: PSINet is to buy Transaction Network Services (TNI) in a cash-and-shares deal worth $720 million. Shareholders in TNI, which has its European marketing and technology centre at East Point Business Park in Dublin, may elect to receive cash, PSINet stock, or a mixture. TNI says that PSINet's huge Internet bandwidth will be a major boon for the company's plans to develop a network for the electronic payments industry in Europe.
Broadening Horizons: The first batch of broadband network licences in Europe has been awarded to BroadNet, to provide broadband telecoms services in 42 German cities. With major investment in broadband infrastructure in Germany, the company now says that it hopes to becomes Germany's second largest "loop" operator, after Deutsch Telecom. BroadNet's Irish division is one of the applicants to build and operate an advanced digital broadband communications network in Ireland.
Major IT Drive: ICL has won a £1 million contract with Irish Shell to provide a complete IT system for 54 of the company's garages in Ireland. Developed for the European forecourt market, ICL's €90 Edacom product is already in use at over 1,000 Shell sites in Britain, Spain and Scandinavia. Shell says the new system will reduce transaction time by almost one third and improve layout for Point of Sale (PoS) on the counter.
Sametime Saves Time: Galway-based software development group aimware has added Lotus's Sametime product to its business system. Sametime allows live meetings, consultation on documents and product display over a corporate intranet or the Internet. aimware expects the new system to facilitate a much faster sales cycle and huge time savings.
Make Up Your Mind: The British Y2K watchdog Action 2000 has criticised software companies, including Microsoft, Claris and Intuit for failing to make computer packages compliant for the millennium. Initially the companies gave assurances about the compliance of several packages, but later issued warnings that the programmes might fail. The packages included Word 97, Excel 95, Outlook 98, FileMaker Pro 4, Quicken 6 and Quickbooks.
In Brief.... . .IOL is holding a back to school week this week with handy hints on homework and study for students, teachers and parents. . .Sun is to buy Forte Software in a deal valued at $540 million. . . Vision Consulting has won a contract to develop a web-based order processing system for food group John Henderson Ltd. . .Digital Signature Trust has incorporated one of Celo's products into its new plug-in software package to allow customers to digitally sign web forms with the most commonly-used browsers. . .IBM and Siemens are to co-operate on the development of the former's Silicon Germanium (SiGe) technology for high-performance mobile networks. . .Software company Goldmine has merged with Bendata to become what both companies say will be the single largest supplier of customer relationship management products. . .Apple has announced that its new iBook portable computer will be released in Ireland in late September at a price of £1,569, including VAT. It costs $1,595 in the US. . .
Diary
September 1st & 3rd: NUI Galway is to host two lectures from Phil Agre, associate professor in information studies at UCLA, entitled The Research Community in a Wired World and Information and Global Integration. - info: Niall.ODochartaigh@nuigalway.ie
September 3rd: Seminar on Success in E-Commerce at Dublin Castle, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. - info: 01-6051659, michael.moore@ibec.ie
Modem World
www.etronik.com
Stylish site for the weekly online dance music 'zine etronik, which promises news, reviews, listings and charts from the dance scene.
www.insureweb.ie
InsureWeb offers a quotation service for all types of insurance with a county-by-county database of insurance brokers
www.avoca.com
Avoca Gifts invites the user to shop, have a drink, or confess their sins - not necessarily in that order.
www.booksulster.com
The revamped Books Ulster site specialises in out-of-print books of Irish and Northern Irish interest. server34.smartbotpro.net/camera2.html Take a picture of yourself via your computer monitor, and watch the remarkable result develop.
homepage.tinet.ie/realretro
The makers of the bicycle with an engine, VeloSoleX, claim that it will have you whizzing through the city at 23 mph
welcome.to/eastclarewalks
Find out more about the inaugural East Clare Lakelands Walking Festival due to take place in October.
Textbites
"A light regulatory approach to e-commerce legislation in this jurisdiction is of central importance to the government's proposed legislative framework and is in keeping with European and international policy views that the web should remain self-regulated." - David Sanfey, head of technology law at A & L Goodbody, welcoming the government consultation paper on electronic commerce, contracts and signatures.
Monitor compiled by Deirdre Veldon. Text-only email to computimes@irish- times.ie preferred (rather than fax, post, phone). No attachments, please. Private correspondence should be marked "Not for publication".