Europe must quickly tackle a shortage of 1.6 million skilled IT workers if it wants to overtake the United States in the new economy, European Commission president Romano Prodi has warned. Presenting his 10-point programme for next month's EU summit in Stockholm, Prodi said a looming shortfall of 1.6 million skilled IT jobs, "puts into peril the efforts made by Europe to catch up and develop its growth economy".
The Commission president said the EU must adopt more ambitious common policies in education and training. EU member states also needed to rethink their immigration policies, with an eye to luring more high-level managers and technicians from abroad. "For the moment it is the United States that is attracting the brains," he said.
LOOKING INTO LUCENT: The US Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division is conducting a formal investigation into possible fraudulent accounting practices at Lucent Technologies, the Wall Street Journal reported last Friday.
RIVERDEEP COMMITMENT: Irish online education firm Riverdeep has said in its results for the second quarter that it had significantly beaten analyst expectations "on both the top and bottom line". The company said it remains "extremely comfortable" with consensus estimates for the next several quarters and that it is committed to achieving profitability in 2001.
ALWAYS CRASHING THE SAME CAR: A Singapore software developer has promised to turn the ordinary car into an Internet-connected business and entertainment centre on wheels. "Anything you can do on the Internet will be delivered in the car," says chief executive officer of goMobile Jamshaid Akbar. The product - tentatively called Wired Mobile - will allow drivers listen to music, check emails and download street information on handheld devices or mobiles. Hmm, one has to wonder if it's crash-proof.
US SCARE MONGERS?: Muslim extremists are posting encrypted photographs and messages on popular websites and using them to plan attacks against the United States and its allies, USA Today has claimed in a shock-horror scoop. The newspaper quoted unnamed US law enforcement officials and experts as saying extremists were using email, and encryption to hide maps and photographs of their targets, and instructions for carrying out attacks, on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other sites.
EJITS: P45.com has been quiet for a while but that's probably because it's been working on a new site about the country's "Celtic Tiger" economy and the funnier side of its "dot.com" boom. The spin-off site, called e-jits.com includes a satirical guide on how to become an Internet guru at a dot.com start-up.
NO CONTEST: The head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has acknowledged that his group may have rejected qualified proposals when it approved seven new domain names last year. But Vinton Cerf said the goal "was not to have a contest and pick winners." ICANN wanted a pool small enough to test whether additions - the first major ones since the 1980s - would cause problems, Cerf said.
REINVENTING APPLE, AGAIN: Embattled Apple Computers will try to restablish itself again by offering faster processors in its computers as well as DVD and CD drives that give users the ability to burn their own music and movie discs. In a keynote speech at Macworld Expo, CEO Steve Jobs introduced the items as part of a powerful new line-up of products that the company hopes will reinvigorate its business. Acknowledging that Apple had fallen behind the competition by previously offering only 500 megahertz processors, Jobs announced the new Power Mac G4 will include a faster 733 MHz G4 chip. The Power Mac will also include a DVD and CD drive, called a superdrive.
IN BRIEF...Dublin-based NewMediaCV has acquired The Search Organisation, a division of Phee Farrer Jones, the London based recruitment consultants. . . Priceline.com has settled lawsuits against Microsoft and Expedia over an online hotel pricing service. Priceline's lawsuit contended that the online service offered by Expedia, which is 70 per cent owned by Microsoft, violated its patent. . . iVenus.com - the European website for women - has joined forces with Weddings-Ireland.com to introduce a brand new wedding channel on the website. . .