Aspiring fiction writers are being given the opportunity to co-author a Bloomsday short story with Brendan Kennelly via The Irish Times on the Web's Joycean site, Dyoublong. The writer and Trinity professor has set the opening of the story on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin, and readers from all over the world are being offered the opportunity to build the story, paragraph by paragraph, on a daily basis. One contributed piece will be selected each day and each successful contributor will receive a £20 gift voucher from Fred Hanna's Bookshop, the vouchers can also be redeemed in Hanna's online bookstore. Full details at: www.irish-times.com/bloomsday/
All About Timing: Sun Microsystems' request to bring forward a hearing on its motion for a preliminary injunction relating to the release of Windows 98, has been turned down, despite Sun's plea that, for the motion to succeed, time was precious. In a lawsuit filed last October, the workstation maker accused Microsoft of deliberately trying to "balkanise" Java, fearing that it posed a threat to their dominance.
So Long Spam: Ireland On-Line have launched a new service which enables users to filter out the demon spam. MailManager can be used as a global filter to block out all email that has nothing in either the TO or FROM fields or both. You can also filter out email by domain, size, or specific keywords, subjects etc. The service is available exclusively to Ireland OnLine customers although free trials are currently being offered to non-members. http://mailman.iol.ie/
Lotus Position: IBM's Lotus Development, which employs over 500 people in Dublin, has announced the signing of purchase agreements with DataBeam Corp and Ubique Ltd. Under the terms of the agreements, the companies will become part of Lotus' Communications Products Division. Lotus plans to bring a real-time dimension to e-mail and collaboration in businesses of all sizes via intranets and the Internet.
Esat Acqusition: Esat Telecom Group plc has acquired BridgeCom Group Limited, a networking systems integration company which designs, installs and maintains Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wide Area Networks (WAN) for the corporate market in Ireland. The purchase price for BridgeCom Group was £5.5 million.
Net Cases: After completing a study of 14 "Internet addicts", psychiatrist Nathan Shapira of the University of Cincinnati found that between them they averaged five psychiatric disorders. He decided that excessive online use is in the same category as kleptomania or compulsive shopping and has suggested christening the disorder Internetomania or Netomania.
Golden Spiders: The "call for entries" and full details of the 2nd PostGEM sponsored Golden Spider Irish Internet Awards have been announced. Entries are now requested from those involved in the Internet and web design industry in Ireland. Closing date is Friday, July 31st 1998. details www.spiderawards.com
IONA's Integration: IONA Technologies has announced plans to integrate Microsoft Transaction Server and IONA's Orbix OT to deliver a new level of interoperability between transactional components in diverse computing environments. Building on IONA's previously announced licensing of the COM technology, this new integration between OrbixOTM and Microsoft Transaction Server will allow transactional components to interoperate across the Internet in a seamless manner.
Somm Hope?: The prosecution team in the case of a former CompuServe manager who was last week convicted of spreading pornography over the Internet have taken the somewhat unusual move of seeking a reversal of the conviction. The judge trying the case concluded that Felix Somm, 34, had "abused" the Internet and allowed child pornography be accessible via CompuServe in 1995 and 1996. On the final day of the trial, prosecutors said they had come to agree with the defence position and moved for acquittal. Last Wednesday they filed an appeal reiterating their new position that blocking technology was not available in 1996. Somm left CompuServe a year ago and started his own electronic commerce consulting firm.
Big Blue Goes Under Grand: IBM have unveiled a new desktop pc based on Intel 's low-cost Celeron processor. IBM said the new model will be available at estimated reseller prices starting at $969, making it IBM's first commercial desktop to debut at under $1,000. Intel launched Celeron in April to combat growing competition in the low end of the PC market.
In Very Brief.... . . Sun Microsystems has become the Official Technology Partner, and a Platinum Sponsor, of Manchester United, a move designed to sustain the team's success. What success? . . .