The Dublin Media Lab Europe project announced last Friday will see MIT establishing an independent research institute with an emphasis on the development of Internet and e-commerce applications. The Government is to contribute about 20 per cent, or £28 million, of the cost of the project, expected to be around £130 million over a ten-year period.
The balance will be covered by grants, research funds and private industry. Speaking at the launch, Nicholas Negroponte who established the first MIT Media Lab in 1985, said Ireland provided "the kind of intellectual, economic and governmental environment ideally suited for this ambitious international effort to transform ways of thinking and creating."
EC Y2K centre: The European Commission is to set up a communications centre between December 31st and January 5th to allow for round-the-clock Y2K monitoring.
Flawed chips: Dell is again manufacturing desktops containing Intel's "Coppermine" Pentium III processors, after Intel developed a test to catch a recently detected flaw that becomes apparent in the boot-up sequence.
Y2K okay: Ireland is considered to be one of the best prepared nations in the lead up to December 31st, according to International Monitoring, a British technology consulting group.
Set tops agenda: The University of Limerick campus company PEI Technologies, Analog Devices and the National Microelectronics Research Centre have joined forces in a £1.7 million EU-funded project to research new micro-circuit design methods aimed at producing a universal television "set-top" box.
Unbundling BT: British Telecom has 18 months to open up its local lines to competitors. The unbundling of BT's local loop will allow other operators to offer high-speed digital subscriber line services over existing phone wires.
Inner vision: Stevie Wonder is to have a microchip inserted on his retina in an effort to regain his sight. The operation can restore vision by stimulating non-degenerated cells.
DVD delay: Japanese DVDs manufacturers have had to postpone the launch of recordable players after a cracker broke open the copyright protection and published online instructions showing how to download DVD data onto PCs.
Comical: Software that lets users change cursors into cartoon characters has been tracking their movement as they surf the Web. Comet Systems posted a way to turn off its "feature" after negative publicity.
Suits you: Olympus and IBM have come out with a prototype "Wearable PC". The companies jointly developed the 13-ounce machine with a Pentium processor and 64 megabytes of memory. The tiny screen flips out from a headset and covers one eye, projecting the image of a much larger monitor.
Apple upgrade: Apple has upgraded its G4 PowerMac line of computers to include ATI's Rage 128 Pro graphics accelerator, including a digital output for LCD displays. In addition, the low-end 350 MHz G4 PowerMacs now come standard with DVD-Rom drives.
Drug fear: Major drug companies are boosting their stockpiles in case of hoarding by people afraid Y2K problems will lead to shortages of medication. Suppliers say their main fear is overreaction by older people, diabetics and other patients.
In Brief...Hewlett-Packard and Amazon.com have reached an agreement for Amazon to use HP systems in its web infrastructure. . . Deloitte & Touche is joining with Irish software globalisation company VistaTEC to offer the local and international market global e-commerce facilities. . .