Speakers at Internet World Ireland in the RDS last week claimed that poor access to venture capital and insufficient bank support for electronic transactions had hampered Ireland's attempt to become the European e-commerce hub. Declan Ganley, the chairman of Adornis.com - the jewellery store which makes its online debut this month - remarked that he had to turn to a US bank for an online credit card clearance transaction service because Irish banks were not in a position to offer adequate support. Meanwhile, Gerry McGovern, the managing director of Nua, which has a stake in Adornis, also pointed to the absence "genuine venture capital" which, he said, was the "biggest inhibitor to e-commerce growth" in Ireland.
NET GAINS: Not withstanding Irish problems, the Internet economy grew by 68 per cent between the first quarters of 1998 and 1999 and now accounts for 2.3 million jobs, according to a new study published in the US. The study, conducted by the University of Texas Center for Research in Electronic Commerce, predicts the Net economy will grow to $507 billion in 1999.
BANKING ON WIT: WIT capital group, the online investment banking firm in the US and Enba, the Dublin-based holding company which provides Internet-only financial services, are to establish a pan-European investment banking firm, to be known as Wit Capital Europe.
OPERATING WITH IBOOKS: One of the single largest Macintosh iBook orders worldwide arrived in Dublin last week destined for the Royal College of Surgeons. With a major investment in technology, the college bought 250 iBooks, networking equipment and peripherals.
MICRON MOVES: Micron Technology last week announced five-year supply deals with Compaq and Gateway. These will see Micron becoming the largest memory chip supplier to both companies. Analysts speculated that the Compaq deal could mean $2 to $4 billion in annual sales.
FORCE IS WITH MS: SmartForce, formerly CBT Systems, has been selected by Microsoft to provide online education for more than 600,000 "Microsoft Certified Professionals" worldwide.
BULLETPROOF INFRASTRUCTURE: HewlettPackard is to offer Irish ISPs "bulletproof" infrastructure over the Net on a subscription or transaction basis. HP's "e-services-on-tap" covers technology, management processes and global capabilities.
SELL SELL SELL: Eircom.net has teamed up with the Irish Marketing Journal and Adworld.ie to launch Internet Advertising Awards. Entry forms are available at www.adworld.ie/intawards. COMPUWARE BLOCKED: The US Justice Department wants to block Compuware's acquisition of Viasoft on the grounds that it could result in higher prices for certain missioncritical mainframe software.
SQUATTERS OUT: The US House of Representatives has voted to ban "cybersquatting", the bad faith registration or trafficking in domain names that are identical to or confusingly similar to a distinctive trademark.
ORGANIC CHIPS: Researchers at IBM have created a transistor combining organic and inorganic semiconducting materials, according to a report in the journal Science. IBM researchers said that the hybrid transistor material "self assembles", crystallising from a liquid solution at low temperatures.
ALTERED DNA: DNA Internet, Northern Ireland's largest local access Internet Service Provider has launched a new online domain name registration service at www.dnanames.com.
MS HACK: A computer hacker known as "flipz" has become the first person known to have defaced one of Microsoft's websites. The hacker defaced Microsoft's Conference Manage- ment Server home page, according to attrition.org, a computer security site that maintains an archive of hacked sites.
REALLY FREE: Canadian telecom giant North American Gateway today launches Internet access in Britain that is free from set-up costs, subscription fees and telephone charges. This is a joint effort between it, mobile phone retailer Phones4u, F1-Racing magazine and ISP CallNet.
Y2K VIRUS SUPPORT: Priority Data Systems has announced a special Y2K virus initiative. Its millennium virus support program will provide telephone technical support between December 29th and January 3rd next.
IN BRIEF...Oracle has announced the immediate availability of Oracle Application Server 4.0.8. . . PTools, which allows users publish news, events, recruitment and much more on the Internet or Intranet with no need for web development skills, was launched by Esat Net at Internet World. . . SSE has announce that its TrustedMIME 2.0 secure email plug-in, will support Lotus Notes Domino R5 users. . . Infoseek has entered into partnership with Day Runner a maker of paperbased planners, to develop and market an online web organiser. . . Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard are teaming up to form POP.com, an online entertainment company that will produce short videos for the Web. . .
Diary
November 9th/10th: Adobe Systems is staging a free Adobe Seminar Series at the RDS, Dublin. The software featured will be of interest to print and web amateurs and professionals. November 11th/12th: "Prospering in the Knowledge Economy" is the title of the 7th Annual Conference of Telework Ireland which will be held in Tullamore. Info - 056 23211
Modem World
urbanlegends.about.com
Debunks most urban legends, but is particularly useful in exposing all those bogus promises spammers regularly make.
www.dublin-jubilee.com/
The official site for the Jubilee Celebrations in the Archdiocese of Dublin which highlights ideas and resources for the celebration of the Jubilee Year.
Textbites
"As we enter the next century, we must make sure that nobody is left out of the computer revolution. We cannot allow inequality in access to computers to lead to inequality in life for the next generation." - The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, launching an initiative to lease low-cost computers to lower income families. "There is no point in giving people a cheap bit of kit if they find themselves with an enormous phone bill at the end of the month." - Conservative party technology spokesman Alan Duncan's response.
"As a result of the full efforts of the government and private sector thus far, I do not think there will be any major confusion as a result of the millennium bug problem. But I would like all citizens to be prepared for all eventualities, in line with government guidelines issued today." - Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi commenting on a report which urges Japanese people to stockpile several days' worth of food and water in case of severe Y2K problems.
Top Games
The top-selling Nintendo 64 games at Virgin Megastore are:
1. Duke Nukem - Zero Hour - £39.99
2. Rugrats Treasure Hunt - £39.99
3. Mario Kart - £29.99
4. Mario Party - £39.99
5. Michael Owen WLS 2000 - £44.99
6. Mario Golf - £49.99
7. Goldeneye 007 - £29.99
8. Star Wars Episode 1: Racer - £49.99
9. Banjo Kazooie - £29.99
10. Super Mario - £29.99
Monitor compiled by Conor Pope. Page layout by Sarah Marriott. 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".