With just over a year to go before the full impact of the millennium bug is known, Enterprise Ireland has launched a Y2K information service which is geared specifically towards the needs and concerns of small and medium-sized companies. In addition to relevant books and videos, a help line has been opened. The purpose of the current information drive is to provide a simple-to-use guide for businesses to help them evaluate their Y2K. The helpline can be reached at 1850 57 2000.
Tech Magnet: The Information Age Magnet Schools programme run by the Irish National Teachers' Organisation is to receive 49 G3 Apple Macs from Tesco Ireland, bringing to £860,000 the value of computer equipment donated to schools and education in Ireland under the Tesco Ireland Computers for Schools Programme. Magnet schools make extensive use of information and communication technologies to teach children in an interactive environment and act as reference centres for other schools and local communities.
Cablenet's First: CableNet is the first wholesale customer for MCI WorldCom's Tier 1 Internet Services in Ireland through its wholly owned subsidiary, UUNET. CableNet went live in November and offers Internet services to subscribers at fifty times the speed of traditional links. The 12,000 subscribers can avail of a service which is connected at all times and charged at a flat monthly rental.
Info From Informix: Informix Software has announced that the Regional Media Bureau of Ireland will be using its database technology to run the RMBI's online newspaper publication site. The site will hold news from the Group's 51 separate titles, plus a messaging service for readers and a full archiving facility - www.RMBI.ie.
Jeeves Helps Dell: Software company Ask Jeeves reached agreement with Dell for the use of its "plain English" question-and-answer systems on Dell's customer support website. The service simplifies navigation around Dell's 45,000 page site by letting visitors ask questions and receive direct links to answers. Updated daily, the system enables Dell to get a better sense of commonly asked questions and adjust its answer database accordingly.
HP Appeal: Hewlett-Packard plans to contest the $6 million portion of a jury verdict awarded to Colossal Graphics who sued them over breach of good faith in a 1996 cross-licensing agreement. The two companies had entered an agreement that allowed Colossal to sell bulk ink systems using HP ink. Within months of the agreement, Hewlett-Packard introduced its own colour inkjets, which, Colossal maintained, competed against the ones it was selling. Colossal Graphics originally sought $75 million in damages.
Yahoo's Outlook: Yahoo is to offer an easier way for computer users to update scheduling and contact data on computers using their site as a transfer point. Yahoo said it is introducing a product to enable users to transfer information from Yahoo online calendars or address books into 3Com Palm Pilots or other devices running Microsoft Outlook.
Bleak Future: Matsushita Electric Industrial, the world's largest consumer electronics manufacturer, faces a "severe" 1999 as prices for computer peripherals continue to slide and orders from domestic businesses remain depressed, company directors said. As a result, Matsushita, who trade under the Panasonic, National, and Technics brands, will struggle to make an earnings recovery in the first half of next year.
Merging Change: Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, the man who will decide the Microsoft antitrust case, acknowledged last week that the pending $4 billion purchase of Netscape by America Online "might be a very significant change of the playing field". On the last day of the trial before the Christmas break, he allowed Microsoft to review paperwork Netscape and AOL submitted to the Justice Department last week seeking approval of their $4 billion deal. Saying the purchase of Netscape "could very well have an immediate effect on the market," Jackson said he might permit Microsoft to ask the companies for additional confidential documents to help defend itself against the government's antitrust charges.
In Brief...Esat Telecom has extended its ATM service nationally so that companies outside of the Dublin area can avail of high-speed broadband applications through the company's fibre optic network. . . Oracle and Sun Microsystems are licensing each other's software in a pact that encourages development of new business computers that don't require the use of an operating system. . . Microsoft are to invest $200 million in Qwest Communications International to provide Internet-based services to businesses. . . Intel has donated computing equipment worth more than £120,000 to add to the company's previous donation to two Departments in UCD. . . Corel and Apple have joined the Business Software Alliance as active members in the fight against software piracy, bringing European membership to 37. . . Oracle has announced record second quarter results with revenues increasing 27 per cent. . . Cisco and Hewlett-Packard have announced an electronic-business alliance, led by EDS' Electronic Business unit, that will provide a single source for establishing a Web-based business. . . Members of the Information Industry Association have voted unanimously to merge with the Software Publishers Association, with hopes that the added bulk will boost the groups' lobbying clout in the US.. . .