Computer gyms will be roaming the country this week offering people without PCs the chance to send their e-wishes for the next millennium. The move is part of the Netd@ys Internet awareness event, sponsored by Eircom and Information Society Commission. The e-wishes will stored in a database before being presented to the National Museum, to be opened at some date in the future. The e-wish site www.ewish.ie will be open until New Year's Eve. The President, Mrs McAleese, sent the first message, expressing her hope that "we forge a more peaceful and inclusive society, in which everyone counts". The President described the Internet as "a small but important tool for helping make this equality of opportunity a reality" and expressed her hope that this week's initiative would see "many new surfers join the Internet community" in Ireland.
TURKISH DELIGHT: Little did Mahir Cagri know the stir he would cause when he typed the words "Welcome to my home page. I Kiss You!!!!" a year ago. The table-tennis playing, "foto-camera taking" young Turk is flavour of the month and more than a million people have hit his homepage in the last three weeks. The site has now undergone extensive renovations and as Mahir says: "Now I am cult. . .I'm too happy." Fan clubs have been established, T-shirts and mugs are for sale, newspapers are hounding him and porn sites are cashing in on his unexpected success. His original online home can still however be found, unchanged, at members.xoom.com/_XOOM/primall/mahir/index.html
SMART MONEY: Researchers in the Smart Media Institute, a centre for advanced research in the Department of Computer Science at UCD, have been awarded a $306,000 research grant to fund their work on personalised Internet information services.
FESTIVE BOOST: Christmas should see a major boost for online buying in Britain this year, with 2.4 million new consumers expected to try web shopping, Freeserve, the UK's biggest Internet service provider has predicted.
RED HAT TRICK: Red Hat and Oracle are joining forces to introduce more advanced features for Red Hat's distribution of Linux. New features will include Java support, and support for large memory and file systems.
GOING FOR GROWTH: The second major conference run by Enterprise Ireland to help the film, TV and multimedia industries take advantage of new opportunities will be held in Clarenbridge, Co Galway, on December 2nd and 3rd. Going For Growth will cover strategic company development, raising finance and understanding how changes in technology represent significant opportunities. Info - www.bigpictureconf.com
MICROSOFT WINS WAR: Microsoft has defeated Netscape in the browser wars, according to a survey from market analyst group Zona Research. Microsoft's IE is the first choice for 64 per cent of users, against 36 per cent for Navigator or Communicator. This time last year Netscape held a 6040 lead.
SONY'S FIRST SUN: Sony and Sun Microsystems are to develop technology enabling home appliances and digital video and audio equipment to be connected to the Internet. In the first phase, they will develop home gateway software for appliances such as set-top boxes and digital television sets.
FEAR OF FLYING: Japan's largest consumer electronics maker is to prohibit its employees from making business trips by air at the end of December. The ban by Matsushita Electric Industrial will apply to 280,000 of its employees worldwide.
LOOKING SMART: Search engine LookSmart and BT have announced a joint venture to provide web portal services in Europe and Asia. The companies said they will spend up to $200 million to provide Net access and local portal sites in what they describe as the fastest growing markets for Internet services.
IN BRIEF...Digital Channel Partners and Digital Island, have joined forces to establish a new e-marketing development partnership. . . ICL and Siebel Systems have announced a strategic alliance to market customer relationship management products and services. . . Horizon Technology Group is to seek a dual listing on both the Irish and London stock exchanges. . .