The Irish Internet Association has launched its third online survey aimed at unravelling the web of Irish Internet usage. The survey at www.iia.ie will run until the first week of November and, as an enticement, a free springtime weekend for two in Paris is on offer for the person whose name is drawn from their "virtual hat" when the survey concludes. In addition to general Internet usage trends, the survey aims to identify the type of services most likely to generate e-commerce and will also examine the perceived effectiveness of banner advertising and various promotional mechanisms used to attract visitors.
Linux goes respectable: Linux developer Red Hat (see the last four weeks of Computimes) has won the significant backing of Intel, Netscape and two venture capital firms. The news was announced at a San Jose conference of ISP's. Informix is preparing a Linux version of its flagship Dynamic Server for shipping next year. Major technology companies now clearly believe in the remarkable cooperatively-developed operating system. Computimes will feature another Linux article next week.
Staff shortage seminar: An inability to attract and retain suitably skilled staff remains the most significant barrier facing the software industry in Ireland, with a recent survey indicating a dearth of such creatures in larger firms and a lack of finance and accessibility to recruitment channels for smaller ones. As a result, the Irish Management Institute has developed a training programme, designed for senior managers in the software sector, which aims to strengthen management skills and address staff development and retention. The programme begins in the IMI on November 13th and interested parties should contact Gus Liston at listong@imi.ie.
Any old PCS?:St. Columba's Day Care Centre is a primary school and one-stop care facility for travellers in Dublin city centre. It caters for 60 boys and girls, providing showers, breakfast and a hot lunchtime meal. Many of the children require speech therapy and some have severe language difficulties. Basic PC's (old 486's perhaps), printers and simple educational computer programs would be a great help to the school. So, if you're upgrading or have some unwanted computer equipment, remember St. Columba's. Contact is the Principal, Martina Sheridan, at 872 6709.
Chips are down: Jean-Philippe Dauvin, the chief economist of European semiconductor group ST Microelectronics, said he expected the world chip industry to decline by 10 per cent in 1998, but is forecasting a three per cent rise in 1999 as a result of strong sales across the, er, board with the arrival of PCs costing less than $1,000.
AOL getting real: RealNetworks has said that AOL has agreed to distribute its software. Under the agreement AOL would provide RealPlayer to its 13 million customers.
Halfway House for hate male: The first man to be convicted of an Internet-related hate crime was last week ordered to spend four months in a halfway house after he failed to report to his probation officer, the New York Times has said. Richard Machado was convicted in February after he sent email death threats to 59 students with Asian-sounding names. Prosecutors said he blamed the success of Asian students for his academic failure while he claimed the email was merely a prank. In January he was sentenced to a year in prison, served while awaiting trial.
In the frame: Eastman Kodak and Intel unveiled the details of an alliance aimed at making it easier to take, store and print pictures digitally. The companies said the deal calls for both to spend up to $150 million over the next three years on marketing and jointly developing other products and includes a new four-month test market for their new CD-ROM product, Kodak Picture CD.
Lotus linguistics: An expanded multi-lingual application development initiative, highlighted by 20 enhanced tools and key alliances, has been developed by Lotus in Dublin. A major element of the initiative is the availability within Domino Designer Release 5 of a set of features known as Domino Global WorkBench which will allow the software package to be the first integrated development environment to enable Web application developers to create, update, synchronize and manage multilingual collaborative Web applications. What'll they do for an encore?
Advertising's future: The Irish advertising community has reflected the changing world by changing the criteria for Ireland's eighth annual Advertising Agency of the Year award to reflect developments in online and multimedia initiatives. CGIPOWER'S UP: MediaNet Ireland has announced its intention offer full CGI scripting access on virtual Web servers. Subject to security restrictions, customers may now use CGIpower to turn their Websites into genuine e-commerce facilities. The service aims to allow Web authors to run programs on their sites allowing the integration of Web forms, databases and e-commerce facilities without having them checked or delayed by hosting services. The scripts can be edited online.
Casting a wider net: Without doing himself any favours, President Clinton may have done more to advance the cause of the Internet than even he imagined possible when he spoke of "building a bridge to the 21st century" during his re-election campaign in 1996. Initial indications show that accesses to sites carrying news of his video-taped testimony to the grand Jury broke all records just ten days after the publication of the Starr report caused a similar flurry of Net activity.
In Brief. . .Esat Telecom is to partner PKS Systems Integration in providing E-Business Continuity Services to businesses in the Munster and Connacht regions. . . Iona Technologies and EDS announced the signing of an agreement under which the former has agreed to acquire software technology from the latter. . . Nortel is changing its brand name to Nortel Networks. . .The iMac was the second best-selling computer system in August, behind the HP Pavilion 6330 Wintel PC, according to US market research firm PC Data. . .