General: May 2004 Archives
Online dating firm patents cupid's arrow | The Register
The US patent office has outdone itself this week, awarding dating company eHarmony a patent covering online matchmaking.
In patentese, US patent no. 6,735,568 describes a computer implemented method for "identifying people who are likely to have a successful relationship".
Hopefully EU legislation will thwart these type of patents being filed in Ireland
I have finally registered a domain name for my weblog. Thankfully www.irishsilicon.com was available.
Hopefully this will help to drive more traffic and raise the profile of the Irish Silicon Industry.
Time and money pressures, along with management lapses, proved a fatal combination for the Beagle 2 spaceprobe that aimed to land on Mars, an official inquiry has concluded.
I was a big fan of the beagle 2 probe from the start. There was something about it I found endearing. It had all the classic ingredients, ambitious, eccentric professor, science dream turning into reality.
The enthuasim of the people involved in the project was infectious.
I look forward to seeing a beagle 3.
Thats whats on the front page of the business suplement of the Irish Times. It seems that Amazon where in Dublin last week touring several data centres. It seems that two centres could be established to provide customer support, one in Dublin and the other in Cork. Over 200 staff would be employed.
I remember a few years ago during the .com boom the discussion over amazon and the fact that it was making losses. Well at this stage it seems to have paid off, in the first quarter of 2004 it generated1.53 billion US dollars sales and profits of $111 million.
It seems that as I was learning to crawl IBM were learning how to build a portable computer.
Geek.com provides us with a history lesson on portable computing
In 1973 IBM began working on a portable computing project called "Special Computer, APL Machine Portable" (SCAMP). The idea was to create an electronic digital computer that would be no larger than a typewriter and that could be used by an individual. Although the CPUs of these machines were slow, the users didn't have to share CPU resources with others. The machine would have a built-in tape drive and a 5 inch CRT, and would be light enough so that a (strong) person could carry it. This machine would make extensive use of integrated circuits, and would be able to accommodate up to 64 KB of RAM. At the time, mini-mainframe computers contained 64 KB, so the machine could be considered a portable mini-mainframe. The machine was called the 5100, and the first prototypes were completed in early 1974. The 5100 became available for purchase in the fall of 1975, and was geared towards payroll and inventory tasks. The machine weighed up to 28 kilograms (60 pounds) in its heaviest configuration, and cost between US$10,000-20,000 (1975 dollars). The 5100 used a proprietary 1.9MHz CPU and contained a built-in basic interpreter. A carrying case and printer, as well as I/O adapters, were available extras. Primarily because of the high cost of the computer, the 5100 was not a succes
Lycos cuts ribbon on 1GB email service | The Register
Lycos Europe today unveiled a 1GB email service and cocked a snook at US rivals Yahoo! and Google. According to the PR guff, the Lycos email service will be free of ads and comes protected by anti-spam and anti-virus software. The service costs £3.49 ($6.17) per month.
The wireless wizards over at nwfusion.com answer this question and provide some good practical advice.
As we are reaching the end of our cisco wireless instructor course here in CIT, I now have a greater appreciation of the security issues facing Access point and bridge deployment
I would have liked to have seen in the answer the fact that you can use RADIUS servers etc to maintain an enterprise level security. This may not be supported by all network vendor cards however.
John Leyden in the Register reports that - Microsoft are still in the process of developing a strategy for integrating the anti virus sofware that the accquired from a little known Romanian company GeCAD software. A year on and nothing seems to be happenning.
Jonathan Perera, Senior Director at Microsoft's Security Business and Technology Unit, said the company is not ready to announce a product strategy for GeCAD almost a year after the acquisition.
Until then we will have to rely on our firewalls and the daily update of our third party antivirus s/w.
ENN has an excellent article explaining the intricate issues of software patent leglislation that is currently before the EU.
Tbere is a very fine balance to be struck between patents that protect startups and patents that stifle innovation and the ICT sector.
It is looking likely that Amazons 1 click patent will be illegal in Europe under the legislation.
E-Vote Problems Overwhelm Feds The new U.S. Election Assistance Commission says it doesn't have enough money to take care of voting-machine problems that may crop up this November.
IPoS expands reach of satellite apps
"IP over Satellite (IPoS), which the Telecommunications Industry Association ratified as TIA-1008 in November 2003, is the only industry standard optimized for delivering IP broadband services over two-way satellite channels. Already implemented in more than 300,000 deployed satellite terminals (which represents about 70% of the installed market), IPoS will provide a catalyst for dramatic growth in the satellite industry by delivering always-on IP services - such as e-mail, streaming video, Web browsing and IP telephony. "
The big issue facing this technology is the 800ms delay from ground to satellite and back again. Being a rural dweller with no broadband service. It is a tempting solution. However I require low response times, so mu ISDN connection will have to suffice for the moment
End of The Line For Red Hat Linux 9
"Red Hat (Quote, Chart) is hoping Red Hat 9 customers will now migrate to its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) line. "
The rate at which Linux distro's are updated can often seem very daunting to some one considering using Linux. Thankfully they do have some nice online update features. I use debian and the apt-get command makes updates a less daunting experience.
Politics.ie - Cullen guilty on all counts - Kenny - The Irish Politics Website
Today's Report of the Commission on Electronic Voting is a ringing indictment of this Government's arrogance and incompetence, according to Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny TD.
"This Commission was only established following a joint Fine Gael/Labour/Green Party motion in the Dáil. Had it not been for that pressure, along with concerned Independent IT experts who voiced their concerns in the media, the Government would have pressed ahead with a flawed system of voting in the June elections.
The report found that:
- There was errors in the software
- The software wasn't even finished !
Now we have 7000 machines lying in warehouse gathering dust. Our prime minister wouldn't even comment on it.
This is coming at a time with local elections imminient. It would seem that things are not going according to plan for the Fianna Fail party.
