A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Tweet dreams of a job at Twitter's Dublin office
Twitter is hiring again for its Dublin office, recruiting for its first sales marketing roles at its international office.
The company has been slowly adding to its Irish office over recent months as it expands its advertising products into new territories. Among the roles currently on offer for Dublin are business policy specialists, and user safety and support staff.
The social network is also seeking sales executives for its French and Italian markets, roles that will also be based in Dublin.
The Dublin office was the third international location it opened outside the US, and is being headed up by former Google executive Stephen McIntyre. The exact location of the office is not yet known.
The company also has an office in London, where it employs about 30 people. It is currently seeking to employ content development managers and brand programme managers.
The social network has more than 140 million active users worldwide.
Irish firm plays Havok with multiplayer online game
Technology from Irish firm Havok is powering the multiplayer online role- playing game Guild Wars 2.
The game, which was developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft, uses Havok’s artificial intelligence and physics technologies to help scale thousands of players on to one server.
“Guild Wars 2 changes the MMO playing field as we know it and we are excited to be a part of such an innovative title,” said Havok managing director David Coughlan. Our dedicated team worked closely with ArenaNet to make sure that they got the most out of Havok AI and Havok Physics to support highly-dynamic environments and game play for the most vibrant gaming experience.”
The game, which was released this week, allows players to directly influence the state of the world through game play and player interactions. That means each player has a different experience.
Lead programmer of Guild Wars 2 Brett Vickers said the partnership with Havok had been mutually beneficial.
“Three years ago, we were one of the first customers to adopt Havok AI,” he said. “Over that time, we’ve worked closely with Havok’s technical team to ensure we were getting the most from the technology and to provide feedback which helped the technology mature.”
Havok was founded in 1998 in Trinity College Dublin and bought by Intel in 2007. The company's technology has been used in a number of high-profile games, including Half-Life 2, Halo and new title Darksiders II. It has also moved into the film industry, driving special effects for releases including Quantum of Solace, The Matrix, and several Harry Potter films. - CIARA O'BRIEN
UK intelligence service seeks untapped army of innovators
The UK’s intelligence service is looking beyond BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and other big defence contractors to an untapped army of independent innovators for tools to fight terrorism and for cyber security.
The UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) spy agency and the MI5 domestic security service have teamed with the defence ministry to enlist small- and medium-sized companies they have not previously worked with, the agency said yesterday.
The procurement partnership marks the first time the ministry’s Centre for Defence Enterprise is working with the intelligence community. The goal is to find university start-ups and companies with technology for covert surveillance and online identity verification.
GCHQ and MI5 can fund research activities, with the Centre for Defence Enterprise in charge of technical assessment and programme management. “We seek out sources of untapped innovation beyond the established supplier base,” said CDE chief Jonathan Byrne.
About 43 per cent of CDE contracts are awarded to small- and medium-sized enterprises, with academic institutions taking 24 per cent.
Companies seeking to be involved must undergo a security review. CDE and its intelligence partners will then present their objectives in more detail during a presentation in London in October. Contracts will be awarded early next year.
– (Bloomberg)
