The President, Mrs Mary McAleese, last week launched Ireland's first CyberSkills workshop in Blanchardstown Public Library. At the launch senior citizens, who participated in CyberSkills pilot workshops, shared their newly acquired knowledge with the President. The workshops offer a hands-on approach to new technology and introduce individuals and community groups to email, the Internet and multimedia in an effort to make the term "lifelong learning" a reality rather than a vague concept.
Managing ISDN: Crannog Software has just released ISDN Watch, a software tool which enables network managers to monitor usage of one or more ISDN lines. It presents information in a graphical format allowing easy determination of ISDN usage patterns. A free one month trial of the software is available from: www.crannog-software.com/isdnwatch/
New Standard New Name: The SSL standard, a widely used Web security technology developed by Netscape, is to gain new stature after being adopted by the Internet Engineering Task Force. SSL has been shown to be flawed but it is to be transformed into a new standard, TLS, later this summer, with enhancements that should add improved data integrity.
MPEG Experts: into white has been accredited as an MPEG expert by the National Standards Association of Ireland to coincide with the arrival of MPEG, one of the most important multimedia technology groupings, for a conference in Dublin Castle this week. The international experts will meet to discuss MPEG Media standards. into white has designed the conference website - www.mpegdublin.com
A Grave Concern: The tombstone industry is discovering that the Y2K crisis is not just a digital problem as they are faced with an oversupply of headstones pre-carved with a ["]19["] prefix. Companies responsible for preparing these pre-carved tombstones are fearful that, unless more people draw their last breath before January 1st 2000, outdated slabs of stone will cause severe headaches.
Acquiring Silicon: Celestica has acquired the printed circuit assembly operation of Silicon Graphics as part of a strategic agreement with the company. The company has also entered into a five-year supply agreement with Silicon Graphics.
No Negatives Positive: The Digital Media Centre at DIT Aungier Street will offer introductory courses in digital photograph this summer, aimed at professional photographers and those in the imaging sector. All participants will gain handson experience using a digital camera and processing their images. Further details from www.dmc.dit.ie/photography
You Have Mail: Casio has launched a new `Internet phone' which provides easy, but limited access to email. The IT380 PhoneMate with E-Mail Link lets users view sender- and subject-header data from two separate email accounts neatly eliminating the need to log on to see what delights in-boxes contain. It's due to retail at $149 stateside and will be available by mid-August. The phone can be programmed to check for email automatically, notifying the user when new mail has arrived.
In Brief... Microsoft has opted for the McAfee VirusScan to provide Windows 98 users with protection against virus attacks. . .AOL has removed a website which featured parody verses of the Koran after complaints from Islamic religious scholars in Egypt. . .The woman who gave birth live over the Internet was back in the news last week after being charged with cashing fraudulent cheques. A canny investigator in Orange County watched the birth, recognised her and tracked her down. . .Barry Macken, until recently International Director of Quality for ADI, is to become the first ["]Analog Visiting Industrialist["] at UL. . .BSkyB has used Iona Technologies' Orbix to incorporate new TV listings and World Cup fantasy football applications on their website. . .Cablelink has signed a contract with Oracle to install a new customer database. . .