Technology

The Egyptian government blocked internet services for five days, and it is likely to cost the county up to US$90bn, according to the OECD. In an attempt to curb communication between anti-government activists in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak turned off internet connections and limited mobile telephone communications. The OECD said today that the blocked services (telecommunication and internet) account for about 3pc to 4pc of GDP or a loss of US$18m per day. The organization warned the long-term impact could be even greater as the country cut off domestic and international high-tech firms who provide services globally. The move will make it much harder to attract foreign companies and assure…

Waterford Institute of Technology-based science outreach centre Calmast is part of a team that has won the Grand Jury Award at 2Ways, a major European life sciences festival in Brussels, organised by European Science Events Association. The prize was awarded to Calmast and its UK partners for a board game developed to explain gene mutation to second-level students. The partnership involved in developing the Evolution Game included Dr Sheila Donegan and Eoin Gill, Calmast, Waterford Institute of Technology; Dr Cas Kramer, GENIE, Genetics Outreach Centre, University of Leicester; Dr Ruth Barber, Department of Genetics, University of Leicester; and Dr Karen Moss, CELS, Centre for Effective Learning in Science, Nottingham Trent…

Facebook is throwing the ‘book’ literally at a new community website for teachers for its use of the word ‘book’ in its title. It is claiming that the use of the word by Teachbook is riding on the success of Facebook. In other words, Facebook says Teachbook shouldn’t be using the ‘book’ suffix in its name. Teachbook is a professional community for teachers headquartered in Chicago. It appears that Facebook’s beef centres around the implication that anyone can attach the suffix ‘book’ to an online product and instantly claim it has relevance as a social networking site. In its complaint, the social network giant warns that this would dilute the…

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has denied that the iPhone and iPod maker Foxconn is a sweatshop. Jobs made his comments in an on-stage interview at the D8 technology conference in California. In his first public comments on the spate of recent suicides at Foxconn’s factory in southern China, the Apple CEO described them as “very troubling” and said Apple was “all over this”. Jobs said it appeared there were “some real issues” at Foxconn, which he said Apple was trying to understand before going in with a solution. Ten workers have died at Foxconn’s main plant in Shenzhen this year in apparent suicides and two people have been seriously injured.…

Too many companies think cloud computing isn’t for them, but Martha Rotter, developer, and platform team, Microsoft Ireland, believes there’s something for everyone. During a recent discussion with a handful of IT industry executives, the topic of cloud computing arose. While I was not surprised to learn that several of the organizations present were not making specific cloud-based adjustments to their software offerings, it was interesting to discover that many other organizations were discounting cloud computing completely. The reasons not to invest in cloud computing focused on existing investments, scale and price, with a frequent comment being, “We’re not large enough for it to make any difference for us to…

Ireland may not get the full benefit of an €8m expansion by one the country’s most celebrated technology success stories because of retrograde income tax decisions and the lack of a proper, long-term national education strategy. Emmy Award-winning Havok is one of the world’s best-known games technology companies. Its physics middleware powers many of the top 10 global retail games, as well as special effects in top blockbuster Hollywood movies. The company, which grew from humble origins as a Trinity College Dublin campus spinout, was bought by Intel in recent years for over US$100m. Havok is planning to embark on the next phase of its growth and will invest €8m…