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In the papers 20 March
Thursday, March 20 2008
by Bryan Collins


Government's ICT in schools plan is inadequate, says report |
Tech markets in decline 

The Irish Times reports that the Government's EUR252 million
plan for computers in schools is insufficient and will
leave Irish schools lagging behind their EU counterparts,
according to a confidential report commissioned by Minister
for Education Mary Hanafin. A draft of the report questions
whether the money to be invested under the National
Development Plan will be enough to close the gap on other
countries. While this will enable schools to update existing
facilities, the report says "We suggest that this sum is
inadequate to fund progress beyond the merely functional
levels of ICT. Further investment will be required to bring
our schools to an EU average level."



The same paper notes that IBM has chosen Dublin as the
location for what it claims is the first cloud computing
centre in Europe. Read the full story on href="http://www.enn.ie/article/10124090.html">ENN. 



The paper also says that positive sentiment in European
stock markets following the cut in US interest rates
didn't last for long on Wednesday, as rumours of funding
problems at major financial institutions prompted sellers to
come back into the market. Tension on the Dublin stock market
remained high, with the fallout from the financial sector's
credit chaos exacerbated by a profit warning from UK airline
Easyjet, which sent Ryanair's share price tumbling 8 percent.
The Iseq index of Irish shares closed down 1 percent. 





The Financial Times reports that Deutsche Telekom has
reaffirmed its 2008 core profit forecast, after investors
were spooked by the release of performance guidance for its
troubled fixed-line phone business. Shares in the German
telecoms firm plummeted 13 percent to EUR9.92 in morning
trading on Wednesday, taking them to a five-year low. The
stock rallied after industry analysts sent notes to clients
questioning the logic of such a ferocious correction, but the
shares still closed almost 7 percent lower at EUR10.57. 





Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the
tech-heavy Nasdaq market plunged on Wednesday as
investors cashed in on gains from the previous session's
dramatic run-up. The Nasdaq shed 58.30 points, or 2.6
percent, to close at 2209.96. Enthusiasm for the Federal
Reserve's latest 75-basis point interest rate cut had driven
the Nasdaq up 4.2 percent in the previous session, its
largest point gain in almost six years. Morgan Stanley's
high-tech index fell 15.58 points to 513.33 and the Nasdaq
100 Index of non-financial stocks shed 45.46 points to
1715.59.



The paper also says a US federal appeals court has turned
down Qualcomm's request to hold off the imposition of
an injunction against sales of some of the company's mobile
phone chips, while Qualcomm pursues an appeal of a patent
suit won by rival Broadcom. Without providing details, the US
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that Qualcomm
had not met its burden of proof to win a stay pending appeal
of the injunction, which was ordered by a federal judge on 31
December. The appeals court also denied a motion for Sprint
Nextel to intervene in the case. The company is among the
mobile operators potentially affected by the injunction.





The paper also notes that Silicon Valley entrepreneur Rod
Beckstrom has been chosen to run the new National Cyber
Security Center, a key component of a secretive
government effort to secure vulnerable government and private
computer networks, according to sources. Created by a
classified presidential order in January, the centre will be
housed at the Department of Homeland Security and Beckstrom
will report directly to Secretary Michael Chertoff, the
sources said.