ROUNDUPS
For the record 17 February
17-02-2003
by Ralph Averbuch
Google gets into blogging with Pyra Labs purchase | Esat BT begins charging for formerly free mapping service
A security flaw at on-line florist FTD.com left private information fresh for the picking this week, the busiest time of the year for the company. The flaw allowed a person to use a modified "cookie" to easily access customer information from the company's servers, claimed Gerald Quakenbush, an information security analyst for Internet and e-business consulting service Fusion Alliance.
Two thieves have been convicted after being identified in a picture message from a mobile phone. Daniel Puiu, 20, and 21-year-old Dorin Oborcianu are believed to be the first successful convictions using a mobile photograph as evidence. They were snapped by an alert tobacconist who put them in the frame as they loitered outside his shop in Italy. He then sent a text message with the picture to local police who, after checking their files, realised the pair were wanted for a range of offences. Police rushed to the shop in the San Giovanni area of Rome where the men were arrested.
Softworks says it won a EUR3.3 million contract to implement a state-of-the-art international mail handling facility at Royal Mail's Heathrow sorting office. Established in 1990, with offices in the UK and France, Softworks Computing has focussed on labour management solutions since its foundation.
Esat BT has begun charging via a micro-payment solution through its Web sites at oceanfree.net and iol.ie. The service is already running on the 'Mapping' sections of both Web sites, and uses mobile telephony with the Web to complete on-line transactions, which grant access to the mapping service. At this stage it is unclear how consumers will react to paying for a hitherto free-to-Web service.
Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens have jointly defined specifications for an open standard to speed adoption of direct-call push to talk services over GPRS. Enabling IP connections between mobile phones, push to talk is a two-way form of communications that allows users to immediately communicate with one or more receivers, similar to walkie talkies, simply by pushing a button on their handsets. Users receiving the transmission hear the sender's voice automatically without having to answer the call. Initial trials are expected to begin in the second half of 2003.
Top search site Google has bought Pyra Labs. Based in San Francisco, Pyra has developed some of the earliest Web blogging technologies, used by large companies or private individuals alike, to write rolling commentaries or on-line diaries.
Newspapers selling content on-line choose traditional payment methods rather than trusting innovative technologies claims Van Dusseldorp & Partners. Due to the nature of credit card payment processing, amounts below EUR5 are not considered profitable. Though credit card companies only charge 3 percent of commission on sales, a fixed minimum transaction fee can be anywhere between EUR0.50 and EUR4 making it unsuitable for micro-payments. Van Dusseldorp & Partners' latest report "Guide to European Content Payment Solutions" explores premium content billing initiatives in Europe, providing information about charging consumers and corporate clients for content. The guide costs EUR940.
B.I.C. Systems, technology solutions providers in Ireland and the UK, has received a Flax Trust Award. The Flax Trust is a Belfast-based charity committed to the "reconciliation of a divided community through economic development".
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 