For the record 25 April

25-04-2007

by Maxim Kelly

Carlow Town gets wired | Nominations open for EUR1m tech prize

Carlow Town is the site of Ireland's first open access Wi-Fi network. The subscription and pay-as-you-go wireless internet service was launched by MAN (metropolitan area network) wholesaler Enet and Carlow County Council on Wednesday. The network has been designed to cover half of the businesses and 10 percent of residences in the town centre. Aptus and Brisknet are selling air time on the network, and prices are understood to start at EUR15 for a monthly 1Mbps subscription, or EUR3.50 for a half-hour on the pay-as-you-go rate. Hourly, daily and weekly rates are also available. "Enet is keen to work with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and the Local Government Computer Services Board to expand this trial as early as is feasible," said Enet chief executive Conal Henry. "It is my belief that, with appropriate funding, we could replicate the Carlow service in all 27 MAN towns within the next 18 months." Enet used Wi-Fi MESH network equipment from Tropos Networks supplied by Sigma Wireless and worked with Azotel and ESB Contracts on the Carlow project.

Nominations for candidates for the next Millennium Technology Prize opened on Wednesday. The EUR1 million prize is awarded every two years for an innovation which improves the quality of human life and encourages sustainable development. In 2004, the first-ever prize was awarded to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. The 2006 prize was won by Professor Shuji Nakamura, who invented new, energy-efficient sources of light. A new element in the 2008 award will be publicity for a selection of the technological innovations that are improving quality of life and have been nominated for the prize. Both the names of the finalists and their inventions will be announced before the winner is declared. Nomination information can be found here.

OQO began shipments of its new, ultra-mobile '02' computer to Ireland on Wednesday. The paperback-sized 02 runs Microsoft Vista and has received industry awards and accolades from BusinessWeek, Business 2.0, Laptop Magazine, PC Magazine, Popular Science, and Wired. The 02 model will be available in Ireland from early May with prices starting at EUR1,355, and it can be purchased from selected r-esellers and retailers, or from distributor Portix.

Broadband provider Magnet has hooked up residents of Fleming Construction's Rockbrook development in Sandyford, Dublin, with fibre-optic connections. Residential and office units in this mixed-use development will now be wired for fibre-to-the home (FTTH) connections capable of supporting applications including video-on-demand, music-on-demand, home security and smart appliances.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheal Martin performed the official opening of Sage's new localisation centre at Citywest in Dublin on Wednesday. The minister also announced the company's additional EUR400,000 investment in its data hosting centre, designed to double its current size.

Text messaging poses a significant threat to writing standards in English, according to the Department of Education's chief examiner in the subject, who has completed a review of last year's Junior Cert. The Irish Times reports that the popularity of text messaging may also explain the penchant among the Junior Cert students for short, sharp answers with little elaboration. "The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates. Expertise in text messaging and e-mail in particular would appear to have affected spelling and punctuation," said the chief examiner.