Daily Digest 9 September

09-09-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

LHC ready to be fired up | HP unveils laptop that lasts all day

The much-talked about Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has been designed to recreate the conditions of the early universe shortly after the Big Bang, will be switched on on the morning of 10 September. Scientists at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, will on Wednesday circulate a beam of protons at extremely high speed around a 27km long tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland. There is plenty of Irish involvement in this, the world's largest physics experiment. Researchers at University College Dublin have been involved with CERN since 2003. They've been testing a particle detector called Velo, in conjunction with the University of Liverpool. Velo analyses the results of particle collisions. In addition, researchers in the Computer Architecture and Grid Research group in Trinity College Dublin's School of Computer Science and Statistics are part of the global effort to analyse the enormous amount of raw data that will be generated by the experiment.

DIY Kyoto has announced the launch of the Wattson, a device that shows you just how much electricity you are using in your home. The device changes colour and number depending on how much electricity a home/office is using at any given time. This will help users to cut back on their energy output and, as a result, their energy bills. The unit can store up to four weeks of energy-use history. It uses a maximum of four watts of electricity and costs EUR5 a year to run. The Wattson, which will be distributed in Ireland by JDM Products, is available from DID, Expert Ireland and Soundstore stores nationwide at a recommended retail price of EUR139.99.

Hewlett-Packard is poised to release a laptop that it claims can run for 24 hours on a single battery recharge. The laptop in question is the HP EliteBook 6930p. In order for the unit to run for the whole day on a single charge there are a number of caveats. You will need to purchase HP's Ultra Capacity Battery and download the latest Intel graphics driver and HP BIOS. The laptop will also need to be configured with an optional Intel 80GB SSD drive and HP Illumi-Lite LED display, which HP says uses less energy than a traditional LED display. Also, to get the full 24 hours you will need to be running Windows XP, not Vista. Still, even with these requirements, the device is bound to go down well with business travellers. The HP EliteBook 6930p is expected to be available in EMEA from 1 November.

Shannon Development and Limerick County Council have joined forces to develop an online digital catalogue of the Limerick City Archive records. Among the records to be included are Limerick City Council's minute books, the Chamber of Commerce collection, and Limerick Harbour Commissioners collection. "Limerick Archive contains a treasure-trove of historical materials... By making the catalogue available via the web, the general public, researchers, students, genealogists, and tourists alike, can check what material is available in the archives before visiting. It is one of the first archives in the country to be built to international standards, and it opens up the archive to a world audience via the internet," said Dr Vincent Cunnane, chief executive, Shannon Development. The eArchives portal can be accessed at www.limerickcity.ie/Archives/.

Online recruitment firm Saongroup.com has announced details of its continued expansion in India. The firm has launched myhyderabadjobs.com, a recruitment website dedicated to the City of Hyderabad. In September 2007 Saongroup.com launched myJobsinPune.com in India. The recruitment firm plans to expand across all leading cities in India, with an estimated investment of EUR10 million in its first phase of expansion. Job search is now the second most preferred internet activity amongst Indian internet users, according to a recent survey by JuxtConsult. The number of internet users looking for jobs online has increased from 6.5 million in 2005/6 to 9.2 million in 2006/7, according to a survey by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

Irish mobile services firm NewBay Software has signed a deal with US Cellular to provide its LifeCache solution to the US firm, which will use it to launch a media album service. The Online Album branded service provides photo storage for US Cellular customers. Using the Online Album service, they will be able to upload and manage content including photos directly from their mobile phone and create their own secure photo blog.