In The Papers 17 November

17-11-2008

by Sylvia Leatham

Women scientists celebrated in Dublin | YouTube under threat from Hulu

The Irish Times reports that rebellious doctors, early rock stars and a pioneer of plant viruses were among the Irish women scientists of yesteryear celebrated in a series of weekend talks in Dublin as part of Science Week. The event, 'Lab Coats and Lace', highlighted unsung heroines in Irish science, and ties in with a book of the same name on the subject to be published next year. "It's about celebrating the work that has been done by a great number of Irish women scientists over the last couple of centuries who have not generally been given the recognition," said science writer and broadcaster Mary Mulvihill, the book's editor.

The Irish Independent says that hundreds of schoolchildren saw futuristic inventions at the 'Discovery 2008, Cork's Interactive Science Exhibition' at the weekend. Family Day on Sunday welcomed young and old to experiment with slime, create electronic circuits and play hands-free basketball. The highlight of the show was the unveiling of a portable planetarium, recently acquired by Blackrock Castle Observatory, which gave children a chance to experience a high-tech illustrated journey to the stars.

The Financial Times reports that Google's video-sharing site YouTube is in danger of being upstaged commercially by Hulu, a smaller upstart backed by News Corp and NBC Universal. YouTube is struggling to make its massive global audience appeal to advertisers. Hulu, which only shows professional TV programmes and movies, is forecast to draw level with YouTube in US advertising revenues next year. Neither company breaks out its advertising revenues but Arash Amel, an analyst at Screen Digest, forecasts that in 2008 YouTube will generate about USD100 million in the US, compared with about USD70 million at Hulu. Next year both sites will generate about USD180 million in the US, he says.

The paper also says that US mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is giving its "full support" to a new network technology called long-term evolution (LTE) and has abandoned efforts to promote its own alternative among mobile operators. The decision, part of a cost-cutting exercise at Qualcomm that includes a recruitment freeze, underscores the success of LTE's backers in establishing the technology as a global fourth-generation standard. LTE, which will enable much faster mobile data and internet connections than current 3G technologies, was at one stage pitted against both Qualcomm's ultra-mobile broadband and WiMax, a technology backed by Intel and Motorola, among others.

According to the Wall Street Journal, chip giant Intel will on Monday launch one of its most important products in several years, the latest sign that development cycles run counter to business cycles at high-tech companies. The first member of a highly anticipated microprocessor family -- code-named Nehalem, and formally called the Intel Core i7 -- arrives as Silicon Valley appears headed for the worst slump since the internet bubble collapsed in 2000. Intel last week reduced its revenue forecast for the fourth quarter by more than USD1 billion. Intel and its customers are not scaling back plans to use the new chip, however. "You recover from a recession with tomorrow's products, not today's," said Sean Maloney, Intel's executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.

The paper also notes that the IBM Roadrunner, a supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, has remained the world's fastest, according to a twice-yearly ranking of the 500 largest scientific systems. IBM's 188 systems accounted for the most computing power on the Top 500 list. Hewlett-Packard moved past IBM in terms of total systems on the list, with 209 machines. Cray supplied the No. 2 system and three others in the top ten.

The Sunday Tribune reports that 40 percent of Irish teenagers have arranged to meet people they met online at least once, according to research conducted by the National Centre for Technology in Education in conjunction with the Anchor Youth centre. The study also found that a rising number of teenagers are gaining access to social networking sites without parental supervision, and almost a third have accessed their profiles through a mobile phone. The research also revealed that while there was a fall in risky behaviour online by Irish teenagers, two-thirds of them still allow anyone to access their profiles.

The same paper reports that online retailer Amazon.co.uk has removed an Irish book on the Church of Scientology after the organisation sent a legal letter to the site. Customers who have already placed an order for the book have been notified that the title is not available. Other retailers also received the letter, including British chain WH Smith and Waterstones. The organisation claimed in the letter that the book was libellous towards one of its members. However, publisher Merlin said it is standing by the book and its author.

The same paper also writes that an online magazine, You-tale.ie, established for children to submit their creative work in Ireland, has been praised as an alternative to video-hosting site YouTube. Devised by teachers in St Anne's National School in Shankill, Co Dublin, the site will publish the best short stories, poems, essays, recipes, letters and jokes received. Those published will get a small prize, and a poetry and short story competition will be held every year. Children will also keep the copyright to their work.

The same paper writes that online vigilantes have identified the mother of Baby P, her boyfriend and the third man who was convicted of causing the child's death, and are circulating the information online. Social networking site Facebook has shut down pages with threats and abusive messages about the woman, with groups set up carrying the names of the couple. The trial judge issued an order forbidding details including their names, photographs and addresses, from being made public. Facebook said comments breaking the court order and its own rules were being removed. Meanwhile, Bebo removed the mother's profile following the posting of abusive messages.

The Sunday Times reports that the chief executive of Carphone Warehouse, Charles Dunstone, is expected to confirm he is considering breaking up his retail and broadband business. The paper claims he has instructed bankers to explore a demerger to separate Talk Talk from the rest of the firm to release value in the company. However, it may not happen too soon because of the turmoil in the stock market.

The Sunday Business Post writes that Dublin-based software firm System Dynamics has increased its turnover 33 percent. The company is putting the increase down to organic growth and revenues from recent acquisitions. Turnover increased to EUR21 million in the year ending 31 December 2007, with a EUR504,000 profit for the year.

The same paper writes that hosting and managed services firm Hosting 365 has won EUR3 million in new deals with clients including Viridian, Carphone Warehouse, Tesco Mobile, Webtrade, TV3 and Cityjet. The services are being offered over its new cloud computing platform, on which the company announced it would be spending EUR2 million earlier this year. The new contracts will mean recurring revenue for the firm, meaning it will receive EUR3 million a year as long as the contracts last.

The paper also writes about a new service aimed at small web publishers offered by Cork-based company Bluemetrix. Irelandmetrix is hoping to sign up hundreds of smaller sites, giving them increased visibility in the marketplace. It will publish a traffic report each month, which media buyers can use with a media planning tool also offered by Bluemetrix. The company already offers its services in markets in Scandinavia and in Japan.

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