NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 30 March
30-03-2009
by Bryan Collins
Huge mobile broadband uptake by SMEs | Thirdforce confirms takeover bid
There's been a huge uptake of mobile broadband by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), according to research commissioned by O2. The research, which was carried out by TNS MRBI, found the number of senior SME managers using mobile broadband has jumped from 12 percent to 34 percent over the last year. The survey follows a report by ComReg, which revealed that in the 12 months to December 2008 mobile broadband subscriptions in Ireland increased by 142 percent.
E-learning company Thirdforce has issued a statement saying several members of its management team and board have made a bid for the company. Thirdforce, which employs around 230 people, valued the bid at EUR0.08 a share. The company issued the statement following media reports over the weekend and has also appointed a committee of independent directors. This committee has hired Goodbody Corporate Finance to examine any potential offer for the company. "There can be no certainty that an offer will ultimately be forthcoming. A further announcement in relation to the possible offer will be made if and when appropriate," the statement said.
Over a quarter of IT directors in small and mid-sized companies are planning to increase their technology spend in 2009, according to research published by Connect Support Services. The IT support services company revealed that 26 percent of directors plan to increase their IT spend in 2009, compared to 14 percent in 2008. The research went on to reveal that 18 percent are planning to reduce their technology spend while 52 percent would maintain their 2008 expenditure levels during the coming year. Mark Macgregor, CEO at Connect noted "because there are so many price reductions offers around from hardware and software providers, it may be that businesses end up spending the same but receiving much more band for their IT buck."
A dangerous variant of the Conficker worm is rapidly spreading through the internet, IT security vendor ESET has warned. The worm gives control of infected PCs to a remote user, exploits vulnerabilities in Windows OS and propagates onto devices like USB pen-drives. Previous variants of Conficker shut down thousands of PCs worldwide and ESET claims Win32/Conficker.X (also known as Conficker.C or Conficker.D) poses an even greater threat. Starting on 1 April the latest variant is programmed to increase the number of internet domains the worm checks for instructions from a couple of hundred to around 50,000. "The main goal of the authors of the worm is to construct and consolidate a botnet of unprecedented proportions that can be exploited for a massive attack against the internet infrastructure or for a mass-scale espionage," said Juraj Malcho, the Head of ESET Virus Lab.
IBM's effort to launch an 'open' cloud computing strategy for the industry has suffered a major setback following the withdrawal of support by three major IT companies. Amazon, Google and Microsoft all expressed concerns about the openness of the strategy and level of input they would have into it. The Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum has also pulled support saying it could not "in good faith" endorse IBM's document. Some of those companies still backing the plan include Sun, Cisco, and Red Hat. "We are pleased about the number of vendors who have signed up. As regards Microsoft, we are still hopeful about working together on giving customers the flexibility they have come to expect from technology that is open," Karla Norsworthy, IBM's vice president of Software Standards, told BBC news.
Computer games are officially good for your eyesight, according to a report published in Nature Neuroscience. The US researchers behind the report asked volunteers to play games like Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament for 50 hours over nine weeks and found they were better able to notice subtle differences in shades of gray. The team believes the findings could help those who have trouble driving at night. "Normally, improving contrast sensitivity means getting glasses or eye surgery -- somehow changing the optics of the eye," said Daphne Bavelier of the University of Rochester in New York, whose study appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Unfortunately, those who played the Sims acquired no such benefit.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 