NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 1 May
01-05-2009
by Deirdre McArdle
Second prize for DERI in global contest | Chip sales see 'modest' growth
The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), which is based at NUI Galway, has taken second place at Elsevier Grand Challenge, a global competition focusing on the development of tools to deal with the growing amount of online life sciences information. DERI was competing against over 70 groups from universities and research organisations around the world. In its project, swimmingly titled 'CORAAL - Dive into Publications, Bathe in the Knowledge', DERI developed a prototype to integrate knowledge representation and reasoning technologies in life science publications to better integrate, search and retrieve life sciences knowledge. DERI is an applied research organisation developing the next generation of internet technology -- the semantic web.
Norway-based business software provider Mamut, which has operations in Ireland, posted operating revenues of EUR14.8 million during the first quarter of 2009. The firm, which has a sales, marketing and support team of over 20 employees working on the Irish market, saw EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) jump 13 percent to EUR30 million from EUR26.4 million in the year-ago period. "Moving forward, our aim is to improve margins and deliver ongoing cost reductions by continuously streamlining our operations. These measures will increase profitability, even if the wider economy delivers only moderate growth in 2009," says Eilert Hanoa, CEO at Mamut.
Social networking giant Facebook has been hit by a phishing scam, which is being used to trick members into revealing passwords to their accounts. Fraudsters sent Facebook users messages with a link to a convincing fake log-in page. This allowed the fraudsters to capture password information in order to gain access to people's Facebook profiles and impersonate them in a bid to lure other Facebook members into the trap. The social networking site says it has now blocked the link at the heart of the scam. The firm has also announced a widening of a security alliance with MarkMonitor as it strives to better protect its users against such attacks in the future.
Global semiconductor sales dropped to USD14.67 billion in March, down 30 percent from the same time in 2008, but up by 3.3 percent on February figures, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). SIA president George Scalise said the slight month-on-month increase suggests that "demand has stabilized somewhat, albeit at substantially lower levels than last year. While all major product sectors showed month-on-month growth, there continues to be limited visibility," though he called segments such as smartphones and netbooks "bright spots." Scalise added that efforts to revive the market weren't likely to impact chip sales until the end of 2009.
Google has added a web search function to Gmail, meaning users can now conduct Google searches directly from their Gmail account. Find out how to use this new feature here. Elsewhere, micro-blogging site Twitter has released its real-time search for all Tweet updates made to the site. Co-founder Biz Stone explained in a blog how to use this new function.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 