IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 13 January
13-01-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Meteor store hits online glitch | Rambus chip trial opens
The Irish Times reports that Meteor's online store was offline on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Eircom subsidiary confirmed that it was "experiencing difficulties in fulfilling on the online side" but said it was continuing to sell to customers through its network of shops and agents. He said Meteor was hoping to have the issue rectified in the coming days.
The paper also notes that property investment and development group Real Estate Opportunities has reviewed rent at Vodafone's County Dublin premises and raised it by 12 percent. The new EUR7.2 million a year rent will be backdated to October 2006. The lease on the property at Central Park in Co Dublin will expire in 2026.
The same paper reports on the launch of the annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. For video coverage of the event see ENN, and keep an eye out for updates throughout the week.
Also reporting on the BT Young Scientist event, the Irish Independent says that previous winners at the exhibition have gone on to work in science. Thomas Gernon from Colaiste Ris, Dundalk, who took the top prize 10 years ago has visited volcanoes all over the world. The 1981 winner, Catherine Conlon from Muckross Park, Dublin, is currently lecturing in epidemiology and public health at UCC. And Luke Drury, from Wesley College, Co Dublin, who won the prize in 1969, obtained a PhD in Astrophysics from Cambridge University and won the Shakti P Duggal Award in 1987 for outstanding work in the field of cosmic rays.
The Irish Examiner reports that Dell's withdrawal from Limerick has resulted in a huge spike in jobless figures for the city and county. Latest Live Register figures show that unemployment in Limerick is rising well above the national average. Some 21,375 people are on the Live Register in Limerick city and county, an increase of 52.7 percent over the previous year. The national average increase is 46.1 percent. Over 70 percent of those unemployed are in Limerick City.
The paper also says that records of the Quakers in Limerick dating back more than 300 years are now available on Limerick City Council's website, www.limerickcity.ie. The original records are held in the Quaker Library in Dublin. The Society of Friends approached Limerick City archives with a proposal to extend access to their records by microfilming the records and putting a digital copy of the microfilm online.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a trial pitting Rambus against three other chipmakers is scheduled to begin on Wednesday. The case in San Francisco County Superior Court centres on allegations by Rambus that Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor illegally conspired to boycott technology developed by Rambus and took other actions to block its acceptance. Rambus is hoping to win billions of dollars in damages from the case. The three companies deny the allegations.
The paper also reports on a London speech to business and government leaders by IBM chief Samuel Palmisano. He said the world economy "has stabilised somewhat" but that resource constraints will linger. "Stimulus programmes are making an impact, but they cannot and should not last forever," he said. "In fact, for the foreseeable future, we will be faced with addressing many pressing global issues with less, rather than more, resources." Palmisano also urged government leaders to focus spending on technologies that connect computing power to traffic lights, health care records and utility management.
According to the Financial Times, Google has said it will end the censorship of its search service in China and risk being thrown out of the country's internet market. Google claims it has found evidence of China-based attempts to break into its Gmail system. In a statement, Google said: "These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered -- combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web -- have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China." One person close to Google said that the company had no evidence that the cyber-attacks were sanctioned by the Chinese government, but another source said it would not have taken such a drastic measure had it not believed the attacks had official backing.
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