IN THE PAPERS
In The Papers 14 June
14-06-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Waterford to become City of Scientific Culture | AT&T blames hackers for iPad security breach
The Irish Times reports that Waterford has secured EU funding to develop as a European City of Scientific Culture. The move is aimed at strengthening the city's appeal to investors and recognising scientific research and communications activity. To attain the designation, the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology (Calmast) at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) is partnering with local authorities in Waterford city and county. The overall scheme at European level is funded through the European Union Framework 7 (FP7) Science in Society programme.
The Irish Examiner says that the first examination of a Leaving Cert maths syllabus designed to reverse waning student interest in the subject will be taken by 1,800 students on Monday morning. Students at 24 schools have been learning part of the maths course through a revised teaching system under the Project Maths banner. Fewer than one-in-six of the 53,500 candidates sitting Leaving Certificate maths are expected to have opted for the honours papers, though the official figures will not be known until the State Examinations Commission issues results in August. For students at schools teaching Project Maths, interest in the subject is anticipated to be higher.
According to the Wall Street Journal, US telco AT&T has blamed "computer hackers" who "maliciously exploited" an attempt by the company to speed up the process of logging in to its website for the exposure of the email addresses of iPad users. The company apologised for the security lapse and said it would cooperate with any efforts to investigate or prosecute the breach. AT&T sent an email to the roughly 114,000 users of the iPad 3G it determined were affected by the incident. The telco said only users' email addresses and numbers that identify their devices to AT&T's network were exposed, and that no other personal or account information was at risk.
The paper also reports that Research In Motion and Motorola have settled a patent dispute over certain technology in their smartphones. Blackberry maker RIM has agreed to make a one-time payment and ongoing royalties to Motorola in exchange for a halt to the litigation. Neither RIM nor Motorola would provide specific financial information on their long-term cross-licensing deal, which covers standards such as 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi, wireless e-mail and other industry standards. The deal also includes a transfer of various patents.
The same paper says that Fujitsu and Toshiba are in talks to merge their mobile phone operations, according to a source. Such a merger would create the second-largest player in Japan's domestic market. Toshiba says its mobile phone handset business posted sales of about JPY90 billion (about USD986 million) in the year ended March 2010 but the unit posted an unspecified operating loss. Fujitsu did not provide details of its handset business.
The Financial Times says that increasing demand for electronic goods in China could add nearly USD30 billion to the global chip market over the next five years, according to the head of the world's biggest contract chipmaker. Morris Chang, chief executive and chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, said demand from China would push the industry's growth rate to 6 or 7 percent for the next five years, above the 5 percent rate that he has predicted since returning to the helm a year ago. "Because of China, I am revising my estimate," he told the newspaper.
The Sunday Independent notes that thousands of people are supporting a Facebook campaign to have a music event by former members of Thin Lizzy rescheduled. The planned concert is organised for the same night as the 'Vibe for Philo' event, which takes place every year. The campaign has gathered more than 4,000 supporters.
The Sunday Tribune reports that Irish Times editor Geraldine Kennedy has been the victim of a Twitter spoofer, after a fake account was created under her name. The 'Madam Editor' (madam_editor) account regularly refers to journalists and events at the paper, leading to speculation that it could have been created by someone within the Irish Times. However, there is no indication yet who is behind the bogus account.
The Sunday Times reports that James Joyce's Ulysses has been declared obscene by Apple, which has banned a comic book version of the book. The App Store refused the comic due to a nude line-drawing of Buck Mulligan. The comic's creators said they considered pixelating the nudity, but this is still unacceptable to Apple.
The Sunday Business Post says Curam Software made a profit of USD21.6 million last year. The Dublin firm said its turnover was USD91.2 million in 2009, up from USD78.2 million in 2008. A sharp cut in costs reversed a loss of USD6.8 million incurred in 2008. The company employs about 550 people and has contracts with government agencies across the globe.
The same paper says that managing director of HP Ireland, Martin Murphy, has called for the teaching of Irish to reviewed. Murphy made the comments in the context of making the education system more relevant. He said there should be "no sacred cows" in the system, noting that the subject has cultural and social aspects. Murphy said he is in favour of Chinese being taught in schools, and said IT literacy and linguistic skills would be very important in the future.
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