Fergus Cassidy

SUNDAY 28 DECEMBER 2003 23.35 (GMT)
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::: PINGING ENGLISH...
YourDictionary.com has announced its Top 10 Words of 2003, which have a mostly American slant.

These are the top internet words 'moving into widespread use':
1. Ping -- Send a reminder, as in 'Ping me about that!'
2. Multitask -- To perform several tasks at the same time.
3. 10X -- In high tech jargon, the competitive advantage that separates a company from its competition.
4. Off line -- The replacement for "out of it," as 'Are you listening or are you off line?'
5. Bandwidth -- Capacity, as 'We'll have to increase our bandwidth to handle the order.'


::: YEAR OF THE FLAT...
My Sunday Tribune column today is a review of 2003. Flat-rate internet access was the high point.


SATURDAY 27 DECEMBER 2003 19.05 GMT
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::: BEAGLE EYED...
The Beagle 2 web site got 16.4m hits on Christmas Day. The team also has a blog.


::: RANT AND ROLL..
It really pisses me off that so many bands and musicians use Flash on their home pages.

Do they think that EVERYONE lives in the US with nice fat internet connections? Mind you, most of the ones that use Flash are signed to major record labels, so Flash is probably bling bling.


FRIDAY 26 DECEMBER 2003 23.35 GMT
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::: MARTIAN ROCK...
The (so far) uncontactable Beagle 2, which may have landed on Mars yesterday, includes a song written especially for the mission by Blur.

You can listen to it here through RealPlayer (.ram), and it's 2.5 minutes long.


MONDAY 15 DECEMBER 2003 23.35 GMT
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::: IETF ROLLS OUT SPAMASSASSIN...
The Internet Engineering Task Force announced today that it is turning "on SpamAssassin on all IETF mail".

One of the developers of SpamAssassin is Justin Mason from Ireland and it is an excellent recognition when the premier net standards body uses his software.


::: VOTING WITH OUR HEADS..
As part of a statement at the World Information Society Summit in Geneva last Thursday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said:

"Technology is a tool and an enabler of change. However, it cannot and should not dictate how our societies are shaped and developed. What is most important in any society is its citizens. That is who we as governments serve and the ultimate goal of technology is to serve the citizen."

Agreed. And a growing number of Irish citizens believe that electronic voting as it's currently proposed does not serve the citizens.

Which leads me to my Sunday Tribune column yesterday and "what exactly is the problem with voting using pen and paper?"


SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER 2003 21.15 GMT
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ISOC IRELAND...
The Irish chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) has launched a Working Group on the .ie domain name.

Among the main aims is to establish a consensus on the principles for governing the .ie domain. The full charter for the WG is here. This will give you the specific goals, purpose and details of the project.

Most of the work happens on a mailing list and you can subscribe here.

WATER WORKS..
Wonderful to see the communications minister's announcement last Friday included a mention of group broadband schemes.

I first came across the idea last year through Ireland Offline as a possible blueprint for getting broadband to rural areas.

The idea is loosely based on the formation of group water schemes in the early 1960s and is very relevant to broadband in rural areas today. Shared resources and community involvement is the only realistic option for many people.

Nice one Ireland Offline (again!)


TUESDAY 9 DECEMBER 2003 22.55 GMT
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KAHN OPENER..
Can I point you to this informative interview with Bob Kahn. He co-authored TCP/IP with Vint Cerf. Interviewed in March 2003, Kahn recalls the non-commercial early days of the net and looks at today's issues of fair use, privacy and the need for security.

SUMMIT UP...
My Sunday Tribune column this week is on the related topic of internet governance.


SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER 2003 22.25 GMT
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PATENT NOISES...
The European Court of Justice recently made a ruling indicating that sounds can be registered as trademarks.

A claim of infringement brought in a case before a Netherland's court was referred to the European Court.

Up to now it was generally understood that sounds could not be trademarked. In its judgement, the EU Court of Justice said that "a sound sign may, under certain conditions, be registered as a trade mark".

And the sound of one hand clapping?


TUESDAY 2 DECEMBER 2003 00.25 GMT
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BALLOT BOXING...
The newly-formed Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting (ICTE) has responded to Environment minister Martin Cullen's recent assurances on the accountability of the voting software to be used in next year's local and European elections.

In a statement yesterday, Margaret McGaley of the ICTE said: "Our trust in the system must be based on real independent verifability, and not on the guarantees of security from the government or the manufacturers".

LINK: Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Evoting


MONDAY 1 DECEMBER 2003 01.25 GMT
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PATENT PRESSURE..
Massive pressure is being piled on the European Commission to change the patent laws on software. The corporations want to be able to patent anything they want and won't settle for anything less.

Chief executives of some software big hitters recently threatened to move more than E15bn ($18bn) of research and development funds out of Europe if they don't get their way.

What, then, to make of a report last week from the EU's research wing which points out that the US is "submitting more applications in Europe than Europeans are themselves". And that the state of European high-tech patenting in the US is "judged to be extremely weak".

There is a better picture of the current struggle over European software patenting from enterprise commissioner Erkki Liikanen. In referring to the imbalance between EU/US levels of patenting he said: "This weakness could justify a concerted EU effort to support European inventors with patenting their inventions in Europe and, even more importantly, in the US".