UN Hopes to Spread Technology Worldwide
Bolivia, Mozambique and Tanzania will be the first among a dozen developing countries to receive teams of high-tech consultants bent on boosting the information technology infrastructure of those nations.
The two-year Global Digital Opportunity Initiative, announced Tuesday by the United Nations Development Program and the Markle Foundation, aims to bolster health care, education and business development with the latest computer
and communications equipment.
The initiative has attracted requests for help from 45 other countries; 12 will be selected, Markle officials said. Partners in the two-year project have already committed an initial $10 million to fund the work.
Technology firms, including Sun Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and AOL Time Warner Inc., have joined the Harvard Center for International Development and other international organizations and consultants in donating personnel and equipment for the project.
EC Drops Investigation of Intel
European regulators have dropped a yearlong investigation into charges that Intel Corp. abused its position as the world's leading computer chip maker to keep rivals from winning market share, officials said Monday.
One of two complaints filed by Intel rivals with the European Commission, which enforces E.U. antitrust law, has recently been withdrawn, commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres said.
In New York, a spokesman for European Union's competition commissioner Mario Monti, while speaking at the World Economic Forum, said the investigation was considered dropped.
The European Union investigation followed a similar probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which ended in September 2000 with no legal action taken.
Intel, which has more than 80 percent of the PC microprocessor market, has also successfully defended itself against civil lawsuits brought by rivals.
Palm Releases New Platform
Palm Inc. lifted the curtain Tuesday on its next-generation operating system for handheld computers, a more powerful platform designed to be faster and more secure. Developers attending the PalmSource Conference and Expo in San Jose beta tested versions of the new Palm OS 5. A final release of the software will be available by early summer, the company said, and handheld devices featuring the new OS shouldn't be far behind.
Palm, the leading maker of personal digital assistants, also licenses its Palm operating system to other device makers, including Handspring, Sony and Samsung. More than 13,000 software programs run on the Palm OS today.
E-mail Messages Could Yield Clues in Finding Reporter
The e-mail messages sent by kidnappers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl carry clues about their origins, but tracking down their senders is far from simple. On Tuesday, sources close to the investigation told the Associated Press that Karachi police had arrested three men believed to have sent two e-mails that included pictures of Pearl. No information was available on how investigators may have
tracked down the suspects.
E-mail messages are typically far from anonymous. All Internet traffic contains a numeric return address that can be used to narrow the origin to distinct Internet service providers or physical locations such as cyber cafes. It may even be possible to trace the origin to a specific computer. But the trail could also run cold.
The e-mail messages in question--two that included attached photos of Pearl and others later determined to be hoaxes--were traceable to service providers in Pakistan, according to security consultant Mark Seiden, who has seen the
e-mails.
Kodak Reverses Decision; Honors Faulty Web Prices
Following the filing of a lawsuit in England this week over its refusal to honor recent online orders for cameras, Kodak has thrown in the towel. The company has agreed to fulfill the orders originally placed for its DX3700 camera,
which was advertised on Kodak.com at an incorrect price.
The cameras were displayed for sale at £100 instead of £329. Reports suggest that, before Kodak discovered its mistake, around 2,000 orders were placed. Kodak gave these customers confirmation that their orders were accepted. However, Kodak then rejected the orders, arguing that no contract had been formed. Many customers disagreed, resulting in the filing of a lawsuit at Ilford County Court.
The company provided a number for the original customers to call to confirm their orders. It subsequently asked that customers delay their calls, because it is receiving too many calls to handle.
UK Government Tackles Electronic Signature Again
The U.K. government has launched a new consultation on electronic signatures following its failure to meet the European Union's July 2001 deadline for implementation of the Electronic Signatures Directive. The Department of Trade and Industry has released draft regulations for comment.
The government did introduce the Electronic Communications Act before the European Union's deadline; the act addresses some, but not all, of the directive's provisions. However, several aspects of the directive are not yet in U.K. law.
A consultation took place last year with a view to forming U.K. laws to implement the directive's remaining provisions. That consultation closed in June 2001.
The DTI on Friday released its new discussion document, which includes a summary of the responses to the last consultation, and a draft of the proposed implementing regulations.
American Tech Group Comes out against EU Firm
The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is lobbying the U.S. Treasury Department, arguing that proposals from the European Union would harm European e-commerce. The proposals would charge VAT to E.U. and non-E.U. suppliers of products sold over the Internet or delivered by download to consumers in the European Union.
The proposals would not affect sales to business customers. In such sales, the supplier would continue to sell without having to apply VAT (which would be paid, as now, by the importing company under self-assessment arrangements).
According to a report by Newsbytes, the ITAA is concerned that non-EU e-tailers "could lose valuable time trying to verify the customer's location to compute the VAT they are supposed to levy." The lost time will result in lost revenue.