Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
CHAPTERS HANDSHAKES
BY MONICA DOBIE
DEPARTING senior executives from Chapters Inc. collected hefty sums as part of their “golden handshakes” when Indigo Books & Music took over the company in the spring, according to the company’s report for its annual meeting with shareholders.…
BY MONICA DOBIE
CANADIAN book giant Chapters Inc has announced it plans to buy back all the outstanding shares of its Internet stable-mate Chapters Online. The parent company currently owns 69 per cent of its online operation, and it will offer Chapters Online shareholders one share in the parent company for every 7.14 common shares they hold in the Internet venture.…
EBOOKMAN
BY KATE REW
TWO electronic publishing companies have joined forces to bring a broader selection of online books to their customers, and also give publishers more direct access to their public. The alliance brings together the handheld electronic book reader eBookman, made by the USA’s Franklin Electronic Publishers, and the Paris software company Mobipocket.com.…
E LEARNING CONFERENCE
BY RICHARD HURST
THE MANAGING director of an online learning company in South Africa has announced at a national conference on the theme of learning in the Internet age that his group is about to launch his country’s third substantial e-learning initiative.…
DEVELOPMENT GATEWAY FOUNDATION
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A NEW global initiative to spread knowledge and equipment regarding the Internet to developing countries already has the support of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in a bid to secure annual contributions of US$30-50 million.…
CD WRITERS
BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE MUSIC industry has been offered a solution for dramatically reducing the US$40 billion loss it suffers each year through pirated CD’s via SafeAudio Audio CD Copy Protection technology, developed by US firm Macrovision. The black market has been fuelled in recent years through the availability of CD-R, (writable CD drives).…
HYPER-TRANSPORT
BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE NEWLY formed HyperTransport Technology Consortium – a coalition of high-tech corporations including AMD, NVIDIA, Cisco and Sun Microsystems – is expected to bring major advances in the speed of PC’s, networking devices and other hardware such as set-top boxes.…
RESEARCH BUDGET
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked for electronics research teams – from both the private and public sector – to bid for money from a budget to promote studies and demonstration projects, regarding innovative computing-related technologies.
Using some of the last money still available from the outgoing Fifth Framework Programme of research, which will be wound up by the end of this year, the Commission has announced that it has earmarked Euro 450 million for grants, with a deadline for applications for the bulk of the projects of October 17.…
JOINT VENTURE
BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has authorised the creation of a joint venture called SuperH, involving Hitachi Ltd., of Japan, and Dutch firm ST Microelectronics N.V.; it will consolidate, in a stand-alone company, the two companies’ existing co-operation in the development of microprocessor cores.…
ESA/NASA
BY KEITH NUTHALL
NASA and the European Space Agency, (ESA), have adapted their plans for the joint Cassini-Huygens mission, that is supposed to relay scientific data from the Saturn moon Titan. Scientists have had to adapt the path of the Cassini orbiter, and will make several modifications to the Huygens probe – due to enter Titan’s atmosphere in January 2005 – to ensure the maximum efficiency of its communications system.…