Search on for oldest personal computer
ROUND ROCK, Texas – Dell Computer Corp. has launched a nationwide “Search for the Oldest PC,” as part of its observance of National Small Business Week. The small business deemed to have the oldest personal computer still in use will receive $15,000 in free, new Dell computer equipment, and Dell will donate the oldest system to The Computer Museum of America in La Mesa, Calif. Entry forms and contest rules are available on Dell’s Web site at www.dell.com/smallbiz/oldestpc, or by calling (877) 572-DELL. The contest deadline is July 19 and the winner will be announced in August.
The contest is Dell’s tongue-in-cheek way of acknowledging the struggle some companies have to keep up with evolving computer technology. In a May 26 statement announcing the contest, Dell officials said some companies tend to add new equipment and relegate older equipment to newer employees or back-office tasks, a practice, Dell officials said, causes some workers to complain their computers “belong in a museum.”
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Metro Global expansion continues
CRANSTON – Adult entertainment company Metro Global Media, Inc., announced last week it would begin distributing new interactive display units to help consumers shop for adult videos and DVDs. The first 100 versions of the Metro Media Center were scheduled to be rolled out this week, according to a company statement. The interactive display unit, which allows customers to preview scenes from 30 different movie titles, is designed to address one of the industry’s biggest consumer complaints – false advertising, company officials said.
Each Media Center contains a 20-inch color monitor and holds up to 240 pieces of video and DVD. This fiscal year, company officials stated, the first 100 Media Centers are expected to generate more than $1.6 million in revenue. Metro Global plans to release a total of 1,000 Media Centers over the next 12 months.
Pair sentenced in software scheme
BOSTON – Two men accused of selling more than $20 million in stolen Microsoft software were sentenced to serve jail time and pay restitution to the giant software corporation in federal court on June 14, according to a report by Reuters news service. Sixty-two-year-old Robert Simons, owner of Crazy Bob’s, a discount software store in Wakefield, Mass., was sentenced to five years and 10 months in jail and a restitution payment of $908,000. Simons was also ordered to forfeit $440,000 to the federal government by U.S. District Judge George O’Toole. Also sentenced was his son, William Simons, 35, a store salesman. O’Toole sentenced him to one year and 10 months in prison and $100,000 restitution.
Prosecutors allege that the store owner bought computer disks stolen from a Plymouth, Mass., disk manufacturer. The disks were allegedly stolen by two people who once worked for the disk manufacturer. Reuters reported that both suspects have entered guilty pleas and have not been sentenced yet.
Newspaper now accessible to the blind
BOSTON – Technology is helping bring the Boston Globe to blind and visually impaired people, according a officials from a Watertown, Mass., non-profit association. The Globe can now be accessed through the Newsline for the Blind, which is a new service announced on June 17 by VISION Community Services.
VISION, which is a division of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind, receives digital transmissions from the Globe and other newspapers – including The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal – every day and transforms them into electronically scanned speech versions of the newspapers. Using a touch-tone phone, callers can dial a local number and select which newspaper, section, and articles they would like to hear. In addition to local and national newspapers, Newsline offers other information, including employment listings, and local bus and train schedules. Other features include the ability to speed up or slow down speech, and to indicate spelling and punctuation.
Newsline has been available in other cities, but this is the first time it will be available in Massachusetts, according to staff at VISION. The phone service is receiving corporate support from the Globe and BankBoston. It could reach about 100,000 blind or partially-sighted people in Massachusetts.
Lycos garners award
WALTHAM, Mass. – Lycos, Inc., one of the Internet’s most popular portals, was named company of the year by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council, according to a Lycos press release. “The MIMC awards are designed to recognize the key players who have advanced the interactive media industry in New England,” stated MIMC Director Leslie Smith. Lycos, Inc., was started in 1995, is a leading Web media company and owner of the Lycos Network, which is one of the most highly visited hubs on the Internet. MIMC is a non-profit trade association with more than 1,000 members.
Video centers to open in Ireland
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Talk Visual Corp. signed a letter of understanding with the TeleVisual Group of Ireland, which would involve them in the creation, build-out and operation of five, high tech, retail videocalling centers in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In a June 17 company statement, a representative from TeleVisual said he expected that the videocalling centers would be used by “the large expatriate Irish communities located in the United States and all over the world.” Plans call for the videocalling centers to be operational by December.
