Tag: rte

Microsoft

EU rules against Microsoft

I heard the breaking news on RTE this morning that the EU upheld the decision that Microsoft abused its dominant position to “freeze out rivals in server and software products”.

At the end of the audio report, RTE’s Europe correspondant Sean Whelan added that Microsoft may appeal this decision.

What is amazing to me about this is that the original finding against Microsoft came in 2004. After a five year investigation. So, we have Microsoft abusing its position to crush rivals, a five year investigation resulting in a decision against Microsoft, an appeal, three years later the decision against Microsoft re-affirmed and now the chance of another appeal?

I’m far from familiar with all the ins and outs of this process but eight years after the investigation started, with two decisions against them, they may appeal again? How much longer is this process going to take to reach a conclusion?

I wouldn’t like to be one of the affected companies looking for justice.

Update I see Dennis Howlett has written this up too and the BBC are now covering it as well.

Technology

Free, clean and constant energy?

I saw a post on Pat Phelan’s blog today about Steorn which sounded a little incredible, so I looked a little deeper into it.

The background is that an Irish company called Steorn put a full-page ad in the Economist saying:

At Steorn we have developed a technology that produces free, clean and constant energy…. We are therefore issuing a challenge to the scientific community: test our
technology and report your findings to the world.

Full page ads in the Economist don’t come cheap so if this is a hoax, it is an elaborate one!

According to Wikipedia’s entry for Steorn, Sean McCarthy, CEO for Steorn said in an interview with RTE:

What we have developed is a way to construct magnetic fields so that when you travel round the magnetic fields, starting and stopping at the same position, you have gained energy, […] The energy isn’t being converted from any other source such as the energy within the magnet. It’s literally created. Once the technology operates it provides a constant stream of clean energy.”

I hope they prove me wrong but personally I don’t believe a word of it – see the promotional video and judge for yourself.