ireland

When used servers cost more than new

GALWAY, Ireland--Think of the Multis Group as sort of the Antiques Roadshow of the server world.

The Galway, Ireland-based company specializes in refurbishing, and then selling, used servers. Refurbished PCs and servers are increasingly in vogue because remanufacturing represents a more environmentally efficient way to recycle old electronics than harvesting components from these old machines or melting them down for raw materials.

Multis, in fact, plans to open a 70,000-square-foot facility in Union City, Calif., later this month to refurbish and sell servers for North American customers. That marks a reversal in the usual U.S.-Ireland tech relationship. … Read more

Why blogging isn't big in Ireland

DUBLIN--Ireland might be one of Europe's more active technology hubs, but blogging still isn't big there.

That's the opinion of Tom Raftery, a longtime member of the tech community here and author of a blog on social media. (He's one of the bigger ones, and he starts his day by getting on Twitter.)

Part of the reason is that broadband penetration stinks. A survey published last June by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development pegged Ireland at No. 22 in terms of national broadband penetration by inhabitants, sandwiched between Italy and Portugal, but below the … Read more

The high price of iPhones in Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland--Some of the papers are calling it the 1,200 euro phone.

Apple will bring its iPhone to Ireland on March 14, but the price the company will charge for the phone--particularly when the monthly service contract is added in--is raising eyebrows.

The 8GB iPhone sells for 399 euros (including value-added taxes) while the 16GB version goes for 499 euros. Plus, users need to sign up for service from cellular carrier O2 for 45 euros a month for a minimum of 18 months. The 45 euros per month fee, by the way, is the minimum. After 175 minutes of … Read more

Wireless sensors the Lego way

CORK, Ireland--Here's a combination you don't see every day: wireless networking and performance art.

Todd Winkler, a professor at Brown University in Rhode Island, and Mikael Fernstrom, a lecturer at the University of Limerick in Ireland, have choreographed performance pieces in which the dancers are rigged up with small wireless sensors that can alter the music and the images on screens. When the dancers move, changes occur in response. In other words, it's an arty version of the Wii. (Here is an academic paper (PDF) on the experiment.)

It's one of the more novel applications for … Read more

A radiation detector for inside the body

CORK, Ireland--A radiation detector initially created to protect orbiting satellites has found a new purpose inside cancer patients.

The Tyndall National Institute--a scientific research institute and graduate school in Cork, Ireland--has come up with a radiation detector that fits inside an implantable medical device that measures how well radiation therapy is working. The FDA approved the use of the DVS (Dose Verification System) from North Carolina's Sicel Technologies last August for breast cancer and prostate cancer patients, said Brendan O'Neill, head of the central fabrication facility at Tyndall.

The DVS collects information about patients and then transmits … Read more

Two new Irish video startups: one tasty, one viral

An almost uncoverable number of Web sites launch every day. While many come out of Northern California, several parts of the world have been cropping up as hotbeds for new developments, including Israel, Russia, Canada, and the U.K. Two new Irish startups that launched this month are iFoods.tv and Little Ireland.tv.

iFoods.tv, similar to other Web video cooking sites, is a series of semiprofessionally produced how-to videos on how to make single and multidish meals. There's also a user-submitted video contest going up in the near future that will pit user against chef, hopefully Iron … Read more

Can wind energy be cheaper than regular power?

Alternative energy is great for the environment, but it's certainly not cheap in most cases right now. Germany, Canada and California, among other places, have to subsidize solar power so that it can compete with electricity from coal-fired or gas plants.

But in some cases alternatives are already cheap enough to compete with conventional power. In Ireland, for instance, wind power can be supported with minimal subsidies, said Jason Bak, CEO of Finavera Renewables, which specializes in wind-powered utilities and wave power equipment. The wind blows hard on the island and its on the edge of Europe's power … Read more