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According to reports, some French automatic teller machines issued euro notes ahead of their official introduction due to software glitches. In Lille, France a student is understood to have withdrawn four 10-euro notes on Monday afternoon from a cash distributor operated by the CIC Bank, according to a report from Reuters. Meanwhile a separate ATM run by Credit Mutuel group in the town Saint-Julien-de-Concelles, France was shut down on Sunday after it issued 10-euro and 20-euro notes, according to reports in the French media.
The UK Public Record Office (PRO) puts its 1901 census for England and Wales on-line on Wednesday at http://www.census.pro.gov.uk. The PRO said that for the first time those seeking details of the citizens of the two nations will have access to a database of over 32 million people which can be searched by name, address, institution, vessel or place. The PRO has doubled its computer servers to cope with the expected increase in demand.
Internet strategy and design firm Interactive Bureau says that some of the UK's leading companies are "woefully inadequate" at providing corporate information on their Web sites. According to a report released by the firm, half the companies listed on the FTSE 100 blue-chip share index did not give their share price on their Web sites or put it where it is hard for shareholders to find. Additionally, 25 percent of companies did not explain the nature of their business on their home page and on other sites financial information was exceedingly difficult to find.
Logica won a 10-year contract worth more than STG200 million to manage the computer systems of the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales. Logica will also develop an electronic system, expected to start at the end of 2003, to process the state prosecutor's cases, the company said in a statement.
NTL's directors are meeting in New York to determine the fate of the debt-laden cable operator. The company, which has cut jobs and has seen its credit rating downgraded in recent weeks, is under pressure to alleviate the impact of its STG12 billion in debts, thought to cost the company over STG3 million a day.
NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese mobile operator, is to list its shares on the London and New York stock exchanges, according to reports. The US and UK listings are expected to help DoCoMo raise more funds in order build up its telecommunications network, obtain foreign capital, strengthen its brand and enhance liquidity in its shares.
According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, worldwide semiconductor sales posted a second consecutive month of growth in November. SIA said worldwide chip sales climbed 1.6 percent to USD10.6 billion in November, up from USD10.44 billion in October. Fourth quarter sales are expected to come in 4.7 percent higher than the third quarter and data from October and November put the industry on target to meet the predictions said George Scalise, SIA president. The growth came mostly from Europe, a gain of 5.3 percent, and the Asian Pacific market, which recorded an increase of 2.5 percent.
Sonera has announced the launch of its third generation (3G) network, but said handsets are not available for consumers yet. Sonera's network opened on 01 January in the four largest cities -- Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Until phones are available, Sonera will use the network for testing purposes and said it expects the 3G market in Finland to be launched on a wider scale only in 2004 and 2005. The company estimates that the total cost of building its network in Finland to be around EUR500 million from 2000 to 2009, with equipment being supplied by Nokia and Ericsson.
For the second time in history the Internet has become smaller, according to a report from Netcraft. In its December survey the company said that the number of sites on the Net dropped by 182,142 from the previous month and estimated that there are over 36 million sites in cyberspace in total. Despite the drop the company said the Net's growth has been impressive since the firm published its first survey in August 1995 which calculated the number of Web sites at around 20,000. In December 2000 the company said there were around 25.5 million Web sites in existence.
Two new viruses were discovered over the Christmas/New Year holidays. MessageLabs said that ZaCker (or Maldal.D) and Sheer.A (or Zoher), both mass mailing e-mail worms, were reported to be circulating in cyberspace over the holiday break. While both have the ability to delete critical system files on PCs and can impede the proper functioning of infected computers, neither are thought to be "high risk" bugs.
Layoffs at dot.com companies slowed in December, according to the latest report from Chicago-based consultancy Challenger Gray & Christmas. The company said that as the economy begins to show the earliest signs of a recovery, only 2,403 jobs were lost at dot.com companies in the US, compared to 2,901 the month before and a staggering 10,459 in December 2000. For the year 2001 however, over 100,000 jobs were lost in the dot.com sector, more than 2.5 times as many as the year before.
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