Archive: Science and technology | Information technologies Information technologies
Construction of supercomputer facility launched in Ostrava
Earlier this month, construction began on a new four-floor centre in the
city of Ostrava that will house the first Czech supercomputer. The site,
which will house hundreds of processors and will employ between 150 and 250
staff, will have massive computing power capable of complex simulations in
breakthrough fields such as nanotechnology. It is expected to begin full
operation in 2015. More
Will auction of frequencies bring cheaper mobile calls?
The Czech telecommunications authority has moved to open up the country’s
mobile calling market for new players. It is auctioning the frequencies of
800, 1800 and 2600 MHz, which is expected to fetch around 7.4 billion
crowns. The bidding, which opened last week, will close on September 10,
and the winners should be announced by the end of the year. If the auction
is a success, a new mobile phone operator could possibly bring down the
high prices of mobile calls. But besides the existing mobile network
operators, few new players have expressed interest in taking part. More
Pirate Parties in Prague set sails for Europe-wide political success
Cue: Pirates of the World, Unite! – that was the message at this
weekend’s Pirate Party International meeting in Prague, the third in the
organisation’s history and the first in the Czech capital. What started
as a Swedish protest movement against the criminalisation of file-sharing
has grown into a tangible political body, setting its sights on
continent-wide success in the 2014 European Parliament elections. More
Specialists at Defence University make use of Xbox technology to create new military visualisation system
Specialists at the Defence University in Brno have developed a new system
for the Czech military to improve planning as well as the real-time
monitoring and control of missions in the field in 3D. Most intriguing is
that the system makes use of technology from Microsoft’s Xbox gaming
console but applies it to real-world situations including the battlefield. More
Google strikes deal with Czech privacy watchdog over Street View
Google will continue expanding its Street View application in the Czech
Republic after it agreed to meet several conditions required by the
country’s data privacy watchdog. These include lowering the height of
Street View cameras as well as a promise to swiftly deal with privacy
complaints from the public. The US internet company, which has already made
most of Prague and several other Czech cities available in Street View,
said they would resume the project in the coming months. More
Constitutional Court invalidates telecommunications data retention law
The Czech Constitutional Court has invalidated a law that forces operators
to retain data on telephone calls and Internet traffic on the grounds that
it violates people’s right to privacy. In a highly anticipated ruling on
Thursday, the court said that the provision ordering data on all calls,
faxes, text messages and e-mail exchanges to be retained for six months was
unconstitutional since it enabled a "massive" invasion into
citizens' rights and was not in line with the rule of law. More
Business News
No part in the Euro-Pact for the Czech Republic; interest rates stay at
their all-time low, for now; costly coal means good news for gas; Seznam.cz
buys up Stream.cz; and a new blacklist for public tenders is accepting new
members. More
Czech search engine Seznam disputes claims Google has supplanted it on local market
Czech Internet search engine Seznam has long been a rarity on the world
wide web by beating global leader Google into second place on the local
market. But figures just out suggest that the US giant could have overtaken
the Czech company at the start of the year. We look at those statistics and
the battle to be the favourite on the local internet search market. More
Prague to host part of EU’s global satellite navigation system
The Czech Republic is set to host part of Europe’s Galileo global
navigation satellite system, after EU representatives on Wednesday voted to
locate the project’s administrative centre in Prague. Ministers are
expected to rubber-stamp that decision in Brussels on Friday. More
Business News
In Business News this week: the government moves to reign in solar power
subsidies that threaten huge electricity price rises; the price of ČEZ
shares falls with speculation Temelín completion could be put back; Prague
sets rail deregulation in train; and advertisers target patients in Czech
hospital waiting rooms. More
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