Three Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) employees have been honoured by Xerox Corp. for obtaining 100 or more U.S. patents in their careers in scientific research, a milestone achieved only five other times in the company’s 95-year history.
Distinguished scientists Shadi Malhotra, Beng Ong and Guerino Sacripante were commended at XRCC’s annual patent dinner in November. Malhotra, of Mississauga, Ont., currently holds 114 U.S. patents. Ong, also of Mississauga, holds 110 U.S. patents. Sacripante of Oakville, Ont. has 104 patents.
Intuit Canada acquires MYOB
Intuit Canada Ltd., the developer of e-finance solutions, announced recently that it has acquired the Canadian operations of small business accounting software maker MYOB Canada, a division of MYOB Ltd.
The deal involves the MYOB product line in Canada including MYOB Accounting, MYOB Accounting Plus, AccountEdge and StartUp Accounting. As part of the deal, Intuit Canada will assume responsibility for technical support and customer service. The deal closed on Nov. 9 and is effective immediately.
IBM to build climate supercomputer
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has selected IBM to provide the world’s most powerful supercomputer for predicting climate changes that impact agricultural output, heating oil prices and global warming.
Code-named Blue Sky, the system will improve NCAR’s climate modelling capabilities by an order of magnitude when fully complete in September 2002. Blue Sky will be powered by IBM’s SP supercomputer and IBM eServer p690 systems, and is designed to achieve a peak speed of seven trillion calculations per second with 31.5 trillion bytes of disk storage.
HP, Red Hat provide software grants
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Red Hat Inc. announced that Red Hat Linux software will be donated to selected Canadian universities as part of HP and Intel Corp.’s Itanium-based Systems Grants program.
Red Hat Linux 7.1 operating system will be provided to 40 universities worldwide, including four Canadian universities, that received grants from the program. The Canadian universities to benefit from this program include University of Alberta, University of Guelph, University of Waterloo and McGill University. Red Hat also will provide the selected universities with a one-year subscription to Red Hat Network, an open source information and software service.
$40 million lawsuit filed against Apple
An African American man, who was employed by Apple Computer as a product design engineer, has filed a $40 million racial discrimination lawsuit against one of the nation’s largest computer manufactures. The lawsuit – filed in the Santa Clara County Superior Court against Apple Computer Inc. and Dan Riccio – may be one of the largest racial discrimination cases in U.S. history.
The lawsuit contends that the plaintiff was denied promotions, stock options, and was intentionally, physically isolated from his white counterparts. The suit alleges that the plaintiff was suspended and then wrongfully terminated for bringing a friend on the Apple campus as a means to motivate him to attend college. However, the plaintiff’s white counterparts were not disciplined for bringing friends to the workplace, according to the suit.
Retailers look for technology solutions
Canadian retailers are increasingly relying on information technology to help them meet the competitive challenges of today’s marketplace, according to The Canadian Retail Technology Survey, a new study released today by Retail Council of Canada in conjunction with J.C. Williams Group.
The survey, sponsored by Canada Post Corp., IBM Canada Ltd. and JDA Software Canada Ltd., found that retailers are planning to increase their IT budgets this year from an average of 1.3 per cent of sales volume to an average of 1.8 per cent.
