The “”I Love You”” virus that affected scores of users around the world was still on the minds of Canadian government officials in July 2000.
Provincial users in Ontario, Manitoba and elsewhere reported that e-mail
and Internet servers were shut down to prevent further outbreaks. In the wake of the attack, federal IT managers said they bought more antivirus software.
“”We’ve did see some activity over the past few weeks,”” Jerome Thauvette, director of the infrastructure and systems procurement directory for Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), told TIG at the time. This “”activity”” translated to 200,000 antivirus software purchases in the weeks following the May 4 Love Bug outbreak.
The spread of “”I Love You”” had IT managers bracing for further attacks. Their fears were justified the following year, when the Nimda worm wreaked havoc on systems running Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000 and IIS servers.
Gigabit Ethernet unofficially came of age four years ago this month, according to experts who follow the market.
By 2000, the technology had been on the market for two years, and the Gigabit Ethernet Alliance made up of 3Com, Nortel, Cisco, Sun and Intel said the standard was already providing an advantage over proprietary gigabit protocols. That’s because it uses the same Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) technology, the same frame format and frame size as 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps Ethernet.
“”It is being adopted a great deal right now,”” Stan Schatt, an analyst with the Cambridge, Mass.-based Giga Information Group Inc., told Computing Canada. “”Prices have dropped sharply and it’s an attractive alternative. It definitely will become the standard for high-speed networks.””
It did. Earlier this year, Gigabit Ethernet’s predecessor also hit a milestone. The standard first developed by Bob Metcalfe hit the 30-year mark and proved itself the victor in a war with Token Ring.
In its July 2000 issue, our now-defunct magazine eBusiness Journal offered a look at how Internet auctions were transforming trade between businesses. The story profiled a number of what seemed like major Canadian success stories, like Open Text’s B2Bscene and Aucxis Inc.
Despie the optimism, those associated with auction efforts knew the hype might eventually fade. “”The business-to-business auction isn’t the natural marketplace, but it’s an important component of it,”” one of them told Matthew Friedman. “”It’s having the information and environment to make the best transaction.””
Those who ended up most successful were those with expertise in the offline as well as the online world. As an example, take a look at a recent EDGE profile of how the 40-year-old Richtie Bros. puts industrial equipment on the digital auction block.
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