The evolution of laughter and violence
Zoologists have identified signs of laughter in apes from tickling them. According to the researchers, from Portsmouth University, efforts to trace the origin of laughter - which they say evolved over the past 10 milllion to 16 million years -...
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Auckland-based ISP Iconz was so impressed with the hosted services software offered by Masterton-based SiliconBlue that it bought the company.
SiliconBlue, winner of the 2002 Computerworld Technology Innovator of the Year award, began life as a regional ISP and developed its "operating system for the internet" named Ocoloco to better manage its own infrastructure. The company received a $2 million grant from No 8 Ventures in December 2000 to develop the software. It has now sold its ISP customer base and various assets to Iconz and will re-focus its efforts purely on software development, says Iconz general manager Sean Weekes.
"We will deploy the solution and work with them on developing the software and they retain the company name and focus purely on developing Ocoloco."
Weekes says Iconz has already begun deploying Ocoloco however users shouldn't notice any difference in service at the moment.
"We're taking it easy, we have to integrate our existing support structure in with it and we don't want to upset things while we do that."
Eventually however, Weekes expects Ocoloco will enable Iconz to offer an end-to-end managed solution and to charge less for it.
"We're looking at automating more of the hosting using the software, so we'll be able to bundle solutions. If you want a managed website we'll be able to offer content management, firewall, support, the whole lot."
Weekes says the company was searching for a hosting solution and looked at several products both locally and overseas and settled on Ocoloco because it offered the best fit rather than because it was locally produced.
"We work well with these guys and that means we're close to the developers. That wasn't the case with some of the others."
Computerworld Online understands the deal is worth over $250,000.
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