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14th December 1998 Archive

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  • A year ago: Few buy PCs for festivities

    Napoleon's jibe brings shivers to shop timbers

    The UK sort of shuts down over the Christmas period, which gets longer and longer every year. Some years ago, the .gov here decided to extend the traditional Scottish bank holiday on New Year's Day to the rest of the country, meaning that many people thought it was hardly worth the effort going in for three days between bank …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 08:39

  • DoJ expert shows how to split IE and Windows 98

    And actually, it doesn't seem all that difficult, despite previous MS claims

    Internet Explorer can be separated from Windows 98, says DoJ expert witness Edward Felten of Princeton University. In testimony released on Friday Felten explains how IE can be disengaged from the various revs of Windows, and even goes so far as to describe a "prototype" uninstaller program he and his assistants have knocked up …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 08:48

  • Intel-Oracle deal takes server appliance upscale

    Suddenly but subtlely, Intel's server appliances needn't be cheap and cheerful after all

    As predicted here rather some time ago (Intel network scheme means war with Microsoft), Intel's "server appliance" strategy is breaking the old Wintel alliance asunder. Last week the company announced a group of "supporters" for its projected Server Appliance Design Guide, and Microsoft, naturally, wasn't on the team. It may …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 09:22

  • MS offered us poison pills, says Java guru

    Gosling's cross examination concludes with him largely undented

    Microsoft's knife, and poison pills, added drama to the evidence of Dr James Gosling, Java inventor and Sun VP. Gosling had been hanging around Washington for a week while Farber was giving his evidence, waiting to be called again, and for this reason did not know that the new version of Java had been called 2.0 rather than 1.2 …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 10:07

  • Trial becomes MS Y2K problem as it stretches toward 2000

    Grief, the initial verdict might even slip to Q2, with the service pack in 2000

    With only nine witnesses having been heard in eight weeks, it now seems unlikely that the present case will conclude before February, and because of the amount of evidence, a decision is likely to take a further several months. Increasingly it seems that the DoJ is winning at the moment in the District Court, but an appeal by …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 10:17

  • Lawyering for Dummies?

    Our Graham reckons the MS attorney qualified via a correspondence course

    Legally, the interesting thing last week was Microsoft associate general counsel Tom Burt's inability to crack James Gosling. The adage with do-it-yourself (in-house) lawyering - having a fool for a client - certainly applied. Burt acted like a competitive salesman from Microsoft who had followed a correspondence course in …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 10:19

  • Gigabyte introduces four 370-pin boards

    It's all uphill from here

    Taiwanese motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte said late Friday it had introduced four boards which support the 370-pin PPGA Intel Celeron chips. The specifications of the boards give important clues to Intel's future roadmap next year. The GA-6LX7A supports 300MHz to 433MHz parts, and supports both Slot One and Socket 370 chips, …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 10:22

  • MS snared in IE application hypocrisy

    If IE5 is an app, how can it be integral to the OS

    Evidence is mounting that Microsoft has a dual strategy on the integration of Internet Explorer with operating systems, just in case it is forced to separate the browser from Windows 2000. Microsoft is offering Unix versions of Internet Explorer 4.0 and IE 5.0 beta on its FTP site and has labelled them under a director called …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 11:02

  • Winnov launches £99 USB video/audio CAM

    Win98 support only, so far

    Winnov has introduced a USB PC video camera with a price tag of £99. The company said that its Videum unit is capable of supporting all video and multimedia apps on PCs which support the USB port. The camera integrates both audio and video signals, and has a built in microphone. The sampling rate is between eight to 48Khz and …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 11:15

  • Con man given the boot by eBay

    E-swindle tops bad week for online auctioneer

    A man has been barred from eBay, the electronic auction house, for allegedly swindling consumers out of anything between $30,000 and $100,000. Sonny Stemple received cash for items that he never dispatched, according to a report by Newsweek. To make matters worse, eBay has said it won't compensate those who have been ripped off …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 12:50

  • Analysis: Compaq, IBM squirm between devil and deep blue sea

    Dell is the devil and dealers are directly in the deep

    Four years ago, next January, The Register found itself in San Diego along with thousands of other business partners (BPs) to hear the word of CEO Lou Gerstner about how committed it was to its channel. Two years later, we found ourselves in the company of Compaq luminary Eckhard Pfeiffer at Innovate in Houston, to hear the …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 13:14

  • Baptism of fire for mobile phone blessing

    Let us prey...

    The vicar who has written a "liturgy for the blessing of a mobile phone" appears to have shot himself in the foot. The new succentor and junior cardinal at St Paul's Cathedral, Canon Gordon Giles, may be wholly justified in blessing mobile phones, and may be trying to rid the church of its fusty image, but he needs to give his …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 13:55

  • Intel could have same timing problem as AMD

    Confusion reigns after Microsoft's software glitch

    A problem with a software timing loop in Windows 95 has re-emerged but this time it is Intel, rather than AMD, which appears to have difficulties. Motherboard manufacturer Gigabyte, one of the most successful third party manufacturers for Intel, is stressing the fact that it is providing what it calls the Intel PIIX4 Patch …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 14:50

  • K7 architecture to stay slottish because of technical issues

    Promises bus speeds of 200MHz, huge L2 cache and insists marketing no issue

    A senior executive from AMD Europe has expressed surprise that Intel is moving from slot architecture to socket architecture again, given that bus speeds will mount swiftly over the next two years. Rana Mainee, head of European market research at AMD, said that the K7 will have a slot architecture for technical and not for …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 15:03

  • 3Dfx buys STB for $141 million

    Closer integration and cheaper prices, promise companies

    3Dfx Interactive has bought graphics board manufacturer STB for an estimated $141 million. The deal will be accounted for by a share-for-share transaction, with STB investors getting .65 shares of 3Dfx common stock. Subject to regulatory details, the acquisition will be completed by March of next year and helps to catapult 3Dfx …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 15:12

  • IBM, Compaq flummoxed by lack of Y2K compliance in Win98

    Not to mention their channels....

    Major PC vendors are unable to say how they will deal with Year 2000 compliance issues caused by Windows 98, despite having detailed plans for their hardware. Last week, Microsoft confessed that there were Year 2000 compliance issues with Windows 98, which shipped in April of this year. At that time, Microsoft had already …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 15:39

  • Pirates dispossessed

    Dodgy games found in Edinburgh market

    Police and trading standards officers in Edinburgh have arrested 12 people in connection with the seizure of pirated Nintendo and Sony Playstation games worth an estimated £1 million. The fake goods were found on seven stalls in Edinburgh’s Ingliston Market. The games were on sale for around £15 each and in some cases there was …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 16:29

  • Samsung bounces back with $1 billion investment

    But no outward investment in the offing

    Reports from South Korea said today that Samsung Electronics is set to invest nearly $1 billion in producing DRAMs next year. But the investment will take place at home, and not abroad, the company said. Samsung is to build a further DRAM fab at its Kiehung plant to pump out 64Mbit and 256Mbit parts in anticipation of extra …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 16:35

  • Novell goes into orbit around Edinburgh

    Scottish software firm receives shot in the arm from Utah's finest

    Novell has made its first acquisition outside the US, gaining a minority stake in Edinburgh-based Orbital Software and in so doing, aiding the Scottish company’s distribution channel. The $1million funding from Utah-based Novell forms part of a $5.1 million investment in the company which specialises in knowledge management …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 16:50

  • No such thing as a free lunch

    Free Net access not all it's cracked up to be

    The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) - which promotes the interests of ISPs in the UK - has warned that the current trend towards free Net access may be short-lived and that consumers need to be wary before signing up. Although there is strong evidence of a new economic model for ISP's being developed, there is no …

    Business 14 Dec 1998, 17:51