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15th December 1998 Archive

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  • A year ago: Inventory Whacks 3Com Q2

    Trouble and strife in USR life

    3Com's inventory problems made a severe dent in its fiscal second quarter profits, knocking them down to $15.1 million on $1.2 billion sales, against $115.7 million on $1.4 billion the previous year. The company has cut back shipments while excess stock clears from the channel, and has a class-action suit over its modem pile on …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 08:03

  • The Ghost of Video Depositions Past

    Looks like our Graham had too much strong cheese last night - he's having visions...

    The spectre of Bill came to us in a dream last night, announcing himself as the Ghost of Video Depositions Past. Clinking the CRTs he was condemned to drag behind him forever, he fixed us with a mad stare and told his story. "it was Neukom," he said, "Bill Neukom. He's the one who told me, 'say nothing Bill, tell 'em you can't …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 10:18

  • Sun, Oracle launch assault on NT

    Sun is the first to sign up for Raw Iron - who'll be the first PC company?

    Sun has become the first company to sign up for Oracle's Raw Iron project, which is intended to run Oracle8 directly on top of an OS kernel. In a widely-predicted move (Earlier Story) the two companies yesterday announced a software cross-licensing deal. Oracle has already tested Sun's Solaris kernel for Raw Iron, alongside …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 10:20

  • Expert's IE uninstall program ‘breaks’ after MS sees source

    A couple of code changes and the program stops working, then MS says the program doesn't work. Heard it before...

    DoJ expert Edward Felten yesterday describe a mysterious breakage in his demonstration IE uninstall program (Earlier Story). He sent the source code to Microsoft, and then it stopped working. "You provided the source code... whereupon there appear to have been product changes by Microsoft?" Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson sounded …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 10:53

  • MS retreats after judge slaps down attorney

    Abrupt termination of cross-examination suggests crisis in defence camp

    Microsoft pulled the plugs on its cross-examination of Edward Felten yesterday, earlier than scheduled, and probably a lot earlier than expected. Microsoft attorney David Heiner had earlier collected a telling-off from the judge, and this probably destroyed his ability to question Felten further. Lead Microsoft attorney John …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 11:25

  • Intel staff start book on proper name of the Katmai

    They're up and running...

    Now what is Intel going to call the Katmai when it's released February end? Sources tell The Register that the former contender, Pentium III, is now out of the picture. Too many characters for the special department at Intel that regulates these things. Someone reckons the family is going to be called the Pentium 2000. Hmm...too …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 11:29

  • Elonex eyes potential windfall

    Patent row could reap big rewards for UK vendor

    The PC industry could be set for one of the biggest shake ups of recent years. UK PC manufacturer Elonex is attempting to prove that it owns the rights to power management technology used right across the industry. Last week Elonex took out lawsuits in the US against Dell, Packard Bell-NEC and Micron for alleged patent …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 11:45

  • Body to define ‘official’ Internet music standard

    Updated: Secure Digital Music Initiative out to beat MP3, Brits get in on act

    The Recording Industry Association of America will today announce a consortium of music and IT companies which will develop a standard system for delivering music via the Internet. The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) is believed to have the backing of EMI, BMG, Sony, Universal (Seagram's music division and the new owner …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:09

  • Government to put hi-tech firms before environment

    Great Crested Newt to make way for hi-tech developents

    The government could be willing to sacrifice the protection of environmentally sensitive areas in order to promote the development of high-tech companies. It is launching a six-month review on how planning policy could be improved to create "clusters" of hi-tech industries. In short this will see normal planning restrictions go …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:12

  • AMD, Intel locked in bus marketing war

    Celeron with 100MHz frontside bus next year?

    Intel is likely to introduce a Celeron processor with a 100MHz bus next year but will wait until Katmai is released to differentiate these processors from its low end chips, it has emerged. But the possibility of a 100MHz Celeron is likely to confuse end users, already bewildered by a plethora of clock speeds, different chip …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:18

  • French Internet strike ‘a success’ claims organiser

    France Telecom latest target in spate of Euro Net boycotts

    French Web surfers have become the latest group to stage an Internet strike and claim success. However, France's monopoly telco, France Telecom, appeared resolutely unaffected by the users' actions. The strike, in which users refused to use the Internet for 24 hours from midnight on Saturday 12 December, was staged as an attempt …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:40

  • Misys is cool for C-ATS

    Risk management in mind for UK software group

    Software group Misys is attempting to establish itself as a risk management company following a £36 million bid for US firm C-ATS Software. C-ATS sells to banks looking to manage their exposure to hedge funds and derivatives. Misys chairman, Kevin Lomax, said combining this with his company’s credit risk tools would create an …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:44

  • South Korean president enters LG Semicon, Hyundai spat

    Demands both companies merge

    In a further twist in the proposed merger of the semiconductor wings of giant chaebols LG and Hyundai, the president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, demanded the merger go through. That follows earlier reports that the proposed deal was in tatters because LG refused to allow Wall Street consultant Arthur D Little to broker a deal …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 12:45

  • Acquisitions aid Computerland UK growth

    Second half will be even better

    Computerland UK half year results soared 89 per cent on the back of two acquisitions. But integration costs were blamed for more sluggish profits growth at 27 per cent. Sales for the six months to October 31 1998 were £19.4 million and profits were £507,000 (1997: £10.3 million and £308,000, respectively), Graham Gilbert, …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 13:10

  • Whips crack away over missing PCs

    MAFF keeps its laptops in closet

    Agriculture minister, Nick Brown, is under fire from parliamentary colleagues over the disappearance of two notebook PCs, together valued at around £11,000. The PCs were removed from the Whips Office on 27 July, when the MP lost his job as chief whip and were taken to the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) where …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 13:18

  • Shortage of 350MHz PIIs spreads to 450MHz parts

    Knock on effect follows shortage while Intel cautions against overclocking Celerons

    The shortage of 350MHz Pentium IIs now appears to have had a knock on effect on higher end processors, with reports that there is now some difficulty in sourcing 400MHz and 450MHz parts. But Intel is sticking by its official statement it made three weeks ago, when it stated there were some constraints on 350MHz Pentium IIs. That …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 13:40

  • Phone Bills R Us

    Free Web access from toy store has sting in tail

    Latest in a rapidly lengthening line of people offering free Internet accounts is Toys R Us. But subscribers wanting to call the Toys R Us Internet telephone helpline will find they pay dearly for the privilege. The giant of the toy retail world is to start giving shoppers access to the service this week. It is being put …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 14:36

  • Barbie pulls Carmen Sandiego

    I'm a Barbie Girl in an interactive consumer software world

    Barbie is an American Icon - a particular delight with girls everywhere as well as a certain subspecies of male homosexual. The Register admits also to a certain affinity to the dolls - from time to time we take time out from our My Little Pony Abbatoir to dust down the office Barbie collection. Favourites include: Stepford …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 14:45

  • Tariff talks topple

    Duties stay on IT goods - for now

    Talks at the World Trade Organisation, aimed at reducing the number of IT products hit by tariffs, have been delayed. Attempts to draw up a list of some 200 IT items which should be free of duties by the year 2000 have been on-going since 1997 but continue to flounder. Talks will resume in February. A provisional list has been …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 14:54

  • Cisco to buy 5 to 15 companies in 1999

    John Chambers eyes multimedia broadcast technologies

    Cisco CEO John Chambers has targeted between "five and fifteen" companies for acquisition over the next 12 months. All of them specialise in the voice and video broadcasting over networks. Speaking in an interview in France's La Tribune newspaper, Chambers revealed his plan to buy five to 15 companies each year to acquire their …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 16:18

  • Solo coder offers Win 98 IE uninstall routine

    And unlike certain expert witnesses, the DoJ didn't pay him a cent...

    DoJ expert witnesses aren't the only ones who've been working on separating Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 4.0. The Win98 IE Extraction Project posted a beta INF file that is intended to automatically remove IE from Windows 98 just yesterday. As far as we can gather, the project is a solo effort by an enthusiast, one Shane …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 16:35

  • Acorn poaches ST Microelectronics design team

    Ditches name

    Acorn Group PLC is beefing up its digital TV business by poaching a seven strong chip design team from ST Microelectronics. The company wants this team so bad it is setting up a £2 million chip research centre in Bristol (UK base for ST Microelectronics), just so they don’t have to move to windy old Cambridge. Acorn has …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 16:38

  • Fact – MSN won't chop Net access service in the UK

    Well, not for the time being at any road...

    The Microsoft Network (MSN) has no plans to pull the plug on it UK Internet access service -- as long as it stays viable. But Gillian Kent, group marketing manager at MSN UK, stopped short of saying that MSN would retain it.s subscription service come what may, conceding that if the "business was no longer viable, there would be …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 17:21

  • ‘British reserve’ blamed for UK e-commerce inertia

    Need to become more active, says C&W

    UK businesses are in danger of being swept aside by US companies unless they start taking e-commerce seriously. And unless British companies begin to make their presence felt in the e-commerce marketplace, foreign competitors could start trading in the UK -- effectively squeezing them out of the domestic market. The warning came …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 17:27

  • Gates video – Microsoft's ‘hit team’ to get IBM into line

    But Codefather III says it wasn't a big deal, really...

    Back in 1994 Bill Gates asked his staff how come IBM was helping Lotus. Senior VP Joachim Kempin wrote back recommending that something called "a WW hit team" should be sent into IBM, "whereby the OEM relationship should be used to apply some pressure." Hit teams? Bill not knowing things? Yes, it's those pesky videos again. …

    Business 15 Dec 1998, 19:13