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8th January 1999 Archive

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  • Scottish Parliament! Pick up this Digital Point

    There must be some money out of Compaq somewhere, surely?

    Many years ago, Digital got a huge (and we mean huge) grant out of the English government to build a huge fab (fabrication plant = factory) at South Queensferry, not far from the nominal capital of Scotland -- i.e. Edinburgh. There was a bit of a scandal when DEC (Digital -- now Compaq) shut it down but because it was the pre- …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 00:43

  • And while we're on the subject of pre and post sleaze

    What's happened to the £50 million Siemens owes us and Mandelson?

    When Pete Mandelson got the job as minister in charge of the Departure of Trade and Industry, this august organ quizzed his spin doctor Zebedee (it's true!) about when Britain could expect Siemens to repay the £50 million what we tax payers spent. We're still waiting for an answer on that point, despite cafuffles about spin …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 00:48

  • Intel warns against overclocking new Celerons

    Reports that new chips will overclock premature

    Intel has warned that 366MHz and 400MHz Celerons it released early this week are likely to have clock locking built into them. That follows a report on hardware site The Overclockers Comparison Page that two enthusiasts who have what they say are retail CPUs, are able to overclock them to speeds of 550MHz and 600MHz. An Intel …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 11:07

  • Updated: Windows faster with Netscape – the saga continues…and continues

    Reader has bright idea while other reader points to different shell. And NT could benefit too...

    The solution we gave for substituting the IE 4 shell for Netscape does work but readers have reported that by itself it seems little use. But now a reader has suggested a further tweak to the original story. (Story: Windows runs faster using Netscape shell) "I tried the Netscape shell procedure mentioned in a recent article. Wow …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 11:34

  • Traders blame euro difficulties on computer problems

    US currency dealers left with unwanted euros

    Computer glitches were yesterday blamed for teething troubles in the value of the euro. Europe’s new currency dipped two cents against the dollar in New York trading on Wednesday night, hitting a low of $1.155. It bounced back to $1.165 yesterday, but still standing three-quarters of a cent below the previous day’s London close …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 11:35

  • Microsoft touts PnP system for PCs and appliances

    But this one doesn't look like the big push into the appliance market

    Microsoft yesterday announced its latest bid to extend Windows out of the PC market - Universal Plug and Play. Unveiling the plan in a Consumer Electronics Show keynote senior VP Craig Mundie pitched UPnP as addressing the blurring of distinctions between appliances and computing devices, but although this could in theory pitch …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 11:39

  • Avnet to buy division of JBA Holdings London

    And more acquisitions en route

    Avnet is to buy the JBA Computer Solutions Division of JBA International, it announced. Yesterday we reported that Avnet was on the acquisition trail. (Story: Avnet hot to acquire in Australia and Europe) Although financial terms for the acquisition were not given, turnover for the US division in 1998 is expected to be around …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 12:09

  • Tosh to make smallest DRAM in the world

    Big Blue, Siemens and Toshiba in three cornered deal

    Reports from Asia said that IBM, Siemens and Toshiba have formed an alliance to produce 64Mbit DRAMs with a tiny form factor. According to the reports, by the end of this year, the companies will ramp up production of 30 square millimetre 64 Mbit parts and 60 square millemetre 128Mbit parts. The process technology will be .18 …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 12:35

  • Ideal offers idiot-proof server range

    Web servers aimed at SMEs claim ease-of-use advantage

    Ideal Hardware has been taken on as UK distributor for Cobalt Networks, in a move aimed at boosting Ideal's links with smaller resellers. Ideal’s agreement with the network developer will mean resellers selling into the small to medium enterprise (SME) market can offer their customers Web servers which need little technical know …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 12:36

  • IBM sells ThinkPad assembly to Solectron

    Agreement includes fulfilment, product launches and more...

    IBM has hived off its portable PCB division and a swathe of intellectual property rights and global agreements to Solectron. The move is a sure sign that IBM is determined to do its own sourcing, and could spell trouble for Taiwanese manufacturers making machines for Big Blue. At the end of December, we reported that both IBM …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 13:00

  • Windows 95 will never be fully Y2K-compliant – official

    Ooh, the things they say! So upgrade to 98 now, you tight bastards...

    Microsoft has announced - but not actually shipped - Year 2000 compliance testing tools, but at the same time it's emerging that there's no guarantee that more than a narrow subset of company products will actually get completely fixed. Windows 95, for example, will remain as "compliant with minor issues" forever - some minor …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 13:27

  • Trojan horse hacks AOL passwords

    Net users warned to be on the look out for rogue spam

    A UK security firm is warning Net users not to open files labelled "picture.exe" unless they come from a trusted source because of a rogue email attachment that steals user names and passwords before sending them to a Chinese address. According to Network Associates, the Trojan horse -- a malicious, security-breaking program …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 13:39

  • Visioneer sells off scanner business

    Business as usual despite change of ownership

    Primax has bought the rights to the Visioneer hardware division for around $7 million. The new division will operate under the name Visioneer and no redundancies are planned, with all staff transferred to the new company. It will develop and sell scanners and associated imaging hardware. Since early last year, Primax has been …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 13:47

  • OEM sales report shows how MS squeezed Netscape out

    And Bill wanted everybody to laugh at "100 per cent pure Java"

    The Microsoft OEM sales figures the Department of Justice had so much trouble getting access to last year are finally making it into court. Yesterday the DoJ released a Browser Report Card, a single page from one of the company's OEM sales reviews. The rest of the document, all 680 pages of it, is intended to be given to the …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 14:58

  • Cable goes down under

    Network awaits Olympic test

    Aussie telecoms company, Telstra, has pledged that the 37,000 km cable linking 33 countries in South East Asia, the Middle East and Western Europe will be ready in time for Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Speaking at the Perth landing of the cable, Telstra's network boss Lawrence Paratz said the $0.3 billion investment was vital …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:06

  • Rogue traders blight Web

    Online stock sites need to clean up act

    Online stock trading in the US could be about to undergo sweeping reform as regulators try and get to grips with the activities of day traders. According to a report in Business Week scores of day trading firms in the US are being investigated by regulators under suspicion of fraud and other irregularities. It's alleged that …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:09

  • Wotcha! John, got a new Web site?

    Stars speak out on Net-based soapbox, maybe

    Celebrities with an axe to grind are being offered the chance to put the record straight with their own virtual soapbox on the Web. Due to be launched in February, Wotcha! (www.wotcha.com) offers free pages to the great and not so good giving them an opportunity to say what they want, when they want it, without any unwanted …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:13

  • Lycos launches innovative banner ad scheme

    Not having a Web site is no bar to ecommerce it seems

    UK portal Lycos is offering companies the chance to trade on the Internet even if they don't have their own Web site, The Register can reveal. Believed to be the first of its kind, the service allows companies -- however small -- to advertise and sell their goods and services on the Web at a fraction of the cost of owning and …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:18

  • US government could put spanner in DRAM works

    Questions linger over whether IMF money affects LG-Hyundai deal

    The merger of LG Semicon and Hyundai's chip business will make it the second biggest DRAM company in the world after Samsung. But if the IMF's funds are used to prop up the Korean economy, the United States is likely to respond negatively, according to a senior semiconductor analyst at Dataquest Europe. Analysing the events of …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:21

  • Pentium III to be called Katmai

    Well, why not?

    Reports that Intel will call its Katmai chips the Pentium III were rubbished by industry analysts today. They said: "That story is dead old. When The Register first ran it a year ago (passim) we decided to be dead controversial and keep the Katmai name. She explained: "Let's face it, Katmai is dead sexier than the Pentium III. …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:48

  • Cunning AMD-Compaq plan takes shape

    Will Compaq change from sockets to slots, or what?

    The EV6 system bus in the AMD K7 means both it and Compaq will benefit from the use of its slot architecture. According to a very reliable source close to Digital in the US, AMD gets an extremely fast bus out of the deal, while in the future, Compaq will be able to use the same motherboards for their products. The source added …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 16:50

  • Compaq boots 64-bit NT on AlphaServer

    Eckhard -- he don't like Intel, does he?

    Highly reliable sources said that Compaq has successfully booted 64-bit Windows NT on the forthcoming Compaq AlphaServer DS20. The work was done by the handful of Compaq developers on the "Sundown" 64-bit NT project. This development will fortify the Alpha value proposition: there is no Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 17:07

  • When all the D/UX are thirty-two bit, we'll have the new name

    The dog will be sent into the pond

    OK, so we know that Compaq will change the name of Digital Unix on the first of February. It's all getting a bit Katmai-like, isn't it? However, it now appears that DEC -- oops Tandem -- oops Compaq is spending a fistful of money with marketing consultancies who have two favourites in the running. The first is Tru Cluster, …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 17:10

  • Changes happen at Northamber. Chocolate partly to blame

    Cadbury recommendations kick in...

    Northamber today saw the resignation of two top managers. Paul Smith quit as commercial director and Colin Thompson left his post as non-executive director. Northamber refused to comment on Smith, but said Thompson's departure was due to legal requirements. David Phillips, Northamber chairman, said Thompson's role conflicted …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 17:42

  • Microsoft in talks to get shot of MSN

    AT&T's enthusiasm has cooled, so it seems

    AT&T has walked away from a deal with Microsoft -- for the time being at least -- that would have handed all its Internet media properties including Microsoft Network to the telecoms giant According to a report in USA Today , two of AT&T's top men, Michael Armstrong and John Zeglis, visited Bill Gates' home last autumn and …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 18:28

  • Clinton parasites havana great time as trial creates Net spin off

    intro

    Now that impeachment proceedings are truly underway against Big Bill, it's good to see that one software company is happy to exploit its nation's constitutional crisis all in the name of profit. Worried that workplace productivity will slip as people log on and tune-in to the trial, Elron Software is using it as an excuse to …

    Bootnotes 8 Jan 1999, 18:31

  • Diamond unveils Liquid Audio support for Rio

    MP3 player to support second most popular downloadable digital music format

    Diamond Multimedia has unveiled software for its controversial Rio MP3 digital music player that adds support for Liquid Audio's Liquid Tracks format. The software, shown for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is the first result of a collaboration agreement announced by the two companies back in …

    Business 8 Jan 1999, 19:44