18th January 1999 Archive
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MS is NOT price gouging on Windows – DoJ expert
But he still suspects nefarious purposes...
In Professor Franklin Fisher's redirect examination by DoJ attorney David Boies, the subject turned to economics. Fisher launched into a lecture on the elasticity of demand, using an OEM price for Windows of $50 and assuming that Microsoft put the price up $10. He concluded that Microsoft was not profit maximising, and that …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 11:03
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MS moves to strike some of new DoJ exhibits
But it doesn't look likely to get them all
Just before the United States and the 19 states (plus DC) rested their cases, more than 2,000 pages of exhibits, depositions, and videotapes were offered into evidence. Microsoft had the right to object on certain defined grounds to any exhibit, and wanted to exercise this right. It was pretty certain that Microsoft's objection …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 11:04
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What is it Microsoft wants the court to keep secret?
Read the transcripts surrounding the secret session, and you find some pointers...
Assiduous reading of the Microsoft trial transcripts gives some interesting clues about what went on in the various secret sessions of the court - and more broadly, just what it is that is of concern to Microsoft. Fisher said to Boies: "Microsoft also has created a system that we spoke about briefly yesterday [in closed session …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 11:07
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Mobile Celerons soon to arrive
Intel aims at low and high end notebooks
Intel will introduce its mobile Celeron platform on the 25th of this month as part of its move to capture the low-end notebook market. The chips will come at initial clock speeds of 266Mhz and 300MHz, sources close to Intel said today. The 266MHz part will cost $106 in quantities of 1000, while the 300MHz chip will cost $185. …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 11:56
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Warning: Outlook Express can damage your postcards
Judge makes MS post postcard health warning on Web site
Lost count of the number of court actions Microsoft is involved in? Well, in yet another one, a Californian judge has found that the company failed to comply with an earlier ruling he made on email filtering software. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Robert Baines had ordered Microsoft to warn users of Outlook Express …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 15:30
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MS and Intel head for clash over graphics?
Software Satan's alliance with SGI may hold terrors for Chip Satan
Intel and Microsoft could be heading for another clash - over graphics standard this time. Documentation and testimony from the antitrust trial has revealed turf-wars between the two companies over the precise location of the boundary between hardware and software, and the latest move by Microsoft, an alliance with Silicon …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 15:55
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United Nations targets child porn
Problem needs global action
The fight against child pornography on the Internet is being taken to Paris today where UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) is holding a two-day conference to address the problem. Representatives of United Nations agencies -- as well as judges and legal experts -- say they are committed to …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:01
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MP4 launched as successor to MP3 music format
But it's not MPEG -- and it's probably not needed, either
Web site Global Music Outlet yesterday entered the race to define the standard format for music distributed by the Internet with the launch of a encoding system it calls MP4. But despite sounding like the successor to MP3, the MPEG 1-based format loved by listeners but loathed by the music industry, or even the latest generation …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:06
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New directors join distributor, by Osmosis
Easier than by photosynthesis, anyway
PC components distributor Osmosis has set up a new board of directors to join existing MD John Fenton. Fenton is working with Alex Campbell, products and marketing director, John Fair, sales director, Christina Roberts, operations director, Nick Poucher, financial director. The Middlesex-based company said the board had been …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:23
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Apple to bid for PlayStation emulator outfit?
Someone's rumoured to be after Connectix, and Apple might be good fit
A predator is stalking Virtual Game Station developer Connectix, according to West Coast sources -- but is it Apple, Sony or somebody else? The veteran software developer rolled out its latest show-stealing product at MacWorld earlier this month (see earlier story), and although the Virtual Game Station is just the kind of thing …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:25
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HP's real-time Java breakaways lose key support vote
National Committee for Information Technology Standards says 'no' to non-Sun Java
The National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS) has formally rejected the Hewlett-Packard led Real-Time Java Working Group's proposed specification. The NCITS originally voted to support the Real-Time Java Working Group (RTJWG) at a preliminary session back in December 1998. The RTJWG selected the NCTIS to …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:28
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Gates TV – the final instalment
The world mourns as Bill's final clips hit the public domain...
Among the thousands of pages of exhibits and depositions released at the end of the DoJ's case last week were further extracts from the videotaped depositions of Bill Gates. We have summarised the contents, with quotations from Gates' replies. This time it is indicated on the transcript whether the extract was included at the …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:42
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Leading airline favours Web for ticket sales
Big savings expected from ecommerce
Delta Air Lines' decision to make it cheaper to buy tickets on-line than through traditional channels is yet another milestone in the development of e-commerce. In a bid to cut its spiralling ticketing costs -- which account for $1 billion a year -- the company said it will charge customers an extra $2 on all domestic bookings …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 16:51
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UK Net advertising revenue up 300 per cent
Net ads monitor expects rest of year's ad spend to be even higher
UK Internet sites netted some £7.9 million in the first six months of 1998, three times more than £2.4 million earned in the same period in 1997, according to research from the UK wing of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB). In 1997, the IAB recorded Net-based advertising spending of £8.1 for the who year -- and it expects …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 17:20
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China tackles Internet
Oh what a tangled Web we weave
Chinese authorities are so worried about the spread of the Internet they are planning to create a crime investigation until in every city in a bid to exert some control over the Net and how it is used. In a leaked document it has been revealed that the number of Net accounts in the country has doubled in the past year to just …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 17:22
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Demon censured for ‘biggest UK ISP’ claims
AOL wins official recognition that it's bigger than Demon, while FreeServe chuckles at them both
It's official: there is no difference between an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and an Online Service Provider (OSP), at least according to UK advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority. The ruling (such as it is) followed complaints from AOL UK, a joint venture between AOL US and German media conglomerate …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 17:37
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Apologia
We're human -- we have server problems too, you know
To all our readers: More than a few of few will have noticed the erratic (not to put too fine a point on it) performance of The Register over the last few days. Such has been the rapid growth of The Register and the Empire of the Vulture, that it became necessary to upgrade our server, and much of the software infrastructure …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 18:33
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Compaq slashes Alpha server prices
What a surprise
Compaq is slashing prices on its existing range of Alpha servers in the run-up to its launch of workstations and servers. Sources said the price cuts amounted to as much as a third. No-one from Compaq was available for comment. ®
Business 18 Jan 1999, 18:51
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MS Terminal Server policy collapses
Beset by raging corporate customers, Redmond is running up the white flag
Any minute now Microsoft will abandon its Windows Terminal server strategy, halving prices and reintroducing concurrent licensing, according to reliable sources. The announcement is due this afternoon US Pacific time, and will slash the cost from $319 to $109 for a Terminal Server client plus a further $40 for an NT file and …
Business 18 Jan 1999, 19:44
