4th February 1999 Archive

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A year ago: US Var alleges heavy-handed treatment by Intel

Company censored from Intel Usenet

A US value added reseller is claiming sinister goings on following what appears to have been the irretrievable breakdown of its relations with Intel. Ken Catto, general manager at Select Micro Systems (SMS), has been barred from Intel newsgroups, says he has been leaned on by anonymous individuals "purportedly from Intel," and …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 08:09
Gateway goes AMD

Intel snubbed as our world exclusive comes to pass

Gateway has now confirmed it will use AMD chips in some of its machines, as exclusively revealed here a month ago. (Story: AMD pushes date of K6-3 forward) The company, formerly a 100 per cent Intel house, is to use an AMD part in a Japanese PC. But this is only the thin end of the wedge, we are given to understand. It is …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 08:23
Opinion: Yesterday's men conduct the virtual trial

Ignorant lawyers and yes-men execs are circling to little end

Microsoft and the United States government are engaged in a virtual trial. The professional witnesses are for the main part yesterday's men, and in the case of Microsoft, its witnesses are mostly virtual executives who act as comforting yes men in Gates' bizarre empire, rather than being knowledgeable and logical people who …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 09:49
Allchin heads for video remix

We look at the events leading up to this week's disaster

The hot news in the trial at the moment concerns the Felten prototype removal program to stop browsing functionality in Windows 98. It has been seized upon by the hungry media as a stick with which to beat Microsoft. To refute the suspicion that Microsoft deliberately misled the court, the evidence needs examining very carefully …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 09:53
That video – the full transcript

Fortunately, we got to it before it disappeared...

There are two videos that were played after lunch on 1 February, shortly before Allchin was offered for cross-examination. Ominously, Judge Jackson remarked, perhaps bored by some video sales pitches that morning, that the defence should remember "it's just after lunch". Jim Allchin, for Microsoft, said that the videotape was …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 10:00
MS had plans of its own for an IE uninstaller for Win98

Or so it would appear, from some of the trial exhibits

Could Microsoft have been considering an uninstall procedure for IE4 in Windows 98? Some evidence suggesting this appears to have been missed by the DoJ, the Princeton puppies (Felten & Co), and the media generally. Remember, you first saw it in The Register first. There is a very interesting clue in an exhibit consisting of …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 10:08
Naked Pentium III chip found in downtown Toyko

Updated Makes early appearance in Japan with street pricing..or does it?

Our friends at useful little Web site Chiptech often come up with some gems. Today it has supplied a URL where pictures of the elusive Pentium III and its pricing in yen appears. However, Intel contacted us this morning and a representative said he believed the part shown in the photographs are not the Real McCoy. According to …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 11:36
Info’Products ex-staff site gets a piece of the Action

Reseller recruits from the disgruntled IP ranks

UK reseller Action Computer Supplies is actively poaching staff from its old rival Info’Products through a Web-site for ex and current staff. Action is taking advantage of the Unofficial Ex-Info’Products Staff Resource Site, set up by Simon Michie - who is a former Info’Products employee - as a handy resource for recruiting new …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 11:55
AMD share price seesaws

Gateway pumps it up, investor cancellations dumb it down

The share price in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) seesawed yesterday after the news of Gateway took it up and a cancellation of two investor conferences dumbed it down. (Separate story: Gateway goes AMD) Its share price fell by 14 per cent, representing $3.375 of its value after AMD cancelled two investor meetings. But AMD is …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:08
UK police deny Web conspiracy

Civil liberties organisation accused of stirring up paranoia

Civil rights activists in the UK have been accused of spreading alarmist reports after allegedly uncovering a plot by police to obtain confidential information held by ISPs about their customers. The Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK) organisation said it had discovered that the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:08
Hitachi makes huge loss

Economic woes have good way still to run

Giant Japanese conglomerate Hitachi announced that it had made a loss of ¥375 billion, blaming the state of the economy and currency fluctuations for the shortfall. Two days ago, Toshiba said it was going to ship two thirds of its DRAM production offshore in a bid to cut costs. Hitachi's losses are likely to have ramifications …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:14
Online gambling sites accused of rigging the tables

Playing the slots can be bad for your health

A gambling expert is warning people not to bet on getting rich by playing at Internet casinos. Steve Bourie, who's been in the industry for more than 25 years, says that since Net casinos are unregulated punters have less chance of winning. And even if they do hit the jackpot, they have no guarantee that they will be paid. In …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:37
Apple tight-lipped on LG's iMac production deal

No comment, says Mac maker -- but the $10 billion deal makes too much sense

Apple yesterday refused to comment on reports in the US and South Korea that the company is planning to place iMac production entirely in the hands of South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics. A spokesman said claims that LG is about to win a $10 billion contract that would see Mac production move from Apple's facilities in …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:44
Year 2000 baby boom bug in the offing

Web site tells couples how to it properly

Prospective parents wishing to stigmatise their children from birth by ensuring they're the first born in the new millennium can now seek technical help on the Web. Babycenter.com suggests that competitive parents should consider conceiving between 27 March and 10 April to maximise the chances of giving birth to the first year …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 12:49
LG Semicon DRAM strike continues

But a "special bonus" might drag workers back

Hopes are rising that LG Semicon workers in Korea, who have been on strike since the 24th of January, will shortly return to work. The trade unions walked out as a result of uncertainty over their future following a decision to merge LG Semicon with Hyundai Electronics. Asian reports said today that a resumption of work may …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 13:08
Allchin lobbied Maritz to pull IE4 from Windows 98

Jimbo's heroic defence of integration is somewhat undermined by what he was saying during development

If Jim Allchin hadn't had the problem of exploding demos to deal with this week, he would have been determinedly singing the integration tune from the official Microsoft songsheet. But could this Jim Allchin by some chance be related to the Jim Allchin who, in March 1997, was arguing strongly that the integrated browser be …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 13:20
GoodNoise, Harry Fox deal ‘legitimises’ MP3

Mechanical copyright licence agreement puts MP3 on a par with CDs, LPs and cassettes

Web-based music company GoodNoise has been granted a licence to deliver songs digitally in the MP3 format by the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), the licensing arm of the National Music Publishers' Association. The move is a major step in the legitimisation of MP3, loathed by the big record labels yet loved by Internet-based music fans …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 13:29
DirectX update adds Pentium III, MIDI support

DirectMusic MIDI API released six months late

Microsoft has begun shipping the latest version, 6.1, of its DirectX gaming technology. The new release adds support for the Pentium III and its 3D-oriented instruction set extensions, codenamed Katmai, plus the DirectMusic API. DirectX is a series of APIs designed to make it easier to write games for Windows 9x by providing a …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 15:56
US mail order dealer snaps up Simply

East London firm sells out after computer system problems

It's official -- London-based reseller Simply Computers today ended months of speculation by announcing its sale to Global DirectMail. In an e-mail sent out to suppliers Paul Berry, Simply Computers' MD, said he had sold all the company's shares to the US giant. Today's move makes Simply a wholly owned subsidiary of the …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 16:54
BBC launches joint Web/TV programme

Studio-based teams rely on emails from viewers

The BBC is launching a new interactive game show for children that blurs the lines between TV and the Internet. Sub Zero is the Beeb's most ambitious interactive project so far and hinges on children e-mailing two teams in the studio during the live programme to help the contestants solve their hi-tech quests. Live e-mail will …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 17:04
iMac, Vaio drive record Japanese PC sales

Christmas season PC shipments up 16 per cent growth

Trade organisation the Japanese Electronic Industry Development Association (JEIDA) today reported Japan's domestic PC shipments grew 16 per cent over the final quarter of calendar 1998. JEIDA cited large numbers of first-time buyers, plus particularly popular products, specifically Apple's iMac desktops and Sony's Vaio …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 17:08
Pfeiffer stopped 128-bit Alpha workstations in its tracks

Must be a PC, kind of Intel geezer, we think

Yesterday we reported CompaQ was working on a 128 bit Alpha and got lots of criticism for reporting the truth. Maybe Compaq has read Intel's document on how to deal with the press. This was the latest on DEC Alpha and its workstations. Compaq's spin doctor in the UK said: "You must be wrong about this." We said: "Oh no we're not …

Business 4 Feb 1999, 18:27