20th April 1999 Archive

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MS goes for broke with $60 Win2k offer

How many beta 3s will go out - do we hear a million? Two million? Tin hats, people...

At Comdex Spring yesterday Bill Gates pushed the button on the Windows 2000 launch, and simultaneously the company rolled out a $59.95 offer giving users beta 3 for $59.95, plus access to updates during the beta, and the full gold code when it ships. The offer is available here, and looks suspiciously like the mechanism …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 07:31
Gates Comdex keynote skates over holes in Win2k beta

So how much of Intellimirror and Active Directory will make it?

Bill Gates had very little to say in his scripted remarks to the ever-faithful Comdex audience yesterday. Most of the time was taken up with video clips and demonstrations. Because of the regular failure of these demos, a clip of last year's W98 failure was shown, in a PR attempt to suggest that Microsoft was so confident that …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 07:40
UK anti-spam minnow takes on US big fish

Redoubles effort to pursue all spammers through the court

UK Internet company BiblioTech has rejected an out-of-court settlement from a US junk emailer because he has refused to give any assurance that he won't do it again in the future. Sam Khuri -- who runs the Net-based company Benchmark Print Supply -- had agreed to settle the dispute and pay damages after he allegedly committed …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 11:08
Open source server leads Apple streaming scheme

Apple harnesses Linux fans' mindshare to beat Microsoft, RealNetworks

Microsoft made a notable absence from Apple's various QuickTime 4.0 announcements yesterday. Interim CEO Steve Jobs can't have missed last week's launch of Windows Media Technologies (WMT) 4.0, so either he doesn't figure WMT is much of a threat, at least for now, or he thinks Bill Gates has already won and all Apple can hope to …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 11:12
Fraud gang targets UK channel

Police blame poor business practices for spate of crimes

Police are warning UK IT dealers to be on their guard following the latest spate of activity by a well-organised fraud ring. The multi-million pound computer crime gang is being investigated by Derbyshire Fraud Squad after a number of dealers were ripped off recently. According to the detective leading the investigation, UK …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 12:12
Silly signatures – the saga continues

Many thanks to all our lovely readers for their entries

The Register has been overwhelmed by the number of emails its has received quoting some of the best email signatures around. Here's our top ten -- as sent in by you, our readers -- and in no particular order. 1) No matter how hard you try, you can't polish crap! Steve Lindsey 2) Failure is not an option -- it comes bundled with …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 12:55
Virgin sues customer for spamming

Complains its reputation has been tarnished

Virgin Net -- which has 175,000 subscribers in the UK -- has followed the lead of independent Net company BiblioTech to try and stamp out spam. In what it is believed to be the first legal action of its kind in the UK (BiblioTech prefers to chase offenders through the US courts), Virgin Net is suing a Surrey businessman for …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 12:57
Net users seek personality

Silly signatures just a way of projecting a sense of individualism, it seems

Email signatures are the hi-tech equivalent of car bumper stickers and attempt to display a slice of individualism in an otherwise impersonal digital world. Instead of such witty sayings as "My other car's a Porsche" or "You smasha my car, I smasha your face" email signatures range from the downright stupid to the eclectic. …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 12:58
Come on Eckhard, do the decent thing

What about those people you laid off?

The cost of laying off 20,000 people could come back to haunt Eckhard Pfeiffer as it emerged the value of his shares is over $200,000,000. The figure would have been double that but unfortunately the share price halved on reports of poor profitability on results it will post Wednesday. After Pfeiffer master-minded the takeover …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 13:18
ThinkPads become fashion items

Crazy, or what?

Down in the Tube this morning, we were astonished to see IBM's new ThinkPad advert. Labelled "It's a style item", a ThinkPad is draped over a designer coathanger. What happened to Lou's FootWare initiative, then? ®

Business 20 Apr 1999, 13:27
Hyundai seeks billion bucks to pay for LG

Rights issue could mean Maxtor for sale sooner rather than later

The Korean press is reporting today that Hyundai will attempt to raise $1.24 billion to finance its takeover of LG Semicon and to hone its own internal structure. According to reports, Hyundai wants $1.5 billion in foreign capital by the end of 1998. It has made $350 million by putting Maxtor onto the New York stock exchange. …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 13:52
Camino delay saves BX chipset

440BX to live on for a while, but have those soldering irons ready

A proven, (old) chipset has managed to live to fight another day. The Venerable 440 BX will now run up to 700MHz, according to sources close to Intel's plans. The ageing Intel 440BX chipset has earned a reprieve from the chip gulag. Chipzilla's problems in getting the replacement i820 (aka Camino) to market means that the BX is …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 13:58
VIP attacks channel death rumour mill

Open letter hits out at gossip mongers

VIP Computers has sent out an open letter to the industry, calling for the end of what it sees as the dog-eat-dog attitude of the IT sector. The Manchester-based components distributor warns that careless whispers following one company’s demise can often damage innocent suppliers or competitors. The letter, signed by VIP …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 15:24
Technology takes second place to Teletubbies

Millennium Product list gives IT the cold shoulder

The IT sector is still confined to the sidelines of geekiness, despite all the hype from the government that information technology is the way forward for the UK. If proof of this was needed, it can be seen in the latest list of Millennium Products as drawn up by the Design Council. Among the list of ground breaking products, …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 15:57
Schoolboys fight BT

They can’t spell, and they’ve still got homework to do, but they mean business

Three teenage schoolboys from the UK are going head-to-head with one of the world's most powerful companies after launching an on-line petition designed to end the practice of metered charging for phone calls. Matthew Day, Alex Dean and Dominic Drane -- all from Swindon in Wiltshire -- have set up the Web site to lobby BT and …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 16:05
Duke of Edinburgh hits out at Web porn

Prince calls for moral majority to fight Net’s dark side

Prince Philip slammed the Net porn epidemic today, just weeks after the palace was allegedly targeted by paedophile material. The Duke of Edinburgh got on his soap box in front of business bosses in South Korea, warning of the corrupting influence of cyber-filth on future generations. He called the Internet "a fantastic …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 16:27
Linux needs MS Office to make breakthrough – report

Ah, but does it? Linus Torvalds doesn't seem to think so, and nor do we

A forthcoming IDC report on the future of the European Linux market says that by 2003 Linux will have either 4 million "mainstream" users - or 40,000. The research outfit is hedging its bets because of the Microsoft Office factor; MS, IDC reckons, has the ability to decide whether or not Linux will start to challenge Windows on …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 16:43
Gates climbs back onto Windows convergence train

The last convergence plan only came off the agenda earlier this month, but here we go again anyway...

Double take time folks. Microsoft abandoned its convergence plans for Win9x and NT earlier this year. That's why it's shipping Windows 98 Second Edition RSN, plus at least one more before they call it off. But Microsoft is puffing Win2k like crazy at Comdex this week, and Bill Gates yesterday seems to have announced, er, a …

Business 20 Apr 1999, 16:45