23rd April 1999 Archive
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Auto-hardware Linux scheme launched
Hardware detection made easier, Mandrakesoft claims
Mandrakesoft is push an open source project to make it easier for the Linux operating system to automatically detect hardware in a machine. The open source project, called Lothar, includes automatic hardware detection using the "detect" library and will pick up configurations of boards such as sound cards, SCSI cards and …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 07:04
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FTC strikes blow for Alpha
A year ago Intel forced to allow re-licensing
From The Register No. 74, April 1998 The US Federal Trade Commission will allow a deal between Intel and Digital to go ahead, but not without safeguards. A ruling released late yesterday means that a settlement between the two companies will go ahead but could be reviewed if other companies, including AMD, fail in their bids to …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 07:13
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Intel promises real GHz performance next year
Barrett predicts enormous e-commerce growth
Intel held its spring analysts' meeting yesterday afternoon in New York and rolled out a gaggle of senior execs to outline its plans ahead. Those execs included chairman Andy Grove, CEO Craig Barrett and VPs Sean Maloney, Mark Christensen, Paul Otellini, and Gerry Parker. Barrett said: "We're still looking at a billion computers …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 07:44
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MS EU antagonist jumps ship – to Gates-friendly University
Bill has an honorary degree from the outfit Van Miert will be running
After the accusations of European Commission croneyism and mismanagement, Karel Van Miert, the Belgian acting European Commissioner for Competition (DGIV), will not take his chances and seek re-election to the Brussels commissariat. Bill Gates antagonist Van Miert has accepted the job as president of Nijenrode University, the …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 08:12
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Record year for C2000 as Lockie sets sail for the east
Distributors must embrace ecommerce, company says
Computer 2000 has reported surging profit and sales for UK activities, citing the Web as the way forward for the distribution sector. The US distribution giant saw pre-tax profit more than double, to over £11 million for the year ended 30 September, against £5.5 million the previous year. Sales topped £597 million from last year …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 09:16
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UK Web services getting worse – official
Study finds one-in-10 connection attempts fail
Complaints from users that service levels at Dixons' Freeserve aren't up to scratch have been confirmed in the first official benchmark of ISP performance in the UK. Freeserve is among five ISPs -- BT Connect to Business, Cable & Wireless Communication Services, NETCOM Internet and Telinco Business Communications are the other …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 09:28
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New domain name admin takes off on Monday
So farewell then, Network Solutions -- but you can still collect the rent
On Monday, the monopoly to register domain names ending in .COM, .ORG and .NET, held hitherto by Network Solutions, will end and five new registrars will be authorised by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). These are: AOL, France Telecom, The Internet Council of Registrars, Melbourne IT, and register …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 09:39
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Gates TV to return next week
MS on Trial Another mountain of trial transcripts is due to be made public
Another wave of Microsoft trial testimony is to be made public next week, in accordance with a US appeals court ruling earlier this year. The testimony, almost 100 depositions, will consist largely of material collected but not used in court, but will also include three days of interviews with Bill Gates. Were we bored with …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 09:41
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Merced samples slip from June
But Intel says it never said June anyway
In a little noted remark at Compaq's Innovate conference in Houston last week, Intel CEO Craig Barrett acknowledged some slippage in shipping samples of Merced. Intel has said all through this year and last that Merced samples will ship in June, but in a worst case scenario for the chip giant, "three or four months" could mean …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 09:42
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Intel retreats on Hamidi case
Waives money, nuisance claims
Kourosh Hamidi, who runs employee ginger group Face Intel, has forced the biggest chip company in the world to drop two charges it made against him. Intel's lawyers, Morrison & Foster, moved earlier this week to strike two of their claims against Hamidi for financial damages and for causing a nuisance. Now, Intel is pinning …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 10:11
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Music industry anti-caching letter
intro
20 April 1999 European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens Rights VIA EMAIL Re: Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on Certain Legal Aspects of Electronic Commerce in the Internal Market Dear Member, The International Confederation of Music Publishers, which has contacted you in the past on …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 10:35
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Music industry fights dirty to ban cacheing
Propaganda sent out to Euro MPs
Lobbyists from the music industry are sending out half-baked propaganda to European politicians in an attempt to influence a key vote on cacheing. The Register has received a leaked copy of a letter sent by The International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP) to MEPs, which warns of the consequences to the music industry …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 10:48
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Yellow Dog brings Linux to blue Power Macs
New Apples get Linux support at last
Yellow Dog has become the first Linux distributor to officially support Apple's latest generation of Power Mac, the blue'n'white G3. Though the company warns that the modified PowerPC Linux kernel is in development and may not yet prove fully stable. Yellow Dog Linux, released earlier this month as Champion Server, is aimed …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 10:53
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Supermicro launches Whitney mobos
466MHz Celeron and 810 come next week, remember?
US company Supermicro said it will shortly release four 810 (Whitney) motherboards in the near future. Intel officially releases the 810 chipset on April 26th. (See story: 466MHz Celeron, 810 chipset due April 26) Two of the motherboards support Slot One, while the other two offer support for the 370-pin PPGA Celeron. The …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 10:54
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Singapore NatSemi staff get chopped
165 go at fab
National Semiconductor has laid off 165 people at its plant in Singapore, Asian wires report today. That is around 10 per cent of its workforce at the facility. Yesterday we reported that redundancies at National Semiconductor were inevitable, because of a string of poor quarters. A Cyrix engineer also speculated that CEO Brian …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 11:15
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Crashing losses in Poland hit Datrontech’s bottom line
Heads roll as debt soars and interest payments rocket
Unexpected losses in Central Europe have been blamed for a breathtaking fall in profit at Datrontech. For the extended year ending 4 January, the company recorded a pre-tax profit of £2 million, compared with £6.1 million the year before. Turnover for the year stood at £248.8 million, slightly up on last year’s £220.5 million. …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 11:29
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Iridium CEO breaks orbit
Ailing satellite phone network loses second senior exec -- more to follow as debt deadline beckons?
Iridium CEO Edward Staiano has quit the troubled satellite phone company -- the second senior executive to leave it in the last two months. According to the company, Staiano resigned after falling out with Iridium's board over the company's strategy. Over what part of the company's gameplan CEO and board disagreed is not yet …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 11:46
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SGI “disappointed” with Q3
Loss narrows, but revenue falls too
SGI -- the computer company formerly known as Silicon Graphics -- was yesterday forced to admit its recovery programme was not going as smoothly as planned when it posted "disappointing" Q3 results, dispite a marked reduction in the amount of money it lost. The company posted a loss of $40 million for the quarter, ended . That's …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 11:46
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Irish cut-price email to snailmail service launches
At only 99 cents, that’s a real breath of fresh Eire
A small Irish outfit is trying to muscle in on the might of traditional postal suppliers by offering people the chance to send electronic mail to someone who doesn't have an email account. The Dublin-based service said it will turn email into a letter and deliver it anywhere in the world for just 99 cents. "We see it as …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 11:50
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Porn site squats in cancer charity domain
Network Solutions to blame as no renewal notice sent out
Britain's foremost cancer care charity has been dealt a massive blow because of an administrative cock-up by domain registrars Network Solutions. The Marie Curie charity, which helps thousands of people each year cope with the disease, has lost the domain www.mariecurie.com to the Hardcore Cafe porn site after Network Solutions …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 12:07
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Hyundai to take apart business model
Five baby Hyundais will replace big chaebol. It's a family concern
As reported here yesterday, Hyundai is to go through a massive restructuring, following the decision to take a 60 per cent share in LG Semicon. (Story: LG Semicon-Hyundai strike deal) The Korean press is reporting that the chaebol (family concern) will be divided into five different spun off groups by the year 2003. The …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 12:48
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LG Semicon in Wales mothballed
And Hyundai plant in Scotland mothballed too
Sources close to LG Semicon's plant in Newport, Wales, said today that its entire DRAM plant has been mothballed over the last few weeks. The reason was the impending deal between Hyundai and LG Semicon, reported here yesterday. (Story: LG Semicon-Hyundai strike deal) But worse is to come. According to our source in Newport, its …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 15:35
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Buyers of Intel notebooks, beware
If you buy in the middle of the year you'll be sorry by September
Facts and figures exclusively obtained by The Register demonstrate why buyers should be chary of spending money too soon. As reported here last week, the entire notebook market using Intel chips is going through a type of revolution and that means cautions for buyers, whether they come from the corporate market, the medium sized …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 16:01
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Wall Street Journal develops sense of humour
Silicon Graphics not that cool after all
When we broke the story about Silicon Graphics changing its name to SGI, little did we know that New York local paper Wall Street Journal had developed a sense of humour at the same time. Today it is reporting that Silicon Graphics famous SGI actually belongs to a Japanese Buddhist outfit called Soka Gakkai International. Hare …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 16:24
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New Red Hat COO could signal major Linux IPO
If you start pulling in start-up veterans, public is often where you're going next
Red Hat Software has hired a start-up veteran as Chief Operation Officer, in a move that strongly suggests the Linux developer intends to prove Linux's potential via an IPO. According to Red Hat CEO Bob Young, Tim Buckley "brings tremendous experience with emerging companies that will help Red Hat to effectively handle the …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 16:29
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Linux already running on Merced, says Intel CEO
So does Intel see Linux as ready to roll in the enterprise?
Linux is already up and running on Merced, according to Intel CEO Craig Barrett. And putting further flesh on what Microsoft might interpret as some kind of pincer movement strategy, Barrett adds that he expects the low-cost, low-resource StrongARM chip to become optimised for Linux and other (i.e., non-Microsoft) operating …
Business 23 Apr 1999, 17:14
