19th May 1999 Archive

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Police probe alleged DRAM VAT scam

A year ago VAT fraud widespread across Europe

From The Register, 22 May 1998 (a year ago) Greater Manchester police have questioned a number of individuals in a joint investigation with Customs and Excise into alleged VAT fraud carried out on European DRAM imports. Greater Manchester police officer David Malcolm confirmed that an investigation into memory fraud was under …

Business 19 May 1999, 07:30
MS, Xerox ink Windows for copiers deal

Embed with my toner, apparently...

Microsoft and Xerox have entered a technology and market development alliance, as predicted here earlier this week. Windows NT 4.0 will be embedded in Xerox devices, with products being delivered from the third quarter, it was claimed yesterday. The idea is for Exchange to be used for the delivery of documents, and clearly, as …

Business 19 May 1999, 07:42
Compaq asking for 20 per cent across-the-board cuts

Well, not the board. They've cut 20 per cent of that already

The triumvirate currently running Compaq, which owns the letter Q, is now attempting to reduce costs by 20 per cent. As the organisation is a bare bones outfit already, it's hard to see where the slashes may be made. However, as reported here and in the excellent newsletter which we, and hopefully the rest of you, read all the …

Business 19 May 1999, 07:53
Russian chip makers get to 0.35 micron

Watch out, Intel, they have designs on you

SRISA (Scientific Research Institute for System Analysis) has announced it will build a mini fabrication plant for microcircuit technology using a 0.35 micron process, at Russian trade show SEMI in Zelenograd. The mini-factory will begin work early in 2000. The equipment has been supplied by US outfit Applied Materials, the …

Business 19 May 1999, 08:13
Hitachi cracks ‘movie on a chip’ memory

Breakthrough design will store gigs - now over to rotating media for the counter-strike...

Hitachi's Cambridge R&D centre has claimed a memory technology breakthrough that will allow all the images and sound from a complete movie to be stored on a single chip. The system, PLEDM, is being proposed as a next-generation memory technology that could conceivably replace hard disks. The lab, a Hitachi-backed facility of …

Business 19 May 1999, 09:20
Novell to ship NDS for Linux in Q4

Directory services integrate Linux into Novell networks

Novell's NDS for Linux is to ship in Q4, the company said at its Brainshare conference in Nice, France yesterday. Novell already caters for Linux to some extent, but the appearance of a full version of its directory service software will help Linux gain easier acceptance in Novell sites. NDS is also viewed by Novell as a major …

Business 19 May 1999, 09:24
Osmosis calls in the administrators

Owes £5 million

Troubled distributor Osmosis has gone into administration after the breakdown of its rescue plan. The Brentford company has been under the control of administrators Pannell Kerr Forster since Thursday. It is believed to owe around £5 million. Last month Osmosis outlined an informal agreement to save the group, saying it would …

Business 19 May 1999, 09:35
Over 50 years experience in IT PR?

Dell wants to hear from you

Now, we know that experience counts for a great deal in the Wacky World of high tech PR, but it would appear some organizations are demanding a level of experience that few people under the age of 120 could possibly boast. The Great Satan of Hardware is currently searching for a spin paramedic in the UK and one hopeful applicant …

Business 19 May 1999, 10:43
BT fraud letter outed as a fake

Register reader brings weight of academic evidence to bear

The letter accusing a BT customer of fraud is bogus, according to a learned reader of The Register. Matthew Garrett, a medical student at Cambridge University said: "The alleged letter from BT is a fake. "Putting it through a colour filter reveals that the BT logo in the top left corner and the bar code and footer have been …

Business 19 May 1999, 10:44
Intel gets paid $5m to set up in Utah

Give us $5m or we'll go someplace else, says chip behemoth

Intel plans to move from rented accommodation in Salt Lake City to whizzo new offices on a 150 acre greenfield site in picturesque downtown Riverton, Utah, thanks to a whopping $5 million cash handout from the local authorities. The chip giant currently employs around 350 folks from the Systems Management Division and Network …

Business 19 May 1999, 10:44
Virgin boss had a hand in Pamela Anderson’s boob job

Also plans package holidays in outer space

Daredevil entrepreneur Richard Branson is planning to offer packaged holidays in outer space and claims he was the inspiration for busty Pamela Anderson to have a breast reduction. Speaking last night in a Webcast watched by hundreds of Net users, Branson told how his trendy company, Virgin, will be the first to open a hotel in …

Business 19 May 1999, 10:55
Dell did bloody well

Q1 2000 results beat industry averages. Surprise, surprise

Dell's onwards and upwards continues unabated. The company's first quarter 2000 results, ended 30 April, posted yesterday, centred on profits of $434 million on revenue of $5.54 billion. The figures represent increases of 42 per cent and 41 per cent, respectively, on the same period last year. Back then, Dell recorded revenues …

Business 19 May 1999, 11:00
Euro slide helps double L&H Q1

Margins not so wonderful, but speech specialist looks healthy

Lernout & Hauspie, based in Ieper, Belgium (or Wipers as it was called by the British army during WW1) has turned in first quarter results that show a doubling of revenue to $70.7 million, and net income of $7 million before exceptional items, to wit a $5.3 million benefit, mostly from currency exchange gain. The windfall is …

Business 19 May 1999, 11:13
How sexy do you find Freeserve?

It's not as strange a question as you might think

More than a month after Dixons said it was planning spin off part of Freeserve there's still little indication about what the subscription-free ISP might be worth. This is a problem, especially for those investors eager to carve themselves a slice of the Internet pie before it goes off. Buoyed by the hype immediately following …

Business 19 May 1999, 11:17
3dfx sales fall 23 per cent

Q1 98 profit becomes Q1 99 loss

The release of the long-awaited Voodoo 3 3D acceleration chipset appears to have come a little to late to rescue developer 3dfx's latest quarterly results. For the three months, Q1 1999, to 30 April, 3dfx lost $2.18 million on revenues of $40.4 million. For its previous first quarter, the company recorded profits of $7.46 …

Business 19 May 1999, 11:20
Lycos narrows its losses in Q3

In wake of shattered merger dreams, things aren't as bad as they might be

Top portal, Lycos, reported a loss of $13.3 million for Q3 to 30 April compared to a loss of $22 million during the same period last year. The loss -- based on revenues of £35.1 million for the same period --is less than analysts predicted. "We are extremely pleased by the phenomenal growth of the Lycos Network," said Robert J …

Business 19 May 1999, 11:29
US crypto law cover for industrial spookery

Europe says UK and US steal data to aid home-grown firms. Several Great Satans implicated

A clandestine alliance of spooks in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand has been using moves to bring European encryption regulations into line with US crypto law to steal industrial secrets from companies based in the European Union. That's the shocking conclusion of a draft report from the European Parliament's …

Business 19 May 1999, 12:02
Palm VII to be launched on Monday

Public trials to begin in New York

3Com subsidiary Palm Computing has confirmed it will debut the wireless comms-oriented Palm VII in New York next Monday. The company itself would only say it will be presenting a "sneak peek" to "the people of New York", but insiders cited on US newswires reckon Palm will launch both the handheld and its companion Internet …

Business 19 May 1999, 12:32
My chip is bigger than yours

MHz madness rules notebook market in Germany

Those zany Germans are building high speed notebook PCs running faster than Intel would like -– and they’re not overclocking mobile Pentium IIs or Celerons. No, to satisfy Hans' need for speed, those Teutonic tearaways are using desktop Celeron parts in order to offer genuine 400MHz mobile performance when the fastest Intel …

Business 19 May 1999, 12:33
Intel to demo Savage 4-based digital display card

S3's 'by the goolies' partnership with Chipzilla bears fruit

The Digital Display Working Group (DDWG), the industry body formed to devise a standard for digital LCD panel monitors, today unveiled its first reference board, based on 3D specialist S3's Savage 4 Pro chipset and its Digital Video Interface (DVI) 1.0 spec. S3's participation in the DDWG was sponsored by Intel, so it's no …

Business 19 May 1999, 12:51
Holy multimedia! Great Satan of Bibles™ sets up on Web

US website offers multimedia salvation for just six bucks

Egghead.com, the US web site where you can buy almost anything you want, and loads of stuff you definitely don't want, is featuring The King James Multimedia Bible™, offering the chance to "view inspirational biblical illustrations, watch full-motion video or listen to psalms". How they got the monks to animate all those …

Business 19 May 1999, 13:10
Fortune 1k CEOs mass for Bill Gates love-in

And do you know, they all seem to be non-IT CEOs - except for super-trusty Mikey Dell, of course...

Microsoft has again persuaded around a 100 Fortune 1000 CEOs to show for a love-in with BillG at Fort Redmond. Since the ones coming mostly know nothing about computing, all that Bill needs to do is to pretend to be a guru, and invite them to his pad for beer, pizza, and their choice of cartoons to any one of their hundred …

Business 19 May 1999, 13:28
Bull research points out e-government failings

All very well having plans to use the Web, but what if no one knows about it?

The government may have lofty ideals about delivering all its services electronically by 2008, but it's doing a lousy job of letting people know about it. Only one in ten people know of the government's electronic intentions although once explained to them, a hefty majority believe it will be a good thing -- if it ever happens. …

Business 19 May 1999, 14:29
UK gov't doesn't know its Es from its elbow

Select Committee attacks lack of control

The government's policy on e-commerce has taken a severe beating from an influential group of MPs after publishing a report calling it a "damaging and embarrassing failure." Such stinging criticism is much more than a metaphorical bloody nose for one of the government's flagship bills announced during the Queen's Speech last …

Business 19 May 1999, 14:38
Clients not too keen to think thin

Survey Enterprises like thin clients, but employees resent loss of PCs

People rather than technology are proving the major stumbling block for companies keen to roll-out thin client systems, a survey by DataPro has revealed. According to The Reality of Deploying Thing Clients in 1999, thin clients are proving their worth, with an estimated 80 per cent support cost saving over standard desktop PCs, …

Business 19 May 1999, 15:32
Compaq confesses DEC integration isn't working

SEC filing shows little confidence, so far

Compaq, the company that trademarked the letter Q last week, has found itself in further trouble with its shareholders. As we reported in early April this year, there is a deep rift inside Compaq. Deep schisms mar Compaq 64-bit plans. According to a filing Compaq placed today with the US Securities and Equities Commission (SEC …

Business 19 May 1999, 15:50
Senior industry figure caught in compromising situation

But we're not showing you the pix yet

The CEO of one of the biggest IT corporations in the universe has been caught in an extremely compromising situation, we can reveal. And when we get the photograph which is likely in the next day or two, there will be no doubt about the message it will send to its PC vendors. It will show a tall dude. Watch out for it... ®

Business 19 May 1999, 16:14
Software pirates go straight to gaol

Counterfeit gang ends up behind bars

A bunch of UK-based crooks who dared to cross Microsoft are today pondering their crimes behind bars. Donald Hodgson, Simon Buckley and Andrew Billington were imprisoned in April for four, seven and 12 months respectively. They were responsible for counterfeiting a whole range of software, including Office 97 professional, …

Business 19 May 1999, 16:16
Pullan to head up Proxim UK

Wireless LAN vendor sets up in Oxford

Proxim, the wireless LAN maker, this week opened a UK office. The company said it needed a presence in this country to support its channel and customers. The Oxford office, Proxim (UK), will focus directly on channel sales, giving support to resellers and distributors as well as end-user customers. It will also work with Proxim’ …

Business 19 May 1999, 16:36
Intel in secret deal with nine mystery companies

Chipzilla launches new initiative...not many told

Intel is very, very fond of initiatives. It has them all the time. Sometimes it forgets to tell anyone it has them, but luckily, the people it has the initiatives with often blab the details before the chip behemoth has primed its spin paramedics around the World. Thus we have the strange situation where Texas Micro, one of …

Business 19 May 1999, 16:37