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27th May 1999 Archive

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  • Rise roadmap arises

    Chips aimed at low end of the market

    Chip startup company Rise has outlined its roadmap and confirmed it will be producing a Socket 370 form factor, as revealed here earlier this year. (Story: Rise chairman confirms Socket 370 on way) Thanks to Jonathan Hou at FullOn3d for pointing us to the information. Rise said that it has started producing samples of mP6-366 …

    Business 27 May 1999, 07:57

  • Proxy servers – entries in

    Hidden hits or transparent misses

    Thanks to the very many readers who have replied to our competition about the ins and outs of proxy servers. (Competition: Do proxy servers disguise huge user base) Over this weekend, we will be collating the answers and will publish the winners early next week. And all very interesting reading it makes, too. ®

    Business 27 May 1999, 08:05

  • EU-US talks close to collapse – Web privacy war ensues?

    Indubitably, lots of US companies are already breaking EU law - so when's the bust?

    Privacy talks between the US and Europe are close to collapse, according to US sources, and Web database hell could ensue. An EU directive last autumn banned export of personal data covering EU citizens to countries whose standards aren't deemed sufficient by Europe, and this includes the US. Nobody's been busted so far, as the …

    Business 27 May 1999, 08:44

  • IBM ‘dossier’ to detail MS Windows threats

    MS on Trial The DoJ has a squealer from Big Blue, apparently...

    A dossier kept by an IBM executive details threats made by Microsoft, include company OEM head Joachim Kempin, during licensing negotiations between the tow companies. According to a report in today's Wall Street Journal Garry Norris, who ran these negotiations for IBM's PC division from 1995-97, kept a diary - and the …

    Business 27 May 1999, 08:46

  • IE uninstall expert upgrades his program

    MS on Trial Responds to customer (Microsoft) reactions - how touching...

    Edward Felten, the DoJ trial witness who produced a program to demonstrate that IE could be removed from Windows, has upgraded his software after listening to his users. Microsoft, that is. Felten, who will be back on the stand when the trial resumes, said yesterday that he'd been working on the Windows Update feature, and had …

    Business 27 May 1999, 09:41

  • Did Compaq and MS try to buy linux.com?

    Updated If they did, it was surely in the 'what a smart move - NOT' category...

    As suggested here earlier, a whole stash of companies either made bids for or expressed interest in linux.com when it came up for sale. A reader directs us to news.com, which reported the matter here when VA Research's bid was accepted. Can't win them all... Apparently the domain owner, Fred van Kempen, had insisted on both …

    Business 27 May 1999, 09:48

  • Final release of AMD K7 sample spotted

    Front side bus goes up to 250MHz

    Hardware site The Upgrade Center claims to have seen a final sample of AMD's K7 microprocessor. According to Chris Harrison, the information he has is reliable. The sample is a final release piece graded at 550MHz with half speed cache. It booted at 650MHz but was not stable when the cache was enabled, and is about 25 per cent …

    Business 27 May 1999, 09:53

  • Half of users attack their PCs

    Updated IT rage reaches epidemic proportions in UK

    Eagle-eyed Register readers may have come across this story last Friday. Well, we liked it so much we thought we'd dust it off and re-publish it. Last week this one caused a bot of a stir, when the Spin Doctors behind this story sent it to us a full week ahead of the embargo. Well, we don't do embargoes anyway but here it is …

    Business 27 May 1999, 10:30

  • Apple grabs Gap man

    And we're not talking Watford...

    Apple has appointed Millard "Mickey" Drexler, the president and CEO of Gap, inc., to its board of directors. The worried us at first. Would it mean, we wondered, that Apple would drop its multi-colour Mac styling in favour of khaki? Gap owns not only its own stores, but the Banana Republic chain. What does that say about the way …

    Business 27 May 1999, 10:46

  • nVidia to drop TNT brandname

    New name to be announced next month

    nVidia looks set to abandon its successful TNT brand name in favour of something possibly more macho but very likely less well known. The 3D graphics acceleration specialiast's upcoming NV10 chip, due to ship in the autumn, will not be known as the TNT3, as expected, but will be named according to the winner of a competion the …

    Business 27 May 1999, 11:26

  • Symbian, NTT show broadband ‘concept’ device

    Here we go with some more hype from Tokyo - the new Psions can't be far off...

    Symbian and Japanese wireless giant NTT DoCoMo today demonstrated a 'concept model' wireless communicator based on Symbian's EPOC operating system. The device appears to have been designed with broadband wireless communications in mind, and in addition to standard organiser features is able to send and receive graphics. Symbian …

    Business 27 May 1999, 11:33

  • UK abandons key escrow

    Police to gain access to data only with senior politicos' say-so

    The UK government has at last set down its policy on encryption software and, as predicted, the announcement yesterday presented a considerably more liberal approach than those taken by previous administrations. Stating that there was no easy way to reconcile the needs of law enforcement agencies to access criminals' data with …

    Business 27 May 1999, 12:01

  • PR bunny hops on her bike to become African Queen

    Charity fundraising ride of 50 miles a day in Kenya

    Fit PR bunny Clare Taylor is swapping one pain in the arse for another after volunteering to spend a week cycling around Africa to raise money for charity. Clare, who works for hi-tech agency Marbles and also rows for Henley-on-Thames, is leaving behind the heady world of spin-doctoring and those pain-in-the-arse journalists for …

    Business 27 May 1999, 12:11

  • Consumer PC spending hits peak

    Report After 1999, it's downhill all the way, predicts Forrester Research

    Expect tough times ahead, very tough times -- that's the warning a new report from market researcher Forrester Research has in store for PC vendors. Forrester prediction runs along these lines. Right now things are good, because although prices are falling fast, more and more consumers are buying their first PC to get online, …

    Business 27 May 1999, 12:35

  • Call centre company gets £2m boost

    Venture capital injection will create 200 jobs

    Independent consultancy, CallCentric will create 200 jobs in Britain after a £2 million investment from venture capital company 3i. The jobs, due by the end of the year, will form part of the expansion of CallCentric’s European call centre business. The Windsor-based company said the call centre industry currently employs two …

    Business 27 May 1999, 15:12

  • UK firms close technology gap on US

    Rapid growth in use of IT has put UK at top of the heap

    The UK is catching up with the US when it comes to the use of technology, an official UK government report has confirmed. The number of UK companies with Web sites has doubled and electronic trade has tripled in just two years, according to the report, published yesterday by the Department of Trade and Industry. And according to …

    Business 27 May 1999, 15:14

  • Lloyds Bank loses customers’ cash at Bank Holiday

    Earlier this month 1,500 transactions went missing, watch out this Monday

    Lloyds Bank has said there will be no repeat of last Bank Holiday’s fiasco with its Web banking. During the last bank holiday weekend, Lloyd’s Internet banking service lost thousands of customer transactions. Some of the cash transferred out of accounts is still lurking in Lloyd’s internal system. Famous for being the bank with …

    Business 27 May 1999, 15:16

  • Hog Tied at Making Markets over Harley competition

    No one’s come forward to claim the star prize of the publicity raising campaign

    Making Markets, the pride of Staines, launched a competition last year giving away its MD’s Harley Davidson. Those of you who got one of the scratchcards may be interested to know the name of the winner of this mother of all motorbikes. At The Register, we can reveal that the only winner was the MD himself, George Evans. At the …

    Business 27 May 1999, 15:19

  • Ingram BUM presents a new face to the channel

    Which end is doing the talking we wonder?

    Ingram Micro announced major changes to its UK business this week - again. This time the changes come with a curious twist. Ingram is getting its hands on something called the new BUM, or Business Unit Model. We are given to understand it will revolutionise the distributor into a more streamlined organisation, boosting customer …

    Business 27 May 1999, 15:57

  • Pressure mounts for BT to come clean over free calls

    Complaints have been made to Trading Standards and the telecomms watchdog

    BTInternet is under growing pressure to come clean about its proposals to introduce toll-free 0800 access to the Internet. The renewed calls for an official statement come after a number of complaints from Net users who allege that the ISP has reneged on its free calls offer. Suffolk Trading Standards has confirmed that it has …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:07

  • Taiwan evades US sanctions

    Vanguard figures mean go figure

    Taiwanese chip company Vanguard, reeling from a US decision earlier this week which imposed swingeing sanctions, has come up with a cunning plan to avoid further Micron suits. But, in the process, the European Union could be hit by the US trade department. According to sources close to Vanguard Taipei, the company will ship its …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:17

  • Hardware IA-32 kludge put in Merced, whatever…

    HP slide tells whole story

    Once we had figured out what Intel was up to, it did not take very long for us to put two and two together. Slide number 14 on the HP presentation of IA-64 technology clearly demonstrates that if you've got 32 bit applications, they're not going to run much faster. It's a hardware kludge. So Intel has a definite agendum and it …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:19

  • Letter proves BT knew how many customers it would lose to LocalTel

    Claims of being caught out look distinctly flimsy

    BT’s claims that it had no idea how popular rival service LocalTel would be have been brought into question. The Register has obtained evidence that BT knew all about LocalTel's proposals to offer toll-free access to the Internet and how many people it expected would take up the offer. BT claims it was kept in the dark about the …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:21

  • June 11 sweet spot for ex-Dec execs

    A Rosen by any other name

    Information we have received, sub-Rosa, says for a fact that on June 11 senior DEC staff will leave with huge redundancy payments. According to many insiders at DEC, sorry Compaq, the payoffs will be very high. One DEC (sorry Compaq) insider told us: "June 11 is the last day that category two and category three vice presidents …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:43

  • McNealy becomes shrinking UltraViolet III

    Demonstrates UltraSparc III, shining teeth thing

    We won't say anymore than to direct you to Sun's Scott McNealy and his US-III, next to his teeth.

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:52

  • The email of the species is more deadly than the male

    Women on top on the Web

    Forget bra burning, the latest feminist revolution is taking place in cyberspace. Over 96 million members of the fairer sex will be online by 2001. This will account for 45 per cent of worldwide Web users, according to research by Computer Economics. In the US, more women than men will be using the Internet – accounting for 52 …

    Business 27 May 1999, 16:56