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4th June 1999 Archive

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  • MP3 big in Taipei

    Computex Mass of portables arrive

    Several manufacturers are rolling out MP3 players at the Computex show in Taiwan. Pine introduced its D'music player, which can also be used as an FM radio and a voice recorder, and includes 32Mb of memory. Additional 32Mb cards fit in the machine. RFC Distribution is showing a JazPiper, which is a similar type of device and …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 03:14

  • FIC, Asus confirm K7 mobo support

    Computex Former to use Irongate, latter Via

    Motherboard manufacturers FIC and Asus have officially confirmed they have pinned their flags to the K7 mast and have motherboards for the microprocessor. Although AMD has insisted that no-one publicly shows the K7 at Computex, representatives at both companies confirmed they were showing their motherboards in suites at the …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 04:04

  • MS, DoJ lawyers out in force for IBM witness

    MS on Trial Both sides are fielding big teams for the potential key trial witness

    Detailed analysis of some 300 transcript pages and associated documents from the deposition of Garry Norris of IBM, one of the rebuttal witnesses for the DoJ, has provided a veritable cornucopia about negotiations between IBM and Microsoft from 1995 to 1997. The deposition disclosed many secrets, with some suspected ones being …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 07:18

  • IBM witness – MS probes for conflict within IBM

    MS on Trial Ah, the 'witness is a rogue cannon' gambit...

    Microsoft counsel Richard Pepperman, during the deposition of Garry Norris of IBM, revealed a document from Brian Conners, VP of IBM's consumer division, that said: "I would like to feature IE only and remove Netscape. This is contingent upon Microsoft supporting IGN [IBM Global Network] as an ISP. Also with IE 4.0 we will have …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 07:21

  • IBM witness reveals MS OEM price threats and deals

    MS on Trial Want to know what everything costs, and why? Read on...

    According to a deposition by Garry Norris of IBM, Microsoft proposed a Windows Desktop Family Agreement in March/April 1996, and wanted IBM to give up the right to have Windows 3.11 for $9 (the agreement at this price lasted until September 1997), as it wanted to discourage installation of the product. Microsoft wanted $62 for …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 07:24

  • MS OEM VP to IBM: dump Lotus and we'll cut a deal

    MS on Trial Who's a naughty boy then, Joachim?

    During a struggle over underpayment of royalties by IBM to Microsoft, MS OEM VP Joachin Kempin offered a deal if IBM would stop shipping Lotus SmartSuite for six months, according to trial testimony by Garry Norris of IBM. By bringing in SmartSuite Kempin was increasing the level of linkage, as the royalty issue was already …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 07:27

  • Survey: 20 per cent of key MS customers consider Linux

    Oh dear - Microsoft UK is going to get spanked for this PR master-stroke

    A survey carried out by Microsoft of Exchange users reports that 20 per cent of them are considering Linux as an alternative OS. The fact that the question "Are you considering Linux as a possible alternate OS in the future?" even made it into a Microsoft survey is an indication of the level of angst the company is currently …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 08:19

  • Linux is outselling Windows 98, says Microsoft

    MS on Trial It's apparently 'Microsoft boosts Linux' day today...

    Desperate stuff? Yesterday Microsoft produced one of its own internal emails as evidence -- if it's to be believed, Linux is outselling Windows 98 in key retail channels. The email, sent to MS executives on 25 May, could possibly be just a big fiddle. The judge accepted it as evidence, but commented that it was self-serving. …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 08:23

  • Chipzilla staff lose control of mouths in pub shocker

    intro

    Walls have ears, Careless talk costs lives etcetera Intel is terribly, terribly keen on training its insiders in the pros and cons of dealing with the media (see Intel media guide story here). But it would appear that one area is sadly missing from Chipzilla’s grand plan -- how to spot a journalist in the wild. Seated in the …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 10:01

  • BT Boss gets £725,000 bonus for failing to buy MCI

    Bonfield rewarded for failure

    BT chief exec Peter Bonfield has seen his pay rise by just eight per cent over last year, but when you’re getting the kind of wedge he’s on, that means quite a few extra greenbacks. With bonuses included, PB trousered a whopping £2.5 million – that’s eight pence a second -- in the last 12 months. But somewhat perversely, £725, …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 10:15

  • BT boss gets £725,000 bonus for failing to buy MCI

    Nice work if you can get it

    BT chief exec Peter Bonfield has seen his pay rise by just eight per cent over last year, but when you're getting the kind of wedge he's on, that means quite a few extra greenbacks. With bonuses included, PB trousered a whopping £2.5 million -– that's eight pence a second -– in the last 12 months. But somewhat perversely, £725, …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 10:16

  • Careless talk costs lives

    Chipzilla staff lose control of mouths in pub shocker

    Intel is terribly, terribly keen on training its insiders in the pros and cons of dealing with the media. But it would appear that one area is sadly missing from Chipzilla's grand plan – how to spot a journalist in the wild. Seated in the comfort (?) of some dodgy London boarding house’s conference facilities at some …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 10:30

  • Tiananmen protesters fight on the Web

    Anniversary of massacre marked with online petition

    The Chinese authorities may have been able to close off Tiananmen Square for "street repairs" on the tenth anniversary of the bloody massacre in Beijing, but they have been unable to stifle support for the pro-democracy movement in cyberspace. Wang Dan, a student leader of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, said his Global …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 10:45

  • Hackers drive us crackers, says FBI

    Spook server still down after kiddie-hackers play knock and run

    The FBI said it is "a little bit frustrated" that its Web site is still down more than a week after they pulled the plug following an orchestrated attack by hackers. At a conference yesterday officials revealed they too were at a loss as to why the IBM-powered FBI site was still down. Although the hackers didn't actually breach …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 11:19

  • NatWest, Intertrust launch e-commerce currency

    Analysis But has Magex that magic touch? We're not so sure

    British High Street bank NatWest yesterday unveiled Magex, its bid to become the Barclaycard of e-commerce. The company's pitch is that providers of digital content need a secure yet flexible method of selling their wares, and buyers need a (you've guessed it) secure yet flexible of paying for it. And, wouldn't you believe it, …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 11:24

  • Intel Swindon burgled shock

    Discerning blaggers knew exactly what they were after

    Details are only now emerging of a sneak attack on everyone's favourite chip behemoth late last year. Intel Towers in sunny downtown Swindon contains many a top secret part that the competition would love to get its hands on. Chipzilla played the whole affair down, but the reason for this wasn't down to any concern over the loss …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 11:51

  • Yahoo! is top of the Web 100

    Latest data throws up few surprises

    PC Data has published its listing for the top 100 Web properties and sites for May 1999 and Yahoo! tops both categories. The Virginia-based company tracks the number of "unique visitors" who either go to a Web site or a Web property -- defined as a network of related sites. Every visitor is counted only once, regardless of how …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 11:57

  • PowerPC G4 delayed to 2000

    Motorola way late, say sources. Bugger, says Apple

    Motorola's next revision of the PowerPC architecture, the G4, also codenamed 'Max' and known officially as the PowerPC 7400, has fallen behind schedule, and the company may not now begin volume production until next year. That's way beyond the original "middle of 1999" production schedule Motorola outlined last October. …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 12:29

  • ZD hacks advised to RTFM before filing stories

    Using PIII with chipset not designed for it "may not work" shocker

    Shock horror revelations on the increasingly-out-of-touch ZDNet are bemoaning an alleged compatibility problem between the Katmai instructions in the Pentium III and Intel's new cheap'n'cheerful 810 chipset. This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, however, because the 810 was never supposed to support Katmai in the first …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 12:42

  • Compel sings Irish lullaby for IP Dublin

    Dublin division of Info'P sold off

    Compel has sold off the Dublin-based subsidiary of Info'Products UK, the company it bought late last for one whole pound. The Irish company, IPI (Info'Products Ireland) has been sold for IR£1.4 million to Decision Support Systems. The disposal was decided upon as IPI was deemed to be a "non-core" operation, according to a …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 14:06

  • Online shoppers get ripped off

    Survey finds poor information and a lack of customer care

    An international study into online shopping has revealed that consumers are getting a raw deal from e-commerce. The study by Consumers International -- a group of 245 consumer watchdogs -- calls for new laws to be introduced to protect unwary e-shoppers. Funded by the European Union, the study appears to confirm that consumers …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 14:12

  • Headless Web site haunts Kona president

    We dropped in to say aloha -- but there was nobody home

    Hawaiian-based Kona Systems has declared that its introduction of the world's first Web site with a live person on the home page was "an instant success". Employing its proprietary WebHeads product, the Kona Systems home page displays a real time, low demand video of a company representative. This allows visitors to interact …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 14:38

  • It's girls on top on the Web

    Ecommerce being driven by gender differences as women e-shop 'til they drop

    There is further proof today that women are making the Web a more feminine place to be -- the student dorm equivalent of girls buying air-freshener for communal toilets. It appears that the days when the Net was a landscape dominated by technology-oriented men are well and truly over. At the end of last year 38 per cent of US …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 15:16

  • Germany liberates crypto usage

    Privacy is right of every citizen, says German government

    The German government has leapt ahead of the UK's administration to improve the country's viability as a base for e-commerce. Yesterday, the Federal German Government stated it has no intention of limiting the availability of strong encryption among its citizens. All Germans have a right to privacy, and that includes online …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 15:54

  • Memory Corp decides to forget everything

    Fabless company now nameless too

    Memory Corp has decided that a name change is in order, but hasn’t quite got round to choosing a new moniker. The developer of MP3 widgets and pioneer of mending dodgy DRAMs has just placed 428,000 Global Depository Receipts on the European equivalent of Nasdaq, Easdaq, with the aim of raising £5 million, following a not …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 15:59

  • Sequent slags off Sun Microsystems

    Desperation or what?

    You know a company is worried when it takes out full-page ads in magazines slagging off the competition. To whom do we refer? Step forward, please, Sequent, whose placement of the accompanying ad in UK business rag The Economist points a rather firm finger at the door marked 'Last Chance Saloon'. Any ad whose headline contains …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 16:02

  • Startup paves MS way to make DirectX Web standard

    Updated A startup founded by the author of... DirectX. Funny that...

    Now here's an interesting snippet; software developer WildTangent has gone to beta 2 with a piece of software that will allow Web designers to incorporate games-style DirectX special effects into their sites. This is of course good news for Microsoft, which wants to get the Windows-only DirectX established as a general standard …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 16:20

  • Quantum profits take leap backwards

    Pressure on prices blamed for damaged earnings

    Disk-drive manufacturer Quantum has issued a profit warning for its first quarter. For the quarter ending 27 June, Quantum said it expects profit to be less than half the figure analysts had been anticipating. Falling prices were blamed by the company for turning the expected 31 cents per share earnings into a figure now thought …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 16:24

  • IBM witness: the inside poop on MS and IBM killing OS/2

    MS on Trial All the twistings and turnings as Big Blue switched to Win 95

    The DoJ has had considerable difficulty finding the right person and company to give hard evidence on how Microsoft deals with OEMs, because of the fear of retaliation by Microsoft. IBMer John Soyring was the wrong person, as it turned out (we've been saying that about him for five years - Ed), but at its second attempt, the DoJ …

    Business 4 Jun 1999, 17:02