30th June 1999 Archive
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Net-only dealer sets out Euro-stall
In France, opening in the UK and Germany
The UK's first Internet only computer dealer opens for business next month. Called WStore, the PC dealership says it will flog PCs and assorted paraphernalia to corporates. And it says it will be cheaper than catalogue players such as Action Computer Supplies, or Micro Warehouse. It can do this because its costs are lower, sales …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 06:22
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Seagate in sales doldrums
Soft business for hard drives
Now Seagate joins the hard drive vendors' profit doldrums club. It blames weaker than expected demand for disk drives and price deterioration for desktop products for its failure to meet previous estimates. Q4 sales from all disk drive products will be around $100 million -– around six per cent -- worse than Q3. Earnings per …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 06:27
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Gates, Barrett to speak to world+dog today
Can we expect an announcement that Merced samples are shipping?
The twin axes of Wintel are to speak today at a workstation conference in California. According to various and sundry US wires, Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, is expected to give an update on the Merced IA-64 platform. He may attempt to scotch rumours we have reported that Intel is having difficulties with Merced. Or he may …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 07:07
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Mobo makers wavering over Intel-Via lawsuit
But Via-UMC deal may allow them to snap up Cyrix
Taiwanese title Eurotrade is reporting that both Gigabyte and Asus may delay PC-133 motherboards because of litigation between Intel and chipset manufacturer Via. The magazine quotes a senior executive of Via as saying that the company will continue shipping its chipsets, confident its existing patent will cover alleged …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 07:27
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Hardware site petitions Intel over SMP Celerons
Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it...
A leading hardware site has asked Intel nicely not to implement a plan to prevent the production of dual Celeron systems. (See Intel could nip dual Celeron move in bud) CPU Review has posted a petition to its site which can be viewed here. At Computex in Taiwan at the beginning of the month, a motherboard manufacturer showed a …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 07:27
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Intel goes hardcore with Xeon
A year ago Company predicts 8-way systems by end of the year
Posted 30 June 1998 -- a year ago Intel duly unveiled its Xeon processor in London today and claimed what it described as unprecedented support of 18 PC and midrange vendors for its Slot Two solution. But the company said that the Pentium Pro still has a life, as corporate users move from the old design to the new. Rob Eckelmann …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 08:20
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Will IBM buy Sequent, will Compaq use Merced?
Birmingham, England, offers clues....
At the Networks Show in Birmingham yesterday, a deep throat at IBM said we should go look at the Sequent stand. We asked: "Why should we do that," and his reply was: "They're showing Monterey on their machines". This, it appears, could be just one of the reasons why IBM might buy Sequent today or tomorrow. The WSJ reported …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 08:50
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Via buys Cyrix
Updated Will continue to develop and market Cyrix chips
We have just had word from Via sources in Taiwan that it has concluded a deal to buy Cyrix. According to Via, it has signed a letter of intent to buy the Cyrix stand alone x.86 PC chip business for an undisclosed amount. Via will continue to develop Cyrix CPUs. It will announce the structure and timing of the transaction next …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 08:58
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Apple limits own iMac sales to boost channel
Analysis First fix your inventory then fix your channel
Well, so much for Apple's great inventory management. Last week, the US branch of the company's direct-sales operation posted a message on its Web site admitting that it will now not be able to supply iMac purchasers with their machines until the end of July. In other words, buy now, and you'll have to wait at least a month for …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 09:36
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Benchmark battles – now Linux beats NT
A 'real life scenario' test by c't mag does a good job of putting things in context
In the wake of the latest in the round of NT versus Linux face-offs German magazine c't has published the results of its own tests of the two operating systems. The c't tests, conducted by Jurgen Schmidt, were intended to assess the two rivals in 'real life' situations of the sort Linux is supposed to be good at. Linux does a …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 09:56
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Naked Apple Palm PDA seen on Web
Newt-o-palm prototype revealed?
US PC magazine Maximum PC's Web site has an intriguing pic of what it claims is Apple's prototype Palm-based PDA. The prototype looks just like a standard Palm IIIx, but comes in an iMac-style translucent coloured case, though the see-through aspect isn't entirely clear from the picture. However, the Apple logo can be clearly …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 10:22
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Win98 SP1 now out for download – in parts
Are the morlocks having trouble integrating it into one big pile, then?
Microsoft's service pack 1 for Windows 98 seems to be out at last - but only sort of. Microsoft produced Win98 Second Edition and SP1 in tandem, and frankly they're dashed similar, but although it's been offering both on CD from its Web site, a downloadable version of SP1 has yet to break cover. More recently Microsoft UK …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 10:52
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Packard Bell to lay off 200 staff
Desperate dash back to profitability continues
Ailing PC vendor Packard Bell is to axe 200 jobs from its US service and support centre. The operation, located in Magna, Utah, employs 900 people -- the 22 per cent cut will take place across the board, the company said. The move comes as PB's parent, NEC, is increasingly concerned over its subsidiary's poor financial …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:14
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Penguin hits out at ‘artificial’ Linux benchmarks
But in that case, maybe Penguin shouldn't have attended them...
Linux hardware outfit Penguin Computing has responded to the results of last week's Linux versus NT rematch at PC Week Labs. Penguin director of technical staff Mark Willey attended the tests, which Linux lost again, and has commented that he doesn't think the Linux community should have bothered with them. Penguin president Sam …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:47
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Analyst claims Apple ‘iBook’ to launch 21 July
Saloman Smith Barney man's predictions follow Register's own
Apple's shares rose a couple of dollars yesterday after Saloman Smith Barney analyst Richard Gardner said he believes Apple will launch its much-anticipated consumer notebook late next month. Gardner's comments followed much speculation on Apple-oriented Web sites that the iMac-style portable, codenamed P1, but likely to ship …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:47
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Motorola takeover rumour propels Proxim stock
Shares just miss 52-week high
Hints are emerging that Motorola is planning to buy wireless networking specialist Proxim -- hints that pushed Proxim's shares a whisper below their year's highest figure. Proxim's shares hit $52.25 during trading yesterday, just below their 52-week high price of $52.50. The stock closed at $50 15/16. It is believed the gain …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:47
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Charities profit from pirates' ill-gotten gains
Microsoft giving 'til it hurts
Microsoft will donate $25 million to the disadvantaged from software piracy recoveries, it announced yesterday. This self-appointed Mother Teresa of the IT world will dish out an extra $5 million a year for the next five years to spur technology access for underprivileged communities. The increased funding is targeted at non- …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:54
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Control Data to be snapped up by BT
Updated: US reseller to form part of Syntegra
BT has confirmed that it is to buy US-based Control Data Systems for £217 million. Reports began to circulate yesterday that the two were engaged in advanced take-over talks. The move will add muscle to the presence of Syntegra, BT's in-house systems integration business, in the US. Syntegra's strategy is to make small and …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 11:58
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Judge denies first MS motions in Caldera case
MS on Trial Caldera CEO optimistic of complete victory
"It looks pretty favourable for us" Bryan Sparks, CEO of Caldera told The Register at the end of another day of hearings on Microsoft's nine motions to dismiss the case brought by Caldera against Microsoft's anticompetitive practices against DR-DOS. Judge Dee Benson, in the District Court in Salt Lake City, issued a written …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 12:05
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Freeserve escapes bug threat
Hole in IIS lets hackers slip through
Dixons-owned Freeserve has confirmed that a bug responsible for compromising the security of its service has been squished. The bug affects Microsoft Windows NT and could have potentially allowed anyone to hack into Freeserve's servers and do all sorts of unmentionable things, apparently. The gaping hole was discovered by …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 12:16
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French telco intros free Web calls
Limited service from France Telecom as free calls movement begins to snowball
France Telecom is to offer limited unmetered access to the Internet in return for a flat fee of 100 French Francs (around £10) a month. The CEO of France's leading teleco, Michel Bon, made the announcement in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. He didn't reveal any more details about the new pricing structure or whether …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 12:19
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Parliamentary Web group with no site
Efforts to improve UK digital economy get two cheers
Any one who believes the UK's politicians are a boaring (sic) bunch of old hams that know little about the Net needs to think again. More than 100 MPs from both Houses have already joined a new all-party group that focuses on Net issues. The Associate Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) hasn't been around that long but already …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 12:23
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Compaq ekes out more domain names
The new ones make a change from things with Nonstopinfront
The biggest PC hardware company in the world has added a further two domain names to its extensive list. But this time, the names are different from all of the NONSTOP sites that Compaq has busily been ordering over the last two months. The two new sites, registered just two days ago, are GEN3GAMING.COM and COMPAQ-CENTRAL.COM. …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 13:53
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Move to 12-inch wafers likely slow
Dataquest warns transition could take quite some while
Market research company Dataquest has warned that the move to 12-inch (300mm) silicon wafers is likely to be slower than most anticipate. A report it has just published says that the move to the new fab process is not likely to mean much in the market until the year 2003. Two weeks ago, Intel confirmed that it had plans to shift …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 14:12
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Barrett takes Merced date to the last day of June
It will tape out today, he will insist
Sources close to Intel claimed today that Craig Barrett will announce Merced has taped out, in the next few hours. For the last month, controversy has raged within and without Intel about the tape-out date, but now Barrett is insisting on an announcement today, the last day of June. The compiler designers will be left with the …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 14:18
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Via-Cyrix deal all about patents
Analysis The mystery is in the history
We first met Jerry Rogers, an ex-TI employee, just before he had the go-ahead from his investors to launch a new type of chip company, Cyrix. Cyrix, he explained over a beer or two in bar at an ETRE conference, had a completely new way of designing microprocessors that was absolutely fabless. His company, he said, would be able …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 14:44
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Yahoo! hijacks its users' content
It's all a load of TOS
Yahoo! is suffering from an acute form of megalomania. Not content with being one of the biggest sites on the Web it no wants to possess all the... er... content that passes through its portal. In a new set of "terms of service" Yahoo! has asserted its rights to own every bit of information contained within its domain -- whether …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:19
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Bets on in HP-Compaq race
Runners and riders declared
The first bet on the book in the HP, Compaq desperation derby is which one will be first to declare a CEO. The more interesting bet is which runners will take over as CEO at each of the companies. There are no declared runners, so unlike a normal horse race, you can't tell which is in the stalls and which not. But here are our …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:24
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AOL forges deal with eMachines
Alliance to promote Compu$erve, paves way for AOL-brand Net appliance
AOL today announced it has struck a major deal with budget-priced PC manufacturer eMachines, and while the arrangement isn't perhaps as interesting as the online supremo's talks with Microworkz, it's just as important to AOL's 'AOL anywhere' strategy. The eMachines arrangement centres on placing AOL's access software and that of …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:28
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Pirates relax as MS man changes job
Anti-piracy man sets his sights on improved press coverage
Microsoft UK's anti-piracy man is to take up a new challenge and do battle with unruly journalists. David Gregory is to ditch his high-profile crackdown role to become the software giant's new head of PR in the UK. After two years of fighting the trade in copied software, Gregory now takes charge of the assembled ranks of spin …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:31
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W3C ratifies XML spec
Get ready for the real e-commerce revolution...
The World Wide Web Consortium, the organisation that oversees Web-related standards, has ratified its specification for Extensible Markup Language (XML) and its use in Web pages. The specification covers the way XML code can be implemented using Style Sheets, allowing it to be converted into HTML, the language of Web page layout …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:52
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Woman hacks into husband’s PC – literally
Computer rage? You ain't seen nothing yet
When is a hacker not a hacker? When she's wielding a meat cleaver of course. Twenty-nine year old Kelli Michetti of Grafton, Ohio has been fined £125 after she took the concept of computer rage one step further than most. The source of this rage was her husband, who had started frequenting late night Internet chat rooms. Many …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 15:59
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Oftel spurns calls for Net regulations
Consumers are getting the service they want, apparently
The telecomms watchdog Oftel has dealt a massive blow to Net users today after it said that the UK was already benefiting from competition within the industry. It also threw its weight behind the government's line that the cost of Net access in the UK should not be regulated and that it should be left up to the market to decide …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 16:14
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MS in frame in 4m user ‘racism’ class action bid
Has someone been monkeying with MS Publisher?
Microsoft has been accused of racism in an action in the San Diego federal District Court by John Elijah, a black man. He complains that an image of a black couple contained in MS Publisher is displayed if a user searches the images for "monkey". Elijah, a building site worker who is married with two children, said he was …
Business 30 Jun 1999, 18:15
