8th July 1999 Archive
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Success expected for Be IPO
Small but perfectly financed?
In the next few days, punters will be able to throw money at Be Inc's IPO, which was filed with the SEC in May. Be is expecting to raise $57 million and to trade on NASDAQ. Be's income in 1998 was $16.9 million. There's little doubt that the IPO will succeed, but greater doubt as to whether BeOS will hit the big time. Since CEO …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 08:40
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Why is MS software so bloated? MS developer asks
The Register says: because you need to obsolete PCs every 2-3 years...
Microsoft has been asking itself "Why is Microsoft software so bloated, so full of junk, sucking up megs of space on my hard drive, hogging memory, and taking forever to load?" Why indeed. But the answer Microsoft gives in the current issue of its webzine Slate avoids any true response to the questions people have been asking …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 08:41
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Giz a job, giz a virus
Email CVs give companies the virtual clap
The majority of computer viruses -- the digital equivalent of the clap -- are transmitted by people applying for jobs. That's the conclusion of a piece of research by Star Internet which claims that a growing number of corporate computer virus infections are caused by home users submitting their CVs via email. Despite recent …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 09:33
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GMT chief slams BA Y2K stunt
Reader's Letter Flight of fancy, he says
In your story BA tells Y2K bug to take flying jump, it is claimed that I have missed the point of BA's mid-flight rollover test, but I would contend that it is they who have missed the point, not I. I am sure that any right thinking adult believes that BA, their pilots, and their insurers will not allow any millennial flights to …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 09:39
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CPUGate: the details
Don't forget, the US Commerce Dept denies it all
The US Commerce Department, currently being sued by Charles R. Smith in the Eastern District of Virginia, does share some of the same concerns as the plaintiff. For example, the Dept of Commerce announced that IBM had entered a guilty plea for the illegal export of a super computer to Russia. It was fined $8.5 million, the …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:13
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Merced: the case for the defence
Executing instructions in order is OK, reader says
A reader has replied to a story we wrote yesterday that claimed Merced compilers were in bad shape. Story: Optimisers not optimistic about Merced Here are his comments: "I agree that Merced will only execute instructions in order. Load instructions just queue the request to memory. They do not wait until the result is available …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:19
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Net bigwigs team up to push IP 6
IPv6 Forum heralds the New Internet, where everyone has an IP address of their very own
Many of the leading names in the IT, telecoms and Internet industries have come together (right now) to promote the adoption of the latest iteration of the Internet Protocol, version 6. Banding together as the IPv6 Forum, the 40-odd companies see IP 6 as the basis for a faster, more secure network which, in an apparent mood of …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:24
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Future encrypted chips could handcuff end users
Report Cyber Rights group demands public scrutiny
A UK-based organisation has called on chip manufacturers to allow public scrutiny of their future plans to allow owners of PCs control of their systems. Cyber-Rights and Cyber-Liberties UK said that future microprocessors might include the ability to carry out cryptographic processes that could prevent applications from running …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:45
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Coach party set to picket LocalTel
Telco behind Screaming.Net gets blasted by unhappy customers
Angry users of Screaming.Net are planning to picket the offices of LocalTel in a bid to "have it out" with the directors of the telco. A coach-load of Net users is already planning to make a 450 mile trip on Friday 23 July to LocalTel's offices in Godalming, Surrey in the hope that direct action will get some results. They want …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:46
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ATI Q3 sales up 65 per cent
Watch out though, ATI -- S3 and 3dfx are on your case
The world's biggest graphics accelerator company, ATI, yesterday posted profits of $18.6 million on revenues of $302 million for its third fiscal quarter, ended 31 May. That represents an increase in sales of 65 per cent over the same period last year, in line with the increases recorded in the company's previous quarters. …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 10:51
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IETF drafts near-final HTTP 1.1 spec
Standards body catches up with what Web servers have been doing for ages
The latest generation of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http), version 1.1 has become an official Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Draft Standard, the Web's governing body, the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) has said. HTTP is the protocol used to facilitate communication between Web browsers and servers, and has remained …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 11:16
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Apple ships Linux-enabled QuickTime Server
Open source community speeds Mac maker's 'QuickTime as standard' drive
Apple's open source QuickTime Streaming Server software has been updated to support not only the company's own MacOS X Server operating system, but Intel-based Linux systems. The update allows software developers working with that platform to create Linux streaming media products without having to make changes to the core …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 11:43
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Receivers go into PC Science
Updated Catalogue of complaints and problems end in misery
PC Science, the North Yorkshire manufacturer, has gone into administrative receivership. Receivers KPMG went into the hardware vendor's premises, near York, yesterday. What started off as a good year for PC Science -- it won the Asda contract in March -- has turned increasingly sour. It had its wrists slapped by the Advertising …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 11:58
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Net out to get us, delusional psychotics claim
They're coming to take me away, ho ho -- they're coming to take me away...
It's official: the Internet is rapidly becoming public enemy number one -- at least to psychotics. That's the conclusion of a report published by the University of South Florida. Researchers at the college found that Internet-related fears have become among the most common delusions suffered by active psychotics. The typical …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:03
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Ziff family ordered to pay $55.4m damages to PC Mag founder
Reneged on deal
Ouch! the Ziff family has to cough up $55.4 million damages because its publishing house broke a promise to the founder of PC Magazine. Ziff-Davis had promised Anthony Gold that it would grant 80 per cent discount and free access to PC Magazine's mailing lists to his mail-order company, the now defunct, PC Brands. But it reneged …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:07
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More on VNU's take over of CMP London
intro
Not an awful lot of money is expected to change hands between VNU and Miller Freeman -- VNU will buy CMP UK and France lists, and will take on liabilities. Question is, how many will go before the takeover is completed? Word on Broadwick Street is that VNU only wants 35-40 CMP bodies. CMP has 157 staff in the UK. Junior hacks …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:28
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UK's Dixons plans £200 Web (non-MS?) PC
Kalms says stripping out the expensive software - farewell, Windows?
British retail giant Dixons seems poised to make the leap into the Internet appliance market with a £200 stripped-down PC - possibly even a minimalist Internet access machine. News of the company's plans in this direction were revealed by company chairman Stanley Kalms yesterday, and they would seem to bode ill for Microsoft. …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:31
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Publish and be damned – Register style
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Time to squash the rumour doing the hack rounds that The Register pulled our CMP story earlier this week. The implication is that we were got at in some way. Well think again. Our first CMP story was posted on the front page by mistake -- you may be surprised to learn that not many people are interested in computer magazines, …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:32
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iToaster BeOS box sells at $20 a month for Web and PC
Another one of those no-MS Web beasts comes onto the market next week
Microworkz, designer of the $199 iToaster machine and a belated MS trial exhibit (MS exposes AOL BeOS PC plan), has announced a go-it-alone pricing plan for getting the machine onto the market. Not that this means the company won't be doing deals with AOL or other interested parties as well, of course. The iToaster is a stripped …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 12:59
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Those Silicon.com rumours
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Is Silicon.com up for sale, or not? The Register always thought the IT newservice was set up to be sold, but hacks working there say it ain't so. NMTV, the company that owns Silicon, merely wants secondary finance to fund (overseas?) expansion, is the line they're spinning. Well we heard different. VNU insiders say the company …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 13:05
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Yahoo!, Broadcast.com beat expectations
Good news for shareholders as merger vote nears
Yahoo! and Broadcast.com both posted strong financial results, yesterday. Which was just as well since they're both about to merge, if Broadcast.com shareholders approve the deal. Yahoo!'s second quarter, ended 30 June, saw the company record profits of $28.3 million on revenues of $115.24 million, an increase of 156 per cent on …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 13:57
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Male teleworkers do it all over the place
Study reveals men have greater flexibility where work is concerned
The vast majority of teleworkers are men, according to a study published by the Institute for Employment Studies. Almost 70 per cent of those working away from the office were male professionals in mid career. A teleworker was defined as someone who works from home at least one day a week. The authors of the report were clearly …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 14:09
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Oz mini-OS to run Win32 .EXEs out of the box
Unless Microsoft gets stroppy about intellectual property
A little-known Tasmanian software developer, Trumpet Software, is on the verge of launching a major challenge to Microsoft: an new operating system that runs 32-bit Windows applications out of the box. Trumpet's software, PetrOS, is due to go Alpha next month, according to down under newspaper The Australian. The company …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 14:30
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The Register teams up with IT-analysis
Latest pub from Bloor Research stable
Here's a plug for IT-analysis.com, a spanking new web site from UK consultancy Bloor Research. The community-based publication features daily news from The Register, good quality analyst opinion (particularly strong on software) and an "interactive analysis service". We think it's cool. Check it out. ®
Business 8 Jul 1999, 14:42
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Bus-load of complainants to meet LocalTel MD
King Canute of the telco industry aims to turn tide of unhappy users
The MD of LocalTel has agreed to meet disgruntled users of the Screaming.Net service when they descend upon the telco's Surrey-based HQ. Jeremy Stokes told The Register today that he was aware of the problems facing Screamers -- the name given to those Internauts who use Screaming.net -- and he said he was doing everything he …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:03
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System builders fear Intel's wrath as K7 launches
Loyalty to Satan stronger in some quarters than you might think
The AMD K7 chip, aka Athlon, looks set to enter the market with a bang this August, though many PC builders fear Intel's wrath should they choose to use it. Among those launching Athlonian PCs are Compaq and Bolton-based reseller Dabs Direct. Dell, Viglen and Tiny Computers all told The Register they will stay 100 per cent loyal …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:04
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Hackers score another victory at Freeserve
Holes still evident despite assurances
Freeserve's portal was the victim of another hack attack yesterday, raising more fears that it has failed to seal a hole in its defences. Anyone who tapped in http://www.freeserve.net/index.html was faced with "Jon's Cheats and Download Page" instead of a genuine Freeserve page. The trespassing page -- which was still viewable …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:05
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Will Rambus fail?
...it can't, it can't but the question is irrelevant
We at The Register have had an advance peek at some of the presentation material slated for delivery at the Platform 99 Technology Conference to be held in San Jose on July 21st and 22nd. One of the analysts and a couple other presenters at the conference will be addressing critical DRAM related issues. Analysts from MDR and …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:06
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Embattled LocalTel takes swipe at BT
Under siege from disgruntled users, telco wants compensation
The Register has learned that LocalTel -- the wholesale telco retailer behind the Screaming.net ISP -- is to seek compensation from BT over the transfer of customers to its new service. Lawyers are finalising the exact details of the claim now but it appears LocalTel could be looking for a seven or eight figure sum from BT. The …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:07
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Brave faces all round at ilion
Trading looking good for first six months
ilion Group said trading was "satisfactory" for the six months ended 30 June, but it was still in takeover talks. The networking distributor's sales for June were at a record high for the half-year trading update. UK revenues were down on the same period last year. "However, the restructuring which was announced on 18 June has …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:08
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NatSemi pre-announces IA on a chip pre-maturely
The Gruardian should read The Registerr
Famous UK national newspaper The Guardian, born in Manchester, England, made a mistake today because it was a week early with the news. But it transpired it was five weeks late with the story. A supplement of the newspaper broke a story about NatSemi's Information Appliance on a Chip, based on an invite it had. However, the …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 16:20
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Blind people struggle to use the Web
Not as daft as it sounds - call goes out for greater awareness
The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) is launching a campaign to raise awareness among Web designers of ways to make sites accessible to blind and partially sighted Web surfers. The campaign features a video, called 'Websites That Work' which details ways that advances in speech synthesis, and Braille display …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 17:02
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Back Orifice 2000 shows its face
Virus will probe your hidden depths and expose you to a watching world
A new bug is set to plague our PCs from the rear with the unlikely name of Back Orifice 2000. This is a new version of the Back Orifice backdoor trojan virus, according Data Fellows, the developers of anti-virus and encryption software. Written by the Cult of The Dead Cow (did we just enter the twilight zone?), the BO2K lets …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 17:15
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Victims of software piracy join forces
New body aims to force through legal changes
A cross-industry group today called for the UK legal system to be reformed to crack down on software piracy. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) teamed up with groups in the music, audio-visual, retail, manufacturing and PC games industries today to form the Alliance against Counterfeiting and Piracy (the Alliance). The group …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 17:19
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Mitac to start selling online
Knee-jerk reaction to Compaq cuts
Major Taiwanese manufacturer Mitac is to open up an e-commerce division, selling its PCs and notebooks direct, worldwide to any takers. The local press in Taiwan is reporting that Mitac's move could be a reaction to a decision Compaq made in recent days to demand 15 per cent price reductions from its manufacturers on the island …
Business 8 Jul 1999, 20:57
