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9th July 1999 Archive

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  • Stricken Mitsubishi backs off from Alpha

    A year ago It's costing too much, and maybe the direction was wrong

    Posted 10 July 1998 After years of plugging away as a second source for Alpha, Mitsubishi is dumping the chip just as its future is starting to look brighter. Digital's Alpha was originally intended as a high-powered, mass-market chip that would supplant Intel, but it didn't succeed in this. Digital first blamed Intel and sued, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 07:24

  • Via June sales zoom by 170 per cent

    There's gold in them thar chipsets

    Chipset company Via has sent us a copy of its monthly sales report for June. Net sales for the month amount to NT$541 million, a rise of 170 per cent over the same period last year, when sales were NT$200 million. According to the company, sales revenues between January and June of this year rose by 76 per cent, showing a net …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 07:29

  • Hashimoto, Phonetel sue raft of IT companies

    First it was IBM, Apple, now it's the rest

    A federal litigation case by Hashimoto and Phonetel was extended earlier this week to cover a long list of important PC, networking and telecommunication companies. The case was filed on the 7th of July in Denver, Colorado. The list of defendants is as follows: AT&T Corp FKA American Telephone and Telegraph Company; Arch …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 07:56

  • World bar MS unites on directory interop

    Reprising the old Vendors Ignoring Microsoft gag looks viable this time around

    It's hardly a surprise that when Data Connection, IBM, ISOCOR, Lotus, Novell and Oracle decide to get together in the Directory Interoperability Forum to ensure that their directory services interoperate, Microsoft is not sitting at the table. Cynics would say that could be because Microsoft has not got a directory that works, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 08:37

  • Key MS schmoozing exec jumps ship for startup

    Not a well-known name, but talent Ballmer can ill afford to lose, this time

    Another Microsoft exec has had enough and is leaving: Sam Jadallah, who had the silly title of vp, organisation customer unit (but is also described as vp of enterprise sales) is off to an Internet start up in the Seattle area after 12 years in Redmond. Jadallah had a low-profile internationally but was one of the few Microsoft …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 08:40

  • MS case totters in Caldera action – $1.77bn damages?

    MS on Trial Tin hats for the attorneys as another blocking attempt falls

    Caldera has won a further round in its private antitrust suit against Microsoft. MS is making nine tries at killing the action by dividing its dismissal motion up into chunks and fighting each one of them, in the hope of narrowing the charges. The latest defeat concerned Microsoft's desire to have excluded any consideration of …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 08:41

  • Amiga to use Linux rather than QNX kernel

    Updated That's the word on the street

    Amiga has now confirmed that it will use Linux as the kernel for its next generation operating system. The company signed a deal to use QNX last year, but now Jim Collas, president and CEO, has confirmed Linux is the favourite. Part of the reason, according to Collas, is because of the enormous interest in Linux in the computer …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 09:38

  • Canadian court rules against spam

    Judges it to be in breach of netiquette

    A Canadian court has ruled that sending junk email -- or spamming -- is in breach of the Net's unwritten code of conduct. The decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is believed to be the first time that spamming has been judged to break the abiding principles of netiquette, according to reports on US newswires. The …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 10:25

  • Intel changes Inside plan to squeeze OEMs using competing chips

    Rebates will disappear if non Intel chips used in "family" machines

    An OEM told The Register today that Intel changed its Intel Inside plan this week to put pressure on companies wanting to sell AMD, Cyrix and other competing microprocessors. But Intel was swift to rebut the suggestion, saying that the OEM had possibly misunderstood the programme and should contact his local representative. The …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 10:26

  • AMD K7: 700MHz an easy overclock

    And expect an official 750MHz Athlon in Q3 this year

    Sources close to AMD said today that overclocking Athlon K7s is an easy matter, with systems builders easily able to achieve speeds of 700MHz. But things could get even better for overclocking freaks, because the same source said that AMD is likely to introduce a 750MHz part either late in Q3 or early in Q4 this year. If AMD …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 10:37

  • QNX developer pleas for Amiga community support

    Our OS is better than Linux, so stick with us, company demands

    Even as Amiga was posting its announcement this morning that it will be using Linux as its core operating system, its erstwhile OS partner QNX Software Systems announced the first beta release of its QNX OS -- and a new GUI to go with it. In an open letter entitled 'Delivering on our promise to the Amiga community', QNX's CTO, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 10:57

  • Maxdata monitors progress into France

    Pushes to top of UK market, launches TFTs and heads for France -– busy, busy, busy

    Monitor manufacturer Maxdata announced plans for its flat-panel LCD display technology today, as its Belinea range topped the UK branded monitor market. The German manufacturer announced three TFT flat panel monitors. The Belinea 101520 15in flat panel is available from today and costs £749 plus VAT. The Belinea 101540 and …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:16

  • Iomega lays siege to Castlewood in patent clash

    But whose IP is it anyway?

    Iomega has accused rival storage company Castlewood Systems of infringing on its patents and trademarks in a lawsuit earlier this week. Iomega claims Castlewood's Orb removable hard drive system violates its intellectual property, and it wants shipments of the offending product halted plus a heap of monetary damages. It's an …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:16

  • Big Blue names Taiwan firm as major DRAM OEM

    Part of its continuing exit strategy

    Reports on the Taiwanese wires said today that local company Nanya is to become a major OEM supplier for IBM. Earlier this week, IBM showed signs of wanting to leave the DRAM market when it sold its Dominion share to Toshiba. The reports claimed that Nanya will start mass producing IBM certified memories at .2 and .175 micron …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:17

  • Search engines stink, and they're getting worse

    An academic report finds them all sadly wanting

    The proportion of information on the Internet that is indexed by search engines is declining, according to a recent study by Steve Lawrence and Lee Giles of the NEC Research Institute at Princeton, and reported in Nature. The engines do not index sites equally, new pages may remain unindexed for months, but worst of all, even …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:21

  • China says no to Pentium III, chip IDs and Win98

    Barrett and Gates tools of US hegemonic ambitions, domestic chip industry to be boosted instead

    Intel is facing major problems in selling Pentium III into China, it would appear. Strange but true, although you'd expect the Chinese regime to be keen on control-freakery of all sorts, it has a major downer on the Personal Serial Number (PSN) built into Pentium III. According to a report in the Guangming Daily, the Chinese …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:22

  • Get paid to be spammed

    If you can't avoid spam, why not earn some money off it?

    A crop of new Net services has sprung up that pays Internauts to view ads and read spam. As moneymaking schemes go this one's hardly going to make anyone a millionaire but it is a start. Whether you're into small change or not, if you of the belief that -- like death and taxes -- you're going to receive spam sometime or other, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:25

  • Toshiba staffer punts semicon sell-off

    Is Tosh going to do a Siemens?

    Toshiba may be planning to follow Siemens' lead an spin off its semiconductor business into an independent company. Interviewed by Dow Jones, Yoshihide Fujii, general manager of the strategic planning division of Toshiba's semicon operation, said: "I personally think the semiconductor company should be spun off from Toshiba as a …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:37

  • Arrow backs Virtual Chip Exchange worldwide

    Puts money into Web sales

    Arrow Electronics has taken an equity stake in the Virtual Chip Exchange, as the service launches worldwide. No details of the amount of equity was given, but it is a minority investment. Stephen Kaufman, Arrow's CEO, said: "We recognise the potential of the Interent in facilitating the resale of excess inventories...traditional …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:39

  • Sage gets wrist slapped by ASA

    Watchdog finds IT companies exaggerating claims. Surely not...

    Three IT companies were reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in its report this month. Sage was in trouble over an ad for accountancy software aimed at small businesses dealing with the euro. Pegasus Group challenged Sage's statement that: "Existing currency conversion practices simply will not work." Pegasus …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 11:59

  • Startup to open source 3D Web technology

    GEL set to compete with rival's DirectX-based technology

    Not so long ago, we reported on a Redmond, Washington-based start-up attempting to leverage Microsoft's DirectX as a standard for complex 3D environments on the Web. The technology, developed by WildTangent, uses scripting commands to generate interactive 3D worlds which are then rendered locally using DirectX's Direct3D …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 12:38

  • European Web CD stores merge

    Bulking up for IPO

    The European online music retailing scene received a dose of consolidation today Swedish player Boxman buying IMVS.com, a British counterpart, for £10.4 million, in an all share deal. Post-acquisition, IMVS.com will leave Ofex (the UK's smallest stock market) and its shareholders will own a 20 per cent slug of the enlarged …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 12:50

  • Intel's IA64 EPIC like a snake swallowing a hamster

    What's good for a goose may make a gander choke

    A senior architect said today that Merced may be pushed up the food chain because the possibilities to produce real silicon might well be remote. It would be a simplification, he said, while he was quaffing his jar of peanut better. The architect was responding to our story earlier this week which talked about optimising …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 14:51

  • Intel's IA64 EPIC like a snake swallowing a hamster

    What's good for a goose may make a gander choke

    A senior architect said today that Merced may be pushed up the food chain because the possibilities to produce real silicon might well be remote. It would be a simplification, he said, while he was quaffing his jar of peanut better. HP's EPIC VLIW software, he said, "is somewhat like a snake swallowing a hamster". The architect …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 14:51

  • Buyer for defunct PC Science?

    Key customer sparks speculation

    PC Science, the North Yorkshire vendor that fell into receivership on Wednesday, faces a buy-out next week. This is according to Asda, which bought its computers solely from PC Science until it dumped the manufacturer yesterday. “They’re [PC Science] going to get bought next week,” said Kerry Stirland, Asda buyer manager. She …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 14:54

  • Godzilla becomes code name

    It can't be long before someone tries Chipzilla

    A very major chip company has adopted the name Godzilla as its code name for a system on a chip device. Unfortunately, we have to report it is not Chipzilla (Intel) but one of its big competitors. Guess who it might be? ®

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:03

  • Maxwell Bros have Viking Hat

    Now why is that twin thing a runnin?

    Here in our offices at Maddox Street, we sometimes turn round and look at the Maxwell Bros building, opposite. However, in the last few days, we have notice the arrival of one of your famous Viking (wayfarer) hats -- a plastic jobbie with twin peaks. Why should we find this amusing? Try reading the UK Press Gazette passim …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:05

  • Fujitsu spins off Nifty Web stuff

    Infoweb to merge with Nifty Serve

    Infoweb, Fujitsu's ISP, is merging with Nifty Serve, the online information service of Fujitsu's Nifty Corporation subsidiary to form a new ISP called @nifty. The move combines the company's two arms of Internet involvement, which should streamline investment. Infoweb has 620,000 subscribers making it the largest ISP in Japan, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:13

  • Coppers go online to talk to ‘the kids’

    Yet again we see how out of touch these people are

    Thames Valley Police has launched a "groundbreaking" Web site to help its officers meet young people "on their own territory -- the Web." The site is split into two distinct sections designed to appeal to kids of all ages. "TVP4Kids" (no doubt it stands for Thames Valley Police for Kids, although this is not made clear) uses …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:18

  • ZDNet starts buying thangs

    It's bought an electronic software distie/dl site, gorbless it

    Global newswire ZDNET has started to avoid CNET and instead has bought up Softseek. The buy, according to the ZD Softseek press release, was to ensure that a software download site was in the Ziff Davis portfolio. For weeks, the rumour has gone the rounds that CNET, runners of NEWS.COM was trying to acquire ZDNET. Those rumours …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:19

  • Brokers challenged to spank the monkey

    Wall St chimp makes chump of investors

    Forget the bulls and bears of the stock market -- there's a chimp in the US who likes nothing more than making a right monkey out of Wall Street. Raven -- a six-year-old chimpanzee -- has already increased her fortune by 55 per cent over the last six months after randomly choosing a basket of Net stocks simply by tossing arras* …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:32

  • Disk drive market on the up

    But don't expect prices to follow suit

    Shipments of Winchester diskdrives worldwide are on the up, and are set to continue in this direction for the next year. But according to new research from IDC, this will not necessarily translate into higher revenues, as the highly competitive market will keep a lid on prices. "Shipment growth will largely be the result of …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:40

  • C2000 wins MS OEM gong

    Sets sights on becoming big noise in systems builder market

    Computer 2000 has become an Authorised Microsoft OEM Product Distributor. The appointment (formerly known as a Delivery Service Partner, or DSP) is something the distributor has wanted for some time, said Graeme Watt, Computer 2000 MD. "We are delighted with their decision. Hot on the heels of our Eurodis OnBoard acquisition, …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:47

  • Time capsule to be buried on Web

    Al Gore wants to leave a little something behind him

    US vice president Al Gore has backed a scheme for America's youth to create a millennium time capsule in cyberspace. Instead of using a pick and shovel to turn over the sods, the National Internet Time Capsule Science Project will let high school graduates of America's "Class of 2000" bury a time capsule on the Web instead. It …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 15:52

  • Taiwan OEMs under pressure

    Cut costs and improve services – or else

    Taiwan's PC makers are seeing margins plummet while being squeezed till the pips squeak. The providers of kit to the IT giants such as Compaq and Dell are having to make drastic cut backs, according to the Commercial Times, Taiwan. At last month's Computex Taipei PC show, quotations for some desktop PCs fell to under $400 per …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 16:01

  • Rich people more likely to use Web, shock

    Latest in line of surveys states the obvious

    Rich people are more likely to be online than poor people. This is the astonishing result of a survey commissioned by the US Federal Government, which is now getting its knickers in a twist about it being a race issue. Yes, these are the same people with their finger on 'the button.' Scary innit? Dubbed "the digital divide", …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 16:24

  • Pink pound flexes muscle online

    We're playing this one straight – honest

    E-tailers are being warned that they could miss out on a significant share of e-shopping revenue if they ignore gays and lesbians on the Web. According to a survey by California-based IT consultants, Computer Economics the worldwide population of gay and lesbian Net users is set to almost double from nine million today to 17 …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 16:42

  • Bangemann bang to rights

    Four and a bit years ago EU Commissioner describes Olivetti fraudster as friend

    From The Register No. 16 -- April 1995 ORACLE SKATEBOARDS SLOWLY ONTO THE SUPERINFORMATION HIGHWAY There's some love affair between the Brits and the city of Florence which caused people like Elizabeth Barrett Browning to like it so much she died there. Imagine our delight, therefore, to attend the European Oracle User Group a …

    Business 9 Jul 1999, 22:02