9th August 1999 Archive
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MS in porno banner ads row
LinkExchange accused of allowing indiscriminate sex ads on hosted site
Microsoft is being sued for allegedly allowing pornographic banner ads to be displayed on LinkExchange. Boathouse Row Entertainment -- which flogs gridiron cheerleader merchandise -- alleged that banners advertising porn sites appeared on its home page within a month of it signing up to LinkExchange. Microsoft-owned LinkExchange …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 05:37
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MS, Softbank plan wireless Web venture
Which will put them head-to-head with the mighty NTT in Japan...
The mysterious Microsoft wireless Web announcement that didn't happen a couple of weeks ago may be taking shape at last, with the imminent unveiling of what appears to be a pilot service in Japan. According to Japanese paper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the company will roll with a low-cost wireless service there in the middle of …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 07:39
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MS filing claims browser plans started in 1992
MS on Trial Spinning recommences as adversaries file last documents
Sources close to Microsoft have been spinning merrily again. It will file its summary antitrust defence with the court tomorrow, but mysteriously, extremely detailed leaks from the 400 page document started popping up everywhere yesterday. And we have a new ludicrous claim, apparently peddled to the press by a "company attorney …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 07:41
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AMD a monkey, Motorola a chimp and Intel a gorilla
A year ago CEO of AMD talks bananas
From The Register No. 89 -- a year ago The head of chip company AMD has compared his company to a monkey, Motorola to a chimpanzee and Intel to a gorilla. Jerry Sanders, CEO of the company, speaking in California last week, said: "It is not illegal to be an 800 pound gorilla, nor is it illegal for the gorilla to wind up with …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 07:57
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AMD Athlon K7 NDA expires…
Hardware sites jump to it...so it goes
A stack of US AMD non-disclosure agreements have expired, allowing various hardware sites to spill the beans on the K7-Athlon. Ace's Hardware Page, Fullon3D, Tom's Hardware, Sharky Extreme, AMD Zone and CPU Review have all taken the opportunity to get their contributions in early, that is on the stroke of midnight on the 8th of …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 08:22
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Intel rebate programme causes further chip price reductions
There's more than one way to attack the K7 Kat
Dealers and distributors close to Intel's plans have revealed a rebate system which will give further price reductions to people who buy its processor and other products. The IPD rebate system, available only to dealers who buy through Intel authorised distributors, not only provides its customers with rebates on processors, but …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 09:28
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AMD gets all fundamental about Athlon Outside
Our "reader of the month" tips world off
A report on a stocks and shares investment site has revealed how serious AMD is about following Intel down a rigorous route to the corporate marketplace. Paul Engel, who won our reader of the month award earlier this year, has published details of AMD's conditions for using the Athlon logo on Silicon Investor. According to Engel …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 09:40
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MS to face spate of lawsuits if it loses the big one
MS on Trial And we name the mysterious source close to Microsoft
"A Microsoft lawyer", meaning Bill Neukom, has been giving unattributable briefings to media friends before Microsoft files its proposed findings of fact tomorrow. The main news seems to be that Microsoft has failed to come up with anything new to help its case, while the Department of Justice is sensibly not saying what is in …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 10:06
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Rambus' RAID for RAM is Big Blue-built
IBM's been here before, say Register readers
Rambus' technology to make Direct DRAM chips sufficiently fault tolerant for use in mission-critical servers, due to be unveiled this week, may not be as new as UK paper Electronics Weekly, which broke the story, claimed. It now appears that Rambus' 'Chipkill' technology could well be licensed from IBM, according to many …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 10:25
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Exchange weathers Net IPO storm
Modest profit-taking on UK's second big Net stock
Optimism surrounding Friday's flotation of the UK's second largest Net company was eclipsed after early hopes of Freeserve-style profiteering failed to materialise. Shares in Exchange Holdings, which operates a personal finance Web site, opened at 200p before rising quickly to 238p -- an increase of 19 per cent. But after early …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 10:59
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I'm Virgin – call me
Branson's mob to launch One2One-based mobile phone
Virgin is to take on the UK mobile phone market with the launch of its own brand phones, running on the One2One network. The company yesterday outlined plans to have the phones on the shelves of its 220 Our Price shops and 85 Virgin Megastores by Christmas. This would give the group more mobile phone outlets than any other high …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 11:22
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Updated iMacs to ship in September
17in screen version to arrive at last?
The next version of the iMac -- the so-called 'D2' revision -- is due to go on sale next month, according to two US retailers. In a report over at MacWeek.com, sales reps in a California branch of Sears and from New York-based J&R Electronics provided a cross-continent consensus that the new model will ship in September. Still, …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 11:26
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Rambus launches RDRAM fault tolerance
Based on Big Blue's ideas, but it's IDM not IBM
Rambus today announced its version of fault-tolerant memory for high-end servers, as predicted here. Dubbed IDM (Interleaved Data Mode), the technology will be incorporated into the 256Mb version of Rambus Direct DRAM chips, due to sample at the end of 1999 and go into production next year. Essentially, the technology mirrors an …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 12:02
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Compaq UK loses David Petts
Long time Big Q-er off to don stetson and join Compaq Houston
David Petts is leaving Compaq UK for the PC vendor's head office in Houston. Petts, previously director of Compaq PC business unit in the UK, is moving to the US in three to four weeks. He has taken up the position of VP of marketing at Compaq CPCG (commercial personal computing group), according to Compaq. He will report to …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 12:04
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Fujitsu PCs on sale at Iceland
Stack 'em next to the fish fingers...
Fujitsu is in talks with frozen food retailer Iceland to sell its PCs. The vendor is in early discussions about selling its mini-tower PCs in Iceland stores in the UK, according to Noel Lynch, Fujitsu channel director. No details were available regarding volume price points of the machines -- or, indeed, which freezer cabinet …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 12:06
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Shake down splits Compaq UK in four
New divisions led by new faces as McNally focuses on Net
Joe McNally, Compaq UK vice president and managing director, has shuffled his Cabinet of senior management in the UK and Ireland. The rejig resulted in three business groups being created – the Enterprise Solutions and Services Group, Commercial Personal Computing Group and Consumer Group. These will be led by Gareth Cadwallader …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 12:31
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Cisco's $1bn in KPMG forms love triangle with MS
Consultancy is where the money is, Chambers notices
Cisco intends to invest $1 billion in "global advisory firm" KPMG, which is what these bean-counters-cum-management consultants are calling themselves nowadays. That's a lot of Cisco shareholder cash. Cisco has relatively few people in consultancy, and so had to look outside for an entree into the systems integration scene. As …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 12:45
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EMC squares $1.1bn DG buy out
NUMA's up as DG gets clarion call
EMC is to buy Data General (DG) for $1.1 billion in stock, the companies announced today. EMC will issue 0.3262 of a share of common stock for each DG shares. The deal values DG at around $19.58 per share, based on EMC's 6 August closing stock price. Through the deal, EMC will swallow DG's CLARiiON storage products. DG's AviiON …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 13:07
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BTClick unveils VOIP helpline
Great idea -- well, kind of...
Internauts who need help using BTClick can now speak directly to helpline staff directly over the Net. Hyped by BTClick as the first time a subscription free service has introduced such software, it claims that users will be able to make calls to the helpdesk while surfing the Net at the same time. BT reckons this is a major …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 13:09
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Receivers take reins at Pace Modems
Death of one of the dying breed of UK modem makers
PMC Electronics, the Pace-brand modem manufacturer, has gone into administrative receivership. Based in Shipley, West Yorkshire, the company has ceased trading, and is now under the control of KPMG in Nottingham. Its holding company, PMC Group, has also ceased trading. The two companies went into administrative receivership last …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 14:01
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Philips, Matsushita outline MP3 plans
Both to launch players, but only Philips will support MP3
The digital music market feeding frenzy began in earnest, as two of the world's largest consumer electronics companies announced solid state audio players. Philips today said it will introduce a player by Q1 2000. The device is based on last month's final Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) portable player spec. The device's …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 14:09
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Microsoft unveils NT Embedded – Not
There's just one thing missing from the latest product announcement...
Will Microsoft be able to find a kamikaze employee willing to test embedded Windows NT in his or her pacemaker? That's one of the key issues that arise from a leaked announcement today. To be fair, Microsoft hasn't asked for kamikaze volunteers yet. But it is trying to suggest that Windows CE is for embedded operating systems in …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 14:27
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NetBenefit/Excite deal to push personal URLs
Cyber heirlooms predicted as the personal domain becomes trendy
Domain registrar NetBenefit has signed an agreement with UK portal Excite to punt its services to a mainstream consumer audience. In June Tim Ashley, sales and marketing director at NetBenefit predicted that the acquisition of personal domains would become the next boom area in domain name sales. Just like mobile phones, which …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 14:30
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Y2KY jelly eases passage of date change bug
The silly season is most definitely upon us...
The term 'city slickers' seems to have taken on a whole new meaning thanks to the Y2K bug. KY jelly, the product guaranteed to get you into and out of many a tight situation, has just been declared millennium bug free, according to a bizarre report in yesterday's Sunday Times. This once great British broadsheet received an email …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 15:22
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Intel to announce fresh Pentium III price cuts in two weeks' time
Every dog will have its day
Chip giant Intel cannot be happy that its little rival AMD is having such a good news day worldwide. But if you think Chipzilla is gonna sit back and let the situation ride, you've all got another think coming. The company has just notified its distributors and dealers that it will cut its prices again on 22 August next on …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 15:32
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Geyserville delayed until post-Mother Shipton period
Faster Coppermines to arrive in same space-time continuum
Mother Shipton of Knaresborough, Yorkshire, as well as Nostradamus, predicted the world would end in 1999. And if she was correct, that means the world and its dog may never see Intel's famous Geyserville technology, as well as its faster Coppermine technology. Sources close to Intel confirmed today that Cu-mines of 0.18 micron …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 16:04
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Beans spilled on Freedomi ISP venture
Not such a big deal after all -- free calls in exchange for ads, that's all
London-based Freedom Telecom is behind a new subscription and toll-free Internet service due to be launched in the next couple of weeks or so, The Register can reveal. Last week, the service, Freedomi, was shrouded in secrecy. And just like at tight-lipped Web design agency Hard Reality, no one at Freedom Telecom is prepared to …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 16:05
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Soccer thugs wield Web as a weapon
Are you looking to get your teeth downloaded on to the pavement?
Britain is bracing itself for a football season wracked by violence after hooligans used the Internet to organise street fights on the opening day of the season. More than 100 fans from Millwall and Cardiff clashed on the streets of the Welsh city causing shoppers to flee for their safety. Fourteen fans were injured and six …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 16:13
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Evesham sings song of south with London office
Where the streets are paved with SMEs
Evesham Micros is opening a London office next month to sell to the south of England SME market. The Worcestershire-based system builder will operate from Chancery Lane, in the heart of London's legal quarter. It has appointed two staff to head up the operation, Phil Davies and ex-Ingram employee Rob de Main. It is looking to …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 16:40
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Cyrix M3 Athlon Killer strangled at birth by Via
What a strange, strange industry this is
Sources close to Cyrix, Via and IDT Centaur have now given us yet more facts and figures about Via's decision to shut down M3 development and suggested that the Taiwanese company has shot itself in both feet by choosing the WinChip instead. (See Cyrix layoffs confirmed at Richardson, Arlington) According to the sources, who …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 17:53
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UK boffins unveil $35 ‘2300GB on a PC Card’ RAM breakthrough
Hard drive industry placed on DefCon 1
A team of UK researchers from Keele University have developed a "three-dimensional memory system" which, they claim, offers the highest storage densities ever achieved. In fact, the technology can squeeze 2300GB into a PC Card-sized device, according to yesterday's Mail on Sunday. And the system is scalable so that even a …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 18:02
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AMD goes public on Athlon
No more non disclosures any more
Chip company Advanced Micro Devices has now released its official statement on the introduction of the Athlon K7. As revealed earlier, it comes in 650MHz as well as 600MHz, 550MHz and 500MHz flavours, and has support from both Compaq and Big Blue. (Earlier story: AMD Athlon K7 NDAs expire... See this story for links, background …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 18:04
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Date rape gang circulates videos on the Internet
Read it in the Sunday Papers
A Californian date-rape gang is broadcasting videos of its "conquests" on the Net. Members of the gang drug their victims with the notorious sedative Rohypnol and film their rapes. These astonishing claims were published yesterday in the Mail on Sunday, one of Britain's best selling newspapers. But where's the beef? It comes in …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 18:05
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‘2300GB on a PC Card’ RAM technology: more details
Team also to revolutionise sanitation, gynaecology, spreadsheets
More details have emerged regarding the amazing '2300GB on a PC Card' memory technology developed by a Keele University team led by the remarkable Professor Ted Williams. (Even as we speak, Register scriptwriters are working on the pilot episode of Prof. Ted, Craggy Island's very own quantum mechanic: "Feck! Girls! Many-particle …
Business 9 Aug 1999, 21:45
