10th August 1999 Archive
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Sun's Corona to outlast this week's eclipse
Very Thin Client (VTC) expected in future
More details have emerged about Sun's plans for its Corona device, now expected towards the end of September. According to Om Mallik at Forbes, the Corona, likely to cost around $500, comes in an 8 x 10 x 2 inch form factor, and will be branded in the familiar Sun Micro colours. The slim thing, as reported here last week, will …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 04:48
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Intel shortage of PII/266 heralds victory for Celeron family
A year ago Customers screaming for parts
From The Register No. 90 -- a year ago. My how things change Intel has said that delays to the lower end members of its Pentium II family have arisen because of a deliberate shift to ramp up its Celeron, low end products. Sources close to Intel have now said that price changes slated for August 24th will now be delayed until 14 …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 04:58
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Lucent to grab INS for nearly $4bn
Acquisitions are them...
Lucent is to buy networking integrator International Network Services for $3.7 billion. According to the wires, INS is already in cahoots with the Great Satan of Routers, and if Lucent manages to pull it off, it will amount to a stinging slap in the face for Cisco. Lucent bought Ascend and Nexabit in June. ®
Business 10 Aug 1999, 05:07
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TurboLinux scales high ground with cluster server
Alpha and Intel system supports heterogeneous clustering, management
TurboLinux is aiming Linux at the enterprise with the announcement of a clustering system for Intel and Alpha platforms, together with an alliance that will allow Linux systems to manage multiple platforms, including NT and Solaris. TurboCluster Server is being shown at Linux World in San Jose this week, and will ship for Intel …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 07:20
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VNU pays $4m for CMP UK and France
Not very much, is it?
So the deal is now done: VNU has bought CMP’s lossmaking French and UK businesses from United News & Media for the pathetic sum of $4 million. The divestiture of these businesses will "also result in considerable savings for CMP", according to United News & Media. It is shutting down Windows Magazine in the States, and …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 07:55
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Hollywood outfit to use Merced
Titanic, True Lies, What Dreams May Come, the Fifth Element part of text stream
In all the K7-Athlon hullabaloo yesterday, Chipzilla snuck out a press release, which named a firm which will be a test site for its IA-64 family of chips. The timing of the release, along with a release which shows huge price reductions on various networking products, is purely coincidental. Digital Domain which created special …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 08:56
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Pre-pay fraud hits BTCellnet
Stolen credit cards used to top up accounts
BTCellnet's pre-paid mobile phone package – Pay As You Go – is at the centre of a credit card fraud scam. A security loophole has meant that thieves have been able to use stolen credit cards to top up mobile phone accounts, BT admitted today. There have been over 300 cases of people being defrauded since April, according to …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 09:08
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FTC lets Intel off the hook
Sixty days, they've been and gone...
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) quietly let Intel depart its records last Friday after a 60-day public consultation period expired. But the decision means that Intel's affairs will still come under scrutiny, if necessary. The commissioners voted to approve the consent order 3:1, with Orson Swindle the sole dissenter in the …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 10:20
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Gulf War veteran gaoled for kiddie Web porn
UK's biggest haul of downloaded paedophilia
A Gulf War veteran was gaoled yesterday for two-and-a-half years after being found guilty of possessing almost a quarter of a million images of child porn downloaded from the Net. Former Royal Navy communications engineer Andrew Mein, 43, of Leigh Park near Havant, was convicted at Portsmouth Crown Court in what police believe …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 10:43
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MSN in low-cost access promo
Updated: How low can you go?
Completion is hotting up in the US after discount e-tailer MyShoppingClub announced it is to give new club members access to MSN for nothing, according to a report by TechWeb Consumers joining the $59 a year discount shopping club will not have to pay a cent to get online using MSN -- a saving of $19.95 a month. On Friday US …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 10:55
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Digital Music body announces anti-piracy technology
SDMI watermarking system to be provided by ex-RIAA VP's company
The music industry-led Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) yesterday announced its chosen copyright protection technology for phase one of its hardware specification. And the winner is (rips open gold envelope): Aris Technologies for its 1998 album, MusiCode. Aris' watermarking system will now be built into emerging SDMI- …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:01
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Via claims National to blame for Cyrix layoffs
Where does the buck stop, anyway?
A source close to Via said today that the company could not be blamed for layoffs at Cyrix in Richardson and Arlington last week. (See yesterday's story: Cyrix M3 "Athlon Killer" strangled at birth by Via) According to the source, the redundancies were imposed by NatSemi after weeks of negotiations between the companies. But the …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:10
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HK to become spam capital of the world
Ruling paves way for unauthorised sending of junk email
Hong Kong could be become the junk email capital of the world following a ruling last week not prosecute a spammer. A magistrate in the former British colony said Ng Ming-sum broke no law when he used the networks of two separate companies to distribute thousands of spam to advertise his own Web business. The problem, it seems, …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:11
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Caldera completes OpenLinux for Sparc port
Sun support reveals its WinNT worries
Caldera Systems has made available for download its Sparc and UltraSparc port of OpenLinux 2.2, its latest distribution of the open source OS. The interesting thing here is that Sun itself appears to have contributed to Caldera's efforts to port OpenLinux over to its hardware -- "working together for several months to make their …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:32
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IBM down and out down under
NZ police computer project turns sour
Big Blue is facing possible legal action by the New Zealand government following the collapse of a deal to supply new systems for the NZ police service. Big Blue announced it was walking away from the project, which has been on-going for six years and has run up a bill of NZ$132.1 million (£43 million) so far, according to today …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:51
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IBM Microelectronics turns to Linux to promote PowerPC
'Thin' server strategy mirrors Motorola's -- albeit without Moto's Intel support
If Motorola isn't going to offer PowerPC-based Linux 'thin' servers -- at least not for the time being -- then IBM, its partner in the development of PowerPC, sure as heck will. On Monday, Motorola Computer Group (MCG) used LinuxWorld to debut its SLX range of Linux-based 'thin' servers -- machines designed to provide small LANs …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 11:58
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Man beaten to death for using mobile phone in pub
Cellphone rage claims first fatality
A German man was battered to death with a beer bottle on Saturday after his mobile phone rang repeatedly, annoying bystanders in a Hamburg beer garden. In what is thought to be Germany's first case of mobile phone rage, the victim ignored requests to switch off his phone. His phone played a melody when it rang, reports said. "It …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 12:06
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BTCellnet to up prices to counter profiteering
A spot of arbitragy-bargy...
BTCellnet may have to push up prices on its pre-paid phones to stop punters buying handsets in the UK and selling them abroad for a huge mark-up. The price of the operator's pre-paid packages may need to rise in order to protect the company from these entrepreneurs, the Financial Times reported today. The phones are priced at £ …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 12:23
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MS founder sails into sunset with Jerry Hall
A rolling stone gathers no DOS...?
Anyone who thought the world of IT, and software development in particular, was inhabited by personality-less geeks, needs to think again. Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft, is said to be enjoying a spot of R'n'R on his yacht with none other than Jerry Hall. Today's London Evening Standard claims that friends of …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 12:40
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SGI to spin off Cray, NT workstation biz, graphics expertise
Sell-offs to eliminate 1000-1500 jobs, streamline company for Net-oriented future, says CEO
SGI today unveiled a radical plan to pursue long-term growth and sustainable profitability centring on flogging off large chunks of the company. Not that that's how SGI puts it, but nevertheless that's clearly where the strategy will take it. Heading the list of divested divisions is the company Windows NT workstation line, …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 12:49
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Lucent logo captures company in ‘single masterful brush stroke’
We'll give Register pins for the best alternative explanations
"What does our name mean? Lucent is a word meaning 'glowing with light'. Light, a primary source of energy, refers to our company's energetic and entrepreneurial spirit. Lucent also means 'marked by clarity', which speaks to the clear vision of our company's purpose and future. We have added 'Technologies' to our name in order …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 12:55
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Maxdata edges into UK notebook Top 20
Six months down the line, move into notebooks is paying off
Just six months after entering the notebook PC market, Maxdata has appeared in the UK Top 20 for notebook sales. In the UK, Maxdata is best known for its Belinea monitors, which hit the UK branded monitor top slot last month. Maxdata announced its move into the UK notebook market earlier this year at the Computer Trade Show …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 13:08
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Layoffs hit Oracle UK
Sixty consultants bite the bullet
Oracle UK made 60 staff redundant last week as part of its promise to cut $1 billion from operating expenses. The software company shed the jobs from its consultancy team, where it had 1,400 staff. The move was part of Oracle's rejig to focus on the Internet and e-business, with jobs slashed in areas like client/server computing …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 14:32
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MS judge – ‘how I avoided Vietnam’
Just tell the 'Cong when the war's supposed to finish - LBJ, read and weep...
Microsoft trial judge Thomas Penfield Jackson tempted fate yesterday by explaining how he had set out the trial schedule and ground rules in order to avoid getting into the "Vietnam morasses" of previous US antitrust trials. Previous antitrust actions against IBM, which got off, and AT&T, which was broken up, dragged on for …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 15:22
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IO battle of giants to make tiny firm rich
Intel's NGIO, and Future IO will allow Wind River to rake it in
You may remember the spat during this year over the direction Intel and Sun wanted to take next generation IO technology, called by them NGIO. On the other side of the argument are Compaq, HP and IBM, with their future IO technology called -- Future IO. Now it seems the lucky winner of the battle of these two behemoths will be …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 15:27
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Online coffee morning raises cancer funds
Connectwomen.com wants to generate £2.5m
Britain's biggest cancer charity is to hold the largest coffee morning ever by connecting people over the Net. Macmillan Cancer Relief hopes that the "world's biggest coffee morning with Nescafe" will help raise more than £2.5 million. Last year a million people took part in 20,000 individual events up and down the country …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 15:43
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Give the Internet a go for cancer relief
C&W Subs-free service donates £1 per user to Macmillan
Cable & Wireless and Macmillan Cancer Relief have teamed up to create a new portal aimed specifically at women. Not only will Connectwomen.com help raise money for Britain's leading cancer charity, it's hoped it will also encourage more women to explore the Net. Under the campaign slogan Give the Internet a go for Macmillan …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 15:43
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MPs blast UK gov over ecommerce plans
Time to get innovative, says committee
The government and its regulatory sidekick Oftel have been slammed by an influential group of MPs for failing to meets the needs of Britain's wired community. In a stinging report by the Trade and Industry Committee into ecommerce, MPs savaged Oftel for not doing more to cut the cost of dial-up Net access in the UK describing …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 15:54
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Connect.women does more for C&W than for charity
Opinion:When supporting a good cause isn't good enough
It would be easy to deride today's launch of connectwomen.com as an attempt by the corporate sponsors and others to create a powerful new Net brand on the back of an incredibly worthy cause. So I won't. Such a cheap shot would even be below The Register's sometimes subterranean levels of decency and integrity. But I can't help …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 16:01
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Gateway walks away from Athlon
No PCs with AMD's new baby after all
Gateway has done a U-turn over its plans to launch an Athlon-based PC. The world’s second largest direct selling PC vendor was tipped to build systems based on the Athlon, but two weeks ago mysteriously reversed its decision, according to Forbes. Gateway described the move as "a pure business decision", which Forbes said meant …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 16:24
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Intel: 133MHz FSB plot to thicken sooner than thought
PC-133 and RDRAM jumper interchange on 23rd August
Sources which in the course of their business have to be very close to Intel are reporting that 600MHz Pentium IIIs and 533MHz Pentium IIIs will arrive on August 23rd at prices of around $675 and $370 respectively. According to other sources close to these plans, Intel will release its Vancouver motherboard early September using …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 18:01
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Geyserville slips a whole quarter in a day…
When the Hell...is Geyserville?
A faithful Intel watcher has pointed out to us that the company has just placed a URL on its site which seems to indicate Geyserville technology has slipped by a whole quarter of a year, in one day. This is the offending URL Yesterday, we reported that Geyserville was likely to arrive in Q1 of the year 2000, quoting a source so …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 18:09
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Mediasurface and its hugely ambitious IPO plans
Seeks £400m market cap
Web content management provider Mediasurface is planning to float next year although preliminary market valuations of £400 million appear to be on the very high side. Last year the London-based company generated £260,000 in sales but has already notched up £3.5 million this year. According to the Sunday Times, predictions for …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 18:35
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Mondus.com raises funds for SME ecommerce portal
Launches in US, Germany and UK
Mondus.com an ecommerce start-up based in Oxford, has raised $12m from Eden Capital. Mondus.com acts as a bidding mechanism between small businesses and their suppliers. Type in a purchase request and within hours you can get competing bids from various suppliers. Through Mondus, suppliers can reduce the costs of finding new …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 18:39
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AOL Europe reshuffles top table
Meaner, but not necessarily leaner
AOL Europe -- a venture between America Online Inc and Bertelsmann AG -- has shuffled its senior management team in a bid to turn the service provider into a meaner, but not necessarily leaner, fighting machine. David Phillips, who has been the acting MD for AOL UK since March becomes senior VP, pan-European Business and Legal …
Business 10 Aug 1999, 18:48
