23rd September 1999 Archive

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Compaq pulls plugs on IA-64 Tru64, aims Alpha at high end

Leaving the company with a coherent Alpha-Unix pitch, at last

Compaq last night confirmed that Tru64 for IA-64 was no more -- or, in the words of Unix division general manager Tim Yeaton, that it would no longer be "productised". The move, which has been anticipated for some days now, tidies up the company's OS strategy some more, and clearly positions the Alpha version of Tru64 at the …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 09:01
eMachines' iMac-alike to be made less like iMac

eOne to be redesigned admits Japanese distributor

Japanese PC vendor Sotec said yesterday that it will continue to offer eMachines' eOne consumer-oriented computer -- but from next month the machine it offers will be a remodelled version that looks rather less like Apple's iMac than the current one does. The company's announcement, made by director of planning Masayasu Ozeki, …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 10:16
The channel – it's all breasts, gay men and dodgy ads

Advertising watchdog kept busy by IT marketing campaigns

Reseller Ciscom managed to daub itself all over a woman's breasts without the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) batting an eyelid this month. The ASA had received objections over the Middlesex reseller's advert which asked: "Need Support?", and showed a woman wearing only a bra top bearing the words "CIS" and "COM" on each …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 10:27
Christmas online shopping bonanza predicted

Modems roasting on an open fire, encryption nipping at your nose...

Europe is set to cash in on an online spending spree this Christmas with e-shoppers set to shell out almost $2 billion to acquire a little bit of festive spirit. But this figure is dwarfed by the US, which is expected to spend more than $8.5 billion in the run-up to the holiday season. Include the Far East in the equation and e- …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 10:42
Sony to unveil digital music Walkman today

Announcement comes day after second-generation Rio is launched in time for Xmas

Sony is set to launch its entry into the digital music player market today, the twentieth birthday of the Walkman portable stereo. Sony's move follows MP3 player pioneer Diamond Multimedia announcement yesterday of its lastest Rio. As previously discussed by Sony president Nobuyuki Idei, the new machine, to be put out under the …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 11:22
Y2k fix email contains its own bug

Virus hidden in message that claims to come from MS

Email users are being warned to watch out for a sneaky virus that masquerades as a Y2k fix from the mighty Microsoft. Hackers have latched onto people's fears about the millennium bug, and created a selection of email messages that promise a free Y2k fix. But on opening, the email's attachment -- which claims to come from …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 11:22
MS Win2k training switch telegraphs early death for NT

MS-certified pros see qualifications vaped by December 2000

Windows 2000 may have been a long time coming, but Microsoft intends to push it hard when it does arrive, and just to make sure, is 'disappearing' Microsoft-certified support for NT 4.0 by the end of next year. Current and would-be Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCPs) have been stunned by an announcement here that the …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 11:53
Red Hat Q2 revenue up 95 per cent

Loss deepens, though...

Red Hat, the Linux distributor -- and now, we're told, service provider, to stress the company's got its eye on where the money is in the open source OS market -- yesterday reported that its second quarter as a publicly-traded company saw a 95 per cent increase in revenue over the same period last year. It's just a shame that …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 11:55
IT sector puts pressure on Taiwan gov to get power supplies back

Industry narrowly avoids having to wait weeks to get electricity reconnected

The Taiwanese authorities have come under pressure from the island's IT community to rethink its priorities when reconnecting power supplies. Initially, the government said that public authorities, government offices and domestic households would be the first to be reconnected, with the island's businesses facing a wait of " …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 12:12
Amazon to sell digital music

Surprise, surprise -- we said so three months ago

This week's Basil Fawlty "stating the bleedin' obvious" award goes to the Reuters reporter who asked Amazon.com's general manager for music sales, Jennifer Cast, if the company will be selling digital music at any time in the future. Cast's response: "Obviously." Not only are music downloads a clear extension of what Amazon is …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 12:19
Health sector ISP attacked by hospital staff

Private service at odds with NHS' existing network

A subscription-free ISP offering to plough its profits back into the cash-strapped National Health Service (NHS) has come under fire from the very people it claims it will help. NHSpeople.net is aimed at people who work in the health service but is facing allegations that it is in competition with the NHS' own secure internal …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 12:43
Profit falls at Northamber, but at least it made one

Tough market conditions take toll on normally bullet-proof distie

Northamber saw pre-tax profit drop 28 per cent for the year ended 30 June, but said it was doing better than most rivals. Profit before tax was £6.32 million for the distributor, against £8.81 million the previous year. Sales were down 5.4 per cent to £277.73 million. Pre-tax margin fell from 3 per cent to 2.17 per cent, with …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 12:44
Lysander goes skinny dipping

Joins thin-client reseller elite squad for NCD

Thin-client vendor NCD has awarded Lysander Systems its Premier Diamond Partner accreditation status. The reseller will now get access to a series of NCD beta products as well as marketing help and technical support over the Web. Lysander had already run a series of thin-client computing seminars, capitalising on a resurgence in …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 14:41
Via poised to ship 500MHz+ Socket 370 Cyrix chip

The Cyrix roadmap revives from cryogenia...

Via is putting the Cyrix roadmap back on track with the launch of a 500MHz-plus Socket 370-compliant chip, codenamed Joshua, this year. Cyrix had this and other chips on the stocks, but had to all intents and purposes suspended operations pending its acquisition by Via. Joshua is based on the Cayenne core, and is a modification …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 15:09
Torvalds says Transmeta to announce at Comdex – maybe

But if I tell you I'll have to get a marketing budget together...

Transmeta's secret will finally be revealed at Comdex in November. Or not - according to Linus Torvalds. Intercepted by reporters earlier today in Helsinki, Torvalds displayed recursive enigmaticism by telling them he thought he might now be able to tell them when he'd be able to tell them. But what he then told them was that …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 15:40
Apple deflates stock price

Analysis Were recent profit warnings designed to end financial expectations? Apple can't deliver?

Apple's Q4 profit warning, issued on Monday, has nothing to do with meeting the demands of customers but everything to do with controlling the expectations of Wall Street. It's not at all about Motorola's ability (or otherwise) to keep Apple's factories stocked with PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) CPUs. Instead, it's all about reining in …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 16:07
Is Taiwan weak link in global chip chain?

Powering up for the weekend, writes Simon Burns from Taipei

In the aftermath of the earthquake, attention is being focused on Taiwan's chip and component makers as the weakest link in the global electronics supply chain. Most makers of finished products said they were ready to restart production. However, at 20 or more fabs(fabrication facilities) belonging to chip makers in Hsinchu, …

Business 23 Sep 1999, 18:00