25th October 1999 Archive

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Amazon sues Barnes & Noble over checkout system

March of the dubious patents continues...

Amazon.com is suing barnesandnoble.com for alleged patent infringement, but as with the similar priceline.com versus Expedia case last month, the challenge is effectively whether a business process can be properly protected by a patent. Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos claims in a nine-page declaration accompanying the writ that it …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 07:19
Paddy Pantsdown spends more time with Time

Former party leader joins PC vendor board

Time Computers has snaffled a former political leader to push it into the e-commerce arena. Not content with hiring vendor or channel fallout, the company has brought Paddy Ashdown into the fold to be a non-executive director. The former top Liberal Democrat is a long-time fan of the company, and was caught espousing on the …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 07:28
Wildfire scales like hell as AMD, CPQ shares stand equal

Roadmap They're big boxes aimed at HP, IBM and Sun. Can the DEC chip cut it?

A strange coincidence happened at the close of Wall Street on Friday. Both AMD's and Compaq's share prices stood at 18 11/16. While practically all technology stocks fell somewhat during the course of last week, AMD is on uppers (no, not its uppers), while Compaq is on downers. When the bell tolls for the close of trading …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 07:46
Squatter mounting bike defence against Morgan Stanley

What's wrong with morganstanleydeanwitter.com anyway?

Sau Wong, a chip engineer in Silicon Valley and a cybersquatter who registers variants of the names of investment bankers, has been challenged over msdwonline.com because Morgan Stanley Dean Witter wanted the name for its online service (which is at the less-intuitive www.online.msdw.com). MSDW didn't like it, the New York Times …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 07:55
Caminogate: the plot thickens like caramel

Fear, uncertainty, doubt amounts to Intel blundering thud

Sources close to Intel's technologies have taken time to sift through the i820 debacle (Caminogate) and have pointed to fundamental flaws in the chip firm's validation plans. (We didn't think it was long before we started writing about this stuff again -- see yesterday's Strange Whiff story). The reliable source points to an …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 08:26
ICANN internationalises as US candidates miss election

But there's still some way to go...

US candidates have been rejected in the first round of new board elections for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). The significance is that ICANN may end up not being under US control, as it has been, and will indeed evolve towards being an international body. At present, all five ICANN interim board …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 09:24
Palestine wins .ps domain

After a two year Internetifada...

Palestine now has its own .PS domain following more than two years of battling with the IRA (the Internet Registration Authority), as well as with the UN. It required a resolution of the UN General Assembly to get the suffix approved. There are around 34,000 PCs (mostly in the West Bank and in 7 per cent of Palestinian …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 09:48
Sun-AOL strengthen hand via interactive TV alliance

Large queue of investors join the Odd Couple in OpenTV

The AOL-Sun alliance seems to have chalked up another win in the interactive TV arena. Sun-backed software developer OpenTV has won investment from a clutch of broadcasting heavyweights, and at the same time has struck a software development deal with AOL. OpenTV was jointly owned by Sun and pay-TV outfit Myriad International …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 10:30
Links to Software Sites

intro

Software Sites Windows 98 Central News, views, reviews and downloads Slashdot org Needs no further introduction WinDriversThe "No.1 Resource for Windows/Drivers". Who are we to disagree? ActiveWindows Well informed, broadly pro-Microsoft but very independent site IT-analysis.comAnalysts who know what they're talking about Shell …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:07
Two PR bunnies for every hack

It's not enough

A report in yesterday's Observer said that official statistics now showed there were two public relations personnel for every UK journalist. It's not enough, we say. In Intel's and Microsoft's case it's not true anyway. There's dozens of them... ®

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:09
LCD firms team up on packet-based interface spec

Digital PV brings Internet-esque data packets to PC-to-screen links

IBM, Toshiba, Sharp and Hitachi today announced that they will co-operate on the development of a new data transfer protocol that will allow computers to communicate with LCD screens via . Dubbed Digital PV Link, the technology will enable high-resolution displays to handle moving images rather better than they do right now, the …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:13
AOL to offer 0800 access – if it gets BT wholesale deal

Unmetered access 'will happen'

AOL UK wants to hand BT a wedge of cash to secure unmetered access to the Net for its 600,000 members in Britain. Speaking in the Sunday Business newspaper, Clare Gilbert, VP and general counsel AOL Europe, said: "It is my view that it is now a question of when -- and not if -- unmetered access will happen. "We have put together …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:23
CHS bigwig launches European MBO bid

Update: But receivers still want to sell CHS UK as going concern

CHS Electronics today saw an MBO bid launched to buy 51 per cent of the EMEA business. The new EMEA operation would be led by Mark Keough, currently chief operating officer for CHS Electronics worldwide. Keough said he had the backing of manufacturers who "unanimously view this as a positive move". The CHS board is due to …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:28
Cheaper BT net access story looks like a dud

Two plus Two equals... er... Nine

BT is set to introduce reduced charges for dial-up Internet access, The Guardian reports today, although there appears to be some doubt whether this will happen or not. "Industry insiders" were the quoted as saying BT would make its move within the next couple of weeks, after coming under sustained pressure from industry and …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 11:35
Compaq and Dell play cat and mouse with PC sales

...but Compaq clawing its way back

Dell has beaten Compaq to the top slot in US PC sales for the first time, netting around 17.4 per cent of the market for Q3. According to IDC and Dataquest, Compaq saw its portion drop to 15.3 per cent, from 16.8 per cent last quarter. Dell's share grew from 16.4 per cent in Q2. The change took place as worldwide PC shipments …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 12:57
UK Online blacklists 400k ‘inappropriate’ Web sites

Family-oriented ISP makes stand against child porn

British ISP UK Online is claiming the moral high ground in the fight against pornography and gambling on the Web. Its proprietary software filtering system, ChildCheck, now blocks more than 400,000 "inappropriate" Web sites and the company (part of the Easynet Group) claims the list is growing all the time. Its own team of human …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 13:00
Intel licence deal paves way for 750 MIPS StrongARM

Chipzilla has been running unlicensed architecture all this time? Tsk...

Intel's next generation of 600MHz StrongARM processors has come a step closer to reality, via a licensing agreement the company has signed with ARM. The licence allows Intel to work with current versions of ARM architecture, and also with the forthcoming ARM 5TE. Intel first gave details of the next StrongARMs in March, and it's …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 13:19
Intel Coppermine chips: now the goldmine is official…

Fifteen CuMines a-processing and a partridge in a pear tree

Intel has now confirmed the introduction of a total of fifteen Pentium III and Pentium III Xeons using its .18 micron (Coppermine) technology and supplied prices. At the same time, it has cut prices on its existing .25 micron parts (tinmine?) which will be phased out as soon as it can convert its factories to the newer and …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 15:00
Not Welcome Here: China toughens stand against Net foreigners

No place to hide for running dog lackeys of Net capitalism

Internet companies and investors who have already invested in China could get their financial fingers burnt to a smouldering stump if communist administrators carry out a threat to block foreign investment. A senior telco official with the Ministry of Information Industry, Zhang Cunjiang, told English language publication China …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 15:11
Fujitsu clones iMac – Apple lawyers on alert

All-in-one, multi-colour design says it all

Fujistu has become the latest PC vendor to hop onto the iMac bandwagon, with a machine that, like eMachines eOne and Future Power's ePower, apes Apple's all-in-one multi-hued desktop to such an extent that it could land the Japanese giant in court. Fujitsu's MFV DeskPower Pliche 243 is based on a 433MHz Celeron CPU and ships …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 15:40
NTL blackout hits 54,000 customers

Software fault blamed

NTL customers in the South of England were without cable services last night. Users in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire began to experience problems with NTL's voice and data services from around 8pm last night. Services disappeared completely between 10pm last night and 10am this morning. The cable company today blamed a software …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 16:16
Apple plots direct-only sales

That's the rumour -- and it makes a lot of sense

Apple could be preparing to push even further up the direct sales route, according to sources. Actually, it's "several sources and knowledgeable readers" of Web site MacOS Rumors, which doesn't sound at all like a sufficient number to suggest the "very strong body of evidence", but we suspect they may have a point here. The …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 16:25
MS and Symantec spar over ‘hoax’ Windows Y2K email

Hoax alerts users to an 'unrequired' mod that MS nevertheless 'recommends'

When Microsoft and Peter Norton's people do not agree on a Y2K issue, whose side will you be on? Just this situation developed when anonymous chain emails recently warned of a Y2K problem right in the heart of Windows default date format. The mails claimed that the "short date format WILL NOT rollover in the year 2000. It will …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 16:43
AMD intros $666 700MHz Athlon, cuts prices

SiS adds chipset support, so look to your laurels, Chipzilla

AMD introduced its 700MHz Athlon processor today, as expected, and quietly trashed the big surprise Chipzilla was hoping for with the introduction of its Coppermine PIII chips by cutting prices on others in the range. Our information is that the 750MHz Athlon will now be introduced in late November. And AMD scored a further …

Business 25 Oct 1999, 16:45