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27th October 1999 Archive

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  • Compaq offers crumbs of comfort with small Q3 profit

    It's not good but it could be worse

    PC giant Compaq managed to turn in a profit of $140 million on turnover of $9.21 billion as its CEO Michael Capellas reported the company's third quarter earnings. That was a result better than analysts on Wall Street had expected but only represents a growth rate of two per cent in the European and US geographies. As market …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 06:34

  • MS reveals red ink in Expedia IPO filing

    But by Web standard the unprofitability is hardly unusual...

    Microsoft yesterday re-filed its IPO for Expedia, hoping to cash in on the Internet stock craze. A 13.6 per cent stake, amounting to 5.2 million shares, will be offered, with the share price expected to be in the 10 to $12 range. This was not disclosed in the first SEC filing in September. Assuming an $11 initial price and the …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 09:32

  • MS fixes February for Win2k rollout

    But it's really not late, no sir...

    Microsoft finally gave in to pressure from The Register yesterday and fixed the release date of Windows 2000 for February, as we've been predicting for some time. The date - specifically, 17th February - doesn't entirely abolish the frenzied debate (Date prediction industry goes into overdrive) over when the software will go to …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 09:35

  • Intel fashion machines now unlikely before Yule

    Unless they're Celeron-based, of course

    Bright and shiny PCs in interesting shapes and intended to use Coppermine Socket 370 processors may not now be in the shops by Christmas. That will be a further blow to Intel, which has spent much of this year promoting the designs, which use highly unusual form factors, not suited to Slot 1 cartridges. Some of the designs were …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 09:38

  • Via Joshua chip gets mobo support

    Iwill to intro systems shortly

    The Cyrix technology acquired by chipset company Via earlier this year is now poised to appear in the first machines. Iwill has announced it will introduce a motherboard called the WA133-S, aimed at supporting Socket 370 flip chip Celerons and the Cyrix (Via) Joshua chip. The mobo also comes with onboard Ultra SCSI, the company …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 09:55

  • Intel Bunny Suits in danger?

    Suits out, UK press report

    Interesting reports in the UK press about people wearing suits at work. According to both the Daily Mail and The Guardian, a European Union ruling may mean that people can claim unfair dismissal if they're forced to wear a suit. Intel has a fab in Ireland... ®

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 10:00

  • Strayduck.com takes to the air

    Daffy name – not such a daffy idea

    The hunting season for stray ducks is officially over after Cheshire-based telco, Telinco, finally let fly the details behind its ornithological ISP. What's more, it's not so bird-brained as it seems. For although Strayduck.com does not offer 24/7 0800 access to the Net, it does promise to cut access bills by around a third. …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 10:44

  • Netvest incubates five firms

    Spreading the risk

    City-based Net venture capitalists netvest.com Plc has pumped £340,000 into five Net companies as part of its first tranche of investments in the Net-related industry. The move comes less than two months after netvest.com floated its business on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Online price comparison service, shopgenie. …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 10:46

  • MS allies with IBM in major Win2k client upgrade push

    And Big Blue adopts Win2k as standard for 300k internal desktops

    Fixing the Win2k rollout date for February (Earlier story) is only the first stage of the battle for Microsoft; now the company has to make sure the new OS is a success from day one. Information received by The Register over the past couple of days indicates that Microsoft will be specifically aiming for widespread desktop …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 11:00

  • Right of Reply: MS says stealing is wrong

    Anti-piracy manager Julia Phillpot speaks

    Further to an article by Graham Lea entitled Microsoft piracy losses claims don’t stack up’ appearing on The Register on 19 October, 1999, I wish to draw your attention to a number of points in response to the accusations directed at Microsoft, namely "trying to scare consumers, businesses, governments and institutions into …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 11:26

  • Sturm warning: German mobile operators on the offensive

    Analysis And with Europe largely tied up, the focus shifts to the US

    Well - the fight over one of Europe's key mobile markets, the UK, has suddenly turned decidedly teutonic. Not long after Deutsche Telekom paid a remarkable sum to acquire One-2-One, its homegrown nemesis, Mannesmann, hit back by gobbling up Orange. The stakes are now getting dizzyingly high; Mannesmann ended up paying about $7, …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 11:32

  • 08004u MD coughs up to poor service

    But don't worry, readers, they'll have things sorted out in a week or two

    The MD of Scottish-based ISP 08004u -- which offers unmetered 24/7 access to the Net in return for a flat fee of £49.99 -- has admitted that his service is "absolutely appalling" but has promised that things will improve in the future. "I am not happy with the service," said David Banks. "At the moment, it's absolutely appalling …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 12:23

  • Did a ‘poison pill’ threaten Intel's StrongARM licence?

    An odd bit of Digital lawyering may have had an unforeseen affect. Allegedly...

    Earlier this week Intel and ARM agreed a licence deal (see story), and ARM's share price went crazy. The deal means future development of Intel's StrongARM processors is assured, and the endorsement of Chipzilla is of course mightily important for ARM. But the funny thing is, Intel had an ARM licence already. Exactly why Monday' …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 12:31

  • CHS Euro divisions file for court protection

    Domino effect spills out across the channel

    The fall-out from the collapse of CHS Electronics into the hands of the administrative receivers has extended to some of the group's European divisions. German-based CHS Frank & Walter, CHS Germany and CHS Austria have all voluntarily filed for court protection from creditors, according to a statement issued on Reuters last …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 12:40

  • Tower Red Hat Linux JVM wins speed trials

    IBM second and third, MS and Sun trail

    Java virtual machines, where "bragging rights rest on speed, speed, speed" according to an article in JavaWorld, have made some very significant progress in the past few months. In the latest round of tests by Volcano using their benchmarks, raw server speed shows significant improvement since May, but in most cases, stability …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 12:51

  • Motorola pumps up Bluetooth investment

    In Brief: Digianswer escapes Olicom's clutches

    Motorola has bought a majority stake in Digianswer from stricken networking vendor Olicom. Terms were undisclosed. The phone-to-chips giant will embed Digianswer's Bluetooth technology into the grandly named its DigitalDNA product portfolio for wireless connectivity, portable computing and home networking platforms. Danish-based …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 12:53

  • Athlon no threat to Intel World dominance

    Opinion Pete Sherriff calls for reality check time

    It's awfully hip and trendy these days to spout on about how great it is that AMD has finally got its act together with a credible threat to Intel'sdominance. Athlon is winning plaudits from reviewers and Intel has shot itself in the foot yet again (how many feet does Chipzilla have? -- Ed) with the Caminogate cockup. And yes, …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 13:08

  • What the Hell is a Skunk Work?

    No, its got nothing to do with smoking cannabis

    The term Skunk works originated in a satirical American comic strip "Li'l Abner" in the 1950's. Li'l Abner Yokum was a hillbilly who lived in Dogpatch somewhere in the mountains. There was not much industry in Dogpatch. Li'l Abner himself was a mattress tester, and most others were either moonshiners or bootleggers. There was, …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 13:28

  • Compaq pushes spooky follow your keystroke system

    The system will undercut IBM by $80 million

    Compaq has developed a technology capable of tracking a consumer's every move. The high-end system, which the company demonstrated at the Geneva telecomms show, integrates 111Tb (terabytes) of data and 128 processors from different types of Compaq boxes, allied with Corba databases and other pieces of software. Compaq has …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 14:20

  • No BT Net call pricing U-turn next week

    Time to stop frothing at the mouth and get real folks

    The Register apologises for being the bearer of bad news… but BT is not about to cut charges for Net access next Monday. Despite reports to contrary, the monster telco has denied it is about to undertake a "dramatic U-turn" in pricing policy. Sorry. A spokeswoman at BT dismissed a story that appeared yesterday on ZDNet UK that …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 14:28

  • Chicks in their underwear online now

    Hard news? Nah, but everyone needs a little light relief

    It's time to grab hold of your input device (Oi, we mean mouse you mucky-minded bugger – Ed) and get ready for the next live Web cast from top US lingerie firm Victoria's Secret. Famous for causing servers to go down all over the place during its last live Web cast at the NFL Superbowl, the lace-clad lovelies of Victoria's …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 14:56

  • HP's Merced on target for June 2000

    HP's four way only but chipset becomes big burning issue

    There will be four way Merced systems available for its customers in June next year, a Hewlett Packard executive said today. But whether all of the hardware vendors who originally committed to the platform are still with it is a trickier question. Last week, Dr Josef Reger, a senior executive at Fujitsu-Siemens in Germany, said …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 15:06

  • AMD set to capitalise from Intel mobile embarrassment

    Keeps prices steady as they go

    The lack of ability of Intel to supply .18 micron Pentium IIIs to its channel dealers and distributors in volume until next year has given AMD a rare window of opportunity to sell its products. AMD officially released its 25th October prices yesterday but the prices of its mobile processors are unchanged. That demonstrates its …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 15:38

  • Bill Gates is the devil – - whacky numerologist ‘proves’

    It's written in the ASCII

    If you take all the letters in Bill Gates III and then convert them into ASCII code and then add up all the numbers, you will get 666, which is the number of the beast. B = 66 I = 73 L = 76 L = 76 G = 71 A = 65 T = 84 E = 69 S = 83 I = 1 I = 1 I = 1 Total = 666.

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 16:56

  • Sunday Times names Register in best 100 Web sites

    Smug? You could say so

    Hurrah for The Sunday Times, Britain's biggest Sunday newspaper, for choosing The Register for its roll-call of "100 of the best" Web sites. Turn to page 54 in last week's ST Culture -- that's right, Culture -- section and there we are. "British technology news site with a sense of humour. Usually the best place to look to check …

    Business 27 Oct 1999, 20:13