28th October 1999 Archive
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Chip market sails out of doldrums
Smile on faces of trade group
After years trying to make the best of a rather bad situation by talking up the chip market, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has at last got some good news for its members. According to the SIA, turnover in the chip business will rise by 15 per cent this year to deliver an incredible $144 billion of sales. And by …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 09:49
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IO trade group acquires very silly name
But at least it's jaw jaw, not war war
After burying the hatchet, smoking the pipe of peace, and smoothing down their ruffled kimonos, industry leaders have unveiled not a future IO specification but a new name. Intel, Dell, NEC, HP, Compaq, IBM, Sun have decided to call the group Infiniband, after a row earlier this year split them wide apart. The chip giant had led …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 10:07
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Dealers sue Amiga over deceptive trade practices, fraud
Amiga shipped used part-ridden machines as new, dealers allege
Hell hath no fury than an Amiga dealer scorned, it seems. A whole bunch of 'em, under the banner of the Amiga Dealers' Association (ADA), are suing Amiga, inc. and its parent, Gateway, for breach of promise. The class action suit aims to get the two companies to cough up $3 million -- which, we suspect, is rather more than any …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 10:26
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CHS Latin America sold for cash
MBO planned down Mexico way
CHS Electronics plans to sell its majority interest in certain Latin American businesses. The troubled Miami-based distributor today said in a statement that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent to make a sale to a team of senior managers in the region. Under the terms of the cash deal, CHS would keep a 49 per cent …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:01
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MS wins Big Brother award for Linux spam atrocity
MS Austria execs now risk gaol in Norway...
Microsoft Austria has collected the top prize in the Community category of the Austrian Big Brother Awards. The prize, a tacky looking robot thing which can be viewed here, was given for the company's activities in spamming Austrian Linux users with questionnaires. Microsoft Austria recruited G3 GMBH to handle the mailing. This …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:03
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Oracle readies re-entry into network computer biz
Larry's at it again
Oracle's ebullient CEO, Larry Ellison, yesterday confirmed the database giant gearing up for a second attempt to make something of the network computer business after the abject failure of its first go. Last time round, Ellison set up Network Computer, Inc. and came up with a machine that would, he claimed, beat Windows-based …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:04
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Dell knocks Apple off top education spot – just
Will the iBook do the same to Dell?
Having knocked long-time market leader Compaq off the top PC sales slot in the US, Dell this week followed its success by de-throning a second market leader: Apple. According to Dataquest, during the first six months of 1999, Dell sold more computers to North American educational institutions than Apple did. Dell's lead over the …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:26
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IBM to produce new OS/2 client – very quietly
But you won't hear about it, and you can't buy it. Stealth marketing reaches its zenith
Just over a month on from apparently mugging a new client version of OS/2 to death, IBM seems to be poised to roll one out after all. But in a way that will mean hardly anybody will notice it, far less be able to get it. Last month Stardock Systems revealed that it had been negotiating to produce a new OS/2 client under licence …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:38
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Metrologie calls in administrators
CHS' woes extend to UK disti
Metrologie UK and its parent company CHS Electronics Holdings UK have been placed in administration. David Gilbert and Simon Michaels at BDO Stoy Hayward have been appointed administrators for the two businesses, sources told The Register. The administration orders were gained from the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:45
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Win95 development head Silverberg leaves MS
It's taken him something like two years to get into the office to resign, apparently...
So it's finally farewell again, Brad Silverberg, combative street fighter and Microsoft executive, who as a senior VP led the development of Windows 95. He will be resigning tomorrow after a very extended leave. He had been a consultant to Microsoft, advising on its consumer strategy. The arrival of Rick Belluzzo from SGI has …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:47
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SDMI can't kill MP3 admits music industry
Latest legal campaign suggests piracy can't be beaten with technology after all
Music business bruiser the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) today declared war on Internet-based music pirates with a plan to launch major legal assaults on Web sites across the world. Surprise, surprise. It would be odd indeed if the IFPI didn't take such action as part of its ongoing battle against …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 11:48
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AMD runs out of K6-III/400s
Demand strong as chip firm hits target
Chip company Advanced Micro Devices has hit its target of selling 1.3 million K6-III/400s this quarter and is now out of stock of the devices, sources close to the company claimed. While that's good news for AMD in one sense, the reports highlight the vulnerable nature of chip production. AMD would prefer to sell millions and …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 12:18
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HP issues profit warning
New car incentive scheme obviously hasn't done the business yet
Hewlett-Packard has warned of the "increased risk" of profits falling below expectations for the year ending 31 October. The US vendor did not make a formal announcement, but spoke to analysts yesterday, saying that weak North American server sales may pull down figures for Q4. HP had hoped that the changes put in place by new …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 12:57
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Sage founder, Goldman, dies
Ill-health had forced him to scale down workload over last two years
David Goldman, founder of Sage, has died aged 62. Goldman left his position of chairman at the software company two years ago due to ill-health. Sage said in a statement: "On behalf of all of Sage, it is with deep regret that we learnt of the death of David Goldman on Tuesday, 26 October." "We all appreciate the contribution …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 13:35
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Government to push PC rental for the poor
Half-baked plan to avoid creation of information underclass
The government wants low income families to rent refurbished PCs so that they don't get left behind in the fast-moving Internet revolution, but they will still have to foot the bill for dial-up access to the Net. Addressing the UK Internet Summit today in London, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, spoke of the …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 13:39
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The Net was invented in Britain, says leading UK minister
What was that about an information underclass?
Gordon Brown might know a thing or two about running the economy, but he knows sod all about the Internet. Despite boasting not one, but two, PCs in his office, the Chancellor of the Exchequer made an Al Gore-style (remember, he said he'd invented the Net) gaffe today that only serves to illuminate the dark voids of ignorance …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 13:42
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Former Info'P owner dumps more PC divisions
Buhrmann claims five buyers lined up as it moves out of computers
Buhrmann is to sell its computer division to raise cash to expand its office products business. The Dutch company is to offload the PC and peripherals distribution business for less than its 1.2 billion euros (£0.77 billion) annual sales. This move continues the theme of dropping links with PC industry when Buhrmann sold Info' …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 14:00
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NAG to offer free calls for low income families
Is this the missing piece of the government's PC rental scheme?
North American Gateway (NAG) -- the Canadian telco behind a too-good-to-be-true, no-strings-attached 0800 Internet service due out on Monday -- has said it is willing to provide toll-free access to the Net for low-income families. A spokesman for the company told The Register this morning that he was busy trying to get in touch …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 14:08
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Hucksters screw US businesses for phoney Web sites
Senate considers exponential growth in Web scams
Old-fashioned Yankee hucksterism has been going high-tech lately, resulting in upwards of a million American small businesses being surreptitiously billed for Web sites which they don't even know they have. The Senate Small Business Committee heard testimony this week on the practice of Web site "cramming", a penny-ante scheme …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 14:13
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AMD vs Intel – our readers write
Sherriff's email account gets blitzed
So far almost 100 readers have given me a piece of their mind on yesterday's piece concerning Athlon posing no real threat to Intel. Some of the pieces of mind have been returned to their owners as they obviously need all the pieces they can lay their hands on, but the overwhelming view seems to be that a) AMD isn't a threat to …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 14:20
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TurboLinux clustering and the code-forking scare
Or, the story that wasn't
TurboLinux airdropped some 'clustering enhancements' on to Linuxland this week, but it wound up mounting a search-and-rescue operation before anyone noticed. The kernel patch adds some load-balancing which TurboLinux says will make Linux more attractive as a clustering option. It's a patch that's optional, of course -- all …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 15:02
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MCI-Worldcom scores $4bn Dept of Defence contract
All this and record profits too...
With Congress and the FCC breathing down the necks of telecoms, questioning the wisdom of a spate of immensely profitable mergers and consolidations, MCI may just have found a way of becoming too indispensable to Uncle Sam to be broken up in future. The company, which climbed to number two following its recent $129 billion …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 15:15
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We're all Web window shoppers
Research shows we like to compare prices online but we're less inclined to spend
Four percent of the adult population of the UK -- 1.6 million people -- have never heard of the Internet, according to research published by ecommerce consortium, CommerceNet, and Nielsen Media Research. Despite this, the survey also discovered that a quarter of all adult Brits used the Internet last month, and that half of them …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 15:43
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Chipzilla to spill beans on Willamette later today
You heard it here first
Intel appears to be about to come clean on the early launch of the 'Athlon killer' Willamette, as exclusively revealed here a couple of weeks back. Chipzilla is holding a web briefing for analysts only (don’t want any of those nasty press animals listening in, do we?) later today and CNET reports that Willamette will be high on …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 16:05
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Apple pulls out of own UK show
Paris chosen as sole Euro expo site. Well, the food'll be better at least...
Apple has admitted that it has dropped its support for the UK's only Mac show, Apple Expo 2000, to focus instead on MacWorld Expo Paris as its European public platform. All other European shows have been cancelled too, an Apple spokesman told MacWorld UK. The shows have been canned, he said, to "maximize the global impact" of …
Business 28 Oct 1999, 16:55
