4th November 1999 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Computacenter touts e-commerce for the corporate rich

Biomni -- isn't that a washing powder?

Computacenter has launched a e-commerce company to sell everything from PCs to paperclips to big corporates. Very big corporates. Companies with 15,000 users will have to fork out around £500,000 for the service. Biomni, a joint venture between Computacenter and its sister company Computasoft e-Commerce, will be an extension of …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 08:53
Oftel takes aim at Vodafone and BT Cellnet

Not that they've done anything wrong, mind...

Oftel is to put pressure on the UK's two biggest mobile operators, Vodafone and BT Cellnet, to make sure the market remains competitive. The watchdog will see that both companies continue to provide airtime to competitors, publish charges and terms and conditions, and produce accounts for each service they offer. David Edmonds, …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:01
CallNet0800 up and running

But huge signing-on queue

British Net users have started gorging themselves on their first real taste of 24/7 toll-free access to the Net, following Monday's launch of CallNet0800. It's too early yet to say whether this feeding frenzy will satiate the Net gluttons, or whether it will lead to a nasty bout of indigestion since the chatterers in the …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:05
CallNet 0800 lambasts ‘reputable’ journalists

That's us in the clear, then...

Toll-free ISP CallNet0800 may be fearless when it comes to blaming BT for being unable to handle calls to its registration hotline, but it's not quite so tough when it comes to journos. In a statement issued yesterday, a spokesman for CallNet0800 thundered: "It is also truly deplorable that reputable journalists should publish …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:10
End in sight to Caminogate

Dr Craig Barrett puts us out of our misery

News wire Reuters is reporting that the CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, has at last made a statement on the i820 chipset. Speaking in Seoul, which he visited yesterday, Barrett told the press that the i820 will ship in a couple of weeks. This will hopefully prevent local Intel spin doctors from chanting the mantra: "The i820 will …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:15
Windows will soon be obsolete, says MS defender

MS on Trial He's got to be talking carpentry, right?

I was a quieter Halloween weekend than we expected, with no news from Judge Jackson (OK, our source was a dud). But we do expect some news this Friday night. There were many exquisite fireworks in court, so why not issue the findings of fact on the anniversary of Guy Fawkes' attempt to use gunpowder to blow up the Palace of …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:43
MS WTO tax push skips IP, values software at zero

It's only worth the same as a blank CD, apparently...

Microsoft's main objective at the WTO ministerial conference is to make sure that there are no moves to impose duties or tariffs on software sent outside the US electronically, and that where there is a medium such as a CD-ROM for the software, only the value of the medium would be considered for tax purposes, and not the value …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:46
Mosel Vitelic CFO steps down in wake of poor figures

Shares continue to slip and slide

The rocky ride at DRAM maker Mosel Vitelic continues after the Taiwanese company lost its chief financial officer, William Chen, yesterday. Chen's departure sent shares in Mosel Vitelic plunging to their lowest point since 11 October, falling 2.8 per cent in one day - which adds up to an 8.1 per cent drop over two days. Only …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:48
Compaq to offer Tru64 cheap… cheep

The $99 is other people's royalties

In a bid to propagate its 64-bit version of Unix, formerly known as D/UX but now called Tru64, Compaq will today announce it is licensing the OS at a nominal charge of $99. Compaq will license the OS to enthusiasts, educational institutions and non-commercial users, starting in the US first and then extending the scheme …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 09:57
Eicon GPLs Linux ISDN driver

Comes standard with 2.2 kernel

ISDN hardware vendor Eicon Technology has achieved BABT (British Approvals Board for Telecommunications) certification for its DIVA 2.01 PCI ISDN adapter running under Linux. Eicon co-operated with stack developer Karsten Keil, using the HiSax hardware level driver with the isdn4linux kernel. Keil, senior engineer ISDN of SuSE …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 11:07
IPO magic transforms Thomson from dud TV outfit

After years of gloom, suddenly it's lovable again...

Thomson Multimedia, the flagship French consumer electronics giant, stepped a little closer back into the private sector yesterday with a successful IPO. Shares jumped 35 per cent, putting a $4 billion price tag on the company, so presumably the companies were induced to take stakes in it last year will be pleased. Presumably - …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 11:08
Handspring shipment woes continue

Web site still having problems processing orders

Palm licensee Handspring continues to disappoint its customers. Since it launched its Visor PalmOS-based handheld organiser, some 63 per cent of buyers have yet to receive their machines, according to a poll on Visor-oriented Web site Visor Central. True, it's not an entirely scientific figure -- only 286 people have voted -- …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 11:18
US boffins develop molecular memory

Farewell, DRAM?

That 512MB of SDRAM still not enough for your Windows 2000 installation? A research team from Yale and Rice universities reckons it has the answer: molecule-sized memory cells. In a paper to be presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting in Washington DC next month, the team claims to have created a single-bit …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 11:40
Compaq to intro legacy free PCs

Wee free with Win98 SE

US reports said that Compaq will introduce so-called legacy free boxes at the end of next week, using the slimmed down Easy PC design Intel pushed hard throughout the year. According to news.com, the PCs are also likely to include Internet services, although it is unclear whether this just applies to the US. The designs are …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 12:41
Apple stock hits all-time high

Set to hit Microsoft, IBM level real soon now

Apple's shares yesterday spiralled up to achieved their highest price ever, $83.25, before closing at $81.50 - higher than Intel, Dell and Compaq. Analysts reckon the trend will continue, with $90-95 being widely touted as the stock's price range within the next 12 months. At this rate, the stock will reach that point sooner …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 12:57
Tesco & RBS launch Net bank

So now you really can have your salary paid direct to the supermarket

Tesco is to launch a virtual banking service in connection with its online home-shopping service by expanding its Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) scheme, run jointly with Royal Bank of Scotland. Customers will be able to check balances, transfer money or apply for Tesco-branded mortgages online. TPF now has over one million …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 12:59
Bookworm busted for £100k online book scam

Wanna get free books, this man shows you how it's done

Police are questioning a man after a raid on his home unearthed £100,000 of books allegedly stolen online. The bookworm from deepest darkest Deeplish, near Rochdale, pretended to be a linguistics professor at the University of Manchester to buy books over the Internet. He contacted online booksellers in the US, Denmark, India …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 13:23
Carrera intros 1GHz Athlon box

It's refrigerated, err...thermally accelerated

UK firm Carrera Technology said that it will introduce a workstation that uses an Athlon processor running at 1GHz. The machine will be available in early December. The £5,873.83 box is called the Octan FrioSuper G and is aimed both at the workstation and the high end gaming market. The system uses an Athlon "thermally …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 13:27
Intel's Otellini: We've nothing to apologise for over Via, FIC

But Taiwanese mobo makers are unhappy with i820 debacle

"We have nothing to apologise for," Intel executive vice president, Paul Otellini, told The Register earlier today. Otellini was speaking in Taipei days after the giant US chipmaker sued Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) and others for patent violation. Industry insiders claim Intel has targeted FIC to put further …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 13:36
Sun confirms MS Win2k pricing ‘manipulation’

When is a promotional price not promotional price?

Chris Sarfas, Sun's UK product marketing manager, was in an explosive mood when he alleged that Microsoft has manipulated a price comparison between Solaris and Windows 2000 in its pricing announcement. Indeed, we said much the same thing earlier this week (see Win2k smoke and mirrors -- how MS is hiking OS prices.) "Any …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 14:30
Hague gets bald with Blair over IR35

Tories jump on the IT consultancy bandwagon

At Prime Minister's Question Time yesterday, leader of the opposition William Hague launched into an attack on the government's IR35 proposals. "When it is so important to encourage small information technology companies to thrive in this country, what on earth are the government doing voting tonight for yet another of the Prime …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 14:36
Only five months late for Boo.com launch

Time to flog some sports kit

Boo.com, the online shopping service for slaves to sports fashion, has launched in seven countries. The company, which saw its launch date delayed by five months due to software problems, has secured substantial financial muscle for a European start-up. It is already worth more than £125 million, according to today's FT. …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 14:41
Open up and RAM, four memory leaders exhort

They say: don't buy a new PC, but more memory

First we had the Seven Dramurai, and now, we seem to have a recent, and largely unpublicised coalition between four large memory manufacturers. The group, which calls itself, rather grandly, The Council for Computing Power, is made up of Infineon, Samsung, Hyundai and Micron. The Council has a very strange Web site here, where …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 14:42
It's official: Mobile phones give you diarrhoea

This one could run and run...

Not content with frying your brains and digging a hole in your bank balance, mobiles are now also loosening the nation's bowels. This is according to research by Tony Bernstein from the Pure Air Company. After kindly subjecting mice to mobile phone use, Bernstein discovered that the radiation emitted could have a "laxative …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 14:58
RealNetworks subsidiary's gaffe led to DVD crack

Hackers break 'unbreakable' DVD encryption

It hasn't been RealNetworks' week. Just as the company's scheme to nab Real Jukebox users' personal preferences data was exposed on Monday, yesterday it emerged that its engineers were responsible for the gaffe that allowed European hackers to crack the DVD encryption code. According to Wired News, the hackers, from the …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 15:16
Linux gets massive thumbs-up from UK channel

Four out of five ready to give it a whirl with their customers

Four out of five UK resellers are primed and ready to sell Linux to their corporate customers. This astounding figure has been revealed by research by broadline distributor C2000, which recently signed to push Red Hat Linux in the UK. The research also claims that 71 per cent of resellers surveyed said their customers were …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 15:23
Bishops bash Web pornmongers

Church of England declares war on cyberfilth

The Church of England has urged its parishioners to take direct action against Internet porn by flooding the Web with positive, spiritual material. Next year will also see the appointment of a latter-day Noah who will co-ordinate the Church's stance, although the Bishop's name has yet to be released. The move came as a report …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 15:34
Amazon vs. Amazon case settled

Amazon.com gets to keep the name, feminist bookstore has a licence to use it

Last April, you may recall, we reported on Minneapolis-based bookstore Amazon's attempt to seek recompense from Amazon.com for allegedly misappropriating its name. Today, nearly seven months later, the two bookshops have reached an out-of-court settlement. The agreement grants Amazon.com exclusive rights to the name Amazon ( …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 15:43
IBM ups PC server price war

Slashes prices on Netfinity range

Big Blue has slashed prices on its server range in the UK and now claims it is undercutting Dell and Compaq on similar machines. The Netfinity range now starts at £896, which IBM claims is £110 cheaper than the equivalent Dell machine and £190 less than a similar Compaq box. At the same time, IBM said it was offering cash back …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 15:52
Judiciary committee passes US inventor protection bill

But will it improve the quality of patents? Probably not...

The US Senate Judiciary Committee has approved the proposed American Inventors Protection Act unanimously and is passing it to the full Senate. The House of Representatives passed a similar bill in August, but unless a compromise can be agreed by both houses, it may not be approved before the recess. The Senate proposal gives 17 …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 16:09
Cash Register Daily Net Finance News: 15-21 Oct

Roundup

21 Oct 1999 NewMedia Spark, the UK's first quoted Internet incubator fund (that's what the FT says, at any rate) is raising £2.86 million on AIM. The founder investors, including Luke Johnson of Belgo and Pizza Express fame, are pumping in £2 million of their own money, delivering a pot of just under £5 million. Not a lot of …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 16:53
Intel-Inktomi Web cache box runs Sun Solaris

The twin CPU Web appliance is an appliance Jim, but not as we know it...

Intel will be using Solaris as the base OS for a new and decidedly more upscale "appliance" early next year. The Intel Web-caching appliance was announced last week at ISPCON, is aimed at small to mid-range ISPs, and is effectively an Inktomi Traffic Server box which was co-developed by the two companies. Intel doesn't …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 17:03
All work and no PlayStation – make do with a dull toy

Sony warns of Christmas shortages

Sony is warning that there will be shortages of PlayStations in the run up to Christmas. The Japanese manufacturer of the wonder console said yesterday it would not be able to meet demand during the festive season, according to Bloomberg. The statement came less than three months after Sony cut the price of PlayStations from $ …

Business 4 Nov 1999, 17:03