14th December 1999 Archive

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Post Seattle, net tax wrangles continue

And it's likely to get worse before it gets better...

Arguments for e-commerce and software being tax free were prepared for the WTO meeting by vendors like Microsoft, even if the battle of Seattle prevented their being considered. But this week, a more balanced assessment is being made about the need for a tax on Internet transactions, which mostly escape state and local taxes. …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 09:37
US encryption relaxation a bit slow

Too little, too late?

It was expected that the new relaxed rules on data encryption export from the USA would come into effect on Wednesday, but this will not now happen until 14 January, according to an announcement from the Bureau of Export Administration of the US Department of Commerce. The compelling market need is of course to protect e- …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 09:39
Sugar advertises for ‘Unrewarded Internet Entrepreneur’

...to work on Viglen-owned e-businesses

Alan Sugar, British household name and chairman of Viglen Technology, is famously bearish on Internet companies - or at least the valuations placed upon them. But he could be ready to change his tune, if the job advert placed in last Saturday's FT is anything to go by. The mercurial businessman is seeking an "unrewarded …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 09:39
MS shops around for Win2k web stats

But how come the MS sites aren't all running the beta as well?

Microsoft claimed recently that "thousands of companies have built their Web sites on the Windows 2000 platform" and announced that "6,000 Web sites are currently running on the Windows 2000 beta". We were therefore puzzled to find that Microsoft's Hotmail still uses Apache 1.3.6 Unix on FreeBSD, while msn.com uses IIS 4.0 on NT …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 09:40
Palm IPO to raise $100 million

Updated Nokia, AOL and Motorola to take stakes too

3Com subsidiary Palm Computing filed its divorce papers yesterday -- or at least early details of how it's going to break away from the comms giant through its upcoming IPO. Palm hopes to make $100 million on the issue, which is believed to be scheduled for next February, though there's nothing in the company's S-1 Securities …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 11:33
id Software's Carmack calls for OpenGL watchdog

Time to get those drivers fixed, says Quake developer

Developer of the Quake family of games and 3D gaming guru John Carmack has called for the development of an independent OpenGL "conformance nazi". Essentially, Carmack feels there's not enough testing of OpenGL drivers going on, largely because most of it's being done by software developers in their spare time. More to the point …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:16
Quantum Fireball claims get flamed

The world's quietest drive is given the silent treatment

Last week's announcement from Quantum that it had developed the world's quietest hard drive has had cold water poured on it by a number of industry watchers. The Fireball lct was heralded as a breakthrough by Quantum, with a resting noise level of 27.8 decibels reaching just 32.5 decibels in read/write mode. Quantum is hoping …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:33
NASDAQ stocks to list in Hong Kong

Marketing move, not a bid for global domination

Ever since Nixon went to China, the US has eyed the Chinese market lasciviously, even though the red ink continues to flow in Chinese IT investment. Yesterday, NASDAQ announced that Amgen, Applied Materials, Cisco, Dell, and Microsoft would be listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong from February. Softbank may also be involved …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:40
HP puts final storage slabs in place

Now ready to compete with all comers

Hewlett Packard will today announce support for storage area networking in the NT arena, along with a number of other initiatives designed to bolster its storage portfolio. Hugh Jenkins, head of product marketing at HP UK, said that the introduction of NT storage area network (SAN) support, filled a gap in its portfolio. He said …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:42
NetWare Cobra upgrade to ship January

Neatly in line with Windows 2000...

Novell has released its prices for the NetWare 5.1 upgrade, previously code-named Cobra, which it says will ship on time in mid-January. Novell has already demonstrated NDS running on Windows 2000, but is waiting for Microsoft's final release of Win2k before releasing its own enhancements. In addition to NDS and the new NDS …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:42
DVD crack won't delay DVD Audio rollout after all

Pioneer to launch DVD Audio player anyway

Japanese consumer electronics giant Pioneer has reversed its decision to delay the launch of DVD Audio hardware and will launch its upcoming player later this year as originally planned. The decision to delay its DVD Audio roll-out, pushing the launch back from December 1999 to April 2000, was made after a band of Norwegian …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 12:45
Intel moves 800MHz Coppermine launch forward

And the 750MHz part it planned for next month

A report on Electronic Buyers' News said that Intel has moved the launch of its 750MHz Pentium IIIs up from next January to next week, and will also introduce a 800MHz Coppermine Pentium III. If the reports are correct, it suggests that Intel is moving faster than expected to narrow the distance between it and its nearest …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 13:09
Japanese trio unveil MP3-on-cellphone system

Chuck out that Rio -- use your mobile phone instead

Why take a separate mobile phone and MP3 player into the shower, when you can have both together in one device? Fujitsu, Hitachi and Sanyo have developed a Flash card system to allow cellphones to play digital music tracks downloaded from the Net. Secure Multimedia Card (MMC) is essentially a rival to Matsushita, Toshiba and …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 13:10
08004u –- down but not out

Relaunch scheduled for Wednesday

Struggling ISP 08004u is claiming to have pulled off a last-minute victory in its battle to stay in business and get its service off the ground at last. According to a statement on its site, 08004u has "finally been able to secure the future of our product". It continues: "By Wednesday evening we will have our first test runs …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 13:21
Korean IT sector has a bumper 1999

Chips and screens in big demand

Korea's chip and TFT-LCD sectors had a boom year in 1999, serving as a prop for the country's economy. Both markets were forecast to stay strong for the next few years due to continuing demand for PC and digital electronic devices, the Korea Herald reported. Analysts said worldwide sales for semiconductors were this year …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 13:36
Home worker sues IT companies

Poor pay, long hours, hazardous conditions at heart of claim

Two IT companies in the US are being sued by a home worker alleging he had been subjected to unfair and illegal treatment. The man, Kamsan Mao – a Cambodian immigrant – is claiming that he built PC power supply units for San Jose-based Top Line Electronics, and earned as little as $5 in a three hour period. That's around £1 per …

Business 14 Dec 1999, 13:41