21st December 1999 Archive

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TechSearch loses round to Intel in patent case

$8 billion case dismissed by judge

Intel won a battle against US patent firm TechSearch yesterday. TechSearch last year took action against Intel for allegedly infringing the patent on the International Meta Smalltalk patent. IM was a firm originally under Apple's wing, which developed an emulation mode that Techsearch claimed was infringed on by several of Intel …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 09:45
Via-S3 deal would make Intel dead grumpy

S3 buys #9, but share price flutters.

Forbes Online is reporting that graphics company S3 is in merger talks, with Taiwanese firm Via the suspected suitor. The magazine reports that Lehman Brothers is currently brokering a possible deal, but the probability is that if Via is interested, it does not want the whole of S3's business, but just its graphics chip business …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 09:58
MS votes for InterVU with $30 million

And gets back $10 million almost immediately from the ahre hike...

Microsoft is investing $30 million in InterVU, a San Diego-based developer of streaming audio and video, the idea being to incorporate the technology in the Windows Media platform. InterVU says its ambition is to bring 100 Kbps to 1 Mbps broadband into the mainstream, but the reality is that for most of the world, broadband is …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 10:35
Ask Jeeves – about MS and MIT patents…

Ot you could ask Maxwell. Or not.

If you go to Microsoft's "Ask Maxwell" Web page and ask: "Do you by any chance know a chap called Jeeves?" you get the response "I know the answer to this question: click the 'ask' button next to it." Clever, you may think, until you discover that Netscape Navigator elicits the answer "(Carrier Detect) CD" while IE gives " …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 10:37
Nader slams MS pricing, licences, demands Office ports

Just another day in a life of consumer advocacy...

Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who brought General Motors to its knees over car safety failures ("Unsafe at any speed"), has been talking and writing about Microsoft's "poorly designed products" that were "prone to crash" at the Bazaar, an open source software event in New York. He drew attention to the narrowness of the DoJ …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 10:41
Big Q's petition to FTC on Alpha might well fail

Whatever happened to low-end Alphas?

The shenanigans at Compaq earlier this year when it withdrew its support for Microsoft NT and Win64 on the Alpha platform is likely to have a negative effect on an attempt by the firm to alter a FTC consent agreement. Last week, Compaq asked the US Federal Trade Commission to remove an element from the agreement which required …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 11:37
Big Q to roll-out BTO for direct buyers

Deal with Inacom said to be on the cards

Compaq is reported to be in talks with distributor Inacom over build-to-order PCs for the vendor's direct customers. Analysts claimed Compaq, which kept Inacom in its stable of US distributors after its channel cull in April, is considering buying the ability to tailor-make PCs. According to today's Wall Street Journal, the two …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 12:56
Clinton throws his weight behind online Christmas shopping

Is that a Big Q on your laptop or are you just pleased to see me

Womanising US President Bill Clinton went on an online spending spree yesterday to buy some last minute Christmas gifts. The self-confessed internet virgin hooked onto the Net using a Compaq laptop computer from the comfort of the Oval Office in the White House. Once online, he avoided the crowds and opted instead for two …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 13:12
New UK MD named for HP

Has to hang to his existing duties, despite promotion

Christmas has come early for Hewlett Packard and with it comes a shiny new UK chief. Phil Lawler, previously director and general manager at the vendor's enterprise computing sales organisation in the UK and Ireland, has been named as the new UK managing director. He will replace John Golding, who at 57 is to retire from the …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 13:40
Win2000 to fuel Taiwan memory growth

And Rambus won't get in the way

A bright future is being predicted for Taiwan's DRAM makers as the industry emerges from a three year slump. "Next year will be very good for the DRAM business, simply because demand will be much higher than supply," said Hander Chang, assistant vice president and spokesman for Winbond Electronics. Winbond, Taiwan's largest DRAM …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 15:20
Dell customers delayed at Caminogate gulch

Them RIMMs, them RIMMs, them dry RIMMs

Customers who ordered Dell Dimension XPS B systems as soon as the company made them available have been told they'll have to wait a bit longer to play with their Rambus compliant toys. A reader who placed an order for the machines, which support the Rambus memory set, and, according to the Dell web site, Pentium IIIs now up to …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 15:42
Bastard Operator From Hell joins The Register

Cult Columnist chooses us as primero uno online outlet

Simon Travaglia, the brains behind The Bastard Operator From Hell (BOFH), has selected The Register for the online return of his classic cult sysop-as-saboteur column. We're very pleased: and so should be Britain's army of networking sysops. They were left bereft following last autumn's closure of Network Week, where BOFH …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 15:47
Intel's 1GHz bent promises

Said it could do it last February. Hasn't done it yet

Back in February, we met Pierre Mirjolet, architecture marketing manager at Intel EMEA, who talked about Intel's .18 micron process and showed slides demonstrating a 1GHz chip by the end of this year. Intel has not, so far, demonstrated such a beast apart from as a technology demo, but Mirjolet suggested that 1GHz Pentiums would …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 16:03
Goldrush town to give itself DOTCOM moniker

There's gold in them thar hills...

The Gold Rush town of Halfway is to rename itself half.com, in an attempt to revive its flagging fortunes. According to Associated Press, the seven elders of the town have agreed to change the name of the town to HALF.COM, after discussions with a Philadelphian entrepreneur. The aim is to get more publicity for the place, which …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 16:16
MS PR bunnies' warrens wander

Text 100 -- Microsoft Nil

Pity the poor PR bunny. Like Text 100 offshout August One, spun off to take care of the might Microsoft. Clearly the stresses and strains of dealing with the Great Stan of Software is taking its toll, as the poor dears clearly no longer have any sense of geography -- quite apart from failing miserably to invite The Register to …

Business 21 Dec 1999, 17:25