19th January 2000 Archive

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Dell fires AMD Zone editor – Register blamed

Thought Police searched for Coppermine bug leaker

Co-founder of AMD Zone, Chris Tom, has been forced to find a new job because his former employer, Dell, considered his interest in the Athlon was a conflict of interest. Furthermore, Dell's investigators suspected the young man had leaked details of a Coppermine bug, and wanted to discover whether there was a link between The …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 01:58
Lotus goes mobile, integrates Outlook

Company still leads in messaging

Judging from the sold-out Lotusphere meeting in Orlando, Lotus seems to have regained some of the momentum it's been lacking in recent months. The announcement of Lotus Mobile Notes for handheld and wireless devices was somewhat overdue, and although Mobile Services for Domino is shipping, and Mobile Notes access to it is slated …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 08:53
MS Windows and OEM sales slow in $6bn Q2

Microsoft still makes buckets, but the slope seems to be getting shallower

Microsoft's Q2 results, announced last night, show a slowing of both revenue, net income, and income per share, but as usual, this is not the way it will be reported. With Microsoft's revenue being closely correlated with new products and PC sales, it is more logical to compare sequential quarters rather than year-earlier …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 08:56
Lotus lashes out over MS Exchange v Domino test

Now, where have we heard this one before?

What had been a little local skirmish between Microsoft and Lotus over Notes may be escalating into a war, despite the fixed smiles of chumminess following Lotus' decision this week to offer MS Outlook with Notes. Microsoft had of course hoped that Notes would fall to Exchange as had 1-2-3 fallen to Excel many years earlier, but …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 08:59
MS cites Python to support sweeping copyright claims

MS on Trial Despite exec departures, MS can still spare the odd snake...

Microsoft fired its antitrust trial return shot yesterday, claiming of course that it had violated no law, but also setting out its stall on copyright, using a 1976 action involving Monty Python as a precedent. In earlier documents, evidence and executive briefings Microsoft has made its position on copyright pretty clear, but …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 12:02
Linux guru set to topple Intel

Watch out Chipzilla, Torvalds is after you

Not content with winning the 1999 Formula 1 World Championship and reducing Microsoft to a mere shadow of its former self, Linus Torvalds now has his sights set firmly on putting Intel out of business. Torvalds, along with the terribly rich financier George Soros and the even terribly richer Paul Allen of Microsoft, will unveil …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 12:24
SGI, Nvidia, VA to port OpenGL 1.2 to Linux

Open source OS finally gets 100 per cent official OpenGL implementation

VA Linux Systems, Nvidia and SGI are to bring workstation-class graphics to Linux through the joint development of an OpenGL 1.2-based 2D and 3D graphics acceleration sub-system. Long-time collaborators Nvidia and SGI will provide Nvidia's GeForce 256 3D graphics chip -- presumably in its pro-oriented Quadro form -- and the …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 12:24
SGI ‘just short’ of breaking even

Might even start making money soon

Once-troubled SGI execs yesterday appeared to have cultivated sunnier dispositions when they revealed that the company will next week announce that it has broken even... almost. The official line phrase is "just short of break even", which could mean absolutely anything -- except, of course, 'in the black' and 'at break even …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 12:52
MOD blows £30m on junk projects

Can't work, won't work

The Ministry of Defence wasted £30 million of taxpayers' money on two bespoke computer systems, abandoned because they failed to work, for the RAF, Army and Navy. Some systems were replaced by off-the-shelf alternatives costing £1.3 million, the National Audit Office reveals. Dud projects included The Common User Data System …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 12:58
Dando stalker tracked down address on the Net

Was it the killer?

A suspected stalker used the Internet to trace Jill Dando’s address months before she was murdered, police revealed yesterday. The man used the Website 192.com to find details of her home in Fulham, London, in 1998. This site -- which accesses UK Info Disk Pro -- holds the telephone numbers and addresses of more than 42 million …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 13:11
94 per cent of drivers want wireless Web – oh, really?

But actually it seems they only want driving data, and couldn't care less about email...

The world is poised to beat a path to the door of companies offering in-car wireless Internet services, according to a recent survey carried out by E-valuations.com. Allegedly. Unfortunately the sample base and the interpretation of the data seems just a wee bit skewed. The survey was carried out for InfoMove, which by happy …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 13:17
Palm loses ground to WinCE over Xmas

But it's still way out in the lead

The Palm handheld platform continued to maintain a strong lead over Windows CE in the US last month, according to the latest data from market researcher NPD Intelect. Palm Computing ended the year with a marketshare of 73.6 per cent, up 8.1 per cent on December 1998. Windows CE took around 25 per cent, divided between products …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 14:12
Rambus sues Hitachi over SDRAM patent violation

Rambus talking to other memory, CPU companies re. use of its IP

Rambus has sued one of its own supporters, Hitachi, over allegations that the Japanese memory maker ripped off four Rambus "synchronous memory" patents. The case centres on four patents filed in 1990 by Rambus' co-founders. The patents cover 141 technologies relating to the way synchronous DRAM chips and inline memory modules …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 15:33
HP mopes about the channel

Open distribution

Hewlett-Packard is throwing its Mopier printer products open to the European channel. The vendor’s multifunction scanner/printer/copying products have previously lain in the hands of around 150 European resellers, including five in the UK. From this month, any dealer will be able to qualify to sell the range of high-end kit. The …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 16:49
Klein jumps as Gass escapes

C2000 replacement

Computer 2000 plans to reveal its replacement for deputy MD Andy Gass tomorrow. Sales director Julian Klein is hotly tipped for the job. Klein returned to C2000 last May after a two-year absence spent at Apple UK and Xerox. His previous stint at the Basingstoke distributor lasted six years in product marketing. Gass revealed he …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 17:32
Net credit card fraud pushes up crime figures

From scare story to reality

Online credit card fraud is to blame for the first rise in Britain’s crime figures in six years. A red-faced Downing Street last night admitted that overall crime figures for the country had risen two per cent for the 12 months to September 1999. But this masked a 29 per cent rise in fraud and forgery, including credit card …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 17:49
T-Rex for sale online

More expensive than Barney

No, it's not Barney. A complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletion is being auctioned online at Lycoshop with a reserve price of $5.8 million. Bidding opened yesterday, but so far there have been no serious offers. However, there have been plenty of hoax bids, according newswire PA. Lycoshop is selling the skeleton with Millionaire.com …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 17:55
Morgan promoted to Datrontech MD

Two share sales post

Datrontech has filled its MD vacancy after 14 months by promoting James Morgan. The former sales director replaces the gap left by Martin Mulligan in 1998. Morgan joined Datrontech from rival distributor Computer 2000 last July. No new sales director has been appointed at Datrontech. Keith Busson and Warren Lewis, sales managers …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 18:08
Transmeta chips to run Linux, Windows, attack Intel x86

Ditzel blabs immediately pre-launch, reckons Intel chips 'rudimentary'

Just hours before the big gig where Transmeta's super-secret was due to be revealed, company CEO Dave Ditzel blew it by spilling his guts to Dow Jones Newswires. We shouldn't be too hard on the lad, as spinmeisters and top flight execs alike generally melt when confronted by the Mighty Dow, but even so - Transmeta was supposed …

Business 19 Jan 2000, 19:19