3rd March 2000 Archive

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DoubleClick throws in the towel on profiling

"I made a mistake," CEO allows

The recent controversy surrounding Web marketing outfit DoubleClick and its decision to merge a database of personally-identifiable consumer information with its database of Web-user data has come off the boil for now, and much to the satisfaction of consumers for a change. "It is clear....that I made a mistake by planning to …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 02:51
Don't believe the Web sales hype

Overstated, US Govt. says

Web sales figures may be a load of hype, according to the US government. Retail sales in the e-conomy totalled $5.3 billion for the Christmas quarter, a survey by the Commerce Department claimed yesterday. This was just 0.6 per cent of the $821 billion in overall retail sales for the last three months of 1999, and conflicts with …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:01
AMD's 1GHz Athlon arrives this month – official

The FAQs speak for themselves. Sindie is Screaming

A posting on AMD's own web page shows clearly that the company will launch its 1GHz microprocessor this month, thus prompting rival Chipzilla to drag its own gig processor screaming and shouting into the same time frame. This reference in a FAQ at AMD's site clearly states it will bring out a 1GHz microprocessor this month, and …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:13
Liberty Surf takes X-Stream measures

UK ISP valued at £48m

European subscription-free ISP, Liberty Surf, is to merge with The X-Stream Network in a deal that values the British outfit at £47.69 million ($75.35 million). Under the agreement Liberty Surf will acquire all of the outstanding shares of X-Stream common stock. Once the deal is finalised X-Stream will become a wholly owned …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:28
Chinese e-dissident released from jail

Beijing government relaxes approach to Net

Lin Hai -- the Chinese businessman imprisoned by Chinese authorities last year for passing on 30,000 email addresses to dissidents and activists -- has been released from jail. According to a report by AFP today, Lin was released in September 1999 -- almost six months ago. It appears his release went unnoticed. When AFP caught …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:29
Nvidia NV11 goes mobile too

It's Graphiczilla, for sure...

Nvidia is planing to hit the mobile market soon. The 0.18 micron based NV15 has only half the power dissipation of Geforce 256 and the NV11 has approximately 30 per cent lower power dissipation than the NV15, and so we can expect some mobile computers based on the NV11. Another fact that can give us a clue is the ACPI power …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:33
Samsung demos MP3 cellphone

Doesn't download MP3s, but it's a start

Samsung this week demonstrated a cellphone equipped with a built-in MP3 player which it plans to ship in the US later this year. Given current cellphone technologies' data transmission speeds aren't sufficient to download an MP3 - at least not in any sensible timeframe - so it's no surprise that the Samsung machine doesn't …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:44
AMD to be fourth fabber for Alpha…

...and so it goes

Intel is forced, through the might of the United States government, to make Alpha chips for its customer Compaq for perpetuity. Well, not quite perpetuity, but in chip terms, 10 years is equivalent to 1,000 years of software. When the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) took its mighty finger and wagged it severely at Intel a few …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 09:45
Willamette explained by Willamettian

Letter Interesting stuff unrelated to 1.4GHz

"According to my daughter's homework today, the sound of a vowel in syllable which is not accented is called a schwa. I have lived for 51 years not knowing this. The a in america, the u in bonus, and the i in Willamette are all examples of this. "Yes, we do live on the Willamette river here in Oregon, and in the Willamette …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 10:07
SDMI embarks on Phase II of universal digital music spec

Opinion The future of music delivery starts here

The Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) this week launched the development of Phase II of its specification for a digital content copyright protection framework with a request for submissions for the screening technology that will lie at the heart of the system. The Call for Proposals (CFP) essentially describes the technical …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 10:30
We're so sorry, says SurfVeryLimited firm

Overwhelmed by success

Cable Internet has issued a formal apology concerning the difficulties that have beset the service since the launch last month of its Surf Unlimited flat-rate tariff. In a statement issued to The Register last night Cable Internet said: "We apologise to any customers who have been experiencing difficulties getting through to …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 10:48
Telewest marches to broadband beat

End of March set for launch of new service

Still mopping up the mess made by its haphazard free Net calls service, Telewest has announced it is to launch its broadband cable service later this month although exact details are being kept under wraps until the official launch at the end of March. What is known is that the service will be offered in just one of Telewest's …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 11:38
Palm stock rockets to create $53.4bn company

Share price peaks at over four times initial value in first day's trading

Trading in Palm's freshly-IPO'd shares added over 300 per cent to the stock's launch price yesterday, taking them from $38 apiece to a high of $165 before closing at $95.06. The final price of the day left Palm, Inc. valued at $53.4 billion on paper, way above that of the company it emerged from, 3Com. Palm's former parent saw …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 11:40
Alta Vista launches in France and Holland

In Brief: now in five European countries

Alta Vista is continuing its European roll-out with local language sites for France and Holland. They join country versions for the UK, Germany and Sweden. The new sites are located at: www.altavista.fr www.altavista.nl

Business 3 Mar 2000, 11:51
Colour Palm VII due August

According to rumour, at any rate

Info leaking out of newly IPO'd Palm suggests the company will follow up its recently launched colour Palm IIIc with a non-mono version of the wireless data-oriented Palm VII in the summer. At this point we should point out that the source, as it were, for this rumour is Infoworld's psedonymous columnist, Robert X. Cringely - …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 11:56
DRAM prices on the up again

First increase since September

DRAM prices have rebounded for the first time in six months. Spot market prices have increased around 30 per cent since Friday for PC-100 modules. Memory Corp and Dane-Elec were yesterday selling 128MB DIMMs at around $110, compared to $85 on Friday. Distributor GSI was this morning quoting $98 for a 128MB, and $52 for a 64MB …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 12:01
Sugar flogs Spurs(.co.uk) to BSkyB

Online riches

Alan Sugar's favourite football club has sold its Web site www.Spurs.co.uk to Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB for an undisclosed sum. BSkyB will gain access to Tottenham Hotspur's fan base, apparently the second richest supporters in the UK after Chelsea's. Spurs will get a share of the profits from the merchandising and other e-commerce …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 12:23
Apple opens online sales to small resellers

But not without restrictions

Apple appears to be taking a more relaxed attitude to online Mac suppliers, according to one US-based reseller cited by MacWeek. Don Mayer, CEO of Small Dog Electronics, told the Apple-watching Web site that Apple's latest terms and conditions for Authorized Apple Resellers permits them to sell computers online from 1 April. …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 12:29
How AMD beat Intel to 1GHz chip

Analysis Execution, execution,execution. Chop.

Intel has clearly lost the PR war it has engaged in with AMD to bring a 1GHz x86 microprocessor to the market first. Earlier on this week, we reported that Intel has plans to trickle out a 1GHz microprocessor, although the press relations division declined to confirm or deny that point. We reported yesterday that the likely …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 14:10
Big Blue PC support is roses, roses

What, no thorns?

A story we wrote about Gateway's problems with support earlier this week has prompted Big Blue to tell us what it is up to. Dermot O'Laughlin, programme director for IBM US services and support, said that steps the firm took in the last few years has paid dividends for its customers. O'Laughlin said that four or five years ago, …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 14:51
Register to IPO

There's more to this than meets the eye...

Gotcha! No, we aren't floating. Not yet, anyway. Register.com, the domain-name registrar, has announced it plans to float five million shares on Nasdaq at $24 a pop. The company, which in true dot com style has yet to make a profit, was one of the companies to win the right to challenge Network Solutions on its URL-registration …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 16:10
Hemscott weighs up options

Trade sale or float could be on the cards

Online finance information service Hemscott.net is in talks regarding a possible IPO. The company, which claims 20 million page impressions per month, is being advised on its options by merchant bank Rothschilds. "One of these options might be flotation or a trade sale," confirmed one Hemscott representative. The company has …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 16:23
Polish porn ban leaves cyber door open

Illegal to import, distribute and sell -- but no mention of downloading

Polish politicians today voted to ban all pornography. The parliament in Warsaw narrowly approved a total ban on the import, distribution and sale of porn. There was nothing said about sitting in front of your PC plumbing the depths of the Internet's flesh pots though. The bill, which passed the Sejm - parliament's lower house …

Business 3 Mar 2000, 17:13