1st June 2000 Archive

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Sun buys an Infiniband leg-up

If the network is the computer, you still need wires

Sun Microsystems has bought itself some negotiating muscle, picking up the rights to Dolphin's Infiniband technology. Dolphin provides the SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) interconnects for Sun's Enterprise clusters, Fujitsu's RM600s and Data General's cc-Numa servers, and helped define the SCI spec in its early days. Sun …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:37
Amazon dumps Alpha 17 years ahead of schedule

Moral: if you're sure of a customer, shut up about it

Amazon switching to HP for its infrastructure is bad news for Compaq and Sun, but has a certain piquancy for The Register. Amazon was of course a big, prestige (but we'd guess not particularly revenue-rich) customer for Alpha back in the days before it was Compaq Alpha. Back in 1998, on his way to being taken over by Compaq and …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:37
ATI throws wobbler over prototype review

Maybe you shouldn't have sent it out then, guys

Poor old Chip. ATI is throwing its corporate weight around following the German site's review of a prototype Radeon graphics chip. "As ATI has not released any boards for testing, your testing was done on a board obtained through irregular channels," bleats ATI. Chip replies that if ATI considers its own German branch to be an …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:37
Next generation Intel chipsets have bugs

Won't stop 'em launching the little buggers, though

May the Lord have mercy, as my dear old mum used to say. No sooner has Intel had to dip into Andy Grove's retirement nest egg to fund the Caminogate mobo fiasco, than does Chipzilla prepare to launch another bunch of dodgy chipsets. The i815 and i815E chipsets are "on schedule" for launch this month (June). However, there will …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:37
BT Internet customers locked out of email

'Goodwill gesture' considered - but don't hold your breath

Thousands of BT Internet customers are facing their third day locked out of their email accounts after an upgrade cock-up. The ISP has admitted that "a few thousand" of its users were affected by the bungle, which hit the service on Monday. It hopes to have the problem fixed by Thursday, but a representative today told BBC …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:37
Symbian's Myers on Microsoft, antitrust and those memos

Steering platforms

Over Jambalaya and Cajun ribs, Symbian's CEO Colly Myers talked to The Register about those Gates memos, staff-poaching, Intel's entry into the handset business, and keeping the noisy Symbian fraternity in harmony. Symbian now has 700 employees in the US, mostly development staff transferred from the company's founding …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:38
The dos and don'ts of mobile phone etiquette

Don't speak when you are spoken to

They have been slated for causing brain tumours and Alzheimer's, but now it's serious: mobile phones are bad manners. In some situations, it is generally agreed that starting up a mobile conversation is a dodgy idea (immediately after sex, for instance). But it is now also deemed poor social etiquette to chat on the phone on …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:51
Meet the Sexy Sister

The first erotic websoap - apparently

The soap format really isn't made for the Web, but that doesn't stop people coming up with new and interesting variations in the hope of worldwide audiences (and dollars). This latest one sells itself as the "first erotic websoap on the Internet" (are there other websoaps not on the Net?) and comes from a country with a proud …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:56
MS mounts futile bid to delay, blunt trial penalties

Analysis Weird scenes inside the documentation...

Microsoft's last two documents prior Judge Jackson's Final Judgement are strange in format and puzzling in intention. The company sticks to its guns without any rational hope of victory at this juncture - so it hopes to fight again later. The Comments on Plaintiff's Revised Proposed Final Judgement is, as the title suggests, …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 08:56
3Com sues Xircom in modem patent clash

Even though 3Com's selling its modem biz...

Just over two months after announcing it will sell off its analog modem business, the comms giant is suing Xircom for allegedly ripping off some of its patented modem technologies. 3Com's suit, filed on 25 May in Salt Lake City, Utah, claims Xircom "willfully, wantonly and deliberately" used its patented inventions in various …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 09:25
Compaq's Capellas offered as MS character witness

MS on Trial Will he take the field with Bill at the appeal?

It's now all over bar the sentencing. Microsoft handed in its final arguments yesterday, and given that there's very little in the the judge is likely to agree with, he's quite capable of ruling on remedies today, or tomorrow. Effectively, Microsoft's latest filing is an investment for the appeal process, when the company will …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 09:29
TurboLinux announces lay-offs and refocus

But coming late to the Linux cluster party could cost

There was some barely disguised meerschaum in some quarters of the Valley after TurboLinux announced lay-offs: reportedly ten per cent of the company's workforce. The layoffs "were significant enough to affect profitability and shallow enough that we can focus on what we do best", according to TurboLinux president Paul Thomas, …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 09:43
Napster exiles 230,000 more alleged music pirates

After Metallica, Napster bans Dr Dre's list of users

Napster has booted a further 230,142 alleged copyright infringers off its MP3 sharing system. That brings the total number of 'Napster Exiles' to just under 550,000 ex-users. The latest evictions follow rapper Dr Dre's submission to the company of a list of users he claimed were sharing copies of his tracks without permission. …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:16
Gay Labour Lord gets Web reprimand

It's not cricket, fuddy duddies cry

Controversial Labour Peer Lord Waheed Alli has been told off by the House of Lords for giving his Parliamentary office as a mailing address for a post on a new "gay dot-com" company. Waheed placed an ad in the Media Guardian in April for a CEO, offering 150,000 a year plus stock options. It's against the gentlemanly rules to …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:21
Computacenter launches hostile bid for Compel

Offers 85 million cash

Computacenter, the UK's second biggest reseller, has launched a hostile 85 million take-over bid for the UK's third biggest reseller Compel. The company this morning said it had approached the board of Compel with a cash offer of 275p per share to buy the whole group. The move comes two weeks after reseller Specialist Computer …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:21
Oven geek teaches Planet Online staff how to use microwave

Challenging, very challenging

Submitted by D Frost, Cookery Correspondent Planet Online is holding a special technical session to teach its sales staff how to use a microwave oven. An operative from Panasonic will attend the ISP's office in Leeds tomorrow to give detailed instruction on how to use the sophisticated cooking device. Of course, if that's a …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:21
New worm virus courtesy of MS Outlook

With a Killer Resume attached

A "new and dangerous" worm virus is spreading through e-mail systems using Microsoft Outlook, the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Centre (NIPC) warns. The virus is attached to an e-mail message with the subject, "Resume - Janet Simons." The attachment is a Microsoft Word (.doc) file called resume.doc or explorer.doc. …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:31
NexGen Windows – has the trial derailed it for keeps?

Right now it's just a delay, but without a radical recast, cancellation looms

Microsoft has issued a last minute cancellation of its Next Generation Windows Services (NGWS) announcement, which was scheduled for June 1st. Several times already the company has put back the date when it will put some flesh on the bones of the project it has described as comparable in cost and ambition to the development of …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:31
Corel staffers face up to prospect of 500 job cuts

C$15-30m cash injection may not be enough

Corel appears to be rapidly imploding, despite the C$15-30 million cash injection it successfully negotiated last week. According to a Reuters report, the morale of employees is poor, for all CEO Michael Cowpland's claims that the mood among staff is "good". Information from insiders suggests Corel has a C$40 million cost- …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:31
Beached Baan bows to buyer

So farewell then, Graham's Baan stories...

Invensys has confirmed that it has made an agreed all-cash offer for Baan of 2.85 Euros share, which values Baan at 762 million Euros, 474, or $708 million. The offer is recommended by both boards. Yesterday, Baan closed in Amsterdam at 2.62 Euros, giving a less than nine per cent premium, which is certainly considerably less …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:31
Boo assets go for a song

Bright Station pays out 250,000 for lovely technology

Bright Station is to announce today the purchase of technology assets of boo.com, for a whopping 250,000, the Sunday Times reports. If the sum – also reported by the BBC – is true, then the sale is either a damning indictment of the quality of the technology developed inhouse, or of the sales process conducted by KPMG. Boo …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
I'm no cybersquatter, says Ronaldo.com owner

Infogrames PR stunt backfires

When Infogrames sent out a press release saying it had offered software developer Ronaldo Nascimento 100,000 for his legitimately owned URL www.ronaldo.com, we were confused. The company has good reason to want it because of an upcoming computer game Ronaldo V-Football, sanctioned by world-class Brazilian football Ronaldo …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
Transmeta scores Gateway-AOL Linux appliance deal

A product? Things are obviously starting to look up...

Gateway and AOL are to become Transmeta's first announced major customers. The grand unveiling of a Linux Internet appliance is scheduled to take place later today, but Transmeta's flair for publicity doesn't seem to have tarnished in the three months purdah since it announced, and even seems to have rubbed off on its partners a …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
New Intel chip prices

That Xeon 700 looks a bit of a bargain

Chipzilla's new price list introduces three new Xeons and a solitary Pentium III, along with price cuts of up to 44 per cent on existing parts. All prices are for 1000-unit quantities. At the high end, there's a new Xeon at 933MHz with 256KB on-die cache (two-way SMP only) at $794, while the 866 and 800MHz parts drop by 23 and …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
France Telecom buys Orange cellular outfit in $45 billion deal

3Gs all round...

Every now and again somebody buys Orange, the number three UK mobile phone business, and CEO Hans Snook gets another addition to his substantial wad. Not that we're suggesting this is anything more than a side-effect, of course. This time around it's France Telecom, which today announced that it will be paying Vodafone AirTouch …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
This crazy WAP world we live in

More sagas from the Wibbly Wobbly WAP

As one reader pointed out, following our last rundown of the hype circus that is WAP, this stuff exists, it's out there and does work. So if was with a flea in our ear that we trawled around the WAP stalls at last week's Internet World 2000 conference, talking to those at the cutting dge, asking questions and finally passing …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
BT forced to offer unmetered access to competitors

And other very interesting happenings at Oftel

Oftel, the winged watchdog, has told BT it must offer its competitors an unmetered rate of access to its network. The decision follows a complaint by MCI Worldcom that BT refused to offer it a flat-fee service, offering instead the usual pay-as-you-use metered access. The decision means that ISPs can now get to grips with …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
Nintendo set to delay Dolphin debut?

No mention in the company's 2000 profit forecast, anyway

Has Nintendo delayed the launch of its upcoming next-generation games console, codenamed Dolphin? That's certainly one inference you can make from the company's latest financial results. Nintendo's profits fell 35 per cent year on year, down from Y85.8 billion in 1998 to Y56.1 billion ($521 million). The company blamed the …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 11:32
Telewest makes sweet music with chello, ditches blueyonder?

No comments, all around

Telewest, the digital cableco that just can't seem to get it right, looks set to ditch its broadband service for a Dutch version from chello. According to the FT, Telewest is to wave its blueyonder service into the... er... blue yonder, two months after launching the service. The cableco took the usual dull and thoroughly …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 15:46
MS DreamWorks witness' site runs on Linux

MS on Trial Meanwhile, Compaq seems to want Office and OS integrated

Last week Judge Jackson refused to let Microsoft call new witnesses to respond to what the company terms "the government's sweeping demands." But yesterday Microsoft submitted the witness list, along with a precis of what they would (probably) have said, anyway. And some of it's fascinating; Compaq CEO Mike Capellas sings the …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 15:46
Sony aims to quadruple PS2 output

More boxes, cheaper prices

Sony has revised build targets upwards for Playstation 2 consoles to 2.2 million units per month, from earlier announced targets of 1.4 million units per month. Sony does not say when it expects to reach the two million per month milestone - right now, it pumps out 500,000 units per month. But more production will mean lower …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 15:49
BT Surftime: All men are not born equal

BT Internet customers told they can't sign up until August

BT Internet users are being forced to wait at least one month longer than new customers to sign up for BT Surftime. Existing users were angry after being told today by the BT Internet customer helpdesk that they could not register for BT's unmetered Surftime package until August... unlike new customers, who can sign up for the …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 15:49
C2000 loses Web manager to London dotcom

Waves goodbye to Basingstoke...

Computer 2000 this week saw its general manager for e-commerce and marketing scooped by a dotcom. Andy Dow has quit after five years at the Basingstoke distributor. From today he will be sales and marketing director at London-based Web hosting and services company Corpex. Computer 2000 will not replace Dow, but has decided to …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 16:09
3dfx resumes Voodoo 5 5500 AGP shipments

'We're 3dfx and we care a lot'

3dfx has begun shipping its much-anticipated Voodoo 5500 AGP card and told buyers to expect stock to hit stores' shelves on 9 June. The 3D graphics specialist last week suspended its shipment schedule for the card following the emergence of what it called "field failures". Distributors were asked to return unsold kit to 3dfx. …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 16:09
BT Surftime: How to turn four customers into 20

Count Affinity Internet 17 times, that's how

You gotta hand it to BT - the telco certainly knows how to look on the bright side of life. It launched SurfTime today even though most people in the industry know the discredited product is on a life support machine with the relatives hanging around waiting to flick the switch. No matter. Check out it's Web page and it claims …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 16:14
Analyst ups MS stock, apparently forgetting verdict's due

Premature prediction? Anyways, the suck... er... investors seem to be buying

The latest news from Rosswell is first, that "influential" Goldman Sachs analyst Rick Sherlund today said the onset of a quiet period in the trial may allow Microsoft stock to recover lost ground, and second, that the stock price promptly kicked upwards. Consequently we at The Register have started idly musing about the …

Business 1 Jun 2000, 16:14