Press watch: 9-15 October 1998

Slowly but surely. Then all of a sudden ? pow! While everyone is looking at the CE/palmtop product evolution, the real story ? and its impact ? continues to be ignored. There will be no Windows 2000 or Windows 2001. The next generation desktop operating systems offered by Microsoft will be NT Workstation and Windows CE. So, when we see CE 2.11 come out, we are not particularly concerned one way or the other about the lack of hardware devices that support the new OS. In the near-enough future, lightweight PCs, laptops, hand-held PCs, and palmtops will be running various versions of the OS. NT Workstation will hold down the high ground now occupied by the Windows 98 OS.
ZonaResearch bulletin, 8 October

Microsoft plays name game
Microsoft is revving up the marketing engines for the next millennium and is considering giving the next release of Windows NT a new name. Officials are mulling a new name for the next-generation server/workstation OS, according to several sources close to the company. Sources said two candidates have emerged: Windows Professional, and Windows 2000.
InfoWorld Electric, 10 October

Toy story with unhappy ending
Shares in Hamleys slumped to an all-time low yesterday after the toy retailer revealed that an IT blunder and lower tourist spending slashed first half profits by half. Hamleys said that a catalogue of errors at Toystack ? the chain of toy shops bought last year ? caused a collapse of sales, pulling the division into a loss. Chairman Howard Dyer said the failure to merge Toystack?s stock and merchandising system into Hamley?s led to a shortage of best-selling lines. ?We have messed it up,? Dyer said.
The Independent, 7 October

Tension over pensions

In a rare admission of failure by the government, the DSS has offered more than #20m in compensation to enraged pension companies for late payments caused by its shambolic computer system. DSS computers which deal with National Insurance and pay the state pension are in chaos. Thousands of people who opted out of the state pension into private schemes are entitled to rebates on their NI contributions ? but because of the mayhem over #2bn of payments have been missed.
The Telegraph, 11 October

Optical scanner puts the finger on cheque fraud
At a Houston grocery store, customers cashing cheques must first put their fingers on an optical scanner at the service desk. The images are relayed to a PC, which checks them against a database ? flashing a yes or no decision within seconds. The price of the device, now about $1,000 (#600), should fall to $100 in a year or two. Since it was installed in February, the technology has eliminated cheque fraud. The key to the price drop is a dramatically new kind of imaging chip which is sparking a variety of applications. For example, Sony has developed the prototype of a pen-size digital camera that plugs into a cellphone. The combo can snap a photo of a newborn baby while the phone records the cooing between mother and child, and then zip the multimedia package off to the grandparents in seconds. Nokia is hard on the heels of Sony, and is preparing a similar product.
Business Week, 1 October

Exposing the truth behind the ?00? issue
Sir ? It is myth that the practice of leaving the ?19? of the year off calendar dates was brought in by the computer age. In fact, this practice was universal in the punched-card industry in the 1950s. Programs coded for the first electronic computers brought into commercial use merely copied the less automatic procedures used with older, simpler punched-card machinery.

The millennium bug is only a minor example of a general historical tolerance of second-rate computation.
Letter to the Economist, 10 October

Sir ? I notice The Economist is working to preclude the problem of the millennium bug. In June 1998 I renewed my subscription and was thrilled to receive your acknowledgement informing me that my new expiration date is May 2999.
Letter to the Economist, 10 October

Spin doctor Mandelson has big plans for ecommerce
Peter Mandelson, the secretary of state for trade and industry, yesterday said he would rush forward legislation to ?liberate electronic commerce and make it safer?, but he infuriated IT experts by refusing to elaborate on his plans. The issues he is expected to address are the introduction of digital signatures which allow users to verify their electronic identities online, and cryptography the process by which emails are scrambled. ?I am pushing against an open door on this. It is very high up on my agenda, and I have established some powerful allies,? he said. Regulation of the Internet is seen as vital to nurturing electronic commerce, but has so far proved to be highly controversial.
The Times, 6 October

DNA attacks Microsofties? nervous system
Nobody understands Microsoft?s DNA (Distributed Network Architecture). High-profile Microsofties don?t seem to want to disclose much about it, instead opting to flail their hands while describing the highly vapourous Digital Nervous System (DNS). From what I can gather DNS is basically DNA Lite, or DNA for PowerPoint. It?s the warm and fuzzy version of Microsoft?s plan that carefully steers the user away from the mind-blistering pain of actually understanding how DNA will be achieved. At a basic level DNA will be achieved by mangling together Microsoft EAB ? Everything Already Built. EAB will be stirred round with some RSS (Redmond Special Sauce) until all of that stuff that was built for the desktop works across a network ? kind of. It will be ready for consumption sometime beyond the second service pack for NT 5.0, but no doubt will be served before it is properly done. But of course, that?s not the kind of vision that Microsoft is going to articulate for itself.
IT Week, 5 October

His number came up ? just when he was in his prime
Telco US West fell victim to a hack attack that diverted 2,500 of its computers away from answering customers? calls. The blame was laid at the door of 28-year-old Aaron Blosser, who was contracting for the company. He was not, however, trying to extort money from the company, but attempting to solve a 350-year-old maths conundrum and find a new prime number. He reportedly explained how he had cracked more than 15,000 passwords and installed software on unsuspecting users? computers. That software was used to capture central processor units? computing time remotely. Blosser said he had not been charged and stressed he had not profited from his exploits.
Network News, 7 October

Dispute over EU data protection directive
Differences in the regulation of data protection have led to lengthy disagreements between Europe and the US. A binding European Union (EU) privacy directive, which comes into force this month, is causing concern among businesses both in the UK and US. According to President Clinton?s special Internet advisor Ira Magaziner, the EU data privacy laws will prevent the export of personal data from Europe to those countries without similar strict data protection laws, such as the US. The US is calling on Europe to adopt an industry-led approach rather than government regulation favoured by the EU. John Mogg, European Commission director general for financial services, has already met with senior US officials several times, and plans to hold a further meeting in Washington.
IT Week, 5 October

Xeon chips continue to be down for Intel
The problems facing Intel?s Xeon chip continue to mount even as the company prepares to launch the 450MHz version. Last month, the company asked several top original equipment manufacturer customers to return around 1,000 unsold Xeon chips so they could be upgraded with new stepping ? the microcode which enables functions such as dual or multi-processing. Intel found that the step, known as B-1 and built into all 400MHz Xeon chips, handles dual processing well, but not four-way processing. As a result, the chip giant asked original equipment manufacturers planning to offer quad-processing Xeon systems to return the chips for a more advanced step, known as B-0. The new step also fixes communication glitches between the 400MHz Xeon and the 450NX chip set.
PC Week, 6 October

Year 2000 mainframe capacity warning
Major companies pooling intelligence information on service suppliers say that mainframe capacity to deal with year 2000 testing is quickly running out. Members of the outsourcing council, a new user group of firms which have contracted out IT services, say some top-tier suppliers are reaching a point where they will be unable to meet demand for machine time. ?The message is: reserve test time now, reserve people now, and agree a price. The resourcing problem is worse than expected,? said Alistair Henderson-Begg, former head of outsourcing (commercial) at British Aerospace and chairman of the Outsourcing Council. Some service suppliers have confirmed that they cannot guarantee they will provide enough machine time for testing. ?Our clients will not be able to test everything. We are advising them to limit testing to what is business-critical,? said a spokeswoman for Computer Sciences.
Computer Weekly, 8 October

US government could split Microsoft up
The US government may seek to break up Microsoft into separate companies if it wins its anti-trust case against the Seattle software giant. In a routine pre-trial statement, the government said that depending on the court?s findings, ?plaintiffs will seek such additional permanent relief as is necessary to restore competitive conditions and to prevent Microsoft from committing similar violations in the future?. The court papers did not specify the nature of the relief, but people familiar with the case say it would likely mean Microsoft?s divestiture or some other measure that would alter the company?s very structure. ?The government is admitting that it?s trying to rewrite its case at the last minute,? said a Microsoft spokesman. The latest development marks a shift from earlier this year when the Justice Department rejected proposals to seek divestiture of the world?s largest software company.
USA Today, 8 October

Big Blue targets enterprise resource planning market
IBM is aiming for a slice of the booming mid-range enterprise resource planning (ERP) market with a Java-based package it says is both flexible and easy to implement. The product, called Axapta, was launched in the UK last week. The product integrates general accounting and business functions with specific application module series in finance, trade logistics and production. It is designed for companies with between 50 and 500 employees, and a turnover of between #10 million and #200 million. ?The product has been built to be changed. Businesses in this market want a product they can tailor easily,? said an IBM representative.
InformationWeek, 7 October