« Computer News from 1999 »

Monday 20th

It appears, I'm told, that the BT episode yesterday (the tomato bit anyway), is a BT promotion and that it features now & again. OK, it makes me look a tad stupid this time around, but hey, I'm not the one who's website appears to insult itself. Go figure.

*Picks self up and looks round to check no-one saw the prat fall...* Diversion tactics are in order.

OK, for all you theoretical astro-physicists out there*, what happens when two blacks holes of equal mass meet. Neither of which can escape the unimaginably immerse gravitational pull of the other...

Cosmic displays aside, do they:   { } - {} - }{

1. Merge?
2. Pull each other inside out?
3. Push each other apart to a stand off as the streaming matter congeals between them.
4. Would above create a third and, by inertia, swallow its parents as it formed... {_}{_}
5. None of the above.

*Actually, I used to play chess by mail an astro-physicist from Cambridge University. I asked him know you weigh a planet - and he told me!.

Sunday 19th
BT's site defaced by hackers...!
Merry Christmas, t'is the season to be jolly - our favourite incumbent has egg on it's face - or should that be tomato?

• On friday, all reference to unmetered access appeared to have been erased
  (it's back there now, mind, along with a press release saying
  BT launches new free internet access service in Italy [link dead]   www.imfinito.it
• Yesterday, after MANY abortive attempts to access even the home page I got a message to the effect of:
  Sorry, we're uploading, shops shut, come back tomorrow".
  Duh! Like one of the biggest Telco's in the world can't manage to upload a few pages without their entire site going pear shaped.
• And (22.38pm Sunday 19 Dec 1998) I find their home page has - apparently - been "amended".

By 11.15pm they appear to have fixed the page. Strangely, I saved the whole page, but I can't see the offending images. Weird. I assume it was internal tampering. Anyway, here's what you (probably) missed:

• "BT Together (pause)
• Announcing two new deals" (pause)
• Something for everyone &" (restart top loop)
• .
• (start bottom image)
• BT Click for business (pause)
• The Internet portfolio that grow with your business (pause)
• *BT Logo* You can (pause)
• YOU (pause)
• CAN (pause)
• CAN'T *image of over-ripe tomato splats* (restart bottom loop)

December 15

Not telecomms, I know, but I'm suitably enraged to bitch about it. Interplays "PlaneScape Torment". Brilliant, fantastic, what a game - If you live in America. Once again, the UK and Europe has to wait another month for release - and pay extra for the privilege. Hmumph... For all you gamers east of NY, the release date is January 7th (probably).

Surf Unlimited (Now Blueyonder) - Telewest offer Unmetered Access for a tenner - news release

Telewest to offer unlimited Net access
The UK's number two cable operator, Telewest, has announced it will offer unlimited Net access from just £10 per month.
Only existing Telewest phone customers will be able to take advantage of the offer, the company said today. The new offering is scheduled to kick off on 14 February and will be called SurfUnlimited. Newswire service Bloomberg said Telewest customers using SurfUnlimited will have to agree to spend a minimum of £10 per month on Net access calls -– hardly a king's ransom. Although the new service will only apply to residential customers, Telewest said it has plans to roll out a package aimed at business customers in the first quarter of 2000. Telewest's key shareholders are Microsoft and Liberty Media, a division of AT&T.
[ Article copied in full from: The Register [link to article dead]

Couldn't resist posting this! Also, according to with a footnote in "Microscope" BT's moving theirs (forward) to early January. Better go see huh. As the saying goes, it never rains, then it pours. Naturally - NOT - the telco's have only just found they can afford to do this...

I'll add copy later but a (large) number of 'free' ISP's are in arms over unmetered access because the BT et al won't pay them commission for free calls. Duh! Get a life guys, the writings been of the wall a while. And when ADSL finally comes out, will you whine that it's sooo unfair bcause you can't afford the rates, new routers etc.

Watch for some seriously mergers and, ohh 100 or more of the 120 odd 'free' ISP's getting swallowed - or buried - before fall - or should that be the fall

On a related note, I did some ringing around and generally annoying BT and worked the following. A 128kb ISDN leased line (permanently on) to the nearest ISP (assumed at 15-20 miles) costs a heart warming £5,000 a year + £1,500 to install it. VAT is extra, naturally, taking the bill to over £7,500 for the forst year.

OR with the unmetered access option, A 128kb ISDN permanently on to the nearest ISP - or (presumably) any other darn ISP in the country - for a mere £35 a month. There again, the ADSL option is "only" £50 a month. More on the leased line side in a few days when college ends and all my assignments are in... All things being equal, not only if everyone else p-oed at the extortionate UK rates, the EU has declared them unlawfully high and is preparing to take action. This incumbents attitude is to cry "Well it's dearer in, er, er..." That make is right does it...

December 7th

Well slap me with a wet fish!!!
According to BT, 24/7 unmetered access is coming..."

Can't say I trust the buggers (BT) but assuming it goes through, why the wait?
Yes, yes, yes, OFTEL need to agree - but they have already said they want this - so what's the problem, hmmm?
When do we want it? NOW!
£34.99 a month for unmetered modem use.   ( ) Ay
But that's £4.99 a month more than they were charging for the ADSL trials at 2Mb/s and £20 a month more than the residents are charged - for ADSL - in Hull, where, once again I remind all, it's the few square miles in Britain where Bloated profiTs don't own the copper!

News at The Register continues...
"AOL Europe gave a cautious welcome to BT's announcement today that it was introducing flat-rate tariffs to the Net, warning that the proposed cost was still too high.
"It claimed today's offer of £34.99 for 24/7 unmetered access was almost double the cost of Internet telephone access in the US"
[ Source and full article (was) at: The Register ] [link to article dead]

Again, getting there, but still too little, too late... And wait till I tell y'all what that arrogant ( ) running BT thinks about y'all. It's not nice and it's probably a good job I never made the TMA32 event 'cause I'd have been tempted to bitch slap him all round the conference hall. Apparently, in congested form, England is too immature for the net, and they are doing us a favour collecting all this money, which they (gladly) hand over to the tax man.
Well the English half of me takes deep offense at that and the Canadian half just throws it's hands up in despair and asks the world, "Why are you putting up with these clowns"

08004u are still apparently out of their depths, to say the least. Come spring mind, an awful lot of "free" ISP's will be seeing shares go down the toilet when (if?) the above comes off, taking them with it. Round of applause for all the "paid" ISP's who've stuck it out - U-Net, AOL, Demon, GlobalNet etc.

Anyway, give the lads there due, what do BT say?

On ADSL? "BT today outlined..." Yesss! *punches air*
Only thing is, that page hasn't changed since September. Today... Hmmm?

On unmetered access ? - with it's flickering links on BT's home page

Beggered if I know, every time I click I get sent to a differeent page - the first one being the ultra-overpriced ISDN highway thing! (Later... it settled down when I revisited - maybe they read my news?)

EVENTUALLY, I found... Let guest in and

• BT reduces Calls & Access prices ( 7/12/1999) [link dead]
  The call cuts are nice though. Kind of makes up the sows ear they made of my phoneline last month...
• BT announces price packages for unlimited Internet access ( 7/12/1999) [link dead]
  • £6.99 a month gets you unmetered weekend access
    Plus any applicable ISP subscription charges. Are these being added, or are these the ones we (may) pay anyway?
  • £6.99 ditto, but evening and night-time, weekends at 1p/minute, weekdays at 2p/minute
  • £26.99 gets you unlimited daytime access, 1p/minute at other times.
  • £34.99 gets you the full monty - A massive BUT STILL OVER-PRICED saving.
  • Pay as you go gets you 1p/minute weekend/evening 2p/minute daytimes.
  • Lets blow the dust at look at the blatant gaps....
    1. AOL already offer 1p/minute at all times - why can't BT.
    2. They offer absolutely no middle ground - Evenings OR weekend OR day OR all three - 9/10 home users way evening AND weekend - where's that option.
    3. Compared to Hull and to the North American markets, Britain is still getting stiffed on metered access.
• BT rises to challenge [of] Broadband Britain ( 30/11/1999) [link dead]
  Spread in on the roses man. The brackets are mine, because I don't believe for a split second that the constant delays, put-offs and set-backs are anything but profit related...

December 2nd

Why BT's grip is getting weaker
A brilliant, must read [dead link] article by ZDNet's Rupert Goodwins
Begins:
"The new telecommunications millennium has started early. In two separate but connected events yesterday, a whole new framework for UK telecommunications took shape. Oftel said that BT was going to have to open up its local telephone cabling to all, and BT announced its surrender in the war of words over Internet access."

November 30th

E-commerce minister Patricia Hewitt has warned the telecoms sector the government will strengthen Oftel's powers if the industry does not bring the price of Internet access down, claiming high tariffs were stifling user growth over the net. Microscope 30.11.99

Oftel green lights telco access to BT's local loop
Another BT monopoly ended -- or will be by 2001
This is old news to me, and changes nothing, the net effect, so far, it competition will get access, but at the rates BT decides to charge. A step in the right direction, but it's a darn long walk...
See also:
British Telecom Ordered to Open Local Network [Broken news link]

November 29th

Oftel wimps out, again
I know what one thing, I know a LOT of people agree with me on it, and I know I'm not going to put what is probably true into words for this establishment or that to sue the tail of me for slander. You know what I mean! Question, if it's true, is it slander?

The essence of the above [dead] link is, in part, that the EU has denounced BT for being 3x as expensive (for lease lines as there recommended MAXIMUM charges. So, OFTEL has published a further Statement on National Leased Lines.
Basically, in my cynical opinion, they are going to think about it for a year, then have a meeting to discuss it...

[Broken news link] Alcatel clinches ADSL trials with NTL in UK:
The trials in the Greater London area of Britain, which an industry source said would cost `several million French francs,' will demonstrate ADSL at up to six megabits a second. Initial results are expected in the first quarter of next year and the trials will terminate in November 2000.
I'd get a years salary that the trials would end a year early if NTL could get early access to the local loop that BT's hoarding. It's a mere coincidence that the access is opened up to competition in January 2001. Nah!

November 27th

Let pick on BT...
OFTEL's current work on Internet access. Watch this page! [link dead]

Even the EU thinks BT is a rip-off. [link to article dead]
Latest report recommends price ceilings for leased lines

Comments by ISP "Nidlram" on ADSL pricing [dead link]

BT's 'Flawed' Internet Deal - BBC News


Planescape Torment Shipping December 3
Latest AD&D game from Black Isle hits the road this December - for all you gamers :-)

ATI Fury MAXXT
"ATI Technologies Inc. has announced the RAGE FURY MAXXT, the first dual processor, 64 MB board for the hardcore gamer. The board is designed using ATI's MAXXT (multiple accelerator) technology with two RAGE 128 Pro chips and 64 MB of memory on one single board. The RAGE FURY MAXX is the fastest game accelerator for true color, ultra high resolution gaming. The RAGE FURY MAXX achieves a maximum "fill rate", or the number of textured pixels it can render per second, of 500 megapixels /second. "Fill Rate" is key to accelerating the latest, massively textured games and coupled with a complete set of features for Direct X and OpenGL API's, the RAGE Fury MAXX is destined to become the board of choice for the power-hungry gamer."

November 20th
Unmetered access gets Oftel's backing [dead link]

Meanwhile, in the US, local phone companies will have to open up their lines to competitive data carriers, which means they could pay less for high-speed access. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled phone companies like Bell Atlantic and SBC Communications must share their phone lines with rival digital subscriber line (DSL) companies like NorthPoint and Covad.
Elsewhere in the world... Free Internet access coming to Japan [dead link]
See ALSO...
OFTEL SETS OUT IDEAS FOR CHEAPER INTERNET ACCESS 16/11/1999 [dead link]
OFTEL's paper presented to the OIF (11/11/99) [dead link]

• "There appear to be two key problems relating to accessing the Internet:
• - Usage prices are above costs because of the unbalanced tariff for telephony;
• - It may be better to recover the costs of serving high users through an unmetered tariff whereby all capacity related costs were recovered in a fixed charge.

Bursting the bubble...
Heard about the Bubble Boy virus targeting MS Outlook users? It's rare, relatively harmless, and kinda frightening for future implication in a "had to happen" sort of view.
Anyway... Get the fix from Microsoft

November 19th
For all those businesses and students etc who buy CD_R's on the High Street for £3.99 EACH...

CD-R MEDIA BONANZA (ex vat, natch!)
Unbranded 74min "A" grade spindle from 45p
Unbranded 80min "A" grade spindle from 49p
Unbranded 74min "A" grade cased from 55p (One off at "trade" shows these are 60p - inc sales tax)
Unbranded 80min "A" grade spindle from 59p

1000% mark-ups. You gotta love these guys. And the English fall for it EVERY TIME.
*Shakes head*

3dfx launches Voodoo 4 and 5 [link dead]
The top of the range is the Voodoo 5 6000, featuring four VSA-100s (SLI'd chips), 128MB VRAM, eight pixels per clock cycle, 1.33-1.47 billion pixels per second (GPps). Available early next year ($599 US).


Adios PIII?
Intel has recently stopped production of the Pentium III/450, and the same will undoubtedly happen to the entire line of .25micron CPU's within the next few months, as the Coppermine is much cheaper to produce because it has on-chip cache memory rather than the external cache chips as found on the earlier Pentium III's. (From Hardware Central

[ http://www.freezone.co.uk/btcampaign ]

- Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications in the UK


- Campaign For Flat-rate Calls [www.cffc.co.uk]
"The government and telephone companies need to stop trumpeting the internet as a great educational / business / leisure tool if they are not prepared to make the most of it - something impossible with-out (reasonable) flat rate access"



"No such thing as a free lunch",
    said BT MD Peter Bromfield.
"Let them go to schools, if they want cheap Net access",
    he added (reportedly), at a Gartner Group symposium.

"Well, looks like both remain true, despite BT bellowing that ISP's will get cheap access to phone lines, enabling them to offer - ooh, check this out, thirty hours or so a month free calls for only thirty quid. And that's not including additional charges for ISPs. And that's forcing them to use BT's IP services. No such thing as a free market, certainly. - Bye, Peter"
See ZdNet story [link dead]
Above is from: NTK   Want to subscribe?



My advice re Internet charges in the UK?
Write and e-mail the National papers and glossies, the local rags too.
Call your MP.
Tell BT themselves and Oftel how you feel.



Below are some of the ISP's in the UK, with free access offers.
These are links. Nothing more, nothing less. Any conditions or claims they have, change or add are no nothing to do with me. I will point out however, in my opinion, BT's greed, makes these possible and if the financial model they use proves unrealistic, or suicidal, it's because 10 million+ UK users are fighting to get through to avoid the unfair and unrealistic telephone charges...
However, I will comment on any messages send about them...

• U-Net Quality ISP. Charges £100 p.a. or £11.75 a month
  Currently trialling 0800 access - 6 hours total over a weekend. These guys are genuine and make no claims or promises about how long the trial will last. There are NO reported connection problems and speeds are good.
• X-Stream another decent free ISP
  There model is based on advertising, 0800 access is irregular, but free, with absolutely no catches. Can be a ( ) to connect - along with the other 100,000+ trying at the same time. Connection speeds vary, but generally acceptable, and if that's not acceptable - hey, it's free. Click on the ads not and then to show willing - you may even find something you like!
• Stray Duck A Telinco company
  Works along the lines of 0800 access for one week in three, racking up access time in the other two weeks. Press reports seem to like it!
• [www.callnet0800.com] CallNet0800
  Totally free, unmetered Internet access - but they want your credit card first!.
  (Voice) lines were suspended within hours of going live - on the advice of BT - with "thousands of users registering within minutes of the service launching".
• 08004U (had) varying models.
  Level 1, no free access, but free webspace etc.
  Level 2, £25 a month - unlimited off week access
  Level 3, £50 a month - unlimited access.
  Has recieved a certain amount of bad press!
  IF anyone takes up BT's offer, this model is shot to pieces.
  "As a special gift to all 0845 users, every two minutes you spend online with our 0845 service throughout the month of December will earn you one minute of free 0800 number access in the New Year!"
• [www.freedomi.com] Freedomi. Wait and see - not live yet. (Never was, I think)
• AOL It's AOL, nuff said.
  One model is 1p a minute access in peak times. If you use the internet in the day much, consider this. AOL are looking at other options and trialling ADSL. AOL also are STRONGLY lobbying against BT's pricing regime.
• Freeserve, Dixons free ISP
  Spent £10 on regular calls, get 10 hours surf time
  They are looking at BT's kind offer, but apparently can only subscribe to it if they ditch Energis and transfer their telephone business to BT. Oh, and apparently the offer is only open to ISP's with over 140,000 subscribers...
  Freeserve are also trialling ADSL (to be prices around £60 a month - four times the figure in Hull, due to BT's cut) and fighting the cause for unmetered Internet access.
  
  John Pluthero, CEO of Freeserve, thinks he has the leverage to put together a deal that could meet most users needs. According to an article in IT Week (15 Nov 99) he speculates that someone could work out a model that might give 40 hours free and then charge 1/10p per minute after that.
  
  According to ME, BT could and should offer that model - but won't to protect it's gross profits.
  Question
  Are BT really so (short term) profit blind that they can't see the entire UK is turning against them???
• Kingston Communications Genuine unmetered ADSL access in the UK for £15
  But only if you live the the one town in the UK where BT wasn't given the rights to the local loop.
  I don't live anywhere near Hull.
  DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!   And DAMN BT too.
  
  Asked why Kingston was able to offer such a low price for ADSL access a spokeswoman for the company simply said: "It's our network, our copper."
  Near telco monopoly, BT, could also boast similar ownership yet it is looking to charge people £50 a month for its ADSL offering.
  WHEN they offer it and IF you're if the catchment area, that is.   I'd hate to just outside Kingston Communications range and get stiffed by BT's punitive rates... (P.A)
• [www.24-7freecall.co.uk] 24-7 Freecall I assume these will use BT's generous scheme
  £24.70 a month - or £247 a year gets you toll free internet access, plus the usual email etc.
  "When management opt for a flotation, or in the event of the Company being sold, the first 247,000 subscribers will recieve a 'Cashback' that will be at least equal to the annual subscription amount of the year, in this case £296.40."
  10% discount on all not internet calls (the model starts to show...)
  Recommend a friend model - £10 if you for existing subscribers who bring in colleagues.
• Clara Net
  Model WAS:
  If you have a BT line (ex vat) £5.99 gets you 12 hours free access, £14.99 35 hours and £29.99 80 hours - off-peak only, naturally
  I will check the current status tonight
• Localtel - Screaming.Net
  Model is (was?) £25 a month for free off-peak calls. Again, credit cards at the ready, not open to businesses and (was?) only open to BT residential customers.
  Screaming.net, which now boasts 150,000 customers despite being besieged by problems, said its users clocked up 100 million minutes online during September -- the equivalent to a whopping 190 years of surfing the Web
  Initially grossly oversubscribed and more that a bit of bad press, including a negative feature on the beeb - Watch Dog if I remember. Can't say I'm surprised - again I blame BT...
  Apparently they are working to get there act together and no-one has slagged them off much in the last few weeks as far as I can tell.
  It may come as a shock, but BT seemed to be unable to cope transfering all the people clammering to leave them for the promise of cheaper net access...
  Repeats...
  Are BT really so (short term) profit blind that they can't see the entire UK is turning against them???
  Or are it's management so arrogant in their near monopoly that they don't care...?
• IC 24 Another free ISP offering free calls at certain times
  "Every Sunday between 9.00am and 5.00pm until the end of the year you can surf the net FREE. You don't need to change your phone number or sign a contract just follow the simple instructions [here]
  
  Related stories from The Register ® [dead links]
  NAG to offer free calls for low income families
  'No catch' 0800 access opens for UK business'
  BT's philanthropic gesture works out more expensive than broadband ADSL access.
  OFTEL calls for cheaper Net access
  ISP's last out at BT
• According to The Register [article link dead]Only last week, Andreas Schmidt, AOL Europe's president and CEO, said the British UK economy would suffer long term damage unless the country changed its policy towards charging Net users for every second they spent online.
• Schmidt's words of warning came less than a month after AOL UK indefinitely postponed plans to introduce its own 0800 access package because of the regulatory framework in Britain

November 17th

PIII 1,000Mhz
Here's another bigger rumour, via CD Mag
(Actualled passed to me last month - I really must catch up with my mail!)
"Intel's "Willamette" chip will be ready this year, some 9 months ahead of schedule, and will be produced at speeds around 1000MHz or more! Willamette is like the Pentium III, but not based off the same Pentium Pro core that current Pentium II and Pentium III chips are. Rather, it shares more in common with the 64-bit Itanium processor, in terms of base architecture. It's still a fully Pentium III compatible chip, though. If the rumors are true, the beginning of the year 2000 will be a speedy time indeed!"

Trouble & strife at Packard Bell
Also from CD Mag is this...
"Packard Bell all but went bottom-up yesterday. They're laying off around 80% of their workforce, the CEO is quitting, and they're getting out of the consumer PC business in the US. Four years ago, they were the #1 retail PC brand with a 15% market share. Now the "low cost computer" has made competition too stiff and margins too tight, causing a death spiral out of which Packard Bell couldn't climb."
Never could stand their machines myself, but from an industry point, is depressing to see so many firms in strife so fast. The (multi-million) company that swallowed my business died literally weeks later. Giants like CHS (and it's subsidiaries like Karma) and Metrologie fair no better. And everyone is issuing profits warnings.
I've no truck with the shareholder type warnings (sorry, we ONLY made $180 millions this quarter...), but the underlying trend, which has been accelerating since the mid 90's, has hit hyperdrive as near zero margins need exponential rises in sales to stand still.

AMD using a sledgehammer to crack a nut?
Incidentally, last month AMD revealed their 64bit processor, code-named "Sledgehammer." Unlike Intel's 64bit offering it will actually just extend the x86 instructions from 32 to 64 bits. Look for release around Fall 2000, or later.
(Intels Merced / Itanium is a new architecture and not an x86 compatible chip.)

BT dig
As a little dig at my not so flavour of the month monopoly, without warning they changed by billing terms, then sent me a final demand or face action. Action be damned, for the second time, I requested they return my billing to normal. Unless there's a suitable incentive or discount, I pay bills monthly. BT want the rental three months in advance, I refuse.
So, whats the big deal? T'is this, for two months, this are getting interest on that money for something they haven't provided. So? Multiply that by a million, by 20 million users. Heck, I'd happily retire on the interest from £450 million* a month. Until they offer genuine unmetered access and adsl - at reasonable rates - I object to every last cent they get off me!

(*Nominal figure - 20M lines * £25 advance line rental based on quarterly billing).

November 15th
BT U-turns on unmetered Net access - NOT!
I don't like to resort to base language, but those dirty (b---s) at BT have gone too far this time. It's a con, a hoax, a lie, a fabrication and I'm not taking it.

I can't put it into words, well I can, but this is a family site...

I've spent the late few days following this and getting angrier - and angrier - and lost it. This is rolling sleeves up time. This time it's war. I'm just not having it - and that's the point. I refuse to be cheated and I REALLY REALLY object to the arrogance of these people. I'll sort my campaign out when I calm down enough to be rational, but by all the gods I'll personally lead the fight to strip the local loop off these greedy, arrogant AAAAArrrghhh.

Here's some of the details

• Shares in BT reached a record high and profits exceeded even their inflated predictions, the growth in Internet and other areas pushing up their PROFITS to £890 million for the last three months on sales of £5.3 billion. That's £100 a second every minute of the day - and every time you surf, check your e-mail attempt to log on*, you add to it. * Every failed attempt to log on costs you £0.05
• UK users connect for an average of 17 minutes a day, other countries average around an hour a day.
• BT buckles and offers unmetered access for £10 a month - FABRICATION, I feel.
• ISP's would have to pay BT (from) £10 a month - subject to conditions - which lets subscribers have 18 hours on METERED free access. For every second** after that, the ISP is paying your METERED charge. For this, they will have to charge around £25 a month for the service - equal to about 30 hours off-peak connection.
• If you live in Hull - where BT doesn't own the loop - £15 a month gets you unmetered ADSL...
• 1 in 5 people have Internet access in the UK - it WOULD be far higher if people - especially those on low incomes - were not terrified of escalating phone bills.

** To pedants who argue BT is billed 'per minute' consider this.
A daytime call lasting 1 seconds costs £0.05
A daytime call lasting 60 seconds costs £0.05
A daytime call lasting 61 seconds costs £0.09
You may be billed per minute - or part thereof, but you are actually metered by the second. By the millisecond actually, I believe - catches calls of under 1 second for billing that way

November 9th
BT U-turns on unmetered Net access
Unmetered Internet access for £10 a month anyone?


Microsoft IS a monopoly Declares Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson. Microsoft is a monopoly, and it has harmed competitors and consumers. The DOJ has declared victory. What does the finding mean? How could it affect Microsoft, the industry and, most of all, you?
[link to related article dead]

Camino
Bit late off the mark due to assignments, but I heard and read earlier in the week that the i820 Camino chipset is fine - the problem allegedly is due to the tracking on the chip giants own motherboard and that boards by a number of other manufacturers do not exhibit any problems!

November 6th
Oftel calls for cheaper Net access
About ruddy time!!!

Here's the first few lines of a report, which [could be found in full at The Register [article link dead]

David Edmonds, head of watchdog Oftel, has finally pricked the BT hot-air balloon and said there is no reason why unmetered Internet access should not be made immediately available.

[www.callnet0800.net] Callnet0800
Free Internet - no call charges, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No catches. None. Nada, zip, nowt.
Oh, that's a business, sorry..., this is only available to household accounts
(i.e. A business might USE the service, can't have that can we... This applies to Screaming.Net too and others).
Ah. Well, I'm registering my wife on her residential account.
OK. That's fine sir, now if we could just have your credit card for the monthly billing.
Excuse me..! Free, gratis, NO CONditions, but we can't register without giving you our credit card details...
B*gger off!

The Register [article link dead] also has a special spread on the Microsoft anti-trust case, with regard to DR DOS, the case being MS stuffed Digital / Novell / Caldera to protect market share and margins. (I used to use DR DOS myself, as very nice is was too.)
According to form, if - WHEN - MS gets slapped for anti-trust, Caldera, inheritor of the DR-DOS torch, will end up walking away from the case with a 10-digit jury award, after damages are tripled. Even for Bill, $1 Billion+ has got to hurt.
And that's just from one injury party...

Again, from The Register, UK firm Carrera Technology said that it will introduce a workstation that uses an Athlon processor running at 1GHz. The machine will be available in early December.

Why!?
I was talking to a techie friend yesterday on a similar line, as Intels roadmaps includes 3GHz chips - yes THREE. He was musing over getting a 733MHz. Really, I asked, what are you running that needs that? Point taken, he agrees, I'll wait a few weeks while the price plummits...
Don't get me wrong, I used to be a serious cutting edge type, but it's way past that. The days of waiting for things to compile or render are long gone. It's hours in the day and the speed of the net now (or lack of it).

Recent site finds

• Encyclopedia Mythica
• Ram Matters [gone]
• [www.computingpower.org] (gone now)

October 28th
Still lots going on, though nothing to halt the press over.
I believe NEC and Mitsubishi are to merge their (monitor) divisions to consolidate the market and reduce the horrendous R&D costs. Incidentally the street price of the 22" Mitsubishi 2020u NF is around £700 now. Awesome.

Recent site finds:
(Many gone…)
JC's PC News & Links
ARS Technica
Storage Review - news page
[www.slota.com] "Slot A" dedicated to AMD Athlons and Slot A motherboard

The best trade price I've seen is a 17" monitor (.26 dp, 3 year on site...) for just £99 if bought with a motherboard. Where were deals like this when I was building systems!

Bastions of learning Dorling Kindersley and Encyclopeadia Brittania are going on-line big-time, putting there entire libraries for general inspection. Some 20,000+ pages for DK.

And I still shake my head at the blind stupidy of British politics.
As I have mentioned before, the Government (.UK) has finally realised the Internet is BIG.
It's a vote getter and they are all behind it 100%.
So much so that they have finally announced their plans on TV to rent the poorest families in the country Internet ready PC's for as little as £5 a month.
Yippee. Hurrah for Blighty. Golly good, what* *Yes, I know, they never really talked like that.

What utter twaddle. Being an MP on £40,000 a year (plus perks) they obviously missed a tiny wee detail. We are talking about the really poor here. Not poor as in, "Sorry darling, we can't afford a new Audi for the maid this year," but poor as in "Can we afford a turkey for christmas this year, luv" poor.

The type of poor that says if you rent them a PC they will hock it to feed the children, and even if they don't, there is no way in hell they can afford the connect to the Internet, knowing that every second they are connected will add to next months phone bill, which they can barely afford anyway. And they can't afford to have the phone cut off either in case of emergencies. The sort that arise when you can't buy healthy food, warm clothes, council taxes to stop government appointed bailiffs taking that PC that they offered to the poor, along with the TV, to pay these MP's...

"No, no, no," you've got it all wrong, "it's about e-commerce" (whatever that is).
Ah I see. It's about promoting your business and selling to other Brits - who aren't going on line to browse these sites because of last months phone bill. As I recall, Giles in your purchasing department spent a total of 23 hours looking for better prices. Saved £37 on the orders - but cost £64.68 in call charges and you banned him from ever using it again. That e-commerce? Hmmm?

I REALLY REALLY hate this backwards country sometimes.

BT (doesn't, I think) offer ADSL for a greedy £50 a month - at a poxy 512Kb. Freeserve are to offer it at £60 a month from December (they need their cut, obviously), while Hull get it now for £15 a month - for a faster connection. How??? Oh, aye. Those greedy bar stewards don't own the local loop in Hull, England.

October 15th
College really is interfering with my ability to keep this site up to date, but hey, no pain, no gain.

Briefly then, the main item of note, beyond Intels fiasco will Camino, is that NEC and Mitsubishi are to merge their screen / monitor businesses, consolidating to bring down overheads and R&D costs.

AMD Passes 1Ghz
As reported by The Register (dead link was above), AMD gives a 2 finger salute to Intel and starts production of it's ultra fast chip...

Crunch-time for UK.Com
Despite a stance from Oftel that their hands are tied because no-one has officially complained about BT's charges and their monopoly of the local loop...
Well, we have say...

• Me !
• Intel
• Cable & Wireless
• NTL
• TeleWest
• MCI / WorldCom
• UUnet
• Microsoft
• Most of the ISP's in the UK
• The Financial Times
• Countless businesses and home users
• Several prominent MP's
• CUT - The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
• ITU (I believe) - International Telecommunication Union
• PIU - Performance & Innovation Unit
• ....   ...

Anyway
Consultation on Oftel's proposal to unbundle the local loop from BT's vice-like grip end this afternoon (15th Oct 1999).

Today, I believe, ultimately decides the future of life, business and leisure in the UK. If it goes in favour of BT, with their frantic lobbying and "statistics", remember this - Oftel and the Labour (we're right behind e-commerce) government let England be relegated to division four*. If so, revise it to Labour (we're WELL behind in e-commerce)
* A football thing. Canadians and Americans read this - in the Little League of the connected world, Charlie Browns' team would cream the UK every time. (No change there then!)

But why are BT so resistant to progress they say they are all in favour of?

These figures are from memory, so I'll not swear on them, but, perhaps, it could have something to do with...

• The UK has some 8,000,000 Internet users
• Averaging 15 hours on line a month
• This generates - at cheap rate - £14 million. A paltry sum for BT
• in Canada 1.5Mbs ADSL is as low as £15 a month.
• in Hull - the own town BT doesn't own the loop - it's set round £50 a month
• in the rest of the UK - if you can get it - ever - it will cost upwards of £140 a month
• A massive saving for businesses with a 1Mbs T1 connection - circa £5,500 a month
• And all of a sudden the rental for those BT Highway lines with ISDN doesn't look so rosy...

October 3rd
BT are still being, well BT as far as Internet.UK.Com goes. This country is a waste of space!

On a more positive note, DIRECT X 7.0 is available. Two months later, than expected, but no matter

Here's Microsofts DirectX page

(Thanks to Lockergnome for the links. The MS search engine revealed nada!)

September 27th
"AT LAST, THE HALLOWED DAY. Camino shall be mine", said the Nord.

*cough*

"At last, I can order the revered i820 with..."

*cough* *cough* *ahem*

"I can enjoy the fruits of RAMBUS and, and... Will you stop that. And.

I've seen that furtive look before. Hey, come back here, out with it"

It doesn't, well, we err. That is to say.

*Taps foot meaningfully*

Memory problems. We're working on it. Round the clock. For, er, well, as many months as it takes

"I just give up!"



More news on BT's ADSL roll-out
An articles in this months Network Reseller Magazine & The VAR put BT's pricing around £40 p.m. for a 512kb connection and an obscene £150 a month for 2Mb/s - which was set at £30 a month during the London trials.
ADSL resellers (will) include Microsoft, Virgin.net and AOL.

BT expects to have the technology within reach of 6 million by March 2000, mostly around the M25 corridor though! The consensus if they it will extend beyond major cities by 2002 - just when their monopoly grip on the local loop is finally prises from there greedy paws.
Give BT a call on 0800 028 3663 and chase it up. The BT ADSL web area is noticeable for it's lack of concrete information!

BT & ADSL
Let's price it so high no one will want it, then can say there's no demand - for those that can get it, that is.
" "
Insert your own sentence above.
Americans will gasp in shock, UK ISP's will hurl, and I'm taking up that job offer in Alberta...

I have spoken to the ADSL trials manager who told me what little he was able to, but I got the feeling he wasn't too happy about it either.

USER

• STARTING PRICE £100 per month
• Installation £260

ISP

• Cost to ISPS's for a 512kb/s line - £14,400
• £25,600 for a 2Mb/s line rising to £68,600 for 34Mb/s
• Installation fee for ISP's from £2,000 to £15,000
• Limited to 40 users for backbones up to 2Mb/s (900 for faster speeds of ? )
• 28 page contract giving BT rights to any data the roll-out "trial" generates
• Delivery dates of 40 - 100+ days (up to 5 months+) depending on speed.

BT - for every user the ISP signs up, BT gets:

• £260 installation fee
• £60.49 Internal shift (!?)
• £1065 - £1590 p.a. rental (512kb/s - 2Mb/s)

These figures mean that ISP's will have to charge UK users £200 a month for effectively a modem class 50kb/s link.

Sources:
Computer Weekly - 16.9.99 - article for Cliff Saran
IT Week - 13.9.99 Vol 2 #33 - cover story
IT Week - 13.9.99 Vol 2 #33 - article by Rupert Goodwins


ARE THEY NUTS. That's a free local call back home. For $450 a month I could buy a house. I re-checked today and here's what Canadians are paying in Edmonton, Alberta, with [now bankrupt] Cadvision

Dedicated Home Account- Download 1.5Mb/s, Upload 640kb/s, dynamic IP, 10Mb space, etc
The cost? CAN $37.40 a month (set up fee $49).
That's around a wallet busting - NOT - £15 a month for unlimited high speed access.

Enhanced Account - Download 7.68Mb/s, Upload 1Mb/s 8 Static IP's, (sub nets available) et al.
The cost? CAN $124 a month (set up fee $199).
This has got to hurt, static IP's, 7Mb/s and no leased line costs. £50 a month. Mortgage the house guys.

Sorry, in case you misread, 1Mb/s in Canada is £15 a month (and much lower sales tax too, I might add) - or, compliments of BT's stranglehold on the local loop, £200 A MONTH - for a poxy 50kb/s connection.

Quotes my own, oft repeated thoughts from Rupert Goodwins
"With no competition and billions of pounds of call revenues from dial up Internet access, BT is in no hurry to make this work. Commercially it's understandable, even if it's hurting us."

The point though, Rupert, is that it is only possible because the government and OFTEL allow it. They COULD unbundle the local loop tomorrow. So, why don't they, especially given that most of that copper was laid when it was part of the government owned GPO. The UK got right royally stiffed when Thatcher and the Tories (?) sold off their crown jewels for a pittance.

The US was unbundled at the end of '97, Germany earlier this year, Holland around next February and BT, oh, we'll give them until July 2001 to milk the market. Understandably, competitors like MCI Worldcom are a bit biffed.

Just remember one thing. WHEN the number of businesses failing rockets, WHEN the national defacit escalates and WHEN the unemployment rate soars, you were warned.

True, the e-commerce issue is in it's infancy, but it won't remain so for long. The UK will be 3-5 years behind the rest of the connected world. I'm sure you all remember growing up - how many of you played with 8 year old neighours and siblings when you became a teenager...

SB Live! 1024
I'm close to a scoop here, I think, (3rd September 1999) after being send a spec. sheet and screen shot of the next version - the SBLive! 1024 Platinum. It's main feature is that it quadruples the standard number of available "voices".

Back :-) Summers over, the eldest is back in school, now I can catch up on all the backlog...

For today I ask this, notwithstanding all these 'behind closed doors talks' and vague promises and such nonsense, why the heck doesn't Tony "Mr I.T" Blair, stop pratting about, bitch slap BT and Oftel and do something about the extortionate Internet access costs in the UK. The free connection offers by the likes of Brutish Telecom are an insult to our intelligence.

Suffice to say I am not happy that I'm still in the UK, that I'm charged by the minute and second to connect and that the Brits are stupid enough to allow themselves to be stiffed for local calls, for hardware, computer books, games, CD's... Grey imports be damned, I say. One product, one price!

The Telegraph [link to article gone]
How Kingston Communications makes a wash of BT's claims (spread it on the roses, they'll come up a treat!) that their tariff's don't deter internet access times.

"However, BT has consistently argued that its timed call tariffs are not to blame for lower usage in the UK, and recently claimed that total Internet costs were comparable with the US. "

*Chokes on coffee*
Ye, right!

Intel
In May I posted quantity prices for the Intel^® Pentium^® range. Since then not only has the PII disappeared early, but I hear that production has also stopped on the Pentium III 450Mhz. There's also been a 20% price drop for Celerons since this June alone. Current ( per 1,000) prices for the Celeron are:

• Celeron 333Mhz at $67     compares with £--       (no longer available)
• Celeron 366Mhz at $69     compares with £45     (one off UK trade prices)
• Celeron 400Mhz at $93     compares with £58     (one off UK trade prices)
• Celeron 433Mhz at $113   compares with £78     (one off UK trade prices)
• Celeron 466Mhz at $147   compares with £100   (one off UK trade prices)
• Celeron 500Mhz at $167   compares with £--       (not yet widely available)

Typical (UK) trade prices (as at 4th August 1999), for comparison are:

• Intel Pentium III 450Mhz at £148
• Intel Pentium III 500Mhz at £270
• Intel Pentium III 550Mhz at £421
• Intel Pentium III 600Mhz at £453

I've not checked the truth of it yet but I caught a rumour that Intel is interested in AMD as VIA Technologies, after swallowing Cyrix for $167 million, now looks at the IDT's Centaur range as an after dinner mint.
Along with cross licensing deals, Via will gain the Winchip microprocessor and a talented design team in Texas.


AMD
Although I don't believed they are actually available to order as the release date is only today (10th Aug '99), here are some trade prices (revised 16th August), for the next generation AMD's:
AMD Athlon® 500Mhz at £225
AMD Athlon® 550Mhz at £340
AMD Athlon® 600Mhz at £505

ADSL
While I'm no closer to getting my hands on this juicy technology, I read in The Register that BT is include installation costs and the ADSL modem in the (overpriced) tariff.

Cable
NTL are planning to buy Cable & Wireless' residential services for £8.2 billion, giving it over 3 million UK customers. It is also believed to be interested in the other (remaining) UK Cable company - Telewest, though last I heard Telewest were asking silly money for the merger. France Telecom (another incumbent monopoly) is helping all this along with a $5.5 billion injection for 25% share in the company. It already owns 10%, with Microsoft having another 5%.

Telewest has similarly recieved a cash injection, with Microsoft taking a 30%* stake in the cable provider. (* Reports vary between 29.8% & 33%). Happily, these too are looking to announce broadband unmetered access in the UK early next year and, as well as Cable modems are said to be looking at ADSL too. Telewest account for 1.4 million subscribers, out of a catchment area of some 4 million.

ISP's
Screaming.net - Localtel, bless 'em, have one or two more irrate customers. Understandably, I guess, as (predictably) one user told The Register it would take 5554 hours - seven months - to download a 2Mb file (or 9 minutes in the early hours on a Sunday). Provided, that is, that he can be bothered after 282 dial-in attempts.

Cable operator NTL has a nice, believable offer - Internet access at 1p a minute at all times.
Regular calls are at: 3p a minute (8am-6pm), 2p a minute (evenings), 1p a minute weekends.

Budget Systems
Out of interest, following Tiny Computers free PC offer I priced up my own low cost systems, with the following specifications:
      14" monitor, 32Mb SDRAM, FDD, 4.5Gb HD, 36x CD-ROM, keyboard, mouse, on-board sound and video
      together with 80 watt speakers, and a V.90 56kb modem for internet access.
      You could even install the o/s and office suite gratis in the form of SuSe Linux 6.0 - which includes Corel Office.

• Cyrix MII 333 for £239 ex vat
• Celeron 366   for £275 ex vat

These prices are based on one off prices for components at trade prices and exclude VAT / sales tax. Experience tells me that for quantity prices you could negotiate to get these as much a 20% cheaper - £199 for a Pentium anyone?

The best deal I saw last month was for 17" Relysis monitors with three year on-site warranty.
One off trade price? Just £107 ex vat.

July 31st
BT & ADSL Hurrah, BT makes first public announcement on ADSL roll-outs. The first lucky souls to get the option (by March) will be:
London, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast, Coventry, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow

Ya, boo, hiss - The Brits get stuffed on price by the monopoly telephone company, with prices set..
"Wholesale prices will be in the range of £40 - £150 p.m. for 512Kbps up to 2Mbps downstream (plus sales tax, naturally)

For comparison...

ISP CADVISION in Canada, offer 7Mb download / 1Mbs upload, for as little as $995 CAN per annun - that's just £35.59 a month.



There's so much interesting stuff going on my heads spinning with it.


Hardware
Anyway, the fun is starting as the world goes pear shaped.
Last year I put a tender together for a very large quantity of computers. Cost plus. Remember, this is a year ago - I was offering P233 multi-media systems - monitor, 2.1Gb, the full monty. And to you Sir, £239 + sales tax. Not quite the same as giving them away, but still.
Then I did some projections.
And sold the company.
The multi-million corporation that swallowed me? Is no more... Now there's not a day goes by that I don't hear of one or another going to the wall. I was as guilty as any at wafer thin margins, but now it's getting silly.
Examples you say? These are one off ex vat trade prices - ask for qty!
56kb V.90 (Rockwell) PCI modems - £14.95
8Gb Western Digital HD's £70
128Mb PC100 memory (major on major) £51


Processors
- VIA Technologies have just bought Cyrix off Nat Semi, who are apparently in talks with T.I...
Via, I suppose, will produce a small format all in one board - like the early XT's etc, with the chip on-board. Taking a wild, wild guess, the spec for this imaginary £59/1,000 board is:
Cyrix P333, 8Mb ATI video, 64Mb memory, ESS soundcard and V.90 PCTel modem. 3dfx V3000 option.

The Register holds a rumour the IDT Centaur has thrown in it's chips - literally and metaphorically - and that ACER is getting the round in... [link to article dead]


Internet access
One of my earlier ventures was an Internet cafe (before they before so popular, I might add), with the view to setting up as a small, friendly local ISP. Fresh decor, benches, coffee machines, 20 odd PC's, ISDN lines while I sorted the (grossly overpriced) leased lines, the Ascend MAX 4000 router...
Then a birdy whispered in my ear. In six months time the local college (students being my main target) was to set up it's own Internet cafe, free / low cost access. The Profit and Loss recalculated to something horrible and I stopped just in time.
So, why is this relevant, years later? Because this side of computers has wandered off the grass into the path of a Semi big enough to haul MS's coppers...

All over the world, but especially in the UK, compliments of Freeserve everyone is offering free e-mail, free internet access, free webspace - UNLIMITED free webspace in one case! Even free connection costs - A BIG thing in the UK. I joke not when I say is is horrendously expensive to set up an ISP and the running costs...
To recover this you charge £30 a month
£25
£15
£6
£0
10,000 shares worth upwards of £500
Huh!?
-£10,000
Yep, one ISP was PAYING you for your custom. Not actually paying as such, but GIVING away shares to encourage you to let them cover astronomical costs. That was 10,000 shares for the first subscribers. The rest dropped to 1,000 shares and fizzled at 100, then, I believe 5 - when they had given away something like 49% of the company.
(No I never bothered, can't be doing with shares!).
THE MUTUAL   ALSO give FREE - REALTIME share information, quotes, financial news, charting information and company profiles. This is in itself is generally a per transaction / £30 a month venture...

The next thing you know free ISP's, barely a year old with only huge losses to show and a revenue stream based on a cut of connection costs - which are set to be abolished - will be valued at over £2billion. Nah!

Broadband now. (Apologies to those following ADSL - I will get on top of it!)

Around Europe, though still entrenched with monopoly telephone companies holding a vice grip on the local loop, broadband is creeping out. Prices and areas covered and patchy in these early days, but it's already commercially possible to get internet connection via...
unmetered 56kb
512kb Cable modems
1.5Mb ADSL
Satellite modems (56kb uplink)
10Mb wireless

I believe that there's currently 8.5 million Internet users in the UK - and there's not one of us that doesn't begrudge BT for every minute we pay to connect. Current ways to alleviate this include...

Kingston Internet
Unmetered access for £16 a month if you live in Hull - but only because BT does NOT own the local loop there

X-Stream
Free access at irregular days (costing them a fortune) - if you can connect and if the connection is worth it

BT
Something like £16 a month for weekend access (40 hours or something - top of my head)

Localtel
Free access at off-peak times. Er, for two hours at a time, then you have to re-connect. IF you can... IF.
I watched X-Stream start up, I followed Localtel's no catch offer - and told them to shove it. And was I right :-). I believe, not withstanding BT dragging there heels transfering accounts, that they are getting 3,000 new accounts a day. And adding up to 3,000 new lines to cope. Hmmm. NO Ta!

ClaraNET
Have an offer from August 2nd called "Freetime" (Duh). This, at least, is more sensible from a business point of view.
If you have a BT line (ex vat) £5.99 gets you 12 hours free access, £14.99 35 hours and £29.99 80 hours.
This is closest to what is actually wanted and I would love my ISP to offer something like this.

AOL
Can't get an angle on this yet, but I picked up an interesting nugget on this freephone trial that they are not doing. Well, yes, OK, they are doing it, but it's only a trial, means nothing. Anyway, I heard - unvarified as yet - that these trials are based on a specific installation disk. IF this is true and IF you can prise this disk from, AOL net heaven is yours...

Tiny
Tiny, mentioned below, are offering a free Celeron 333 if you connect with them. the catches are...

1. Delivery is a ridulous £40
2. You have a guarantee £29 a month IN CALL CHARGES - line rental is extra
3. You have to change from BT to TinyTel
4. There's no monitor as it connects to the TV, it's an (obsolete!) Celeron 333 and I suspect there's enough cut corners make a table for King Arthur. Having said that, if you use the phone a lot it's a no-brainer to change to them. It's still a decent spec PC and, in essence, it's free. Beggar £40 delivery though...
5. However, most of the folk I know that run up phone bills like that do so of the net and that, I believe, is about to change.

I have a feeling BT will soon buckle on Internet access costs anyway, perhaps...   I actually want "always on" ADSL - which I'm assured I can have in September. If not, I'll pack up and go back to Canada, where 7Mb/s ADSL has been an affordable reality for a while.

See The Register [article dead] for their views on ClaraNET too. You can visit Canada's premier ISP - CadVision - to get a better idea of how extortionate the monopoly controlled Internet access is in the UK and in Europe in general.


A number of interesting links [could] be found in my Snippits page (merged)

THE REGISTER - TINY OFFER FREE COMPUTERS...
Tiny offers free PC if you join its telco Seems like a small price to pay.

The deal is agree to £30 a month in phone call charges (for 12 months) and they give you a computer...
Seems a good deal, I guess. Depends what happens when the unmetered tariffs kick in in the UK.

What's happening?
Matrox G400 Max wows the reviewers. Great, I'll take one. Heck, all the guys in the art department can have one if it's that good.
Er..
Hmmmm?
It's er, well, that is to say, we're having problems. Perhaps September sir?
*BANGS HEAD AGAINST WALL*


UNMETERED NET ACCESS
Loads happening here. Masses and masses. Following a number of stories in the trade and then retail journals about BT's ADSL roll-out, a contact I have in BT confirmed that, as I mentioned last year, the roll-out will begin THIS September.

As a possible exclusive, I also learned - which won't surprise you - that the rollout will be extensive. As you may know, there are localised pockets like Guildford for the start of NTL's Cablemodem rollout, and Kingston. Well, BT is aiming for nationwide access this year.

OK, it may prove to be about to 60% this year, this a massive backlog of engineers to do the installation work, but it's finally coming...

Busy month for me, sorry!

UPDATE OF THE LOCALTEL OFFER - Revised 17th May
Finally got through and spoke to an accounts manager with Localtel. I'm hardly surprised, but the lady I spoke with apologised for the lack of response and confirmed that they are massively oversubscribed, but endeavouring to catch up with the work. I've got them to send me all the disks etc, while I think about it and read the small print.

On the subject of how they manage to do this, not unreasonably, she wouldn't go into details other than to say a mixture of advertising and finance, commenting that they do the same in America. Actually, they don't. In North America, local calls are unmetered fixed rate billing. For 0800 access, they are paying the cost of your phonecall. I can't comment of the level of discounts they apply (up to 70% I believe), but at normal rates, it would be very, very, easy for a heavy Internet user to run up costs of £200 a month. I understanding how a telco can offer flat rate billing, but, as I understand it, Localtel are buying line time off BT and giving it to you. I just can't get my head round it!

All things being equal, for all I ridicule BT, they do have a brilliant Quality of Service and look after their customers. At present I have decided not to change over as I feel, personally, that it will be better to leave things as they are and wait for ADSL to role out. BT offering unmetered local calls would be nice, but, citing OFTEL as an excuse, they say this just isn't going to happen - ever.

Truely an amazing deal - 0800 internet access. It's a joke, in my opinion. Oh, I don't doubt the offer may be genuine, but if so, it's I have grave reservations about it's viability. The fax line appears to be turned off, the on-line registration failed due a CGI script fault, on occassions, the phone is either not answered at all (I recorded 130 rings before being cut off) or it's permanently engaged. E-mail and verbal requests for an installation disk have been ignored. And the one time I got through, I was unable to get a straight answer to the most basic technical queries.

My concern is such - this offer, if true [is does appear to be so], is so good they are virtually guaranteed around 5,000,000 subscribers by my estimates. Localtel appears unable to cope after even a few days of promotion. Can you imagine what the screaming.net service is going to be like...

According to their own site:

BROADCOM DEMONSTRATES WORLD'S FIRST GIGABIT ETHERNET CHIP FOR EXISTING COPPER CABLING
xDSL News Alert - Tuesday, May 11, 1999
"Broadcom Corporation, a leading developer of integrated circuits enabling broadband communications to the home and business, today demonstrated at NetWorld+Interop '99 the world's first Gigabit Ethernet transceiver chip for existing copper cabling..."

ADSL FORUM SUMMIT FOCUSES ON REGULATIONS AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
Thursday, May 06, 1999---Workshop to Focus on Giving Voice to DSL May 24th

ARE YOU GETTING A RAW DEAL?
I've got my angry head on at the moment. Not content with facing extortionate telephone charges, the British public faces new insults from the software industry. Long aware of prices difference for applications (and computer books) it seems you are to face a similar slap in the face from Interplay in the games area.

On May 5th, in America, Interplays' Baldurs Gate add-on "Tales of the Sword Coast" was released -
    at $19.99 (about £13).
On May 14th, it will be released in the UK -
    at $31.00 (£19.99 with the current exchange rate around 1.55)

I asked their head office why they felt it necessary to hike the price a massive 50% for this country - No answer as yet. The UK copy is said to include "Magic the Gathering" which may take the sting off slighty, but is still no justification for such a massive difference for what is basically a small add-on...

CHEAPER INTERNET CALLS FOR THE UK
If you follow this site, you'll quickly realise I feel that the UK (and Europe) are being held to ransom by the utility companies, the greediest being the telephone companies. At least one of whom feels:
"We are not a monolopy, but as we alone own the local loop, we can charge what we like, for as long as we like and there's nothing you can say or do to change it. We LIKE these levels of profit..."
Not that I'll name names...

ANYWAY, things are starting to charges, at leat as far as Internet access is concerned - read on.

Kingston Internet Started the ball rolling by offering unmetered telephone call to the Internet for a flat rate fee of just £15.

Karoo Xtra
If you are a medium to heavy residential user of the Internet and use Kingston Communications for your telephone service, this option may be for you! It allows you to access the Internet via a Hull (01482) telephone number, reducing your Internet call charges. A monthly subscription of £15 (including VAT) is payable if you select this option.

This fee is payable on a monthly basis by credit card or direct debit. If you would prefer to pay by invoice, we will invoice you for 12 months in advance and you will receive a discount of 12 months for the price of 11. This monthly charge is a flat fee and gives you unlimited access to the Internet - there are no additional hourly usage charges. Call charges appear on your telephone bill and the advantage over our standard Karoo option is that calls are charged at 5.5 pence (+ VAT) per call regardless of how long you are connected to the Internet.



As Kingston Communications own the local loop they can do this - and still make decent profits.

They also offer ADSL (albeit at a far higher cost - something BT (with their ISN Trials) is unwilling, or unable to do, despite tests and trials that have been going on for a number of years, and the widespread availability of ADSL in North America.

Next X Stream took up the baton by offering Free e-mail, 20Mb free space and freephone 0800 Internet access at selected times. Initially it was all weekend, Currently it is 12pmm to 2am weekdays.

Times aside, they say the model is here to stay. Download times can be as low as 0.01Kb/s instead of 4Kb/s at times, with Ping rates measured in minutes rather than seconds (up to 400x slower due to dropped packed etc) but I persevere - and it is free...

This month see's a number of folk joining the race.

[www.tempo.co.uk] Tempo, in conjunction with    Screaming.Net   and    Localtel   are offering free internet access, email etc AND, if you swap over from BT (if must be BT!) to Localtel for billing, 0800 freephone access for off-peak hours. That's 6pm to 8am and weekends / bank holidays. They also offer a further 10% discount against your normal billing - even allowing for existing discounts like Friends & Family. (Shows how much the Telco's make, huh!)

This service has only just started (another body on the telephone lines wouldn't hurt, guys!) and as yet they have no figures or estimates for QoS (Quality of Service) or subscriber line ratios*, but hey, it's free...

(*Number of users to modems 10:1 is excellent, 30+:1 is common, 100+:1 not unknown - and a waste of time...)

NTL, bless there cotton socks, are now offering 512Kb/s Cable Modems to end users - with flat rate charging
The NTL HiSpeed Internet, is, in the UK at least, a pioneering new internet service which harnesses NTL's broadband cable network to a new 3Com cable modem - to offer internet access at up to four times the speed of the fastest service currently available. Costs are as follows:

• 3Com cable modem £149.99
• 3Com cable modem plus 3Com Ethernet card £169.99
• 3Com cable modem plus 3Com Ethernet card plus installation £199.99
• Billing is £40 per month flat rate including (free) internet access plus an (optional?) £8.87 for telephone line rental

It launched in Guildford on 4th May 1999 and then rolls out across the NTL CableTel regions throughout the summer.

Sadly the Merseyside and Cheshire areas are not on the roll-out for this year; however NTL are in talks with the other cable companies about sharing the technology etc.

Finally, AOL are a bit miffed as someone leaked news of their trials. AOL are not saying it will definately happen, just being trials and all, but a number of sources, including someone I spoke to in their call sector in Ireland, have said that the idea is for unmetered internet access for a flat rate charge of just £14.99 a month.

If - when - it happens, just watch AOL's subscriptions rocket - and BT (et al) squirm when asked why AOL can afford it - but they can't. The really daft thing, I'm told by a number of telephony consultants and insiders, is that the telephone charges reflect the cost of billing for local calls, and not the overheads of connecting the calls. i.e. You are paying to be billed, rather then paying for the cost to connect.


INTEL PRICING:

UPDATE
I've LOADS to add this month, including Intel prices up to September, with news on memory and motherboards, and a host of others. If you've not been there yet, take a lot at the 'Technical Site Links' and the IT Industry Trade Journals sections which have had a darn good overhaul this month.

WINDOWS
Microsoft will graciously offer Windows 2000 beta 3 to users for $59.95 ($89.90 for the Advanced Server Edition). Oh joy, the idea of paying for a time limited demo to help find Bill's bugs!

It's a tad cruel and the Windows 98 final beta was very stable; HOWEVER, I still have nightmares over the beta of Windows 95 and still recall the joys of arguing with one of MS's more narrow minded managers over the stability of the initial release (and 95b) - "There are NO bug at all in our product" he says, hand on heart, as a growing crowd of resellers stare in disbelief.

Depending on my mood, and workload, I might have a play with the release version, but I can't see it getting anywhere near my main system without two or three revisions AND a really good reason!
If it isn't broke, don't fix it, or in the case of Windows, if it doesn't crack too often, put up with it!

I couldn't find it last night, but I'm told the first Service Release for Windows 98 is out - and there are compatibility concerns with Intel^® network cards

For NT, Service Release 5 is now out, though I'm not sure what features it adds - or breaks...
I read one review of the Soundblaster Live! soundcard on NT. Apparently, if you install the drivers and have SR 4 installed (which you should as it's the Y2000 stuff) NT will crash irretrievably. This fault is down to Creative, but it's one to be aware of.

Intel Processor
Here [was] a link to Intels' processor road, which has been updated to the end of 1999. It shows details of the upcoming 133Mhz PIII 600's.

Matrox G400 Launch
Sample chips of the G400 are with manufacturers now, with retail release date set to late summer in the UK. Plans for its successor, the G800 are also in the pipeline with release for this estimated at mid summer, 2000.
Smiling contentedly, I point out that with 256 bit architecture (if not memory bus), 32Mb memory and 4x AGP it exactly matches the spec. I predicted late last year for them to regain lost market share.

Matrox G400 Announcement   (copied below [link to article now dead]

Matrox introduces its next generation chip technology

March 16, 1999 - Matrox is proud to announce the dawn of a new era in graphics acceleration. Introducing the highly anticipated Matrox G400: the first AGP 4X/2X device to offer unprecedented image quality without sacrificing 3D, 2D or DVD performance.

The new Matrox G400 uses a unique 256-bit DualBus architecture and a full 128-bit memory bus to continue Matrox’s tradition of providing the ultimate in 2D performance. Powered by its new 3D Rendering Array Processor, the Matrox G400 also delivers explosive 3D graphics acceleration.

It also unveils a new dimension in image enhancement technology by improving on Matrox’s trademark Vibrant Color Quality rendering, while adding cutting-edge features like true Environment Mapped Bump Mapping, an UltraSharp DAC and breakthrough DualHead Display technology, which drives two independent displays while supporting different resolutions and refresh rates.

The Matrox G400 offers support for key industry products and standards, including Microsoft Windows® 2000, the AMD 3D Now! and Intel Pentium III processors, the PC 99 specification as well as AGP 2X and 4X systems. In fact, Matrox was the first company to design a fully optimized AGP 4X chip, which it has been sampling to OEMs and other industry partners since October 1998. The Matrox G400 has also been thoroughly evaluated and tested by Intel to ensure superb stability and reliability.

Simply put, the Matrox G400 is the new standard by which all other graphics solutions will be measured. Matrox invites you to experience the difference true speed and image quality makes.

Gamespot deliver[ed] details of the upcoming release of DirectX 7.0

Update 30th March

PC Modem veteran Hayes has sold its european business to Zoom Telephonic

It is the UK's and EC's intention that every student will have a PC and access to the Internet by 2002 (Call charges not withstanding!). To this end, the British government has announced it will provide poorer families with recycled PC's as part of a £400 million package announced last week.
David Blunkett, Secretary of State for Education & Employment revealed how low income families would be eligible for the computers from as little as £5 a month.
I am not clear as yet were cost of ownership, support and maintenance comes into the equation though!

Microsoft is to announce the release date for Windows 98 Second Edition shortly, and availability for the Service Release update / patch.

Next month in the US MICROWORKZ will retail a fully specified $299 PC. This, I must see!

GRAPHICS SCENE

Voodoo3 launches shortly in the UK with RRP's of £99 for the 2000 and £149 for the 3000, with the faster 3500 and 4000 series to follow in late summer. 3Dfx is to spend $20 million to promote the launch.

Everyone else however (including Creative and Diamond Multimedia) is backing NVidia's Riva TNT2 chipset. I've not followed this chip as closely myself, but I'm told it is shipping.
It offers 32 bit colour rendering, 32 bit z buffer and 32Mb frame buffer. Tom Pabst has given it a good review anyway!

Following on is S3's Savage 4 which is a current bed-mate with Intel as they work on a PC on a Chip together. Diamond Multimedia, backing two horses, are expected to release a card based on the chip in the second 1/4.
As is becoming entry level for this type of card, it will offer 4x AGP, 128 bit path and 32Mb RAM. Hands up all those who remember considering a second mortage to buy a 5Mb hard-drive...

Choking on my coffee, I offer Intel's (1,000 quantity) prices for the PIII Xeon at 500Mhz

• With 512kb level 2 cache : $975
• With 1Mb     level 2 cache : $2,000
• With 2Mb     level 2 cache : $3,700

Intel's next major price revision will be on April 10th

Bit late this next bit as it's from my January notes, but I'll enter it anyway.
As I took my first steps in 1963, Douglas EngelBart at Stanford Research Central, California, invented the Mouse
Now my daughter has begun walking, it's replacement is heralded. Varatouch has created a new sensor using a patented technology they call Resistive Rubber - R2. Given that keyboard giant Sejin Electron is to oem the product, it should at least get a look in. If I remember I'll come back to this is a few months and see where they have progressed too.

My feeling is there will be a truly vicious techno / price war as we lead up to the millenium and that the result will be a big charge in the way computers and sold and used. I know what WILL happen in the next 5 - 7 years, but in the meantime the giants controlling the converging industries (communications, computers and broadcasting) will be to busy fighting for "their" product/protocol/standard to be the "one" everyobody adheres to that nothing will ever get done. Duh. Too much face and corporate expenses involved to consider details like - compromise!

FIC, with it's KA-6110 (supporting PIII to 700Mhz, and 768Mb PC133 SDRAM (3x 256Mb)) is one one the first motherboard manufacturers to announce on-board support for super fast UDMA 66 drives such as Seagates 17.2Gb U4 Medalist 17242 or IBM's and Quantum's own UDMA 66's. Most surprisingly, I've yet to see one reviewed. If Tom's Hardware or Anand ain't quick I'll do the reviews myself :-)

Multi-tech is shipping one of the first USB modems. The multi-modem V90 is available now with a rrp of £99 ex vat.

The line up for RAMBUS memory continues with Cyrix and AMD in with the list of supporters, though the chip (which needs Intel's Camino chipset boards) will have slow and expensive built up before it reaches towards mainstream, late next year.
To while away the time other vendors, like SIS, Acer, IBM and VIA are preparing the faster PC133 SDRAM's for volume availability this summer

I saved this dozy till last in todays update. Here's a nice snippet I pulled from a computer trade magazine which should have a few of the older (more experienced) techies and users choking.
According to David Gregory, Microsoft's Anti-Piracy Manager, "We [Microsoft] are looking at licensing online direct to dealers and additionally we are also developing a smart card solution. This is where you may have to insert a smart card into a PC before you can use the software or indeed the machine itself.
Well, David, you and Bill Gates can [insert favourite phrase here] before I'll go back to the lunacy of use once disks and dongles.
For all the those out there not sure what this means, it's an old, irrating and extreme form of copy protection that still survives in a few niche (really expensive) products - usually CAD related.
Here's an example, the product needs a (non copiable) floppy disk to install. The contents of the disk are moved to the hard drive. If the system crashes - if you can - you must restore the program to its original floppy and re-install. If you can't, then you must buy the product again. Yes this really happened.
Dongles are frail bits of plastic that plug into the serial / printer ports. If the dongle isn't detected, the program aborts. If - when - the dongle is damaged, you must return it to the manufactuer for a replacement - for a price. Meanwhile, your productivity goes down the toilet. If you had ever seen a PC with three or more of these blasted things cluttering up the ever present mass of cables you would begin to understand

With apologies for lateness!
I'll sit down and do a belated update next week.

Been relatively quiet really, beyond the usual "x buys y and in taken over by z!" Often as not it's telco's and network companies or Wintel and both.

Like Microsoft's recent investment in NTL and their announcement to offer Cable Modems to the UK within 6 months (four buses at once, just watch!).

Then there's [www.gtsgroup.net] Global TeleSystems Group's $5 billion merger with Esprit Telecom to create one of the largest independent telcos. Or Intels $2.2 billion take-over of Level One Communications (subject to the usual approval processes).

Intel also get further quick mentions for releasing their PIII Xeon this Wednesday (17th March), while their partner HP has brought forward the release of their PA-8600 to early 2000.

Sticking with Intel, graphics veteran S3 has announced that their new Savage4 chipset is optimised for the Pentium III's Streaming SIMD Extensions. (Intels answer to AMD's 3DNow...)

For the platformers out there, the Playstation 2 (for Xmas 2000) will have DVD, modem and USB capabilities and feature a 128bit 300Mhz RISC processor (6.2 Gflops power) with two support processors.

*ON-LINE*
Rumours are two UK regional telcos begin (local) rollout of ADSL shortly and that Cable & Wireless are to follow suit. Also that BT could review local (ie Internet) charges in line with the States by this Xmas.

Comments raised are that if so many ISP's can offer free mail, free connection and from 5Mb to (I quote) 'unlimited' free web space - based of their fractional % cut of the connections charges, then the company with the (virtual) monopoly - read GRIP - on the local loop is (£xxx/second profit) taking us for a ride. Es verdad?

*Hardware*
ATI Rage 128 / Fury are now available, but try and get one in the UK...

Pentium III and AMD K6-3 hits the street next week - subject to availability

3Dfx announces Voodoo3 to ship May 15th.

ADSL
It could be live by summer!
This is something I am following very closely in the UK.   Canadians, depending on location and ISP, already have dedication connections of up to 7Mb/s.   At a trade show this week I talked to a number of vendors about products. Most are looking into it...

• Diamond MultiMedia, as mentioned previously on my site, confirmed they hope to have ADSL modems available around mid September, but have no prices available.
• Are currently testing models for use in Europe and the UK and expect to make an announcement on their web site in the next few weeks. Again, availability is set to late summer with an estimated price around £249 (comparable with the US & Canada).
• Askey Computers have splitterless ADSL already and are (also) testing for conformity to British and European standards.
• BT announces - nothing, as yet.   However I spoke the the BT trials manager this morning (22^nd Jan 99) who was extremely helpful.   Whilst no prices or implementation dates are set, there should be a staged roll out beginning late summer.   Contributing factors include ITU ratification, commercial considerations and hardware support for agreed standards. (None of the messing we have with V90/X2/K56 flex.)

See my section on ADSL modems for more information.



HAYES

The grandaddy of modem makers appears to have gone into liquidation for the final time according to trade reports.   One manufacturer I spoke to put this down to high prices combined with a lack of innovation and new products, relying on name alone to bolster sales. Hayes UK is reported as being financially stable.

AMD

Details of AMDs K6-3 (Sharptooth) are beginning to emerge. Due for release next month at 400Mhz as a spoiler to Intels offer (below) it offers comparable performance and should work of existing K6-2 motherboards, subject to a BIOS update.

For the K7 chip, due for release this summer, things look even brighter. According to sources it will have bus speeds of up to 200MHz. They are also on line to release a copper design early next year when, I believe, their Dresden fab comes on line.   It will be launching at a gob smacking 1000Mhz.

INTEL

News continues to circulate that they cannot keep up with demand, with Intels official stance being that there are constrait on the supply of 350Mhz PIIs.   It appears that the 450Mhz PII is, for all intends and purposes, entry level standard - particularly in light of the price cuts due in February & April following the release of the 450Mhz PIII (Katmai) next month.   On the subject on Katmai, the motherboard manufacturers I've spoken to so far have, as yet, to confirm specific support for the PIII.
Katmai review by Kenn Hwang.



3Dfx
3Dfx appears to have stirred up a hornets nest followings its decision to purchase STB and begin selling its own cards to oems. Apparently the move has so upset some vendors - including Creative Labs and Diamond Multimedia - that they have abandoned Voodoo based development.
I've said for a while though, that Creatives' support for its 3D Blaster card is diabolical.