What emerges is a picture of IT directors on the brink of collapse in major companies throughout the UK and the US.
The research, “Revolution and Risk: IT into the Millennium”, was carried out by Ronin, and involved 500 IT directors on both sides of the Atlantic. “We have seen cases of directors sleeping overnight in the office, others developing a drink problem and others again with a marriage breakdown on their hands.” So speaks Ronnie Wilson, vice-president of Sequent Computer Systems, sponsors of new research into the human price of the IT revolution. A new survey has found the rapid pace of technological change is exacting a heavy toll on the personal lives of IT directors The primary source of their anxiety? Software suppliers Mark Vernon reports. However, that ploy did not work and neither did West Ham and Sheffield Wednesday’s tactic of attacking United earlier in the season.”Teams try different tactics against us,” Berg said. “When West Ham came here they tried to attack, and it was the same with Sheffield Wednesday.

You take a chance if you go out and attack us because if you don’t score, then we are always likely to score.”Blackburn, maybe, looked at that and thought we can’t come here and attack because that’s going to leave spaces for them to score. But when we play three strikers up front, and with Giggs and Beckham in midfield, it’s still very hard to defend against us.”Berg admits United are even better than he thought they were before he joined them in his pounds 5m summer move from Blackburn. In particular, he is impressed by their professional attitude. “I knew they had quality, but I’ve found that it’s not about individuals, it’s about how they gel together and that’s the main thing,” he said.”It’s very rare to get that in a team and especially so early in a season.

They are so mature in that when they win a game they don’t celebrate. When we played away to Feyenoord and we won I was looking around the dressing room after the game.”I thought it was a tremendous result because it had virtually put us through to the quarter-finals, but they were just sitting there as if it were just a normal game. I could not believe it, but they are used to success.”Berg’s compatriot, Solskjaer, thinks his best form is yet to come after kick-starting his season against Blackburn yesterday. The 24-year-old Norwegian talent has scored five goals in as many starts and said: “I think I am improving day by day.

I think I have improved from last year and I have learned more during the time I have been out injured.”It would be nice to get my first hat-trick but two goals is enough to start with,” Solskjaer, who has scored twice in each of his last two Premiership games, said.. Power Computing, the former Mac clone builder that earlier this year started to produce Intel-based Windows notebooks after Apple refused to license its latest Mac OS 8, has stopped selling its Mac clones and is no longer accepting orders for its PC range. According to industry analysts, the once high-flying company – which predicted annual sales of $250m in last June’s failed attempt to go public – could wind up by the end of the year. Company officials, however, said that a decision to close has not been made, and that the company is still investigating potential business strategies

“We sold six months of inventory in two months. At this time, all Power Computing Mac clones are either gone or in the final process of shipping,” said John Kraff, a sales representative of Power Computing.

“After Apple bought back the Macintosh licence agreement, we announced, took orders for and shipped our new Wintel notebooks. In that transition, we expected to have a change of investors, but the change has not occurred as fast as we had hoped. Early orders and reviews of the new notebooks were great, but due to the situation we are now no longer accepting orders for them.”
There have been staff lay-offs and the company was reputedly able to ship only 150 notebooks out of 1,000 orders after the systems were introduced. The company also faces a lawsuit by TCI Manufacturing, a Canadian-owned company based in Taiwan, seeking nearly $42m in damages over an alleged breach of contract. It is claimed that Power Computing refused to compensate TCI for cancelled orders of enclosures and power supply technology that had been custom-designed for the company.Asked about the prospects of the company trading beyond December, Kraff replied: “We just don’t know. Steven Kahng and the board will meet after the first of the year to decide whether the company will stay in business or not, and how it will stay in business if it decides to move forward.”.