The real point is, as all rational and empirical people admit, that the world is going to end on Dec. 21 rendering all good deeds and deed-worthy goods useless.
DEC's high-end workstations and the servers that use its blazingly fast Alpha 64-bit microprocessor and run on the Unix operating system open up new markets for Compaq.
The Bradford-based chain is in the process of revamping its advertising, having announced at the end of last week that it had signed Ant and Dec to front its commercials.
The donors proposed the gift of private stock on Dec. 29 and wanted to complete it by year-end (to take the tax deduction for the charitable gift in 1999), but the charity's approval process for stock gifts couldn't work that fast.