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SCMP Reporter

Ladies, if your ideal Valentine date is Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison you may need some help, and we are not talking just about the psychological kind.

 Mr Ellison is notorious for dating glamorous, high-society women. He claims to have dated Sharon Stone prior to her marriage last year.

 But do not give up hope. A United States public relations executive managed to score a date with Mr Ellison - one of the world's wealthiest bachelors - and, in classic PR style, has circulated a release detailing how she did it, reports on-line magazine, Suck (www.suck. com).

 Take note, swooners of Mr Ellison, on how Elizabeth Ferrarini first wooed him with e-mails that focused on a mutual appreciation for poetry, then hit paydirt after sending him a miniature cardboard Japanese temple that resembled the tycoon's million-dollar mansion.

 Their date started with dinner at Mr Ellison's home, but ended abruptly due to an Ellison 'family emergency'.

 Ms Ferrarini, who believes that 'Oracle and Microsoft have to work together', told Suck she would not pursue another date with the billionaire, as he has been linked to romance novelist Melanie Craft.

 'I'm looking for someone really interesting,' she told Suck, 'maybe an intellectual match'.

An industry rumour reported by cmp.net says Hewlett-Packard will dump its decades-old medical division to focus on computing. HP's Anesthesiology Village Web page (http://hp.iwcon.com/mpg-anes) would seem to be the perfect site for Web-surfing insomniacs seeking a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, it only offers 'news and information for the anaesthesiology community', rather than mail-order sedatives strong enough to sleep through coronary surgery.

 Some reporters, however, would argue that attending an HP press conference would do just the trick for sleep-weary souls.

The much-delayed release of Microsoft's Windows 2000 Professional Version - there is speculation it might not see the light of day until 2001 - has spawned the circulation of a mock press release, which reads:  REDMOND, WASH., Jan 15, 1999 - Microsoft announced today that the official release date for the new operating system, Windows 2000, will be delayed until the second quarter of 1901.



A guide to dating an IT billionaire