30th December 1999 Archive

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Intel best company in cosmos

It's chiptastic, it's megatronic, it's greasy lightning

It must be a little worrying for any of Intel's 68,000 or so employees worldwide when one of the local bosses stands up and tells a journalist what a great employer it is. Excuse our cynicism, but generally this seems to happen just before a big company gives bad news to its employees. Yesterday's edition of the Malaysia Star …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 09:21
Uri Geller bent on legal action over Pokemon likenesses

Fork get this idea, he says

Cutlery-bender Uri Geller (53) is up in arms at Nintendo about two "Un-Geller" Pokemon trading cards. Yesterday's Guardian UK daily newspaper reported that Geller is considering sueing Nintendo because of the likenesses on the cards, one of which portrays a "good" Un-Geller and the other a "bad" Un-Geller. The newspaper reported …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 11:07
Judge refuses DVD biz' DeCSS ban request

Seventy-two Web sites breathe huge sigh of relief, but battle not yet over

DVD industry attempts to block the distribution of DeCSS at least until 14 January 2000, the controversial DVD file decryption software, failed yesterday. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge William Efving threw out a request for a temporary order to force 72 Web sites to cease offering the software for download. The request …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 15:25
Qualcomm leads NASDAQ to unprecedented heights

Does the biggest boom since 1928 foreshadow the biggest bust since 1929?

The Nasdaq composite index closed above 4,000 points yesterday, only months after amazing analysts by breaking 3,000. This is the result of unprecedented investor optimism over technology stocks, many of which have risen by more than 500 percent this year alone. By far the largest winner is Qualcomm, whose shares rose $97 to $ …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 18:20
eToys softens under grassroots pressure

Will drop cybersquatting suit if etoy drops theirs

Online toy mega-merchant eToys conceded that popular support for the Swiss art group etoy encouraged it to offer a settlement to an old domain-name contest. The company offered to withdraw its suit if etoy withdraws its counter suit. eToys reportedly offered the Swiss artistes as much as US $1 million for the right to their …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 21:29
Nigerian govt. kills Millennium bug

It's easy: throw the baby out with the bath water

The Nigerian government on Wednesday authorised its state-run telephone company to disconnect private carriers which it deemed ill prepared to face the Y2K rollover. The company, Nitel, promptly responded by cutting off something like 20,000 private lines. "This is necessary in order to protect the integrity of the national …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 21:35
Vatican defences survive three-day hack attack

Malicious one, this

A three-day mass hack attack on the Vatican Web site over Christmas failed to breach the defences of the online wing of the Roman Catholic Church. But the site nearly buckled under the barrage. Crackers attempted to replace itineraries for pilgrims posted on the site with pornography and blasphemy, The Guardian reports. It gets …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 23:14
VIA pays for world to pray

Chip firm funds Millennium Prayerboard

VIA, the Taiwanese chip firm led by devout Christian Wen Chi Chen, is sponsoring the new www.worldpray.com Web site. This will provide an "interactive global forum for people to post their prayers and aspirations for the new millennium" The site features an interactive Millennium Prayerboard, where people can post their prayers …

Business 30 Dec 1999, 23:44