10th January 2000 Archive

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Intel cuts Celeron prices to prepare Coppermine way

Same old song but with a different beat

Only one month after it changed prices on its low-end Celeron processors, Intel last night made further price cuts on the family. The prices, which are for its .25 micron Celeron product line, are for units in prices of 1000, and show that the 533MHz Celeron it introduced earlier on in the month, is now the highest priced part. …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 08:02
Alpha NT could rise from the dead

Resurrection for MS Neptune to Cutler's taste

Reports on an Internet mailing list have suggested that despite Compaq's decision to pull the plug on NT and Win64 for the Alpha chip last year, it could rise from its marchitectural ashes. The Big Q's up and coming Wildfire platform could be the first beneficiary of such a move. The editor of the Sysinternals mailing list, Mark …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 09:02
Transmeta, AMD to talk 64-bit turkey at chipfest

Do you know the way to San Jose?

A chip conference held in California at the end of this month is expected to reveal details of Transmeta's long awaited Crusoe offering, the organisers have said. And the Platform Technology and Strategy Conference will also roll out execs from AMD who are expected to give further details of their plans for the 64-bit …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 10:27
Intel comes clean on PC COM direct site

But Chipzilla won't proliferate model worldwide

Chip giant Intel has clarified its position on the PC COM direct sales site in Singapore. The company, this morning, admitted that the domain name was owned by Intel, as first revealed here at the end of last week, but was set up in collaboration with a group of Singapore resellers. A representative said: "This is an Intel …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 10:38
Palm dismisses WAP out of hand

Better suited to mobile phone use

The much hyped wireless application protocol (WAP) has been described as irrelevant and unsuitable to the PDA market, by the leading handheld device vendor. A senior executive of Palm Computing told The Register that WAP was all well and good, but as it had been developed for mobile phones, it was unlikely to find success in the …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 11:03
Teen mag porn squat row blows up

Lawsuit rebuffed after skin site sold

The case of the hardcore porn site allegedly abusing the trademark of a popular teenage girl e-zine has taken a new twist after it was discovered that the offending site was sold to a Florida-based company a month ago. Last Thursday the publishers of respectable Teen Magazine (www.teenmag.com), EMAP Peterson, went to court to …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 11:32
Taiwan chip foundries merge

TSMC to buy WSMC in share swap, other deals to follow

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has bought its second chip maker in as many weeks. The foundry has announced a share swap which will see it merge with rival Worldwide Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (WSMC). The deal, to be finalised on 30 June, will see one TSMC share exchanged for every two WSMC shares …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 11:36
Belgian buy boosts Azlan training arm

Has eyes on lion's share of the Euro training market

Azlan has cemented a deal to buy a Belgian Microsoft training business for £1.86 million cash. The networking distributor will make an initial payment of £1 million for Flexcom, with the remainder paid over two years subject to performance of the company. Flexcom, which also distributes press publications for Microsoft and …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 11:49
Web site offers students careers advice

ITM get exclusive access to student market

ITM Communications has signed a deal with the NUS to gain exclusive access to three million students in the lucrative youth market. The company was formed two and a half years ago from mostly media professionals and produces a lifestyle magazine for graduates and undergraduates on CD-ROM and the Internet. It provides careers …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 11:54
UK journo follows DotComGuy's example

But only for a week - let's not get carried away

A British TV company is attempting to mimic the efforts of DotComguy by getting someone to survive for a week just using the Internet to obtain food and clothing. Unfortunately, technical difficulties with the site's Web cam this morning meant that many viewers were unable to see how GMTV's resident Internet expert, Sally Eden, …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 12:06
AOL to merge with Time Warner

Mega-deal to create media monster

America Online is expected to announce a merger with Time Warner today, a move wqhich will create a media colossus with turnover of $30 billion and a market cap of around $247bn (£153bn). The merger is expected to be finalised by the end of this year but the deal depends on the approval of shareholders from both companies and …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 12:16
Popular online billing software hacked

Credit details exposed by the millions, perp claims

A Russian computer enthusiast claims to have exploited a security flaw in ICVerify, the popular billing software for online credit-card transactions marketed by Cybercash, Inc. And in so doing he has culled a spectacular total of over 300,000 working accounts, the New York Times reports. The intruder allegedly obtained customer …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 12:43
Compel snaps up Web design company

£2.5m now and a promise of more to come

Compel is forking out up to £10.5 million for Pangaea Ltd, a UK Web design and Internet services company. Guilford-based Pangaea is being kept as a stand-alone business within the Compel group, but was this morning renamed Compelreach. Pangaea's clients include Benetton F1, HSBC and Yellow pages. The company made a pre-tax …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 13:22
Kids taught to use mobile phones

The emphasis here is on safety, of course

Use an ear-piece and put it in a bag, make shorter calls or use a landline. These are some of the lessons on how to use a mobile phone that children as young as five will be taught in the classroom. After the Christmas mobile phone boom, 300,000 of them will appear in the classroom prompting concerns about kiddie callers' health …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 13:23
Register Carrion stickers on sale now at Copyleft

Site News We have a bone to pick with you

Register stickers are now available at Copyleft, the world's finest purveyor of geek chic. Copyleft also makes our T-shirts and baseball caps, and damn fine they are too. Simon Ruperto wins a Register baseball cap for sending us the first email about our merchandise. "Not really sure who I'm supposed to direct this email at," …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 14:17
Copyleft puts the open source into geek chic

Site News The company we keep

Hurrah! Now that the first Register t-shirts have shipped across the world, it seems like an appropriate time to tell you all some more about Copyleft, the New Jersey-based designer of geek chic and partner of the Register, London-based supplier of geek cheek. So here's a Q&A with Tedd Blood, co-founder of Copyleft. Tell us …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 15:07
Hacker penetrates Virgin

Service put on hold after back door breached

Virgin Net claims to have repelled advances from an eager suitor who attempted to hack into its network. Although it claims there was no penetration and the security of the service was not compromised, 170,000 users had their service suspended over the weekend and have now been urged to change their passwords - just in case. …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 15:08
Unlawful 0800 use case goes before jury

Northants man out on bail pending trial

A teenager who appeared before magistrates in Northamptonshire charged with a number of Net-related offences has opted to be tried at crown court. Christopher Buckley, 18, from Oundle, Northamptonshire, was released on bail by magistrates on Friday. The case was adjourned until 18 February. It's charged that Buckley used a BT …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 15:13
Queen invests in Web firm

Gawd bless you, Ma'am

HRH the Queen is hoping to make a quick buck from the dot.com frenzy by investing £100,000 in a UK web company. Her Majesty instructed the stockbroker to the Privy Purse to buy shares in the Millennium Mapping Company - the outfit putting together an online aerial photo of the UK. Her holding represents around five per cent of …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 15:22
TDK denies it will exit modem PC Card market

But the cards are slipping into desuetude

Reports that TDK is considering canning its range of PC modem cards this year are categorically untrue, the European MD said today. At the end of last week, an executive from a TDK competitor, who wished to remain unnamed, suggested that the firm was contemplating leaving that market. Keith Marsen, MD of TDK Systems Europe, …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 16:41
Via claims to ship AMD Athlon chipset in volume

Updated But PC manufacturers say no samples for six weeks

Taiwanese chipset manufacturer and Intel microprocessor rival Via claimed today that it has started volume shipments of its Apollo KX-133 chipset to 20 of its motherboard customers. But PC manufacturers which use the Via chipset said today that the earliest they could expect to receive the KX-133 in mobos was likely to mid- …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 17:05
Micro$oft loses second appeal of class-action suit

Temps deserve nice perks too, the Supreme Court believes

The US Supreme Court has refused to entertain Microsoft's appeal of a US appellate court ruling on a class-action suit which makes temporary and contract workers eligible to buy discounted shares through the company's employee stock purchase scheme. Originally, a US district court had limited eligibility to a handful of workers …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 17:53
Win a genuine full-size Intel™® Gold Bunny Suit!

Competition Impress all your friends, totally...

The Register is pleased to announce the competition of the year, nay the millennium, when that starts. Wondering what you will wear to the next fancy dress party, or just want to be noticed around town? Want to impress your partner? Well, we have the answer..... Following our story Seven alternative uses for an Intel Bunny Suit …

Business 10 Jan 2000, 18:13