7th February 2000 Archive

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So what is the difference between Jobworld.com and Jobworld.co.uk?

Two rival publishing houses, that's what

Efax.com, the upstart competitor of efax.co.uk, may be worrying unduly about its British rival (story: efax.com v. efax.co.uk). Brits flock like sheep to .com addresses -- take a look at Jobworld.co.uk, a long-standing British recruitment site owned by VNU, Britain's biggest IT publishing house, and Jobworld.com. The latter URL …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 02:29
efax.com fights efax.co.uk

First -- and maybe last -- round to Brits

Efax.com has got a big struggle on its hands to win control of the efax.co.uk domain name, following its failure to secure an injunction against a small British company. In court, efax.com argued before Mr. Justice Jonathan Parker that that the name efax.co.uk was confusingly similar to its own name. This is cybersquatting with …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 02:37
Philippines can't afford Intel inside

Income tax holiday not enough

A report in the Philippine Star said that Intel plans to build a fab on the archipelago will come to nothing because the government cannot afford to build additional infrastructure. According to the report, which can be found on the Web here, the Philippine government's plans to attract Intel by providing tax incentives will not …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 07:46
Virgin carries out payment freeze threat

Holds £50m to ransom

Virgin Our Price is witholding £50 million in payments owing to record labels, in what it claims is a campaign to secure better discount terms for the Virgin Our price retail chain in the face of allegations that online CD suppliers get better deals, the Sunday Times reports. However, senior music industry sources claim Virgin's …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 09:40
Gates promises enriching experience for UK lottery

Under the circs, why would you bother making it up?

Microsoft has joined the team of companies fronted by Virgin's Richard Branson in order to bid for the UK's lottery. Bids for the contract, which will run for seven years, are due in next month, and a happy Bill Gates of Microsoft was yesterday telling interviewers all about how PC technology would revolutionise the process and …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 10:08
Race to 1GHz bad for end users

Semi companies rolling revs out too fast

The race between AMD, Intel -- and now IBM -- to be first to market with a 1GHz microprocessor is having a bad effect on corporate users of PCs because of too fast roll-outs and changes of platform, it has emerged. Intel is expected to demonstrate a 1GHz CPU running without benefit of cooling at next week's Developer Forum, …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 10:33
Gizmo-happy DoCoMo may bid to buy Orange

The Japanese outfits toys could make Hans Snook a very happy man...

Japan's NTT DoCoMo is tipped as considering a £20 billion plus bid for the UK's number three mobile phone operator, Orange. Orange itself was bought relatively recently by Mannesmann, but the latter's acceptance of Vodafone's hostile takeover bid last week, besides turning Vodafone into the world's fourth biggest company, puts …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 11:08
Samsung designs Palm-style colour ARM-based Linux MP3 PDA

Or it claims it does, anyway. See story for more do-everything claims.

Samsung is soliciting OEM manufacturers for a ARM-based multimedia PDA running Linux. The device, designed by Samsung Electro-Mechanics (no, we don't know why either) is colour, allegedly does everything and looks jolly cute. But then prototypes usually do, don't they? According to Samsung it has an MP3 player, voice recording, …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 11:09
CIA head slapped in Net porn exposé

Home PC found wanting security

The former head of the CIA has been fingered in a Net porn case that could have compromised the security of the US. Allegations first printed in the New York Times suggested that the home PC of former CIA director, John Deutch ("Red Hot" to his friends? - Ed), was used to access porn sites on the Web. Deutch's PC also contained …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 11:33
Meet Mr. newagegossip.co.uk

Truly liberating

A London-based editor loves his job so much that he is changing his name by deed poll to the Web site he works for. Michael Day, 39, who now wishes to be known as newagegossip.co.uk, says he will not "recognise any correspondence addressed to his previous name". Mr newagegossip.co.uk, says: "Changing my name was a truly …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 11:37
Linux-on-PowerPC team update distros' reference release

Version 1.1 to unify Mac Linux core functionality

Linux-on-Mac development team the Linux/PPC Developers have updated their reference version of the open source OS to support a greater range of PowerPC-based computers and peripherals, and bring many of the OS' core components to their most recent versions. Derived from Red Hat Linux 6.1, the PowerPC Reference Release 1.1 is …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 11:40
CallNet back in action

No catch free Net access on offer again, with catches

CallNet 0800 -- the ISP that claims to offer "no catch" 24/7 0800 access to the Net -- began accepting new customers at the weekend, more than three months after first suspending registrations back in November. The ISP was forced to drop the gate and restrict access to the service only days after the service went live in late …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:04
MS pitches twin controller approach for mobile devices

Not more expensive, honest. We don't know why either...

One of the problems CE (and indeed, numerous other operating systems) faces in penetrating the mobile and appliance markets is that it's not fully real time, although the hardware generally doesn't take too kindly to software chiming in demanding CPU time when inappropriate. But Microsoft may have found an interesting workaround …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:04
Former Borland Mr Big sells more stuff to Big M

Technology helps send large pictures (why would he have thought of that?) over wireless

Man of many faces Philippe Kahn has popped up again via another deal with Motorola. He's now being described as a 'software entrepreneur,' but we at The Reg think he'd be better tagged as a start-up chef, always ready to whip up a new confection for Big M to buy an undisclosed stake in. Philippe, also known as the man who put …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:06
BBC can't get its tongue round the Web

It's a case of dots before the ears

The BBC has denied it has issued an edict to its broadcasters on how to read aloud Web addresses. For some months now newscasters and programme presenters have fallen into the annoying habit of misreading domains. The result, is that the syntax and poetic balance of a Web domain is completely thrown out of alignment. It grates …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:11
Be to launch info appliance OS today

BeIA to replace BeOS as flagship product

Alternative OS vendor Be will launch its BeOS-derived internet appliance OS today, less than a month after the company announced it was shifting its focus away from the mainstream OS market and on to such embedded applications. First announced last November under the codename Stinger, the final release will be officially dubbed …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:25
Rapid demise of Slot One causes more problems

Socket-to-slot convertors meet OEM resistance

Intel has advised system builders to make use of socket to slot convertors in order to avoid problems caused by its rapid movement from Slot One microprocessors to flip chip (FC-PGA) packaging. But OEMs are cavilling against the Intel recommendation, as being unsuitable for any products apart from the Celeron platform. In an …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:27
Big Blue boffins to unveil 4.5GHz CPU breakthrough

All to do with multiple clock chips, apparently

IBM chip scientists will this week use the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) to unveil what they claim is the world's fastest microprocessor -- a beast capable of reaching 4.5GHz clock speeds. That's over five times faster than the current top-speed Pentium III -- and, given Intel's production shortages, just …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 12:51
Hawkeyed Mirror hacks drop BBC clanger

New cyber cop show could be in need of a better plotline...

The Beeb is to start shooting a brand new drama about a cybercop who scours the Net exposing "scams and shams online". Called Hawk and featuring ex-Citizen Smith star Robert 'Wolfie' Lindsay, the programme is named after his Web site, hawk.com. Well, that's what today's Mirror said. Except that hawk.com belongs to US-based Hawk …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 13:04
Welcome to the post-PC era

Sales of Net-enabled devices to outstrip the humble PC by 2002

Sales of PCs will soon be outstripped by Net devices, if research giant IDC is to be believed, ushering in the dawn of the post-PC era. In the US last year, sales of Net devices stood at 11 million units, with a value of $2.4 billion. But by 2004, that figure is expected to rocket to 89 million units, with a value of $17.8 …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 13:26
3dfx fires 20 per cent of workforce

Graphics company's new CEO swings the axe, as promised

The scheduled launch date for 3dfx's upcoming next-generation Voodoo 4 and 5 graphics acceleration products may be getting nearer, but not close enough to save the company financial embarrassment. Last week the loss-making company was forced to lay off 20 per cent of its staff -- 130 people in total -- in a bid to cut costs. It …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 13:33
Ageism has no place at Sun – 500 year olds welcome

Both feet in the grave

When The Register's own favourite PR person, Doctor Spinola, applied for a job at Dell a few months back, he was somewhat dismayed to discover that the Great Satan of Hardware deemed his 27 years' experience in the industry to be insufficient for their needs. He should consider himself lucky he didn't try Sun -- a couple of …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 13:56
Compaq wants return to storage SANity

But when's the acquisition happening?

Broad hints that Compaq might invest more money in the storage market by buying a company shortly have so far come to nothing, but the company did say today it will spend $6 million on building an Open SAN lab open to all other vendors and at the same time announced a new division called the Storage Software Business Unit. Donal …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 14:07
Bill Gates luvs Sir David Frost (true)

Let's play softball

Bill Gates duly trooped on to Sir David Frost's BBC1 breakfast TV show yesterday, where he signalled his intention to bid with Richard Branson for the rights to run the UK Lottery. Yesterday saw the chums in good form. Gates was given the chance to make a point about the need for cutting-edge technology, complaining that " …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 14:30
Online ads in the palm of your hand

Massive market with small screens

Just as advertising on Web sites is starting to establish itself, online advertisers are being swept away on the new wave of handheld devices. With the prices of WAP phones falling and more and more content providers queuing up to service the new market's needs, WAP is thought likely to become the standard mobile phone platform …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 14:53
Teledesic's McCaw to pump $20m into Iridium

But a takeover has been rejected -- for now

Iridium looks set to receive the long-anticipated cash injection from satellite comms entrepreneur Craig McCaw this week, according to the New York Times. The investment will run to at least $20 million, the paper reckons. This first payment represents little more than the what the loss-making and creditor-protected (via Chapter …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 15:24
Arrow targets French distie

Intel/AMD house snapped up

Chips 'n' bits distributor Arrow has moved in to buy French distributor Tekelec. Based near Paris, Tekelec had revenues in the region of $325 million last year, and sells across most of Europe. Tekelec sells AMD, Intel, Siemens/Infineon, STMicro and Linear Technology among others. Arrow is one of the world's largest distribution …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 15:50
AOL hot on Freeserve's heels

Or is it? And at what price?

AOL claims to be on the brink of deposing Freeserve from its top slot as number one ISP in Britain. Andreas Schmidt, AOL Europe's head man, said that AOL's British concerns -- AOL, CompuServe and Netscape Online -- had a combined membership of some 1.6 million active users. Freeserve has just 75,000 more users, which means if it …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 16:01
AOL kicks off WAP trial

WAP bop a loo WAP...

AOL Europe is to begin trialing WAP in Britain, Germany and France later this month, the company announced today. It will develop interactive content and services with Ericsson, Nokia and RTS Wireless including features such as mail, news and weather. The trial is part of the ISP's "AOL Anywhere" strategy, that allows users to …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 16:13
Wooster sues Jeeves

What, ho!

The estate of author PG Wodehouse, creator of the character Jeeves the gentleman whose lesser-known gentleman employer was Bertie Wooster, is unhappy the use of the Jeeves' name by Ask Jeeves, an apparently unrelated American imposter who has become frightfully rich. London-based AP Watt, the oldest-established literary agency …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 16:32
Wooster sues My Man Jeeves

What, ho!

The estate of author PG Wodehouse, creator of the character Jeeves the gentleman whose lesser-known gentleman employer was Bertie Wooster, is unhappy with the use of the Jeeves' name by Ask Jeeves, an apparently unrelated American imposter who has become frightfully rich. London-based AP Watt, the oldest-established literary …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 16:32
Intel claims volume 1GHz on Coppermine RSN™

Not just feasible, manufacturable....

Peter Green, design manager of the logic design group at Intel in the US is, as you read this, delivering a technical paper at the Solid State conference demonstrating how 1GHz can be delivered on the existing Coppermine Pentium III core. He is telling the delegates that Intel has succeeded in producing the chip using existing …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 18:00
Surprise, Surprise, Corel gets Inprise

Another Linux 'powerhouse' is born...

Corel is taking over Inprise/Borland to form what it calls a Linux powerhouse. The Canadian firm is splashing out $2.44 billion of its new-found paper wealth for the privilege. And of course it was The "L" word that made the deal possible. Driving the deal was the recent share price rise on the back of Corel's announcement of a …

Business 7 Feb 2000, 21:36