11th February 2000 Archive

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Court seizes home computers in Northwest Airlines labour dispute

Rather jack-booted and thuggish, isn't it?

Americans don't call it "North-worst Airlines" for nothing. In addition to serving up what civilised travellers agree is the least competent and most churlish air service in North America, the company recently sought and gained a temporary restraining order against two Webmasters it accuses of organising a sick-out. Flight …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 05:27
Via sets date for Joshua Celeron rival

Can Via succeed where its purchases failed?

Via's Joshua chip is to be formally unveiled on 22nd February, according to company sources. The low-cost chip is aimed at Intel's Celeron, uses Socket 370, and will initially run at speeds of 433MHz and 466MHz. Clock speeds of 500MHz and above are due later this year. With the launch of the chip Via will have the opportunity to …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 08:48
FBI refuses to open source for Linux DDOS detector

But wants to make it widely available...

The FBI has released updated Distributed Denial of Service detection tools for Linux and Solaris, and is urging people to use them - but the Feds are declining to make the source available. This is obviously a bit of a no-no for the open source audience you'd expect for Linux tools, and the stance looks even odder when you learn …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 09:28
IBM thumps the Win2k tub, but supports everything

Serial agnosticism rife inside former OS warrior

Whatever happened to the OS wars? Now thumping the Win2k tub, IBM says it is second only to Microsoft in spending money on Windows 2000, and that it will itself be Microsoft's biggest customer for it, with 300,000 seats. In a briefing on IBM's software strategy, IBM has made it clear how it expects to profit from Windows 2000: " …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 10:36
PlayStation-on-Mac developer gets sales ban lifted

But it's not the victory Connectix thinks it is

Connectix has been granted the right to resume shipments of its Mac-based PlayStation emulator, Virtual Game Station (VGS), more than a year after Sony launched its copyright and intellectual property infringement case against the developer. The judgement, made yesterday by the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals also paves the …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 11:25
Austrian Freedom Party ‘declares war on English speakers’

Lederhosen, schnapps and Nazi sympathisers

The Austrian Freedom Party appear to have begun their charm offensive to win over world opinion. With the accent on offensive. Now junior members of the Austrian Government, those much maligned people are not anti-everything and anti-everybody. Just anti-most things and most people, as the English-language section on "their" Web …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 11:25
LateRooms takes a pop at Lastminute

Reckons it's a lean, mean e-business machine

An e-commerce up-start start-up claims to have stolen a lead over the darling of British e-business, Lastminute.com. LateRooms.com says its has leapfrogged Lastminute.com by signing up 1500 hotels to the site, making it the largest database of its kind on the Web. Sources also claim that LateRooms.com is generating even more …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 11:35
Valentine's Day debut for Telewest free Net calls service

And broadband lurking just around the corner

Cable operator Telewest is to start offering unmetered access to the Net on Monday. Whether the Valentine's Day launch will be the beginning of a love affair between British Net users and Telewest remains to be seen. All in, it will cost users £29 a month to get unmetered 24/7 access to the Net. But that figure includes £9 phone …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 12:30
Dell's power to drive profits slows to crawl

Corporates' server spending spree may not be enough to increase earnings

Dell's recent profit growth warning was fleshed out yesterday when the doyen of direct PC sales announced a tiny rise in net income and a large -- but not up to par -- growth in revenue for its fourth quarter, ended 28 January. The quarter's profits total a mere $436 million (16 cents a share), up just three per cent on the $425 …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 12:40
European PC market driven by Net

Germany dominates, pushes Fujitsu Siemens to No. 2

The rush to get online is fuelling PC demand in Europe, with 1999 seeing an 18 per cent increase in sales over 1998. Figures from research analysts Dataquest, show 29.9 million PCs were sold in Europe last year, with the home PC market growing by 32 per cent year-on-year. In the Western European home PC market, 8.5 million units …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 12:49
AOL demands flat fees for Germany

Is there no start to this company's political skills?

After a dry run in Britain, AOL Europe is taking its political lobbying skills to Germany. The world's biggest ISP wants the German government and public telco Deutsche Telekom to reduce Internet call charges by up to 50 per cent. This would stimulate the German economy by 0.5 per cent and create up to 400,000 jobs, AOL claims. …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 13:35
Adobe to bring PDF to Palm PDAs

Paves way for e-book PalmOS licensees

Adobe this week announced that it will port its Acrobat technology -- the software behind its Portable Document Format (PDF) -- over to the PalmOS. Neither Adobe nor Palm Computing said when PDF would be integrated into the PDA-oriented operating system, but with the launch of a major upgrade to the PalmOS, version 3.5, planned …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 14:10
AMD jumps gun in MHz wars

Launches 850MHz three whole days ahead of schedule

AMD has launched its 850MHz chip, the fastest Athlon to date, a whopping three days ahead of schedule. Originally slated for a Valentine's Day debut, 850MHz -powered PCs are on sale from IBM, Compaq and Gateway today in the US. It will take a little longer for delivery - Compaq is quoting upwards of 20 days overnight for its …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 14:45
Buy books with your mobile phone

WHSmith goes WAP-tastic

Gadget-loving bookworms can soon order their favourite tomes using their do-WAP enabled mobile phones. The nation's favourite newsagent, WHSmith, said it expects to launch its Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) book retailing service by the end of March. The company is currently in discussions with all the major network …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 15:32
Second-generation DDoS tools now easily detected

Not that you'll do anything about it....

The merry prankster(s) who recently launched widespread distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against such paragons of e-commercial success as Yahoo and E-Trade have bequeathed us one valuable legacy: they raised awareness of a threat which the security community, toiling in obscurity, had failed to make sufficiently …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 15:44
Man Utd in £30m Vodafone deal

That should just about cover Roy Keene's wages

Mobile telco, Vodaphone, has confirmed it is to spend £30 million over the next four years sponsoring Manchester United. The deal is believed to be the biggest yet in British football. Last month yodelling portal, Yahoo! distanced itself from speculation that it was set to splash out £40 million to sponsor the shirts of Man Utd …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 15:57
UK PM Webcasts to the nation

It's all part of the Blair Net Project

The British Prime Minister has sidestepped traditional media and used the Net to broadcast to the nation. The party political Webcast by Tony Blair earlier today was part of a £55,000 refit of the Government Web site, number-10.gov.uk. What's more, the PM has vowed to talk to his flock every Friday using it as a platform to …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 17:00
UK gov't reveals Big Brother bill

Police to get access to emails, spy on Net use etc

Yesterday the UK Government published details of its plans to allow law enforcement agencies to access email correspondence. Now, for the first time, UK police will be able to lawfully read your emails and listen in on your mobile phone conversations. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill is being positioned by Government …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 17:42
Three Intel mobos scrapped because of chipset probs

Two new codenames emerge from Chipzilla skunkworks

Documents Intel has sent its system manufacturers are outlining its plans for the phasing in of the flip chip technology and the departure of the Slot One configuration (SECC2). According to the documents, Intel will offer Slot One versions of its Coppermine processors within 30 days of offering equivalent processors in the FC- …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 18:30
LinuxOne nicks Register Flame of The Week

Homage or theft?

Cheeky monkeys: LinuxOne, the controversial Linux distro, has started a "Flame of The Week". Wonder where it got that idea from? Originality does not appear to be the company's strong suit (then again, what is the company's strong suit?). Couldn't you have found another name, guys? The Register's first Flame of the Week was …

Business 11 Feb 2000, 20:00