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28th March 2000 Archive

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  • Exit the Dragon – Belgian firm eats it, smacks its lips

    Lernout & Hauspie pays $600 million to allow headline

    Speech firm Lernout & Hauspie bought Dragon Systems yesterday for $587 million in a share trade, so snapping up the lion's share of the speech recognition market in the US. The acquisition by the Belgian company makes it the biggest speech recognition player in the US market. Dragon Systems had nearly 50 per cent market share in …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 04:40

  • Intel 700MHz mobile part will cause tears

    Where's the sub-editor? That should read tiers...

    The notebook manufacturers Intel considers to be tier one PC companies will receive supplies of a 700MHz Pentium III notebook processor shortly, with other firms in the food chain queuing up in the chip equivalent of a soup kitchen. Intel told PC vendors, system builders, distributors and dealers that a 700MHz Pentium III …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 07:26

  • Dutch demand flat fee access

    CUT-style group forms

    A Net user in the Netherlands trying to emulate the success of Britain's Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT) by starting his own lobby group. Volkert de Buisonjé has set up an online petition calling for the Government to stimulate more competition in the Dutch consumer Net access market. The petition, at …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 07:39

  • Big talk, small hopes from dotcom summit

    Opinion All mouth and no routers...

    Now that our political leaders have made their way back from the European Council meeting in Lisbon it's time to examine a little more closely why the dotcom summit wasn't the triumph it was cracked up to be. European leaders decided (or rubber-stamped really, because the European Commission essentially told them what to agree) …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 07:57

  • Micron, Mosel Vitelic settle patent dispute

    Peace breaks out but Rambus and Taiwan two worlds apart

    While the share price of Rambus may well have had Wall Street in a twitter for most of this year, the Taiwanese PC industry has pressed ahead with its plans to adopt PC-133 and PC-266 synchronous memory as the one it's going to use. Full stop. At last year's Computex show in Taiwan, Mosel Vitelic, which is the largest memory …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 08:02

  • EuroISPA slams French Net privacy plans

    Names. We want names

    The French Parliament could force Web page owners to register their personal details in a bid to improve accountability on the Net. The proposal was parachuted into the second reading of a new law set before the lower house of the French Parliament last week as part of a freedom of communications bill. However, the bill does not …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 08:11

  • MS poaches Symbian exec for wireless ops

    So farewell then, Juha Christensen...

    Microsoft has poached Symbian executive VP Juha Christensen to take charge of sales and marketing for its wireless business. Christensen will report to Paul Gross, who's currently in charge of the wireless business, within Paul Muglia's group. The organisation of Microsoft's wireless operations however remains somewhat opaque to …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 08:29

  • Court report: ex-Bay City Roller, ex-JP, ex-headmaster sentenced

    Their crimes and their punishments

    Ex-Bay City Roller Derek Longmuir has escaped jail over possession of Web child porn. The former drummer with the tartan-clad 70s band was given 300 hours' community service on Friday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Longmuir pleaded guilty to two charges of having indecent photographs, videos and computer disks of children at his …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 08:42

  • Mattel buys copyrights to Cyber Patrol crack

    Slick PR move in Boston courtroom

    Minutes before a copyright complaint hearing against two hackers who published a crack to Mattel's Cyber Patrol Web filtering application was to begin, the company filed documents indicating it was ready to abandon its suit over a utility program called cphack, which enables Cyber Patrol users to view the program's encrypted …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 09:13

  • Kahn battles Agfa to keep e-words free

    E-thinks ePhoto oughtn't to be e-propriated...

    Former Borland boss Philippe Kahn has become embroiled in a trademark wrangle with Belgian company Agfa-Gevaert over the word ePhoto. And characteristically, our opportunistic entrepreneur has claimed e-words have become part of the language, and as generic terms shouldn't be trademarked. Citizens of E-xeter will no doubt be …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 09:20

  • Judgement day: will the judge string MS up?

    A stay of execution, pending desperate settlement offers, seems more likely

    Despite the government's cool reaction to Microsoft offer to settle the antitrust case last week, the company could yet escape the judge's verdict, which is due to be issued today. Although settlement talks didn't restart on Monday, mediator Judge Richard Posner was in contact with both sides, and Microsoft has been clarifying …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 09:23

  • TUC wants Internet at work for all

    Too few people have Web access

    Employers must do more to get workers online, or face being left behind in the race to acquire new skills, the Trades Union Congress (TUC). It wants employers to give their staff access to the Net during working hours. The TUC's position was outlined during the launch a new TUC virtual classroom -- learnOnline -- and the …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 09:23

  • Motorola, IBM – cold warriors

    Analysis Let's make up and be friendly... or not

    What are we to make of the claims that Motorola has been nobbling IBM's attempts to supply Apple not only with all the extra PowerPC 7400 (aka G4) processors it needs but cheaper and faster ones than Motorola itself can? It has to be said right that the allegations have been presented without any corroborative evidence. And, so …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 09:58

  • German firm confirms it owns MP3™

    But everyone can use it, honest

    As we revealed last week, German firm Hypermedia has registered MP3 as a trademark. The firm confirmed it had done so today, and issued a statement on its intentions. Norbert Boehnke, MD of hypermedia GmbH webcasting and MusicPl@y GmbH, said that the firm has filed MP3 as a common European trademark. He said, and we quote …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 10:23

  • Intel, Science Museum open Web wing preview

    Opens in June. Wellcome...

    Intel has put together an interactive Web preview of the £50 million Wellcome Wing which opens at the Science Museum at the end of June. The wing, which has taken 10 years to develop and build, and cost £50 million, is dedicated to providing information on contemporary science. Intel helped sponsor the wing to the tune of £1.5 …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 10:50

  • Watch out! There's a Cyberterrorist about

    City told to grill job seekers for cybersabotage

    London police are warning banks to look out for cyber terrorists when recruiting staff. Anarchist sympathisers may try to infiltrate companies and sabotage computer systems to help the anti-City protests expected in May, a senior crime prevention officer said yesterday. Norman Russell, head of the City of London police community …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:14

  • MS trial waste of money, says poll for MS-backed outfit

    Not a major issue at all, say most voters

    It's a tale of incest and more incest. Polling outfit Zogby International has quietly conducted a poll of the top issues facing state attorneys general, and found from a sample of 1,004 "likely voters"  that the Microsoft case was the ninth most important issue, with 37 per cent of respondents wanting the case pursued. But some …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:16

  • 3Com readies Palm-beating Net access box

    The science of appliance

    3Com is preparing its first Internet appliance, a home-oriented device that company chairman Eric Benhamou claims will be "bigger than Palm". Interviewed by Reuters, Benhamou said: "It is the sort of appliance you might enjoy having on your kitchen counter, but it will start much more quickly than Palm because there is already a …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:23

  • Stop the Great British Car Rip-Off

    Lobby group launches online motor retailer

    The Consumers' Association has started flogging cars over the Net in its bid to clampdown on what it calls the "Great British Car Rip-Off". The not-for-profit organisation will accept orders online from today before importing the cars from the Continent where they are considerably cheaper. Carbusters.com has been on trial over …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:33

  • Second spy loses laptop

    'Blind drunk' in London tapas bar

    A second British spy has lost a laptop brimming with state secrets after getting "blind drunk" in a London bar. The latest secret service blunder came from MI6, and followed the agent getting blotto in a tapas bar in Vauxhall. According to today's Sun, the sozzled spook left the £2000 machine in a taxi he took from Rebato's …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:45

  • 3dfx to grab Gigapixel for $186m

    White Knight on the tiles?

    Troubled 3D graphics hardware developer 3dfx is to buy Gigapixel in a stock swap that values its smaller rival at around $186 million. The deal will see Gigapixel shareholders offered nearly 15.6 million 3dfx shares valued at around $40 apiece - rather more than the $13 or so they're trading at these days. Senior staffers at …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 11:49

  • Intel claims it's licked dual CPU problem

    Flipping chips and their mobo layout

    Intel has moved quite a way to dispel confusion over dual processing systems using its flip chip (FC-PGA) Pentium IIIs by releasing specifications for them using the i840 (Carmel) chip set. It has also rectified conflicting messages on its Web site. The firm recently posted a PDF file on its download site, which you can find …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 14:05

  • L0pht develops Palm Pilot war dialler

    Conduct 'security audits' while you run from the Feds

    Self-styled 'ethical hacking' outfit L0pht Heavy Industries has developed a free war-dialling utility for use with the Palm operating system. Known as TBA, the programme combines carrier logging, data-file manipulation, calling-card dialling options, and a handy battery meter display. Scans can be pre-set to attack a range of …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 14:47

  • Dodgy software found in Nokia WAP phones

    Vodafone returns to sender

    Vodafone has sent more than 2,000 WAP phones destined for UK users back to Nokia because of a software fault. Dodgy software in the Nokia 7110 caused Vodafone UK to return 2,500 of the handsets to Nokia HQ in Finland this month. Vodafone said it noticed the problems when the WAP handsets arrived at its testing warehouse. …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 14:53

  • Zurich sacks seven for ‘disturbing’ emails

    Not pornographic, but deeply offensive

    Zurich Financial Services has sacked seven staff found with "disturbing material" on their office computers. The insurance company fired the unlucky crew for gross misconduct, as well as disciplining another six workers, all from its Swindon head office. Last month's action followed a random check by Zurich's IT security …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 15:30

  • Darwin on x86 – Apple's Intel interest

    Analysis Apple prepares its emergency PowerPC exit strategy

    Apple software developer Wilfredo Sanchez's note on an Apple bulletin board that he's got Darwin - Apple's open source OS project and the basis for the upcoming MacOS X - running on Intel's x86 platform may not be a tacit 'MacOS X for Intel' announcement, but it sure comes at a very interesting time. In his posting, on Apple's …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 16:06

  • MS trial: there ain't going to be a hanging – yet

    Go home people, there's nothing to see here...

    Court officials have confirmed that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson will not be producing his findings of law today after all. The judge, who is expected to come down heavily on Microsoft if and when he speaks, said last week that he'd push the button today (Tuesday) if progress hadn't been made in the mediation talks. So clearly …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 16:58

  • DRAM makers squeeze supplies, prices rise, surprise, surprise

    But can it last?

    DRAM prices are on the up again, thanks to makers manipulating the roller-coaster memory market. Memory broker DMC Europe was today pricing chips at $6, making a 64MB PC 100 module $50, and a 128MB DIMM $100. This compares to $5.70 yesterday, putting a 64MB DIMM at $48. Prices are also up on Friday, when they were $5.40 and $46 …

    Business 28 Mar 2000, 20:20