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12th April 2000 Archive

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  • Sea-Monkey magic on your PC

    Just add electricity. Hatch grow Sea-Monkeys alive!

    Remember those magical small brine shrimp eggs that you put in water with grow powder and they turned into living sea-monkeys? I don't. But then I'm reliably informed that they were the bee's knees in the days when hoops and sticks passed for recreation. Anyway, the sea-monkeys - not creatures to be left languishing in the past …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 06:36

  • AOL beats back Freeserve ad complaints

    Comparisons fair, ASA rules

    Execs at AOL UK are punching the air with delight after the advertising watchdog turned down a complaint from rival ISP Freeserve that one of its TV ads was misleading. Two adjudications from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) cleared AOL's ad featuring cyberchick Connie of using unfair comparisons to promote its service …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 06:52

  • Let's be careful out there – McNealy

    Don't get tire tracks on your back

    Sun has set aside $300 million for a programme aimed at providing selected customers with everything needed to get their businesses dotcommed faster. "We're only at the start of the dot-com learning curve," said CEO Scott McNealy. "As the road gets steeper and you don't drive at Internet speed, you'd better keep an eye out for …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 06:55

  • Great Virgin Net giveaway restricted to US

    Europe obviously not wired enough for Branson's mob

    Virgin Net has said that an initiative to hand out free hardware and Net access in the US is unlikely to be repeated in Britain. The ISP's comments follow Monday's announcement that Virgin Entertainment is to distribute 10,000 Internet Appliances to users in the US. In return for the free portable Net access-only products, …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 09:00

  • It's your… Daily Rambus Register

    What happened yesterday...

    Memory technology firm Rambus has extended its legal case against Hitachi by filing an alleged patent infringement case against the firm in a German court. That action is related to a similar case Rambus is pursuing against Hitachi in the US courts, an action which is being vigorously defended by the Japanese manufacturer there …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 09:04

  • Intel, MS, other names face fresh privacy row

    Can you trust your PC?

    A trade consortium led by Intel, Microsoft, IBM and a bevy of other big PC names is quietly working behind the scenes to produce a "trusted computing platform alliance" which is set to re-ignite civil liberty concerns about computer privacy. The alliance, which includes 70 or so big names in the industry, and which has a Web …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 10:14

  • RSL buys Voyager

    Second acquisition in a month

    RSL Communications has acquired British ISP and networking outfit Voyager for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will bolster RSL COM's strategy to become a "major player in integrated communications services" across Europe, the company said. Voyager's customers include The Bank of England, The Economist, Eidos Interactive and …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 10:26

  • Compaq, others forced down third-party e-biz route

    Own solution not up to scaling high enough

    A US firm that makes software to manage large business to business portal sites said yesterday that Compaq, and other big industry firms, including Ingram Micro, were forced to use third-party software in order to manage their own e-commerce systems effectively. Barry Bycoff, chairman and CEO of Netegrity, revealed that Compaq …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 10:33

  • A mobile licence to print money

    Chancellor eases back in chair, pats sleeping watchdog

    Mobile phones heat up most people's heads, but for chancellor Gordon Brown, they heat up his hands as he rubs them with glee. The auction for third-generation mobile phone licences has gone haywire, shovelling billions of pounds of unexpected cash straight into the Treasury's coffers. It's no longer a question of who will win …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 10:48

  • Totalise bribes students – all in a good cause

    Do your homework, get good grades, win some shares

    Students who do well in their exams this year could be entitled to a rack of shares as part of a initiative to reward their academic efforts - as if working hard and getting good grades so they can get a job, mortgage, house, spouse, kids etc isn't reward enough. Totalise - the British ISP that gives away its shares to its users …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 10:49

  • VA unveils Linux desktop systems

    Prices from $800

    VA Linux Systems' launch of a desktop Linux box clearly suggests the open source OS is ripe for the SME desktop market, if not mainstream personal computing. The latter is clearly out for now - even pre-installed, as a multi-user operating Linux remains tricky business to manage if you lack a good grounding in the OS, and its …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 11:25

  • Linux server market dominated by IT giants

    And... er... Fujitsu Siemens

    The real winners of the Linux revolution are not the 'cottage industry' operations most in tune with the open source operating system's ethos, but the faceless giants of IT. According to a new report from IDC, Compaq sold more Linux servers than anyone else during the last three months of 1999, and the top five was dominated by …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 12:07

  • Organiser sets date for independent UK Mac show

    Expo 2000 set for 29-30 September, provisionally

    Britain will get its own Mac show, the organiser of the event has confirmed. So yah boo sucks to Apple. The possibility of an independent UK Mac exhibition emerged last week on MacWorld UK's Web site. We've heard a couple of similar ideas from individuals irritated with Apple's decision to pull out of the official Apple Expo …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 12:41

  • Anti-racists sue Yahoo! over Nazi auction

    Is 55 years not long enough for some common sense?

    A French anti-racist group is suing Yahoo! over what it calls illegal auctions of Nazi paraphernalia. French law is very strict against anything that incites racial hatred and as such Nazi memorabila cannot be sold. LICRA, the League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, says that because a person situated in France can buy the gear …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 13:22

  • Fujitsu samples picoJava clone

    Preps development tools, too

    Fujitsu has begun sampling its picoJava-based MB86799 processor and unveiled both a real-time OS and development environment for the chip. The MB86799 is based on Sun's open source (sort of) picoJava 2 CPU, designed to run Java code directly. Sun's 'public source' licence says anyone can use the core - they only pay a licensing …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 13:45

  • Wireless to dominate Net access by 2002

    Not sure it's WAP what'll win it, though

    By the end of 2002, more of us will be accessing the Net through a wireless connection than using a land-line, according to IDC. The reason: WAP. By the middle of next year, every cellphone that ships will support the wireless application protocol. And, according to IDC, the sheer volume of Net traffic coming from these devices …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 14:25

  • Ethical hacker reveals secrets of underground world

    And how cloaks and daggers expose merchant bankers

    A 20-year-old Brit who hacked into the Web sites of two merchant banks last week can never be prosecuted. Chris McNab, who says he has "one foot in the underground and one foot in the corporate world", claims to have one of the best jobs in the IT industry. He is an ethical hacker for Kent-based MIS Corporate Defence Solutions. …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 14:48

  • 3dfx announces AGP-free Mac Voodoo line-up

    Will only ship PCI versions

    3dfx today reiterated its support for the Mac by finally announcing how it intends to bring its VSA-100 chip to the platform. The Wintel Voodoo 4 and 5 line-up was unwrapped last November at Comdex, and while the company committed itself to a Mac product line not long after that, it's taken 3dfx the intervening four months to …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:03

  • Vote for London Mayor now

    You won't believe your own mind

    This is the site to visit if you're a Londoner*. If you weren't sick enough of the Mayoral elections already, you will now have to rethink your choice if you answer the questions at fantasymayor.com. Set up by New Statesman - a venerable left-wing political magazine - fantasymayor.com asks you first which candidate you intend to …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:05

  • Don't run Win2k, ‘early adopter’ IBM tells staff

    Do you think maybe they ought to mention it to the customers?

    IBM's enthusiasm for Windows 2000 has cooled somewhat, according to an company internal memo obtained by US publication Smart Reseller. According to the memo, which is said to have been sent to all employees, "IBM employees are not permitted to directly or indirectly connect Windows 2000 to the IBM production network …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:19

  • Yahoo! founder urges govt to keep hands off the Net

    "We don't know what we don't know"

    Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang came out firmly, but affably, against government regulation of the Internet in a speech he delivered during a National Press Club luncheon in Washington this week. "We advocate a very strong, hands-off policy towards the Internet by the government," he said, and then gave a simple, rational argument …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:21

  • CPU initiative wasted on extra terrestrials

    Forget SETI, why not the public genome project?

    People's processors on their machines at work and at home are being wasted finding out whether there is intelligent life off-planet, while on this planet, the public genome project does not have as many clock cycles as a US corporation. (Well, we suppose that some people believe the Roswell story that all CPUs were discovered …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:22

  • Portsmouth politician resigns over PC porn

    When will they ever learn

    A former Lord Mayor of Portsmouth has held up his hands to looking at dirty pictures on the Internet. Not only did Mark Hancock admit to peeking at dirty pics, he also used a Portsmouth City Council PC to do it. According to a report in the The News, police said that none of the sites Hancock visited were illegal, but they did …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 15:36

  • Little helper for MS and Bush says sorry, keeps both jobs

    MS on Trial We blame whoever's in charge of this shambles. Hi, Mich...

    In the latest of Microsoft's epic series of antitrust own-goals, Ralph Reed, a lobbyist who is supposed to be helping both Microsoft and Republican presidential candidate Governor Bush, has apologised to Bush for lobbying on behalf of Microsoft. He also promised not to lobby Bush on behalf of anyone else. A Bush campaign …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 16:45

  • Gates, Gerstner helped NSA snoop – US Congressman

    Influential Congressman shoots mouth off

    A recent report renews claims that the US National Security Agency (NSA) secured the co-operation of IBM and Microsoft in gaining access to encrypted data, and documentation seen by The Register gives a fuller picture of how this may have taken place. In this congressman Curt Weldon makes the astonishing claim that the US …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 16:56

  • Computer glitch blinded US spy satellites

    US 'lucky no major crises cropped up'

    The US government's spy satellite network suffered a prolonged computer breakdown last year which rendered it useless, the New York Times reports. The computer stuff-up at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency began in early August and continued for about a month, and was far more serious than the brief Y2K-related problems …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 17:12

  • New York Net-porn law upheld on appeal

    Prudes 2, Pervs 0

    A New York State appellate court ruled unanimously yesterday that the state's Internet porn law passes constitutional muster because it addresses luring a child into sex or sexual performances. The appellate hearing sprang from one of the first Internet pedo stings, in which one Thomas Foley attempted to seduce someone he …

    Business 12 Apr 2000, 20:27