27th April 2000 Archive

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Soros study tries to fit E. European peg in US round hole

Bridging the divide does nothing of the sort

As a rule of thumb, it is wise to be cautious of organisations that have eagles in their coats of arms, or the word "democracy" in their titles. So when we looked at the Centre for Democracy and Technology report "Bridging the divide" on Internet access in Central and Eastern Europe which has just been published, it turned out …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 09:54
Napster rapped by rapper

Suit targets software's users too

Rapper Dr Dre fired off a lawsuit against Napster this week, confirming lawyer Howard King's weekend claim that more bands would follow Metallica's lead. And King should know: he's not only legal counsel to the corporate rockers but to Dr Dre too. Metallica launched its copyright infringement suit against the MP3 cataloguing …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 10:41
Microsoft promises an OS-embedded world

Comment Hail the intelligent barbecue grill

A "rich new set of applications and services" will soon be embedded in the most mundane, everyday objects and devices, Microsoft Vice President Bill Veghte predicted as he announced the launch of a new Embedded and Appliance Platforms Group, which he will head up, during the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference this week. …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 10:42
3G auction ends with NTL departure

Five lucky, lucky winners

NTL Mobile, the joint venture between NTL and France Telecom, has pulled out of the government's auction for a UMTS telecoms licence. The companies said they would continue their partnership in the UK market, but would look at fresh convergent multimedia wireless services in the UK. The winners of the mobile licences are …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 10:47
Via roadmap found on road to Damascus

Screaming Cindy in Ezra...whatever next?

Hard details are beginning to emerge about the shape of Via's CPU roadmap, although some of here at The Register are scratching our heads about some of the elements of its CPU future. Meanwhile, German site Tec Channel has a photograph of a Socket A motherboard Via is touting. According to a roadmap we have seen, Samuel/Samuel 2 …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 10:56
Quote of the day: Rick Wakeman responds to Register story

Hatchet man

Commenting on our story on the $333,000 Yamaha electronic piano here, keyboard whizz Rick Wakeman observes: "...there are people, especially in America, who will buy it, but they will mainly be people who don't know a hatchet from a crotchet." ®

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:04
Gates, Ballmer defiance clinches DoJ break-up resolve

...Allegedly

Leaks thought to be from the DoJ and the plaintiff states suggest that there will be a joint filing DoJ/states tomorrow calling for the breakup of Microsoft into two or three parts - OS, applications, and Internet - depending on which rumours you believe. Defiant remarks by both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer this week are thought …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:19
EMC rolls out very big boxes

Ruettger's firm pulling in the oof

The CEO of EMC, Mike Ruettgers, was in old London Town this morning to unveil some high capacity storage systems and at the same time to give some facts and figures about why the world needs said big boxes. Ruettgers wheeled on Eddie Jordan first, who is the head of the F1 Grand Prix outfit and who apparently uses EMC kit to …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:20
Pets.com starts dog fight

Spokesdogs no pedigree chums

Proof, if it were needed, that the virtual world is going barking mad comes courtesy of the US-based online pet store Pets.com, which is suing a TV show writer for - allegedly - defaming the Pets.com puppet spokesdog. Yes, you read it correctly, and no we're not making this up. The row centres around a rubber dog called Triumph …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:24
Hollywood is Big Brother

George Orwell just got the dates wrong

George Orwell's vision of the future in 1984 is getting ever closer. Now we can rewrite recent events by overwriting electronic files and follow people around the globe with ease, but with the release of a new Hollywood film, U571, things have taken a great step forward (or back, depending how you look at it). U571 tells the …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:38
What the Hell is… BT ADSL all about

Tim Richardson answers the questions

BTopenworld - the new Internet division of British Telecommunications plc - finally unveiled its pricing for its broadband ADSL services yesterday In effect, it was the pre-launch of mass market broadband access in Britain. The service - for both business and domestic customers - will go live in July 2000. Although the …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 11:49
VA Linux cuts cash component from Andover acquisition

Due to 'tax concerns', apparently

VA Linux Systems is to pay Slashdot owner Andover.net entirely in stock, junking the previously agreed cash element. The deal, struck in February, originally called for a $60 million cash payment to be made to Andover's owners. They are now going to get VA stock instead - stock brought low by Wall Street's downer on hi-tech …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 12:00
Vigilant mother foils dirty old man's chat-room plan

He was 17, going on 47

Police yesterday warned parents of the perils of the Internet after a middle-aged man duped a 13-year-old girl he met in an online chat room into a clandestine date. The 47-year-old perv masqueraded as a teenager, sending the girl a series of intimate messages online. The man, traced by police to the North of England, asked her …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 12:23
Russia welcomes hack attacks

Script Kiddies cut teeth hijacking critical infrastructure

Malicious hack attacks are on the rise in Russia, up by a factor of twelve from last year, the Interfax news service reports. Most spectacularly, Russian authorities revealed this week that Gazprom, a state-run gas utility, came under the control of malicious hackers last year. Gazprom is the world's largest natural gas producer …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 12:25
21st Century justice: guilty, says PC

What a great idea (Run, I tell you! And keep running!)

Oh my god, all those cheesy 70s sci-fi TV series were right. The first brick has been laid in what may become a computerised legal system. As with all terrible ideas, it is with efficiency in mind that a Brazilian judge has created the Electronic Judge - a Visual Basic program that decides whether someone is guilty and how big …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 12:26
Net encourages copyright litigation

The New Economy's greatest legacy: heaps more lawyers

Over ninety percent of respondents to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey examining Net-related intellectual property litigation claimed to be involved, or anticipated being involved, in intellectual property litigation where damage claims would exceed US $100 million. The PWC survey indicates that IP litigation is increasing …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 13:11
Price drops don't mean Intel prices dropped

Buyers beware

On the 23rd of April last, Intel dropped its prices on a range of microprocessors, including Xeons, Pentium IIIs and its low end Celeron range. But a change in the published prices of chips does not necessarily mean that you will be able to buy any of these products cheaper, particularly given the level of shortages mainstream …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 14:53
Amazon.com loss widens 200 per cent

And sequential sales growth is right off

Amazon.com's loss continues to widen - this time by a whopping 200 per cent. And the e-tailer recorded its first quarter-on-quarter drop in revenue. Still, the company's love of the red has clearly reached such proportions that Wall Street expected it to announce an even deeper Q1 loss. Amazon.com said its US books, music and …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 15:09
BTopenworld security glitch reveals thousands of customer names

What's your name, email address etc

BTopenworld has suffered a security leak of biblical proportions after the details of tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of customers were published willy-nilly on its Web site. Our source at the Times said he downloaded 3MBs of personal data onto his desktop before BT finally plugged the security hole and ripped down the sign-up …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 15:26
Amazon sells Phantom Menace for 12p

People buying 200 copies a time

Amazon.co.uk is holding an urgent internal investigation after it offered the video Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace for just 12p (20 cents). Including postage and packing and VAT, the sum total for the video comes to a bank-breaking £3. The Register understands that some people have ordered as many as 200 copies. A …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 16:18
AMD unveils Celeron basher

Duron responsible for Spanish decadence, apparently

AMD's rival for Celeron in the sub-$1,000 segement, previously codenamed Spitfire, has been badged Duron, which we are assured is derived from the Latin words for "to last" and "unit". Our research reveals the sordid truth: Duron was a composer who died of TB in 1716 after being accused by the Catholic Church for the decadence …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 16:26
Amazon honours 12p video farce

One copy per customer

Amazon.co.uk has just issued the following statement concerning the sale of Star Wars videos for just 12p. For less than 24 hours on 26 April 2000 Amazon.co.uk displayed the VHS standard format of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at a price of £11.99 when customers browsed the store; however when orders were placed the price …

Business 27 Apr 2000, 16:45