The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

4th May 2000 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • BOFH 2000: Kit and Caboodle

    That's right, the whole shebang

    BOFH2K1: BOFH returns from the dead He's mean, he's moody, he's less than magnificent BOFH2K2: Wanted Bastard Operators to man Helldesk BOFH meets the troops. He's not impressed BOFH2K3: BOFH unmasks the printer smasher Workplace disenfranchised user complex BOFH2K4: BOFH goes to Hollywood Medical drama unfolds BOFH2K5: …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Text Messaging could save your life

    Reason number 9 for tapping out those letters

    The other eight top things to do with Text Messaging have followed our wild and wacky Register vein, but this reason why SMS is a touch more serious. To save you scrolling down to the end we've posted the story right here, as well... 9: To make sure the rapist in your house is caught A 27-year-old woman managed to send her …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Dabs Direct preps IPO with dotcom namechange

    Web sales 'considerably greater than Jungle.com'

    IT mail order company Dabs Direct is to change its name to dabs.com next month in preparation for an IPO by the end of the year. Dabs MD David Atherton is not yet sure how much of the Bolton-based company to float, but said he would expect 20 per cent of the business to fetch around £20 million. He plans to invest part of the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Invasion of the Body Shop domain snatchers

    Retail is detail

    A warm, sweet scented aromatherapy massage for those clever people at the Body Shop for deciding to flog their lotions and potions on the Net; painful colonic irrigation for the person responsible for not registering the e-outfit's new domain name in time. The new e-outfit is called Body Shop Digital and is backed with $15 …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • TFI Excite's unmetered Internet access

    But MP3's a no-no

    The latest entrant in the free Internet access stakes is Excite UK. With a single £50 annual charge and £20 for subsequent years, Excite is claiming there are no hidden costs such as monthly subscription charges or forcing users to change from their current telephone service provider. U Users also get free email and 5Mb of web …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • VCs pump £2m into BarrysWorld online game empire

    Hobbyists hit the big time

    UK online gaming company BarrysWorld has secured £2 million funding to improve its network and recruit more users. from venture capitalists 3i Group. Venture capitalist company 3i will initially give BarrysWorld £1 million, with another £1 million due before the end of the year. The gaming company is looking for £3 million in …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Official Register 2000 PR tariff

    So now you know how we make our money

    This is the updated Register PR tariff. We are still The Corruptibles... For £10,000 we will write anything you like on our site. For £15,000 we will remove any story from our site. Fancy an Editors' Award for your very dull product? Simply rush your free sample to us (no WAP phones, please) and a highly sought after …

    Bootnotes 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AMD now a virtual gorilla – Sanders

    Stock to split, more 64-bit Hammers to come

    While Intel's heavyweights were wooing financial analysts in New York yesterday, AMD had an alternative gig down the road, with CEO Jerry Sanders telling his shareholders what the future holds. Sanders said the outlook was good. A year ago, he said, AMD had the biggest operating loss in its history, while in its latest quarter …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Intel dampens down Willamette fever

    Merges chip architecture, strategic planning group

    Heavyweight Intel executives told Wall Street financial analysts yesterday that Willamette is likely to arrive in the last quarter of this year, thus putting a more realistic spin on expectations aroused by senior executive Pat Gelsinger earlier this week. At the same time, Intel re-iterated its push to take advantage of …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Win2K drivers: HP is ‘hurrying’

    Let's hope they never get to run an ambulance service

    Following our story earlier this week (HP eventually wakes up to Win2K,) the Great Stan of printers has issued a measured response. It would seem that the HP party line is that no one ever uses a new operating system until the first service release. "It is certainly standard operating procedure to wait for the first service …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Phone.com attacks Geoworks WAP patent claims in court

    'Invalid and unenforceable'

    As we anticipated, a legal challenge has been made against Geoworks' WAP-related patent (US 5,327,529). Phone.com has filed suit in the District Court in San Francisco asking that the patent be declared invalid and unenforceable - and that Phone.com was not therefore infringing the patent. Phone.com says in its Complaint that …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Sony profits slashed as PS2 promotion costs bite

    Strong Yen doesn't help either

    Sony's profits plummeted 32 per cent during the 12 months to 31 March 2000 as the company ramped up its PlayStation 2 marketing campaign and overseas sales were hit by a strong Yen. Neither is surprising. The high value of the Yen compared to the dollar has been a recurring problem for the company for at least the last four …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Handanova takes on Andanova

    Hands up, baby hands up

    Ananova is being fisted by a 28-year-old prehensile manipulator that reckons when it comes to reading the news, the cyberanchorwoman is all fingers and thumbs. Handanova - described as the world's first "digital" newscaster - used to work as a model on The Shopping Channel. This is his first hand job in journalism. "Although I …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AP threatens Web artist over Cuban lad parody

    Honk if you hate Elian :-)

    A parody Flash animation satirising the Elian Gonzalez melodrama and using images owned by the Associated Press has drawn a most humourless threat of legal action for creator Sean Bonner who published it on line, though he has since been bullied into withdrawing it. The clip takes aim at the entire cast of characters, from the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Atlantic splashes out £520m on First Telecom

    Unveils ADSL service to boot

    It's been a busy time for Atlantic Telecom. First, the Scots telco launched a £49.99 per month ADSL service and as if that wasn't enough, it is snapping up First Telecom as part of its plans to expand into Europe. The share-swap deal is valued at £520 million. First Telecom was set up in 1995 by Mark Daeche and Mark Citron who …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • 1394 support threatened by encryption IP confusion – MS exec

    FUD alert

    Microsoft has followed Intel's release of the final USB 2.0 spec with a little FUD of its own. According to one Carl Stock, general manager of Microsoft's Windows hardware strategy group, cited by EE Times, USB 2.0 rival IEEE 1394 is less likely to attract widespread support thanks to the way 1394's key intellectual property is …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • BTOpenworld tells downloaders to kill customer files

    So how does it propose to enforce this?

    Thanks to the dozens of people who forwarded us this email from BT Openworld general manager Robert Salovoni, in which he apologises for yesterday's security breach (Story: BTopenworld security glitch reveals thousands of customer names in which thousands of customer details were published. But how will BT track down the people …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • French ‘spy agent’ paranoia fuels Open Source law moves

    Doesn't mean to say they're not out to get you

    Three French MPs are proposing a new law which will require the use of open standards and source code that is "accessible to all public administrations and organisations" in France. There would seem to be some chance of the proposal becoming law since it has been developed by three socialist members of parliament - the ruling …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Boffins crack hard drive data destruction limit

    Fujitsu technology massively boosts drive capacities too, apparently

    Researchers at Fujitsu have developed a new hard disk technology that they reckon will cut the likelihood of data degradation by 80 per cent. And Fujitsu's Layer Exchange Interaction Stabilised (Lexis) technology will also provide a major boost drive capacities, the company claimed this week. Lexis is essentially a new magnetic …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Computer bra boob shuts M&S

    Boom or Bust

    A computer glitch caused by a bra forced Marks & Spencer to shut 31 shops yesterday. The boob was caused by a special offer programmed into the chain's computer system on Wednesday night. Customers were offered £3 off any two brassieres, but M&S bestsellers such as the modern minimiser bra, padded bandeau bra, and halterneck …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • MS gears up for gun-fight at DoJ city

    Who do you want to mis-send your email to today?

    Are you ready for the big fight this weekend? No, not the Lewis vs. Grant boxing match, the DoJ handing presenting its recommendations on what to do with Microsoft to Judge Jackson. We are, and when the bell rings, our Graham's coming out of his corner with his fists of fury ready to fight the good fight. But it looks like we …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Cash Register: 1-24 April 2000

    Tales from the Bubble Economy

    19 Apr 2000 Yahoo.com is rumoured to be looking at buying publishing giant Emap. The online portal is said to be keen on the group because it would give them necessary content for its target market of 18 to 34-year-olds, today's FTreports. Analysts said Yahoo! was eager to buy, following rival AOL's £100 million merger with Time …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Inprise to investigate ‘fairness’ of Corel takeover

    Really concerned - or just trying to wrong-foot suing shareholders?

    A sign of cold feet? Inprise today admitted it has asked investment bank Broadview to see whether the terms of its takeover by Corel need to be renegotiated. Inprise describes the review as a "fairness evaluation". Essentially, it wants to ensure its shareholders will get a decent deal when Corel swaps their Inprise shares for …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Intel Processor Serial Number Q&A for OEMs

    That was then

    The following Q&A document was sent to Intel OEMs on March 5th, 1999 to provide answers to user and press questions on PSN. Processor Serial Number Q&A for OEMs March 3, 1999 Prepared by Howard High Background Intel has briefed press, industry analysts, privacy organizations, and government agencies about a new feature of the …

    Channel 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • So farewell then, Intel PSN

    'Absolutely nothing to do with privacy concerns,' Chipzilla bleats

    Intel, that most famously-paranoid of organisations, has made a major U-turn thanks in part to paranoia from its customers and apathy from software firms. A year ago, the chip behemoth's monstro PR department was pouring supertanker loads of oil on troubled waters in a bid to quell public unrest over the processor serial number …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • EC probes Nintendo over pricing ‘cartel’

    Rip-off Europe?

    The European Commission has launched an investigation into Nintendo and its distributors over a price fixing "cartel" on consoles and video games. Nintendo and seven official distributors, including John Menzies and Nortec SA, each received a warning letter from the commission. The body could fine each company ten per cent of …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Tales from the Bubble Economy

    Roundup

    2 May, 2000 Online business news service TheStreet.com is looking decidedly shaky after its CEO James Cramer warned the company could "choke on losses" if it doesn't turn a profit before the cash runs out. Cramer also ruled out a new round of financing, admitting that the recent internet-stock fall has scared off investors. The …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Another shopping-cart back door revealed

    Sloppy code continues to make CC hacking child's play

    British Net security outfit Cerberus has discovered a backdoor password in the McMurtrey-Whitaker Win32 shopping cart. The executable cart32.exe has coded into it a weak password which can be used to view other passwords, enabling an attacker to modify the cart to run arbitrary commands on a server, and so easily gain access to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Court finds MP3.com guilty of copyright violation

    Better not let friends use your stereo, just to be safe

    US District Judge Jed Rakoff for the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary judgment holding MP3.com liable for copyright violation in response to a suit brought by big-gun industry crusaders of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His Honour said he would fully explain his rather puzzling verdict …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • US demands MS split, open up APIs, liberate PC OEMs

    MS on Trial Two companies and a range of conduct remedies

    The US government has called for Microsoft to be broken into two companies, and at the same time has asked for wide-ranging conduct restrictions to be placed on the company. In their Proposed Final Judgment issued yesterday the DoJ and US states asked the judge to split Microsoft into operating system and applications companies …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • How the government plans to tie down the MS monster

    Trial analysis High fences, and hoops of steel...

    Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer won't have enjoyed reading the DoJ and the plaintiff States' Proposed Final Judgment. As had been widely forecast in the last few days, Judge Jackson is being asked to agree to the splitting of Microsoft into two businesses, in what is referred to as a "reorganisation". As anticipated, certain …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Eudora e-mail hole discovered

    Clever exploit hides the attachment

    A malicious attachment in Eudora mail which could allow a miscreant to execute code on a victim's machine can be completely concealed and activated by clicking on a hyperlink, Peacefire.org Webmaster Bennett Haselton has discovered. When a recipient clicks the link, the code is executed. The exploit conceals the attachment and …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Memory Corp splits in twain and changes name

    Spins off music business

    Memory Corporation is to sell its music business as part of a restructure. The EASDAQ-listed company said it was in "advanced negotiations" to merge its music interests with enuffMusic.com and create a new California-based firm called Dig Media. Memory will get $5 million for the sale to Dig Media of its intellectual property …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • We present this week's Net laughter launches

    Click here for fun, fun, fun

    Porn, on-the-second news, gambling and CD-buying are all passe - the hot new buzz for what to do on the wibbly wobbly web is - entertainment. That's right ladies and gentlemen. We wants entertainment and that's what we gonna get. Converting our scavenging skills from corporate flesh to the bright lights of showbiz, therefore, we …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Jungle's Bennett bids for radio station

    Next step - world domination

    Jungle.com founder Steve Bennett has revealed his latest dream – to own a radio station. Bennett and pal Steve Smith, MD of the Poundland stores, have put in a bid for a new radio station in the West Midlands called N-Joy. If successful, they will use the licence to go on air next April. The two entrepreneurs also aim to launch …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Contract Killers ad tops Jill Dando story

    Oh dear

    A vulture-eyed Register reader spotted this unfortunate marriage of a news story and a Computer Weakly banner ad courtesy of LineOne. And almost a year to the day popular TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered. What's worse, until recently police thought Dando had been targeted by a professional hit man. Like we said, unfortunate …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • US Supreme Court declines ISP liability case

    Justices deal another blow to the Nanny State

    The US Supreme Court has declined to hear objections to a lower-court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed against Prodigy after an impostor sent a threatening e-mail and posted two vulgar bulletin board messages in the name if a fifteen-year-old lad. The Justices denied an appeal filed on behalf of New Yorker and Boy Scout Alexander …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Chuck D benefits Napster with on-line rap contest

    Bust out that karaoke machine and show 'em what you got

    Since the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued on-line MP3 swap-service Napster over alleged piracy, and pseudo-rebel sellouts Metallica and Dr. Dre fell in lockstep and filed their own suits (against Napster and even university students who use the service), only a handful of artists have shown the backbone to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • SEC reins in jailhouse stock advisor's Web site

    'Stop exaggerating, you naughty boy'

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uncovered an amusing on-line securities fraud operation on Monday, when it emerged that that an investment advice Web site called Genesis Trading is run by a convict serving a one-year prison term for telemarketing fraud, and not professional traders and analysts as the site had …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • WAP revives ex-Guinness chairman's braincells

    You can't put a good drink down

    The former chairman of porter firm Guinness, convicted of false accounting back in the early 1990s but then released from clink early after quacks diagnosed Alzheimer's disease, is keen to invest in WAP technology, according to online news service Wap Insight. Since Ernest Saunders was released from jail after serving 10 months …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Intel Pentium II best thing since, err, Pentium III

    This zombie keeps breaking out of its grave

    Earlier this year, The Register reported that large European distributors were being offered Pentium II chips in a bid by Intel to bridge a shocking shortage of its Coppermine Pentium III processors. At the beginning of the year, they were told of widespread availability of the Pentium II 400MHz processor, although their jaws …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Hardware Roundup Cat wee forces PC price breakthrough

    Time to do that wibbling and wobbling again

    There's a piece over at Tech Report which must serve as a warning to those overclockers who also have pussy cats with loose bladders. But although the author considered the arrival of cat wee in his PC a total disaster at the time, it led him to build an economical PC which he's now very happy with. That must give us all pause …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AMD, Compaq, HP, others form unholy buying alliance

    Intel and Dell aloof from Gang of 12

    Twelve major PC industry players have formed a separate company in a bid to ease PC component procurement and speed up their supply chains. Compaq, HP, Gateway, Hitachi, Infineon, NEC, Quantum, SCI, Western Digital, Samsung, Quantum and AMD said yesterday they would invest money in an "open Internet exchange", designed to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AMD practises safe computing

    Relax, you'll just feel a tiny prick

    Chimpzilla's new - ahem - entry level chip, Duron, would appear to share advanced technology with condom giant Durex, if the contraceptive company's website here is to be believed. The site states: "New technology has considerably improved the condom and enabled the production of far more sophisticated versions than our …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • More potent DDoS tool in development

    Better bust a few more kids

    An enhanced tool to script distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks called Mstream is currently in development and may soon yield a utility capable of launching crippling assaults through far fewer infected clients than were used to disable sites and steal headlines back in February, University of Washington researcher David …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Michael Dell rides to Gates' rescue

    MS on Trial But only sort of...

    Long-term Microsoft ally Michael Dell has ridden to the company's rescue - but in a surprisingly tentative way. In a Q&A session at Red Herring's Venture 2000 conference, Dell described the antitrust laws being applied to Microsoft as outdated, but kept his answers fuzzy when it came to confirming or denying his own company's …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Smoking email suggests Gates ordered PDA techno-sabotage

    MS on Trial And at the height of the trial, too...

    A cracker of an email from Gates to senior Microsoft executives has come to light, but unfortunately the text has been redacted, possibly because it has not been presented to the court. If this is the case we may get to know more if Judge Jackson allows it to be filed publicly at the hearing. We can get some clues about the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • HP Win2K driver saga continues

    Users pissed off, big time

    It's not only HP printer owners who are up in arms about the company's inability to ship Win2K drivers for its products. Following our stories last week on the lack of delivers for the OfficeJet range of all-in-one printer/fax/scanners, several readers have written in pointing out that owners of Hewlett-Packard CD writers suffer …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • WinCE retail market share collapses

    Down from 33.5 per cent to 11.2 per cent, year on year

    Microsoft's PocketPC launch couldn't have come sooner, according to a report by NPD Intelect. The US market research company's numbers, cited by All Net Devices, show retail sales of Windows CE devices have all but dried up. NPD Intelect's stats, derived from sales through US retail and mail order channels, show Palm held 87.3 …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Little comfort for MS in dissenting states' memo

    MS on Trial Illinois and Ohio haven't defected very much

    There's no comfort for Microsoft in the separate Memorandum by Illinois and Ohio. The two states, who dub themselves the "Supporting States", make it clear that they are fully opposed to Microsoft's anticompetitive behaviour, noting that "The record, and the Court's Findings of Fact, are replete with examples of stifled …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • DoJ wants MS appeal to go straight to Supreme Court

    MS on Trial All over by 2002?

    As we suggested long ago, the Microsoft case will almost certainly go straight to the Supreme Court, without a preliminary visit to Microsoft's preferred venue, the Court of Appeals. The DoJ says that "in light of the significance of the reorganisation for both Microsoft and the computer industry, the appeals process should be …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Tech stocks take toll on tycoon Soros

    Capital can be a cruel mistress

    One of the world's foremost investment gurus, George Soros, has lost billions of dollars investing in tech stocks and is reorganising his business as a result. According to a report in The Guardian newspaper this weekend, the tycoon's Quantum Fund took a severe beating thanks to "misguided investments in technology companies" - …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • DoJ: why Microsoft must be split

    Analysis Conduct remedies argued as being inadequate

    After some delay, the Department of Justice and the Plaintiff States have now released a Memorandum in support of the proposed final judgment being entered against Microsoft, together with five of six declarations from experts to support the plaintiffs' case. The Memorandum fills in gaps and provides the rationale in a useful …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Handspring retail debut becomes instant chart-topper

    US punters 'do the Visor'

    PalmOS licensee Handspring's retail debut last month saw the company beat Palm Computing to the top of the PDA sales chart, according to market researcher PC Data's latest figures. For the week commencing 15 April - Handspring's first in the retail world - the company's Visor Deluxe PDA took 26.8 per cent of retail sales, …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • HotRail quits chipset biz, AMD flummoxed

    But there are other solutions

    Semiconductor firm HotRail quietly announced at the end of last week that it would bale out of the high end PC chipset market, throwing AMD's six-way and eight-way server plans into some confusion. The firm was developing a high end server chipset for AMD and it is certain that it will now be forced to hunt around for another …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Mirror, mirror on the wall – who's the fattest cat of all?

    Yep, it's Sultan of Greed Charles Wang

    Six of the top 10 earning chief execs in the US run IT companies, according to Forbes. Computer Associates boss Charles Wang heads the list with a package worth a whopping $640.1 million last year, up from his 39th place in the list in 1998. It is not clear whether Wang's payment includes his part of the $550 million stock a US …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Metallica to shame – but not name – Napster ‘pirates’

    We've got a little list...

    Hard rock band Metallica will tomorrow demand Napster block 335,435 alleged music pirates from using the developer's MP3 'seek, locate, download' software. Since the band's lawyer, Howard King, sued Napster for copyright infringement just over two weeks ago, its agents have been tracking down users who, they claim, have …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Freeserve shares rocket on T-Online takeover rumours

    'Market speculation'

    Freeserve shares rocketed above £5 this morning in early morning trading on rumours of a take-over bid from Deutsche Telekom's e-outfit, T-Online. Shares hit 512.50p before falling back sharply to 394p at lunchtime, up 34p on its previous close. Investors chased up the stock, in reaction to a story in the Independent on Sunday …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • DDR vs Rambus: the saga never ends

    RMBS has mainstream PC market, Dataquest claims

    A report on a Taiwanese wire that double data rate (DDR) memory will ship to the tune of seven million chipsets in the second half of this year has, once more, forced us to return to the hoary (or is it hairy) old subject of how well chipset based on this type of memory will do against Rambus memory. The report, which you can …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AOL grabs swimsuited lovelies

    Magazine frenzy as Middle America gets sweaty

    AOL has signed a deal with Time Warner to give it a day of exclusive picture access to the first swimsuit issue for Sports Illustrated for Women. This isn't the famous Sports Illustrated swimwear issue - a uniquely American male experience. No, this is swimwear "for women" - which means that stunning women of different shapes …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • MS to demand government data in bid to derail sentence

    MS on Trial Subpoenaed documents, more witnesses - obviously still enjoying the trial...

    Microsoft now seems likely to make one last effort to escape the antitrust noose next week. The company has until 10th May to file its own proposals for Judge Jackson's Final Judgment, so if it sticks to the schedule it should then be telling him how it ought to be punished. But instead, the company intends to ask permission to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Find Aussie criminals on the Web

    Did your next-door neighbour do bird? Find out here

    Strewth! These days you just don't know if your babysitter, neighbour or football coach is actually a crazed, evil and malicious criminal (welcome modern alienation and paranoia). But an Australia Web site wants to change all that. It has built a database of criminals based on newspaper reports of convictions and invites you to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • S3 to licence Rio technology

    Attempt to expand market a la Palm

    S3 wants to the digital music world's answer to Palm Computing. To make it happen, the former graphics chip vendor is embarking on a major licencing programme to change Rio from a device into an entire platform of products. There's even an element of Big Brother about S3's strategy, which will "extend the Rio technology and …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • UK etailers = no scratch, lots of itch

    Elonex slammed for poor back end

    Elonex, the systems builder, operates one of the UK's poorest online shops, a report claims Elonex.co.uk had some of the highest delivery charges on the Web, according to research to be released today by Shelley Taylor & Associates. It charged £15 to post a blank, recordable CD that cost £1.50, whilst failing to respond to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • ThinkPads dumped in High Street as IBM revamps

    Don't buy a 240 from IBM Direct

    Sadly, our IBM ThinkPad 600 is dead. Well, not actually dead, but badly crocked, with the screen shattered. So we thought we'd wander down Tottenham Court Road, W1, to see if we could pick up a nice little bargain, maybe using a Pentium II, a Celeron or something like that. There are shedloads of ThinkPad 240s down there at the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • DRAM drama as vendors predict another price hike

    Will they or won't they get it up before Xmas?

    Lock up your DRAM, because memory prices are going through the roof again. That's according to Taiwanese vendors who, unsurprisingly, all agree that DRAM prices will rise by the end of the year. Winbond Electronics has put forward a conservative estimate of $7.2 for 64Mb DRAM chips by the end of 2000. By contrast, "hopeful …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • UK etailers = no scratch, lots of itch

    Elonex slammed for poor back end

    Elonex, the systems builder, operates one of the UK's poorest online shops, a report claims Elonex.co.uk had some of the highest delivery charges on the Web, according to research to be released today by Shelley Taylor & Associates. It charged 15 to post a blank, recordable CD that cost 1.50, whilst failing to respond to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • This House believes Cyber rights are going down the pan

    Oxford Union, Guardian Unlimited stage debate

    Civil rights activists won a small intellectual battle on Friday when they successfully argued that "any attempt by Government to police the Net is both unworkable and a severe threat to civil liberties". The debate at the Oxford Union - organised by the Humanities Computing Unit at the university and sponsored by Guardian …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Register SETI competition – the results

    Tough call for judges

    A fine selection of entries (see Take The Reg SETI challenge) ranged from the ridiculous to the, er, slightly less ridiculous. Thanks to everyone who entered. We were tempted to award a special prize to Darren Stewart, who claimed to have overclocked his ZX Spectrum, which he assures us is now completing SETI work units at a …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Ars gets Espresso… bongo…

    A walk on the hardware wild side...

    At Ars Technica, there's a review of the Espresso miniature PC from Saint Song which looks like it's a little cutie... Digital Web has posted a review of the AOpen AX64 muvvaboard, which you can find here. Over at Chick's Hardware there's a piece about Via and how it has come to be what it has come to be. The Tech Report …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Experts line up to back DoJ MS breakup plan

    MS on Trial Large pile of declarations argues it makes sense

    One of the surprises in the recent filing by the DoJ was a series of six weighty accompanying Declarations. Five have been put online, but not the one by Ernest Von Simson, who is described by the DoJ as "a computer consultant to large global enterprises". In fact Von Simson was previously director of research for the Diebold …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Scandi firm buys 3000 domain names in trademark overkill

    More tales from the Bubble Economy

    5 May, 2000 An anonymous Scandinavian company has spent $1 million (642,000) on more than 3,000 domain names in a bid to protect online identity. A spokesman for Webco, euro909.com, said it had registered 3,080 top-level domains in more than 100 different global, generic and country codes, such as .com, .se, .it, .web, and .co. …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Supplies of Intel, AMD chips improving

    But smaller guys still getting rough deal

    Shortages of both Athlon and Coppermine Pentium III processors are decreasing, according to PC vendors close to the companies' plans. But there is still lack of supply on some parts, while smaller system integrators are likely to suffer the most across all processor speed ranges. Supplies of Intel Celerons at 500MHz and 600MHz …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Wide Open News Embedded Linux looking lively

    ...and proprietary

    Embedded Linux software developer Lineo turned heads Monday when it announced it had received $37 million in funding. Lineo spokeswoman Jennifer Finnlinson says the money will be spent to fuel growth. The company has expanded from 17 employees in September 1999 to 160 this May, thanks to six recent acquisitions. Utah-based Lineo …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Flat fee ISP slams user ‘abuse’

    RedHotAnts in your pants

    RedHotAnt has lashed out at users who it claims are abusing its flat-fee 24/7 Net access service. RedHotAnt is so popular it's having an impact o the performance of the service. "...the main problem is that there are a number of users who are 'abusing rather than using' the system. We will track these people down and stop them …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Penthouse busts newsgroup user over copyright theft

    If you're going to steal from people, it's a good idea not to boast about it in public

    A newsgroup user who boasted that he had copied over 20,000 images from Penthouse.com has had his computer equipment seized after the site moved to prosecute him for copyright infringement. The individual known as Muad'Dib was tracked down after a series of postings on the alt.mag.penthouse newsgroup. According to Penthouse, …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Sun chief's top ten tips for spotting dodgy dotcoms

    Dotcom boom? Sun's gagging for it...

    Quipmeister and occasional CEO of Sun Microsystems Scott McNealy has sunk his fangs into inflated tech stocks with a top ten list of "Signs a Company's Market Cap Is Inflated." Considering how much Sun shouts about 'putting the dot in dotcom,' and the shedloads of servers Sun sells to, er, dotcoms, the list is more than a little …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Intel changes core on mobile Coppermines

    The reason? Availability... a strange reason

    Chip giant Intel has issued one of its now infamous Product Change Notification (PCN) documents, alerting distributors and system integrators to changes in the core of Pentium III mobile processors which will happen on the 5th of June next. The PCN document, dated 27 April, and numbered #968, tells customers that stepping on the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Wembley and MeanFiddler play the Web tune

    Pied pipers lead cash away from Net-crazy investors

    Ain't the Web great? Just mention it in terms of your current business and people will hurl money at you. This has been going on for some time as we all know, but it seems that every few months, another industry wakes up and figures it will have a go as well. This week, its the turn of the music industry. In much the same way as …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Myhrvold concludes another MS long goodbye

    Exec departure process more a slow fade than a walk, usually...

    Nathan Myhrvold, who has been having a rather long holiday since July last year, will not return to his job as head of Microsoft Research, although he will be a part-time advisor on strategic issues to the chairman and chief software architect. Gates is said to consider Myhrvold to be his intellectual equal. It's unclear how …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Wall Street's finest lose plot in support of DoJ case

    MS on Trial Perhaps they don't know what they're talking about after all...

    The last of the DoJ's supporting Declarations to trickle out are rickety edifices, to say the least. The Declaration by Ernest Von Simson is arguably the most pathetic document that the DoJ has filed so far in its case against Microsoft. Poor grammar apart, there's around two pages of CV and two pages of unsupported and …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Compaq cock-up puts PCs on Web for 1

    Despite the Big Q, they won't honour the deal

    Wily Net shoppers flocked to Compaq's UK site at the weekend after a cock-up offered PCs for 1. A blunder blamed on "human error" by the Big Q caused more than 100 hopeful customers to place orders for Compaq's Ipaq Legacy Lite computers – normally priced at 530. One opportunist went in for the kill and ordered 50. Today a red- …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Jobs blow hits Linuxcare as IPO put on hold

    Last year's dancehall darlings become this month's wallflowers

    A sudden downturn in fortunes at software and services outfit Linuxcare could mean as many as 25 per cent of its staff are to lose their jobs. The firm announced yesterday that redundancies were planned, but would not reveal the numbers involved and refused to be drawn on speculation that as up to one quarter of its employees …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AMD sold out of Flash well into 2001

    Bodes well for bottom line

    Chip company AMD confirmed today that it has sold out of its entire Flash capacity not just for the year 2000, but for next year too. AMD has a joint venture with Fujitsu, dubbed FASL, which has five fabs around the world producing product. Peter Heinrich, director of marketing of AMD's memory group in Europe, said, however, …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Green sausages feed police pager panic

    We applaud food hygiene but this is crazy

    Mother of two Alison McKenzie sparked a nationwide panic yesterday when she complained about some mouldy Safeway sausages. The spicy Spanish delights were quickly replaced by the supermarket but due to a fault in a BT exchange, the complaint was relayed to police voicebanks and hundreds of pagers. Alison was more than a little …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • MP3 to destroy capitalism, bring about anarchy

    Register soothsayer disembowels riots and sees the signs

    A May Day protest against multinationals and small plants or something led to riots in central London this week but has left behind a far more revealing message. The peaceful protest turned nasty as the cliched "minority of thugs intent on causing trouble" put their intention to cause trouble into action. Aside from a pack of …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • French told where to buy their goods

    Allez allez oops for online auctions

    A Paris court has ruled that its country's citizens will only be allowed to buy auctioned goods online from state-approved auctioneers and will have to pay France's value added tax. In what is a heavy blow to the country's burgeoning internet industry, the court puts auctions firmly back into the hands of a state-controlled …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Computer Exchange boss vanishes

    Presumed drowned, search called off

    Co-founder of Computer Exchange Paul Farrington has disappeared after diving to explore a wreck off the coast of Cornwall. The 39-year-old helped set up the UK's largest second-hand computer and video games chain. The search for him was called off yesterday.

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Porn, drugs and bomb-making sites slip through kiddie filters

    Not very good, is it?

    Internet filters are little more than a sham, letting through porn, drugs, and bomb-making sites. Or so says Which?, the British consumer watchdog, which tested seven software filters on a random sample of 23 potentially offensive sites and 17 innocent sites. All seven – AOL Parental Controls v5, Cyber Patrol 4, Cyber Sentinel 1 …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Roll up for your ILOVEYOU fix

    What the world needs now is love, sweet love

    Network Associates has produced a fix for the I Love You virus that has crippled systems all over Europe. Customers can download the cure at the Dr Solomon's Web site. It is estimated that the worm virus, which seems to have become active overnight, has affected around ten per cent of UK companies. Those hit are believed to …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Lastminute shares leap like a dachshund

    Sales up, losses too

    Shares in lastminute.com nudged up 14p in early trading this morning despite news that the online bucket shop suffered first half pre-tax losses of 17 million. It received 1.2 million in commission over Q1 and Q2 for selling last minute goods, but this was swamped the costs incurred running the e-business. The total value of the …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • AMD Thunderbird hits mobo problem

    Imitators hit imitation Caminogate misery

    A big welcome please, for... Thunderbirdgate. Or should that be ThunderVIAbirdgate? AMD users hoping to update to the next slot A version of Athlon, the Thunderbird, are in for a disappointment. Our friends at Tecchannel in Germany have a story here detailing timing problems with the Slot A version of the chip (the socket A …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Napster may ban Metallica's ‘pirates’

    We'll look at the band's list, says lawyer

    Napster appears to have agreed to consider banning over 335,000 users claimed by metal band Metallica to be music pirates. Napster's lawyer, Laurence Pulgram, told Reuters yesterday that the software company will take a look at Metallica's list of alleged copyright infringers with a view to preventing them from using the system …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • Look out Lara, here comes the Red Scottish Moor Hen

    Three million German speakers can't be wrong

    Even in the intensely competitive PC games market, where silliness seems to be the order of the day, the popularity of The Hunt for the Red Scottish Moor Hen has industry insiders scratching their heads. What started as a tribute to (a romantic notion of) Scottish country life has turned into a craze, verging on cult status. …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17

  • No billing system mean flat fees for SMEs

    But you have to move to Switzerland

    Commcare, a Swiss telecommunications service upstart, is undercutting rivals by 50 per cent or more with its new flat-rate voice services. By chucking out the billing system and using Voice-over-IP, the company can cut costs far below Swisscom, Diax or Sunrise, the three dominant players in the Swiss voice market. While working …

    Business 4 May 2000, 17:17