10th May 2000 Archive

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Nvidia kicking graphics butt

We wibble round the lonesome Web

There's a battle royal going on in the graphics market and Tom's Hardware is there to watch how Nvidia's GeForce2 is setting out to win it, init. At Sharky Extreme there's a piece exploring the possibilities of music married to the PC. Anandtech is taking a dekko at a Slot A motherboard from Gigabyte rather stunning called the …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:04
Merced/Itanium design secrets revealed

Why not write your own compiler?

In a move as unexpected as Scott McNealy forgetting to brush his teeth or Larry Ellison confessing that he really kinda fancies Bill Gates, Intel is posting full – and we mean full - specs of the forthcoming Itanium aka Merced chip on the web here as of 0800 British Summer Time today. The information, until yesterday bearing a …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
Intel continues Rambus PR puff

Fresh Willamette pledge part of contract

Chip giant Intel endorses Rambus memory so frequently,and with such ardour, for its up and coming Willamette platform that if you believed in conspiracy theories you'd be bound to find one here. According to a story in yesterday's EE Times, Intel has once more reiterated its faith in Rambus memory as being the only memory that …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
Netscape's disappearing privacy code

It's not dead... it just won't work

Netscape has denied yanking privacy features from Mozilla builds under pressure from parent company - and the leading project sponsor of the open source browser project - AOL. The code in question allows users to block banner ads. According to Netscape's Steve Morse, speculation is premature. The code is being included in builds …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
EC to sort out your scratched CDs

Hasn't it got anything better to do?

UK shoppers will soon be able to get their own back on dodgy Web sites via a European Commission initiative. The EC is starting a scheme to help consumers settle disputes out of court over items bought abroad – including online purchases. It will target cheaper items, such as CDs or books, and cover problems with deliveries, …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
My email worm is worse than yours

But where is it?

There are fears that another virus more virulent than ILOVEYOU could spark another global epidemic, according to data security experts, Norman Data Defense Systems. Norman claims that Net users should be on the lookout for a "new and destructive email worm", with "FRIEND MESSAGE" as the subject of the e-mail. If activated, the …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
The Pope gets beatiful: see it live

Two dead kids praised by Pontiff. Gets on third's goat

The Pope is due to beatify two dead shepherd children who were lucky enough to see the Virgin Mary six times in five months way back in 1917 when they were just 11 and 12 years old. A third child was also in on the apparition but she's still alive, so it doesn't count. The visions occurred in Fatima, Portugal and this will be …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
A quarter of PR flacks admit lying to journos – survey

Deliver us, O Lord, from the Spin Doctors

One in four public relations flacks 'fessed up to lying on the job, and forty percent admitted that they had "exaggerated" in the course of shellacking the facts for journalistic consumption, according to a recent PRWeek ethics survey, which sampled the opinions of 1700 public relations, em, 'professionals'. Sixty-two percent of …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
Trouble down the Micromart

Trademark trauma for Trinity and VNU

VNU Business Publications, venerable owner of various computing mags, has launched a free classified ad section for its Web site called MicroMart where you can buy and sell all things computer-based. But hang on! What's this? There is also a printed publication (and Web site) called Micro Mart which offers a classified ad …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:37
Sun gets splash of HP sauce

Analysis Oooh, you are awful...

The way that HP has slagged off Sun, over the last two days, you'd think that it was frightened of Scott McNealy or something. There's no doubt that the redoubtable Carly Fiorina, CEO of HP, is waging a war of words against Sun and conveying the message, through layers of Cupertino apparatchiks, that HP/UX is the saviour of …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:41
Gates pushes XML and the next generation net

Embrace, extend, accelerate?

Bill Gates told an adoring audience at the Networld+Interop meeting in Las Vegas yesterday that he had been getting a lot of email that says "I love you", but he didn't dwell on the latest cockup. He had grander plans - nothing less than the next-generation Internet. Having been amongst the Internet laggards in the early days, …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:41
MS Java win against Sun leaves much to play for

MS on Trial The unfair competition issue remains, for starters

It's taken nearly a year for Judge Ronald Whyte to rule on a motion by Sun that Microsoft had breached Sun's Java copyright. After a series of filings and argument, Sun's motion for summary judgement on its third claim for relief has been refused, but Microsoft's cross-motion has been granted. In the interim, Judge Whyte had to …

Business 10 May 2000, 10:41
Reg staffer on ‘one-man-war’ against Microsoft

Bill Gates and our Graham don't get along, apparently

From: McGuire, Jon Subject: Graham Lea Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 06:37:51 More and more I find that I'm disappointed that Mr. Lea's e-mail address is not made available. I find most of his reporting to be so misled and biased it isn't even humorous. His MS Java article (dated today) is just the latest example of his misguided …

Flame of the Week 10 May 2000, 11:24
Love Bug affects Linux: MS spokeswoman's crazed claim

Swiftly 'disappeared' by MS Benelux spinmeister

A spokeswoman for Microsoft Benelux in the Netherlands has claimed that the love bug affects both Linux and Apple, in an interview with Egbert Kalse, a journalist with the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The story subsequently appeared on the front page of the newspaper last Friday, and included: "A spokesperson from Microsoft …

Business 10 May 2000, 11:49
Spotting the ‘mainframe killer’ spin in Windows DataCenter

Semioticians, take note...

In contrast to last year's WinHEC conference, which bulged with details of Microsoft's DataCenter version of Windows 2000, Microsoft nowadays seems relieved to get through a tricky showpiece conference without too much attention being drawn to its erstwhile Unix-killer. And this low-key strategy has been followed to the letter …

Business 10 May 2000, 11:49
The Times recommends porn site

Hands above the newsdesk, lads

Oh dear, oh dear. Readers of Dr Keyboard's letters section in the Interface section of Monday's Times would have been surprised when Doc Keyboard recommended Moneyworld as a personal finance website. Of course, Moneyworld.co.uk is an excellent personal finance site. Moneyworld.com, on the other hand, isn't. Not unless you're …

Business 10 May 2000, 14:41
BT network crash takes down schools ISP

And 80 more companies

Yesterday's network crash was far worse than BT admitted, The Register can reveal. The monster telco said no ISPs were affected when it's 0345, 0645, 0845 and 0800 numbers fell over yesterday. But Vulture Central has learnt that BT's 0820 numbers fell over as well and that the lights went out at a number of ISPs. A spokesman for …

Business 10 May 2000, 14:42
Most expensive dot org yet goes under the hammer

Engineering.org flogged for $200k

Forget the dotcoms, the next domain names to rake in the cash will be the dotorgs. A US auction site claims to have just got the highest price yet for one of these beauties – with the sale of engineering.org for $198,895. The prestigious dot org was bought during an open auction on afternic.com earlier this month. The proud new …

Business 10 May 2000, 14:42
Napster bans most alleged Metallica pirates

Over 26,000 'infringers' left on service, though

Controversial digital music software company Napster said yesterday that it has booted 317,377 users from its MP3 'seek, locate, download' service. That should go some way to pleasing rock band Metallica who accused the 317,000-odd users - and over 26,000 more - of illegally distributing its music. "We intend to fully comply …

Business 10 May 2000, 15:22
EMI to launch digital music service in July

Album downloads priced to match CDs

Record label EMI will follow fellow 'Big Fivers' Sony and BMG to launch an digital music distribution service, the company said today. Kicking off on 1 July, EMI will offer some 100 albums and 40 singles taken from them for download via third-party music sites. Pricing will match CD prices - though which territory's prices they' …

Business 10 May 2000, 16:41