11th May 2000 Archive

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Latest Caminogate cockup will cost Intel dearly

Never mind the credibility, we're talking hundreds of millions

The problems that have beset Intel with its i820 (Camino) chipset became compounded evermore today as the firm confirmed it was recalling nearly a million motherboards with defective memory translator hub (MTH) parts. The Register exclusively revealed the latest problem one month ago, but this one is going to cost Chipzilla dear …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:31
AMD's Thunderbird to directly challenge Willamette

Hardware highlights from the www

Johan at Ace's Hardware has posted an illuminating piece about AMD's roadmap which clears up a fair bit of the confusion surrounding cache. Never let it be said that The Register is prejudiced against one particular technology over another. No, we apply equal prejudice to all. Take a look, then, at this lengthy piece at Hardware …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:31
Pop stars glitz it up for music portal launch

Money making scheme no. 94

A gaggle of pop stars and starlets graced today's London launch of a UK portal for the music industry. Music3w.com has links to artists' official Web sites, as well as information on gig dates, new releases etc. It aims to be a stopping-off place for fans who want to avoid trashy unofficial sites - often run by groupies who get …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:31
Teenage runaway returns after 900 Internet bill row

This is why we need flat fee access

A British schoolgirl has been re-united with her parents after running away from home after a row with her parents over a 900 Internet bill. Karen Churcher from County Durham sat at her PC late into the night talking to "friends" she met in online chatrooms after getting Net access as a Christmas present. But the Web-addict's …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:31
Compaq prevented from using Wildfire name

Oops, just as well it's finally being released

The Big Q introduces its Wildfire Alpha techology come Tuesday, with Mike Capellas, big Larry Ellison and a host of other luminaries not including the now-departed Enrico Pesatori on hand to tell the world and its dog about the wonders of clustering. It's just as well that Wildfire is finally being released, after awesome delays …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
Malicious JavaScript shuts down Hotmail

Is there some reason why e-mail needs Java enabled?

Micro$oft's engineering bias preferring features over security has turned on them again. The company was forced to take its Hotmail service off line for about four hours Wednesday to bung a security hole enabling a malicious spammer to intercept Hotmail authentication cookies and take over users' accounts. The exploit uses an …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
Web startups will fail without trading portal help

HP sauce for the goose is HP sauce for the gander

E-commerce firms which invest 80 per cent of their startup costs in marketing and advertising without establishing alliances are doomed to failure, a senior executive at HP Europe has claimed. Karl Terko, business development manager at HP's e.solutions division, said that instead of firms going it alone and spending vast sums …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
Does built in spin makes MS trial polls useless?

Sponsored or not, the questions too often dictate the answer

We have a tendency to be harsh on pollsters, and usually with good reason. There have been several polls asking the American public what they think about the DoJ's breakup proposal for Microsoft, but the point isn't so much whether or not particular polls have been Microsoft-funded: it's their general uselessness. Frequently the …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
Don't break me down: MS asks judge to throw out plan

MS on Trial Wants up to seven more months wriggling time

Late yesterday Microsoft filed its counter to the DoJ's breakup proposal. Naturally, Microsoft's version of the Proposed Final Judgement doesn't include a breakup, and as you'd expect it's a lot milder than the DoJ version. In a statement that made it pretty clear how it proposed to respond next week, the DoJ said: "Microsoft's …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
IBM to OS/2 users: Achieve neutrality! Change OS!

That's yer lot. Now clear off...

IBM has effectively set the date for the end of regular support for all versions of the operating system, less than a month after promising a "consolidated" update to OS/2. IBM says there will be no more fixpacks for the client after 31 January next year, for the Server after 31 May 2001, and for WorkSpace On Demand after 31 …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
This is what is going on the mobile world this week

Please, no more mobiles! Look, we've put it all in one story for you

Okay, so you know all about the blooming things frying your brain. Well, it's only really dangerous if you're a kid, or so says an independent survey (there's another story on the site about this). This is just as well because the big mobile companies have forked out 22.5 billion between them for the UK's 3G mobile licences. …

Business 11 May 2000, 09:52
US PlayStation 2 supply won't meet demand says Sony

It's there in the sales and shipment predictions...

Sony has officially set 26 October for the simultaneous release of the PlayStation 2 in Europe and the US. The console company will ship one million machines to each territory for the launch, with three more million boxes being fed into the retail channels throughout 2001, according to UK trade paper CTW. Sony is banking on …

Business 11 May 2000, 10:36
Writs in space: Hughes lawsuit spanners broadband MSN

AOL-friendly pre-emptive strike threatens rollout

In what looks suspiciously like a blatant pre-emptive strike against Microsoft's forthcoming broadband satellite MSN service, Hughes Network Systems yesterday file suit against Gilat Satellite Networks and its sub Spacenet, claiming patent infringement. Gilat partnered with Microsoft in February in order to "provide the first …

Business 11 May 2000, 11:05
InterX folds IT publishing arm into ComputerWeekly.com

Moves into Silicon.com territory

Well, this puts the cat among the IT publishing pigeons. InterX and Reed Business Information are wrapping their online IT publishing interests into a JV company. Called ComputerWeekly.com, ownership of the new company is split 75:25 in RBI's favour. The JV sees InterX effectively withdrawn from the publishing business by …

Business 11 May 2000, 11:13
MP3.com offers to pull major label tracks from MyMP3.com

Desperate 'damages limitation' excercise ahoy!

MP3.com yesterday said told the world's major record labels it would pull all of their tracks from its MyMP3.com 'virtual Walkman' service if they wish. The move is pretty much a bid to save the online music company from disastrous damages that could yet be imposed by the US court after the Recording Industry Association of …

Business 11 May 2000, 11:57
The Love Bug: Baldrick Operators From Hell act

I have a cunning plan...

IT administrators have moved quickly to limit the damage caused by the Love Bug by, er, stopping their users reading anything that even mentions it. Think about it, folks - virus breaks out, Symantec sends out virus alert which explains the virus, virus alert trips the corporate filtering system... Now we know that the Baldrick …

Business 11 May 2000, 12:06
Evolvebank.com crawls out of primeval Web slime

This family tree don't fork

Lloyds TSB has jumped into bed with Lycos to spawn an ugly lovechild that will grow up to be a pan-European e-bank. evolvebank.com will launch in Spain later this summer and in Britain by the end of the year followed by France, Germany and Italy in 2001. The "standalone" ugly-named e-bank (who thinks up these stupid names?) is …

Business 11 May 2000, 12:06
Technology dinosaurs reluctant to cuddle up to the Web

PWC spews out the benchmarks

Half the technology companies in Europe are not yet selling via the Web, a survey by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) has revealed. This situation, described as "alarming" by PWC, is largely due to established businesses lagging behind in the e-commerce race. In comparison to these dinosaurs, younger companies (defined as less …

Business 11 May 2000, 12:06
Intel U-turn finally means Cape Cod mobo recall

We don't want to say 'I told you so', but...

Regular readers will be aware – bored even – by our continuing coverage of the Caminogate horror story. Since October last year, we have been pointing out numerous performance and design shortcomings in Intel motherboards using the 820 chipset, as evidenced by the long list of related stories below. On 18 April, we ran a story …

Business 11 May 2000, 12:06
Pornjackers steal property site bandwidth

Big-time launch delay

A British property publishing house postponed its Web site launch for 15 months, on discovering 2GB of pornography had been dumped onto its server. The company, Matching Hat, which launches a fully-firewalled propertyprices.co.uk today, spent those 15 months "fighting off repeated attacks from hackers", according to the Dotcom …

Business 11 May 2000, 12:40
GtterRedmondung: MS sees Apocalypse following breakup

MS on Trial Destruction of economy, starvation, plagues of boils...

The Potomac will foam with blood, Silicon Valley will be turned into a vast dust-bowl, the US economy will be destroyed and starving software developers will head back East, choking the Interstates with convoys of BMW Z3s. This isn't quite what Microsoft says will happen if it gets broken up, but its court filings of yesterday …

Business 11 May 2000, 13:57
ClaraNET access prices tumble

'Not quick telecom buck'

ClaraNET has slashed the cost of its off-peak unmetered Net access service. FreeTime Unlimited now offers toll-free off-peak (6pm - 2am weekday and all weekend) Net access for 9.99 (inc VAT) a month. The service was on trial over the last three months at a budget-busting price of 49.99 for unmetered off-peak access. It's now …

Business 11 May 2000, 13:57
Sega offers Dreamcast users second rebate

Get a further $50 off your console

Sega appears to be getting increasingly downcast over Dreamcast. According to reports, the company is now offering buyers a $50 rebate (C$100 in Canada). Given that the company is already giving the console away to anyone who subscribes to its Sega.Net ISP - you have to buy the machine yourself, but Sega will refund the $200 …

Business 11 May 2000, 14:22
Irate fans prep Metallica specific Napster clone

Soon to offer Metallica MP3s and nothing but, allegedly

A band of programmers are developing a clone of the controversial MP3 'seek, locate, download' software, Napster, that will specifically targets and offer Metallica tracks. According to the group's (rather ill-spelled and foul-mouthed - you have been warned) Web site, the software was originally created to see how Napster works …

Business 11 May 2000, 14:55
Shock horror as Caminogate evolves into ‘Pentium III flaw’

Well, that's what the Beeb says, anyway

The redoubtable BBC Web site is running its take on the Caminogate saga and rather showing up its lack of knowledge on the subject. Its story is headlined Intel hit by Pentium III flaw rather unfortunately (and ill-advisedly, considering Chipzilla's famous sensitivity to processor flaws and its monstro and highly litigious legal …

Business 11 May 2000, 14:58
US Reps question anti-virus companies' integrity

Tough day on Capitol Hill discussing the Love Bug

US Congressman Anthony Weiner (Democrat, New York) blasted the anti-virus software industry for being humiliated by the Love Bug in a five-minute tirade during House Science Subcommittee hearings this week. "There's an industry here that's come up to deal with viruses, and this looks to me like a ground-ball virus. Frankly, …

Business 11 May 2000, 16:08