12th May 2000 Archive

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IBMs plunders copper mine for new RS/6000s

But it's the I/O that steals the show

IBM has moved the switched SMP architecture it uses in its RS/6000 S80 down into its more affordable mid-range Unix servers. Three new lines – two six-ways and an eight-way – were rolled out today and as expected, all three use copper interconnects in their CPUs. In case anyone misses the point, IBM mentions the cu-word seven …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
Mice squeak and slugs have feelings

And humans are not robots

A mouse that squeaks is being heralded as a major breakthrough for sufferers of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). The touch-sensitive device, created by two university researchers at Loughborough University, looks like any ordinary computer mouse. However, it is equipped with extra electronics to make it a squeak like a real …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
World Online pays runaway girl's 900 Net bill

'The most important thing is that Karen is home, safe and sound.' Yeah, right

World Online has pledged to pay the 900 phone bill of Internet runaway Karen Churcher. To do so anonymously and without hype would have been a truly worthy gesture, especially since Karen fled her home after rowing with her parents over the bill. It's clear that this was a lot of money for the family to find. But to latch the …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
Will BA pass on e-commerce savings to customers?

'Who knows?'

British Airways - one the airlines behind a new on-line travel agency - said it would not necessarily reduce ticket prices for consumers, despite announcing that the new portal is expected to "significantly cut the cost of selling and distributing tickets for the member companies". When asked if BA would reduce airfares for …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
NHS to ask average Joe what he wants

It's exhausting being cynical all the time, but what a load of bollocks

You know the NHS is tragically underfunded, overrun, inefficient and bureaucratic? Well, worry no more. Alan Milburn, secretary of state for health, is going to succeed where every other minister of health has failed since the 60s. How's he going to do it? By listening to doctors, nurses and us the public, of course. It's true …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
Microsoft picks fight with Slashdot

Or is it the other way around?

Despite Microsoft's request to Slashdot owner and ISP Andover.net to remove postings containing technical details of its proprietary extensions to Kerberos, the open source authentication standard, they're still up there. A week ago, Microsoft made the details to the PAC extensions (privilege attribute certificate) public but …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:47
Internet Explorer cookies leave you naked

Debugging closed-source apps sure takes time

Anyone who uses cookies for authentication or to store data like passwords could have that information exposed by Internet Explorer and intercepted by a malicious Web site, Peacefire.org reports. Using a specially constructed URL, a third-party Web site can read Internet Explorer cookies from any domain, enabling the operator …

Business 12 May 2000, 09:49
Euro anonymous email plans are ‘unworkable’

Into the ditch with them

Plans by Europe to ban anonymous e-mail are to be ditched because such a move would simply be unworkable, The Register has learned. Last month, the European Parliament's Committee for Citizens' Freedoms Rights, Justice and Home Affairs, said that banning anonymous e-mail would help thwart the activities of cybercriminals. But …

Business 12 May 2000, 10:55
Napster Metallica ban proving hard to enforce

Band fans slip back onto the service, non-fans get booted off

Napster's attempts to block over 300,000 alleged Metallica pirates are proving rather difficult to enforce. Despite releasing an update to its MP3 'seek, locate, download' software that blocks those accused of copyright infringement, many blocked users are sneaking back onto the service - and they're spreading the word to …

Business 12 May 2000, 10:55
Speech data mobile to cost less than $500

First systems out by year end

A mobile handset which uses Lernout & Hauspie speech technology and Intel's StrongArm chip, is set to debut before Christmas this year and will cost less than $500. Gaston Bastiaens, CEO of the Belgian-based company, refused to be drawn on which company would make the first device, but did say that his firm expected to license …

Business 12 May 2000, 11:09
eBay seller suspended after caught bidding for own item

'Nutcase' art goes for $135,000

A scamster has been caught trying to push up a price on an eBay auction by bidding for his own item. The "GREAT BIG WILD Abstract Art Painting" went under the cyber-hammer for $135,805 last week. The seller, an unregistered user going by the name of 'golfpoorly' in California, said he got the piece of art at a "garage sale in …

Business 12 May 2000, 11:25
Win2k service pack 1 goes into beta

All 190 yummie megs of it...

Microsoft has posted a beta of Windows 2000 Service Pack 1, according to Paul Thurrott of WinInfo. It's only available to Universal and Professional MSDN members, via the MSDN Subscriber Downloads site, and Paul reports that it's a chunky 190 megabytes, so don't all rush at once. The size and the territory covered suggests that …

Business 12 May 2000, 11:28
The world may well be a great big onion, but the Internet is a big bow tie

So what happens to it on dress-down days?

Those wacky funsters at AltaVista, Compaq and IBM reckon that the Web is like a bow tie. Attempting to explain the mysteries of life, the universe and everything, researchers discovered that the Web is Not as Connected as Previously Thought – in fact almost a quarter of web pages can't be accessed by links from other pages. …

Business 12 May 2000, 11:46
Nvidia selected for Linux based X-Box rival

Indrema targets MS for PC games console biz

What's good enough for Microsoft is good enough for Linux, if Indrema's decision to base its own games console on Nvidia's GeForce - just like Microsoft's X-Box - is anything to go by. Little-known Indrema was formed earlier this year, and is apparently hard at work on its L600 Entertainment System, a slim-line vertical - …

Business 12 May 2000, 12:15
Jobless Vista beckons for Alta Vista staffers

But Europe carries on recruiting

AltaVista Europe has said that job cuts in the US will not dent its recruitment drive programme in Britain and the Continent. On Wednesday the Webco sacked 40 employees - around five per cent of its US workforce - in a bid to cut costs and save money. AltaVista spokesman, David Emanuel, told CNet: "This is part of a calculated …

Business 12 May 2000, 12:40
How to beat the Napster ban

Usenet to the rescue...

Banned by Napster? Want to get back on? According to Register readers, it's a doddle, and we're happy to pass the information on to anyone who feels they've been unjustly penalised by the software company and/or Metallica, the band who's lawsuit provoked the ban. It goes without saying - but we'll say it anyway - that we don't …

Business 12 May 2000, 12:40
MS Kerberos assault – Slashdot's defence avenues

The Good Dr Lea puts forward some helpful hints

Microsoft's Kerberos letter to Slashdot was sent from its "designated agent" JK Weston, but he's no cloak-and-dagger man. The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act requires a designated agent to be appointed, which Microsoft appears to have done, and the details to be filed with the Copyright Office at the Library of Congress. The …

Business 12 May 2000, 12:40
Windows, the next generation to show in June – for rent

It's a Blockbuster, if you see what we mean...

Microsoft is to release details of its next big project, Next Generation Windows Services, at Forum 2000 in Redmond on 1st June. NGWS is the big project Bill Gates allegedly stopped running Microsoft to supervise, but since it was first mentioned in his resignation release in January, very little information on the project has …

Business 12 May 2000, 16:12
The Register guide to beating the Love Bug. Not

Special report Dumb dumb, deeper than dumb...

When we wrote about how not to defend yourself against ILOVEYOU yesterday, we thought there were quite a few dumb people out there. But we were wrong. We asked Register readers for their virus war stories and - sheesh - there's a virtually infinite number of dumb people out there. And they're even dumber than we could have …

Business 12 May 2000, 16:12