24th May 2000 Archive
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Slashdot gives Microsoft lawyers the bum's rush
Playing to the gallery? Now where did they get that idea from...
Andover.Net lawyers acting for Slashdot have raised a theatrical two fingers to Microsoft, setting the stage for yet another test case under the recently passed Digital Media Copyright Act. Slashdot was responding to Microsoft's "Designated Agent", who last week requested that the site remove postings containing details of …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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‘Pissy emails from billg’ – MS exec sinks teeth into Gates
MS on Trial The man who launched Win95 wasn't happy, apparently...
An astonishing email from former Microsoft top exec Brad Silverberg suggests that at least elements of the Microsoft High Command wanted the company to split off its OS and apps businesses more formally. And stranger still, the email was written in February 1999, when trial proceedings were already heating up. Silverberg's …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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Interplay games system builders play
Moves catalogue online
California-based company Interplay OEM is to start selling games online to smaller UK system builders next month. Under a new division, bundledirect.com, it will sell pre-packaged bundles of software titles via the Web. The company, which currently has a 350-title catalogue, will target VARs and system integrators, as well as …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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Apple backtracks on pre-installing MacOS X
Next-gen OS now to be an option for new Macs, not the standard
Apple will not pre-install Mac OS X on new Mac hardware next January after all - despite CEO Steve Jobs' promise, made earlier this year, that the next-generation operating system will become Apple's standard OS early 2001. So much for the company's claim that its Mac OS X release schedule hasn't changed - only the names of the …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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Microsoft's Bauer gets a suntan with The Register
Get out of consumer business, he says
Thomas Bauer, Microsoft regional OEM director for EMEA, took time out from the Integrator Forum Europe 2000 in Monte Carlo to tell Linda Harrison why system builders need to quit the consumer market, and about the vendor's plans for its tier II OEMs. Dump your consumer sales and get into the business market if you want to …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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War on drugs might promote sneak computer searches
CESA resurrected
Provisions enabling the Feds to conduct secret searches, primarily in cases of suspected cyber-crimes, are being interlaced with several bills pending before Congress, the Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT) noted in e-mail correspondence with Hacker News Network. Last year the Feds abandoned a most Draconian bill called …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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McAfee anti-virus enables employee monitoring
Big Brother signs your pay cheque, after all
Network Associates anti-virus division McAfee has decided to stop scanning for a Trojan called NetBus Pro, made by UltraAccess Networks, which allows a third party to invade and take complete control over someone else's computer. Little more than a dressed-up hacker's toy, the NetBus Trojan is euphemistically called a "remote …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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MS releases CE3, announces new appliance kits
Let's take that roadmap from the top...
Windows' embedded Czar has been trying to tidy up Microsoft's OS strategy. This was formally unveiled at the WinHEC conference last month, but as we reported earlier this doesn't seem to have left the target audience much clearer. Today Bengt Akerlind, VP for Embedded Products, had another go, and threw some new ingredients into …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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Germany unshreds Stasi spy history
Piecing together torn documents
In the final days of the DDR, employees of the STASI tried to destroy decades worth of files. What could not be burned was torn up into little pieces - by hand. Today a crew of about 30 civil servants are locating, collating, and pasting together those bits of paper in a time-consuming reconstruction project. Officials could …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:10
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BOFH for hire on Starship Enterprise
Episode 19 The episode you never saw
BOFH2000: Episode 19 (THE EPISODE YOU NEVER SAW) "Captain's Log, Start Date Twenty Nine point two point thirty six, twenty four, thirty six, Mmmm Mmm. Following some problems with the ship's computer we've travelled back in time and space to the planet Earth during the early 21st century and beamed aboard an expert who may be …
BOFH 24 May 2000, 12:11
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AMD's Huff puffs DDR at memory love-in
Two-way multiprocessing solution four months away
Chip contender AMD is a Rambus licensee but is still showing reluctance to demo products that use this memory technology. Instead, at a DDR love fest held in California earlier this week, AMD and a heap of other industry players, not including Intel, were putting their weight behind DDR as a solution. This is not to say Intel …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:11
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Intel roadmap times, they are a changin'
Celeron 633MHz/666MHz go on sale, Willamette's two flavours
Intel has now bunged its boxed desktop processor customers its latest roadmap, which extends up to the end of this year. For the first time, Tehama (the Willamette chipset) appears on the boxed roadmap, but only as a tiny little wedge towards the end. Nevertheless, the roadmap shows there will be at least two boxed Willamette …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:11
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Via-AMD chipsets set to enter mass production
Thunderbird and lightning... mama mia, mama mia
The KZ133 chipset from Via, a Socket A solution which supports AMD's up-and-coming Thunderbird microprocessor are expected to go into mass production at the end of this month, insiders in Taiwan told The Register today. But boards using the KZ133 chipset, which has been sampling for three and a half weeks, are likely to head …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:11
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Intel's view on double data rate memory…
...it's kind of a throwaway thing
The same roadmap we saw two days ago which revealed the price of Merced (Itanium) chips has also revealed Intel's view about double date rate memory (DDR). For quite some months, many in the PC industry have been puzzled as to why Intel is choosing DDR for the server market and Rambus is the memory technology of choice for the …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:11
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Intel's pricing, May to September
Cockaleekie soup for mobiles, desktops, Celerons and Xeons
There's some solid chunks of meat in this Intel broth and the positioning of processors, whether they be for mobile, desktop or server chips, speaks volumes for the firm's response to competition. Intel, no doubt, hopes that its strategic pricing will not only speak volumes to its customers, but sell volumes too. All prices …
Channel 24 May 2000, 12:11
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AMD's 1.1GHz T'bird to debut Q3
We do our wibbly Web collywobbles thing
At Ace's Hardware there is a link to PC Watch Japan which gives details of AMD's roadmap. AMD will challenge little Intel's Willamette by releasing a 1.5GHz processor next January, the article iterates. There's a link at AMD Zone which suggests that big institutions are plunging more money into Cheapzilla stock. The lads also …
Hardware Roundup 24 May 2000, 12:12
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Intel's Cape Cod fishy smell – official
It's the Dear John letter from Satan Clara
Whenever a reseller or distributor gets a letter from Intel starting off with the words Dear Valued Customer, she or he expects trouble. And so it proved when they received the following missive from Satan Clara notifying them of a certain Coddish stink coming from the CC820. Here is the letter the channel got, reproduced in …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:12
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Kingston spins off storage unit
Memory isn't made of this
Kingston Technology, better known for its memory products than the storage solutions it offers, is to spin off its storage product division on 1 June, with the name StorCase. Ajay Lukha, UK director of the division, said that while StorCase will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingston, the decision had been taken for a …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:12
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Reading The Internet Start-Up Bible
Useful checklist for dotcom wannabes
From time to time, I am mistakenly asked for advice on how to set up an Internet business. I will now tell any dotcom wannabes that pass my way to buy a copy of The Internet Start-Up Bible. Written by three Internet consultants from - I assume - Viant, this book contains a heap of well-structured information on how to set up a …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:12
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You're the Won that I want
Portal for game play launches in UK
Gaming portal Won.net is launching in the UK (and France and Germany). Boasting 40 online games, the Sierra-owned company is currently pushing the "casual" side of gaming - you know, chess, backgammon et al - but, of course, has thrown in Net favourites like Half-Life and Quake. "We're not going after the hardcore gamers," the …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Two million oglers share Victoria's Secrets
That warm and fuzzy image
Two million people ogled at the secrets of Victoria the other night as the world's top supermodels strutted their stuff on a Cannes catwalk wearing little more than a smile. The event - screened live on the Net - also raised more than $2 million for AIDS research. Most remarkable of all, there were few reported hiccups with …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Dotcom UK slams e-commerce minister's performance
A whopping seven per cent think she's doing a good job
British dotcoms are deeply dissatisfied with the Government's handling of the new economy, according to a survey published ahead of next week's Internet World UK 2000 exhibition and conference. E-commerce minister Patricia Hewitt comes in for the harshest criticism. Only seven per cent of those who took part in the survey said …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Hull to wire entire city to the Net
Still won't make it wired capital of Europe
Officials in Kingston upon Hull want to give everyone in the city access to the Net. Speaking at a conference yesterday, Councillor Patrick Doyle, Leader of the City Council, explained how the authority's Digital City Task Group was working to make Hull the wired capital of Europe. Cllr Doyle said he was seriously examining …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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FTC to ask Congress for Net-privacy oversight power
In an election year... surely you jest
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has at long last come to grasp what everyone else has known for years: that e-commerce remains belligerently unwilling to regulate itself and provide consumers with even a modicum of on-line privacy protection. Starting this week, the Commission will reverse its longstanding, hands-off …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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You can have it all with ideas commune
Enlightenment for entrepreneurs
A thousand thanks to Web-Intelligence Worldwide for adding spirituality to an otherwise soulless Internet World show. This Indian-based "idea commune" is endowing its own harmony on the proceedings. Instead of pushing gadgets or software, this saffron-infused outfit is pushing "entrepreneurship as a path of spiritual …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Telewest signs up with world+dead dog
Who hasn't they 'partnered' with?
Telewest has announced a massive list of sign-ups to its interactive TV service, including CNN, Interflora, Lunn Poly, Tie Rack etc etc. Strangely it has also joined up with Boo.com - which was flushed down the dotcom toilet just yesterday - but then what has the Internet ever had to do with timely information? The list looks …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Bonfield tells the world BT is dying
Still smiling after 4.6 billion goes down the toilet
British Telecom announced a 32 per cent fall in full-year profits yesterday, sparking a slump in its share price. Shares fell 70p to 922p, wiping 4.6 billion off the company's value. Of course CEO Sir Peter Bonfield told us it was nothing to worry about. It's heavy investment because of this darn competition that the modern …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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CPU price war totally out of control down under
Get your free Pentium IIIs here, folks
Bargain of the week has to come from Sydney, Australia computer store Arcco, advertising the Intel Pentium III 650MHz for a low, low price - Aus$0.00. Check out their web site here Buy now while stocks last. We've ordered 1000. ®
Bootnotes 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Dr Spinola's PR masterclass
Listen up, all you bunnies
Lesson One – the Press Release Writing a press release is very nearly the worst job in the world [Yeah, and reading the bloody things is the worst – Ed]. But if you follow Dr Spinola's simple rules, you just can't go wrong. Words and phrases to avoid Under no circumstances ever use any of the following expressions: Leverage …
Bootnotes 24 May 2000, 12:13
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Europe IT trade forum on the cards
Lobbying, yes: buying, no
Keith Warburton, director of UK trade group the Personal Computer Association, will tomorrow unleash his plans to take over the world - well, Europe at least. He wants to expand his current powers and launch a trade body for the European IT industry, using the platform of the Integrator Forum Europe 2000. The aims of the …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:13
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MS opens NexGen Windows Megaservices kimono
It's a media properties give-away
Microsoft has discovered a way to recoup its expensive investments in media content in the late 90s. It's going to give them away as part of the 'megaservices' concept to be made flesh at its Next Generation Windows Services, or NGWS strategy launch next week. The hint came from Bengt Akerlind, the Microsoft VP of embedded …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:17
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Linux is more popular than sex
Feeling frisky? P-p-p-pick up a penguin
Our thanks go out to Register reader Gunnar Isaksson who wrote in to inform us of the "unscientifical investigation" he has carried out into the growing popularity of Linux. The unstoppable OS machine has been gunning for Windows for some time now and despite the small – but perfectly formed – market share Linux lays claim to …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:19
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Can Schmidt fix Novell – again?
The Win2k effect is by no means the whole story of Novell's woes
Novell's second quarter results don't tell the whole story about what is happening in the company, the current issues that resulted in the profits warning of 2 May, and the savage decline in the share price. The outcome was as forecast earlier in the month, with revenue of $302 million and earnings per share of 9 cents beating …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:24
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Time Warner caught in ham-fisted DSL scam
Industrial espionage from the Beavis and Butthead school of management
In a comically oafish effort to probe the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, media behemoth Time Warner circulated a flyer among its Texas-area employees urging them to place orders for DSL service from competitor Southwestern Bell, the New York Times reports. The scam was meant to pinpoint precisely where the competition is …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:24
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Intel's cunning server plans
Cashcades, Foster, Itanium, Colusa. Oh god, you figure it out
PC customers and companies attempting to plan their server strategy over the next 18 months had better get their thinking caps on, judging from an Intel roadmap we viewed earlier on this week. IA-32 based Foster is the elder brother of Willamette, and earlier this year we were led to believe that it would arrive not long after …
Business 24 May 2000, 12:24
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Microsoft partner offers broadband satellite access in Europe
Rollout promised by year end
The company Microsoft teamed up with in order to deliver broadband satellite Internet access in the US by the end of this year has announced plans for a similar system in Europe, in the same timeframe. The 'M' word hasn't been mentioned in the European context yet, but it would seem logical for the deal to be extended, …
Business 24 May 2000, 15:30
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Windows ME on target for mid-June completion
Shock, horror: Microsoft OS division gets it right...
Windows ME, aka Millennium Edition, has reached Release Candidate 1 stage, and is expected to RTM (Release to Manufacture) in the middle of June. Windows-watching sites are variously reporting the intended RTM as the 13th or the 14th, so presumably it's a 'push the button at midnight' job. According to Paul Thurrott at Wininfo …
Business 24 May 2000, 15:31
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WH Smith Online crashes after server theft
Now that's what we call security
Police are investigating a break in at it WH Smith Online's Oxfordshire base, following the alleged theft of two servers and a quantity of DVDs. It's understood the incident happened a fortnight ago causing WH Smith Online's site to crash. It's alleged that the theft may have been an inside job. In a memo leaked to The …
Business 24 May 2000, 15:31
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The NTL customer backlash starts here
Register readers weigh in
"NTL - Technology and the Internet tamed". So says the company's TV and radio ads. Sean 'Anne Robinson' Fleming was stuck at home sorting out house problems and thought he'd get it to set up cable and TV in his new abode. Oh dear. The resulting story "Hi, thanks for calling NTL - we suck", struck a chord with readers and soon we …
Business 24 May 2000, 16:04
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The Reg vulture, meaning of BOFH and spam
More letters from our bulging email bag
A different angle on a dangerous PR approach [Andrew 'Which alias shall I use today?' Thomas was surprised to find an email from Union PR apologising for a previous email. He had no idea what this previous missive was about (having never received it) but awarded Tanya Ferris PR bunny of the week for her courage. A reader had a …
Letters 24 May 2000, 16:04
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NTL ‘enters race for Freeserve’
Joins T-Online at starter's gate
Cable giant NTL is a "serious contender" to buy Freeserve, Britain's biggest consumer ISP, according to the Sunday Times. The "impending auction could value Freeserve at a big premium to its 3.9 billion market worth", the paper says. Remember, nothing regarding the ISP's future status has been announced – officially – by …
Business 24 May 2000, 16:04
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BabeWatch at Internet World
Kieren and Tim exceed their brief
Dawning as it did that there was no news to be had at the show (and even if there was, most stallholders wouldn't know what their product was), it seemed only right to tell readers how to get the most out of the show. That's our justification anyway for giving you a rundown on the Show Bunnies dotted around the floor. First …
Bootnotes 24 May 2000, 16:04
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Internet World: there's no business in show business
Hostility suites are empty
The first day of the Internet World 2000 show has been a bit of a mixed bag. The keynote speech by Microsoft UK MD Neil Holloway was a tad flat. The hall was half empty as he took to the stand to give - in effect - a hardware review of the not-so-latest Net gadgets. And this from a software chappie to boot. No wonder only 30 …
Bootnotes 24 May 2000, 16:04
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Man arrested after military laptop theft tabloid pitch
Fighter aircraft details
A man has been held in connection with the theft of a military laptop, following an attempt to sell its secrets to a tabloid newspaper for 15,000. The 2000 laptop contained "specifications for the next generation of fighter aircraft and details of how they can be controlled from the ground", according to Whitehall insiders, …
Business 24 May 2000, 16:05
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Caminogate recall – read the small print
All Rambus is equal, but some is more equal than others
The news that Intel is to offer either PC700 or PC800 Rambus to Cape Cod mobo owners would appear to be a generous offer, as cynics have been claiming only feeble PC600 RIMMs would be available. However, reading the small print on Chipzilla's Web site, you will discover that the supplied Rambus memory will be "128MB of PC700 or …
Business 24 May 2000, 16:05
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France name-all-Web posters law inches to statute books
What have you got to hide, anyway?
France is a step closer to introducing legislation that would prevent Net users from publishing items on the Web anonymously. The Freedom of Communications Act is due to be debated by the Senate next week. It has already received the go-ahead from the House. The proposed legislation was introduced after pictures of a model …
Business 24 May 2000, 16:05
