31st May 2000 Archive

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MS trial lawyer in legal action against Christie's, Sotheby's

Considering the provenance of the defendants, it's appropriate it's a class action...

David Boies, chosen by the National Law Journal as Lawyer of the Year and by the Department of Justice as lead trial counsel against Microsoft, is now also leading the charge in a class action against Sotheby's and Christie's. The two auction houses are alleged to have limited competition on commissions for both sellers and …

Business 31 May 2000, 08:50
Apple stock falls to 63 per cent of all-time high

Share price fall catches up with other hi-tech stocks

Apple's share price closed at $86.375 - way down on the $140-plus peak it hit back in late March. Trading opened today at $87.625. That said, the fall, broadly in line with the way all US hi-tech stocks have been going - ie. down - does appear to be slowing and possibly bottoming out. And, looking at a chart of share price …

Business 31 May 2000, 08:52
Help Big Brother catch benefit cheats

Grass up your neighbours online

The Department of Social Security is taking its grass-up- benefit-cheats campaign onto the Internet. Now you can tell tales from the anonymity of your own PC, simply by filling out the reporting form at targetingfraud.gov.uk. Apparently, more than 80 per year is lost to every household in Britain as a direct result of people …

Business 31 May 2000, 08:54
Domain name rush causes first balance of payments crisis

OK, so we are exaggerating a little

A leading Korean newspaper is blaming massive dollar outflows in Korea on 'cybersquatters' Korea is the world's second biggest buyers of .com addresses (behind the US), with one million URLs owned by Korean speculators, The Korea Times reports. It describes the domain name registration rush in Korea as "feverish cybersquatting …

Business 31 May 2000, 08:54
MS leaking Sun code three times entirely accidental – judge

MS on Trial At last! Somebody thinks the high command isn't sufficienty culpable

The contractual aspects of the Sun-Microsoft Java squabble have resulted in another ruling by Judge Whyte, but neither side is cheering about it. In making his ruling that Sun is not entitled to $35 million in liquidated damages for Microsoft having "inadvertently" made Java source code available on its web site, the judge has …

Business 31 May 2000, 10:43
3Com licenses Palm OS and Zen – and QNX

Buzzword frenzy

3Com's "bigger than Palm" Internet appliance will use Palm technology, the comms giant admitted yesterday. Which is ironic not only because of the above claim, made by 3Com CEO Eric Benhamou, but because Palm has only just been spun out of 3Com. And it's surprising that the two companies feel the need to stress a relationship …

Business 31 May 2000, 10:58
Boffins pave way for optical transistor

We can't make one, but we know what we'll be able to make it out of, researchers claim

A pair of scientists at the University of Toronto have developed what appears to be the world's first silicon-based optical transistor - or at least a substance could be used to make one. Essentially, the device traps light waves and controls their path in a way not dissimilar to how a semiconductor transistor controls the …

Business 31 May 2000, 11:33
Let the Freeserve sell-off begin

Dixon to 'auction stake'

Dixons refuses to be drawn on whether it is preparing to sell-off its majority holding in its monster ISP, Freeserve, despite mounting market speculation that something is in the offing. The latest twist of this tortuous saga comes from the FT which reports that Dixons has effectively set up an auction giving potential bidders …

Business 31 May 2000, 11:36
Surplus AMD suits find a new home

Heartwarming tale from immodestly named new foundry

Former AMD boss Atiq Raza and a bunch of his mates have set up a Silicon Valley incubator company to help start-ups in the networking and communications chips markets. Raza Foundries aims to concentrate on startups aiming to develop Internet communications infrastructure products. One of the first companies working with Raza, …

Business 31 May 2000, 11:52
HP talks up e-speak

Web standards too low-level

e-speak, the software with the Orwellian name, has a history that goes back to the mid-90s, when a handful of Hewlett-Packard engineers were trying to find a way to get a computer to deal with new kinds of things, like an audio stream, without waiting for the next release of the operating system. It has now evolved in to what …

Business 31 May 2000, 11:57
365 losses surge

Tales from The Bubble Economy

365 Corporation saw pre-tax losses surge to 14.8 million for the year ended 31 March. Losses at the UK Web content provider included 5.1 million of goodwill, and compared to a loss of 1000 for its previous set of figures the eight months to 31 March 1999. Sales grew to 22.4 million, against 2.6 million. In the fourth quarter …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:43
AT&T peddles porn

We always knew there was something dodgy about them

AT&T is to carry The Hot Network - a hardcore adult move channel - and take a fat load of money with it. Digital TV is a costly affair and so the company has turned to man's (and woman's) baser instincts to get some much-needed cash. Family-friendly companies Time and Warner turned the deal down. So how does AT&T justify its …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:43
Small Earthquake in Chile…

We've wibbled and wibbled but there's not a lot on the wobbly Web at the moment

Not a whole shedload of stuff to point you good folks at today. Over at Chip (OK now, Daniel?) there's a look at a prototype of ATI's Radeon chip, While Anandtech checks out Leadtek's WinFast GeForce 2 GTS graphics card. Kyle at Hardocp has tracked down a complete loon who's running an ABIT BP6 with dual Coppermines running at …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:44
Geek pulls Net super babe

Cindy Margolis gets bespectacled boys sweaty

It's every geek's dream - build a Web site, make lots of money and sit back while the supermodels come to you. Well, mygeek.com appears to have pulled it off. Net babe Cindy Margolis (one of People's 50 Most Beautiful People, Forbes' Top 100 Celebrities, Detail's Sexiest Woman of the Year (99) and entry in the Guinness Book of …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:44
CIX denies customers forced MD departure

But promises to revise Ts&Cs

CIX, the ISP under attack from its customers for imposing punitive new terms and conditions, has a new managing director. Graham Davies, former sales and marketing director at CIX, has replaced Doug Birtley, who left the company to "run other business interests". Davies scoffed at suggestions that Birtley's departure had …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:44
Euro MPs scrap anonymous email ban plan

Onto the scrap heap

European politicians have scrapped a plan to ban anonymous e-mail, as predicted by The Register earlier this month. The Council of Ministers - made up of senior politicians from member states - rejected proposals passed by the European Parliament, which would have outlawed the use of anonymous e-mail addresses. The proposals …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:44
Toshiba euthanasia laptop goes on display

Hit the space bar and end it all

A Toshiba laptop used to kill humans is to go on show in London. The euthanasia machine, developed by an Australian nicknamed "Dr Death", is believed to be the first machine used to legally kill ill people. It was previously used to put four people out of their misery in the Northern Territory of Oz, but has been redundant …

Business 31 May 2000, 14:44
Intel kills Celeron dead

Overclocker's fave Mendocino not supported by next generation Chipzilla chipsets

If one were to ask Intel: "I have heard that the Intel 815 and Intel 815E will not support Mendocino processors. Is that true?", any spin paramedic would naturally turn to their officially-approved Q&A sheet, and be duty bound to reply: "Given the price/positioning of the 815 and 815E chipsets and the ramp down of the …

Business 31 May 2000, 15:29
Off Peak only: Freeserve touts unmetered access

Launches tomorrow

Monster ISP Freeserve is to offer unmetered off-peak Net access from tomorrow. The not-so-pithily-named service, Off Peak Freeserve Time, is based on BT's Surftime unmetered package. The new service will be launched amid a blaze of publicity and hype with ads plastered over the national press. The unmetered off-peak Net …

Business 31 May 2000, 15:29