16th June 2000 Archive

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MPAA's Valenti testifies in 2600 suit, claims to know nothing

No wonder they put him in charge

Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) Chairman Jack Valenti gave a deposition on Tuesday for the US District Court, in the MPAA lawsuit pending against 2600.com over linking to sites where the DeCSS utility, which cracks DVD encryption, can be found. We were immediately impressed with Valenti's near-heroic ignorance of …

Software 16 Jun 2000, 06:01
HP gives resellers chance to win £1 million

Is this the same million from last year?

Hewlett Packard is once more planning to make one of its resellers filthy rich. The generous vendor will not only ship its top 60 printer dealers off for a weekend in the South of France, but it is offering one lucky reveller the chance to win a cool £1 million. This couldn't possibly be the same million pounds that was …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 06:09
World IT jamboree in Taipei a wossat

Analysis Just what was its purpose apart from puff'n'spin?

The World Conference on IT, a two yearly event, opened last Sunday night in Taiwan to dragon dancers, drummers, wicker baskets and rain that drenched anyone that peeked out of the all-over thunderstorm prophylactics supplied by the organisers. While it was undoubtedly a coup for this little island to drag together Bill Gates, …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 07:04
Sun steps up to the SAN trough

But it's just too tasty to overturn

One of the most interesting tidbits we heard yesterday was that Sun is making more money from its storage business than it is from servers. Officially, Sun won't say one way or the other, but if that's really the case, then it's not alone. There are plenty of snouts in this trough - a business which, as we've pointed out before …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 07:06
Cadence goes back to the future

Tired old rockers given new life by EDA outfit

Semiconductor design is about as far out on the leading edge of technology as you can get (excluding the i820 chipset, naturally). And it even sounds pretty cool, too (until you get talking to the average chip designer, when that facade falls away all too quickly). Top chip designer Cadence prides itself on laying on something …

Bootnotes 16 Jun 2000, 07:21
How the hell… do you overclock the AMD T'bird?

The screwdrivers are out

Well that didn't take long: K7oc has successfully overclocked the new Athlon Thunderbird, cranking up the speed from 700MHz to 850MHz. You can read the review here. That certainly removes one question mark over the New Athlon - as the Thunderbird is now officially known. Many overclockers were anxious that the capability to …

Channel 16 Jun 2000, 07:52
MS tries to cut States out of Supreme Court appeal

MS on Trial Sometimes it's one case, sometimes two...

We can now reveal why Microsoft decided to split its appeal into separate actions against the DoJ and the Plaintiff States. In Microsoft's response filed yesterday with the Court of Appeals against the States' request that Microsoft's stay motion be dismissed or deferred, there is a note of triumph: "In their zeal to secure …

Software 16 Jun 2000, 09:51
AOL makes arms-length messaging concession

Talk amongst yourselves: we own the address book

Here's an aside for the Ayn Rand-reading equity and buyout specialists who like to swagger around Silicon Valley these days: A Little Government can be a wonderful thing. Forty eight hours after the Federal Trade Commission announced that it was investigating AOL's instant messaging on potential antitrust grounds, the company …

Media 16 Jun 2000, 09:56
AltaVista in High Court battle with British ISP

We get to the nitty gritty

Further details have emerged concerning The Free Internet Group's (TFIG) High Court claim against AltaVista for alleged breach of contract. According to the claim issued at the High Court last week the two companies inked a three-year agreement on the 29th February 2000 for TFIG to provide "free" branded Net access for …

Media 16 Jun 2000, 10:16
Beckham hits the Net

Flogs gear online instead of running a wine bar

Football ace David Beckham looks set to net more millions from a venture to flog sports gear online. The England player will get £1 million cash and a 2.75 per cent stake in the new dotcom. Through the deal he will get a site selling his own range of clothing, sports gear, toys and games over the Net. The venture will also see …

Media 16 Jun 2000, 11:03
T-Online ain't buying Freeserve – not yet, anyway

Yahoo! plans to buy everything else

Deutsche Telekom's Internet unit, T-Online, has dampened the bid frenzy for UK ISP Freeserve by announcing a joint UK venture with One2One, a fellow DT subsidiary. One2One would not confirm that the companies were in discussions over a new service, but told The Guardian: "It is not unusual for both parties to talk to each other …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 11:52
Red Hat out of the red in 2001 – CEO

Promise made on the back of major revenue growth

Linux specialist Red Hat said it will start turning a profit sometime next year, following a sharp rise in the company's quarterly revenues. Reporting its Q2 2000 results, yesterday, Red Hat said its revenues rose 95 per cent year-on-year for the three months to 31 May, reaching $16.0 million from $8.2 million. Quarter-on- …

Software 16 Jun 2000, 12:12
Maxtor go faster disks that aren't (any faster)

It's all in the firmware

And what's this landing on our doorstep - a press release from Maxtor Europe trumpeting the shipment of Ultra ATA/100 drives. Dated June 6, the release arrived at The Register on June 15, showing a peculiar urgency on Maxtor's part. It's not as if Maxtor doesn't know how to jump the gun - in its release, the disk drive vendor …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 12:20
Roll-up for the Microsoft class action

Feed the World's lawyers - all welcome

Millions of Brits stand to get a refund from Microsoft if a £1 billion lawsuit due to be filed next week is successful. The action, one of around 130 pending against the software giant, will be filed by a bunch of solicitors on behalf of Windows customers that bought the software outside the US, the Guardian reports. It will …

Software 16 Jun 2000, 12:49
Motorola, JVC to co-operate on wireless home video LAN

Not Bluetooth - but is it IEEE-1394?

Motorola and Japanese consumer elecronics company JVC are to develop a wireless networking system for home entertainment kit. At this stage, little is known about the technology, other than the fact that it isn't Bluetooth, which isn't up to handling the data speed and volumes required to transmit full-screen, full-motion video …

Data Networking 16 Jun 2000, 12:55
Get a £600 PC for £100… not quite

If it sounds too good to be true...

The site says "Click here for a free PC!!" and then the price starts rising. PC Help is actually offering a 500MHz Intel Celery PC for two years if you cough up £50 and answer market research questions once a month. But once you fill in the application form they stick you with an extra £50 for admin and P&P. If you want to …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 14:54
Home Office kept busy defending RIP Bill

No rest for the wicked

Fielding opposition to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Bill is becoming a full-time job for the Home Office. This week Jack Straw made time to write a letter to the Financial Times to try and allay fears in the City that the Bill will be costly or drive business overseas. The Home Office also set up a special …

Media 16 Jun 2000, 15:24
Gates has most wonga, says Forbes magazine

But now that Larry is so rich, do we get to hate him too?

Bill Gates is still the best man to call if you are short of cash, despite tough competition from Larry Ellison. Gates hung on to the title of "World's Richest Man" by the skin of his teeth this year, according to the annual list of the "Worlds Working Rich" from Forbes Magazine. Forbes estimates wealth on the basis of share …

Business 16 Jun 2000, 15:55
Sub7 vid Trojan can launch distributed attacks

A terrible beauty is born

Last week we expressed doubts about a report from security outfit NETSEC, claiming that they had found a new Trojan capable of launching DDoS attacks. Their "new" Trojan turned out to be Sub7, a remote administration package which had been around for years, and which we deemed an improbable candidate for DDoS. After …

Media 16 Jun 2000, 21:38