26th June 2000 Archive

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How the hell… do I countersue Rambus?

Even though I rip up the document later...

In the interests of history, we thought we would bring to our readers the entire document Hitachi presented in its bid to countersue Rambus. Last week, as reported here, Hitachi settled with Rambus but we have had many enquiries as to which DDR and SDRAM patents are involved. Those details are within this court deposition, …

Channel 26 Jun 2000, 08:42
Palm preps summer launch for Euro Palm.net

European version to be subscription-free service

Palm will launch its wireless Net access portal, Palm.net, in Europe this summer and is to make the service free of subscription fees, according to today's Financial Times. Palm.net has been running in the US since last year's launch of the Palm VII wireless-enabled handheld. The system caches requested Web pages at Palm.net …

Data Networking 26 Jun 2000, 10:26
SCO straightens its Linux message

And thinks it's found a use for Itanic

The Santa Cruz Operation says it's likely to announce its plans for a Linux distribution this week. Really, and no kidding this time. SCO cancelled a press and analyst tour a fortnight ago, after its partners complained that they hadn't seen the script in advance, and could someone please explain what was going on? News had …

Software 26 Jun 2000, 11:05
Freeserve fisted by dotcom jitters

When you're successful, everyone wants to be your friend

Freeserve's share price was in free-fall this morning wiping 20 per cent off the value of Britain's biggest ISP. By mid morning it had lost 86.75p touching down at 352p. The trick, though, is trying to work out why. Was it because the market got a dose of the jitters following a loss of confidence in Amazon.com on Friday? Or …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 11:19
Celeron stuck in a 66MHz timewarp

Chipzilla marketing heads firmly in the sand

Those readers who have been paying attention will remember that today's the day for the latest batch of flip-chip Celerons to be released. Incoming! Intel goes launch crazy. Here are the fascinating facts: Celeron 700 MHz = $192 (1Ku), 667 MHz = $170 (1Ku), 633 MHz = $136 (1Ku). All FCPGA built on 0.18 micron. The only …

Channel 26 Jun 2000, 11:29
Amazon investors react to the obvious

And other e-tailing tales

Amazon has been burned by a report from investment bank Lehman Brothers, which reckons the bookseller will run out of cash in the next four quarters unless someone delves into their very deep pockets. This contradicts another report, out last week, by influential business mag Barrons which generously suggests Amazon's cash …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 11:53
Sony to launch digital VCR

Taking TiVo to Japan - or is it?

Sony will launch itself against TiVo this summer when it will challenge the digital video recorder pioneer in Japan with a machine of its own. This despite the fact that Sony US is a TiVO technology licensee. The oddly-named Clip-On contains a 30GB hard drive, onto which users can record between five and 20 hours of TV …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 11:53
Compaq pours bucket over Wildfire

What's in a name?

From: WEINGARTEN, SCHURGIN, GAGNEBIN & HAYES LLP June 21, 2000 Mr. Mike Magee Situation Publishing 20-22 Maddox Street London, W1R 9PG United Kingdom RE WILDFIRE Trademark of Wildfire Communications, Inc Our File: WILD:2000.01 Dear Mr. Magee We represent Wildfire Communications, Inc ("Wildfire") in trademark and …

Bootnotes 26 Jun 2000, 11:54
Sony leaks Palm-based device details

Gives Wall Street Journal an early, pre-PC Expo play

Sony will this week show off its upcoming Palm-based multimedia-capable handheld computer, according to the Wall Street Journal, which clearly had a sneak preview of the gadget. According to the paper, Sony's as-yet-unnamed device will ship in a blue and silver colour scheme. That suggests to us, it's going to come out under …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 12:07
64MB Herc vid card – nice but high price

We go board stupid with this RoundUp

An overpriced and under-bundled 64MB Hercules video card goes under the microscope. The Kryo3D card and a Via Apollo Pro A motherboard also come under scrutiny while Tech Review puts some go faster stripes on its modems... A review of the 64MB Hercules Prophet II has been posted at Planet Hardware. It seems they are mostly …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 13:18
Siemens stained by CWAP stunt

Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb

Siemens and a bunch of radio jocks from BRMB in Birmingham have come up with what has to be one of the most cretinous WAP (CWAP) stunts - ever. As of 8.45am this morning, four people have been locked in small car for a week with only a WAP phone for company. The foursome - who revel in smelly trainers and cast iron bladders - …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 13:20
Rambus too expensive – Intel

Shock horror announcement by top bod

The general manager of Intel Europe has conceded that Rambus memory is still too expensive, despite widely announced price drops. However, Robert L Eckelmann, who heads the chip company in this continent, speaking to a small coterie of Euro-hacks last week, hoped that the prices will fall even further. Eckelmann said: "They've …

Channel 26 Jun 2000, 13:23
Amazon pulls a fast one over latest Harry Potter

Cunning plot to get drop on rest of the book trade

Harry Potter fans are waiting impatiently for JK Rowling's fourth book at noon on 8 July, but there is still great secrecy about the title. (To spoil the surprise the Sunday Telegraph has revealed it is called "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".) Booksellers have had to sign affidavits that they would not unpack them until …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 13:46
Demon slapped by ADSL climb down

People power rules, KO

Demon has caved in to pressure from its ADSL trialists and agreed to honour its offer of three months' free time online. The move - announced today - is an embarrassing U-turn by the ISP which has been slammed for the way it has handled the completion of its broadband trial. Last week it issued an ultimatum to its 500 …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 14:12
Analysts talk up Apple's MacWorld product intros

Expect 'great things' or something good but not 'compelling'...

Expect "great things" from Apple at next month's MacWorld Expo show in New York. At least, that's what UBS Warburg analyst Charles Wolf reckons. Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch analyst Steve Fortuna has said Apple will not only make some new product announcements at the show, but unveil some new retail partnerships. The poor fellow …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 14:44
Web access from the skies

Check out porn and join the virtual mile high club

Emails will soon become commonplace at 30,000 feet, following the satellite groups offering faster connection rates to planes in flight. The first step to mile high web access and email is airlines introducing the third generation of in-flight entertainment systems. These will be based around an on board server holding a walled …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 15:06
Got a cold? Come this way

A fellow sufferer falls in love with the Web all over again

It's become so easy to forget about the great humanitarian (as opposed to economic) advantage that the Web offers. But slumped - sniffing, coughing and expelling thick green liquid at regular intervals - it all returned like a summer of love flashback. You see, while vast, greedy, immoral multi-billion pound companies sign yet …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 15:11
RedHotAnt hit by heavy users

Correction C'mon guys, now let's play fair

A thousand thanks to everyone who wrote in saying that it wasn't Freeserve that was getting upset with people using its service too much - it was RedHotAnt. A thousand lashes to the 'helpful' PR snout who passed on the duff information. The story should read: RedHotAnt has dropped to its knees and is begging its users not to …

Media 26 Jun 2000, 15:29
Win2K and ME users up creek without a floppy

Headlong rush to ease of use will prevent BIOS updates

Microsoft today confirmed that users will have no easy way to update system BIOSes after upgrading to Windows Millennium or Windows 2000. M$ commendable aim of removing all those dangerous command line bits has an unfortunate side effect - there's no way to build the bootable floppy needed by BIOS upgrades. Win2K cannot build a …

Software 26 Jun 2000, 15:53
We know what HP and Dell's future plans are

And we just can't wait for the offical launches

In the Web world, before you can do anything you need a domain name to do it with. So what? Well, if you were to find out that Hewlett-Packard had just secured the domain name www.hppcdirect.com but there was, as yet, no material on it - could you draw any conclusions? Yes, you could. HP started loosening its denials that it …

Business 26 Jun 2000, 16:36
Register scotches Esther Dyson armed robbery rumours

And she's not a KGB agent either...

Scanning the local trade rag New Media Age this week we noticed that it's published a brief CV for our old chum "Queen" Esther Dyson. But perplexingly, there's a big hole in it. In 1983 it reports Esther bought Rosen Research, but then there's nothing until she's listed as publishing her first book in 1997. Naturally, with a …

Bootnotes 26 Jun 2000, 17:10
SCO, Compaq ServerNet-less clusters

An Oracle cluster for under $8k

The Santa Cruz Operation is introducing a version of Non Stop Clusters for Intel boxes that doesn't need Compaq's proprietary ServerNet interconnects. Needing only two 100Mbps Ethernet adaptors to enable heartbeat communications, and able to run on bog standard white box PCs, this latest version of NSC is probably the cheapest …

Software 26 Jun 2000, 18:24
IBM memory trick makes servers run like the clappers

And saves vast sums for ISPs

IBM boffins have packed a new memory compression technology onto a chip, which will, in due course, save squillions of dollars, and the world as we know it. IBM's new Memory eXpansion technology keeps commonly used data close to the microprocessors for faster access, and compresses the less frequently accessed data, storing it …

Channel 26 Jun 2000, 22:31
BOFH: Bad Hair Day

Episode 23 Everyone has a breaking point..

BOFH 2000: Episode 23 I think I'm going to have a seizure. I've tried to calm down, I've counted to 10, I've even played a couple of games of sneaky-cheat Quake II against a couple of feebs from marketing who can't figure out why they kept exploding when I shot them with an ordinary looking pistol. But it's not working. I've had …

BOFH 26 Jun 2000, 22:44