30th June 2000 Archive

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Google in lead as search wars hot up

I'll be back, says Inktomi...

Reliance on search engines is increasing and will continue to do so, so it is not surprising that there are shake-outs from time to time. The latest changes have affected Inktomi, Euroseek and Google. Stockholm-based Euroseek agreed yesterday to supply MSN and IE with its search engine for the Nordic region, and the company has …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 05:44
Queen affirms interest in EDA

Cut that tapeout, your majesty

It's been a long time coming, but chip design behemoth DeCadence has finally come clean on staffing levels at its Livingston, Scotland design centre. Towards the end of last year, Cadence invited the cream of Europe's electronics press [Who they? - Ed] to an opening ceremony which was precipitously cancelled just 24 hours …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 07:17
1GHz T'birds lost in Gateway space

But AMD says no production problems

A report on the Silicon Investor bulletin board is suggesting that Gateway, which has pledged itself to now ship 50 per cent of its PCs with AMD parts, is kitting out its 1GHz machines with so-called "classic" Athlons rather than the recently released Thunderbird parts. But there seems to be no official reason forthcoming for …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 08:50
Pentium 4 in pictures

Warning: graphics intensive

Someone gave our pal Digital Assassin a groovy digital camera for Christmas, and he's put it to good use taking some hi-res pix of a Pentium 4 (aka Willamette) which came into his possession. Be warned - these pics are big. All the shots are at a desktop picture friendly 1600x1200 24-bit colour JPEGs. File sizes come in between …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 08:52
Intel's 1.13GHz PIII paper tiger growls

AMD must be really terrified...

Chip giant Intel confirmed today that it will release a 1.13GHz Pentium III at the end of July, but in limited quantities. The processor will ramp up throughout the rest of this year, however, an Intel representative said. The chip is mainly aimed at the enthusiast market, he added. The intro of the faster Pentium III is …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 09:09
Sony surrenders PlayStation emulation fight

Voluntarily dismisses patent suit against Connectix

Sony has canned its latest attempt to prevent Mac software developer Connectix from selling Virtual Game Station (VGS), a PlayStation emulator. The two companies were due today to appear before the US District Court, Judge Charles Legge presiding, to hear a motion by Connectix to dismiss Sony's patent infringement case against …

Software 30 Jun 2000, 09:25
Alta Vista supposed to go live at 10.30am

Updated No sign yet...

AltaVista's groundbreaking, revolutionary, we-thought-of-it-first-honest, all-you-can-eat Internet access service goes live today. Details of exactly how Net users can get their snouts in the trough was due to be published today at 10.30am (BST). But those eager beavers who've already checked out Alta Vista's site will, no …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 09:54
Wildfire: an apology

Register smokes its words

The Register wishes to apologise unreservedly to all English speakers for the number of times the word 'wildfire' has appeared in Mike Magee's stories over the last few days. We now accept that overuse of an English word results in a severe degradation of the language, eventually leading to words becoming hackneyed. We wish to …

Bootnotes 30 Jun 2000, 10:19
Nvidia GeForce 2 MX targets mobile market

Though the company barely mentions the fact

Nvidia yesterday launched its latest graphics accelerator, the GeForce 2 MX, formerly known by its codename, NV11 - the successor to the GeForce 256, which the company launched last autumn. Based on a 0.18 micron process - the GeForce 256 was fabbed at 0.22 micron - and drawing less than 5W of power (look, ma, no heat sink...) …

Business 30 Jun 2000, 11:02
Priceline will change the world

By creating a big hassle out of shopping

The US online bartering business Priceline.com is making a big racket about moving into Europe and because the head of Burger King has quit and joined it. But what is Priceline is the question everyone has posed. Well it's consumer championing taken to the highest degree because your consumer - that's you and me when we're not …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 11:12
RedHotAnt calls in Old Bill over hack attack

'ello, 'ello, 'ello - what we got 'ere then?

Embattled ISP, RedHotAnt, has admitted that a hacker did breach site security gaining access to names, addresses, passwords and credit card details of some 24,000 subscribers. In an "urgent" email alert issued yesterday the Kent-based ISP said it was "aware of this serious breach and [was] working closely with all the concerned …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 11:14
Bezos gets crabby over reports Amazon is short of cash

And its not all happy news for other ebiz players

Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos has got very shirty over a report by Lehman Brothers analyst Ravi Suria that said the online giant was fast running out of cash. Amazon's credit was described as "weak and deteriorating" and the cash would last to the start of next year at best. Amazon's share price fell 20 per cent. Bezos, with the …

Business 30 Jun 2000, 12:05
Cabling concerns spark airline laptop shut-off

Rewirings all round...

When you're flying, isn't it great to be able to plug your laptop in at your seat, get some work done and recharge your battery at the same time? Well, not necessarily, according to a piece in today's Wall Street Journal. The WSJ reports that United Airlines had shut off the outlets on all its Boeing 777s pending safety checks …

Business 30 Jun 2000, 13:31
Handspring hit by Palm DRAM bug

But the fixes won't work because you can't upgrade the Visor's OS...

PalmOS licensee appears to have acknowledged that the DRAM bug affecting both Palm and fellow licensee TRG handhelds is also present in its own Visor range. According to PalmStation.com, a recent addition to Handspring's tech support site includes a test application that checks whether a Visor contains one of the dodgy 8MB DRAM …

Business 30 Jun 2000, 13:39
Mobile masts not mortally threatening

According to this weeks research anyway

Hard up schools which have decided to earn a bit of extra cash by letting a phone company stick a mast on their roof are OK. The National Radiological Protection Board, NRPB, has published research indicating that children in schools with phone masts on the roof are not being exposed to dangerous levels of radio waves. But …

Data Networking 30 Jun 2000, 13:41
Middle England protests over petrol rip-off

Rip-Off Britain: time to fight back

Everyone in the UK knew the government made a load of money from tax on petrol, but thanks to a well-run Boycott the Pumps (soon tabloidised into "Dump the Pump") campaign there are now few motorists that aren't aware Britain's petrol is the most expensive in Europe and that Gordon Brown's Treasury takes a whopping 75p for every …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 13:45
Intel spin paramedic refuses to comment on P4

Bit of a shame the info we wanted is already in the public domain, then

In our little collection of Pentium 4 pix here, we referred to the additional 12 volt connector on the motherboard labelled 'CPU power' and surmised that it was something to do with diagnostics on the prototype WTVV mobo. We asked Intel to confirm or deny that production P4 mobos would have this additional connector, but the …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 13:55
Pentium 4 mystery gizmos explained

Register readers come up trumps again

In our Pentium 4 picture special yesterday, we wondered aloud about what a collection of small devices attached to the bottom of the chip were. Michael suggests: "The gizmos on the bottom appear to be GTL+ 50 ohm terminators. "Basically all Intel Cpus post Pentium Pro have a bus unit based on an open standard for …

Channel 30 Jun 2000, 14:33
Drunks should fear RIP bill

Two years in the slammer for forgetting your PIN

Tony Blair's brilliant plan to give the police the power to fine drunks £100 on the spot could provide the opportunity to show off the majesty of the government's email snooping bill. If the pissed up punter hasn't got enough readies, the idea is that the cops will be entitled to escort them to the nearest cashpoint to withdraw …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 14:41
Alta Vista – It Lives!

Birth of British ISP a truly moving moment

AltaVista's flat-fee Net access service is now up and running, The Register is delighted to confirm. The service was due to go live at 10.30am this morning but the birth was delayed for some two-and-a-half hours. The cause of the delay is not known. Still, in the scheme of things, what's two-and-a-half-hours between friends …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 14:43
Tom puts Solano to the test

And other goodies reviewed by our favourite hardware sites

A trawl through the usual suspects reveals plenty of news from Computex and review blitz on the Voodoo5 board. Tom's Hardware Guide reports from the Computex 2000 exhibition in Taipei with a review of the new i815/Solano chipset from Intel, and gets in some extra digs in at Rambus along the way. In benchmark tests the new …

Hardware Roundup 30 Jun 2000, 15:09
HW roundup Off-Switch Bitch

Heroically pointless review from Anandtech

Anandtech has a roundup of network switches on the market. "The simple fact is, these products are all so close together that you might better pick one by which colour you like best or whether the ports are in the back or the front," is the conclusion offered by the site. So, the only winner is the consumer. Sharky reviews the …

Hardware Roundup 30 Jun 2000, 15:09
Doctor Spinola's PC Clinic

This week: The Microsoft breakup

Dear Dr Spinola, I am a small computer user and I'm very concerned at the breakup of Microsoft. What do you advise? Dr Spinola replies: You shouldn't be overly concerned. Many users are shorter than average and my usual advice is to sit on a cushion so you can reach the desk in comfort. Dear Dr Spinola, I too am a small …

Bootnotes 30 Jun 2000, 15:10
Ye cannae change the laws of physics, Jim

Dr Spinola boldly goes where no man has gone before – or does he?

The world of marketing was in a spin today as scientists disproved the first law of PR - that a cause, or even a press release, must come before an effect. For in discovering a way to make light travel 300 times faster, they have effectively invented a time machine. Boffins in Princeton, US, transmitted a pulse of light towards …

Bootnotes 30 Jun 2000, 15:10
Site's crap, disappointing, puzzling, inflammatory

And other Readers' Letters. Don't hold back, say what you mean

Readers' letters this week on digital toilet paper, slating Intel, hypocrisy over cybersquatting, Internet World Babe Watch, NTLWorld apology, Internet on the buses, scaled down, crappier version of Netimperative, and a joke about US law enforcement agencies And when you've stopped reading it... This site is the equivalent of …

Letters 30 Jun 2000, 15:12
Review Rambus Pentium III 933MHz

Updated It's new, it's fast, it's not cheap

Thanks to our lovely readers, we've now got some numbers allowing us to compare single and dual channel Rambus. SiSoft Sandra benchmarks show almost identical processor performance, but a significant 25 per cent memory performance improvement with the dual channel i840 chipset over the i820. The motherboard in question was an …

Hardware Roundup 30 Jun 2000, 15:13
New, improved Hardware Roundup

Wibbly wobbly web wander now includes Mac content

Storage looms large today, as StorageReview has a comprehensive ATAPI CD-ROM Roundup, while over at ArsTechnica there's an updated look at RAID. Not all Mac users are technical dumbasses, and a new site for those who know how to get the cover off their iMacs can be found here. Ben Stanfield tells us he's been pouring a lot of …

Hardware Roundup 30 Jun 2000, 15:13
Lucent is in league with the Devil

What's it got to do with us?

Last August, we wrote this story: Lucent logo captures company in 'single masterful brush stroke'. Today, we received this email. From: Jason Guenther Sent: 27 April 2000 01:02 Subject: logo Total bunk. The red circle represents the SUN in new age mysticism and freemasonry. it is the universal symbol of LUCIFER of which …

Flame of the Week 30 Jun 2000, 15:15
The Register discovers Jesus

We seek redemption... and find it

Repentance has arrived in the form of AskJesus.org. Through the power of the Lord, AskJesus (which is 'not endorsed or sponsored by or otherwise affiliated with Ask Jeeves' but does bear a canny resemblance to it) converts our black words of hatred into God-approved revelations. As if that weren't enough, heart-warming images …

Bootnotes 30 Jun 2000, 15:16
The Register guide to acronyms

Or how to misunderstand PC speak

Following the glossary that we recently published, we have been asked by many readers to also provide a guide to the thicket of acronyms that obscure the PC industry. So here it is. .9999999 Almost perfect but recurring and occurring a little too much. See also Q and HP. 1394 Mistaken date for the Battle of Hastings. See …

Bootnotes 30 Jun 2000, 15:31
PlayStation 2 available only by pre-ordering

Sony annoys retailers

Sony has wound up the games retail industry by announcing that the long-awaited PlayStation 2 consoles will only be sold through pre-ordering arrangements. Those wanting to get hold of the new console will, from 14 August, have to either fill in an order form at high street retailer or an online form presumably on Sony's …

Business 30 Jun 2000, 15:51
MS casts its ‘permatemps’ into outer darkness

Analysis Company refuses to back down before courts

From tomorrow, new rules will go into effect for thousands of "permatemps" currently employed at Fort Redmond. After working for a year, they will have to "leave" for a hundred days before being allowed to return as temps, often to do the same work. The policy has been applied to all new temporary hires since last March. It may …

Software 30 Jun 2000, 15:53
Wall Street gets sexy

Puts the fun back into Current Hedge Fund Index Returns

The pin-stripped backers behind a US Web site believe they have what it takes to satisfy the demands of Britain's growing population of Net users. WallStreetGals.com provides all the latest financial news and information hot from the Dow Jones and NASDAQ, and delivered by some of the sassiest female financial brains around. …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 16:01
Not free Internet access from OnDigital

But you can surf while watching a tiny TV picture

OnDigital, the digital TV service jointly owned by Granada and Carlton Communications, has now linked up with the BBC to work on its TV Internet service. The service will allow customers to flick over to the Internet, while the TV picture remains in the corner of the screen. This will be provided to OnDigital customers for an …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 16:23
Pommy police chase Down Under Net fraud

Long arm of the law yet to feel collar

Officers from West Midlands Police are in Australia investigating a A$17 million (£6.7 million) Internet-related fraud. Details are still sketchy but it's understood that those involved used the Net to divert cash from Australian companies before transferring it to different overseas accounts. The fraudsters then posed as …

Media 30 Jun 2000, 17:18
Readers' Letters The errors edition

It's official: Reg hacks are either ill, drunk or wrong

[There's been a lot of correspondence this week, some down to struck nerves, others the usual insanity. Here's a digest of just a few that make us laugh/cry] One always gets through the net Spin, spin, spin !! Aren't you getting dizzy yet? Rambus too expensive - Intel .... duh !! You look like a deformed version of Hugh Grant …

Letters 30 Jun 2000, 17:34
H-1B Visa flames of the week

The Register peddles 'pro management propaganda'

Sweat shop conditions Dear Ms. Annie Kermath Your story "Silicon Valley techs play the race card" is good as far as it goes, but misses the crucial point, that H1 visas exploit the immigrants as well as other workers, and risk great long-term harm to this country in order to support the narrow short-term goals of employers. …

Letters 30 Jun 2000, 22:12
I bind and rebuke demons

Reader takes exception to Reg email address

Last week, we sent out a flyer, our second in two years, to the 14,000 or so subscribers of our daily email news update. This was by way of an experiment - email ads are a useful income generator, but, at the same time, we really don't want to piss off our readers. Judging from the unsubscribes, we had about 20 complaints, all …

Flame of the Week 30 Jun 2000, 22:25