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18th July 2000 Archive

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  • InterX sells Ideal Hardware for £18m

    Abandons Pharmweb deal for 'leveraged investment'

    Timing is everything, as today's disposal of Ideal Hardware, a leading UK IT distie shows. Owner InterX is flogging its once core business to Bell Microproducts for the princely sum of £18 million cash, £5 million of which is deferred until March 2001. And £2.7 million of that will end up straight in the maw of Inland Revenue, …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 07:20

  • Be appliances go wireless walkabout

    Wireless trinkets for world+dog

    Be has put some flesh on its intention to turn its BeIA platform into a credible mobile appliance OS. The company has struck a deal to support Metricom's upgraded high speed Ricochet network. Metricom has been in the wireless data business for five years, offering wireless data to users in the Bay Area, Seattle and Washington …

    Software 18 Jul 2000, 07:20

  • ARM profits are Absolutely Fabless

    Same old, same old

    ARM Holdings, the absolutely fab fabless chip company, has pulled some soaring growth and profit figures yet again out of the bag. First half sales were up 62 per cent to £44.5 million (1999: £27.5 million), and PBT was up 135 per cent to £16.5 million (1999: £7 million) For Q2, ending 30 June 2000 sales were up 60 per cent to …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 07:40

  • Rot your teeth with cashless auctions

    Coca-Cola teams up with QXL

    It's a problem that has exercised many - how to prize pocket money from non-credit card-owning teenagers. QXL has come up with an ingenious solution - get Coca- Cola to splash out instead. Coca-Cola is to provide a new cashless currency "Coke Credits", accumulated by collecting ringpull or special labels from 500ml bottles. …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 07:43

  • MSN Empire hits 201m users

    Keep buying more Web operations, and guess what happens?

    Microsoft says that the "MSN network of Internet services" has become the "No 1 worldwide Internet destination for consumers", with 201 million unique users visiting during June. This data quite probably comes from Media Metrix, since in the same paragraph Microsoft goes on to say that in the (11-month) period from July 1999 to …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 07:43

  • Intel slams door on mobo support

    I did not have sex with the CC820

    Chip giant Intel appears to have now solved every problem with all of its motherboards for Pentium III and Pentium II processors. Either that, or it's got sick of whingeing users who never shut up about geeky problems they may or may not have. A message on Intel's Web site, which can be found here, makes the situation clear …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 07:56

  • AMD's Corvette a funky little goer

    Mobile chip will be greased lightning

    Roadmaps from AMD that The Register saw last week, and which indicate that the firm will hit 1GHz on the mobile front early next year with its Corvette chips, also show the firm is working on PowerNow II. [Surely that should be PowerThen I? - Ed.] The second generation of PowerNow, formerly codenamed Gemini, will allow software …

    Channel 18 Jul 2000, 08:26

  • Microsoft nearly more famous than Coca-Cola

    There's another outfit that won't open source the recipe...

    A long time ago Apple's two Steves, Jobs and Wozniak, asked John Sculley if he wanted to sell fizzy flavoured water for the rest of his life (or words to that effect). Sculley reflected on this, and jumped ship from Pepsi to Apple. His subsequent career may have been chequered, but the latest Interbrand data suggests it was the …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 08:48

  • Windows Media Player 7 goes gold, browser wars II to follow

    Integration, excellence, distribution - heard this somewhere before?

    The battle for supremacy in the media player field has taken a familiar turn with the release of the production version of Microsoft's Windows Media Player 7. It's slick, it's sexy and it's a part of "an open, easy-to-use and extensible platform ready for the broadband Internet," Windows Media Technologies 7. Effectively, …

    Software 18 Jul 2000, 09:38

  • Gateway fixes one gig AMD probbo

    The answer lay in the motherboard

    The glitch that prevented PC manufacturer Gateway from shipping 1GHz Thunderbird Athlon chips has now been fixed, according to US reports. The problem, which AMD always maintained was nothing to do with their process problem, affected the firm around three weeks ago. But, according to Electronic Buyers' News, the fault was in …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 09:57

  • Intel CuMine drought nearly over

    It's not the end, or even the beginning of the end...

    Sources not a light year away from Tech Data, a large US component distributor, tell The Reg that Intel's long-standing problem with supplying Coppermine Pentium IIIs for the desktop appears to be nearly over. Large quantities are available for most of the price ratings of the Pentium III apart from the 1GHz microprocessor, …

    Channel 18 Jul 2000, 10:15

  • Phone frenzy is jacking up CD-RW prices

    Chip shortages and poor forecasting do their bit

    The half of the population who own mobile phones may have inadvertently pushed up the price of CD-RW drives. It seems that a shortage of the drives - particularly the slimline versions designed for laptops - can be attributed to a deficit of RF amplifiers (chips which boost radio signals). This is also used in handheld …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 10:19

  • Virgin delays unmetered Net access promise

    Doesn't want to do a LineOne

    Virgin Net has delayed the full rollout of its flat-fee unmetered Net access service until September at the earliest because it doesn't want to make the same embarrassing U-turn as LineOne. The ISP announced its intention to offer 'all-you-can-eat' Net access for £15 a month back in April and recruited 10,000 people to take …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 10:52

  • ATI's Radeon makes the GeForce 2GTS look limp

    Dr Tom thinks so anyway

    Dr Tom has reviewed the Radeon graphics card from ATI. This review is so glowing that friends of The Reg are considering forking out for one. The card apparently comes with a list of features that make the Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS look poorly endowed. Impressed? Tom is. For the record, Anand didn't think it was too bad either. Read …

    Hardware Roundup 18 Jul 2000, 11:04

  • Intel files suit against Intelnet

    Paranoid firm fingers fingerprint firm

    The Intel Corporation has filed a trademark legal suit against Intelnet, Inc., a firm which specialises in er... intelligent networks and fingerprint verification. The firm, whose Web site is www.intelgate.com, appears provides one-to-one fingerprint matching for law enforcement agencies across the world. The legal case was …

    Channel 18 Jul 2000, 11:14

  • Netscape complainant speaks to The Reg

    What does he think his chances are? Have a look

    Following our initial coverage of the Netscape SmartDownload court case, we received a peeved email from the complainant Christopher Specht taking exception to our approach. Christopher is an "evidential photographer", which means he takes photographs of contentious scenes which are then produced in court as evidence. Unsure at …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 11:18

  • Freeserve shares yo-yo

    Up and down like a bride's nightie

    Freeserve has led the way in a revival of technology shares. Of course its all down to the takeover deal by Deutsche Telekom's T-Online being back on the cards. The ISP's share price climbed 49p to 381p, putting it at the top of the FTSE 100 Indexperformance chart. Dixons also fared well, as the market saw the majority holder in …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 11:45

  • How to be stupid by mutual agreement

    Security issues? Oh yeah, we've heard of them

    A reader was somewhat surprised by his ISP's apparent disregard for security when he received an email requesting his username and password. The request came as part of an update email from themutual.net, telling him what news features had been added, what its "partners" could offer them and why themutual.net was the only ISP …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 12:32

  • Lab rats do it for cash

    Further proof that the Net is full of weirdos, no?

    A lesbian ex-nun has become the hot favourite to win £70,000 in the latest fly-on-the-wall social experiment to hit the Net. Anna Nolan, 29, is one of ten strangers who has been locked in a house complete with 25 cameras and dozens of microphones so that Net voyeurs can satisfy their craving for warts-and-all people gazing. …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 12:35

  • Cracker education site folds on DMCA threat

    Fair Use provision too shaky to stand on

    The threat of legal action can be an effective, preemptive weapon in the ever-shifting front lines of copyright law, as the well-known (and now former) cracker-education Web site Icefortress.com has recently learned. The ICE crew have decided to pack up their operation rather than defend a lengthy court battle threatened by on- …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 12:38

  • NASA hacker ‘rolex’ nabbed

    One down, 17,300 to go....

    The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), long the trifling sport of painfully unskilled hackers, has now got a feather almost in its cap. Suburban New-Yorker Raymond Torricelli was arrested Wednesday on charges that he broke into two computer systems owned by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 14:49

  • Missing White House emails in recovery

    Geeks to the rescue

    Technicians have begun retrieving the first of thousands of 'lost' email messages considered the Holy Grail in a civil lawsuit brought against the Clinton Administration by conservative witch-hunt outfit Judicial Watch. "Copying is now under way," US Army Chief Warrant Officer Terrence Misich said in Federal court on Friday. …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 14:49

  • Police agency calls for Web café ID checks

    Can't you can buy fake ID off the Net?

    NCIS, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, is calling for Internet cafés to check and record the ID of all customers. The proposal comes in the wake of Soho nailbomber David Copeland downloading instructions on bomb making from Web cafés. NCIS says it's not a formal proposal - they are merely suggesting it and would …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 14:49

  • US Navy carrier to adopt Win2k infrastructure

    And Bill Gates has a stake in the shipyard - is this integration or what?

    We could have put it better, ourselves. Microsoft's Federal Systems unit has apparently "joined" Lockheed Martin's Integrated Warfare Systems Team. So far the alliance hasn't said anything about its plans for landscaping Washington DC, but there is an aircraft carrier involved. And at this point, it all becomes wonderfully …

    Software 18 Jul 2000, 14:50

  • Hackers: The millennial scapegoats?

    This time they're to blame for Cabinet leaks

    The leak of a confidential memo outlining PM Tony Blair's concerns that New Labour is out of touch with the electorate appears to have been pinned on hackers. The leak came as an embarrassment to the government, especially considering recent criticism of its policies. After the memo came to light, papers were quick to point out …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 15:26

  • Excite tunes in to chello

    It's broadband, but much bigger

    Excite@Home and chello have confirmed that the two companies are to create a new business in a bid to grab a large chunk of the emerging broadband market outside the US. The US broadband company confirmed today that its international operations would merge with the Dutch broadband outfit to create a new company - Excite Chello …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 15:27

  • Mad Maxtor makes 80GB hard drive

    These platters don't get smoke in your eyes

    Maxtor has stacked four 20GB platters in one drive to produce what it claims is an industry first - an 80GB hard drive for the desktop. The new drive is part of the DiamondMax range, and runs at 5400rpm, allowing data transfer rates of 100MBps. Maxtor says that the drive will be ideal for applications that need high capacity …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 15:35

  • Who wants to be an E-millionaire?

    Well, these two do...

    The E-Millionaire show. We have to confess we lost our momentum on the coverage of this one. However, we can bring you confirmation of the winners. Both were very worthy sites - whether they were worthy winners or not, only time will tell. In the end, the panel decided to split the prize money equally between two entrants. …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 15:57

  • Brits get e-hallmark

    We're still a nation of shopkeepers

    A government-backed scheme designed to protect online shoppers was launched today amid protests from etailers that it will do little to protect consumers. TrustUK was thrust on an unassuming British public by Patricia Hewitt, the Minister of State at the DTI. The venture aims to create a hallmark that traders will stick on …

    Media 18 Jul 2000, 16:31

  • US eases crypto exports to EU

    No big deal - we're buying elsewhere anyway

    The US has eased its rules on exporting encryption products to the EU and other selected countries. This is because businesses in these countries have been happily buying their strong encryption elsewhere - from Baltimore Technologies in Ireland - and US crypto houses are losing out. It is nice to see a US government climb …

    Software 18 Jul 2000, 16:34

  • 3G gets even more expensive

    The mobile bottomless pit now a little deeper

    It's an expensive business at the best of times but the most recent IT trends have faced a double-edged sword - the government wants a slice of the money (upfront, of course) and consumers don't want to pay any money for it. Market share is everything these days and investment recouping periods are getting longer and longer. …

    Data Networking 18 Jul 2000, 17:33

  • STMicro sees profits soar on mobile phone frenzy

    Pumps it up to $336 million for Q2

    Chipmaker STMicroelectronics saw net income more than double for the second quarter thanks to demand for mobile phones. Profit for the period rose to $336 million for the three months ended 1 July 2000, from $122 million for Q2 the previous year. This brought profit for the first six months of the year to $575 million, …

    Business 18 Jul 2000, 18:34

  • Rambus is wonderful, says VIA

    San Jose 'but a bit of a shame no one can make it work'

    Eric Chang, VIA's director of product marketing, raised a few eyebrows when he described Rambus as a "wonderful technology", before hurriedly going on to qualify his remark by pointing out that it was so damn difficult to actually make it work that most manufacturers had simply given up the struggle and gone down the DDR route …

    Channel 18 Jul 2000, 23:56

  • VIA ‘to be number one chipset vendor by year end’

    San Jose Will also have one chipset to support both Pentium 4 and Foster

    In the first half of next year, VIA will have an IA-32 chipset capable of supporting both Pentium 4 (Willamette) and Foster, Eric Chang, director of product marketing, claimed today. Speaking at the Platform 2000 conference in San Jose, Chang explained that although VIA didn't currently have a licence for future IA32 …

    Channel 18 Jul 2000, 23:56