The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

11th August 2000 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Linux and notebooks boost Dell revenue

    Rack-mount Penguins driving the business now, says vice chairman.

    Dell credited Linux servers and notebook sales for fuelling its revenue growth last quarter. However the OEM posted earnings $200m lower than expected, blaming lower demand in Europe and weaker Government sales. The results show increases in revenue and earnings of 25 per cent and 5 per cent respectively for the quarter ending …

    Software 11 Aug 2000, 00:55

  • Adabra disappears in puff of VC smoke

    Backers back off

    Adabra, a Letsbuyit clone but much smaller, has fallen into the e-byss with debts of £ 800,000. Liquidator Kroll Buchler Phillips is handling the liquidation and has already sold the assets of the business to French-based Dealpartners for £220,000. Founded in October last year, Adabra's goose was cooked by April, when expected …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 07:21

  • Look-and-feel wars return as Adobe sues Macromedia

    Hands off our tabbed palettes

    Adobe is suing Macromedia over the use of user interface elements it claims are covered by a patent Adobe filed in 1994. The suit, filed with the District Court of Delaware, alleges that Macromedia uses of "tabbed palettes" infringes this patent. In a statement, Adobe president Bruce Chizen said "Adobe will not be the R&D …

    Mac Channel 11 Aug 2000, 07:22

  • Dell lives in Intel parallel cosmos

    Distie model prevents domino pizazz

    Spooky parallels between the Intel and Dell business models underline the quarterly results the Texan firm delivered to Wall Street late yesterday (See Linux and notebooks boost Dell revenue). But the press release issued by the Dell Corp spoke volumes, or, should we say limited volumes, about its share in the desktop PC market …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 07:23

  • III sales flat as a pancake

    But losses fall

    Interactive Investor International (III) is the UK's most popular financial news portal people, but quite not as popular as it used to be. The company saw Q3 page impressions ease to 42.2 million from 43.4 million the previous quarter. The company blames the lack of new issues for keeping away the day traders and other e-greedy …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 07:55

  • IDC pricks SCO-Caldera bubble

    Expresses 'strong sense of disquiet'

    IDC has delivered a wary response to the acquisition by Caldera of the Santa Cruz Operation's UnixWare and its accompanying services division. We've only got some excerpts of the IDCFlash, entitled Caldera Acquires Parts of SCO - Does it Make Sense?. But in a fine piece of reporting Linuxgram got hold of some more and, from …

    Software 11 Aug 2000, 08:01

  • Pentium 4 to hit 2GHz next year

    And Willamette-479 drops a pin

    An update to the Intel desktop roadmap seen by Bert McComas, senior analyst at InQuest, has revealed how seriously the firm is viewing increased competition from both AMD and Via. According to McComas, who will shortly publish an overview of his conclusions on his Web site, the Pentium 4, a 0.18 micron IA-32 based …

    Channel 11 Aug 2000, 08:57

  • Sony to launch Net-based video channel

    Mega Channel dry run for PlayStation 2 digital content services

    Sony will launch an Internet-based video service in October, in what's essentially a trial run of the kind of broadband digital content delivery services it's planning to put in place next year. The Japanese service, called Mega Channel, will provide streamed video from 30 companies, from magazine publishers to financial …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 09:01

  • AMD fans currently a nightmare

    Athlon and Duron powers

    Here at The Register, we know AMD fans are a nightmare. If any story appears on our site which in any tiny way whatever suggests anything negative about the Great Satan of Taperecorders, our email box rapidly fills up with injured emissives telling us what a great company it is. But this time we're not talking about AMD fans, …

    Channel 11 Aug 2000, 10:07

  • AOL pulls musical search engine

    It can't tell the good from the bad

    AOL has pulled its digital music search engine, as it cannot reliably distinguish between legal and illegal MP3s, the company said. The recording industry has described the MP3 format as a vehicle for piracy, and has recently brought a new vigour to its efforts to stop the illegal distribution of music. Also, not long ago AOL …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 10:35

  • Ricardo share price bombed by QXL jitters

    'Nothing illegal, illicit or fraudulent', says QXL

    Online auction house Ricardo.de's share price was still suffering this morning amid doubts over its planned buyout by QXL.com. The German company's shares slid 16 per cent to E32.6 on the Neuer Mart yesterday after QXL issued a statement saying it had received "certain information" from Ricardo since the deal was announced in …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 10:41

  • Net speak makes Oxford English Dictionary

    Don't get your chuddies in a twist, it's a living, breathing language

    The new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary includes 62 new words representing the changes in our culture in the last year. And, appropriately, many of them are to do with the Internet. That's why you'll find obvious ones such as e-commerce, cybersquatting and dot-com among the other fine words of the English language ( …

    Bootnotes 11 Aug 2000, 10:44

  • Woolworths join Net dunce brigade

    It really doesn't know what it's doing

    UK retailer Woolworths has joined the illustrious list of companies unable to deal with the Internet. It was the old tale - people being able to read customers credit card details and telephone numbers. Displaying the same ignorance of Internet security as Barclays and PowerGen was one thing, but Woolworths has gone one better …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 11:58

  • Lucent and Chartered in 5-year development deal

    $700 million to spend on future of integrated circuits

    Lucent and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing have signed a five-year, $700 million investment deal to develop future generations of integrated circuits for the communications industry. As part of the deal, the companies will staff a new R&D facility in Singapore. This site will work with Bell Labs teams in Florida and …

    Channel 11 Aug 2000, 12:20

  • Amazon gets big in toy warehousing

    Its online future is distribution

    Amazon has announced a 10-year deal with Toys R Us in which it will market toys and baby goods. Amazon has rarely done any deals with companies that aren't Net-based and analysts reckon the deal demonstrates that both companies are finding the online toy market hard-going. Amazon will run the website, order fulfilment and …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 12:24

  • MS and anti-trust: now it's India's turn

    Update Or not, as the case may be

    India has joined in the Microsoft anti-trust trialfest, with the country's regulator accusing the software giant of unfair trade practices. At issue appears to be Microsoft's habit of concluding licence agreements through the American parent company, rather than through its Indian subsidiary. Confused? So are we - that seems …

    Software 11 Aug 2000, 12:39

  • Get paid to search the Web

    This means free stuff, just very slowly

    Espotting.com is launching a search engine that will pay users each time they make a search through its database. The company claims that it is the first such engine in Europe. Advertisers will pay for placement, much like the Yellow Pages, then each surfer making a search will have a small amount of money credited to their …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 13:16

  • BT launches cable offensive

    We put undercover operative on its trail

    When we heard that a drilling company in Uxbridge, West London had managed to slice through a hefty fibre-optic hub belonging to BT, there was only one solution. We don't use him often and his identity is known only to a select few (MI6 included). We refer to him simply as Our Man in Uxbridge. Having made contact through our …

    Bootnotes 11 Aug 2000, 14:14

  • Angry

    Make yourselves a cup of tea and put you feet up

    [We get a lot of anger here. Some would say it is an anonymous person's way of getting over their own inadequacy. But we think the lid's just been screwed on too tight] My Big-Brother workplace is telling me today's Register is... WEBsweeper Notice Page blocked - content unsuitable. Um? Could you pretty please tone down …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 15:22

  • Taxan to start building PCs

    Mesh man Kinsler to run UK

    Monitor maker Taxan is planning to set up shop as a PC manufacturer in the UK. The Japanese giant has poached Paul Kinsler, former general manager at Mesh Computers, to head up the operation, The Register has learned. Taxan currently runs a sales, marketing and support office in Bracknell, Berkshire. Kinsler, who left London- …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 15:26

  • HP to declare Linux ‘strategic’ – again

    Once more, please, this time with feeling...

    Hewlett-Packard will next week grant Linux status as one of the company's "strategic operating systems", according to a Reuters report. To be honest, we thought HP had already placed the open source operating system alongside Windows NT and HP/UX, something it did last year, round about the time that IBM did much the same - but …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 15:32

  • HW Roundup Dr Tom kicks off a budget board battle

    Find out if the SiS630, i810E or Aladdin 7 is best in a ruck

    GeForce2 MX gets the OC Workbench treatment here. Now, while the performance is nothing to get over excited about, it was never going to be, and for what it is, OC Workbench says it is very good. So sit back, and have a thorough read. There is a sneak preview of the new board from EPoX over at VR Zone. Apparently this has all …

    Hardware Roundup 11 Aug 2000, 15:34

  • Flame of the Week Register is dull!

    And glib and arrogant and crap and racist and misinformed

    [This one is coming right back at your humble Letters Ed when he wrote a humorous piece about the Chinese government shutting down a dissident Web site. Not everyone thought it was funny.] Your short article cited above was glib, arrogant, and provides little factual information. I am not at all in favour of censorship, nor of …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 16:15

  • Confused

    Don't drag us into your peculiar world

    [Sometimes these are scarier that the flames] Firefly reckons it's the number one PR firm Loved your piece on the Firefly 'success'. I'm a bit bemused as to what they complained about though - they surely couldn't be objecting to the fact that they're employing blonde PR bunnies cos they do. Or pour drinks down hacks' throats …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 16:22

  • Sexed-up

    It's only take one little pic and the saliva starts

    [We explained to you all that since we had ordered so much new merchandising stock that we ruined our cash flow. If none of you bought any of it, we realised we'd have to throw Lucy out on her ear. We got a photo of her as she was told the news. Far from being sympathetic to the soon-to-be-broke Lucy though, the mere sight of a …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 16:29

  • CBI to press for longer RIP discussion

    Deadline is just two weeks away

    The Confederation of British Industry is to leap to the defence of UK Internet users. In a letter to today's FT, the director general of the CBI Digby Jones states his organisation's grievances over the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act. Jones intends to pen a letter to the Department of Trade and Industry to " …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 16:55

  • Quizzical

    So you question us, eh? Oh, and this is where the techy stuff is

    Reg exposes Amazon's poor security Amazon leaves authors open to abuse Guys, there is nothing new here. What is it that you think you're revealing incredible news that you can pose as an author on Amazon? Of course you can, as you have been able to since the beginning. Amazon has no way to keep track of the thousands of …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 17:03

  • Judge wants France ring fenced from Nazi auctions

    Calls in the experts

    A French judge has ordered Web experts to find out how to stop French surfers from accessing Nazi memorabilia sales on Yahoo! sites. A French anti-rascist groups are suing Yahoo! over what it calls illegal auctions of Nazi paraphernalia. According to Reuters Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez has set a date of 6 November for a new …

    Media 11 Aug 2000, 17:08

  • Readers' Letters: Emotional

    Crazy, fangled artistic way of representing letters from you lot

    We thought we'd have a change in approach this week. And so rather than gathering letters on a particular, we felt we'd be touchy-feely and list them under emotions (man). We could justify this is a pretentious arty-farty kinda way but then we'd only get so sickened we'd have to scrap it. And we've already pieced the whole …

    Letters 11 Aug 2000, 17:25

  • Redundancies at Datrontech

    Morgan shifts to Data Connectivity

    More doom and gloom for Datrontech Group this week as it laid off 15 staff. Most of the job losses came in the components and storage divisions. Three sales and marketing staff and one purchaser were made redundant at Datrontech UK. Other job losses included two sales and marketing staff at Summit Peripherals, two IT support …

    Business 11 Aug 2000, 17:29

  • UK Linux group slams Sophos virus threat claims

    Updated Anti-virus company is spouting FUD, says NetProject

    Anti-virus software developer Sophos has been accused of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt over the safety of Linux systems by UK pro-open source organisation NetProject. Sophos wrote to UK newspaper Computer Weekly t'other week to claim that viruses targeting Linux already exist. Not so, responded NetProject director …

    Software 11 Aug 2000, 17:32