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14th August 2000 Archive

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  • MS dumping Win95 support in next version of Office?

    Not the old version checker gag, surely...

    Microsoft is casting Windows 95 users adrift with the next version of its Office suite, according to some small print spotted by WinInfo. The release notes for Beta 1 of Office 10 specifically state that the software "will not function on Windows 3.x, Windows NT 3.5x, or Windows 95." Exactly why it won't function is of course …

    Software 14 Aug 2000, 05:03

  • 3i takes III to court over domain name

    Hey, that belongs to us

    3i, the UK's biggest venture capital firm, has issued a writ against Interactive Investor International, demanding the finance site ditches its iii logo and the iii.co.uk Web address, Sunday Business reports. In a statement filed with the High Court, 3i claims III has infringed its trademark through the use of its iii logo. …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 07:36

  • Rambus sues Infineon

    It's like a diamond lane for your lawyer

    Infineon, the spun-off division of Siemens which makes and sells memory, has had a missive from lawyers at Rambus Ink, alleging infringement of patents the Mountain View firm claims it owns on double data rate (DDR) memory, synchronous memory, and memory controllers. Infineon said today it will defend the claims vigorously. …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 07:56

  • Safeway hacked in email raid

    Take your shopping to Tesco

    Safeway, the British supermarket chain, had its email server cracked on Friday. More than 1,000 customers complained to the company by telephone after receiving a "rude email", apparently sent from info@safeway.co.uk, informing them of a 25 per cent price increase. And if they didn't like that, then they should "piss off to …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 08:45

  • Sun puts dollars and suits behind GNOME

    Exclusive Come into my Office Suite, said the spider to the fly

    Sun sources tell us that it will unveil its "GNOME Foundation" initiative at the San Jose LinuxWorld expo this week. From what we gather, this will be a formal organisation, initially co-sponsored by Sun, with the intention of broadening the appeal of desktop environment to proprietary Unixes. But that's not all. The Foundation …

    Software 14 Aug 2000, 08:52

  • Domain name registration more popular than car theft

    Probably always was with the car owners

    150,000 new .co.uk domain names are registered every month, or three domains registered every minute, says UK naming outfit Nominet. That makes registering domain names more popular than stealing cars in the UK - during 1999 an average of two cars were blagged every minute. So watch out for www.hotwire.co.uk and www.twoc.co.uk …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 09:21

  • Johnny Vaughan plans DIY Web site

    Sheds 'n things from the Big Breakfast star

    Big Breakfast star Johnny Vaughan is planning to set up a DIY site. The Channel 4 presenter has registered globalshed.com and globalshed.co.uk through World's End Productions - the London company that he co-owns. According to Register sources, Vaughan is planning a site for DIY enthusiasts. Worlds End Productions was unable …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 10:04

  • Jobs trying to block my book alleges author

    Apple CEO out to gag unauthorised biography, apparently

    Steve Jobs may have joined the ranks of Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson, Robert Maxwell and other captains of industry who have tried to gag - or been accused of trying to gag - authors attempting to write their unauthorised biographies. According to MacCentral, Alan Deutschman, writer of the as yet unpublished The Second …

    Mac Channel 14 Aug 2000, 10:20

  • There is such a thing as a free PC

    But would you want it?

    Last year there was much talk about ISPs giving low-end PCs away with a monthly subscription to their service. However, unlike the Americans, we Brits hadn't really been used to paying a monthly subscription for our phone calls, and the idea never really took off. At the end of last month the US Federal Trade Commission issued …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 10:21

  • M$ LINX vote delayed

    Even the tenterhooks are on edge

    Microsoft will have to wait another 36 hours before finding out whether its application to join the influential London Internet Exchange (LINX) has been successful or not. A decision about M$' application was due to be announced on Friday. However, a last-minute request for information delayed the decision. The decision will …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 10:24

  • Sony signs Transmeta

    Updated Crusoe to power upcoming Vaio, thanks to outsourced production deal

    Sony could be Transmeta's next high-profile customer, if a company source is to be believed. According to said deep throat, Sony is lining up Transmeta's notebook-oriented Crusoe CPU for a new Viao C1 sub-notebook aimed initially at the Japanese market - it'll ship this autumn, apparently - but possibly making it to the US and …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 11:01

  • Dixons couples with Gameplay and renames @jakarta stores

    Freeserve gets games channel

    Dixons has slithered into bed with Gameplay.com to revamp its computer games business. The retail giant will be able to grab almost a quarter of Gameplay through the deal, which will see it merge its @jakarta games retail business with Gameplay. The current seven @jakarta shops will be renamed Gameplay and owned by a joint …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 11:19

  • Dell to demo Linux on Itanium

    Texans to push open source OS as high end database system

    Dell will demo an Intel Itanium-based server running Linux at LinuxWorld Expo later today, according to company sources cited by Infoworld. In line with the 64-bit Itanic's focus on enterprise database applications, Dell's demo, which will apparently feature Red Hat's Itanium implementation of its own Linux distribution, will …

    Software 14 Aug 2000, 11:34

  • Lastminute.com slurred by Church

    It needs to make a leap of faith

    Heaven's above. Thanks to a vulture-eyed reader for this snap taken at weekend at St Mary's Church in Poole, Dorset. Well, it made us chuckle. ®

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 11:35

  • AMD fans fans' flames

    Updated Fans for the memory, Slot A...

    The lack of thermals - no, not Damart thermals* - in AMD boxed Athlon processors has drawn a flurry of emails from our beloved readers eager to put us right, put us wrong, or just put us down. And meanwhile AMD has confirmed price cuts are on Socket A, and not Slot A parts, which will vanish completely during the rest of this …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 11:42

  • Reuters slashes 1000 jobs to focus on Net

    QXL concerned about Ricardo's b2b set up

    Reuters is to slash over 1000 jobs as part of its drive to refocus the company on the Net. A spokesman for the company said that the changes would involve a relocation of resources, and could include new hires as well as job cuts. The company has also formed a series of internal divisions that it plans to float off separately …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 11:49

  • HW Roundup Dr Tom goes Linux crazy with Nvidia 3D cards

    And the cream of mousemats

    The man himself, Dr Thomas Pabst, has reviewed the Nvidia drivers for Linux 3D. He compares performance under Linux with Windows 98, testing five different Nvidia cards on six platforms. This is his first review dedicated to Linux, so check it out. The boys over a Hexus are all of a flutter over some Intel news that was …

    Hardware Roundup 14 Aug 2000, 12:03

  • Tecmar surrenders on Ditto drives

    Win2k drivers tougher than tough?

    Back in March we revealed that Tecmar had a little bit of difficulty writing Win2k drivers for its Ditto drives, but now it has solved the problem once and for all. It has canned the Ditto drives, according to this statement. This has angered the reader who originally alerted us to a backward compatibility problem, and makes …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 12:05

  • BT denies data centre investment climb-down

    So there

    BT has dismissed claims it is to scrap a £1.2 billion plan to set up a network of Internet data centres. Today's FT claims the decision was made by BT CE Sir Peter Bonfield and a committee of execs worried that the telco's share price would be hit by the investment. But a spokeswoman for BT said the story was "unsubstantiated …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 12:28

  • Bitboys' 3D superchip schedule slips again?

    Appears to have shifted from early 2001 to second half of the year

    Finnish 3D graphics company Bitboys appears to have shuffled back its release schedule - again. Details of its wonderchip - originally called Glaze3D, though that name was later dropped for trademark infringement reasons, even though the company's still using it on its Web site - were due to be unveiled last March. The deadline …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 12:32

  • Orange goes high-speed wireless

    Laptops at 28.8Kbps, phones in October

    Orange has launched the high-speed data transmission system it promised last month. According to senior product manager Adrian Dobbs: "By next Monday, every shop will have it." What is it? Currently it's a PC card (PCMCIA; based on GSM). Shove it in your laptop and you'll get 28.8Kbps up and down, no cables, no modems, no …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 13:34

  • Nvidia releases third Detonator driver

    Offers up to 50 per cent performance boost, company claims

    Nvidia has posted its latest version of its multi-product Detonator driver on its Web site. Detonator 3 "significantly boosting the performance and quality", Nvidia claims, primarily by increasing DirectX 7 and OpenGL game framerates by up to 50 per cent. In addition, the driver has been optimised for the Pentium 4 and Intel's …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 14:09

  • Big corporates ‘pained’ by Win2K rollouts

    But it's worth it in the long run

    A report from Giga Information Group claims that large corporates are taking six to nine months longer than anticipated to move to Windows 2000. A poll of around 100 major customers showed that two thirds of corporations will hold off from deploying W2K until 2001. The report states: "Ask IS managers and executives for the …

    Software 14 Aug 2000, 14:28

  • Are 1GHz PCs just penis extensions?

    What does the size of your hard drive say about your joystick?

    If you are wondering whether you have found Mr Right, rather than looking in his garage for a Ferrari or, heaven forbid, actually spending time with him, you should check out his hardware according to possibly the most ridiculous survey we have ever heard of. "These days a PC can give as many clues about a person's personality …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 14:38

  • Israel and England are one and the same

    Internet ties inefficient world together

    We've run a few stories recently about the varying Net experiences found in the rest of the world (to our American readers, that's to the right and below the UK). And so, scouting about, we found an interesting article on Wired.com about the state of the Israeli telecommunications industry. Apparently, the fastest Internet …

    Data Networking 14 Aug 2000, 14:40

  • Big Brother to finally get online voting

    But keep Nick in there

    Big Brother has dared to set a date for when its online voting system will be up and running. It is hoped the facility will be launched next Tuesday (22 August) according to Big Brother bosses - more than six weeks after the fly-on-the wall extravaganza first went online. The date will coincide with the next round of eviction …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 14:48

  • Red Hat secures Stronghold with C2Net buy

    Beefs up enterprise services

    Red Hat is sprucing up its portfolio of enterprise services with the acquisition of C2Net, the privately owned developer of Stronghold, a secure server based on the Apache platform. C2Net brings some punters to the Red Hat party -Amazon.com, Ameritrade, IBM and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Online are cited as customers in the …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 14:51

  • Nvidia unveils GeForce 2 Ultra

    Spec. reads like a 250MHz GeForce 2 GTS

    Nvidia today unveiled the latest generation of its GeForce graphics accelerator, the GeForce 2 Ultra. The Ultra sounds rather like a GeForce 2 GTS that's been simply clocked up to 250MHz (the GTS operates at 200MHz), providing a round 25 per cent increase on pixel and texel fill rates, to yield 1000 megapixels per second and …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 15:18

  • Compaq runs out of iPaqs

    But it will have more soon

    Handheld PC's are in such demand that manufacturers are having trouble keeping up. The crisis is such that second hand versions of handheld's from Casio, Compaq and HP have reportedly been changing hands on e-Bay for as much as £200 above the retail price. This comes in the same week as the company launches a new drive to …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 15:34

  • AltaVista: the silence continues

    Stand-off enters second week

    The scandal of silence currently being mimed by British ISP AltaVista is set to continue until next week despite assurances that someone from the e-outfit would finally explain what the heck is going on. . Andy Mitchell, MD, of AltaVista in Britain and Ireland, is still away on his hols in the US and won't be back again until …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 15:39

  • Intel buys Ziatech for $240 million

    Slowly, slowly catchee monkey

    The Intel Corporation said it had hoovered up Ziatech, a telecomms kit company, for nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. The privately held company manufacturers telecomms products, including circuit boards, for network and telephony infrastructure, and is the second such acquisition Intel has made in only five days. The …

    Media 14 Aug 2000, 15:44

  • Levi's and Philips create wired up clothing

    Be first to wear the phoned up MP3 anorak

    Wearable technology is getting all "mainstream" with the announcement of a partnership called Levi's ICD+ between Levi's, of 501 jeans fame, and electronics giant Philips. Philips has been working on a wearable technology product line for a number of years but this project with Levi's is the first realisation of its plans. …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 16:26

  • Oh no! Here comes Captain Cyborg again

    Updated Kevin Warwick - a book to plug and more nonsense to tell us

    Just when you thought it was safe, out comes cybernetics crazyman Kevin Warwick with another book and another study that will prove to be an absolute load of twaddle but will get some useful newspaper inches in the meantime. We despair. Kevin, for those of you fortunate enough not to know, is Professor of Cybernetics at Reading …

    Business 14 Aug 2000, 16:32

  • AMD ships 1.1GHz Athlons, cuts prices

    Chimpzilla attacks

    AMD has started shipments of 1.1GHz processors to computer manufacturers. The company says 'numerous partners' will be introducing systems featuring 1.1GHz Athlons on August 28. The manufacturers involved include Compaq, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and NEC. And twisting the knife ever so gently, AMD boss …

    Channel 14 Aug 2000, 17:42

  • Linux bods petition over European patent laws

    Online protest gathers apace

    Eurolinux.org, together with some other non-profit organisations, has produced an online petition for the European Parliament protesting against planned changes in European patent laws. We briefly touched on the topic last week in which the distinction between software in itself (which cannot be patented) and software that " …

    Software 14 Aug 2000, 18:24