23rd August 2000 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

Cops make arrests after Egg attacked

Three men arrested in dawn raids

Three men have been arrested by the National Crime Squad in connection with the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds from online bank Egg.com. Following a six-month investigation police made dawn raids on seven homes in Buckinghamshire. The robbery is thought to have been carried out by an organised crime syndicate. Police …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 09:36
Users cool on Itanic deployment

Bluffing value only, for now...

Even before the latest delay to IA-64, Intel's biggest users aren't prepared to jump. According to SCO sources, only one of the companies top 30-odd UnixWare accounts is prepared for IA-64 deployment when Itanic finally rolls down the slipway. Another source confirmed that leaks to The Register earlier this year were accurate, …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 09:43
More on SCO's Linux-in-UnixWare gambit

The host with the most?

Following our report yesterday about SCO's Linux personality for UnixWare, we received some incandescent emails, some even suggesting that SCO was "raping" the GPL in principle if not in practice. But that doesn't seem to be the case at all. Although our notes from yesterday's session include the words of "subset" and "Linux …

Software 23 Aug 2000, 09:58
Nintendo Dolphin renamed Cube

Lawsuits from Apple, Cobalt coming too?

Nintendo's next-generation console, due to be launched tomorrow, will be called the Cube, according to console gaming Web site IGN. And if IGN's research is right, it could put the Japanese console vendor in serious legal trouble, fighting off a trade dress suit from Apple and a trademark suit from Cobalt Systems. Nintendo's …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 10:17
Amazon does deals on wheels

It's car wars out there

It's all go in the online car selling business. While CarOrder.com shut its doors last week, not everyone agrees with the market's demise. Instead, Amazon is to launch an online car site later this week (in conjunction with Greenlight.com, of which Amazon owns five per cent) and top man Jeff Bezos went on about how "excited" he …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 10:22
Big Brother site a Big Hit

Survey says we are a nation of peeping toms

The Big Brother Website has made it into the top fifty visited sites in the UK. The live broadcast of the TV show came in at number 34 for home users in July, according to Internet researchers Netvalue. Almost seven per cent of UK home surfers had visited the Big Brother site at least once since the broadcast began, the company …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 10:30
1.13GHz P3 system DOA

It wasn't us, pleads leading UK monthly

Regular hardware site junkies will recall the Good Doctor Tom's trials and tribulations in trying to get Intel's 1.13GHz Pentium III to work properly. Well, The Reg can go one better - our 1.13GHz system was dead on arrival. Intel sent us one of its vanilla systems, using a Vancouver 820 mobo with 128Mb of PC800 Rambus. We took …

Bootnotes 23 Aug 2000, 10:35
FireWire data to go

Review Western Digital 1394 external hard drive

Western Digital's new external FireWire hard disks are ideal for carrying lots of data around, but WD says they're not intended as mobile devices. Missing a marketing trick here, methinks. Coming in 10, 20 and 30Gb flavours, the 1394 drives are suitable for both Mac and PC use (a 1394 PCI card will be needed unless you have one …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 10:42
AltaVistagate – the folly drags on

Lies, lies, lies

Further revelations about AltaVista's dabbling with an unmetered Internet service have bubbled to the surface. Andy Mitchell, MD of the US company's British operation, confessed that he had decided to can the non-existent service four weeks ago. But if that's the case, why did he issue a mass email circular just two weeks ago …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 10:56
BMG to launch digital music service next month

Company snubs subscription model for pay-per-download fees

Recording company BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group) will join fellow 'big five' music labels EMI, Sony and Universal when it launches its own digital music download service next month. The service will initially provide 50 albums and 50 singles, according to BMG VP of business development Sami Valkonen, cited by Reuters. Like the …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 11:08
Radio auction set for October

Reserve set for £78 million but it'll make a lot more

UK e-commerce minister Kim Howells has opened the door for bidders for the first set of radio spectrum auctions. The 42 licences (three each for 14 different regions of the UK) will enable point-to-point Internet access. The government, unsurprisingly, has gone for the same auction process that produced £22.5 billion for the …

Data Networking 23 Aug 2000, 11:32
Lastminute gets lumped in with naughty travel agents

Trading standards denies investigation

Trading Standards has issued a statement denying that it is investigating Lastminute.com. This morning the Daily Express reported that the government body was investigating a number of online firms for publishing misleading prices, and named Lastminute as one of them. The travel site immediately denied any wrongdoing, saying …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 11:34
We will block Napster at source – Sony exec

Even your PC will become a music biz vs Napster battleground

If the Recording Industry Association of America doesn't zap Napster, Sony certainly will. At least that's what Sony Pictures Entertainment US senior VP Steve Heckler told attendees at the Americas Conference on Information Systems 2000 this past weekend. "The [music] industry will take whatever steps it needs to protect …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 11:40
M$ Japan staff fail to declare stock option income

$27.9 million owed in back taxes

There must be gloom clouds over Microsoft Japan where, according to Japanese newspaper reports, some 150 Microsoft employees (out of around 1,000 in Japan) have failed to declare, or have incorrectly declared, some $65 million of stock option income over several years. It's going to be a pricey oversight, because the reports …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 11:57
US losing grip on IT industry

Scandinavia and Europe give the Yanks a good kicking

Europe is leading the way when it comes to cutting-edge technology, with the US playing catch-up, according to analysts IDC. Perhaps a little behind the times, IDC quotes wireless technology as one example (well, actually the only example) of where Europe is kicking ass (or arse, depending on where you live). It does, however, …

Business 23 Aug 2000, 12:03
AMD talking to Transmeta – official

Looking to share technology

AMD president Hector Ruiz has confirmed that Chimpzilla and Transmeta are in co-operation talks aimed at sharing the two companies' chip technologies, including Transmeta's power saving system. Interviewed by Electronic Buyers' News, Ruiz said AMD's current work on reducing the power requirements of its Athlon and Duron chips …

Channel 23 Aug 2000, 12:06
MS asks again for Supremes not to hear its case

MS on Trial Last fling effort for lower court to hear appeal

Microsoft had its last fling yesterday when it filed with the Supreme Court a reply brief to the DoJ filing last week. It doesn't add much, merely reiterating its belief that the Expediting Act gives the Supreme Court unqualified discretion not to hear a case. The Supremes of course would know this anyway. The DoJ has made it …

Software 23 Aug 2000, 12:28
Branson wins Lottery licence. Sort of

Updated It's looking more and more like a cock-up

The Lottery Commission's decision on who would run the National Lottery for the next seven years nearly descended into farce today when its long-awaited decision was that neither incumbent Camelot nor Richard Branson-led consortium The People's Lottery had won outright. Initial confusion was overrun by a subsequent announcement …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 14:08
Anand takes a gander at Asus' A7V

A smorgasbord of tasty hardware morsels

The Intel Developers Forum is visited by one of the team from Tom's Hardware. Highlights include a first look at a 2GHz processor, the Itanium architecture and many other nuggets. Click here for more. PC Stats present a review of the Kenwood (yes, I thought "Kettle" too) 72X TrueX CD ROM. They put it through all the …

Hardware Roundup 23 Aug 2000, 14:28
MCI Worldcom to roll out unmetered Net access

Opens kimono and shows stretch marks

MCI Worldcom is looking to introduce unmetered Net access as quickly as is possible following its decision to sign up to BT's controversial wholesale unmetered Net access product, Hybrid FRIACO. Spokeswoman Angela Baker said: "We're delighted to have signed the deal and are looking at the commercial rollout as we speak. "We're …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 14:38
Now that's entertainment!

Crazy Yankee dare show broadcast on Net

This site is tasteless, pointless, daft, offensive - and worth checking out. IBetYouWill.com is basically an online version of those daft cable TV shows where cocky presenters get men and women in the street to do stupid, ridiculous or distasteful things for cool hard cash. It could easily have been another tedious, poorly put …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 14:57
Oftel duped by AltaVista

Surely not...

Oftel has admitted that it was hoodwinked by the discredited ISP, AltaVista. Speaking on BBC radio the winged watchdog's DG, Dave Edmonds, said: "I assumed that, as a reputable company, they [AltaVista] had a proper business plan." He admitted that he took AltaVista's promises at "face value" and would now be a little more …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 14:58
Register launches SpinolaVista™ unmetered 25/7 Internet access

We promise what the others only promise

The Register is coming to the rescue of thousands of disillusioned AltaVista subscribers by offering its very own unbeatable package (subject to terms and conditions). The SpinolaVista™ service will go live at the end of September (subject to availability). The SpinolaVista™ promise For just £60 a year, we pledge (subject to …

Bootnotes 23 Aug 2000, 15:03
Intel delivers 1GHz StrongArm

Sounds like Nortel, Cisco, Lucent

Mark Christiansen, VP of Intel and the man in charge of its IXA networking strategy, said today the firm has managed to shrink level two, three and four Fast Ethernet and Gigabit technology into a single chip. At the same time, Intel announced a partnership with Motorola on switching technology. Christiansen said that its IXA …

Data Networking 23 Aug 2000, 15:36
Microsoft stubs Intel's toes with chip

Chipzilla will roar loud at news

A report in this morning's San Jose Mercury News says that Microsoft is close to releasing a silicon communications chip that appears to step heavily on Intel's big toes. The Solo 2, the newspaper reports, will be introduced this Autumn, and will control the operation of Web TV. Although the silicon will initially be used for …

Channel 23 Aug 2000, 15:46
Spinalot to bid for UK lottery

We promise to make it a complete dog's dinner

Following today's debacle over who should win the contract to provide the UK's national lottery, The Register has formed a new consortium in an eleventh hour bid to bring some sanity to the proceedings. The hastily thrown-together [Surely 'highly-rated'? - Ed] consortium comprises The Register, SpinolaVista™ which will provide …

Bootnotes 23 Aug 2000, 15:56
BT Web site security blunder

Updated One password fits all

The Insight Interactive portion of the BT.com Web site has a gaping hole in its security. Any registered user's details can be accessed by entering their user name and password. The trouble is, the same password works whichever username you use. And no, we are not going to tell you what the password is. Or how the user names …

Music and Media 23 Aug 2000, 16:17
Intel Developers Forum Summer 2000

Full coverage

64-bit Compaq Alpha tops 1040MHzPentium 4: performance puzzle begins Peer to peer working group formed Pentium 4 to launch in October Sun versus Intel: war declared Intel delivers 1GHz StrongArm Intel: peer-to-peer a life preserver Intel confirms Xeon shortages Pentium 4 notebook chips on way Transmeta serendipity dogs …

Register Full Coverage 23 Aug 2000, 16:31
Intel intros dotage.station

Senior citizens, watch out

The branded Intel box running Linux, first revealed by The Register last year, has become generally available for system providers to resell. The machine, manufactured by an unnamed third party, already has design wins, said Marta Hasler, an Intel executive at the Home Group division of the company. The appliance, only …

Channel 23 Aug 2000, 23:25
Sun versus Intel: war declared

Sand thrown in McNealy's face

The undercurrent of dislike between Intel and Sun, which boiled over into an unseemly row at the last Intel Developer Forum, now seems to have turned into a full-scale battle. There's lots of evidence for this, extending even right up to the top of the Intel Corporation. At a press conference shortly after his keynote speech …

Channel 23 Aug 2000, 23:25