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24th August 2000 Archive

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  • Reg beards Cheapzilla in Chipzilla den

    It's the war of the words

    Words do not fall into the void – Zohar We finally tracked AMD staff down at the San Jose and Towers Hilton, the very hotel packed with journalists, analysts, delegates, and Intel staffers, all in town for the Developer Forum held next door at the convention centre. After Sharky Extreme departed, the staff holding the …

    Channel 24 Aug 2000, 00:07

  • Intel opens R&D kimono

    Four billion bucks at lab's disposal

    David Tennenhouse, director of research at Intel has given an intriguing glimpse into future projects simmering on the firm's back burners. Intel Labs, a worldwidely spread division, also showed off a number of items it is currently working on. Tennenhouse said that R&D spending rose on the same steep curve followed by Intel …

    Channel 24 Aug 2000, 00:31

  • Internet Startup ‘drama’ on BBC2

    Just wake us up when its over

    The BBC has jumped on the dotcom bandwagon just as it falls off the edge of a cliff with its newly announced series Attachments. Billed as a "sexually-charged new drama series set in an Internet start-up company", it promises to look at sex, office politics and email flirtations in the office. So no worries about dialogue then …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 09:32

  • AOL UK to offer unmetered Net access?

    Maybe, just maybe

    AOL UK could be just weeks away from offering flat-fee unmetered Net access. On Tuesday MCI Worldcom - which one of AOL UK's network vendors - became the first telco to sign up to BT's wholesale unmetered Net access product, FRIACO Hybrid. Erol Ziya, of the lobby group, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications (CUT), predicts …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 10:43

  • Carphone Warehouse gets into dotcom DIY

    And other leaks from the bubble economy

    The Carphone Warehouse has invested £2 million in "home improvement" (read:DIY) site HomePro.com, boosting its holding from 9 to 16 per cent. This is HomePro's third round of funding since its creation a year ago. The site matches house owners with professional contractors. Carphone Warehouse's interest stems from its mobile …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 10:49

  • Pentium 4 to launch in October

    Confirmation from very reliable sources

    Intel's Willamette, aka Pentium 4, is to launch in Mid October. The 32 bit chip will first appear as a 1.4GHz part, with a speed bump to 1.5GHz before the end of the year. The Pentium 4 will have a 400MHz bus, employ 128 bit Screaming Sindy Two (SSE2) rather than the current 64 bit SSE. At IDF this week, Senior Intel VP Albert …

    Channel 24 Aug 2000, 10:52

  • Iridium will crash and burn – Motorola

    Final would-be buyers meet cancelled due to lack of would-be buyers

    No buyers have emerged for Iridium's network of 66 satellites so Motorola will now definitely knock 'em out of orbit to let them burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. The US bankruptcy court had planned to convene a hearing yesterday to discuss last-minute bidders but... er... there weren't any - at least no "qualified" bidders; …

    Data Networking 24 Aug 2000, 11:01

  • Its official: Pokemon are viral

    The little yellow critter is the cover for the latest email worm

    We've had to deal with Pokemon trading cards, Pokemon games and Pokemon cartoons but it all got a little bit worse with the arrival on the scene of a Pokemon worm. Another addition to the "Outlook" hall of fame, this little blighter will delete your Windows system files and so on in a very familiar way. Click here for Symantec' …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 11:25

  • VA Linux revenues up 547 per cent

    And Q4 loss narrows ahead of expectations too

    VA Linux Systems moved a step closer to its goal of profitability by early 2001 yesterday when it posted a narrower-than-exepected loss on rising revenue for its fourth quarter. For the three months to 28 July, VA's revenues shot up just under 547 per cent to $50.7 million from last year's $7.84 million and up 46 per cent on …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 11:27

  • So how did GTech ruin Camelot's lottery dreams?

    It's the old case of a hushed-up software bug

    The Lottery Commission said yesterday that its main reason for dropping Camelot's bid to continue running the National Lottery was because of unresolved difficulties with US computer firm GTech. GTech's share price promptly slid five per cent. But what exactly was the problem? We weren't the only ones interested to know and the …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 11:47

  • Server vendors team to promote Linux in Japan

    Once they can agree on the OS' market share, presumably...

    Compaq, IBM and Hitachi, all backed by Oracle, said they intend to push hard to grow the adoption of Linux among Japanese PC server users by over 15 per cent this year. That said, there does appear to be some confusion over the open source operating system's market share. Compaq's Japanese subsidiary said Linux accounts for ten …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 11:48

  • OPD rude phrase update

    Can anyone confirm this one?

    And we thought "Please can you service my secretary?" was as smutty as an ICL One Per Desk could manage. Our flabbers were ghasted when we heard from John Kozak that he had managed to make one of the benighted devices utter the phrase "My secretary is giving me head in the wastepaper basket." Any further bids? ® RegPlea We'd …

    Bootnotes 24 Aug 2000, 11:50

  • Why the hell… aren't PCs getting any cheaper?

    Unless you want something from the natural history museum

    Moore's Law states that the processing power of a chip will double every eighteen months, and the common caveat is that it will also halve in price. So the question has to be why are there not free or at least dirt-cheap PC's available? Well, it has to do with what is known as a "floor price" of a component. This is determined …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 12:14

  • Nintendo launches Gamecube

    But it'll be 11 months before you can buy one...

    Nintendo today took the wraps off its cube-shaped (sort of) next-generation games console, Gamecube, formerly known as Dolphin - even though it's not going to ship for ages. The Gamecube features an 405MHz PowerPC processor custom-built by IBM using copper interconnects, fabbed at 0.18 micron and containing 64KB of on-die L1 …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 12:41

  • BT really in the doldrums

    Another share price slip after credit rating troubles

    Rumours that BT's credit was to drop for a second time caused its share price to fall 1.8 per cent yesterday. The rumours were quickly denied by Standard & Poor but the damage had been done. It's just the latest in a series of bluffs in recent months and although it has managed to get some breathing space on its appalling …

    Data Networking 24 Aug 2000, 13:07

  • Ezesurf ISP denies it's gone titsup.com

    Service stopped but techie glitch blamed

    Dundee-based ISP Ezesurf has stopped its service but denied it has gone bust leaving thousands of Net users out of pocket and unable to get online. The service - which offers flat-fee unmetered Net access for £75 a year - crashed yesterday fuelling rumours that the service was in trouble. One worried customer told The Register …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 14:05

  • Judge limits MP3.com copyright settlement payout

    Damages limitation exercise

    MP3.com may not suffer as much as it expected to after losing a copyright violation suit brought against it by the Recording Industry Association of America earlier this year. The trial judge, US District Judge Jed S Rakoff, this week ruled that when it comes to calculating the damages MP3.com must pay to music labels only the …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 14:33

  • HWRoundup Britney Spears spices up semiconductors

    It's not all reports from IDF you know...

    Today we decided that the Intel Developers Forum was being covered more than adequately just about everywhere, so we wanted to shine the light on other goings on in the hardware community - if only to reassure ourselves and you that other things are still going on. For example Sharky is running an Intel Developer Forum "special …

    Hardware Roundup 24 Aug 2000, 14:55

  • Porn sites charged with billing for free pics

    Hairy-palmed punters gave out credit card details

    Dozens of porn sites have been hit with a lawsuit claiming they have been billing punters for eyeing images that were offered for free. The sites named in the suit include Playgirl.com and Highsociety.com. The Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general filed the lawsuit yesterday. FTC director Steven Baker rated …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 14:57

  • Apple preps ‘low key’ MacOS X public beta

    Worried about Aqua Aversion, apparently...

    The public beta test release of Apple's upcoming MacOS X may not be quite as public as the company originally suggested. And the final release may not happen quite as soon as planned, either. Sources close to Apple, cited by MacUser over here in the UK, claim the company is planning something rather more low-key, primarily to …

    Mac Channel 24 Aug 2000, 15:10

  • Tosh turns notebooks into bricks

    Cunning scheme built into keyboard

    Notebooks get stolen all the time and Intel told us just a few weeks back that many were working to make the technological little marvel as valuable as a brick. Sources said that the firm is working on a fingerprint scheme which will actually be built into the keys of a notebook's keyboard, meaning that no-one else can use the …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 15:36

  • Peer to peer working group formed

    Intel's Gelsinger peers at peers

    Intel has formed a peer to peer working group and pulled IBM, HP, and a number of other large firms which will congregate next month to discuss ways of bringing applications to the corporate market. The group, already 70 strong, is an open forum and Pat Gelsinger, chief technology officer of Intel, said other organisations are …

    Data Networking 24 Aug 2000, 16:10

  • Mondus goes mental

    Feedback We're not mental and we're still dropping the dotcom

    Mondus.com has fired off an unfinished press release saying that it is to drop the ".com" from its name because its doesn't like being lumbered with the Internet image and wants to be a "successful, stand-alone business". Now, we think that Mondus - which is set up for small businesses to tender their work and receive quotes …

    Business 24 Aug 2000, 16:20

  • Egg hackers were disorganised crime

    Multiple loan applications from one IP address. Doh!

    More details have emerged about the so-called "Great Internet Robbery" at online bank Egg.com. This was not the Great Hack that everyone thought it was yesterday, just a set of fraudulent applications for loans and bank accounts with free overdrafts. In fact, the reason these guys got caught is that Egg had software in place …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 16:30

  • WIPO madness round-up

    We've been trying to avoid it, but what can you do?

    Okay, we're back into the special world of WIPO and domain name disputes. We left the first two of these alone when they "made the news" because, quite frankly, we were sick of it. But then we had a reader write in who made an interesting case study, so we reopened the files. Number One: Famous person fun Madonna - you know, …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 17:03

  • Booze and pizzas from the comfort of your sofa

    Tomorrow World's was right! Hallelulah

    Some people are confused and think that the evolution of mankind inevitably leads to equality, freedom and understanding. As we all know, what it really leads to is abject sloth and personal pleasure. Which is why NTL's announcement that its new digital TV service will include a pizza and beer ordering facility should be …

    Media 24 Aug 2000, 17:07