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30th August 2000 Archive

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  • BOFH takes the Piss

    Episode 31 And someone has to pay

    BOFH2000: Episode 31 So The Boss has volunteered my services to the Beancounters to upgrade some software an PC-based unix system to its latest (and last, if there's a God) revision -from the current version they have - which was probably installed on the Ark. And as is always the case with vendors of old, dodgy software, there' …

    BOFH 30 Aug 2000, 00:50

  • Big tough Dramurai sues Rambus

    Hyundai dances the lobster quadrille

    Just one clear day after Micron (the MuHeads) took antitrust action against Rambus, Hyundai (a Dramurai) threw its weight against the Mountain View intellectual property engine and is taking legal action against the company. The new twist in the continuing saga, reported by Electronic News, means that the kevlar-plated …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 07:09

  • Voodoo gets 12,000 volt shock

    We're guest wibbling and wobbling

    Loyal Argentinian reader Gerardo points us in the direction of a remarkable experiment at Tech Junkie, which applied 12,000 volts of power to a Voodoo 3 with spectacular results. There's even a little movie of the end result. Don't try this at home... If all that was a little too exhausting, why don't you take a peek at the USB …

    Hardware Roundup 30 Aug 2000, 07:38

  • Intel under attack at high end

    Updated Stepping B is hot, Dutch have AMD problem

    OEMs close to Intel's plans are reporting that its 1GHz Pentium III flip chip microprocessor is suffering from big heat problems which are being addressed with a fresh stepping of the part. The news comes only 36 hours after Intel pulled the plug on its 1.13GHz Pentium III, which is currently at stepping cC0. Meanwhile, system …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 08:48

  • The Reg guide to interviewing Intel

    Ways & Means Committee shares data

    After all the PR folk bogged off at the Intel Developer Forum last week, the legions of international hacks still left at the San Jose Towers and Hilton asked the elected spin doctor whether the firm kept records on journalists. "Indeed they do," replied the bogus PR representative. "It all depends on the country you live in on …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 08:49

  • Mitchell quits AltaVista

    Exclusive A sorry end to a sorry affair

    Andy Mitchell is now the former MD of AltaVista UK, The Register can reveal. Employees were told of Mitchell's departure yesterday, although the announcement will come as little surprise to anyone who has followed this farcical caper. It's not know yet whether he was pushed or took the decision to jump himself, although the …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 08:49

  • 3dfx damns Nvidia patent suit

    Updated Blames it on 'a lack of confidence' in Nvidia's defence of 3dfx's own allegations

    3dfx has vowed to fight back "vigorously" against Nvidia's claims that its two most recent generations of 3D chip violate its arch-rival's patents. On Monday, Nvidia filed a patent infringement suit against 3dfx, citing five technologies it owns and it reckons 3dfx is using in its Voodoo 3 and VSA-100 graphics accelerators. We …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 09:21

  • Confirmed: Ezesurf goes titsup.com

    Updated £2m bill might have something to do with it

    Dundee-based ISP, Ezesurf, has gone bust after being landed with a bill for £1.7 million (£2.08 million including VAT) from Net outfit, Energis Squared. The invoice covered charges for providing freecall Net access between February and July 2000. In a 2,300 word weepy published on the Ezesurf site, MD Matt Bryson blames …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 09:38

  • 3dfx ‘disappointed’ by Q2 revenue fall

    Would have been in profit otherwise

    Graphics accelerator maker 3dfx pronounced itself "very disappointed" with its financial performance when it posted its latest business figures yesterday. For 3dfx's second quarter of fiscal 2001, the company recorded reduced revenues of $67 million, down from the $104.8 million it received for the same period last year and the …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 09:47

  • Sony Palm-based PDA makes US debut

    Updated Colour version dropped due to LCD shortages

    Sony's upcoming Palm-based PDA was launched in the US last night, just a month after the device family made its Japanese debut. Then, Sony unveiled two PDAs - or Personal Entertainment Organiser, as it calls them - one with a monochrome screen, the other with a colour LCD. Sony will only ship the backlit monochrome model in the …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 10:13

  • Microsoft releases Office 10 beta

    Speech recognition, XML - that sort of thing

    Microsoft is to release the first beta of Office 2000's successor, codenamed Office 10, to a restricted number of testers. According to some (unconfirmed) sources, it gave Office 10 beta to testers at the beginning of August, but Microsoft has now decided to announce some of the features of the new software suite. So what do we …

    Software 30 Aug 2000, 10:46

  • Californian MS overcharging class action gets go ahead

    But actually, it could help Microsoft thin out its antagonists' ranks...

    A San Francisco judge has allowed the first class-action lawsuit on behalf of consumers to go ahead against Microsoft. Microsoft has so far successfully ducked a string of similar actions in other states, on the grounds that local laws only allow the immediate vendor to be sued (i.e. the dealer), but sooner or later one of them …

    Software 30 Aug 2000, 10:51

  • AltaVista parades new MD

    'Andy's departure inevitable'

    A tribute has flooded in for Andy Mitchell, the former MD of AltaVista UK and Ireland, and the man who single-handedly carried the can for the dotcom's failed brush with affordable Net access in Britain. Pierre Paperon, President of AltaVista Europe said: "Over the past seven months Andy Mitchell built our UK business almost …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 10:57

  • Redstone's sales rocket but it still makes a loss

    Maxim grabs stake in Firebox

    Redstone Telecom has announced sales leap of 144 per cent to £17.8 million for the quarter ending June 30. Net loss before tax was £2.9 million, a year earlier it was £1.5 million for the same period. Redstone, which intends to offer broadband communication over DSL to SMEs, has 9,500 business customers. The publishers of …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 11:02

  • Former Nvidia engineer nabbed for insider trading

    Made a killing on advance knowledge of X-box deal, allegedly

    Ex-Nvidia staffer Manu Shrivastava has been accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission of profiting illegally from his inside knowledge of the 3D chip company's business. If found guilty of insider trading, Shrivastava could face not only the loss of all profits made by trading in Nvidia stock using his 'specialist' …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 11:12

  • US appeal court sets date for Napster trial

    Has Napster's request for RIAA case to be thrown out failed?

    The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has named the date for the commencement of the Recording Industry Association of America's landmark copyright infringement case against MP3 sharing software developer Napster. The trial will begin on 2 October, with both sides making their opening statements, Reuters reports. The Court did …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 11:13

  • Concorde crashes again (Middle East talks fail for a second time)

    And various other bizarre events from the BBC time warp

    The BBC's online news service appears to have hit a time warp and is permanently stuck in July. It looks like Auntie has reordered its site and left behind a few pages. Unfortunately, it you visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english, you'll be surprised to discover that Concorde has crashed again, in exactly the same place - what's …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 11:14

  • “EZESURF” – Sorry But We Are Now Closed

    That letter in full

    "EZESURF" - The UK’s longest running freecall Internet provider - Sorry But We Are Now Closed The 9th of September 1999 saw the launch of the UK’s first free Internet Service Provider offering unlimited 24/7 access for a fixed monthly fee. This service was called 08004U. Before the official launch we had in place all of the …

    Letters 30 Aug 2000, 11:32

  • GTech in big trouble

    The Lottery has been one fat cock-up

    GTech - the mischievous tech company behind the UK National Lottery and many others in the US - has axed 175 jobs and announced a restructuring at a cost of $45 million (£31 million). This comes after a very shaky period for the company, and more cuts may be on the way following the backlash from the UK Lottery. The Lottery …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 12:41

  • Via triples profit forecast

    Can't be the Cyrix III, must be chipsets

    Plucky Taiwanese chipset company today revised upwards its forecast financial results for this year. Its figures have improved, it says, because of high second half demand. Via had forecast its pre-profit figure as NT$3.69 billion but now predicts it will turn in $9.01 billion for the year 2000 to 31 December. The figures are …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 14:37

  • Ericsson launches $300m VC fund

    Unsurprisingly, it's interested in mobile Internet ventures

    Ericsson, Merrill Lynch, Investor AB and Industrivarden are each pumping $75 million into a new VC fund aimed at investing in mobile Internet companies and technologies. The fund will be called Ericsson Venture Partners. Looking squarely at Europe and the US, the fund will have a wide focus - anything from networks to services …

    Business 30 Aug 2000, 14:37

  • Phone number chaos on the horizon

    We're getting to final changeover time (and no one has a bloody clue)

    The final switchover in UK telephone numbers for several cities is growing very close and a huge number of people are still helplessly unaware of the new codes. Oftel's masterplan of re-re-adjusting telephone codes, after its last major overhaul and cock-up a few years ago, is this time run by third party The Big Number. This …

    Data Networking 30 Aug 2000, 15:21

  • Energis and that £2 million bill

    Fishier than a man's head in a cod's stomach

    Energis is keeping schtum about an outstanding bill for more than £2 million which it sent to Scottish-based ISP, EzeSurf. The bill, for toll-free Net access, effectively forced the Dundee ISP to cease trading. But something doesn't quite add up. Matt Bryson, MD of Dundee-based EzeSurf claims he paid every bill sent to him by …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 15:39

  • Via and S3 talk $377m deal down to $288m

    New 3D chip business sale designed to win backing of Taiwanese gov't

    Via and S3 have agreed new terms for the sale of the latter's graphics chip biz in a bid to win the backing of the Taiwanese government. Taiwan's business regulators balked at the scale of the Via-S3 cash and shares deal, which was valued at $377 million and was due to have been completed at the end of June. The regulators …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 15:47

  • Click here for those Posh and Becks controversial extracts

    World Exclusive Get em here before anyone else

    Posh Spice and David Beckham have just announced that they won't go to court to get some 2,000 words removed from a book about them by Andrew Morton (you know, that bloke that did the crap book on Diana). Apparently, Morton was given the information by a former employee of the Beckhams who had signed a non-disclosure agreement …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 15:57

  • First Pentium 4 benchmarks appear

    Rambus performance finally comes good

    2CPU.com has the first benchmarks of Intel's upcoming Pentium 4 aka Willamette. The most startling numbers are what can only be described as phenomenal memory performance from the Rambus memory in the test system. SiSoft Sandra memory benchmarks show the P4 delivering an ALU memory bandwidth of 1407 Mb/sec, and an FPU figure of …

    Channel 30 Aug 2000, 16:07

  • VNU ignores Flood warning

    Computing keeps bad karma

    VNU's IT paper of record, Computing, has lost its number two. The mag's second in command Gary Flood has resigned after failing to negotiate a better job for himself - which was probably the job belonging to Computing chief Douglas Hayward, the technology press's answer to Harold Evans. Flood is off to investor web site EO. But …

    Bootnotes 30 Aug 2000, 16:17

  • Ananova goes story crazy

    So good, it told us about it thrice

    We get regular updates on stories by PA's news tart Ananova. Don't know why because stories usually arrive about two hours after we've written them, but even we were amazed when the site decided to entice us by repeatedly sending the same stories, often days apart. Ananova, for example, was so excited about songs being …

    Bootnotes 30 Aug 2000, 16:19

  • London Internet Exchange traffic breaks 3Gbps

    Busy, busy, busy

    Here's another indicator to how fast the Internet is growing. The London Internet Exchange (Linx) has reported traffic levels are busting 3Gbps at peak times. Linx states it is the largest exchange point in Europe. Traffic peaks at around 2pm BST when the US starts coming on line. Linx broke the one Gbps barrier just before …

    Music and Media 30 Aug 2000, 16:51

  • Nortel shows off fancy new fibre technology

    Lots more money, not such a good explanation

    Nortel Networks has unveiled some new fibre technology which is claims as a breakthrough and will let it extract some tasty revenues. Demonstrating its Managed Wavelength Services at the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference in the US, Nortel said it could now control bandwidth more efficiently - with corresponding positive …

    Data Networking 30 Aug 2000, 16:52