1st September 2000 Archive
Browse by publication date, or search the site.
-
WinMe sweep wheezes to a close
They can't give it away...
Microsoft's controversial and often-dysfunctional Windows Me Sweepstake came to a close yesterday with the promotional Web site in full working order - at last. As we first reported here, the site was out of action for most of the week beginning 13 August, and only placeholder text blaming technical difficulties could be seen …
Software 1 Sep 2000, 04:49
-
Intel Pentium 4 benchmarks stalinised
Willamette benchmarks airbrushed out
Hardware site 2CPU, which a few days ago published a set of Pentium 4 benchmarks, is reporting that pressure from Intel has forced it to pull them from its site. A brief statement, which can be found on the page where the benchmarks formerly known as Pentium 4 benchmarks resided, now says "the benchmarks have been removed at …
Channel 1 Sep 2000, 08:40
-
Microsoft won't fix new Windows security flaw
Gone fishin'
Microsoft says it won't be issuing a patch for a newly discovered security vulnerability in Windows that PGP's COVERT lab classifies as 'high-risk'. The COVERT Lab issued an advisory earlier this week detailing how a local Windows networking configuration can be corrupted by redirecting the user to an arbitrary IP address of …
Software 1 Sep 2000, 08:55
-
GUS buys Jungle for £37 million
It was once valued at £700 million
Great Universal Stores has bought Jungle.com for £37 million. The deal includes £12 million to clear the online computer retailer's debt. John Peace, chief exec of GUS, said the deal meant GUS could offer computers through stores, catalogue or the Internet. GUS owns retail chain Argos as well as a number of catalogue brands. …
Business 1 Sep 2000, 09:20
-
HW Round-up Celeron 100MHz a go-go?
About time-time as we wibble-wibble
Many hardware sites are reporting a ZD story about Intel getting round to producing its cut-down Celeron processor using a 100MHz system bus, as reported here and here in prehistory. Intel's obviously in a bit of a dither about this. The second of the stories linked to above tells how Intel says it can do this whenever it wants …
Hardware Roundup 1 Sep 2000, 09:22
-
Micron, Rambus chiefs nearly came to blows
The seething emotions of memory suits
You thought you'd heard it all in the continuing struggle of Micron, Rambus and the Dramurai, didn't you? But once again, the reality of mempolitiks continues to surprise even the hardened old cynics who make up your merry Register band. Earlier this week we reported on first Micron, then Hyundai taking legal action against …
Channel 1 Sep 2000, 09:48
-
PDA vendors anticipate product famine
Component shortages will hit their ability to meet demand
PalmOS-based handheld vendors have warned that they may run into difficulty fulfilling orders in the run-up to Christmas, thanks to the global shortage of key PDA components. Hang on a minute - the likes of Sony, Palm and Handspring are admitting they're going to have supply problems? Surely some mistake? Typically, the …
Business 1 Sep 2000, 09:48
-
MP3.com damages to be set next week
Payout could be massive - or massively massive...
US District Judge Jed S Rakoff will next week decide whether MP3.com wilfully used 5000-odd CDs owned by record label Universal without permission - and how much the online music company must pay up in damages. The Judge's ruling is expected on Wednesday, and will come after four days' of testimony from both sides this week. …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 10:10
-
We'll doing anything for money
PR Tariff update: if it's good enough for Anthea...
Small-fry TV presenter Anthea Turner and her cheesemonger new husband Grant Bovey have been lambasted in the press because the only released picture of their wedding consisting of the pair eating a new chocolate bar. Well, we're not going to be outdone, so we were straight on the phone to Cadbury's. It wasn't so impressed, …
Bootnotes 1 Sep 2000, 10:17
-
T-Online doubles sales to £216 million
But posts losses after spell on acquisition trail
T-Online's share price went up 7 per cent yesterday on the news that its half-year sales had doubled (to £216 million). This despite the fact that its chief exec resigned last week and the company's suffered its first loss of £45 million. It made a £2 million profit last year. The losses came mostly from the cost of its …
Business 1 Sep 2000, 11:17
-
Man arrested in Net hoax sting
They knew where he lived
A 23-year-old student was arrested yesterday in connection with an online fraud that saw the share price of Emulex Corp free-fall by 60 per cent last week. Mark Jakob, a student at El Camino Community College in Redondo Beach, California, was arrested by officials at his home. It's alleged that Jakob was responsible for …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 11:23
-
Fresh Pentium 4 benchmarks hit Web
This time it's a Japanese site
Intel may have browbeaten 2CPU into submission (see Intel Pentium 4 benchmarks stalinised), but as we said earlier today, genies that come out of bottles have a habit of going walkabout. And a fresh set of Pentium 4 benchmarks, sure enough, has appeared on the Web, this time on a Japanese site. The figures compare the Pentium …
Channel 1 Sep 2000, 11:48
-
BT threatens to come to its senses
Finance Director tries to save his job
BT's Finance Director Robert Brace has finally listened to what the City, press and investors have been telling him and promised to reduce the company's huge £30 billion debt by £10 billion. This means a hold on big deals, the wheeling out of the Cellnet float idea (again) and the possibility of selling minority shares. With …
Data Networking 1 Sep 2000, 13:03
-
OFT warns of monopolistic e-commerce firms
And you thought the Internet would save you money
The Office of Fair Trading has warned that e-commerce companies are entering a monopoly position (well, oligopoly, but only economists tend to know what that means), and may soon be able to exploit their powers to rip off consumers. While actually getting into an Internet market is relatively cheap, the huge branding efforts …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 13:14
-
Cahoot recalls debit cards
Blames it all on Visa
Abbey National's Internet bank, Cahoot, has had to recall all its customers' Visa cards after they failed to work in supermarkets and shops. All current cards will be cancelled at the end of this month and new ones will be issued. According to a Cahoot spokesman - no stranger to enormous cock-ups - the company knew about this …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 13:15
-
Antitrust suit from Beyond the Grave hits MS for $1m
Top level MS execs set out to undermine Bristol, Unix - judge
Judge Janet Hall's ruling that Microsoft used deceptive business practices, that these were approved at the highest levels within the company, and that Microsoft executives had been less than truthful in their testimony, puts last year's verdict in the Bristol antitrust trial in a certain context. The trial was a 'victory' for …
Software 1 Sep 2000, 14:02
-
US Net empire crumbling
It had to happen somewhen
America's cultural dominance of the Internet is coming to an end. A report published this morning by the United States Internet Council (USIC) claims the Net is now a truly international communications medium. The USIC is a four-year old non-profit organisation funded by industry that functions as an educational resource for …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 14:04
-
Flame of the Week Scruffy student replies
We love Microsoft, we're nerds, we beat off to porn
[A student launches his protest to this story: Everybody wants to study computing] I rarely reply to your one-sided propaganda filth and just general lies posted on The Register, but "100,000 scruffy students" is not exactly a very fantastically well thought of comment. Get a life, if anyone is a nerd, it's you. You Microsoft …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 15:07
-
MS takes X-box to digital VCR market
Watch out, Tivo, ReplayTV...
Microsoft is re-engineering its X-box spec. to provide the games console with digital VCR functionality, sources close to the machine's development have claimed. According to a revised specification apparently leaked to X-box 365, Microsoft's games division has upped the console's hard drive capacity from 8GB to 40GB. Big deal …
Business 1 Sep 2000, 15:23
-
Apology of the Week Pull yourself together, man
Interestingly, this stems from last week's Threat of the Week
[Last week, we ran with a Threat of the Week. The person concerned panicked and fired off some emails. We thought it was only fair to give him a right of reply.] Threat of the Week Mike's a dead man Apology 1 Dear Mike, Please Sir, I did not mean to send any kind of threat whatsoever. If you take it that way then I profusely …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 15:30
-
Orange sacks 45 in Net porn scandal
Their future's not so bright
Orange has sacked 45 of its staff for looking at naughty pictures on the Net. The mass dismissal is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Britain and covers employees in three locations: Darlington, Peterlee and Hertford. A spokesman for the mobile phone company did not know if any executives were involved, or whether …
Music and Media 1 Sep 2000, 15:31
-
Abuse: you love it you slags
Actually, there's some really well-thought out points here
[Water. Duck's. Back. But if a duck is able to have a kinda entertained smirk, then that duck, The Register duck, is the one that is having the water on its back. Failure to understand a joke is often funnier than the original joke. NB Some letters may be very funny satires of flames] Just read one of your writings - my first …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 16:56
-
Praise: you love us you slags
Hurrah! We're the greatest
[Not as many here as in the Abuse section] Damn it, your article "Intel's best-kept secret revealed" made me laugh out loud in the office attracting the attention of everybody around. I didn't get in trouble though, as everybody joined me in the laughter after reading it too. Guess I will use this as an appreciation letter. …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 17:02
-
Random: well, Best of the Rest
Chips (all types), Robots, Scunthorpe, telephone codes, that sort of thing
[Pretty disparate bunch. Some long and intelligent, some short and stupid. Take your pick] Scunthorpe babe watch aims to prove Sun wrong It is not often that a story is so searing that it makes me want to dig out my eyes with a rusty spoon to quell the hideous memories that haunt my mind. You did it. I read the story when …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 17:10
-
Readers' Letters You all need a good slapping
This week, we've an easy split between abuse, praise and the usual oddness
[It's an occasional conversation in the pub at lunchtime: do abusive readers honestly think we are in any way affected by their crazy rantings? We're still undecided but we do love em. Interestingly, few return, leading to the second question: while they're all ballsy and confident in their front room, do they not realise we'll …
Letters 1 Sep 2000, 17:36
-
Rumble in the Jungle.com
GUS to take on Dixons
Great Universal Stores' take-over of Jungle.com is a serious threat to Dixons domination of the UK's computer retail market. The two businesses have talked about synergy as all players in deals like this do. But they do exist in this case. GUS owns Argos and sends its catalogue into 17 million homes in Britain. Argos is run by …
Business 1 Sep 2000, 17:39
