4th September 2000 Archive
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After Gaston, new L&H CEO focuses on nuts and bolts
Interview Duerden aims at productisation
The acquisition of Dictaphone (completed in May) and Dragon (completed in June) has clearly resulted in a pressing need for L&H to consolidate and productise. It was also clear that a different style of management was required for this work, so Welsh-born ex-rugger player John Duerden (who took US citizenship a couple of years …
Software 4 Sep 2000, 06:55
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Urbane Bastiaens heads for L&H ambassador role
Interview And he's not short on stock, if you get the meaning...
Gaston Bastiaens, the human dynamo and former CEO/president of Lernout & Hauspie, appears to be far from upset at handing over the reins to John Duerden. It's rare for an ex-CEO to hang around and play an active role in supporting the company, but this seems to be what he is doing. He told The Register in an interview that "I …
Software 4 Sep 2000, 06:55
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Mafia steals IT kit from UK universities
Donta they have no respect?
The mob is accused of stealing millions of pounds' worth of computer equipment from universities and flogging it on the black market in the former Soviet Union. The UK's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) - the body that monitors organised crime - is looking into the allegations, made in The Independent on Sunday. …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 09:08
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German court ruling triggers 30% price cuts on Windows
MS Germany new-look licensing bows to the law
Microsoft Germany has reacted to a court defeat by slashing Windows prices and radically revamping its licensing model. In July a German appeal court ruled that Microsoft did not have the right to stop dealers selling on software that the company intended should only ship with a new PC; this has effectively created a secondary …
Software 4 Sep 2000, 09:18
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Politics of Rambus Affair inspire
87-year old Spud King rules Micron roost
Bitter and open war between intellectual property firm Rambus and memory companies Hyundai, Micron and Infineon conceal desperate negotiations and other intriguing shenanigans which reveal just how high the stakes are in the PC industry, and perhaps more importantly, in the money markets. But the big question occupying many …
Channel 4 Sep 2000, 09:23
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That NetBIOS bug in full: readers have their say
You're safe. Just turn off your networking.
The debate over a flaw that Network Associates' PGP labs found last week in Windows networking continues to rage, judging by our mailbag. PGP's COVERT lab reported that a single packet sent to a particular common networked Windows client configuration can divert users to a rogue IP destination. The advisory cited a case where a …
Software 4 Sep 2000, 09:24
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Palm, DoCoMo begin joint development talks
iMode-equipped Palm VII on the way?
Palm and Japan's biggest mobile phone company, DoCoMo, are exploring the development of a PalmOS-based Net-access oriented PDA for the Japanese market, according to a report in the Financial Times. The discussions shouldn't surprise anyone. DoCoMo has been keen on Palm for some time, having already agreed with Palm's former …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 09:56
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Tesco and Sainsburys will make ebiz bucks by 2005
Scour cans staff
Scour announced it was laying off 52 of its 70 staff on Friday. This has fuelled speculation that the company, which makes software for trading music and video, is about to collapse. Tesco and Sainsburys can expect their Internet supermarkets to be profitable by 2005 according to a report on Internet food shopping by …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 10:31
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Intel Insider faces 25 years inside
What an Ancor
The US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Los Angeles District Attorney have accused erstwhile Intel product marketing engineer Brian Pridgeon of insider trading. Pridgeon worked at Intel until March this year, and faces charges that he, his cousin and a business partner made almost a quarter of a million dollars …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 10:40
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NetBenefit trebles sales
Freeserve to leave FTSE this week
NetBenefit has released its annual results, showing an increase in turnover of 282 per cent (£7.52 million from £1.97 million last year). It has also announced a loss of just £241,000 (profit of £254,000 last year), despite several large acquisitions this year, most notably its main competitor NetNames. The avoidance of a large …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 10:40
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Palm to bring wireless Web to Japan
Will work with NTT DoCoMo
Palm will bring its brand of wireless Web access to the Japanese market next year, the company said today. The service will be offered in partnership with DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile comms company. The PDA company's timetable is broad. A PalmOS-based wireless PDA and the links to cellular phone networks that provide the …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 11:06
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Anti-patent protest rains cookies on Amazon.fr's parade
French launch gets hijacked in support of Eurolinux campaign
Amazon's dubious patent activities came back to haunt the company last week at the Paris launch of amazon.fr. Amazon had pushed the boat(s) out for the occasion, inviting 4,000 guests to a party on the Seine, but was faced by a small clutch of demonstrators from campaigning groups APRIL and AFUL, handing out leaflets and "free …
Software 4 Sep 2000, 11:31
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Motorola to build $29m software centre in Scotland
Will focus on silicon design tools
Motorola is to invest £20 million ($29.2 million) in Scotland, with the foundation and construction of a cellphone-oriented software development facility. The Motorola Technology Centre, to be built alongside Scottish Enterprise's Alba Centre in Livingston, West Lothian, will require the creation of 550 jobs over the next five …
Channel 4 Sep 2000, 11:47
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Pentium 4 positioning a puzzle
How are PC firms supposed to sell it?
Ignoring the rash of benchmarks we've seen on the Web over the last month or so, including our own contribution to the party, it's still hard to see how PC companies are supposed to sell systems using the 1.4GHz Pentium 4 when it launches come October. Is it the type of machine you want to buy yourself for Yuletide? Although …
Channel 4 Sep 2000, 11:52
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Centrica dials F for phone
Telcom services going cheap
Centrica - the uber utility - is looking to knock BT off its perch and offer competitive telcoms to some eight million households in the UK. The service should be available next month although details about what's on offer - including cheap Net access - are still sketchy. According to reports, punters could save at least a …
Data Networking 4 Sep 2000, 11:59
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Here are the ten most wanted men in the Midlands
West Midlands Police force names and shames online
The West Midlands Police force has decided to post pictures and details of its ten most wanted men on its Web site. As part of Operation Streets Safe, it has listed its Top Ten of wanted robbery suspects whose crimes range from armed robbery to assault. As the site says: "Some offences date back two or three years, but police …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 12:15
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Billy Potter storms up book charts
Yes, everyone's favourite (Plug'n'Pray) Wizard is back
Billy Potter, an ordinary multibillionaire, lives in a cupboard under the stairs in the as-yet unfinished house of his terribly boring aunt and uncle. He has an extremely ordinary life until a strange contract from IBM arrives for Billy that turns his life upside down! He is literally rescued by a world where nothing is as …
Bootnotes 4 Sep 2000, 12:22
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The royal family's email fraud
This is a cracker. Nigerians, hidden millions and IT journalists
A fellow IT hack was amazed to receive the following email from Prince Jafaru A. Manga of Nigeria. Apparently, the hack has been targeted for this tremendous offer because he is an IT journo and was given the nod at a conference in Georgia. It is all patent nonsense of course but interesting nonsense. Presumably, the mention of …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 13:00
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World Online staff get Nina Brink back in their face
They've been told to be polite
Nina Brink - the former chairwoman of ISP World Online - can't seem to break the ties with her old company completely. If you remember, she resigned from her job in April after becoming a hate figure among employees and investors. Why? Well, she flogged her shares in the Dutch ISP amassing a personal fortune of some $60 million …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 13:21
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ECTS: Dreamcast bundled with DVD to take on Playstation 2
P4 1.4GHz crashes on boot up
ECTS, Europe's answer to E3, is currently creating a racket down at London's Olympia which will carry on until 4pm (BST) tomorrow. The word from the show floor is that if you want a Playstation 2 then don't rely on an independent retailer to get it for you. With only 200,000 of the £299 machines available by Christmas, …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 14:16
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Egroups under fire for child porn pics
Updated Public kids porn pulled, but what of the members-only stuff?
Email and picture-sharing Web site Egroups.com has found itself the target of attack after one of its groups entitled "kidsporn" appeared on view to the public. Complaints about the folder - which includes more than a dozen intimate photos of naked children and links to two "Lolita" Web sites - have quickly done the rounds on …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 15:01
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Kids wanna have fun online
World Online lets them
World Online has teamed up with a Swedish outfit to offer what it calls "Europe's first" pre-paid Internet card. The system - called Jalda - enables punters to buy goods and services online. According to Per Brantberg of EHPT - the independent software company created by Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard that developed the service …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 15:03
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Europe to say no to AOL, Time-Warner, EMI merger
The deal will hurt competition, European Commission reckons
The European Union looks set to block AOL's $132 billion acquisition of Time-Warner, and the latter's' music label merger with EMI, on the grounds that the deals, if allowed to go ahead, would be anti-competitive. According to a leaked preliminary ruling from the European Commission, the merger "would create a dominant position …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 15:09
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Dope e-tailer launch goes all to pot
Amsterdam coffee house owners on the warpath
Angry Amsterdam coffee shop owners have made a hash of the launch of a Web site selling marijuana. iToke was due to start taking orders online for dope in the Amsterdam area last Friday, but after fears that the city's coffee drinking establishments would kick up a fuss - and there'd be a media circus - the two Americans opted …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 15:32
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Cock and bull story gets pricked
You couldn't make this stuff up, honest
Sherril Babcock - the woman who was blocked from joining BlackPlanet.com because her named offended filtering software - has been accepted onto the Afro-American community site. According to an update on the Digital Freedom Network's Web site, Ms Babcock finally backed down and bowed to demands to change her name. To what did …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 15:42
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Second kids Net payment card on the way
Teenage online card makes a Splash. A week too soon
It seems as though everyone's fighting to get a slice of the teenage online market with the announcement of the Splash Plastic Card on the same day as World Online's Jalda system. The Splash card's appearance was written about today by the Daily Mail, although when we contacted the company behind it, Marketing Front, we were …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 15:44
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Taiwan's Synnex profits from mobile phones
Rest of world, watch out..
Sacrificed profits in the second quarter of the year in pursuit of a greater share of the mobile phone market appear to have paid off for Synnex Technology International Corp, Taiwan's largest distributor of information technology and communications products, writes Iain Pocock in Taipei. Synnex confirmed yesterday that its …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 15:51
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Silence is golden
Review Hey, we're kinda getting used to this quiet PC stuff
After we had a look at Quiet PC's Molex Radial Fin cooler last week, it occurred to us that it would make a refreshing change to see just how quietly, rather than how fast, we could make a PC perform. A quick call to Quiet PC resulted in an extra quiet power supply and a SilentDrive turning up in the post. Hard disks account …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 15:59
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Intel Foster markings partly decoded
How to understand chip porn
Thanks to one of our regular readers for providing some details about codings found on Intel processors. Over the weekend, we pointed to a Japanese Pricewatch picture that seemed to show a Foster microprocessor, complete, replete with its 600+ pin out. The chip was engraved with curious Intel-like markings, which read as …
Channel 4 Sep 2000, 16:17
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And on with the 3G craziness
This time it's Sweden's turn. And just what is going on in the US?
Okay, next up on the multi-billion pound merry-go-round that is 3G mobile licence auctioning is the home of Abba, Ikea and Volvo - Sweden. The ratio this time is ten operators for four licences and the country has gone for the same commonsense approach as neighbouring Norway - the beauty contest idea. The bidders are charged an …
Data Networking 4 Sep 2000, 16:41
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Tyan Trinity mobo not for overclocking
Soltek SL75KV is short of a PCI slot
SocketA.com has got its mitts on the Tyan Trinity KT Socket A Athlon/Duron mobo. The verdict is 'solid performer' which 'will interest buyers who do not care about overclocking'. Read more about this fat free mobo here. GadgetSquad has put up a review of the Ericsson T28 World phone. Apparently it has already benchtested on …
Hardware Roundup 4 Sep 2000, 16:43
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Intel doesn't mean you any harm
But a little smoke is OK, apparently
We were reassured, and not a little moved, to find that Chipzilla cares deeply about all you folks out there in PC land. Cares to the extent that it has published guidelines here advising power supply manufacturers of the kind of things they should be avoiding. We particularly liked this section: 3.1.5. Catastrophic Failure …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 18:43
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Dog robot tunes in to human feelings
It's the one with the waggly tail
Children's toymaker Tomy is to launch a dog robot that can adapt its personality to its owner. Dog.com will bark and go walkies like any real canine, and via seven sensors on its body will be able to show emotions or feelings. The cyberpet will be able to talk in its own special dog robot language and even learn a spot of …
Business 4 Sep 2000, 22:08
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FTC mutes AOL/Time Warner wedding bells
Uncle Sam to demand a prenup on broadband
US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawyers are prepared to challenge the proposed merger between AOL and Time-Warner unless the betrothed assent to liberal policies governing access to their broadband networks by competitors. Otherwise, consumers located in regions where Time-Warner dominates cable lines could find themselves …
Music and Media 4 Sep 2000, 23:17
