8th September 2000 Archive

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FBI warns Congress: foreign telecomms may inhibit wiretaps

"Legal wiretaps," that is

The great twins of American obsessiveness, Power and Wealth, stood in direct conflict on Capitol Hill Thursday as the House Commerce Subcommittee considered numerous implications of Deutsche Telekom's $46 billion takeover bid for US mobile phone operator VoiceStream Wireless. At issue was concern that the German government owns …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 00:09
Scaldera swings the axe

20 per cent of SCO lost en route to Utah.

The Santa Cruz Operation is to shed 19 per cent of its workforce - 190 employees - as it gets ready to hand its Unix operations over to Caldera. The deep cuts affect all operations of the business across the globe said a spokesman for SCO. However, the Tarantella business unit of SCO escapes the axe. SCO Inc. will become …

Software 8 Sep 2000, 00:31
Amazon's Loyalty Tax: IE users pay more

Thank-you for your custom. Please come back and be fleeced by us again.

Jeff McNeal, editor and publisher of the The Big Picture DVD site, says Amazon.com's recent random pricing has prompted him re-examine his relationship with the Seattle e-tailer. DVD shoppers have discovered that Amazon's prices can vary wildly, with loyal registered users paying up to 16 per cent more for the same items than …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 00:47
Leaked email halts SF newsroom

'I am fiercely competitive: I want to win a Pulitzer Prize'

Never have the perils of bad mouthing your colleagues by office email been so vividly illustrated as in the unfortunate case of a San Francisco newspaper reporter. The city's two daily newspapers Chronicle and the Examiner are changing owners, with rival staff scrambling to get on the morning Chron. (Actually there is rumoured …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 07:23
Napster fan hacks 50 more sites

Pimpshiz attacks again - as promised

Pro-Napster hacker 'Pimpshiz' has proved true to his or her word and struck again, breaking into and defacing a host of US Web sites - just as promised last month. According to the New York Times, Pimpshiz hit 50 sites, including NASA and the Communications Workers of America, using their front pages to attack the music …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 09:19
Wall Street goes mad on imaginary MS settlement talks

Roadkill waiting to happen, these guys...

the twitchy vulnerability of Wall Street was amply illustrated yesterday by what seems to have been an entirely spurious rumour that settlement talks between Microsoft and the DoJ were under way again. Microsoft stock promptly kicked up on double normal trading volume, but it seems the rumour was at best wishful thinking. At …

Software 8 Sep 2000, 09:35
MP3.com's battle with RIAA not ours – Napster

Two cases distinct says lawyer - though both about copyright theft

Napster moved to distance its legal wrangle with the music industry from MP3.com's own tussle with the world's biggest recording companies - which could see MP3.com paying up to $250 million in punitive damages for copyright theft. Napster's battle with the Recording Industry Association of America comes to court next month, …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 09:43
Cunning stunt hunt worth a punt

You don't get it, do you?

The Digital Freedom Network (DFN) has challenged Net users to scour the Web in search of the very worst examples of online censorship. Punters are being asked to probe sites, chat communities and bulletin boards to expose and mock the pointlessness of censorware's existence. DFN Internet Development Director Alan Brown said: " …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 10:07
Clothing company hit by anti-DeCSS suit

Copyleft copied DVD biz trade secrets, allegedly

Programmer-oriented T-shirt supplier Copyleft has fallen foul of the DVD Copy Control Authority, the movie industry-sponsored body that oversees DVD anti-piracy technology. Copyleft's sin, it appears, was to sell a shirt printed with the source code to DeCSS, the controversial utility that cracks DVD movies' copy protection …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 10:16
MS Hotmail caves to Harris over spam blocking

MAPS not all-powerful after all shock

Survey outfit Harris Interactive has triumphed over the mighty MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) Realtime Blackhole List. After finding itself on the anti-spam list earlier this year Harris sued AOL, Microsoft Hotmail and a clutch of other outfits for blocking its email surveys. Microsoft has now joined AOL in bravely giving …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 10:16
Worldwide PC sales to rocket in Q3

Consumer, Asian and portable markets to boom

Worldwide PC shipments are due to rise 18.5 per cent this quarter, with Asia Pacific leading the way, according to IDC. Sales will reach 33.4 million units - an 18.5 per cent year-on-year increase, and 10.1 per cent jump on Q2. Asia Pacific and Japan are expected to come up trumps in Q3 - with year-on-year growth of 36 per …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 10:42
Hitachi to offer Linux support from mobile to mainframe

Sees ramp in Linux share of its wares

Hitachi is to offer Linux on all of its major product lines, from mobile devices to mainframes, the company announced in Tokyo yesterday. Support for Linux will be available on its MP mainframe series; IA-64, 9000V Unix and HA8000 PC servers, the Flora PC series and its mobile products. Hitachi says Linux currently accounts for …

Software 8 Sep 2000, 11:04
SoundMax audio drivers – how to get hold of 'em

Updated Start pressuring those OEMs, folks

Most Reg readers' response to our story about the vastly superior SoundMax 2 audio drivers for Intel's Easton mobo, was 'where can I get them?' The official advice from Analog Devices is to contact the people from whom they bought their PCs or mobos. Apparently, each OEM shipping ADI AD1885 codecs has a driver built for them …

Software 8 Sep 2000, 11:07
Kmart limits sale of violent computer games

From now on, you'll have to prove you're old enough to buy Quake

US retailer Kmart yesterday said it will clamp down on sales of violent computer games to young children. The company will now require would-be buyers to prove that they're old enough to meet a game's age rating. The US games industry established its rating system, in which titles are graded according to their level of violence …

Software 8 Sep 2000, 11:10
US in Net demise

The figures speak for themselves

Almost 300 million people around the world access the Net from home, according to the latest figures from ACNielsen eRatings.com. The US now accounts for some 137 million users - less than half of the global total - but almost double the combined domestic Net user population in Europe. David Day, director of analytics at …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 11:27
TSMC carries on chip churn

No boutique, a supermarket

Another month, another record. Amidst talk of peaking semiconductor cycles and oversupplies of memory chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co posted another record high monthly revenue last month. The record will do well to last beyond next month's revenue announcement, analysts said. TSMC, the largest producer of made-to- …

Channel 8 Sep 2000, 11:52
Hotmail co-founder starts new dotcom venture

Spends less than $10 million of his fortune

Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has launched his biggest private dotcom venture. The man who made $400 million selling the internet email service to Microsoft has spent less than $10 million of his own money on Arzoo.com - a business which will fix IT problems over the Web using software professionals based in the US and India …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 12:15
Heatsinks that work by sound

All getting a bit Star Trek for our liking

Boffins at the University of Pennsylvania reckon that the future of cooling lies in converting heat into sound. The technique, which we don't pretend to understand for a moment, centres on some dinky little gizmos called carbon nanotubes. The nanotubes, filaments of pure carbon less than one ten-thousandth the width of a human …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 12:23
AMD to axe prices again October

Newport Beach Intel plays Alice Red Queen game

Sources close to AMD in the US say the firm will make an attempt to queer Intel's Pentium 4 pitch by once more slashing prices on its microprocessors . Intel, in a bid to position its Pentium 4 platform correctly, is to drastically slash the price of its still rare Pentium III 1GHz Pentium III in October, according to an …

Channel 8 Sep 2000, 12:34
World Online happy with Italian job

Oi, geezer, over 'ere, quick

The UK CEO of World Online has welcomed the move by the Italian ISP, Tiscali, to acquire the Dutch outfit. Simon Preston told Reg today: "It means we're backed by a bigger, stronger parent. It gives our consumers even more reassurance about World Online and our ability to deliver the Internet future [that's broadband to you and …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 13:29
Nokia unwraps Linux Net appliance

Phone maker very keen on open source

Mobile phone maker Nokia today unveiled its entry into the Internet appliance market. Called Media Terminal, the device - the first in a series of consumer electronics units - is based on Linux. Media Terminal has been designed to hook up to the Net through digital TV services, though an ADSL version is in the works to take …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 14:08
TSMC carries on chip churn

No boutique, a supermarket

Another month, another record. Amid talk of peaking semiconductor cycles and oversupplies of memory chips, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co posted another record high monthly revenue last month. The record will do well to last beyond next month's revenue announcement, analysts said, writes Iain Pocock in Taiwan. TSMC, the …

Channel 8 Sep 2000, 14:08
Porno Webmasters nailed in $43m credit scam

Bank sells CC database to trixters

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on Thursday ordered a California Web-porn outfit to pay $37.5 million in restitution for a credit-card billing scam, made possible after the defendants purchased access to a database of three million credit-card numbers from Charter Pacific Bank of Agoura Hills, California, and illegally …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 14:12
Gigabyte provides Pentium 4 support

Newport Beach 423 pinzilla in works

Our pals at OC Workbench have their mitts on details of a Gigabyte mobo supporting the Pentium 4. The board, the site says, is called the Gigabyte 8TX, with up to 2Gb of memory support for the Rambus platform, using four RIMM sockets. The ATX board has one AGP Pro slot, four USB ports, two channel Ultra ATA 100/66 IDE devices …

Channel 8 Sep 2000, 14:23
Timna – bring on the orange sauce

Dead duckdom beckons

US analysts seem to have just woken up to the fact that Intel's system on a chip Timna is scheduled for launch next year. We've mentioned before that the cheapo chip is on shaky ground, and the analysts' comments give us no reason to make us change our minds. Timna's due to launch in Q1 2001 at '700MHz or above' is still Intel' …

Channel 8 Sep 2000, 14:23
CMGI in trip to knacker's yard

If you're an animal lover, please read something else

CMGI - which has lost two thirds of its $50 billion value since the beginning of the year - is to take measures to try and halt the company's slide. In a bid to improve his company's "path to profitability" CMGI chairman, David Wetherell, said the Net investment outfit would reduce its stable of companies by around half and …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 14:34
Qwest to shed 13,000 staff

But upbeat about DSL business

US telecom company Qwest Communications International is to cut around 13,000 employees following its buyout of US West. The Denver-based outfit said yesterday it would shed 15 per cent of its permanent staff, or 11,000 people. Around 4,500 will go by the end of this year, and another 6,500 by the end of 2001. Around 1,800 …

Data Networking 8 Sep 2000, 14:42
Vulture hits new heights

Reg shirt in world altitude record

Intrepid Reg fan Alex Cooksey has set a new vulture merchandising altitude record of 14,000ft during a daredevil ascent of Nepal's Annapurna. Intrepid Alex - supported only by 35 native bearers and a Medivac chopper - fought his way from the tourist bus to the bar in a nightmare thirty-yard trek through driving snow. Alex …

Bootnotes 8 Sep 2000, 14:55
Vodafone upgrade improves voicemail security

By locking people out of their own mailboxes, unfortunately

Ever vigilant cellphone operator Vodafone upgraded its voicemail software this week to provide improved security. Security was improved to the extent that a sizeable chunk of users found themselves locked out of their own voicemail. Slothful punters who had never bothered to change their PIN numbers from the original '0000' or …

Data Networking 8 Sep 2000, 15:16
ISPA: no decision on LineOne

Well, not yet anyhow

LineOne is still waiting to hear whether it's been kicked out of the Internet industry trade group, ISPA. The council of the Internet Service Providers Association met today to decide whether the ISP had broken its rules when it ditched unmetered Net access during the summer. An insider at LineOne said: "We still haven't heard …

Music and Media 8 Sep 2000, 15:38
PlayStation 2 to sell out this weekend

They're nearly all gone

The UK's high street retailers will have sold all their allocations of Sony PlayStation 2s by the end of the weekend. Pre-ordering started yesterday. The Dixons Group, which also owns Currys and PC World, claimed it took 10,000 phone enquiries in the first two hours of business on its direct order phone line. The games console …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 15:45
Keyboard grime analysis

This is what clogs up your key strokes

Ever wondered what makes up the grimy residue that coats your computer keyboard? According to intensive research by AOL, it consists of bits of fingernails, hair, insects, vegetables and the odd cornflake crumb. And as if that isn't enough useless information for one Friday afternoon - here's some more. Britain's seven million …

Business 8 Sep 2000, 16:19