11th September 2000 Archive
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Western Union hacked, 15,000 CC numbers taken
The door was wide open
Emergency fund service and salvation of the world's bail bondsmen, university students and cornered deadbeats Western Union admitted late Sunday that malicious hackers compromised the credit card details of 15,700 customers who had transferred money on their Web site, which was left unprotected while undergoing maintenance, the …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 03:56
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Register Zoroastrian warns of vulture threat
And the good Henry and the bad Henry
It can get very confusing out here in California. Picked up a copy of the Orange County Register this morning, locally known as the Register to find that today's Focus on Religion is all about Zoroastrianism. The first paragraph says: "The vultures are disappearing from Bombay." Yes, that's right folks, the vulture is becoming …
Bootnotes 11 Sep 2000, 06:24
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Warner to detail digital music service today
Catches up with rest of the 'big five'
The last of the world's 'big five' recording companies to unveil a digital music distribution service, Warner Music, will do just that later today, according to 'leaks' to the major news media. The Warner service follows the pattern laid down by EMI, Sony, Universal and BMG: a heap of albums and singles will be offered via the …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 09:13
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Ban Napster, MPAA et al demand
Twenty lobby groups, companies try to influence trial judge(s)
As the October kick-off date for the Napster trial nears, numerous interested parties - lobby groups, in other words - have begun filing Friend of the Court briefs providing information they hope will sway the court's final judgement one way or t'other. The latest such filing took place last week when 20 organisations jointly …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 09:34
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Metallica lawyer tells colleges to block Napster
Or else...
Metallica's lawyer, Howard King, who has filed anti-Napster actions on behalf of the band and others, including rapper Dr. Dre, is spamming US universities, seeking their co-operation in blocking use of the MP3 sharing software on their networks. According to US journal the Chronicle of Higher Education, King has been mailing …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 10:04
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An iMac supercomputer cluster you can carry home
Almost
Terra Soft, the company behind the Yellow Dog and Black Lab Linux PowerPC distros has released a supercomputer cluster based on Apple's iMac. They're teaming up with Marathon Computers of Nashville Tennessee, who have been building Apple PowerPC-based racks for several years. Each unit is comprised of eight of Marathon's " …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 10:07
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UPC follows Telewest in dropping Microsoft ‘Inactive TV’
Tthey think it's all over...
Microsoft's costly investments in European cable companies don't seem to be paying off. The second largest cable company in Europe, UPC (United Pan Europe Communications), has officially chosen to base its interactive TV software on Liberate and OpenTV, in preference to its earlier preferred partner Microsoft. The move was …
Data Networking 11 Sep 2000, 10:14
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Bubble economy gurus rate Amazon's pricing wheeze
Shapiro and Varian talk dirty.
Since Amazon.com hasn't been returning calls to The Register this week - maybe it was peeved about our Tom's earlier skittling of its Privacy Policy - we instead turned to the most influential economists of the new economy, Hal Varian and Carl Shapiro of the University of California Berkeley's Haas Business School and authors of …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 10:25
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RealNetworks cuts deal with Streambox
Streaming media VCR developer settles suit out of court
RealNetworks has settled its legal fight with Streambox, nearly nine months after it was granted a temporary injunction against the latter's streaming media VCR software. Streambox launched its Streambox VCR product last November, as we reported here. The software allowed users to record content streamed from RealNetworks' …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 10:39
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US Patent Office dismisses key Napster defence
Updated MP3 company not protected by Home Recordings Act, says PTO
The US Patent and Trademark Office has told the US Court of Appeal that it should discount Napster's argument that the controversial MP3 sharing service is protected by the US Home Recordings Act (HRA). Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. The provision the HRA grants CD owners to copy disks for their own …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 11:05
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E-Murdoch has a Future
And other financial funnies
Bath-based consumer techie publisher The Future Network Plc has appointed Elisabeth Murdoch to the Board as a non-executive director with immediate effect. Murdoch, 32, joins the Future Board after four years at British Sky Broadcasting, most recently as Managing Director of Sky Networks. 365 Corporation Plc is to acquire the …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 11:08
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IBM not selling 1.1GHz Athlon boxes in US
1GHz PIII shortages kick in
IBM will reveal what machines it will be launching based on AMD's Athlon 1.1GHz this week - but it will not be shipping them in the US. Big Blue said it plans to announce the spec and price of models using the monster chip towards the end of the week. However, it appears there is not enough interest in the US market to warrant …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 11:09
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Hardware Roundup The Gigabyte 8TX – and more…
Pentium 4 mobos, thermal grease, what more could you ask for?
Howdy pardners, time to check what's in the OK Corral today. Overclocker's Workbench takes a peek at the new Gigabyte 8TX - Pentium 4 mobo. Yes, you heard right, Pentium 4. How did they test it, you ask? Well, they didn't. What a swizz. But you can win a tube of Artic Silver Thermal Paste in a competition, so it's probably …
Hardware Roundup 11 Sep 2000, 11:25
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VNU pays £16 million for URL cock-up
A 320,000 times mark-up in just over a year. Now that's financial management
Dutch publisher VNU has coughed up £16 million to get involved with Randsatd Holding, the owners of job site newmonday.com, thanks to a hideous URL cock-up last year. The company has marketed and invested heavily in its own IT job site, jobworld.co.uk, but forgot to register jobworld.com, which was gladly snapped up by IDG. The …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 11:43
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Blair in e-homeless scheme
It's amazing what technology can do
Wired British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to rub shoulders with down-and-outs today as part of an initiative to provide the homeless with computers skills and Net access. In a lunchtime address the PM is expected to announce that a network of Information Communication Technology (ICT) Centres around the UK will help …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 11:44
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Power to the People: apply online to enter UK govt
But would you want to sit alongside the old duffers in the Lords?
The modernisation of the House of Lords is going on apace and now us commoners are invited to apply for a place in the red-seated chamber. Not only that but in line with Tony's Blair e-government prattling, a new Web site is being set up to welcome applications online. The new appointments commission will be launched on …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 12:54
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MS/Ericsson mobile link-up launched
Email on your phone and all that
Microsoft and Ericsson's joint mobile venture, enticingly called Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Venture AB, makes its first appearance today, about a year after the plan was first announced. The company, which will be 70 per cent owned by Ericsson with Microsoft taking up the rest, aims to provide some PC-like features to mobile …
Data Networking 11 Sep 2000, 12:59
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Falling DRAM prices dent Winbond
More fabs needed for growth
The August revenue figures announced by Winbond Electronics on Saturday broke its all-time record, set one month previously, writes Iain Pocock in Taipei. Revenue growth in August was also impressive when compared with last year's figures for the same month, but compared with July this year, it marked a rise of less than seven …
Channel 11 Sep 2000, 14:14
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Latest Itanium has infernal kernel
Updated Linux developers had problems cranking
Reports on developer newsgroups suggest that the latest chip stepping of Intel's Itanium processor is causing problems for Linux developers whose code worked fine with stepping A2. Timing issues seem to be the problem, but it is aggravated by the fact that Intel has so far released few samples of the B1 Itanium, making the …
Channel 11 Sep 2000, 14:24
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Readers' Gallery
Your pics published
We asked you to send in groovy shots of yourselves kitted out in Register gear. (It's a blatant attempt to get you to buy some merchandise we're afraid, but hey, you don't have to be pictured and be the envy of all your mates). Here are some of the more interesting pics we've received. Going for gold in the 'most improbable …
Site News 11 Sep 2000, 14:26
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UK invests £1 billion in e-government
Loadsamoney
The British Government is to plough £1 billion over three years into a major e-government shake-up, Prime Minister announced today. The initiative will help "foster dot.com innovation and entrepreneurial culture in government". Mr Blair said the results would improve the delivery of information to citizens and help cut the …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 14:48
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UK plc loves the Net
Kimono slips open...reveals pierced navel and a small rose tattoo
More than a million small businesses went online in Britain last year smashing the Government's own target for SMEs joining the dotcom revolution. The figures were published today by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) as part of its International Benchmarking Study. According to the DTI 1.7 million SMEs are now online …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 14:50
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Windows ME boosted August PC sales by 60 per cent
Life in the old dog yet
August's PC sales saw 60 per cent growth, proving demand is not weakening in the sector. According to Delaware-based company FHI Research.com, the PC is far from dead, with 60 per cent sequential and 68 per cent year-on-year growth in August. The company based its research on the US retail sector, but uses the data to reaffirm …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 14:51
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Rambus gets Intel ramboost
Not quite new chips for old
It's pretty evident that chip giant Intel is now going to go the whole hog and push its Pentium 4 project to the limit. That follows reports on both Cnet and Electronic Buyers' News, which are reporting that Intel is offering a rebate on Rambus based Intel Pentium 4 systems of $70 in Q4 and $60 in Q1 of next year. Those …
Channel 11 Sep 2000, 14:59
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HP in talks to buy PWC's consulting biz for $18 billion
Chasing service big bucks
Hewlett-Packard is in talks to shell out $18 billion for Price Waterhouse Coopers' consulting arm. The PC heavyweight today confirmed it wanted PWC's global management and IT consulting practice to boost its service offerings. Talks are still at early stages, and "significant issues remain to be resolved" according to a …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 15:03
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Hardware Roundup QDI SynactiX 2E mobo reviewed
815e mobos, dangerous fashions and more cool stuff
OCWorkbench has mixed feelings about the new QDI SynactiX 2E motherboard, reckoning it's pretty stable but doesn't have much to write home about in the performance stakes. At the same place you can also check out a first look at ABIT's VP6 dual Socket 370 board that was showcased during the LinuxWorld Roadshow at Taipei at the …
Hardware Roundup 11 Sep 2000, 15:46
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Nokia's Web TV box and the IBC conference
Fancy kit, dancing women and the vices of Amsterdam
We were invited by Nokia to preview its new "media terminal" at the IBC show in Amsterdam at the weekend. The event proved very interesting. First, the Nokia Media Terminal. Not a sexy name, admittedly, but then the whole idea is to use the mobile phone model - sell it to operators, who then hugely discount it to consumers to …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 16:15
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Flame of the Week We are Intel lapdogs
Makes a change from being AMD/Rambus/etc lapdogs
[Not as diseased as most our flames, but it'll do. There is some tongue, some cheek and an uncanny description of ole Mike Magee] I would like to sincerely complain about the tone and tenure of your Intel fanzine which you publish under the url www.theregister.co.uk. The shameless and brazen way you suck up to the chip giant …
Flame of the Week 11 Sep 2000, 16:16
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UK's e-Govt plans are a joke
Comment History tells us Britain Online is doomed to fail
So the British Government is to spend £1 billion on IT to modernise public services. It's enough to make you weep. The Government's record on IT projects is pitiful - scandalous even - yet that doesn't appear to stop ministers from coming up with one hair-brained scheme after another. For instance, in May the Government …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 16:19
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One dimensional sound waves – enough already!
It's very kind of you all to point out our lack of knowledge of physics, but...
OK, we surrender. When we claimed last week that sound waves couldn't move in one dimension, we didn't know what we were letting ourselves in for. Now thanks to dozens of readers explaining the subject to us v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y with the aid of Slinkys, we understand that sound waves are compression waves so they can move in …
Bootnotes 11 Sep 2000, 16:22
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Car crash kid investigated for online fraud
Motor was bought on Net
A 15-year-old kid from Florida is under investigation for fraud after crashing a car he is suspected of buying online. The lad bought the $15,000 Plymouth Neon last month by negotiating the price via email and telephone, police said. He used the CheckFree service - which lets users send cash electronically. In total he sent …
Music and Media 11 Sep 2000, 16:33
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Readers' Letters Late and small
Basically what you lot think of us lot
[Okay, okay, so your Letters Ed went on a press freebie to Amsterdam and forgot all about Readers' Letters. Seeing as it's now Monday, what's gonna happen is that we'll post a shortened version of just what we say it is: readers' letters. Besides, there weren't many good ones this week anyway. All the troublemakers must be on …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 17:20
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Intel promises better 1GHz Pentium III supply
Updated Denies there's any problem with the chip
Chip giant Intel is denying rumours that it is running into problems with supplying the latest flip chip Pentium III because it is using the same stepping as the withdrawn 1.1GHz Pentium III. Resellers and distributors have reported scarcity of the parts for the last three weeks, while posts on Silicon Investor suggest it may …
Channel 11 Sep 2000, 17:32
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Fuel protests hit UK IT industry
It's that $150 tax per barrel
Computer distributors in the UK have heard from their courier that difficulties in sourcing fuel is preventing them from delivering IT kit to their customers. Amtrak UK told a distributor, who declined to be identified, that the difficulties were now widespread. He received the following memo from the courier. "Due to the …
Business 11 Sep 2000, 21:55
