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15th September 2000 Archive

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  • China mulls Net investment barriers

    It's the Great Leap Backward, claims WSJ

    Beijing has started debating measures that threaten to hinder foreign investment in its budding online economy. Two draft laws have been put forward that may restrict who is able to operate in China's Internet sector. The first is a general telecommunications law - in its current form it states that anyone wanting to operate " …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 02:01

  • AMD whips up sales, whips out boxed chips

    Old DEC strategy rises

    Sales reps at AMD are exhorting customers to buy chips before quarter end to help them reach their quotas, in a move reminiscent of the good old days at the Digital Equipment Corporation. AMD's sales quarter ends on the 30th of this month, and US reps are asking their customers to help the firm along by placing orders for …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 07:53

  • Intel invests in embedded Linux operation

    Cash paid to promote development for XScale CPU

    Intel is to pump money into embedded Linux software developer MontaVista to encourage development of OS and application code for its XScale processor. Chipzilla's investment in MontaVista was announced yesterday, part of a $23 million cash injection from a number of VCs. The size of Intel's investment was not revealed. XScale …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 08:27

  • TDK to launch ‘souped-up MP3’ software

    Based on Kenwood's enhancement code

    Japanese media-to-modems company TDK will next week launch software designed to enhance the open MP3 music format. TDK's MP3 Audio Magic is based on Japanese consumer electronics giant Kenwood's Supreme Drive MP3 enhancement technology. Supreme Drive re-generates high frequency sounds lost when real sound is recorded and …

    Software 15 Sep 2000, 08:46

  • Rambus threatens non-compliant Dramurai

    Sue us and you lose, we win-win-win

    Rambus gave US financial analysts a good old ear and eye bashing yesterday in the shape of an 86 slide presentation outlining its strategy, its technology, the litigation it is engaged in, and its franchise model. In the process, some facts, figures and interesting claims emerged, based on what Rambus described as a win-win-win …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 09:10

  • Palm preps pay-per-download PalmOS 3.5

    Long-awaited upgrade won't be free

    Palm will finally release PalmOS 3.5 this autumn, and to add insult to injury as it were - Palm users have been waiting for the update since February - the handheld company is planning to charge for it. Palm's senior director of consumer product marketing, John Cook, told the New York Times that users would pay no more than $20 …

    Software 15 Sep 2000, 09:22

  • API messes up Alpha mobo upgrade

    It's a poor do, all round

    Cunning plans that Alpha Processor Inc (API) had to replace its dual-CPU mobo, the UP 2000, with the UP 2000 plus have gone awry, according to Korean sources close to the company's plans. The UP 2000 was a 64-bit based dual microprocessor mobo, while the UP 2000+ is slated to have two 64-bit PCI buses, and to auto-detect Slot B …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 09:49

  • Durlacher gets ology despite good dotcom results

    Our supersonic look at ebiz economics

    Durlacher Corporation - the European research-driven investment and securities group focused on emerging technologies and media - has announced pre tax profits of £12.2 million for the year to June 30 - an increase of 356 per cent on last year. Turnover was up from £13.2 million last year to £28.5 million and its market …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 09:55

  • IBM research promises 5-fold data density boost

    Cantilevered nanotech clever stuff

    IBM's nanotechnology research means that someday there will be storage media with data density of five times the current theoretical limits for magnetic storage media, the company says. Building on its Zurich Lab's Nobel prize-winning work, the company has developed a comb-like cantilever, made using standard chip fab equipment …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 09:57

  • Red Hat eyes embedded arena for growth

    Revenues up, loss down

    Leading Linux distributor Red Hat yesterday posted a much-narrowed second quarter loss, coming in just ahead of Wall Street expectations. Red Hat lost $1.9 million (one cent a share) in the three months to 31 August, compared to $4.3 million (six cents a share) for the same period last year. First Call's analyst average had …

    Software 15 Sep 2000, 09:59

  • How not to screw up ecommerce for the next five years

    Contract lawyers, emails and digital signatures

    We had a chat with a top contract lawyer and two big execs from MessagingDirect about digital signatures. The lawyer, Dr Brain Bandy, had done some research on the legal implications of digital signatures for the execs and all of them were keen to educate yours truly on where things should be heading. To save you the legal ins …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 10:07

  • Attractive FRIACO finds another beau

    Has someone got their beer goggles on?

    Another telco has come out of the woodwork and signed up to BT's unmetered wholesale Net access product, FRIACO. Viatel - a carrier's carrier - said that it would soon offer flat-rate dial-up access to Internet service providers (ISPs) in the UK. This follows last month's announcement by Worldcom that it had signed up to …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 10:10

  • AMD Durons, T'birds to get dual support?

    Stepping 3 Intel's stepping c0 trip or typo

    Resellers briefed by AMD on its future plans have been told wondrous tales of future dual processor support for both Thunderbirds and Duron microprocessors. That comes as evidence grows that Intel is still humming and hawing over providing such support for Pentium IIIs, never mind its Celeron platform, with the latest c0 …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 10:34

  • Novell marketing VP talks turkey in last chance saloon

    Interview Here we go with take two on the rescue...

    With Novell entering the last chance saloon, The Register spoke to Steve Adams, Novell's senior VP for Worldwide marketing, at the IDC meeting in Monaco. It's taken only a month from the announcement of a "realignment of expenses" (as staff reductions are euphemistically called) to the formal executions on Monday. Novell's …

    Data Networking 15 Sep 2000, 10:43

  • Compaq previews The Source portal – not many dead

    You mark our words - the wheels'll fall off this one almost immediately...

    Compaq previewed the business-to-business portal it's calling The Source at a side event during the IDC European Forum in Monaco this week. The demo suggested that the service will be offered as a kind of dumbed-down yellow pages without any choice of potential suppliers, and it soon became clear that the real purpose is to " …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 10:46

  • Psion re-commits to Mac

    First new Mac sync software in years coming early 2001

    Psion will make a long-awaited upgrade to its MacConnect PDA synchronisation software early next year, the company said yesterday. The company is also making grudging moves towards USB as a universal connectivity mechanism. The software, which hooks Psion's Revo, new Revo Plus, Series 5mx and Series 7 handhelds to a Mac, will …

    Mac Channel 15 Sep 2000, 10:49

  • Big Apple gets Internet taxis

    You emailing me? I don't see nobody else here

    New Yorkers can now hail Internet-enabled taxicabs on the city streets. Yahoo has got into bed with Medallion Financial Corp and Team Systems Corp to kit out ten cabs with mounted Palm Pilot VIIs connected to the Web. The purple and yellow fleet, complete with Yahoo's name splashed on the outside and purple upholstery on the …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 10:51

  • Fuel crisis causes Mayfair madness

    We've changed our minds - shoot all protestors

    The protests may be over but the actions of farmers, hauliers, dentists and lion-tamers moaning about the high cost of fuel have had unsuspected and dire effects. It struck home last night that this kind of thing must never be allowed to happen again. The Old Monk pub is nearly dry. London Pride? No. Bombadier? Nope. Theakston? …

    Bootnotes 15 Sep 2000, 10:53

  • Spot Register Weak Euro hits buying patterns

    It's a day-by-day szechuan

    Overall market situation shows a general increase of the demand for most popular items. Purchasing activity is a little bit on the conservative side because of the weakness of the Euro against the dollar, and many operators do prefer a day by day purchasing activity, waiting for better times before seriously building up their …

    Spot Register 15 Sep 2000, 11:04

  • PlayStation anticipation casts shadow on games sales

    Eidos is a bit worried

    First PlayStation-expectation did for Dreamcast sales, and now it's hitting UK games retail sales too, according to games publisher Eidos' chairman, Ian Livingstone. "There continues to be a low level of activity in the retail market," he admitted yesterday, according to UK newswires. The reason: "Anticipation of the release of …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 11:15

  • AltaVista Inc gets jobs hatchet out…

    ...again

    AltaVista Inc is to sack some of its workforce in California, the company will announce later today. According to reports the company will also centralise its operations at its HQ in Palo Alto. It's not how many employees will get the chop but workers in Europe are safe. Vesey Crichton, AltaVista Europe's marketing and …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 11:19

  • WAP’s the matter you? Hey! Gotta no respecta

    Updated Ah shutupa your face Negroponte

    We’ve been trying not to run this story because of its naffness. It’s like comparing a Hollywood blockbuster and a made-for-TV movie, except this “news” is a made-for-media announcement. “Technology expert” Nicholas Negroponte (actually director of MIT’s media lab) used his time in the spotlight at the European IT Forum to …

    Data Networking 15 Sep 2000, 11:22

  • Tory party ISP cut off by CallNet

    An e-threat to democracy?

    The Conservative Party is launching an investigation after its ISP, Tory.org, suffered a massive failure last night. Loyal Tory voters - some 2,500 of them - were unable to access their email or the Web. The virtual ISP is operated by CallNet. Yesterday, Cable & Wireless said it had pulled the plug on CallNet because of …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 11:47

  • Flames of the Week Fuel crisis sends em crazy

    And we unveil our new phrase for dealing with such matters

    The UK fuel crisis: all thanks to the Internet You are the Register's resident fool, right? One day you might write an intelligent story about IT. One day... but instead you are content to peddle the right wing lie that this fuel dispute has something to do with "ordinary people" and waffle on about mobile phones as if …

    Flame of the Week 15 Sep 2000, 11:50

  • Film evidence challenges BT's claim to hypertext patent

    Shaky b&w image

    BT's tight-fisted grasp on the patent for hyperlinks could be about to slacken following an intriguing posting on Nerd site, Slashdot Apparently, on December 9, 1968, Douglas C Engelbart and 17 researchers at the Augmentation Research Center, Stanford Research Institute, in Menlo Park, California presented a 90-minute live …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 12:07

  • MP3.com bans hacker song

    Where's Joan Baez when you need her?

    MP3.com has banned a song that witters on about the DVD hacking code DeCSS. In the song, Joseph Wecker sings a version of the code - which is subject to various lawsuits in the US over its being a hacking tool. It doesn't sound like a top ten hit, but MP3.com has decided that the lyrics are "offensive or otherwise inappropriate …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 12:55

  • Does MS barcoding of Windows licences make piracy easier?

    The announcement sounded tough, but execution? Null points, we fear...

    Microsoft's plan to reduce Windows documentation to a barcode was formulated as yet another move to stamp out piracy, but it's beginning to look horribly like one of those cunning plans that do precisely the opposite of what was intended. The unique IDs don't seem very unique at all, the method of software distribution in at …

    Software 15 Sep 2000, 13:49

  • So-called hackers: please grow up

    Kierant: Pathetically predictable approach to SDMI hacking challenge

    We ran a story, Wednesday, on SDMI's open challenge to hackers to break its new music codes with the incentive of $10,000 for anyone that did. Yes, it was a PR stunt but it was a pretty good one. And a bloody big gamble. What if its codes are torn to pieces - where on earth could it go from there? On the other hand, pull it off …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 13:58

  • TSMC starts pushing out 0.13 micron stuff

    First products likely in Jan 2001

    TSMC is sending 0.13 micron chips out to seven clients, the company announced today. The first customer to get his or her grubby mitts upon one will do so at the end of this month. This means that we can expect to see the first products in the shops just about in time for new-year's resolutions, according to European President …

    Channel 15 Sep 2000, 14:03

  • Sony boosts PlayStation 2 DVD playback

    US, UK buyers to get hardware DVD, not software

    Sony has revised the PlayStation 2 for the US and European markets to significantly improve the console's DVD playback, according to sources at UK hi-fi company Wharfedale. How would Wharfedale know, you ask. According to a report in e-zine DVD Times, Wharfedale has had to modify its DVD750 player to incorporate a new DVD …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 14:16

  • 225 jobs cut at AltaVista

    Not nice, not nice at all

    AltaVista Inc has slashed its US workforce by a quarter, it announced today. Some 225 people out of a US workforce of 900 people have lost their jobs - that's on top of the 40 or so who were booted out earlier this year. The move - along with a consolidation of office space and building - is intended to "achieve near-term …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 15:15

  • Gates and Allen cash in shares

    More than $100m in loose change for the boys

    Microsoft execs Bill Gates and Paul Allen have decided to offload more than $100 million worth of shares in the software giant. Chairman Gates will sell 850,000 common shares valued at $59 million, while fellow co-founder Allen will flog 720 million - around $50.3 million. The moves, which will provide loose change to the two …

    Business 15 Sep 2000, 15:20

  • 98 million mobiles sold in March and June

    Nokia is top dog by a long way

    Ninety eight million mobile phones were bought between March and June, according to Dataquest. Sales are expected to hit 420 million by the end of 2000. Nokia was the top vendor, shifting around 27 million units in the period, giving it 28 per cent market share. Motorola sold 15 million, with 16 per cent of the sector, and …

    Data Networking 15 Sep 2000, 15:36

  • Fuelling the flames: crazies everywhere

    This was the week of the UK fuel tax protests

    The UK fuel crisis: all thanks to the Internet I'm angry enough with not being about to get petrol (which I am quite happy to pay for, let's face it they'd only tax something else we enjoy more) without reading the moronic reactionary right-wing bollocks in the above article. I read The Register for your humorous slant on IT …

    Letters 15 Sep 2000, 16:21

  • Megahurtz. What is going on with the semiconductor industry?

    Some words of wisdom about the crazy chipzillas

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/3/13206.html">Megahurtz, memory wars exercise in futility It sure seems funny to me when Intel was winning the MHz wars you could not pick up a rag that didn't say that every last MHz mattered. Now that Intel is getting there ass kicked, all the people have decided "on there on of course" …

    Letters 15 Sep 2000, 16:22

  • Beer: an essential good for our survival

    This is when we realised things were bad

    [When our local started running out of beer, we came to our sense and asked for the immediate execution of all fuel tax protestors] Fuel crisis causes Mayfair madness In nearby (to me) Seattle, there are pubs attached to breweries to survive emergencies such as G.B. appears to be enduring. If all else fails, you might …

    Letters 15 Sep 2000, 16:26

  • Best of the Rest: bits and bobs

    The House of Lords, mouthy futurists and a timely feminist gag

    [Bit of a mixed bag] Power to the People: apply online to enter UK govt You said: "The peerage system is a totally corrupt old-boys'-network affair ..." Completely unlike the "totally" open, "totally" honest, "totally" democratic and "totally" accountable system of Parliamentary representation we get from New Labour in the …

    Letters 15 Sep 2000, 16:31

  • Readers' Letters A week of turmoil

    Fuel crisis, beer crisis, chip speed crisis, media whore crisis

    [It's been a funny old week and it's Friday again (how did we get to the middle of September?). Sorry here are a select bunch of your letters. Enjoy] Fuelling the flames: crazies everywhere This was the week of the UK fuel tax protests Megahurtz. What is going on with the semiconductor industry? Some words of wisdom about …

    Letters 15 Sep 2000, 16:56

  • Chernobyl virus author faces 3-years in chokey

    Taiwanese authorities feel his collar

    The writer of the CIH, or Chernobyl, virus has been detained by Taiwanese authorities. They plan to bring him to trial for all the damage the virus caused, and if found guilty he faces up to three years in jail for his escapade. Military authorities originally questioned Chen Ing-Hau in April last year, but astonishingly since …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 17:21

  • IBM distracts Olympic athletes with email

    Brit swimmers are probably up for it

    IBM plans to keep athletes busy at this year's Olympic Games. That's if the world's sporting elite find themselves with time to spare between limbering up for races in their hectic schedule. IBM has set up two Internet cafés at the games - one floating in Sydney's Darling harbour for the general public, and another in the …

    Music and Media 15 Sep 2000, 17:28