20th September 2000 Archive

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AMD confirms enterprise push

Via Technology Forum Scaling up with MP Athlons

The vice president of sales and marketing for AMD in Asia Pacific today confirmed that pushing into the commercial and enterprise market was a high priority for the firm. That follows a presentation AMD recently gave to its resellers in which it was marshalling coop funds to encourage sales of workstations and servers into that …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 04:48
Via pushes $200 Internet PC

Via Technology Forum Wen Chi Chen wants to fill void

The CEO and president of Via kicked off the company's technology forum this morning by claiming cheap PCs will fill and satisfy the needs of the rapidly growing worldwide Internet market. The devices will bridge the gap between dedicated information appliances and more powerful machines costing over $500, said Chen. "From our …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 04:48
Pentium 4 launches a little late

Well, later than we said, anyway

The end of October has been confirmed as the launch date for Intel's Willamette, aka Pentium 4. As we reported a couple of months back, the original launch date for the chip was to be the middle of October, but for what we assume to be marketing considerations, that date has now slipped to the very end of the month. US sources …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 09:01
Napster-style sites to cost music biz $3.1bn by 2005

And lawsuits wont stop punters

Napster-like sites will cost record labels $3.1 billion by 2005. And what's more, lawsuits against these sites that use music piracy won't stop punters using them. That's according to a report by Forrester Research, which says book publishers are also in the firing line - they can expect to lose around $1.5 billion by the same …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 09:35
Faster Intel mobiles coming Monday

850, 800 PIII, 700 Celeron to debut next week

Remaining tight-lipped as ever over forthcoming products, Intel today refused to confirm or deny that three new mobile chips are to launch on Monday. The 850 and 800MHz Pentium III SpeedStep mobiles (running at 700 and 650MHz respectively on batteries) will be joined by a 700MHz Celeron mobile, a 50MHz speed bump from the …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 10:08
McDonalds revamps chip business

It burgers belief

As seen in Crete. When I was on holiday I had a bit of a hardware moment: I drove past a billboard advertising the fabulously named McAthlon burger on the way into Iraklion, but sadly did not have my camera to hand. Fortunately there are other people out there who are equally vulture-eyed, but a little bit more organised. …

Bootnotes 20 Sep 2000, 10:24
Y2K to blame for Compel profit slump

From £12.7m to £2.08m

Y2K has been blamed for Compel reporting a steep fall in full-year pre-tax profits from £12.7 million to £2.08 million Sales for the year to June 30 slipped from £293.8 million to £288 million. The company reported exceptional charges of £1.19 million for a cost-cutting restructuring exercise and for fending off an unwanted …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 10:38
Big nob Bell ends…

...his career at excite@home

The CEO of excite@home is to resign, making it the third top nob departure at the US Net media company this year. George Bell became Excite's first CEO in 1996. He will stay on as chairman until the end of next year. Shares slipped a little on the news. Gameplay.com plc has signed an agreement with Yahoo! Europe to sell games …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 11:07
HSBC site daubed with graffiti

Killjoy was ear

HSBC - the high street-cum Internet bank - was vandalised earlier today by an unknown e-vandal whinging about the high price of fuel. The front page was daubed with various sentiments although HSBC spokesman, Adrian Russell, couldn't say exactly what was written. Apologising unreservedly for the scrawl and aware that it was an …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 11:09
Naughty Dramurai back DDR to hilt

Via Technology Forum Mandy Rambus-Davis paradigm shaft

Can it be a coincidence that memory companies Hyundai, Micron and Infineon all said today at this forum in Taipei that DDR (double data rate) memory was going great guns and would dominate the PC market by this time next year? No. All three companies are in litigation with intellectual property company Rambus but that word nary …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 11:13
Frederick Forsyth's next book on Net only

Day of the Jackal author goes e-book crazy

Top author Frederick Forsyth has followed in Stephen King's footsteps and announced that his next book will be available on the Net only. The book, called Quintet, will be a series of five short stories and fans will be asked to pay £2 to read each story. The writer of bestsellers The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File said …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 11:22
Transmeta hinders FIC fin client

Taipei Aqua Marina in deep blue sea, or not

Changes that Transmeta is making to the specifications of its Crusoe microprocessors have forced FIC to delay its Aqua 3200, it has emerged. FIC, a large Taiwanese mobo manufacturer, splashed out on two wooden dummies of the machine at Computex in June, and caught the interest of delegates and the world press. At that time, …

Channel 20 Sep 2000, 11:24
New Xeon server mobo hits the streets

A big welcome please for the SBT2

Intel's latest server mobo, the snappily-named SBT2, announced at the end of last month, is now shipping. The board supports two 133MHz FSB Xeons at up to 1GHz apiece. The mobo can use up to 4Gb of PC133 ECC SDRAM in four sockets, has seven PCI slots on two independent buses (including two 64bit/66MHz and one 64bit/33MHz), plus …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 11:37
BT starts boosting Wireless image. Doesn't work

Looks like the float is finally going to go ahead

BT has started boosting the image of its mobile division BT Wireless, providing the first evidence that it finally plans to go ahead with its much vaulted float. The company said it expects sales from the business to hit £6.8 billion by the end of its financial year in March. The bulk of this comes from an expected £2.9 billion …

Data Networking 20 Sep 2000, 11:54
Juniper gets edgy with latest boxes

Backbone routing is tooting

California-based Juniper Networks, builder of Internet backbone routers, is ready for a rumble with Cisco by bringing out a couple of edge routers to sit where corporate networks intersect with the public Net. The M5 and M10 router products promise to whip the ass of the competition - the press release says they offer "wire …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 11:58
World Online dilutes unmetered service

Whinges about it too

World Online UK has capped the number of hours its punters can stay online as part of its inclusive unmetered package, effectively upping the price for Net access. According to World Online, the "lack of sustainable wholesale unmetered Internet services for retail providers [is] the reason behind the changes." So isn't it …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 12:04
How the trial schedule is influencing MS' roadmaps

Analysis On examination, the two seem to relate...

It's tricky to work out Microsoft's product strategy for dealing with possible judicial break up, particularly as the company claims it doesn't have one. But a close study of Bill Gates' speeches and TV appearance in Australia last week, supplemented by some other sources and some guess work gives us some clues. It is clear …

Software 20 Sep 2000, 12:17
Corel wins financial lifeline

Belt tightening process may ease somewhat...

Struggling Corel has obtained some equity financing from an anonymous institutional investor who clearly must have confidence that the share price will go up. Corel shares closed at US$3.6875 last night, which makes the potential funding worth some $54 million over 24 months if all 14,690,000 shares had been taken up at …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 12:33
We solve one of the Net's biggest hassles

Speed up those Web site conversations

It's an irritating, time-consuming and often unnecessary part of any conversation involving Web sites, but worry no more. What are we on about? Tautology. "Double-u, double-u, double-u dot". It's a pain in the arse, admit it. And so, in our spare time, we've been searching for a suitable alternative to this tongue-tying …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 14:08
US Net use is becoming so un-PC

Someone's bound to be upset

The number of US households accessing the Internet from non-PC devices grew 12 per cent in the second quarter of the year. In July, 7.4 million US households owned at least one of these products with Web access- including wireless phones and PDAs such as Palm Pilots - up from 6.6 million households in April. This is according …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 14:08
Handspring converts PDA to cell phone

For a price, and a fairly hefty one at that

Handspring is launching next Monday an add-on cartridge, called VisorPhone, that turns a PDA into a cell phone. It claims to be the first to market with this type of product. It is also rather pricey. Slightly slower on the uptake in other areas though, the company will also release its first product with a colour display, …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 14:27
Tax breaks to US companies: trade war looms?

A continuing $6bn subsidy maybe isn't quite what the WTO had in mind...

A major trade war may be looming between the US and the European Union over billions of dollars of tax breaks for exports by major US companies like Microsoft and Intel. Yesterday the US Senate Finance Committee gave the nod to proposed new legislation that would transform the vexed Foreign Sales Corporation export tax break …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 14:46
Situation Vacant: Telecoms Ombudsman

Must be tough with the wisdom of Solomon

Oftel wants to see an independent Telecoms Ombudsman appointed to resolve disputes between consumers and the industry. Speaking today, the head of Oftel, David Edmonds, said he was right behind the scheme and pledged his support for the new position. A telco ombudsman would be in place by the middle of next year, he said, no …

Data Networking 20 Sep 2000, 15:15
Your computer will kill you: part 1063

Cooked VDU cases are baaad

Chemicals used in the making of VDU cases could be causing illness and allergies in office workers according to a new study reported in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. The report says that new computers are the worst offenders, and could be contributing to a variety of conditions including blocked noses, skin …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 15:31
Mobile company tries to rip off The Reg

ISPs got told off for just this sort of thing last week

A fax that arrived at Vulture Central this morning seemed too good to be true: "Unlimited free calls for your mobile workforce". Blimey! Let's get it, we cried. Well, no we didn't. We actually said: if anyone is stupid enough to come up with this misleading tosh and then fax it to The Reg, they deserve everything they get. And …

Data Networking 20 Sep 2000, 15:33
HWRoundup Vivid 32Mb vid card verbals

Abit KT7 and ASUS A7V mobo gogo

Chick's Hardware (love the name) has posted a review of the Videologic Vivid 32Mb video card based on the Kyro chipset. Plenty of FSAA and T-buffer technology, and not a mention of polygons per second, honest. Well, maybe a small mention, so don't sue us alright? Just a quick one from the newly launched Sharky games page, in …

Hardware Roundup 20 Sep 2000, 15:54
Lib Dems go against RIP bill

They seem to have a clued up spokesman

The Liberal Democrat's Party convention has brought a few more people out of the shadows and into the fight against aspects of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) bill. Trade and Industry Spokesman, Vincent Cable said that it was not just the huge cost of monitoring emails that should be ringing alarm bells, but the …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 16:33
IBM spends $65m on European Web consultancy

It's all about expansion, alliances, development, that sort of thing

IBM has announced a $65 million (£45 million) investment plan where it will be doing the old fostering of ties with European Web consultancy companies. Big Blur will spend $15 million this year and $50 million next year on "building alliances" with Internet consultancy firm through its Web Integrator Initiative. We're not …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 16:35
The online guide to how to die

Silver surfers prepare to be silver turfers

It's still a major taboo in our culture - which is odd because every single person spends a long time and a lot of effort in confronting/understanding it. What are we on about? Death, of course. Call us dark, sick, but there is something funny about a Web site set up to tell old people about death. Guide For Life.com is just …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 16:45
Online shopping's rubbish. Oh no it's not. Oh yes it is

Difference of opinion between Budgens and Tesco

Here's an interesting one. Budgens - most well known for its late-night b2 newsagents - has decided to shut down its online shopping service Budgens Direct. The Net's rubbish, the company said (well, we're paraphrasing, it actually said: "We believe that we can continue to deliver greater value to our shareholders by focusing on …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 17:13
Qualcomm, and Via enter unholy alliance

Qeniability is the name of this game

No, said the Via spin doctors. No, said the Via technologist, no way said the Via marketing people but the answer, tinged with a note of venom, is yes. Qualcomm, at least, believes that its new partner, Via, is capable of countering its bitter enemy, Intel, by producing chipsets for mobile phones. An eloquent person sitting at …

Data Networking 20 Sep 2000, 17:54
Handspring chases Palm upmarket with colour PDA

We want all your business.

Handspring, the Palm-compatible PDA company, will launch upmarket 16bit colour models that trump Palm's current colour offerings according to ZDNet. The report is particularly specific on launch dates codenames and prices, so either the author was consuming impressive amounts of cheese before bedtime, or we'll have to take it …

Business 20 Sep 2000, 18:44
Network Ice posts do-it-yourself Carnivore kit

Dreaded FBI Rottweiler looks more like a Chihuahua

Just so you know what a carpet-soiling, leg-humping snippy little lapdog the FBI's Carnivore really is, firewall outfit Network Ice has hacked out a bit of C source code called 'Altivore', enabling anyone to cobble up an e-mail sniffer with virtually the same underwhelming capabilities and based on the same principles. The …

Music and Media 20 Sep 2000, 20:16