16th October 2000 Archive

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Egg loses cash

Anyone thought of looking in the sock drawer for it? Could be in there

British Internet-cum-telephone bank, Egg, reported an increase loss, before tax, for the nine months to September 30 of £115.1 million - up 7 per cent compared to last year (£108 million). The bank's loss before tax for the three months to 30 September 2000 was £34.4 million - down a smidgen from the £38.2 million reported last …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 08:20
Dell, AMD and Taiwan: the final, final word

Now will you leave us alone?

The weekend before last, a new Dell sources AMD rumour floated to the surface, courtesy of a report in Taiwanese newspaper The Commercial and Industrial Times, and amplified by way of the press-clippings service on chip firm VIA's Web site. We thought we had, with the help of many readers, nailed the story (Wanted: Taiwanese to …

Channel 16 Oct 2000, 09:12
UK awaits G4 Cube discount and speed bump

Not such a Square Deal

Although Apple cut $300 from the G4 Cube in the US on Friday, there's no word yet of similar discounts being made available to UK buyers. To make matters worse, US punters have the option of a high-end G4 Cube as standard that isn't available through the UK store. Unless Apple follows through quickly in the UK with a definite …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 09:25
IBM bumps up Unix flagship with SOI

It's x.xx faster, says IBM. Just fill in the blank.

IBM still has some life to squeeze out of its POWER3 chips, and today it tops up the RS/6800 S80 line with processors based on Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process technology. Except it isn't called the S80 any more, and it isn't even the RS/6000 these days, either. So as two successful brands slip down the disposal chute, say …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 09:25
SMEs get ‘cyber slingshot’ from Telewest

Watch it, that thing could take your eye out

Peter Wood - the founder of insurance outfit, Direct Line and the man responsible for that annoying little beeping red phone on wheels - is to chair a new broadband operation aimed at SMEs. Cableco, Telewest, and e-service firm, CobWeb Solutions, have formed a joint venture called blueyonder workwise to "revolutionise the …

Data Networking 16 Oct 2000, 10:34
Secret IRA Web site shut down

Content points to targeting of Prince William

A Web site run by the Real IRA has been pulled by its American ISP. UK newspaper Daily Express is claiming credit for the discovery and subsequent removal of the site, which contained security details for Prince William while at St Andrews university. "An anonymous caller" gave the newspaper log on details to the site, which it …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 11:19
Colour Handspring Visor on sale

$449 65,000 colour Prism

Handspring has released the Visor Prism, the colour-screen version of its electronic organiser. It is capable of producing more than 65,000 colours, 16 times more than its colour competitors. The 16-bit $449 device weighs 6.9ozs, 1.5ozs heavier than its monochrome stable mate, but boasts a faster 33MHz processor. It also has a …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 11:20
Oftel to be grilled by MPs

...and served up on a platter with relish no doubt

The head of telecoms regulator, Oftel, is to be hauled up in front of a committee of MPs next month to explain how local loop unbundling is progressing in Britain. Actually, that's not exactly true. According to yesterday's Observer, Edmonds is due to get a right "grilling" over his "slow progress in opening up BT's local …

Data Networking 16 Oct 2000, 11:21
IT giants who don't pay tax part 1: how Cisco does it

Analysis And how it could all end in tears

Cisco is "a modern house of cards, in which the cards are Cisco's stock and the companies acquired for Cisco stock" according to Barrons. Part of the problem is that Cisco is not employing astute financial engineering techniques, so it has been increasing its exposure with little or no appreciation of the potential downsides. …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 11:46
IT giants who don't pay tax part 2: how Microsoft does it

Analysis And how the Weimar republic may beckon...

Microsoft makes much more money from dealing in stock options than from Windows, and as a result paid no tax in fiscal 2000. It's not the picture you'd expect, and it's not exactly easy to get the real picture either - but it's all perfectly legal, really. In effect, Microsoft has three sets of accounts: the ones its auditors …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 11:46
Register no longer the worst search engine in the world

Site News Held together by string

We've lost count of the number of people complaining that our search engine didn't work (literally - we've probably had a few dozen emails, long since deleted). Of course, it worked - sort of, most of the time. It just wasn't very good, that's all, as it only searched articles for single words - or, even more uselessly, …

Site News 16 Oct 2000, 11:52
New radio software: the legal Napster?

As long as you don't mind irritating DJs

Some new fancy software from SongCatcher.com may mean you'll never have to pay for your favourite songs again. And the good thing is that it's perfectly legal. That is according to man behind the movement James Logan. Logan's software downloads radio songs from the Net onto your hard drive and then automatically sorts them into …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 12:17
Freeserve ‘right to kick out heavy users’

Contentious issue

Last week's we reported the (Consumer Association's attack on Freeserve for terminating the flat fee accounts of its 700 heaviest users. This provoked a blizzard of emails - mostly anti-Freeserve. One reader, Ridwan Hughes, has even set up a site for Freeserve abnormal users, hosted at, of all places, the neurotically libel- …

Letters 16 Oct 2000, 12:52
MS spends $250k to shore up ‘Most Net-Friendly Senator’

Or Senator H-1B, as you might style him...

Microsoft's recently discovered interest in politics has resulted in substantial, disguised company backing for embattled Michigan Republican Senator Spencer Abraham, today's Wall Street Journal reports. By a strange coincidence two major issues pushed by Abraham, H-1B visas for IT workers and the high tech business itself, are …

Software 16 Oct 2000, 12:57
Who's the most powerful IT exec in the UK?

Top 300 power list for UK causes a few surprises

AOL supremo Steve Case is the fourth most powerful man in the UK (just behind the prime minister, chancellor and Alan Greenspan, chairman of the American federal reserves), according to a Power 300 list compiled by Channel 4. How come? Because of the Time Warner deal, stupid. That's right, the top man of AOL has usurped Billy …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 13:07
TSMC sales soar on fab contracts

Not high enough for analysts, though

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co(TSMC) last week announced that sales in September reached a record monthly high. However the company's stock fell by almost the maximum limit as the market had been anticipating even stronger revenue figures, analysts said. TSMC, the world's largest producer of made to order computer chips …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 13:09
HP gets its garage back

Prime bit of real estate

HP has bought the famous garage where William Hewlett and David Packard used to keep their Bar-B-Q, charcoal briquettes, and broken sun lounger. The Silicon Valley shrine, a 12ft by 18ft one car garage, was sold to HP in August for $1.7 million (but this included the house and cottage it served). The plan is to restore it to …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 13:09
Oops! Bush email campaign sparks blizzard of spam

Updated Send these emails to as many people as possible, as the RNC chairman said...

Self-styled "leader in permission-based email marketing/e-messaging" ClickAction says it is working closely with the FBI and various ISPs to nail the spammers responsible for sending "millions of unauthorised emails" in the past few days. Said ClickAction coyly: "These illegal emails included references to a ClickAction hosted …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 14:08
NTL in cut-price broadband trial

guilty or not guilty - that's for you to decide

NTL has cut the cost of it broadband cable modem service for punters in the Cambridge area as part of a trial. It wants to see whether price affects the take-up of the service, one can only assume. The cost of monthly subscription has been lowered to just £24.99 - a drop of some £15 a month. The catch is that users have to …

Data Networking 16 Oct 2000, 14:13
Reg readers get the hump with BTOpenwoe

Anyone had trouble-free ADSL?

Reg's mail bag was worryingly full this morning following Friday's report about the hassles experienced by someone trying to sign up to BTopenworld - the broadband ADSL service from BT. It appears the tales of delays and lost orders are not isolated and you're not happy. Here's what you've been telling us - and as always, we' …

Data Networking 16 Oct 2000, 15:13
SCH confirms Compel stand-off

While reserving right to change mind

It's all working out rather nicely for Specialist Computer Holdings, the UK's second biggest reseller group. Today it announced that it had 'no intention' of making an offer to take over Compel, the UK's third biggest reseller group. This is not so very meaningful considering the get-out clauses. "SCH reserves its right to …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 15:27
Toshiba pays US govt $33.5m for ‘defective’ laptops

But admits nothing

Toshiba has agreed to cough up $33.5 million to settle a lawsuit in the US over potentially dodgy laptops. The settlement will consist of $23 million cash and $10.5 million in Toshiba product coupons, the US Department of Justice said on Friday. The class-action lawsuit involves machines sold to US government agencies and …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 15:36
Sony goes iMac with trendy Transmeta Vaio

Fashion statements R US...

Sony is to bring out two trendy versions of its Viao computers aimed at fashion-victim laptop users. From next month punters will be able to get their mits on a blue-black translucent model as Sony shifts from the traditional purple-gray Viaos currently on offer. The Viao QR (PCG-QR I/BP) will also be decorated with a light …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 16:11
Brits are miserable

Survey proves what most of you think

People in Britain are bloody miserable with nearly a quarter of men and women fearing a hopeless future, according to research out today. This shocking insight into the health of the nation comes from NetDoctor.co.uk, which questioned 400 men and women as part of the survey. The results show that nearly one in three men and …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 16:42
HWRoundup 3dfx and Nvidia PCI punch-up

Meet Asus' A7Pro mobo - the A7V lite

At Viahardware Buck has put the 3dfx Voodoo 4 PCI up against Nvidia's MX PCI in a PCI budget card punch-up. It's billed as a young gun versus the wise master kind of thing. Uncle Buck reckons the "GeForce2 MX PCI would most likely scale better than the Voodoo4 4500 PCI with faster CPU's. However the Voodoo4 4500 PCI can do Glide …

Hardware Roundup 16 Oct 2000, 17:09
ICANN steps over mark – again

Registrar threatens to sue

Domain name registrar Regland.com has threatened to sue ICANN with regard to the new top level domains unless it apologies for damaging behaviour and makes a public statement of its official policies. Regland offers a pre-registration service for the new TLDs, including the controversial ".web" domain names. It does not …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 17:10
Brit sentenced in Daily Mail hacking plot

Turned in by the competition

Former Daily Mail employee William Culbert approached the Daily Express with an exclusive offer to disable the Mail's operations for a week in exchange for £600,000, but earned himself eighteen months in the slam instead. Culbert apparently sought revenge against his former employer after shift changes caused him to resign. He …

Music and Media 16 Oct 2000, 18:26
1.33GHz Athlon ‘for sale’ – in Sweden

Doesn't appear to be a typo, but..

Dustin, a Swedish computer reseller, is touting on its Web site for the spanking price of 8,225.00 kr. We say "touting" because Dustin announces the part is "Ej i lager" - or not in stock (we've also removed the link, as the company has excised references to the part since we first wrote this story). Not such as surprise, that …

Channel 16 Oct 2000, 21:31
Taxan scraps plan to make PCs in UK

Japanese bosses get the jitters

Taxan Europe has ditched plans to manufacture PCs in the UK after its Japanese parent company got the jitters. The monitor maker was planning to set up a separate division and open a PC factory in Wales. It was even in the process of submitting plans to the Welsh National Assembly for funding and had poached the general manager …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 21:34
Hi-tech South Africa is ‘too white’

So says black IT forum chairman

The information and communications industry is still too white, a black achievers gala in South Africa heard at the weekend. Dr Hasmukh Gajjar, national chairman of the black IT forum, praised the event in Johannesburg for helping to challenge what he called "a legacy which refuses to budge beyond tokenism", ITWeb reports. …

Business 16 Oct 2000, 22:33
AMD price cuts revisited

Comedy of (our) errors

AMD revised its OEM price lists to take effect, yesterday, October 16. The new prices pave the way for 1200MHz Athlon and 800MHz Duron parts, which ship officially today. That's what AMD is telling the OEMs, at any rate (it wants to make their Q4 "go with a bang"). Incidentally, we revealed details of the new price list on …

Channel 16 Oct 2000, 23:43