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17th October 2000 Archive

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  • NSA stakes out virtual battlefield

    Throwing elbows with a dozen federal agencies

    Cyberspace is fast becoming a strategic arena in which America must prepare to do battle with foreign adversaries, the US National Security Agency (NSA) Director, Air Force General Michael Hayden, observed on Monday. "Information is now a place," Hayden argued during a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 04:33

  • Robbing Peter to pay Paul: IBM pension plan comes under fire

    Very cross subsidy

    The UK pension regulator is investigating IBM following complaints that wrongly cross-subsidised its pension plans, the Times reports today. The regulator will look into IBM's decision to subsidise its new pension plan with a whacking £700 million surplus from its original plan. IBM's original plan members say the surplus …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 08:31

  • Chip demand for phone and web devices boosts profits

    Philips and Novellus are quids in

    Chip tool maker Novellus saw profits grow almost fourfold in its third quarter as chip makers bought its equipment to meet demand for mobile phones and web devices. The company makes tools that put circuits on semiconductors. Net income rose to $85.3 million from $21.8 million a year ago. Sales more than doubled to $359.1 …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 10:04

  • Madonna wins her domain namesake

    WIPO - friend to rich people everywhere

    What a shock! WIPO has decided that Madonna is entitled to have Madonna.com. We don't mind telling you that we were bowled over when the decision was announced - it's just not like WIPO to make decisions in favour of anyone rich and famous or big conglomerates. Normally it's so fair and balanced. However, rather than have a …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 10:09

  • AMD price war hits Intel stock, MS falls to two year low

    Wintel walloped...

    Wintel wobbled badly yesterday in the run-up to results, with Intel's stock price dropping 11.6 per cent and Microsoft plunging to a two year low. Intel's Q3s are due today, while Microsoft's Q1s are out tomorrow. In Intel's case analysts are worried about the AMD-Intel price war, and with AMD making new cuts as the 1.2GHz …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 11:07

  • HWRoundup 1.2GHz Athlons and 800MHz Durons get the treatment

    The boys love 'em

    The hardware sites are giving AMD's 1.2GHz Athlons and 800MHz Durons a good seeing to today. AnandTech has waxed lyrical on the market dynamics caused by the appearance of these chips. Here a few snatches but you'll have to go all the way there for a review. "Performance-wise, the Pentium III has been fairly competitive with …

    Hardware Roundup 17 Oct 2000, 11:08

  • Bosses join email snooping scrum

    Keep us up to date, CBI asks

    The CBI has slammed the proposed Data Protection Commission's (DPC) draft code of practice on interception of emails and phone calls. The code is currently based on what were draft regulations and so is out of date, it says. Published one week after the government told employers they were entitled to read their staff's emails …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 12:07

  • Lastminute.com ‘worst travel site’

    The People's choice

    Lastminute.com sucks, according to those discerning and well-educated readers of the Telegraph. A poll of 6,000 readers carried out as part of the newspaper's annual travel awards found that the bucket hols etailer was the "worst travel website on the internet". Lastminute.com attracted more "poor" votes than any other site, …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 12:09

  • NEC shows off Transmeta notebook

    Claims 11 hours life between battery charges

    NEC has become the third manufacturer to show off a notebook powered by Transmeta's Crusoe TM5600 processor. The LaVie MX machine was unveiled at PC Expo in Japan today. NEC claims the laptop can run up to 11 hours on a single charge because of the processor, the kind of LCD screen it has used, as well as the high-capacity …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 12:39

  • Breathe answers calls to free WAP

    Personally, we'd like to see it stay behind bars

    Breathe - the ISP cum mobile phone outfit for modern urbanists on micro scooters - has launched what it describes as Britain' first unmetered WAP service. The offer is part of a limited promo available until the end of November. Breathe reckons that the offer will help show that WAP really is something to behold and that it …

    Data Networking 17 Oct 2000, 12:40

  • 1.33GHz Athlon on streets by December?

    Swedish retailer removes product

    Dustin AB, the Swedish computer retailer, today tippexed all Web site references to the 1.33GHz Athlon from its price list, following discussions with Microtronica, its AMD distributor (story: 1.33GHz Athlon 'for sale' - in Sweden). "The product shouldn't be out on the market yet, Microtronica also got a call from AMD in US," …

    Channel 17 Oct 2000, 13:04

  • Vodafone and Verizon ditch IPO plans

    And more dotcom tittle tattle

    Vodafone and Verizon have pulled the $80 billion float of joint venture Verizon Wireless for the old "market volatility" reason. The money was needed to capture one of the American mobile telephone licences, up for grabs soon. A postponement of the float until next year means the two0 companies will have to borrow the $5 billion …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 13:18

  • ‘Victim’ threatens satirist with libel suit

    Do we not like this

    Register fan Andrew Simmons has found himself on the wrong side of the law for the heinous crime of making fun out of the dotcom "revolution" and getting out the dustpan and brush to sweep up those shattered dreams. Andrew posts a "lameness list" of dotcoms, based according to his own unique criteria on his personal Web site …

    Bootnotes 17 Oct 2000, 14:32

  • Net washing machine renders women redundant

    Actually it doesn't - there's still the ironing

    It seems like only a hundred years or so ago that we were promised robots that would make domestic drudgery a thing of the past. Finally, we've got them - sort of. LG Electronics has developed the world's first washing machine which can download wash programmes from the net. Gone are the days when a heavily-stained piece of …

    Bootnotes 17 Oct 2000, 15:45

  • US finally gets two-way mobile phone text messaging

    Get with it, grandad

    Two way text messaging via mobile phones has finally hit the US. So if it takes off in anything like the way it has in Europe and Asia, the youth of America are about to indulge in a non-stop 24/7 orgy of banal messaging, flirting and gossiping. AT&T launched the service today. It is offering fee and unlimited messaging …

    Data Networking 17 Oct 2000, 15:59

  • SDMI was cracked, and is doomed: count on it

    Analysis Bury it quietly...

    Has SDMI been cracked? Last week Salon claimed that the 'Hack SDMI' challenge had resulted in an embarrassingly complete whitewash for the digital music protection system. This was followed up swiftly by a denunciation of the Salon story by SDMI executive director Leonardo Chiariglione, speaking exclusively and expletively to …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 18:56

  • Audrey comes in Linen, Slate, Ocean, Meadow and Sunshine

    Guess which gender 3Com is targeting?

    3Com finally got to show off Audrey, the first Internet appliance in its Ergo range, in New York today. The device, which wouldn't look out of place in a line-up of 1950s style kitchen appliances, has a twist-knob at the front for users to access its six pre-set channels, email, calendar and address book. The idea is similar …

    Business 17 Oct 2000, 20:21

  • Colleague kicks Captain Cyborg in the nuts

    Dancing with Pixies

    A little story in Reading Central this week informed those interested that Dr Mark Bishop of the Cybernetics department in Reading would be giving a talk on Tuesday 24 October entitled "Dancing with Pixies: strong artificial intelligence and pan-psychism". So what? Well, Dr Bishop's talk revolves around the topic of machine …

    Bootnotes 17 Oct 2000, 20:21

  • TLDs, ".web", ICANN, Afilias and IODesign

    The battle for the future of the Internet

    A large and nasty battle has broken out over ownership for the new ".web" top-level domain name, to be awarded at some random time in the future (hopefully this year). Aside from the ever-present arguments over the Internet (capitalism vs individual freedom), however, things have grown a little more serious with allegations of …

    Music and Media 17 Oct 2000, 20:21

  • Long distance compensation get me Verizon on the phone

    Switch Bitch

    Verizon Communications is to cough up $1.75 million to end an enquiry into customers switching to its long-distance phone service in New York. The US' biggest local phone company will pay $1.5 million to around 34,000 customers in the area and $250,000 to the US treasury under an agreement with the Federal Communications …

    Data Networking 17 Oct 2000, 20:44