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17th November 2000 Archive

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  • BT intros flat rate WAP

    Twenty quid a month

    BT is to offer unmetered WAP access for £20 a month through Genie, its consumer mobile data brand. And - get this - Genie boss Laurence Aleander says: "Flat rates are driving growth in fied line internet access. The same will happen with the mobile internet." Which is true enough. Only BT has been slower than a dying snail in …

    Data Networking 17 Nov 2000, 09:30

  • Borland preps Delphi Linux for December preview

    Kylix, from the horse's mouth

    About time too. Borland chose Comdex to sneak out the news that the Inprise moniker was finally being cast overboard. We imagine that the relief expressed down at Scotts Valley will have been enough to generate a small thermal discernable from Las Vegas. We caught up with Mike Swindell, director of product management for the …

    Software 17 Nov 2000, 09:53

  • Be teams with Transmeta for long-life appliances

    Winning on points, but awaiting the big Kahuna

    Be Inc's relationship with its shareholders continues to resemble one of those weird sex games where you hold your breath just long enough to avoid death by asphyxiation. It showcased a number of design prototypes at Comdex this week, some old, and some new, and as you might expect, from a technical perspective it walked away …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 09:53

  • USB 2.0 creeps out, deviceless

    Show us yer peripherals...

    Remember how, when Intel announced the upstart USB 2.0 spec eighteen months ago, it promised we'd be buried by compliant peripherals in time for Xmas? Well it's late, but assuredly on its way. From what we gleaned USB 2.0 cards will be shipping in volume early next year. At Comdex, Aten showed a four port 2.0 Hub and a five …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 09:53

  • Ingram Micro BB posters ‘probably employees’

    Fear and Loathing in Channel

    See what happens when you get on the wrong side of your staff? Ingram Micro suspects that anonymous bulletin board posters - anywhere between 12 and 50 people who are saying nasty things about the company and its managers are either employees or former employees (see Ingram Micro sues Yahoo! BB posters). The distie has filed …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 10:01

  • Apple updates Darwin, asks for x86 work

    Kickstarting Intel port

    Apple has quietly updated its open source operating system foundation, Darwin, to version 1.2.1, and it appears to come with a plea for more work on the x86 side of things. Darwin itself is the BSD-based core for MacOS X. The software can be downloaded free - there's a 135MB installer disk image available on Apple's Darwin Web …

    Mac Channel 17 Nov 2000, 11:12

  • Sony demos Memory Stick peripherals

    Dead cute they are too

    Sony's plan to broaden the scope of its Memory Stick format to other areas than data storage took a step forward this week when the company unveiled a series of prototypes of MS peripherals it has in the pipeline. Sony showed off a GPS tracker, a digital camera module and a fingerprint scanner. It also reiterated it is working …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 11:18

  • M$ Nemesis Boies fights for Al Gore

    Updated G-Dubya Bush losing Florida re-count battle

    Celebrity legal-beagle David Boies, now famous for his antitrust work on behalf of Uncle Sam against Microsoft and his defence of Napster from heavy-handed onslaughts by the recording industry, has joined the swelling ranks of lawyers flooding into Florida to lend support (well, sell support), to the Gore campaign's efforts to …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 11:18

  • Toilet Web site owner arrested for climbing skyscraper

    Muckspreading times

    A daredevil dotcommer has risked his life to publicise his Website by scaling a Los Angeles skyscraper. The climber/nutter halted traffic in downtown LA for three hours yesterday morning as he negotiated the 56-floor building, and trailing a banner for his site. Unfortunately for 32-year-old Giovanni Lemm, fire fighters hauled …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 11:18

  • Hack the Vote!

    Malicious vote-bots could make hanging chads look tame

    In the wake of the Florida vote-count controversy, simple point-and-click Internet elections would seem an attractive 21st Century alternative to traditional cardboard and paper. But before choosing a President becomes as simple as ordering a paperback from Amazon.com, security experts have to surmount an obstacle that makes …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 11:18

  • Corel moots Linux sell-off

    CEO to reveal all in three weeks

    Corel will soon spill the beans on its plan for recovery - potentially including the sale of the company's Linux business - president and CEO Derek Burney has said. The announcement will be made in three weeks' time. Interviewed by InfoWorld, Burney, who took the helm at Corel last summer following the abrupt departure of long- …

    Software 17 Nov 2000, 11:41

  • Surgeon on train saves woman – by email

    She was bleeding to death

    A surgeon who was 200 miles from his hospital saved a patient's life - via email. Colleagues who were concerned that a woman's condition was deteriorating called Ahmed Samy while he was on a train, travelling from Edinburgh to Grimsby. He was able to make a diagnosis from x-ray photographs emailed to him on his laptop. This …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 11:56

  • Apple opts for DDR SDRAM in 600MHz G4s

    Power Mac line to be upgraded January

    Apple looks set to boost its dual-processor Power Mac G4 line to 600MHz early next year, after announcing the new models at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco in January. The update will also see the Mac platform commence support for the double data rate (DDR) SDRAM memory technology, part of Apple's latest Universal Motherboard …

    Mac Channel 17 Nov 2000, 12:06

  • Linux gets a virtual Windows boost

    Faster than emulation

    The free software Plex86 project says it has successfully booted a copy of Windows in the environment. Plex86 derives from the Bochs project, a free software cross platform x86 emulator, and shares in Kevin Lawton the same technical lead. But Plex aims to 'virtualize' the Windows environment, as opposed to performing an …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 12:28

  • SDRAM prices pull out of nosedive

    Won't hit the floor after all

    SDRAM pricing seems to have stabilised after months of free fall, with the benchmark 8 x 8 PC100 64Mb SDRAM staying at $3.85 ($4.08 per unit) in the US, while the value of 8 x 8 PC133 64Mb SDRAMs remained at $3.90 (4.13 per chip). PC133 128 megabit SDRAMs were at $8.53 (unit price $9.04), and PC100 128-megabit SDRAMs remained …

    Channel 17 Nov 2000, 12:32

  • Porn fiends' Barbie scam nonsense

    Daily Mail gets cross, over what?

    Voice of middle Britain the Daily Mail, is outraged again at the Internet. This time its fury is levelled at "Internet porn fiends" who are "luring the young". How? Well, these fiends are putting well-known kids toy brands in as meta tags to generate extra traffic and are subsequently destroying the sacred innocence of our …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 13:08

  • Net diabetic mercy dash – fails

    Too late

    A Net-based mercy dash to save the life of British diabetic Derek Hall ended in tragedy when paramedics arrived to find him already dead on the sofa. Derek has been in contact with two US ladies in a chatroom. He was doing the old voice-over-IP but Susan and Jackie grew worried when he started slurring his words. They called …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 13:08

  • Nvidia's super secret Crush spec

    So secret it's plastered over the Web

    Nvidia's super secret Crush chipset will be officially announced later this month - or at the beginning of December. The reports seem to have started on hardware review site, Rolotech. You can read its preview here. The chipset is rumoured to be in development at Nvidia, initially for the Athlon or Duron. Rolotech also states …

    Channel 17 Nov 2000, 13:09

  • Pentium 4 launches Monday

    In case you've been on Uranus

    Chipzilla will open the P4 kimono and reveal all on Monday. All that hasn't already been revealed, that is, and that doesn't leave an awful lot. The flagchip will launch at 1.4 and 1.5GHz at $644 and $819 respectively (1Ku quantities), moving rapidly to 1.7 and 2GHz. Intel has an introductory offer of CPU, D850GB mobo and two …

    Channel 17 Nov 2000, 13:44

  • FTC puts domain pre-registration on its dot con list

    In time for some more ICANN conspiracy theory

    The Federal Trade Commission has put the issue of pre-registration services on its list of dot cons. A new message alert has been put on the government body's Web site entitled "What's Dot and What's Not: Domain Name Registration Scams". The controversy over the new domains is still raging but the trouble with pre-registration …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 14:44

  • Carnivore review due Friday

    Janet Reno's whitewash crew produces

    A controversial report on the FBI's "Carnivore" Internet surveillance tool by the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI) is due at the US Department of Justice (DoJ) Friday, but its contents will remain secret until December. The DoJ commissioned the analysis after advocacy groups and lawmakers voiced …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 15:14

  • EDS big mouth spills guts on crowded train

    Where's the mobile-free zone when you need one, eh?

    Lke all right-thinking people, The Reg loves saddoes who insist on using mobile phones to conduct loud and lengthy business calls on crowded trains, especially when they are EDS execs. This morning a real Mister Angry, who was working his way through a pile of papers emblazoned with the EDS logo, could be heard shouting into …

    Bootnotes 17 Nov 2000, 15:43

  • Pentium 4 system prices leaked by Fortune

    And to think it was us they were worried about

    Once again, Intel US' monstro PR machine has failed to control those pesky American journos resulting in the awfully-helpful folks at Fortune Magazine breaking Chipzilla's embargo on Pentium 4 system prices so we don't have to wait until first thing Monday morning to tell you about them. Check out the full info here, but just …

    Channel 17 Nov 2000, 15:54

  • ICANN speaks: lucky seven TLDs include .pro and .biz

    .web dumped on suffix scrapheap

    ICANN has selected the winners and losers of the new top level domain (TLD) battle. Starting next year, URLs will be able to end in .name for personal sites, .pro for professionals such as doctors or lawyers, or .museum, .aero or .coop for sites run by museums. And any domains can end in .info or .biz. Those rejected include …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 16:38

  • Telewest debt structure ‘better than NTL’

    Who needs merger agony?

    Telewest, the cable company, has dismissed talks of joining forces with NTL, its bigger rival, after investors said they preferred its debt structure to NTL's. Adam Singer, chief executive, said the company did not need to go through "the agony of a merger," a reference to a Competition Commission investigation should the two, …

    Data Networking 17 Nov 2000, 16:52

  • TUC gets arsey about RIP email laws

    Let's be serious for a moment

    The Trades Union Congress has embarked on a mini-crusade for a code of practice for employers when using the new email snooping laws allowed under the RIP Act. Under the new act, bosses are legally entitled to read their employees emails and monitor their phone calls and this has led to accusations of privacy invasion. Under …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 17:14

  • Flame of the Week: You can take your politics and shove it up your..

    Short but not sweet

    We've received several flames sparked by our US election coverage, one of which was 15,000 words long. We thought, you prefer to read this one. From: mikeysm Sent: 17 November 2000 05:06 To: thomas.greene@theregister.co.uk Subject: Cock sucking Democrat Your only a cock sucking Democrat. Your only downfall is that you …

    Flame of the Week 17 Nov 2000, 17:23

  • Freeserve soars on Times Tiscali tittle-tattle

    Only it's not true, Italians say

    Freeserve saw its share price rocket today on speculation it was about to be gobbled up by Italian rival Tiscali. Shares in the Dixons-owned ISP surged by 19 per cent at one point, propelled to 176.77 pence on the back of the gossip. And it was all thanks to The Times, which today reported rumours that a deal with Tiscali, …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 17:39

  • All I want for Christmas is my etailer to not go bust

    Spend! Spend! Spend!

    Last year's online shopping boom was merely a warm up for the huge spend-fest that will be online Christmas 2000. A Goldman Sachs/PC Data survey found that spending by Americans had nearly tripled. In the second week of November last year shoppers parted with $222 million in exchange for online goods. This year the stats are …

    Business 17 Nov 2000, 17:47

  • Spam? Not us, says 24/7

    Wins temporary order against MAPS

    A US District Court in Denver has issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of online marketing gurus, 24/7, against the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS). 24/7 Media went to the court after MAPS included its subsidiary, 24/7 Exactis, in the spammers blacklist the Real Time Blackhole List. The list is used by many ISPs …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 17:49

  • Fags, hags, sex offenders, politics and phones

    Readers' letters

    Well, it's been a busy news week - Pentium 4, ICANN, Oftel, various humorous stories. This means that it is now late on a Friday and your letters ed is tired and wants to get out and down the pub. This, therefore, is a short letters week. Send any complaints you may have to the Letters Editor, which is me. I will then ignore …

    Letters 17 Nov 2000, 18:15

  • That Bush/Gore total fiasco cock-up saga in full

    Seems some people got some strong ideas yessir

    Florida election returns blocked until Monday Bush and Gore exchange personalities Microsoft Nemesis Boies fights for Al Gore Bush hand-count hypocrisy shot down Rhetoric swells as Bush's lead evaporates George Dubya will lose if he wins Capitol Hill re-shuffle promises entertainment Q: How many Florida voters does it …

    Letters 17 Nov 2000, 18:15

  • Why shouldn't we know where sex offenders live?

    Letters time again

    Web site names and shames paedophiles In the USA, such efforts are publicly funded. There are several states that have similar lists for convicted sex offenders. These state laws require that logs be kept at local municipal police stations so, for example, a concerned parent could call and find out if an offender lived on their …

    Letters 17 Nov 2000, 18:17

  • Israeli army plans offensive against US dotcom

    In the crosshairs for bogus Web site

    The Israeli military machine has threatened to get heavy with a US dotcom after finding a bogus army site on one of its servers. The homepage on israeldefenceforce.com looked almost identical to the genuine Israeli military site idf.il, even down to the "official site" proclamation. But its content has got the authorities' …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 18:30

  • MSN blacklisted for harbouring spammers

    Mis-configured servers at fault

    Microsoft's vastly interconnected ISP and portal, MSN, has become easy prey for spammers due to several poorly-protected mail (SMTP) servers to which outsiders can connect easily for a free, anonymous ride, according to a bulletin on the Mail Abuse Prevention System (MAPS) Web site. "We have recently received a number …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 18:30

  • German watchdog orders unmetered access

    Tells Deutsche Telecom to hurry up

    Germany's telecoms watchdog has given Deutsche Telecom less than three months to offer ISPs a flat-rate charge for network access. Germans have been able to surf for a flat-fee since June, but the country's ISPs are hindered by having to pay for network access by the minute. The Regulation for Telecommunication and Post (RegTP …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 21:44

  • 21st Century IBM – belt tightening via the Net

    Eats its own cooking

    IBM has hammered critics of its missed sales targets, while predicting more belt-tightening via the Internet. The PC vendor claims it saved more than $1.5 billion in the first three quarters of this year by selling and buying on line. It flogged $14.6 billion worth of products over the Web during this period, by which means it …

    Music and Media 17 Nov 2000, 22:36