The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

22nd November 2000 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Linux in, Redmond out of Serial ATA party

    Spec 1.0 finished, public by year-end?

    The Serial ATA working group, charged with replacing clumsy parallel ribbons as the mass storage interface inside PCs, says it has completed version 1.0 of the specification. Publication had been mooted for 10 October, but the public version now ought to be available for comment by the end of the year. Members include APT, …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 02:16

  • Eagle-eyed hack uncovers eBay gun sales probe

    Grand Jury haul head honchos in to testify

    A grand jury has quizzed eBay to see if it broke the law by flogging guns online, it was revealed today. At least four top eBay execs have been hauled before the federal grand jury since January last year as part of the probe, including head honcho Pierre Omidyar. The billionaire testified for five hours on 3 August 1999, …

    Media 22 Nov 2000, 02:34

  • C2000 scoops Channel Awards

    A walk in Battersea Park

    They're the Oscars of the industry, CRN's editor Paul Briggs said ever so modestly last night in his introduction to the newspaper's seventh annual Channel Awards. A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but understandable, considering how more than a thousand channel die-hards gathered under one tent in Battersea Park to listen to compere …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 10:38

  • Microsoft honours Linux programmer with patent gong

    You can't make this stuff up

    In what must be one of the most surreal stories we've ever covered, Microsoft has awarded a Linux devotee with one of the company's most coveted patents awards -even though the recipient has never worked for Microsoft. The story begins with work done by Intrinsa software developer Bill Softky on the Valley start-up's much-lauded …

    Software 22 Nov 2000, 10:52

  • Chicago to host fourth Apple retail outlet

    Updated Gap-style strategy coming together at last

    Apple is hoping to move into a gap vacated by... er... Gap - and it's going to open one of its High Street retail stores there, the first such opening outside California to be revealed. The store's location is Chicago, on the corner of Michigan and Huron. The story comes from local paper Chicago Business, which claims the Mac …

    Mac Channel 22 Nov 2000, 11:19

  • Buy.com flees Australia

    The Unlucky Country

    Buy.com's operation down under shut its doors yesterday although it's understood that the e-tailer's operations in the UK are unaffected. A notice on the Australian web site reads: "Effective 11:00am Tuesday 21 November, 2000, buy.com.au closed its virtual doors and is no longer taking new orders. All existing orders for which …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 11:28

  • Workers open back doors for hackers

    And they don't even know it

    Employees are the biggest threat to network security - and they don't even know it. Unauthorised equipment attached to a company network can, according to Robin Dahlberg, UK MD of Internet Security Systems, compromise the best efforts of a network manager to secure the system by creating a "backdoor" into the network. …

    Media 22 Nov 2000, 11:28

  • Acer cuts annual sales estimate by $620m

    Will make NT$100bn target next year instead. So that's all right then...

    Taiwanese computing giant Acer has admitted it will make around $620 million (NT$20 billion) less revenue for the current fiscal year than it originally expected. Earlier this year, Acer predicated annual revenues of NT$100 billion ($3.1 billion), but with sales over the first three quarters off by 59 per cent, the company now …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 11:50

  • News sites panic over P4 glitch

    Storm in tea cup

    A number of news sites who should know better, including The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC and ZDNet, have run shock, horror stories claiming that the P4 shipped with the wrong drivers. Breathless parallels were drawn with the PIII 1.13GHz and Caminogate recalls. Here are the facts: Early samples of Intel's D850GB mobo shipped …

    Channel 22 Nov 2000, 11:54

  • HWRoundup The P4 stragglers

    And a little bit of MHz action

    In the general rush on Monday, a few P4 reviews which slipped through the net. So for those who haven't seen enough about Intel's latest offering, here's the latest issue of the Pentium 4 Times. Firstly we traipse over to Gamers Depot to check out their thoughts. They seem impressed with Intel's efforts to "future proof" the …

    Hardware Roundup 22 Nov 2000, 12:15

  • Turn your Palm into a GameBoy

    Updated Game on...

    US start-up Worldwide Widget Works wants to turn Palm's PDA into a handheld gaming platform by developing the first game controller for the Palm III and VII series machines. The GamePad will clip onto the bottom of the PDA, hooking up to the latter's HotSync connector. It sports a GameBoy-style joypad button plus four action …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 12:21

  • Tom Greene is Satan

    Democrat asshole in Gore campaign pay

    Herewith our US election coverage flames -- and we do relish them. Check back occasionally; this archive is sure to grow as the Florida madness spreads. [updated 25 November, but with our two favourite oldies still at the top] Related Stories Register total scorched-earth election coverage Your only a cock sucking Democrat …

    Flame of the Week 22 Nov 2000, 13:26

  • Tom Greene is a god

    Pure genius covering US politics

    Not everyone hates The Register's US election coverage, though we have to confess that only a minority here are bona fide Yanks. Funny that.... [updated 25 Novenber] Related Stories Register total scorched-earth election coverage I am pleased to see the Register return to its charter: Unbiased reporting of both sides of an …

    Letters 22 Nov 2000, 13:32

  • Novell still a sick puppy

    A bad year, a very poor fourth quarter

    Novell's dreadful financial year has come to a close with an equally poor final quarter. The fourth quarter is usually Novell's strongest but this time it saw revenue increase by only $3 million to $273 million from the last quarter and fall $72 million from the same quarter last year (that's 21 per cent). Profit for the quarter …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 13:34

  • AOL UK predicts bumper e-Xmas

    That's unmetered Net access for you, they say

    AOL UK claims its unmetered Net access service could trigger a shopping boom making this Britain's "first true e-Christmas". The ISP found that 92 per cent of members in the UK already researched goods online, and 54 per cent intended to buy Christmas gifts online. AOL's UK MD, Karen Thomson, said: "Our research, revealed …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 13:35

  • Register total scorched-earth election coverage

    Tom hates everyone, but Dubya more than most

    Keep checking back: updates are inevitable...... Democrats smear Fla. protestors Republican coup d'etat looms as Fla. Supremes affirm Gore Republicans peevishly await Bush coronation Florida election returns blocked until Monday Bush and Gore exchange personalities Microsoft Nemesis Boies fights for Al Gore Bush hand- …

    Register Full Coverage 22 Nov 2000, 13:40

  • P4: first Sandra 2001 benchmarks

    Screaming Sindy's extensions make a big difference

    After running SiSoft Sandra tests on our test P4 system earlier in the week, we received an email from Adrian Silasi, the benchmarking suite's developer, kindly offering us a pre-release download of Sandra 2001. The updated package includes SSE2 and DDR support, along with two Whetstone tests, the original FPU one and the new …

    Channel 22 Nov 2000, 13:53

  • Mobile portal forces us to have fun

    Very serious French people

    French Web site Kiwee - the "market-leading provider of fun and interactive services for mobile phone users in France" - is launching in the UK. Apparently its .com site is getting 17 million page impressions a month from our cousins over the channel who just can't resist the infectious mix of rings tones, logos, screensavers, …

    Data Networking 22 Nov 2000, 14:18

  • Tadpole cycles into SPARC rackmounts

    Raises some money, too

    Tadpole Technology, the Cambridge, UK SPARC notebook maker, is buying Cycle Computer Corporation, a California maker of SPARC rackmounts for £5.6 million in shares. The company is to raise £11.2 million through a one-for-11 rights issue and a placing of new shares at 45 pence a pop with existing customers. Around £5 million …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 14:21

  • VNU goes to scatological lengths for Net research

    Is this really necessary?

    The Reg has been invited to a press briefing that will tell all about the future of the Internet. Which is nice. IT publisher/cuckoo VNU and 'big five' firm KPMG will thrill and amaze you with details of the "fourth wave of in-depth research into Internet usage across Europe". Crikey. A probing, in-depth survey has found that …

    Bootnotes 22 Nov 2000, 14:52

  • Republican coup d'etat looms as Fla. Supremes affirm Gore

    State legislature plotting a 'special session'

    The Florida Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Tuesday night mandating that the results of manual re-counts in three counties, as requested by the Gore campaign, must be included in the state's final returns. The Justices wisely set a final deadline of 27 November on concerns that if the counting were to continue too long …

    Register Full Coverage 22 Nov 2000, 15:00

  • Framfab sheds 340 jobs

    Unfortunate turnip for the books

    The Swedish office of e-consultancy Framfab is to sack 340 employees in a bid to cut costs and scale back its Scandinavian operation. Johan Wall, Framfab's new CEO, announced the details today as the company reported reduced sales and earnings during Q3 2000. He blamed changes in market conditions and "low business volumes in …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 15:29

  • Distie blames Y2K for selling too much

    Panic buying over, no surge

    European Micro Holdings, the Nasdaq-listed, American-owned, but Europe-mainly IT distributor, pulled in sales of for the first quarter, ended September 30, of $29.1 million, against $32.8 million for the same period last year. The company has come up with an interesting reason for the difference - it blames increased demand in …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 15:39

  • E-bunsen burners for e-boffins

    Gov't splashes out on 'e-science'

    The British Government is to blow £98 million on e-science over the next three years, it announced today. Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers said the building of the next generation of computing power and the development of fundamental new technologies are to be in the vanguard of investment in the UK's science …

    Media 22 Nov 2000, 15:44

  • Software patents stay banned in Europe – for now

    Resistance is feasible...

    The campaign to stop the European Patent Office trying to legalise software patents has scored its first major victory. After some effective lobbying in several countries and despite Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein deciding not to vote, all the other countries voted to keep Article 52C (which bans software patents) in the …

    Software 22 Nov 2000, 16:17

  • Irish directory service takes on BT

    Creates 1400 jobs

    Irish telephone directory enquiry service Conduit plc, is to create 1400 jobs in Wales after it announced plans to open a major new call centre in Cardiff. The new centre will be operational from January 2001 and it's hoped it will be full staffed by mid 2002. Conduit's announcement coincided with yet more consultative work by …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 17:10

  • Nintendo64 sales sag

    Punters hold out for GameCube

    Disappointing console sales have forced the Nintendo to cut profit forecasts for the full year. The gaming goliath said its Game Boy handheld device had shifted well, but sales of its flagship Nintendo64 console were disappointing for the six months ended September 30. The company, which pits the Nintendo64 against rival Sony' …

    Business 22 Nov 2000, 17:47

  • RIP Mike Muuss, PING author

    Killed in car crash

    The author of the enormously popular freeware network tool PING, Mike Muuss, died in a Maryland car crash last night. The accident happened at 9.30pm (New York time) on route 95 as a result of a previous accident. Mike hit a car stuck in the middle of the road and was pushed into the path of an oncoming tractor. Mike Muuss …

    Software 22 Nov 2000, 18:21

  • Palm leans on ‘cybersquatter’ who predicts future

    Not a case of first-come first-served

    Palm has got heavy-handed in a domain name spat with one of its users. The dispute stems from the mighty California outfit's announcement earlier this month to start a portal launch called MyPalm. Nothing wrong with that. Only problem for Palm is that execs decided on the name for the MyPalm portal without bothering to buy the …

    Media 22 Nov 2000, 22:16

  • Priceline founder cuts 100 staff at other venture

    Not a good month for Jay Walker

    It's not a good month for Priceline.com founder Jay Walker. His development outfit Walker Digital has laid off 100 staff after failing to get its next round of funding. Walker Digital is the company behind the technology used by the name-your-price Web site Priceline.com, also started by Walker. The cut-backs, made at its HQ in …

    Media 22 Nov 2000, 23:22