23rd November 2000 Archive

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FBI's Carnivore review is mixed

Performs as advertised - with exceptions

A technical review of the FBI's 'Carnivore' e-mail sniffer conducted by the Fed-friendly IIT Research Institute and Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago-Kent College of Law (IITRI) under contract to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), finds that the gizmo generally does not pose a threat to civil liberties as feared by its …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 08:58
Tom's Hardware P4 ‘performs horribly’ in MPEG 4

Doctor Pabst revisits Pentium 4

The trouble with reviews: they're a moving target. New benchmarks come out, new bios revisions, patches, drivers, extensions, and there's always, always new tests to do. Witness Dr Thomas Pabst, the most famous hardware reviewer of all. On Monday, Pentium 4 launch day, Tom published a comprehensive rundown of the new Intel CPU …

Channel 23 Nov 2000, 08:58
Fibernet wants £77m for expansion

Don't we all, dear, don't we all

Fibernet Group plc is looking to raise £77 million to create a network in France and bolster its xDSL service in the UK. Some £62 million of the money will be used in France - the rest will be used to extend the company's co-location facilities and DSL trial services within the UK. Betinternet.com plc - the AIM-listed Isle of …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 09:37
Part Three Comdex roundup Graphics, video, MP3 and weird stuff

ATI was showing its TV Wonder USB. It's just a cable jack at one end and a USB cable at the other. They're aiming it at TV for laptops, but desktops aren't out of the question. Nvidia was also showing off a TV tuning device attached to a GeForce 2 Ultra in a desktop machine, but it's not currently in production. Both were …

Register Full Coverage 23 Nov 2000, 10:22
Part Two Comdex roundup PDAs, mobiles, wireless and gizmos

PDAs and Communicators Psion was showing the Netbook, which has been in an extended development/deployment situation in Europe for over a year now. This, plus the company's recent merger of Psion Enterprise with Teklogix, surely signals a US push for the EPOC-based PDA. As regards new products, Psion has a number of Bluetooth …

Register Full Coverage 23 Nov 2000, 10:22
Comdex roundup What's hot in the mobo dept

Part One And some wireless networking...

It's not difficult to hear about the big news from Comdex, but after the keynoting crowd has made its big presentations and headed off - frequently by the end of day one - there's still a big, big show jam-packed with great stuff, cool stuff or just plain weird stuff. And who notices? Well, The Register does, and here we present …

Register Full Coverage 23 Nov 2000, 10:22
ICL: 'that's not how a company should function'

Fujitsu boss slams UK subsidiary

Fujitsu is to cut more jobs at ICL, its UK computer services subsidiary, the FT reports. "We need to modernize ICL's operations, and focus more on profits," Fujitsu president Naoyuki Akikusa said. He criticised ICL's management for focusing "so intensely on the IPO (Initial Public Offering)", cancelled by Fujitsu in August. " …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 10:23
Apple marketing chief quits

VW Beetle marketeer beetles off

Apple's VP of Marketing Communication, Steve Wilhite, has quit the company. No reason was given for his departure, though he is believed to have resigned rather than fired. That said, given the poor sales of CEO Steve Jobs' new baby, the Power Mac G4 Cube, there has been some turmoil within Apple's sales and marketing …

Mac Channel 23 Nov 2000, 10:47
Napster challenges EMusic monitoring plan

It's an invasion of privacy - Napster. No it's not - EMusic

Napster yesterday slammed music company EMusic's attempts to track downloads made across the MP3 sharing service as a violation of its users' privacy. EMusic plans to monitor Napster's service to locate users sharing songs to which it owns the copyright. The digital music company said this week it had begun embedding a …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 13:01
Child porn prison governor hangs himself

Tragic end in home garage

The 54-year-old assistant governor of Cardiff prison facing charges of child pornography has been found hanged at his home. We ran the story of his arrest on Monday after a number of illegal pictures downloaded of the Internet were found on his laptop. Dad-of-one Charles Deeney was questioned extensively, suspended from work …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 13:04
Swedes sack 340 dotcommers…

...Brits celebrate

Framfab - the Swedish-based e-company that yesterday culled 340 jobs - is to hold a jolly soiree tonight celebrating the opening of its second office in the UK. Not its first office, mind, it's second. Such extravagance must come as a real comfort to those 340 poor sods who are left out in the cold. Nice to know that while …

Bootnotes 23 Nov 2000, 13:10
The gossip on BT domain grab fiasco

Rat Salad Park anagram lifts spirits

The Reg has received some interesting correspondence from a former BT employee shedding further light on the telco's failure to register the domain of its newly branded hi-tech campus, Adastral Park. It concurs with other anecdotal evidence that senior BT managers were to blame for the cock-up, which ultimately led to the …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 13:14
Dell punters hit by PC delivery scam

You've been warned

Dell customers are being warned to be on their guard after two men walked out with four PCs two hours after they had been delivered to a company in London. The men claimed they were from IEC (Irish Express Cargo) - a company contracted by Dell to deliver the machines - and said there was a problem with the shipment. Using fake …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 13:15
MS: how PCs shipped without Windows will destroy your life

And why PC companies should 'politely decline' to sell you them...

Once upon a time Microsoft was in the happy position of being able to charge PC companies a Windows licence fee for every PC they shipped, whether or not the PCs actually shipped with Windows preinstalled. It was nice money while it lasted, but regulatory concerns have subsequently eroded Microsoft's ability to collect a Windows …

Software 23 Nov 2000, 13:28
Oftel mulls BT ‘192’ monopoly

Stupid solution

Telecoms watchdog Oftel is financing a survey into BT's monopoly of directory enquiries. It is paying for a MORI poll on yer man in the street to see if he would be prepared to forget about the well-known 192 number and go for a five-digit number instead. Opening up the service would "provide greater choice and a wider range of …

Data Networking 23 Nov 2000, 13:56
Web filters force Beaver College to change name

Split decision

Clean living American academics have decided they can no longer go through life working at Beaver College. Ridicule from filthy-minded perverts has forced the staff to change the name of the institution, and from 16 July 2001 it will be known as the slightly less offensive Arcadia University. The college gots its name from …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 14:07
The new hip SMS patois

Don't be MbR$d if you don't know what it all means

"Mobile phone messaging is just a feature - it will never take off". That at least is what every mobile phone operator told us just two years ago. And it's something we occasionally remind them of when they get caught up slapping each other on the back for their tremendous insight. Of course SMS use has rocketed but is still a …

Data Networking 23 Nov 2000, 14:07
eBay pulls Kevin Mitnick trinkets

Taking a firm stand against "violent felons"

What would you pay for a vintage computer once used by hacker Kevin Mitnick? How about a cell phone that he once spoke on, or a genuine prison I.D. card? On Monday, on-line auction house eBay cancelled an offering of Mitnick's official federal Bureau of Prisons inmate I.D. card, ending a flow of authentic Mitnick merchandise …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 14:07
Freeserve confirms sale talks

Wanadoo linked to buyout

Freeserve has confirmed it is once again holding negotiations that could lead to the sale of Britain's biggest ISP. Sources reportedly close to the deal claim French ISP, Wanadoo, is in the frame for the buyout, although both parties are refusing to talk. Indeed, a deal may be further advanced than some might think since …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 14:07
EMusic to track Napster music swaps

Not a big deal now, but is the way of the future digital music biz

Internet music company EMusic has developed what it claims is a solution to the 'Napster problem' - the availability of unauthorised copies of songs on the MP3 sharing software companies' service. EMusic's system monitors Napster traffic and if it detects one of the company's tracks - indicated by a watermark it is now stamping …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 14:07
Nvidia NV20 details leak out

Ties in very nicely with DirectX 8.0 developments

Nvidia's next graphics chip, codename NV20, will be the best thing since sliced bread - what new 3D accelerator isn't? - according to specs leaked to ZDNet's German subsidiary. But while everyone appears to be getting all hot and bothered by the numbers, one small detail proves rather interesting: the chip is programmable. …

Channel 23 Nov 2000, 15:55
Ex-Nvidia man coughs to insider trading charge

It's a fair cop, guv

Former Nvidia staffer Manu Shrivastava, who was fingered last August by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the San Francisco District Attorney's office for alleged insider trading, yesterday pleaded guilty to the crime. Shrivastava, 31, was charged last summer with profiting from inside knowledge of Microsoft's plan …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 16:02
£100 PC business wound up by High Court

7000 people fell for con

Smartalk Ltd - the company that offered £500 PCs in return for just £100 and access to personal information via a monthly questionnaire - has been wound up following a petition by the Secretary of State for Trade and industry. The High Court issued a winding up order against the company yesterday. The Official Receiver was …

Business 23 Nov 2000, 16:22
BSA swoops on auction site pirate

Another villain taken off our streets. The world's a safer place

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Trading Standards launched a dawn raid on a software pirate last week and came up trumps. Ten of thousands of pounds of pirated software and records relating to their sale on online auction sites were found. Run with military precision, the operation was mounted after a tip off from two …

Software 23 Nov 2000, 16:22
Watchdog mauls rip-off UK porn site

Dial M for Madagascar

Telephone services watchdog ICSTIS has begun an investigation into a British porn site after it was found to be ripping off punters with its premium rate phone service, writes Andrew Smith. Visitors to UKPage3.com - which, despite its name, is not linked to British tabloid, The Sun - are told that they need to "download a small …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 16:37
Microconnectors hacked and down

Blame it on the Yugoslavs. They blame it on the Yanks

Microconnectors.com has been hacked and displays only the following message: "American hackers hacking Yugoslav sites,ISPs(ptt.yu)!!!Becouse this site is hacked by YU hackers VIrusKrew" As usual, grammar wasn't a high priority but the basic message seems fairly clear. It would seem our Yugoslav cousins are unhappy about …

Music and Media 23 Nov 2000, 16:37
This year's Thanksgiving story

You don't want to click here but you will

Well, even though two of our three main US correspondents are British to the core, they have failed miserably to send us any news today.* Why? Because hot-diggidy-darn, it's Thanksgiving. Quite how the Indians and Pilgrims getting together in 1612 to chill after the harvest and munch on some venison and fruit has turned into …

Bootnotes 23 Nov 2000, 16:58