1st December 2000 Archive
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Compaq and Disney in $100m love-in
Clinging on for dear life?
Compaq and Walt Disney Internet Group today jumped into bed together with a $100 million deal. The three-year agreement will see Compaq get to run sites such as Disney.com, ESPN.com and ABC.com and advertise on them. Disney will also buy shedloads of desktops and laptops from Big Q. "This alliance represents a very significant …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 06:20
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Congress peers deeper into Carnivore
Everyone wants to get into the act
The powerful Senate Judiciary Committee is looking into popular concerns that the FBI's Carnivore e-mail sniffer captures too much data and would therefore be too easy for overzealous Feds to abuse. In a 21 November letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh, Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah) and ranking member Patrick …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 06:20
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Intel in deep doo-doo as HQ's drains fail
Those old familiar faeces...
The old phrase 'it's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it' came literally true this week, we hear, when the plumbing failed at Intel's SC12 building at its Santa Clara HQ. We've always taken AMD fans' claims that Intel processors are shit with a pinch of salt, but as excrement bubbled up out of the drains and across the car …
Bootnotes 1 Dec 2000, 10:24
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Iridium satellite crashes over Arctic
Didn't appreciate the gravity of the situation?
One of Iridium's fleet of telecommunications satellites has fallen out of orbit, burning up in the atmosphere somewhere over the Arctic Ocean this week. A second satellite is due to become a shooting star around the 17 December, and others are expected to follow it Earth-ward in the coming months. Anyone concerned that this …
Data Networking 1 Dec 2000, 10:27
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Transmeta bug may affect 13,000 Sony PCs
Fujitsu free of it, Hitachi still looking
Sony has confirmed problems with Transmeta's Crusoe processors shipped in two of its Vaio sub-notebook computers, despite assurances from Transmeta earlier this week that such an outcome was "unlikely". Sony yesterday calculated that some 13,000 Vaio PCG-GT1 and PCG-C1 machines - out of 28,200 units shipped - containing 600MHz …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 10:59
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Intel cancels US developer roadshow
Empowerment postponed
Intel has pulled the plug on its North American Applied Computing Roadshow at short notice. The tour, subtitled: "Empowering Developers of the Connected World", was scheduled to hit Ottowa, Raleigh and Chicago and other cities over the next fortnight. But like a number of recent Intel products, it has suffered a recall. "We …
Channel 1 Dec 2000, 11:20
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Red Hat drops Sparc support
Cancelled due to lack of interest
Red Hat has canned the Sparc version of Red Hat Linux 7 "due to insufficient demand". The admission, made in an interview with Cnet, comes just days after Compaq trumpeted Red Hat's support for its Alpha processor, which, apart from some custom-made versions for IBM servers, is now the only non-x86 CPU Red Hat supports. And …
Software 1 Dec 2000, 11:20
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New-look LibertySurf makes fresh start
Today is the beginning of the rest of my life...
LibertySurf kicks off a major TV ad campaign today in a bid to rebrand itself as a caring, sharing ISP with just one goal in mind - to please its customers. From now until the middle of January expect to see the heart-warming ads on British TV featuring kids innocently demonstrating the meaning of "unmetered Net access" in the …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 11:22
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Liquefaction imperils Bay Area Bubble Economy
And us and CNet too...
The US Geological Survey (USGS) yesterday confirmed our worst fears - or some of your highest hopes - that the Bay Area Internet economy will be decimated by the next major San Andreas-induced quake. Every few years the Survey plots the vulnerability of certain areas to earthquakes, and the results released yesterday are the …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 11:23
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AT&T wireless starts move to 3G convergence with GSM
Nokia, Ericsson, GPRS - the beginning of a love-in?
US cellular giant AT&T has recruited Nokia and Ericsson to speed up its transition to 3G network systems. The two companies have signed letters of intent with AT&T, and will be delivering equipment that supports both the GPRS mobile packet data system currently being deployed in Europe, and the higher speed EDGE (Enhanced Data …
Data Networking 1 Dec 2000, 11:44
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Micron issues profit warning
Low DRAM prices blamed
Micron Electronics has warned that earnings for the quarter will be below Wall Street estimates, blaming lower DRAM pricing for the dip. Gateway has also warned that its revenues will be half a billion dollars lower than previous estimates. The company now expects revenues of between $385 million and $400 million for the …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 11:52
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Lloyd's of London hacker gets slapped wrist
Lucky the lad doesn't live in Hong Kong
A Teenage hacker who pleaded guilty to hacking into the Lloyd's of London Web site has received a lenient sentence. The 17 year-old, who is known as 'X', attacked both Lloyd's and Railtrack in New Year's Eve attacks, using his own PC. This meant he left his digital fingerprints all over the attack, making him relatively easy to …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 12:05
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VIA fails to profit from Intel 815 delay
Chops foundry order
TSMC sources quoted in Taiwan's Commercial Times claim that VIA has slashed orders as a result of falling demand from mobo makers. VIA refused to comment on the speculation but said that any adjustment was purely temporary. The company expects the mobo market to return to normal next year and says its chipset product strategy …
Channel 1 Dec 2000, 12:13
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Anonymizer: the Naked Capitalist Answer
Securicor touts ecommerce privacy
Real world security company Securicor is spending £7 million on an online shopping service which will allow users to shop online without passing credit card details to online stores. In effect, this is the naked capitalist version of Anonymizer, the best-known service designed to enable people to browse the Web anonymously. …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 12:15
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QXL share price slumps
Needs £30m just to keep going
Online auctioneer QXL has seen its share price slump by over 22 per cent on the news that it needed to raise an extra £30 million to stay in business. Tech stocks haven't been having an easy time of it recently but QXL has the unenviable moniker of being the worst performing European Internet stock this year. At the start of …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 12:16
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Dell fumbles open source desktop gambit
Guileless to the last
Welcome to the whirling hall of rotating knives. Intel assembler (and bug-finder par excellence) Dell Computer was fingered in speculation yesterday that it is poised to invest in open source desktop outfit Eazel and anoint GNOME as its preferred Linux desktop. Yerssss, indeed... But this carefully leaked, desperately …
Software 1 Dec 2000, 13:02
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Wanted: one contract killer
Obsessive seeks hitman online, court hears
An obsessed man offered £100,000 on a Web site for the murder of a woman he had met online, a court heard yesterday. Paul Clark began exchanging emails with American Brandy Arnett after she advertised for an email pen pal. The 32-year-old electronics engineer from Portsmouth quickly became obsessed with his American pen pal. …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 13:10
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SGI takes stake in Linux distro SuSE
Wants help getting enterprise apps over to Linux
SGI has invested in Linux distributor SuSE, part of what the two companies are calling a "strategic partnership" to grow the open source OS' applications market. The value of the investment was not disclosed. However, the duo did say that the alliance will also involve their close co-operation on the "development, deployment …
Software 1 Dec 2000, 15:09
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Fake mobos – SOYO bares teeth
Imitation the sincerest form of flattery
Mobo maker SOYO, which sold $315 million worth of boards last year, has discovered at least a thousand imitation motherboards in South America, Asia Pacific, Canada and the US. The company has set up a legal investigation team, and promises to prosecute anyone who manufactures or knowingly sells fake SOYO products The problem …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 15:10
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WAP is CWAP – Jakob Nielsen
Usability guru joins WAPlash
A report published today recommends that companies looking to offer mobile Internet services should delay their entry into the marketplace until the technology improves. The report claims the true potential for the mobile Internet isn't expected to gain momentum until 2003. It argues that users are turned off by the WAP …
Data Networking 1 Dec 2000, 15:40
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Europe no place for Programmer's Paradise
And other channel flannel
Pennsylvania-based Black Box Corporation is buying into privately held British outfit Orchard Network Solutions. The amount of the deal between the two network services companies was not disclosed. Orchard is based in Colchester, with annual sales of $1 million. Black Box, which will merge Orchard into its UK division, saw $450 …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 16:00
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My security algorithm is faster than yours
Does it matter?
IBM claims to have invented a new encryption algorithm which can encrypt and authenticate data in one step. The algorithm takes advantage of parallel processing hardware, to cut in half the time taken to encrypt data. However, the news has failed to impress everyone. IBM says the algorithm could be used to take some of the …
Software 1 Dec 2000, 16:07
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Sell your granny to buy Palm stock – analyst
Goldman Sachs reckons stock is 'compelling'
Palm is on track for a cracking quarter - so much so that its stock, currently trading at around $40, is a "compelling" buy. That's the verdict of Goldman Sachs, which today told clients who hold Palm stock that it "expects Palm to beat our estimates", according to a Reuters report. Palm shares have been down of late on …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 16:12
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Shrinking chips
What does 130nm mean to the man on the Clapham omnibus?
With Intel and AMD/Motorola's joint efforts on moving to 130nm processes about to go head to head (Story: New Intel, Motorola/AMD chips face off), it's perhaps an opportune moment to look at how semiconductor technology has progressed over the last decade or so. Intel's first microprocessor, the 108KHz 4004, was built using …
Channel 1 Dec 2000, 16:15
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Bull splits to tackle poor sales
1800 job losses
Bull is to split its server and services businesses into two separate subsidiaries as part of a far-ranging reorganisation. This will see 1,800 people - 10 per cent of the workforce - losing their jobs over the next 18 months as the company continues to grapple with disappointing sales. Sales for the second half of this year …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 16:38
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Email will get you fired
Look out if you're a Sikh or a Christian
Funny medium, email. And one likely to get you the sack - whether you're being nice or nasty. A Sikh police sergeant is to be offered his job back after he was fired for sending "racist hate mail". On the other hand, a born-again Christian working for British Airways was fired for "harassing" a fellow worker with offers of …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 16:40
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Linux, MP3 and Bluetooth on one phone
Dream gift for geeks?
A Korean software developer has developed the world's 'first embedded-Linux smart phone'. Still at demo stage, the IMT-2000 smart phone (brand name Palmi - which may well upset a certain PDA maker) is the outcome of a joint project between PalmPalm Technology SK Telecom and Seoul National University. The Palmi is loaded with …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 16:44
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No upturn in DRAM until after March
Batten down the hatches
The slippery DRAM market is not expected to make a full recovery until sometime after March 2001. Prices are still declining, and at their lowest, DRAM 64Mb memory chips on the spot market have plummeted to under $3, Asiabiztech reports. The rolling average contract prices of 128Mb DRAMs for the month ended November 10 were $ …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 17:11
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IF brushes off dirty tricks allegations
Well, someone has to
A trading standards investigation into Intelligent Finance (IF) - the online bank from the Halifax - has failed to tarnish yesterday's long awaited launch of Britain's latest e-bank. Edinburgh Trading Standards has already met with officials at IF concerning a single complaint about an advert promoting its 0 per cent interest …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 17:12
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Cracker site Icefortress benefits from IBILL challenge
Exclusive Back on line and more popular than ever
When the popular Icefortress Web site was taken down in response to legal threats from porno billing-service outfit IBILL, no one was even sure what the company was objecting to. Following a few initial scare-o-grams from IBILL lawyer Edward Cherry and outside lawyer Stephen Workman, the ICE crew's first inclination was to fold …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 18:03
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Judiciary weighs privacy, access
US courts want your opinion
The US federal judiciary is asking for the public's help in hashing out the privacy issues attendant with allowing Web access to court case files, which can sometimes include such sensitive information as medical histories, personnel files, tax returns and Social Security numbers. The dead-tree versions of criminal and civil …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 20:09
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Virus prevents you asking for help
Clever design
A virus which blocks victims from reaching antivirus web sites or even emailing for help is spreading around the internet after laying dormant for weeks. MTX was first identified in August and was thought to pose relatively little risk, but its clever design is now leading to widespread problems. November statistics from …
Software 1 Dec 2000, 20:59
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Three people charged with Sun server burglaries
City banks targeted
Three people have been charged with burglary following the arrest of eleven men suspected of stealing computer hardware from City banks earlier this week. Some of the suspects are still been questioned by City of London and Metropolitan Police officers in relation to robberies of five major banks in the City and a host of …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 21:02
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Best of the Rest: porn, school troubles, death, more
Pretty disparate bunch, but worth it, oh yes
Computer engineer commits phone suicide Hi, I suppose it's just a typo in your article (halfway through 3rd para), but I would like to suggest that a "used Eugene" enter the English language as a new phrase to describe a recent suicide. Jay Linn. Micron issues profit warning Subject: Micron The shortfall is because …
Letters 1 Dec 2000, 21:07
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Fake Flames and other flame-based letters
Anger is one of the funnier emotions
Man oh man, You are such an inflamed asshole. The putrid rot from your friggin' limey teeth must get into your brain to make you say such stupid things such as " but hey, there's a big trailer trash hoedown in the Mid West this week, so choice has been limited". My grandma can come up with better insults than that. You guys …
Letters 1 Dec 2000, 21:10
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Recommended site of the Week
A new and irregular feature
Lovely Lucy somehow found this site today and read a few of the entries out. It was soon realised that we'd stumbled on something magical. Put simply, this site observes the wonderful, abstract and surreal world we inhabit through short clips of overheard conversation and wall scrawlings. Try it, you might like it. It is www. …
Letters 1 Dec 2000, 21:11
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KT133 mobos herded on to review cattle train
HWRound'em up
A herd of KT133 platforms has been gathered for your inspection over at Anand's. I'd tell you who wins but then why would you click through? (For people without stamina, the winners page is here. Now, don't say we never do anything for you.) Dan, of DansData, gets his pen out for Australian IT again and reviews a couple of …
Hardware Roundup 1 Dec 2000, 21:13
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German problems – telecoms and dodgy dotcoms
Case of the DTs
Deutsche Telekom threatens to withdrawn flat-rate Net access Letsbuyit no longer illegal in Germany? Hi, You've asked whether Deutsche Telekom would be the most arrogant phone company in the world. Oh yes, they certainly are :-). I wish these suckers would read this. I've suffered them for years, and they still are the only …
Letters 1 Dec 2000, 21:16
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Readers' Letters: porn, fake flames and Reg bias (again)
Who'd wanna write about computers and IT?
[Good bunch this week. Have a shufti, pick your favourites, send them to your friends or relatives. Kick back, open a tinny, watch some shit TV, go out, sleep. Do it again. And then we'll see you back on Monday] German problems - telecoms and dodgy dotcoms Case of the DTs Fake Flames and other flame-based letters Anger is …
Letters 1 Dec 2000, 21:18
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CIA sacks four in secret chat room hack
Boyz will be boyz
The CIA this week sacked four employees, suspended ten, and yanked the security clearances of nine contractors who had hacked the Agency's networks and set up a secret chat room in which they exchanged "inappropriate" e-mail and other materials. The hack had involved some 160 participants over the years and went undetected since …
Music and Media 1 Dec 2000, 23:22
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PlayStation 2 e-tail warning in US and Canada
Money taken, but consoles not delivered
North American watchdogs have issued a warning about two Web sites claiming to have the elusive and eminently desirable PlayStation 2 console in stock. The Better Business Bureaus in the US and Canada took today's step after receiving complaints from punters who had ordered consoles from dotcom The Playstation Store, a …
Business 1 Dec 2000, 23:27
