4th January 2001 Archive

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Letsbuyit.com bosses resign en masse

Dotcom asks for four week reprieve

Letsbuyit.com saw its management resign en masse today, while the debt-ridden dotcom said it needed four weeks to sort its finances out. John Palmer, the British-based site's founder and a member of the supervisory board, has stepped in as temporary CEO, replacing Martin Coles. Palmer and two court appointed administrators, …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 00:47
US Attorney General nominee is pro-privacy

Ashcroft defied the FBI on key escrow

To civil liberty groups, President-elect George W. Bush's pick for US attorney general is an ultra-right wing Christian conservative who fought abortion and gun control, and blocked the appointment of a black Missouri judge to the federal bench. But veteran cyber libertarians know John Ashcroft as something else: a once-fierce …

Media 4 Jan 2001, 01:36
Are Microsoft ActiveX controls dangerous?

Well, yes and no...

Microsoft's ActiveX refers to portable, executable COM (Component Object Model) controls for Windows which are both flexible and powerful. Perhaps a bit too powerful, some would say. They run natively on a local machine rather than in a protected environment (sandbox); they can be accepted or rejected, but they cannot be …

Software 4 Jan 2001, 06:17
Millennium Bug claims more victims

Soda fountains, mobile phones and jurors

The first victim of the Millennium Bug was the Norwegian high speed train system. But over the last couple of days, other instances of computer systems toppling over have come to light. The false Millennium Bug, you may remember, was first erroneously applied to the Year 2000 bug, which filled acres of newsprint, filled the …

Software 4 Jan 2001, 09:06
Intel roadmap shredder in OverDrive™ mode

Pandemonium reigns in Satan Clara

Chip giant Intel has entered the New Year by hastily revising roadmaps it was showing its customers only three weeks back, in a bid to throttle up its push to the Pentium 4 and shift stocks of existing semiconductors. As revealed earlier this week, Intel prematurely introduced the 1.3GHz Pentium 4 slated for the end of the …

Channel 4 Jan 2001, 09:35
4C retreats in Copy Protection storm

Exclusive Users to get final say on CPRM plans?

The 4C group of computer component makers appears likely to approve modifications to its proposed CPRM content control mechanism, handing a degree of control back to the end user. The proposed inclusion of CPRM (Content Protection for Removable Media) into the ATA standard - at the behest of the entertainment industry - was …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 10:02
Mac Rumour Roundup G4 Plus slides to summer

Still within Motorola's broad schedule though

Motorola appears to have set back its schedule for the release of the PowerPC G4 Plus in volume quantities - ie. sufficient for Apple to begin shipping Macs based on the chip in earnest. According to Motorola sources cited by AppleInsider, the chip maker has pushed the G4 Plus back to June. The next-generation G4 CPU is …

Mac Channel 4 Jan 2001, 11:14
Back on the Helldesk with BOFH

Episode 1 It's Y2k plus one, and he's back...

BOFH 2001: Episode 1 "So," The Boss burbles, rolling in on a post-Christmas wave of stupidity that I've missed greatly in the past week or so, "any New Year's Resolutions?" "Yes, 1200dpi!" I cry, using a geek joke that's so far over his head he can't even see its vapour trail. "Eh?" he responds blankly, as expected, then …

BOFH 4 Jan 2001, 11:58
BOFH 2K: The kit and caboodle

That was the year that was... in full

BOFH Takes the Wind out of Sales Episode 42: Christmas cheer BOFH: Who Put the Mug in Smug? Episode 41: This Boss has to go Just when you thought BOFH had disappeared... Episode 40: Try this simple test BOFH: Lights out for Contractors Episode 39: A bastard's got to do... The Bastard hits Cruise Control Episode 38: Was …

BOFH 4 Jan 2001, 11:58
Bush 2k email guru gets transition team gig

'Permissions-based' email saved from privacyniks?

The CEO of ClickAction, the company responsible for the email side of the Bush presidential campaign, has been rewarded by being appointed to the Department of Commerce Transition Advisory Board. George Slayton joins several other technology execs in an advisory capacity for the incoming administration, and will no doubt be in a …

Media 4 Jan 2001, 12:07
Global chip sales growth starts to slow

November's world semicon sales down two per cent on October's

The slowdown in the global semiconductor market began to bite last November, with the industry recording its first month-on-month sales slippage since February 2000. Still, with sales way higher than previous years' figures, the business doesn't have to worry just yet. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, chip …

Channel 4 Jan 2001, 14:09
Xbox pics leak out

Sourced to ZD rag

Well, Xbox's final design was to be launched in one big ole party in Las Vegas this Saturday, but then some naughty people have broken the embargo and printed pics of it before that date. Microsoft is apparently "incandescent" with rage. However, seeing as the pics have now started flying about and various sites are posting …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 14:19
BarnesandNoble .com to drive digital publishing

But does the public really want it?

BarnesandNoble.com is planning to extend its digital publishing business and hopes to attract big-name authors by ramping up the royalties paid. The bookstore today launched Barnes & Noble Digital, its e-publishing division. The company says it will offer authors and agents 35 per cent of a e-tome's list price in royalties, a …

Media 4 Jan 2001, 14:27
9to5cafe.com in jobs fry-up

You want chips with that?

British entertainment outfit 9to5cafe.com cut its workforce by half this morning as the dotcom plague continues to claim victims. Five employees were given the 'we're sorry to lose you but...' speech this morning as the operation had to face up to its own financial shortcomings. Kevin Hassall, head of development at AIM-listed …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 14:30
2001: the first distie failures

Channel Flannel

The new year is barely four days old, and two distributors have already gone into administrative receivership. IMC Distribution, which is best known for handling Umax's scanner line, went into receivership on Tuesday. Callers to its Ascot. Berks office are told that it is "now closed". Users with sales and support enquiries …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 14:36
No! No! No! Captain Cyborg is back

Starts all over again

Brace yourself - following Kevin Warwick's derisory appearance at the Royal Institute's Christmas lectures, he has gone on another media frenzy. Today he gets a spread in The Sun. There's not much new in his crazed ramblings - it's the usual robots-will-take-over-the-world stuff - although we did spot one interesting snippet we …

Bootnotes 4 Jan 2001, 15:13
Win Webmaster and wescue the Web

10 copies up for grabs

It's time for the first Reg giveaway of the new millennium. Vulture Centrail is once again obliged to our mates at Tivola for stumping up ten copies of their latest CD-ROM. Webmaster is just the thing to while away those dark hours at work between lunch and hometime. Your mission is to save the dream wide web and its …

Bootnotes 4 Jan 2001, 15:18
IT budgets not growing so fast, shock horror

America slowing

A slowdown in IT spending will lead to hard times ahead for technology firms, according to Merrill Lynch. The investment bank polled 50 US and 20 European IT heads and extrapolated an IT budget growth-rate in the US of just five per cent in 2001 (2000: up 11 per cent), the FT reports. Europe is in somewhat better shape, with …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 15:33
LibertySurf on the pull

Flashes a bit of leg

European ISP LibertySurf has confirmed it is in talks with a number of different operators concerning a possible get-together, it said in a statement to the French bourse yesterday. Since LibertySurf reportedly has bags of cash in its coffers, the discussions are not thought to be concerned with propping up the outfit. Instead, …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 15:35
The Case of the Free Mouse That Wasn't

Distie blunders

It's a well-known fact that there's no such thing as a free lunch. What's less commonly understood is that there's no such thing as a free mouse either - particularly if it comes from distributor Ingram Micro. Distributors have a habit of sending out freebies to tempt resellers into ordering shedloads of kit. They don't - …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 16:03
BT to raise £2bn in property sell -off

Broadband future safe, we're assured

BT has given assurances that its plan to realise the assets of its properties will not hit the roll-out of broadband services in Britain. Earlier today it announced it is to divest its massive property portfolio in a bid to raise £2 billion, further evidence that BT is raiding the piggy bank to reduce its debt burden. The plan …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 16:09
Music to CD-Writers' ears

A-Open touts faster tech

New technology from AOpen promises to deliver faster CD writing, with fewer errors. Engineers at the company claim the new technique, called JustLink Technology, greatly improves the quality of MP3 audio data. It works by monitoring the writing process and making predictions about when an 'under-run' may occur. An under-run …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 16:14
PC Phone Home (but watch those ads)

Huge opportunity!

A quarter of surfers will regularly make phone calls through their PC in five years, a survey claims. Around 166 million Internet users (23 per cent) will use PC-to-phone IP telephony by January 2006, compared to the current five per cent, according to a prediction by analysts at Ovum. PC-based IP telephony lets users make …

Data Networking 4 Jan 2001, 16:17
VIA gulps down sales and asks for more

Says will beat 2000 estimates

Taiwanese chipmaker VIA Technology has said it will beat sales expectations for 2000. The company's revised figures put revenue at NT$30.9 billion ($936 million) for the year based on a December sales report it distributed yesterday, according to the Taiwanese press. This is slightly up on Via's previous forecast in August …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 17:22
Confusion delays Cowpland insider trading trial to 2002

Who's responsible? The other guy, both parties claim

Canadian securities market regulators may not get a chance to bring Corel founder and former CEO Michael Cowpland to trial on insider trading charges for at least two years, it has emerged. The reason? Cowpland's prosecutor and his defender both claim it's up to the other to get the ball rolling. Neither can agree on who's …

Business 4 Jan 2001, 18:00
Pepsi site hacked and smacked

Updated Not for very long though

PepsiCo's UK Web site has been hacked and an anti-globalisation message and pic posted. Unsurprisingly, the hack wasn't up for long but it was posted to Attrition, so you can see it in all its glory there. Why are we reporting it? Because this looks like a genuine case of someone hacking for an assumed cause. There is no ego- …

Media 4 Jan 2001, 18:01
Anand gets the Celery out

HWRoundup How many overclockers does it take to change a lightbulb?

More Celeron investigations over at Anand's. Another review that wonders whether, for the hobbyists at least, Intel's "unhobbled" Celeron was too little, and too late. Performance doesn't get to within 90 per cent of the cheaper Duron, but looking at the wider picture, Intel could have done just enough to stay competitive. Click …

Hardware Roundup 4 Jan 2001, 18:04
The teenage dotcom millionaire and his ever increasing page impressions

Creative thinking

We ran a story on Ben Cohen's new porn search engine on Tuesday and raised an eyebrow as his wibbly wobbly claims of success grew ever more removed from reality. Benny boy claims to have 50,000 subscribers to his porn search site, even though it hasn't even launched. We reckoned this was a load of cobblers. We also thought that …

Media 4 Jan 2001, 18:10