10th January 2001 Archive

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Dixons smiles on camcorder sales

Laptops popular too

Consumer demand for laptop PCs, digital cameras and camcorders helped electrical retailer Dixons report a prosperous Christmas and a happy New Year, according to figures released this morning. Retail sales for Christmas period were up almost 20 per cent - a threefold improvement on the same period last year. The increased …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 09:51
Microprocessor Report slams Intel P4

Updated The times, they are a'changing...

The latest issue of influential industry rag The Microprocessor Report says that AMD's Athlon at 1.2GHz outperforms Intel's Pentium 4 at 1.5GHz. According to a piece written by senior analyst Peter Glaskowsky, hands-on tests show that despite the AMD clock speed being less than Intel's P4, typical systems perform up to 12 per …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 10:32
Big Blue intros digital Thinkpad

But we're not supposed to know...

IBM will on Monday unveil a machine in its ThinkPad range which will come with an integrated digital notepad. The device looks, feels, opens and carries like a leather portfolio, IBM will claim, and has different ways of entering and finding information, including a pop up touch screen, and a keyboard which it describes as a " …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 11:04
Capellas waves Compaq's Heil off

Enterprise market head has boldly gone

Compaq has bid the head of its enterprise business, Bill Heil, a sad farewell. And below we publish what Compaq's CEO, Mike Capellas, has told his troops, in typically terse fashion. The departure of Heil means re-organisations are in store at the firm, if you get past the first four or five brief paragraphs. He also outlines …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 11:15
Net dating agencies get hitched

Match made in Heaven?

MatchNet, the online dating agency, has boosted its membership to over three million with the acquisition of Social Net, the owner of socialnet.com, another Net-based dating and networking site in a share exchange deal. SocialNet shareholders will receive MatchNet shares for all the SocialNet stock they hold. Some shareholders …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 11:17
Crusoe mini-notebook lands in Japan

Where's Lernout & Hauspie when you need 'em?

How's your Japanese? We have to admit that ours is practically non-existent and when we made the mistake of using Lernout & Hauspie's Japanese/English software a while back, one of our readers was kind enough to do a proper translation. His translation was exactly the opposite of what L&H's software came up with, so we're never …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 11:29
Apple's digital dreams waft past consumers

Analysis Great technology, but why restrict it to the high end?

Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have been standing in front on thousands of MacWorld Expo San Francisco attendees when he outlined his vision for the company yesterday, but his real audience was over on the East Coast, in Wall Street. Jobs kicked off his spiel with the admission that the last seven months had been pretty ropy for the …

Mac Channel 10 Jan 2001, 11:41
Hermit says Delphi no Oracle

Funny things happen on way to forum

The moderator of our Online Forum, Hermit at Hoodview, has had it with Delphi. And we can't say we blame him. Hermit discovered over the weekend that Delphi had unilaterally booted him off the forum as moderator, and then was unable to get himself back on because of repeated downtimes and cryptic error messages like this: " …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 12:32
Microsoft preps Napster clone

A hi-tech R&D project today - tomorrow ze vorld...

Microsoft plans to 'embrace and extend' peer-to-peer file sharing technology with a Napster-style system of its own. Codenamed Farsite, the program is currently little more than a research project, according to a ZDNet US story. The newswire seems content with M$' line that the code will probably make it into the commercial …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 12:55
Liz Hurley tries to sue domain name company

Because if you're rich and famous the world should revolve around you...

Liz Hurley has sent the head of domain registration company Easyspace.com a snotty lawyer's letter saying she will sue it for $10 million unless she has her way. What's it all about? Easyspace allowing someone to register www.elizabethhurley.co.uk. It's a little unfortunate that the site was registered by the people behind www. …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 12:59
Open source pioneer cuts staff

Updated De-Zelerates towards break-even

Zelerate, one of the most closely-watched commercial open source ventures, is to lay off 34 staff, according to a company spokesman. The company's Albuquerque office will close as part of the cost-cutting measures. Formerly known as OpenSales, the San Mateo-based company markets AllCommerce, a storefront and content management …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:01
Boots hacked

Updated More embarassing than buying haemorrhoid cream

Britain's biggest chemist had its corporate Web site hacked this morning - by someone posing as a poet. Instead of the usual corporate nonsense, the hacker left behind the 534-word poem known as the "Hackers' Manifesto". Having never read it before, I was pleasantly suprised at its imagery and style. Thanks for all those who' …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:05
eBay promotes spam to users

It reckons opting opt of spam is a 'mistake'

eBay users are up in arms after the online auctioneer told them their choice to opt out of receiving junk email must have being a mistake which it is keen to correct. Users have received an email from eBay telling them that their preferences have being changed so that they will receive marketing messages from 23 January. Users …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:10
Lego builds links to MSN, games for Xbox

It's not the toy it was...

Lego has announced a strategic alliance (ach!) with Microsoft today. Microsoft doesn't seem all that bothered, however, the two will "team up" to create various Lego-based products. Lego will produce content for the Beast of Redmond's MSN network and games for the fantastically exciting Xbox. Lego will also take out loads of …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:15
FIC mobo wins AMD seal of approval

First board to be accredited

AMD has given the thumbs up to the latest mobo from FIC, the AD11 Socket A board. The board is the first motherboard supporting a 266MHz frontside bus to win accreditation from AMD. The board is based on a hybrid chipset comprising AMD's 761 North Bridge and VIA's 686B South Bridge. The AD11 provides support for the Athlon up …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:18
SMS can get you in trouble with the law

You're nicked, son

Two men have the dubious pleasure of being the first to be charged with offensive use of text messaging. Garry Riding and electrician Jason Eshelby had a bit of a to-do over Jason's craftsmanship on Garry's home, The Sun reports. It all got a bit out of hand and both of them ended up going to the police. Where they were both …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:33
Changing lightbulbs the Whistler, Win98 and Linux way

Multiple OS scenarios in the legacy-free near future

When the lightbulb project popped its head up here last, just before Christmas, I had the primary objective of getting a games-friendly operating system onto the "legacy free" PC, and a secondary one of investigating multiple operating systems in this brave new environment. So on 23rd December into the back of the car went one …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:36
Chipset spectre rattles Intel's P4

Erratumnotbug still needs fixing

Our old buddy Mike Kanellos is reporting on both Cnet and ZD Net that Intel still hasn't fixed a problem with the 850 chipset that caused the launch of the Pentium 4 to be delayed earlier this year. But, quoting Intel, the report suggests that although this erratum not a bug caused the delay to the original schedule of the …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Intel's 12-incher starts to throb

Focus on Fabs Tualatin rests on Chandler success

If you believe the following posting on Intel's old irritant Face Intel, its Chandler fab 12 factory is a hotbed of unbridled sexual licence. Given that many of its employees are sweating long shifts in their Bunny Suits, this beggars belief, although the capacity of people to fall for each other despite the most adverse of …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Pentium 4 Foster may sink the Itanic

Willamette team seems to win the day

When Intel set up the IA-64 project down there in Satan Clara, it sparked off quite an internal fight at the chip firm, as we reported at the time, passim. Intel poured a heap of resources into the Merced (soon to be the Itanic) platform, and that caused quite a few hackles to be raised amongst the Willamette-Foster team, who …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Pentium 4 high risk strategy for Intel

The thrashing of the Pentium 4?

Many of our lovely readers have drawn our attention to this piece at emulators.com, a lengthy diatribe about the Pentium 4 written by one Darek Mihocka. Essentially, it looks at the Pentium 4 and its architecture in quite some detail and you can read for yourself what Citizen Mihocka has to say, although it's possible to gauge …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Millennium ends with Rambus whimper

ITC complaint null and void

The International Trade Commission (ITC) has now formally terminated its investigation into allegations that Hyundai had violated US law by importing alleged patent-busting memory into the country. Rambus Inc, a company based in Mountain View, California, made the initial complaint. The move follows Rambus' withdrawal of the …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Compaq Alpha makes 1GHz target

With days to spare

Our old mate Terry Shannon, who runs insider newsletter Shannon knows Compaq, reports in the latest edition that Compaq sent first pass release samples of EV7 Alphas running at 1GHz to manufacture just before the end of last year. Shannon also reports that Compaq is now testing Alphas at speeds of 1.2GHz and above, but suggests …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
1GHz PIII notebook uses desktop chip

Updated What's the battery life like

Two swallows don't make a spring [shouldn't that be summer? Ed], the old English saw goes, but it seems that Intel is pulling out all of the stops to make its 1GHz Pentium IIIs arrive before frogs even spawn in British ponds. An advert on German television earlier this evening from Media Markt announced a notebook for DM 4,999 …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Intel denies Rambus legal action – at last

Despite what UBS Warburg said

An interview on CNBC with UBS Warburg financial analyst Gregory Mischou seemed to suggest that Intel was taking legal action against Rambus. But, late tonight UK time, Intel representative Chuck Mulloy took time out from his busy schedule to call The Register while we were having our evening meal. Mulloy said there was …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Chip champs chomp bitter pill

Bit of market gloom, Intel loses market share

The global semiconductor market took a hit in the last quarter of 2000 but still produced 31 per cent growth over the year. However, despite amassing total revenues of $222.1 billion, the mood in the industry is not good, according to analysts Dataquest. Dataquest vice president, Joe D'Elia, said that there was "despondency …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Samsung tipped to grab over half Rambus market

Demand is alive and well, Koreans claim

Samsung expects to have ramped up its share of the world's Rambus market to 53 per cent during 2000. According to the Korean manufacturer, demand for Rambus is alive and well - largely thanks to its use in commercial releases of Intel Pentium IV chips, today's AsiaBizTech newswire reported. The company, which previously said …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Intel confirms early arrival of P4 at 1.3GHz

It's probably not a swallow, but it is swift

The spin doctors at Intel confirmed today that the semiconductor fabrication plants had speeded up the 1.3GHz Pentium 4 - as reported here yesterday - and gave reasons for the early start. The 1.3GHz Pentium 4 was not supposed to arrive until the 29th of January next, but a spokesperson said: "We have added this processor to …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Intel steps up P4 ad campaign

Blue Man gets re-vamped look

Intel is in the process of putting together a TV ad campaign to promote its Pentium 4 platform heavily from the end of this month. The ads, being shot as we speak, will keep the "Blue Man" profile that Intel introduced last autumn, but will replace the familiar III numerals for the Pentium III family with a great big number 4 …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Celeron gets ‘go faster’ stripes

800MHz version with 100MHz bus

Intel has finally freed its budget Celeron processor from the 66MHz system bus it has been lumbered with, and has announced the release of an 800MHz version, with a more grown up 100MHz system bus. Intel also announced an associated new chipset, the 810E2, with ATA/100 support and new USB controllers to support four "plug and …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:38
Rambus trousers Mitsubishi DDR deal

Oh how the Dramurai are crumbling

Mitsubishi is the latest of the big Japanese players to accept that Rambus holds valid patents for synchronous memory (SDRAM) and double data rate (DDR) memory. Rambus announced last night that Mitsubishi had signed a licence agreement for these two types of memory, a move which is likely to help it in its outstanding law case …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:39
AMD notebooks face uphill struggle

Tier one vendors mostly plump for Intel

Sources close to AMD's plans have said that design time and the cost of making notebooks using its upcoming mobile microprocessors mean that many tier one vendors have decided to stick with Intel for the time being. Designing notebooks with the AMD processor is far harder than making desktops using similar technology, with …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:39
NSA runs best fab in world

Focus on Fabs Forget Dresden, Chandler or Leixlip

You might think that AMD's Dresden fab is state-of-the-art technology. You might also suspect that Intel and IBM have some pretty nifty technology too, lurking in their clean rooms and in their labs. And you might be right as far as the commercial world goes. But there's a fab, owned by the US government, and run by the …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:39
Mick Fleetwood digs The Reg

We need his love so bad

Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood is into the Reg for all his business information needs. Mick was plugging his online rock memorabilia auction site, www.FleetwoodOwen.com, in the Mirror when he revealed us to be his favourite web destination. (To be fair, he did also mention Ask Jeeves.) So Mick, in the spirit of mutual …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
Clinton Admin goes out in a blaze of cyber-terror

Washington Roundup 2000 Net crashing, zombies rising, sky falling, privacy assaulted, copyrights dying....

No Clinton Administration swan song would be complete without a heaping dose of cyber-crime FUD. We have not been disappointed. National Security Advisor Richard Clark and National Infrastructure Protection Centre (NIPC) Director Michael Vatis are clanging the cymbals again, warning that this year's New Year's cyber attacks …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
The Reg brings you more top notch Net Lit

Short Story An End to Hunger by China Miéville

Our last effort to bring culture and literature to our readers was such a success we've decided to do it again. So here's another exclusive tale from The New English Library Book of Internet Stories. This story is by China Miéville, author of the acclaimed novels King Rat, and Perdido Street Station. You can check out the …

Register Full Coverage 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
Fishy porn search engine launched by teenage dotcom millionaire

Is Mr Cohen telling porky pies (again)?

The teenager (he's 18 now, we think) that made his name by selling Jewish portal Jewishnet to Durlacher is at it again. This time he's launched a free porn search engine, hunt4porn.com. The thing is, every time we hear about Mr Benjamin Cohen, we grow more sceptical of his claims. Initially, Jewishnet - basically a Jewish …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
Teen cracker ‘Coolio’ enters guilty pleas

Faces nine months in chokey

A teenage cracker earlier linked last year's denial of service attacks has pleaded guilty to three lesser crimes, according to a report by Associated Press. Dennis Moran, who is better known by his hacker handle Coolio, has admitted to hijacking the website of RSA Security, rsa.com and twice cracking the anti-drugs website …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
eBay users hit by fake email scam

While offline traders threatened with expulsion

eBay has issued a warning about fake emails that appear to come from the company and ask for members' personal details. Users of the online auction site have received emails telling there is a problem with their registration details, and asking them to click on a link to update them. The link goes to what appears to be the eBay …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
Super Bowl is dotcom kiss of death

Seven advertisers slain in one year

The Super Bowl 2001 will not see the dotcom ad orgy of last year - mainly because many of the outfits that splashed out on the event have become dotcom dodos in the interim. Just three dotcoms have so far coughed up the necessary $2.5 million for one of the 30-second spots on CBS in this month's football fest - E-Trade, jobs …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:41
Tandy online: dead in the water?

They'll be back tomorrow. Honest

Oh dear, oh dear. Has another Web strategy gone titsup.com? Well, Tandy - now owned by Carphone Warehouse and never allowed to use the name Radio Shack over here because some bloke in North London had it - doesn't look too well. Pay a visit to its Web site and you'll be greeted with the message "The Tandy Store is close. Please …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:42
Go airline website hijacked

These people want their eyes poking out

The website of Go, British Airways' budget flight subsidiary, was defaced by crackers last night in the latest of a long line of corporate Web Site attacks. A spokesperson for Go confirmed the attack and said staff "worked throughout the night with security specialists from BT" in order to shore up security. The site, go-fly. …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:42
Hacker meltdown fails to materalise

But there's still concern over spread of DDoS agents

The widespread fear of a concerted distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack over the holiday season thankfully failed to materialise, but security experts are still at odds over how serious the threat was. Fears about an attack similar to that which swamped prestige internet sites such as Yahoo and eBay led the National …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:42
The Net is a commercial failure: study

Just in case you hadn't noticed

In spite of heroic efforts by vast armies of e-merchants to pervert the Net into some commercial Valhalla, it remains primarily a tool for research (albeit commercial in many cases) and for socializing, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet Project. The Net's vibrant commercial functions would have been at their …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:42
Nintendo laughs off talk of swallowing Sega

$2bn buyout denied

Nintendo has laughed off rumours that it is in talks to buy Sega for $2 billion. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi said there was no chance of the Japanese video games giant swallowing rival Sega. Sega also issued a statement rubbishing the claims. The two were responding to an article in today's New York Times, which said …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Network Associates warns of $140m loss

Three top execs head for the hills

Network Associates has warned of fourth quarter losses of between $130 million and $140 million, while losing its three top execs. The antivirus software maker blamed unsold inventory and a general sales slowdown for the slump. It expects revenues for the quarter ending December 31 of between $55 million and $65 million - …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Letsbuyit.com teeters over debt abyss

Stares Titsup.com in the face

Letsbuyit.com, the online buying club for e-bargain hunters, was suspended today on the Neuer Markt, after announcing it wanted a debt moratorium. Letsbuyit's holding company, based (for the usual tax reasons) in the Netherlands, issued a statement yesterday saying it wanted to defer repayment of debt, as allowed for in Dutch …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Bull says accounting error rumours are, er, bull

Speeds divestment

French computer maker Bull has denied reports that it found an accounting error which inflated its net cash position by 100 million euros ($93 million). "Following recent announcements in the press, Bull would like to state that the published results were not caused by an accounting error," the company said. It went on to add …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Priceline founder jumps ship

Shouldn't it be women and children first?

Jay Walker, the brains behind reverse auction house Priceline.com, is to leave the dotcom's board of directors. Walker officially finishes his stint as Priceline vice chairman on December 31, and the official company line pumped out after close of trading yesterday was that its founder was leaving "in order to focus on business …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Qualcomm to invest in VIA?

VIA not talking

Qualcomm, the CDMA chip IP wonderstock, is poised to take a five per cent stake in VIA, the Taiwanese chipset designer, according to a report in The Commercial Times of Taiwan, cited by Reuters by way of Total Telecom (yes, yes we know this is a wee convoluted). VIA declined to comment on whether the two companies are in talks …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Ferrero milks chocolate ad

Not dead, just dubbed

We recently reported on chocolate giant Ferrero's attempt to snatch the domain name kinder.at from an Austrian kids' charity. The article claims that the company's legendary 'Ambassador's Party' television ad has been put out to pasture. Untrue, it seems. Eagle-eyed Reg readers have sent reports that this preposterous piece of …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Letsbuyit shares go down the toilet

After suspension lifted

Letsbuyit.com is in dire trouble. Not that this will come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows what the words "sustainable business model" mean. The trading in its shares (don't ask) was suspended on 29 December and lifted today. The share price promptly slumped 68 per cent. That's an 88 per cent fall in price since its …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
IT budgets blown on lawsuits

Legal action accounts for 15% of spend

IT projects are being held up and money is being wasted because of a fear of litigation, particularly when a project is outsourced. IT consultants at Cutter Consortium estimate that 15 per cent of the budget for an IT project is spent, in one way or another, on dealing with legal action. Another big problem with getting IT …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Boo.com's buyer becomes takeover target

Fashionmall valued at $52m

Boo.com buyer Fashionmall.com has become a takeover target. Consumer products marketing group GenesisIntermedia has made an offer and values Fashionmall at $7 a share or $52 million (£34.6 million). It bought Boo's brand and logo for £250,000. Pets.com will hold a stockholders meeting on 16 January to finalise liquidation …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:44
Sega to ditch console biz?

Share price rises ten per cent on rumour

Investors have rallied around Sega following rumours that it may ditch its console business. According to a report in the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Japanese video game company will not pull its Dreamcast consoles off the shelves immediately, but is considering a "slow silent retreat with honour". "I think Sega in the long …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
How to overclock your graphics

HW Roundup We scour the sinks for sights

That Kyle Bennett geezer over at Hardware OCP is instructing the uninitiated into the mysteries of overclocking Nvidia and 3DFX cards. At Ace's Hardware speculation on multi-threading in Foster's Jackson continues to provoke thought. Ars Technica has come up in DEC Alpha bumps, with links to a good DeMone article on EV8. Boy …

Hardware Roundup 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Dell jumps gun on 1.3GHz Pentium 4

Updated A mistake, or is Intel pushing harder?

The Dell Corporation has already started selling Pentium 4s running at 1.3GHz, its Web site is suggesting. The 1.3GHz Pentium 4 is, according to Intel roadmaps, not yet available, but at this page, the item is already listed as part of the Dimension range. It may be a mistake, in which case we would expect Dell to disappear …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Alien hunters devise world's smallest microphone

Can hear a single cell growing

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory claim to have devised the most sensitive listening device ever. Designed to enable robot explorers to listen out for life on other planets, the tiny microphone could theoretically detect the sound of a single cell growing. The device, currently known as a "nanomicrophone" [ …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Lab rats wanted! MS seeks Xbox testers

Must be willing to bang head for food...

Microsoft has started recruiting play testers for its forthcoming Xbox games, and has posted a notice to that effect on its Web site. Successful applicants will get to play unreleased PC and Xbox games, will be able to make their opinions heard (we have our doubts about that one), and will get unspecified "free stuff." The …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
IBM touts fastest Unix workstation

Faster than the Sun

IBM today claimed the world's fastest low-end Unix workstation. Big Blue has spruced up its RS/6000 44P Model 170 Unix workstation and reckons the additions give it nearly twice the performance of similarly configured UltraSparc-III based servers from rival Sun. The machine comes with a speedier 450MHz Power3 II chip - IBM's …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Notebook price wars to flare up in 2001

What you'll get for your money, and when

AMD went out of its way a couple of weeks ago to assure us that it would have a range of fast mobile processors to offer in Q1 next year but Intel appears to be several steps ahead of the game, at least during the first half of 2001. Roadmaps we saw before Yule show Intel's plans are to gradually lower prices and introduce …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Intel chugs into MP3, consumer space

When is a product not a product?

Venerable organ The Wall Street Journal, is reporting that Intel's CEO Craig Barrett will show off a portable MP3 player at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show this Friday. At the same time, he is also likely to flourish Intel's ChatPad and WebTablet, products that will allow people to smurf the web and exchange messages, …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Dr Tom's hard drive hand jive

HWRoundup CD Rewriter coaster burning

Anand is clearly in a retrospective mood, and takes us on a walk through the year that wasn't the start of a new millennium, but did start with a two. But enough of that, and onto the chipsets and CPUs. this is only part one, so expect the lowdown on the rest of the hardware favourites in the next few days. Overclockers …

Hardware Roundup 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Mysterious monolith appears in Seattle park

2001: An Open-Space Oddity

A mysterious black monolith has been erected in a Seattle park calling to mind a similar structure from Stanley Kubrick's seminal film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Like Kubrick's monolith no-one seems to know why the steel structure was place on a grassy knoll in Seattle's Magnuson Park - nor who erected it there. However on thing …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Internet hermit plans to tie the knot

DotComGuy to wed chatroom sweetheart

A man who lived totally off the internet for a year and changed his name to DotComGuy is returning to the real world and planning to marry a woman he met online. DotComGuy, who will now revert to using his former name Mitch Maddox, ordered all the things he needed online during the year-long stunt and had them delivered to his …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Yahoo! auction revamp: racism out, charges in

Is this the first sign of a mature Internet?

Yahoo! is revamping its popular and controversial auction service, removing offensive and racist material altogether and introducing a scale of fees for those that wish to sell an item. The obvious connection to draw is that Yahoo's hand was forced by the recent French court action regarding Nazi memorabilia. That ended with …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 13:45
Microsoft tentacles squirm deeper into software hosting

Redmonda locuta est; causa finita est

Your PC is about to become obsolete. Microsoft's recent acquisition of 'hosted solutions' outfit Great Plains Software for a cool $1 billion marks a significant advance towards the 'Final Solution' of reducing software users to mere paying guests at the M$ digital banquet, and PCs to mere access devices. We've long known that …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Celtic fringe gets support from Opera browser

Welsh Assembly, Sinn Fein rejoice...

One of December's less visible heroic achievements was Opera Software's announcement that version 4.02 of its Opera browser for Windows is now available in the four major Celtic languages. IT-savvy Cornish speakers (there must be some) should flame Opera if they feel hard done by, but speakers of Breton, Irish, Scottish Gaelic …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Put brakes on Windows upgrade escalator, Gartner urges MS

Whistler to kill off NT, Blackcomb Win2k?

A recent Gartner report points up the tensions between the company's objectives and those of its customers, and urges enterprises to pressure Microsoft to put the brakes on its OS obsolescence programme. Microsoft's official policy is only to support two generations of OS at a time, but if the company decides Whistler …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
NSA coughs up secret TEMPEST specs

Persistence pays off

The first of several documents related to the US government's TEMPEST programme, obtained by Cryptome.org's John Young under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, have been posted on his Web site. His original request was denied, but the persistent Young sought an appeal of that decision, which was recently granted in his …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Millennium bug stalls Norwegian trains

We told you it started today

A report on the Associated Press wire said that Norwegian trains came to a halt because of problems recognising the date. It apparently is due to some new strain of the Millennium Bug. According to AP, not one single high speed train would fire up on New Year's day, and the wire, quoting a railway representative, said the …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Diablo II hacked and cracked

Months of game-playing down the toilet

Players of the online fantasy game Diablo II must wait almost a week for their characters to be restored after a hack attack, developer Blizzard Entertainment revealed this morning, Andrew Smith writes. Hackers reportedly exploited a weakness in Blizzard's servers to gain access to player accounts. By repeatedly attempting to …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Virus infection rates soar

One in 700 emails now contains malicious code

The number of email viruses soared last year to the point where one in 700 emails was infected, according to a survey by a firm which scans electronic communications for malicious code. MessageLabs, which scans over 3 million emails per day, said it had detected and stopped an average of one email virus every three minutes …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
CA is 'friendly, open, trusted'

Who's it trying to kid?

Computer Associates, possibly the world's unfriendliest hi-tech company run by Charles Wang, possibly the world's greediest man (although he's nip and tuck with Larry Ellison on this score) has a new logo. This is "designed to reflect our leadership and focus in eBusiness software. The new logo clearly defines 'focus' - a focus …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Microsoft race discrimination suit attracts more plaintiffs

Updated Judge Jackson presiding?

A lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation and Chairman Bill Gates was filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia Wednesday, demanding $5 billion -- yes, with a 'b' -- in compensation for black employees to heal the wounds of slavery and its continuing legacy of racial discrimination in Redmond. Seven current and …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:46
Apple limbo dances with hardware prices

Chops up to $1100 off servers

Apple has embarked on a New Year price cutting frenzy in a desperate bid to clear stock. The vendor yesterday slashed up to $1100 off its Power Mac G4 servers, as well as the prices of its Power Mac G4 and trendy Power Cube G4 business desktops, and PowerBook G3 notebooks. Abandoning its pre-Christmas rebate schemes - which …

Mac Channel 10 Jan 2001, 13:47
The clog poppin' Darwin awards for 2000

The stupid people, and how they die

New Year tends to be a time of reflection, a time when we look back over the past year and take stock. So what better time to announce the list of people who have contributed most to humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool in the most innovative ways. Yes, it is time for the Darwin Awards. This year among the winners …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:47
Register wins Sunday Times award

It hasn't arrived at Vulture Central yet though

We have to admit we were a little surprised when flicking through the The Sunday Times' end-of-year Doors supplement and found that El Vulture was one of 15 recipients of its annual online awards. (Did it run them last year?) And we were among some grandees of Internet culture too: "online pathfinder" BBC News Online (a world- …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:47
Saddo alert – New Year's Eve shoppers

Who was a spender instead of going on a bender

What better way to bring in the New Year than indulge in a mad orgy... of consumer spending. The fastest shopper out the blocks, that we've heard of, is the Jungle.com customer who bought the John Shuttleworth Live video at 00:01am 2001. At just one minute into the New Year, whoever it was certainly didn't have time to complete …

Bootnotes 10 Jan 2001, 13:47
We've got brain cancer and we want your money

Vodafone et al face billion dollar suit

Mobile phone companies and manufacturers are to be served with billion-dollar lawsuits from US brain tumour victims, according to The Times. The cases are being brought forward by the same legal firm that won record damages from the tobacco industry for smokers with lung cancer. The premise is the same: that companies knew the …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
BT denies Govt investigation

Oh, and Sir Pete has a pop at 3G payouts

Contrary to earlier reports BT is not to be investigated by the British Government, according to a spokesman for the monster telco. Responding to a story which appeared in the Times earlier this week, the spokesman said the Government was set to investigate the role of the regulator, Oftel, not BT. The report said that Lord …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
Quit smoking with your mobile phone

If one doesn't kill you, the other will

It's nearly New Year again, which means millions of foolish people will con and delude themselves into thinking they can give up smoking. You can't, of course. You love those lovely little white cylinders of death. For some, this is an annual bit of fun; for others, the start of a sad and sorry demise in self-confidence that …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
AOL and BT triumph with ad turkeys

Legal, decent, honest and rubbish

Net and telco companies have triumphed in the UK advertising industry's Turkey of the Year awards. These prestigious accolades are given to the companies with the most annoying TV adverts. They were awarded by the ad industry trade paper Campaign. In with a bullet at number one was AOL with its adverts featuring Connie and her …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
Top cop wants crackdown on mobile phone mugging

Simple SIM card swaps to blame

The Metropolitan police chief wants mobile phone companies to make it more difficult to swap SIM cards between handsets as a step to halt the rise in phone related muggings. Sir John Stevens, the commissioner of London's Metropolitan police force, says more than 30 per cent of robberies and muggings involve mobile phones. And …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
Oftel announces final cost of local loop

Jury still out on what this means for industry

Winged watchdog Oftel has announced the final costs of connecting to BT's local loop for competitors. They haven't changed much from the originally touted figures in November, but there are some interesting discrepancies. If you are a telco and you want to tap into the local loop (thereby making broadband services a realistic …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
P4 Mihocka has attacks on him shocka

Readers Write Everything not as it seems

Mr Mihocka's lengthy piece slamming the Intel Pentium 4 platform as a crock of doodoo at the end of a sepia rainbow yesterday drew a big response from our readership. Even the Citizen himself pitched in, in response to a detailed rebuttal prepared by a reader. And if you're not interested in programming, you can stop reading …

Letters 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
Nothing much happened in the year 2000

HW Roundup Two days to the millennium Hogmanay

Hardware Central looks back on the year 2000 here, with the observation that things like the Pentium 4, Rambus et al were, with hindsight, blown completely out of proportion. Us journalists blowing things out of proportion? Nah, we leave that to people at Norton Rose. [That's a very cheap joke and I'll be glad when Lucy Sherriff …

Hardware Roundup 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
CNet suckered by CPRM spin

Leaves brain in jar

Special to The Register, RegisterTV, the Register Shopping Channel, AllRegDevices.com, VultureDesk, DirectReg! and all other subsidiaries of Situation Publishing International As we suspected, the 4C Entity's damage control airforce has succeeded in scoring a direct hit. A report on the CNet/ZDNet media behemoth by CNet Staff …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
Everything you ever wanted to know about CPRM, but ZDNet wouldn't tell you…

Our handy FAQ

1. What is CPRM? CPRM or Content Protection for Recordable Media is a mechanism for controlling the copying, moving and deletion of digital media on a host device, such as a personal computer, or other digital player. It's already used in specific removable media, and is now being proposed for inclusion in the ATA specification …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 13:48
An End To Hunger – page 2

By China Miéville

by China Miéville I still own it, Aykan's guerrilla software, his illicit work of art. I still play it. Two years on I'm still discovering new levels, new layers. Later, before he disappeared, Aykan translated the scrawled title for me: We Deserve Better Than This. Aykan's occasional emails to me often included web addresses …

Register Full Coverage 10 Jan 2001, 13:49
An End To Hunger – page 3

by China Miéville

by China Miéville I called Aykan. He was incandescent. 'I've seen the site,' I told him. 'Bit gruesome, isn't it?' 'Gruesome?' he shouted. 'It's fucking sick is what it is. It's fucking beyond beyond, man. I mean, forget politics lite, this shit couldn't be parodied.' 'I keep getting emails recommending it,' I told him. ' …

Register Full Coverage 10 Jan 2001, 13:49
An End To Hunger – page 4

by China Miéville

by China Miéville 'I keep watching them, man,' he told me in one of his irregular phone calls. 'I swear they are so on my tail. I'm going to have to be really fucking careful. This could get very fucking nasty.' 'Stop talking rubbish,' I said, exasperated. 'You think you're in some cheap thriller? You're risking jail for …

Register Full Coverage 10 Jan 2001, 13:49
Vandals behind spread of Hybris worm named

Users blitzed by malicious code via email

Vandals behind the spread of an irritating and potentially dangerous virus have being tracked down to Brazil. For weeks users, including us here at The Register, have received numerous emails from hahaha@sexyfun.net with attachments that appear to be Snow White-related porn but which actually contain the Hybris worm. Hybris is …

Software 10 Jan 2001, 15:40
Xerox mortgages leases for $435m

Debt relief

Xerox, the deeply troubled everything-to-do-with-documents firm, has raised a $435m loan from GE Capital, part of the world's most untroubled company, backed by its UK equipment leases. The secured loan is repayable over 18 months and the two companies are talking about GE maybe taking over Xerox's lease financing in Europe. …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 16:02
Compaq, Intel buy into Stratus

Intolerant to a fault

Intel and Compaq have joined together to make a $115 million investment in Stratus Technologies, the fault-tolerant server manufacturer. And in an associated licence agreement, the two companies will get their mitts on some technology owned by Stratus that purports to guarantee 100 per cent availability for Windows 2000 servers …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 16:37
Silicon wafer plant opens in Swansea

Jobs for the boyos

A silicon wafer reclaim plant in due to be opened today in Swansea by Pure Wafer, making it one of the largest ever start-up ventures in Welsh history. The factory is due to go into production this Summer starting with 120 workers, which Pure Wafer hopes will expand to 250 as the business grows. The plant will specialise in …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 16:40
Intel, Compaq, DB invest $115m in Stratus

A W2K server that won't fall over

A consortium which includes Compaq, Intel and DB Capital is to plunge $115 million into Stratus Technologies, with the two computer firms also entering a strategic alliance with the firm. Stratus offers a fault tolerant Windows 2000 server, which according to the firm, guarantees 100 per cent fault tolerance for its technology …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 17:01
DDR – BX Boards spells it out

The devil is in the details

Anyone trying to get their heads round DDR (Double Data Rate) would do well to have a look at this piece by Andy Drake at BXBoards, the estimable (and British) hardware review site. As yet BX Boards has not produced any benchmarks, as it's a little short of test-kit, but it has assembled a wad of helpful information about the …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 17:27
Child porn ring smashed

Seven plead guilty

Seven men pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to distribute indecent images of children. The men - who appeared at Kingston Crown Court - admitted their part in a global paedophile ring which distributed a sickening haul of kiddie porn. Some 750,000 images and more than 1,800 computerised videos depicting children …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 17:33
UK beats on mobile phone muggings

Straw invites phone chiefs around for tea

British Home Secretary Jack Straw is to meet mobile phone chiefs in a bid to tackle mobile phone muggings. The event will address the growing number of handset thefts on Britain's streets - and in particular crimes by kids against other kids around schools. The Metropolitan police reckon around 15,000 phones are snatched every …

Data Networking 10 Jan 2001, 17:35
Intel, ATI settle lawsuit with patent exchange

What goes around comes around...

Graphics chip developer ATI has entered into a patent cross-licensing deal with Intel - the result of an out-of-court settlement of a pending legal battle between the two companies. The deal primarily gives ATI the right to create chip-sets that support Intel's CPUs. ATI has been pursuing this area for some time, essentially to …

Channel 10 Jan 2001, 17:45
Express e-staff gear up for legal challenge

Dotcom life gets ugly

The former new media employees of The Express have hijacked the newspaper's site to draw attention to the way they feel they have been mistreated. They claim that Express Newspapers, Northern & Shell and Seymour Pierce - which have all owned express.co.uk over the last ten weeks - are playing 'pass the parcel' with people's …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 17:49
CPRM for HDs may be kicked into touch – Latest

Hedrick's compromise, Take Two

Andre Hedrick, the Linux developer involved in brokering a compromise in the CPRM copy control furore, has given a brief but memorable email interview to Slashdot readers. Although it covers ground familiar to readers of our coverage, particularly in our FAQ, some important news does emerge too. As you may recall, IBM and …

Business 10 Jan 2001, 19:53
Castrol frames car sites – publisher sues

'Calculated and flagrant'

UK publisher Haymarket is suing oil firm Burmah Castrol for alleged infringement of its online intellectual property rights. Haymarket is objecting to links on Castrol's Web site which 'frame' content from two of its sites, whatcar.com and autosport.com, within a Castrol-branded border. Permission to do this had not being …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 19:57
MS slates Q3 for MacOS X Office

Upgrade offer

Microsoft today revealed plans to release a version of Office for Apple's MacOS X in the autumn. The software giant previewed a future version of Office designed to run on Apple's next-generation operating system at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. For a limited time punters buying the current Office 2001 for Mac will be …

Mac Channel 10 Jan 2001, 20:48
German police in Napster child porn probe

Theory or practice?

German police have launched a probe into whether Napster is being used to swap child porn on the Net. The investigation will also delve into other online file-swapping services such as Gnutella and MyNapster, and hopes to determine whether users have stored illegal material on their computers. "We are conducting inquiries in …

Music and Media 10 Jan 2001, 23:29