The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

11th January 2001 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Bill Clinton relaxes supercomputer exports

    PC clusters make regs pointless

    The White House announced Wednesday that it would ease export restrictions on high-speed supercomputers, expanding the list of nations to which US companies can ship powerful systems without obtaining prior approval from the Department of Commerce. Because supercomputers are vital to nuclear weapons design and other military …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 03:45

  • Xbox future may depend on Rambus lawyers

    Hubble, bubble, double data rate trouble

    The Microprocessor Report seems to have developed pretty sharp teeth in the 21st Century. Not only did it cause a furore yesterday, when it pointed out that Athlons at 1.2GHz run faster than Pentium 4s at 1.5GHz, but the same e-newsletter suggests that Microsoft's Xbox will use DDR (double data rate) memory from Micron, one of …

    Channel 11 Jan 2001, 08:08

  • Intel's roadmap changed again?

    Notebook intros may be advanced

    Reports on German and some US newswires are suggesting that Intel may be bringing forward the launch of some of its mobile processors in a bid to scotch competition from AMD and Transmeta. We know for certain from recent communications to its distributor and dealer panel that Intel is still hell-bent on making a heap of price …

    Channel 11 Jan 2001, 08:26

  • Intel revamps ‘Mystery Shopper’ plan

    Is this artificial intelligence or fuzzy logic?

    "Do I buy a Pentium III or a Pentium 4?" Many thanks to AMD Zone for more details of Intel's latest cunning plan to help shop assistants to answer this tricky question shoppers might put. We first revealed this cunning scheme nearly a year ago, here, but it now appears to have taken a further twist... According to the …

    Channel 11 Jan 2001, 09:33

  • Notebook makers expect strong growth this year

    Others are more cautious

    Taiwan's notebook manufacturers are sticking to their predictions of high, double-figure growth in shipments for 2001 despite the dip in demand for desktop PCs. Taiwan produces the vast majority of the world's portable PCs, supplying not only 'no name' system builders but major players like Toshiba, Sony, Dell, IBM, Compaq and …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 11:45

  • Was Apple going to launch iMacs with CD-RW?

    It sure looks like it

    Apple has hastily revised the system requirements for its Disc Burner software, a key component of its consumer-oriented iTunes MP3 virtual hi-fi software. On Tuesday, following CEO Steve Jobs' MacWorld Expo keynote, at which iTunes was launched, Apple's Web site claimed Disc Burner required an "iMac or later computers that …

    Mac Channel 11 Jan 2001, 12:08

  • Europe warms to spam ban

    Can't you just hear those pennies dropping?

    Lobbyists for the European Internet industry believe their campaign for a ban on spam is gaining momentum. At a public meeting yesterday to discuss the revised Telecommunications Data Protection Directive, attended by all sides of the unsolicited commercial email debate, there was an increased consensus about the need to do …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 12:24

  • Sharp to push low power flat panels

    Moving away from mainstream displays

    Sharp has revealed that a new, low power, flat-panel display will go into production early next year. The screen will be based on continuous grain silicon technology that Sharp developed with Semiconductor Energy Laboratory three years ago. Sharp says that this will also lower production costs. It said it had to shift away …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 12:48

  • Mobile phone brings down Slovenian airplane

    Brown pants in the Balkans

    According to Reuters, a Slovenian airplane had to make an emergency landing on Tuesday because a ringing mobile phone had corrupted an electronics system and caused a fire-on-board light to switch on. Adria Airways admitted the plane bound for Sarajevo turned back shortly after take-off and made an emergency landing in …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 12:53

  • Hello Slovenia – London calling

    Republic baulks at Balkan slur

    We're sending a big sloppy Reg kiss to our readers in Slovenia - all 1,896 of 'em (according to our December stats). This number puts them 35th in the Vulture Central readership league table, ahead of Russia and Mexico, but sadly lagging behind that hotbed of IT, Kazakhstan. So what, you may ask? Well, it appears that we have …

    Bootnotes 11 Jan 2001, 14:44

  • Nuke plant worker faces hacking charges

    Second hacker encounter for Los Alamos

    A worker at a top secret US nuclear weapons research facility has been arrested on charges of computer hacking and witness interference. According to a report by Reuters, all the charges against Jerome Heckenkamp relate to offences committed before the suspect started working at the sensitive facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 15:07

  • AltaVista Inc to settle FIG court case?

    Update Maybe, maybe not - but that's brinkmanship for you

    AltaVista Inc could be ready to settle its £215 million dispute with The Free Internet Group (FIG) within the next week, according to New Media Age. Citing sources "close to the case", it claims the US dotcom doesn't have the appetite for a High Court battle. Furthermore, the loss of senior management has also made a court …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 15:08

  • Investors braced for weak ATI Q1 results

    Outlook for Q2 doesn't look too good either

    Canada's answer to Wall Street has given ATI the thumbs down - at least as far as the 3D graphics company's next-but-one set of quarterly results go. ATI's Q1 results are due later today, but it is expected to details its forecast for Q2 too, and it's about these that analysts are sceptical, according to Bloomberg. The problem …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 15:09

  • California power crisis sends Intel Bunnypeople east

    Cannot fab on booze and craic alone

    Intel's frisky, hard-working Bunnypeople may be given maps of the Rocky Mountains and sent East. According to CEO Craig Barrett, California's energy crisis could force Intel to move some of its manufacturing operations out of its home state. California residents are wearily familiar with threats of rolling power cuts across the …

    Channel 11 Jan 2001, 15:40

  • More text message hell

    What would Hitchcock have made of it?

    And so the SMS madness continues. A crazed husband went on a three-month intimidation spree of his estranged wife using threatening text messages to get his point across. One of the messages said: "Next time I come around I will kill you and it will be slow and painful." Eventually Anuschka Pogue could take it no more and …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 15:42

  • Expedia fails the IT test

    Can't buy, won't buy

    Online travel agency Expedia.co.uk is having a spot of bother with its technology. Anyone looking to book a bit of skiing - or a last minute dash to the sun - had better go somewhere else. A notice on its site reads: "Traveller Alert: It is not currently possible to book flights, hotels and cars. We hope to have this problem …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 15:43

  • Chip sales to grow by ten per cent in 2001 – Motorola

    Well down from 2000's 36 per cent

    Motorola - the world's sixth largest chip maker, according to Dataquest - reckons the global chip business is slowing right down, decelerating from growth of 36 per cent last year down to 10-15 per cent in 2001. That's some way below the industry's historical average growth rate of 17 per cent. Motorola made its prediction …

    Channel 11 Jan 2001, 16:03

  • Wannabe porn stars get jobs site

    Meanwhile, sordid secrets of balloon fetishist world revealed

    Wannabe porn stars now need look no further than the Net to get their credentials noticed. A Website has launched in the US solely for jobs in the adult entertainment industry - it lets applicants either search for work, or post their resume, online. And a whole range of positions in the sex market are on offer on …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 16:26

  • Quantum crypto one step closer

    Boffins rig single photon emitter

    Boffins at UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara) have made a breakthrough in quantum cryptography, and put together a gadget that is capable of emitting a single photon. The device is being heralded as an important step towards secure quantum communications since it will render any signal invulnerable to snooping. …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 16:29

  • Flame of the week Linda Harrison is a commie

    Soldier of democracy sees red

    Poor old Linda Harrison. This hard-working hack slaves day and night over a hot PC, just to earn a crust, and this is the thanks she gets: Subject: re. Why the hell does Michael Dell get share options? Shut up your whiny clueless "journalist". You used to write for TASS, didn't you - or if not, exactly who taught you the …

    Flame of the Week 11 Jan 2001, 16:33

  • TDK turbos CD-RW drives

    Threefold increase in speed and storage

    TDK is planning to release its first products, a new family of CD-RW drives - based on MultiLevel recording technology later this year. The company demoed the technology at the Consumer Electronics Show out in Vegas. According to this report in the EETimes, it will lead to a threefold improvement in recording speed and storage …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 17:16

  • Orange turns green

    Web sites? What Web sites?

    Just a small thing. While trying to get through to Orange about a different story, we couldn't help but notice that not one of its corporate Web sites is working (and it has a few). The phones still work and that's how we came to find out that the company's internet servers are also kaput. Not an ideal situation we think you'll …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 17:18

  • MP3 creators ready ‘son of MP3’

    MP3 Pro to give CD quality audio in files half as small as MP3

    Germany's Fraunhofer Institute and French consumer electronics company Thomson are working to extend the MP3 music format in a bid to catch up with the audio quality and level of compression offered by Microsoft's Windows Media Player audio technology. The new version of MP3, provisionally called MP3 Pro, will offer 128Kbps …

    Software 11 Jan 2001, 17:19

  • UK mobile firms shaft free SMS market for own greedy gains

    Bit naughty really

    No sooner had we mentioned the fact that UK mobile phone companies plan to start charging each other 3p per text message than the founder of a free SMS company SMSboy, Shakil Khan, was on the blower. Not only us either, Shakil has been on a media blitz. Why? Because this move by the mobile companies threatens to put him out of …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 17:20

  • Chipset championships and cooler madness

    HWRoundup And what's so special about the AD11? We still don't know

    Could there be a new contender in the chipset market? Over at Dr Tom's, Patrick takes a peek at the SiS730 from SiS. Probably not any real threat to the KT133, he reckons the 730 is nonetheless a useful addition to the budget end of the market. Click here for the full review. Coolers. Are they all worth the money or are they …

    Hardware Roundup 11 Jan 2001, 18:07

  • DDoS attacks threaten Net's last commercial-free zone

    IRC in jeopardy

    Recent media coverage of massive, crippling DDoS attacks against Undernet, one of the largest IRC (Internet relay chat) networks, indicates the mere tip of an iceberg. In an informal survey of IRC administrators from Undernet, IRCNet, EFnet, and AustNet, we've learned that DDoSing kiddiots have been gobbling up enough bandwidth …

    Music and Media 11 Jan 2001, 18:28

  • Rat-killers use GPS

    Who said case studies were boring?

    The technology which helped allied soldiers find their way around during the Gulf War is being applied to the rather more mundane task of tracking rat extermination efforts in Bradford. Yorkshire Water contractor Bethell is carrying out trials to see whether using the Global Positioning System (GPS) will help them record which …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 19:45

  • You're hilarious, Intel tells CPRM campaigners

    We're not laughing

    There's a delicious Chinese idiom that's a variation of the English expression 'blame the messenger'. "When the finger points at the moon," say the Chinese, "the idiot points at the finger." This seems to form the heart of Intel's damage limitation strategy, as it tries quell public concern about the incorporation of CPRM ( …

    Business 11 Jan 2001, 19:48

  • Cisco woe as HP's Fiorina joins board

    Is she advising on how to handle missed profit targets?

    The outlook for networking giant Cisco took a gloomier turn yesterday after the publication of a pessimistic report by an analyst and an admission by its chief executive John Chambers that the current quarter is "a little bit more challenging" than expected. "Is the economy slowing? Absolutely - it is slowing faster than people …

    Data Networking 11 Jan 2001, 20:56