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18th January 2001 Archive

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  • AMD has wobbly Q4, but damn fine year

    Upbeat for 2001

    AMD had a record year in 2000, clawing - by its own estimates - three percentage points in unit share for the PC processor market. But the company failed to match analyst expectations for Q4 and, just like rival Intel yesterday, the chip maker forecasts a weak Q1. AMD says the usual seasonal weakness in Q1 is compounded this …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 01:54

  • Apple posts $247m loss, $1bn sales as planned

    New products coming, says CFO

    Apple lost $247 million in the three months to 30 December 2000, in line with the company's earlier predictions. And CFO Fred Anderson admitted there would be further new product announcements later in the quarter, surely a reference to the anticipated iBook and iMac revisions. However, thanks to some financial jiggery-pokery …

    Mac Channel 18 Jan 2001, 09:25

  • IBM enjoys 28% Q4 profit jump

    Looking good for 2001

    IBM enjoyed a healthy fourth quarter, and in contrast to its rivals HP and Compaq, reckons it is going into 2001 with "momentum" and "confidence". Revenues for the quarter jumped 5.9 per cent to $25.6 billion, up from $24.2 billion for the period a year earlier. On the back of this net profits leaped 28 per cent to $2.67 …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 09:36

  • UK mobile networks connect 95% of the time

    Are they sure?

    The four mobile networks manage to connect 95 per cent of calls, according to a survey by the operators and Oftel. The figures don't seem to reflect the Reg staff's experience but maybe we've been getting more than our fair share of the five per cent connection failures. Things aren't so hot in Wales where only 84.6 per cent …

    Data Networking 18 Jan 2001, 09:36

  • NTL ups cost of Net access by 50 per cent

    They're only customers after all

    NTL has increased the cost of its unmetered Net access service by 50 per cent blaming increased costs for the price hike. Punters will now have to spend £15 a month (it is presently just £10 a month) on non-Internet phone calls to received 24/7 unmetered access to the Net. If users don't manage to spend a full £15 a month on …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 10:39

  • Letsbuyit.com very very nearly titsup.com

    We don't want to say we told you so, but...

    Flawed online bulk buyer Letsbuyit.com needs £50 million by tomorrow or it will join the most illustrious of the titsup.com companies. The company with big plans but an unsustainable business model stopped trading just before Christmas. It called in the administrators but even they couldn't find a way of saving the site. A few …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 11:42

  • Sun low-end aim to displace Wintel from data centre

    Fruits of Cobalt acquisition

    Sun Microsystems has announced two lower-end server lines which are positioned against low-end Wintel and Lintel (Linux-Intel) systems in the internet data centre. The products include two server appliances, the Sun Cobalt RaQ XTR, designed for hosting, and Sun Cobalt CacheRaQ 4, designed for caching, which come from Sun's …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 12:03

  • Viatel slashes workforce by 30 per cent

    Europe focus of blood bath

    Viatel is to axe around 650 jobs - a third of its workforce - as it pulls out of unprofitable consumer telco services in Europe. The NASDAQ-listed company operates two consumer brands - Telco and Econophone - in the US and Europe. Those that aren't making any money (in Europe only) will be "scaled down" although Viatel hasn't …

    Data Networking 18 Jan 2001, 12:04

  • Computacenter shares jump

    Big beneficiary

    Computacenter shares advanced 57.5p to 447.5p, up 14.7 per cent, yesterday. The rise, which made it the FTSE350's fifth best performer on the day, comes a couple of days after an HSBC broker note upgraded the stock from 'add' to 'buy'. Mark Wallace, HSBC analyst told AFX, the financial newswire, that Computacenter's latest …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 12:49

  • We know how the Govt meets its cybertargets

    And guess what? It's a fudge

    Yesterday it was widely reported by the UK media that the government had not only met its targets for e-government but had actually surpassed them. Forty per cent of government services were now online, we were told and one in five adults (with Internet access) use the Net to access government services. We loudly declared this …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 13:02

  • Old economy firms feel dotcom sting

    Budgens and Whittard make Net losses

    The excitement for getting into e-business has left a couple of old economy businesses with a bloody nose. An aborted attempt to set up a Net business by Budgens cost it a little over £2.5 million. It was set up in 1999 and closed in September 2000. Chief exec Martin Hyson said the costs of attracting and retaining online …

    Business 18 Jan 2001, 13:07

  • AltaVista to become only Net search engine

    If it has its way...

    AltaVista may have a crap search engine (did we say that?) but in these days of corporate-owned Internet that doesn't matter. It's patents and lawsuits that decide what we can get on the global "free-market". And if it's patents you want, AltaVista has got a few. Thirty-eight in fact, and more on the way. So what? Well, …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 13:58

  • Online lap dancing guide – by Peter Stringfellows' girlfriend

    Send this URL to your missus and buy her some flowers

    We were forwarded the homepage URL of strip club owner Peter Stringfellow's girlfriend, Lucy Carr, with the catch line "check this out - v.sad". And sure enough, it is a terrifying insight into the world of a fit but not so bright lap dancer who is currently going out with a hirsute, aging stripclub owner. And, of course, we …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 2001, 14:04

  • Further blackouts likely as Californian power crisis deepens

    Power cut interrupts Sun's launch of 'lights out' servers

    California faces a further round of rolling blackouts today as the state struggles to meet demand for electrical power. Hours after electricity was abruptly switched off yesterday, Governor Gray Davis declared a state of emergency and signed an order allowing the state to buy power. The move is designed to prevent further …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 2001, 14:08

  • Intel preps slimline chip for slimline notebooks

    Designed from the ground up, apparently

    Intel is designing from the ground-up a new mobile CPU aimed directly at the ultra-thin notebook market. The new, unnamed processor was apparently hinted at during last October's Microprocessor Forum, but Intel's Mobile Platforms spinmeister-in-chief, Don MacDonald, was recently kind enough to tell CNET all about it. Well, ish …

    Channel 18 Jan 2001, 14:33

  • Oftel broadband summit ends

    Decision awaited

    The summit called by Oftel to try and establish why telcos apparently have not embraced local loop unbundling has ended. A spokeswoman for the winged watchdog said officials were working on a statement explaining what went on "as we speak". We can only wait - and keep our fingers crossed - that some good has come from this …

    Data Networking 18 Jan 2001, 15:04

  • Brits jump online

    Get on down

    More than 11 million people use the Internet at home in Britain - an increase of three million compared to a year ago - according to Internet monitoring company NetValue. Women make up 4.66 million users (40 per cent) of the home Internet audience while "silver surfers" (the over 50s) account for a fifth of the UK Net …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 15:04

  • BT's gibberish payment guide could cost you £193

    'Absolutely incomprehensible'

    BT has got a telling off from the Plain English Campaign for using 'absolutely incomprehensible' language in its bumf offering 36 ways to pay one bill. The PEC reckoned that the same set of calls could cost you anything from £84-278 depending on which payment plan you went for. This £193 difference could hit you every quarter …

    Data Networking 18 Jan 2001, 15:06

  • McCarthy email solution ‘brilliant’

    According to his mum at least

    The solution to RIP, email sackings and Big Brother Kieren McCarthy's suggestion that companies provide staff with two email accounts - one for corporate use and one for private - provoked a mixed response. Several readers praised Kieren's brilliant insight, Gerry included: I think your idea of two e-mail accounts (one …

    Letters 18 Jan 2001, 15:56

  • The true story of Xmas

    Learned readers put us straight

    'Xmas' is offensive, Christian claims Plenty of readers have finally put their expensive educations to good use in our Xmas vs. Christmas debate. Simon Green's missive was typical: I must agree with your anonymous complainant about the use of the word "Xmas", but not for the same reason. (I'm an atheist and don't much care …

    Letters 18 Jan 2001, 15:57

  • Australia v USA – The gloves are off

    International e-punchup kicks off

    Reg style wins plaudits Poor old Guy Brush has opened a right can of worms with his strong pro-British / anti-American sentiments in last week's letters. We are printing a selection of readers' replies purely by way of encouraging open and democratic dialogue. And not to start a punch up between Oz and the States. Oh no. Take …

    Letters 18 Jan 2001, 16:01

  • Lukewarm tea – the litigious truth

    US military set us straight

    California cuppa crisis There was us thinking that the lack of a decent cuppa in the States is down to sheer incompetence. No so, says our reader from the US Navy: No, the "lukewarm travesty we get served Stateside" is caused by lawyers who run up huge million dollar suits when some bozo spills hot liquid on their laps. Well …

    Letters 18 Jan 2001, 16:05

  • UK vultures endangered species

    US carrion feeders kick chicks from nest

    First it was red squirrels, now apparently native UK vultures are under threat. Graham Cobb explains: I have always valued The Reg as bringing some useful UK and European views/experience/cynicism (delete as appropriate) to an IT industry dominated by US pundits and US press releases (often hard to distinguish). However, I am …

    Letters 18 Jan 2001, 16:10

  • Nebraska school invites email deluge

    Good class project, though

    Some school kids in Nebraska got an unexpected lesson about the speed of communications in the 21st Century, after their teacher started an email chain letter that has elicited over 115,000 responses so far. We reckon it's just the start and they're going to get snowed. Less than a year ago, geography teacher John Street sent …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 16:31

  • The Reg is ill

    So new corporate guidelines kick in

    Currently Linda, Tim, Lucy, John and Mike are ill, mostly from flu. Some are bravely tapping out muculent stories in between naps, some aren't. The Register has not been faced with an epidemic before and so there was no plan for dealing with it. Therefore, in our new guise of corporate beast, El Presidente the honourable Mr …

    Bootnotes 18 Jan 2001, 16:36

  • easyEverything opens un caff dans Paris

    And it has un bog

    easyEverything is to open its first cybercafé in Paris tomorrow making it France's largest Internet café. Prices start at FF10 ($1.44) for three hours' Net access, although the outfit will later introduce a dynamic pricing structure that will alter prices depending on the number of people using the service. While …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 16:42

  • Boffins triple mobile network capacity

    Brain-exploding six-state electromagnetic field theory

    US scientists have developed a way of potentially tripling the amount of data that can be carried by mobile phone networks. A team from Bell Labs and Harvard University developed their technique for boosting bandwidth after investigating the way buildings scatter radio signals - a big problem in built up areas. In a scattering …

    Data Networking 18 Jan 2001, 16:51

  • 1.4GHz squeezed out of a 1.2GHz Athlon

    HWRoundup Not too shabby

    A nice little tidbit for you from OCWorkbench today. On the frontpage they have an overclocking record: Maku has squeezed nearly 1.4GHz out of a 1.2GHz Athlon using ASUS A7M266. Not too shabby, we think you'll agree. More fast running Athlons over at AMDMB.com. They took a look at the Epox 8KTA3 board and came back smiling. …

    Hardware Roundup 18 Jan 2001, 17:07

  • The latest work email, Net problems

    Lots of worrying, few answers

    It's a big modern topic (look out for the sociolologists): email, the Internet and how they fit into the modern working environment. Plenty of complex issues abound, particular because of email's unique properties - bolstered by the RIP legislation. First of all, and disturbing, but - let's be honest - expected, is a survey by …

    Media 18 Jan 2001, 17:10

  • Early birds catch Davinia worm

    But get your MS Office patch now

    Even though the 'Davinia' worm has done far less damage than was first feared, anti-virus experts warn it exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Office that most users have left open. And the techniques used to write the Davinia worm could be used by virus writers to wreak far more damage. According to the Virus boffins at …

    Software 18 Jan 2001, 20:59