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19th January 2001 Archive

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  • Transmeta sales ramp, losses rack up

    Rapid growth

    It's easy to forget that, underneath the hype and for all the OEM contract wins, Transmeta is still a pretty puny company. The low-power, code-morphing Crusoe mobile CPU designer had revenues of $12.4 million in Q4, pretty damn good compared with Q3, when it did $3.5 million, and awesome compared with Q4, 1999 when it did zip. …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 00:03

  • Verizon sued for crap DSL service

    What took so long?

    Look me in the eye, then tell me That I'm satisfied.    - The Replacements Washington class-action enthusiasts Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll have filed suit against telecomms behemoth Verizon in DC Superior Court on behalf of every poor bugger stuck using the company's notoriously poor DSL service. Verizon "intentionally …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 06:11

  • MS meets reduced Q2 targets

    $2.62 bilion profit thanks to Win2k demand

    Increased demand for Windows 2000 helped Microsoft raise second quarter revenues by 7.7 per cent to $6.59 billion from $6.11 billion a year earlier. Net profit was $2.62 billion for the period. Last month, MS reduced its targets for the quarter and the year. It met these reduced expectations for the quarter and expects to meet …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 08:59

  • Samsung struggles with soaring Rambus demand

    Intel cranks up

    Samsung is struggling to catch up with a huge increase in orders for Rambus memory from Intel. "One day, I woke up and found that the once-idle RDRAM line is fully running like a fire house," Samsung Electronics marketing director Kim Ilung told Electronic News. Currently, the Korean DRAM maker is capable of pumping out six to …

    Channel 19 Jan 2001, 09:46

  • AltaVista slashes 200 jobs

    More misery

    AltaVista is to axe 200 jobs - a quarter of its workforce - in yet another attempt to prop up the dotcom. That's on top of the 250 jobs that were lost in September. If it carries on like this, El Reg estimates there won't be anyone left by the end of the year. According to AltaVista, the job losses "primarily" affect employees …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 09:48

  • Fashion house fashions suit suited for Palm

    Suits you, sir...

    And what will the chic geek be wearing this season? asks Lucia de L'Astique, fashion correspondent. Japanese couture house Onward Kashiyama's Palm Computing suit, of course. OK's limited edition two-piece features a breast pocket design to the exact specification's the best-selling 'pocket' computer, geddit?!?. And because it …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 09:51

  • Mac users hit by Melissa macro virus

    Updated (again) She's back...

    The infamous Melissa virus, which caused so much mayhem among the world's Windows users a couple of years ago, has struck again. And this time the targets are Mac users. US ASP Messagelabs.com has being registering a number of Melissa outbreaks among users of Microsoft's Mac:Office 2001, according to MacCentral. The infection …

    Mac Channel 19 Jan 2001, 10:12

  • Mafiaboy pleads guilty

    Write out 'I did it' 50 times, teenage hack told

    The 16-year-old Canadian hacker known only as Mafiaboy yesterday coughed to bringing down 50 big-name Web sites. The servers hosting Yahoo, Amazon, eBay and many other high-profile sites were sent crashing early last year through massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. By April, the FBI, the Department of Justice …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 10:57

  • Oftel admits it was wrong

    Getaway

    Oftel believes it has found a way to beat the apathy surrounding the early take-up of local loop unbundling (LLU) in Britain. The winged watchdog was concerned with the distinct lack of interest in the first wave of exchanges made available for LLU by BT and called a summit to discuss the issue. The Register suggested that the …

    Data Networking 19 Jan 2001, 11:13

  • Toshiba pumps out wireless notebooks

    Work 100m from network hub

    Toshiba's wireless Satellite Pro 4600 and Tecra 8200 notebooks hit the market yesterday. The notebooks will connect to a network hub within a range of 100 metres, the company says, using "WiFi" technology housed in a unit in the laptop's lid. WiFi is Toshiba's "cute" name for the 802.11b connection protocol. The Tecra 8200 …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 11:34

  • Sun posts strong Q2 figures

    But dark clouds of server marker downturn loom

    Sun Microsystems' second quarter results showed strong growth. driven by demand from users for servers to build out their Internet infrastructures. The hardware manufacturer's net income rose to $423 million, from $354 million a year ago. Sun maintained its recent run-rate above $5 billion, recording sales of $5.12 billion or …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 11:52

  • CallNet brothers to open new ISP

    Back from the dead

    Paul and Aaron Goodman-Simpson - the brothers behind British ISP CallNet - are set to return to the Internet industry following their acrimonious split from the company last year. The Register understands they're set to launch another ISP as early as 1 February having recently purchased a small-ish service provider for a six- …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 11:53

  • World PC market grew less than 15% in 2000

    Only Dell and HP beat industry averages

    The PC market grew by less than 15 per cent last year, hit hard by a dreadfully slow fourth quarter. Analysts at Gartner say the downturn indicates market saturation in some areas. Worldwide, PC shipments reached 134.7 million units in 2000, up 14.5 per cent over 1999. The US market was slower, gaining only 10.3 per cent. Over …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 12:05

  • MS' antitrust backup plan: Net monopoly

    Or the next Microsoft Bob, depending....

    If the appeals process should ultimately decide that Microsoft really does have to be broken up to rectify its software monopoly, the company - or companies, in that case - can always seek to monopolize something else crucial to computer users: access to software. With the role of software gatekeeper, or handmaiden to the world …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 12:09

  • Orange kills top-up cards in favour of mobile credit cards

    More convenient for the customers apparently

    Orange is getting rid of its top-up card system for its pay-as-you-go mobiles and replacing it with a mobile credit card system. This is an example of Orange "using new technology" and it is more convenient for the customer. Vendors will also never run out of cards, and the system will be more secure because the new cards aren't …

    Data Networking 19 Jan 2001, 12:41

  • Resellers to score with Web sales

    Channel chunder

    IT vendors are going to see more of their online sales going to their resellers according to market analysts IDC. The average vendor's direct online sales will slide by 34 per cent and be overtaken by its indirect online channel by 2003, reports Computer Reseller News. In 2001, 1.7 per cent of IT sales, with a value of £3.2 …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 12:42

  • UK spared AltaVista blood bath

    Still don't know about Europe

    AltaVista UK will not be making any job cuts following yesterday's major redundancy announcement, according to a spokeswoman for the company. However, AltaVista has yet to rule out job cuts at its European headquarters in Maidenhead. In a statement issued yesterday AltaVista said: "The company has reduced its staff by 200 …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 13:05

  • Duke Nukem on screenshot search and destroy

    Updated Sweeping restrictions

    Games developer 3D Realms looks set to impose restrictions on the use of screenshots from its next game, Duke Nukem Forever, writes Andrew Smith. During an impromptu chat at the PlanetCrap.com forum, 3D Realms owner/producer George Broussard said that use of screenshots in printed strategy guides would be prohibited. This will …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 13:24

  • Letsbuyit boardroom bickering to blame for collapse

    Updated And they're still at it

    Letsbuyit.com may be a dead dodo, but the company's management (hang on, haven't they all resigned?) may as well rename it Letsclingtoit.com as they blinkedly blunder forward asking anyone with more money than sense for around about £50 million. In fact the management team is rapidly making itself a laughing stock. Just about …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 13:27

  • Copy protection on Whistler easily cracked

    The merest of twiddles, and off scamper the happy hackers again...

    Whistler's copy protection is by no means uncrackable, according to various of The Register's shady sources. The hardware-locked key system currently shipping with the Whistler beta seems to be fairly easy to get around, and the inconvenience of the system - if it ships with the production Whistler - will be likely to encourage …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 13:27

  • Redstone loopy about broadband

    Offers unbundled services from April

    Redstone is to bring forward the launch date for its unbundled broadband services following an agreement with BT. The first service should be in available in Portsmouth from April followed by Southampton, Newbury, Nottingham and Cambridge which, like Portsmouth, are all areas with high business density. The deal with BT means …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 13:28

  • NetBenefit IT director resigns

    Not happy with 'a choice made recently'

    The IT director of Internet business solutions company NetBenefit has resigned due to disagreement over its future direction. Mike Rogers says the split is amicable and staff were informed of his resignation yesterday. It's not known yet what the problem was but Mike spoke of a choice made recently that affected his commitment …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 13:48

  • Fyffes' Net investment was bananas

    And other tales of dotcom gloom

    Fyffes has slipped on the e-commerce banana skin. Trading apples, pears, and bananas online has not caught on, so its worldoffruit.com site is shutting its offices in the UK, France, Holland, Spain and Italy. The site once employed 40 people but is now down to 10 at a small office in Dublin. Last year Fyffes spent £9.6 million …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 14:10

  • ‘Cyber-love’ lures Israeli teen to his death

    Politicians use tragedy for political point scoring

    An Isreali teenager who reportedly left home in order to elope with a Palestinian girl he met on the Internet, has turned up dead on the outskirts of a West Bank town. The 16 year-old Ophir Rakhum, who disappeared from his home on Tuesday after stealing money, went seeking love but found only death. Rakhum was described as …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 14:44

  • Archaeologists unearth prehistoric C compiler

    Could this be the Missing Linker?

    Archaeologists in New Jersey have discovered the remains of what may be the first C compiler, buried under layers of sediment. Carbon dating is expected to confirm that the discovery dates back to around the time of the first Unix systems: the point at which, historians now recognise, modern man departed from the apes. Although …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 14:49

  • Western Digital serves up 30GB platter

    Hard drivin' 5,400 rpm

    Western Digital's new 30GB per platter, 5,400 rpm WD Caviar hard drive is now in volume production. Aimed at the mainstream market, the two platter drive will be available in 30, 40 and 60GB capacities. The 40GB drive contains a 30GB and a 10Gb platter. Western Digital says that it's quiet too, as it has a new differential …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 15:17

  • Compaq iPaq runs Apache

    Open source Web server for P2P file sharing

    Compaq's iPaq Pocket PC has just become what's possibly the world's smallest Apache-based Web server. You think we exaggerate? Not so. Despite various last year's April Fools' gag that mooted a Palm-based Apache server, this one is legit. Endeavors Technology, part of Tadpole Technology, itself best-known for its Sun Sparc- …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 16:18

  • Brit computing hero dies

    Tom Kilburn had 'Baby' and Mark 1 on CV

    Professor Tom Kilburn, the man who developed the first ever digital computer program, died yesterday, seven months before his 80th birthday. He suffered a long illness before his death, but the cause has not been made public. Kilburn worked both on the development of the Mark I computer, and helped to found the Computer …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 16:42

  • How to bypass Nazi filtering programs

    Updated A handy hint from a Reg reader

    Sick and tired of a nannying piece of filtering software preventing access to your favourites sites? Worry no longer. A reader has informed us that using a technique that we'd covered in a spoof CNN story about Al Gore, you can bypass filter software. While we thought this was interesting, it has become a far greater issue. …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 17:16

  • $10 paper mobile phone to launch this year

    $20 Web device also in the pipeline from NY inventor

    A US inventor plans to have a $10 paper mobile phone on the market later this year. The disposable device is the brainchild of Randice-Lisa Altschul, who has 22 patents on the technology. Called the Phone-Card-Phone, it is the thickness of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products. It comes with 60 minutes of …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 17:26

  • MS gets hacked off with bug hunter

    Windows Media Player exploit publicised before patch available

    A row has broken out between Microsoft and veteran bug hunter Georgi Guninski after he publicised a vulnerability with Windows Media Player 7 before a software patch was available. As previously reported, a vulnerability involving the "skins" feature of the application exists which could allow hackers to read files on a victim' …

    Software 19 Jan 2001, 17:34

  • Police raid RedHotAnt offices

    Equipment and documents seized

    The offices of RedHotAnt have been raided this afternoon by police and trading standards officials from Kent. Police obtained a warrant to search the premises as part of a joint operation and have taken away equipment and documents for further examination. As of 6.00pm Friday evening officials were still sifting through …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 18:05

  • Doctors forced to use Hotmail for confidential medical records

    Why? Because of politics and nosey spooks

    Doctors, keen to benefit from the latest technological advances, are routinely using Hotmail accounts to send confidential patient information because of the bureaucracy and stalling of the NHS executive, we have learnt. The depressing and worrying situation was uncovered after we spoke to a number of concerned doctors and IT …

    Music and Media 19 Jan 2001, 18:25

  • Bluetooth not vapourware, survey shocker

    Stellar growth

    Bluetooth is likely to fulfil the stellar growth predictions of the technology's backers despite delays in the roll out of practical applications, according to a study by Frost & Sullivan. The research firm rebuffs doomsayers by forecasting global shipments of Bluetooth-enabled products will reach 11 million units in 2001, …

    Data Networking 19 Jan 2001, 18:43

  • Letsbuyit safe! For three days

    Not a chance in hell

    Letsbuyit.com has been given a tiny chance of survival by a Dutch court. It now has until Wednesday (24 January) to pay off its £2.5 million debt. Then all its needs is £50 million to keep running for a bit longer before it feels faint, falls down exhausted and vomits on the superhighway. ® Related Stories Letsbuyit boardroom …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 18:52

  • Gateway enlists Michael J Fox for TV ads

    US couch potatoes in for a treat tonight

    Gateway has enlisted the help of film star Michael J Fox to help pull customers into its shops. The "People Rule" ads featuring the Back To The Future and Spin City pint-sized actor will start to appear on quality TV, er sorry, American network TV, tonight. Developed by New York-based McCann-Erickson, they will show Fox " …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 20:54

  • Computer games sales fall in US

    Waiting for new boxes

    US computer games sales fell five per cent in 2000, as many serious gamers delayed purchases in anticipation of fresh blood flowing into the console market this year. Sales were $6.5 billion last year, down from $6.9 billion in 1999, according to Washington, NY research firm NPD TRSTS. Unit sales rose one per cent for the year …

    Business 19 Jan 2001, 22:28

  • Microprocessor Report analysts love AMD's Athlon

    Festoons chip with garlands

    Microprocessor Report analysts love the AMD Athlon so much that they've named it their PC processor of the year - for the second year in a row. Why? It appears to come down to balance, according to Kevin Krewell, a senior analyst at Micro Design Resources (the Cahners-owned outfit which publishes the top dollar newsletter). He …

    Channel 19 Jan 2001, 23:44