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1st February 2001 Archive

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  • Italian Footballers in Website prostitute probe

    Who scored?

    A bunch of Italian footballers has been implicated in a sex ring that offered prostitutes online. Police said the men, who were not named, played for a "top Milan-based soccer club", AP reported. There are two Milan teams in Italy's Serie A - Internazionale, which denied any player involvement, and AC Milan, which refused to …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 03:27

  • Canon beefs up printer collection

    New and improved...

    Canon has beefed up its printer range with four fresh models - the Bubble Jet S400, S450, S4500 and S800. The S400 prints up to nine pages per minute (PPM) and is aimed at the home and small office user. It includes Canon's Photo Optimizer PRO technology and USB support. The S450 prints ten ppm, with 1440dpi, and is aimed at …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 03:33

  • Nortel helps stalk you on line

    Quit whining; it's a feature

    Nortel is getting ready to enable your ISP to serve up advertising come-ons based on your surfing habits with its new "Personal Internet" network software, the company announced Tuesday. Nortel's "Personal Internet products will help application, hosting and service providers, content publishers and enterprises to transparently …

    Data Networking 1 Feb 2001, 06:24

  • Woundup Names for Whistler and Office 10 leaked

    Hendrix estate on red alert...

    WinInfo's Paul Thurrott reports that Microsoft will reveal the final names of both Whistler and Office 10 by February 13, one day after Whistler Beta 2 is expected to be released. As you read earlier this week, Microsoft will most likely be using XP (eXPerienced) after both Whistler and Office 10. Its slogan: "Windows XP and …

    Software 1 Feb 2001, 09:38

  • Big Blue eclipsed at LinuxExpo

    Maybe not, but not the only show in town

    "The news here is that the big guys have taken over!" we overheard a rather excitable reporter inform his editor via cellphone in the LinuxWorld Expo press room. "They've squeezed the little guys out! That's the news!" Well, not only is that not news, folks, but it isn't even true. Not from our impressions of the show floor, …

    Software 1 Feb 2001, 10:25

  • Handcuffs remain on BT

    Watchdog gives it a whipping

    BT is still too dominant in the residential market place and has to be regulated, according to telecoms regulator Oftel. The inflation-busting price controls will mean that consumers can expect to pay less for their telco services, including dial-up Internet access, from BT for the next four at least. In a statement, the …

    Data Networking 1 Feb 2001, 10:50

  • ISPA's legal eagles fly in for chat

    Unlawful content on agenda

    Britain's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will sit down behind closed doors today to thrash out a way to deal with unlawful content published on the Net. Two proposals are on the table for discussion. The first, is that ISPs should receive "blanket immunity" when it comes to carrying or hosting defamatory or libellous …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 11:42

  • The color of irony

    Reg introduces humour flagging

    Judging by the letters we get, it seems that some Reg readers have trouble distinguishing the serious from the tongue-in-cheek. This is not to say that they're thick - just that humour does not always successfully cross international boundaries. Let's face it, we smarmy and sarky Brits will throw in a bit of ironic drollery at …

    Bootnotes 1 Feb 2001, 12:01

  • IBM shuts its Dublin hard disk plant

    Updated Well, it's already enjoyed Ireland's tax breaks

    IBM is shutting its hard disk manufacturing plant at its technology campus in Dublin. Production is continuing until March. The plant, part of the IBM Storage Technology Division (that's right, IBM has a STD), started manufacturing product just over two years ago. We are informed it was the most expensive building on the campus …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 12:36

  • PlusNet boots 1100 users from its service

    Just another ordinary day online

    PlusNet has kicked off 1100 users from its service in what is believed to be the biggest single cull of users from any ISP. The move has brought stinging and abusive criticism from angry users who claim they were only given three hours notice before the unmetered SurfTime service was pulled from under their feet. An email …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 13:05

  • French say encore to 3G auction

    Gallic wariness knackers Jospin's pension windfall

    The auction for 3G licences in France will have to be re-run after its one-fee plan for the four licences available collapsed. All but two of the bidders withdrew, turning the sale into a farce and heavily embarrassing the French government. The French decided against the British and German 3G approach of a straight auction, …

    Data Networking 1 Feb 2001, 13:15

  • Californian patents thought process

    And he calls his company 'The Brain'

    An interesting sounding patent has been filed in the US, following the change in US patent law that allows schemes as well as physical inventions to be patented. One Hugh Harlan of California, who is head of a company called The Brain, has patented the operation of code that mimics the human thought process. (US Patent 6031537 …

    Software 1 Feb 2001, 13:36

  • Corel in transcendental makeover

    Excuse me while I kiss the sky...

    When a company has a corporate makeover, it indicates one of three things: It wants to get in touch with the child within Its logo has offended the religious sensibilities of some potentially lucrative market It's in financial difficulty. In the event of the latter, the rebranding is known technically as 'shifting …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 14:42

  • AOL Time Warner poo-poos Napster-BMG deal

    Playing it cautious

    Bertelsmann may reckon it can launch a fee-based, legitimate version of Napster's music sharing service next summer, but AOL Time Warner, for one, disagrees. The newly merged media giant, owner of Warner Music Group, has joined fellow 'big five' music company Universal to express in public its scepticism over Bertelsmann's team …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 14:51

  • The latest on Project Ginger

    You'll want to see this

    Vulture-eyed reader Georg Klein has trawled the Internet and found not only a description of Project Ginger but also where you can buy it from. While everyone has been insisting that Dean Kamen's invention is some form of personal transport and a picture of this invention shows some 1950s style woman steering a carpet sweeper, …

    Bootnotes 1 Feb 2001, 14:52

  • FreeDrive renews reason for service switch off

    But pulled public file sharing facility stays pulled

    Online storage provider FreeDrive has changed its mind about why it decided to suspend its public file sharing facility just over a week after blaming its move on software pirates. Company chairman Jack Sandner emailed users this week, writing: "On Monday, January 22, FreeDrive sent out an email informing you that the Public …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 15:33

  • Time promotes rivals

    Says Dell, Gateway, Tiny have all won more awards

    Time Computers seems to have been remarkably frank in its latest advert, revealing all its major competitors won more PC awards than it managed in 2000. The ad appears in the March issue of PC Advisor. Interestingly, but only coincidentally, Time's marketing director Mike Phillipson, has just made an abrupt exit from the …

    Bootnotes 1 Feb 2001, 16:16

  • New ZENworks: sys admin boys are happy

    Novell reckons upgrade times will be slashed by 96%

    Novell has kicked out a beta for ZENworks for Servers 2 featuring improved server management, namely that NetWare support packs can be installed automatically, so saving sys admin loads of time and making the world a better place. However, not only will the backroom boys have more time to deal with ignorant end users but execs …

    Software 1 Feb 2001, 16:32

  • IBM spins new drive at 15,000rpm

    Gosh, that's as fast as Seagate's

    IBM said it has built a new UltraStar hard drive for the corporate server market, designed to compete with Seagate's 15,000rpm offering. The company claims that as well as matching Seagate's speed, the new drive out performs its competition in data retrieval time. The company is expected to announce today that the drive is now …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 16:40

  • SonicBlue Q4 revenues collapse

    Revenues down 45 per cent, loss balloons

    SonicBlue saw its year-on-year revenues halve today when it reported its Q4 2000 figures. As SonicBlue, the company reported revenues of $99.2 million for the three months to 31 December 2000. This time last year it was still known as S3, and reported revenues of $180.5 million. It's not hard to see why. In the intervening 12 …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 17:16

  • Net adoption row couples go on Oprah

    Spat aired on US chat show

    The two couples embroiled in the Internet baby adoption row have taken their spat to the highest echelons of the media - the Oprah Winfrey show. The TV chat show queen sat between the two warring factions - British couple Judith and Alan Kilshaw, and Americans Richard and Vicky Allen, who came face-to-face for the first time …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 17:19

  • Forget Cockney and Popney, here comes Chipney

    How to get Scott McNealy with your Larry Ellison

    There have been several recent newspaper reports about the trend to create rhyming slang terms from celebrity names. For those who are not au fait with the concept, the whole thing is based on Cockney rhyming slang. Here are a few original examples: Apples and pears = Stairs Rub-a-dub = Pub Titfer = Tit for tat = hat …

    Bootnotes 1 Feb 2001, 18:08

  • HP coughs to ad cock-up

    e-PC and LCD display for £727

    HP has apologised unreservedly for an advertising error that offered rather more than it should have done. A pull out campaign, running in several UK magazines, was promoting an e-PC and monitor at a special price. Just how special became apparent when we took a closer look at the specs. The offer included a machine with a …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 18:12

  • Amazon touts Asian porn

    Coffee table art pamphlet picture spread

    Amazon surfers have been getting an eyeful after the e-tailer splashed pornographic photos on its site. The pictures are part of a book Amazon.co.uk is flogging called Asian Ladies Photobook. As the title suggests, it features photos of Asian 'ladies' doing various daily activities around the house, such as playing board games …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 18:20

  • AllAdvantage and Work24 go titsup.com

    More grand ideas flushed down the toilet

    Dum. Dum. Dum. Another com bites the dust. Actually, since they're fading thick and fast, we've had to put two here so we can fit other stories on the front page. So, farewell Scottish Power and the Royal Bank of Scotland's Work24.co.uk portal. You were a cracking idea but you pissed away £30 million and have nothing to show …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 18:22

  • Microsoft redefines ‘open source’ – look, don't touch

    Redmond recalls light bulb gag for tweaking

    Remember the gag about how many Microsoft programmers it takes to change a light bulb? The answer's none: Redmond simply redefines darkness. As a variation, try this one - how does Microsoft make Windows open source? It doesn't: it redefines free software - software that gives the user the right to change the source code, as …

    Software 1 Feb 2001, 18:31

  • WorldCom to swallow UUNet

    Couldn't eat a whole one

    WorldCom is to merge with its ISP sibling, UUNet, to create a single, unified company. The decision to integrate WorldCom and UUNet, a WorldCom company, was announced internally a week ago and should help focus the activities of both organisations. As a result of the integration, the new organisation will have a single sales …

    Music and Media 1 Feb 2001, 19:32

  • Therapists to profit from dotcom deaths

    New York 2001 Net predictions

    New York's shrinks will do well out of the dotcom bubble burst, according to one of the city's top ISPs. Juno Online Services CEO Charles Ardai reckons the current mass of redundant Internet workers will end up either in journalism or advertising, or back at college studying for their MBAs. "They're not going to starve," he …

    Business 1 Feb 2001, 21:11