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7th February 2001 Archive

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  • Chip designers vow to cool overheating Gelsinger

    All it takes is a little Pat

    If current Gelsinger models are obeyed by 2010, Intel's vice president of architecture may be producing enough thermals to bring microprocessor conferences to a grinding halt. And by 2015, the heat dissipation from future Gelsingers will require portable, industrial scale para-coolants to chill the hyperbolic Veep. That promises …

    Channel 7 Feb 2001, 07:39

  • eToys death sentence confirmed

    A million Barbie dolls weep

    eToys has given up the ghost and admitted it will end its tortured existence on April 6. The e-tailer said it would lay off its remaining 293 staff in California and Virginia, adding there was no guarantee its existing cash would last until March 31, as previously forecast. This is, of course, unless its knight in shining …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 08:54

  • CNET shuts Gamecenter

    Decimates staff

    CNET will call time on Gamecenter at the end of this week, blaming the closure after four and a half years on a drop in advertising revenue. The move is part of a streamlining plan announced today that will see around 190 people, 10 per cent of CNET's workforce, lose their jobs. Other CNET ventures which are unprofitable or …

    Games Industry 7 Feb 2001, 09:03

  • Woundup Brace yourself for the new Windows XP UI

    Will it get .NETed?

    When the Woundup first begun, I asked the readers what they thought of the Windows UI. Some say it needs major changing, other say people like us make Windows "buggy". Although, after much speculation, it's highly probable we will see Microsoft's new UI, codenamed Luna, in Windows XP "Luna will come with Beta 2, but I can't say …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 09:44

  • Transmeta says TSMC is second ‘primary supplier’

    Updated Ends IBM fab exclusive

    Transmeta has signed the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company as its 'second source' chip maker. The deal ends IBM's role as exclusive Crusoe churner. Dave Ditzel, Transmeta's CEO, let slip news of the deal at the Banc of America Securities' Technology Week sessions, held in San Francisco this week. Now we were a little …

    Channel 7 Feb 2001, 10:06

  • Vivendi buys Uproar games site

    Bargain basement

    Vivendi Universal has bought Uproar, the New York-based Net games firm for $140m. It is to merge the operation into its Flipside unit and says the deal will make it world's biggest Internet games operation, with 14 million American users. Vivendi is paying $3 a share, a 50 per cent premium on Uproar's share price before the …

    Games Industry 7 Feb 2001, 10:43

  • Taiwan Semicon: Q1 2001 to be a bit of a downer

    TSMC's Q4 2000 was very good, though

    The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has become the latest chip outfit to offer a gloomy outlook for the coming year. Yesterday, it admitted it is anticipating below-par earnings for the current quarter, the first of fiscal 2001. The warning follows a record Q4. For the three months to 31 December 2000, TSMC recorded …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 10:55

  • Cisco's Borg-like acquisition spree may be curtailed

    Suffers profit and revenue shortfall

    Cisco has missed its second quarter profit and revenue forecasts. The networking giant also trimmed expectations for its next quarter and predicted sales then be down five per cent on its revenues this quarter, which would mark the first time its revenues have declined between quarters in its 11 years as a publicly traded …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 11:20

  • Linux not behind investment bank open source shindig

    Journos suffer buzzword blindness

    About a week ago, we wrote about plans by Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, the German investment bank, to release its Openadaptor software to the open source community. It seems that we, along with a lot of other publications, got the wrong end of the stick. In the first report we said it was based on Linux, Apache and a bunch …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 11:50

  • BT bottles unmetered debate

    Updated Just call us yella

    BT pulled out of a debate about unmetered Net access prompting critics to sneer at BT's apparent cowardice. Angus Porter, MD consumer Division of BTOpenworld, cried off, leaving Matt Peacock of AOL UK and Erol Ziya of the Campaign for Unmetered Telecoms (CUT) to rip into BT unopposed. It doesn't take a genius to work out that …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:03

  • Mobiles don't cause cancer! This time

    Big survey but still flaws

    The biggest survey into a possible link between mobile phones and cancer has concluded that there isn't an increased risk of cancer from using mobiles. Media reports seem to be claiming that this has been the conclusion all along. The survey by the Danish Cancer Society and published yesterday in the US Journal of the National …

    Data Networking 7 Feb 2001, 12:07

  • Welcome to Security

    Our new section

    Congratulations! You've found a Register story that doesn't exist. By exposing this paradox, you have threatened the stability of the space-time continuum. Happy now?

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 12:16

  • Love Bug author says bug created in cyber gang war

    Creating viruses 'is better than sex'

    The suspected author of the Love Bug computer virus has re-emerged as a security pundit. Onel de Guzman, who faced charges relating to spreading the Love Bug in the Philippines before they were dropped for insufficient evidence, has taken time out to talk to a reporter at the Chicago Tribune "over a cup of coffee at the Old …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:23

  • Users haven't learned any lessons from the Love Bug

    A third of them will still open ILOVEYOU message

    Computer users haven't learned any lessons from the spread of the Love Bug virus last year. According to research published by IDC this week, more than a third (37 per cent) of business email users would still open the attachment of an email titled 'ILOVEYOU' - the same message used in emails infected with the Love Bug. …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:23

  • Plan to charge for BIND security info

    Closed forum being set up

    Following revelations about a serious security weakness, the group involved in administering the BIND domain name server software is considering charging for access to security-related information about the important Internet program. The Internet Software Consortium (ISC) plans to create a forum that will only be open to …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:23

  • Network Associates weathers DoS attack

    Crackers seek revenge for unravelling of BIND bug

    Security firm Network Associates was subject to a denial of service attack last night after crackers posted a Trojan horse on security mailing list, BugTraq. An anonymous posting to the full-disclosure security mailing list, which has 85 000 readers, that appeared to be an exploit of recently discovered vulnerability in BIND …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • Flaws leave Cisco content switches vulnerable

    Upgrade for DoS bug, but access flaw workaround only

    Cisco has issued a security notice which admits to two security vulnerabilities affecting its range of high-end content switches, one of which remains unfixed. The firm said that its Cisco Content Services (CSS) switch product, also known as Arrowpoint, has several security flaws once access to the command line interface is …

    Data Networking 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • Anti-virus becoming less important than content control

    Bosses want to control staff

    By 2007 firms will spend more on content filtering and encryption technology than they do on anti-virus software according to a report by industry analysts Frost & Sullivan released this week. According to the analysts, malicious code monitoring will experience high growth over the forecast period, but will become subsumed into …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • AOL users warning over ‘rapidly spreading’ Trojan

    Password stealing code

    A security firm has warned AOL users of the rapid spread of a Trojan horse program which can steal their passwords. Rates of infection among AOL from variants of a piece malicious code, called APStrojan.qa, have doubled in the last month, according to antivirus firm McAfee.com, the consumer arm of Network Associates. It rates …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • Captain Crunch sets up security firm

    Legendary 70s phreaker returns from obscurity

    Legendary hacking figure Captain Crunch is returning from years of relative obscurity to set himself up as a security consultant. Perhaps the most well known figure in the digital underground besides Kevin Mitnick, John Draper made his name in 1971 when he discovered that the toy whistle in the Cap'n Crunch cereal box could …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • ‘Cyber Sweeney’ host hi-tech crime meet

    Top Euro cops and Feds to attend

    The National Crime Squad is holding its first ever conference on hi-tech crime and electronic extortion via the Internet. The conference, to be held between February 14 and 15 at the International Convention Centre, Birmingham, will include delegates from over 20 European countries and will feature speakers from the Federal …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:34

  • Encryption vs anti-virus

    Is there a way past the deadlock?

    The proper integration of encryption and anti-virus software is the only way to stop the two security tools continuing to work at crossed purposes, according to virus hunters at Kaspersky Labs. Traditionally anti-virus and encryption, although opposite sides of the same coin, have not been particularly complementary. Michael …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 12:40

  • World Economic Forum hacked

    Protest by other means?

    Intruders, possibly hacktivists, compromised a computer network of the World Economic Forum and obtained credit card details from a number of its attendees during its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Reuters reports. The Swiss paper SonntagsZeitung was contacted by computer enthusiasts who sent it the data, which might …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:45

  • Crypto regs still tricky

    Stealth export rules keep lawyers busy

    Over a year after the US government first announced the liberalization of encryption export rules, a tangle of vestigial regulations might still trip up unwary developers, experts say. "Never work under the belief that encryption is not controlled," said Susan Kotila, project manager with Apple's export license department. "I …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:45

  • JavaScript makes e-mail bugging easy

    Love those 'features'

    A simple bit of invisible JavaScript code can enable the sender of an e-mail memo to intercept all recipients' comments when the memo is forwarded, the Privacy Foundation has announced in an advisory. The exploit enables monitoring the forwarded path of an e-mail message and written comments attached. "In a business …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:45

  • Militants plan terror in chat rooms shocker

    Electronic Jihad scare to get law enforcers greater Net monitoring powers

    Islamic terrorists are using the Internet bulletin boards to exchange information and plan act of terror and revenge, according to a report in today's edition of USA Today. After speaking to US law enforcement agencies and security experts the paper has come up with the conclusion that Osama bin Laden and his cohorts are hiding …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:45

  • ‘CrackWhore’ a boon to password-request sites

    How easy can this get?

    A brute-force password cracking program called CrackWhore written by our Dutch friend SubReality turns out to be clever for more than its name. The author has rigged it with a phone-home feature (which users can disable) that sends the password combos and URLs of cracked sites to the SubReality.net Website in the form: http:// …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 12:45

  • Gameplay cuts Net access at HQ

    Trying to prevent leaks

    Gameplay has cut the Internet connection to its London office to prevent employees leaking news about today's massive number of redundancies, according to sources close to the company. It's a desperate move by Gameplay management and one that is likely to backfire on those who reckon it's a worthwhile ploy to "keep the staff …

    Games Industry 7 Feb 2001, 12:49

  • One billion online by 2005

    Good God, think of the bandwidth...

    The online population will rise to one billion people - more than double the current level - by 2005, and the majority of users will use wireless devices to get online. There are just over 400 million people globally who can get online at the moment, but according to a report from market researchers eTForecasts, in four and a …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:49

  • Sun wastes bullets on .NET in shooting spree

    The Correct Use of SOAP

    Sun spent so much of yesterday protesting that Sun ONE was not a me-too announcement cobbled together in response to Microsoft's .NET marketecture, that we started to get annoyed that they were annoyed. It's a new name, but with no new products behind it, no new business areas to tackle, simply support for a few new buzzwords …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 12:49

  • Intel ate my iCat

    Proved a bit of a dog

    Intel has shut down its iCat e-commerce solutions and service arm. A terse message on the company's Web site simply says: "iCat, a division of Intel Online Services, has discontinued its iCat Commerce Online service for all direct customers." That software - aimed at small to medium-sized firms keen to embrace the Web and …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:51

  • Feds use biometrics against Super Bowl fans

    1984 arriving late, but getting here all the same

    Super Bowl 2001 fans were secretly treated to a mass, biometric scan in which video cameras tied to a temporary law-enforcement command centre digitised their faces and compared them against photographic lists of known malefactors. Everyone entering Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida last Sunday was subjected to the …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:55

  • Antfactory director murdered

    A dangerous business this Internet

    It used to be just money that you lost by investing in the Internet, now it's lives. The Latin American director of online investment management company Antfactory has been found dead in Argentina. He and his wife had been shot in the neck at close range and a note, written in English, said they had been killed for not paying …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 12:58

  • The451.com wields job axe

    Surprise, surprise

    The451.com, the absurdly self-regarding paid-for IT news site, is reducing headcount by just over 20 per cent, taking staff down from 50 to 39, The Industry Standard reports. The Durlacher-backed business is also wielding the axe on satellite offices in Hong Kong, Germany and Australia. But it's staying in the US, where it has …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 13:12

  • Reg Site News Shutters lift on new Security Channel

    Makes sense to us

    Until today, Register articles on IT security issues have been scattered among our Internet, Software, Business and (more rarely) Hardware channels. We think it's time the topic got a section to itself, so, from here on in, The Register's Security Channel is where you will find our coverage on hacking/cracking; software and …

    Site News 7 Feb 2001, 13:22

  • Jackson goes in frame as MS appeal court orders ‘bias’ session

    Baffled Redmond lawyers get something they didn't ask for

    Microsoft has been given an unexpected present by the Court of Appeals, in the shape of an unasked for 30 minute session on Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's conduct of the trial, and his alleged mouthiness outside of the court. This of course was something Microsoft was motoring on until quite recently. Jackson's determination …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 13:31

  • MoD laptop thefts put the wind up the US

    Parliament had to reassure our American cousins

    Pentagon officials got something of a fright when a Ministry of Defence laptops was stolen last May. The Guardian has obtained a ministerial letter in which the British government responded to a complaint from the US about security procedures in Britain. In it, the government gave assurances that security in the UK would be …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 13:45

  • Orange now worth even less

    France Telecom buys some armbands

    France Telecom is still insistent on pushing through Orange's float but, amid fears that the whole thing could be a failure, are now thinking of hacking a sixth off the float price to make it successful. It's all perception, see. If people are jittery and the price deemed too high, it will slip when launched and this will cause …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 13:47

  • Fugitive stays silent after eating mobile SIM card

    Cops await CWAP demo

    A man at the centre of a French corruption scandal ate the chip from his mobile phone in an attempt to keep its secrets, according to a report in today's edition of the Times. Alfred Sirven, the businessman in the middle of the French Elf Aquitaine corruption scandal, ate his mobile phone's SIM card when he was arrested on the …

    Bootnotes 7 Feb 2001, 13:59

  • No one wanted bust Datrontech's Summit business

    It's all over for the distie

    Datrontech's receivers have failed to sell the company's Summit Peripherals division. Deloitte & Touche managed to sell the bust broadline distributors Portable Add-Ons and Data Connectivity businesses last year. Computer Reseller News quotes a representative of the accountancy firm saying: "Only the Summit brand name was …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 15:18

  • Police urge business to report hi-tech crimes

    They want more money too

    Businesses are being urged to report hacking attempts and incidents of Internet-based extortion to the police, rather than keep quiet for fear of damage to their reputations. This change in attitude could become crucial to the success of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. The unit, due to be operational in April this year, …

    Security 7 Feb 2001, 15:39

  • Mobile phone companies ripping us off

    Updated And Oftel tells us other things we already know

    Mobile phones companies are "making profits greater than would be expected in a fully competitive market", says winged watchdog Oftel in a new report on the mobile market. Which means that they are basically ripping us off by charging more than they need to. Of course Oftel also goes on about how prices have fallen by 24 per …

    Data Networking 7 Feb 2001, 15:48

  • Autonomy ships call centre brain saver

    This phone call may be converted to text for quality control purposes

    Autonomy has shipped its iVoice technology to its first customers. The software means that computers can treat voice in the same way as text, or any other form of data. It was developed alongside speech recognition technology acquired from SoftSound last year. The software is able to analyse text or voice, and identify and …

    Software 7 Feb 2001, 16:00

  • AMD, Olivetti and the Italian connection

    Back to the future

    Historically, AMD is weak in the Italian corporate and public sector, so it may be forgiven for issuing a press release about not one but two wins with0 the Italian government. Italy's Ministry of Justice and Consip, a department of the Ministry of Treasury, are to buy an unspecified number of Athlon-powered Olivetti desktop …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 16:06

  • AMD appoints memory presidente

    Same bloke new title

    AMD has promoted Walid Maghribi to the newly created position of president of the company's Memory Group. He was plain old group VP of the Memory Group before. Hector de J. Ruiz, president and chief operating officer of AMD, said: "In 2000, the Memory Group grew sales by more than 100 per cent to more than $1.5 billion. In his …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 16:16

  • Warwick University welcomes student e-debt

    Laptops compulsory; ruinous debt possible

    Warwick University has come up with a revolutionary new way of pulling it into the Internet era - making ownership of a laptop compulsory for its students. Even better than that, it won't cost the University a thing because students will have to buy their own. It could even save money because it won't have to invest the money …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 16:30

  • Stephen King reveals The Plant profit

    Not 'Big Publishing's worst nightmare' after all

    Horror maestro Stephen King has revealed he made nearly half a million dollars from his e-book experiment The Plant. The US author received a total of $721,448 from readers, who voluntarily paid their dollar for the first three instalments, and $2 for the last three. After expenses, such as advertising and site maintenance, …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 16:35

  • BT favourite for ‘Internet Villain’ award

    oh, the an-tis-see-pay-shun

    BT's hot favourite to pick up an industry award tonight at the event dubbed the "Internet Oscars". Unfortunately for the monster telco, the accolade is something the execs might not want to put on their mantelpiece. For tonight, the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) announces who has won the "Internet Villain" …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 17:38

  • 120 jobs lost as Logical exits PC business

    Scale game

    Logical, the networking reseller arm of Datatec group, is withdrawing from the supply and maintenance of PCs and servers in the UK, with the loss of 120 jobs out of a total workforce of 400. Jon Davies, Logical worldwide marcoms director, said the corporate PC supply business was "a scale game in which we are no longer able to …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 17:55

  • Anand digs bigtime bandwidth

    HWRoundup Abit's KT7A RAID under the scope

    Anand and friends take another step along the road towards the holy grail of decent bandwidth with a look at ServerWorks. An unlikely juxtaposition of words, true, but Anand seems impressed. DDR bandwidth without DDR? Check it out here, just don't mention the price. HardOCP sits back and chills out with a ThermoEngine. Good …

    Hardware Roundup 7 Feb 2001, 19:02

  • Spice Girls death threat hoax dupes poncy music site

    And makes us chuckle

    A ludicrous satirical story regarding the Spice Girls and a fictitious stalker who sent the band sinister messages, including a tape foreseeing their bizarre deaths, soiled underwear and notes written in faeces has been picked up and printed as fact by poncy new Web site Ammocity.com. Why do you care? One, because it's always …

    Bootnotes 7 Feb 2001, 19:06

  • Sick of crap DSL? Start your own service!

    Wyoming city shows you how

    Sick of not being able to get decent DSL service? The answer may be to take matters into your own hands and bypass the telco altogether. That's according to the residents of Laramie, a city of 26,000 people in deepest, darkest Wyoming. They run their own non-profit community wireless Internet service called Lariat (Laramie …

    Data Networking 7 Feb 2001, 19:09

  • IBM beefs up ThinkPad and NetVista lines

    Celerons and new displays

    IBM has beefed up its ThinkPad and NetVista lines. An addition to the ThinkPad A Series is the ThinkPad A21e which comes with a choice of 12.1in, 14.1in or 15in TFT displays and CD-ROM drive. An optional Ultrabay 2000 or USB diskette drive is also available. The starting price is at $1,499. The ThinkPad i Series now offers a …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 19:26

  • Server sales grew 21 per cent in Q4

    Worldwide sales of 3.9 million

    Server shipments grew 14 per cent in 2000 thanks to strong sales in Q4. Worldwide sales totalled 3.9 million for the year. In Q4 shipments reached 1.1 million, up 21 per cent on 1999's fourth quarter. Shahin Naftchi, senior analyst for servers and workstations at Dataquest's Computing Platform Worldwide group, put the healthy …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 19:26

  • Armed blaggers escape with 800MHz PIII chips worth £700K

    M4 crime corridor

    Armed robbers are still at large after stealing an estimated £700,000 in Pentium chips from a freight forwarding firm in Berkshire last week. The raid, which netted robbers 12 boxes of 800MHz PIIIs, took place in broad daylight on January 22 at the Windsor warehouse of Kay Express, and follows a number of similar attacks in the …

    Business 7 Feb 2001, 19:28

  • Net games outfits told to ditch free services

    40 million online gamers by 2004

    Online games companies have to look past the PC if they want to survive, according to IDC. To grab a chunk of the 40 million households IDC expects to be playing games on the Web by 2004, outfits will need to aim their games at PDAs, next generation video game consoles, mobile phones and interactive TV platforms. "Game design …

    Games Industry 7 Feb 2001, 22:02

  • Penis too big? Click here

    Members only site

    Just when you thought every subject had been covered on the Web, behold, a site for men whose penises are too big. Yes, it is possible to be too well hung, and the Large Penis Support Group at lpsg.org goes all out to prove the difficulties involved for these poor afflicted souls. Did you know that around 1.5 per cent of all …

    Music and Media 7 Feb 2001, 22:57