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8th February 2001 Archive

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  • SuSE confirms US staff cuts

    Updated It's bad... only 12 left

    It's symptomatic of the chaos around SuSE this week, that as the company's US spokesperson was telling The Register that only ten of SuSE's 60 stateside staff would lose their jobs, its US President Volker Wiegand was telling Client/Server News that only twelve would remain. Wiegand's explanation will make the gloomiest reading …

    Software 8 Feb 2001, 01:19

  • Prison e-mail ban upheld

    God forbid the inmates get spammed

    Officials at California's most notorious prison won the right to block inmates from receiving printed e-mail messages though the regular US mail, in a ruling by a state appeals court Tuesday. "We conclude that given the unique characteristics of e-mail, the ban on receipt by regular mail of Internet-generated material was …

    Music and Media 8 Feb 2001, 03:32

  • Slashdot outsources headlines to BBSpot

    First-poster Viagra

    Can't get enough Slashdot? The wags at BBSpot have created a random story generator that should help fill those numb, empty minutes between story postings at the popular VA Linux-owned chat site. The page faithfully generates Slashdot-style headlines, and in the words of the authors: "just press the convenient 'Next Story' …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 07:44

  • Taiwan mobo orders up in February

    Green shoots?

    It's not exactly the green shoots of recovery but sales in February of motherboards made by Taiwanese firms are expected to equal or surpass that of January. What Taiwan builds today, the rest of the world sells tomorrow. Or in this case, what Europe and Asia sells tomorrow - the units are expected to fly out the door to …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 08:47

  • Logitech pumps up the volume with Labtec buy

    Peripherals giant

    Logitech, the Swiss mouse maker, is beefing up its peripherals business with the $125m acquisition of Labtec, a US rival. Labtec brings to the table around $100m in annual sales, and a good brand name in audio peripherals and technology. The company flogs PC speakers, PC headsets, and personal audio for portable MP3 players. …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 09:33

  • BT broadband a ‘national disgrace’

    Telco faces legal action over slow ADSL roll-out

    AOL UK and Freeserve are threatening legal action against BT concerning the slow roll-out of broadband ADSL services in Britain. Freeserve yesterday described the matter as a "national disgrace" once again raising concerns about the relationship between supposedly separate divisions within BT. Both Freeserve and AOL UK are …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 2001, 10:19

  • BT is Britain's ‘Internet Villain’

    Talk about a one horse race

    BT chief, Sir Peter Bonfield, is Britain's "Internet Villain", the industry decided last night. The honour was conferred on the dapper Sir Peter at a glittering awards ceremony dubbed the "Internet Oscars". Of course, Sir Peter was not there is person to collect his bauble. No doubt he was burning the midnight oil making sure …

    Music and Media 8 Feb 2001, 11:25

  • Woundup Win2k server – 1m sales and still going, er, slow

    MS recycles the old 'NT to dominate server market' marketing ploy?

    After a year of biting its nails, Microsoft says that by the end of this month 1,000,000 units of Windows 2000 server will have been sold. But is this actually good news or bad news? Despite the enthusiastic trumpeting noises coming from Redmond, it kind of depends on how much NT also sold in Win2k's first year, the sum of the …

    Software 8 Feb 2001, 11:33

  • Napster bans Manic Street Preachers swaps

    If you tolerate this, then your profits will be next...

    Manic Street Preachers have become the latest band to find their next, unreleased album cropping up on Napster. And in response to legal threats from the Manics' label, Sony, the MP3 sharing software company blocked a number of users from the service for allegedly swapping said upcoming long-player, entitled Know Your Enemy. …

    Music and Media 8 Feb 2001, 11:38

  • Flashy cracker defaces Memorex site

    It's the latest IIS crack victim

    The Web site of Memorex has been defaced with a message taunting system administrators about lax security. A cracker called x{Ace}x replaced www.memorex.com with a grinning fire figure and a ticker message "you lazy ass admins... Your (sic) not doing your job". At the time of writing the site was still defaced by graffiti that …

    Security 8 Feb 2001, 11:52

  • Sega president goes mad

    We know you're embarrassed, Isao, but £500m?

    The president of Sega has presented the company with all of his 19.87 million shares in the company - worth £500 million - in order to cover the loss caused by the termination of the Dreamcast console. We are mighty impressed by Isao Okawa's sense of responsibility but, Isao, Isao, Isao, have you not got a little carried away? …

    Games Industry 8 Feb 2001, 11:53

  • Palm confident of successful 2001

    PalmOS 4 coming in 'a few months'

    Palm is on track to release PalmOS 4.0 "in a few months", company CEO Carl Yankowski told attendees of the Banc of America Securities Conference in San Francisco yesterday. That puts the OS' release ahead of an earlier official deadline, made at last December's PalmSource developers conference, of mid to late 2001, and more in …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 11:57

  • BT shares slide

    Operating profit stagnant

    Investors were unimpressed with BT's Q3 results announced this morning wiping almost 8 per cent off the value of the company in the first three hours of trading. BT shares fell 53p to 627p as the monster telco reported stagnant operating profits of £836 million - up just £4 million on the same period last year. And that's …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 12:06

  • Philips short of analysts' expectations

    Blames US slowdown, like everyone else

    Philips is the latest technology company to announced a disappointing Q4 last year. Despite reporting a 46 per cent rise in income, the figure of $744.7 million still missed analysts' expectations. The company had been expected to report income of between $797.95 million and $1.082 billion for the quarter. The electronics …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 12:13

  • PlayStation 3 graphics chip to crush PS2 version

    75 million polys, 2.6 billion pixels per second, 256Mb on-die DRAM

    The degree to which Sony's PlayStation 3 will out-perform its predecessor became clearer yesterday when the developer of the console's graphics chip mapped out its internals. Speaking at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, held this week in San Francisco, the designer of the Graphics Synthesiser (GS), Simplex …

    Channel 8 Feb 2001, 12:26

  • Never go skiing with a mobile phone

    You may not come back

    Mobile phones are evil, evil we tell you. Yesterday the Danes told us that they didn't cause cancer, but even if they don't, mobiles can still kill you. We're not talking about the Mexican who dropped his mobile in the lion's cage at the zoo and was attacked when it went off as he was retrieving it. We're not on about poor old …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 12:58

  • Lucent demos all-silicon radio base station

    Cheaper, smaller boxes for mobile phone networks

    Boffins at Lucent's Bell Labs have produced what they claim to be the first all-silicon chips suitable for the base stations used by mobile networks. Such receivers generally feature between 10 to 20 chips made of gallium which is more expensive than silicon, yet considered necessary to satisfy the high performance requirements …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 2001, 13:04

  • Alan Sugar cries cos he's called a miser

    We didn't know he was such a sensitive flower

    Alan Sugar broke down in court yesterday at the start of a libel trial over a newspaper article which he says called him a miser. The Amstrad man was so overcome by emotion, according to the Telegraph, that he left court choking back tears accompanied by his wife Ann. Sugar is suing the Daily Mail over a story from December …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 13:07

  • Intel invests in German Silicon-Germanium plant

    Hails SiGe to the tune of 25 per cent

    Intel is taking a 25 per cent stake in a German operation planning to build a $1.5 billion foundry that will be punching out Silicon-Germanium Carbon chips by 2003. In return, Chipzilla will get access to the fab's production capacity, though it will not have any say in the running of the plant, Intel VP Mike Splinter confirmed …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 2001, 13:23

  • Storage system sales take wing

    RAIDing Parties

    Consumer demand for new networked applications will feed through to soaring sales for storage systems, according to IDC. The US market research firm reckons the worldwide market for storage systems - RAID, network attached storage, disk arrays, storage area networks and the like - will be worth $53 billion. This is a compound …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 14:14

  • Monster fish hoaxer nobbled

    Fun with Photoshop part 32

    A keen angler who posted a picture of himself with a record-breaking pike has been outed as a hoaxer by the Angling Times. Jonathan Denny posted the pic on fishing.co.uk's Trophy Room, claiming he had landed the 52lb pike - a UK record. However, the Angling Times grew suspicious when it tried to contact Mr Denny and he would …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 14:40

  • BT ‘institutionally restricting market share’

    Freeserve boss slams BT

    Freeserve has accused BT of "institutionally restricting market share" among competing broadband ISPs following revelations that the monster telco has two thirds of all ADSL customers in Britain. John Pluthero, CEO of Freeserve, believes the matter is so serious that it warrants the resignation of the entire BT board, although …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 2001, 14:42

  • Which country has the most virus infected PCs?

    Updated Virus map shows one in five machines have the pox

    Consumer security firm McAfee.com has unveiled a real-time virus map which is designed to give computer users a visual indication of the spread of virus infections around the world. During its research on the propagation of viruses which led to the creation of the map, McAfee.com scanned 39 billion files and discovered that an …

    Security 8 Feb 2001, 15:43

  • Sony's organic screens get bigger

    CRT killers which don't need backlight

    Sony says it has made the world's largest full colour organic Electroluminescence display that it says will eventually replace Cathode Ray Tube displays. The company is claiming an edge in the race to produce a commercially viable large OEL screen and says it expects it to be in production by 2003. Development of large-scale …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 15:49

  • AOL UK delivers broadband ultimatum to BT

    Britain faces ADSL crisis

    BT's position as both wholesale and retail provider of broadband services could plunge Britain into a broadband crisis that could see the monster telco in the High Court to answer claims that it is abusing its market position. AOL UK has given Oftel and BT just 24 hours to come clean about the roll-out of ADSL or face legal …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 2001, 16:11

  • Network convergence given a dangerous sexual twist

    Distie holds VD clinics for voice data integration

    A network distie has decided to inject a bit of excitement into its seminars on voice and data convergence by sending out an invite with a "VD Clinic" motif on letters and faxes. East Grinstead-based Norwood Adam Distribution came up with the idea of developing a coat of arm featuring two needles (voice and data) crossing under …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 16:35

  • ATI Radeon through the wringer

    HWRoundup And yet more KT133A action

    HardOCP takes on the ATI Radeon and wins. No marketing blurb was left untranslated and no technical stone unturned. And HardOCP being HardOCP, there was a little peek at the overclockability of it. So have a read of the whole thing here. You know it makes sense. Check out the Matrox G450 review on I-am-not-a-geek. John …

    Hardware Roundup 8 Feb 2001, 16:45

  • Daily Mail political editor plagiarises Reg

    We're used to people nicking stories, but...

    We were glad when someone picked up on our story about Labour party officials posting anti-Plaid Cymru messages on political newsgroups under pseudonyms. The Daily Mail was one of the first and it gave almost a half page to it with its political editor's byline. Of course, it didn't bother to credit us with the story but then …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 16:47

  • Brits look but don't touch online gaming

    Virtual joy stick merchants

    Brits have decided to look but not touch when it comes to online gaming, a survey claims. One in five UK Net users, or 2,400,000 people, visited a games site during December, but only 194,000 actually took part in one of the games (one in twelve). Americans came out with a slightly better average - 28 per cent of them logged …

    Games Industry 8 Feb 2001, 17:49

  • Le Freeswerve snubs Oftel with classic one-liner

    Put-downs don't get much better than this

    David Melville, company secretary and general counsel to Le Freeswerve - Britain's biggest French ISP - couldn't help but have a dig at the telecoms regulator when he took part in an industry discussion at the ISPCON 2001 conference in London yesterday. Anne Lambert, director of operations at Oftel, was first to speak at the …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 2001, 17:50

  • Intel crows about Flash contracts

    Sells bucketloads of memory, surprise, surprise

    Not to be outdone by AMD, Intel has been baying this week about flogging huge amounts of Flash memory itself. Both Cisco and Siemens have agreed to by the non-volatile memory from Chipzilla. The Siemens deal, announced today, is worth $2 billion to the mighty silicon lizard. The German company is buying all that Flash for its …

    Channel 8 Feb 2001, 17:53

  • Dell touts smaller OptiPlex desktop in UK

    A bit quieter than the rest

    Dell has brought out a smaller model to go in its OptiPlex desktop line. The OptiPlex GX150 SF machine is midnight-grey in colour. It is the second OptiPlex model with the OptiFrame chassis - which is clamshell in design and is meant to be able to handle future technologies and make component installation and upgrades easy and …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 17:54

  • Child porn found on pawned computer

    Oklahoma man arrested

    An Oklahoma man has been arrested after child porn was found on a computer he left at a pawnbroker's. After Anthony Ray Sackett failed to reclaim his property within the agreed 90 days, staff at the Cash America shop set about making the PC ready to be resold. But when they started to prod around in the machine they found what …

    Security 8 Feb 2001, 18:03

  • Cops trial crime reporting over the Net

    Sussex Police says don't email it about emergencies

    Sussex Police is trying to lighten the load on its emergency call handling service by encouraging victims of less serious crimes to report them over the Internet. The force has set up forms on its Web site for reports of thefts at Gatwick Airport and for lost property enquiries, and a facility that allows members of the public …

    Music and Media 8 Feb 2001, 18:55

  • Dell plans big layoffs – Client Server News

    Thousands for the chop

    Dell is hatching a plan to cut ten per cent of its workforce in its first ever round of lay offs, Client Server News claims. The Texan vendor is expected to ditch between 2,000 and 3,000 staff locally, and worldwide, up to 4,000 people could be due for the chop, according to Client Server News sources. Job cuts are anticipated …

    Business 8 Feb 2001, 22:45