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13th February 2001 Archive

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  • Netizens blinded by ‘half-assed’ Google stunt

    Can we have our Usenet back, please?

    If the folk at Google were feeling pleased with themselves for rescuing Deja's Usenet archive from the dormant dot.gone, it can't have lasted long. Without early warning, the company began to host the Deja archive yesterday, but refused to migrate Deja's web based front end with it, which renders the archive all-but useless. …

    Software 13 Feb 2001, 07:28

  • Total Web anonymity for you, and the CIA

    Spooks endorse 'Triangle Boy'

    A software package which can keep the CIA's legions of snoops safe from detection as they trawl the Net in search of international evildoers ought to be good enough for your daily dogtrot through cyberspace. That's the pitch for SafeWeb's soon-to-be-released product Triangle Boy, which it is claimed will make it possible for one …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 07:56

  • QXL grows Q3 losses

    But sales are up, and it's got a bit of cash left

    Online auction house QXL Ricardo.de has grown its Q3 losses to £41.1 million, up from £25.6 million for the same period a year earlier. The London-based business blamed the situation on its acquisition strategy and the need to integrate the IT systems of its purchases. Sales for the three months to 31 December hit £4.1 million …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 09:09

  • Alcatel says ‘yes’ to Linux USB ADSL support

    Open source drivers due March

    Alcatel has at long last Linux support for its SpeedTouch USB ADSL modem. The French comms company will release a driver for the open source operating system, along with the source code, next month. That's good news for UK-based Linux users. British Telecom's domestic ADSL service bundles the SpeedTouch, forcing Linux home …

    Software 13 Feb 2001, 10:42

  • Intel's consumer P4 push kicks off

    TV ads, PC World blitz, sub-£999 machines

    Intel is starting its big P4 consumer push this week. PC World's got some co-op marketing money and is advertising the 'UK's lowest price Intel Pentium 4, available to take home today.' The price is £1,199 (£1,020.43 ex VAT) which amazingly enough is the cheapest P4 machine available off the high street/out of town shopping …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 11:29

  • Apple open source lead leaves

    Sanchez quits, but doesn't ditch Darwin

    Apple's open source engineering project lead, Wilfredo 'Fred' Sanchez, has quit the company to join Menlo Park-based start-up KnowNow. Sanchez joined Apple in 1997. His main area of responsibility was managing the team which developed and maintains MacOS X's open source BSD Unix core, better known as Darwin. In essence, that …

    Mac Channel 13 Feb 2001, 11:38

  • Gateway web server flaws exposed

    Didn't have the latest security patches

    Web servers at Gateway have been defaced in an attack that calls into question the security practices of the direct sales PC vendor. Pages on Gateway's site, which normally carry pages on job advertisements and career opportunities, were replaced by a profane message from The-Rev of cracker group the "sm0ked crew". The …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 11:40

  • Woundup Windows XP hype-fest commences

    And who are we to give it as miss?

    Brace yourself for the hype; today, Microsoft will try to position Windows XP as the operating system to have. You'll find article after article talking about Microsoft's big day today at EMP, where it is expected too divulge more information about Windows XP, and what will be included in Beta 2. So far, Windows XP clearly …

    Software 13 Feb 2001, 11:41

  • Maxtor in disk mounting spindle shake-up

    70% fewer parts in latest drives

    Maxtor has abandoned the pursuit of ever-larger areal density and gone for a simpler design and increased reliability with its latest family of drives. And so it the company has added load/unload technology to the 531DX family of drives that began shipping yesterday. The line is the first from Maxtor to incorporate the …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 12:40

  • Fatal lorry crash text message trial

    Judge calls it 'wickedly dangerous'

    A man was killed as a truck wobbled off the road because the driver was too busy composing a text message to pay attention to his driving, a court was told yesterday. Paul Browning, 36, from Kenley in South London, has admitted causing death by dangerous driving, but denies that he was texting at the time of the accident. …

    Data Networking 13 Feb 2001, 12:43

  • Doom, Marathon back from the gaming grave

    Play it again, Sam...

    Doom, Id Software's classic first-person shooter, is back on the Mac. To be fair, it's never really gone away, but the new release, MacDoomLegacy 1.0, brings it bang up to date with support for 3D graphics cards. The release follows Id's decision to open up the game's PC-oriented source code back in 1997. Since then, the code …

    Mac Channel 13 Feb 2001, 12:50

  • Orange finally valued

    10 euros a share or £30.8bn in total

    Orange has finally announced its float price for today's IPO: 10 euros a share, which values the company at £30.8 billion. The 10 euro price is just above the mooted 9.5 euro figure last week when the mobile phone company surprised many by saying it may knock a further sixth of its value (it had already reduced the price by 15 …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 13:28

  • AOL tells MPs ‘broadband held back by BT’

    But saves major bashing for legal battle

    AOL UK told a group of MPs today that BT was responsible for Britain falling behind in the race to roll-out broadband. Speaking at the Culture, Media and Sport select committee concerning the Communications White Paper, AOL UK said that in the current climate, no ISP could deliver a marketable ADSL proposal because BT can't …

    Data Networking 13 Feb 2001, 13:30

  • Guess who Saddam's favourite server manufacturer is

    The dictator goes shopping in Edinburgh

    Saddam Hussein is apparently to blame for over £1 million of stolen computer equipment in Edinburgh (Scotland, for our foreign readers). The Iraqi dictator has obviously tired of PlayStation 2s and wants the real stuff. Presumably he needs it for some evil purposes in a bid to take over the world - or is that just state-induced …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 13:43

  • PC World's bargain P4 beast

    We never said you should buy it

    PC World is proudly shouting it's got the cheapest Pentium 4 machine that you can buy - that is if you want to take it home with you there and then. For £1,199 (inc VAT) you get the 1.3GHz P4, 128Mb RDRAM, 20Gb hard drive, and the 32Mb TNT2 graphics card. But you get what you pay for. This system contains the PC600 RDRAM - the …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 14:24

  • BTinternet users banned by IRC network

    DALnet klines users after rogue BT user spreads Trojans

    BTinternet users have been banned from using a popular IRC network whilst the hunt for a vandal spreading a Trojan continues. The ban means BT users are prevented from using chat networks run by DALnet, one of the world's biggest IRC service providers, whose network handles over 2 million daily connections and supports a user …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 14:26

  • Hardware site Anandtech defaced

    With rubbish rewrite of Eminem song

    Leading hardware site Anandtech has been defaced, apparently by the same group that also sprayed tasteless graffiti on Gateway's site in an earlier attack. Instead of hardware reviews, visitors to Anandtech have been treated to the lyrics of a song about hacking, which was put up on the site by The-Rev and Splurge of the group …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 15:08

  • BT comes clean on Mac ADSL support

    Updated Drivers definitely by the end of February... maybe...

    Why can't BT get its act together and properly support ADSL Internet access from a variety of platforms? Earlier today, we reported on Alcatel's upcoming release of Linux drivers for its SpeedTouch USB ADSL modem. In the UK, BT bundles the SpeedTouch with its domestic ADSL package, an offering that other ADSL providers …

    Mac Channel 13 Feb 2001, 15:16

  • Be funny and win a toboggan

    Competition Plus a copy of Office XP

    Microsoft PR agency August One was tickled by our recent pieceMS Canada on slippery slope. The article outlines MS Canada's incentive scheme whereby buying a copy of MS Office secures the punter a free toboggan. August One fully agreed with our indignation that this class giveaway was not being made available elsewhere. So much …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2001, 16:10

  • MP miffed by AOL

    Kaufman fiddles with client and gets nowehere

    Gerald Kaufman MP - who chaired the Culture, Media and Sport select committee meeting discussing the Communications White Paper - had to have a pop at AOL UK earlier today. Just as he said his goodbyes to AOL UK MD, Karen Thomson, and her team he mentioned an incident about how he and a friend, having loaded the AOL client onto …

    Bootnotes 13 Feb 2001, 16:19

  • New York students threatened in online ‘hit list’

    Site creator protected by First Amendment

    New York parents are demanding a teen to be thrown out of school after he threatened to pick off fellow students via an online "hit list". The 13-year-old boy named 36 students on his site that he planned to "attack when it gets warmer", Newsday.com reported. One reason given on the site for hating his classmates was if they …

    Music and Media 13 Feb 2001, 16:28

  • Pedo porn ring gets slap on wrist

    Max sentence of 30 months for wOnderland crew

    Seven British members of a notorious Internet child porn ring escaped the full force of the law in Kingston Crown Court today. The guilty men were given lenient sentences for their parts in distributing enormous quantities of material throughout the w0nderland child pornography club. The jail terms ranged from one year to a …

    Music and Media 13 Feb 2001, 17:15

  • PlusNet woes continue. More to be kicked off?

    New 'reasonable use' guidelines

    PlusNet has mass-emailed 500 more customers, threatening them with disconnection unless they use the Internet service "responsibly". At the same, the company has posted "Fair and reasonable usage guide for Surftime accounts" which state (among other things) that connecting to the Net for more than an hour-and-a-half in the …

    Music and Media 13 Feb 2001, 17:23

  • Reuters profit hit by Net transformation

    It made a paltry £411 million in 2000

    Reuters Group saw operating profit drop 25 per cent last year due to costs related to transforming itself into an online news machine. Profit fell to £411 million for the year ended December 31 2000, from £549 million the previous year, with operating profit as a percentage of sales down to 11.4 per cent from 17.6 per cent. …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 17:26

  • Dr Tom's advice on living cheaply

    HWRoundup He revives a 1995 socket 5 system

    El Doctor has a few money saving suggestions over at Tom's Hardware today. If the idea of adding a bit of fizz to an old machine for less than a lot of money is as appealing to you as it should be, then check this out. Tom takes a look at a 1995 socket 5 system and brings it, if not into the 21st century, then at least up to …

    Hardware Roundup 13 Feb 2001, 17:57

  • E-minister has another stab at selling wireless licences

    How long d'you reckon before they give them away?

    Ole Patricia Hewitt, E-minister, has "announced proposals" today to get rid of the unsold licences in the farce that was November's fixed wireless auction. When the (much-delayed) auction was kicked off on 10 November, the government was expecting to net around £1 billion from the sale of 42 licences throughout the UK. The …

    Data Networking 13 Feb 2001, 18:01

  • Anna Kournikova bug drops harmlessly onto the Net

    'Potentially devastating': you cannot be serious!

    Much like the tennis star herself, the Anna Kournikova worm created a lot of interest and attention when it hit the Net - but lacks anything like a powerful smash. As we previously reported, an Internet-based email worm that masquerades as a picture of tennis star Anna Kournikova is spreading fast after been unleashed on the …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 18:20

  • Early death for 98 as MS pushes WinXP – public beta confirmed

    One of those crummy preview program things, actually, and there'll likely be a 'handling charge'...

    Windows XP, the next generation of Windows, got its first public preview today at the Experience Music Project in Seattle, where Bill Gates rang the changes (not) by describing it as "the most advanced Windows ever." Those itching for a simultaneous unleashing of Beta 2 were however disappointed - the announcement itself says it …

    Software 13 Feb 2001, 20:26

  • The unbearable lightness of DRAM

    128Mb SDRAM chips dip below $5

    Once upon a time the 64Mb DRAM chip - add eight and you get the DIMM module you buy in a shop - supplied the definitive price benchmark for the memory industry. Now, it's the turn of its big brother, the 128Mb, to perform the same duty. And what do the benchmarks tell us today? Well, if you're a memory maker, your problems ain' …

    Business 13 Feb 2001, 22:28

  • US DSL indie market ‘near total collapse’

    Old timers doing pretty well

    Around 700,000 Americans managed to get DSL access in the fourth quarter of last year. This brought the total number of DSL lines in the US to 2,429,189 at the end of 2000. But between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of the country's households still have a long wait ahead of them to get this form of high-speed Net access. …

    Data Networking 13 Feb 2001, 22:30

  • Anna-bug author OnTheFly 'fesses up

    It was her fault for being so pretty

    Someone claiming to be the author of the much publicised and rather underwhelming, hence aptly-named, Anna Kournikova e-mail worm has set up a confessional Web site explaining his methods and motives. "In this letter I'd like you to know that I didn't do it for fun," he says. Rather, it all happened "just because I am a big fan …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 22:51

  • Mitnick movie on DVD

    Pretty bad hacker flick -- you'll love it

    The controversial movie version of the electronic manhunt that snared hacker legend Kevin Mitnick is now available on DVD through Amazon.fr and other French retail sites. Now, for 241,52 Francs, or about $27 US, those capable of cracking the disk's region encoding can confirm for themselves that Hollywood did the right thing …

    Security 13 Feb 2001, 23:59