9th March 2001 Archive

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Different approach to intrusion detection touted

No need to update attack signatures?

A security firm has put together two intrusion detection products to create technology it says takes a different approach to defending against hack attacks. CentraxICE, from security integrator Articon-Integralis, is positioned as a product which provides "defence in depth" from hack attacks beyond that offered by firewalls. It …

Security 9 Mar 2001, 05:45
Intel puts dicks in legal vice

Ouch! Great Satan won't stop squeezing

The chip company which once tried to trademark the letter 'i', a squiggly loop and the word surfboard, has now turned its attention to a retired group of private dicks, otherwise known as investigators. According to sources close to US firm Intelnetworks, the Intel Corp has recently made a call to the non-profit organisation …

Channel 9 Mar 2001, 08:37
AMD Athlon 1.33/1.3GHzs arrive

HWRoundup And other hard nibbles from the Wibbly Web

Yes, the Japanese market, once more, has advance news, pictures and even product, with good old Pricewatch showing 1.33GHz and 1.3GHz Athlons for sale in Old Akihabara. You'll probably see these in London's Tottenham Court Road in about 1000 years... --------------------cut here------------------- There's more about this over …

Hardware Roundup 9 Mar 2001, 09:16
Russian Mafia uses NT flaws to raid Internet banks

FBI investigation reveals 40 firms hit, 1m credit cards stolen

Eastern European crackers have spent a year systematically exploiting known NT vulnerabilities to raid online banking and ecommerce systems. More than 40 companies have been subject to attacks and it is believed more than a million credit cards have been stolen, provoking the FBI to take the highly unusual step of providing …

Security 9 Mar 2001, 09:31
AOL UK and BT slug it out on telly

Broadband row goes public

The row between AOL UK and BT over the roll-out and allocation of ADSL spilled onto TV screens last night as the two corporate giants went head-to-head in front of an audience of millions. Both AOL UK's Matt Peacock and BT's Steve Andrews exchanged blows on the BBC's prime-time consumer affairs programme Watchdog. Andrews said …

Telecoms 9 Mar 2001, 10:22
MS co-opts Stardock for WinXP skins

Button it

Microsoft has blessed WindowBlinds by giving XP beta testers access to WindowsBlinds XP. Stardock's Brad Wardell assures us that this should by no means be viewed as official endorsement ("It's a very unofficial, casual thing") - but as we see it having your code on Microsoft's beta code servers is a lot nicer than not having it …

Software 9 Mar 2001, 10:25
WorldCom to axe 1000 European jobs

Sigh...

WorldCom is to slash 1000 jobs in Europe on the insistence of bosses in the US. Meetings were held yesterday to announce the cuts, according to insiders. The job losses come as WorldCom and its sibling - UUNET - are to merge operations outside the US. A week ago WorldCom decided to chop 6000 jobs in the US. At this stage it' …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 11:24
Apple patents desktop themes

Watch out, Whistler...

Microsoft's plan to providing Windows XP (aka Whistler) with interface themes (aka skins) may be knocked on the head by Apple, which has patented desktop themes. The patent, granted on 13 February from an application made way back in May 1998, covers "systems and methods for providing a user with increased flexibility and …

Mac Channel 9 Mar 2001, 11:40
More WinXP code leaks onto Web, with pix

Chipset dummies said to have left it lying around on server...

Just a few days after Microsoft released the latest external beta build of Windows XP, number 2446, what looks like an internal build seems to be breaking loose - and there are pictures. From Microsoft's point of view the leaking of build 2454 is surely a more serious matter for Microsoft than previous code escapes, which have …

Software 9 Mar 2001, 11:55
Apple event to sell MacOS X midnight 23/24 March

It's party time

Want to get your hands on MacOS X as early as possible? Apple UK will be selling its next-generation operating system as soon as the clock chimes midnight on Friday 23 March. Mac fans will have to head over to Micro Anvika's main Tottenham Court Road, London showroom, which is hosting Apple's MacOS X launch party the evening …

Mac Channel 9 Mar 2001, 12:27
Cyber Patrol unblocks The Register

Thanks to you

SurfControl, owner of Cyber Patrol, told us by email today that it has removed The Register from its CyberNot list of banned sites. In future Cyber Patrol will block only the story containing a reference to Peacefire.org, a controversial anti-filtering organisation. Which is what it should have done in the first place... …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 12:28
BT becomes ninth UK ICANN-accredited registrar

Behind the times? It doesn't know who ICANN is

British Telecom - the Great Satan of Broadband - has just received the royal seal of approval from ICANN as a registrar. Now it can join the party, fill ICANN and Network Solutions' coffers and register .coms, .nets and .orgs. It can't register the seven gTLDs that ICANN begrudgingly handed over to the Internet community in …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 12:59
HP hacks rack and stack server prices

In Europe

Hewlett-Packard has slashed more than a quarter off the price for its recently introduced line of high-density ultra-thin NT servers. Competition on price with market rivals Compaq and IBM has persuaded HP to drop prices of its LP1000r and LP2000r NetServers, which were launched in January, by 28 per cent to its customers in …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 13:03
Software download sites vulnerable to fraudsters

Buyonet claims

Online retailers which sell software by download could be brought down by fraudsters, a Web commerce company claims. In a letter in today's FT, Freddy Tengberg, CEO of the Buyonet group, wrote that the company, in its original guise as a software retailer, had been subject to a barrage of fraud. "After just three months of …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 14:01
IBM e-commerce platforms vulnerable to password cracker

Danish hackers teach Big Blue to SUQ.DIQ

IBM WebSphere and Net.Commerce users have been advised to tighten up cryptographic security after the release on the Internet of a hacking tool that can crack administrator passwords. Red-faced Big Blue was yesterday forced to rush out a security advisory admitting that a weak encryption methodology might leave users of its …

Security 9 Mar 2001, 14:41
Captain Cyborg: I'm embarrassed to speak

Not as embarrassed as we are to hear you, Kev

Ladies and gentlemen, disassociate your brain, suspend your rationality and lie back because Captain Cyborg is back and this time he's... well, he's... talking the same garbage he always does. Popping up on the Science at Nine programme on Radio 4, Professor Kevin Warwick of Reading University regaled us with tales from the …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 15:05
Handspring Edge to launch Monday

Supports 'Springboard 2.0' - or the end of the add-in format?

Handspring's latest PalmOS PDA, the Visor Edge, will be launched on Monday, just a week after Palm's upgraded consumer palmtop, the m100, was unveiled and a week ahead of the arrival of the high end Palm m500 and colour m505. According to sources close to Handspring, the company will hold a press conference on Monday at which …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 15:19
Calling letsbuydope.com

Clean and sober former marijuana smuggler seeks honest employment

They say that honesty is always the best policy. Possibly not, however, in the case of the man who recently placed an employment wanted ad in the Toronto Financial Post. Under the eye-catching heading 'Former Marijuana Smuggler' this former ne'er-do-well has outlined his impressive credentials. These include running a …

Bootnotes 9 Mar 2001, 15:23
FOTW Flames part I and II

A classic double-header of brain-boiling insanity

It's been a bumper week in the Vulture Central asbestos-lined flame pit. First up is Stuart. We think that Stuart is referring to John Lettice's recent piece Appeals court poised for shock 'MS entirely innocent' ruling. Whatever the truth, Stuart has issues. And he thinks that John is called Lewis. Lewis Lettice? We like it: …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 15:27
Orlowski ‘deserves Pulitzer prize’

Reg hack elevated to pantheon of journo deities

CPRM on ATA - Full Coverage It's not often that we print a letter guaranteed to puff the ego of some Vulture Central hack. The practice is normally discouraged since it inevitably provokes demands for wage rises, more holidays, their own office, a company car, etc., etc. More often than not, these letters are written by …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 15:30
Lovely Lucy leaves The Reg

Couldn't keep her hands off the boffins

You may have noticed that the debonair Lucy Sherriff has not been providing her daily insights into hardware, security and random Internet sex stories in the last week. This is for the simple reason that she has upped and left the esteemed organ that is The Reg. Initial concerns were that her belly-button piercing may …

Bootnotes 9 Mar 2001, 15:40
AOL dodges child porn lawsuit

Accused of being a 'home shopping network for paedophiles'

AOL has escaped a lawsuit in the US after one of its subscribers used the ISP's service to sell child porn. The Florida Supreme Court ruled yesterday, by a vote of four to three, that AOL could not be prosecuted for illegal sales taking place through its service. The suit was brought by a mother in Florida after a "lewd …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 16:01
Catechumen thrown to lions

Readers thumbs down for Christian game

Are Christian games better than secular shoot'-em-ups? The Christian game Catechumen did not overly impress members of our forum (registration or guest access required), nor our readers who dutifully downloaded it at their own expense. Thanks to Andy Bird for this analysis: Oh my God! (blasphemic pun intended) I almost feel …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 16:03
Intel deems SiS worthy of P4 chipset licence

Chipset developer joins Acer, ATI

Taiwan's Silicon Integrated Systems has been granted one of Intel's Pentium 4 chipset licences. SiS is one of the Taiwan's three key chipset developers. Of the others, Acer Labs was granted a licence by Chipzilla last month, and long-time Intel enemy VIA reckons it has the right to build P4 chipsets thanks to the licences it …

Channel 9 Mar 2001, 16:14
VIA to get 0.13 micron Cyrix III out ahead of Intel Tualatin

TSMC wins fab contract

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will fab the next-but-one version of VIA's Cyrix III processor, codenamed the C5C and dubbed Ezra. TSMC will produce the part at 0.13 micron, which is a revision of VIA's Samuel II CPU, marketed as the Cyrix III. The smaller size of the chip will allow it to achieve speeds of 1GHz …

Channel 9 Mar 2001, 16:21
Visually challenged throw down gauntlet

Speccy geek offers McCarthy outside

Geeks penalised by Budget Resident whippersnapper Kieren McCarthy continues to cause trouble with his inflammatory prose. This week it's the visually challenged who are after his blood. John Buckley writes in the 'no-one likes a joke more then me and my wife' style: I read the Reg regularly and normally enjoy your coverage and …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 16:24
Peace breaks out among BT and rival operators

All in the name of Comic Relief

The different factions of the UK's telecoms and Internet industries are to bury the hatchet in an unprecedented show of unity. They're taking part in a one-off quiz night dubbed "Bandwidth Aid" as part of Comic Relief - the nationwide red-nosed charity event that raises a titter as it fleeces people. Reminiscent of a World War …

Bootnotes 9 Mar 2001, 16:26
DRAM drama: cheaper than beer

Prices at 'rock bottom'?

It is cheaper to buy a DRAM chip than a beer with the way memory prices have been nosediving this month. The spot price for 64Mb PC 100 DRAM chips has dropped eight per cent to $2.08 in the last week. Today memory reseller Insight was offering 128Mb PC 100 DIMMs for £33.99. An Insight salesperson said prices were "at rock …

Channel 9 Mar 2001, 16:51
Cisco to reduce headcount

Updated: Between 5,500 and 8,000 jobs to go

Cisco is planing to cut its headcount by five per cent as part of its plan to adjust to a slowdown in sales in the networking industry. The loss of full time jobs is likely to be carried out through natural attrition and will occur in parallel to a hiring freeze and restrictions in the number of contract workers it employs. …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 17:40
Memory Plus MBO

£800,000 cash

Memory Plus has been bought via a management buyout for £800,000 cash. The MBO from former parent company Torridon was headed by Jon Blows, previously general manager and now MD of Memory Plus. The move, said to be a "friendly" MBO, has been underwritten by Euro Sales Finance (ESF). It ends five-months of discussion between …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 17:42
AMD and Intel – who said what?

Magee mans customer service desk

AMD, Intel fight wars using memory chips Scott Barbour had a query regarding Mike Magee's recent piece: I would like to question a portion of your recent article listed above. Here's the area of my concern: 'Further, DDR memory, which is based on synchronous memory, is cheaper and faster than Ramboid memory. "The cheap nature …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 17:44
MS eBay auction hypocrisy?

Guilty until proven innocent

Secondhand Office 97 seller to sue after MS pulls eBay auction As ever, our readers had a few pertinent points to make regarding Linda Harrison's recent piece. Chris Curran kicks off with: Re: "Sellers who query auctions being taken down have to prove to Microsoft that the software is genuine - this could either be by …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 17:46
Putin not bombed on magic mushrooms

Reg ignorance of Russian culture exposed

Putin 'bares all' in first Russian president Webcast Apparently we in the West have forgotten the simple pleasures in life. Todd West is convinced of it: Your accusation about Mr. Putin sending veiled messages about drug use through his mention of mushrooms is entirely wrong. Unfortunately your speculation comes from an …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 17:47
Readers' Letters Praise the Lord!

But not the gaming arm of his operation

Are Christian games better than secular shoot'-em-ups? Plenty of feedback on Rob Blincoe's piece regarding Catechumen, the Bible Belt's answer to Doom. Naturally, the Good Book is a ripe source for gaming material, as Dan Moyer points out: Here's an idea for a Christian game. You're Samson and you're in a battle with 10,000 un …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 17:52
The Cyber Patrol saga: you have your say

Readers do us proud

Well, you may well have noticed that we had a spot of bother with SurfControl this week. It decided in its wisdom to block us as some kind of evil Web site because we wrote a story about a company that had made some software to bypass its filtering software. This morning it decided to rescind the ban. Possibly something to do …

Letters 9 Mar 2001, 18:13
Time rolls out a £379 PC inc VAT

Ex-demo though

Time Computers has launched a range of home PCs starting at £379. The Ellipse line is aimed at first time buyers or punters who want a cheap second computer. The PCs are all ex-demo - prices start at £379, with a 366MHz AMD Duron chip, 4.3Gb hard drive, 32Mb SDRAM, 32Mb CD Rom drive, 15-inch screen and Windows ME. The most …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 18:26
EU denies rumours NSA has broken its encryption system

The spy who didn't give up the codes

Paranoia is alive and well at the European Union (EU) Commission, which has been forced to officially deny its encryption system has been compromised by the NSA (National Security Agency). Fears of eavesdropping by the ultra-secretive US spy agency grew out of comments by a Commission employee, Briton Desmond Perkins, who told …

Security 9 Mar 2001, 18:31
IR35 High Court date set

Should prove interesting

The Professional Contractors Group has been given the date of its legal battle at the High Court regarding the IR35 tax legislation. From Tuesday to Thursday next week (13 to 15 March), the PCG will make its case as to why the law, introduced in the 1999 budget, should be overturned. The group won the right to take the case to …

Business 9 Mar 2001, 18:32
Acer turns green at the gills

More corporate makeover malarkey

Vulture Central always views corporate makeovers with suspicion. As reported in Corel in transcendental makeover, such shenanigans mean one of three things: The company has gone all touchy-feely Its logo has upset the Taliban It's heading for titsup.com. So, Acer shareholders should be nervous about their company's new …

Bootnotes 9 Mar 2001, 20:14
Brightmail shifts spam/e-mail virus battle to ISPs

No new free accounts, but you can lobby for it

Spam-busting outfit Brightmail may not have room for new individual subscribers, but it's pressing the battle into the corporate, ISP (Internet service provider) and ASP (application service provider) arenas. "Free Brightmail reached its quota of eligible accounts. In order to insure the efficiency of spam-filtering for our …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 21:34
Biometric spy CEO claims privacy enhanced

Hahahahaha......

The facial recognition technology used on 72,000 unsuspecting football fans at this year's Super Bowl enhanced, rather than injured, individual privacy, the CEO of the company behind the controversial system argued at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts Wednesday. "That was a significant …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 22:10
Cyberpunk webcam Net lit

Short Story 'Icy You...Juicy Me' by Pat Cadigan

Here's The Reg's third stab at bringing culture and literature into our readers lives. We're giving you yet another exclusive tale from The New English Library Book of Internet Stories. Our author this time is Pat Cadigan. She's been described by The Guardian as the "The Queen of Cyberpunk", and X-files' Gillian Anderson once …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 23:58
Icy You…Juicy Me – page 4

by Pat Cadigan

by Pat Cadigan The words seemed to hang in the air around her. Like on the old Groucho Marx show she'd seen tapes of. You Bet Your Life. That funny bird that came down: Say the secret word and win an extra hundred dollars. Well, you just said it. It's a whole bunch of words, but call it an adjustment for inflation. The calm …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 23:58
Icy You…Juicy Me – page 2

by Pat Cadigan

by Pat Cadigan Well, of course he knew. The camera was probably in plain sight, like any other camera among the multitude of cameras in New York City. Every large city had them for traffic or police surveillance, and now, finally, for the entertainment of web surfers. Kremlin Cam-beautiful view, but too distant for Darcy's …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 23:58
Icy You…Juicy Me – page 3

by Pat Cadigan

by Pat Cadigan Darcy looked down at herself and burst out laughing. So he saw her. At forty, she actually wasn't half bad-Pilates had been invented for prisoners, even the virtual kind. But all that aside-he was a crazy guy. Who knew what he saw, or what he thought he was seeing? Maybe he only thought he was seeing her, period …

Music and Media 9 Mar 2001, 23:58