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21st March 2001 Archive

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  • Winner declared in hacker-tracker challenge

    Sleuth solves 35-min hack in only 35 hours

    Shortly after midnight on November 8th, a shadowy computer intruder slipped into a particular Linux machine in Illinois where he covertly installed a simple back door to ease his return. The intruder came back at 8:30 in the morning, and briefly crept around within the captured system before vanishing into cyberspace. In all, …

    Security 21 Mar 2001, 05:06

  • Apple plans colour titanium PowerBooks

    Mac Rumour Roundup Maglite Macs at last

    Years ago, former Apple CEO Gil Amelio told the world - via, we seem to recall, an internal meet with staff - that he wanted the company to be the Maglite of the computer industry. Amelio's successor at last seems to be making it happen - almost literally. The idea that Apple offers better computers than the rest, for which …

    Mac Channel 21 Mar 2001, 10:50

  • Electronic Arts to axe more jobs

    Post-Pogo.com acquisition 'consolidation'

    Electronic Arts has confirmed that it is planning another round of lay-offs, expected to take place later this week. The exact numbers involved aren't known yet, but the axe is expected to fall hardest on the company's online portal, EA.com, which has been haemorrhaging money over the last year. The company recently acquired …

    Games Industry 21 Mar 2001, 10:51

  • Sega announces surprise president

    New guy not the one pundits predicted

    Newly reborn software company Sega has appointed a new president and COO, Hideki Sato, after Isao Owaka died of heart failure last Friday. "The company believes Sato is the best person to take the leadership as he has long experience and deep knowledge about the company's technology and management," a company spokesman said. …

    Games Industry 21 Mar 2001, 10:51

  • Intel rolls out 900MHz 4, 8-way PIII Xeon

    Set to be replaced by P4-based chip in Q4, though

    Intel shipped its 900MHz Pentium III Xeon server CPU, the last to be based on the 0.18 micron PIII core before the Xeon family switches over to the Pentium 4 core, at least in the high-end server biz. The 900MHz part, like its 700MHz predecessor, ships with 2MB of on-die L2 cache, and is aimed at four- and eight-way …

    Channel 21 Mar 2001, 11:39

  • Intel intros Microsoft Xbox Vtune kit

    HW Roundup And all that other jazz

    Remember Microsoft's Xbox? Y'know, the one that uses an Intel rather than an AMD chip and DDR rather than Ramboid memory? Well, over at Hard OCP, Kyle seems to have somehow got hold of the press release and spilled the beans early about Intel's part in the games developer kit. Vtune is a performance analyser. The Xbox, of …

    Hardware Roundup 21 Mar 2001, 11:58

  • IR35 judicial review over

    Just waiting for judge's decision

    The judicial review into the IR35 tax measure at the High Court finished yesterday at around 7pm. The case itself has stretched two days longer than originally planned, taking up Monday and Tuesday this week. The judge has gone away to deliberate and will announce his decision on the legality of IR35 some time next week. The …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 12:43

  • Intel defects to corporate standard for home networking

    Blow for HomeRF

    Intel has dealt a severe blow to a wireless networking standard supported by industry heavyweights such as Motorola and Compaq by endorsing a rival approach. Chipzilla's next generation of AnyPoint wireless networking devices will support the standard it uses for corporate products (which is called 802.11b or Wi-Fi) instead of …

    Data Networking 21 Mar 2001, 13:10

  • Tax help for sacked dotcom employees

    Warning: Contains funny material

    The dotcom dream - where young, talentless egotists could pretend they knew more about the world than everyone else and VCs indulged their fantasies for 18 months - has died. Thank god. Far from creating a new world order where flashy graphics and arrogant enthusiasm was more important than customers for garnering money, it …

    Bootnotes 21 Mar 2001, 13:11

  • Microsoft, Real show mobile phone media players

    More audio than video, we reckon

    Microsoft and Real Networks are showing off their media players for mobile phones at CeBIT this week. Nokia yesterday announced a deal with Real that would bring a micro version of its eponymous software - Mobile Real Player - to Nokia's imminent 9210 Communicator. Ericsson will show further fruits of its dalliance with …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 13:18

  • Toshiba cuts forecasts for 2002

    But it has 3 year plan to double profits by 2004

    Toshiba has cut sales and profit forecasts for 2003 as demand for its notebooks and chips slide. But it has a three year plan to double profits by 2004. The company expects net profits of 150 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in the year ended March 31, 2003, down 25 per cent from the 200 billion yen ($1.62 billion) it forecast last …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 13:49

  • The first channel foot and mouth story

    Channel Flannel

    Congratulations to Microscope, for an enterprising channel spin on the Foot and Mouth fiasco (the big news story in Britain). Reporter Simon Quicke tracks down rural dealerships serving farms and hotels who have seen their businesses dry up in the crisis. Find out more here. Systems Integrated Research, the British …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 14:18

  • Intel validates Simple SDRAMs

    Savings for system builders

    Intel has validated Simple Technology's PC133 Registered 256MB and 512MB SDRAM memory modules as a single solution for use across four platforms. Simple says the qualification means it can offer system integrators savings in inventory and support. "A single SKU and a single product may now be utilized across all four Intel- …

    Channel 21 Mar 2001, 14:28

  • Reg boost for SETI project

    Vulture Central joins search for aliens

    When we reported on the launch of the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) project almost two years ago, (see Aliens: Coming to a house near you soon), 250,000 users had signed up for the project, contributing over 500 years of CPU time, writes Andrew Thomas. Today, those totals have risen to 2.9 million users and …

    Music and Media 21 Mar 2001, 14:29

  • Tesco undercuts Apple in iMac promo

    400MHz box, £100 off

    UK grocer Tesco has again begun selling iMacs for £100 less than Apple's own asking price - a saving of nearly 15 per cent. The iMac on offer is the basic 400MHz Indigo model, with 64MB of memory, 10GB hard drive, ATI Rage 128 Pro graphics and CD-ROM drive. Apple's online AppleStore has the machine down at £799 (inc. VAT). …

    Mac Channel 21 Mar 2001, 14:55

  • 3Com announces losses and wants to save $1bn

    Ditches 'out-Palming Palm' Net appliance

    3Com has reported third quarter losses on reduced sales, and announced plans to ditch development of its consumer Net appliance product. 3com's revenues for the quarter ending 2 March were $629.6 million, down 18 per cent on the $766.7 million it reported in its previous quarter. Last year its revenue for Q3 was more than twice …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 15:03

  • Govt offers Net advice to schools

    More on the paedophile saga

    The government, in the form of "learning and technology" minister Michael Wills, has joined forces with one-woman pressure group Carol Vorderman to provide schools with advice over how to approach the Internet. The Superhighway Safety pack follows on the heels of recent controversy regarding the use of Internet chatrooms by …

    Music and Media 21 Mar 2001, 15:07

  • The two Ballmers wrestle over ‘Toy’ Linux

    Yes it is, says Steve. No it isn't says, er... Steve

    The boy can't seem to help it. Microsoft's lead klaxon Steve Ballmer has once again taken a shot at Linux in remarks reported by CRN. However, parsing his fortissimo stream of consciousness reveals that there are really two Steves, fighting like ferrets in a sack. Fighting for control of the klaxon. There's the Steve who …

    Software 21 Mar 2001, 15:10

  • Dell chops PowerEdge server prices

    Thanks to memory price crash

    Dell has made price cuts on its PowerEdge servers in the UK and the rest of Europe. In the UK, a PowerEdge 2450 - Dell's nine-centimetre high, rack-dense server -is priced at £1,399 for the entry-level model. In February it was priced at £1,561, and in September 2000 it was £2,293. The base model PowerEdge 300 is now £599, …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 15:12

  • Royal Bank of Scotland Net banking service down

    But you can use the phone if you like

    The Royal Bank of Scotland has shut down one of its Internet banking services in order to allow technicians to resolve unspecified technical problems. Customers trying to log onto Royal Bank's latest Internet banking operation (which it calls Digital Banking) receive the following terse message: "The Digital Banking service is …

    e-Business 21 Mar 2001, 15:15

  • Europe to follow UK's flat-rate lead

    Says AOL bigwig

    The UK's success at introducing flat-rate Internet access is a model other countries are trying to follow, according to AOL International president, Michael Lynton. At a briefing in London today, Lynton said that the UK's FRIACO-based flat rate wholesale product was setting the standard not just for Europe, but for countries in …

    Music and Media 21 Mar 2001, 15:19

  • RealNetworks moves on games e-market

    But are multi-CD-size downloads feasible?

    RealNetworks yesterday launched RealArcade, its attempt to leverage its massive streaming media user-base to sell games via the Internet. RealArcade provides games developers and publishers with a mechanism to offer online and offline titles. Games companies will either sign up with RealNetworks to offer their product through …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 15:31

  • Old trick aids Intel in 1GHz notebook spin

    Not throttling, dolt! It's thermal management

    Intel's SpeedStep technology allowed it to intro a 1GHz Pentium III mobile this week, beating AMD to the coveted speed tag. But the jury is out on just how much chips used in high end notebooks really can be truthfully described as running at 1000MHz. Intel's SpeedStep (GeyservilLe) technology goes head-to-head against …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 16:16

  • Freeloader.com goes titsup.etc

    Well it was free...

    Pure Entertainment Games PLC has given up the dotcom fight and decided to shut its free games site freeloader.com. The company blamed its decision on the current global difficulties facing the online ad market. Executives reckon they have enough cash left to pay off all its debt and will either return anything left over to its …

    e-Business 21 Mar 2001, 16:19

  • Siemens pulls plug on Net over power cables technology

    Cites regulatory and 'political' problems

    Siemens has said it is pulling the plug on development of a technology that can allow the transmission of Internet traffic of power cables. The giant German electronics and engineering group said it saw a greater potential market in developing ADSL products instead, mainly because of regulatory delays surrounding powerline …

    Telecoms 21 Mar 2001, 16:36

  • Dell signs up Samsung for $16bn supply deal

    Memory, LCDs, monitors

    Dell has signed up Samsung in a $16 billion component supply deal. Samsung is going to provide memory, LCDs, monitors and optical disk drives to help Dell fight the PC price war. In a joint statement the companies said they have 'agreed to collaborate on research and development efforts focused on providing Dell customers with …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 17:12

  • Nanya-Kingston enter DDR alliance

    Bid to bring price right down

    Kingston Technology, whose motto should surely be "we'll sleep with anyone if we can flog more memory", has entered into a DDR (double data rate) deal with Nanya. Nanya, observant readers will recall, is a daughter company of Formosa Plastics, making it a sister company of Via, the plucky chipset firm that also sells fanless …

    Channel 21 Mar 2001, 17:30

  • UK Govt Web sites hacked

    Will the Terrorist Act be invoked?

    The government saw several of its e-government Web sites hacked last night, leaving a bit of mess for it to clean up this morning. Govtalk.gov.uk was the hackers' main target as in particularly embarrassing because that it is the site used by e-envoy Andrew Pinder to discuss within government how to bring about the e-revolution …

    Security 21 Mar 2001, 17:31

  • MPs slam Oftel, BT, industry…

    LLU is 'farcical'

    Oftel, BT and the telecoms industry have all been slammed for their handling of local loop unbundling (LLU) in Britain amid concerns that the whole process is in danger of becoming "farcical". In a blunt report the Department of Trade and Industry Select Committee concluded that BT "dragged their feet" while other telcos couldn …

    Telecoms 21 Mar 2001, 17:34

  • Is this the man that will make it safe for kids to surf the Net?

    Possibly.

    The issue of making the Internet safe for kids has become a bigger one as the Web becomes ever more ubiquitous. On the one end we have the freedom of speech activists opposed to any control, on the other the Australian government trying to pass a law that makes it illegal to post anything not suitable for a child to view. And in …

    Music and Media 21 Mar 2001, 17:42

  • New WinXP file system breaks disk utilities. Again. Oops.

    Serves them right for boasting about PM6 running on Win2k...

    The utility companies are going to get it again when Windows XP ships - not that they've any right to be surprised. Microsoft has made some small revisions to NTFS with WinXP, resulting in the likes of Partition Magic bouncing straight off WinXP installations, splattering error messages around the place. This probably goes for …

    Software 21 Mar 2001, 18:33

  • Symbian unveils new OS rev, Pearl

    Bluetooth, GPRS, and W*P too

    Symbian announced the latest revision of its OS today, and showed off the third member of the Symbian family Pearl. Referred to internally as the 'packet data' release, the new release of what Symbian used to call Epoc (and almost everyone else still does) adds GPRS and Bluetooth support, and support for WAP 1.2. Pearl is ( …

    Software 21 Mar 2001, 18:35

  • Interview with a Net pedophile

    Online Pedophilia Part 1: the chat rooms

    This is the first in a series of stories examining firsthand how pedophiles use the Internet. So much noise has been made about the dangers to children from on-line sexual predators that The Register felt it necessary to go underground, as it were, and see for ourselves. We hung out in IRC for several days and nights using a …

    Business 21 Mar 2001, 19:29

  • Interview with a Net pedophile

    Online Pedophilia Part 1: the chat rooms

    This is the first in a series of stories examining firsthand how pedophiles use the Internet. So much noise has been made about the dangers to children from on-line sexual predators that The Register felt it necessary to go underground, as it were, and see for ourselves what's going on. We therefore hung out in IRC for several …

    Music and Media 21 Mar 2001, 19:46

  • SunFire servers to trash HP by Friday, says McNealy

    You can push off now - UltraSPARC III's here...

    After a week of early spring weather the heavens opened all over Sun's long-awaited announcement regarding its latest range of UltraSPARC III mid-range servers. The four new Sun Fire servers come with either eight, 12 or 24 CPUs, and Sun chairman and CEO Scott McNealy was on hand to reassure doubters that the servers, which …

    Data Networking 21 Mar 2001, 22:13