23rd March 2001 Archive

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Hack attacks called the new Cold War

Top Bush aide invokes Clinton Net dogma

The danger posed by international hack attacks against critical US networks is in some ways comparable to the threat Soviet nuclear warheads posed during the Cold War, the President's top national security aide told an industry gathering Thursday, providing a first glimpse of the Bush administration's emerging cybersecurity …

Security 23 Mar 2001, 07:20
Microsoft vexed by falsified certs

Scam artist dupes VeriSign for MS digital certificates

Microsoft is scrambling to revoke two digital certificates that were issued last January by California-based VeriSign to a scam artist posing as a Microsoft employee. Digital certificates are used to electronically sign computer programs and patches so that end users can be assured that the code came from a particular person or …

Software 23 Mar 2001, 07:27
Carnivore and Net censorship will save the children

Online Pedophilia Part 2: why Feds, legislators and prudes love pedos

This is the second in a series of stories examining firsthand how pedophiles use the Internet. There is perhaps no group more universally despised than pedophiles, and with good reason, we'll add freely. No sensible person would dispute that children are by nature defenseless relative to adults, both physically and mentally, …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 07:32
Intel moves to throttle throttle-bottle story

Wotta lotta glottals. Stop.

Intel has taken speedy steps to clarify what it believes are the issues that lie behind the phenomenon of clock throttling. Earlier this week, we suggested that describing notebook machines as running at 1GHz was misleading, and that in reality machines using a chip running at this speed only did so for a brief period of time, …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 08:59
Girls, girls, girls plague Anandtech site

HWRoundup Warbling round the Web

Don't spell www.anandtech.com wrongly, as in inserting an extra letter of the alphabet in the wrong slot, otherwise you might well encounter "hot stuff" that may turn out to be harder than the hardware you usually see in your meanderings. An interesting method of, shall we say, leveraging on Anand's success and his hits …

Hardware Roundup 23 Mar 2001, 09:35
How many dud pixels make a bust TFT?

PCA transatlantic love-in

UK trade group the Personal Computer Association (PCA) has started a campaign to smarten up the LCD industry. The PCA has befriended its twin in the US, the North American Systems Builders Association (NASBA), and together they want to create a standard for the number of faulty pixels allowed on LCD screens. It is normal to …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 09:44
Red Hat stems Red Ink

Almost, nearly, just about breaking even

Red Hat has almost turned the corner in its quest to turn a profit. The company reported a net loss of $600,000 on revenues of $27 million for the past quarter, up 20 per cent from the previous quarter. And despite a trolley-load of acquisitions, Red Hat's cash pile remains substantial: cash and investments added up to almost $ …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 09:58
Recession to halve PDA market growth

Sales up 50 per cent in 2001, not 100 per cent like last year

Palm yesterday gloomily predicted the PDA market will not grow as explosively as it did last year. The reason? Recession-hit US consumers will spend less this year. The result? Growth in the market will amount to no more than 50 per cent during 2001, compared to more than 100 per cent last year. The prediction was made by Palm …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 10:50
Apple's special OS X marketing ploy

Jobs gets testy

Cupertino Apple boss Steve Jobs claims that within "a few weeks of MacOS X shipping on Saturday 24 March there will be hundreds of thousands of early adopters" loading the new operating system on their Macs, writes Paul Hoffner. This is despite it costing $129 to buy and having very few native applications to run. Sure, it's a …

Mac Channel 23 Mar 2001, 11:33
Intel wins 250k unit deal for Linux Web appliance

AOL and Spains's Banco Santander Central Hispano to flog it to home bankers

Intel will supply Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano with 250,000 of its Linux-based Dot.Station information appliances. Chipzilla announced the device at the Consumer Electronic Show in January 2000. By the summer, it had signed up all of three customers, including, we noted at the time, an unnamed Spanish operation. …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 11:59
Amazon sued by its shareholders

Accused of misleading them over finances

Amazon shareholders has brought several class action suits against the online giant for misleading them over the state of its finances. The lawsuits - filed in Washington - state that Amazon "issued a series of materially false and misleading statements which artificially inflated the price of Amazon securities" during February …

e-Business 23 Mar 2001, 12:31
Reg sticks with BT's Bonfield

Come on, Sir Pete, you can do it

We would just like to reiterate our support for Sir Peter Bonfield in response to yet more scurrilous reports in the press that he is due to resign. Even some of our loyal readers have turned against him, suggesting that not only is he is responsible for BT's fall from grace but also for the collapse of his former company, ICL …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2001, 12:33
First University College of Kingston

Oh no... get the printers on the phone sharpish

Transsexuals drawn to expert website In response to our bit of fun at the expense of Experts Exchange, Ian of the company's Customer Service department decided to set the record straight: As an avid reader of The Register I was thrilled to see our name gracing your pages :). I just thought I would let you know, our url is …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 12:40
Who's afraid of the CoS?

Register bottles it completely

Slashdot caves in to Scientology loonies Thomas C.Greene's recent piece on the Church of Scientology vs Slashdot punch-up is, according to Karsten M. Self: Pantywaist bravado. If The Register will locate, verify, post, publicize, and defend its rights to do so, copyrighted Church of Scientology documents, you'll have a leg to …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 12:41
So, where is my flying car?

Er, step this way...

It looks like one Reg reader's heartfelt plea has been answered. Back in January, Erik Trent demanded the flying car that 1950s boffins promised us by the year 2000 and - like the housework robot and an end to world hunger - failed to deliver. Until now. American inventor Paul Moller yesterday unveiled the Skycar at the Big …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2001, 12:44
Corel scrapes a profit – just

$1.5m Q1 loss offset by $2m interest income

Corel is back in the black, two financial quarters ahead of its previous predictions, the troubled software company said yesterday. Its profits for the quarter - the first of its current fiscal year - should total around $500,000, Corel said. Sales will total $32.5 million, down on company expectations, it admitted. Still, …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 12:44
How not to get your mobe nicked

Or your faced punched in

How to get back your nicked mobile Regarding mobile phones, Gareth Williams has some sound advice for Reg readers: Just read your article on getting back your nicked mobile phone. Amusing stuff, although the advice from the Met seems to be lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. As such, I thought I'd draw up the following ways of …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 12:49
FOTW Magee Rambus rumpus

Kiddies come out to play

Intel P4 strategy dented by Rambus ruling Poor old Mikey. No sooner had he got the kettle on on Monday morning than the pro-Rambus rant squad were skipping breakfast to dribble foam all over their keyboards. Hats off to Henrico for this well-reasoned analysis: Mike A speaks the truth you dirtbag piece of shit journalist. You …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 12:52
Oftel publishes whingers' charter

Or, how to teach your granny to suck eggs

Oftel has produced a guide for companies explaining the best way to complain about possible breaches of licences or the Competition Act. It appears it is not merely enough to whinge, whine and throw indiscriminate allegations around the place in the hope that the winged watchdog will sit up and take notice. Instead, the …

Telecoms 23 Mar 2001, 12:55
MS preparing for IE6 public preview?

Small imperfectly formed site accepting bug reports already...

Microsoft is poised to begin a public preview of Internet Explorer 6, according to a web site tracked down by Betanews. The curiously inexpert-looking use of an IP in the link had our scam detectors twitching, but no, 131.107.85.107 does seem to be owned by the Beast of Redmond, so the site's probably just under construction, …

Software 23 Mar 2001, 13:19
Taiwanese duo do DIMM successor

Window Ball Grid Array faster, smaller, better

Taiwanese chip companies Apacer and United Test Center are planning the successor to SIMMs and DIMMs - a memory module based on processor-style packaging. The pair propose to use a Window Ball Grid Array (WBGA) system to connect memory to a host machine. According to Apacer President Y S Chen, cited by Taiwanese business paper …

Channel 23 Mar 2001, 13:24
English safe despite Web

Destruction of language 'not remotely likely'

A leading linguist insisted today that that the destruction of the English language by perceived abuses on the World Wide Web was "not remotely likely". Speaking at the Royal Society of Arts in London, Dr David Crystal chose rather to highlight ways in which the Web "is giving a creative range to the language", while conceding …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 14:09
Scoot.com posts losses

Denies it's up for sale

Scoot.com has denied reports that its decision to appoint Merrill Lynch to conduct a review of all "strategic options" for the information finder and business directory business is a signal that the outfit is up for sale. A spokeswoman for the company said that management was keen to concentrate on running and expanding the …

e-Business 23 Mar 2001, 14:13
Nintendo ignores entire Internet

Bit bonkers for a games company, no?

We had a report this morning that Nintendo's UK Web site had been hacked. Sure enough, taping in www.nintendo.co.uk brings up nothing but a blank page. So we contacted Nintendo to find out what the damage was. We got a call back to say the site hadn't been hacked as it doesn't exist. Nintendo certainly owns its .co.uk namesake …

Games Industry 23 Mar 2001, 14:18
1394 chiefs back 5C's copy controls

And it's a blow for freedom, claims Snider

The 1394 Trade Association has endorsed copy restriction mechanisms proposed by the 5C Entity - the bus brethren to the 4C Entity's storage police. The 4C's DTCP (Digital Transmission Copy Protection) controls the transmission of data between PCs and consumer devices and was finalised almost three years ago. The endorsement …

Software 23 Mar 2001, 14:25
Capital Radio suffers from dotcom collapse

Shares down 24 per cent thanks to ad slump

Capital Radio has seen 24 per cent wiped off its shares after it announced a profit warning, saying profits would be 10 per cent down on last year. The company's FD, Peter Harris, put the blame at the door of dotcoms. "Last year, we had a lot of money placed with us from what we describe as flaky dotcom companies," he said. …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 14:32
Magee set straight on Rambus ruling

Where's your editor - on vacation?

Intel P4 strategy dented by Rambus ruling For the faint of heart who might not wish to be exposed to the unadulterated filth of this week's RamboFlame, we are printing a couple of the more reasonable missives received on this subject. Fathi Ali come on down: I have read your article twice but I still don't see how the heck …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 14:35
Net paedophilia investigation stirs emotions

Reg readers have their say

Interview with a Net pedophile Carnivore and Net censorship will save the children It was to be expected that our recent investigation into paedophiles on the Web would provoke a large response. So it was, with Andrew Torrance left unimpressed: You just do not get it do you? You gloss over the 38% of girls being abused, just …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 14:44
MS plans ‘Secure PC’ that won't copy pirated audio files

I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that...

Microsoft's research division is busily inventing a mysterious beast called the Secure PC, which is designed to win hearts, minds and wallets in the recording industry by blocking unlicensed copying of digital music. We know that the Secure PC exists at least as a concept, because it's listed as a project of Microsoft research's …

Software 23 Mar 2001, 15:27
Sharp to beat Palm with Linux, Java – official

That's the plan, anyway...

Sharp officially launched today its attempt to knock Palm off the top spot in the PDA market and regain its former glory as a leading maker of handheld devices. While Sharp's marketshare has been all but obliterated in the US and Europe, it remains the leading PDA maker in Japan. However, its standing is being rapidly eroded by …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 15:27
Mir debris fished from ocean

And up for auction on eBay

Salvage hunters have managed to fish some sizeable chunks of wreckage from the Russian space station, Mir, out of the Pacific after it crashed to Earth last night. Luckily, a quick gander at eBay suggests that quite a lot of the doomed spacecraft survived re-entry and is currently up for auction. According to Michael Connery, …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 15:29
Readers' Letters Paedo probe polemic

Thought-provoking stuff

Interview with a Net pedophile Carnivore and Net censorship will save the children Our Special Correspondent's dip into the net paedophile cess-pit certainly got Reg readers talking. Aaron Collins thought it was: ... excellent, it's about time someone looked into this subject with a sense of objectivity. It pisses me off that …

Letters 23 Mar 2001, 15:35
ZDNet Reg emulator triumph

Speeling now as good as what ours is

There have been rumours circulating for some time around the Vulture central offices that ZDNet was developing a Register subbing emulator programme. The idea behind this hush-hush project was to accurately recreate the levels of spelling and sub-editing for which your runaway Reg is rightly famous. The above screenshot …

Bootnotes 23 Mar 2001, 15:48
Lastminute sells tickets to fake Stars in their Eyes party

Students cheat punters £20 to pay for birthday bash

When two young ladies bought tickets for an event advertised on Lastminute.com as a Stars in their Eyes party, featuring "pure glamour, riotous fun and loads of A-list celebrities", they got less than they bargained for. Tickets for the party - hosted at "fashionable" K bar on Wardour St in Soho - cost £20 and all the proceeds …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 16:12
Oracle execs telling porky pies?

Another class-action lawsuit

Oracle faces a lawsuit by a group of shareholders accusing execs of lying about the company's financials. The class-action lawsuit has been filed by New York lawyers Schoengold & Sporn in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. It affects investors who bought Oracle stock between December 15 2000 and …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 16:15
IBM Sequent sequel is NotFinity

Lou - shoot someone, please

IBM gave both ends of its Intel server line a brush and dust-up today. The premium ccNUMA box that Big Blue acquired from Sequent a couple of years ago is these days given the same branding as the higher-end of the much lower-end PC server range: eServer xSeries. Even though there can be upwards of $500,000 price difference …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 16:45
One2One doubles price of pay-as-you-go phones

Will the rest of the industry follow?

One2One has announced it will nearly double the price of its pay-as-you-go mobiles from £40 to £70 in May. The company said it wanted to cut down on "unsustainable" subsidies on pay-go phones and move more customers onto a contract instead. One2One is owned by Deutsche Telekom, which, along with the other two main European …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 16:48
Macromedia completes Allaire merger

They love each other, they really do

Macromedia and Allaire have completed their merger and announced their love-in with an extremely brief press release and a cheesy interview with the heads of each company. The official release, on Macromedia's site, says little. Merger with Allaire - leading provider of software - completed. The deal will bring "together market …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 17:08
Motorola chops jobs in wireless unit

4,000 given the boot

Motorola plans to cut another 4,000 jobs, this time from one of its younger divisions. Staff are to be given the boot in the company's Networks Sector, its three-month-old wireless and broadband division, according to a statement issued this morning. The division employs around 140,000 people worldwide. The job losses, part of …

Business 23 Mar 2001, 17:14
Student uses Web to score free world tour

While smoking spitty little fags, no doubt

A Dutch student has come up with a novel way of touring the world for next to no money - he's set up a Web site called Letmestayforaday.com where he asks people to put him up for a night while travelling about. Ramon Stoppelenburg put his site up just over a week ago but has already had nearly 1000 invites and has accepted …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 17:33
US scientist fired for posting Alaska wildlife maps

Don't mess with Big Oil

The US Geological Survey scientist who says he was fired for posting politically sensitive maps illustrating the biodiversity of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the web has reposted the contentious material. "I had bad timing!" Ian Thomas, who worked at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland, part of the …

Music and Media 23 Mar 2001, 18:14
Not-delay of WinXP Beta 2 extends till Sunday

Five show-stoppers on Wednesday, tonight's yet to be found

The great Windows XP Beta 2 rollout won't happen until Sunday, according to Register sources which we believe are close to the centre of the sausage factory. They certainly make more sense than the weird and contradictory stuff that's been coming out of official and semi-official channels. There were, we are told, several last …

Software 23 Mar 2001, 21:27
Weak phone, consumer markets slash chip sales hopes

UK and Ireland will see £6.8bn

British research group the Federation of the Electronics Industry (FEI) has halved its prediction for chip sales growth this year. The FEI now reckons the UK and Ireland in 2001 will see six per cent growth, down from the 14 per cent forecast in its Semiconductor Annual Review. Malcolm House, economist and statistician at the …

Channel 23 Mar 2001, 21:31