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30th March 2001 Archive

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  • Email ‘joke’ leads to bus strike

    Updated One outbox, all outbox

    An email of a man with weights hanging from his balls - does this tickle your sense of humour? What if the depiction is of your boss? Even funnier, hey? So amusing that you just have to send it to a workmate. And what if your colleague thinks it's so hilarious that he prints a copy and posts it on the message board at work What …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 10:04

  • Apple's chief developer evangelist quits?

    Updated Just when he's needed the most

    Apple's chief chivvyer of developers, Clent Richardson, has quit the company to join UK-based mobile phone operation One-2-One. That's what "industry sources" are claiming, at any rate, according to MacCentral. Apple has yet to confirm or deny the story, which appears to have been leaked company employees. It's certainly a …

    Mac Channel 30 Mar 2001, 10:47

  • HP monitors are shocking

    A very small percentage of 17in CRTs

    A small percentage of Hewlett-Packard's HP 71 17-inch CRT monitors could give users an electric shock. HP was alerted to the fault when one of its customers got a dose of shock treatment. The person did not suffer any physical injury according to the company. The affected monitors were sold in the US, Canada, and several Latin …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 10:53

  • Apple reverses notebook market sales dip

    Portable market starts to follow desktop arena downwards

    The downturn in desktop PC sales appears to have struck the notebook market too, according to the latest figures from NPD Intelect covering the US retail arena. Notebook sales through that channel in February grew just 2.3 per cent compared to the same month last year. Key notebook PC players experienced a very poor month …

    Mac Channel 30 Mar 2001, 11:16

  • Hackers worse than terrorists – Robin Cook

    Aren't they supposed to be the same?

    Hackers are a greater threat than terrorists, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook reckons. Speaking in Parliament yesterday, he said that a "computer-based attack could cripple the nation more quickly than a military strike". Cook made the claims in a debate on the work of the intelligence services. But where have we heard these …

    Security 30 Mar 2001, 11:20

  • Sega to code for Xbox – Gates

    And he pledges console's Japan debut will be on schedule

    Microsoft's Xbox will launch with a stack of games from Sega, Bill Gates announced in Tokyo this morning. And he reiterated that the console will ship in Japan in the autumn, on schedule. Sources close to Japanese developers claimed earlier this month that Xbox's Japan debut would be delayed because of a lack of titles targeted …

    Software 30 Mar 2001, 11:45

  • Judge rules in favour of Nuremberg Files Web site

    Listing personal details of abortion doctors is legal

    A Federal judge has ruled that the controversial "Nuremburg Files" US Web site, which lists the names and personal details of doctors in the States that carry out abortion, is legal and can be published on the Internet. The ruling was sparked by a court case in 1999 in which several doctors won damages of $107 million against …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 12:01

  • Text messaging an art form

    Or so the Guardian reckons

    Text messaging - far from being an easy way to transmit quick information without having to talk to anyone - is an art form, according to The Guardian. Which is why it is hosting a text message poem competition with the first prize of £1,000. It all gets a bit wanky: "This is a new literary form and it must be left to define …

    Bootnotes 30 Mar 2001, 12:06

  • Lookout for Internet Explorer bugs

    A bad week in the office for MS security

    It's been a bad week for Internet Explorer users as the second potential devastating vulnerability in as many days has been discovered by security researchers. Flaws in the way IE renders binary attachments in HTML email could be used to trick users into running malicious code on their machines, Microsoft has admitted. The …

    Security 30 Mar 2001, 12:31

  • Chad Wars II: Market researcher yanks BSD from Linux poll

    So write-in ballots are invalid?

    For the second time in recent US history, voters have had their ballot papers discarded as invalid. This time it's the BSD community who are mourning their hanging chads. We were really rather delighted to see that in Evans Data survey of Linux web developers that we wrote about, yesterday, so many respondents insisted on …

    Software 30 Mar 2001, 12:39

  • IBM escapes Holocaust suit

    Class action dropped

    Cohen, Milfield, Hausfeld and Toll, the attack dog of the class action world, has voluntarily dismissed its Holocaust lawsuit against IBM. The Washington DC-based law firm says it is dropping the class action (in which it argued that IBM equipment helped the Nazis in World War 2) to speed up restitution to Nazi victims to be …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 12:51

  • Corel's profit, sales predictions hit

    Showing signs of improvement

    Corel's statement last week that it would see a small, but positive profit for its first quarter proved correct when the troubled software company revealed its final figures last night. Corel said income would come in around $500,000 - in the final analysis, it totalled $534,000 (one cent a share). This time last year, it lost …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 13:08

  • MS XP-Tablet combo cuts Intel out of PC standards biz

    So farewell, Wintel. We are the standards setters now...

    Microsoft doesn't make hardware, and you can't have failed to notice that it's been not making quite a bit of hardware recently. It has for example been not making the Xbox, not making Stinger and - just this week - not making Tablet PCs. But in each of these cases, the point to note is that Microsoft has put itself in the …

    Software 30 Mar 2001, 13:11

  • FOTW: Oi ya bunch o dobbers

    Glasgow argot baffles pissed old letters editor

    Tiny outsources sales call centre to Glasgow firm Regular visitors to the Vulture Central Mailbag know how fond we at the Reg are of English in all its varied and splendid forms. It is with great pleasure, then, that we are able to share this choice cut of the lingo from our neighbouring midge-infested oil platform, Scotland. …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 13:54

  • ‘Red Hat’ Lettice exposed

    Human sacrifices at the altar of Linux

    The truth is finally out. Yes, John Lettice has 'Linux' tatooed on his left buttock. He wears a red hat. He prostrates himself twice daily before the Vulture Central Linus Torvalds altar. He personally oversees the 're-education' of hacks who use the word 'Windows'. He is committed to bringing down the world's education systems …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 14:00

  • The Boys from Brisbane

    Senator Alston only following orders

    Australia to make online gambling illegal This man must be the biggest luddite in history A good response from Australian readers to our stories on attempts to curtail onlie gambling down under. John O'Meara fears for the future: What hope does Australia have when we have Ministers such as Alston running our Information …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 14:05

  • Beware of the Devil Woman

    With email on her mind

    Email: the modern day scapegoat Matthew Weigel is a bitter, bitter man. And with good reason: I think that your analysis of e-mail, and why it is the Devil's tool, is a little lacking. While it can not be argued that Women Dumping Men Via E-mail is a dirty, nasty, evil thing to do - and I say this with the experience of …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 14:08

  • We're backing Bluetooth, Intel reiterates

    Coming to market more quickly than USB, apparently

    Yes, Bluetooth is late, but, hey, that's always the case when you're trying to establish a standard. So said Intel's Mobile Comms and Initiatives Marketing Manager, Simon Ellis, yesterday. Ellis, who just so happens to be the Bluetooth SIG marketing chief, was in town to reiterate Chipzilla's commitment to the wireless …

    Data Networking 30 Mar 2001, 14:43

  • eMachines junks eKeys

    Pink slips rain on PC parade

    eMachines, the bottom-scraping budget PC maker, is sacking 16 per cent of its staff, to get expenses into line with falling sales. To add insult upon injury, eMachines's idea to flog ads that customers would see when they logged on has turned out to be a bummer. The company's got to make some money somehow, but who ever …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 14:54

  • Reader's dog in exorcism shocker

    'Ol Rufus possesed by AMD

    Receiving emails from nutters is all part and parcel of life at Vulture Central. It makes for a bit of light reading during lunch. From time to time, however, you get something truly scary. This madness is from John boy Shmecktel. The Walton's it aint: Hey there, I were takin a piss off the back porch the other day and I were …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 14:56

  • VIA dons Mac threads with designer PC line

    Borrows Apple's 'beyond beige', stylish design approach

    VIA wants to become the Apple of the low-end PC and information appliance markets, if its new-found interest in providing powerful-yet-stylish reference platforms is anything to go by. Speaking in London aprés-CeBit, VIA's director of international marketing, Richard Brown, told The Register the industry "needs to look beyond …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 15:22

  • All your data (and biz plans) are belong to Microsoft

    Hotmail or MSN Messenger user? It's already too late...

    With Microsoft's HailStorm .NET initiative hinging on the company's very own PassPort service, you'd think Redmond would be bending over backwards to stress the confidentially of user information. Well, if that's the case, it hasn't started yet. The current Passport Terms of Use agreement not only fails to guarantee …

    Software 30 Mar 2001, 15:35

  • Readers' Letters Can you tell me where ‘Hangover’ is?

    Funnily enough we can...

    John 'Lips' Leyden has had quite a week. No sooner had he got back from the journalists' Stalingrad that is CeBit and distributed all the lederhosen and oompah compilation CDs requested by fellow Reg hacks, than he found that he had fallen foul of that old chestnut - Humour Blindness Syndrome. First up was IT Administrator Joerg …

    Letters 30 Mar 2001, 15:37

  • A surplus of excess inventory sites

    Another one opens its doors

    Blimey, there could soon be a surplus of excess inventory marketplaces for the computer trade - what with Acequote, xbidit, PST's JustXs - and now Barter Trust. This California-based business is opening its doors in the UK in April, according to Microscope, and hopes to generate revenues of $15m in its first year. The business …

    e-Business 30 Mar 2001, 15:47

  • Washington DC police caught sending offensive messages

    Blue and racist email from the Boys in Blue

    Washington DC cops have been censored for sending racist, indecent and homophobic messages over police car radio systems. According to a report in the Washington Post, top police official in Washington have confirmed an inquiry into "hundreds of emails" sent over the last year. The repugnant messages came to light during an …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 16:04

  • New Bill labels ISPs as publishers

    UK Govt still in mess over dealing with Internet

    A government bill currently in the House of Lords labels ISPs as publishers, in an apparent attempt to bypass their undecided legal status and enforce new tobacco advertising rules. Clause 5(5) in the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill (second reading) says that: "In relation to a tobacco advertisement which is published or …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 16:09

  • Intel bananas over Banias

    Timna team's wireless, mobile effort get another airing

    Some more details have emerged regarding Intel's new mobile-oriented CPU, now known by its codename, Banias. Banias is the chip being developed by the team behind Timna, the integrated system-on-a-chip part the company canned last year. An Chipzilla spokeslizard admitted to NewsFactor the existence of the processor - though …

    Channel 30 Mar 2001, 16:34

  • SysAdmins to need a licence from Home Office?

    More heavy handed legislation

    It seems that barely a week goes by that the Home Office doesn't bring out a new bill that curtails the Internet and those that work in the IT industry. This week, friend-of-the-people Jack Straw's department has written more legislation regarding anyone that gives advice regarding "security precautions in relation to any risk …

    Security 30 Mar 2001, 16:36

  • Doubts over tests on high-speed broadband technology

    It's a fair copper

    Doubts have arisen about how meaningful impressive test results obtained on prototypes of high-speed broadband technology really are. As previously reported, New Wheel Technology (NWT) has submitted prototype kit for tests where it recorded unidirectional transmission speeds of 54Mbps over a distance of up to 2.8Km, using …

    Data Networking 30 Mar 2001, 16:56

  • Ex-NorthPoint users start petition to boycott AT&T

    'Shortsighted' telco in the firing line

    A bunch of former NorthPoint customers have started a petition following the company's abrupt shutdown of its DSL network. The petition is not actually aimed at NorthPoint but at AT&T, which last week bought most of the DSL carrier's assets, excluding its customer base. Days later NorthPoint announced it would close its network …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 17:00

  • Prudential cuts both ‘Zillas’ 2001 earnings

    Chip and Chimp go down

    Prudential Securities has cut its earnings predictions for both AMD and Intel for the current calendar quarter on the expectation of poorer than anticipated sales during the period. Sales for three months to June will be ten per cent down on the first three months' figure, according to Pru, cited by AFXpress. Pru's last …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 17:09

  • Vint Cerf explains why ICANN is messing with the Net

    A point is in there somewhere

    Originator of TCP/IP, hero of the Internet and the bearded, Vint Cerf took time out from his bureaucratic job as chairman of ICANN to talk to Business 2.0. The publication's "Five Questions with Vint Cerf" is exactly that. Vint is his usual brutally honest self. So, Vint, some people are livid that ICANN has screwed up the new …

    Music and Media 30 Mar 2001, 17:21

  • Java Toaster prints weather forecast

    Bread as a display device?

    An ingenious British student may have prevented the oft-cited Internet Toaster going the same way as the Flying Car. Robin Southgate, a final year Industrial Design student at Brunel University has designed a unit that grabs the weather forecast, and burns it onto a piece of bread. Mark One doesn't reproduce the full glory of …

    Software 30 Mar 2001, 18:05

  • Micron Technology at a loss

    No fun being a DRAM maker right now

    Micron Technology, America's only big DRAM maker, beat Wall Street forecasts for its second quarter, posting losses of $4.1 million for continuing operations. The Idaho-based chipmaker saw a loss of one cent per share for the quarter ended March 1 - beating analysts' expectations of losses by two cents. This compares to a …

    Business 30 Mar 2001, 18:39

  • SMS Me (email is Pants!)

    Young people, huh?

    The young are abandoning email in favour of SMS mobile phone fun with their friends. Use of email among 15-24 year-olds dropped a whopping nine per cent in the last quarter, the Consumer Internet Confidence Index, sponsored by Barclays Bank, claims. "For young people the Internet may not be the be-all and end-all and it seems …

    Data Networking 30 Mar 2001, 18:57

  • US company defeats Brit RIP Act

    And French Nazi filters, too

    Anonymous Web-surfing outfit SafeWeb has just expanded its secure server facilities in New York so that Europeans can enjoy faster access to private, and virtually anonymous, Web browsing and e-mail. SafeWeb's proxy servers encrypt all data transmitted between an individual's computer and the Web sites visited, once they've …

    Security 30 Mar 2001, 20:29