6th April 2001 Archive
Browse by publication date, or search the site.
-
Europe commences Intel investigation
Are its marketing, P4 licensing programme anti-competitive?
The European Commission's antitrust watchers are drawing a bead on Intel over the way it has licensed its Pentium 4 interface to chipset manufacturers and markets its own products. The Commission enquiry will also take in the chip giant's broader business practices - including subsidising third-party advertising that displays …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 09:46
-
AOL suffers major ‘meltdown’
Power cut blamed
AOL's service was hit by a major "meltdown" last night leaving millions of Net users unable to access email or the Web. The monster Internet company blamed the incident on a major power failure which hit Northern Virginia (where its operation is based) at around 7.30pm (GMT). According to first-hand reports, some AOL users …
Music and Media 6 Apr 2001, 09:49
-
Autonomy's sales are well down
$14m instead of $24m for Q1
Autonomy has estimated its first quarter sales are going to be way below earlier forecasts. The company was expected to turnover $24 million, but is now saying revenues will be $14 million to $15 million. The situation has been put down to large European customers delaying orders in the last two weeks of the quarter, cautious …
Business 6 Apr 2001, 09:49
-
IA-64 Linux project adds Intel McKinley support
iPatch
The latest version of the IA-64 Linux kernel has been released, bringing with it support for Intel's McKinley processor, the successor to Itanium. That's pretty good going since McKinley isn't due to start filtering its way to server vendors until Q4, which it will replace Itanium. At that point it will be released in what …
Software 6 Apr 2001, 10:03
-
Carrera SSC gets slapped by Advertising Standards
It's not been around a long time, and it has no awards
PC assembler Carrera SSC has had a slap on the wrists from the Advertising Standards Authority following a complaint from the PC Association. The company which actually got the slap is Digital Network which bought the PC brands Carrera and SSC in November 2000, after both those companies had gone bust. Subsequently Digital has …
Business 6 Apr 2001, 10:28
-
Crucial PC2100 DDR flies through door
Updated It's certainly selling very quickly
PC-2100 DDR SDRAM is clearly very hot stuff indeed. Micron Technology's memory-selling subsidiary Crucial, which began offering the DIMMs on its Web site on Monday, is selling like the proverbial hot cakes. That may explain why we've been getting messages that the company doesn't actually have any for delivery, despite offering …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 10:56
-
Free software would have prevented foot and mouth, BSE, Hatfield rail crash – RMS
Stallman roasts and rants
Foot and Mouth, BSE and the Hatfield rail crash could all have been avoided if the British government had the right approach to information sharing, at least according to Richard Stallman. He reckons that all three disasters were largely to do with bad attitudes to data, and that if ministers understood how free software works …
Software 6 Apr 2001, 11:06
-
Rambus received leaked JEDEC SDRAM data
And Infineon parent once thought about buying Rambus
Rambus was tipped off on the outcome of JEDEC's SDRAM standard-setting meetings by two insiders the memory company codenamed Secret Squirrel and Deep Throat, allowing it to know what was going on inside the organisation even after it had bailed out, Infineon lawyers have said. Rambus is suing Infineon for allegedly mis- …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 11:43
-
E-mail wiretapping used to spy on corporate communications
JavaScript Web bugs in active use
Corporate spies are using covert JavaScript code within email to track the contents of sensitive financial communications. That's the warning from managed service provider Activis which said that it is seeing increasing use of malicious JavaScript coding to create Web bug that spy on Internet traffic. These Web bugs can be …
Security 6 Apr 2001, 11:46
-
Hynix nixes non-core operations
Two divisions seeking buyers, two more to be spun off
Hyundai - sorry, we just can't used to calling it Hynix - is to spin off its cellphone handset and ADSL operations and sell-off its LCD and networking equipment businesses in order to focus solely on semiconductor products. The cellphone and ADSL divisions will be converted into independent operations next month through a …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 12:36
-
FOTW I used to respect you folks…
There's no fool like an April fool
Big love this week to all of you who enjoyed our April 1st makeover. Big clip round the ear to 'modor' - proof, were it needed, that evolution moves slower in some places than others: It remains to be seen how soon you all start kissing Bill's ASS, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon forever and ever. I used to …
Letters 6 Apr 2001, 12:54
-
Software to replace software engineers
Updated Slashdot declares international day of mourning
A UK company reckons it's on the way to making programmers a thing of the past by reducing complex coding to a mix is a simple list of instructions and some powerful AI. Synapse Solutions this week took the wraps off MI-Tech, software that essentially lets you enter in English a series of steps you want your computer to do - …
Software 6 Apr 2001, 13:12
-
Dixons doesn't dominate UK PC market
Updated Less than 40% of sales - OFT
This may come as a surprise to its competitors but the Dixons Group doesn't dominate the UK market in home PCs. This is according to an Office of Fair Trading investigation, which also concludes Dixons hasn't infringed competition law by securing exclusive deals to sell certain Compaq PCs and all Packard Bell's products. In …
Business 6 Apr 2001, 13:25
-
IE6 beta bug can blank out email
Plan to turn surfers into serfers?
Early testers of Internet Explorer 6 have come across a bug in the browser that can result in them receiving emails with no subject line or message body. Frustrated users brave enough to try out IE6's public beta have run into trouble receiving emails via either Outlook 2000 and 98, and to a lesser extent Outlook Express. In …
Music and Media 6 Apr 2001, 14:14
-
Reg cancer busters are go!
Huge response to appeal for members
Following yesterday's appeal for Reg readers to lend their computing power to the search for possible cancer cures, we are pleased to announce that membership of the Vulture Central II team in the Intel/Oxford P2P project has jumped from 64 to an impressive 655 in just 36 hours. So impressed are we at Vulture Central …
Bootnotes 6 Apr 2001, 14:22
-
Merrill Lynch, Lehmans cut AMD forecasts
Micron gets the onceover, too
Merrill Lynch analyst Joe Osha is described by financial news wire AFX as "influential". So what effect will his revised intermediate outlook for AMD and Micron Technology have on their share price? Osha has cut both stock to 'neutral' from a respective 'accumulate' and 'buy'. The decision is, he says, "based on belief that …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 14:26
-
Confused pensioners triumph in PC World P4 PC giveaway
They were after a washing machine
A pair of octogenarians were the lucky winners of a P4 PC in a lucky draw competition held at a Yorkshire branch of PC World. The couple were on route to the Morrisons supermarket but got a bit lost and popped into the PC World branch thinking it sold washing machines. The PC giveaway is part of Intel's big plans to push the …
Business 6 Apr 2001, 15:03
-
Infineon sees sun through DRAM clouds
But don't expect good times just yet
Infineon reckons the outlook is good for the world DRAM market, but warned the industry that it shouldn't expect prices to pick up significantly. "In general, we see the medium term and long-term growth potential for the semiconductor market as very positive," said Infineon's CEO, Ulrich Schumacher, at the chip company's annual …
Channel 6 Apr 2001, 15:57
-
Smart tagging in Office XP – what Melissa did next?
Privacy and virus implications to new MS automation system
Microsoft is shuttering its software against viruses, but the latest edition of its flagship productivity suite, Office XP, just might be introducing a whole new class of back door. Office XP includes the facility to build a kind of multi-dimensional version of a hyperlink into data files, and that's where the problem could lie …
Software 6 Apr 2001, 16:13
-
Text Message Injury – or is it SMS Wrist?
Four fingers, one thumb stop moving
The growing use of text messaging on mobile phones could result in an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries. That's the warning from Andrew Chadwick, director of the British RSI Association, who described sending SMS messages as a perfect way to fall victim to the condition. "We're talking about people making hundreds of tiny …
Data Networking 6 Apr 2001, 16:54
-
MacOS X is ‘crap’ – Torvalds
He doesn't like Mach one little bit
Linus Torvalds has spoken. Apple's MacOS X, he says, is "a piece of crap". To be fair, it's actually MacOS X's kernel, Mach, which the Linux creator so dislikes. The quote comes from Torvalds forthcoming autobiography, entitled Just for Fun, and continues: "[Mach] contains all the design mistakes you can make, and manages to …
Mac Channel 6 Apr 2001, 17:04
-
MS Counterfeit gang gets ten years in jail
Big league pirates
Three people have been jailed for a total of 10 years for their involvement in a multi-million pound software counterfeiting ring. The trio, who were convicted on March 16 for conspiracy to defraud Microsoft, sat impassively in the dock as Her Honour Judge Pearlman, passed stiff sentences which reflected their involvement in a …
Security 6 Apr 2001, 18:00
-
Text messaging used to trap unfaithful partners
SMS could lead to GBH
We've brought you stories of text messaging as a potential life saver and a killer but we reckon a suggested use of SMS, from of all places Romania, is just about the silliest yet. Inventor Vasile Prisca has invented a device that catches unfaithful spouses by sending a mobile text message whenever it detects more than one …
Data Networking 6 Apr 2001, 18:03
