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9th April 2001 Archive

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  • Motorola ‘vetoes’ Symbian IPO

    Sunday Business claims

    Motorola has vetoed an IPO for Symbian for the immediate future, UK paper Sunday Business claims. The company, a major shareholder of Symbian, reckons the OS business would be lucky to get away with a valuation of £1 billion in the current economic climate, compared with estimates of £5 billion, a year ago, the paper says. It …

    Data Networking 9 Apr 2001, 08:58

  • Jewish Chronicle falls for Tommy Hilfiger cyber-slur

    Apology. Of sorts

    The Jewish Chronicle, the venerable newspaper for British Jews, fell hook, line and sinker for a malicious cyberslur concerning Tommy Hilfiger, the US fashion designer. In its gossip column, the paper printed "wild rumour allegations that Hilfiger made offensive comments about ethnic minorities wearing his clothes," Jewish.co. …

    Media 9 Apr 2001, 09:33

  • Rambus loses fraud claim appeal

    Infineon may challenge Rambus over fraud allegations

    Infineon lawyers may now pursue accusations that Rambus acted fraudulently in its dealings with JEDEC while it sat on the chip industry standards body's SDRAM panel. The judge presiding over Rambus' legal action against Infineon for alleged patent infringement, Robert E Payne, originally ruled that Infineon could pursue this …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 09:42

  • Marconi set to announce loss of 3,000 jobs

    1,200 UK workers face redundancy this week

    Marconi is expected to announce the loss of 3,000 jobs , or six per cent of its workforce, as part of a plan to reduce costs forced upon it by a slowdown in sales in the networking market. About 1,200 people are set lose their jobs in the UK, according to a reports in several Sunday papers. The FT has said letters about the job …

    Business 9 Apr 2001, 10:19

  • PlayStation 2 gets hard disk, broadband slot

    Expansionist policy

    Sony has said it before, and no doubt it will say it again. It wants Japanese PlayStation 2 users on a broadband network by next year. So a new version of the console goes on sale next week in Japan, featuring support for a built-in hard disk and broadband adapter. This means that anyone buying a PS2 from now on will be able …

    Games Industry 9 Apr 2001, 10:26

  • Price cuts pave way for 23 April 1.7GHz P4 launch

    Up 19 per cent off current P4s next weekend

    Intel will release the 1.7GHz Pentium 4 on 23 April, a week after making across-the-line price cuts on lesser chips and the arrival of the 1.13GHz Pentium III, the highest speed Coppermine desktop CPU will ever reach - officially, at least. According to Intel's own roadmap, which we revealed back in January, the next major …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 10:27

  • NEC gets DRAM jitters

    Steep fall, 700 job cuts

    NEC Electronics is to issue pink slips to 700 staff at its Roseville, California fab. It is also rejigging production at the plant away from DRAM and into more lucrative LSI and logic devices for the communications sector. The company has scrapped its test and management facility at the plant. NEC said the job cuts come "only …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 11:08

  • AMD Palomino to debut at 1.53GHz

    Roadmap revised

    AMD's Thunderbird Athlon core will be taken to 1.5GHz over the coming months, with a part at that speed and another at 1.4GHz to fill the gap between the top-of-the-line chip and the current 1.3GHz Athlon. That's what German site Planet3DNow! has claimed, according to an English translation over at the VR-Zone. With Intel's P4 …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 11:19

  • Time closes shops, says it'll open more

    Updated Tries to hide further store shrinkage

    Time Computers is announcing 10 new store openings to fill the holes left when it shut 22 branches in March - this will give it 160 outlets by the end of the year. But it isn't announcing that is shutting eight TimeTalk mobile shops this week. It says it is merging Time Computers branches with TimeTalk stores, if they're in the …

    Business 9 Apr 2001, 11:49

  • MS Passport – let the games begin

    It's a right meridianum spectaculum, let me tell you

    All your data (and biz plans) are belong to Microsoft In the gladatorial arena that is the Vulture Central Mailbag, there's nothing that the crowd like better than a bit of one-on-one combat to the death. This lunchtime's entertainment features retarius John Lettice, armed with trident and net, versus secutorAdam Alexander: …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 11:51

  • Apple runs with 2-2-2 and 3-2-2

    They think the story's all over... It is now

    Apple bans PC SDRAM for users own good Tim Kowalsky wants to take us to task on Mac SDRAM: I was disappointed today to see that you published the above story without first checking to make sure you had your facts straight. You've now added an addendum to the bottom of the story that sort of backpedals on your initial claims, …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 11:52

  • Foot firmly in mouth

    Animal cull humour crashes and burns

    Microsoft not responsible for foot and mouth Alfred F Wheeler has a bone to pick regarding our recent piece: I had just finished reading a vet's harrowing story of personally having to destroy over 100 spring lambs due to foot and mouth, some as little as ten minutes old, while slaughtermen around him destroyed their mothers …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 11:54

  • Keep your eyes open…

    Delicious prospect of further loony Oz legislation

    The Boys from Brisbane Peter Denkel wants to set the record straight regarding Senator Alston's attempt to curtail the Aussies' propensity for gambling: Regarding the response by Luke Murphy quoting figures like 20M people, 20% worlds pokies, and saying that this bill is a good thing, some clarification may be in order. The …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 11:57

  • Hackers turn racist in attack on hardware site

    PC Chips falls victim to redneck variant of Lion worm

    PC motherboard specialist PC Chips has fallen victim to defacement in an attack that shows that hackers can be unthinking racists. The home page of the site, which runs Apache on a Red Hat Linux server, was replaced by a message from the 1i0n Crew, which contained in its headline the racist remark " Kill all the Japanese!", the …

    Security 9 Apr 2001, 12:16

  • Penguin programmer piles on pressure

    Windows v. Linux debate hots up

    'Red Hat' Lettice exposed Ray Shaw has a few questions for recent correspondant D. LaTour: This is in response to the person who wrote in saying "You make my life harder with your OS evangelism, blah, blah blah). I would like to know a few things: 1. Why did the school simply not do what every single other person with Linux …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 12:19

  • Foot and mouth torpedoes 3G rollout

    Town & Country

    It never rains but pours for the UK's five 3G licence "winners". Their roll-out schedules have been thrown into chaos by government bans on rural movement in areas hit by foot and mouth disease (The Times reports). And that's a lot of areas. The network operators reckon they're still on target to meet original launch deadlines …

    Data Networking 9 Apr 2001, 12:34

  • Dell admits job cuts mean he ‘screwed up’

    Tales from the firing line

    Michael Dell has admitted that his company's recent job cuts are 'an "admission that we screwed up" by overhiring'. The quote comes from an article in the latest edition of Time which has a detailed look at the Dell layoffs. A lot of the staff are unhappy about the way Dell handled the layoffs. The article tells of how …

    Business 9 Apr 2001, 13:32

  • Readers' Letters Poison cookies?

    Has Big Brother been at the biscuit barrel?

    DoubleClick beats back privacy suits Many Reg readers continue to find cookies indigestible. Is the recent Doubleclick ruling the springboard for a giant 'Big Brother' style e-conspiracy? Or is it a legitimate form of data gathering? Pat Mitchell favours the former: I believe that this is an incredibly dangerous road we are …

    Letters 9 Apr 2001, 13:37

  • LogoWatch The Vulture laid bare

    This symbol, this shield, this inspiring icon

    Regulars who have been following our LogoWatch campaign - a crusade to expose to ridicule the worst excesses of corporate makeovers, will recall that we challenged Reg readers to come up with a preposterous analysis of our own company identity. We should have known better. After some consideration - and a few beer-fuelled …

    Bootnotes 9 Apr 2001, 13:42

  • Motorola promises 0.13 micron PowerPCs

    Announces new process

    Motorola introduced its 0.13 micron process technology today, with the promise that it will use the technology in its PowerPC line. The chip maker calls the process HiPerMOS7 - HiP7, for short - the technology is essentially a die-shrink, down from Motorola's current 0.18 micron process. HiP7 uses copper interconnects, along …

    Mac Channel 9 Apr 2001, 14:36

  • NGUK apologises for EuroGamer slur

    PR to be proud of

    British gaming ISP, NetgamesUK Ltd, has issued a full retraction after making potentially libellous statements in a press release against an IT news site. In a PR bungle that makes the Countess of Wessex look like a media pro, NGUK issued a press release in which MD, Andy Jones, incorrectly accused EuroGamer of writing an …

    Games Industry 9 Apr 2001, 14:40

  • Amazon forecasts smaller losses for Q1

    Thanks to electronics sales

    Amazon.com today said it expected to post a narrower than expected loss for the first quarter. In preliminary figures, the e-tailer said sales were forecast to top $695 million for the three months ending March 31 2001, up from $574 million the previous year and around $25 million higher than analyst predictions. Amazon said …

    e-Business 9 Apr 2001, 15:11

  • Micron launches bare die Web site

    Lots of hot simulation

    Micron has launched its bare die products web site. It's set up to provide bare die design information on a variety of memory technologies and densities. You have to register, but then you get access to bare die datasheets and technical notes, as well as IBIS and HSpice die level simulation models. ® Related Link Micron bare …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 15:36

  • Kingston kills non-memory product lines

    Only generated 2-3% of memory company's sales

    Kingston Technology has decided to stop designing and making all of its non-core product lines. "What non-core product lines?" we hear you ask. Well, exactly. We weren't aware of them either. Apparently, Kingston's Peripheral Product Division makes networking products (hubs, routers and switches), hard drives for notebooks, CPU …

    Business 9 Apr 2001, 15:58

  • AMD shipping 1.5GHz Athlons as 1GHz chips?

    Overclockers reckon so

    AMD may have already begun shipping 1.5GHz T'Bird Athlons - under wraps. Apparently, Athlons capable of reaching that speed are currently going out under 1GHz or 1.33GHz labels, which have been picked up by intrepid overclockers and pushed to the higher performance levels. One UK overclocker told us: "Athlons exceeding 1.5GHz …

    Channel 9 Apr 2001, 16:20

  • BTopenworld toys with broadband over satellite

    Hopes to have service by 2003

    BTopenworld is looking to offer broadband services via satellite in a bid to expand the range of services it offers. In an interview with The Register to be published tomorrow, openworld CEO, Andy Green, said he was currently holding talks with a number of providers concerning the provision of broadband over satellite. …

    Broadband 9 Apr 2001, 16:36

  • CNET snaps up TechRepublic

    What did Gartner buy it for, in the first place?

    CNET is to buy TechRepublic.com, a resource-cum-community site for IT professionals from Gartner Group for $23m in cash and stock. Doesn't say much for Gartner's strategic vision, does it? The analyst firm bought TechRepublic only a year ago (in March 2000), trumpeting its ownership of the "world's largest IT B2B community", …

    e-Business 9 Apr 2001, 16:36

  • Chatroom posters to be sued and outed

    Following lawsuit to discover identities

    San Diego semiconductor outfit MeltroniX aims to name and shame a bunch of surfers it claims posted defamatory statements about the company in its Internet chat room. The company said that, as the result of filing a lawsuit, it had discovered the identities of anonymous posters that repeatedly stuck "vicious, defamatory and …

    Media 9 Apr 2001, 16:45

  • Original Intel hacker's appeal denied

    Remember Randal Schwartz?

    Randal Schwartz is something of a legend in the hacking community though his name was never implanted in the mainstream consciousness like Kevins Mitnick and Poulsen. Schwartz never went on the lam, never made it to America's Most Wanted and Unsolved Mysteries, and never did hard time. But Schwartz is well known and respected …

    Security 9 Apr 2001, 19:19

  • Acer's March sales chopped in half

    PC slump drags Taiwan giant down

    Acer Inc saw sales drop 37 per cent for the first quarter, blaming the general sluggishness of the PC sector. The Taiwanese giant's revenue for the three months ended March 31 2001 was T$6.51 billion ($197 million), compared to T$29.07 billion for the same period the previous year, a company representative told Reuters. March …

    Business 9 Apr 2001, 19:57

  • Extradition hearing in Bloomberg hack/extortion

    Hard to say where the crime occurred

    The extradition hearing of two men accused of attempting to extort $200,000 from the founder of the Bloomberg financial news service began in London today. Oleg Zezov and Igor Yarimika have been held on remand since their arrest in London last August as part of a sting operation involving Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg. …

    Security 9 Apr 2001, 20:06

  • Germany may strike Nazi sites with DoS attacks

    Committing crime to uphold the law

    German Interior Minister Otto Schily is contemplating a scheme to disable foreign Web sites which pander to neo-Nazis by ordering them struck with denial of service (DoS) attacks, Der Spiegel reports. In response to the high-profile DoS attacks last year, Schily established an Internet Task Force to protect Germany's critical …

    Security 9 Apr 2001, 21:47

  • Jurors badly miscalculate MP3.com damages

    So, girls really do suck at math....

    Jurors inadvertently let MP3.com off the hook last week when they wrote down the wrong damages figure in a court case over copyright infringement. On Friday the eight female jurors in a New York court, including one maths teacher, ordered the online music giant to pay around $300,000 to record label TVT (Tee Vee Toons). MP3.com …

    Media 9 Apr 2001, 21:56