2nd May 2001 Archive
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DVD decoding-as-speech fails to impress court
DeCSS on appeal
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is "a kind of digital straight-jacket" violating the rights of individuals to make fair use of copyrighted materials, Stanford University Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan argued to the Second Circuit US Court of Appeals in Manhattan Tuesday. Sullivan was arguing on behalf of Eric …
Music and Media 2 May 2001, 01:19
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Ingram Micro toughs out downturn
Sales down, profits up (ish)
IT distribution is a stressful business at the best of times. In bad times, it's a pretty horrible place to be, with reseller customers going titsup all over the place, inventory going off more quickly than pears, suppliers squeezing co-operative marketing funds, the constant grind to shave operating expenses. And what for? A …
Channel 2 May 2001, 09:57
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BT gets £4.8 billion for telecoms stakes
Share price jumps but Bonfield refuses to talk strategy
BT announced this morning that it is to get £4.8 billion for its shares in Japan Telecom, J-Phone and Airtel. The sale to Vodafone will make more money than expected and help take a chunk out of BT's £30 billion debt. The shares in Japan Telecom and J-Phone (its wireless arm) will go for £3.7 billion and the Airtel shares for …
Business 2 May 2001, 10:15
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VIA C3 roadmap extended to 1.2GHz+
Confirms existence of C5X processor
VIA has updated its processor roadmap to confirm the arrival of the successor to Ezra, itself the follow-up to the current C3 - aka Samuel II. The new chip will take the C3 beyond 1GHz by debuting at 1.2GHz. The early details of Ezra suggested that it would be the chip to take the C3 line to speeds of over 1GHz. Ezra is due to …
Channel 2 May 2001, 10:26
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Apple unveils 'iBook 2.0'
Not metal - it just looks like it
Apple launched a new iBook consumer notebook - codenamed P29, incidentally - yesterday, as expected. The machine's spec. closely matches the rumoured details, but interestingly it won't ship with a metal enclosure like its high-end sibling, the Titanium PowerBook G4. Instead, it just looks like one - the iBooks' "impact …
Mac Channel 2 May 2001, 11:02
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Linuxcare, TurboLinux decide to hang separately
LinuxLinux prospect fades
Linuxcare and TurboLinux look ripe candidates for acquisition after a planned merger between the two companies collapsed on Monday. Both CEOs warned that further job losses were now likely. The two had planned to join forces in what looked like an ideal consolidation in January: Linuxcare is primarily a support company, and …
Software 2 May 2001, 11:05
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Fulham FC wins cybersquatting case
Updated Mohammed Al-Fayed on another Net crusade
First division and soon-to-be Premiership football club Fulham has won a WIPO case over the domain name www.fulhamfc.com. The domain was owned by a company called Belize Domain Services, based unsurprisingly on tax-haven Belize. It registered the domain in May 1998 and said it intended to make the site a "fun club". It hasn't …
Music and Media 2 May 2001, 11:18
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Connectix previews virtual Windows, Linux even OS/2 tech.
One PC, as many operating systems as you like - and no re-booting
Emulation specialist Connectix - the company that ran into so much trouble by daring to allow Mac and PC users to run PlayStation games - has released a preview version of its upcoming Virtual PC for Windows software. An x86 emulator for an x86 platform? No, it didn't seem to make much sense to us either. Virtual PC began life …
Software 2 May 2001, 11:55
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Is Microsoft's WMP8 merely viral marketing?
Writs add to reverse-bundle's allure
We're beginning to wonder if Microsoft's strategy for its Windows Media Player 8 beta is a canny piece of viral marketing, and no more. What's certain is that in making a standalone Media Player contraband, Microsoft has gained far more publicity for WMP8 than it would have if it had pursued its usual beta download strategy. …
Software 2 May 2001, 12:23
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Codebreaker II A helping hand…
And let's face it - you need it
Ok, you've convinced us. We're going to give you a helping hand with our fiendish Codebreaker II competition. Let's face it, you need it, if Jeffrey Kane is anything to go by: I feel that I am very close to breaking the code... I've been using a rather unorthodox methodology. You see, I've replicated the code verbatim on a wall …
Bootnotes 2 May 2001, 12:27
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Microsoft tells US Air Force to bug off
Outlook patch is patchy
Microsoft's security patch for Outlook, which is designed to protect users from the effects of another Love Bug-style virus, has come under fire from no less a body than the US Air Force. In a paper to be presented at a security workshop in June, an assistant professor of computer science at the US Air Force Academy will …
Security 2 May 2001, 12:32
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Yahoo! hires Beavis and Butthead for porn clampdown
No cucumbers but some fave Reg words are fine
Yahoo's much-publicised new clampdown on porn has left Web users laughing due to its Beavis and Butthead approach to filtering. The company has been under heavy pressure to remove and/or limit adult egroups on its servers. Last week it decided to remove adult videos from its e-commerce site and it says it has been working on …
Music and Media 2 May 2001, 12:38
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BT to vacate corporate HQ
Time for everyone to clear their desks
BT is to move out of its cathedral-like offices opposite St Paul's to help reduce overheads and raise cash. The decision to sell and move out of the prestigious BT Centre is in addition to an earlier announcement to sell and leaseback the majority of its property portfolio. The sale of property to the joint venture partnership …
Business 2 May 2001, 12:40
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PC World slow to advertise actual screen sizes
Taking ad industry ruling to the wire
PC World is carrying on with old style misleading monitor advertising until the last possible second. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled it will no longer accept standard industry practice of giving CRT (cathode ray tube) sizes in adverts, without explaining how much of that the user can actually see. All PC …
Channel 2 May 2001, 12:52
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How MS might vape invalidated WinXP systems
The Office 2000 SP1 precedent
Microsoft's product activation process doesn't know who you are, and is, says the company, entirely anonymous. So if you try to activate with an invalid product key, or after you've done a little cracking you're using an invalid key, there isn't actually anything Microsoft can do about you - or is there? But it's been pointed …
Software 2 May 2001, 13:08
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Apple makes OS X ad-compliant
But still much monkeying around
Apple has quietly added the ability to burn CD recordable media to Mac OS X. The feature is part of the 10.0.2 patch which slipped out yesterday. Apple was widely criticised for omitting the capability from the initial OS X release in March - particularly as it meant that Apple could only fulfill two thirds of the promise it …
Mac Channel 2 May 2001, 13:31
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Adobe latest to enforce compulsory vacation
Every day is like Sunday
Come Independence Day, the hills of Silicon Valley will be particularly alive with holidaying tech workers. Adobe has become the latest employer in the region to give its staff a compulsory week off beginning 1 July. Around 2,000 staff will be affected as part of the cost-cutting measure, which Adobe hopes will save $4m. Sun …
Business 2 May 2001, 14:32
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eToy's sarcastic send-off to bankrupt namesake
eToys founder offered place on board
One of the early Net successes, which has since slipped into bankruptcy - eToys.com - has been given a sarcastic send-off by namesake eToy.com. "The etoy.CREW takes a respectful bow before eToys' corporate grave," says a statement on the eToy site. That is followed by several comments regarding eToys and the nature of Internet …
Music and Media 2 May 2001, 14:39
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Police caused more damage to IT firms than protestors
And all because of their yakking
You may well have heard that the West End of London (where we are based incidentally) was all but shutdown yesterday thanks to a massive over-reaction by the Metropolitan Police towards Mayday protesters. Thousands of anti-capitalist supporters (aka anarchists, spikies, crusties, Uncle Tom Cobbleigh (and regular members of the …
Data Networking 2 May 2001, 15:05
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Chip sales slip 7% in March
Americas worst hit
Worldwide semiconductor sales slipped seven per cent in March as the industry waited for oversupply to dry up. Chip sales were $14.4 billion for the month, compared to $15.48 billion in February, according to a report from the Semiconductor Industry Association. In March 2000 worldwide sales were $15.07 billion. "Since last …
Channel 2 May 2001, 15:51
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IBM extends PowerPC roadmap to 2GHz+
Swallows pride, signs up for Motolora's AltiVec
IBM has updated its PowerPC roadmap with plans to take its G3-class processors to 2GHz and beyond - a move that will see the company finally re-seal the breach with PowerPC partner Motorola and incorporate AltiVec technology into its microprocessors. Alas, Big Blue's timeframe for all this is decidedly vague - the company …
Mac Channel 2 May 2001, 16:23
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Woolworths blocked e-mail during anti-capitalist demos
Scared of viruses from cyclists
High Street retailer Woolworths blocked the receipt of external email yesterday amid fears that it might be targeted by virus writers during Mayday anti-capitalist protests. A spokesman for Woolworths confirmed that its system admins decided to block external emails on its Exchange server after protestors congregated near its …
Security 2 May 2001, 16:36
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Codebreaker II Cracked it!
Triumphant pair win crypto-laurels
Well, it's been quite an afternoon down here at the Vulture Central encryption department. Not two hours after we gave you an apparently much-needed leg up, we got an triumphant e-mail from one Mark Wutka. Mark has every right to be pleased with himself, having successfully cracked the code and supplied the original text. He …
Bootnotes 2 May 2001, 16:46
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AMD's Sanders denies chip price war
And sets record straight on Dell
Jerry Sanders today said AMD did not expect a chip price war, despite recent cuts from itself and rival. The AMD CEO said his company's systems were still cheaper than those of chief rival Intel, which recently chopped prices on Pentium 4s. He added that costs for RDRAM, used by the Pentium 4 chip, were higher than for DDR, …
Channel 2 May 2001, 17:08
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CNET bathes in red ink
But optimistic
CNET, the world's biggest IT portal, blames "short-term pressure" in the technology marketplace for falling sales, and losses in Q1. On a pro-forma basis, (ie. aggregating ZDNet's sales in Q1 last year with its own to provide a meaningful comparison with Q1 this time around), sales fell to $75.2 million, compared to net …
e-Business 2 May 2001, 20:27
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How secure is CA's security mailing list?
Spam? No problem!
More than 60,000 subscribers to CA's anti-virus alert email list received a spam message this morning. Is this what media types call "viral marketing"? Or does it mark the failure of CA to implement content filtering software on its own supposedly moderated mailing list? CA is the developer of eTrust which is, it claims, the …
Security 2 May 2001, 20:45
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The Great VC Squeeze of 2001
And who can blame them?
Venture Capital investment tumbled 40 per cent in the first quarter of 2001, the biggest sequential drop on record. Venture-backed companies in the US raised $10.1 billion during the first three months of the year, compared with $16.8 billion in Q4 of 2000, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and VentureOne. In Q1 …
e-Business 2 May 2001, 20:48
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Cyberholics! Go Cold Turkey
Just say no
Are you addicted to the Internet? The easy way to find out is to throw your computer out of the house for a day or two and see if you suffer withdrawal symptoms. The Net may as addictive as gambling, according to Dr James Fearing, CEO of National Counselling Intervention Services & Executive Health Systems USA, AAP reports. " …
Music and Media 2 May 2001, 22:17
