3rd May 2001 Archive

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Morse taps out profit warning

What does this mean for Sun?

Morse, the leading midrange reseller, has issued a profit warning following an unexpected sales drop of 15 per cent in April. The company has sprung into immediate action with a reorganisation of some units intended to save £5m a year. Morse will take a charge of £1.5m to £2m in the current financial year ending June 30 to …

Channel 3 May 2001, 07:56
Boxed Intel P4s not available for love nor money?

Yes, say dealers - no, says Intel

Boxed versions of Intel's Pentium 4 processors appear to be rather hard to get hold of at the moment. According to resellers, Intel is telling anyone who wants to order a 1.7GHz P4 they'll have to wait at least four weeks for it - no matter how many they order, The Inquirer reports. There are also reports that all the other …

Channel 3 May 2001, 08:02
MP calls for Time to ‘come clean’ on layoffs

VC of Tory party no less

Tory MP Nigel Evans is calling on Time Computers to "come clean" over the number of redundancies at its factory. The Register has reported the company cut back 130 workers at it's HQ near Burnley in Lancashire last week. But MD Tahir Mohsan will only admit to a figure of between 30 and 40 job losses. He also said that 60 per …

Channel 3 May 2001, 08:27
VIA Pentium 4 plans take shape

But will P4 sales take off before the end of the year? SIS doesn't think so

VIA reckons that by the end of the quarter it will have reached an agreement with Intel to release a Pentium 4 chipset, according to a DigiTimes report. VIA's plans call for two chipsets: the integrated P4M266 and the discrete chipset P4X266, originally designated the PX266. The P4M266 will incorporate 4x AGP and VIA's S3 …

Channel 3 May 2001, 08:57
UK Govt to amend Telecoms Act

That's it really, nothing more to add

The British Government is planning to publish the first sections of its new Communications Bill later this summer following an initial round of consultation with industry groups. The new legislation is a result of the Communications White Paper which was published last year and which, among other things, calls for the …

Telecoms 3 May 2001, 09:37
Rambus' ‘very high’ DDR royalty revealed

Rambus vs Infineon Comes out in damages calculations

Rambus has been milking DDR SDRAM vendors to the tune of 3.5 per cent of sales, it has emerged by way of the memory technology developers' legal action against Infineon. The figure was revealed by University of California at Berkeley professor of business for the University of California David Teece. He told the court yesterday …

Channel 3 May 2001, 09:50
100-year old telecoms law to be repealed

.-- .... .- - / - --- --- -.- / - .... . -- / ... --- / .-.. --- -. --. ..--..

The British Government is looking to repeal part of the Telecommunications Act that has its roots in legislation dating back from the beginning of the 20th Century. According to a draft consultation document currently doing the rounds, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) wants to repeal section 44 of the …

Telecoms 3 May 2001, 09:52
Telecoms workers to lose law safeguard

Is nothing sacred?

The Government wants to remove special legal protection for telecoms workers as part of new legislation due to be introduced within the next two years. Under Section 46 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 it is an offence for people to assault or obstruct a public telecommunications operator trying to do his - or her - job. …

Telecoms 3 May 2001, 10:07
Vodafone produces largest ever UK share issue

Mobile company gets £3.5 billion to buy BT shares

Vodafone raised £3.5 billion yesterday in the largest-ever share issue at the London Stock Exchange. The initial target of £3 billion - needed by the company to buy shares in Japan Telecom and Airtel from BT - was surpassed thanks to an oversubscription of shares. BT announced yesterday that it was going to sell its 20 per cent …

Business 3 May 2001, 10:20
Intel putting squeeze on potential customers – Transmeta boss

Allegedly

Intel is putting "pressure" on Western computer manufacturers to ensure they don't use Transmeta's Crusoe CPUs, Transmeta's CEO has claimed. Speaking at a Merrill Lynch technology conference this week, Transmeta's chief, Mark Allen, said: "I'm sure there is some pressure applied to them, no question." Allen cited Dell as an …

Channel 3 May 2001, 10:22
Palm sales fell 20% in April admits CFO

And m505 PDA will ship in volume even later than expected

Anyone in any doubt that Palm bungled its most recent product transition should listen to what the company has just said about its April sales. Worse, Palm's latest high-end PDAs, the m500 and m505 may not ship as soon as the company has previously claimed. Both machines will revive its fortunes, the company hopes, as it …

Business 3 May 2001, 11:01
ntl workers face uncertain future

Job cuts loom

ntl is to shed thousands of jobs over the next two years as part of a cost-cutting initiative, the FT, reported today. The newspaper said that management at the cableco-cum-telcoms outfit have been holding talks with employees about the reorganisation of the business. That, of course, means lots of things - but it also means …

Business 3 May 2001, 11:15
Suicidal computer expert kills himself and another in 140mph crash

Drove down wrong side of motorway high as a kite

A suicidal young computer engineer killed himself and another driver in a deliberate 140mph smash in Southampton, an inquest was told yesterday. James Morgan, 25, was high on ecstasy and cocaine when he decided to drive his Peugeot 306 down the wrong way of the M27 at 70 miles an hour. In the hours before the crash at 2am, Mr …

Bootnotes 3 May 2001, 11:19
Dell makes monster notebook battery recall

There's hot stuff inside 284,000 Inspirons

Dell is mounting a major recall of Inspiron 5000 and 5000(e) notebook batteries because of a flaw. CNET has reported 284,000 batteries are being called back in because they can overheat. There's just one recorded incident of one of the Panasonic made batteries catching fire so far. Inspirons were sold between January 2000 and …

Business 3 May 2001, 11:44
Jungle falls for obvious virus hoax

It sends alert in gullible bungle

Online etailer Jungle.com has gullibly swallowed a well-known virus hoax. It then compounded its error by warning subscribers in its email newsletter about a non-existent threat. Thousands of subscribers to the Jungle Drums newsletter were alerted to the supposed threat posed by the "virtual card for you" virus, which is …

Music and Media 3 May 2001, 12:54
MS to tout ‘shared source philosophy’, compare GNU to bubble economy

How worried?

Microsoft's PR machine has been tipping off selected journalists about a 'relaxation' of its closed source policy today. But Linux's own PR rottweiler Eric Raymond appears to have gotten his retaliation in first. Senior VP Craig Mundie is expected to tell New York University Stern School of Business today that Microsoft will …

Software 3 May 2001, 12:55
Aimster asks court to protect it from Napster's fate

Wants legal shield from RIAA action

Aimster has asked the US court to declare that it doesn't violate copyright law in a bid to protect itself from the same fate as its namesake, Napster. Aimster's software allows AOL's Instant Messenger service to operate Napster-fashion and let users share files, MP3s among them. No surprise then that it received a letter from …

Music and Media 3 May 2001, 13:45
Sportal boots more staff into touch

Sick as a parrot

Sports content outfit - sportal.com - has laid off 20 staff in its continued bid to turn itself into a profitable business. The company is also looking for additional investment despite receiving funding in December 2000 when the company received cash on condition that it cut overheads This latest round of redundancies comes …

Business 3 May 2001, 14:03
Leaked Nvidia drivers boost Pentium 4 performance

What about Athlon?

Reports indicate that the latest leaked Nvidia driver release (version 12.00) significantly improves performance on Pentium 4 machines by a great deal. The new drivers boost performance by up to 90 per cent in business applications, according to one sensational report on German Web site All-About-PC. Gaming performance is also …

Channel 3 May 2001, 14:16
Sony drops $50 Playstation 2 cut for $100 cut later

Makes more sense to time cuts closer to Xbox release

Sony has dropped plans to cut the price of the PlayStation 2 by $50 or £50 (depending on territory) across the globe at E3. The current target for the aggressive price drop is thought to be September of this year. Previously it was whispered that Sony would grab headlines at E3 by slicing $50 off the price of the PlayStation 2 …

Games Industry 3 May 2001, 14:17
Ebone warns of Euro ‘broadband bottleneck’

Issues charter for change

The head of broadband network outfit, Ebone, launched a scathing attack on European telecoms regulators and Governments today over their failure to deal with what he described as the "broadband bottleneck". Speaking at an industry conference in London earlier today Ebone President and COO, Duncan Lewis, warned that the failure …

Telecoms 3 May 2001, 14:26
UMC to make UltraSPARC IIe

Sun hopes to ramp up production

Contract chipmaker United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) is to join Texas Instruments as a manufacturer of Sun's UltraSPARC processors. Sun has signed up UMC in order to allow Texas Instruments to concentrate on resolving difficulties in moving to the volume production of 900MHz UltraSPARC III chips. Current versions of …

Channel 3 May 2001, 14:45
Viatel files for Chapter 11

Lays off 350

Viatel has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. The company is a New York based European telco network builder. The NASDAQ-listed company operates two consumer brands - Telco and Econophone - in the US and Europe. It made 350 people redundant when it filed for Chapter 11 yesterday. It laid off 650 workers …

Telecoms 3 May 2001, 14:46
Acer UK signs up Computer 2000

Channel Flannel

Acer has appointed Computer 2000 to distribute its branded PCs and peripherals into the UK market. Acer already has a relationship with Tech Data, Computer 2000's parent in other European markets. And it has three existing disties in the UK. Acer UK is prepping a new tiered channel accreditation scheme, organising its resellers …

Channel 3 May 2001, 14:50
BOFHs to need a bouncer licence

UK govt makes very stupid Bill decision

The government has voted not to change a forthcoming Bill on the private security industry that threatens to include systems admins in new licensing legislation. The Bill has gained more and more detractors after its unnecessarily broad drafting has accidentally included IT security consultants when it was aimed purely at …

Business 3 May 2001, 15:01
MS backs down on Win2002 Server AD limits

And we'd just like to say this new name isn't working for us...

Microsoft has backed down from one of the proposed packaging changes for Windows 2002 Server (formerly Whistler) that it trailed in March. These seemed calculated to force customers with larger networks to buy the more expensive Advanced Server product, although Microsoft did stress to beta testers that the changes were …

Software 3 May 2001, 15:17
I love Microsoft. By the New York Times

Don't you realise that open-source software is a big con job?

Anyone that tells you journalism is impartial is either a fool or a liar. And that is why it is particularly refreshing to see writers nail their colours to the mast. On top of that, we admire John Markoff of the New York Times for having the courage of his convictions. John has fearlessly stood in the path of the rampaging …

Bootnotes 3 May 2001, 16:32
Boffins make real-life tractor beam

It's just like out of Star Trek. Nah, not really

British boffins - fresh from creating the thought-controlled computer - have now built the world's first tractor beam. The tractor beam has become a staple part of any sci-fi story, in which baddies or goodies are captured - normally when they think they have just escaped. It is also used for less exciting duties like guiding …

Business 3 May 2001, 17:11
Extra-Time money for promoted Blackburn?

Rovers success may put the financial squeeze on PC retailer

Last night's promotion of Blackburn Rovers to the Premiership is something of a mixed blessing for club sponsors Time Computers. Blackburn secured the second place in Division One, and automatic promotion, by beating Preston North End 1-0 away from home. For PC manufacturer and retailer Time however the promotion might mean an …

Channel 3 May 2001, 17:14
Codebreaker II – Prepare for despair

Come on then if you think you're hard enough

It's been several months since our original Codebreaker competition reduced hundreds of our readers to tears of frustration and despair. We enjoyed the thing so much - as did many of you, judging by the correspondence - that we're giving crypto-boffins a second bite of the apple. All you have to do is decode the following text …

Bootnotes 3 May 2001, 17:20