8th May 2001 Archive
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DiData queers Compaq Proxicom pitch
Muscling in
Dimension Data has launched an audacious bid to steal US net services company Proxicom from Compaq. The Anglo-South African networking reseller is offering $7.50 a share for Proxicom, outbidding an agreed offer made by Compaq last week by 30 per cent. Dimension Data is the biggest networking equipment reseller in Europe. In …
Channel 8 May 2001, 07:21
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Dell to pink slip 4,000 (or more)
So this is what 'ruthless' means
Dell, the world's biggest and most profitable PC maker, is keen to show Wall Street just how ruthless it can be. The company is to fire 3,000-4,000 full-time employees, in its latest round of cost-cutting. But it does not say how many contractors and temps it is jettisoning. The lay-offs will take place over the next two …
Business 8 May 2001, 07:48
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Cricket goes for online middle stump
Selling off Net and mobile phone rights
English cricket is hoping to make a tidy packet by selling off Internet and mobile phone rights to its matches. The idea is to get cricket fans to subscribe to a stats service that will provide them with updates of scores, batting averages and quick clips of wickets falling. Such a service is exactly what mobile companies hope …
e-Business 8 May 2001, 09:38
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Intel puts back Pentium 4 Xeon launch
Updated 'Packaging issues' to blame
Intel has been forced to delay today's introduction of Foster, its Pentium 4-based Xeon workstation and server processor, due to "packaging issues". Apparently, there's a problem with the daughtercard and related components onto which the CPU is mounted - all the stuff hidden away in those black boxes Intel now ships its …
Channel 8 May 2001, 09:52
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Apple needs chip czar for Son of Newton
Back to the future
An intriguing vacancy at Apple Computer suggests the company is looking to regain control of its long-term technical destiny. The position paves the way for Apple's re-entry into the handheld business, which will gladden the hearts of Newton devotees. The job description calls for an industry chieftain with 10 years experience …
Mac Channel 8 May 2001, 10:07
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Lastminute.com profitable within year
Ha!
Lastminute.com is on course to be profitable within the next 12 months executives at the online bucket shop said today. Such an upbeat assessment of one of the defining companies of the dotcom age is bound to bolster the mood of investors who've seen their share price tumble from a high of 555p only to bump along at a miserable …
Business 8 May 2001, 10:08
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Apple confirms retail store launch
Updated Doors to open on 19 May
Apple's retail chain will open its doors on Saturday 19 May - just ahead of its Worldwide Developers Forum, which kicks off on the 21st. An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the opening, according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The news leaked out after a reporter Web site PioneerPlanet received an invite to an "advance …
Mac Channel 8 May 2001, 10:14
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MS cracks down on MSDN subs, threatens ‘random audits’
Squeeze out more money spotlight now falls on developers
Microsoft is cracking down on commercial use of software obtained via MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscriptions, and intends to conduct random audits of subscribers. Depressingly, this seems to have happened just after it was drawn to The Register's attention that an MSDN sub could be a pretty cheap way of keeping a small …
Software 8 May 2001, 10:54
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Terra Lycos chuffed with Q1 results
Revenue jumps, but still making a loss
Terra Lycos, the world's third-largest Net operator with the world's largest global network, has announced a 60 per cent jump in Q1 pro forma revenues from Q1 last year but has still made a £108 million loss. Revenues have slipped six per cent from the last quarter but due to the turmoil in Internet stocks recently, the company …
Business 8 May 2001, 10:59
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Jury to judge Rambus fraud charge
Rambus vs Infineon As Infineon's anti-trust claims thrown out
Judge Robert E Payne yesterday dismissed Infineon's claims that Rambus had violated anti-trust law, but allowed the chip maker to pursue its allegation that Rambus had committed fraud. The trial is expected to go to the jury this week, though the fraud charge is now the only remaining allegation its members will have to …
Channel 8 May 2001, 11:00
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3Com cans 3,000 workers
Red ink and bloodletting at networking firm
Struggling networking equipment maker 3Com has announced the loss of a further 3,000 jobs as part of a plan to return its business to profitability. Both full time workers and contractors throughout 3Com will be affected by the cuts which will result in it shedding 30 per cent of its workforce. The reduction in jobs will occur …
Business 8 May 2001, 11:27
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Iwill readies mobos for delayed Intel P4 Xeon
May be out before the chip is
Taiwanese mobo maker Iwill will ship dual-processor boards for Intel's now-delayed Pentium 4 Xeon, codenamed Foster. The boards, the DX400-SN and DX400-L, are set to ship by the end of the month - just in time for Intel to recommence shipments of the new chip. Iwill appears to have confirmed Foster will ship at 1.7GHz - Intel' …
Business 8 May 2001, 11:52
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Wireless Palm m700 debuts on Web
Slimline follow-up to the Palm VII?
Palm's successor to its Palm VII wireless-enabled PDA has leaked out onto the Web, courtesy of three black-and-white snaps over at PalmStation. Codenamed Skywalker, the device - ultimately to be known as the m700, following Palm's new naming scheme? - appears to sport a plastic back (the inset text gives it away) with a …
Business 8 May 2001, 12:02
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NTL is definitely up to something
3,000 jobs to go, and leaking results
Cable company NTL is up to something and we'll find out exactly what on Thursday. The company has been leaking details of its business plans over this bank holiday weekend in time for its Q1 results announcement on Thursday morning. Late on Friday it seeped its plans to cut 3,000 jobs - adding to the general trauma of working …
Business 8 May 2001, 12:16
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Energis to head broadband consortium?
That's what's being said
Energis is reportedly heading a consortium of telcos to offer broadband services to businesses in Britain. According to the Sunday Telegraph, this consortium - which could include Cable & Wireless - would create a formidable rival to BT in providing broadband services for the SME market in Britain. Operators would pool their …
Telecoms 8 May 2001, 12:18
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Intel Online Services ‘redeploys’ up to 600
Works to cut headcount by 26-40 per cent
Intel's Online Services division has rid itself of between 400 and 600 staff, according to sources, out of around 1500 workers. Affected staffers will be "redeployed", to use Intel's own jargon. They will be reassigned to other parts of the company or helped to find a new post within the company - or outside of it. The process …
Business 8 May 2001, 12:34
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WinXP to launch on October 26: coders go on war footing
Date to be nailed to mast tomorrow
Register sources close to Redmond have confirmed that Microsoft has gone for late October for the launch of WinXP. The company intends to nail its colours to the mast with an official announcement of this tomorrow (Wednesday) and has put the XP team on a war footing - six days a week working is now required for all Windows …
Software 8 May 2001, 13:06
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LogoWatch With this ring, I thee sack
3Com rebranding was portent of doom
As regular LogoWatch readers know only too well, corporate rebranding is often a sign of stormy seas ahead. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in 3Com's announcement today that it intends to lay off 3,000 staff - almost one third of its workforce. While we sympathise with those affected, it's fair to say that they …
Bootnotes 8 May 2001, 13:23
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MS squeezes business for more dough with rental model
Enterprises to own the software even less than they do already
Microsoft's luckless corporate customers are about to find themselves bounced into a rental model, the bottom line being that they'll have to pay Redmond more, more regularly, and they're not going to have much of a choice. UBS Warburg analyst Don Young was yesterday trailing a "fundamental shift" in the company's licensing …
Software 8 May 2001, 14:14
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US airman charged in Korean hacking blitz. Maybe
More Airfix than Top Gun
A US Air Force airman has been charged with using his time in Korea to hack into a string of high profile web sites. At least that's the story being carried by securitywatch.com, which reports the hapless 24 year-old has been charged with hacking 113 Korean web sites. More Airfix than Top Gun, the first class airman, and …
Security 8 May 2001, 14:31
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RM wires south west schools for broadband
Secondaries done, primaries to follow
RM plc today said it had completed the first stage of the £6.2m South West Grid for Learning Project to provide a managed broadband Internet access service to 165 secondary schools through the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL). SWGfL is the first regional broadband consortium to complete installation of high speed Internet …
Telecoms 8 May 2001, 14:43
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Home Office proposes new Net pedo laws
Nothing like impractical hypocrisy
The Home Office is to propose a controversial new law that makes it a jailable offence for someone to pose as a teenager in Internet chatrooms. The proposal - to be announced today, according to the Independent - is aimed at solving the problem of paedophiles that entice or "groom" children over the Internet to meet them. …
Music and Media 8 May 2001, 14:47
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Dixons staff get windfall from Freeserve sale
£500 if you're on shopfloor, £2.1m if you're chief exec
Dixons is generously rewarding staff with shares following it flogging ISP Freeserve. If you're working the shop floor encouraging customers to take out warranties, or have a PC health check, you're in line for a £500 windfall. If you're chief exec John Clare you'll get 882,352 shares worth around £2.1 million. The share …
Business 8 May 2001, 14:55
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Le Freeswerve suffers l'email snag
Oooooohh la la
Freeserve users have been unable to access their email for the last 24 hours after the ISP suffered a hardware failure that knocked over its mail servers. The problem occurred yesterday at around 6.00 am (BST) but was fixed earlier today. The scale of the outage is not fully known but the problem is understood to lie with …
Music and Media 8 May 2001, 14:55
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Napster adds audio fingerprint filter code
Change your filenames, we'll still know what you're sharing
Napster has released an updated version of its MP3 sharing software that incorporates the technology it licensed from Relatable last month. Relatable's code is capable of working out what song is being shared whatever its filename happens to be. The software extrapolates a unique 'fingerprint' from the song's audio waveform. …
Software 8 May 2001, 15:19
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Mobiles killed the radio star
The mind buggles
Boffins in white coats reckon they've come up with a drop-dead brilliant application for mobile phones. Wireless Internet outfit - Brainstorm - has developed what it calls an "innovative SMS news monitoring service" that will deliver daily news headlines to mobile phone as text messages. The service also employs text-to-speech …
Bootnotes 8 May 2001, 15:25
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Easy CD Creator saga continues
Fix posted but questions unanswered
The creators of the Easy CD Creator software, Roxio, have posted a fix for its latest version on its Web site and a media alert (with a US helpline) on the compatibility problems between the CD recording software and Windows 2000. An official statement is expected tomorrow. However, we have since learned that an almost …
Software 8 May 2001, 16:19
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Govt seeks answers to rural broadband divide
Ah ha, but what's the question?
The British Government is to commission a report into how it can speed up the roll-out of broadband services for users in rural areas. Work is scheduled to start this summer with the findings ready for inspection by September. The Government is about to advertise for consultants to carry out the work. The outfit selected will …
Telecoms 8 May 2001, 16:27
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Intel Itanium to launch 29 May
No more 'pilot programme' stuff
Intel will officially launch Itanium on 29 May, according to sources close to one of the chip giant's customers. Interestingly, Foster, the Pentium 4-based revision to the Xeon server processor family, will be launched on the same day. Foster was to have been launched today, but Intel delayed it to the end of the month because …
Channel 8 May 2001, 16:46
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Tom in Mobo Madness
HWRoundup Colour piece
So what do you do when you're building and flogging mobos along with the world+dog. Change the colour of the board, throw in some gimmicks. Get yourself noticed. And if you've got enough bells and whistles, get yourself onto Tom's Hardware Guide, which surveys the landscape of pumped up mobos using the Intel 815 chipset. …
Hardware Roundup 8 May 2001, 20:05
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DDos attack takes down White House Parody site
Mistaken identity?
The administrator of Whitehouse.org, a site which actually parodies George W, sent a message to a Securityfocus mailing listasking for advice on how the deal with a ping flood attack that he was then suffering. Brooks Talley, of web hosting firm Frnk Technology Group, reported on Saturday that for the previous 13 hours his …
Security 8 May 2001, 20:16
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Worm puts old IIS attack in full-auto mode
Anti-PoizonB0x greetings popping up already
British TV news outfit ITN was the first major site we know of to be infiltrated by the sadmind/IIS worm, a new take on a past theme which automates attacks on Solaris and Microsoft IIS boxes, using two very old exploits. The worm first infects systems running Solaris through version 7, exploiting the two-year-old sadmind …
Security 8 May 2001, 20:40
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The Bastard goes Wireless
Episode 11 Aerial Shots
BOFH 2001: Episode 11 "It's great, isn't it?" The Boss burbles as he wheels about the place like a dervish. "What's great?" The PFY asks, STILL, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, forgetting the golden rule of always ignoring a manager when he's being a prat. "This wireless networking stuff!" The Boss responds, glowing smugly with the …
Bootnotes 8 May 2001, 21:01
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Register screensaver download
It's big, it's bad, and it's free
Well done to the team at web technology company THOS for winning our keenly contested screensaver challenge. You can download your Windows screensaver here. Save this .exe file to disk and then use it to download the screensaver which will be saved in the "Windows" directory. You can then have a look under "display" in the …
Site News 8 May 2001, 21:02
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Intel boss urges world+dog to buy more Intel kit
Build those networks now!
Telcos are struggling, the networking equipment vendors have taken a bath. Why? One reason is because they've over-invested, big time. But Intel CEO Craig Barrett wants them to carry on spending. To be more precise, he wants the communications industry to flash the cash "to continue significant levels of investment in the …
Data Networking 8 May 2001, 21:59
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Sugar's em@iler backlash backfires
His customers haven't really helped
Sir Alan Sugar's plans to hit back at a national newspaper journalist for daring to include his company's em@iler product in a list of 'techno flops', has backfired. A little. Sugar was so incensed by an article by The Independent's technology editor Charles Arthur, that he emailed all 95,000 Amstrad em@iler owners and called …
Bootnotes 8 May 2001, 22:31
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Will no-one rid me of Marketeye.com?
You are unauthorised to use this feature
In its wisdom Marketeye.com, a financial web site of some description, has registered me for its daily html newsletter. On two email accounts no less. Can I remove this unwelcome intrusion to my email inbox? No I can't. A click on the unsubscribe button provided in each email by Marketeye yields the following message. "As a …
Bootnotes 8 May 2001, 22:32
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Yahoo! Hit! By! Power! Outage!
Even Vulture West goes dark
The rolling power blackouts exacerbated by record high temperatures in Northern California continue to affect key internet businesses, including The Register. Yahoo! overnight reported that services including mail and instant messaging were disrupted. Yahoo! said an explosion in a generating electric company facility underneath …
Music and Media 8 May 2001, 23:41
