The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

17th May 2001 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • Xbox games to involve Sega, Capcom, Spielberg and Bruce Lee

    Too much too late?

    Microsoft fired off a copious salvo of press releases Wednesday making spectacular claims in support of its half-billion-dollar effort to market the Xbox games console. First up, heavyweight games developer Capcom is busy preparing three offerings for Xbox, including an 'optimized' version of the popular PS2 game "Onimusha", to …

    Software 17 May 2001, 05:15

  • Intel to announce mobile system-on-a-chip

    Banias makes its debut

    Intel will take the wraps off its comms-oriented system-on-a-chip product that merges CPU, memory and data-processing DSP technology onto a single slab of silicon. Based on Intel's XScale processor - derived from ARM's StrongARM technology - the chip will include Flash RAM and will be aimed at wireless comms products, such as …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 10:12

  • Win2k SP2 finally out, but problems with security hotfixes?

    And hibernation on some notebooks

    Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 finally went official yesterday, after several weird days where it wasn't official, but you could get it through the various links being assembled on the Microsoft site and elsewhere. The appearance of SP1 in the "new downloads" section of microsoft.com yesterday seems to have been a placeholder for …

    Software 17 May 2001, 10:26

  • HP profits plummet 66 per cent

    Q3 forecasts trimmed

    Hewlett-Packard has cut sales targets for the current quarter, while reporting a 66 per cent profit drop in Q2. The US vendor yesterday recorded net income of $319 million for the quarter ended April 30, compared to $935 million for the same period the previous year. Revenue dropped four per cent to $11.6 billion. HP blamed …

    Business 17 May 2001, 13:41

  • System Builders Summit, Monte Carlo PC makers make Intel squirm over Rambus, chip shortages

    System builders seem keen to make Intel squirm over Rambus'defeat in court. Delegates at the IFE/System Builder Summit in Monte Carlo this week had the opportunity to stick it to Intel during a Q&A post-sales pitch, and then gave AMD and VIA the chance to look smug after their own presentation. But Mark Beckford, Intel's …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 13:41

  • System Builders Summit, Monte Carlo Cheap German notebooks use desktop components

    What is a good way to slash notebook prices and grab market share? Well, one way is to build them using desktop components like German outfit Gericom. (How weird is that name - sneering xenophobic Billy Britons couldn`t have come up with a better one for a discount German PC manufacturer.) The next step is to punt them out …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 13:41

  • Evesham to slash support costs with Bigfix

    Lot less bother

    UK system builder Evesham.com is preloading software on its PCs which is designed to slash its support costs by 25 per cent. The software, from US company Bigfix, is intended to alert users to any hardware bugs, security issues, new software patches, BIOS updates etc. appropriate for their machine. It then directs the user to …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 13:41

  • Tiscali to axe 300 jobs in UK

    When three become one

    Tiscali is to axe 300 British jobs within the next fortnight as part of its bid fuse three ISPs into one UK operation. The Register understands that the scale of the job cuts in the UK is down to an ultimatum delivered by the Italian telco in which it said it would close down any part of the company that wasn't profitable by Q4 …

    e-Business 17 May 2001, 13:41

  • Oops! Tayside cops refer kids to Russian porn site

    Anti-drugs campaign backfires

    Scottish police have been forced to rethink an anti-drugs campaign after discovering they were sending kids to a porn Web site. Tayside Police had handed out thousands of leaflets to children in primary and secondary schools in the area, recommending they log onto the site to learn about the dangers of drugs. The campaign went …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 13:54

  • Easy CD Creator problems just won't go away

    Users take issue with Roxio's explanation

    Since our last article on the compatibility problems that Roxio's Easy CD Creator software is having with Win2k machines, we've received nearly a hundred emails disputing the company's official explanation. Roxio told us that the problem with the software was due solely to compatibility problems between the TakeTwo element of …

    Business 17 May 2001, 13:59

  • Click here for the Prescott punch

    Updated Relive that magic moment

    Well, the election was threatening to be one of the most tedious ever held - until yesterday. Tony Blair was barracked by a furious Sharron Storer and looked decidedly uneasy, Jack Straw was slow-clapped by the police federation and Little Willy Hague had to find refuge in his car. The politicians came to mix it with the …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 14:00

  • Intel, BT partner on next-gen mobile devices, services

    Satanic duo team up

    British Telecom is joining Intel - now there's a marriage made in heaven - to create mobile devices based on the chip maker's upcoming comms-oriented system-on-a-chip. The chip - codenamed Banias - will form a key part of Intel's Personal Client Architecture, which BT is backing. BT's input will be to develop infrastructure …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 14:16

  • BT's ADSL goes tits up North

    And they want to charge more?

    Users of BT's broadband ADSL service Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of England have been unable to use the service for last 24 hours because of major technical problems. Reports suggest that more than 30 exchanges in the north of the British Isles have been hit by the problem. One reader wrote in and said: "For the last …

    Telecoms 17 May 2001, 14:25

  • Sony, Toshiba team on 0.1, 0.07 micron fab tech

    Selling Cell?

    Sony and Toshiba are to co-develop 0.10 and 0.07 micron chip fabrication processes, the two companies said today. Oddly enough, they said it back in March too, when the pair of them, along with IBM, announced their joint programme to develop a new broadband-oriented microprocessor, codenamed Cell. Cell is set to be fabbed at 0 …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 14:48

  • Cracked or not? WinXP protection war hots up

    Did the Dark Side win? Which one is the Dark Side anyway?

    Following our piece on Windows XP copy protection yesterday (MS tips its hand on WinXP protection system) we've received some interesting emails, and there may also have been developments, one of these being that a new build of XP, 2475, may have leaked. We'll get back to that one, but the question of whether or not the …

    Software 17 May 2001, 15:06

  • ICANN releases .biz and .info details

    Finally

    ICANN has finally given details of the new top-level domains that have been an age in coming. Well, not all the details, just the details for .biz and .info. The other five are in the pipeline. The sudden announcement came as a shock to Internet watchers who had nodded off while waiting for ICANN to do something other than line …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 15:20

  • Motorola ARM-based Palm chip to go 0.13 micron in 2002

    Makes of faster, more energy efficient PDAs - if Palm can come up with a 32-bit OS

    Motorola will shrink its upcoming ARM-based additions to the Dragonball processor family to 0.13 micron next year. Dragonball CPUs power most of the world's PDAs, in particular those based on the Palm OS. Motorola unveiled its partnership with ARM late last year. The first fruit of the alliance will be a 32-bit ARM-based chip …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 15:53

  • IT consultant denies £25m Web site blackmail

    Committed to trial

    IT consultant Graham Browne is to be tried at the Old Bailey in September for attempting to blackmail an unidentified financial institution for £25 million over weak security, Private Eye reports. Browne denies an alleged threat to compromise the security of Barclays' Barclaycard operation. The blackmail demands were made …

    Security 17 May 2001, 16:42

  • Hoax Love Rat site dupes the Press

    CheatingScum.com

    A Web site which claimed to expose two-timing love cheats has turned out to be hoax. The sting was run by British Internet magazine .net to show just how easy it is to get publicity for Web sites. With just a press release and no marketing budget, the hacks behind CheatingScum.com managed to get press coverage in The Mirror, …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 16:55

  • EU inches toward PC recycling levy

    WEEE wends way

    Europe this week moved one step closer to forcing computer manufacturers to pay to recycle products. The Waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive aims to tackle the amount of waste dumped into the environment by consumers. On Tuesday the directive passed its first reading in the European Parliament. …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 16:59

  • Why wouldn't a system builder want to cut supports costs?

    System Builders Summit, Monte Carlo Because the premium rate number is good business

    Software vendor Bigfix is searching for an alternative way to sell its technology, an application which searches for and identifies PC problems, to UK system builders. Its usual sales pitch is that the software can cut support costs. The software checks a users PC for problems and also communicates with the user when viruses …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 16:59

  • Brits spend 25 minutes per day surfing at home

    Less than the Germans, more than the French

    Only one in five Brits who use the Net at home spend more than ten hours surfing per month, according to a survey out today. These 'heavy users' of the Internet account for more than 70 per cent of all time spent online in the UK, the Jupiter MMXI report states. Most of these keen surfers are men (68 per cent), and their …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 17:01

  • Splat the MP game: it's a corker

    How to chuck eggs at politicians without getting punched

    Some creative folk have been inspired by Bruiser Prescott's antics yesterday and knocked up a Splat the MP game, which you can play here. The most important thing though is that not only has PanLogic put its funny cap on but it has also made a game worth playing. Well, for one day anyway. The scene is the House of Commons and …

    Bootnotes 17 May 2001, 17:02

  • Gameplay division sold for £1

    Company being broken up

    Gameplay plc has sold its retail sales games operation in the UK and the Nordics for less than the cost of half a pint of beer. The Nordic Boxed Games business was sold for Swedish Krona 1 (7 pence). The UK Boxed Games business was sold for £1. The move, announced today, is one of a raft of measures that signals Gameplay plc's …

    Games Industry 17 May 2001, 17:12

  • Dell confirms AMD Athlon 4 notebook release?

    'It may be July,' company e-mail states

    Dell may have inadvertently confirmed that it is indeed to offer an notebook PC based on AMD's Mobile Athlon 4 processor. Earlier this week, analyst Eric Ross of Thomas Wiesel Partners advised investors of Dell's move, citing sources reliable enough to calm his initial scepticism. Dell remains the last major PC supplier to …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 19:01

  • ‘Friendly’ Cheese worm reveals many compromised boxes

    And it's a tiny step from being highly destructive, too

    The so-called 'cheese worm' has attracted a great deal of attention in the past 24 hours for its benign payload, which seeks to mend Linux boxes infected with at least one version of the li0n worm (which exploits a BIND vulnerability). However, it also demonstrates that there's a large number of already-compromised machines …

    Music and Media 17 May 2001, 20:07

  • Computacenter loses GCAT monopoly

    Ecommerce for the masses

    Computacenter loses Govt. GCAT monopoly published on: The government has removed Computacenter's monopoly for supplying products through its GCAT ecommerce procurement system, CW360.com reports. Computacenter will instead be just one of 26 resellers with supply rights. Colin Brown, Computacenter's government sector director, …

    Channel 17 May 2001, 21:00

  • HWRoundup Top heavy on AMD today

    Round up the chimps

    This is our first namecheck for GotApex.com. Hello and welcome. First up, check its interesting Asus A7M266 AMD 760 DDR motherboard review. And then to the site's look at the Leadtek WinFast Geforce 3 . The future of Silicon? Ace's Hardware links to this article concerning a new possible semiconductor which uses nitrogen. …

    Hardware Roundup 17 May 2001, 21:51