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12th June 2001 Archive

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  • Security geek developing WinXP raw socket exploit

    Has Steve Gibson finally lost his mind?

    Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!    -- Matthew 3:2 Security specialist Steve Gibson has created quite a fracas with his increasingly vocal opposition to the raw-socket connectivity planned for Windows-XP, and upon which he bases predictions of impending chaos for the entire Internet, so he's decided to exploit the …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 05:36

  • PC downturn hits Northamber

    Sales, profits worse than expected

    Northamber, the pan-UK distie, says that sales will be £20m less than previously expected. The company is now forecasting full year sales of £300m approx. It blames a "marked downturn in demand" for PCs for the shortfall. Northamber is, historically, IBM and HP's biggest wholesaler in the UK. It reports that the first three …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 08:39

  • Rage triumphs with Money Machine

    £20m credit lifeline

    Rage Software, the British games software house, has obtained a £20m credit line -enough funds it says to "fully pursue its strategy of self-publishing". At the same time, it has announced plans to close studios in Huddersfield and Leeds. The credit package consists of £15m equity credit from GEM Global Yield Fund and a £5m …

    Games Industry 12 Jun 2001, 08:56

  • Psion goes Swiss with wireless LAN venture

    Talk to the hand

    Psion has created a new services division to widen the appeal of its industrial and enterprise Teklogix division. Belonging to the 'looks really familiar' school of names, Signa Services (yes, that's really an 'n') is being pitched by Psion as "the only hardware-neutral professional services organisation." Teklogix, already a …

    Software 12 Jun 2001, 09:00

  • VIA CEO wants USB 2.0 killed off

    Make it disappear

    VIA president and CEO Wenchi Chen is calling on companies to bury the USB 2.0 connectivity technology. "Our message to partners is if together we can make this [USB 2.0] disappear, the better it will be for us," he said as part of his speech to launch VIA's C3 processor at the Computex tradeshow in Taiwan. "It is confusing for …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 09:06

  • Apple preps Mac OS 9.2 successor

    Mac Rumour Roundup After Moonlight, Starlight - Streetlight to follow?

    As Mac OS 9.2, codenamed Moonlight, nears its final release, Apple is working on its successor, Starlight, according to sources cited by Think Secret. Said sources could, however, provide no details on what the release will contain, beyond the now standard 'Classic improvements'. Think Secret points to the ongoing streamlining …

    Mac Channel 12 Jun 2001, 09:24

  • Seagate leapfrogs data density rivals

    Games hard drive vendors play

    Seagate is claiming a world areal density record with the latest U Series hard drive. This hold ups to 80GB on two platters - equating to an areal density of 32.6GB per square inch. You should start seeing plenty of these drives around fairly soon - the new U Series is already in the distribution channel. The U Series HDD is …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 09:36

  • Time Computers maverick staff site is here

    Updated Welcome back tahirmohsan.co.uk

    If you want to check out the highly entertaining website, which airs the views of current and ex Time Computers' employees, click here. The site used to operate under the URL tahirmohsan.co.uk, but Time Computers has grabbed back that domain. This is no surprise because Tahir Mohsan is the name of Time's founder. [Update At …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 09:51

  • Douglas Alexander is the new e-minister

    Who hell he?

    The new e-minister has been named and it's the MP for the safe seat of Paisley South, Scotland, Douglas Alexander. Who the hell is he you ask? More importantly, what does he know about the Internet? Well, he is a very bright 34-year-old ex-lawyer who is New Labour through and through, a protégé of Gordon Brown and the man who …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 10:16

  • AMD preps slimline Athlons for slimline PCs

    Slim form-factor chips limit power draw to 35W

    AMD is set to release a series of Athlon and Duron processors aimed at power-limited applications called Slim Form Factor (SFF) parts. The chips, based on both the new Palomino and older Thunderbird cores, will draw a maximum of 35W, with the core voltage modified to ensure consistent power draw characteristics at any clock …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 10:31

  • Motorola unveils 200MHz ARM-based Palm processor

    Dragonball MX1 has built-in Bluetooth too

    Motorola has officially announced the ARM-based addition to its Palm-powering Dragonball processor family. The Dragonball MX1 is based on the ARM209T core and will be capable of running at up to 200MHz, considerably faster than existing Dragonballs based on Motorola's old 680x0 CPU family, which currently maxes out at 33MHz. …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 10:55

  • Verbatim's got CD-Rs certified for 24x recording

    Updated Burn a CD in 3 minutes

    Verbatim is claiming its got the industry's first CD-R discs certified for full-speed 24x recording. Its press statement says that "in addition to providing highly reliable audio, video and data recordings at speeds of up to 3.5 MBps with the new 24x drives and 3.0MBps with the new 20x drives, the media can be used with …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 11:02

  • HP slashes Intel server prices

    So what was Carly on about last week?

    HP is shaving prices on Intel-based NetServer prices from 3 per cent to 22 per cent in the US, CRN reports. And it's torching its components price list. New prices vary from 5 per cent to 51 per cent cheaper than before. The cuts take effect immediately. HP says it will maintain margins as it is passing on component price cuts …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 11:07

  • AMD ‘on track’ for 30% marketshare, claims exec

    Signs are good across the world, says Chimpzilla

    AMD reckons it really will achieve its goal of a 30 per cent share of the worldwide microprocessor market by the end of the year. "We are on track to meet our corporate objective of market share of 30 per cent by the end of this year," said Wee Yep Yin, an AMD Far East marketing manager. "We are seeing a good sign that we are …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 11:18

  • Hynix boosts DDR SDRAM production

    Wants 50% of the market

    Hynix is increasing its DDR SDRAM production with its eye on a 50 per cent share of the market by the end of the year, the company said yesterday. Two of the chip maker's single data rate SDRAM production lines at Inchon, South Korea will be converted to churn out DDR chips, starting at some point in the second half of 2001. …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 11:41

  • EU to investigate anti-trust Internet music companies

    But we've always controlled the market, say record companies

    The European Union is investigating whether the big five record companies' online music ventures are involved in anti-competitive activity. Since the capitulation of Napster last week, the future of Internet music delivery has basically been put into the hands of just two companies: MusicNet, run by AOL Time Warner, EMI and …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 11:49

  • Rambus damns fraud trial as a ‘miscarriage of justice’

    Rambus vs Infineon Demands a retrial

    Rambus has asked the US court to re-try its action against Infineon on the grounds that the jury's support of the chip maker's fraud allegations against it was perverse. Rambus' motion a request for "judgement as a matter of law". Essentially, its argument is that "no reasonable jury" would have sided with Infineon's claim that …

    Channel 12 Jun 2001, 12:09

  • Blair's hired the wrong e-minister by mistake!

    He meant to give the job to his sister, Wendy

    Tony Blair has made a terrible error in hiring Douglas Alexander as e-minister - he actually meant to hire Douglas' sister Wendy. That at least can be the only explanation as to why Douglas was given the high-ranking job when he knows next to nothing about the Internet, while his sister Wendy, four years his senior, holds the …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 12:19

  • NEC Versa UltraLite

    Review It's based on Transmeta's 600MHz Crusoe

    April's PC Advisor saw Transmeta's Crusoe mobile processor enter the market with more of a whimper than a bang. After tempting the PC market with its claims of high performance twinned with hugely increased battery life, it was undermined by the limitations of current benchmarking methods. There is no accurate method of …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 12:26

  • What, exactly, is the point of TechWeb?

    Answer: Content Packaging

    TechWeb has gone live with its rethink on the IT portal. The design is uncluttered and the content is very corporate ComputerWorld territory. But the inability to track news by day (it's organised by content category) is frustrating. And there is no original content. TechWeb's role in life is now to be a "content packager" for …

    e-Business 12 Jun 2001, 12:46

  • MemoWatch Lucent in fiscal clampdown

    Stop eating, it's expensive

    The Vulture Central MemoWatch team recently published an internal email from Lucent's Henry Schacht illustrating the company's money woes. Hot on its heels comes this explicit offering. Financial troubles? Us?: -----Original Message----- Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 11:53 AM Subject: WNG NewsFlash: Letter from Brewington …

    Bootnotes 12 Jun 2001, 13:56

  • World Online/Tiscali sued for £10m

    Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch

    Online personal finance outfit Globalnet Financial is suing Tiscali subsidiary WorldOnline for £10 million. A writ issued in the high court claims that WorldOnline inflated subscriber figures and the number of page impressions it received when both companies signed a deal in September 1999. Globalnet also claims that …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 13:59

  • Martians invade Canada

    Arctic stepping stone for conquest of red planet

    The Xybernaut Corporation, of Fairfax, Virginia, has announced that it will be providing mobile wearable computing systems for a future conquest of Mars. The company's kit will be field tested as part of the 2001 Haughton-Mars Project (HMP). The NASA and SETI funded project is intended to test men and machines in …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 14:02

  • 429 million people use the Net

    It's sure getting crowded

    Some 429 million people have Net access in the world according to the latest Nielsen/NetRatings stats. The figures showed that the US and Canada make up 41 per cent of the world's Net users although this North American domination is being eroded. Europe, the Middle East and Africa accounts for 27 per cent, followed by Asia …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 14:31

  • Colombia makes bid for domain domination

    Going to make the most of .co

    Colombia is planning to become the new sexy alternative to the top-ranking .com domain. Its owns the .co ccTLD and is looking to make the most of it. The South American country has finally recognised the value of its .co TLD. Well, more precisely La Universidad de Los Andes has realised its value. The university currently …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 15:13

  • NEC's selling 61-inch plasma displays

    Sod CAD/CAM - play Quake III

    NEC is starting selling monster sized 61-inch plasma display monitors in Japan from 23 July. The company says Europe and the US will get the displays 'soon' and it expects to sell 8,000 units of the PlasmaSync 61 MP1 by March 2002. The products feature a 1.05 million pixel monitor (1,365 by 768 pixels) with pixel pitch of 0. …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 15:40

  • Net users are saddos

    Responsible for 40 per cent drop in being sociable

    People prefer to stay at home rather than go out and enjoy themselves, claims a new report by Telewest. Don't ask us how, but they say people go out on the beer 100 times a year instead of the 160 times a year they used to two years ago - a drop in being sociable of some 40 per cent. And what's this got to do with Telewest …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 16:42

  • Nokia shares tumble 20 per cent on profit warning

    Brings down telecoms sector with it

    Nokia's shares have dropped over 20 per cent today following an unexpected profit warning from the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer. The company said sales growth for Q2 was going to be "somewhat below" 10 per cent. It had originally predicted 20 per cent growth. Its chief exec Jorma Ollila said: "We believe this …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 16:44

  • BT and Deutsche Telekom announce 3G sharing scheme

    Next gen mobile world just got more complicated

    BT and Deutsche Telekom announced this morning they will share their 3G infrastructures in both Germany and the UK, saving them each between £1.2 billion and £2 billion. More savings will come with lower operating costs and the deal will also enable faster roll-out of the next generation phones (once, that is, they get the …

    Data Networking 12 Jun 2001, 16:48

  • Dell is ditching 275 UK and Irish staff

    'Aggressive management of operating expenses'

    Dell is canning 275 workers in the UK and Ireland. This follows the company announcing it was kicking out 4,000 employees' worldwide back in May. In a statement the company said: "This decision supports Dell's global focus on aggressive management of operating expenses." Half the jobs will go from Dell's European HQ near …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 17:21

  • Palm to split – official

    We just don't know how, or when

    Palm CEO Carl Yankowski took a step towards resolving the company's Apple-like dilemma today by saying that Palm would rid itself of either its hardware or software business. He just wouldn't say which. Speaking at the 12th Annual Bear Stearns Technology Conference, Yankowski said one of these two options would be definitely …

    Software 12 Jun 2001, 18:15

  • HP sharpens low-power server Blades

    Chipzilla flavoured

    HP will roll out kit based on the server buzzword du jour, "blade" technology, later this year. We'll have to wait for Q4 for speeds, feeds and density forecasts, but it doesn't look likely that HP will be adopting Transmeta's Crusoe processors. Brian Cox, HP's product line manager for high density servers told us today:- " …

    Business 12 Jun 2001, 19:02

  • WinXP IE6 spells death for Doubleclick – and a boost for MSN?

    There goes another air supply...

    Internet Explorer 6 will spell doom for Doubleclick, and by some strange coincidence will provide a massive boost for Microsoft's own MSN/.NET activities, according to a source at a major international financial organisation. The organisation in question, says our source, has read the runes, noted that the Doubleclick tracking …

    Software 12 Jun 2001, 19:07

  • US Supremes: Hi-tech surveillance is out

    Warrants required for TEMPEST-style snooping

    The US Supreme Court ruled that nosy cops and Feds must obtain a warrant to carry out remote surveillance of a suspect's house by means of radiation detection apparatus, according to a five/four decision issued Tuesday. The key issue for the majority was the overriding sanctity of the private residence, which is both self- …

    Media 12 Jun 2001, 20:09