The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

12th July 2001 Archive

Browse by publication date, or search the site.

  • MS takes $2.6bn hit on cable, telecoms stocks

    Maffei's revenge...

    Microsoft's cable and telecoms spending spree of a couple of years ago has finally reared up and bitten the company. It said yesterday that it expected to report a $2.6 billion loss on its investment portfolio in its fourth quarter, quantities of the stuff it spent money on having apparently gone through the floor. Microsoft …

    Software 12 Jul 2001, 09:55

  • Motorola posts loss, declares war on Turks

    About that $2 billion we loaned you...

    Motorola reported revenues of $7.5 billion down from $9.3 billion in the same period last year, and an overall loss of $232 million. Excluding adjustments the loss was $759 million. Semiconductors were Motorola's poorest performing business, but the company was upbeat about its handsets despite weakening demand. Motorola said …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 10:01

  • Samsung is sampling 300MHz DDR SDRAM

    Says it goes like 2.4Gbps clappers

    Samsung is sampling its fastest DDR SDRAM chip. This runs at 300MHz and offers a data transfer rate of 600Mbps leading to an operating speed of 2.4Gbps, the worlds fastest according to the manufacturer. The memory goes into mass production in Q3. It comes as 128Mb in 4Mb x 32 configuration. Samsung announced a 300MHz DDR SDRAM …

    Channel 12 Jul 2001, 10:30

  • STMicro posts $164m loss

    Sales forecast to drop in Q3

    STMicroelectronics has posted a loss of $164.5 million for Q2, while warning that sales are likely to drop in the current quarter. The loss at the European chipmaker compares to a profit of $176.3 million for the same period the previous year. Sales dropped to $1.59 billion from $1.88 billion, with the company forecasting that …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 10:44

  • Yahoo! Q2! Revenues! Fall!

    Opzoomer! appointed! MD! Yahoo! Europe!

    Terry Semel - Yahoo!'s new chairman and CEO - is one heck of an optimist. Announcing a $90 million Q2 fall in revenue compared to last year, he couldn't help but look on the bright side. Said Semel: "After two months of being at Yahoo! and delving into the business, I believe more than ever that Yahoo! has an incredibly strong …

    e-Business 12 Jul 2001, 10:45

  • Can WinXP Product Activation be reverse engineered?

    It's beginning to look possible...

    When Fully Licensed GmbH published details of its analysis of Microsoft's Windows Product Activation (WPA) system earlier this week, it had deliberately removed a small piece of the picture. The company made a fully-working executable of its XPDec utility available for download along with the XPDec source code, but it removed …

    Software 12 Jul 2001, 11:38

  • M'Soft and Intel scramble into ethical share index

    Deemed socially responsible by FTSE. Are they sure?

    Microsoft, Intel, Dixons and BT are among the companies that have scrambled their way into a new ethical share index series. The FTSE4GOOD indices, a joint venture between the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange, are meant to include socially responsible companies in European, US and worldwide markets. Companies are …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 11:38

  • BT threatened with 75,000 strike action

    Union angry about Indian outsourcing trial

    BT has been threatened with strike action over a trial outsourcing scheme it is running with a company in India. The ten-week trial will see Indian workers in Mumbai take on back-office data entry tasks. If deemed successful, BT says the move will only affect 25 workers in the UK, all of whom will be retrained for other jobs at …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 11:40

  • PDA Psioneer mulls licensing hardware, IP

    Wound licking and navel gazing

    Psion is considering licensing hardware designs and other intellectual property, as it licks its chops after a bloody retreat from the consumer PDA market it pioneered. Yesterday Psion put future plans for consumer PDAs on ice, sacked 250 of its 1300-odd staff, and announced a focus on the industrial and education niches. "We …

    Personal 12 Jul 2001, 12:03

  • Anyone fancy watching French football on their phone?

    No? Well that buggers up Orange's 3G plans then

    Orange is very excited to announce today that it has signed a seven-year content deal with the French football league to give it exclusive access to games/facts etc for 3G phones. Ain't that great? Well, yes and no. Or more precisely, no. Why hasn't it got the rights to English football matches? Ah, I see, because one of its …

    Data Networking 12 Jul 2001, 12:07

  • IRC network comes under denial of service attack

    Effing annoying for EFNet users

    One of the largest IRC (Internet Relay Chat) networks, EFNet, has come under a denial of service attack, according to reports posted on the organisation's Web site. According to postings to EFNet.org the attacks started late on Tuesday and have resulted in a number of organisations, such as Cable & Wireless INS and University's …

    Security 12 Jul 2001, 12:12

  • UK manufacturer launches stool-sampling cyberjohn

    Headline update for our US readers Twyford completely takes the piss

    UK toilet manufacturer Twyford yesterday placed the humble bog at the cutting edge of 21st century crappercraft with the world's first e-enabled health-monitoring cyberloo. The company describes the Versatile Interactive Pan (VIP) as a "major breakthrough" in toilet technology. The designer dunny incorporates a voice-activated …

    Bootnotes 12 Jul 2001, 13:36

  • UK data protection complaints increase

    Blame the Net - everyone else does

    More and more people have complained about potential breaches of their personal privacy online, according to a report from the Information Commissioner. Last year, 8,875 members of the public complained about alleged breaches of data protection rules - an increase of around a third on the previous year. Ten years ago, the …

    Music and Media 12 Jul 2001, 13:41

  • Californian space tax scheme kyboshed

    Commonsense prevails

    The frankly barking plan by the Los Angeles County taxmen to charge companies for satellites in outer space as "moveable property" has been shot down by state tax officials. The State Board of Equalization (eh?) voted 5-0 in favour of barring any taxes involving property that isn't actually within our atmosphere. Which would …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 14:03

  • Samsung SyncMaster 151MP

    Review Flat-panel monitor

    Flat-panel display prices may be falling, but if you want something above the norm that offers a few extras you still have to pay the price for it. Samsung’s 151MP is not only gorgeous to look at, it also comes with a built-in TV tuner, which means it can double up as a television. However, all this does add up to almost £900 …

    Personal 12 Jul 2001, 14:38

  • Baltimore Technologies faces takeover action

    By nobby nobody firm looking for publicity

    A little known encryption firm called Chantilley has made a take over approach to the board of Baltimore Technologies, Europe's largest security firm. The move came as a surprise to Baltimore because Chantilley sent us a press release on the subject before successfully contacting the firm. A spokesman for Baltimore said that …

    Business 12 Jul 2001, 15:08

  • Napster in a coma

    I know, I know, it's serious

    Judge Whatsherface (Marilyn Hall Patel) has ruled that Napster will have to remain dead until it can assure him that no copyrighted tracks at all will remain on the file-exchange servers. Since this is like counting grains of sand on a beach, the future of Napster does not look good (until that is, it is run entirely by a music …

    Music and Media 12 Jul 2001, 15:16

  • Redlined Word doc prematurely reveals UK govt policy

    Do I have to speak to these tossers? 'I'm so delighted to be here...'

    The perils of making forward looking statements via Word files have been highlighted after a UK government department inadvertently revealed government policy hidden in the document's revision history. Mandarins at the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions distributed a file containing internal comments made …

    Software 12 Jul 2001, 16:12

  • Text a cab in Dublin

    Updated Sounds crap, but this is actually a really good idea

    From next month, you'll be able to summon a cab in Dublin by simply sending a text message. E-Taxis has 1,000 new cars ready to hit the streets and life will never be the same again, it told The Guardian. The idea is that you send an SMS message to E-Taxis' number. Triangulation is then used to check out the location and the …

    Data Networking 12 Jul 2001, 16:39

  • US dotcom keeps ownership of SouthAfrica.com

    South Africa the country backs down

    The nation of South Africa has abandoned its fight to own the domain name southafrica.com. The ownership battle began last year, when South African officials tried to wrestle the domain name from US dotcom Virtual Countries, which registered southafrica.com in 1995. Virtual Countries owns a stack of country name-based sites, …

    Music and Media 12 Jul 2001, 17:35