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26th July 2001 Archive

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  • Gibson/Greene debate ‘good parts’ t'script

    Reg reader chucks out the dry bits

    Reader Thomas Johnsen reports that he "downloaded the 3MB sound clip [of the Gibson/Greene debate] and listened to it all. For the benefit of all your readers I have made a transcript which you may put on your fine Web site. This way people with slow connections don't need to download the big file." [begin transcript] Host: …

    Security 26 Jul 2001, 03:04

  • Compaq gets clobbered

    Q2 profits down 81%

    Compaq has reported a Q2 profit fall of 81 per cent - $67 million down from $362 million a year earlier. Sales slumped by 17 per cent in the period to $8.45 billion. Compaq's PC division suffered which is unsurprising. Sales fell to $3.82 billion from $4.91 billion, but as analysts Dataquest revealed last week, Compaq's unit …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 09:10

  • Self-proclaimed hero of the people takes on Dixons

    'I'm not a cybersquatter,' he says

    Self-proclaimed hero of the people Abu Abdullaah has vowed to continue his battle against Dixons' customer service, despite losing his protest Web site. Dixons-online.co.uk was set up to let Dixons customers vent their spleen over the retailer. In addition to readers' letters, the site advised shoppers on their rights, …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 09:39

  • Infineon ponders makes 5000 job cuts

    Updated DRAM division safe, apparently

    Infineon has confirmed earlier reports that it plans to cut up to 15 per cent of the company's workforce - 5000 staff in total. The scheme was discussed at a supervisory board meeting yesterday. Infineon's goal is to save one billion euro ($882 million) over the next 18 months. The move follows the company's Q3 figures, …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 10:33

  • GUS online sales grow threefold

    Not including Jungle.com business

    Catalogue retailer Great Universal Stores, the parent company of Jungle.com and Argos, has said its ecommerce sales have jumped threefold. GUS's online revenues were £21 million for the three months to 30 June, more than three times the figure for the period a year earlier. But interestingly these figures don't include Jungle. …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 10:41

  • PS2 Linux Kit heading for the US?

    Express yourself

    The official PS2 Linux Kit website for Sony Computer Entertainment America consists of the following lines of text: "PS2 Linux Kit is only available in Japan" "The Linux Kit is designed exclusively for the Japanese model of "PS2", SCPH-10000, SCPH-15000 and SCPH-18000. Since these models are for domestic use in Japan, the …

    Games Industry 26 Jul 2001, 10:44

  • BT profits slump 71 per cent

    Monster telco hits the trough

    BT has released profits of £186 million, down 71 per cent year-on-year. Revenues actually went up 15 per cent to £5.4 billion but thanks to a doubling of debt interest repayment, losses at its European mobile companies and Concert's ongoing money burning, the profits are lower than we've ever seen. Shares fell initially by 4 …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 10:45

  • Merde! Alcatel posts massive loss

    20,000 workers face la guillotine

    Alcatel reported second quarter losses that saw it dropping into the red for the first time since 1995, continuing the run of bad results from major telecommunications equipment manufacturers. The French firm recorded a loss of 3.1 billion euros ($2.73 billion) compared with second quarter net income of 344 million ($303 …

    Data Networking 26 Jul 2001, 11:00

  • Sony chops yearly profit forecast

    Electronics bad, PS2 sales ramping up

    Sony has cut its profit forecast for the year after reporting lean times in the electronics business in Q1. The Japanese giant recorded a net loss of 30.1 billion yen ($244m million) for the three months ended June 30. This compared to a loss of 92 billion yen for the same period the previous year. Sales grew 4.4 per cent to 1 …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 11:38

  • Hitachi to ditch CRT monitors

    Updated Everyone wants flats

    Hitachi is stopping making CRT monitors, and will just concentrate on flat panel displays. It will stop production by the end of 2001. The company said "the sluggishness of the desktop PC market has reduced demand for CRTs for PC monitors, leading to a sharp fall in prices. Moreover, with future demand expected to shift to LCD …

    Personal 26 Jul 2001, 11:41

  • TSMC profits plunge 98%

    Sales down 17%

    TSMC is betting on a major recovery in the semiconductor market over the next six months to save it from plummeting profits and spiralling costs. The world's largest chip foundry today posted net income of NT$312 million ($8.97 million), down 98 per cent on the NT$13.35 billion it posted this time last year. Earnings fell from …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 11:43

  • France Telecom posts rum revenues

    Up 33 per cent, shares up 3.2 per cent

    On the same day that BT has posted a 71 per cent drop in profits but a 15 per cent increase in revenues, France Telecom has jumped in with a 33 per cent increase in revenues for its first six months and picked up a 3.2 per cent increase in share price. It hasn't released full figures though so we don't know what its profits …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 11:47

  • Hewlett-Packard to can an extra 6000 jobs

    80,000 staffers have agreed to unpaid leave

    Hewlett-Packard is going to can an extra 6,000 workers and says it expects sales to fall 14-16 per cent year on year in its Q3, ending 31 July. Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief exec, has said revenues from the consumer business will be down 24 per cent. Her good news is that the outsourcing and consulting businesses are …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 12:36

  • NTL raises profit predictions for next 2 years

    Broadband customers grew 74% last quarter

    NTL has upped its earnings estimates for the next two years after reporting a rise in Q2 sales. The British cable TV outfit saw sales grow to £634 million for the three months ended June 2001, compared to £614 million for the same period the previous year. Last week the company announced its profit for the second quarter early …

    Broadband 26 Jul 2001, 12:40

  • Cisco cajoles small biz into using the Internet

    Buy networking kit to make yourself rich plea

    One in four smaller businesses in UK regard the Internet as a key element in their business strategy, according to research commissioned by Cisco Systems, which brands less enthusiastic firms as 'laggards'. According to a survey carried out by IDC, 'Fastrackers', or firms that make more use of the Internet, are experiencing …

    e-Business 26 Jul 2001, 12:50

  • US boffin enables high speed, non-volatile CPUs

    Easy-to-apply 'high dieletric constant' material found

    A US researcher has discovered how to furnish the circuits in a microprocessor with super-efficient insulators. The discovery will not only make even higher clock speeds possible but may allow chip companies to build processors that can pick up work exactly where they left off when the power was pulled. Chip giant Motorola has …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 13:38

  • Pioneer DVR-A03

    Review DVD-RW drive

    DVD is currently hyped as the storage medium of the future. Perhaps so, but it has remained prohibitively expensive until recently. Pioneer's DVR-A03 is the first DVD-RW drive to arrive in the our Test Centre, so we were keen to assess the merits of this emerging technology. A quick glance at the specifications reveals the …

    Personal 26 Jul 2001, 13:43

  • Apple cuts old Power Mac G4 prices

    But not enough, say resellers

    Apple UK has cut the price of the Power Mac G4. Not the sleek new Quicksilver model, unveiled at Macworld Expo New York, you understand, but the older, Graphite version. It seems that it has rather a lot of them left unsold. To get rid of them, it's knocking up to £450 of the price of certain models and hoping the Mac dealers …

    Mac Channel 26 Jul 2001, 14:00

  • VIA to take C3 into Tualatin territory

    Pin-compatible version coming

    VIA has hit on an interesting scheme to leverage Intel's plan to phase out the Pentium III processor sooner rather than later: offer a version of its own x86-compatible C3 chip that's pin-compatible with the 0.13 micron Intel Tualatin CPU. VIA's next C3 revision, codenamed Ezra, is due to ship this quarter. Ezra is fabbed at 0. …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 14:36

  • Novatel punts out wireless CDPD Palm modem

    US packet data price war looms

    Europeans may take great glee at the fragmented US mobile phone coverage, but the marvelous always-on CDPD packet data service is an exception. Even though it's based on analog technology that Europe turned off ages ago, CDPD has been a measured success, thanks to shrewd all-you-can eat pricing. And CDPD's 19.6kbps speed works …

    Personal 26 Jul 2001, 14:41

  • Topless tart gets fiesty over Net download record

    Worried about Nora Batty no doubt

    The battle over the most downloaded woman on the Internet has got hotter with American slapper Danni Ashe declaring her claim to the throne and dissing other international wannabes. Danni takes this very seriously as you can see from her Web site which lists how many times more downloaded she is over every other woman in the …

    Media 26 Jul 2001, 14:59

  • 7200RPM are the platters that matter for Western Digital

    Losses, sales are down

    Hard drive boys Western Digital have reported Q4 revenues of $456 million, down on last years $473.9 million. It managed with a net loss of $9 million for the period, but a one off charge of $52.2 million means the total net loss for the quarter was $61.2 million. The company sold 5.3 million hard drives in the period. The …

    Business 26 Jul 2001, 15:17

  • More great search engines you should check out

    Who are AltaVista, Ask Jeeves and Excite again?

    Following on from our piece on new search engine Teoma - which we said may make a good rival to Google - we have been emailed a range of other search engines we should check out. We did of course, and three in particular impressed us. These are them: Vivisimo.com www.vivisimo.com This is really good. Search results are …

    Media 26 Jul 2001, 15:23

  • Italian Appeal Court rejects Rambus' request for Micron plant shutdown

    SDRAM production to continue

    The Italian Court of Appeal has thrown out Rambus' motion to have production of SDRAM suspended at Micron's memory plant in Avezano, Italy. The two companies' next meeting in the Italian court is unlikely to take place before next year, by which time the two will have faced each other in the US court. Rambus had asked the …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 15:36

  • Reg cancer busters and alien trackers going strong

    Here's an update

    The Register's very own Vulture Central II has stormed the charts for teams involved in the SETI-style quest to find a cure for cancer. Since its kick-off in April, the peer-to-peer (P2P) computing scheme has attracted more than 700,000 members worldwide. For its part, the Vulture Central II team now has 1,805 members, with …

    Site News 26 Jul 2001, 16:01

  • Blowjob-assisted hack defies logic

    RSA hack scene in Swordfish sticks in our throat

    Our story about a scene in Swordfish where a hacker, played by X-Men star Hugh Jackman, has to hack a system while having a gun pressed against his temple and getting a blow job has produced some interesting feedback. Vulture eyed Reg readers spotted that in the film Jackman hacked RSA's 128-bit RC5 algorithm in a little over a …

    Bootnotes 26 Jul 2001, 16:06

  • nForce to generate 10% of Nvidia's 2002 sales

    Won't be doing much for 2001's numbers, though

    Nvidia is banking on sales of its nForce AMD Athlon-oriented chipset to provide a significant boost to its bottom line - the company reckons nForce sales will account of ten per cent of its revenues next year. Indeed, Nvidia doesn't appear to believe nForce will really take off until 2002, if comments made by the company's VP …

    Channel 26 Jul 2001, 16:07

  • The Reg guide to hackers in film

    Bond, blow jobs and billion-dollar computer conspiracies

    Our recent stories about the movie Swordfish, which goes on general release in the UK tomorrow have encouraged us to take a look at the whole hacker-film sub-genre. Hollywood's various attempts to create a convincing portrayal of hacking on celluloid (cracking exists for Tinseltown only in the Marx Brother's Animal Crackers) …

    Bootnotes 26 Jul 2001, 17:15

  • Oftel to become independent and impartial!

    That's what it says

    Oftel has announced firm plans to set up a Telecoms Ombudsman in April next year to rule in disputes between consumers and telcos and save them going to court. Actually, it announced it in September last year, saying he/she would be active by the middle of this year. Which is, er, past already. But, Oftel did re-announce the …

    Broadband 26 Jul 2001, 17:39