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15th August 2001 Archive

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  • MS asks court to wait while it delays

    IT's most appealing company...

    Microsoft's lawyers clearly operate better out of court than in. The case the company made for itself during the epic Jackson antitrust trial was, frankly, dismal, but the post-verdict delaying tactics are starting to acquire a certain baroque splendour. It would appear we have a request for a delay while we delay, …

    Software 15 Aug 2001, 08:17

  • Xbox not delayed by notabug in Intel mobo

    Well that's alright then...

    Microsoft is vehemently denying that Intel has derailed the Xbox schedule by designing dud motherboards for it. The claim came in a research note from Thomas Weisel Partners yesterday morning, which said that several sources said a flaw in the boards could knock back production by three to four weeks. Microsoft responded by …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 08:38

  • VIA launches controversial Pentium 4 chipset

    Intel's legal dogs yet to bite despite barks

    VIA went and released its Pentium 4 chipset, the Apollo P4X266, as a full commercial product this morning - in defiance of dire threats of legal action from Intel. The part itself hooks the P4's 400MHz frontside bus to the rest of the system, including up to 4GB of PC266 DDR SDRAM. That, says VIA, gives users twice the memory …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 09:30

  • TV stars move in to Pig Brother sty

    Fantasy castle promised for cyber-hogs

    Top TV celebs today moved in to give the Pig Brother house a Posh and Becks-style make-over. The sty, where surfers will be able to observe the movements of five swine in a pen 24-7, is being given star treatment by presenters of the BBC programme Changing Rooms. They have moved in to construct "the world's most elaborate sty …

    Music and Media 15 Aug 2001, 09:43

  • Premiership football comes to broadband

    Video-on-demand access to top flight games

    Broadband outfit Video Networks has scored exclusive rights to video-on-demand broadcast of Premier League football games for the next three years. Access to games will be made available to the firm's HomeChoice package at a subscription price of £6 a month, and allow football fans to watch games in full after a night out at …

    Telecoms 15 Aug 2001, 09:45

  • Palm m125 debuts on Web

    Some Photoshoppery, but basic pic looks good

    Pictures of Palm's upcoming mid-range m125 PDA have leaked out onto the Web, over at PDA Geek. We say "pictures", plural, but in effect there's only one - the others show the basic PDA with various SD/MMC cards mid-insertion. Actually, we say "mid-insertion", but they're clearly photo montages of the basic PDA shot and pics of …

    Personal 15 Aug 2001, 09:55

  • Nvidia Q2 sales, earnings up 50%

    Figures don't just buck industry trend, they micturate all over it

    Almost all of the world's semiconductor companies may be having a tough year, but Nvidia seems to be having a fine old time of it, if its Q2 figures are anything to go by. Sales worth $260.3 million made during the three months to 29 July ensured a healthy $50.1 million pre-tax profit. Factor in tax and other expenses and one- …

    Business 15 Aug 2001, 10:22

  • AOL UK gets new CEO

    Connie creator gets thumbs up

    AOL UK has appointed Karen Thomson to the newly created post of CEO, the online giant confirmed today. Thomson - who has been MD of AOL UK since 1999 - gets the new job title as part of senior level reshuffling that's been underway since last autumn. As the congratulations of her appointment flowed in today, it was said that …

    e-Business 15 Aug 2001, 10:26

  • Was Gateway down to selling just 1,500 PCs a week in the UK?

    Do the sums

    Gateway's departure form the UK and Ireland doesn't seem to have come as much of a surprise to its UK competitors. This is probably because it doesn't seem to have been selling more than 1,500 PCs and notebooks a week in the UK. The US PC vendor arrived in the UK in 1993 and made a big noise with the benefit of some very …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 10:29

  • Advertising Standards spanks companies over Net porn

    Police worries and women in bikinis offering RAM

    The Advertising Standards Authority has come down heavily on two companies using porn and sex as a means to sell their wares. Nothing new there, you say. But the ASA believes Emap and Inter-Mediates have gone too far. First of all, a joke email sent by Emap magazine MaxPower - a laddish car mag - was deemed to have "caused …

    Music and Media 15 Aug 2001, 11:09

  • 24 year-old Brit charged with virus writing

    Leave it out Gov

    A 24 year-old British man, believed to have written a computer worm that gave backdoor access to infected systems, has been arrested in a joint FBI, Scotland Yard operation. The unnamed man allegedly wrote the Leave worm, which affects machines already infected with the with Sub7 Trojan horse program, and failed to cause much …

    Malware 15 Aug 2001, 11:17

  • UK govt finally wakes up to Internet potential

    And it's the Department of Culture, Media and Sport that's got it

    In what may be the UK government's first autonomous good idea for using the Internet, the Culture, Media and Sport department has decided to produce a definitive list of all sports facilities and post it on the Web. Apparently, no one has any idea what facilities really exist in the UK - not even the local councils - so the …

    Music and Media 15 Aug 2001, 11:47

  • Computacenter expects sales growth slump in second half

    But profits leap 60% in H1

    Computacenter saw profits jump 60 per cent for the first half of 2001, but warned that figures were likely to remain flat for the full year. The UK PC reseller said today pre-tax profit before exceptionals was £34 million for the six months ended June 30 2001. This compared to £21.2 million for the same period the previous year …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 11:55

  • Motorola fab plant shutdown affects 1,200 employees

    Mobile company not enjoying wafer mint

    Motorola has decided to shut down two wafer fab lines at its Arizona plant, affecting 1,200 employees. Calling it a phase-out, the mobile company said it will move staff into other jobs but there would be "some" job losses. Motorola is shutting down its MOS-6 and Bipolar Manufacturing Center (BMC) lines but says it will expand …

    Business 15 Aug 2001, 11:58

  • Benchmarks put skids under Microsoft's IA-64 pitch

    McKinley had better be very, very good

    Microsoft's SQL Server VP Gordon Mangione launched a broadside here against iron age RISC yesterday that signals the first shot in the phony war for McKinley. Of course SQL Server doesn't have any place else to go except McKinley (and it successors) in the long term, as the last surviving RISC port of Windows NT was abandoned a …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 12:03

  • Wireplay up for sale

    Gameplay Plc reduced to a shell

    Gameplay Plc is looking to sell its multi-player games service, Wireplay, after suspending the operation last Friday. It was hoped that Wireplay could be saved by turning it into a subscription-based service but this failed to get off the ground. A spokeswoman for the company confirmed that it was seeking a buyer for Wireplay …

    e-Business 15 Aug 2001, 12:06

  • Calling all Vulture Central boy racers

    Reader gives Nascar 4 sim a Reg makeover

    We recently received the following e-mail from one Matt Wheeler: I am a daily reader of The Register and a fan of NASCAR racing and play Siera's Nascar 4 Racing sim almost daily. I have drawn up several paint jobs for cars and recently made one that has your logo, slogan and URL on it. I was wondering if I could get …

    Bootnotes 15 Aug 2001, 12:21

  • Intel 900MHz Xeon – too little too late

    High-end server chip may be obsolete on arrival

    A leading Intel server OEM is privately questioning the viability of Intel's relaunch of its top of range 900Mhz Xeon processor. According to an Intel spokeswoman, the chip giant expects to resume shipping a Pentium III Xeon 900MHz processor with 2MB of level 2 cache later this month, after changing its manufacturing process to …

    Hardware 15 Aug 2001, 14:11

  • The Reg Smartphone Roundup – The Verdict Is In

    Symbian, Microsoft or er,... none of the above?

    Who's going to win the smartphone wars? Moore's law suggests that computers would merge with phones sooner or later, and there are now three clear choices for manufacturers and users. We've had a look at the first examples of each. The clear favourite is the big phone companies' own platform of choice - Symbian, which was first …

    Hardware 15 Aug 2001, 14:33

  • Intel Banias chipsets named

    Odum and Monterra, apparently, but other info very thin on the ground

    Intel's mysterious mobile processor, Banias, continues to generate scraps of information but little in the way of a full meal or even a light snack. The latest addition to the pot comes from Japanese Web site PC Watch, which notes an industry source's claim that the part will ship Q2 2003 after sampling in Q3 2002. It also says …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 14:36

  • AMD to kill K6, K6-II, K6-III

    Desktop CPUs recast as embedded chips to be phased out by 2004

    AMD has confirmed that it has begun the process of ending production of its older 486, 586 and K6-family processors - despite promises made last year to support the K6 line for five more years. AMD's plans to phase out its pre-Athlon processors, almost all of them sold for use in embedded applications these days, emerged this …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 14:36

  • Taiwan's DRAM producers agree to output cut

    In principle, at least, and won't help the market much in any case

    Taiwanese memory makers appear to have gone back to the table to negotiate an across-the-board reduction in DRAM production. Earlier this month it emerged that preliminary talks between the world's largest memory makers had broken down. However, Mosel Vitelic vice-president Thomas Chang said this week that his company is …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 14:36

  • Millions wanted to paint dark side of moon red

    Forget Floyd, this is art

    An artist wants to paint the moon red using laser pointers - and he wants you to help him. James Downey reckons that if enough people shine their little lasers at the same spot on the moon and at the same time, then they might, just might, be able to colour it with a red hue. He's selected two dates - October 27 and November …

    Music and Media 15 Aug 2001, 14:44

  • Web bugs thrive like cockroaches

    Updated Up 488 per cent over the last three years and they're even on The Reg

    Use of Web bugs, or online hidden information collectors, has increased 488 per cent in the past three years, according to a survey of corporate Internet sites published today. A study of a random sample of more than one million Internet pages gathered between 1998 and 2001, using Internet intelligence technology from …

    Security 15 Aug 2001, 14:52

  • More great comedy musi-visual mind-bending cartoon things

    Don't touch psychedelics before you click

    Following David Stevenson's special musi-visual treat we highlighted yesterday, a number of readers have been in touch to recommended their own favourites. Do we have a new art form here? God, we hope not. Although expect some tosser from St Martins to copy it and come up with some ridiculous arty justification for a bunch of …

    Bootnotes 15 Aug 2001, 15:03

  • Deutsche Telekom takes out full-page ads to explain share slump

    It's that silly stock exchange, pay them no attention

    Deutsche Telekom has taken out full-page ads in German papers today to explain to shareholders how come its shares slumped over 20 per cent last week. The ads take the form of a letter to shareholders from DT's chairman Ron Sommer. Unsurprisingly, Herr Sommer feels that it's all been a big misunderstanding and that the current …

    Business 15 Aug 2001, 15:14

  • Register Reporter Required

    Time for a Change?

    The Register is looking for a reporter to join our London-based news team. Your patch will be the computer hardware/channel sectors. You will have a minimum of 1-2 years' experience in IT journalism, preferably in news. We'll be throwing you in at the deep-end, so you need to be a self-starter. You will already have the right …

    Site News 15 Aug 2001, 15:24

  • Best Price Poweroid 2002

    Review Power PC

    Although clock speeds go up with increasing regularity, if you need more power than current processors can supply the only option is to use more than one in the same PC. Symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) set-ups usually involve dual configurations, although more processors can be catered for. Using two slower processors rather …

    Personal 15 Aug 2001, 15:27

  • UK.Internet.com death was VNU decision

    Did anyone notice this dotcom disappearance?

    Those not diligently keeping tabs on the ever-diminishing British online news market may have missed the silent death of UK.Internet.com. A couple of months ago Internet.com discreetly informed readers that it had decided to "merge" the UK site with its US news service "to provide more comprehensive news coverage", and UK. …

    e-Business 15 Aug 2001, 15:42

  • Yankee spies are rubbish, says Senate

    Or are they?

    A Senate report into everybody's favourite snoopers the NSA has said that despite it having been given loads of money it is lagging behind in its spying prowess and has been "slow to adapt" to modern technological advances. "The National Security Agency is America's most important asset for technical collection of terrorism …

    Security 15 Aug 2001, 17:05

  • Avnet says it'll be profitable by December

    Suffers sales fall in Q4

    Electronic components distributor Avnet has posted a Q4 loss but says it will break even over the next two quarters then return to profit. It reported a net operating loss of $231 million, but this is mainly due to taking a $236.7 million charge for acquiring Kent Electronics on 8 June. For the quarter which ended June 29, …

    Channel 15 Aug 2001, 17:08

  • Microsoft seeks Linux-bashing .NET evangelist

    Sits vac

    Linux-bashing remains high on the list of qualifications for a job with The Beast, it seems. An eagle eyed reader spotted this in the brief for a technical marketing position at Microsoft banging the drum for .NET:- "The Developer Evangelist will be responsible for identifying and engaging J2EE and Linux focused developers in …

    Software 15 Aug 2001, 18:04