31st October 2001 Archive
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VA drops Linux name, boots out Kuro5hin
Reshuffles OSDN deckchairs
VA Linux Systems wants to drop the 'Linux' from its name, less than three years after it added it. The new name of VA Software is thought to better reflect the company's new business of selling software, rather than Linux-tuned hardware and services. The company began life as 'VA Research' in 1993, and #included Linux into the …
Hardware 31 Oct 2001, 06:09
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BT's Bonfield quits
Cheerio
Sir Peter Bonfield is to stand down as BT's chief exec at the end of January - almost a year before his current contract expires, the company announced today. His early departure from the company had been widely predicted following the restructuring of the company which included the rights issue and the demerger of the company' …
Business 31 Oct 2001, 07:37
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Firms hit in Nimda mutant outbreak
Variations on a theme
Dozens of firms have been infected by the latest mutation of Nimda. But the outbreak is much less serious than in September, when the contagious worm made its first outing on the Internet. Even so, anti-virus vendors advise users to beware attachments called: "SAMPLE.EXE" (instead of "README.EXE" which appeared in the original …
Malware 31 Oct 2001, 08:44
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Berners Lee: WWW royalties considered harmful
This Web's not for turning
WWW creator Tim Berners Lee has given his strongest hint yet that the W3C organization he created ought to shun the idea of accepting royalty-bearing patents as web standards. He also acknowledges that the move could lead to the fragmentation of the Web. Berners Lee's comments were made in a presentation to the W3C's Patent …
Music and Media 31 Oct 2001, 08:48
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Red Hat Hell continued
And thank you, readers, for your tips
I've been delighted by something like 200 e-mail memos from open-sourcers in the Reg 'family' of readers who have tried to suggest causes for the dismal experience I had installing Red Hat 7.2. The consensus has been that the (retail) CDs I bought were defective, or my CD-Rom drive is broken. I'm not keen on the hardware …
Software 31 Oct 2001, 10:33
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Broadband hobbled by high prices – E-envoy's office
TMA And lack of choice
The mass take-up of broadband is being hampered by high prices, according to Chris Parker of the Government's e-envoy office. Addressing delegates on day two of TMA 2001 in Brighton Mr Parker also recognised that there was a lack of sufficient broadband product choice and not enough content. However, he said that when it came …
Telecoms 31 Oct 2001, 11:01
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Hynix creditors meet to break bailout deadlock
Will it clear the way for chip company's rescue?
Hynix's creditors will meet today to decide whether they should support the ailing, debt-laden memory maker's $6 billion rescue programme. Some creditors feel it's too soon to pull the plug on the company, others that they have lent it enough money already. Today's vote will centre on a plan to allow some creditors to back out …
Channel 31 Oct 2001, 11:21
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Cherrystone delay highlights x86 v RISC War
Analysis It's War, or something
Obscure they may be, but the skirmishes waged between the big-iron vendors' low-end RISC kit and Intel's swanky new high-end offerings get more interesting by the day. The last couple of years have seen Intel's Xeon processors grow into a formidable armada, and while other parts of Satan Clara's execution have stumbled - …
Hardware 31 Oct 2001, 12:26
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Ingram Micro suffers sales slide
Makes a loss
Ingram Micro has reported a net loss of $13.3 million on sales of $5.83 billion for its Q3 which ended on 29 September. A year earlier it made a net profit of $38.9 million on sales of $7.56 billion. The company does not expect much of an upturn in Q4 and forecasts sales in the range of $5.7 to $6.2 billion, with net income …
Channel 31 Oct 2001, 12:31
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SIS to offer Rambus chipset for Pentium 4?
Email from spokesman suggests so
The mysterious developer of a second Rambus-based chipset for Intel's Pentium 4 could be SIS. Rumours that Intel's P4-oriented, RDRAM-based 850 chipset would soon be joined by a third-party product began to circulate late last August. However, it was not clear just who the speculation centred upon. Acer Labs, ATI and SIS have …
Channel 31 Oct 2001, 12:37
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Intel confirms Pentium 4-based Celeron launch
Coming mid-2002, says Intel; at 1.8GHz, we say
Intel has confirmed that it will ship Pentium 4-derived Celerons by the middle of next year. Company staffers revealed the plan - which wasn't exactly hard to guess, in any case - during yesterday's meeting with analysts, convened to discuss its financial standing. The move has, of course, been on the company's product roadmap …
Channel 31 Oct 2001, 12:40
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Ad Watchdog slaps AOL
And questions suspect mobile radiation device
This month it's AOL's turn to be told off by the Advertising Standards Authority. In a recent national press ad, it went with its usual Free! Free! Free! approach (even though it never is for long). It read: "Free reasons to try AOL. FREE 99 hour trial. FREE Internet call charges. FREE helpline. Want some more reasons to try us …
Music and Media 31 Oct 2001, 12:42
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Intel caches in on file transfer
Share and Learn
Intel is to commercialise a peer-to-peer application developed inhouse for file sharing. Called Share and Learn, the technology shares bandwidth-hungry multimedia files and boost file transfers between seven and ten times. Intel claims this is more effective than conventional caching or content distribution technologies. Share …
Data Networking 31 Oct 2001, 12:53
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Apple faces second financial misrepresentation suit
Talked products up then failed to deliver, case claims
More investors may be lining up to attack Apple's bosses for allegedly misleading shareholders last year about the Mac maker's financial performance. This week lawyers at Schiffrin & Barroway launched a suit on behalf of investors who bought Apple stock between 19 July 2000 and 28 September the same year. A class-action …
Mac Channel 31 Oct 2001, 13:12
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MSN.co.uk virus alert is false alarm
DON'T PANIC
Many subscribers of MSN.co.uk were told that the site was infected by a virus when they logged on this morning. But it was a false alarm. Surfers using Norton Anti-Virus are told that a Trojan horse has been detected in a Vbs (Visual Basic Script) file on the site (www.msn.co.uk/webinclude/mc.vbs), which will appear in the …
Security 31 Oct 2001, 13:51
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Nutshell cracked and broken
ISP shuts down over unpaid bill to Cable & Wireless
ISP Nutshell has shut down after failing to come to agreement with supplier Cable & Wireless over a huge bill. Last week, one of Nutshell's director Jason Moody told us: "We are locked into a contractual dispute with our supplier Cable & Wireless. We are trying to resolve the issue." Clearly neither side is happy and one of …
Music and Media 31 Oct 2001, 14:45
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Broadband by satellite gets a boost
TMA 432Kbps by 2004 says Inmarsat
Inmarsat is to boost the bandwidth its satellite communication network can give users with a $1.7 billion investment program. The organisation's existing nine geo-stationary satellites provide a 64Kbps channel for voice and data communications to subscribers. This will be boosted to 432Kbps by 2004, creating what Inmarsat …
Telecoms 31 Oct 2001, 15:11
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Hacker jailed for revenge sewage attacks
Job rejection caused a bit of a stink
An Australian man was today sent to prison for two years after he was found guilty of hacking into the Maroochy Shire, Queensland computerised waste management system and caused millions of litres of raw sewage to spill out into local parks, rivers and even the grounds of a Hyatt Regency hotel. "Marine life died, the creek …
Software 31 Oct 2001, 15:55
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Linux switch saves Amazon megabucks
Telco price cuts also help
Amazon.com has saved up to $17 million this quarter by moving to Linux. In the 10-Q form (basic quarterly filing) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC) yesterday the online retailer revealed a spend $53.8 million on "technology and content" expenses for its Q3, compared with $71.2 million a year ago. Amazon …
e-Business 31 Oct 2001, 16:02
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Is Negroponte mellowing with age?
Opinion Net guru becomes, well, almost reasonable
Professional guru professor Nicholas Negroponte, the sage of MIT media lab, appears to be mellowing in his old age. Not that what he says is any less out there but in an interview with the BBC this week, he seems to have lost his trademark crazy prediction habit. Well, until he's asked about his favourite chestnuts of 3G phones …
Music and Media 31 Oct 2001, 16:26
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Pierre Danon rules himself out of BT CEO race
Head of BT Retail says he has enough on his plate
The head of BT Retail, Piere Danon has ruled himself out of the race for BT's CEO position following the announcement today by current CEO Sir Peter Bonfield to step down. A statement from BT reads: "Pierre Danon does not want to be considered as a candidate for the role of Chief Executive of BT Group. He is strongly focussed …
Business 31 Oct 2001, 16:30
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BT's nightmare removed on Halloween
Sir Peter Bonfield's BT career highlights
With classic poor timing Sir Peter Bonfield chose Halloween to announce that he was finally to leave BT as CEO. The ghoul who has done more than anyone else to turn the company from a jewel in the UK's crown to a telco tramp has finally been exorcised. BT's share price has only gone up two per cent on the news, but then BT has …
Business 31 Oct 2001, 17:12
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Tiny goes on customer service offensive
Finds some fresh revenue streams
Tiny Computers has bulked up its support call-centre operation with a hundred additional staff as part of its attempt to lift service and support levels, as well as trying to retain and grow its customer base. And it is handing out a ten-point charter to all new (and old) customers that outlines all the things it will do to try …
Channel 31 Oct 2001, 17:49
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Bluetooth gives bite to high speed wireless network
Net access at 384Kbps, range of up to 100m
A high speed urban wireless network based on Bluetooth is launching this week in Manchester. Speedwave, which its developers said is a world first, will offer Internet access at around 384Kbps at ranges of up to 100 metres from sites in the network, and is been built in preparation for next year's Commonwealth Games. Bluetooth …
Data Networking 31 Oct 2001, 17:52
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Lastminute.com gets away with Hun fun
You can call Germans nearly anything now
The Advertising Standards Authority is taking a soft line on German-bashing. Last month the ASA ruled the term 'Kraut' was unlikely to cause offence in advertising, and now it's let Lastminute.com get away with using the word 'Hun'. Following "a complaint from a member of the public," the ad watchdog had been ready to rap the …
Bootnotes 31 Oct 2001, 18:10
