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1st November 2001 Archive

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  • Quantum 1: Imation 1

    Everyone a winner

    Imation has secured the right to make and sell its Black Watch cartridges, while Quantum has won the right to make Imation pay royalties, following a tussle in the courts. Both companies claim victory. Imation's official line reads: "The Court sided with Imation that we are entitled to be in the digital linear tape market by …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 07:14

  • Alcatel guillotines 10,000 jobs

    Vendor carnage (Part 94)

    Alcatel is to can 10,000 more workers after reporting another set of disappointing results. The telecoms equipment supplier made a third quarter net loss of E558m on sales of E5,613m (£3,500m), down 18 per cent on the 6,806 million Euro (£4,242m) it booked for the same period last year. Weak sales in the US and a decline in …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 07:20

  • Creditors OK $7bn Hynix rescue plan

    More loans! More equity-for debt! More repayment holidays!

    Debt-laden chip maker Hynix's rescue plan will go ahead as planned after the company's creditors agreed after weeks of haggling to extend its credit line, postpone payment on some existing loans and convert other debt to equity. So what will happen now? First, six major Hynix creditors, including the Korea Exchange Bank, will …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 10:20

  • No chip sales boom 'til 2003, says market researcher

    Only three per cent growth next year

    Market researcher Gartner Dataquest has followed up last month's dismal forecast for the world's memory manufacturers with a marginally more optimistic outlook for the semiconductor business as a whole. Maybe we should say 'less pessimistic' rather than 'more optimistic', since Gartner is predicting growth of just three per …

    Channel 1 Nov 2001, 10:40

  • Dan wins PC Which? Hunt

    Branding - isn't that what you do to a cow?

    Dan is the number one PC brand that customers would recommend to their friends, and Time is bottom of the list, according to the latest Which? survey. The consumer watchdog polled customer brand perception, reliability, quality of service and more in its November issue, and came up with the best and worst brands of the year. …

    Personal 1 Nov 2001, 10:41

  • SirCam haunts dim-witted users

    For the last time, GET DISINFECTED

    SirCam is still the most infectious computer virus on the Internet. Four months after it was first released it continues to haunt users. The privacy-threatening, bandwidth-stealing worm headed the monthly chart of virus reports compiled by antivirus vendor Sophos and accounted for 21.7 per cent of calls to its support centre in …

    Malware 1 Nov 2001, 11:25

  • Dell sees high single-digit PC growth

    Q4 will be 'pretty good'

    PC sales percentage growth rates will be in the high single digits over the next four to five years, according to Michael Dell. The Dell Computer CEO, who also thinks the last quarter of this year will be "pretty good", was addressing investors at the Prudential Securities technology conference when he made his market …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 11:28

  • Micron demands WTO declare Hynix rescue actionable

    Claims plan is an unwarranted government subsidy

    Micron will seek the US government's help in blocking rival memory maker Hynix's $7 billion rescue plan, the company confirmed yesterday. The memory maker said it will ask the US' representative at the World Trade Organisation and the US Treasury Department to file a complaint with the WTO. That filing will claim that the Hynix …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 11:43

  • Mideast ‘cyberwar’ veteran indicted

    FBI clings to tiny triumph

    The Turbaned Chupacabra may rest snug in his Afghan cave, and the House of Saud may be paying generous protection money to Al Qaeda behind our backs; Anthrax may spread through the postal system and India may attack in Kashmir while the US Secretary of State stands on Pakistani soil, but the FBI has struck a solid blow for …

    Security 1 Nov 2001, 11:46

  • MS antitrust deal close – WinXP, bundling to emerge unscathed?

    The terms leaked so far sound strangely toothless...

    Microsoft and the DoJ seem close to cutting a deal, and from the sound of the terms leaking from the settlement talks, the Beast stands a good chance of emerging relatively unscathed. That is, if the States attorneys general can be persuaded to go along with it. It's possible that the full deal being proposed is tougher than …

    Software 1 Nov 2001, 11:59

  • VIA sales are flat in October

    But 17.1 per cent up on September's

    VIA sales rose 17.1 per cent month-on-month during October to NT$3.042 billion ($88 million), the company reported today. However, that still leaves the company's year-on-year growth effectively flat. During October 2000, VIA recorded sales of NT$3.033 billion, making for a rise of less then a fifth of one per cent. For the …

    Channel 1 Nov 2001, 12:10

  • UKBetting buys Sportal for £1

    Also Ran

    Online sports portal Sportal has been sold for just £1 to online bookie UKbetting.com. The troubled dotcom (and dot co.uk) admitted last week that it had hit a "challenging time". Most of the remaining 130 staff - down from 340 in its heyday - are expected to lose their jobs. Sportal put itself up for sale in September, …

    e-Business 1 Nov 2001, 12:11

  • Salmon Days takes the shirt off Ted Baker's back

    Fashion statement

    SalmonDays, the wannabe cult comedy streaming vidstrip, has sold out - to Ted Baker, the super-hip British fashion emporium. Ted Baker is sponsoring the first episode of Salmon Days, already seen by 40,000 people. Terms are undisclosed, but rest assured the cast will be better dressed in the next fun-filled, action-packed …

    Site News 1 Nov 2001, 12:42

  • Netcraft Web Server Survey – October 2001

    Stats, stats and more stats

    Top Developers Developer Sept '01 Share Oct '01 Share Change Apache 19279109 59.51 18851352 56.89 -2.62 Microsoft 8895343 27.46 9607363 28.99 1.53 iPlanet 1319271 4.07 1278720 3.86 -0.21 Zeus 783261 2.42 775438 2.34 -0.08 Active Sites Developer Sept '01 Share Oct '01 Share Change Apache 7924169 60.86 …

    Music and Media 1 Nov 2001, 14:37

  • HP has high price hi-fi

    $999 for a Net connected hard drive/CD writer

    Hewlett Packard has gone hi-fi, and is shipping a device which stores up to 750 CDs, and plays Internet radio and streaming video (powered by RealPlayer and RealJukebox software). The digital entertainment de100c looks a lot like a large set-top box and is essentially an Internet-connected 40GB hard drive with a CD writer and …

    Personal 1 Nov 2001, 14:39

  • Ex-Buddhist monk to reclaim hacking from s'kiddiots

    Stay karma

    Socially dysfunctional teenagers, disgruntled employees and even the Russian Mafia have brought the word 'hacker' into disrepute but the application of Buddhism can help turn things around. That's the view of ex-Buddhist monk turned chief executive of security startup White Hat Technologies, Thubten Comerford. "The media has …

    Security 1 Nov 2001, 14:46

  • Infineon wants a DRAM foursome

    Toshiba no longer invited?

    Infineon is in talks with three Taiwanese DRAM producers about a possible merger that could lead to the group holding a 20 per cent share of the market. The German chipmaker, controlled by Siemens, is talking to Mosel Vitelic, Winbond and Nanya about the possibility of a joint venture in memory chips. Ulrich Schumacher, …

    Channel 1 Nov 2001, 15:03

  • EMC: Eating Shark Fin Soup

    Interview More wins than losses

    The last twelve months have seen a range of accusations laid at EMC's door. The competition says that EMC has lost its edge, that it's slipping and that it needs to change if it is going to fend off their products. EMC says that this couldn't be further from the truth. Mark Fredrickson, EMC VP of communications and Ken …

    Hardware 1 Nov 2001, 15:03

  • Nokia knocks Palm off Euro PDA biz top slot

    Symbian takes platform lead, despite collapsing Psion sales

    Nokia dominated the European market for PDAs and data-enabled smartphones during the third quarter, outselling both Palm and Compaq by a hefty margin and almost doubling its sales year on year. But, according to the latest figures from market researcher Canalys, the market as a whole shrank by 16 per cent on Q3 2000. This …

    Hardware 1 Nov 2001, 15:29

  • BBC replies to Tweenies DVD/XP problem

    New titles work

    Following our story last week about the BBC's Tweenies DVD not working with XP, the media organisation has kindly supplied us with the following statement. "All BBC Worldwide DVD Videos are authored according to the official DVD Forum specifications. We test all of our releases internally on a limited number of DVD players and …

    Personal 1 Nov 2001, 15:34

  • Powerpuff Girls catch FunLove Virus

    DVD recall

    Warner Bros has recalled a virus-infected DVD featuring hot new cartoon stars, the Powerpuff Girls. The disc is called Meet the Beat Alls and contains the FunLove Virus. Once installed onto a PC the virus attempts to infect files held on the local hard drive as well as network directories. So how did FunLove end up on the …

    Security 1 Nov 2001, 15:43

  • Wear your Computing degree

    You have to go to Austria

    If you're thinking of going (back) to university, not because you want an extra qualification but because you miss all the free time, cheap beer and young women, you could do worse than go to The Graz University of Technology in Austria and study its new degree in Wearable Computing. You won't believe this, but the …

    Personal 1 Nov 2001, 16:04

  • Computer dealers charged in £100m money laundering case

    Not terrorist-related

    Five computer component dealers, and three others, are to appear in court charged with laundering £100 million for criminals around the world. Customs officers arrested the eight and seized £200,000 during searches of businesses and homes on Tuesday 30 October. The charges follow an investigation by Customs into London …

    Channel 1 Nov 2001, 16:05

  • Culture jammers spoof WTO web site

    'Deceitful and a nuisance to serious users'

    The World Trade Organisation is fuming over a spoof Web site which copies the WTO's design but subverts the text to support the aims of anti-global protesters. The Web site, at www.gatt.org (referring to the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, WTO's predecessor), has been up and running since September. The site is owned …

    Music and Media 1 Nov 2001, 16:32

  • Dotcom Telegraph folds into main paper

    Standalone

    The technology supplement of the Daily Telegraph will be folded into the main paper after its last publication next Thursday, November 8. Three full-time staff of Dotcom Telegraph are to be transferred to the City desk of the main paper. They will also contribute to two pages of the main newspaper alloted to IT and technology …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 16:41

  • Berners-Lee slams ‘blatant’ MS browser tactics

    Good old, bad old days

    Tim Berners-Lee, The father of the World Wide Web and director of the W3C standards organisation, has attacked Microsoft over last week's blocking of people with non-MS browsers from using its MSN.com site. In an email interview with CNET, Berners-Lee said: "Obviously this was a blatant attempt to use the leverage of some …

    Music and Media 1 Nov 2001, 17:09

  • All quiet on the Western Europe PC front

    Gartner war report says shipments down 11%

    PC shipments in Western Europe fell 11 per cent in Q3. according to Gartner Dataquest. Last month, IDC reported a Q3 decline of 12 per cent for the same region. Leading international brands were burned most badly, with Compaq, IBM and Fujitsu Siemens all reporting double digit declines for the quarter. Dell was the only …

    Business 1 Nov 2001, 17:40

  • September semicon sales fall 2.5% on August

    And 44.6% on September 2000. Oh dear...

    Chip sales fell 2.5 per cent in September when compared to August's figure - the opposite of what many market players and watchers had expected. September is traditionally the key sales period during the third quarter, with sales surpassing those of August and July. Most observers were anticipating a slight rise through …

    Channel 1 Nov 2001, 17:47

  • ‘DeCSS’ DVD descrambler ruled legal

    Miracle: Court grasps diff between source and object code

    The Copy Control Association (CCA), which was granted a preliminary injunction against Andrew Bunner and other Webmasters, was handed its head in a California appellate court Thursday. The trial court had granted the injunction against publishing Jon Johansen's DeCSS DVD descrambler, but Brunner appealed on First Amendment free …

    Security 1 Nov 2001, 21:50