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2nd November 2001 Archive

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  • MS to force IT-security censorship

    Exclusive: Creating, then throttling, security 'partners'

    We all know how Microsoft likes to bully its many 'partners', so it comes as no surprise that the Beast has decided to apply its partnership muscle to silence the software and network security research community. The company is currently shopping a 'security partnership agreement', which would open up reams of MS vulnerability …

    Software 2 Nov 2001, 04:43

  • Letsbuyit wins €4m investment

    Agency Works

    Letsbuyit, the cash-strapped dotcom buyers' club, has secured an additional €4m from an investor. This will help it on the way to achieving expected "sustained profitability...before the end of 2002". The investor, Global Emerging Markets New York, will shell out the money in four equal slugs, starting October 30, 2001. The …

    e-Business 2 Nov 2001, 07:33

  • HP adds 8700 to low-end Unix kit

    Ramp and Revamp

    HP continues to spread its latest PA-RISC 8700 CPU to its server range. Six weeks ago it revamped its midrange rp8400 with the faster chip, and yesterday its low-end rp5400 got the treatment. The low-end models also honour the Brad Silverberg-style, broken-Shift-key naming convention introduced by HP with the rp8400s. The "hp …

    Hardware 2 Nov 2001, 09:23

  • Linux wins access to next-generation CDs

    Exclusive Your refresher on Mount Rainier

    After months of closed-door negotiations, open source developers are now sure of royalty-free access to one of the most significant new storage formats of the future: Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier is a CD format devised with the goal of replacing CD-RWs and - eventually - floppy and superfloppy formats, such as Iomega's Zip …

    Software 2 Nov 2001, 09:34

  • The Browser Wars are back: Opera smacks MSN

    Think Personal

    Opera Software has rebuffed Microsoft's ever-shifting explanations of why the upstart browser found itself blocked from the MSN website. Microsoft originally blocked Opera access, then enabled it after stories in The Register - widely followed-up elsewhere - highlighted the Redmond-spun incompatibilities. Microsoft offered a …

    Software 2 Nov 2001, 10:48

  • Apple sued over share dealings – again

    Class Action No. 4

    A fourth set of lawyers seeking irate shareholders has crept out the woodwork to sue Apple for allegedly misleading investors. Law firm Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates this week filed a financial misrepresentation suit against Apple in Washington, following similar suits from Schiffrin & Barroway, Charles Piven and Milberg Weiss …

    Mac Channel 2 Nov 2001, 11:05

  • IBM promotes self-healing systems

    Have you the brain of a lizard?

    In his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines Ray Kurzweil estimates that when IBM's Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess in 1997, the computer had the brain equivalent of an adult lizard. The great thing about lizards is not so much their mental capacity but their autonomic nervous system. If they get too hot they go and lie in …

    Hardware 2 Nov 2001, 11:07

  • DoJ to cut MS ‘sellout’ deal without States' blessing?

    Ritual ordure-pelting won't stop this one...

    As the cries of 'sellout' over the DoJ's proposed antitrust settlement with Microsoft grow louder, it looks increasingly likely that the 18 US States that have been party to the action will refuse to sign up for the deal, and peel off. The judge's deadline for a negotiated deal falls today, 2nd November, but the most the States …

    Software 2 Nov 2001, 11:09

  • SIS poo-poos Rambus chipset plan

    'Unlikely', at any rate

    SIS has refuted rumours that it's the mysterious Rambus licensee preparing to bring to market an alternative Pentium 4 and RDRAM-based chipset to Intel's 850. So reports Taiwan's DigiTimes today, but the unnamed company executives it cites are curiously equivocal about the matter suggesting that the introduction of such a …

    Channel 2 Nov 2001, 11:46

  • SIS announces DDR400, Pentium 4 chipset

    Out next year sometime

    SIS added a DDR400-based Pentium 4 chipset to its roadmap yesterday. But with the memory spec. as yet unratified - even DDR333 has yet to gain fill JEDEC approval - don't expect it any time soon. Indeed, even SIS isn't giving any indication of when the part with ship beyond a very broad 'sometime in 2002'. Still, it's clear …

    Channel 2 Nov 2001, 12:01

  • FRIACO – Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

    This time Dr Jekyll

    If you were undecided whether flat-rate Internet access is helping or hindering the Internet economy, worry no longer. Because today, Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination (FRIACO) is a good thing. In fact it is "the best interconnect model to ensure a viable business model for dial-up Internet services" and "will create …

    Telecoms 2 Nov 2001, 12:24

  • XP hangs, AMD stomps Intel

    HWRoundup It's alive

    Windows XP is not so happy on some older Pentium III-based notebooks, ExtremeTech says. This article has all you need to know about issues with internal modems that may hang your system. Tom's Hardware Guide does amonster CPU article, reviewing an exhaustive list of AMD and Intel processors, all under Windows XP (complete …

    Personal 2 Nov 2001, 12:42

  • Microsoft sings praises of open standards

    But only for digital TV

    "We have to create an evolutionary approach in an open standards way" "Common standards are the things that equalise everybody" "It is very important we adopt a common standard space It is very important we work together, along a common path" A senior Microsoft executive made the above comments. No, really. What you do …

    Music and Media 2 Nov 2001, 13:12

  • US TV biz sues ad-zapping SonicBlue

    'Copyright theft'

    The US TV industry is suing consumer electronics manufacturer SonicBlue for infringing copyright with its latest ReplayTV digital recorder. The ReplayTV 4000 allows users to record TV shows - between 40 and 320 hours of them, depending on the model you choose - and skip past all the ads when the material is played back. This, …

    Personal 2 Nov 2001, 13:13

  • LINX upgrades for soaring UK Net traffic

    Big Bandwidth

    UK Net traffic could increase tenfold in two years, with broadband, video-on-demand and increasing business use of the Internet, driving growth. This is the planning assumption of the London Internet Exchange (LINX), Europe's largest peering centre, which handles more than 90 per cent of the UK's Internet traffic. Bandwidth …

    Telecoms 2 Nov 2001, 13:41

  • Intel chooses Comdex to debut low-voltage server Tualatins

    700MHz, 1.1V part first of the line

    Intel will launch a new line of processors for ultra-dense servers at Comdex, sources close to the company have whispered to CNet. Indeed, it will, as a quick look at our take on Intel's server chip roll-out diary shows - the chip is due to ship sometime this quarter and Comdex is as good a launch vehicle as any. The part will …

    Channel 2 Nov 2001, 13:47

  • StepStone shuts down UK office, cuts back in Europe

    More than 500 staff axed

    Online recruitment agency StepStone has shut down its UK office with the loss of 135 jobs and pulled back in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands and Luxembourg to the tune of 526 jobs. The decision comes on the same day that StepStone released its Q3 results and announced a new CEO. An announcement on the company's site reads …

    e-Business 2 Nov 2001, 14:19

  • NEC gives chip workers extra time out

    Up to six days off by year-end at 80% pay

    More than 6,000 NEC chip-making employees will receive extra holidays in November and December, in a cost-cutting move. The enforced holiday time - amounting to between two and six days - will be 'granted' to NEC's workers in Japan. Affected staff receive reduced pay during their time off, equivalent to 80 per cent of their …

    Business 2 Nov 2001, 14:43

  • Amazon touts online store card

    Buy now, pay later

    Amazon.com has launched a virtual store card, just in time for the US holiday shopping season (which kicks off Veterans Day, 11 November). And just like real store cards, the rates are fairly unattractive: the APR is 22.9 per cent, while the default rate is 26.9 per cent. The Amazon Credit Account is backed by Citibank Cards, …

    Music and Media 2 Nov 2001, 15:00

  • Notebook maker dismisses Apple PDA rumour

    No, we're not making 600,000 Apple gadgets, Inventec claims

    Taiwanese notebook maker Inventec has denied it has received an order from Apple to make 600,000 PDAs. Claims that it - or, rather, one of its affiliates - had were made today by local newspaper The Economic Daily News. The paper said delivery would begin during Q4 this year. Inventec does have an operation that produces PDAs …

    Mac Channel 2 Nov 2001, 15:33

  • Robin Cook slams Bonfield BT payoff

    Bonfield of the Vanities

    Robin Cook, Leader of the House of Commons and President of the Privy Council, has lambasted the CEO of BT, Sir Peter Bonfield, over his financial settlement on leaving the monster telco. Sir Peter - who presided over a catastrophic fall in BT's share price as the company failed to keep pace with the telecoms market - announced …

    Business 2 Nov 2001, 15:50

  • S-AIT with Sony

    Next-gen storage

    Sony is to extend its AIT tape format with a next-gen version called S-AIT. The new tape format enables up to 500GB native capacity on a single cartridge, and supports native data transfer of up to 30MB per second. Sony has already recruited Matsushita to the S-AIT cause - the latter will make drives and media for the new …

    Hardware 2 Nov 2001, 16:00

  • HPaQ UK PC sales plummet in Q3

    Dell didn't do so well either

    Michael Dell predicts high single-digit percentage growth in the PC market over the next four to five years, but his company didn't enjoy that kind of business in the UK during Q3. Dell is the UK's top boy in the PC market, even though year-on-year sales fell 6.5 per cent for the third quarter, according to Gartner. However, …

    Channel 2 Nov 2001, 16:40

  • Junk mail costs lives

    Very expensive too

    Spam costs UK businesses an estimated £470 per employee per year according to a email security firm MessageLabs. A survey of 200 UK customers shows that 28 per cent of all email is currently described as 'useless' by employees (because it either contains a virus, a pornographic image or spam). This chimes closely with a recent …

    Music and Media 2 Nov 2001, 17:02

  • Egg scrambles MS Passport reports

    .Net but not yet

    Egg has downplayed reports that it will adopt Microsoft's Passport authentication technology to grant customers access to their accounts. The online bank has distanced itself from comments by its chief information officer, Dana Cuffe, reported by Silicon.com, which implied the bank would be an early adopter of Passport …

    e-Business 2 Nov 2001, 20:38

  • BT turns on to TV

    Small beer

    BT has made its first move into broadcasting by applying for a "non-exclusive local delivery service licence" from the Independent Television Commission (ITC). The licence - which still has to be approved by the DTi and Oftel - will allow the monster telco to provide "television services" over cable or phone networks (we're …

    Business 2 Nov 2001, 20:42