5th November 2001 Archive

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The BOFH Content Management System

Episode 29 Junket Alert

BOFH 2001: Episode 29 "..And what would you suggest would solve this problem?" the Head of IT asks, over his lunchtime meal. "Some form of document management system seems appropriate?" The Boss suggests, providing conclusive proof that he's been talking to vendors without supervision again. "Oooh, a licence to print money …

BOFH 5 Nov 2001, 08:02
Oops! MS.de ‘pirates’ its own WinXPs

Dupe product keys render legal copies inoperable...

Microsoft Deutschland seems to have accidentally pirated itself by shipping the same copy of Windows XP over and over again. Sort of, anyway. German sites 3Dwin.de and Heise Online report that numerous copies of XP with the same product key have been turning up, and naturally these won't activate, because they've been activated …

Software 5 Nov 2001, 09:39
BTopenworld charges £900 for satellite broadband service

Funding Bonfield's golden goodbye?

People living in rural Britain will have to pay through the nose if they want access to broadband Internet access. Finally announcing pricing details for its broadband satellite service, BTopenworld has stung Internet users just where it hurts the most. BTopenworld's Business Satellite 500/1 service will allow a user to …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2001, 10:14
Prelim PowerPC G5 hits 2.4GHz

Well, two of 'em managed it

Motorola has released the latest update to its PowerPC 8500 - aka G5 - processor that ups AltiVec performance and delivers consistent 1GHz and up clock speeds, one of our Apple sources tells us. Indeed, the source claims, two of the chips in the sample set of CPUs sent to the Mac maker, clocked at 2.4GHz. Most, however, ran at …

Mac Channel 5 Nov 2001, 10:40
MS Passport cracked with Hotmail

One-stop hacking

Passport and Wallet users are going to be disappointed to learn that these feature-rich tools can't be used until MS fixes a little bug which makes sport of taking over someone else's account. Passport authenticates a user for access to his credit cards and Web site accounts and passwords, to make life easy for on-line …

Software 5 Nov 2001, 10:57
AMD's XP goes 1900+

HWRoundup Same old, same old

AMD's latest Athlon XP chip is out today - the 1900+, clocking in at 1.6GHz. Reviews so far mostly agree that the chip provides a modest performance increase over its 1.53GHz predecessor, the 1800+, but is not wildly exciting. The chip costs $269 in OEM quantities of 1,000. AMD Zone gives this summary at the end of its review …

Channel 5 Nov 2001, 11:37
UK home Net use flat

Trend or Blip?

The number of UK homes connected to the Net plateaued in the three months to August, according to the latest stats from Oftel. Home Internet use has grown steadily since Oftel's first study in January 1999. In May 2001, Oftel reported that 40 per cent of UK homes were connected to the Net but in August, that figure dipped by …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2001, 11:48
PocketPC sales slide

Palm does better

Palm retained its lead in the worldwide PDA arena last quarter as PocketPC's share of the business fell significantly and the market as a whole dipped on the previous quarter. According to market watcher Gartner Dataquest, third-quarter global PDA shipments fell by just under ten per cent, from 2.81 million units in Q2 to 2.54 …

Personal 5 Nov 2001, 11:48
AMD cloaks Athlon 1900+ clock speed

A new kind of obfuscation?

"We're not trying to hide clock speeds," said AMD Europe's marketing chief, Robert Stead, at the launch of the company's controversial Athlon XP model numbering scheme on 9 October. Stead and co. were at pains to point out that the company intended to be open about its chips' clock speeds. And, indeed, AMD was quick to point …

Channel 5 Nov 2001, 12:15
Intel brings forward Brookdale G

Quarter turn

Intel will begin to ship the integrated-graphics version of its 845 chipset - codenamed Brookdale G - next February, ahead of its official introduction in April and considerably in advance of its previously timetabled launch in Q3 2002. According to a report in DigiTimes, the chip giant has told mobo makers that it has had to …

Channel 5 Nov 2001, 12:41
Thus sales up, losses up

Reduced borrowing needs

UK telco Thus has released a reasonably good set of results and set aside some people's fears of impending financial trouble but increased its pre-tax loss to £42.75 million from £37.27 million. The company, which owns Demon Internet, reported increased sales for the six months to 30 September - up 36 per cent to £140.8 million …

Business 5 Nov 2001, 13:36
Mac OS X beats Win XP. Then it doesn't

CNET makes up its mind. Then changes it

Apple was victorious against Microsoft last week, after CNET ran a Windows XP versus Mac OS X death match, and eventually awarded Mac the trophy. The punch-up was actually a dead heat but Apple won when the judges ruled its upgrade/licensing deal gave it the edge. However, Apple's victory was shortlived, as a quick rethink saw …

Software 5 Nov 2001, 14:13
UK is still broadband laggard – OECD

Nice to know some things never change

Britain remains rooted at the bottom of an international league table of broadband countries despite recording an increased number of hi-speed Internet users. The latest report from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) provides further gloomy reading for the e-minister and his broadband cronies as …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2001, 15:17
SIS has Rambus chipset in sight despite denials

4i Direct DRAM-based replacement for Intel's Tulloch

SIS is still in the running to offer a Rambus chipset for the Pentium 4 despite the denials company executives issued last week. Industry sources cited by EBN claim that the company has offered to develop a chipset that would support Rambus' quad-channel RDRAM - 4i Direct DRAM - after Intel decided that it wasn't going to …

Channel 5 Nov 2001, 15:30
CompactFlash hits 1GB

Camera users smile

Storage company SanDisk will ship a 1GB version of its CompactFlash (CF) card in the first quarter of next year. It claims that this is the largest capacity CF card on the market. The type I card is expected to at a price "under $800." SanDisk currently ships CF cards in the following capacities: 16, 32, 48, 64, 96, 128, 160, …

Personal 5 Nov 2001, 16:20
UK way behind in e-gov plans

We're worried about security - and for good reason

The UK is lagging Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific in e-government usage. This is despite the fact that we have a dedicated e-envoy and e-minister, offices full of people surrounding them, and a political party in power that repeatedly say how much e-government is integral to its dream of a connected Britain. In …

Music and Media 5 Nov 2001, 16:46
Don't give a frag about ATI's Quake III driver tweaks

Comment Software is just one factor among many

What is it with all this fuss about ATI's Quake III-optimised drivers? A number of online game-geeks appear to have gotten all hot and bothered about it, and we've even had ATI's rivals trying to grab the moral high ground - and, presumably, the headlines - by hinting at how underhand ATI's behaviour has been. At issue is how …

Personal 5 Nov 2001, 16:46
Having a bad Monday?

Then click here (and turn your sound down)

If there's any day most likely to really get you clawing at your desk, it's going to be Monday. Bob Geldof made a career out of the fact. Therefore, just for those of you that feel ready to rip someone's head off, we joyfully provide you with this link to the Swear-o-Tron. Sold as a site that is "taking the strain out of …

Bootnotes 5 Nov 2001, 16:48
UK Govt wobbles on support for broadband

Buy it, or we back off

The Government's commitment to broadband has been called into question following remarks made by the e-envoy at the CBI conference today. Netimperative.com reports that Andrew Pinder "told business chiefs to embrace the broadband revolution if they want the Government to support its roll-out". Can this be right? The Government …

Telecoms 5 Nov 2001, 17:48
MS bootloader concession could boost Linux, BSD – Gassée

Back on the Menu

One possible concession by Microsoft in the proposed AntiTrust settlement has come too late to save the company which pressed hardest for its inclusion: Be, Inc. Section C/4 of the remedy states that Microsoft may not forbid OEMs "offering users the option of launching other Operating Systems from the Basic Input/Output System …

Software 5 Nov 2001, 20:43