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14th November 2001 Archive

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  • MS ‘Security Framework’ is another .NET vulnerability

    Freedom to innovate = freedom to obfuscate

    In late October 2001, Microsoft's Security Manager Scott Culp published a missive calling for 'responsible disclosure' of security vulnerability information on the Internet, claiming it was because of the public availability of such information that major Internet security problems or cyber-terrorist events could occur. His …

    Security 14 Nov 2001, 03:31

  • Insight shuts German ops

    Action Stations

    Insight Enterprises is shutting down in Germany. The IT mail order giant is to focus its European operations entirely around the UK, where it recently bought Action Computer Supplies. Insight is to shut Germany by the end of the year, and the Tempe, Arizona reseller will take an unspecified charge in Q4 to account for closure …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 07:35

  • Hermit is dead

    Reg forum moderator

    Hermit, our beloved forum moderator, has died. R. Don Martin lived in Oregon and was one of the first contributors to The Register forum - we liked his style, and Reg co-founder Mike Magee asked him to moderate. Which he did (and latterly with The Inquirer forum too) with grace and wit. Hermit was nearly 70 and suffered from …

    Site News 14 Nov 2001, 09:37

  • EU MS probe: hearings next month, verdict early 2002

    Monti does his enigmatic bit

    European Commission hearings into Microsoft's conduct in Europe are to go ahead in late December, it was confirmed yesterday. Delphic as (almost) always, competition commissioner Mario Monti skated round the little matter of the DoJ's baseball bat turning into a daffodil, and said it was "too early to state to what extent the …

    Software 14 Nov 2001, 10:09

  • Mac OS X 10.1 updated

    Bugs stomped, featurettes added, etc.

    Apple has posted Mac OS X 10.1.1 - the latest update to the Mac maker's Unix-based operating system, and the reason we all had to run the Software Update and Installer upgrade the other week. OS X 10.1.1 is downloaded via System Preferences' Software Update pane. Last week's Installer Update 1.0 must be installed first. …

    Mac Channel 14 Nov 2001, 10:45

  • Infineon, Toshiba merger on the rocks?

    Still can't come to an agreement

    Infineon's interest in Taiwanese memory makers is a sign that its proposed merger with Toshiba's DRAM division may now never take place, a source close to the two companies' talks claims. Infineon and Toshiba had planned to have a draft merger agreement completed by the end of October, the source said, according to an EBN …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 11:23

  • Intel launches ‘blade’ Pentium III

    Low-power Tualatin comes to ultra-dense servers, as predicted

    Intel unveiled its Ultra-low Voltage Pentium III server processor this week, as anticipated. The 700MHz chip, which we've reported on before, in the run-up to Comdex and in our Intel Server Roadmap, is a 0.13 micron Tualatin PIII, primarily aimed at the notebook market. But like Transmeta's portable-oriented Crusoes, the ULV …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 11:23

  • Casio cans 17% of workers

    Consumer electronics sales slump

    Casio will slash 3,000 jobs worldwide, 17 per cent of the workforce, by March, due to slow sales and poor profits. This follows the 1,000 jobs culled in the six months to September. Casio posted a group net loss of 4.21 billion yen ($34.51 million) for the first half on sales of 204 billion yen ($1.67 billion). It made a net …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 12:04

  • WinXP sales press releases fly off shelves

    We can't wait for the French and German versions...

    WinXP is flying off the shelves. Again, apparently. The US version of the Microsoft press release saying so went out last Friday, and yesterday the localised UK model turned up in the Reg email. Over here it is indeed flying off the shelves, but flying at the same velocity as it was in the US last Friday, rather than the …

    Software 14 Nov 2001, 12:05

  • Excite to exit UK unless buyer found

    Just like we said five months ago

    Excite UK is on the verge of becoming part of dotcom history if a buyer can't be found in the next month. Forty-eight staff could be staring at a bleak New Year following the decision by BTopenworld and Excite@Home to pull out of the joint venture and find a buyer for the portal. Both partners have been looking for someone to …

    e-Business 14 Nov 2001, 12:09

  • Future is bright for UK IT staff

    Growth forecasts

    Demand for UK IT staff will grow 12 per cent over the next two years, according to a National Computing Centre (NCC) survey. Demand for development and support staff will be even greater - with 15 per cent growth over the same period To be precise, this "demand" is actually an estimate of the future requirements of 490 …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 12:34

  • EU wages war on cookie monster

    MEPs want express permission

    The European Parliament has accepted a proposal that would make it unlawful to place cookies on a user's PC without their permission. MEPs yesterday voted in favour of the cookie-crumbling amendment to a draft directive about the processing of personal data and privacy on the Net. The move is likely to prove controversial …

    e-Business 14 Nov 2001, 12:37

  • How WinXP can make non-MS files invisible

    Updated again: Put that paranoia away - it's a notabug

    Windows XP's search system includes a bizarre feature that appears to exclude files with non-Microsoft file extensions, under some conditions. It is however so odd that it's surely got to be a bug, rather than monkey business. But you could go as far as saying it's one of those MS things that inconvenience other companies if …

    Software 14 Nov 2001, 12:38

  • Do-it-yourself Internet anonymity

    A step-by-step tutorial

    Along with the recent government hysteria over terrorists, we've seen legislative measures and 'emergency powers' inviting law-enforcement agencies worldwide to conduct Internet surveillance on an unprecedented scale. But because the state-of-the-art of electronic dragnets makes it difficult if not impossible to exclude the …

    Security 14 Nov 2001, 12:46

  • Quantum wages ad war on Imation

    More handbags at dawn

    Quantum, rendered impotent by the courts to stop Imation from selling its third party DLTtape media, is now trying advertising to persuade the public to not buy its rival's products. Quantum launched a marketing campaign yesterday which "encourages end-users to look for the DLTtape logo when buying DLTtape media to ensure …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 13:18

  • Wayback Machine restores Ye Olde Web

    Raves from the Grave

    And a big fat welcome to the Wayback Machine, a collection of ten billion Web pages frozen in time, which opened its doors a couple of weeks ago to the public. The Wayback Machine has collected Web pages since 1996. Unfortunately some contain libels and sensitive material since removed by their owners, New Scientist reports. In …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2001, 13:31

  • Casio to ship Linux, Transmeta laptop

    Make Mine Midori

    Casio is to ship its Linux-based, Transmeta-powered Cassiopeia Fiva sub-notebook on 21 November. The Fiva MPC-216XL contains a 600MHz Crusoe TM5600 processor. Its operating system comes from Transmeta too - it's Midori Linux, the OS distribution the chip maker began developing early on (under the name Mobile Linux) and released …

    Personal 14 Nov 2001, 14:19

  • Linux fans ‘hack’ Windows XP advert

    Updated All your billboards are belong to us

    British Linux users have begun to tell the wider world what they think about Microsoft's Windows XP. Their weapon: the spray can. Register reader Martin Jenkins spotted this defaced XP ad on the A38 in Bristol. Do we have the start of a culture jamming trend here? This site has a nice piccy of another XP ad cunningly …

    Bootnotes 14 Nov 2001, 15:01

  • HP kit sales down 31 per cent

    Beats Street

    Hewlett Packard's Q4 profits have beaten Wall Street expectations but are $481m down from a year earlier. The company earned $361 million, down $842 million in Q4 a year ago. Sales fell to $10.9 billion from $13.3 billion - the expectation had been for HP to turnover $9.9 billion in the period. Net profit, including a $282m …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 15:03

  • VIA cuts 40% off profit prediction

    PC market recovery not happening quickly enough

    VIA's profit this year will total less than two-thirds of what it had previously forecast, the chipset company admitted today. Blaming the no-show of the recovery in the PC market that it had anticipated, VIA said it will earn some NT$5 billion ($145 million) this year - down 40 per cent on the NT$8.4 billion it forecast …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 15:09

  • Tiscali to break-even in Q4

    Revenues up, losses down etc

    Italian Internet giant Tiscali is on track to break-even in the next quarter, the company reported today. This will be some feat if it succeeds, in light of the major restructuring that has taken place at the company over the last year or so. Barely a month goes by when the Italian group doesn't snap up some European ISP or …

    Music and Media 14 Nov 2001, 15:15

  • Sneak Intel DDR preview

    Legend has it

    As predicted, Intel's DDR-supporting chipset, 845D, made a sneak preview at Comdex yesterday. Chinese PC maker Legend showed off its QDI P2D-A motherboard based on the chipset. Legend's board was shown running a P4 1.6GHz and 128MB DDR SDRAM. It will shipping worldwide from December for about $140, a spokesperson told PC World …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 15:22

  • Imagine a world without Java

    Not easy, when you've got XP

    Microsoft's attempt to beat Java into extinction could take some time, as this wee anecdote shows. The Norwood, Massachusetts-based software asset management firm Corporate Software, a key Microsoft partner, is running an online seminar on Visual Studio .NET today. It's hosted by Sam Henry, technical product manager for Visual …

    Bootnotes 14 Nov 2001, 15:35

  • Sony, Fujitsu bash Transmeta

    We want our chips

    Sony and Fujitsu have had to reschedule the launch of at least five new notebook computers - and it's all Transmeta's fault, the two companies said today. Both companies have released Crusoe-based machines before, most notably Sony's Vaio C1 Picturebook sub-notebook. Sony planned to offer a faster version this week, but the …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 16:45

  • Sony frets over PS2 (and XBox)

    What to do about PS3?

    Sony is feeling the heat of competition breathing down its neck. Kunitake Ando, Sony’s president and COO, has told the FT that the presence of Xbox on the market could shorten console lifecycles. In other words Ando fears that the more powerful Xbox, which actually retails for the same price as PlayStation 2 in the States, will …

    Personal 14 Nov 2001, 16:45

  • C&W in £1.5bn share buy back

    Which is nice

    Shares in alternative British telecoms carrier Cable & Wireless nudged up following confirmation that it will buy-back up to 15 per cent of its shares and issue a special dividend to investors. News of the £1.5 billion offer had been widely expected as shareholders put pressure C&W to return some of the £4.1 billion in cash it …

    Business 14 Nov 2001, 16:46

  • Report to your local army recruitment centre immediately

    Bad Eidos, Naughty Eidos

    A spoof army call-up text message has been banned by advertising watchdogs because of the distress it could cause. Computer games company Eidos, of Lara Croft fame, used the text message to plug its latest PC game Commandos 2. The message read "Please report to your local army recruitment centre immediately for your 2nd tour …

    Bootnotes 14 Nov 2001, 17:06

  • HP puts 3000 MPE warhorse out to grass

    Glue factory in 2006

    HP has announced end of support dates for its range of e3000 servers and their associated upgrade kits, as well as the MPE/iX operating system. Help for most of the product lines will be closed in five years (December 31, 2006, to be precise). A-, N-, K-, E- and T-class e3000 servers are all listed in the announcement. Support …

    Hardware 14 Nov 2001, 17:20

  • Norton AV update rings false alarm bells

    Victims are very cross

    Two security software houses have rounded on Symantec, after their products were wrongly said to be infected with Nimda. The false alarms rang for Installshield and F-Prot Antivirus for Windows, and were caused by poorly written virus definition updates to Symantec's Norton Anti-Virus. Frisk Software, the Icelandic developer …

    Malware 14 Nov 2001, 17:31

  • Intel to offer Springdale DDR 2 chipset in 2003

    Set to displace Rambus?

    Intel has committed itself to DDR 2 SDRAM technology and will support the specification mid-to-late 2003, according to Japanese site PC Watch. We're not entirely sure of PC Watch's source - (s)he appears to be close to standards-setter JEDEC, but our translation isn't great. If the source's claims are accurate, Intel will …

    Channel 14 Nov 2001, 17:53

  • Xbox lands

    Fun and games in Times Square

    Microsoft's advance in the world of gaming consoles begins officially just after midnight when its Xbox product goes on sale in America. New York's Toys "R" Us in Times Square will be the place where eager gamers can converge to start snapping them up. Nintendo is set to launch its rival console, the GameCube, in North America …

    Personal 14 Nov 2001, 18:34

  • Compaq cavalry rescues Linux clusters

    Don't shoot the horses

    In May, Compaq said it would GPL its NSC, or Non Stop Clusters code. This is the code that SCO licensed and co-developed as UnixWare Non Stop Clusters. Compaq announced two projects - The CI Project (for the infrastructure) and SSI, and Bruce Walker's seven man team in Los Angeles has been making progress. High Availability …

    Hardware 14 Nov 2001, 21:56