17th December 2001 Archive

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One man+dog derails eMachines takeover

Temporary restraining order

An "intervenor plaintiff" has thrown a legal spanner in the works of the proposed management buyout of eMachines, the ailing budget PC maker. He's called John Hock and he's a member of a class action suit which accuses the company of supplying some PCs with defective floppy disk controllers. The eMachines takeover does not …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 00:33
Broadcom brushes aside Intel patent suits

Two down, three to go

Intel has lost another battle in the Serial Litigation Wars, this time against Broadcom. A federal jury in Delaware court on Friday rejected claims that Broadcom had infringed two Intel patents related to networking and digital video. And worse, (for Intel) the court found that Intel's networking patent was invalid. The chip …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 00:49
Drkoop.com commits euthanasia

Spent out

Drkoop.com the US online health business, has thrown in the towel, after failing to find additional debt or equity financing, or sell assets. The company has lurched from funding crisis to funding crisis for nearly two years, and says there will be no money for shareholders. What's the betting that Amazon.com picks up the URL …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 01:25
IBM shutters Aussie retail ops

Token presence

Selling PCs through Aussie retailers is "not predictable, sustainable or profitable", according to Nerida Caesar, general manager of IBM Australia's PC division. So the company is withdrawing from the mass merchant retail channel in Australia, as it has already done so in the US and Europe. It will disappear from big stores as …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 06:26
Siemens ME45: rugged mobile

Review Lots of rubber

Think of ruggedised mobile phones as being like Doc Martens - fashionable because they are tough. The Siemens ME45 is for snowboarders and skiers, not builders. The shockproof nature of the phone means lots of rubber. A rubber cover for the socket at the bottom, all around the case, and a great rubberised feel to the keys. The …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 07:03
Excite UK's future to be decided today

Fingers crossed...

The future of UK portal Excite.co.uk is expected to be decided later today. Last month BTopenworld and Excite@Home - the two companies behind Excite UK - announced that the portal would shut down at the end of the year unless a buyer could be found. At the time Rebecca Miskin, MD of Excite UK, blamed the global downturn in …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 12:03
Linotype gets heavy over free ATM font downloads

That'll be DM30k please...

German company Linotype Library GmbH is flexing its ATM font copyright muscles via 'cease and desist' letters with potential $30,000 legal tabs attached. The fonts in question do seem to be owned by Linotype (or to be strictly accurate, its parent company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG), but are probably part of a batch that …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 12:15
AMD parades 1GHz mobile Duron

Budget notebooks

AMD today launched a 1GHz flavour of mobile Duron, just not in time for Christmas. It's also got a big-name customer Compaq which is shoehorning the top-of-the-range budget processor into the Presario 700 line. This is available from the Compaq web site now, or from shops in early 2002. In OEM quantities of 1,000 the 1Ghz …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 12:23
Salmon Days is Go!

Episode 1 UK today, Rest of World Wednesday

Showtime! Salmon Days goes live today, but only if you're in the UK. If you're in the rest of the world - that is, most of you - you'll have to wait until Wednesday to see the first pay-per-view streaming video comedy epic. We think it's bloody funny. The first episode of Salmon Days will cost just £0.50. All profits are going …

BOFH 17 Dec 2001, 12:59
Excite UK to close

Exits this week

Excite UK Ltd - a joint venture between Excite@Home and BTopenworld - is to cease trading at the end of the week, it confirmed today. Some 48 staff will be made redundant as a result of the company's closure. News of Excite UK's demise was not unexpected. Like many other dotcoms it's been hit by the economic downturn and the …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 14:44
X/Open, Uniforum vets to push Open Source in the UK

So are we all in big trouble now?

A new organisation, OpenForum Europe, has been formed to push the benefits of Open Source software in the UK. But it is an organisation with something of a past; its moving spirits have been involved in X/Open, Uniforum UK and its successor Interforum, and the inaugural OpenForum Council membership list seems to have a …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 16:56
Mandrake Linux 8.1 easier than Win-XP

Practically installs itself

Windows addicts curious to see how the other half lives but wary of the installation challenges Linux is supposed to present will find Mandrake 8.1 considerably easier to install and configure than Win-XP. It's quite nearly Harry Homeowner-proof. Ready for some cultural tourism? No need to hesitate; the Pro package sells for a …

Business 17 Dec 2001, 22:24