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8th January 2002 Archive

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  • Gates pitches Mira and ‘Freestyle’ XP extensions in home

    Another XP retread to join Tablet Edition in H2

    Bill Gates yesterday unveiled two new technologies, Freestyle and Mira, designed to beef up the capabilities of the PC - and hence, Windows XP - in the home. Both are intended to let users wander around the room or house while controlling their PC; Freestyle is categorised as a set of extensions to XP, while Mira is to all …

    Software 8 Jan 2002, 12:03

  • PS2 gives Electronics Boutique happy Xmas

    'Golden era' apparently

    Electronics Boutique claims it is entering a "golden era" following record sales of video games and software in the run up to Christmas. Sales in the UK and Ireland increased by 51 per cent in the five weeks to the end of December helped in part by the popularity and strong performance of PlayStation 2. With more than 1.7 …

    Channel 8 Jan 2002, 12:07

  • Competition Commission to rule on cellphone charges

    Diddle-ee-dee etc

    It could take up to a year before the Competition Commission (CC) decides whether the cost of mobile phone calls in the UK is too high. Yesterday, telecoms regulator Oftel, formally asked the CC to investigate whether the charges mobile operators make for connecting calls to their networks are too high. While the CC hopes to …

    Data Networking 8 Jan 2002, 12:11

  • Lucent ends long CEO hunt

    Russo, 47, goes back to where she once belonged

    Lucent has appointed the chief operating officer of Eastman Kodak, Patricia Russo, as its chief executive, ending an long searc hfor someone to oversee the continued reorganisation of the struggling telecoms equipment supplier. Russo, who worked for Lucent and AT&T for 20 years prior to joining Kodak in April last year, returns …

    Business 8 Jan 2002, 12:16

  • HP discounts in benchmark spotlight

    Giga goes shark-fishing for big iron

    The fur continues to fly whenever big iron benchmarks are published, but Giga's acid advisory about Hewlett Packard's latest Superdome TPC results promises to raise the stakes even higher. Giga analyst Lou Agosta points out that the price/performance result of Superdome's TPC-H benchmark includes a steep discount over the list …

    Hardware 8 Jan 2002, 12:22

  • Gates gets even bigger XP sales number to boast about

    Well well, what a surprise...

    Windows XP has now achieved a record number of Microsoft record sales announcements. The most recent announcement, made yesterday by Bill Gates himself at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, was that Microsoft has now sold over 17 million XP licences since its launch, and that it is "our best-selling release of Windows …

    Software 8 Jan 2002, 12:46

  • Anthrax sweep spoils electronics goods

    Going Postal

    The US Postal Service may be damaging electronic goods by irradiating parcels to guard against anthrax. Compact flash memory cards can become unusable after been subjected to intense beams of electrons, the CompactFlash Association warned at the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday, Reuters reports. "Testing has confirmed that …

    Channel 8 Jan 2002, 13:15

  • WD drives up server food chain

    Big Buffer

    Western Digital is flogging a so-called special edition of its 120GB 7,200 RPM EIDE hard drive - special because it has an 8MB buffer, compared with the 2MB supplied on standard versions. Bigger buffer means fewer calls to access the disk and faster performance. WD has not supplied us with any data sheets on how much faster the …

    Hardware 8 Jan 2002, 13:15

  • Xanadu project lifts open source kimono

    Web ancestor meets WWW

    Ted Nelson's legendary Xanadu project - the fabled hypertext precursor to the World Wide Web - went open source a couple of years ago, and yesterday the project's curators made the web site public. Even though you might find it hard to justify the time to the pointy-haired boss, it's well worth the excursion. Nelson embarked on …

    Software 8 Jan 2002, 13:26

  • Congressman assails CD copy protection

    But is it illegal?

    Copy protection tracks implanted in CDs are a violation of the right to fair use of purchased music, US Representative Richard Boucher (Democrat, Virginia) wrote in a letter to recording industry lobbyists Monday. "...Record labels have begun releasing compact discs into the market which apparently have been designed to limit …

    Music and Media 8 Jan 2002, 14:32

  • Injunction against SuSE halts distribution

    Updated A reader translates

    A brief article from Heise Online appears to say that German Linux distributor SuSE has been hit with a preliminary injunction barring it from distributing its product because an application, or application name, in the distro infringes a copyright. As Babelfish mercilessly butchers German, we're not quite sure how to interpret …

    Software 8 Jan 2002, 14:53

  • Census site shuts for a week

    We demand a recount

    The Public Records Office (PRO) has shut its popular 1901 Census site because it is unable to cope with demand. A notice on the PRO Web site claims it is unable to meet continuing levels of demand and has agreed with Qinetiq's technical team (the site developers) to bar access to the site for a week while "enhancements" to take …

    Music and Media 8 Jan 2002, 15:49

  • Smartphone roadmaps for 2002

    Exclusive It's raining 3G gadgets

    Next year should see a battle royale between the smartphone manufacturers, with a clutch of new converged devices hitting the market. Thanks to a variety of industry sources, we can give several of these projects a public airing for the first time. Almost all of these devices are based on Texas Instruments' OMAP platform, which …

    Data Networking 8 Jan 2002, 16:08

  • ROMs weren't burned in a day

    Letters And bah, humbug - we're too kind to Linux and Qualcomm

    Nothing escapes the hive mind of the Register readership, and no wayward, single-cell microbe of an error escapes our readers' mulch. So welcome to the postbag, where you get to develop our stories into some useful compost. We're particularly grateful to our erudite readers for an extremely detailed account of why burning CD- …

    Letters 8 Jan 2002, 16:08

  • Flaws in Via chipsets hit ATA/133, SCSI performance

    Boards underperform all rivals, tests show

    A serious design defect in Via chipsets results in boards based on them substantially underforming motherboards with chipsets from Intel, SiS and ALi, a series of tests conducted by tecChannel.de has shown. The problem affects boards using both Intel and AMD chips, and the hit to hard disk performance is sufficient for …

    Personal 8 Jan 2002, 16:08

  • BOFH: 'Twas the night before Christmas

    Episode 32 Poetry in Motion

    BOFH 2001: Episode 32 'Twas the night before Christmas, on Management floor Not a creature was stirring, except by the door; The Board Member's stockings were hung up with care, In hopes that their bonus cheques soon would be there; The workers had missed out - the bonuses few, Just enough for the bosses, (and shareholders …

    BOFH 8 Jan 2002, 16:09

  • Register stocking fillers – get your skates on

    Deadline for non-EU orders is midnight tomorrow

    Those of you outside the UK and Europe who want to avail yourselves of the Xmas goodies in our Cash'n'Carrion Reg shop had better get your skates on - the deadline for orders is midnight GMT tomorrow (5 December). Deadlines for all orders for pre-Xmas delivery are as follows: UK - 19 December Europe - 10 December Rest of …

    Bootnotes 8 Jan 2002, 16:10

  • Salmon Days is spawned

    Click here for swearing, nudity, violence and English accents

    Salmon Days is Go. This is the URL: www.salmondays.tv. Remember, it's a trailer - and there is swearing, nudity, violence and English accents. Bookmark and enjoy. Now comes the corporate bit. THE REGISTER LAUNCHES WORLD'S FIRST PAY-PER-VIEW VIDEO STRIP The world's first pay-per-view weekly video strip makes its debut on The …

    BOFH 8 Jan 2002, 16:19

  • The BOFH Self-Helpless Guide

    Episode 28 Men are from Mars, Users are from Uranus

    BOFH 2001: Episode 28 "So," The PFY blurts as I rattle away on the keyboard on my latest epic document. "What about a quick game of Unreal Tournament? Just you, me, and some users who think they're playing opponents who can be killed?" "Would LIKE to," I comment, "but I'm working on my last epic..." "Really. Do you need some …

    BOFH 8 Jan 2002, 16:19

  • Final deadline for Reg stocking fillers

    Last chance to hammer the plastic

    Midnight GMT tonight is the final deadline for UK orders from our Cash'n'Carrion Reg shop. Thanks to all our customers during 2001, and here's a sneak preview of our new 2002 range. Merry Xmas.

    Business 8 Jan 2002, 16:45

  • MSN pulls child porn pix from communities site

    But shouldn't it have noticed earlier?

    This afternoon I called Microsoft's MSN in the UK and told them an MSN communities site at latam.msn.com (Latin America) was hosting large quantities of child pornography. There were 15 pages with about nine pictures apiece, and several clearly involved children. Within a couple of hours, the site was gone - rapid response or …

    Software 8 Jan 2002, 16:53

  • Intel takes server PIII to 1.4Ghz

    Doubles L2 cache

    Intel today introduced a 1.4Ghz flavour of the Pentium III, complete with 512kb of L2 cache - twice that of all but the immediate Tualatin predecessors - for workhorse servers. Built on the 0.13micron production line, the new chip is faster (20 per cent), smaller and cheaper to produce than previous PIIIs. And, temptingly, for …

    Channel 8 Jan 2002, 17:29

  • AOL Europe joins Time Warner fold

    When two becomes one

    International expansion - particularly in Europe - is key to AOL Time Warner's "sustained strong performance". Confirming the $6.75bn acquisition of Bertelsmann's 49 per cent share in AOL Europe, AOL Time Warner signalled that Europe could become a key growth area for the Internet and media company. Although it has yet to …

    Business 8 Jan 2002, 17:31

  • What does this compression technology break through?

    ZeoSync the 100:1 outsider

    Claims of a breakthrough in compression technology by a Florida research start-up have been met with scepticism. ZeoSync says it has developed a technique to compress "practically random" data by a factor of hundreds to one - once the technology is fully developed (which it estimates will be possible sometime next year). Such …

    Security 8 Jan 2002, 17:46

  • Flash gets its very own virus

    Updated Proof of concept

    A proof of concept virus which has the potential to infect Flash files commonly used on Web sites has been discovered. The SWF/LFM-926 virus, which could infect surfers if they download and then open a Flash file on their PC, is the first of its kind, according to antivirus vendor Sophos. Simply viewing a Web site or Flash …

    Malware 8 Jan 2002, 18:11