Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:59 PM CEST - Jul,16 2004
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- After you install Security Update 839645, you may experience sharing
violations and increased network traffic under Windows XP - After you
install Security Update
839645,
you may experience one or more of the following: The ToolTip feature may
give the same file properties for files that are located on the network as for
files that are located on your local computer. You may experience sharing
violations if you try to open a file on a network share while another user is
using ToolTip with the same file. You may experience an increase in network
traffic. (Ed.note: I would recommend to
disable tooltips completely)
- Windows XP SP2 Build 2162 released to tester s- Microsoft have
released
a new build of Windows XP SP2 to official beta testers this evening.
Although it was announced that the next build would be RTM it seems Microsoft
want to gain some last minute feedback before the RTM in August. This build is
interim between RC2 and RTM and will not be made available to public preview.
- Online Hacker Shop Shuts Down -
An online shop that was selling the source code for two computer programs
has abruptly suspended its operations, citing a "redesign" of its "business
model." The Source Code Club opened its doors on Monday, using an e-mail
posting to an online discussion group to advertise the availability of source
code and design documents for two products: the Dragon intrusion detection
system (IDS) software from Enterasys Networks and peer-to-peer server and
client software from Napster, now owned by Roxio. By Thursday, the group's Web
page displayed a message saying the Club had ceased operations due to "fears
our customers faced." According to
Information Week, the group offered the Enterasys Dragon IDS 6.1 source
code for $16,000 and the Napster code for $10,000 saying that it was flogging
business intelligence.
- Microsoft Shuts Down Spammer -
Microsoft has won an almost $4 million verdict against a California man
for trademark infringement, false advertising, and "cybersquatting" stemming
from a spam campaign to distribute a desktop toolbar program on recipients'
Windows desktops.
- Oxford hackers face punishment - Two students from Oxford
University are facing disciplinary action after hacking into the university's
computer. They
could be fined L500 or be suspended after infiltrating the system and
publishing their story in a student newspaper. First-year students Patrick
Foster and Roger Waite say they wanted to expose the weakness in the IT
system.
- Police seize church computers -
Police
have raided a seminary near Vienna, confiscated computer kit and arrested
a priest they think was involved in a child porn ring. They are believed to
have uncovered some 40,000 pornographic photos and numerous videos on the
computers. Some church officials are also concerned that some of the photos
show candidates for the priesthood kissing, fondling each other and playing
sex games with their instructors.
- Half-Life 2 Arrests Follow-up - Investigations are continuing, with
those involved found to have links with similar crimes.
Valve is preparing to sue the hackers for damages, while working towards
an end-of-summer release date for Half-Life 2 - widely considered the most
anticipated shooter in PC gaming history.
- Sony to Test-Produce Blu-Ray Discs in U.S. - Sony Corp. plans to
set up test production lines for Blu-ray Discs in the United States this
autumn, company officials said Wednesday.
The trial production facility will be set up in Sony's digital versatile disc
plant in Indiana. It will make a single-layer Blu- ray Disc with a storage
capacity of 25 gigabytes and a 50GB dual- layer type.
- The Sad State of the PC Audio Industry -
While
Creative does appear to have monopolized the audio market, who's fault is
that? Sure we can all blame Creative, a company I have a personal vendetta
against, but it really isn't their fault. While they are far from having a
superior product, their Audigy 2 just simply works in games and works well at
that. The Audigy 2 holds the crown as the gaming card because it's practically
the only gaming card available. Competition drives the market, with a lack of
serious competition; Creative doesn't have to do much to keep their crown.
- Weekly Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range System - July 2004 - AnandTech has
updated their Weekly Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range System for July 2004.
- Crucial Unveils DDR 500MHz, DDR2 667MHz Products -
Initially Crucial will offer 4 memory module types in the Ballistix
lineup: PC3200, PC4000, PC2-4200 and PC2-5300. Every Crucial Ballistix module
comes with a custom-designed aluminum heat spreader, dome decal case badge and
decorative sticker. The following SKUs are available now from Crucial's online
store: Crucial Ballistix PC3200 (400MHz), CL2 2-2-6, currently priced at
$74.99 for 256MB, and $138.99 for 512MB; Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (500MHz),
CL2.5 4-4-8, currently priced at $77.99 for 256MB, and $144.99 for 512MB;
Crucial Ballistix PC2-4200 (533MHz), CL3 3-3-10, currently priced at $118.99
for 256MB, and $228.99 for 512MB; Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 (667MHz), CL4
4-4-10, currently priced at $124.99 for 256MB, and $238.99 for 512MB.
- Sony Ericsson launches K500, S710a, and Z500i -
The
first of the new phones is the K500. Measuring 102 x 46 x 14 mm and
weighing 80 grams, the K500 is targeted at multimedia users. The
candybar-designed phone sports a 128 x 160 pixel 16-bit color TFT display
specifically intended for gaming, which is backed up by 12 MB of RAM for users
to install either 2D or 3D Java-based games. The battery is rated for up to 8
hours of talk time or 300 hours standby. They also have unveiled
the P910
smartphone which combines PDA, email, web browsing and mobile phone.
- Samsung SGH-D410C Phone review - HardwareZoom has posted
a review of the Samsung SGH-D410C Phone.
- Radeon 9800 Pro Warning - ATI for sure launched
a cheap
version of the Radeon 9800 Pro ($170-$180) graphics card. Fantastic price,
yet a way too low price. It's a Radeon 9800 pro alright, yet equipped with
128-bit memory where it should be 256-bit. Basically frame buffer bandwidth is
cut in half and despite full eight pipes it's placing itself in the mid-range
segment as core and memory clocks are lowered also. This will have a serious
effect on overall performance.
- Nvidia said to be working on GeForce 6800 LE - Nvidia is preparing
a lesser version of its GeForce 6800 chip, the latest version of the
company's drivers are reported to reveal. According to Chinese-language web
site GZeasy, version 62.01 of Nvidia's drivers, which leaked out of the
company recently, lists the GeForce 6800 LE among the supported GPUs.
- ABIT AA8 DuraMAX & ASUS P5AD2 Premium Shoot-Out - HotHardware has
posted
a shoot-out between two high-end i925X motherboards from the Abit and
Asus, the AA8 DuraMAX and the P5AD2 Premium.
- Corsair TwinX-1024 3200XL PRO: nForce3-250 v. Intel-875 -
The Madshrimps take Corsair latest memory for a spin on an Athlon 64 and
Intel Prescott system. Do tight timings still provide the best performance?
"For those looking fondly back upon Winbond BH-5 days, I say to you smile,
better days are here. I give Corsair's Twin-X1024 3200XLPRO 10 out of 10. The
memory ran completely stable, albeit an AMD or Intel system. While the price
may seem slightly high, the fact is your getting several products in one
aesthetically unique package; PC3200-LL, PC3500-LL, PC3700-LL and PC4000 all
running from CAS 2.0."
- Massive memory module mega test - TrustedReviews let us know they
have
compared 18 pairs of dual channel memory kits.
- HIS x800XT IceQ II (LE) review - It's full name:
HiS
Excalibur x800 XT IceQ II VIVO 256 MB GDDR3 (Limited Edition) with Video
In and Out (VIVO) and of course that lovely IceQ II cooling solution.
- HIS Excalibur 9550 VIVO review - Viper Lair has posted
a review of HIS Excalibur 9550 VIVO.
- Gainward FX 5900XT Ultra/1100X - TrustedReviews have posted
a
review of the Gainward GeForce FX 5900XT Ultra/1100XT Golden Sample
graphics card.
- XGI Volari V8 Reference Card review - PC Stats has posted
a review of XGI Volari V8 Reference Card.
- BFG Technologies GeForce 6800 Ultra OC review -
The 6800GT is a very viable option for all but the most serious of gamers
in that most GT owners are coming close to reaching 6800 Ultra reference
design speeds or better. BFG gives their 6800 Ultra a bit of a core boost but
the memory is where a serious gamer has some nice headroom to get even more
bandwidth. The dual DVI outputs are exclusive to the 6800 Ultra as well.
- Philips PSC725 Ultimate Edge 24 bit Soundcard - It's based on
the Envy24 GT chipset from VIA, and capable of 24 bit resolution with 96
kHz sample rate.
- Plextor PX-712SA DVD Writer review - T-Break has posted
a
review on the Plextor PX-712SA DVD Writer.
- Aopen's XC Cube review -
Aopen's XC Cube Barebones is unbeatable design- and feature-wise. With a
Linux OS that comes included, five seconds are all you need to get the DVD
player, TV/radio tuner and other goodies up and running.
- Lilliput 7" Wide Screen VGA TFT LCD with Touch Screen review -
The 7" VGA
TFT LCD display features a resistive touch screen, making it easy to view
and control basic applications with one compact device.
- i-rocks 800 dpi Optical Mouse review - Budah's LAN room take a look
at the
new i-rocks IR-7300 optical mouse.
- Logitech Bluetooth Cordless MX Duo review - Design Technica has
posted
a
review of Logitech Bluetooth Cordless MX Duo.
- X-Trac MadWax review - The typical gamer may try different
mice to find the performance edge they're looking for, but the serious gamer
knows that it goes a lot further. While a good mouse is part of a serious
competitor's arsenal, what liesunderneath is just as important. X-Trac has
come to the rescue with MadWax.
It's
designed to keep your mousing surface ultra-slick surface and requires a
minimum of upkeep while keeping your mouse gliding along smoothly.
- Nikon D70 Digital SLR review - PyroPort.com
takes a look
at Nikon's D70 Digital SLR.
- 5 Windows processes described - I am not a Geek explains 5
Windows processes:
lsass.exe,
csrss.exe,
smss.exe,
spoolsv.exe, and
internat.exe.
- Doom3 Wallpapers - Doom3Center have posted
three new
Doom3 Wallpapers.
- PDF SpeedUp for Adobe Reader 1.00 -
PDF SpeedUp
(download) allows you to
significantly speed up the time it takes to load Adobe Reader. If you notice
that when the Reader starts it loads many plug-ins which you may or may not
need, this program simply disables the plug-ins and loads only the absolute
necessary ones so the program starts quickly.
- Google Toolbar 2.0.112 -
Search
Google from this toolbar as well as block popups, autofill forms and more.
- Pop Goes The Gmail 1.0 -
Pop Goes the Gmail
is a program that sits between the http://gmail.com web server and your email
client, converting messages from web format into POP3 format that a program
such as Outlook Express or Thunderbird can understand.
- DivX 5.2 + Dr.DivX 1.05 -
DivX (changelog
~ DivX5.2Win2k/XP ~
DivX5.2Win98/ME ~
Dr.DivX v1.05)
is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and
documentation that you need to play DivX files. DivX codec is based on the
MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec can reduce an MPEG-2 video (DVD
format) to ten percent of its original size. DivX is a digital video
compression technology based on the ISO MPEG-4 standard.
- BlindWrite Suite 5.2.1 (shw) -
Blindwrite Suite (download)
is the best set of tools to reproduce or clone any CD, even protected ones.
Blindwrite Suite is the most powerfull tool to create a perfect copy from your
original CD for personal private copy.
- Nvidia ForceWare 62.11 Beta -
The files are dated 07/09/2004 and will work with all ranges of Nvidia
cards. I haven't had time to test these fully and remember they are not WHQL
so please be careful about using them on production systems.
- Nvidia nForce1/2/3 System Drivers 5.03 WHQL - Station-Drivers has
posted
a new set of nForce drivers (mirror)
version 5.03 WHQL for windows XP/2k supporting the following chipsets:
nForce 220, nForce 220D, nForce 415 and nForce 420D nForce2 and nForce2 400
nForce2 Ultra and nForce2 Ultra 400 nForce2 400R and nForce2 Ultra 400Gb
nForce3 150 and nForce3 PRO 150 nForce3 250, nForce3 250Gb and nForce3 PRO
250. You can also find a nice remix pack
here (download)
because there are some newer files in the 4.40 beta. (thanks
Warp2Search)
- Volari BIOS v1.02.20 - Here's a new
BIOS
for the XGI Volari Series, version 1.02.20.
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Updated:12:47 AM CEST Jun,04
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