Afternoon Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 09:03 PM CET - Feb,15 2003
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- A Chat with Bill Gates - PC Magazine editor-in-chief Michael J.
Miller has
conducted an interview with Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates as he talks
about FM data-receiving watches, downloadable apps, and an Xbox showdown
between Gates and Shaquille O'Neal.
- Terrorists Develop Videogames -
The Jerusalem Post, (free registration required), quotes Lebanon's
Al-Anwar newspaper, saying that the "special Internet unit" of the Hizbollah
militant organization is developing their own shooter, based on the
"achievements of real resistance fighters." - "After a quick training
mission, players will be able to use 9 mm pistols, Kalashnikov rifles, rocket
propelled grenades, knives, and sniper rifles to attack the bases of Israel
and her allies. The idea, says the Post, is to "counter the image of the
'invincible' all-American hero in games sold throughout the world."
(source: 3DGPU)
- Slim Desktops Free Desk Space - Within the span of two months,
Dell, Gateway, HP Compaq, IBM, and PC Power & Cooling released new slim
desktops. All feature P4 processors, but none are exactly what we'd call
powerhouses. Based on 845G/GL motherboards, the systems don't take full
advantage of the CPU as an 850 board would. Four of the five use the
integrated Intel Extreme Graphics. But horsepower and gaming are not the story
here.
- Samsung Developed terabit Flash Memory Element -
Terabit flash memory element whose density is 1,000 times higher than
existing flash memory element was developed. A team lead by Dr. Kim Jeong-woo
at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology announced on the 13th that
together with a team led by Professor Park Byeong-kuk, it developed for the
first time in the world SONOS (Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon) flash
memory element with very fine width of 30 nm.
- Nintendo games seized in Chinese piracy raids - Authorities
in southern China have
recovered around 300,000 counterfeit Nintendo games in factory raids,
including copies of the recent released Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby for the Game
Boy Advance. This latest batch of raids - on factories in the Guangdong
province, which borders the notorious piracy hotbed of Hong Kong - marks one
of the most successful operations ever against Nintendo pirates.
- Illegal downloading fight targets corporations - The Recording
Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America
are
sending a six-page brochure this week to Fortune 1000 corporations with
suggested policies -- including a sample memo to workers warning them against
using company computers to download songs and movies. The brochure also
carries a clear threat: Stop workers from stealing copyrighted materials or be
sued.
- FTD.com hole leaks personal information -
A
security flaw at FTD.com left private information open to harvesting this
week, one of the busiest of the year for the online florist. The flaw
allowed a person to use a modified "cookie" to easily access customer
information from the company's servers, said Gerald Quakenbush, an information
security analyst for Internet and e-business consulting service Fusion
Alliance. Cookies are snippets of data that reside on a person's computer,
linking that PC to information and personalized sites on the Web.
- Windows XP Passwords Rendered Useless - Windows guru Brian
Livingston reports that
inserting a Windows 2000 CD into an XP system allows one to bypass all
password protection and manipulate any part of the machine at will.
"Anyone with a Windows 2000 CD can boot up a Windows XP box and start the
Windows 2000 Recovery Console," says Livingston. The intruder has
Administrator privileges even if he or she does not provide a password, and
can also assume the identity of any other user of the machine.
- Ariane-4 blasts into history - The final mission for Europe's
Ariane-4 series of rockets has been successfully carried out, with the
placing in orbit of a communications satellite on Saturday. The Ariane-4 has
been in service for nearly 15 years and has well over 100 safe launches to its
credit.
- ABIT BH7 Overclockers' Dream Board -
BH7 is an 845PE
motherboard designed by overclockers for overclockers. This 845PE board is
equipped with 4 Phase Power for overclocking. With 4 Phase Power, the BH7 is
capable of overclocking to beyond an 800FSB and also of using DDR400. Without
4 Phase Power, ABIT Engineers do not believe that overclocking can be achieved
to a significant level while remaining stable. The board will still include
hot features such as 6 channel sound with S/PDIF in/out, LAN onboard and 3 + 1
Serial ATA.
- Unreal 2 Graphics Detail: Commentary - EliteBastard's Quinton
Thomas Mosley has written
an article on the graphics quality of Unreal 2.
- Bug In 3DMark 2003 -
Neowin.net has pretty interesting post called "Cheating Is Imminent?" -
While I was fooling around with the latest and greatest from FutureMark, I
stumbled upon a bug which can really open the gates of cheating if it isn't
fixed pronto. Here's the steps to reproduce it: 1) Set your 3D card at default
clock with your favourite overclocking utility 2) Open 3D Mark 2003 3) Start
benchmarking, then press Escape so that benchmarking can't finish. 4) Now open
your favourite 3D card overclocker again and overclock it like there's no
tomorrow 5) Benchmark again, but this time let the benchmark finish 6) Publish
your score to the Online Browser for the world to see.
- 3D Mark 2003: The Gamers' Benchmark (?) - The new 3D Mark 2003 is
finaly available but are we happy with it?
Here are some thoughts.
- BlindWrite Suite 4.3.0 -
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. Blindwrite Suite can also create CD
audio from MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, WMA, monkey`s audio and be use with an cd-rom
emulator like Daemon Tools.
- IE++ 2.1 - IE++ is a
set of additional functions for Internet Explorer which improve the usability
of your browser and make your web-surfing more comfortable. It is integrated
into the browser as toolbar. Try IE++ if you want to use native Internet
Explorer, but need of extra features. The program is full-functional.
- AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 455 -
AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 455 has been released.
- Windows 2000 SP4 Download -
Neowin.net now offers both
English and German language versions of Windows 2000 SP4 Beta (Express
Setup) and you can choose between two installation options for SP4: Express
and Network. This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on
your system.
- Koepi`s XviD Codec build 15022003-1 (win32) -
XviD (download)is
a video codec just like DivX. Most new movies and videos are being encoded
with XviD.
- Winfox Tool v5.13.01.2003-2.51. - Leadtek has released
a new version of their Winfox Tool v5.13.01.2003-2.51.
- Xabre BIOSes -
XabreGamers has once again laid hands on the latest
SiS Xabre reference BIOS version 1.09.00 BIOS dated 13.02.2003. They also
have new BIOS for the SiS740 and SiS650 - version 1.14.04 dated 13.02.2002 for
the VGA core of these integrated chipsets. As I mentioned yesteday, they lso
have the latest
SIS XABRE 3.10.51 driver for download. (thanks blopa mapa)
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Updated:10:44 AM CEST Sep,20
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