Friday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:29 AM CEST - Apr,26 2003
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- Million-user online game previewed -
The first online computer game designed to accommodate a million simultaneous
players will be previewed on Friday. The game, called Rekonstruction, is
not scheduled for commercial release until autumn 2004. But some of the
challenges involved with building it will be revealed at the O'Reilly Emerging
Technology Conference in Santa Clara, California. Creating a large virtual
world that does not repeat itself is very time consuming and hence expensive,
says Chris DiBona of Damage Studios, the company behind the game. The large
multiplayer games currently online usually take one world and then repeat it.
For example, the game Everquest supports 450,000 users, but is split into 32
segregated segments.
Military robots to get swarm intelligence -
A battalion of 120 military robots is to be fitted with swarm intelligence
software to enable them to mimic the organised behaviour of insects. The
project, which received funding this week from the US Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is aimed at developing ways to perform
missions such as minesweeping and search and rescue with minimum intervention
from human operators.
Judge: File-swapping tools are legal - A federal judge in Los
Angeles has handed a stunning court victory to file-swapping services
Streamcast Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record industry and
movie studios' lawsuit against the two companies. In an almost complete
reversal of previous victories for the record labels and movie studios,
federal court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Streamcast--parent of the
Morpheus software--and Grokster
were not
liable for copyright infringements that took place using their software.
The ruling does not directly affect Kazaa, software distributed by Sharman
Networks, which has also been targeted by the entertainment industry.
- Ballmer on Windows Server 2003&Linux - Microsoft's CEO, Steve
Ballmer, has given
an
interview to CNet about Windows Server 2003 and Linux.
- Nvidia to launch NV35 in mid-May -
Nvidia is set to formally introduce its new NV35 graphics chip at the
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), to be held in Los Angeles from May 14-16.
Due to SARS concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, Nvidia will not hold a
product launch conference in Taiwan. The chip adopts the same core as Nvidia's
NV30 (GeForce FX 5800 series) but delivers much improved performance, sources
said. According to graphics card makers, the NV35 will support the more
popular DDR memory standard, rather than the DDRII architecture supported by
the NV30. Using a 0.13-micron process, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company (TSMC) is the sole manufacturer of the NV35 chip, sources said.
Quickly ramping up NV35 shipments would go far towards fortifying Nvidia's
product line and alleviate the shortage in the high-end graphics chip market.
For the past few months, limited supply of Nvidia's NV30 and NV31 (GeForce FX
5600 series) chips has boosted demand for high-end products from rival ATI
Technologies. However, ATI has not been able to fully meet the increased
demand.
- Creative releases external Sound Blaster Digital Music -
Creative released an external USB1.1 soundcard, Sound Blaster Digital
Music, for arrive for sale in May for $83. It features 2 RCA inputs, 1 mic
jack, headphones jack, 2 RCA outputs, optical in/out. The card requires 160mA.
The interface supports MP3, WAVE, WMA and MIDI recording and can be also
plugged into a Dolby Digital (AC-3) home theater. Headphone or speaker 3D
sound is provided by CMSS 3D (Creative Inspire Monitor M85-D, Creative
TravelSound, Creative Inspire 5.1 5700 compatible.)
- JVC Announces GR-HD1 - Announced earlier today in Japan, the
GR-HD1, is the world's first consumer camcorder to offer 750 line
resolution progressive video at 30 frames per second, recording MPEG2 video to
MiniDV tape. The High Definition GR-HD1 uses a 1/3 in. (quite large, which is
good) 1.18 million pixel progressive scan CCD to record the high resolution
video to MiniDV tape. The GR-HD1 is able to squeeze the higher resolution
video onto the tape by recording it in MPEG-2 format, not the standard DV
format. What kind of loss in quality this creates in unknown - but it will
certainly be thoroughly investigated.
- MSI Ti4800SE-VTD8X Review - Naming quirks aside,
the MSI Ti4800SE-VTD8X is a very good card with an excellent bundle. If
you're not ready to commit to a high-end Radeon or FX card, or just need a
capable gaming card for a second PC, then the GeForce4 cards still offer great
performance and stability at a reasonable price. They award the MSI Ti4800SE
VTD8X a 9 out of 10 and the Golden Bear Award based on its core performance
and features, the excellence of the bundle, and its ability to reliably
overclock.
- Via P4PB Ultra P4X400 Motherboard -
The P4PB
Ultra motherboard is Via's flagship (as of this date) motherboard and is
manufactured to target the performance enthusiast genre of computer users.
Like most motherboard manufacturers, the board is only part of your purchase.
As a bonus, the consumer will receive a whole buffet of extras to compliment
their new computer and to get it looking and performing at its best.
- Hitachi 17" CML175B Display Review - Accelenation has posted
a review on
the Hitachi 17" CML175B Display.
- Canon i320 Printer Review - Tom's Hardware Guide has posted
a review of the Canon i320 printer.
- HP OfficeJet 7130 All-in-One Review -
The HP OfficeJet 7130 All-in-One ($500 street), roughly the size and shape
of a desktop copier with a front panel that would look at home on a fax
machine, offers far more than you might expect from a multifunction printer.
Not only can it serve as your printer, scanner, copier, and fax, but plug your
camera's memory card in, and you can print photos with or without your
computer.
- Casio Exilim EX-S2 Digital Camera -
The
EX-S2 sports a higher 2.0 mega pixel CCD imager than the EX-S1 and can
take still images in 1600x1200, 1280x960 and 640x480 resolutions; large enough
to produce a native 81/2x 11 picture. The EX-S2 also can take up to 30 second
AVI movie files (with no sound) at 320x240 and has a 4x digital zoom. Pictures
are taken using the beautiful 1.6 TFT/ 354x240 color LCD.
- Zippy EL-610 Luminescence Mini Keyboard - In the past, all you
could buy at your local computer store was a plain dull beige keyboard and now
with all the technological advances,
there are new different keyboards to choose from. Some of the main types
of keyboards on the market are wireless, slim, colored, and many others. The
best way to choose what kind of keyboard is right for you is to think about
what you are going to use it for (typing, games, surfing the internet, ETC&).
- Microsoft offers Windows security guide - Microsoft released on
Friday
a tutorial and templates to help system administrators lock down the
security of computers running the company's newest operating system, Windows
Server 2003. The tutorial consists of portable document files (PDFs) detailing
the reasoning behind configuring the server software for various applications,
from a Web server connected to the Internet to a domain controller on a
company's internal network. Also included are examples of
Microsoft-recommended configurations for specific applications.
- Microsoft Security Bulletin 811493 (Updated 25th April) - Looks
like Microsoft has
updated the article on 811493 and recognize the performance issue :]
- Windows XP Media Center Edition Update Q815487 -
check it
out.
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Evaluation -
Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (64-bit) (eval.download)
helps you build a powerful infrastructure for highly demanding uses. It's the
recommended operating system for networking and business applications
requiring the utmost in performance, scalability, and high availability.
(Select this only if your server system includes 64-bit Itanium-based
processors.)
- ATI Catalyst 3.2 vs 6.14.10.6334 Driver Comparison -
Hardware-Mag.de have posted a brief ATI Catalyst 3.2 vs 6.14.10.6334 Driver
Comparison (translated).
Another article can be found at
3DChipset.com.
HyperSnap-DX 5.10.02 -
HyperSnap-DX 5 (download)
is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens
from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D,
3Dfx Voodoo and Glide mode games. This new version fixes crashes and hangs on
some systems and many others.
- DivX 5.0.5 (Schizo) -
DivX 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. (Changelog
~ DivX 5.0.5 Free
~ DivX 5.0.5
Pro Adware ~
DivX 5.0.5
Pro)
- New NVIDIA Linux drivers - NVIDIA has released
a new Linux Drivers version 1.0-4363 (IA32 => Standard).
- Asus Motherboard Tools - Asus has just released the latest
versions of
Asus LiveUpdate 5.05.01 and
Asus PC
Probe 2.20.03.
- Fresh UI 5.80 -
Fresh UI
(download) is a fresh
solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of
useful hidden settings this software covers the customizing and optimizing
techniques that you'll be glad to know. This new version adds IE hidden
settings.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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