Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:16 PM CET - Jan,16 2004
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- FBI probes pirated Oscar films - The FBI has confirmed that it has
entered the case of the pirated "screener" videos sent to Academy Award
voters. It is looking into four films - "Something's Gotta Give," "The Last
Samurai," "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "thirteen."
According to multiple studio sources, illegal copies of those films that have
appeared on the Internet
have been traced by their respective studios to screeners intended for use by
character actor Carmine Caridi, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences. The studios have turned over information to both the
Academy and the FBI, sources said.
- Off-topic: Windows 1.03 - The following is the installation and
boot-up sequence for
the first release version of perhaps the most important software currently
in the world: Microsoft Windows. Really scary, to think that this was only one
floppy! (thanks Bink.nu)
- Centrino Gains 802.11g Support -
Intel announced its first 802.11g wireless chip for notebooks bearing the
Centrino banner, the company says in a release on Thursday. The Intel
Pro/Wireless 2200BG chip allows users to connect to either 802.11b or 802.11g
wireless networks. Intel is shipping the chip to its notebook customers with
systems expected worldwide during the first quarter, says Dan Francisco, an
Intel spokesperson. The Centrino package of the Pentium M processor, a mobile
chip set, and the Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 chip was introduced in March of last
year with 802.11b capability.
- Matrox Graphics Prepares PCI Express x16 Graphics Processor - While
nearly all observers and analyst are looking for ATI and NVIDIA to release
their next-generation graphics powerhouses, a company almost all have
forgotten about,
Matrox Graphics, is also getting ready to introduce something new this year.
The graphics processor will presumably be intended for PCI Express x16 and
will sport at least some Microsoft DirectX 9 caps.
- Lite-On IT to begin shipments of 8x DVD Dual to Sony in February -
Lite-On IT, Taiwan's largest producer of optical disc drives, will begin to
deliver 8x half-height (H/H) DVD Dual burners to Sony in February,
according to the company. Sony, because of uncompetitive costs, stopped own
production of DVD drives beginning with 8x models late last year. Sony sold
three million 8x DVD burners last year and the sales volume may double to six
million units this year, Lite-On IT said. If Lite-On IT can absorb all of the
OEM orders for 8x DVD burners, the monthly shipments would average 500,000
units, according to the company. However, Lite-On IT thinks that Sony is
unlikely to rely on only one OEM supplier.
- ASRock P4S61 vs Gigabyte GA-8S661FXM - Overclockers New Zealand has
reviewed the ASRock P4S61 and Gigabyte GA-8S661FXM motherboards.
- ASUS K8V Deluxe Wireless Edition Motherboard review - TweakTown
take
an in-depth look at ASUS’s brand new Athlon 64 motherboard, complimented
with a never-before-seen inclusion of a wireless AP card and an
omni-directional antenna.
- MSI 865PE Neo2 Platinum Edition review - What this board lacks in
features,
it
makes up in Stability and compatibility. MSI provides a book with all the
tested CPUs, graphics cards and memory modules which adds up to over 200
products- definitely very impressive. This board is made up of very high
quality components and should not trouble anyone.
- ASUS' RADEON 9800 XT/TVD & RADEON 9600 XT/TVD review -
Everything that makes the RADEON 9800 XT/TVD such a good card also applies
to the RADEON 9600 XT/TVD, with the added bonus that ASUS also outfits the
card with high quality memory (although we do know that Sapphire and
Powercolor also use very good memory on their 9600 XT boards). Samsung's
700MHz memory modules were used on our board.
- Albatron FX5700 Ultra Video Card -
The FX5700 Ultra features the NV36 GPU from nVidia. This is one of
nVidia's newest GPU's and features support for DDR-II. The memory that
Albatron chose for this card is Samsung 2.0ns ball grid array DDR-II. This
memory is rated at 500MHz (1.0GHz DDR). This card is only running at 900MHz,
so it's begging to be overclocked.
- Sparkle Geforce FX 5700 Ultra review - MadShrimps take a look
at the Sparkle FX5700Ultra Platinum edition (SP8836U-PT), it improves upon
nVidia's FX 5600 Ultra, while sporting ViVo features. Pitting it against the
Radeon 9800 Pro to see how it holds up in popular benchmarks and games.
- Gigabyte 9600XT review - Neoseeker take a look at
Gigabyte's GV-R96X128D 9600 XT. - "There were a few anomalies with the
Gigabyte R96XT. Two things that were missing included screen rotation as well
as Overdrive. Screen rotation is like Nvidia's Nview utility that allows users
of LCDs to rotate their screen. Gigabyte explained that ATI does not enable
screen rotation in 3rd Party products which is very odd. Overdrive's benefits
are a bit on the questionable side but for that to be missing also is a bit
strange since that was one of the more highly touted improvements between the
Pro and the XT line from ATI".
- Hercules Prophetview 920 Pro DVI review -
Hercules Prophetview 920 Pro DVI sports a 17" LCD with a very respectable
20ms pixel response time.
- PSU reviews -
Enermax
NoiseTaker 420W PSU |
Seasonic Super Silencer 460 PSU
- DangerDen Maze 4 CPU & GPU Waterblocks review - Bryan McDaniel at
Overclockers Club has written
a review on the DangerDen Maze 4 CPU water block & GPU water block.
- Zalman TNN 500A review - The guys at THG take a
hard look at the TNN 500A to find out if it lives up to its hefty price
tag - The TNN 500A's high price will certainly curtail the number of
purchasers who are willing to pay such a high price for an almost totally
silent case solution. Most users will be happy with a semi-silent solution for
far less, perhaps costing as little as 1/8 of the TNN 500A's retail price.
However, if you have a high requirement for an almost totally silent solution,
it doesn't get much better than the TNN 500A.
- Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0 - Microsoft
estimates that the batteries provided (2x Energizer AA) can last up to 6
months, but if you constantly use your PC as I do, I'd expect about 2-3 months
of battery life. For the RRP of $139.95AUD,
it isn't cheap but neither is the MX700 which weighs in at about the same
price.
- Exchange Server 2003 Message Security Guide -
This book discusses how, when using S/MIME, encryption protects the contents
of e-mail messages and digital signatures verify the identity of a purported
sender of an e-mail message. In addition, this book provides guidance on how
to implement S/MIME with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In addition, this
book provides guidance and pointers to other resources where those are
necessary.
- Server Power & Performance: A Buyers Guide To Upgrading Your System -
Server performance and tuning is such a broad area, that literally
hundreds of books have been written on the subject.
This article focuses on hardware only, tuning an operating system or
software application is an entirely different subject best left for another
day. For the purposes of this article we will assume that the software is
running and configured properly.
- Code Name WinFS: Revolutionary File Storage System - MSDN has
posted
an article on the WinFS file storage system.
- Serial ATA Explained – What's the big deal? -
Serial ATA is here and it's ready. Companies guarantee its future-proof
and, despite being better than its Parallel ancestors, it's much simpler to
handle. The price is right and the economy seems to be heading in the right
direction for a successful replacement of Parallel ATA. There isn't much more
an industry could ask for in changing what it calls a standard. Only time will
tell. As for the enterprise, Serial ATA has a definite future and we'll go
deep into that with the follow up to this overview in a few weeks.
- Windows XP SP1 and Windows Server 2003 clients cannot connect to some
third-party wireless implementations of 802.1x - This problem occurs
because the wireless 802.1x implementations in Windows XP SP1 and in Microsoft
Windows Server 2003 are not compatible with some third-party Extensible
Authentication Protocol (EAP) solutions -- for example, SecuID technology from
RSA Security, Inc.
A fix is now available that permits client computers that are running
Windows XP SP1 or Windows Server 2003 to connect and to authenticate by using
some third-party EAP solutions.
Windows 2000 post-SP4 hotfixes pack - This website has
95 post sp4
hotfixes packed in 1 file (95MB)
- Internet Explorer pre 6.05 build 0008 - Softpedia has posted
a new build of the Internet Explorer 6.05 (extracted from Longhorn). It's
still very buggy so download&install only at your own risk.
- IA-32 Execution Layer 4.3 -
The IA-32 Execution Layer is a software driver designed to improve
performance of 32-bit applications running on Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit
Itanium-based Systems.
- Microsoft Virtual CD -
This MS tool lets you mount ISO images so you can access them as they are
in your CD drive.
- Windows Services for UNIX Version 3.5 -
Windows Services for UNIX 3.5 (free registration required) provides a full
range of supported and fully integrated cross-platform network services for
enterprise customers to use in integrating Windows into their existing
UNIX-based environments.
- Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Trial - Virtual PC is a powerful software
virtualization solution that allows you to run multiple PC-based operating
systems simultaneously on one workstation, providing a safety net to maintain
compatibility with legacy applications while you migrate to a new operating
system. It also saves reconfiguration time, so your support, development, and
training staff can work more efficiently.
This is a 45-day time-out, full version of the Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
product. No serial number is required.
- Mozilla v1.6 -
Mozilla 1.6 (download
~ changelog) is an
open-source Web browser, designed for standards compliance, performance and
portability.
- Fresh UI 6.85 -
Fresh UI (download)
is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with
hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and
optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know: Customizing Windows User
Interface, Optimizing system settings, Optimizing hardware settings,
Customizing Windows application settings, and Control user environment with
policies.
- SecureFX 2.2.1 (SHW) -
The SecureFX (download)
client application lets you choose between SFTP or FTP over an encrypted SSH2™
connection for secure transfers, or standard FTP for non-secure transfers.
- SecureCRT 4.1.1 (SHW) -
SecureCRT
(download)
gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2 servers. SSH
security goes far beyond the basic secure logon, rerouting data or local
applications using TCP/IP ports through an encrypted channel. The VCP utility
secures file transfers using SFTP.
- WinDVD Tweaker Pro 4.45 (SHW) -
WinDVD Tweaker is
designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software to enable some hidden
settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure.
- Realtek RTL8139(A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series Drivers v6.11 - Realtek
have released
a new drivers for the RTL8139 (A/B/C/D/8130)/810X series, version 6.11 for
windows 98/ME/ 2k/XP.
- Chipset Identification Utility 2.87 -
The Intel Chipset Identification Utility provides an easy way to identify
the specific Intel chipset that is located on your motherboard. This
information can be used to determine if your system supports the Intel
Application Accelerator.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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