Morning Reading - tech
(hx) 10:15 AM CET - Nov,13 2003
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- Share "True Crime," do the time - A forthcoming copyright bill
backed by key U.S. senators
would place file swappers in prison for up to three years if they have a
copy of even one prerelease movie in their shared folders. In addition to the
prison term, the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act would punish making
such movies available on a public "computer network" as a federal felony with
a fine of up to $250,000. It would not require that any copyright infringement
actually take place.
- Nokia confirms N-Gage hack, pursues pirates - Handset maker
Nokia confirmed Wednesday that hackers had managed to crack anticopying
protections in games designed for its new N-Gage, a gadget that combines a
cell phone with a Game Boy-like handheld gaming console. The company also said
it's cooperating with law enforcement authorities and broadband providers to
stop illegal online trading of the games, which normally sell for between $35
and $40. Spokesman Stephen Knuff said such trading has been taking place for
an undetermined amount of time via Web sites and cell phone virtual
communities.
- Off-topic: Rings director cuts wizard scenes - Actor Christopher
Lee has said he was mystified to learn that his
key scenes have been dropped from the third Lord of the Rings movie.
Lee, 81, who plays the wizard Saruman in the trilogy, said he had expected to
appear in seven minutes' worth of climactic scenes. "Of course I am very
shocked, that's all I can say," he told ITV1's This Morning on Wednesday. He
now plans to boycott the film's premiere in December this year.
- Pioneer officially announces Pioneer A07 8x dual format DVD recorder -
Pioneer Europe has
officially
announced the Pioneer A07 dual format 8x DVD recorder. Previously some
information about this drive leaked, but now the company has disclosed the
correct information. The drive will write DVD-R and DVD+R discs at 8 speed,
DVD-RW and DVD-RW discs will be written at 4 speed.
- Single speaker unit creates surround sound -
A home theatre system that produces surround sound using a single speaker unit
has been unveiled by a US company. Film soundtracks are normally mixed for
five or six separate speakers arranged around a cinema. This can be used to
create the impression that action is happening all around the audience. Many
DVDs include this sound data so that the effect can be recreated at home. But
a listener normally has to wire up five or six speakers in set positions
around a room. irotek's DVD player, the NIRO 1.1 PRO, achieves the same effect
with five individual speakers packed horizontally into a single case. To
achieve the surround sound effect, an on-board computer manipulates the signal
to each speaker using algorithms that mimic the effects used by the brain to
identify the direction a sound is coming from.
- Fedora Core 1 is a Mild Disappointment -
Fedora
Core 1 has been out now for a few days now and many faithful Linux fans
have already installed it. Red Hat's Linux is still one of my favorite
distributions because of one main reason: compatibility with Linux software.
Red Hat is a market leader and following the market leader assures the least
trouble for most users. But is this the case with Fedora Core?
- Microsoft aims to simplify database management -
Microsoft released a tool Wednesday that scans a database and provides
guidelines on how to best configure and maintain SQL Server databases for
better performance. Called Best Practices Analyzer, the software is designed
to work with the current edition of the company database, SQL Server 2000.
- Slim Devices SLIMP3 Player review -
The
SLIMP3 is a networked music player that hooks up to a server computer and
allows you to play digital music stored on a remote computer through your
stereo. The unit features a 2x40 vacuum florescent display (VFD), a remote
control and hooks up to your network with a regular 10-baseT connection.
- ATI Radeon 9800 XT review -
ATI's
Radeon 9800 XT is an amazing product, expensive, but amazing. The 9800 XT
is fast and very efficient with it's quality settings in Anisotropic Filtering
and Anti Aliasing. Installation was as easy as a breeze, no problems at all.
Stability then, it never crashed even once except with the game Call of Duty,
that's driver related though and probably will be fixed in future catalyst
driver releases.
- EPoX 8RDA3+ nForceII Ultra 400 review - Monkey review has posted
a review of EPoX 8RDA3+ nForceII Ultra 400 board.
- EL PC4200 DDR533 Dual Channel Memory review - PCStats has posted
a review of OCZ EL PC4200 DDR533 Dual Channel Memory.
- APC 725 UPS Device review - NextGen Electronics has posted
a
review of the APC 725 UPS Backup.
- Vantec ION 400W VAN-400B Power Supply review - PCStats has posted
a review of the Vantec ION 400W VAN-400B Power Supply.
- Logitech IO Pen review -
The
Logitech IO Pen is great for office users as well as home users. The
Logitech io is a sophisicated pen that is able to capture everything you write
on anoto formatted notebook paper using it's built in optical sensor. The pen
is bigger than a normal pen but the brains have to go somewhere. The pen packs
a processor among other things in the space that the pen takes up.
- Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless first look -
The Concord Eye-Q Go Wireless digital camera ($179.99 list) eliminates the
need for cables and cradles, instead transmitting images directly to any
Bluetooth-enabled PC, printer, PDA, or even cell phone. It's also fairly easy
to use, produces very good daylight images, and comes bundled with great
software. But sluggish performance and a lack of features cancel any advantage
wireless image transfer may offer.
- Setting Up a Windows Web Server Guide - Enscape has posted
this step by step
guide about setting up a Windows webserver with Apache, PHP and MySQL.
- Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency Timings - PCStats has posted
an interesting article called "Memory Bandwidth vs. Latency
Timings".
- Interim Release 6 of the new BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.0 -
Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he has posted
the Interim Release
6 of the new REVISION 8.0 BIOS OPTIMIZATION GUIDE with 12 new BIOS
options: Second Boot Device, Speed Error Hold, Split Lock Operations, Super
Bypass Mode, Super Bypass Wait State, SuperStability Mode, Security Setup,
Swap Floppy Drive, Synchronous Mode Select, Third Boot Device, USB Controller,
and Virus Warning.
- Quintessential Player 4.11 - A new version (v4.11) of
Quintessential Player
is available for download.
- VisualRoute v8.0a (SHW $37) -
VisualRoute (download
trial) is a visual, fast, and integrated ping, whois, and traceroute
program that automatically analyzes connectivity problems, displaying the
results on a World map
- HijackThis 1.97.6 -
HijackThis (download),
a general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the
article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against
hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks.
- CloneDVD fix - With the current version of CloneDVD not selecting
the menus and not selecting the empty title (the one with the longest play
time) should yield an undamaged main movie. Until the problem is fixed with
the next release using
the fix which
should solve the problem.
- Driver Cleaner 2.6 - The chaps over at Driver Heaven have released
version 2.6 of their popular
Driver
Cleaner software.
- Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 5.1.0.1008 -
The Intel
Chipset Software Installation Utility installs to the target system the
Windows* INF files that outline to the operating system how the chipset
components will be configured. This release adds Intel 6300ESB support.
- Nvidia Detonator Drivers 52.70 (beta) - Guru 3D have updated their
download page with
Detonator
52.70 for Windows 2000/XP from MSI. "This set originated from MSI who has
them on-line in their Live Update program. We've checked this archive out and
despite some small MSI (one logo in the installer) related information this is
a 100% NVIDIA reference set. It'll work on any NVIDIA graphics card, we
installed them on a reference GeForce FX 5900 Ultra. The archive has been
virus/trojan checked and is safe. Files within the archive are dated
24-Oct-2003 making this the absolute newest set available."
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Updated:03:22 PM CEST Jun,21
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