Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:45 PM CEST - Jul,02 2003
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- 'Terminator 3' worth the wait -
"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is darker and slicker than its
predecessors, 1984's "The Terminator" and 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day,"
both directed and co-written by James Cameron. It also contains hundreds, if
not thousands, more computer-generated images than either of those movies.
- US plans hypersonic bomber - The United States is planning to build
an
unmanned hypersonic aircraft capable of striking any target in the world
within two hours. The initial description of the concept - called the
Hypersonic Cruise Vehicle (HCV) - has recently been placed on the website of
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the central research
and development organisation of the Pentagon. The idea is that the HCV
would take off from a conventional airfield in the continental United States
carrying a 12,000-pound (5,500-kilogram) payload. This payload would be made
up from a variety of munitions, including cruise missiles and a new glide bomb
dropped from space, called a Common Aero Vehicle (Cav).
- Xbox prices axed in Asia (except Japan) - All of the Asia-Pacific
territories where Microsoft sells the Xbox, with the sole exception of Japan,
have seen the price of the console and its software slashed this week in an
attempt to compete more strongly with the PS2. In South Korea, the Xbox
console sees a
price cut of just over 10 per cent, bringing the system to 249,800 Won,
below the price of the PS2 which retails for 272,800 Won.
- Pentagon Pushes Next Version of IP - The next version of the
Internet Protocol, which provides a 128-bit standard to transmit data, is
getting a jump-start for adoption with its endorsement by the Department of
Defense. The result: A boost in the number of available Internet addresses, to
eventually number as many as an address for every cell in every person on the
planet. The DOD is requiring all contractors involved in its Global
Information Grid program to support the new Internet Protocol version 6 as of
October 1, 2003.
IPv6 is expected to replace the current 32-bit IP version 4 (IPv4) for
nearly all Internet traffic by 2008. The replacement is necessary because the
number of available of IP addresses is dwindling, say the standard's
developers.
- Microsoft Patches Passport - Microsoft
patched a hole in it's .Net Passport identity management service last night
after a security researcher disclosed a potentially serious flaw that could
enable attackers to hijack Passport accounts. The vulnerability was in the
code for a "Secret Question" feature that helped users who had forgotten their
Passport password, according to a message posted by Victor Manuel Alvarez
Castro, who identified himself as a security consultant.
- Wi-Fi networks get safer with downloadable firmware - If you've
delayed setting up a wireless network because of security concerns, help is at
hand. Around the time you read this, improved security technology for all
variants of 802.11 should be available as free firmware downloads from
most equipment vendors. The new technology--known as Wi-Fi Protected
Access (WPA)--replaces the existing and largely discredited Wired Equivalent
Privacy (WEP) security algorithm that is part of the 802.11a, 802.11b, and
802.11g standards.
- Firewire interface jumps to 800 mbps - Want faster external
storage? Third-generation FireWire 800 (IEEE 1394b) claims to provide it,
boasting a maximum data transfer rate of 800 megabits per second (about 100
megabytes per second). In our tests of the $449 LaCie D2 200GB external
drive--which works with FireWire 800 as well as with the older 50-MBps
FireWire 400 and 60-MBps USB 2.0--FireWire
800 outpaced the other interfaces, but often by less than you might expect
from the spec. Data-read operations, such as playing back or editing
multimedia files, showed the most benefit in our testing.
- Nvidia ships nForce 3 Pro -
The nForce 3 Pro is a single-chip implementation of Nvidia's Athlon
XP-oriented nForce 2 product. The Opteron's built-in memory controller has
forced Nvidia to dispense with its own controller, allowing it to fold the
North Bridge's AGP controller into its South Bridge part. The processor
connects to the nForce 3 Pro chip across a 3.6GBps HyperTransport
point-to-point serial link. The 150nm (0.15 micron) nForce 3 Pro chip provides
AGP 8x; Serial ATA support with RAID levels 0, 1 and 0+1; ATA 133 support;
10/100 Ethernet with network boot, wake on LAN and hardware firewall; and USB
2.0.
- SiS preps DirectX 9 integrated chipset - SiS has launched what it
claims is
the first integrated chipset designed to support the Pentium 4's effective
800MHz frontside bus frequency, the SiS661FX. But since the part won't ship in
volume until August, with mobo availability in September, it's possible a
rival will get a similar product out the door first. SiS' chipset
provides single-channel 400MHz DDR SDRAM support. It also offers an AGP 8x
graphics card bus, over which its DirectX 9-compatible graphics core operates.
The graphics core contains two pixel rendering pipelines and can apply four
textures per cycle. LCD resolutions of up to 1600x1200 are supported, but CRTs
can be supported at up to 2048x1536. The chipset provides TV-out, and
dual-screen output.
- Samsung VoiceYepp VY-H200S 64MB review - EnvyNews has posted
a review
of VoiceYepp VY-H200S 64MB recorder. Digital sound recorder or MP3 player?
- Sony VAIO PCV-RS220 Review - When there are so many desktop options
in the $999 market, it is hard to recommend the
Sony VAIO PCV-RS220 system as the one to go with. With no video expansion
possibilities and very little in the way of expansion ports and bays, the
PCV-RS220 should be priced lower than what it currently is. Once you add a
monitor to the system, the overall price will raise significantly. A quick
search on the internet or your local electronics store will reveal better
alternatives from the likes of DELL and Gateway, complete with monitor and
more expansion for the same price. There is no doubt that the PCV-RS220 system
will be a hot seller with Sonys nameplate on the front of the system, and if
you absolutely must have a Sony, pay a little more and get a RZ series system.
- Tophead SuperMonitor -
The TopHead SuperMonitor adds the convenience of a second 6.4" LCD screen
on top of a 15" LCD screen. This "sub-screen" allows for a second VGA source
or even TV with the help of an optional TV tuner. Watching the TV or surfing
the Internet while hard at work (yeah right) has never been easier thanks to
TopHead.
- VisionTek Xtasy 9800 Pro 128MB AGP review -
The VisionTek XTasy 9800 Pro 128MB proved to be the solid performer that
we expected. Compared to the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, the 9800 Pro was in
command, especially when we enabled various strengths of Anisotropic Filtering
and Antialiasing. When you factor in that the FX card we used had DDR2, this
says a lot for the XTasy 9800 Pro 128MB.
- AMD releases Opteron math software -
AMD
Core Math Library (ACML), developed by AMD and the Numerical Algorithms
Group, speeds many algebraic and signal-processing operations. Version 1.0 of
the ACML has an interface for Fortran programs and supports 32-bit Windows,
32-bit Linux and 64-bit Linux. The software will be available as a
free download, the
company said.
- Super XP Tweak Guide -
TweakHound's Super XP Tweaking Guide has been updated to version 2.0.
- Norton AntiVirus 2004 beta -
Norton
AntiVirus 2004 Beta Version (sign-up
for key) for Windows 98/2000/Millennium/XP Now Available from Symantec
FTP. Many new improvements and new features have been added to Norton
AntiVirus 2004. They will give away 50 FREE copies of Norton AntiVirus
2004 to the first 50 beta users that submit undocumented bugs. Winners will be
notified via e-mail.
- NERO Mania - Nero
Burning Rom 5.5.10.42 ~
NeroMIX 1.3.1.12a ~ NeroVision
Express 1.0.4.6f ~ Nero InCD
4.0.1.7
- Tag and Rename 3.0 Beta 9 -
Tag&Rename (download)
is a powerful, easy-to-use program for organizing and archiving your library
of music files. Its solid design handles both the .mp3 and .vqf music formats.
- Mp3tag 2.12 -
Mp3tag (download)
is a powerful and yet easy-to-use tool to edit ID3-tags and OGG Comments of
MP3- and Ogg Vorbis files. Mp3tag can rename files based on the tag
information, replace characters or words from tags and filenames,
import/export tag information, create playlists, and more.
- Zoom Player 3.10.1 Final -
Zoom Player (download)
is a robust media and DVD front-end player. It was designed to be simple at
first glance while being remarkably dynamic and flexible when used to its full
potential.
- WinACE 2.5 RC2 - WinAce is an archiving utility with an easy-to-use
interface for creating, extracting, and viewing archives. It includes built-in
compression for ACE, ZIP, LHA, and MS-CAB formats, and built-in decompression
for ACE, ZIP, LHA, MS-CAB, RAR, ARJ, ARC, GZIP, TAR, and ZOO formats.
This new version
adds BZIP2 format.
- PowerArchiver v8.5 -
PowerArchiver is an archive utility for Windows with built-in support for
ZIP, CAB, LHA, LZH, TAR, TAR.GZ, TAR.BZ2 and BH archives. Can read and extract
from RAR, ARJ, ACE, ARC, ZOO, GZIP and BZIP2 archives.
- XPlayer 2.2.4 -
XPlayer (download)
uses much less memory and CPU Resources than Microsoft Media Player. If you
are finding movies are playing slowly on your computer or have trouble staying
sychronized with audio, this might be your solution. XPlayer supports
Subtitles, VMR9 and various skins.
- PlexTools Professional v2.05 - Plextor Japan has released the
PlexTools Professional software version 2.05.
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Updated:11:42 PM CEST Jun,20
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