Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:37 AM CET - Dec,17 2003
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- Bush OKs spam bill - but critics not convinced -
President Bush signed the "Can-Spam" bill Tuesday, creating the first
federal law regulating spam, a move backers say will be a major step in the
war against e-mail solicitations for pornography, Viagra, diet pills,
get-rich-quick schemes and the like. With Bush's signature, a complex set of
rules will take effect Jan. 1 to govern how companies may communicate with
customers they already know and with people they don't. Falsified e-mail
headers could be punished with prison terms, as could sending "sexually
oriented" e-mail that is not properly labeled. The Federal Trade Commission
receives new enforcement authority and could choose to set up a "do not
e-mail" list akin to the commission's wildly popular National Do Not Call
registry.
- European RIAA-style anti-file swap lawsuits "inevitable" -
The European music industry plans to take the fight against Internet
piracy right to the doors of file sharers with individually targeted lawsuits,
the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)
sayes. And the subpoenas could start flying next year. Writing in the IFPI
in-house magazine, organisation chairman and CEO Jay Berman says: "Lawsuits on
a large scale have so far been restricted to the US; this 'fight back' will
almost inevitably have to take place internationally as well."
- WinXP SP2 Beta Available This Month, Final Version Due Mid 2004 -
Microsoft is working out the kinks in its Windows XP 2 Service Pack, and
won't ship the final version until mid-2004 according to Mike Nash, vice
president of Microsoft's Security Business Unit, during a Webcast Tuesday.
- CD-burning software prompts patent suit - A small California
storage company
filed a
patent suit late Friday against software maker Roxio and said the dispute
will likely expand to cover other hardware and software companies involved
with CD-ROMs.
- Off-topic: Crooked gun shoots round corners -
A gun that can fire shots accurately around corners has been demonstrated
by a US arms maker. The Corner Shot, developed by a Florida-based company,
resembles a rifle with hinge in its middle. It has been tested by the Israeli
military and was demonstrated at a firing range at Shoham, near Tel Aviv, on
Monday. Units have already been sold to military forces in 15 different
countries. The front section can be bent up to 60° to the left or the right,
allowing a soldier to shoot around a wall or door without exposing any part of
themselves to enemy fire.
- PSX rolls out in Japan, but analysts disappointed - PSX, Sony's
integrated games console, DVD recorder and digital video recorder,
has arrived in Japan, but analysts now seem unconvinced by the machine
following the company's decision to scale back its specifications.
- Microsoft SPOT Watches Hit Stores - Wristwatches and wireless
services based on Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology
won't be on sale in time for the holidays, but they are coming soon. The
devices will be available in January, the software giant confirms. Microsoft
will use next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to announce the
availability of the devices, which were announced there last year. The
software maker also plans to launch updates to its MSN Internet Software, and
is expected to outline planned improvements to the Media Center Edition of
Windows XP at the show. Microsoft's MSN Direct Service, which will deliver
information to the watches, will also be available at that time. According to
Microsoft, plans are priced at $9.95 per month or $59 per year; watches start
at $129.
- VIA ships world's first IGP chipset for AMD Athlon 64 processor -
VIA Technologies yesterday announced the
immediate availability of the K8M800 chipset, claiming that it is the
world's first core-logic solution supporting Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Athlon 64 and Opteron processors to feature an IGP (integrated graphics
processor) core.
- Samsung allocates 0.11-micron capacity to SDRAM production -
Samsung Electronics has
shifted some 0.11-micron capacity from DDR to 16Mbit and 64Mbit SDRAM
production while allocating the 0.13-micron capacity originally used for SDRAM
to NAND flash production, according to sources with the company.
- Neuros 128MB player -
Neuros
Audio Computer is not only an mp3 player. It is an mp3 player on a high
dosage of caffeine. It gives offers many features to the users such as an FM
transmitter. With the FM transmitter you can transmit the music currently
playing on the Neuros to an open frequency on a car stereo etc. Now you can
hear your favorite music booming over your car speakers.
- Skymedia 256Mb MP3 Player Review - Dan's Data has posted
a review
of Skymedia 256Mb MP3 player.
- Neuros Digital Audio Computer 128MB Review - HardExtreme has posted
a review
of Neuros Digital Audio Computer 128MB.
- ATI's Multimedia Center 8.8 - The Home Multimedia Server - There
are two points that we should make about the CPU used in an EazyShare
server system. In terms of CPU usage, we highly recommend using, at a minimum,
an Intel Pentium 4 3.06GHz (533MHz) or AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (2.0GHz) on the
EazyShare server. This is due to the amount of CPU usage bound to MPEG
encoding operations. The client won't have the burden of MPEG encoding, which
is why our two tested Pentium-M notebooks fared fine.
- Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 XT review - Concluding, the Sapphire
Atlantis Radeon 9800 XT is another quality product from Sapphire. A true gamer
and enthusiast card, it does not disappoint and definitely one of the most
powerful cards out on the market.
It's high price
tag, $450, may lead some astray, but for those looking for performance
over anything else, the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 XT is a quality card
definitely worth looking over.
- eVGA's e-GeForce FX 5900SE - As you can see,
the overclocked 5900 SE gave had a much higher frame rate, almost catching
the 5950 Ultra. This shouldn't actually come as a major shock, since the
overclocked speeds we achieved were similar to the standard speed of the 5950
Ultra (475/475). The major point you should be coming away with is that we are
getting 5950 Ultra like performance at 5700 Ultra prices. Not too shabby.
- HP dvd400i DVD Writer review -
The
HP dvd400i has a lot going for it in the way of reliability and software
features but fails in the performance category. DVD and CD write times are sub
par and while the drive can read DVD+R/RW media, it cannot write to this type
of media. And while HP includes all of the necessary software for you to get
going, it runs in the background slowing down your system. Computer novices
should be happy with the overall package, but hardcore computer users should
look elsewhere. For $199 you should be able to purchase a drive that writes
both DVD media formats.
- Maxtor 5000DV or Another Round of USB 2.0 against FireWire Battles -
It is very likely that the HDD performed the same way with both IEEE 1394
controllers. They looked like twin-brothers in most benchmarks, that is why it
was really hard to single out the winner. Anyway, I would consider
Agere FW323 to be a better choice.
- Western Digital's WD740GD with RAID-50 review - The
benchmarks we've shown in the last few pages speak loudly, as the new Western
Digital
Raptor is undoubtedly the best performing Serial ATA/150 hard disk WD has
ever released. Since the original Raptor was the previous performance king,
the new 74GB Raptor just exceeds on the performance gains WD already has over
the compeitition, as the WD740GD proves itself to be the best performing
non-SCSI drive on the market. The performance gains made by the WD740GD were
even better compared to what we were expecting and are impressive any way you
look at them. On a drive-to-drive level, the 74GB Raptor is about 10% faster
compared to the 36GB Raptor, which is quite an improvement considering they
have the same spindle speed and cache amount.
- Logitech MX900 Bluetooth Optical Mouse - Not long ago Logitech
released their MX series of mice, MX700 was a great mouse with 4.7 mega
pixel/sec of image processing power and resolution of 800 dpi and of course
the rechargeable option, however it missed Bluetooth technology, where it
would have allowed the mouse not ever lose connection integrity. After
using the MX700 for almost a year, it was time for a new mouse,
MX900 which offers Bluetooth connection and a Hub that allows any
Bluetooth device to connect to the computer.
- Xandros v2 ships -
Xandros is now shipping
version 2 of their Desktop Linux distro (based on Debian, KDE 3.1.4, 2.4.22
kernel) and it's also possible to purchase a download version.
- BIOS Optimization Guide: Important Video RAM Cacheable Update -
Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted
an important update
of the Video RAM Cacheable BIOS option.
- The Trouble With AVI Movies In Windows XP - Whenever I click or
open certain AVI movies in Windows XP, Windows Explorer would lock up and
cause the entire system to come to a standstill.
You also cannot edit or delete these AVI movies.
- Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter Update -
This update enhances the junk e-mail filter in Outlook to help provide a
higher level of protection against junk e-mail. As part of Microsoft’s ongoing
commitment to reducing junk e-mail, periodic updates will be provided to
Outlook users.
WinGuard Pro 2004 v1.1.6 -
WinGuard Pro 2003 - Free
Edition (download),
stop people changing your settings, accessing unauthorized programs, and
important files.
BlindWrite Suite 5.0.5.120 (SHW) -
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.
NetCaptor 7.5.0 Gold (Free) -
NetCaptor (download)
is powerful web browser which gives each web site its own tab.
Winamp 5.0 silent update - Grab the update Winamp 5 final version
from the official website.
XVid;-) 2.0 -
XVid;-) is a video player designed for watching movies on your PC.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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