Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:28 AM CET - Dec,23 2003
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- DeCSS Creator Cleared on Appeal -
An Oslo Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's ruling clearing Jon
Lech Johansen of charges related to his development and distribution of DeCSS,
a software tool that can be used to crack copy protection on DVDs. Johansen,
also known as DVD Jon, was acquitted in January by the Oslo City Court.
Okokrim, the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of
Economic and Environmental Crime, decided in March to appeal the verdict.
Okokrim had called for 20-year-old Johansen to be given a 90-day suspended
jail term.
- Apple issues patch for Mac OS X hole - Apple Computer has
issued
a security update that, among other fixes, closes a hole in Mac OS X that
could have allowed hackers to take control of a computer under particular
circumstances. The patch, which the Cupertino, Calif.-based manufacturer
released late Friday, essentially changes the default settings for connecting
to a Dynamic Host Communication Protocol (DHCP) server on Mac OS X 10.2.8.
(aka "Jaguar"), Mac OS X 10.3.2 (aka "Panther") and the corresponding server
versions of these operating systems.
- Mythic Sues Microsoft Over Mythica Title - Mythic
Entertainment, developer of Dark Age of Camelot, today
filed suit against Microsoft for trademark infringement and unfair
competition. The title of Mythica, Microsoft's in-development MMORPG,
apparently sounds a bit too much like "Mythic" for their tastes, and
represents a case for legal action. Mythic's lawsuit claims that the
resemblance between the two names, although the one refers to a game and the
other refers.
- Sony Ericsson tests multiplayer m-games - Sony Ericsson has
begun trials on a multiplayer mobile gaming system that will allow up to
eight players to compete in real-time. The multiplayer mobile gaming service
will initially include two games. The first is Rally, which can be played by
up to four players and the other is RC Battle, which can be played by up to
eight players. The games can be played on a variety of Sony Ericsson phones,
including the T300, T230, Z608 and T630 handsets. The games will be available
for download from the Sony Ericsson Web site from January onwards.
- Mobile Battery Problems Explode - When lithium-ion batteries
replaced nickel metal hydride, researchers increased the energy density (the
amount of power they could pack into the space), eliminated the memory effect,
and made batteries lighter. But lithium ion in most cases uses cobalt oxide,
which has a tendency to undergo "thermal runaway," explains Joe Lamoreux, vice
president of research and development at Valence Technology.
"When you heat this material up, it (can) reach an onset temperature that
begins to self-heat and progresses into fire and explosion."
- Taiwan makers to face 8x DVD Dual price pressure from Japan and Korea
in 1Q - Main Taiwanese producers of optical disc drives anticipate a
further drop in the OEM price of 8x DVD Dual burners in the first quarter
of 2004 due to increased supply from Japanese and South Korean competitors.
- Global notebook sales exceed 10 million mark in 3Q 2003- Quarterly
notebook sales in the global market
broke the 10 million mark for the first time in the third quarter of this
year, reaching 10.36 million units, according to International Data
Corporation (IDC). Wow I still don't own even one :)
- Prices for 3-megapixel DSC-use controllers down below US$10 -
According to sources, 3-megapixel DSC-use controllers without integrated
MPEG-4 and audio functions
are priced at below US$7, while integrated solutions are quoted at close
to US$10. Currently, prices for 2-megapixel DSC-use controllers are between
US$5 and US$8, sources said.
- Athlon64 3000+: 64-bit at Half the Price -
The
Athlon64 3000+ is the chip that answers the need for a lower cost
Athlon64. At just over $200, the 3000+ cuts the cost of entry for Athlon64
computing in half. This in itself is significant and should have A64 3000+
chips flying off dealer shelves. Value, however, is not just about price; it
is about performance for your dollar. The Athlon64 3000+ delivers value in
spades. Running at the same speed as the 3200+, the reduction in cache to 512k
has only a minor impact on performance. In almost every benchmark, the 3000+
is only a few percent lower in performance than a 3200+. Even more important,
the 3000+ performs very well compared to Intel’s 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 — a chip
that sells for almost double the cost of the Athlon64 3000+.
- The Matrix Trailers re-encoded - The chaps at The Matrix website,
have re-encoded all nine trailers from the original Matrix, bumped up the
resolution and
uploaded them for readers to enjoy, including a
never before released trailer. (thanks
Slashdot.org)
- Registry Repair Utility for Win2k-based computers -
The Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility can be downloaded on to floppy
disks and then run on the system with the corrupted registry. You must have
six floppy disks to download this utility. The utility will try to repair the
corrupted registry and permit the computer to start again.
- Windows XP SP2 Beta 1 Build 2055 Download - For all of you
testers that didnt make it to the official list
Geeknewz have the express install file ( you can download without
registering) here for the latest Windows XP SP2 beta 1 that was released to
testers yesterday. Remember to make a restore point before you install,
enjoy.
- Python 2.3.3 final - This is
a bug-fix release
for Python 2.3 that fixes a number of bugs, including a couple of serious
errors with weakrefs and the cyclic garbage collector.
- PHP 5.0.0 Beta 3 -
The third beta of
PHP is also scheduled to be the last one (barring unexpected surprises).
This beta incorporates dozens of bug fixes since Beta 2, better XML support
and many other improvements, some of which are documented in the NEWS file.
- F-Prot Antivirus for Linux v4.3.2 - This newest version of
F-Prot Antivirus for Linux
(tar
~ RPM
~ DEB)
contains new system startup scripts (rc-scripts) for the Mail Server
component. These new scripts allow for a far simpler and more precise setup
and configuration procedure. This results in a more secure system and
increased peace of mind for network administrators.
- WGP System Protect 5.6.15 -
WinGuard Pro
Free is a program that lets you lock some features of your system so that
nobody can use them while you are away.
- WinRAR 3.30 Beta 4 -
WinRAR is a general purpose archiving and compression program competing
with/replacing programs such as PKZip, ARJ, and others. RAR offers
significantly improved compression ratios.
- Media Player Classic v6.4.7.3 -
Media Player Classic has been updated to version 6.4.7.3.
- Alcohol 120% v1.4.8.1222 -
Alcohol 120% (download)
can handle the creation of 31 virtual CD & DVD-ROMs, allowing the user to play
discs whithout needing the physical disc. It also allows users to make copy CD
& DVD to CD-R / CD-RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / DVD+RW.
- TVTool v9.5.5.2 -
TVTool (download)
was developed to replace the poor support video card manufacturers had for
TV_OUT. TVTool works with most NVIDIA based cards such as TNT, TNT2, TNT2
Ultra, GeForce cards with BT86x (e.g. Viper 550, Erazor 3, Xentor 32, 3D
Prophet, etc.).
- NVIDIA Linux drivers v1.0 5358 -
These new drivers support latest GeForce FX and Quadro FX GPUs, UBB and
FSAA Stereo, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0. and support for
GLX_SGI_swap_control.
- ATI Omega Drivers Based on Catalyst 3.10 - The new
Omega Drivers for
Win9x/ME/2k/XP are available for download. According to
Omega website, "this
set will be the LAST set of drivers for Win9x/ME".
- Massive BIOS Update - PCTunning has posted a
lots of new BIOS updates (Czech website, but download description is in
English) from last week, also OnlyNews has posted its massive
BIOS/Drivers update.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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