Saturday's Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:03 PM CEST - Jun,08 2002
- Post a comment
- Cheaters take profits out of online gaming - Game companies are
looking to subscription fees from online players as a major source of recurring revenue in
the near future, with leading games publisher Electronic Arts predicting that 400,000
subscribers will be paying about $15 a month for "The Sims Online" by the end of
its current fiscal year. But those subscribers may not stay around if
the new virtual worlds are full of the cheating and hacking that has marred previous
online games. A small but fractious minority in online gaming circles, cheaters can suck
the fun out of a game by introducing homemade characters with unauthorized powers, making
it impossible for opponents to win or even survive. They can also quickly pollute the
social atmosphere critical to many games.
- Nintendo to focus on better games - Video entertainment giant Nintendo
is to focus on improving the
games available for its consoles rather than the games systems themselves, according
to its new president
- Internet black hole approaches Britain - Millions of UK internet users
could face a huge slowdown in
service next week after Dutch firm KPNQwest, which handles almost half of Europe's
internet traffic, went bankrupt. Britain's two biggest internet service providers,
Freeserve and AOL, both use KPNQwest's network which means that all their traffic will
disappear down a big internet black hole.
- Hackers unlocking Norway's history - A Norwegian educational center for
cultural preservation lost the password to a historical database cataloging 11,000 original
books and manuscripts, but was able to recover it with help from the Web.
- NASA Takes a Flyer on Hydrinos - The space agency is funding a study
of an engine based on a novel conception of the structure of hydrogen, the central
idea behind a maverick New Jersey researcher's Grand Unified Theory. This theory has been
derided as a "crackpot idea" and "voodoo science" by respected experts
in physics. Anthony J. Marchese, a mechanical engineering professor specializing in
propulsion at Rowan University, is getting modest funding ($75,000) from the NASA
Institute for Advanced Concepts to
build and test a BlackLight Rocket.
- Piezoelectric rackets add professional oomph - Aging tennis star
Andre Agassi and upstart Sebastien Grosjean made it to the quarterfinals of the French
Open this past week on a gritty combination of sweat, determination and piezoelectric
technology. Both players looked to a Head Sport AG
racket integrated with a microchip and piezo composites to boost their games. While it
wasn't the first time smart rackets have been used - and while veteran Agassi was
eliminated before the finals - endorsement of the technology by two top-seeded players at
a high-profile tournament marked a milestone for the proliferation of intelligent
electronics in sporting goods.
- Smalles PC in the World ! - What do you think is this ? A portable CD -
Player ? No it is the smallest PC in the world.
- Revolutionary keyboard? - This revolutionary keyboard is the only one that can place the user in
a completely orthopedically neutral position while doing data entry and cannot be adjusted
improperly by the user.The result? The SafetypeTM is the only keyboard proven in a Major
University Study to virtually eliminate the high-stress postures that contribute to
Repetitive Stress. /Heh, no thanks, I will keep my old baby :) /
- The production of memory modules at Dane-Elec - Earlier this month
Tweakers.net had the opportunity to take a look inside the Dane-Elec memory
factory in Galway Ireland. Needless to say, we couldn't let this opportunity slip
away, and so Femme (founder of Tweakers.net) and Wouter went to Galway to see the place
where all of Dane-Elec's memory for the European market is produced. Check out this
articles, really nice pictures :)
- Computer Monitors That Make Credit Cards Look Fat - A start-up company
in Massachusetts has developed a flexible computer monitor which is so thin, it makes
credit cards and coins look fat. Based on electronic ink technology, which requires no lamp for backlighting,
the new display is only 0.3 mm thick. Normal active-matrix screens are more than 6
times thicker. Ink's monitors also require less power than normal monitors, because once
an image is displayed, it requires no more electricity to keep it on the screen. Consumers
should be able to buy these monitors by 2005.
- Computex Day 4 Coverage - Both Tom's
Hardware and Tweaktown have posted their fourth day of coverage for Computex. News
on AMD, Intel, Chaintech, DFI, ATech, 3R Systems, and AOpen.
- PC1066 & RIMM4200 - Today at GamePC, we've got an exclusive first
look at the new Rambus DRAM technology which is getting ready to hit the market in a big
way. We look at, and test, with the two new versions of RDRAM hitting the market, PC-1066
and RIMM 4200. RIMM 4200 is the new member of the group, utilizing a new 32-bit
architecture to boast the highest amount of memory bandwidth of any single memory module
to date. Guys at gamepc.com have test
these two new memory technologies against the leading DDR-333 and DDR-266 solutions on
the market today.
- The Tested ClawHammer - HardOCP have tested prototypes
of AMD's Solo 2 with 8000 chipset and the ClawHammer at 800 MHz.
- HW Round-up - Asus V8460 Ultra Geforce 4 TI / Leadtek
A250 Ultra TD GeForce 4 Ti4600 / VisionTek GeForce4 Ti 4600 / Abit's
Siluro GeForce4 Ti 4600 / Gainward
GeForce 4 Ti4200 / Samsung SyncMaster 171s LCD / KT333 Comparison
- Newbie's Guide to building your own PC - Building
a computer is actually much easier than most people would first assume. In fact, in
most cases (no pun intended), you need very little computer experience to do it yourself.
You will, however, need to be somewhat technically inclined as far as using your hands is
concerned.
- Hotmail charges for POP email - MSN has followed in the footsteps of
Yahoo! and Lycos following its decision to start charging for its
Hotmail POP Mail Retrieval service. Punters were told of the introduction of the
charge - which will be introduced from July 16 - in an email. This month people will lost
also their amex.com accounts, it's not free anymore...
- MS turns up heat on warezed WinXP copies - The beta of Service Pack 1
for Windows XP has now shipped to testers and, as previously advertised, it declines to install
if you're using a leaked WinXP licence key. But - again as previously advertised - it
doesn't deactivate your installation, just stops you applying the service pack.
- Multiple Vulnerabilities in Yahoo! Messenger - There are multiple
vulnerabilities in Yahoo! Messenger. Attackers that are able to exploit these
vulnerabilities may be able to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the victim
user.
- Windows 2000 SP3 Preview - With the antitrust case against Microsoft,
they had to change some things in XP Service Pack 1 and Windows 2000 Service Pack 3. There
is a new Configure Programs in Windows 2000 with the new Tech Release Candidate. Although
I'd have to say it doesn't really do crap... On a good note, the
installation went fast and smooth. Kudos Microsoft on that. Off to the screenies...
- Optimizing the Video settings in BIOS - AMD World has put up an article about Optimizing
the Video settings in BIOS.
- AMD Overclockers Tool v1.5 - Guru3D have posted a new AMD overclockers tool.
- TVTool 6.5a - The
tool helps with the TV ouput of Nvidia graphic cards. The full version 6.5 had a
bug. If it was started minimized the TV modes didn´t work anymore. This bug is fixed
meanwhile and the file on the server is replaced.
- Trillian 0.73 - The all-in-one Instant Messanger client has been
updated to version 0.73. This program can communicate through ICQ, AIM, MSN
Messenger, IRC, Yahoo! Messenger...
- WinAMP 3 b3 Build 476 - A new build of the third beta version of the most famous mp3 player
WinAMP3 has been released (changelog).
- PowerStrip 3.18 Beta Build 287 - PowerStrip provides
advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards -
from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600.
- FlashFXP 1.4.4 Beta Build 856 - FlashFXP
is the most powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows
9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market today. This new build features XP Theme support,
better XP compatiblity, added vertical/horizonal layout option in custom command dialog,
Added Import/Export to custom commands, and many more.
- Antivirus Updates - Kaspersky Weekly update, Norton
Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000 Definition Update (June 07, 2002), F-Prot dabatase,
McAfee VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file v4206, McAfee VirusScan SuperDAT File v4206 (engine v4160), Trend
Micro
- Adaptec ASPI Driver v4.71 - Adaptec has released new ASPI
drivers for Windows. Updated ASPI drivers version to Version 4.71 for Windows 98, NT
4, Me, 2000 and XP. Includes ASPICHK version checking utility.
- Toshiba ALI Audio Drivers 5.12.01.5170 - Toshiba has posted new ALI
audio drivers for their Satellite series under Windows 2000.
- ATI Radeon BETA Drivers v7.73 Leaked - A new set of
drivers has been leaked, the package (21MB) features all files dated 05/12/2002, no
multilanguage support, rv250 and r300 support present, should support all current radeon
cards.
|
Updated:02:02 PM CEST Jun,21
(new)
