Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 12:48 PM CEST - Sep,06 2003
- Post a comment / read (6)
- "Homeless hacker" may surrender to FBI - Adrian Lamo, the
so-called
homeless hacker who claims responsibility for a series of high-profile
electronic intrusions over the last two years, is negotiating with the FBI
to surrender over criminal charges. Lamo, 22, said his attorney is
talking with the U.S. Attorney's office in New York City over unspecified
allegations of criminal misconduct. On Thursday, FBI agents showed up at his
parents' home in Sacramento, Calif., Lamo said in a telephone interview Friday
evening, during which he would not disclose his location. "(The FBI agents)
went to my parents' house to try to find me there," Lamo said. "Since then,
I've been told they're looking for me. But I've had no direct contact with
them."
- IBM accused of poisoning workers -
IBM has been accused of running an unsafe workplace which resulted in an
unnaturally high incidence of disease among its workers in a series of recent
filed, hotly contested lawsuits filed in the US. Almost 200 former and current
employees (or their families) are parties to the suits, which allege that the
computing giant did nothing to safeguard the safety of workers handling
chemicals known to be hazardous to people since the mid-1980s, until ten years
later - well into the 90s. In that ten-year period, IBM workers were subject
to various forms of cancer or their children were born with birth defects at a
higher frequency than the general population, the lawsuits allege.
- Off-topic: Tiny atomic clock could make smarter missiles -
A matchbox sized atomic clock could be used to build more accurate
automated aircraft navigation systems, its US military creators say.
Scientists at the Office of Naval Research have developed a functioning atomic
clock measuring 40 cubic centimetres in volume - about the size of a matchbox.
The Ultra-miniature Rubidium Atomic Clock is so precise that it will lose only
one second over 10,000 years. It also uses just one watt of power. Existing
atomic clocks are many orders of magnitude larger - typically around 4,800
cubic centimetres - and normally consume around 50 watts.
- Off-topic: Ecstasy Study Botched, Retracted - A researcher who a
year ago published startling research showing that the drug commonly known as
ecstasy can cause Parkinson's-like brain damage has retracted his study.
George Ricaurte, the Johns Hopkins Medical School researcher who performed the
research, said
his lab did not administer ecstasy, or MDMA, but methamphetamine, to the
primates in the study.
- PS2 and Xbox to see price cuts - in weeks - Both Sony's PlayStation
2 and Microsoft's Xbox
are set to see price cuts in the coming month as the battle for Christmas
sales dominance kicks off earlier than ever - with both companies also
planning a range of other promotions. The PlayStation 2 price is set to be cut
to L129.99 in the UK within the coming months, according to sources who spoke
with our sister site Eurogamer.net today - a cut which brings the console in
line with the Xbox and GameCube, and indeed with the price of the hardware on
the continent.
- LCD TVs From Dell? - Dell is expected to break into the consumer
electronics market this year with
the release of a line of LCD television sets, according to an analyst in
Taipei. "Dell will have some alliance with Korean and Taiwanese panel vendors,
and they would like to make LCD TVs," says David Hsieh, director of Taiwan
market research at DisplaySearch. Dell is expected to begin selling LCD TVs
before the end of this year, he adds.
- BenQ debuts US$999 digital projector - BenQ yesterday announced the
immediate availability of its
digital projector - the PB2120. Priced at US$999, the projector also
announced BenQ's entry into the sub-US$1,000 digital projector category.
- Sony Ericsson 3G phone set for January launch - Sony Ericsson will
launch
its first 3G handset early next year, the company said today. The phone,
the Z1010, was unveiled last February. The clamshell handset looks not unlike
the Z600 tri-band GSM/GPRS phone the company launched earlier this week. It
will launch in January 2004. Like the Z600, the Z1010 contains a digicam
for picture messaging. However, it also sports a second 480 x 640 camera for
video calls inside the case, alongside the 16-bit colour screen.
- Epson touts new FeRAM material as nearly fatigue-free - Seiko Epson
Corp. has developed
a
new ferroelectric material for ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM).
The company claimed the material tentatively named PZTN will significantly
improve endurance cycles. PZT is one of the more promising materials for FeRAM
but is subject to fatigue. Memory performance deteriorates about by 50 percent
after 1 billion rewrites, Epson said. An FeRAM memory based on the new
material exhibited minor deterioration measured in just several percent after
1 billion rewrites, according to Epson.
- Dell Finally Ships Axim ROM Update - Dell is shipping
a long-awaited ROM update to its Windows Mobile 2003 Axim handhelds on
CDs, a company representative says. The ROM update fixes performance problems
related to the firmware needed to make the Windows Mobile 2003 operating
system work with its Axim handhelds, says Jess Blackburn, a Dell spokesperson.
- Pentax Readies Three New Digicams -
Pentax has introduced three new digital cameras, ranging from the
5-megapixel Optio 555 to a 3.2-megapixel model, the Optio 33WR, that is
designed to be watertight. In between is the 4.23-megapixel Optio S4. All
three models are compatible with both Windows systems and Apple Macintosh OS X
and OS 8.6 through 9.x. Pricing will be announced when the products ship in
October.
- Fanless MSI GeForce FX 5600 to arrive soon - Japanese and
Korean websites, including Darkcrow, PC watch, etc., announced that
localized versions of fanless MSI GeForce FX 5600 videocards will go on sale
in the middle of the month (depending on the region). There are three
models total: FX5600-VTD256-J, FX5600-VTD128OC-J andFX5600-VTD128-J.
- MSI KT6 Delta (VIA KT600) Motherboard Review - As regards the
speed, the MSI KT6 Delta is a bit inferior to the average motherboard based on
the nForce II chipset. On the other hand, of the three KT600-based
motherboards tested,
this one was the fastest. Besides, the board demonstrated a superb memory
operation under the most aggressive timings. At the expansion options, this
board ranks among the best: 4 SerialATA channels, Gigabit Ethernet,
possibility to create two RAID arrays, support for 8 USB2.0 and 3 Firewire
ports.
- ATI's All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro graphics card -
The All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro is the latest step in the evolution of ATI's
video-capable line, and it's a worthy successor to the All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro.
It sounds cliché, but the AIW 9800 Pro really is a one-stop video card
solution, excelling at everything from 3D graphics to TV viewing to video
capture. The very capable hardware is aided by a fantastic software bundle
that ATI is obviously committed to improving. Another very positive review can
be found at
ViperLair.
- ATI to Attack Entry-Level Market with RV351 and RV381 VPUs - ATI
Technologies
is set to start sampling of its code-named RV351 chip shortly in order to
mass-produce it in late Q4 2003 or, more probably, in Q1 2004. The chip
will have 4 rendering pipelines, DirectX 9.0, AGP 8x support and other
features of the RADEON 9600 (aka RV350) product line. ATI will redesign the
VPU a bit in order to reduce manufacturing costs. Most likely, the main trump
of the whole RV350/RV360 VPU family - their high core-speed - will not be
inherited by the RV351 due to price constraints. Obviously, you should expect
some 275 - 325MHz VPU, 400 - 500MHz memory and a simple PCB with 64- or
128-bit memory bus.
- PowerColor ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB review - There are many video
cards in today's market making it important choosing the correct video card.
In the PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro (256MB) review, it was shown that the
Radeon 9800 Pro was the finest video card in the market. With technology
changing every day, ATI always tries to be one step ahead. ATI did a suburb
job in the production of the ATI 9800 Pro.
- NVIDIA vs. ATI: Desktop GPU DX9 Showdown - Gamers Depot has posted
pretty interesting article called "Desktop GPU DX9 Showdown!"
which looks at the Pixel Shader 2.0 DX9 functionality within a gaming
environment. "Who are we to argue with NVIDIA’s wishes? They’ve been insisting
that synthetic benchmarks such as 3DMark 2003 don’t reflect actual game play -
yesterday we took them up on that in the mobile space, and today we look at
the desktop cards. Using a Beta build of Halo (version 1.5) and the newly
released Tomb Raider Patch, we’ve been able to provide an early peak at Pixel
Shader 2.0 performance – even 1.1 and 1.4 performance as well."
- Pioneer DVR-A06 DVD Writer: The War +/- Won't Happen -Two years
after the launch of the first mass-market DVD writer, Pioneer has brought out
its sixth generation device, the DVR-A06 boxed version and the DVR-106 OEM
version. The Japanese manufacturer, a member of the DVD Forum and an
enthusiastic advocate of the -R and -RW standards, is nevertheless offering a
hybrid product that the company says can read and record to multiformats. The
guys at
THG put the company's compatibility claims to the test.
- DVD±RW/DVD±R TEAC DV-W50D Drive Review -
This drive can be recommended even for very demanding users. No grave
flaws or problems were noticed. The impression is generally positive, though
it burns CD-R and CD-RW too slowly, and I hope that its next versions will
have it lifted it up to match the up-to-date level. Since the OEM
manufacturers is Pioneer, a leader on the DVD-R market, we can see that it
finally accepted the DVD+RW format.
- Philips 180MT 18" LCD Monitor/TV review -
The
Philips 180MT is a wonderfully stylish monitor and TV, and would be a
great addition to any home office or dorm room. While the ghosting was too
intense for gaming and high speed action, this multifunctional device fits the
bill for an all purpose, casual use system.
- Microsoft Adds Tilt To the Mouse Wheel - ExtremeTech has posted
a review on the Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer with Tilt Wheel Technology.
They say: "In a nutshell, horizontal scrolling is a must-have for accountants.
For regular web surfers with larger monitors, it's not worth the extra money."
- Samsung YEPP YP-55i MP3 Digital Audio Player - If you're
looking for
a
device that is ready to roll when you are, and ya wanna take it right out
of the box and head outta the door without reading the manual, this is your
product. You can pack in the fact that it gives you 192MB of storage capacity,
and you can use it as a removable hard drive, MP3 player, digital voice
Recorder, FM radio, and gives you the ability to encode your own MP3's. Well
what do you think?
- Microsoft to Unleash Harmony End of September - Microsoft is
planning to launch
its next release of Windows XP Media Center Edition (codenamed "Harmony")
on September 30.
- Arrowkey product recovers CD/DVD data from unreadable discs -
A new product to
recover data from unreadable CDs and DVDs is available from ArrowKey.
Titled CD/DVD Diagnostic, it is used to retrieve damaged files corrupted by a
defective drive, bad software or from user error. The software maker claims
CD/DVD Diagnostic
recovers data from unreadable, scratched, or corrupt CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, and
DVD+RW discs. CD/DVD Diagnostic bypasses Windows file system and ignores the
original software that created the lost data file. Whether the bad files were
created by Roxio Easy CD Creator, Ahead Nero and DLA, digital cameras that
record directly onto discs, other proprietary PC or Macintosh software, or are
even audio disc files, CD/DVD Diagnostic can find, retrieve and copy the files
to your hard drive.
- Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for AMD64 First Look -
AMD's move to 64-bit processing is much more challenging, as they are
targeting home users, gamers, and everyday business folks. In these markets,
the amount of software, drivers, and subsequent headaches rises by leaps and
bounds. AMD's goal is to succeed where all of its competitors have failed, and
succeeding in this goal not only requires flawless execution of the 64-bit
hardware, but cooperation from some of the biggest names in the industry as
well. There's little doubt that the key player in this equation is Microsoft,
whose release of Windows XP for AMD64 will be the litmus test to see if the
world is ready to accept AMD's take on 64-bit computing, or if the platform
will be headed for obscurity.
- NTSC-J, PAL, and SECAM TV Tuner Hotfix for DirectX 9.0b - DirectX
9.0b was released on 7/23/03 to address the MIDI security issue identified in
bulletin MS03-030. A small number of non-security fixes were also included in
the release. One of these fixes caused several TV Tuner capture card/driver
combinations using video formats other than NTSC (NTSC-J, PAL, SECAM) to no
longer initialize correctly on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server
2003. Symptoms include loss of capture functionality and potential inability
to set/retain device capture settings.
This hotfix, documented further in Knowledge Base article 825116, has been
issued to correct the flaw.
- Internet Explorer Object Data Remote Execution Vulnerability - eEye
Digital Security has discovered
a security vulnerability in
Microsoft's Internet Explorer that would allow executable code to run
automatically upon rendering malicious HTML. Dont allow your system to
remain vulnerable, this is a very critical hole, and should be patched
immediately. As MSBlaster shows, you can't take these kind of holes too
lightly.
- Fresh Download 6.10 -
Fresh Download (download)
is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges
downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3
files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar
utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software,
no spyware.
- ASUS PC Probe 2.21.05 -
Asus PCProbe is a convenient utility to monitor the computer's vital
components: fan rotation speeds, voltages and temperatures.
- MSN Messenger 6.1 Beta Build 114 - It's now officially available
from
Microsoft's FTP.
- MySQL Control Center 0.9.3 -
MySQL
Control Center (download)
is a platform-independent GUI administration client for the MySQL database
server.
- BlindWrite Suite 4.5.7 (SHW) -
Blindwrite
Suite is a 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 used with a CD-Rom
emulator like Daemon Tools.
- CDRWIN 3.9e (SHW $39) -
An updated
version (dated September 5, 2003) of CDRWIN v3.9e is available for
download.
- Nero InCD v4.05.3 - Ahead's FTP has been updated with new
InCD version 4.05.3, as usually
changelog is not available.
- ATi Linux Drivers 3.2.5 - ATi have released
an update
suite of drivers for Linux.
- Catalyst 3.7 Installation Problems? -
There has been some discussion that some users find it difficult to
install the new ATI Catalyst 3.7 drivers and the new Control Panel...
- Catalyst 3.7 Performance Comparison - The new Catalyst 3.7
convinced me. It's a little bit slower without AA and AF in RTCW/Quake 3 but
also massively faster in MDK 2. With AA and AF
it's a little bit faster in UT2003 and massively faster in MDK 2 and Serious
Sam 2.
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Updated:10:31 PM CEST Jun,20
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