Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 12:46 PM CEST - Apr,03 2004
- Post a comment / read (5)
- MSBlast epidemic far larger than believed -
New
data from Microsoft suggests that at least 8 million Windows computers have
been infected by the MSBlast, or Blaster, worm since last August--many
times more than previously thought. Though Microsoft believes the total number
of users infected by the worm is likely closer to the higher, 16 million,
tally, the 8 million figure may provide a more solid indication of the minimum
number of systems hit. The larger number may include systems counted more than
once, as busy computers users declined to deal with the worm immediately, or
canceled the process once it had begun, only to return to Windows Update
later. Once those systems were disinfected and patched, however, they would
not be re-counted. Microsoft did not track what systems, specifically, used
the tool, just that it was used.
- Ecuadoran police destroy 60,000 pirated CDs - Ecuadoran authorities
used
a steam roller to pulverize 60,000 illegal CD copies (photo)
of films, music, computer games and software in a Quito park before two dozen
protesting street sellers from whom the merchandise was seized. Authorities
are awaiting a court order to destroy another 80,000 pirated compact discs, an
official said.
- Microsoft agrees to pay Sun $1.6bn -
Microsoft is to
pay Sun Microsystems $1.6bn to settle antitrust and patent issues. The two
companies have agreed to pay royalties for using each other's technology, with
Microsoft making an upfront payment of $350m and Sun to make payments when
this technology is incorporated into its server products.
- Off-topic: US fingerprints 'allied' visitors - A US requirement for
visitors to be fingerprinted and photographed is being expanded to include
citizens from America's closest allies.
The
move will affect visitors from 27 countries - including the UK, Japan and
Australia - whose nationals are able to visit the US without a visa. The
change in the US-Visit programme is due to take effect by 30 September.
- Off-topic: Vampire Bats Kill 13 People in Brazil - Rabies-carrying
vampire bats killed at least 13 people in a remote Amazon town in Brazil's
northern state of Para last month, authorities said on Friday. The state
health care department said the thumb-sized creatures had attacked about 300
people -- an unusually high number -- since March 2 in the riverside Portel
area, next to the world's biggest estuarine archipelago of Marajo. Wow!
- Off-topic: Probe eyes key concept of physics - Yesterday, the space
agency announced that
Gravity Probe B is finally ready for launch on April 17. Its goal is to
help prove one of the most confounding concepts in physics: the strange twist
in space-time predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity.
- Longhorn beta delayed to 2005 -
Microsoft is
delaying the rollout of the beta of its Longhorn operating system until
early next year in order to focus on improving security in its Windows XP
Service Pack 2 (SP2). The beta of Longhorn - the successor to Windows XP - was
supposed to be distributed before the end of this year, but has now been moved
back because its developers have been shifted onto the SP2 project.
- Google's Web mail no joke - Google has released a test version of a
new Web-based e-mail service called Gmail that will provide up to a gigabyte
of storage and serve ads based on the content of messages. Google's decision
to begin testing a free, ad-supported Web-based e-mail service this week was
so far out of character for the search giant that
many people thought the announcement was an April Fools' Day hoax.
- Photographic memories - Your daughter's first smile. Your son's joy
the first time he catches a ball. The wink your favorite uncle always gave
you, but that he'd never do on camera. Spontaneous, unguarded, fleeting --
they're often the moments in our lives we most want to photograph. But these
moments are also those we frequently miss -- gone before we could reach for a
camera.
Hewlett-Packard researchers in the U.K. are working on a camera that's
always on, recording everything you see and letting you go back later and
decide what's actually photo-worthy.
- Pioneer to produce 50GB Blu-ray technique with electron beam -
Pioneer has announced it has jointly developed a high precision electron
beam recoder (EBR) that should result in 50 GB Blu-ray discs on one side on 12
cm. (CD/DVD size) discs. The company is using
an electron beam
instead of the conventional laser beam to record information to the disc.
- Taiwanese makers co-developing double-layer DVDs with international
brands -
Leading international brands of DVD burners are co-developing, rather than
adopting an OEM relationship, with Taiwanese manufacturers to produce
single-sided double-layer DVD discs, according to Taiwanese optical disc
makers. Philips will begin marketing its 8x DVD+R DL (dual-layer) burners in
Europe this month and Sony will launch its 8x DVD-R DL burners in the
following month, the Taiwanese makers indicated. Sony has quoted its 8x DVD-R
DL at US$230 per unit and US$330 for an external model. Single-sided
double-layer DVD-R discs are priced at US$5-6, Taiwanese makers pointed out.
Philips and Ricoh have not yet announced their retail prices for 8x DVD+R DL
burners and discs, they added.
- Quiet PCs With No Compromise -
PCMag tested $2230 Hush ATX-Business PC and $3750 Voodoo Rage F-50
with PC WorldBench 4 and performed sound tests both with the PCs on idle
and with intense hard-drive activity. Unlike many prior quiet PCs, the two
they saw used mainstream, fairly powerful CPUs. The Hush, with a 2.8-GHz
Pentium 4 and 512MB of RAM, earned a PC WorldBench 4 score of 122; the Voodoo
had a 2-GHz Athlon 64 3200+ and 1GB of RAM, and scored 138. Both were on a par
with PCs in their processor class, so you won't have to compromise performance
for quiet.
- Philips KEY019 Key Ring Camcorder review - If you are looking for a
full-featured MP3 player, camcorder, or camera, the KEY019 isn't for you. The
camera doesn't have a zoom or a flash, the MP3 player lacks a playlist
function, and the device got a bit warm after you shot 20 minutes of video.
It offers the basic fun of all of these gadgets; you can take snapshots,
record spontaneous moments on video, and carry along a few of your favorite
tunes to boot.
- Samsung SyncMaster 173MW Widescreen Multifunction LCD Monitor -
The 173MW
follows this trend by working flawlessly and not having one problem other
than the substandard gaming. But, you have to remember, poor gaming on an LCD
is common and they are not meant for this purpose in the first place. If an
LCD monitor does game well then you can consider it a bonus.
- FireWire 800 put to the Test - THG
take a look at FireWire's robustness, its performance as a LAN
network protocol and its data-transfer future.
- Logitech Dual Action Gamepad review - DesignTechnica has posted
a
review of the Logitech Dual Action Gamepad: "While the Logitech Dual
Action Controller appears to be the perfect game pad for the PC and will
definitely appeal to those on a budget, we have to warn you to stay away from
it. The problems we experienced after a week of testing were not isolated to
our three test game pads and people all over the Internet are reporting the
same issues."
- Macromedia Director MX 2004 first look - Aimed at professional
multimedia, Web, game, and even enterprise developers,
Macromedia Director MX 2004 adds polish and new reach to an already
powerful multimedia authoring tool. This strong release features support for
new media file types, better Flash integration, and several key user interface
improvements.
- Diagnosing Bad Memory - Having problems figuring out if your system
is plagued with bad RAM or DDR?
PCstats walks you though the steps to diagnose bad RAM.
- How Change the Volume Licensing Product Key on a Windows XP SP1-Based
Computer -
This article (published last year, but still useful) describes how to
change the Windows XP product key in a Volume Licensing installation. Because
of changes in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows XP-based computers that
use a leaked product key that is known to be available to the general public
may not be able to install SP1 or automatically obtain updates from the
Windows Update Web site.
- GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 2.0 - Adrian's Rojak Pot let us know he
has posted
Revision 2.0 of his GPU Comparison Guide.
- MAME 0.81 - A new version
MAME is
available for download.
- VideoToolBox 0.9.1.39 -
VideoToolBox is a Freeware which aim is to detect codec required by AVI,
MKV, QT, etc etc files.
- SimpleDivX -
SimpleDivX is a powerfull frontend utilizing the latest version of
mpeg2avi and supporting many video formats like 3ivx,xvid & divx and audio
formats including ogg/mp3/ac3. Easy enough for an encoding novice, but
customizable enough to suit encoding vetrans.
- Plextor Updates -
PX-W4012TA V1.06 firmware,
PXInfo V1.22,
CDVDInfo V1.22.
- KlipFolio 2.5 -
Serence KlipFolio (download)
is a free information delivery and notification application that lets you view
and manage Klip information services right on your desktop.
- GAIM 0.76 -
Gaim (download)
is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and
Windows.
- TVTool 9.6.2.0 (SHW) -
TVTool (download)
is a control center for the TV output of nVidia graphics cards. With this tool
it is possible to adapt the TV output perfectly to your needs and to control
the TV mode in a comfortable way. TVTool accesses the hardware directly and is
able to offer a significant greater functionality and picture quality than
most standard graphics card driver.
- Fresh UI 7.04 -
Fresh UI
is your Windows tweaking tool. What's new: hidden settings for Processors,
Motherboard and Graphics card. Just install it over the old version you have.
- NetLimiter 1.30 - You can use
NetLimiter (download)
to set download/upload transfer rate limits for applications or even single
connection and monitor their internet traffic. Along with this unique feature,
Netlimiter offers comprehensive set of internet statistical tools.
|
Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
(new)
