Saturday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 07:12 PM CET - Nov,23 2002
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- Bond's Q: DVD will self-destruct in 36 hours - "It fits the theme
of James Bond very well," said Alan Blaustein, head of
Flexplay, a two-year-old start-up in New York City that has patented the
technology. Blaustein said the self-destructing discs are a good way to
give customers a quick taste of music, movies or television shows. The discs,
which are copy-protected, entice buyers to plop down money for the
non-disappearing versions of the content, he said. The technology also could
be used by software companies trying to dissuade computer owners from
illegally sharing the same version of an install disc. Flexplay discs are so
new that they've been used for only one other promotion. In October, a music
CD was handed out to MTV Latin America fans. Where the company will go from
here is top secret, Blaustein said. He's working on a number of deals.
"Nothing I can talk about right now," he said.
- L.A. Woman Gets Prison in Counterfeit Software Ring - A Los Angeles
woman was sentenced on Friday
to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $11 million in restitution for
her role in one of the largest counterfeit software cases in U.S. history. The
sentence imposed on 52-year-old Lisa Chen by Superior Court Judge Ronni
MacLaren was the longest prison term for a first-time conviction on software
piracy, prosecutors said. Chen was one of four people arrested in November of
2001 as part of a ring that prosecutors said imported nearly $98 million in
counterfeit computer products and software from Asia, including knockoffs of
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP, Windows 2000 NT and Microsoft Office 2000 Pro
software, along with manuals, user license agreements and other materials.
- Man burns penis with laptop - LOL! And now for proof that some
laptops run hotter than a badger. A 50-year old scientist, previously healthy,
burned his penis after placing his laptop on his, err lap, for an hour.
Oh, he was fully dressed in trousers and underpants, according to this
letter printed in the Lancet, the UK's best-known medical journal.
- Gamers shut out in Asheron's Call 2 billing mess - Today's launch
of Microsoft's new multiplayer game - Asheron's Call 2 Fallen Kings - in the
US and Canada has been
mired in controversy after the giant software company admitted that the
game is only available to subscribers in nine countries.
- On the Microsoft FTP server leak - Microsoft made customer details
- along with numerous confidential internal documents - freely available from
a deeply insecure FTP server earlier this month. A well as numerous
PowerPoint slides, such as Linux Vs Windows comparisons and .NET strategy
papers, Microsoft "published" files an estimated
11 million customer email addresses and seven million snail mail address
on the server.
- Nokia 3585i does GPS, 1xRTT - Nokia's newest CDMA handset takes a
slightly unusual approach to the formula of making mobile phones; albeit most
of the features in the handset can be classified as low-end, it also
incorporates high-end capabilities with its support for CDMA2000 1xRTT and
GPS. Nokia says the model combines the features most desired by consumers,
and
throws in CDMA 800/1900MHz/AMPS for good measure.
- Controller pushes Ethernet into everyday equipment - In a move that
could spread Ethernet into a new range of industrial and commercial
applications, Motorola Inc. has introduced a
32-bit microcontroller with an Ethernet interface. Fast-food restaurants
could monitor dishwashers, ovens and refrigerators featuring the chip, experts
said.
- OCZ releases EL DDR IC in speeds up to DDR500 (4ns) - OCZ
Technology Group would like to announce the
availability of 466Mhz and 500Mhz OCZ EL DDR ICs. OCZ Technology EL DDR
ICs are intended for use in system memory for bandwidth intensive applications
that can take advantage of the increased memory speeds. OCZ technology plans
to use these ICs in our PC-3700 and PC-4000 EL DDR modules, as we gain
motherboard support for enhanced latency DDR.
- NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics card facts summary - A1 Electronics take
a look at
the new NVIDIA GeForce FX graphics card. How it works and its performance.
NVIDIA GeForce FX the next generation GeForce. NVIDIA GeForce FX.
- Sexy Video Shows Off GeForceFX Power - The rendering, created
by one of the Final Fantasy designers, is both beautiful and slightly
unsettling. According to an nVidia representative,
a version of this demo does exist with the leaves removed. "We're bringing
porno to graphics", chortled the exec, who wished to remain nameless. You can
find more GeForceFX goodies
here.
- New Age Computer Gaming - Mobile vs. Desktop - After receiving a
Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook with ATI Mobility 9000 graphics earlier this week,
I thought it might be interesting to do a little investigation
comparing the notebook, in terms of gaming performance, to my desktop
computer system installed with nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 graphics card.
- Windows Longhorn Alpha Preview - One caveat, of course: This is an
early alpha build and the final Longhorn product will bear little resemblance
to what you see here. If you think back to the early Whistler builds, which
featured the "Watercolor" visual style, you'll get the right idea: Longhorn is
a work in progress, mostly current generation technology, and much of what's
in there is just the same old stuff from XP. Major UI work, a database-based
file system, integrated DVD burning, and other cool features are still to
come. OK, enough talk.
Here's what's new in the Longhorn alpha.
- New AmigaOS4 Screenshots - Eight new preview
AmigaOS4 screenshots have been released, demonstrating some of the default
GUI customizability. The official mainstream launch of these new
AmigaOS4/AmigaOne computers will be at CeBit in Germany, to be held March
2003.
- Installing MySQL and PHPMyAdmin - EliteGuild has posted
a
guide about installing MySQL and PHPMyAdmin.
- XP Patch: Game Stops Responding Or Quits Unexpectedly During Intro
Video - If you try to start and play certain games on a Windows Home
Edition Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computer,
the game may stop responding (hang) or it may quit unexpectedly when the
introductory video clip starts. This behavior occurs if the following
conditions are true: The game that you want to play contains video that is
compressed with the Indeo video codec and the Indeo codec is not installed on
the computer. The Indeo codec is not included in Windows XP Home Edition SP1.
Download patch.
- Antivirus Updates -
Kaspersky
Antivirus (Nov22) ~
McAfee VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file v4234 ~
McAfee VirusScan SuperDAT File v4234 (engine v4160) ~
Norton Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000-2002 Definition Update (Nov22) ~
AVG (Nov21)
- Feurio! v1.66 Beta -
Feurio! is an integrated program for creating audio-CDs (especially
samplers).
- WinDVD Tweaker Pro 4.07 -
WinDVD Tweaker is designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software
to enable some hidden settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure.
- Fresh UI 4.70 -
Fresh UI - your FREE
Windows tweaking tool - just got better with the release of version 4.7.
What's new: CD (Hardware) and Outlook Express hidden settings.
- NVDVD 2.22 Trial -
NVDVD
(mirror) is a full media player with play-list support, enabling users to
create custom playlists of MP3 music, photo slideshows with background music,
or any mixed audio and video presentation.
- Zoom Player 3.00 Beta 1 -
Zoom Player
is a robust Media and DVD Front-End Player. This new version features new
Video Orbiting System which allows you to specify a video position movement
range in order to prevent screen burns on widescreen movies, new Scene Cut
feature allowing you to "End" Playback (and proceed to the next file on the
Play List) and many more.
- APK Windows 2000 Tools 7.0 -
APK Windows XP/2000 Tools 2000++ is a utilities package for Windows
XP/2000 users. It provides a number of useful system tools and gives.
- AI RoboForm 4.9.8 -
AI RoboForm (download)
is a one-click web form filler and password manager with some serious
Artificial Intelligence inside. It's free for personal use.
- Opera 7.0 Beta 1b - An updated beta of Opera 7.0 is available (with
Java /
w/o Java).
- CPUCooL 7.1.6 -
CPUCooL version
7.1.6 (download)
has been released. What is CPUCool? CPUCooL is a program that monitors
temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards.
- CPUFSB v2.2.9 - It
is for changing the FrontSideBus only. So you have a small tool only one
of the the most important freatures of CPUCooL. Changing the FrontSideBus
enables you to set the frequency of your CPU up to the limits.
- Matrox Drivers v5.86.032 WHQL - Matrox released
new WHQL
certified Windows 2000 / XP drivers for Millennium G200, Mystique G200,
Millennium G400, Millennium G450, Millennium G550, Matrox G200 MMS and Matrox
G450 MMS boards.
- LiteOn CDRW BIOS - LiteOn has released a new firmware
ZS0P for
their 40x speed writer LTR-40125S. As usually, handling of protected
audio CDs has been improved - the drive can now read Key2Audio V3 and Cactus
DataShield 200 protected discs.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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