Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 08:23 PM CET - Feb,24 2002
- Post a comment
- Transparent Aluminium now a reality - A
ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, has developed transparent
aluminium by subjecting fine-grained aluminum to a whopping 1200 degrees Celsius
...the result of which is amzingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of
the same thickness (mileage may vary at different measurements, the article didn't say),
and see-through.
- Photoshop on Mac OS X - Adobe Systems
on Sunday plans to
announce a new version of its Photoshop image-editing application that supports the
latest Mac and Windows operating systems and includes new digital photography tools.
Version 7.0 of Photoshop will go on sale in April, the company said in a statement, with
versions tailored for Windows XP and Mac OS X.
- PS2, Xbox game console production a boon for Taiwan in 2002 -
Microsoft has efficiently utilized the current PC manufacturing infrastructure to source
Xbox components. Therefore Taiwan, a leading PC manufacturer, is also a major supplier of Xbox components. Companies on the island such as
Foxlink Cheng Uei (connector and controller), Ji-Haw Industrial (cables), Mustang
Industrial (stamping), Delta Electronics (power supplies), Vertex Precision Electronics
(PCBs), Adda (heat fans), and Benq (DVD-ROM), are all component suppliers of the Xbox.
- Anyone played with the XP KeyGen? - xp-erience.org's message board has some interesting posts such as "Changing the key will reset
product activation. It's stored as a hex value in the registry and after deleting one
character, mine was reset. The funny thing is that it said I had 992,785,285 days to
activate."
- Warez and Why - Before anyone even considers spending that hefty amount just purchase the product, they need to be
sure that it meets their requirement. Demos are usually limited in some way, such a time
limit, or with functions disabled, but they don't give you more than a taste of what is on
offer. Put simply, it is not sufficient to test programs thoroughly with such limitations.
If you buy something that you're not comfortable with, you're pretty much screwed. This is
even truer for example when it comes to the 3D modelling software or database applications
when you just can't figure out what this function does.
- OpenGL 2.0 - Out To Save Programmable
Graphics - The danger with pixel shaders and vertex shaders
is that there is no standard for programmability of graphics hardware. A
schism has formed within DirectX between the competing demands of GPU makers Nvidia and
ATI. Noted analyst Jon Peddie gives THG an exclusive first look at a White Paper on how
OpenGL 2.0 is trying to bring stability and open standards to programmable graphics and
GPUs.
- Leadtek GeForce4MX 440 Review - Find out why this $130 video card is on the top of a
lot of shopping lists at its release! Feed your low-budget gaming habbits with this
powerful, yet inexpensive graphics accelerator.
- EasyDisk Removable USB Hard Disk Review - The EasyDisk
removable USB hard disk is extremely easy to use. It works faster than a diskette
drive and holds A LOT more memory. Intel will soon be removing Diskette drive support from
all of their motherboards so this is a GREAT replacement. Prices are very competitive and
sizes available... can anyone say WOW? :)
- Win2k Patch: Devices May Not Power Up Properly When Resuming From Standby
- Microsoft has released a patch that will prevent certain devices from not working when your
computer resumes from standby.
- Norton Antivirus Definition Update - The
Norton Antivirus 4.0/5.0/2000 Definition
Update has just released, release date 23 February, 2002.
- Opera v.02 Build 1047 - This new beta
includes: Aims to resolve critical issues only, Printer crash bug should be fixed
and Resource and memory issues fixed.
- WinRAR v3.00 beta 3 - WinRAR v3.00 beta 3 has
just been released to public. This new beta features "Context menu items..."
button in "Integration settings" and setup dialogs allows to choose items to
display in Explorer context menus (for example, if you do not need "Compress and
email" feature, you may disable it here), bugfixes.
- PowerStrip v3.15 beta build 259 - PowerStrip v3.15 beta build
259 has just been released to public. Designed to complement the native Windows
Display Properties sheet under Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT/2000, the PowerStrip combines
advanced, multi-monitor API support with extensive programmable hardware support.
- Bouncer v1.0 RC2 (Win9x/ME/2k/XP) - Bouncer is a network tool which
allows you to bypass proxy restrictions and obtain outside connections from an internal
LAN. It uses SSL tunnelling, which allows you to obtain a constant streaming connection
out of a proxy. If you are restricted behind a proxy and can access secure online ordering
sites, then you can get out to whatever host on whatever port you want. It also supports a
lot of other features including socks 5, basic authentication, access control lists, and
Web-based administration.
- TweakIE 3.0 - TweakIE 3.0 lets
you permanently kill all the private data in your cache and history. Its IESweep feature
lets you reset the .dat files to their empty size; the program also alerts you when .dat
files have grown big enough to affect your browser's performance. In addition, you can use
this utility to selectively delete cookies, and you can schedule tasks to run
automatically.
- TweakXP 1.27 - TweakXP
bundles more than 22 different utilities in one: it was developed to combine both tweaking
and optimizing features to increase the speed of your Windows XP system. All settings can
be done without having any former knowledge, since Tweak-XP informs the user in detail
about each option. Tweak-XP - all you need for Windows XP.
- EasyEncode v0.71 - Freeware EasyEncode is a very easy but still
high-quality and powerful full automatic DVD to DivX rip-pack but unlike the new
commercial encoders, i did never make any compromises about the quality. about 2 years
ago, converting DVD movies into DivX (in high quality) was nearly impossible and you had
to do everything by hand. because every single process needs a few hours, this can be very
annoying. why not let a simple bat-file do all this for you? this is what easyencode is
all about.
- Nvidia BIOS Editor 1.0 RC3 Build 150 - This
new version added low level AGP Card information, capabilities of AGP rates, SBA, FW,
current status of AGP Rate, SBA and FW.
- Linux/Solaris ATI Radeon 8500 Drivers - Check 'em out!
- Nvidia GeForce Go v27.23 WHQL Detonators - Don't forget these
drivers are for Nvidia's mobile Go chipsets.
|
Updated:09:29 PM CEST Jun,22
(new)
