Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:24 PM CEST - Jun,29 2003
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- $180 Million for Piracy Conspiracy - According to an
AP story printed in the Orlando Sentinel, Steven R. Frazier has been
ordered to pay $180 million restitution for attempting to sell a device that
would decrypt the satellite signals sent into everyone's homes. In addition to
spending the next 5 years in Federal prison, Frazier will have to pay $500 a
month for the next 30,000 years, though no one really expects him to live long
enough to make all the payments. (thanks
Slashdot.org)
- Video Game Industry to Change Ratings System - The video game
industry has unveiled
a revised rating system featuring more prominent rating displays on game
boxes and more detailed information on the kinds of violence featured in some
titles. The ESRB said that as of Sept. 15, it will require new, more
descriptive rating information on the backs of game boxes. Also as of that
date, the "Mature" and "Adults Only" will be changed to show the minimum
recommended ages for each of those categories. The ESRB said its
"cartoon violence" label will apply to games in which violent acts happen to
animated characters, while "fantasy violence" will apply in cases in
which a scenario clearly distinguishable from reality. The ESRB defines
"intense violence" as bloody, gory and realistic-looking depictions of
human injury or death, while "sexual violence" covers the depiction of rape.
- AOL backtracks on Winamp media player - In a setback to
Nullsoft's plans, Winamp3 in March gave way to the earlier Winamp 2.x version,
pending a broader overhaul that will incorporate aspects of both in Winamp 5.
In the meantime,
AOL has
discontinued supporting plug-ins developed using Wasabi and will instead
fold Winamp3 graphical interface designs, or "skins," into Winamp 2.x. In a
setback to Nullsoft's plans, Winamp3 in March gave way to the earlier Winamp
2.x version, pending a broader overhaul that will incorporate aspects of both
in Winamp 5. In the meantime, AOL has discontinued supporting plug-ins
developed using Wasabi and will instead fold Winamp3 graphical interface
designs, or "skins," into Winamp 2.x.
- Sun squashes over 2400 Java bugs - People "into java" know that
previous 1.4.0 and 1.4.1 were full of bugs that caused many, users and
developers alike, to pull their hair, including this now bald writer. In fact,
according to Sun,
over 2400
bugs have been fixed since the original 1.4.0 release.
- Too Much Booze While Watching Star Trek! editorial - "I get loads
of spam mail everyday and my spam filter gets most of them. But for some
reason, this one caught my eye before it went into the dustbin. And why not?
It was an eye-catching title - "Dimensional Warp Generator Needed". :)
Let's check it out!"
- NetBIOS: Ins & Outs -
NetBIOS stands for Network Basic Input Output System. It was originally
developed by IBM and Sytek as an Application Programming Interface (API) for
client software to access LAN resources. If you have experience working on a
LAN using Microsoft Windows Operating Systems you must have clicked on
"Network Neighborhood" to access the computers attached to your network. After
clicking on the icon you would have seen the names of the computers on the
network.
- Asus SK8N nForce3 Pro150 Review - Hardware Mania has posted
a review of Asus SK8N nForce3 Pro150.
- MSI GeForce FX5900 Review - Hexus has posted
a review
of the MSI GeForce FX5900. "So, is it quicker than 9800 Pro? Is it quicker
than 9700 Pro? Well, yes to both for the most part. On the tests that I
consider to be the most relevant in terms of current game performance, it's
about as equal with 9800 Pro as I'd like to call it."
- K9 1.07 -
K9 is an email filtering program that works in conjunction with most
popular email applications that use the standard POP3 email protocol. Messages
pass through K9 on their way to your email program and as K9 processes them it
can learn to identify the difference between Spam and Good emails, marking
Spam emails so that your email application can file them away or delete them.
- FolderIcon XP 1.0 beta 3 -
FolderIcon XP
(download)
allows you to change an icon for any folder. Left-click on a folder and choose
its icon, mark it as a "hot" or make it look gray. Collection of unique icons
included (colored and marked XP-style icons) as well as a customizable set of
links to external (system) icons, specially chosen for marking folders.
- DivX 5.0.5b (Silent Update) -
DivX (free
~ adware
~ profi ~
Linux)
is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and
documentation that you need to play DivX files. This silent update contains an
updated DivX Player.
- Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Drivers v 4193 - A new Turtle Beach Santa
Cruz
drivers has been released.
- ATi CATALYST 3.5 Patches - ATi found that the OpenGL
acceleration is unavailable when using a Radeon 9100 product with Catalyst
3.5 and also there is
Display corruption or flickering around in-game objects in NeverWinter Nights
for all RADEONs. (thanks
Warp2Search)
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Updated:11:42 PM CEST Jun,20
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