Thursday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 11:54 PM CET - Jan,02 2003
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- Wired's 2002 Vaporware List - Wired.com has once again posted their
annual list of its
top 10 vaporware tech products that we have been waiting on for oh so
long, the so called vaporware products.
- Yaha virus infection heats up - The virus, dubbed
W32/Yaha.M
by MessageLabs, has seen its numbers explode with over 7,000 copies being
stopped by MessageLabs on Monday. So far, more than 17,000 copies of the virus
have been detected by MessageLabs, leaping it to the fifth most common virus
sent through the system since records began.
- Happy 20th birthday to the internet - The internet has
officially
celebrated its 20th birthday. On 1 January 1983 the Advanced Research
Projects Agency Network (Arpanet) of the US Department of Defence - the
forerunner of the internet - was switched to the TCP/IP protocol.
- Feeling Blue? This Robot Knows It - Science fiction often
depicts robots of the future as machines that look like people and feel, or at
least hanker after the ability to feel, human emotions. A team at Vanderbilt
University is turning this notion on its head by
developing a robotic assistant whose goal is not to develop emotions, but
rather respond to the moods of its human master.
- Ear damage by MP3, DVD and digital television? - Unlike with
compression and decompression of computer programs (e.g. ZIP), that is to say,
during lossy data compression (data reduction) the original signal is not
reconstructed 1:1, but to reduce the data amount, only control signals for a
synthesizer programs (called CODEC) get recorded, those are optimized in a way
that during rendition the CODEC can reconstruct from these an approximation of
the original picture or sound signal that appears as similar as possible for
the human conscious perception, but is not identical to the original signal.
The danger of this exploitation of human perception flaws is that
especially by lossy audio data compression sound portions get destroyed those,
although the brain would not pass them to the conscious awareness, are likely
necessary for the human hearing's own perpetual calibration.
- Microsoft counts on antipiracy technique - On Tuesday, Microsoft
plans to officially launch
Plus Digital Media Edition (DME), a $19.95 add-on pack for the Windows XP
operating system. Microsoft has offered various versions of Plus since the
release of Windows 95. But unlike earlier versions, Plus DME is protected by
product activation, meaning that consumers will have to enter a 25-key code to
install the software and then "activate" Plus DME over the Internet.
- Cell phones call on longer life spans - Australian researchers
are working
to extend
the life of batteries in mobile wireless devices and to provide carriers
with the capacity to deliver higher bit-rates to new handsets. The improvement
in battery life could be achieved by using smarter power control algorithms.
The new techniques may also allow carriers to allocate different bit-rates to
different users on the fly.
- Lindows CEO funds Xbox hacking contest - Michael Robertson, CEO
of software company Lindows, has revealed himself as the formerly anonymous
donor of
$200,000 in prize money in a contest to translate the Linux operating
system to Microsoft's Xbox video game console.
- 17-inch flat-panel iMac to stop production in June - The
17-inch flat-panel iMac
will terminate production in June, following the same fate as the 15-inch
flat-panel model, which stopped production last October, said local PC makers
familiar with the matter.
- Triplex GF4 Ti 4800SE Deluxe -
Triplex GeForce4 Ti
4800SE Deluxe is the newest AGP 8X supporting GPU from NVIDIA based on the
NV28 core before the arrival of the GeForce FX aka NV30 in February. Triplex
GF4 Ti4800 Deluxe runs at 275Mhz core clock with 128MB 3.3ns BGA DDR SDRAM at
550Mhz. It comes with VIVO, TV-Out & DVI function and at a suggested retail
price of US$330. Triplex GF4 Ti4800 Deluxe is expected to outperform the
current GeForce4 Ti4600 by 10% and better overclockability at 330/635Mhz.
- Tiny New Hard Drives May Incorporate DRM - A consortium
called iVDR is said to be readying
tiny 1.8" and 2.5" hard drives, with removable cartridges, for
introduction at the 2003 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While the
disks look like a cool idea, it appears that they may be intended as a way of
introducing DRM into users' computers as well as into consumer electronic
devices of all types.
- Atari 2600 TV Games 10 in pack -
Does the Atari 2600 ring a bell to you? Fond memories of playing Pong or
Asteroids still fresh in your mind? It's back, and large and in charge on your
TV, or say even your LCD screen. So today, I'll be looking at something that
you may want. If you have some of that Christmas cash still around, you may
want to venture out to a major department store and see if you can find one of
these bad boys.
- New Adobe Photoshop Due In 2003 - The next major upgrade to
Adobe's industry-leading graphics editing software, Photoshop, is set to ship
in the fourth quarter of 2003. This year will see the release of
Photoshop 8.0, code-named "Dark Matter," and ImageReady 8.0, code-named
"Taconite." ImageReady will remain a standalone application. Specific
updates will include: NTSC/PAL/HD preview choices to compliment the existing
CMYK Preview, a Histogram palette, nested layer sets, and text on a path.
Photoshop 8 will also include "filter layers," allowing for non-destructive
image editing and manipulations, similar to Adobe After Effects' adjustment
layers.
- Proper Speaker and Sound Setup - Well before you get to moving your
speakers around your room/office/studio/etc., the first thing you should know
is
how sound actually works. Some might be wondering why this is important.
Well, to properly place your speakers for the optimum clarity, one needs to
know how sound waves work and react with objects around them. I know, I
know... physics is not the most exciting subject but it will pay off in the
end, trust us on this.
- How to Eliminate Spyware, Adware, and Random Popups - Quite useful
guide for greenhorns :) -
check it
out!
- DirectX 9 vs. DirectX 8 Benchmarks - ViperLaier
takes a look at its performance with a DX8 and DX9 video card.
- Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.71 SP1 -
The MDAC 2.7 SP1 redistributable installer installs the same Data Access
core components as Microsoft Windows XP SP1. This release does not include
Microsoft Jet, the Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider, the Desktop Database Drivers
ODBC Driver, or the Visual FoxPro ODBC Driver.
- Klient 2.0.12 Beta -
Klient is an IRC (download)
application for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. Klient features a fully
customizable interface, multiple server support, highly robust scripting,
external .dll support, and much more.
- Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 3.9.3 -
The Ringtone Converter (download)
is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that
allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for
cables or expensive premium rate SMS services.
- A-Tuner 1.2.16.4201 -
A-Tuner
is a small tool for changing Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial
modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync and MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail)
Bias the following 4 settings on your Nvidia card and should work with Nvidia
Detonators 23.11 - 41.09
- DAEMON Tools 3.29 - And as a special new year's present here's
DAEMON
Tools version 3.29 (seems the download link is down at the moment, so try
this mirror) Especially a lot of Germans may have waited for this version
as it fixes the blacklist introduced with the Gothic 2 patch 1.29. Here's the
complete changelog: RMPS emulation option added, Many blacklists fixed (e.g.
'Gothic 2' 1.29), Minor fixes.
- Plextor PX-W4012TA/TU firmware - Plextor Europe has released
a new firmware version for their PX-W4012TA (internal) and PX-W4012TU
(external) drives.
- ASUS Detonators 31.40G - Asus has released
new drivers for their Nvidia series of cards version 31.40G for Win2k/XP
for V3800, V6600, V7100, V7700, V8170, V8200, V8440, V8460, V9180 series.
V3800 doesn't support WinXP.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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