Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:02 PM CEST - Jun,05 2003
- Post a comment / read (3)
- Packet tracking promises ultrafast internet - Imagine an
internet connection so fast it will let you download a whole movie in just
five seconds, or access TV-quality video servers in real time. That is the
promise from a team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who
have developed a
system called Fast TCP. A key feature of Fast TCP is that it could run on
the same internet infrastructure we have today. Steven Low, who led the
Caltech team, likens the way the internet works now to driving a car while
looking only 10 metres ahead. You slowly increase the car's speed until an
obstacle comes into view, but then you have to hit the brakes.
- Microsoft prepares SPOT service - As expected, the Redmond,
Wash.-based software giant on Thursday announced a wireless service, called
MSN Direct, and pricing for its Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT)
initiative.
The service is running and is being tested in eight U.S. cities, with the
goal being to have the service available in 100 cities. The first round of
devices that will use the service will be watches from manufacturers, such as
Fossil and Suunto, which will be available in the fall.
- "Stealing the Network" Book Review -
Stealing the Network is a refreshing change from more traditional computer
books. The authors have created fictional stories based on non-fictional
concepts that could really happen to our computer systems today. The realistic
fiction approach makes the book much lighter to read and actually
entertaining. I also believe this approach makes the true methods behind the
fictional stores much more memorable then memorizing thousand page textbooks.
- New Athlon XP 3200+ gets a faster 400-MHZ bus and is still a good deal
- AMD has cooked up the best value for PC buyers all year long--and its
newest chip continues to do so. The Athlon XP 3200+ offers only minor design
changes over the 3000+. AMD has, however, raised the frontside bus speed
slightly,
from 333 MHz to 400 MHz.
- NVidia's FX 5900 Chip: Slim Edge, Steep Price - NVidia promotes its
new
GeForce FX 5900 Ultra chip as "the fastest GPU in history." That may be,
but if so, it isn't by much: In tests with current games, the 5900 Ultra,
equipped with 256MB of SDRAM, gave a relatively small performance boost over
the NVidia 5800 Ultra and a reference card based on ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro chip
(both with 128MB) in the same PC. NVidia is eager to make up for the
shortcomings of its last release, the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, which was late
and used a cooling mechanism so loud that some critics called it "the
lawnmower." The 5900 Ultra is far quieter, but it still occupies two slots and
will cost you: $500 for 256MB models and $400 for 128MB ones (cards should be
in stores now).
- Lexmark X6170 All-In-One Office Center Review - A big brother to
the Lexmark X5150 and the X5150's near twin, the Dell A940, the Lexmark
X6170 All-In-One Office Center ($250 street) is built around the same core
print technology. It also offers similar print and scan performance, but with
a higher maximum scan resolution at 2,400-dpi optical by 4,800-dpi mechanical.
It also adds an automatic document feeder and built-in fax modem, which help
make it a good choice for most small offices.
- Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (818529)
- A number of security issues have been identified in MSIE that could
allow an attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows-based systems and then
take a variety of actions. For example, an attacker could run programs on a
computer used to view the attacker's Web site. This vulnerability affects
computers that have Microsoft Internet Explorer installed. (You do not have to
be using Internet Explorer as your Web browser to be affected by this issue.)
You can help protect your computer by installing this update from
Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
Although the patch is rated "critical" for all other operating systems, it is
only "moderate" for Server 2003, according to Microsoft's system for grading
the severity of the vulnerabilities it addresses.
- TVTool 7.2 -
TVTool 7.2
(changelog)
completes the multi monitor support and makes it extremely comfortable to
start movie playback on the TV without affecting the monitor at all. A dual
head card is required for this purpose of course. Other new features, changes
and bug fixed have been made.
- Tweak-XP v2.0.11 -
This new
version added Centrino to CPU tweaks, updated help files and updated
language files.
- eMule 0.29a -
eMule (download)
is a new filesharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network, but
offers more features than the standard eDonkey client, because it's opensource
but under the restrictions of the GPL License.
- PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 392 -
PowerStrip (download)
provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide
range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest
Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
- UXTheme Patch For Microsoft XP SP2 Build 1213 - Vortex has released
a new UXTheme patch (download)
for Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Build 1213 (untested).
- Windows Media Player 9 Build 3005 Upgrade Patch - The download
(1.8MB) is actually a upgrade patch for people that are using Windows Media
Player Version 2980 will upgrade to version 3005.
- Creative Sound Blaster Live! AC3 Fix - This is
a driver update (WinXP) for the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 that fixes
"Correct functionality of SPDIF output when AC3 Pass Through mode is selected"
- OPN-462 v0.8 - The Socket A AMD Processor Identifier -
OPN-462 is an intelligent program designed specifically to translate the
three codes found on, or around the core of all Socket-A, AMD CPU's, what you
can expect the program to do, can be found in either or the screenshots in the
screenshots section. In this new version Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2200+ now
displays the correct multiplier.
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Updated:12:40 AM CEST Jun,21
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