Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 05:41 PM CEST - Jul,03 2003
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- Nintendo's Yamauchi speaks - Former Nintendo chairman Hiroshi
Yamauchi
has given an interview with Nihon Keizai Shimbun, with the legendary
industry veteran giving his views on a wide range of topics with his trademark
bluntness. On the topic of Sony's forthcoming PlayStation Portable,
Yamauchi-san broke the ice in typical style - stating that analysts who "think
Nintendo has a monopoly over the handheld market and Sony may be able to break
it" simply don't understand the games business.
- Solar sailing 'breaks laws of physics' - The next
generation of spacecraft propulsion systems could be dead in the water before
they are even launched. A physicist is
claiming that solar sailing - the idea of using sunlight to blow spacecraft
across the solar system - is at odds with the laws of thermal physics.
Both NASA and the European Space Agency are developing solar sails and,
although never tested, the concept is quite simple. A solar sail is
essentially a giant mirror that reflects photons of sunlight back in the
direction they came from. Although photons do not have mass, they are
considered to have momentum, so according to the law of conservation of
momentum, the photon loses some of its energy to the sail as it bounces off,
giving the sail a shove in the opposite direction.
- Microsoft offers free e-book downloads - As part of the
five-month promotion,
users can download three e-books a week from
Microsoft's Web site
via a Pocket PC, a Tablet PC, a laptop or a desktop. A Short History of Nearly
Everything by Bill Bryson, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and Fear Itself by
Walter Mosley are among the titles offered.
- Hacker defacement contest - A call for online vandals to take
part in a Web site defacement contest has some companies warning clients to
beware over the holiday weekend.
The
contest awards points to vandal groups for defacing Web sites, with higher
points awarded for sites that are run on less common servers. The winner of
the contest will be the group that defaces 6,000 servers in the shortest
amount of time.
- MSI announces Nbox FX family of graphics cards - Micro-star
International (MSI) will provide an added incentive for gamers buying its FX
graphics cards by introducing its
NBox graphics card series, which bundles three popular hit computers games
of 2003 as well as an aluminum, 800dpi optical mouse.
- No more pins? Intel LGA and Tejas Scoop - Well Intel are moving
away from the 'socket' interface and on to a LAND GRID ARRAY format - this is
775 push-pin style contacts. This will be introduced at the same time as Intel
launch the new Grantsdale core logic.
There
is photos of the new interface, the reference board, and also the weird
new mounting bracket for the LGA.
- First AMD Opteron Supercomputer in Europe - Manchester University
in the UK has selected ClusterVision, specialist in Linux supercomputer
clusters, to
install a 70 processor supercomputer cluster using the new 64-bit AMD
Opteron processor. This will be the first public, production-ready AMD Opteron
processor based cluster for chemistry applications in Europe.
- HP Unveils Linux PC - Hewlett-Packard has announced a new low-end
desktop PC designed for small businesses and featuring a version of the Linux
operating system.
The Compaq D220 PC ($349) will be available July 7 as a user-configurable
system, according to HP. The base configuration includes a 2.0-GHz Celeron
processor, 128MB of DDR SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, and a CD-ROM drive.
- Fujitsu LifeBook P5010 review - Users who want the latest CPU
technology in the smallest package should make a beeline for the
Fujitsu LifeBook P5010 ($1,700 street) notebook. Intel's Centrino platform
and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive fit handily in a 3.8-pound package. Just make
sure you can live with the small keyboard, fonts, and screen.
- Gyration Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse review - Feeling tied down by
your mouse?
The $80 (street) Gyration Ultra Cordless Optical Mouse frees you. This
unique device uses a dual-axis gyroscope to detect a wide range of motion.
Within 25 feet of the USB radio-frequency (RF) receiver, moving the mouse
pointer on-screen is as simple as waving your hand in the air. Should you want
to sit at a desk, though, the Gyration Ultra also acts as an optical mouse.
- Cooler Master CoolDrive 3 Hard Disk Cooler review - Adrian's
Rojak Pot just posted the
Cooler Master CoolDrive 3 Hard Disk Cooler review. "Don't you just
love 7200 RPM hard disks? They are blazing fast! Too bad they are also so
HOT!!! As a result, most hardware enthusiasts now rely on a variety of fans
and hard disk coolers to keep their ultra-fast hard disks running cool."
- EpoX 4PDA2+ i865PE Springdale review -
This
4PDA2+ sample was a prodigious FSB overclocker, a features champion and a
paradigm of stability. As long as EPoX launch a BIOS that corrects the Vcore
failings found on the 6/18 update, we're confident that this board will sell
well. One has to ask themselves exactly what they need from a prospective
motherboard. This EPoX seems to have most of the bases covered.
- DVD Video Copy Software On Test - EliteBastards.net let us know
they have
compared three of them: DVD X Copy Xpress, DVD2One, and the newest of the
bunch, Elaborate Bytes' CloneDVD.
- Messenger Plus! 2.20.43 -
Messenger Plus! Extension
(download) is a
program that adds functionalities to the MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger chat
program. Some of the added features are logging, personalized Away Messages,
transparency effects, and a feature to minimize all MSN Messenger windows to
the system tray.
- Alcoholer 4.0a -
Alcoholer 4.0a
has been released. With this tool first you scan your copy protected CDs for
their protections using ClonyXXL and then Alcoholer kicks in to make sure the
right settings are passed trough to Alcohol 120%.
- ATV2000 v2.0.20.1 -
ATV2000 (Freeware ) is new generation of TV viewing and capture
application based on old ATV, but with reworked core.
- FolderIcon XP 1.0 RC -
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.
- Avant Browser 8.02 Build 001 -
Avant Browser (download)
is an upgrade to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is a fast, stable,
user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser.
- CuteFTP Pro 3.2 -
CuteFTP Pro 3.2 (download)
integrates state-of-the-art security standards including SSL via FTP and HTTP,
SSH2 and advanced S/KEY password encryption to ensure that confidential
business data stays that way. However CuteFTP 3.x Pro costs +$60 :(, if you
prefer a freeware (I do), try
WinSCP2!
- ICQ Lite Build #1253 -
ICQ Lite Build #1253 (download
~
changelog) has been released.
- Creative Sound Blaster Live & Audigy 1 Driver 5.12.4.285 WHQL -
Station-Drivers.com have posted a new Creative Sound Blaster Live & Audigy
Driver version 512.12.4.285 WHQL.
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Updated:11:42 PM CEST Jun,20
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