Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:46 PM CEST - Oct,09 2003
- Post a comment / read (2)
- Offtopic: Forty-second ecstasy tablet test developed -
A new technique that rapidly analyses ecstasy tablets could provide an
early warning system for rogue pills and also police help trace illicit
manufacturers. The method uses Raman spectroscopy to produce a fingerprint for
each ecstasy tablet. This reveals the concentration of the active ingredient
MDMA plus the identity of any toxic contaminants.
- Have chess computers surpassed the strongest grandmasters? -
In a few weeks Garry Kasparov will take on X3D Fritz in a high-profile
man-machine chess match. It is very difficult to figure out who should be the
statistical favorite, because computer ratings are somewhat different from
human FIDE ratings. Every two or three months, the Swedish Chess Computer
Association (abbreviated SSDF in Swedish) publishes a rating list, estimating
the strength of the top chess computers. The ratings are based upon thousands
of games hosted by SSDF members, between commercially-available computer
programs running on specific hardware. Different versions of the same program
are treated separately. Thus the top seven in the July 2003 SSDF list were all
various versions of Fritz or Shredder, running on the most powerful hardware
used by SSDF members (256MB Athlon 1200 MHz). (thanks
Slashdot.org)
- Microsoft FrontPage 2003 First Look -
FrontPage still integrates with the rest of Office and employs shared
Office features like the Picture Manager and Clip Organize. But it's now
intended for serious Web authors and businesses that want to build sites based
on data sources in XML, OLEDB, or Web services formats. Many advanced
features, like Web logs and data-driven news pages, require Microsoft's
SharePoint services. Sleek new features make the highly automated,
business-oriented FrontPage 2003 worth the upgrade. A more efficient interface
eliminates the vertical Views bar and replaces it with a tabbed interface on
the editing screen, giving you quick access to site management and editing
featur.
- Nokia phone explodes - again - A Dutch teenager
suffered burns to his leg when his Nokia mobile phone exploded in his
trouser pocket on Monday. This latest incident comes less than three months
after a woman, also from The Netherlands, suffered burns to her face and neck
after her Nokia handset exploded. At the time Nokia blamed the incident
on a non-Nokia replacement battery being used.
- MS plucks Sierra Wireless for smartphone - A Canadian modem
company,
Sierra Wireless is to introduce a smartphone based on Microsoft's
Smartphone 2003 platform next year. The 'Voq' looks like a candybar phone, but
its keypad opens to form a fold-out QWERTY keyboard. Flextronics will
manufacture the device, which runs on GSM/GPRS networks. Sierra is targeting
business users in North America and Europe where it does most of its business.
- VIA KT880 Specs -
AMDboard has
the specification of the first known mainboard to use the newly born.
Coming from Abit, the KV7II offers the latest technologies thanks to this new
chipset coupled with the now popular VT8237: 6-channel audio, SATA 150, RAID,
USB2.0, LAN 10/100, and most of all, the new VIA Quad Band Memory 533 (QBM)
technology that allow 8.5GB/s bandwidth.
- 64-Bit Takes Off - Equally key is a 64-bit CPU's ability to
recognize and use a lot more RAM. Today's 32-bit chips, such as AMD's Athlon
XP and Intel's Pentium 4, can address up to 4GB of RAM split between the OS
and applications. Few PCs have that much memory, and even fewer apps use it.
But with ever-more-complex software, that limitation may become a bottleneck,
making Athlon 64's ability to address a whopping terabyte (1000GB) of physical
memory very attractive. But you will need a 64-bit-capable operating system,
new hardware drivers, and 64-bit applications to fully take advantage of such
a chip, and therein lies the rub. AMD knew 64-bit desktop computing wouldn't
be ready for prime time right away, so it made its 64-bit Athlons hybrid CPUs
that can also run today's 32-bit app and
PCWorld's initial tests show the chips run them very well.
- 19" LCD Monitors Round-up - X-Bit Labs have
compared 11 monitors from Iiyama, LG, Nec, Samsung and Sony. They take
look at the pixel response time parameter, monitor brightness, contrast ratio,
color temperature and quality of color rendition.
- Pentium 4 3.2GHz "Extreme Edition" review -
There's really nothing new to this chip other than the 2MB of L3 as
apposed to the normal 512KB L2 Cache that does help boost performance under
certain loads - after all if tons of extra cache on a chip was the main
indicator of performance for desktop PCs, wouldn't we have seen that done by
now?
- DVD Burning: The Complete Guide -
PCMag tested 23 burners to find the ones that rock, and select the best
DVD authoring software from among the 6 front-runners.
- Creative Audigy 2's Platinum Pro Features Sound 7.1 (and DTS) review
- Anyone who is not thinking of doing anything more than playing games or
a DVD, an Audio CD or audio files in general,
the Audigy 2 ZS is certainly the best choice in terms of the ratio between
possibilities and cost. On the other hand, if you like to connect and
disconnect various types of equipment and perform elaborate recording, you
will more likely need the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. In the case of multimedia
and musical creative activities, the external housing makes it easy to use and
offers a range of possibilities that will soon prove to be indispensable.
Whatever the case and whatever the version you choose, the ZS has become the
non-professional sound card that offers the best audio quality on the market.
- Maxtor's DiamondMax Plus 300 GB Monster review -
With a behemoth capacity of 300 GB, the DiamondMax is the biggest hard
drive so far. Can the 5,400 rpm drive with just 2 MB of cache also deliver the
performance for our times?
- Ximeta NetDisk review -
Ximeta's NetDisk can both serve as a USB 2.0 external drive or plug into
your LAN via its 10/100 Ethernet port. But does its LAN feature make it an
inexpensive NAS device?
- VapoChill XE [Socket 478 P4] - The chaps at Hexus.net took
the most advance cooling solution avaliable on the retail market and
coupled it with the highest performing CPU (which a mounting solution was
avaliable for the cooling solution to use) - The Pentium 4 EE CPU.
- ATI Catalyst Suite 3.8 (Driver) Review - So, there we have it, the
new features of the ATI Catalyst 3.8 in a nutshell. ATI have given all users
something to play with here, "but you have not covered gaming performance!" I
hear you all saying. Well, this set of drivers are more about the added
features, not the optimization. Only one game has been pumped up in terms of
performance and that's Tomb Raider Cradle of Life, which no one gives a damn
about anyway.:)
So, expect performance to be the same as your Catalyst 3.7 release in all
your other games. Another reviews can be found at
EnvyNews,
Beyond3D
- Linux 2.6 Kernel Stability Freeze - Linux Creator Linus Torvalds
released the 2.6.0-test7 Linux
development kernel and declared a "stability freeze".
- Mozilla Firebird 0.7 RC1 -
Mozilla Firebird
(download)
is a free, open-source and cross-platform web browser for Windows, Linux,
MacOS X and other operating systems. It is small, fast and easy to use, and
offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the tabbed browsing
and the ability to block pop-up windows.
- WinGuard Pro 2003 5.5.3.43 - Give yourself peace of mind from
people tampering with your PC with
WinGuard Pro 2003 - Free
Edition, stop people changing your settings, accessing unauthorized
programs, and important files.
- HotDog Professional 7.03 -
HotDog
Professional 7 includes some great new features making this latest version
the most robust, flexible and user friendly text-based HTML Editor on the
market.
- InstantGet 1.45 -
InstantGet (download)
is a powerful and efficient download manager and accelerator, InstantGet
splits downloading files into multiple sections, downloading each section
simultaneously to increase downloading speed up to 5 times faster.
- Nero version 6.0.0.19 changelog - Nero have finally provided a
lengthy changelog
to Nero Version 6.0.0.19.
- Easy CD-DA Extractor 6.1.0.2 -
Easy CD-DA Extractor (download)
package includes CD-Ripper, CD-Burner, and Music File Format Convert.
- TVTool 8.3.1 - The main problem is the black borders around
the picture on the TV screen. These can be very annoying for most applications
like DVD-playback or decoding.
TVTool (download
trial version) is a completely software based solution to this problem.
TVTool has many features, such as dualview, which makes simultaneous output to
the TV and monitor possible.
- VG Clipboard Master 1.0 -
VG
Clipboard Master is very useful program which provides extended clipboard
capabilities, helps you to work with computer, saving your time and it is easy
to use. Windows clipboard can only store one item at a time but using VGCM you
can copy a lot of different objects to the clipboard at the same time.It is
easy to customize your clipboards list.
- Plextor Europe releases firmware 1.02 for PX-708A/UF drive -
Plextor Europe has released
a new firmware version for the PX-708A/UF DVD recorder, along with the
changelog.
- RivaTuner Script Pack For Catalyst 3.8 - Guru3D has posted
an udated
SoftR9x00 and ATIOverclockingAntiprotection (this patch script allows you
to remove driver-level overclocking protection on certain ATI
RV250/RV280/R300/RV350 based boards) for the new Catalyst 3.8.
- Omega Drivers 2.4.87 - Omegadrive has released his
Omega
Drivers version 2.4.87 based on ATI's Catalyst 3.8 display drivers that
were released last night.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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