Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:40 PM CEST - Oct,14 2004
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- Halo 2 leaked onto the net - Microsoft has pledged to
"aggressively pursue" whoever leaked Halo 2, the eagerly awaited sequel to
the Xbox hit, onto the net. The game, a key title for MS' console in the run
up to Christmas, is believed to have surfaced on Usenet and the web last
night, possibly in the form of a localised French version, according to early
reports. The download is said to weigh in at 3GB and lack support for Xbox
Live multi-player gaming. Another story can be found
here.
- Technology hinders fraud investigations - Increasingly
sophisticated technology is
making serious
fraud harder to investigate, according to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
In an interview with Computing, SFO Assistant Director Peter Kiernan, said new
remote networked technologies and storage intense laptops, mean investigators
have to search for more information sources and locations when tracking down
fraudsters.
- Australia vulnerable to Korean hacking army - An army of more than
500 hackers hired by the North Korean military
could find Australian businesses a "softer target" than their U.S. or
European-based counterparts, according to security experts. A U.S. security
expert who requested anonymity said Australia could provide a "back door" into
corporate networks and provide the North Koreans' with intellectual property
worth billions of dollars.
- Fake Beckham pics trick users with virus -
Hackers have
posted thousands of messages on internet chat rooms and news groups,
claiming users can see pictures of the England football captain in a
'compromising' position with a Spanish hooker by downloading a file. But
inquisitive users will actually be infecting their PC with the Hackarmy trojan
horse, a type of virus which can be used by cyber-criminals to remote gain
access to unprotected PCs.
- BSA collects more than USD$ 2.2 million from 25 U.S. companies -
BSA has announced that it has collected more than 2.2 million USD in
settlements with 25 U.S. companies.
- [Vulnerability] Format String Vulnerability in Valve's CS-Source -
If
u type '%n' (without ') to in-game-console, your game crashes instantly!
- [Vulnerability] MSN Gaming Heartbeat Component Buffer Overflow -
John Heasman of NGSSoftware has discovered
a
high risk vulnerability in the Heartbeat component used on MSN related
gaming sites. This vulnerability has now
been fixed by Microsoft, and a fix can be downloaded from the Microsoft
Security website.
- Unearthing the origins of Firefox (interview) - Goodger, a native
of Auckland, New Zealand, has spent most of the past four years working for
AOL's Netscape division and then at the Mozilla Foundation AOL spun off last
year to oversee the open-source development of the Mozilla and Firefox
browsers. As the Web observes the 10th anniversary of the first public release
of the Netscape browser,
Goodger finds himself the lead engineer for Firefox, widely seen as
Mozilla's best browser yet and an increasingly popular alternative to
Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.
- Lycos Builds Web Circles - Called Circles, the site will be
announced officially at the DigitalLife conference in New York City and can be
found online at
http://circles.lycos.com. The site lets a user define multiple groups of
acquaintances, such as a group of co-workers, a group of family members, a
group of neighbors, and a group of school parents. What the user shares with
each group can be established independently of the other groups, or can
overlap more than one group.
- Off-topic: Russia plans 500-day mock Mars mission - Russian space
researchers
will lock six men in a metal tube for more than a year in an effort to
mimic the stresses and challenges of a manned mission to Mars. The 500 Days
experiment, under development by the Russian Institute of Medical and
Biological Problems, will isolate human volunteers in a mock space station
module for -- as its namesake suggests -- a complete 500 days to study how a
long mission to Mars might affect its human crew.
- Off-topic: Internet sex - US suspects Briton - Police in America
have
issued an arrest warrant for a North Yorkshire man who allegedly had sex
with a teenager he met in an internet chat room. James Horsfield, 36, from
Leyburn, is wanted in connection with an alleged sexual assault on a
15-year-old in Austin, Texas. On Wednesday, North Yorkshire Police said they
had arrested a 36-year-old for an alleged offence of grooming. He has been
released on police bail and could now face extradition proceedings.
- Abit dual AMD 64-bit Opteron SU-2S shows prowess as UT2K4 game server -
Abit has now unveiled its latest server board for the gaming community,
its SU-2S dual-AMD-Opteron server, which, according to the director of
marketing at Abit, Scott Thirlwell, has now been running Unreal Tournament
2004 (UT2K4) game server for six weeks straight, with no problems. The server
is using the AMD Opteron 246 series CPU and is running under Red Hat Linux
Advanced Server edition, said Thirlwell. Currently, the company is working
with a local Taiwan ISP that has two servers online, and Thirlwell expects a
US server to be set up within the next few weeks.
- .09 Athlon 64: Value, Speed and Overclocking -
The major impact of the new 90nm Athlon 64 chips may not be quite as
obvious. Prior to the new 3000+, 3200+, and 3500+ 90nm chips, the entry point
to dual-channel 939 was the $400 3500+. As a result, buyers saw the Socket 754
as the value solution for Athlon 64 shoppers, where they could buy a 754
Sempron 3100+ for about $120 or a full 64-bit 2800+ for around $140. The new
3000+ should cost about the same as the 130nm 3000+ once the new settles into
the market. That will make the cost of entry for the top 939 chipset well
below $200 for the CPU. Many buyers who would have bought 939 if it had been
cheaper will now be able to buy 939. This leads us to future directions for
754 and 939. Roadmaps show 754 ending in late 2005, but 5 quarters is still a
lifetime in CPU sockets.
- AMD Sempron 3100+ review - It is not easy to sum up the Sempron
3100+ as it is a decent enough CPU and since we have not yet seen what Intel
has on offer with its latest Celeron processors, it's hard to make any kind of
comparative judgement. I would however go as far as to say that
the Sempron 3100+ is one of the best budget processors to have hit the
market.
- Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO review - Corsair has earned a
reputation as makers of fast and reliable ram, and
this tradition continues from past ram formats and into DDR-2. While not
earth shattering, performance-wise today, DDR-2 is forward thinking as Intel
scales their clock speeds, and the TWIN2X Pro Series is up to the task
- OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3 review -
The latest version of OCZ's PC3700 Gold is a superb overclocker, and is
among the fastest 3700 or 4000 speed ram you can buy, all things we have come
to expect from OCZ. An added benefit is you no longer need 3.0V+ of voltage to
achieve maximum speed. I've done a bit of testing on an Asus K8N-E, and was
able to get to 540mhz with only 2.7V, that board's maximum. The Gold series
now occupies the mid-range of OCZ's performance lineup, with the Platinum
series taking over the top spot. This means that the latest version of the
3700 Gold is not just faster than previous versions, but less expensive as
well. How can you lose? Very highly recommended.
- Intel's 900-Series Chipsets: PCI-Express and LGA775 - The 915 and
925 chipsets offer Intel's usual stability and solid performance, while making
sure that you're all set to take advantage of PCI Express, DDR2, and Intel's
new Socket 775 CPUs. The 915 offers a passable integrated graphics solution
that might actually let you game a little on grandma's Dell when you're stuck
at her place this Christmas. Unfortunately, there's a price to pay for being
future-proof. You get to deal with extra power issues, and
if you're
looking at the 925X chipset, you'll have to shell out for DDR2 memory.
That's a fairly major drawback, in my opinion, especially given the fact that
you're buying that DDR2 simply because the platform requires it, not because
it actually gets you any major performance increases.
- Abit AA8-3rd Eye review -
This
motherboard is the same thing as an AA8-DuraMAX with a new accessory
addition. This 3rd Eye refers to the µGuru clock that is included with the
bundle and is quite a nice feature.
- Epox EP-5EGA+ 915G motherboard review -
The EP-5EGA+ is a next generation board which is based on the new Intel
915G and ICH6R chipsets. The standard flavour is the 915P, but as you guessed
it, the 915G boasts its own Intel GMA900 integrated video package. It also
comes with the high bandwidth PCI Express x16 slot for graphics cards, so
there are couple options video-wise.
- [!] Summary of 3D Tests of 101 Video Cards
Manufactured in 1999-2004 - Digit-life has posted
a huge roundup of graphics cards launched since 1999!
- Thermaltake Fanless 103 socket 754 cooler -
Without a fan the temps just got up 65-70 Celsius which is to high so with
that conclusion you need a fan atleast. So we mounted a Zalman 92 mm fan to
cool this off with.
- Vantec NexStar 3.5" HDD External Enclosure -
With the NexStar 3.5" External Hard Drive Enclosure, you can back up your
valuable data, transfer your collection of videos and songs, or even carry
that important presentation with you quickly and easily. The NexStar is also
an ideal way to add an extra hard drive to your system without having to open
your system and deal with jumpers and cables. The NexStar also features a
sturdy housing with aluminum covers to dampen noise and cool your hard drive.
The NexStar supports both FireWire and USB2.0, offering speeds up to 480MBps.
- Fortron Blue Storm 400W FSP400-60THN-R review - The 3.3v rail was
stable, but the maximum VDIMM was only running at 2.85v. Fortron really needs
to go back to the drawing board and come up with a beefier power supply. The
Blue Storm does look nice, but looks can be deceiving. Fortron should have
stuck with the 530W and made that power supply blue instead. If you're in the
market for a new power supply but don't have $100 to experiment with,
stay away from the new Fortron Blue Storm. Get the Fortron 530W instead.
- Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speakers review - The FX6021's sound
fantastic.
For simply listening to music, you would be hard pressed to find a better set
of 2.1 speakers. The clarity of sound that comes from the 6 pairs of 1"
drivers is, quite simply, amazing. Unfortunately because they are 2.1
speakers, some movie buffs and gamers may be disappointed with the lack of
surround sound capability.
- PCMCIA Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook review -
The 2 ZS Notebook uses hardware-accelerated EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD and 3D
positional audio support to bring high quality sound to games. Creative has
also added virtual surround for gamers, or anyone, through their Creative
Multi-Speaker Surround 3D support. For those wanting to listen to music,
Creative has endowed the 2 ZS Notebook with a high audio clarity of 104dB SNR.
They feel this is the best to handle 24-bit/192kHz audio content, including
DVD-Audio.
- Toshiba e400 PocketPC review -
The
Toshiba e400 PocketPC is available at CompGeeks for only $191.50. The e400
is not bulky and is much more compact than other PocketPC's on the market. The
unit weighs in at an incredible 4.6 oz and can easily fit in your pocket. The
unit also has a very nice design and looks similar to the e800.. Does size
matter? The e400 was able to perform all normal functions as other PocketPC's
I have tried and specializes as a voice recorder as well. The unit runs on the
Intel PXA261 processor at 300MHz.
- AudioBUG AB-250 FM Wireless Transmitter review -
The
AudioBUG AB-250 is an ingenious little device that happened to land on my
desk a few days ago. Manufactured by a company named Aerielle Inc
www.aerielle.com out of Mountain View California, the AudioBUG AB-250 is the
answer to taking your music from a portable device to any FM radio stereo
system. As long as your favorite MP3 Player, CD player, or Mini Disc Player
has a headphone jack, the AudioBUG AB-250 can wirelessly send music from your
portable player to any speakers hooked up to a working FM dial.
- Tritton See2 USB 2.0 SVGA Adapter review -
Tritton Technologies says its See2 is the world's first USB 2.0 to SVGA
adapter -- a $99 gadget that converts a Windows 2000 or XP system's USB
2.0 port to a 15-pin VGA port for connecting a spare CRT or analog-interface
LCD. Slightly larger than your PC mouse, the plastic dongle needs no external
power supply or other connections; it has a handsome transparent top and
glowing blue LED, though you probably won't see it tucked behind your monitor.
- Siemens S65 Tri-band Mobile Phone review - For consumers who enjoy
large and highly viewable visual displays on their mobile phones,
Siemens' Tri-band S65 would definitely be in the running for your money.
Not only do you get to have a well-crafted and designed handset, you'll also
get to enjoy more than 160 'premium' shots at the same time. This should
suffice for wallet-sized printouts and even 3R sized printouts – that is if
you don't mind a somewhat grainy image quality. Add in the extended storage
capacity found in the form of a RS-MMC slot and you'll have one more reason to
let your finger loose and be a shutterbug yourself. Still, as far as camera
functions are concerned, the ones found in the S65 were nothing out of the
norm as most mobile phones in the market right now are offering more or less
the same set of camera functions.
- MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite 6.0 review -
MyDVD
Studio is available in a number of versions: MyDVD 6.0 is an OEM edition
that comes with basic CD and DVD video authoring tools; MyDVD Studio 6.0
(L39.99 ex. VAT) offers the complete CD and DVD video authoring package with
integrated video editing and CinePlayer 2.0 DVD playback software; MyDVD
Studio Deluxe 6.0 (L55.86 ex. VAT) further adds music CD ripping and burning,
CD/DVD coping and disc labelling, while MyDVD Studio Deluxe Suite 6.0
(reviewed here) comes with Sonic Software's BackUp MyPC software.
- Plans 6.2 (free webapp) -
Plans (download)
is a powerful and flexible Web calendar. Its features include recurring
events, merged calendars, event icons, custom themes and templates, MS Outlook
export, SQL or flat-file data storage, and browser-based management.
- phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl2 (Patch Level 2) -
phpMyAdmin (changelog)
can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single
database. To accomplish the latter you`ll need a properly set up MySQL-user
who can read/write only the desired database.
- Fresh UI v7.21 -
Fresh UI -
your free Windows tweaking tool - just got better with the release of
version 7.21. What's new: hidden options for Windows Security and Covering
Track sections. Just install it over the old version you have.
- MemTest86+ 1.27 -
MemTest86+ 1.27 is available for download. This new version adds support
for nVidia nForce 4, FSB1066 P4 EE, Intel i925XE and 90nm Athlon 64.
- CrystalCPUID 4.0.0.212 -
CrystalCPUID is
a CPU identification utility, which shows quite comprehensive information
about your CPU, memory and BIOS. All the data can be saved in a report file
(text or graphic formats). Moreover, CrystalCPUID lets you change Athlon 64's,
Athlon XP, and also some VIA processors', multiplier directly under Windows.
- Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 6.2.1.1001 -
The
Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility installs to the target system
the Windows* INF files that outline to the operating system how the chipset
components will be configured. This is needed for the proper functioning of
the following features: Core PCI and ISA PNP Services, AGP Support,
IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support, USB Support, Identification of Intel
Chipset Components in the Device Manager This release adds Intel i8xx
Serie / i9xx Serie / E7xxx Serie support.
- ForceWare 61.82 WHQL Win 2000/XP - NVIDIA just released
ForceWare drivers revision 61.82 for Windows 2000/XP A bit weird as I
expected a series 66.xx driver. Anyway, these drivers are WHQL certified
(Microsoft Approved) and have all language files included.
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Updated:11:06 PM CEST Jun,04
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