Thursday Tech Reading Part #1 - tech
(hx) 05:28 PM CET - Jan,08 2004
- Post a comment
- Word password tool not for security - Microsoft has hit back
at
critics of Word's password-protect feature, which the company has admitted
is not safe from hackers. The tool is intended to make collaboration easier,
Microsoft told ZDNet UK, explaining that users should invest in digital
signatures or an Adobe Acrobat-type application if they want security. In
related news, SecurityFocus has published
a hack that can be used to unlock Microsoft Word documents that have been
password protected.
- Secret Movie Moguls - Nearly halfway around the world from
Hollywood,
a 17-year-old high-school student is trying to make a name for himself as a
film distributor. Unlike the moguls in Tinseltown, though, he and his
colleagues in a group called MysticVCD don't cut deals, take meetings or
campaign for Oscars. Instead, their goal is to put a movie on the Internet
first, long before it's officially released on tape or disc. If MysticVCD wins
the race, the digital copy it produces will be downloaded onto tens of
thousands of computers around the globe, potentially reaching more screens
than the film itself did in theatrical release.
- Mobile Robots Take Baby Steps - To make their way across that kind
of terrain, the drones will need legs -- maybe even four of them. So the
Army's Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, has just doled out
$2.25 million to
two robotics firms to prototype a big, mechanical dog capable of carrying
ammunition, food and supplies into battle. The contracts are part of a
broader Pentagon look into robots that take their cues from nature. Defense
Department-backed scientists are studying swarms of bees and packs of wolves
for ideas on how to get drones to work together. Man-made snakes, lobsters,
flies -- even elephant trunks -- are just a few of the animal-inspired devices
being created by military-funded researchers.
- TI Launches Three New Graphing Calculators - Texas Instruments has
announced
3
new graphing calculators to be available later this year. The
TI-84 Plus and
TI-84 Plus Silver Edition will be available this spring and are
essentially the
TI-83 Plus/SE, respectively, in a new case and with USB support. (thanks
Slashdot.org)
- ATI puts 3D in mobile phones - Graphics chipmaker ATI is jumping
into the handheld market with a new line of processors aimed at mobile phones,
it announced on Wednesday.
The Imageon 2300 product line builds on ATI's reputation in the PC gaming
market, where the company competes with market leader Nvidia. ATI recently
landed a contract to build graphics chips for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox
gaming console.
- Gates pushes PC-TV connection - Kicking off the Consumer
Electronics Show, Microsoft Chairman
Bill
Gates demonstrated new technology for connecting digital content on Windows
PCs to home entertainment centers, TVs and portable devices. Gates
said in his keynote speech that Microsoft is committed to "seamless
computing," Microsoft's vision for technology that automatically shuttles
information to the appropriate devices throughout a home. "We've been working
very hard at Microsoft to get all these connected devices to hook up," he
said. "We want to make it easy to have the same information on the devices you
have at work and the devices you have at home." (Transcript
of Bill Gates' CES 2004 address)
- Wireless Air Flo PS2 Controller Announced -
Nyko Technologies
introduces the Wireless Air Flo controller for Sony PlayStation 2, a
cable-free unit that utilizes Nyko's patented Air Flo technology to provide
gamers with a consistent flow of fresh air through the controller handgrips.
Gamers can prevent problematic sweaty hands as well as employ increased
mobility during competitive video games such as SOCOM 2 or Madden 2004.
- Philips broadcasts Internet-ready TV - Dutch company Philips
Electronics on Wednesday unveiled
a television set featuring a wireless connection to the Internet and PCs,
enabling it to play music and view pictures and video from the Web or
computers. The product, which was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) in Las Vegas and which is not yet on sale, adds to a range of networked
products manufactured by Europe's largest consumer-electronics maker.
- Winbond, ProMOS to upgrade pseudo SRAM production technology -
Winbond Electronics and ProMOS Technologies both plan to upgrade their
handset-use 1T pseudo SRAM (1T PSRAM) production technology this year,
according to the companies. Winbond plans to migrate 1T PSRAM
production from 0.175-micron to 0.13-micron this year, according to Wilson
Wen, company spokesperson.
- Analyst claims AMD had Athlon 64 shortage - An analyst at
Citigroup Smith Barney claimed that
AMD wasn't
able to deliver enough shipments of Athlon 64s in its fourth quarter.
According to reports, that was due to "manufacturing problems", and Smith
Barney expected shipments of 170,000 units versus its original estimate of
350,000.
- Graphics Speed for Every Budget - For this roundup
PCMag tested the ATI Radeon 9800 XT board, which is based on the company's
top-shelf chip of the same name. This GPU offers a slight performance edge
over the nVidia GeForce FX 5950 in some tests, but in general the race is too
close to call.
|
Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
(new)
