Tuesday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:30 PM CET - Dec,30 2003
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- Security: From Bad To Worse? - As difficult as 2003 was for
businesses battling security problems, next year promises to be just as
bad--and perhaps worse, as additional threats develop from peer-to-peer file
sharing software and spyware,
an end-of-the-year analysis released Monday by TruSecure said.
- Malaysian e-mail virus exploits terrorism fears - Potential victims
receive a message labeled "Urgent message to all citizens of Malaysia" that
claims to warn of five planned terrorist attacks, with the times and places
supposedly
leaked by an anonymous Malaysian government source. The e-mail says it
seeks to minimize the number of terrorist victims by spreading the information
on the planned attacks.
- Off-topic: 10 Ads America won't see -
Some ads
made by world's leading advertising agencies for well-known brands will never
be seen in the United States. (thanks
SlashDot.org).
- Off-topic: WebTV founder Phil Goldman dies - Phil Goldman, the
founder and chief executive officer of Mailblocks Inc. and
one of the founders of WebTV Networks Inc., has died at age 39, according
to a statement released by the company on Sunday.
- Off-topic: Memory storage: Answer in yeast and sea slugs? - By
tinkering with yeast and sea slugs, scientists have found a surprising
possible
explanation for the way the human brain stores long-term memories. Those
lowly organisms possess an unusual protein that exists in two shapes. In one
shape, the protein is sluggish or inactive. In its second shape, it
perpetuates itself indefinitely but can also harmlessly switch back to the
inactive form. Researchers believe that in higher organisms the same protein
may exploit this second shape to confer lasting stability to sites on brain
cells, called synapses, that store the memories of a lifetime. Surprisingly,
the shape-shifting protein in yeast and slugs has all the hallmarks of another
protein, the infamous prion, found in humans and other animals.
- The duel of the dual-layer DVD formats - The DVD+RW camp, which
includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Philips, plans to put so-called
"double-layer" DVD recording devices on the market by next spring. Discs
on these systems are expected to hold 8.5GB, or four hours of DVD-quality
video. That's about the same amount as the DVDs studios use to issue movies.
But the so-called "dash" camp promoting the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats also is
working on dual-layer recording, which involves writing data on two separate
surfaces. And unlike in the videotape-standard battle between VHS and Betamax,
"plus" and "dash" may be able to coexist for some time to come.
- Philips to provide DVD-Dual chipsets in early 2004 at the earliest -
Philips Semiconductors, a long-time advocate of the DVD+RW standard, expects
to start providing DVD recorder-use
chipsets supporting the DVD-Dual format in early 2004 at the earliest,
according to sources. The DVD-Dual chipsets will include a servo IC, an
integrated MEPG-2 single chip and supporting firmware, sources said. To offer
the new chipsets, Philips will have to pay licensing fees to DVD-RW technology
holders, including Pioneer and Taiyo Yuden, sources added.
- AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU review -
X-Bit Labs have tested a new AMD processor based on AMD64 architecture and
targeted for the mainstream market. The major advantage of this processor is
the price, which is just slightly above $200, while the performance is very
nice.
- SIS760 AMD64 northbridge preview - Accelenation has posted
a preview
of SIS760 chipset.
- Scythe Kamakaze AthlonXP / Pentium 4 Heatsink review -
The Kamakaze heatsink looks remarkably similar to the Alpha Novatech
PAL8942 which was one massive, and very effective heatsink. Perhaps then, it
is just a coincidence that both Alpha Novatech and Scythe are based in Japan.
In any case, the Kamakaze is an interesting heatsink because it is set up to
work on both Intel Pentium 4 and AMD AthlonXP processors thanks to a complex
mounting mechanism.
- Spire Skive Stream II Heat Sink review - Jason Camp at Overclockers
Club has completed
a review on the SkiveStream II, a Spire all copper heat sink.
- VIA K8T800 Performance Motherboard Shootout (Gigabyte, MSI and ABIT) -
Gigabyte, MSI and ABIT are all massive contenders in the market and there
is a reason to their continued success. Let’s find out what all you
performance driven people should be spending your money on in
TweakTown's VIA K8T800 performance motherboard shootout.
- VGA Charts Part III - This year's
THG VGA charts feature performance tests from ten different games and
benchmarks, including an overview of 46 different graphics cards from ATi,
NVIDIA, Matrox, S3 and XGI. THG also included tests gauging anisotropic
filtering and FSAA and a ranking of the cards by a price/quality ratio. As
always, some of the results should surprise.
- The Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD±R/RW Drive review - Plextor's
PoweREC technology is definitely a solid solution however, allowing us to
produce steady burns, even at higher speeds than the media is rated at. By
getting an 8X drive out there so sooner, Plextor will really grab market
share, especially as its price has dropped down as low as $220 in most U.S.
markets at the time of this article.
The PX-708A is a job well done by Plextor, and a well-deserved Editor's
Choice Award.
- Samsung 241MP LCD Monitor with HDTV - EnvyNews has posted
a review of
Samsung's 24 inch LCD Monitor with HDTV display capability.
Sicuro 2.1 Gaming Speakers review - EnvyNews has posted
a review
of Realworld Technology's immersive 2.1 channel gaming speakers.
Motherboard Installation Guide - Take a few minutes to read
ExtremeTech's tips on installation and you'll be up and running with
minimal hassle in just a few hours.
Zoom3 (trance generation) v1.02 64kb demo - Yesterday some websites
have posted a small 64kb "Kreed" demo. This was an intro to
a scene 64kb intro
competition at Assembly '03 (1st place in Combined 64K Intro Competition
). The only thing it has in common with Kreed developer Burut is that the
programmer works there. The intro has nothing to do with Kreed the game in
terms of content or engine wise :) Anyway, it's really
worth checking out!
SIM ICQ 0.9.2 -
SIM (Simple Instant
Messenger) (download)
- plugins-based instant messenger with support various protocols. It used QT
library and works on X11 (optional KDE-support), MS Windows and MacOS X.
Nero version 6.3.0.2 -
Ahead have released
Nero version
6.3.0.2 (direct FTP link ~
changelog)
Bandwidth Monitor Pro 1.27 -
Bandwidth
Monitor Pro (download)
is a utility that displays and logs your network adapters bandwidth usage. It
supports logging of all your network adapters at once and has a detailed
transfer history.
Fresh Download 6.50 -
Fresh Download (download)
is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges
downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3
files, video files, picture collections, etc.
Riva Tuner v2.0 RC14.3 New Years Edition -
RivaTuner (download)
is the most powerful tweaking utility for NVIDIA and ATI display adapters
running under Windows 98 / Windows 98 SE / Windows ME / Windows 2000 and
Windows XP. The purpose of this utility is to give you access to all the
undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers.
Realtek ALC650 Drivers v3.53 -
The ALC650 incorporates proprietary converter technology to achieve a high
SNR, greater than 90 dB. The ALC650 AC'97 CODEC supports multiple CODEC
extensions with independent variable sampling rates and built-in 3D effects.
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Updated:03:04 PM CEST Jun,20
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