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 Gameguru Mania News - Dec,09 2005 - tech 
X-Fi Elite Pro - tech
(hx) 03:29 AM CET - Dec,09 2005 - Post a comment
nV News take a look at the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro soundcard. Here's an excerpt:
Creative has really pulled out all the stops with the new X-Fi line of sound cards. The completely redesigned Sound Processing Unit (SPU) is immensely powerful and produced the highest quality music and sound effects that I have ever heard on my PC. If you're an extreme gamer that wants the best sound quality or an audiophile that demands sound quality that could destroy your ear drums, look no farther than the X-Fi Elite Pro. Although the X-Fi Elite Pro is very expensive, you can always opt for one of the less expensive X-Fi models.

Pros
  • Unparalleled sound quality and processing ability
  • 64MB X-RAM which will hopefully be utilized soon
  • Huge, convenient and useful breakout box with numerous inputs and outputs
  • Amazing and powerful software bundle; both the drivers and stand-alone programs
  • Included batteries for the remote


    • Cons
  • Odd and sporadic install issue with BIOS and system boot up
  • No proper manual or mode "cheat sheet"
  • Drivers require QuickTime be installed to work
  • No consistent increase in game performance
  • The breakout box is HUGE
  • The approximate $400 price tag
  • No Dolby Digital Live support
    •  Gameguru Mania News - Dec,03 2005 - tech
    Weekend Tech Madness - Warez servers confiscated - tech
    (hx) 05:04 PM CET - Dec,03 2005 - Post a comment

    SECURITY... 

    • Security firms warn of new Microsoft threats - Sophos PLC reported evidence of new malware planted on Web sites that exploits a previously announced -- and as-yet-unpatched -- Internet Explorer security vulnerability. The Clunky-B Trojan horse allows hackers to install and run malicious software on users' machines when they visit sites containing the malware, said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos.
    • IE flaw lets intruders into Google Desktop - A security researcher in Israel has found a way to steal information from unwitting users of Google's desktop search tool by exploiting an unpatched flaw in Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer.
    • Sober worm stalls MSN, Hotmail - A variant of Sober known as Win32/Sober.Z@mm is pummeling servers at Hotmail and MSN with "unusually high mail load," causing delays in e-mail delivery to Hotmail and MSN customers, said Brooke Richardson, MSN's lead product manager.
    • Microsoft Windows Metafile DoS-gdi32.dll, MS05-053, Exploit - Remote code execution and denial of service vulnerabilities have been discovered in Windows Metafile (WMF) and Enhanced Metafile (EMF) image formats that allow remote code execution or on an affected system. The following crafted Metafile when viewed by Internet Explorer causes the CPU utilization to rise to 100%.
    • MSDTC Denial Of Service (Exploit, MS05-051) -  A flaw in the way MSDTC handles malformed packets allows an attacker to hang the service and exhaust resources on the server.
    • Cisco warns of HTTP flaw - The flaw could allow a hacker to view a memory dump (a record of the data in a router's memory) of an IOS router via the HTTP server and inject script code into the router through the HTTP server.
    • Panda fixes flaw in antivirus products - Panda Software has fixed a flaw in its antivirus products that could have allowed an attack resulting in control over a user's computer, a company spokesman said Friday.
    • Google adds virus scan to Gmail client - The firm said that when you send and receive attachments, they're auto scanned for viruses. If Gmail thinks your mail has viruses, it will attempt to clean the file or remove it. But if it detects a virus and can't remove it, then you won't be able to download it.
    • Microsoft launches anti-virus service - Microsoft has launched Windows One Care Live Security beta, an anti-virus and anti-spyware service for consumers only. The service offers anti-virus, firewall, backup and recovery, as well as personal computer maintenance.

    CRIME/LAW...

    • Warez servers in Germany confiscated - German police have confiscated five warez servers with 6 terabytes of illegal copies of movies and games in the German town of Coburg on the fringes of northern Bavaria. The servers, with names as Temptation and Paradise Island, were accessible to over 1,200 people for € 30 to 120 per month. Police arrested at least one 26 year old.
    • 180solutions sues Zone Labs - Adware provider 180solutions has filed suit against ZoneLabs (producer of anti-spyware program ZoneAlarm), alleging that ZoneAlarm improperly classifies their product as spyware.
    • EA sued over feature in Madden NFL -  A video game developer has sued Electronic Arts, charging that the world's biggest video game publisher stole his idea for a game feature and incorporated it into the popular football title Madden NFL 06.

    OFF-TOPIC

    • First Look at the X-Men 3 Teaser Trailer! - The trailer is a montage of scenes from the film. It starts out with a voice over by Patrick Stewart. As he talks about the war of mutants (as well as angels and demons), we see a bunch of very, very brief scenes. The trailer then concludes with the X and Wolverine's claws as seen on the poster. The X-Men 3 teaser trailer will be attached to King Kong when it hits theaters, but it will debut online this coming Monday, Dec. 5th. Watch for it on Apple's website in High Definition quality.
    • Robots aim to explore and build on other worlds - NASA is offering two new $250,000 prizes to stimulate advances in the use of robots in planetary exploration and automated construction.
    • 6 Percent to 10 Percent of Internet Users Are Addicted - These specialists estimate that 6 percent to 10 percent of the approximately 189 million Internet users in this country have a dependency that can be as destructive as alcoholism and drug addiction, and they are rushing to treat it. Yet some in the field remain skeptical that heavy use of the Internet qualifies as a legitimate addiction, and one academic expert called it a fad illness.

    TECHNOLOGY...

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    SOFTWARE...

    • Apache 2.2.0 - This version of Apache is a major release (download) and the start of a new stable branch. New features include Smart Filtering, Improved Caching, AJP Proxy, Proxy Load Balancing, Graceful Shutdown support, Large File Support, the Event MPM, and refactored Authentication/Authorization.
    • KDE 3.5 - KDE 3.4.2 has been just released to the public.
    • OpenOffice.org for Windows 2.0.1 RC2 - OpenOffice.org (download) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite.
    • Sun Java 2 Runtime Environment Standard Edition 5.0 Update 6 - Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) provides a complete environment for applications development on desktops and servers and for deployment in embedded environments. It also serves as the foundation for the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Java Web Services.
    • Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Update 1215 - This updates the detection rules. Only needed if you do not want to use the update function integrated into Spybot-S&D.
    • Microsoft's SNARF e-mail sorter - The software maker this week released a free utility that aims to sort e-mail in a new way: It can organize messages not just by how recent they are, but also by whether the recipient knows the sender well.
    • i.Scribe 1.88 - i.Scribe is a small and fast email client with an intergrated contact database and calendar.
    • Google Talk 1.0.0.78 Beta - Google Talk (download) enables you to call or send instant messages to your friends for free-anytime, anywhere in the world.
    • µTorrent 1.2.3 Beta Build 356 - µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.
    • Powerful free Xbox360 video converter - This program convert a variety of video types into MPEG-2 files suitable for playing on Xbox 360.
    • Skype 2.0.0.43 Beta - Skype (changelog / download) is a little program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. It's free and easy to download and use, and works with most computers. This new version adds Skype video (webcam) feature.
    • RealPlayer 10.5 Build 6.0.12.1465 - Get the latest version of this media player from RealNetworks.
    • The Core Media Player v4.11 Matroska' Edition - CoreCodec and The Core Media Player Development Teams have released The Core Media Player v4.11 Matroska' Edition (download). Now includes the powerful Haali Media Splitter
    • ImgBurn 1.1.0.0 - ImgBurn (download) can write most types of CD / DVD images and it supports all the latest writers (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones - i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, NEC, Plextor, Sony).
    • CPU-Z 1.31 - CPU-Z (download) is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
    • nVidia BIOS Modifier v3.2 - nVidia BIOS Modifier has been updated to version v3.0 ! This tool must be used by ADVANCED users ONLY! This tool works correctly with BIOSes of 6x00 / 7x00 series cards ONLY (including QUADRO series, built on NV4x and higher) !!! BIOSes of 5x00 and older aren't supported.
    • RivaTuner 2.0 RC 15.8 - The purpose of this utility (changelog) is to give you access to all the undocumented features of Detonator and Catalyst drivers.
    • Intel Pro & ProSet 10.1 Network Card Drivers - download
    • Intel Graphics Accelerator Driver 14.18.0.4421 WHQL - The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Driver contains support for the following Intel Chipsets: 852GM, 852GME, 855GM, 855GME, 915G, 915GV, 915GM/GMS, 910GML, 945G, 945GM.
    • Realtek AC'97 Drivers 3.80 WHQL - This driver supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC101 up to ALC861. The driver can also be found on MajorGeeks.
    • ATI Omega drivers v2.6.83 (Catalyst 5.11) - The purpose of the Omega Drivers is to provide gamers with an alternate set of drivers, ones that have more options and features than the original sets. The drivers contain optimizations, extra features (like OC capabilities), more resolutions and internal tweaks that can give them the edge in a gaming environment over the normal drivers, which are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks. (thanks HairBall)
     Gameguru Mania News - Dec,02 2005 - tech
    Alienware Area-51 m5700 laptop - tech
    (hx) 04:10 PM CET - Dec,02 2005 - Post a comment
    Hexus.net take a look at Alienware Area-51 m5700, a soon-to-be released laptop that features some fine componentry. The Alienware Area-51 m5700 is based on Intel's excellent Pentium M processor that marries excellent gaming performance to decent battery life, thanks to its low-power architecture. Alienware has outfitted this particular model with the 770 model, running at 2.13GHz clock speed and strapped to an i915PM chipset that provides dual-channel memory support.
    Where the Alienware Area-51 falls foul of the competition is with respect to 3D graphics. NVIDIA's GeForce 6800 Go 256MB PCIe graphics adapter is no slouch, but the Ultra model, as specified by Dell, is significantly faster. The comparison Rock's Mobility Radeon X800 XT 256MB is faster still, so Alienware, pricing this particular sample at around L1800, really needed to out-specify the established hierarchy for DTR laptops. Matters would have been fine if one had the option of upgrading the video to the '6800 Ultra model, or even the more-impressive GeForce 7800 GTX Go, but that isn't the case. Another area of concern for a laptop that ships at this price is a basic 1-year warranty; we'd like to see 3 years as standard on such an expensive machine, and the accompanying bundle, should it stay the same for shipping models, is also rather substandard.

    Alienware has had the time to see what the likes of Dell has done with its high-end laptops. Following on from that, it has also had the time to architect something better in the L1500-L2000 price range, and whilst the Alienware Area-51 m5700 has a number of decent features in common with the Inspiron XPS Gen 2 (now, incidentally, replaced by the similar XPS M170), which is still our current yardstick for measuring DTRs against, it simply fails to topple it. Alienware, then, needs to either reduce the price of this particular model by, say, 20%, or add-in a faster video card as standard.
     Gameguru Mania News - Dec,01 2005 - tech
    7800GTX 512MB vs. X1800XT 512MB - tech
    (hx) 09:15 PM CET - Dec,01 2005 - Post a comment / read (4)
    GamePC compares the two fastest graphics cards on the market for a holiday GPU showdown:
    nVidia's GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB card is simply a better performer in very gaming benchmark we threw at it. nVidia's combination of a highly-clocked 24-pipeline GPU and half a gig of 1.7 GHz GDDR-3 memory is unbeatable at this time. With these raw specifications, the ability to best the Radeon X1800 XT was simply a matter of looking at the numbers. While the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB card is extremely impressive on the performance front, but the ability to push out these kinds of performance numbers while running dead silent is a far bigger accomplishment in our book.

    ATI's Radeon X1800 XT 512 MB product is, unfortunately, a victim of nVidia's excellent timing. If the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 MB card wasn't announced at the same time, many would be crowning the X1800 XT the performance king. The card is still exceedingly fast in the majority of games, and overall does best the GeForce 7800 GTX 256 MB card, which is a solid feat in itself. ATI's product lineup is now up to date with Shader Model 3.0 and HDR support, and even has some advantages over nVidia like dual-link DVI outputs and H.264 decoding abilities. The card is also pretty quiet considering the fiery R520 core which lies under the cooling system, although under heavy loads, it's certainly louder compared to the 7800 GTX 512 MB.

    It appears that ATI was a bit too conservative with their clock speeds. Their Radeon X1800 XT cards are clocked high-enough to best the 7800 GTX 256 MB, but it's unlikely they foresaw (frankly, no one did) what nVidia had up their sleeves. However, seeing as how the R520 architecture can overclock quite well out of the box, ATI has another chance to get it right and compete with the 7800 GTX 512 MB. Get that GPU clock up in the 750-800 MHz range and boost GDDR3 memory clocks over 1.7 GHz, and the R520 architecture should be able to compete quite well. Now that they've worked out most of the kinks in their 90 nm technology, it's simply a matter of time and cranking out higher-grade chips and ramping up yields. ATI also has their R580 architecture on the horizon, too, which is a big question mark at this time.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,30 2005 - tech
    $600 Notebook Roundup - tech
    (hx) 03:56 PM CET - Nov,30 2005 - Post a comment
    AnandTech have rounded up a total of five notebooks (three machines from Compaq: the Presario V2000, V2000Z and M2000Z, one from Dell (Inspiron 2200) and finally the Gateway NX200S), each priced at $600 and put them through their paces - trying to find a winner:
    While the Dell offered the best all out performance, the Gateway NX200S actually offered the best overall package. Delivering significantly longer battery life and competitive performance all in a more compact and portable package than the Compaq and Dell solutions, it's hard to find fault with what Gateway has delivered. Our only complaint? Ours didn't come with wireless by default, but it looks like the unit now does come with integrated wireless while still selling for less than $600 after mail in rebate.

    So it is with great honor and appreciation that we give Gateway our Editor's Choice Gold Award for the Best $600 Notebook.

    Our second pick would probably go to the Compaq Presario V2000, but given that it is bigger and has a shorter battery life, there's really no reason to consider it over the Gateway.
    Nightly Tech Reading-Unpatched IE Flaw - tech
    (hx) 03:49 AM CET - Nov,30 2005 - Post a comment

    SECURITY... 

    • Unpatched IE Flaw Extremely Critical  - Instead of being just critical, Secunia says that the unpatched hole is now 'extremely critical' which means that Microsoft were extremely stupid to sit on it for six months.
    • Code exploits Windows flaw in image file handling - The exploit code takes advantage of a flaw in the way Windows handles certain graphics files. Microsoft provided a patch in October with security bulletin MS05-053 and warned that the vulnerability could create an opening for spyware and Trojan horse attacks
    • Sony CD spyware installs and can run permanently, even if you click "Decline"  - Previously, Princeton researchers revealed that the MediaMax software installed itself even if you declined the EULA (the pop-up license agreement). However, the researchers concluded that if you declined the EULA, the software was only active until you restarted Windows. Now Princeton's Alex Halderman reports that if you insert another MediaMax-infected CD (or the same CD again) and decline the EULA a second time, the software can activate itself permanently.
    • MSN Messenger Authentication DoS - Any person can try to brute force a victim's MSN messenger password, until MSN temporarily suspends the account. While the account is temporarily suspended, not even the real owner of the MSN Messenger Passport account can login (even if the correct password is used).
    • Hard drives ship with worm - Japanese storage vendor IO Data has dropped a bit of a clanger by shipping a batch of external hard drives complete with a Windows worm.

    CRIME/LAW...

    OFF-TOPIC

    • DRM boycotts hurt Sony's music sales - musicians frustrated - Overnight, Get Right with the Man dropped to No. 1,392 on Amazon's music rankings. By Nov. 22 -- after the news made headlines and Sony was deep into damage control, pulling some 4.7 million copy-protected disks from the market -- Get Right with the Man was even further from Amazon's Top 40, plummeting to No. 25,802.
    • The GMAIL Song - Yes folks there is now a GMAIL song and Video.

    TECHNOLOGY...

    • 300,000 Xbox 360s go to Europe - According to Spiegel Online, this Friday will mark the arrival of 300,000 Xbox 360s in stores across Europe.
    • Farstone VirtualDrive 10 Pro claims to support Starforce 3 - Farstone claims on their product description of VirtualDrive 10 Pro to have beaten the Starforce 3 copy protection. The software is a CD/DVD drive emulator and allows you to use images made from CD or DVD discs on your hard disk but with the behaviour of a CD/DVD reading capable device
    • Nokia Makes Enterprise Play with 9300i Smartphone - Looking to gain a stronger foothold in the enterprise, Nokia today took the wraps off of its latest smartphone , the 9300i, essentially an update to the 9300 model, which did not come with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    SOFTWARE...

    • PHP 5.1.1 Final - The PHP Development Team has released PHP 5.1.1. This is a regression correction release aimed at addressing several issues introduced by PHP 5.1.0.
    • UNOFFICIAL Windows98 SE Service Pack 2.1 -  It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more.
    • Mozilla takes wraps off Firefox 1.5 - Firefox 1.5, available free via download, is the browser's first major update since creator the Mozilla Foundation introduced it about a year ago. New in the 1.5 version are more sophisticated security and performance features. In addition to a more effective pop-up blocker, the updated browser is designed to ease security updates.
    • FastStone Image Viewer 2.29 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping and color adjustments.
    • K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.44 - K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-Decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video.
    • VLC Player 0.8.4 - VLC (a.k.a. VideoLAN Client) is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.
    • Media Player Classic 6.4.8.7 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture. It supports viewing through ActiveX controls of Real and QuickTime files.
    • Daemon Tools 4.00 X64 - Daemon Tools 4 X64 (download) has been released. It contains only small bugfixes, apart from that, the release notes from V4 32bit are valid here, too.
    • AnyDVD 5.6.1.1 - AnyDVD program is a driver, which unprotects DVD movies automatically in the background. AnyDVD can be used to remove the various copy protections on DVDs and even audio or game CDs.  This new version Adds detection and removal of a new type of protection "MacroVision RipGuard" as found on "Madagascar WideScreen" R1 (US) or "Vet Hard" R2 (Netherlands) to the option to remove "Protection based on unreadable Sectors" Note: RipGuard could be copied together with elby CloneDVD2 since AnyDVD version 5.4.1.1, but this new version supports drag and drop of all files from DVD to harddisk as well.
    • Unstoppable Copier v2.0 - Recovers files from disks with physical damage. Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.
    • Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 - Far Cry Benchmark v1.4.2 adds support for the latest v1.33 patch, instant save feature, etc
    • Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 - Half-Life 2 Benchmark v1.6 adds Lost Coast support, HD WideScreen resolutions 1280×768, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, HDR support, etc.
    • Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 - Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Benchmark v1.1 adds support for 1.5 patch, Pixel Shader 2.0 support, etc.
      Intel Video Drivers 14.17 - download
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,29 2005 - tech
    Mozilla Firefox v1.5 final - tech
    (hx) 11:40 PM CET - Nov,29 2005 - Post a comment
    Mozilla has released version 1.5 of Firefox, fixing several security issues as outlined in the release notes. The one for Win32 can be downloaded from the official FTP (local US mirror ~ 5.2MB), and those for other languages and OS - from here.
    • Automated update to streamline product upgrades. Notification of an update is more prominent, and updates to Firefox may now be half a megabyte or smaller. Updating extensions has also improved.
    • Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
    • Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
    • Improvements to popup blocking.
    • Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
    • Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
    • Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and "Safe Mode" experience.
    • Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and assistive technologies such as the Window-Eyes 5.5 beta screen reader for Microsoft Windows. Screen readers read aloud all available information in applications and documents or show the information on a Braille display, enabling blind and visually impaired users to use equivalent software functionality as their sighted peers.
    • Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
    • Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
    • New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.
    • Many security enhancements.
    • List of notable bug fixes since Firefox 1.5 Beta 2
    Holographic DVD to Hold 1.6 Terabytes - tech
    (hx) 01:22 PM CET - Nov,29 2005 - Post a comment / read (1)
    InPhase Technologies and Hitachi Maxell are working on a holographic memory disc that promises to squeeze as much as 1.6 terabytes onto a DVD-sized medium. The companies hope to have the disc and compatible drives on the market by the end of next year. Initially, however, holographic discs will launch with a capacity of 300GB.
    The two beams then merge again in the crystal and the pattern of interference of the altered beam is recorded. Information is read and written quickly, as a large number of bits can be recorded and retrieved in parallel with one another.

    This technique would ultimately allow a single disc to hold up to 1.6 terabytes of data read at 160 megabits per second -- 340 times the capacity and 20 times the data rate of traditional DVDs, and more than twice the data rate of Blu-ray and HD DVD with more than fifteen times the space.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,26 2005 - tech
    Rock Extreme CT notebook - tech
    (hx) 06:04 PM CET - Nov,26 2005 - Post a comment
    Bit-Tech take a look at Rock Extreme CT notebook (product page) Rock specs: Pentium M 2.0GHz processor, 1GB DDR2 533MHz RAM, GeForce Go 7800 GTX 256MB, 17" screen with X-Glass and 1680x1050 resolution, 60GB 7200RPM Hard drive, 8x dual layer DVD writer, Gigabit Ethernet, Centrino WiFi and Bluetooth.
    For the price, it's hard to argue with the specification. Rock have put in a great screen with a colour-intensifying coating, too. Although you can uprate the screen to 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA), we think this is too high a resolution for a 17" screen and you will also hit the limits of the 7800 in native resolution over the next couple of years. Thankfully, the screen also scales well, meaning that games run out of native don't look horrendous.

    The graphics card is undoubtedly the best thing in a notebook, there's nothing else to touch it. We established in our preview that it's the same speed, basically, as a desktop 7800, despite being a few megahertz off the clock speed. This is an insane achievement for a graphics part in a notebook.

    The Pentium M chip inside is not the fastest available, but we've shown that there's a little bit of headroom there. We're pretty sure that you won't get much overclocking mileage out of the next chip up, since that will already be pushing at the thermal and electrical boundaries. However, the added advantage of buying this version and overclocking (aside from the price) is that you also get the increase in bus speed and the consequent jump in memory bandwidth, which we've seen can make a real difference.

    If there was one thing we'd want, it's a little bit more hard disk space. The drive is 7200RPM, which is great for a notebook, but we'd really like more than 60GB - 100GB would be a bit more like it, although this may add to the price.

    We love the fact that we can get digital sound out of the notebook. Although you're unlikely to notice superlative-defying audio in the midst of a LAN party whilst tanked up on Red Bull, it's nice to have the flexibility for when you are sitting quietly at your desk enjoying a solo frag-a-thon.

    We've considered that the specification is good for the money. What shortfall there is is easily made up for by the coolness of being able to take a desktop-specification notebook anywhere with you. If you're a regular LANner, save yourself the hassle of taking power bricks, your rig, a monitor, peripherals and whatnot and just grab one of these and a cordless mouse - the perfect high-powered gaming combo. If you're considering the value of build your own versus buying a notebook, you also have to consider the value of the 3 year warranty in case anything happens to go wrong.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,25 2005 - tech
    Thanksgiving Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:28 AM CET - Nov,25 2005 - Post a comment / read (2)

    SECURITY... 

    • Hackers publish code for critical IE bug - Security experts are warning Internet users to be careful where they click, thanks to a nasty unpatched bug in the way Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser handles the JavaScript computer language. The bug is of particular concern because security researchers in the U.K. have now published "proof of concept" code showing how hackers could exploit the problem and possibly take over a Windows system.
    • Google fixes glitch that unleashed flood of porn - With the filter turned off, the amount of adult content on Google Base was staggering considering Google only launched the tool a week ago. A News.com search on the terms "XXX" and "XXX webcam" turned up more than 14,000 results each, including numerous listings under "XXX teen webcam." Several bloggers were also surprised by the amount of porn on the new service.
    • Macromedia Flash Plugin Buffer Overflow - A buffer overflow vulnerability discovered in Macromedia Flash Plugin ActiveX, the following exploit code can used to determine whether your system is vulnerable or not.
    • Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed.
    • Sober variant causes new security hangover - The latest virus epidemic continues apace, with F-Secure raising its threat-level to one, and Sophos reporting that more than 5 per cent of email traffic infected by the latest variant of the Sober worm.
    • AirMagnet's WLAN analyzer goes remote - Laptop Analyzer 6.0 allows remote scanning over any LAN or Internet connection and can run on a Centrino-equipped laptop without a separate Wi-Fi card.
    • Gartner: piece of tape defeats any CD DRM - The highly controversial XCP digital rights management (DRM) technology bundled by Sony BMG on 52 of its audio CD albums can be defeated by applying a small piece of tape to the discs, according to analyst firm Gartner. Applying a piece of opaque tape to the outer edge of the disk renders the data track of the CD unreadable. A computer trying to play the CD will then skip to the music without accessing the bundled DRM technology."

    CRIME/LAW...

    • BitTorrent Creator and MPAA Reach an Agreement - In a deal aimed at reducing illegal Internet traffic in pirated films, Hollywood reached an agreement Tuesday with the creator of the popular file-sharing software BitTorrent. The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to prevent his Web site, bittorrent.com, from locating pirated versions of popular movies, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films. BitTorrent must remove Web links leading to illegal content owned by the seven studios that are members of the Motion Picture Association of America.
    • Texas Sues Sony Over Rootkit - Under its new anti-spyware law, the State of Texas has sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment, on the grounds that its much-maligned XCP anti-piracy software included on numerous recent releases has left customers' computers open to attacks.
    • IFPI files 2,100 lawsuits against P2P users across the world -  The IFPI has filed 2,100 lawsuits against P2P users across 3 cotenants. The IFPI has filed action against P2P users in Europe, Asia and for the very first time SouthAmerica.

    OFF-TOPIC

    TECHNOLOGY...

    • Maxell to offer 300GB holographic discs 'late 2006' - Maxell will ship its first holographic storage system late next year, the company has pledged. The storage specialist will initially offer a removable system based on 300GB media and capable of transfering data at a rate of 20MBps, Maxell said. However, the company said the technology, designed by InPhase Technologies, is capable of achieving 1.6TB per disk - and that's uncompressed capacity - with a 120MBps bandwidth.
    • DVD Forum Rubber Stamps Rewriteable HD DVD Formats - Re-recordable HD DVD discs will be branded 'HD DVD-RW', the DVD Forum confirmed at its most recent steering committe last week. But in a move which would seem to be calculated to win support from as many firms as possible, the Forum also said re-writeable discs will be branded 'HD DVD-RAM'. They were originally supposed to be called 'HD DVD-RW'.
    • Microsoft loses $126 per Xbox 360 sold - BusinessWeek has the breakdown on how much it costs for Microsoft to make an Xbox 360 - and the numbers aren't pretty.
    • Xbox 360 launch marred by unit stability problems - Screenshots are available at Xbox-Scene, and a video of the crash can be downloaded here. Coverage is also available at 1UP and Arstechnica, for those of you who want to stay abreast of the situation. Remember, however, that there's no proof that the Xbox 360 has a widespread problem or issue. (thanks TechReport)
    • Microsoft Reports Isolated Xbox 360 Glitches -  Microsoft said Wednesday it had received isolated reports of technical problems with its popular new Xbox 360. Spokeswoman O'Donnell urges anyone with Xbox problems to call 1-800-4myXbox or go to http://www.xbox.com. If the problems can't be resolved immediately, Microsoft said it will pay to ship the console overnight to a repair center, overnight it back once it's fixed, or ship a replacement.
    • AMD to Intro Brand for Multimedia Computers - AMD is set to introduce a special brand-name for entertainment-oriented personal computers (PCs) running certain chips from the company as well as certain chipsets from the manufacturer's partners among core-logic designers.
    • Ageia PhysX cards not quite ready yet - A source close to ASUS forwarded our attention to a few images of the actual PhysX expansion card online, but confirmed that the cards depicted in those images were not functional. Moreover, the source said, ASUS will debut the card in February 2006 when more games become available to take advantage of AGEIA's innovation. Apparently the manufacturer, ASUS, feels that the market isn't ready for the card yet. With all the Xbox 360 buzz around at the moment, it's not suprising they feel this way. The fact that they've apparently had very little support from game developers probably didn't help either.
    • Apple to Launch "Black Friday" Sale & MS Office Promotion - The promotion which will offer special deals on select Apple merchandise is being held both in Apple retail stores and online. Apple has also launched a special Apple Store Microsoft Office promotion which offers mail-in rebates and discounts of up to 50% on Microsoft Office products. The Apple Store Microsoft Office promotion is good through January 31st, 2006.
    • Microsoft to Standardize Office Formats - The company, which dominates the market for desktop productivity software, plans to hand over the technical specifications of Office 12 file formats to ECMA early next month.

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    SOFTWARE...

    • phpMyAdmin 2.7.0-rc1 - phpMyAdmin 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.
    • Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware 1.0.701 (Beta) - Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software.
    • Microsoft Power Toys (with a couple of new ones) - Download these 14 power tools separately or as a package. They now include Color Control Panel Applet, SyncToy, RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer, ClearType Tuner, HTML Slide Show Wizard, Open Command Window Here, Alt-Tab Replacement, the fabulous Tweak UI, Power Calculator, Image Resizer, CD Slide Show Generator, Virtual Desktop Manager, Taskbar Magnifier, and Webcam Timershot.
    • Opera 8.51 - Opera's latest release addresses the security issue in the Flash Player (thanks NeoNSX)
    • AIM Triton 1.0.2 Final - AOL AIM Triton is the next generation release of AOL Instant Messenger. It is an all new user experience with an elegant, tabbed look and feel.
    • KoolMoves 5.1.4 - KoolMoves (download) is web animation software that creates Flash movies and frames for animated gifs. It is powerful yet easy to learn and easy to use.
    • Azureus 2.3.0.6 - Azureus (download) offers multiple torrent downloads, queuing/priority systems (on torrents and files), start/stop seeding options and instant access to numerous pieces of information about your torrents.
    • BitTorrent 4.2.0 Final - Another original BitTorrent release (download / changelog)
    • µTorrent 1.2.1 - µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.
    • Google Toolbar for Firefox 1.0.20051104 - When the Google Toolbar (download) is installed, it automatically appears along with the Firefox toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
    • CCleaner v1.26.218 - CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history.
    • MemTest 3.3 - MemTest is a RAM reliability tester. It evaluates the ability of your computer's memory to store and retrieve data.
    • Logitech G5 Laser Mouse Firmware Update v1.1  - Logitech has released a firmware update to their recently launched G5 laser mouse, targeted at gamers. This update allows the G5 to track on more surfaces.
    • NVIDIA nTune Performance Application 3.00.14.05 - With NVIDIA nTune your system can automatically adjust to maximum performance settings for intense gaming or will detect that you’ve inserted a DVD and will set the system to quiet operation. This intelligent application offers the safest way to change bus speeds, memory timings, and even tweak voltages.
    • Official VIA Hyperion Pro drivers v5.06a - VIA Tech has posted new, updated set of VIA Hyperion Pro set (release notes) of chipset drivers.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,23 2005 - tech
    GeForce 7800 GS prototype benchmarked - tech
    (hx) 09:58 PM CET - Nov,23 2005 - Post a comment
    AnandTech has a preview of an NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS engineering prototype that may eventually replace mid-range GeForce 6 offerings. The card hasn't been formally announced, and the prototype's specs may not be final, but it's a 16-pipe offering with six vertex shaders and a 256-bit memory interface.
    The NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GS in its current state is based on the G70 chip (listed as revision A1) with cut down pixel and vertex pipelines. The board layout is based on the 7800 GTX 512 board with all the RAM located on the front side of the PCB. Of course, the RAM used is the same type used on a 7800 GT (1GHz 8x32 GDDR3) rather than the super fast 1.7GHz 16x32 GDDR3 chips used on the 7800 GTX 512. This also means the board is equipped with 256MB of RAM using a 256bit interface.

    Since the performance of the part falls between the 6800 GS and the 7800 GT, we took a look at what those parts cost in order to get a lay of the land. The 6800 GS is priced between $200 and $230, and the 7800 GT comes in at $320 to $370. If we look simply at averages, this would mean we should expect the 7800 GS to be sold between $260 and $300 if 7800 GT prices stay stagnant - but most likely lower if the 7800 GT prices move before the 7800 GS launch. NVIDIA roadmaps confirm that even though GeForce 6800 GS will reach sub $190 levels by the end of the year, the product will not actively be continued.

    At the same time, this part performs in the same class as the X1800 XL. While the ATI card fairly consistently beats the 7800 GS in these benchmarks, the fact that that the 7800 GS keeps up at all (and will cost even less than the 7800 GT) means that it would be very difficult for this card not to have a lot of value. Of course, if this part debuts at the high end of our estimate, a cheap 7800 GT would definitely be a better way to go. There are some rebate and coupon offers that can get you a 7800 GT for $300 right now if you look hard enough.

    We are quite excited about this part; the sooner it arrives the better. The 7800 GS will be a great part for people who can't decide between the 6800 GS and the 7800 GT. Hopefully the introduction of the 7800 GS will also allow the price of the 6800 GS to get pushed down a little more without leaving a huge gap between it an the next higher performing part
    NVIDIA ForceWare Drivers v81.95 WHQL - tech
    (hx) 02:52 AM CET - Nov,23 2005 - Post a comment
    A new WHQL Forceware graphics drivers v81.95 (Win2k/XP ~ 20.6MB) are available for download from the official NVIDIA download page. These new drivers add support for GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and GeForce 6800 GS, improve performance for Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2.
    Single GPU Issues Resolved
    • There is a possible incompatibility between the ForceWare graphics driver and the current WDM driver.
    • GeForce 7 Series: Modifying any Performance and Quality Setting using the system tray icon turns off Gamma and Transparency Antialiasing.
    • GeForce 6800 Ultra: Textures are corrupted upon the first time entering a zone in Guild Wars.
    SLI-Related Issues Resolved
    • GeForce 6 and 7 series, SLI: Updated F.E.A.R. SLI profile to achieve better SLI performance and compatibility.
    • GeForce 6600, SLI: Blue-screen crash occurs when starting a new game in Civilization 4 with antialiasing enabled in the NVIDIA control panel.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,22 2005 - tech
    VIA K8T900 Chipset Preview - tech
    (hx) 05:37 PM CET - Nov,22 2005 - Post a comment
    The chaps over at Tech Report take a look at the latest VIA's K8T900 chipset. The new chipset features an improved PCI Express implementation for better SLI support, four SATA ports, and several other features:
    Our quick first look at the K8T900 is promising. VIA's new chipset largely keeps up with the nForce4 SLI, and it might gain some ground once VIA completes its SATA drivers with NCQ support. The K8T900's spec sheet gives it a couple of advantages over the nForce4 SLI and the Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire Edition, and we've demonstrated today that its dual-GPU performance is quite solid, both with S3's MultiChrome and, when allowed, with SLI. The new nForce4 SLI X16 doesn't appear to perform any better than the older nForce4 SLI in most cases, so the K8T900 may not be completely overmatched against the newer dual 16-lane chipsets from NVIDIA and ATI.

    Handicapping the K8T900's prospects simply by looking at this handful of benchmark scores or by ticking off must-have features on the spec sheets won't do much good, though. Obviously, VIA needs ATI and NVIDIA to open up their multi-GPU schemes to third-party chipsets in order for the K8T900's ability to support two graphics slots to matter much. Yes, the existence of MultiChrome gives VIA a little bit better position among low-end solutions, but many folks just aren't ready to buy an S3 graphics card yet-and the Chrome S27 isn't selling stateside yet, anyhow.
    Another preview can be found on BitTech:
    The chipset appears to be a very competitive one from VIA. At least, in terms of performance. The K8T900 reference board managed to match the popular DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR across our selection of real-world and gaming scenarios. The platform appears to work well, too, which is good to see from a reference motherboard.

    The VT8251 South Bridge works well too. The inclusion of a SATA II controller with Native Command Queuing, hot swapping, and the impressive selection of RAID options is also welcome. However, it seems strange for VIA to choose a 10/100 Ethernet controller over the industry-standard Gigabit Ethernet speeds that are somewhat expected on an enthusiasts motherboard.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,21 2005 - tech
    Western Digital Raptor WD740GD - tech
    (hx) 11:33 PM CET - Nov,21 2005 - Post a comment
    Techwarelabs take a look at the WD740GD, a 10,000RPM, 8MB cache, 4.5ms seek, Serial ATA hard drive with Tagged Command Queuing:
    Not so fast though, there are downsides. First off this drive is louder then your average drive, when the drive is under load it is actually louder than the stock AMD CPU fan used in this review running at low speed, but it isn't annoyingly loud the least bit. Second is the price point, while it has come down a lot since its release date, it's still a little pricey at about $170 USD as of this article date. At that price you could pick yourself up a new 250GB hard drive with money to spare. Even though we at TWL believe the price point of this drive is well worth the buy for the performance you receive, it really comes down to personal preference on deciding which is more important, performance or capacity.

    Lastly, the drive IS two years old. We think it's about time for Western Digital to release something newer and better. We aren't one to dip into rumors much but we can't help ourselves to say that there is one going around saying a new Raptor may be announced in the near future, with a 16MB buffer, Serial ATA II, Native Command Queuing, and 148 gigabytes of capacity. Personally, I hope it's true, but I suppose time will tell.

    Despite the higher than average price, being just a little bit louder, and being two years old. Even though this is called an enterprise drive, we think it's well worth your buy if you want the best of the best desktop hard drive to date. We recommend this drive.
    ViewSonic N3250w 32 Inch LCD TV - tech
    (hx) 01:23 PM CET - Nov,21 2005 - Post a comment
    XYZ Computing take a look at ViewSonic N3250w 32 Inch LCD Television:
    Despite the fact that the competition in the LCD market is starting to get extremely tough, ViewSonic has managed to stay ahead of the curve and to succeed where many of their competitiors have not. While the N3250w is not the most aesthetically appealing television on the market, its price-to-performance ratio makes it one of the best choices in its price category. The N3250w produces a very good HD image but its SD picture is somewhat lacking. Using the component or HDMI connections most users will be happy with what the television brings to the table, especially compared to cheaper and smaller LCD televisions.

    This television is perfect for people who are just starting in the LCD television market and who don't want to spend a lot on features which they probably won't use. These people, the first wave after the early-adopters, will certainly appreciate the television's HD capabilities and its ease of use, and will probably not be bothers by its shortcomings. The N3250w falls short in its lack of a DVI input (though DVI can be used via a DVI-HDMI converter), its limited resolution, and overly noisy picture during certain circumstances. While these should be noted they will probably not be a big deal to consumers at this value-conscious price level.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,19 2005 - tech
    Weekend Tech Madness-Maxell presents 1.6TB - tech
    (hx) 11:52 PM CET - Nov,19 2005 - Post a comment / read (1)

    SECURITY... 

    CRIME/LAW...

    • Sony BMG offers MP3 files and disks for unsafe CDs - In an attempt to make up with consumers whose PCs have been exposed to unsecure copy-protection software which acts like malware, music publisher Sony BMG said on Friday it would swap unsecure CDs for new unprotected disks as well as unprotected MP3 files.
    • Sony's rootkit infringes LAME GPL licence and breaks copyright - Close examination of the rootkit that Sony"s audio CDs attack their customers" PCs with has revealed that their malicious software is built on code that infringes on copyright. Indications are that Sony has included the LAME music encoder, which is licensed under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL), which requires that those who use it attribute the original software and publish some of the code they write to use the library.
    • Copy protection an experiment in progress - Factor in lawsuits that Sony BMG could face, and it's worth wondering whether the costs of XCP and its aftermath might even exceed whatever piracy losses the company would have suffered without it.
    • RIAA, MPAA force shutdown of i2Hub file swapping network - A file-swapping network popular with US students that used a superfast internet research network has closed down. It follows repeated legal pressure from the entertainment industry.  The i2Hub network took advantage of the Internet2 research network which connects some 207 US universities. Earlier this year, the Motion Picture Association of America said users had swapped films amounting to 99 terabytes in a single day, the equivalent of an entire video rental store.
    • Pssst, wanna '3.6-GHz Pentium 4' chip for $78? - Shenzhen Chuanghui Electronics Co. isn't shy about offering remarked Intel Corp. processors for sale: The company is openly selling them through a major Chinese Web site and brags that its remarked Pentium 4 chips look just like the real thing. The remarked processors Chuanghui sells are actually 1.7-GHz Celeron chips and are currently available for $78 each, including a motherboard, in quantities of 100 or more, said James Zhan, a company representative named online as a contact for potential buyers.
    • Boeing Says Laptop with Employee info Stolen - A laptop computer containing names, social security numbers and other sensitive information of 161,000 current and former employees of Boeing Co. was stolen recently, the U.S. aerospace manufacturer said.
    • Jail for would-be pirates -  People who attempt to copy music or movies without permission could face jail time under legislation proposed by the US Justice Department. Outlined by US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at an anti-piracy summit, the bill would widen intellectual property protection to cover those who try but fail to make illicit copies of music, movies, software or other copyrighted material. It would also enable investigators to seize assets purchased with profits from the sale of illicit copies, as well as property such as blank CDs that might be used for future copying. Those found guilty of a copyright violation could be forced to pay restitution to the owner of the material in question, and repeat offenders would face stiffer sentences.

    OFF-TOPIC

    • Is Earth in a vortex of space-time? - We'll soon know the answer: A NASA/Stanford physics experiment called Gravity Probe B (GP-B) recently finished a year of gathering science data in Earth orbit. The results, which will take another year to analyze, should reveal the shape of space-time around Earth--and, possibly, the vortex. Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The tremendous mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.
    • Dung shows dinosaurs grazed on grass - Traces of grass found in fossilised dinosaur dung proves that grass grew on Earth much earlier than previously thought and changes beliefs about dinosaurs' diets, a study published on Friday showed.
    • "Resident Evil 4" video game of year: Spike TV Awards -  Capcom's Resident Evil 4, Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie from Ubisoft and Oscar-winning actor Charlize Theron were among the winners at the 3rd Spike TV Video Game Awards held in Los Angeles on Friday. A partial list of winners from the awards follows.

    TECHNOLOGY...

    • Maxell presents holographic media with 1.6TB storage capacity -  With storage capacities achieving 1.6 TeraBytes per disk and data rates as high as 120 MBPs, holographic technology is a true breakthrough in optical media. These features, along with a long archival life, make holographic media a compelling choice for storage and archival requirements.
    • Xbox 360 mania slams CircuitCity.com - Minutes after Microsoft's next-generation game console went on sale Friday afternoon at CircuitCity.com, the site was hobbled by a deluge of traffic. A representative for the online counterpart to electronics retailer Circuit City said the company's site saw a "tremendous" traffic spike at 2 p.m. ET, when the company began taking Internet orders for the eagerly awaited Xbox.
    • Cell production costs - So, how much does a Cell cost? Other than the fact that you can't buy one right now, and the Playstation 3 is about a year out, it does cost money to make. From what we understand, each wafer run through the fab costs $9-10K, and IBM gets about 65 good chips per wafer. This would put each raw Cell on sale at a price tag of almost $150 give or take a bit. Toss in $25-30 for the packaging, and you are at a non-trivial number for a console. Assuming $175 for a 'solder to the board' working Cell, and you are at about half the cost of the console with just the CPU. Add in the GPU, RAM and a HD, and you are in loss-leader territory...
    • Sony aims at Skype with Internet-based phone service - The electronics giant is partnering with Glowpoint to offer a new consumer version of Sony's Instant Video Everywhere (IVE) service featuring free, unlimited video and voice service for consumers worldwide
    • Motorola RAZR V3c in Alltel Stores Next Week - Alltel and Motorola announced today that the Motorola RAZR V3c will be available at Alltel stores nationwide starting Monday. Customers can watch live television on the new CDMA EVDO handset through MobiTV.
    • Alienware introduces dual-core AMD laptop - The Aurora m7770 notebook can be equipped with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor. It also has a 17 inch screen and dual hard-drives. According to the Alienware laptop ordering page, the Aurora m7700 will start shipping on January 18, 2006. A fully configured laptop with an Athlon 64 X2 4800 CPU and 2 GByte of RAM was just under $5000.
    • AGP Radeon X1800 confirmed as misprint - Initial reports that Diamond Multimedia would offer an AGP version of ATI's Radeon X1800 appear to be false. A misprint on Diamond's web site caused the confusion, but the company has confirmed that it has no plans to offer a Radeon X1800 with an AGP interface.
    • Yonah shipping clock speeds revealed - The Inquirer has news of Yonah's shipping clock speeds and projected pricing. Intel's new 65nm CPU will debut at frequencies of up to 2.16GHz on a 667MHz front-side bus.
    • VIA starts shipping PCIe-enabled P4 and K8 chipsets - VIA Technologies has begun shipments of its PCIe-enabled integrated chipsets supporting Pentium 4 and K8 platforms this quarter, albeit in small volumes, according to company source.
    • Windows Genuine Advantage now supports Firefox - Microsoft Genuine Windows Validation process now works in Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Firefox users can manually install the Windows Genuine Advantage validation Firefox plug-in available on Microsoft's website to complete the Windows validation process.
    • Microsoft Office 12 beta goes live - Microsoft has released a first beta of its Office 12 productivity suite to a selected group of 10,000 customers and partners.
    • Google offers "advertise on this site" feature - Web search leader Google Inc. is offering a new private-label feature that allows advertisers to sign up directly on Web sites where they wish to advertise, the company said on Friday.
    • Hyperthreading Hurts Server Performance? - ZDNet is reporting that enabling Intel's new Hyperthreading Technology on your servers could lead to markedly decreased performance, according to some developers who have been looking into problems that have been occurring since HT has been shipping automatically activated

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    SOFTWARE...

    • 7-Zip 4.30 Beta - 7-Zip (download) is a file archiver with high compression ratio.
    • AIM Triton 1.0.2 - It's here: email, IM, text, voice, video at the click of a button. Now you can look your buddies in the eye, hear their voices or take them with you everywhere you go.
    • Aim Ad Hack 5.0 Beta 14 (for AIM Triton Beta) - With this small file you can effectively remove all the ads from AIM
      you must be using Aim Triton
    • KoolMoves 5.1.3 (shw) - KoolMoves (download) is web animation software that creates Flash movies and frames for animated gifs
    • MAME v0.102 - MAME stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
    • BitTorrent Beta 4.1.8 - A new BitTorrent beta is available for download.
    • Fiddler 1.0.5 - Fiddler (download) is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and "fiddle" with incoming or outgoing data.
    • Firefox 1.5 RC3 - A new RC release of the famous Mozilla Firefox browser has been just released to the web.
    • SpamPal 1.73 Beta - The most recent beta release of SpamPal is 1.73.
    • Google Earth Free 3.0.0762 Beta - Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.
    • Google Toolbar 3.0.128.1 - The Google Toolbar (download version for WinXP/2k / Win9x/ME) increases your ability to find information from anywhere on the web and takes only seconds to install. When the Google Toolbar is installed, it automatically appears along with the Internet Explorer toolbar. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
    • MetaProducts Download Express 1.9 Build 337 - MetaProducts Download Express (download) is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003 program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed.
    • xplorer2 Lite 1.4.0.1 - The lightweight version of xplorer2 (download) is not a crippled unusable salesman of the professional version.
    • PhotoFiltre 6.2 (shw) - PhotoFiltre (download) is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve.
    • GIMP 2.2.9 - GIMP (download) is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.
    • SyncBack Freeware 3.2.9 - SyncBack (download) is our freeware program that helps you easily backup and synchronise your files to: the same drive; a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc); an FTP server; a Network; or a Zip archive.
    • AnyDVD 5.5.4.1 - A new protection called 'Chapter Jump' has been spoted in Germany and AnyDVD has been updated to deal with it. Also a new protection has been found on Layer Cake" R2 (Dutch). It seems that DVD43 may cause an issue with AnyDVD, so an option is given to automatically uninstall it.
    • DVDFab Decrypter 2.9.5.8 - DVDFab Decrypter (also known as DVDFab Express free) copies entire DVD movie to hard disk, and removes all the protections (CSS, RC, RCE, Macrovision, UOPs and Sony ARccOS) while copying. This new version addes support for a new protection as found on "Madagascar" (US). It's not a Sony movie, but the protection is almost same with Sony ARccOS.
    • NvTempLogger - This is a simple program that is used to watch the temperature (Core and Ambient) of NVIDIA based GPUs.
    • NVTray - NVTray provides some extra quality tweaks that both the default NVIDIA tray icon and control panel are lacking - you will be able to select more Antialiasing modes, as well as OpenGL and Direct3D options right from the tray icon.
    • zer0point Catalyst 0.511 - The DHzer0point drivers based on the Catalyst 5.11's are here, we've made some changes to our internal optimizations, cleaned up the chaff extensive testing done with FEAR, Quake4, as well as the oldies but goodies, Source based games, UT based games, we've put them through the ringer.
    • Realtek HD Audio 1.27  - This is build number 1.27 and is compatible for ALC880, ALC882, ALC883, ALC861, ALC260 en ALC262 .
    • Sound Blaster X-Fi Series 2.07.0004 -  This contains an improved version of the driver found on the Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ installation CD. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.
    • Chipset Installation Utility 7.2.2.1006  - 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 release adds Intel® 955XM Express Chipset & Intel® 975X Express Chipset support. Mirror: Guru3D
    ForceWare 81.94 Performance Analysis - tech
    (hx) 12:02 PM CET - Nov,19 2005 - Post a comment
    The chaps ovet at Tweaktown have compared the 81.94 against the last official driver, Forceware 78.01:
    nVidia's Forceware 81.94 drivers are perfect for anyone utilizing high-end GeForce graphics cards especially those who are fortunate enough to be using a wicked GeForce 7800GTX SLI setup. There is no denying that we see a new nVidia driver once in a blue moon but when they hit the web, boy do we get to see some improvements and that's a credit to nVidia for keeping things interesting.

    It is worth upgrading to the new 81.94 drivers no matter what GeForce graphics card you use as Forceware drivers come out rarely and come with a massive amount of game bug fixes - besides the obvious performance increases.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,17 2005 - tech
    Blu-ray to support mandatory managed copy - tech
    (hx) 08:30 PM CET - Nov,17 2005 - Post a comment / read (1)
    On Wednesday Blu-ray said it will incorporate mandatory managed copy support to the next-gen DVD specification. Managed copy will allow consumers to make copies of movies they purchase, although DRM restrictions will likely apply.
    This was one of two features that HP recently requested be added to the Blu-ray Disc format, the other one was Microsoft's iHD layer for interactivity. "Mandatory managed copy will be part of Blu-ray format, but while HP's request (for interactivity) is being considered, at this point in time, the Blu-ray group is still proceeding down the path of Java," Blu-ray spokesman Andy Parsons told Reuters in an interview. "We are taking their request seriously, but are not willing to delay the launch. I'm not saying we would not implement what they've requested, but it's not going to stop the format at this time."
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,16 2005 - tech
    Wednesday Tech Madness-Sony recalls rootkit - tech
    (hx) 07:24 PM CET - Nov,16 2005 - Post a comment

    SECURITY... 

    • Vendors Warn of New Sober Variants - Both Kaspersky Lab and Symantec have detected worm variants. Kaspersky noted three variants of E-mail-Worm.Win32.Sober, which Symantec identified as W32.Sober.S@mm. The variants are modifications of the same program, according to Kaspersky, which is based in Moscow. A "large number of samples" of the variants have been intercepted in e-mail traffic, indicating that the worms are spreading by spam containing infected messages, Kaspersky said in a statement. The variants arrive as an attachment to infected messages.
    • Sony recalls risky "rootkit" CDs - Anyone who has purchased one of the CDs, which include southern rockers Van Zant, Neil Diamond's latest album, and more than 18 others, can exchange the purchase, Sony said. The company added that it would release details of its CD exchange program "shortly."
    • Sony DRM rootkit - The Uninstaller is worse than the Rootkit! -  A patch that Sony issued a week ago when virus writers began taking advantage of the software's file-hiding capabilities actually introduces serious new security risks onto the user's machine, according to research released today by Princeton University computer science professor Edward Felten.
    • Hole Found in Widely Used VPN Gear - The flaw affects a component of the IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) protocol used by VPN software and hardware to securely exchange data over the Internet. While there is some risk of affected VPN systems being taken over by attackers, a more likely threat is a denial of service attack, in which machines would be forced to reset repeatedly, jamming up networks and causing headaches for users.
    • Windows 2000 Server UPNP DoS (Exploit) -check it out!

    CRIME/LAW...

    • Chinese-American Engineer & Family Charged With Data Theft -  A grand jury indictment filed on Tuesday alleges that Chi Mak, a lead engineer for Anaheim defense contractor Power Paragon, took computer disks containing sensitive information pertaining to several U.S. Navy projects and conspired with members of his family to smuggle the information to China.
    • IFPI Launches Largest Attack To Date on Illegal File Sharing - The recording industry today unveiled the biggest escalation yet in its campaign against illegal internet file-sharing, announcing over 2,100 new legal cases against individuals and extending the actions to five new countries in Europe, Asia and - for the first time - South America. File-sharers in Sweden, Switzerland, Argentina, Hong Kong and Singapore are for the first time at risk of criminal penalties and payment of damages in an international campaign that has already seen thousands of people - the majority of them young men between the ages of 20 and 30 - pay sums of US$3,000 or more for uploading copyrighted music on peer-to-peer networks (p2p).

    OFF-TOPIC

    • Gaming fanatics show hallmarks of drug addiction - Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction, suggests new experiments on "drug memory". Learning is recognised as an important underlying mechanism of addiction. In becoming addicted, people start to associate cues that are normally neutral with the object of their craving. To a crack addict, for instance, a building in which they have used the drug is more than just a place they have been - it becomes a trigger for craving and can, on its own, reignite a need to use the drug again after months of abstinence.

    TECHNOLOGY...

    • AMD to debut quad-core chips by 2007 - EE Times has details from AMD's latest analyst conference call, including the revelation that quad-core processors could be introduced by 2007-a year earlier than previously expected
    • Ballmer bowls for HD-DVD - Microsoft has reiterated its preference for the HD-DVD version of next-generation high definition optical storage, despite recent announcements of support for the rival Blu-ray format from several Hollywood studios. CEO Steve Ballmer said that Vista, the next version of Microsoft Windows, will eventually support HD-DVD, although possibly not when it is first released sometime in the next 18 months. HD-DVD is expected to make its debut early next year. Ballmer said that the company's support for HD-DVD was based on several reasons, including the way in which it can be integrated with the PC.
    • Via integrates Padlock security into Java - VIA has announced that it has finished up integrating the Java Secure Protocol into the Padlock engine that sits inside its C7 and C7-M processors. The VIA Padlock engine is designed to increase security in transactions on your computer. There are a few different aspects to the hardware. The first is that it includes an awesome random number generator, which allows it to generate better cryptography in hardware. The second is that it includes the ability to encrypt an entire section of your hard drive, providing a secure file store for sensitive information that only you can access, regardless of who steals your computer in the future.
    • Credit-card sized Samsung SGH-P300 debuts - Starting with a 1.8-inch 262K colour LCD with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, the SGH-P300 supports both audio and video playback in a variety of formats. MPEG4 and H.263 are on board for motion pictures, while MP3, AAC, AAC+ and eAAC+ files are supported by the audio player of the handset and can also be used as ringtones.
    • FutureMark's SPMarkJava06 preview - The focus of SPMarkJava06 is (as the not-so-catchy name suggests) Java performance on modern mobile devices that support it. This certainly seems to be a logical progression for the SPMark series, seeing as Java has become something of a de facto standard among most new high-end devices of this ilk.
    • Microsoft may open Windows for free - Microsoft is considering the possibility of free, advertising supported versions of its applications including Windows.
    • Google Base service goes live - The new beta service allows people to post "all types of online and offline information and images" that will be searchable on Google Base and, depending on their relevance, may be searchable on Google Search, Froogle and Google Local, the company said.
    • Patents database posted for developers - The site hosts more than 500 pledged patents and more than a dozen technical standards supported by additional patent pledges and covenants. Content hosted in the library is available to developers, users and vendors.
    • US Keeps Control of the Internet - As a result of a a deal reached late Tuesday, the US and ICANN will maintain control over the Internet's core systems.

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    • The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.5.4 - Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide.
    • Fall 2005 Photo Printer Buyers Guide  - Some of the best printers offer 9600 x 2400 DPI and over 50 levels of gradation. Another important specification for inkjet printers is ink drop size, typically measured in picoliters. The smaller the number, the more ink per square inch can be placed on the paper. The more ink, the more accurate and lifelike the color of the print.
    • Powering Up A Standalone PSU Guide - There may be times when you might want to power up a power supply unit (PSU) without attaching it to any computer case. Perhaps you want to use it to test fans, cold cathode tubes or other modding stuff, without connecting it to a chassis.
    • How To Clean Your Keyboard - A Step By Step Guide - Many people have their own way of cleaning their keyboards, but most people usually just flip it upside down and shake it. Those who do spend money on compressed air or cleaning products, you are wasting money and time.
    • Data Recovery Myths - Have you ever heard about freezing the hard drive, opening it on a bathroom full of steam or swapping its logic board in order to revive a dead hard drive?
    • Guide to the Cellular Internet - Cellular internet access uses the cell phone network to connect. The performance is limited by the capabilities of the phone and the cell tower it is connected to. That performance could range anywhere from 14.4 kbps to 300+ kbps, but typical digital speeds are 50-120 kbps up/down. 300+ kbps is just starting to arrive in very few cities, but it is expected to continue replacing existing networks.
    • Connecting Two PCs Using an USB-USB Cable - Learn how to connect two PCs using an USB-USB cable to transfer files and share your Internet connection.
    • How to Build a Small Network Using a Broadband Router - Learn how to build your own network using a broadband router, allowing you to share Internet access, files and printers among your computers.
    • How to Share Folders and Printers on Your Network - A step-by-step guide on how to share files and printers on your home or office network.
    • The 8 Basic Steps of Image Editing - This series of steps will help you to focus on the individual problems an image might have. It will also help you to understand how to use Photoshop's tools together.
    • Xbox 360 Manual (PDF) - check it out!
    • XP Games - A Windows XP Freeware Game Guide v1.0.0 BETA - This guide covers the better Freeware games from Independent Developers and Commercial Publishers. The following games are 100% free full games, not Demos or Shareware. None have any Adware or Spyware.

    SOFTWARE...

    • AutoPatcher XP November 2005  - AutoPatcher XP (192MB) is an installation package designed to get your Windows XP system up to date quick and easily. This update package features a slick looking GUI and and can be customized to install as much or as little as you please.
    • AutoPatcher 2003 and 2000 November 2005 - AutoPatcher 2003 / Autopatcher 2000 is a comprehensive collection of patches, addons and registry tweaks that give you peace of mind in the knowledge that your Windows system is up to date, even before you connect it to the Internet. It's designed to quickly patch a system with the most current updates and tweaks available, and requires no user interaction once you have selected what to install.
    • 7-Zip 4.29 Beta - 7-Zip is a (free) file archiver with high compression ratio.
    • TaskInfo 6.2.0.174 - TaskInfo (download) is combination of Task Manager and System Information Utility, It visually monitors different types of System information in Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
    • WinAmp 5.112 - Nullsoft Winamp (download full / lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI,ASF,MPEG,NSV), custom appearances called skins and more.
    • Winamp TV 1.9 Beta 11a - Winamp TV is a plugin for Winamp that lets you control your TV tuner card from within the multimedia player.
    • QuickTime Alternative 1.66 & 1.54 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install QuickTime Player from Apple. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages.
    • Nero Suite Update 2005-11-12 - Nero is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. Download: : Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.18 (mirror1, mirror 2, mirror 3), NeroVision Express 3.1.0.21.
    • DVDFab 2.9.5.6 - DVDFab Decrypter is a simple and freeware version of DVDFab Express. With it you can take your DVD movie and move it to your hard disk. DVDFab Decrypter will remove the protections found on some DVD's, including among others-CSS, Macrovision and Sony ARccOS while copying.
    • FileZilla Server 0.9.11 - FileZilla is a fast FTP and SFTP client for Windows with a lot of features.
    • FastStone Image Viewer 2.28 - FastStone Image Viewer (download) is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF and DNG).
    • Weather Watcher 5.6.1 - Weather Watcher (download) is your personal Windows desktop weather station. Automatically retrieve the current conditions, hourly forecast, daily forecast, detailed forecast, severe weather alerts, and weather maps for over 77,000 cities world-wide.
    • Daemon Tools 4.00 - In case you don't know about Daemon Tools (download) yet, the software provides a virtual CD/DVD-ROM on your computer with which you can directly mount image files created by various other software packages.
    •  nTweaker 2.0 - nTweaker 2.0 collects all the changes and settings that make each nVidia Detonator modded driver unique, and offers a streamlined and installer standard interface to switch between them.
    • nVidia 'NiBiToR' 2.5a - For us performance nuts owning nVidia cards, another great utility, NiBiToR, has been updated. For those who haven't tried it yet, like Coolbits and nvclock it is software designed specifically to help you tweak your GeForce card.
    Inside Microsoft's Xbox 360 - tech
    (hx) 01:29 PM CET - Nov,16 2005 - Post a comment / read (5)
    The chaps over at AnandTech disassembled an Xbox 360:
    The Xbox 360 is smaller than the original Xbox, and its wireless nature makes it a natural fit in the living room - marking a thankful change from standard gaming consoles of the past. Despite looking like the offspring of an iPod and a DVD player, the Xbox 360 is still very much a PC on the inside. As such, it's got all of the components we're used to.

    The $299 core system gives you the same console (with a white DVD tray cover), a wired controller, and standard composite AV cables; there's no hard drive, headset or remote.

    By now you have undoubtedly heard about the massive external power supply that comes with the Xbox 360 and you can see it in the lower left hand corner of the picture above. Remember that in the original Xbox, the power supply was internal. But with the power requirements of the Xbox 360 being significantly higher than its predecessor, while featuring a noticeably smaller case, the only solution was to take the power supply out of the Xbox 360.

    HDTV Support
    With the Xbox 360, Microsoft hopes to usher in the era of HD gaming, first and foremost by requiring all Xbox 360 games to support 720p (1280 x 720). Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from Microsoft if this means that all games must be internally rendered at 1280 x 720 or if they can be rendered at a lower resolution and upscaled later on. There have been discussions involving at least one Xbox 360 game (Project Gotham Racing 3), rendering internally at a lower resolution and having the Xbox 360's TV encoder upscale it to 720p.

    You don't have to have a HDTV, but obviously owning one will give you better overall image quality. The Xbox 360 supports all of the most popular video formats: 480i, 480p, 720p and 108. There is no out of box DVI or HDMI support, nor is there any Microsoft support for either of those video interface standards at this time, although Microsoft has indicated that they may offer HDMI support when it makes sense to. There is, however, an optical output, but the cable is not included.  If you don't have a HDTV but you have a VGA monitor that you'd like to use, Microsoft does offer a VGA cable that will allow you to connect your Xbox 360 to a VGA monitor. If you don't have a HDTV or a monitor but still want a higher quality output, Microsoft also offers a S-Video AV cable.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,15 2005 - tech
    Daemon Tools 4.00 - tech
    (hx) 01:51 AM CET - Nov,15 2005 - Post a comment
    DAEMON Tools 4.00 (download / local US mirror ~ 1.4MB) is an advanced application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running BACKUP copies of SafeDisc (C-Dilla), Securom or Laserlock protected games. Also included is a Virtual DVDROM drive (V386 STEALTH DVDROM) enabling you to use your CD images as if they were already burned to CD! DAEMON Tools works under Windows9x/ME/NT/2000/XP with all types of CD/DVDROM drives (IDE/SCSI) and supports nearly any CD protection.
    What's new in this version:

    - Complete redesign from scratch.
    - Support of 4 virtual drives.
    - ONLY X32-supported now. X64 will follow.
    - Drivername randomly generated on each machine (not finished yet).
    - Drive-vendor and versionnumber randomly generated.
    - Complete new emulation architecture.
    - DCP (DaemonCodeProtect) to make analyses harder and increase development time for malicious anti-DT tools.
    - Digital signature verification of applications who are trusted to access DT in secure mode.
    - AutoInsertNotification fully implemented (can be turned on/off at ControlPanel).
    - Dropped: MS-Installer, DT now use modificated NullsoftInstaller.
    - Dropped: analog sound support (as Windows 2000 and above do not need this feature).
    - Supports all popular copyprotections.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,14 2005 - tech
    NVIDIA ForceWare Drivers v81.94 - tech
    (hx) 11:15 PM CET - Nov,14 2005 - Post a comment
    A new Forceware graphics drivers v81.94 (Win2k/XP ~ 20.7MB) are available for download from the official NVIDIA download page. These new drivers add support for GeForce 7800 GTX 512 and GeForce 6800 GS and improves performance for Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2.
    Single GPU Issues:
    - GeForce 7800 GT/GTX, GeForce 6800: Corruption of Widescreen great shot playback mode is corrupt with AFR2 mode set in Tiger Woods 2006.
    - GeForce 7800 GTX/GT: Running OpenGL Games after Direct3D hangs the system.
    - GeForce 6800: Incorrect rendering in Half Life 2 Lost Coast / Day of Defeat.
    - GeForce 6 Series: With the latest FarCry 1.33 patch, HDR mode may not work. This is an issue with the application, and will be fixed in the next patch for the game.
    - Quadro FX 1300, Quadro FX 3400: Using GLSL gl_ModelViewMatrixInverse generates warnings.
    - GeForce FX 5950 Ultra: Battlefield 2 intermittently fails to show fog on some distant objects.
    - GeForce4 Ti, GeForce FX 5600: Java applications crash upon exiting.
    NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512 - tech
    (hx) 03:35 PM CET - Nov,14 2005 - Post a comment
    Hexus.net take a look at NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX 512:
    NVIDIA's efforts with the new G70 earn them the overall performance crown back, and by quite some margin. At 550MHz across the board and with 512MiB of memory running at 1.7GHz effective, it would have been embarassing had that not been the case. That didn't happen, though, and the reference-clocked GTX 512 has no trouble dispatching GeForce 7800 GTX and Radeon X1800 XT to the sidelines.

    Quite simply a performance monster, and one that'll take ATI a big effort to beat. The GeForce 7800 GTX 512 impresses hugely, from quiet and efficient cooler, to manageable increase in power draw over the original GTX, with monsterous performance and day-zero availability in-between.
    Another review can be found on Bit-Tech:
    F.E.A.R.: There were some huge differences in performance between the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB and the chasing pack in F.E.A.R.. We saw a 29% average frame rate increase over XFX's Extreme Gamer Edition at the XFX's best-playable settings, which equated to a 32% average frame rate increase over the X1800XT. The minimum frame rate was where we were really impressed, though. We saw a 133% performance increase over XFX's Extreme Gamer and a 115% increase over the Radeon X1800XT. Even with 4xTSS AA, we experienced a higher minimum frame rate than what was experienced on the X1800XT 512MB and XFX 7800 GTX Extreme 256MB cards at 2xTSS AA!

    Quake 4: We played Quake 4 at 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF, which were the same settings that we found to be best-playable on the Radeon X1800XT 512MB when using Ultra Quality mode. We were more than surprised at the gaming performance at these settings. The average frame rate was a massive 58 frames per second, compared to the 43 fps that we experienced on the Radeon X1800XT. The minimum frame rate increased from 19 fps to 29 fps, which is another impressive frame rate increase. However, when we reviewed the Radeon X1800XT, we felt that 1600x1200 2xQA AA 4xAF High Quality looked better than 1600x1200 0xAA 8xAF Ultra Quality because we feel that the game needs at least 2xAA. We found that we were able to play Quake 4 at 1600x1200 2xTSS AA 8xAF Ultra Quality on the GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB. This was with smoother gameplay than we experienced on the XFX 7800 GTX Extreme Gamer at 1600x1200 2xTSS AA 4xAF High Quality.

    Day of Defeat: Source: In Day of Defeat: Source, we found that we could not increase the quality settings above 4xTSS AA 16xAF with maximum in-game details, including full HDR, but we were able to use High Quality driver settings for free. Even with high quality driver settings, the gaming experience was smoother than we have seen on any other single GPU solution.
    Other previews and reviews with benchmarks can be found at Tech Report, TechwareLabs, HardOCP, PC Perspective, AnandTech, Guru3D and  Digit-Life.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,13 2005 - tech
    Games against CPUs (updated) - tech
    (hx) 12:19 AM CET - Nov,13 2005 - Post a comment
    A few days ago X-bit Labs have posted an article covering a detailed test session of 28 processors in the latest gaming applications. In this new article they will focus on high graphics quality settings and will try to find out what CPU speed is sufficient for comfortable gameplay. They also pay due attention to the budget processor models and overclocking efficiency. Here's a taster:
    It is evident that Sempron processors perform better in games than Celeron D. moreover; overclocked Sempron CPUs can sometimes run almost as fast as the top processor models. Unfortunately, Celeron D cannot boast the same success from overclocking.

    So, the best gaming system configuration from the price-to-performance point of view should definitely include a powerful graphics card, which will determine not only the image quality, but the gaming comfort in general. As for the CPU, you shouldn't spend tons of money for a high-end model. You will be able to get almost the same performance from a CPU like Athlon 64 3200+ or Pentium 4 650.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,12 2005 - tech
    ATI CATALYST Drivers v5.11 - tech
    (hx) 12:12 AM CET - Nov,12 2005 - Post a comment / read (3)
    ATI has released a new ATI Catalyst drivers (release notes / download ~ 25.8MB) bringing them up to version 5.11. The package contains: RADEON display driver 8.191, Multimedia Center 9.08, Catalyst Control Center 5.11 (requires .NET Version 1.1 Framework), HydraVision Basic Edition 3.25.9006, Remote Wonder 3.02, WDM versions 8.19 and 4.07 and Southbridge/IXP Driver.
    Issues Resolved in Catalyst Software Suite 5.11:
    • 3DMark05: Running the application under Windows XP MCE with CrossFire enabled no longer results in a warning message being displayed when closing the application
    • Battlefield 2: Playing the game under Windows XP with an ATI Radeon 9200/9250 series no longer results in the operating system failing to respond
    • Call of Duty: Starting a single player game at any skill level no longer results in the operating system failing to respond when using an ATI Xpress 200 series product
    • City of Heroes: Playing the game under Windows XP Media Center Edition no longer results in display corruption being notice when attempting to task-switch between the game and the desktop
    • Doom3 Resurrection of Evil: Playing the game under Windows XP MCE with CrossFire enabled and Catalyst® A.I. disabled no longer results in scissor mode corruption being noticed
    • Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil: Playing the game under Windows XP MCE with CrossFire enabled no longer results in ghosting effect being noticed
    • FarCry: Installing the 1.32 patch for the game followed by changing the lighting quality no longer result in corruption being noticed when reaching a certain point in the game
    • F.E.A.R.: Playing the game under Windows XP using an ATI Radeon X1800 no longer results in poor performance being noticed
    • Max Payne 2: Playing the game under Windows XP with CrossFire enabled no longer results in a loss of sync being noticed
    • Neverwinter Nights: Installing the 1.66 patch along with Shadows of Undertide and Hordes add-ons no longer results in features of the game being missing when using an ATI Radeon® 9600 SE
    • Quake 4: The fire effect no longer becomes corrupt after using GLSL
    • Serious Sam: Two directdraw samples are no longer displayed as a blank screen
    • Windows Movie Maker: Inputting the video source from the S-Video connector, and using the application to capture from source, no longer results in the Windows 2000 operating system failing to respond once the capture is complete
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,11 2005 - tech
    Thursday Tech Madness-Sony BMG sued! - tech
    (hx) 01:25 AM CET - Nov,11 2005 - Post a comment / read (2)

    SECURITY... 

    • Sony's Smaller Patch Brings Up "Blue Screen Of Death" & VIRUS!  - Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Tuesday re-issued the patch that reveals the copy-protection files some of its audio CDs install on PCs, but continued to be blasted by security experts outlining more details of the under-fire technology. The revised patch, which Sony labeled "Service Pack 2a," differs from the original released last week only in size; it's a third as large, weighing in at 1.5MB compared to the first version's 3.6MB. In related news, the first virus exploiting the incredible Sony DRM CD protection rootkit has been spotted! Breplibot.b is a file 10240 bytes in size, packed using UPX. When launching, the backdoor copies itself to the Windows system directory as $SYS$DRV.EXE. Using this name makes it possible for the Sony rootkit technology to be used to hide the activity of the malicious program. Of course, the backdoor's activity will only be hidden if DRM protection, as used on some Sony Audio CDs, functions on the victim machine.
    • Computer Associates blacklists Sony DRM - Computer Associates has officially blacklisted the Sony BMG XCP Technology that the record label bundles with several of its audio CDs. CA's PestPatrol anti-spyware application now offers users the ability to remove the application, which it refers to as a Trojan horse.
    • MS05-053: Vulnerabilities in Graphics Rendering Engine Could - A remote code execution security issue has been identified in the Graphics Rendering Engine that could allow an attacker to remotely compromise your Windows-based system and gain control over it. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.
    • Security Updates for IE7 and Vista Beta 1 - Security updates for Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 and Internet Explorer in Windows Vista Beta 1 are now available from the Windows Vista/IE 7 beta downloads page on the Connect.

    CRIME/LAW...

    OFF-TOPIC

    • 'Gravity tractor' to deflect Earth-bound asteroids - NASA scientists have come up with a surprisingly simple yet effective way to deflect an Earth-bound asteroid - park a large spacecraft close by and let gravity do the work. Previous suggestions have focused on deflecting an incoming asteroid with nuclear explosions. But NASA experts believe a "gravity tractor" should be able to perform the same feat by creating an invisible towline to tug the rock off its deadly course.  For a 200-metre-wide asteroid, the spacecraft would need to weigh about 20 tonnes and lurk 50 metres from its target for about a year to change its velocity enough to knock it off course.
    • Sonic weapon zaps real-life pirates - The crew of a cruise ship attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia used a sonic weapon to help ward off the attackers, according to AP Newswire. Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line did not reveal the exact details of how the weapon had been used, nor how effective it had been. But the company said that the device works by transmitting an "ear-splitting noise in a directed beam".
    • "Kill Bill's Browser" Site Aims To Cash In On Google's - Four political activists from Massachusetts launched a parody website Wednesday dubbed "Kill Bill's Browser" to convince Web users to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox.  With a color scheme reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" films, the site features "13 Good Reasons to Switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox." Number 7? "It will make Bill Gates soooooooooo mad." Number 11? "Reduce your weekly family & friends tech support load to 8 hours."
    • Terminator TV Series Announced - Fox is developing a pilot for "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," a drama based that will follow the character of John Connor's mother, portrayed by Linda Hamilton in the first two "Terminator" films. The pilot script will be written by Josh Friedman, whose writing credits include "War of the Worlds" and next year's "The Black Dahlia."
    • Jet Li to star in Tekken movie - According to China Economic Net, Jet Li is set to star as "the boxer" in the upcoming yet unannounced film adaptation of Tekken.

    TECHNOLOGY...

    HARDWARE... 

    GUIDES...

    • ATI Radeon X1K Overclocking - Testing R520 and RV530 - So there we have it, overclocking the ATI Radeon X1800XT and X1600XT.
    • Mobile GPU Comparison Guide Rev. 4.1 - Currently covering over 40 mobile GPUs, this comprehensive comparison will allow you to easily compare 14 different specifications for each and every GPU.
    • PC Silencing Guide - Part 1 and part 2 at GamersHell
    • Buying Guide: Chic Laptop Bags For Fall - check it out...
    • High End Audio Cable Design - Part 2 - In part 2 of High End Audio Cable Design, audio engineer Adam Blake gets really technical as he define some of the more commonly referred to electrical properties and the roles that they play in audio cables.
    • Explanatory Guide: How To Record & Play Music From A DVD - Why would you want to have a DVD full of music? Think about the party scenario mentioned earlier - unless you have a remote for your iPod, you'll be spending a lot of time tethered to your stereo, and with the tiny display you certainly won't be changing tracks from across the room. You could also use an Audio DVD in your vehicle if you have a car or mobile DVD player.
    • Overclocking and WindowsXP x64 Edition -  PCStats thought it would be interesting to see how overclocking is affected on the WindowsXP x64 Edition platform by illustrating both 32-bit and 64-bit benchmarks for an AMD Athlon64 4000+ based system.
    • Call of Duty 2 Tweak Guide - The guide runs through all the in-game settings in careful detail, providing lots of screenshot comparisons of the main graphical effects to aid you in deciding on the precise balance of performance vs. visual quality on your system.
    • Call of Duty 2 High-end Graphics Shootout - Wondering which card runs faster for Call of Duty 2?: "In our testing, ATI's RADEON X1800 XT outperformed the GeForce 7800 GTX by up to 19%, with that particular result coming at the most strenuous settings: 1600x1200 screen resolution with 4xAA/8xAF enabled. In general though the RADEON X1800 XT particularly shines once the resolution is cranked up, at 1280x1024 and up the margin was typically in the double-digit range, with the only exception coming when AA/AF were disabled on page four."

    SOFTWARE...

    • iDoom 1.1 released - A new build of iDoom has now been released. The improvement-list is as follows: Support for nano, Configurable controls.
    • The Bat! 3.62.14 (shw) - The Bat! (download) is powerful email client with a friendly, neat interface. It has every feature that an advanced user will ever need.
    • Tools: GAlert 2.5.0.6 - GAlert (GMail/Google News Notifier) is an easy to use and high performance skinable Google notifier supports Google News, multiple GMail accounts, label filters and automatic login.
    • µtorrent 1.2 - With a slew of improvements, the most notable new feature is Mainline compatible DHT (Trackerless) support. The version was bumped from 1.1.7.2 to 1.2 due to the significance of the changes ~ download
    • Firefox 1.5 RC2  - Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 2 is out.
    • Media Player Classic 6.4.8.6 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture. It supports viewing through ActiveX controls of Real and QuickTime files.
    • Real Alternative 1.45 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player from Real Networks. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt) and ReadPix (.rp). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages. The very user-friendly installation is fully customizable, which means that you can install only those components that you want.
    • QuickTime Alternative 1.65 & 1.53 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install QuickTime Player from Apple. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages. The very user-friendly installation is fully customizable, which means that you can install only those components that you want.
    • DVD2One v2.0.0 - The new version introduces a complete new GUI, a faster transcoding engine which is also able to deliver better picture quality. Also interesting is that the software now is able to burn discs directly.
    • Fraps 2.7.1 - Fraps is a tool that lets you monitor current framerates in a corner of the screen for programs using DirectX or OpenGL technology. It also allows you to easily take screenshots of games, make movies of gameplay, and manually determine the average framerate between two points.
    • VisualRoute 2006 10.0c (shw) - VisualRoute (download) delivers the functionality of key Internet "ping," "whois," and "traceroute" tools, in a high-speed visually integrated package. VisualRoute automatically analyzes Internet connectivity and performance problems, displaying the results in an easy to understand table and on a world map.
    • CPU-Z 1.31 - CPU-Z (download) is a freeware detection program base on the Panopsys hardware detection engine. It allows to get some information on your system.
    • SpeedFan 4.27 - SpeedFan (download) is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature (almost all :-)) and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported.
    • Philips launches new Firmware page - check it out!
    • PlexTools Professional version 2.28 - With PlexTools Professional you can control how your Plextor drives operate, perform various CD and DVD quality tests and of course create both data and audio discs
    • Realtek AC97 Driver v3.79 - Realtek released version 3.79 driver for their ALC AC97 audio chipsets. The driver supports all ALC series audio chipsets from ALC100 up to ALC850 mainly used as onboard sound on various motherboards
    • ForceWare 81.86 WHQL & 81.89 - Here's two new sets of Forceware Drivers in the shape of 81.86 WHQL for Windows 2000/XP and 81.89 for Windows 2000/XP and Windows XP 64bits. Another mirror: Guru3D.
    • ATI Catalyst 5.11 - TweakTown let us know they are hosting the driver one day before the actual launch through ATI's website. The driver is just like the final version except it is not WHQL approved by Microsoft in its current state and it is not officially supported by ATI. The new Catalyst includes better support for the upcoming X1800XT as well as two new modes of Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, plus the OpenGL fix. The driver can also be found on Bit-Tech.
     Gameguru Mania News - Nov,09 2005 - tech
    S3 Chrome S27 benchmarked - tech
    (hx) 09:53 PM CET - Nov,09 2005 - Post a comment
    Chinese website HKEPC take a first look at the performance of S3's new Chrome S27. The card runs its graphics core at a stunning 700MHz, and keeps pace with the Radeon X1300 Pro and GeForce 6600 DDR2 in 3DMark05. Performance in some games (Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and Battlefield 2) is somewhat less impressive - though it doesn't look too bad in BF2 at 1024x768.
    Samsung 204T 20" LCD; Seagate 500GB HDD - tech
    (hx) 02:31 PM CET - Nov,09 2005 - Post a comment
    BonaFire has posted a review of Samsung SyncMaster 204T 20" Silver LCD Monitor. The 204T comes with Samsung's MagicTune and MagicRotation software which gives it the ability to display tall images and documents on screen without having to scroll much if at all. The 204T also delivers a 300 cd/m2 brightness, 1600 x 1200 resolution, 178/178 degree viewing angle and a contrast ratio of 700:1.
    We did however notice that there was a dead pixel on our 204T, located in the middle right-half section of the screen. This is disappointing as we have never reviewed a display from Samsung with a dead pixel on it until now. Perhaps we were just fortunate or lucky. Either way, when a buyer forks over $550 for a monitor they should be confident that it will be free of dead pixels. Samsung does have a 3 year warranty on their products though so getting this pixel fixed is definitely an option for anyone annoyed enough by it to do so.

    Overall, despite the first-time-ever dead pixel incident, the 204T is a great LCD display. The stand and hinge system for the screen allow perfect physical adjustment to users at any height. The included MagicRotation software performs its purpose well for those in need of a 'tall' display. VESA mount capability is also a feature very worthy of looking at for consumers or businesses looking for a on-the-wall display. At the time of writing the 204T can be found online for around $560.
    GamePC has posted a review of Seagate's Barracuda 7200.9 500 GB hard drive that offers 16MB cache and supports Serial ATA-II/300 class features across the board. Here's a taster:
    Performance wise, honestly we were a little disappointed in the Barracuda 7200.9, considering the cache size has been doubled and the interface improved, the 7200.9 only puts up marginally better numbers in comparison to its predecessor. The 7200.9 is certainly competitive in today's 7200 RPM hard disk market, although other manufactures can deliver better overall performance in comparison to Seagate. This will likely be more of a factor once Western Digital starts delivering more of their SE16 drives to market and Maxtor starts shipments of their DiamondMax 11.

    We should put the speed in perspective though. While competitors may have faster overall products in terms of disk read/write speeds, Seagate is shipping their drives at capacities up to half a terabyte, which these "faster" drives can't touch yet. Western Digital is still topping out at 400 GB, and as of writing this, Maxtor is peaking at 300 GB (although their upcoming DiamondMax 11 drives will hit 500 GB). Hitachi has a 500 GB drive with similar specs, but the design of Hitachi's' drive is less efficient, due to the use of less dense platters. The huge capacity of the drive doesn't make up for the drive's unremarkable performance, but it should be taken into account.
    AMD's Athlon64 X2 4800+ - tech
    (hx) 01:03 PM CET - Nov,09 2005 - Post a comment
    The chaps over at TechConnect have posted a review of AMD's Athlon64 X2 4800+ processor:
    Applications that support multithreading, be it Hyperthreading or Windows' own API, will show an immediate 40-45% performance increase: Maya renders, Mainconcept encodes and Photoshop operations will take half the time they used to, and the brute force speed increase alone will seriously leave many users wondering how they ever managed on their single core machines, and brute force is not all the X2 has to offer either: AMD took the time to make their Athlon64 core even faster, improving memory management and implementing the latest CPU special instruction specifications, so that even single core applications will run faster than they did before.

    As well as application-specific acceleration for the software that supports it, the X2 will enable multimedia professionals to run two full-sized applications at once, greatly simplifying workloads, and opening interesting scenarios for real-time video manipulation on dual-screen setups.

    All that power can be anyone's, for the cost of just under two comparable Athlon64 processors, with no special motherboard, RAM, software or patience requirements. Users with existing 939 motherboards only need patch their BIOS chips to the latest version, and plug an X2 in - it's a little boxful of dynamite, twice.
    GeForce 6800 GS performance - tech
    (hx) 12:25 AM CET - Nov,09 2005 - Post a comment
    The chaps over X-bit labs have posted a huge review of the GeForce 6800 GS. They tested the performance in 17 different games which included Age of Empires 3, Battlefield 2, F.E.A.R, Pariah, Project Snowblind, Quake 4, and Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War. Here's a taster:
    The excellent overclockability of the GeForce 6800 GS needs to be mentioned, too. The combination of the GeForce 7800 GT printed circuit board with the 0.11-micron NV42 chip proved to be very overclocker-friendly. We managed to speed up our sample of the card from the default 425/1000MHz to the impressive 500/1360MHz. The ensuing performance gain lifted the speed of the card to the level of the more expensive GeForce 6800 Ultra and this is probably not the limit. We could have achieved higher frequencies if we had replaced the cooling system for something more efficient.

    Thus, the GeForce 6800 GS is not just a high-performance solution at a relatively low price. It may become a sensation among overclocker! It’s not certain yet how much room for price adjustment NVIDIA has: the 6800 GS PCB is obviously cheaper than the PCB employed in the GeForce 6800 GT, but more expensive than the GeForce 6800 one. Theoretically speaking, the GeForce 6800 GS has some reserve for further price reduction, but considering that the NV42 is produced in mass quantities and the chip yield is high, the price of GeForce 6800 GS graphics cards may go down by a few dozen dollars in a few weeks after the release. On the other hand, NVIDIA may not want to reduce the price because of the virtual lack of competition.
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