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 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,30 2004 - tech 
Monday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:35 AM CEST - Mar,30 2004 - Post a comment / read (4)
  • NetSky variant a greater threat than thought - NetSky.Q was upgraded from a level 2 to level 3 threat on the security firm's five-point rating system. The company said it has received 379 reports of the worm since its discovery Sunday.
  • Cisco Security Notice: Exploit for Multiple Cisco Vulnerabilities - Proof-of-concept code has been publicly released that exploits multiple previous vulnerabilities in various Cisco products. The following list of vulnerabilities taken verbatim from the exploit code are affected. Included after each is a URL which may be referenced for more information regarding each vulnerability where Cisco has previously released a security advisory or response to address the issue. Customers should take steps to ensure that they have addressed each of these either via a software upgrade or workarounds in place as appropriate in order to mitigate any risk from this new exploit code.
  • Bush promises universal broadband access - George Bush wants all US citizens to have broadband Internet access by 2007. Speaking in Albuquerque on Friday, 26 March, the American president gave no details as to how this would be achieved. But he did say consumers need more choice.
  • Off-topic: NASA jet flies at seven times speed of sound - An unmanned supersonic jet shattered the speed record for plane flight by flying at more than seven times the speed of sound on Saturday. NASA's X-43A plane flew high above the Pacific for 11 seconds using an engine which expels hot exhausts to propel it forward like a rocket, before gliding for several minutes and plunging into the ocean. It was the first successful demonstration of acceleration by a supersonic combustion ramjet or "scramjet" engine.
  • Xbox Price $149.99 On Tuesday - Microsoft sent over a press release officially announcing that beginning on Tuesday the price of their Xbox console will drop from $179.99 to $149.99 (US, Canada, Australia) Now, will Sony follow suit on the PS2?
  • Indian 'Simputer' to bridge digital divide - In a nation where only nine in 1,000 people own a computer, a long-awaited device has finally been launched to bring the poor into the information age. The so-called Simputer, a device which has been discussed and hyped for three years, was finally launched last week in India with a price tag of slightly less than INR10,000 (187 Euro). The Simputer is a bare-bones handheld computer that is designed to allow poorer Indians to access the Web, email and other basic computer functions.
  • What Is Bill Gates Thinking? - Gates granted eWEEK an exclusive interview at the VSLive conference in San Francisco last week, where he keynoted on his vision of Seamless Computing.
  • Bill Gates: Hardware to Be Nearly Free in 10 Years - Hardware costs will fall sharply within a decade to the point where widespread computing with speech and handwriting won't be limited by expensive technology, Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates said on Monday.  "Ten years out, in terms of actual hardware costs you can almost think of hardware as being free -- I'm not saying it will be absolutely free -- but in terms of the power of the servers, the power of the network will not be a limiting factor," Gates said, referring to networked computers and advances in the speed of the Internet.
  • Macromedia flexes Flash muscle - Macromedia released on Monday a new server product intended to expand the use of its Flash format for presenting Web applications. Flex, formerly code-named Royale, allows developers to create scripts in common languages such as Java and .Net and to run them on top of Web applications. Flex breaks them down into a Macromedia dialect of extensible markup language (XML) that can be read by the Flash Player, the widespread Flash client commonly used to spice up Web pages.
  • MS to preview WinCE 5.0 - Microsoft is set to release on Monday a beta version of an update to its Windows CE operating system for handheld devices, set-top boxes and other limited-function computing devices. The Technology Preview Kit for Windows CE 5.0, formerly code-named Macallan, will be provided to developers attending the Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco. Microsoft plans to make it available for download later in the week through its Microsoft Developer Network site for embedded developers.
  • Nano work chases self-cooled chips  - Future chips may be self-ventilating, thanks to added microfluidic-like layers that pump heat-laden air off-chip using a classic "corona wind" effect. Purdue University has patented the technique at the nanoscale, and two team members have co-founded a company to commercialize aspects of the cooling system.
    Intel likely to delay 90nm LGA775 processors to June - Despite the appearance at CeBIT of motherboards supporting the LGA775 socket T Pentium 4 processors, sources at Taiwan’s PC makers are claiming that the new 90nm chips will be generally available in June, rather than as originally scheduled in May.
  • Kodak Camera Focuses on Images - The nifty little 4-megapixel Kodak EasyShare LS743 packs almost everything a point-and-shoot user could want into a stylish, exceptionally easy-to-use device. The 6-ounce LS743 has a nice, solid feel. The 1.8-inch LCD is sharp but doesn't automatically adjust when the scene is very dark or light, making it difficult to set up shots in those conditions. The unit can accommodate optional SD/MMC cards, and comes with 16MB of built-in memory.
  • BFG OC Cards Announced - BFG Technologies announced today that their two newest cards, BFG GeForce FX 5900XT OC and BFG GeForce FX 5500 OC will be faster than standard cards with the same chipset due to BFG's custom "out-of-the-box" overclocking. For example, BFG GeForceFX 5900XT OC ($229.99) features 128 MB DDR memory, 430 MHz core clock (vs. 390 MHz standard), 735 MHz effective memory clock, 23.5 GB memory bandwidth.
  • Lite-On LVW-5005 'All Write' DVD Recorder review -  If you're someone that liked the LVW-5001, you're going to love the LVW-5005. With their new DVD recorder, Lite-On has raised the bar for the rest of the industry. Thanks to their new "All Write" technology, the LVW-5005 is the ultimate in versatility. It can write to both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW media and is the first stand alone DVD writer on the market with the ability to record audio and video directly to CD. While this feature might not appeal to everyone, using a CD rather than an entire DVD just to record a 30 minute TV show is much easier on the wallet.
  • OpenOffice 1.1.1 Stable - OpenOffice.org (download Win32 ~ Linux) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.
  • Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.16 - Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount of time required for Adobe Reader 6.0 to start by disabling most of the least used plugins. Plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required. Currently supports free and full versions of Adobe Acrobat v3.0, v4.0, v4.0.5, v5.0, v5.0 CE, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
  • TZ Connection Booster 2.6.0.0 - Connection Booster Wizzard can configure any modem, ADSL, Cable, DSL & LAN connections for maximum performance & faster web surfing, playing online games, downloading files.
  • ICQ Lite Edition with Xtras 4.0 Beta - A new beta version of ICQ Lite is available for download.
  • K-MP3 v5.6 update - KC Softwares (Ignition, VideoToolbox...) has just released an update of the popular Masstagger + Toolkit for audio files (MP", OGG, MPC,...) called K-MP3.This update is HIGHLY recommended to ALL users because it fixes major bugs in ID3v1 and ID3v2 tags encoding.More details on the official web page
  • CPUCooL 7.2.11 - CPUCooL (download) is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards. It provides Cpu cooling under Win9x/2000/XP/NT, allows FrontSideBus changing, optimizes your memory and CPU.
  • Hitachi Feature Tool 1.94  - The Feature Tool (download) allows you to control some of the features in our newer Deskstar and Travelstar high performance ATA hard disk drives. This version adds support for our latest drives (including 48-bit addressing for capacities beyond 128GB).
  • Pioneer DVR-A07XL and DVR-107D firmware v1.12 - Here are the download links for the DVR-107D and the DVR-A07XL.
  • EAX 4.0 ADVANCED HD Driver Patch Update for Sound Blaster Audigy 2 and Audigy 2 ZS - This update (download) contains additional features and fixes to improve the performance of your Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 or Audigy 2 ZS series audio card. This update requires you to have drivers already installed.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,27 2004 - tech
Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 11:55 PM CET - Mar,27 2004 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • New Bagel.U a virus of few words - Antivirus software companies are again warning e-mail users about a new version of the popular Bagel virus, which is spreading on the Internet through infected e-mail messages and targeting machines running the Microsoft Corp. Windows operating system. Bagle.U is the 21st version of an e-mail worm that first appeared in January. Unlike earlier versions of the worm, the new variant eschews tricky subject lines or enticing messages, hiding in a file attachment to otherwise blank e-mail messages. Once opened, Bagle.U opens a back door to infected systems, mails copies of itself to e-mail addresses it steals from the user's computer and even launches the Windows Hearts card game, antivirus companies said.
  • "Piracy" extradition case rejected -  Magistrate has rejected an application to extradite an Australian man US authorities alleged headed an internet piracy syndicate. Hew Raymond Griffiths, 41, of Berkeley Vale on the NSW Central Coast, was indicted by a grand jury in the state of Virginia last year with one count of criminal copyright infringement and one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. The US indictment alleged he was a member and later the leader of Drink or Die, a high-profile piracy ring founded in Russia in the 1990s, and later headquartered in the US.
  • NannieBot claims leave experts unconvinced - New software claims it can protect children using chatrooms by spotting suspicious adults - but experts are not convinced. The software creates thousands of 'NannieBots' which visit chatrooms, pretending to be human. According to the developer, IT consultant Jim Wightman, the software's conversation is indistinguishable from humans interacting on the internet. If the software detects what it considers to be 'suspicious activity' the police are alerted and the internet address of the suspect user supplied.
  • Spam being rapidly outpaced by 'spim'  - While the torrent of unsolicited spam emails continues to rise, it is being far outpaced by the surge in unwanted messages sent to the users of instant messaging programs, analysts have warned. The volume of so-called "spim" is set triple in 2004, according to a new report from the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm in Palo Alto, California. The company projects that 1.2 billion spims will be sent, 70 per cent of which are porn-related. This is a mere trickle compared to the 35 billion spams expected, but the researchers warn that spim is growing at about three times the rate of spam, as spammers adapt their toolkit to exploit a rapidly rising number of new instant messaging (IM) users.
  • The DoD's 50 petabytes database - The Department of Defense is known for stretching the boundaries of technology. It's doing that again with a planned database system to hold medical records for 9 million military personnel that could eventually reach a capacity of 50 petabytes of data. To imagine how much data that is, consider what it would amount to in the form of double-spaced text on both sides of a piece of paper: "The stack would reach the moon and back to Earth--twice," estimates Richard Winter, president at database research firm Winter Corp.
  • Video game industry faces 'crisis of creativity' -  The video game industry is facing a hardening of the creative arteries as aging gamers' tastes increasingly shift toward sequels and games based on movies, industry participants said this week. With more and more titles chasing the success of their predecessors and content owners digging deep into their libraries to tap older material for quick fail-proof conversion into games, the industry is faced with a question more serious than rhetorical: What's new?
  • Sony plays up future of video games - Sony executives still won't say boo about the immediate successor to the company's smash PlayStation 2 game console. But the PlayStation 6 should really rock. Some of the biggest changes, they assert, will center on the way players control and interact with games. Forget mashing the "X" button; future games will use cameras to read your body movements and facial expressions, plus microphones backed by advance speech recognition technology to recognize vocal commands. And perhaps they'll all be crammed into your personal entertainment robot, so the game sensors follow you wherever you go.
  • Microsoft shows first demos of Xbox 2 software tools  - Microsoft sent shockwaves across the games industry, showing the first ever real-time demos of the next-gen software tools which will power Xbox 2. The demos, which formed the epicentre of Microsoft's XNA announcement, were presented by Mr Xbox himself J Allard, ably assisted by Lara Fry of the Xbox ATG and Chris Donohue from the Windows division. Demo one was created by High Voltage Software and, entitled 'Rex' showed a creature moving through an empty landscape, mutating at intervals into entirely different entities. The creature is controlled in real-time via Controller S (part of Microsoft's new initiative to standardise controllers across Xbox and Windows platforms) switching from furry yeti, to six-legged insect, to four-legged abomination, to an equally random, undeniably cute, armadillo.
  • Nokia to fix sidetalking, swapping with Son of N-Gage - Nokia's Kirsi Kotilainen, head of game developer relations, has promised that N-Gage owners won't look so stupid when making regular phone calls, as the microphone has been repositioned. He's also said that version two will support hot-swapping games cards. The first N-Gage required the phone to be powered down and the battery removed. Nokia argued that TV-based consoles ask the user to reboot, so why not phones? However, this isn't really a sustainable argument any more: Nokia's 9200 'brick' smartphone supported hot-swappable MMCs three years ago; and rivals such as Sendo's SX1 happily perform the trick. Kotailainen also said that the next N-Gage will be backward compatible with the earlier version.
  • Sony preps 50GB next-gen Blu-Ray video deck - Sony has committed itself to shipping second-generation consumer-oriented Blu-Ray video recorders by the end of the year, the company said. The new systems will support single-side, dual-layer Blu-Ray rewriteable discs with a total capacity of 50GB. Current Blu-Ray rewriteable discs provide 23GB of storage on a single layer.
  • Asus preps Wi-Fi hard drive - Asus is promising to "change your perception on data storage" when it releases what may be the world's first Wi-Fi enabled network-attached hard drive storage system. The WL-HDD is a hard drive enclosure capable of taking any 2.5in ATA-100 hard disk. The enclosure also contains an 802.11g adaptor and antenna, plus a pair of wired 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports.
  • Linux Comes to the Desktop - It is almost no longer a question of which applications run on Linux, but instead, which applications do not run on Linux. THG look at heavy-hitter PC OEMs such as HP that have taken the Linux desktop leap during the past few weeks and offer a survey of Linux applications. THG even tell you why you don't want Linux if you're a gamer.
  • HP LaserJet 3030 All-in-One  - The middle sibling in a series that includes the HP LaserJet 3015 at the low end and the 3380 at the high end , the HP LaserJet 3030 All-in-One offers almost everything you'll find in its big brother for about $200 less.
  • Compex NetPassage 26G Wireless Router Review - Neoseeker take a look at Compex's NetPassage26G Wireless Router.
  • LCD Comparison: 17" & 19" Under 20ms - Wide-screen LCD monitors with fast response time have finally arrived. The Samsung SyncMaster 193P offers the first 19" monitor with a less than 20ms PVA panel. Others such as Hitachi, Sharp, Sony and Nec have also stepped up to the 19" plate.
  • Nero 6 Ultra Edition vs Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 - Both Easy Media Creator and Nero start off with a screen that lays out all the options. Instead of having to guess which program does what, it's as easy as clicking on "Create DVD" or "Capture video" from a start panel.
  • PHP 4.3.5 Final - This is primarily a bug fix release (download), without any new features or additions. PHP 4.3.5 is by far the most stable release of PHP to date and it is recommended that all users upgrade to this release where possible.
  • PassMark BurnInTest 4.0 build 1010 - BurnInTest is a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability. BurnInTest tests the CPU, hard drives, CD ROMs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, RAM, network connections & printers.
  • Fresh Download 6.80 - Fresh Download (download) is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software, no spyware
  • XPlite/2000lite 1.2.0229 - With XPlite and 2000lite we give YOU the power to set up YOUR machine the way YOU want! The power to remove unwanted features, the power to remove upgrades that go bad, the power to strip potential security and privacy threats out by the roots.
  • CloneDVD 2.0.5.3 - With CloneDVD you can compress your DVDs to fit on a recordable DVD±RW.
  • K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.01 - The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack includes the K-Lite Codec Pack Full, QuickTime Alternative, Real Alternative and BSplayer.
  • K-Lite Codec Pack 2.25 - The K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are required to encode and decode (play) audio and video.
  • Style XP 2.02 - Style XP Final ( can import, select, and manage Themes, Visual Styles, and Wallpaper. Future versions may support sounds, cursors, screensavers, logon UIs, and packages of all the above.
  • VisualRoute 8.0d - VisualRoute (download Win32 ~ Linux) 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. In addition, VisualRoute has the unique ability to identify the geographical location of routers, servers, and other IP devices.
  • Avant Browser 9.01 Build 121 - Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile web browser. Avant Browser is a multi-window browser which features with many functions such as Pop-up Stopper, Built-in Google Searching, Safe Recovery, Integrated Cleaner and Advanced Browsing Options.
  • QuickTime Alternative 1.32 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install QuickTime Player. It also supports QuickTime content that is embedded in webpages. The QuickTime plugins include iPIX and QuickTimeVR. The QuickTime Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.
  • Real Alternative 1.22 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install RealPlayer or RealOne Player. Supported are: RealAudio (.ra .rpm), RealMedia (.rm .ram .rmvb .rpx .smi .smil), RealText (.rt), ReadPix (.rp). It also supports RealMedia content that is embedded in webpages. RealMedia .smi and .smil files are not fully supported, only the first part will usually be played. This is a limitation of the current Media Player Classic. The RealMedia Browser plugin supports Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla and Netscape.
  • ForceWare 56.63 Win2000/XP  - MSI just released a WHQL version of ForceWare 56.63 drivers, one build older than the official NVIDIA drivers. We altered the.inf file to remove some MSI specific installation lines, the drivers should be 100% compatible now.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,25 2004 - tech
Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:36 PM CET - Mar,25 2004 - Post a comment
  • Indonesian government plans to stop using pirated software - After Years of using hot software, Indonesia says it is planning to eliminate the use of pirated software in government offices. This is despite the fact that nine months ago it announced a tough copyright law and launched a crackdown on sales of pirated software.
  • Germany targets neo-Nazi music - German police have raided the homes of more than 300 people suspected of posting neo-Nazi music files on the internet.  Police say they have seized thousands of compact discs and hundreds of computers in their nationwide raids. Federal Crime Office President Joerg Ziercke warned neo-Nazis used skinhead music to reach out to young people. ;Young people are being targeted and brought into the world of anti-Semitism and hatred of foreigners," he said.
  • DOJ criticizes EU's ruling on Microsoft -  The European Commission's order for Microsoft Corp. to ship a version of Windows without the Windows Media Player could stifle innovation and help Microsoft's rivals instead of promoting fair competition, the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust chief said
  • Nokia eyes N-Gage turnaround  - Nokia is counting on a few upcoming games to turn around lackluster sales for its N-Gage portable game player.  In an interview at the Game Developers Conference here, Pasi Polonen, director of games publishing for the cell phone giant, blamed slow sales for the device on initial software selection. But Nokia is still confident in the system's prospects, he said.
  • Microsoft releases Pocket Streets for Smartphone - The Pocket Streets program - known from Windows XP and Pocket PC versions - now has been ported also to Microsoft smartphone:  Take a map with you wherever you go with Microsoft Pocket Streets for Smartphone, the street-level mapping guide for your Windows Mobile-based Smartphone. Pocket Streets for Smartphone offers great map guide functionality right on your Smartphone. Locate addresses, intersections and points of interest or customize locations by inserting your own pushpins. Download maps of cities in the US, Canada and Western Europe from the Pocket Streets web site, or create your own maps using Microsoft desktop applications MapPoint, Streets & Trips or AutoRoute. Once your maps have been synced to your Smartphone you can access them when you need them most, when you are on the go.
  • U.S. students shun computer sciences - Undergraduates in U.S. universities are starting to abandon their studies in computer technology and engineering amid widespread worries about the accelerating pace of offshoring by high-technology employers. A new study, to be published in May, shows there was a dramatic drop-off of enrollment in those fields last year -- 19 percent -- and some educators warn about the potential consequences for America's global competitiveness.
  • Dell Fixes Inspiron XPS Flaw - Dell has resumed shipments of its Inspiron XPS system after a problem with the notebook caused the company to hold over deliveries of the notebook until last week. The Inspiron XPS is Dell's first notebook computer aimed exclusively at gaming enthusiasts. According to postings on both the notebookforums.com and Dell forum Web sites, users have been experiencing lock up and display corruption problems with both the Inspiron XPS and the lower-priced Inspiron 9100.
  • Rest of the world to wait for iPod - Apple Computer Inc. will delay global sales of its new iPod mini digital music player until July due to stronger-than-expected demand in the United States, Apple said Thursday. Apple began shipping the smaller version of its iPod music player in February. Demand in the United States has outstripped expected supply through the end of June, the company said. Tight supplies of the hard drive at the core of the player forced Apple to delay increasing manufacturing until July, it said.
  • Sony launches true electronic book - The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the real one, not that Douglas Adams novel thingy - just came a step closer. Sony has launched its first electronic book using what it calls "electronic paper". In reality, that means a high pixel density LCD panel. Unlike most 72dpi notebook and monitor panels, the one used in the Sony Librié 1000-EP is a 170dpi job. The display's resolution is 600 x 800. The technology comes to Sony from Philips - the e-book uses Philips' Electronic Paper Display, which is itself based on E-Ink technology. The Librié 1000-EP contains 10MB of memory and includes a Memory Stick Pro slot for extra storage. You get about 500 books on a 512MB Memory Stick, says Sony. But they are likely to be copy-protected - the machine incorporates Sony's Open Magic Gate (OpenMG) DRM system.
  • AMD Socket 939 chip launch pinned to 25 May - AMD will officially launch its new 939-pin processor socket on 25 May. However, significant volumes of the Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 FX chips that will use the new packaging many not appear until much later in the year.  Citing sources familiar with AMD's plans, Xbit Labs claims Socket 939 parts will be offered in only limited quantities until Q4. In this context, 'limited' means Q2 shipments of 50,000 939-pin Athlon 64 and FX parts compared to 700,000 754-pin chips.
  • Microsoft Introduces Unified Game Development Tool - At the Game Developer’s Conference, Microsoft announced a new software tool for game development that aims to cross-pollinate features between the Xbox and other Windows gaming platforms. Microsoft’s XNA will port certain XBox features over to the Windows and Windows Mobile operating systems, including capabilities like billing, matchmaking, and security from the Xbox Live online service.
  • DVDXTREME DVD copy suite announced - DVDXTREME is a complete digital media toolbox that allows you to create, edit, back up, rescue, and share your photos, home video, music, and data with only a few clicks.
  • AIDA32 development is finished - As of March 24, 2004 we have decided to discontinue the development project that we all know as AIDA32 (download latest version)
  • Apache 2.0.49 - Apache 2.0 (changelog) offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client. We have also included support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6.
  • NVSDK 7.0 - NVIDIA empowers real-time developers with the latest graphics technology by providing the NVSDK, a suite of cutting edge content creation, code integration, performance analysis and educational resources.
  • RealPlayer 10.0 Final - Build 6.0.12.857 - Helix Powered RealPlayer (download) is the all-in-one digital media player that lets you find anything and play everything. Now also includes an option during setup to install the Real Toolbar for Internet Explorer.
  • WinAmp 5.03 Final - WinAmp (download full ~ lite - pro) is an audio player that can handle audio CDs, MP3 audio files and streaming audio broadcasts. It combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface. WinAmp features a playlist editor and a 10-band graphic equalizer with user-definable presets that can automatically load specific files.
  • FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 25-03-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.
  • 3D Traceroute 1.8.81:231 - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program (download)
  • CDBurnerXP version 2.2.3 - There's a new version of the freeware burning application CDBurnerXP available. This new version adds possibility to shut down the PC when writing is finished, fixes an error in the audio ripper, etc.
  • RadLinker 1.006 - RadLinker is new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
  • TweakOL 3.0 - TweakOL is a standalone utility that allows you to change hidden functions in Microsoft Outlook.
  • VideoToolbox v0.9.0.3. - This new version can automatically download codecs required by a video file.
  • Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.5 - Free-Codecs has updated their bundle to version 6.0.0.5.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,24 2004 - tech
Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 09:58 PM CET - Mar,24 2004 - Post a comment
Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 02:40 AM CET - Mar,24 2004 - Post a comment / read (15)
  • New RIAA file-swapping suits filed - The trade association said Tuesday that it sued an additional 532 anonymous individuals, including 89 people at 21 separate universities. This is the third round of suits since the RIAA was forced by the courts to file suits without first using subpoenas to learn the alleged file swappers' true identities.
  • New domain names aid net to grow - New net domain names including .xxx for pornographic sites and .mobi for phones could be live by early 2005. Ten organisations have applied to the net's ruling body with proposals for nine new net domain names. One proposal for the .mail domain has been put forward by anti-spam workers who want to use it for storing information about legitimate e-mail servers.
  • Sarca rainbow tables on-line cracking service - Dialtone, Inode, Lamerone Burp, Tnthc have generated ~ 18GB of rainbow tables for the "instant"
    decryption of LanManager password hashes. Now they are offering a free on-line cracking service for Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 passwords.
    It should be useful in a lot of situations, expecially during penetration testing activities.
  • Sony releases hard drive for PlayStation 2 - Sony on Tuesday released a hard drive for the PlayStation 2 video game console that comes bundled with the latest title in one of gaming's most popular series. Sony Computer Entertainment of America said the 40 gigabyte hard drive, retailing for $99, would be preloaded with "Final Fantasy XI," which can be played online with other PS2 users and with people on PCs. Access to the game is free for the first 30 days, after which subscriptions will cost $12.95.
  • Nostalgia: MS-DOS 4.0: The Next-Gen DOS That Never Shipped - Most people don’t know about Microsoft's other multitasking operating system, MS-DOS 4.0 which was actually a version of MS-DOS 2.0 that was written in parallel with MS-DOS 3.x (DOS 3.x shipped while DOS 4 was under development, which is why it skipped a version). The MS-DOS 4 version described here was never shipped and instead a beefed-up version of 3.x was labeled 4.0 and shipped instead.
  • Cebit 2004 Coverage - TrustedReview#1 | TrustedReview#2 | TrustedReview#3 | Day1@THG | Day2@THG | X-Bit Labs | Kinky Mouse Mats at Cebit
  • ATi's FireGL X2-256t and NVIDIA's Quadro FX 1100 Open GL Graphics - ATi and NVIDIA have unveiled their latest OpenGL graphics cards for mainstream graphics applications. ATi offers processing power. NVIDIA, while short on window dressing, attempts to win the price/performance battle. We let the performance benchmarks speak for themselves on an HP xw4100 Workstation.
  • Graphics Roundup - ExtremeTech has put together a roundup of 19 graphics cards that are powered by GPUs from NVIDIA and ATI.
  • TweakOL 3.0  - Standalone utility that allows you to change hidden functions in Microsoft Outlook.
  • DetachOL 1.03 - DetachOL gives you total control of your attachment types in Outlook.
  • WMP 9.0 build 3133 - Mertsch has ripped Windows Media Player 9.0 build 3133 from the lastest windows XP SP2 RC1 for your downloading pleasure. This time its build 3133 and its a full3133 release! In RC1 nearly every file has been updated. There is NO timebomb with this release.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.8.1 - Media Player Classic (download Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP) 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 3.46 - DAEMON Tools (download), it's basically a virtual CD-/DVD-ROM with which you can mount image files created by various other software packages.This new version fixes a small bug in virtual drive behavior with Spellforce, problems with DVD-RAM devices on Windows NT/2000/XP, and ROXIO Driver issue.
  • CDRWin 3.9f (March 22) - There's a new version of CDRWin available (download) on the Golden Hawk website. Unfortunately there's no changelog available for this new version. Probably it's just another device update.
  • nFORCE nVMixer 1.0 & 4.31 audio driver - A very clever trick was pulled by Mat from http://www.NVPlanet.com, the man couldn't wait for the all new nVMixer for nForce owners. So he decided to try installing the nVMixer contained in the nForce 64-bit package released today along with the latest drivers from Windows Update on my XP 32-bit and it works fine. They are not supported by us nor by nVidia so use at your own risk ~ download (thanks Blooduk)
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,23 2004 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:05 AM CET - Mar,23 2004 - Post a comment / read (9)
  • Witty Worm Still Spreading - A new worm that exploits a hole in some of Internet Security Systems' intrusion protection products seems to be dying down after affecting thousands of IP addresses since Saturday. The so-called Witty worm, affecting some versions of ISS' BlackIce and RealSecure intrusion protection products, is "highly malicious" because it slowly destroys the system it infects, according to an alert from Lurhq, a managed security provider. "Rather than simply executing a 'format C:' or similar destructive command, the worm slowly corrupts the file system while it continues to spread," Lurhq's alert says. Another article on Witty can be found here.
  • EU said to OK massive fine for Microsoft - European Union states on Monday backed a proposal to fine Microsoft a record $613.5 million (497 million euros) for abusing its dominance of PC operating systems, an EU member state source said.
  • Swiss Army Knife Goes High-Tech - Swiss Army Knives are famous for packing just about any tool imaginable--including scissors, corkscrews, and pens--into a distinctive red pocket knife. Now you can add flash memory drive to the list. Swissbit, of Bronschhofen, Switzerland, will introduce in May four versions of the Victorinox Swiss Army Knife: two with a 64MB flash drive and two with a 128MB flash drive. The knives will be available in a travel-safe version that includes a red LED and a ballpoint pen, as well as an extended version that packs a red LED, ballpoint pen, a knife, a file with a screwdriver tip and a pair of scissors.
  • Brain-controlled video game made - Mind Balance uses a new wireless headset which picks up brain wave patterns through special electrodes. The player's brain is "tuned in" by concentrating on flashing images, and then they can control the game. The technology could be used in future computer games, and could also help scientists make special computers to help people who can't move well. To get their brain working with the game the player first focusses on two chequered boxes which flash at different speeds or frequencies. By looking at the boxes in turn a frog-like virtual character in the game, called Mawg, balances and walks across a tight-rope. If he starts falling to the left, the player has to concentrate on the box on the right. The game is not for sale, but it is a way for the researchers to learn how to develop the technology. But the researchers say gamers could be attaching headsets to their own heads in a few years' time.
  • Nvidia announces cell phone developer program - Nvidia has today announced that it is looking to bring 3D content to cell phones through the introduction of its developer program for hardware-accelerated 3D applications on cell phones and other handhelds. The Santa Clara-based company has also announced the immediate availability of its handheld software development kit (SDK).
  • Microsoft unveils online song shop - Microsoft said on Friday that the second half of the year will see the launch of its online music store, a long-expected entry into an increasingly crowded business dominated by Apple Computer's iTunes. The software giant this week began offering sneak peaks of the service to independent record labels at the South by Southwest trade show in Austin, Texas. Though Microsoft remains mum about specific details, this week's show signals the company's heightened ambitions to enter the world of online music sales with a bang.
  • Intel: Processors are not just about Gigahertz - Intel will launch with its upcoming Dothan processor a new numbering system. As the company confirmed, the new number won't give a general indication how fast the chip really is. Instead, it will be based on the feature set of the processor. Intel has to admit that AMD was right again. After following AMD in the track of its 64-bit strategy, Intel now plans to throw away the Gigahertz figure for its processor models and instead use an AMD like model number. Well, sort of.
  •  AAC Chosen for DVD-ROM Zone of DVD-Audio Discs - The DVD Forum has chosen AAC for the DVD-ROM zone of DVD-Audio discs – the inclusion of a low-resolution (lossy) track suitable for solid-state and portable devices has long been championed by DVD-Audio figureheads such as Dolby’s John Kellogg as a way of enhancing the value of the format to all listeners, not just those interested in its high-resolution potential. The selection of AAC came after a number of competing formats were proposed; they included MP3, ATRAC and Microsoft’s WMA. Additional formats, such as Vorbis Ogg for example, were not put forward for consideration.
  • New DVD burners double capacity - Sony Electronics says it will be shipping drives in about two months that accept blank DVDs with two data layers. Philips Electronics will start selling a similar drive in Europe in April, but is not saying when it will be available in the United States. The write-once discs can store up to 8.5 gigabytes of data, or about 4 hours of DVD-quality movies, twice the capacity of regular blank DVDs. This means capacities for computer-burned DVDs are catching up with prerecorded movie DVDs, many of which are already dual-layer.
  • Poweroid 1204 silent PC review - The silent operation has been achieved using some very unique construction methods, as even the sides of the case act as large heatsinks. Internally the design is also very different, and Zalman has fitted a custom-made fan-less power supply. But the most impressive aspect of the TNN 500A is the heatpipe configuration used to cool the processor and graphics card.
  • Intel's Pentium 4 3.4GHz processors - Many of you reading this review are gamers, and I will make things simple for you guys. If you want to play games on your PC, the Athlon 64 is the best choice right now. The benchmarks are darn near unanimous on this point, so I see no reason to mince words. The Pentium 4 3.4GHz and 3.4'E' GHz both list for $417, exactly the same price as the Athlon 64 3400+. Heck, I'd urge you to consider a lower end processor, like the Athlon 64 3000+, and spend the extra cash on a better graphics card instead. If you're into other things, well, the picture gets complicated quickly. The Pentium 4 performs nicely in commercial 3D rendering applications and media encoding.
  • NV40 16x1 pipeline? - This is the real deal or can we call it the fake deal. Nvidias upcoming chip, the NV40, has been going back and forth, and when I say back and forth, Im talking about the actual pipelines. A heap of people stated it will use 8x2 (8 pipelines and 2 textures per pass) others say it will use 16x1 (16 pipelines and 1 texture per pass). Both have their advantages and disadvantages. DataFuse.net has posted an article about pipelines to teach the novice user some basics, the guide is overhere.

  • Will Rock unofficial Gigabyte OEM patch v1.2 - There is a new but unofficial patch for Will Rock, upgrading the OEM edition of Saber Interactive's fast-paced first-person shooter that came bundled with Gigabyte ATI video cards to version 1.2. That edition couldn't be updated with the regular patches.

  • McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.1.6 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system. Stinger utilizes next generation scan engine technology, including process scanning, digitally signed DAT files, and scan performance optimizations.
  • Forceware 64Bit 57.30 & nForce 64Bit 4.34a Drivers -  Nvidia have released a new Forceware 64Bit 57.30 & nForce 64Bit 4.34a Drivers (thanks Blooduk). There's also latest 64-bit Windows IDE driver (login with the support button at the bottom now you can goto your chipset kategory and leech BIOS/driver) for the SiI3x12 SATA Controller chip version 1105.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,22 2004 - tech
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 09:28 AM CET - Mar,22 2004 - Post a comment
  • CeBIT 2004 Goodies - Day1 / Day2 at OCWorkBench | Day1 at THG | SFF/Barebone systems photos | BBC | TH | Beyond3D (GFX coverage)
  • IBM Issues Fix for ThinkPad HardDisks - According to CNet, IBM has quietly issued a patch to fix a problem with Hitachi hard disks on some of its ThinkPad models. The problem affects ThinkPad models R50, R50p, T41, T41p that have the Hitachi 60GB 7200 rpm hard disk drive, model HTS726060M9AT00 with ASM part number 92P6550 and FRU part number 92P6551.
  • Windows XP SP2 RC1 preview -  IAmNotAGeek.com have published a new preview of Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 1.
  • Removing Spyware - This article is more of a preventive measure than a fix and will harden internet explorers security but at the same time retaining the functionality that IE has. "First in tools, internet options, advanced uncheck "Enable Install On Demand (Internet Explorer)" and "Enable Install On Demand (Other)" and "Enable Third-Party Browser Extensions (Requires Restart)" and choose apply and ok. Also ensure your internet security setting is at least medium (unless you know what you are doing and have made it custom)."
  • Mozilla 1.7 Beta - Mozilla 1.7 (win32 ~ linux) size and performance have improved dramatically with this beta release.
  • Miranda IM v0.3.3 - Miranda IM is a multi protocol instant messenger client (ICQ, Jabber, MSN, AIM...) for Windows. This is a recommended upgrade for all users. It contains many fixes and  updated protocol plugins.
  • FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 19-03-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, postprocessing code from mplayer to enhance visual quality of low bitrate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL'ed educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder.
  • TVTool 9.6.1 (SHW) - TVTool 9.6.1 fixes some bugs of the previous version, also it has some new features and improvments. A detailed list of the changes and bugfixes can be found here.
  • CDBurnerXP Pro 2.2.2 - CDBurnerXP Pro is a CD burning software that can write CD-R and CD-RW discs.
  • ATI OMEGA 4.3 Drivers - The new Omega Drivers for Windows 2k/XP based on the Official Catalyst 4.3 are ready for download. (thanks Blooduk)
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,20 2004 - tech
Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 04:04 PM CET - Mar,20 2004 - Post a comment / read (18)
  • Malicious computer worm detected - A new malicious computer program has been detected that can create networks of remotely controlled computers to take part in online attacks, send junk e-mail messages and engage in other shady activities common to the bad neighborhoods of cyberspace. The program, known as phatbot or polybot, uses technology like that developed for file sharing networks such as Gnutella and Kazaa to control the machines. ("Bot" is shorthand for "software robot," a term generally applied to automated software.)  Once the program has made its way onto a victim's computer, it spreads across networks and searches for passwords that are stored on hard drives and are passing across local networks. It also disables antivirus programs and systems for upgrading software security.
  • World largest series of raids against movie and entertainment software piracy - It would appear that a major event has been happening that is going to shake up the piracy and hacker world. What has been reported by the German news media as being "one of the world's largest raid against movie / entertainment software pirates and hackers" are happening over in Europe and that the raids may spill over to the United States, Europe, the UK and other countries. Details are sketchy at the moment because the early reports are based on loose translations taken from the German news media... but here is a synopsis of two publications. Another articles can be found on SkyNews, TheRegister.
  • China bans IGI2 - China has banned a computer game because it tarnished the image of the country and its army.  According to state media Project IGI2: Covert Strike - which was created by the Norway-based Innerloop Studios and published by UK-based Codemasters - has broken tough gaming laws because it "hurt China's national dignity and interests". Officials got the hump because part of the game is set in China, from where a mercenary engages in sabotage and shoots at its soldiers.
  • The Memory-Optimization Hoax - As you've surfed the Web, you've probably seen browser pop-ups such as "Defragment your memory and improve performance" and "Minimize application and system failures and free unused memory." The links lead you to utilities that promise to do all that and more for a mere $9.95, $14.95, or $29.95. Sound too good to be true? It is. These utilities appear to do useful work, but at best, RAM optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance (free reg.required).
  • Phoenix software allows pre-boot access to Outlook data -  BIOS manufacturer Phoenix announced a new software which enables users of notebook PCs to access their Outlook data without booting a PC. FirstWare Assistant is an example how the company wants to extend the features of the traditional BIOS and replace it with its Core System Software (CSS) in the future. Phoenix believes that there is more to the space between hardware and operating system than we see today. Rather than serving just to the operating system, the BIOS of the future might do much more than just recognizing hardware components.
  • Ritek first from Taiwan to obtain Philips 4x DVD+RW certification - Ritek recently passed the certification for 4x DVD+RW discs by Philips, the first of Taiwan’s optical disc makers, according to company CEO Gordon Yeh. Ritek is exhibiting a variety of its new products at CeBIT, with a focus on 8.5GB single-sided double-layer DVD+R discs, 25GB single-sided and 40GB double-sided Blu-ray discs, 16x DVD+R discs and HD (high-definition) DVD discs. An HD DVD has a large storage capacity 20-100 times that of today’s mainstream optical discs, Yeh pointed out. Ritek will start volume production of 8.5GB single-sided double-layer DVD+Rs and 12x DVD+Rs next quarter. Production of 16x DVD+Rs and HD DVDs will begin in the second half, Yeh indicated.
  • Microsoft smartphone by Sagem Photos - MSMobiles have done all possible photos of Sagem's new smartphone and they were even turning it on/ff, playing with software, taking out battery - simply everything - including comparative photos of Sagem myS-7 with Orange SPV e200 (currently leading, and already released, Microsoft Smartphone)
  • Via Launches Nano-ITX Motherboard - Via Technologies is officially introducing the EPIA-N Nano-ITX motherboard at the Cebit trade show here this week. Measuring 4.7 inches by 4.7 inches, the Nano-ITX is the smallest PC motherboard form factor to hit the market. The Nano-ITX motherboard is based on Via's CN400 chipset and works with Via's Eden-N processor running at speeds up to 1 GHz, the company says in a statement.
  • Memorex True 8x DVD±RW review  - Like the Pioneer drive its based on, the True 8x can write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x. While not as fast as some of the other drives we've reviewed, it was able to write 4GB of data in as little as 8 minutes. This is pretty impressive. However, the True 8x could probably be faster. For some reason, it took longer than normal to complete its calibration tests and write the lead out.
  • PowerColor Radeon 9800XT 256MB review - PowerColor, then, has to position its 9800XT on the basis of price. It doesn't contain enough novel or value-adding features to warrant purchasing for anything other than low price, and priced at around L320, it's one of the cheaper retail 9800XTs. Overall, our advice is simple. If you require a no-nonsense Radeon 9800XT card the PowerColor version is as good as any
  • The Hard Disk Myths Debunked Guide Updated - Adrian's Rojak Pot has just updated the Hard Disk Myths Debunked! guide. This guide was written in response to the numerous fallacies about the hard disk that are still being propagated in many forum discussions. Although many articles have covered these topics, it is apparent that hard disk urban legends are still more popular than the simple truth..
  • Windows XP Service Pack 2 Technical Preview Out - As I reported earlier this week, Microsoft has released a preview of XP SP2 to the wider public for testing. Of course, this technical preview is unsupported and is intended for testing purposes only.
  • BSOD Win2k3 screensaver - The infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) will pop up on an NT system whenever something has gone terribly wrong. Bluescreen is a screen saver that not only authentically mimics a BSOD, but will simulate startup screens seen during a system boot. 1) On NT 4.0 installations it simulates chkdsk of disk drives with errors! 2) On Win2K and Windows 9x it presents the Win2K startup splash screen, complete with rotating progress band and progress control updates! 3) On Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 it present the XP/Server 2003 startup splash screen with progress bar.
  • PHP Nuke 7.2 - PHP-Nuke 7.2 Final version (download) has been released. This version includes the new phpBB Forums port version 2.0.7 and several bugs fixed.
  • PHP 5.0 RC1 & PHP 4.3.5RC4  - Both PHP 5.0 RC1 and PHP 4.3.5RC4 have been released for testing.
  • Process Explorer 8.34 - The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you’ll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you’ll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.
  • Net Transport 1.85 - Net Transport (download) is a fast and powerful file download tool. Net Transport can use multiple threads to download files. If a sites allows multi-threaded downloads, you can expect much faster speeds.
  • Nero Suite Update (March 19, 2004)  - The Nero Suite contains: Nero Burning Rom 6.3.1.6, Nero Burning Rom 5.5.10.56, Nero Burning Rom WMA9 Plug-In 2.0.9.3, Nero Burning Rom WMP Plug-In 1.0.1.5, Nero Media Player 1.4.0.20, NeroMIX 1.4.0.20, NeroVision Express 2.1.2.0, Nero InCD 4.1.5.10, Nero InCDRegCheck 1.03, Nero SIPPS 2.0.45.18, NeroNet 1.0.43.0 RC1, Nero SDK 1.04, Nero EasyWriteReader 4.0.0.19, Nero BurnRights 1.0, Nero Ping 1.07.
  • MV2Player 0.7.0 RC1 Plus - Mv2 player (download) is freeware multimedia player for Windows, with tons of usefull features.
  • Easy CD-DA Extractor 7.0 (SHW) - Poikosoft has now released version 7.0 of their all-in-one music software Easy CD-DA Extractor. Easy CD-DA Extractor can be used to convert your audio CDs to all kinds of other formats such as MP3, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and AAC.
  • CloneDVD 2.0.4.1 - CloneDVD extracts, transcodes and writes any orginal DVD title you like to a single recordable DVD. Be impressed by the program speed and the amazing image quality of the movie copy. A special transcoding technology compresses your choice of DVD title with your selected audio and subtitle streams to one DVD Recordable. There are new versions of DVDIdle Pro 3.39, DVD Region-Free 3.39 that contains CloneDVD 2.x and NeroShowtime support.
  • CDBurnerXP 2.2.2 - CDBurnerXP is a freeware CD/DVD-Writer program. It's capable of writing CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs, plus, you can rip audio CDs with it.
  • Fresh UI 7.02 - Fresh UI (download) is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know: Customizing Windows User Interface, Optimizing system settings, Optimizing hardware settings, Customizing Windows application settings, and Control user environment with policies.
  • A-Tuner 1.8.22.5304 - A-tuner is a small tool for changing the following Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync, MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias settings on your ATI and Nvidia cards and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 53.04 and ATI Catalyst 3.0 - 4.3 for W98/ME/2k/XP.
  • ATI Radeon DNA drivers 2.2.4.3a - New DNA drivers have been released by KillerSneak. These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers. The drivers have been optimized with two things in mind, better Image Quality and more/stable frames per second when compared to the official Catalyst drivers from ATI.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,18 2004 - tech
AMD's Athlon 64 FX-53 processor - tech
(hx) 08:31 PM CET - Mar,18 2004 - Post a comment / read (4)
The new Athlon 64 FX-53 processor continues the AMD processor family for gaming enthusiasts, which started with the Athlon 64 FX-51 solution. The new processor will replace the predecessor. Starting today, Athlon 64 FX-51 stopped shipping. So, the price of the new Athlon 64 FX-53 will be the same, i.e. $733, which is much lower than the pricing of the alternative Intel's solutions – Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPUs. While Athlon 64 FX-51 worked at 2.2GHz, the newcomer supports 2.4GHz!
In most benchmarks Athlon 64 FX-53 working at 2.4GHz frequency outperforms all alternatives from Intel including even Pentium 4 extreme Edition 3.4GHz featuring 2MB of L3 cache memory. Of course, we have to stress that during audio and video data encoding as well as final rendering NetBurst architecture makes Intel solutions more efficient than Athlon 64. Moreover, Hyper-Threading technology, which is not available by AMD solutions pushes different Pentium 4 CPUs to the lead in a number of practical applications. However, the gaming performance of Athlon 64 FX-53 is beyond any competition, which is its best trump in front of dedicated gamers.
Another reviews can be found at Tom's Hardware Guide, The Tech Report, AnandTech, Sudhian Media, Legit Reviews, HEXUS.net, Gamer's Depot, PC Perspective, Short-Media, ExtremeTech, HotHardware.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,17 2004 - tech
Wednesday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 12:10 PM CET - Mar,17 2004 - Post a comment / read (10)
  • Symantec Details Net Threats - Symantec's semi-annual Internet Security Threat report, released this week, paints a picture of an increasingly threatening Internet. But unlike previous reports, there seems to be little in the way of good news. In the first half of the year, one in six companies reported a serious security breach, a number that increased to one in two in the second half. August, which will go down in history in malware folklore, had a nasty 12-day period when Blaster, Welchia, and SoBig.F infected millions of machines worldwide and caused billions of dollars in damage. The second half of the year also saw a prodigious increase in the number of Win32 viruses and worms--1702 released in the second half versus 687 in the first.
  • Manually crash Windows-XP - Windows-XP has a "feature" (???) with which it is possible to manually crash a system by simply holding the right CTRL key and pressing the "Scroll Lock" key twice. This feature can be turned on by the following steps: 1. Start regedit. (If you are unfamiliar with regedit, please refer to this FAQ) 2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesi8042prtParameters 3. Create a new DWORD value and name it CrashOnCtrlScroll 4. Right-click on this newly created value and click on Modify 5. Enter 1 in the Value data field and click on OK. 6. Close regedit and reboot your system. 7. Now you can blue screen (crash) your system by holding the right CTRL key and pressing "Scroll Lock" twice.
  • Off-topic: Plan to melt through Europa's ice - Space scientists want to send a craft to the Jovian moon because its ocean might, in theory, harbour life. Once through the 10-30km ice sheet, the probe could take a sample of water, to analyse it for microbial life. But significant engineering challenges remain before the German Aerospace Centre lander could be sent to Europa.
  • Robotics to Drive "Third Wave" of Chip Innovation - Tsugio Makimoto, corporate adviser to Sony, said ASICs and flash memory - not general-purpose microprocessors and DRAM - will be the differentiating products of the third wave of innovation, which will replace personal computers. Makimoto, famous for the so-called "Makimoto Wave" of customization and standardization, spoke before an audience of top chip executives at the Semico Summit here.
  • Mainstream Games on the Linux Desktop - LinuxWorld Magazine has held a Gaming Round Table involving Chris DiBona, Ryan Gordon, Timothee Besset, Gavriel State, and Joe Valenzuela about where Linux currently stands and how it will one day become a premier gaming platform. (thanks Slashdot.org)
  • Russian Itanium slayer samples first 130nm processor - Elbrus, the would-be Itanium slayer, has begun sampling its 64-bit processor, the Russian company has announced. At the time, Elbrus was seeking $40m worth of funding to back the development of the chip, dubbed the E2K. It was to be fabbed at 180nm and clock at 1.2GHz. It was to offer both IA-32 and IA-64 compatibility.Elbrus' latest statement centres on a different chip, the MCST R-500, which the company suggests is the first Russian-made 130nm microprocessor, and who are we to argue? The R-500 is Sparc-compatible and is clocked at 450-500MHz. It consumes less than 1W of power, Elbrus said. It began punching out samples in late February, and the company has already run Solaris and Linux successfully on machines based on the processor
  • NV40 is a 16 pipelines part - Nvidia is telling "selected people" that NV40 is indeed 210 millions of transistor chip with 16 pipelines. The other side of this NV40 coin is that the real Mc Coy the real NV40 card that was taped out quite some time ago is actually going to be KIA [Killed in action]. Very knowledgeable friends told us recently in the Vienna Opera house that NV40 with 16 pipes and 210 millions of transistor is completely other chip then original NV40. What actually happened is that Nvidia recently learned about R420 marchitecture and this entire 12x1 story and, that they will eventually end up in second place and decided to can NV40 project and to go immediately with NV45.
  • Netgear MP101 wireless MP3 WMA player powered by ARM - Netgear has released a new wireless MP3 and WMA remote controlled player, that will stream music from any networked PC in your home, to your stereo system. The new hardware is featuring the ARM9 core family-based Marvell Libertas 88W8510H system-on-chip (SoC).
  • KiSS introduces first DVD-players with WM9 support in Europe - KiSS introduces the first DVD-players with support for Windows Media Video 9 in Europe. The new DVD-players - DP-600 and DP-608 - will be the first in a range of new products to support Windows Media 9 Series. Studies and industry analysts indicate that Windows Media 9 Series format will be the final breakthrough for video-on-demand solutions over the Internet offering high quality at small file sizes.
  • Toshiba Updates Multimedia Notebooks - The new Satellite P25-S670 comes with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, and a 17-inch widescreen display. Toshiba America Information Systems, a division of Toshiba, expects consumers will watch movies and store their digital media on this notebook. The P25-S670 costs $2699 with a 3.2-GHz Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, an 80GB hard drive, and a DVD-RAM/-RW/CD-RW multifunction optical drive. It also comes with a GeForce FX Go5700 graphics card from Nvidia with 128MB of video memory and an integrated 802.11a/802.11g wireless chip.
  • Dual Channel DDR Pentium 4 Chipsets (Intel, VIA, SiS and ATI) ­ Six under the Microscope - Read on as TweakTown discover the best Pentium 4 chipset to spend your hard earned dollars on.
  • nForce 3 250 review - With NVIDIA giving the 250-series chips a feature upgrade, a 'fixed' HyperTransport implementation, some new disk based ability with the changed ATA and SATA controller, 1000Mbit/sec Ethernet capability to let marketroids tick a box, along with an all round spit and polish, nForce3 250 is rather good. The hardware firewall for example is a fine chipset level feature upgrade, scoring NVIDIA good brownie points.
  • Xgi Volari V8 Ultra Duo review -  The Volari gives an excellent range of features but due to the drives being so new the optimization and design isn’t the best at the moment. At the moment XGI is able to keep up with both the Radeon 9800 XT and GeForce FX 5950 in some tests and considering how long the cards have been out for, some of the scores achieved by the XGI battler are quite respectable.
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 FAQ - First revealed here on the SuperSite for Windows, R2 will include all of the free out-of-band updates Microsoft shipped for Windows Server 2003 since April 2003, including the Group Policy Management Console and Windows SharePoint Services.
  • UT 2004 Benchmarking - UMark is a Windows graphical interface that allows gamers and hardware reviewers to easily configure and run benchmarks on Unreal Tournament 2004. Benchmarking with UMark is very flexible, as it can run totally customizable benchmarks. At the same time, it also offers standard benchmarking which imitates the official UT2004 benchmark batch file tests.
  • ChrisTV Professional 3.60 - ChrisTV Professional is nice program for viewing TV on your PC for TV Tuners with WDM Drivers installed. The program supports all TV Cards based on BT8x8 chipset, Philips SAA713x chipset,Conexant CX2388x.
  • InstantGet 1.90 - InstantGet (download) is a powerful and efficient download manager and accelerator, InstantGet splits downloading files into multiple sections, downloading each section simultaneously to increase downloading speed up to 5 times faster.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.8.0 - Media Player Classic (download Win2k/XP ~ Win9x/ME version) 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.
  • Central Brain Identifier 6.1.0.4 Beta Build 0317 - Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors.
  • Codec pack All-in-One ver 6.0.0.4 -  Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.4 includes: DivX 5.1.1, Koepi's XviD 1.0 RC3, DivX, XviD - FFDShow 12.03.2004 alpha , MPEG2 2.0.0.2525, Subtitles g400 2.83, Subtitles DVobSub (Win9x, Win2k a WinXP) 2.23, 2.32, OGG Vorbis 0.9.9.5, AC3 0.70ß, Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher 0.99B.
  • ASUS SmartDoctor 4.21 - ASUS SmartDoctor is designed to monitor graphic chip Status, altering users about abnormal events, such as fan malfunction or chip overheat.
  • VIA AC97 v5.10b drivers - VIA Tech has released a new drivers for the internal AC97 sound (readme) in their chipsets i.e. south bridges T82C686x , VT8231 , VT8233x , VT8235 and VT8237.
  • Lite-On firmware- Lite-On has released a new firmwares for SOHW-812S, LDW-851S and LDW-401S.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,16 2004 - tech
Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 05:47 PM CET - Mar,16 2004 - Post a comment
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(gx) 02:42 AM CET - Mar,16 2004 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Alleged Aussie Drink or Die co-leader may face US piracy charge -  NSW Central Coast man accused of heading an Internet piracy gang which plundered $US50 million ($68 million) worth of music, film, game and software products faces the prospect of a US jail term. The Commonwealth DPP last week applied for the extradition to the US of Hew Raymond Griffiths, 42, of Berkeley Vale. They want Griffiths, code-named "Bandido" and allegedly co-leader of the Drink Or Die Internet gang, to face trial for criminal copyright breaches, including a conspiracy charge. But Griffiths is fighting the US move, which has already seen several Internet associates jailed. His lawyer told a Sydney magistrate last week Griffiths "had never set foot in the US", and argued he had committed no crime in Australia. The jobless computer expert shares a modest white weatherboard home in Berkeley Vale with his father, Neil Griffiths, who said the pair had recently been forced to move from their Housing Department townhouse.
  • New computer worms use password trick - Password-protected attachments are the latest tactic virus writers are using to trick unsuspecting users into spreading computer worms. Corporate email filters often block ordinary zipped attachments by default but may allow password-protected attachments through their defences. The trick is also designed to foil anti-virus software that can only unzip and check unlocked attachments. Furthermore, users may be more confident that a locked file comes from a trusted source and open it.
  • How-To Book May Help Hackers - A new book on writing code to exploit security flaws in software is raising eyebrows in the technical community. The book publishes "zero day," or previously unknown, techniques for exploiting vulnerable systems, including those running Microsoft Windows. The Shellcoder's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Holes, by Jack Koziol, David Litchfield, Dave Aitel, Chris Anley, Sinan Eren, Neel Mehta, and Riley Hassell, is an advanced guide to writing software exploits.
  • 10-Gigabit Ethernet comes alive - Few applications currently require the full bandwidth provided by 10-Gigabit Ethernet. But demand is picking up amid sharp price cuts fuelled by new designs and higher-density products. In addition, a new standard to run 10-Gigabit Ethernet over copper cable could help reduce costs and spur adoption later this year.
  • AMD renovates Athlon 64 - The Newcastle-based chips, which have recently become available in model numbers 2800+ and 3000+ and will soon include 3200+, may be the most notable change afoot. The new processors use half the Level 2 cache of AMD's original Athlon 64 desktop chip. Instead of coming with 1MB of Level 2 cache, the newer chips incorporate 512KB.
  • SimpleDrive Storage Soars to 400GB - SimpleTech is introducing a 400GB model of its external SimpleDrive hard drive storage line at this week's CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. The event runs March 18 - 24, 2004. Equipped with USB 2.0 and FireWire 400, the 400GB SimpleDrive features a 7200rpm mechanism that's compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems. The USB 2.0 interface is downwardly compatible with the USB 1.1 interface found on many Macs.
  • Sharp Actius MM20 First Look - At less then 2 pounds, (well, 1.99 to be exact) and barely half an inch thick, the Sharp Actius MM20 is a remarkably portable notebook.
  • XGI Dual GPU Benchmarked - Volari Duo V8 Ultra - The chaps at TweakTown take a look at the XGI Volari Duo V8 Ultra Dual GPU graphics card put directly against the 9800 XT and FX 5950. They use a whole bunch of the latest drivers including nVidia's ForceWare 56.64 which is being released today.
  • Extending your wireless signal - EnvyNews has posted an article about using Uni- and omni-directional antennas to increase wireless range.
  • Pinnacle Studio 9 review  - Pinnacle Studio is a video-editing program for amateur video filmmakers who want to edit their films on a PC without having to undergo years of training. Pinnacle seeks to offer a simple-to-operate software package that allows intuitive menu navigation without sacrificing any important functions.
  • Microsoft downloads - Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 3.0 Updated | PortRptr.exe - Port Reporter (logging service for Windows that logs TCP/IP port usage data) |  Debugging Tools for Windows 6.3.5 | Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide, for more check out this download page
  • Sun Java, Standard Edition 1.4.2_04 - download
  • Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.4 - A collection of codecs for playing DivX movies. All you need to see DivX movies: DivX, XviD, AC3.
  • DVD Shrink 3.1.7 - DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD disks. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disk
  • DVD Decrypter 3.2.1.0 - DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the context menu.
  • Dell GX60 BIOS corruption-  It would appear that the Dell Optiplex GX60 A06 BIOS update available on Dell's website is corrupting the BIOS of computers under some conditions. Updating from A00 to A06 using OpenManage IT Assistant or the harddrive package fails, killing the computer. The only option is to replace the motherboard.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,15 2004 - tech
Q1 2004 VGA Comparison - tech
(hx) 05:56 PM CET - Mar,15 2004 - Post a comment / read (11)
Digital-Daily have posted their Q1 2004 Video Card Comparison:
Since it's already the year 2004 outside, we have to upgrade our favorite P4 2.4 GHz that has been around in our test configuration for a year to 3.2 GHZ, with the memory capacity increased to 1GB. Anyway, to create an adequate picture as of early 2004, we had to re-test all the available video cards, which took us as long as two weeks. Only he who generated all these graphs is able to make head or tails of them :)

In the end, we made a voluntary decision to sum up all the results for the only resolution - 1024x768 as the most "playable".

Twenty video cards, 13 benchmarks. The purpose of the tests is to show the performance differences between the latest solutions presented by NVIDIA and ATI.
NVIDIA ForceWare Drivers v56.64 - tech
(hx) 05:32 PM CET - Mar,15 2004 - Post a comment / read (7)
A new WHQL Forceware graphics drivers v56.64 are available for download from the official NVIDIA download page (WinXP/2k ~ Win9x) This new version adds support for GeForce 5700 and GeForce 5700 Ultra, NVIDIA nView 3.5 Multi-display technology, improves HDTV Y Pr Pb component out support for 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i formats. The complete list of fixes can be found here (PDF).
 Issues Resolved in Version 56.64
* GeForce FX 5700/5700 Ultra/5950 Ultra, Windows XP: Rendering problems in Splinter Cell buffer shadow mode.
* Image Sharpening is being applied by default, causing text to appear thinner on some CRTs.
* GeForce FX 5700/5700 Ultra, Ravenshield: Corruption occurs in the game after a party member death.
* All GeForce FX, Windows XP: Intermittently, Warcraft III videos are not displayed properly on some systems.
* GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, Windows XP: nView Setup Wizard lacks 16-bit color choice.
* Quadro NVS, Windows XP: After turning off Span-over-Span, the display properties panel stops responding when selecting the Quadro NVS page.
* Quadro NVS, Windows XP: Flight.exe OpenGL has stripes of bad rendering on dual Quadro NVS cards.
* Quadro NVS 280 AGP + Quadro NVS 280 PCI, Windows 2000: Driver does not install with SETUP.EXE.
* Windows XP: Black horizontal lines in Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2.
* Quadro NVS, Windows XP: Driver causes blue-screen crash.
* Geforce2, Windows XP: Command and Conquer - Generals game back screen is black
* Geforce4 MX, Windows XP: Rendering problems with Armies of eXigo
* GeForce FX 5950 Ultra, Windows XP: 8xAA isn't working in Flight Simulator 2004.
* GeForce3 Ti, Windows XP/2000: VBO alt-tab crash
* Windows XP: PAL-M is incorrectly outputting 50 Hz instead of 60 Hz.
* nView Setup Wizard, Windows NT 4.0: Display mode, resolution and bit depth are not set properly when Span or Clone mode are selected in wizard
* GeForce FX 5700, Windows Me: WinDVD/PowerDVD hangs in nView Clone mode with video mirror enabled.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,14 2004 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:32 AM CET - Mar,14 2004 - Post a comment / read (8)
  • FBI adds to wiretap wish list - The FBI's request to the Federal Communications Commission aims to give police ready access to any form of Internet-based communications. If approved as drafted, the proposal could dramatically expand the scope of the agency's wiretap powers, raise costs for cable broadband companies and complicate Internet product development. Legal experts said the 85-page filing includes language that could be interpreted as forcing companies to build back doors into everything from instant messaging and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) programs to Microsoft's Xbox Live game service. The introduction of new services that did not support a back door for police would be outlawed, and companies would be given 15 months to make sure that existing services comply.
  • US hosting company reveals hacks, citing disclosure law - Citing California's security breach disclosure law, Texas-based Allegiance Telecom notified 4,000 Web hosting customers this week of a recent computer intrusion that exposed their usernames and passwords, in a case that experts say illustrates the security sunshine law's national influence.
  • Office XP Patch Gives Anti-Spam Software Fits - The recent patch offered up by Microsoft to plug vulnerabilities in Outlook 2002 and Office XP causes problems for users of a pair of spam filtering products, both Cloudmark and Sunbelt Software said Thursday. After installing Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), users of Cloudmark's SpamNet and Sunbelt Software's iHateSpam began seeing security alert pop-ups with each message they received. Both Sunbelt and Cloudmark acknowledge the problem and have posted support bulletins on their websites. Sunbelt has released an update to its software to fix the problem while Cloudmark said it is working with Microsoft to solve the issue.
  • S2 "mystery man" Anderer speaks on MS, SCO, and licensing - Mike Anderer was the author of the S2-to-SCO Group memo that comprises the "Halloween X" document that was released to the press by Eric Raymond last week. Anderer, the CEO of S2 and the middleman in the SCO Group's $50 million PIPE transaction of last October 16 contacted us today, and while he is under a non-disclosure agreement and can't say very much about the $50 million PIPE deal, what follows are some of the thoughts he can share. ->Read more

  • MySQL addresses open-source license problem - The rift divided MySQL and PHP, software that lets computers construct customized Web pages on the fly. The two packages are found alongside each other so often, along with the Linux operating system and the Apache Web server, that there's an acronym, LAMP, to label the software combination. On Thursday night, MySQL published a license exception that, the company said, permits PHP to resume its previous practice of bundling MySQL components called libraries, said Zack Urlocker, MySQL's vice president of marketing.

  • Off-topic: Prenatal choline supplements make baby's brain cells bigger, faster - The important nutrient choline "super-charged" the brains of animals that received supplements in utero, making their cells larger and faster at firing electrical "signals" that release memory-forming chemicals, according to a new study. These marked brain changes could explain earlier behavioral studies in which choline improved learning and memory in animals, say the researchers from the departments of pharmacology and psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and from the Durham VA Medical Center. The implications for humans are profound, said the researchers, because the collective data on choline suggests that simply augmenting the diets of pregnant women with this one nutrient could affect their children's lifelong learning and memory. In theory, choline could boost cognitive function, diminish age-related memory decline, and reduce the brain's vulnerability toxic insults.

  • Off-topic: 100-metre nanotube thread pulled from furnace - A thread of carbon nanotubes more than 100 metres long has been pulled from a fiery furnace. The previous record holder was a mere 30 centimetres long. Carbon nanotubes are stronger than steel and better conductors than copper, but are often just a thousandth of a millimetre in length. By bundling the nanotubes together into much longer fibres, scientists hope to harness their properties on a larger scale. For example, embedding long carbon nanotube threads in plastic would give tougher composites for airplane hulls.

  • Intel ready to intro 300MHz Prescott - As Intel appears to have decided that Megahertz Madness is now a thing of the past, we're looking forward to when it introduces a 300MHz Prescott Pentium 4 on its 90 nanometre process.This will run very cool and get us back to the time when we had to pay for central heating, rather than have our PC be part of the "Digital Home" and keep us warm on winter nights and evenings.

  • Athlon FX53 goes up for sale - The forthcoming Athlon FX53 has started appearing for sale - although according to Chris Tom at AMD Zone, these are pre-orders and there doesn't seem to be any stock of the CPUs yet

  • VIA aims latest P4 chipsets at HDTV generation - VIA today launched a pair of integrated chipsets for the Pentium 4, touting the parts' graphics performance delivered courtesy of an S3 Graphics UniChrome Pro core. The chipsets, the PM800 and PM880, offer single- and dual-channel 400MHz DDR SDRAM memory controllers, respectively. That's their only distinguishing feature: both can handle up to 8GB of RAM and both support the P4's 800MHz effective bit rate frontside bus.

  • Preparing for PCI-Express - For nearly anyone in this market, the idea of spending $300 or more on the latest and greatest graphics card to play the newest games is enough to make then cringe. However, these people are now faced with the potential need to upgrade their motherboards and likely processors in order to adopt PCI-Express. In a best-case scenario, you are still talking hundreds of additional dollars. Then again, who is to say that we will see any immediate benefit from PCI-Express in the first generation of cards?

  • NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb Performance Preview - Now NVIDIA is back again with its follow-up to nForce3 150, dubbed nForce3 250. Whereas nForce3 was originally intended to compete in the workstation segment with nForce3 Pro 150, and eventually adapted to serve the needs of the consumer in nForce3 150, NVIDIA’s nForce3 250 merges the needs of the workstation segment (where features and performance often take a back seat to stability and reliability) with the speed and eye-catching features consumers want to see in a motherboard.

  • Sapphire The Beast All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro review - Velocity has posted a review of the Sapphire The Beast All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro video card.

  • ABIT 9800XT review - HardOCP has posted a review of ABIT 9800XT. "In typical ABIT style the box has a dark look to it with a powerful graphic on the front. ABIT makes sure to point out some noteworthy features of the video card on the front of the box such as Dual VGA, TV-Out, DVI and DirectX9. They also let you know the card supports AGP 8X/4X and has 256MB of RAM. Also indicated on the front of the box is the free Half Life 2 logo. On the back of the box ABIT lists the complete product features of this video card along with the packaging contents."

  • Video card round-up - Digital-Daily have published their VGA Roundup with _twenty_ video cards.

  • Ultimate Athlon XP Overclocking: Mobile Athlon XP, DFI, Corsair - Guru Review has posted a new article called "Ultimate Athlon XP Overclocking: Mobile Athlon XP, DFI, Corsair"

  • High-Speed CDROMS - The Hidden Dangers - ExtremeMHz has posted a new article called "High-Speed CDROMS - The Hidden Dangers" Here is an excerpt: "About two weeks ago, a friend of mine had a CD literally explode in his drive. I've never heard of such a thing and figured this was just an isolated incident but today, I received an email from one of our readers who unfortunately encountered the same exact problem. It seems to be a common issue and is why we decided to write a short article on this hidden danger. But just how powerful can it be? Can it actually cause serious injury? Our reader James, has sent in a couple of pictures to prove the magnitude of such an event."

  • Hidden Space on Hard Drives? - AllHardwareZone has published an article on hidden space on hard drives. "With quite a bit of controversy being stirred by this article at The Inquirer, I was compelled to examine the claim of free space. Basically, the article claimed that there was a procedure available which made it possible to "recover unused areas of the hard drive in the form of hidden partitions". According to the author the the article, more than 100% of the drive's capacity could be unlocked."

  • Unattended XP CD Guide - Microsoft Software Forum Network has updated their Unattended XP CD Guide. Have you ever wanted a Windows XP CD that would install Windows XP by automatically putting in your name, product key, timezone and regional settings? Followed by silently installing all your favourite applications along with DirectX 9, .Net Framework and then all the Pre-SP2 hotfixes, updated drivers, registry tweaks, and a readily patched UXTheme.dll without any user interaction whatsoever? Then this guide will show you how you can do just that.

  • Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server security - Microsoft has published a guide about making Terminal Server more secure.

  • Registry Edits for Windows XP: Tweaks and Tips - Looking for some Windows XP tweaks and tips? then head this way to Kellys-korner-xp for hundreds of tweaks for XP.

  • CoDBench - CoDBench is a Guru3D.com freeware application for automatic Call of Duty benchmarks.

  • MultiEx Commander v3.9.70 - The worlds best multi game resource archiver MultiEx Commander has been updated. Version 3.9.70 is now operating solely on online resources for maximum performance. Dubbed "The Ultimate Mod Tool" by PC Extreme (UK) and with more than 150 game resource archives supported for extraction, MultiEx Commander is steadfast in user-requested game support.

  • K9 1.27 - K9 is an email filtering program that works in conjunction with most popular email applications that use the standard POP3 email protocol. Messages pass through K9 on their way to your email program and as K9 processes them it can learn to identify the difference between Spam and Good emails, marking Spam emails so that your email application can file them away or delete them.

  • FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 12-03-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies.

  • RadLinker 1.005 - RadLinker (download) is new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,12 2004 - tech
Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:14 PM CET - Mar,12 2004 - Post a comment / read (10)
  • Firestorm burned by Nintendo - In January 2004, Nintendo was granted a US Patent for a GB/GBC/GBA emulator (submitted way back in 2000). This means any and all GB emulators not authorized by Nintendo are now illegal.
  • Leaked Nintendo DS specs reveal touch screen, Wi-Fi, 3D graphics - A document leaked onto the Internet purporting to be a full specification for Nintendo's forthcoming DS handheld includes a touch panel input device, 802.11 wireless LAN support and a 3D graphics system. As expected, the system will have two processors, with an ARM-9 CPU running at 67MHz and an ARM-7 unit running at 33MHz. Retail DS devices will have 4Mb of main RAM (while debug development units will have double that), with additional chunks of cache and shared RAM for the processors and 656Kb of video RAM.
  • Gigabyte launches RZ-series motherboards aiming at entry-level market - Gigabyte Technology has launched 10 entry- to mid-level motherboards, aiming at the same market as the X-series from industry leader Asustek Computer, sources said. Gigabyte’s new models, the RZ-series lineup, are built using a range of chipsets from Intel, VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS), and all of them support Intel’s 90nm Prescott processors. The RZ series, with prices around US$60, target the same market as Asustek’s X-series motherboards, said the sources.
  • New AMD Chip Appears in HP Notebook - The Compaq Presario r3000z and HP Pavilion vz5000z notebooks are available now through HP's Web site with the 64-bit Mobile Athlon 64 processor. But the base configuration of the r3000z comes with a chip branded as the Athlon XP-M 3000+. A base configuration of the Presario r3000z is available with the new CPU, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, a 15-inch display, and a GeForce4 420 Go graphics card from Nvidia with 32MB of video memory for $949 after a $100 mail-in rebate.
  • PCI Express' Future Promise for Graphics - PCI Express is coming. THG try to give you a forecast of how it will affect graphic cards and systems. They also try to find out if we really need the increased bandwidth of 4GB per second that PCI Express x16 offers at this time.
  • Gateways new wireless DVD player features 802.11g - Gateway has upgraded it's wireless DVD player with an 802.11g card, the ADC-320 is up to five times faster than it's "b" predecessor. The unit can now theoretically stream up to 300 feet away from the PC at 54 megabits per second under "ideal conditions".
  • Intervideo unveils 3-step DVD Copy 2 software - InterVideo announced InterVideo DVD Copy 2 Platinum and Gold editions, the latest releases of its award-winning software for making identical copies of personal DVD and CD videos in just three easy steps. Now up to 25 percent faster, DVD Copy 2 duplicates unencrypted(1) DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs with no loss of quality, content or features. InterVideo's new DVD Copy 2 software includes more robust customization features for creating personalized DVDs. The Platinum version also includes a merging feature that enables users to combine multiple DVD titles on one 4.7GB DVD, complete with automatic menu generation for easy navigation.
  • Windows Server 2003 Troubleshooting Stop Errors - A basic understanding of Stop errors and their underlying causes improves your ability to locate and understand technical information or perform diagnostic procedures requested of you by technical support personnel.
  • Video Codec Shootout - ExtremeTech tested four codecs, all of which are free and can be used with free tools - Windows Media, DivX, QuickTime/Sorenson and QuickTime/MPEG4 codecs.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.7.9 - Media Player Classic (Win2k/XP ~ Win9X/ME) 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.
  • Kernel 2.6.4 Final - Linux Kernel has been updated once again with few patches and made official stable release.
  • DVDFab v1.60 -  With DVDFab you can back-up your DVDs to one or multiple DVDR discs.
  • Plextor PX-708A/UF firmware v1.06 - Plextor Japan had pulled firmware 1.05 for the Plextor PX-708A/UF drive from their website due to some problems with DVD-R/RW media. A new version 1.06 is now available and fixes the problems (thanks CDFreaks).
  • NVIDIA Quadro Driver 53.13 WHQL - Nvidia has released a new Quadro Driver version 53.13 WHQL (Win2k/XP)
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,11 2004 - tech
Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:01 PM CET - Mar,11 2004 - Post a comment / read (7)
  • Microsoft upgrades patch to critical - Microsoft has upgraded one of its patches to 'critical' after discovering new ways in which it could be used by hackers.The flaw affects the two latest versions of the company's Outlook email client. Microsoft is warning customers to download and install the patch immediately. The patch was previously rated as "important".
  • Format string bug in EpicGames Unreal engine - The problem is a format string bug in the Classes management. Each time a client connects to a server it sends the names of the objects it uses (called classes). If an attacker uses a class name containing format parameters (as %n, %s and so on) he will be able to crash or also to execute malicious code on the remote server. This proof-of-concept is a proxy server able to modify the Unreal packets in real-time allowing the insertion of "%n" into the class names sent by the client to the server causing the r-emote crash. It should be compatible with any game based on the Unreal engine and requires the same game running on the server to be used.
  • Symbiot launches DDoS counter-strike tool - Symbiot, a Texas-based security firm, is preparing to launch a corporate defence system at the end of March that can fight back against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) and hacker attacks by launching a counter-strike. In advance of the product launch, Symbiot's president, Mike Erwin, and its chief scientist, Paco Nathan, have outlined a set of "rules of engagement for information warfare", which they say should be part of corporate security policy to help companies determine their exact response to an incoming attack.
  • Off-topic: Deepest picture of universe - US astronomers have unveiled mankind’s deepest look into the early universe, providing a tableau of 10,000 galaxies, including some of the first to be forged after the Big Bang 13 billion years ago. The astonishing million-second-long exposure by the orbiting Hubble telescope provides a glimpse into the end of the so-called Dark Ages, when the first stars began to emerge from the primal blast.
  • Off-topic: Robotcop III Set to Fight Crime in Hong Kong -  There is a new cop patrolling the streets of Hong Kong and teaching children how to prevent crime. Robotcop III can walk, dance, move in any direction, display videos and answer questions asked in Cantonese and English. The previous versions of Robotcops, introduced in 1988 and 1995, were imported from the U.S. and taught 800,000 school children how to fight crime (thanks Slashdot.org)
  • Microsoft: Yukon won't come till 2005 - The company is delaying to next year the release of its forthcoming SQL Server database and Visual Studio.Net development tool. Customers who bought certain license plans expecting upgrades could be left empty-handed.
  • Matsushita to offer Blu-ray Disk recorders by July - Matsushita showed a prototype of its Blu-ray DVD-RAM recorder on Tuesday (March 9) that uses a two-layer 50 Gbyte disk. The prototype incorporates tuners that cover all digital TV broadcasting in Japan and is also compatible with present DVD-RAM and DVD-R formats. Other details won't be revealed for another several months, the company said. Matsushita said it intends to introduce the recorder in Japan before the Athens Olympic Games to be staged in August. During the Olympics, viewers often use video recorders more often, said Shuzo Ushimaru, director of corporate marketing of Matsushita.
  • Intel to launch $120 2.4GHz Prescott - Intel has begun hawking a 2.4GHz version of its 90nm 'Prescott' Pentium 4 to system builders and mobo makers, and will ship the part at the end of March. The low-clocked part was never mentioned at Prescott's launch early last month, but emerged among Intel's list of boxed processors which have been certified to conform with various territories' local laws. The 2.4GHz Prescott supports only a 533MHz effective bit rate frontside bus and does not offer HyperThreading.
  • M-Systems ships $40k 90GB Flash drive - Memory specialist M-Systems this week released a 90GB hard drive based not on spindles, platters and mobile read/write heads but solid-state Flash memory. The announcement comes a week after the company's CEO, Dov Moran, claimed that Microsoft - an M-Systems customer - has dropped the hard drive from the Xbox 2 spec.
  • News Interceptor 1.12a - Digital Dream let us know they have released a new version 1.12 of News Interceptor (download). They have added a cool new feature to automatically detect content feeds from Web pages you browse without you needing to submit those manually.
  • FlashFXP v2.2 Build 976 Beta - FlashFXP is a powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market. It is loaded with features for the power user, but has an intuitive user interface that takes only minutes to master.
  • DVD Region-Free 3.36 - DVD Region-Free (download) enables you to watch and copy DVD from any region on all DVD drives! It fully supports region-protected (RPC2) DVD drives, and does not require any firmware modifications. It will work, even if you can not change the DVD drive's region anymore.
  • TVTool v9.6 (SHW) -  TVTool (download) is a control center for the TV output of nVidia graphics cards. With this tool it is possible to adapt the TV output perfectly to your needs and to control the TV mode in a comfortable way.
  • CPU RightMark 0.5 Beta - The CPU RightMark benchmark is meant for objective performance measurement of modern and future CPUs in various computational tasks such as computational modeling of physical processes and solving of 3D graphics problems.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,10 2004 - tech
ATI CATALYST Drivers v4.3 - tech
(hx) 10:56 PM CET - Mar,10 2004 - Post a comment / read (30)
ATI has released new ATi Catalyst drivers (Win2k/XP ~ Win9x/ME) bringing them up to version 4.3. The package contains: RADEON display driver 7.991, Multimedia Centert 8.9, HydraVisiont 3.25.0006, HydraVisiont Basic Edition 3.25.9006, Remote Wonder 2.2 and WDM version 3.11 (thanks Blooduk).
Resolved Game Issues:

  • Setting the video resolution to 1280x1024 in the game Medal of Honor: Spearhead, along with Anti-Aliasing set to 2x no longer results in the main menu of the game not displaying properly
  • Display corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game Aquanox under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 9100 IGP series installed. This issue is was known to occur when specific video options have been customized
  • Running the game Hegemonia under Windows XP with an ATI RADEON 8500 series installed no longer results in all of the main menu options and the 3D textures in the background not being available
  • The operating system no longer fails to respond when launching the game TrackMania with a RADEON 7000 series installed
  • Background colour corruption is no longer seen when playing the game Armed and Dangerous
  • Poor performance is no longer noticed when playing the game Homeworld 2 with extended desktop enabled or when Anti-Aliasing is set to 4x
  • Visual corruption is no longer seen when playing the game Spy Hunter
  • Setting the resolution in the game Enclave to 1024x768 or higher no longer results in display corruption
  • The Windows operating system no longer intermittently fails to respond when playing the game Jedi Knight 2 with the display set to 1024x768 32bpp and the game option set to High Quality
  • Windows problems are no longer noticed when playing the game Homeworld 2 in single player mode
  • Texture corruption is no longer seen when playing the game Battlefield 1942
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:21 AM CET - Mar,10 2004 - Post a comment / read (5)
  • EU in Piracy Crackdown - The European Parliament has passed an anti-piracy law, covering everything from handbags to music downloads. The final vote on the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive took place in the European Parliament on 9 March. The directive was passed by 330 votes to 151. The law was drawn up to target professional pirates, criminals and counterfeiters who make copies of goods such as football shirts or CDs. During the debates, the directive was widened to cover any infringement of intellectual property. The directive allows companies to raid homes, seize property and ask courts to freeze bank accounts to protect trademarks or intellectual property they believe are being abused or stolen.
  • Microsoft Releases March Monthly Security Updates: None Critical - On Tuesday, Microsoft's Security Response Center  issued three new security bulletins , none of which are rated critical; one bulletin is rated important, while the other two are moderate. The Office security flaw is the only one that could allow malicious hackers to run unwanted code on users' systems. That flaw affects systems running Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Outlook 2002 SP2. The moderate security flaw for MSN Messenger 6.0 and 6.1 could allow attackers to view, but not change or download, files on the victim's computer. That flaw will also be fixed in an upcoming version of the instant messaging (IM) application that Microsoft will soon issue. The moderate security flaw in Windows Media Services affects Windows 2000 with SP2, SP3, and SP4 and could let hackers send fake streaming media requests that will shut down the service. That situation would be, in effect, a denial of service (DoS) attack
  • Sony Ericsson debuts 1megapixel cameraphone - Sony Ericsson has released its first one megapixel digital cameraphone for the European market. The S700 swivel phone includes a 1.3 megapixel CCD camera with an image size of 1280 x 960, an eight times digital zoom and a 262K colour TFT screen
  • Unused space on hard drives recovered?  - TheInquirer has published a method which was discovered by Scott Komblue and documented by Wiley Siler which claim you can recover unused areas of the hard drive in the form of hidden partitions.  Interesting results to date: Western Digital 200GB SATA -> Yield after recovery: 510GB of space.
  • KDE 3.2.1 - KDE 3.2.1 has been just released to the public.
  • Office XP - Service Pack 3 - Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) (download) provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office XP. SP3 contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. This service pack applies to any level of Office XP. It contains all updates included in Office XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), and updates released after SP2.  Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it. Note: There's also Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Access 2002 Runtime and Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) for SharePoint Team Services
  • Unofficial Windows98 SE Service Pack 1.2 - It contains all Windows98 SE updates from Windows Update site and more. It is a self-extracting and self-installing pack like Microsoft's update files. Thus, you cannot choice files individually. However, the pack installs only required fixes for your system. Uninstallation is possible from Add-Remove Programs.
  • MSN Messenger 6.1 Build 6.1.0211 - MSN Messenger 6.1 has been updated to build 0211. There are no real changes, expect changes for MSN Messenger 6.2, due 8th April 2004.
Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 02:03 AM CET - Mar,10 2004 - Post a comment / read (1)
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,09 2004 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:24 AM CET - Mar,09 2004 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • New worm masquerades as Microsoft update - A new variant of the Sober worm has surfaced this morning, antivirus specialist F-Secure has warned.
    Sober D pretends to be a Microsoft software update that protects against a new version of the MyDoom worm. Once activated the worm displays a patch loading screen, but harvests email addresses and mails itself out using its own SMTP engine.
  • Bye-Bye, Pop-Ups. Hello...? - Pop-up ads, those reviled windows that intrude on your Web surfing, seem to be on the decline. But don't celebrate yet: New forms of advertising that may be just as annoying and even more intrusive are likely to replace them. Thwarted by both ISPs and blocking utilities, use of pop-ups has waned over the past year. Internet advertising analysts say Microsoft's decision to put a pop-up stopper into the next version of Internet Explorer hastens their demise, but no one expects them to disappear soon. And new styles of ads, including screen-grabbing full-motion videos and rich media that overwrite the screen, are starting to appear.
  • Windows could lose Media Player in EU tangle - If Microsoft cannot settle an antitrust case brought by European Union regulators, the company may be ordered to remove Windows Media Player as an integrated feature of the dominant Windows operating system, at least for personal computers sold in Europe. The European Commission also could order Microsoft to include rival media players with Windows to make those products as easy for users to access as Microsoft's own music and video player
  • Off-topic: The potential of "brain pacemakers" -  A handful of scientists around the world have begun cautiously experimenting with devices implanted in patients' bodies to deliver precisely targeted electrical stimulation to the brain in hopes of treating otherwise hopeless behavioral, neurological and psychiatric disorders. While stressing that the ethically sensitive research with "brain pacemakers" has just begun, the scientists say the results so far have been so promising that it could mark the beginning of a new era in treating often intractable cases. The approach builds on rapid recent advances in understanding how the brain works, on high-tech imaging technologies that allow surgeons to pinpoint targets with unprecedented precision, and on the miniaturization of computerized electronic devices that can safely be inserted under the skin.
  • Off-topic: Rings finale comes sooner to DVD - The film, which won 11 Oscars last month, will be released on 25 May, producers New Line said. Fans had to wait until August 2002 and 2003 for DVD versions of the first two Rings films. An extended version of the film - including previously unseen footage - will follow at the end of the year. The initial DVD release of the film will include the film, as well as a 20-minute theatrical trailer and a range of behind-the-scenes material. The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were also released with extended versions on DVD. The extended version of the film - which will be considerably longer than the three hours and 21 minutes in the theatrical version - will make the trio of extended versions more than 11 hours long.
  • No Xbox 2 revelations at GDC - Reports suggest that Xbox Next's hardware will not be unveiled at the forthcoming Game Developers' Conference. Microsoft's chief Xbox officer, Robbie Bach, will take to the stage at the GDC on 24 March to discuss the new console - but may limit himself to games and some technical aspects of its format. The suggestion comes from Microsoft Japan's Asako Miyata in an interview with Bloomberg, who noted that a decision had not yet been taken to as to when the technical specifications of the system should be released.
  • Miniature fuel cells may oust batteries - A trick that boosts the power of miniature hydrogen fuel cells by up to 50 per cent has been revealed by US researchers. Such fuel cells could help keep portable gadgets up and running - cellphone giant Nokia warned last week that battery technology is not keeping pace with advanced phone functions. The apparent downside is that the effect only works with hydrogen fuel cells, whereas liquid methanol is currently the fuel of choice for consumer electronics firms like Motorola and NEC that are developing fuel-cell-powered cellphones and laptops. They favour methanol because it releases more energy than hydrogen, volume for volume, so methanol-powered gadgets would be able to have smaller "fuel tanks". 
  • ATI: tight supply of graphics chipsets will ease by end of March - The tight supply of ATI Technologies’ graphics chipsets, particularly the Radeon 9600XT line, will ease by the end of March, company chairman and CEO Ho Kwok-yuen said in Taipei late last week. Ho also confirmed that ATI will start delivering chipsets supporting PCI express technology in the second quarter. Many of ATI’s OEM clients of motherboards and graphics cards have already verified the company’s PCI express-based chipsets and have decided to use the products, Ho said.
  • Faster Fujitsu drive plays catch-up - Fujitsu Computer Products of America on Monday unveiled a 300GB drive that spins at 10,000 revolutions per minute. It also announced a 15,000 rpm drive with a capacity of up to 147GB. Compared with previous generations, storage capacity in the models has been doubled at both speeds, the company said.
  •  HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 First Look - If you're looking for a thin and light workhorse, the HP Compaq Business Notebook nc6000 ($1.899) should be on your list. Though not very stylish, and slightly bulky at 6.6 pounds (including the AC adapter), this business-class notebook performs very well and gives...
  • VIA's Dual-Channel Memory KT880 Chipset Takes on Nvidia's nForce2 - VIA's KT880 dual-channel memory chipset shows that the AthlonXP processor still has a lot of fire power left in it. While the Athlon64 represents AMD's latest and greatest processor, AthlonXP-based chipsets, especially those with dual-channel memory, still have much to offer. With its introduction of the KT880, VIA also hopes to eat some of Nvidia's nForce2 Ultra 400 lunch with its AthlonXP, dual-channel memory chipset offering.
  • RAID set up guide - PC Stats have published a new guide called "how to set up a Raid array". The guide quickly describes what "RAID" actually means.
  • MSFN's Official Unattended XP CD Guide (March 2004) - Have you ever wanted a Windows XP CD that would install Windows XP by automatically putting in your name, product key, timezone and regional settings? Followed by silently installing all your favourite applications along with DirectX 9, .Net Framework and then all the Pre-SP2 hotfixes, updated drivers, registry tweaks, and a readily patched UXTheme.dll without any user interaction whatsoever? Then this guide will show you how you can do just that.
  • NTI CD&DVD-Maker Platinum Edition 6.7.0.16 - NTI CD&DVD-Maker 6.7 (download trial) is a solution for burning CDs and DVDs. The integrated user interface delivers fast and easy burning in a few EasySteps®. Perfect for all your recording needs! fast burning in a few easy steps. Safeguard, Organize and Share - all of your files with one, easy-to-use CD and DVD burning solution.
  • BitTorrent 3.4 - BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers.
  • SHAD0W's Experimental BitTorrent Client 5.8.11 - This is another BitTorrentr client (download)
  • MAME 0.80 - MAME is the best Arcade Machine emulator.
  • VideoLAN 0.7.1 - VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed. It works great for previewing partially downloaded files too.
  • Bart's PE Builder 3.0.31 - Bart's PE Builder (download) helps you build a bootable Window CD-Rom or DVD from Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 very suitable for PC maintenance tasks.
  • AutoPatcher XP 4.5 (Feb2004 Update) - AutoPatcher XP (download) is a comprehensive collection of patches & registry tweaks that give you peace of mind in the knowledge that your Windows XP is up to date.
  • Memtest86 3.1 - A new version of Memtest86 is available for download. This new version adds processor detection for newer AMD processors, new "Bit Fade" extended test and fixes a complile time bug with gcc version 3.x.
  • Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.3 - CodecPack All In 1 is a simple installation program that will install on your computer a set of DirectShow Filters and codecs for playing movies (XviD, DivX, SVCD, MPEG2 ...). This codec pack includes: Decoder for DivX 5.1.1, XviD Koepi 1.0 b3, DivX, XviD - FFDShow 28.11.2003 alpha, MPEG2 2.0.0.2525 , subtitles g400 2.83, subtitles DVobSub 2.23, 2.32, OGG Vorbis 0.9.9.5 , AC3 0.70b and Morgan Multimedia Stream Switcher 0.97.
  • Realtek ALC AC97 Audio Driver v3.56 - The ALC650 incorporates proprietary converter technology to achieve a high SNR, greater than 90 dB. The ALC650 AC'97 CODEC supports multiple CODEC extensions with independent variable sampling rates and built-in 3D effects.
  • Pioneer DVR-107 RPC1 12xRIP / 1.10 firmware - http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org/ has done it again, now with the latest 1.10 firmware. You can now rip at 12xDVD and have RPC1 and selectable 8x DVD-R for suitable media. (thanks TechSeekers)
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,06 2004 - tech
Saturday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:16 PM CET - Mar,06 2004 - Post a comment / read (9)
  • Windows XP SP2 could break existing apps - Microsoft has made something of a trade-off with the update, focusing on security improvements at the expense of backward compatibility. The company has called on all software developers to test their code against the beta version of Service Pack 2, or face the possibility that the update will break their handiwork. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is more than the usual roll-up of bug fixes and updates. It is also being used to make significant changes to the software with the aim of improving security. Microsoft has warned these changes could render applications inoperable.
  • Off-topic: Science: Chernobyl...18 Years Later - A young Ukrainian woman has posted a photo journal of her motorcycle rides through Chernobyl and the area surrounding it. Included are pictures of the now-emptied city, maps of current radiation levels, and a discussion of how the area has changed. (thanks Slashdot.org) - WORTH READING!
  • Cheap 3D scanner nearing the desktop - The design industry already uses 3D scanners, but these machines cost thousands of pounds and are bulky and complex to operate. They typically use an array of cameras to scan an object and then recreate it in three dimensions on a computer. From real to virtual Spiral Scratch's system is far simpler. A projector beams light through a grating that projects a pattern of horizontal lines across an object placed on a rotating platform (see diagram).
  • SenseCam - Personal Image & Data Recall - SenseCam is a badge-sized wearable camera that captures up to 2000 VGA images per day. In addition, sensor data such as movement, light level and temperature is recorded. This is similar to an aircraft “Black Box” accident recorder but miniaturised for the human body. It could help with memory recall, e.g. where did I leave my spectacles or keys? who did I meet last week? by doing a “rewind” of the days events. If a person has an accident, the events and images leading up to this will be recorded, and these could be useful to health workers. It could also be used for automatic blog generation.
  • Doom developer confirms N-Gage 2 - Nokia is working on a follow-up to the N-Gage that will address all of the key failings of the original phone-cum-console hardware.  So says none other than shoot-'em-up pioneer John Romero. Having co-coded Doom and Quake for Id Software and wasted Eidos' money at Ion Storm, Romero now writes mobile games for his own company, Monkeystone Games. It's smaller and thinner than its predecessor, and the game cartridge slot is just under the back cover - and not the battery too. The design of the case more easily allows users to hold the console up to their ear to make phone calls.
  • AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 to launch this month - AMD will launch the much-anticipated Athlon 64 FX-53 this month, according to purported company roadmaps posted on the Net. The 2.4GHz, 940-pin gaming-oriented part will be followed by a 939-pin version on May, which will be accompanied by two the 939-pin 64-bit AMD chips, the Athlon 64 3500+ and the 3800+, clocked at 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz, respectively, and both equipped with 512KB of L2 cache. The 939-pin versions support unbuffered SDRAM, while the 940-pin chips required registered DIMMs.
  • NV4X generation has MPEG 1,2,4 encode/decode - NVIDIA'S NV40 is not going to be just fast in shaders and pixels, it will have some additional features that will be interesting to anybody that messes with Video. NVIDIA wants to promote NV4X generation of chips as the ones with high quality video, complete and ready for HDTV and PVR. As for HDTV, Nvidia claims Transport stream handling, HDTV output (720p, 1080p, 480p CGMS) and HDCP - High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection as well as HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface support. The PVR part is the most interesting as Nvidia claims that the NV4X generation will have support for no more and no less then MPEG 1/2/4 encode and decode as well as WMV9 decode acceleration.
  • NVidia Revs Graphics With DDR3 Memory - NVidia will release graphics boards later this month with a fast new memory technology that can achieve bandwidth speeds double those of current graphics memory, the company has announced. Graphics cards using the Santa Clara, California, company's GeForce FX 5700 Ultra chip and 128MB of GDDR3 (Graphics Double Data Rate 3) memory will be available in mid-March from board manufacturers such as Asustek Computer and Gigabyte Technology, NVidia says.
  • More details leak on NV40 Ultra and non Ultra - According to TheInquirer, Nvidia will have one extremely expensive card that will cost about €/$499. This card is expected to be faster clocked and it will have faster memory as well. The memory target sits close to the 600MHz range but it's still being tested for the right speed. As previously suggested, the card will use GDDR 3 memory which consumes less power and runs cooler then DDR 2. The NV40 non ultra, amateur version is going to be clocked lower but we don’t have any details how slower yet. The price will be around €/$299
  • PCS Vision Video Phone VM4050 by Toshiba First Look - The PCS Vision Video Phone VM4050 by Toshiba isn't your typical cell phone. Flip it open and you'll find a striking. Specs: 2.2-inch, 320-by-240 (260K) TFT LCD, built-in VGA (640 by 480) camera with flash, video recording, WAP 2.0, CDMA-2000, Lithium Ion battery, 3.3 hours digital talk time, ten days digital stand-by time, 4.1 ounces.
  • Belkin's Nostromo Game Controller n52 - What is the Nostromo? Also known as the starship in the movie "Alien," it is the moniker of a particularly unique line of game controllers made by Belkin. While the Nostromo of the movie "Alien" is meant for mining in deep space and transporting people in "cryo-sleep," Belkin's Speedpad is meant for the twitch gamers who want to dominate the newest high-speed, high-intensity games.
  • Pioneer DVR-107D DVD±RW review - CDFreaks take a close look at Pioneer's latest dual format DVD burner, the DVR-107D. "We think that many will find it annoying that no 4x DVDR discs works at 8x writing speed and that few 8x DVDR discs works at 8x. We did also expect the media compatibility to be almost perfect since it's almost perfect with the older DVR-106 drive, but there were quite a few discs that the drive was unable to detect. Another serious issue is the CD-RW writing problems; Many drives have problems reading the discs written by the Pioneer DVR-107D and the CD-RW discs becomes unusable after few times of use"
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 command line utilities - These utilities are primarily used for diagnostic, configuration and data migration purposes, rather than for database server administration.
  • MSJVM Removal Tool 1.0 - The Microsoft JVM Removal Tool can be used to remove the MS Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM). Use of this tool is the only supported method for removing the MSJVM from a Microsoft operating system.
  • GCPUID 1.90 Beta - GCPUID is a freeware utility that offers certain information about your CPU.
  • ffdshow build 2004-03-04 - ffdshow (download ~  changelog) is DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX and XVID movies using libavcodec or xvid with rich set of video postprocessing filters.
  • FX Composer 1.0 - FX Composer empowers developers to create high performance shaders in an integrated development environment with unique real-time preview & optimization features. FX Composer was designed with the goal of making shader development and optimization easier for programmers while providing an intuitive GUI for artists customizing shaders for a particular scene.
  • BWMeter 1.40  ($25) - BWMeter (download) is a powerful bandwidth meter and monitor, which measures and displays all traffic on your network. Unlike other products, it can analyze the data packets (where they come from, where they go, which port and protocol they use).
  • Nero 6.3.0.6c - 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.
  • Elby CloneDVD 1.9.2.4 - CloneDVD extracts, transcodes and writes any orginal DVD title you like to a single recordable DVD. Be impressed by the program speed and the amazing image quality of the movie copy.
  • Fresh Download 6.75 - Fresh Download (download) is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software, no spyware.
  • Fresh UI 7.00 - Fresh UI (download) is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know: Customizing Windows User Interface, Optimizing system settings, Optimizing hardware settings, Customizing Windows application settings, and Control user environment with policies.
  • ATI 256 MB DDR RADEON 9800 XT BIOS - Dell have released a new BIOS update (v.113-A18804-106) for their RADEON 9800 XT. This new BIOS adds enhanced thermal control functionality.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,05 2004 - tech
Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:20 AM CET - Mar,05 2004 - Post a comment / read (6)
  • Leaked Memo Says Microsoft Raised $86 million for SCO - A document was emailed to an open source site by an anonymous whistleblower inside SCO. It tells the typos and syntax bobbles were in the original. The site cannot certify its authenticity. In related news, The SCO Group is officially denying a published report that claims Microsoft funneled more than $82 million and possibly up to $106 million into the embattled Unix company to help it fight IBM and Linux.
  • Losing Control of Your TV - In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set. Every TV sold in the United States will come equipped with an electronic circuit that will search incoming TV programs for a tiny electronic “flag.” The MPAA’s members will control this flag, putting it into broadcast movies and television shows as they see fit. If the flag is present, your TV will go into a special high-security mode and lock down its high-quality digital outputs. If you want to record a flagged program, you’ll have to do so on analog tape or on a special low-resolution DVD. Any recording will be limited to analog-quality sound. This security measure is not designed to protect the television from viruses or computer hackers—it’s designed to protect TV programs from you.
  • DVD copy software provider loses 2nd court battle -  For the second time in as many weeks, a provider of software that allows people to make copies of DVDs has lost a court battle and been barred by a federal judge from selling its product. The federal judge's ruling handed Hollywood's major movie studios another victory in their battle to stem the illegal copying of movies and TV shows on DVD, and in a statement, studio lawyers said they would look at whether a new version of 321's software now on the market also violates copyright law.
  • How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web - The New York Times reports that Al Qaeda operatives were tracked using the ID of the GSM phone chips sold by a Swiss company named Swisscom (thanks Slashdot.org)
  • Lindows routes OS over file-sharing networks - The company said Thursday that it is set to distribute its LindowsOS through P2P networks for $25, half the normal price, from its Web site. Lindows has been targeting consumers with its packaged version of the open-source Linux operating system, which has a reputation of being geared more for technically savvy individuals. The file-sharing setup means lower networking costs for Lindows and faster downloads for users, the company said. By cutting back on bandwidth rates and on hosting infrastructure such as servers and firewalls, Lindows said it can serve 1,000 or more simultaneous customers rather than the 125 its earlier system could handle.
  • QuickTime hole waiting to be filled in - A critical hole in Apple Computer Inc.'s QuickTime media player has been identified and is waiting on a patch from the vendor. The vulnerability rated at "high severity" by eEye Digital Security -- the company that discovered it -- enables malicious code to be run on someone's machine "with little user interaction". The hole exists across all versions of QuickTime and is present in the software's default settings, increasing the risk of the hole being used by hackers.
  • UK bans Nokia N-Gage ads after complaints -  Britain's advertising watchdog has banned an advert for Nokia's new combined mobile phone and games console because it could be seen to encourage sexual violence towards women.
  • Philips' New Camera Lens Works Like Human Eye - Philips Electronics said on Thursday it had invented a tiny digital camera lens to fit inside a mobile phone that could focus on objects and create sharp pictures in ways that are similar to the human eye. Unlike high-end digital cameras, the new lens does not require mechanical moving parts because it works by manipulating two fluids in a tiny transparent tube. Philips said it will build a production line for the three millimeter lenses that are aimed at low-cost imaging products, such as digital cameras that fit inside a mobile phone or a home security system.
  • Stereo 3D Eye Candy -  THG look at what stereo 3D is, how it works and the role it plays in rendering reality. 
  • AMD to Unleash Athlon 64 FX-55 Processor in Q2/Q3 - The forthcoming AMD Athlon 64 FX-55 (2.60GHz) and AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (2.40GHz) will be AMD’s top offerings this year, according to the report. The AMD Athlon 64 4000+ and AMD Athlon 64 4200+ are moved into the 2005. While the both top offerings from AMD will certainly be able to successfully compete against the Intel Pentium 4 3.80GHz, will they be as fast as the Pentium 4 4.00GHz in the fourth quarter of the year?
  • Prescott Core Temperatures Examined - Legit Reviews have posted a new article which examines the Core Temperatures of Prescott CPU.
  • Acer Ferrari 3000 First Look - Acer adds a new shade to the familiar notebook colors of black, silver, titanium, gray, and silver-blue: Rosso Corso-Ferrari's racing red. Those who want a portable computer that stands out can do far worse than the Acer Ferrari 3000 ($1900) with its bright red cover displaying a gold-and-black prancing stallion-a logo instantly familiar to fans of the Italian sports car.
  • Seven LCD monitors compared - With so many competent competitors, it's hard to pick only one winner in this comparison. Each monitor has its own strengths and weaknesses, and of course, its own price tag.
  • The Next Generation of mail clients - comparison - This article compares Evolution 1.5.2 (unstable), KMail 1.6 (part of KDE 3.2), Opera 7.50 (preview 2), Mozilla 1.6 / Thunderbird 0.5 and Microsoft Outlook 2002 SP-1 (part of Microsoft Office XP). They did not include Eudora, even though the latest version does include unique features such as a Content Concentrator, Contextual Filing, MoodWatch and Email Usage Stats, as it is both closed source and not available for any UNIX platforms.
  • Solution Guide for Windows Security and Directory Services for UNIX  - This guide provides prescriptive guidance to enable Microsoft Windows Server 2003 to be used for authentication and as an identity and authorization data store within heterogeneous Microsoft Windows and UNIX environments. The guidance covers evaluating, planning, building, and deploying a security and directory infrastructure based on Windows Server 2003.
  • Microsoft Code-Name "Longhorn" Build 4053 Tweak Guide  - This guide tell the changes of the PDC build and some tweaking tips
  • On The Fly: Boot Knoppix Linux, Keep Windows Installation - Do you want to explore Linux without blasting your PC? Do you want to have some of the greatest hacking tools, all on one bootable cd? Then Knoppix Linux is for you! The price is right, because it's FREE!
  • Console Emulators: Our Newest Benchmark  - From Anandtech benchmarks, it is obvious that ATI Radeon cards are better suited for emulating the games that they tested under ePSXe and Pete's plugins with the settings they chose. The NVIDIA cards did hold their own and can take care of some tasks very well, so it isn't really fair to say that they aren't good enough to emulate a PlayStation game.
  • Clean Windows Prefetch Cache Automatically - This is a unique technique for Windows XP operating system. Following is a definition given by Microsoft on prefetching technique.Windows XP monitors the files that are used when computer starts and also when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications. (thanks WinOSCentral)
  • PortPeeker 2.5.0.15 - PortPeeker is a free windows based port listening/sniffing tool that allows you to capture TCP, UDP or ICMP traffic
  • mIRC 6.14 -  mIRC (download ~ changelog) is a friendly IRC client that is well equipped with options and tools.
  • VideoLAN 0.7.1 - VideoLAN is an excellent multimedia player with it's own plugins for playing different formats, so it doesn't need any codecs to be installed.
  • DVD Decrypter 3.2.0.0  - DVD Decrypter (changelog) is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX.
  • Nero Burning ROM 5.5.10.56 - Nero Burning ROM has been updated to version 5.5.10.56.
  • Total Commander 6.02 - Total Commander (download) is a file manager program for Windows. It offers multiple language support, search, file comparison, directory synchronization, quick view panel with bitmap display, ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, UC2, TAR, GZ, CAB, ACE archive handling plus plugins, built-in FTP client with FXP, HTTP proxy support, and more. This new version fixed: 1)With file panels above each other, the mouse wheel may have scrolled the wrong window 2) Ctrl+Q on drive in "My Computer" turned off quick view permanently.
  • FileZilla 2.2.4d - FileZilla is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.
  • McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.1.0 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with an infected system.
  • A-Tuner 1.8.6.5304 - A-tuner is a small tool for changing Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync, MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias settings on your ATI and Nvidia cards and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 53.04 and ATI Catalyst 3.0 - 4.1 for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.
 Gameguru Mania News - Mar,03 2004 - tech
Wednesday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:56 PM CET - Mar,03 2004 - Post a comment / read (4)
  • Spyware bugs US Senators  - Three US senators are sponsoring a law that aims at blocking spyware. The Spyblock Act will make it illegal to install software on people's computers without their consent. Companies that offer software downloads will have to tell users what the programs do and what information they collect. Internet ads generated by the software will have to be clearly labelled.
  • HP, Philips Develop DRM for DVDs - The two companies have agreed to jointly develop technology that will allow users to record protected content from digital broadcast systems, under rules adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in its "broadcast flag" ruling.The ruling allows programmers to attach a code, called a broadcast flag, to digital broadcasts, specifying whether a particular show can be copied and broadcast over the Internet. HP and Philips said that they have already submitted their planned technology in a filing to the FCC. The new technology will allow users to copy digital broadcast signals onto discs in DVD+R or DVD+RW format or in some other recording formats, the companies said.
  • MP3s Get Copy Controls - Digital Rights Management technology has been added to the MP3 standard, according to one of the companies behind the ubiquitous audio encoding technology. In a new version of the popular music encoding standard, French company Thomson has added the ability to limit how many times a song can be duplicated onto CDs and MP3 players. DRM-equipped MP3 players and services are expected to appear on the market this year.
  • Microsoft's Windows Media 9 may become mandatory for HD DVD - The DVD Forum said its steering committee has provisionally approved Microsoft's Windows Media 9 as one of the mandatory elements of a high-definition DVD spec. The Forum said Tuesday (March 2) that it has issued a “provisional approval of MPEG-2, Microsoft Corp.-developed Windows Media 9 and H.264 as mandatory for the upcoming High Definition (HD) DVD video specification” for future HD DVD players. The choice of a more efficient video codec for the emerging HD DVD format has been one of the most contentious issues currently confronting the consumer electronics industry.
  • AMD to start 90nm production next month - AMD's 90nm Athlon 64 and Opteron chips will start rolling off the company's Dresden production line in the second week of April, but you won't be able to buy a machine based on the parts until late Q3 / early Q4. So said AMD senior VP and CFO Robert J Rivet during a presentation at the Morgan Stanley Semiconductor and Systems Conference on Monday.
  • Future Athlon 64s to include SSE3 support  - According to TechReport, the next revision of AMD's Hammer CPU core will include SSE3 support, among other new features, according to this talk given by Kevin McGrath, AMD's chief Hammer architect, at Stanford University//
  • MSI to launch ATI-based graphics cards in April -  Micro-Star International (MSI) will launch ATI-based graphics cards in April, ending its status of being an Nvidia-exclusive customer, the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday.
  • Philips to release 16x DVD+R burner with support for DVD-R/RW and DVD+R9 in July -  Heise Online writes that Philips instead will release another double layer burner in July, the DVDRW1640K, which also will support 16x DVD+R single layer speed and the DVD-R/RW format.
  • Canon MultiPass MP390 first look -  Canon MultiPass MP390 prints, scans, faxes, and copies; it also prints photos directly from cameras and memory cards and lets you fax from programs on your computer. Performance is at the low end of midrange, but output quality is good to very good. All of this makes the MP390 a reasonable choice unless you do heavy printing regularly.
  • AMD Opteron vs. Intel Xeon  - AnandTech have posted their AMD Opteron vs. Intel Xeon Performance shootout with Intel's first Xeon MP with a massive 4MB L3 cache vs. AMD's Opteron 848.
  • Creative Labs Audigy2 ZS Review - Guru3D have posted a detailed review of Creative Labs Audigy2 ZS - They still can't recommend the Audigy2 ZS to audiophiles. However, for the hardcore the Audigy2 ZS is the definitive sound card for games. It literally crushed the competition, most dramatically with the UT2004 Demo by running 15 to 20FPS faster. In Call of Duty, sound placement with EAX 3.0 was perfect, and it outran the Prodigy 7.1 by a good %12
  • AMD Athlon XP-M Barton 2500 Evaluation - The results speak for themselves. High performance doesn't necessarily have to be limited to the Athlon 64 or top-end Pentium 4 CPUs. What's more, it can be achieved with a L70 CPU.
  • An introduction to SSL Certificates - LittleWhiteDog has just published a new article titled "An introduction to SSL Certificates". This article covers in great detail what SSL Certificates are, how they are used, and how they are issued and trusted.
  • Style XP 2.01 Final - Style XP is theming software (download) that helps customize the way your Windows XP, Windows XP Service Pack 1, Tablet PC, or Server 2003 system looks.
  • BSPlayer 1.00 RC1 Build 807 - BSplayer (download) is a Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi / mpg / asf / wmv / wav / mp3...) and specialises in video and divx playback
  • phpMyAdmin 2.5.6 Final - 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.
  • W32.Netsky@mm Removal Tool 1.0.2.0 - Symantec Security Response has developed a removal tool (download) to clean infections of the following Netsky variants: W32.Netsky.B@mm, W32.Netsky.C@mm and W32.Netsky.D@mm.
Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 12:15 AM CET - Mar,03 2004 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • CPU - AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+ | AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 2.2GHz | AMD Athlon XP 3200+ (German) | PowerLeap PL-ip3-T CPU Upgrade | SPEC CPU2000 Burn In


  • Motherboard - Intel i865PE Motherboard roundup | Shuttle, Soltek and ABIT SFF Roundup | ABIT AI7 | Abit AI7 vs Asus P4P800 Deluxe | Abit AI7 i865PE | ASrock K8S8X SiS 755 Athlon 64 K8 | AOpen AX4SG Max II i865G | ASUS K8V Deluxe | Chenming GK8N Barebones System | Chenming GK8V Barebones System | DFI LANParty 865PE Intel i865PE | DFI LANparty Pro875B i875P | ECS PT880-A VIA PT880 P4 | MSI MEGA 180 Mini-PC | Shuttle ST61G4 SFF PC | Shuttle SN85G4 nForce3 150 XPC | Soltek PT880PRO-FGR | Soyo K8USA Dragon Ultra ALi M1687 | VIA PT880 Reference Motherboard


  • RAM - Opteron Memory Guide | Corsair XMS4400 Memory | Corsair XMS4400 Memory | Corsair TwinX1024 XMS3500RE Registered Memory | Kingston's HyperX PC3500 CL2 1GB Dual Channel | Kingston HyperX KHX3500K2 Memory


  • Storage - HDD roundup | 4-way Hard Drive Roundup | Raptor-2. The return of Raptor | SimpleTech SimpleDrive External Hard Drive | Western Digital Raptor 2 HDD | Western Digital Raptor WD740GD SATA HDD || CyQ've 52x24x52x Internal CD-Writer | MSI CR52 CD-RW | Lite-On LDW-811S DVD±RW-DVD±RW | Plextor PX-708UF DVD Writer | TDK 52x Cyclone Combo || Freecom USB Card 256MB Drive | PQI Intelligent Memory Stick | Ximeta 7200 80 GB NetDisk | As the Hard Disc Spins VI: Command Queuing  


  • Video - round-up of 23 cards | Video Card roundup | nVidia Video Card roundup | GeForce FX 5900 XT Shootout | Albatron GeForceFX 5950 Ultra (1) | Albatron FX5700 Ultra (2) | BFG GFX 5950 Ultra | FIC Radeon 9600XT 128MB (video) | GeForce FX Go5700 | GeXcube Radeon 9600XT 128MB | Gigabyte GeForceFX 5700 Ultra | Gigabyte GeForceFX 5950 Ultra 256MB | Inno3D GF FX 5500 | Leadtek FX5900XT | Leadtek GeForceFX 5950 Ultra 256MB | XFX GeForce FX 5900 XT || ATi HDTV Wonder | ATI Radeon 9600XT | FIC Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb | FIC Radeon 9600XT 128MB (video) | GeXcube Radeon 9600XT Extreme | H.I.S. Excalibur Radeon 9600XT - VIVO Edition(1) | HIS Excalibur 9600XT Turbo(2) | HIS Radeon 9600XT(3) | HIS Radeon 9600XT 128MB(video) | HIS IceQ Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB(1) | HIS Radeon 9800Pro IceQ (2) | PowerColor Radeon 9600XT 128MB || XGI Volari V8 Ultra


  • Monitor - Dell W1700LCD LCD | Hercules ProphetView II 191 BLK LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 172X & 173P LCD Monitor | Samsung SyncMaster 173P LCD Monitor | Samsung 173P 17" LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 172X LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 192T 19" LCD


  • Cooling - Intel P4 "East vs West" Budget Heatsink Showdown | GlacialTech Cooler Round Up | Acousti Products 120mm AcoustiFan | Aerocool DP-102 Cooler(1) | AeroCool DP-102 Deep Impact HS(2) | AeroCool DP-102 (3) | Antec Notebook Cooler | Antec Sonata Case | Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer | Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2L | Beantech Igloo 10 Cooler | Connectland CEK-07-610B CPU Cooler | CoolerMaster Jet 7 Cooler | CoolerMaster Aero 7 Lite Cooler | CoolerMate CMT-ALF-8BL | Evercool CUW8-715 Cooler | Evercool CUF-715 Copper AthlonXP Cooler | JetArt JAKS29 Cooler | OCZ Eliminator 2 | OCZ Gladiator 3 Cooler | Spire SkiveStream III HS | Spire KestrelKing III Heatsink | Super-Flower Fan Master | Thermal Integration TI-RV108N HSF | Thermal Integration TI-A8641L Cooler | Thermaltake Silent Boost A1889-01 Copper HS | Thermalright NB1 Chipset Cooler | Thermaltake Extreme Giant III Cooler | Thermalright SLK-947U | Thermalright ALX800 Cooler | Titan TTC-K8ATB/825/SC Heatsink | Titan System Bracket Fan | Tweakmonster BGA RAMsinks | Vantec Aeroflow 2 Coolers (video) | Vantec Aeroflow 2 HSF | Vantec Cable Sleeving Kit | Zalman CNPS7000A-Alcu Cooler


  • WaterCooling - Asetek Antarctica Waterblock | Asetek Waterchill WaterCooler | Danger Den RBX/MAZE4 Water Cooling Kit (video) | Koolance Exos-Al WaterCooling | Wayvet EH48R Crystal Clear Reservoir | Zalman ZM-WB2 Waterblock | Xice Kit EC900 WaterCooler (German)


  • Case - 3R System R103 Aluminum Case | Antec LANBOY Mini Tower Case | Antec Super Lanboy | Antec Overture Case | Beantech Igloo 10 | CoolerMaster WaveMaster Black Aluminum Case | Chieftec Silver Dragon Case | Chieftec BX Case | Enermax CS-10182-BA Server Tower Case | Exceptional Cases | In-Win X710 Case | PCToys SimpleMax101 SFF Case | Silverstone Temjin TJ-01 Case | Smart Drive 2002 Case | Terra-Byte Aurora Clear Case | Thermaltake WinGo V8000+ | Ultra Dragon Extreme Gloss Steel Tower Case | Yeong Yang YY-W201 Pedestal Server Chassis


  • PSU/UPS - SilenX iXtrema 400W PSU | SeaSonic Super Tornado 350W PSU | SilenX iXtrema 400W PSU | Ultra 500w Low Noise ATX PSU | Zalman 400W PSU Showdown! | Zalman 400B-APS PSU


  • Sound - Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Edition | Mad Dog Multimedia Entertainer 7.1 Sound Card | VPC-1000 Multimedia Hub | Archos Video AV320 || Altec Lansing MX5021 Speakers | Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 7.1 Speaker Set | Creative DDTS-100 Speakers | Logitech Z-2200 Speakers | Logitech Z3 2.1 Speaker Set | Ezonics ESound 5.1 Headphones


  • Peripheral - Bluetake BT500 Bluetooth Mouse | Cybernet Elite-4 Zero-Footprint-PC Keyboard | Eumax H5001 Wireless Mouse | Logitech Cordless Click! Plus | Logitech Cordless Navigator Duo | Logitech io Personal Digital Pen | Razer Viper Optical Mouse(1) | Razer Viper Optical Mouse (2)| V-Mouse a Pen-style 1000dpi Mouse | Saitek Cyborg Evo | Zippy EL-715 Electron luminescent Keyboard


  • Network - Snap Appliance Snap Server 1100


  • Modding - CoolerMaster Musketeer FanController | CrazyPC Scorpion Side Case Panel | Crystalfontz CFA-631 LCD | Evercool SCP-A Front Panel | Kingwin Thermal Center TC-02S Fan Controller | Revoltec Neonstring | SilverStone 80mm LED Fan | Spire Skivestream 3 Cooler | Sunbeam 12 Volt PC Cigarette Lighter | Sunbeam Acrylic UV Case | Sunbeam Dancing Light Kit | Zalman ZM-MFC1 FanController | Xoxide Ultima Dancing Light Speakers


  • Miscelanous - Atech Flash Technology Pro 9 Memory Card Reader | Black ICEMAT 2nd Edition | Eksitdata BIOS Savior |
    • QuietPC QuietFeet? Vibration Isolation Feet | Rayovac 15-Minute Battery Charger | StarTech 2 Port Ultra Compact PC Switcher

  • Notebook, Camera, MP3 players -
    •  Acer Aspire 1705SCi Desktop Replacement Notebook | ABS Zensation Z3 Notebook | Alienware Area 51M Notebook | Fujitsu LifeBook 3000 | Voodoo PC Envy m:855 Laptop | Scan 3XS-OC Overclocked Series System | 21 New Digital Camera Reviews | Apple iPod Mini MP3 Player | iRiver iFP-599T MP3 Player | Creative Nomad 20 GB Jukebox Zen NX | Hercules Gamesurround MUSE Pocket MP3 Player | Active Armor for the HP iPAQ 2200 series | iPod Mini-Armband | Motorola MPx200 SmartPhone | Philips HDD100
     Gameguru Mania News - Mar,02 2004 - tech
    Nightly Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:36 AM CET - Mar,02 2004 - Post a comment / read (9)
    • Variant of NetSky virus takes flight -  A new computer worm dubbed NetSky.D was clogging e-mail systems around the world after emerging Monday, a security expert said.  The worm is particularly difficult to root out, because it lands in e-mail boxes using a number of different subject lines, such as "re: details" or "re: here is the document."
    • Automated kits fuel virus epidemic - The flood of variants of the Bagel and Netsky viruses shows that more and more people are learning more about viruses and how to tweak them. Netsky.D and Bagel.G have been discovered today, and the rate of new variants shows no sign of slowing.  Netsky.D spreads via email as an executable attachment only. It scans both the local PC and network drives for email addresses to send itself too. Tomorrow, any computer infected by the worm will beep constantly from the PC's speaker from 06:00 to 08:59.
    • Motorola T720 cell phone DoS vulnerability - The Motorola T720 cell phone is a very nice cell phone, with plenty of fun features, including WAP
      access to the Internet. Unfortunately, there is a low-risk vulnerability which allows an attacker to remotely reboot the cell phone easily. The vulnerability lies within the TCP/IP stack of the Motorola T720 cell phone. When the phone receives an abnormal amount of IP traffic, the phone powers-off when the user attempts to access the network (e.g through the WAP browser). The vulnerability can be reproduced in the following way: 1) Connect the phone to the Internet. 2) Flood the device with IP traffic (i.e SYN packets or ICMP_ECHO requests (ping packets)). 3) Run the WAP browser; At this point, the phone should power-off, and lose network connectivity.
    • Clients broadcast buffer overflow in Red Faction <= 1.20 - Red Faction is a very cool FPS game developed by Volition. The problem is a broadcast client buffer overflow (example). Each client entering in the multiplayer menu of the game first contacts the master server to know what game servers are online and then asks informations to eachone of them. The reply of the servers contains a NULL terminated text string identifying the server name, if this string is major or equal than 260 chars the client will be victim of a buffer overflow vulnerability caused by the following memcpy() function (from 1.20 version): " :0047B2D8 F3A5 rep movsd" The attacker on the (passive) server will have full control over any client.
    • Pirates still sail software's seas - You may very well be a smart, community-minded business owner. But if your company is using pirated software - and you condone it, you aren't aware of it or you don't really give a rip - you're not a responsible business owner. And you are taking unnecessary risks. No, you're not alone. In the United States, 24% of the software programs used today by businesses are illegal copies, according to the latest statistics from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an active industry group. For U.S. small businesses, those with 100 or fewer employees, the piracy rate is even higher: 40%. While those numbers are bad enough, the piracy problem worldwide is worse.
    • Off-topic: "Rings" Reverses Oscar Viewership Dip - ABC's telecast Sunday drew 43.5 million viewers, up 32 percent over last year's war-depressed ratings and putting the show on par with 2002 (41.8 million) and 2001 (42.9 million).  But even the last installment of the enormously popular "Rings" fantasy epic, which won 11 Academy Awards to tie the record shared by "Titanic" and "Ben-Hur," couldn't pull ABC close to the high of 55.2 million viewers who tuned in when "Titanic" ruled.
    • DOOM 3 - NVIDIA Deal - This web page on NVIDIA's nZone gaming site reveals that the graphics card maker and id Software have announced that id's upcoming FPS  DOOM 3 will recommend NVIDIA's GeForce FX family of cards to play the game on. (thanks HomeLAN).
    • Nomad Muvo TX announced - Creative announced a new MP3-USB-Stick, the Nomad Muvo TX. It's the successor of the Nomad Muvo NX and has all its features plus an USB 2.0 interface. You can choose between a 128, a 256 and a 512MB version.
    • Intel 90nm 3GHz Prescott postponed until April - Intel has delayed general availability of its 90nm 3GHz Prescott processors to April from the original schedule of mid-March due to production capacity constraints at its wafer foundry, according to sources at Taiwanese distributors.
    • Interview with VIA's Tim Handley - PyroPort has posted an interview with VIA's CPU platform marketing manager, Tim Handley.
    • Intel's Alderwood/Grantsdale Chipsets Preview - This is a year of change. The Alderwood and Grantsdale chipset launch, with its numerous innovations, represents the biggest technological advance since the introduction of the PCI bus. THG take a look at Intel's socket 775, DDR2 memory, the new BTX form factor and PCI Express.
    • 21 New Digital Camera Reviews - PCMag reviewed 21 new cameras in three different categories - compact, midrange, and professional.
    • Graphics round up - DarkHardware has published a round-up of 23 graphics cards, including many DirectX 9 ones and some oldies. A mixture of old and new benchmark are used, together with some short comments.
    • MSI MEGA 180 Mini-PC review - MSI's latest mini-PC, the MEGA 180, was designed to appease gamers with an nForce2 chipset for AthlonXP processors. For interior-decorated-minded users, the MEGA 180 comes in a nice-to-look-at colorful box. While the system has the Hi-Fi sound features of its predecessor, the MEGA 180 represents a major revamp, with new features such as Wi-Fi wireless networking capabilities built in.
    • ProblemSolver: When Wireless LANs Collide! - This ProblemSolver explains the problems caused by too many wireless LANs operating in too small an area, tells you how to diagnose the problems that your WLAN may have, and gives the how-to for getting your wireless neighborhood operating in peace and harmony.
    • Soldering Guide - The Madshrimps heat up the Soldering iron to show you how it's done, voltmodding that is.
    • Taking apart the iPod mini - To help illustrate this disassembly adventure, view the iPod mini autopsy photos and follow along. To begin with, make sure the 'Hold' button is locked into the ON position (showing orange) to prevent the internal components to be turning on while you are taking it apart. (thanks Tuding)
    • Colin McRae Rally 04 performance test  - Unsuprisingly given what has gone before, ATi dominates here as well, finishing around or above the 60 FPS level while the 5900 falls closer to 30 FPS. To be fair, the game is still very playable on both boards, but you can 'feel' the difference in performance quite easily while playing.
    • SQLIO Disk Subsystem Benchmark Tool - SQLIO is a tool provided by Microsoft which can also be used to determine the I/O capacity of a given configuration.
    • Safe XP 1.4.2.27  - Safe XP is a *FREE* software to allow users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as and option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more.
    • PowerShell XP 2.0 - PowerShell for Windows XP is the newest verison of PowerShell. It adds all the shown items to your context menus (right click). Now you can logoff/re-start/shutdown, drop to dos, edit the registry and much more, faster!
    • DVD Decrypter 3.2.0.0 - DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX.
    • FFDShow MPEG-4 Video Decoder 27-02-2004 - FFDSHOW is a DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DivX, XviD, WMV, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 movies. It uses libavcodec from ffmpeg project for video decompression, postprocessing code from mplayer to enhance visual quality of low bitrate movies, and is based on original DirectShow filter from XviD, which is GPL'ed educational implementation of MPEG4 encoder.
    • DivX 5.1.1 Free Updated - This is the latest version of the codec DivX 5. This new version updates DivX DirectShow filter.
    • Codec Pack All in 1 6.0.0.2 - This is a collection of codecs for playing DivX movies.
    • LAME MP3 Encoder 3.96 alpha - LAME MP3 Encoder is the best mp3 encoder and is available for free. The latest stable version is 3.95.
    • OpenOffice.org For Windows 1.1.1 RC - OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.
    • XFree86 4.4 - XFree86 version 4.4 is finally out.
    • PlexTools Professional v2.11 - Plextor Europe has released an update of their PlexTools Professional software.
    • Koepi's XviD Codec RC3 - XviD (download) is an ISO MPEG-4 compliant video codec. It's no product, it's an open source project which is developed and maintained by lots of people from all over the world
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,28 2004 - tech
    Saturday Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 12:36 PM CET - Feb,28 2004 - Post a comment / read (8)
    • Vulnerability in WinZip Could Compromise Security  - Security analysts on Friday reported that versions of the popular ZIP file management program WinZip have a serious security flaw. According to security intelligence firm iDefense Inc., an error in the parameter parsing code in these versions "allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code."  The attacker would have to construct a specially designed MIME archive (with one of .mim, .uue, .uu, .b64, .bhx, .hqx and .xxe extensions) and distribute the file users, the company explained.
    • Five bucks a month may be the answer to music piracy - Despite all the unsuccessful attempts the RIAA had in seriously reducing piracy across P2P networks, it cannot be eliminated in similar way to how illegal drug dealers cannot be put to a complete end. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it would be much better to charge ISP subscribers a voluntary $ 5 per month levy for unlimited sharing. The artists would get paid, the customers can freely share and download to their hearts content and there would be no more suing individuals and corporations for illegal music swapping or wasting time and money on developing DRM technology for music.
    • US porn typosquatter banged up - A Florida man who directed children to pornographic websites by registering misspellings of domains likely to be popular with kids was imprisoned for two-and-a-half years yesterday. John Zuccarini, 56, of Hollywood in Florida, pleaded guilty in December to 49 charges under the newly-enacted Amber Alert law - a federal statute which makes it a crime to lure children onto X-rated sites. Zuccarini is the first offender to fall foul of the new legislation.
    • Court: DeCSS ban violated free speech -  California appeals court on Friday reversed a 4-year-old order barring the publication of a DVD-cracking tool on the Internet, finding the injunction violated the defendant's free speech rights. The case was closely watched as a test of how much protection companies can expect in California for trade secrets that become widely distributed online.
    • "Ripper" software circumvents DVD ruling -  The St. Louis-area company, 321 Studios Inc., hustled out a version of software that removes a built-in tool for descrambling movies, complying with an injunction issued Feb. 20 in California by a federal judge who found certain 321 products in violation of Hollywood studios' copyrights. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ordered 321 by Friday to stop making, distributing "or otherwise trafficking in any type of DVD circumvention software." The company, now seeking a stay of the injunction, honored Illston's imposed deadline and, essentially one minute into Friday, began distributing and selling a "ripper-free" versions of its DVD X Copy software online.
    • Can nanotubes keep PCs cool? - Intel is conducting research with nanotechnology provider Zyvex to see if carbon nanotubes can help dissipate the pent-up heat inside PCs. The research revolves around incorporating carbon nanotubes into thermal grease, which makes up the thin layer of goo that sits between a microprocessor and a heat sink. Heat sinks are aluminum components that absorb heat through wings and tendrils
    • Off-topic: First robot moved by muscle power - A silicon microrobot just half the width of a human hair has begun to crawl around in a Los Angeles lab, using legs powered by the pulsing of living heart muscle. It is the first time muscle tissue has been used to propel a micromachine. This distinctly futuristic development could lead to muscle-based nerve stimulators that would allow paralysed people to breathe without the help of a ventilator. And NASA which is funding the research hopes swarms of crawling "musclebots" could one day help maintain spacecraft by plugging holes made by micrometeorites.
    • Some Questions Answered About Windows XP Reloaded - Windows & .NET Magazine Network is reporting that XP Reloaded will ship in late 2004 and will consist of free, downloadable consumer-oriented updates to XP. So if you're already an XP user, fear not; this release won't involve any Apple Computer-style upgrade price gouging. Microsoft won't rename the OS XP Reloaded; instead, the add-on kit for existing XP users will be called XP Reloaded (although that might not be the final name of the add-on kit, either). And no, XP Reloaded isn't XP Second Edition and won't be marketed as such.
    • Microsoft WMV 9 Gets Nod for DVD HD - Microsoft's popular Windows Media Video 9 (WMV 9) format has been approved by the DVD Forum as a mandatory technology for any device seeking the DVD HD logo.
    • XFX 5900XT for $159!  - Newegg are offering a XFX GeForce FX 5900XT for only $159 + shipping. That sounds quite the bargain so head on over if you are on the hunt for a new 3D card while stocks last (thanks nVNews)
    • Digital Camera round-up - PCMag has tested 21 cameras in three different categories - compact, midrange, and professional.
    • FarCry DEMO Benchmarking GeForce FX 5950 vs RADEON 9800 XT - GeForce FX 5950 is now fighting against ATI RADEON 9800 XT. The latter is available at approximately $480. Actually, both products have equal prices (or RADEON 9800 XT is a bit more expensive). You are well aware what advantages and disadvantages GeForce FX 5950 Ultra has as compared to RADEON 9800 XT. Does it match the price difference? It does. That is why in such conditions GeForce FX 5950 can be in the same demand as RADEON 9800 XT. 
    • FreeBSD 5.2.1 - FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE (download) supports the i386, pc98, alpha, sparc64, and ia64 architectures and can be installed directly over the net using the boot floppies or copied to a local NFS/FTP server. Distributions for all architectures are available now.
    • MySQL 4.0.18 - MySQL (download ~ changelog) is the world's most popular open source database, recognized for its speed and reliability.
    • MySQL Control Center 0.9.4 - MySQL Control Center (download) is a platform-independent GUI administration client for the MySQL database server.
    • Kaffe 1.1.4 - Kaffe is a free software runtime environment for programs written in Java. Among many bug fixes, and code cleanups, the new release added support for policy files, and improved posix threads, crypto, SSL and sound support.
    • Fresh Download 6.70 - Fresh Download (download) is an easy-to-use and very fast download manager software that turbo charges downloading files from the Internet, such as your favorite software, mp3 files, video files, picture collections, etc. Unlike any other similar utilities, this software is 100% free, no charges, no banners in the software, no spyware.
    • Google Toolbar 2.0.108 - The Google Toolbar (download) 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.
    • RadLinker 0.999e - RadLinker is new tweaker/linker for ATI Radeon based graphics cards.
    • ATITool v0.0.18 - ATITool is an overclocking utility designed for ATI video cards.
    • Sony DRU-530A firmware 2.0A - Sony has released a new firmware update for the DRU-530A drive. Besides the read and write performance increase for DVD-R media, firmware 2.0A also adds 8x DVD-R recording speeds and 4x DVD-RW media recording speeds.
    • Realtek ALC AC97 Audio Driver v3.55 - The ALC650 incorporates proprietary converter technology to achieve a high SNR, greater than 90 dB. The ALC650 AC'97 CODEC supports multiple CODEC extensions with independent variable sampling rates and built-in 3D effects.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,27 2004 - tech
    Nightly Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:38 AM CET - Feb,27 2004 - Post a comment / read (12)
    • Microsoft Raided By Japan's Fair Trade Commission - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, had its Tokyo office raided by Japan's Fair Trade Commission as part of a probe into how it supplies Windows XP software for computers sold in Japan. The investigation involves whether Microsoft's licensing of Windows XP software violated the country's anti-monopoly law, said a commission official, who declined to be named. Microsoft Japan spokesman Kazushi Okabe confirmed commission officials were at the office, adding that he didn't know why they were there. (thanks Peter)
    • Microsoft considering update dubbed "XP Reloaded" - Microsoft is considering updating Windows XP before it releases Longhorn, a major overhaul of the industry's dominant operating system that is not expected for about two years. Issuing an update to XP would represent a significant shift for the software maker, which for months has insisted that it had no plans to create a separate version of Windows before Longhorn. A company executive confirmed to CNET News.com on Thursday that Microsoft is now discussing a product internally referred to as "Windows XP Reloaded."  Microsoft has not said when that OS will ship, but analysts have said they expect it in late 2005 or 2006. Another article on "XP Reloaded" can be found here.
    • Windows XP Service Pack 2 to Activate NX bit on AMD chips - Microsoft and AMD announced that the Service Pack 2 update for Windows XP will enable AMD's Enhanced Virus Protection technology available in AMD64 microprocessors. AMD's enhanced virus protection security technology in combination with Microsoft's Data Execution Prevention in the upcoming Windows XP SP2 is designed to help render some viruses, specifically buffer overrun exploits, inoperable and prevent them from replicating and spreading to other systems. The core of AMD's Enhanced Virus Protection is the so-called NX bit in the page-translation tables that specifies whether instructions can be executed from the page. The capability is also available on Intel's Itanium and Itanium 2 microprocessors, but is not present in IA32e chips, such as Intel Pentium 4 E also known as Prescott, unlike suggested by certain sources last year.
    • Next-Gen DVDs: Coming Soon? - The group of companies behind the DVD format has approved a next-generation rewritable optical disc that is the same size as existing DVDs but can hold more than four times the amount of data. The rewritable HD-DVD (High Definition and High Density-DVD) format was approved as the DVD Forum kicked off its general meeting in Tokyo this week, according to an official at one of the group's founding members. It specifies a 4.7-inch optical disc that can store up to 20GB of data on a single-sided disc compared to 4.7GB on existing DVDs.
    • Nvidia NV40 specifications confirmed - US sources close to Nvidia have confirmed that their next generation GPU will feature a full sixteen pipelines – not as previously speculated an 8x2 arrangement - and this is reflected in the increased transistor count of circa 205-210 million, up from a previously speculated 175 million.
    • 3D Traceroute 1.8.74:203 - Replace all your ugly ping plotters and traceroute programs with a full blown three dimensional traceroute program (download)
    • Creative patches and updates -  Creative has released a new set of patches and updates, for the PlayCenters, Nomad Jukebox and Nomad CMS plugin.
    • Alcohol 120% Device Support Patch Released v2.3.5.225 - Alcohol 120% Device Support Patch (download) has been released. Here is the change log.
    eVGA v56.56 WHQL Drivers - tech
    (hx) 12:53 AM CET - Feb,27 2004 - Post a comment / read (5)
    eVGA.com let us know they have released the latest driver version 56.56 (direct FTP link) to the public. These drivers are Microsoft WHQL certified for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. They contain a significant number of updates:
    Corrected the following issues:
    Corrects problems with custom Direct3D profiles
    Corrects problems with custom OpenGL profiles
    Corrects problems with the game Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness
    Corrects problems with Dualview secondary montior support
    Corrects OpenGL issues with 3D Paint 2001, Maya 5.0, and Studio Tools 11
    Corrected problem with setup where users could see the error message "error loading nview.dll; access is denied"
    Corrected texture corruption issues with RenderWare Studio
    Corrected problems with Command and Conquer Generals
    Corrected problems with Armies of eXigo
    Corrected problems with Command and Conquer Zero Hour
    Corrected system crash problem with Final Reality
    Corrected problems with full screen spanning in Windows 2000
    Corrected antialiasing issues in Flight Simulator 2004
    Corrected font problems in Jedi Knight 2
    Corrected performance issues with NASCAR 2003 Season
    Corrected various rendering problems on Digital LCD monitors
    Corrected problems with Big Mutha Truckers
    Corrected performance issues with Splinter Cell
    Corrected image problems with Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
    Corrected overclocking/auto overclocking through the control panel.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,26 2004 - tech
    Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
    (hx) 12:31 PM CET - Feb,26 2004 - Post a comment / read (8)
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