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 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)
    Nightly Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:36 AM CET - Feb,26 2004 - Post a comment / read (6)
    • Gates predicts death of the password - Gates, speaking at the RSA Security conference here on Tuesday, said: "There is no doubt that over time, people are going to rely less and less on passwords. People use the same password on different systems, they write them down and they just don't meet the challenge for anything you really want to secure." RSA is working with Microsoft to develop a SecurID technology specifically for Windows. Both companies agreed there is a need to remove the vulnerabilities associated with employees using weak passwords. SecurID is the best-known two-factor authentication system and is used by many large enterprises. It generates a constantly changing sequence of numbers that a user has to type in alongside their normal password or PIN.
    • Latest Mydoom variant deletes files - The variant, dubbed Mydoom.F, not only tries to perform a distributed denial-of-service attack on the Web sites of Microsoft Corp. and the Recording Industry Association of America, but has a destructive payload that deletes document and picture files, according to researchers at Helsinki's F-Secure Corp.
    • AOL Blocks ICQ Worm - America Online has taken steps to stop the spread of a worm that began attacking ICQ instant messaging users this week. The fix, which was implemented on Wednesday, was applied to ICQ's servers and does not require any action from ICQ users, according to an AOL spokesperson. Virus researchers first detected the worm Tuesday. Dubbed "Bizex," the program spreads through instant-messaging exchanges, a less common method for viruses than e-mail transmission.
    • Hidden Gamespy code leads to vulnerabilities in diffused games (BF1942, Halo, Dredd and more) - The code now object of this research is just the SDK that Gamespy gives/sells to games developers to implement the online management and validation of games cd-keys. The worst thing of this SDK is that it uses simples "security through obscurity" methods to hide informations to the same users who use these vulnerable games (any existent type of demo, retail and dedicated server) so this advisory will also clarify these shameful methods avoiding that these users like me continue to be joked.
    • Hitachi GST spins up 300-Gbyte server drive -  Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced today it is rolling out the industry's highest capacity 3.5-inch server hard drive to date. The 300-Gbyte Ultrastar 10K300 is aimed at a wide array of servers and storage networking systems.
    • Crucial's 256Mb Gizmo USB Flash drive review - The Crucial Gizmo is without a doubt, a useful little gadget. Whilst there
      are countless other permutations of flash storage products on the market, few are as appealing as the Gizmo. It's slender lines, pearlescent finish with its eye catching hologram proudly stating its capacity make for a very appealing device.
    • DDR-II - How It Works - Hexus.net let us know they have done an article on DDR-II - How It Works.
    • Macromedia updates - Macromedia website now offers Macromedia Freehand MX 2004 v11.0.2.92 and Fireworks MX 2004 v7.0.2.295 .
    • Trillian 0.74g - Trillian is a multi-network chat client that currently supports IRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger.
    • Outpost Firewall Pro 2.1 - Agnitum Outpost (download 30-days trial period demo) is the first personal firewall for Windows developed with Open Architecture. The Open Development Process proved its efficiency with the development of the Internet and with Linux. No company can be as fast, flexible and innovative at enhancing a closed product as thousands of developers from different countries all working on an open one.
    • foobar2000 v0.8 Final - Foobar2000 is an advanced audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include ReplayGain support, low memory footprint and native support for several popular audio formats.
    • Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.15 - 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,
    • HyperSnap-DX v5.50.01 - HyperSnap-DX brings you professional quality, convenient Windows screen captures. It was designed for ease of use, with powerful and useful features - including capture from DirectX and 3dfx Glide games, and some DVD/Video players - to aid the professional as well as support the needs of the occasional user.
    • ffdshow build 2004-02-25 - ffdshow (changelog ~ download) is DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX and XVID movies using libavcodec or xvid with rich set of video postprocessing filters. ffdshow can also be used as a separate postprocessing filter for other decoders.
    • Radiator 1.8.0.7 - For listening to and recording (download) from popular radiocards: AimsLab RadioTrack, RadioTrack II, Reveal RA300, SoundForte SF16 - FMP2, SoundForte SF16 - FMI, Aztech / Packard Bell, Comp - Express, GemTek RadioCard, SoundForte SF16 - FMR2, SoundForte SF16 - FMD2, Zoltrix RadioPlus 108, serial port adapters GemTek RadioMan, GemTek Wizard Radio, Justy Radion-maru, Unit Rajikoma, AverMedia TV98 series (BT878), GemTek FMRadio 21 USB, MediaForte SF64PCE2_02, MediaForte SF64PCE2_03, MediaForte SF64PCP, MediaForte M56VAP, MediaForte SF256PCS, MediaForte SF256PCR, SoundForte SF16-FMR, SoundForte SF16-FMX.
    • RockXP 2.0 - With RockXP you can: - Retrieve your XP Product Key; Change your key and product ID; Save your activation file.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,25 2004 - tech
    Nightly Tech Reading - tech
    (h) 02:39 AM CET - Feb,25 2004 - Post a comment / read (1)
    • Netsky.B infections spread - The worm first appeared on February 17 and appears to have originated in the Netherlands. MessageLabs, an e-mail management company, claims to have stopped more than 1.3 million e-mail since the virus started spreading, and believes the infection rate is increasing rapidly. Symantec has rated the worm as severe. This means the worm is a dangerous threat and is difficult to contain. The worm does require the user to open the attachment with the e-mail.  Netsky.B scans the hard drives and shared drives of an infected computer for e-mail addresses and then uses its own SMTP engine to mail itself to those addresses. The worm also searches for folder names containing "share" or "sharing" and copies itself to those folders using a variety of file names.
    • Despite bounties, no virus arrests yet - A trio of bounties Microsoft placed on the heads of virus writers has generated a variety of investigative leads, but still no arrests, a top security official from the software giant said on Tuesday. In November, Microsoft created a $5 million fund to pay ordinary computer users for tips leading to the arrest and prosecution of the creators of computer viruses and worms that use its ubiquitous Windows operating system to wreak havoc online.  Microsoft issued three separate $250,000 bounties for information on the whereabouts of the authors of the SoBig, MSBlast (also known as Blaster) and MyDoom viruses over the past three months.
    • Gates unveils Windows Security Center -  Microsoft on Tuesday showed off a forthcoming update to Windows designed to make the operating system more secure and proposed a caller ID-like system for e-mail that could help curtail the growing spam problem. Speaking at the RSA Conference here, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates previewed several new features that will be added to Windows XP as part of a major midyear update to the OS. Among the enhancements that will be part of Service Pack 2 will be an expanded firewall and a pop-up ad blocker within Internet Explorer.
    • 3Com DSL Router Administrative Interface Long Request DoS - OfficeConnect is a router widely used in the world. The router can be rebooted due to a flaw in its web administration interface. As no authentication is needed, every LAN user can cause a crash and reboot of the router, stopping internet connection for one or two minutes.
    • AOL Instant Messenger/Microsoft Internet Explorer Remote Code Execution - There is a problem in Internet Explorer where a file can be displayed as HTML even though it is not an HTML file. The file can be run in the My Computer zone which has less restrictions. AIM buddy icons can be used to upload a file into a permanent and known location on a victim's hard drive which can then be "executed" by directing the victim to a page that launches the file.
    • Off-topic: Eminem Sues Apple - Rapper Eminem's music publisher is suing Apple Computer Inc., claiming the company used one of the hip-hop superstar's songs in a television advertisement without permission.
    • NVIDIA Adopts TSMC's 0.11 Micron Technology - NVIDIA today confirmed that it will be one of the first semiconductor companies to manufacture select up-coming graphics processing units (GPUs) at TSMC's 0.11 μm (micron) process technology.
    • Motorola Unveils Microsoft Phones - Motorola launched its first Microsoft-based smartphone, the MPx200, last fall. Now it is adding the MPx and MPx 100 handsets to its "MotoPro" product series. Both new handsets are due out in the second half of the year. The MPx is a dual-hinge clamshell style phone that opens vertically for traditional phone operation and horizontally for use as an e-mail device, Motorola said. It sports a QWERTY keyboard, a 16-bit color touch-screen display with 320 pixel by 240 pixel resolution, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and an SD (Secure Digital)/MMC (Multi Media Card) slot for up to 1GB of additional memory, Motorola says.
    • Hard Drives Go Biometric -  A biometric hard drive capable of delivering the storage power of a PC in a pocket-sized data device is being launched by Memory Experts International here at the RSA Conference this week. The biometric secured hard drive will come in a 20GB version priced at $450, and a 60MB model priced at $650. It is ruggedized to withstand a ten-yard drop, he says. Memory Experts targets the device at road warriors looking to keep their information secure.
    • Card maker pre-announces Nvidia GeForce FX 5700LE - Taiwanese graphics card maker Sparkle has neatly announced a pair of products that utilise Nvidia's upcoming - but as yet unannounced - GeForce FX 5500 and 5700LE chips. According to Sparkle's published specifications, the 5500 is clocked at 270MHz, while the memory runs at 400MHz across a 128-bit bus. The part is believed to be based on the NV31 core, which formed the basis of the old GeForce FX 5600. The board, the SP8855-DT, features 128MB of DDR SDRAM and a 350MHz RAMDAC. It has TV out, DVI (1600 x 1200) and analog VGA ports. It's an AGP 8x board.
    • Back On The MP3 Road With Rio - Rio is back! The high-end MP3 leader has unveiled a new and complete range of flash memory and hard-drive players that represent more than additional cool MP3 players on the market from which to choose.
    • Five External Sound Cards for Easy USB Listening - USB sound cards have changed from peripheral devices to essential must have equipment, aided in part by eroding laptop prices and the emergence of new and popular multimedia applications. By reviewing five new USB sound cards, THG shows USB external audio's limits and possibilities.
    • Corsair TwinX XMS4400 review - TwinX memory from Corsair is tested before packaging as a pair at its maximum rated speed using an Asus P4C800 and in this case is rated at 275MHz, or 550MHz DDR, at 3-4-4-8 latencies and 2.75v. This provides a theoretical maximum of 4.4GB/sec or 8.8GB/sec when used in a dual channel configuration.
    • Gigabyte 8TRS300M ATi 9100IGP Mainboard review - The GA-8TRS300M also provides a variety of features such as 6 USB 2.0 ports, 6-channel audio, 10/100Mbps network connection, and high speed ATA100 interface. The GA-8TRS300M delivers the best all-in-one solution and fulfills the requirements for a full range of applications today and for the future. There is also an AGP 8x slot which you could upgrade with another 3D performance accelerator graphics card.
    • VIA Epia TC10000 Mini-itx Mainboard review - Epiacenter.com take a look at the brandnew VIA Epia TC10000 mini-itx mainboard.
    • NVIDIA GFX Roundup - Digital Daily has published a comprehensive roundup of NVIDIA based GeForce FX cards ranging from the high-end GeForce FX 5950 Ultra to the low-end GeForce FX 5200.
    • Asante FriendlyNET GX5-424W Gigabit Switch review - This switch is squarely aimed at the small and medium size business market with 24 10/100 switch ports, 2 10/100/1000 switch ports, and 2 GBIC ports for a combined total of 4 Gigabit ports. They have included many advanced features that business will find very useful and a price of just over $16 per port.
    • Logitech MX 900 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse review - LANAddict has posted a review of Logitech MX 900 Bluetooth Wireless Mouse.
    • Critical Update for Microsoft XML 2.5 / 2.6 / 4.0 - This update (XML 2.5 / 2.6 / 4.0) contains Microsoft XML (MSXML) functionality that will allow applications using MSXML to continue to function correctly after security update 832894, Security Update for Internet Explorer, has been applied.
    • W32.Mydoom@mm Removal Tool 1.0.6.0 - Symantec Security Response has developed a removal tool to clean W32.Novarg.A@mm, W32.Mydoom.B@mm, and W32.Mydoom.F@mm infections.
    • Sony DRU700a dual layer info - doom9.net is reporting that the Sony DRU700a burns dual layer DVD+R at 2.4x, DVD±R at 8x, DVD±RW at 4x and CD-R/W at 40x/24x. Packaged with Nero it will retail for 199 Euro in Q2 2004.
    • DVD Shrink 3.1.6 - DVD Shrink 3.1.6 fixes some encoding bugs, fixes a problem ripping from Pioneer 120S drives and can change the region of an RPC-2 drive.
    • CDBurnerXP Pro 2.1.9 - CDBurnerXP Pro is an easy to use CD burning software, that can write CD-R and CD-RW discs. The program can also write disks directly from an ISO image file, and save image as an ISO image file (*.iso).
    • DeepBurner 1.1.0.110 - DeepBurner is a new CD/DVD burning software that utilize power and effeciency. With DeepBurner you can create data, bootable, and audio CDs as well as data DVDs.
    • WinZip 9.0 Final (build 6028) - WinZip (what's new ~ download)  is the original and most popular of all Windows Zip file utilities. Combining power and flexibility with ease of use, WinZip appeals to the entire spectrum of data-compression users. First-time users are comfortable with the intuitive WinZip Wizard, while power users appreciate WinZip's seamless Windows Explorer interface and choose the award-winning WinZip Classic interface for their most sophisticated compression needs. In addition to basic zipping and unzipping, features include tight integration with Windows Explorer, support for most Internet file formats, advanced AES encryption, and much more.
    • CleanCache 2.08 - CleanCache 2.0 is a free (for 1 - 2 systems), very powerful Internet Explorer 6.0 and Windows XP cleaner.
    • TaskInfo 2003 v5.0.1.104 - TaskInfo2002 (download) is combination of Task Manager and System Information Utility, It visually monitors different types of System information in Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
    • MyIE2 v0.9.17 - MyIE2 (download lite - combo) is a multi-tabbed browser based on the IE core (IE5.x or above required). It can open multiple web pages within one browser window, and uses little system resources. This new version adds better XP VS support in Tab and status progress bar in no skin mode and much more.
    • AIDA32 3.93 - AIDA32 (download) is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms. It extracts details of all components of the PC. It can display information on the screen, print it, or save it to file in various formats like HTML, CSV or XML. For corporate users, AIDA32 offers command-line switches, network audit and audit statistics, remote system information and network management.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,24 2004 - tech
    Bizex' worm attacks ICQ users - tech
    (hx) 08:58 PM CET - Feb,24 2004 - Post a comment
    Kaspersky Labs has detected Bizex, a new Internet worm which caused the first global epidemic among users of ICQ, the Internet instant messaging system. At the moment, messages about infection are coming in from almost all corners of the globe. A preliminary estimate is that approximately 50,000 are infected. A computer becomes infected if the user visits a hacker web-site. Invitations to visit this site are being circulated by ICQ. As camouflage, when the web-site is viewed, the user is shown the Joe Cartoon site; Joe Cartoon is the creator of a popular American cartoon series. At the same time, the malicious program attacks the computer on two fronts: firstly, by using a breach in Internet Explorer), and secondly, by using a breach in Windows. The result of this is that a special file is downloaded to the computer, without the user noticing anything; this file downloads the file which contains Bizex and launches it on the victim computer. Once this has been done, Bizex begins the process of infecting the victim computer. It creates a folder named SYSMON in the Windows system directory, copies itself to this folder under the name SYSMON.EXE and registers this file in the system registry auto-run key.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,23 2004 - tech
    Monday Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:12 PM CET - Feb,23 2004 - Post a comment / read (11)
    • What's Next for Desktops? - The big thing this year is PCI Express, a serial interface similar to USB and 1394 that provides low pin count and higher performance. One port of PCI Express will yield 200 megabytes per second, which is twice what a PCI slot does today, and it takes up less than half the area
    • Lite-On IT claims to offer world's first DVD recorder capable of writing CD-R/RW discs - Lite-On IT, one of the top producers of optical disc drives in Taiwan, recently announced the LVW-5005, claimed by the company to be the world’s first DVD recorder model capable of writing CD-R/RW discs.
    • Intel should be ashamed of itself over AMD 64, Torvalds says -  Posting by Linus Torvalds on the linux-kernel mailing list suggests that Intel should be more than a little ashamed of itself when it announced its 64-bit extensions last week. Torvalds was replying to a post which asked whether there was any difference between X86_64 and X86-64. He said the real name for the instruction set should be X86-64, and always has been. Torvalds said he was "a bit disgusted" at Intel for not even mentioning AMD in its documentation or its press releases. "I'd almost be inclined to rename the thing as AMD64 just to give credit where credit is due," he said. "However, it's just not worth the pain and confusion".
    • Motorola V150 review - The phone is pretty cheap (160 Euro) when you consider the colour screen and the polyphonic ringtones. Although the software is a bit weak, I really love a clamshell phone. I like the looks and lines and the weight makes it all so much nicer.
    • Kingmax "Hardcore Series" DDR-466 and DDR-500 Memory - Kingmax has recently brought their new line of "Hardcore Series" and affordable DDR-466 and DDR-500 memory modules to the market. Tweaktown tested these modules with an ABIT IC7 MAX3 motherboard.
    • Intel P4 Heatsink Round-Up - 3DXtreme has tested three new Intel Pentium 4 (Socket 478) Heatsinks from Evercool, Spire and Titan.
    • Ultracool II Digital - Eye Catching Fan controller review - The Madshrimps take a look at this fully automated fan controller.
    • Prescott Tweaks Dangerous - One of the Big 5 mainboard makers have thrown their hands in the air when it comes to pushing up voltages on the new Intel Pentium 4 Prescott CPUs. If you are looking at becoming a Prescott enthusiast, this might make you reconsider.
    • Abit Radeon 9800XT water-cooled to 505MHz  - For graphics overclockers, the water solution is definitely something that should look at. Almost 100MHz in graphics world or should we say close to 20 per cent overclock is definitely not something that you see every day.
    • Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer RTW - The Windows Rights Management Add-on for Internet Explorer (requires Windows Rights Management client installed) provides a way for users of supported Windows operating systems to view, but not alter, files with restricted permission. These restrictions enable authors to prevent sensitive documents, Web-based information, and e-mail messages from being forwarded, edited, or copied by unauthorized individuals. These restrictions provide protection, not only while the information is in transit, but also after the recipient of the information has received it.
    • Firebird 1.5 Final - Firebird is a relational database offering many ANSI SQL-92 features that runs on Linux, Windows, and a variety of Unix platforms. Firebird offers excellent concurrency, high performance, and powerful language support for stored procedures and triggers.
    • NuSphere phpED 3.3 - NuSphere phpED (download trial) is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that integrates a comprehensive set of editing, debugging and deployment tools that can speed development time by up to 75 percent and significantly reduce time-to-market. And when you're done, you can take advantage of multiple platform deployment options including Windows, Linux, and UNIX.
    • McAfee AVERT Stinger 2.0.2 - Stinger is a stand-alone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses.
    • Zoom Player 4.0 Beta1 - Zoom Player Standard (download ~ changelog), a flexible feature rich Media Player that for all its features and goodness remains bloat-free.
    • iuVCR v4.8.5.335 - iuVCR is a Windows 2000/XP intended universal video recording program. Have a TV tuner or a video capture card installed on your Windows 2000 or XP system? Now you can easily record your favorite TV programs and videos in *.AVI or *.WMV format. iuVCR has got a simple and plain interface, allows to capture video of any format, resolution and duration, can automatically start when scheduled and has a number of other useful features.
    • SpeedFan 4.10 - SpeedFan (download) is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds, temperatures and voltages in computers with hardware monitoring chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info for those hard disks that support this feature (almost all :-)) and show hard disk temperatures too, if supported. This new version adds full suport for AMD8111 SMBus 1.0; LM85C; ADT7463; nForce3; ADM1027; EMC6D103; ASUS MOZART-2.
    • Dlink firmware upgrade leaves stuttering mess - Many users have purchased the D-link DI-624 "Xtreme-G" wireless router for its ability to transfer at speeds up to 108Mbps (even though those speeds are more marketing hype than reality). Unfortunately for many, the latest version of the product's firmware does little more than turn the unit into an expensive, stuttering paperweight. DSLReports' Dlink forum is filled with complaints about the new DI-624 revision C v 2.36 firmware update and what users have dubbed the "60 second disconnect" problem.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,21 2004 - tech
    Saturday Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 11:59 AM CET - Feb,21 2004 - Post a comment / read (9)
    • Software Piracy Still Big in Asia - Software piracy remains a multibillion dollar industry in Asia, but some signs of improvement are surfacing in the 14 Asian countries being most closely surveyed, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). Although its figures are not complete, IIPA estimates that 2003 losses from piracy of entertainment software will reach $1.19 billion in China, India, South Korea, and Taiwan. But piracy losses sharply decreased from the previous year in South Korea (down 35 percent) and Taiwan (down 56 percent).
      Hackers Could Access Nokia Phones - Cell phone manufacturer Nokia has admitted that several of its Bluetooth-enabled phones are vulnerable to attack, which could result in a hacker gaining access to personal data stored on a targeted phone. The Nokia phones affected by the security vulnerabilities are models 6310, 6310i, 8910 and 8910i, according to Keith Nowak, a Nokia spokesperson.
    • Linux servers at risk from trifecta of flaws - Three separate security flaws could be used by an ordinary user to gain total control of a Linux server or workstation, security researchers have warned. Two of the vulnerabilities lie in the way the Linux kernel--the core of the open-source operating system--manages memory. They affect all current versions of Linux, according to advisories released on Wednesday by iSEC Security Research, a Polish security company. The third flaw affects the module for the kernel that supports ATI Technologies' Rage 128-bit video card. Another article can be found here.
    • P2P could end flat-rate broadband - Broadband services in the UK are currently priced at how much bandwidth a customer wants to buy, typically anywhere from 150Kbps to 2Mbps, usually with no cap on how much data they can download. The growing popularity of P2P sites is driving ISP costs to unacceptable levels. Since much P2P traffic does not originate from ISPs' networks it costs them more to deliver it, leading to their consideration of unpopular measures such as port throttling P2P sites, data download limits or pay-as-you-go pricing.
    • Judge: DVD-copying software is illegal - After eight months of deliberation, a San Francisco federal judge has ruled that software company 321 Studios' popular DVD-copying products are illegal. In a ruling released Friday, Judge Susan Illston granted Hollywood studios' request for an injunction against 321 Studios, saying the small software company has seven days to stop distributing its DVD-copying products.
    • Off-topic: Exposure To Low-level Magnetic Fields Causes DNA Damage In Rat Brain Cells, Researchers Find - Prolonged exposure to low-level magnetic fields, similar to those emitted by such common household devices as blow dryers, electric blankets and razors, can damage brain cell DNA, according to researchers in the University of Washington's Department of Bioengineering. The scientists further found that the damage from brief exposures appears to build up over time. The new study is scheduled to be published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences, and is available now on the Internet.
    • Off-topic: Pentagon Preps for War in Space  - An Air Force report is giving what analysts call the most detailed picture since the end of the Cold War of the Pentagon's efforts to turn outer space into a battlefield.  For years, the American military has spoken in hints and whispers, if at all, about its plans to develop weapons in space. But the U.S. Air Force Transformation Flight Plan (PDF) changes all that. Released in November, the report makes U.S. dominance of the heavens a top Pentagon priority in the new century. And it runs through dozens of research programs designed to ensure that America can never be challenged in orbit -- from anti-satellite lasers to weapons that "would provide the capability to strike ground targets anywhere in the world from space."
    • PlayStation Portable to feature PS2 connectivity - While not officially confirmed yet by Sony, it now appears as if PSP will feature connectivity with PlayStation 2, in a manner similar to that in which GBA links up to Gamecube. Reportedly, gamers will be able to save their progress on a PSP game and then continue the same game on PlayStation 2.
    • Movie Player: Free Firmware Upgrade makes the best GBA accessory even better -  All users of the GBA Movie Player can now update their firmware for free. The upgrade doesn't hurt and takes only about 1 second. Once installed, the GBA Movie Player now shows some new icons on the screen when playing movies and some smaller audio sync and other problems are fixed. (thanks Lik-Sang.com)
    • Smelly device would liven up web browsing - The Scent Dome is about the size of a teapot and can generate up to 60 different smells by releasing particles from one or more of 20 liquid-filled odour capsules. Computers fitted with a Scent Dome unit use software to recognise smell identifying codes embedded in an email or web page. The device is manufactured by Trisenx, based in Georgia, US, and is currently being tested at Telewest's UK research laboratory in Woking, Surrey. The British company suggests that the system could be used to enhance a holiday web site by generating the scent of sun tan lotion and the ocean or liven up a grocery site with fresh bread and fruit smells.
    • Micron Technology is Readying 4GB DDR-II Modules - Micron Technology delivered the industry's 4GB DDR-II registered dual in-line memory module to Intel Corporation. The new products may find themselves in IA32e Intel-based servers or workstations at a later date.
    • Ritek offers world’s first 4GB CompactFlash cards - Ritek, Taiwan’s second-largest optical disc producer, on February 19 introduced its RiDATA Pro CF, the first 4GB CompactFlash (CF) card in the world, following SanDisk’s recent launch of a 2GB CF card.
    • Intel Prescott to receive power optimizations - The Intel Prescott processors will soon get a new stepping. Starting at the beginning of May newly produced Prescott processors from Intel will feature a new improved D-0 stepping with improved thermal characteristics. Currently Prescott CPUs have a C-0 stepping.
    • First Look at Apple's IPod Mini - At a mere 3.6 ounces and with 4GB, the $249 Mini is two ounces lighter than the 15GB model of the IPod. It's also about a half inch shorter and thinner. Unfortunately, while it costs $50 less than the 15GB model of the larger IPod line, it's a bit pricey considering that with the larger IPod you get a much bigger hard drive for the money.
    • AMD ATHLON 64 FX-51 - Turning to gaming performance which many people will buy this processor for and the results are again close between the Pentium 4 and the Athlon FX. When the FX is good, its great. Unreal Tournament 2003 is a perfect example of this as the FX completely trounces the P4 and the Athlon64 3200+ in all tests. Max Payne 2 showed less of a difference in performance, whilst the Pentium 4 showed slightly higher performance in Min and average FPS the maximum FPS was higher on the Athlon FX as it squeezed every ounce of performance from the graphics card.
    • Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB review - In summary, the Crucial Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB is still a decent card. The most important drawbacks don't emanate from the card itself. Rather, it's ATI's current product hierarchy that goes against it. Given a free hand to choose a 3D accelerator, we'd opt for either a standard Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB card, which is competitively priced at £210 including delivery at Crucial, or one of the barrage of 9800XTs that just cross the L300 barrier.
    • Diamond Stealth S80 review - HotHardware has posted a review of the Diamond Stealth S80 video card.
    • Sony DRU-530A DVD-RW Burner review - Sonys DRU-530A 8X DVD writer improves upon its predecessor the DRU-510A in write speeds and offers some of the fastest write times we have seen to date, coming in a close second behind Plextor's PX-708A drive in most tests.
      What the DRU-530A has going for it is a solid software package and a very competitive price.
    • Taisol CEK787172 Socket A Heatsink review - Faced with stocking a whole series of brand new low cost AMD-based PCs with coolers? If that's the case, the extruded aluminum Taisol CEK787172 socket 462 heatsink may just do the trick. To make installation a quick affair, the CEK787172 even comes with a pre-applied patch of Honeywell PCM45 thermal grease.
    • Samsung 173P Flat Panel Display review - PCExtreme takes a look at Samsung's 173P Flat Panel Display.
    • The Wacom Volito Tablet review - Adrian's Rojak Pot  has just posted The Wacom Volito Tablet review. "Ever tried drawing or scribbling with a mouse? If you have, you would know what a painful experience it is. Nothing beats a pen when it comes to drawing or writing and that’s the truth! But for the digitally-inclined, is using a pen out of the question?"
    • Overclocking Guide - Russel let us know that Neoseeker have a good overclocking guide online since Feb12,  it could be handy for some people..
    • MS Office Resource Kit Tools - A self-extracting executable (EXE) file that installs the core Office XP Resource Kit tools on your computer through a single Setup program
    • Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo Benchmark v099.6  - Hungary website HardwareOC.hu has released Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo Benchmark v099.6 - download
    • Real Alternative 1.21 - Real Alternative will allow you to play RealMedia files without having to install the official RealPlayer. You do need a media player that is capable of playing RealMedia files.
    • QuickTime Alternative 1.31  - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime (.mov .qt) files. This way there is no need to install the offical QuickTime Player.
    • K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 1.00 FULL Final - The K-Lite Mega Codec Pack includes the K-Lite Codec Pack Full, QuickTime Alternative, Real Alternative, Bink and Smacker playback support and Monkey's Audio DirectShow decoder.
    • K-lite Codec Pack 2.24 FULL Final - K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codecs are required to encode and decode (play) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies that you download from the internet.
    • Fresh UI 6.95 - 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.
    • Samurize 1.2.5 - Samurize (download) is a system monitoring utility with outstanding configuration power. The configuration program is totally separated from the client for minimal memory usage
    • Complete CD & DVD Writer 1.2 - Complete CD & DVD Writer (download trial), also called CD & DVD burner is a software to write audio, data and image files to CD and DVD.
    • MotherBoard Monitor 5.3.6.0 - Motherboard Monitor (MBM) (download) is a tool that will display information from the sensor chip on your motherboard in your Windows system tray. MBM supports a wide range of Chipsets & Sensor Chip combinations. MBM is compatible with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP and .NET.
    • ForceWare 56.57 Beta - These drivers are to be considered extremely BETA, use them at your own risk! Note: You need to install them, the traditional way, there's no fancy installer.
    • ForceWare 53.04 - 64-Bit - Nvidia released a new set of Forceware Drivers in the form of 53.04 for Windows XP 64-Bit Edition and Windows Server 2003 SP1 for 64-Bit Extended Systems and there dated February 19, 2004! If you are a novice, you likely do not have a 64-bit platform. In that case be careful installing these.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,19 2004 - tech
    Thursday Tech Madness - tech
    (hx) 09:37 PM CET - Feb,19 2004 - Post a comment
    • Netsky.b worm spreading fast - Security experts have warned of a new mass mailer worm, W32/Netsky.b@MM, or Netsky.b. Antivirus software vendor McAfee's Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team (Avert) said the worm is infecting PCs at a rate of 40 to 50 an hour. A memory-resident mass mailer, the worm copies itself to folders on drives C: to Z:, including the words 'shared' or 'sharing', presumably to achieve peer-to-peer propagation. After being executed, the worm emails itself out as an attachment with a randomly chosen file name.
    • Windows XP Kernel NtSystemDebugControl() Flaws - Several vulnerabilities were reported in the Windows XP kernel in some debugging functions. A local user with 'SeDebugPrivilege' rights can execute arbitrary code in kernel mode. The flaws reportedly reside in the NtSystemDebugControl() function, which is exported by the ZwSystemDebugControl() function (in ntdll.dll). The NtSystemDebugControl() function reportedly executes in ring 0 (i.e., kernel mode). It is reported that a local user with appropriate privileges can use the SYSENTER/SYSCALL instructions (via the NtSystemDebugControl() function) to write to the IA32_SYSENTER_EIP model specific register (MSR) and change the MSR to point to the user's arbitrary code. No solution was available at the time of this entry.
    • Microsoft Announces New Xbox Live Features - Microsoft says, encompasses (but is not necessarily limited to) the following new Live features, which will gradually roll out over the coming year: Team Dynamics (a structured clan system), Competitions (Tsunami will let developers more easily implement different competitions into games) and Title-Managed Online Storage (sharing user-created content).
    • Ultrawideband in 2005, but only in America - Temporarily abandoning the IEEE, Intel says that UWB will be available in products by 2005 - if you live in the United States. Intel on Wednesday pledged to remove the cables cluttering up homes as it outlined its strategy to introduce a new generation of high-speed radio networking. By 2005, the company said, a wide range of consumer electronics devices would start to be able to communicate with each other over ultrawideband wireless, which is a very high-speed, short-range networking system. However, only the US has regulations in place that allow this, and the company could give no date for European approval.
    • Is your PC ready for Longhorn? - In an e-mail, the software maker said it will outline the required specifications for computers to run Windows at WinHEC (the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), which takes place May 4 to May 7 in Seattle.
    • Philips, MediaTek expect to offer dual-layer DVD+R solution in 2Q - Both Netherlands-based Philips Semiconductors and Taiwan-based MediaTek expect to begin offering solutions for dual-layer DVD+R technology in the second quarter of this year at the earliest, according to sources.
    • Mitsubishi Displays Reversible LCD - Mitsubishi Electric is showing off a new LCD that can be viewed from both sides. The display, which the company says is a world first, was developed initially for use in clamshell-type cellular-telephone handsets and could help make such telephones thinner and lighter.
    • Grantsdale DX9 support limited to pixel shader only - The integrated graphics component of Grantsdale, Intel's upcoming mainstream Pentium 4 desktop chipset, supports only half of DirectX 9's key shader functionality, it emerged today. Intel revealed earlier this week that Grantsdale's integrated graphics core will support DirectX 9's Pixel Shader 2.0 specification. However, Desktop Products Group chipset marketing director Bill Leszinske today confirmed that the core does not provide Vertex Shader functionality. Geometry processing will be handled by the CPU, he said.
    • Intel's 64 bit Doomsday Scenario - Intel has unleashed its significant PR clout to dash AMD's Tier-One hopes by brazenly adopting 64 bit extensions. In doing so, Intel is also emulating its plucky rival AMD. This is the kind of merciless backtracking that makes one love the monopolists.
    • R420 Shows up at IDF - According to Tweakers.net, in a short part discussing the GDDR-3 graphics memory, which currently has speeds in the range of 500 - 700MHz (1 - 1.4GHz effective) ATI demonstrated a demo of the upcoming, DirectX9 heavy title, Colin McRae Rally 4 on R420, which was quoted as running at 2 - 3 time faster than present DirectX9 capable hardware (thanks Beyond3D)
    • AMD Athlon 2500 vs 3000 - The thing that should or could influence your decision on which one you buy are things like whether the processor is unlocked or not. A good number of 3000's are still unlocked, but the problem is they tend to be rather poor overclockers. Some find it hard to hit 200 x 11 so be advised it's not a perfect world. But you will be able to adjust the multipliers and perhaps find a sweet spot where you can run at a slightly higher speed than stock.
    • AOpen Aeolus GeForce FX 5900XT | Chaintech GeForce FX 5900XT | MSI FX5900XT comparison - The cards do differ from the FX 5900 we've seen before. Will this PCB be able to run with the faster 2.2ns memory in order to move the standard FX 5900 (non-Ultra!) to the new base? - It's not clear yet. However, the rumor predicts the arrival of a kind of FX 5900XT Turbo (a curious combination of the suffixes isn't it?), which will have the new PCB combined with the 2.2ns memory.
    • Fluance 5 Speaker Surround Sound Home Theater PC System SX-HTB - SubzeroTech has posted a review of Fluance 5 Speaker Surround Sound Home Theater PC System SX-HTB. "When listening to music I was immediately aware of how cozy the speakers sounded. They really could produce what sounded like a room, a real room with real musicians. The depth of field was uncanny. The bass, as I mentioned before was also surprising in that sitting on a couch 15 feet in front of the towers I was bombarded with convincing low frequencies, enough to make the pirate ships in POTC really creak by in a big way. Furthermore the audio sensation that is the ROTJ speeder bike seen can only be summed up as sensory overload. I tested with so many films, but the favorite was probably LOTR: the DVD sound and video was faithfully reproduced with anomalous Elvish voices scintillating above you, with irrepressible thunder rolls coursing throughout the sound stage. It is something to experience, and as an upgrade for a home theater and a PC sound system the results are really self explanatory"
    • LITE-ON LDW-851S DVD+/- R/RW review - LITE-ON IT, in its latest attempt at optical drive perfection have re-introduced their 8X4X/4X2X DVD±R/RW with different optics. This new drive carries the incremental model number of LDW-851S as opposed to the LDW- 811S of the older version. Some say these new optics were introduced because their old supplier couldn’t keep up with LITE-ON's production, other are speculating that these new optics will usher in their newer line which will burn 8x on BOTH DVD+R and DVD-R instead of just 8x for DVD+Rs. This will make many people in the DVD-R camp extremely happy as the DVD burning enthusiasts consider DVD-R the superior media form.
    • MSI CR52 CD Writer review - So where does this place the MSI CR52? Well, in a very good position as it’s rated at 52-speed for writing CD-Rs, 32-speed for writing CD-RW and 52-speed for reading CDs, which makes it one of the fastest CD writers around.
    • Eumax H5001 RF Wireless Optical Mouse - The Eumax H5001 RF Wireless Optical Mouse performed quite well, though its small button size did result in a larger number of missed clicks. Our only significant concern we could find with the H5001 is that its resolution would likely prove too limited for those seeking an input solution for gaming. However, it is doubtful any serious gamer would ever be caught using a $25 mouse.
    • Chieftec Silver Dragon review - The Chieftec Silver Dragon offers the budget minded case shopper a considerable list of features for an aluminum case that retails for less than $100.00. Dual rear 80mm fans, placement for a pair of 80mm front located fans, massive side window with locking side panel and door. Perhaps with a total of 10 bays to fill you could find something to fill them all.
    • Heatsink Roundup - Techwarelabs brings you its first major heatsink review for some time. The products that qualified for the review came from Cooler Master, Thermalright, OCZ, and Microfins. In addition to providing a review of heatsink cooling solutions, a review of Arctic Silver's new Ceramique thermal compound is included as advances in thermal transfer technologies are passed on to consumer-level products.
    • New ForceWare graphics drivers on 1st March - NVIDIA is planning to release a new set of WHQL ForceWare graphics drivers within the next couple of weeks. Referred to as the Release 55 drivers, version 56.56 was to have been posted today, but was delayed due to a bug that would have affected the performance of the new Unreal Tournament 2004 demo. In related news, Neoseeker has posted a preview of Forceware 56.56 Drivers, another NVIDIA ForceWare 55 Hands-On can be found at HotHardware (tnx NeoNSX).
    • Timedemos For UT2k4 Demo - 3DCentre have posted two time demos (assault ~ flyby) for benchmarking the Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo
    • OpenOffice.org 1.1.1b review - FlexBeta has posted a review of OpenOffice.org 1.1.1b.
    • Linux kernel 2.4.25 - Marcelo Tosatti released the 2.4.25 kernel, unchanged from the earlier 2.4.25-rc4.
    • Kernel 2.6.3 Final - Linux Kernel has been updated with few patches and made official stable release.
    • SQL Server Web Data Administrator - The SQL Server Web Data Administrator enables you to easily manage your SQL Server data, wherever you are. Using its built-in features, you can do the following from Microsoft Internet Explorer or your favorite Web browser: Create and edit databases in SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000), Perform ad-hoc queries against databases and save them to your file system, Export and import database schema and data, Manage users and roles, View, create and edit stored procedures.
    • ASP.NET Resource Kit 1.1 - The ASP.NET Resource Kit is an essential resource for any web developer whether you're already using ASP.NET today, or looking to learn ASP.NET. The kit contains step-by-step instructions for getting started with ASP.NET, free controls from third party vendors, access to great ASP.NET hosting deals and more.
    • Diagnostic Tool for the Microsoft VM 1.0 - The Diagnostic Tool for the Microsoft VM can be used to scan one or more computers to detect the presence of MSJVM and MSJVM-related software.
    • Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.13 - 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, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
    • Google Toolbar 2.0.107 - 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. This means you can quickly and easily use Google to search from any website location, without returning to the Google home page to begin another search.
    • Zoom Player 3.31 Final - Zoom Player is a robust Media and DVD Front-End Player. It was designed to be simple at first glance while being remarkably dynamic and flexible when used to its full potential and works in two modes.
    • DVDShrink v3.1.6 beta 2 - DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc.DVD Shrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero.
    • MemTest86+ 1.11 - Memtest86+ is a thorough, stand alone, OS independent memory test for x86 architecture computers, based on the well-known original Memtest86. It supports the latest technologies. MemTest86+ creates a bootable diskette or CD.
    • LiteOn firmware - Lite-On has released a new firmware versions for the LDW-451S and LDW-851S DVD recorders.
     Gameguru Mania News - Feb,18 2004 - tech
    Wednesday Tech Madness - tech
    (hx) 11:50 AM CET - Feb,18 2004 - Post a comment / read (3)
    • A new version of the Internet worm Bagle causes a global epidemic - The new version of I-Worm.Bagle is similar to its predecessor in many ways. The malicious program spreads via email as an infected file attached to messages. The worm is an executable Windows file of approximately 11KB. The message header reads 'ID x:thanks' and the message body reads 'Yours ID x:Thank', with x in both cases being a random string of characters. Once launched, the worm copies itself to the Windows system directory and registers itself in the system registry auto-run key. In order to confuse the user, the worm also launches Sound Recorder (sndrec32.exe), a standard Windows utility. Following this, Bagle.b attempts to establish a connection with a number of remote sites which are in some way connected with the Trojan proxy server TrojanProxy.Win32.Mitglieder. At the moment, all links to Internet resources where Mitglieder can be downloaded have been deleted, which means that I-Worm.Bagle.b is unable to utilitize this method to increase the speed at which it propagates.
    • Code for MSBlast variant posted online - A piece of code that exploits the critical vulnerability for which Microsoft issued a patch only last week has been posted online, raising fears of an imminent MSBlast-style attack. On 10 February, Microsoft released a patch that fixes a networking flaw affecting all Windows XP, NT, 2000 and Windows Server 2003 systems. The company warned users to patch their systems because the vulnerability could be exploited by virus and worm writers. Four days after the patch was released, a piece of code was published on a French Web site that allows anyone to exploit the vulnerability, which means unpatched users can expect to be hit with another MSBlast-type worm.
    • Computer Underground Pounds Windows Source Codes - Kaspersky Labs, a leading information security software developer warns users about a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer (5.0, 5.5 and 6.0) and Outlook Express 5.0. The new vulnerability allows cyber-criminals launch malicious programs on breached computers using files in BMP format. The vulnerability was discovered by an unknown individual nicknamed 'GTA' and published on several security web sites. The author provided an example of a possible attack and went on to comment that the proposed scenario was based on a detailed analysis of the Windows source code.
    • Microsoft denies IE flaw claim - Microsoft has debunked claims that a new way of attacking its software has been discovered by someone looking at its recently stolen Windows source code. The company said that on Monday it began investigating a "reported exploit" on versions of Internet Explorer, which was "allegedly discovered by an individual studying the leaked source code".  But in a statement Microsoft said the reported exploit was in fact a known, patched, flaw: "This exploit is a known issue that Microsoft had discovered internally and addressed with the latest release of Internet Explorer 6.0 Service Pack 1."
    • Order the Windows Security Update CD - The Windows Security Update CD will be shipped to you free of charge. This CD includes Microsoft critical updates released through October 2003 and information to help you protect your PC. In addition, you will also receive free antivirus and firewall trial software. This CD is only available for Windows XP, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). (thanks Bink.nu)
    • Google Achieves Search Milestone With Immediate Access To More Than 6 Billion Items - Google Inc.today announced it expanded the breadth of its web index to more than 6 billion items. Google's collection of 6 billion items comprises 4.28 billion web pages, 880 million images, 845 million Usenet messages, and a growing collection of book-related information pages.
    • RIAA Radar - The RIAA Radar is a tool that music consumers can use to easily and instantly distinguish whether an album was released by a member of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
    • Apple Says It Has 100,000 Orders for iPod Mini - Apple Computer Inc., said on Tuesday it has received 100,000 orders for its iPod mini digital music player, which goes on sale on Friday at Apple's retail outlets, its online store and through resellers.
    • Intel plots demise of Ethernet - Chip giant Intel has demonstrated for the first time how it intends to make optical networking as inexpensive as Ethernet. The Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco saw the world's first demonstration of a new silicon optical modulator capable of transmitting data at 50GHz per second, which exceeds the previous speed record by a factor of fifty.
    • NVIDIA Introduces PCI Express GPUs - NVIDIA yesterday unveiled the industry’s first top-to-bottom family of PCI Express graphics processing units (GPUs), all designed to take full advantage of the additional bandwidth and features that this new I/O interconnection standard delivers. The new family includes: NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5950, GeForce PCX 5750, GeForce PCX 5300 and GeForce PCX 4300.
    • IBM backs 64-bit Intel chip plan - Intel's first 64-bit capable Xeon, code-named Nocona, is due in the second quarter of 2004 for dual-processor systems. IBM's EXA3 chipset requires the more powerful "Potomac" Xeon for systems with four or more processors. Potomac is also due in 2005. Another articles can be found at EETimes and EWeek. Following this "no surprise" announcement about 64bit support in forthcoming Intel products TechPC have decided to write a quick article called "What does 64-bit x86 mean for Intel?"
    • Western Digital Media Center review - Backing up a PC's data today generally requires the expensive necessary evil of an external hard drive. Western Digital tries to make life easier with its WM Media Center, a portable storage device with 250 GB of capacity that offers an 8-in-1 card reader with dual-option USB 2.0 and FireWire connectivity. Our tests reveal whether or not the device makes the world of backup storage an easier place in which to live.
    • UsenetJunkie v0.1.0 - UsenetJunkie (thanks Joe) is free client that works in a similar fashion to kazaa or other p2p clients (thanks joe).
    • ATIs CATALYST v4.2 review - FiringSquad let us know they have posted a review of the new ATI’s CATALYST 4.2 drivers.
    • Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator - Microsoft SQL Web Data Administrator enables you to easily manage your SQL data, wherever you are.
    • phpMyAdmin 2.5.6 RC2 - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you'll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
    • PHP 4.3.5 RC3 - PHP 4.3.5RC3 (Win32 ~ Linux) has been released for testing. This will be the last release candidate prior to the final release, so please test it as much as possible.
    • Adobe Reader Speed-Up 1.13 - 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, v5.1, v5.5, and Adobe Reader v6.0 and v6.0.1.
    • Media Player Classic v6.4.7.8- MPC is a standalone video/music player that can handle a lot of media types, including DVD playback, Ogg audio, RealMedia and Quicktime video
    • AnyDVD 3.5.1.1 - AnyDVD allows you to decrypt CSS encrypted DVDs on the fly. Insert your CSS- (Content Scrambling System) and RPC (Region Code Protected) - protected DVD into your DVD drive.
    • CloneCD v4.3.2.2 - CloneCD (download) is a powerful CD-Copy program. It writes in Raw mode, which allows it to have total control on the data written. Therefore, it will produce real 1:1 copies of your CDs. This new version contains some minor fixes and improvements.
    • InCD v4.1.5.7 -  Ahead has released a new version of their packet writing software InCD.
    • Net Transport 1.81 - 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.
    • Central Brain Identifier 6.1.0.1 Beta - Central Brain Identifier is designed to provide detailed recognition and obtaining the most complete extended information for all AMD processors.
    • DJBCP Codec Pack 1.4.4 Final - The new final version 1.4.4 of the DJBCP Codec Pack is available for download.
    • kX Project Drivers 5.10.0.3537 Beta - The kX Audio Driver (download) is an independent WDM (Windows Driver Model) driver for all EMU10K1 and EMU10K2-based soundcards manufactured by Creative Technology Ltd. and/or E-mu Sytems Inc., including the SoundBlaster Live! series, the E-mu Audio Production Studio (APS) card, and the Audigy series of cards.
    • ATI Radeon DNA-Drivers v2.1.4.2a - These are modified/hacked ATI Catalyst drivers (DNA-Drivers homepage) 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 - Feb,17 2004 - tech
    Evening Tech Reading - tech
    (hx) 02:58 AM CET - Feb,17 2004 - Post a comment / read (2)
    • MSIE Integer Overflow in Processing Bitmap Files Lets Remote Users Execute Arbitrary Code - A vulnerability was reported in Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 5. A remote user can execute arbitrary code on the target system. It is reported that a remote user can create a specially crafted bitmap file that, when loaded by IE, will trigger an integer overflow and execute arbitrary code. The author states that this flaw was found by reviewing the recently leaked Microsoft Windows source code. The flaw reportedly resides in "win2k/private/inet/mshtml/src/site/download/imgbmp.cxx" (leaked Windows source code). The report indicates that IE 5 is affected but that IE 6 is not affected.
    • Police arrest Forces Reunited 'hacker' - Police have questioned a Lancashire man suspected of hacking the Forces Reunited Web site. The unnamed 29 year-old from Chorley, Lancashire was arrested and questioned last week by Wiltshire Police probing a cyber attack against the military equivalent of the popular Friends Reunited. After questioning, the man was released on police bail pending further inquiries, reports. A number of computers were seized from the man’s address and will now undergo forensic examination. Wiltshire Police have issued a statement on the arrest here.
    • Belgian police arrest female virus writer - A 19 year-old female technology student suspected of being the infamous virus writer Gigabyte was arrested by Belgian police last weekend.  The woman was charged with computer data sabotage offences, Belgian daily La Libre Belgique reports. Her alleged crimes are punishable by up to three years in prison and fines of up to L100,000. Police confiscated five of the teenager's computers and shut down her Web site. The 19 year-old, from Mechelen (30 kilometres north of Brussels), was released on bail pending further police inquiries.
    • Who's The Fastest Growing Linux Distro? - But according to one metric by Internet research company Netcraft's January survey, when measured by counting active sites that contain the name of a Linux distribution in the header of the open source Apache Server, the Debian version of Linux is showing the fastest growth in the past six months. From July 2003 through January 2004, Debian's 24.6 percent growth to 442,753 installations represented the fastest growth in that period, Netcraft said.
    • AMD cuts Athlon XP prices - AMD trimmed its prices today, knocking back the cost of buying its Athlon XP desktop and mobile chips by up to 34 per cent.
    • Dual Display Gaming Bigs Up - Without a doubt, "SurroundGaming" is not just a fun feature but also creates a new level of atmospheric immersion in games. If you're already using two monitors for your everyday computer work, you're only a step and some manual configuration work away from multi-display gaming - provided you have a graphics card using a Matrox or NVIDIA chip. Since ATi's processors don't support horizontal span mode, the list of games that will run in dual-monitor configurations on a Radeon board is short. Actually, the only title we know of that can do this is Microsoft's Flight Simulator 9.
    • World's Smallest, Always-Connected Windows XP PC Premiere - Vulcan Inc., founded by Paul G. Allen, announced today that it will preview FlipStart at DEMO 2004, the premier forum for new product innovation. Previously debuted as Vulcan's "MiniPC" prototype, FlipStart(TM) combines the performance and functionality of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP with the connectivity of wireless PDAs to provide users with continuous access to software, e-mail and the Web while on the go.
    • HP unveils 8x dual format DVD±R/RW writers - HP has so far only been selling single format DVD+R/RW writers but in the new dvd420i, dvd420e and dc4000 DVD writers HP has also added support for burning the DVD-R/RW format. The dvd420i is an internal IDE version, the dvd420e an external USB 2.0/firewire version and the Movie Writer dc4000 is an external USB 2.0 version with built-in analog video capture.
    • 3.2GHz EE  Northwood CPU review - Intel's Extreme Edition version of Northwood is targeted towards a specific and focused area of today's consumer. If you want something that is incredibly fast right out of the box for high speed gaming, extensive graphic work or just bragging rights at stock speeds, this processor is for you. The 3.2EE easily held its own in most benchmarks even against a steroid induced 2.4C clipping along with a 1Ghz+ FSB at 3.2Ghz.
    • Hercules Radeon 9600SE vs PNY GeForceFX 5600XT review -  Whichever way you look at it, PNYs GeForceFX 5600XT doesn't have either the muscle or the finesse to make itself the preferable card here in any way, shape or form. PNYs decision to use a 64-bit bus for this card, on top of the natural architectural disadvantages the 5600 core has against its 9600 rival, was not far short of suicide. The advice is simple - Don't bother with this card. It would be interesting to see how a 128-bit bus 5600XT (which most IHVs producing this card use) would cope against the 9600SE, you would certainly hope that it would perform somewhat better than PNYs rather miserable offering.
    • Dlink's DWL-G650+ PCMCIA 802.11g adaptor review - In brief, the DWL-G650+ is in fact a 54Mbps (802.11g) wireless PCMCIA card capable of 256bit encryption which appears to be well suited to take full advantage of the DI-624+'s features, in particular the 256bit encryption. The DWL-G650 is Dlink's PCMCIA version of their PCI based GWL-G520 card.
    • ME-770 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure review - RipNet-UK has checked out the ME-770 USB 2.0 Hard Drive Enclosure.
    • Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 review  - PCMag has posted a review of the Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.
    • Multiplexer Hotfix for DirectX 9.0, 9.0a, and 9.0b - This Hotfix corrects specific application compatibility issues with DirectX 9.0 changes in the DirectShow DV Decoder and Multiplexer.
    • OpenOffice 1.1.1b Stable - OpenOffice.org (Win32 ~ Linux) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite
    • RightMark 3D Beta 4 - RightMark 3D is Independent DirectX 3D Benchmarking Project.
    • Abit KT7/KT7 Raid BIOS - Abit has released a new BIOS update for the Abit KT7/KT7 RAID.
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