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 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,19 2003 - tech 
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:19 AM CEST - Jun,19 2003 - Post a comment / read (9)
  • The return of shareware - Shareware didn't start in 1993, but it made a huge splash that year. That's when id Software unleashed "Doom" on the world. Millions of people downloaded and enjoyed the free, abbreviated version of the game. Of those, roughly 160,000 called id to order the full version of the game, paying $40 plus shipping and handling. By the time Doom II rolled around the next year, though, retail distribution had taken over - and the game sold more than 2 million copies.
  • CeBIT Comes to America - The first CeBIT show in America may be all work and little play, but plenty of business-savvy gadgets abound at this confab hosted by the German conventioneer. CeBIT America takes over the Javits Center here this week as a broad selection of vendors, including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and PalmSource, turn up the buzz on business tech wares amid a tech slump. Between chatter over total cost of ownership and other enterprise issues, attendees will also be able to peruse pedestrian products like a sub-$1000 Tablet PC, a souped-up Handspring smartphone, and a selection of ever-faster wireless 802.11g products. An estimated 20,000 CeBIT attendees are expected at the conference, about half the number originally forecast for the event last year. Attendees will be able to prowl 360 companies' exhibits. CeBIT America pales by comparison with the eight-day CeBIT supershow held each spring in Hanover, Germany.
  • Nero All-in-One Authoring Updated - Ahead Software is unveiling Nero 6.0 Ultra Edition, a suite of updated CD and DVD recording tools that includes such features as a video editor, a full backup program, and a software DVD player. The package, announced at CeBIT America here this week, is scheduled for release July 18.
  • Decoded male chromosome reveals surprises  - The genetic sequence of the human Y chromosome has been published, unveiling surprises that will advance research on infertility, rekindle debates on the evolution of the sexes and challenge the controversial idea that the Y chromosome is a genetic junkyard destined for extinction. The male-determining Y has long been considered a vestigial chromosome, a dilapidated repository of genetic material with an ever-dwindling, tiny collection of about 40 genes. The reason for the genetic attrition, scientists thought, was the Y's inability to pair and swap genetic material with any other chromosome. That takes place during a special process called crossing-over, which is key to repairing genetic mutations and preserving genes. Another nice story can be found at Wired.
  • 20 Ways the World Could End  - We've had a good run of it. In the 500,000 years Homo sapiens has roamed the land we've built cities, created complex languages, and sent robotic scouts to other planets. It's difficult to imagine it all coming to an end.
  • US Senator would destroy MP3 traders' PCs - The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch (Republican, Utah), thinks it would be a fabulous idea if copyright owners could remotely destroy computers that contain pirated material, the Associated Press reports. "I'm all for destroying their machines," Hatch said during a Committee hearing Tuesday. "'If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize' the seriousness of their actions," the wire service quotes him as saying.
  • Infighting killed Sony's first games handheld - PlayStation Portable (PSP) is not the first time that Sony has developed a handheld gaming system, it has emerged, with a Japanese business publication revealing details of the company's one-time plans to release a portable platform in 2000. According to the report, which appeared on the Nikkei BP news service, a project called "ET Project" was undertaken at Sony headquarters (as opposed to Sony Computer Entertainment) in late 1998, aimed at creating a portable console for release in 2000.
  • HP Readies Athlon64 3100+ PC - Introducing the Athlon64 at a model number rating of 3100+ appears to indicate that the chip does not perform as well as AMD's current 32-bit Athlon XP 3200+ processor, released in May. The Athlon64 3100+ will have a clock speed of 1.8 GHz and 1 MB of level 2 cache, according to the HP document. The Athlon XP 3200+ runs at 2.2 GHz and comes with 640 KB of level 2 cache. Representatives from HP and AMD did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Another story can be found here.
  • GeForce FX5600 Ultra rev2 review  - Hexus.net has done a review of the GeForce FX5600 Ultra rev2 card. "The reference card sports a heatsink and fan assembly that is surely the shiniest in the industry. My absymal digital camera skills don't pick it out very well, but the front face on the heatsink is mirror like. In the right light you can double your PCI slots. We've got the usual 4 pin Molex style connector on the top right, and the board arrived with a Y-splitter just incase I couldn't find a spare connector from the quarter billion my Enermax PSU provides. Expect a nifty splitter in the retail box."
  • Wireless LAN Superguide - PCMag tests the full range of corporate access points: 6 802.11g draft-compliant devices, 9 802.11b units, and 3 802.11a/b boxes.
  • MemTest 2.0 - MemTest is a RAM reliability tester. It evaluates the ability of your computer's memory to store and retrieve data. A correctly functioning computer should be able to do both these tasks with 100% accuracy day in and day out. By running MemTest, you can ensure that your computer's RAM is correctly functioning. You can assign a number of megabytes to test. This version supports more than 1Gb of RAM.
  • DU Meter 3.05 Build 146 - DU Meter (download) is an award winning utility from Hagel Technologies which provides an accurate account of the data which is flowing through your computer's network connection at any given moment.
  • MSN Messenger 6 Beta (build268) Public Preview oficially - homepage ~ download: WinXP / WinNT4 / Win9x/ME / AdRemover
  • PHP 4.3.3RC1 - PHP 4.3.3RC1 (Win32) has been released for testing. This is the first release candidate and should have a very low number of problems and/or bugs.
  • BlindWrite Suite 4.5.1 - Blindwrite Suite (download) is the best set of tools to reproduce or clone any CD, even protected ones. Blindwrite Suite is the most powerfull tool to create a perfect copy from your original CD for personal private copy.
  • BSPlayer 0.86.498 - - BSplayer (download) is a Windows R player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi / mpg / asf / wmv / wav / mp3.)
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,18 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:09 AM CEST - Jun,18 2003 - Post a comment
  • Microsoft takes spam fight to court - Microsoft said it filed 13 civil suits against U.S. defendants, accusing them of spamming Microsoft customers with deceptive e-mail. It also filed two suits in the U.K.
  • Robots without a cause - You don't need a key to get into the new Audi 2004 A8. You just wave your hand in front of a tiny sensor consisting of 65,000 electrodes that scan your fingerprints and the doors open. But they will do so only if you're the owner of this L60,000 luxury automobile with its 12-speaker spatial sound system. Otherwise it will sit there, locked against the world in smug perfection.
  • Self-destruct files to secure DVDs, CDs - Sun Microsystems said this week it plans to roll out new software to protect copyrighted content stored on mobile phones and smart cards. Meanwhile, Warner Music, a division of CNN's parent company AOL Time Warner, released the new Steely Dan album "Everything Must Go" on CD and DVD Audio, the latter being an encrypted, "rip-proof" format.
  • Nanotube chip could hold 10 gigabits  - A computer memory chip based on carbon nanotubes has passed a manufacturing milestone, according to the US company developing the technology. The prototype chip would store information using hundreds of billions of nanotubes with a theoretical capacity of 10 gigabits of data, says Nantero, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Once fully developed, the company says nanoscale random access memory (NRAM) could hold more data that existing types of RAM and would also be non-volatile, meaning data would not be lost when the power is been turned off.
  • AMD extends Athlon XP-M mobile line to 2800+ - AMD introduced three new mobile Athlon XP-M chips today, taking the line to 2800+ performance and beefing up the chip?s low-voltage product family with 1900+ and 2000+ models. The 0.13 micron chips contain 512KB of on-die L2 cache and support frontside bus speeds of up to 266MHz. The XP-M 2800+ costs $230, while the low-voltage 1900+ and 2000+ cost $123 and $134, respectively.
  • Iomega Unveils Multiformat DVD Burner - Iomega is taking multiformat DVD burning a step further, unveiling this week the Super DVD Drive, which combines all three rewritable DVD formats into one drive. The internal drive can write to DVD-RW, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM and is slated for release in August. An external USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 model is scheduled to ship in September. Pricing will be announced upon release, but Iomega plans to offer the drive at a price that's competitive with the dual-format drives (which support DVD-RW and DVD+RW) currently flooding the market.
  • Palm OS Wristwatch - Amazon are taking orders for a new Palm OS Wrist Watch. It has an infra-red port, touch screen, back-light, stylus and 2MB of RAM. Price is $US 295.00. (thanks SlashDot.org)
  • Polaroid PhotoMAX PDC 3350 Digital Camera - SubZeroTech has posted a review on the Polaroid PhotoMAX PDC 3350 Digital Camera.
  • Twinmos 1024MB Dual Channel PC3200 Kit  - It's fair to say Twinmos have not produced a kit capable of challenging Corsair or OCZ in the realms of overclockability. However, if you are looking for some excellent value DDR400 memory, and have a board capable of voltage adjustments you could do a lot worse than this Twinmos kit.
  • Samsung SyncMaster 191N LCD Review - In the physical appearances, the SyncMaster 191N certainly stands out from the crowd of competitive 19 inch LCD monitors. One amazing feature which the 191N offers is the pivot feature which is still not very common in the market of LCD monitors. The pivoting arm which is part of the base allows the 191N to be displayed with the view of portrait or landscape.
  • Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro  - Extreme Overclocking has posted a review on the Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro Video Card.
  • APK System Tools for Windows 2002 + + SR-4 FINAL BUILD -  Alexander Peter Kowalski send words that APK System Tools for Windows 2002 + + SR-4 FINAL BUILD update is now available.
  • The WinFS File System For Windows Longhorn: Faster & Smarter - Microsoft is breaking new ground with Longhorn, successor to XP. The upcoming WinFS file system will be the first to be context-dependent, and promises to make long search times and wasted memory a thing of the past. Today, THG compares it to FAT and NTFS.
  • MP3Gain 1.2 beta - MP3Gain analyzes and adjusts mp3 files so that they have the same volume.
  • BSPlayer 0.86.497 - BSplayer (download) is a Windows R player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi / mpg / asf / wmv / wav / mp3.)
  • Fresh UI 6.10 - Fresh UI (download) is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,17 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:22 AM CEST - Jun,17 2003 - Post a comment
  • 181 Italians charged in €100m software raids - Italian police have charged 181 people, following raids on one of Europe's biggest bootleg software rings. They seized _118m worth of illegal software, music and films and estimate that the counterfeiting operation had an annual turnover of _100m. Another 10,300 people are under investigation. That's not a ring, that's a town.
  • MS Bugs and Fixes Update - After our July issue went to press, Microsoft admitted that the patch information it provided was incorrect. Microsoft pointed readers to two different fixes for Service Pack 1 performance lags--Q811493 and Q815411--but neither patch took care of the problem. Worse, Microsoft now says that it doesn't plan to fix the situation at all. If you installed either one of these patches, your PC will not be affected, says Microsoft. If you are looking for information about the Q811493 patch, Microsoft says that this patch does not take care of general Service Pack 1 performance problems, and that it is actually a revised security patch. Check out Microsoft's bulletin and click the Technical Details tab for the company's explanation.
  • Europe's largest Wi-Fi hotspot goes live  - The largest wireless computer hotspot in Europe has gone live at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, allowing cable-free internet access to staff and students anywhere on campus. The 140-hectare campus is peppered with 650 individual wireless network access points, with each point having a range of about 100 metres.
  • Nokia launches mass market smartphone - Nokia describes the new 6600, launched in Helsinki today, as its most important smartphone to date - a device that unlike its predecessors, is priced to appeal to the mid-market. It's a Series 60 device that's slightly smaller, and at 122g, a little lighter, than last year's 7650. Both screen and camera have been significantly improved, and the sprawling software bundle has been tidied up too.
  • Sony Brings Video Clie to U.S. - Sony plans to bring its newest Clie handhelds, a combination personal video player and personal digital assistant, to the United States in July. The NX80V will cost $599 when it goes on sale, and the NX73V will cost $499. The devices have already been released in Japan.
  • Samsung ML-1710/1750 Digital Monochrome Laser Printers Review - TweakNews has posted a Samsung ML-1710/1750 Digital Monochrome Laser Printers review.
  • Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200 GB Hard Drive Review - The Tech Lounge has posted a review of Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200 GB Hard Drive.
  • Samsung HT-DB600TH Review - Although computer speakers from companies such as Logitech or Klipsch are very good, for the same amount of money or a bit more, you can get a full home-theater system package that gives you a real receiver which can decode DTS, AC-3, and Dolby Pro Logic II, as well as combining decent bookcase speakers and a large LFE cabinet. The advantage - your computer can be at the center of a pro-grade home-theater setup and your games will sound just fantastic. Today, EnvyNews looks at a Samsung HT package which combines stellar features for a very attractive price.
  • Ratpadz GS Mousepad Review  - OcPrices.com has reviewed one of the finest mouse mats known to man - the Ratpadz Gaming Surface (GS).
  • 2Mb and 8Mb cache size on HDs tested in RAID - How does a 2mb cache harddisk compare to its bigger 8mb cache brother? MadShrimps.be test them in different RAID setups, using real word benchmarks to show you the actual difference! Software RAID 0 / Hardware RAID 1 / 0 with Stripe sizes: 1 - 4 - 16 - 64 - 512.
  • The i865PE and the i875P, the STALEMATE (or Performance Technology Acceleration )  secrets - check it out!
  • Winnow Cleaner 3.2 - Winnow Cleaner (download) is a multiple award-winning complete internet eraser (internet cleaner, history eraser, track eraser) utility to do a complete internet cleanup (delete internet cookies, delete temporary internet files, ...).
  • CPU's OC Databases Updated - VR-Zone has updated their Northwood and T'Bred and Barton overclocking databases (P4 Northwood ~ T'Bred ~ Barton)
  • Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.3.4022 - The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) (download) extends the international functionality of Win2k/XP/2003 Server systems by allowing users to Create new keyboard layouts from scratch; Base a new layout on an existing one; Modify an existing keyboard layout and build a new layout from it Multilingual input locales within edit control fields; Package the resulting keyboard layouts for subsequent delivery and installation.
  • QuickTime Alternative 1.11 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a webpage. You do need a media player that is capable of playing QuickTime files.
  • Download Express v1.4 Build 193 - MetaProducts Download Express (DE) (download ~ what's new) is a Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP program that allows you to download individual files from the Web and FTP sites at the maximum possible speed. Multiple channels technology significantly reduces download time. Download Express is a small (less than 400 Kb) Browser plugin application.
  • XP Visual Tools Anniversary Edition - XP VISUAL TOOLS is loaded with all you need to tweak your Windows XP Desktop. You can make xp taskbar and Start Menu transparent, change Windows XP Logon Screen or Windows XP Wallpapers and applying Windows XP Skins (XP Themes) to old programs.
  • Winamp Full 3.0  - Winamp 3 (download) plays MPEG Layer 2 (MP2) and Layer 3 (MP3) audio streams and Windows Media Audio (WMA), and combines extensive functionality with an intuitive interface. Winamp 3 revamps the entire idea of a skinning system by allowing developers to add entirely brand-new functionality within their own skins.
  • DVD Shrink 2.30 - 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.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.5.5 - Media Player Classic 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.
  • ASF-AVI-RM-WMV Repair v1.30 - Do you bother with your movie files download from internet that can't be played or seeked? ASF-AVI-RM-WMV Repair is easy solution. with AVI-ASF-RM-WMV Repair, you can repair/fix video files that can't be played or seeked, it supports fix AVI, divx, xvid, rm, rmvb, asf, wmv, wma files. it is easy and fast.
  • Graphical Interface to RegSvr32 1.0  - This program allows to register/unregister DLLs using RegSvr32 tool which is included with Windows.
  • jv16 PowerTools 1.4 RC2 - jv16 PowerTools (download) is the next generation of RegCleaner. A full set of tools to keep your computer and your LAN up and running. jv16 PowerTools is basicly the Tool to control your computer.
  • NVIDIA BIOS Editor v1.0 RC3 Rev500 - NVIDIA BIOS Editor enables you to do virtually anything with your graphic card BIOS (as long as it is NVIDIAs).  It enables you to change the sign-on message text & color, GPU & memory clocks, hidden features like SBA (Side Band Addressing) and much more. This new revision fixes problem with GeForce4 Ti 4xxx and Control Block version 5.25 and lower and brings the first partial support for GeForce FX 5200.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,15 2003 - tech
Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:24 PM CEST - Jun,15 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Fast forward into trouble  - Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences.
  • Pentagon to Move to Next-Generation Internet  - The Defense Department said on Friday it planned to link its high-tech weaponry, battlefield sensors and other communications systems to an upgraded Internet operating system within five years. The new standard, known as Internet Protocol Version 6, or IPv6, being developed by an independent standard-setting body, will help glue together the key components of the Defense Department's so-called Global Information Grid -- its sensors, weapons, aircraft, information systems and digitally linked forces.
  • Unleash the beast inside your cell phone - The megabyte or four of memory and the couple of multi-megahertz CPUs that are standard on today's Web-enabled mobiles dwarf what you could find on almost any machine available to the developers of Unix, e-mail or the Internet. Yet most of the time, all that computing power just sits unused.
  • Has Google run out?  - A rumour is spreading like the plague over the infinite paths of the Internet: Google has reached overbooking. The most popular creature in the virtual universe has space problems, or, more precisely, it could have them in the future. In fact, is seems that the most popular search engine in the world is about to reach the limit of its capacity of listed pages: 4,294,967,296. A numeric problem that is mainly due to a calculation error.
  • Microsoft kicks IE for Mac out the door -Microsoft will not create a new version of Internet Explorer for Macs in a move that leaves Apple users in an uncomfortable spot. Jimmy Grewal, the Microsoft Mac IE lead, is fleeing Redmond and heading to Dubai due to the browser's termination. Microsoft is saying it will provide some updates to IE 5 for Macs but does not plan to release an IE 6. It reckons users are in good hands with Apple's own Safari browser, and so the trouble begins.
  • ATI's new secret weapon is the R420 - According to The Inquirer, the R420 is being developed under the project name Loki, named after the Norse deity, son of Farbauti, held responsible for fire and magic, and able to take numerous different shapes. Loki was also held directly responsible for the death of the god of light, Baldur. The R420 will be a PCI Express chip and at this time we can only wonder how many transistors it will have, but we have every reason to assume more than 110 million and probably less than 150 million. Production and market availability of the cards is scheduled for Q1 2004.
  • ABIT Engineers Crack the 865PE Code ABIT's IS7 / IC7 Series now with Game Accelerator  - In a spectacular feat of engineering prowess, the ABIT Engineers have created a BIOS for the IS7 Series that unlocks the performance of the 865PE chipset, making the ABIT IS7 series boards the fastest 865PE motherboards ever made! Even at stock speeds, the IS7 series is 17% faster than all other Springdale boards. The IC7 Series also takes advantage of ABIT's Game Accelerator making the ABIT IS7 / IC7 series the gamer's choice for more frags, better gameplay and mind-bending graphic performance. Within ABIT Softmenut, Game Accelerator allows users the following options: Auto, Turbo, Street Racer, F1.
  • Albatron GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Review - For those who currently want to upgrade from their GeForce 4 Ti4200 or Radeon 9000 will probably want to look elsewhere as there wouldn't be much of an improvement. Sure there is DX9 compatibility but you will probably want something with more pixel pushing power. It was interesting to see that the GeForce FX 5200 Ultra was able to compete quite competitevely with the GeForce FX 5600 in many of the benchmarks. Currently Albatron's GeForce FX 5200 Ultra goes for around $145 but Im sure you can find slightly lower prices if you shop around. For $15 more you can get a GeForce FX 5600 and in my opinion be more happier than you would be with a 5200 Ultra in the long run when playing games with AA & AF enabled.
  • Inno3D's Tornado GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Review - Inno3D's Tornado GeForce FX 5200 Ultra isn't yet available online, but GeForce FX 5200 Ultra cards from other manufacturers are going for as low as $132 on Pricewatch-a good $11 cheaper than the least expensive GeForce FX 5600 and $30 cheaper than ATI's Radeon 9600 Pro. If Inno3D is to be competitive among other GeForce FX 5200 Ultra manufacturers, its card will have to come in at around $130.  
  • Athlon XP Chipset Shootout - VIA KT400 vs. VIA KT400A vs. nVidia nForce 2  - Epox's nForce2 is defiantly the quickest motherboard thanks to its Dual Channel. The KT400 held its ground and MSI have been able to put together a very nice product. The DFI is defiantly the coolest looking board in the roundup (and possibly ever) and comes with a host of features but it seems to be let down by a poorly designed chipset. Considering the KT400 doesn't have support for Dual Channel, it performed very well in a large amount of tests, it will be interesting to see when VIA brings Dual Channel chipsets to the party, if they even do.
  • 865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003 - Part 1: 20-way Shootout - After many hours of testing the guys at AnandTech have decided that the best value Pentium 4 motherboard is ABIT's IS7 based on the 865PE chipset. The IS7's assortment of onboard features such as IEEE 1394 FireWire, Serial ATA RAID, 10/100 LAN, and AC'97 alone make it a great buy at just over $105. However what separates the ABIT IS7 from other motherboard's is its excellent overclocking ability and superb performance that rival the most expensive motherboards on the market, including those based on Intel's 875P chipset.
  • Albatron KM18G Pro V2.0 nForce2 IGP Motherboard Review - With a retail price of $170 CDN ($105 US) the Albatron KM18G Pro v2.0 is a little on the pricey side, but then again smaller sized components have always costed more. The KM18G Pro v2.0 supports current 200/266/333 MHz FSB based AthlonXP processors and can be used with a maximum of 3GB of PC1600/2100/2700/3200 DDR RAM. Because of the relative small size, the only "frills" of the motherboard are its 10/100 LAN, integrated video & TV-out, and 5.1 audio.
  • Samsung HT-DB600TH Home Theater System Review - Although contained within a small package, this compact home theater system performs. Bringing a 500 watts of audio power and 5 disc DVD/CD capability to a livingroom for around US$260 is nothing less than a bargain. When compared to what it replaces, an equivalent separate component system would cost two to three times more. It's a great system that you can have up and running in 15 minutes which at the same time will leave a considerable amount of cash in your pocket.
  • Linux Kernel 2.4.21 released (patches) - The latest stable version of the Linux kernel is 2.4.21 (changelog).  The release, version 2.4.21, adds support in the open-source operating system for a host of new devices and corrects software flaws. It also incorporates support for Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit Opteron processor.
  • Umaniacs XviD Build 11.6.2003 1420 - An updated Umaniacs XviD build 11.6.2003 1420 codec has been released.
  • GeForce FX 5900 videos - Nvidia has now offers some new WMP9 videos for the GeForce FX 5900 - Vulcan - Dusk - Last Chance Gas (thanks Warp2Search).
  • TMPGEnc v2.513.53.162 - TMPEGenc (changelog) converts *.AVI file to MPEG1, the format which is used in VideoCD. Using a variety of options in TMPEGenc, you can compress your video file in high quality.
  • WinAmp 2.92 - Nullsoft Winamp (full ~ standard ~ lite) is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity music player for Windows. Winamp supports MP3, CD, Audiosoft, Audio Explosion, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called skins, plus audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins. This new version fixed startup with hung winamp process in background,  shuffle, added CD ripping support in media library (with OGG Vorbis encoding support), preliminary AAC playback support (in_mp3.dll) and more.
  • Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 5.6 - This version of the Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility has been updated to support the new Intel Xeon Processor, Pentium 4 processors, Mobile Intel Pentium 4 processors, Pentium III processors, Mobile Pentium III processors with Intel SpeedStep technology, Pentium III Xeon processors and Intel Celeron processors with 66, 100, 133, 400, 533 , and 800 MHz system memory bus products, as well as adding new processor identification functionality (CPUID).
  • nForce Linux Drivers (v1.0-0261) - NVIDIA has released a new version of their nForce Linux drivers (v1.0-0261). Added kernel patch to support nForce GART; Added "spdif_status" module parameter to audio driver to enable/disable S/PDIF support for compatability; Fixed bug in audio driver that was causing MSI nForce board to only use 2 channels; Fixed mmap bug in audio driver causing Quake III to hang; Fixed Red Hat Linux 9 build issue with remap_page_range(); Fixed problem with rebuilding SRPM on Red Hat Linux 9; Added Red Hat Linux 9 and Mandrake Linux 9.1 binary RPMs. (thanks SavegeNews)
  • nForce2 Drivers 2.78 - These v2.78 drivers are from MSI and should work for most boards.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,13 2003 - tech
Friday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 02:03 PM CEST - Jun,13 2003 - Post a comment / read (4)
  • N-Gage boss slams GBA, reveals business model details - Nokia's head of entertainment and media, Ilkka Raiskinen, has attacked Nintendo's GBA in today's Dow Jones, accusing the system of failing to appeal to adult demographics, and has revealed some details of the development business model for N-Gage.
  • IM's bursting--say goodbye to e-mail - The number of people using instant messaging (IM) software at work is set soar over the next few years, as part of a wider boom that will see more than a trillion IMs sent worldwide each day by 2006, according to the latest research. The survey, carried out by The Radicati Group, predicts that IM is on the verge of becoming a ubiquitous communication medium, much as e-mail is today.
  • Al-Jazeera Hacker Pleads Guilty - 24-year-old California man has pleaded guilty to charges that he hijacked the Internet domain of Arabic news service Al-Jazeera in March. The U.S. Attorney's office filed the deal with John William Racine II, a Web designer in Norco, California, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles on Thursday morning.  In exchange for his guilty plea, the government is recommending Racine be sentenced to three years probation and 1000 hours of community service, and pay a $1500 fine.
  • Thai hackers ordered to work for victim  - University students who broke into a Thai government Web site are to work on the same site as punishment. Thai university students arrested for hacking have been ordered to pay for their crime by serving at the very Web site they defaced. According to the daily newspaper The Bangkok Post, the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) ministry's portal was breached recently. The hackers had last month planted a bogus news flash on the ministry's site, detailing plans to set up a new club to promote prostitution and pornography. The message was removed after a few hours and the intrusion traced to a local university.
  • The Enemy Within: Firewalls and Backdoors - SecurityFocus has posted an article called "Firewalls and Backdoors".  They provide info on firewall types, backdoor classifications, some examples of real backdoors and tips on mitigating their use on your network.
  • New ZoneAlarm Toughens Firewall - Version 4 continues the expansion by Zone Labs into areas beyond the scope of a classic firewall, to take on tasks such as combating viruses and worms. After the outbreak of the mass-mailing VBS worm Love Letter in May 2000, Zone Labs added a feature called MailSafe to its firewall. MailSafe quarantines incoming e-mail messages that contain VBS attachments. Zone Labs has expanded the feature on its paid Pro and Plus products over the years, and now monitors for 47 file types out of the box.
  • AMD on target for September Athlon 64 launch - The Athlon 64 processor AMD is readying is on target for a September launch, representatives of the firm confirmed earlier this week. But so far there's not that many samples of the Athlon64 out there in the wild, as AMD struggles to improve both its clock speed and its thermal profile, insiders tell the INQUIRER.
  • Intel warns vendors not to overclock 865 chipsets - INTEL warned that system manufacturers and users that attempt to overclock 865 chipsets using PAT (performance acceleration technology) may end up with systems that are not under warranty. The stern warning sends out a clear challenge from Intel to motherboard makers including Asus, Epox, Abit and others that introducing a BIOS to enable elements of 875 technology in 865 chipsets is meeting strong disapproval from the chip giant.
  • PCI Express: Interconnect of the future - The PCI Express Base 1.0a Specification and Card Electromechanical 1.0a Specification have already been released, although we won't see any PCI Express products until 2004, probably the first being video cards from nVidia and ATi, along with motherboards based on the Grantsdale chipset from Intel. At the server end of the market, Intel is looking to introduce PCI Express with the Lindenhurst and Twin Castle chipsets. With new form factors and promising great performance, the future looks good.
  • Interview with Developers - Multiple Pixel Shader Precision modes - check it out.
  • Philips Unveils Mirror TV - Philips has announced its Mirror TV technology, and plans a small-scale roll-out to hotels late this year. The company hopes to get Mirror TVs into people's homes eventually, too, but that will take longer. A Mirror TV is basically a two-way mirror with an LCD screen behind it. When the LCD is activated, you see the display. When it's turned off, you see your reflection. A special lamination developed by Philips makes all of this possible. The LCDs will be wide-screen, with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a high 1280 by 768 resolution. Philips plans to offer the mirror/monitors in 17-, 23-, and 30-inch sizes.
  • Pixel Shader 2.0 precision - Digit-Life has posted an article on Pixel Shaders in DirectX9.
    Kanguru Media X-change review -     The 20GB Kanguru Media X-change 2.0 ($249.95 direct), a versatile mobile problem solver, provides portable hard drive storage and offers reading and writing compatibility with the six most common forms of portable storage media used with devices such as digital cameras and PDAs.
  • Samsung ML-2150 Laser Printer review  - The features such as 21ppm, and the onboard 16MB of ram, is quite commendable. For any environment, that should prove to be more than enough. Also, should you feel compelled to do so, you can expand the memory all the way up to 144MB, which in my opinion is much more than any printer will probably need. Being compatible with every version of Microsoft Windows to date, along with various Linux OS, Mac OS (8.6 and greater), SUN Solaris, HP-UX, and SCO, is also a very promising asset.
  • Albatron KM18G Pro M-ATX nForce2 review - The KM18G runs off of the nForce 2 IGP Northbridge and the MCP Southbridge. Although we ve checked out the nForce 2 SPP (System Platform Processor), this is our first experience with the IGP version which sports integrated graphics with allocation of up to 128MB of system memory. The integrated graphics comes to us via the Geforce 4 MX (NV17) core which runs at 250 MHz. Although this won't be a selling point for those of us using ATI radeon 9000+ cards or Ti / FX based cards, it will appeal to someone looking for a system with solid integrated graphics for an office system or even to play the most recent games only with toned down settings.
  • AMD Athlon XP 3200+ review  - Yep definitely recommended. There are two things I do not like about this product, the price tag, our own pricewatch database reports this product in it's cheapest form for 444 USD which is a lot of money for a processor.
  • Leadtek A310TD 128MB FX5600 review - Overclockers New Zealand has posted a review on Leadtek A310TD 128MB FX5600. By looking at the scores above, I find it hard to convince the consumers that FX5600 would give them a better gaming experience than a good old GF4 Ti. Generally speaking, Leadtek A310 (FX5600) is around 10~35% slower than a standard GF4 Ti-4800SE. The FX5600 may come out on top if FSAA is used but that is about it.
  • Barracuda ATA V (120GB) review - Seagate's Barracuda ATA V ST3120023A disc drive delivers 7,200-RPM performance for desktops and entry-level ATA servers, with a capacity of 120 Gbytes. The product features a FDB motor for the quietest acoustics in the industry, superior reliability and the Ultra ATA/100 interface. The drive includes Seagate's exclusive 3D Defense System and a one-year limited warranty.
  • TEAC CD-W552PUK USB 2.0 review - Is it worth buying this drive? If you need a portable drive to move between machines, I would recommend it wholeheartedly, not only is this drive a real looker and very well built, its a great performer for everyday use, with some of the best audio quality ive had the pleasure to listen to.
  • Chip-Con Prometeia Mach II review - Prometeia Mach II is probably the most advanced cooling solution to date. It has the capability of removing up to 200W of heat dissipation which allow you to overclock your Pentium 4 to reach 4Ghz or Athlon XP to 3Ghz comfortably.  Prometeia Mach II will make a fine machine for hobbyists into 3DMark benching and distributed computing, as a extremely powerful gaming rig and as a workstation machine for rendering, video and CAD applications which are CPU intensive. Whether it going to worth your money will depend on your usage model.
  • MAME v0.70 - MAME (win32 ~ win32 Pentium Pro optimized) stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
  • Serv-U 4.1.0.7 Beta - Serv-U (download) is a powerful, easy-to-use, award-winning FTP server created by Rob Beckers. An FTP server uses the FTP protocol to share files across the Internet.
  • Nero InfoTool 2.00 - Nero InfoTool is very usefull for getting a quick overview about your system configuration. It will display important Information for the purpose of discovering errorsources.
  • MBM-Net v1.0 - MBM-Net is a companion program to Motherboard Monitor 5. It allows you to monitor computers on your network and display information such as CPU temperature, system temperature, and fan speeds. That way you can see the status of your machines in one convenient window instead of remote desktop"ing" into each machine and checking! You can monitor any computer on your home network or over the internet using MBM-Net! Up to 255 machines are supported.
  • AtomTime Synchronizer 3.2.1.0 - AtomTime Synchronizer is a useful and handy utility to keep your PC clock accurate. It can periodically check and synchronize your computer time with a NIST atomic time server, synchronize time between computers and act as a time server.
  • WinDVD Platinum 4.5.28.108 - WinDVD Platinum (download) is the latest version of WinDVD which is a simple-to-use DVD player that combines all the features of a standard consumer DVD player and offers much more. It is the ultimate DVD player with advanced audio and video functions, not found anywhere else.
  • CopyToDVD 2.2 - CopyToDVD is the easiest way to backup your files. Integrated to the shell or used as a normal application, CopyToDVD works with all CD & DVD Writers to create the cd type of your choice.
  • Dr. DivX 1.0.1 -  Dr. DivX is the first and only official DivX Encoding application. Just as DivX and DivX Pro have enabled anyone, anywhere to watch and distribute great looking digital video, this now makes the act of creating DivX video as easy as the act of watching it. It lets you create an awesome DivX video from almost any source right on your computer in just three easy steps.
  • Tray Helper v3.5 - Tray Helper it's compact award winning application with many features (f/e: email checker, auto mail responder, anti-spam, popup-killer, event reminder and more).
  • ICQ Lite Build #1211 - ICQ Lite Build #1211 (download) has been released.
  • BlindWrite Suite 4.5 - Blindwrite Suite (download) is the best set of tools to reproduce or clone any CD, even protected ones. Blindwrite Suite is the most powerfull tool to create a perfect copy from your original CD for personal private copy.
  • GoldenHawk CDRWIN 3.9D - GoldenHawk has finally released a new version of CDRWin.
  • ASUS SmartDoctor 2 2.70  - ASUS SmartDoctor2 is designed to satisfy two major goals. One is to monitor graphic chip Status, altering users about abnormal events, such as fan malfunction or chip overheat. The other, as the name SmartDoctor implies, is to cool down the graphic chip smartly when it is not necessary for it to be kept running at full speed. SmartDoctor2 includes AGP Power Level Monitoring, Fan RPM Monitoring, Overheated protection, Smartcooling technology, and Manual Overclocking.
  • S3/VIA Driver updates - There are new driver updates from S3 Graphics: Logo'd: ProSavageDDR WinXP/2k v13.94.12 w/Util ~Logo'd: ProSavageDDR WinXP/2k v13.94.12 Rotation ~  Logo'd: ProSavageDDR WinXP/2k v13.94.12 TVLargeFont.(thanks SavageNews)
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,12 2003 - tech
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:45 AM CEST - Jun,12 2003 - Post a comment / read (10)
  • The Matrix Reloaded banned in Egypt - Global blockbuster The Matrix Reloaded has been banned in Egypt because of its "violent" content and because it tackles "religious themes". The country's censorship board said the film's storyline, about the search for the creator and control of the human race, may cause "crises". Violent scenes also had the potential to "harm social peace", a statement said.
  • Chances for 'Fat Tax' Approval Look Slim - A proposal to tax junk food, video games and television commercials to pay for an obesity prevention program faces stiff opposition from lawmakers and business groups. Chances of the proposal passing before lawmakers go home for the summer on June 19 looked slim after a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said he would not support the tax.  The 1 percent tax hike proposed by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz would apply to junk food, video games and television commercials, which Ortiz blames on New York's growing obesity problem. Ortiz, a Democrat, did not rule out proposing tax increases on other things that he believes contribute to obesity.
  • Newest Bugbear Virus Targets Banks - The worm's code contains a list of more than 1000 domain names of banks from around the world, according to Symantec. Suzanne Gorman, chairman of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an industry security group in Reston, Virginia, said that the organization responded immediately to the first reports of Bugbear attacks on banks by warning member institutions to make sure that their security systems are fully in place. A conference call was held with security experts and members to review the problem and discuss strategy, she said. No member banks so far have been infiltrated by the Bugbear virus, she said, because of firewalls, antivirus protection, and other multilayer IT security systems.
  • Toshiba, SanDisk shrinking memory cells - Toshiba and SanDisk announced that they have managed to shrink the cell size, the region that "holds" data, on flash-memory chips, a development that will lead to 2-gigabit and 4-gigabit flash chips by next year. The new memory cell has a physical area of only 0.041 square microns, smaller than existing cells, and can be manufactured on the 90-nanometer manufacturing process, a manufacturing standard coming to market toward the end of the year.
  • AMD overhauling transistors, chips -  The Sunnyvale, Calif-.based chipmaker is examining how to incorporate a wide variety of cutting-edge concepts--strained silicon, multi-gate transistors, replacing silicon with metal in key transistor components--to boost the performance of chips that will hit the market in the second half of the decade.
  • Intel takes notebook chips past 3GHz - Dell began offering its new Inspiron 5150 notebook with the 3.06GHz mobile Pentium 4 on Wednesday. The machine starts at about $1,550, a price that includes the new chip with a 15-inch high-resolution display, 256MB of RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM and a graphics board from ATI Technologies.
  • Epson Stylus Photo 900 review - The sticker on the Epson Stylus Photo 900 ($200 street) says, "The Complete Printing Solution for Your Digital Lifestyle." We doubt any printer can live up to that claim, but the quality of the 900's output 900 varies from good to excellent, and as a bonus, you can print directly onto CDs.
  • FIC A98P Radeon 9800 Pro review - VR-Zone today has take a look at the FIC A98P Radeon 9800 Pro card which sports a hip box design with a rendered bull on the cover. FIC continues to hammer away their OEM only image by putting out quality graphic cards and motherboards geared at the enthusiast markets. The A98P is no exception, from slick new retail packaging design to great overclockability (472/370Mhz), the A98P is one of the few cards that holds its own in the ever so turbulent and cut-throat high end graphic card market.
  • QuickTime Alternative 1.10 - QuickTime Alternative will allow you to play QuickTime files (.mov, .qt and other extensions) without having to install the official QuickTime Player. As a bonus, Internet Explorer will play all QuickTime movies that are embedded in a webpage. You do need a media player that is capable of playing QuickTime files.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.5.4 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users.
  • VIA Audio drivers v3.50c - VIA Tech has released new drivers for the internal AC97 sound in their chipsets i.e. south bridges VT686A, VT686B, VT8231, VT8233, VT8233A, VT8233C and VT8235.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,11 2003 - tech
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:46 AM CEST - Jun,11 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Robot Rover Heads to Mars to Search for Water  -NASA launched the first of two robotic rovers to Mars on Tuesday in an international quest to determine if life ever existed on the red planet. After two days of weather delays, the Mars Exploration Rover, nicknamed "Spirit," lifted off from Cape Canaveral as part of a global fleet of probes sent to Mars. If the rover Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, which is scheduled to be launched later this month, succeed, scientists will know if ancient, now-vanished, water sources on Mars were there long enough for life to emerge. Mars is a perilous destination for spacecraft. Of 30 missions launched by various nations over the years, only 12 have succeeded. Landing on the surface is even harder, with just three of nine attempts ending in success.
  • Hints for Planning a Network Gaming Marathon? - According to Slashdot.org, some guys tentatively planning a public Network Gaming Marathon (LAN Party, except for an entire weekend) later this year, starting on a Friday night and ending the following Sunday afternoon.
  • Email monitoring code finally arrives - After three years in the making, the Information Commission has finally produced its guidelines on how firms can legally monitor staff emails. As anticipated, employers will have the right to monitor staff emails, provided that employees have been warned that monitoring is taking place, and that the reasons for monitoring have been explained.
  • Microsoft to buy antivirus expertise - Microsoft has announced its intention to acquire GeCad Software (RAV Antivirus), a Romanian antivirus technology developer, in order to improve the security in its Windows platform. The deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, would add a team of antivirus experts to Microsoft's stable of developers and give the company the ability to offer antivirus systems across all its products, a representative said. Security experts from the 100-employee company will also work to make the Windows operating system work better with products from third-party antivirus vendors, Microsoft said.
  • Microsoft Previews FrontPage 2003 - Microsoft is enhancing the XML capabilities of its FrontPage Web design program with true WYSIWYG editing and easier interaction with other applications in the Office 2003 family. FrontPage 2003 is scheduled to ship at the same time as the other Office 2003 applications in development, by the third quarter. Microsoft has not announced Office 2003 pricing.
  • Intel puts Tri-Gate transistor on fast track  - Intel says that its Tri-Gate transistor, a futuristic transistor that will let electricity flow more freely inside chips, is moving closer to reality. The Tri-Gate transistor, one of the tools that may let Intel continue to follow Moore's Law in the second half of the decade, has been placed on the "pathfinder" development path at Intel, said Ken David, co-director of components research in the Technology Manufacturing Group at Intel. That means that it is one of a select few design alternatives that will get incorporated into chips by 2007.
  • Intel's x86--25 years later - Intel's first x86-based chip, the 5MHz 8086, was introduced on June 9, 1978. Earlier this year, the company passed the 1 billion mark for units shipped on x86 processors, a feat that might have been enough to prompt other companies to put up a tent and throw a party.  At 3.06GHz, the Pentium 4 is about 600 times faster than the 8086. The increases in performance have made new applications possible
  • Xbox 2 powered by ATi ? - According to Spong.com, Microsoft's next generation Xbox will use an ATi graphics chipset, following Microsoft's apparent inability to work cohesively with former provider nVidia.
  • Prometeia Mach 2: Best Compressor Cooler for x86 CPUs  - Chip-Con now delivers 200 W cooling. 4.1 GHz are now possible with the P4. Step-by-step instructions for installing the Mach 2 system in a high-end PC - with highlights available on video.
  • High Power For Power Users: 13 Power Supplies In The Spotlight  - The latest CPUs and graphics cards require robust power supplies. But watch out: the test candidates rarely delivered on their power claims. Efficiency, voltage and noise levels are a few of the important factors you need to consider before you make a purchase.
  • Abit GeForce FX 5800 review - Abit came with a nice solution to the cooling and nVidia managed to solve the image quality and performance. FX 5800 has improved in my eyes.
  • 512MB Mushkin PC3500 Black Dual Pack DDR Memory Modules review - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted the definitive review of the 512MB Mushkin PC3500 Black Dual Pack DDR Memory Modules. "Ever seen a PC3500 DDR memory module run at 480MHz? How about TWO?!".
  • Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Cooler review  - Hexus.net has posted a new review of  Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Cooler  They say: "The Zalman CNPS7000-Cu appears to be in a position to fulfill our requirements. Excellent design, aesthetically pleasing, and, above all, a fantastic noise-to-performance ratio make this CPU cooler one of the most enviable."
  • Zalman ZM400A-APF PSU review - Hexus.net has posted a review of Zalman ZM400A-APF PSU. ~ "Ł80 is steep for a 400w PSU. Whether it's worth it or not depends upon how much you value silence. Recommended to those looking for uber-quiet rigs."
  • 865PE & 875P Memory Guide  - It has been many weeks since 865PE and 875P motherboards were released onto the market, and we can say without a doubt that there have been some growing pains. Luckily though motherboard manufacturers have been diligently working on their BIOSes and it shows; memory compatibility and performance is much better today than it was one to two months ago. After countless hours of testing there is no doubt that Corsair LL (Low Latency) PC3200 modules are the fastest and most compatible DDR memory modules to pair with your 865PE or 875P motherboard (regular CAS2.0 Corsair modules are just as good as LL/TwinX modules). Initially we had the most problems with Corsair's modules, but thankfully motherboard manufacturers were able to come through with solid BIOS releases that remedied all of these issues.
  • Build an Xbox "Xshok" Controller - Is the 'rumble' feature on your Xbox controller too wimpy for you? Kevin Rose spices things up with electricity. Remember that old James Bond movie where they battled for world domination by playing a videogame that would shock you? That's what gave me the idea. If I got punched, I wanted to feel the punch. And let me tell you -- 20,000 volts packs quite a punch.  Note: This mod should only be performed by experienced electrical technicians. Do not attempt this at home!
  • Windows XP Pre-SP2 Security Pack - Keyser Soze has released a Windows XP Pre-SP2 Security Pack which includes security hotfixes which are essential to Windows XP.
  • Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator - The Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator extends the international functionality of Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems by allowing users to: Create new keyboard layouts from scratch ; Base a new layout on an existing one; Modify an existing keyboard layout (.KLC) file and build a new layout from it; Package the resulting keyboard layouts for subsequent deployment and installation.
  • Avant Browser 8.01 Build 107 - Avant Browser (download) is an upgrade to Internet Explorer. Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile multi-window browser.
  • DVD Shrink v2.1 Beta - 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.
  • PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 396 - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
  • TMPGEnc 2.512.52.161 - This program can convert AVI files into (S)VCD (MPEG-1/2). It will only take a few hours to convert a whole movie.
  • DivX Pro Tahanea - DivX is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and documentation that you need to play DivX files. DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec can reduce an MPEG-2 video (DVD format) to ten percent of its original size. Tahanea is intended to test some new refinements in the recently implemented motion estimation algorithm: a rate distortion algorithm can now be used to balance the number of bits used and the actual visual quality.
  • Lite-On CD-RW Firmware - LiteOn have released some new CD-RW firmware updates for the following drives: Lite-On LTR-52246S ( 52X 24X 52X ) CD-RW, Lite-On LTR-48246S ( 48X 24X 48X ) CD-RW, Lite-On LTR-48125S ( 48X 12X 48X ) CD-RW, Lite-On LTC-48161H ( 48X 24X 48X + 16X ) COMBO, Lite-On LTC-48161H ( 48X 24X 48X + 16X ) COMBO and Lite-On LSC-24081MX ( 24X 12X 24X + 8X ) EXTERNAL SLIM COMBO.
  • NVIDIA Detonator Drivers 44.61 BETA - Warp2Search has now offers the newest NVIDIA Detonator Beta Drivers v44.61.Core files are dated: 31st of May 2003
  • ATI WDM Capture Driver 6.14.10.6201v1  - The ATI WDM driver is a series of drivers used to enable the capture and TV tuner features on VIVO boards, and the All-In-Wonder series of cards produced by ATI Technologies Inc.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,10 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:34 AM CEST - Jun,10 2003 - Post a comment
  • Game Boy Advance SP Sells 1.1 Million in U.S. - According to this PR, over 1 million Game Boy Advance SP portable consoles have been sold in about 10 weeks in the US. To build upon its success, Nintendo is launching new color casings. On Sept. 8, Onyx (black) and Flame (red) will join the current Platinum (silver) and Cobalt (dark blue) systems.
  • Microsoft cables new TV technology  - Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, speaking at the opening session of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's annual trade show, outlined his company's new software for bridging cable television and interactive digital technology. Microsoft TV Foundation Edition, for use by cable operators with their existing hardware and network systems, is designed to offer cable TV viewers features like video on demand and advanced parental screening.
  • Nokia GGSN (IP650 Based) DoS - There exists a vulnerability in the TCP stack that allows an attacker to cause the GGSN to kernel panic and shutdown. This potentially allows an attacker to crash all data connectivity within a GPRS based network. This vulnerability is exploited by sending a malformed IP packet with a TCP option of 0xFF over a cellphone to the affected network.
  • Microsoft messes about with logos in ICMP packets - A report suggested that Microsoft is tunnelling its own logo in the form of a JPG file across networks and inside an ICMP echo request. But why would it be doing this? Seth Stein, at his web site here, has set something to sniff away at ICMP traffic to see what it's come up. He discovered a total of 2000 ICMP echo request packets sent from his machine, even though he hadn't even pinged or ponged once. But capturing the ICMP packets revealed one set which oddly contained the Microsoft logo. How peculiar. He asks whether Microsoft programmers were just bored. Well, that could be the answer...
  • Eight security holes found in Debian Linux - DEBIAN issued a note yesterday saying that there were eight security holes associated with the kernel on machines running IA32 (Intel) architecture.
  • FlashFXP - Two Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities - FlashFXP has following two buffer overflow vulnerabilities: 1. The buffer overflow vulnerability in "PASV" command  ~ 2. The buffer overflow vulnerability in the long host name.  Fix: Upgrade to version 2.1 build 923 or later version.
  • Benchmarking - How and Why? - When you buy a 3D video card, you buy it knowing that you want to play games with it, and not programs that just spit out a number at you. The benchmarks used in video card reviews haven't really changed in the past while, which is saddening. Many people still rely on programs such as Quake III and 3D Mark 2001SE to test video cards. But with Quake III we can see that the video card is no longer really a limiter, even at 1600*1200.
  • NVIDIA NV40 to Come This Year - Since the NV35 is nearly in retail now and we know almost everything about the part, it is time to start reporting unofficial information about NVIDIA's next-generation graphics processor, the code-named NV40 GPU.
  • Samsung LTM295W 29" LCD Monitor/TV review - The contrast ratio of 600:1 is amazing, and takes the cake for being the highest I ve seen to date here with the site. I was pleased to see a more than acceptable brightness level of 450cd/m2. The response time isn t anything to snuff at, standing at 22ms. For viewing angles everyone should be pleased with 170/170 (W&H). The last mention is the pixel pitch which sits at .4935(h) X .4935(w). The optimal resolution while in PC use is 1024 x 768 @ 75Hz although the maximum is 1280 x 768 @ 75Hz.
  • Dell Ultrasharp 1800FP LCD review - ExtremeMhz has reviewed the Dell Ultrasharp 1800FP LCD.
  • All-in-Wonder 9800 Pro review - The new All-in-Wonder card uses the same version of ATI's latest GPU, the Radeon 9800 Pro, used on the 128MB Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. The processor has a 380-MHz engine clock, a 340-MHz memory clock, eight pixel pipes, four vertex pipes, and support for DirectX 9.0 Pixel Shaders 2.0. In the recent showdown that sister site Extreme Tech had between the 256MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card (which has a 350-MHz memory clock) and nVidia's new GeForceFX 5900 Ultra, the ATI GPU held its own.
  • Samsung sm352b Combo Drive Review - The 352b is the 'older' brother to our previous 252b review, in addition to the 52X write, 24X re-write, 52X read, the 352b also adds the 16X DVD read option to the mix. For users who are building a cheap and compact system, these combo drives are a god send. The ability to read DVDs and perform all CD-R/RW writing functions is a perfect match.
  • Creative SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods Guide Updated Again - Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor usel
  • Kill Bill Trailer - Nitrox sent me another link for a trailer of the upcoming Tarantino's movie called KILL BILL. Tarantino rocks!
  • Crucial Gizmo! 128MB  - Envy News has published a review of Gizmo! USB Flash drive.
  • FreeBSD 5.1 Released - FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE 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.
  • Ad-aware reference file R144 08.06.2003  - Included are newly added signatures for StopPop(Vx2) Malware, EPSystems DialerMaker(Generic Dialer), ZyncosMark, WinPup32 Hijacker, PeopeOnPage(POP)-Plugin and PowerStrip Toolbar.  Updated signatures for VirtualBouncer, VitaTrade ltd. (Dialer), Whazit Hijacker, i-Won CoPilot, XupiterOrbitExplorer, WhenuClockSync, WhenuSave!, WhenuWeatherCast, SearchBarCash, E-Group (Dialer), ColoumbDialler (Dialer), FreeScratchCards Malware and Internet-Billing-Solutions (Dialer).
  • AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 488 - A free registration is required to run AVG. You will be emailed a registration code and can not install it without it.
  • Visual Boy Advance v1.5.1 - Visual Boy Advance is a Game Boy Advance and Game Boy emulator that runs with Windows systems. There are two versions available: DirectX and SDL. SDL stands for Simple DirectMedia Layer. It is a cross platform library for graphics, input, audio, threading, etc... that can be used for games, emulators, etc the SDL version on Windows may be faster than the DirectX version.
  • CuteFTP XP 5.0.2.2 beta - CuteFTP is absolutely the easiest way to transfer files across the Internet. Its built-in Connection Wizard will walk you through connecting to an FTP site in seconds and its user-friendly interface will have you transferring files in no time, even if you are a beginner.
  • NetCaptor 7.2.0 Final - The small IE based browser NetCaptor has been updated to version 7.2.0 Final (changelog).
  • Xplorer2 alpha 0.0.0.31 - 2xExplorer & Xplorer2 are lightweight and powerful, fully shell integrated and extremely usable for increased everyday productivity, the ideal dual-pane replacement for explorer, compatible with all 32-bit windows platforms. 2xExplorer & Xplorer2 are easy to use yet very potent and extremely efficient alternative to the standard Windows Explorer. It combines the user-friendliness of the latter with the increased efficiency and advanced features of good-old dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander. It is a package that will appeal to the power user, yet its similarity with Explorer will ensure that less experienced users will not be driven away either.
  • BSPlayer 0.86.496 - BSplayer (download) is a Windows player that plays back all kinds of media files ( avi / mpg / asf / wmv / wav / mp3...) and shines in video and divx playback.
  • ZoomPlayer 3.10 RC2 - Zoom Player is a robust media and DVD front-end player
  • XMPEG v5.0 RC 1 (free) - This program decodes MPEG1 (Audio & Video) and MPEG2 streams and offers you the possibilty to reencode them in the format you want. Actual evolutions makes Xmpeg faster, more stable, and with more options.
  • PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 395 - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
  • Motherboard Monitor 5.3.3.0 - Motherboard Monitor (MBM) 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.
  • Alcoholer 3.2 - Alcoholer (download) is one of the best 1:1 burning programs.  Alcoholer v3.2 Changelog: Implemented ASS, fixed some bugs, added some new Profiles and ClonyXXL numbers.
  • CPUInfo 2.00 Beta 4 - CPUInfo shows detailed informations about the processors on the mainboard. It detects the processor type and manufacturer, the clock ratio, level 1 and level 2 cache and the processor instruction set extensions.
  • Maxtor PowerMax v4.06 - PowerMax utility is designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor/Quantum hard drives.
  • NEC ND-1100A Firmware -  Firmware Forum have obtained a new firmware update for owners of the NEC ND-1100A DVD+R/RW writer. Version 1.A1 should only be used on drives that have the 1.A0 firmware. (thanks TechSeekers)
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,08 2003 - tech
Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:30 PM CEST - Jun,08 2003 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • Hotmail Vulnerability Being Exploited by Spammers - A new--but not well known--Microsoft vulnerability is being exploited by spammers, creating even more junk mail in your inbox. Microsoft has a terrible record of deploying features without thinking through the security implications thereof--and responding slowly when problems are discovered. Well, here we go again. In recent releases, Microsoft implemented tighter integration between the Outlook Express mail client and their Hotmail free email service. The WebDAV (Distributed Authoring and Versioning) protocol is used to submit email to the Hotmail servers.
  • Verizon Turns Over Names in Piracy Case  - Verizon was compelled to give up the names Wednesday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., which rejected the telecom giant's request for a stay while it appeals a lower court decision won by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA has not decided what action to take against the four Verizon customers, said Matt Oppenheim, the group's senior vice president for business and legal affairs. (thanks kleptonin)
  • Crazy 17" Monitor Case Modding - That has got to be the best monitor/case mod I have ever seen. Not my choice for colors, but I am really impressed with the quality that went into this. (thanks Slashdot.org)
  • DoCoMo to launch fuel cell-run handsets by 2005  - - NTT DoCoMo Inc said on Thursday it expects to launch a mobile phone powered by a fuel-cell battery for extended hours of use as early as 2004, a potential boost for its high-speed third-generation (3G) service. DoCoMo's 3G service, which offers video conferencing and speedy access to the Web, had until recently met a cool reception due mainly to the poor battery life of its handsets.
  • Intel notebook Celerons to have 1MB cache - According to recent roadmaps seen by the INQUIRER, Intel will introduce 1.30GHz notebook Celerons in the first quarter of next year. And these will have 1MB of level two cache as well as 400MHz front side buses.In the second quarter of next year, Intel will up the frequency to 1.40GHz and could use 90 nanometer technology, if that's perfect enough then.
  • ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB review  - Hexus.net has posted a review of ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB.
  • Gigabyte GA-7NNXP, the Ultimate nForce2 Ultra 400 review - This blue beast is one feature packed board, not only does it have Firewire, GigaBit Ethernet, 4 DIMM slots, the board also has support for 10 ATA devices, 4 on nForce ATA133, 4 on the GigaRAID , and 2 S-ATA drives on the Silicon Image controller. It was stable in standard configuration and had no trouble running my XP 2500+ at XP3200+ 400FSB settings. The GA-7NNXP is also an excellent overclocker with stable FSB speeds in excess of 240MHz. The Dual BIOS is a useful feature and can prevent unnecessary RMAs.
  • Pentium 4-2.8C, 2.6C and 2.4C review - The release of the Intel Pentium 4-2.8C, 2.6C and 2.4C GHz processors is significant for many reasons. The most obvious is the upgraded 800 MHz front-side bus, and the ability to run at synchronous dual-channel DDR400 speeds, both of which increase performance quite noticeably. But just as important is Intel moving Hyper-Threading technology down to the mass market level, and really giving the new processors an advantage over non-HT Pentium 4 models, not to mention the entire Athlon XP line.
  • Creative SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods Guide Updated  - Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor use.
  • Securing Wireless Networks - This article describes a number of these risks to illustrate the importance of securing a wireless network, as well as the easy steps how to do so.
  • BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 8.0 Coming Up -  Adrian Wong let us know he is urrently working on the BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 8.0. So, he's looking for feedback from the public regarding BIOS options yet to be covered in the BIOS Optimization Guide. If anyone has any BIOS option he/she would like covered in the new revision, please do post them here
  • Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation - OSNews has published a guide about Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation.
  • Matrix goodies - Nitrox sent me a few interesting links : Matrix MTV parody  ~ Matrix Revolution Trailer (movie launch 3rd Oct), more can be found here.
  • Knoppix 3.2 - KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.
  • AntiVir Personal Edition 6.20.04.04 - The AntiVir Personal Edition (download) offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,07 2003 - tech
Friday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:08 AM CEST - Jun,07 2003 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • A Night in the Hotel of the Future - PC World tests the gadgets and gizmos of a traveling techie's dreams. Among the niceties of this high-tech hotel room are: a wall-mounted, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV Panasonic plasma television connected to a Technics receiver with surround-sound Bose speakers; a Philips DVD/CD player; a second, smaller flat-screen LCD monitor next to the Jacuzzi bathtub; motion-detection lights that activate when guests enter the room; a biometric room safe that uses a thumbprint as the lock and key; free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV; a Panja touch-panel remote control that manages lighting levels and room climate; opens and closes the drapes; controls the TV, radio, and DVD player; and even repositions the head and foot of the king-size bed; a compressor-less mini-refrigerator that is completely silent; a Panasonic massage chair, a heated toilet seat/bidet, a computerized five-nozzle shower, and a defogging bathroom mirror.
  • Microsoft pledges to cut Xbox costs - Microsoft has "aggressive plans" to reduce the cost of goods sold in its Xbox division as part of a broad cost management exercise, CEO Steve Ballmer says.  As it stands, Microsoft makes a significant loss - thought to be over $150 - on each Xbox console it sells, and the Home and Entertainment Division of the company, which houses the Xbox project, regularly turns in large quarterly losses as a result.
  • The Tanatos Worm Returns - Kaspersky Labs reports the detection of a new version of the 'Tanatos' Internet worm - Tanatos b (aka Bugbear.b). The new version of this malicious program has an array of dangerous functions. Tanatos.b can infect the executable files of many programs as well as cause the leakage of confidential information. Presently, numerous incidences of infection at the hands of Tanatos.b have been registered. The Tanatos.b Internet worm spreads via e-mail as a file attachment. The e-mail message itself can have various subjects, message texts, and file attachment names. Infection occurs when the file attachment harboring the malicious code is activated, once this happens the spreading routine is begun. There are several ways to launch the hazardous file: via the IFRAME breech in the Internet Explorer security system (which starts the worm upon message opening), manually when a user opens the infected file attachment or through local area networks.
  • Notebook flirts with $699 price tag - Notebook maker WinBook will attempt to turn consumer heads next week when it releases a laptop priced at $799 before a $100 rebate. The WinBook J4 730 incorporates a 2GHz Intel Celeron chip, a 14.1-inch display, 256MB of RAM, a 20GB hard drive and a DVD-ROM drive.
  • Fossil says Wrist PDA will ship in the US this month after all - Watch maker Fossil has denied that the US release of its Palm OS-based Wrist PDA watch-cum-personal organiser has been delayed until early next year. But it did admit that overseas customers will now have to wait until some time during the first quarter of 2004 to get their hands on the device.
  • HP Unveils Presarios for Gamers - Presario is HP's consumer brand, and the new PCs are designed to bring gamers a high level of performance in a desktop priced below $1000, HP says. The high-end Compaq Presario S4300NX comes with a 2.4-GHz Pentium 4 processor with hyperthreading and the faster frontside bus, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, a 120GB hard drive, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2, and an open AGP 8X slot. It costs $800 without a display, and is available immediately.
  • 1GB CD-RW Drives: Take a Pass - Plextor's GigaRec technology, found in the company's latest 52X/32X/52X Premium drive, increases the capacity of CD-Rs while also trying to maintain compatibility with other drives that can read CD-R discs. GigaRec audio and data discs played fine in firmware-updated 40X and 48X Plextor CD-RW drives, but worked with only modest levels of success in non-Plextor drives and home CD/DVD players. Unfortunately, GigaRec disables buffer-underrun protection, too, and writes at a painfully slow 4X, or 30 minutes per disc.
  • Mobile Graphics Showdown - EliteBastards let us know they have published some scans of a Mobile Graphics Showdown from a German magazine. The graphics chips compared are the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (M10), nVidia GeForceFX 5600 Go (NV31M), ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9) and nVidia GeForceFX 5200 Go (NV34M).
  • DDR Festival at AMDboard - AMDBoard has posted a links collection for everyone looking for the best DDR information.
  • iAudio CW300 Review - The iAudio CW300 is a fine upgrade of the CW200. If you currently have a CW200, I wouldn't recommend upgrading unless the 26hr playback time on a single battery would really benefit you. Overall, the CW300 is a more complete version of the CW200. The CW300 still has the same disadvantage of the CW200 which is it doesn't support WMA or other audio formats. In terms of sound quality, they are pretty much the same. This is the best MP3 player I have ever used. It is small, lightweight, and packed with many features. For users who want to get their first digital MP3 player, this is a great product. You will be very satisfied. This product deserves the Editor's Choice Award!
  • Intel Pentium 4 2.6C Review - OCAddiction has checked out the Intel Pentium 4 2.6C CPU. "Personally, I'm happy with the 2.6GHz part we reviewed today. I've been running this CPU in my main rig for everyday use at 3.25GHz (13x250) using default voltage (1.525v) and a 4/5 memory divider (memory sits at 200Mhz) without a single hitch. With a 2.4GHz you will likely gain slightly better results when going for the gusto in benchmarking, but for everyday use I prefer the slightly higher multiplier allowing me to remain at a sane FSB. (I can NOT believe I just referred to 250MHz as a sane FSB!)."
  • Intels Family of 800 MHz FSB Processors Compared - Techware Labs had the opportunity to spend some time with Intel's new 800 MHz front-side bus (FSB) processor family. They compared from the affordable 2.4C GHz to the top of the line 3.0 GHz. The review includes a overview of the features in this processor family, Intel's new Springdale and Canterwood chipsets, and an analysis of processor scaling within this family. The article also focuses on how the relationship between CPU and video card affect various aspects of performance.
  • ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro Review - TweakNews has posted an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9000 Pro Review.
  • Tyan Tachyon G9500Pro 128MB VGA Review - Tyan Tachyon G9500Pro is a feature rich graphics card, with a respectable performance and an impressive hardware monitoring function. In addition, the G9500Pro is the only R9500Pro that can be overclocked without flashing custom BIOS. In our attempt, overclocking raise the performance by 2~10%.
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (Final) Review - VR-Zone has tested the new GeForce FX 5600 Ultra final edition clocked at 400/400Mhz core/memory, up from the previous 350/350Mhz core/memory clock. GeForce FX 5600 Ultra (NV31) encompasses most of the nice features of the NV30 core architecture and improvement to the core/memory clock from the usage of Flip Chip package and 2.2ns memory chips. The GeForce FX 5600 series are meant to replace the current GeForce 4 Titanium series at a lower price point of US$199-250 for the Ultra version and US$149-200 for the non-Ultra version.
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra Review - Beyond3D has posted a review on the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra reference video card. Unlike NV30, NV31 and NV35, NV35 is still based on TSMC's 150nm process technology, and this is the reason why it has also been the most widely spread so far.
  • 8x Budget Videocards Shootout - Most cards are sub-100 dollar cards in this little roundup! All cards but two are built on nVidias FX 5200 chip, that is 5200 "non-Ultra". The remaining is a Radeon 9200 and a GF4 Ti4200-8x.
  • ABIT IC7-G Canterwood Mainboard Review - OCWorkbench has posted an ABIT IC7-G Canterwood mainboard review. Being one of the top company that does overclocking, ABIT IC7-G not only overclocks but brings the best overall performance to the IC7-G.
  • Thermalright SK-6+ vs SK-7 - Viper's Lair has posted a comparison review between the Thermalright SK-6+ against the SK-7.
  • Xoxide UV LED Case Fans - Unlike other LED fans we have seen much of lately, these actually have UV LED's installed. What does that mean? Well, no additional UV cathode light needed! Just plug in these UV sensitive fans and the three installed LED's will provide the UV lighting. As shown above, you'll notice there is no ugly green PCB strip around the fan to power the LED's. They are installed using very thin wiring and have a strip of clear tape around the fan for protection. Practically unnoticeable.
  • Further NVIDIA optimizations for 3DMark03? - Tech-Report has found out that there are even more tweaks apparently being applied by NVidia to detect 3DMark.
  • NVIDIAs UltraShadow and Doom3 Explored - HotHardware has posted an article on NVIDIAs UltraShadow and Doom3.
  • Running SETI@Home as a Service (NT / 2000 / XP)  - LittleWhiteDog let us know they have published a guide on how to run SETI@Home as a service on a Windows NT / 2000 / XP machine. What makes this guide so special? For starters, it has been written so that even the most novice computer user should be able to have all the required steps completed in about 10 minutes! Furthermore, the steps can easily be applied to just about any distributed computing project including Folding@Home. As an added bonus, the guide also includes a batch file tool you can download that will allow you to install your new "service" remotely to any machine on your network (assuming you have sufficient rights on the remote box). Just behave yourself with this tool.
  • MS keyboard layout creator - Ever wanted to quickly and easily define your own keyboard layout for a language Microsoft doesn't support? Or define your own keyboard layout so you can quickly and easily enter your favorite symbols with a simple keystroke? Well, want no more: the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator is here.
  • Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.1.1 - Microsoft have relaeased a new version of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.1.1 , which includes a graphical and command line interface that can perform local or remote scans of Windows systems.
  • Tom's Hardware Guide Clock 1.2 - Tom's Hardware Guide Clock is a special developer's tool designed to detect dynamic overclocking in realtime. Unlike other CPU frequency programs this one will give you the actual speed of your CPU in realtime.
  • Klipfolio 2.1d - Klipfolio (download) is a small, efficient and easy to use desktop application that allows you to collect, view and manage live information channels.
  • DVD Shrink 2.00 - 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.
  • Avant Browser 8.01 Build 105 - Avant Browser is a custom Web browser application based on Internet Explorer with versatile multi-window support. It allows users to browse multiple Web sites simultaneously and block all unwanted pop-up pages
  • HyperSnap-DX 5.11.01 - HyperSnap-DX (download) is a screen capture and image editing tool for MS Windows. It captures screens from standard desktop programs and even those hard-to-grab DirectX, Direct3D, 3Dfx, 3dfx, Voodoo and Glide mode games. What's new: New windows opened in HyperSnap (File/Open or a new screen capture) now re-use zoom (magnification) level of a currently opened window, instead of always reverting to 100%.
  • Fresh UI 6.05 - Fresh UI (download) is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know.
  • PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 393 - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
  • Y'z Dock 0.83 - Y'z Dock is a program launcher like the dock in MacOS X. This application is currently in beta, so please send all reports to the author. In order to add icons, drag and drop a file (.exe, shortcut, etc.) straight from Explorer to the dock area.
  • Nvidia Omega Drivers 1.4403 - Omegadrive has released his new set of Nvidia drivers based on the 44.03 Detonator FX driver.
  • Western Digital Offers Update For 180GB & 200GB Harddrives  - Apparently Western Digital 180GB & 200GB harddrives tend to drop from an IDE RAID array after several days or weeks of operation. The company is offering a fix (3Ware controler cards ~ non 3DWare cards) for this odd behaviour deeply hidden in their FAQ's. Affected drives are: WD2000BB (WD Caviar 7200 2MB 200 GB), WD2000JB (WD Caviar 7200 Special Edition 8MB 200 GB), WD1800BB (WD Caviar 7200 2MB 180 GB), WD1800JB (WD Caviar 7200 Special Edition 8MB 180 GB). The problem is a result of a feature that reduces idle acoustic noise in desktop drives. This feature can cause a timeout in a IDE RAID environment.  No firmware or hardware changes are required. (thanks Warp2Search).
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,05 2003 - tech
Thursday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:02 PM CEST - Jun,05 2003 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • Packet tracking promises ultrafast internet  - Imagine an internet connection so fast it will let you download a whole movie in just five seconds, or access TV-quality video servers in real time. That is the promise from a team at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, who have developed a system called Fast TCP. A key feature of Fast TCP is that it could run on the same internet infrastructure we have today. Steven Low, who led the Caltech team, likens the way the internet works now to driving a car while looking only 10 metres ahead. You slowly increase the car's speed until an obstacle comes into view, but then you have to hit the brakes.
  • Microsoft prepares SPOT service  - As expected, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant on Thursday announced a wireless service, called MSN Direct, and pricing for its Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) initiative. The service is running and is being tested in eight U.S. cities, with the goal being to have the service available in 100 cities. The first round of devices that will use the service will be watches from manufacturers, such as Fossil and Suunto, which will be available in the fall.
  • "Stealing the Network" Book Review  - Stealing the Network is a refreshing change from more traditional computer books. The authors have created fictional stories based on non-fictional concepts that could really happen to our computer systems today. The realistic fiction approach makes the book much lighter to read and actually entertaining. I also believe this approach makes the true methods behind the fictional stores much more memorable then memorizing thousand page textbooks.
  • New Athlon XP 3200+ gets a faster 400-MHZ bus and is still a good deal - AMD has cooked up the best value for PC buyers all year long--and its newest chip continues to do so. The Athlon XP 3200+ offers only minor design changes over the 3000+. AMD has, however, raised the frontside bus speed slightly, from 333 MHz to 400 MHz.
  • NVidia's FX 5900 Chip: Slim Edge, Steep Price - NVidia promotes its new GeForce FX 5900 Ultra chip as "the fastest GPU in history." That may be, but if so, it isn't by much: In tests with current games, the 5900 Ultra, equipped with 256MB of SDRAM, gave a relatively small performance boost over the NVidia 5800 Ultra and a reference card based on ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro chip (both with 128MB) in the same PC. NVidia is eager to make up for the shortcomings of its last release, the GeForce FX 5800 Ultra, which was late and used a cooling mechanism so loud that some critics called it "the lawnmower." The 5900 Ultra is far quieter, but it still occupies two slots and will cost you: $500 for 256MB models and $400 for 128MB ones (cards should be in stores now).
  • Lexmark X6170 All-In-One Office Center Review - A big brother to the Lexmark X5150 and the X5150's near twin, the Dell A940, the Lexmark X6170 All-In-One Office Center ($250 street) is built around the same core print technology. It also offers similar print and scan performance, but with a higher maximum scan resolution at 2,400-dpi optical by 4,800-dpi mechanical. It also adds an automatic document feeder and built-in fax modem, which help make it a good choice for most small offices.
  • Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (818529) - A number of security issues have been identified in MSIE that could allow an attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows-based systems and then take a variety of actions. For example, an attacker could run programs on a computer used to view the attacker's Web site. This vulnerability affects computers that have Microsoft Internet Explorer installed. (You do not have to be using Internet Explorer as your Web browser to be affected by this issue.) You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. Although the patch is rated "critical" for all other operating systems, it is only "moderate" for Server 2003, according to Microsoft's system for grading the severity of the vulnerabilities it addresses.
  • TVTool 7.2 - TVTool 7.2 (changelog) completes the multi monitor support and makes it extremely comfortable to start movie playback on the TV without affecting the monitor at all. A dual head card is required for this purpose of course. Other new features, changes and bug fixed have been made.
  • Tweak-XP v2.0.11 - This new version added Centrino to CPU tweaks, updated help files and updated language files.
  • eMule 0.29a - eMule (download) is a new filesharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network, but offers more features than the standard eDonkey client, because it's opensource but under the restrictions of the GPL License.
  • PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 392 - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
  • UXTheme Patch For Microsoft XP SP2 Build 1213 - Vortex has released a new UXTheme patch (download) for Microsoft Windows XP SP2 Build 1213 (untested).
  • Windows Media Player 9 Build 3005 Upgrade Patch - The download (1.8MB) is actually a upgrade patch for people that are using Windows Media Player Version 2980 will upgrade to version 3005.
  • Creative Sound Blaster Live! AC3 Fix - This is a driver update (WinXP) for the Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 that fixes "Correct functionality of SPDIF output when AC3 Pass Through mode is selected"
  • OPN-462 v0.8 - The Socket A AMD Processor Identifier - OPN-462 is an intelligent program designed specifically to translate the three codes found on, or around the core of all Socket-A, AMD CPU's, what you can expect the program to do, can be found in either or the screenshots in the screenshots section. In this new version Athlon XP Thoroughbred 2200+ now displays the correct multiplier.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,04 2003 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:08 AM CEST - Jun,04 2003 - Post a comment / read (4)
  • Sony announces UK PS2 online details - The PlayStation 2 will finally go online in the UK on June 11 as the Network Adapter kit arrives at retail, priced at L24.99, with two multiplayer-enabled titles available at launch and several more to come.  The two games available at launch will be SOCOM: US Navy SEALs and Twisted Metal Black Online. SOCOM, a military action title which includes a voice communication headset, has proved massively successful in the USA, with over a million copies sold. It will be sold separately from the Network Adapter kit, priced at L49.99. Twisted Metal Black Online, however, will be launched as a cut-price product - sold as a standalone title for L24.99, or available with the Network Adapter kit for L39.99.
  • The "Sobig" Worm Is Back - The "Sobig" worm spreads itself via e-mail in the form of a file attachment as well as over local area networks. To spread over LANs Sobig copies itself to shared network drives, while via e-mail the worm scans infected computers for files containing e-mail addresses and then clandestinely sends copies of itself to the found addresses. To draw users into launching the file attachment containing the infected code, "Sobig" employs various social engineering techniques, among which is a message disguised as a technical support message sent from Microsoft.
  • Nullsoft founder left his own company  - Gnutella author Justin Frankel is considering quitting Nullsoft, the company he founded and sold to America Online, following repeated clashes with his corporate parent over software projects.  Frankel's comments come less than a week after AOL pulled a program he authored called Waste that enables small groups of people to create secure networks for sharing computer files. Calling coding "a form of self-expression," Frankel said he could no longer put up with AOL's interference. "The company controls the most effective means of self-expression I have," he wrote in a note posted on his personal Web site. "This is unacceptable to me as an individual, therefore I must leav (sic).
  • Atheros Shows New Wireless Tools - Atheros Communications in San Jose will introduce a universal chip set that covers all WLAN standards, including 802.11a, b, and g. WLANs that adhere to the 802.11b/g standards operate in the 2.4-GHz frequency band, with raw data rates of 11 megabits per second and 54 mbps respectively. WLANs that use the 802.11a standard operate in the 5-GHz band and have a raw data rate of 54 mbps.
  • Wear the Web on your wrist -  Microsoft, along with watchmakers Citizen Watch, Fossil and Finland's Suunto, on Thursday is expected to show off the new products. More details on pricing and service providers also are expected to be revealed. The companies will start to release the wristwatches in the fall, sources close to Microsoft said. Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT) products are household and personal items--such as refrigerators or portable stereos--that can receive and display information from the Internet beamed over a nationwide FM radio network. With SPOT, for example, your alarm clock could have informed you about Martha Stewart's legal problems after you pushed.
  • Start-up brings hard drive to the masses  - The Longmont, Colo.-based start-up has developed a 1.5GB, 1-inch diameter hard drive for consumer-electronics devices that the company says will be cheaper, smaller and hold more data than some other mini-hard drives or flash-memory cards.
  • GeForce FX Go5600 in Toshiba's notebooks - NVIDIA today announced the NVIDIA GeForcet FX Go5600 graphics processing unit (GPU) with 64MB DDR video memory, has been selected by Toshiba's Computer Systems Group (CSG), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems for the SatelliteR 5205-S705 notebook PC.
  • Western Digital Raptor WD360GD SATA reviews - Both Digit-Life and Tom'sHardware Guide have posted a review of Western Digital Raptor WD360GD SATA HDD.
  • Samsung SyncMaster 172T LCD display review - Dan's Data has posted a review on the Samsung SyncMaster 172T LCD display.
  • Logitech MX300 Optical Mouse review - The MX300 provides improved precision, virtually eliminating skips and lags. This advancement in precision allows for even greater accuracy in gaming, websurfing, and everyday use. I personally bought this mouse myself, and I can tell you that it is definitely worth the price.
  • Olympus Stylus 400 review - The Olympus Stylus 400 ($499 list) is an elegantly styled, beautifully crafted 4-megapixel digital camera designed to be used in any weather. Although it comes with only a basic set of features, its outstanding ergonomics and very good image quality will appeal to users who want a camera that looks as good as the photos it takes.
  • MSI GeForce FX5200 TDR128 review - HotHardware has posted a review on the MSI GeForce FX5200 TDR128 video card .
  • FutureMark: Nvidia didn't cheat - It's official: Nvidia didn't fix its 3DMark 03 figures after all. So says no less a source than 3DMark 03 developer FutureMark, in a jointly issued press release put out this morning. It appears the two companies had "detailed discussions" following FutureMark's announcement last month that its investigation into Nvidia's driver software had revealed that the graphics chip company had tailored its code to generate higher frame-rates in 3DMark 03 tests at the expense of image quality. FutureMark discovered eight instances of cheating, which improved the performance of Nvidia's Detonator FX and WHQL drivers by as much as 24.1 per cent.. The statement can be found at FutureMark website.
  • phpMyAdmin 2.5.1 Final - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database.
  • Ad Muncher 4.5 Build 7000 Final - Ad Muncher (download) is a program for Windows systems which removes adverts, popups and general browsing annoyances from all popular browsers and web-utilizing programs (as well as most banner displaying and popup generating programs like ICQ, Morpheus, Kazaa, Grokster, Opera, iMesh, Bearshare, LimeWire, etc).
  • DiscJuggler 4.10.1084 - DiscJuggler can simultaneously drive multiple CD recorders and replicate virtually any standard CD. It features direct digital-to-digital CD duplication from a CD-ROM drive to multiple CD-R drives, audio CD duplication with support for PQ and R-W subcodes, and on-the-fly audio stream resynchronization, and on-the-fly software regeneration of ECC/EDC and scrambling.
  • NeroMIX 1.3.1.12 - NeroMIX can create data, audio CDs, or on-the-fly 1:1 CD copies for backup. By using the celebrated Nero CD-Recoding engine, the same stability, speed, and power will ensure reliable and effortless recording.
  • Nero EasyWriteReader 4.0.0.10 - This tool was developed to enable you to add CD-MRW support to your system and includes the UDF reader for Windows 95, 98 and ME.
  • Nero CD Speed 1.02g - Nero CD Speed is a CD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive. Tests include: Transfer rate, Seek times, CPU usage, Burst rate, DAE quality & Spinup/spindown time. CD Speed also has a function to check the CD media quality.
  • Kazaa Lite Toolbar 1.9.2 -  Kazaa Lite Toolbar is a customizable toolbar and Web address bar integrated to Kazaa Lite interface. It's useful to open favorite web pages, Web e-mail, shared folder or external tools (like Antivirus, Windows Media Player, AVIPreview, Sig2Dat, etc.) directly from Kazaa Lite. Also works with Kazaa Media Desktop. The toolbar also includes a file organizer that classify the downloaded files in separate folders based on the file extension.
  • Y'z Dock 0.8.2 -  A new version v9.8.2 of Y'z Dock is available.
  • TVTool 7.2 Beta -  A new version of TV Tool (download) has been released. This is the program that enables your video card TV-Output and seems to be the best external one.
  • QuickTime 6.3 - Apple's multimedia software suite QuickTime has been updated to version 6.3. Built on MPEG-4 and powered by QuickTime, 3GPP extends the reach of rich multimedia to a new generation of handheld wireless devices. As the first widely distributed, freely available multimedia technology to deliver 3GPP capabilities, QuickTime enables users all over the world to share 3GPP content with others via both computers and mobile devices
  • Windows XP SP2 Beta Build 1213 leaked - TechConnect have got their hands on the latest Windows XP Service Pack 2 build 1213. It's a beta, so try only at your own risk.
 Gameguru Mania News - Jun,03 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:57 AM CEST - Jun,03 2003 - Post a comment / read (5)
  • Microsoft to drop standalone IE - Microsoft is phasing out standalone versions of its Internet Explorer Web browser, according to statements attributed to IE program manager Brian Countryman in an interview posted on the software giant's Web site.  Microsoft issued a standalone browser with IE 6, following a court ruling that found the company had violated antitrust laws by bundling IE with its Windows operating system. The company has since settled the case with the Justice Department and most of the other parties to the suit, although a handful of holdouts continue to press for additional remedies.
  • Tiscali boots off heavy users - Tiscali UK is to boot off a bunch of heavy users tomorrow after they ignored requests to reduce their online usage to less than 150 hours a month. Today, those "heavy users" received an email telling them that their Tiscali AnyTime accounts will be "terminated on June 3rd 2003 [tomorrow] in accordance with our terms and conditions".
  • VX writers release sequel to infamous Sobig worm - Sobig-C, which spreads by email or (less commonly) network shares, has been intercepted more than 15,000 times since its first appearance on Saturday by message filtering outfit MessageLabs. This virus has now reached 'high level' outbreak status, the company reports. The emergence of Sobig-C comes days after its spammer-friendly predecessor, Sobig-B (AKA Palyh), reached its "expiry date". The worm was designed to spread only until 31 May. Sobig-C can be easily recognised since although the name of the subject line or infectious attachment varies the body of the text is always "Please see the attached file".
  • The Next Ethernet - Where (and how fast) will the 30-year-old technology take us next?  - "Forty-Gigabit will not be economically viable in terms of the effort the industry has to put in to develop a new technology," said Nan Chen, director of product marketing at Atrica, an equipment maker in Santa Clara, California, and a veteran of the Fast Ethernet standards process in the 1990s. That speed could be achieved simply by bringing four 10-Gigabit Ethernet connections together using link aggregation, a much less expensive proposition than developing a new kind of interface. If a whole new standard is to be developed, it should go all the way to 100 gbps, he said. Chen said he would not be surprised to see a formal call for interest in 100-Gigabit Ethernet at the IEEE in 2004, a standards development process of two years or so, and products in 2006.
  • Intel's 3.2GHz Pentium 4 to ship 23 June -The 3.2GHz Pentium 4 will be launched by Intel on 23 June, sources familiar with the chip giant's plans have told Xbit Labs. The part operates across a 200MHz frontside bus, quad-pumped to an effective 800MHz. It's got 512KB of L2 cache and is fabbed at 0.13 micron. It is expected to cost $637.
  • Intel slashes Centrino prices by up to 30% - The new chips are priced at $694, $341 and $319, respectively, in batches of 1000 and bundling the 855 chipset and Pro Wireless 2100 mini-PCI 802.11b card. So says Intel's press release, but its official price list, has the 1.7GHz part down at $725, $372/$367 (depending on whether you choose an 855 with integrated graphics or not) and $350/$345. According to the price list, the processors alone cost $637, $284 and $262.
  • Digidesign Mbox review - Digidesign, a heavy hitter in the professional audio market, powers many digital recording studios with its high-end hardware and Pro Tools software. Recently the company began offering lower-priced products to entice weekend warriors and dabbling musicians-first with its Digi001 audio interface, and now with the USB-based Digidesign Mbox ($450 street), a two-input, two-output audio interface that digitizes analog input and allows you to transfer the digital stream to a PC
  • The Digital Writing Pad: Tablet PCs - Tablet PCs are bringing fresh impetus to mobility: handwriting recognition, digitizer displays and stylus input provide for new possibilities. However, high prices make the tablets uninteresting for the end user.
  • Canon Unveils High-End Digicam, Projector - Due for release in June at a suggested retail price of $899, the PowerShot G5 digital camera features a 5-megapixel CCD sensor that captures 2592-by-1944-pixel images. Its 4X all-glass optical zoom lens provides a 35mm film camera equivalent range of 35mm to 140mm, a maximum aperture of f/2.0-3.0, and macro focusing down to 2 inches. The additional 4X digital zoom extends the camera's telephoto capabilities to provide photographers with 16X zoom functionality.
  • Nvidia nForce 2 Motherboard roundup  - AMDZone tested five different motherboards (Abit's NF7-S, Chaintech 7NJS Zenith, Epox 8RDA+, FIC AU11, Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro) based on the Nvidia nForce 2 chipset.
  • Radeon 9800 Pro Roundup  - NordicHardware recommendation is to get HIS or Sapphires board and if you really want the ultimate performance go for the PowerColor.
  • Interactive Pin-Mod guide for AMD Athlon XP, T-Bred and Barton CPUs - OCinside.de has published its brand new Interactive Pin-Mod Guide For AMD Athlon XP - T-Bred & Barton CPU's. Check it out!
  • PCAnywhere Turns 11 - Monday, Symantec plans to announce PCAnywhere 11, an upgraded release of its remote-access software that features performance improvements and a revised user interface for IT help desk administrators. The new version can transfer needed files in the background while IT administrators continue with other work.
  • phpMyAdmin 2.5.1 RC1 - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database.
  • GAIM 0.64  - Gaim (download) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.
  • Tom's Hardware Guide Clock 1.2 - This is a special developer's tool designed to detect dynamic overclocking in realtime. Unlike other CPU frequency programs this one will give you the actual speed of your CPU in realtime.
  • WinDVD Platinum 4.5.28.104  - WinDVD Platinum (download) is InterVideo's latest version of WinDVD which is a simple-to-use DVD player that combines all the features of a standard consumer DVD player and offers much more.
  • DUP-DVD v2.2.0a - DUP-DVD is a powerful tool to convert a DVD movie to SVCD/VCD - easily, quickly, effortlessly. With DUP-DVD you can make a DVD backup to SVCD with just a click.
  • CPUCooL 7.2.4 - CPUCooL (download) is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards.
  • DirectX Eradicator 1.09 - This utility is designed to safely remove the DirectX runtime core component from Windows 9X, Millennium and Windows 2000 operating systems... DXE gives you the ability to install and uninstall any version of DirectX as you wish.
  • PowerStrip 3.41 Beta Build 391 - PowerStrip (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9700DV and Matrox Parhelia.
  • 3D Blaster Drivers 44.04 - Creative Labs has released a new 3D Blaster drivers v44.04 - Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP ~ WinNT4 . This is first Creative release based on the NVIDIA DetonatorFX driver build.
  • kX Project Drivers 5.00.3533b - 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.
  • SiS Drivers - SiS officially released Chipset drivers AGP 1.16a, SiS 740/65x Onboard VGA drivers 2.16a (win9x) and SiS 7012 Sound drivers 1.10. (thanks Warp2Search)
  • Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 Update - Roxio has released an update v6.0.3.4. (download). The update fixes problems with Sony CDRW and NEC DVD-ROM.
  • PlexTools Professional v2.03 - Plextor Europe has released an update for its PlexTools software.
  • AVM FRITZ!Card DSL Driver v3.11.02 - AVM Germany released a new driver version for the internal PCI card DSL modemFRITZ!Card DSL and the external FRITZ!Card DSL USB.
  • Turtle Beach Santa Cruz BETA Driver v5.12.4187 - Voyetra has released a BETA driver for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card v5.12.4187 for WinAll. Please report any issues (with the driver version and Windows OS) only to: [email protected].
 Gameguru Mania News - May,31 2003 - tech
Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:01 PM CEST - May,31 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Nokia N-Gage games phone now available in UK - Nokia's N-Gage cellphone-cum-handheld games console isn't due to ship until early next October, but if you've L600 to spare and happen to be in London's Tottenham Court Road, you can pick up one up.  Nokia announced the machine, which is based on the Symbian 7 operating system, some months ago, and said it will ship "to consumers in volumes across five continents in early October 2003". The games will ship on Multimedia Card (MMC), and around 20 titles will be available when the N-Gage ships. Titles include Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, Rayman 3, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Pathway to Glory, and Mercel Desailly Pro Soccer.
  • Intel Squashes Centrino Bug - Intel said yesterday that it has turned off software in its family of mobile processors that could cause some Centrino-powered notebooks to crash when used with a virtual private network under the Windows or Windows XP operating system.  Intel spokesman Daniel Francisco said the chip maker had determined that the problem occurs when VPNs are used with the adaptive-switching utility in its Centrino PROSet software. That utility allows users to maintain a connection when they switch from a wired network connection to a wireless LAN connection.
  • Qtek 7070 goes to Hong Kong, Sweden - Mobile network operator TeliaSonera and Hong Kong-based Synergy have both launched the HTC Tanager-based Qtek 7070, running on Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 platform. Following introductions of two other HTC Tanager-based smartphones in Asia, the reference design has now found its way to both Sweden and Hong Kong, where the Qtek 7070 is being launched by mobile network operator TeliaSonera and Synergy, respectively. The version launched by Synergy will be the first Smartphone 2002 device with Chinese language support, and both slated for availability in June.
  • Biofeedback Gaming - A new kind of game was debuted at the E3 expo. It is called Journey to Wild Divine. The game features a biofeedback USB interface designed to allow a player (or players) to navigate through the game using their mind power, breath, and heart rate. (thanks SlashDot.org)
  • Sony sets movies to self-destruct  - According to Japanese newspaper Nikkei Business Daily, the company's So-net Internet service provider will soon trial the service in Japan. Many digital content providers currently use encrypted streaming to prevent people from saving and copying movie files. The downside is that the quality of the video suffers, as it is reduced in size for Web transmission. In addition, people must stay online to view the feed.
  • Stem cell 'immortality' gene found - The gene found in mouse ESCs and some human equivalents appears to be the "master gene", co-ordinating other genes to allow stem cells to multiply limitlessly while still retaining their ability to differentiate. It has been christened Nanog after the land in Celtic myth called Tir nan Og, whose inhabitants remain forever young.
  • A Digital Facelift for Your Analog Movies  - With the right know-how, you can copy VHS and Super-8 movies to your PC. This workshop will also show you how to give your old movies a new, digital lease on life.
  • Windows Server 2003 : Sharing, In A Whole New Perspective - This editorial will reveal some exciting new features in Windows Server 2003 as well as the upcoming Microsoft Office 2003.
  • Windows Online Security & Privacy Guide - TechSpot has published a Windows Online Security & Privacy Guide. This guide has been prepared to be aimed at Windows 2000/XP users, though a lot of the stuff contained also applies to earlier versions of the OS, in addition to Internet Explorer & Outlook Express.
  • Nokia 5100 Phone review  - The Nokia 5100 is probably one of the oddest phones we have seen. The design is definitely over the top and the inclusion of programs such as a calorie burner and sound meter have us wondering if the cell phone market has become so competitive to the point that every little add-on function is necessary to stay one step ahead of the competition. The power button on the 5100 is ridiculously hard to push and for every extra ability the 5100 has, there still is no Bluetooth capability.
  • Belkin's 54G wi-fi card review - What about the price? Bear in mind that Belkin says this card will support the 802.11g standard, which gives much higher speeds than 802.11b. If you're contemplating installing an 802.11g network but still would like to smurf the Interweb as you move away from your office or home, this could be a suitable compromise. Most networks out there at the coffee bars and, where you can find them, in the airports, support 802.11b right now. Belkin also does an 802.11b only card which costs $75 - the extra $25 may well be worth the investment.
  • Sonicwall SOHO TZW Wireless Internet Security Appliance Review - Sonicwall is well known for their premium-priced, but easy to use wired IPsec-based Internet security products. With the SOHO TZW they now enter the world of wireless LAN security, a place known to bring even strong LAN administrators to their knees, heads hurting from the ever-increasing barrage of new acronyms and security methodology. Did Sonicwall really succeed in making wireless security a setup-and-go story?
  • ABIT IC7-G Canterwood P4 Motherboard review - The IC7-G is a feature packed P4 board, that packs Gigabit LAN, dual SATA RAID through the ICH5R and Silicon Image 3122A SATA controller, Surround sound , Optical Digital Audio In/Out, Firewire as well as the other features that are included in the i875P such as 8XAGP, USB2.0 and 800MHz FSB support.
  • eVGA e-G4 MX440-8X 64MB NVIDIA Personal Cinema  - The Personal Cinema offers an enormous amount of features and does it all in a single product. While this is not a hardcore gamer's card it performs well in most games on the market. The strong point about this card is its A/V capabilities, dual display and TV tuner functionality. Bang for the buck, it rocks. Watch the Video to find out more...
  • nVidia GeForce FX5200 (NV34) review - GeForce FX 5200 left dual impression. On the one hand, the performance about the same as that for GeForce4 MX, sometimes much lower than shown by the competition and the predecessor.  On the other hand, its low price ~90$ (anyway, the price is worth cutting down since cards based on this graphics chip are able competing only with GeForce4 MX ? RADEON 9000), good DirectX 9 optimization and excellent pixel handling, albeit not without flaws: test results in the Advanced Pixel Shaders scene point to that, but these are more likely to be driver problems and soon they will be fixed.
  • Triplex Eye Bomb R9500 Pro 128MB VGA review - The Triplex R9500Pro is around 5~10% faster than your average Ti-4800SE(Ti-4400 8X). The lead could go up to around 40% when FSAA is enabled. This shows that the R9500Pro has a more efficient FSAA than the one-year-old GF4 Ti. If you were not too concerned with the image quality, then you may want to look for an ultra cheap GF4 Ti-4200 to save some cash.
  • ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB review - Those who want the absolute top of the line card for their new box and want their systems to have the longest life spans can go for the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro. Also, there are those out there such as game developers and 3D / 2D artists, who need the extra memory capacity often seen on high-end professional cards, but still need great OpenGL/Direct3D performance, the 256MB Radeon 9800 Pro may be a good fit here. In comparison with the high-end professional-level cards on the market with 256MB of memory, the Radeon 9800 Pro may be a good deal.
  • Globalwin 300W & 400W Silent PSU Info - 3D Game Man has posted some information on the Globalwin 300W & 400W Silent PSU with 4 AC outlets.>
  • OCZ Ultra II vs Arctic Silver III shoot out - OcPrices.com has posted a shoot out between the OCZ Ultra II and the Arctic Silver III thermalpastes.
  • Zalman ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller Review  - OCModShop has posted a Zalman ZM-MFC1 Fan Controller review.
  • Jazz Speakers Wireless J9940W 5.1 Speakers Review - MonkeyReview has posted a new review on the Wireless J9940W 5.1 Speakers system from Jazz Speaker. "Sound, for some it ll be an aspect in which hundreds if not thousands of dollars are spent, for others, a mere 30$ 2.1 sound system will be suffice. But, what about those of us that fit somewhere in between? Not wanting to spend our savings on a high end sound system but also realizing the quality that s available from of a mid priced 5.1 system. With that said, today we re going to be checking out the Jazz J9940W 5.1 Sound system from Jazz Speakers."
  • Scythe Ergo Diver keyboard review - The Ergo Diver is designed for people who want to have their right hand on the mouse while their left hovers over the keyboard, probably because they're playing a game (image). Various important keys, including the cursor keys, have been relocated to the left side of the Diver. The keyboard isn't missing anything except for the numeric keypad, though, so you could, in theory, use it all the time. Especially if you need a really compact keyboard.
  • A Keyless Keyboard Info - Imagine a keyboard with no space bar, no letters, no numbers no keys at all. In fact, forget the entire idea of a keyboard, as you know it, altogether. Just reach down with both hands and grab your knees (assuming you have two knees), and close your eyes. Only subtle differences exist between this sensation, and the experience of first lowering your hands and gripping the OrbiTouch Keyless Keyboard. The OrbiTouch completely removes finger movements from the process of typing, while significantly reducing the amount of wrist motion. Keystrokes are composed of simultaneous movements of both domes in sync. For instance, moving the left dome to the left and moving the right dome to the right will create a letter 'd'. etc..
  • Windows 2000 SP4 Release Dates - In a document entitled "Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 Readiness Guide, v1.2 (28th May)" Microsoft outlines key dates for the release of SP4. Release to Manufacturing (RTM) - June 18, 2003, Release to Premier (RTP) - June 16, 2003, Release to Web (RTW) - June 18, 2003, North America CD Fulfillment - CDs ship to end users 4-6 weeks after RTM, Channel Availability (Select) - Standalone and Integrated Code ships in the August kit, Channel Availability (Open) - Available to existing customers via WWF SP4 SKU or by downloading; New customers receive integrated SP4 in their first kit. (thanks Neowin.net)
  • Nero 5.5.10.35 - Nero (mirror1 ~ mirror2 ~ mirror3) is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. It supports ISO 9660 images as well as ISO mode 1 and XA mode 2, and allows for on-the-fly disc recording in addition to overburning (if supported by hardware). Nero also supports multisession and mixed-mode recording, HFS, ISO/HFS hybrid, UDF, PSX, OFAS (optimal file access speed), track-at-once (TAO) and disc-at-once (DAO) writing, digital audio extraction, and more.
  • Xbox Media Player 2.4  - The XboxMediaPlayer 2.4 point release source code is now available on SourceForge.
  • MPxPlay v1.47.9 (DOS/4GW extender, recommended) - Mpxplay is a DOS based (32-bit) audio player. It supports : Audio MPEG Layer II/III (MP2, MP3), Dolby AC-3 (AC3), Ogg Vorbis (OGG), Musepack/MPEGPlus (MPC), Uncompressed WAV and Audio CD rippnplay (CDW).
  • WinRescue XP v1.08.09 - WinRescue XP includes four utilities in one: Crash Fixer, RegPack, File Backup, and Troubleshooter.
  • AVG 6.0 Build 486 - AVG 6.0 Build 486 has been released -> Free ~ Professional.
  • NeroVision Express 1.0.4.6e - NeroVision Express (mirror1 ~ mirror2 ~ mirror3) guides you through the whole process of creating DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs in an easy and innovative way.
  • Nero InCD 4.0.1.0 - InCD 4 is an integrated packet writing solution that has the most stability, ease of use, and compatibility, across all Windows operating systems. Packet writing is the method of writing data in small increments (by packets) onto a rewritable media.
  • GetRight 5.0.1a Final - GetRight (download ~ changelog) is a Download Manager program to help you download files from the Internet.
  • MyIE2 v0.7.1240 Beta - MyIE2 (download) 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.
  • Avant Browser 8.0 Build 728 - Avant Browser (download ~ what's new) is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile web browser. Avant Browser is a multi-window browser which features with many functions such as Pop-up Stopper, Built-in Google Searching, Safe Recovery, Integrated Cleaner and Advanced Browsing Options.
  • Tweak FX 1.01 - Tweak FX is a configuration tool for Windows XP. It uses plugins- like XTeq X-Setup. Up to now Tweak FX contains more than 25 plugins and you can add more from here.
  • EPoX 8RDA+ / 8RDA3+ Beta BIOSes - OCWorkbench has posted new BIOS updates (BETA) for the EPoX 8RDA+ and 8RDA3+ motherboards.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,30 2003 - tech
Thursday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:03 AM CEST - May,30 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • CIA Behind the Times in IT  - The unclassified report, titled "Failing to Keep Up With the Information Revolution," offers a withering assessment of the CIA's use of IT for intelligence analysis, calling the agency's networking and information-searching capabilities "primitive" and saying that the CIA's emphasis on secrecy fundamentally discourages IT use and adoption by CIA analysts. The study was conducted by a scholar working with the CIA's Sherman Kent Center for Intelligence Analysis, a think tank attached to the analyst training center in the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence. (thanks PCWorld)
  • Computex 2003 set for September 22-26 - The Computex 2003 exhibition will be held from September 22-26, the Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and China External Trade Development Council (CETRA) announced today. It had been postponed from June 2-6 due to the SARS outbreak. The co-sponsors originally said they expected 30,000 visitors from over 150 countries to attend.
  • API expert claims Windows Explorer app breakthrough - Whirling Dervishes Software, the company founded by Windows API expert Henk Devos, claims to have broken Microsoft's monopoly on applications that reside in Windows Explorer. Devos claims that Whirling Dervishes has discovered hidden Windows interfaces that are crucial for the development of such applications, but whose existence is denied by Microsoft.
  • Shadowbane Servers Hacked - According to this post in official Ubisoft forums, there was a major hacking incident last night (2 days ago) on the servers of Shadowbane, a newly released online role playing game by UbiSoft/Wolfpack. The attackers wreaked havoc on at least one game server, with apparent god-like capabilities in-game.
  • EU extends Safer Internet scheme - A European scheme to tackle illegal and harmful digital content is to be extended for another two years. The Safer Internet Action Plan - which supports a network of hotlines in Europe where people can report illegal content - has now been given the go-ahead by the European Parliament to run until the end of 2004.
  • A cell phone wristwatch for sale - The 3.9-ounce Wristomo silver-bodied watch-phone looks like a thick digital watch. The matching thick padded strap unclips from the wrist when two buttons are pressed. Then the gadget can be held to the face and used as a traditional cell phone -- the earphone on one end of the strap and the microphone at the other. The waterproof watch, which sells for $318, proved so popular when it was offered for sale May 7 on the company's Web site, DoCoMo reported that it had sold the first batch of 1,000 in less than 20 minutes.
  • Neuros MP3 Digital Audio Computer review - Linux and Ogg Vorbis users can rejoice as they have in the Neuros a portable that caters to their needs. Though not perfect, it's a good all around player for all.  The groundbreaking features of the Neuros, including its HiSi technology and upcoming Ogg Vorbis support, earned it some consideration for milestone jukebox portable status. Unfortunately, it's held back from gaining that designation by its unfavorable size-to-capacity ratio, a clunky box design, and a transfer application that is still rough (though shows promise). The unit performed like a new generation portable, but felt like it was trapped in the body of a first generation jukebox portable. The flash version of the Neuros sheds the weight and bulk of the 20GB version, but it come at the cost of limiting users to only 128MB of memory.
  • Sony-Ericsson P800 smartphone review - The P800 is a combined mobile phone, electronic organiser, MP3 player and camera in a package that's advertised as the "office in your pocket". As the owner of an aging mobile phone, an ancient Palm, a Rio 600 MP3 player and no digital camera, the P800 had the appeal of combining all these functions in a single unit that could edit documents on the move and maybe even surf the Web in extremis.
  • ABIT NF7-S V2.0 OC review - This article is basically going to cover overclocking the NF7-S with the new Crush18D chipset.
  • Triplex Eye Bomb R9500 Pro 128MB review - Overclockers New Zealand has posted a review on Triplex Eye Bomb R9500 Pro 128MB VGA. The Triplex R9500Pro is around 5~10% faster than your average Ti-4800SE(Ti-4400 8X). The lead could go up to around 40% when FSAA is enabled. This shows that the R9500Pro has a more efficient FSAA than the one-year-old GF4 Ti. If you were not too concerned with the image quality, then you may want to look for an ultra cheap GF4 Ti-4200 to save some cash.
  • Eluminx Illuminated review  - Now that you have your optical mouse with that nice shining light in it, your case gleaming with color, the monitor beaming with color from the images you pull up; it seems like everything is lit up. Wait, what about that keyboard? Sure, you could change some LEDs, but how much light will that emit? Sure, you can throw an EL Strip some how into the keyboard, but is it worth the effort? Why do all that when you can simply purchase one of these nifty boards. The eluminX keyboard has patented technology which actually lights up every key, and is ideal for late night computing. The technology was first developed for the military where they normally would work at night or in very low lit environments. For $100, is it all worth it for just a keyboard?
  • Audigy2 Platinum eX review - Last year Creative Labs introduced a new generation sound card called Audigy2, promising to roll out Audigy2 Platinum eX, a model with an external communication module, in the first quarter of 2003. The new year has come and we have got what we were waiting for. Company claims that this model sounds much better than the standard Audigy2. Let’s check it out. First, let’s browse through the main features of Audigy2 Platinum eX.
  • Gigabyte 7VAXP-A Ultra KT400A Motherboard review - HotHardware has posted s of Gigabyte 7VAXP-A Ultra KT400A Motherboard.
  • Epox 4PCA3+ (Intel 875P Canterwood) Motherboard review - Epox 4PCA3+ is a high-end product offering high performance, powerful expansivity options (2 channels of SerialATA, Gigabit Ethernet, 4-channel RAID, ICH5R). Its price ($166) is comparable to that of some i865PE-based motherboards, so some scarcity of the package bundle is forgivable.  However, with all the benefits the board offers, there is a dark spot in that the board is somehow incompatible to various video cards. We'll try to find this situation out in more detail and then publish the results in a roundup of i875P motherboards. For now I would recommend buying the Epox 4PCA3+ board from shops that give firm guarantees and offer proven money-back service.
  • REVISED: Buffer Overrun in Windows Kernel Message Handling could Lead to Elevated Privileges (811493)  - Microsoft re-issued this bulletin on May 28, 2003 to advise on the availability of an updated Windows XP Service Pack 1 patch. This revised patch corrects the performance issues that some customers experienced with the original Windows XP Service Pack 1 patch.
  • Which video card? - FSAA and AF both burn off graphics card power very effectively. If you can live without either of them, then you can make do with surprisingly cheap video cards, and still get OK 3D frame rates.
  • IIS Cumulative patch - Microsoft has released a cumulative patch for its IIS (Internet Information Services or Internet Information Server) Web server software, a component of Windows NT 4.0, Window 2000, and Windows XP. The patch includes earlier patches for the Web server as well as four new fixes, Microsoft said in Bulletin MS03-018. The bulletin and patch can be found on Microsoft's Web site.
  • Apache 2.0.46 released - The group, which coordinates development and distribution of the open-source software, recommended that system administrators promptly upgrade to version 2.0.46 of Apache HTTP Server, available for download from the Apache Web site.
  • PHP 4.3.2 Final - The PHP developers today announced the immediate availability of PHP 4.3.2. This release contains a huge number of bug fixes and is a strongly recommended update for all users of PHP.
  • Waste v1.0 beta released -  Nullsoft (Winamp makers) released today a secure, distributed mesh-like networking protocal and platform called Waste. This v1.0 beta release uses RSA (key based) and Blowfish (download bin ~ source - thanks JSolo) encryption for security, and features Instant Messanging and group chat, along with file browsing, searching, and transfer.
  • ProxyPal 1.2  - After installing ProxyPal (download), just add it to your IE toolbar and you have one click access to toggle your proxy. This is very useful for corporate latptops that connect to the Internet away from work. Install ProxyPal today to put an end to seven-clicking your proxy on and off.
  • SmartGesture Lite 1.0.1 - SmartGesture Lite (download) is easy and powerful system of gesture detection is made for fulfilling of different commands as file opening, application opening, Web resources opening and key pressing imitation.
  • Fresh Diagnose 5.90 - Fresh Diagnose (download) is an utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. It can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information and more.
  • Jet-Audio 5.14 - Jet-Audio (download ~ changelog) features an impressive home audio system interface, including independent A/V components for Digital Signal Processor, Audio CD Player, Digital Audio (MP3, RA, etc.), MIDI (MID, MOD etc.), and Digital Video (AVI, MPG, MOV, etc.), along with a Mixer and a Remote Controller.
  • VirtualDub 1.5.4 - VirtualDub (download ~ download P4 version) is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues, and much more.
  • KYRO Drivers v2.00.20.0516  - This is definitely good news for all KYRO owners ~ KYRO/KYRO II/SE Win9x/ME Driver 2.00.20.0516
    KYRO/KYRO II/SE Win2k Driver 2.00.20.0516 ~ KYRO/KYRO II/SE WinXP Driver 2.00.20.0516..
 Gameguru Mania News - May,28 2003 - tech
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:26 PM CEST - May,28 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Sony Plans New Game Machine, Cost Cuts  - Sony Corp, under heavy pressure to cut costs and roll out hot new products after dismal earnings last quarter, unveiled plans on Wednesday for a new game machine for Japan and big savings. The world's largest consumer electronics maker and creator of the hit PlayStation 2 home game console said it would launch the "PSX" in Japan this year with a TV tuner, hard disk drive and DVD recorder to create an integrated entertainment platform for games, music and motion pictures. Earlier this month Sony unveiled the "PSP" hand-held game machine, to be launched by the end of 2004, which spurred a tumble in the shares of GameBoy maker Nintendo Co.
  • Linux-based Playstation grid is no game - US research centre has clustered 70 Sony PlayStation 2 game consoles into a Linux supercomputer that ranks among the 500 most powerful in the world.  According to the New York Times, the National Centre for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois assembled the $50,000 (Ł30,000) machine out of components bought in retail shops. In all, 100 PlayStation 2 consoles were bought but only 70 have been used for this project.
  • Europe's satellite navigation system gets final approval  -  The member nations of the European Space Agency have finally agreed the plan for the development of the Galileo satellite navigation system. Galileo will consist of a constellation of 30 satellites orbiting 23,600 kilometres above the Earth. It will provide a more precise commercial service than GPS, letting users located themselves to within a metre.
  • Not Again ? Microsoft yanks security update after glitch discovered - Microsoft Corp. has pulled an update to security software from its Web site after some users who downloaded the code saw their Internet connections go down. A "handful" of users had problems after installing the update to Microsoft's IPSec (IP Security) software because of the way it interacted with some third-party software, according to a Microsoft statement. The problems caused the update to think it was under attack, so it responded by blocking all traffic. This behavior wasn't a security flaw, according to Microsoft.
  • TheftGuard Protects Notebook Data - A stolen notebook can be a real threat to a business's security, but a new BIOS-level application offers protection and control over the use of a stolen machine. The application, called TheftGuard, is supplied as part of a new chip from Phoenix Technologies, a leading manufacturer of BIOS products. When a TheftGuard-equipped system is stolen, the owner provides instructions through the TheftGuard web site. The next time the lost computer connects to the Internet, TheftGuard is activated and either disables the machine, wipes its hard drive, or transmits information on the physical location where the signal originates.
  • Microsoft trims Office prices - The software giant cuts the store price of Office XP products by 15 percent to 30 percent, a day after it changes licensing terms that raised a storm of protest.
  • Longhorn goes to pieces - In a way, Longhorn, due in 2005, can be thought of as the Mr. Potato Head of operating systems: About 95 percent of the key functions of the operating system will exist in a basic software core. To make a Longhorn PC for export to France, for instance, PC makers will bolt the French language module onto the basic Longhorn core through the Multi-Lingual User Interface (MUI), a new subsystem within the operating system.  Similarly, manufacturers will take the Longhorn core and add select modules to tailor it for a tablet PC, for example, or a media center PC destined for the Philippines. This process will be managed through the Component Management Interface (CMI), a new feature that can be used to upgrade the operating system over its functional life.
  • DVD Recording - Is There a Winner Yet? - Has any format won? I just got back from Fry's and I could get either -R/-RW or +R/+RW and there were even drives that did all of the formats.....check this thread at Slashdot.org.
  • AMD, Intel trim prices on chips - According to AMD's Web site, the company reduced the price of its desktop 3000+ by $60, or 18 percent, to $265 and cut the cost of the 2800+ by $45, or 20 percent, to $180. AMD's Athlon XP 2700+, 2600+, 2500+ and 2400+ were lowered to $137, $103, $89 and $84, respectively, which translates to price drops between $19 and $45. Intel reduced the price of its 2.4GHz Celeron by 18 percent to $84, the largest of the price cuts, according to the company. The chipmaker also lowered the price of its 2.3GHz Celeron by $10, or 11 percent, to $79. The 2.2GHz Celeron and the 2.1GHz Celeron were reduced to $74 each.
  • Major brand hard drive vendors recall defective products produced in China - Three major brand hard drive vendors - Seagate Technology, Maxtor and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies - have started recalling some of their 40GB and 80GB products sold in Taiwan due to similar defects identified in the products, Taiwanese channel distributors said. About 12,000-15,000 defective hard drives are estimated to have entered Taiwan. It is unclear whether the same groups of products, with an estimated defect rate of 10%, have also been marketed in other parts of the world, sources said.
  • Sampo begins shipping 50-inch plasma displays  - Sampo America, a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Sampo, on May 19 announced that it had begun shipping its 50-inch PME-50X6 plasma display at a suggested retail price of US$6,999. Equipped with a MotionDSC digital image processor, the display features 1,366×768 resolution, picture-in-picture and side-by-side picture, 3:2 pull-down for film scan conversion, dual high-definition component video inputs, HDTV signal compatibility and many other functions.
  • Toshiba moves 64-bit processors to 90-nm process -  Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) is moving its TX49 MIPS-based 64-bit RISC processor family to 90-nanometer manufacturing process technology and would be able to sample chips in August 2003, TEAC said Tuesday (May 27, 2003). The 64-bit MPUs, designated TMPR4955CFG-400 and TMPR4956CXBG-400, are based on the TX49/H4 core. Power consumption is only 0.6 watt when operating at their maximum frequency of 400-MHz, the company said.
  • Sony VAIO PCG-Z1A review - At a system weight of 4.6 pounds and a travel weight of 5.4 pounds (with transformer), the dazzling new Sony VAIO PCG-Z1A ($2,299.99 direct) is the lightest two-drive thin-and-light notebook we've tested. But a couple of design quirks-most noticeably a bit of styling excess that messes up the keyboard-keep it from moving into the first rank of mainstream notebooks alongside the IBM ThinkPad T40 and the Dell Latitude D600.
  • SiPix StyleCam Groove review - The inexpensive SiPix StyleCam Groove ($69.95 list) is a small, slim, and exceedingly simple to operate. Although it's a no-frills point-and-shoot model with only a handful of features, the silver-colored Groove is versatile enough to capture video with sound, record audio annotation, and serve as a Webcam. Should the batteries die, however, stored images disappear. You'll also contend with poor image quality, slow and irritating transfer software, and an inaccurate optical viewfinder.
  • Zalman ZM80A-HP Silent VGA Cooler review - Hexus.net has posted a new review of Zalman ZM80A-HP Silent VGA Cooler. "The Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler achieves its aims of cooling even the fastest of current GPUs passively. The clever engineering, large dissipation area, and excellent heatpipe ensures that we can run powerful GPUs fanless. Installation should take you no more than 30 minutes, even if you do go slowly. If you want to quieten your PC, an excellent start would be with the Zalman ZM80A-HP cooler. It does everything it promises and looks impressive doing"
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra Review - The FX 5900 Ultra's expected US$499 price is not too bad considering that the RADEON 9800 Pro 128MB cards are already retailing here for S$800 or above. In comparison, the FX 5900 Ultra is equipped with double the frame buffer for not much more cost. The FX 5900 non-Ultra version is expected to retail at US$399 with 128MB frame buffer and that should be very competitive to the RADEON 9800 Pro (if clock speeds are not going to differ from the Ultra version). Both are expected to be available by mid or end-June. Yet to be properly detailed is a value edition of the FX 5900 with 128MB DDR that should retail for US$299 with probably much lower clock speeds.
  • ATI Radeon 9000 All In Wonder Pro  - So you have 200 bucks in your pocket and you are looking for a great all round graphics card to beef up that aging computer of yours. The ATI Radeon 9000 Pro All In Wonder is your holy grail. Consider the features for the price; TV Tuner, great gaming performance, video capture and editing, wireless remote control (a $50 value in itself), a full three year warranty, regular driver updates, and the list goes on and on. If you are running a Geforce MX and refuse to throw down the $400 that a top of the line card costs, you can't go wrong here.
  • Plextor PlexWriter Premium 52/32/52 CD-RW review - Plextor's new drive also comes with a "premium" price tag. With an suggested retail price of $129, the Premium is one of the more expensive 52x writers currently available. If you shop around, it can be found for considerably less. Currently, the Premium can be found for as low as $106 on Pricegrabber.
  • Corsair PC3500 XMS Memory review - With excellent stability and speeds, I would have to give this memory a big thumbs up (Brian sticks up his thumbs). Since this memory is basically an overclocked stick of PC3200, I'm sure Corsair has pushed it to its most stable limits, but you may be able to squeeze a bit more out of it.
  • Hotflashing Guide - Overclocked Cafe has published a hotflashing guide for beginners.
  • ShaderX 2 Contents - Clues to PowerVR Series 5? - The Table of Contents for the upcoming ShaderX 2 3D techniques and programming book has been published. The book covers many topics from rendering of specific effects to DirectX9 HLSL programming, however of note are the contributions from the PowerVR employees, which are: "Deferred Shading with Multiple Render Targets", "Introduction to the vs_3_0 and ps_3_0 Shader Models", "Cloth Animation with Pixel and Vertex Shader 3.0" and "Rendering Voxel Objects with ps_3_0".
  • Messenger Spell Checker - 316Software has just release an add-on Microsoft's Windows and MSN Messenger clients that allows you to have the same great spell checking features as your Microsoft Office programs.
  • Avant Browser 8.0 Final  - Avant Browser is a fast, stable, user-friendly, versatile web browser. Avant Browser is a multi-window browser which features with many functions such as Pop-up Stopper, Built-in Google Searching, Safe Recovery, Integrated Cleaner and Advanced Browsing Options.
  • MagicTweak 2.40 - MagicTweak (download) is a special program designed to optimize and personalize Microsoft Windows. This new version adds new function to Backup/Restore System Files, new option to Disable Execute Attachments in Outlook Express and new option to Remove Windows Messenger from Outlook Express.
  • XP Smoker 2.0 - XP Smoker is another WinXP tweaker. They claim this program can increase the stability of Windows XP and even
    increase web browsing anywhere from 10% to 100% faster.
  • Registry Watch 2.1.01 - Registry Watch (shareware) takes a snapshot of the Windows Registry and then you can review any changes made in the Registry at a later time.
  • AIDA32 - Personal System Information 3.60 - AIDA32 (download) is a professional system information, diagnostics and benchmarking program running on Win32 platforms.
  • PowerStrip 3.41.390 BETA - PowerStrip 3.41 (download) provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9800.
  • DirectX Eradicator 1.09 Beta 2  - This utility is designed to safely remove the DirectX runtime core component from Windows 9X, Millennium and Windows 2000 operating systems. DXE gives you the power to install and uninstall any version of DirectX as you wish.
  • Adobe Reader 6.0 - Adobe Reader 6.0 is free software that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files on a variety of hardware and operating system platforms. Adobe Reader 6.0 is the newest version of the familiar Adobe Acrobat Reader software. It also replaces Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader, software for viewing high-fidelity eBooks on your notebook or desktop computer.
  • Audiotools 4.40 Interim 4 - Audiotools (download ~ changelog) is a direct-to-disk recording tool with the facility to automatically split a recording into tracks.
  • Audigy / Audigy 2 *BETA* Drivers WinXP/2k - Creative has released some beta Audigy drivers (warning - the beta drivers will stop working on August 1st 2003). They claims Sound Blaster Audigy: performance increased by 10%-15% for EAX ADVANCED HD, Number of simultaneous voices has been doubled from 32 to 64; For the Audigy and Audigy 2: Reverb presets setting by game audio engine is now on average 10X faster, EAX Morphing performance enhanced, typically yeilding a 2X improvement in framerates for morphed section. Try only at your own risk.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,27 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:13 AM CEST - May,27 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Introducing New Wireless Security - Information technology departments might or might not use a protocol such as 802.1X or RADIUS for additional authentication. To help address this gap in WLANs, the IEEE 802.11 Working Group instituted Task Group is to produce a security upgrade for the 802.11 standard. 802.11i is building the standard around 802.1X port-based authentication for user and device authentication. The 802.11i standard, which isn't expected to be complete until later this year, includes two main developments: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and Robust Security Network (RSN).
  • PGP Encryption Proves Powerful - If the police and FBI can't crack the code, is the technology too strong? ~ Italian police have seized at least two Psion personal digital assistants from members of the Red Brigades terrorist organization. But the major investigative breakthrough they were hoping for as a result of the information contained on the devices has failed to materialize--thwarted by encryption software used by the left-wing revolutionaries. Failure to crack the code, despite the reported assistance of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation computer experts, puts a spotlight on the controversy over the wide availability of powerful encryption tools.
  • Microsoft to give support for free - Microsoft Corp. will start giving companies free support and service as it overhauls a licensing plan introduced last year that's been met with slow sales. The company will give customers of its two-year and three-year Software Assurance upgrade plan free training and support, said Rebecca LaBrunerie, a licensing product manager. It comes after the switch to the new plan, which gave customers free upgrades over several years, angered licensees by raising prices in some cases and imposing too early a deadline for some to act.
  • Gene Mapping Key To Unlocking Human Secrets, Says Geneticist - Genetic mapping is an attempt to find mileposts along the genome of a particular organism. The genome is the total genetic material contained in every cell of a species and the DNA that makes up the genome serves as coding for a particular animal. Determining the exact sequence of the chemicals contained in DNA involves a string of three billion figures.
  • Dell and HP see first wide-screen Centrino notebooks - Both Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard (HP), the world's two largest notebook vendors, are having their first wide-screen Centrino notebooks produced by Taiwan-based Compal Electronics, sources said. While Dell is outsourcing its 15.4-inch Centrino-based Latitude D800 to Compal, HP is ordering its Compaq Presario X1000 notebook, launched recently, from the Taiwanese notebook maker. Initial monthly shipments of the Presario X1000 are estimated at 20,000-30,000 units, according to sources.
  • Duke Nukem targets Pocket PCs - Next after Doom, one first-person shooter drew particular interest from gamers on the PC platform in the 90s: Duke Nukem 3D. As a new and updated version of the game - sporting a real 3D engine, as opposed to the original's faux pax solution - is being prepared for the PC platform, the original version has found its way to the Pocket PC platform courtesy of independent developer Frank Pennault. (thanks InfoSyncWorld)
  • Skinning smartphones - New software from 3G LAB lets users of Series 60-based smartphones, such as the Nokia 7650 and 3650, skin their phones - with themes ranging from naughty to nice.
  • Cellphones to control toy cars - NEC has announced a technical cooperation with the Japanese toy manufacturer, Konami to enable cell phones to control its range of MICROiR toys cars. Owners of the tiny toy cars can download software into the move N504iS handset from DoCoMo and the J-N51 handset sold by J-Phone that will then enable the handsets to control the cars.
  • A new Nokia 7650 game - Nokia has now introduced a new addition to its line-up of free games for its Nokia 7650, based on the Series 60 platform. titled 'Space Impact', the new game features a plot where Neon Force pilot Geneva gets trapped in hostile territory and requires the player's assistance.
  • Athlon XP 3200+ Review - In general, the Athlon XP 3200+ is a good processor, though the reputation is certainly a bit spoiled by AMD and the chipset makers. At the moment it is adequate to the 3GHz Pentium 4.
  • DFI Lan Party Intel (Canterwood) PRO875 Motherboard  Review - 3dXtreme has posted a review of the DFI Lan Party Intel (Canterwood) PRO875 Motherboard.
  • SiS 648FX Ref Board Performance Review - How does SIS 648FX (P4 800mhz cpu chipset) compares to Springdale. What does SIS 648FX chipset offers that brings it on par with the latest Intel chipsets on the market ? Will the integrated RAID 0/1/0+1/JBOD SATA chipset be the new chipset of choice for all future SiS based boards with RAID ?
  • ATI Radeon 9000 All In Wonder Pro Review - The latest All In Wonder card from ATI. Priced at a affordable $199 this card has everything you could ever dream of, great gaming performance, TV Tuner, Remote Wonder and more Video editing features than you can shake a stick at.
  • MSI GeForce FX5600-VTDR128 Review - This brings us to MSI's incarnation of the GeForce FX 5600: the FX5600-VTDR128. Among GeForce FX 5600 boards, MSI's got a real winner on their hands here. Online prices start about $26 higher than the cheapest GeForce FX 5600 cards, but when you factor in MSI's excellent T.O.P. Tech Cooling, the VIVO module for video editing, remote control unit, and the decent software bundle, $26 is a small price to pay for what you're getting.
  • Albatron FX5800 Ultra Review - Ever seen the movie "The fast and the furious"? Well, the FX5800 Ultra is "The fast and the thunderous". Looking at the graphs above, the FX5800 Ultra is no doubt one of the fastest cards; however, the associated noise level is just too high for most people and so is the price.
  • Samsung ML-1710 Laser Printer Review - The ML-1710 can be described as a simple, sleek, well built workhorse. The speed and economy of a Laser Printer truly cannot be beat. Let's see what Samsung has to offer the market.
  • HydroCool200 External Water Cooling Kit Review - The water block used on the HydroCool200 is very compact, and universal. Those running AMD K7 based processors will have an installation bracket, as will those using Intel Pentium 4 processors.
  • Vibe's PT-2002-T Wireless Keyboard and Mouse - Are you tired of fighting with keyboard and mouse cords or maybe you just want more freedom of movement? TechTastic.ca have posted a review of Vibe's PT-2002-T wireless keyboard and mouse.
  • DivX 5.0.5a - DivX (free ~ adware ~ pro) is a package that includes all the DivX codec, player, utilities, and documentation that you need to play DivX files. DivX codec is based on the MPEG-4 compression standard. This codec can reduce an MPEG-2 video (DVD format) to ten percent of its original size. DivX is a digital video compression technology based on the ISO MPEG-4 standard. This minor version fixed a bug that would cause the codec to encode every frame as an I-Frame when used with certain applications (e.g., AVIUtil, DVD2AVI, and some video capture applications).
  • Virtual CD v5.02  -  A new version of Virtual CD is available. This program allows you to emulate CD and DVD drives and it is also able to handle copy protections.
  • ZMatrix for Win 2000/XP 1.5.2  - ZMatrix is an animated desktop background which displays streaming characters in a style similar to what was used in the movie 'The Matrix'.
  • Useless Creations Matrix Reload Screensaver 2.0 -  This is pretty kewl screensaver, try enabling the Sideways Movement option in the screensaver Settings, pretty damn cool and it runs on old systems too!
  • jv16 PowerTools v1.4 RC1 - jv16 PowerTools is the next generation of RegCleaner. A full set of tools to keep your computer and your LAN up and running. jv16 PowerTools is basicly the Tool to control your computer.
  • MR Tech Systray 2.1.35 Beta - MR Tech Systray will not only quickly shut down, restart or log off from Windows, it can help keep your hard disk a little cleaner, organize your MP3 files, edit the ID3 tag, text sorting, reboot logging and system tune-up.
  • KM Remote 2.0 Build 76  - With KM Remote it is possible to remote control Windows using keyboard and mouse. Pressing one of defined virtual buttons calls associated with him action or shows OSD menu if more than one action is defined.
  • TMPGEnc DVD Author and TMPGEnc Plus Updated - Both TMPGEnc DVD Author and TMPGEnc Plus have been updated.  TMPGEnc DVD Author v1.0.4.24 fixes the problem with changing the audio sampling rate and TMPGEnc Plus v2.512 fixes - When selecting an MPEG file in MPEG Tools, Multiplex, a message saying "does not support multiplexing a DVD Sub-Picture stream to a system stream" was displayed, and also some Memory access violation error.
  • Yamaha CRW-F1 firmware - Yamaha released a new firmware version 1.0g for CRW-F1 drive. This new firmware added support for following Ultra Speed CD-RW discs for 24x writing.Infodisc (24x), Ritek (24x).
 Gameguru Mania News - May,25 2003 - tech
Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:56 AM CEST - May,25 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • AMD ingnots, sliced "TBread" with the crusts cut off - Recently AMD enthusiasts (overclockers) have had a smile across their faces the length of which must have wifes and girlfriends wondering. Their new-found mistress; "lower-speed" Thoroughbred-B's, and their "double overclock" potential. Almost mythical in overclocking circles (prior to phase-change cooling) doubling a processor's default speed is the apotheosis for the enthusiast. So where did these sweethearts come from? And why have I chose the title "AMD ingots sliced "TBread" with the crusts cut off"? Buckle up, it's going to a bumpy ride!
  • Sci: Britain boosts nuclear bomb research - Hundreds of extra scientists are being sought to work on Britain's nuclear bomb programme. Their job will be to maintain Britain¹s Trident warheads, to help ensure that new weapons can be designed in the future and to conduct joint research with the US. But the recruitment drive has raised fears that Britain risks being sucked into fresh US research on low-yield nuclear weapons ­ so-called "mini-nukes" ­ for use as bunker busters on the battlefield.
  • Postal 2 protection (SafeDisc/SecuROM) imcompatible with CD readers - According to CDFreaks.com, Postal 2 is protected by SafeDisc 2.9 in the UK and by SecuROM 4.8 outside the UK. The protection seems to be so heavy that even some CD-ROM drives have difficulties reading the original CD, users are adviced to upgrade CD-ROM drive drivers or return the discs to the store.
  • Epic's Tim Sweeney on cheating vs optimizations Optimization techniques  - Dave Baumann and the Reverend at Beyond3D have asked Tim Sweeney, the man behind the Unreal engine, and ATI's Director of PR, Chris Evenden about cheating and optimizations brought up by Nvidia's Detonator FX 44.03. Chris Evenden has issued the following statement: "The 1.9% performance gain comes from optimization of the two DX9 shaders (water and sky) in Game Test 4 . We render the scene exactly as intended by Futuremark, in full-precision floating point. Our shaders are mathematically and functionally identical to Futuremark's and there are no visual artifacts; we simply shuffle instructions to take advantage of our architecture. These are exactly the sort of optimizations that work in games to improve frame rates without reducing image quality and as such, are a realistic approach to a benchmark intended to measure in-game performance. However, we recognize that these can be used by some people to call into question the legitimacy of benchmark results, and so we are removing them from our driver as soon as is physically possible. We expect them to be gone by the next release of CATALYST."
  • NVIDIA DAWN Demo playable on ATI Cards -  If you own an ATI card, check it out!
  • OpenOffice 1.1 Beta 2 - OpenOffice.org (Windows ~ Linux) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. This new beta includes PDF and Macromedia Flash export; DocBook, PDA office-file formats, flat XML and XHTML.
  • MAME v0.69  - MAME (download) stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, and currently runs 1800+ classic (and even some not so classic) arcade games.
  • Y'z Dock 0.8.0 - A new version 0.8.0 of Y'z Dock (download) has been released. Y'z Dock is an application style launcher for WinXP only.
  • Messenger Plus! 2.10.36 -  A new patch (what's new ~ download) has been released for Messenger Plus! Messenger Plus! is an add-on for MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger. Some of the added features are logging, personalized Away Messages, transparency effects, and a feature to minimize all MSN Messenger windows to the system tray.
  • MSN Messenger 6.0.0250 Ad Removal Patch Version 2 - This new version of the patch (direct link) also removes an ad from the "Make a Phone Call" feature as well as Removes the (BETA) tag from the title. If you have already patched your MSN Messenger to remove ads, run the "msnadpatch(patched).exe" If you have not already patched your MSN Messenger to remove ads, run the "msnadpatch.exe".
  • ISO Commander 1.1.010 Beta - ISO Commander (download) is a CD-ROM image file utility that can extract/edit/create ISO files directly, make bootable CDs and may also be used as a BIN/ISO/DAO/TAO/NRG etc. converter/extractor/editor.
  • PlexWriter Premium Firmware v1.01 - Plextor Europe has released a new firmware version 1.01 for the PlexWriter Premium drive. This latest firmware fixes bugs - Compatibility with Ahead InCD 4, Compatibility with Direct CD-formatted discs under Windows XP, Compatibility with Digital Audio Playback of Windows Media Player and improves Read performance for eccentric discs and Write performance for several NS & US CD-RW.
  • Nvidia withdraws nForce 2.41 / 2.42 Driver - Nvidia has withdrawn it's 2.41/2.42 nForce chipset unified driver packages released only some days ago. The FTP folders (2.41/2.42) are empty and the official website directs to the rather old 2.03 drivers. (thanks Warp2Search). ...what a truly suck-ass weekend to be nVidia :P  If you got a problems with 2.4x then read the Recovery instructions from Nvidia.
  • Modded Detonator FX 44.10 Win2k/XP *BETA* - Station-Drivers have modded the latest Dell Nvidia Detonator FX 44.10 drivers (download) for Windows 2000/XP to work on all cards. Try only at your own risk.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,24 2003 - tech
Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:35 AM CEST - May,24 2003 - Post a comment / read (7)
  • Software piracy 'kingpin' captured in Bangkok -  Ukrainian man alleged to be the mastermind behind a multi-million dollar computer software piracy racket has been captured in Thailand. Maksym Vysochansky, 25, who was arrested in Bangkok Monday evening, allegedly sold US$ 3 million worth of computer software, "resulting in damage worth up to $1 billion to the US software industry", Bangkok paper The Nation reports.
  • MIT, Army open nanotech center - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the U.S. Army formally unveiled the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, which is geared toward creating battlefield armor for the 21st century.  MIT on Thursday cut the ribbon on the nanotechnology institute, which was started with a $50 million grant from the Army in 2002. Corporations, including Dow Corning, DuPont Raytheon and Carbon Nanotechnologies are participating in the center.
  • Microsoft works to fix backup compatibility flaw - A change to Microsoft's tape backup feature makes file backup tapes created with Windows Server 2003 incompatible with previous versions of Windows including Windows XP and Windows 2000. The problem is due to a change in the Windows Server 2003 version of the free ntbackup.exe utility that comes with Windows operating systems and was first disclosed in the online security news group NTBugtraq.
  • Nvidia accused of fudging tests -  A software maker that specializes in tools for measuring performance of PC components has accused graphics chip giant Nvidia of manipulating test results for its latest graphics chip.  Saratoga, Calif.-based Futuremark on Friday said in a statement that Nvidia tweaked software needed to run its new GeForce FX 5900 processor to distort performance in Futuremark's 3DMark 03 testing application. Futuremark is one of the leading independent providers of software and services for performing PC "benchmark" tests.
  • Most downloaded program on the Web? - Sharman Networks said its Kazaa file-sharing software was on track to set a record Friday as it becomes the most-popular free program on the Web with over 230 million downloads. By hitting that total, Shaman said Kazaa would surpass the popular ICQ instant messaging program, owned by CNN's parent company AOL Time Warner.
  • ReplayTV May Strip Ad Skipping - ReplayTV said it would likely leave some controversial features on its home television recording machines for now but may strip them from new models.  ReplayTV, the digital video recorder maker purchased last month by Japan's D&M Holdings from bankrupt Sonicblue (SBLU), said it is mulling the fate of ReplayTV's features that skip commercials and send saved programs over the Internet.
  • AMD AthlonXP 3200+ (Barton core, 400MHz FSB)  - It's clear, in terms of overall speed, you're getting a lot of CPU for your money. Overclockers looking to hit the next level of performance will be dissapointed by this CPU because there doesn't seem to be any more headroom available to them than with lower-spec Thoroughbred or Barton chips. If you're looking for a socketA system to beat all others at default speed, then this CPU will certainly get you there. However, despite the changes to FSB speed and L2 cache that come with the new Barton core, this CPU continues the gradual progression of speed increases rather than being a significant jump ahead of its predecessors.
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - The Real 5800 Ultra?  - Adrian's Rojak Pot  just posted a new editorial titled "The NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra : The Real 5800 Ultra?.  Is the NV35 a feeble claw-back by NVIDIA or is it a worthy competitor to the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro? Read on and find out.
  • D-Link Di-604 Ethernet Broadband Router - Overall, the DI-604 is fast, easy to install and use, and very much worth the money. The MSRP on the DI-604 is $49.99, although a quick web search revealed prices as low as $32. At that kind of price, it's hard to beat what the DI-604 has to offer. If you're getting your home network going, or if you're hooking up Xbox Live or PS2 online gaming for the first time, you should be looking at the D-Link DI-604 Ethernet Broadband Router.
  • Corsair Hydrocool 200 Watercooling kit - This is Corsair's first entrance into the liquid cooling market and it is a bold one, indeed. Hydrocool is full of fresh ideas and is a very well built unit. With a price tag of $220.00, it is also quite reasonable, especially when the simplicity of use is considered.
  • nForce2 motherboard roundup - Performance-hungry users still can't bypass NVIDIA's nForce2 chipset. Thanks to a dual-channel memory interface, it represents the best platform for the Athlon XP. The first boards featuring the new version of the chipset, the nForce2 Ultra 400, are already available. What are the new boards capable of?
  • Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB Vs. GeForce FX 5900 Ultra - The GeForce FX 5900 Ultra has an impressive 29% lead over the Radeon 9800 Pro card at default settings. The lead then expands to 33% with 4X AA enabled but closes down again to 15% when you turn on 8X Anisotropic Filtering. For sure, NVIDIA's card is much more heavily impacted by AF processing overhead. However, it's still faster by a significant margin, no matter how you slice it.
  • XFX GeForce FX5200 Review - If you look at what the FX5200 is supposed to do, it does it well. It is not a card for a hard-core gamer, but it is a card for those who mostly use the computer for other things than games and only occasionally play a game.
  • PenDriveUSA USB 2.0 Drive Review - Overall the Pen Drive is an outstanding device and the optional base makes it a convenient solution for your data storage needs. This usb drive has a built-in secuirty feature but if you want full-secuirty you should get the SECURE version of the Pen Drive. If you are in the market for a USB drive, I highly recommend the Pen Drive for its speed, 2.0GB capacity (max capacity available), and ease of use.
  • The Removal of a P4 Integrated Heat Spreader - Before removing the IHS, I put together a barebones machine for testing the thermal results before and after my little experiment.
  • TurboCases Black X-Dreamer Case Review - The X-Dreamer case is unique because it is one of few cases you can get that are pre-modded. This makes Xoxide cases attractive because you might want that side-panel with the window, but don't have the time or expertise to put one in.
  • Elite Flashback - Sinclair ZX Spectrum - EliteBastards has posted a retro article on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
  • SQL sp3 updated to sp3a - SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3a (download) addresses specific issues discovered in SQL Server 2000 since its ship date. Because SQL Server service packs are cumulative, SP3a includes all fixes from previously released Service Pack 1 (SP1), Service Pack 2 (SP2), and Service Pack 3 (SP3). SP3a can be applied to an original installation or to one where SP1, SP2, or SP3 was previously applied.
  • MySQL 4.0.13 - MySQL 4.0.13 has been released - changelog ~ download.
  • Outpost Personal Firewall Pro 2.0 - New Outpost Personal Firewall Pro 2.0 (download Pro version - Free version) outdistances the award-winning Outpost Personal Firewall Pro 1.0 on multiple levels, from enhanced privacy features to ease-of-use. As the foremost security application for personal computers, Outpost Personal Firewall Pro 2.0 gives you the latest in personal firewall technology, making version 2.0 the clear security choice for your system. Well, I've heard this one is better than Kerio Personal Firewall...seems I should check out this baby soon.
  • GNOME 2.3.2 (Beta) - GNOME project has built a complete free and easy-to-use desktop environment for the user, as well as a powerful application framework for the software developer. GNOME is included in pretty much every BSD and GNU/Linux distribution and works on many other Unix systems.
  • URLscan 2.5 - UrlScan version 2.5 is a security tool that restricts the types of HTTP requests that Internet Information Services (IIS) will process. By blocking specific HTTP requests, the UrlScan security tool helps prevent potentially harmful requests from reaching the server. UrlScan 2.5 will now install as a clean installation on servers running IIS 4.0 and later.
  • Media Player Classic 6.4.5.0 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users.
  • TMPGEnc v2.512.52.161 - TMPEGenc (download) converts *.AVI file to MPEG1, the format which is used in VideoCD. Using a variety of options in TMPEGenc, you can compress your video file in high quality.
  • FlashFXP 2.1.924 - FlashFXP (download) is the most powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market today.
  • ffdshow build 2003-05-23 - ffdshow (download) is DirectShow decoding filter for decompressing DIVX and XVID movies using libavcodec or xvid with rich set of video postprocessing filters.
  • 3DMark03 Patch build #330 - Oh yeah, indeed there's pretty interesting reason for its availability - "We have now established that NVIDIA's Detonator FX drivers contain certain detection mechanisms that cause an artificially high score when using 3DMarkR03. We have just published a patch 330 for 3DMark03 that defeats the detection mechanisms in the drivers and provides correct results." ~ download ~ mirrors.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,23 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:15 AM CEST - May,23 2003 - Post a comment
  • California Senate OKs antispam bill  - The California State Senate approves a bill that would make it illegal to send unsolicited e-mail advertising and allows people to sue so-called spammers for $500 per unwanted message. If the bill, which now goes to the California Assembly, becomes law, it would be one of the strictest antispam measures in the country. Gov. Gray Davis has taken no position on the measure.
  • Real and Playboy launch video subscription service - RealNetworks has extended its streaming video reach by adding bunch of new contect providers in its roster. The biggest name definately is Playboy, which has signed up as OpenPass content provider.
  • University of Calgary to teach secrets of cybercrime - Developing malicious software - viruses, worms and Trojan horses - will soon be part of the program for 16 students at the University of Calgary. The aim is to delve into the cybercrime mind to understand a problem that causes billions of dollars in damage annually worldwide, says Dan Seneker, with the university's department of computer science.
  • Scientists discover how the monarch butterfly navigates 2,000-mile migration without a map - Monarch butterflies migrate between their wintering roosts in central Mexico to their summer breeding grounds as far north as the US-Canadian border. Scientists have now discovered that they employ an internal biological clock that enables them to use the sun as a reliable compass no matter what time of day it is. This form of navigation is so accurate that it allows some monarch butterflies to return to the same trees in the Mexican mountains that were used by their great, great grandparents as roosting sites the previous winter.
  • i865 Springdale Chipset review roundup - There's a batch of reviews for Intel's i865 Springdale chipset:  Anandtech | HardOCP | Hexus | Lost Circuits | MBReview | OCAddiction | Sudhian Media | Tech-Report | Tom's Hardware | UKGamer
  • AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Review - The Athlon XP line has recently undergone some changes, with AMD adding an extra 256k of level 2 cache to the Athlon XP's and naming the core Barton. The extra cache should give a nice boost to performance, which is why the XP3000 boasts a higher PR rating than the XP2700 although they run at the same clockspeed of 2.167GHz. So, lets take a closer look at the XP3000 to see if it is worth the upgrade.
  • Spire Coolers AMD Heat sink Comparison - This comparison says the winner of the three is the Micro Flow II. Despite being the loudest, although it still wasn't that loud, it performed the best.
  • OCZ Ultra 2 Thermal Paste - OCZ Ultra 2 is a high-quality polysynthetic thermal compound designed to provide maximum thermal transfer between the CPU surface and the heatsink. OCZ Ultra 2 uses a blend of polysynthetic oils that ensure that the compound will not solidify or lose its thermal transfer properties over time. Ultra 2 thermal compound is not electrically conductive, meaning that it is completely safe for use on any surface that requires maximum thermal transfer. Each 3 gram syringe contains enough OCZ Ultra 2 to properly cool twenty to thirty CPU's, depending on the surface area.
  • ABIT IS7 Springdale Motherboard Review - The Springdale chipset sports a pretty hefty feature list. The first thing that comes to mind as monumental for an Intel chipset is Dual Channel DDR. For those of you unfamiliar with DCDDR it is actually pretty simple. In the past Intel chipsets have all been single channel. This means that no matter how many sticks of memory and regardless of size, the memory was combined to share the same bandwidth and path (or channel) to the CPU. With Dual Channel what this basically means is that there are two separate banks, each with it's own pipeline, theoretically doubling your memory speed. As benchmarks will show later in this review, this claim is very close to accurate.
  • Liteon XJ-HD166S 16x DVD Drive - As you can see from the above results, the drive performs slower than the manufacturer's specifications. None the less the DVD play back is very good and the price can't be beat.
  • SONY DRU-500A Monstrous Combo-Drive - SONY developed a really interesting product. The main and evident advantage of this drive is the support of both competing writable and re-writable DVD standards. The owner of DRU-500A can work with both types of disks, without worrying which of them to choose and without waiting for the two developer groups to find the winner. The main problem for every DVD-RW drive buyer is to pick up the right model, which would continue living if one of the two standards dies. Here this problem is eliminated completely.
  • NETGEAR WAG511 Dual-Band Wireless PC Card Review - Tom's Hardware Guide has published a review of the NETGEAR WAG511 Dual-Band Wireless PC Card.
  • Altec Lansing 251 5.1 Desktop Theater Review -  Looking to improve your computer sound into a complete surround sound system, but don't know which one to go with? Well, Altec Lansing's 251 5.1 PC Gaming and Desktop theater could be a solution or it could be the one your can be warned not to get.
  • Zippy EL-610 Keyboard - As you can see next to a full size kb, the Zippy is a small keyboard. Being small, now you have more room in your work space for other things. It's also very slim. Less than an inch thick at the thickest part. And while it is very light, it feels well made and sturdy.
  • PHP 4.3.2RC4 - This is the fourth release candidate (Win32 ~ Linux ~ buildtracker) and should have no critical problems/bugs. Nevertheless, please download and test it as much as possible on real-life applications to uncover any remaining issues.
  • Fresh UI v6.00 - Fresh UI (download) is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know.
  • Tweak-XP Professional 2.0.10a - Tweak-XP was developed to combine both tweaking and optimizing features to increase the speed of your Windows XP system. All settings can be done without having any former knowledge, since Tweak-XP informs the user in detail about each option. Tweak-XP, all you need for Windows XP.
  • StyleXP v1.01p  -TGTSoft today released a new version of its theme software for Windows. This new version adds support for Win2k3 server.
  • Kerio Personal Firewall 4.0 Beta 2 - Kerio Personal Firewall (download) represents smart, easy-to-use personal security technology that fully protects personal computers against hackers. It is built on ICSA-certified security technology. It is free for home and personal use.
  • NVDVD 2.55 - NVIDIA has updated the trial version of their DVD Player to 2.55.
  • Leadtek Winfox Tool Updated - A couple days ago, Leadtek have released an updated version for their Winfox Tool v30513 (2003/5/13).
  • Nvidia nForce Drivers 2.42 WHQL - Nvidia has released a new nForce2 Drivers 2.42 WHQL for WinXP ~ Win2k. The changes that have been made are the 43.51 graphics driver included being WHQL certified, and the IDE drivers were removed. So no need to download 2.42 if you already have 2.41.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,22 2003 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:21 AM CEST - May,22 2003 - Post a comment
  • Electric shock weapons could go wireless  - New Scientist has seen video stills of a prototype of the "Plasma-Taser" in action during firing-range tests. The pictures were shown at the European Symposium on Non-Lethal Weapons in Karlsruhe, Germany, two weeks ago. In the first image, a spray of dark gas is seen approaching a human-sized target. In the next, taken a fraction of a second later, there is a lightning-like flash of electrical discharge intended to incapacitate the targeted person.
  • Alchemy with light shocks physicists - The researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to shift the frequency of light beams to any desired colour, with near 100 per cent efficiency. "The degree of control over light really is quite shocking," comments photonics expert Eli Yablonovitch at the University of California, Los Angeles.  If the effect can be harnessed, it will revolutionise a range of fields ­ turning heat into light, for example, or prized terahertz rays. Right now, the only way to shift the frequency of a light beam involves sending an extremely intense light pulse ­ with a power of many megawatts or even gigawatts ­ along next to it.
  • Microsoft Launched Computer Virus Information Website - Microsoft has joined leading anti-virus software vendors in an information-sharing program to provide customers with detailed and timely information about newly discovered viruses.
  • Internet Connection Firewall and Basic Firewall Do Not Block Internet Protocol Version 6 Traffic - According to Microsoft, ICF in Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1), and ICF and Basic Firewall in Windows Server 2003, filter IPv4 traffic only.
  • Wristwatch USB Drive  -  LAKS has made the ultimate wristwatch - It's a USB drive (32/64/128MB) combined with a watch. 
  • Intel to Discontinue Rambus Chip Sets - The company notified its developers in a "product notification change" e-mail message distributed earlier this month that shipments of the 850E chip set for desktops and the 860 chip set for workstations would cease in May 2004. The move is just a formality, as Intel has demonstrated its commitment to double data rate (DDR) memory with the launch of the 875 chip set in April and the 865 chip set on Wednesday; both of these support DDR400 memory over Rambus dynamic RAM (RDRAM).
  • Intel Redefines the Mainstream PC, Again - Intel is altering that equation with the launch of the 865PE chipset (PR), formerly codenamed Springdale. The Santa Clara chip giant recently introduced the 875P, its new dual-channel chip set that lets high-end systems use DDR400 memory. The high-end desktop systems the 875P targets typically cost $2,000 or more.
  • Nvidia bets on budget chip - Graphics boards fitted with the Quadro FX 2000 sell for around $1,400 to $1,600, with the 1000 version going for $900 to $1,000. The new 500 will push the price of such boards down to around $400, a level that should allow a wider range of graphics professionals to take advantage of Nvidia technology such as Cg, a set of graphics programming tools introduced last year.
  • Sony Clie TG-50 Review - All in all, Sony's Clie TG50 is an extreme device. It is important to remember that first and foremost, this is a PDA. It is not a portable TV, nor is it a Harmon Kardon stereo. What it is, is sheer technological genius. In its basic form it is not complicated by swivel screens or built-in cameras. The PEG TG50 is yet another example of Sony's prowess at building competent multifunction electronic devices that satisfy the needs of today's demanding consumer and greatly impact the overall quality of their life.
  • Gainward FX 5600 Ultra Review - NordicHardware think that GeForce FX 5600 Ultra is probably the most well rounded product in the FX series as of yet. It has a great price/performance ratio and remains very competitive when going up against ATi's Radeon 9500 Pro/9600 Pro. Gainward adds value to the board by supplying us with their Enhanced Mode overclocking and ViVo/Firewire functionality.
  • Radeon 9800 "XT" Clues - Evidently the DDR-II RAM on the 256MB 9800 PRO, which is currently running at 350MHz, is actually rated for 450MHz operation. When ATI went out to find some RAM for this product they couldn't get much in the way of DDR-II rated at 350MHz, but strangely Samsung had a fair amount of 400MHz+ DDR-II stockpiled but, now, unused so they sold it to ATI at a very attractive rate. Radeon 9800 PRO 256MB's may have a reasonable memory overclock because of this, but by the looks out the layout and the length of some of the traces I'll wager that this will not get up to these levels.
  • DirectX 9.0a SDK Developer Runtime - DirectX 9.0a is an updated version of the DirectX 9.0 runtime which includes bug fixes and improves performance in the graphics and networking components. There are no new or modified APIs in this release.
  • Internet Download Manager 3.15 - Internet Download Manager (IDM) (download) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 500 percent, resume and schedule downloads. This new version allows to preview a ZIP archives before downloading.
  • GetRight 5.01 Final - GetRight (what's new ~ download) is a Download Manager program to help you download files from the Internet. Most people have already experienced the problem... you are downloading a file, and your modem gets disconnected, or call waiting interrupts, or your computer crashes, or any number of other problems.
  •  3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 "Voodoolizer" Drivers - I've noticed that VoodooFiles.com have posted a new 3dfx Voodoo3/4/5 Drivers called Voodoolizer.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,21 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:24 AM CEST - May,21 2003 - Post a comment
  • PS2 price cut to L199 in Europe  - Sony is expected to cut the price of the PlayStation 2 in Europe at last. The console will drop from L249 to L199 in a move which brings the hardware price in line with the Xbox and GameCube. The price cut should take effect on Friday and follows a drop to $179 in the USA, announced at E3 last week. However the latter is a stock-clearing incentive designed to clear shelves for the arrival of the new PS2 which will appear at $199 with the network adapter. TheRegister assumes the move to L199 will also bring the PS2 in line with the Cube and Xbox in the UK, with a L129 price point - although those in the Eurozone might be a little miffed at this, given that the current currency values would mean that the UK is getting the console significantly cheaper than the rest of Europe.
  • Videogames Group to Challenge Washington State Law - Washington State Gov. Gary Locke signed a bill on Tuesday making it illegal to sell or rent video games to minors that depict violence against law enforcement officers -- a move that an industry trade group immediately said it would challenge in court.  The bill, signed into law by the Democratic governor, calls for $500 fines to be imposed on anyone who sells or rents a game depicting violence against police to customers under the age of 17. The Interactive Digital Software Association, the trade group for the U.S. video game industry, said in a statement it would go to court to seek an injunction against enforcement of the law. The IDSA said the law violates First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
  • GPS data could stop wireless network attacks  - A new danger to wireless network security has been revealed by a team of US computer researchers. A so-called "wormhole attack" could be used to knock a vulnerable network out of action or defeat a wireless authentication system. But the same researchers that discovered the threat have also devised a radical scheme designed to counter it, involving tagging packets with GPS information or timestamps. In a wormhole attack, an intruder would intercept wireless data packets travelling across one part of a network and quickly re-insert them at another physical point on the network.
  • Visa trials next gen credit cards - The trial involves 12 retailers, including small independent shops and large supermarkets, and 160,000 Northampton residents armed with new cards issued by the likes of Visa, Switch and Barclaycard.
  • Fujitsu Unveils Notebooks - The Fujitsu LifeBook N series is available in several different configurations, with pricing starting at $1900. It features a 15-inch multi-domain vertical alignment display, enabling users to clearly view twice as much data as with standard XGA LCD displays from any angle, according to the company. The N series also comes with 802.11b/54g wireless functionality, which offers up to five times faster throughput than standard 802.11b technology, Fujitsu says. The LifeBook N series also includes a Pentium 4 processor along with an ATI Technologies Radeon 9000 graphics chip with 64 MB of dedicated video memory.
  • VIA KM400A Specifications  - AMDBoard let us know they have posted the VIA KM400A specs.
  • Athlon XP 3200+ Debuts 400-MHz Bus  - The 3200+ delivers an effective FSB speed of 400 MHz, compared with 333 MHz for its predecessor. That's still a far cry from the 800-MHz FSB of Intel's 3.0-GHz Pentium 4 chip. But the 3200+ does have at its disposal a peppy new chipset-the nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400-which brings support for dual-channel DDR 400 SDRAM.
  • Comparison of Low-Price Multifunction Devices - Tom's Hardware Guide has published a comparison of low-price multifunction devices. Why buy a printer when for less than $200 you can have a photo printer, flatbed scanner and color photocopier all in one? Four models are in the running: Canon, Epson, hp and Lexmark. The results are in images and figures.
  • Seagate Cheetah 10k.6 SCSI 320 Review - Techware Labs has posted a review of Seagate Cheetah 10k.6 SCSI 320 harddisk
  • Samsung SP1604N ATA133 160GB HD Review  - ExplosiveLabs has checked out the Samsung SP1604N ATA133 160GB HD.
  • M-Audio Revolution 7.1 soundcard Review  - TechSpot has posted a review on the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 soundcard - Let me introduce to you M-Audios Revolution 7.1, powered by VIAs Envy24HT chipset, the Revolution 7.1 is a true 24-Bit/192 kHz soundcard that doesnt take constrains from AC97 limitations unlike many other soundcards even Creatives flagship, the Audigy 2.
  • EPoX EP-8RDA3+ nForce2 Ultra 400 review - Hexus has posted a review on the EPoX EP-8RDA3+ nForce2 Ultra 400  - The 8RDA3+ is still an excellent foundation on which to build an AMD powerhouse of a system. Its considerable merits outweigh the slight qualms we may have. It's fast, it's stable, and it literally begs to be overclocked. Pricing seems keen too. We've seen it available for less than Ł100 delivered. That's good value considering exactly what you'll be getting for your hard-earned cash. It seems as if EPoX can do little wrong with their nForce2 boards. Recommended.
  • Gigabyte P4 Titan GA-8PE800 Ultra Motherboard Review - PC Stats has posted a Gigabyte P4 Titan GA-8PE800 Ultra Motherboard review.
  • How To Setup A Cheap Home Network - ComputerSphere has posted a guide called  "How To Setup A Cheap Home Network"
  • Updated WinZip Alters Zip Format - WinZip 9.0 has entered public beta with scheduled release later this year, bringing with it a new .zip format--which means some of its functions will not be compatible with earlier versions or other programs. If you use the forthcoming WinZip 9.0's latest encryption and compression options, or create larger archives than were previously possible, your .zip files won't be universally readable.
  • GAIM 0.63 - Gaim (download) is a multi-protocol instant messaging client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows. It is compatible with AIM (Oscar and TOC protocols), ICQ, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, IRC, Jabber, Gadu-Gadu, and Zephyr networks.
  • VirtualDub 1.5.3 - VirtualDub (download ~ download P4 version) is a video capture and processing program. It features fast capturing, process files larger than the 2 gigabyte limit, optimized for linear editing, support for Motion-JPEG, MPEG-1 video and layer 3 audio, real-time and near-realtime video processing, video job queues.
  • Tweak-XP Professional 2.0.10 - Tweak-XP was developed to combine both tweaking and optimizing features to increase the speed of your Windows XP system. All settings can be done without having any former knowledge, since Tweak-XP informs the user in detail about each option. Tweak-XP, all you need for Windows XP.
  • Style XP 1.01p - Style XP allows you to easily add new visual styles or themes to Windows XP. Style XP is not a skinning engine. It uses Microsoft's built-in visual style engine, but enhances it by providing many useful tools.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,20 2003 - tech
VIA Hyperion 4in1 drivers v4.47 - tech
(hx) 01:13 PM CEST - May,20 2003 - Post a comment
GGMania's friend hoe just let us know that new VIA Hyperion 4in1 drivers v4.47 (download1 ~ download2) has been released. VIA Hyperion drivers are suitable for any VIA chipset and all Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. If you are looking for VIA 4in1 drivers, these are the drivers you are looking for. The "Hyperion" name was added to the 4in1 driver set name in December 2002. This is the third release with the Hyperion name.
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:26 AM CEST - May,20 2003 - Post a comment
  • US Price Cuts for PS2 and Xbox, Player bundle for Cube - Microsoft and Sony have both cut $20 off the price of their consoles in the USA, bringing them down to $179 - while Nintendo has announced plans to bundle the Game Boy Player accessory for free with the Cube. In Sony's case, the $179 price point is designed mostly as an inventory clearing inventory for the current PS2 model. This should clear the decks for the slightly revised SCPH-50000 model which launches in the USA in June. The new model is to be sold as a bundle with the network adapter for the current price of $199. As reported previously, it features a built-in IR receiver and a variety of enhanced DVD playback features, but the only games-related difference is the lack of the little-used i-Link (IEEE-1394, or FireWire) port on the system.
  • Worm Poses as Microsoft Message - Kaspersky Labs reports the detection of a new network worm named "Palyh", which is spreading via email and local area networks while masquerading as a communiquĘ from Microsoft's technical support. Presently, infections at the hands of Palyh have already been confirmed in several countries. Palyh gains access to targeted computers as an attached file or writes itself to systems via local area networks. The worm becomes active when an unsuspecting user opens the attached file carrying the infected code; once this is done Palyh infects the computer and starts its spreading routine. When installing, the Palyh worm copies itself into the Windows directory under the name MSCCN32.EXE and registers this file in the systemregistry's auto-run key so that it is placed into system memory and automatically launched upon operating system start-up.
  • Getting Inside Einstein's Head -  More than 900 scientific documents and personal papers detailing the thoughts and emotions of one of the world's most fascinating minds are now available at the Einstein Archives Online. In addition to the voluminous collection of Einstein's writings, some never before published and none previously available online, the website will house an extensive database of 40,000 documents, images and research on Einstein's life and work, as well as digitized copies of Einstein's professional and personal correspondence and pages from his notebooks and travel diaries. (thanks Wired.com)
  • 1,000 UK pubs to get wi-fi - The Cloud - the UK-wide broadband wi-fi network that's part of Inspired Broadcast Networks and Leisure Link Group - is to launch its service in more than 1,000 pubs in the UK later this week. / Ed. note ~ Heh that's nice but what about Czech and Slovak pubs? (cough..)/
  • Go racing with the P800  - After six months of development, Digital-Red has now launched its latest title for the UIQ-based Sony Ericsson P800. MotoRacer 3D is based on the company's Dragon Bone 3D Engine, and pitches players as motorcycle racers against AI players in 8 different motodromes - each designed with distinct features and modelled after real tracks to provide a higher level of realism.
  • Hitachi Maxell stores 1000 GB on a disc, new DVD technology - Hitachi Maxell has announced it has developed a technology that will enable consumers to store up to 200 (which would mean 200 times about 5 GB of data, or even more) movies on a DVD disc. The technology works by adding several data layers to the disc.
  • Taiwan's DVD player and 52x CD-RW SoC solutions in mid-2003 - Three Taiwanese optical chip designers - MediaTek, ALi and VIA Optical Solution (VOS) - plan to launch self-developed SoC (system-on-chip) solutions for DVD players and 52x CD-RW drives starting in mid-2003, sources said.
  • Understanding Modern Pipelines - According to this article, small sites, big sites ( won't give names must resist ) , individuals, organizations - practically everyone is making gigantic mistakes about pipelines in modern GPUs. Or well, sometimes, how you should imagine pipelines, because in some cases, pipelines just don't exist. More on that later. First, let's see this on an architectural standpoint. When it exists, what's a pipeline?
  • NV35 will ship in June - NVIDIA Euro Sales Director, Roy Taylor told the assembled masses of system builders that NV35 will ship in June apart from the low end model which will ship in July. He managed this despite being faced by a phallanx of ATI execs and partners who lined up on the front seats of the giant auditorium in an attempt to put him off.
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB review - VR-Zone has done up a review on the latest GeForce FX 5900 Ultra card equipped with 256MB DDR-I memory and clocked at 450/850Mhz core/memory.
  • MSI, Asustek launch GeForce FX 5900 series cards  - Micro-Star International (MSI) and Asustek Computer recently launched new graphics cards based on Nvidia's GeForce FX 5900 (NV35) series chips, targeting both the high-end and mainstream market. MSI is offering three cards: its FX5900 Ultra, FX5900 and FX5900V adopt Nvidia's GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, GeForce FX 5900 and the more simplified GeForce FX 5900 Value chips, respectively. Asustek is offering two cards - its V9950Ultra and V9950 are based on Nvidia's GeForce FX 5900 Ultra and GeForce FX 5900 chips, respectively.
  • Buffalo 256MB PC3700 DDR Memory Review  - With a retail price of just $194 CDN ($130 US) here or vai Newegg the 2x 256MB Buffalo PC3700 DDR is easily one of the least expensive performance memory modules we've tested! About $75 CDN cheaper then two sticks of Corsair XMS3500 CAS2 and $120 CDN cheaper then OCZ's PC3700 DDR DIMM's!
  • 63 Accelerators on the Pentium II 350 MHz in Three Tests - Digit-Life has posted an article called "63 Accelerators on the Pentium II 350 MHz " ~ "I think that the period starting 6 years ago with the first 3D accelerators is not that big so that the teenagers do not know anything from the 3D history. However, I met some students specializing in computer engineering who had no idea about Riva128, RAGE II, Voodoo Rush etc. But most readers interested in 3D or in the history of the videocard development (not necessarily 3D) will certainly feel nostalgic seeing..."
  • nForce2: single-channel mode vs. dual-channel mode - If you are going to use the integrated graphics of the nForce2-G/T chipset, you should definitely use the dual-channel mode since the speed drop might reach 10 to 70%. Also remember that it's said that the graphics core used on the nForce2-G corresponds to the GF4 MX440-8x chip, but actually, the lower frequencies of the chip in IGP and of the system memory bring much worse results in the 3D graphics tests.
  • Nehemiah M10000 Review - The Nehemiah M10000 is the latest EPIA M motherboard from VIA, with an improved "Nehemiah" C3 CPU core. Mini-itx.com has published a review of the Nehemiah and compares this little baby twith other EPIA motherboards. Does it live up to all the hype?
  • Commell LV-670 review - Hexus.net let us know they have posted a new review titled: "Commell LV-670, this is a Mini-ITX motherboard with a P4 socket present" ~  "If you are after the fastest MiniITX board you can get your hands on this is definitely a board you should consider, however the high price means that very few will be able to justify it up against other Mini ITX solutions."
  • Via Aqua 1300 Review - This is a great, inexpensive pump that I feel has got a real bad rap from the Water Cooling community. Buy one! Heck, at $23 USD buy two!
  • Detonator FX Version 44.03: Feeling Cheated  - Elite Bastards let us know they have posted an article called "Detonator FX Version 44.03: Feeling Cheated". This article is definitely worth reading.
  • ATi Catalyst 3.4 vs. Catalyst 3.2 Comparison - Check it out! Seems that new Catalysts drivers bring a reasonable increase in games and benchmarks.
  • KDE 3.1.2 - The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.1.2, a maintenance release for the third generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.1.2 ships with a basic desktop and seventeen other packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, web development and more). KDE's award-winning tools and applications are available in 51 languages.
  • jv16 PowerTools 1.4 RC1 - jv16 PowerTools (download) is the next generation of RegCleaner. A full set of tools to keep your computer and your LAN up and running. jv16 PowerTools is basicly the Tool to control your computer. Until now your computer might had been the one who is in charge, but with jv16 PowerTools you can take the control. The program contains all the tools needed for monitoring and cleaning the Registry and the file system. In addition to that, you can control all the computers in your LAN.
  • Fraps 1.9D - As promised last week, an improved build of Fraps v1.9 is out. Fraps is a tool that lets you monitor current framerates in a corner of the screen for programs using DirectX or OpenGL technology.
  • WinRAR 3.20 Final - The compression utility WinRAR v3.20 (changelog ~ download) is a powerful archive manager with support for packing RAR and ZIP archives and unpacking RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR and ISO archives.
  • Opera 7.11b - Opera (java ~ non-java) has been hailed as the fastest browser on earth by users and press worldwide. Opera uses less memory and less space on your hard drive than competing browser applications, making you more productive on the Web. In addition, Opera 7.11(final) for Linux OS has been released too.
  • FAR 1.70 beta 5 (build 1634) (09.04.2003) -  Seems I have missed that Rarsoft has released a new beta of FAR (download), my favourite file manager. This new version has many bugs fixed.
  • DAEMON Tools v3.33 - Oh yeah, this is definitely one of the best virtual drive application around. This program allows running BACKUP copies of SafeDisc (C-Dilla), Securom or Laserlock protected game. This new version fixes problems (download) people had with instant reboots when mounting over the network.
  • Alcohol 120% and 52% v1.4.3.518 - Alcohol 120% (download) is a combination of both Alcohol 52% and Alcohol 68%. It enables users to both copy and emulate real or virtual CDs & DVDs. Alcohol 120% can handle the creation of 31 virtual CD & DVD-ROMs, allowing the user to play discs whithout needing the physical disc. It also allows users to make copy CD & DVD to CD-R / CD-RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / DVD+RW.
  • SoftR9x00 Patch Scripts For Catalyst 3.4 - I've noticed over at Guru3D that they have received a new patch scripts to use in combination with RivaTuner 2.0 RC12.4.
  • M-Audio Revolution 7.1 Driver v5.10.00.36 - M-Audio has released a new driver (v.5.10.00.36) for the Revolution 7.1 soundcard.
  • nForce/2 Drivers v2.41 - NVIDIA (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k ~ WinXP) has released new nForce/2 drivers version 2.41. The drivers contain WHQL certified kit for nForce and nForce2, support for nForce2 400 and nForce2 Ultra 400, there's also added full IDE driver with performance enhancements (no longer shows as SCSI miniport driver), updated audio performance fixes for EAX supported games  and audio control panel.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,18 2003 - tech
Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:09 PM CEST - May,18 2003 - Post a comment / read (8)
  • "Matrix" Loads Massive Opening Day - The hotly anticipated middle movie of the Wachowski Bros.' cyber-epic raked in an incredible $42,508,303 at 3,603 theaters on Thursday, storming past the $30,141,471 that Attack of the Clones posted on this same day last year as the biggest weekday gross ever. That raw number also stands as the highest opening day ever, ahead of Spider-Man's $39,406,872. According to ZDNet, Illegal copies of 'The Matrix Reloaded' are reportedly available for download on the Internet.
  • Disney to Begin Renting 'Self-Destructing' DVDs - That is the warning The Walt Disney Co.will issue this August when it begins to "rent" DVDs that after two days become unplayable and do not have to be returned. The discs stop working after a change in color renders them unreadable. They start off red, but when they are taken out of the package, exposure to oxygen turns the coating black and makes it impenetrable by a DVD laser. Buena Vista hopes the technology will let it crack a wider rental market, since it can sell the DVDs in stores or almost anywhere without setting up a system to get the discs back. The technology cannot be hacked by programmers who would want to view the disc longer because the mechanism which closes the viewing window is chemical and has nothing to do with computer technology. However, the disc can be copied within 48 hours, since it works like any other DVD during that window.
  • Intel to cut Celeron and Pentium-M prices shortly - Board makers said that according to Intel's roadmap, new pricing for the Celeron line will be announced on May 25, with the biggest discount seen in the top-end 2.4GHz model. After the adjustment, all of Intel's Celerons will be priced below US$100
  • Sharp releases two notebook-like PDAs: SL-C750 and SL-C760 - Sharp released two new Zaurus PDAs: SL-C750 and SL-C760 to arrive for sale for $516 and $603, respectively. They feature 3.7" and work under Linux OS.  Both devices are based on 400MHz XScale PXA255 and have 64Mb (30Mb free) flash and 64Mb SDRAM (SL-C750); 128Mb flash (65Mb free) and 64 Мб SDRAM (SL-C760). SL-C760 is scheduled for sale from June 21, SL-C750 - from May 24. (thanks Digit-Life)
  • Cooler Master ATCS 110B-SX1 Case review - Hexus has posted a new review of Cooler Master ATCS 110B-SX1 Case.
  • TwinMOS PC3200 DDR Memory Review  - With the release of the 800MHz P4 and the 400MHz AMD (both running on a 200MHz FSB), DDR400 is going to become the norm. It's time to start sorting out the good DDR400 from the overclocked DDR333. Check out the TwinMOS PC3200 (DDR400) review over at Club Overclocker.
  • Epox 8RDA+ Motherboard Review - OCIA has posted a review of Epox 8RDA+  (nForce2 chipset) motherboard. Another review can be found at HardCOREware.net
  • Gentoo Review - The 'meta-distro' Gentoo makes it possible to compile and configure everything on your system exactly the way you like, providing you with more structure and tools to ease the process and automate updates. Do I still like Debian? I absolutely love it. But until further notice, Gentoo is now my flavor of Linux.
  • Mozilla Firebird v 0.6 - Mozilla Firebird is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Camino, but written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It does look like a serious competitor for Opera 7.0 series browser. Check it out.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,17 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:59 AM CEST - May,17 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Matrix Sequel Has Hacker Cred - The average American moviegoer taking in the Matrix Reloaded this weekend will likely be wowed by the elaborate action sequences and dazzling special effects. But hackers who've seen the blockbuster are crediting it with a more subtle cinematic milestone: it's the first major motion picture to accurately portray a hack.
  • Robot cleaner hits the shops -  A robot vacuum cleaner that cleans your carpets all by itself has gone on sale in the UK.  The autonomous, cordless machine uses ultrasound to avoid obstacles and to work out the most efficient route around a room it has been set to clean.  While other firms have shown off prototype robot cleaners, Electrolux is the first to put one into production. Modelled on an ancient arthropod the Electrolux Trilobite is in stores from Friday and should cost around £999.
  • GPS implant designed for humans 'tested'  - A prototype GPS tracking device, designed to be implanted inside a person, has been successfully tested, claims its manufacturer. However, technical experts are questioning whether the system could really work. The disc-shaped "personal location device" measures 6.35 centimetres in diameter and 1.27 centimetres in depth - roughly the same size as a pace-maker.
  • 130 arrested in Net fraud crackdown - More than 130 people have been arrested as part of the latest effort by law-enforcement agencies to crack down on Internet fraud, according to the Justice Department.
  • Legal blow for DVD-copying software - Companies selling DVD-copying software received a legal blow on Thursday when a judge hearing Hollywood's case against one firm said she is "substantially persuaded" by previous cases that the software violates the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
  • IRC operators may out-hack Fizzer  - Administrators of Internet relay chat networks believe they might be able to eradicate the Fizzer virus, but the methods may run them afoul of cybercrime laws, said a legal expert Friday. Several postings on an IRC-Security list debated the merits of trying to shut the computer virus down, and one operator, QuakeNet security team member Daniel Ferguson, warned that manipulating the worm could be illegal. Despite that, he believes that several IRC operators will likely attempt to shut down the computer viruses running on PCs connected to their networks. Another article about Frizzer can be found at VuNet.
  • Samsung SGH-V200 now up for grabs - As Samsung's first camera phone, expectations are high as the SGH-V200 sees widespread availability through EUrope. Featuring a unique swivel lens and support for 40-bit polyphonic ringtones, the MMS-enabled, tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz Samsung SGH-V200 retails in the price range of £199 GBP (with contract). Thus far, it is the only phone to have a camera on the hinge of the handset, meaning that users can point the lens towards themselves and see the photograph that is being taken.
  • Links comes to Smartphone 2002 - Microsoft Game Studios and Hexacto Games yesterday announced the launch of Links Smartphone Edition at the E3 gaming expo. Bringing functionality from versions for the PC platform to the Smartphone, the game offers up ball and shot physics that factor in terrain, green conditions and wind for every shot, complete with weather conditions ranging from downpour to sunshine over a number of courses worldwide.
  • The New nForce2 Chipsets : New Or Just Retouched? - Adrian Rojak's  Pot has posted an in-depth tour on the "new" nForce2 chipsets and show you what's really new and what's not.
  • Pentax Optio 550 Camera Review - Usually, digital cameras with everything-but-the-kitchen-sink feature sets are high-priced, hard-to-use devices aimed primarily at photo-enthusiasts or technogeeks. This is not the case with the Pentax Optio 550 ($600 street). The amazing, and amazingly simple-to-use Optio 550 combines 5-megapixel resolution, an impressive 5X optical zoom lens, and excellent image quality with an array of useful features and functions packed in an elegant, compact aluminum body. The Optio 550 is a great buy that will appeal to point-and-shooters and serious amateurs who want the most bang for their bucks, along with lots of style.
  • Argus DC3810 Camera Review - Argus, a venerable American company that has been manufacturing photographic products for over 60 years, has been a minor player in the digital camera market. The company takes a good stab at changing that with the Argus DC3810 ($499 list), which is far and away the least expensive, full-featured 5-megapixel digital camera anywhere.
  • Samsung SM-352B CDRW/DVD Combo Drive Review - MonkeyReview has posted a new review of the Samsung SM-352B CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
  • Kingston Hyper-X PC3000 DDR 256Mb Memory Review - This hyper-X module runs at 370 MHz, effectively (185 x 2) DDR. This is not a standard FSB, what I mean is that in order to run this memory in synchronization with the fsb, not overclocked, @ 133, 166 and 200 for all AMD Athlon XP and Pentium 4 Proccesors. It runs at CAS 2, with very low 2-2-2-6-1 latencies, comparative with the Corsair XMS PC2700 witch runs at the same latencies.
  • Logitech Z-640 - The quality of the speakers are great considering it is a budget speaker system. It is very affordable($79.95), offering high quality and clear sound.
  • MCSE Core Exams for Free - For a limited time, beginning May 12, Microsoft will be offering two alternate versions of Microsoft Exams 70-210 and 70-215. Exams 76-210 (Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional) and 76-215 (Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Windows 2000 Server) will be offered at NO COST to candidates when they register for the exams. The 76-210 and 76-215 exams cover the same content as the standard 70-210 and 70-215 exams, but contain additional questions. Exams 76-210 and 76-215 are each four hours long, and candidates can take these special exams only once. A score report will be provided for both these exams and, if candidates pass, the exams will fully count toward Microsoft certification status. Exam 76-210 will be available May 12 - 28. The 76-215 exam will be available May 12 - June 2. (thanks Neowin.net)
  • Software mod for turning your Radeon 9500 non-Pro into a 9700 - If the softmod succeeds your card will behave exactly like a 9700 (8 pipelines, 256bit bus). Check it out.
  • PHP 4.3.2RC3 - This is the third release candidate (Win32 ~ Linux ~ buildtracker) and should have no critical problems/bugs. Nevertheless, please download and test it as much as possible on real-life applications to uncover any remaining issues.
  • DriverHeaven Driver Cleaner 1.5 - Driver Cleaner is a program which helps you to remove parts of drivers that are left after uninstalling the old drivers. The program is for ATI and Nvidia drivers.
  • A-Tuner 1.5.14.4403 - A-Tuner is a small tool for changing the following 4 settings [Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes);Anisotropic Filtering;Vsync;MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias] on your Nvidia card and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 44.03.
  • Nvidia nForce Driver 2.78 - This nForce WinXP driver package contains Audio driver 3.34 (WHQL'd), Audio utilities 3.17 and Network driver 3.13 (WHQL'd). According to the readme file, the only new stuff is the audio driver.
  • Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Driver v5.12.4186 Beta - Voyetra has released a BETA driver for the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card v5.12.4186 for Windows 98SE/ME/2k/XP.
  • Radeon Omega Drivers v3.4 - Omegadrive has released a new Radeon Omega Drivers for Win9x/ME/2k/XP based on the official Catalyst 3.4 ATI drivers. (thanks DriverHeaven)
  • Lite-On CD-RW Firmware - LiteOn have released some new CD-RW firmware updates for LTR-52246S ( 52X 24X 52X ) CD-RW,  LTR-48125W ( 48X 12X 48X ) CD-RW and LTR-40125W ( 40X 12X 48X ) CD-RW.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,16 2003 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:20 AM CEST - May,16 2003 - Post a comment
  • GBAUsers to Get Bluetooth Internet - Extremetech is reporting that X-Tra Fun has developed a Bluetooth module ($49) for the Gameboy Advance which is expected to ship by Christmas 2003.
  • Ethernet Could Soon Hit 40 Gigabits - Ethernet's top speed could hit 40 gigabits per second within the next two years, a senior Cisco Systems executive says. Developing 40GB Ethernet is a simpler technical challenge than creating a 100GB Ethernet technology, which would be the next mathematical step, according to Luca Cafiero, senior vice president and general manager of switching, voice, and storage at Cisco. In fact, 40GB Ethernet should be technically feasible within two years, he said on Wednesday in a briefing on switching at Cisco's headquarters in San Jose, California
  • Tiscali to launch Euro Sat BB service - Tiscali is hooking up with Eutelsat to provide a one-way broadband satellite service throughout 15 countries in Europe. The pan-European ISP is targeting the service - based on Eutelsat's OPENSKY platform - at home users in areas not covered by terrestrial broadband technologies. It's estimated that one in four of Europe's population - around 25 million homes - is outside the reach of cable or ADSL broadband access.
  • Intuit Abandons Product Activation - Intuit is dropping its controversial product activation policy, which drew criticism and suspicion from customers, who had to let the vendor note some basic information about their PC, tying it to their TurboTax package before they could use the software. Intuit "did not get the response we had hoped" from its single tax season of product activation, said Steve Bennett, president and chief executive officer, speaking in a conference call reporting the company's quarterly earnings.(Ed Note - I'm not surprised, they did really very big mistake with this TurboTax spyware protection also known as C-Dilla, sadly some preview copies from Empire Interactive have the same crappy protection).
  • Shirk Ethic: How to Fake A Hard Day at the Office - Check it out!
  • Matrix: Reloaded movie reviews - There are some reviews #1 / #2.
  • Neutrino beam could neutralise nuclear bombs  - A super-powered neutrino generator could in theory be used to instantly destroy nuclear weapons anywhere on the planet, according to a team of Japanese scientists. If it was ever built, a state could use the device to obliterate the nuclear arsenal of its enemy by firing a beam of neutrinos straight through the Earth. But the generator would need to be more than a hundred times more powerful than any existing particle accelerator and over 1000 kilometres wide. "It is really quite futuristic," Alfons Weber, a neutrino scientist at Oxford University, UK, told New Scientist. "But the maths and physics seems to be right."
  • Trained atoms--nanotech breakthough - Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined, in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters, a new way of harnessing neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber by sending them past laser beams tuned to a frequency that particular atoms can easily absorb. With the laser energy absorbed, the atom's energy state drops, and the atom falls into the chamber.
  • e.Digital Odyssey 1000 Review - The Odyssey 1000 ($349 list) is more similar to the iPod than different. It can play MP3 and WMA files, has 8 minutes of skip protection, and can function as an external hard drive. Its long-lasting rechargeable battery gives 11 to 12 hours of use.
  • ViewSonic NextVision 2000M Media Center Review - Windows Media Center PCs have improved since their introduction last fall, and one of the best examples is the ViewSonic NextVision 2000m Media Center ($2,000 street). The TV picture is better, the unit is small enough to fit in with your A/V gear, and the DVD-RAM/DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive is perfect for storing video to disc.
  • Samsung SyncMaster 172W 17" Widescreen TFT LCD Monitor - LCD monitors are now becoming one of the most sought after product in the computing world. Why wouldn't they? They offer so much for a small package. Because of the success, LCD monitor manufacturers are selling LCD monitors in numerous sizes, models and capability configurations to suit the ever-diverse consumer population. As of late, you can find monitors that are capable of TV viewing and various other digital applications for the home and business user. Today, we will be taking a look at a rather interesting widescreen TFT LCD monitor from Samsung. Not only can it be used as an excellent digital monitor, but also as a widescreen display for exceptional DVD viewing.
  • Solarism's LM1730 17 LCD "Flex-View" Display  - Solarism has let us know that they want to get out of the generic LCD, mass markets and concentrate on the "niche" markets, such as workstation users and gamers. If the LM-1730 was produced with this fact in mind, we can certainly say this is good move for Solarism. The LM-1730 is the most impressive LCD screen we've seen from Solarism in. well.. forever. In our opinion, it's the best flat panel they've put out as of yet, in relations to what gamers want.
  • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 256MB Video Card Review - If we sum up all highs and lows, the NV35 will be the fastest game graphics card despite the fact that it loses sometimes to the ATI's card. The NV35 does not supplement NVIDIA's current lines but replaces the failed NV30. Even NVIDIA President admits it. That is why you should forget about the NV30 and regard the NV35 as the work on errors. The codename does not agree with what there was earlier: NV*5 used to be scheduled improvement of a previous generation that brought both error corrections and speed growth, as well as improvements in the architecture. Well, on one hand, the 256bit bus is a considerable enhancement, but on the other hand, the core has few changes. Anyway, this card will be the forefront solution for mass production of cards (in High-End); the manufacturers being hungry for over a year are looking forward to any sign from NVIDIA.
  • D-Link 4-port Ethernet Broadband Router (DI-604) Review - The DI-604 is an small, easy to use router offering many features such as an advanced firewall and VPN support.
  • 3-way Canterwood comparison review -  Hexus.net has published a new review titled: 3-way Canterwood comparison.
  • Retro Hardware Nostalgia - EliteBastards let us know that they have just opened their Retro Hardware feature which is soon to be
    full of Retro Information. They have one Elite Flashback article already up on the Commodore Amiga 500.
  • Nvidia Cheating in 3DMark? - According to ExtremeTech, Nvidia may be cutting a few corners with its drivers in order to artificially inflate their 3DMark2003 scores. nVidia believes that the GeForceFX 5900 Ultra is trying to do intelligent culling and clipping to reduce its rendering workload, but that the code may be performing some incorrect operations. The company, on the other hand, again believes that the problems can be attributed to a driver bug. Read whole article at ExtremTech and you you can draw your own conclusions :P (thanks Tom)
  • Fraps 2.0 soon - Xirdnef let us know that Fraps 2.0 should be available soon. It will have some new features like recording sound, high resolution, and low/high speed because of frames are removed. However, the new version will cost some money.
  • FlashFXP 2.1.923 - FlashFXP (download) is the most powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client for Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP on the market today.
  • Logitech Gaming Software 4.25  - Logitech has released an update for their gamepad and joystick software.
  • ATI Catalyst Drivers v3.4 - ATI's reference driver download page has been updated with the latest Catalyst 3.4 videocard drivers, for WinXP/2K and Win9X/ME.
 Gameguru Mania News - May,14 2003 - tech
Afternoon Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 09:10 PM CEST - May,14 2003 - Post a comment
  • More details on "Advanced Optical Disc (AOD)" standard - This week Toshiba and and NEC have produced more details about their blue-laser format, called Advanced Optical Disc (AOD), a standard that could increase the minimum capacity of a single-layer, single-sided read-only optical disc to about 15GB. The current capacity of a comparable "red-laser" DVD disc is 4.7GB of data. For dual-layer and dual-sided discs, AOD capacity borders on 40GB, reports say. The technology works by using shorter wavelength blue-violet lasers to read and write data on discs. The two firms presented details of the technology at the Optical Data Storage 2003 conference in Vancouver, Canada.
  • Microsoft Tries To Close the Lid on iLoo - The iLoo was to be built with a high-speed Wi-Fi connection, a wireless keyboard, and an adjustable flat-panel display at an appropriate height for seated browsers.  It seems Microsoft cannot flush away the iLoo controversy. After a press release from MSN UK announced the launch of an Internet-enabled portable toilet to debut in Britain this summer, Microsoft reversed itself and said the announcement was a hoax. Now the software giant has reversed itself again, explaining that the so-called "iLoo" was indeed a real project planned by its British MSN online service. But after the idea was met with howls of derision, the company decided to scuttle it.
  • IBM shows off new mainframe computer code-named after dinosaur: T-Rex - The system, officially called the IBM eServer zSeries 990 but code-named T-Rex, is mainly targeted at financial services and other industries that require security, reliability and computing horsepower. System prices start at $1 million US. But customers who only occasionally need such capabilities won't have to buy their machine. IBM also is deploying z990s at its data centres as part of the company's "on-demand" computing strategy.
  • San Francisco court will decide on legality of DVD back-up software - Tomorrow will be an important day since on this day a federal court will consider the legality of software (DVDXCopy and XPRESS) that enables users to back-up DVD discs.
  • AMD Opteron in the Army Now - Super Computer, Inc. (SCI) will unveil world's first AMD Opteron Processor-Based Cluster featuring U.S. Army's "Americas Army Game" at the 2003 E3.
  • Nvidia set to up GeForce FX 5600 speeds - Nvidia is preparing to boost the performance of its GeForce FX 5600 graphics chip. The GeForce FX 5600 Ultra core currently clocks at 350MHz, the same as its memory clock frequency. However, both speeds will soon be raised to 400MHz, in the form of the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra, the company said. The current Ultra has a memory bandwidth of 11.2GBps. With the memory clock increase, that figure will rise to 12.8GBps. Upping the core clock to 400MHz, should boost the part's fill rate from 1.4 billion texels per second to 1.6 billion.
  • Western Digital WD2500JB 250GB (7200RPM) Review - The new WD2500JB is their latest and biggest drive for the performance desktop PC. Spinning at 7200RPM, Western Digital has managed to squeeze as much as 80GB of data into a single platter. The WD2500JB uses three of these disk platters to make up the full 250GB of its capacity and it represents the industry's biggest hard drive based on the 7200RPM spindle speed. For those who constantly run out of hard drive storage space, the WD2500JB is truly the only drive available today that will satisfy the hunger for more capacity.
  • TwinMOS Dual Channel PC3200 Review - Viper's Lair has posted a review of TwinMOS Dual Channel PC3200.
  • Innovatek Innovaset 2 Liquid Cooling kit Review - As you can see from the results, the Innovatek muscled out the competition in our testing. The only place it could have done better was in the ambient tests while the system was idle. The system ran very quiet with the kit installed and that in itself is a bonus in my eyes. In all, I was able to push my AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (2.1GHz) all the way up to 2.45 GHz which is our best OC yet. I imagine someone with better oc ing skills could push on for a bit better result. I should note, the temps for under load (prime 95) hung around 113 degrees Fahrenheit while at this speed.
  • IOSS Bios Saviour Review - Ever flashed your BIOS before? If you are anything like us its for sure you have done it at least once, if not dozens of times, either because of CPU compatibility issues or just because you want to keep up with the latest release from your motherboard manufacturer in hope of getting some extra tweak-ability. Now what would happen if the flashing process failed for any reason? You know this may happen to you, but this time it happened to me, I was left alone in the cold with a corrupt BIOS and no possible way of booting. While looking for a simple solution to my problem I came across the RD1 BIOS Saviour from IOSS, its a sort of backup device for your BIOS. Read on to learn more about this product.
  • Recording Vinyl records to mp3 or WAV - This article will show you how to convert your vinyl collection to CD or mp3 format.
    Nvidia Launches nZone - nZoneThe (Flash req) currently offers wallpapers, screensavers, videos, some game demos. Among the videos is an interesting Doom III - Making (6minutes).
  • PlexTools Professional v2.02 - Plextor Japan has released the PlexTools Professional software on their website. They also offer an Activating SecuViewer to allow you see the contents of SecuRec burned discs without the PlexWriter Premium.
  • DirectX 9.0 SDK v4.09.00.1058 July Beta1 - This release contains new versions of the D3DX library (17th April - v4.09.00.1058). The new features contained are support for shader model 2.0 with capability bits on, and new animation system updates. The support for shader model 2 allows the High-Level Shader Language (HLSL) to enable flow control via predication to reduce the amount of instructions needed to run advanced shaders. For information on the what is supported in shader model 2.0, refer to the DirectX 9.0 SDK reference documentation. The animation system adds functionality for looping, callback functions, event quering, and more advanced animation cloning functionality. (thanks Neowin.net)
  • VIA Onboard Sound Driver v3.50c - For customers of the VIA Six-TRAC (VT1616 Codec) the VIA Stylus driver (relnotes) integrates that latest Sensaura technology to realize a new level of audio performance and functionality. Sensaura technology is designed to enhance the industry standard Microsoft DirectSound3D API, allowing game players to experience their games with high quality audio in three dimensions. For VIA AC97 codecs incorporated into the VT8231,VT82C686A, VT82C686B, VT8233, VT8233A, VT8233C, VT8235 and VT8237 southbridges.
Detonator FX Drivers (v44.03) WHQL - tech
(hx) 07:21 PM CEST - May,14 2003 - Post a comment / read (4)
As promised last week, the official Detonator FX Drivers (WinXP/2k ~ Win9x/ME) are available for download from NVIDIA drivers page. They are WHQL certified and are tagged as version 44.03.
Features:
  • Delivers an incredible 30% increase in performance over previous Detonator 40 drivers**
  • The industries only true Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) - supports over five generations of NVIDIA GPUs - from TNT to GeForce FX -all in a single driver binary
  • The industry's best Microsoft DirectX 9 support
  • Ultimate "The Way It's Meant to be Played" experience
  • nView 2.0 multi-display technology increases productivity and provides the necessary tools to control the way users access and view applications.
  • NVRotate enabling image rotation on today's advanced flat panel displays.
  • NVKeystone allows for real-time image correction on portable projectors and heads-up displays.
  • Digital Vibrance Control 3.0 allows users to adjust color controls to achieve accurate, bright colors under all conditions.

    • * 44.03 is WHQL Certified for the GeForce FX family of GPUs ** Performance results based upon GeForce FX 5600 Ultra running UnrealTournament 2003 Antalus flyby.
     Gameguru Mania News - May,13 2003 - tech
    Pre-E3 Tech Madness - tech
    (hx) 05:19 PM CEST - May,13 2003 - Post a comment
    • E3: No Xbox price cut, no redesign, but lotsa games on show - Rumours of a price cut and a hardware redesign failed to materialise at Microsoft's Xbox conference in Los Angeles on Monday night, with the company focusing attention instead on its forthcoming software line-up.
    • E3: Xbox sings a new tune  - Microsoft announced the first nongame application for its Xbox video game console Monday and touted a handful of high-profile games intended to boost the system's cachet among hardcore players. The unveiling of the Xbox Music Mixer was the most striking announcement at the company's press conference held in advance of the E3 trade show here. The $40 package, set to go on sale this fall, will include PC and Xbox software that will allow owners to transfer digital music and photos from their computer to the console's hard drive.
    • LG.Philips LCD interview, part 2 - DigiTimes has posted the second part of an interview conducted on March 18, 2003 at the headquarters of LG.Philips LCD in Seoul, Korea.
    • Office 2003 Adds SMS - A Swedish mobile messaging company's software will be offered for integration into Microsoft Office 2003, allowing users to send SMS (Short Message Service) messages from Microsoft Outlook.
    • Intel reveals Itanium 2 glitch - Intel disclosed an electrical problem Monday that can cause computers using its flagship Itanium 2 processor to behave erratically or crash. Customers can sidestep the problem by setting the processor to run at a lower speed, said company spokeswoman Barbara Grimes, and Intel will replace the processor if customers want. The glitch affects only some chips, and then only in the case of "a specific set of operations in a specific sequence with specific data," Grimes said.
    • 875P chip set offers an 800-MHz bus but little performance boost, for now - Intel's new 875P chip set provides Pentium 4 PCs with an 800-MHz frontside bus and dual-channel DDR400 SDRAM memory--but we saw little performance gain over an older chip set in our lab tests of three of the first new systems, except in a few very demanding applications like AutoCAD. Previously, high-end P4 systems used a 533-MHz frontside bus and RDRAM memory. Note that Intel has also released a 3-GHz P4 to match the new bus.
    • Darpa takes on optical interconnects challenges - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is overseeing development of optical interconnects that will be able to achieve 1,000 times the speed per power and volume of electronic interconnects. High-end supercomputing clusters linked by high-speed networks are already in the 10-teraflops range and supercomputer makers have petaflops designs under development. But what Darpa needs is a teraflops computer in a small, rugged form factor that can be inserted into a variety of military equipment.
    • AMD introduces Athlon XP Processor 3200+ - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on May 13 introduced its 2.2GHz Athlon XP processor 3200+, the first in the series to feature a 400MHz FSB (front-side bus). The company claims the processor boasts a 6% performance advantage over "its closest competitor" on a variety of industry-standard software benchmarks.In over 1,000-unit quantities the CPU will cost $464. (Prices for 3000+ and below models were cut on May 6). AMD already launched shipments of its Athlon XP 3200+ along with North American and European system builders offering their products. We await more info to arrive throughout the day, so stay tuned. Another articles can be found at CNET and AMDBoard.
    • VIA pledges support for AMD's 400MHz FSB - VIA has said today that its upcoming Apollo KT600 and UniChrome KM400A chipsets will support the AMD Athlon XP 3200+'s 400MHz frontside bus. The KT600 supports 400MHz DDR SDRAM, matching the FSB's 3.2GBps throughput. It also supports AGP 8x. When supplied with VIA's VT8237 South Bridge, the chipset provides up to eight USB 2.0 ports, dual-channel Serial ATA with RAID 0, 1 and 0+1, and support for up to four ATA-133 devices. Six-channel audio, 10/100Mbps Ethernet and a 56Kbps modem are built in too.
    • AMD Athlon XP3200+ review  - The interesting thing for me with this processor launch is that it indicates the performance level of 2 pretty much unrelated AMD setups that aren't XP3200+. Firstly, the advent of lower clocked Athlon XP's with the overclocking headroom to get right up here means that XP3200+ at 2.2GHz (11 x 200) on a 200MHz front side bus means you can tell where your freshly bought XP1700+ JUIHB is going to be at 11.5 x 200 (mind that extra cache remember). 2.3GHz is a not unreasonable clock to obtain these days. AMD wont like me for saying that very much but even they'll admit that the low end demand makes more bank for them than these high end models, even if margins are better up here in the performance clouds. Another reviews can be fount at GamersDepot, THG, HotHardware, X-bit labs, Amdmb.com, Sudhian Media, AMDWorld, The Tech Report, UK Gamer, and LostCircuits.
    • NVidia's 5900 FX Chip Tests - PC World tests found notable performance differences in games only at higher resolutions. At 1280 by 1024, the 5900 FX Ultra boosted games like Serious Sam 2 and Unreal Tournament 2002 (UT) by just 3 to 5 frames per second over a 5800FX Ultra-based card. Only at 1600 by 1200 does the 5900 pull noticeably ahead of the 5800, though still by 11 to 14 frames per second. (We tested the FX 5900 card with an early version of the driver.)
    • nVidia Takes On ATI-Again - PC Magazine Labs tested the nVidia GeForceFX 5900 Ultra against the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.
    • NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra (NV35) Overclocking - The maximum frequencies when the card still worked stably equaled 490MHz for the core and 900MHz (450MHz DDR) for the memory. Compared with the nominal frequencies in 3D mode - 450MHz/850MHz (425MHz DDR), this result is more than modest: the frequency grew up by only 8.9% for the graphics core and 5.9% for the graphics memory.
    • GeForceFX 5900 Ultra / Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB - One article, two new video cards. NVIDIA's GeForceFX 5900 Ultra. ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB. Head to head IQ and Performance!
    • Intel 3.06Ghz Pentium 4 CPU Review - With a brand new chipset, no doubt that this new CPU has shown its power rvrn in the lack of an appropriate version of Windows Application Accellerator. Even if all the users will not chose to set a RAID 0 array on their system, this CPU will continue to offer impressive performances on all activities not heavily relying on disk usage.  Having already demonstrated brilliant performances during our test of the former 3.06Ghz P4, thie new edition of this CPU continues to impress et will sure not deceive all it future buyers.
    • P4 2.4B-2.4C with 865PE-875P vs AXP 2500+ with nForce2 - There you have it. For the time being, Intel's simply got AMD on the ropes. The 865PE is cool, but 875P paired with an 800 FSB proc is phenomenal. This new chipset just feels like something bigger and better, and it is. AMD's game is it's bargain...in fact, if one were to go AMD with the thought of overclocking, I'd tell 'em to just grab one of their $50 Thoroughbreds, and go to town. That's AMD's clear advantage...but unfortunately, it's also really hurting their bottom line as a company.  So outside of the cost advantage of low-end Athlon overclocking, it's all 875P and the 800 FSB Pentium 4's.
    • Logitech MX-500 Review - Logitech claims that this MX optical engine is the best in the industry, and I have to agree - the MX-500 is smooth and precise. It is much more sensitive than the Explorer, which allows you to hit a smaller target much more quickly in your games, or highlight much better in Photoshop. Not to say that the Explorer isn't good optical mouse, it is much better than many of the optical mice I have used and blows away any ball mouse.
    • MadLights Case Lighting - The MadLights unit is without a doubt the coolest pre-packaged case lighting product on the market right now. With 16 programs available in 5 speed settings each, nothing else even comes close. Installation was solid without compromising your ability to remove the unit at your leisure. The long ribbon cables with two banks of lights each make it easy to create effects at will. The construction quality likewise seemed top rate. The only downside to the MadLights unit was the price. $59 seems a bit steep.
    • Chieftec Matrix Series Pc Case Review - Ascully takes a look at the Matrix series of cases, in particular, the MTX-C Midi Tower with clear side panel. Neo and Trinity would be proud.
    • Modding the Barton XP to a Barton MP  - There you have it, the Barton XP can indeed be modded to run in a dual processor board. As we've mentioned, it's only possible with certain motherboards and BIOS revisions. Since we did not have the luxury to test every single AMD 760MPX motherboards for compatibility, we can only verify at this point of time that the MSI K7D Master is possibly the only verified candidate for this modding.
    • VR-Zone's OC Databases Updated - P4 "Northwood" Overclocking  ~ Athlon XP "Thoroughbred" Overclocking  ~ Athlon XP "Barton" Overclocking
    • The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Revision 7.7 - Adrian's Rojak Pot just let us know he has posted the new REVISION 7.7 BIOS OPTIMIZATION GUIDE with six new BIOS options. Covering a total of 196 BIOS options, this is the most comprehensive guide to BIOS tweaking... until the next revision, that is. :) Here is the list of new or updated BIOS options : 32-bit Transfer Mode, CPU VCore Voltage, DRAM Ratio (CPU:DRAM), DRAM Ratio H/W Strap, No Mask of SBA FE and Synchronous Mode Select.
    • Budget Buyers Guide - Budget Buyers GuideRipnet has posted a Budget Buyers Guide (UK).
    • GeForce FX 5900 Ultra Demos & Videos - Oh yeah - check out this page!
    • Zoom Player 3.1 Beta 1 - Zoom Player (download ~ changelog) provides special zooming functions to improve TV-Output quality by eliminating overscan. Zoom Player's scaling system allows you to exactly match the video area to your screen's dimensions in real-time with adjustable background color in order to test for brightness bleeds.
    • Codename: Dashboard 1.1 Beta 11 - Dashboard is an application that resides at the side of your screen, similar to the "Sidebar" component shown in the Longhorn video.
    • TVTool 7.1 Beta -  A new beta version of TV Tool (download) has been released. This is the program that enables your video card TV-Output and seems to be the best external one.
    • BootXP 2.50 RC1 - A new version of BootXP is out. This new version features full compatibility with Service Pack 2 NTOSKRNL (Version 2.1.2600.1150).
    • YahooPOPs! 0.4.5 - YahooPOPs! (download) is an open-source initiative to provide free POP3 access to your Yahoo! Mail
    • WinZip 9.0 beta build 5480 -  WinZip (what's new in Winzip 9.0) features built-in support CAB files and for popular Internet file formats such as TAR, gzip, UUencode, BinHex, and MIME. ARJ, LZH, and ARC files are supported via external programs. Improvements in WinZip 9.0 concentrate on its core functionality: compression, capacity, and a new, advanced data encryption capability. Using WinZip 9.0, you can compress more data, compress it better, and protect your sensitive documents with far greater security.
    • K-Lite Codec Pack 2.03 Final - The K-Lite Codec Pack contains everything you need to be able to playback the most popular audio and video formats. The basic version contains all the codecs that are needed for playing most movies that can be downloaded from the Internet. The full version has some extra codecs which are used less often and includes a media player. It is strongly recommended to uninstall older versions prior to installing; this is to keep your system clean and tidy and to avoid any possible conflicts.
    • Nvidia Detonator v44.03 Win2k/XP BETA -NvMax offers a new beta detonators for your download and testing pleasure. This driver supports the upcoming NV35 card. Files within the archive are dated May 11, 2003.
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