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Gameguru Mania News - Mar,01 2003 - tech

Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 11:24 PM CET - Mar,01 2003 - Post a comment

Nuclear bunker busters come under scrutiny - The controversial Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP) programme has been awarded $15 million development funding in 2002, with the same amount likely in 2003. But a new clause attached to the funding calls for the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to investigate what effect any use of the weapon would have. The RNEP would be designed to plunge 30 metres or more into the ground before detonating a nuclear warhead. This would make it far more effective against buried targets, say advocates, who claim that it will produce less fallout than airburst nuclear weapons.
China gets a look through Windows - Software giant Microsoft has agreed to show China's government the underlying source code for its Windows software in an attempt to assuage official concerns about the integrity of its computer operating systems. The announcement was made Friday during a visit to Beijing by company Chairman Bill Gates, who said Microsoft was intent on providing the "maximum level of cooperation" in assuring governments of network security.
ISONEWS Returns After Piracy Crackdown - A public Internet site that offered information on the underground software piracy scene was back online Thursday, only days after it was "seized" by the Department of Justice. Now, the ISONews.com site has reappeared at a new domain, stolemy.com, registered to a Tim Dorr. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
Samsung Shrinks Optical Drives - Samsung Electronics has developed an optical disc drive for notebook computers that is 25 percent thinner than existing drives, and also lighter and more efficient, according to the company. The new drive, which is now available to notebook PC makers, is .3 inches high compared to .5 inches in most current notebook computer drives. Samsung said it weighs 5.1 ounces, roughly 35 percent less than most current drives and also features a power-saving mode that can cut power consumption by around 20 percent over current drives.
Casio Unveils Better Cell Phone Security - Casio Computer and Alps Electric have developed a small fingerprint scanner built into a short, thin cylinder for use in cellular telephones and other portable devices. The cylinder, 0.2 inches in diameter and 0.6 inches long, contains a sensor, light, and lens. When users roll their fingers over the device, it can produce an 8-level monochrome fingerprint image at 600 dots per inch resolution, the two companies said in a joint statement. To demonstrate the device, the companies built it into a prototype cellular telephone handset.
IDC Finds that Broadband Adoption Will Drive Internet Traffic Growth - IDC predicts that the volume of Internet traffic generated by end users worldwide will nearly double annually over the next five years, increasing from 180 petabits per day in 2002 to 5,175 petabits per day by the end of 2007. To put these figures into perspective, the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress amounts to only 10 terabytes of information. By 2007, IDC expects Internet users will access, download, and share the information equivalent of the entire Library of Congress more than 64,000 times over, every day.
NTL customers not 'tech' enough to grasp BB cap - NTL decided not to inform its customers about its decision to cap its broadband service because it didn't think they were "'tech' enough to understand". You can visit Don't Pay NTL to find more info about it :) This is kinda old news but that doesn't matter. (thanks Gary Di Girolamo)
EU sets jail terms for hackers - Computer hackers and virus spreaders could be jailed for five years in serious cases under new laws approved by European Union justice ministers Friday. The new law seeks to harmonize existing national rules in the 15-nation European Union, where there are vast gaps in laws.
Win2k3 RTM postponed to March 19 - Windows Server 2003 Build 3778, built last week and originally intended for Escrow and RTM, did not make it. A small flaw was found and the Microsoft development team together with JDP's decided to give it all a few more days (builds). Current build to be targeted for Escrow is build 3780, finished this morning. (thanks WinXP.Bink.Nu).
Game Controller Roundup - The keyboard is also not the most ergonomic of devices and in games there are certain positions your hand has to make that aren't really ideal. In a perfect world it would be nice to have a smaller device which can perform a range of functions without having to move your hands around much and have all the buttons easily accessible. This brings me neatly to the reasoning behind this article, to compare and evaluate 3 controllers that aim to do this from Belkin, Thrustmaster and Ferraro.
XFree86 4.3.0 - The latest version of XFree86, 4.3.0, has been released. The XFree86 Project, Inc is the organization which produces XFree86t, a freely redistributable open-source implementation of the X Window System. XFree86 runs primarily on UNIX(R) and UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux, all of the BSD variants, Sun Solaris x86, Mac OS X (via Darwin), as well as other platforms like OS/2 and Cygwin.
UltraEdit 10.00a - UltraEdit is a text editor with support for unlimited file sizes, a spell checker, drag and drop, full HEX editing capabilities, user configurable syntax highlighting, column editing, sorting, and a configurable toolbar.
Maxon CineBench 2003 - CINEBENCH 2003 is a free benchmarking tool for Windows and Mac OS based on the powerful 3D software CINEMA 4D R8. The tool is set to deliver accurate benchmarks by testing not only a computer's raw processing speed but also all other areas that affect system performance such as OpenGL, multithreading, multiprocessors and Intel's new HT Technology.
TVTool 6.8.4.4 - A new version 6.8.4.4 of TV Tool (download) has been released. The tool helps with the TV ouput of Nvidia graphic cards. The main problem is the black borders around the picture on the TV screen. They are very annoying for most applications like e.G. DVD-playback.
Fresh UI 5.40 - Fresh UI 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.
Nero 5.5.10.15 - 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).
PNY's NVIDIA Detonator Drivers 43.00 - The Detonator 43.00 (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP ~ WinNT4) - is a reference driver set that supports all Nvidia cards to date. It is a multilanguage release, includes a setup routine and is dated February 13th, 2003.
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! Drivers - Creative is pleased to announce the availability of the latest Sound Blaster Live! Driver update. This update contains optimized support for Windows 2000 and XP, and is designed for use with all versions of the Sound Blaster Live!
Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 / Dynamic Edge 4.1 Drivers - Philips has released new drivers for their Sonic and Dynamic Edge soundcards.
Matrox drivers 5.88.061 - Matrox released PowerDesk drivers package version 5.88.061 for Windows 2000/XP for the following graphic cards: G550, G450 MMS, G450, G400, G200 MMS, G200 MMS with TV Tuner, Millennium G200, Mystique G200.

Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 06:10 PM CET - Mar,01 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)

Storage - IBM/Hitachi Deskstar 180GXP HDD | Seagate Barracuda SATA V HDD | Seagate Barracuda V 120GB Serial ATA HDD || Highpoint RocketRAID 1542 eSATA/SATA Adapter(1) | Highpoint Rocket RAID 1542(2) | Silicon Image Serial ATA Sil 3112 Controller || Asus CRW-5224A CD-RW | Lite-On LTR-52246S 52/24/52 CD-RW | Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM | Philips DVDRW228 DVD+R/RW | Plextor PlexCombo USB Drive | Plextor PX-W4012TS CD-RW | Samsung SM-348 CD-RW || Bonzai USB Drive | Pen Drive 2GB | Transcend JetFlash Thumb-Drive 64MB | Transcend 128MB 30x CompactFlash

Video - Albatron Ti4200-8X(1) | Albatron GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(2) | Albatron Ti-4280PV GeForce4 Ti4200-8X | Albatron GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(1) | Albatron GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(2) | Albatron Medusa GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(1) | Albatron Medusa GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(2) | Gainward GeForce4 Ti4600-8X | MadDog Multimedia Raptor GeForce4 Ti4200 | Mercury KOB N884L GeForce4 MX440 | MSI GeForce4 Ti4200/Ti4600-8X | MSI GeForce4 Ti4600-8X | nVidia GeForce FX 5800 Ultra 128MB | PointOfView GeForce4 Ti4200-8X | XFX GeForce4 Ti4200-8X || ATi Remote Wonder | ATi Radeon 9700 Pro | BulletPC Modded Radeon 9500 To 9700 | Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro | Hercules 3D Prophet 9500 Pro | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9700 Pro(1) | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9700 Pro(2) | Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro(3) | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 Pro | 3Dlabs Wildcat VP560 / VP970

Network - D-Link Dual-Mode Wireless Networking

Printer/Scanner - Canon i70 Color Bubble Jet Printer | Epson Perfection 3200 Photo Scanner

Miscelanous -

Notebook, Camera, MP3 players -

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,28 2003 - tech

Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:53 PM CET - Feb,28 2003 - Post a comment

Microsoft, EA reportedly mull bids for Sega - Microsoft and Electronic Arts are separately exploring the possibility of buying all or part of Japanese video-game maker Sega, according to a published report.

Intel To Overhaul PC With "Grantsdale" Chipset - Grantsdale will likely be Intel's most significant chipset revision in almost a decade, hearkening back to chipsets like the Opti 4165 and Intel Saturn, which helped usher in the PCI bus in 1995; and the Intel 440LX, Intel's first AGP-enabled chipset, which launched in 1997. Meanwhile, Intel's OEMs have asked the company for its "Granite Peak" initiative, which limits the number of driver revisions to one every six months, making the launch of each new chipset even more significant. According to a confidential Intel roadmap obtained by ExtremeTech, the Grantsdale chipset will support the LGA 775 socket used by the Tejas processor. More importantly, the chipset will also serve as a transition between the Tejas and Prescott processors, supporting both. The chipset will support both a 533-MHz and 800-MHz front-side bus, although Prescott's 800-MHz bus will be approximately six to nine months old at the time.

Nintendo may use Matrix's 3D memory - Nintendo has invested $15 million in Matrix Semicondcutors Inc., which has developed a non-volatile 3D memory, Matrix said this week. As an alternative memory for mask ROM on the Game Boy platform, 3D memory will have to compete less expensive memories such as P2ROM supplied by Oki Electric Co., Ltd.

ATI to Launch R350 and RV350 Within Next 30 Days! - During the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium ATI Technologies' Vice President of Engineering, Dr. Dave Rolston, who is based just near the headquarters of the arch-rival NVIDIA Corporation in Santa Clara, California, confirmed that the company intends to launch its high-end R350 and mainstream RV350 graphics processors within the next 30 days.

RV280 is Radeon 9200 - According to TheInquirer, ATI recently renamed its Radeon 8500 generation of cards, codenamed R250, to Radeon 9100. This is not the first time either. ATI did a similar thing when they renamed the original Radeon to Radeon 7200 while back.

Samsung Syncmaster 191n 19" TFT LCD Monitor Review - The unit sports some relatively decent specs, 25ms response which seems to be the norm these days. We see a 500:1 contrast ratio and a brightness level of 250cd/m2. The contrast ratio seems to be the only real change between the 171n and the 191n in terms of screen performance. With that said, the only real difference between the two is the larger screen area, a better contrast ratio, and a few additional features which we will discuss next.

Nvidia CEO Huang Jen-hsun Interview - Digitimes.com has posted an interview with Nvidia CEO Huang Jen-hsun, as he talks about GeForce FX chips.

3DGPU Editorial: The Pipeline Controversy - There's been a lot of confusion and controversy within the last few days regarding the architecture and number of pipelines on the GeForce FX chip. Both Beyond3D and Tech-Report got in-depth and technical on the matter as well. Head on over to 3DGPU's article to read what NVIDIA had to say and what they feel.

Plasma TVs Explained - Designtechnica gives an in-depth look at how plasma televisions operate and how they are different than traditional CRT televisions.

DDR RAM Guide II - Overlockers New Zealand has updated their DDR RAM Guide II with new entries from Corsair (Twinx PC3200), Samsung, and V-Data.

WinXP Patch: Hibernation Problem On Computers With 1 GB Of RAM - This update addresses the "Hibernation Problem on Computers with 1 GB of RAM" issue in Windows XP, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article 330909.

WinXP Patch: You Cannot Create a Network Connection After You Restore - If you install Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP and then use the System Restore feature to restore Windows to a state before the installation of the service pack, you may experience the following symptoms: You cannot create a remote access or Dial-Up Networking connection. All items on the "Network Connection" page of the New Connection Wizard are unavailable (dimmed). The Network Connections folder is empty. The Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) and Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) services do not start because of a dependency failure.

PowerArchiver 2002 8.1 - PowerArchiver is the ultimate archive utility for the Windows family of products. With a modern easy-to-use interface, PowerArchiver provides support for most compressed and encoded files, as well as access to many powerful features and tools.

Sonique2 Alpha 2.03.02.27 - An updated build of the second alpha of Sonique2 has been released.

foobar2000 v0.53 - foobar2000 (download) is a media player from Peter Pawlowski (guy who used to work on Winamp3). It uses a plain and simple UI - no skins, no fuss. While in playback mode, it approximately consumes less than 2MB of RAM.

NetCaptor 7.1.0 Beta 3 - The small IE based browser NetCaptor has been updated to version 7.1.0 Beta 3.

XviD Codec Build 24.02.2003.1100 - For those who missed it, there is latest stable build (changelog).

Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series Codecs - Windows Media Audio and Video 9 Series codecs (direct download link) are automatically downloaded by Windows Media Player 7.1 and Windows Media Player for Windows XP, but to get the ultimate experience, you should download Windows Media Player 9 Series for playing, and Windows Media Encoder 9 Series for creating new content.

CPUFSB 2.2.11 - CPUFSB is a small version of CPUCooL. It is for changing the FrontSideBus only. So you have a small tool only one of the the most important freatures of CPUCooL.

Lite-On LTR-48125W Firmware - Lite-on has released a new CD-RW firmware update for the following drive: LTR-48125W ( 48X/12X/48X ) R48VS0B which Solve the recorded DivX files' playback problem.
Nvidia WDM Driver v1.23 - A new Nvidia WDM driver 1.23 is available. This file is required for VIVO and Personal Cinema functionality with Nvidia display adapters.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,27 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:57 AM CET - Feb,27 2003 - Post a comment / read (9)

iSONEWS Busted - The US Department of Justice has seized the ISOnews web site, which was a kind of bible for the discerning software copier, and is turning it into a repository of anti-piracy propaganda. The site's remarkable switch of role stems from the sale of Xbox mod chips, in violation of the DMCA. David Rocci, 22, of Blacksburg, Va, handed over the domain, iSONews.com, in plea bargaining, after pleading guilty to "conspiring to import, market and sell circumvention devices known as modification (or "mod") chips in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act". Rocci imported 450 Enigmah chips illegally from the UK and sold them through the site for approx $28,000. For this crime, Rocci could face a fine of up to $500,000 and 5-years in prison. (Here is DoJ PR and yet another article at YahooNews)
Software Pirates Feel the Sting - Singapore police netted their biggest-ever haul of pirated software and music CDs in an island-wide raid, arresting 17 people and seizing $973,600 worth of goods, authorities said. Police in the strictly controlled city-state confiscated more than 124,000 pirated compact discs containing games, software and music during a three-hour raid on 10 shops and an apartment. More arrests are expected.
Cryptome Hacked - Cryptome.org was hacked yesterday (February 25) and all files on the site deleted. A message on the site says the files will be restored later today.
New York Chooses Plan for Spire, Pit at WTC Site - A towering spire that would be among the world's tallest structures was selected on Wednesday to restore New York's skyline where the World Trade Center once stood, an official source familiar with the decision said. The plan by Libeskind, who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin, calls for a tower 1,776 feet high -- symbolizing the year of U.S. independence -- topped with a garden-filled spire.
NASA starts countdown to Mars mission - Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said final preparations were underway with one "exploration rove" arriving at Cape Canaveral this week and the second due in three weeks. He said the rovers, which are the size of an office desk, were set to be launched on May 30 and June 25, piggy-backing on two rockets then parachuting down to Mars in January in an air-bag cushioned landing.
NASA says last goodbye to Pioneer 10 - NASA has finally said goodbye to Pioneer 10, a spacecraft launched more than 30 years ago and that has already travelled 12.2 billion kilometres from Earth. A final, very weak signal was received from the distant probe on 22 January. Since then, attempts to reach Pioneer 10 through NASA's Deep Space Network have proven unsuccessful and NASA now says no more attempts are planned.
Hacking the Matrix - The wait is over. After four long years, the highly anticipated videogame based on The Matrix franchise is about to hit store shelves for all platforms at once. Directors Larry and Andy Wachowski and Shiny Entertainment serve up a driving, fighting, and adventure shooter so engrossing you may begin to believe that life on Earth is nothing more than an elaborate facade.
Lite-On IT and Sony form strategic alliance - The two companies were said to be cooperating on developing DVD-Dual chipsets, scheduled for launch in the second quarter. These highly integrated chipsets combine support for the DVD+RW and DVD-RW standards and could help DVD-Dual optical drives/players become mainstream products.
Sony sued over alleged DVD defects - faces class action - Sony is facing class action in a Californian courts as several of its customers had troubles with DVD players. The defects all showed up just a while after the warranty was voided and repair of the devices would cost about $175.
Overclocking Poses Risks to PDAs - Several software companies have developed small programs that allow handheld users who crave pure performance to run their processor's clock speed faster than advertised. Just because something can be done, however, doesn't mean it should, according to analysts. Two applets, XScaleCtrl from Wibble-wobble.com and Clear Speed from Revolutionary Software Front, let users adjust the speed of their processor from 100 MHz to 500 MHz simply by downloading a piece of software and clicking a few buttons. XScaleCtrl is available for $3.50 on the Handango.com Web site, which sells handheld-related products.
Desktop replacement features a speedy P4 CPU - Dell Computer will soon introduce an Inspiron notebook with a 2.8-GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor to U.S. customers, a Dell spokeperson confirmed Wednesday. The Inspiron 5100 will be available with 2.4-GHz, 2.53-GHz, 2.66-GHz, and 2.8-GHz processors in the United States in a matter of days, the spokeperson said. It is currently available to customers in Britain on Dell's U.K. Web site. A base configuration with the 2.4-GHz Pentium 4 chip will cost about $1200, but information about the rest of the base features of the U.S. model won't be available until the product is launched, she said.
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX Review - Creative's latest Audigy 2, the Platinum eX (which we'll just call the EX from here on out), is a product that endeavors to cover a lot of ground: DVD-Audio, FireWire, Dolby Digital EX, THX certification, two wavetable synthesizers, DirectSound3D/EAX 2.0 support, and 6-in/6-out hard-disk recording to name the most prominent features
Microsoft tunes P2P for Windows - The software giant on Wednesday unveiled a beta, or testing version, of the Windows XP Peer-to-Peer Software Development Kit. The programming tools are designed to let software providers or corporate developers more easily build peer-to-peer applications on top of Windows XP. Peer-to-peer applications, popularized by file-swapping services such as Napster and Kazaa, allow individual desktop PC users to share information directly, instead of going through a centralized server to disseminate data.
Ad-Blockers and Adrian's Rojak Pot - Adrian's Rojak Pot just posted an important editorial about "Ad-Blockers and Adrian's Rojak Pot". This editorial talks about the threat our site is facing from ad-blockers and how we intend to deal with it. There's also a poll that we are running in which we hope our visitors will let us know which advertising scheme they think our site should have.
Nethack 3.4.1 Released. - NetHack 3.4 is an enhancement to the dungeon exploration game NetHack. It is a distant descendent of Rogue and Hack, and a direct descendent of NetHack 3.3.
CPUCooL 7.1.10 - CPUCooL version 7.1.10 (download) has been released. What is CPUCool? CPUCooL is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards.
MySQL 4.0.11 Gamma - MySQL 4.0.11-gamma (changelog) has been released.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,26 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:30 AM CET - Feb,26 2003 - Post a comment / read (3)

First GeForce FX Cards Shipping - BFG Technologies, Inc. announced today that it has begun shipping the Asylum GeForce FX 5800 Ultra to fulfill the orders of customers who pre-purchased the product from Best Buy between January 15 and February 9, 2003.
Inside Windows-Update - When the user selects to list the available updates, Windows Update does not only transfer data from the Microsoft server to the user's computer. A few kilobytes of data are also transfered in the opposite direction from the user's computer to the Microsoft server. This is what we are interested in, but unfortunately the data is transmitted through an encrypted SSL connection and therefore cannot be examined with a network packet analyzer.
Roxio Aims to Revive Napster Service - Roxio Inc., which bought Napster's name and intellectual property for $5 million at a November bankruptcy sale, said it is in discussions with the five major music labels to provide content for the online service. Best known for its CD-creation and digital media software, Roxio also hired Napster founder Shawn Fanning this month as a consultant to the service.
DVD+RW Alliance Gets Microsoft Boost - The DVD+RW Alliance announced Monday that Microsoft has become its newest member, and will join the Alliance's Executive and Steering Committee. Microsoft previously committed to supporting the DVD+R and DVD+RW rewriteable DVD format in Longhorn, the next Windows version, last April during the WinHEC 2002 trade show, but company executives told me at the time that Microsoft would support other recordable DVD formats as well, including DVD-R and DVD-RW. It's unclear at this time whether this week's announcement means that Microsoft and its future products will now only natively support DVD+R and DVD+RW.
Samsung Crafts 'Matrix' Phone - Samsung Electronics has landed a deal with AOL Time Warner unit Warner Bros. Pictures to provide a cell phone that will be used in The Matrix Reloaded, the sequel to 1999's The Matrix movie, a spokesperson confirmed.
IBM Unveils 20-Inch LCD - IBM has launched the first model in its new ThinkVision line of monitors, the high-end, 20-inch, flat-panel ThinkVision L200p. The LCD monitor provides 1600-by-1200 optimum resolution and a 1.9-megapixel screen, plus some new ThinkVantage Design features. For example, it provides one-button access to frequently used functions, and the stand is designed so the display can be easily adjusted. The monitor is scheduled for release on February 28, priced at $1349. IBM also announced two new USB-connected keyboards that offer the feel of a ThinkPad notebook in a stand-alone keyboard for a desktop system. Both keyboards sell for $99 and are scheduled to ship in March.
SiS Announces 4 Channel RDRAM Chipset - SiS, Samsung, ASUSTeK and Rambus announced the cooperative development of the next-generation RDRAM-based chipset, the SiSR659, which is targeted at the performance computing and multimedia gaming markets. The R659 chipset represents the second offering from SiS's family of RDRAM products. Incorporating high-speed interface and memory controller technology from Rambus, the R659 chipset drives four channels of 1200MHz RDRAM memory resulting in 9.6GByte/sec of memory bandwidth. This represents a 50% higher performance gain than competing dual-channel DDR chipsets. The chipset also includes architectural enhancements for higher performance through faster response time, as well as up to 16GByte of total memory capacity.
Itanium is 'horrible', says Torvalds - Linux creator Linus Torvalds has criticised Intel for not making its 64-bit Itanium microprocessor backwards compatible and trying to make a 'technically pure' chip that ultimately under performs compared to Intel's standard 32-bit microprocessors. "[Intel] threw out all the good parts of the x86 [32-bit Pentium-class microprocessors] because people thought those parts were ugly. They aren't ugly, they're the "charming oddity" that makes it do well," wrote Torvalds.
Voice and Wireless Data from Palm - Palm impressed us last year with the Palm i705, which delivered wireless e-mail and messaging to the already-robust PDA platform. Now comes the next logical follow-on: voice calls in addition to wireless data. Although competitors like the Handspring Treo and the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone beat Palm to market, the Palm Tungsten W ($549 list) is strong competition. A PDA first and foremost, the Tungsten W incorporates a QWERTY keyboard, a SecureDigital IO slot, and a fine 65,000-color, 320-by-320 display.
Leadtek K7NCR18G-Pro IGP nForce 2 Review - Looking at the platform from a budget upgraders point of view we see how the board performs with an XP1800 and how the onboard graphics compares to a now older and budget r8500. The hard thing though is judging who to recommend this to. Obviously the gamers aren't going to buy this particular board as they'll have no need for onboard graphics, though the board is certainly capable of running all but the most intense games at a decent resolution. For anyone who is running on an older motherboard with an older graphics card, this motherboard has been made especially for you.
Eyegonomic T17 TFT Monitor Review - Eyegonomic were founded in 2000 developing flat-panel displays ranging from 5 to 42 inches using the highest quality parts. The T17 is manufactured from 4.4kg of pure aluminum and uses the highest quality panel available from Samsung.
PURE Digital SonicXplosion DVD Review - The SonicXplosion DVD touts itself as being the "world's first complete home cinema sound card", a fairly bold claim. On a basic level the SonicXplosion DVD is a repackaged TerraTec SiXPack 5.1 bundled with WinDVD 4. This is by no means a bad thing as the SonicFury was a repackaged Santa Cruz - highly regarded by many.
Backing Up with Tape Drives: Security Is What Counts - Regular backups of company-critical data to tape drives safeguards firms' existence. Tom's Hardware put ten drives to the test and show what costs can be expected.
Revision 7.3 of the Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide Updated - Adrian's Rojak Pot just posted the new REVISION 7.3 BIOS OPTIMIZATION GUIDE with 5 new BIOS options! Covering a total of 170 BIOS options, this is the most comprehensive guide to BIOS tweaking... until the next revision, that is. :) Here are the new additions in Revision 7.3 : CPU Fast String, Delay Prior To Thermal, K7 CLK_CTL Select, OS/2 Onboard Memory > 64M, Video Memory Cache Mode.
Tetris NitroGL Game for (ATI Only) - Nitro has programmed a game of tetris using the advanced graphics capability of ATI's DX9 cards. Requires Radeon 9500 or Greater (Catalyst 3.1+).
Microsoft Provides Free Tools For Migrating To Windows And Office XP - Microsoft introduced a set of free software tools on Tuesday designed to help enterprises deploy Windows XP Professional and Office XP. Included is software for evaluating application compatibility and security. The tools are available for download from the Microsoft Desktop Center and in the Desktop Deployment Customer Toolkit CD.
Windows XP Embedded Language Packs - MUI Packs allow users or administrators to switch the User Interface (menus, dialogs, and help files) from one language to another. MUI functionality is implemented by simply redirecting resource load calls to an alternate path. On a MUI system, the OS loads the localized resource specific to the current language setting instead of the resource present in the same file as the executable.
Windows XP Embedded Patch - Microsoft has released a new update for Windows XP Embedded with SP1: Repository look-up may cause incorrect files to be copied. This update addresses a potential problem when large numbers of repositories are used that take advantage of the fallback repository mechanism. This problem does not occur with Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1 by default, but could occur with new component updates.
phpMyAdmin 2.4.0 Final - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you'll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 458 - AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 458 has been released.
MyIE2 v0.7.435 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. MyIE2 has a greatly integrated & customizable interface which supports Skins, Plug-Ins, IE Extensions, & specific toolbars (example: GOOGLE Toolbar).
Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 4.1.2 - The Ringtone Converter (download) is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for cables or expensive premium rate SMS services.
HMonitor 4.1.2.3 - Hmonitor (download) has much more functions than MotherBoard Monitor, for example, including thermocontrol features and COM/PerfMon API support (quoted from the author).
NVIDIA Detonator Drivers 42.82 for Win2K/XP - NVIDIA has released new Quadro Certified drivers for their Quadro video cards. However they do support GeForces of any type as well.
Plextor PX-W1210TS firmware v1.06 - Plextor Europe has updated the firmware of their PX-W1210TS drive to version 1.06 which adds support for 99 minutes CD-Rs.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,25 2003 - tech

Early Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:55 AM CET - Feb,25 2003 - Post a comment

Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes - Israeli scientists have devised a computer that can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC. The secret: It runs on DNA. A year ago, researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, unveiled a programmable molecular computing machine composed of enzymes and DNA molecules instead of silicon microchips. Now the team has gone one step further. In the new device, the single DNA molecule that provides the computer with the input data also provides all the necessary fuel.
Wi-Fi Security Gets a Boost - 802.11i standard will plug security holes, but products may not be available for almost a year. WEP, or Wired Equivalent Privacy, the security mechanism initially built into all standard 802.11 products, encrypts data on the wireless network but is flawed because it reuses the same encryption key, said Jesse Walker, a network architect at Intel and the editor of the 802.11i standard now in development under the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A would-be hacker can figure out that key from a small amount of traffic, he said. WEP also doesn't stop interlopers from altering data as it crosses the network, he added.
Cisco will share Wi-Fi tech - Cisco Systems announced Monday it will share key technology at no cost with chipmakers and computer companies to help drive the use of wireless networks within corporations.
Spyware epidemic rallies call for action - EarthLink executives estimate that 40 percent to 50 percent of the Internet service provider's subscribers have running on their machines some kind of advertising or more-malicious program, which often monitors their behavior and sends the data back to the software's parent company. The level of complaints has risen high enough that EarthLink says it's finally looking for an official spyware-killer to distribute to its angry customers.
Program Hides Secret Messages in Executables - Netizens with extreme privacy needs got a new tool for their cyber utility belts recently with the release of an application that lets users hide secret messages in virtually any executable computer program, without changing the program's size or affecting its operation. The tool is called "Hydan," an old English word for the act of hiding something, and it's part of a research project by Columbia University computer science masters student Rakan El-Khalil, who showed off the program to a small group of open-source programmers and hackers gathered at the second annual CodeCon conference in San Francisco on Sunday.
LoveGate worm's got a hold on PCs - Known as LoveGate, the LovGate.C program has many similarities to previous viruses: It is a binary program; it has its own e-mail engine, obviating the need to use another program such as Microsoft Outlook to send messages; and it attempts to use 16 simple passwords to break into and spread to other computers on the victim's network.
Canon Delivers Unsurpassed Pro Digital SLR - Like its predecessor, the EOS-1D, the EOS-1Ds shares many components with Canon's flagship EOS-1v 35-mm film camera. The build quality of all three cameras is world-class, with extensive weather sealing and industry-leading auto-focus and exposure systems. But the big news in the EOS-1Ds is the 11-megapixel CMOS image sensor. Previous digital cameras from Canon, Fuji, and Nikon used image sensors that were smaller than 35-mm film frames. The sensor in the EOS-1Ds is the exact same size as a 35-mm film frame, eliminating the multiplier factor. Using Canon's 16- to 35-mm f/2.8 lens, we were able to shoot building interiors and other wide-angle subjects just as we would with a standard 35-mm SLR camera.
PC Card Makers Plan Smaller, Faster Card - PCMCIA, the group behind PC Cards, is working on a new specification for smaller, faster and cheaper expansion cards, it announced last week. The specification is slated for release later this year and the first products supporting it should be out in the second half of 2004, PCMCIA said in a statement released at Intel's Spring Developer Forum in San Jose, California.
Microsoft on track with new server OS - Microsoft has set March 12 as the release to manufacture date for the six new versions of its server operating system, paving the way for a UK shipping date of April 29. The U.S. launch date is set for April 24. The six versions of Windows Server 2003 due to launch in April will be followed by a seventh, called Windows Small Business Server 2003, due late summer. It will come in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions but the latter will only be for Itanium processors. AMD's x86-64 technology is curiously missing from the support line-up.
Chipmakers dip processor prices - Intel reduced the prices on all its desktop Pentium 4 processors by as much as 21 percent Sunday. Meanwhile, AMD cut prices on select Athlon XP desktop chips by as much as 32 percent Monday. The companies regularly cut prices on their PC processors to make way for new chips and encourage customers to buy new PCs. The companies also use price cuts as a way to stay competitive.
Arrowkey promises to easily recover data from bad CD/DVD discs - CD/DVD Diagnostic recovers data from unreadable, scratched, or corrupt CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, and DVD+RW discs.
LG announces 4x DVD writer with support for all formats - LG has added the DVD+R/RW format to their new 4x DVD writer, the GMA-4040B, which makes it the first DVD writer to support all recordable DVD formats (DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-RAM). LG has also announced a 52x DVD/CD-RW combo drive, the GCC-4520B.
Lite-On LTR-52246S (52/24/52) review - CDRLabs.com has wrapped up their review of the Lite-On LTR-52246S CD-RW recorder.
Pinnacle Instant Copy 7.0 GUIDE - DVD-9 to DVD-5 - Make true 1:1 copies of your DVDs including menus, trailers, extras, bonus features. Burn a 9 GB, dual layer DVD video onto a standard DVD-R 4.7 GB recordable disc.
Enahnce Your GameCube -The long awaited and much anticipated GameCube Free Loader is now here and works flawlessly to enhance your GameCube playing experience! It allows any game from any region to play on any GameCube, so US and JPN imports will load on a PAL GameCube and vice versa and best of all, there is no modding required, so your original warranty stays intact! That means you can play games like Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 0, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and many more awesome titles.
Opera 7.02 Final - Opera (download - Java version ~ Non-Java version) is the fastest browser on earth, uses less memory than other competing browser applications and supports all major open international Web standards.
3 Degrees Officially Launched - Microsoft have officially launched this long awaited P2P application. 3° connects a small group of family and close friends, people who know and trust one another, so they can do fun things together. 3° is a beta test of an innovative application based on new networking technology developed by Microsoft. It lets users connect online, extending real-world social interactions.
ICQ Lite Beta Build 1150 - ICQ Lite (changelog) is a light and simple version of ICQ. It includes only the ICQ essentials: instant messaging, file transfer, SMS and features for meeting people. Contains no advertising
Samurize v0.81a - Samurize is the successor to the quite popular program CureInfo. It is a system monitoring utility with awesome configuration power. The configuration program is totally separated from the client for minimal memory usage.
WinAmp Plug-In Tripex DirectX 3.12.5 - Tripex (mirror) is an freeware 3D visualisation Plug-In for WinAmp 2 and 3 which fades between many effects, animated in real time in response to the music.
nVidia File Remover 0.4 - nVidia File Remover (or NFR), is a small and simple to use tool that scans system folder for nvidia files and presents the user with a list. You can delete selected files or create a bat file to execute when and where you see fit.
Creative WebCam Drivers version 1.02.08 - This is the latest driver release for Creative WebCam (model PD1001) for users running on Windows 98/98SE, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 and Windows XP only.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,23 2003 - tech

Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 05:38 PM CET - Feb,23 2003 - Post a comment / read (5)

It's time to upgrade your PC, again - Boot up Unreal 2003 or Unreal 2, lock in a 1024x768x32 setting , and flip on both FSAA 4X and anisotropic filtering-and watch your frame rates stutter. Start building a city in Sim City 4, only to see the entire computer pause and jerkily scroll around the screen as it attempts to keep a handle on the sheer amount of data being processed every second. You might think something's wrong with the machine, based on such performance, or, if you're old enough, you might recognise the return of actual performance limitations based on modern hardware.
The end of the old PC as we know it? - For more than 20 years, the PC has relied on the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), a small set of fixed software routines normally built into a chip on the motherboard. This hangover from a distant past is causing more and more problems, said Mark Doran, Intel's principal engineer behind the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) that aims to humanely kill the antique technology.
Palm PDA Roundup - Hardware Extreme has posted a roundup featuring some of the top PalmOS based PDAs in the market (and a few coming out in the 2nd and 3rd Quarter).
Project "E5NC" (Watercooling) - ExtremeMhz has posted the final installment of their latest project featuring dual water cooled systems.
Convert Your Sony DW-U10A Into A DRU-500A - According to this post in CDFreaks.com forums, people that are looking for a Sony DRU-500A can now also buy a Sony DW-U10A and convert it to a DRU-500A. The DW-U10A is, according to the reports, a bulk version of the DRU-500A, which means it comes without software and DVD discs. Also a different firmware is installed, rpc1.org has all the information how to convert the drive to a DRU-500A.
Copying recent safedisc 2 protected games - If you are attempting to copy The Sims Unleashed, Total Club Manager, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 or any other game protected with safedisc 2.8x, the only reliable methods are to use alcohol or make an image with discdump and burn that image with fireburner in either dao16 or dao96 mode. A discdump image burnt with nero in dao96 mode generally will also work but the copy will be inferior to one made using fireburner.
Beta-Testing Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 - FlexBeta.net's One of the Twelve has posted his impressions with running&testing "English Windows 2000 Advanced Server Integrated with Beta SP4 ISO Image Build 4.036",
You Cannot Access Your MSN E-mail Account? - This problem may occur if your program uses the IAuthenticate interface to authenticate with the Web site and you access the Internet through a proxy server that also requires authentication. To resolve this problem, install MSIE6.0SP1(Feb2003).
OpenOffice Build 644m1 - OpenOffice.org (Win32 ~ Linux ~ Solaris) is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format. The OpenOffice.org project establishes the necessary facilities to make this open source technology available to the developer community.
phpMyAdmin 2.4.0 RC2 - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database. To accomplish the latter you'll need a properly set up MySQL-user who can read/write only the desired database.
VirtualDub 1.5.1. - 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.
Leadtek Detonator Drivers 42.42 WHQL RC2 - Leadtek has updated its FTP with two sets of Nvidia Detonator Drivers 42.01 (Win2k/XP ~ Win9X/ME) & 42.42 WHQL Candidate 2 for Win2k/XP.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,21 2003 - tech

Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 11:44 PM CET - Feb,21 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)

Cash machines vulnerable to hackers - A corrupt banking employee can guess your pin number in just 15 attempts because of a weakness in banks' computer systems, say computer scientists in Cambridge. Publishing their findings in an online technical report, Mike Bond and Piotr Zielinski at Cambridge University describe a weakness in the computer hardware systems used to verify PIN numbers from ATM cash machine transactions. It could be used to generate millions of pounds for a thief each day, they say. These four digit numbers should normally take an average of 5,000 attempts to guess correctly. In practice this is not an option because software in the ATMs only allows you three wrong attempts before locking you out.
AOL probes hacker "breach" - AOL is investigating reports that crackers gained access to its customer database through a combination of cracking and social engineering exploits. The allegation of an extremely serious security breach is published today in Wired. The publication interviewed hackers who claim to have gained full access to Merlin, AOL's latest intranet-based customer database application. If true, the breach potentially exposes the private information of AOL's 35 million users.
Crypto attack against SSL outlined - Swiss security researchers have discovered an attack against implementations of the ubiquitous SSL protocol (you can also check my exploit posts (1 / 2 / 3) at Neworder) that could potentially compromise email passwords, though not ecommerce transactions. The protocol itself has not been compromised and the weakness only applies to versions of OpenSSL prior to version 0.9.6i and 0.9.7a, according to early analysis. Users of earlier versions of OpenSSL are strongly advised to upgrade.
Microsoft Accidentally Shares Office 2003 - Microsoft posted the second beta of Office 2003 to its Microsoft Developer Network Web site on Wednesday, only to pull it a few hours later. "A copy of the second beta was inadvertently posted yesterday. It was subsequently pulled because it is not ready for customers," a Microsoft spokesperson in Europe said Thursday. "We expect the beta 2 to ship in March." Microsoft won't specify how many MSDN subscribers downloaded the beta, saying only that it was "a very low number."
'Honest Thief' confronts music industry - A Dutch company calling itself an "honest thief" has become the latest threat to an entertainment and recording industry beset by swelling numbers of file-swapping services. Operating in the Netherlands, Internet services company PGR--doing business as The Honest Thief--plans in the spring to license its software and provide legal advice to others who hope to set up the newest incarnation of peer-to-peer services.
Hitachi licenses on-chip interconnect technology - Hitachi Information Technology Co. Ltd. has licensed an on-chip interconnect technology from Sonics Inc. and plans to use it to stitch together different intellectual property blocks on a chip, the companies said. The license will allow Hitachi-IT to use Sonics' Smart Interconnect technology when designing system-on-chip (SoC) devices for its customers, who in turn will need to negotiate a separate license with Sonics when the SoC is ready for production, said David Lautzenheiser, vice president of marketing at Sonics.
Toshiba to launch HDD/DVD player/recorders in US and UK markets - According to the Japanese-language Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, Toshiba is launching HDD/DVD player/recorders in the US and UK. It launched versions of these products in Japan last year. Toshiba will release the RD-XS30 HDD/DVD player/recorder in the UK in April. This HDD/DVD player/recorder, which Toshiba claims to be the thinnest DVD player in the market at 78mm, features a built-in 60GB HDD for recording. The company launched the same model in Japan last November. Toshiba projects selling 1,000 RD-XS30s in the first month of release and up to 10,000 units per month this summer in the UK. The device allows users to dub data/recordings from HDD to DVD-R, DVD-RAM, CD-R and CD-RW discs.
DVD player single-chip solutions may fall under US$10 - Taiwan IC design industry sources expect that single-chip solutions for DVD players may fall under US$10 from the current US$15 as more competitors enter volume production. The current price does not include RF ICs, while the lower price estimate does.
IDF Spring '03 : Day 3 Keynote, and PCI-Express - Hexus has posted two IDF Day 3 articles, and also Tom's Hardware has posted day 3 of their IDF coverage.
Samsung SM-348 CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo Review - Last year, Samsung took its CD writing speed to 32X. This year, the company improved its technology, pushing speeds to a whopping 48X with the Samsung SM-348 CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive ($130 street). Updated from the SM-332, the SM-348 gives you faster burn speeds and read times. It offers speeds of 24X for rewriting, 16X for DVD reading, 48X for CD recording, and the usual 48X CD-ROM read rate. We burned a 325MB file in less than 2 minutes. We also ran the Titanic DVD in the background with MusicMatch playing an MP3, and still the drive was able to burn without difficulty.
Canon i70 Color Bubble Jet Printer Review - The Canon i70 Color Bubble Jet Printer ($300 street) combines mobility and speed in a portable printer that produces clear text and fine color photo output for general use. The i70 operates with a USB connection to a PC, or you can print directly to Bubble Jet Direct-compatible Canon digital cameras and camcorders. The 4-pound i70 fits into a standard-size briefcase when the 2.0- by 12.3- by 6.5-inch (HWD) case is closed. With its input tray extended (there's no output tray), the i70 measures 6.6 by 12.3 by 12 inches. You can stack 30 sheets of standard paper or five envelopes in the input tray.
LCD 17: Samsung 17in & NEC LCD1760V vs. Everyone Else - Any self-respecting buyer of a 17-inch LCD monitor starts out by making a list of self-respecting monitors. This list would naturally include the Hitachi CML174SXW and the Iiyama AS4314UTG, both of which have been tested by Tom's . But we hadn't yet tested the 171N, a 25 ms, or the LCD1760V, a 16 ms. Well, this is now remedied, and for good measure we've thrown in some general details on LCDs: frequencies, technologies, interfaces, etc.
R350 Specs - German CHIP Online has published some info in regards to the upcoming R350 and RV350 VPU line-ups from ATI. Radeon 9800 -
Process: 0,15 um, Core clock: 375 MHz, Memory type: DDR-I (128MB), Memory clock: 350 MHz; Radeon 9600 Pro - Process: 0,13 um, Core clock: 400 MHz, Memory type: DDR-II (128MB), Memory clock: 400 MHz; Radeon 9600 - Process: 0,13 um, Core clock: 300 MHz, Memory type: DDR-II (128MB), Memory clock: 300 MHz; Radeon 9200 - Process: 0,15 um, Core clock: 275 MHz, Memory type: DDR-I (64MB), Memory speed: 275 MHz. It will be followed shortly by the Radeon 9900, which will debut in May or thereabouts. The 9900 will feature an impressive 256 MB of RAM on the card, and will come in both "9900 Pro" and regular "9900" versions. Consumers may have to pay close to US$500 for the 9900 Pro card, however.
Xabre II specs - According to XabreGamers, there are 2 models : the SiS 340 aand 341 both support DX9 and AGP8x. Both models will have 500Mhz DDRII memory (!!) and will have the core clocked at 375Mhz. The only difference lies with the number of pipelines : 8 for the SiS340 and 4 for the SiS341.
SQL Server Critical Update Wizard 8.00.0194 - The SQL Critical Update Wizard was developed specifically for the home and small business user, though enterprise customers may also download and deploy the wizard to their internal customers. The SQL Critical Update Wizard will walk you through the steps of detecting a vulnerability to Slammer and updating the affected files. SQL Critical Update Wizard runs on WindowsR 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Alcohol 120% v1.4.1.221 -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.
WinOnCD 6.0 Service Pack 1 - The first Service Pack (download) for the great CD mastering program WinOnCD 6 has been released.
SecureCRT 4.0.4 - SecureCRT (download) gives you an encrypted SSH session with both SSH1 and SSH2t servers. SSH security goes far beyond the basic secure logon, rerouting data or local applications using TCP/IP ports through an encrypted channel. The VCP utility secures file transfers using SFTP. This new version fixes some CRC errors during transferring files using bulletin board ZModem, VCP looks for a newline or carriage return character in order to determine if the ENTER key was pressed when authenticating, On Windows NT 4.0, sometimes certain keys (SSH2) did not work after authenticating.
Tweak-XP Pro 2.08 - Tweak-XP Pro bundles more than 37 different utilities in one: it was developed to combine both tweaking and optimizing features to increase the speed of your Windows XP system.

Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:40 AM CET - Feb,21 2003 - Post a comment

Fighting piracy with P2P blocking - The technology, provided by Los Gatos, Calif., company Audible Magic, isn't yet blocking individual file trades. But that's the next step. As the company begins testing its service with more universities, corporations and small Internet service providers during next few weeks and months, this peer-to-peer monitoring and blocking technology threatens to open the next front in the online piracy wars
Net security software exposed - A team at the Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne said they had been able to decipher a password in less than an hour. "It is the first time we have noticed a security problem in the SSL protocol itself and not in how we use it or how we implement it," Professor Serge Vaudenay, director of the institute's security and cryptography lab, told the BBC. But the researchers say the loophole does not apply to credit card transactions, as banks and e-commerce sites use a different type of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) technology.
Cheap Lindows Mobile PC - At just 2.9 lbs, the $799 Lindows Mobile PC is a featherweight, but it weighs in with such features as LindowsOS, a 933mhz VIA processor, 256MB RAM, USB 2.0, Firewire, Ethernet, and a crisp 12.1" TFT display, plus a PCMCIA slot to add even more functionality such as wireless networking.
Intel's Prescott Could Reach 5 GHz - Intel's "Prescott" processor could scale up to 5-GHz, Intel executives said this afternoon.
Philips demonstrates world's first DVD+RW drive with S-ATA - Philips, Intel and Silicon Image have demonstrated the world's first DVD+RW drive with an integrated serial ATA (S-ATA) interface.
R350 will be named Radeon 9800 PRO - According to TheInquirer, R350 is going to be the Radeon 9800 PRO and it will have non pro version as well, just like the R300 that was called 9700 PRO and 9700. Clock speeds are still not finalized but it's very close to finalization as this is a March product and the European launch will be at Cebit. As far as we hear, and this is still not confirmed, clock speeds will be either 375 or 400 MHz.
CuteFTP Pro 3.1 Final - CuteFTP Pro v3.1 (download) integrates state-of-the-art security standards including SSL via FTP and HTTP, SSH2 and advanced S/KEY password encryption to ensure that confidential business data stays that way.
WinBoost 4.01 - WinBoost 4 (download) is a special utility designed to boost Windows XP/2000/Millennium Edition (ME)/98 Second Edition/98/95 performance and productivity. Using easy to use graphical user interface you can configure hundreds of Windows hidden settings from Start Menu, Desktop, Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, etc.
MyIE2 beta 0.7.435 - MyIE2 is a powerful multi-page browser based on the IE core (IE 5.x or IE 6.x required). It can open multiple web pages in just one window. And it only takes a little system resource when surfing with a greatly integrated user interface. It also supports special Plug-Ins & IE Extensions to let you have an enjoyable surfing experience. MyIE2 has a greatly integrated & customizable interface which supports Skins, Plug-Ins, IE Extensions, & specific toolbars (example: Google Toolbar).
Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 4.1.1 - The Ringtone Converter (download) is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for cables or expensive premium rate SMS services.
HyperSnap-DX 5.04.00 - HyperSnap-DX 5 (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 Voodoo and Glide mode games.
Total Commander 5.51 - A new final version of the best file manager is available for download from the official website.
nVHardPage NVIDIA Tweaker v1.21.2b - This program serves on enabling/disabling hidden features in NVIDIA control panel and tweaking NVIDIA Direct3D & OpenGL settings.
nVidia File Remover 0.3 - nVidia File Remover (or NFR), is a small and simple to use tool that scans system folder for nvidia files and presents the user with a list. You can delete selected files or create a bat file to execute when and where you see fit.
OMEGA-Drivers for Win2K/XP/9x/ME - OmegaCorner has posted W2K/XP drivers based on the official 6292 ATI drivers (Catalyst 3.1) and Win9x/ME driver based on based on the official 9082 ATI drivers (Catalyst 3.1).

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,20 2003 - tech

AMD's Athlon-64 Benchmarked With UT2003 - tech
(hx) 05:28 PM CET - Feb,20 2003 - Post a comment / read (3)

Wondering about the performance of AMD's Athlon-64? Hardware Analysis managed to run a few benchmarks on a AMD Athlon-64 demo system using the 64-bit version of Epic' Unreal Tournament 2003. (thanks SlashDot.org) Here are results:

Naturally we’re intimately familiar with the workings of Unreal Tournament 2003 engine and after a quick look at the display settings, which were set at a 1024x768x32bit resolution with all other features at default, we measured a mere average 42fps and maximum fps around the 55…60fps mark. Considering the fact that this is a 2GHz Athlon-64 processor teamed up with a GeForce Ti 4600 we honestly expected a whole lot better. A 1.6GHz Pentium 4 with that very same GeForce Ti 4600 videocard would have no problems clocking in a similar score while running under Windows XP.

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:14 AM CET - Feb,20 2003 - Post a comment

All Drugs Tweak the Brain the Same, Study Finds - Whether you smoke a cigarette or use cocaine, certain nerve endings in the brain are tweaked in the same way, which suggests there may be a universal way to treat addiction, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. In fact, alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, morphine and nicotine all make brain cells hypersensitive, a team at Stanford University in California reported. The affected brain cells are in a region of the brain called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA, Malenka's team reported in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Neuron.
Where Does Ebola Hide Between Epidemics? - When villagers in the remote jungles of the Republic of Congo began falling ill last month, scientists quickly suspected Ebola. The virus had been confirmed in tests on the bodies of animals found dead in surrounding forests, and bush meat is a staple among the local population. Knowing how people may initially have contracted the virus has given medical experts a jumpstart on the epidemic, which has so far killed at least 64 people. But the larger question remains. Where does the deadly Ebola virus hide between outbreaks?
NASA proceeds on plan for orbiter to replace shuttles - As investigators search for the cause of the Columbia disaster, NASA is moving ahead with plans to develop a new craft that would replace shuttles on space station missions by 2012 and respond quickly to space station emergencies. The space agency released the first set of mission needs and requirements Wednesday for the Orbital Space Plane, which would be designed to transport a crew of four to and from the international space station. Although it includes few specifics, the plan stipulates the orbiter will be safer, cheaper and require less preparation time than the shuttle. It would be able to transport four crew members by 2012 - though it would be available for rescue missions by 2010. NASA says the craft should be able to transport injured or ill space station crew members to "definitive medical care" within 24 hours.
Microsoft tries to cook Hotmail spammers - Microsoft on Thursday filed a so-called John Doe suit in the federal court for the northern district of California in San Jose. The suit doesn't name defendants, but allows the plaintiff the power to issue subpoenas as part of the investigative phase of the trial. The defendants are accused of using a "dictionary attack" to discover active Hotmail accounts. A dictionary attack is one in which a computer program goes through every entry in a dictionary in an attempt to guess passwords. In this case, the program guessed millions of random e-mail addresses to see which ones were active, Microsoft alleged.
Microsoft to buy Connectix - Microsoft plans to take a giant leap into the server consolidation space this week by announcing the acquisition of virtual server software company Connectix. The software giant, which is expected to formally unveil the deal Thursday, will use the technology to allow customers to carve out multiple partitions on a single Intel-based server, allowing them to run multiple instances of a single operating system and multiple workloads.
Watch out for those malicious referrer links - Bloggers were warned this week to raise their guard against posting potentially malicious referrer links into their Web logs. It's potentially easy to hijack blogs through mendacious JavaScript code, a posting on one Web log (kasia in a nutshell) notes. So the message is to double check referrers to make sure they link to a valid site, with links back to the blogger's site (if you will).
NHS builds fraud detection system - The NHS hopes to slash its losses through fraud by up to 40 per cent over the next three years, using data analysis and visualisation software from business intelligence company SAS. The NHS Counter Fraud Service (CFS) will deploy a new fraud detection system that uses neural networking developed by SAS to predict where fraud is most likely to occur.
Spring 2003 IDF: Day 1 - The 'Convergence Cowboy' kicks off the 2003 Spring Intel Developers Forums by introducing some great new concepts. In addition, Tom's Hardware got a look at some of the first Centrino notebooks. They spent some time with AMD, InterVideo, Nero, Tyan, and Analog Designs. (Another coverage have posted Hexus and ExtremeTech)
Spring 2003 IDF: Day 2 - Hexus has posted part 2 of their IDF coverage. In overview; Burns covered digital home and the transformation of information across common platforms. Also covered was the 2 upcoming chipsets from Intel in the form of Canterwood and Springdale. Chandrasker went in to more depth about the mobile market in the form of the Centrino, Dothan and Newport
Cooler Master HAC-V81 @ X-Dream CPU Cooler - Want two coolers for the price of one? Then you should take a look at the new Cooler Master X-Dream cooler! With a copper-cored heat sink and an 80mm fan whose speed can be manually adjusted on-the-fly, the X-Dream is really two coolers rolled into one. Why? Check out Brian Chong's review of this cooler and find out!
Albatron Medusa Ti4800SE - OcPrices.com has just reviewed the Albatron Medusa Ti4800SE video card.
3DMark 2003 - Talking Back to NVIDIA - A couple of days after NVIDIA´s harsh criticism on 3DMark 2003, Tom's Hardware got a response from Futuremark and some comments from ATi, as well. Here's what went down.
Office 11 Beta 2 Released on MSDN - If you have an MSDN universal account you can go grab Office 11 Beta 2 right now as its just been posted (thanks Neowin).
Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 Review - PC Mag has posted an Easy CD & DVD Creator 6 review.
Jet-Audio 5.01 - Jet-Audio (download +extension update) 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.
ClonyXXL-Tool Version 1 with Protections.ini v1.1 - This Tool is able to put the detected copy protection from ClonyXXL (v2.0.1.1 and higher) to the 1:1 copy program Alcohol 120%.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,19 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:38 AM CET - Feb,19 2003 - Post a comment

Military robots planned - So far, legions of robot soldiers march into battle only in movies such as "Star Wars." But the U.S. Army is hurrying to catch up. Under orders from Congress and the Pentagon's high command, the Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen, Md., is developing an array of robotic machines to support -- or replace -- troops made of flesh and blood. One little robot scout, the 40-pound Packbot, and the CIA's unmanned spy plane, the Predator, are already in use in Afghanistan. Far more sophisticated machines are in development.
A robot that can smile and sneer - According to a report in The New Scientist, a new robot, which according to its creators can express a full repertoire of human facial expressions, was unveiled on Sunday. K-bot, as the robot is called, has a feminine face and is capable of 28 facial movements, including smiling, sneering, furrowing her brow and arching her eyebrows. She also has cameras in her eyes to recognise and respond to humans.
DNA molecules form nanodevice scaffolding - Using DNA's unique lock-and-key mode of chemical bonding, researchers at the University of Minnesota have demonstrated a "scaffolding" interconnect method that they believe can be applied to the assembly of silicon-based electronics.
Nokia Wheels Out 3G, Arms Up Against Microsoft - Nokia promised on Tuesday to deliver its first, new-generation mobile phones by July as it armed up to help stave off advances from software giant Microsoft. Nokia said it had sent a batch of around 10,000 third-generation (3G) handsets to operators Vodafone Group Plc and Orange and equipment makers Ericsson and Nortel to allow testing to begin.
Overture to buy AltaVista - Overture Services plans to acquire search technology company AltaVista for $140 million in cash and stock, the latest sign of consolidation in the resurgent search business.
Hacker accesses 5.6 million credit cards - Monday, Visa and Mastercard said the hacker could look at as many as 2.2 million accounts after breaching the security system of a company that processes credit card transactions on behalf of merchants. None of the original set of compromised Visa cards had been used fraudulently, Visa spokesman John Abrams said Monday. A Mastercard spokeswoman could not say whether any of their cards had been used fraudulently. The affected accounts make up almost 1 percent of the 574 million Visa and Mastercard cards in the United States. Spokesmen for the two associations said Monday they promptly notified the banks that issued the affected cards.
Recording firms ask to scan university computers - Recording companies have asked the Federal Court to allow their computer experts to scan all computers at the University of Melbourne for sound files and email accounts, so they can gather evidence of claimed widespread breaches of copyright.
DVD-copying startup puts bounty on pirates - In an odd twist in its fight against Hollywood studios, start-up 321 Studios is offering a reward for information about people who use its products to illegally copy DVDs. The company last week began offering $10,000 for information that leads to the conviction of people who use its software to pirate movies. The major studios sued 321 last December, saying the company promotes copyright infringement by offering products that allow people to copy DVDs. Specifically, the suit claims 321 is violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act by selling its DVD Copy Plus and DVD-X copy programs.
Instant Internet access before you boot Windows - BIOS king Phoenix Technologies is developing its core software technologies to help users cope better with system failures. Phoenix Core Management Environment, or cME, promises a means for OEMs to include diagnostic and self help capabilities, Internet access and remote desktop builds, even after a major system malfunction.
Star Trek Nemesis hits phones - Activision and Mforma's jointly-developed Star Trek Nemesis game is now available for mobile phone users in the U.S. and Europe through operators Sprint PCS, Vodafone U.K., Vodafone Spain, O2 Germany and Mobilcom Austria. The Star Trek Nemesis game is a downloadable first-person 3D shooter, which closely follows the plot of the movie. Players can take control of the bridge of the Enterprise and get ready to save Earth.
256Mbit DDR dips below US$3 - DDR prices for 256Mbit products fell to US$2.90 on Monday and are at an average of US$2.97 today, according to DRAMeXchange. This price has fallen below production costs but covers variable costs, said DRAM makers.
Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 Review - If you think the sound-board industry begins and ends with Creative Labs, you haven't heard the Philips Sonic Edge 5.1 ($39.95 list). This surprisingly affordable board doesn't support esoteric technologies like 24-bit/96-kHz recording or DVD-Audio, but in ease of use it's outstanding, and it boasts sophisticated multichannel capabilities. For those whose audio interests revolve around playing DVDs, audio CDs, MP3 files, and games, the Sonic Edge will do the job for a fraction of the price of a Sound Blaster Audigy 2.
Influence of Intel Pentium 4 Core Temperature on CPU - Everybody knows that proper processor cooling and heat dissipation monitoring are among the most essential things in the CPU industry. How far has the technology got here today? Our article will reveal the working principles of the Thermal Control Circuit implemented in Intel Pentium 4 processors and check out the dependence of Pentium 4 performance on its die temperature.
Philips DVDRW228 DVD+R/RW Review - With features such as Seamless Link buffer underrun protection and Thermo-Balanced Writing, Philips initial DVD+R/RW offering appears to stand out from the crowd. Philips, a major player in the DVD+R/RW arena, attempts to sway consumers away from the DVD-R/RW format with their new DVDRW228 DVD+R/RW drive.
D-Link 2.4/5 GHz Dual-Mode Wireless Review - D-Link's Dual Mode products not only support the new 802.11a, but is also backwards compatible with 802.11b. This is not a standard feature of 802.11a. Additionally, D-Link has managed to turbo charge the speed with theoretical bandwidth up to 72MB/s! That's right, finally we have wireless networking with speeds that rival wired networks!
Pentium 4 Overclocking Adventure - TweakTown has posted a new article called "Pentium 4 Overclocking Adventure".
Athlon XP T'Bred Overclocking Database - VR-Zone has updated their Athlon XP "T'Bred" Overclocking database with numerous entries from the overclocking community. It is also interesting to note that Athlon XP 2100+ based on T'Bred "B" AIUHB core is the hot favorite overclockable CPU around and ability to run 2.5Ghz on air and over 3Ghz on extreme cooling method.
BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 7.2 - Adrian's Rojak Pot has posted the new revesion 7.2 BIOS Optimization Guide with 10 new BIOS options and 1 updated BIOS option - covering a total of 165 BIOS options!
3DMark03 Performance Tests article - Here we take all of ATI's Radeon 9000 Series, a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 and 4600 and Matrox's Parhelia and test their respective performances over 3DMark03's rendering tests. We'll begin to see if this a true DX9 benchmark, where its bottlenecks are and begin to explain some of the performance numbers we are seeing from the various boards on test.
Roxio releases Easy CD & DVD Creator - Roxio released a new version of the well-known Easy CD Creator program ($99). This version will combine tools for burning CDs and DVDs, not only for data, but also for audio, photos and video. The package will get a new name, Easy CD & DVD Creator.
Nero Enterprise Edition Announced - Ahead has released a press release today announcing an enterprise version of their popular burning software package Nero. The Nero Enterprise Edition is a powerful CD/DVD recording application offering native 64-bit support as well as 32-bit support in emulation mode.
NVRefreshTool 2.1a - NVRefreshTool is a utility used to fix the problem in Windows 2000/XP that sets your refresh rate to 60Hz when you play ANY game. This problem occurs whether or not you have a higher refresh rate set in your Display Properties of Windows.
Netscape 7.02 - Netscape 7.02 has been released.
Media Player Classic 6.4.2.7 - Media Player Classic (download) is similar to windows media player 6.4 but with features pertained to minimalist advanced users. It also supports DirectX 9 and VFW drivers for capture.
AI RoboForm 5.1.1 - AI RoboForm is a one-click web form filler and password manager with some serious Artificial Intelligence inside.
CDRWin v3.9C Updated Once Again - The official Golden Hawk Technology website now offers another new version of CDRWin v3.9C dated February 15th.This new version probably adds more support for various CD-RW recorders.
Plextor PX-320A Firmware - Plextor Europe has released a new firmware version for their CD-RW/DVD combo drive, the PX-320A.
Realtek ALC AC97-Audio driver 3.40 - Realtek released version 3.40 driver for their ALC AC97 Audio chipsets.
3Dfx Voodoo Drivers - VoodooFiles website has been updated with some new "Beta" drivers for 3Dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 cards.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,18 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:33 AM CET - Feb,18 2003 - Post a comment / read (7)

.uk.co domain wiped off face of Internet - The .uk.co domain was wiped off the face of the Internet today morning with no notice, leaving more than 8,000 livid individuals and businesses - including Amazon and Priceline - with no Web presence or email. The only proof of its existence is a posting on www.uk.co from the top-level domain .co owner - the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia - saying that the registrar for the .uk.co domains Net Registrar had failed to agree terms of a new arrangement and so it was "no longer entitled to operate uk.co sub-domains". Therefore, "Net Registrar is not entitled to permit you to use the uk.co domain names that you had registered with them".
China to pick 3 astronauts for first manned space flight - China plans to select three astronauts for its first manned space flight expected to take place around November, state media reported yesterday. The exact date of the launch will depend on factors such as the weather, the Beijing Youth Daily said, citing an anonymous official.
Secret revealed of 'Mona Lisa' smile - Leonardo da Vinci exploited a biological property of the human eye - a phenomenon known as peripheral vision - when he painted the enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa. One explanation involves the way the retina of the eye handles light. When someone looks at something directly, the light falls on a central structure called the fovea which is specialised to deal with light of high spatial frequency. But light from objects seen out of the corner of the eye, falls on the peripheral part of the retina which is better adapted for seeing low or medium spatial frequency light.
'Genetic changes' triggered Man's artistic abilities - A creativity gene that evolved about 50,000 years ago was the spark that kindled the development of the modern mind, an expert on human origins said yesterday. An explosion of art, culture and individual expression that took place in Africa between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago may have been triggered by biological changes in the human brain, according to Richard Klein, Professor of Anthropological Sciences at Stanford University in California.
Biology to make mini machines - Computers of the future will be built not by factory machines, but by living cells such as bacteria.
That at least is the vision which has been outlined by scientists speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Denver. They have described how wires can now be made by yeast organisms, and how solar panels could be built using substances produced by sea sponges. Researchers believe these kind of technologies will be essential if we are to continue to shrink the size of electronic devices.
Fujitsu-Siemens to introduce Opteron based node in 2003 - According to a document, found on Siemens-Fujitsu website, Opteron based node from the German firm should be available during 2003. (thanks AMDBoard).
BT Sat customers warned to reduce downloads - 40 of BT Openworlds satellite customers have been told to reduce their downloads or face the consequences! A letter to these customers tells of how they have been "using an excessive amount of bandwidth on a regular basis". If the amount isnt reduced, then bandwidth restictions are likely to be introduced.
T-Mobile Set to Launch Microsoft Phone in Europe - Microsoft said on Monday that German mobile operator T-Mobile would be its second European customer for mobile phone software, while more Asian electronics makers were ready to produce handsets that use its software.
Sony Ericsson Launches 3G Phone - Swedish-Japanese mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson launched its first 3G mobile phone on Monday and said it aims to return to profit this year by boosting market share as handset prices could fall more than 10 percent.
NVIDIA to Integrate WLAN Controller in Its MCP by 2003 Year End - During the quarterly conference call a couple of days ago NVIDIA's CFO Marvin Burkett said the company was going to integrate wireless Ethernet (WLAN) controller in the upcoming Media and Communication Processors by the end of the year. Nowadays the most-advanced and feature-rich NVIDIA's MCP supports Parallel ATA-33/66/100/133, 6 USB 2.0 ports, 2 x 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet MACs, 3 FireWire (IEEE1394) ports, Dolby Digital decoder as well as PCI and ACR buses. In case NVIDIA implements Wi-Fi in addition to Serial ATA-150 and RAID along with all the previous features, the MCP will be the most advanced I/O controller of 2003.
Adaptec Announces iSCSI - Adaptec, Inc. has announced full product support for the iSCSI standard ratified this week by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Adaptec's complete line of iSCSI ASICs and host bus adapters, available later this quarter, fully support the IETF standard.
Intel Response To 3DMark2003 - VR-Zone managed to caught up with Matt Dunford, Intel Client Performance Manager (Benchmarking) at a NDA briefing today and get some of his views on the much debated 3DMark2003. According to Matt, Intel is currently evaluating on the 3DMark2003 and has found it to be a nice synthetic benchmark for gaming.
Benchmark Marathon: 65 CPUs from 100 MHz to 3066 MHz - Tom's Hardware tests 65 different x86 processors in over three hundred hours of benchmark testing. CPUs range from the Intel Pentium 100 from 1994 to the latest AMD Athlon XP 3000+.
XPde 0.2.0 Released (Linux) - It's a desktop environment(XPde) and a window manager(XPwm) for Linux. It tries to recreate the Windows XP interface to-the-pixel point. Nothing more, no clipboard compatibility between Gtk and Qt applications, no emulation of Windows applications, no unification on the widgets of X applications, just a desktop environment and a window manager.
UT2K3 Retail Benchmarking Utility 2.0 - HardOCP have released a new version of their UT2K3 benchmarking utility for the retail version of UT2K3 v2.0. Version 2.0 has many new features and more capabilities than our original. Flexible apples to apples benchmarking, now with OpenGL as well as DirectX.
PHP 4.3.1 Final - The PHP Group today announced the details of a serious CGI vulnerability in PHP version 4.3.0. A security update, PHP 4.3.1, fixes the issue. Everyone running affected version of PHP (as CGI) are encouraged to upgrade immediately. The new 4.3.1 release does not include any other changes, so upgrading from 4.3.0 is safe and painless.
DVD2SVCD 1.1.2 Build 1 - DVD2SVCD is a completely automated frontend for converting DVD, PVA and AVI files to SVCD.
Network Probe 0.4 - This network probe gives you an instant picture of the traffic situation on your network and enables you to identify and isolate traffic problems on your network. The network probe is java based, and runs as a server on Windows NT/2000. The client is applet based and runs in any java enabled web browser.
CPUFSB 2.2.10 - CPUFSB is a small version of CPUCooL. It is for changing the FrontSideBus only. So you have a small tool only one of the the most important freatures of CPUCooL.
Miranda 0.2.1 - The goal of this project is not to duplicate the functionality of AOL's ICQ Client, but to design a client that has the basic features that is designed for mouse-less operation with a small memory requirement.
K-Lite Codec Pack 1.5 Final - K-Lite Codec Pack 1.5 includes the following codecs - DivX 5.03 Professional, DivX ;) MPEG-4 Low and Fast motion, XviD (Koepi's build 04/10/2002), 3ivx, Microsoft MPEG-4 (modified version), Fraunhofer MPEG-2 A/V, MP3 audio, DivX WMA Audio, Ogg Vorbis audio, AC3 audio, DivX Anti-Freeze and FourCC Code Changer.
Improve your privacy in KaZaA Lite! - Are you afraid of the entertainment industry? Does your country have stupid copyright laws? You don't share because you are afraid you get caught for doing so? The newest version of KaZaA Lite has got the solution for you! It is now possible to prevent other people from listing your shared files (find more from same user, etc.) through this registry tweak.
VirtualDub 1.5.0 (build 15584 )- 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.
Logitech MouseWare Registry Fix - Logitech today released a registry value fix for its Mouseware driver suite, a unified driver for all Logitech mice.
ATI Omega Catalyst 3.1 Drivers - Omegadrive has released a new set of Omega Drivers 2.3.92 based on the official ATI Catalyst 3.1 drivers for Windows 9x/ME/2k/XP.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,17 2003 - tech

Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 09:33 PM CET - Feb,17 2003 - Post a comment

Storage - IBM Ultrastar 146Z10 SCSI HDD | Maxtor 5000XT HDD | Seagate Serial ATA 120GB 7,200 RPM HDD | Seagate ST380023AS SATA HDD | Seagate Barracuda SATA-V HDD(1) | Seagate Barracuda V Serial ATA(2) | SmartDisk 80GB USB 2.0 Portable HDD | Western Digital WD800JB "Special Edition" 80 GB HDD | Adaptec 29320-R Ultra320 SCSI Interface Card | SATA Controller roundup | Serial ATA Converter | SATA Overview | Innovatek InnoVibe Rev2 HDD Noise Reducers || Arrgo 52/24/52 CD-RW | Pioneer DVD-117LJ DVD-ROM | Lite-On LTR-52246S 52/24/52 CD-RW | Mitsubishi Diamond Data DD481648 48/48/16 CD-RW | OptoRite 48/16/48 CD-RW | Plextor PX-S2410TU portable CD-RW | PleXWriter PX-W4012TS SCSI CD-RW | Plextor PX-W4012TS / PX-S2410T CD-RW | Samsung SM-348 CD-RW/DVD | Samsung SM-348B Combo CD/RW | Samsung SW-240 CD-RW | TDK 48/24/48 CD-RW || USB Flash Drive roundup | 256 MB USB Pen Drive | Belkin USB Flash Drive | Firefly USBee and Translucent USB Drives (video) | FlashDisk 64MB USB Drive | Fujifilm 128MB USB Drive | Laser 64MB USB FlashDisk | SanDisk Cruzer 64MB | Sharkoon USB Flexi-Drive (German) | Iomega ZIP 750 USB 2.0 Drive (German)

Video - Graphics Comparison Table | GeForce 4 Ti4200 8X Video Card Shootout | Abit Siluro GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(1) | Abit OTES GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(2) | Abit Siluro OTES GeForce4 Ti4200(3) | Abit OTES GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(4) | Albatron Ti4200P Turbo GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB | Albatron Ti4680P Turbo GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(1) | Albatron Ti4680 GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(2) | Albatron Ti4800SE GeForce4 Ti4600-8X | Albatron Medusa Ti4680P GeForce4 Ti4600-8X | Albatron GeForce4 MX440-8X | Asus V9180 GeForce4 MX440-8X | Chaintech A-GX20 GeForce4 Ti4200 | Gainward Ti4800SE GeForce4 Ti4600-8X | Leadtek WinFast XP2000 Deluxe(1) | Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe(2) | Leadtek WinFast TV2000 XP Deluxe (3) | Leadtek WinFast A180 GeForce4 MX440-8X | MSI GeForce4 Ti4200-8X(1) | MSI GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(2) | MSI Ti4600 8X VT2D8X | MSI G4Ti4600-TD8X GeForce4 Ti4600-8X(3) | MSI G4Ti4200-TP GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB | MSI vs Asus GeForce4 Ti4200-8X | MSI GeForce4 MX440-8X(1) | MSI GeForce4 MX440-8X(2) | nVidia GeForceFX 5800 Ultra preview | XFX GeForce4 Ti4200 (video) || ATi Radeon 9700 Pro(1) | ATi Radeon 9700 Pro(2) | Connect 3D Radeon 9700 Pro | Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro | OCS L2 Enhanced Radeon 9700 Pro | OCS R9700 Pro Level III SE Video Card | PowerColor Radeon 9700 | Radeon 9700 Level III SE | Sapphire vs Gigabyte Radeon 9500 Pro | Sapphire Radeon roundup | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 Pro(1) | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 Pro(2) | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 Pro(3) | Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9500 Pro(4) | Hacking 9500 to become a 9700 | Yuan XpertVision Radeon 9000 / 9700 Pro || Pinnacle Systems PCTV Deluxe Video Capture Card | Quadro FX vs ATi FireGL X1

Monitor - AOC LM720A 17" LCD (German) | Eizo L565 17" LCD (German) | Samsung 191N LCD | Samsung SyncMaster 172B 17" LCD | Hitachi CML174 / Samsung 172T LCD

Printer - Epson Stylus Photo 960 Printer | Brother HL-1850 Laser Printer

Miscelanous -

Notebook, Camera, MP3 players -

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,15 2003 - tech

Afternoon Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 09:03 PM CET - Feb,15 2003 - Post a comment

A Chat with Bill Gates - PC Magazine editor-in-chief Michael J. Miller has conducted an interview with Microsoft's chairman Bill Gates as he talks about FM data-receiving watches, downloadable apps, and an Xbox showdown between Gates and Shaquille O'Neal.
Terrorists Develop Videogames - The Jerusalem Post, (free registration required), quotes Lebanon's Al-Anwar newspaper, saying that the "special Internet unit" of the Hizbollah militant organization is developing their own shooter, based on the "achievements of real resistance fighters." - "After a quick training mission, players will be able to use 9 mm pistols, Kalashnikov rifles, rocket propelled grenades, knives, and sniper rifles to attack the bases of Israel and her allies. The idea, says the Post, is to "counter the image of the 'invincible' all-American hero in games sold throughout the world." (source: 3DGPU)
Slim Desktops Free Desk Space - Within the span of two months, Dell, Gateway, HP Compaq, IBM, and PC Power & Cooling released new slim desktops. All feature P4 processors, but none are exactly what we'd call powerhouses. Based on 845G/GL motherboards, the systems don't take full advantage of the CPU as an 850 board would. Four of the five use the integrated Intel Extreme Graphics. But horsepower and gaming are not the story here.
Samsung Developed terabit Flash Memory Element - Terabit flash memory element whose density is 1,000 times higher than existing flash memory element was developed. A team lead by Dr. Kim Jeong-woo at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology announced on the 13th that together with a team led by Professor Park Byeong-kuk, it developed for the first time in the world SONOS (Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon) flash memory element with very fine width of 30 nm.
Nintendo games seized in Chinese piracy raids - Authorities in southern China have recovered around 300,000 counterfeit Nintendo games in factory raids, including copies of the recent released Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby for the Game Boy Advance. This latest batch of raids - on factories in the Guangdong province, which borders the notorious piracy hotbed of Hong Kong - marks one of the most successful operations ever against Nintendo pirates.
Illegal downloading fight targets corporations - The Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America are sending a six-page brochure this week to Fortune 1000 corporations with suggested policies -- including a sample memo to workers warning them against using company computers to download songs and movies. The brochure also carries a clear threat: Stop workers from stealing copyrighted materials or be sued.
FTD.com hole leaks personal information - A security flaw at FTD.com left private information open to harvesting this week, one of the busiest of the year for the online florist. The flaw allowed a person to use a modified "cookie" to easily access customer information from the company's servers, said Gerald Quakenbush, an information security analyst for Internet and e-business consulting service Fusion Alliance. Cookies are snippets of data that reside on a person's computer, linking that PC to information and personalized sites on the Web.
Windows XP Passwords Rendered Useless - Windows guru Brian Livingston reports that inserting a Windows 2000 CD into an XP system allows one to bypass all password protection and manipulate any part of the machine at will. "Anyone with a Windows 2000 CD can boot up a Windows XP box and start the Windows 2000 Recovery Console," says Livingston. The intruder has Administrator privileges even if he or she does not provide a password, and can also assume the identity of any other user of the machine.
Ariane-4 blasts into history - The final mission for Europe's Ariane-4 series of rockets has been successfully carried out, with the placing in orbit of a communications satellite on Saturday. The Ariane-4 has been in service for nearly 15 years and has well over 100 safe launches to its credit.
ABIT BH7 Overclockers' Dream Board - BH7 is an 845PE motherboard designed by overclockers for overclockers. This 845PE board is equipped with 4 Phase Power for overclocking. With 4 Phase Power, the BH7 is capable of overclocking to beyond an 800FSB and also of using DDR400. Without 4 Phase Power, ABIT Engineers do not believe that overclocking can be achieved to a significant level while remaining stable. The board will still include hot features such as 6 channel sound with S/PDIF in/out, LAN onboard and 3 + 1 Serial ATA.
Unreal 2 Graphics Detail: Commentary - EliteBastard's Quinton Thomas Mosley has written an article on the graphics quality of Unreal 2.
Bug In 3DMark 2003 - Neowin.net has pretty interesting post called "Cheating Is Imminent?" - While I was fooling around with the latest and greatest from FutureMark, I stumbled upon a bug which can really open the gates of cheating if it isn't fixed pronto. Here's the steps to reproduce it: 1) Set your 3D card at default clock with your favourite overclocking utility 2) Open 3D Mark 2003 3) Start benchmarking, then press Escape so that benchmarking can't finish. 4) Now open your favourite 3D card overclocker again and overclock it like there's no tomorrow 5) Benchmark again, but this time let the benchmark finish 6) Publish your score to the Online Browser for the world to see.
3D Mark 2003: The Gamers' Benchmark (?) - The new 3D Mark 2003 is finaly available but are we happy with it? Here are some thoughts.
BlindWrite Suite 4.3.0 - 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. Blindwrite Suite can also create CD audio from MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, WMA, monkey`s audio and be use with an cd-rom emulator like Daemon Tools.
IE++ 2.1 - IE++ is a set of additional functions for Internet Explorer which improve the usability of your browser and make your web-surfing more comfortable. It is integrated into the browser as toolbar. Try IE++ if you want to use native Internet Explorer, but need of extra features. The program is full-functional.
AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 455 - AVG Free Edition 6.0 Build 455 has been released.
Windows 2000 SP4 Download - Neowin.net now offers both English and German language versions of Windows 2000 SP4 Beta (Express Setup) and you can choose between two installation options for SP4: Express and Network. This is BETA software!, please use caution when installing it on your system.
Koepi`s XviD Codec build 15022003-1 (win32) - XviD (download)is a video codec just like DivX. Most new movies and videos are being encoded with XviD.
Winfox Tool v5.13.01.2003-2.51. - Leadtek has released a new version of their Winfox Tool v5.13.01.2003-2.51.
Xabre BIOSes - XabreGamers has once again laid hands on the latest SiS Xabre reference BIOS version 1.09.00 BIOS dated 13.02.2003. They also have new BIOS for the SiS740 and SiS650 - version 1.14.04 dated 13.02.2002 for the VGA core of these integrated chipsets. As I mentioned yesteday, they lso have the latest SIS XABRE 3.10.51 driver for download. (thanks blopa mapa)

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,14 2003 - tech

Friday Massive Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:57 PM CET - Feb,14 2003 - Post a comment

IBM makes another run at embedded DRAM - IBM has developed an embedded DRAM architecture that improves the memory's access time and bandwidth enough to compete with traditional SRAM. It will be offered in a 144-Mbit chip that will be "the fastest standalone DRAM in the industry, by far," says design engineer Harold Pilo (shown).
CodeCon Registration Deadline Approaching - CodeCon is fast approaching, and there are only three days left to register online for CodeCon at the reduced rate. CodeCon 2.0 is the premier event in 2003 for the P2P, Cypherpunk, and network/security application developer community. It is a workshop for developers of real-world applications with working code and active development projects. CodeCon registration is $95; a $15 discount is available for attendees who register online prior to February 15th. CodeCon 2.0 will be held February 22-24, noon-6pm, at Club NV (525 Howard Street) in San Francisco.
DVD piracy reward offered - Offering a whole new take on Customer Appreciation Day, a Missouri company announced a $10,000 reward Tuesday for tips leading to the conviction of anyone using its DVD-copying software for piracy. The move is the latest attempt by St. Louis-based 321 Studios to demonstrate its anti-piracy fervor. That's important because the major Hollywood studios want to ban 321's products on the grounds that they promote piracy.
TV channel buys $150 ID for FBI 'most wanted' suspect - Using a fake driver's licence bought via a web site, US TV's NewsChannel 4 fooled ID checking software and got confirmation that the licence could probably be used safely to fly on any commercial airline, rent a car, or cross the border into the US. Although they seem to have wimped out of trying any of these things. Oh, and just to spice things up, NewsChannel 4 had used a picture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a star of the FBI's 22 most wanted list, with a $25 million price on his head.
Motorola shows of Linux based smartphone - Motorola has shown off the world's first handset combining a Linux Operating System (OS) and Java Technology, with full multimedia PDA functionality. The Motorola A760 combines the ideal features of a mobile phone with the capabilities of a personal digital assistant (PDA), digital camera, video player, MP3 player, speakerphone, advanced messaging, instant Internet access and Bluetooth wireless technology. Packed into one compact device with a vivid color touch-screen, the Motorola A760 excels in information management as well as communication services to offer the voice, text and entertainment services to help meet the needs of today's multi-tasking mobile consumer.
Intel launches its first GSM chips - The Intel PXA800F cellular processor (screenshot) features a high-performance, low-power processor running at 312 MHz based on the Intel XScale technology with four megabytes of integrated Intel On-Chip Flash memory and 512 kilobytes of SRAM for industry leading application performance. In addition, the Intel PXA800F cellular processor includes a 104 MHz signal processor using the Intel MicroSignal architecture with 512 KB of integrated Intel On-Chip Flash memory and 64 KB of SRAM, resulting in a complete system on a single chip for advanced GSM/GPRS cellular networks.
4 GB Microdrive by fall 2003 - Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced plans to squeeze four gigabytes of data onto the 1-inch Microdrive, known as the world's smallest hard disk drive. With considerable advances in miniaturization technology thanks to the Pixie Dust concept originally developed by IBM, HGST engineers have overcome magnetic recording challenges associated with developing hard disk drives of this size, and expects the 4 GB Microdrive to be available in the Fall of 2003. The new drive will use ultra-miniaturized components, including a new read-write head that is half the size of its predecessor and results in a 40-percent decrease in the height at which the head travels above the disk platter. Analogous to a Boeing 747 airplane flying one millimeter above the surface of the earth, the Microdrive's new head technology, called the femto slider head, is so small that it is equivalent in size to a grain of table salt.
'Ultima Online' hacker arrested over 'house' sale - The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 21-year-old man on suspicion of illegally accessing an Internet game server to sell a virtual "house" owned by a woman to another game participant for 50,000 yen, police said Thursday. According to the MPD, Ryusei Sakano of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo, posed as a female game player he met online while playing "Ultima Online," a popular Internet-based game.
Boffins outline 24Mbps mobile phone chip design - Boffins at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs has come up a blueprint for a mobile chip, designed with 3G mobiles in mind, which works at a blistering fast 24Mbps. The chip, which is 10 times faster than anything available today, is unlikely to be deployed anytime before 2006.
Blue laser DVD format gets green light - Manufacturers looking for a higher-capacity recordable DVD format will want to mark Feb. 17 on their calendars. The nine companies promoting Blu-ray Disc technology--a next-generation recordable DVD format using blue-violet lasers--announced Thursday that licensing will begin Feb. 17. Blu-ray Disc technology allows for 27GB storage capacities on a single-sided 12cm disc. DVDs hold 4.7GB of data. Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial, Pioneer, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, Sony and Thomson are known as the "Blu-ray Disc Founders" and have been pursuing a broad acceptance of the format.
Yamaha to Withdraw From CD-R/RW Business - Somehow I missed this PR a couple days ago, but here is it : Yamaha Corp. decided at a board meeting to cease sales of CD-R/RWs for personal computers and to withdraw completely from the business by the end of March 2003. Since Yamaha entered the CD-R/RW market in April 1994 its products have consistently led the industry in drive speeds and won recognition for their high performance and quality.
Conversion-free office docs on the Palm - Cutting Edge Software and Snapperfish have announced a partnership to integrate their respective products, Quickoffice and Snappermail, to offer complete support for desktop-style files via e-mail attachments. As a continuation of a partnership since early 2002, the two companies intend to add support to allow Snappermail to save attached Microsoft Office files which the user can then open and edit in Quickoffice, without any intermediary server or desktop for conversion, and then send the file again in native Office format as an attachment.
Bulldog intros 4Mbps DSL - Bulldog Communications has unveiled a 4Mbps DSL broadband service for residential punters. Called Primetime 4000, it costs L79.99 a month and is available at some 35 unbundled exchanges in central London.
Microsoft entertainment OS, take two - The Redmond, Wash.-based company has started working with its PC partners on the updated version of Windows XP Media Center Edition, as well as soliciting beta testers. Microsoft debuted the entertainment operating system in January 2002 and shipped the software to PC makers in the third quarter of last year. The first computers running the software reached store shelves in October.
Microsoft shows off Yukon at VSLive! Conference - Microsoft showed off some of the forthcoming programmability features of "Yukon," the next version of its SQL Server database, here at the VSLive! developer conference on Thursday.
Crossover Projector Preview - At 800-by-600, the resolution provided by the X1's Texas Instruments SVGA DLP chip is lower than that of many projectors but more than sufficient for viewing movies and PowerPoint presentations. InFocus rates its projector at only 1,000 ANSI lumens; we measured 905, which means that this unit is better suited for smaller screens or rooms with reduced ambient lighting. The contrast ratio is outstanding at 378:1, but the brightness uniformity ratio is about average at 1.24:1 with a noticeable glow along the left edge on an all-black image.
nVidia NV40 Specs Leaked? - Betas.intercom.net has some details and specs about the upcoming NV40 from nVidia, that is due to come out in the second half of next year (2004). NV40: 0.09u process, 300-350 Million Transistors, 750-800 MHz Core clock speed, 16 Mb Embedded DRAM (134 million transistors), 1.4 GHz 256-512 Mb DDR-II Memory, 8 Pixel Rendering Pipelines (4 texels each), 16 Vertex Shader Engines, 204.8 GB/sec Bandwidth (eDRAM), 44.8 GB/sec Bandwidth (DDR-II), 25.6 GigaTexels per Second, 3 Billion Vertices per Second, DirectX 9.1 (or even DirectX 10) features. + X-bit labs has posted an article called NVIDIA nForce With DirectX 9.0 Support to Come This Year?
First Tests of AMD's Athlon XP 3000+ - PC World tested three high-end PCs using the Athlon XP 3000+: Polywell's $2099 Poly 880-NF2-3000; Sys Technology's $3153 Sys Performance 3000+; and Falcon Northwest's $3275 Mach V 3000+. All three systems came with 1GB of 333-MHz DDR memory and a list of high-end components, including ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card. The Polywell and Falcon units ran Windows XP Home while the Sys ran Windows XP Professional, but this difference in operating systems was a negligible factor in PC WorldBench 4 tests. (Polywell sent a preproduction unit; the other two were production models.)
Onkyo DV-SP800 SACD/DVD-Audio Player Review - The DV-SP800 plays both DVD-Audio and SACD through dual sets of two-channel and 5.1-plus-channel analog outputs. The plus refers to an extra set of surround outputs, which (via a rear-panel switch) allow you to run a single set of surrounds or two sets of surrounds in parallel (not to be confused with four discrete rear channels). The DV-SP800 offers progressive scanning via its component outputs (switchable with interlaced) or interlaced via two S-video or two composite jacks. There's plenty of minor video bonuses, like the 16:9 compressed mode that lets you watch 4:3 DVD material on a 16:9 screen; it prevents your TV from assuming the image is anamorphic just because it's coming in progressive. As for compatibility, the DV-SP800 can play most any consumer audio or video format on a 5-inch disc, including CD, CD-R/-RW, MP3, videoCD, and DVD-R/-RW.
IE re-releases IE patch - Yesterday MS re-released the last cumulative patch for IE (download ~ non-english). It seems that users weren't able to access some websites including MSN users trying to read their mail via web-access: This update fixes an issue caused by the February 2003, Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer (810847) where users could potentially be unable to log into MSN mail accounts or authenticate with a web site in various programs. For more information please see KB article 813951.
Hide drive calculator - When securing a Windows or Citrix based server environment it is a common practice to "hide" the view on system drives for users. Calculating the required registry values isn't the most exciting job in the world so thats why I wrote this rather simple program to do this for you. This program (download) takes your input (the drive letters) and shows you the required registry values to hide these drives, you can then cut and paste this into a .reg file, put it into your login script or write a custom .adm file.
Bulk user import tool - This program (download) opens an Excel sheet with useraccounts you filled in and then create those accounts in your Active Directory. You can specify the accountname, fullname, password (or generate them random), description, homedirectory, profile, disable, expiration date and homedrive. Please note that there is a known "feature" that it reports "user allready exist" when it can't even find the domain you specified.
LDAP query - This program searches (download) your Active Directory based on the LDAP query you specify. It makes filtering accounts, retrieving information and saving it to text files available in one free application.
Tag N Rename 3.0 Beta 1 - Here is a new version (download) with full ogg vorbis (ogg) and windows media (wma, asf, wmv) files support.
n.player 1.1.0.3 - Freeware n.player is a versatile media player that plays DVD, audio CDs, MP3, WMA, AVI, DiVX, or any media with the preinstalled DirectShow decoder. It also supports enhanced features for playing video and audio.
WinBoost 4.0 - WinBoost 4 (download) is a special utility designed to boost Windows XP, 2000, Millennium Edition (ME), 98 Second Edition, 98, 95 performance and productivity. Using easy to use graphical user interface you can configure hundreds of Windows hidden settings from Start Menu, Desktop, Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, etc.
Fresh UI 5.30 - Fresh UI (mirror) 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.
NeroNET - Share a CD recorder in a network - NeroNET is a network-capable extension of the Nero burner program, which can be used in an IP-capable Intranet. The aim is to give all Intranet users easy access to all available recorders. If you want to be a participant in the free NeroNET Customer Preview Program you are entitled to use a copy of the NeroNET Server Release Candidate 1 (RC1).
Nero fast CD-Burning plug-in for WMP - Ahead Software has released a powerful plug-in for the Windows Media Player 9.0 Series via a free download at www.wmplugins.com. This exciting Nero plug-in provides full speed recording and Nero reliability, all from within the Windows Media Player.
KaZaA P2P 2.1 - The KaZaa Media Desktop (download) is a second-generation peer-to-peer file-sharing service with which you can search and download media files from other KaZaa users.
Rage3D Tweak 3.8 - Rage3D Tweak v3.8 (download) has been just released. What is the Rage3D Tweaker? Rage3D Tweaker is a Radeon Tweaker program designed to fit right in with the other ATi option tabs in the Advanced Display Properties accessed through the Control Panel. It allows easy access to registry tweak options, custom display modes, and overclocking all through an easy to use interface.
Xabre drivers v3.10.51 - Sillicon Integrated Systems (SiS) has released new drivers version 3.10.51 (WinALL) for the Xabre 80/200/400/600 video chips/cards.
Plextor PX-W4012TS firmware - Plextor Europe has released a new firmware version for their latest SCSI drive, the PX-W4012TS. This new firmware fixes a hang-up after eject of discs written by InCD under Windows 2000/XP.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,13 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:16 AM CET - Feb,13 2003 - Post a comment

Gates previews Microsoft products - Microsoft Corp. will unveil a new suite of business applications, new computer server software and new technology for "smart" wristwatches in the coming year as part of its vision for the future of technology, co-founder and chairman Bill Gates said Tuesday. Gates addressed about 700 technology professionals and hobbyists who were among those named "Most Valuable Professionals" by Microsoft. Microsoft is hosting the group -- chosen for sharing technical expertise with others on Microsoft news groups or other forums -- for three days of technical workshops and discussions.
Gates on Xbox 2 - Bill Gates has let slip some more details about Xbox 2 and the assault of the Microsoft next-gen games console into the living room, in an interview with Les Echos, the French financial newspaper. The next-generation Xbox (which many people speculate will be called "Xbox Next", based on recent domain name registrations by Microsoft) is a much more broadly-focused multimedia device than the current console, he says. Some of this functionality could make it into the Xbox before a new console launch - several sources tell us that Microsoft is considering major upgrades to the Xbox Dashboard in the near future, including a possible integration of Internet Explorer and Windows Media into the console. Next-gen features include "digital media capabilities such as video and photo editing" and "Internet capabilities without the need for direct connections through Wi-Fi," Billg says
U.S. military expands radio-wave tracking - The U.S. Department of Defense is expanding its use of an emerging technology that combines radio waves and computer networks to track shipments of military supplies, in what some consider the largest project of its kind. People can place scanning devices in storage facilities or air bases to monitor the coming and going of tagged supplies and relay the information to computers that trace the path of each object. Using a personal computer attached to such a network, a person could determine the location of their supplies.
First UK 3G prices announced - The UK branch of 3G operator Three has just announced pricing for three different levels of subscription to its network. It will start taking pre-orders in late February.
Infineon chip to read brain-cell signals - Researchers at Infineon Technologies in Germany have developed new semiconductor technology that will allow scientists to read electrical signals in living nerve cells, the company said Tuesday. Being able to read and record the signals, with the aid of computers, will help scientists better understand how the brain works and could eventually lead to treatments for neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's, said Roland Thewes, senior director in corporate research at Munich-based Infineon.
Windows XP's Successor - The next major release of Windows won't be ready for a couple of years, but it's already taking shape. The new file system wasn't implemented in the alpha code we looked at. But Longhorn Build 3683 does contain a few intriguing interface tweaks--mostly still under construction--that indicate where Microsoft is heading. Most interesting is a completely new desktop element called Sidebar that lets you place commonly used items, including the taskbar, recently launched applications, and a clock, into a vertical, transparent window on either the right or left side of the screen.
PowerBook G4: Good Things in a Small Package - Road warriors whose needs center on images, music, and video should pay close attention to the $2,098 (list) Apple PowerBook G4 12-Inch, the smallest PowerBook yet. This PowerBook has no significant drawbacks despite its small size, and its multimedia capabilities are just about the best you can expect from a small notebook. Inside the 1.2-by-10.9-by-8.6-inch (HWD) anodized aluminum case, Apple has fitted a slot-loading DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive, a full-size keyboard, a 12.1-inch, 1,024-by-768 display, an 867-MHz PowerPC processor, an nVidia GeForce4 420 Go graphics processor, and a 40GB hard drive. All this comes in a 4.6-pound package (5.1 pounds road weight with transformer).
More GeForce FX rumors - Rumors continue to swirl around the GeForce Ultra 5800 part. This ultra high-end GPU, which should be clocked at 500MHz, may be DOA. There are rumors on several websites and chatboards stating that nVidia has decided to kill the part. nVidia has officially stated that the GeForce 5800 Ultra part will be available in February, but Best Buy is no longer allowing customers to preorder the card. It is known that nVidia/TSMC is having yield problems, so nVidia may have decided that it couldn't make enough of these cards for it to be worthwhile. Even if the card isn't cancelled, nVidia appears to have an uphill battle ahead.
A 5 Second Mod for AMD multiplier unlocking - Several mods have been circulating on the web of how to unlock AMD processors. Most of the mods are confined to alterations of the CPU in form of shorting or reconnecting bridges. In most cases, these modifications reguire quasi surgical skills and yet, they won't work on some processors / systems. An alternative modification that has become fashionable is to short pins on the CPU. While this is straight-forward, this method still misses the point in that it is somewhat risky and difficult to implement. Based on laziness, our agenda has always been to use our brains instead and we came up with a simple modification that is absolutely risk-free and can be done in about 5 seconds.
A Comparison of Four Mobile Pentium 4-M Processors - Tom's Hardware Guide has posted a comparison of four Mobile Pentium 4-M Processors.
Pentium4 vs. AthlonXP, Clock for Clock Comparison - OCAddiction has posted a comparison review between an Intel Pentium4 processor and an AMD AthlonXP processor; both clocked identically at 2.4Ghz.
Open Watcom C/C++ and FORTRAN 1.0 Goes Golden - SciTech Software, Inc. today announced that the Open Watcom 1.0 has been released and is now available for download from the OpenWatcom.org website and for purchase on CD from SciTech's website.
WinXP Patch: Windows Hardware Compatibility Audio Test Causes Computer to Stop Responding - This update addresses the "HCT Audio Test Causes Computer to Stop Responding" issue in Windows XP. Download now to allow HCT Audio Tests to complete.
Catalyst 3.0/3.1 Comparison - The article is fully in German language -> use BabelFish to translate...
jv16 PowerTools 1.3.0.195 Final - jv16 PowerTools (mirror) is a full set of tools to keep your computer up and running.
Trillian patches - Cerulean Studios has released a small patches to fix security problems with both Trillian 0.74(a) and 1.0(a) Pro(req member login).
SofR9700 Patch Scripts For RivaTuner 2.0 RC12.2 - To excecute the script (direct link) you'll need the latest RivaTuner 2.0 RC12.2 You must start it at least once, then simple extract and open attached file with Windows explorer, RivaTuner will do the rest. This script works with Catalyst 3.1.
Audigy 2 DriverPack - This web update contains enhancements and fixes to improve the performance of your Creative Sound BlasterR Audigy(TM) 2, Audigy 2 Digital Audio, Audigy 2 Platinum and Audigy 2 Platinum eX.
3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 Drivers v1.09b9 - 3DHQ has updated their drivers to version 1.09 beta 9. The drivers are for Voodoo3/4/5 based cards. Download drivers for Voodoo3: 3dhq 1.09 Beta 9 for Wi9x/ME ~ 3dhq 1.09 Beta 9 for Win2k/XP and Voodoo4/5: 3dhq 1.09 Beta 9 for Win9x/ME ~ 3dhq 1.09 Beta 9 for Win2k/XP.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,12 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:05 AM CET - Feb,12 2003 - Post a comment

Famous hacker Kevin Mitnick gets hacked - The world's best-known computer hacker suffered the indignity of having someone break into his new security consulting company's Web site. But Kevin Mitnick shrugged it off as "quite amusing," not serious enough for him to call the FBI. Mitnick, whose federal probation on hacking charges ended a few weeks ago, acknowledged that this weekend's electronic break-in at Defensive Thinking Inc. of Los Angeles was actually the second time in weeks that hackers found a way into the computer running the firm's Web site.
Cupid stunt sends not-so funny Valentine - Security companies are currently examining a suspicious Valentine's Day email being sent to computer users. The email, from [email protected], says that the recipient has received an e-card and invites users to click on a link. The site then asks users to download an 800Kb file that will need Flash to be viewed. Antivirus firms have already discovered that the software changes the browser's default search engine and drops an unidentified DLL into Windows. A check on the basic www.valentines-ecard.com URL reveals that the page has exceeded its monthly bandwidth limit.
Broadband over power lines? Technology spurs surging optimism - St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. and other utilities already are testing the technology, and many consider it increasingly viable. This truly plug-and-play technology, if proven safe, has the blessings of federal regulators looking to bolster broadband competition, lower consumer prices and bridge the digital divide in rural areas. The technology works like this: data is carried either by fiber-optic or telephone lines to skip disruptive high-voltage lines, then is injected into the power grid downstream, onto medium-voltage wires. Because signals can only make it so far before breaking apart, special electronic devices on the line catch packets of data, then reamplify and repackage them before shooting them out again.
Company develops unbreakable data encryption code - Meganet, an Israeli-U.S. data security company, has developed an encryption technology that appears to be unbreakable, enabling governments and corporations, to keep their data safely out of the hands of competitors, thieves and saboteurs. Meganet Corporation's founder, Saul Backal, claims that its solution can put an end to these problems. Meganet offers a patented non-linear data mapping technology, called VME (Virtual Matrix Encryption), that creates exceptionally random cipher text and combines it with a one million-bit key, which is unheard of in today's data security markets. Competing solutions offer a maximum of 256 bits.
MS .Net patent--clouding standards? - Microsoft is in the process of applying for a wide-ranging patent that covers a variety of functions related to its .Net initiative. If approved as is, the patent would cover application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow actions related to accessing the network, handling Extensible Markup Language (XML), and managing data from multiple sources. APIs are the hooks in software that allow applications to work with another system. Microsoft declined to elaborate on its plans for the patent, but intellectual property attorneys said that if it's granted, the company could dictate how, or whether, developers of software and devices can link to the .Net initiative.
Ericsson demos video calls on dual-mode handsets - Ericsson Mobile Platforms, a licenser of open-standard 2.5G and 3G technology platforms for mobile handsets, said Tuesday (Feb. 11) that it could demonstrate video calls on an integrated, dual-mode W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS mobile platform. Ericsson's demonstration shows standards-compliant video telephony operating between two test phones running on the 64-kbit/second circuit switch bearer to deliver 15 video frames per second. Further, it also shows video streaming on the 384-kbit/s packet data bearer.
3D shooter for Series 60 - Nokia's Series 60 platform is rapidly gaining a foothold amongst mobile device users, as new games and applications are churned out at a rate far exceeding that of the Series 80 platform, better known as the Nokia 9200 series. 3D games seem to be in particular demand, and now eager gamers have yet another alternative in the shape of Netherlands-based Overloaded's Resistance, where it's the age old stance of man vs aliens all over again.
More on "Unreal" Security Risk - A slew of vulnerabilities disclosed by PivX Solutions affect any game running on the Unreal Engine. PivX says the holes could let an attacker launch a denial-of-service attack, crash a gaming server, or even run code on a player's machine. Luigi Auriemma, a security researcher for PivX Solutions, discovered the holes. "These bugs have been around for five years," he says. "They could be used by malicious attackers in worms or large-scale attacks that rival those of Nimda and Sapphire/Slammer.... Really frightful."
WD 10,000 RPM HDD - Western Digital Corp. announced today that it is entering the enterprise hard drive market with an Enterprise Serial ATA (ESATA) product called WD Raptor. The new hard drive offers systems builders and storage vendors enterprise-class specifications: 1.2 million hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure), 10,000 RPM, 5.2 milliseconds (ms) average seek time and a five-year warranty.
Barton XP 2500+ XP 2800+ XP 3000+ Reviews - AMDBoard has already more than 30 reviews already stored at their Barton Special page.
New Motion Tech Muzic AERA - The New Motion Muzic AERA is looking to be the digital Swiss Army knife of the geek world. Packing a flash USB disk, MP3 player, voice recorder, plus a LED flashlight into a single, portable package, the AERA covers a lot of ground in 29 grams (sans 1 AAA alkaline battery). When I first saw Tom's Hardware's review of the Creative MuVo, I thought it was a really great idea. So finding this, with the voice recorder and flashlight at two thirds the price, I though I'd give it shot. But as convenient as Swiss Army knives are, they don't necessarily excel at anything they do. How will the AERA do?
HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450 First Look - The HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450 ($700 street) carries the flag well both for Hewlett-Packard and the Pocket PC 2002 universe. Sure, the price nearly buys a notebook PC today, but the h5450's useful features will appeal to both enterprise and professional users. The assets include integrated 802.11b Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios for wireless LAN and PAN connections, plus a fingerprint reader for bulletproof security. The 7.3-ounce h5450 also features a Secure Digital slot and a class-leading 65,536-color, 3- by 2.3-inch transflective display (320-by-240 resolution).
NVIDIA 3DMark 2003 released - You probably already noticed that Futuremark has officially released 3DMark 2003 today. On a related note, Nvidia has contacted GameSpot to say that it doesn't support the use of 3DMark 2003 as a primary benchmark in the evaluation of graphics cards (!), as the company believes the benchmark doesn't represent how current games are being designed. Specifically, Nvidia contends that the first test is an unrealistically simple scene that's primarily single-textured, that the stencil shadows in the second and third tests are rendered using an inefficient method that's extremely bottlenecked at the vertex engine, and that many of the pixel shaders use specific elements of DX8 that are promoted by ATI but aren't common in current games. In addition, PCExtreme.net has posted the first review, and Beyond3D has posted an article called "Introduction To 3DMark2003"
Mozilla 1.3b - Mozilla is an open-source web browser and toolkit, designed for standards compliance, performance and portability. Mozilla.org provides binaries for testing and feedback.
VisualRoute 7.1b - VisualRoute (download) delivers the functionality of key Internet "ping," "whois," and "traceroute" tools, in a high-speed visually integrated package. VisualRoute automatically analyzes Internet connectivity and performance problems, displaying the results in an easy to understand table and on a world map.
DVD Region-Free 1.36 - DVD Region-Free is an unique, effective and easy-to-use DVD tweaking too that allows you to watch all region DVDs on any DVD drive(especially RPC2) even if it has been locked.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,11 2003 - tech

Mystery behind Barton core solved! - tech
(hx) 09:18 PM CET - Feb,11 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)

AMDBoard let us know that the mystery behind Barton core solved thanks to Slovakian scientist and scanning tunneling microscopy (SCM). On the 10th of February 03 the world discovered the long awaited Athlon XP featuring Barton core but little did we know about an incredible detail Slovakian scientists Gunov Bombirakov and his scanning tunneling microscope (SCM) have found. It was called the Barton's Mystery and it is now, thanks to unbelievable magnifying of million times, SOLVED. Note: Heh, wow!...I seriously HOPE it's a fake....

3DMark 2003 Released - tech
(hx) 08:56 PM CET - Feb,11 2003 - Post a comment / read (1)

Futuremark have released 3DMark 2003, a new version of their gaming benchmark utility, which comes in at 177MB. Here are a list of mirrors: Guru3D, Majorgeeks, FileShack, VRZone, Computerbase.de, Futuremark.allround-pc, Winfuture.de, Mydrivers.com, We-dare.nl, Gameshardware.net, Ocshoot.no, Tweak.dk, Edome.net, FreeNet.de, ReactorCritical, Pelaaja.info and S3Graphics.

Benchmark Structure. 3DMark03 is a collection of 3D tests. These include a set of four game tests; these are the only tests used to calculate the overall 3DMark03 score. The benchmark also includes a set of CPU, feature, image quality, and sound tests. Each of these tests measures specific 3D-related functionality, but their result is not included in the overall score. They do not fall into the target usage, but are included to allow the user to evaluate these features. The CPU test is a convenient way to measure the performance of the CPU for typical 3D usage. The feature tests isolate the performance of key 3D features primarily relating to shader technologies. The next set of tests is an exciting new addition to 3DMark: the 3D sound tests. These evaluate the impact of 3D sound sources on 3D graphics performance. The software also includes a set of much-improved image quality tools. These provide a powerful way to ensure integrity of the graphics hardware and drivers.

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:46 AM CET - Feb,11 2003 - Post a comment

Europe plans its own NSA to "boost cyber-security" - Europe is to get its own NSA - almost. The European Commission today unveiled plans for a European Network and Information Security Agency, to "serve as a centre of competence where both Member States and EU Institutions can seek advice on matters relating to cyber security."
NASA requests extra Russian spacecraft to service space station - The U S space agency NASA today asked Russia to build an extra unmanned cargo ship to service the International Space Station (ISS) after the Columbia shuttle disaster, a senior official said in Moscow. The supply vehicle costs 700 million roubles (around 22 million dollars) to build and launch, according to Rosaviakosmos. It will supplement three Progress missions scheduled for this year.
Microsoft moves ahead on Xdocs - Microsoft on Monday plans to unveil more details on XDocs, its controversial electronic forms software.
The software giant is set to announce at a conference in San Diego that XDocs will officially be called InfoPath. Last year, Microsoft unveiled XDocs as a planned addition to Office 11, the forthcoming update to the company's market-dominating, cash-cow productivity suite. Office 11 will rely heavily on Extensible Markup Language (XML), the lingua franca of Web services, to record and display data more flexibly.
Motorola reveals networking chips - Motorola announced two new additions to its roster of processors for the networking and telecommunications industry that consume less power at faster clock speeds than previous generations of Motorola processors, the company said Monday. The MPC7457 and MPC7447 use the PowerPC instruction set, first developed by IBM. The two chips are available at clock speeds up to 1.3GHz, an improvement over the older 7455 chips that ran at 1GHz, said Glenn Beck, marketing manager for the computing products systems division of Motorola Semiconductor.
Fuel cells design to replace batteries - A start-up company says it has developed a way to make fuel cells out of silicon, a change that potentially could increase the performance of cells and make them easier to manufacture. As far-fetched as it might sound, fuel cells for cell phones or notebooks will likely emerge in the market next year and grow in popularity. Unlike microprocessors, hard drives or memory, batteries are not continuing to improve at a rapid, predictable rate. This is forcing tech companies to seek alternatives or products that will complement batteries.
CDMA2000 reaches 30 million users - The CDMA Development Group (CDG) today reported that the CDMA2000 subscriber base surpassed 30 million in January 2003, after having seen major expansion of the technology throughout 2002 when 27 operators launched CDMA2000 networks, increasing the number of commercial systems to 37 on five continents. In addition, three operators took advantage of 2002 to introduce CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, capable of delivering data at rates of up to 2.4 Mbps, early. In comparison with CDMA2000 1xRTT, 1xEV-DO is over 16 times as fast as the 144 Kbps theoretical throughput of 1xRTT networks
LG VX4400 is 4th Get It Now color phone - Color is key with the VX4400, which offers a 16-bit STN color internal LCD display, blue backlit keypad and LG's signature color-personalized caller ID with up to 10 different colors. Using color-personalized caller IDs, VX4400 users will be able to choose which color they would like to assign to different contacts, such as red for a spouse, blue for friends and green for co-workers.
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ Released - AMD today introduced the AMD Athlon XP processor 3000+ - the world's highest performing desktop PC processor. Featuring increased cache memory for greater performance, the AMD Athlon XP processor 3000+ outperforms competing desktop PC processors by up to 17 percent on a variety of industry standard software benchmarks. The AMD Athlon XP processor 3000+ features 640KB of total on-chip cache memory - an increase of nearly 70 percent over previous AMD Athlon XP processors and the highest amount of on-chip cache memory of any desktop PC processor. The AMD Athlon XP processor 3000+ is priced at $588 in 1,000-unit quantities.
AMD Athlon XP Processor 3000+ Reviews - Tom'sHardware | HardOCP | X-bit labs | AnandTech | Hexus | TechReport | Ace's Hardware | SimHQ | DeviantPC | Sudhian | HotHW ~ "The model number of AMD's new top model seems pretty aggressive - the Athlon XP 3000+. Even in comparison to the `old' Athlon XP 2800+, based on the T-Bred core, this new top dog is often left behind (10 out of 18 tests). Overclockers may be in for a treat, but what about the average user and AMD enthusiast?"
The 12" Powerbook Review - The 12" Powerbook is a slick machine. It is really a beautifully constructed computer. It gives the feeling that is more natural and more solid than the iBook or the plastic PC laptops. The Apple logo on the back of the LCD screen is lit by the LCD's backlight and it looks at least cool, especially at night.
Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual III Review - The Minolta DiMage Scan Dual III ($299 list) is an inexpensive, easy-to-use film scanner. Despite its no-frills construction, the Scan Dual III offers enough goodies to delight neophytes and serious film aficionados, while producing very good scans.
TweakHounds Super XP Tweaking Guide Updated - TweakHound has released their Super XP Tweaking Guide - check it out!
WinXP Tweaking: From Relax to Righteous - This highly anticipated second XP guide picks up where the first one left off by bringing together a range of XP tips and tweaks which address commonly encountered problems, provide visual enhancement and customization, and all the little niceties and shortcuts which make XP quicker and easier to use. This guide applies to Windows XP Home and Professional, and is compatible with XP SP1 (or SP1a).
3DMark on Tuesday evening - Matthias sent us some news to the specific graphics-benchmarks, which will be integrated in 3DMark2003 (~181 MB), which is supposed to be released on Tuesday. Again there will be four single tests, based und different DirecX-Versions. There will be one DX 7, two DX 8 an one DX 9 tests included, to ensure reliable test even for older cards. The first one is called "Wings of Fury", simulating a kind of airbattle, the second one is showing a battle between spaceships and is called "Battle of Proxycon". The second DX 8 test "Troll´s Lair" is showing a scene of a role-game. Last but not least there will be the successor of the known "Nature" test which is called "Mother Nature" and is definitively gonna stress your whole machine :-). (Thanks Matthias)
kX Project Drivers 5.00.3529 Alpha - The kX Audio Driver 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.
CPUCooL 7.1.9 - CPUCooL (download) is a program that monitors temperature, fan speed, and voltages for many motherboards.
Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 4.0.1 - The Ringtone Converter (download) is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for cables or expensive premium rate SMS services.
IE++ 2.1 beta 1 - IE++ is a set of additional functions for Internet Explorer which improve the usability of your browser and make your web-surfing more comfortable. It is integrated into the browser as toolbar. Try IE++ if you want to use native Internet Explorer, but need of extra features.
ATI Catalyst Drivers v3.1 - ATI today posted another CATALYST update as CATALYST version 3.1 (download page ~ direct link for WinXP/2k, Win9x/ME) This time the unified driver gets updated with even more features, performance and stability. CATALYST drivers are still the only DirectX9 fully compatible and certified 3D acceleration drivers out there.
3DFX drivers version 1.09 beta 9 - This new beta contains some fixes for Glide and OpenGL issues encountered by some users.
Creative Labs Drivers Mania - Creative have released some new drivers: Creative Surround Mixer version 3.00.57, Audigy 2 DriverPack WDM Drivers AUD2DRVL11030205, Creative Speaker Settings version 1.00.56, Creative DVD-Audio Player version 1.00.60, and Creative MediaSource version 1.00.57.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,08 2003 - tech

Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:47 PM CET - Feb,08 2003 - Post a comment / read (6)

Auto makers catch fuel-cell fever - Encouraged by the Bush administration's pledge to spend $1.2 billion on fuel cell vehicle research, leading auto makers are moving forward will plans for hydrogen-powered cars. "We're looking at putting production vehicles on the street between 2010 and 2012," said an engineer at one Big Three auto maker.
French Police Seize Mobile Phone Guns - French police said on Friday they had seized two lethal mobile phones capable of shooting four bullets, with the digital touchpads used as triggers. The black telephones, identical to normal mobile phones on the outside, were discovered in a raid on a suspected gangster's home on Tuesday in the northern town of Rouen. The fake phones come apart in the middle to reveal a four-chamber secret compartment for .22 caliber bullets, which can be shot out of a protruding fake aerial.
Nokia issues battery warning - Non-original mobile phone batteries are popular with mobile phone users who seek to replace worn down original batteries, since most of them promise to not only last longer but also cost less than originals. According to Nokia, however, several incidents over the course of the past few months have shown that non-original batteries could overheat and cause damage both to the batteries and the phone.
IBM plans top-end "Armada" Unix server - IBM plans to release a new top-end Unix server in 2004, a 64-processor machine code-named Armada that will feature the company's coming Power5 processor, a senior Big Blue executive has confirmed. Armada, the successor to the 32-processor p690 "Regatta" system that IBM introduced more than a year ago, is a Unix server that will come closest so far to matching the capabilities of the company's vaunted mainframe systems.
Microsoft gives coders a bug finder - Web developers in need of another set of eyes to check their code for security holes should soon be able to add an application scanner to Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net. The software giant plans to announce on Monday that a plug-in created by security firm Sanctum, scheduled for release in March, will be the first to easily integrate with Microsoft's development platform Visual Studio .Net. The tool, AppScan Developer Edition 1.5, can be run on Web applications in real time to catch common programming flaws.
Filesharing safe? Not anymore! - MSFN is reporting that their contributor has received very interesting mail, containing a legal notice telling him that he has been monitored sharing copyright protected files over the sharing program 'Direct Connect'. The letter has been composed by the Director of Enforcement from Mediaforce in New York. The Director of Enforcement wrote this letter on behalf of New Line Cinema Corporation, a division of AOL Time Warner. IP, downloading time and username were also included in the letter. This is one of the first real evidences that big media companys like AOL Time Warner behalf divisions which monitor the sharing networks for copyright violation.
ATI's Ben Haim Interview - SharkyExtreme has conducted an interview with Ben Bar Haim, ATI's Vice President of Software Department, as he talks about drivers for the ATI cards.
GeForceFX 5800 Ultra No More - According to HardOCP, the GeForceFX 5800 Ultra will never make it to retail. Those of you that PreBuy the cards will still get an Ultra model with the FX Flow cooling unit. Those who don't will have the opportunity to get the non-Ultra version (400/800) off the retail shelves for a price of US$300.00. This information is unconfirmed at this time, but has been what we have been told repeatedly by different sources since Tuesday of this week.
eMachines T2200SE Review - The $999 (direct) eMachines T2200SE (Special Edition) marks the value-PC company's entry into the gaming arena. The T2200SE, which is available online only, is identical to the company's T2200 system, with one major difference-it features one of the hottest video controllers around, the award-winning ATI Radeon 9700 Pro.
Linksys WSB24 Wireless Signal Booster - If you've been struggling with dead spots and low throughput in your wireless LAN (and who hasn't), Linksys may have come to your rescue. Their WSB24 Wireless Signal Booster is supposed to improve the range and performance of any 802.11b WLAN, but you'll have to read this review to find out whether it really delivers the goods.
AMD AthlonXP 2600+ 333 FSB Review - OC Addiction.com has posted a nice review of the Athlon XP 2600+.
NVIDIA Quadro FX vs. ATI FireGL X1 - X-bit labs has posted a comparison between the new rumored NVIDIA Quadro FX based on the latest NV30 chip and the ATI FireGL X1 in one of the most widely spread professional applications - 3ds max 5.
Top Graphics Cards in 3ds Max 5 - X-bit labs also posted a roundup called "Today's Top Graphics Cards in 3ds Max 5".
DVD Burner Test: Seven Times The Capacity - With the huge amounts of information that now have to be stored, the CD-RW is beginning to run out of steam. The DVD boosts storage capacity to 4.5GB, and, in addition to data, can also record videos. So here is the lowdown on what the market is offering.
2003 Gamers' Hardware Upgrade Guide - The basic concept of our article is that, starting from a slightly "old" configuration, we investigate which upgrades give you the best return on your investment. This time our base configuration is a 1.4 GHz Athlon Thunderbird, on a KT266A motherboard, equipped with a Geforce 2 Ti 200.
Formula 1: Ferrari 2003 Pictures - Oh yeah, check it out!:)
DVD X Copy v.1.3 Review - The Motion Picture Association of America is currently fighting to ban DVD copying, fearing widespread piracy as DVD burners become more commonplace, but 321 Studios keeps its package aimed at legitimate use. The software copies video object (VOB) files, but provides no access to these files, which carry the MPEG-2 stream as well as navigation and search information packets. So you can't, for instance, step in to remove region protection, which would enable playback on any drives sold anywhere in the world. Also, 321 Studios inserts a DVD Backup warning screen on the final discs to remind those watching a copy that it was never intended for resale or distribution.
Updated Windows NT 4.0 Patch: Flaw in Windows WM_TIMER Message Handling... - Microsoft has investigated this issue and is releasing
an updated patch for Windows NT 4.0. The bulletin has been updated to include the new download links for the NT 4.0 patch.
jv16 PowerTools 1.3.0.188 RC2 - jv16 PowerTools is a full set of tools to keep your computer up and running. It has a lot of bug fixes and other small improvements, nothing special. The main improvements are in the stability and performance of the registry cleaner and the registry finder but there's also some other small bug fixes.
K-Lite Codec Pack 1.3 Final - K-Lite Codec Pack 1.3 includes the following codecs: DivX 5.03 Professional, DivX ;) MPEG-4 Low and Fast motion, XviD (Koepi's build 04/10/2002), 3ivx, Microsoft MPEG-4 (modified version), Fraunhofer MPEG-2 A/V, Elecard/Moonlight MPEG-2 A/V decoders, VOB directshow filters, MP3 audio, DivX WMA Audio, Ogg Vorbis audio, AC3 audio, MPEG-2 Audio, DivX Anti-Freeze, FourCC Code Changer.
XviD Codec 2003-02-08 - The XviD Codec is needed to play movies encoded by XviD.
ClonyXXL 2.0.1.3a - ClonyXXL is a copy protection detection scanner, which can show what kind of protection is used on a disc. It will provide you with the right settings for CloneCD, so you can make a working copy of the disc.
Hercules Sound Card Drivers v6.09a - Hercules US has released new unified drivers (with DLS sb ~ without DLS sb) for their sound card series based on Crystal chipsets (Fortissimo II series, GTXP series, Fortissimo III 7.1, Digifire 7.1).
SpeedTouch 2.0.1 Drivers - Alcatel have released new SpeedTouch 2.0.1 Drivers for their DSL modems.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,07 2003 - tech

Friday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:11 PM CET - Feb,07 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)

Nintendo to Give Games Away, Cut Prices - Nintendo on Thursday said it would cut prices on some of its top games and give away hit games with its console as it works to boost sales for the struggling GameCube. Nintendo said it would offer one of four games for free with the $149.95 GameCube. GameCube buyers will be able to choose from "Metroid Prime," "Star Fox Adventures," "Mario Party 4" or "Resident Evil 0" with purchase of the console. Nintendo also slashed the price on its bundled offering of the GameCube, "Super Mario Sunshine" and an external memory card to $159.95 from $189.95. Purchased individually, the three components of the pack would cost almost $215. A number of games from early in the GameCube's history, like "Luigi's Mansion" and "Super Smash Bros. Melee," will be cut in price to $29.95 from $49.95 as part of a "Player's Choice" program, the company said.
MSN deliberately breaks Opera's browser, claims company - Opera Software has accused Microsoft of deliberately engineering the MSN home page in order to make it look as if the Opera browser has a serious flaw in it. And the Norwegian company has published the results of an investigation which it says proves this.
Microsoft issues security bulletins for Internet Explorer and XP - Microsoft Corp. issued two security advisories yesterday pointing to a "critical" flaw in its Internet Explorer browser and a second, less severe problem with its Windows XP operating system. The problem with Explorer stems from a security function in the software designed to stop one domain, such as a Web site, from sharing information with another domain, Microsoft said in a security bulletin. Microsoft has discovered that such information-sharing can occur when certain dialog boxes are used.
US and UK arrests in computer worm probe - Two UK men were arrested this morning following police raids in the UK and US aimed at dismantling an international hacker group believed to have created a virulent computer worm. Officers from the Durham Constabulary arrested a 19 year-old electrician and a 21 year-old unemployed man after seizing evidence related to computer and drugs offences during a raid on two addresses in County Durham this morning.
Public-Computer Users Beware - A college student was indicted on Thursday on charges he placed software on dozens of computers that allowed him to secretly monitor what people were typing, and then stole around $2,000 using information he gleaned.
MS toughens Windows Server 2003 - Microsoft wants to assure big companies that its upcoming Windows Server 2003 operating system is ready to handle complex business applications. The software giant on Thursday detailed a series of features it has added to Windows Server 2003 to improve the reliability of the server operating system and cut down on the amount of unplanned downtime for servers. Windows Server 2003, which is due in April, will compete with variants of the Unix operating system from companies like Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and IBM.
Japanese scientist invents 'invisibility cloak' - A Japanese scientist has developed a coat which appears to make the wearer invisible. The illusion was part of a demonstration of optical camouflage technology at Tokyo University. It is the brainchild of Professor Susumu Tachi who is in the early stage of research he hopes will eventually make camouflaged objects virtually transparent.
Scientists develop darkest substance on earth - British scientists have invented the darkest material on Earth. The super-black coating was developed by researchers at the National Physical Laboratory in London. It could revolutionise optical instruments because it reflects 10 to 20 times less light than the black paint currently used to reduce unwanted reflections.
Education overhaul urged for nanotech revolution - U.S. educational institutions haven't done enough to prepare students and the nation for the transition to nanotechnology, and should alter curricula as early as the K-12 level to get ready for the coming revolution, academics and research leaders said.
Leaking Capacitors Muck up Motherboards - Aluminum electrolytic capacitors with a low equivalent series resistance (ESR) are high-capacitance components that generally serve to smooth out the power supply to chips. Throughout 2002, they have been breaking open and failing in certain desktop PCs. Motherboard and PC makers contacted by IEEE Spectrum have stopped using the faulty parts, but because the parts can fail over a period of several months, more such failures are expected.
Nvidia now expected to dump GeForce FX - Sources close to Nvidia tell the INQUIRER that the graphics firm has told its partners that the GeForce FX is likely to be discontinued, with the firm instead concentrating on the NV35 platform. The sources said that the firm has made the move because of an update that its bitter rival ATI is expected to soon roll out of the door. Nvidia could not be contacted for confirmation at press time, but earlier this week a PR representative said that he "could not comment" on the previous reports. Insiders had told the INQ earlier this year that Nvidia was only forecasting 100,000 units of the GeForce FX to ship before the end of May.
John Carmack evaluates ATI, nVidia flagchips - Beyond3D has posted an interview with John Carmack as he talks about differences between the ATI 9700 Pro and the nVidia GeForce FX.
Six DVD recorders tested - Tom's Hardware Guide has posted an article in which they have tested the following six DVD writers, Philips DVDRW228K(DVD+R/ RW), Pioneer DVR-A05 (DVD-R/ RW),Ricoh MP5125A (DVD+R/ RW), Sony DRU120A (DVD+R/ RW), TEAC DV-W50E (DVD-R/ RW), Sony DRU-500A (DVD-R/ RW and DVD+R/ RW).
First Look at Nvidia's Geforce FX - PC World's exclusive tests of a GeForceFX 5800 Ultra suggest that unless NVidia can speed the board's operation significantly through updated drivers, the most noise this high-end board will make is from the dull roar of its extensive cooling system. The GeForceFX 5800 is scheduled to appear in PCs arriving at retail in early March; NVidia partners should begin shipping retail boards priced at about $400 around the same time.
The First Pentium-M Notebook Put To The Test - Intel is soon to bring a new mobile platform to life under the brand name "Intel Centrino Mobile Technology." Even before the product launch, Tom's Hardware got the opportunity to test a notebook with the new Pentium-M (codenamed "Banias"). And the results look very promising.
WinDVD Tweaker 4.2 - WinDVD Tweaker is designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software to enable some hidden settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure.
NeroMIX 1.3.1.6c - NeroMIX (mirrror) creates or copies anything you throw at it, in the slickest possible way. NeroMIX combines dynamic CD burning (data, audio, copying) with the newest Internet audio technology, all in one customizable interface.
Nero InCD 3.5.20.0b - InCD (mirror) 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.
NeroVision Express 1.0.43b - NeroVision Express (mirror) guides you through the whole process of creating DVDs, VCDs and SVCDs in an easy and innovative way.
Fresh Diagnose 5.50 - 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!
Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility 5.0 - The Intel Processor Frequency ID Utility was developed by Intel Corporation to enable consumers the ability to identify and, in some circumstances, determine if their Intel processor is operating at the correct and rated frequency intended by Intel Corporation. Beginning with the PentiumR processor, this utility provides consumers with the ability to determine standard CPU identification of Intel processors. In addition, supported processors can utilize the Frequency Test feature of the utility to help determine if a processor has been overclocked.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,06 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 05:10 AM CET - Feb,06 2003 - Post a comment / read (2)

Columbia FAQ: Hard Questions, Simple Answers - Some of the most common questions about the Columbia tragedy, and the answers as best we know them right now. Here are two other links for some alternatives to the current shuttle approach - How Space Elevators Will Work ~ Orbital Space Plane (OSP).
Kevin Mitnick Answers - Kevin Mitnick has been crazy-busy with media tours and book promotion stuff, and apologizes for taking so long to answer your questions. But answer he has, at length and in detail, with a brief intro at the start to correct a story in which he says he was misquoted
Phantoms of the Opera driven out - Opera, the Norwegian software company, rushed to release a patch for the latest major release its multi-platform Web browser on Wednesday, following five security advisories that were released on Tuesday, three of them rated critical.
The robot gets connected - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has developed a robot on wheels that the Japanese manufacturer says will become a future house-sitter, caretaker, nurse and friend for the family. The 100cm-tall bubble-headed, mouthless robot, shown to reporters yesterday, has cameras inside its head and comes equipped with voice and face recognition capabilities that allow the machine to search for and follow voices, faces and movements. The still experimental robot is suited for older people or those in frail health, the Tokyo-based company said. It will likely sell at about Y1 million ($A14,247), although Mitsubishi did not say when it will go on sale.
Dell: It's Time Floppy Drives Go Way Of The Dodo - For nearly 16 years, one piece of personal computer technology has remained the same: the floppy disk drive. While microprocessor speeds and computer memory have improved by leaps and bounds, the lowly floppy disk, with its measly 1.44-megabyte capacity, hasn't changed. Over the years, other technologies have been touted as floppy drive replacements, namely zip drives and recordable compact discs. But they couldn't slay the floppy disk drive, which is still standard on most desktop PCs. The floppy drive may have finally met its match in small, high-capacity portable storage devices called USB flash memory drives. They pack 16 MB or more of storage into a thumb-sized device that many companies sell as a key chain accessory.
Bye-Bye CD-RW? - CD burner used to be the only practical and affordable option for a rewritable optical drive. That has changed radically. Selecting DVD burners over older CD-RWs is becoming a no-brainer, with the future clearly moving to DVD. And now multiple generations of DVD burners are available, giving you a range of speeds and prices to choose from. Today, a top 52X/24X/52X CD-RW drive costs less than $150. But for $100 more, you can get a DVD burner with CD-RW functionality. If you add another $50, you can buy a fast, new rewritable DVD drive like Pioneer's DVR-A05.
Nokia reveals N-Gage technical details - Besides its gaming features, the Nokia N-Gage game deck also offers music playback capabilities of files in MP3 and AAC format, and comes with PC software from Nokia called Audio Manager to let users manage their music collection. In addition comes a stereo FM radio and tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 mobile phone functionality. Like other Series 60 devices, the N-Gage will also sport an XHTML browser, support for SMS and MMS, an e-mail client and various PIM applications, as well as support for J2ME applications - all presented on the 12-bit TFT color display in a 176 x 208 pixel resolution.
Making the Nokia 7650 roomier - Dubbed Space Doubler, the application is an automatized, transparent compression system for Series 60 devices - much like utilities that were once common in the heyday of DOS and early Windows versions. As far as users are concerned, the application acts transparently to compress applications and data stored on the 7650, providing more room to store additional data and applications. Compressed applications need not be unpacked manually to enable users to run them, as that process is carried out. automatically.
Smartmedia-based video/music player for GBA - A company called am3, funded by Toshiba, Imagica, and Bandai, are set to start test marketing in May (in Japan) a device for the Game Boy Advance (and Game Boy Advance SP) that will allow you to replay video and music file stores on SmartMedia memory cards. They plan on a full-scale release in the fall.
1st Episode Of Animatrix Released - The official Matrix page has word of the first officially released widescreen Anime episode of the Animatrix for download (in quicktime format). This is the first of 4 free episodes that will be released on the web. A total of 9 episodes will be availible for purchase on DVD within the next few months. (thanks SlashDot).
WinXP - Unchecked Buffer in Windows Redirector Could Allow Privilege Elevation - A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to compromise a computer running Microsoft(r) Windows(r) XP and gain control over it. To attempt an attack, the attacker would have to be able to log on to the computer. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft.
WinXP - Fast User Switching issue on WindowsXP Media Center Edition - This update resolves the Fast User Switching issue on WindowsXP Media Center as described in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 811009.
Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer February 5, 2003 - This is a cumulative patch that includes the functionality of all previously released patches for IE 5.01, 5.5, 6.0. In addition, it eliminates two newly discovered vulnerabilities involving Internet Explorer's cross-domain security model - which keeps windows of different domains from sharing information.
SQL Server 2000 Security Tools Updated - Use SQL Server 2000 security tools to scan instances of SQL Server and detect security vulnerabilities, and then apply updates to the affected files.
Office XP Custom Maintenance Wizard - The Custom Maintenance Wizard (download) enables you to make changes to a Microsoft Office XP installation after the initial deployment. Using the Custom Maintenance Wizard, you can modify almost every feature that you can set in the Custom Installation Wizard - including default user settings, security levels, Outlook settings, and registry keys.
GNOME 2.2.0 - Whilst you are enjoying 2.2, the GNOME development team will be running back to the coalface, eager to work on the next release - in fact, we've already started! Stay tuned for more information about the 2.3 development series...
KaZaA Lite Toolbar 1.6.1 - 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 email, shared folder or external tools (like Antivirus, Windows Media Player, AVI Preview, 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.
CDRWIN 3.9c DateCode.20030204 - Goldenhawk website now offers a new updated version of CDRWIN 3.9c.
Opera 7.01 Final - This new version (with java ~ without java) fixes five security advisories that were released on Tuesday.
New GLIDE2x and GLIDE3x runtime - Download it from Guru3D.

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,05 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:07 AM CET - Feb,05 2003 - Post a comment

DALnet channels for chat, not files - Effective March 1, 2003 DALnet will be enforcing a change to its Acceptable Use Policy (http://www.dal.net/aup) which will prohibit "Using a channel for the primary purpose of facilitating the transfer of files".
SQL Slammer Worm Spread Worldwide in 10 Minutes - It only took 10 minutes for the SQL Slammer worm to race across the globe and wreak havoc on the Internet two weeks ago, making it the fastest-spreading computer infection ever seen, researchers said on Tuesday.
The worm, which nearly cut off Web access in South Korea and shut down some U.S. bank teller machines, doubled the number of computers it infected every 8.5 seconds in the first minute of its appearance, said a computer security research group led by the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis.
Vulnerable Opera - Opera is racing to fix five vulnerabilities, three of which are said to be serious, involving the latest version of its popular Web browsing software.
Atari (2600) Game Development Still Going Strong - Thirty years after Nolan Bushnell founded Atari, the game system that he helped develop is still drawing raves -- and yes, even new games. For Atari programmers, the 2600 console brings back memories of their youth. Furthermore, they say, programming for the console represents a challenge; there are no CD-ROMs or limitless hard drives. Or coverage by major gaming magazines, for that matter.
AMD ships Athlon MP 2600+ - AMD today introduced the Athlon MP 2600+ (PR), available "immediately through 49 system builders worldwide. The list price is $273 in those OEM quantities of a thousand. The MP 2600+, AMD's fastest multiprocessor CPU to date, is pitched against Intel Xeon systems in the low-end server space.
AMD CPU Identification page - Since the good ol' K5, decyphering an AMD CPU has always been tricky and AMDboard has setup a Special Identification page where all the codes are explained along with examples of every chip (Athlon, Duron, XP, etc.). It's simple and efficient and will save you time and energy.
How to totally customize Windows XP - ExtremeMhz has posted a new WinXP tweaking guide that will show you how to break away from the limited choices Windows XP has to offer, including he best sites to acquire themes, boot screens and even logon screens.
MySQL 4.1.0 Gamma - MySQL 4.1.0-gamma (download ~ changelog) has been released today.
phpMyAdmin 2.4.0 RC1 - phpMyAdmin (changelog) can manage a whole MySQL-server (needs a super-user) but also a single database.
KaZaA Lite K++ 2.0.3 Final - KaZaA Lite K++ 2.0.3 Final is available for download.
jv16 PowerTools 1.3.0.183 RC - 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.
Xabre v1.08.03 BIOS - Paul let us know that Xabre Gamers have released a new BIOS version 1.08.03 (download) for the Xabre 400 (the last known BIOS was 1.04!) and the Triplex Xabre 600.
S3/VIA Driver updates - There are new driver updates from S3 Graphics: VIA SuperSavage: Logo'd: SuperSavage Win2k/XP v12.90.89, VIA Twister Drivers: Logo'd: Twister W2k/XP v13.93.62.1 w/Hotkey | Logo'd: Twister W2k/XP v13.93.62.1 No Hotkey | Logo'd: Twister W2XP v13.93.62.1 Rotation, VIA ProSavage Drivers: Logo'd: ProSavage Win2k/XP v13.93.65 w/Util | Logo'd: ProSavage Win2k/XP v13.93.65 NoUtil, and there are some older VIA ProSavageDDR Drivers: Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win2k v13.93.65 Util | Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win2k/XP v13.93.65 no/Ishld | Logo'd: ProSavageDDR Win2k/XP v13.93.65 Rotation (thanks SavageNews).

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,04 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 03:26 AM CET - Feb,04 2003 - Post a comment

Nintendo brings free Cube game offer to Europe - Following in the footsteps of a similar offer in the USA, European consumers will be able to pick up a free game when they purchase a GameCube in Europe from February 3rd until March 20th. Unlike the US offer, however, the European deal is a bit more stingy with its software, offering a wider range of choice but fewer AAA titles. Purchasers can choose from a list of seven games - Eternal Darkness, Wave Race, Disney's Magical Mirror, Doshin the Giant, Luigi's Mansion, NBA Courtside 2002 and Pikmin.
Nokia game phone gets big names - Nokia Handheld Gaming looks set for a haul of big name games later this year. The Finnish company has managed to sign Sega, Capcom and Taito with the possibility of Namco joining the fun. Nokia is set to announce the specifications of its mobile phone equipped competitor for the Gameboy Advance sometime soon. The new phone will be called the Nokia N-Gage mobile game deck. It uses the Series 60 platform and the Symbian operating system so the possibility of the games making their way onto other phones is there. Games will be available separately on memory cards.
Microsoft's Xbox losses almost double - Losses at Microsoft Corp.'s Home and Entertainment segment, which includes the Xbox game console, nearly doubled in the last three months of 2002, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday. The segment, which also includes Microsoft's TV platform and PC games, posted a quarterly operating loss of US$348 million, compared with $180 million in the same period a year ago, the Redmond, Washington, company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its second fiscal quarter.
Deep Junior and Kasparov draw in fourth match - The fourth match ended in a draw (playback) after 61 moves, with Kasparov claiming that he used moves to make the computer "think out of the box". The second game in the series of six was also a draw, with Kasparov winning game one, and Deep Junior winning game three.
Microsoft pulls Java from Windows - In compliance with a court order, the software titan releases an updated version of Windows XP Service Pack 1 without its own version of Java. You can download this updated SP1a from here.
Shuttle-Themed Trailer Pulled - Following Saturday's Columbia disaster, Paramount Pictures has yanked its latest promo for the studio's upcoming sci-fi thriller The Core because it contains a scene depicting an imperiled NASA space shuttle trying to make an emergency landing. The studio has asked theaters across the country not to run the recently finished trailer.
Tel.Me T919 makes reappearance - Reminiscent of the form factor of Sony Ericsson's P800, the T919 offers (hi-res pictures) a transflective CSTN 15-bit color touch screen, capable of displaying 32768 colors at a resolution of 256 x 128 pixels. The operating system lets users switch from portrait to landscape mode according to their preferences, and contains software such as an MP3 player, an e-mail client with support for SMTP and POP3 protocols, an e-mail attachment viewer (supports TXT, DOC, BMP, JPEG and GIF file formats) and basic PIM applications.
On AMD Opteron Initial Core-Clocks and Marking - X-Bit labs have posted some additional information about the launch of AMD Opteron processors that will take place on the 22nd of April this year. It was told that AMD will first make available the CPUs with 1.40, 1.60 and 1.80GHz core-clock speed, while the 2.0GHz model will come later and there is no precise information when exactly it will be unveiled.
Building a High-End Workstation - Your custom-built gaming system is probably an equally impressive system for your non-gaming tasks, and so if you ever needed to build an office PC for someone else, your experiences will serve you well.
Build your own HTPC - That's right, we're building a water cooled HTPC. The number one annoyance in a home theatre setup is extra noise. There will be no room for whining fans and loud drives. What we need are quiet components that will get the job done.
FireWire vs. USB 2.0 - PC Mag has posted an article about FireWire vs. USB 2.0.
Gaim for Windows (0.60 alpha3) Review - With Gaim, you can connect to AOL, AIM, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo!, and an IM service based in Poland called Gadu-Gadu. The software is remarkably stable. The install took just a minute, and we were then able to launch Gaim and include the accounts from our various IM services.
SQL Server CE version 2.0 Update - SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition (SQL Server CE) version 2.0 is the compact database for rapidly developing applications in both native mode and the .NET Compact Framework that extend enterprise data management capabilities to devices. This new release of SQL Server CE Server Tools updates the servers running IIS to support connectivity solutions to SQL Server 2000 SP3 databases.
Windows 2000 Update Pack #4 - Still Waiting for Windows 2000 Serice Pack 4? Just reinstalled Windows 2000 yet dont want to download all those updates? Well Have we got a treat for you! We (Tech-Critic) and olcay247 (Project Manager on Tech-Critic and Editior on Winfuture.de) got together and talked for a few hours and thought what should we do next, Our Windows XP update pack went so well. Over a 10000 downloads on it that we thought a Windows 2000 (Pre-Service Pack) one would be nice. We really did not want all the other Operating System users to feel "left out" because of not using Windows XP. This Update Pack Includes most if not all the Pre-Service Pack Updates that have been released by Microsoft.
Older UT2003 Sound Driver - If you're experiencing sound problems in UT2003 after installing the 2186 patch, the Unreal Technology page now has an older version of the sound driver which might fix those problems.
Windows Media Player 9 Build 2991 - This new build of Windows Media Player 9 comes in Windows Server 2003 build 3757, no visual changes in it nor any new additions.
Updated Koepi's XviD Codec build (win32) - XviD is a video codec (download XviD-02022003-1) just like DivX. Needless to say that most new movies and videos are being encoded with XviD.
Clony XXL 2.0.1.3 - ClonyXXL is a copyprotection detection scanner, which can show what kind of protection is used on a disc. It will provide you with the right settings for CloneCD, so you can make a working copy of the disc!
K-Lite Codec Pack 1.0 RC4 - K-Lite Codec Pack 1.0 includes the following codecs: DivX 5.03 Professional - DivX ;) MPEG-4 Low and Fast motion, XviD (Koepi's build 04/10/2002), 3ivx, Microsoft MPEG-4, Fraunhofer MPEG-2 A/V, MP3 audio, DivX WMA Audio, Ogg Vorbis audio, AC3 audio, DivX Anti-Freeze.
Nero 5.5.10.7b (bugfixed) - Nero (FTP1 ~ FTP2 ~ FTP3 ~ FTP4) 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).

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,02 2003 - tech

Afternoon Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 07:36 PM CET - Feb,02 2003 - Post a comment

Shuttle wing lost sensors, maybe heat tiles - As federal investigators begin to look into why the space shuttle Columbia broke apart, NASA officials said the left wing lost hydraulic sensors, lost tire pressure and then experienced intense heat before the shuttle broke up Saturday morning.
Microsoft Inadvertently Donated To al-Qaeda-Linked Group? - An interesting report from Pravda, of all places, concerning Microsoft caught our eye today. The newspaper, which was the U.S.S.R.'s flagship state-owned propaganda newspaper back in the day, reported today that Microsoft donated money to a charity that the FBI has since linked to al-Qaeda. From Pravda's English edition (including the poor translation): Corporation Microsoft and its president Bill Gates are still haunted with troubles. This time the troubles don't concern accusations of monopolization of the operating systems market. As it turned out, the corporation sponsored bin Laden.
The Matrix: Special Edition - On April 29th, Warner Brothers will release a two-disc special edition of The Matrix, just in time for The Matrix Reloaded's release in theaters. The special edition DVD will include all of the features from the original DVD release, The Matrix Revisited, and new features as well.
It's time for the RIAA to sing a different song - It seems that everywhere one looks these days, the RIAA and its counterparts in other countries, are busy blustering their way around and demanding that those who do not commit a crime should be held responsible for it. They are busy with their demands that Verizon provide the name of a user who may have downloaded some music which may be copyright and they are busy with their allegations about KaZaA music service, a company which has the good sense to challenge the operation of the RIAA.
Official FX Benchmark - GeForce Zone have published an official GeForce FX 5800 Benchmarks Results from NVIDIA Asia Pacific, the card was tested using a 3.0GHz Pentium 4 based system with: I85E chipset, 512MB RAM and Windows XP.
GF FX AA Comparison - HardOCP's Brent Justice has posted an "unofficial" antialiasing image quality comparison between the GeForce FX and ATI Radeon 9700.
DirectX9 - FS2002 problem solved - In order to resolve the problem Flight Simulator 2002 must be deinstalled, therefore to install the Service Pack 1 of Windows XP, and finally reinstall Flight Simulator. (thanks msfn.org)
Purge Online Beta v1.3.5 - A new version 1.3.5 beta client for Purge Online (the upcoming online FPS) is now available via the Purge Community Website. This new beta fixes many severe bugs and greatly optimizes the netcode in the game.
Win2k Services.exe patch - This update addresses the "Services.exe May Hang When You Restart a Service" issue in Windows 2000, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article 328477. Download now to resolve the hang in Services.exe caused by repeatedly starting and stopping the Logical Disk Manager administrative service.
Win2k Commerce Server Performance Patch - This update addresses the "Performance of Microsoft Commerce Server-based Programs May Degrade Over Time" issue in Windows 2000, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article 316430. Download now to resolve performance degradation caused by Commerce Server re-creating Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) connections instead of re-using cached information.
TweakNow PowerPack 2003 Professional v1.2.2 - TweakNow (download) has released TweakNow PowerPack 2003 Professional v1.2.2, a comprehensive and easy-to-use Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP utility that lets you fine-tune Windows and Internet Explorer.
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 6.0 build160 - A new Build 160 of Lavasoft Ad-Aware 6.0 has been released.
Coding Workshop Ringtone Convertor 3.9.6 - The Ringtone Converter (download) is a software program for both Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac systems that allows you to add new ringtones to your mobile phone without the need for cables or expensive premium rate SMS services. The Ringtone Converter supports most makes and models of phone including Audiovox, Alcatel, Ericsson, HTC, Kyocera, Motorola, Nokia, NEC, Panasonic, Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sony, Sendo, Sharp and Siemens handsets, with more added every month.
HijackThis 1.91 - HijackThis (download) a general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with almost a dozen other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks.
DVD2SVCD v1.1.1 build 2 - Freeware DVD2SVCD is a completely automated frontend for converting DVD, PVA and AVI files to SVCD.
NVIDIA Detonators v42.86 (leaked) - Guru3D has posted a leaked Detonators version 42.86 for Win2k/XP. Try at your own risk.
Sony DRU-500a Firmware - Sony has released firmware 1.0g for the DRU-500a drive. The new firmware is supposed to improve reading efficiency.

Weekly Hardware Reviews - tech
(hx) 03:47 PM CET - Feb,02 2003 - Post a comment

CPU - AMD Barton 2800+| AMD Barton 2500+ | P4 at 4.2GHz

Monitor - Albatron L17ASD 17 LCD | Kiss Technology Widescreen 15" LCD

PSU/UPS - Fanless PSU | Zalman ZM300A-APF CNPS PSU

Network - Bluetooth: An Overview | Belkin 8-Port Network Switch | D-Link AirPro Multimode 2.4GHz/5GHz DI-764

Miscelanous -

Gameguru Mania News - Feb,01 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:33 AM CET - Feb,01 2003 - Post a comment

Sledgehammer on April 22, Opteron in September - AMD said on Friday it was again delaying the release of its next-generation Athlon microprocessor for desktop and mobile personal computers, but is on track with its Opteron version for servers. The 64-bit PC microprocessor, code-named "Clawhammer," will be released in September, and not in the first quarter or early second quarter of this year as the company had said last September. The company cited a difficulty in using new chip design technology but downplayed the significance of the delay. The 64-bit Opteron processor for servers and workstations, code-named "Sledgehammer," will be released on April 22, AMD said.
RIAA Trains Anti-Piracy Guns on Universities - RIAA has stepped up its initiative aimed at college students in an attempt to make some impact on illegal file-sharing and downloading. The latest initiative comes after RIAA's legal win, in which a court ordered Verizon to comply with an RIAA request to flush out an individual who allegedly made available more than 600 copyrighted music files over the Internet. With that win under its belt, the RIAA is now taking its case directly to students. The Indiana University (IU) digital campus newspaper on Thursday reported that about 175 students were told by university officials to delete music and movie files from their computers after receiving word from the RIAA and the Motion Picture Association of America that users of IU's network were illegally distributing copyrighted material. At IU, the students were reportedly told that if they refused to comply, they would have their Internet access shut off by the university and would be reported to a judicial board.
A bad case of DVD rot eats into movie collections - If you think your prized collection of DVD movies will last a lifetime, think again - some are already starting to rot while others are falling apart. Unofficial estimates put the number of affected discs at between one and 10 per cent. Rohan Byrnes, 34-year-old science fiction fanatic who owns 350 DVDs, has spent a lot of time looking at rot. He works as a failure analysis engineer, with access to an optical microscope. Mr Byrnes has studied five cases of DVD rot - four in his own collection - and suspects the microscopic corrosion spots on the aluminium layer inside the disc could be caused by a "chemical attack", possibly related to the glue used.
Wi-Fi Sniffer (Model WFS-1) - Wi-Fi Sniffer, WFS-1, detects Wi-Fi availability by the press of a button. No longer do you have to boot up your laptop or walk around with your laptop turned on, hence reducing the risk of hard drive crashes. Pressing the button on the Wi-Fi Sniffer will tell you whether access is available.
Doom for the P800 - For a mobile platform to be approved by hardcore mobile enthusiasts, there's only one thing it has to be capable of: running Doom. Sony Ericsson's P800 has just joined the club.
Software Update Services Server 1.0 with SP1 - Microsoft Software Update Services (SUS) Server 1.0 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) enables administrators to deploy critical updates to Windows 2000-based, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 computers.
MSDE 2000 Service Pack 2 - In order to patch MSDE running with Microsoft Application Center 2000, you need to install a version of MSDE Service Pack 2 which is specifically intended to be used with Application Center.
Win2k Patch: Stop 0x0E3 Error - This update addresses the "Stop 0x0E3 Error Occurs When Redirector Thread Tries to Release a Lock" issue in Windows 2000, and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article 810038. Download now to resolve the Stop 0x0E3 error on Windows 2000.
Money 2003 Trial - Microsoft has released a trial version (Int.English ~ UK English) of Money 2003.
IE ++ 2.0 - IE++ is a set of additional functions for Internet Explorer which improve the usability of your browser and make your web-surfing more comfortable. It is integrated into the browser as toolbar. Try IE++ if you want to use native Internet Explorer, but need of extra features. The program is full-functional.
UnderCoverXP 1.06 - UnderCoverXP is a free program to easily print CD covers. It supports JPEG, Gif, PNG, and Bmp formats and can automatically scale front covers, back covers, front + inside, inlays, DVD Boxes, Playstation covers and CoolBela LD001 labels to the correct sizes.
Fresh UI v5.20 - Fresh UI (free) is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/2000/ NT/98/95/Me, this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know.
Easy CD Creator Platinum 5.3.2b Drive Update - This Web update will add drive support for CD/DVD burners that were released after the release of Easy CD Creator 5.3.2. Note: You should update to Easy CD Creator Platinum 5.3.2 (if your version is a release prior to 5.3.2) before installing this updater.
Plextools v.1.19 - Plextor has released a new version 1.19 of their very popular Plextools software.
Nero 5.5.10.7 - Nero (FTP1 ~ FTP2 ~ FTP3) 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.
MSI Detonators v41.07/40.74 - MSI has released a new sets of Detonators version 41.07 (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP) and 40.74 (Win9x/ME ~ Win2k/XP) on their server.

Gameguru Mania News - Jan,31 2003 - tech

Nightly Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 01:54 AM CET - Jan,31 2003 - Post a comment

Nintendo reveals GBA SP Japanese launch plans - The latest version of the GameBoy will launch in Japan on February 14, with 300,000 units of the hardware available at launch, retailing at 12,500 yen - approximately L68 - and fully equipped with an oft-requested internal lighting system for the screen, as revealed earlier this month. The GBA SP will launch in the USA and Europe just over a month after the Japanese roll-out, with a European date of March 28 currently on the cards. No allocation figures for any market other than Japan are available as yet, however.
80,000 large-screen, analog TVs recalled - About 80,000 large-screen, analog Zenith Electronics Corp. televisions are being recalled for repair because they may be a fire hazard, U.S. safety regulators and the Illinois company said on Thursday.
DivX software delivers movable media - The San Diego-based company on Wednesday released DivX 5.03, technology that helps deliver full-motion video over IP networks and now also onto DivX-compatible consumer electronics, including DVD players and handheld devices. The code, popular for encoding video files on the PC, is compatible with MPEG-4, an emerging standard for multimedia delivery on applications ranging from downloadable Internet video to satellite rad.
Sneaky Toolbar Hijacks Browsers - Xupiter is an Internet Explorer toolbar program. Once active in a system, it periodically changes users' designated homepages to xupiter.com, redirects all searches to Xupiter's site, and blocks any attempts to restore the original browser settings. The program attempts to download updates each time an affected computer boots up, and has been blamed for causing system crashes. Several versions of Xupiter also appear to download other programs, such as gambling games, which later appear in pop-up windows.
'$1m hacking challenge' product is flawed - AlphaShield's "unhackable" consumer security device isn't unhackable, Spanish white hat hackers claim. In a post to BugTraq, Infohacking.com reports that AlphaShield's appliances are prone to a flaw that could allow a cracker to inject packets into an established session. Potentially, this compromises the security of the device.
Sun's Java rules shape future of phones - Sun Microsystems unveils its first-ever guidelines for the use of Java in cell phones, an effort to bring order to how the programming language is evolving for wireless.
Ugly But Aggressive Cell Phone - A new mobile phone - which isn't really a mobile phone - could quickly turn the odds in your favor if you're being attacked. How? By zapping the attacker with 180,000 volts.The complete "phone" package weighs in at 5.3 oz without a battery, and measures a somewhat sizeable 6" x 2" x 1". It is available from the Safety Technology website for $79.00 USD.
Chasing bad guys on Series 60 - More games are turning up for Nokia's Symbian-based platform, Series 60, by the week. From Wireless Wizards comes Police Chase, where players race to catch the bad guys. As it turns out, smartphones are generally considered by early adopters to be excellent for gaming. Old classics are ported, new games based on old concepts show up with a fresh touch, and every now and then even a brand new and innovative game shows up. Police Chase for Series 60 from UK-based Wireless Wizards falls into the second category, and pits players in a frenzied hunt for criminals.
XBOX Linux Cluster - The XBOX unit functions well as a desktop computer for general usage, email, web browsing, etc. The total cost of the unit with keyboard, mouse, and parts came to 383.72 dollars. However, it is not as cost effective or as easy as using a general PC obtainable from almost anywhere for the same purpose. The technical merit of soldering the USB to XBOX controller wires as well as installing the mod chip are beyond the technical skills of most. In short if you already have an XBOX and want to tinker/need a computer and have no fear of the possibility of ruining your unit then this is a viable solution. However, as a general replacement to a desktop pc, the XBOX is not nearly as userfriendly or cost effective as a 200 dollar pc from walmart.
Roundup: IDE Hard Disk Drives with 8MB Cache-Buffer - X-bit labs has posted a roundup of Four IDE Hard Disk Drives with 8MB Cache-Buffer.
IRAQ2 Flash Game - check it out....(thanks Thomas)
Services For Netware v.5.01 Service pack - The Windows Services For Netware 5.0 Service Pack 1 provides a cumulative roll up of updates and services that have been offered since the release of Windows Services For Netware 5.0. This Service Pack (SP1) offers substantial improvements to MSDSS 5.
SQL Server 2000 Security Tools - SQL Scan (Sqlscan.exe) scans an individual computer, a Windows domain, or a range of IP addresses for instances of SQL Server 2000 and MSDE 2000, and identifies instances that may be vulnerable to the Slammer worm. SQL Scan runs on computers running Windows 2000 or higher and can identify instances running on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. Instances of SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) and security patch MS02-039, MS02-043, MS02-056, or MS02-061, or instances with SP3 or later, are not vulnerable. Computers running SQL Server 7.0 and earlier are not vulnerable.
GameJack v3.00.213 - This minor update only changed deinstallation routine with additional options to leave images and/or profiles on the harddisc, and added German translation of the device compatibility test.
DVD2ZONE Released - From the creator of Remote Selector comes a brand new product, the ultimate DVD processing tool. With this tool you can make movie-only copies for personal use on a single DVD-Recordable in a matter of 15-30 minutes time (depending on the speed of your computer).
RivaTuner 2.0 RC 12.2 + SofR9700 - RivaTuner RC 12.2 + SofR9700 has been released. RivaTuner is the most powerful tweaking utility for NVIDIA display adapters running under Windows 98 / Windows 98 SE / Windows ME / Windows 2000 / Windows XP. The purpose of this utility is to give you access to the many undocumented features of Detonator drivers. All versions of Detonator drivers have a lot of undocumented registry entries. Some of them don't affect anything, but there are some that are very useful. In general, they cannot give you big performance boost but they can improve image quality and solve some compatibility problems. (mirror Guru3D).
Creative Drivers - NOMAD Jukebox Zen Firmware (Version 1.12.02) /does not work for NOMAD Jukebox Zen USB 2.0/ , Creative WebCam Pro eX Drivers (Version 1.02.01) / This update now allows still image capture to work properly in PC-CAM Center under 640x480 video resolution/,
Lite-On CD-RW Firmware - LiteOn have released some new CD-RW firmware updates for LTR-52246S, LTR-48246S, LTR-32123S, LSC-24081M SLIM COMBO, LSC-24081.
SiS AGP Driver 1.14 WHQL - SiS have released a new AGP driver v1.14 WHQL for the following chipsets: SiS540, SiS630, SiS630ET, SiS630E, SiS630S, SiS630ST, SiS635, SiS645, SiS645DX, SiS648, SiS650, SiS651, SiS730S, SiS730SE, SiS735, SiS740, SiS745.
Nvidia nForce/nForce2 Drivers v2.03 WHQL - NVIDIA has released new nForce drivers version 2.03 WHQL (Win2k ~ WinXP).

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