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 Gameguru Mania News - Sep,04 2002 - tech 
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:43 AM CEST - Sep,04 2002 - Post a comment / read (5)
  • Greek govt bans all computer games - The government of Greece is making heroic efforts to humiliate the nation in front of the entire world, by banning all electronic games. That's right; something as innocent as playing computer chess on your laptop in a hotel lobby is now a crime with penalties of up to three months in stir and a fine of 10,000 euros. The purpose behind this charming legislation is to crack down on Internet gambling (which already was illegal) -- or, rather, to enable legislators to enact their little public dance of righteous aversion to Internet gambling.
  • The False Promise of GPS Tracking Gadgets - Recent publicity about child abductions has led many companies to prey on public fears by advertising their trackers as useful for protecting children. While wristwatch-type gadgets like the GPS Personal Locator from Wherify Wireless and the Digital Angel from Applied Digital Solutions do have some valuable applications -- such as finding hikers lost in the wilderness or keeping track of pets -- rescuing children from serial killers is probably not one of them.
  • Google, China work to unblock site - Google says it is trying to resolve a problem that left users in China unable to access it popular search engine.  In a short statement the company said: "We are currently working with Chinese officials to get our full service restored to the millions of Chinese users who depend on Google every day."
  • Why FBI Computer Force Ain't Fat - Mike Sweeny, fueled by renewed patriotism after Sept. 11, wanted to offer his 20-plus years of experience in computer security to the FBI. But he was disheartened by job requirements that required him to have a college degree, be under 37 years old, morally irreproachable ... and physically fit. The FBI does have non-agent positions for people who are highly skilled in areas such as computer forensics (collecting evidence from computers). Those who don't qualify for agent positions can still serve as civilian employees, according to an FBI spokeswoman.
  • 3D cloaking process patent? - Ray Alden of North Carolina is attempting to patent a "three dimensional cloaking process and apparatus" for concealing objects and people (WO 02/067196). The idea hinges on carefully mimicking background lighting conditions to help render an object invisible, similar to how a chameleon blends in with its surroundings. The rear and front surfaces of an object are covered with a material containing an array of photodetectors and light emitters respectively.
  • Intel Cuts Prices on Its Chips Up to 52 Percent - Intel cut prices on its microprocessors by as much as 52 percent over the U.S. holiday weekend as the world's largest chipmaker makes room for faster chips and passes on manufacturing efficiencies to customers. The price cuts, made on Sunday, come less than a week after Intel introduced its fastest Pentium 4 to date, running at 2.8 gigahertz, for example, cut the price of its Pentium 4 chip running at 2.4 gigahertz by 52 percent to $193 from $400 each, in lots of 1,000.
  • Build The Broadcast Box -  Chaps at Icrontic have posted a guide to determine your expectations, answers to how it all works and a little bit of knowledge to make the right choices. Armed with this information you can more easily navigate the world of what's best for you through the ever-changing landscape of computer technology.
  • Flashing BIOS Guide - As described earlier, the BIOS is a crucial component of your computer since it is always the first program that runs when you turn the machine on. If the BIOS does not run, the machine cannot boot. Therefore it is very important that a BIOS upgrade is performed properly. If it fails, it can permanently ruin the BIOS, resulting in your computer becoming a door stop. Common reasons for BIOS flashes gone bad are power failure during the flashing process, and flashing the BIOS with an incorrect BIOS version. Because of these dangers you do not flash a BIOS just for shits and giggles, but only if there is a very good reason.
  • Avast! Home Edition 3.0.483 - Avast! Home Edition is a complete anti-virus package for Windows 9x/Me, NT/2000/XP. It is FREE for registered home noncommercial users. It's certified by ICSA and obtained 100% mark from Virus Bulletin in June 2002 under Windows XP Pro. avast! contains two GUIs (simple and advanced) on demand and on access scanner.
  • Style XP 1.01 - Style XP allows you to easily add new visual styles or themes to Windows XP. Style XP is not a skinning engine. It uses Microsoft's built-in visual style engine, but enhances it by providing many useful tools. Style XP can import, select, rotate, and manage Themes, Visual Styles, Wallpaper, and Logons.
  • Zoom Player v2.80 RC2 - Zoom Player provides special zooming functions to improve TV-Output quality by eliminating overscan. Zoom Player's scaling system allows you to exactly match the video area to your screen's dimensions in real-time with adjustable background color in order to test for brightness bleeds.
  • Global DiVX Player 1.9.9 - Global DiVX Player allows for a much more efficient movie watching experience. Consuming less memory and CPU Cycles than Windows Media player, this player provides a better looking, familiar interface to watch movies on your Windows PC.
  • PlexTools v1.15 - Plextor Europe released a new version of the PlexTools software.
  • Driverheaven XP Sys info Tool Beta -  This little utility has alot of functionality, including handy access for many windows functions such as control panels, administrative tools, windows explorer, device manager along with general information on clock speed, operating system, total, free and memory load, along with IP address and system uptime.
  • Windows XP Service Pack 1 download - Out for download directly from microsoft.com, of course. SavageNews has posted two link to the English and German versions of the SP1. There is no difference between this and leaked build 1106. Heh now looks like the server is getting hammered (0.1kb/s...) or they already temporary removed the files - dunno :]
  • nForce Drivers v1.13 - NVIDIA has released a new nForce driver v1.13 for the Windows9x/ME and Win2K/XP.
 Gameguru Mania News - Sep,03 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:34 AM CEST - Sep,03 2002 - Post a comment
  • China Appears to Block Web Search Engine Google - China appears to have blocked leading search engine Google, sparking speculation of a crackdown on Internet content viewed as subversive ahead of a Communist Party congress in November.  The U.S.-based Web site, which has become popular among Internet surfers in China because of its simplicity and ability to run thorough Chinese-language Web searches, was inaccessible via Chinese servers as early as Saturday, users said.
  • Malaysia to launch piracy crackdown - "Operation Genuine" will involve some 300 officers from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry as well as software experts from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which represents U.S. software publishers, it said. The International Intellectual Property Alliance estimates that U.S. trade losses due to the piracy of movies, music, software and publishing materials in Malaysia last year rose to $316.5 million from $140 million in 2000.
  • DOOM III and Quake IV Dates - Amazon UK says Doom III ( jun 2003) and Quake IV (25dec 2003), well, we will see :)
  • Organic robot mimics sea life - An organic robot designed to imitate primitive life forms has been created by scientists in the US. The Public Anemone is a robot set in a rock pool filled with greenish water which reacts to light and touch, much like an real sea anemone.The researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of technology in Boston see their robot as a way of exploring artificial life.
  • Smallest PC in the World Now As Pentium 4 - Chaps at Warp2Search have snagged some very hot and interesting screenshot´s of the new EzGo Pentium 4 Minipc. It rumours that this version will be released in 3.quarter 2002.
  • Epox introduces SiS648 motherboard - Epox Computer recently introduced its latest Pentium 4-platform motherboard, the EP-4SDA5+.
  • Soltek's GeForce4 Ti 4600 Review - The card has AGP x2/x4 interface, 128 MB DDR SDRAM located in 8 chips on both PCB sides. The card comes with Samsung memory of 2.8ns access time which corresponds to 357 (714) MHz; the memory works at 325 (650) MHz. The GPU runs at 300 MHz which is typical of the Ti 4600.
  • Creative 3D Blaster 5 RX9700 - Creative has a very interesting history with graphics cards. Its the only company we know of that has produced graphics cards based on 3DFX, S3, nVidia and ATI technologies. Whats even more interesting is that earlier this year, Creative acquired 3D Labs meaning we shall be looking at Creative's "in-house" graphics cards soon. Now that does raise an interesting point- why would Creative chose to release a Radeon 9700 Pro based card when they're expecting their own 3D Labs solution pretty soon. T-Break don't have an answer for that yet, however,they do have Creative's Radeon 9700 Pro based card- the 3D Labs Blaster 5 RX9700 in out hands today.
  • TDK veloCD 48x16x48 CD-RW Drive Review - While CD drives have become rather stagnant as far as speeds are concerned, the CD-R/RW market is still gaining speeds faster than one can keep up with. Join TweakTown as they take a look at the newest offering from TDK; namely the veloCD 48x16x48. With blistering speeds and some very nice additional features, it may be the drive to beat in the near future. Come see what makes it so special!
  • NVIDIA Detonator 40 Evaluation - The new Detonator 40.41 drivers deliver on what NVIDIA claims, though. Mainly, gamers get a little extra performance and more business-oriented users have a couple new features to increase productivity. The inclusion of anisotropic filtering support has been long overdue, but for the most part, the feature is still too slow to be used at high resolutions. From a logistical point of view, the new control panel is much easier to navigate and should be very easy to adapt to. Now, if only ATI could take a hint and simplify the myriad of quality and performance settings cluttering the Catalyst drivers...
  • Detonator Comparison - Geek Extreme has compared the 40.41 Detonators with the previous 30.82 drivers on a Geforce 3 Ti 200.
  • Windows XP and Service Pack 1:Why The XP Keygen Won't Help For Long - So what do I want to say? Just this: It doesn't matter how many keys you make with the keygen. You can make BILLIONS for all I care. It's just not going to matter in the end because Microsoft, by using Windows Update, will verify YOUR key against THEIRS. If YOUR key isn't on THEIR list you lose. It's really that simple. Generate all the damned Home, Pro and Corp VLKs you like, it's not going to make one iota of difference. Your freshly generated keys might work for a short period of time, and bypassing or choosing not to use Windows Update at all will save you from a frozen PC for however long you choose to walk this path. BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE - sooner or later you're going to get stuck.
  • PHP 4.2.3 RC2 & MySQL 4.0.3 - There is  an release candidate 2 of PHP 4.2.3 and also MySQL 4.0.3-alpha (what's new) has been released today.
 Gameguru Mania News - Sep,01 2002 - tech
Sunday Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 06:31 PM CEST - Sep,01 2002 - Post a comment
  • Apple Keeps x86 Torch Lit with 'Marklar' - As Apple Computer Inc. draws up its game plan for the CPUs that will power its future generations of Mac hardware, the company is holding an ace in the hole: a feature-complete version of Mac OS X running atop the x86 architecture. According to sources, the Cupertino, Calif., Mac maker has been working steadily on maintaining current, PC-compatible builds of its Unix-based OS. The project (code-named Marklar, a reference to the race of aliens on the "South Park" cartoons) has been ongoing inside Apple since the early days of its transition to the Unix-based Mac OS X in the late '90s. Sources said more than a dozen software engineers are tasked to Marklar, and the company's mainstream Mac OS X team is regularly asked to modify code to address bugs that crop up when compiling the OS for x86. Build numbers keep pace with those of their pre-release PowerPC counterparts; for example, Apple is internally running a complete, x86-compatible version of Jaguar, a k a Mac OS X 10.2, which shipped last week.  Apple did not return calls requesting comment.
  • The Holy Grail of remote controls - The prototype handheld has so far been used to control two lamps, a fan and a stereo with a five-CD changer. Anyone who regularly juggles multiple remotes -- the Consumer Electronics Association estimates the average U.S. household has at least four -- can understand why the industry considers a universal remote something of a Holy Grail.
  • Frames Per Second: Fact & Fiction Editorial - This is of course, all about games. The reason you can't run them smoothly at 24fps is because each frame is just that: a still frame; not a blurred range. Now, let me dig up a random number out of the blue, say 40fps. Ok, so 40fps is sufficient, right? Yes and no. Let's say you're the proud owner of a Geforce4 Ti4600. You don't care about 200fps so crank up the resolution to 1600x1200, turn on 4x FSAA and 16x Anisotropic Filtering. Plus all the in-game candy you can throw at it. Your rates drop from 150 down to 40. Naturally, it looks like crap. Why? Several reasons...
  • ECTS 2002 Awards -  PC Format Best New Games Kit Award - Nvidia Geforce 4 / Best PC Hardware - Gainward Geforce 4 Powerpack Ultra/750XP Golden Sample / Best Console of the Year - PlayStation 2 / Best Console Game of the Year - Grand Theft Auto 3 / Best PC Game of the Year - Medal of Honour: Allied Assault.
  • AGP 8X & NV28 -As for the major graphics chip supplier Nvidia, industry sources said that the chip designer is expected to introduce its AGP 8x-supporting NV18 and NV28 chips in October, and roll out its new-generation NV30 in time for the Christmas season. The basic architecture of the NV18 and NV28 is not very different from that of the company’s previous NV17 and NV25, but the launch may be able to help Nvidia keep its market share from declining further amid strong competition from ATI and Intel.
  • HW Round-Up (CPU/MB/RAM) - Corsair 256meg XMS3200 DDR / GeIL PC3500 DDR / Epox 8K5A3+ (video-review) / MSI 845 Ultra ARU  / Shuttle AS45 v2.1 (SiS 648) / ABIT KX7-333R Socket A /
  • HW Round-Up (Video) -  Triplex GeForce4 Ti4400 / Graphics Card Roundup - August 2002 / ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
  • HW Round-Up (Miscelanous) Black Cold Cathode Light & UV Sensitive Vantec Rounded IDE Cables / Hercules XPS 510 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker System / Seasonic 300, 350 & 400watt PSU Roundup / Fujitsu DynaMO 1300 U2 Magneto Optical Drive
  • Win XP Detonator Driver Database (Updated) - The Windows XP NVIDIA Detonator Driver Database contains performance data on most of the current Windows XP NVIDIA Detonator Drivers. Chaps at TweakersAsylum currently have a total of 34 Detonators included in the Windows XP database! For each set of NVIDIA Detonator Drivers added to our database they have included performance data from SEVERAL different benchmarks, not just a few.
  • Refresh Rate Fix for Nvidia Detonator 40.41 - Now, to eliminate the Win2K/XP refresh rate problem we want to specify custom refresh rates with the corresponding resolutions and bit depths. In other words we only want Windows to use the HIGHEST refresh rate supported by our monitor in any given mode, not the LOWEST as it will if left to it's own devices. We do this by adding '80**' to the hexadecimal refresh rate.
  • NV30 emulation - NVIDIA page has posted NVEmulate emulation enabler (NVEmulate.exe), complete NV30 OpenGL Specification (nv30specs.pdf) and an overview slides for the NV30 OpenGL Specification (OpenGLforNV30.pdf).
  • NVIDIA Compressed Mode User's Guide - This guide (PDF) explains how to select the desired refresh rates at various settings.
  • Tweak-XP Pro v2.0 - 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.
  • XP SP1 build 1106 links - Of course , it's an unoffical download, but for those who "cannot wait" until september 9th :)
  • Roxio Easy CD Creator Platinum Update v5.3.1 - This web update is designed to update English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch and Japanese versions of Easy CD Creator 5.xx Platinum to version 5.3.1. It can be installed in All Windows Operating Systems. It has some fixes and adds new drive support, including support for DVD -R/RW and DVD +R/RW. This update will install Windows XP specific drivers and make the necessary registry entries to allow Easy CD Creator to operate correctly in Windows XP.
  • Nero CD Speed v1.00 - CD Speed is a CD-ROM benchmark which can test the most important features of a CD-ROM drive.
  • ICQ Lite Alpha Build #1053 - ICQ Lite Alpha Build #1053 has been released.
  • WinMX 3.29 Beta 5 - WinMX is a FREE file-sharing program like no other. It allows you to simultaneously connect through the decentralized WinMX Peer Networking Protocol AND to many networks based on the OpenNap and Napster protocols.
  • Movie DB v1.20 (build 49) - Movie DB is a freeware DB program for DivX, DVD and VHS.
  • Hot CPU Tester Lite 3.41 - Hot CPU Tester Lite is a system health and stability tester. It tests CPU, and virtually all parts of motherboard for errors/bugs and defective parts.
  • Powerstrip 3.26 Final - The final version of Powerstrip 3.26 has been just released.
  • Matrox Mini Diag v2.10 - This utility will perform a hardware diagnostic on the full retail version and bulk version of these cards: G100, G100 MMS, G200, G200 MMS, G400 series, G450 and G550.
  • Xbox Media PLayer & XStream B6 Final (Xbox) - The final version features improved support for DVD-R/W, CD-RW playback, Seeking for AVI files, Divx 5.0 and 5.02 Pro support and many more.
  • IBM's NVIDIA Detonator Drivers v30.40 (Windows 2k/XP) - Here's some new NVIDIA Detonator Drivers version 30.40 for Windows 2000/XP from IBM.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,31 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:06 AM CEST - Aug,31 2002 - Post a comment
  • Online cheaters face games ban  - Gamers who cheat while playing the popular online game Counter-Strike could soon find themselves banned from official servers for 24 hours. An updated anti-cheating system put in place by the games makers can spot who is not playing fair, can throw them off a server and make sure they cannot log on to games being played on other machines. Initially bans will only last a day but Counter-Strike creator Valve said it would extend the penalty period in the future.
  • Microsoft Finished With XP SP1 - Microsoft has finished with Service Pack 1 for Windows XP. The new service pack has been shipped to manufacturers, and will be available to the general public on September 9th.
  • Intel's new 3D tools take flight on PDAs - The chipmaker on Thursday gave one of the first public demonstrations in Europe of its 3D graphics toolkit for its XScale chip, paving the way for sophisticated 3D games on handhelds and cell phones. The Graphics Performance Primitives (GPP) software went through its paces at the Game Developers Conference here at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre.
  • .Net Server's new name suggests delay - Microsoft has once again tweaked the name of the successor to Windows 2000 Server, in a move that suggests its official release won't come until next year.
  • Can Airbags Save the World, Scientist Asks - Giant airbags could one day save the world from the disaster of a cosmic collision with a giant comet, according to a scientist in the United States. Forget nuclear warheads to stop a crash with a comet that could have cataclysmic effects such as the one that is believed to have triggered the demise of the dinosaurs, Hermann Burchard of Oklahoma State University told New Scientist magazine. Far better to send up a space ship equipped with a massive airbag that could be inflated to several kilometers (miles) wide and used to gently buffet the invading solar body away from a collision course with earth.
  • Spyware Trojan sends Hotmail to your boss - Here's a piece of software that will make any decent human being vomit. Proudly marketed by spyware outfit SpectorSoft, it's a lowlife Trojan called eBlaster which you can e-mail to anyone in the world foolish enough to use Windows and log their keystrokes, and force their POP mail and Hotmail and Yahoo Web mail accounts to copy you in everything going on.
  • The Fifth ICFP Programming Contest - The contest will be held Friday, August 30, 2002 -- Monday, September 2, 2002. The problem will be posted right here on this web site, at 12:00 Noon (PDT) on August 30th and all entries must be received by 12:00 Noon (PDT) on the September 2nd..
  • Intuos 2 Graphics Tablet Review - Intuos2 is the professional graphics tablet that turns on the full power of Photoshop's 19 pressure-sensitive tools. With its comfortable Grip Pen and feature-packed mouse, you have the control and power you need to really get the most out of all your graphics applications. Intuos2 comes in five sizes, from the 4x5 ($199.99*) to the 12x18 ($749.99*).
  • Inno3D Xabre 400 Pro Video Card - The Xabre 400 is squarely designed to compete against the Geforce4MX in the mid-range market, a not so small feat if you ask me. One of the drawbacks of the Geforce4MX was the lack of proper DirectX 8.1 features as this card was only a souped up Geforce2.This is where the Xabre comes in, with Pixel Shader ver.1.3 support ,it allows games to look that much better.
  • AGP Aperture Size Examined  - Some people think that the more RAM you share with the graphics card, the larger the performance boost. In some cases, this might be true. In others, it might result in a performance drop. There are two common outcomes from setting the AAS too high: (1) If you share too much RAM with your graphics card and an application takes advantage of that, you will have less RAM for other functions of the software, and possibly for background applications. (2) If the graphics card does not utilize the memory, it is not taken from system memory. In this case, there are no problems with AAS sucking all of your system RAM, despite its setting in the BIOS configuration utility. The latter is the most common case, since most people have enough memory now to compensate for a high AAS, and most applications would not take all of the memory anyway. We decided to test the actual performance of the different AAS values to see if (other than available system memory), it affected performance and system stability.
  • On Hacking The New 40 Drivers - There's a nice hack which I noticed over at NVNews for the new 40 driver series. It allows some very neat options. Add the following registry values:                                                                                                            [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARENVIDIA CorporationGlobalNVTweak] "Coolbits"=dword:ffffffff  "NvCplEnableHardwarePage"=dword:00000001                                                                           "NvCplEnableAGPSettingsPage"=dword:00000001
    This will enable coolbits overclocking, as well as some advanced "AGP Options" tabs that will allow you to set things like Fast Write and Side Band Addressing as well as AGP rates.
  • Apache 2.0.40 - Apache 2.0 (download) offers numerous enhancements, improvements and performance boosts over the 1.3 codebase. The most visible and noteworthy addition is the ability to run Apache in a hybrid thread/process mode on any platform that supports both threads and processes. This has shown to improve the scalability of the Apache HTTP Server significantly in our testing. Apache 2.0 also includes support for filtered I/O. This allows modules to modify the output of other modules before it is sent to the client. We have also included support for IPv6 on any platform that supports IPv6.This version of Apache is known to work on many versions of Unix, BeOS, OS/2, Windows, and Netware. Because of many of the advancements in Apache 2.0, the initial release of Apache is expected to perform equally well on all supported platforms.

  • Quintessential Player 3.40 Build 34 Beta - Quinnware has released new version of their cool media player.

  • 2xExplorer v1.4.1.10 - Freeware 2xExplorer is an easy to use yet very potent and extremely efficient alternative to the standard windows Explorer. It combines the user-friendliness of the latter with the increased efficiency and advanced features of good-old dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander.
  • Nero 5.5.9.9 - Nero (mirro1 / mirror2 / mirror3) is a flexible, reliable, and easy-to-use application designed to write both data and CD audio to CD-R and CD-RW discs. It supports ISO 9660 images as well as ISO mode 1 and XA mode 2, and allows for on-the-fly disc recording in addition to overburning (if supported by hardware). Nero also supports multisession and mixed-mode recording, HFS, ISO/HFS hybrid, UDF, PSX, OFAS (optimal file access speed), track-at-once (TAO) and disc-at-once (DAO) writing, digital audio extraction, and more.
  • HyperSnap-DX 5.00 Beta 1 - HyperSnap-DX 5 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. This new beta adds new Tabbed multi-document interface , "Stamps" feature (Image/Stamps menu..), and many more.
  • SnagIt 6.1.1. - With this program (download) you can capture screenshots of games, regions, objects, texts, menus, shapes, and large web pages or documents.
  • DiVFix 1.08 - This program was created to be able to watch partially downloaded DivX (AVI) movies. It can rebuild or strip the index part of the movie, which is at the end of the file. There are also a basic error detection, which can detect serious errors in the audio/video stream.
  • NVIDIA DVD 1.71 update - This patch will update your installed version of NVDVD to version 1.71. This new version of NVDVD includes a number of improvements and updates that will make your DVD viewing experience better than ever.
  • Windows Commander 5.10 - Windows Commander is a file manager replacement that offers multiple language support, search, file comparison, directory synchronization, quick view panel with bitmap display, ZIP, ARJ, LZH, RAR, UC2, TAR, GZ, CAB, ACE archive handling plus plugins, built-in FTP client with FXP, HTTP proxy support, and more. Changes in Current Version: -Fixed: When copying to removable NTFS volume, don't call "Flush" every xx seconds, -Fixed: Diskdir plugin: Extract file date/time with files, -Fixed: Crash on Alt+Enter if WinRAR 3 installed.
  • A-Tuner 1.1.9.4 (beta) -  A-tuner is a small Tool for changing the following 4 settings in your Nvidia card and should work with Nvidia Detonators 23.11 - 40.xx.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,30 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:55 AM CEST - Aug,30 2002 - Post a comment
  • Scientists Create Lullabies From Brain Waves - Researchers at the University of Toronto's sleep clinic have found that the human brain creates its own internal music, and that same music can be used to fight a common problem that affects millions of people across the continent: anxiety insomnia. By playing their own "brain music" back to them, researchers were able to get persons with sleeping disorders to fall asleep more quickly, and to sleep more soundly, according to psychiatrist Leonid Kayumov, director of the clinic.
  • Webmaster indicted for terror support - The founder of the StopAmerica.org Web site, who has been linked to an alleged al-Qaida plot, was indicted on charges of aiding terrorists.
  • Honda, Toyota Add Telematics Features to New Cars - Japan's two largest automakers each have announced enhanced in-car communications systems that will be rolled out with new models this fall, adding their technology to the global telematics market.
  • JVC claims 'uncopyable' CD-ROM - The Root technology--so named because it is intended to prevent illegal copying "from the Roots up"--uses encryption keys, a method that has been tried in the past. The disc's contents are encrypted, so that it cannot be read without a "key" also placed on the disc. The innovation in this case is that the key is hidden in such a way that it can be read by any CD-ROM drive, but cannot be written by a CD-R/RW drive, so that a copied version of the disc would be unreadable. The key is different for each disc, and is hidden in a different place each time, according to the companies.
  • ATI outs mobility RADEON 9000 - ATI today launched the mobile version of its top-of-the-range RADEON 9000 graphics accelerator. This incorporates better power management, improved streaming capabilities for all those DVDs you need to see on the hoof, and something called the world's "first mobile quad-pipe 3D architecture". Reviews:  Toms's Hardware / AnandTech / HardOCP.
  • Burning for Surround - Here's your chance to experiment with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround . You can download a 3 minute song I mixed in 5.1 surround that's already been encoded as an Dolby Digital WAV file at 256 kilobits per second, then compressed using PKZIP. Yes, we all know that PKZIP won't work to compress a PCM audio file, but it works perfectly on AC-3 files and can reach lossless data compression rates of up to 6:1. This achieves full surround playback at somewhat reduced fidelity due to the 256 kbps data rate, but at a size of only 2 Megabytes per minute of 5.1 audio.
  • P4 2.80GHz Overclocked to 3.917GHz - After some adjusting and testing we were able to run SiSoft Sandra CPU and Memory benchmarks and Pifast benchmark smoothly when the CPU was running at 3917MHz. We raised the FSB one more step and managed to run succesfully SuperPi benchmark while CPU was running at 3998MHz. The result was 39 seconds.
  • NVIDIA Detonator 40.41 Comparison - Benchmarks like 3DMark2001SE, Quake3, Comanche 4, Serious Sam SE and RTCW are used. The performance improvements are pretty remarkable especially for 3DMark2001SE where scores imcreased by over 1000 3dmarks!
  • Windows Messenger v4.7.0101 - You can download it directly from Microsoft.
  • Sonique2 Alpha 2.1.8.28 - A new build of Sonique2 is out.
  • Netscape 7.0 Final - A new version of the popular browser Netscape 7.0 Final has been released. Here is a link for Linux version / FTP
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,29 2002 - tech
New Detonator Drivers v40.41 - tech
(hx) 08:35 PM CEST - Aug,29 2002 - Post a comment / read (8)
NVidia has released a new Detonator drivers for videocards based on their chipsets (except GeForce2 Go and GeForce4 Go mobile processors), making a version jump from 3x to 40.41.
Release Highlights:
  • Up to a 25% increase in performance
  • nView™ 2.0 multi-display technology increases productivity and provides the necessary tools to control the way users access and view applications.
  • NVRotate™ enabling image rotation on today’s advanced flat panel displays.
  • NVKeystone™ allows for real-time image correction on portable projectors and heads-up displays.
  • Digital Vibrance Control™ allows users to adjust color controls to achieve accurate, bright colors under all conditions.
  • New control panel streamlines user interface and enables faster and easier access to all video settings
  • Robust Channels enables higher faster performance and better stability for all applications through fail-safe paths in the drivers
  • CineFX Simulator allows developers to use Cg—“C for graphics”—to write complex shaders in a high level language faster and more easily than before.
  • NVIDIA’s patented Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) – supports all products in single a driver binary
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:01 AM CEST - Aug,29 2002 - Post a comment
  • Lamo bumped from NBC after hacking them - How did a mediagenic hacker like Adrian Lamo get himself bumped last week from a scheduled appearance on the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw? Perhaps with his impromptu on-camera intrusion into the peacock network's own computers.
  • Felt-tip marker hack for copy-protect CDs rubbed out -  Israel-based Midbar Tech announced yesterday that 10 million CDs using its Cactus Data Shield technology have been released in Japan, bringing the total number of music CDs using the controversial copy-protection utility to about 30 million.  Marjie Hadad, Midbar spokesperson, said the CDs, which implement the CDS-200 protection scheme, will play on computers - unlike previous CDs released with Midbar's CDS-100 technology, which caused myriad difficulties for PC users who attempted to play purchased CDs in their computers' CD-ROM drives, as well as in DVD players and car CD drives. Windows users had the fewest problems; by installing a special utility included on the copy-protected CDs their PCs were able to play the music.
  • New Hard-Drive Tech Overcomes Magnetic Memory Problems - Hard-drive maker Seagate said it has overcome a significant challenge in magnetic memory with a new technology capable of achieving far beyond today's storage densities -- up to as great as 50 terabits per square inch. Currently, the highest storage densities hover around 50 gigabits per square inch, but Seagate said its heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) technology could break through the so-called superparamagnetic limit -- a memory boundary based on data bits so small they become magnetically unstable.
  • AMD Reveals Athlon XP 2700+ on the 7th October - According to some Taiwanese sources, AMD will officially reveal its Athlon XP 2700+ processor on the 7th of October. This CPU is the first to implement 333MHz system bus on Athlon platform. It is expected that the novelty will be based on the latest Thoroughbred core stepping 1, just like the current Athlon XP 2400+ and 2600+, and will work at 2.17GHz.
  • TuxGames Interview  - LinuxGames has posted an interesting interview with Michael Simms, who leads both TuxGames and Linux Game Publishing (LGP).
  • Titan TTC-ALC2 Fan Control Test - Titan TTC-ALC2 is an adjustable fan speed connector for allowing you to control the speed of a fan.
  • DirectX 9 postponed - Microsoft and its partners, including ATI, had suggested it would be introduced in early October, but now TheInquirer is reporting that it's postponed until the end of November.
  • Kaspersky Anti-Virus Maintenance Pack 3 for Windows - Kaspersky Labs announces the release of its Maintenance Pack 3 for the
    following Kaspersky products (available in Russian, English, German, French, Spanish, Polish and Estonian). Maintenance Pack 3 includes all changes contained in the earlier released Maintenance Pack 2.
  • Real7ime Converter (R7C) - Real7ime Converter (R7C) is a converter of any RealPlayer streaming medias (video and sound) to AVI/WAV/MP3 format. It is a realtime converter because it does not manage Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) directly so the needed time to convert a media will be greater or equal to the time of the media.
  • DOSBox DOS Emulator - DOSBox emulates a full x86 pc with sound and dos. It's main use is to run old DOS Games.
  • Customizer XP v1.8.4 RC-2 -  Customizer XP's Registry Tweak functions let you adjust hidden settings that will affect your Windows appearance and performance. There are 80 registry tweaks that make it easy to adjust your start menu, system settings, Internet options, and Internet Explorer preferences.
  • XP Tuneup 3.0 - XPTuneup is the software developed to help you apply many of the tips listed on xptuneup.com via a simple interface. It is implementation of about 50 tips listed on that web site.
  • Lycoris Desktop/LX Build 49 - Lycoris Desktop/LX (download) is a familiar, powerful and open alternative to Windows.
  • Xbox data to PC data convertor - The Xbox games however still call for some functions that are only available in the Xbox and these functions need to be emulated. The software however is promising and the ultimate goal is to run Xbox software on a compatible PC.
  • SiS AGP Driver v1.11 - SIS have released a new AGP driver version 1.11 for the following chipsets: SiS630 / SiS730 / SiS735 / SiS733 / SiS635 / SiS633 / SiS645 / SiS650 / SiS740 / SiS745.
  • IntelliType Pro keyboard software v2.11 - Microsoft IntelliType Pro software provides full functionality for the Microsoft Office Keyboard, Wireless Desktop, Natural Keyboard Pro, Internet Keyboard Pro, and Internet Keyboard.
  • VIA USB 2.0 - ASUS' FTP has been updated with some unofficial USB drivers (Microsoft Driver Windows XP 5.1.2600.41, Windows 2000 5.0.2195.5652 and Windows Me 98 SE 4.90.3000.2).
  • Radeon 9700 and 8500 series Drivers (leaked) -The latest RADEON drivers for WinXP have been now leaked  - download from DriverHeavens.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,28 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:36 AM CEST - Aug,28 2002 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Net traffic mimics earthquakes - Earthquakes and the Internet may seem very different, but they do have one thing in common. They're both complex systems whose behavior is currently very difficult to predict.
  • Expert demonstrates Microsoft hack - The expert showed how to crack the security systems for Internet banking, breaking into three of Sweden's big four banks in quick succession. He was then able to show how to conceal his tracks, making detection difficult afterward.
  • Sony Takes Axe to Betamax - Sony said on Tuesday it would only make 2,000 more Betamax machines before discontinuing the product altogether, ending its 27-year history -- spent mostly in the shadow of the Matsushita group's rival VHS format.
  • Pre-Order DOOM 3 - Place your order at Amazon for March 31, 2003 release date.
  • "Turok" maker plays the name game - Acclaim hypes "Turok: Evolution" by offering $10,000 to parents who name their newborn after the game's hero. It's just one of many over-the-top ploys being tried by the industry.
  • Final Fantasy XI Intro Movie - Fileplanet.com have posted a full length, high-res version of the Final Fantasy XI intro movie (in English).
  • Microsoft: WinXP Update Could 'Bomb' Some Computers - In an attempt to reduce piracy of its software, Microsoft has announced protective changes to its Windows Product Activation (WPA) service, beginning with WinXP Service Pack 1. As veteran Microsoft watchers have expected, SP1 will not install if either of what the company calls "two well-known pirated product keys" has ever been used to activate the system. Such systems will also be denied access to Microsoft's Windows Update feature. According to Microsoft, "the product IDs generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value): XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX and XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX.
  • Pentium 4 microcode updated for Intel "errata" - The update release applies to the Pentium 4 512K family with 256K cache using the .13 micron process, Family F, Model 2, Step 7 -- C1. Intel is providing an executable file called PER_P_17.EXE which updates the microcode. Details of the bugs that this microcode update addresses are, however, in a July NDA supplement to the P4 specification.
  • Ahanix Ice Berg 1 Water Cooling Kit - TweakTown tested this water cooling kit from  www.exoticpc.com Let's move on to the specifications.
  • CPU Upgrade: Do you really need it? - I'll admit, when I saw the benchmarks, I wanted the chips, but in truth, economics are a factor. Contrary to popular belief, not all webmasters get everything for free. Yessir, I'm a commoner, just like most people, and if I want something, it's going to come out of my pocket. Don't get me wrong, if I could, I'd buy every new thing that gets released everyday, but when you got a family to care for and bills to pay, I could probably do without the $500 Butt Massager Chair.
  • Creative Audigy Installation on Windows XP Pro - Okay, start your system and boot into Windows XP. XP will detect the new hardware; and as the installation blurb from Creative states click 'Cancel' for each device and then insert the drivers and program installation disk. The disk should auto run, if it doesn't double click the icon on your CD-ROM drive entitled SB Audigy. Select your language and then select 'Audigy install'.- Read more
  • UltraEdit-32 v9.10b  - UltraEdit-32 is a Windows text editor with support for unlimited file sizes, a spell checker, drag and drop, full HEX editing capabilities, user configurable syntax highlighting (pre-configured for HTML, Java, C/C++, VB, Perl), column editing, sorting, and a configurable toolbar.
  • OpenOffice 1.0.1 - OpenOffice.org is the open source project through which Sun Microsystems is releasing the technology for the popular StarOffice productivity suite. It is an international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format. Download: OpenOffice 1.0.1 for Windows / OpenOffice 1.0.1 for Linux / OpenOffice 1.0.1 for Solaris-Sparc / OpenOffice 1.0.1 for Solaris-Intel.
  • Mozilla 1.1 Final - A new Mozilla v1.1 is out (download).
  • Windows XP Service Pack 1 Beta Build 1105 - Download it from FileConnect.
  • DVD Region-Free 1.02 - You don't need to flash any firmware which is dangerous or unavailable. DVD Region-Free also disables region check for popular software-based DVD players such as PowerDVD, WinDVD and CinePlayer. Other features include Region-Free for RCE DVDs, Macrovision-Free, Operation-Free and run self at DVD players startup automatically.
  • EPOX unified system diagnostic manager 3.10 beta - EPOX's system monitoring software that displays the temperatures, voltages and FAN RPMs. For Windows 98, ME, XP, 2000. I tried this beta and seems it working fine :)
  • Asus PC Probe 2.17.09 - Asus PCProbe is a convenient utility to monitor the computer's vital components: fan rotations, voltages and temperatures.
  • MotherBoard Monitor 5.2.0.0 - Although there are not many changes since I did not have much free time I still wanted you to have this release, it has full ASB100 support and SCSI & IDE HDD temps.
  • Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 drivers for Win2K SP3 - This new drivers fixes a problem with 1394 file transfer with Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, fixes text capitalization when setting title, album, artist and genre attributes in PlayCenter and  fixed "Invalid Page Fault" error message when accessing an empty playlist.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,27 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:02 AM CEST - Aug,27 2002 - Post a comment
  • NVIDIA ECTS Unreal 2003 Death-Match Tournament - NVIDIA will be hosting the first ever European Unreal 2003 death-match tournament live at ECTS 2002 on their stand (number 1240). This will be first time that EPIC's hotly anticipated game will be publicly shown to European press and it's guaranteed to be a spectacle using NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti4600 GPU. This isn't just a battle for pride. The two winner's will be walking away with a state-of-the-art Shuttle PCs plus the two qualifying champions from each day will each pick up a top-of-the-range GeForce4 Ti4600 graphics cards.  There will be two separate tournaments on Thursday 29th August and Friday 30th August. Each event will be split into two qualifying rounds of 6 combatants. The top two warriors from each round will go on to battle it out for the inaugural Unreal 2003 Champions crown where they will compete with Mark Rein and Jay Wilbur from EPIC Games.
  • MS to intro product key check in WinXP SP1 WPA - Microsoft has released details of the changes being made in Windows Product Activation (WPA) with WinXP Service Pack 1. As expected, SP1 will fail to install if either of "two well-known pirated product keys" has previously been used to activate the system, and such systems will also be denied access to Windows Update. But the changes will have a far wider impact than this, as Microsoft appears to be trying to cover all currently known holes in WPA security.
  • Controversial Police Database Lists "Future Criminals" - Defense lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union are up in arms over a police file of potential criminals in Delaware. The database contains a list of people who police believe are likely to break the law. It features names, addresses and photographs of potential suspects - many of whom have clean slates. Since the system was introduced in Wilmington in June, most of the 200 people included in the file have been minorities from poor, high-crime neighborhoods. State and federal prosecutors say the tactic is legal. The photos are being taken by two Wilmington police squads created to arrest drug dealers.
  • RIAA plans will cripple the Internet - The recent announcement by the RIAA that they will take law enforcement into their own hands in order to punish P2P evil doers is disturbing. The RIAA intends to use hackers to intrude into the computers of private individuals on file sharing P2P networks. This is outrageous and maybe the greatest form of government supported invasion of privacy that the US (and the world) has ever seen! The RIAA is attempting to rewrite law.
  • Israeli firm unveils the "copy-proof" CD - An Israeli security firm has developed a smart-card based copy protection technology that it claims can prevent software piracy. The technology, called OpSecure from start-up firm Doc-Witness, features a smart card embedded within an optical disc, which can run on conventional PC CD or DVD drives. However the embedded smart card, which is needed to decrypt the disc's content, will frustrate any attempts to copy the disc.
  • Toshiba, NEC plan new DVD format - Toshiba and NEC are planning to propose a new optical disk format to the DVD Forum that  will be capable of recording up to 25 hours of television broadcasts. In February, a consortium of nine companies, including Sony, Matsushita and Hitachi , announced a new format that would offer 50GB of data storage. Both formats feature optical discs 12 centimeters in diameter and that are capable of recording, rewriting and reading data. Both formats use the blue laser, whose wavelength is shorter than that of the DVD's red laser. While the Toshiba/NEC option is smaller at 40GB, it is cheaper to produce. The two disc formats will not be compatible.
  • SIS and VIA turns to limited support of DDR400 - According to OCWorkBench, VIA's P4X400 couldn't reach the performance level of DDR400 and have removed the information that P4X400 supporting DDR400. Last week's KT400 chipset document, the word "supporting DDR400" has also disappeared. The same thing applies to SiS648, it is now only supporting DDR333 and DDR400 will only be supported in SiS648DX as described in the latest roadmap. SiS mentions that from its test, SiS 648 can perform at DDR400 performance, JEDEC hasn't standardise the DDR400 standard. It might have some compatibility issues with certain brands of modules.
  • AOpen starts shipping slim-type external CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drives - In a move to avoid the fray in "combo" drives that are built into notebook computers, AOpen has introduced external slim CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo products and started shipments this month.
  • Intel unveils Pentium 4 chips, trims prices - The new processors--with speeds up to 2.8GHz--come amid a desperate race between Intel and longtime rival Advanced Micro Devices for revenue and market share.
  • Intel 2.8Ghz CPU reviews - VR-Zone / AnandTech / Tom's Hardware / Hardware-Unlimited / Gamersdepot / HotHardWare./ Hardware Analysis / Hardcoreware / Firingsquad / Tweakers / HardOCP /
    •  TweakTown / SimHQ / TechReport / GamePC / NeoSeeker.
  • Java 2 Platform 1.4.1 RC - There's a new release of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition version 1.4.1 RC software for Windows, Linux, and Solaris.
  • CPU-Z 1.14 - Freeware CPU-Z is a program that provides: Processor name and vendor, Core stepping and process, Processor package, Processor current core voltage, Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier, Partial overclock detection, Processor features, including supported instructions sets,
    L1 and L2 cache information : location, size, speed, technology, Motherboard information : BIOS, chipset, memory, AGP.
  • Sound Blaster Audigy DriverPack - This Driver Pack is available for Sound Blaster Audigy owners operating on Windows 2000 or XP operating systems only. The driver contains optimized support for these two operating systems and is designed for use with all current models of Sound Blaster Audigy audio cards. Added features: Provides Dolby Digital decoding from external SPDIF Input, Speaker settings in Creative Audio Mixer are synchronized with Windows Multimedia setting, New presets and effects added.
  • SlowView 1.0 RC1 - SlowView is an ACDSee like multimedia viewer that supports more than 40 image, video, and audio formats. Among the most known are: JPEG, GIF, MNG, PSD, TIFF, TGA, MP3, AVI, MOV, and many others
  • ATI Radeon Drivers - The drivers release version is 7.75-020725a-005193C-ATI, WHQL'ed on 6th of August 2002.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,26 2002 - tech
Xbox Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:46 PM CEST - Aug,26 2002 - Post a comment
  • Xbox Brings Early Holiday Cheer with Free DVD Movie Playback Kit - For movie fans and gamers, the Xbox video game system from Microsoft Corp. just became the blockbuster feel-good hit of the year. Effective immediately through a special limited-time retail offer, it is now possible to get the popular DVD Movie Playback Kit for Xbox free after a mail-in rebate worth up to $30. This offer is good now through Nov. 2, 2002, and is available with the purchase of an Xbox console at any retail outlet in the United States. Needless to say that Sony's Playstation 2 console allows you to play DVD movies out of the box for free.
  • PacmanX Beta 1 - Wahey, PacmanX the beta has been released to the public. It isn't perfect yet, and that's why it's in beta form. You can find it from the usual places and on our chat room (read the room topic for info). This is our first proper release but you can expect more oh yes!"
  • Invaders 1.0b - This new build features bonus powerups, 3d special effects, bonus lives, sound, advanced attack waves and main menu.

  • RelaX v2 - RelaX is an XStream server program that will let share your media to your XBOX media player (www.xboxmediaplayer.com) made by d7o3g4q & RUNTiME. Currently only tested on B5."

  • XCommander R2 - XCommander is a file manager for the XBox. It is similar to the old Norton Commander. You have two file windows and can copy files between them.
  • XBOX LINUX 0.2 ISO - The Xbox Linux Project aims to provide a version of GNU/Linux for the Xbox, so that it can be used as an ordinary computer. Linux should make use of all Xbox hardware and allow to install and run software from standard i386 Linux distributions. Now Xbox Linux 0.2 ISO is available for download.
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:11 AM CEST - Aug,26 2002 - Post a comment
  • U.S. Military Uses the Force - One of the most dangerous and pervasive threats facing American and British troops in combat zones is a primitive grenade launcher that only sets your typical terrorist back about $10. The Anglo-American defense against this no-tech threat: an electrical force field that's costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop. The electrical armor system, powered by the vehicle's regular supply of electricity, stops the jets by zapping them with tens of thousands of amps of current. This vaporizes some of the deadly copper jets and reduces the rest to a relatively harmless mixture of melted and pulverized debris that disperses around the vehicle.
  • "Animals" grown from an artificial embryo - Virtual creatures, with muscles, senses and primitive nervous systems, have been "grown" from artificial embryos in a computer simulation. The multi-celled organisms could be the first step towards using artificial evolution to create intelligent life from scratch.
  • AMD Athlon XP 2600+ Processor Review  - The newest flagship processor from AMD is the Athlon XP 2600+ processor running at 2.13 GHz - a 333 MHz increase from the previous top Athlon XP. For more on the how's and why's, keep reading.
  • Karma Physics Demo - I noticed over at Unreality.com that a a new Karma-Physic engine, which is used in Unreal Tournament 2003, is now testable in a demo.
  • Windows Media Player 9 2848 - Windows Media Player leaked and this time its build 2848.
  • Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 update - The Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 update fixes a number of problems discovered after Photoshop 7.0 was released.
  • Windows Media Player 9 on Windows ME - Installing WMP9 on windows ME is possible! 98 Maybe... I have been able to do it, you can find out how to do it yourself here.  (thanks winbeta.org).
  • Windows Media Player 9 on Win 2000 - Here's a simple trick that your visitors may need to install the latest wmp9 (build 2848) on Win2k: rename the .exe to .zip, then unzip it in a new directory and run "setup_wm.exe" to launch the installation. This will bypass the message "This version of Windows Media Player can be installed only on Windows XP and Windows .NET Server." that you get on a Win2000 box. (thanks winbeta.org).
  • MyIE2 0.46.923 Beta - MyIE is a browser based on the Internet Explorer core. It can open more web pages in one MyIE instance but occupies very little in the way of resources.
  • Nero Burning Rom version 5.5.9.9 Leaked - There is a new leaked version (mirror) available for the great Nero Burning Rom software.
  • WinAmp 3.0 Update - Resolve playback issues with certain media types and to update to the latest versions of the wave out and direct sound outputs.
  • NVDVD 1.22 - NVDVD offers a complete set of advanced features and end-user controls allowing for the smoothest video playback and total control of the DVD experience. End users can choose from a number of custom designed interfaces, or skins, to suit their style. In addition, the video tool bar features a digital zoom function, multiple playback commands, subtitles and closedcaption decoding for an easy to use, flexible experience. (requires S/N).
  • ATV2000 v2.0.15.4 - Freeware ATV2000 is new generation of TV viewing and capture application based on old ATV, but with reworked core. All is build around new control panel, witch provides tuning video and audio controls.
  • CDRWin Version 5.05.001 -Disk4You.de has posted a new version of CDRWin.
  • PowerStrip 3.25 Build 325 - PowerStrip 3.25 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 9000 Pro and GeForce4 Ti4600.
  • Nvidia Detonator Drivers 31.00 Win2K / XP - Guru3D has offers Detonator drivers revision 31.00. The drivers originate from a nForce driver package and the .inf file (windows information file) only supported the nForce chipset based graphics cards. The nForce drivers where fully WHQL certified, unfortunately as they had to alter the .inf file they are no longer that. They have fixed/modified the .inf file and now the driver is compatible with all NVIDIA videocards. The drivers are dated 30/7/2002. The drivers have been tested and work peachy.
  • nForce Drivers v1.12 (leaked) - This nForce Win2K/WinXP driver package contains the following components: GPU driver 31.00 (WHQL'd), Audio driver 2.72 (WHQL'd), Audio utilities 2.74, Network driver 2.61 (WHQL'd), GART driver 2.29 (WHQL'd), SMBus driver 2.17 (WHQL'd), Memory controller driver 2.26 (WHQL'd) and Installer 2.74.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,24 2002 - tech
Saturday Tech Madness - tech
(hx) 02:16 PM CEST - Aug,24 2002 - Post a comment
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,23 2002 - tech
BF 1942 MP Demo Lag & Crash Bug - tech
(hx) 09:46 PM CEST - Aug,23 2002 - Post a comment / read (3)
I noticed over at BF42.com (thanks jd) that the developer at DICE posted a statement regarding the lag&crash bug in the MP Demo:
First of all, get your facts straight before making any accusations about bad netcode etc, here's the real deal:

there is NOTHING wrong with the netcode, its actually quite excellent. BUT, in the demo there is a SERVER - bug, that causes all those "warning connection problem" and making people's ping go up to 1023. Also there is a problem in the client that can cause the server to go fubar.

This has all been adressed in the final version.

Also, the crash-bug, ie; you get a black screen and it crashes back to the desktop with an error log saying "invalid videomode specified"

Solution: If you have ANY sort of Nvidia REFRESHRATE-FIX,/Refresh Force etc remove it, or move back to 60hz for the resolution that you play with, there's a bug with those sort of programs that causes the crash. This has of course also been adressed. //Tony
They also have a solution for you, if you're getting way too high pings after joining a game. The problem is that the ingame browser still pings all available BF42 servers in the background. Solution: After joining a game, hit ESC and click the Options tab, so that you leave the ingame browser. Then hit ESC again and you're back in the game with a much better ping.
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:49 AM CEST - Aug,23 2002 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • Apher worm: From Russia with problems - Why would Microsoft send you an announcement of a new antivirus product from Russia? It wouldn't. But the author of the Apher worm is hoping some people will bite.
  • Interactive sperm helps fight cancer - An interactive sperm called Sammy is the star of an online game designed to carry a message about prostate cancer. A spokesperson for the charity said that Sammy is a health education game designed to introduce men to the prostate gland and the role it plays in sex.
  • CD Copy Stopper - Software pirates beware: CD-ROMs might soon be armed with invisible security systems that keep their contents-games and business applications-under lock and key. The OpSecure CD was developed by Rosh-Ha-ayin, Israel-based Doc-Witness. A "smart card" embedded in the CD unlocks the disc's encrypted content. You can copy the CD, but without the card the software won't run. Try to install the software on more computers than the publisher allows and the smart card will shut you down. The technology works by turning an ordinary CD drive into a smart-card reader. A photodetector at the edge of the CD turns the drive's laser light into electrical pulses, which travel to the embedded smart card and request the key. If the card deems the request legitimate, it returns the key as an electronic signal that an onboard light-emitting diode converts into light and beams back to the drive.
  • Xbox Live applicants: No game for you - More than 100,000 Xbox owners applied to participate in the beta program for Xbox Live, said Jennifer Booth, marketing director for Xbox Live. A total of 5,000 applicants were notified Tuesday that they had been selected for the first round of beta testing and will be able to tap into online versions of "NFL Fever" and racing game "Re-Volt" starting Friday.
  • ATI GAMER PACKAGE - I prefer my NVIDIA, but anyway check this offer at ATi Shop :) - Buy the ATI GAMER PACKAGE today! The ATI GAMER PACKAGE, comprising of the RADEON 9700 PRO and the REMOTE WONDER™, is now available exclusively at ATI.com for $449 USD .
  • WMP9 Watermark Remover - For you guys getting the watermark build number on your desktop after installing WMP9, download this, merge the reg entry into your registry and restart.
  • Windows Media Player 9 Build 2848 Leaked - Windows Media Player leaked and this time its build 2848.
  • Unreal Tournament 2003 Playable DEMO's - Nothing official dudes, this is for all UT-addicted folks that can't wait anymore :)
  • ''Free'' Wintasks 4 - There is another Task manager, If you are a windows 95/98/me user here download this.
  • Diskeeper Lite (free) for WinALL - New Diskeeper Lite is not only an excellent introduction to Diskeeper 7.0, it will help anyone decide which Diskeeper version is right for their needs: Diskeeper Server, Desktop/Workstation or Home Edition.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,22 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:04 AM CEST - Aug,22 2002 - Post a comment / read (3)
  • Diamonds are forever, and you could be too - A Chicago company says it has developed a process for turning cremated human remains into diamonds that can be worn as jewelry. The ash is first purified in a vacuum induction furnace at 3,000 degrees Celsius (about 5,400 F). It is then placed in a press under intense pressure and heat, replicating the forces that create a natural diamond. It takes about 16 weeks.
  • AMD 2600/2400+ Reviews - With the Thoroughbred Revision B core AMD has given new life to the Athlon XP, and it couldn't have come at a better time. The Athlon XP 2600+, for the most part, offers performance competitive with the Pentium 4 2.53GHz (PR); the same can be said about the Athlon XP 2400+ and the Pentium 4 2.4B. There's no clear performance advantage in either case for the vast majority of applications, but where AMD does hold the advantage is in price. The Athlon XP 2600+ and 2400+, once available, will retail for significantly less than their equivalently performing Intel counterparts. There is many reviews: HotHardware / VIA Hardware / Overclockers.au / AMD Zone / AnandTech /  HardOCP / FiringSquad / Aces Hardware /  Tech Report / Xbit Labs / Tom's Hardware.
  • XP 2700 with 333Mhz FSB -  According to The Inquirer, AMD's next speed step will be a 2700+ which will use a 333MHz front side bus (FSB).
    But AMD may also attempt to introduce other features into the 2700+ if engineers can make that work.Those could include Barton like elements such as SOI (silicon on insulator) and a 512K cache but that's dependent on whether the designers can make these elements work in a 2700+ chip. The target date now for the 2700+ is October but while the engineers can introduce a 333 FSB with few if any problems, we understand that they are having difficulties making the SOI process work.
  • AMD Opteron Preview - "AMD Opteron processors are targeted to the desktop, server and workstation. The performance is very promising to the current needs and we believe that it very competitive to the upcoming Intel Itanium which is based on 64-bit Technology too.", said Wee Yep Yin, Marketing Manager for South Asia Pacific, AMD Far East LTD. "AMD's x86-64 technology will soon enable the industry to advance software development on all fronts with x86 compatibility, while providing the capability of delivering 64-bit technology benefits."
  • Neon Strings Tested - In the last years has become the Case-Modden all the time popular. Some beautify their casing with Window Kits or cold light cathodes.
  • VIA EPIA Mini-Itx Motherboard - Unlike most motherboards available today the EPIA boards have the CPU soldered to the board, so upgrading the CPU is not an option. The Eden CPU is unique as it is passively cooled. That's to say it is cooled by a great looking heatsink and does not have a cooling fan. The Motherboard is therefore completely silent. Via have been able to achieve this by opting for a relatively slow, by today's standards, CPU speed of 533Mhz and using their ultra low power Eden core. The CPU runs at a mere 1.2v. Because of it's low power consumption I have been running the EPIA using a tiny 107 Watt power supply and despite powering the Motherboard, CPU, Hard drive and CD Rom, the setup ran flawlessly throughout the four day test period.
  • Unibrain Fire60 External 60GB Review - Moving to the rear of the drive you notice two built in 400Mbps FireWire ports, a power on/off switch along with the connector for the transformer to plug into. Looking around the drive the only other notable feature is the LED at the front of the drive. This is just a simple Power/Activity LED. Portable products seem to be coming up more and more these days, and a big emphases is placed on how well products look as well.
    • 5-way KT333 Motherboard Roundup - Overclockers bring you the round up of five contemporary AMD DDR boards based on VIA's KT-333 chipset. The collection includes: Albatron KX-400+, Asus A7V-333, Chaintech Apogee, Epox 8K3A+ and Soltek DRV5. 
  • Nokia 7650 Review - Nokia's choice of screen is excellent: there are some beautiful touches (anti-aliasing around the clock, and a fine caption font based on MacOS Techno font; and some not so nice touches: a utilitarian menu font that appears to be monospaced, even though it isn't, and a choice of only three themes. (The T68 has more). The camera produces some interesting images. The three modes are landscape (VGA), a truncated portrait (80x96) and a night mode. Things get interesting at night, as you know, and the camera can produce some interesting abstract effects. There's 4 MB of RAM for images, which are captured in JPEG format, even though the imaging application can display several other formats including PNG and TIFF.
  • Known USB Issues in Windows XP - WinXP has a whole host of known USB issues. USBMan has the complete list with fixes and work-arounds in the newly updated USB Guide for Windows XP
  • DirectX 9.0 API Specification document - Betaplace has released the latest version of the DirectX D3D API to compliment the Beta 2 documentation. We recommend you review both the SDK documentation and this specification to assist development using Beta 2 DirectX D3D.
  • Office XP Service Pack 2 released - Service Pack 2, a 15MB download, is supposed to enhance Office XP's performance, security and stability, while fixing a wide range of glitches.
  • Netscape 4.80 - Download links: Netscape 4.80 for Windows / Netscape 4.80 for Linux 2.2 / Netscape 4.80 for other unix systems.
  • Unreal Tournament v436 IpDrv server fixes - Epic Games has issued small fixes for the Win32 and Linux servers of Unreal Tournament, their acclaimed multiplayer shooter. The fixes replace the IpDrv module with one that addresses a Denial of Service attack bug along with a server lag problem.
  • DVD Region-Free v1.0 Final - You don't need to flash any firmware which is dangerous or unavailable. DVD Region-Free also disables region check for popular software-based DVD players such as PowerDVD, WinDVD and CinePlayer. Other features include Region-Free for RCE DVDs, Macrovision-Free, Operation-Free and run self at DVD players startup automatically.
  • HyperSnap-DX 4.52.01 - HyperSnap-DX 4 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. HyperSnap-DX 4 can capture frames from many software DVD players and other video playing software.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,21 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:30 AM CEST - Aug,21 2002 - Post a comment
  • Mammoth hopes rest on icy DNA - Japanese scientists hope to use parts of a mammoth preserved in the Siberian permafrost to impregnate an Indian elephant with its sperm and clone the extinct animal for display at an Ice Age wildlife park.  Organisers of the planned park are now populating it with species from that time in preparation for the much hoped-for return of the mammoth. Several hundred wild horses have been sent to graze in land set aside for the park in the far North East of Siberia on the River Kolyma. Musk ox from another part of Siberia have also been imported, and discussions on buying bison have started with Canada.
  • Tables turned on superhacker group - It would seem that the god of hackers has something of a sense of humour. While one of the most prevalent groups on the scene celebrated its 1,000th hacked website by going on a mass defacement spree, someone else vandalised its own homepage.
  • TransGaming and TimeGate Partner to Port KOHAN - TransGaming Technologies and TimeGate StudioTM announced today the launch of the award-winning PC game series, KOHAN, on Linux. Linux gamers can now purchase and download individual titles or the entire KOHAN series from TransGaming's Web Store at http://www.transgaming.com/webstore.php that include: "KOHAN: Immortal Sovereigns", "KOHAN: Ahriman's Gift" and "KOHAN: Immortal Sovereigns - Special Awards Edition."
  • 2.8GHz Pentium 4 Before Xmas - On Monday, Intel will announce its Pentium 4 chip running at a speed of 2.8Ghz. (Pre-order - $542.80).
  • VisionTek Update - Visiontek have send nvmax.com the following email regarding HardOCP's statement which has led to further, untrue, rumours all over the net:  "An Assignee / Trustee as been appointed, and will attempt to maximize the value of the company's assets. His belief is that the assets have a higher value as a "turn-key" operation rather than in a liquidation. The Trustee is continuing to operate the company to determine if a sale is a viable alternative to a liquidation, and he is currently talking to interested parties. The company is continuing to take orders, ship products, and honor rebates."
  • 40x CD-Burner Shootout - Several months ago, 40x burning became a reality when Plextor got the jump on all of the other optical storage companies with the PX-W4012TA CD-RW. Since then, many companies have been coming out with versions of their own. As with any genre of products, a few stood out above the rest. Namely, the original tried and true Plexwriter; the wallet-friendly Lite-On, and the speed-daemon Teac. Today Techware Labs will be comparing the three drives on their relative merits.
  • AMD Athlon XP1800+ CPU & The VIA KT133A Chipset - In the second of our budget upgrading features we answer another question many people pose to us looking for cheap extra performance, Is it worth running an XP1*00 in my older mainboard?"
  • GeForce4 Ti 4200 Shootout - Digit-Life has compiled a round-up of sorts of the latest GeForce4 Ti 4200 offerings from Albatron, ProLink, and Gainward.
  • Radeon 8500 & GeForce4 Ti Benchmarks - Radeon 8500+, Radeon 8500, Radeon 8500LE, GeForce4 Ti4600, GeForce4 Ti4400, GeForce4 Ti4200 (64MB), GeForce4 Ti4200 (128MB) on Athlon XP & Pentium IV running under Win98, Win2K and Win XP - that enough benchmarks for you.
  • How to defang Win2k SP3's auto updating - Go to Start, then run services.msc. You can also do this via Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Find Automatic Updates, and change startup type to disabled. Then run gpedit.msc, the group policy editor. Go to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update. On a fresh installation with SP3 applied this will show up as not configured, and somewhat counter-intuitively, in order to remove access to Windows Update, you enable it. Notice in passing that it's tagged Remove access to use all Windows Update "featues," which we presume is one they can fix in SP4.
  • Guide to Windows Security  - This guide will cover some of such tips and tricks for different applications which should make your system more secure as well as less prone to viruses. Although the guide is mostly aimed at Windows 2000/XP users, people using older version of Windows should also take note as much of the content here applies to those earlier versions in addition to the Internet Explorer and Outlook Express tips.
  • Office XP SP2 English -  The English version of SP-2 is scheduled for release on Wednesday and is focused on delivering enhanced security, performance and stability to Office XP applications. SP-2 will include new security updates that enhance the protection of Office Web components from hackers, and an Excel 2002 update that prevents the loss of digital signatures when auto-saving spreadsheets. Download: Office XP SP2 Standard / Office XP SP2 Administrative.
  • Customizer XP v. 1.8.4 RC-1 - TweakNow has released Customizer XP v. 1.8.4 RC-1, a comprehensive and easy-to-use Windows NT, 2000 and XP utility that lets you fine-tune Windows and Internet Explorer. Whether you want to tweak your Windows registry, clean up your hard drive, or increase your multimedia and game performance, Customizer XP's integrated suite of programs can get your system running at peak performance levels.
  • Official Intel Application Accelerator v2.2.2.2150 - The Intel Application Accelerator is a performance software package for Intel desktop and mobile PCs. version 2.2.2.2150 release date 8/16/2002
  • SB Live & Audigy Drivers v5.12.2.252 - This package (155MB) contains the Windows XP driver for Creative Labs Audio Cards. Also Compaq FTP has new drivers for the Sound Blaster 5.1 and Audigy sound cards under Windows XP. I recommend you to leech both packages and compare :]
  • EPoX 8K3A/+/P BIOS 2815 - The official EPoX UK site has been updated (select the board and download 8K3A2815.BIN) with new official BIOS for  EP-8K3A, 8K3A+, 8K3AP BIOS : 8K3A2815.BIN (7900).
  • Conexant HSF/HSFi V.92 56K PCI Modem Drivers - Compaq has re;eased Windows 2000/XP drivers for the Conexant HSF/HSFi V.92 56K PCI Modem.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,20 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:42 AM CEST - Aug,20 2002 - Post a comment / read (4)
  • Bangkok Software Pirates Back - Driven out in a crackdown earlier this year, traders selling pirated music, software and X-rated movies have returned to Pantip Plaza, a chaotic, packed shopping center in downtown Bangkok. The price -- 100 baht ($2.32), a fifth of what customers would pay for a legal hit CD album. Software owners are complaining that trade in pirated CDs and DVDs, everything from the latest Microsoft Windows system to Hollywood movies, is booming again in Pantip Plaza and on roadside stalls after authorities halted aggressive raids in February.
  • Denver Becomes First City with Complete Wireless Internet Coverage - An agreement between the city of Denver and Ricochet Networks has made Denver the first city in the U.S. with complete wireless Internet coverage. The city and county of Denver will grant a use permit to Denver-based RNI in exchange for 1,000 wireless modems and unlimited service for its law enforcement agencies.
  • China targets Windows with Linux-based OS - Called Yangfan Linux, which means "raise the sail" in Chinese, the open source operating system is being pieced together by the Beijing Software Industry Productivity Center, a group established by the government to organize Linux development in China. Now six months in the making, Yangfan has been installed on 2,800 government computers, replacing Windows and in some cases early versions of Linux already running inside the government.
  • PGP is back! - Jon Callas, the former PGP chief scientist, becomes the CTO of the new company, PGP Corporation. Will Price, former Director of Engineering at NAI, becomes VP of engineering. The good news is that the Windows XP and Mac OS X versions of version 8.0 of the excellent PGP Desktop, which were ready when Network Associates canned the division, will now ship in the fourth quarter, according to a company statement.
  • ATi Radeon 9700 Full Release Reviews - The King is dead! Long live the King! How's this for a plot-twist? The challenger Radeon - a real "Performeron" - has actually done it and usurped the throne from the former king! ATi has earned itself not only the performance crown in gaming environments, but also that of the technology leader.  More reviews&benchmarks:  AnandTech / Toms's Hardware / HotHardware / Beyond3D / HardOCP / ExtremeTech.
  • ATI Radeon 9000 Review - ATI keeps amazing me positively. When I received the card, I figured it was just barely able to surpass the GF4 MX cards in performance. But it has shown an excellent performance Even against the biggest GeForce4 card(!!) Since ATI has planned to replace the LE cards with this 9000 version, they have pushed the price down. And with a performance like this you can't complain :)
  • Trident Interview - Hardware Accelerated has posted an interview with Le T. Nguyen of Trident Microsystems as he talks about the XP4 graphics chipset which Trident recently introduced and is supposed to be fast and cheap.
  • Ahanix Iceberg 1 Water Cooling Kit review - Overclockers are always looking for a better way to keep their processors cooler. If you've found the best heatsink and best fan, but that still isn't cooling your processor enough, you may want to look in to water cooling. Water cooling isn't just for overclockers. If your looking to keep your CPU cool, or your computer is in a hot environment begging for cooling, then water cooling maybe the thing you need. With water cooling, there is no loud fans, only one very quiet case fan to cool the radiator.
  • EPoX 8K9A3+ & 8K9A2+ Specs - The differences between them is the 8K9A3+ will have HPT374 RAID chip with 12 IDE channels all together while 8K9A2+ will have HPT372 RAID and Serial ATA chip.
  • Apache upgrade released to fix security hole - PivX Solutions, a network security consultancy in Newport Beach, California, disclosed the vulnerability Friday soon after an upgrade to Apache Version 2.0 that fixes the hole was made available on the Web. The hole could allow an attacker to remotely access all the files on an Apache 2.0 Web server, execute them, pass malicious code, and even shut down the system completely, said Geoff Shively, who goes by the title "chief hacking officer" at PivX Solutions.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,19 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 12:57 AM CEST - Aug,19 2002 - Post a comment / read (1)
  • NASA plans to read terrorist's minds at airports - Airport security screeners may soon try to read the minds of travelers to identify terrorists.
    Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have told Northwest Airlines security specialists that the agency is developing brain-monitoring devices in cooperation with a commercial firm, which it did not identify.
  • VisionTek is shutting its doors? - While VisionTek experienced some problems earlier this year with financial debt, it was thought that all was going well for this U.S. based company from Northern Illinois. We have come to find out this weekend that all is far from well at one of our fave VidCard builders. It seems as though VisionTek is in utter financial shambles and a trustee has been appointed to come in and liquidate all the assets of the company.
  • Wiebetech 40GB MicroGB Hard Drive Review - Wiebetech seems to be gaining momentum within the industry and seem to be shooting big, based on what we have seen in there white paper documentation and on there site they seem to have the combination down pat, Good performance, Competitively priced, and versatile. We have seen two of these proven to be true, Price and Versatility, but we need a little more proof before we can say it has the great performance we hope to see.
  • LITEON_CDRW 40x12x48 Review - Check it out!
  • Creative Extigy Review - The small plastic black box (8"w, 7.75"d, 1.75"h) has been designed to sit near flush on most tower cases but is also supplied with two brackets for upright mounting. It is rather lighter than expected. The front houses optical in and out sockets for data transmission to audio equipment such as Minidisk, a line in, a microphone in (wrong size should be a full size jack), headphones with balance control, master control, a quick CMSS button (this gives wrap around 5.1 sound from conventional two channels), a standby button and four LED's indicating power on, remote control receive, using digital and CMSS enabled
  • Chaintech A-GT61 Geforce 4 Ti4600 Review - Guys at ExplosiveLab had a chance to take a look at the Chaintech A-GT61 Geforce 4 Ti4600 special edition. Let's now take a closer look at the card and the specifications.
  • Leadtek's A250LE NVIDIA Geforce 4 TI-4200 Review - The Leadtek A250LE NVIDIAR Geforce 4 TI-4200 has some obvious enhancements to it in reference to the large heatsink which did enable us to reach the highest overclock figure out of all the cards based on the TI-4200 we have looked at.
  • +350 Geforce 4 Reviews - 8Dimensional has posted pretty big  GeForce4 Ti Review List!
  • Liquid Cooling the Gainward Golden Sample 750/XP (Part #3) - DeviantPC has posted third part of the series entitled Liquid Cooling the Gainward Golden Sample 750/XP.
  •  AGP Settings - their effects on 3DMark 2001 - This time, not only is my setup different but I've done a wider range of AGP bus tests. 
  • Installing Windows XP - Step by Step - Like Windows 2000, XP makes extensive use of the Microsoft ACPI (Advanced Configuration & Power Interface), which relies heavily on your system BIOS (Basic Input / Output System). Many slightly older systems may not be set up to take advantage of ACPI functionality, so it's worth checking with your motherboard and/or peripheral vendor to see if an ACPI compliant BIOS upgrade exists for your hardware. Read more...
  • Xbox Linux 0.1 - Today the Xbox Linux project announced that it had succeeded in fully booting Linux on the Microsoft Xbox Gaming System. The free operating system Linux is able to be booted either from flash memory, or (more easily) from a CD inserted into the machine. (The Xbox still needs to have a modchip fitted to allow it to run unsigned code; however these are widely available and start from $30)."
  • Windows Messenger 4.7.0040 - Neowin.net have ripped the latest build of Windows Messenger 4.7 out of Windows XP SP1 Build 1097.
  • Blindwrite 4.0.6 - BlindWrite Suite is a set of tools that creates perfect backups of protected CDs. You can also burn audio CD's from MP3s.
  • Optimizer XP 3.51 - Freeware Optimizer XP 3.51 will help you to optimize your PC system to its best performance without any options.
  • Fresh UI 4.0 - Fresh UI is FREE Windows tweaking tool. 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.
  • Search Toolbar - Search Toolbar incorporates all those features you wanted in Internet Explorer but Microsoft forgot to include.
  • Worm Detector v3.2 - Worm Detector (download) works in cooperation with Outlook 2000 and XP. It checks for mail worms and spam in all incoming Outlook email.
  • Windows Office XP Service Pack 2 (Non-ENGLISH) - Warp2Search has posted the download links for the Spanish ,Italian, French, Thai , Hebrew , and Arabic version of Windows Office XP Service Pack 2.
  • Netscape Communicator 4.8 - Netscape Communicator is an integrated set of client software for open email, groupware, editing, calendaring, web browsing, and push content delivery. Together with Netscape SuiteSpot servers, Netscape Communicator advances the features and capabilities available to users of the Internet and corporate intranets. Available since the second quarter of 1997, Netscape Communicator is offered for 17 platforms, including Windows, Mac OS, OS/2, and a variety of Unix platforms.
  • A-tuner v1.1.7.7 - A-tuner is a small tool for changing the following 4 settings on your Nvidia card: Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync and MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias.
  • Abit BIOSes - BD7II/-RAID (version AJ) / Abit BG7 (version AH - adds support for Pentium 4 2,8 GHz) / Abit  IT7/IT7E (version A4) / Abit KT7/-RAID (version A9) / Abit  KT7A/-RAID (version A9) / Abit  SA7 (version AK) / Abit KT7E: (version A9).
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,17 2002 - tech
Morning Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:26 PM CEST - Aug,17 2002 - Post a comment
  • Record floods in middle EU - The floods are among several that have killed about 100 people across Europe and forced tens of thousands to evacuate their homes. Along with Germany and the Czech Republic, flooding has hit communities in Austria, Slovakia, Russia, and Romania.
  • Sony scientist: Robots need culture - A researcher says that the next wave of robots will be able to interact with one another, form their own languages and evolve new kinds of intelligence.
  • New fault could generate giant waves - Such waves, called tsunami, could pose a threat to densely populated coastal cities in southwestern Japan.  Researchers led by Jin-Oh Park of the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in Yokohama discovered the fault using a seismic reflection profile, developed by measuring vibrations from the surface that are reflected back by deep rock formations.
  • Russia accuses FBI agent of hacking - A G-man who nabbed two Russian hackers in a sting operation is charged by Russia with downloading evidence from a server without authorization.
  • Military computers' data exposed - A security company cracks U.S. military networks, gaining access to tens of thousands of government computers that military officials say hold unclassified data.
  • AMD plans Athlon boost - The chipmaker will introduce, at a minimum, an Athlon XP 2400+ and an Athlon XP 2600+ for desktop PCs toward the end of the month, sources familiar with AMD's plans said. AMD is also evaluating whether to increase the speed of the chip's front-side bus--the pathway used to shuttle data between the processor and PC memory.
  • ECC-Eliza V4.09 - Your Computer Psychologist - Eliza is an amusement psychologist program that chats with the user in plain English, and uses advanced AI methods in order to solve the user problems or just entertain the user :)
  • Antivirus Databases - Norton Antivirus / Kaspersky AVP / McAfee VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file v4218 / McAfee VirusScan SuperDAT File v4218 (engine v4160) / AVG 6.0 ENG
  • Windows XP SP1 Build 1097 Leaked - Another SP1 leak (mirror) from Microsoft FileVersion: 5.1.2600.1097 (xpsp1.020813-2140).
  • CardBus PC Cards Update for Win2K SP3 - This update resolves the "CardBus PC Cards May No Longer Function on Specific Docking Stations After You Apply SP3" issue in Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) and is discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) Article Q327269.
  • XP-Antispy 3.61 - XP-AntiSpy is a little utility that let's you disable some built-in update and authetication 'features' in WindowsXP. For example, there's a service running in the background wich is called 'Automatic Updates'. I don't know what this service transfers from my machine to other machines on the internet, especially the MS ones.
  • PowerStrip 3.21 Beta Build 318  - PowerStrip 3.20 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest GeForce4 Ti4600.
  • BearShare 4.0.2 (free) - BearShare is an exciting Windows file sharing program from Free Peers, Inc. that lets you, your friends, and everyone in the world share files. Built on Gnutella technology, BearShare provides a simple, easy to use interface combined with a powerful connection and search engine that puts thousands of different files in easy reach.
  • mIRC v6.03 - mIRC (download) is a highly configurable IRC client with all the goodies other clients on UNIX, Macintosh and even Windows, combined with a nice and clean user interface.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,16 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:21 AM CEST - Aug,16 2002 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • New clues about what gives caffeine its kick - A cup of coffee can keep you awake for a long time, and scientists think they know why. Researchers have discovered a new function of a protein that intensifies the caffeine kick.
  • Gene Mutations Linked to Language Development  - Two critical mutations appeared roughly 200,000 years ago in a gene linked to language, then swept through the population at roughly the same time anatomically modern humans began to dominate the planet, according to new research.
  • Baby-sitting via satellite - Satellite technology is being used in the US to keep track of children and offer peace of mind to parents. A wristwatch containing miniature Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has just gone on sale.
  • Windows Apache security bug revealed - Default installations of Apache on Windows are susceptible to a bug discovered by Italian researcher Luigi Auriemma, Apache.org reports. According to a PivX advisory, non-Unix platforms like Windows OS2 and Netware are vulnerable, but Unix versions are not
  • Sony confirms PS2 online plans - Sony is set to launch its online gaming offering for the PlayStation 2 in the USA on August 27, with the release of the official PS2 network adapter and some of the first titles to support online play - giving it a headstart of more than two months on Microsoft's competing Xbox Live service. The online plans for PS2 all revolve around the network adapter, which offers both Ethernet and modem connectivity in one package - expected to be priced at around $40, slightly cheaper than Microsoft's Xbox Live starter pack
  • Maxtor bows out of network storage biz  - Hard drive maker Maxtor has discontinued sales of a network storage system product line, citing a smaller-than-expected market and difficulties establishing a brand.
  • Is Iomega's new Zip zapped already? - Iomega lets loose a faster, 750MB Zip drive into a market dominated by CD and DVD formats. Can Zip speed back to the top of the pack?.The new Zip 750 drive is available immediately in a version that supports USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 connections. Iomega plans to unveil a FireWire model at next month's Apple Expo in Paris. The USB 2.0 drive sells for $180, while a disk goes for $14.95 singly or $12.49 in packs of eight. When available, the FireWire Zip 750 will sell for $200
  • AMD to intro 2400+, 2600+ on 21st - System integrators close to AMD in Taipei suggest that the 2600+ has a raw MHz speed of 2.133GHz, while the 2400+ clocks 2GHz.
  • QuakeCon Limited Edition RADEON 9700 - QuakeCon Limit1ed Edition RADEON 9700 package: $449 US / A RADEONt 9700 Pro in a Limited Edition box / An ATI REMOTE WONDER / DOOM III (as soon as available) / Branded swag.
  • HW Review Round-up - ABIT's Siluro GeForce4 Ti 4200 / ASUS V8440 Deluxe GF4 Ti4400 review / Leadtek K7N415DA and ASUS A7V333 /  Joytech Apollo Blade Monster Xabre 400 128MB / Single Head VS Triple Head! Parhelia-512 Surround / AMD Athlon XP2200+  / Socket 423 to Socket 478 upgrade adapter /AMD Hammer Processors and x86-64 Technology (preview) / EPoX 8K5A3+ / Samsung LTM1575W Wide Screen LCD monitor / Samsung SM-332 32x12x40 CD-RW/ 12x DVD / Western Digital 1000JB SE 100gb HDD / 128MB Ur-Disk Mini USB HDD /  Actiontec's Wireless / iROCK 520 Portable MP3 Player / Floppy Drive LED Mod
  • July 2002 3Digest- Monthly 3D Digest is the project of iXBT.com devoted to releases of new Windows XP (monthly) and Windows 9x/ME (once in 4 months) drivers for popular videocards (released from 10th of June 2002 to the 10th of July 2002). As usual, there are many diagrams containing the information on changes in operation of videocards at change to last version drivers, and also summary diagrams of popular modern videocards performance. As the tradition of our 3D Digest there is the best price/performance ratios information.
  • MadOnion.com GamersHQ Winamp (v2.x) skin - Check it out!
  • Windows 2000 Patch: Flaw in Network Connection Manager - This update resolves the "Flaw in Network Connection Manager" security vulnerability in Windows 2000. Download now to prevent a malicious user from gaining elevated privileges through the Network Connection Manager, and then running code of his or her choice on your computer.
  • Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Security Update for SP4  - Microsoft distributes SQL Server 7.0 security fixes as one downloadable file. Because the security fixes are cumulative, each new release contains all of the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 7.0 security fix release. You do not have to install a previous patch before you install the latest one. This Microsoft Knowledge Base article contains a list of all the security fixes that are available for SQL Server.
  • SQL Server 2000 Security Update for SP2 - Microsoft distributes SQL Server 2000 security fixes as one downloadable file. Because the security fixes are cumulative, each new release contains all of the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2000 security fix release. You do not have to install a previous patch before you install the latest one. This Microsoft Knowledge Base article contains a list of all the security fixes that are available for SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2).
  • NeroMIX v1.3.0.34 - NeroMIX is the Emperor of Style in Multimedia CD creation, combining dynamic CD burning (data, audio, copying) with the newest Internet audio technology all in one customizable interface.
  • GCC 3.2 Released - The purpose of this release is to provide a stable platform for OS distributors to use building their next OS releases. A primary objective was to stabilize the C++ ABI; we believe that the interface to the compiler and the C++ standard library are now stable. There are almost no other bug-fixes or improvements in this compiler, relative to GCC 3.1.1. Be aware that C++ code compiled by GCC 3.2 will not interoperate with code compiled by GCC 3.1.1.
  • DAEMON Tools 3.17 - DAEMON Tools is an application for multiprotection emulation. It is further development of Generic Safedisc emulator and incorporates all its features. This program allows running backup copies of SafeDisc, Securom or Laserlock protected games.
  • ALi Integrated Driver ver. 1.091 - ALi have released a new Integrated Driver version 1.091 supporting the following chipsets.
  • Asus VGA drivers v30.00 - Asus has just released her newest VGA drivers 30.00 for WinALL.
  •  Leadtek Detonator Drivers 29.42 and New Winfox Tool - Leadtek has released a new detonators version 29.42 for Win9x/ME / Win2K/XP / WinNT4 and a new version of Leadtek's Winfox Tool 5.13.01.2002-2.25
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,15 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 04:22 AM CEST - Aug,15 2002 - Post a comment
  • Bikini Karate Babes - Bikini Karate Babes animates at 60 FPS, using actual video images that you control in real time. The trend in fighting games lately is to have the female fighters wear less and less. So, we present to you: Bikini Karate Babes! It's a hilarious spoof on the trend in the fighting game genre with 19 characters and 10 play modes. Plus lots of hidden secrets. While it's supposed to be funny and sexy, great care was taken to make the game animate and play smoothly. BKB has 1 and 2 player modes, with lots of action and strategy.
  • Militia 2 Counter-Strike Movie - Militia 2 (DivX format)  is the sequel to the popular counter-strike movie, cs_militia part 1. What started as a small group project of about 5 people, quickly boomed into a 30+ person production as Daniel Frome (director) strived to take Militia 2 to a higher level than Part 1.
  • Scientists create 'endurance' mouse - Researchers say they have created a transgenic mouse with muscles like a marathoner, capable of enduring rigorous exercise for extended periods of time. While so far the research has only been conducted on mice, scientists say they expect the techniques they've developed to treat the mouse muscle will also work on humans.
  • Vision Quest - I'm sitting across from a blind man - call him patient Alpha - at a long table in a windowless conference room in New York. On one end of the table there's an old television and a VCR. On the other end are a couple of laptops. They're connected by wires to a pair of homemade signal processors housed in unadorned gunmetal-gray boxes, each no bigger than a loaf of bread. In the corner stands a plastic ficus tree, and beyond that, against the far wall, a crowded bookshelf. Otherwise, the walls are white and bare. When the world's first bionic eye is turned on, this is what Patient Alpha will see.
  • VIA will announce KT400 at QuakeCon - VIA Technologies has been named by QuakeCon as a "major sponsor" and will annouce the new KT400 chipset for AMD processors with DDR400. QuakeCon begin tomorrow so we can expect soon the appearance of motherboards with KT400.
  • jv16 PowerTools 1.1.0.143 beta - jv16 PowerTools 1.1.0.143 Beta released. Don't use the ActiveX / COM scanner yet. This release contains only very small fixes, some network features (net tool, remote dir selector and remote task manager) should work now and the registry tool's network features seems to work also. This releases idea is mainly to fix the bugs of1.1.0.142.
  • Actual Transparent Windows 1.0 for WinXP/2k  - The transparency effect (direct download link) looks very impressive and may be useful with such objects as Windows Taskbar, WinAmp, drop-down menus and other windows.
  • SpySites 1.0 - SpySites includes a database of over 1,500 known Spy/Sleaze sites and guides you through the simple process of including them in Internet Explorer's Restricted Zone and setting policies to prevent them from performing intrusive acts on your PC or from compromising your privacy and security such as installing and/or running.
  • Opera 6.05 for Windows - Opera Software has released a new official version of their browser 6.05 for Windows (non-Java version | Java version).
  • WCPUID 3.0g+ (Test Version) - WCPUID is the program that displays a detailed information about CPU type, frequency, internal and external clock, multiplier, special instruction sets, cache information, AGP information, and much more.
On NVIDIA CineFX Architecture - tech
(hx) 02:43 AM CEST - Aug,15 2002 - Post a comment
Voodoo Extreme's Anthony Tan has published pretty interesting "tech" article on Nvidia's upcoming chipset, NV30 and its CineFX architecture, plus he also tries to compare the NV30 implementations to the ones found in ATI's R300. Here is a bit:
Differences between the vertex shaders of the NV3x and ATi's R300 are primarily down to the NV3x's advantage of higher actual number of executable instructions through its 256 max static instructions via loops and branching (65,536 versus R300's 1024, also the NV3x flow control of loops and branching is data-dependent versus the R300's constant-based; the loops and branching abilities greatly reduces bandwidth consumption and may mean both the R300 and NV30's maximum vertex processing performance will be limited by current CPUs), an additional address vector (2 versus R300's single one), additional temporary vectors (16 versus R300's 12) and the availability of high-precision trigonometric math functions (SIN, COS, both not available in the R300).
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,14 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:51 AM CEST - Aug,14 2002 - Post a comment
  • India plans moon mission "by 2007" - According to the Times of India, scientists with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) have sent a report to government officials saying they have the technical capability to launch an expedition to Earth's nearest neighbor by 2007. They say they expect the project to cost in the region of $82.5 million.
  • Going up? Space elevator wins support - NASA has given HighLift a US$570,000 grant to continue research into the elevator and the company has received an indication of support from the European Space Agency, which has representatives attending the Seattle conference. Unlike the science fiction version, this space elevator need not be anchored improbably both to Earth and an asteroid. Instead, it would be tethered just to Earth from a floating platform in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. From there, a 100,000-kilometre-long ribbon about one metre wide with the thickness of a sheet of paper would be propelled by rockets beyond the point in space where orbiting objects remain above a fixed point on the Earth's surface, the so-called geosynchronous orbit.
  • U.S. vulnerable to data sneak attack - A terrorist team would be able to do significant localized damage to the nation's systems, according to a recent war games simulation.
  • Symantec unveils automated Norton AntiVirus - On Monday the company announced Version 2003, due September 1, which it says will automatically protect a PC from evolving threats such as advanced e-mail worms and infected instant messaging attachments.
  • "Serious flaw" found in Internet Explorer - The IE problem has been around for at least five years and could allow an attacker to intercept credit card and/or personal data when a user is making a purchase.
  • Gamers get Ł500 to change their name - Gamers are being asked to change their names by deed poll to promote the launch of a new game called Turok Evolution. UK publisher Acclaim wants five people to agree to change their name to Turok for one year as part of its promotion. According to the company, those taking part in the promotion will receive Ł500, an Xbox console and a copy of the new game.
  • EverQuest = big money - Smedley, 33, is the chief operating officer of Sony Online Entertainment, where he's master of the virtual boomtown known as EverQuest. Once a destination for the fringe Dungeons & Dragons crowd, the online role-playing game now has 433,000 paying customers who generate $5 million a month for the Japanese entertainment giant. Given the 40 percent gross-profit margins, and the fact that this world practically runs itself, the dragon-slaying business is looking pretty good these days.
  • An MP3 player trapped in a cassette tape's body - You've loaded your portable MP3 player with your favorite tunes, and now you want to play them in your car on a summer road trip. With most digital music players, you have just one option: plug a cassette-shaped adapter into the player's headphone jack. That approach works, but it makes for a messy dashboard. You'll have a cable dangling from your car's tape slot, and you'll need some place to park the digital player. A company called Digisette has a much more elegant solution. The Digisette Duo-DX is a digital audio player in a lightweight aluminum case that is shaped exactly like an audio cassette.
  • Red Hat Announces Hammer Support -Red Hat and AMD today announced that Red Hat will offer global support for the upcoming AMD Opteron and AMD Athlon  processors based on AMD's Hammer technology in Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, and future enterprise Linux offerings from Red Hat. Red Hat will provide native 64-bit support for processors based on AMD's x86-64 technology, while providing support for existing 32-bit Linux-based applications.
  • ATi Radeon 9700 available in Japan - According to Rage3D, the Powercolor Radeon 9700 Pro is now being sold in the famous Akiba market.  
  • Intel's 90 nano technology to use strained silicon - We know that Intel has planned to move from its current 130 nanometer to 90 nanometers for some time, but Barrett will describe a process called "strained silicon" which is already used by IBM. Strained silicon will increase the speed of transistors, while copper interconnect technology, which competitor AMD has used for some time, also increases performance. The firm claimed that it used a 90 nano process to make SRAM chips at 52 megabits last February, with around 300 million transistors in a 109 square millimetre area. The SRAM cell size is one square micron, claims Intel, which is 100 times smaller than a red blood cell. This SRAM technology will help inprove cache sizes in the future chips.
  • Zalman Fan Control Review - FAN MATE 1 is an adjustable fan speed connector for allowing you to control the speed of a fan.
  • Triplex Millennium Silver GeForce 4 Ti4600 Review - The card sports 128Mb of Samsung 2.8ns DDR, which equates in theory to a max speed of 714Mhz. The default speed of the GeForce 4 Ti4600 is 300 Core/650 Memory, so they are giving you a little overclocking headroom here (in theory anyway). It will be interesting to see just how fast we can get her purring later on....
  • ATi Radeon 9000 Pro Review - The long awaited RV250 core is finally here. At first, rumors would have suspected that the Radeon 9000 Pro (rv250 core) would be the successor of the Radeon 8500 (R200 core). Instead the Radeon 9000 Pro seems to be ATi's budget card for their next generation video cards. All of ATi's internal benchmarkings has the Radeon 9000 Pro go against Nvidia's GeForce4 MX460. All specs of the Radeon 9000 Pro and the Radeon 8500 including clock speeds, memory speeds, bandwidth, etc. are the same except the Texture Units per Pipeline where the Radeon 9000 Pro has 1 whereas the Radeon 8500 has 2. Can it really be that similar you ask? Have a lookg for yourself.
  • eVGA GeForce4 Ti 4400 Review - There are 3 flavors of the GeForce Ti series cards. There is the Top end Ti 4600. The middle guy, Ti 4400 and the more budget friendly Ti 4200 version which is the cheapest of the three. All three varied in price ranges with their own specific markets. The Ti 4400 seems to be a favorite card among enthusiasts as it provides the best bang for the buck. Normally a 4400 can be had for 100$ cheaper than a 4600, yet if your lucky enough to get a quality card, you can overclock the 4400 to near or beyond 4600 default speeds.

  • Stealth CDROM Guide  - Due to popular demand, eliteHW has started on a sequence of articles involving simple case mods. Hopefully these guides will show you how to improve the aesthetics of your case without huge costs. The first in this series of articles will be on stealth-ing your CD-ROM bays. This mod is not all that original or new, but I post in several forums, and when people see my rig I get a lot of "Whoa, how'd you do that?" or, "Then how does the drive open?" Hopefully I will answer these questions with a simple guide.

  • Nero InfoTool V1.02 - Nero InfoTool v1.02 is the latest addition, this small download does a scan of your hardware and gives you a complete overview of components hardware/software installed and now can detect drivers.
  • AntiVir Personal Edition 6.14.16.66 (FREE) - The AntiVir Personal Edition offers the effective protection against computer viruses for the individual and private use on a single PC-workstation. In order to make possible an easy operation, the AntiVir Personal Edition is developed to the essential points.
  • mp3PRO Winamp plugin v1.1 (Free) - Playback mp3PRO files and streams on your Winamp player.
  • WM Recorder 2.0 - Freeware WM Recorder (WMR20) allows you to record Windows Media stream video and audio clips from the Internet and save them to your hard drive or CD. The program provides two recording modes. In Browse Mode you can record media clips while browsing the Net.

  • Nvidia 3D Stereo 30.82 Driver for stereo 3D glasses - Nvidia have released thier 3D Stereo 30.82 Drivers (Win9x/ME / WinXP/2k) for use with your 3D glasses.

  • Hercules Catalyst Radeon (7.74) Reference Drivers  - Hercules have released their Catalyst Radeon (7.74) reference drivers and the Hercules Control Panels 7.74 for Windows 95/98/98SE/ME/2000/XP that should work on all Hercules ATI Radeon cards from the 3D Prophet 7500 DDR 64MB to the latest 3D Prophet 9000 PRO 128MB.

  • A-tuner v1.1.7.5 -  A-tuner is a small tool for changing the following 4 settings on your Nvidia card: Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync, MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,13 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:50 AM CEST - Aug,13 2002 - Post a comment
  • Sprints Enhanced CDMA Network Gets a Treo - Today, Sprint and Handspring announced the availability of the Handspring Treo 300. The unit was designed exclusively for the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network (CDMA2000 1xRTT). The 16MB device combines a Palm OS organizer with a color screen, QWERTY keyboard, and PCS Phone. The Treo 300 marks the first CDMA2000 1xRTT version of the Treo family of handhelds. Sprint PCS Free & Clear with Vision plans enable subscribers to send/receive personal and corporate e-mail, search/browse information on the Internet (Sprint claims speeds averaging 50 to 70 Kbps), and do text messaging (SMS).
  • PGP encryption defect uncovered -  A trio of computer scientists claims to have found a flaw in the popular e-mail technology Pretty Good Privacy, which could let hackers read protected messages.
  • Serial ATA Arrives At Last - It will all be worth it in the end. With 150 MByte/s, simpler cabling and guaranteed compatibility with earlier parallel ATA standards, Serial ATA looks set to become the dominant interface for hard disks. There are many claims being made for this new standard - but are they justified? Here, THG puts a spotlight on the technology and checks out the first products.
  • IE Booster 1.5 - IE Booster is a freeware collection of tools that extend the context menu of the web browser MS Internet Explorer (version 5 and up) for Windows
  • Creative File Manager for NOMAD Jukebox 3 - This is the latest release of the Creative File Manager for NOMAD Jukebox 3 (English only).
  •  jv16 PowerTools 1.1.0.142a Beta - jv16 PowerTools 1.1.0.142 Beta 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.
  • Opera 6.05 - Opera 6.05 has been released, download non-JAVA / JAVA version.
  • CPUBENCH 3.3.0.1 - This Freeware program will measure the MFLOPS and MIPS of your CPU which 1is useful for making a comparison between different kinds of CPU`s.
  • XP Antispy 3.61 - This tool allows you to disable most if not all suspicious home call functions in Windows XP.
  • PowerStrip 3.21 Beta Build 317 - PowerStrip 3.21 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600.
  • VIA 4in1 442v(a)p2 Drivers  - VIA today released a new official version of the 4in1 Chipset Drivers.
  • Nvidia 29.90 Detonators WinALL - I got my paws on a new set of NVIDIA drivers. It's not based on the newer 30.xx series but a slightly older set namely the 29.90, the 29.xx series is very popular and perhaps this will bring you some good performance versus stability (thanks Guru3D).
  • EPoX 8K3A/+ 2812 Beta BIOS - EPoX has released a new beta version BIOS for the famous 8K3A/+ board.
  • Plextor PX-320A Firmware v1.03 - Plextor has released a new firmware upgrade for all owners of the PX-320A.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,12 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:24 AM CEST - Aug,12 2002 - Post a comment
  • The Brain as User Interface -  Recent experiments have shown that direct control of prosthetic limbs by the brain may be less difficult to achieve than was supposed. In early May, neuroscientist John Chapin and his colleagues at a Brooklyn, N.Y., medical center used a wireless receiver and electrodes implanted in a rat's brain to steer the rodent anywhere they wanted it to go. About a month later, bioengineer Andrew Schwartz of Arizona State University (Tempe) announced a method to quickly train a small number of cells in a monkey's brain to accurately control the 3-D movements of a dot on a monitor.
  • Afrotech's Hard-disk Sound System  - Why pay 500$ for Klipsch's latest speaker system? You can make something that looks way cooler for the price of a DIY amplifier and some HDDs out of a dumpster. It doesn't sound quite as good but who cares! There really isn't much to say about this project...
  • Trident Interview - Gamer's Depot have posted an interview with Trident's VP of marketing about their upcomming XP4 GPU. They state the XP4 will provide about 80% of the performance of ATI's Radeon 9700 PRO at less than 1/4 of the cost.
  • Vantec IceBerq Chipset Coolers - The IceBerq comes with the CCB chipset sink (copper or aluminum depending on which one you have), two smaller more traditional looking passive heatsinks, a three to four pin Molex adapter, Thermal tape, push pins, and a spooge of silicon thermal paste. As you can see in the pic below, what was especially cool about the passive sinks was that they were colored to match the red tinted aluminum or the high shine copper of the active chipset coolers. The copper colored passive sink is NOT made of copper but rather aluminum.
  • HW Round-up - XFX GeForce4 Ti4600 / Albatron GeForce4 Ti4600 / Gainward GeForce4 Pro/450 TV / Leadtek WinFast A250 Ultra TD GeForce4 Ti4600 MyVIVO Edition.
  • Money 2003 for Pocket PC v 2.01 (FREE) - Money for the Pocket PC will help you track your expenses, monitor your investments, and take control of your finances from anywhere.
  • Zoom Player v2.80 Beta 1 - Zoom Player provides special zooming functions to improve TV-Output quality by eliminating overscan. Zoom Player's scaling system allows you to exactly match the video area to your screen's dimensions in real-time with adjustable background color in order to test for brightness bleeds. You can also fast forwarding (even on MPEG4 type formats such as DivX), 10 Keyboard accessible presets to automatically adjust the video area to pre-defined settings, customizable control bar with graphical time-seek controls, keyboard mapped controls, aspect ratio support for correct playback of anamorphic video and out of aspect-ratio content.
  • TVTool 6.5.2 - This new version of TVTool fixes Sync problem with Chrontel chips (some users got a worse picture quality on TV with version 6.5), Adaption to big fonts and the position for NTSC 768x576 mode is saved now, and also adds some new features such as Option for deactivation of the screensaver, Enhanced sound options, Command line parameter /standby.
  • Visio 2000/2002 Viewer - The Microsoft Visio Viewer 2002 allows anyone to view Visio drawings and diagrams (if created with Visio 5, 2000, or 2002) inside their Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later Web browser.
  • MSN Messenger Build 5.0.340 - download.
  • DirectX 9 Beta 2 Web Installer - It should lessen the amount you need to download making it easier on dialup users.
  • Nero Burning Rom 5.5.9.6 RC - A new a build (another link) of Ahead Software Nero Burning Rom v5.5.9.6 has been leaked.
  • Nero InfoTool 1.01.4 - Nero InfoTool is very usefull for getting a quick overview about your system configuration. It will display important Information for the purpose of discovering error sources.
  • Nero Ping 1.07 -  This handy utility list all SCSI and ATAPI devices on your system, and works under Win9x, WinNT, Win2000 and WinXP.
  • Diet Kazaa v1.03 - Diet Kaza (formerly known as  KaZaA Tap) v1.03 has been released. Diet Kazaa is a utility that removes all advertising, speeds up searches, gives more results and takes out useless icons (i.e. Shopping).
  • SpeedFan 4.06 - SpeedFan is a freeware program that monitors fan speeds and temperatures in computers with a known monitoring chip. Its main feature is that it can control the speed of the fans according to the temperatures inside your pc, thus reducing noise and power consumption.
  • ATi WDM Capture Driver Build 6.13.10.6125 V4 - Supported ATI Cards: ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500DV, ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 8500, ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON 7500, ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON, RADEON 64MB DDR VIVO. Download.
  • Nvidia Omega Drivers 1.1.84 - Omegadrive has posted a newly updated Omega Drivers v1.1.84, which are based on the 30.84 leaked drivers (same as official). (9x/ME/2k/XP).
  • ATI Catalyst Radeon (7.74) Reference Drivers WinALL -ATI have released their Catalyst Radeon (7.74) reference drivers (Windows XP / Windows 2000 / Windows ME) and the ATI Control Panels 6.13.10.3017 for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP that should work on all ATI Radeon cards from the RADEON VE to the latest RADEON 9000 PRO.
     
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,10 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:41 AM CEST - Aug,10 2002 - Post a comment
  • Sony's PlayStation 3 Chip Details - The new multimedia processor called "Cell," touted as a "supercomputer on a chip," is well on the way to completion, IBM says. As previously reported, the chip could end up inside the PlayStation 3, and elements of its design are expected in future server chips from IBM, commercial production of Cell could come as soon as the end of 2004.  The processor's design is still under wraps, but the companies say Cell's capabilities will allow it to deliver one trillion calculations per second (teraflop) or more of floating-point calculations. With integer math, it will have the ability to do more than 1 teraflop, roughly 100 times more than a single Pentium 4 chip running at 2.5GHz.
  • Amiga revs OS, wins more phone blessings - AmigaOS4 - it's alloneword, you see - is being developed on old 68000-based Commodore Amiga 4000s (running PPC cards), but it's a transitional release that already runs on the nominated platform of the future: PowerPC. The shell, the GUI and the TCP/IP stack are already native PPC code.
    The new OS has the latest whizzy eye candy, as you can see from the screenshots here.
  • Crypto scientists crack prime problem - Computer scientists in India crack an age-old math problem to help quickly prove whether a figure is a prime number--a vital step in computer cryptography.
  • Lawmakers sic Ashcroft on file swappers - U.S. lawmakers have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to go after Internet users who download unauthorized songs and other copyrighted material, raising the possibility of jail time for digital-music fans.
  • US military laptops stolen - Two laptops have disappeared from the headquarters of the Central Command of the US Armed Forces in Tampa, Florida, one of which contained top secret information. Russian daily Pravda reported that General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had to acknowledge that the computers vanished from the office despite high-level security.
  • Pornographer says he hacked al Qaeda - A self-proclaimed Web warrior says he enlisted in the United States' war on terror by mounting an incursion into an Internet site said to be run by al Qaeda. Messner, using the aggressive tactics he's employed to run his adult site, said he "hijacked" Al Neda for five days and recorded a "virtual who's-who of every hostile message board and site on the Internet."
  • eDimensional Wireless 3D Glasses (video review) - The eDimensional Wireless 3D Glasses add a true 3D realism to your CRT monitor and are one of the coolest products I've seen. When gaming with these glasses it's an experience you will never forget. Needless to say this product is very impressive and once you try them it's hard to go back. Simply incredible!
  • DFI KT400 Motherboard Launched - The AD77 series motherboard comes with four DDR400 memory sockets that are also capable of supporting the current DDR333 and DDR266 memory modules
  • Corsair XMS3200 CAS-2 DDR Review - Tech-PC have just posted a review of Corsair XMS3200 CAS-2 DDR Memory.
  • ATI's Radeon 9700 Versus NVIDIA's NV30 -  Chaps at Tech-Report.com have posted pretty interesting editorial called ATI's Radeon 9700 versus NVIDIA's NV30 - Understanding the next generation of graphics chips.
  • Abit KX7/AT-7/KR7A/KG7 Volt Mod Guide - These volt mods became necessary for the Abit enthusiast as Abit boards, tho the highest performance on the market for an AMD based system, don't offer the necessary voltage for the overclocker who wishes to push the memory to high MHZ and also sustain aggressive timings, or voltage enough to push a CPU to its limits. The current KX7-333(R), AT-7 and KR7A have Vcore maxed at 1.85V, and memory topping out at 2.85V in the bios. The KG7 will go as high as 3V on the memory and 1.85Vcore.
  • Ultimate Windows XP Tweak Guide - Guys at  Subzerotech have went through a whole lot of tweaks found throughout the web and compiled The Ultimate Windows XP Tweak Guide which contain tweaks they have found to work, they did not add tweaks that did not work or are just myth's. From Booting up to Shutting Down they got it all.
  • NVIDIA Detonators v29.42 vs 30.82 - check it out!
  • DirectX 9 Beta 2 Sent To Beta Testers - We are pleased to announce that DirectX 9.0 Beta 2 has been released to BetaPlace. You may download the DirectX 9.0 beta 2 SDK at Betaplace.com . Additional downloads will be available in a few days.  Try dowload it from here (leaked).
  • Macromedia Flash Player Updated -  Download&Install Flash Player v6.0.47.0.
  • Antivirus Feeding - Kaspersky AVP, Norton Antivirus, McAfee VirusScan 4.x / 5.x DAT file v4217 / McAfee VirusScan SuperDAT File v4217 (engine v4160)
  • Promise Ultra 100 TX2 BIOS & Driver - Promise have released a new Ultra 100 TX2 BIOS and driver update version 2.20.0.14.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,09 2002 - tech
Evening Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 01:01 AM CEST - Aug,09 2002 - Post a comment
  • Sprint Unveils Mobile Internet - Sprint Thursday said it will offer customers nationwide the ability to easily check e-mail and surf the Web from their mobile telephones. Sprint said consumers on its new network can expect average data speeds of 50 kilobits to 70 kilobits per second -- the equivalent of Internet dial-up over phone lines. It has a peak speed of up to 144 kilobits per second.
  • New DVD spec gains speed - The DVD+RW Alliance, one of two industry groups battling to set a rewritable DVD standard, unveils a new specification that should cut recording times.
  • AMD Release Schedule - AMD will announce the 2400+ (1.933GHz) and 2600+ (2.066GHz) by the end of September, and the .13 production problems are basically solved. The new processors will have P4 type heat shields extending the CPU surface which will greatly aid heat dissipation (and maybe finally killing multiplier unlocking). In October, Hammer (Opteron) at 3+GHz will be shown at a major trade show (still slated to ship LATE this year or January 2003 in the server versions), and a 2700+ (2.158GHz) ATHLON (Socket A) OPERATING AT 333 FSB will be released. Barton (512k Cache) is now delayed to 2nd quarter next year (if ever), and innovations like 333 FSB will NOT be moved back through the line. Athlon, as we now know it, will move to Value CPU when the new Opteron and Athlon 64 are introduced. Duron is discontinued for good by year-end.
  • Nintendo device revives Donkey Kong - The video game veteran announces plans for the e-Reader, an add-on for GameBoy Advance that allows it to read cards with a magnetic stripe.
  • FCC demands pirate-proof, digital TV - Future television sets sold in the United States must include digital receivers that may include anti-piracy technology, according to federal regulations announced Thursday.
  • 4-way GeForce4 Ti 4200 shootout - With the latest batch of GeForce4 Ti4200 based cards still selling like hotcakes, how is a poor working stiff supposed to know which one to choose? Come join TweakTown as they try to help you in this decision by taking a look at four GeForce4 Ti4200 video cards
  • Samsung SW-240 40x Burner Review - MonkeyReview have posted a review on Samsungs newest burner, the SW-240 which sports a 40x write along with an impressive 8MB buffer.
  • WinAMP 3 "Final" (Build 488) - The final build (changelog) of the most famous mp3 player WinAMP3 has been released.
  • Powerarchiver 8.0 2002 - 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.
  • Mozilla 1.1 Beta - A new build of Mozilla 1.1 beta has been released.
  • ALI Drivers version 1.09 - SIS have released the following SIS drivers - ALi AGP driver 1.91, ALi AUDIO WDM v5210, ALi Ultra-IDE driver v4.0.0.6., ALi AGP driver v1.90 for Win98/ME with WHQL. Download: FTP1 / FTP2.
  • Official NVIDIA Detonators 30.82 and 30.83 NT - NVIDIA has updated it's video card drivers to version 30.82 and 30.83 NT. Download: Detonator XP v30.82 WHQL for Win9x/ME  / Detonator XP v30.82 WHQL for WinXP/2k /Detonator XP WHQL v30.83 for WinNT4  / Documentation.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,08 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:54 AM CEST - Aug,08 2002 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Another tool for Xbox mod squad - The new X-ecuter chip for the Xbox includes several new design components, including a layout that requires soldering of only nine connection points, compared with 20 in the first Xbox mod chips. The X-ecuter also has a provision for an on/off switch that would disable the mod chip. That feature has attracted significant interest from would-be hackers concerned that Xbox Live, Microsoft's upcoming online service for the console, will include diagnostics intended to detect the presence of modified game machines.
  • TiVo Might Rue Arrival of DTV - Broadcasters are scheduled to begin delivering digital TV signals in 2006, giving consumers better picture and sound quality in their homes. However, Hollywood is threatening to withhold its movies unless cable companies are given the right to prohibit taping of shows. Since the new signals will deliver perfect copies to the home, the entertainment companies want to protect their content.
  • Einstein's relativity theory hits a speed bump - Australian scientists have discovered that light isn't quite as fast as it used to be. But it doesn't mean E=mc2 will be consigned to the dustbin, writes David Wroe. Energy, Einstein discovered, was equal to mass times the speed of light squared, with the speed of light as a constant in a vacuum such as space. News that the speed of light may not be constant after all does not mean the old theory falls apart altogether, Davies says. The theory of relativity remains good for most situations, just as Newton's laws remained more or less correct after Einstein, except at high speeds or under intense gravity.
  • Ford Unveils Hydrogen-Fueled Generator - Ford Motor Co. F.N and Canadian fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems Inc. jointly unveiled on Wednesday a hydrogen-fueled internal combustion engine-driven generator they said could help pave the way toward the commercialization of fuel cell technology.  The Ballard Ecostar hydrogen generator, able to produce 114 kilovolt-amperes (kVA) of power, will be the cleanest combustion generator on the market, with no carbon dioxide emissions and almost no smog-creating nitrogen oxide produced, officials said.
  • Trial date set for DVD hacker - A date has been set for the trial of Jon Johansen, the Norwegian hacker who created the controversial DVD descrambling tool DeCSS. The trial will start at a Norwegian district court on 9 December and will be headed up by one judge with the help of two lay assessors.
  • Win32 API utterly and irredeemably broken - Windows might possibly be the most insecure piece of viral code ever to infect a computer, according to Chris Paget who's found a fascinating hole in the Win32 Messaging System which he believes is irreprarable, and which he posted to the BugTraq security mailing list.  /Note: Good morning Chris, it's really nothing new :)/
  • ATI announces 9700 Pro - ATI today announced the addition of the RADEON 9700 PRO graphics board, featuring the RADEONT 9700 PRO visual processing unit (VPU), to its successful retail lineup. ATI will begin shipping the RADEON 9700 PRO board to retail customers and distributors beginning August 19, where it will join the recently introduced RADEON 9000 PRO, and ATI's other strong retail products in stores and online. RADEON 9700 PRO boards will be available from ATI's board partners later this month.
  • Samsung DDR 400 Q4, DDR-II 666 next year - The first densities Samsung will produce are 128Mb chips at 2.5 volts, but it will move to 256Mb chips by Q1 of 2003, the roadmaps indicate. DDR 333 memory chips in 1Gb densities are not due until the end of next year. Samsung is already shipping samples of DDR-II at 512Mb, but in Q4 this year it will release 1.8 volt 667/533/400 DDR-II. In Q3 of next year, it will introduce a new die, the E-die, for these parts at x4, x8 and x16, and in densities of 256Mb.
  • GeIL PC-3500 DDR - The Combination of the PC3500 and the IT7 came up with some strange memory timing results. First off I had to use "6" Precharge Delay around 186MHz, Cas2-6-2-2. Then after 208MHz I needed to go to "7" Precharge Delay, Cas2-7-2-2. This seemed to be an optimal setting for the GeIL 3500.
  • Obtaining DDR333 from EPoX 4G4A+ Guide - Epox's 4G4A+ based Intel 845G motherboard is one of the most popular Pentium 4 motherboards on the market today. Users in our forums and others have been asking how we managed to obtain DDR333 support from the motherboard. By popular request, TweakTown wrote this short guide which shows how to enable DDR333 from the Epox motherboard.
  • AMD 762 Chipset Tweaking (MP/MPX) Guide - In this article we are going to look at improving the performance of the AMD's 760MP/MPX chipset which is designed for multi processor use. We have been digging into the white papers on this chipset over the past week to try and find out every last thing we could about this chipset and then figure out how all of you power hungry madmen with the duallies can make it run even faster! If you've been around this site for very long you know all about chipset registers by now.
  • CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 Released - Corel Corporation today announced that CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 is now available on store shelves across North America. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 is a collection of professional graphics tools designed to make graphic design work more creative, enjoyable and fun. Available on both Mac OS X and Windows XP, customers can upgrade to version 11 of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite for $249 US.
  • News Interceptor 0.96 Beta - News Interceptor allows you to be instantly notified when your favorite web sites emit news of interest. It displays the news title and you can, with a simple mouse click, read the entire news in your Web browser.
  • XP Antispy 3.51 - This tool allows you to disable most if not all suspicious home call functions in Windows XP.
  • BlindWrite Suite v4.0.5c - BlindWrite suite is a tool designed to perfectly reproduce most CD. RAW mode is needed to produce perfect backups of some protected CDs! DAO mode is even better. Almost all protected CD can be perfectly backed up using with DAO
  • WindowBlinds 3.4 - A new version of WindowBlinds is available that has all sorts of cool new features. The ultimate GUI customization program allows users complete control over how Windows looks and feels.
  • kX Project Drivers 5.10.0.3522 beta - 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.
  • Plextor PleXCombo Firmware 1.03  - Plextor Japan has released a new firmware for their 20X CD-Write, 10X CD-ReWrite, 40X CD-Read, 12X-DVD-Read ATAPI CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,07 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 02:58 AM CEST - Aug,07 2002 - Post a comment / read (2)
  • Playstation 3 chip nears completion - Cell, a radical new processor designed by IBM, Sony and Toshiba and dubbed a 'supercomputer on a chip', could enter production in 2004.
  • Symantec warns of firewall flaw - Researchers have discovered a flaw in Symantec's Raptor firewall (see neworder.box.sk exploit) that could allow attackers to hijack legitimate communications with a protected system.
  • Israeli teenagers charged with Goner virus outbreak - Five Israeli teenagers have been charged with creating and spreading the W32/Goner-A virus, which spread rapidly on the Internet after its release in December last year.
  • Startup puts Bluetooth transceiver into Game Boy cartridge - A small startup here has tucked a Bluetooth RF transceiver and protocol-translation FPGA into a cartridge format compatible with the Nintendo Game Boy Color and Advance platforms. X-Tra Fun Inc.'s intent is not just to provide a Bluetooth link between gamers in one room, but to turn the Game Boy platform into a de facto PDA. The handheld game device would be able to synchronize with a Bluetooth-enabled PC, send and receive e-mail, send text messages to a cell phone and, eventually, receive streaming video at several tens of frames per second.
  • Bantam USA BA350 MP3 Player - After not doing to swell with their BA250 series Mp3 player, Bantam decided to go back to the drawing board and re-develop their thoughts, and have came up with what they call the BA350 series Mp3 player, which at a glace looks simply amazing! I've tested and used this thing non-stop since I received the product from Bantam, now lets see if Bantam is going to take control of the industry or if they they are going to sink like so many of the other companies out there...
  • HAMMER Rated 3000+ for Xmas? - A post coming from brokersjack from AMD Yahoo! board suggest that Dresden, a.k.a. Fab 30, is already mass producing a 3000+ rated clawhammer for release to public before Christmas. The post also states a supposed name of Athlon ST for the said chip.
  • GFX HW Round-up -  NVIDIA's GeForce4 Ti4200 / ECS AG400T8-D64 Xabre 400 / XFX GeForce4 Ti4200 / Swiftech GPU Waterblock / ATI Radeon 9000 Pro / GF4 Ti 4400 Comparison / Triplex Ti4200 / Leadtek Winfast 2000XP
  • Misc HW Round-up - VIA P4PB400 P4X400 / Abit KX7 (KT333) / AOpen AX4G / IWILL KK400 Series with DDR400 / Abit BD7II-RAD vs MSI 845E Max2 BLR / GlideTapes + GlidePad Mousepads / Samsung SW-240 CD-RW Drive / Samsung 151MP LCD Display / 1GB FW Keychain
  • Windows Media Player 9 Preview - When first opening the software, WMP9 looks no different from its predecessor, WMP8 (aka. WMP for Windows XP); Aesthetic changes are kept to a minimal. However, WMP9 still brings along with it a host of new features; a new streaming server, new audio and video compression, a new encoder, and a new software development kit, all of which will contribute to what Microsoft claims as "a dramatically improved playback experience and unparalleled audio-visual quality."
  • RADEON 9700 Real-Time Demos - These demos all require DirectX 9 in order to run.  Animusic: a real-time version of "Pipe Dream" from Animusic's DVD entited ANIMUSIC: A Computer Animation Video Album (http://www.animusic.com). This was shown in offline-rendered form in the Electronic Theatre at Siggraph 2001. Now rendered in real-time on the Radeon 9700 / Bear: a realistic demonstration of fur-rendering in a typical application. This demo shows a number of techniques for rendering fur not seen before - including combing, natural curling per-strand coloring and per-pixel anisotropic lighting. These techniques will be described in more detail in a technical sketch at Siggraph 2002.
  • WinXP SP1 1089 leaked - Driverheaven gets it once again WinXP SP1 1089 leaked  - check it out!
  • WinDVD Tweaker 3.6 - WinDVD Tweaker is designed to allow users of the WinDVD playback software to enable some hidden settings and allow for maximum playback pleasure. This new version supports WinDVD 4.
  • Easy CD-DA Extractor 5.01 -  Easy CD-DA Extractor is a powerful and easy digital audio extraction utility that makes digital copies from audio CDs and saves as audio files such as MP3, Windows Media Audio and Windows Wave. You may use built-in encoders, get plug-ins for other free encoders, or use any Windows audio compression codec.
  • Reset 4.10 -  This baby weighs in at a mere 15k and will reset any Win XP/.NET (tested on xp oem, retail, pre and post sp1, .NET 3657 and 3663) into thinking its on the first day of activation every day.
  • Adaptec USB 2.0 Driver For Windows v3.0 - Adaptec have released a new USB 2.0 driver version 3.0 for Windows and the following Adaptec products: USB2Connect 5100, 3100LP, 2000LP, DuoConnect 3121, USB2Connect for Notebooks, XHub 4, XHub 4+ and XHub 7+.
  • A-tuner v1.1.7.2 - A-tuner is a small tool for changing the following 4 settings on your Nvidia card: Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes), Anisotropic Filtering, Vsync and MipMap LOD (Level Of Detail) Bias.
  • System Mechanic v3.7g - 15 Powerful utilities for your PC: Clear junk files from your PC, clean your Registry, speed up your Internet connection, ensure your privacy, fix broken shortcuts, find and remove duplicate files, and lots more
  • V.Control v1.80 Beta - V.Control is a free software which gives direct hardware control to your video graphics adapter; enabling custom refresh rates in increments of 1 Hz, over clocking without rebooting windows, and modifying PCI/AGP hardware configurations. Also provided are various registry tweaks. Currently supported are: 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, 3dfx Velocity, 3dfx Voodoo3, 3dfx Voodoo4, and 3dfx Voodoo5 (Voodoo5 6000 is untested). V.Control will also save and restore positions of desktop icons for any video graphics adapter. Compatible with Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000, XP.
  • SiS 315 Drivers - These drivers not only come with newer DirectX and OpenGL drivers, but also improve framerate and image quality compared to the latest official SiS 315 drivers.
  • EPoX BIOSes - Download: EP-8KTA3, EP-8KTA3+ /  EP-4BEA, EP-4BEAVI / M762A.
 Gameguru Mania News - Aug,06 2002 - tech
Nightly Tech Reading - tech
(hx) 03:43 AM CEST - Aug,06 2002 - Post a comment
  • DefCon: Expert suggests hacking back - Striking back against a computer that is attacking you may be illegal under United States law, but a security researcher says people should be allowed to neutralize one that is unwittingly spreading destructive Internet worms like "Nimda."
  • UK sees illegal CD boom - The report claimed that more than four million counterfeit CDs were created in 2001.
    And almost 152 million recordable CDs are expected to be used for home recording in the UK this year.
  • When brains meet computer brawn - People linking their brains together to form a global collective intelligence. Humans living well beyond 100 years. Computers uploading aspects of our personalities to a network.
  • Investigation Casts Light on the Mysterious Flying Black Triangle - A just released study by the National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), based in Las Vegas, Nevada, sheds new light on the dark and mysterious craft. They offer a more down-to-earth hypothesis.
  • Gravity Shielding Still Science Fiction, Boeing Says - According to a report by Nick Cook of Jane's Defense World, published this week in Europe,  Boeing Phantom Works scientists admitted they were working on experimental anti-gravity projects that could change the way humanity moves around the planet.  Jane's quoted from a Boeing document entitled "Gravity Research for Advanced Space Propulsion" (GRASP) it had obtained that said "If gravity modification is real, it will alter the entire aerospace business. Almost true, Boeing told SPACE.com Wednesday in a prepared statement. "We are aware of Podkletnov's work on 'anti-gravity' devices and would be interested in seeing further development work being done. However, Boeing is not funding any activities in this area at this time," the statement said.
  • NV30 Performance Estimates - ReactorCritical has posted some juicy details and performance estimates of NV30:  1) In Quake III Arena in 1280x1024 with 4x FSAA enabled, NV30 is going to be 2.5 times faster than the GeForce4 Ti4600. 2) In The Next Doom the board based on NV30 will be able to show 3.5 times or or even more of the performance the current Nvidia`s flagman has to offer us there.  3) NV30 will score three times more than the GeForce4 Ti4600 in 3D Mark 2001. 4) Effective HQ Pixel Fillrate (2x anisotropic filtering enabled) of the newcomer with will be about 2.7 times more than that of the fastest NV25. 5) As for pixel-shading speed, it will be 4 times of the NV25.
    Nvidia claims that its upcoming GPU is capable of processing 200 millions triangles per second
  • Klipsch Promedia 5.1 THX Speaker System Review - The Klipsch Promedia 5.1 includes 4 matched satellites for your front and rear, a center channel that is designed to be used on its side, a tethered volume control module, and a large sub that houses all the amplification.
  • Trident XP4 Preview - A Cheap GeForce4? - It seems like almost every day we hear about another graphics company coming back from the dead with a killer new graphics chip set to put ATI and NVIDIA out of business. If there's anything the average AnandTech reader has learned over the past few years it is that talk is cheap and over promising but under delivering will grant you a one way ticket to exile. Thus it was no big surprise that we didn't get too excited when we heard that Trident was going to be making a grand return to the desktop graphics market with a GeForce4 competitor priced at less than $100 (USD).
  • MSI Dragonwriter CDRW 40/12/48 Review - The first CD-RW from MSI was released in early/mid 2001 and was the MS-8312, a 12X8X32 CD- RW. Since then MSI has increased the speed of their CDRW's in an almost sequential sequence from 12X to 40X, for the CD-R writing speed.
  • Soyo P4X400 DRAGON Ultra Review - VIA this time has released their new P4X400 chipset (see Soyo' official site)  that officially supports AGP8X, USB2.0 and comes with the new 8X V-Link Hub architecture. Unlike SiS, VIA doesn't have a plain sailing for making chipsets for Pentium 4 as the licensing issue still pops up in the motherboard manufacturers' minds especially the first tier manufacturers like ASUS, MSI and Gigabyte.
  • Apple iPod MP3 Player For Windows - PC users can now also enjoy the iPod since Apple started developing a special edition of the iPod for Windows available in 5, 10 and 20 Gigabyte versions.
  • Microsoft to Reveal Windows Code - Microsoft will reveal hundreds of pieces of proprietary computer code from its monopoly Windows operating system in the next several weeks to comply with an antitrust settlement it signed with the U.S. Justice Department last year, the company said on Monday.
  • Nero InfoTool v1.0.1-2 - Nero InfoTool is a utility which analyses and displays the most important information about a drive, disc, configuration and software.
  • DVD Decrypter 3.1.2.0 - DVD Decrypter is a free tool which enables you decrypt and copy a DVD to your PC's hard disk. From there you can choose to watch them with the likes of PowerDVD and WinDVD or you can re-encode them to MPEG1 (VCD) or DivX. Advanced functionality can be found in the context menus.
  • RegScrubXP 2.1 - RegScrubXP is designed to delete unnecessary information from the System Registry of XP/NT2000 operating systems.
  • Hot CPU Tester v3.4 - Hot CPU Tester Pro is a system health and stability tester. It tests CPU, and virtually all parts of motherboard for errors/bugs and defective parts.
  • Rage3D Tweak v3.5 - It's finally out, and has a host of updates. New hotkeys for app/game priority setting, new display tweaks for window management, additional tweaks useful to multi-monitor configurations and more. The translations are starting to come in, with Italian being the first I've gotten back. I'll be compiling the multi-language install over the next week as they I receive them.
  • PowerStrip v3.21 Beta Build 311 - PowerStrip 3.21 provides advanced, multi-monitor, programmable hardware support to a wide range of graphics cards - from the venerable Matrox Millennium I to the latest Radeon 8500DV and GeForce4 Ti4600
  • Winamp 3 RC5 Build #486 - A new build of Winamp 3 RC5 is available.
  • Creative Digital Audio Manager v1.23 - This is a standalone application of the Digital Audio Manager v1.23 for use with Creative Digital MP3 Player 2.
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