What Went Wrong With Windows Wista, Err... Vista

Microsoft might not have had the most successful product launch with Windows Vista, and for the most part, they really haven't admitted to their mistakes in a straight-forward manner. Maximum PC decided to tackle the facts... what caused Vista to become a 'failure' at launch and also bring up points about what can be done with Windows 7 to prevent the same fate from happening.

Seven main points are listed as attributing factors to Vista's harsh launch, with the main one of course being instability. Incompatibility rolls in at a close second, and others, such as performance, activation, UAC and more scatter the rest. It's probably doubtful that any Vista user out there hasn't been affected by at least every-single one of those.

The article further points out admission from Microsoft that a few things could have been changed in order to have a successful launch. One is that the UAC was poorly implemented, and other was that DirectX 10 being stuck to Vista was also a bad idea. Here's another interesting thought: "He conceded that Apple appeals to more and more consumers because the hardware is slick, the price is OK, and Apple doesn’t annoy its customers (or allow third parties to)."

Way back in January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros, and tech journalists alike. Instead of a revolutionary next-generation OS that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an underwhelming rehash with very little going for it. Oh, and Vista was plagued with performance and incompatibility problems to boot.

Source: Maximum PC

ASUS Lamborghini VX3 Defines Mobile Luxury

I doubt it's a secret to a single person reading this that small notebooks are in, and large notebooks are for the workstation crowd, or those who don't have a desktop. The sheer ease of netbooks or light notebooks make them an ideal choice for those on the go often, and if you can find one with great battery-life, then carrying along a notebook is more of a joy than a chore.

Up to now though, many of these lighter notebooks (not netbooks) that have been worth a look start out at $1,500, which is rather pricey for something so under-powered and small, but again, it's hard to beat the great form-factor. Instead of getting less-expensive though, how about going in the absolute opposite direction? How does $3,100 for a 12.1" sound?

We're of course talking about the ASUS Lamborghini VX3 notebook, one that offers a fast processor, 4GB of RAM, a GeForce GPU (yes, they do apparently exist in such small notebooks), 320GB hard drive and two batteries - one 3-cell and one 9-cell. So is the VX3 worth the cash? If you have to ask, the notebook is not meant for you. That's what makes it exclusive, just like the cars it's been modeled after.

Getting past the VX3's premium nature, the system's battery life is another issue. The 3-cell battery may mount flush, but with less than an hour of DVD playback time, the VX3 really isn't all that portable without its portly 9-cell unit. And the 9-cell battery sticks out the back quite a bit, ruining the VX3's lovely lines and making it impossible for the system to sit in its fancy box. With seemingly so much invested in the VX3's design, its battery seems like an afterthought.

Source: Tech Report

How-To: Make the Most of Falling Into a Black Hole

So, you want to know how to survive a fall into a black hole? Well, you're in for a sad reality, because unless you are somehow able to go faster than the speed of light, it's impossible to escape. Impossible as in impossible, not impossible as in "It's impossible to get ten kills in Call of Duty 4 without dying!"... yes, it's that impossible.

As Universe Today points out, your demise doesn't have to be entirely quick. If you happen upon a massive black hole, then you could apparently survive for a few hours. It's the small black holes that will hit you before you even blink... you will be dissolved in a few billionths of a second. Quick and painless has a new meaning...

Hitting a large black hole seems like the ultimate definition of hell, though. Due to extreme gravitational differences as you fall towards singularity, your head and toes will both be suffering a different pull, essentially resulting in you becoming an insane version of Stretch Armstrong. At the end of this 'spaghettification' process, you'll be nothing more than a line of atoms.

I think I'll stick to the small black holes...

Physicists used to think that black holes were sort of like quicksand in this situation. Once you cross the event horizon, or Schwarzschild radius, your date with the singularity is certain. It will occur at some point in the future, in a finite amount of proper time. The more you try to struggle, the faster your demise will come. It was thought that your best strategy was to do nothing at all and just freefall to your doom.

Source: Universe Today

Will iTunes 9 Follow Pandora?

With the recent launch of iTunes 8, a lot of pet peeves people had were taken care of, but C|Net looks at how a few things could be further improved in the next version. One cool new feature in 8 is the Genius List, an over-glorified 'shuffle' so-to-speak, which is a bit more intelligent when calculating what songs to play. After all, it might be a bit weird if at your dance party, Johnny Cash came out of nowhere.

That feature is further-improved by way of Genius List, which works like similar services out there (Pandora, Last.fm, old-fashioned research) which captures data from their servers that recommends music you might like. What C|Net hopes to see is a subscription model put in place with iTunes 9 to allow limited or unlimited playback of the recommended songs... because let's face it, 30 seconds is not a lot of time to experience what a song is made of. Sometimes I have to listen to a song three times through before I even realize I enjoy it.

In my opinion, iTunes needs this feature to be improved. I'm a big Last.fm fan and one of the main reasons is simply because it's been able to recommend me music I didn't even know I liked. I'd probably accredit that at least thirty CD's I've bought over the past two-years have been due to using that website. So not only would an improved feature like this on iTunes improve the user experience, it would help fill the music industry's greedy pockets even more!

At the moment, these recommendations are available only with the usual 30-second preview, but it seems like just a short hop to get to a full streaming, subscription-based approach, living in parallel with the pay-per-song approach Apple has successfully used so far. Rumors have been around for ages that Apple will introduce a subscription service, and the Genius Sidebar seems like a simple way to step into that approach.

Source: Matter/Anti-Matter Blog

Tech Roundup - September 11, 2008

• ECS P45T-A - PC Stats
• Gigabyte & Foxconn AMD 790GX - InsideHW
• Gigabyte EP45-DS3R - Overclockers Club

• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - HotHardware
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Legit Reviews
• Geforce 9500 GT SLI vs Geforce 9600 GT - Madshrimps
• Leadtek WinFast PX9500GT - Bjorn3D
• Powercolor PCS HD 4670 512 MB - techPowerUp
• Samsung PN50A650 50" Plasma HDTV - ModSynergy
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 in Crossfire - TweakTown

• Chaintech Apogee GT Blazer 4GB DDR3 PC1800 - Technic3D
• Chaintech APOGEE GT DDR2-1150 4GB Memory Kit - TweakTown
• Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 Terabyte Hard Drive - Overclock3D

• Microsoft SideWinder X5 Gaming Mouse and X6 Gaming Keyboard - Metku
• TekNmotion PulseWave - Hardware Bistro
• Thermaltake Matrix - Overclockers Club
• Turtle Beach EarForce X4 XBOX 360 Wireless Headset - The Tech Lounge

• Aerocool Modern-V Fan Controller - OC Inside

• Lian Li PC-P80R Armorsuit - ClubOC
• Nexus NX-8060 Real Silent Power Supply - Dreamware Computers
• Thermaltake Toughpower Power Express 650W VGA Power Supply - Think Computers