Content and news by Rob Williams

The media industry has been pretty wary of Google for a while, now, and it looks like Comedy Central’s parent, Viacom, has had enough. Jeff writes in to let us know that YouTube has taken down many of the clips of those three shows at the request of an unknown third party — who it seems reasonable to assume is Viacom.

I have to say, Google purchasing YouTube certainly is doing nothing for the visitors. In fact, the site seems to be going downhill slowly. It will speed up if news like this keeps up.

Fremont, CA (October 30, 2006) –Corsair, a worldwide leader in high performance enthusiast computer products, today unleashed TWIN2X2048-6400C4D DOMINATOR memory targeting value-conscious performance users. Featuring patent-pending Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX™) technology, the new Corsair DOMINATOR memory offers the ideal blend of innovative features and reliable performance at standard 800MHz speed.

You can read the full press release here.

STORAGE NETWORKING WORLD (SNW), ORLANDO, FLORIDA — October 30, 2006 — In a major step forward to simplifying the security and management of private data stored on any computing device, Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) is introducing a powerful new security platform that delivers a simple, cost-effective way to deploy the highest levels of security for computing systems, computer electronics and mobile devices by protecting data where it lives – on the hard disc drive.

You can read the full press release here.

SUNNYVALE, CALIF. – OCT. 30, 2006 – AMD (NYSE: AMD) today introduced an innovative graphics card that makes use of its new native CrossFire(tm) technology, the ATI Radeon X1650 XT. With its incredible image quality features and superb performance, the ATI Radeon X1650 XT delivers enthusiast-class technology at an impressive price point. The ATI Radeon X1650 XT will hit store shelves during the week of 13 November, at an estimated street price of US$149.

You can read the full press release here.

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master I-Tower 930 – Neoseeker
• Creative Xmod – Digit-Life
• Gigabyte Poseidon – Motherboards.org
• Jetart HDD Guard 3.5” HDD Protector – DragonSteelMods
• NZXT Zero – Overclocker Cafe

Cooling
• OCZ Tempest Cooler – Technic3D
• ThermalRight SI-120 CPU Cooler – Tech Domain
• Thermalright SI-128 CPU Cooler – Bjorn3D
• Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX CPU Cooler – Think Computers
• XSPC Bay single bay Reservoir – Xtreme Computing
• Zalman CNPS7700-Cu Low Noise Heatsink – FrostyTech
• Zalman CNPS9700 LED Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler – TweakNews

Memory & Storage
• Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB – HotHardware
• Super Talent T1000UX2G4 – Legit Reviews

Motherboards & Processors
• Abit AB9-Pro 965 – Viper Lair

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• Everglide S500 Headphones – Red & Blackness
• Icemat Siberia Headset – ModSynergy
• iRiver T10 MP3 Player – The Tech Lounge
• Thermaltake ToughPower 750W – Neoseeker
• Ultra X-Finity 500 Watt PSU – Modders-Inc

Displays & Video Cards
• ATI Radeon X1650 XT CrossFire – HotHardware
• Leadtek 7950GX2 – Technic3D

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• Alienware Aurora m9700 – Bytesector
• Dell XPS M1210 12.1-inch Laptop – Think Computers
• Birthday Contest – Overclockers Online
• Interview with Geoffrey Arone, co-founder of the Flock Browser – TechSpot
• techFEAR At One Year – techFEAR
• The BoxHeads Halloween LAN Party 2006 – Phoronix

Altec Lansing recently announced two new speaker systems, and we are taking a look at the smaller of the two. The FX4021 is a 2.1 system that promises high-end sound in a compact, and stylish package.

Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space? The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialize free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.

Of course this is results in rather simplistic stuff, and it doesn’t actually say if you can sit on the finish product. But… this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while!

Apparently, people loves them some Firefox. Within 24 hours of the official launch on Tuesday, there were over 2 million people using Firefox 2, and we were seeing a peak rate of more than 30 downloads per second from our website.

That definitely makes the IE7 feat look less impressive. Firefox users are hardcore!

DigiTimes reports Lite-On is pulling out of the consumer market sectors. This includes all retail products sold under the Lite-On brand including optical disk drives and DVD recorders. This comes a few months after BenQ announced Lite-On would take over its optical storage product manufacturing.

This is somewhat surprising to me, and I wonder who’s hogging all of the market? Samsung and LG are both huge players, especially lately. It’s too bad, Lite-On were my favorite for optical drives.

AllofMP3.com suffered yet another setback as a Danish court ruled that an ISP must block access to the Russian music site. The ruling only covers one ISP (Tele2) in one country, but the ruling will certainly set the stage for more lawsuits as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry believes it has developed another successful tool in its fight against AllofMP3.

AllofMP3.com aside, this could prove to be a significant move. Because the ISP was ordered to block the website, it could open the doors for any other company to stand up and demand the same thing. That will not just affect the ISP greatly, but also the users. In the US, it’s the users to blame and not the ISP, at least right now.

NVIDIA today announced it has shipped its 500 millionth product manufactured at TSMC. This includes GeForce graphics and nForce chipset products. In addition to the announcement, it appears NVIDIA is on-track with 65nm products.

It looks like they are on track to keep up to ATI in this regard, so we may very well see 45nm in 2008 from NVIDIA as well. Though, it’s early to speculate.

Red Hat has announced that the city of Chicago has started migrating to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. The city has already saved $250,000 from switching to Linux, according to Red Hat. Systems required for vehicle registration, restaurant inspections, online job applications, ethics training and other systems will have Red Hat installed.

Any Linux fan can appreciate announcements like this, or enjoy bragging rights if you live in Chicago! Seriously though, this was a good move that has already saved the city over $250K! News of this will no doubt help RH’s stock if not already.

Nintendo, who had already previously raised projections, saw their profits up 72% over last year. This dramatic increase was credited largely to the DS, with 10.9 million units sold in the first six months of this year alone. Sony, on the other hand, dropped profits by 94% over this time last year.

Sony recently pointed out that the Wii and Xbox 360 were “too expensive”, yet their own profits are down 94%, while Nintendo is enjoying large increases. Sony’s losses are not due to their poor PS3 planning though, but rather the insane amount of battery recalls that have occurred throughout the year.

2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), today announced Dungeon Siege II: Deluxe Edition for PC is available now. This special collector’s set includes full versions of the original Dungeon Siege II, Dungeon Siege II: Broken World expansion pack, and a number of collectible items including a fold-out map, concept art, character portraits, wallpapers, and “The Making of Dungeon Siege II” video.

If you don’t own the game yet, but want to, then here is your chance. Even with all of the extras, the deluxe edition will retail for only $39.99US. Not too shabby!

The 23 year old Grant Stanley has been sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of home detention, and a $3000 fine for the work he put in the private BitTorrent tracker Elitetorrents. This ruling is the first BitTorrent related conviction in the US. Stanley pleaded guilty earlier this year to “conspiracy to commit copyright infringement” and “criminal copyright infringement”. He is one of the three defendants in the Elitetorrents operation better known as “Operation D-Elite”.

Yet another case of “crime does not pay“. One of the primary reasons, it seems, that he was charged was due to the fact that the site was registered in the USA. That’s a huge no no, as we are all well aware of at this point. How long until we see more cases of this in the news?

Cases & Enclosures
• Cooler Master Mystique 631 – TweakPC
• Cooler Master Tower i930 – Hexus
• NZXT Zero – Technic3D

Cooling
• 3D Galaxy II & Blue Eye Water Water Cooling – Guru3D
• Akasa Evo Blue (AK-922) – Xtreme Computing
• Antazone ASC1000 Copper Heatsink – Frosty Tech
• Thermalright HR-05-SLI – Overclockers Online

Memory & Storage
• Mushkin HP-6400 DDR2 – ClubOC
• Mushkin HP2-6400 2 x 1GB DDR2 – Phoronix

Motherboards & Processors
• ASUS M2N32 WS Professional – Motherboards.org

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• eDimensional G-Pad – TechARP
• Everglide Titan MonsterMat Fnatic Edition – Cooling-Station
• LED Light Bulb – A True Review
• Replacing A Laptop Keyboard – ASUS A8J Series – Laptop Lifestyle
• Ultra Products XVS Modular 600W – Big Bruin
• Ultra X-Finity 500W with Active PFC Power Supply – Pro-Clockers

Displays & Video Cards
• Kingwin ABT-600MA1W 600w Mach 1 Power Supply – ModTheBox
• nVidia’s Geforce 7950GX2 and the MSI NX7950GX2-T2D1GE – PC Stats
• PowerColor X1950 PRO – Bjorn3D
• Sapphire Radeon X1300 XT OC Edition – techPowerUp!

Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
• Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Interview – Digital Trends
• Foxconn And EVGA Motherboard Give-Away – GamePyre
• One Mode is Not Enough – XYZ Computing
• StarDock Object Desktop 2007 – TweakNews

AMD’s Opterons have enjoyed a lead in performance in the server market for the past few years due to their superior architecture resulting in better performance and lower power consumption (higher performance per watt). Learning from its mistakes and realizing that the current design could not compete with the mighty Opteron, Intel has introduced a completely new Xeon processor, based on its Core 2 microarchitecture.

If you are in the market for a new high-end server solution, you will want to check this out. In one corner are the Dempsey and Woodcrest Xeons, the latter based on the Core technology. Toms did not have an AM2 based Opteron on hand, so they stuck to Italy, the 940 version. Woodcrest stole the show here, beating the others in all of the benchmarks, and despite that fact, it uses way less power.

Microsoft was forced to delay the release of the final version of Windows Vista to manufacturers due to a bug found in the final stretch of testing. IDG News quotes a tester who revealed that the bug “would totally crash the system, requiring a complete reinstall.”

This bug has been taken care of, but has delayed the RTM process. There are 499 known bugs that still linger, that will not likely be fixed prior to the RTM. I think it’s safe to say that Windows Update will be the first thing you will want to run once you get online with the new OS.

One of the major problems with Windows is that the passion for the product just isn’t there like it used to be. I constantly cast a watchful eye over the tech scene, and I can’t even remember the last time when I saw some genuine passion displayed by the folks at Microsoft or the consumers who are supposedly going to buy Vista once it’s released.

This is an interesting point, that I’ve also pondered before. Those who use Linux or Mac OS X tend to be excited about the OS, which is why they are using a different solution than is the norm. Besides true fanbois, who’s actually looking forward to Vista? Or even better… why should we be looking forward to Vista?

Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox for short, is just a free Internet browser. It’s not a cure for cancer. It doesn’t wash your car or make you a frothy coffee. So why all the fuss and hype over Firefox? In a nutshell, the reason is simple: Firefox is a true open source competitor to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Oh man! If a browser could make me coffee, then it would be love at first sight. Coffee addiction aside, this is a great guide that you can use to help Firefox run smoother. There is also additional information there that in general, may make your browsing more enjoyable. If you use FF2.0… do yourself a favor and look through.