Content and news by Rob Williams

Even with ATI’s X1900 series launch this week, there continues
to remain no official support for the X1000 series under Linux. Although
the support should be appended in the near future, today we have a
preview of the ASUS EAX1300PRO as well as some exclusive Linux
information pertaining to the most recent Radeon offerings.

Check out the full preview at Phoronix.

When looking for a heatsink or cooler there are a few things you want to look for. Normally look for one which is copper or copper/aluminum combination, but this will increase the cost. This heatsink is all aluminum but it utilizes 8 towering heatpipes and countless fins. This more than makes up for it not being copper, although if it were copper the performance would probably be even better. That being said, the performance of this heatsink is excellent and that’s what counts…

Check out the full review over at 3D Gameman.

Full tower cases have dominated the modding and corporate marketplaces for years. It is not too often that you see a store bought computer inside a full tower case now is it? If you work inside your PC often, and don’t usually move it around, a full tower case is often a great solution for your PC casing needs. Today I have the Silverstone TJ06 full tower entry level server case.

Check out the full review at Extensive Mods.

A relative new-comer to the heatsink market, Noctua have started on the right foot by embracing the latest technology; heatpipes. Their two latest heatsinks, the NH-U9 and the NH-U12 are the first products we see from this company. With a surface area of 5000cm² (NH-U12) and 3800cm² (NH-U9) and the ability to have either a 120mm (NH-U12) or 92mm (NH-U9) fan coupled with it makes for promising stats, but do the figures relate to high performance?

Check out the full review over at Pro-Clockers.

Today 3DXtreme is taking a look at the new Spire SP-500W – RockeTeer Vâ„¢, 500W EZ-Cable Gaming Power Supply. Some of features that it boasts are Modular EZ-Cable Power Connectors, Two Blue LED Dual Ball Bearing fans, 3 Speed Variable Fan Speed Auto-Control, Two SATA Power Connectors, Thermo-Reactive Cooling System and a few others that we will be covering with the review.

I had no idea that Spire made power supplies, but this one looks pretty solid. It actually reminds me a lot of the OCZ PSU’s. Check out the full review at 3D Xtreme.

Speaking exclusively to HEXUS, eBuyer one of the UK’s home-grown etailers, has confirmed its intention to close the doors on its US business activities. Apparently its staff in the US were informed of this decision several weeks ago.

For those unaware, eBuyer is like a NewEgg, but in the UK. They have some huge competition over here to deal with, so that likely has something to do with it. Check out the posting at Hexus.

It’s not every day you get to play with a pre-production Blu-ray burner, but the team at Germany’s CT Magazine were able to get their hands on a Samsung SH-B022, and liked what they saw. The burner, which doesn’t have AACS copy-protection, was able to burn a 25GB disc in about 43 minutes, and had no trouble playing a range of CDs and DVDs. The reviewers also found that the drive didn’t generate as much heat as some other models they’ve tested; it reached a manageable 107 degrees after a burn. The final model is due out in April for about $500, and will include copy protection, along with the ability to write double-layer 50GB discs.

Ow, $500 smackers! Well, DVD burners cost around the same at launch and they couldn’t burn 25GB! You can check out the translated review right here. Source: Engadget.

THE NEWLY INCARNATED Abit is conducting a survey of its mobo users and is offering prizes worth over $10,000 plus, it said.

The survey is divided into three sections and each completed section earns you a raffle ticket.

Check out the post at The Inq and take the survey here!

An estimated 1,000 patents spanning software, hardware and networking are destined to be sold to the highest bidder in San Francisco by a merchant bank this spring.

Ocean Tomo is hosting the first in a series of two planned patent auctions this year, in a move the company believes will help – not hurt – innovation in IT.

Now this is an interesting way to do business. I couldn’t find an actual list of the Patents being auctioned, though. Check out the posting at Register.

Created within the openSUSE project, SUSE Linux 10.1 is designed for individuals looking to work with latest open source technologies–a stabilized Linux operating system, solutions for desktop productivity, application development, web hosting, security and more completely integrated to make the world’s most usable Linux. SUSE Linux 10.1 supports the Intel and AMD x86 and x86-64 platforms as well as the PowerPC platform…

There are a couple lingering bugs that I hope to see ironed out in this new BETA. Check out the full news posting at Linux Today.

With transparency, a display could be illuminated from the back or front. That means the OLEDs could be embedded into laminated glass—that means a car windshield, or even the windows in an office building, could offer a clear view out but also be turned into display panels when needed. Fascinating stuff, no idea how long until we see these on the market. They are still perfecting the manufacturing process for larger surfaces, so expect to see it in handheld devices first.

This is very cool technology and would be great to see it in use in the future. Only downside right now though, is that OLED tech is still very expensive so it would be quite a while before it would be remotely affordable. Check out the full posting at Gizmodo.

Google’s attempt to fend off the government’s request for millions of search terms will move to a federal court in San Jose, Calif., on Feb. 27.

U.S. District Judge James Ware on Thursday set the date for the highly anticipated hearing, which is expected to determine whether the U.S. Justice Department will prevail in its fight to force Google to help it defend an anti-pornography law this fall.

Hopefully this will turn out in Googles favor, because they are doing us a favor by protecting our search terms. It’s going to be an interesting case, and probably a tough one to win. Read all about it at News.com.

Bottom line: he’s not thrilled with it, notably provisions meant to prevent the use of digital rights management (DRM) technology in GPL software. The proposed anti-DRM measures are so problematic that Linus said that he does not intend to move from GPL version 2 to version 3.

Check out the full posting right here. If you want to know all about the GPLv3, you can read all about it at News.com.

One rootkit expert at the conference predicted that the technology will become a fundamental part of rootkits in the near future. ‘It is going to be about one month before malware comes out to take advantage of this,’ said Greg Hoglund, a rootkit expert and CEO of reverse engineering firm HBGary. ‘This is so easy to do. You have widely available tools, free compilers for the ACPI language, and high-level languages to write the code in.

It looks to be only a matter of time before this becomes a real problem. Rootkit or not though, there are tools that could essential aide in bricking your system, if people were malicious enough. Check out the post at Slashdot.

There’s not too much going on today; maybe people wanted to get a head start on the weekend? If you are just getting into the SLi world, you will want to check out Tech-Hounds today. They have a great article that goes through the myths and realities of the technology and explains how it works. SPAM undoubtedly is one of the biggest gripes on the internet, but NGOHQ is taking a look at a program to help combat it. SPAMfigter looks to be hopeful, but sadly only works with Microsoft’s clients.

Cases & Enclosures
• Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid-Tower – Mod The Box
• Coolermaster Stacker 830 – Red & Blackness
• Xilence X2 Case – Technic 3D

Cooling
• Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro – System Cooling

Peripherals & Power Supplies
• CoolerMaster Musketeer 3 – PC Modding Malaysia
• PCToys System Maxx Fan Controller – OC Mod Shop

Video Cards & Monitor
• Gateway FPD2185 21-inch Monitor – Design Technica
• Powercolor X1300Pro Bravo Edition – Byte Sector
• SLI: Myth and Reality – Tech-Hounds

Etcetera & Contests
• ATI EverLAN Winter 2006 – Think Computers
• NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.8310 – NGOHQ
• SPAMfighter 4.3.0 – NGOHQ
• “The Year of the HTPC” – XYZ Computing
• Wicked Lasers Spyder SeriesT Portable OEM Lasers – MVK Tech

With Heroes of Might and Magic 4 having received poor sales in comparison to its predecessor, Heroes 5 is seen by most as a make or break game. If it fails, so will the entire Might and Magic franchise. If it succeeds, then the product line would gain the support it needs for a long term at Ubisoft. After the rough start and continued issues of the Open Beta, and some investigation, these leaders realized that there was little time to act. Ubisoft’s fiscal year ends on March 31, coinciding with the release date. Ubisoft was also the target of a takeover bid in December of 2004, something they are not likely to forget easily. Wanting to hit or exceed their yearly targets could be a reason for the March 31 release date. However, such short-term plans are exactly what doomed Heroes 4, New World Computing and The 3DO Company. SaveHeroes.Org is now open to try and prevent such a thing from happening.

Now this is what I love to see. It would be nice if the company actually listened to their players, but we’ll see. Source: ShackNews.

The developers of Seed were gracious enough, with their busy 4 days ’til beta schedule, to invite several sites to an informal chat about the wonderful things the team is doing with the game!

Stratics was granted entry, and we’d love to share with you the new and exciting information we learned!

[RGD]Relic: On the subject of player-types (who do we appeal to): People who are used to PVP-oriented or quest-oriented MMOGs are not our first and foremost audience. We’re hoping to hook types like the storytellers, the crafters, and the explorers. We hope to offer dialogue with some meaning to it, and a sense that the world is going on even if you are not there. That not everything is scripted towards you specifically but rather towards a story. The way we build the world – both mechanics and feel – is the way we would like it to be ourselves, and we have a good feeling we’re not alone.

The entire chat can be read right here! And in the next few days, we’ll unveil our Seed portal, for all your needs as a citizen of Da Vinci!

Keeping your hard drive at a healthy temperature is essential in prolonging it’s life, and in keeping your data safe. We are taking a look at another Vantec HDD cooler called the Vortex 2, and I have high hopes for this one.

This year Google wrestled the coveted top spot from incumbent Apple. Both companies dominate the charts, soaring far above the rest of the contenders. Next in line is Skype, followed by Starbucks and Ikea. To the astonishment of many, Firefox made the top ten, beating Sony and eBay.

This isn’t too much of a surprise… Google really shined in 2005 with countless new projects and other projects coming out of BETA. Check out the full posting at Ars Technica.

However, even so, how in the world could this possibly deserve patent protection? Animated smileys are common just about everywhere, and not because of some brilliant “invention” that deserves protection, but because it’s an obvious idea.

Just when you thought that patents made sense, this comes along. I can see it now.. IM clients are forced to disable use of any emoticons. Ridiculous! For a lot more info, check out the posting at Techdirt.