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Tesla Motors in Bad Need of Funding
Tesla’s roadster might be one of the most talked-about cars in the industry, but the company seems to have bitten off more than it can chew. The CEO has admitted that the company is down to having $9 million in the bank, which is nowhere near as much as is required to deliver all of the cars pre-purchased or those with a down-payment.
To date, less than fifty of these sportsy electrics have been delivered to customers, which is far less than the 1,200 that have been ordered. Some customers have paid for their car outright, while others have paid down-payments of at least $5,000. This could be a huge problem if it was unlikely that investors were going to give up on the company, but CEO Elon Musk expects $20 million worth of funding to become available next week.
Things are not looking that great for the Silicon Valley startup, and unless sales begin to further improve or prices begin to go down, customers are going to become much more interested in more modest offerings once they become available, especially once Detroit manages to get their own electrics out the door.
Do the math: If Tesla has $9 million in the bank, and requires another $20 million to get to positive cash flow over the next nine months, then it is burning at least $3 million a month. And that’s after it laid off 24 percent of its workforce and announced plans to shutter its Detroit office.
First Fully-Functioning Artificial Heart Valued at $182,000
We might be enjoying a day where hearts being ripped out of chests seems like a lot of fun, but the sad reality is that many people die each year due to heart-related cancers, and we desperately need a solution. Saying that “many people die” is a gross understatement though, as the official number is actually above 17 million worldwide… every single year.
French inventors might have a solution, though. They’ve created the world’s first fully functional heart, which uses aerospace technology to a great degree. As you’d expect, the cost for one of these is not low, at $192,000, but if it’s a matter of life or death, money might not be your main concern. There’s little question that most people don’t have that kind of money lying around though, so hopefully if the invention takes off, material prices would continually go down.
The heart uses electric sensors to both monitor and control the heart rate and blood flow, making it a very hands-off operation. If all goes according to plan, having one of these “installed” inside of you should feel no different than having a regular heart transplant, except this replacement will likely last a lot longer. So if you want to potentially live longer, start saving up some coinage, as this is something that I’d highly doubt would be covered by any insurance.
In the past there have been artificial hearts, like the much hyped Jarvik heart, however they were only a temporary fix while awaiting transplant. The key problem was that they could not adjust their pumping like a biological heart, and could only be adjusted externally. This limited their usefulness.
Western Digital’s Caviar Green Gets Tested
It’s hard to look at any product nowadays and not read something to the extent of it being “energy efficient”. Heck, the product might literally bear the color green just to prove it. I don’t think it’s all for naught though. Producing energy efficient products isn’t just smart, it’s common sense. There’s little need of sucking more power than we need to, just for the sake of it.
Despite the fact that hard drives are nowhere near as power-hungry as a processor or graphics card, they aren’t escaping the slimming down to become more efficient either. Our friends at the Tech Report have taken Western Digital’s latest Caviar Green for a spin, which promises to be fast, reliable, quiet and energy efficient, and according to TR’s tests, it’s hit its mark.
The drive isn’t that fast given its goals, at around 5400RPM, but for those who are looking to build a file-server, HTPC or want a storage drive in their PC, it proves to be a great choice. The silence itself will be enough to please some people, because when 1TB can sound near-silent, it’s easy to smile. The Caviar Green costs around $20 more than the normal 1TB offering, so it’s up to you to really decide whether the premium is worth it. Depending on your needs, it probably will be.
The idea behind the Caviar Green is a simple one. For some applications, be they home theater PCs, secondary desktop storage, or a home file server stuffed into a closet, you don’t need the fastest hard drive on the block-just one that’s fast enough. Those markets are likely to prefer drives with lower noise levels and power consumption, which the Caviar Green is more than eager to provide, ideally while maintaining an acceptable level of performance.
LucidLogix Secures $18 Million in Funding
LucidLogix, a company that aims to deem both SLI and CrossFireX useless, have just secured $18 million in Series C funding from Rho Ventures, a good sign that the technology has what it takes to fulfill its goal. We first learned of Lucid back during the Intel Developer Forum and overall, both Rory and I left their demo impressed.
In case you are completely unaware of the technology, you may want to read Rory’s exhaustive look which explains the ins and outs and also what it could mean for us in the future. Lucid’s product is a chip that touts the ability to evenly split up a graphics workload between multiple processors… it doesn’t even matter the model, or the drivers installed.
That goal seems a little ambitious, but I’m remaining hopeful since it would help gamers everywhere get a lot more for their money. Let’s face it, sticking in a second identical GPU and seeing a 50% performance increase is a little disappointing. After all, you did pay for two full cards, not one and a half. Lucid’s chip hopes to up that percentage to 100%, which is why it seems so ambitious. Product is set to launch in the middle of next year, so we have a little wait yet, sadly.
“It is a great achievement for Lucid to raise this level of funding when the economic atmosphere is so shaky. Our recent announcements and engagements with major partners have demonstrated that we can deliver and commercialize our technology,” stated Offir Remez, founder and VP of business development. “Our investors see the value added of both the company personnel, as well as the technology it develops.”
Windows 7 Gets Major UI Overhaul
Microsoft this week handed out pre-beta versions of Windows 7, and luckily for us, screenshots are littered all over the web, giving us an inside preview of what’s to come. Ars Technica got hold of the pre-beta and gives a quick preview on what’s new, and I have to admit, I’m already excited. While Vista from XP didn’t change much except eye-candy, 7 will drastically alter the overall UI, while retaining some common elements as we’d expect to see Windows.
The biggest difference is the taskbar. No longer do the tasks have titles (eg: Windows Internet Explorer). Instead, it will just be a simple icon, and from my personal experience, that’s all that’s going to be needed. Even the most novice PC users quicker notice an icon than the application name, and what this helps to do in 7 is just keep the taskbar clean. Instead of having so many applications open that you actually need to use a “next” button, this will allow many, many more applications to fill up that real estate.
Past that, another huge feature addition, which I’ve been wanting forever, is the ability to move these application icons around. I have a very specific order for how I do things, and when one application crashes, or has to be restarted, I hate having to use an out-of-order list. Windows 7 looks to change that. I’m just touching on the basics here though. You have to read the article, because there are many finer details that I can’t surmise in a simple news post.
Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it automatically; dragging it off the top of the screen restores it. Dragging a window to the left or right edge of the screen resizes the window so that it takes 50% of the screen. With this, a pair of windows can be quickly docked to each screen edge to facilitate interaction between them.
Chinese Users of Pirated Vista Upset at WGA
Sometimes… I just cannot wrap my head around the pirate’s mind. Take for example the ridiculous outrage that people in the Chinese market are engaged in because Microsoft finally implemented their Windows Genuine Advantage program over there. For those unaware, WGA detects whether or not a version of Windows is legal, and if not, it will remove your desktop wallpaper and give you occasional messages reminding you to purchase. It doesn’t halter the usage of the OS.
Seems fair, right? After all, if you didn’t pay for the program, why should you expect quality service? I’m against copy protection, don’t get me wrong, but if you don’t pay for whatever you’re using and then complain about it, something’s a little strange. The reason I hate copy protection is because it effects the legal consumer more than the pirates, but when it comes to protection against the actual pirates, I say bring it.
The odd thing is, even a Chinese official is aganst Microsoft, claiming their product is too expensive for that particular market. What? Last I checked, Chinese versions of Windows were less expensive over there. I could be wrong, but even then… how does that justify things? The same thing happened on these shores, but as far as I know, but US official got their panties in a twist.
In a PC World article Dong said, “Microsoft’s measure will cause serious functional damage to users’ computers and, according to China’s criminal law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems of Chinese.” Dong also said Microsoft was targeting the wrong group stating, “I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong measures.” He also added, “They should target producers and sellers of fake software, not users.”
Mega-Roundup: 100 Processors Compared
Well over a year ago, we linked to French site Matbe for one good reason. Although roundups are all-too-popular, not too many roundups involve over one hundred products. In that case, it was power supplies. But now, the same site has gone and done it again, but this time it’s with processors, from the latest and greatest from Intel (QX9775) and AMD (X4 9950) to the much-older single-core Pentium 4’s and Athlon 64’s.
I’m not going to begin to imagine how much time this all took, or how one person can wind up with over 100 different processor models, but it’s an amazing feat any way you look at it. Although the entire review is in French and I’m not sure of the methodology in place, the author looks pretty thorough in all of his testing. Some interesting benchmarks run include Excel 2007, 3ds Max 9, Photoshop CS3, TMPGEnc Xpress, among others.
Although the usefulness of such a roundup can be debated, it’s interesting to see just how the processors scale, from models released four years ago to processors released just recently. Not surprisingly, Intel’s 3.20GHz QX9770 took the cake in almost every one of the tests, but I’d expect that processor to lose its crown when Core i7 is released in the coming weeks (no-brainer).
Yes you read well, we propose comparative of 100 processors to you. Why 100? And why not. Beyond the fact that this figure is round and outstanding, we wanted to propose to you comparative complete which gives a progress report on the current offer of Intel and AMD, at the dawn of major changes in the world of the processors.
DeviceVM Brings Splashtop to Lenovo Netbooks
It’s been quite a year for DeviceVM, to say the least. We first discovered their product by way of visiting ASUS’ booth at January’s CES, and have continued to follow it as it grows. Splashtop, for the uninitiated, is an “instant-on” Linux-based OS that’s designed to allow quick access to common computer uses, like chat, Internet browsing, online Flash games, photos, et cetera.
We found out this past May just how much potential ASUS saw in the product, as they announced that the software would be installed on all forthcoming ASUS motherboards. That’s a bold move, and one that surprised pretty-much everyone I’m sure. Well, things haven’t slowed down much for DeviceVM, and they today announce a partnership with Lenovo to carry the OS on their S9e and S10e netbooks. Note that this doesn’t replace the original OS… it’s a supplement.
At first I didn’t really see the point of having Splashtop on a netbook, given they are simplistic already, but I realized that having an even faster OS is going to be a good thing. If Windows takes two minutes to fully boot and Splashtop takes 10 seconds, it’s probably going to be an easy choice in this age of PC impatience. It doesn’t help that both the Lenovo netbook and Splashtop software looks fantastic. I almost want one…
With Splashtop, IdeaPad S9e and S10e users can surf the web, check email, chat online or video conference seconds after turning on their netbooks, all without starting a traditional operating system. Splashtop is branded as Lenovo “QuickStart” on the IdeaPad S9e and S10e. The netbooks are based on the Intel Atom processor.
Donation Model Much More Difficult for Indie Artists
When both Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead decided to offer their latest albums online for free, with the option for a donation, both made tons of cash. NIN in particular claimed to have made over $1.6 million in the first week, with Ghosts, while Radiohead said they made more money off their latest album than all their previous combined. That’s a little hard to believe, but if true, it further reinstates just how greedy the goons at the record labels are.
Well, not surprisingly, it’s pretty easy to make money by selling your music online if you are an already-established artist, and I doubt there’s much dispute that both NIN and Radiohead have massive fanbases. In all reality, moving to an online model really wasn’t that much of a risk for either. If you are an indie band trying to create a fanbase, it’s much, much harder.
P2P-tracking site TorrentFreak took an in-depth look at the music collaboration site Jamendo, which allows artists to provide their music online and offer a donation button, while users can go on and listen and donate directly to the artist if they enjoy the tunes. Well, the results from this have been a bit lackluster, to say the least. The top artist on Jamendo cleared $1,000 worth of donations in three-years… and that about says it all. For those who don’t mind not making a living off music, getting your music out there is only a good thing. It seems it’s still the live shows that are going to remain the main source of income for most any artist, even the largest ones.
The top grossing artist on Jamendo is Rob Costlow, with just over $1000 in donations over three years. On Jamendo, his two albums were downloaded more than 50,000 times, and over half a million people have streamed his music on the site. Jamendo currently has close to 10,000 artists (not all of them accept donations), and 648 of those received at least one donation.
The Multi-Threaded List Continues to Grow
When reading opinions on multi-core processors, one common message that some have is that there is no real use for the regular consumer to own one. That might have been true a few years ago, but that statement isn’t entirely true anymore. Developers are continually upgrading their applications to better support multi-threaded operations, and other developers are finally making the code-changes required to take advantage of the huge CPUs.
Intel has sent along a fresh list of popular applications that take advantage of more than four threads, and some might not be that uncommon to you. Where gaming is concerned, some of the top titles on the market right now support Quad-Core processors, and I’m kind of impressed to see the list this large. It intrigues me enough to take a deeper look in the weeks to come. Call of Duty 4 is another one not mentioned… I can vouch for its multi-threadedness.
Other popular applications include encoders of all stripes. We are not talking just about professional applications, but consumer titles like ProShow Gold, TMPGEnc Xpress, Cyberlink Power Director, Sonic Easy Media Creator and more. For those Office buffs, you’ll also be pleased to know that your spreadsheets will calculate much faster on a Quad-Core. No quick refills of coffee for you!
This is by no means a definitive list, but it’s a good look at some of the most popular multi-threaded applications out there.
- Gaming
- THQ Relic Company of Heroes
- Sierra World in Conflict: Soviet Assault
- EA Flagship Hellgate: London
- Crytek Crysis (Windows XP only)
- Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed
- Ubisoft Far Cry 2
- Capcom Lost Planet Colonies
- Kingsoft Mission Against Terror
- Midway/Epic Unreal Tournament 3
- Mainstream Content Creation
- Sonic Easy Media Creator 10
- Cyberlink Power Director 6 Plus
- ProShow Gold 3.2
- TMPEGEnc XPress 4.4
- Avid Pinnacle Studio 12
- Corel DVD Movie Factory 7
- Cyberlink Power Producer 5
- Cyberlink Power Director 7
- Corel Video Studio X2
- Professional Content Creation
- Adobe Photoshop CS3
- Adobe After Effects CS4
- DivX Codec v6.8
- Autodesk 3d Studio Max
- POV-Ray 3.7 Beta 23
- Maxon Cinema v11
- Main Concept Reference Encoder and Decoder v. 1.5
- 3ivx MPEG 4
- Sobey Edit Max 7
- Newtek Lightwave v9.5
- Sony Vegas v8.0b
- Cineform Prospect HD
- Thompson Canopus EDIUS Pro 5
- Office Productivity
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007
- Abbyy FineReader v9.0
- Interior Design
- Yuan Fang InteriCAD6000
Badaboom Comes Out of Beta
We haven’t talked much about Badaboom in the past, but it’s one application NVIDIA’s riding on to help improve the likability of CUDA. Because GPUs consist of highly parallel processors, certain tasks can be handled much faster on your graphics card – much faster than the fastest Quad-Core CPU. The issue right now seems to be based on what you can do on a GPU, or rather, what you can’t do, but video encoding is a definite reality.
Badaboom is designed for the mobile user, and outputs to a maximum resolution of 720p, or 1280×720. It supports all CUDA-capable NVIDIA cards and can utilize a variety of input video formats, but outputs to only a single one, H.264 MP4. Given the application is targeting mobile users though, there’s probably nothing wrong with that, since the iPod, PSP and other devices have great support for the format.
For input files, MPEG2, H.264, RAW AVI, HDV and DVDs are supported, which opens up quite a bit of possibilities. You can rip either your own DVD’s or recode downloaded content to better fit the smaller screen. Right now, there is only one version of the application (there were originally supposed to be two), which costs $29.99. We’ll be giving the program a hard test in the coming weeks, so we’ll let you know just what to expect from it once in your hands.
Priced at $29.99, the Badaboom Media Converter features a sleek, point-and-click interface that makes formatting video for devices such as an Apple iPod, Sony PlayStation Portable, or Xbox 360 simple and intuitive. Most video converters available to consumers use the CPU, where each video frame is broken into parts and processed serially. Powered by the RapiHD™ Video Platform, Badaboom taps the up to 240 stream processors in current NVIDIA GPUs to render entire frames at once, dramatically reducing encoding time and efficiently using the PC’s entire system resources.
NVIDIA Claims No Planned Partner Reduction
NVIDIA has been having a rough year… not many people could argue that. From a dampened product launch to product issues to financial hits to rampant rumors – NVIDIA’s had it all. The latest rumor that’s been lingering around for a while is that the Santa Clara-based company is preparing to cull a few of its launch partners. Included in the culling were ECS, Biostar, Albatron and Foxconn.
According to DigiTimes, the rumors are not at all true, according to their contact at NVIDIA, who’s not quoted in the article. It’s noted that the relationship between NVIDIA and their second-tier partners is strong, and they have no plan to reduce supply to them. How’d the rumor start? Who knows, but it could very-well be true that the company was pondering the idea at one point in time.
In related news, the same website also found out that the partners to include SLI support on upcoming X58 motherboards will be ASUS, eVGA, MSI, Gigabyte and DFI. We’ll be taking a look at two such boards in the weeks to come, including the ASUS P6T Deluxe OC Palm Edition (which we previewed here) and Gigabyte’s EX58-EXTREME, so as usual, stay tuned.
While no maker confirmed that they had heard directly from Nvidia about a plan to downsize its base of graphics card partners, some makers said they heard about such a plan in the market some time ago but with the news spreading through the market, Nvidia would probably adjust any strategy that could damage its brand name.
Using Current LGA775 CPU Coolers on Core i7
So, you want to upgrade to Intel’s latest Core i7 when it’s finally unleashed on the very-suspecting public. Sounds like a good plan, but did you realize that you’ll need to take a few factors into consideration? If you’ve been reading our pages, then you likely do, but if you don’t, we’ll be sure to constantly remind you all the way up to the official launch (but unlike the killing off of the analog TV signal, you’ll probably listen to our warnings!).
Well, unlike the Core launch, which utilized the same LGA775 socket, Core i7 changes things up, with a slightly larger socket at LGA1336. Luckily, the actual IHS size hasn’t changed much, and the die underneath has actually shrunk, so all current CPU coolers for the LGA775 platform will work just fine. What will be required is a bracket upgrade, and in our talks with numerous vendors, almost everyone promises to have their upgrade kits available for launch. Good thing… CPU coolers aren’t cheap!
Although I’m unsure if other companies are doing this, Noctua is one that told me straight out that if you own one of their coolers and can upload a proof-of-purchase, they’ll ship you the upgrade kit for free. Other companies that will provide upgrade kits for sale at launch include Thermalright, Thermaltake, Cooler Master, Zalman, and potentially others. Those are the main five that seem to be on top of their game, though.
Since a Core i7 upgrade isn’t going to be that cheap, it’s nice to know that an upgrade kit is all it will take to reuse your favorite CPU cooler with the latest platform. Of course, if you buy an OEM CPU, you aren’t going to be out of luck, but you probably won’t want to be doing much overclocking on it.
ASUS Eee PC’s Future, Running Windows 7 a Definite
For such a huge company, ASUS does a lot of things well. They build great motherboards, graphic cards, audio cards, notebooks and more… as we’ve seen time and time again in our own content. What they don’t do too often is release a product that turns the industry upside down. Take the Eee PC, for example. It was released a little over a year ago, and look at all that has happened in such a short time span. Even companies who don’t typically build computer equipment are jumping on the netbook bandwagon, and there is no chance of it slowing down soon.
DailyTech references a Laptop Magazine article which saw an interview with ASUSTeK’s CEO Jerry Shen, to try to get an idea of where the Eee PC will be in one year. Some of what’s said is somewhat obvious, but Jerry remains firm that the company will never release a model larger than 10″, and to me, that’s a good thing. It’s the small form-factor that’s selling this thing, after all.
Another point made in the article is almost more noteworthy than the rest, though. Jerry claims that by mid-summer, the company will release a new Eee PC that will run Windows 7. Now, a statement like that is huge, because from what we’ve understood up to this point, Windows 7 would not be due out until late next year or early 2010. All of a sudden it’s been bumped up to next summer? I’m somehow doubtful, and hope it’s not true. I thought late 2009 was early enough… shaving off another 4 – 6 months is not going to be a good thing.
When asked about Easy Mode for Vista, Shen said he doesn’t believe that ASUS will offer Vista on the Eee. However, Shen says that Eee’s will be available with Windows 7 by the middle of next year. Some of the Eee models running Windows 7 will offer multi-touch capabilities, one of the few details known at this point about Windows 7.
Corsair Releases Tri-Channel Memory Kits, Including DDR3-1866
Yesterday, I posted about OCZ becoming the first memory vendor out the door with a tri-channel kit for Intel’s upcoming X58 platform, and it didn’t take too long for another to follow. Corsair today announces three new kits also, with two variants each (3GB & 6GB). One thing the Corsair release includes that the OCZ one lacked though, is pricing information.
The lowest kit that Corsair will offer is DDR3-1333MHz (CL9), and will retail for $120 (3GB) and $230 (6GB). Moving up we have what will likely become the most popular kit among enthusiasts, the DDR3-1600 (CL8) will retail for $175 (3GB) and $300 (6GB). Lastly, Corsair wants to make sure they’re among the few to offer insanely fast kits, and the DDR3-1866 (CL9) kit deserves that title. At $250 (3GB) and $475 (6GB), it’s not going to be for everyone.
Among the new kits, the top two include revised Dominator heatspreaders, while the top-end kit includes a revised flow fan, which appears slightly wider and replaces three small fans with two larger ones. This is to increase airflow while reducing noise… two good things. Corsair’s DDR3-1333 part is available now (which means it should creep up in e-tailers soon), while the others will likely follow in the coming weeks.
Each memory speed will feature kits of three 1 Gigabyte or 2 Gigabyte modules for a total of 3 Gigabyte or 6 Gigabyte kits. The 1600MHz and 1866MHz DDR3 memory kits will also feature the industry’s highest performance memory technology, Corsair’s patented Dual-Path Heat Exchange (DHX), for maximum performance and reliability. With six total products available, Corsair is launching the most comprehensive product line available for the Intel Core i7 processor.
Intel Ships Fastest Enterprise-Class SSD
Intel unveiled an interesting product last week that I somehow overlooked completely, but it’s definitely cool enough to mention now. Solid-State Disks are nothing new and we’ve talked about them a hundred times in the past, but the company’s X-25E Extreme SSD becomes (from what I know), the fastest-performing drive on the market, and yes, it will cost you.
When Intel released their MLC-based X-25M last month, jaws dropped because no one knew that MLC was capable of such extreme speeds, and it helped breath new life into the memory type. SLC memory is better in almost every way over MLC. It’s faster, more durable and has a lower power consumption. The downside is that SLC is so expensive, the overall density of any equipped SSD will be lacking.
So what does it bring to the X-25E Extreme? Well, it shares the same Read speed as the X-25M, at 250MB/s, but blasts the Write speed up to 170MB/s, from 70MB/s. Its performance is unbeatable, but the same can’t be said for the price, at $695 in quantities of 1,000 for the 32GB model. 64GB models are en route, but it’s safe to say the demand at first will be low, and this is exclusively a workstation/server product. It’s still undoubtedly fun to ogle over, though.
Intel achieves this breakthrough performance through innovations such as 10-channel NAND architecture with Native Command Queuing, proprietary controller and firmware efficient in advanced wear-leveling and low write amplification. The 32GB X25-E is capable of writing up to 4 petabytes (PB) of data over three-year period (3.7 TB/day), and double that for the 64GB version – delivering outstanding data reliability.
OCZ Releases First Tri-Channel Memory Kit
With Core i7 right around the corner (~one month for launch), we’d expect that we would be seeing lot of specialized memory kits, CPU coolers and motherboards being announced, but that’s not the case at all. It actually seems a little sketchy right now. Not a single memory vendor I’ve spoken to has product en route to retail, but some are very close, including OCZ.
The Sunnyvale company has become the first vendor to announce their tri-channel kits, and we might be able to see them hit retail even before X58 becomes official. The company is offering three kits in total, with 3GB and 6GB parts for each. The lowest-end kit isn’t low-end at all in terms of frequency, at DDR3-1333, but those include rather high latencies of 9-9-9-20.
Moving up we find a DDR3-1600 kit with 8-8-8-24 timings, which is going to be typical of launch kits with this frequency. Probably the most appealing kit would be the DDR3-1333 Platinum, with latencies of 7-7-7-20. All three kits operate at X58’s highest recommend memory voltage of 1.65v. Pricing is currently unknown, and it’s really too early to speculate.
“OCZ engineered these 3GB and 6GB kits specifically for Intel’s imminent platform,” commented Dr. Michael Schuette, VP of Technology Development at OCZ Technology. “By using special-screened, low voltage-capable ICs, these modules are the perfect complement for the Intel® X58 Chipset to deliver the maximum performance by enabling low latency settings and higher system frequency.”
Restoring Failed or Deleted Partitions with TestDisk
Error screens are a common part of computing, as we’ve discussed before, but there is one type of “error” that no one ever hopes to get. One so severe, you actually manage to lose your breath at the first sight. I’m of course talking about an error related to data loss, and that’s something I almost experienced on Friday.
Although I’m adamant about pushing users to backup their machines, I recently restructured my NAS from a RAID 0 to a RAID 1 (ironically, for better security), which means some things I used to have backed up, were no longer. Late Thursday night, I had boot into Windows in order to create a few graphs for today’s review of Gigabyte’s EP45-EXTREME, when I realized I left the result’s file in Linux. In a brilliant move, I decided to Google an application used to read ext3 partitions, and I can certainly say now… I wish I hadn’t.
The program I used was ext2 IFS, and while it did properly read all the partitions on my primary drive, it somehow took it upon itself to ruin the partitioning table of the secondary, which was a 750GB drive with 630GB used. I had one of those breathless moments… not because I was entirely screwed, but because restoring a hard drive so large is an absolute chore. There was also a fair amount of non-important data that I would have liked to retain.
After battling with a few Windows applications to restore some data, I got nowhere. Then via the Gentoo forums, I was recommended TestDisk, an application I’ve used before, but manage to keep forgetting about. I’m pleased to say that this completely free application worked wonders, and I was able to keep more than 99% worth of my data, unharmed. I did lose 38 FLAC files and two DVD rips, but those are easily replaced by digging the discs back out of the closet.
Simply put, TestDisk is free, powerful and managed to save me once again. If you run into an issue with partitioning, download this first to see where you can get. It’s going to prove more reliable than most GUI applications you’ll find for Windows or any other OS… even products that cost hundreds of dollars. You can download TestDisk for any OS, or use it with the SystemRescue CD, which is the route I’d recommend. If it’s not a part of your current PC fixit toolbox… it sure should be.
TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
NVIDIA Still Not Admitting Causes of Mobile GPU Issues
It’s no secret that NVIDIA has been facing a lot of flack in recent months with regards to their products, and to complicate things, it’s for all different reasons. Their new GPUs released this past summer failed to live up to expectations, and then it became known that mobile chips were beginning to fail in the literal sense. We’ve mentioned before in the news that NVIDIA claims they’ve taken enough steps to rectify that situation, but it’s not slowing down the rampant nailing with demands for answers.
Well, our friends at the Tech Report contacted NVIDIA and tried to get some hard answers. After two full weeks of waiting for the answers to clear the legal department, we have learned almost nothing new about the situation. NVIDIA goes on to talk about how high-lead bumps aren’t a big issue, and that known failures never have been attributed to their choice of solder, but that still doesn’t answer the question of why there are so many mobile GPUs that have been failing.
We’ve been waiting a little while for an answer, but given the reply sent to TR, it doesn’t look like we’ll receive good ones for a while. I don’t think the solder is the big issue here, at all, because given the recent mobile GPU issues… there was clearly not enough time for that factor to come into play, as it’s been quoted all over that it takes a while for that kind of issue to occur. Whatever happens, hopefully NVIDIA can get the entire debacle handled soon, so we can stop talking about it.
The choice between High Lead and Eutectic is complex. There are trade-offs in using one vs. the other, as even Mr. McLellan points out. The electromigration issues associated with printed eutectic bumps can affect long term reliability of a high current device. Electromigration is when a high current causes metal to separate over time, and creates an open circuit.
NVIDIA Releases Quadro CX GPU – Optimized for Creative Suite 4
We found out weeks ago that a few select applications from Adobe’s new Creative Suite 4 would take advantage of the GPU, and from the looks of things, it’s NVIDIA who’s out to push the message to the public. Although it appears that the new applications will take advantage of any GPU pipeline, ATI has kept mum for the most part – odd to say the least.
Well, for more proof that NVIDIA is taking things seriously, they’ve launched a new Quadro model that’s touted as being the “ultimate” GPU for use with CS4. Compared to the desktop GPUs, the Quadro CX seems most comparable to the GTX 260, with 192 processors, but that’s where the similarities end. The new card features 1.5GB of GDDR3 with a 384-bit memory bus (the GTX 260/280 have 448-bit), as well as a smaller TDP of 150W.
How the new card is truly “optimized” for Creative Suite 4 is unknown, and its features and product overview show nothing truly new that previous cards don’t have. If anything, it could be the ability to utilize a 30-bit color mode, although finding out which modes the previous cards offer is difficult on NVIDIA’s site, so it’s hard to say. Regardless, if you want one of these puppies in your workstation, be prepared to part with $1,999. CS4 doesn’t seem so expensive now, does it?
Creativity is not just your passion, it’s your business. You are always under pressure to deliver more amazing content while working under tight deadlines. Now you can. The NVIDIA Quadro CX is the accelerator for Adobe Creative Suite 4-giving you the ability to create rich, stunning content in a faster, smoother, and more interactive way.
PSP-3000 Now Available Across North America
The third revision PSP, coined “PSP Brite” by many, is now available all across North America. Sony doesn’t seem too interested in selling the console apart from everything else though, as the only way to currently purchase it is by picking up a $199.99 bundle, but I don’t think there will be too many complaints about that (unless you already own a PSP and just want an upgrade).
The Ratchet and Clank pack includes R&C: Size Matters, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets on UMD, a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo card, along with a voucher to download Echochrome on the PSN for free. The system also comes in a single color, mystic silver, with “special” editions en route I’m sure, if the previous generations were anything to go by. The only known follow-up is another $199.99 offering that includes a 4GB memory card in place of the 1GB, and a voucher for Everyday Shooter… which is arguably a much less stellar bundle.
Compared to the previous models, the PSP-3000 includes an improved LCD screen with increased color range and also five times the color ratio, and as you’d expect, this will hit battery-life, although apparently not by too much. In addition, it also includes an integrated microphone, minor button changes and the ability to output via composite connection to a TV or monitor.
For new and old PSP users alike, you can now take advantage of the 5.0 firmware which opens up support for the PS Store, removing the need for a PS3 or PC to download a game. You can see a full demo for the new service at the link below.
We wanted to give you a live demo of the PSP’s direct access to PlayStation Store, which will be coming with the 5.00 firmware update. Now whenever your PSP is connected to the Internet over WiFi, you’ll be able to download and enjoy the latest games, demos and trailers on the go without needing to sync up to your PS3 or PC. Here’s a brief walk-through of what you’ll experience.
Adobe’s Creative Suite 4, Flash 10 Both Released
Adobe announced their latest Creative Suite release just over three weeks ago, and fans sure didn’t have to wait long before the “Add to Cart” buttons were enabled on the official site. As always, each new application is available as an individual purchase, although the best values are found with the collections, which offer multiple applications at a nice discount.
For the ultimate in media design, the Master Collection includes pretty-well everything you could ever need for your content creation, for the healthy sum of $2,499 ($899). Seems expensive, but it’s not in the grand scheme of things. If you actually have a use for all the applications included, it’s a safe bet that the cost eats itself very quickly. For those who don’t need quite that many tools, the Web Premium and Design Premium collections are a bit more affordable, at $1,699 and $1,799, respectively.
Prices of the other software hasn’t changed much, with Photoshop Extended coming in at $999 ($349 upgrade), and Dreamweaver at $399 ($199 upgrade). For the full list of prices, you can hop over to the official store. In other news, Flash 10 has finally been released as well, for Windows, Apple and Linux. It’s not so important for the end-user right now, but could be in the future, when developers begin to take full advantage of all that’s new. To grab the latest version, you can go straight to the download page.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency – and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features – the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.
TSA = They’ll Steal Anything?
Theft is a huge issue… anywhere. Regardless of where you work, there’s sure to be a bad seed employee or a customer who’s going to swipe something at some point in time. It’s inevitable. But, there are a few places where something like that wouldn’t even come to mind. Some place where theft would be highly unlikely, and seemingly impossible. Some place, like the TSA.
If only that sentiment was true. The TSA are comprised of those friendly citizens inside our airports and borders that take it upon themselves to rummage through our stuff, making sure we aren’t bringing in any illegal porn. So what’s the chances that one of these TSA employees could see something they liked, and get away with taking it? Not that unlikely, it seems.
Gizmodo links us to a story of a Newark TSA agent who, get this, stole over $200,000 worth of people’s equipment, from laptops to iPods to cameras. He wasn’t shy about what he took, either. He even managed to leave the building with a $50,000 camera that belonged to an HBO employee. What’s worse is that the only way this guy was caught was by CNN noticing one of their cameras on eBay, which led to the arrest. What I want to know is… how is this even remotely possible? If he was able to leave with a camera valued at $50K, there’s little doubt that theft on a smaller scale happens through all TSA stations… not just Newark’s.
When the USPS and local police tracked him down and raided his place, they found they found 66 cameras, 31 laptops, jewelry, camera lenses, GPS devices and more. So yeah, how does a TSA screener systematically walk out of the airport with more gadgets than Best Buy—hell, with some gear you can’t even buy there—without a single agent ever noticing?
Ten “Finger-Licking” Good Linux Themes
It’s no secret that I’m “pro-Linux” and that I’ve been using the OS as my primary for a number of years, but I’m also one of the first to point out a fault if there is one. In this particular case, I find that the default desktops available aren’t eye-catching… nothing makes you say “ooh” or “ahh”, or somehow pronounce a verbal “!”. Luckily, the customization potential is incredible, and like Linux itself, you are able to make your desktop your own.
The folks at the LinuxHaxor blog list ten stellar (or “finger-licking”) desktop themes that not only look great, but are completely free. Most are designed for GNOME, and each one will install differently, but it’s hard to beat a completely overhauled desktop for the cost of nothing.
I’m no GNOME user, but “BlackWhite GTK” looks spectacular. It’s simplistic, but sometimes that works. “Hyo o9o8” is another interesting GNOME theme, and while it’s also simplistic, it utilizes cool earth tones to help deliver a theme that’s really easy on the eyes. Of course, if none of these particular themes suit your fancy, you can always hit up KDE-Look or GNOME-Look. Just prepare to lose a few hours to it…
Last time when we published such a list on Linux Desktop; we received a lot of flak for showing mockups and not actually showing how the themes can be replicated by users. Anyone can go to gnome-look and go through thousands of available theme, but we have decided to make a list of ten themes that we thought are a cut above the others, with a link to download and you can try them yourself.
NVIDIA Releases GeForce 9300 Intel Chipset
AMD might have been holding the mATX chipset market for a while, with their 780G and 790GX, but NVIDIA was tired of sitting around and decided to go ahead and release an Intel-based chipset that could compete with Intel’s own G45, which we’ve found has a few issues of its own.
One of NVIDIA’s biggest advantages is the integrated graphics, without question. Intel’s is lacking in most regards, and gaming performance is no exception. Our friends at the Tech Report have taken the latest NVIDIA chipset for a spin, and found that the gaming performance is far improved over what’s available on the G45’s X4500HD graphics chip… a nice bonus.
In addition to the graphics capabilities, the board also handles Blu-ray well, and also has some of the best S-ATA and USB performance around… all in addition to having a competitive power consumption (though it is higher than the rest). Geoff doesn’t think the board is truly “finished”, but it’s definitely off on a good start.
Nvidia has the best integrated graphics core for gaming, then. It also has a competent PureVideo HD decode engine that brings creamy smoothness to 1080p Blu-ray playback. And let’s not forget that the GeForce 9300 fared very well in our peripheral performance tests, exhibiting excellent SATA throughput and the quickest USB controller of the lot. Even the GeForce 9300’s power consumption—a notorious weakness of Nvidia chipsets-is reasonable.