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- AMD Launches Ryzen PRO 7000 Series Mobile & Desktop Platform
- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
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- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Dell Sells Open Source Computers
Lo5 writes with the excellent news that Dell is selling desktop computers without Windows preinstalled. They are called “n Series”; you can choose from Dimension E520, E521, or C521 desktops. The hard drive comes unformatted.
It’s about time! Although these machines are not that powerful, they’d still make a great alternative OS rig. If only they’d start doing this with their notebooks…
Source: Slashdot
Blu-ray Encryption Defeated
Late last year, a crafty individual who goes by the name “Muslix64†circumvented the copy protection scheme used to protect HD DVD. Given the similarities between the copy protection methods used in the high-definition optical formats, it was only a matter of time before Blu-ray Disc’s protections would be bypassed. However, Muslix64 has no access to Blu-ray hardware, limiting his exploit methods to HD DVD. That is, until Muslix64 came across some specific data for Blu-ray Disc, allowing him to apply his methods to the yet-uncracked format.
This didn’t take long! Muslix64 has already released an alpha version of Blu-Ray decrypting software, but it’s meant for the technically savvy at this point. It shouldn’t be too long before we start seeing these huge rips floating around the web, as HD-DVD versions already are.
Source: Daily Tech
Plextor Denies Rumor of Optical Storage Pullout
Plextor LLC today announced it would not exit the optical drive market despite earlier confusion with a press release issued by its parent company, Shinano Kenshi. While Shinano Kenshi announced a new corporate reorganization plan, Plextor optical drives will continually be available in North and South American markets.
It’s good to hear that they have actually not pulled out of the market, but it would be nice to see them make their products affordable.
Source: Daily Tech
Toronto Readies Massive Downtown Hotspot
Toronto Hydro Telecom’s recently installed a six-square kilometer Wi-Fi hotspot in downtown Toronto that will deliver Internet upload and download rates at a consistent 5 Mbps. The Wi-Fi deployment called OneZone is the largest in Canada.
I can’t wait to see how fast this kind of thing will spread, but Toronto is a great start. It would be nice to live in an area where you know fast WiFi is close, especially 5MBps.
Source: Neowin
New Intel Wireless Product for Laptops Extends Networking Speed and Range
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 23, 2007 — Intel Corporation today introduced the Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N network connection, an upgrade to the wireless component found inside Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology and other Intel-based laptops that helps consumers better connect to wireless networks.
This new adapater will be shipping with popular notebook manufacturers later this month, shortly after the Vista launch. You can read the full press release here.
AMD Reports Fourth Quarter and Annual Results
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — January 23, 2007 –AMD (NYSE: AMD) today reported financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2006. As a result of AMD’s acquisition of ATI, fourth quarter financial results include the results of the former ATI operations1 beginning October 25, 2006. Because comparison of fourth quarter consolidated financial results to previous periods do not correlate directly, AMD has provided non-GAAP financial measures for AMD’s historical business (pre-acquisition AMD). Management believes this non-GAAP presentation will aid investors by presenting current and historical results in a form that makes it easier to compare current period results with historical results.
To see how AMDs pocketbook is doing, follow the link below. Net loss for Q4 was $574 Million, part in thanks to all of the aquisition fun.
Source: AMD Press Release
Microsoft offering free Vista "test drive"
Microsoft recently unveiled a new web site called “Windows Vista Test Drive” designed to allow business users, consumers, and the merely curious to find out what running Microsoft’s latest operating system might be like without actually having to install it. After getting through this process, the user is presented with a web page that mimics Windows Vista’s desktop, although all the options on the Start Menu have been replaced with links to various “exercises” that one can enter to find out more about Vista’s new features.
This is actually a pretty cool demo if you are not familiar with Vista at all. Of course, I couldn’t give the demo a good try since it won’t function in Linux. I’m sure that’s a mere coincidence though.
Source: Ars Technica
MySpace Sues Well-Known Spammer
However, it looks like legitimacy has evaded him, as he’s been sued by MySpace, which alleges he and his associates gained access to a number of users’ accounts, then used them to send millions of pieces of spam selling items like ringtones and polo shirts.
Some people just never learn. But, I see how it would be difficult to go legit when you are earning Millions a year from doing virtually nothing. Microsoft had some decent success in suing him a few years ago, and MySpace has a great case on their hands, especially since he and his crew circumvented their securities and TOS.
Source: Tech Dirt
Sealand Prince Says No to PirateBay.org
Earlier this month, the people who run PirateBay.org announced plans to purchase the man-made island called Sealand. Michael Bates, Prince and heir to Sealand, said in a CBC interview that he has no intention of selling his micronation to any cause that violates international treaties. Oddly enough, Sealand was once home to nation founder Paddy Roy Bates’ pirate radio broadcasting operation.
The more I hear about this story, the more I laugh. The “value” of Sealand is near 1 Billion, so they claim. Pirate Bay currently has rounded up around $20K. Just a little bit further…
Source: Daily Tech
Intel Job Openings Hint at Discrete GPU
Intel is currently recruiting employees for its Visual Computing Group, or VCG, according to Beyond3D. The new recruits will work on unannounced Intel discrete graphics products and integrated CPU/GPU products to compete with AMD’s upcoming Fusion architecture.
Since Fusion doesn’t seem to be in the limelight right now, I’m looking forward to seeing what’s up Intels sleeve. For those looking for employment, there are positions availble in Texas and Oregon.
Source: DailyTech
Vista already due for Service Pack
Reckon you won’t upgrade to Vista until the first service pack is released? That’s looking likely to be the second half of this year, according to Microsoft’s latest email blast. The company has put out a call for “customers and partners (to) actively test and provide feedback on Windows Vista SP1 to help us prepare for its release in the second half of CY07 (calendar year 2007).”
Microsoft hasn’t declared what updates will be rolled in with the first service pack, but the article mentions that various tools that didn’t make it into RTM will likely be here, including PowerShell. If anything, I’d love to see a few concerns that I mentioned here taken care of as well!
Source: APC Mag
Poor Man’s Greylisting
No, but it exploits the same noncompliant behaviour of spamware and viruses, including those that spread via internal SMTP engines. Greylisting is an approach promoted and rigorously tested by Evan Harris. It is sensible, RFC-compliant, time-proven, and valuable as one part of a multilayer defense against spam.
If you run a mail server and are serious about cutting down the spam intake, then you will want to read up this article. It’s rather lengthy, but if you don’t mind getting into a tweaking mood, you may have a happier inbox.
Source: Jorey Bump
War Rock Review: A "Free" MMOFPS
Yup, it’s another MMOFPS. You know the drill – join a team, pick one of the usual classes and head off to kill the other team and/or capture their bases. The concept is far from new, and with proven competitors like Counter-Strike: Source, the Battlefield series and other success stories, how can you make a new entry stand out?
This looks like a game with a lot of potential, but as OC Modshop points out, there is a lot that could be fixed.
Source: OC Modshop
How about an 8GHz P4 631?
With a non-modified ASUS P5B motherboard they managed to reach a whopping 7520MHz, but pointed out that the motherboard made it impossible to go any further. Now that they have once again mounted the copper pipe and made the necessary voltage modifications, the liquid nitrogen once again did its thing and made it possible for them to finally reach 8000MHz!
Big congrats to OC Team Italy for this crazy acheivement. Bare in mind that this is originally a 3.0GHz chip and now retails for around $100. It’s hard to top a 266% overclock!
Source: Nordic Hardware
Sun and Intel Announce Landmark Agreement
SAN FRANCISCO , Jan. 22, 2007 – Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) and Intel Corporation today announced a broad strategic alliance centered on Intel’s endorsement of the Solaris Operating System (OS) and Sun’s commitment to deliver a comprehensive family of enterprise and telecommunications servers and workstations based on Intel Xeon processors. The scope of the agreement spans Solaris, Java and NetBeans software and Intel Xeon microprocessors, as well as other Intel and Sun enterprise-class technologies. The alliance also includes joint engineering, design and marketing efforts.
This is not much of a surprise… considering it’s so easy nowadays to get 8-Cores in a single rig. Compared to the Quad FX, Intel is going to rule the server market for a while. You can read the full press release here.
Cracked DRM on Blu-Ray
Right before the New Year, a hacker reported that he’d cracked the DRM used on HD DVD, illustrating the futility of devoting resources to develop copy-protection schemes. Now, the same hacker says he’s cracked the DRM on Blu-ray discs using the same method.
As with the HD DVD discs, there’s supposed to be a dynamic element to the Blu-ray DRM that allows for decryption keys to be updated to react to cracks, and it also uses Self-Protecting Digital Content technology, which can effectively render “bad” playback devices useless as well as change playback methods if one’s found to be weak or flawed. That sounds awfully complex and expensive to develop and implement, with the payback of doing little more than causing compatibility problems for legitimate customers.
All this will do is create a cat-and-mouse game between hackers and the companies supporting the DRM for content owners, and our money’s on the hackers in the long run. This is yet another example of how content companies are misallocating their resources: instead of spending time and effort working on new business models and forgetting about pointless, useless, DRM, they’d rather continue to spend money pursuing ways to frustrate their customers and maintain a business model that’s ill-suited for the modern market.
Source: TechDirt
Google Checkout sees poor customer satisfaction
J.P. Morgan surveyed approximately 1,100 customers about their online shopping habits and found that Google Checkout had a relatively quick market penetration of six percent despite having only been open for eight months. However, the company appears to be having some problems with customer satisfaction that could hold Checkout back from growing its market share.
I for one, am upset to hear that Checkout is not well liked thus far. I use PayPal semi-frequently and hate everything about it. Customer service is horrible, fees are high and it’s unreliable. I am not a huge Google fan either, but I am hoping they can alter aspects of their service to at least have it become a good foe against PayPal.
Source: Ars Technica
LG hybrid player on sale at Best Buy
Although it was previously thought that LG would have trouble selling its hybrid BH100 Blu-ray/HD DVD player to the public, at least with the HD DVD logo onboard, it appears all is well in hybrid-land again. BestBuy.com is showing the LG BH100 in stock with purchases shipping from its warehouse within one business day.
I despise Best Buy, but I have to give them credit for getting these in stock so quickly. Of course, the biggest downside is the $1,200 price tag. For that, you could buy a PlayStation 3 and stand-alone HD-DVD player… a much better value.
Source: Daily Tech
Apple to charge Mac OS X Tiger users for final Boot Camp release?
According to a report MacScoop has obtained, Apple will charge current users of Mac OS X Tiger for the final version of Boot Camp that will be released at the same time as Mac OS X Leopard, this Spring. Though the source wasn’t sure about the final pricing, the report said there is strong possibility that Apple’s boot manager software, allowing to use Windows and Mac OS X in dual boot mode will be sold for $29 to Tiger users.
Before any Mac users grab their rifles, remember that this is still a rumor. It wouldn’t be that surprising though since it’s in huge demand and Apple -does- devote development time to it. But, $29 for what’s essentially an advanced bootloader?
Source: Mac Scoop
Microsoft to launch Zune in EU by end of year
Microsoft corp. is happy with the early sales of its Zune music player in the United States and it could launch the service in Europe before the end of 2007, its marketing director said on Saturday. Jason Reindorp told Reuters that Microsoft was realistic about the challenge it faced in trying to crack into the digital music player market, dominated by Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.
Is it just me, or does “by the end of the year” not seem that early to me? The Zune has been out for a few months now on these shores, so why exactly does it take so long to bring them into the EU market? Regardless, I hope to see the Zune do well for the sake of actual competition.
Source: Washington Post
Two Snowflakes Can Be Identical
Still, while “no two snowflakes are alike” might hold true for larger snowflakes, Nelson figures it might ring false for smaller crystals that sometimes fall before they have a chance to fully develop. “How likely is it that two snowflakes are alike? Very likely if we define alike to mean that we would have trouble distinguishing them under a microscope and if we include the crystals that hardly develop beyond the prism stage—that is, the smallest snow crystals,” Nelson said.
Even if it’s possible to have two identical snowflakes, it’s still mind boggling to imagine how rare it would be. Considering the fact that over a Million Billion snowflakes fall each year and it’s still -that- rare to see a duplicate, it’s hard to fathom really.
Source: Yahoo News
Xfce 4.4 released!
After more than two years of development, Xfce 4.4.0 has just been released. Xfce 4.4 features new tools such as the much awaited Thunar file manager as well as several huge improvements of its core components.
There is a lot new in 4.4, most notably the freshly baked Thunar file manager which finally replaces Xffm. Thunar is not the only new addition or update though, so be sure to check out the guided tour and see if it’s an environment you want to try. For current Xfce users, it looks like you will be pleased with your upgrade.
Source: Xfce 4.4 Tour
Elder Scrolls for the Xbox
In a press release Bethesda Softworks announced their choice of the Xbox 360 for their Elder Scrolls expansion entitled Shivering Isles.
The Windows version of Shivering Isles will be available at retail and is co-published by Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games, while the Xbox 360 version is currently planned for release through Xbox Live® online entertainment network by Bethesda Softworks.
Universal and Sony Don’t Like Zune to Zune Sharing
There is a lot of testing going on at Zunerama and ZuneThoughts about songs that can or cannot be shared when purchased or acquired through the ZunePass. Both sites are coming with numbers of around 40% of songs that can’t be shared from Zune to Zune. This is an important number considering that on of the key highlight of the Zune marketing is based on sharing and Wifi. Indeed, the Wireless device inside the Zune can only be used for sharing.
The good news is that this “feature” only exists if you buy the music directly from the online music store. If you buy a CD and rip it, you can share it to whomever you’d like. I’m willing to bet that’s what most people would do regardless, but it’s something you may want to keep in mind if you were considering picking up a single off the online store.
Source: ClicZune
Swedish bank hit by ‘biggest ever’ online heist
Over the last 15 months, Nordea customers have been targeted by emails containing a tailormade Trojan, said the bank. Nordea believes that 250 customers have been affected by the fraud, after falling victim to phishing emails containing the Trojan. According to McAfee, Swedish police believe Russian organised criminals are behind the attacks. Currently, 121 people are suspected of being involved.
I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact that a heist was this successful or the fact that the bank quickly repaid it’s customers what they lost. Usually that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but the bank had absolutely no fault… the spammers simply went on a phishing trip. 121 people involved also seems high, but it could result in an easier capture.
Source: ZDNet UK