Tech News

Linus Torvalds makes Times Heroes list

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:50 AM by Rob Williams

Linus Torvalds was just 21 when he changed the world. Working out of his family’s apartment in Helsinki in 1991, he wrote the kernel of a new computer operating system called Linux that he posted for free on the Internet — and invited anyone interested to help improve it.

It’s hard to disagree with Linus as a choice, considering how Linux plays such a massive role all over. Other Heroes listed include Nelson Mandela, The Beatles, Enzo Ferrari, Princess Diana and Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

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GameStop not getting enough PS3s

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:43 AM by Rob Williams

Last month, retailer GameStop began accepting “limited” preorders for the PlayStation 3, asking customers to put down $100 in advance for the system, with a modest expectation of eight units per store in most cases. Now it appears the largest gaming specialty chain in North America won’t be receiving even that many systems.

This isn’t much of a surprise but still burns. GameStop is even going as far as to “ask” their own employees to give up their pre-orders in order to relieve some of this stress. Could you forgive your boss after that?

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Blu-Ray freaking laser in your hand

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:40 AM by Rob Williams

Sonar is the world’s only Blu-ray powered laser designed to satisfy the desires of true laser enthusiasts. Sonar represents the evolution of portable laser technology. The fusion of cutting edge technology and sleek styling lets you enjoy the latest in laser technology. Inspired by dreams. Engineered to reality.

As any laser enthusiast is well aware, blue does not come cheap. The Blu-Ray model is no different, so it will set you back a cool $2K.

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Intel Xeon 5300 Clovertown

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:36 AM by Rob Williams

This morning Intel will be introducing the Xeon 5300 series, or perhaps better known by its codename of Clovertown. At Phoronix we have had these processors in-house for over a week now and today are able to share our thoughts on these quad-core server/workstation processors as we test them under GNU/Linux.

Is Quad-Core obselete already? Phoronix is taking a look at an Octal-Core server setup that proves to make quite a difference when compared to Netburst Xeons. Of course, what do you expect from eight freaking cores??

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Valve’s Source engine goes multi-core

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:34 AM by Rob Williams

Intel’s new quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor has made one thing clear, it’s that some applications are multithreaded, and others are not. Those that are can look forward to a healthy performance boost jumping to four cores, including near-linear scaling in some cases. Those that are not enjoy no such performance benefits, and may even run slower than on the fastest dual-core chips due to the slightly slower clock speeds of Intel’s first quad-core offering. Unfortunately, most of today’s game engines are among those applications that aren’t effectively multithreaded. A handful can take advantage of additional processor cores, but not in a manner that improves performance substantially.

The benefits of multi-core gaming is evident, but mainly with various effects. Although it may not make a game more fun, it may make it more immersive. Tech Report is taking a look at Valve has up their sleeves for the near future.

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OCZ Technology Signs with D&H Distributing

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:33 AM by Rob Williams

Sunnyvale, CA—November 13, 2006—OCZ Technology Group, a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced it has signed a distribution agreement with D&H Distributing, one of the nation’s leading technology distributors specializing in emerging trends across IT, Electronics, Entertainment and Gaming. Upon signing with D&H, OCZ’s extensive collection of renowned DRAM memory, flash products and power supplies will be available to a new channel of resellers and system builders ensuring unprecedented product access to OCZ’s growing customer base.

You can read the full press release here.

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Asheron’s Call Free Trial

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:32 AM by Rob Williams

Start playing today to experience the amazing depth and excitement of Asheron’s Call. Play online with thousands of other gamers to conquer an entire online world. Featuring combat, magic, crafting, housing, and a definitive player vs. player challenge. Your destiny beckons. Will you answer the call?

If you have never had the chance to play this absolute gem, give it a try. This isn’t a choice, I am making you. Games like WoW would not exist today if it were not for the pioneers!

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Review Roundup for November 14

Posted on November 14, 2006 11:31 AM by Rob Williams
    Cases & Enclosures
  • NZXT Adamas – OCIA

    Memory & Storage
  • Highpoint RocketRAID 2322 – TweakTown

    Displays & Video Cards
  • More GeForce G80 Series Revealed – NGOHQ

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PS3 launch in Japan far from fun

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:40 AM by Rob Williams

The pressure was too much as the line busted open and more pushing ensued (which broke out in front of the waiting truck), causing those waiting in back to push forward, inching themselves closer to the finish line with a prideful Kutaragi waiting. One man truly leveled-up – the chaos allowed him to push forward from roughly 200th in place all the way up to 20th in line.

This kind of news is not that surprising, but the e-mail to Kotaku from someone who was there gives you an idea of what really happened. It’s hard to believe with such a -massive- crowd, that no police officers were present! That boggles the mind.

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Microsoft launched Aggreg8

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:35 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft on Friday launched what it bills as a social networking site for IT professionals, called Aggreg8. The company aims for the site to become a MySpace-like forum for developers to share scripts, tools, or best practices, or even to just connect with others within the profession.

Because we all needed yet another MySpace clone. At least this one has a specific purpose, so I will give it that. Whether it will catch on between IT pros is another thing.

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Singapore teen faces 3 years for borrowing WiFi

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:32 AM by Rob Williams

A Singapore teenager has been charged with tapping into someone else’s wireless Internet connection, a crime that carries a penalty of up to three years in jail, a newspaper reported Saturday. Garyl Tan Jia Luo, 17, is the first person to be charged with this crime under the Computer Misuse Act, the Straits Times reported.

This is absolutely ridiculous! If this guy did not want people borrowing his internet, he should have secured it! It does not even seem like you get a warning. It’s not like he hacked into the network, or surfed illegal sites, so what is the real harm here?

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Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:29 AM by Rob Williams

The Samba Team disapproves strongly of the actions taken by Novell on November 2nd. One of the fundamental differences between the proprietary software world and the free software world is that the proprietary software world divides users by forcing them to agree to coercive licensing agreements which restrict their rights to share with each other, whereas the free software world encourages users to unite and share the benefits of the software.

Well said! If you are unsure about this entire Novell/Microsoft debacle, then reading this letter will put everything into perspective.

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Total election count… off by one

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:27 AM by Rob Williams

Randy Wooten figured he’d get at least one vote in his bid for mayor of this town of 80 people even if it was just his own. He didn’t. Now he has to decide whether to file a formal protest. Poinsett County results reported Wednesday showed incumbent William H. Wood with 18 votes, challenger Ronnie Chatman with 18 votes and Wooten with zero.

Haha, what a poor sap. Even with a small town of 80 people, there seems to be only 36 votes total. Wooten claims that friends would vote for him, so a lot more than just one vote could have been lost thanks to the electronic voting machines.

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AMD pulls plug on Personal Internet Communicator

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:24 AM by Rob Williams

AMD has stopped its work on the Personal Internet Communicator project after nearly two years of planning and development. The PIC was announced in late 2004 as a $250 headless computer, sporting a Geode x86 processor, 128MB of RAM and a 10GB hard drive. PIC was designed for “emerging markets” where the cost of computer hardware is seen as prohibitively high.

This is not such a loss as one would think though. The “competition” OLPC uses AMD Geode processors, so AMD is a winner either way.

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Review Roundup for November 13

Posted on November 13, 2006 9:22 AM by Rob Williams

    Motherboards & Processors
  • Abit AW9D i975X – Phoronix
  • Nvidia nForce 600i Preview – Technic3D

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • Icemat Siberia In:Ear Headset Give Away – Big Bruin
  • mushkin Power Supply Contest – Bjorn3D
  • Optical Drives and Firmware Flashing – Tech Nibble

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XFX GeForce 8800 Graphics Cards – GTS & GTX Compared

Posted on November 11, 2006 12:19 PM by Rob Williams

Most these differences can be seen on the front of the card. With the coolers being slightly larger in size on the GTX, the only other difference between them is that the model number differs. Clearly we can also see that when it comes to size, the GTX is much longer than the GTS – it comes in at 10.5 inches long. nVidia say that they did their research and enthusiast uses most of the time have the case to carry a card so long but if you’re looking at the GTX, we urge you to make sure you can before buying as it is really long. There are also some differences when it comes to the PCB layout of the part of the card that we can see.

Ok, so you are ready to slap down near $700 for a GPU and can’t decide on the GTX or GTS. Maybe TweakTown can help you out?

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Building an affordable AM2 Gaming System

Posted on November 11, 2006 12:17 PM by Rob Williams

Currently there is a massive amount of competition in almost every corner of the computer industry. This has resulted in a wide range of products, as manufacturers attempt to capture as much market segment as they possibly can. Take the war between ATI and Nvidia, for example. Each company has been scrambling to gain an upper hand in every price bracket. Currently there are loads of options in the sub $100 range, $150, $200, $250, $300, and all the way through to $600+. The same can be said about CPUs, which have not only reached phenomenal levels of performance, but are also more affordable than ever.

For cheap gaming, AM2 is definitely the way to go as there seems to me much more selection. You can see what Tech Spot recommends.

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PlayStation 3 to Get Immediate Update

Posted on November 10, 2006 1:21 PM by Rob Williams

Sony Computer Entertainment will offer the first software update for its forthcoming PlayStation 3 gaming console as soon as the devices go on sale. The free update will update the PlayStation 3 from version 1.0 to 1.1 of its built-in software, and add support for the PlayStation Network online service.

Now that’s a quick software update! I am not one to complain about updates for anything really… if they are needed, so be it. A few Xbox 360 games I’ve purchased recently have required updates straight out of the box also. So if you get a PS3, you better have a broadband connection to hop online to update your software.

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Universal to receive $1 from each Zune sale

Posted on November 10, 2006 1:18 PM by Rob Williams

Microsoft’s Zune media player, due for retail release next week, will have the support of Vivendi Universal in an unusual contract form. For every $249 Zune player sold, Universal will get $1 (subscription required) to make up for the “unauthorized content” the company expects will make its way onto the device.

The music industry seems to be getting worse everyday. $1 for music that could possibly wind up on the device? The sad truth is, Universal can get away with this because they could pull their music out of various music services if they don’t get things their way. Sounds childish, and in a way I guess it is. How this is even legal, is beyond me.

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Earthbound fans to translate latest version

Posted on November 10, 2006 1:15 PM by Rob Williams

In 1995, Nintendo of America released EarthBound into our grubby, teenaged hands. We came for the fart jokes, but we stayed for the zen of a game that was well ahead of its time. Everything about EarthBound was brilliant. What’s more is that everything somehow managed to get better with age.

If you had a Super Nintendo back in the day, chances are good that you played Earthbound. It was far from being a typical RPG, but was incredibly fun in it’s unique way. Sadly, Nintendo doesn’t seem to get the hint that NA fans are dying for a new version, so the fans themselves are taking it upon themselves to translate the Japanese version. Wonder if Nintedo will step in?

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Using Vista without a virus-scanner?

Posted on November 10, 2006 1:11 PM by Rob Williams

During a telephone conference with reporters yesterday, outgoing Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, while touting the new security features of Windows Vista, which was released to manufacturing yesterday, told a reporter that the system’s new lockdown features are so capable and thorough that he was comfortable with his own seven-year-old son using Vista without antivirus software installed.

This is quite a statement to make, but I hope it’s true. If regular users could use Windows without actually feeling like they have to purchase a virus scanner, then that’s a win. It would be hit to companies like Symantec and McAfee however.

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Review Roundup for November 10

Posted on November 10, 2006 1:09 PM by Rob Williams
    Cases & Enclosures
  • ICY DOCK Modiflash 722 Mobile Dock – Pro-Clockers
  • Ultra Defender & Grid Cases – 3D Gameman

    Motherboards & Processors
  • abit AN9 32X – techFEAR
  • ABIT IN9 32X-MAX First Look – TweakTown
  • Foxconn 975X7AB – Viper Lair
  • NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI Chipset Of nForce 600i Series For Intel – Digit-Life

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • Building an affordable AM2 Gaming System – TechSpot
  • Foxconn And EVGA Motherboard Give-Away – GamePyre
  • Netgear EVA700 – BIOS Magazine
  • NVIDIA Pushes Vista to a Whole ‘Nother Level – Digital Trends
  • Ubuntu: The Imperfect Operating System Alternative to Windows – TweakNews

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Want to download HD content through your 360? Buy another HDD

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:58 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft’s solution is for users to buy another $99 20GB Xbox 360 hard drive and to use a $40 memory card to store your gamer profile. The simple alternative would be to just allow gamers to use their own external hard drives and USB thumb drives for downloads, but that isn’t likely to happen…at…all.

What a sick “solution”. To download high-def content, they recommend you paying $100 for a measly 20GB worth of space. The easier solution would be to release a 100GB version of the drive and sell it for the same price. They’d still be making huge coin, and at least THAT would sell.

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Windows Vista gone Gold!

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:53 AM by Rob Williams

Microsoft announced today that Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing. Vista will mark the first big shift in Microsoft consumer operating systems in over 5 years. With Vista, Microsoft promises increased security with an improved firewall and Windows Defender and User Account Control. Other fresh additions include integrated desktop search, Internet Explorer 7.0, Windows Sidebar, Windows Sideshow, built-in system diagnostics, improved gaming support, fully integrated Speech Recognition as well as support for Windows SuperFetch, Windows ReadyBoost and Windows ReadyDrive.

It’s happening folks… no turning back now! For better or for worse, it’s on the way. Oddly, I am looking forward to Vista, only to see how things pan out. Things can’t get much worse security wise… right?

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Microsofts Blue Screen of Death Screensaver

Posted on November 9, 2006 11:50 AM by Rob Williams

Who says Microsoft has not got broad shoulders. Witness this neat little app – BlueScreen Saver 3.2 – available for download from Microsoft’s very own website. Could it be that Microsoft has developed an unexpectedly wry sense of humor? Or maybe it just wants to get its back on whiney sysadmins – (what the hell are they still doing with NT, anyway).

Maybe Microsoft has a good sense of humor afterall. Now they should release the screensaver for Linux and Mac!

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