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RIAA defendant dies, heirs given 60 days to grieve before depositions
Larry Scantlebury had the temerity to die before the case was resolved, though. Again, the cause of death is unknown, but the RIAA did get a hold of a death certificate. It was filed as support for a motion to “stay the case for 60 days and extend all deadlines 60 days,” filed by the record labels’ lawyers.
Just when you thought it could not get any worse, it happens. It’s incredible just how heartless these people are, and what they will do for an easy buck. Oh what a massive music strike would do…
Review Roundup for August 14
- Alphacool NexXxos NVXP-3 GPU Waterblock – Overclock3D
- Eddie EK FC79 7800/7900 GPU Block – Overclock3D
- Thermalright HR01 940/939 Passive Cooler – Xtreme Computing
- Thermaltake W2 GPU Waterblock- techPowerUp!
Cooling
- Crucial DDR2 PC2-5300 ECC Memory – 3D Gameman
- Sima Hitch USB-101 transfer device- Hexus
- OCZ PC2-8000 Titanium Alpha VX2 – PC Modding Malaysia
Memory & Storage
- Enermax Liberty 500W – Modders-Inc
- Ergodex DX1 Input System – InsaneTek
- Levicom M-Power M450 – Cooling-Station (German)
- Logisys Clear Acrylic Blue EL Keyboard – DragonSteelMods
- OCZ GameXStream 700W – Overclockers Online
- OCZ GameXStream 700W – Technic3D (German)
- OCZ GameXStream 700W – Virtual-Hideout
- Razer Pro Solutions 1.6 – Bjorn3D
- Seasonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT 650W – PC Stats
- Shure E4g Sound Isolating Earphones – XYZ Computing
- Steelpad 5L Mousepad – Think Computers
- X-Finity 2G – 600 Watt Power Supply – Pro-Clockers
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Samsung SyncMaster 244T 24″ WUXGA LCD Monitor – Bona Fide Reviews
Displays & Video Cards
- HyperKore X-Treme Gaming System Giveaway – Modders-Inc
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Modular Power Supplies: The Reality of the Resistance
Now please keep in mind that this article is in no way a power supply review. You have not just witnessed some sort of weird five-way power supply shootout. There are so many good things to say about ALL of the power supplies I used today. For example, the voltage drop going from 0A to 11A on both the Antec NeoHE and Corsair HX620W was actually LESS than the FSP600-80GLC power supply with fixed cables. But the focus of today’s article was to simply clarify some of the fuzzy math used to create fud over modular power supplies, therefore we focused primarily on the drop from the power supply’s PCB to the load.
Not exactly a round-up, but even after reading you may have a good idea of which PSU to buy. You may just feel differently about modular supplies after reading.
Seagate Barracuda Sata II 7200.10 250GB Review
Do you want a powerful, high tech and cheap hard disk? We alwas are looking for high performance products with low price, and this 250GB hard disk from Seagate is one of that products. Featuring NCQ, vertically storage and low noise is one of the bests hard disk on the market. Some weeks ago we tried one with 750GB and now we are presenting its little brother to you.
Not everyone wants the biggest and best hard drive out there, especially when 250GB models come so cheap! For a performance and in-depth look, check out the review here. The sites in Spanish, but the link will translate.
Intel Centrino Duo Whitebook
Desktop PC owners have enjoyed this level of flexibility for years and a migration to a Notebook platform quickly reminds us how we have taken this all for granted. Consumers are starting to demand the same level of flexibility that they enjoy with Desktop PCs now their Laptops, however. The large value-added resellers like Dell, HP and Sony have heard our cries and have begun offering more options on their products, but it’s still not enough for many people. Bare-bones laptops, coined “Whitebooks”, appeared on the scene promising to offer the same level of upgradeability and customization enjoyed by desktop barebones PCs.
This is a great article if you are wishing to build your own laptop. It will take a lot of effort though. Even moreso than building a complete desktop!
Ideazon Fang Gamepad Review
Is it worth $30? Hell yeah! The Fang didn’t automatically make me l337 (I’m still a Private-First Class in BF2), but it definitely helped make me a better gamer since access time to hard to reach keys or commands were at my fingertips. It kept me alive longer, and made my gameplay quicker and more precise.
This thing is surprisingly cool looking. Appears to have a great build quality also.
OpenGL Now Natively Supported in Windows Vista
This week the Khronos group, which is responsible for developing and maintaining OpenGL, has released a report indicating that OpenGL support will now be natively supported in Vista without layering over Direct3D. Using standard Windows installable client driver (ICD), OpenGL will be fully accelerated and be fully compatible with Windows Vista’s Aeroglass UI. In fact, Khronos says that by the time Windows Vista ships, Aeroglass performance on OpenGL will be superior to that of Direct3D.
Performance is to be better using OpenGL, however the user is required to download the ICD manually in order to take advantage of it. At this point, anything that helps Vista run smoother is quite welcomed.
Dell AMD laptops to use ATI GPUs. Shock!
The fact that Dell would choose to pair mobile AMD processors with ATI chipsets and graphics controllers shouldn’t come as a surprise to many — there are already a number of AMD-based notebooks that use this combination. However, the news takes on an even greater significance now that AMD has acquired ATI. With AMD and ATI engineers working together as one to build powerful, high performance platforms with great stability for server, notebook and desktop platforms, it makes the products even more attractive to manufacturers.
Hardly surprising, but nothing wrong with it either. Only problem may arise for those hardcore gamers that desire multi-GPU in their AMD laptop. That fact may push some consumers to other manufacturers.
GNOME 2.16.0 Beta 2
The second Beta for GNOME 2.16.0 is now out. GNOME 2.15.91 marks the API/ABI, feature, string, and UI freeze in the GNOME 2.16.0 candidate. We had used GARNOME with GNOME 2.16.0 Beta 2 and now have some visuals today showing a portion of the improvements in GNOME 2.16.
If you are pondering giving the beta version a try, check out some shots at Phoronix to decide. There haven’t been any groundbreaking changes, but it’s worthy of a look.
Why Rockstar Games Should Pay Jack Thompson
Jack Thompson – lunatic lawyer or genius marketing executive? I really can’t decide. He’s at it again, ensuring that Rockstar’s new game ‘Bully’ will become the most sought after title by kids everywhere this year. Once more he is trying to push for a ban on a software title that he admits that he’s never even seen.
Jack Thompson really is one guy most people love to hate. He gives us so many reasons to spite him, but he never slows down. It’s humorous that Anti-Bully activists actually appreciate the game, but that will not likely sway Mr. Thomspon in any way. Maybe he should watch the trailer before jumping to arms?
Nvidia’s Response to Early DIY Quad-SLI
Nvidia notes in the reviewer’s guide that “Quad-SLI is designed for extreme HD gaming at 2560×1600 with very high levels of anti-aliasing and filtering (i.e. 8X SLI-AA and 16X-AF). At resolutions lower than 1920×1200 and with low filtering settings, CPU-bound behavior is more prominent, and Quad-SLI may perform a bit slower than standard SLI due to additional driver overhead managing four GPUs.”
If you are thinking of splurging on Quad-SLI, you will probably want to wait unless you plan on running 2560*1600 with high AA and AF. The main issue is the latencies at lower resolutions cause games at 1600*1200 and lower to actually run slower on Quad-SLI.
The life of the smarmy Mac guy
a Connecticut boy who has been very ambivalent about the fame part of the job since his breakout role as the young sci-fi geek in “Galaxy Quest,” was shocked at how deeply affected people have been by the ads. “I didn’t really know about computers,” he says. “I didn’t even have one — though I do now,” he adds quickly, “a Mac of course. But I was very surprised at how passionate people are about their computers, how deeply attached.”
The joys of advertising. I hated those commercials before, and even moreso now. If you hate them also, brace yourself as there are 20 more on the way.
3DFX Quad-GPU card on eBay
A never-shipped 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP graphics card has popped up on eBay to tempt fans of historical GPUs. Speaking of fans, this boy has four of ’em, one each for the four VSA-100 graphics chips the board sports – along with 128MB of frame-buffer memory.
The card is currently at $685US, so most people will just want to browse. I think the most impressive thing about the card is the sheer size. It’s huge!
Microsoft going hardcore with WGA
Microsoft is going to make key components of its Windows Vista operating system as well as some updates to Internet Explorer only available to customers running genuine Microsoft software. The aim is to give consumers and businesses the incentive to run a genuine copy of Windows.
If you plan on using a legal version of Windows Vista, this won’t concern you. However, current WGA is rather unstable and I have known completely legit users to be hassled. I’d be happy as pie if the verification was done solely online, with nothing installed on the machine. Things are going to get fun…
Hard drive price war on the horizon?
According to reports, we may witness a price war in the hard drive business industry. At least this is what Seagate Technology CEO Bill Watkins said on Wednesday. Seagate is currently the world’s largest hard drive manufacturer and competes with such companies as Western Digital, Hitachi, Samsung and Toshiba. According to Watkins “If pricing doesn’t drop for us, it’ll be an upside.” Seagate is expecting stiff price cutting from its competitors through into 2007.
It’s hard to imagine large drops, because HDD’s are cheap to begin with. Either way, any price drops are welcomed… especially if you are looking for a large capacity.
Bully trailer released
Identified by their white shirts, the bullies are against everyone else: the teachers, the nerds, the jocks, the preppies… you name ’em, they’re against ’em. Luckily, Jimmy is encouraged to stand up for himself and the other kids, and while players can certainly have moments of questionable judgment themselves (through pranks and razzing), being a bad kid isn’t supposed to be tolerated. Again, this probably isn’t the game you thought it was.
Normally a game trailer would not make headlines, but rules don’t apply when the game is produced by Rockstar. Will there be controversy? Do you even have to ask? I personally think the game is ridiculous, but even if it flops we can be assured that Jack Thompson will bully Rockstar.
CES owner to create copycat E3?
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA(R)), the owner and producer of the International CES(R), the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, announced today that it is forming an advisory committee to solicit gaming industry feedback and explore the viability of a West Coast event in late spring 2007 focused on the gaming and entertainment marketplace.
It appears that they will be striving for the same goals as the ‘old’ school E3. Like E3, a potential convention would reside on the West coast, and take place in the Spring. Seeing as CES is the most popular tech convention on this side of the Earth, a potential gaming convention is certainly viable.
Cray Wins $52 Million Supercomputer Contract
Cray and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science announced today that Cray has won the contract to install a next-generation supercomputer at the DOE’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). The systems and multi-year services contract, valued at over $52 million, includes delivery of a Cray massively parallel processor supercomputer, code-named “Hood.”
Hood is comprised of thousands of Opteron processors, running on finely tuned kernels. I have to wonder just how awesome it would be to play around with such a beast. 1,000 instances of Super Pi anyone?
Novell Renames Community Linux Distribution ‘openSUSE’
Markham, Ont. – Aug. 10, 2006 – Novell today announced simplified branding to make it even easier for customers to identify the right Linux* product for their needs. SUSE® Linux, Novell’s award-winning community Linux distribution, will now be known as “openSUSE*,” echoing the name of the Novell-sponsored open source Linux project, openSUSE.org. Novell’s enterprise Linux products will continue to be designated “SUSE Linux Enterprise.”
You can read the full press release here.
AMD Continues Momentum With Broad Software…
Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 10, 2006 – AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced
broad software industry support for its upcoming Next-Generation AMD
Opteron(tm) processor family, which provides the ISV (independent
software vendor) and open source software development communities with
hardware support for the development of the next evolution of
business-class enterprise applications.
You can read the full press release here.
Review Roundup for August 11
- Icy Dock MB122 Drive Enclosure – Think Computers
- iStar D-Storm D300 3U 19-inch Rackmount Chassis – PC Stats
Cases & Enclosures
- Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 Quiet CPU Cooler – Viper Lair
- Zalman Reserator 1 Plus Passive Computer Water Cooling System – Tweak News
Cooling
- JetArt Ram HeatSinks (CK5000) – DragonSteelMods
Memory & Storage
- Iriver T10 1GB MP3 Player – XYZ Computing
- Pioneer DV-490V DVD Player – Digital Trends
- SteelSeries SteelPad 5L Mouse Pad – A True Review
- Thermaltake Toughpower 700w Power Supply – Virtual-Hideout
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- MSI NX7900GT-VT256E-HD HDCP-enabled Geforce 7900GT – PC Stats
- NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver v1.9145 – NGOHQ
Displays & Video Cards
Major Security Hole Found In Rails
A major security hole has been found in Ruby on Rails. Upgrading to version 1.1.5 is extremely urgent, and all previous versions except those “on a very recent edge” are affected. Details on the exact nature of the flaw will be coming soon, but the rails team has decided to wait a short time before disclosure so that people can have a chance to upgrade their servers before would-be-assailants are armed.
If your server runs Rails, upgrade the software right now. They don’t say “Major” just for the fun of it.
Apple Mac OS X Leopard Preview: Who’s the Copycat Now?
Sometimes I wonder how Apple CEO Steve Jobs can sleep at night. He appears to spend half his waking hours ridiculing Microsoft’s admittedly behind-schedule operating system, Windows Vista, for copying Mac OS X features. But this week at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), he announced ten new features for Leopard, the next version of OS X, most of which will seem more than vaguely familiar to Windows users. I’m not dim: Microsoft does copy Apple on a fairly regular basis. But seriously, Steve. Apple’s just as bad.
This is going to be a never ending debate, to say the least. Paul makes some great points here, and I seem to agree with all of them. On the other end of the spectrum, there are also people who believe that Microsoft should be ‘learning’ from Leopard. Read both articles then conjure up your own conclusions.
Google continuing to store users data
Although he was alarmed by AOL’s haphazard release of its subscribers’ online search requests, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt said Wednesday the privacy concerns raised by that breach won’t change his company’s practice of storing the inquiries made by its users.
I don’t agree with such practices, and we can hope that Google never chooses or be forced to release such information. The moral of the story is that if you want to have more privacy online, you should look into proxies and the like. Hiding your identity from the start is the best protection.
ATI Vendor Supplied Radeon X1950XTX Benchmarks Leaked
The benchmarks compare ATI’s Radeon X1950XT in CrossFire against NVIDIA’s Quad SLI. The test setup used for NVIDIA’s Quad SLI is a Dell XPS 700 system equipped with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800, 1GB of DDR2-800 memory and two GeForce 7950GX2 graphics cards for four total GPUs. The ATI CrossFire test system is identical with the Quad SLI system except the nForce 590 SLI Intel Edition motherboard was swapped out for an early Radeon Xpress 3200 (RD600) motherboard and two ATI Radeon X1950XTX/CrossFire graphics cards.
If these benchmarks are realistic, then it will be a superb competitor to the GX2. According to the results, the 1950XTX even beat out Quad-SLI at the highest resolutions available today. It’s hard to believe at this point, but as always, time will soon tell.