Posted on March 16, 2006 12:38 PM by Rob Williams
WE FOUND out that one of the boutique PC makers actually has Quad SLI listed. NW Falcon can configure a quad SLI even in its FragBox using EVGA micro ATX board that we talked about. We did our usually vendor website check and to our mild surprise, we found out that NW Flacon actually has those cards listed.
Wow! Most people thought regular SLi was bad enough… now it’s just brutal! Check it out at The Inquirer.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 12:30 PM by Rob Williams
A WOW player has been booted from the online game World of Warcraft for using the Wine emulator over the Linux operating system and a macro programmable keyboard. The bloke, who is a network network engineer for an ISP, reports his experiences with the Blizzard administrators here. He thinks that the use of Wine might affect the software Blizzard use to detect third party programs designed to cheat the game.
I’ve always wondered what would happen to players who used Wine for their MMO. Apparently this is. He didn’t cheat though… he used a macro keyboard. Most MMO’s allow quick macros in game, but when it’s hardware it’s a crime? Check it out at The Inquirer.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 12:25 PM by Rob Williams
MAKERS of DRM software Starforce have said sorry to Stardock for publishing a link to a pirated version of its Galactic Civilizations II software. Starforce placed a link to a pirated copy of on its website and said that it cannot be good for sales to have Stardock’s software so easily available.On a Stardock forum, a spokesman said that he had since received an email from Starforce saying it was sorry.
Wow, how stupid. How could you do something like this and not realize how stupid it is in the first place? Check out the posting at The Inquirer.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 11:50 AM by Rob Williams
Recently, a UK band was disqualified from the charts when it was discovered that overzealous fans were buying multiple copies of the same song. In one case a fan bought a single song 100 times. It’s true that these repeat sales distort the breadth of the band’s popularity, but they do indicate the intensity of the band’s fans.
Hahahahaha. Read all about it at Tech Dirt.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 11:47 AM by Rob Williams
‘The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk … and with a tiny little screen,’ Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington. ‘Hardware is a small part of the cost’ of providing computing capabilities, he said, adding that the big costs come from network connectivity, applications and support. ‘
They are somewhat harsh words, but there is some sense in there. A $100 computer might be better than nothing though… Check out the read at Slashdot.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 11:30 AM by Rob Williams
Mandriva executive Gael Duval today confirmed rumors that he was laid off from the company he co-founded, along with a number of other Mandriva employees. Duval told NewsForge that he is going to bring suit against Mandriva for “abusive layoff.” In an exclusive IRC chat this afternoon, Duval said, “I’m very sad since my new role was pretty exciting. Additionally, seven years ago I created my job and some jobs for many other people, and eventually someone, the current boss, tells me, ‘Now you leave.’ Ouch!”
Check out the full read at News Forge. I certainly don’t blame the guy for suing, and hope to see him win.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 11:28 AM by Rob Williams
It’s over, done with, and the check is in the mail- literally. Colin Nederkoorn has just verified the solution that the now-famous narf and fellow programmer blanka came up with for dual-booting Windows XP and OS X on an Intel-powered Mac, and announced that all future donations to the project will be go towards the open-source work that will evolve from the contest.
All things considered, this didn’t seem to take too long! It’s cool to see that it’s finally been done, but I wonder just how many steps are going to be required. Check out the posting at Engadget.
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Posted on March 16, 2006 11:27 AM by Rob Williams
There’s a fair amount going on in terms of reviews today. Bit-Tech has a great 7900GTX round-up, using cards from MSI, BFG and ASUS. In the end, the best card is the one you can find in stock. They note that the top of ATI may prove a better value than one of these. If you want a logical way to keep your video cards cooler, but don’t want a water cooling rig, then check out Driver Heaven for their review of the Turbine Card Cooler XT. It’s a simple concept: Mount two huge fans in front of your GPU’s, but it does a fair job!
Cases & Enclosures
- DragonModz.net Aluminum DragonMesh – PC Apex
Memory & Storage
- Super Talent DDR2 Low Latency – 3D Gameman
Motherboards & CPU’s
- CeBit: 16 port PCI Express RAID ready to tame your raptors – Hexus
- Gigabyte GA-G1975X – PC Perspective
Video Cards & Monitor
- GeForce 7900 GTX Roundup – Bit-Tech
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Posted on March 16, 2006 10:30 AM by Rob Williams
(Rohnert Park, CA) – March 15, 2006 – Independent Game Developer S2 Games announced today that it will be supporting the Linux® community by offering Native Linux Client support at launch for its upcoming triple-A title, Savage 2: A Tortured Soul. Savage 2 is the much anticipated sequel to Savage: The Battle for Newerth and will be available in Fall of 2006 as a digital download from the S2 Website.
More companies need to follow this lead! Check out the full press release at Shacknews.
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Posted on March 15, 2006 11:47 AM by Rob Williams
Ant writes to tell us Darknet has a summary of the ten best LiveCD distributions dealing with security. With links to download and a little information about each one.” An great overview of some handy tools, some you know and probably a few you don’t.
You can check out the full list at Darknet. Source: Slashdot.
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Posted on March 15, 2006 11:46 AM by Rob Williams
FOSTER CITY, Calif., March 15 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. today announced that it will continue to expand its successful PSP(TM) (PlayStation® Portable) platform by making a new PSP hardware package available for a suggested retail price (SRP) of $199.99 USD ($229.99 CND). Consumers will be able to purchase the new PSP system at this price, complete with AC adaptor and battery, beginning March 22nd. The new PSP hardware package offers consumers the same access to game titles, music, movies, communication and wireless networking.
Check out the full press release at Yahoo.
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Posted on March 15, 2006 11:43 AM by Rob Williams
David Kanter over at RWT has posted a whopper of an article that gives the goods on Intel’s new Core architecture. The article comes complete with a nice architectural diagram that puts to rest any doubts about whether Core is in the P6 lineage (the Pentium Pro down through the Pentium III, which with major changes includes the Pentium M). Although it combines the best features of the Pentium 4 and the P6-derived Yonah, Core tends to look more like Yonah than anything else.
Check out the full posting at Ars Technica.
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Posted on March 15, 2006 11:37 AM by Rob Williams
A local Dell spokesman has effectively denied rumours that it’s acquired rival PC vendor Alienware, suggesting that all speculation should be taken “with a grain of salt”. “The PC gaming market is threatening Dell’s ‘perceived technology leadership’ – and ultimately the consumer space. The Alienware brand is cooler than Dell, and perhaps a likely candidate for Dell to take over based on size alone,”
Of course they will deny it now, but it’s a matter of time to see if it’s actually a false rumor or not. Read more at Cnet.
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Posted on March 15, 2006 11:19 AM by Rob Williams
There’s a lot going on today, especially if you want to get some great cooling thrown in your PC. Xbit Labs takes a look at an ‘all in one’ CPU cooler from a new company called AKUATEK. One huge benefit that this cooler has compared to others, is that it’s around the same size at a Zalman 9500LED. That’s saying a lot, since this is a liquid cooling setup. It looks like they have a few kinks to work out before it’s worthy of your purchase though, so check out the review for more info. If you are a water cooling enthusiast and want a good dual rad to buy, then grab your German to English translator and head over to Technic3D. They are taking a look at a bunch of dual rads on the market and puts each to the test.
If you think hard drives are boring looking, and I would have to agree, then check out TweakTowns review of the Raptor X from WD. It’s pricey, but you get a window! Digit-Life takes a quick look at the new MSI K8N Diamond Plus motherboard, which is based on the nForce 4 16x SLi chipset. If you think you have seen a great looking motherboard before, then check out this one and prepare to be impressed.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:32 AM by Rob Williams
FIFA Street 2 has scored its second week at the top of the chart, but not without a fight. The multi-format cash cow had strong competition from Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter which debuted at No.2 and became the fastest selling Xbox 360 title. In total seven EA titles feature in the top ten, one of which is Fight Night Round 3, entering the chart at No.3. Interestingly the Xbox 360 version managed to outsell the PS2 version by 2:1.
If you watched the commercials for Ghost Recon, it’s no surprise that it’s selling so fast. Check out the full list of the top sellers at Prodigious Gaming.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:30 AM by Rob Williams
The GameCube may be slowing down because of the pending Revolution that Nintendo has in store for the industry, but that doesn’t mean you should be shelving the console and claiming your fanboy sorrow just yet. It’s time for a reality check, boys and girls. There are a ton of amazing games for the Cube, and complain as we may, Nintendo fans have it pretty good. For that reason, your best friends here at IGN GameCube have put together a little feature to spark that always-burning Nintendo fire. Indeed, a rallying of the troops is in order.
I agree with most on the list, especially Time Splitters. If you are interested in seeing which GC games you should own, check out the full list at IGN.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:24 AM by Rob Williams
One new feature both NVIDIA and ATI are touting in their latest high-end GPUs is the ability to game at extremely high resolutions with good frame rates. NVIDIA likes to call it “extreme high definition”. 1080p, the holy grail of high definition, represents a 1920×1080 screen resolution. That’s over two million pixels (2.1 megapixels to be precise) or twice the resolution of 720p (1280×720) displays.
Now *thats* a gaming resolution! Check out the benchmarks with a variety of cards and games at Firing Squad.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:19 AM by Rob Williams
A GROUP of gamers is forming itself into a lobby group with the financial backing of the games publishers. The Video Game Voters Network, which is designed for players is being backed by the Entertainment Software Association. According to the body’s new site, the first thing the group is going to fight is the “The Family Entertainment Protection Act”, which would regulate the sale of certain video games throughout the country.
This is worth checking out. If you are interested in seeing what the VGVN is all about, check out their detailed website here. Source: The Inq.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:09 AM by Rob Williams
AS JOURNALISTS, INQers can’t possible sign up to Microsoft’s Beta programme as we’d be disclosing the Beast’s trade secrets. However, there is a sneak preview which you don’t have to sign up to with your own blood. That shows that Hotmail will get a very definite Outlook ‘look and feel’, once Windows Live Mail is eventually launched. The biggest difference is an ability to preview emails without being sent off to another screen (which currently can prove very irritating.)
If you are anticipating the Live Mail, then check out the posting at The Inq.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 11:03 AM by Rob Williams
Early reports of the performance of CPUs sporting this new socket indicate that their performance is quite a bit less than what we’re used to from a similarly configured socket-939. This is surprising since DDR2 provides more bandwidth, so should in theory also be able to offer better performance. However some report a reduction in performance by as much as 50%, that’s no small margin to be honest.
I am not too sure about a performance decrease, but Hardware Analysis has some interesting points. Check it out right here.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 10:59 AM by Rob Williams
While Intel never talked about these machines that were whirring away on the stage, no better demonstration could have been found for what is wrong with the current generation of RISC and X64 processors. They take too much energy to do their work, and they take even more energy to be kept cool, and they cannot be packed as densely as server makers and their customers would like. And the Core Microarchitecture is Intel’s answer to these problems.
You can read the full look at IT Jungle.
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Posted on March 14, 2006 10:56 AM by Rob Williams
We have just landed on a brand spanking new server, so things should be a lot smoother around here. If you notice anything out of place, please let us know!
The Tech Zone is taking a look at the ‘uberest’ memory of the past year, the Corsair 3500LL PRO. These modules are selling like hotcake’s and have been for months, so check out their review to see why. On the speedy DDR2 side, 3D Gameman takes a look at PC2-6400 Platinum. It’s only a 1GB kit, but does the speed make up for the lack of bandwidth? If you are looking for an awesome Intel motherboard, then check out Hot Hardware for their review of the Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad Royal. It’s a board that doesn’t have many problems, but it supports Quad SLI and doesn’t include any drivers! Looking for hints on how to have great PR? Check out Hexus today to see how AMD likes to pimp off their Dual Cores.
Memory & Storage
- Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO Memory – The Tech Zone
- OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum Enhanced Latency XTC Dual Channel Memory – 3D Gameman
- Patriot push Secure Digital to 8GB capacity – Hexus
Motherboards & CPU’s
- AMD put the ‘phwoar’ in dual-core – Hexus
- EPoX EP-9NPA+ Ultra AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 PCIe – OC Inside
- EVGA nForce4 P4-NF51-AX – Motherboards.org
- Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Quad Royal – HotHardware
Video Cards & Monitor
- Albatron GeForce 6600 512MB – PC Stats
- Deeper with the Radeon X1900 Series – Tech-Hounds
- Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide Rev. 10.2 – Rojak Pot
- MSI NX7300GS – nV News
Etcetera & Contests
- AVerMedia UltraTV USB 300 and AVerTV Cardbus TV Tuners – Big Bruin
- Ctrl-Alt-Del Presents Digital Overload – Think Computers
- TerraTec Cinergy 2400i DT – BIOS Magazine
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Posted on March 13, 2006 10:43 AM by Rob Williams
Over the last decade, the growth of satellite service, the rise of digital cable, and the birth of HDTV have all left their mark on the television landscape. Now, a new delivery method threatens to shake things up even more powerfully. Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) has arrived, and backed by the deep pockets of the telecommunications industry, it’s poised to offer more interactivity and bring a hefty dose of competition to the business of selling TV.
This is a great look at what IPTV has in store. I’m still a little iffy on the entire thing, but if it ends up working better than the current cable system, then so be it. Check out the very detailed article at Ars Technica.
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Posted on March 13, 2006 10:38 AM by Rob Williams
Some people like the GIMP, the open source community’s answer to Adobe Photoshop, but a recent survey by Novell showed that Photoshop is one of the top three applications Linux users want ported to their platform, which indicates the GIMP may not be meeting the needs of Linux users. Designers’ efforts to improve the GIMP have failed in the past. Maybe now is the time for a more radical approach.
Some great points are made here, and I agree with most of them. The primary reason I prefer Photoshop over the GIMP is definitely the interface. Open source is usually preferred over closed source, but I’m thinking that Photoshop may be an exception. Check out the full posting at NewsForge.
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Posted on March 13, 2006 10:25 AM by Rob Williams
Karl discovered that the Ubuntu 5.10 installer failed to clean
passwords in the installer log files. Since these files were
world-readable, any local user could see the password of the first
user account, which has full sudo privileges by default.
You can read the security bulletin here and view a related forum post here. This is quite a huge bug, but at least it was caught sooner than later.
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