Tech News

XTrac InstaGlide mouse anti-friction wipe review @ A1 Electronics

Posted on April 28, 2005 8:45 AM by Rob Williams

“As you will have seen in our earlier review of the super XTrac Hybrid mouse mat review which really works very well indeed especially in our office as we tend to get a bit messy here we wondered how we could test this new InstaGlide from XTrac. We were as you are perhaps a little doubting.”

This is different, but a good idea! Read all about it at A1 Electronics.

Athlon 64 chipset comparison

Posted on April 28, 2005 8:42 AM by Rob Williams

“WHILE SOME MAY say that AMD arrived late to the PCI Express party, one could argue that Intel showed up a little early. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. Compelling PCI-E graphics cards didn’t make an appearance until well after Intel’s 900-series chipset launch, but they materialized some time before PCI Express-equipped Athlon 64 motherboards were available on the open market. NVIDIA’s nForce4 platform was the first PCI Express chipset to be widely available for the Athlon 64, but VIA’s K8T890 and ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200 weren’t far behind. SiS recently joined the fray with the SiS756, and even ULi managed to work its way into the mix with its M1573 south bridge companion for ATI’s Radeon Xpress 200 north bridge.”

Check out the full review at Tech Report.

Raidmax Virgo 811W Case @ A True Review

Posted on April 28, 2005 8:40 AM by Rob Williams

“Building a computer is a fun process that is riddled with choices – if you have sufficient funds. For someone on a budget, the choices are substantially less. After picking out a suitable motherboard, CPU, memory, and hard drive, little is left for the other important components such as the case and power supply. It is with these budget consumers in mind that Raidmax introduces the Virgo 811W computer case, which is what this review takes a look at.”

Check out the full review over at A True Review.

Auto Assault:: Beta Begins!

Posted on April 28, 2005 8:38 AM by Rob Williams

The time is finally here, Beta 1 of Auto Assault has begun. If you have been accepted, you should have received an e-mail stating so. If you haven’t been accepted yet, hopefully shortly they will invite more people when they are able. “We are pleased to announce that the first wave of Read More Comment (0)

Jessica Mulligan joins Nevrax

Posted on April 27, 2005 7:02 PM by Rob Williams

As announced the other day, executive product Jessica Mulligan left Turbine Entertainment, which are the developers of Asheron’s Call 1 & 2, as well as the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons MMO game. Well, we can now see today why she left Turbine. “Last Friday, Turbine team member Jessica Mulligan announced she was…..

Turner Enters Gaming Business with Gametap

Posted on April 27, 2005 6:17 PM by Rob Williams

“ATLANTA – April 27, 2005 – Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), a Time Warner company, today unveiled GameTap, a first-of-its-kind broadband entertainment network that offers games-on-demand plus original programming via a broadband connected PC. GameTap launches fall 2005.”

Hardly one of a kind, as Yahoo Games on Demand and a few others currently do this as well. However, they claim to have licensed over 1,000 games, which is a HUGE plus. Read the full press release on the GameTap site.

Hacker deletes own hard drive

Posted on April 27, 2005 6:05 PM by Rob Williams

“A CHAT CHANNEL spat ended when a wannabe hacker was duped into deleting his own hard drive.

The 26 year-old German claimed he was the baddest hacker in town and threatened to attack a moderator on #stopHipHop’s RC Channel because he thought he’d been thrown out.”

The hacker was stupid enough to delete his own hard-drive. Of course, this is not surprising. If you have ever checked out the source code to some hacker programs, it’s immaculate. But then when you see the coder try to type, it’s rediculous. Funny nonetheless, so read about it at Inquirer.

Xbox 360 to be backwards compatible

Posted on April 27, 2005 6:02 PM by Rob Williams

“A QUESTIONNAIRE being taken online by Xbox Live users appears to give the final confirmation that Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible – at least, if you buy it with the optional hard drive.

The questionnaire deals with Xbox Live and says subscribers through the original Xbox will be able to play against gamers on Xbox 2 — as long as they are playing a current generation Xbox game.”

This is fantastic news, and only makes sense. When the Playstation2 came out, it played PS1 games, and that saved a lot of space around your television. Read all about it at Inquirer.

Thermalright XP-90 versus XP-90C @ NGOHQ

Posted on April 27, 2005 5:50 PM by Rob Williams

“Now that I have moved into the Athlon A64 world I figured I should have a look at a couple Thermalright heat sinks and do a direct comparison. I am going to look at the XP 90 Aluminum/Copper Retail package that includes a 92mm fan, and the all copper big brother the XP 90C.”

Check out the full comparison look at NGOHQ.

Logitech Harmony 676 Advanced Universal Remote Review

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:31 AM by Rob Williams

“Do you have a zillion remotes you need to play with to get your home theatre playing? Want to eliminate them down to just one? Then read on cuz we’ve just reviewed something that we know you’ll like. “

In-depth review on a GREAT looking remote control. Check it out at FutureLooks.

Logisys Home Theater Acrylic Case @ Phoronix

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:29 AM by Rob Williams

“Most of the cases that have been reviewed here at Phoronix have been gaming cases and almost all of them have been tower cases. Desktop cases are now few and far between, but today we have a desktop case from Logisys, which is designed for Home Theater PCs, the Home Theater Acrylic Case (CS688CL).”

Check out the full review over at Phoronix.

Sony working on a new MMO

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:24 AM by Rob Williams

“Rather than sticking with the swords and sorcery that have served it so faithfully for the past six years, though, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is focusing on more modern weapons this time around.

While the company won’t make any formal announcements about its next massively multiplayer game for quite some time, president John Smedley told me recently that a new action title is in the works. And if things go according to plan, it will make its debut at E3 in 2006.”

Their first online action RPG, Planetside didn’t do to well with sales and subscriptions, so I am a bit skeptical with hearing this. Although, they definitely have the manpower and understanding to make another great online game, so we will have to wait and see. Check it out at CNN Money.

S3 GammaChrome S18 Pro Video Card Review @ Motherboards.org

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:19 AM by Rob Williams

“I have reviewed many a video card in the last few years from several manufacturers. It has struck me as to how many video card companies have fundamentally changed or left the market since NVIDIA was founded in 1993. Some companies like Matrox have completely exited the high-end graphics market, simply refreshing their last graphics core to meet niche markets. Other companies like 3dfx simply do not exist in any form today. S3 was one of the oldest graphics card companies dating back to the late 1980s at least. The S3 Virge was the first video card to support 3D in hardware. It actually was a decelerator, as it was faster in software mode than in hardware mode. In 2000 the S3 graphics division was bought by VIA Corporation after the near disastrous release of the S3 Savage 2000 chipset in 1999 and the bankruptcy and divesture of most of S3’s assets in early 2000.”

Once again, this card get’s a poor review, due to lack of good drivers. It would be nice to see some great contenders in the GPU market though, to spice things up a little. Read the full review at Motherboards.org.

Microsoft discloses some IE 7 plans

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:18 AM by Rob Williams

“In a blog entry posted Friday, a member of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer development team said the company plans to support key elements of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendations Portable Network Graphics (PNG), an image format, and Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), a Web page styling standard.”

Finally! This will make things easier trying to cater to IE and other browsers when developing a site. Check it all out here.

Auto Assault: News for April 27

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:12 AM by Rob Williams

Greetings from the Central Wastelands! We are very excited this week as we have introduced the first set of beta testers to Auto Assault and will continue to do so in the coming weeks and months. It’s not too late to sign-up! Visit here to register. Our website at www.autoassault.com has undergone Read More Comment (0)

SWG: Rage Of The Wookiees Interview

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:07 AM by Rob Williams

“Computer Games – First, was LucasArts and Sony Online pleased with how the last expansion pack, Jump to Lightspeed, did with fans and game critics? Julio Torres – We were very happy with Jump to Lightspeed! We felt that it was a successful marriage of the turn-based combat on the ground and Read More Comment (0)

Rexus SPX500 500W ATX PSU @ BigBruin

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:04 AM by Rob Williams

“Every computer requires power. Any power supply will provide your computer power, but whether or not that power is stable, clean, and reliable is what every user should be concerned with. Census PC has supplied me with a new power supply by Rexus, the Rexus SPX500 500W ATX PSU. The power supply says it is “Super Cool & Ultra Quiet”. Whether or not it lives up to that claim will be one of the things we check out in this review.”

I believe this is the first PSU I have seen with three standard power sockets on the back. That’s interesting. Check out the full review at BigBruin.

‘Highly critical’ flaw reported for Netscape software

Posted on April 27, 2005 9:02 AM by Rob Williams

“The vulnerability is “highly critical,” according to an advisory released by the Danish company late Tuesday. Version 6.2.3 and 7.2 of Netscape are affected and other versions may also be susceptible, the company said.”

Secunia actually recommends using another product to avoid comprimise, at least until a working patch is available. Read about it at News.com.

Google Puts RSS Advertising to the Test

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:58 AM by Rob Williams

“Google ads began appearing late Monday within about 60 RSS feeds published by the LonghornBlogs.com Weblog, publisher Robert McLaws said. Those feeds appear to be the first implementation of a bigger pilot test that Google plans to conduct with select AdSense publisher partners.”

Click to read more over at Yahoo News. Yes, that’s ironic.

eBay hacker off to jail

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:42 AM by Rob Williams

“A former Los Alamos National Laboratory computer specialist was sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday for hacking into and damaging the computers of several hi-tech companies, including online auction giant eBay Inc.”

Hacking get’s you no where! Except in jail, apparently. Check it out at News24.

Serious Sam 2: First Screenshots Posted

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:35 AM by Rob Williams

If you are a Serious Sam fan, you would know that the sequal was just announced the other day. Well, never to let us go too long without screenshots, Shacknews has posted some this morning.

Can Longhorn improve laptops?

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:31 AM by Rob Williams

“To address the power issue, Microsoft is pushing laptop makers to add features such as flash memory-equipped drives, reducing the number of times a computer must spin a power-hungry hard drive.

Other planned changes include the addition of a “mobility center” that will serve as a single control panel for all manner of laptop-related settings. The concept is similar to the Security Center Microsoft added to Windows XP with Service Pack 2. Microsoft showed off its ideas for the mobility center last year, but Mitchell said the idea has advanced much farther.”

I think the main thing to realize is, that you will need a 64Bit laptop to even use Longhorn, unless they release a special version. Read about it here.

Microsoft pushes Windows into next 64-Bit era

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:29 AM by Rob Williams

“The main advantages of 64-bit OS systems are twofold. First, by processing larger packages of data, 64-bit environments are better suited to processor-intensive tasks such as handling 3D graphics and gaming. Second, a 64-bit system can support a wider address range – increasing addressable memory from 4GB to 16TB, which benefits data-heavy applications such as enterprise databases and business analysis programs.”

This site seems buggy to me in Firefox, but you can check it out here.

Yahoo debuts personalized search

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:26 AM by Rob Williams

“The goal of the personalized tool is to let Yahoo users archive their search activity and results, and then share that information with other people if they choose to, the company said. The search capability will also find its way into Yahoo’s browser toolbar.”

This sounds crazy familiar to what Google released last week. Read all about it here.

Rhapsody in Blue

Posted on April 27, 2005 8:18 AM by Rob Williams

“When alternative rock group Good Charlotte took to the stage last night at Radio City Music Hall for a free concert to cap off an announcement by RealNetworks (Nasdaq: RNWK) that was originally hyped as a “revolution in digital music,” I’m wondering how shareholders in the audience felt as the band broke into its 2002 hit “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

So, they didn’t have anything truly unique to offer, but who knows what’s they may have in store? Check out the full read at The Motley Fool.

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