Barthos Computers Blog

Taipei (Taiwan) - AMD has pulled a rabbit out of its hat to increase the performance of its existing Phenom triple-core (8000-series) and quad-core (9000-series) processors. Six “hidden pins” on the processors and chipsets are the secret, which, our sources told us, will enable simple overclocking through the southbridge ? and accelerate the current processors on demand.

The name of the game is called “unlocking the multiplier", which will be played with the SB700 and SB750 southbridge chips. If you are running an upcoming 2.8 GHz Black Edition CPU, a motherboard with the old SB600 model (RD690) will keep the processor cores operating at 2.8 GHz. However, if you have a motherboard with the SB700 chipset, you will receive a free upgrade to 3.0 GHz. And if you get a motherboard with a SB750 chip, your processor will run at 3.2 GHz, which matches the clock speed of the Athlon X2 6400+ - the highest clocked processor AMD ever offerred.

We have seen motherboards with 780G, 790FX and 790GX chipsets in ATX and mATX form factors, which all support this feature. Now it is up to AMD to execute and deliver a compelling user processor.

The actual overclocking is done either through the BIOS, a utility, or simply by pressing a physical button on certain motherboards. The release date of this technology is unknown, but we know that it will be available in time for the 790GX launch.

There you have it: An overclocking feature for AMD CPUs. It just does not get any more better than this. Now we just need to know how this overclocking feature will compare to Intel’s processors, how power consumption and heat dissipation will be affected and what that all means for AMD’s balanced platform marketing pitch.

TGDaily

TDK is expanding its family of solid state disk (SSD) drives with a microSATA version that will be available with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB of capacity. Don’t expect a lot of performance or a low price, but these drives promise enough reliability for 10 years of read/write cycles and are small enough to fit into compact handheld devices such as MP3 players and MIDs.

The SSD HS1 series is TDK’s first product that comes out of a joint-venture with PQI, one of the first companies that have presented consumer-targeted solid state disk drives about three years ago. What makes this new series special is its size and the fact that it is based on the 1.8? microSATA specification, which defines the currently smallest SSD devices with a SATA interface.

The first company to announce a microSATA SSD was PNY, which said last year that it would be offering such drives with capacities of 32 GB and 64 GB by the third quarter of last year. We don?t know whether those drives actually became available, but as of today we are not aware of any U.S. retailer carrying these drives.

TDK?s drives use a SATA Gen1 1.5 Gb/s interface, which limits the performance of the drive at a lower level by default. According to the manufacturer, the HS1 series achieves a 100 MB/s burst read and 50 MB/s burst write performance. Samsung recently announced SSDs that offer more than twice the speed.

However, TDK claims that its drives are extremely reliable, integrating a 128-bit AES internal security system encrypts data for storage in the flash memory without reducing data transmission speeds within the SSD controller as well as the capability to detect errors up to seven bits in 512 bytes. According to TDK the drive supports 10 years of rewrites.

At least sample prices of these drives remain in a stratospheric range. TDK is selling the 64 GB version for $2000, the 32 GB model for $1500 and the 16 GB unit for $900.

Source TGDaily.com

The company announced the new drive earlier today at the Samsung Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei and told attendees that it will be charging ahead with its SSD drive technology and put this new 256 GB model in 1.8″ and 2.5″ version into mass production by year-end.

The drive is based on the company’s multi-level cell (MLC) and will be equipped with a SATA II interface. Samsung promises that the 2.5″ version, which is just 9.5 mm thick, will hit data read rates of 200 MB/s and sequential read rates of 160 MB/s. WD?s 300 GB Velociraptor 3.5″ hard drive, considered the fastest traditional hard drive on the market today, was benchmarked by major hardware review sites and achieved data read and write rates of just over 100 MB/s.

Read more …

Redmond (WA) - Microsoft announced that it will extend the file format range supported by its Office 2007 package. ODF 1.1, PDF 1.5 and XPS will be added with the next service pack, but the integration of Microsoft?s own and recently standardized Office Open XML will be delayed until Office 14.

Microsoft appears to be following through with its “interoperability principles” and today announced that it will be adding support for XML Paper Specification format (XPS), Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.5, PDF/A and Open Document Format (ODF) v1.1 to Office 2007. The added functionality is scheduled to arrive in 2009 as part of the Office 2007 SP2 update.

Surprisingly, Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) format, recently approved as Standard ISO/IEC 29500, will not make it into the SP2. While the format is already “substantially” supported in Office 2007, there are differences over IS29500 - and these changes will not be implemented until the release of Office 2014. This completely new Office package is expected to be released in tandem with Windows 7, which is rumored to be released in late 2009 or early 2010.

ODF support has been available to Office users via a format bridge, which Microsoft provided through its Open XML-ODF translator project on SourceForge.net. The company said it will continue this effort to provide ODF support for users of earlier versions of Office XP and Office 2003.

As part of its decision to integrate ODF support into its software, Microsoft will join the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) technical committee, which is working on the next version of ODF. The company said it will also take part in the ISO/IEC working group being formed to work on ODF maintenance.

Source: tgdaily.com

Adobe’s Flash Player 10 is nearing its official release date as a public beta is now available for download from Adobe Labs for Windows, OS X and Linux. Some of the noted additions to Flash Player 10 is the support for 3D rendering effects, Adobe Pixel Blender Filters, new drawing APIs and a new text rendering engine.

Read more here …

Montreal (Canada) - This should come as no surprise to TG Daily readers: Ubisoft has released the v1.02 patch for its Assassin’s Creed tile. The patch removes support for DirectX 10.1.

In an article posted by our colleagues at Tech Report, Ubisoft tech lead Charles states that support for DirectX 10.1 was removed to increase the performance of the game. According to Beauchemin, there is no impact on visual quality. This somewhat contradicts previous statements, but, of course, you can draw your own conclusion.

Here is a list of fixes that is included with the 1.02 patch:

- Fixed a rare crash while riding the horse in Kingdom
- Fixed a corruption of Altair’s robe on certain graphics hardware
- Cursor is now centered when accessing the Map
- Fixed a few problems with Alt-Tab
- Fixed a graphical bug in the final fight
- Fixed a few graphical problems with dead bodies
- Fixed pixellation with post-FX enabled on certain graphics hardware
- Fixed a small bug in the DNA Menu that would cause the image to disappear if the arrow was clicked rapidly
- Fixed some graphical corruption in Present Room with low Level Of Detail
- Character input is now cancelled if the controller is unplugged while moving
- Added support for x64 versions of Windows
- Fixed broken post-effects on DirectX 10.1 enabled cards

The removal of support for the DirectX 10.1 API is described as “fixed broken post-effects on DirectX 10.1 enabled cards.” The patch also comes with a carrot that I personally have to take, as I am not running 32-bit Vista, only 64-bit versions.

Following our most recent article on this topic, some readers have voiced concerns of a possible bias against Nvidia, which actually prompts me to reveal that I am running both platforms and this game

on Core 2 machines with Nvidia hardware under 64-bit Vista. I do have to note that I have mixed feelings about the fact that I paid 50 Euro (about $75) for a game that is now removing a feature highlighted on the box and there is no specific date given when this feature will return.

In addition to its GPU production, AMD is planning to also outsource CPU production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in the second half of this year, according to industry sources. Although Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD did not mention any plans to outsource production during the company’s recent investors conference, the industry sources revealed that TSMC has already started testing procedures for a SOI manufacturing process in order to land manufacturing orders for AMD’s Fusion CPUs.

More here at Digitimes …

Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued: May 8, 2008
Microsoft Security Bulletins to be issued: May 13, 2008

This is an advance notification of security bulletins that Microsoft is intending to release on May 13, 2008.

This bulletin advance notification will be replaced with the May bulletin summary on May 13, 2008. For more information about the bulletin advance notification service, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification.

To receive automatic notifications whenever Microsoft Security Bulletins are issued, subscribe to Microsoft Technical Security Notifications.

Microsoft will host a webcast to address customer questions on these bulletins on May 14, 2008, at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada). Register now for the May Security Bulletin Webcast. After this date, this webcast is available on-demand. For more information, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Summaries and Webcasts.

Microsoft also provides information to help customers prioritize monthly security updates with any non-security, high-priority updates that are being released on the same day as the monthly security updates. Please see the section, Other Information.

Read more …

Taipei (Taiwan) - The vision of upgradeable graphic cards goes back to the late 1990s, when Micron Technology was experimenting with removable sockets. In 2006, both MSI and Gigabyte showcased upgradeable graphic cards, but their concepts, which were based on GeForce Go MXM boards, never took off. Earlier this year, Asus introduced a single board with three MXM slots for ATI Mobility Radeon 3850 or 3870 cards (upgradeable with future parts), and has now unveiled its single-MXM product.

Read More …

Windows PowerShell V2 CTP2 introduces several significant features to Windows PowerShell 1.0 and Windows PowerShell V2 CTP that extends its use, improves its usability, and allows you to control and manage the Windows environment more easily and comprehensively.

Download …

The data speaks for itself. At the top of the list is Windows Vista 64-bit, while at the bottom is XP SP2. In the middle we have XP RTM, XP SP3, Vista 32-bit RTM and Vista 32-bit SP1 fighting it out. However, benchmarks scores such as Passmark don’t translate well into real world performance indicators. Later on today I’ll publish my gaming benchmark results which will pick up on a post I made in February. Stay tuned!

Read more …

Cambridge (MA) - Time to start the finger-pointing again. A class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has begun to track the carbon footprint of different lifestyle in different nations. And the picture painted for the U.S. isn’t pretty: Even the most power conscious people in this country use more than twice the energy of the average person around the world. If you are looking for people with the worst carbon footprint, look among the super-rich such as Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, MIT says.

It is common knowledge that energy use in the U.S. has been at obscene levels for decades and that nations around the world aren’t happy with the fact that less than 5% of the world’s population is consuming almost one quarter of the energy available worldwide. A new study published by the MIT sheds additional light on this scenario and claims that no matter who you are, you are estimated to contribute at least twice and as much as five times as much greenhouse gas to the atmosphere as those living in the rest of the world.

Read more here

An instant portable note-taker, superslick (and easy) Flash Web site creation, and a versatile drop box for all things digital–check out these and other nifty Web-based apps that we saw at the Web 2.0 conference.

The Web 2.0 Expo at San Francisco’s Moscone Center West, which wraps up today, doesn’t take up a huge amount of space: Startups predominate, and most don’t have money for big flashy booths. But there’s more cool new technology per square foot here than at many big trade shows.

The quality and usefulness of the Web-based services presented here vary widely, and many will never see a real commercial launch. But if you have the patience and curiosity to try some intriguing free beta software, consider the ones described below. They are available now or will be available shortly.

Read more at pcworld.com

New York (NY) - Rockstar’s latest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series does not come out until next week, but some gamers are getting their GTA IV fill now because of a pirated version that was posted online.

The European PAL version of the Xbox 360 game has reportedly been ripped and posted to an online torrent site, which could then be burned to a disc and played on the Microsoft console.

Gaming site Kotaku reports that at around 7:50 AM EDT yesterday, the file made its way around multiple torrent websites. At 6.32 GB it appears to be the entire game.

The NTSC version of the game, which is the format used in North America, is expected to be ripped within the next day or so.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the Playstation 2 was also leaked a week early. The violent franchise is console gaming gold, and as such it has a very loyal fan base.

Electonic Arts tried to acquire Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two ahead of the GTA IV launch, but Take-Two vehemently refused to accept the offer. EA’s proposition remains on the table, though.

Grand Theft Auto IV will be released on April 29 for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Many stores including Gamestop and Best Buy will be holding special midnight openings for the anticipated title.

Source tgdaily.com

Redmond (WA) - The third service pack for Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system has reached the critical “release to manufacturing” phase, allowing computer makers and high-profile buyers/consumers to access the final version of what could be the last major XP update.

“Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers,” said said Windows release manager Chris Keroack on Microsoft’s official Technet forums.

“We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center,” he added.

XP is the longest-running operating system for any computer platform, and with an unanticipated resistance toward Windows Vista, it is experiencing a longer shelf life than Microsoft had planned. However, a fourth XP service pack is not currently expected.

According to the Windows XP SP3 White Paper, SP3 includes “all previously released Windows XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes, and select out-of-band releases. For example, the service pack includes functionality previously released as updates, such as Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0 and the Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0 (MSXML6).”

Microsoft is reportedly not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows with this service pack, and it does not include Internet Explorer 7. The one notable exception is an upgrade to Network Access Protection (NAP), which helps organizations that use XP take advantage of some new features in the Windows Server 2008 operating system.

TGDaily.com

April 18, 2008 (Computerworld) PayPal, eBay Inc.’s payment service and the frequent target of fraudsters, plans to block browsers that don’t include anti-phishing features.

Under PayPal’s plan, Apple Inc.’s Safari would be banned completely, while only older versions of its rivals – Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Corp.’s Firefox – would be barred.

“This is a good move, if [PayPal] can get away with it,” said Avivah Litan, an analyst with Gartner Inc.

PayPal spelled out the idea in a paper (download PDF) released at last week’s RSA Conference. “It’s critical to not only warn users about unsafe browsers, but also to disallow older and insecure browsers,” said Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, in the paper. “Letting users view the PayPal site on one of these browsers is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seatbelts.”

The two features that Barrett said browsers must have to be considered safe by PayPal were an ability to block known or suspected phishing site, and support for Extended Validation (EV) certificates. EVs, which are given to companies only after more stringent background checks than the commonplace SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates, are supposed to reassure users that the online site is legitimate. Browsers that support EVs typically shade the address bar green as a signal that the site is safe.

But while the current or soon-to-be-released versions of IE and Firefox support both of PayPal’s must-have features, Safari includes neither.

PayPal’s mentioned that before: in February, Barrett said users should steer clear of Apple’s browser because it wasn’t up to snuff. “Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do to protect their customers,” Barrett said then. “Safari has got nothing in terms of security support, only SSL, that’s it.”

Under PayPal’s plan, users running browsers lacking an anti-phishing blocking tool and support for EVs would first be only warned. Later, PayPal would block such browsers from accessing its site.

“PayPal’s having to take dramatic measures,” said Litan as she ticked off recent moves by the payment company and its parent, eBay, to limit fraud. “They’re desperate to do something, because the [level of fraud] has even hurt their revenue picture.”

Litan said that PayPal’s decision was smart, but smacked of too little, too late. “They’re really anxious to bring more shoppers to eBay, but consumers are staying away because of the fraud,” she said. “They’re right in trying to ensure the safe use of PayPal on the seller and the buyer side, but this is something they should have done a year ago.”

According to Barrett’s plan, older browsers such as IE3 and IE4 would be among those blocked. Conceivably, the no-longer-supported Firefox 1.x would also be kept off the site. In the paper, however, Barrett didn’t call out either Firefox or Safari by name.

“I don’t think it’s really an issue,” said Litan, referring to Safari. “How hard would it be to add those features? And I would think that most Mac users also have Firefox anyway.”

PayPal did not specify a timetable when it would switch on its browser blocking, and did not reply to request for one on Friday. Apple also did not respond to an e-mail asking for comment.

Computerworld.com

Apple on Wednesday released an update to its Safari Web browser for Mac OS X and Windows. The new release is available for download from Apple’s Web site and through the Software Update system preference.

Apple indicates in its release note that Safari 3.1.1 “includes improvements to stability, compatibility and security,” though the company did not offer any further clarification in that note. Apple recommends the update for all Safari users.

In a separately published tech note, Apple offered more details about what Safari 3.1.1 fixes in terms of security. Issues that affect the Mac version of Safari include a change to WebKit to improve handling of URLs to prevent cross-site scripting, and additional validation of JavaScript regular expressions to help prevent a heap buffer overflow that can cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or execute code.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright ? 2007 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

Mountain House (CA) - One of our readers informed us about very expensive AMD triple-core processors being sold in the U.S. retail market. The price may be one surprise but what is even more astonishing is the fact that these triple-cores are, well, available in retail.

AMD’s triple-core processors have a very simple mission - to protect the higher-end Phenom quad-core processors from pricing threats originating from Intel’s dual-core processors. Leaving aside the fact that AMD recently decided to attach near-mainstream price-levels to its fastest quad-core CPUs, we were told today that the triple cores in fact fetch more money than the quad-cores in the retail segment.

Here are the prices from Amazon, AMD’s tray-prices (1000-units) as well as the lowest retail prices.

Triple-Core
Phenom 8450, 2.1 GHz : Amazon: $169.99; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $164.35
Phenom 8650, 2.3 GHz : Amazon: $273.26; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $186.40
Phenom 8750, 2.4 GHz : Amazon: $305.60; AMD tray-price: N/A; lowest retail price*: $218.00

Quad-Core, B3 revision
Phenom 9550, 2.2 GHz : Amazon: $195.99; AMD tray-price: $209; lowest retail price*: $165.00
Phenom 9750, 2.4 GHz : Amazon: $215.99; AMD tray-price: $215; lowest retail price*: $215.00
Phenom 9850 BE, 2.5 GHz : Amazon: $235.99; AMD tray-price: $235; lowest retail price*: $235.00

*) at the time of this writing, according to Pricegrabber.com and Google Product Search

Two things surprised us about this scenario: First, we were not aware that the triple cores are being sold in retail. Three weeks ago, AMD mentioned that these processors would be made available to OEMs and system builders only, at least initially. We are not sure whether AMD is actually cranking out an enormous number of these processors or system builders don?t care about these CPUs, giving AMD enough room to send these chips into retail.

Second, the triple-cores are quite expensive, at least if we compare the price against AMD quad-core CPUs. On Amazon, the triple-core 8650 sells for 16% more than the flagship 9850 BE. Of course, these prices are set by retailers and current market conditions.

AMD has not listed tray prices for its triple-core CPUs yet.

Source: TGDaily.com

Hackers are trying to exploit a critical Windows vulnerability just patched on Tuesday, security researchers say – and the only version of Windows not at risk is the unfinished Windows XP SP3.

Fortunately, attack incompetence means that these initial sorties have been unsuccessful, Symantec Corp. said in a brief warning to customers of its DeepSight threat service. “The DeepSight honeynet has observed in-the-wild exploit attempts targeting a GDI vulnerability patched by Microsoft on April 8, 2008,” said Symantec in its alert.

On Tuesday, Microsoft patched two bugs, both pegged as “critical,” in Windows’ GDI, or graphics device interface, one of the core components of the operating system. According to Microsoft, every current version of Windows, including the very newest, Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Server 2008, is open to attack.

The vulnerabilities can be triggered by malformed WMF (Windows Metafile) or EMF (Enhanced Metafile) image files, Microsoft noted in its accompanying advisory .

Analysts on Tuesday fingered the GDI bugs as the most dangerous of the 10 disclosed and patched by Microsoft that day. They noted similarities between the two new vulnerabilities and others revealed in late 2005, which were extensively exploited by attackers for months afterward.

Amol Sarwate, manager of Qualys Inc.’s vulnerability research lab, said at the time that he expected attackers to quickly begin leveraging the bug. “Users who simply view an image online or in e-mail could be compromised,” he said.

Thursday, Symantec said it had spotted three different Web sites hosting malicious WMF/EMF image files that were targeting one of the two GDI bugs. However, those images weren’t able to exploit the flaw. “Analysis of the images has shown that although [they] appear to be malicious, they do not contain enough data in the associated image property to sufficiently trigger the vulnerability,” read Symantec’s warning. “We are still investigating the issue as to why this may be the case.”

The security company urged users to apply the GDI patches pronto if they have not done so already. “These attack attempts highlight the severity of this issue and it is only a matter of time before new images that successfully trigger the issue are observed in the wild,” Symantec concluded.

Ironically, the only version of Windows not vulnerable to attack is XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the still-not-released final update to the aged operating system. Hidden in the MS08-021 security bulletin was the sentence: “Windows XP Service Pack 3 is not affected by this vulnerability.”

Windows XP SP3’s release date remains a mystery. Although Microsoft has not budged from its “first half of 2008″ public statements, others have speculated that the service pack will wrap up later this month. One Web site, which correctly predicted release dates for Vista SP1, has pegged XP SP3’s roll-out as coming in the second half of April.

Microsoft’s GDI patches can be downloaded and installed via the Microsoft Update and Windows Update services, as well as through Windows Server Update Services.

See more at Computerworld

MIAMI–Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Friday indicated that Windows 7, the next major version of Windows, could come within the next year, far ahead of the development schedule previously indicated by the software maker.

In response to a question about Windows Vista, Gates, speaking before the Inter-American Development Bank here, said: “Sometime in the next year or so we will have a new version.” Referring to Windows 7, the code name for the next full release of Windows client software, Gates said: “I’m super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways.”

Most of Gates’ speech was devoted to topics closer to home for the crowd, such as how Latin America can be more competitive.

Windows 7 and its intended feature list have been the topic of speculation since Microsoft discussed some details of the new software last summer.

At that time, Microsoft said little except that Windows 7 will ship in consumer and business versions, and in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The company also confirmed that it is considering a subscription model to complement Windows, but did not provide specifics or a time frame.

Less than 24 hours ago, a Microsoft representative told CNET News.com that the company expects to ship the successor to Vista roughly three years from Vista’s January 2007 debut.

Unclear is whether Gates was referring to early testing of Windows 7 coming within the year, as opposed to a widespread release or debut. An early test geared toward developers would be conceivable. The company has repeatedly said that it will accelerate the development of new Windows versions, largely as a response to Vista’s roughly five year gestation period.

Microsoft on Thursday declined to extend a lifeline for Windows XP, saying that only a limited number of specialized machines will be sold with the operating system after June.

The company said it will continue to allow Windows XP Home edition to be sold for a class of computers it calls “ultra-low-cost PCs.”

Vista, the current version of Windows, has sold well, according to Microsoft. But the operating system’s debut was marred by repeated delays and shifting feature lists. Last week, Microsoft stepped up efforts to drive adoption of Vista by businesses.

CNET News.com’s Mike Ricciuti contributed to this report.

Info

Windows Mobile 6.1 also comes with improved Windows Live for Windows Mobile integration. Matter a fact, as you saw in the video above - there is a specific tile for Windows Live. This tile displays your Messenger display picture and personal status message. Your Hotmail isn’t the only thing that gets synced - your Windows Live Contacts are synced to your phone as well. I rely on the close Windows Live integration extensively. I’m going to talk about Windows Live on Windows Mobile and syncing my Windows Live stuff to my Windows Mobile phone more in-depth in a later post.

Overall, I find Windows Mobile 6.1 an exciting release. It has certainly improved my mobile device experience. Windows Mobile 6.1 devices should work just fine with Windows Mobile Device Center. I use Windows Mobile Device Center quite a bit to get photos of my Windows Mobile phone into Windows Live Photo Gallery or to throw a song or two on to my phone. You can download Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 for Windows Vista here.

Read more …

Graphics card makers including Micro-Star International (MSI), Albatron, Gigabyte Technology and Leadtek Research have launched graphics card based on Nvidia’s GeForce 9800 GTX GPU. The cards support Nvidia’s 3-way SLI technology, boasting up to 2.8 times more power than any single GPU system, and HybridPower technology to reduce power usage by switching from the GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card to a motherboard IGP when running less graphically-intensive applications.

More at Digitimes …

Google is today clearing one of the last hurdles it faces before truly competing with Microsoft Office. Starting this afternoon, some users of Google Docs word processing app will be able to edit their documents when they don’t have an Internet connection.

Not surprisingly, the functionality will be built on Google Gears, the offline synching technology that now powers unconnected use of Google Reader and task manager RememberTheMilk.com.

I haven’t been able to test the new functionality yet (I should get hooked up in a few hours), but if it works well this is a huge development. Google’s word processor already has almost everything I need to ditch Microsoft Word entirely. Having the ability to work offline will likely make a lot of people – and businesses – wonder why they should pay as much as $680 for Office. (Google says it’s working on adding offline capability for spreadsheets and presentations created through Google Docs.)

Obviously, there are also lots of companies and individuals that depend on some set of sophisticated tools that Office has and Google Docs doesn’t. But the very online nature of Google Docs – the ability to get to your files anywhere, share them with anyone and see the changes in real time – offers a lot that Office still can’t match.

A lot will depend on how well the implementation of Google Gears works. My previous experience with RememberTheMilk was that you had to go to RTM while you had a connection, then keep that window open to use it offline. A bit clunky. But the Google email promises:
“You’ll be able to go to docs.google.com without a connection and work on Google Docs; when you reconnect, your changes will automatically sync up.”

Read more …

This year’s PWN to 0WN contest will begin on March 26th, the first day of the CanSecWest conference. The contest includes three laptops, running the most up to date and patched installations of MacOS X Leopard, Windows Vista, and Ubuntu Linux:

VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10
Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1
MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2
The main purpose of this contest is to responsibly unearth new vulnerabilities within these systems so that the affected vendor(s) can address them.

To claim a laptop as your own, you will need to read the contents of a designated file on each system through exploitation of a 0day code execution vulnerability (ie: no directory traversal style bugs). Each laptop will only have a direct wired connection (exposed through a crossover cable) and only one person may attack each system at a time so that each team’s exploit remains private. Slots will be available for sign up in 30 minute increments at the beginning of each day. Slots are assigned in random order. Once everyone signs up each morning, spots will be assigned randomly. Any WiFi or Bluetooth exploits will be verified offsite in a secure lab to prevent snooping. The first winner of each laptop gets to keep it (one laptop per vulnerability entry) as well as a cash prize sponsored by ZDI. Once a laptop is won however, no more exploits may be submitted. Therefore there are a maximum of three cash prizes, one per laptop. All winning exploits will be handed over to the affected vendors at the conference through the ZDI, with the appropriate credit given to the contestant once the vendor patches the issue. Until then, the actual vulnerability will be kept quiet from the public. This is a required condition of entry into the contest; all entrants must agree to the responsible disclosure handling of their vulnerability/exploit through the ZDI. An awards ceremony at the end of the conference will present each winner with their prizes.

Any vulnerability that the Zero Day Initiative awards a cash prize for, becomes the property of the ZDI, and therefore the winner can not discuss or disclose details of the 0day until the affected vendor has successfully patched the issue. Any discussion of the bug prior to the public disclosure of a ZDI advisory will result in forfeiting of the prize. TippingPoint is collaborating with the vendors to ensure that their response teams will be ready and waiting to receive any and all 0day that comes out of this contest. For all other vulnerabilities, we are ready to forward the information on to the appropriate vendor (Adobe, Skype, Apache, Sendmail, etc.) upon verification of the issue.

Read more …

Need of cleaning a computer monitor

Monitor is the most important and expensive part of a computer/ laptop. Proper care has to be taken for maintaining the glow and charm of your computer. If you want your computer to run efficiently for long, then you have to clean it every now and then and it should be well maintained. If you clean your computer regularly, it can save your computer from getting damaged and being dusty. It is bad practice to place the monitor or computer on the ground. It should be placed on a proper table. Be sure that when ever you clean your monitor or computer, you unplug the computer. Other than the monitor other parts of computer can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner, monitor is very delicate and as it is made of glass, it should be given separate care. Like all other parts of the computer, the monitor should also be cleaned.

Content

Make sure that your computer table is quiet clean, do not litter the place with all your food items or tea and coffee, as once if they fall on the monitor, it is completely spoiled and you will have you spend tremendous amount for buying a new monitor. Don’t press your monitor with fingers. Many people do not know how to clean the monitor of the computer. Never treat your monitor as a piece of empty box.

Even though many companies have come up with many liquid products for cleaning monitors, they are not so effective and some may perhaps ruin your monitor. Generally monitors are of two types, they are cathode ray tube (CRT) and Liquid crystal display (LCD), so depending upon the type of the monitor you can clean it. For cleaning the dust of a CRT monitor always use a cloth which is extremely soft or use an anti static cloth. Then spray a small amount of fluid liquid in the cloth and then gently rub the monitor in one direction throughout the monitor. After you’re done doing that then use a dry cloth to dry the monitor.

Cleaning a LCD monitor

The process of cleaning a LCD monitor is little different as the LCD monitor is little fragile. To start cleaning a LCD monitor take a soft cloth and first gently wipe the dust from the computer and then put cider vinegar or alcohol on the cloth and water as well upon the cloth and then rub the cloth tenderly on the LCD in the same direction for the entire LCD monitor. And finally use the other dry and soft cloth to dry the monitor.

Whether if you are cleaning a LCD monitor or CRT monitor, the first thing which you have to do is switch off your computers and unplug it. Don’t use a liquid which is very soapy. Always use a lint free cloth. If you do not have a soft or lint free cloth, then you can even clean the monitor with cotton swabs or foam swabs. All the above were few important points and tips for cleaning a monitor.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

The new product has an access time of 0.1 milliseconds, and maximum read and write speeds of 65 MB per second and 50 MB per second, respectively.
Super Talent Technology on Wednesday introduced a 256 GB solid-state drive that the company claims is thinner than any other similar capacity SSD for notebooks and other mobile devices.

The 2.5-inch drive, with the model number FSD56GC25H, is 12.5 millimeters thick, or slightly less than a half-inch. Super Talent claims the drive is 40% thinner than other similar drives.

The drive uses an industry standard SATA-I interface, making it interchangeable with conventional 2.5-inch SATA hard drives. The new product has an access time of 0.1 milliseconds, and maximum read and write speeds of 65 MB per second and 50 MB per second, respectively. Super Talent claims the drive can withstand shocks five times greater than traditional hard-disk drives.

“We designed this drive for applications that need rugged and reliable storage in a very compact form factor,” Joe James, marketing director for Super Talent, said in a statement.

The drive is designed, manufactured and tested in Super Talent’s San Jose, Calif., headquarters. Samples are available, and pricing is given on request.

Solid-state drives are faster and more rugged than hard-disk drives, but are also far more expensive. As a result, the drives are mostly used in notebooks used by the military, or by people who work outside. Manufacturers, however, have also started integrating SSDs with HDDs. So-called “hybrid drives” can store the operating system in the SSD, for example, for a faster startup time.

Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) last month said they have developed technology for a high-speed SSD that’s five times faster than current products used in consumer and professional devices ranging from handheld computers and notebooks to digital cameras and camcorders.

The NAND flash memory chips developed jointly by the two companies can reach speeds of up to 200 MB per second for reading data and 100 MB per second for writing data, the partners said.

Source: InformationWeek

Microsoft will release Windows XP Service Pack 3 during the second half of April, according to a report from a Web site that has correctly predicted recent Windows ship dates.

TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that nailed Vista SP1’s release-to-manufacturing (RTM) date last month as well as its release to Windows Update last week, said that Microsoft will wrap up work on XP’s third and final service pack next month. The site pegged RTM for Windows XP SP3 as “second half of April 2008″ for seven languages, with a follow-on RTM of the remaining supported languages “approximately 21 days” later.

By TechARP’s account, Microsoft will first finish work on the Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish versions of the service pack.

Microsoft declined comment, other than to repeat an earlier statement about the service pack’s timing. “We are targeting 1H [first half] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM, though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

The last time Microsoft made a public move with Windows XP SP3 was a little over a month ago, when it posted a second release candidate to Windows Update.

Read more …

In the end, it was not the adult film industry that decided the high-definition format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. However, this segment faces appears to be taking a lead role in the promotion of high definition as DVD sales are down dramatically and customers apparently are shifting to Blu-ray quickly. The new format opens new opportunities for large studios, but will bring massive challenges for smaller companies in the business, Digital Playground co-founder Joone told TG Daily.

Read more …

The PSP is an amazing little gadget for people from all walks of life, young or old. It’s great to be able to pull it out of your jacket to watch a movie on your morning commute to work, or grabbing it out of back pack on the bus to school.

If you do happen to have one you know exactly what I mean. However you have also found how the costs of keeping new games, new movies, and new music can quickly add up to a small fortune unless you look out the selection of PSP download websites that the internet has to offer.

How much do you think you have spent after your initial purchase on keeping your PSP fully loaded with the latest names?

I’m sure you have heard others going on and on about how they simply go online and download all of their stuff from PSP download websites. Perhaps you have gone on the hunt only to find it was more of a goose chase to find these so called sites.

Finding free PSP download websites is likely to make you feel like a five year old again running through a candy store with a few dollars in your dirty pockets. Have you had your prayers answered and actually found a great one? If not, don’t worry because you are not alone.

Searching through the various PSP download websites can start out as a simple task that you may think will take only a few minutes. But before you know it though, you realize you have been searching for hours upon hours and you still haven’t found what you were really looking for.

Maybe you innocently clicked on a download link that actually took you some other PSP download websites claiming, yet again, to have free games, movies and music. You tried to download there only to be taken to an expensive retail site. On the other hand, you may have just gotten lost by following a flashy, impressive banner that looked as if offered a better deal than the site where you were currently was.

As you see, finding PSP download websites is not always as easy as it seems. Luckily, there are a small number of websites online that not everyone knows about - and they offer literally millions of dollars worth of downloads for a very low price.

You know, the real free PSP download websites that are not just gimmicks trying to lead you elsewhere. Although, you may find it far more beneficial and much more user friendly if you opt to go with one that has a small membership fee as I suggest in my research.

Tim Godfrey founded Bizazi.com and after completing his in-depth research reveals where to find reliable PSP download websites that are cheap and virus free.

If you want to grab free PSP downloads in an instant, visit the website to find out why only three out of one hundred PSP download websites are worth your time.

The first service pack for Microsoft Windows Vista has finally gone public. Here’s how to get–or not get–it for your PC.

After considerable rumor and speculation, numerous false starts, and not a small amount of frustration on the part of consumers, Microsoft has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 into the wild.

The bundle of updates, which includes all updates released for the OS since its debut in February 2007, is now available for download via Microsoft’s Windows Update service.

The easiest way to get your hands on Vista SP1 is to sit back, relax, and let Microsoft Update grab it for you. However, if you can’t wait, you can get the standalone update in a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version.

See more …

What a sobering year it’s been for AMD. Its ray of hope, the Phenom processor with its four CPU cores, dynamic speed and power management and shared L3 cache, was not only released far too late, it also nearly became a flop despite its outstanding architecture. For one thing, AMD is still unable to ship CPUs running at more than 2.4 GHz. Also, the CPU maker had to completely halt shipments of Opteron processors based on the same core, since a bug in the translation lookaside buffer (TLB, also known as Erratum 298) for the L3 cache could cause data corruption under some circumstances. While this isn’t overly critical for home users, such an error or even the risk of it occurring are completely unacceptable in the business segment - and it proved to be nothing short of a fiasco for AMD.

See More …

With Microsoft recently going behind Yahoo’s back and straight to their investors, and Yahoo repeatedly blowing Microsoft off, it seemed unlikely that a friendly get together was in the works. And yet, it has been reported that recently executives from both companies managed to get together, signs that they may be coming to a peaceful arrangement.

Does that necessarily mean Yahoo is ready to sell? Of course not, but if it is Yahoo’s intention to get more money out of Redmond it’s better off playing nice. Still, Yahoo has been looking for alternatives. Last week, Microsoft sweetened the deal they initially offered by making it an all-cash deal instead of a cash and stock mix. What will Microsoft do if Yahoo continues to stonewall, sell to another company or decide to do nothing altogether? I hope they have a better business plan for taking on Google than buying up other companies.

Source: techspot.com

Santa Clara (CA) - AMD has been pushing its Fusion idea for quite some time. The company claims the Fusion concept was one of the main reasons why they acquired ATI in the first place. The timetable for Fusion has been set, but Intel is working on a similar CPU/GPU combination and we are hearing that Intel may have its product earlier in the market than AMD, TG Daily has learned.

AMD’s Fusion is scheduled to arrive sometime in the second half of 2009, primarily targeting notebook applications. By the way, the dual-core CPU with an integrated ATI RV7xx core is codenamed “Black Swift", while the single-core with the ATI RV7xx core is known as “White Swift". There is no information on possible tri- or quad-core versions of Fusion at this time.

If you have been wondering what Intel is up to, we have reported previously that the company has been working on a similar CPU/GPU approach. Based on the Nehalem architecture, Intel will be rolling out two version of such a processor, Havendale and Auburndale.

Both Havendale and Auburndale should come to market in first half of 2009, were were told by industry sources. Both processors will combine two CPU cores as well as an integrated graphics subsystem based on the G45 successor. We can’t call Intel’s graphics solution really GPUs, since they do not support some key features of DX9 and DX10 APIs. Since these chips are based on Nehalem, they will also support Hyperthreading (Intel’s original virtual dual-core approach that was introduced with the Pentium 4), which means that the processors will be able to handle four threads total.

What makes Intel’s approach interesting is the fact that Havendale is a desktop CPU and Auburndale is a notebook CPU. Both feature an integrated dual-channel memory controller supporting DDR3-1333 memory, but neither of them has QuickPath, Intel’s shiny new Front Side Bus: Auburndale will support QuickPath when connected to a NorthBridge chip from the Ibexpeak-m platform.

There is also a difference in processor sockets - Havendale will be placed on a new socket for Intel’s desktop platform, LGA-1160; Auburndale will use the brand-new mPGA-989 socket. The thermal design power 75 watts for the desktop part, and 45/55 watts for the mobile part. Both processors will be manufactured in 45 nm. These power numbers may not sound that impressive, but consider that the first standalone dual-core Pentium was rated at up to 130 watts without graphics, and the progress becomes obvious.

Ibexpeak and Ibexpeak-m will be known as Intel’s desktop and mobile platform for 2009, with Ibexpeak most likely being branded as ?5 series? (P5x, X5x), while Ibexpeak-M will get a Centrino name.

The key difference difference between AMD Fusion and Intel’s Nehalem + VGA approach, as it appears today, is the fact that AMD is expected to actually use a real and very capable GPU. So, if Intel wants to make anything out of their CPU+GPU project, we would hope that the company throws its current products in the toilet and starts working on a new and more capable 3D architecture and drivers. Something like this here.

Source: TG Daily

Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim.

Firefox 3.0 is dramatically faster than its predecessor and rivals, benchmark tests claim – the result of hundreds of performance improvements designed to make the open-source browser the best at running complex Web 2.0 applications, Mozilla Corp.’s chief developer said Wednesday.

“We’ve been working on performance for a long time,” said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering. “Each beta of Firefox 3.0 got better. Beta 1 was better than Firefox 2.0, Beta 2 was better than Beta 1 and so on. Some of the big architectural changes [we’ve made] had begun paying off. Now we’re at the point where we can turn the knob to get it to perform well.”

Firefox 3.0 Beta 4, which Mozilla released late Monday, has been put through its paces by users and bloggers, some of whom have published the results of head-to-head benchmark tests between Firefox, Opera, Apple Inc.’s Safari and Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer. According to Percy Cabello, who posted his results on the Mozilla Links blog, Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 is 53% faster than Opera 9.5 beta, twice as fast as Apple Inc.’s Safari and three times faster than Microsoft Corp.’s IE7 on the SunSpider benchmark, which tests JavaScript performance.

See more …

Optimize your Apple Macbook battery settings in Energy Saver preferences to increase battery life.

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Energy Saver.

Click Show Details.

Choose Battery or Battery Power from the “Settings for” pop-up menu.

Choose Longest or Better Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings pop-up menu.

These settings will put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible and reduce the computer’s microprocessor performance in order to maximize its battery life.

If you are using intensive mac applications, you may wish to modify or change the settings so the microprocessor performance is no longer reduced.

Set your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level

Press the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still comfortable to look at.

Turn off unused features and technologies.

Just as you would turn off the lights in an unoccupied room, turning off unused features and technologies can help maximize your battery life, too. Here are a few suggestions:

Eject CDs and DVDs you’re no longer using. Every so often, the optical drive spins up to read CDs or DVDs. This consumes a small amount of power.

Disconnect peripherals when you’re not using them. Connected peripherals, such as printers and digital cameras, can draw power from your battery even when you’re not using them.

If you’re not in a location where you need to use AirPort or Bluetooth, you can turn them off to save power.

To turn off AirPort:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Network.

From the Show selection, choose Network Port Configuration.

Uncheck Airport from the list.

Click Apply Now.
To turn off Bluetooth in Mac OS X 10.2 or later:

From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.

From the View menu, choose Bluetooth.

Click the Settings tab.

Click Turn Bluetooth Off.

Author: Courtland_Santos

The Windows command-line tools are used to perform various tasks related to Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008.You can use the command reference to familiarize yourself with new and enhanced command-line tools, to learn about the command shell, and to automate command-line tasks by using batch files or scripting tools.

See more …

2007 wasn’t quite a lucky year for AMD. The firm wanted its quad core Phenom processor to compete with Intel’s successful Core 2 family, which had run over AMD one and a half years ago by delivering higher performance and better energy efficiency. (This only applies to the processors, mind you; AMD has managed to stay competitive in the mainstream if you look at the entire platform.) The Phenom quad core processor, unfortunately, suffered from a nasty bug - it isn’t much of an issue in desktop environments, but hurt the reputation of the fresh brand. This was particularly disappointing given that the processor arrived half a year late, and still does not reach sufficient clock speed to challenge Intel.

While this was going on, AMD had to digest the acquisition of ATI, which has certainly bound up a lot of resources as well. All of this is unfortunate, as the processor and platform market requires competition to drive innovation. Who knows where processors would be today if Intel had not had its wall back to the wall with the Pentium 4 facing fast and efficient competition from the Athlon 64 family between 2003 and 2006…

See more …

Santa Clara (CA) - While AMD is currently planning to ramp its 45 nm production in the first half of this year, and volume launch 45 nm processors for the second half, Intel is already ramping down 65 nm quickly, popping out 45 nm processors at a rate of 100,000 per day.

It may be much more difficult for AMD to catch up with Intel than previously anticipated. Intel is plugging away at an astonishing rate, its engines appear to be working flawlessly at this time, at least from what we can see. At yesterday’s analyst meeting, chief executive Paul Otellini said that Intel has shipped more than four million 45 nm processors so far since their launch late last year.

According to the executive, 72 different 45 nm models are currently shipping and the firm’s four fabs in Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico and Israel are churning out 100,000 processors each day. By the end of the first quarter, roughly 75% of Intel?s processor output will be based on 65 nm and 25% on 45 nm. Sometime in the third quarter, Intel expects to reach the crossover and produce more 45 nm chips than 65 nm units.

It isn’t a secret that Intel is heavily investing into its production technology with the goal of keeping and extending its leadership in this area. Otellini provided some insight into the financials and just how much it cost Intel to arrive at 45 nm at the time it did. The executive estimated the development investment at about $1 billion, product development (Penryn, Nehalem, Silverthorne) at about $2 billion and manufacturing facilities at about $9 billion. Add everything up and you have $12 billion at the bottom line.

It is a massive investment, and virtually impossible to match by companies such as AMD, but Intel expects something in return, of course: Otellini said that the $12 billion 45 nm investment will yield about $80 billion in revenues over time.

The next 45 nm processor, based on a completely new micro-architecture, is on track for a H2 2008 delivery. Nehalem will arrive with 2, 4 and 8 cores, an integrated 3-channel DDR3 memory controller, Hyperthreading support (up to 16 threads per CPU) and what Otellini called a “very flexible design". Sometime in 2009, he expects that Intel will have the capability to integrate non-CPU cores into Nehalem, but general purpose cores such as graphics as well. Yes, that would be AMD’s Fusion concept in an Intel processor.

Graphics will play an increasingly important role at Intel and its platform strategy. The company has begun its production efforts and will bring its graphics technology down 45 nm until 2009. By 2010 and 32 nm, CPU and graphics chip production will be “completely synced” Otellini said. The company is also moving from a “good enough graphics” approach to the higher end, competing with Nvidia and AMD for the crown of the segment. Of course, that product that company hopes will achieve this goal will be Larrabee, a multi-purpose ?programmable Intel architecture machine? for application areas ranging from high-performance computing to discrete graphics.

According to Otellini, Larrabee will have “lots of cores", “lots of threads” and represent Intel’s first “many-core” product".

Like Nvidia?s Tesla cards and AMD’s stream processor Firestream cards, Larrabee is expected to focus on visualization applications with supercomputer-like processing capabilities in floating point operations. Other than Tesla and Firestream however, Intel promises that Larrabee will have greater memory bandwidth and will also be easier to program, as it is based on regular IA architecture. Larrabee is slate for a late 2009 or early 2010 release.

Meanwhile, Intel noted that 32 nm is also on track for a H2 2009 introduction. The technology will debut with Westmere, a 32 nm refresh of Nehalem. Sandy Bridge, a new 32 nm micro-architecture is already under development - just like its 22 nm refresh, which has not received a public name yet.

Source: TG Daily

It’s certainly been a rocky start for Microsoft’s latest OS, which has had its ups and downs since launching a little over a year ago. Despite the fact that most of these people have never actually used it, there is still an overwhelming number of detractors. Many people see Vista as sluggish and bloated.

After a year, the market share for Vista has barely reached 12% (source), with most people preferring to stick with XP. Looking at this site’s visitors’ stats, it appears to be true (about 11% of the readers of this site use Vista).

It appears that Microsoft have a lot of work cut out for them in order to convince the majority of the public that they should upgrade to Vista. Personally, I have been using it since about Day 1, and have nothing but good things to say about it. Assuming you have a decent computer (anything built in 2007 or later will be fine) and enough ram (with today’s prices, there really is no excuse to have less than 2GB installed) it is quite snappy. The extra features and gadgets are nice, and stability is rock solid. I am writing this on a PC that hasn’t been rebooted in over 6 months.

Still, there is a lot of work to be done, and this month Microsoft is releasing a huge Service Pack that contains fixes and updates that range from important performance issues to deep-down functionality tweaks. SP1 is already available to MSDN subscribers, and will be made available to the public within a few weeks. For an insane amount of details, feel free to take a look at Microsoft’s SP1 whitepaper. It will tell you everything you need to know, and more. SP1 also includes all the fixes that have been released since launch.

See more …

Online video can boost electronics retailers’ brand recognition and sales, although business and technical considerations have to be taken into account to achieve good results.

That was the message attendees at the eRetailer Summit in Miami heard loud and clear on Monday from speakers on the panel, “Video in Advertising: The Promises and Challenges.”

Although using Web video to market products and services is a relatively new practice, it can be extremely effective as long as clips are developed for an online audience and are not reheated TV spots, speakers said.

In the “Ad 1.0″ era, when the only medium for video advertising was the TV set and a few channels, the strategy was “shouting loudest and most often,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, director of emerging media at %7cAvenue A/Razorfish.

Today, consumers have a vast choice of devices, services, channels and Web sites, so marketers must make video ads engaging, clever and interactive in order to emerge from the clutter and earn consumers’ attention, Lockhorn said.

Thus, viewers of ads can be given a choice to go deeper and get more information about the product by clicking over to a longer documentary or to a Web page with complementary data, he said.

A 30-second spot should be broken up into segments that can be changed on the fly based on information about the viewer, such as their location or demographic profile, Lockhorn said.

The rules and best practices are being established now through trial and error, which causes great excitement and stress for marketers, said Mark Hillman, associate creative director at Resource Interactive. Among the emerging trends are video ads that allow viewer interaction and campaigns that call on consumers to make their own commercials, he said.

Meanwhile, Eric Elia, vice president of creative services at Internet TV services provider Brightcove, reminded attendees that there is a big technology component behind effective online advertising, whether it’s professionally produced or submitted by amateurs.

This includes managing the video, such as uploading and storing the file; publishing clips, which involves programming, rights management and delivery, and distribution via sharing, feeds or syndication; and revenue generation, which requires managing ad servers.

Finally, Rohit Bhargava, vice president of interactive marketing at public relations agency Ogilvy, said online video marketing can be used successfully to do recruiting, promotions and product education, and generate buzz.

He cited as a successful example a campaign that Ford Models has on YouTube to recruit models, in which some of the agency’s models tape videos in which they address aspects of their work.

Bhargava also mentioned LiveVault’s “Institute for Backup Trauma” as an effective and innovative example of the use of online video to educate customers about products through humor. In this case, the product is data backup gear. Typically, vendors such as LiveVault rely on white papers to gain customers, he said. “It’s a very engaging way to demonstrate the value of their products using video,” he said.

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Mountain View (CA) - Thanks to its financial backing from Google, Youtube now plans to offer live video streaming by the end of 2008.

Steve Chen, co-founder of the popular video sharing site, told Pop17.com at a recent PR event, “Live video is just something that we’ve always wanted to do. We’ve never had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google, we hope to actually launch something this year.”

Google acquired the site last year for over $1.5 billion.

The feature would allow users to submit video through an Internet-connected video camera, like a webcam, to stream live content to viewers across the Web with more features than traditional webcam features.

A few other websites, like Justin.tv, already allow live streaming, with real-time text chatting and a unique URL. Other services include Ustream and Mogulus.

Source: www.tomshardware.com

Developers talk over April code freeze to ‘get the ball rolling’

The Mozilla Foundation’s new e-mail spin-off is aiming at a quick delivery of the first alpha version of Thunderbird 3.0, according to discussions among developers.

Dan Mosedale, a former Firefox developer who joined Mozilla Messaging Inc. – dubbed “MoMess” by some – floated the idea of producing an alpha build as early as April in a thread on the mozilla.dev.apps.thunderbird group last week.

“I’d like to get the ball rolling on Thunderbird 3.0 Alpha 1,” said Mosedale, who in January committed to a four-month stint with Mozilla Messaging. “I propose… we arbitrarily set a tentative code-freeze date for Thunderbird 3.0a1 of Tuesday, April 8.

“I believe that it’s really worthwhile to get a release underway. Testers have only had nightlies for quite a while now, and the trunk is already notably better than [Thunderbird 2.0] in a number of ways,” Mosedale continued. “Getting something that we’re willing to recommend to a wider group of people is a great way to demonstrate real progress.”

Two weeks ago, Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher announced that the new company – the second for-profit spin-off of the Foundation – would tackle Thunderbird 3.0 as its first project. Ascher said that the mail client would add calendaring and improved search as it worked toward releasing a polished version before the end of the year.

Reaction to Mosedale’s call for an alpha was mostly positive.

“I’m with you,” said Phil Ringnalda. “If we’re going to ship something, ever, we have to start doing alphas, and giving people the feeling that they don’t have forever to write the code of their dreams.”

Gervase Markham, a Mozilla developer, agreed. “[An alpha] also gives a solid target for extension authors,” he noted. “I am reluctant to test trunk Thunderbird because there are a couple of extensions I rely on whose authors have said ‘I can’t support trunk; it moves too much’. Doing a ‘relatively stable’ alpha release allows them a fixed target, enabling long-term testing by people who don’t want to track trunk that closely.”

Mozilla Messaging grew out of a call last year by Mozilla Corp.’s then-CEO Mitchell Baker to break out Thunderbird development from the work on Firefox, the subsidiary’s big breadwinner. In July 2007, Baker said her company’s first priority was the browser, and that Thunderbird should be cut loose “to determine its own destiny.”

By September, Mozilla Corp. had seeded the new venture with $3 million in start-up funds and tapped Ascher to lead the venture.

Source: www.computerworld.com

Analyst Opinion - The gaming market is in a real mess right now. We have 4 active game systems the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, the PS3, and, not to forget, the PS2, which outsold all of the others last year. On the PC side, we have Windows XP games, Windows Vista Games, Flash-based games, and some folks are still porting to the Mac.

Looking at how technology has changed over time, and looking at what is being done to create the 3D Web, it won’t be long until folks step back and realize that this huge hardware diversity just isn’t working. Instead, centralizing and standardizing hardware could not only turn out as a better way to enter the segment, but as a more profitable way to remain in it as well.

Centralized Gaming

Back when game systems and PCs first came to market, we didn’t have a network and files moved from machine to machine on floppy disks, cassette tapes, or cartridges. Today, games are being delivered or updated over the web. The game that has the largest sustained audience these days is World of Warcraft - and this title wouldn’t even work if it were not on-line.

The world has changed a lot in the last several decades, but games are still based largely on the idea that they have to run locally, while the capability to run them remotely has increased dramatically.

A company called Teradici located in the Silicon Valley has come up with a relatively inexpensive way to put a high performance PC into a data center and remote all its functions to the desktop through a set top box. HP has a similar technology they use for PC and Workstation Blades and both of these, if applied to gaming, could break the current model of having to sell a lot of subsidized hardware to consumers before there is a market for the related game content. The part you?d sell could be profitably sold for under $100, and if we applied a subsidy to that, you?d get it free of charge with a subscription.

Given the PS2 outsold everything else (mostly because of its sub-$100 price and a large game library) in the game system segment last year, $100 or “free” is an important price point.

Bringing Google in

Going to a model like this is disruptive and people in an industry generally don’t like to take disruptive risks, though, if you think about it, that?s exactly what Nintendo did with the Wii by creating a system that wasn’t massively expensive and had a family/health gaming focus. The Wii showed that breaking the model, if only a little bit, could have huge benefits. But who would be willing to break it a lot?

Google has been buying up lots of dark optical cable (called dark fiber) over a long period of time and has in place an advertising model that could actually both subsidize the hardware and the games. HP, which probably has the leading hardware to do this, could also play here as well and both companies might be thinking of how they could use this technology as a Trojan horse to fundamentally change not only the gaming market but the PC market as well.

Since HP leads the existing PC market, such a change would have significant risks for them. But for Google, which doesn’t even exist in this segment and is interested in displacing Microsoft, there are only the risks associated with entering a segment (which once attracted Larry Ellison and Sun to a similar failed plan based on inadequate technology).

Two other technologies which could be used to create a similar eco system using existing PCs are Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight. Both owe their roots to disruptive technology called Chrome, which almost changed the world a decade ago.

Wrapping up: Will centralized gaming happen?

Eventually I do think we?ll switch to something like a cloud computing model. We are increasing bandwidth dramatically and the technology capable of doing this continues to come down in price with the next big technology push coming with massively multi-processing models on both the graphics and processor side. This could move us from concepts like blade PCs, workstations, and game systems to a highly flexible server, which could more effectively perform the same function.

The sustaining problem, other than the risk of doing something really different, is latency - which starts becoming a problem with centralized resources over long distances. Though, those of us who play on-line today may find that this latency is actually much more tolerable than the latency we now have to deal with in Massive Multiplayer Games.

But, when it happens, it probably will take someone like Google who can come at the segment with a fresh perspective to make this work both technically and financially. I think we are close to having a disruptive change in several segments; we are just waiting for someone to put the parts together who has the funding, and breadth, to make it all work.

Rob Enderle is one of the last Inquiry Analysts. Inquiry Analysts are paid to stay up to date on current events and identify trends and either explain the trends or make suggestions, tactical and strategic, on how to best take advantage of them. Currently he provides his services to most of the major technology and media companies.

TG Daily

What are fiber optic visual fault locators?

Fiber optic visual fault locators are also called visual fault finders. They are low cost, battery powered fiber test tools to find fiber imperfections, fiber breaks (fiber cutting), microbends and macrobends in fiber optic cable links. Visual fault locators come in a pen shape or handheld style with a fiber optic connector adapter to accept different connectors such as FC, ST, SC, LC or even MTRJ.

How do they work?

Visual fault locators inject a highly visual red color laser light into optical fiber cables. The red light can be switched between continuous mode (continuous wave) or pulse mode with a 1~2 Hz frequency and 60ms duration.

The light source is usually a high power, extra long life, class 2 laser diode at 635nm. Other available wavelengths are 650nm and 670nm.

The fault locater injects light into fiber cables through a built-in connector adapter. Two types of connector adapters are available: 2.5mm and 1.25mm in diameter. The 2.5mm version accepts FC, SC and ST connectors and the 1.25mm version accepts LC and MU connectors.

The fiber installation technician can then look at the length of the fiber cable and where glowing or blinking light is seen, a break, microbending or macrobending exists.

The tool can be used as a stand-alone first-line basic troubleshooting tool or in conjunction with an OTDR to pinpoint faults. It can also be used as a continuity tester.

The construction of a laser fault locater

Laser fault locater is a simple and reliable tool. It consists of laser light source, pulse modulation circuit board, light coupling lens and fiber optic connector adapter.

Applications

Fiber optic visual fault locators are regularly used for testing and finding breaks in LANs, FDDI, ATM, fiber data links and loops, telephones, ships and other vessels. Its industry applications include fiber optic networks, telecoms network and CATV network maintenance.

Manufacturer brand names and their corresponding quality

Wilcom, Fluke, Noyes, Greenlee, Ideal, Wavetek all supply high quality visual fault locators. Our preference is Wilcom’s products since they have been in this market the longest time and their products are generally very high quality.

Understanding the specifications

1. Fiber distance

The fiber distance spec tells the longest fiber length where you can still see the leakage light without difficulty. This spec is determined by the laser light power. The industry standard spec is 10km for multimode fibers and 5km for single mode fibers.

2. Wavelength

Wavelength is not a critical spec. 635nm, 650nm and 670nm will all work just fine.

3. Output power

Output power is an important spec for visual fault locators. The higher output power, the longer fiber distance it can support. This spec is usually 0.5mW coupled to single mode fibers and 2mW to free space (which means no fiber coupling, just the light output from the tester’s connector adapter).

4. Fiber mode

All visual fault locators can work with both single mode and multimode fibers. Since multimode fiber has a 50um or 62.5um core, which is much bigger than single mode fiber’s 9um core, more light power can be coupled in to multimode fibers. That translates to longer fiber distance for multimode fibers which is usually 10km. For single mode fiber, however, fiber distance is only 5km.

5. Modulation frequency: CW and 2Hz

Human eyes are much more sensitive to a blinking light than to a steady light. So visual fault locators provides two operating modes: continuous wave and pulse light.

In most cases, fiber optic installation technicians prefer the pulse light mode which turns the laser source on and off in 2Hz or 1Hz frequency.

6. Battery

Usually two AAA alkalescence batteries

Colin Yao

New release of Realtek HD Audio Drivers R1.87

Download: Realtek HD Audio Drivers R1.87
Download: Realtek HD Audio Drivers R1.87 dla Windows 2000/XP/2003
Download: Realtek HD Audio Drivers R1.87 dla Windows Vista

“We’ve reached out to a few sources to find out what’s going on. Here’s what we know, starting with the most recent information gleaned from a source close to the HD DVD camp. Surprisingly, our source tells us that exit plans for HD DVD were already in the works before the Netflix announcement this past week. The loss of Warner Brothers demoralized the HD DVD camp, and when it was clear that deep price cuts weren’t going to give HD DVD a second wind, the writing was on the wall. The only question, pre-Netflix announcement, was how to gracefully shutdown while liquidating existing product. Now that retailers and rental joints have turned their back publicly on the format, there’s nothing graceful about the shutdown plans. There’s little face to save on the consumer side.”

Read more at Ars Technica

Microsoft’s attempt to give Vista’s popularity a shot in the arm back in 2006 appears to have resulted in a shot in the foot.

As of last Friday, a class-action lawsuit against the company is moving forward, according to The Associated Press. The company is being accused of, during the ‘06 holiday season, slapping “Windows Vista Capable” stickers on PCs that would only be capable of running the most rudimentary version of the then-forthcoming OS, Vista Home Basic.

The lawsuit was filed last April in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The original suit noted that “the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million and that the size of the class likely exceeds 10,000 people,” according to the IDG News Service.

In Friday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman certified the class action suit but whittled down the scope of the original version “to focus primarily on whether Microsoft’s ‘Vista Capable’ labels created artificial demand for computers during the 2006 holiday shopping season, and inflated prices for computers that couldn’t be upgraded to the full-featured version of Vista, which was released at the end of January 2007,” The Associated Press reports.

The Home Basic edition of the OS certainly doesn’t deliver the Vista experience users were likely anticipating. For starters, it’s incapable of running Aero, Vista’s flashy UI. In fact, if you take a look at Microsoft’s comparison of the different flavors of Vista, you’ll see that this low-end variant of the OS can’t do much of anything.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, some of the most damning testimony against its alleged practice comes from within the company itself, according to Computerworld: “An unnamed employee wrote in an e-mail, for example, ‘Even a piece of junk will qualify’ to be called Windows Vista Capable. And Mike Nash, now a corporate vice president for Windows product management, wrote in an email message, ‘I PERSONALLY got burnt…Are we seeing this from a lot of customers?…I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine.’”

As of Friday, Microsoft was still reviewing the judge’s ruling. Back in April, however, Microsoft spokesperson Jack Evans defended the company’s actions saying that Microsoft “conducted a broad effort to educate computer manufacturers, retailers, and consumers about the hardware requirements to run different versions of Windows Vista,” according to the IDG News Service.

Whether or not Microsoft successfully fights the lawsuit, the whole case exemplifies to me just how much of a power-hog Vista is compared to XP. Machines released in late 2006, emblazoned with “Windows Vista Capable” stickers, lack the resources to run a useful version of the OS. On top of that, hardware vendors such as HP and Dell found it challenging – if not impossible – to build machines that complied with the Energy Star 4.0 specification and ran Vista well (i.e. beyond the bare minimum capabilities of Home Basic).

Beyond the impact this stunt has on customers’ bank accounts, it certainly doesn’t have eco-friendly ramifications. End-users who bought those machines and still want to run Vista will either have to upgrade their hardware themselves or, more likely, purchase new, more powerful machines. Either approach is pretty wasteful. And I can’t help but wonder just how many otherwise useful machines we’ll see retired before their time if Microsoft moves forward with its plans to prematurely pull the plug on XP and foist Vista on customers?

Source: weblog.infoworld.com

When you try to install an update from Windows Update on a computer that is running Windows Vista, you may receive the following message:
configuring updates stage 3 of 3. 0% complete
After you receive this message, the computer reverts to the screen that displays the same message. Additionally, the update is not installed successfully, and the computer restarts.

To resolve this problem, use the following methods in the order in which they are presented.

Method 1: Start Windows Vista by using the Windows installation media, and then select the “Repair your computer” option
Method 2: Start the computer in safe mode, and then use the Repair or System Restore feature
Method 3: Rename the Pending.xml file, and then edit the registry

See more …

Santa Clara (CA) - Nvidia will be launching its next-gen 9-series graphics cards tomorrow, February 21. Reviews of the sub-$200 cards are scheduled to surface at 8 am EDT and we will get a better idea why we should care about Nvidia’s new volume enthusiast card.

Graphics enthusiast will get plenty of reading material for breakfast when all major hardware review sites will be dishing out the news and numbers about the GeForce 9600 GT. We just received confirmation from Nvidia partners that they are good to go with their mainstream part, which is designed to make Nvidia?s G92 technology a bit more affordable.

At least for now, the “Nvidia delays this and that” stories should be put to rest. Of course, the high-end GeForce 9800 GX2 remains a different story.

The GeForce 9600GT will continue the debates on Internet forums with questions whether the G9x architecture translates into the GeForce 8 or 9 series - and why Nvidia continues to confuse its customers. In 2008, it seems, the trend is to put two product numbers on one product (and its variations). The G92 is used in 8800GT, GTS 512 MB and 9800GX2 cards, while the G94 is used for the 9600GT.

The G94 is still a DirectX 10.0, which means deferred rendering engines will have issues with MSAA.

Depending on the vendor, 9600 GT cards will be priced between $169 and $189.

TG Daily

Microsoft’s recent pattern may signal that the XP service pack release is imminent.

Two weeks after it last handed a new build of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to several thousand invitation-only testers, Microsoft Corp. has posted that version for public downloading.

“We’re broadening the availability of the release candidate in order to receive further user feedback prior to the release of Windows XP SP3,” a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon. Windows XP SP3 RC2 became publicly available last night. (Read PC World’s initial impressions of this service pack.)

On Feb. 7, Microsoft seeded Release Candidate 2 (RC2) with the 15,000 or so testers who had been working with SP3 for several months. At that time, the company said nothing about taking the version public.

This is just the second time that all Windows XP users have had the chance to try out SP3, the last scheduled major update to the six-year-old operating system. The only other public posting was of SP3 RC in December.

Microsoft, however, followed precedence Tuesday. Earlier this year, it did the same thing – sent code to its beta testers, then released it to all comers – during the run-up to finalizing Windows Vista Service Pack 1. In fact, although Microsoft has stuck to the vague schedule of delivering XP SP3 some time in the first half of 2008, Vista’s pattern may signal that the XP service pack release is imminent.

Microsoft seeded the RC Refresh build of Vista SP1 on Jan. 11, then two days later posted it for public download. Twenty-two days later, it called a wrap on SP1, saying the code had met its RTM (release to manufacturing) criteria.

Another Vista indictor – the posting of revised release notes just days before SP1 went RTM – may also hint at XP SP3 be finished sooner rather than later. Tuesday, Microsoft published the first version of the XP SP3 release notes to its Web site.

Microsoft said that the SP3 RC2 download would be posted on the Microsoft Download Center. A link to it may also appear on this TechNet page.

Once SP3 ships, the next major milestone for Windows XP is June 30, when the popular operating system is slated to fall off the reseller and retail availability list.

PC World

Mountain View (CA) ? Google is painting a scary scenario about potentially dangerous websites on the Internet: More than 1.3% of all search queries are now directing users to at least one malware site ? and only seven out of ten threats are caught by the best security applications available today.

Google limited its research (PDF) to pages that contain so-called drive-by download web pages, which are installing and running malware on client PCs without user action. According to the company, such drive-by downloads are now hiding in more than 3.4 million URLs on more than 181,000 web sites. The research results also suggest that more and more search results provided by Google point to malware sites: While less than 0.3% of search queries contained a link to at least one malware site one year ago, the rate has gone up to about 1.3% at the end of the year.

From the top 1 million web site addresses listed in search results, Google found about 6000 to be malicious ? which means that, on average, 0.6% of the most popular web pages in Google search can lead to malware exposure. The most popular malicious web page has a rank of 1588 of 1 million. Most malware sites (67%) are hosted in China, followed by sites in the U.S. (15%), Russia (4%), Malaysia (2.2%) and Korea (2.0%).

The company’s researchers also found that antivirus software may not be sophisticated enough to reliably protect users from web threats: Google found a 70% malware detection rate for the best anti-virus engine with the latest set of definitions. “These results are disturbing as they show that even the best anti-virus engines in the market fail to cover a significant fraction of web malware,” the reports states.

“Merely avoiding the dark corners of the Internet” will not protect users from malware exposure, Google believes. State-of-the-art anti-virus engines are lacking in their ability to protect against drive-by downloads. While this is to be expected, it does call for more elaborate defense mechanisms to curtail this rapidly increasing threat.

Google said it examined about 66.5 million URLs for this report.

Microsoft Outlook is an email client (Mail User Agent to some) which I’m sure you know what it does. If not, let me try to explain it as simply as possible. Email clients are programs or application’s which retrieves emails from the web server and downloads it onto your desktop.

Now with that out of the way, did you know that you can lose your mails because of your email client? This is a big deal as email is now a large part of communication both in the corporate world and the private/home user.

How can you lose your emails?

When you use email clients, you risk losing your email just like any other data on your desktop. Here is a list:

- Virus attack
- Corrupted partitions/volumes
- Deletion/Format
- Hard Disk Crash
- Theft/natural disaster

In Microsoft Outlook versions 2003, 2002, 98 and 97, once Outlook’s PST file size goes above 2gb, your emails, or rather, the PST file, gets corrupted.

- PST corruption

Installation of anti-virus/anti-spyware

Prevention of viruses, spyware and basically all malware is important as they cause your system and programs to become sluggish, unstable and perform undesirable operations.

And since when you use Microsoft outlook, your emails will get affected as the mails on the server gets downloaded onto your computer.

- Install anti-virus/anti-spyware and update frequently

Anti-virus/anti-spyware is available widely and should often be updated for the latest updates and patches.

Use it to scan you computer, and to scan ALL emails if they contain attachments.

Never download anything directly to your computer unless you are certain of the reliability and credibility of its source.

For a detailed view of how to remove viruses, refer to this article on removing viruses

Backup

The most reliable way to prevent the loss of your Outlook emails is to backup your PST file. To do this, simply copy your PST to another storage media (such as your thumb drive) or another drive on the same computer.

The PST file can be found by simply opening the search function (go to start menu and you can find the search function there) and copy and paste this term into the search box ” .pst ” without the double quotes.

Wait for the search finish. The default .pst file name is outlook.pst. Then just copy and paste the .pst file onto your backup media. Backup frequently, as you may never know when the outlook files (or any other important files for that matter) gets accidentally deleted, formatted or corrupted.

Computer Maintenance

Although this should already part of your routine, it bears reminding again. You should maintain your system by defragmenting, running scandsk and so on. This is basic maintenance for your computer as it can help prevent file system problems. It also enables your system to run smoothly and prevent system slowdown.

Here is a slew of other maintenance tips for you to look into

Outlook housekeeping

Yes, even in outlook, you need to do some basic maintenance. This is done to prevent your .PST file from getting corrupted.

Before outlook 2003 (and in earlier versions of outlook 2003), the .PST file limit was set at 2GB. If the .PST file size exceeded this limit, it would be very difficult, if at all possible, to retrieve any data from the .PST file as it would get corrupted.

When you are doing housekeeping, you are trying to keep this limit down and at the same time, helps in organising you mails so that they are easier to retrieve when you need to read them again.

How do you do that? Simple.

Delete all the old mails that you do not need, and remember to empty the trash. Categorise all your mails accordingly. For example, all your work folders should be in a separate folder from you personal emails and so on.

Create a NEW pst file

Another way to keep control of your PST file size is to create another .PST file. Of course, don’t create a new .PST file for the sake of creating one.

Have separate .PST files for business and personal mails. To create this a new .PST file, simply open outlook and follow these steps:

1.Go to File menu, to New, and then click Outlook Data File

2. In the next window, you should see two options. Simply choose Office Outlook Personal Folders file. In Outlook 2003, there is an option to increase compatibility with older outlook versions, choose the Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File option. Click Ok

3. Then choose an appropriate location to save your new .PST in. Choose a location, and the type in the filename of your new .PST file.

And there you have it. A new .PST file, all ready for use.

In actual fact, prevention of lost Outlook mails is not hard. However, you need to be constantly maintaining your system and backing up your mails which take up precious time. It is a necessary step to take to prevent you from losing all your precious emails.

Suhaimi Baruddin is currently employed as a writer, designer,researcher and data recovery engineer at Adroit Data Recovery Centre’s laboratory, which is located in Singapore’s Science Hub.
With the necessary tools, parts and experience, ADRC strives to spread the word about data recovery, and help people recover data which means so much to them.

Adroit Data Recovery Centre Pte Ltd

In order to expand your World of warcraft character to its greatest potential, you are going to need plenty of gold. There is no getting away from the fact that leveling up your character, their professions and their equipment costs an awful lot of gold and for the vast majority of wow players this involves investing a great deal of time. Not only does this reap small rewards but it also costs a great deal of money because time spent in game means money spent on subscriptions. It is possible to purchase gold online but this is not only costly but you also risk having your account shut by Blizzard for breaking their terms and conditions.

Gold Secrets is a guide on how to make vast amounts of gold with the smallest amount of effort, all of it done in a completely legitimate way meaning you will never risk having your account shut down. Months and even years have been spent playing wow and learning all the secrets behind earning gold as well as all the best places to visit to find the most expensive equipment drops. Hundreds of the best players on wow have given their expertise to Gold Secrets on how best to make money which has all been included in the guide. Once you have the information, you will realize how easy it is to make up to 200 gold per hour with the least effort, leaving you more time to simply enjoy the quests and spend time with your friends.

http://www.squidoo.com/wowgoldsecret

Several artists are experimenting with offering new releases on USB devices packed with extras like videos and ringtones.

NEW YORK (Billboard) - When the Mars Volta put out its latest album, “The Bedlam in Goliath,” in January, the act gave its hardcore fans an option that is becoming increasingly popular – and creative.

Instead of a CD or digital version of the Universal album, fans could buy a $30 USB drive designed like a Ouija board planchette. The device comes with a digital-rights-management-free version of the album and the promise of more bonus materials in coming months. Users simply plug it into their computer’s USB drive and then listen to the album or download it into their music library.

The Mars Volta joins a growing number of recording artists who have experimented with USB releases in recent months, among them Jennifer Lopez, Ringo Starr and Matchbox Twenty.

More are expected in coming months. Austin-based All Access, the company behind USB releases from Matchbox Twenty and Starr, has signed deals with EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group to make USB bracelets for other artists.

“The selling point to the labels is a really good one – it’s a marriage between merchandise and music so that people will at least buy it instead of stealing it because they want the merchandise,” All Access CEO Chris Guggenheim said. “It’s the only for-sure non-stolen product.”
Higher Manufacturing Costs

At this point, the releases are offered more as collectibles to build fan loyalty than as sources of revenue.

The cost of putting an album out on a USB drive is pricier than releasing it on a CD, partly because bands aren’t placing bulk orders and partly because flash drives cost more than discs. Guggenheim said that bracelets generally cost $5 to $7 per unit. But costs can rise to $17 per unit or more for flash drives with more memory and other additions.

Universal doesn’t expect to make money on the 2,000 USB units it put out for the Mars Volta release or on the 2,000 USB units it will put out for Erykah Badu’s February 26 release, “Nu AmErykah,” Universal senior vice president of digital business development Cameo Carlson said.

But it does expect to keep fans connected to both acts. Those who buy the Mars Volta USB stick get a new extra on the 29th of each month, ranging from bonus tracks to wallpaper. Badu will create new bonus features throughout the year for those who buy “Nu AmErykah” on USB.

“It’s not for everybody,” Carlson said. “It’s for the hardcore fan that wants tons of pictures, who really wants something more and the opportunity to get new stuff every month.”

For bands, USB drives offer a cooler way to get their music to fans in a souvenir package that fans can wear or carry with them, giving the band free promotion.

Starr wore a wristband containing his latest album, “Liverpool 8,” to the Grammy Awards, getting attention for the release that a CD jewel case certainly wouldn’t. Guggenheim said that about one wristband is sold for every three CDs of Starr’s album.

In October, Matchbox Twenty released its latest album, “Exile on Mainstream,” on USB bracelets, putting out an initial 25,000 units. Manager Michael Lippman said that “tens of thousands” have been sold.
Room For Extras

“USB is going to be the future,” Lippman said. “You don’t have to download it on a computer, you put it in and it comes up, (and) there’s plenty of room to add additional material.”

Some indie bands have turned to USB drives for releases because they can order fewer units and spend less money than they would for an order of 1,000 CDs, said Ed Donnelly, president of Los Angeles-based Aderra, which makes drives for Barenaked Ladies, Jars of Clay and indie bands like Los Angeles’ Killola. Acts can place orders for as few as 100 USB drives preloaded with their album and other goodies.

Along with the songs from the album, Matchbox Twenty included its first video, behind-the-scenes footage, pictures and an Internet link to the band’s site.

Based on the success of its album sales on USB, the band is selling bracelets of its live show at concerts during its current tour. All Access replicates the bracelets after a concert in minutes. The bracelets are quickly sent to the merchandising booths, where fans can buy a recording of the show they just saw as they leave. Each bracelet costs the same as one of the band’s concert T-shirts.

Barenaked Ladies, considered the pioneers of USB releases, put out “Barenaked on a Stick” in 2005, a 128 MB flash drive loaded with 29 previously released songs plus videos and other content. The band followed it up with souvenir flash drives at its 2006 concerts in support of “Barenaked Ladies Are Me.” The concert USB keys came loaded with the new album, live tracks, ringtones and videos for $25.

Willie Nelson, Jars of Clay and the Black Crowes also have sold USB bracelets at concerts.

Bands typically sell the drives to 5 percent of their audience at a show, depending on how tech-savvy the crowd is.

Reuters/Billboard

I had a bunch of people internally ask me why Windows Server shows it’s version as Windows Server 2008 SP1 (for brevity - WS08). I will explain it, but I wanted to use the Writer feature that allows me to insert pictures. Who says anything beyond notepad is a waste of time. Actually, that’s me usually…

The history here goes back to problems we had form the split we had when we broke Windows XP from Windows Server 2003 (WS03) way back in 2000.

At the time we had Windows 2000 (Win2k) out in the market & it was being very well received. Especially on the client side which was doing well with corporate desktops. At the same time in the consumer side, we had Windows ME. I never worked on WinME, I have never installed it, & I know nothing about it except what people have told me. “I removed what i really think. If you meet me, feel free to ask".

Mid 2000, we had a combined release on the rails but the pressure to do a client release for consumer got high. So we forked WinXP from what was to become WS03. On one side, I think we did exactly the right thing. We met the dates required from OEMs for WinXP & closed down the server release in exactly the right way. I believe the longevity of WS03 in market was because we did a load of right things in the end game. I sill think what we knew when we released WinXP in august 2001 it was a great product. It’s just that the world changed 2 weeks later…

One aside here - in WS03 we created the Security Development Lifecycle & ran the first one in early 2002. For WinXP we did it for SP2. I’ve always believe WinXP sp2 was equivalent to a full release of Windows. I really had nothing to do with SP2 - Todd Wanke who had worked for me on WS03 ran it & his main dude on SP2, Mark Harris, came to work for me after that on WS03 R2. None of this security stuff was fun when we first did it. I have always believed it was a 10 year job & 6 years on, i still think so. It is a cultural change that had to go very deep.

Anyway, back to the story. This meant that WinXP & WS03 were totally divergent codebases. They had to have separate patches, GDRs, Service packs blah blah blah. The matrix of releases became a nightmare.

After WS03, I took my sabbatical & moved to Server. We looked at what was happening, realized we had some stuff that we wanted earlier than Longhorn was going to be released & decided to do WS03 R2. That was a different type of release because we had a rule that if you were changing something in the core (ie in what had already shipped), it had to come in via a service pack - you can’t go changing stuff willy nilly. So changes fro WS03 that required core changes were made in advance in WS03 SP1.

At the same time other people wanted to get the client out earlier than server. …again. So the folks doing Vista closed the client release down. My guys ran server as a project kinda on the side until Vista released. After that, Alex Hinrichs along with the servicing folks drove the WS08 release out.

This means the that the Service Packs are shared, that patches get released at the same time, etc etc. I believe it is incredibly simplified for customers. The other thing is the servicing stack is now smart enough to not download stuff you don’t need. This means if you have a Vista system & the service pack has fixes to Active directory, the Vista system does not get the directory update downloaded to them. Vice versa - if there was ever the need for a fix to media player (shock horror, who ever heard of the need to fix security issues there), you don’t get it on server unless you install the Desktop Experience pack.

So, it’s called SP1 - in retrospect i should just say its called that so you don’t have to wait for SP1 for it to be right like people have before. The first Service Pack for WS08 will be called SP2.

Finally, I am looking forward to the launch in LA on Feb 27. It’ll be awesome.
http://www.heroeshappenhere.com

blog:iainmcdonald

Spider Solitaire ( www.spider-solitaire-download.com ) is one of the most popular solitaire card games in the world. It is often named Classic Solitaire Game and “the King of all solitaires".

Spider Solitaire is a lot of fun and has to be learned like any game. At first glance, this challenging and time-consuming game seems to be too complicated. But spider solitaire is a very easy game to play once you get the hang of it.

Not every game of Spider Solitaire can be won, but you have a better chance of winning if you plan your strategy carefully. Below you will find several simple rules that can increase your chances of winning Spider Solitaire.

1. Build sequences of cards by following suit
Whenever you have a choice, prefer building in suit ("natural builds"). Natural build may be moved as a unit to be built elsewhere. This allows you to expose a hidden face down card, which you may now turn over, or expose an empty pile.

2. Try to expose hidden cards whenever possible
Uncovering hidden cards leads to a new set of possible moves. Besides, it is a way to get empty pile.

3.Try to make empty piles as early as possible
Move cards from tableaus that have fewer cards. Use empty piles as temporary storage when rearranging cards sequences into ?natural? builds as far as possible. Move cards to empty spaces to turn over more cards.

4. Build on higher cards first
Among the “out of suit” builds, start with those of highest rank. The reason for this is apparent. You can not move ?out of suit? build as a unit to another pile. So this build is of no use except as a temporary storage for cards from other piles. If we start with low card, the build will be finished with an Ace very quickly and then it will be useless. Starting from higher cards allows us to get maximum advantage from it.

5. Get as many cards exposed and arranged in suit order as possible before dealing the next 10 cards from the stock
Otherwise your chances of winning are significantly reduced.

6. As soon as you remove a suit, arrange the remaining cards into “natural builds”
Use empty piles as temporary storage when rearranging cards.

Spend some time practicing this strategy and soon you will find yourself beating Spider Solitaire faster and more often.

By: Boris Sandberg

Do you know what to look for in anti-virus software? You just bought yourself a new computer! Can’t wait to get it out of the box. Maybe you have had a computer before and maybe this is your second or third computer. And, you don’t want to have all those problems you hear about.

This is the time to think ahead and go for a positive online experience. You should realize that while you are unpacking your new machine, there are people all over the world who are plotting to spoil your computer with maliscious, well-thought out plans. Your computer will endure attacks moments after you go online. This is why we all have to use antivirus protection. You and I just have no choice.

The single most important program on your computer is your anti virus program. And, it should be a really good one. Everything on your computer, from your valuable software, your work, to your personal financial records is constantly at risk. I will explain some of the features you should look for in anti-virus software.

Most of us make our choice on price alone. That is, after we use the product that comes with our computers. This is not the way to choose something so important. You need to look at several products before making your decision. Look at your available options. Start with the anti virus software that came with your PC. You can get started by getting that software up and running. Don’t try to postpone using anti-virus software.

After a period of time, your software needs updated. While you are online, your software should be allowed to make daily updates. It is very important to make the first update as soon as your new computer is online for the first time. It is very likely there have been a lot of new threats and viruses introduced since the computer left the factory. Updating the software is the best way to keep your computer protected against these new online dangers.

As you use the software that came with your new computer, it is a good idea to make a list of what you like ? and don?t like ? about it.

Is it easy to update?

Is it user friendly?

Is it easy to see any problems?

Does the software notify you if the update could not be completed?

Are updates made available on a daily basis?

Now, you have a basis for establishing what to look for in anti-virus software. Read all you can online to get even more information. Some anti virus companies make their software available in trial versions, so be sure to check out a number of different products before deciding which one best suits your needs. Some of the best is free, without a trial. Take some time to get the best protection you can for your computer. And, periodically back up your files. A little planning can make your computer experience an enjoyable experience.

By: Alton Hargrave

All our hopes and dreams have been recognised.

You all remember that American spy satellite that was headed for earth at an alarming rate? Well, you might remember, we at Toms UK and IRL were all for the missile approach. Shoot the thing down and be done with it.

The satellite was expected to hit Earth in the first week of March and at first officials were saying that everything would be alright. Most of the Satellite would burn up on re-entry and that was that. “But, what about the bits that don’t” people asked. We were assured that there was nothing to worry about. There?s so much ocean around that the likelihood anything would hit land would be very slim.

Then, news came about that it might hit North America and everything got a bit serious [a wise man (we’ll call him Dave for arguments sake) once said, “what goes around, comes around” -Ed]

The satellite is outfitted with thrusters containing toxic rocket fuel. Hydrazine is a bit dangerous and can cause harm to anyone who comes into contact with it. Officials say there is about 500kg (1000 pounds) of it on the satellite.

Yesterday, President George Bush ordered that an attempt be made to shoot down the satellite with a Navy missile.

Basically they’ve modified some Navy missiles, which they’re going to shoot from a cruiser. However, they have no way of knowing if the missiles will make it to the satellite.

It has yet to be revealed when the attempt to take out the big piece of junk will take place but General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the window for opportunity would open in the next few days and once open, would last for about a week.

Pentagon officials have said that they?re not quite sure as to how successful this kind of operation could be as it’s the first of its kind.

Watch this space. No pun intended.

tomshardware

Web icon set to be discontinued

Netscape lost ground to Microsoft’s internet Explorer
The browser that helped kick-start the commercial web is to cease development because of lack of users.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 February 2008, the company has said.

In the mid-1990s the browser was used by more than 90% of the web population, but numbers have slipped to just 0.6%.

In particular, the browser has faced competition from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), which is now used by nearly 80% of all web users.

“While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,” said Tom Drapeau on the company’s blog.

Browser wars

Netscape was developed by Marc Andreessen, co-author of Mosaic, the first popular web browser.

Mosaic was written while Mr Andreessen was a student at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in 1992.

Firefox was created by many of the Navigator developers

After graduation he set up Netscape Communications Corporation and began development of the Navigator browser. The first version was released in 1994.

It was quickly a success and dominated the browser market in the mid-1990s.

But other companies followed its success, notably Microsoft, which bundled its Explorer software with its operating systems.

This culminated in a highly-publicised legal battle, which saw Microsoft accused of anti-competitive behaviour.

Although the settlement saw Netscape gain many concessions from Microsoft including the ability to exploit IE code, it has been unable to gain back its market share.

The demise of Navigator was compounded in 2003 when AOL, which bought Netscape in 1998, made redundant most of the staff working on new versions of the browser.

Many of the staff moved to the Mozilla Foundation which develops the popular Firefox browser. This browser has a 16% share of the browser market.

Fade away

Although a core team has continued to work on the secure browser - it is currently on version nine - AOL has decided to finally pull the plug.

“After 1 February, there will be no more active product support for Navigator nine, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser,” wrote Mr Drapeau.

“We feel it’s the right time to end development of Netscape branded browsers, hand the reins fully to Mozilla and encourage Netscape users to adopt Firefox,” he said.

Users of the browser will no longer receive security or software updates after the date.

Old versions of the browser will still be available for download, but will no longer be supported.

Microsoft is expected to launch a new version of IE in 2008, whilst the third version of Firefox is currently available as a beta, or test version.

BBC

Mozilla releases the third beta of Firefox 3, eight weeks after it made the last major milestone for its open-source browser.

Mozilla Corp. released the third beta of Firefox 3 Wednesday, eight weeks after it made the last major milestone for its open-source browser, and right on a schedule it set a dozen days ago.

Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s interface designer, touted additions and enhancements to Beta 3 in a post to the company’s Web site Tuesday, touting several new or enhanced security features, an improved download manager, one-click bookmarking, offline application support, faster page rendering and new progress on plugging the browser’s noted “memory leaks.”

Not Ready for Prime Time

As he has previously, Beltzner discouraged casual users from trying the new code. “We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 Beta 3 milestone release,” he said. “It is intended for testing purposes only.”

Mozilla has already committed to at least one more beta before Firefox is allowed to move on to release candidate stage. A week and a half ago, however, Beltzner declined to set a release schedule for the next beta, saying then only that: “Our goal is to do a quick turnaround on Firefox 3 Beta 4.”

More Than 1,300 Changes in Beta

In its release notes, Mozilla trumpeted the fact that Beta 3 includes more than 1,300 changes made since mid-December’s Beta 2, and boasted that its developers had also plugged over 50 new memory leaks in the last eight weeks.

Firefox has long been criticized by users for consuming increasing amounts of memory the longer it remains open, to the point where the browser hinders overall performance on the computer. The company made leak-plugging a top priority, particularly after a member of the Mozilla board of directors said late last year that memory problems would make it tough to compete in the mobile browser market.

Firefox 3 Beta 3 also uses an XPCOM cycle collector that, said Mozilla, “completely eliminates many more [leaks].” The cycle collector, which periodically checks memory usage and tries to free any unused memory, has been in play since last summer, but as Beta 3 development has proceeded, more of its code has been written, or rewritten, to support the collector.

One noted addition to Firefox 3, however, is still buggy. Places, a souped-up bookmarking and browser history management tool that was once slated for Firefox 2, does not yet allow users to shuffle bookmarks by dragging and dropping. According to notes from a Tuesday Firefox 3 status meeting, Places is stuck.

“Cannot drag-and-drop items across different views/menus,” the notes read. “This is blocking on resolution of platform bug 389931, which is a P1 [Priority 1 – Ed.] blocker regression from the thread manager rewrite, and seemingly unowned (no response from owner since July 2007). This is the cause of much weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Firefox 3 Beta 3 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in 32 languages from Mozilla’s site.

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Chertsey (UK) - Electronic Arts has set a launch date for Spore, the anticipated computer and Nintendo DS game from “Sims” creator Will Wright.

Spore was first announced a couple years ago, and is the first major project for Wright since his phenomenal success with the Sims franchise.

It allows players to create their own creatures, their own environments, and even their own planets. The goal of the game is to successfully manage a universe through five phases of evolution.

The game will launch simultaneously on PC, Mac, Nintendo DS, and mobile phone platforms, on September 7.

Last year, Electronic Arts announced a partnership with TransGaming to use the Cider Portability Engine as a way to more quickly port PC games to the Mac platform. Since then, EA has released several titles on both formats simultaneously, getting rid of huge delays that previously plagued the Mac community.

Attacks against just-patched PDF bugs may come from infected Web ads
Attackers have been exploiting one of the recently-revealed vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader for at least three weeks, security researchers said today, with one estimating the infection count at “many thousands” so far.

On Tuesday, Adobe Systems Inc. acknowledged that its popular PDF viewer sported several flaws, and patched them that same day. However, it has yet to spell out the exact number or nature of the bugs.

But one of those vulnerabilities has been actively exploited since at least Jan. 20, said researchers at the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center (ISC) and VeriSign Inc.’s iDefense unit. According to Raul Siles, an analyst with ISC, a malicious PDF (Portable Document Format) file has been spreading a Trojan horse from a server based in the Netherlands. The first evidence of the attack, said Siles, came in a Jan. 20 message on an Italian message forum from a user who noted that three of his PCs had been infected, and the attack was traced back to the Dutch IP address.

Siles quoted e-mail he received from iDefense researchers, who said that the malware, a variation of the “Zonebac” Trojan horse, disables a slew of antivirus programs and modifies search results and banner ads.

On Friday, iDefense issued three security advisories that provided more information about some of the vulnerabilities that Adobe patched last week. Crediting iDefense researcher Greg MacManus with finding and reporting the bugs last September and October, the advisories said that the vulnerabilities were in Adobe Reader’s handling of JavaScript and in how it refers to libraries that provide encryption and signature verification.

One of the two advisories that cited JavaScript flaws said there were “multiple stack-based buffer overflows in JavaScript methods” within Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, a more advanced application that sells for $299 and up. “Exploitation of these vulnerabilities would allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code as the current user,” the iDefense advisory said.

The Jan. 20 attack mentioned on the Italian forum exploited one of those JavaScript vulnerabilities. Presumably, the proof-of-concept exploit that Immunity Inc. researcher Kostya Kortchinsky crafted last week also took advantage of one of the iDefense-reported stack overflows. Immunity labeled the revised, fully-functional exploit as “JavaScript Stack Overflow” when it released it to CANVAS Early Updates subscribers on Thursday.

Symantec Corp. weighed in as well when one of its researchers, Hon Lau, said that the attacks in progress might have originated from malicious ads on hacked sites or from compromised legitimate sites that redirected users to a rigged PDF file via JavaScript or an iFrame. Attackers may also try to trick users into opening PDF files attached to spam, he added.

Although Lau did not cite specific figures, he put the victim tally as “many thousands” and warned users to patch Adobe Reader and Acrobat promptly. “It appears that this PDF-based attack has been quite successful affecting many thousands of users throughout the world,” Lau said on the Symantec security blog Saturday.

Lau also speculated that details of the vulnerabilities had leaked before Adobe could patch them. “While it appears that the vulnerabilities were disclosed in a responsible manner, i.e. [the] vendor was informed and allowed to patch before official announcement, the swiftness of the exploit appearing in the wild could suggest that leaks had occurred,” Lau maintained.

On Thursday, Adobe added a security advisory to its Web site, but the new alert did not provide any additional details on the vulnerabilities it had patched. In the advisory, Adobe credited iDefense’s MacManus, as well as researchers at Google Inc., Fortinet Inc., 3Com Inc.’s TippingPoint unit and Security-Assessment.com, a New Zealand-based security consultancy, for reporting the bugs.

The new Reader 8.1.2, which can be downloaded from the Adobe Web site or retrieved using the updater bundled with Reader, targets Windows and Mac OS X users. Adobe does not yet have a patched Version 7 of the application, but it said one would be made available at some point.

Computerworld

Redmond (WA) - Microsoft beta testers and volume licensing customers are getting early access the Vista SP1: The service pack is now available via the manufacturer?s Volume License Services (MLVS), according to several reports published today.

Kurt Shintaku was first to report the availability of Windows Vista SP1 RTM to volume customers via download from Microsoft. According to the website, x86 and x64 versions have become available today. A post in Neowin.net’s forums indicates that beta testers may have had even earlier access with the SP1 RTM release carrying a February 6 release date.

The official release comes somewhat as a surprise, as Microsoft previously indicated that it will delay the rollout a few weeks, apparently to give hardware vendors time to adjust their products to the new software and, if necessary, to provide new drivers.

“The key learning over the last year is that when we change the operating system, it takes time to let the ecosystem make sure that the hardware and software that they build works well with Windows Vista,” wrote product manager Mike Nash on the Vista team blog.

Microsoft said it will not be offering the online update to end-users until Vista SP1 PCs are shipping in mid-March.

Source TG Daily

Microsoft’s newly released Service Pack 1 may solve some of the performance glitches that have annoyed Windows Vista users and discouraged others from adopting the OS, but it doesn’t appear from our initial tests to be a panacea.

In our first tests of the service pack, file copying, one of the main performance-related complaints from Vista users, was significantly faster. But other tests showed little improvement and in two tests, our experience was actually a little better without the service pack installed than with it.

Service Pack 1 was released to manufacturing yesterday, and officially sent out to reviewers today (Service Pack 1 was also unofficially unleashed today on BitTorrent, too). Service Pack 1 will be available to users in March, as a download; Microsoft plans to have SP1 integrated into Windows Vista at retail as well, but could not give a timeline on how quickly the update will be included in the retail version of Vista.

We’ve already covered many aspects of SP1 in previous looks at the initial SP1 beta last fall, and the more recent SP1 Release Candidate that became available in January. A quick recap: Though many of SP1’s benefits lie hidden within the bowels of the OS (such as support for standards like Extensible Firmware Interface and Extended File Allocation Table), SP1 is packed with performance enhancements as well. According to Microsoft, more tangible improvements include improved performance when copying, compressing, and extracting files, improved boot and power down times, improved network performance, and other performance-related fixes.

I took the RTM of Vista Service Pack SP1 down to the PC World Test Center this afternoon and unleashed it across a variety of systems to see how it performed. These tests are preliminary and informal ones; the PC World Test Center is working on additional testing, and we’ll post additional information–and update this story–as it comes available.

Service Pack 1: Installation

For my installation and file copy tests, I installed Service Pack 1 on a fairly high-end system: Polywell’s $4000 Poly P3503-3DT, a model packed with a 3-GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 CPU, 4GB of memory, and Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.

The first thing I noticed during the installation process was Windows Vista’s friendly warning that the installation might take an hour or more. My experience was, pleasantly, far from that: The installation process required just 27 minutes, less than half of what I experienced with the first beta of SP1 back in September 2007. Your experience may vary greatly, depending upon your system’s configuration, though: A Dell Inspiron 1420 notebook (with 2.2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU and 2GB of memory) required just 30 minutes to complete; but two other, less powerful systems took far longer to complete the installation.

SP1 required three reboots in all. During a good portion of the installation time, about 18 minutes, Vista reported it was just preparing the configuration, before actually proceeding with the installation.

File Copy: Performance Notably Improved

I performed a series of tests before and after installing SP1. The first test was a file copy test, identical to the one I performed on the beta last fall. I did three passes, copying 1.9GB of files (562 JPEG images) from a 2GB Kingston SD Card to the PC.

Pre-SP1, the file copy averaged 384 seconds; post-SP1, the copy process showed a noticeable improvement, averaging just 348 seconds to complete the same task. That’s a 9 percent improvement, a difference you’re likely to notice.

I’m encouraged by that improvement. It’s not life-altering when you’re talking about just 2GB of data, but if the performance improvement holds across larger data sets, that will be a big boon to anyone copying data in the Vista environment.

Some Results Slower

In addition to the file copy test, I timed several passes of system startup and shutdown, with a waiting period of at least five minutes prior to shutdown. Here, I saw virtually no change in the system’s pre-SP1 and post-SP1 performance. Pre-SP1, startup time averaged 58 seconds, and shutdown time averaged 8 seconds. Post-SP1, those times were virtually unchanged: Startup time averaged 55 seconds, while shutdown time averaged 7 seconds.

Finally, on two additional systems, I tried some extra informal tests, to get a feel for whether the performance boosts were pervasive. Both tests–neither of which are conclusive–actually showed the opposite, unfortunately.

The first test was on an Acer VM460-UD2180C system running a 2-GHz Pentium Dual-Core E2180 CPU, 1GB of memory, and Windows Vista Business: In two passes of copying five 500MB files into a .Zip archive using WinZip 10 (a third-party compression app), the pre-Vista SP1 result was actually slightly faster than the post-SP1 result: 372 seconds to 386 seconds.

The second informal test–copying multiple files into a disk image file using Nero 7 Ultra–was on a Gateway GM5632E running a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU, 3GB of memory, and Windows Vista Home Premium. This time around, too, the machine took about 3 percent longer after I installed SP1 than before.

More Testing to Come

Based on my informal tests conducted in the first hours of having Vista Service Pack 1 in hand, it’s hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions. However, these mixed results do show some promise–and also show that your experience with SP1 may vary depending upon the system configuration. Our Test Center will perform further, and more in-depth, testing of Vista Service Pack 1 to determine to what degree Microsoft has succeeded in fixing some of the flaws and frustrations in its operating system.

Source: Melissa J. Perenson, PC World

Mozilla issued 10 patches for its Firefox browser, including three for critical vulnerabilities
Mozilla issued 10 patches on Friday for its Firefox browser, including three for critical vulnerabilities. The latest version of Firefox is now 2.0.0.12. One of the critical vulnerabilities, MFSA 2008-06, is a problem in the way the browser handles images on certain Web pages.

It’s possible to exploit the flaw to steal a person’s Web browsing history, forward that information, then crash the browser. It may also be possible to run arbitrary code on a machine, Mozilla said.

A second critical vulnerability can enable a privilege escalation attack or remote code execution.

The last critical problem involves a memory corruption flaw that “we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code,” Mozilla said.

Also notable is a fix for a problem with Mozilla’s “chrome” protocol, which is the term Mozilla uses for its user interface. The problem involves some of Firefox’s add-ons, or applications that users can download to extend browser functionality.

The vulnerability would let an attacker determine what applications are installed on a person’s PC, which could give clues to how the machine could be compromised, Mozilla said. However, a victim would have to be lured to a special malicious Web page designed to take advantage of the flaw.

Source: infoworld.com

Redmond (WA) ? We knew it was going to happen? Microsoft?s Windows vista Service Pack 1 has already been leaked onto Bittorrent sites around the globe. The release to manufacturing (RTM) version was announced just a few days ago on the Vista team blog, but the software is now available on sites like thepiratebay.org.

File sizes range from 400 to 800 MB and are currently getting hundreds of simultaneous downloads. Judging from the post dates, the files were uploaded within the past few days.

On February 4th, Mike Nash of the Windows Product Management Group posted on the Vista team blog that the service pack had been released to vendors. SP1 should solve many of the problems early Vista buyers have been experiencing including slow file transfers and frequent crashes. ?Copying or moving files around your PC, your home network or your corporate network should now be much faster – up to 50% faster in some scenarios (according to our internal tests),? said Nash.

Nash adds that SP1 will be available through Windows Update in mid-March. Automatic updating will start in April.

Of course thepiratebay.org isn?t new to Vista Service Pack 1 postings. In the past months, beta versions of the pack have received very good traffic from early (brave?) adopters.

Source: TG Daily

New version:

The Sysinternals Troubleshooting Utilities have been rolled up into a single Suite of tools. This file contains the individual troubleshooting tools and help files. It does not contain non-troubleshooting tools like the BSOD Screen Saver or NotMyFault.

More info: Sysinternals Suite
Download: Sysinternals Suite

Chicago (IL) - Over the past several years, we have heard several stories that both Intel and AMD are supporting various BitTorrent search engines and trackers, since these sites actually provide a great evaluation platform of computing platform performance.

It isn?t particularly difficult to imagine why AMD or Intel would support these which in fact receive more traffic than a lot of tier one sites. However, this kind of support is usually kept under wraps, mostly to stay politically correct. In an interesting exception, administrators of IsoHunt.com, one of largest torrent search engines have announced that AMD donated two quad-core processors based on Barcelona core to them.

With a lot of talk about TLB-errata and allegations of instabilities, there is no better way to test various micro-code updates than on highest-load environment such as one on world’s 159th largest website (at least according to alexa.com).

We wish IsoHunt.com crew all the best in stretching AMD’s Quaddie legs.

Source TG Daily

Windows Vista Service Pack One is ready to ship, Microsoft says. PC manufacturers and consumers can expect the update in March. Microsoft has said that SP1 includes Vista OS improvements including reliability, security and performance. For a first look at those improvements read PC World’s review of beta SP1.

Unlike some of the reports and speculation from last week, Vista SP1 is not officially available today. Microsoft said that it will be available to new volume licensing customers beginning March 1. Existing Vista consumers will have to wait until mid-March, Microsoft says, when the download becomes available through Microsoft’s Windows Update Web site. Windows Vista users who have their systems configured to receive automatic updates will get SP1 automatically delivered in mid-April, Microsoft says.

One small catch is that Microsoft will not offer the update to a small subset of Vista PCs that have been found to have “problematic” device drivers. Those drivers, Microsoft says, were not installed properly initially and when Vista SP1 is installed OS problems ensue. For those systems, “if Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1,” according to the Windows Vista Team Blog.

No word on how many systems are impacted by this driver flaw. Microsoft says the fix for those systems is to reinstall the driver in question, however does not indicate what software program(s) create the driver problem.

Also over at the team blog, Mike Nash of the Windows Product Management group gets further into everything SP1 is looking to fix, including software compatibility and security. Many of the updates were made as requested by the consumers with the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting.

Source PcWorld

Markham (ON) - More and more we see graphics cards manufacturers touting the GFLOPs capability of their cards, hinting to the potentially enormous processing power that is hiding in those graphics processors. But those numbers, which recently hit 1 TFLOPs, aren’t exactly comparable with TFLOPs rankings on the Top500.org list, since there are different instructions and there are different ways to calculate these numbers. An example for this dilemma is AMD?s RV670.

Graphics cards manufacturers come up with their peak numbers are derived when GPUs are confronted with the most simple instruction, which can run through all of AMD?s (ATI’s) 320 number-crunching processors and Nvidia’s G80 and G90 all 256 units.

When AMD launched its most recent GPGPU part, the FireStream 9170, there were a few of questions floating around, especially the one about its capability to support the double-precision FP64 format. (AMD’s official product page is located here) The product details for the FireStream 9170:

AMD states that it can achieve a peak of around 500 GFLOPs for single-precision FP32 format. However, with a general demand of double-precision FP64 support in academia and science and AMD’s claim that the new Firestream can support this format, teh obvious question was how quick this card would be.

We spent some time with professors and developers over the past weeks, and heard that they would be perfectly happy if the GPGPU chip would be able to perform DP FP64 calculations 10x slower than FP32, just to be able to have results in double-precision FP64. The potential performance of a multi-GPGPU box would still be a good value for many applications, at least in applications that do not require significant memory amounts only a traditional supercomputer installation can offer.

AMD’s Dave ?Wavey? Baumann (of ex-Beyond3D fame) told us that while AMD’s RV670 chip is supporting double-precision units, it does not feature individual units for FP64, but uses the FP32 units to do FP64 calculations over a number of cycles. And yes, this process takes time. Depending on complexity of operation, the best case scenario is around half the original SP FP32 performance about 250 GFLOPs; in a worst case, the performance should be about a quarter of its FP32 performance ? or about 125 GFLOPs. Dave told us that the chip usually averages out somewhere in between, which is actually quite a feat for a chip that does not feature native FP64 units.

At the end of the day, if you’re running double-precision FP64 on AMD’s FireStream 9170 board, you should expect to get between 100 and 250 GFLOPs (realistically, expect the former number). It will be interesting to see how AMD and Nvidia will implement FP64 handling in near future, but for now, expected performance numbers should prove more than tasty to take the plunge and start development of accelerated applications on GPGPU hardware.

Source TG Daily

Review - Corel is about to release a new version of its ?Draw? graphics suite, which is one of the very few remaining complete graphics suites on the market. Now in its 14th generation, it hasn?t lost its original look and feel and remains the most convincing PC graphics product for ambitious consumers and graphic artists.

Sometimes at the beginning of this decade, just when Corel went through a tough time, the company?s core product somehow lost its appeal. It was Draw that had made Corel famous in the early 90s and it was pretty much Draw that carried the Ottawa-based firm through that decade. But, beginning with version 6, Draw became visibly bloated and Corel looked like it had lost its focus. I personally felt the reasons for an upgrade to a new version were fading and that is why my most current Draw package in use is still v10 (released in 2000).

Version 14, in Corel language ?X4?, has made its way to the Gold Master disc a few weeks ago and I had a chance to take a first look over the past week. Here?s my impression.

What you get

Besides the core product of the graphics suite, the CorelDraw vector graphics software, there?s a new version of the photo editing application Photo Paint, an updated version of the screenshot tool Capture, a new Bitstream font manager (Draw now integrates the font identification tool WhatTheFont), Trace (which converts bitmaps into vector graphics), the Service Bureau Profiler to prepare graphics for professional prints, a Duplexing wizard and a new online collaboration software called ConceptShare. Included are also a font collection and 10,000 clipart images.

If you aren?t familiar with CorelDraw, this package basically delivers a professional vector graphics software that is comparable to Adobe?s Illustrator and comes with basic desktop publishing (DTP) capabilities as well as a consumer-oriented bitmap editing application (Photo Paint) that is not quite as flexible and powerful as Adobe?s Photoshop. I?ll be focusing mostly on CorelDraw in this article, since it is the main reason why users - Corel says that its customer base ranges from design professionals in print and advertising to ?occasional graphics users? - will buy this package.

The full version of CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4 sells for $429 MSRP.

What you don?t get

Up until version 4 (released in 1993), the suite included a fantastic Chart creation application called ?CorelChart?; it is somewhat surprising to me that this software has never been brought back to life since then. A presentation component called ?Show? was also part until version 4 and has been integrated more or less in Draw since then. Draw is an excellent software to create presentations, but interestingly, the new X4 can only import PowerPoint files, but not export into this format.

Also noteworthy is that the DTP software Ventura, which was part of CorelDraw 5, is still sold by Corel as a separate program for $599 (full version). So, if you are interested in creating simple newsletters, Draw is a sufficient solution, but if you are looking for multipage newsletters and more, Ventura or competing software such as Adobe?s InDesign is what you should be looking for.

Click here for see Look and feel of CorelDraw X4, New features

Microsoft-Yahoo combination could reshape Internet landscape; few changes in the short term

A combination of Microsoft and Yahoo could reshape the Internet landscape for millions of Web users: Would the two companies join their online portals? Could they rethink the desktop computer to integrate Web content more directly?

The changes are potentially huge, but probably not in the short term.

Microsoft executives did not indicate Friday exactly what they would do with Yahoo’s brand if their bid, now valued at $42 billion, is accepted. But analysts expect the combined companies to preserve many of their separate free services, like instant-messaging and e-mail programs.

A more likely medium-term change is that some of Microsoft’s Web content could fade away or get added to Yahoo, which has a vast collection of news and features aggregated from other providers.

Microsoft’s Web properties, including its Yahoo-like MSN portal, aren’t exactly slouches: They rank third, trailing only Yahoo and Google, in total visitors. But while Yahoo still is profitable, Microsoft’s online services are a consistent money loser. The MSN search engine is a laggard, even with recent efforts to soup it up under Microsoft’s online umbrella it calls “Live.”

Having Yahoo in its tent could give Microsoft a rationalization for abandoning its unprofitable online elements.

“I think MSN folds into Yahoo,” said Ian Campbell, CEO of Nucleus Research. “It would be foolish to keep that separate.”

Perhaps the biggest change Microsoft and Yahoo could achieve together would be creating a better way to combine the Web and desktop computing _ not to mention cell phones, TVs, cars and any other gadgets that might someday plug into the Internet.

Consumers who access the Web on cell phones and handheld computers might be the first to find something new as a result of a Microsoft-Yahoo combination. Devices that run Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system could be better integrated with Yahoo content and possibly yield new services, like social networking functions.

New ideas will be key to compete with Google’s Web presence. After all, people don’t “Microsoft” or “Yahoo” anything. Microsoft in particular tends to be tolerated more than loved. Google is also leading development of an alternative cell-phone operating system it calls Android.

Eventually, a teamed-up Yahoo and Microsoft might be able to rethink the PC desktop _ where Windows still runs 90 percent of the world’s PCs _ so that Internet data such as stock prices, sports scores and weather are automatically baked in.

“We all have our home page because we have a concept of a home page,” Campbell said. Before long, “we may not have a home page _ it might just be the background of my desktop. There’s no reason why Microsoft can’t push this another level.”

Microsoft might also use Yahoo’s online strengths to galvanize Web-based versions of some of its powerful desktop software applications, like Word and Excel.

Open-source rivals and Google are threatening to bite into Microsoft’s lucrative Office software franchise with free versions of those kinds of “productivity” software. Microsoft is developing Web-based versions of its own, but slowly.

Now Yahoo could be the face through which Microsoft offers those online applications. Perhaps one day a Microsoft-fueled package of “Yahoo Apps” will go up against “Google Apps.”

Even with these possibilities, analyst David Mitchell Smith, a vice president at Gartner Inc., believes the biggest change from a Microsoft-Yahoo deal probably will be the one most Web surfers don’t notice. That will come as the companies try to broaden their ability to deliver ads all over the Internet, wherever it reaches.

It’s necessary because being the most popular online destination _ as Yahoo already is _ is no longer enough. The explosion of blogs, video sites and other user-generated content has made our Internet travels more wide-ranging. As a result, the biggest Internet companies now need their ad networks to reach far beyond their home portals. Google has mastered that. Microsoft and Yahoo have not.

“I think that’s really what it’s all about,” Smith said. “It’s about advertising. It’s about search.”

Source: Newsweek

Many of us know what it is like to have a computer problem and lose all our important files. In many cases, this does not necessarily mean absolute tragedy. Don’t despair. There are ways to retrieve lost files. One great option is to pick a good data recovery freeware. Often, this is a good idea but there are also some important considerations that you should have in mind when using recovery freeware.

Who Should Try It

Freeware may be the best option for you but only under certain conditions. It is important to remember that for some cases, freeware may work best. There are still however, some occasions when they may not exactly be everything you hoped for. In some situations, there is no absolute certainty that you will get back everything that you have lost.

Data recovery freeware is often best used when files have been lost or damaged because the system user has made a mistake. Freeware also works great when a virus is the cause of data loss or damage. It is very important that you take the time to assess your problem first before attempting to use any software to help recover lost data.

The best thing about data recovery freeware, should you decide to choose this option, is that you wouldn’t have to shell out thousands for it. You can try it for yourself and see if you can get good results. If you choose the right one, then there is a great chance that it can easily solve your data loss problems.

Even when paid services for data recovery are eventually required, you can always try freeware first. Some people do this and then only progress at a later time to employing experts for a fee when more complicated recovery work is required.

Who Shouldn’t Try It

It’s tempting to try data recovery freeware upon suffering data loss of any kind. This isn’t such a good idea though. You shouldn’t try it under certain circumstances. You may have to find another way to recover your files in cases when freeware is not advisable.

Freeware probably wouldn’t make a dent in your data loss problems if the cause of it is hardware damage. Try to check first if your problem stems from computer hardware problems. Data recovery freeware is only truly advisable when your concern is related to software issues.

Using freeware for data recovery is also inadvisable if you have to follow an installation procedure before it can run. This obviously means you have no chance at all of getting your data back. Freeware should be able to function by using only certain Internet services or a disc.

These days, you can get freeware from a lot of sources but you shouldn’t take the risk with an unknown program. The best way to find a good program that actually works is to ask people who have used them. Ask for recommendations from those who have actually used the freeware you have chosen.

Where You Can Get It

By simply entering ‘data recovery freeware’ into a search engine’s search box you are bound to get some items that you may be able to use. If you are unfamiliar with any of the programs listed, you can head off to technical forums, blogs and website to get some good user reviews, advice and tips about the particular software that you have found.

Data recovery freeware is obviously the cheapest (hey… it’s free), but not always necessarily the best option to use for your computer data recovery. So what is the best option? For more advice on data recovery services and procedures, visit www.datarecoveryfreeware.net right now.

Article Author: Elliot_Bryce

Mozilla bumped up the threat ranking for an unpatched Firefox bug to “high,” but promises a quick fix.

Mozilla Corp. bumped up the threat ranking for an unpatched Firefox bug to “high” Tuesday, but promised a fix is coming in Version 2.0.0.12, now slated for release on Feb. 5.

The company’s head of security, Window Snyder, confirmed that the browser, when running any of more than 600 add-ons, can be exploited to steal “session information, including session cookies and session history.”

Snyder’s acknowledgment followed an update by Gerry Eisenhaur, the researcher who first reported the Firefox problem. “There seems to be some confusion about what exactly the severity of this vulnerability is,” Eisenhaur said on his hiredhacker.com blog. “This is not a chrome privilege escalation, but it [is] worse than just leaking some variables. I created another demo to read the sessionstore.js file. This will display information regarding your current session, [including] windows, tabs, cookies, etc.”

Last week, when Eisenhaur broached the subject, Mozilla rated the threat as only “low,” but began working on a patch. Yesterday, Snyder said a patch would be included with Firefox 2.0.0.12, a security update currently scheduled for a Feb. 5 release.

“Firefox is not vulnerable by default,” Snyder added Tuesday. “Only users that have installed ‘flat’ packed add-ons are at risk.”

Her caveat may be a moot point for most Firefox users, however, since such add-ons are legion. For example, a partial list posted on Bugzilla, Mozilla’s bug management database, runs to more than 600 Firefox extensions, including YouTube-It and Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. Snyder urged add-on authors to update their extensions by packaging them as .jar (Java Archive) files to make them immune to the vulnerability.

Alternately, Firefox users can install the popular NoScript extension to block exploits, regardless of which add-ons have been installed.

Source: Computerworld

Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot is a new software add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook that allows photographers to add details of the client and equipment for a photo shoot appointment in Outlook. This allows photographers to greater leverage the power of Outlook when managing their photography.

Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot supports Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007 running on Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Download: Microsoft Pro Photo Shoot

And it postpones free software update for older Apple TVs

Apple Inc. announced today that it has begun shipping the first MacBook Air laptops to customers, but the company acknowledged that a planned update to Apple TV has been delayed for up two weeks.

The company’s newest laptop, which CEO Steve Jobs called the “world’s thinnest” computer when he unveiled it two weeks ago at San Francisco’s Macworld, is shipping as of today, Apple said. The 3-lb. portable, which retails for $1,799 in its base configuration with a 1.6-GHz IntelCore 2 Duo processor, 2GB of memory and a 13.3-in. LED-backlit display, is also supposed to be available at retail, in both the company’s own stores and its resellers.

Several calls to Apple retail stores in New York, Oregon and elsewhere, however, failed to turn up a MacBook Air. “We haven’t gotten our filthy little hands on them yet,” said a sales representative at the store on West 14th St. in Manhattan. When told that Apple had announced the Air’s availability, however, he added: “That’s good news. It means we’ll have them in in two days.”

He expects that his store will stock both the base model and the $3,098 configuration that features a slightly faster processor and swaps out the traditional platter-based hard drive for a faster 64GB SSD (solid-state drive) built from flash memory.

The computer and consumer electronics maker also revealed a delay in the free software update for current owners of Apple TV, the content-serving appliance that Jobs said is central to Apple’s entry into downloaded movie rentals.

“The new Apple TV software update … is not quite finished,” Apple said in a statement today. “Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two.” When Jobs touted the revamped Apple TV on Jan. 15, he said the update would be delivered in about two weeks.

Apple did not provide a reason for the delay, saying only: “The new Apple TV software will be available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers within two weeks.” New Apple TV units – which cost $229 for a 40GB model and $329 for a 160GB device and sport the new software – ship to customers within 24 hours from Apple’s online store, according to information on the site.

Source: Computerworld

The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver is a modified version of the NVIDIA ForceWare driver. The main purpose is to satisfy the users with better performance, image quality and compatibility. The NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver can enhance your experience in games, multimedia and general usage.

This project is especially suited for enthusiasts and gamers that want to have the best gaming experience. This driver includes NVIDIA’s new Control Panel. We?ve preferred to include the new Control Panel over the old one due to flexibility and stability reasons. The Driver has support for all GeForce/Quadro cards ? including mobile series (Go) as well.

Release Notes
* Initial Release
* Available for both Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit
* Wide Product Support (Desktop/Mobile)
* Improved Performance
* Improved Compatibility
* Improved Tweakcode
* Improved Resolutions and Refresh Rates Support

Supported GPUs
* GeForce 2-8 Series
* GeForce Go Series
* Quadro Series
* GeForce/nForce IGP (Integrated GPU) Series

Supported OSes
* Windows Vista 32-bit
* Windows Vista 64-bit

Download: NGO NVIDIA Optimized Driver 1.16925

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Yahoo Inc. said Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell compared to the same period a year earlier, amid an ongoing reorganization of the troubled Internet company. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said its net income for the period ended in December fell to $205.7 million, or 15 cents a share, from $268.7 million, or 19 cents a share a year earlier. Meanwhile total revenue rose 8% to $1.8 billion. Net sales, which exclude payments Yahoo makes to other Web sites to acquire traffic, rose to $1.4 billion from $1.2 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had estimated Yahoo would report earnings for the fourth quarter of 11 cents a share, on net sales of $1.4 billion.

Last May, AMD introduced its much delayed Radeon HD 2900 XT at $399. In a highly unexpected move, AMD indicated that it would not be introducing any higher end graphics cards. We discussed this in our original 2900 XT review:

“In another unique move, there is no high end part in AMD’s R600 lineup. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is the highest end graphics card in the lineup and it’s priced at $399. While we appreciate AMD’s intent to keep prices in check, the justification is what we have an issue with. According to AMD, it loses money on high end parts which is why we won’t see anything more expensive than the 2900 XT this time around. The real story is that AMD would lose money on a high end part if it wasn’t competitive, which is why we feel that there’s nothing more expensive than the 2900 XT. It’s not a huge deal because the number of people buying > $399 graphics cards is limited, but before we’ve started the review AMD is already giving up ground to NVIDIA, which isn’t a good sign.”

AMD has since released even more graphics cards, including the competitive Radeon HD 3870 and 3850, but it still lacked a high end offering. The end of 2007 saw a slew of graphics cards released that brought GeForce 8800 GTX performance to the masses at lower price points, but nothing any faster. Considering we have yet to achieve visual perfection in PC games, there’s still a need for even faster hardware.

At the end of last year both AMD and NVIDIA hinted at bringing back multi-GPU cards to help round out the high end. The idea is simple: take two fast GPUs, put them together on a single card and sell them as a single faster video card.

These dual GPU designs are even more important today because of the SLI/CrossFire limitations that exist on various chipsets. With few exceptions, you can’t run SLI on anything other than a NVIDIA chipset; and unless you’re running an AMD or Intel chipset, you can’t run CrossFire. These self-contained SLI/CrossFire graphics cards will work on anything however.

AMD is the first out of the gates with the Radeon HD 3870 X2, based on what AMD is calling its R680 GPU. Despite the codename, the product name tells the entire story: the Radeon HD 3870 X2 is made up of two 3870s on a single card.

See More Here

TechSpot test all currently available Phenoms, from the 9600 Black Edition to the yet unreleased 9700 and 9900 models.

While Intel has been quick to regain a lot of the popularity lost during the past few years, that is no excuse to forget about the #2 company in computer processing. AMD made a name for itself with the original Athlon and Athlon 64 processors and it would only seem logical that its next generation product called Phenom (K10) was to raise expectations all over the place, and it did.

But as we know today, things did not go smoothly with the Phenom roll out, and to make things worse, Intel has barely stopped pounding with newer Core 2 CPU releases quarter after quarter.

The first batch of AMD Phenom processors finally went on sale last November, with the 9500 (2.2GHz) and 9600 (2.3GHz) models making a first appearance. Initial pricing was set at $283 and $251, however because their performance was lagging a bit behind its direct competition, AMD was quick to respond with a price reduction that set them at $251 and $209, respectively.

Today, two months after the release of these first processors, we are still left with the same 9600 and 9500 models out in retail. Due to the well publicized problems with the B2 stepping, AMD has held off releasing any further models until around March, when a new bug-free B3 stepping will become available.

This new stepping will refresh the current Phenom line-up, while adding a number of new processors. The Phenom 9500 will be replaced by the 9550 and the 9600 will be replaced by the 9650. Later on in the year, AMD is also set to release the Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors, clocked at 2.4GHz and 2.6GHz.

Although there has been a lot of negativity surrounding the new Phenoms, we have found them to be quite good overall. The biggest problem we current have with the processor is that it is not scaling very well, with the fastest announced processor being the 9900, which is going to operate at just 2.6GHz. Already we have found when testing the 790FX platform that if the Phenom is to stand any kind of chance against the Core 2 Quads it is required to at least match it at the same frequency. Then when you consider that most Core 2 processors offer serious overclocking headroom, it becomes clear that the Phenom has an even greater challenge ahead.

Today we will be comparing the Phenom 9500, 9600, 9700 and the 9900 (B2 Stepping) against the recently released Core 2 Duo E8400, as well as the very popular Core 2 Quad Q6600. An older Athlon64 X2 5200+ processor will be added to the mix as well.

Although the actual shipping Phenom 9700 and 9900 processors should be faster than what we will be showing you here, AMD has sent us engineering samples that in the meantime should give us a pretty good estimate of what to expect from them. The final retail versions of these two processors will be based on the improved B3 stepping. The Phenom 9500 and 9600 are retail versions that we have picked up from store shelves, so the performance of those will be identical from what you can get when purchasing either processor today.

See More at TechSpot

Analysts are alarmed at a perceived discrepancy in the figures in iPhone sales figures.

Analysts are mulling over Apple’s iPhone sales numbers and are alarmed at a perceived discrepancy in the figures.

Apple claims slightly over 3.7 million iPhones were sold in 2007 – yet AT&T this week revealed it ended the year with “just at or sightly under two million iPhone customers".

That two million has been boosted somewhat by an estimated 300,000-400,000 sales in Europe, analysts believe.

The discrepancy is that the 3.7 million iPhones Apple says it has sold and the estimated 2.4 million sold by its network partners still leaves 1.3 million of the devices unaccounted for.

That implies that around one in three iPhones are being purchased in order to unlock the device for use on other networks and/or for use with unapproved third party applications.

While it’s possible some iPhones were sold over the Christmas period but not activated immediately as new users (perhaps) worked to cancel their existing mobile contracts, the discrepancy still implies an active market for unlocked iPhones.

Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook told analysts this week that the company believes the number of unlocked iPhones in the wild to be “significant,” but declined to furnish accurate figures.

Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research cites these figures in order to claim a substantial market in unlocked iPhones, and speculates this news may also mean a build-up in iPhone inventory.

“It indicates end-user demand for iPhone is lower than many investors may think based on Apple’s sales figure – and it points to slower iPhone sales in the current quarter, since much of this inventory is likely to be drawn down,” the analyst explains.

Jonny Evans, Macworld

A group of hackers calling itself “Anonymous” has hit the Church of Scientology’s Web site with an online attack.

The attack was launched Jan. 19 by Anonymous, which is seeking media attention to help “save people from Scientology by reversing the brainwashing,” according to a Web page maintained by Anonymous.

Anonymous claims to have knocked the Church’s Web site offline with a distributed denial-of-service attack, in which many computers bombard the victim’s server with requests, overwhelming it with data in the hope of ultimately knocking the system offline. True to its name, Anonymous does not disclose the true identities of its members.

The attacks were spurred by the Church’s efforts to remove video of movie star Tom Cruise professing his admiration for the religion, according to an Anonymous video manifesto posted to Youtube.

“For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind and for our own enjoyment, we shall proceed to expel you from the Internet and systematically dismantle the Church of Scientology in its present form,” a creepy computerized voice states in the video. Anonymous followed up this dispatch with a second video blasting the media for failing to completely report the group’s criticisms of the church. This video was taken down Friday by Youtube, citing a “terms of use violation.”

Anonymous has managed to generate a measurable attack against the Scientology.org Web site. Over the past few days, the site was hit with several DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks, which flooded it with as much as 220M bps of traffic, according to Jose Nazario, a senior security engineer with Arbor Networks, whose company compiles data on Internet attacks.

The Anonymous campaign shows some level of organization. “220M bps is probably about in the middle of attack sizes,” Nazario said. “It’s not just one or two guys hanging out in the university dorms doing this.”

On average, the attacks lasted about 30 minutes and used up 168M bps of bandwidth. In the past year, Arbor has seen attacks on other sites hit 40G bps, or 200 times the strength of the Anonymous event.

Shortly after it was hit with the DDOS flood, the Scientology.org Web site was moved to a server hosted by Prolexic Technologies, according to data compiled by Netcraft, an Internet monitoring company. Prolexic specializes in protecting companies from DDOS attacks.

A Prolexic spokeswoman confirmed that the Church of Scientology is one of the company’s clients, but declined to offer more details on the matter. The Church of Scientology did not return a phone call and e-mail seeking comment.

The secretive Church of Scientology’s practices, including its efforts to use copyright law to restrict the dissemination of information about the church, have engendered a lot of criticism within the Internet community. But one Web site set up to criticize Scientology – called Operation Clambake – called the DDOS attacks a bad idea. “Attacking Scientology like that will just make them play the religious persecution card,” wrote Andreas Heldal-Lund, the Web site’s owner. “They will use it to defend their own counter actions when they try to shatter criticism and crush critics without mercy.”

If publicity was Anonymous’ ultimate goal, the group has had some success. Late in the day Friday, seven of the top 10 stories on the Digg.com news-linking site related to Scientology or to Anonymous’ communiques.

Source: IDG News Service

The Microsoft operating system is improved by the soon-to-arrive service pack, but Windows Vista still is missing some features we’d like to see.
Tom Spring, PC World
With dissatisfaction over the Vista operating system persistent, can Microsoft right the OS’s wrongs with its upcoming Vista service pack?

Microsoft made the latest beta of Vista SP1 available to the public earlier this month, and after informally testing it for a couple of days, I find my PC is working more reliably–and some tasks especially file copying, take less time. But I was hoping for more out of SP1, such as bigger system performance gains and fixes for Vista annoyances including the oft-criticized User Account Control feature.

And if you are waiting for major improvements to switch to Vista, you’d better hope that Microsoft’s SP1 development team goes into overdrive before the service pack’s official release and gives you more compelling reasons to make the jump to the OS. Vista undergoes no major overhaul with the SP1 release I looked at.

By the way, Microsoft has said SP1 will ship sometime in the first quarter; sources recently said SP1 would appear in the next few weeks.

Key features in Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate Refresh (the downloadable beta’s official name) include improved reliability, security, and performance. In its description of SP1, Microsoft notes many tweaks are buried deep in the shell of the OS and include hard-to-quantify improvements–for example, support for a couple of emerging standards–Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT)–and better compatibility with third-party software and PC peripherals.
SP1 Boosts Reliability, Security, and Performance

On the reliability front, Microsoft says SP1 reduces the time it takes to boot and power down a Vista PC as well as the time it takes a PC to wake from hibernation mode, or to snap back after a photo screen saver has been running. Also fixed is the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL at boot up and the appearance of the password prompt.

Other fixes address the mysterious problem of how browsing network files eats up more network bandwidth than expected, compared to earlier version of Windows.

And lastly, Microsoft says it has devoted considerable effort to improving file and folder management. SP1 claims to cut the time it takes to extract files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder - but won’t say by how much.

However Microsoft does make some specific claims about performance gains. It says the service pack reduces by 45 percent the time it takes to copy files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system. A 50 percent gain is seen, Microsoft says, when copying files from a remote SP1 system over a LAN to a local SP1 system.

Microsoft’s TechNet has a full list of notable changes in Windows Vista SP1.

Source: PCWolrld

I bought a brand new PC with all the latest configurations spending a good lot on that. But obvious, I wanted the best out of it, and I got it too. Then, after a year or so has passed by, I find that it is not that fast as it used to be. It is not that brand new fast speed that you get with a new PC. With time, it gets more and more sluggish and it is particularly irritating when I am surfing the net or downloading something. What’s wrong with my PC and how do I fix my slow running computer?

You might be thinking that my problem is no different from yours. Almost all of you working out there must have experienced this problem and got a lot of different opinions and remedies from your buddies, most of which were good for nothing. I can say that you tried upgrading your RAM, formatting your PC, uninstall and reinstall your OS and worse, went for a change of your Mother Board and even the processor, but the problem still persists. All these I tried to fix my slow running computer but it did not help.

Here, let me give you an unwanted piece of advice which comes from my experience, the way I fixed my slow running computer. Perhaps you are pondering in the wrong direction. The problem does not lie in above components. The actual culprit is the Registry of your Operating System which might have gathered some scrap or got corrupted by certain spy wares or viruses.

The solution! It needs to be cleaned. The cleaning agent! Some Registry Cleaning Software could do the trick. Many people use this type of software with great results. You need to do this periodically (well, once in a year is good). This is something like servicing your car, try them out.

Corey is a self proclaimed Computer Expert. You can see detailed reviews on the top 5 registry cleaners and do a free scan or download at http://www.registrycleanersrated.com/ and see how I did Fix My Slow Running Computer.

Author: Corey J. Thompson

Steve Jobs once said that iTunes on Windows was like ?giving ice water to someone in hell?. Today, Apple is giving more ice water to the people of hell by releasing a public beta of Safari 3.0 to Windows users.

According to Apple, Safari 3.0 is 2 times faster than Internet Explorer and 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2 when loading pages. Safari 3 also executes JavaScript up to 2.8 times faster than Internet Explorer and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.0.

What?s new?

Improved inline find. When using the Find Command in Safari (cmd-f), a find bar will appear on top allowing you to enter your search term. When a matched text is found, Safari will dim the page and show the selected match with an orange background with white border.
Drag and drop tabs.
Resizable text field ? Safari lets you resize textarea forms.
Windows and Mac users can now download the public beta from http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Refilling ink cartridges is now a relatively easy process that only takes some courage and practice to achieve consistent results. Many companies now sell refill kits that are bound to save you quite a bit of money in the long run. In addition, if you don’t want to go through all the hassles of refilling your own cartridges, you can now have them refilled for a fraction of the cost of a new cartridge.

One such company, Cartridge World, has locations in dozens of countries and has been in operation for nearly 20 years. Chances are, there is a location near you, so you won’t have to drive far to get a refilled cartridge. While they don’t actually refill your specific cartridge, you simply drop off your empty cartridge and buy a refilled cartridge in its place. The benefit of doing so, even if the cost is somewhat higher than refilling the cartridge yourself, is that they guarantee their products. If the cartridge does not perform as promised, you can return it within 90 days and have it either repaired, replaced, or your money refunded. Be sure to keep the receipt, however!

Another great location for refilling the cartridges is OfficeMax. Many of their stores now have ink refilling stations that make refilling much easier. Just bring in your cartridge and you can refill it right there and then for a portion of the price of a new cartridge. Staples and Office Depot so far haven’t followed suit, but hopefully they will offer the service to their customers in the future.

If you cannot find Cartridge World or OfficeMax around where you live, you can opt to buy remanufactured cartridges from a number of online companies. However, they too will not be as cheap as refilling the cartridge yourself. If you really want to start saving money, get a refill kit and do it yourself. It takes about 15 minutes to do if you haven’t done it before, but with practice you’ll be done in no time. The actual process is not as hard or messy as people tend to believe. The belief got started years ago when the refill kits were universal, so there was a high failure yet, and it persisted despite the changes in the way things are done.

Nowadays, you get a refill kit that is either specific to your cartridge or a few similar cartridges, so the instructions and the actual content of the kit is designed to make refilling your particular cartridge easy and painless. They all contain instructions that are attuned to your cartridge, so they are better sources of information than generic instructions found online. So, if you are considering refilling ink cartridges, now is the time to start saving money.

Want to discover how to find quality discount printer cartridges? Then make sure to visit http://www.findinkcartridges.com, a popular website that provides inkjet printer reviews, ratings and tips including information on recycle printer cartridges and the risks of refilling ink cartridges to your printer.

Author: John Synder

Looks like it didn?t take long for the first external build of Windows 7 to be leaked on to the interwebs. Black fumes were reported escaping Steven Sinofsky?s office earlier this morning after news Microsoft has delivered a Milestone 1 build of the next version of Windows to OEMs spread like wildfire in a dry grassy field on a hot summer?s day.

A member named ?kenipnet? on Neowin.net?s forums claims to have and installed this very build on his own desktop and laptop machines, and posted this short review on Neowin. For unknown reasons, it was later deleted by the poster, but fortunately the website administrator ?Neobond? has republished a cache version of the original post for all but Sinofsky to see. Of course there?s no way to prove this is true, but the facts appear consistent with ?other reports? of what the build contains. Take it with a grain of salt and a cup of tea, donuts sold separately.

“So here we?re at it, again

Over the weekend I finally managed to play with the build?. but disappointed.

One my primary machine, it asked for my SATA driver (never happened when installing Vista, as my drives were set as IDE in BIOS). After adding the driver from my USB thumb drive it would finally install. It didn?t boot after first restart, however.

On my laptop it installed perfectly, but with no driver support for the video card. After numerous tries I gave up in the end, so Aero is now left in the dark.

Oh well, so there?s nothing to show.

The build is 6.1.6519.

The GUI, as much of you have guessed, is very much like Vista. I don?t know if once the right video card driver is in place whether there will be flashy stuffs to surprise me. The system is very responsive, using barely 480MB of memory after boot.

Gadgets are now integrated into explorer. You can right click on desktop and select ?Add Gadget? or ?Hide Gadget?. There is a new gadget called ?Windows Media Center? that displays now playing information from the WMC. On the same menu, ?Display? is added above ?Personalization? which gives you direct access to display DPI settings. The page is much more polished than the one in Vista.

The start menu features a pin besides each item. Clicking on it toggles pinning/unpinning the item. Search in explorer is now states where you search within (usually being within the folder, as in Vista). You can now, however, adjust the size of the search box.

XAML fonts, called the ?Composite Fonts? are now added to the font folder. Perhaps WPF will be much more prominent in this release. It?s disappointing that I don?t have Aero running, or otherwise there might be some interesting stuffs to see.

A new application is added, dubbed the ?XPS Viewer?, no surprises, either.

Then finally, something interesting came up: the feedback tool. The feedback tool lists the ?pillars? of Win 7. You can see that Microsoft is aiming to fine tune this release as the case in XP rather than technological advancement as in 2K. highlights include?network aware?, with improved connection tools and detections. It will have the ability to detect which network you?re in and switch your settings and devices accordingly; With Live account, you can carry your IE settings and favorites with you; Gadget data caching; New Calculator, Paint, and Wordpad using WPF; install to desktop in 10 mins with only 1 reboot; instant streaming; better battery mileage, etc. All descriptions are scenario-based, so what will actually turn up is still yet to know.

Oh.. how could I miss this. A new boot screen does show up, finally. A full screen Vista-logon screen like boot screen with a beam scrolling across the whole screen near the bottom. Looks nice but reminds me of Win9x (well since XP we?ve been in the ?dark?, so surprised to see such a bright boot screen)!

I for one simply cannot wait for the new calculator. As long as no one gets into unrealistic release date guesstimations again, it?s all good fun. Although I don?t agree with what the poster described as a ?disappointment?, because there shouldn?t be any expectations. Let?s not make the same mistake twice.”

Author: Long Zheng

One of the major problems that occur with DVD ROMs is the it is not ejecting. You are trying to view your favorite movie and the it suddenly gets jammed mid way. The problem might well be with a faulty laser or something else that has gone awry with the disk. Would you then try repairing Digital Video Disk ROMs?

Nowadays, removable disk ROMs are available at throwaway prices. Therefore, it is more than probable that you would be able to strike a better deal for your new disk ROM. The new instrument would give you warranty as well as the stability of a fresh product.

The catch is that when you give your removable device to the service center they would take some time to correct the fault. Until you get your product back, you would not have the luxury of using an alternative or replacement. Your next best option is to repair this by yourself.

A number of ways are there by which you can repair your it by yourself without going to the service center.

- If the problem lies in a DVD tray not opening, then one of the easy ways out is to use a pin. If you look carefully at that ROM you are using, you would notice that just beside the indicator button there is a small hole. The hole is tiny and only a pin or something similar could be accommodated. If the front tray is stuck then push the pin inside the hole and wait for the sound of a click. Opening of the lock is indicated by the clicking sound.

- After running for a year or so, the DVD tray often becomes dirty and unreadable. The laser head also gets into a similar state. The best way out is to buy a disk cleaning kit, use it on the ROM. Insert the cleaning CD into the tray, and run it as an ordinary audio CD. After running for 3-4 minutes, the head of the laser will be cleaned. If the drive is still not cleaned, redo the whole process a second time. This is one of the less time consuming ways of repairing a Digital Video Disk ROM.

An alternative for using the head cleaning CD and fluid is the moist linen cloth. Soak a piece of dry linen cloth into spirit and make it moist. Then use the moist cloth to wipe the tray of your Digital Video Disk ROM and the laser head. Do not use cotton to wipe the head, as it might leave some of its finer fragments on it.

Suppose the disk you inserted is not showing up on the computer disk drive. The message given is ‘disk not found’. In such a situation, simply take out the DVD from the tray and wipe it with cotton or soft linen cloth. Wipe it in a clockwise circular fashion from the outer to the inner base. This would ensure that no harm is done to the data structure. When the disk is cleaned put it into the drive and run.

The best advice is to try repairing DVD ROMs by yourself first, and then call for help if necessary.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos. You can find the best marketplace for used DVDs, used movies, and used car stereos at these sites for cleaning kit, laser head, linen cloth, used movies, and used car stereos.

Author: Victor Epand

San Francisco (CA) - AMD and IBM presented first details of its 45 nm production process at the International Electron Device Meeting (IEDM) today. While practical data for the consumer remains scarce, the two companies indicated that their production approach will bring performance improvements of about 15%.

Just about every two years, we are seeing a new process production process that pays tribute to Moore’s Law. And if you just got used to hearing about 65 nm processors (which were introduced in December 2005), we have to tell you that 45 nm will be the big story starting in about half a year.

Intel has been in the lead consistently when it comes to new production processes, but the company will see some increased pressure from AMD starting with the 45 nm generation. The first 65 nm processors were announced earlier this month, which means that AMD is currently trailing its rival by about a year; however AMD has put in place an aggressive transition to 45 nm, which is expected happen by mid-2008 or just about six months after Intel’s first 45 nm processors ("Penryn” core).

Intel has demonstrated a first functional 45 nm SRAM cell, the technologically which is typically first developed on a new production process, earlier this year. AMD has not yet announced the completion of such a product, but was able to provide a few details about its production process. According to papers presented at the IEDM, AMD will use ultra-low-K interconnect dielectrics, which are expected to help reduce interconnect capacitance and wiring delay. The company promises that the material will lower power consumption and increase microprocessor performance. As it appears, first SRAM prototype cells point to a speed increase of about 15%.

AMD said that it will continue to use deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) techniques to print circuits on its processors. Specifically, the 45 nm generation will be manufactured using 193 nm immersion lithography. Compared to previous lithography generations, AMD has developed in cooperation with IBM a technique that uses a transparent “liquid,” instead of regular water, to fill the space between the projection lens of the step-and-repeat lithography system and the wafer.

Lithography has moved into a remarkable phase of innovation over the past decade. DUV, which uses 193 nm light sources, has been in place since 1995, but was believed to run out of steam by 2003 or 2004. Back in 1997, Intel, Motorola and AMD created the EUV Limited Liability Corporation to develop an extreme ultraviolet process (EUV) to replace DUV at the 100 nm production level. Current estimates believe that DUV can be enhanced with lens materials and fluids to master even 32 nm structures. Beyond that, it appears that things are still somewhat uncertain. For example, Intel’s lithography roadmap currently states 193 nm lithography can be enhanced and applied to 32 nm chips and even to 22 nm devices, which are scheduled to arrive late in 2011. However, there is little doubt that DUV will be obsolete after that: An expensive to a new printing draws closer and, at this time, Intel engineers believe that EUV or a completely new method may be necessary for 16 nm processors in 2013.

Source: TG Daily