We weten natuurlijk al lang dat Microsoft en Intel niet meer zo goed met elkaar overweg kunnen als eerst. Het feit dat Intel heeft geinvesteerd in Redhat heeft ook niet bijgedragen aan een verbetering van de verstandhoudingen. Infoworld heeft een interessant achtergrondartikel over de meest vruchtbare, en tegelijkertijd meest verachte, samenwerking in de computerindustrie.

The Wintel marriage is at its rockiest as miscommunication, wandering eyes, and increasingly loud public spats are straining an already troubled union. However, as the duopoly enters 1999 on shaky ground, most industry analysts say it is not divorce lawyers but a marriage counselor that is called for because mutual self-interest will prevent the Microsoft and Intel union from breaking up any time soon. And for IT managers who have come to count on these two companies to push forward industry standards, the next few years will see fundamental change as both companies look to drive advancements in the age of the Internet.

Even wat anders dan nieuws over de Katmai of de K7. Met nanotechnology maakt de processor gewoon zichzelf, en dat veel kleiner dan tot nu toe mogelijk was.

"The single most frequently asked question about nanotechnology is: how long? How long before it will let us make molecular computers? How long before inexpensive solar cells let us use clean solar power instead of oil, coal, and nuclear fuel? How long before we can explore space at a reasonable cost?

Kijk op de site van Xerox voor het complete (lange!) verhaal.

Ace's Hardware heeft een artikel met wat tips voor overklokkers. Ok, hier kennen we er al 10.000 van, maar misschien toch handig.

Hier wat stuff over het in burnen van een CPU (schijnt te kunen helpen):

After all this talk about cooling, let us talk about a hotter subject: "burning in". I never tested this, but some people claim that if you put your overclocked under a heavy load continuously and for a long period (>12 hours) , you might be able to lower the used CPU-core voltage. 

This would be helpful, if you can only get your overclocked CPU stable when your case is open and you have to use 10 howling fans. You burn in the CPU, lower the voltage after the process and be able to close your case (less voltage, less heat),  lower the number of fans at the same overclocked CPU. 

A good program to test the stability of your overclocked CPU and hence also a good one to "burn in" is Prime 95. 

Prime95 which uses the memory bus, FPU and processor intensively. There is a "torture test" which will run a continous loop of self tests. If your overclocked CPU can run Prime 95 for several hours you can consider your system stable (Editor's Note: Distributed.Net's RC5 client is also an excellent program for this process). 

De Korea Herald heeft wat info over portable MP3 spelers die wij de komende tijd uit Korea mogen verwachten. Hier wat spul:

Besides these pioneers, a group of small Korean firms are lining up for a peace of the action. For instance, Gate Square is working on a multifunction MP3 player with paging capabilities. The company has also developed an MP3 player for vehicles which runs on a RISC processor and uses a CD-ROM for storage. AMAC Information and Communication is another startup drawn to the big opportunity born of MP3 technology. Its strategy is to undercut market leaders with low-cost products. While a 32-megabyte MPMan from Saehan sells for around $220 per unit, AMAC plans to release a product with the same storage capacity for around $150 next February. A 32MB Rio is selling for $199 in the U.S.

Digital Way is also set to join the fray. It has developed a model equipped with a digital camera module, which means that the product can store digital pictures as well as music. It is scheduled to be released next spring. Using its caption technology, Korea Media is developing a an MP3 player that can also be used as a singing machine and a language tutor. A company official said the new device, slated to hit store shelves in March, will also feature games and data backup capabilities. Big players like Samsung Electronics are also poised to jump on the MP3 bandwagon. The electronics powerhouse plans to market two models next February, one with 24MB of flash memory and the other with basic 24MB flash memory and 16MB memory card.

Nog wat helfthaftige overklokkers verhalen op Overclockers.com. Hoe je een PII-333 met 5,5ns cachechips toch op 560Mhz krijgt (wat die cachechips dus niet trekken):

Just got a great email from Ray about how he got his 333 to 560. He opened the case and found the cache chips were 5.5ns, hence no luck on hitting 500. He has a 350, opened it and found 4.4ns cache chips. Soldering iron, switch chips and now has a 333 with 4.4ns cache hitting 560! Not for the faint of heart - note this from Ray:

"I have 15 years of soldering experience, and attended 2 classes on soldering, one from Texas A&M, and one from Motorola. I do not recommend this to anyone that is not familiar with soldering IC's; the PCB is very easy to burn, and the contacts can be ripped from the PCB. If not careful, then you have a Celeron 333 minus the A." (For more on cache, see "The Cache/CPU Connection" by Ed Stroglio in Tips section).

Daddy Broussard, een of andere bennie van 3DRealms, heeft wat spul gepost op het 3DRealms Bulletin Board over wat er zoal aan de gang is bij de ontwikkeling van Duke Nukem Forever.

Hier een stukje:

ode: Been adding lot's and lot's of neato features so our mappers can do insane, and I mean insane amounts of interactivity. Also working on things like skeletal character system, level of detail, and preparing to do a major patch to Unreals version 220+ code base (Janurary).

Maps: the guys have been working steadily on majorly detailed level scripts, so that we know where you are and what you will be doing on a level per level basis. This is analogous to a blueprint for a house, or a script for a movie. They are about to start on "real" maps according to the scripts we've drawn up. Major design meetings and level reviews have been taking place as we continue to refine the game.

Art: Modellers have been building some characters and smaller decorative objects for the game. We are amassing a library of items that can pop into the game at any time and they know how to react to being shot or USEd. Texture guys are always jamming on textures for the levels, or skins for the characters.

Concept sketches: Been working on nailing final looks for BombShell, and storyboarding some cinematic sequences. About to start doing sketches of level locations so the mappers have a good visual to build off of. Will continue with character sketches as we refine what will/will not be in the game.

That's a brief run down of what we've been doing. The major part of the last 2-3 months has been uplifting Unreal to do a lot of what we wanted DNF to do. We are now 95% happy with the interactivity we can do and are moving to more mundane things like Unreal patch upgrades, weapons coding and neat little interactive touches.

All in all, things are going great and we're about in our stride in full production on the game. We'll also probably be building a small motion capture studio in house and getting the equipment in here asap (as we've done the research and demo'ed a couple).

We've still got an immense amount of work to do, to bring the game up to playable "game" status, but all the separate parts are coming together and we're all really, really excited at what we see forming.

Thanks for the patience and support. DNF will rock you

Kryotech heeft een systeempie in elkaar gegooid waarmee je een K6-2 400 op 500Mhz kunt draaien. Natuurlijk dankzij die leuke koeling van hun (-40C):

A US company has claimed it has developed a cooling system which will allow 400MHz AMD K6-2s to clock at 500MHz. It is selling a 110V system for both Win95 and Win98 and promises a 220V system early in 1999.

The system, sold by Kryotech is called the Cool K6-2 and uses a 400MHz part accelerated to 500MHz using a proprietary –40° cooling system.

A unit with a FIC PA-2013 ATX motherboard using a 100MHz front side bus with AGP and a 300 watt power supply will cost $1,695.`

Errug duur dus. Anand heeft een review hiero.

Daarnet werden in Maarten's posting nog Chinezen ter dood veroordeelt wegens hacken, daaro in Noorwegen gaan ze het legaliseren! Lekkere tegenstelling...

Hier wat info van The Register:

Norway's supreme court has ruled that remotely exploring computers connected to the Internet is not a crime.

The ruling sets a precedent that any system connected to the Internet (at least those in Norway) can be legally probed for security leaks.

The ruling follows a case brought by the University of Oslo against a private security company, Norman Data Defence Systems (NDDS). NDDS had been contracted by a Norwegian news service to demonstrate the security pitfalls of Internet-connected systems for a TV programme.

The company used a number of standard techniques to probe the University's mail system and determine who was connected to the institution's computers. NDDS claims the tests were conducted simply to see what information could be garnered using standard Internet protocols. No personal data was accessed.

However, the University took NDDS and the individual engineer who carried out the tests to court. Both the company and the engineer were found guilty of an attempted break-in and misuse of computer resources to which they had no right of access. NDDS was fined and ordered to pay for repair work on the University's network.

An initial appeal overturned the break-in charge, but now a second appeal, to Norway's supreme court, has seen the misuse charge quashed too.

"The essence of the ruling is that if you want to join the Internet, you have to assure that you're protected," said NDDS CEO Gunnel Wullstein. "If you don't want to be visited, close your ports".

Hackers die in een bank hebben ingebroken, en digitaal geld gestolen, zijn ter dood veroordeeld

SHANGHAI, China (Reuters) -- Two hackers who broke into a bank computer network and stole 260,000 yuan (31,400) have been sentenced to death by a court in eastern China, the official Wenhui Daily said on Monday. The Yangzhou Intermediate Court in Jiangsu province also conficated 40,000 yuan from Hao Jinglong, formerly an accountant at the Zhenjiang branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and his brother Hao Jingwen, the newspaper said. The two opened 16 accounts under various names in a branch of the bank in September and later broke into the branch to install a controlling device in a bank computer terminal, the newspaper said. They used the device to electronically wire 720,000 yuan in non-existent deposits into the bank accounts. Afterwards, they successfully withdrew 260,000 yuan from eight different branches of the bank, the newspaper said. All the money had since been recovered, the newspaper said, without giving further details.

Zag ergens in een nieuwsgroep een melding over een programma dat ASP code kan converteren naar PHP3 code.

Zie http://www.inlink.com/~naken/asp2php/

Je kunt tegenwoordig op vakantie in de ruimte (eindelijk...) enfin, lees het verhaal & de commentaren op slashdot...

Space Island hopes to build a space station from 12 discarded Space-Shuttle fuel-tanks for tourism. The structure should be able to house 350 guests and 50 full-time staff within 5 years. Now, if the price depreciates, I might be able to afford it before I retire ;-)

Intel verlaagt zijn prijzen van de Celeron's, om nog beter met AMD te kunnen concureren

Intel ratcheted up its ongoing price war with Advanced Micro Devices by quietly cutting prices on its Celeron chips by roughly 30 percent this month and releasing a new, even cheaper version of the chip earlier than expected. The unscheduled, unannounced price cuts, which took place on December 6, mean that the fastest Celeron chips can be bought for between $85 and $105 in retail outlets today, or about $40 less than in November, according to dealers. And, while AMD did not officially respond with a price cut of its own, chip dealers note that the market has effectively lowered the price of K6-2 chips to close to the same level. The December price cuts will be followed by further cuts across Intel's Pentium II line as well as the rollout of new, faster Celeron chips in the first week of January, sources said.

Voodoo Nation heeft een preview in elkaar gepleurt van de ATI Fury Rage, zo'n nieuw ding van ATI met de Rage128 chipset.

Hier wat info over de hitte die de Rage128 produceert (zie ook THG):

Long talk, short synopsis: Temperature is not a critical factor for the Rage 128 GL in comparision with those other modern board.

The case temperature is about 2 C (3.6 F) above the levels seen with the fan-cooled Erazor II and the heatsink-only equipped Victory II, which places it 8 C (14.4 F) below the magic line of 50 C where a malfunction could occur based on standard specs of PC boards. Subjectively that means that it felt the same when I burnt my finger on the Rage 128 as compared to when I toasted it on the Banshee heatsink. Objectively it means that you should keep your curious hands away so you won't jump around cussing.

This takes place in the "bad" climate of my tower case that has only a single fan that blows fresh air into the power supply but none that will push waste heat out. You should see even less disturbing results if you have additional cooling or better airflow in your system.

The waste heat produced by the Rage 128 is rather sharply localized on the video board itself. My network card right opposite from it felt no hotter than without video board. Issues here are really conducted heat and a potential jam of heated air in the system, but those are more relevant to bad case designs than hot chips.

PCPowerhouse heeft een artikel gepost met info over diverse removable storage gevalletjes, o.a. Zip, Superdisk en Sony HiFD.

Hier wat stuff uit de intro:

It is these problems with the 1.44Mb floppy disk that have created the emergence of the Syquest EZ135, Syquest EZ Flyer 230, Iomega's 100Mb Zip drive, and the Avartar Shark drive. The battle between the EZ135 and Zip drives was the first real attempt at displacing the floppy. Unfortunately for Syquest, while their drive was superior to the Zip in storage capacity and speed, the Zip drive came out first, and had a little more momentum going for it. Both drives suffered with problems, the Iomega Click of Death was discovered, causing Iomega to create the Zip Plus! drive. Meanwhile the EZ135 had numerous minor problems that led Syquest to develop the EZ Flyer 230 drive and discontinue their EZ135 units. The Avartar Shark drive was a late entry into this battle, and it didn't fare well with its higher price tag. Yet each of these solutions, while superior to the venerable floppy drive, suffer from the same problems as past attempts to replace the floppy...cost and compatibility.

Anand heeft een review van FIC's KA-6100 Apollo Pro AT Pentium II Board. Een AT plank dus:

his can be attributed to the cramped Baby AT layout, however it is still no excuse, as other manufacturers have avoided the problem: the HDD/FDD interface ports are in the way of all three of the PCI slots, making the use of full length PCI cards quite difficult.  After a little bending, I could install a reference Voodoo2 (the shorter Pure3D-2 had no problem fitting) without too much of a possibility that the card would lose its seat in the PCI slot as a result of the FDD cable pushing up on it, however installing a full length card would be a bit of a risk.

Following the lead of most AT motherboard manufacturers, FIC still fails to include any USB ports for your case, so you're left with a USB capable motherboard, and a $10 debt for the external USB ports that you can pick up at your local computer retail shop. 

The stability of the motherboard, especially with all three DIMM slots populated pushed the quality rating of the KA-6100 down a few percent.  Overall, under normal usage conditions, the KA-6100 bumped heads with the best of them, however don't consider the KA-6100 as a purely rock solid motherboard as it is shadowed by the ASUS' and AOpen's of the industry.

Die 'druk op start om te stoppen' grap kennen we inmiddels allemaal wel, toch vond ik deze thread op Anand's BBS wel geinig:

Costello: Hey, Abbott!

Abbot: Yes, Lou?

Costello: I just got my first computer.

Abbot: That's great Lou. What did you get?

Costello: A Pentium II-266, with 40 Megs of RAM, a 2.1 Gig hard drive, and a 24X CD-ROM.

Abbot: That's terrific, Lou.

Costello: But I don't know what any of it means!!

Abbot: You will in time.

Costello: That's exactly why I am here to see you.

Abbot: Oh?

Costello: I heard that you are a real computer expert.

Abbot: Well, I don't know-

Costello: Yes-sir-ee. You know your stuff. And you're going to train me.

Abbot: Really?

Costello: Uh huh. And I am here for my first lesson.

Abbot: O.K. Lou. What do want to know?

Costello: I am having no problem turning it on, but I heard that you should be very careful how you turn it off.

Abbot: That's true.

Costello: So, here I am working on my new computer and I want to turn it off. What do I do?

Abbot: Well, first you press the Start button, and then-

Costello: No, I told you, I want to turn it off.

Abbot: I know, you press the Start button-

Costello: Wait a second. I want to turn it off. Off. I know how to start it. So tell me what to do.

Abbot: I did.

Costello: When?

Abbot: When I told you to press the Start button.

Costello: Why should I press the Start button?

Abbot: To shut off the computer.

Costello: I press Start to stop.

Abbot: Well Start doesn't actually stop the computer.

Costello: I knew it! So what do I press.

Abbot: Start

Costello: Start what?

Abbot: Start button.

Costello: Start button to do what?

Abbot: Shut down.

Costello: You don't have to get rude!

Abbot: No, no, no! That's not what I meant.

Costello: Then say what you mean.

Abbot: To shut down the computer, press-

Costello: Don't say, "Start!"

Abbot: Then what do you want me to say?

Costello: Look, if I want to turn off the computer, I am willing to press the Stop button, the End button and Cease and Desist button, but no one in their right mind presses the Start to Stop.

Abbot: But that's what you do.

Costello: And you probably Go at Stop signs, and Stop at green lights.

Abbot: Don't be ridiculous.

Costello: I am being ridiculous? Well. I think it's about time we started this conversation.

Abbot: What are you talking about?

Costello: I am starting this conversation right now. Good-bye.

Nog wat spul van Tresh's FiringSquad: een preview van Max Payne.

Ziet er erg vet uit:

Stylistically speaking, Max Payne is going to play out like a classic "Underdog good guy vs. overwhelmingly powerful bad guys" Hollywood action movie, and that's exactly the way its Finnish developers, Remedy Entertainment, want it to be. Aiming directly at the crime-thriller lovers in all of us, Max Payne will include much of the same real-world realism you'll find in hit action movies, such as Die-Hard. Along the same lines, Remedy infused a lot of John Woo-esque elements into the game, giving our hero some chic moves and a "cool as ice" presence.

Much like Half-Life or any action film, you'll find out more about the story the further along you are in the game. The plot will unfold through a series of scripted sequences, hand-painted animated comics, news, and other nifty things you may come across during the game. The collection of over 80 hand-painted comics will act as cut-scenes, setting the dark, almost gothic atmosphere while unfolding the story in-depth.

Max Payne is a bold third-person shooter intended for mature audiences. Unlike other games in the third-person genre, such as Tomb Raider and Heretic II, this game is not focused on puzzle solving, but rather using its plot and storyline to enhance the shoot 'em up action. And a shoot 'em up game you'll get! The game features three main "acts," with six to eight "locations" in each. Remedy runs the gamut with these locations, from the low-class, seedy slums, wharves, factories to the classy art galleries and corporate and government offices. In each location you'll find enemies ranging from low-level mob thugs to corporate lawyers, with several "boss" enemies to boot.

Hardware Extreme heeft wat info over KNI en de K7:

"Why the K7 will NOT beat the Pentium KNI"

Even as the K7 is a good product it will not harm Intel very much. One reason for that is the cost. As the K7 is made for EV-6 slot A technology, the cost of each processor will be a lot higher. The L1 and L2 cache chips on cartridge are making the K7 quite big. Even when produced with the 0.25µ technology, it will take a lot more wafers to produce K7 processors. The difference in cost for making 1000 K6-2's and 1000 K7 might be 300% higher. It is not for fun, that Intel designed the cheaper Celeron (PGA 370) when the Pentium II (slot 1) appeared to be very expensive. When the K7 is launched (mid 1999) it is far too expensive, only affordable for high-end mainstreams (where there are several competitors, like Alpha & Xeon). When the K7 convert to 0.18µ its price will be more attractive. But that will be late 1999. That's why AMD will produce the K6-3 at the same time. THIS is the CPU that will compete with the Pentium KNI. On business performance, it will score quite well, but Intel's FPU (extended with KNI) will still be superior. And even if the K6-3 scores better, it will take only little time for Intel to release 500 and 600MHz versions of their revised Pentium II. Intel will still have the fastest x86 in 1999.

Ace's Hardware heeft een review met vergelijking tussen de K6-2 350 en de Celeron 300A.

Hier wat info:

INTEL has done something great with the Celeron 300A.  They put the high performance of their PII processors and lowered the price significantly to make a definite contender for the low end user market.  Little did they know, these low end users are actually getting mid to high end results under the right circumstances.  At $197 for the Abit BH6 and 300A w/fan, the Celeron system is not much more then AMD's 350. Since INTEL has the same pipeline FPU in the Celeron, there is nothing this bad boy can't tackle.  No worries about special instructions to achieve maximum performance, just load up and frag away.  The high speed of the L2 cache is a plus for any program which is heavily reliant on this cache.  When you purchase this combo, fork out another 20 clams and assure your self the 450 mark.

Gamers Depot heeft een review van de Diamond Monster Sound MX300 in elkaar geknutseld.

Erg veel info staat er niet in. Hier dan maar een stukkie pasten:

Diamond has, in our opinion dealt a heavy blow to Creative Labs stronghold on the market place, by not being a "me-too" company.  Releasing ground-breaking products like the MX300 proves that Diamond is a company to be reckoned with in the sound card arena.  This is by no way a means of trying to inflate their egos or anything like that.  It's just that when you are graced with this kind of technology, one must stand up and take notice, and give credit where credit is due.  Throw in complete AC-3 support for Dolby Digital and it also acts as a nice center piece for a home/PC theater.  Our only hope is that A3D2.0 will become a standard API for all PC game titles, due to its ability to provide believable 3D-sound from 2 speakers/headphones, and phenomenal 3D-sound with 4 speakers.  We have no higher recommendation for a gaming sound card than the MX300.

Tresh's FiringSquad heeft een preview van Command & Conquer II: Tiberian Sun. Daar zitten we dus al 3 jaar op te wachten...

Hier wat koel aan het spel is:

Perhaps the most exciting part about the upcoming Tiberian Sun is the extreme interactivity of the environment. Units can move both over and under objects, so be careful - someone might bring that bridge crashing down over your head. Random effects will also be part of the game, like ion storms which disable your high tech units, and destructive meteor showers that can deform the landscape, creating craters to hide inside. Objects will also obey a real world kind of physics, so the explosive discs thrown by some GDI infantry will bounce differently depending on where they land. Units move slower on steep slopes and depending on the terrain; look for infantry to move briskly on roadways but scramble more slowly over rocky terrain. This makes hovercraft ideal because they do equally well on any terrain.

I wouldn't wanna be under there

Forests are great for hiding your foot soldiers but vehicles will have to slowly pick their way in between the trees to get through. But hey, since the environment is fully deformable, you pyromaniacs can just burn down the forest and make your own path through. Smokey the Bear be damned, this is war! Just be careful you're not in the forest when it's burning because the fire will hurt your units. Fire's not the only thing you get to play with; the icy rivers in the arctic tileset will gradually freeze over and melt again, allowing you to move units across when the surface is solid enough. Just be careful about moving heavy machinery though because the ice may give way and sink your vehicles! Even the parts of the units are interactive. Since the units are in 3D, components may come flying off in heavy combat - sucks to be you if the chassis of a wrecked vehicle comes flying over on top of your head!