Mikroschoft en Apple gaan samenwerken, om zo de 'monopoliepositie' van Be te gaan verminderen. Hoe kan MS anders software met bugs verkopen, al BeOS veel sneller is en bugfree?

Today, in a secret location deep beneath the Rocky Mountains, Apple Computer and Microsoft Corp. signed a historic agreement binding their two organizations into what could be a world-changing pact. Apparently, the agreement indicates that Apple and Microsoft will ally to fight the dreaded Be monopoly. For years, Be has marauded the industry with its superiority complex and tendency to multithread everything in its path. "Our preemptive multitasking and protected memory are superior to all others...." Be Inc. CEO Jean-Louis Gassee said in a press conference shortly after the news broke; "....so bring it on!" Sun, AOL, and IBM also signed agreements with the Alliance, which expects to begin attacks on Menlo Park, CA this evening. G-4 Sawtooth and other Apple forces employing UniNorth armaments are joining forces with Sun SPARC Enterprise heavy assault units and Microsoft "embrace, extend, and extinguish" teams to attempt a quick and -- hopefully bloodless -- "Decimation of the enemy's ability to produce these dangerous operating systems," according to Microsoft Grand Admiral Steve Ballmer. Apple's Interim Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Steve Jobs added "these Apple-wannabes have been talking up their "microkernels" long enough. It's about time we opened up a can of nanokernel whoop[expletive] on their [expletive]."

Ja, Mikroschoft heeft weer wat hardeschijfbevuiling om te testen of al hun produkten wel millenium proof zijn. 't Zal me niet verbazen als die tools zelf ook niet 2000 proof zijn...

Microsoft has released two new tools to help users assess and ensure their Microsoft applications' Y2K compliance. The Microsoft Year 2000 Product Analyzer and Year 2000 Product Guide Workbook are designed to help users inventory the Microsoft products on their PCs and network drives. The Product Analyzer generates a report that indicates whether the products are Year 2000 compliant, Microsoft representatives say. It also offers links to product information and recommended updates. The Product Guide Workbook provides product details and is updated daily online. Both tools are available in English now and will be released in 14 other languages within the next two months. They can be downloaded free at Microsoft's Web site, and will also be accessible through the subscription service for the Microsoft Year 2000 Resource CD-ROM.

Op PCBlitz staat een preview van Acclaim's nieuwe 3rd-person spel, wat kennelijk van een super 3D engine gebruik gaat maken:

Shadow Man’s 3D VISTA (Virtually Integrated Scenic TerrAin) game engine allows potentially limitless game environments that let the player see as far as the horizon without the need for an obscuring fog. All characters within the game are depicted using a highly-advanced ‘softskin’ system, which allows them to be accurately depicted to the highest detail. Characters also feature realistic muscular definition and deformation effects and are brought to life using Acclaim’s Motion Capture technology and the highest-quality 3D animation

Ze hebben de maker van het berucht email virus Melissa opgepakt:

US police yesterday arrested David L Smith, a network programmer for an unnamed software developer, as the alleged perpetrator of the Melissa Windows email virus. The 30-year-old Smith was charged with interfering with a public communication system. If convicted, he faces a sentence of five to ten years in prison and a maximum fine of $150,000. According to a spokeswoman for US Attorney General Peter Verniero, Smith was tracked down with the help of AOL technical staff. It is believed the unique ID added to documents created by Microsoft application was used to pinpoint Smith's location. However, this was not confirmed by the spokeswoman. Police and FBI agents then conducted an investigation in Smith's New Jersey neighbourhood, and eventually located him in his brother's home. Once charged, Smith was released on $100,000 bail.

Hierzo heb ik het gevonden.

Nou fijn is dat! Als je Frans een beetje ok is, kan je het originele bericht lezen.

Fake ASUS motherboards circulate in Europe

A hardware site is reporting that over 5000 counterfeit ASUSTeK P2B motherboards are being distributed in France.

According to Hardware Fr, the motherboards come from a Chinese factory.

The site says you can recognise fakes because the rev number on the PCB is 1.04. That's a version that ASUSTeK discontinued at the end of 1998.

You can find the rev number between the second and the third ISA slot.

Bij pcvelocity hebben ze een onderonsje gehad met AMD.

PCV: When will you begin shipping 0.18-micron processors? Will these initial 0.18-micron processors feature copper interconnects or will copper debut in 2000?

AMD: .18 is planned to debut later this year, and copper is on tap for 2000. Gigahertz in 2000 is the goal. Should be fun.

Extreme Hardware heeft een interview gepost met Kerry Philpott van Metabyte m.b.t. hun PGC technologie. Maar omdat nog niet duidelijk is op welke chipset ze het gaan toepassen en met welke oem's ze gaan samenwerken, tasten we wat betreft de 'wanneer' vraag nog geheel in het duister.

EH: The TNT2 seems to be the popular chipset to use with PGC technology, judging from recent surveys. Are you planning to use the TNT2 as the initial PGC chipset?

Kerry: That’s one of the things that I can’t comment on now that I wish I could. Just to give you some ideas, the TNT2 is an AGP solution only. So in order for us to develop a product based upon the PGC technology we would either have to come up with a bridge chip or a two-in-one board type of deal. We’re investigating those options right now but there’s been no final decision made on that

De mP6 is nou niet bepaald een snelheids duivel, maar wat niet is kan nog komen en het is in de toekomst misschien wel een alternatief voor overklokkers, als de Celly geen pespectief meer biedt.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Full Windowsand Windows NT compatibility

Superior performance over equivalent speed Celeron and Pentium with MMX

Superscalar & Superpipelined Architecture

Industry’s only Triple Pipeline on both x86 and MMX instructions

High-performance pipelined FPU for faster multimedia applications, conformant to IEEE standards 854 and 754

Extremely low power consumption: Innovative power management techniques achieve best per clock speed-power rating in its class (SMM compatible, ACPI compliant)

Advanced Data Dependency Removal further increases superior parallelism in per cycle processing

Socket 7 and Super Socket 7 compatible

ISO 9000 wafer fabrication, assembly and test price/performance