Ik zag bij Demonews een posting over een nieuwe versie van Waterfall, een vergelijkbaar proggie als CPUidle (zie een paar nieuwsberichten terug). Qua features is Waterfall volgens mij sterker, al ik dit lijstje zo zie:

- Decreases your CPU temperature up to 30C
- Optimizes your CPU for a faster performance
- Precisely monitors your CPU usage & power consumption
- Monitors up to 3 additional devices (ie. CPU/Motherboard temperature, HDD space, etc.)
- Support most mainboards even if your mainboard manufacturer doesn't provide you with the proper monitoring program.
- Plays an alarm sound if something is abnormal (ie. temperature too high)
- Process Priority Control (Choose which applications will have priority over your system resources, thus speeding up the most important ones)
- Saves up to 30 minutes (probably more) of battery life in Laptops/Notebooks
- CPU Throttling can prevent fan rotation, which decreases even more the power consuption in your notebook.
- CPU Throttling can also help you overclock your CPU to higher frequencies stably.
- Cuts the cost of maintainance of your notebook, by allowing your batteries to last longer, saving you hundreds of dollars.
- Helps prevent the pollution caused by the disposal of too many batteries, since your batteries will last longer.

Je kunt de demo hier downloaden. En oja, voor het geval je een koe in je tray hebt lopen: ook dan helpen proggies zoals CPUidle en Waterfall (een klein beetje).

Playdevil (belgensite ) heeft een review van Official Formula 1 Racing online gezet. Een paar dagen geleden liep ik per ongeluk een Dynabyte binnen en daar hadden ze een demootje lopen (in z'n Trustmaster demo-sigaar). Ik vond vooral het geluid sterk rouleren. Hier heb je een blurb uit de review over de graphics:

The license of the FIA has authorized the programmers to make a model of all the circuits and all the monoplaces of the 98 season. Even better, every vehicle has his own little details (cockpit design, front of the car...). A McLaren differs in many matters from a Benetton for example. Every circuit is represented in its whole. Unlike Monaco Grand Prix whereby the engine of the program builded the circuit sector after sector, Official F1 racing calculates the decor in real-time. Thanks to a powerful engine the 3d world is builded very smooth and fluid. That's the reason why the game also runs on systems with lower specifications: even on a p133 without hardware acceleration the game runs fast. Personally I met some slight difficulties in the Direct3D mode, which ran a little bit stiffier than the 3dfx mode. The potent 3d engine of the game allows a great replay mode. Many varying camera points which give you a superb view on the race!

Nog wat meer nieuws: In deze directory zag ik een index bestandje staan met daarin deze text:

V3T204N4.ZIP V3800 / V3400 NT 4.0 driver v2.04 beta 1 (Nvidia Detonator v2.04)

nVidia 2.04 beta drivers... alweer nieuwe???

De opvolger van Sid Meier's Getty-dinges komt eraan:

On the anniversary of Gettysburg, Firaxis Games has announced Sid Meier's Antietam!, the first product in the previously unannounced Great Battles Series. The game is the follow-up to Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, the most successful Civil War computer game to date, and is scheduled for release this fall. It will be available exclusively from Firaxis' web site.

Based on the same award-winning game system as its predecessor, Antietam! puts players on a historically detailed 3D battlefield and gives them command of fully animated Union or Confederate troops as they re-enact the drama and action of America's bloodiest day. [break]Meer hier.

Alweer een nieuwe live!ware? Live!Ware v2.1: [/break]The Sound Blaster Live! Live!Ware 2.1 Update page has a new version 2.1 of the Live!Ware! software for the SBLive! The new release improves the audio quality of razorjack weapon in Unreal, rear speaker distortion sound when CMSS is turned on "has been improved" (gotta love good sounding distortion), the Half Life frame rate has been improved, Winamp 2.10 now functions properly under Windows NT 4.0, corrupted game presets in the Surround Mixer folder have been updated, and "in-game volume mixer slider in some games now functions properly." Thanks GAK. For those who have questions they find themselves asking frequently about Live!Ware, the Owner's FAQ has been updated covering the subject. [break]De link komt bij Blue's News vandaan.

Van dezelfde site het bericht dat de gelukkige(?!?) Mac bezitters ook kunnen Quaken met versie 2: [/break]Mike Sullivan e-mailed us with a reminder that MacQuake II is out as of today, so Mac owners can now enjoy the middle Quake game (MacQ3Test and MacQuake have both been available for some time). [break]Dat is het voor zover en voor vanavond. De groetsels mensen en welterusten.

Betanews weet te vertellen dat er een nieuwe beta versie van CPUidle gereleased is. Hier heb je de info:

Andi, author of CpuIdle, tells us of a new beta of his CpuIdle program. It is not reported on the main CpuIdle page, but I bugged him enough for him tell us where to get it! CpuIdle lowers the CPU temperature by disabling it when not needed. This prolongs the CPU life (a decrease by 10°C doubles the life span) and cuts power consumption. Unlike normal power management, CpuIdle is active all the time and works even when you're actively using your computer. Here is what he told me about the release:

"I finally came around to make a CpuIdle 5.6 Beta version. It includes lots of bugfixes, some performance enhancements and support for the latest MBM version. I have not yet put a notice on my website- don't look for it ;-)"

Je kunt 'm hier downloaden.

Nog even een KON overzichtje (een term die ik bij deze introduceer ) van 'kort overig nieuws':

Bij IXBT-Labs melden ze dat er een nieuwe serie STB Velocity kaarten uit zijn:

Velocity 100 is 2D/3D and video accelerator featuring a 250 MHz RAMDAC for resolutions as high as to 2046 x 1536. It has 8MB SGRAM memory and supports AGP 2x. Velocity 200 is the 16MB version of the card. Looks like nVidia's Vanta competitor… [break]Van dezelfde site komt dit bericht:[/break] Some sources reported that Pentium III 600 MHz (not Coppermine) will be released simultaneously with 500 Mhz Celeron in August, 2. Expected price is $669. [break]JC meldt dat 'JEDI', de Cyrix processor die ook bekend staat onder een andere naam: Gobi, onder druk van LucasArts, wel eens al eind augustus zou kunnen uitkomen!

Meer over Cyrix CPU's. Op deze Japanse site vond ik een plaatje van een MII PR400, geklokt op 3x 95MHz. Mijn Japans is een beetje roestig, dus ik zou niet weten waar de text over gaat.

In dit nieuwsbericht wordt gemeld dat National Semiconducter meer aan het verkopen is dan alleen Cyrix. NatSemi verkoopt ook een van zijn chip fabrieken aan TSMC, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. TSMC is de grootse op het gebied van fabricage en wil dat blijkbaar nog groter maken. TSMC maakt ook 3dfx en nVidia chips. De link naar dit bericht kwam via Ace's Hardware.

Op dezelfde site zijn een paar plaatjes te vinden van de Matrox G400 met Dual Head (2 monitoren).

Quake II schijnt uit te zijn (in Amerika?) voor de Nintendo N64:[/break] "Also, Quake II for the N64 is now out. EB had at least one copy in that had arrived this morning." [break] De link, aldus iemand van ID software.

Hier vind je een site (taiwanees) met een boel 'scientific benchmarks'. Ik zou niet weten wat je ermee moet, maar bij Ace's Hardware vonden ze het de moeite waard om het te posten, dus bij deze ook hier.

Een .plan update van iemand van het Kingpin team met daarin wat technische informatie: [/break]Problem: Really long level loads

Possible Solution:

Make sure the CD is not in the drive when you load up Kingpin. I haven't checked this, but I'm told it eliminates the slow loads. FYI, a normal level load is between 2 - 10 seconds, depending on size of level.

Problem: Jittery performance in multi-player

Solutions:
- Options menu -> shadows = AUTO
- Options menu -> fireworks = first tick from left
- Visuals menu -> texture details = left most setting

Bij The Register hebben ze een beetje informatie over de Amiga en het AOE, dat is gebaseerd op het koele QNX OS.

Collas has promised more extensive details of AmigaObjects and AOE next week -- watch this space for full details. He also said he will soon be announcing Amiga's new CPU of choice in a few weeks' time. It's not an x86 chip, he admitted, but would say no more. Our money's on the PowerPC G4 -- or the PowerPC 7400, as it's officially known -- and Amiga's announcement would tie in nicely with the big launch Motorola has been promising the new chip will soon get.

JC beweerd al een hele tijd dat Transmeta de chip zou gaan leveren voor de Amiga... Maarja, aan de andere kant hebben we nog altijd geen teken van leven gezien van dat bedrijf.

Er is een nieuwe versie uit van GameSpy. Dit is een programma voor het spelen van games over het Internet. Nieuw in deze versie:

GameSpy 2.12 has been released for registered users. The new version has support for: - Kingpin - Drakan - Descent 3 (updated) ==maar:== This version is for Registered users only! Registered users always get to check out new versions before they go Shareware

Dus je moet wel lappe voor deze versie.

De G400 MAX, zegmaar de tegen hanger van de Ultra TNT2 van Matrox, zal rond 15 juli in de winkels liggen.

We just received an update today from our production facilities. We have a large batch of G400 MAX that have just entered the testing phase of production. These boards have been designated to our Online Customers who have placed their order prior to June 11. We should be ready to begin shipping our pre-orders for the G400 MAX the week of July 5. The G400 MAX graphic cards are produced in the USA. We will require at-lease 1 additional week to send the card overseas.

Ik zag bij Betanews een posting over een wonderproggie genaamd "Multi ICQ". Dit is misschien leuk voor de ICQ junkies onder ons:

A new program named mICQ, or multi ICQ, has been released by Paul Falcon. This program allows you to open up to 1,000 different ICQ windows. This will allow you to have one UIN for friends, one for family, one for business, etc., and have them all running at the same time.

Je kunt het dingetje downloaden. Meer info vind je op mICQ homepage.

Threshs & kameraden hebben een Q3Test Optimization Guide bij elkaar geschreven. In het artikel vind je tips over hoe je je framerate kunt viagra-enhancen:

The key to getting more frames per second is to make everything ugly. We're talking serious "got hit with an ugly stick, fell off the ugly truck, and into the fugly lake" ugly. We have to turn off almost all the pretty graphics settings. Some may say the whole point of Q3 is the purty graphics, but here at FiringSquad, Q3's all about the gameplay. How else are we supposed to enjoy the networking code if our systems keep on chunking up on us because of all the nice textures and 32-bit colors?

We ran a few timedemos with all the various graphics settings. We first tested our P3 500 system with a Voodoo3 3000 and then we swapped out the Voodoo3 for a Hercules TNT2 Ultra.

Please don't consider this a true V3 vs. Ultra TNT2 benchmark. We didn't overclock the V3, and everyone knows 3dfx's current drivers aren't optimized for Q3 yet. We'll have a real video card shootout once Id releases the next version of Q3test.

Check 't artikel hier...

Combatsim heeft een review gepost van de 7200rpm Western Digital Expert harddisk. Het ding ondersteund ATA/66 en heeft een vette 2Meg cache (dank IBM voor de technologie ). De schijf blijkt met gemak een Quantum Viking II bij te houden:

But now that this latest piece in IDE hard drive technology is installed, how does it stack up performance-wise? I've been running SCSI-only in my personal system at home for years now, and to be honest I wasn't expecting an IDE drive to outperform to my Viking 2 hard drive.

A respectable SCSI drive, the Viking2 goes for around $250 in 4.5gb sizes these days, while the 9gb Expert can be found for under $200, not to mention the added cost of a SCSI controller. And I decided to include benchmarks from the Viking2 to show just how far IDE technology has come in recent years.

Beta News meldt dat ASUS nieuwe drivers heeft voor de V3400 en V3800 kaarten. Hier zijn de links:

Unified V3400/V3800 Drivers Win95/98 v1.91 beta 3
Unified V3400/V3800 Drivers WinNT 4.0 v2.04 beta 1

3DGaming.net heeft een Duke Nukem Forever Quickie in elkaar gedraaid. Hier heb je wat stuff uit deze korte preview:

From the view point of the game, Duke Nukem Forever will simply be amazingly fun. The enemies are not created to be realistic, but rather fun to kill. While other companies work on adding features to keep their games on the edge of technology, such as the bridges in Dominion (see Happy Puppy's Dominion review for more info), 3DRealms adds technology to make their games fun. Some fun things that are rumored to be reappearing in Duke Nukem Forever are the Shrink gun and pipe bombs, blowing holes in walls, the exotic dancers (now motion captured!), and the aforementioned Dr. Proton from the Duke side scrollers (Duke Nukem 1 and Duke Nukum 2).

Verder ook nog 3 screenshots (waarvan 2 errug wazig). De middelste is wel tof:

Ik krijg zonet van Andy / BXBoards een mailtje dat-ie een review gepost heeft van de Asus V3800 Ultra Deluxe. Hier heb je een stukje:

The Asus V3800 Ultra Deluxe TNT-2 really is a cut above however. Although at default speeds, the 150Mhz core clock is rather low, the high speed memory really makes a difference. This thing really flies, and in many cases, at 640x480, 32-bit rendering was hardly slower than 16-bit rendering, showing that the bottleneck right now is lies with the processor rather than video card right now. At higher resolutions such at 1024x768, you do notice a hit in 32-bit colour, but Forsaken provided 82 fps at this resolution, with Quake2 providing 62fps in demo1 and 57fps in massive1. There is no doubt this card is fast

Overclocker's Workbench heeft interessante info gepost over de Celeron 500, die om een of andere vage reden al te koop is in Canada:

I just got it today, I live in Montreal Canada, I went to microbytes, a local shop to buy some more ram, and there is where I saw it on the counter,a regular intel celeron retail box with 500mhz written on it. I had no idea they existed,since there not even on Intel's website. First off, I didn't believe it , I thought that It was just a miss print. So, I asked the owner to fire one up for me and sure as hell it posted 500MHZ on a 66 mhz FSB. The best part is I bought it for only 310$ CANADIAN that's about 207$ US.

OK, I got a couple more things to say now. It is running on a 66mhz bus, the clock multiplier is locked but not at an even number it is X 7.58,which I find kinda odd. In real world testing I find a lot quicker than P3 450mhz. One warning thought, It is a bitch to overclock. Last night I overclocked it at 7.58X75mhz FSB that result in a 568mhz POST. Right now Im burning it in at .................. ...............wait Im getting emotional here...................................................

I got it running 7.58X83mhz FSB, with all the components removed and three fans in the front and another one in the back, at 629MHZ !!!

Im going full out, Im going to buy a kryotech renegade cooling system and some 150mhz capable HDSRAM, I will keep you all posted. Imagine the possibilities:

7,58X100mhz FSB= 758MHZ
7.58X103mhz FSB= 781MHZ
7.58X112mhz FSB= 849MHZ

Just for fun imagine, even thought it will never happen in a million years, that this processor would run at :

7.58X124MHZ = 940 MHZ
7.58X129MHZ = 978 MHZ
7.58X 133MHz = 1008 MHZ
7.58X153MHZ = 1160 MHZ I'll try to get some benchmarks for all of you.

Die multiplier van 7.58 is wel wazig, waarschijnlijk wordt hier 7,5 bedoelt.

Aureal gaat net zoals Creative Labs eigen speakers bouwen. Hier heb je de info uit de press release bij GA-Source:

It was really just a matter of time, and truly the best thing to do. Aureal today announced its plans for a Fall 1999 introduction of high-quality speaker products.

The new speakers will initially be distributed via Aureal's Web store and will be offered in conjunction with Aureal Vortex sound cards. Both 2.1 and 4.1 speaker/subwoofer configurations will be available, with an easy upgrade from 2.1 to 4.1 systems, delivering a full 210 watts.

Aureal's new speaker products will work with Aureal Vortex sound cards to provide advanced features including auto-calibrate, which uses a microphone to receive test tones and tunes the system to deliver the best possible audio performance for a particular speaker configuration and room set- up. Another key feature is a one-touch control and display, located on one of the satellite speakers, which enables volume, bass, fader and other characteristics to be quickly and easily controlled and synchronized with software controls on the computer.

Firingsquad heeft een mooie hands-on preview van Drakan: Order of the Flame voor ons gebakken. Als je deze game nog niet kent, check hem dan echt effe uit want dit wordt echt één van de toppers deze zomer. Vooral de multiplayer schijnt errug vet te worden. De demo is op 3Dfiles te vinden en is echt het downloaden waard, dus zet die 14K4 aan het werk

Drakan is one of this year's most anticipated games, a 3D third person action game from Surreal and Psygnosis. You play the role of Rynn, a young warrior heroine seeking the return of her kidnapped brother. To rescue him though, you must join forces with a dragon named Arokh. Through this fascinating partnership between dragon and human, you journey through levels fraught with traps, big monsters, and HUGE monsters as you search out your brother. The partnership between dragon and human is also how Drakan sets itself apart from other 3D action games. Half the game is played on foot where Rynn must use hand to hand weapons, as well as bows and arrows to defeat enemies. The other part of the game involves Rynn flying about on Arokh's back, using the dragon for air to air and air to ground combat.

En dit meisje speelt de hoofdrol.. need I say more?

Let the games begin! The Register meldt dat Intel de prijs van haar P3-500 zal gaan verlagen vanwege de populariteit van AMD's Athlon bij hardware fabrikanten. Altijd mooi voor de consument

A German distributor has alerted us to an unexpected Intel price cut on its 500MHz Pentium III part in week 34 of the year of the lord 1999.

The cut is a reaction to several major wins AMD has made both with large OEMs and local assemblers in Germany.

Compaq, Fujitsu and IPC (Archtec) will introduce K7 Athlon systems in Germany in weeks 33 to 34 of the year of the lord 1999.

Intel was always expected to start a bout of frenzied price slashing once K7 Athlon systems made their appearance.

We will talk to Intel UK later today to see whether it will confirm or deny the price cut. ®

Ja hoor. Alsof ze serieus denken dat elke zichzelf respecterende Linux gebruiker het ooit zelfs maar zal OVERWEGEN te installeren, staat op de FTP van microsoft de Linux versie van Frontpage.

some of the more tortured strategists in Fort Redmond may well be roughing up scenarios where Microsoft might turn out to need a Linux presence fast, so the odd quiet port could come in handy.

De file is 14 Meg groot en je kunt 'm hier downloaden. Het volledige bericht kun je hier lezen.

Sharky Extreme heeft een preview van Outcast klaar. Dit spel is voxel-based, dus je ultra 3D kaart wordt niet benut helaas, (meer info in de preview).

What really draws you into Outcast is how realistic the world is. We're not talking about the physics, which happen to be excellent. We're talking about the way characters interact as if Adelpha were a real world. People go about their jobs and live their lives as you play. They talk about you in foreign languages, they discuss things together, they get tired, they get hurt and they all add an immense amount to the game. The best way we can put it is to say that, after you play the game for awhile, you really do think of the characters as thinking things. Sure, they're not the brightest people around. But between the excellent dialogue performed by good voice talent, and the process of a realistic world which goes on around you, you feel like you're surrounded by people. The AI is very good by current standards, Appeal did a lot of good work and it shows. Today's secret word is fun, and Outcast has a lot of it.

Klik hier voor meer plaatjes!

Ook al is dit een preview, de game ligt al in de winkels in Europa.

Whoa! Gamespot heeft maar liefst 23 kaarten opgenomen in hun big-ass 3D card round-up!! (om het maar even a'la Voodoo Extreme te zeggen). Dit stukkie heb ik ook schaamteloos van hun gejat, over een paar rappe kaartjes:

• The Guillemot Xentor 32. Once I got past the early drivers and ran them with the 1.88 reference drivers, this board blossomed like a debutante emerging from wallflower status.

• The Hercules Dynamite TNT2. It takes a licking and keeps on ticking. It clocks higher and runs more stable than any other TNT2 board with a built-in performance slider. But it's no slouch at its default 175/200 speed. Now if Hercules can just write a decent setup program....

• The Voodoo3/3000 is the price/performance leader for 3D games. It's very nearly as fast in 16-bit games as the Xentor or Hercules boards. Think of it as the Dodge Viper of graphics cards - stripped down to the bare essentials, what it does do, it does very well.

• The Leadtek Winfast II Ultra. This is a real sleeper. It's fast, stable, highly clockable, and fairly low cost.

• The Diamond Viper 770. This Viper has the most elegant software interface of the bunch and is no performance slouch, either. And it even has a software bundle.

Alles komt aan bod, kaarten gebaseerd op de Voodoo3, TNT2/Vanta, ATI Rage 128, 3DLabs Permedia3, Savage4, en Matrox G400 MAX. Ben je wel een middagje zoet mee

Billy van Voodoo Extreme meldt dat er een nieuwe versie van de Voodoo3 Overclocker verkrijgbaar is. Dit is er zoal nieuw aan:

The Voodoo3 Overclocker has under gone several changes since version 2.4 was released. I actually created three versions in quick succession for a special project I was working on. Now it's time to release it with all those changes and more. Of course the basic functionality has not changed but has been refined for the special project I mentioned. So briefly here is what changed since version 2.4 was released.

Modified the face of the Voodoo3 OC property page to give it a cleaner appearance. Added a reinstall feature to the installer so you don't have to run it twice when wanting to reinstall. This allows you to reinstall for a different model, change location of the panel, install a new version, or remove it in one pass.

Enabled the Save button in the Refresh Rates dialog box all the time instead of using the auto enable feature, this allows users to save the settings anytime.

Added confirmation dialog boxes to the install and remove process so the user will be certain the installation or removal process completed properly.

Added international language support to the main panel and installer. The Voodoo3 Overclocker now supports English and French with the capability of adding languages easily.

[break]Daarnaast is er ook een nieuwe Voodoo3 Tweaker uit, v1.2.[/break]

Weider Yves, over at Voodoo.net (French site), sends word that he has released yet another new version of his Tweaking program for the Voodoo3. Version 1.2 fixes some bugs, improves compatibility, and improves security too.

Download Voodoo3 Overclocker (121kB)

Download Voodoo3 Tweaker v1.2 (45kB)

Ik las in de Volkskrant dat KPN Snelnet vanaf het einde van dit jaar landelijk gaat invoeren.

KNP Telecom gaat de concurrentieslag aan met de kabelbedrijven om het aanbieden van snelle Internet-verbindingen. Het telecombedrijf wil het zogenaamde Snelnet vanaf eind dit jaar gefaseerd landelijk invoeren. Er loopt nog een proef in Amsterdam, maar KPN heeft al vastgesteld dat het Snelnet commercieel haalbaar is.
Met Snelnet kunnen KPN-abonnees via de computer op hun normale telefoonlijn bijvoorbeeld op elk gewenst moment televisieprogramma's als het NOS-journaal opvragen, videoclips bekijken of met de Chipper betalingen doen. Tegelijk kan op dezelfde lijn gewoon gebeld worden. Een speciaal modem en de zogeheten ADSL-techniek maken de snelle verzendig van beelden, geluid en gegevens mogelijk.

Dus nu moeten we van ISDN weer op analoog overstappen?

Intel en Silicon Graphics gaan saampjes de OpenGL API optimaliseren, o.a. door er een aantal SIMD ingrediënten doorheen te roeren. Hier heb je de soep uit een press release van SGI:

t Intel Corporation's Workstation Leadership Forum, Intel and SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced plans to work together to optimize the OpenGL® API for advanced 3D graphics and data visualization workstations based on Intel Architecture (IA). This joint effort is expected to dramatically increase the performance and visualization capabilities of IA-based workstations, utilizing OpenGL API graphics, from entry-level to the highest-end platforms.

Initially, this agreement combines Intel's leading-edge technology Internet Streaming SIMD extensions, which deliver enhanced 3D graphic visualization, improved video and animation capabilities with SGI's industry-standard OpenGL API. Future Intel optimizations will focus on enhancing key components of the OpenGL pipeline and providing those optimizations back to SGI for broad distribution to OpenGL licensees.

OpenGL is the current standard API for high-performance 3D graphics and visualization applications and is licensed and available by every operating system and major hardware vendor, including Intel. A robust and mature 3D software library that offers a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and other visualization functions, OpenGL is recognized as a leading-edge 3D graphics API. OpenGL is positioned to take advantage of the continuing evolution of graphics hardware, resulting in improved productivity to end users through better data visualization.

Ik lees bij Betanews dat er nieuwe clients zijn gereleased voor het SETI@home project (zoeken naar buitenaardse beesten):

Windoos versie
Mac versie

Uiteraard kun je ook gewoon down to earth blijven en instant de Dutch Power Cows joinen!

Ik lees bij News.com dat AOL en Sun denken over het stopzetten van het Mozilla project, wegens een gebrek aan belangstelling uit de open source community:

Sun Microsystems is pondering changing the open-source development of the Netscape Communicator browser, a Sun executive said today.

Mozilla.org has guided the open-source development of the Communicator browser code since Netscape Communications founded the group in January 1998.

Now funded by America Online, the open-source effort has suffered from a lack of outside developer contributions, forcing Netscape engineers to do most of the development work for the forthcoming 5.0 version.

"I'm not sure Mozilla.org is working all that well," said Alan Baratz, president of Sun's Software Products and Platforms Division. "We're looking at what the options are." [break]De release van Netscape Communicator 5.0 staat nog steeds geplant voor december:[/break] Baratz added that Communicator 5.0--which will ship in December--will be competitive with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, especially since AOL will bundle the browser on its software CDs.

"You'll see a really good product in December, an XML-based, solid product with a great interface to the Java Virtual Machine," he said. "December would be a good defining moment for competition in the browser space."

Sharky Extreme heeft z'n Weekly CPU Prices column geupdate. Tussen de tekst valt ook nog wat info over de AMD Athlon te ontdekken:

Typically AMD seeks to match or beat the price of whichever Intel CPU they're competing against when their equivalent chip debuts in the market. This is reflected with the current Athlon pricing given out by AMD this week as each of their CPUs is vastly superior in price to the equivalent Intel Pentium III CPUs on the market now.

The reason for the perceived large price discrepancy between Intel and AMD's high-end CPU lines is two-fold. First, AMD is trying to predict where Intel's P3 CPUs will be price-wise in mid-August when the Athlon is available for retail purchase, and is attempting to beat those prices with the Athlon's current pricing levels.

Second, AMD is stacking the PR deck in their favor with the media by debuting their future Athlon prices very early, so that comparisons between it and the Intel P3 line are overwhelmingly in AMD's favor.

A perfect example of this lies in the P3-550 vs. Athlon 550 pricing. In this week's Sharky Extreme Price Guide we see that Intel's P3-550 CPU is priced at approximately $701. Compare this to the Athlon 550's announced price of $479, and you have a $230 price disparity that makes AMD appear to be the consumer's hero.

Het volk van HWUpgrade vond het nodig om een i810 chipset guide op hun site te parkeren. In het artikel vind je info over de architectuur van de i810 chipset: GMCH, ICH, Firmware Hub en meer van dat soort ongrappige termen. Hieronder een stukje ctrl-v over de 'Graphics and Memory Control Hub' (= trage video accelerator ):

Graphics and Memory Control Hub (GMCH) manages the functions relative to graphics and system memory; i810 includes an integrate graphic chip, within the GMCH chip, based on Intel 740 video chip, including RAM DAC integrated at 230 MHz and able to achieve a maximum resolution in 2D of 1600x1200 with a colour depth of 8 bits; these are limited technical features if compared with those of video chip, but they enough for a generic use of PC (the target of motherboards based on i810 isn’t high-end users). GMCH uses a 32 bit bus and working at 100 MHz to communicate with system memory, using a part of it as frame buffer and z-buffer for the integrated video chip. This is a cheap solution, but quite fast in transferring data, that is 800 Mbytes per second, even if with many limits: if the AGP 2x video chip on the external board communicates with system memory at a maximum speed of 533 Mbytes per second, it also uses the memory on the board before using that of the system, with maximum transfer speed higher than 800 Mbytes per second of i810. Remember, however, that this is a cheap solution and that the integrated video subsystem can’t be compared, in terms of costs and usages, with most recent AGP graphic accelerators.

Op Games Mania is een interview geplaatst met een ene Bill Roper (producer van Blizzard) over de game Diablo 2. Deze game moet rond oktober uitkomen.

Hier een stukje over het multiplayer gedeelte:

Q: Diablo really took off as a multiplayer game for Blizzard. This time around did you find yourselves concentrating on the development of the multiplayer game as opposed to the single player game?

A: I don't know if it was more...I think that what it really was is that there were some problems with the multiplayer game in the first Diablo and we wanted to make sure we didn't run into them again. Things like cheating. Another good example would be that in the first game we didn't do a good job of laying out the quests so they worked well in multiplayer. So what ended up happening I think was we only had two or three quests in the multiplayer experience. All the quests in Diablo II you can play through in single player are available in multiplayer. So you can go through and play the entire game and have the same experience with a group of people as you can just by yourself. We expect to have a lot of people go through and complete the storyline with multiple players in their parties. What we are trying to do is haze that line between single player and multiplayer. There definitely will be things that you will only get in multiplayer--like Guild Halls and things like that--which are added benefits and are added support in the multiplayer setting. But I think there's less of that demarcation between how the single player game plays and the mutliplayer game plays. I think from that aspect we have looked at how we could enhance the multiplayer gaming experience for our customers and give them the richest possible experience.

Betanews weet te vertellen dat Win2000 Release Candidate 1 morgen beschikbaar zal zijn voor beta testers. Hier's de soep:

Microsoft is on track to officially release Windows 2000 Release Candidate 1, Build 2072, tomorrow. The new build has been uploaded to NTBeta, although testers may not have access until tomorrow morning. Windows 2000 RC1 is the first step in preparing for a final release, although many months of testing and many more RCs are still ahead. This release will add new features in addition to the improved device support for newer hardware. It is not official whether Windows 2000 CPP customers will receive this build, although Microsoft has hinted it in the newsgroups that they will. Don't believe that Microsoft has hit this major milestone? Then check out NTBeta:

Voor meer info kun je terecht op de WinNT beta page.

CGO heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gedraaid over de "The Wonderful Wizards of id". In het artikel wordt wat geluld over de gameplay in Q3A. Voor de vrolijkheid zijn er ook nog een paar leuke screenshots toegevoegd. Hier heb je een plak over de bots en AI:

The opponents that the player faces in each map are drawn from a pool that currently consists of 60 characters—20 different models with three different skins apiece. Some of the characters are human, some are cybernetic creatures reminiscent of Quake II. Others are just strange, such as a giant eyeball that walks on ape-like arms that sprout from the top of the bloodshot orb. In the single-player game, each character has a set group of attributes (such as reaction time and weapon preference) that define its ability and fighting style. When the player enters a level, the game selects one or more opponents from the list based on the player's current ranking in the game. The game will adjust its selection dynamically to present adept players with more challenging opponents or to provide a break to the less skilled. Even in the game's current alpha state, the AI bots performed remarkably like human players, and the higher ranked bots proved to be challenging opponents. "Making bots that are challenging isn't tough," programmer and bot guru John Cash confides. It is a simple matter to create bots with inhuman reaction times or the ability to track players anywhere on the map. Cash's bots do not "cheat," however—their perceptions are restricted to their field of vision (the arc of which can be increased or decreased to present a greater or lesser challenge), and they are hampered by adjustable reaction times that prevent them from firing the instant the player is visible. Unlike bots in most other games, Cash's creations do not navigate the level by following a series of waypoints. They examine map geometry at runtime, classify areas as passable or impassable, and calculate efficient routes through the map. "It adds a bit to load times," Cash admits, "but it makes all the difference to how the bots perform." One thing that will not make it into the game is a character class structure. The team toyed with the idea, but eventually found it to be unworkable in a deathmatch environment.

Ik lees bij Voodoo Extreme dat Matrox een nieuwe ICD gereleased heeft voor z'n G100 en G200 accelerators. Hier heb je de etails:

With our Beta 2 ICD that was released in May, 1999 our score in Quake II at 640 x 480 @ 16-bit was 38.2 fps. With this new driver in Win 98 we are getting a score of 47.5 fps, an increase of 25%. The ICD also includes optimizations for other Open GL titles and support for Lightwave 3D and 3D Studio Max.

Je kunt het ding neer gaan halen op de Matrox driver page.

Betabites heeft een review van de Montego II Quadzilla online gepleurd. De Quadzilla is in feite gelijk aan de Montego II, alleen wordt-ie geleverd met een extra 'breakout board' die quad speaker en S/PDIF ondersteuning mogelijk maakt:

The Quadzilla is based on the Turtle Beach Montego II OEM board. The OEM board, which is my current sound card, is physically pretty much the same card as the Quadzilla. The main difference is that the OEM card only supposts two speakers. The Quadzilla is designed for 4 speaker output. So, what makes the difference? Turtle Beach has added a breakout board to accommodate two more speakers (rear). It also requires an extra PCI slot.

I can hear you saying, but I have the Dell computer with the TBMII OEM board, and the Quadzilla is the same basic board. Why would I pay money for the same basic board? Well, you don't have to buy the whole package. Turtle Beach has made an upgrade product available to individuals who already own a TBMII. Instead of buying the $99 Montego II Quadzilla, you can purchase the upgrade that adds a S/PDIF RCA digital output and a 1/8" stereo output (for rear speakers) for $39.95. Or if you have the bucks to spare, you can add the S/PDIF RCA and optical digital inputs/outputs,and a 1/8" stereo output for $99.95.