3DWars heeft een Full Tower Case roundup gepost. Nouja, zo noemen ze het zelf... er worden maar 2 kasten gereviewed dus dat kun je nauwelijks een roundup noemen. De 2 geteste kasten zijn de A-Top AT900 en SuperMicro SC760-A, die laatste heb ik hier toevallig ook staan en is errug relaxed voor overklokkers (verwacht binnenkort een review):

Cooling is a definite plus for this case. Having the sole intention to serve as a server case requires the computer to be up and running 24 hours a day! As anyone would figure, this can produce quit a bit of heat. Well, Supermicro has taken that situation well into consideration. Set at its manufacturers setting, there are three fans in the case, aside from the power supply fan. There is one intake fan, located near the bottom, one fan located above the CPU's position and one exhaust fan right above the power supply. Now three fans may not seem like an 'awe-inspiring' cooling setup, but the expansion possibilities is what attracts attention. There is a preset space in the case for 5 more fans (four 80mm, one 92mm). These can be places along side of the 5.25" drive bays, near the front bezel, towards the back and just about anywhere you'd like to put a fan. They include covers, which makes the safety issue a very good one! Cooling with this case is very easy and Supermicro has basically marked the path you need to take in order to cool your case

Op dit moment wordt eigenlijk alleen de gaming kant van de GeForce belicht. PC Profesionell, de deutsche ZDNet, kijkt naar de professionele kant, zo schrijft WindowLicker: "PC Professional heeft een test gedaan met een GeForce op een PIII 450 met 128MB intern. Deze configuratie haalt de hoogst gemeten snelheden ooit voor 3D-animatie en bewerkingen. (AutoCAD 3Dstudio MAX, Indy3D etc.), dankzij de OpenGL ondersteuning van T&L. Het bovengenoemde systeempie PIII450, van ongeveer 4000,- pieken, rent er lachend een Intergraph of Silicon Grafics uit":

Ein ganz anderes Bild vermitteln die OpenGL-Tests. Durch den vollständigen ICD (Installable Client Driver) des Geforce profitieren alle OpenGL-Applikationen sofort vom T&L und lassen erkennen, was unter DirectX 7 möglich sein wird. In den Quake-II-Demos Demo1 und Crusher erreicht die Karte die höchsten Frameraten, die jemals im PCpro-Labor gemessen wurden. Bei den Indy-3D-Tests (www.indy3d.com/) werden bereits mit einem Pentium-III/450-Rechner die Meßwerte von Highend-Grafikworkstations bei weitem übertroffen.

Wie trek heeft in meer duitse teksten kan dit artikel van ZDNet Deutschland lezen. Riva 3D heeft ook een artikeltje met professionele 3D modelling benchmarks.

Bij Sharky Extreme hebben ze een review online geplant van de Transcend TS-UWH31 mobo met de low-end i810 chipset van Intel. Deze plank heeft slechts 3 PCI sloten en een 4Mb onplank videokaart. Geen vetpot dus... Check de hele review hier.

Because the UWH31 utilizes a software-based audio solution, its benchmark scores tended to be from 5 to 10% slower in 3D applications than other i810 boards we've seen that use a dedicated Yamaha-DSP for sound production.

Again, we don't believe Transcend is attempting to fool anyone into believing that the UWH31 is a board meant for the power user as they've got other superior mainboards specifically designed for that purpose elsewhere in their lineup.

We found that for most Win98 desktop applications, the integrated video and audio solutions of the UWH31 were up to the job, offering MS DirectSound support as well as 2D desktop resolutions of 1280x1024x24bpp to be achieved.

But to be clear, this is no 3D barnburner and it shouldn't be treated as such.

Tom Kuipers schrijft: "Met de nieuwste versie van getright (4.1) kan je veel sneller downloaden doordat hij de file in stukjes verdeeld. Hij begint op verschillende plekken tegelijk in de file met downloaden vanaf verschillende servers. ":

If there are several servers where a file can be downloaded, GetRight can segment the file and download different pieces from different servers at the same time. For some Internet connections, this can dramatically improve the speed of the file download. For example: if your modem can transfer at 4.0k per second, and there are 4 servers for downloading the file, but they each will only send data at 1.0k per second, GetRight can download from all 4 at the same time. So, instead of getting just 1.0k per second, it could get the full 4.0k per second your modem will allow--four times the speed without Segmented downloading. Segmented downloading is most useful if there is one file you really want to get as fast as possible.

Om Getright te downloaden, klik hier.

Over bij Full On 3D hebben ze een interview gepost met Nick Caddick van S3. Ze ouwehoeren een beetje over S3 als bedrijf, maar gelukkig ook wat info over de S3 Savage 2000. Hieronder vast een gedeelte:

Fullon3d: How does your hardware T&L compare to that of GeForce?

Nick: Well OK, it’s our first generation chip, but like GeForce we can have up to eight hardware generated lights. One thing that GeForce doesn’t have however is real-time load balancing, which means that the 2000 can accelerate as much or as little of the geometry as is required. So it should scale well to almost any system.

Fullon3d: What about the future?

Nick: In the first half of next year we’ll have a Savage2000 plus™ a turbo-charged Savage2000 and we’ll continue to drive prices down. You can be assured that our 2000-range will be significantly cheaper than anything from 3dfx or NVIDIA. Then we have our Project-X that I can’t tell you anything about!

Slashdot heeft een verhaaltje getikt over de Open Source berichtgeving in de media, waar over het algemeen sterk wordt getwijfeld aan de vraag of Open Source uberhaupt kan werken . Praktijk voorbeelden, zoals de populaire Apache webserver, worden vaak volledig over het hoofd gezien:

If people are so concerned or curious whether Open Source can be a success and "beat" Microsoft (or any commercial and/or proprietary company) in this "web thing," then Apache is proof positive that the answer is yes. Apache never started out to "beat" Microsoft, nor is that one of it's goals. It presents itself only as an accurate, reliable and decently fast web server. And for the vast majority of those looking for web servers, what's important is that Apache delivers what it promises. Maybe that is another key feature of Apache's success: that it doesn't promote itself as ABM (Anything But Microsoft). It's content with letting it's performance and track record speak for it. Trouble is, in today's world, you gotta shout.

Certainly, the "battle over the desktop" sounds sexier than "the battle over the web servers," and Microsoft is known more for Windows and NT rather than IIS. So it makes sense that an alternative that goes toe-to-toe with Microsoft in a specific arena that they have controlled for so long, will become such a well known entity. But it is up to all of us to make sure that the message about Open Source is more than just Linux. There are other players that deserve their time in the spotlight, not only for their continued health and survival but also because it presents a more accurate and well-rounded view of what Open Source really is. Open Source is a rich and varied rainbow of projects, each one clearly showing that Open Source is viable, that it can succeed, that it does succeed. Allowing the media to portray one project as the focus of the entire movement does a disservice to the countless other projects and their developers. Open Source can not and should not live or die by what happens to Linux.

Apache makes our case stronger, and in doing so, helps out the entire Open Source movement. So does Perl. So does PHP. So does FreeBSD. Let's make sure the world gets the whole picture. We will all, even Linux, be the better for it.

Ennuh, Tweakers.net draait bij pair op FreeBSD, Apache, PHP en MySQL en da's allemaal Open Source (nouja, MySQL niet helemaal).

Dit is geloof ik wel interessant, met de gratis internet hype waar ons landje momenteel door getroffen wordt: 96000333 schrijft: "De gratis internet providers schieten als paddestoelen uit de grond. Maar welke provider biedt nou wel POP mail en welke niet? Waar hoef je niks te dokken voor de aansluiting en waar betaal je inschrijfgeld? Op deze en meer vragen antwoord, al 12 providers in de lijst":

Tegenwoordig zijn er zoveel gratis internet providers, dat je door de bomen het bos niet meer ziet. Deze pagina moet een beetje orde in de chaos scheppen. De onderstaande tabel bevat informatie over de meest bekende ISP's (internet service provider) die gratis internet verstrekken. De ISP's staan in willekeurige optie in de tabel en het is ook geheel aan U een beslissing te maken aan de hand van de informatie. Alle informatie is afkomstig van het reclame materiaal van de ISP's zelf, er wordt hier dus slechts een opsomming gegeven van de feiten.

Check dat overzicht op go.to/gratisinternet.

Slashdot heeft een Q&A sessie met John Carmack online gezet. In goede /. stijl werden de vragen samengesteld door de Slashdotters zelf. Hier een interessant vraag over Linux en game development (geript van Voodoo Extreme):

ajs asks: I read a sort-of-analysis that you wrote way back comparing DirectX 3D handling to Open GL (with Open GL being far preferable to you). Do you feel that the tools that you and others will need to create the next generation of games exist now under Linux or other Open Source operating systems, or is that still a long way off? What would you recommend that we developers and developer wannabes dedicate our time to?

John Carmack Answers: To develop a game, you need coding tools, pixel art tools, modeling and texturing tools, sound tools, and usually music tools.

Coding tools are basically fine under linux, and there is already plenty of force behind their improvement.

Gimp looks serviceable for pixel editing, but I don't know of any professional game developers using it.

I assume there are some basic sound tools available, but I would be surprised if they are equal to the best windows or mac tools. That is probably the most approachable sector to work on improving.

Modeling and texturing tools are the biggest lack, but it is also the hardest to address. They really need to be built on top of solid 3D infrastructure, and that is still in its infancy right now. It would probably be possible to build a simple, focused modeling and texturing program that could get the job done, but full featured programs like MAX and maya have an immense amount of work invested in them. Maybe SGI will get maya ported to linux...

We are going to try to build our next level editor cross-platform, which will probably sort out a bunch of 3D content creation issues. I will be improving the matrox GLX driver as necessary to support the effort.

Bij 3D SoundSurge is een grote review gepost van de Creative labs Soundblaster Live! Platinum. Kwa hardware niet vernieuwend, maar er wordt wel een handige Live!Drive II frontpanel meegeleverd waarop alle I/O connectors zich bevinden. Check de hele review hier.

I have already heard complaints from people who say the connections are better off on the back, but personally I like them just where they are with easy access. The one omission out of the box is the LiveDrive does not have optical connections. Not sure why Creative went with the LiveDrive II, which has optical in and out in Europe but not North America, but I suspect it has something to do with the greater popularity of MiniDisc players. Most MiniDisc players and some AC3 amps use the TOS Link input, some use the COAX input and others actually have both. It’s the same for home theater speakers as some use optical, some use COAX and some use both. Cambridge Soundworks uses a coax connector so if you want to connect the Live Platinum to Cambridge Soundworks DeskTop Theater 5.1 system there won’t be a problem. However, if optical out is important to you and you are looking at the Americas version of the Platinum then you will have to upgrade to the Digital Output Module that Creative will offer as a separate upgrade. If you use that Module with their upcoming digital I/O board it will also offer optical in. The Live!Drive II will also be upgrade option that for around $150 will add an additional line in as well as the optical in and outs to what you already find on the Live!Drive I.

The actual optional Digital Output Module will connect to the external digital mini-jack on the Live! card itself. The card also has the same digital connector as the original full version of the Live but most likely you will be using this for the Live!Drive. However, the LiveDrive itself has an internal digital expansion connector that is the same as the connector found on the cards so you can check out add on boards from Hoontech with optical in and out as well as the possible optical I/O board from Creative.

Steves Digicams heeft een review gepost van de Toshiba PDR-M5. Deze digital camera heeft een 2,1 Megapixel CCD (goed voor een maximale res van 1600x1200px), een 3x optische zoom (38 - 115mm) en wordt op de PC aangesloten middels de USB interface:

Overall image quality is very good. Color balance and saturation is where it should be most of the time but occassionally the metering system will pick up a bright foreground object and give it too much priority over the rest of the scene. The PDR-M5 could be greatly improved if it had a choice of matrix, center- weighted or spot metering. I did notice some "noise" in the images that have been seen in most all of the other 2 megapixel cameras. I now believe this to be an inherent problem with the (common) CCD imager used in all of them. What is most noticeable are little "blotches" in shadowed areas that should be a continuous color.

Dit lijkt me een errug cool ding. De prijs valt met 799 dollar nog enigzins mee (voor een 2,1 Megapixel model met zoom).

News.com bericht dat Motorola pas begin volgend jaar in staat zal zijn om 500MHz G4's te leveren, dit terwijl Steve al 500MHz modelletjes in z'n verkooplijstje heeft staan. Als gevolg van de produktieproblemen bij Motorola is er een enorme backlog ontstaan op G4 orders, een probleem waar Apple inmiddels een oplossing voor uitgedokterd heeft. Juist, gewoon de bestaande modellen met 50MHz downgraden (goh, lijkt Intel wel, daar hebben ze ook zulke simpele fixes voor dit soort problemen). Kun je nie echt een elegante oplossing noemen. De aandeelhouders hebben er in ieder geval geen probleem mee, die waren erg tevreden met de winstcijfers die Apple gisteren bekend maakte:

What really cheered Wall Street, though, were Apple's moves to make sure the company can reduce a $700 million backlog in orders. The company said it will resolve a delay surrounding new versions of its Power Mac G4 systems by using processors that are slightly slower than originally planned. The 500-MHz system, for example, now will contain a 450-MHz chip, but sell at the same price.

The company only shipped 64,000 G4 systems during the quarter, less than half the number Apple had predicted, because of Motorola's inability to make enough of the fast versions of the processor. Apple also is enduring a shortage of iBook notebooks.

[...] According to Apple, the whole problem started when it learned Motorola would be unable to ship enough of the 450- and 500-MHz chips used in Apple systems.

[...] Apple surprised dealers and customers alike by canceling these orders and telling consumers that new Power Mac G4 systems would come with PowerPC G4 processors running at 350, 400, and 450 MHz, rather than with chips running at 400, 450, and 500 MHz. A G4 processor running at 500 MHz will not be available until the first calendar quarter of next year. [break] Om het probleem met het G4 produktietekort aan te pakken heeft Steve de hulp ingeroepen van IBM, die gaat in opdracht van Motorola weer PowerPC's bakken. Meer hierover lees je bij News.com.

Verder weet The Register te vertellen dat er problemen zijn met de introductie van de iMac, die is in Japan met 2 weken vertraagd. De oorzaak ligt waarschijnlijk in problemen ontstaan door de aardbeving in Taiwan: [/break] Apple has admitted it has been forced to delay the shipment of the latest version of the iMac in Japan.

[...] The Apple spokesman did not specify the cause of the delay, but it's almost certainly the first tangible sign of the Taiwanese earthquake's effect on the Mac market.

However, that should be the limit of the quake's effects -- according to Apple CFO Fred Anderson, "[Apple] lost one week of production with iBooks and iMacs in the September quarter"

Ik heb ff een paar Coppermine vs Athlon benchmarks van het net geplukt. Deze twee komen van JC:

CPU CPU Clock Memory Dhrystone Whetstone Coppermine 800MHz 133MHz 2170 1083 Athlon 800MHz 100MHz 2618 1094 Coppermine 700MHz 100MHz 2288 956

CPU CPU Clock Memory CPUMark Coppermine 666MHz 133MHz 62,5 Coppermine 600MHz 133MHz 57 Coppermine 600MHz 100MHz 54,9 Athlon 650MHz 100MHz 60,3

[break] Verder nog de benchmarks van Thresh's Firingsquad (zie dee nieuwsposting van gisteren). De Coppermine werd hier gedraaid op een low-budget i810e plank (op dit moment de enigste Intel chipset met officieel support voor 133MHz FSB): [/break]

CPU CPU Clock Memory Winstone99 CPUMark Athlon 600MHz 100MHz 27,2 54,6 Pentium III 600MHz 100MHz 26,3 43,9 Coppermine 600MHz 133MHz 25,2 53

[break] Als aanvulling op bovenstaande resultaten een paar i820 vs i810e benchmarks (op een PIII-600EB met 133MHz FSB, TNT2 in i820 systeem) bij Ace's Hardware: [/break]

Benchmark i820 i810 difference CPUMark 44,1 43,3 -2% Winstone 26 21,8 -16%

De resultaten zijn op dit moment nogal wazig, het is nog wachten op de eerste betrouwbare applicatie benchmarks (Quake3, Winstone, Bapco SysMark enz.).

Michael van AnandTech heeft een review van twee TNT2 Model 64 kaartjes (Gigabyte GA-622 en Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar) neer gekwakt. Zoals je wellicht zult weten gaat het hier om een gemankeerde TNT2's met 64 ipv 128-bits geheugen bus, en de gevolgen daarvan zijn vooral merkbaar bij snelle CPU's en hoge resoluties:

Overall, it’s clear that the 64-bit memory bus of the TNT2 M64 greatly hinders performance in certain situations, such as higher resolutions and/or color depths. Even on the Celeron 300A, performance drops much more rapidly than a standard TNT2 when switching to 32-bit, especially 800x600 or 1024x768.

The K6-2/450 is not effected nearly as much until you hit 1024x768 because it is more CPU limited. The drop incurred by switching to 32-bit rendering at 800x600 is much more significant with the M64 as well.

As CPU power is increased, the performance difference between the M64 and the TNT2 become much more evident. The M64 hangs tight at 640x480x16, but falls behind quickly at any higher setting. In fact, the frame rate drops up to 30% compared to a similarly clocked standard TNT2 under such conditions.

Plaatje van de Gigabyte - leuk kleurtje:

Anand heeft op z'n frontpage een interessante posting geplakt over de Intel i820 en VIA Apollo Pro 133 chipset. Hij spreekt over een nieuwe type SDRAM geheugen, dat ondersteund wordt door Apollo Pro chipset en sneller is dan het huidige PC133 SDRAM:

Right now I'm working on Monday's review which will be a comparison between the Intel 820 and the VIA Apollo Pro 133A (AGP4X support). The Apollo Pro 133A is being benchmarked with SDRAM and another type of SDRAM as well (no, not DDR but close, think less vaporware). The initial benchmarks are indicating that Intel finally has good competition from a VIA chipset in terms of performance across the board (including in games). What am I talking about? The 5 - 10% loss in gaming performance doesn't seem to be present with this chipset, why? Well, you'll just have to wait until Monday for that. At the same time, Intel is pushing for the release of the i820 in 1999. This is good news but then again, we didn't expect to have to wait for the i820 in 2000 now did we? If VIA can pull through with the Apollo Pro 133A (denoted by the 82C694X North Bridge) and this other (I'm going crazy with the HTML tags tonight) type of SDRAM then Intel may have quite a bit of competition on their hands. [break] Ik vermoed dat-ie het hier over VCM SDRAM heeft, dit type geheugen wordt namelijk in de press release van VIA genoemd. Ik heb 't ff in een search engine gegooid en kwam op deze page van Techworks.co.uk: [/break] Virtual Channel Memory is a memory core technology that is compatible with standard memory architectures, and offers higher data transfer rates by enabling the memory core to read and write data to memory cells without the bottle necks that can occur in conventional memory cores. VCM thus achieves bigger performance gains than could be achieved by increasing the clock frequency of the memory device.

VCM has been adopted by the industry's Joint Electron Device Engineering Standards (JEDEC) body, as a memory standard and 64Mb VCM SDRAMs are currently available in three organisations (x4-, x8, x16-bit). Memory modules are currently being readied for market.

Eagleman schrijft: "Vanwege de commotie over de verschillen tussen Novell NetWare en Windows NT / 2K, die gisteren ontstond na een bericht over Directory Services, nogmaals een poging om weer ON-topic te komen en de verschillen tussen NDS en MAD - als product op zich - boven water te krijgen. Twee leuke links over deze materie, van Novell":

There are fundamental differences in the way Novell and Microsoft designed and implemented their directory services solutions. While these differences are to be expected, and even applauded, they can also the cause of some confusion when the two directory approaches are compared.

With Novell’s recent announcement of NDS 8’s general availability, the potential for misunderstanding has never been greater. Microsoft has been especially keen to make comparisons between NDS and Active Directory, but has failed to take into account the differences of approach between these two directory service solutions. The inaccuracies resulting from such comparisons are bound to mislead, and give some cause to question whether Microsoft fully understands Novell’s approach and implementation of directory technologies.

Novell offers this reality check to clear up any confusion readers may have when comparing Novell Directory Services (NDS) with Active Directory. [break] ...en Microsoft: [/break]

With Novell's release of NetWare version 5.0 and Novell Directory Service Version 1.2 (NDS), Microsoft is asked frequently to compare the Active Directory of Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server to NDS. Microsoft believes that customers are no longer looking for application-specific or limited-purpose directory services--they require directory technologies that can play a multipurpose role. For reasons outlined in this White Paper, Microsoft believes that Active Directory will meet the customer requirements of a multipurpose directory service much better than NDS. This makes Active Directory the best long-term directory service.

Zelf heb ik geen hout gegeten van deze stof, maar afgaande op de reakties van gisteren begrijp ik dat het een nogal het onderwerp is onder network operators.

Onze held Steve was blijkbaar redelijk onder de indruk van de onblije reakties op zijn besluit om de G4 modellen in snelheid te degraderen én alle opstaande orders te cancellen. Die laatste beslissing is nu teruggedraaid, zo bericht MacInTouch:

Apple has reversed the cancellation of existing Power Mac G4 orders, according to impeccable sources, and is calling back customers to explain. The Apple Store will honor existing orders for the previous configurations at the previous prices. People who ordered the G4/500 model, which cannot be produced due to Motorola's production issues, will be offered a choice of the original G4/450 configuration at the original price or a discount on their G4/500 configuration, as if it had been ordered custom-built with a 450-MHz processor selected. Once Motorola production has ramped up to the level that Apple expected - anticipated to take an extra three months or so - processor speeds should again rise to the level initially announced. (Answering another question among readers, IBM will be manufacturing the same G4 currently produced by Motorola, with AltiVec functions included.)

Several readers confirm the change in policy, although others were still getting the reorder runaround at midday (and a few more reported bizarre cancellations of orders placed and fulfilled months ago for unrelated products):

Billy van Voodoo Extreme heeft een nieuwe reaktie toegevoegd aan z'n Developers over T&L vs Fillrate artikel. Deze toevoeging is van Jay Stelly / Valve Software (dat volk van Half-Life en Team Fortress):

Scalability across a variety of hardware is the major challenge facing technology programmers of 3D games. There are already many ways to deal with scalability of fill rate (such as supporting lower resolutions), but geometry scalability is much more difficult. 3D cards with hardware T&L give us more options in this regard, and increase the high end performance of our games in more interesting ways than fill rate does. Hardware T&L is the next big advance in 3D card technology. Anti-aliasing is a very desirable feature, but its impact on 3D games is not as broad.

DaNose heeft errug cool nieuws: "Hmm... lekker. Volgens de Register begint AMD volgende week met de produktie van de eerste 1Ghz koper Athlons .":

The first copper Athlon production should roll out of AMD's Dresden Fab 30 next week, after the plant's official opening on Wednesday. That means that despite problems with cost, and associated negotiations with Motorola to help fund Dresden development, AMD is probably on schedule for 1GHz copper Athlon parts for Q1 next year.

AMD has an unpleasant history of not quite managing to get its production schedules together, but so far Dresden doesn't look at all bad. It's the first plant outside of the US capable of using a copper process, and as it comes into commission this year it seems to have been hitting its targets.

Wow, wreed! Dit terwijl AMD vorige week op een aandeelhouders bijeenkomst nog zei dat de 1GHz Athlon pas halverwege volgend jaar ging komen. Nu nog ff die nieuwe AMD en VIA Athlon chipsets en de echte party kan beginnen...

MacLedge.com heeft goed nieuws voor Mac gebruikers die de bouterige ATi Rage kaart uit de G3/G4 willen dumpen, er zijn namelijk (onofficiële) drivers voor de TNT in de maak:

As we reported earlier, two freelance programmers are busy working separately on drivers for nVidia's TNT and TNT2 3D graphics cards. Malcolm Sharman, the programmer farthest along in development, will release native OpenGL and RAVE drivers for the card. We contacted Malcolm with several questions we thought Mac gamers would like to know about the project, and he responded with answers to every question as well as the first preliminary benchmarks released for the TNT2 on the Mac...

Dat interview met Q3Test benchmarks lees je hier.

Betanews heeft een artikeltje over het nieuwe (en zoveelste) beveiligingsgat dat recent in Internet Explorer (waar anders? ) werd ontdekt:

This hole is exploited using an IFRAME with the Document.execCommand(), a method usually restricted by security. However, since not all security features are available in an IFRAME, which operates independently from the window that contains the script, the security breach can be made. Microsoft reports that the patch will enable all of the security checks available normally.

As a temporary fix for the problem until the patch is available, Microsofts Security Advisor recommends the following workaround:

- Place the sites the user trusts in the 'Trusted Zone' of the security options.
- Disable Active Scripting in the 'Internet Zone' to eliminate the ability of a web site operator to enable the script for viewing files.
- Immediately place http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ in the 'Trusted Zone' to allow download of the patch for this problem which does require Active Scripting.

Meer info over deze work around lees je bij Betanews.

Opera Software heeft beta4 van Be-Opera gereleased. De Windoos versie vind ik enorm kut werken, maar als BeOS gebruiker heb je nou eenmaal niet veel keus (neem aan dat dit ding beter werkt dan Netpositive). De 30-dagen trial kun je hier downloaden.

Riva3D heeft z'n GeForce DDR review geupdate met info over de DVD playback features van de kaart:

If you've got a DVD drive but no hardware DVD playback, then you'll love the software playback of the GeForce. It's simply the best of any card I've ever tested. Although the TNT2 and V3 do an admirable job of software DVD playback, you do notice the occasional video glitch, dropped frame, or frame overrun (especially during scene changes). The difference is clearly palpable when running the GeForce. Absolutely zero glitches, dropped frames, overruns, etc. WinDVD detected the hardware motion compensation of the GeForce card, and all playback features of WinDVD worked perfectly.

Klinkt goed. Zie ook deze screenshots van The Matrix (niet gedownscaled):

Zer0 schrijft: "Een aantal game developers bij Logicware, o.a gespecialiseerd in Mac-ports (bv QuakeII, Redneck Rampage) heeft een wat aparte manier om met een iMac keyboard om te gaan . Mensen die nog op zoek zijn naar een iMac keyboard kunnen bij eBay een bod uitbrengen op het gebruikte klaviertje . PS: links zijn ongeschikt voor de wat gevoeligere Mac'ers":

But wait, someone out there IS going to win a decisive victory, because we're auctioning the remains of this authentic piece of Macintosh game development history on eBay! iMagine the iNtense thrill of owning a Revision A iMac keyboard which was smashed to little bitty pieces by three of the preeminent portmeisters of Macdom, and then played with by the cat who hangs out at their offices!

Not only did no-life Half-Lifer Andrew Meggs drive his car over it repeatedly, but after the camera (personally held by everyone's favorite Quake II Oats man Nate Trost) was turned off, this bondi blue masterpiece of industrial design was used for practicing field goal kicks, karate chops, and general stomping, all while game-industry LEGEND Burger Bill Heineman looked on and cheered and thought of lunch.

You couldn't get a keyboard with more Mac-gaming flavor if Mark Adams wiped his sweat on it! And this is a collector's item that's almost sure to have lasting financial(*) as well as sentimental value, because we're advertising it on our website so lots of people will want to buy it from you after you buy it from us! You're reading the actual ad right now! So get on down to eBay and bid your heart out on this thrilling piece of MacOS Memorabilia because... well... we're pathetic losers and could really use the money.

Hehe . Hier drie screendumps van het super toffe Quicktime filmpje van dit voorval:

Persoonlijk heb ik het Windows 2000 avontuur niet op de voet bijgehouden, maar MSNBC meldt in dit nieuwsbericht dat de release nu pas aankomende februari zal zijn. Ome Bill heeft geen zin om de boel te haasten:

Microsoft Corp. marketing will take one on the chin and wait until February of next year to launch Windows 2000, the company’s flagship product. The Redmond, Wash., company is telling partners it will take a deliberate approach to launch rather than try to rush the launch into the end of this year just to save face, according to several sources.

TouTaTis schrijft: "Een review van iets wat ik nog niet eerder bij tweakers.net heb gezien (een review van een muismat).":

When I first tried Everglide from my first mouse movement I was able to see the difference. It is easier to move the mouse on this surface and the friction is better and more precise. Another nice feature is that the hand's position is better. I tested it with five mouses and the results were the same: spectacular. Logitech, Kensington, Microsoft or Genius performed the best on EverGlide.

Tsja, persoonlijk doe ik niet aan muismatten, maar deze plaat schijnt toch wel te werken. Check de review hier.

hjs schrijft: "Eergisteren vonden we er al de aankondiging, nu staat ie er echt.":

Gisteren lieten we nog weten dat de nieuwe Savage 4 drivers van RebuM versie 1.0b hadden bereikt, vandaag is versie 1.1 gelanceerd en uiteraard heeft Mic's 3DZone ze als eerste online staan. Deze nieuwe 1.1 drivers zijn volgens RebuM zelf 15% sneller in Direct3D dan de 1.0 drivers, dus download nu:

De S3 Savage 4 Socket 7 driver versie 1.1 kun je hier neerhalen (1,32Mb). Check Mic's 3D Zone voor meer info.

Snuffel schrijft: "Tja, wat moet je hiervan zeggen?":

De nieuwste uitvoering van het Internet-protocol (IP) vormt volgens beveiligingsexperts een bedreiging voor de privacy. IP versie 6 voegt namelijk unieke, identificeerbare gegevens toe aan alle IP-adressen. Deze nieuwe functie is echter bedoeld om de beveiliging te verhogen.

[...] De ontwikkelaars van IPv6 hebben ervoor gekozen in elk IP-adres een nummer op te nemen dat de achterliggende computer identificeert. Veel Internet-leveranciers geven hun abonnees wisselende IP-adressen, omdat ze toch niet allemaal tegelijk online zijn. Dit geldt met name voor modemgebruikers, die immers geen vaste verbinding hebben.

Het omstreden identificatienummer moet communicatie via Internet veiliger maken. Vinton Cerf, geestelijk vader van Internet, wil dan ook het gebruik bevorderen van IPv6 in de huidige vorm. Voorstanders van elektronische privacy vrezen echter dat hierdoor de bestaande anonimiteit op Internet zal verdwijnen.

Ook dit wet weer geleend van Computable.

hjs schrijft: "Je ne pas parle francais, maar datums snap ik nog net":

ASUSTeK aussi va proposer sa carte à base de GeForce 256, la V6600. Vous pouvez trouvez une photo de la carte, dans sa version 64 Mo, ici. La carte sera tout d'abord disponible dans une version 32 Mo SDRAM annoncée pour le 20 Octobre, puis dans une version 64 Mo SDRAM avec Entrée et Sortie TV, qui sera disponible le 30 Octobre.

Oui, je comprend of zoiets (4 jaar frans voor gehad ). Dus op 20 oktober de aankondiging van de 32Meg versie en dan op 30 oktober het 64Mb model met TV-in&out.

The Register heeft wat wazige (is wel vaker zo, daaro) info over een Celeron III system on a chip processor:

It pays to read the small print. When we looked at some leaked Intel roadmap pictures last week, we concentrated on the usual stuff about clock and bus speeds. But on a second glance, another interesting factoid can be seen.

The entry level Celeron systems arriving in the next six months or so bear the legend "Celeron III" and, in tiny type at the bottom, there's a note referring to Timna -- Chipzilla's first system on a chip (SoC) device. But it's not clear to which processors this refers.

iXBT Labs heeft een _errug_ interessant interview gepost met moederbord fabrikaten Abit, Chaintech, Gigabyte, MSI en Soyo. Het het interview o.a. vragen over het ZX/BX chipset tekort, toepassing van ALi, SiS en VIA chipsets, AMR (crappy soft audio/modem) en natuurlijk AMD's Athlon:

Q: What do you think, will Athlon be a real threat for Pentium III? At present the amount of mainboards designed for this particular processor is just incomparable with the mainboards for Intel processors. How can you comment on the possible changes of the situation in the future?

ABIT: As you know, it does not only depend on the CPU, but on the whole environment like chipset, etc. The first reports you can find show that the development is still necessary until Athlon is a real alternative for the demanding end user. We are therefore monitoring the development closely in order to see what kind of decision we will make for our company in the future.

CHAINTECH: AMD's biggest competitor is AMD itself. Only AMD can improve its production process to achieve higher yield rate, AMD can start intimidating Intel.

GIGABYTE: Yes, cost/performance could be a real threat to Pentium III. In the future they will be still incompatible and have their own technology.

MSI: I thing Athlon will be a competitor for Pentium III, from the price and performance's point of view. But the bottle-neck for AMD maybe its production capacity and promotion for AMD's brand recognition.

SOYO: Normally, Athlon would be a competitor to the Pentium III processor, and thus it wouldn't be a big threat to the PIII, because after all, it is an Intel product. However, under the current circumstances it might serve as a good replacement for the BX and ZX chipsets, which will make it easier for people to switch to Athlon. For what we hear, it appears to be a very good board, both performance and quality wise.

Er is nog véél meer, dus check dat intervew.

Da's nog eens relaxte space om een paar...euh... Word documentjes op te slaan:

The largest hard disk ever, containing a whopping 73 gigabytes of data storage space, will be announced by IBM tomorrow. The disk, the UltraStar 72ZX, is aimed at high-end computing markets where space is at a premium. It's the latest arrival in an industry bent on outdoing itself by a factor of two every year.

But, although IBM will announce the 73GB drive tomorrow, the disk will actually arrive in 2000, which is at least three months late, according to Disk Trends analyst Jim Porter.

[...] The disk will steal away the capacity crown from rival Seagate, which has been selling a 50GB drive since last fall, Porter said. IBM and Seagate are tied for first place in the high-end disk drive market, which currently is growing at the healthy pace of about 17.4 percent per year, he said.

The 72GB drive set a record for the fastest response time to search out new data, Porter said. The heads--the part of the drive that actually read the data within the drive--can move to a new position in 4.9 milliseconds. "I don't think anybody's better than that," he said.

Verder komen er dit jaar ook nog nieuwe 36Gb modelletjes. Check C|Net News.com voor de info.

Ik liep bij AnandTech Webnews tegen deze press release van de Abit BF6 (BE6-II met 6 PCI slots, zonder ATA66):

ABIT Announces the Release of the BF6 with Six PCI and Soft Menu™ III!

Taipei, Taiwan, October 13th, 1999—ABIT announces the release of the BF6, the latest BX chipset ATX based SLOT 1 motherboard with Soft Menu™ III technology. The BF6 is the next generation of ABIT's famous BH6 motherboard. There are more advanced hardware specifications with the BF6 including two functions for setting CPU parameters, BIOS Soft Menu™ and DIP Switches.

The BF6 increases ABIT's popular advanced Jumperless technology, Soft Menu™ III which provides ABIT's customers the easiest and safest environment to achieve ultimate performance.

Soft MenuTMIII
The BF6 implements Soft MenuTMIII technology that eliminates all jumpers on the mainboard that set CPU parameters, allowing end-users to easily and correctly install or upgrade their own CPUs. The BF6 BIOS supports a wide range of external clock settings, multipliers from 2 to 8 and special multifunction PCI and AGP clock dividers. With the Award 6.0 BIOS, and a new clock generator, Soft Menu™ III supports Front side bus speeds from 66~200MHz, and unlimited from 83-200MHz (increments of 1)! Flexible Boot up sequence, and three setting functions for Power Recover which allows for power on after a power failure.

What's the same?
ABIT's new BF6 has One AGP, Six PCI and 1 ISA slot to handle all of your expansion needs. It also offers official support for Intel's newest Pentium®III and Celeron® processors and completely supports Pentium®IIs and earlier Celerons® as well. Furthermore, it comes with the following features: all the specifications for AGP spec Rev. 1.0 for improved 3D graphics performance at a lower cost, APM/ACPI power management, USB, PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, CPU auto-detect, AWARD write protect anti-virus, Wake On LAN, Suspend to RAM, and hardware health monitoring. APM is there also which stands for Advanced Power Management. It is a feature rich power management function for a more energy efficient P.C. It includes Soft Power On/Off, Sleep, Suspend and Stand-By mode, Real Time Clock (RTC) Alarm and RTC Power On, and Modem Ring On. The networking standards Wake On Lan (WOL) and Wake on Ring are also supported. [break] Verder bij AnandTech ook een press release van de BE6-II (BF6 met 5 PCI slots, mét ATA66): [/break] ABIT Announces the Release of the BE6-II, with ATA-UDMA/66 and Soft Menu™ III!

Taipei, Taiwan, October 13th, 1999—ABIT announces the release of the BE6-II, the latest BX chipset ATX based SLOT 1 motherboard, supporting the Ultra DMA/66 IDE Protocol and Soft Menu™ III technology. The BE6-II is the next generation of ABIT's famous BE6 motherboard. There are more advanced hardware specifications with the BE6-II including an UDMA 66 controller and two functions for setting CPU parameters, BIOS Soft Menu™ and DIP Switches.

The BE6-II increases ABIT's popular advanced Jumperless technology, Soft Menu™ III which provides ABIT's customers the easiest and safest environment to achieve ultimate performance.

What's different?
The major difference between the BE6-II and the other BX mainboards is the addition of Ultra DMA/66 support and now ABIT's next generation of Soft Menu™ technology, Soft Menu™ III.

Soft MenuTMIII
The BE6-II implements Soft MenuTMIII technology that eliminates all jumpers on the mainboard that set CPU parameters, allowing end-users to easily and correctly install or upgrade their own CPUs. The BE6-II BIOS supports a wide range of external clock settings, multipliers from 2 to 8 and special multifunction PCI and AGP clock dividers. With the Award 6.0 BIOS, and a new clock generator, Soft Menu™ III supports Front side bus speeds from 66~200MHz, and unlimited from 83-200MHz (increments of 1)! Flexible Boot up sequence, and three setting functions for Power Recover which allows for power on after a power failure.

...en de rest van het verhaaltje is gelijk aan die van de BF6. Hopelijk wil dit nu ook zeggen dat de BE6-II en BF6 binnenkort verkrijgbaar zijn (leveranciers: hier graag input ).

Kyle en zijn kameraden bij HardOCP hebben eindelijk de hand weten te leggen op een Athlon. Voorlopig hebben ze alleen nog geen bijbehorende moederplank, dus houden we het bij een paar fotootjes . Wel leuke info over de Athlon heatsink:

Yep, you got that right Einstein! The damn AMD K7 came with an Alpha Cooler attached. This unit looks to be the same exact commercial unit we are all familiar with but with a shorter fin config. Otherwise it is all hardcore. Except for the fan mounted on. The fan blew. Well, you know what I mean.

Binnenkort zien we dan hopelijk eindelijk wat heftige overclockers actie bij HardOCP.

Snuffel schrijft: "Gelukkig, betekent dit dus dat er geen draadloze telefoons met blauwe schermen komen? ":

3Com heeft voor zijn dochteronderneming Palm Computing een overeenkomst gesloten met Symbian, terwijl het zijn Palm OS in licentie geeft aan Nokia. De betrokken bedrijven gaan inderdaad de gebruikersinterface van Palm koppelen aan de draadloze communicatie-technologie van de Symbian-alliantie.

[...] Ondertussen worstelt Microsoft nog altijd om met zijn mini-besturingssysteem Windows CE terrein te winnen op het gebied van palmcomputers. Die softwareleverancier erkent dat hij achterligt wat betreft marktaandeel, maar stelt dat de potentie van CE zeer groot is. Ondertussen zorgt de overeenkomst tussen Palm en Symbian er wel voor dat Microsoft buitenspel staat voor de verovering van de mobiele markt.

Check dit nieuwsartikel van Computable voor meer info.

Harley schrijft: "JRCP heeft de final beta van WinLinux 2000 uit gebracht en je kunt hem op hun website gratis downloaden. Het is gewoonweg Linux onder Windows, dus perfect voor een eerste kennismaking (dacht ik zo, ben 'm nu aan het downloaden dus een evt review kan later volgen )":

In this Final Beta version you may find that not all Linux supported hardware devices are identified and automatically configured. In that case please report the problem through our Troubleshooter utility so we can add your devices and send you an update.

Download full package (138MB):
Includes: Linux 2.2.6, KDE graphical interface, Netscape Communicator, GIMP, X11Amp (MP3 player) and dozens of Unix applications. Full Linux source code, the GNU C/C++ Compiler and a comprehensive documentation package are also included.

Een overzicht met download locaties vind je op WinLinux.net.

Snuffel schrijft: "Net echt, muterende viri... Gelukkig is het een Word virus. Word niet gebruiken betekent meteen geen last van dit virus. Allemaal terug naar WordPad?":

Network Associates heeft twee nieuwe versies van het Melissa-virus ontdekt. Zoals beveiligingsexperts van het bedrijf eerder al vermoeden bij de eerste uitbraak van het computervirus in maart van dit jaar, hebben virusontwerpers op basis van de originele code van het virus gelijksoortige maar verschillende virussen ontworpen. De nieuw ontdekte virussen Melissa.U en Melissa.V verspreiden zich net als het originele virus via e-mailberichten, maar bevatten een inhoud die de slachtoffer-pc noodlottig kan worden

Ja, tekstverwerkers in het algemeen sucken IMO, typen doe ik wel in Homesite . Maareuh, voor het volledige nieuwsartikel moet je bij Infoworld NL zijn.

Ik lees bij HardOCP een errug heldere verklaring (NOT) van Intel over wat er fout gaat met het derde Rambus slot bij i820 moederplanken:

Low launch voltage is due to superposition of:
- Back-2-Back Reads to Different Devices (device A & device B).
- Specific Data Patterns.
- Position Sensitivity of EACH Device Being Accessed.

Low launch voltage exceeds the specification and derates RDRAM drive strength. Launch Voltage is the voltage of a net when the output buffer begins driving.

Output buffer derating combined with architectural B-2-B handoff and reflections + crosstalk causes failure. All elements simultaneously required to cause failure. [break] Okay, sure. Gelukkig heeft Intel een oplossing voorhanden, en hoe: [/break] - Build and validate 2 RIMM Boards.
- Any 3RIMM boards should be redesigned for 2RIMM only.
- 2RIMM Design Update 1.06 is now available; follow guidelines for respin of boards to 2RIMM only.
- PCG will continue to investigate other solutions for reducing accumulation of reflections. [break] Oftewel: sloop het derde slot eraf en je bent klaar... Verder bij HardOCP nog wat info over voltages en package versies van de nieuwe Coppermine: [/break] There will be two version of the Coppermine CPU that I know of so far. One is SC242 (Slot-1); the other is FC-PGA (Socket 370). The FC-PGA version of Coppermine has changed it's pin out definition compared to Celeron, so the current Celeron Socket370 boards will not run the Current Coppermine architecture. But this does not mean that only the 810e platform can run the FC-PGA Coppermine. Our Slot-1 Coppermine was VERY much at home on our BX chipset board. Once the pin configuration is worked out we might very well see BX Chipset boards able to run the Coppermine in a Socket370. Also it seems as if slower than 666MHz Coppermines will run at 1.6 volts while the faster CPUs will use a 1.65 voltage.

Scott McNealy van Sun (niet bepaald vriendjes met Bill) heeft in een interview met de BBC op de Telecom99 beurs gezegd dat Microsoft wat hem betreft niet in stukken gehakt hoeft te worden. ZDNet UK heeft het nieuws:

As the high profile Department of Justice v Microsoft anti-trust trial draws to a close, there has been increasing speculation the software giant will be divided into several "baby Bills".

In the past McNealy has been portrayed as arch-rival to Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. Sun's Java competes with Microsoft and Sun recently did a deal to offer a free alternative to Microsoft Office -- StarOffice -- distributed via the Internet. Despite the history of antagonism, McNealy denies he is keen for Microsoft to be broken up, calling instead for the software giant to be prevented from investing in new companies.

3DGPU.com heeft een overzicht bij elkaar gezet met reviews, press releases en verwachte shipping dates van de Creative, Guillemot, Elsa, Leadtek en Asus GeForce kaarten:

- Creative Labs - Annihilator / Annihilator Pro
- Guillemot - 3D Prophet / 3D Prophet DDR
- Elsa - Erazor X / Gloria II
- Leadtek - Winfast GeForce 256 / Winfast GeForce 256 DDR
- ASUS - V6600

Harley schrijft: "UPC heeft weer een grove fout gemaakt: nu hebben ze cam@home van het net gedondert omdat ze teveel verkeer zouden genereren. De site viel eerst onder A2000, alleen die zijn overgenomen door UPC en vonden het blijkbaar nodig om cam@home van het net te dumpen. UPC maakt het weer klaar hoor - ze kunnen blijkbaar niets, maar dan ook helemaal niets goed doen ":

Klein Nederlands internetleed: de populaire webcam Cam@Home werd zonder pardon door de provider UPC (voorheen A2000) van het internet gegooid. Cam@Home ging aan succes ten onder, het hoge verkeer bracht UPC ertoe de site te sluiten. [break] Inmiddels lees ik bij Fokzine dat cam@home onderdak heeft gevonden bij De Digitale Stad, onder de URL camathome.dds.nl en het oude vertrouwde come.to/cam@home: [/break] Nederlands bekendste webcamsite Cam@home zal vanaf donderdag 14 oktober gehost worden door De Digitale Stad.

Dimec schrijft: "Acer heeft zijn CD-RW collectie uitgebreid met de nieuwe CRW-8432A, een 8x/4x/32x CD-Rewriter met een buffer van 8 Meg. Dit zal volgens Acer het aantal buffer under runs verminderen. Hier een stukje van het press release:":

Acer CD-RWs have shifted market position from mid range to a best specification available market position with the launch this week of the new CRW-8432A. The CRW-8432A will offer an 8MB memory buffer that is twice the size of previous "high end" 4MB CD-RW drives. The most common frustration associated with trying to make your own CDs has been the "Buffer Under Run" error messages which indicate that data file size had exceed the drives memory limits. The result could be a $1 coaster rather than a successful recording. The 8MB buffer should reduce the occurrence of such errors. Acer's familiar flash upgradeable firmware feature has been maintained in the new CRW-8423A. E-IDE/ATAPI interface.