Bij Thresh's FiringSquad hebben ze een review gepost van de game Driver. Ze geven hem slechts 2.5 uit 5 sterren, waar ik het personlijk wel ongeveer mee eens ben:

When we first got hold of Driver, it looked exciting. It had made quite a name for itself on the Playstation, and I'm a big fan of racing games and gonzo action. It seems, though, that the Playstation is where it belongs. The translation was done poorly, and the game's mediocre graphics, lousy sound, and contrived gameplay are much more forgivable on an old console than a new PC title.

With no redeeming story, but rather, a half-baked one that doesn't even have the guts to proclaim its main character is a criminal, the only real draw of Driver is those who want to turn on Freight Train cheat mode, and drive around town sending cars flying 100 feet into the air. While this can be entertaining for a half-hour or so, it doesn't come close to justifying purchase of the game.

Bij Hardware One hebben ze een review in elkaar gezet van de Soundblaster Live! Platinum. Hieronder een gedeelte, check de rest hier.

Well, Creative has done it again! They have further elevated and enhanced their SBLive! series with the Platinum to a better overall product for their consumers. And the result of this product is through listening to customers, responding to gamers’ needs, and musicians.

I’m sure the Live! Drive plus the Platinum card will please the early adopters, hardcore gamers and musicians alike. If you are looking for a card that has the latest 3D audio standards, hottest features for musicians, a comprehensive software suite and the ideal audio solution for the Internet, then look no further as the Sound Blaster Live! Platinum has arrived!

ComputerNerd gaat gemodifiede Athlons leveren mét garantie, zo wordt in deze press release bekend gemaakt:

ComputerNerd has made a significant investment in a new precision micro-manipulation production facility to modify the Athlon® processor for higher performance. The modified Athlon® 500 CPU (or "Nerdlon") is available with speeds of 600, 650 and 700 MHz and is sold only with integrated FAK7X2B cooler. The cooler is permanently attached to the Nerdlon's aluminum faceplace using a special ultra-high thermal conductivity interface material.

The integration of CPU and cooler assures adequate cooling for the CPU under all normal conditions of usage. Based on extensive experience with other processors, ComputerNerd is confident in the performance and longevity of the Nerdlon, and is offering a three-year replacement warranty which is unique in the industry.

Quoting from the USAGE AND WARRANTY POLICY posted on the company's website: Processors purchased as OEM products normally carry only a 20 or 30 day warranty on the CPU, while "retail" or "boxed" CPUs with 3-year warranties are always priced higher because of the extra cost of the guarantee and cooler included with the CPU.

The modified Athlon® CPU with FAK7X2B cooler is an integrated retail package with full three-year replacement warranty from ComputerNerd USA, subject to the following terms of usage: Abusive usage causing physical damage to any element of the CPU or cooler is not warrantied. Opening the CPU cartridge following shipment to the customer will void the warranty. Attempts to remove the fans from the heatsink or the heatsink from the CPU will void the warranty.

Although only recently announced, both the FAK7X2B cooler and modified Athlon package have attracted great interest from both consumers and the industry at large, and several independent reviews featuring them will soon be published. The company emphasizes that it is providing AMD Athlon® 500 CPUs which have been MODIFIED BY COMPUTERNERD USA to run at 600, 650 or 700 MHz as distinct from Athlon® 600, 650 and 700 processors produced by AMD, and that it will participate in the prosecution of any consultants or VARs which misrepresent these CPUs to their customers.

Felix schrijft: "Linux Slackware 7.0 is uit. Op ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/slackware-7.0/iso/install.iso is een bootable CD image te krijgen":

Slackware is the longest-running distribution of the Linux operating system. Slackware offers a stable and secure version of Linux that is perfect for home, office, or educational use. Slackware is easy for beginners to install, but contains all the advanced features required by the experienced UNIX power-user.

Changes: Glibc 2.1.2, Linux-2.2.13, Gnome, XFree86 3.3.5, and a new "BigSlack" distribution. Read the ChangeLog and homepage for more information.

Check Freshmeat voor de...euh soep.

iXBT Labs heeft een erg dik artikel gepost over de geschiedenis van Rambus, beginnende in 1990 en eindigend op het punt waar we nu zijn: brakke i820 chipset, beschadigde reputatie van Intel en geheugen fabrikanten die miljoenen dollars hebben verloren aan het Rambus fiasco:

Though a lot of companies trusted Intel and developed special infrastructure for the coming DR DRAM, it still made them suffer considerable losses for the second time already. Just one example: tester manufacturers invested over 500 million dollars into high quality models production and now it suddenly appears that DR DRAM is hardly demanded and no one knows if the situation will improve in the near future. Besides, the market may completely change till then.

For some time VIA turned out the only manufacturer of the classical chipsets (non-integrated and non-server ones) supporting new Intel processors and AGP 4X.

The memory manufacturers, who hadn't been very enthusiastic about dealing with DR DRAM recently mainly because of the SDRAM prices increase, absolutely lost any interest in it having switched their production lines to 64Mbit SDRAM manufacturing. Of course, because they had to make up for the losses they had suffered! Each silicon plate they spent on DR DRAM chips today appeared just wasted.

News.com bericht dat SGI plannen heeft om een op Linux draaiende super computer te bouwen. Het systeem zal gebruikt worden voor onderzoek naar nucleaire wapens en zal een performance van 30 teraflops krijgen:

By 2001, it's possible that the fastest supercomputer in the world will be powered by the Linux operating system. If Linux gets the job, it will be a key component in the effort to keep U.S. nuclear weapons working as designed, the main function of this new supercomputer.

[...] If SGI does go forward with the move to Linux and wins the contract, it would be a remarkable coup for the operating system, which at that point would be celebrating its 10th birthday. Linus Torvalds began the creation of the core part of Linux in 1991 when he was a computer science student in Finland.

[...] There's no guarantee Linux will be used in the new supercomputer, however. For one thing, other companies could win the contract, which the Energy Department will award in the spring of 2000, according to Gil Weigand, the agency's deputy assistant secretary in charge of research, development, and simulation.

Betanews weet te vertellen dat Alex van Kaam een nieuwe versie van Motherboard Monitor heeft gereleased. Een lijstje met toevoegingen en wijzigingen in versie 4.11:

- Added: Support for the Via686A system monitor, this includes: Tyan S1598 and FIC SD 11
- Added: Support for the AMD756 Southbridge (SMBus)
-Added: Support for the AMD755 Southbrdige (SMBus)
-Added: Suspend/Resume option in popup menu
-Added: On request of ACDC the option to set a negative alarm value for the temperatures
-Added: Temperature section in the visual tab, here you can set all things that have to do with the temperature display (scale, display style etc.)
-Added: Option to increase the number of entries in the Graph Style display
-Added: Option to add a switch to a EXE you launch at an alarm, just right click on the filename you want to add a switch too
-Added: CPU Heat Tab, this tab is by default turned off, it should only be used if you are cooling to a very low temp and you want to avoide cooling the cpu too low in fear of condensation. You can set a temperature value on which MBM should start the CPUHeatUp Thread and on which to stop it.
-Changed: Different version of the AS99F127 will de detected
-Changed: Shutdown now code, no longer needs the DLL and ready for ShutDown Now 4.x
-Fixed: Several small visual errors

Motherboard Monitor 4.11 kun je hier neerhalen.

Blij nieuws bij EETimes, want volgens hen zullen de DRAM prijzen de komende tijd verder dalen!

After four years in the pricing dumpster, DRAM makers finally were able again to raise prices significantly this fall and tell customers to stand in line for orders. But that party has been rudely interrupted by a price collapse in recent weeks that threatens to linger well into November.

Figurative aftershocks from the Taiwan quake and a reluctance on the part of PC makers to raise prices due to the high cost of components have conspired to cause the counterintuitive price drop, setting off a cat fight between OEMs and their memory suppliers and altering system design plans.

[...] "Most of the DRAM companies still think this year and next year there will be a DRAM shortage. However, we don't think so," said Akira Minamikawa, a senior semiconductor analyst at IDC Japan here.

[...] "Spot prices are down to $10 already, and OEM prices are higher than spot prices," Minamikawa said. "In general, when the spot price is cheaper, it's a sign of an oversupply situation." <> Minamikawa said he expects DRAM contract prices to head south this month. Pricing should fall about 50 cents in November and another 50 cents in December. The average selling price of 64-Mbit DRAM for the first quarter of 2000 should be in the $8 to $8.50 range, he said.

GA-Source heeft een interview gepost met Helen Bougas, communications manager van Guillemot. Uiteraard werd er gesproken over de overname van Hercules, die gisteren door Guillemot werd aangekondigd:

Q: What is the first Hercules branded product that Guillemot plans to ship?

A: Once again, at this time, this is very hard to say. But a statement will follow shortly.

Q: How does Guillemot intend to market 2 separate brand names given that Hercules and Guillemot were previously competing in the graphics product marketplace?

A: Guillemot plans to start a separate graphics division under the Hercules name. As you know Hercules was established in 1982 and can be credited with starting the PC graphics add-in board business. It is this strong brand name especially among mainstream audiences that we would like to establish for ourselves worldwide.

Check Gamer's Alliance voor het complete interview.

Creative Labs gaat z'n Unix/Linux drivers voor de Soundblaster Live! onder de Open Source GPL license vrijgegeven:

Creative Labs has sent word that they have decided to embrace the open source philosophy for their Sound Blaster Live drivers. They have decided to branch their code tree for the SB-Live into 2 dedicated sets of drivers. One set will be for Linux / Unix and be opensource, while the other will be for Windows, BeOS, Linux, and Mac (binaries only). They hope that by doing this they will be serving their users best.

Meer info vind je bij GA-Source.

Raymond schrijft: "Way to go Intel, als ze het op technologisch niveau niet kunnen winnen, dan maar via juridische wegen":

Intel has expanded its legal war against Via Technologies by filing a bevy of lawsuits against the Taiwanese chipset maker as well as companies that have adopted the Via's products.

Three different sets of lawsuits have been filed against Via, its partners, and customers in San Jose, the United Kingdom, and Singapore. Although the specific claims and defendants vary from suit to suit, all of the actions share a similar theme.

[...] The source of the conflict stems from Via's promotion of a 133-MHz system bus chipset, sources have said. Until recently, all Intel chipsets came with a slower, 100-MHz bus. In early spring, Via began to tell customers that it was planning to release a chipset with a 133-MHz bus months before Intel. This early release was apparently a violation of the licensing agreement.

Rather than back down, Via has released its chipset. Although Via mostly worked with second- or third-tier customers, it recently saw its business rachet up when Intel announced that it was delaying its 820chipset, which would have better competed against Via's offerings. After the 820 got delayed, Micron, IBM and HP all announced that they had become Via customers

Check News.com voor meer info.

Raymond gaf me deze link naar een artikel over de nVidia Detonator 3.53 drivers. Er schijnt een of andere vage texturing bug in te zitten:

ACK. It would seem that the 3.53 detonators are lying about their AGP capabilities, and are in fact, pushing textures out across the system bus and not the AGP bus. This would account for the lack of a performance change when changing AGP aperture size. This could certainly lay at the root of my performance issues in these texture-intensive games. Additionally, these test results illustrate why requests for AGP memory do go answered for games that try and use the AGP capabilities of the card anyway...the downfall is that the transactions occur across the system bus (why did I ever bother with an AGP card, NVidia?). Is this some new hidden limitation of the GeForce skulking in the closet that TNT/TNT2 users inherit as a result of using these drivers? Why do these drivers continually report a constant pool of available memory, when clearly it's anything *but* constant?

I don't know the answer to all of these questions yet. I am experimenting with Detonator drivers going back to 1.09 and OEM versions as well to see if this AGP deficiency has been with us all along. More on that later. In the interim, I'm hoping NVidia has a response or explanation for these test results. [break]Nick Trantios van nVidia heeft er inmiddels op gereageerd:[/break]There were some issues in Windows 2000 that are being fixed by Microsoft, but are not in the latest public release of Win2K. My guess is that this user is hitting one of those issues.

In addition, the state of AGP on Win2K is that it is in an early stage of development. NVIDIA is still working through all the issues in both our code and Microsoft's for handling AGP in the same way that we handle it on Win98.

Bij AnandTech hebben ze een review gepost van de 3dfx Velocity 100. Een 2D/3D kaart a'la de Voodoo3 2000 alleen met maar 8MB SGRAM. Nadat je in het register de 2e Texture Mapping Unit aan het gezet blijken de prestaties van de kaart toch vrij hoog te liggen:

We weren’t sure what to expect with the Velocity 100 as its specifications and press release from 3dfx were somewhat vague. What we found was essentially a Voodoo3 2000 with only 8MB of RAM. The second TMU has been disabled by 3dfx under OpenGL/Glide for "memory management purposes," but we saw no disadvantage to enabling it via the registry key mentioned earlier.

With both TMU’s pumping out pixels, the Velocity 100 also performs identically to the Voodoo3 2000 in nearly all situations. Further, with a bit more cooling, our sample card would have overclocked to 166/166, putting it right in the Voodoo3 3000 range.

With its lack of AGP texturing support, the Velocity may fall behind as future games begin using more textures. Then again, we’ve been saying that since the dawn of AGP.

With all this in mind, the Velocity 100 makes an excellent budget alternative to the Voodoo3 2000. The performance is virtually identical, but the Velocity is about 1/3rd cheaper, currently hovering around $50. It has all the advantages, and shortcomings, of the Voodoo3 line. If you’ve wanted a Voodoo3, but couldn’t afford it, the Velocity is your answer.

Check de rest van de review hier.

Ik zag op 3D Files dat Epic nu ook de 3.48 demo voor de Mac heeft uitgebracht. Hier heb je wat info over deze demo:

Let's cut right to the chase, shall we? Unreal Tournament is a STAND ALONE (e.g. you don't need the first Unreal to play it) game that provides the ultimate in multiplayer excitement whether you're hooked up the Internet or not. Let's repeat: Unreal Tournament kicks just as much butt whether you're playing by (or with, as the case may be) yourself or on the Internet. Unreal Tournament's got it all: a ton of amazing levels, kick-ass new weapons, brain-melting new modes of play (Capture the Flag, Assault Match, Domination Match, Last Man Standing, and Ð of course - Deathmatch!), unbelievably deadly Bots (computer controlled opponents or team mates), and a slew of other features bound to have your happiness glands working overtime!

New in version 348:

• Networking bandwidth and server CPU use improved
• A.I. performance improvements and tweaks
• Replicate all player skins in use to clients when joining to avoid hitch when first see new player
• Performance improvements and cleanup of HUD, messaging, and console
• Precache left hand weapon meshes if using left hand.
• Improved dynamic detail dropping to maintain minframerate
• store list BSP nodes for decals to greatly improve decal clipping speed
• sort decals by texture to improve performance
• increased characters per font page for default font to increase performance
• Increased performance by use of vertex buffers
• Optimized for low memory computers
• Improved bot AI for impact hammer
• Added variety of playing styles to default practice bots
• Improved auto adjust bot skills, and skills now remembered from level to level
• Bots use rocketlauncher locking on more
• Bots have adjustable strafing ability
• Game time now unaffected by timedilation
• Kill tossed weapons faster
• Improved/louder gib sounds
• Fixed switch to best weapon twice and then its always pending bug
• Improved reduced HUD (with just frags, ammo, health, and armor)
• shows name of weapon switched to if weapon is hidden
• Fixed player shadows not being deleted on the client
• Fixed green domination control point color
• Improved control over what voice messages are played on a client
• Fixed flashing screenshot in UBrowser during reping
• Removed "Advanced Options" and integrated into GUI. Still accessible with console command
• Added Up/Down history to console and IRC chat window
• Fixed crash in Options | Preferences when a very long key binding was defined
• If random order is checked, all bot configurations are now shown
• Fixed friendly fire/force team balance overlap in Assault menu
• Scrollytext in morpheus no longer shows spectators
• HUD color preview box area
• UBrowser right click to copy current server address
• Added proxy server support for in-browser news, made use HTTPClient use HTTP/1.1
• MenuCmd console command
• Demo version not longer goes straight to the menus when started with a URL (eg GameSpy)
• Force Respawn option
• Added kickban administrator console command
• Server passwords now work
• Added webserver settings to Start Multiplayer Game
• Listen servers are back in the server list, but show that they are a listen server in Rules
• WWW remote server admin: friendly fire works correctly
• Exposed FastTrace() to UnrealScript
• Added color operations to UnrealScript
• Fixed occasional problem with view bob going crazy at extremely low frame rates
• Added DamageMutator attribute to GameInfo class. Points to a linked list of mutators that affect damage taken by pawns.
• Client-side (simulated) mutators can attach themselves to HUDs and get called in PostRender()
• Modmaker menu calls Setup()
• timedemo: no longer counts precaching time
• ?noframecap is the default if "timedemo 1" is set

Kunnen de Macintosh freaks eindelijk ook genieten van de nieuwe 3.48 features

Je kunt deze demo hier, hier, en hier downloaden. De demo is 51 Megs.

BTW. Er is (nog) geen upgrade patch voor de vorige demo.

3Com heeft een nieuw modempje in elkaar geschroefd speciaal gericht op gamers. Men claimt dat het apparaat op wonderbaarlijke wijze tot 43% hogere ping snelheden kan halen. Hier een stukje blij geblaat uit de press release:

Geared at serious online gamers looking for some extra kick in their connections, the new Internet Gaming modem from 3Com Corporation (NASDAQ:COMS) offers users a level of performance that goes above and beyond the traditional analog modem.

Optimized for faster ping times, more stable connections and reduced lag times, the 3Com ® U.S. Robotics® Internet Gaming modem gives users a smoother, more powerful game experience than analog modems currently on the market. Built around 3Com’s award-winning 56K* V.90 analog modem, the internal PCI-controller-based Internet Gaming modem makes the entire game experience more realistic. The chance of being disconnected during a key play or experiencing a frustrating pause in a key action sequence has been greatly reduced since 3Com has optimized the firmware to provide a better level of connection stability.

Ping times are significantly faster with the Internet Gaming modem, allowing players to get their games started quicker than ever before. In fact, Henderson Communications Laboratories, an independent testing lab, concluded that the 3Com Internet Gaming modem achieved up to 43 percent faster weighted average ping times than five other competitor modems tested this October when calling to 3Com Total Control® or Ascend Max server equipment.

Sinterklaas 82 tm schrijft: "Ik was net op de superweb site en tot mijn grote verbazing zag ik dat een ftp server draaien hacken is. Een poortscanner is ook een hackpoging. Je krijg 1 waarschuwing en dan mag je nooit meer op sweb, en dat is toch jammer. Want als Superweb werkt is het een geweldig idee":

Superweb merkt als misbruik de volgende zaken aan:

[hier staan dingen die ik wel hacken vind en dus heb ik het er maar tussenuit geknipt]

-Het scannen van de computers van andere gebruikers door middel van zogeheten 'portscanners';

-Het actief laten opereren van elk type server die voor anderen toegankelijk is, d.w.z. Web, FTP, ICQ, IRC, Quake of andere servers;

Ik heb hier maar een ding op te zeggen:

Laten ze nou eerst maar eens de "echte" crackers ('t zijn inderdaad crackers, geen hackers [thanks to Conjo ]) buitenhouden. Een vriend van mij (met SW) riep dat hij op een gegeven ogenblik wel 5 unauthorised FTP visits had . Gelukkig zat hij achter een firewall ......

Yep_yo schrijft: "Ik geloof dat ik het niet meer helemaal volg, eerst stoppen met de NINO en vervolgens een wrist communicator bouwen. logisch ??? volgens mij niet, maar het klinkt wel intressant, voor je het weet krijgen we van die star-trek praktijken op je "wrist watch" tikken en bellen/internetten maar! ":

Comic-strip readers and engineers have dreamed about the wrist communicator ever since Dick Tracy started using one in his battles with evil-doers. Today, the villains challenging a Philips design team working on just such a gizmo are hardware and software architectures, power sources, and manufacturing issues.

Je kunt het artikel hier lezen.

LOL, zou inderdaad wel grappig zijn

Vorig jaar was er toch al die discussie met die mobiele telefoons bij eind examens??? Straks moeten ze iedereen nog verbieden een horloge ("wrist-communicator") om te doen.