Het Utrechts Nieuwsblad schrijft dat KPN Telecom en Altavista plannen hebben om flat rate internet aan te bieden. Tevens gaat KPN een speciaal 06760 nummer invoeren waarmee over een apart, goedkoper datanet ingebeld kan worden:

Zoekmachine Altavista, sinds kort in Nederland actief, is druk bezig met een businessplan voor tikloos internetten. Ook telefoonmaatschappijen zijn achter de schermen bezig met internet tegen een vast tarief (flat fee), aldus F. Eisner van de Vereniging van Nederlandse Internet Providers.

KPN Telecom zegt ook met tikloos Internet te komen, maar wil nog niet zeggen wanneer. Eerst voert het bedrijf de zogenoemde ‘datatik’ in via speciale 06760-nummers. Dit internetverkeer wordt losgekoppeld van het gewone telefoonverkeer. Het datanet mag meer ruis bevatten dan spraaklijnen en kan daarom een stuk goedkoper worden. Prijzen wil KPN nog niet noemen.

Thanks Edgix voor de tip.

PcDealer schrijft: "Cisco Systems, wereldwijd marktleider op het gebied van netwerkoplossingen voor Internet, heeft AMD aangewezen als hoofdleverancier van flash memory chips voor Cisco netwerk systemen. Tegenwoordig loopt vrijwel al het Internet-verkeer via Cisco-routers en andere apparatuur. :

SUNNYVALE, CA--MARCH 1, 2000--AMD, the recipient of the 1999 Cisco Semiconductor Supplier of the Year award, announced today an agreement to supply Cisco Systems with the majority of their flash memory devices requirements over the next three years. These devices will be used to store sophisticated code and data for most of the networking systems offered by Cisco. The agreement augments a relationship that has grown significantly over recent years due to AMD's steadfast commitment to support Cisco and its product requirements

Kijk hier voor het hele bericht.

Power Generation Team bezorgde een link naar dit artikel van ZDNet waarin woordvoerders van zowel Intel als AMD aan het woord komen. Beiden geven toe dat er nog erg weinig processors beschikbaar zijn maar dat dat "zeer binnenkort" gaat veranderen. AMD zegt in het tweede kwartaal honderdduizenden Athlons van 900 MHz en sneller te kunnen leveren. Intel loopt daar 2 maanden op achter en kan waarschijnlijk pas in het derde kwartaal ruime hoeveelheden 1 GHz chips aanbieden. Wat er nu is gaat linea recta naar de Amerikaanse markt, hoewel AMD volhoudt dat het nu al 1 GHz Athlons in Engeland levert. Tot nu toe wordt door engelse leveranciers echter gemeld dat ze nog niets of slechts een paar Athlons hebben gekregen.

PCs based on the brand-spanking-new 1GHz processors from Intel and AMD are beginning to appear -- but don't count on being able to easily get your hands on one if you live outside the US.

But now that the processors are actually available, most top-tier manufacturers appear in no hurry to introduce the super-fast machines in Europe, the middle-east and Africa, the area affectionately known as EMEA. Compaq, for one, is set to ship an AMD Athlon-based machine to US customers soon, but says EMEA customers will get them in July at the earliest.

"Supplies [of the chips] are limited," said Compaq spokesman Mark Schlaffer in a statement Thursday. "We are evaluating when the 1GHz product will be available in EMEA. The earliest will be in July, depending on product availability and total product offering." [break]Intel zegt vooral op de "enthousiaste" gebruiker te mikken, en omdat de grootste groep daarvan in de USA te vinden is blijven alle PIII's die de 1 GHz uberhaupt halen vooralsnog daar.[/break] "The initial focus is on the enthusiast, and the US market is seen as the largest enthusiast market for these types of machines," said Intel spokesman Graham Palmer. "We will sell to manufacturers, and it's their choice who to sell their systems to. It's not inconceivable they will sell in Europe, but we are aiming to be shipping worldwide in Q3 of this year."

De DPC Hitparade Top 10 van 18 maart 2000

1. 49,997 Interior Lulu(3, Totaal:982,199)
2. 8,030 sienema(2, Totaal:1,151,290)
3. 5,943 Sir Soes & Shellshock(45, Totaal:221,957)
4. 4,984 The Vinz(144, Totaal:86,092)
5. 4,984 Nasty(10, Totaal:662,213)
6. 4,840 ThE RaVeR(56, Totaal:194,263)
7. 4,768 misser(25, Totaal:358,193)
8. 4,211 HarryB(13, Totaal:598,115)
9. 3,583 Sueno -- DPC(39, Totaal:249,821)
10. 3,536 TEX(97, Totaal:118,657)

En de nummers 11 tot en met 20:

11. 3,532 2fast4u(30, Totaal:312,441)
12. 3,207 liberator(299, Totaal:27,703)
13. 2,971 uberjorusch(256, Totaal:36,868)
14. 2,927 warmode(208, Totaal:55,104)
15. 2,927 j.deij(106, Totaal:111,059)
16. 2,860 Ferion Power!(17, Totaal:481,698)
17. 2,680 #hekje team(31, Totaal:297,454)
18. 2,678 Frank & Flemming(101, Totaal:114,893)
19. 2,647 Vossie(16, Totaal:533,067)
20. 2,641 BRILSMURF(107, Totaal:110,470)

De Top 15 teams van 18 maart 2000

1.( 0) 690,695 Slashdot.org
2.( 3) 618,733 #DeathMatch
3.( 0) 579,261 AnandTech
4.( 2) 567,164 Russian Team
5.( 1) 482,594 HackZone Team -- Combined power of Russia and exUSSR countries
6.( 3) 390,131 Team EvangeLista (Macs Rule! :-)
7.( 0) 380,267 The Amiga RC5 Team effort
8.( 2) 340,826 Team Warped (OS/2)
9.( 256) 320,295 Mari-Off Ayashii Group
10.( 0) 291,361 Japan FreeBSD Users Group
11.( 3) 286,655 Dutch Power Cows
12.( 0) 263,897 Libertarians for Privacy (Freedom Works!)
13.( 3) 218,198 CCC.de
14.( 3) 208,622 Team OS/2 Japan
15.( 0) 208,083 Team Hungary STB+
69.( 6) 52,024 The #koffie Team

Teams om ons heen (total stats):
26.( 1) TeamUFies (All Hail the Dust Puppy!) (Tot:53,876,368, Gis:152,893)
27.( 1) SEGA Users Group (Tot:53,538,565, Gis:154,141)
28.( ) Prof. James Challis' Most Excellent UK Team (Tot:52,905,908, Gis:100,863)
29.( ) AL-Mail Users (Tot:50,018,376, Gis:63,227)
30.( ) Dutch Power Cows (Tot:49,456,265, Gis:286,655)
31.( ) Team RimArts UsersGroup (Tot:48,535,707, Gis:72,025)
32.( ) NetBSD Users (Tot:43,579,652, Gis:82,368)
33.( ) SwissTeam (Tot:40,232,146, Gis:69,510)
34.( ) Michigan State University (MSU Spartans) (Tot:39,539,221, Gis:54,519)
(Teams waarvan de score van gisteren ontbreekt, hadden geen score in de top 100!)

Wanneer halen we ze in:
TeamUFies (All Hail the Dust Puppy!): 34 dagen
SEGA Users Group: 31 dagen
Prof. James Challis' Most Excellent UK Team: 19 dagen

Sander Prinsen schrijft: "Ik en Joshua volgen het nieuws over de Klipsch Promedia al een poosje en nu kwamen we een posting van ene Deadrage op het forum van 3D soundsurge tegen. Het lijkt erop dat we van Klipsch Europa in april eindelijk een officiële aankondiging over de beschikbaarheid van een 230 V versie kunnen verwachten ":

I've got an info, take it or not, but it comes from Klipsch Europe.

"A 110/220V successor will be announced in April - and this one will have an even better amplifier section so it is worth waiting for this release..."

Yep, in april you will know the specs for these new speakers from Klipsch and 220V compatible !!! I think that they will remove some artifact like hissing and this version could be perfect ?!?

Mike Andrawes heeft bij AnandTech een review gedumpt van de Gigabyte GA-6VX-4X Apollo Pro 133A moederplaat met een 5/1/1/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP/AMR) slot configuratie. Hoewel er met de performance van dit bordje helemaal niks mis is zullen overklokkers het ontbreken van een jumperless CPU setup, voltage tweaking en het geringe aantal FSB mogelijkheden als een zwaar gemis beschouwen:

Maybe we've just been spoiled, but jumperless CPU setups are what we expect in a motherboard today. Unfortunately, Gigabyte did not feel that step was necessary. While it's not the end of the world, and makes no difference if you don't tweak your system or overclock, it's not that hard to implement as evidenced by the fact that nearly every other manufacturer has done so. The minimal FSB speed selection doesn't help the overclocking situation either. Core voltage adjustments are another essential feature for overclockers that is missing here. If you use an FC-PGA CPU in a slocket adapter, it's likely that the adapter will have voltage tweaks via jumpers.

While DualBIOS is a nice feature that can certainly save you in a number of situations, it does make flashing the BIOS a little more complicated since there are physically 2 BIOS chips on board. The 6VX-4X would complain that the BIOS was corrupt even though our flash was successful and then proceeded to try to copy the backup BIOS to the main BIOS. Unfortunately, this BIOS copy would fail and the system would lockup. Fortunately, a simple reset brought the system back up, but we were stuck in a loop until we entered the DualBIOS configuration utility. From there, we were able to disable the automatic copying of the backup BIOS to the main BIOS.

Koen Crijns heeft een artikel op z'n site gemikt met daarin zijn bevindingen over de gelekte nVidia Detonator 5.08 drivers, die plotseling FSAA en ST3C support naar onze GeForce's en TNT's brachten. Koen onderzocht in welke mate deze features de moeite waard zijn:

De Detonator 5.08 drivers zijn zeker interessant. Iedereen die graag aan zijn PC sleutelt, kan ik aanraden de drivers te downloaden en er een keer mee te experimenteren. Bedenk wel dat deze drivers "beta" zijn en dus niet zo stabiel en foutloos als de echte gereleasde Detonator drivers.

Toch wil ik de Detonator 5.08 hype nuanceren. Zowel het S3TC als het FSAA systeem is op de GeForce nog niet snel genoeg om serieus genomen te worden. Of dit nu aan de software of aan de hardware ligt, laat ik even in het midden. Op het gebied van FSAA wil ik ook graag nog even onderstrepen dat ik het nog nooit een kaart beter heb zien doen (bedenk dat de Voodoo 5 die ik heb gezien ook 640x480x16 was!), dus ik weet niet wat wel en niet mogelijk is. Ik weet wel dat ik met de huidige performance terugslag in mijn achterhoofd FSAA absoluut nog niet zal inschakelen bij een spannend potje Quake.

Over bij Savage Daily News staat wat info over de Windows NT Service Pack 7.5, die eind mei / begin juni gereleased zou moeten worden. Hieronder de soep:

Heres whats new in SP 7.5:

• DirectX 5.0 API Support w/DirectSound and DirectPlay Improvements
• 45% More optimized code than SP 6.0a
• Internet Explorer 5.5 Final Included!
• Vulnerabillities within the IIS and SQL Server have been resolved.
• All SP 6.0 Compatibility issues have been resolved.
• DSL/Cable/Satelite Internet Support Fully Integrated now.

Ars Technica heeft een artikel in elkaar gedraaid met daarin hun persoonlijke 'top 5 coole features' voor Windows 2000 Professional en Advanced Server. Hier wat over nummer 3 voor de server versie, de feature Active Directory:

One of my favorite additions to the scene has to be the Directory Service, dubbed Active Directory. For a first version MS product, I must say that AD is an impressive implementation of LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and X.500. The new DS rekindles the competition between MS and Novell, taking NDS (or eDirectory) head-on. Ah, yet another front for battle between two old nemeses. Regardless, the old way of going about NT domains is only in part retired, with a grander hierarchy replacing it. Now, instead of models like domains and even master domains, you have trees and forests. Domain controllers still exist, and each stores replica information of the directory for their domain. A new incarnation of DNS, dubbed Dynamic DNS, removes the need for a WINS server, and assists the transition from NetBIOS computer names to actual domain names for each resource (ex: resource.domain.com).

Confused? Don't be, just think of it all as a big catalog that contains all the information about computers, users (and other various resources), and all the ACLs concerning the access each resource with other resources within the catalog. The info is centralized (which is good), can be replicated out, and can be queried at will by various clients or resources. Also, since AD is based on X.500, communication can occur via HTTP or LDAP to the centralized directory (nice of MS to stick with industry standards here). Active Directory uses DNS as a locator service and supports LDAP queries ... allowing for greater ability to offer specific rights to resources in AD, and enabling programmers to talk to the authentication database with much greater ease.

Unfortunately, AD really deserves an entire discussion devoted to it, since anything less is a disservice. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing Web Services (formerly IIS 5.0) and various BackOffice components (namely Exchange 2000 and SQL 2000) plug into AD. Yum-yum!

Volg deze link voor de rest.

Bij nV News staat een stukkie info afkomstig van CGO (die op het moment niet bereikbaar is) waarin wordt gemeld dat nVidia al NV15's heeft die op 250MHz kloksnelheid kunnen draaien! Hoewel we niet hoeven te verwachten dat elke gebakken NV15 deze snelheid zal trekken is een standaard kloksnelheid van 180MHz aannemelijk, wat overeen zou komen met 720MPixels/sec:

We can't say when it will be available, except to confirm that it will be in their second fiscal quarter and "sooner rather than later." They've obviously had chips back from the fabrication plant for some time already, given that the X-Box demo unit used one. Details of the new chip are under embargo for the time being, but the move to a .18 micron manufacturing process apparently paid off big. NVIDIA was pleasantly surprised to find that the first chips they got back from the lab run quite a bit faster than anticipated. They tell of even clocking one as high as 250MHz! Naturally, it was an exception to the rule and they can't possibly ship parts in quantity at that speed, but a target shipping speed of 180MHz or more isn't at all out of the question. The NV-15 chips draw far less power and run cooler than their NV-10 counterparts as well.

Een clubje onderzoekers van IBM heeft een nieuwe technologie ontwikkelt waarmee het in de toekomst mogelijk wordt om 150Gig data op een vierkante inch te plakken, honderd keer de dichtheid die met de huidige harddisks mogelijk is. Het is nog onbekend wanneer de technologie geschikt is voor commerciële toepassing:

In an article to be published in the journal Science, the researchers at the Armonk, N.Y.-based computer giant (IBM) say they had discovered chemical reactions that cause tiny magnetic particles to assemble themselves at precise intervals, Friday's New York Times reported.

These particles could boost storage densities to as high as 150 gigabits per square inch, the Times reported. IBM is presently shipping disks with 14.3 gigabytes per square inch, the Times reported.

The Times quoted IBM executives as saying the breakthrough won't immediately translate into the next generation of disk drives, pointing out it took almost a decade for IBM to take its Gigantic Magneto resistive head technology from the laboratory into products.

Scott Miller van 3DRealms (onze Duke Nukem Forever vrienden) heeft een .plan update gepost waarin hij z'n twijfels over de X-Box het net op mikt. Scott lijkt naast de PC en de consoles van Nintendo en Sony weinig plaats te zien voor de X-Box:

[1] A big knock against all next-gen consoles, now that they have the graphics horse power to matter, is that TV screens are relatively low-resolution monitors that cannot deliver the clean, detailed images of a PC monitor. Until HDTV is wide spread, this gives a BIG advantage to PCs.

[2] Typically, in a given major market, only the top two brands will be highly successful, and I think everyone has good reason to believe Sony is a lock as one of those two. Nintendo or Sega both have a very strong chance at being the other one, since both of those companies are solely focused on the gaming market and that gives them many business and marketing advantages. Nintendo, ESPECIALLY, seems like a sure-thing because of their very strong gaming brands, like Zelda, Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and Pokémon. And even the PC itself must be considered a formidable game platform.

[3] It's just not convenient or easy to use a mouse in front of a TV, so that's a big-time PC, and an advantage that makes games that are best played on PCs (FPS and RTS games, among others), often too hard to play on the X-Box as with the other consoles.

[4] If Microsoft believes that anyone will want to use the Internet and do their email, etc. on a TV-based console system, they will been proven wrong. I just don't see people putting up with that kind of hassle, and reading text on fuzzy TVs, and doing anything on the X-Box that is far better suited to a PC. Maybe when a desk in front of TV screens become standard equipment, then consoles will have a prayer at becoming more than just a game machine.

[5] I foresee that the majority of X-Box games will be enhanced ports of PC games. This will be a serious problem for the X-Box's identity, because I don't see many developers making original content and brands for it--the majority of developers will still make games for the PC and then choose to port them to the X-Box. I predict most developers who develop games for the PC will simply say, "Hey, let's do an X-Box version, too!"

[6] It's hard to imagine that any hardcore PC game players will buy the X-Box. People with PCs will stick with PCs because PCs are by far the better game playing machine (assuming the PC has a generally equal CPU and 3D graphics card, and PCs for sale when the X-Box comes out should easily exceed the X-Box's CPU power, and be close to equal with the 3D graphics card), because they easily support the mouse (you're setting at a desk!), and the monitor is capable of displaying text that's readable in something wider than a 50 column mode! Also, the PC has many other applications, and it has a keyboard (imagine trying to play a FPS without a mouse and a keyboard--and think about all those keyboard shortcut keys for so many other games), making it the best all-in-one solution for most people. Quite simply, few people with a PC, I think, will switch to the X-Box to play games when it's easier to stay put on the PC. Sure, some people with older PCs may buy an X-Box to play high-end PC games, but I think that's a small percentage of us. Overall, stripped down PCs that are reduced to game machines doesn't seem like a winning idea, because a PC is so much better, and PC prices are becoming much less a barrier for people who might otherwise buy a console machine.

De rest (ja, er is nog meer ) kun je hier lezen.

Wijze wetenschappers van Bell Labs, de research tak van Lucent Technologies, hebben op een stukje glasvezel van 300 kilometer het wereldrecord netwerkje spelen verbroken. Met behulp van 82 golflengtes van elk 40Gbit/s werd een gecombineerde snelheid van 3,28 Terabit per sec behaald:

Bell Labs scientists said they used three 100-kilometer fiber spans to transmit 40 gigabits over each of the 40 wavelengths of light (colors) in the conventional C-band frequency range and 40 Gbits/s over each of the 42 channels in the long-wave L-band range.

"This is a milestone on the road to super high-capacity, long-reach transmission," said Alastair Glass, executive director of the Bell Labs Photonics Research Lab. "It proves the practicality of 40-Gbit/s systems with repeater spacing typical of today's networks."

Check voor meer info dit artikel van Foxnews.com