Netscape Communications today confirmed a problem with Navigator 4.5 that could make the browser less secure for users on shared computers.
The problem has to do with the way Navigator, the Web-browsing component of Netscape's recently released Communicator 4.5 Web software suite, negotiates an HTML caching meta tag.
Caching is a method of saving Web files locally so that they do not have to be transmitted over the network every time a page is requested. Meta tags describe the content of a page or provide specific instructions on how to treat it.
The meta tag in this instance tells the server not to cache the page. While Navigator 4.5 hews to the letter of the HTML law in not caching the specified information to the hard disk cache, it does copy the information to the memory cache, according to Netscape. Previous versions of Navigator, along with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, do not.
The problem occurs only when Navigator 4.5 accesses a site secured with the Secure Sockets Layer encryption standard.
The glitch poses a potential security risk to users in computer clusters such as those common in universities or libraries. In the worst-case scenario, a person could enter a credit card number, or a user name and password, and a subsequent user could click back to the same page where that sensitive information has been preserved in the memory cache.
For the full article, read here.
Cyberway New High Speed Link 22:00 pm
Great, Cyberway added a 2 Mbps link to China. Seems like Cyberway is going at the wrong direction. Instead of pulling more bandwidth to US, why China??
With multiple high-speed connections to the global Internet backbone, CyberWay offers its customers reliable and high quality access to Internet sites all over the world. And with CyberWay's international roaming service, you will be able to use your CyberWay ID to access the Internet even if you travel overseas.
To further improve our service, CyberWay's network has been linked to China by a new high-speed Internet connection. This connection runs at a speed of 2 megabits per second and is capable of transferring 3,000 A4-sized pages of text in one minute. All CyberWay customers can now have smoother access to Internet sites in China, including popular sites like Beijing Daily Online (news), Shanghai Information World (culture, health, education) and Goyoyo (Chinese search engine). You need a web browser with Chinese language support to view the text at these sites.
Innovation: KCS Spintel Card Review 18:55 pm
We're used to seeing the typical 3D add-on cards and 2D/3D accelerator cards, but FastGraphics has laid their hands on the KCS Spintel card, a new code optimiser. Confused? Here's a little snippet:
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"The Spintel Card is a very small ISA card, about 13x4 cm. The Printed Circuit Board (PCB) is totally encapsulated in plastic... the hardware is custom chipset used most of all to read timings of certain pieces of code from the programs that you're running. The hardware passes this info to the software, which optimizes the code for better performance." |
How does it work? How can this possibly be?? Spintel's website offers an insightful explanation:
Almost every program designed for the use on a PC is made with the aid of something called a compiler. This compiler translates programs, written by people, into machine code that can be used and executed by your computer. However, even the most modern compilers produce code that is far from efficient. Furthermore, the code is usually tuned to 80386 and 80486 processors, because of something known as 'backward compatibility'. This is done so that the programs will run on any PC and not only on a system with for example an Intel Pentium processor. This in turn however, means that all the extra features of the newer generation of CPU's such as Pentium, Pentium II, AMD K6 processors etc., are not being used.
On execution of a program the Spintel Card examins hard- and software to determine which parts can be optimised. It then re-writes program code in realtime, for optimal performance. The Spintel card has several features to optimise timing of programs, adapting them to the situation of your specific system. This is quite different from a compiler that is a few years old, made at a time that your processor did not even exist! The Spintel Card makes sure your system uses program code that is relevant to CURRENT hardware specifications and hence optimises performance.
Skeptical? From FastGraphics' benchmark figures, they have been pretty impressed and said this:
"The Spintel card lives up to the expectations offering up to 45% in system performance increase."
NHL '99 Review 18:48 pm
Julio over at 3DSpotlight has excitedly sent word about his new review on EA Sport's NHL '99. To justify his love for this hockey game, you gotta read this:
Yes, Gameplay is the most important issue of games nowadays but I think I´ve said it all, with a good AI, superb graphics, nice sound and easy to get used controls, this is a hard game to beat when talking about gameplay, and no, I´ll tell you (talking 100% serious) I´m not a hockey fan since here where I live hockey isn´t a widely played game but after all I´m a PC 3D Gamer which was enough to make my say NHL 99 is exciting to play.
IBM hard drives
18:44 pmLooks like IBM is gearing up for it's hard drives technology. IBM pushed the storage envelope today by releasing several new faster and bigger hard drives for video and server applications.
Among the new offerings are a huge 36.4GB drive, the Ultrastar 36XP, and speedy 9.1GB or 18.2GB drives that spin at 10,020 rpm, the Ultrastar 18ZX and 9LXZ.
IBM is a bit late to market with the fast drives--Seagate has been offering 10,000-rpm models for a the last six months--but IBM's new models are competitive and "not too late to miss the market entirely," said Crawford DelPrete, an analyst with International Data Corporation.
The 10,020-rpm drives, which have memory caches of up to 4MB to speed them further, are designed to be able to keep up with the heavy demands of servers and video streaming applications like editing movies.
Seagate also beat IBM on the capacity front with a 47GB drive. However, that model is 5.25 inches wide, bigger than IBM's 3.5-inch-wide 36GB model, and noisier as well. However, Seagate plans to start shipping a 50GB drive 3.5 inches wide in early 1999, DelPrete added.
Affirmative. NT 5.0 Named Windows 2000 18:38 pm
So much for a good rumour yesterday, this is the official Microsoft Press Announcement if you still didn't believe it. NT Workstation 5.0 will now be known as Windows 2000 Professional, while NT Server 5.0 will be called Windows 2000 Server.
Windows 2000 Professional (formerly Windows NT Workstation 5.0) will be the Microsoft mainstream desktop operating system for businesses of all sizes. Windows 2000 Professional will deliver the easiest Windows-based environment yet, the highest level of security, state-of-the-art features for mobile users, industrial-strength reliability and better performance (with two-way SMP) while lowering the total cost of ownership through improved manageability.
3DMark99 06:45 am
3D TechTank posted a new article on the 3DMark99. Down there, the guys ran the benchmark on a Monster Voodoo2 and a STB Velocity TNT.
The downloadable version of 3DMark 99 is only a demo. It is DirectX only. It only allows 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions, and also limits you to 16-bit color. You can not change the parameters of the benchmark, and some other advanced benchmark features are missing from the demo as well. I hope to be buying the full version of 3D Mark soon so that you can see a more robust benchmark, but until then, this will do.
Down there, you will see benchmarks for the 2 cards and the TNT managed to edge out the Voodoo2 in the tests.
Another G200 Marvel Review 06:25 am
OGR had posted yet another review on the Matrox G200 Marvel.
Last but not least for video capturing tools, I should probably mention the fact that the Marvel can perform hardware MJPEG (that's Motion JPEG, not some MPEG derivative as the name might imply). The real advantage that MJPEG provides is that while using it you should be able to capture video for resolutions higher than you could normally otherwise. For example, capturing at the standard NTSC rate of 352x240 at 30 frames per second (in 8 bit color) is certainly possible on most system, as the required storage rate is below the 3MB/s that most IDE systems are capable of. But if you want higher resolutions or greater color depth to the video sequence you would normally be out of luck. But here's where MJPEG comes in.
Atom-Sized Chip 06:25 am
Yes! What I predicted 10 years ago is finally appearing now. Found this article from our affilate CoolInfo.
Danish scientists develop a really, really small prototype that works at room temperature. Danish scientists said on Monday they had created a chip where a single atom jumping back and forth could generate the binary code that is the basis of digital information used by computers.
Applying this technique--which might become commercially viable in a decade or two--information stored today on 1 million CD-ROMs could be stored on a single disc, physics doctor Francois Grey, the team leader, told Reuters by telephone. "Society seems to find use for this," he said, referring to the search for ever smaller units in various technological applications. Using a scanning-tunneling microscope, a four-person team at the microelectronics center of the Danish University of Technology was able to remove from a hydrogen layer surface on a silicon chip one of a pair of hydrogen atoms attached to one silicon atom, leaving the remaining hydrogen atom jumping back and forth. "This shows you can do it with the material in a controlled way," Grey said, noting the experiment had been completed successfully in normal room temperature.
Hydrogen-covered silicon chips are standard in modern computers. Grey's team removed the hydrogen atom in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber to keep the surface absolutely clean. This was one reason why the application may not be viable for practical use any time soon, he said. "This is basic research. It is not something you can put in a computer tomorrow," he said. Scientists elsewhere had conducted similar experiments making single atoms jump back and forth, but their work was done with material frozen to near absolute zero temperature. The Danish team was the first to have succeeded in room temperature, Grey said.
GameSpot has crafted a detailed preview on the remake of Sid Meid's classic RailRoad Tycoon. Build your railway stations and tracks, run your trains through strategic locations, control the intricacies of expanding your 'train' kingdom and watch it flourish or flounder. Study the article.
... the whole package is already looking pretty solid, and the fact that I kept playing the game right up until deadline is a good sign. Buffs of the first Railroad Tycoon game will feel right at home, and the additional options and sophistication will appeal to anyone who's willing to eschew tank rushes for awhile.
Matrox Marvel G200 21:25 pm
3DHardware.net has reviewed the Marvel G200 from Matrox. They've even captured lots of sample videos and converted them into RealVideo files for your consumption! Lots of cool stuff! Anyway, I'm certain many of you know what the card is about, but here's an apt description of the card:
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The Marvel is simply a beautiful piece of work. It's essentially a Mystique G200 with a Rainbow Runner with TV tuner built in, on the board. When the DVD decoder comes out, well, you plug the daughterboard in. One PCI slot for it all! |
Another motive I had for posting this was to confuse and tempt Kan who'd became increasingly obsessed with the TNT! (Ho! Ho!)... but damn, no NT support? (Read the stuff!)
TennMax V2 Stealth Cooler Review! 19:52 pm
GameCenter.COM has nicely reviewed the above specialised cooler fan for your Voodoo2 card. It's basically a good fan mounted on its conducting triangular base that's meant to be sticked over the 3 processing units on your V2 card.
Tennmax has addressed this problem admirably with its Stealth V2 cooling fan. Peel away the three pieces of contact paper from the triangular base, place the corners over the Voodoo 2's three processing units, and plug the fan into one of your PC's power connectors. That's all it takes to keep your Voodoo 2 card cool.
I've been looking high and low for this fan at SL Square, now anyone who knows where to get it please mail me! I want it!
Banshee Registry Tweaks 19:39 pm
Most definitely not for the faint hearted, but if you want to know what you can tweak in your Windows Registry for your new Banshee card then be sure to visit Bill's Workshop for a hint! I'm warning you, its all techno junko!
AOpen CRW-9420 20R/4W/4RW CD-RW
19:30 pmYup, lots of numbers up there. AOpen just announced the new CRW-9420 20 Read/4 Write/4 Rewrite drive.
Offering advanced optical drive solutions, AOpen America, the component manufacturer for the Acer Group, todaylaunched a new, high-performance CD-ReWriter, the CRW-9420. Boasting a 4Xwrite and rewrite speed and coupled with a maximum 20X read speed, the newCRW-9420 offers unparalleled flexibility for those who want to maximize theirCD-ROM investments with their PC.
Maximized for use in most PCs, the CRW-9420 is an internal design that supports the industry standard IDE interface. As well, the drive can be mounted in a horizontal or vertical position, also making it compatible with either desktop or mini tower configurations. A 2MB data buffer boosts the performance of the drive, and access times are 120msec. or less. Data transfer rates are 4X for writing, erasing and writing, and 20X (maximum) for reading. Thus, the CRW-9420 offers one of the highest mixes of data transfer rates and performance in a single drive. In addition to the high-performance features, the CRW-9420 integrates Optimum Power Control (OPC) technology to give the CD-ReWriter a high reliability rating. OPC continually monitors signal levels during recording and adjusts laser power to compensate whenever the disc is dirty. This ensures a flat signal, which greatly enhances the CRW-9420's reliability.
NT 5.0 To Be Named Windows 2000 19:28 pm
Here's fresh news off the rumour mill... rumour? According to a report at NEWS.COM, Microsoft will announce tomorrow that NT 5.0 will be known as Windows 2000.
Brad Chase, vice president of Windows marketing and developer relations for Microsoft, will announce tomorrow that NT 5.0 will now be known as Windows 2000, sources say.
Hey! What I'm concerned is if that means NT 5.0 a.k.a Windows 2000 (whatever!), will be delayed even more? You're not worried? Check out the C|Net's report anyway.
OS on a Smartcard 19:21 pm
The Wall Street Journal said the software giant will make the announcement at Cartes '98, an annual smartcard industry meeting in Paris.
Microsoft will provide details of an entirely new operating system that the company has designed to fit on smartcards, the paper said.
Smartcards are about the size of a credit card and have a computer chip inside. The Microsoft system will enable smartcards to store information and also perform advanced tasks, such as securely identifying users or running small programs, the Journal said.
Microsoft's new system could give a major boost to the acceptance of smartcards in the United States. The report noted that to date, more than 80 percent of the smartcard market is centered in Europe.
Do it yourself Cable modems 19:16 pm
3Com Corp announced on Monday the availability of a consumer-targeted cable modem, which will be promoted for use with the cable-access services of Tele-Communications Inc.
The retail availability of cable modems gives consumers the option of bypassing the arduous installation process and setting the hardware up themselves.
Until now, cable modems were designed to be installed by engineers. "The service itself is what makes it difficult to install ... it is not as simple as hooking up an analog modem," said analyst Rob Enderle, with Giga Information Group.
Read the full article here.
Cardex GX3 Savage3D Revisited 07:06 am
dk from Frontline just popped a note over about their revisitation of the Cardex GX3 card. They've whipped up another saga based on a new driver revision sent to them by Gainward. Here's the juicy part:
There's one thing for sure, is that you can't beat the price of the GX3 (US$90). Combined with the new drivers that are stable, the GX3 now offers true ‘bang for your buck’. Comes with TV-Out too.
This is one attractive buy! I'll probably pop over to Sim Lim Square again to psyche myself. I think I want it. I think so. Sheesh! Should I? Come on dk! Gimme some advice!
Western Digital Ultra ATA/66 Drive? 06:57 am
As always, our dependable news affiliate, CoolComputing has pointed us to Western Digital's press release announcing the release of one of industry's first Ultra ATA/66 hard drive. The Caviar 13Gb. THE PART:
The WD Caviar 13.0 GB hard drive has an average read seek time of 9.5 ms that combines with a 5400 RPM rotational spindle speed for today's high performance requirements. The drive supports Mode 4 PIO (programmable input/output), Mode 2 DMA (direct memory access), Ultra ATA/33 and Ultra ATA/66. Ultra ATA/66 allows data to transfer at speeds of up to 66.6 MB/s, doubling the data transfer rate of 33.3 MB/s.
It gotta be coming soon huh? I dunno!
Jap Epson Photo Printers Unraveled 06:53 am
Kok Leong of Digital Darkroom sent word that his recent discovery about some new Epson photo printers has been translated from Jap to English by a kind Jap friend. So we now have a clearer picture about its specs and features. Here's a cut from the Super Colorio PM-3000C:
This will be the new flag-ship photo-printer from Epson.The promotional literature says that it uses a 6 picolitre dot size (claimed to be smallest in the inkjet printer world). This incredibly small dot size is currently being deployed in the Epson Stylus 740. The driver for this printer also has additional features, such as a sepia tone filter. The running costs of this printer is claimed to be lower than ever as well as faster than the superb Photo EX (1.5 times faster).
Ok, we were talking about speakers some hours back. But heck! Now, you have right here the freshest review on the much hyped Desktop Theater 5.1 system from Cambridge SoundWorks.
| "... I am quite satisfied
with the overall sonic characteristics of the speaker, which is playing some demo XG midis
and some MP3s..." "For me, if it sounds good to me, it has delivered the goods. And that's precisely what the Theater 5.1 does for you at the end of the day." |
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Yes. Tonight! Right here! My revered Boon Kiat has bought himself a set and penned his experience with those cubies! (Read our very own Desktop Theater 5.1 review)
Abit G740 Merlin 22:21 pm
Our buddy Overclocker has posted his review on the Abit G740 which is based on the Intel i740 chipset. The old card with faithful reproduction of colours. Old Faithful? Check it out!
MonsoonPower Speakers 12:00 pm
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Happened to stumble into MonsoonPower website. If you do not know, the guys
over there sell speakers for the PCs as well as car audio. This kind of "flat panel" speaker technology was once reserved for expensive home entertainment systems - now Monsoon's technology makes these systems affordable for the desktop. Planar FocusTM technology directs the sound at the listener, minimizing reflections from the desktop and monitor sides. You hear crisp, powerful sound and the positionally accurate 3D effects possible from today's games and multimedia applications |
Internet Explorer v5.0 Beta 2 11:58 am
Yup, if you are feeling itchy (where??) and will like to try IE v5.0 beta 2, it is available for download from our sister site Fun@S-One. Weighing a hefty 22.2 MB, it will take 2.2 minutes to download from Singapore high speed ATM backbone.
Diamond Monster Banshee 08:37 am
SharkyExtreme posted a new review on the Diamond Monster Banshee.
The Diamond Fusion is the fastest Banshee card available. Period.
Is this due to Diamond's masterful software engineering corps? Nope. Is it because of a complete re-design of the 3Dfx reference card to provide "faster than the speed of light" trace routes? Nope.
The Fusion is the fastest Banshee card on the market because of that nifty fan and 125MHz SGRAM we mentioned a few seconds ago (A few minutes ago if you read as fast as the Mossad does....)
3DMark99 Roundup 08:33 am
AGN3D 3DMark 3D Card Roundup. Cards tested in this round are:
- Wicked3D Voodoo2
- Quantum3D X-24 Voodoo2
- Quantum 3D Raven Voodoo Banshee
- STB Velocity 4400 TNT
- Matrox Mystique G200
- S3 Savage 3D
The decade old battle of which video card is faster has given birth to a multitude of benchmark programs to both prove and dispute claims of which card is the best. 3Dmark 99 is the newest of these benchmarks, one that focuses on testing that performance in a "real world" environment. 3Dmark has been built from the ground up with support for Microsoft’s Direct X 6, to see how our video cards of today will perform with the games of tomorrow
WinAmp 2.04 08:25 am
WinAmp v2.04 is out. You can get them from here directly. Bug fixes include :
- New Nitrane 1.24
- Better sound quality
- Better corrupt MP3 handling
- New experimental "Aural Stimulation" mode -- Winamp Prefs->I/O->Nitrane Config->General. Try it!
- Added .ZIP skins support -- drop a .zip skinsfile into your Skins directory (usually C:\Program Files\Winamp\Skins) instead of unzipping into a folder.
- New Winamp Installer and Uninstaller
- Bugfixes aplenty.
Anand had whipped (ouch!) up a new article on how to cool your system effectively.
The key to a successful cooling system is realizing your goal. For the purpose of overclocking, defining a "successful cooling system" depends directly upon the success of your overclocking experiment. This article will concentrate on an average overclock for this sort of cooling, nothing like the 333MHz to 450MHz overclock which Kryotech accomplished, rather something more in the middle. With your processor constantly producing heat, the problem or goal is to remove as much of that heat as quickly as possible therefore keeping your processor free to produce even more heat without any adverse effects on the stability of your system. While that seems relatively simple, it requires a perfect understanding in order to pursue the construction of the rest of the cooling system.
A rather interesting read will be at Water Cooled CPUs, where they talk about, well, water cooled CPUs. Again, not for the faint hearted, this site contains lots of technical stuffs.
Savage 3D Texture Compression 09:17 am
If you wish to know more about how Savage 3D texture compression works, take a look at S3 homepage.
Licensed by Microsoft as a standard in DirectX® 6.0 APIs, S3 Texture Compression allows software developers to compress their texture data by one-fourth to one-sixth its normal size while maintaining the image quality of the original artwork. When used in conjunction with AGP, S3TC provides for texture amounts that were previously unheard of. Now, instead of a texture budget of 2, 4 or 8 megabytes (MB) of memory, software developers can put over 200 MB of 24-bit textures in one 3D scene on a PC with 64 MB of system memory (see expanded texture storage).
In addition, by compressing textures, S3TC:
- Improves sustained fill rates when texturing from system memory by removing the read bandwidth bottleneck that often limits achievable fill rates.
- Maximizes effective bandwidth so that more data can be shipped across the AGP bus, increasing performance.
- Frees sufficient memory to allow for triple buffering, boosting overall achievable fill rate by about 30% when texture data is stored in the local frame buffer.
- Improves image quality by allowing for higher resolution images to be stored in the same memory footprint.
Microsoft shuts Site 09:04 am
Microsoft yesterday shut down a site hosted by Softbank Services after discovering that it was revealing private identification and contact information for 108,000 Microsoft customers.
Softbank's site let users of Microsoft's Money financial management software upgrade to Money 99 from previous versions of Money. Microsoft had Softbank Services pull the site yesterday after learning of the security breach from CNET News.com.
Users trying to access the downed site first received an HTTP error page. Now the site reads: "We are sorry, but our site is temporarily out of service. If you would like to place an order for Money 99 or the Financial Suite please call 1-800-598-2068. M-F 8 a.m.-10 p.m. ET
Microsoft on Thursday sent out a mass email inviting Money users to order the software upgrade either online or through a toll-free call. The email included a unique reservation number nine digits long.
Once at the Softbank Services-hosted upgrade site, users could enter that number to order the upgrade. However, if they altered one or more of its digits, they were likely to call up the account of another customer.
While the resulting Web page did not display users' personal information outright, the pages contained names, phone numbers, email addresses, and postal addresses in a series of hidden fields. Those hidden fields could be viewed easily in the document or page source.
RAM Guide 00:33 am
TomsHardware had a new article on the various types of RAMs available in the market. Not for the faint hearted, this article is choke full of technical jargon.
Due to cost considerations, all but the very high-end (and very expensive) computers have utilized DRAM for main memory. Originally, these were asynchronous, single-bank designs because the processors were relatively slow. Most recently, synchronous interfaces have been produced with many advanced features. Though these high-performance DRAMs have been available for only a few years, it is apparent that they will soon be replaced by at least one of the protocol-based designs, such as SyncLink or the DRDRAM design from Rambus, Inc. and Intel.
Play Golf? Links 99 Review 00:11 am
GameOver has delivered this really colourful review on Links 99, the premier golf game in the market. They've got this huge bunch of ultra beautiful screenshots of the game in action! This is the snip!!!
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The graphics in Links LS are almost photographic quality. It has unlimited resolution, 1600x1200 and upwards if you have the video RAM, and 16.7 million colors. There are also 8, plus Arnold Palmer, golfer animations. Not opting for the 3D accelerator support, Links LS does away with those ugly pixelated trees and objects found in other games. It also does not need an extremely fast computer to run. The different seasons in the courses are faithfully rendered.
Gotta check out the review if you wanna take a look at the zillion full screen shots!
FastGraphics has scored with a review on Diamond's Banshee board - Monster Fusion. Clocked at 115/125 for the processor core and the memory bus respectively, the Fusion with its quality cooling fan, brings faster performance to the table. Here's the verdict:
The Diamond card is the best performing Banshee card so far, beating both cards from Guillemot. But this is for obvious reasons: The clockspeed of the Diamond Monster Fusion is higher than that on the other Banshee cards. This is not at all a problem since Diamond has added a real good active cooler which makes sure that the chip stays a lot cooler at its high clockspeed than the chips on the other Banshee cards which are running at less high clockspeed without the active cooling.
Windows 98 Service Pack 1 Released to Testers 23:46 pm
Over at BetaNews, they've reported that Microsoft has released Win98 Service Pack 1 to testers. This is what they leaked about its contents:
So far we haven't heard much about the Service Pack available to testers currently, except that it will contain:
- DirectX 6
- Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack 2
The OSR on the other hand, will be a much broader update. Since testing has not yet begun, all we know about the upcoming OSR is that it will contain:
- Internet Explorer 5.0
- DirectX 6.1
Add-On To Issue 1 of Flashman's Toy Garage New! 18:35 pm
Hello! A good friend of Flashman has written his own user review of the Microsoft Freestyle Pro and contributed it to us. Wanting to be known only as 'OnceWasSaverNowIsGamer', I've added his personal writeup as an add-on to Issue 1.
"This guy was seriously in the way of my 'Master Saving Plan for A Better Tomorrow' so I decided to make a conscious effort to dislike the Freestyle. I had a look at a review of it on the Net (in one of the game sites) and focused on the negative things mentioned there. Thought that would be the end of the matter."
Wow! Isn't the story gripping thus far??? :P Check out the add-on here!
Asus P5A Mainboard Review 17:16 pm
Freak! has posted a very sweet review on the Asus P5A Super7 motherboard based on the ALi Aladdin V chipset. Catch this review if you're intending to built yourself K6-2 system.
Well, what more can I say about this board? It's great! If you're in the market for a Super7 board to host your K6-2 processor, go out and get it now! I can't find anything bad about this board. It's got everthing you could need, ATX form factor, five PCI slots, a 512kb cache that performs as well as boards with 1MB L2 cache, outstanding office and multimedia performance, and excellent overclockability.
Newsflash at Overclocker's Comparison Page 14:22 pm
Our groovy affiliate OCP just popped a mail over about their latest newsflash! Looks like Intel's hearing the roar of the competition's engines creeping closer in their rear. Catch Kyle's interpretation of this email espionage! As usual, my snippet for you:
Here is a freakin news flash for you! This little snippet was stealthed directly from the bowels of an official Intel e-mail.
Performance PC Processors
Industry demand for the Pentium(R) II processor 300 MHz has shifted to faster Pentium II processors and distributors are reducing their inventory of boxed Pentium II processor 300 MHz. Consequently, Intel's shipments of Pentium II processor 300 MHz into the channel will decline, as their volumes are replaced by higher speed Pentium II processors for the performance PC segment. We encourage you to migrate your 300 MHz performance PC product offerings to the higher performing Pentium II processors mentioned above.
Does that make sense to you? We are selling so many that we are going to stop making them (kinda). Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Populous: The Beginning 12:32 pm
GameSpot has thrown up a lengthy preview on an advanced beta of Populous 3. All you frenzy God-wannabes can go take a look at it! This is a cut of Populous' history (history?):
Populous was the embodiment of the "simple to learn, difficult to master" principle that's at the core of so many classics, and that probably goes a long way toward explaining why it's still regarded as one of the greatest computer games ever created.
Be sure to grab a copy of the demo from Fun's if you haven't. Try it out and see for yourself!
TecDrome's News 12:25 pm
Hey man! New mails just keep popping in! Never ends does it? Anyway, Steven of TecDrome has just mailed me some updates. Got some Freestyle lovin' in addition to the other cool stuff they've got. Here's the mail!
Shogo : Mobile Armore Division: This *will* be in today!!! Check around 2pm-3pm. Mr Woo will personally go to collect it so there will be no SNAFU. Those of you who pre-ordered, thank you, your copies will be reserved.
Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro gamepad: Here's the deal. Gathering feedback from all our customers, we have again further lowered (slightly) the price from its original price of S$129.00. So now the pad will cost only S$115.00. For those who wish to trade in their old gamepads, We will give the pads away at $105.00.
Peoples General & Canopus Spectra 2500: Will be delayed till next week. We will keep you posted.
Free WordPerfect 8 for Linux!!!!! 11:42 am
Spotted this hot news at our affiliate CoolComputing about Corel's announcement to give away free WordPerfect 8 by making it downloadable from linux.corel.com. This will be their efforts to address the needs of the Linux community with high quality software applications!
Corel Corporation today announced that president and chief executive officer, Dr. Michael Cowpland will announce a special no-charge download version of Corel® WordPerfect® 8 for Linux® Personal Edition during his keynote speech at tomorrow's Linux Expo in Atlanta. Information about the download version will be available from linux.corel.com. Interested users can preregister at this site for the application, which is expected to be available in November. When the download is available users will be contacted by e-mail with notice of where they can go to download the application.
Yeah! You know what? Free always sounds good to me! :)
AGN3D on Freestyle Pro 11:33 am
You've had enough of this? Nah! it can't be! I'm sholving this in your face! Ha! Ha! Now, go take a look at AGN3D's Freestyle Pro review. Or you just wanna know what nice things they'd said? Read the snip here:
I also tried out the motion sensing features with Monolith’s Killer game Shogo. By mapping out the buttons to the different options I was able to play the game without touching the keyboard. The sensor technology translated well into character movements, providing for the precise control that normally can only be attained by a mouse. There is no doubt that with proper practice with the Freestyle, a prospective gamer could become a deathmatch king.
For another view, please read Flashman's Toy Garage who'd reviewed this toy in Issue 1.
What's In Internet Explorer 5.0? 11:24 am
Our nice affiliate CoolComputing pointed us to this article at Computer Reseller News about Microsoft's latest browser incarnation. Lots of enhancements are to be expected even in the public beta, and here's an excerpt from the story:
IE 5.0, expected to be released together and tightly integrated with Office 2000 in the first quarter, will contain many other new end-user features, including a "Go" button on the address bar, a Smart Matching feature that lets users type in keywords or URLs, and an "Organize Favorites" dialog box for arranging channels or links in folders, sources said.
It will also offer Logos for Favorites (favorite Web sites), an enhanced Outlook Express 5.0 e-mail with spell-check, and a fourth viewpane for contacts. Users will also be able to customize the browser's toolbar, sources said.
The program also incorporates a number of features to facilitate Web publishing, including FTP Folders, a Smart Edit feature and an annotations toolbar button, sources added.
Searching - one of the most important features in a browser - has also been enhanced with a Wizard that narrows down searches and yields more accurate results, a drop-down menu of search engines and a double-pane results screen that displays found words in the right pane.
Wow! There's so much more! I'll have to rip the entire article if you want more... please check it out!!!
Origin or rather Electronic Arts to Go EAX 11:18 am
Live! users, you got lucky! Electronic Arts has made the following statements in their official message board. Thanking CoolInfo, once again, for the juicy piece:
We do NOT support A3D. As far as I know, A3D 1.0 gives no benefits over straing DS3D except for buffer management. A3D 2.0 adds WaveTracing (Aureal's method of doing reverberation, in competition with Creative Lab's EAX). However, using WaveTracing requires that you pass your world geometry to the Vortex2 processor, and it's probably too late in development to modify our engine to support that technology. EA now officially supports / endorses EAX, and it's very easy to implement in a game, so we went that route.
Now does this remind you of the EA/3Dfx Glide tag team? EA/Creative EAX... don't underestimate the power of this alliance. EA has been responsible for many of the killer games!
WinZip 7.0 SR1 07:10 am
Yup, saw it over at our affiliate CoolInfo. It's out and available for download from here.
Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel 01:57 am
Apparently, Microsoft has been taking us gamers quite seriously by not only writing some pretty good games, but also releasing real nifty gadgets for us! Now, Force-1 has kicked up this nice review on the latest Force Feedback Wheel gizmo from the Redmond giant! Read the bits here:
"The Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Wheel is by far and away the most beautiful, sexy design ever produced in a consumer game controller. Its ergonomic shape is great for hands large and small, the casing is the most smoothly flowing and well-integrated we've ever seen, the finish on the case is a nice-feeling matte texture, and lastly, it's black. And everyone knows that black is the coolest color for hardware. Overall, the unit conveys a sense of heavy engineering and exudes high quality."
Sheesh... don't force me to part with more money!!!! No!!!! You can't do this to me! Again!!! No!!!!! You're bad!! Bad!!! Horrible!! Bad!!!! Stay away!!!
DIY Digital Video for Your Home 01:44 am
Finally, this week's issue of our local Computer Times has been html-ed. I had thought the feature story to be quite useful for any novices wanting to try out some video capturing and manipulation right at home. It's a long feature, but it's got some good stuff! Here's a slice:
The quality of the final output is only as good as the digitised quality of the raw video footage. Uncompressed video yields the best results, but would require expensive digitisers, fast computers, and AV (audio-video) hard drives that cost thousands of dollars. For normal use, a video capture card which offers VHS-quality ouput would be sufficient.
Geek Walk at Sim Lim Square 01:25 am
I performed another geek walk around Sim Lim Square yesterday afternoon to buy some stuff and check out new products. Bought myself 2 additional 60mm fans and a video BNC cable for S$16 and S$35 respectively. (Gee! 'Upgraded' my PC to a 10 fan power-cooled system. 28 deg C all the way!)
Then spent the rest of the time walking around Sim Lim... I saw yet again the Desktop Theater 5.1 on demo, this time I asked again for the pricing. The staff looked confused and conferred with his manager before telling me it'll cost S$499 and they will only be receiving 2 units today (Sat). So if you think the price is right for you, you'd better hurry down later.
Then I strolled into TecDrome to see a young customer toying with the MS Freestyle Pro and playing NFSIII with ease, next to the smiling shopkeeper. But something else caught my eye! I saw pasted on the demo PC our Flashman's Toy Garage Review!
Well, that was instant gratification for the hardwork we've put in. Cheers to Flashman, our ultra-cool columnist! Cheers to the many more 100,000th mark we'll be seeing in the future! Cheers to everyone of you for your continued support!
Yippie! Hardware One has just put up a brand new user review on the Canopus Spectra 2500 card, contributed by my buddy Toh Boon Kiat. It's a down-to-earth review on his intimate experience using the card.
"Without any passthroughs on the output, the Spectra gave me an excellent, high contrast and sharp image, that took a little getting used to."
"One caveat though, most of the games I tested on are 3Dfx optimised, and though you can run them in D3D mode, you almost always get lousier results: either in framerate hits or worse visual quality."
Read his review right here under our "Exclusive Reviews" section or simply... here.
Caesar III Review 12:15 pm
A review on one of my anticipated titles, GameCenter has thrown up their review on the latest incarnation Caesar III. Here's a slice of the reviewer's excitement:
Well, it's here, I've played it, and I have to say: it's pretty darned cool. Everything I liked best about the game--its beautiful graphics; the complex picture of life in the ancient world; the sophisticated model of a working Roman city, which has such a broad application to modern cities--is still here. Some serious changes have been made between this latest incarnation of the game and its highly successful predecessor, Caesar II, but despite my initial surprise, I think these changes were mostly for the better.
Now I'm broke, do I still want to buy it? Gotta go borrow some money quick!!!
Concensus on Preliminary DSL Standards 12:08 pm
Not wanting to fall into the same problems they had trying to establish the 56Kbps standard, which benefited no one, the main participants have managed to reach a concensus on the new standards. NEWS.COM at C|Net has this to report:
"The industry has proven it can avoid a repeat of last year's 56-kbps modem standards battles," Kevin Cone, strategic marketing manager with Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group, said in a statement. "We agreed on the DSL 'lite' line code early and drove the standards process along in an expedient way."
The move for a DSL standard has come about quietly, especially in contrast to the high-profile posturing and wrangling that marked the battle to establish a standard for 56-kbps dial-up modems. The formal ratification of the G.992.2 standard for the technology is scheduled for next June.
A standard for so-called G.lite DSL modems, which would offer consumers download speeds of up to 1.5 mbps, has been the most anticipated of the various standards that have been set.
Vengeance at CombatSim 12:01 pm
The Metabyte Vengeance Banshee is reviewed at CombatSim and not found wanting. Coupled with superb drivers that easily put all their competitors to shame, they've always managed to unlock more goodies from the cards. Higher resolution! Greater colour depth! Better refresh rates!
"Moving along, I loaded up Total Air War under Direct3d. Incredibly, Total Air War has evolved far past the graphics support in F22: ADF. TAW runs almost as quickly under D3d as under Glide and looks just as good. No longer do gamers have to limit themselves to 3dfx Glide API for spectacular graphics."
"If Metabyte can get the 12-15% they claim, this board will equal the TNT! Since there aren't the resolution limits of V2, this board has easily just become the new entry level high end 3d accelerator, a single board 2d/D3d and Glide solution with excellent speed!"
Oh come on, why aren't the Metabyte cards sold here???!!! Give it to me! Give it to me!
Motorola 3D Modems 09:26 am
Semiconductor maker Motorola Inc. and 3-D sound pioneer Aureal Semiconductor Inc. unveiled a strategic alliance to develop a family of combined 3-D audio/modem products for the PC market earlier this week.
3-D sound refers to technology that makes the user believe he or she is surrounded by the sound.
"Ultimately, the [PC makers] are going to buy these," said Sanjay Iyer, vice president and general manager of Aureal's technology division. "The integrated configuration may even make it into retail."
Aureal intends to market the product to various PC makers in one of three different configurations: a stand-alone PCI card, a motherboard-based 3-D sound solution with the modem functions on a so-called audio riser card, or a completely motherboard-based solution.
Purified Screenshots of Spectra 3200 PCI 00:46 pm
RivaZone pointed me to Purified3D who had 2 nice big screenshots (Large enough to be used as your desktop background!!) of the Spectra 3200 PCI card. This card is a low cost version of the Spectra 2500 without the WitchDoctor Technology and the VMI/VIP connectors for hardware MPEG2/Videoport 600 attachments. I've got this small one for you:
What this card has is the faster SGRAM instead of SDRAM found on the 2500. (It has been observed that only marginally performance gains are obtained from using SGRAM in place of SDRAM). Be sure to check out the enlarged pics over at Purified3D!
Brood Wars First Thoughts 00:39 pm
The lucky chumps at Gamers.com has posted the first thoughts of the Brood Wars sequel to StarCraft, after playing the game 3 times - once with each race.
Well I've played 3 games of Brood Wars (1 with each race), and so far I'd have to give it high marks simply because the new units give the game a fresh new feel. It's hard to say at this point how much the new units affect balance or strategies or what not because in those three games I was mainly fooling around trying to use all the units.
It's a short article, but who'll not check out anything related to StarCraft???
We are pleased to announce our new affiliation with Frontline, another budding local site. Give'em all your support people! You can find out the list of friends we've made under our "Net's Finest" section.
Minor Update To Our Site 20:24 pm
After some consideration about doing a major overhaul, I thought not. I can't afford the time at the moment. But hey! Here's a minor update to add a little Rantings & Notices corner as well as a teeny-weeny bit of changes to the fonts and colours. How do you like it?
Anyway, I'll be expecting to put up a new review of some sort tonight or tomorrow. Stay tuned! Keep coming people, keep coming! :)
50 Gigs of Space on Your Home PC? 14:41 pm
Kan, your 20 Gigs will soon be beaten and history! Seagate will be showing off their new drives capable of storing up to 50Gb of data! Here's the snip from TechWeb:
Seagate Technology on Monday will unveil new versions of its Barracuda, Cheetah, and Medalist Pro drives, including the industry's first 3.5-inch drive capable of storing up to 50 gigabytes of data.
The Barracuda 50, which is a combination of existing Barracuda and Cheetah technologies, will be available in February and geared toward customers with high data requirements, according to Rudy Thibodeau, Seagate's executive director of product marketing and planning.
Ok ok, I don't suppose they expect home users to need this kind of storage capacity yet. Just for thrills!
FIFA Champions League Update 14:34 pm
Wow! Just found this at Fun. The 23Mb FIFA Champions League update for World Cup 98 is available for download from our favourite FUN server. You need speed? You got it right here.
All About Floating Point Units 14:30 pm
Ace's Hardware posted this sweet article about FPUs. It has got it all there, most of what you want to know about the floating point units found in many of today's processors as well as upcoming processors. Excellent Read!!!
To raise FPU-performance, semi-conductors manufacturers developed different strategies :
- Raise the frequency, more mhz. Pretty simple, huh?
- Pipeline the FPU.
- Lower the latencies of the FPU.
- SIMD FPU (Single Instruction, Multiple Data)
- A parallel pipelinded FPU (surprise, surprise…)
The first is so simple, we won't discuss it. The second was Intel’s strategy for the Pentium/PII FPU, the third was the one of AMD K6 FPU. The forth is the path AMD chose with the K6-2 and 3dnow!, and now Intel will do the same with KNI and the Katmai. And the fifth? We discovered that one at the Microprocessor Forum in San Jose, California (K7). But first, what is a pipelined FPU? And what about a lower latency FPU?
Encore 5X DVD & Desktop Theater 5.1 Announced 14:26 pm
Excited! Excited! Excited! Read from CoolInfo, this press release that Creative is now shipping the above items! (the 5X DVD Encore has been selling in S'pore.. but the DT5.1!!!!) Ripped the whole chunk here:
Creative Labs, Inc., the world's leading provider of multimedia products for the PC, and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cambridge SoundWorks today announced the shipment of the computer industry's first complete desktop theater system for the PC. Creative's new PC-DVD Encore(TM) 5X with Dxr(TM)2 technology, and Cambridge SoundWorks' DeskTop Theater(TM) 5.1 speaker system, combine industry-leading PC-DVD and Dolby(R) Digital 5.1 surround sound technology to deliver a PC entertainment experience that until now has only been available on highly-expensive traditional home entertainment systems.
PC-DVD Encore 5X with Dxr2 technology (DynamicXtended Resolution) picture enhancement technology is a complete DVD upgrade kit that includes everything needed to enjoy full-screen DVD video on the desktop. The Dxr2 board delivers DVD decoding technology with picture quality enhancements to provide PC-DVD Encore 5X with the same smooth, crisp, high-definition video playback found in the award-winning PC-DVD Encore Dxr2. The DeskTop Theater 5.1 speaker system was designed to complement PC-DVD Encore and provide a spectacular theater-like audio experience on the desktop with 5.1 channels of Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio.
Additional PC-DVD Encore 5x Features:
- Transfer DVD-ROM data at up to five times the speed of the first generation DVD drive
- Simultaneous connection to PC and TV with composite or S-Video outputs
- Double scans to 60 fields per second, including vertical and horizontal dynamic interpolation
- 1280 x 1024 full-screen resolution
- Interfaces with Dolby Digital devices such as DeskTop Theater 5.1 or Dolby Digital receivers for 5.1 channel Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio * Fully supports all popular CD-ROM formats, including CD-Recordable and CD-RW media
- Blazing CD-ROM drive speed at transfer rate of 32x and 90ms access time
- Includes the highly-acclaimed title, Wing Commander IV, with DVD video and Dolby Digital audio from Electronic Arts
Complementing PC-DVD Encore 5X is Cambridge SoundWorks' DeskTop Theater 5.1 speaker system -- an industry first -- offering affordable, high-performance surround sound for DVD movies, games and music. DeskTop Theater 5.1 consists of an integrated multi-channel amplifier; five compact, shielded satellite speakers (left and right front, center, left and right rear channels); and a subwoofer, all of which deliver extremely rich, high-end Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Unlike "virtual" PC surround sound systems, DeskTop Theater 5.1 delivers accurate, realistic surround-sound quality, regardless of room acoustics or listener position.
DeskTop Theater 5.1 provides Dolby Digital (AC-3) input for accurate playback of movie soundtracks and Dolby Digital encoded computer games. When paired with PC-DVD Encore 5X, or PC-DVD Encore Dxr2, the combination creates an unmatched home theater entertainment experience on the PC. DeskTop Theater 5.1 is ideal for all games that support Creative's Environmental Audio Platform -- producing the ultimate gaming experience. The DeskTop Theater amplifier also includes Creative Multi-Speaker Surround technology for enhanced sound quality in games, music and movies. Developed by Creative, this unique technology takes a mono or stereo audio signal, not encoded for surround sound, and produces a surround sound effect by turning it into a 5.1 signal.
Creative's PC-DVD Encore 5X is available today at the suggested retail price of US$249.99. Cambridge SoundWorks' DeskTop Theater 5.1 speaker system is shipping now at the suggested retail price of US$299.99.
Voodoo 2 Vs TNT 14:17 pm
GameCenter has came up with this neat review of the TNT vs the Voodoo2. Comparing feature for feature, performance on high-end and low-ends systems, image quality and even game compatibility, both cards batter each other in all the tests. (once again, no clear winner... depending on your needs!)
Look out for game compatibility if gaming is your life!
Game Compatibility Winner : Voodoo 2, This one's a no-brainer: for game compatibility, Voodoo 2 is the obvious choice. As time goes on, this will become less and less of an issue; but for now, having a Voodoo card is the only way to guarantee universal game compatibility.
If you want a card to see you through a long while before you throw it away...
Longevity Winner : Tie Between Voodoo 2 and TNT, Voodoo 2 is already getting old, to be sure, but it's still on par with TNT for performance. TNT has some features that Voodoo 2 sorely lacks, but by rendering its architecture upgradable, 3Dfx provides consumers with a good way to protect their investment.
Check out the article 'Building Your Gaming Rig' done at Hardware One if you need a few more recommendations.
Mistake in Magix-Creative Offer Put Up 13:05 pm
Hi People! A zillion apologies for mistaking the date on the Magix-Creative deal posted yesterday. It's dated and the offer is over. Sorry!!! Why am I so blur??? Ya... I received the mail on Monday 19th... and tot it was for this coming weekend. :(
Oooooppps!!!!! I've taken it down already. To make up for this stupid mistake on my part, I've got a 3 mths old Terasound A3D PCI soundcard to go at $60. How's that???? I'm serious, mail me if you're interested. :P
NT 4 Service Pack 4 07:04 am
Today at Networld+Interop, Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Service Pack 4.0 for the Microsoft® Windows NT® Workstation 4.0 and Windows NT Server 4.0 operating systems. Service Pack 4.0 strengthens the reliability of the Windows NT operating system and prepares customers for the future by providing a single source for all updates and feature enhancements to Windows NT including year 2000 compliance, improved manageability, and font support for the euro currency. In addition, Microsoft announced that a number of leading organizations, including NATO, the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and others, have selected Windows NT as their platform of choice. Independent software vendors (ISVs) and Microsoft Certified Solution Providers (MCSPs) are reaping tremendous levels of revenue growth as a result of an increasing demand from customers to migrate to Windows NT-based solutions.
You can download the service pack from here. The file to download is NT4SPI.EXE for the Intel Platform.