W.I.L. Tech-News Highlights for H2 March 2004

Hardware

March 2004 hardware news overview from X-bit labs -- link.

X-bit labs CeBIT 2004 coverage -- link 1, link 2, link 3.

More inside information from CeBIT 2004 from NewsForge -- link.

Weird, wild stuff debuts at CebIT -- link.

PC Problems? Fix them yourself with the help of this troubleshooting guide from PC World.

Systems

AnandTech system buyers guides -- Entry Level/Budget; Mid-Range.

eMachines M6805 Athlon 64 notebook is a great value -- review.

Bare-bones PC maker Shuttle readies sale of complete systems -- link 1, link 2.

The Nanode gives new meaning to small-form factor PCs: 3.7” x 5.9” x 6.3” -- link 1, link 2. The Nanode is based on Via’s Nano-ITX motherboard -- link 1, link 2.

Poweroid 1204 silent PC in expensive but, indeed, nearly inaudible -- review.

IT in a Box is a small Linux-based server with a wide range of capabilities -- review.

The DIY $1000 Athlon XP gaming rig -- link.

CPUs/motherboards/chipsets

Analysts assess x86-64-bit winners -- link.

SiS launches first PCI Express chipset north bridges -- link.

Third party PowerPC 970 motherboard for sale -- link.

The Inquirer guide to buying Intel and AMD chips -- link.

Good riddance, gigahertz -- link.

IBM microprocessor design going open source -- link.

A developer’s guide to the PowerPC architecture -- link.

-- AMD

The Athlon 64 FX-53: AMD’s Next Enthusiast Part -- link 1, link 2, link 3.

AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 is the fastest desktop CPU currently available on balance -- link.

VIA’s K8M800 Athlon 64 chipset performs very well for one with integrated graphics, adds more ammunition for AMD’s attack on the corporate market -- review.

nVidia launches completely revised nForce3-250 Athlon 64 chipset -- review.

AMD to stretch out transition to Socket 939 -- link.

AMD Opteron roadkill threatens: Intel does not have the goods nor will they have the goods to compete for nearly a year -- link.

Where AMD leads, Intel follows -- opinion.

nForce3-250: Taking Athlon 64 to the Next Level -- Part 2.

AOpen’s updated AMD-64 AK86-L motherboard is “uncommonly good” in AnandTech’s view -- review.

-- Intel

Intel’s long-term roadmap includes a desktop incarnation of the Pentium M with 4MB of on-die L2 cache -- link 1, link 2.

The “Prescott” Pentium 4 a slowly unfolding train wreck -- link.

Intel’s new processor rating details laid out -- link.

Intel says “No” to 64-bit Pentium 4 in retail this year -- link.

The underlying architecture of Intel’s notebook and desktop chip families will be reunited by 2007, and the resulting chips will have an Israeli accent -- link.

Intel has begun buying 65nm chip-making equipment, including a “who’s who” in next-generation technology. First 65nm processors targeted towards end of 2005 -- link.

Graphics

Diamond Multimedia expands Stealth graphics cards family, rolls Out new Radeon 9200, 9600 SE SKUs -- link.

S3 prepares native PCI Express graphics chips -- link 1, link 2.

15 different GPUs, eight from ATI and seven from nVidia, compared on price/performance -- link.

Graphics news from CeBit 2004 -- link.

An Introduction to PCI Express -- link.

What GDDR3 does for the nVidia 5700 Ultra, and what the new memory type could do for next-gen graphics products -- link.

Will ATI beat Nvidia to a 0.11µ process? -- link.

ATI preparing a low-end to mid-range DirectX 9.0 parts Radeon 9550 and 9550 SE -- link.

The ARP GPU Comparison Guide -- link.

Memory, storage

Nanotech memories emerge, court customers -- link.

Kingston DDR2 next-generation memory -- link.

AMD rejects DDR2, gives additional speed headroom for DDR -- link 1, link 2. DDR-2: It costs more and gives you less -- link.

Guiness awards Toshiba official world record for smallest hard drive, at 0.85 inches -- link.

Hitachi makes hard disks sturdier -- link 1, link 2.

Sony readies Q2 dual-layer, 8.5GB capacity per disk, DVD+R drive debut -- link. Sony prepares to ship 50GB next-generation Blu-Ray video recorders by year-end -- link. DVD dual layer primer -- link.

Seagate presents technology to power 100+ terabyte hard disk drives -- link 1, link 2.

Cases, Power Supplies, Cooling

Canceling out CPU fan noise -- link.

Zalman ZM400B-APS PSU is impressive, but expensive -- link.

nVENTIV Mach II ST is a new low-cost but highly efficient phase-change cooling system. Its prowess was demonstrated by overclocking an Intel P4 3.2E to 5GHz! -- link.

Zalman Reserator 1 watercooling radiator and reservoir review.

Zalman’s CNPS7000A-Cu CPU cooler is 10-17 decibels quieter than its competitors, yet cooling just as effectively if not better -- review.

4 power supplies: Tagan 480W, Thermaltake 480W, FSP 350W and Qtec 400W -- reviews.

Lian Li’s PC-6070 Aluminum Case: foam insulation lowers noise levels about 10 dBA on average, making this a quiet case -- review.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

NEC’s “killer” Multisync 2080UX+ 20” LCD -- review.

Agere joins the 802.11 fray: Upcoming WiFi technology -- link.

Olympus and Konica Minolta ready introduction of consumer-friendly 6-megapixel cameras priced under $500 -- link.

USB standard opens the way for new generations of external devices, some of them on the unconventional side, to connect to computers efficiently and quickly -- link.

Operating Systems

Linux

Inside the GNOME 2.6 desktop & developer platform -- link 1, link 2.

Linux kernels compared: 2.6.4 vs. 2.4.25 -- link.

Why the kernel developers are considering making fundamental virtual memory changes -- link 1, link 2, link 3.

A Look at Win4Lin 5.1, which allows one to install Windows 9x under Linux -- link.

Have a Bash with this Linux shell -- Part 1, Part 2.

KDE’s chief programmers, George Staikos, Interviewed -- link.

SVG and its path into the Linux desktop -- link.

JFS, an advanced file system for Linux -- link.

More CLI for noobies -- “what day is this?”; “for more fun play nice”.

One user’s Linux wishlist -- link.

Linux on the PS2 -- link.

Novell staffers and partners are excited company’s Linux direction -- link.

Reiser4 Linux filesystem stabilizing -- link.

Understanding and using the /proc virtual file system -- link.

Migrating from Windows to Linux -- Part 1: Preparation.

Watch TV on your Linux computer -- link.

How to Set up a Linux server based on White Box Linux that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters (should also work for Red Hat Enterprise Linux) -- link.

XFCE: The Little Desktop That Could -- link.

BSDs, other Unixes

An interview with OpenBSD’s Marc Espie -- link.

Interesting new BSD ports -- link.

Windows and DOS

Microsoft releases Windows XP SP2 RC-1 -- link 1, link 2.

More on the forthcoming XP SP2 -- link. (Size of service pack will is 273MB!)

Windows ruling is biggest IP heist in EU history, claims MS -- link.

How well would Windows ex-Windows Media Player work? -- link.

DR-DOS lives! Version 8.0 is out -- link 1, link 2. Boot loader launches Linux from DR-DOS -- link.

Mac

Preview of Opera 7.50 for Mac OS X goes live -- link.

Looking back on 3 years of OS X -- link.

Setting up Apple Remote Desktop -- link.

Unix on Mac OS X Panther: Accessing the Internet -- link.

Making the switch from Windows XP to Mac OS X -- link.

Other OS’s

SkyOS inventor/developer and lead graphics designer interviewed -- link.

Syllable has new ATA, ATi drivers, new IDE -- link. Syllable gets GCC 3.3.3 and Binutils 2.14 -- link.

SkyOS 5.0 beta 4 and SkyDeveloperStudio IDE released -- link.

Lengthy interview with KMOS, the new Amiga OS owner, CEO Garry Hare -- link.

Symbian falters in mobile OS battle with Microsoft -- link.

Applications

Why Microsoft “Shared Source” can never be trusted -- link.

Setting up a fast, stable and tweaked PC -- how to.

Database templates with MySQL -- link.

Using MySQL from PHP (part 2) -- link.

Taking virtual golf to the next level -- link.

Promoting the adoption and use of FOSS in developing countries -- link 1, link 2.

BitTorrent is a cross-platform peer-to-peer file distribution system -- brief introduction.

Using Mozilla in enterprise environments -- link.

At your next presentation, let audience members download your “customized for this event” sales brochure, contact information, and product spec sheets directly into their wireless-enabled laptops, using Linux software and a wireless access point -- link.

Desktop-oriented

More graphics from the command line: Tips and tricks for using ImageMagick on Linux -- link.

A grumpy editor’s look at Linux desktop calendar alternatives -- link.

Gimp 2.0 released -- link. An article for Gimp newbies -- link.

Atlantis “Nova” is a lean word processor that can serve as a Word 97 file viewer on Windows -- home page.

CBTracker: a checkbook manager for the rest of us -- link.

A look at CrossOver Office 2.1.0 -- link.

Creating PDF files from PostScript files with ps2pdf -- link.

New features in Photoshop CS -- link.

Resizing images using Photoshop -- link.

Music-playing applications on Linux -- link.

3D modeling application Blender tutorials -- Very first steps; A toy train; A room with toys: Modeling a chest.

Tuxpaint: A paint program for (not just) kids -- link.

OpenOffice.org 1.1.1 released -- link 1, link 2.

Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? -- link.

Kill Internet ads with HOSTS and PAC files -- link.

AOL to release new version of Netscape -- link.

Programming

Freebyte’s Guide to Free Programming: A collection of links to free compilers, components, libraries, and other programming tools -- link.

Why writing software still stinks -- link.

The term “high-level” has been abused to the point of meaninglessness -- link.

Programmer’s toolkit: Profiling programs using gprof -- link.

Software maintenance and prototype based languages -- link.

The future of OSS desktop development, part 2 -- link.

Open Source Software plays different rules -- link. Open Source heroes -- link.

Graphical user interface

GUIdebook site is dedicated to the preservation of GUI systems.

C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3 -- book review.

GNOME’s next step should be courting independent developers -- link.

GUI programming with GTK -- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Interview with REALbasic 5.5’s German distributor -- link.

Gambas: A graphical environment for Basic development on Linux -- link. Earlier article on building Basic programms under Linux here.

The Independent Qt Tutorial has been updated with a new chapter on the Qt canvas module -- link.

A eulogy for HyperCard -- link.

C/C++/Java family

C99: The 1999 revision of the ISO C standard -- link.

The Future of OSS Desktop Development: Java, Mono, or C++? -- link.

Lisp and Java -- link.

Sun finally launches its own RAD Java platform -- link.

Scripting and high-level languages

The Haskell School of Expression -- book review.

Why I Like PLT Scheme -- link.

PHP5 released; Zend gets $6 million capital infusion from venture capitalists -- link.

Using the Python CoreGraphics module to rescale and decorate images for publication to the Web -- link.

Switching from PHP to Zope/Python -- link.

IronPython: A fast Python implementation for .NET and Mono -- link.

XML namespaces support in Python pools -- Part 1.

Python generator tricks -- link.

A tribute to Ruby -- link.

An introduction to the TclMySQL library -- link.

Security & Privacy

Public key encryption fundamentals, and how to plug GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) in to your existing mailer -- link.

Open SSL updated to patch 3 new security vulnerabilities -- link.

Using key-based authentication over SSH -- link.

The farce of federal cybersecurity -- link.

Dutch Internet blackmailer gets 10 years. “Anonymizer” was not totally anonymous -- link.

Feds shut down PayPal, AOL phishing scams -- link.

Will virus rampage increase broadband costs? -- link.

Were the Soviets burned by CIA hackers or not? -- link.

Top ten tips to make attacker’s lives hell -- link.

Security consultants teaming up with clinical psychologists, including behavioural scientists from the FBI, to gain a better understanding of what drives and motivates hackers -- link.

Security patches (Windows or Linux) via modem? Forget it! But a Windows Security Update CD is available for free -- link.

Online security: Who’s liable? -- link.

SecureWave revamps alternative to desktop anti-virus -- link.

Microsoft

It only takes a 12KB program to compromise Windows and get a highly effective spam engine -- link.

Latest Bagle worms spread on auto-pilot -- link. Bagle/Beagle variants use passwords, images, and atypical payload files to trick victims -- link.

Can Microsoft save users from themselves? Upcoming XP Service Pack will turn on several security features by default -- link 1, link 2.

Spam, advertising

Coming soon to a chat client near you: Spim -- link 1, link 2.

Aggressive spam/pop-up advertiser Net Detective a complete waste of money -- link.

Miscellaneous

12 reasons Marc Andreessen is hot on open source -- link.

Kahle vs. Ashcroft: Copyright battle continues -- link.

The 2004 Wired Rave Awards -- link.

Jim Campbell explores computer technology as an art form -- link. Alexis Rockman paints like Rembrandt and thinks like Darwin -- link.

How a hologram, a blimp, and a massively multiplayer game could bring peace to the Holy Land -- link.

Virtual-schools not much cheaper to operate than traditional schools -- link.

Business

Open-source will kill software market, says (yep) Microsoft -- link.

Apple will not meet 100 million song download first-year goal. More like 70-75 million -- link.

The value of PC real estate -- link.

How Google Grows...and Grows...and Grows -- link.

The virtual tax man cometh -- link.

EC erects toll booth for Microsoft’s open source rivals -- link.

EU action against Microsoft not painful enough -- link.

How the IT media manipulates the news -- link.

UK, Australian album sales rise despite “Kazaa crisis” -- link.

Will India price itself out of offshore market? -- link.

Search engine market heating up -- link 1, link 2.

Kazaa and co. “not cause of music business woes” say academics -- link.

Wal-Mart digital music download service goes live -- link.

Even the kids today think modern music sucks -- link.

Department of Justice stands behind Microsoft in dispute with EU -- link.

Business Week special report: Linux Spreads Its Wings -- link. TheStreet: Linux juggernaut rolls on -- link.

Web wine sales still bottled up -- link.

The Internet

Ten applications for new Top Level Domains published by ICANN, including a special one (.mail) to prevent spam, a special one for the porn industry (.xxx), and three new names to merge the phone and Internet worlds -- link. The battle over triple “x” -- link.

United Nations ponders Net’s future -- link.

ICANN debates domain extensions -- link.

What is the boundary between fair and unfair use when reposting Web content? -- link.

Google fine-tunes search engine with a new look designed to drive more traffic to Froogle, its shopping service -- link.

Google test-launches email service with 1GB storage included. Will search-index emails and display advertising links tied to the topics discussed within the e-mails -- link 1, link 2.

Googlebomb demonstrated a cheap way to get websites prominently displayed by Google -- link.

E-mail discussion list provider Topica starts inserting spam-like ads at top of messages sent to most popular lists -- link.

Science

Food scares and facts -- link.

Recent research suggests Alzheimer’s disease may be triggered by infection -- link.

The God Particle and the Grid -- link.

Using bluegills to monitor water quality -- link.

Purdue scientists to announce soya oil and jet fuel mixture that meets aviation fuel temperature requirements -- link.

NASA scramjet hits Mach 7 -- link 1, link 2.

The X-men cometh: The red-green divide over human enhancement -- link. Bioevolution: How Biotechnology is Changing Our World -- book review.

Unmanned aircraft are slowly starting to become full-fledged killing machines -- link.

Telecommunications

Verizon Wireless lets you get online and get out, and quickly -- link.

VoIP set to generate megabucks for broadband operators -- link.

Why VoIP won’t kill traditional telcos -- link.

Satellite struggles to find niche -- link.

U.S. investigates high-speed via TV airwaves -- link.

Will the new AT&T Wireless be Sprint? -- link.

8 Internet phone services run through their paces -- link.

Free Web tool tests VOIP viability -- link.