W.I.L. Tech-News Highlights for H1 April 2004

Hardware

Systems

AnandTech system buyers guides -- High End; Overclocking System.

Low powered LCD screens create Intel notebook breakthrough -- link.

Quiet PCs with no compromise: 2 fanless, but expensive machines contrasted -- link.

“FlashMob” students build ad-hoc supercomputer -- link 1, link 2.

Meet the movers behind the first PC: Xerox PARC alumni recognized for contributions to technology -- link.

2004 will be the year of PC price gouging -- link.

What do you do with the old PC that is still running perfectly, albeit like a dog -- link.

New style-concious PCs hitting the market, finally -- link 1, link 2.

Build your own Digital Audio Workstation -- Part 1, Part 2.

Build your own killer Small Form Factor PC -- Part 1, Part 2.

CPUs/motherboards/chipsets

Processors: The Road To Tomorrow -- link.

Researchers find the key ingredient for creating tiny processors: water -- link.

AMD and Intel detail 64-bit extention differences -- link.

-- AMD

Nvidia’s Nforce 3 250 chipset for AMD-64 CPUs is a compelling product -- review 1, review 2.

Some speculation on where AMD future developments -- link.

AOpen’s AK86-L AMD-64 budget-priced motherboard impresses -- review.

AMD trims Mobile Athlon 64 power consumption -- link.

First Mass mainboard based on nVidia nForce3 250: Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-250 -- review.

AMD’s “budget” Athlon 64 2800+ -- review.

-- Intel

Intel to ship 1.8GHz Centrino as “Pentium M 745” -- link.

Opteron, Nocona rock Intel’s Itanium boat -- link.

Intel debuts new processors for cell phones, PDAs -- link 1, link 2.

-- Other

IBM announces products and partnerships intended to help push Power microprocessor beyond servers and into an array of corporate and consumer devices -- link.

Boosting the VIA C3’s floating point performance -- link.

A history of chipmaking at IBM -- link.

Transmeta sales rise as Efficeon interest grows -- link.

Graphics, memory, storage

ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 XT reviewed and found quite satifactory -- link.

nVidia’s long-awaited GeForce 6800 Ultra is out. The “fastest and most impressive graphics card” yet, but you do need a high-end PC and a small nuclear reactor -- reviews here, here, here, here. More information here.

Intel FB-DIMMs to offer real memory breakthroughs -- link 1, link 2, link 3.

DR2 memory will start off costly and slow -- link.

TSMC claims it is first with 65 nano SRAM -- link.

What exactly is RAID? -- link 1, link 2 and link 3, link 4.

20 hard disk drives with 80GB storage capacity -- roundup.

New FVD optical storage format will compete will upcoming blue laser format -- link. DVD Forum begins to promote its second-generation blue laser HD-DVD -- link.

V-TEC V-Drive USB flash pen -- link.

“Universal” removable 1.8” hard drive systems to ship this month -- link 1, link 2. Iomega ships 35GB “son of Jaz” removable hard drive (35GB per 2.5” disk) systems. Goodbye to tape? -- link 1, link 2.

Philips Jack Rabbit 4 DVD-RW plugs into TV, or anything you can output the signal to -- review.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

AnandTech highlights interesting newer cases, power supplies and heatsinks -- link.

The Star Tech 480W Silent PSU is very quiet operation, and provides good quality consistant power with no noticable power spikes or sags. But it is expensive -- link.

Samsung readies portable fuel cell that could provide 10 hours of power to a notebook computer -- link.

The state of the flat panel display market -- link.

E-MU back in action with three new PC-focused hardware products, and an impressive software synth/sampler -- link.

EZ-Scan 6000 offers hope to the home auto mechanic -- link.

Samsung 193P third generation 19” LCD monitor: only Windows, Apple users need apply -- review.

Operating Systems

Linux

Kernel 2.4.26 out -- link.

The User-Accessible Filesystem Hierarchy Standard -- link.

Linux for Grandma -- link.

A (4-year-old) babe in Tuxland -- link.

Novell and SUSE unveil new Linux products -- link.

Linux on the GameCube -- link.

GNOME platform stormclouds -- link.

Looking at the new Gnome 2.6 -- link. Another look at Gnome 2.6 -- link.

KDE 3.2: A User’s Perspective -- link 1, link 2.

A look at the iceWM window manager -- link.

Basic Slackware security -- link.

Joint statement about GNU/Linux security -- link.

Linux on desktop gaining in OS race -- link. Experiences with the Linux Desktop -- link.

Panelists call for lightweight Linux -- link 1, link 2.

A Taste of WINE: Transition from Windows to Linux -- link.

The transition to Linux greased by using applications’ Windows versions first -- link.

X.Org Foundation announces first official release of the X Window System, effectively trumping rival XFree86, from which it originally forked over a licensing issue -- link.

Linux breathes new life into old hardware -- link.

Real World Linux Conference 2004 reports -- link 1, link 2.

Expectations rising over Linux desktop -- link.

Introduction to Linux Audio -- link.

Windows and DOS

SP2 to cause Microsoft support call flood? -- link.

Windows 64-bit Edition now not likely before Q4 -- link.

Microsoft pares Longhorn features in order to stay on schedule for 2006 release. Focuses on “core improvements” -- link 1, link 2.

Microsoft’s long-playing business record -- link.

An interesting discourse on “the structural failures of Windows” -- link.

Mac

Can you get serious work done on a Mac? -- link.

Apple, Adobe drifting apart -- link.

Apple sees shift in developer profiles -- link.

Mac OS X: The Grand Unified Platform -- link.

Other OS’s

Amiga Forever 6.0 now available. Amiga OS4 Developer prerelease install guide is out -- link.

Applications

Behind Microsoft’s Settlement with Sun? The Power of the Open-Source Movement -- link.

Audio and video codec shootout -- link.

Tool to copy copy-protected audio CDs available for download -- link.

New life for old Microsoft Access data -- link.

A first look at the Nvu Web authoring application -- link.

The pain of using third party software -- link.

Setting up Samba 3.x -- tutorial.

An “analyst report” on free databases, as typified by MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Berkeley DB -- link.

Plone 2.0 (Python/Zope-based) takes a very good Web publishing portal and makes it a clear leader in the field -- link.

MySQL strong competition for Microsoft SQL Server at low end -- link. MySQL’s annual conference coverage -- link.

Desktop-oriented

Gimp 2.0’s new features -- list (PDF). Gimp 2.0’s features that have the the biggest impact on day-to-day work -- link.

The grumpy editor’s guide to image viewers for Linux -- link.

Address Book programs for Linux -- link.

The growing market for Linux games -- link.

Home of the Underdogs keeps abandoned games afloat -- link.

Real Player 10 arrives, supports RealAudio, RealVideo, Windows Media, MP3, QuickTime MPEG-4 and AAC (Apple iTunes) formats -- link. Real has not done itself any favors with its aggressive marketing tactics -- link.

Ayam, a free 3D modeling environment for the RenderMan interface, stable version 1.7 is out -- link.

Getting the most out of XMMS (X Multimedia System) -- link.

Programming

Death by UML Fever -- link.

Graphical user interface

How to create custom widgets using PyQt -- link.

Building applications with KDE 3.2’s KJSEmbed -- link.

Brendan Eich, the father of Javascript and Mozilla’s chief architect, considers Microsoft + Longhorn + XAML vs. “Open Source” + Mozilla (Gecko) + XUL (Mozilla’s toolkit) -- link.

XAML vs. Qt on a sample project -- link.

Issue of GTK+’s performance once more in the spotlight -- link.

Linux Magazine Programming with Qt series -- Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A taste of QT 4 -- link.

C/C++/Java family

Introduction to Cocoa with Objective-C -- link.

Wiring your Web application with open source Java -- link.

Free but Shackled: The Java Trap -- link.

Scripting and high-level languages

Version 0.6.2 of PyX, the Python graphics package, is now available -- link.

PHP 4.3.5, a bug fix release and “by far the most stable release of PHP to date” has been released -- link.

Testing frameworks in Python -- link.

Eiffel as a Gnome development language? -- link.

Two new versions of the Unix Squeak smalltalk implementation are available -- link.

“Dive into Python” online book now at version 4.9 -- link.

Building a Parrot compiler -- link.

Security & Privacy

ExtremeTech has some April 1 fun: Top 5 tips for virus writers -- link. Three state-of-the-art, system infectors examined link. Seven of the latest worms put to the test link. Hacker/cracker extraordinaire Lord Dr4g0n Ph34r interviewed link.

Padlock SL Utility takes advantage of Via C3 CPU’s new hardware security features -- link.

Linux vendors attack report suggesting that Windows and Linux are equally secure -- link.

Fortify Software’s new applications identify holes in existing source code -- link.

Tracking the August 14th northeastern blackout bug -- link.

First-hand story of how a 419 scammer was caught in the act in Ireland -- link.

FDIC warns of a new hoax e-mail that phishes for financial data -- link.

Browser-based attacks are becoming more of a threat to corporate IT security -- link.

New Hampshire judge throws out accused paedophile chat-log evidence that was acquired without a warrant -- link 1, link 2.

“The Pure Software Act of 2006” proposed -- link.

Google values its own privacy. How does it value yours? -- link.

The ACLU and the government butt heads over privacy, free speech, and protecting kids -- link.

Internet wiretapping battle lines drawn -- link.

Phishers fingered in Estonia plasma TV business offer -- link 1, link 2.

Microsoft

8 to 16 million Windows machines infected by Blaster -- link.

Newest Netsky worms opens back doors on machines they infect -- link.

Windows to remain security risk for years to come -- link.

20 more security flaws found in Windows -- link 1, link 2, link 3.

Spam, advertising

MailWasher Pro 4.0 adds Bayesian technique that compiles data from other users to snag the latest spam -- link.

Utah regulates spyware while several states and Congress also consider restrictions -- link.

Just how bad is adware? Real bad in some cases -- link.

Spam pyramid schemes -- link.

Miscellaneous

Dodgy patents rile tech industry -- link.

Moore’s Second Law -- link.

How copyright law is killing our culture -- link.

Neal Stephenson’s The Confusion arrives in stores -- link.

Business

Eighteen months ago, a judge ordered Microsoft to stop abusing its monopoly power. Have things changed for users since then? -- link.

“Does IT matter?” Nicholas Carr argues that IT resembles the steam engine, the railway, the electricity grid, the telegraph, the telephone, the highway system and other technologies that proved revolutionary in the past -- link.

Why Sun threw in the towel vs. Microsoft -- link. Settlement details here. Register readers comment on the settlement -- link. Sun/Microsoft détente targeting IBM/Linux? -- link. Sun’s Microsoft mistake -- link. Gosling defends Sun’s new partnership with Microsoft -- link.

SmallPlanet social networking site hopes to strike out-of-this world deals for members -- link.

RIAA hit from two sides -- link.

Recording industry now angry about discounted downloads -- link.

A grand unified theory of filesharing -- link.

IT firms that outsource kick footballs into own goals -- link; Customer relations is the killer -- link; What even your best friend won’t tell you -- link.

Thinking about a Google IPO -- link.

Open source software with a $30,000 gate -- link.

The rise of patent-hoarding companies -- link.

How open source is getting nonprofits out of a squeeze -- link.

Competing with Microsoft by ignoring them -- link.

A new crop of vintners are getting wired, and shortening their learning curves -- link.

The Internet

Libya disappears from the Internet -- link.

Irish government to seize control of .ie -- link.

Gopher protocol still alive and kicking -- link.

Should internet newbies be forced to read and understand a set of rules? -- link.

Independent ISPs fight for survival -- link 1, link 2.

Science

Quantum computing: Computing is driving the philosophical understanding of quantum theory -- link. Chaotic computing: Logic from chaos? -- link.

Low doses of radiation are good for you -- link.

Science-specific search engines -- link.

Enough of the carbohydrate bashing, already -- link.

Asteroid apocalypse: the online guide -- link.

Tiny surveillance aircraft in Tucson -- link.

Private space: Blazing a trail? -- link.

Telecommunications

U.S. bill would exempt VoIP from state laws and most regulation covering traditional voice calls -- link.

Intel launches Wi-Fi brokering service -- link.

VoIP regulation coming -- link.

OSDL’s (communication) carrier-grade Linux -- link.

Understanding the economics of WiFi pricings -- link 1, link 2.