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

Hardware

Consumer electronics companies are increasingly tapping the designs of decades past -- link.

“The Definitive BIOS Optimization Guide” Revision 8.0 Interim Release 8 is available here.

Building The Next Generation -- Part 1: Hardware.

Systems

SFF evolves! Shuttle SB81P XPC review here.

Soltek’s EQ3801 SFF machine contains the whole package: quiet, cool, small, fast, and cheap -- review.

Shuttle’s XPC SK83G SFF system is their second Athlon 64 offering -- review 1, review 2.

AnandTech’s latest buyer’s guides -- Entry Level System; Mid-Range System.

MSI MEGA 865 hi-fi barebone system a mixed bag -- review.

ArmorLink’s Post Genie is an all-in-one router, web/email server, and print server appliance. It provides many conveniences at a medium price -- review.

Building a quiet Linux system (many tips apply generally as well) -- link.

VoodooPC Rage F-50 gives little you excellent performance and is as quiet as a mouse ... for a price -- review.

Gateway returns to PC roots -- link.

CPUs/motherboards/chipsets

Futures in fabrication plant (fab) technology -- link.

AnandTech’s July 2004 CPU and motherboards price guides available here.

-- AMD

AMD Sempron 3100+ benchmarked -- link. AMD will kill K7 Athlon XPs and replace them with Sempr0n K8 derivates -- link. AMD Sempron benchmarks, specifications emerge: “Celeron Killer” shows teeth -- link. What is a Sempron? -- link.

AMD (finally) takes on Centrino with low power Semprons -- link.

Athlon 64 a substantial upgrade over the Athlon XP in several categories, particularly multimedia and gaming -- link.

EPoX 8RDA6+Pro nForce2 Ultra400+gigabit MCP mainboard looks to be the new Socket A champion -- review.

Interesting details revealed about nForce 4 chipset, due year-end -- link.

Has AMD initiated shipments of 90nm CPUs? -- link.

AMD A64 90nm features and benchmarks -- link. AMD to polish AMD64 architecture again with 90nm transition -- link.

AMD’s 90nm AMD64 chips to deliver 5% additional performance over same-frequency 130nm chips? -- link.

-- Intel

Is Intel’s Prescott P4 too hot to handle? -- link.

Latest Intel roadmaps -- server, notebook.

A guide to Intel model numbers -- here.

The Pentium: An architectural history of the world’s most famous desktop processor -- Part I (Pentium to Pentium III).

-- Other

Via’s latest Mini-ITX board (max. size 17cm x 17cm), the 1.2 GHz CPU-pwered EPIA MII -- review.

IBM declares performance leadership in the server segment, unveils first products based on POWER 5 processors -- link 1, link 2. Discussion here.

History repeats as Apple slams CPU supplier, this time IBM -- link. New iMac will be G5 powered -- link.

Graphics

ArsTechnica’s guide to PCI Express -- here.

AnandTech’s July 2004 Optical and Magnetic Storage Price Guide -- here.

News from the PCI Express x16 rampup front -- here.

AnandTech’s July 2004 video cards and memory price guides -- here.

Sapphire Radeon X800 Pro card review here. Power Color X800PRO card review here.

nVidia roadmap touts AGP at high-end well into 2005 -- link.

eVGA Personal Cinema FX 5700 shows that ATI All-In-Wonder is not the only TV-Video game in town -- review.

GeCube All-In-Wonder 9600XT multimedia combine review here.

ATI’s, nVidia’s latest cards tested on different platforms and CPU speeds -- results here.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 processor and 915G Express chipset: A new generation of integrated graphics -- review. Is Intel i915G chipset hitting Nvidia and ATI’s share of the low-end graphics market? -- link.

Roundup of 7 advanced integrated graphics chipsets for Socket 478 and Socket A platforms -- here.

New nVidia GeForce cards on the block: LeadTek 6800 and eVGA 6800 Ultra Extreme -- reviews here.

nVidia’s ForceWare Multimedia application + Personal Cinema cards: don’t throw away your ATI All-In-Wonder or TV Wonders yet -- review.

Mid-level all-in-one media card shootout: eVGA nVidia Personal Cinema FX 5700 vs. ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 XT -- here. Advantage ATI ... for now.

Asus vs. Asus: FX6800 Ultra compared with the Radeon X800XT Platinum -- here.

S3 Graphics’ GPU for entry-level market segment, the DeltaChrome S4 Pro -- review.

PowerColor RADEON X800 PRO Graphics Card: Modification, extreme overclocking and a duel against Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT -- results here.

Nvidia readies “high midrange” GeForce 6800 -- review.

Memory, storage

Corsair TwinX1024 3200XLPro DDR DIMMs are fast -- link.

Nano memory gets big chip backer -- link.

DDR2 roundup: Reaching for 667 and beyond -- link.

The Front Side Bus and memory speeds explained -- here.

DDR to go to 667 and 800 in 2005 -- link.

Smartdisk begins shipping its FireFly USB2.0 20GB portable hard drive -- link.

3 external 120GB hard disk drives compared -- reviews.

Hitachi brings 400GB to desktops with the Deskstar 7K400 -- link.

World’s largest HDD enters the scene: LaCie launches 1.6TB storage option -- link.

Eksitdata USB to IDE adapter is a 5 star product -- review.

Rumors of tape’s death greatly exaggerated -- link.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

3 ASUS PSUs compared -- here.

Coolmax’s 14cm Silent Cooling Fan Switching Power Supply (Model CR500B) gives you a near silently powered 300w system under normal operating conditions -- review.

Chenbro’s Granite SR209 case line reviewed here.

The Microsoft Optical Mouse by Starck sets form as a priority over function (but not in a bad way) -- link.

Sandisk’s 256MB+Wi-Fi card is a little cutie -- review.

Fujitsu unveils Wi-Fi PDA -- link.

Sony unveils HDD Walkman -- link.

Grassroots hackers create file-swapping wireless iPod -- link.

Sendo X: phone meets PDA, MP3 player, light sabre -- review.

Sharp’s Zaurus SL-6000L, a Free Software PDA -- review.

Sony ships lifelike color X-brite LCD panels -- link.

BenQ FP231W 23” LCD flat panel review here.

LCDs best thing since sliced bread, Cornell professor says -- link.

Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 speaker system innovative technology and excellent performance make them worth the price -- link.

802.11 Wireless LAN Fundamentals -- book review here.

5 megapixels for < $300: Kodak DX4530, Olympus C-50 Zoom, Casio QV-R51 compared -- here.

Operating Systems

Building The Next Generation -- Part 2: The OS.

Thoughts on 3D Desktop development -- link.

Test driving the two largest 64-bit Linux distributions, their 32-bit counterparts, and the Windows XP 64-bit public beta -- here.

The case against moving from Windows to Linux... is also case against moving from Windows to Longhorn -- link.

VMWare Workstation 4.5.2 allows you to run Windows from a Linux desktop, or the reverse -- review.

Linux

Testing Linux: Adding dual-boot capability to Windows XP systems using Mandrake 10.0 Official -- link.

Customizing GNOME -- link.

Linux kernel moving closer to Windows? -- link.

On dealing with Microsoft -- link.

Linux is chasing Unix out of the enterprise server scene -- link.

LinuxWorld 2004 San Francisco coming August 2-5 -- preview here.

One old PC + RedHat, Knoppix, Fedora, or Damn Small Linux -- review.

Free 10 GB Novell Resource Kit: Get SuSE Linux for free -- link.

Will Dell’s new Linux desktops start a gray-market trend? -- link. Why Dell is scurrying to cover its tracks in Linspire deal -- link.

InstallShield X and Linux -- link.

Apple’s implementation of the Zeroconf networking technology could provide a boost to Linux’s desktop campaign -- link.

Global File System goes full circle, back to GPL, courtesy of Red Hat -- link.

Reorganizing the Linux kernal’s address space -- link.

Looking for indemnification while Linux sales double -- link.

Try Linux and Open Source... without installation -- link.

A guide to Windows technologies for Linux users -- here.

Backing up a Linux installation -- link.

Is it time for the Linux Desktop? -- opinions here, here. Discussion here.

Motherboard manufacturer Asus’s anti-Linux attitude stinks -- link.

How Linux boots -- link.

Will the first Linux carwash and computer store clean up? -- link.

Picking your lightweight Linux desktop -- link.

A Linux laptop with a 3.5” floppy drive, USB 1.0 port, and no hard drive? -- link.

BSDs, other Unixes

Exploring OpenBSD, an OS built from the ground up with security in mind -- link.

DragonflyBSD, the innovator -- link. SilverOS is a stable version of FreeBSD 4.x based on an early preview of the upcoming DragonFly BSD 1.0 release -- link. DragonFlyBSD 1.0 is out -- link. DragonflyBSD 1.0A released -- link.

FreeBSD Install Guide -- link.

DTrace, to included in Solaris 10, gives administrators thousands of ways to check on a system’s performance and then tweak the box while it is still running -- link.

Sun gets true 64-bit kernel up and running on an Opteron box -- link.

Mac

To users of some third-party Mac utilities, not all the nifty features demonstrated in Tiger were wholly new -- link.

Steve Jobs: searching for information, not sorting it, is the wave of the future -- link.

Unix gems for Mac OS X -- link.

Mac OS X Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger benchmarks -- link.

A six-step plan for Apple to reinvigorate its Mac/laptops markets -- link.

Apple hopes to woo stranded Windows NT 4.0 migrators with a migration tool it is building into the Tiger Server -- link.

Windows and DOS

Microsoft spells out Win64 apps, chip support strategy -- link.

Windows 64-Bit XP beta runs only with AMD chips, for now -- link.

Windows XP update will be late, arriving in August -- link.

Other OS’s

ReactOS is a GPL OS built to be compatible with Windows NT applications and drivers. Currently just a development platform, it has potential -- link.

OpenVMS the OS world’s best-kept secret? -- link.

MorphOS v1.4 installation guide -- here.

RISC OS united at long last -- link.

Applications

Software giants feel open source pressure -- link.

Software that lasts 200 years -- link. Discussion here.

Elguapo’s Guide to Routing -- Chapter 1: Introduction, Chapter 2: RIP, Chapter 3: BGP, Chapter 4: OSPF.

Fujitsu foots the bill for new PostgreSQL database features -- link.

Non-proprietary software advances health care information systems -- link.

No mainstream 64-bit software to come soon? -- link.

Cisco alternative: GNU Zebra has earned its stripes turning Linux boxes into capable network routers -- link.

A look at PostgreSQL, with version 7.5 on the horizon -- link 1, link 2.

Quixote, a framework for developing Web applications in Python, releases version 1.0 -- link.

Desktop applications

Review of 4 freeware CD burning apps here.

Problems trying to edit videos -- link.

How to make a StereoGram with GIMP, Blender and StereoGraph -- link.

Audacity is a cross-platform audio editor with multi-track capabilities -- link.

Open source strategy game engine Stratagus -- link.

-- Internet

One week with Firefox, its extensions, and Opera -- link. Mozilla feeds on rival’s woes -- link. How Mozilla’s Firefox trumps Internet Explorer -- link.

Building a better Mozilla -- link 1, link 2. Discussion here.

Mozilla and the future of the Web -- link.

Opera 7.52 brings important security fixes -- link.

Is Internet Explorer living on borrowed time? -- link.

Cool ways to give IE the boot (besides Mozilla) -- link.

Top 3 Windows RSS readers -- link.

The Grumpy Editor’s guide to (Linux) graphical mail clients -- here.

-- Office

The state of KOffice -- link 1, link 2.

OpenOffice.org 1.1.2 released -- link.

How to create OpenOffice.org macros and automation -- link.

OpenOffice.org a workable and flexible alternative to MS Office -- link.

Numbered and bulleted lists in OpenOffice.org -- link.

CrossOver Office Professional 3.0.1 review here.

Programming

GCC 3.4.1 released -- link.

Do we even need programmers any more? -- link.

Squashing bugs at the source: Recent research yields new techniques for exposing bugs in source code -- link.

Design Awareness -- link.

Zen and the Art of Aspect-Oriented Programming -- link.

Interview with Charles Simonyi on Intentional Programming -- link.

Jakob Nielsen interview on Web site redesigns -- link.

Graphical user interface

Trolltech releases first Qt 4 technology preview -- link.

How to Write a Basic Gtk# Program with Mono -- link.

An introduction to Mono as a unified development platform -- link. The downlow on Mono -- link. Mono is more than just an open-source curiosity -- link.

Higher-order messages in Cocoa -- link.

C/C++/Java family

Beginning C -- book review here.

On Sun, Java and Open Source -- link.

Stretch your Java programming skills with free animated graphical simulator CodeRuler -- link.

Performance of Java vs. C++ -- link.

Sun pushes Java brand harder, but uphill -- link.

SWT creates fast, native-looking GUIs for your Java apps -- link.

Tuning Java garbage collection -- link.

Enhance your productivity on the Java platform using Jython -- link.

Scripting and high-level languages

Awk is your friend -- link.

Getting started with Perl -- link.

Slice and dice text with Perl -- link.

Embedding Python in C applications -- link.

Python development with Eclipse and Ant -- link.

PHP 5.0.0 released -- link. Why PHP 5 rocks! -- link.

Zend in the clowns? PHP has gone from strength to strength over recent years -- link.

On PHP and scaling -- link.

Security & Privacy

Court creates snoopers’ heaven in email privacy case -- link.

A parent’s guide to Linux Web filtering -- here.

A look at GPG (PGP alternative GNU Privacy Guard) frontend KGPG -- link.

A “prequel” to Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent -- here.

E-voting security: getting it right -- link.

Computer Security for the Home and Small Office -- book review here.

Inside SSH -- Part I, Part II.

Network Security Hacks -- book review here.

Securing Apache -- link.

Holes, patches, defenses

Is your software firewall providing adequate outbound protection? -- Personal firewalls vs. leak test results here, here, and here.

An example of a complete security products set for Windows -- here.

Enterprises will not dump Internet Explorer -- link 1, link 2.

Replacing and disabling Internet Explorer -- instructions. Dangerous vulnerability still exists in IE, security expert warns -- link.

Surf the Web anonymously using GhostSurf or Anonymity 4 Proxy -- review.

Surviving distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks -- link.

Mozilla and Firefox Web browser hole patched before the vulnerability was widely reported -- link. Whose bug was it: Mozilla’s or Windows’s? -- link. Vulnerability patched in Mozilla also exists in Messenger, Word -- link.

Malware authors target Mozilla, developers respond with enhanced safeguards -- link.

Visit the MS security page and Windows Update site early and often. Two critical and five important software patches for Windows XP and 2000 issued -- link. But you will need to use IE to use those sites -- link.

Spam, advertising

Spam management pays off: Comcast kills off the Zombies -- link. Bell South set to follow Comcast’s lead and block Spam Port 25 -- link.

Junk mail host nations named and shamed -- link.

How to get falsely blacklisted for running an open spam relay -- link.

ISPs ponder blocking, filters to stem the flow of junk e-mail from their servers -- link.

Miscellaneous

LA plans cybercafe teen curfew -- link.

Business

On Sony’s ill-conceived attempt to build a walled garden, manned by soldiers dreaming of dollars, armed with DRM -- link.

Jerry Pournelle talks of Comdex past -- link.

The CD roars back from the dead -- link.

The digital music Renaissance ... in spite of the industry’s efforts -- link.

We are all bankers now -- link.

The Internet

No nudes on .nu domain -- link.

Is Tuvalu getting ripped off over the .tv domain? -- link.

How the world is learning to love ICANN -- link.

Letter writing (yes, the paper kind) returns as email becomes overwhelming -- link.

Who needs public access TV when there is the Web? -- link.

What happens to your online self after you die? -- link.

Terrorist Web sites offer training, resources, communications for global movements -- link.

Bloggers suffer burnout -- link.

Single post by popular blogger wins Google contest -- link.

The Internet needs a better archiver than Archive.org -- opinion here.

The Internet offers easy access to pictures and video from the Irag war that the mainstream media will not show you -- link.

New York Times barely shows up on Google -- link.

ICANN condemns VeriSign’s SiteFinder service -- link.

Science

The spread of adaptive cruise control may bring an unexpected bonus: abolishing traffic jams -- link.

Computer builds Leonardo’s car -- link.

Telecommunications

Congress to tackle VoIP regulation -- link 1, link 2. More VoIP legislation to stop states from going tax crazy -- link.

VoIP hackers gut Caller ID -- link.

Wireless LANs so cheap that 3G’s threatened -- link.

Somebody is giving the president some bad advice on broadband -- link.

Speakeasy getting ready to announce a “naked DSL” offering that will not require a local phone line -- link.

The business case of Open Source VoIP -- link.

IEEE groups fight for control of key Wi-Fi, WiMAX, other wireless standards -- link.