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

Hardware

Hitachi, Toshiba show portable fuel cells. Devices to power to PDAs, cell phones, and laptops could be available next year -- link.

Systems

Building the perfect bleeding-edge PC -- Part 1, Part 2.

Build an $800 Gaming PC -- link.

Power Mac G5 dual 2.5GHz runs quietly, is stable, fast, looks great, and is not cheap -- review.

HP Pavilon DV1000 entertainment notebook PC is a breed apart -- review.

Advice for packing up your notebook, etc. if you are going to a bad place -- link.

Shuttle XPC SN95G5 is a fantastic addition to the XPC line, but it is not perfect -- review.

AnandTech’s latest entry level system buyer’s guide -- link.

ArsTechnica system guides, September 2004 edition -- link. ArsTechnica latest gaming box Guide -- link.

Intel-based PCI Express PCs are shipping now and AMD systems with the technology are on the way -- link.

Quieting a PC on the cheap -- link.

Technology companies group says it will soon be selling Intel-less, MS-less PCs for $150 each in the booming Chinese market -- link.

Wal-Mart’s Linux-based computer not so great, says mainstream media reviewer -- link.

A first look at the ome Theater PC case genre with the Ahanix D.Vine 4. It looks great, is quiet, but runs hot -- review.

Shuttle’s SN95G5 XPC, the first SFF featuring an AMD Socket 939 chipset, impresses but is not perfect -- review.

OQO Model 01 Ultra Personal Computer, a 14-ounce handheld device that runs a full version of Windows XP: Design and performance issues hold back this very cool idea -- review.

CPUs/motherboards/chipsets

AnandTech’s October CPU and motherboards price guides -- link.

Chip circuits have become so tiny that atomic-level defects cause serious problems -- link.

CPU pipelining: An Overview -- Part I, Part II.

Fall Processor Forum 2004 wrap-up -- link.

The Inquirer’s buyers guide to Socket A, 754, 478, and 775 motherboards in the U.S. -- link.

New budget processors comparison: Intel Celeron D vs. AMD Sempron -- link.

Three budget CPUS compared: AMD Sempron 2800+ and 3100+ and Celeron D -- review.

-- AMD

Sun plans an all out Opteron onslaugh for next year that could include attacks on both the server and storage sides of the house -- link.

AMD model numbers enter new confusing phase -- link.

Cray announces general availability of new family of AMD Opteron-based supercomputers -- link.

How to transform an Athlon XP into a mobile version underclocked to about 300MHz and dissipating only 4.5 Watts of heat -- link.

AMD sheds light on dual-core plans. Upcoming Opteron chips will occupy the same space as single-core models while using only slightly more power -- link.

AMD’s new budget Sempron chip is slower than the 32-bit Athlon XP it replaces -- test.

Sempron 3100+ is a real overclocker’s choice, and delivers good performance even without overclocking -- review.

AMD’s 90nm Athlon 64s have equal performances to 130nm chips. No tweaks were done on 90nm chips for speed, features -- link.

AMD 90nm power consumption measured -- link.

90nm Athlon 64s show value, speed and overclocking capacity -- link.

Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm (Socket 939) comes through with shining colors -- review.

Athlon 64 4000 and FX55 performance revealed -- link.

AMD CPU roadmap update -- link.

HP introduces AMD Athlon 64-based Media Center PC -- link.

-- Intel

Intel 1066 925XE “Extreme” series motherboards specifications in full -- link.

Multicore, dual-core, and the future of Intel -- link.

Cheaper Pentium M motherboard from Aopen appears -- link.

Keeping Intel’s 90nm Pentium 4 Prescott cool and quiet involves particular attention to the PSU and the heatsink-fan combination -- link.

Intel ships processors with enhanced security capabilities -- link.

Intel scraps plans for 4.00GHz Pentium 4 in favor of more functional chips -- link 1, link 2. Discussion here. Intel’s microprocessor ramp goes damp -- link.

Intel faces performance struggle in all areas apart from mobile parts for the next two years -- link. How Intel will rip up its current roadmaps -- link.

Five Intel 925X motherboards compared -- roundup.

-- Other

Sun’s 90nm UltraSPARC IV+ will clock at 1.8GHz, have 2MB of L2 cache and 32MB of off-chip L3 cache. It should provide the line with a good mid-life kick in the pants -- link.

Via previews Isaiah 64-bit CPU core, forseeing H1 2006 availability -- link.

Transmeta’s 2GHz Efficeon to offer SSE 3 support -- link. M8800 Efficeon processor uses only 3 watts of power at 1-GHz speed, while 2-GHz parts are still suitable for thin-and-light notebooks with a 25-watt ceiling on power consumption -- link.

Transmeta Efficeon TM8800 90nm processor enters U.S. notebook market in Sharp’s thin and light Actius MP30 -- link.

Via Nano-ITX 12cm x 12cm boards have turned up online (finally) -- link.

Freescale (previously Motorola Semiconductor) gets back in the game -- link.

Graphics

AnandTech October price guides for video and memory are out. ATI’s X800 offerings are still far too expensive for value-oriented buyers -- link.

nVidia ships “Lower-Speed” GeForce 6800 “LE” flavor -- link.

A mobile GPU comparison guide -- link.

nVidia updates low-end GPU lineup with more GeForce 6 products -- link.

nVidia’s GeForce 6200 & 6600 non-GT provide affordable gaming graphics solutions -- review.

How to add a 2nd monitor to your system (once you do, you will never go back) -- link.

XGI Technology’s Volari Z7 is a “non-3d” GPU -- link.

Battle of the non-Titans: XGI Volari V8 vs. Deltachrome S8. The former is a good card with good performance at a good price, but is not widely available, while the later is a “complete disappointment” -- review.

Memory

DDR RAM round-up -- review.

Memory manufacturers rewrite rules for Athlon 64 -- link.

DDR memory module kits compared -- link.

AMD transits flash fab to 110nm process technology -- link.

OCZ targets low-latency, 733MHz, 800MHz DDR2 modules -- link.

Storage

AnandTech October price guides for optical and magnetic storage -- link.

Western Digital unveils its first foray into mobile HDDs, the “Scorpio” drive line. WhisperDrive technology + SoftSeek algorithms helps make Scorpio the quietest 2.5” drive available on the market regardless of spin speed -- link 1, link 2.

Seagate’s Savvio 10K.1 SCSI HDD is the first 2.5” enterprise class disk drive -- review.

Maxtor’s DiamondMax 10 has 16 MB cache with new Native Command Queuing (NCQ). How does it compare with Western Digital’s 10k rpm Raptor? -- review.

Prototype Blu-ray products include the first such drive for use in a PC -- link.

ASUS SCB-2408-D combo drive’s main advantage is its small size -- review.

Sony DRU-710A Dual DVD recorder -- review.

Pioneer’s DVR-A08XLA DVD writer demonstrates subdued operating noise, good media compatibility, commendable burn quality, low CPU usage and fast extraction speed for audio CD and DVD movies. It is on the expensive side -- review.

Sony ships “world’s first” external DVD recorder that can also operate without a host computer. Will retail for apx. $300 -- link.

A-DATA i-Drive USB 2.0 Disk + PC camera is a compact and easy to use solution for the road -- review.

Crucial Gizmo 2.0 512MB USB flash disk drive is a pretty good deal at $89 -- review.

Miscellaneous components and periferals

10 ATX cases compared -- roundup.

8 power supplies compared. There really is a difference -- link.

SilverStone SST-ST30NF fanless aluminum PSU is silent, but expensive and may run too hot in some systems -- review.

Creative Labs packs Sound Blaster into PCMCIA card -- link.

By combining a competitive price, with dual connectivity and decent built-in speakers, the Relisys’s TL966B 19” TFT monitor could tempt the consumer away from a basic 17” model -- review.

D-Link’s high speed home network series of products impresses performance- and value-wise -- review.

Three 2.1 hi-fi audio systems priced at under $100 compared -- reviews.

PalmOne unveils 256MB Flash drive T5 PDA -- link 1, link 2. PalmOne chops PDA prices -- link.

Toshiba Gigabeat F 60GB has the potential to be the new MP3 large storage king -- preview.

Operating Systems

Windows PCs vs. X terminals: A cost comparison -- link.

On the transition to 64-bit chips and OS’s -- link.

TechFreaks offers a troubleshooting reference for common computer problems -- link.

Doom3 Linux and Windows battleground -- link.

Linux, Unix

Versatility of Linux distribution allows choice -- link.

AGNULA/DeMuDi: A distribution for musicians and composers -- link.

Using CD-based Linux distributions for evaluating Linux -- link.

XFce 4.2-beta1 released -- link.

The future of Linux multimedia -- link.

10 useful power tools for using Linux in a mobile environment -- link.

Managing users, fonts, and printers in Slackware with kuser, the KDE User Manager -- link.

A quick guide for repairing your kernel from a live CD -- link.

Linux Training: To certify or not to certify? -- link.

The next generation of Linux’s native CPU, the AMD64 -- link.

Concerns expressed about the current kernel development model -- link.

Q&A with Linus Torvalds -- link.

Driver incompatibility with Linux -- link.

Moving to the Linux Business Desktop By Marcel Gagné -- book review.

A font primer for X11 -- link.

Real life test of ext3 vs reiserfs filesystems -- link.

Rouse’s Supermarkets in Louisiana switches to Linux -- link.

Building diskless clients with FreeBSD 5.2 -- link.

Sun’s COO Jonathon Schwartz speaks Openly -- link.

Windows and DOS

Microsoft eyes lighter versions of Longhorn -- link.

Microsoft to offer XP Special Edition to huge impoverished group: the U.S. education market -- link.

It’s The File Format Stupid! -- link.

Windows XP SP2 seems a smooth upgrade for most, but many are putting off installing the big security patch anyway -- link.

Microsoft should release Windows 98 SE as Open Source (nice idea, anyway) -- link.

Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 feature and performance investigation -- review.

Mac

A Month with a Mac: A Die-Hard PC User’s Perspective -- link.

Microsoft releases Virtual PC 7. Upgraded software offers improved performance, support for Power Mac G5 -- link.

Cherry OS lets Windows machines run Mac OS X -- link.

Will Linux finish off the Mac? -- link.

Other OS’s

September Syllable newsletter highlights include version 0.5.4 release -- link. Discussion here.

RISC OS goes 32bit -- link.

First AmigaOS 4.0 pre-release update available -- link.

Syllable now can be run on Windows through QEMU. Recommended specs are 1.5 GHz+ with 256 MB RAM -- link.

Applications

The 2004 OfB Choice Awards -- link.

SQLite version 3 features make the database easier to use and suitable for a wider array of applications -- link.

Ballmer calls for cavalry-based counter-offensive on Star Office -- link. Sorry Mr. Gates, Open Source has won me over ... -- link.

IM program Jabber developers gain more code as Jive opens up server -- link.

MySQL using Microsoft Open Source project to create Windows installer for production release -- link.

On Red Hat’s acquisition of Netscape’s Enterprise Solutions software -- link.

JBoss 4.0 application server shows raft of improvements -- link.

Desktop-oriented applications

Why you should switch to Firefox -- link. Mozilla Firefox, the future of browsing -- link. Will Microsoft makes its browser better? -- link.

Mozilla finally KDEfied -- link.

KDE audio player/manager Amarok 1.1 impresses -- review.

Kile is a KDE-based environment for editing LaTeX documents -- link.

Interview with David Faure, maintainer of KWord and the KOffice libraries, about KOffice -- link.

Replacing FrameMaker with OOo Writer -- link.

Marketing OpenOffice.org -- link.

OpenOffice.org is four years old. Community manager Louis Suarez-Potts talks about where OOo is heading (ver. 2.0 expected Spring 2005), its relations with the greater open source community, and some of the issues that surround the project in the news -- link. Discussion here.

Great email features (you have never heard of) -- link.

Corel buys Jasc, maker of Paint Shop Pro -- link.

The GIMP 2.0 was worth the wait -- link.

Programming

Learn how to build custom views in Eclipse that integrate with other useful public libraries -- link.

Programmer finds happiness with Linux -- link.

Don’t be afraid to drop the SOAP -- link.

Building a small game using Windows graphics programming -- link.

An Introduction to RubyCocoa -- Part 1, Part 2.

C/C++/Java family

Groovy, Java’s new scripting language -- link.

What would happen to Java if Sun were acquired? -- link.

Java performance myths set straight -- link.

Betfair explaines its move from ASP.Net to Java -- link.

Scripting and high-level languages

Fast, easy database access with Python -- link.

Release 17 of PythonCAD, a Python-based CAD package, is available -- link.

Conduct Web experiments using PHP -- Part 1.

Statistical computing and graphics language and environment R 2.0.0 released -- link. Statistical programming with R -- Part 1, Part 2. If you are looking for an extensive set of tools for visualizing data, R is certainly worth investigating -- link.

Critique of where Perl 6 is heading -- link.

Security & Privacy

Gaim-Encryption: Simple encryption for instant messages -- link.

Biometric IBM ThinkPad T42 uses swipe-scanner to limit access to notebook -- preview.

Conference to enhance international anti-fraud efforts held -- link.

Google your site for security vulnerabilities -- link.

U.S. funds chat-room surveillance study -- link.

U.S. air traffic control open to attack -- link.

The OpenSSH project turns 5 -- link. Using Keys with SSH -- link.

Macs have fewer bugs than Windows PCs, but Apple moves to plug security holes before problems crop up -- link.

Non-Execute, execute disable bit processor security feature described in details -- link.

Holes, patches, defenses, spam

SurfControl’s E-Mail Filter version 5.0 guards against online attacks, spam, and more -- link.

The SANS Institute identifies the top 20 Internet vulnerabilities of the year -- link.

What you should know about firewalls -- link.

Nearly all phishing attacks came from about 1000 machines, mostly customers of DSL or cable modem services -- link.

SpamBayes 1.0 released -- link.

Miscellaneous

Your hard drive is overflowing with gazillions of digital pics. The quest to build the photo archive of the future -- link.

Todd Rundgren, technology tinkerer -- link.

How much effort does it take to get an ISP to pull public domain material using unsubstantiated legal threats? Distressingly little, according to a recent study by Dutch group -- link.

Search: The Current and Next Big Thing -- link.

Carbon-dating the Internet -- link.

Business

A look at Wal-Mart’s IT infrastructure -- link.

Hard-core videogamers are dropping lots of cash in their quest for the ultimate cool-looking machine -- link.

RIAA legal action barely gets a mention any more -- link.

Three minutes with Craig “Craigslist” Newmark -- link.

Microsoft doesn’t Get It, and thus is pre-programmed to fail in the battle for the home, for consumer electronics, and for consumer digital service -- link.

HP pins its future on ink -- link.

Almost one in four businesses (23%) runs software without licenses in the workplace -- link.

Some Internet pioneers who survived the dot-com boom and bust say the ride has only just begun -- link.

Science

Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne appears to have won the $10 million Ansari X-Prize as the first private space vehicle to successfully make two trips to above 100km within a two-week window -- link.

U.S. Air Force working on anti-matter weapons -- link.

Hydrogen-powered cars creep forward -- link.

Telecommunications

One Canadian’s wireless neighborhood network could someday serve us all -- link.

Wi-Fi, WiMAX dead and gone, fiber pundits say -- link.

Patent landrush threatens Wi-Fi standards -- link.

A price war in Internet phone service heralds more trouble for the old-timers in telecom -- link 1, link 2.

Wi-Fi chip maker Atheros has begun sampling what it claims is the world’s first single-chip 802.11a, b and g part -- link. 802.11a comes out fighting -- analysis.

Wi-Fi Alliance says it will not certify “pre-standard” kit featuring 802.11n technologies until the standard has been ratified by the IEEE -- link. WiFi Alliance warns chip makers over 802.11n claims -- link.

Bob Metcalfe, the inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, is a big fan of Zigbee, or 802.15.4, the upcoming cheap-as-chips wireless networking standard -- link.

Broadband by power lines given OK to move forward -- link.

Long-term mobile phone use increases the risk of developing benign tumors on the auditory nerve, new research indicates -- link.