Tech News for Thursday December 9th
1999.
DirectX 7a will be released within a week.
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: Active
Windows Added by: Kim Heise
One of the operators of Microsoft's DirectX newsgroup
has announced that the new DirectX 7a will be released within a week. Check the
Microsoft DirectX web site for
more information.
Dell could start selling AMD K7 systems?
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: The
Register Added by: Kim Heise
There is a rumor that is circulating the internet like
wild fire that Dell is planning on building and selling AMD K7 based systems. If
Dell opens it's doors to AMD it will shift Intel's market share significantly.
Personally I hope Dell ships AMD K7 PC's to help give users more
choices.
Java 2 Release Candidate 1 for Linux Available,
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
Just yesterday Sun stunned the Java community with
their public announcement that the company was not longer working to standardize
their new Java 2 system. However, today the company released Java 2 rc1 for the
Linux operating system.
In case you have missed some of the new features in Java2 V1.2.2:
- Java Virtual Machine Debugger Interface (JVMDI)
- Java Virtual Machine Profiler Interface (JVMPI)
- Improvements in the Javac Compiler
- New options in the Java technology launcher
- Drag & Drop support between two java applications, or
within a single java application.
As a footnote, Sun's shares split two-for-one yesterday.
Microsoft introduces "wireless" Internet Explorer
for cell phones.
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
This is a follow up story to the article that was
posted yesterday regarding the deal between Microsoft and Erickson Swedish
cell-phone manufacturer. The software behemoth has launched an official
web site to introduce the "wireless" versions of Internet Explorer
and Outlook email. You will start seeing these "wireless" internet
gateways sometime in the first quarter of 2000.
BetaNews allows readers to leave comments regarding articles and a user posted
this very humorous comment regarding Microsoft's "wireless" browser:
"Like I would like to have Blue Screens while using My Nokia !
With a MS browser A cell phone would have requirements such as 64Mb etc etc !!
I vote NO no MS software in my cell phone"
First 10x DVD player from Pioneer.
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: PC
Extremist Added by: Kim Heise
The team over at PC Extremist take the first 10x DVD
player for a test drive and the final verdict is a 90% rating. Do not confuse
the 10x speed DVD VS. a 10x CD drive. The Pioneer 10x rates in at around 40x in
terms of reading standard CD's. The price for the drive is around $130 and is
available in tray or slot format with SCSI/IDE interface.
You can view any DVD movie smoothly on any 2x DVD player so unless you are a
die-hard DVD aficionado then the drive is a little pricey.
Microsoft "X-Box" to be unveiled at
Consumer and Electronics Show in Vegas.
Posted: 12/09/1999 Source: Active Windows Added by: Kim Heise
All the mystery behind Microsoft's upcoming gaming
console system will fall behind when the company unveils the "X-Box"
system sometime during the next CES in Las Vegas. The new "X-Box" is
slated by Microsoft to be the Sony Playstation 2 "killer" and we will
see if it lives up to the hype especially since the specs on the Playstation 2
are mostly unknown.
Tech News for Wednesday December 8th
1999.
3DMark 2000 benchmarks.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: Rivastation Added by: Kim Heise
Confused over all the many different video cards on
the market?
You should be - as the market for computer hardware is moving so fast that it
becomes impossible to decide firmly on any given product in fear that it will
become obsolete by next week.
Rivastation has posted some very interesting benchmarks using the latest 3DMark
2000 benchmarking program. What's interesting to see is that the DDR RAM
version of the GeForce 256 beats the competition mercilessly even over it's
standard SDRAM based counterpart. Remember that there are two versions of
nVidia's GeForce video card: One video card using standard (slow) SDRAM and the
other using the new DDR RAM.
If you are looking for the ultimate power then the DDR RAM GeForce256 video card
is the one to get. Note that the DDR RAM GeForce 256 is going to set you back
around $350, where as the SDRAM version is around $250. You decide.
I would wait until Christmas when you will see more competition and prices will
begin to fall. Anyway, here
are the benchmarks at Rivastation.
Ericsson and Microsoft shake hands on internet based cell
phones.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: TechWeb Added by: Kim Heise
It's never been an issue of if we will ever see cell
phones allowing internet access but basically a question of who and when.
Ericsson, a Swedish cell phone maker and Microsoft have announced a strategic partnership
to work on a cell phone based email and web browser. Also it came as no surprise
to this move by the software giant that Ericsson's stock jumped a full 11% after
the venture was released to the press.
Think you have seen it all? Think again: USB Radio.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: LostCircuits Added by: Kim Heise
Lost Circuits reviews this very unusual device that is
basically a radio that plugs into your PC's USB port and you can then record
radio signals directly to MP3. The little device powers itself directly from
your USB port and supports full plug-n-play USB support so you can
install/remove it without rebooting/reinstalling drivers with your PC.
No price or availability was mentioned.
Sun withdraws Java from standards process.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: ZDNET Added by: Kim Heise
This is the last piece of news
the Java community wants to hear but Sun Microsystems shocked the Java world
Tuesday when it announced that it would quit efforts to formally standardize the
Java 2 platform, Standard Edition, through the ECMA standards body.
Sun was quoted at the Java Business
Expo that they the needed to protect the 'integrity' of the company's investment
in Java.
Gateway turns down new Intel i820 chipset.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: AMD
Zone Added by: Kim Heise
I can't say I'm surprised to see this news post. The
new Intel i820 chipset is rather buggy with the RAMBUS problems and performance
gains are minimal at 5% or less over current motherboards. I am a little
skeptical about this article so take it with a pinch of salt until we can
confirm more facts.
1.2GHz AMD K7 Athlon's being manufactured.
Posted: 12/08/1999 Source: ACE's
Hardware
Added by: Kim Heise
This is very impressive news for AMD and I'm sure
Intel is getting more and more nervous by the day. Here's a clip from Ace's
Hardware.
Tech News for Tuesday December 7th
1999.
New "Babylonia" virus can update itself.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: MSNBC
Added by: Kim Heise
This is one of those very impressive
programming feats and I don't know whether to curse or admire the developer of
this new virus. The way it works is that it sends a very small file onto your
system which makes you more likely to become infected - either via email or IRC.
Secondly, after your system becomes infected with the initial small file it then
connects to a site in Japan and downloads the actual virus itself. This means
the developer of this virus can alter the virus as much as he/she wants and post
it out there as an update. At this point the virus only displays a simple
message when your machine is booted but could easily be modified to reformat
your hard drive.
Here's a snip from MSNBC:
European researchers have discovered a new computer virus clever enough to
sneak onto your computer in pieces and update itself with fresh code. The first
piece of the Babylonia virus - called the stub by researchers — arrives posing
as a Y2 fix. Once a user is tricked into opening it, the other four pieces are
pulled into the victim’s computer from an infamous virus hosting Web site
located in Japan.
Intel ships "Itanium" developer
systems.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: MSNBC
Added by: Kim Heise
With all the heat on Intel, the company has shipped
prototypes of it's new "Itanium" processor. The next generation
"Itanium" CPU processes 64 bits of data instead of the current 32 bits
as in the Pentium series processors. The new CPU is targeted at high end servers
and workstations. No release dates or prices were posted.
The prototypes are most likely being shipped to hardware and software developers
to prepare a foundation for the new CPU.
Firm Develops Pen-Sized Scanner.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: Yahoo
Added by: Kim Heise
While visiting Anandtech I spotted this article about
a company in Israel that has developed a scanner that is the size of a regular
pen but can store 1,000 pages of data! The system also includes a character
recognition system. This is amazing technology and I would have loved to use
this as a student.
Internet sharing guide for multiple computers.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: The
Firing Squad Added by: Kim Heise
If you have more than one computer and wish to share a
single internet connection you may want to read Thresh's article
over at the Firing Squad. At home I am using a FreeBSD based 486 PC which routes
a single internet connection to all the systems. It takes about 5 minutes to
setup FreeBSD for NAT (Network Address Translation) and you will be able to
connect as many machines on a single internet connection as you want. The
FreeBSD operating system NEVER crashes and has been running for months without
any problems.
This article uses the built in internet connection sharing system that ships
with Windows 98.
Latest Pentium III and AMD Athlon prices.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: CPU
Review Added by: Kim Heise
Prices continue to fall almost weekly on high end
CPU's. CPU Review has released updated prices on the high end Intel and AMD
processors. This price list is most current as of December 4th.
| Prices as of
12/04/1999 |
Athlon qt 1k AMD
FAQ |
Athlon qt 1
PriceWatch |
Pentium3 qt 1
PriceWatch |
| 500Mhz |
$249.00 |
$189.00 |
$219.00 |
| 550Mhz |
$449.00 |
$253.00 |
$311.00 |
| 600Mhz |
$615.00 |
$382.00 |
$418.00 |
| 650Mhz |
|
$484.00 |
$589.00 |
| 700Mhz |
|
$641.00 |
$778.00 |
Source: CPU
Review
3Dfx opens "Glide" API to open source.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
In a last ditch effort 3Dfx has opened up their proprietary
glide graphics API to the public. Diminished support for glide has forced the
company to take these measures. Most current 3D programs no longer support glide
and have opted for Microsoft's DirectX or SGI's OpenGL.
If you are not familiar with Glide, it is a proprietary 3D programming interface
to use with the 3Dfx series video cards.
Dell and Red Hat Linux expand deals.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: TechWeb
Added by: Kim Heise
Dell announced on Monday that they will be offering
their high end "Poweredge" servers preinstalled with Linux.
DOJ outlines list of finding against Microsoft.
Posted: 12/07/1999 Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
The US department of Justice has listed four major
violations by the software giant. In no particular order:
-
illegally maintained a barrier to entry in
the Intel-compatible PC operating system market.
-
illegally tied the browser to the OS.
-
illegal exclusionary agreements with ISPs and
PC makers.
-
tried to cut off consumer access to Netscape
Communications Corp.'s rival browser.
That just about sums it up and Microsoft is going
to have a tough time explaining the issues at hand.
Tech News for Monday December 6th 1999.
Sun & Netscape join with banking companies for
online billing.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
Wouldn't this make life so much
easier? At least it would make paying your monthly bills easier with no more
stamps and paperwork to mail in. Three of the top-ten U.S. banks will use the
iPlanet BillerXpert Consolidator software to manage online bill payments to
merchants.
Sun and Netscape said on Monday they are
joining with three of the top ten U.S. banks to create a single means for
customers to pay bills online.
In the latest move to simplify customer
bill-payment using the Internet, the companies said they plan to announce an
Internet billing system that will allow hundreds of thousands of online
customers at the three banks to pay bills to the thousands of merchants prepared
to handle such payments.
<SNIP>
The Sun-Netscape software enables banks to send their corporate customers bills
over the Web. Consumers can link to an online banking site to view a summary of
bills from service providers such as telephone companies and utilities, and pay
bills directly or request more details before settling a bill.
<SNIP>
DVD audio delayed due to breaking of encryption system.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: The
Register
Added by: Kim Heise
The DVD audio format has been delayed by as much as
six months due to the decoding of the current encryption scheme. The audio
format has been put on hold until a more robust encryption method can be
deployed for audio.
I agree with the Register article in that it doesn't look like we need a DVD
audio format at this time. Does it make it that much more convenient to have a
two CD audio compilation on one single DVD disc? I can fully understand when
moving away from VHS cassette to a disc. If the music industry were to release
an entire album collection of a particular artist/band on one DVD disc - that
would be more attractive but I don't see that happening.
Netscape 5.0 delayed again.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: Betanews
Added by: Kim Heise
Netscape's next generation web browser has been put on
hold until February 2000. The new browser codenamed "Sea monkey" has
been plagued with numerous delays for unknown reasons. An early
"alpha" version of the product will still be available for download
December 15th.
The company states the delays are due to a complete new HTML
rendering engine (Gecko) instead of building on the old engine.
Arguments
Holiday PC purchasing guide.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: Ars-Technica
Added by: Kim Heise
With all the new hardware available making the decision of when and what buy
in terms of a new PC, it can become confusing. The team over at Ars-Technica have posted a section on
various PC layouts for you to choose. Take a look at the high
end, the medium
and the budget PC.
Minolta unveils "3D" digital camera.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: Minolta
Added by: Kim Heise
Visit the link above for a very impressive 3D
demonstration of this new camera that takes 3D pictures. Make sure you have the Metastream
plugin to view the samples. Just how this little gizmo works take a look at the
"how to"
link. No prices or availability was posted on their site for the Minolta 3D
1500.
I can see how this camera would be useful for users selling online products.
Windows "Millennium" beta 2 review.
Posted: 12/06/1999 Source: Wugnet
Added by: Kim Heise
If you are curious what Microsoft has in store for the
replacement for Windows 98 then you may want to read this article. Just last
week the software giant posted Millennium beta 2 to testers and this is the
first review I've seen yet. I'm not sure how users get away reviewing Microsoft
beta products because the company makes you sign several NDA (non-disclosure
agreements) before allowing you to beta test their products.
According to the article the new Windows "Millennium" is a very minor
upgrade to Windows 98 SE (Second Edition) and the OS in fact looks just like
Windows 98 with a Windows 2000 interface. Major enhancements basically rotate
around more hardware support and stability. The new OS will also ship bundled
with IE 5.5.
If you are wondering if DOS is still the
underlying OS under Windows "Millennium" then you will most likely
have guessed "yes" if you figured that it's a minor update to Windows
98.
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