Tech News for Sunday February 13th 2000.
AOL plans spring launch for Netscape 6.0.
Posted: 02/13/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
Whatever happened to version 5.0? AOL
and Netscape are planning to release Netscape 6.0 sometime this spring. It's
going to be a tough uphill battle for AOL/Netscape to play catch-up to
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser who is the current leader in the browser
battle - by a long shot.
Netscape Communications is preparing to unveil a new
Web browser that will include integration with AOL Instant Messenger and the
ability to let Web sites create custom-branded versions.
Netscape 6.0, previewed last night by AOL president of
interactive services Barry Schuler during a financial analysts' meeting in New
York, is the first completely new browser software from Netscape Communications
since its acquisition by AOL in November 1998. The company plans to launch the
software this spring, according to AOL spokeswoman Anne Bentley.
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Windows 2000 has 63,000 known bugs.
Posted: 02/13/2000
Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
No this is no early April fool's
joke - I wish it were!
Not everyone will be having fun at Microsoft Corp. next week. While
the software giant and its partners celebrate the arrival of Windows 2000 on
Thursday, Feb. 17, hundreds of members of the Windows development team will be
busy cleaning up the mess.
Not the launch-party mess. The code mess. According to an
internal Microsoft
(Nasdaq: MSFT)
memo viewed by Sm@rt Reseller, the company needs to fix tens of thousands of
bugs contained in the final Win2000 release code. Fixing these bugs is the
top-priority assignment for Microsoft group VP Jim Allchin's Windows team.
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Tech News for Saturday February 12th 2000.
The end of DVD?
Posted: 02/12/2000
Source: 3D Hardware
Added by: Kim
Heise
3D Hardware takes a look at the next
generation cinematic storage technology called "FMD". At this point I
think the title about "The End of DVD" is a little too dramatic since
it's going to take sometime for a competing format to take a foothold in the
market.
Nevertheless, here's some tasty info:
The FMD-ROM disc planned for release
has 10 (!) layers, compared to a maximum of 2 for a CD, and maximum of 4 for a
DVD. What’s even scarier about the disc, which is of the same size as a CD or
DVD, is that it can store up to a massive 140GB!
Looks
very fancy in the transparent design.
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Tech News for Friday February 11th 2000.
Internet Explorer Security Update, February 9, 2000.
Posted: 02/11/2000
Source: Windows
Update Added by: Kim
Heise
Microsoft has released another
security update for Internet Explorer that can be download via the "Windows
Update" feature under IE 4.x and IE 5.x.
Installing this security update will eliminate the "Image Source
Redirect" vulnerability found in Internet Explorer. Without this update, a
malicious Web site operator could read (but not add, change, or delete) certain
types of files on your computer.
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AMD releases 850mhz Athlon K7.
Posted: 02/11/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
Saw the press release over at AMDZone
regarding AMD's latest CPU release. Here's a clip from the article:
SUNNYVALE, CA -- February 11, 2000 --AMD today sent out an early Valentine's
Day greeting to computer lovers everywhere, unveiling an 850MHz version of its
award-winning AMD Athlon™ processor.
Many computer manufacturers plan to offer systems featuring
the 850MHz AMD Athlon processor, including Compaq, IBM, Gateway, Pionex and
CyberMax. Those systems will provide users exceptional performance for
commercial and consumer applications, such as 3D modeling, image compression,
CAD/CAM, and voice recognition, as well as near theatre quality visual images,
rich audio and an enhanced Internet experience.
On a related note you can read a review of the latest Athlon
CPU over at Gamers Depot.
Here's a clip from Gamers Depot's comments:
From an overclockers standpoint, the Athlon 850 represents a speed freaks
dream come true. Using the ASUS K7M mainboard, we cranked the bus speed from the
standard 100Mhz up to 112Mhz which gave us a speed of 952Mhz using traditional
cooling methods (Fan&Heatsink). This is largely due to the .18 micron
process that the 850 is made upon. Smaller size means less heat, in fact even at
this speed the chip ran cooler than our 700Mhz Athlon which is built on a .25
micron.
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Tech News for Thursday February 10th 2000.
Updated nVidia Detonator beta reference drivers.
Posted: 02/10/2000
Source: nVNews Added by: Kim
Heise
nVNews has posted some links to the
latest nVidia Detonator reference drivers for both Windows 9x and Windows 2000.
These latest drivers are deemed "Beta" and are not officially released
by nVidia so be careful.
Download
Beta Detonators 3.76 for Windows 9x.
Download Beta
Detonators 3.76 for Windows 2000.
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How a
"denial of srvice" attack works.
Posted: 02/10/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
CNET has posted a very educational
document on exactly how these new string of Internet hacker attacks work.
Well worth the read and I hope it doesn't give some more idiots any ideas.
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EU probes Microsoft Windows 2000.
Posted: 02/10/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
Now it's not only the US DOJ that's
after Microsoft but also the European Union.
BRUSSELS--The European Union is investigating whether Windows 2000 will give
Microsoft an unfair advantage over competitors, raising new regulatory snags for
the giant software maker in Europe.
European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said
the probe of the new operating system, set for launch later this month, was
triggered by complaints from consumers, small businesses and Microsoft
competitors.
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FreeBSD 4.0 release candidate now
available.
Posted: 02/10/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
FreeBSD 4.0 Release Candidate is now
available for download as FTP install or you can download the full ISO CD image.
The ISO CD image is fully bootable for easy installation.
FreeBSD is a full blown UNIX operating system that powers many huge internet
sites such as Yahoo. I use FreeBSD at home as my proxy server.
Download
the ISO.
Download via FTP.
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Linux Red Hat Beta 6.2 available.
Posted: 02/10/2000
Source: ARS Technica Added by: Kim
Heise
If you are wanting to take the latest
beta version Linux Red Hat for a test drive, there are two links for downloading
the latest version:
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/redhat/redhat-6.2beta/
ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/linux/redhat/redhat-6.2beta/
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Tech News for Wednesday February 9th 2000.
SETI News Update.
Posted: 02/09/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
The SETI scores have now returned to
the "normal" processing speed with my new 450mhz CPU overclocked at
505mhz. When I was running with my last 350mhz overclocked CPU, my SETI units
were processing in under 2 minutes!! As you can guess, I put two and two
together here and guessed it was my overclocked CPU but with my new overclocked
450 there is no significant speed increase.
When I put my old 350mhz back in
my system the SETI units fly-by again in under 2 minutes. It has to be something
specific with the overclocked 350mhz Katmai Pentium II processors because on my
new 450 Pentium II it runs as normal.
I still haven't heard anything
back from the SETI team. Since we're on the topic of SETI, there is a new
version out which brings it up to 2.02. Download it here.
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Site News Update.
Posted: 02/09/2000 Source:
N/A Added by: Kim Heise
Just to let you know that I'm working
on a "How-to Overclocking guide" and hope to have it online later this
week or early next week. I've received several emails regarding this subject and
have decided to write a general guide to overclocking.
This week's poll has also been
updated. The poll's are not marketing survey's for the purpose of this web site
but rather a method to try to gauge the opinion of the general public.
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Tech News for Tuesday February 8th 2000.
Video Card poll results.
Posted: 02/08/2000 Source:
N/A Added by: Kim Heise
Not surprisingly most of you voted for
nVidia's next generation GeForce 256 card code-name the "NV-15".
Second place went to the current GeForce 256 DDR and nobody voted for the
Voodoo4/5 video cards.
Please keep in mind that the hits
on this web site are far too small to indicate a possible future market trend.
Hopefully once this site grows, the polls will depict a more general trend of
the public.
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Windows "Millennium" to be released May
26th 2000.
Posted: 02/08/2000 Source:
N/A Added by: Kim Heise
Several web sites have posted news
clips regarding Windows "Millennium" release date being moved as early
as May 26th 2000. Not sure how official this but we will see shortly.
At this point I'm looking forward to Windows Millennium because Windows 2000 is
a major resource hog and Millennium has some very useful new features. I suspect
the biggest break-through in Windows Millennium is that DOS is DEAD!
Millennium features a new TCP/IP stack, a System Restore feature, silent
installation of USB keyboards, mice, and hubs, a Movie Maker application for
recording, editing, publishing, and organizing audio and video content, the
removal of Real mode DOS, and a number of other small improvements over Windows
98. Microsoft is designing this release around four key goals, digital media and
entertainment, the online experience, home networking, and "it just
works," a marketing phrase designed to promote Millennium's self-healing
capabilities and compatibility with a vast array of hardware and software.
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IBM plans new desktops, notebooks, appliances.
Posted: 02/08/2000 Source:
CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
In late April or early May, IBM said it will begin
to sell "Luxor," an all-in-one computer with a flat-panel monitor and
a DVD-ROM that drops down from a concealed panel behind the screen. At the same
time, Big Blue will release "Stardust," a sub-$500 business PC that
will contain processors from both Intel and AMD.
In addition, IBM will release the iCruiser, a Web terminal
that will use a variety of operating systems and be sold or given away through
Internet service providers (ISPs) and phone carriers. New versions of the IBM
WorkPad, a spin on the Palm handheld, will also show up.
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How a basic attack crippled Yahoo.
Posted: 02/08/2000 Source:
CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
I'm sure half the internet community
noticed that Yahoo was unavailable yesterday due to a full frontal assault by
hackers on the web site.
An apparently coordinated attack today overwhelmed one
of the Web's most popular destinations, once again calling into question the
vulnerability of Internet companies.
"Our engineers had just not seen anything like this
before," said Laurie Priddy, executive vice president of systems and
applications for GlobalCenter, Yahoo's Web hosting service, which bore the brunt
of the attack. "It would take a concerted effort, a group of people or some
sophisticated software to generate that level of traffic."
High-profile Internet firms such as eBay have been hit by
outages before. But today's attack on Yahoo highlights a simple technique that
can cripple a large, relatively well-prepared Internet company.
Yahoo executives today said their system was knocked out by
a "distributed denial of service attack"---a vulnerability well-known
to security experts. The National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Carnegie-Mellon's Computer Emergency Response Team Center and the FBI all have
issued alerts on the subject in the last few months.
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AMD rolls 1.1ghz Athlon CPU off the assembly Lines.
Posted: 02/08/2000 Source:
3DShack
Added by: Kim Heise
Ladies and Gentlemen please give a
full round of applause to AMD for producing the first 1000+ mhz CPU. The new
1,100mhz Athlon K7 CPU rolled off the Dresden facility in Germany.
The demonstration featured the newest version of the
AMD Athlon processor that integrates high-performance on-die Level 2 (L2) cache.
The device is manufactured utilizing AMD's leading-edge HiP6L 0.18 micron
process technology featuring copper interconnects.
The demonstration required no special cooling techniques
and was shown in conjunction with a presentation at the International
Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).
``The demonstration of a 1.1GHz AMD Athlon processor
manufactured in AMD's Dresden facility shows we are executing on our process
technology and Dresden production roadmaps,'' said Larry Hollatz, group vice
president of Computation Products at AMD. ``We continue to aggressively advance
the technologies that enable future AMD processors to deliver superior
performance levels.''
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Tech News for Monday February 7th 2000.
Installing Soundblaster Liveware 3.0 in Windows
2000.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source:
NT Compatible
Added by: Kim Heise
For those of you who are wanting to
take full advantage of the Creative Labs Soundblaster Live under Windows 2000
you may want to download these
instructions. The instructions show you how to install the latest Liveware
version 3.0 under Windows 2000.
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Sun Microsystems acquiring Trustbase.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source:
CNET
Added by: Kim Heise
Sun Microsystems will announce today it's acquiring
Trustbase, a British company whose encryption software will be integrated into
Sun-Netscape Alliance e-commerce software.
Trustbase, a private company, is the
owner of JCP Computer Services, maker of public key infrastructure (PKI)
software, a critical component to creating encrypted communications between two
computers across a public network such as the Internet.
The ultimate goal for the software is to ease electronic
transactions of money for banks or other financial institutions. Though credit
card transactions on the Internet are common today, not all initiatives to move
more money over the Internet have been successful. The Secure Electronic
Transaction standard backed by Visa, for example, hasn't had much success in the
United States.
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DirectX 8 to Include Real Time Voice Technology.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source: BetaNews
Added by: Kim Heise
Just an FYI:
Microsoft Corporation announced plans to incorporate real time
voice technologies into the next version of DirectX. Entitled DirectPlay Voice,
this newest API was adapted from the popular ShadowFactor Software, Inc.
application called BattleCom, and will be optimized for multiplayer gaming. Paul
Donlan, program manager for DirectX at Microsoft states, "With the addition
of this technology to the DirectPlay API in DirectX, Microsoft will provide game
developers with a powerful set of programming interfaces to cleanly integrate
voice technology into their games." On February 18th, Microsoft plans to
offer the BattleCom software for download from Shadow
Factor until this summer, when the next version of DirectX, version 8.0, is
scheduled for release.
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Mobile Pentium III's day's are numbered.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim Heise
You could see this one coming a mile
away since Intel is having problems producing enough yields on their
mobile/desktop processors and with the recent introduction on the new Transmeta
mobile processor.
Intel Corp. sources say the chip maker is working to
replace its top-of-the-line notebook processor, the mobile Pentium III, with a
new chip, code-named Northwood, in 2001.
Northwood, based on the same next-generation 32-bit
architecture as Intel's forthcoming Willamette
desktop chip, will mark the beginning of Intel's transition to a 0.13-micron
process. Changing process technologies allows a chip maker to increase
performance while reducing both cost and power consumption.
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Running Unix on Windows 2000?
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source: ActiveWindows
Added by: Kim Heise
Read for yourself:
Microsoft Corp. today announced it has released to manufacturing Interix 2.2, a
complete environment that enables customers to easily run UNIX applications and
scripts on the Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000
operating systems without rewriting code.
Interix 2.2 is the first version available for Windows 2000
and a key component of Microsoft's interoperability and application migration
strategy for providing interoperability between Windows-based and UNIX systems.
Interix 2.2 allows users to take advantage of key benefits of the Windows NT
platform, including lower total cost of ownership, easier manageability and
access to the vast array of Windows-based applications while leveraging existing
UNIX applications.
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Intel Pentium III 500E FC-PGA Review.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source: IXBT
Added by: Kim Heise
With all the new CPU's coming down the
pipeline from Intel and AMD it's so confusing to keep up with what's new. If you
plan on purchasing a Pentium III processor as an upgrade you may want to read
this review that takes a closer look at the the new FC (Flip-Chip) PGA CPU
socket design.
The new design differs from previous Intel CPU's in that the L2 cache has been
moved directly onto the CPU die (as in the Celeron) and there is a reduction in
voltage requirements. Physically the new FC-PGA design looks very different from
the standard slot-1 design of older Pentium II's and early Pentium III's. It
does look very similar to the old Pentium 1 processor.
Here's the specs courtesy of IXBT:
- Coppermine processor core, 0.18 micron technology, 28
million transistors. Die size - 106sq.mm;
- Models supporting the following frequencies were announced:
500, 533, 550, 600, 650, 700, 733 and 750MHz (system bus frequency - 100 or
133MHz);
- Advanced Transfer Level 2 integrated on-die Cache with the
size of 256KB working at the full processor frequency;
- 32KB L1 cache (16KB for data and 16KB for instructions);
- SSE SIMD-instructions and serial number;
- Vcore - 1.6V.
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BIOS upgrade guide.
Posted: 02/07/2000 Source: Tech-Review
Added by: Kim Heise
The BIOS is part of your computer that
is responsible for detecting and storing your PC hardware configuration. It's
very important to keep the BIOS updated with the latest versions from your
motherboard manufacturer because newer version allow more hardware support and
bug fixes. To find out more about the BIOS and just exactly how to update the
BIOS take a look a this
very well written article over at Tec-Review.
A word of caution here: When updating the BIOS make very certain you are
using the correct update that pertains to your specific motherboard or else you
will render your computer useless. I can speak out of personal experience here.
My solution was to purchase a new motherboard.
Since we're on the topic of
BIOS's, make sure you visit Adrian's
Rojak Pot (very curious as to the name) guide to optimizing and tweaking
your system BIOS. He has just updated it again.
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