Tech News for Friday March 31st 2000.

Useless program of the day?
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
This little program created by Alex Artamonov simulates mouse movements when you are not using your computer! Here's the actual description: Simulate mouse activity while away from the computer at the touch of a button. Download the beta here if you are having a very slow Friday.

Here's what a humorous reviewer had to say:

Review of Mouse Motion 0.15 by Plato on March 31st, 2000 4:05 AM *****
I just tried it, well i see ex Russian KGB programmers. are doing nothing of importance these days... ...or does this program set of all the nukes in the world when 666,777 is typed in with other numbers?
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More hurdles for Sony Playstation 2.
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
Sony is facing a rather nasty lawsuit when they violated the DVD agreement and broke the rule on allowing DVD's from any region to play on any Playstation2. In order to manufacture a DVD compatible player the device can only play DVD's for regions where the player is distributed. For example: DVD players you purchase in the US will only play DVD's encoded with the North American region access code. This is to prevent DVD's from being shipped overseas to which ends I have never clearly understood.

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Apple to Release OS for x86-based Systems?
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
This has been in the news for sometime now and most people have been taking it with a pinch of salt until we actually saw some version of the final product. Releasing a x86 compatible version of the Apple OS X operating system would be a very smart marketing move and would create a larger market for "Apple only" applications.

Apple is readying a new operating system designed to run natively on x86-based machines. However, the OS is still able to perform on Macintosh systems as well. 'Darwin' is said to be a "stripped-down" version of the MacOS X Server, which was first introduced in January 1999. Apple's new Darwin OS may be recognized as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows.

Apple fans are excited by the idea that Apple could use the Darwin design to develop future versions of the MacOS that could run on cost sensitive Intel-based machines, rather than expensive Macintosh hardware. Some discussion groups on the Internet seem to be fueling the idea of making the new Darwin OS an alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system. It is also rumored that Apple is discussing license ideas with PC-makers.
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Beta Netscape 6 to Debut April 5.
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: PC-World  Added by: Kim Heise
Not sure if you witnessed yesterday's fiasco when someone found beta copies of Netscape 6.0 on a FTP site which was shut down quickly by Netscape itself. Not to panic if you missed downloading a copy because Netscape 6 will be released in Beta format on April 5th. 

Visit Hitechbits.com for downloading locations as they will be posted her when the locations are made public.
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Tomorrow's 3D accelerators.
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: Tech-Extreme  Added by: Kim Heise
Tech-Extreme takes the reader down the road of what is "sailing" down the pipeline from some of the major video card manufacturers. For newcomers to the PC industry, the article also relives the birth of the 3D video card industry. Also you will learn what new features we will be witnessing in the future of 3D acceleration.

My only advice here is anyone who makes an attempt at predicting this volatile market for more than six months ahead is making too many guesses.
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ABIT Announces VT6X4 Motherboard.
Posted: 03/31/2000     Source: Abit  Added by: Kim Heise
Abit is one of the best x86 compatible motherboard makers on the market and now they bring another very impressive addition to the table. In the past motherboards have been using Intel chipsets to drive the connectivity between memory, CPU and other I/O devices but now VIA has developed it's own chipset to compete.

The new Abit VT6X4 motherboard uses Via's latest generation Apollo Pro 133a chipset (VT82C694X and VT82C686A) to create a very competitive list of features. Let's take a look:

The VT6X4 features a 133 MHz Front Side Bus (FSB), supporting PC133 SDRAM directly and is equipped with 5 PCI, 2 ISA slots, and 1 4x AGP slot, and with the added feature of UDMA 66 and 4 USB ports.

Since Intel's new i820 chipset has so many problems any person who is looking for an upgrade to AGP 4x with UDMA 66 hard-drive support then this is the board to seriously consider. Read the full press release here.
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Tech News for Thursday March 30th 2000.

Harvard Researchers Slow Light To A Crawl.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: EETimes  Added by: Kim Heise
Somewhat off the topic but very interesting. 

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Physicists at Harvard University have succeeded in slowing light to a mere one mile per hour. Light traveling in a vacuum is the fastest-moving object in the universe, according to the theory of relativity, but it will slow down when it enters some other medium.

Net 'Speed Record' - 8.4GB Over 3,500 Miles In 82 Secs.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
Can you say "Wowsers!".

Web surfers tired of the "World Wide Wait" may drool over a "land speed record" logged by some high-profile technology outfits in a competition staged by the Internet2 consortium.

Making bandwidth-hungry applications such as today's streaming Internet video look like child's play, a team from Microsoft Corp., Qwest Communications Inc., the University of Washington, and the Information Sciences Institute managed to move 8.4 gigabytes of data 5,626 kilometers (nearly 3,500 miles) in 82 seconds.
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Problems With Microsoft Office 2000 SR-1.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
Several users have reported serious problems with Microsoft's service pack release for Office 2000 that was just released a couple of days ago. It is always better to remember the phrase: "If it's not broken, then don't fix it!". I should have heeded to this warning myself and it will be a good idea to uninstall Office 2000 and re-install if you fell victim to the SR-1 problems.

For those of you out there who have not yet installed the Service Release 1 for Microsoft's popular office suite Office 2000, you may want to read the article from MSNBC, the joint venture between Microsoft and NBC, that has outlined the top ten reasons not to install the release. It seems bugs have been cropping up on computers everywhere; Windows 2000 machines seemingly having the most difficulties. Some feel that the new registration system has something to do with said problems, but nobody is quite sure as of yet. Read the article on MSNBC for the full list.
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Looking inside the PlayStation2.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: Ars-Technica  Added by: Kim Heise
You can pass the time by reading this article if you are sitting on pins and needles waiting for the release of the Sony Playstation 2. Ars-Technica delves into the inner workings of the "Emotion" engine which is the core processing component of the Playstation2.

To wet your appetite:

The PS2 is in a slightly different situation. The PS2's designers had the luxury of designing hardware whose main purpose is to run one type of application extremely well: the 3D game. Sure, the PS2 can run web browsers, mail clients, and other types of software, but that's all secondary. The main thing the PS2 does is 3D gaming, which means generating the kind of immersive sound and vision that places you in a virtual world. Nearly all of the PS2's hardware is dedicated to providing some specific portion of that audiovisual gaming experience. 
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Netscape 6 Unofficial Preview Release 1.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: BetaNews  Added by: Kim Heise
A unofficial release of Netscape 6.0 has shown up on BetaNews.com website but Netscape Corp has instructed the site to remove all download links. Nevertheless, here's a sneak peek at some of the new features in Netscape 6.0:

The first Preview Release of version 6 comes complete with a new installer, Netscape messenger (an AIM clone), Net2Phone, a new HTML engine, Sun's Java2, and a spell checker.
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Intel Unveils New Celerons using 0.18-Micron Technology.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: Intel  Added by: Kim Heise
Read the official press release from Intel here regarding their new lineup of low-cost Celeron CPU's.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 29, 2000 - Intel Corporation today introduced new Intel® Celeron™ processors manufactured on the company's advanced 0.18-micron technology, which enables greater speeds, higher-volume manufacturing and lower overall production costs. The new Intel Celeron processors at 600 and 566 MHz are Intel's fastest processors ever for sub-$1,000 PCs.

The new Celeron CPU's will be using the newer FC-PGA slot adapter configuration.
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S3 considers selling graphics business.
Posted: 03/30/2000     Source: Tech Report  Added by: Kim Heise
It did not seem as much of a surprise when I first heard that S3 is planning selling off their graphics business. The new S3 Savage 2000 video processor found in Diamond's Viper II video card could have been a very powerful contender in the video card market if it were not for the terrible drivers. The S3 Savage 2000 video processor supports full hardware T&L (Transformation & Lighting) but yet the current drivers still have the feature disabled. For what reason?

Anyway, with nVidia and 3dfx looming on the horizon as the market leaders, S3 may be deciding to refocus their business. I wonder if this means that Diamond Multimedia (who were acquired by S3) will return to using other third party video processors or simply drop out of the graphics industry.

As for who's the buyer....

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — March 29, 2000 — S3 Incorporated® (Nasdaq: SIII) announced today that it is in discussions with and has received term sheets from several companies relating to the separation of S3’s graphics business from the remainder of its businesses. The company stated today that it is assessing all opportunities and is committed to choosing a path that will take into account the interests of its stockholders, customers and employees. The company had no further comments with respect to these matters. There can be no assurance that any transaction will result from the discussions.

Your guess is as good as mine as to who will snap up the graphics department. Secretly I'm betting on nVidia.
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Tech News for Wednesday March 29th 2000.

Intel invests in Linux.
Posted: 03/29/2000     Source: CNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Intel is throwing it's might behind two companies who focus on the very powerful Linux operating system. It's far to early to make any educated guesses on what Intel is planning in the future but I'm sure we will find out shortly.

Here's some of the highlights from the article:

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker this week announced an investment in Lynx Real-Time Systems, which specializes in incorporating Linux into networking hardware and other embedded applications. In addition, Intel has invested in Ten Art-ni, a Japanese company that specializes in creating Java-based applications and in providing services for incorporating Linux in corporations' systems, according to an Intel representative.
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Tech News for Tuesday March 28th 2000.

New beta nVidia "Detonator" 5.13 video drivers.
Posted: 03/28/2000     Source: VoodooExtreme  Added by: Kim Heise
New beta "Detonator" drivers have leaked onto the internet. The new beta drivers are for TNT/TNT2/TNT2-Ultra & GeForce video cards.

Again, as mentioned several times: These drivers are not official releases from nVidia to the public and are labeled beta, so use at your own risk!

FTP:  w9x-513.zip - Voodoo Extreme (Win9x - 2.3 MB)
FTP:  w2k.513.zip - Voodoo Extreme (Win2k - 1.6 MB) 
FTP:  nt4-513.zip - Voodoo Extreme (WinNT4 - 1.4 MB)

At this point I think that I'm going to give these beta drivers a test drive because of all the new features and supposedly stability has "increased by 80%". I'm not sure how that figure was extrapolated and so I think I will test them myself.
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3dfx To Acquire GigaPixel.
Posted: 03/28/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
Several web sites reported that 3dfx is going to acquire GigaPixel. Here's the article verbatim from eFront:

3dfx Interactive Inc., a global marketer and developer of 3D technology announced today plans to buy GigaPixel Corp. for approximately $186 million. Founded in only 1997, GigaPixel is new to 3D core design. Their technology boasts capabilities of displaying high quality 3D graphics, at a low power consumption rate.

"We view the GigaPixel technology as a disruptive capability in the 3D market," claimed Scott Sellers, chief technology officer of 3dfx Interactive. According to Scott, by reducing memory requirements by up to a factor of 10, true 32-bit anti-aliased rendering at unsurpassed performance is possible. He also stated that with their combined technology, rendering 3D could be done at substantially reduced power requirements.

Under the terms of the agreement, 3dfx will obtain all outstanding shares and options of GigaPixel for approximately $186 million, to be paid in approximately 15.6 million common shares and options of 3dfx. With the two companies combined, new cost sensitive hand-held devices may start surfacing in the near future.
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BeOS 5.0 Personal Edition now available for download.
Posted: 03/28/2000     Source: Be  Added by: Kim Heise
Be has released 5.0 Personal Edition of their new OS and it can be downloaded for non-commercial purposes (it's free!). Although BeOS is another alternative to UNIX and Windows operating systems, the operating system has many underlying features of a UNIX operating system. Download the free version here and you can read what's new in 5.0 here. 
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Round 2: AMD aims at Intel with 'Spitfire'.
Posted: 03/28/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
The 1ghz race is now over but the CPU makers are gearing up on the frontlines for another battle. Last week Intel announced a whole batch of new Celeron CPU's aimed at the low end PC market and now AMD will be unveiling the new 'Spitfire' series of low end processors.

Analysts are predicting that as computers get smaller they will actually begin to perform more "single minded" dedicated tasks and these systems will require low power and cost effective processors. I suspect this is where AMD and Intel are focusing on.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) is cooking up the new Spitfire processor, code-named after the sports car, with the aim of outpowering Intel's Celeron chip in the value-PC space -- generally defined as PCs costing less than $1,000.
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PC sound card review.
Posted: 03/28/2000     Source: GamePC  Added by: Kim Heise
GamePC has posted a huge review on some of the best PC sound cards currently available on the market. The review goes into details on how the cards perform and shows actual benchmarks on how the card stacks up against the each other in gaming performance. On occasion I've seen high-end gaming configurations with sub-par performance sound cards that will actually slow down your system. This is because higher end sound cards have dedicated processors on the card itself to offload some of the work from the main CPU. Albeit, you are talking about small performance gains but if one were to sum up all the tweaks, it makes a difference.

Some of these new audio cards I'm not familiar with  but it's good to see so many contenders on the market. Just yesterday Aureal announced their financial woes and it is worrisome when one of the frontrunners is knocked out to leave only "one man standing". Competition is good and I sincerely hope some of the newcomers will make it to the top but it is not easy to get started because a new competitor needs to get their foot in the door first. In this business support is everything and I don't mean tech-support. There have been many fantastic innovations in the past but if the industry does not embrace the technology, it simply disappears.
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Tech News for Monday March 27th 2000.

Micron releases new DDRAM memory.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: Micron  Added by: Kim Heise
RAM speeds are finally starting to improve but we are a long way from reducing the major bottlenecks caused by slow memory in relationship to CPU speeds. When you think about it for a minute you realize just how much of a bottle-neck memory is on any given computer. Take for example a 1000mhz CPU using 133mhz RAM!!

In order to use this memory it would require a new chipset on your motherboard which includes a new memory socket architecture to physically house the new RAM.

Not to take the limelight away from Micron since this is something of a technological breakthrough:

Boise, Idaho, March 23, 2000 -- Boise, Idaho, March 23, 2000 -- Micron Technology today announced samples of its 150MHz and 166MHz 2 Meg x 32 double data rate (DDR) synchronous DRAMs (SDRAMs). These new specialty DDR SDRAMs are ideally suited for high-bandwidth applications that require increased performance, functioning at double the data rate of SDRAM solutions. Manufactured on Micron's advanced 0.18µ process technology, these devices are one of the most cost-effective component solutions available for high-end graphics, networking and telecommunications customers.

"The 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAM enables us to maintain our leadership role in providing cost-effective solutions for our graphics and telecom customers," said Gary Welch, Marketing Manager for Specialty Memories at Micron Technology. "It is Micron's goal to become the supplier of choice for graphics and telecom customers. Toward this end, we continue to expand our offering of specialty DRAMs to provide our customers with multiple solutions from a single source." Micron's specialty DRAM product offering now includes 150MHz and 166MHz 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAMs, 143MHz and 166MHz 2 Meg x 32 SDRAMs, and 143MHz and 166MHz 1 Meg x 16 SDRAMs.

The 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAM will be available in 183MHz and 200MHz speed grades in the third quarter of 2000. "Providing our graphics and telecom customers with these ever faster part provides them with a smooth upgrade path," stated Welch. "We expect demand for the 1 Meg x16 SDRAM and 2 Meg x 32 SDRAM to remain strong through 2000, with demand shifting to the DDR devices in the second half. As always, our goal is to match our product offering with our customers changing needs."

Offered in a standard 100-pin TQFP packages, samples of 150MHz 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAMs (MT46V2M32LG-65) and 166MHz 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAMs (MT46V2M32LG-6) are now available in sample quantities. Pricing will be comparable to 2 Meg x 32 SDRAMs. Both parts are expected to be available in production volumes in the second calendar quarter of 2000, and 4 Meg x 16 DDR SDRAM devices will be available in the third calendar quarter. For more information, or to order samples, contact Micron Technology's Marketing Department at (208) 368-3900. Data sheets for 2 Meg x 32 DDR SDRAMs are available on Micron's website at http://www.micron.com/mti/msp/html/ddrsdramprod.html.

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Pioneer Ships 16x DVD-ROM Drive.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: CNEWZ  Added by: Kim Heise
Pioneer has successfully created the world's fastest DVD ROM drive clocked at 16x. Now, remember that 16x DVD is no equal to 16x CDROM.

With speeds that are 16 times faster than first generation DVD-ROM technology, the 16X DVD-ROM/40X CD-ROM is compatible with single and dual layer DVD-ROM and DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-DA, Video CD and Photo CD media, preserving compatibility with conventional CD formats. Pioneer's most advanced drive to-date, the 16X DVD-ROM offers:

• Random seek times of less than 85 msec for DVD-ROM (70 msec for CD-ROM)
• Access times less than 95 msec (80 msec for CD-ROM)
• ATAPI interface
• Horizontal or vertical mounting capabilities

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Microsoft gears up for IE 5.01 SP1.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
The IE 5.01 SP-1 took me completely by surprise since IE 5.5 is currently in beta and should be available sometime this summer. I assume from the clip below that the 5.01 SP-1 is simply a "packaged" list of recent bug fixes.

Microsoft today released the first beta of Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 1 to testers. In a message sent to testers this afternoon, Microsoft stated "IE 5.01 SP 1 provides a premier Internet Client for corporations and end users. Our goal is to bundle and deliver external customer QFEs, fixes escalated via support channels as well as public security fixes that were released after IE 5.01 gold. The bundling of such fixes in this Service Pack release ensures that our users maintain a fast, reliable and robust experience with the lowest ownership cost." Testers may download the latest SP1 betas here, however those running Windows 2000 should not install this service pack.

I know IE 5.5 is the version is used in current builds of Windows Millennium.
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Red Hat Linux 6.2 available.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: eFront  Added by: Kim Heise
Red Hat Linux 6.2 is now available for download. You can download the ISO (CD-Image) here or simply download the installation files separately here.

Introducing Red Hat Linux 6.2. The newest addition to Red Hat's line of award-winning Linux operating systems--the most trusted open source operating systems in the world. Red Hat Linux 6.2 features installation options more powerful, support options more complete, and high availability clustering more advanced than ever before. We've also included some of the world's most popular Internet applications, Apache and Sendmail.
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Aureal in major financial difficulties.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: NewsWire  Added by: Kim Heise
Just after Aureal posted a huge financial loss, the company announced the resignation of all executive officers and senior staff members. I hope the company can iron out the problems and get back on the road because we need all the competition we can get in the PC audio industry. 

FREMONT, Calif., March 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Aureal Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: AURL), a leader in digital audio imaging, today announced the resignation of all of its executive officers, including its President and CEO, Kip Kokinakis, its Chief Technical Officer, Scott Foster, its Chief Financial Officer, David Domeier, and its Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Brendan O'Flaherty, along with all senior staff members of Aureal. The Board of Aureal stated that it is seeking replacement or turnaround management and is considering all necessary actions to either sell the Company or its assets or wind down the Company.

Right now the the frontrunners are basically Aureal and Creative Labs in the PC audio industry and it would be unfortunate if Aureal drops out. Lack of competition creates a "comfortable" leader.
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Hacker steals Bill Gates' credit card number.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise
Nothing like exiting news to get your Monday morning started.

LONDON, -- A teenager arrested in Wales for allegedly hacking into e-commerce Web sites had obtained the credit card details of Bill Gates, head of Microsoft Corp. and the world's richest man, newspapers said on Sunday.

Raphael Gray, 18, was arrested on Saturday for Internet fraud after a joint operation between the FBI and Welsh Police.

If it's going to be this easy to find someone credit card information on the net then we should all be a little worried. I bet the hacker had little problems finding credit when using Bill Gates' credit card number.
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Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.0 preview release.
Posted: 03/27/2000     Source: Microsoft  Added by: Kim Heise
Microsoft is gearing up to release a new version of Media Player and has released a preview version for you to use until the final version is released. I'm not sure why this simply don't call it "beta". Visit the web site and download the preview release here.

A word of caution here: Do not reinstall Windows Media Player 6.4 over Windows Media Player 7.
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