News

Remember to see what Intel has in store for this year: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=163

Video Cards

HIS X700Pro IceQ @ OCPrices.

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The X700 Pro is ATi's mid ranged PCI-Express solution, falling somewhere in between the entry level X300 series and the top of the range X800 series. Unlike previous mid ranged solutions, the X700 is actually a scaled down version of their top-performing PCI-E part, the RV423. As usual, HIS were very quick off the blocks with one of their special IceQ cooler editions, which is the model we are looking at today.

Sapphire X800XL @ TTZ.

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The good thing about the X800 XL is that it is priced much lower than the X800 Pro while having much better specifications in most areas. On paper, this means that the X800 XL is quite a deal for the gamer. The table below shows the specifications between some of the cards that Sapphire offers and you can clearly see that he X800 XL looks very attractive, especially when compared to the now overpriced X800 Pro.

6600 Roundup @ PCStats.

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The Geforce 6600/6600GT GPU, like its opposite the ATI X700/X700 PRO, offers considerably more for the money than the mainstream cards of previous generations did. PCstats is testing out nine Geforce 6600 and Geforce 6600 GT based videocards, in both AGP and PCI Express versions. The features of each videocard will be compared, as well as the standard run of gaming benchmarks. SLI benchmarks will be analyzed wherever possible with the overall aim of deciding which of the mainstream graphics cards solutions in this roundup provides the best value for money, whether you are looking for a single mid-range gaming card or a dual-videocard SLI powerhouse.

Albatron 6600GT @ AMDZone.

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As technology pushes farther than the needs of most people, mid-range products have seen incredible performance at a fraction of the cost. Nvidia's 6600GT GPU has proven its self as more than able to handle today's toughest games as we've gone through the cards of most vendors. Today we look at one more 6600GT card, Albatron's Trinity PC6600GT video card.

X300 & 6200 @ bjorn3d.

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With both HyperMemory and TurboCache, the card comes with a certain (typically small) amount of on-board memory, say 32MB. The card can then scale up to a defined level of total memory by using system RAM. ATI's HyperMemory cards come in two variations: the 128MB HyperMemory version features 32MB VRAM on board, and the 256MB HyperMemory version has 128MB VRAM on board. NVIDIA has so far chosen three different configurations of TurboCache cards: the 128MB TurboCache version has either 16MB or 32MB of local memory, and the 256MB version sports 64MB.

Powercolor X850 XT @ bjorn3d.

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On the other side of the coin we have the high-end cards. ATI did a refresh in this sector as well by releasing R480 which is really an updated R420 chip on 0.13µ low-K silicon process. The problem (if you can call that) was the newly released parts targeted the PCI-e segment only. It took ATI a few months to realize the AGP market is still huge and that they need to have a better support for it. Having said that, AGP users are still getting love from ATI when it comes down to high-end cards.

PowerColor Bravo X700 @ PCstats.

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Equipped with quiet or fanless cooling solutions which are friendly to the ear, mainstream is going silent.... just like the PowerColor Bravo X700 videocard. This card uses the Radeon X700 core with 256MB of GDDR2 DRAM memory modules. Like all X700-based cards, the Powercolor Bravo X700 is PCI Express x16 compatible. What makes the Bravo X700 special is it's fanless heat-pipe cooling solution as well as the fact that it's one of the few dual-DVI mainstream videocards on the market. Since it can operate in a low noise situation, the Bravo X700 is great for HTPCs with its HDTV support too

Gigabyte X800 @ RBMods.

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Another video card review at Rbmods tonight, we have a heavy weight card from Gigabyte in the left ring corner with a silent pipe cooling technology that weighs in at an amazing 400 grams. Can it stand up against the other "heavy" weight cards in the right ring corner? Seriously yes, we will take a look at this new card from Gigabyte which seems to mainly focus on speed and silence so it will be interesting to see what we can do with this product.

Sapphire Radeon X850 XT PE VIVO AGP @ bjorn3d.

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Enthusiasts who are reluctant to or not in a hurry to upgrade to a PCI Express platform must have rejoiced when the latest high-end ATI AGP cards starting arriving on store shelves. If you really love ATI and your AGP motherboard, then you can get a flagship Radeon card, like Sapphire's Radeon X850 XT Platinum Edition, which I happen to have on the review bench today.

Motherboards

MSI K8N Neo4 @ AMDZone.

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We last looked at MSI when we tested their K8NNeo4 Platinum SLI. We found that to be an excellent board, and today we look at its junior partner, the K8N Neo4 Platinum. This is the nForce 4 Ultra version ofthe board which doesn't have features like Soundblaster audio onboard, or of course SLI, but does share most of the same design. Before we dig in deeper lets take a look at the board specs.

MSI P4N Diamond nForce4 SLI I.E @ Hexus.

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MSI has taken on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Intel Edition chipset and incorporated a sensible array of features that make the P4N Diamond into a true deluxe mainboard. General performance is good and SLI performance, too, is about as good as it's going to get with LGA775 as platform base. It's recommended as a fast LGA775 board with all the trimmings, but it can't be recommended as the SLI board of choice - no Intel board can. SLI and overall gaming performance belongs to AMD.

CPUs

Athlon 64 4000+ @ TCMagazine.

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We've been testing this processor intensively for over two months now, in all kinds of extreme conditions, with over half a dozen motherboards and twice that many graphics cards, in both single-card and nVidia SLI mode, with games and productivity suites, and now we're through and ready to tell it like it is.

Memory

Corsair XMS2 PC2-4300 Pro 1GB DDR2 @ OO.

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The Corsair memory modules tested here today presented a great deal of value compared to SimpleTech's offering we most recently looked at. What's more is that the Corsair memory features extras that users might expect when spending more than $200 for memory; heatspreaders, lower latencies, higher stock frequency, and Corsair's unique activity LEDs.

DDR2 Roundup @ LC.

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DDR2 is becoming more and more a factor in the memory industry. Despite the fact that it is currently limited to the Intel Pentium4 platform, the market share has increased not only in the OEM market but we also see some higher acceptance in the enthusiast community. We have taken a number of samples from manufacturers such as Corsair, GeIL, Mushkin, Kingston and PDP and ran it through the different paces with synthetic benchmarks and real world applications.

Cases & Cooling

Corsair 120MM Advanced PC CPU Liquid Cooling System @ Futurelooks.

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Have a super loud CPU fan sitting inside your case that you want to quiet down? Looking for something much quieter and quite possibly more awesome? We check out Corsair’s very own liquid cooling system to see if its all that.

ASPIRE X-QPACK-AL/420 case @ Tweaknews.net.

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Did I mention that I like big cases? Well, I do. I also like the Aspire X-QPACK. It looks good without sacrificing functionality. It’s compact, yet offers room for two 5.25 inch drives, two hard drives and a floppy. It’s lightweight, but still quite sturdy. The carry handle makes for easy portability and the cooling is surprisingly good. With three windows, LED fans, LCD temperature display, a 420W power supply with a dynamite finish and sleeved cables, and five color choices it also gets big points as a pre-modded case. In fact, the X-QPACK really challenges the modder to mod the components inside the case, as so much of the interior is visible.

NZXT Nemesis Elite case @ RBMods.

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You have probably seen the Nemesis case before but this time we will look at the elite verison which really seem to be a hotted up version. It has a nice display that shows you temperatures etc on the top of the case and many other nice features. So what do we think about this case? Keep reading and you will find out our toughts.

Aspire X-QPack Case @ VL.

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Those of you looking to build a SFF PC from scratch will want to give the Aspire X-QPack a close look as it offers more in terms of options from most pre-built SFF PCs. Overall, it's a decently designed chassis though it doesn't stray too far from the basic fundamentals of a "cube" SFF.

Gigabyte G-Power Cooler Pro @ Bigbruin.

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The Gigabyte G-Power Cooler Pro is a definite winner. In our testing it was able to provide excellent cooling on an overclocked Pentium 4 with a minimal amount of noise. The universal nature of the G-Power's design means that the same performance can be transferred between any Intel Pentium 4 (either Socket 478 or Socket 775), as well as K7 and K8 AMD CPUs.

Gigabyte G-Power Cooler Pro @ PCA.

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The G-Power Pro is an aluminum heatsink with a nickel plated copper base that utilizes 4 heat pipes to move the heat from the base to the fins for efficient cooling. The fan is a whopping 110mm which is quite unique as most fans now days are usually 80mm, 92mm, or 120mm.

Gigabyte G-Power Cooler Pro @ 3DX.

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When we think of Giga-byte we tend to think of motherboards and video cards. Today 3DXtreme has the pleasure of reviewing a cooling product by Giga-byte, the G-Power cpu cooler. We have reviewed a cooler by Giga-byte in the paste, the 3D Cooler-Ultra GH-PCU31-VH. This time around they take the heatpipe theme and apply it in a different fashion. What they come up with is this cooler we are looking at today. Let’s see how well it performs…

Prometeia Mach II GT Phase Change Cooler @ PCStats.

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If you consider yourself an "overclocker," then you already know everything about the Prometeia brand of phase-change coolers, and we really don't have to say a single word more. For anyone who isD:\@Advert_Code_Promos@ n't familiar with the name "Prometeia," it is special device that chills an Intel or AMD processor down to an operating temperature of between -20°C to -30°C, with the end goal being better overclocking.

Danger Den Chrome Version MAZE4 GPU Water Block @ Techniz.

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Overall, the Danger Den Chrome Version Maze4 GPU water block is performing very well during in the testing section. The package includes all the necessary components for proper assembly. Furthermore, it was totally silent during the operation. The installation was very simple, just took about few minutes is able to install the Maze4 GPU water block on to the VGA card. But, it does not bundle with any RAM sink for the VGA RAM. Anyway, with the retail price at $69.95 USD, it was slightly pricey for the water cooling enthusiast.

Antec Performance TX1050B Case Review @ Legit Reviews.

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Today, we continue our look at Antec's 2005 line of enclosures with an in depth look at their Performance TX1050B Server Case. The Performance TX series happens to be Antec's third generation of cases and has been updated to include the latest technologies. All models are designed to meet Intel's Thermally Advanced Chassis (TAC) design guide and come with ATX12V v2.0 power supplies.

Relax, today is Friday!

Turn polluting power plants into biodiesel.

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Using technology licensed from a NASA project, GreenFuel builds bioreactors--in the shape of 3-meter-high glass tubes fashioned as a triangle--to grow algae. The algae are fed with sunlight, water and carbon-carrying emissions from power plants. The algae are then harvested and turned into biodiesel fuel.

Google delivers a major blow to RSS feeds. Check out the feeds at ASEville and be sure to add your own. For free.

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The reason for the tragic reaction is today, Google officially announced the beta launch of AdSense for RSS feeds. Google's method of placing ads within feeds will work just like normal AdWords ads do: they are placed in the most contextually relevant area and when clicked, the person responsible for the feed receives money.

A pair of blackholes in a galaxy.

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But now a trio of astronomers, led by Damián Mast of Argentina's National University of Cordoba, says there may be two black holes inside the galaxy M83, which lies about 15 million light years away - even though it does not emit these X-rays.

NASA outlines Mars plans. Let's go already.

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The Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers have yielded far more data than ever anticipated, Garvin said, particularly data that has helped scientists better understand the geochemical and mineralogical workings of Mars. Additionally, the two rovers have set the stage for the follow-on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter scientific sweeps of the planet, and to target the Mars Science Laboratory in order for that large rover to analyze the best locales for the biogeochemical signatures of life, he said.

NASA may slow missions to ISS. Why is ISS relying on NASA so much. It is an INTERNATIONAL station after all. If this is going to be the case, the US should own it.

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Under normal circumstances, a shuttle stays in orbit about two weeks. The Soyuz can dock to the station for six months. Plus, the shuttle is to retire in 2010 and, while NASA is working to speed development of a replacement vehicle, it's too soon to tell if it will be ready to start flying astronauts to and from the space station at that time.

If you want to see what Intel is up to for this year, check out the new article: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=163

NASA tests new artificial gravity machine. No, it isn't grav-plating.

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For the initial study this summer, Paloski said that 32 test subjects will be placed in a six-degree, head-down, bed-rest position for 21 days to simulate the effects of microgravity on the body. Half that group will spin once a day on the centrifuge to determine how much protection it provides from the bed-rest deconditioning. The ‘treatment’ subjects will be positioned supine in the centrifuge and spun up to a force equal to 2.5 times Earth’s gravity at their feet for an hour and then go back to bed.

Amber Alert heads to cell phones.

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Under the program, cellular customers who can receive text messages on their phones will be able to opt-in to the free service. Customers, however, will have to register at either the Wireless Amber Alerts Web site, or through their cell phone company.

Palm adds 4GB to its PDA.

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The company is formally announcing its LifeDrive product, a $499 handheld that includes a 4GB hard drive along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless abilities. As previously reported, the move is an effort to expand the handheld into a repository for all manner of digital media, including photos, videos and music, while maintaining its abilities as a digital organizer.

ISS oxygen generator fails.

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The crew also is equipped with oxygen generators that work like drop-down emergency air supplies on commercial airliners. Supplies from those would last until early July. Beyond that, there is a 100-day oxygen supply in tanks attached to the station U.S. Quest airlock.

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Time to read some reviews but first, check this out: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=163 See what Intel has up its sleeve for the year.

Athlon 64 3500+ Venice @ AMDZone.

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While the hottest CPU on the planet is the Athlon 64 X2 dual core itis not the only new CPU from AMD. The Athlon 64 has hit another revision with the Venice core at 90nm. It adds SSE3 support, acts better with mismatched memory, and overclocking on it looks to be promising. Today we look at the Athlon 64 3500+ Venice core, and compare it against the 3800+ Venice core, and the Athlon 64 X2 4800+ dual core in performance. Then we run it through the overclocking wringer to see how far we can push it past the default 2.2GHz.

Point of View GeForce 6600 GT @ bjorn3d.

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The PoV 6600 GT is a great card for those who don’t want to spend tons of money and still want a card that will allow them to play the latest games. It has support for all the hottest features, and as long as you can accept you won’t play the games at ultra high resolutions with high AA/AF, you won’t be disappointed.

PC2-5400 Centon @ Legitreviews. Don't believe this, Centon is crap. Trust me.

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After running some standard benchmarks I wanted to run the memory in a variety of situations. First, using the standard 3:4 Divider and timings of 4-4-4-12 I wanted to see how far I could push Centon's Advance PC5400. Starting with the stock voltage of 1.8V I was able to achieve a memory speed of 682MHZ. I then bumped the voltage to the max available on my motherboard, 2.2V (ASUS P5AD2-E Premium), loosened the memory timings to 5-5-5-15 and pushed on.....only my system refused to even boot, giving me the dreaded "System failed CPU test". Evidently the Micron ICs didn't care for the extra voltage. So, regardless of timings or voltage, the max overclock ended up being 682MHz. At this time I'm willing to blame my motherboard for the lack of overclockability, I will follow up on this in the forums after I get another board with better memory options.

OCZ PC5000 @ 3DGM.

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This dual channel memory is rated at 625MHz DDR with a timing of 3-4-4-10 and is specifically designed for DFI nForce4 motherboards. While this default speed is blistering fast it can be pushed even further. Overclockers will adore this product for its raw performance, stability and reliability. Without a doubt, this memory is the best of the best! Watch the Video to find out more...

Asus 6800 Ulta @ Hexus.

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ASUS hasn't done anything really wrong with the EN6800 Ultra card, but it's let an opportunity go begging to design the ultimate GeForce 6800 Ultra, one that would use a custom heatsink, SmartFan, and, perhaps, a cooler that takes up only a single slot. As it is, it's a case of a reference card dropped into a regular, feature-rich ASUS card package.

Epox 9NPA+ @ Tweaktown.

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EPoX sent us one of their newest motherboards recently, the 9NPA+ Ultra, which is based on nVidia's new nForce 4 Ultra chipset for the AMD Athlon Socket 939 processor platform. We've compared the motherboard against the nForce 4 SLI chipset to find out if there are any differences in performance in a non-SLI system setup. If you're on the market for a new PCI-Express Socket 939 motherboard with some decent overclocking support, you might be interested in the EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra.

Intel is stepping up to introduce platforms to the desktop. Intel hopes to make the desktop as successful as Centrino on the mobile line. Also, check in for the new roadmaps.Next Page »

Problem after problem plagues the site. This time it is email related. I'll give you more details when I get them. Needless to say, the server should be up and running with no problems now. If you do stumble across a problem, shoot me a PM or email. And remember to be posting on the forums: »http://www.aseforums.com

The basic issue was that we found out that the server was being used to send spam/junk mail out (not from this domain, but as a SMTP server nonetheless). We are unsure of the root cause or if this was an attack at all. The server was being inspected for the past 3 days, this is what caused the downtime.

I fixed some major problems with registration for new members. Now you should be able to register and become a member with no problem. »http://www.aselabs.com/usercp.php?mode=adduser Let me know if it works by joining up .

India wants its own open source license.

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"The free software people are afflicted by what I call the J factor, which is the jealousy factor. The proprietary people are afflicted by the G factor, the greed factor. They want to maximally extract money from the world," Phatak said in an interview here. "I am working to tell the world, 'Please permit these groups to coexist peacefully and harmoniously. There is a tremendous advantage to everyone.'"

Senate passed Iraq spending bill 100-0. Attached: National ID cards. How things get attached to bills is disgusting.

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States are threatening to challenge in court and even disobey new orders from Congress to start issuing more uniform driver's licenses and verify the citizenship or legal status of people getting them. There is concern among some states that they'll get stuck with a large tab to pay for implementing the new rules and that getting a driver's license will become a bigger headache for law-abiding residents.

t/Space offers low-orbit reusable vehicle.

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The Reston, Va.-based company already already convinced NASA to give it $6 million in exchange for advice on how the U.S. space agency can reach beyond the traditional aerospace industry to answer a presidential call to return to the Moon by 2020. Now t/Space is hoping to convince NASA to part with $400 million in exchange for an Earth-to-orbit crew transfer vehicle, which company executives say they can have ready in 2008.

NASA's solar sail completes first tests.

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Photons from the Sun would bounce off the reflective sails - which are one-thirtieth of the thickness of a human hair - imparting momentum to the sail, along with the attached spacecraft. As the spacecraft gains speed, it would in theory be able to reach the outskirts of the solar system faster than with conventional chemical fuel. These early tests will lay the groundwork for NASA’s future space probes to study the Sun and explore the rest of the solar system.

Micromachine terraforming plants.

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Brooks hopes the test will lead to a final setup, known as an In-Situ Propellant Production system (ISPP), that could sit outside a spacecraft on the Martian surface, absorbing carbon dioxide, then heating it up and passing it through a series of small reactors to separate the gas into methane and water, which is ultimately broken down into oxygen and hydrogen.

HD-DVD gets a storage bump.

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Toshiba announced on Tuesday the development of a higher-capacity HD DVD disc. HD DVD is the format the electronics maker is promoting as the next-generation DVD disc format. Previous versions of the format allowed for the storage of up to 30GB, but the latest version can read into a third layer on an HD DVD disc so it can hold up to 45GB of data. The 45GB version of the disc is a read-only version. Toshiba also announced a double-sided, dual-layer, hybrid read-only disc storing up to 30GB on the HD DVD side of the disc and 8.5GB on the standard DVD dual-layer side of the disc.

I posted that mousepad review! »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=162

Broadcast flag deemed No Go by courts.

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"The broadcast flag regulations exceed the agency's delegated authority under the statute," a three-judge panel unanimously concluded. "The FCC has no authority to regulate consumer electronic devices that can be used for receipt of wire or radio communication when those devices are not engaged in the process of radio or wire transmission." (Click here for a PDF of the decision.)

Apple releases Bonjour for Windows.

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Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. Bonjour uses industry standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers.

Bendable Concrete. Simply amazing what can be done with materials today.

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Fiber-reinforced concrete is not new, but Li believes that U-M's ECC—under development for the past 10 years—is vastly superior to other fiber-reinforced concretes in development today. The key is that ECC is engineered, Li said, which means that in addition to reinforcing the concrete with microscale fibers that act as ligaments to bond the concrete more tightly, scientists design the ingredients in the concrete itself to make it more flexible. The U-M holds four patents with three pending on ECC technologies, Li said.

Windows Mobile 5 out soon.

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The software maker is expected next week to introduce Windows Mobile 5, the next version of its operating system for cell phones and handhelds. The OS, code-named Magneto, is the latest in a string of software releases that highlight Microsoft's attempts to take on rivals including PalmSource and Nokia.

Mars Express opens up.

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The antenna will form a "T" consisting of the two long booms and a third, 7-metre-long antenna, and was originally scheduled to be deployed in April 2004. But European Space Agency (ESA) officials postponed the date over concerns the antennae could endanger the mission by hitting or getting snagged on the spacecraft during deployment.

PalmOne releasing hard drive PDA.

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PalmOne is aiming to establish a new line of multimedia players featuring software for playing music and displaying pictures. LifeDrive will be a new line for PalmOne, but the hard drive may find its way into other products while carrying over the LifeDrive name, according to sources. Plans for such a move are still tentative.

Sprint delivers on WiMax.

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The technology behind the equipment will be based on 802.16e industry standards, which could help to drive down prices of equipment. If products based on those standards are found to be compatible, they will be marked with the WiMax logo.

The Hybrid is a professional cloth gaming mouse pad made by XTrac. Does this cloth pad stand up to the superb quality of the Steelpad S&S? Read on...Next Page »

And by tomorrow I meant (+ 1 week). School has been killing me lately. It's over soon though, so I'll have more time for new stuff!

Longhorn will scale down to older PCs.

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There are at least four different levels of graphics for the new Windows. Two of them--Aero and Aero Glass--will have new composited graphics, with the high-end Glass shell adding more three-dimensional effects and transitions. Another view, dubbed "To Go" is designed for laptops and other new consumer machines and has many of the same color schemes as Aero, but not the fancy graphics tricks. Finally, a classic mode will look much like XP or even Windows 2000.

Palladium stripped down from Longhorn.

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"With the Longhorn launch we are delivering the first part of NGSCB: Secure Startup," Jim Allchin, Microsoft's group vice president for platforms, told vnunet.com at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle. "Not all of the compartmentisation technology will be available. The main thing is Secure Startup." Secure Startup protects users against offline attacks, blocking access to the computer if the content of the hard drive is compromised. This prevents a laptop thief from booting up the system from a floppy disk to circumvent security features or swapping out the hard drive.

Schools do not have to reveal the identities of students accused of sharing copyrighted music.

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The music industry trade group, the Recording Industry Association of America, filed subpoenas in November 2003 asking for help identifying a North Carolina State University student who used the name "CadillacMan" and a University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill student who used the name "hulk." The students allegedly file-swapped songs using the universities' computer systems. Both schools initially were willing to cooperate, but later joined attorneys for the students in opposing the request, U.S. Magistrate Judge Russell A. Eliason wrote in his order, which was filed earlier this month.

Gateway releases cheaper (as in price) LCD monitors.

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Gateway will announce on Thursday three of its latest models, which feature easy-to-use display settings and an adjustable stand for additional viewing positions. The $209.99 15-inch FPD1560, the $299.99 17-inch FPD1760 and the $349.99 19-inch FPD1960 LCD monitors are currently available direct and through Gateway's retail partners, including Best Buy, Circuit City and CompUSA.

Verizon hands 911 access to VoIP companies.

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The developments are major for all Net-phone operators, including cable operators, AT&T CallVantage and Net2Phone, which are facing mounting pressure to improve less-than-optimum 911 services. For the most part, U.S. VoIP providers don't have unfettered access to the telephone system built for the nation's 3,200 emergency calling centers that are owned and controlled by Verizon and the three other Bell operating companies. So they still can't successfully route a 911 call to the right emergency calling center or provide emergency operators with the caller's phone number and location.

Stopping gadget theft with software.

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It will cost more than a nickel, but such programs do exist. And Yago is not the only victim of theft who is not aware of them. Called track-and-recover software, the technology assumes that the stolen machine will eventually be hooked up to the Internet, and once online it is programmed to send a signal indicating its Internet Protocol address. That may allow the thief to be traced through an Internet service provider.

Gene found tied to sleeping means you sleep less, but die faster.

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Some mutant flies can get by on 30% less sleep than their normal counterparts, thanks to a single mutation in one gene. The finding is important because it suggests the amount of sleep needed may be largely controlled by one gene, which may shed light on human sleep needs, says Chiara Cirelli at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US. "This isn’t some obscure fly gene - there’s a homologue in mammals and humans." ... Understanding how the protein works might make it possible to develop new kinds of drugs to help keep sleep-deprived people alert, the team suggests. There is a snag, though, since the lifespan of minisleepers was about 30% shorter than normal.

I will have a new review out tomorrow. Count on it!

Careful about selling hard drive with data on them. A simple format does not take everything off. The article mention low-level formating. In the context of the containing sentence, it is a higher level formating that the article is stating.

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The first step for many people would be a low-level reformatting of the operating system on their PC, even though doing that with Microsoft's Windows or Apple Computer's Mac OS operating systems won't destroy data completely, experts said. "What we've seen with a lot of clients is that they think that reformatting a drive gets rid of the data, and that's just not true," said Kathy Ferguson, a business unit manager with IBM's Asset Recovery Solutions Group. "In a typical scenario, that only overwrites partitions, or sectors of data. At the end of the day, you can recover that data readily if you have the right tools."

Microsoft gets 911 emergency information patent. Filed a month after Sept 11th.

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"The present invention provides a method and system for maintaining emergency data in a manner that provides straightforward user access thereto via a displayed emergency page (or set of pages) or other suitable user interface," according to the Patent documentation. "In one embodiment, the operating system or other suitable components maintain a repository of emergency data such that emergency type information can be aggregated and displayed in one place."

NASA's DART failure considered a partial success.

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Programme manager Jim Snoddy called the $110 million DART demonstration a partial success because the autonomous craft had located the satellite, locked onto it, and moved partway toward its target before shutting-down. The autonomous craft had completed eight planned steps before shutting down nearly halfway through the 24-hour mission, he told reporters. Yet at the time of the failure DART still has 40 more planned manoeuvres to complete, excluding its final orbit change.

More news later.

There were three outages this past few days from Comcast all from their DNS servers.

Longhorn on schedule for release next year.

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As for timing, Allchin said development is basically on track for the schedule outlined by the company last fall. An updated developer preview version will be given out at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, or WinHEC, set to take place at month's end in Seattle. The company is still shooting for an initial beta around midyear, though it could be July, as the new official schedule is "early summer." A second beta is planned, though no final date has been given, with the goal of having the OS broadly available on PCs by next year's holiday season. Longhorn will come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, Allchin said.

From Sci-Fi to real world, glove from 'Minority Report' is made.

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The system under development at Raytheon lets users don a pair of reflective gloves and manipulate images projected on a panoramic screen. A mounted camera keeps track of hand movements and a computer interprets gestures. "Your hand becomes a Swiss Army knife," says Underkoffler.

New ISS crew lifts off.

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Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and US astronaut John Phillips will be the 11th crew to live aboard the orbiting outpost. European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori will join them in the cramped Soyuz capsule during the flight and will then return to Earth with the current residents, Leroy Chiao and Salizhan Sharipov, on 24 April.

Lunar land zoned for first base.No word on when Moon McDonald's will open.

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But the Moon's poles are thought to be less extreme. Unlike Earth, the Moon spins nearly vertically with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun and so the poles never experience a sunset - the Sun just skims around the horizon as the Moon rotates. This constant light should provide stable temperatures of about -50°C and a steady source of energy - crucial requirements for any future lunar base.

This bug was found by Steve. It occured on a computer in a domain running Windows XP Pro.

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My Computer>Properties>Advanced>User Profiles
Click on Settings

Under "Profiles stored on this computer" will be entries for every account that has logged on to the machine (representing the saved profile associated with the local or domain account).

Periodically a profile with a name of "unknown" will appear in the list (it should not).

If you select the "unknown profile" and click on delete, the currently logged in profile will be deleted with no warning to save the contents of the "My Documents" folder.

This is worse than it sounds. If you see an account "unknown" and delete it, say goodbye to your current user account. Windows starts deleting it that moment and the only way to stop it is to cut the power. You will literally see icons and documents being deleted in front of your eyes! Microsoft is working on a patch for this.

I finally have that amazing Windows bug to tell you about. Read the news post above this to find out.

Killer flu in Labs; WHO wants it destroyed.

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Five thousand vials of the 1957 strain of the "Asian flu" virus were sent out to more than 3,700 labs in 18 nations from September until early April. That particular strain killed more than one million people, including about 70,000 in the United States, in a 1957-58 pandemic. Because the virus has not been included in flu vaccines since 1968, anyone born after that would not be immune to that strain.

RFID moves closer to marketplace.

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Earlier this month Intermec, Metro Group and Royal Philips Electronics said they had developed an RFID chip that complies with EPCglobal's Ultra High Frequency Electronic Product Code Class 1 Generation 2 G2 standard, sometimes referred to as UHF and G2. Impinj has also unveiled an RFID reader and tag system that conforms to the next-generation standard, and Gartner said these hardware announcements will soon be followed by many more.

Exoskeleton promises more movement for disabled.

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While the bio-cybernic system moves individual elements of the exoskeleton, a second system provides autonomous robotic control of the motors to coordinate these movements and make a task easier overall, helping someone to walk, for instance. The system activates itself automatically once the user starts to move. The first time they walk, its sensors record posture and pattern of motion, and this information is stored in an onboard database for later use. When the user walks again, sensors alert the computer, which recognises the movement and regenerates the stored pattern to provide power-assisted movement. The actions of both systems can be calibrated according to a particular user's needs, for instance to give extra assistance to a weaker limb.

Over 6 million customers of Comcast's broadband service suffered outages last night. I personally also suffered the problems. It seems that Comcast's DNS servers failed, but I could still get an IP (and go to IP addresses fine). Comcast says that this issue is now fixed.

Geek Speek is a problem for virus warnings. Not to be confused with 1337 sp33k (or dorks as I call them).

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Confusing "geek speak" used by experts and media included "phishing", "rogue dialler", "Trojan" and "spyware". Eighty-four percent did not know that phishing describes faked e-mail scams. The most common phishing scam is one used to con people into handing over bank account details online.

Mars rovers get additional 18 months of funding.

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Both rovers do have some signs of wear and exposure. Spirit's rock abrasion tool shows indications that its grinding teeth might be worn away after exposing the interiors of five times more rock targets than its design goal of three rocks. Researchers probably won't know the extent of wear until Spirit's next rock- grinding attempt, which may be weeks away. Also, troubleshooting continues for determining whether Opportunity's miniature thermal emission spectrometer is still usable despite tests indicating a problem last month. All other instruments on both rovers are still working normally.

Court ruling on P2P case coming soon.

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But justices were clearly sensitive to the computer industry's concerns that technology itself could trigger lawsuits, even when companies develop products with legal uses in mind. That fear appeared to lead several to seek a middle ground focusing on companies' behavior, rather than the technology itself.

Verizon goes to 3mbps. This isn't news considering it has done this over two months ago, but FIOS is coming to more homes.

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The new $30 DSL service will offer downstream access speeds of 3mbps (megabits per second), up from the currently speed of 1.5mbps. Increasing the speed will put Verizon DSL on a par with cable modem services, which typically offer about 4mbps access. The new service is available to customers willing to sign a one-year contract or bundle DSL with phone service. Verizon also promised to add 11 more communities to its fiber-to-the-home service--which is dubbed Fios--in Massachusetts. Fiber connections will be able to deliver Internet access at speeds up to 30mbps. The company also plans to add television service over these fiber connections to compete better with cable operators and satellite TV companies.

Making money with open source.

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Many industry veterans argue that open source is accelerating a shift that has been going on in the software industry for some time: Rather than hinge their business on big-ticket license contracts, software providers increasingly rely on recurring maintenance revenue. And because most open-source tools don't have license fees attached to them, commercial open-source companies are often forced to build their businesses around services revenue, in the form of support, up-front installation or training.

The communist FSF wants BIOS open sourced.

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"We need a free BIOS, because if we don't control the BIOS we don't control our computers," said Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, a Boston-based organization dedicated to promoting the use, modification and redistribution of computer programs. "It puts me in an ethically compromised position to have a non-free program in my machine."

Wash your mouth with light.

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In the experiments, blue light from a halogen lamp was shone onto pure cultures of BPB and onto plaque samples obtained from patients with chronic gum disease. Bacteria in the pure culture were killed in seconds, whereas bacteria in the plaque samples were killed selectively. Those containing iron-porphyrins were most affected - a beneficial result as it is iron-porphyrins that help bacteria in harming the gums. It is the acidic environment produced by the harmful bugs that results in tooth decay.

Pope John Paul II has died at the age of 84. During his term, he saw the end of communism and sought to bring peace to the Middle East. I do not look to the Pope for spiritual guidance (I'm Jewish after all), but everyone will remember his actions in shaping the world we live in today.

CNN has more.

This post will be completed tomorrow when the April Fool leftovers are gone. I do have an EXCLUSIVE Windows bug found by Steven here at ASE Labs. The details will emerge later today.

I have said that MMORPGs were bad since they day I heard about them, and now what I feared was going to happen has finally happened. A person is dead because some dumb bastard took the stupidity of online gaming too seriously. This is the problem with online gaming as it's being handled today; people become so addicted to their online persona and experiences that they lose all concept of what is real and what is imaginary. You can read the sad news on Slashdot Games.

Longhorn a tough sell for Microsoft?

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Even though its been five years since Windows XP's debut, Microsoft could still face a tough sell when it releases Longhorn next year. With past updates, users had clamored for more stability and security, but analysts say people are pretty happy with Windows XP.

Offline rules do not apply, or do they?

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Gordon may have been one of the first online consignment sellers to run afoul of auction commissions, but she won't be the last. A growing number of state legislatures are contemplating new laws that would target this popular auction technique, while regulators are weighing whether to invoke licensing laws already on the books.

Mac OS 10.4 Tiger nears shipping.

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Once a final candidate build of Tiger is selected to become gold master, its code will be frozen and sent to manufacturers for duplication on optical media. The software is then packed for retail and shipped to distributors and retail outlets.

Discovery moves to the VAB.

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Kennedy Space Center workers scrambled Monday to get shuttle Discovery ready for the overnight tow from the Orbiter Processing Facility to the mammoth VAB. A small crowd of reporters and space workers braved chilly gusts to watch the middle-of-the-night action.

Does yours last that long?

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GIPWoG is working with the DVD Association, an industry group, to nail down "a long-term, or archival, standard measurement for recordable CD and DVD media." The idea isn't to test how long discs will last, but to be able to establish whether or not a disc will last at least a certain number of years.

HP turns to Apple for color scheme.

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HP says it's doing away with the darker colors to appeal to consumers' tastes, which, these days, lean toward lighter shades. The changes also allow the PCs to better blend into the more visible areas of people's homes, such as living rooms, where televisions and other silvery electronics gear already exist.

This scale is very precise.

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The world’s most sensitive scales can now detect a cluster of xenon atoms a billion, trillion times lighter than a gram. A zeptogram (10^-21g) is roughly the mass of a single protein molecule and its detection has set a new record.

Dying stars hold promise of planetary life.

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"So planets that are currently very cold and icy can warm up and become potentially habitable," says William Danchi, a team member and astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The analysis shows the time period over which these conditions change is very long - long enough for life to form."

Is regulation needed for internet access?

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The last thing the broadband world needs is more regulation. That could cast a pall over investment in all sorts of technologies, including wireless broadband and fiber to the home. But given the political context network owners are likely to face in the foreseeable future, they may discover that taking control of their openness destiny voluntarily is better than risking losing control if a mandate is imposed.

According to this article on Slashdot Games, the U.S. Distict Court in Oakland, CA has ruled against Sony in favor of a company called Immersion Corp., who sued Sony for copyright infringement regarding the vibration feedback design of Sony's DualShock controllers. The court has ruled that Sony must halt all sales of any systems that use the DualShock controllers, including all currently marketed PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, as well as about 40 software products, and pay the company $90.2 million. Sony has had an injunction issued, allowing them to sell consoles temporarily, but this could be a major blow to Sony's hardware sales.

An interestinng side note to the story: Microsoft and Nintendo do not have this problem becuase Nintendo lisenced the technology from Immersion Corp. and Microsoft settled with the company out of court for about a third of the price that Sony was forced to pay. Now Immersion is fighting tooth-and-nail to have a permanent injunction banning PlayStation sales. Looks like Sony underestimated the importance of the lawsuit.

FINALLY!!!! Bungie announced today that they have developed 9 new multiplayer maps for Halo 2, 4 of which will be available by late April (2 free and 2 paid), and 5 more will be released for paid download on Live when they release a DVD boxed game in retail stores which will be available for $20 and will include all 9 new levels as well as a documentary, a "cool project" from Bungie's cinematic and animation teams, every Halo 2 update released to date, and other extras including patches to stop online cheating. This DVD was not given a release date. All 9 maps will be available for free download by the end of the summer according to the press release, which also contains detailed descriptions of the maps (with pictures!), can be found here.

I'll have a review to post soon. Check for it on Sunday.

Websites safe for political discussion, for now.

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When the Federal Election Commission kicked off the process of extending campaign finance rules to the Internet on Thursday, the public document was substantially altered from one prepared just two weeks earlier and reviewed by CNET News.com. The 44-page document, prepared by the FEC general counsel's office and dated March 10, took a radically different approach and would have imposed decades-old rules designed for federal campaigns on many political Web sites and bloggers.

Adobe Reader 7 comes out for Linux.

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There is now one less thing for Windows and Mac users to point to when claiming desktop usability superiority. While not officially listed in Adobe's download page, you can get Adobe Reader 7.0 for Linux from the company's FTP server according to this article at The Inquirer , which also has a review. The upshot is that Reader 7.0 for Linux is as bloated as its Windows and Mac siblings, but it loads much faster and is more useable than version 5. I imagine that this will get loads of comments about how Reader for Linux headed downhill after version 4. Or was it 3?

T-rex blood vessel found. DNA used to clone and kill everyone.

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Palaeontologists have extracted soft, flexible structures that appear to be blood vessels from the bone of a Tyrannosaurus rex that died 68 million years ago. They also have found small red microstructures that resemble red blood cells.

Choose your baby's sex.

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The controversial document makes many other bold suggestions on human reproductive technologies. It does not rule out human reproductive cloning in the future; it backs the use of human-animal hybrid embryos for research; and it challenges the UK government's intention to strip the anonymity from future sperm and egg donors.

There is a full moon tonight. The moon yesterday was amazing.

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Traditionally, the March full Moon is known as "Worm Moon," supposedly because when the ground softens the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. Other lunar monikers included "Crow Moon," (when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter), "Crust Moon" (because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night) and "Sap Moon," (marking the time of tapping maple trees).

I got that review up finally... »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=161

IBM puts 6 month trial of VMware on blade servers. VMware is virtual machine software that allows the computer to run more than one OS (in software).

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IBM will bundle a six-month evaluation version of VMware's ESX Server product and other software with its blade servers, the companies plan to announce Wednesday. The software lets a single server run multiple operating systems simultaneously in separate software foundations called virtual machines. Other VMware software included in the promotion lets one virtual machine be paused, transferred from one computer to another, then restarted, a handy feature for blade servers, which are grouped together in a shared chassis.

XML to get overhaul. RSS uses XML.

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A W3C committee recently recommended that the group address the problem by moving away from the traditional way of saving XML data--in text format--and instead create a standard for a binary format. W3C working group recommendations are generally taken up as formal standards efforts, which means the group is one step closer to a major change in the XML standard.

Yahoo Mail goes to 1GB.

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Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes. The expanded storage will be available in mid-April, said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo's vice president of communications products.

Utah enacts porn site blacklist. I'm sorry, this is against free speech. There shouldn't be any censorship on the internet. Who are we? China?

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ISPs in Utah have the option of blocking sites or providing customers with third=party filtering products unless they want to risk felony charges under the new law. The law states that: "Upon request by a consumer, a service provider may not transmit material from a content provider site listed on the adult content registry." Internet content providers that create or host data in Utah must properly rate the data or risk possible criminal charges.

Suprise! You've eaten unapprove genetically modified corn. Now kids have a reason not to eat their veggies.

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A Swiss company accidentally sold unapproved genetically modified seed corn in the US for four years. The mistake resulted in about 133 million kilograms of the corn making its way into the food chain. Officials for the company, Syngenta, and the US Environmental Protection Agency insist there is no danger to human health. But the EPA and the US Department of Agriculture are investigating to see if any laws or regulations were broken. The EPA confirmed the investigation was underway in a statement to the journal Nature.

Extra solar planets found directly.

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The two planets were detected in infrared light, an emission of heat that is not visible to the human eye. There are no conventional photographs, but astronomers are ecstatic nonetheless. The gas giant worlds, each around a different star, were discovered previously by indirect methods. Both are roughly Jupiter-sized and hot, orbiting very close to their stars. Each completes a "year" in less than four days.

Big Bang created ripples in space-time.

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During inflation, space itself expanded faster than the speed of light. As it did so, random quantum fluctuations that popped into being produced ripples in space-time. These swelled to fill the entire "global" universe, which is about 10^100 times as large as the universe we can see.

This printer can make copies of itself and improve.

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Better still, the machines could evolve to be more efficient and develop new capabilities, says Bowyer. Once he has the software to guide the self-replicating process, he plans to make it freely available online, allowing users to contribute improvements, just like the open-source Linux computer operating system, he says.

Microsoft and Symbian team up.

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But the deal is also an extraordinary development signaling a possible detente between the two companies vying to control the market for software to power smart phones. Those devices make up an indiscernible percentage of today's 1.2 billion cell phones, but they're expected to become more prevalent by the end of the decade. For now, Symbian dominates the market, mainly because Microsoft has had trouble generating interest for its phone software at No. 1 handset maker Nokia and others.

The U.are.U Personal kit is great for people that hate passwords. Biometric identification is a must for the security conscious person, but you must look to the profession version of the kit for the real deal.Next Page »

I'll be putting that review out tonight. I had some homework todo yesterday that took all my time.

Windows XP Starter Edition off to a slow start. Rename it to XP 'Sucks more than usual' and see how it sells.

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According to Gilliland, PC makers in developing markets are mostly focused on driving hardware sales, not software margins. "They don't really make much profit from the OS (operating system) component of the PC. If they can sell more PCs to resellers by removing the OS, that's what they are going to do," he said.

Download music from iTunes without DRM.

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How? With a PyMusique, a new front-end he and some pals/future co-defendants created for the iTunes Music Store that let’s you buy songs without any of that bothersome DRM stuff. Seems that our good friend discovered that when you buy something from the iTMS, the DRM is only added to the tracks after you’ve purchased and downloaded them, which sort of makes sense since they do need to be tagged to your account. You’ll still have to actually pay for the music, but PyMusique conveniently neglects to wrap the file with any copy protection, which means you’re free to do what you want with the unrestricted file, including copying it to multiple machines or sharing it over P2P. Hard to imagine how this could possibly be legal, since Apple specifically requires you to access the iTMS only through their software (Laurie Duncan actually read the ToS and checked), but you may as well enjoy the next six to twelve hours before Apple devises a way lock PyMusique users out.

Intel granted time to read Japan FTC's document.

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"We asked for an extension to continue our evaluation of their recommendations," Mulloy said, declining to specify which areas of the recommendations the chip giant was focusing on. It's not unheard of for companies to ask for extensions from Japan's FTC, but it is not a common occurrence, said Hiroshi Yamada, a director and spokesman for the Japanese agency.

Spring begins on March 20th.

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While it’s true that we’ve traditionally celebrated the beginning of spring on March 21, astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts one day earlier, March 20, in all time zones in North America. Unheard of? Not if you look at the statistics. In fact, did you know that during the 20th Century, March 21 was actually the exception rather than the rule?

EU wants Microsoft to comply more with sanctions.

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That would enable them to make their servers more easily compatible with computers running Windows software. The International Herald Tribune quoted Todd as saying the Commission suspected Microsoft's plan discriminated against open-source software companies by denying them access to Windows code.

Intel to demo Yonah, its new dual core notebook CPU.

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Power consumption remains one of the chief concerns for chip and computer designers. Dual-core chips, which contain two processing cores rather than one, will actually consume less power than current desktop and notebook chips because they will initially run at slower speeds. (Yonah will be a single piece of silicon with two cores, Intel has said. Others, like the future desktop chip Presler, will consist of two separate pieces of silicon fused into a single package.)

I'll be throwing up a review today or tomorrow. Look for that.

Developers challenge Microsoft to make IE7 comply with standards.

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To ensure that IE 7 does not become another failed promise, the Web community will issue a challenge to Microsoft. We will produce a test page, code-named Acid2, that will actively use features Web designers crave, such as fixed positioning of elements.

Trusted Computing comes to hardware. Think Palladium.

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The technology locks specialized encryption keys in a data vault--essentially a chip on the computer's motherboard. Computers with the feature can wall off data, secure communications and identify systems belonging to the company or to business partners. That means companies can improve the security of access to corporate data, even when the PC is not connected to a network.

Apple to make two button mouse. Users too stupid to understand how to use it.

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Apple enthusiasts have longed for an Apple-branded two-button mouse for over a decade, but their requests have gone unanswered. So what has changed? According to sources, 'it's the company."

AMD's Turion benchmarks tipped in their favor.

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Since no Turion laptops are actually on the market, AMD created a "reference" laptop of its own. The AMD system ran on a 35 watt Turion 64 and had a graphics processor from ATI. That's a pretty handy pairing when you decide to compare it against a 27 watt Pentium-M with Intel's integrated graphics processor.

IE7 feature details. Forget the Microsoft RSS Aggregator and head to ASEville: »http://www.aseville.com/userrss.php

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IE 7.0 will feature international domain name (IDN) support; transparent Portable Network Graphics (PNG) support, which will allow for the display of overlayed images in the browser; and new functionality that will simplify printing from inside IE 7.0, partner sources said. The new browser also will likely include a built-in news aggregator.

TV and Comcast make a deal. Tivo was up 75% yesterday.

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Other parts of the Comcast deal include home media networking features and TiVoToGo transfers--allowing viewers to access shows recorded on their TiVo DVRs on PCs. Cable and satellite companies have been unwilling to enable capabilities beyond DVR because of concern over long customer support calls. TiVo will be providing Comcast with certain customer and maintenance support.

Can Firefox continue to gain marketshare? With IE7 on the horizon, is Firefox's days numbered?

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Given the security concerns of browser users, it is possible that Firefox could keep growing. Yet WebSideStory CEO Jeff Lunsford reports that usage of Firefox has slowed slightly since a big surge in November. "This is probably to be expected as we move beyond the early-adopter segment," says Lunsford in an analysis accompanying WebSideStory's market share statistics. "Back in December 2004, it seemed Firefox was a lock to reach 10 percent by mid-2005, ahead of the reported year-end goal of the Mozilla Foundation. Given the latest growth rates, the year-end target still appears attainable, but a midyear achievement is unlikely unless we see increased marketing activity from the Mozilla Foundation."

Meteor in your backyards.

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Scientists said the flaming object was probably a meteor, and that it likely disintegrated before any fragments fell into the Pacific Ocean.

Blackberry to be even more obnoxious by offering YIM and AIM.

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RIM is also working with America Online to include AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ services on the BlackBerry, besides offering AOL's mobile mail service. BlackBerry users will get access to their AOL Buddy List feature or ICQ contact list for chatting on both networks. No schedule was given for when the services would be available.

Doom 3 coming to Mac. Nobody cares.

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Apple is beating Microsoft in one more metric--Martian zombie blasting--with this week's release of a Mac version of "Doom 3" several weeks before the Xbox version is set to materialize. Developer Id Software and publisher Activision released the initial Windows version of "Doom 3," one of the most hotly anticipated games of the past few years, last summer.

Visual Basic developers want VB6 support to stay. VB.NET is totally different than VB6.

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The problem, say the dissenting developers, is that when Microsoft made Visual Basic.Net (or Visual Basic 7) the successor to VB6, it actually killed one language and replaced it with a fundamentally different one. It's effectively impossible to migrate VB6 applications to VB.Net, and for VB6 developers, learning VB.Net is as complex as learning a completely new programming language, critics say.

I have a few things up my sleeve for review, maybe I'll get them out over the weekend or early next week. Also make sure you are using this awesome new RSS reader: »http://www.aseville.com/userrss.php

Moore takes on nanotech.

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Still, continuing to produce chips on silicon has its problems too. Designers have been able to put more transistors on chips for decades by shrinking the size of the transistors, but they are now at the point where some structures inside chips are only a few atoms thick.

AMD's Turion chips coming out soon.

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There are two broad classes of Turion. The ML family sports a thermal ceiling, or maximum power consumption, of 35 watts, while the MT family has a thermal ceiling of 25 watts. (Existing Athlon 64 notebook chips have thermal ceilings as high as 62 watts.) Standard AMD desktop chips have thermal ceilings in the 90-watt range. AMD has said it will also come out with even lower power notebook chips

Intel guilty of f breaking antitrust laws in Japan.

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The probe in Japan mirrors a long-running investigation by the European Union's top antitrust regulator into alleged abuses by Intel. It is also understood to focus on rebates. The European Commission said it was co-operating with the Japanese authority, saying there were “similarities“ between the two probes.

Don't count on WinFS for XP.

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WinFS was originally slated to sit atop NTFS and track metadata for all files on a system to improve organizing, searching and sharing of information. Longhorn applications could also store data directly in WinFS, which is based on Microsoft's SQL Server technology.