News

We've compiled information on the use of wireless networks in Hoboken. See how many insecure wireless networks there are in a 2 block area! Using standard wireless tools, we performed warchalking. The term warchalking means that we will find where wireless networks are in a given area, chalking them on a map.Next Page »

I was going to file a longer introduction, but since the site was down will wait. I will be posting more and photos from the land of Gambling, Geeks, Gadgets and Girls, but for now a summary. . . so crowded here, it is SCARY. Windows LOCKS UP on Bill during his keynote. Meanwhile, outside on Friday, it SNOWED and rained all day. New cell phones on steroids are everywhere, but service still SUCKS. Another standards war as BLU-RAY vs HD-DVD begin to spar. Creative Labs ZEN micro draws a crowd, but even more people waited to see Jackie Chan at XAVIX-stupid name-cool product. Check back later for more from the Adult Entertainment Expo, err I mean CES, as well as pictures and reviews.

Carbon nanotube TVs.

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Theoretically, these "field effect displays," or FEDs, will consume less energy than plasma or liquid crystal display (LCD) TVs, deliver a better picture and even cost less. The development of FEDs underscores the rapid changes taking place in what had been a relatively staid TV market.

Microsoft's antispyware program. Buggy as always.

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Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) is a security technology that helps protect Windows users from spyware and other potentially unwanted software. Known spyware on your PC can be detected and removed. This helps reduce negative effects caused by spyware including slow PC performance, annoying pop-up ads, unwanted changes to Internet settings, and unauthorized use of your private information. Continuous protection improves Internet browsing safety by guarding over 50 ways spyware can enter your PC.

Cybernetic limbs for the wounded troops.

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Boisvert's prosthetic leg is a streamlined, futuristic limb with hydraulic pumps visible through its clear plastic shell. Every night, he detaches it and plugs it into a wall socket to recharge its internal computer.

Larger and smaller drives for Hitachi.

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While Hitachi minidrives are mostly now featured in small music players like the iPod mini, the smaller size means that Mikey drives will start to penetrate the phone market. With video and commerce becoming more common on cell phones, handhelds will need for storage capacity.

Toyota hires robots instead of humans.

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The new robots would also be used in finishing work, such as installation of seats and car interior fixtures, that have been too complex for conventional robots up to now, the daily said.

Tivo stretches services to internet.

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CEO Mike Ramsay and other TiVo executives demonstrated and discussed Tahiti for its Series2 recorders, a service that lets subscribers use the Internet to download movies and trailers, buy products and search local movie theater listings. The company has been working on the service for more than a year, and it is partly a competitive response to the rollout of DVR capabilities from cable and satellite operators.

My clock for downtime is about two days. But, as you can see, the site has returned. Expect some stuff coming soon.

I have a great article almost ready for posting. Soon...

FIC P4M-RS350 @ Viper Lair.

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The P4M-RS350 itself is a complete package that gives you the ability to upgrade the graphics when you have the money to do so. It carries competent performance and enough onboard solutions that voids the fact there is only 3 PCI slots available.

Shuttle XPC SN96G5 @ HCW.

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Today we're looking at the XPC SN96G5 from Shuttle. It uses their own proprietary format motherboard, based on the NVIDIA nForce3 Ultra chipset. It's the 5th generation of this particular chassis, so form-factor wise, it's about as good as it gets for now. However, there are some glaring issues with this system that kept us from going crazy over it - Read on to find out!

Leadtek WinFast A400 @ Hexus.

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The most obvious selling point of these two WinFast A400 boards is the cooling solution. Not only does it look the part, but it's quiet and extremely effective too. Both the GT and Ultra variants we've looked at have exhibited impressive overclocks, and the A400 GT is almost irresistible when you look at the potential headroom in both core and RAM clocks.

Powercolor X600XT @ TTL.

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Today we will be taking a look at the Radeon X600 XT 128MB from PowerColor. The X600 XT has 4 pixel pipelines and operates at 500 MHz core and 370 MHz (740 MHz DDR) memory speeds. At present, the X600 XT is pretty much a middle-of-the-road offering. Above the X600s you have the X700s, which offer better performance for just a bit more money. On the NVIDIA side, we have the 6200 series and the 6600 series, which are the closest competitors to ATI’s X600s and X700s.

Soltek K8T Pro 939 @ ClubOC.

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Have you ever had that special bond with a piece of computer hardware that just threw you for a loop for a long time, and once conquered became your best friend? Abit motherboards are the first things to come to mind for me, with their Soft Menu III its very easy to just forget a setting and stay up for days wondering why your system isn't functioning the way you want it to. I would like to say that after playing with the Soltek SL-K8TPro-939, but the reality of it is that everyone makes mistakes, and its easier to blame them on an object rather than your own misgivings. Its always that ONE BIOS option that is overseen that can ruin your day. Luckily the Soltek ran so well just as it is, that it was easy to just let it go and have some fun with the most powerful processor platform you can buy today. Lets have a look at it shall we...

Mushkin PC2-5300 @ Madshrimps.

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We take a closer look at Mushkin´s Enhanced DDR2 Memory rated to run at DDR667 speeds. Using a high end system we push this 1GB kit as far as it can go.

Albatron PX915G4 Pro @ OO.

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Albatron decided to stick with the current Socket 478 processors on this model. This allows existing P4 users to migrate over to the PCI-E world without having to buy a new processor. They can further break down the upgrade process as the Albatron PX915G4 Pro already comes equipped with an shared video memory.

Gigabyte K8NS-939 @ Techniz.

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Supporting the latest AMD socket 939 Athlon64FX/ 64 processors, the K8NS-939 represent the most cost effective solution for AMD platform. Accompanied with the innovative designs of AMD64 technology, the advanced NVIDIA nForce3 processor contributes to functionality and stability of this platform. The Serial ATA interface enhances storage performance. The high speed Gigabit Ethernet interface delivers the efficient broadband connection to the internet. Features such as AGP 8X graphic interface and 8-channel audio also ensure the enjoyment of multi-media application. Finally, Norton Internet Security 2004 software is bundled for security protection. With such an array of leading technology and Gigabyte’s unique features, users are sure to get the most value from the GA-K8NS-939.

What if: Terrorists launch physical and virtual attacks?

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It's a chief concern for VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos, whose company is the leading provider of domain name registrations. Currently, VeriSign processes more than 14 billion daily queries, on average, in its operation of the .com and .net infrastructure. The company's new ATLAS system-- short for Advanced Transaction Lookup and Signaling System--is designed to accept more than 100 billion queries per day and 25,000 updates per second.

Blogs are big in 2004.

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Blog publishing is having an effect on how people read on the Web. Pew researchers found that five percent of Internet users have content from blogs or Web sites delivered via RSS aggregators or XML readers. Instead of skipping between different Web sites, an Internet user can use a reader to collect several different information feeds in a single program.

How about a Mac for under $500?

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Munster believes that such a move could build additional momentum behind the so-called iPod halo effect. This theory suggests that the success of Apple's music player can attract customers to other products made by the same company. A Macintosh priced at $499 could convince Windows users and new computer buyers to make the switch, he said.

LokiTorrent fights against the MPAA.

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LokiTorrent, a Web site and index of files available through a peer-to-peer technology known as BitTorrent, posted a letter from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on its site on Tuesday. The letter states that the MPAA has filed suit in district court in Texas against the site and demands that Loki Torrent cease linking to video files that could infringe on studios' copyrights.

Stay at an indoor tropical island.

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With your "Tropical Islands Pass", an electronic chip card, you will enjoy your stay without handling any cash money. For food and beverage, for tropical plants, souvenirs, and also for your ticket you will pay the total when departing from Tropical Islands Resort.

SpaceShipTwo preparing. I want to go into space.

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Initially, the cost of the flights will be too high for most people to afford. However, within 10 to 12 years, suborbital spaceflight would be a real option, Rutan said.

Anti-Santy worm infects sites.

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F-Secure said on Friday that it was aware of seven sites that had been defaced by the worm, which appears designed to combat the Santy worm. The anti-Santy worm searches Google for sites that use the PHP Bulletin Board (phpBB) software exploited by the earlier worm, infects the sites and attempts to make the sites more secure by installing a patch.

Cell phone worm source released.

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This follows reports on Tuesday that a number of variants of the Cabir worm have been detected and that these offshoots have evolved beyond their comparatively benign predecessors. The worm affects phones running the Symbian operating system that use Bluetooth wireless technology.

Tojan preys on help rendering bug in XP SP2.

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Microsoft has had significant problems securing its Web browser in 2004. As a result, the freely available open-source browser Firefox has gained market share. Security experts have recommended that computer users consider other browsers and some schools have told their students to use a non-Microsoft browser.

Malware hides in DRM. I hate DRM.

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A loophole in the Windows Media DRM process allows companies to create ersatz media files and link them to adware. Normally, when you download a protected Windows Media file, you also receive a license that lets you play it. According to Caulton, if Windows Media Player can't find a valid license on your PC, it checks in with a remote system running Microsoft's Windows Media DRM Server.

There will be some new reviews coming soon. It has been a rough couple of weeks.

Geforce 6600 GT @ bjorn3d.

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The GeForce 6 series of graphics accelerators from NVIDIA seems to have done a lot to help pull NVIDIA out of the quagmire of controversy and troublesome issues it fell into with the NV3x generation of GPUs. People who might have given up on NVIDIA are now paying attention again because the GeForce 6 family of GPUs performs well across the board. The comeback of SLI technology is another reason NVIDIA has more people leaning its way nowadays. Most of NVIDIA's current GeForce 6 series is available in AGP and PCI Express flavors. With the release of the 6600 line of cards, NVIDIA finally lauched its first native PCI Express GPUs, meaning they were designed for PCI Express. The 6600 GPUs represent the midrange of NVIDIA's line-up, and PCI Express is not widespread enough yet for any company to rely on sales of those products available in PCI Express form only. (One major reason is that AMD-compatible chipsets supporting PCI Express have been slow to come to market.) So, NVIDIA is making bridged AGP versions of the 6600 boards, too. NVIDIA wants to ship a high volume of these products to its partners, and that volume can be maximized only if AGP and PCI Express parts are available.

HIS X700Pro @ TT.

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Today we take a close look at the HIS X700Pro IceQ Turbo including the impressive overclocking ability close to that of the Radeon X700XT which uses the new PCI Express interface and compare it against the older ATI Radeon X600XT VPU and see what is different and how it affects gaming performance in popular games such as HL2, Doom 3 and Far Cry.

Asus X800XT @ Hexus.

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It's hard to recommend any graphics card that costs more than a reasonable PC. £430 is an awful lot of money to be spending on a present card when a refresh is just around the corner. In that case, as comprehensive as it is, ASUS' AX800 XP PE/2DHTV package is simply too expensive to be considered by all but the very well-off enthusiast. Performance freaks should look towards SLI'ing a couple of 6800 GT cards, and for the rest, I'd recommend obtaining and overclocking the cheapest X800 XT you could lay your hands. The money you save will be better spent elsewhere.

http://reviews.pimprig.com/cooling/silenx_ixtrema_120mm_cu_cooler.php
http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=271
http://www.xyzcomputing.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=241&Itemid=2
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews/logisyspitbull/
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/sunbeam_lighting_accessories/sunbeam_lighting_accessories.shtml
http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/cases/other/cases/lianli/v1000/
http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=161
http://news.designtechnica.com/featured_article12.html
http://www.modthebox.com/tflfragfest2004.shtml
http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/cases/coolermaster/blue_wavemaster/index.htm
http://www.techniz.co.uk/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=178
http://hi-techreviews.com/nuke/s12/s12_page1.htm
http://xtremods.com/?pg=review_thermaltakec1
http://www.rbmods.com/Articles/Ocz/Ddr_booster/1.php
http://www.techtastic.ca/reviews4/z680.html
http://www.lanaddict.com/rev/138/1/
http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=1835
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews/sunbeamscrews/
http://www.ocia.net/reviews/zalman_reserator_1/zalman_reserator_1.shtml
http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?directory=zalman_7000
http://www.atruereview.com/lcm10_case/index.php
http://gruntville.com/reviews/mousepads/corepad_magna/
http://www.techniz.co.uk/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=179

Quake that spawned huge wave may have altered Earth's rotation.

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Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

LCOS TVs are too tough for the big players.

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The pictures from LCOS sets can be rich and bright. But as more than one technology giant has discovered, LCOS is also a black hole for investment cash.

The Feds convict the first warez pirate. Damn.

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The Department of Justice said that Desir will be the first American citizen convicted as part of the plan that was introduced by outgoing Attorney General John Ashcroft in April 2004. Since the debut of Operation Fastlink, law enforcement investigators have conducted more than 120 searches in 27 states and 11 foreign countries, resulting in the identification of nearly 100 people considered by the investigation to be leaders or high-level members of international piracy organizations, according to the agency.

More than 100K viruses in 2004.

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The count of known viruses broke the 100,000 barrier and the number of new viruses grew by more than 50%. Similarly phishing attempts, in which conmen try to trick people into handing over confidential data, are recording growth rates of more than 30% and attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

This guy invented optical storage and got ntohing.

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"He, in my opinion, is really the father of the technology; he had the original ideas for optical-digital recording and I feel is the original inventor of the basic concepts that made it all come into being," said Marv Erickson, senior program manager at Battelle's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland.

Robot that uses flies and apples for power.

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Insect-sized aircraft could be possible in the future, says Professor Melhuish, "The biological fuel cell would have to be made into a soft system which might, in the future, be able to do some sort of movement at a small level, a small insect level."

phpBB virus spreads with search engine help.

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After Google took measures to prevent the worm from executing Google searches for the faulty bulletin board software, Santy variants are making the rounds using AOL and Yahoo search, according to security firms, and are still targeting Google as well.

AOL sees decline in spam from its members.

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As of November, the online unit of Time Warner received an average of 2.2 million complaints each day from its more than 24 million subscribers, down from 11 million complaints in the same period last year. The daily average number of e-mails blocked by AOL's spam filters fell 50 percent to about 1.2 billion e-mails in late 2004 from a peak of 2.4 billion in 2003.

Holiday online sales strong.

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According to ComScore Networks, online sales through the middle of last week reached $13.5 billion, a 28 percent increase from last year's holiday season. ComScore had expected growth of between 23 percent and 26 percent, while other firms, like Jupiter Research, had predicted a 19 percent rise in sales. Those forecasts were consistent with the idea that the days of breakaway online retail sales growth in the United States were nearing an end.

An asteriod may hit us! In 2037.

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It's now official. NASA's Near Earth Objects page lists 2004 MN4, the asteroid that's been covered on slashdot recently, as having a 1 in 56,000 chance of hitting earth, and even then only in 2037. It seems that earth was near the edge of the cone of probability of when it could go. As the cone kept closing, the probability of hitting earth grew, but it kept getting closer to the edge. It's now outside the cone, and we can be safe.

Hacking the RCA cable modem.

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This is a very interesting hack that takes place. By grounding the address pin, the modem will not be able to Read or Write data to the EEPROM. The modem will panic and give you a diagnostic console.

IPv6 network opens in China.

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"We were a learner and follower in the development of the first generation Internet, but we have caught up with world's leaders in the next-generation Internet, become a first mover, and won respect and attention from the international community," said Wu Jianping, director of the expert committee of the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) and a mastermind in the development of the next-generation Internet in China.

My dog, Samantha, died on Tuesday at the age of 14. She will be missed. »http://www.aseville.com/albums.php?id=27

GPL Version 3 Soon.

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One interpretation of the current GPL is that patent holders who distribute GPL software "are in effect granting an implied license" to those patents, said Mark Webbink, the lead intellectual-property attorney for Linux seller Red Hat and a person who first saw revised GPL drafts in 2000. But it might be useful to have an explicitly expressed patent agreement, he said. "A distributor may not want to leave that ambiguous as to what rights they are giving."

Thunderbird to challenge Outlook with calendar.

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Whether Thunderbird, released this month, can have a similar impact on the Outlook juggernaut depends in large part on how quickly Mozilla can match some of the calendar features Outlook ties into the e-mail application.

Microsoft Windows Reduced Media Edition. I'm in favor of a Reduced Internet Explorer Edition.

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In addition to lacking a copy of Windows Media Player, the new version of Windows won't be able to do things like play a CD or MP3 file or transfer music to a portable device--at least not without additional software from another company. Among the limited media features that do remain are the ability to play .wav files using Sound Recorder as well as a moviemaking program that is separate from Windows Media Player. "This is the first time we are being required to offer to consumers a version of Windows that provides them with less value rather than more," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said in an interview Wednesday.

The article went on to say that Microsoft usually adds security holes and bugs called 'features' that forces people to upgrade to new software. Without these, Microsoft feels that the user is missing out on the key components of Windows.

AOL to offer free email.

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AOL has offered Web-based e-mail for many years, but the service has been restricted to subscribers. The new move is part of an AOL initiative to offer more free services to public Web users, an expansion that would help the Time Warner division's efforts tap the online advertising dollars that have fueled revenue growth for Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and Google.

Look up, see the Space Station.

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The 200-ton station should be visible on various days between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day from the continental United States. To see when the station is visible in various regions, go to: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/isssightings.

Chip sales up 23%.

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Intel Corp., for the 13th consecutive year, remains the world's largest chip company in terms of sales, based on its dominance in microprocessors. Gartner's estimate of $30.5 billion for 2004 represents a 12.6 percent increase over its 2003 sales of $27.1 billion.

The easiest way I can sum this mousepad is up is two words; Insanely Huge. That's the review in a nutshell.Next Page »

I had a great day in AC. Won $150. I'm sure you've seen the new Safe Mode frames already.

Apple to market flash based iPod. I think this is a great idea. Flash based players are cheaper.

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Financial analysts predict Apple would sell millions of flash iPods in short order. Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff predicted earlier this month that Apple will sell 6 million units in the current fiscal year and 13.5 million the following year, but at $160, a lower average price than Apple gets for its iPods (which retail from $249 for the iPod mini to $599 for the 60GB iPod Photo).

EM radiation mutates cells. Cell phone like radation, but just a bit stronger.

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After being exposed to electromagnetic fields that are typical for mobile phones, the cells showed a significant increase in single and double-strand DNA breaks. The damage could not always be repaired by the cell. DNA carries the genetic material of an organism and its different cells.

Walmart is selling a $498 Linux laptop!

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The companies said Balance is the lowest-priced laptop currently available with an operating system and an office suite. It features a VIA C3 1-GHz processor, 128MB RAM, a 30GB hard drive, a CD-ROM drive and a 14.1-inch liquid crystal display. The software includes a built-in firewall to protect users from viruses, spam and pop-ups.

Gamespot has an amusing review on the oldest and most popular MMORPG available, called Real Life. Gamespot gives it a 9.6, impressive! Personally, I wouldn't give it anything higher then an 8, but it IS very realistic I do have to admit. The Gamespot review can be found here.

Three sets of reader-supplied pics depicting more repair tech pain, right here: »http://www.aselabs.com/safemode.php?mode=lastspurt

CHALLENGE TO OUR READERS! Send us your pictures and/or your PC repair horror stories and I'll make 'em into a comic! PM RudeMoody for more info! If we select them, we'll send you a check for...FORTY DOLLARS!*

*Checks will not be honored.

Also, stay tuned for some totally new comics coming later this week...our holiday gift to you! I just got a new scanner (the old one broke, HP ScanJet 3500 piece o' crap...) and I want to pump out a few more right away, since it's been so long. Thanks for checking them out, and I hope you come back later this week for more.

80GB iPods Soon?

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The company said in a statement late Monday that it will begin mass production in mid-2005 of new 1.8-inch drives with capacities of 40GB and 80GB. Similar-size drives currently top out at 60GB. Apple did not immediately announce plans to incorporate the drives in future products, but new iPod configurations have closely tracked Toshiba hard-drive developments. Toshiba announced plans for a 60GB hard drive in June, followed a few months later by Apple's unveiling of a 60GB color-screen iPod.

MMCmicro, another flash memory type. Aren't 10 types of memory enough!?

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Initially, MMCmicro cards will only be available in 32MB, 64MB and 128MB sizes. Samsung says data can be read off the cards at 10MB per second and written to them at 7MB per second. The interface between card and handset can theoretically support a maximum transfer speed of 26MB per second.

Extremely small flash drive.

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The drive, which fits into a standard USB type A socket, is 12-millimeters wide, 4.5mm high and 31.75mm long. The sturdy metal housing is intended to make the USB card suitable for use in a range of environments.

Realtime traffic maps.

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In a milestone for Internet-based traffic services, Yahoo has beefed up its existing mapping services to allow customers to plot a route from one local destination to another, and overlay traffic data such as road speeds and potential delays.

Saturn's tricky moons.

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Meanwhile, the "ocean" on Titan may not be. Instead of a liquid body of water, the dark mass seen on the surface of the Titan may be a viscous fluid flowing onto the white "coastline," Parco said. Then again, the viscous fluid could be flowing down from a higher altitude, like a glacier, onto the white mass.

Intel and HP split on Itanium.

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Following more than a decade of joint development with HP, Intel released the first Itanium chip in 2001 to an unenthusiastic market. Years of delays on the project had meant that subsequent generations of other Intel chips offered superior levels of price and performance, many analysts have said.

California wants solar power.

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The goal is to create a self-sustaining solar industry in 10 years, making the zero-pollution power source so commonplace and cheap that costly incentives are no longer necessary, Joe Desmond, Schwarzenegger's deputy secretary for energy, said Monday.

More later, as always.

Let's see what's happening in the world of technology.

Apple files suit over product leaks.

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"To succeed, Apple must develop innovative products and bring those products to market in advance of its competitors," the company said in its complaint. "If Apple competitors were aware of Apple's future production information, those competitors could benefit economically from that knowledge by directing their product development or marketing to frustrate Apple's plans."

Don't worry, I don't think Apple's competitors are getting that many ideas from Apple any longer.

MS has plans for Anti-Spyware software. They purchased a company that is in that business. Expect the software to be bloated and to be considered spyware itself on release.

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When it announced the acquisition, Microsoft said it planned to use Giant's technology to block spyware from infecting Windows PCs. Because of its popularity, Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is a favorite target of spyware developers.

Free iPorn for your iPod.

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A Playboy representative described the download as a soft launch for services that will target a variety of portable devices capable of displaying photos. A formal launch is planned for January, but the company figured many iPod photo devices would be given out for the holidays and made the feature available now.

Microsoft's plan: Making everything buggy, then charge to fix it.

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In a shift from past practice, the world's largest software manufacturer said it may charge consumers for future versions of the new protective technology, which Microsoft acquired by buying a small New York software firm. Terms of the sale of Giant Company Software Inc. weren't disclosed.

Need more storage, drop another block on that.

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Rather than using typical wire prongs or plugs, the bricks are connected with a novel technology called "capacitive coupling," in which one block is mated to the next through a conductive plate. Garner displayed two different prototype couplers, one made of Mylar and the other of thin ceramic. The couplers are actually able to transmit data through the extremely thin layer of air between one brick and the next, Garner said.

More later of course.

Ghost Recon 2 is a nice balance of Rainbow Six 3 and Halo 2. Listen here for the first impressions of the game. This will be updated for a full review soon.Next Page »

I'm sure you've seen the reviews here, right?
Mushkin PC2-4200: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=151
A4Tech NB-30: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=152
A4Tech AK-5: »http://www.aselabs.com/articles.php?id=153

Ultra PC4000 @ VL.

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Looks are of course secondary to performance but here the Ultra doesn't fail you. The Ultra PC4000 is quite capable of delivering in the area's it is needed, be it raw numbers or overclocking potential. Like most PC4000, to get the really high clocks from it, you will need to up the voltage to 2.9v but the ram hasn't flinched running at this (default is 2.7v) voltage once in the week or so I've been using it.

Soltek 915G Pro @ Ninjalane.

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The Soltek SL-915GPro-FGR is a rather unique motherboard, not only does it come with 4 DDR1 memory banks but includes a BIOS level automagic overclocking utility called SAT (Smart Acceleration Technology) that actually works.

TwinX DDR2 PC4300 @ OCPrices.

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Low Latency DDR2 memory modules have been popping up recently, capable of 3-2-2-x timings, and utilizing the recent yields of the Micron DDR2 die. A while back, we had a look at the Wintec Industries' modules, which were capable of DDR2-706 @ 3-2-2-8 timings (DDR2-720 @ 3-2-2-4 has been achieved since). How will these Corsair modules compare?

Gainward 6600GT @ PCStats.

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nVIDIA was the first to enter the 'mainstream' PCI Express video market with the GeForce 6600 class GPU. ATi followed suit a few days later with its Radeon X700. While the companies are different, the technology behind the competing VPUs is actually quite similar. Built on IBM's 0.11 micron manufacturing process, the nVidia GeForce 6600 has eight pixel rendering pipelines and the 'GT' model has a core clock speed of 500 MHz. ATi uses TSMC's 0.11 micron manufacturing process, and its graphics core has eight pixel rendering pipelines too. The higher-end Radeon X700 XT VPU is clocked slightly slower than nVidia's solution, at 475 MHz. Over the next dozen pages, PCStats will try to answer that question as we test out a videocard made by Gigabyte called the GV-NX66T128D. This PCI Express x16 videocard is based on nVIDIA's GeForce 6600GT GPU, and packs in a svelte 128MB of Samsung GDDR3 memory.

Asus 6600GT @ AMDZone.

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This article will focus mostly on the performance of SLI enabled setups versus single video card solutions. I use an X800 XT as a base to look at when thinking about price to performance. A single GeForce 6600 GT is about $200 making a pair $400. The retail price of the X800 XT I will be using is almost $700. Think about the price to performance ratios when looking at the benchmarks.

Apollo 6600GT @ ClubOC.

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Apollo? Yes you're probably wondering the same as we are. Who are they? Well it so happens that Joytech, which owns the right to the Apollo section of video cards, are the same people that came out with the "Bloody Monster" lineup of video cards not to long ago. From what I found in some review archives on other sites they were excellent overclockers. the Apollo namesake seems just about right for this line up of 6600 series cards, and although the new PCI-E interface is somewhat hard to understand, given that AGP has been around for so long, the clocks on the PCI-E versions are actually higher. The 6600GT looks really good on paper, and from what we've witnessed so far in its performance, it looks like an excellent mid-range video card that is more than capable of holding its own with newer games.

6600GT AGP @ TT.

Quote

A little while ago nVidia launched their GeForce 6600GT graphics card using the PCI Express interface. The GPU received great reviews around the web for impressive performance for the price but lacked one major thing - AGP support for those who had not yet made the jump to the new platform. nVidia has now released the AGP version of their 6600GT graphics card and today we take a close look at the product and see how it differs from the PCI Express version.

Intel and others are planning to release multi-core CPUs starting next year. Dual cores are just the start. Expect any number of cores to be included on a CPU in the future.

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Intel isn't the only chipmaker expecting twins. Nearly every processor company has multiple-core plans. IBM has been selling dual-core chips for servers for a few years, while ARM sells dual-core chips for cell phones. Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices has said it will create chips with two, four and eight cores, too. Its first dual-core chip will also come out in 2005.

The two company will become one under the Symantec name. Current Symantec products including Norton Antivirus helps people fend off virus attacks and such. It also slows down the system to a crawl and sucks up resources. Nice job.

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For instance, Symantec, the leading security software maker, sells its Norton line of products to both businesses and consumers, while Veritas serves midsize and large companies with its storage management systems. The companies are also banking on the desire of large companies to consolidate the number of vendors that they do business with.

The latest tech news in one place.

Linux PC Sales Project to $10 Billion in 2008!

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The IDC study estimates the overall Linux ecosystem will grow 25.9 percent annually to reach $35.7 billion in 2008. Of that, IDC estimates $14 billion will be packaged software, $10 billion PCs and $11 billion servers.

The FCC is changing the line-sharing policy for Baby Bells. They (the baby bells) are happy about this one.

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Since the Telecommunications Act in 1996, local phone carriers have been required to provide government-mandated discounts to lease their entire network--including copper lines, facilities and call switching equipment--to new competitors. Without the discounts on switch leasing, competitors will have to buy their own switching equipment or re-negotiate leases with the Bells.

Get Ready to be Annoyed on Flights with Cell Phone.

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To date, wireless devices can't be used once the airplane door is closed. The FCC voted unanimously on Wednesday to auction off new spectrum that could be used to provide high-speed wireless Internet access to planes in flight. Commissioners also took a strong move toward allowing cell phones to be used on airplanes, calling for public comment on the issue. Air travelers who don't like being out of touch with the ground will be able to use wireless connections to check email, surf the Internet, and eventually could make cell phone calls from the air. That could be good news for many business travelers, and probably bad news for those who like a little peace and quiet.

P2P in 15 Lines of Code.

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The program creates a small-world network, which might be used by a group of friends or business associates to share files. The program does not work well for very large networks; instead, many small networks can coexist. Each network is protected by a password; a network can be accessed only by people who know its password. (But networks are not secure against attackers who can eavesdrop on their traffic.)

More to come later

I figured that since I have some free time this week, I'd start to work on fixing features that are broken and making ASEville work. If you want something added or fixed to any piece of ASE, make sure to shoot me an email. It's aronschatz|at|aselabs.com.

»http://www.aseville.com
»http://www.aseforums.com

Have you seen the reviews here lately?

First off, We've got some Mushkin DDR2 Memory, next up is a batteryless wireless mouse, and make sure you check out the cool glow from this notebook mouse.

RAM:
Kingston HyperX KHX3200UL @ CI.

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Are you in the market for some blazing fast DDR?? Is your gaming rig craving that low latency performance?? Are you sick of flashy LEDs and marketing gimicks?? Then read on, because believe me, we have found just what you are looking for in our latest review, Kingston Hyper X PC3200UL 2-2-2-5 DDR Modules.

OCZ PC3200 Rev 2 @ Lanaddict.

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After the smoke has cleared and all the dust has settled, what do we have? Well, I think we have one very impressive PC3200 dual channel memory kit from OCZ! While it may need its timings loosened up a bit fairly quickly in the overclocking game, there is no denying that OCZ has a fantastic product here. About the only thing they could improve upon would be increasing the voltage they\'ll cover under warranty from 2.9V to 3.0V+.

SwissBit 2 X 512MB PC4300 DDR2 @ Techniz.

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The SwissBit 1GB Dual Channel PC4300 DDR2 memory module will meet the needs of the users that require DDR2 memory modules for their system such as the Intel LGA 775 system. These dual channel ram are able to run at tight timing for the DDR2 memory module which is the best and basic requirement for a good memory module. But, with a bit looser timing, the ram was able to hit 286 MHz which is equal to DDR2 572. That was an excellent results. According to the specification sheet, this pair of RAM is able to reach DDR533 only. It has an overclock potential. But due to the limit of the processor, I was unable to overclock it to the maximum.

Video Cards:
Visiontek X800 XT @ Bjorn3D.

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So, what's the point? Well, for those wanting a top gaming rig now, an Athlon64 motherboard with AGP is probably high on the list of 'must haves.' That's where the VisionTek XTASY X800 XT comes in. You already know that it will offer great performance for gaming, but you might not realize that it includes VIVO capabilities with HDTV support.

XFX 6600GT @ AMDReview.

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I wanted to do something a little different this time. I had this 6600GT video card to review, but I knew there would be lots of sites out there with the same old hard facts and figures with benchmarks of games like UT2004 and Far Cry. I decided to go a different route. I wanted to bring to you a review of the card, including the specs and such, but also wanted to provide some useful information as far as how well it plays the most system demanding game to date, Half Life 2.

eVGA 6600GT @ AMDZone.

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Before we get to the benchmarks let me give you some background on the card. The 6600 series of graphics cards are based on the NV43 GPU. This is basically the little sister GPU of the ever so powerful NV40 or 6800 Series. The NV43 GPU is 8 Pixel Pipeline GPU with 3 3.0 vertex shaders and 1 3.0 pixel shader. The GPU core speed is 500 Mhz while the ram is at 1000 Mhz. The only real difference between the GT and the regular 6600 is the clock speeds. I wonder if I was to overclock a 6600 regular to the same speed as a GT if it would perform the same. I will save that for another day and article.

Albatron 6600GT @ bjorn3D.

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ES, XL, SE, GSR and every other combo of letters used to describe a car, razor, or your favorite deoderant can be confusing. So which one is the best, which one is fully loaded, and which one sucks like a black hole? The same kind of system has been floating around the video card world for a while now, and NVIDIA's latest line of 6 Series cards has their own to throw around. Well today we are going to take a look at the Albatron 6800 GT, the gran turismo of the video card world. We won't call this the model with heated leather seats and navigation, but it definitely comes with 17's and a moonroof.

Motherboards:
Epox 915P @ Tweaktown.

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For those who have had an interest in performance computing for several years, you'll remember the name EPoX as being one of the several companies who really pushed overclocking in the beginning stages and worked hard on competing with the best in the motherboard business. Today we are taking a look at their 5EPA+ board which is based around Intel's 915P chipset with DDR memory support. Does the overclocking trend still exist today or does EPoX have a little more work to do? Read on and find out as we take a closer look!

Epox 9NDA3+ @ EO.

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The EPoX EP-9NDA3+ motherboard is based on nVidia's nForce3 Ultra chipset supporting the latest Athlon64 & AthlonFX Socket 939 processors. The nForce3 Ultra chipset officially supports a 1GHz HyperTransport link, along with all the features of the regular nForce3 250gb chipset (like Gigabit Ethernet, on-chip Firewall, and "Any Drive" RAID technology). EPoX has packed as many features as they can onto this board, providing the user with the ultimate NF3 S939 platform. Overclocking has not been forgotten either, with tons of CPU and memory tweaking options, along with a variety of voltage choices in the BIOS, this board is sure to be a hit.

Foxconn 925X @ ClubOC.

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Wow, that is a long name isn't it! Irregardless, Foxconn has really impressed us at the club with their newest offering based on the Intel 925 chipset. This board is a fine specimen of computer hardware, and just like previous Foxconn motherboards, has pretty much everything you could possibly want, and they also threw in some voltage options! That's right ladies and gentlemen, Foxconn is learning from us overclockers that test and review their stuff, and the nicest thing about it is that we get to watch Foxconn literally evolve into a board manufacturers capable of being reckoned with...

Gigabyte 8TRX330L @ TWL.

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The leader in producing highend video cards teams up with Gigbyte to produce a chipset to perform. The leader in chipsets for Intel processors the past few years has been Intel. So to have a video card company compete is an attention getter. The main factor in the performance of a system is the chipset of the motherboard, (the traffic cop if you will of the system).

Soltek 8KAN2E-GR @ Hexus.

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Soltek has put together an impressive S754 package with its K8AN2E-GR motherboard. The intelligent board layout made installation simple. I especially like the way DIMM slots are orientated away from the AGP slot. Soltek has also done well on the feature count, adding in discrete SATA and IDE RAID through Promise's PCI-riding controller. Benchmark performance, too, was right on where I'd expect a well-tuned S754 board's to be, and the sample board overclocked like a champ.

Asus P5AD2E @ LC.

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With Intel pushing the 1066 MHz host bus interface for the 925X-E chipset, yet failing to provide affordable processors or even unaffordable ones that would take advantage of the higher bus interface, the second speed step of Alderwood boards can only target the Prescott LGA 775 as possible driving force. Yet, what looks good on paper may not stand up to reality. On the other hand, ASUS has once again come out with a mainboard that is setting new standards in hardware, including the bundle. We have drilled down to the nitty gritty on the component and implementation level to bring a full report of the P5AD2-E which looks identical to the P5AD2 in all its glory.

In a major move by EA, the game publisher responsible for the #1 football franchise for the last who knows how many years has struck a deal with the NFL to have EXCLUSIVE rights to ALL NFL properties, including teams, players, and stadiums for the next 5 years. What will this mean for their competition? The original Gamespot article can be found here.

In a related story, last week Sega Sports announced that they were going to can the $20 price point on their ESPN 2K line of games that they came out with this past year. It looks like Sega has gotten bit by the "bad timing" bug. What will this latest announcement from EA means for Sega's NFL 2K series? The article with the price changing announcement can be found here.

*UPDATE* EA apparently has lost all semblance of sanity. There is a rumor going around, unconfirmed as lots of rumors are, that EA is going to DROP JOHN MADDEN from their line of football games in an effort to maximize profits. If this rumor is true, I will have lost that tiny, itsy-bitsy speck of respect that I had left for EA. By dropping the namesake of their single biggest cash-cow, they would effectively be making the single biggest mistake in the history of gaming in my opinion. I hope EA isn't that incredibly stupid, although after their latest move, maybe they deserve what they get. The article regarding this rumor can be found here.

*UPDATE AGAIN* What in the wide world of sports if going on with EA? The latest news coming from Camp EA is that they are trying to buy a 19.9% share of Ubisoft, makers of a boatload of great games, including (but not limited to) the Tom Clancy series of games such as the Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell franchises. If EA is successful, it would make them the single-largest shareholder of Ubisoft. Who do they think they are, Microsoft? The article for THIS can be found here.

*YET ANOTHER UPDATE* As if EA hasn't been in the news this past week and a half, they just renewed their bid on Digital Illusions CE, the game publisher behind the widely popular Battlefield 1942, hoping to bring them under their umbrella of slave labor. DICE's board of directors nixed EA's original bid because they felt they would do better on their own. The article on the renewed bid can be found here.

Yes, yet another useless thing is coming to cell phones. Whatever happened to cell phones that, ohh, I don't know, place and receive calls and DON'T GET SIGNAL DROPPING ALL THE TIME? The current batch of cell phones already have horrible battery life because of the stupid features that are added to them. All I want is a phone!

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From 2006, mobile phones will be offering crisp, clear TV pictures. But the pictures will not be coming over the cellphone network - they will be sent from transmitters already used for TV broadcasts. And this means a completely new breed of phones will be necessary to pick them up.

The Easy Go is a great mouse for notebooks. Its small size and ability to tuck the USB cable inside the mouse is perfect for people on the go. Find out why you should have this one...Next Page »

That's right, there have been over 10 million downloads of Firefox since the 1.0 release. I recommend Firefox to all.

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If you remember, it took us 10 days to reach 2 million downloads of the Firefox Preview Release. This time, in only 32 days, we quintupled that number (anyone want to give the Guinness book folks a call?)!

The highest court in the US will hear a arguements that P2P filesharing companies should be responsible for the things that are traded on the networks. This is bad news if they agree with the findings. Say goodbye to P2P. At the heart of this is the Sony-Betamax case, the one that said why VHS tapes and recorders were legal.

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Lower court judges ultimately said that the companies did not directly control what happens on their networks, and that their software could be used for legal purposes. That shields the companies themselves from legal responsibility for the actions of their users, the lower courts said.

Get automatic updates ready, Microsoft is preparing to release a patch to fix five (5) security holes. They are not critical flaws, but it is important to keep Windows up to date.

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The fixes for the glitches in the Windows operating system will appear on Dec. 14, according to the posting. Microsoft typically releases patches on the second Tuesday of each month, a schedule it decided upon more than a year ago.