News

I hate these stupid preview articles. 'Let me show you stuff that you probably don't care about just to get more hype'

Anandtech.
HardOCP.
AMDMB.
Tech-Report.
LegionHardware.

Intel's newest chip will feature tons of wireless goodies. A good push in the right direction for mobile computing.

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Intel Chief Executive Craig Barrett, Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell, and a host of PC companies will be on hand in New York for the release of Centrino, a collection of chips from Intel designed to transform laptops and tablet PCs into portable offices. Centrino computers, with a $1,500 starting price, will run between five and eight hours on a battery charge, the sort of energy efficiency required to make wireless Net access a habit.

Here are some reviews that I just got in my inbox. I still can't get over spending $10/day for highspeed access...

Case badges @ OCA.
OCZ Gladiator 2 @ OCHardware.
MSI 655 MAX @ Hexus.
Abit NF7 @ Icrontic.
Kingwin case @ OCA.
Nexus giveaway.
Samsung 19inch TFT.
Logitech MX700 @ Ascully.
Shuttle SB52G2 @ Hexus.

Amazing, seems that I need some new news posters as they just don't like to post any news. I'm in Florida and just spent $10 per day on high speed access. News is coming, don't worry. BTW, anyone want to post news, give me an email

I nearly forgot about Space news! Have no fear...

Jupiter strips questioned. Check the pics out.

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The highest wind speeds in the atmosphere of mostly hydrogen, coloured by traces of other substances, are found near the equator and reach around 150 yards per second, said Prof Murray. The pictures clearly show Jupiter's famous Red Spot, a giant atmospheric storm as wide as two Earths, more than 300 years old, with winds of 300 mph.

Inside Mars is a molten iron core.

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"Earth has an outer liquid iron core and solid inner core. This may be the case for Mars as well," said Dr. Charles Yoder, a planetary scientist at JPL and lead author on the paper. "Mars is influenced by the gravitational pull of the Sun. This causes a solid body tide with a bulge toward and away from the Sun (similar in concept to the tides on Earth). However, for Mars this bulge is much smaller, less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch). By measuring this bulge in the Mars gravity field we can determine how flexible Mars is. The size of the measured tide is large enough to indicate the core of Mars can not be solid iron but must be at least partially liquid."

Dinosaur killer asteroid crater.

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The existence of the impact crater, Chicxulub, was first proposed in 1980. In the 1990s, satellite data and ground studies allowed it to gain prominence among most scientists as the long sought-after "smoking gun" responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs and more than 70 percent of Earth's living species 65 million years ago.

Thermal Protect Systems overhaul.

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Langley researchers are developing ARMOR, short for Adaptable, Robust, Metallic, Operable, Reusable TPS, as a potential system for future NASA spacecraft. The metallic tiles are roughly twice the size of the shuttle's 8-inch by 8-inch (20-cm by 20-cm) version, and composed of Inconel 617 and Inconel 718 metals, both nickel-based alloys. They are a bit heavier than the lightweight silica ceramic tiles NASA uses on the shuttle, which means they don't qualify as a potential replacement for the system just yet.

I actually run OpenOffice, the free version of StarOffice. It is so much better than Microsoft Office, and it works with all the documents. Now they are trying to make it even better.

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The new version of StarOffice includes expanded support for handicapped users and new business configuration tools that allow information technology managers to oversee multiple StarOffice desktops from a single location. The new release also will allow people to save documents in Adobe Systems' widespread Portable Document Format (PDF).

I missed a bunch of reviews by leaving my email at school. Dammit! I'll try to hunt some out next time, but let me just do a quick post.

Crucial 6in1 card reader @ AMDZone.
NV31/34 Preview @ Hexus.
Lamps Electronics Cold Cathodes @ Extensiontech.
Epox 8rda @ Viperlair.
Spire CPU cooler @ MTB.
Zalman VGA cooler @ 3DGM.

Vacation starts tomorrow! w00t.

Finally, price cuts. Some nice drops in the table.

[QUOTE]Although processor sales have dropped in the first week of March, such a decline occurs in the early period of every month. Still, despite their optimistic forecasts based on board makers’ shipment projections, distributors remain wary about March business due to the potential outbreak of war between the US and Iraq and suppressed buying before the CeBIT Hannover tradeshow. As Intel is planning to lower some processor prices when it launches new 800MHz FSB-based P4s on May 11, the general buying sentiment may get a boost again.[/QUOTE

Madison will be a large improvement over the current Itanium. This will likely give it an edge over IBM and Sun.

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The second task is to get a software ecosystem in place. "This is an important year for turning the curve on software readiness," Grimes said, primarily because of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) upcoming Windows Server 2003. This operating system takes full advantage of a 64-bit chip and ties into specific capabilities in Madison, such as its machine check architecture, which adds reliability features through such functions as error checking and correction. Microsoft plans to launch Windows Server 2003 on April 24th.

Wintel strickes again!

You know, you can go to a store and buy a hard drive for less than $1/GB. That's pretty amazing. Prices are always going down.

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As far as various segments of the storage market, the Storage Area Network (SAN) market outperformed the overall market, with 14 percent sequential growth from the third quarter. HP led that market with 28 percent of revenue, followed by EMC with 26 percent of sales.

Yes, Linux isn't for English speaking people only you know, a bunch of people don't.

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While Linux is making some headway in the region, a recent survey by research firm IDC revealed more than 50 percent of Asian servers still run some flavor of Microsoft Windows. Although installed on only 6 percent of Asia-Pacific servers, Linux enjoyed the highest growth rate last year, more than double that of Unix.

Okay, I seems to have lost my emails for the web reviews. I don't really know what happened, but I'll get to posting a bunch tomorrow hopefully. In any case, I wanted to give a news post about what is happening here at ASE land. First off, I'll be on vacation for next week. Don't get your hopes up, I do have my laptop and all the nice hotels have dedicated internet access! We're working on getting things for review, but it is very difficult to do so. We don't lose faith, and we always will have an article per week!

ASEville should be all good in about a weeks time. I'll be making the final database wipe out for that site and we'll have a clean slate for it. I expect to see systems and articles from all of you!

Once again, I'd like to ask you, the person reading this, of your ideas on how to bring people here and keep them coming back. Readership is spread thin amoung the small sites, and I'm curious to know what everyone thinks. Believe me, if it possible, I'll change whatever is needed (to a point). Drop me some emails of your ideas.

That's all for now, take care and have a good weekend... Soon.

Bunch of the new Radeon reviews coming out.

ATI PR.

HardOCP.

Bjorn3D.

Gamersdepot.

Hexus.

Tech-Report.

The word is that this is the fastest card on the coming market. Don't throw out your R300 based cards though, it is just an evolutionary step. Wait till another 6 months for the really new stuff.

Today marks the second slapping of nVidia from ATI. ATI is basically a full generation ahead of nVidia. Time to play catch up.

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ATI on Thursday will announce three new graphics chips that will extend the performance lead the company established with the Radeon 9700. The Radeon 9800, set to go on sale later this month in graphics cards priced around $400, will operate at speeds of 380MHz and 340MHz, compared with 325MHz and 310MHz for the 9700, said David Rolston, vice president of engineering for ATI. The chips will also have dramatically enhanced support for shader instructions, pixel-by-pixel graphics programming that can dramatically increase the realism of animated images.

I wonder in a few years if OpenGL will be left out of Windows. They say that they will continue to support OpenGL and stuff. But, they have DirectX which, wow, only works with Windows!

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"Microsoft has the highest regard and respect for all the ARB members and will continue to work with individual members of the ARB, customers and ISVs (independent software vendors) who are developing applications that run on OpenGL to ensure that they will provide a great user experience under Windows," the company said in a statement. "Even though Microsoft will be focusing more energy on evolving Windows graphics, Microsoft sees OpenGL as an important component of the Windows Platform today and in the future."

Wow, this is a radical change for the US. When you say green, it may not have the same feeling when a new color of $20 bill comes.

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According to the Treasury Department, other changes will include new images of Andrew Jackson and the White House, as well as other adjustments that are being kept secret. The official unveiling will take place on March 27, with the new bill entering circulation in the fall.

I was amazed to see some of these photos. This is a very interesting article.

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To paraphrase the opinions of the author of the Toronto Star article* , the faulty capacitors are suspected to have been rooted in the theft of an aqueous electrolyte formula which was not copied correctly. If you were to open up a capacitor you would find thin sheets of paper and metal rolled up together. The entire assembly is then wetted with an aqueous electrolyte solution. However, if the formula is not correctly mixed up, hydrogen gas can apparently build up in the aluminum can with time.

Finally some good news. If you own a trademarked name, you cannot be stripped of it. Just don't sell anything.

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Under a federal law called the Federal Trademark Dilution Act, actions that effectively dilute the value and distinctiveness of the trademark can be punished. Dilution is defined as the "lessening of the capacity of a famous mark to identify and distinguish goods or services."

I'm sure the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the libraries. Too many legitimate things are being blocked.

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The law requires libraries that receive federal subsidies to use content filters such as Websense and N2H2 to filter out objectionable material. The subsidies, which have totaled nearly $1 billion since 1999 and can make up 90 percent of a library's technology budget, help pay for Internet access, automated catalogs and other services.

Wow, these are very high. Move to Linux and you don't need to pay for a per user OS.

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Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition is priced at $999 for five CALs, or $1,199 for 10 CALs. The Enterprise Edition will sell for $3,999 for 25 CALs. Microsoft would not provide pricing for the Datacenter Edition, as that version of Windows Server 2003 must be purchased with a new computer. The new Web Edition will sell for $399.

Additional CALs will be available for $199 in packs of five, or $799 for 20. Windows Server 2003 Terminal Server CALs will cost $749 for five and $2,669 for 20. Microsoft also requires what is called an external connector for people connecting from outside the network. The cost is $1,999 for Windows Server 2003, and $7,999 for the Terminal Server version.

Alright, something truely useful. Gaming anyway. I just wonder when these will make it to the market.

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Health and safety will also be a concern, Nakagawa added. Three-dimensional monitors consist of two TFT panels separated by a parallax barrier. Each eye receives a slightly different image, which creates the illusion of depth.

I bet some people won't be able to use these display, it'll give them a headache or worse.

Lots of reviews. But, update time. Enter our PestPatrol Contest! And, I'm still kind of asleep. VIA EPIA-M Platform.

A small mini roundup of nForce2 boards @ A1-Electronics.
Redundant Power Supply @ VoidedWarranty.
MSI Ti4800 @ Viperlair.
pcToys Multifunctionpanel @ OCA.
USB LCD @ DCH.
SFF PC @ Techseekers.
Sound EL cable @ Monster-Hardware.
Winbackup @ DWPG.
SLK-900 @ 3DGM.
SS Warrior @ OCIA.
UV Fans @ Extensiontech.
Crossflow blower @ PCA.

There is a flaw in the securty function in the Sendmail program. Get the patch and plug the hole.

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Several companies, including Red Hat, IBM, SGI, Sun and Hewlett-Packard, released patches Monday. The Sendmail Consortium, the group responsible for development of the open-source Sendmail code, released Sendmail 8.12.8, an updated program that fixes the flaw.

The board is very feature-loaded, but it didn't seem to offer very high performance.HardWareZone.com doesn't seem to think it was great in that aspect, but was a good board overall.

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Overall, we find that the SiS 746FX will make a good choice for budget desktops for use in the office or home. However, gamers will want to avoid using the 746FX for any serious gaming as it is definitely not delivering the performance we expected. For light gaming, it's fine, but for any complex 3D games, you'll definitely lose some frames. If that doesn't bother you and the 746FX meets your budget, there's no reason why you shouldn't adopt the 746FX as your next Athlon XP platform.

Sony is the first player to make a blue laser DVD drive. You can have it for as little as $3800. I hope this won't turn out into another +RW -RW crap.

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The machine will give Japan's Sony, the world's largest consumer-electronics maker, a head start over its partners in the Blu-ray consortium, a nine-member group of industry heavyweights that unveiled a common format for blue-laser DVDs a year ago.

This is why I usually type with grammer and normal spelling in IMs. But handing in an english paper with that garbage?

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"My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids FTF. ILNY, it's a gr8 plc."
In translation:
"My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York. It's a great place."

Now, I highly doubt this. Given that the economy in the US is not moving that much, and other countries are not prospering either (World Wide Market ring a bell?).

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Worldwide PC shipments are expected to reach 136 million units this year, up 10.6% from 123 million last year, helped largely by PC replacement demand from companies in the second half of the year, according to Japan-based market research firm Nikkei Market Access (Nikkei MA). At the same time, notebook computers continue to see rising popularity, with shipments expected to account for 22.7% of PC shipments this year, Nikkei MA projects. Global PC shipments in 2002 grew only 2.5% from the previous year, the research firm added.

With benchmarking, companies can see what product is faster for their needs. That's why we do benchmarking.

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And speed tests are particularly important in Linux. Linus Torvalds, founder and leader of the collaborative programming project, has fostered an environment in which modifications are much more likely to be considered and accepted if they're submitted with accompanying proof that they speed up a system.

I agree, the DMCA does hurt technology. The plain old normal copyrights, are fine though.

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For the most part, Lessig and others seemed to have more problems with the law than with the technology behind digital rights management, which regulates what people can do with information. The Stanford professor has created an organization called the Creative Commons to offer alternatives to strict controls backed by laws such as the DMCA. He and other experts taking part in the two-day policy debate, even those sympathetic to the plight of copyright holders, could cite several cases where the DMCA has been used to exert control in a way never intended by the creators of the law.

We've got some nice stuff for your reading pleasure. Make sure you read the VIA EPIA M review. Our PestPatrol Contest is in its second week, yes, you can still win! ASEville is moving right along, just keeping testing the features and stuff and I'll get those bugs nailed. We've got good things for review in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that.

Samsung 19inch TFT @ Monkey Review.
UV Fan adapter @ PCA.
Epox 8K9A2+ @ MHW.
OCA Gladiator2 @ 3DGM.
Laser LEDs @ DVH.
Tweakmonster EL Lightstip @ Viperlair.
Game controller roundup @ Hexus.
Antec 550Watt @ Nexus.
Speeze cooler @ MTB.
HDD Window Mod @ VoidedWarranty.
SFF PC @ Hexus.
Extremely large TT Case @ Ascully.
SpeadUpMyPC @ ipKonfig. (We should have one also soon)