[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Spam Law Flaws:

Apparently people are worried the new spam law is worded too broadly leaving it susceptible to legal challenges. The spam freaks will be out in force trying to sue their way back into your inbox.

More so than any other state antispam law, the California measure is worded so broadly it is thought to be especially vulnerable to expected legal challenges, either from unapologetic spammers who claim it violates their constitutional rights or from legitimate businesses that claim it interferes with traditional marketing practices. That's exactly the kind of lesson the Federal Trade Commission learned this week, after the Direct Marketing Association won a legal bid to nix the national "Do Not Call" list, just days before the Oct. 1 deadline for it to take effect.

O.K., you guys know my stance. I say outlaw spam all together and go after the company that use spammers. No companies use spammers, spammers go away, it’s that simple. BUT, this is my question to our legal savvy readers; E-mail is a service I pay for, what gives someone the right to infringe on my paid for service with unsolicited mail?

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Shuttle's XPC SN85G4:

Here is a small form factor that is a triple threat. Not only is the Shuttle's XPC SN85G4 reviewed by the Tech Report a super compact system, it is based on the nForce3 chipset and supports the Athlon64. Now that is impressive. Hopefully the performance is as impressive as the specs, let’s find out:

Despite a few flaws, the SN85G4 is still a stable, fast, and ultimately attractive small form factor system for AMD's Athlon 64. Without integrated graphics or Gigabit Ethernet, the SN85G4 probably isn't appropriate for business environments, but it certainly has plenty to offer gamers and PC enthusiasts looking for a pint-sized Athlon 64 platform.

Extreme Edition Pentium4:

Hardwareluxx has the 3.2GHz P4 EE processor in house for a few rounds of benchmarks. You will need a translator for this one, and that doesn’t always guarantee anything. The graphs and pictures are universal which is always a plus.

Today, we have a review of the new Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition. We compared the new 3.2 Ghz CPU with the Athlon 64 and the Athlon XP and the "old" Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz. See what our opinion is of the new CPU.

Mods & Ends:

Vantec Nexus 305 @ Virtual Hideout - Chenbro Server Cases @ The Crucible - Nexustek PHT3600 HSF @ R&B Mods - 3.3v PSU Voltage Mod @ BleedingEdge - Tape Masking Guide @ OCModShop - Akasa AK03 Fan Control @ System Cooling - Speeze Hard Drive Cooler @ BigBruin - TurboCool 510w PSU @ EnvyNews

[H]ardNews - PR Flack

VIA Eight-Channel Audio Codec:

VIA Announces New High Performance Eight-channel Audio Codec. An integral component in VIA's Vinyl Audio strategy, the VIA Eight-TRAC promises to deliver enhanced features and leading audio fidelity. VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the VIA Vinyl Eight-TRAC codec featuring 100dB SNR and support for the latest multimedia content, enabling the next generation of AC'97 audio.

ABIT Releases the AI7:

ABIT Releases the AI7 : The First Motherboard With a Second Processor. No stranger to innovation, ABIT Computer today releases the AI7, the first motherboard with intelligent hardware monitoring and overclocking features that can be saved to a micro-processor: µGuru. Based on the 865PE chipset, the AI7 also comes with Game Accelerator, a BIOS tweak that allows users to increase their performance up to 30%. µGuru is a new microprocessor designed by the ABIT Engineers for use only on ABIT motherboards and which allows end-users to reach a higher state of hardware awareness and enlightenment. µGuru acts as a spiritual guide, sharing with ABIT users, tips for hardware monitoring, overclocking, BIOS flashing and audio tweaking functions in an easy to use, Windows-based interface.

Gigabyte GA-K8NNXP-940:

Supporting the revolutionary AMD AthlonTM64 FX processor, GA-K8NNXP-940 brings new levels of performance and features to the desktop platforms. The brand new AMD AthlonTM64 FX processor is furnished with unprecedented framework consisted of AMD¡¦s 64-bit computing platform, HyperTransport Technology, and dual channel DDR400 memory architecture to boost the overall performance. Accompanied with the innovative designs of AthlonTM64 FX, the advanced NVIDIA nForce3 platform processor and Gigabyte¡¦s unique technology also contribute to the functionality and stability of this platform.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

The Man...

The Myth...The Legend...

The young Taiwanese gentleman pictured below is a friend of ours from way back (in Net years). We first met him in 1998 in the ABIT offices in Taiwan. At the time he was 17 years old if I remember correctly. His name is Oscar Wu and he was the brain behind the dual Celeron mainboard that took the enthusiast community by storm. He is the engineer that was behind many winning mainboards that ABIT has produced over the years.

Oscar is now working for DFI and looks to again be a driving force in the industry. DFI's CMOS Reloaded is his baby. In its current form it will allow you to save four custom BIOS settings defined by you. This will not only be a standard feature on DFI's newest mainboards, but DFI is also going the extra mile. DFI will be putting the BIOS upgrade on their website for all of their recent Lan Party series mainboard customers. What else can we say besides that is damn nice of them.

Changing the way enthusiasts “tweak”, CMOS Reloaded removes the need to manually record settings on paper and reset configurations during the trial and error process. Unlike conventional motherboards that allow for only one set of CMOS configuration, DFI’s new technology offers up to 4 sets per computer. Depending on the application used and the processing power needed, users can choose between configurations to maximize resources and take full advantage of what PCs have to offer.

We will be keeping an eye on what Oscar is doing at DFI as he is an engineer that is truly "one of us". You know what I mean.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition

Athlon64 FX-51 Stuff:

Motherboards.org

TechNation

UKGamer ( Athlon64 Launch Event )

HardTecs4U

A few of the remaining Athlon64 FX-51 articles out there. Doc Overclock at Motherboards.org runs the A64 FX-51 on the nForce3, TechNation pits the A64 FX-51 against the 3.2GHz EE P4 and UKGamer covers the Cannes AMD Launch Event.

Aqua-Computer H20 Review:

Grab a translator and check out this review at PCTweaks of the Aqua-Computer watercooling kit. I don’t know first hand how this kit performs, but I love the radiator and reservoir on this thing. Check it out.

Kazaa Sues Record Co.:

Kazaa sues record companies in a pretty funny turn of events. The argument sounds like it could get them a little action in the courts though.

Kazaa, filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing the entertainment companies of using unauthorized versions of its software in their efforts to root out users. Entertainment companies have offered bogus versions of copyright works and sent online messages to users. Sharman said the companies used Kazaa Lite, an ad-less replica of its software, to get onto the network. The lawsuit also claims efforts to combat piracy on Kazaa violated terms for using the network.

[H]ardNews - Blair's Tech Ed. II

Counter-Attacking Justified?:

If a user, through ignorance or choice, does not apply the necessary patches and updates and continues to propagate the infection does the community have a right to respond? Many consider it morally and ethically wrong. It is simple vigilantism. Those on that side of the fence would argue that taking matters into your own hands to somehow retaliate or automatically respond to the threat make you no better than the original threat from a legal standpoint.

Identity Crisis:

Last Tuesday morning in Burlingame, Calif., unemployed hardware engineer Cary Snyder was taking lessons from the pros on the finer points of picketing: Chants get you heard, big signs get you seen, and a permit prevents the police from asking you to leave. Snyder had joined other technology workers and local organized-labor representatives on the sidewalk outside a hotel that was hosting an offshore-outsourcing conference.

Pop-Up Scam:

Crooks have deployed the same technology to launch an identity-theft scheme aimed at America Online users on vulnerable Windows systems. In recent months, advertisers have broadcast a slew of messages to Internet users, many of the ads pitching software to block Windows Messenger spam. Last Thursday a scammer sent what security experts call a "phishing" notice to AOL members through the Messenger service.

How Firewalls Work:

If you have been using the Internet for any length of time, and especially if you work at a larger company and browse the Web while you are at work, you have probably heard the term firewall used. For example, you often hear people in companies say things like, "I can't use that site because they won't let it through the firewall." If you have a fast Internet connection into your home (either a DSL connection or a cable modem), you may have found yourself hearing about firewalls for your home network as well.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

ABIT IC7-MAX3:

Need a killer Canterwood board for your next Intel project or upgrade? Then the ABIT IC7-MAX3 is definitely a board you have to look at. We liked the IC7-MAX3 so much, it earned a well deserved “Must Have Hardware” award when we reviewed it here.

If you're planning on running at stock speeds, and stock speeds are now such that they'll take almost anything we can throw at them, then there's little point in considering the IC7-MAX3. Don't get us wrong, it's a great board with a multitude of features, but you somehow get the pervasive feeling that you're paying for features that won't be used at 200FSB. The board is literally screaming out to be pushed to its limit.

D-N-C List Update:

This falls directly into the “What The Hell?” department. The courts ruled against the national Do Not Call List…which I am sure will be overturned, but the fact remains that this knucklehead judge just overturned a decision AFTER everyone signed up for the DNC list. UGH…

A federal judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating a national do-not-call list against telemarketers. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by telemarketers who challenged the list, comprised of names of people who do not want to receive business solicitation calls. The immediate impact of Tuesday's ruling was not clear.

RIAA Drops Suit:

RIAA drops suit against a 66 year old Mac user who never downloaded a single song, but was accused of downloading 2,000 songs. Everyone knew this would happen, mistakes by the RIAA and who they pursue, but the funniest part was this lame quote from the RIAA:

"Please note, however, that we will continue our review of the issues you raised and we reserve the right to refile the complaint against Mrs. Ward if and when circumstances warrant," Colin J. Zick, the Foley Hoag lawyer, wrote to Beeler.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

California Spam Bill:

Looks like someone in California has been listening to me ( yeah right ). California has started the ball rolling by outlawing spam now the rest of us need to jump on the bandwagon. I have not read all the way through the new law, but hopefully this helps. If all the other states make laws like this….only tougher, it would help. We need this on a national level though.

California will prohibit Internet advertisers from sending unsolicited e-mails under the toughest law of its kind in the nation, providing for fines up to $1 million. Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation Tuesday that targets not only the firms that package and send spam to consumers, but also the companies whose products and services are being advertised. The measure covers all unsolicited commercial e-mail sent or received in California and imposes fines of up to $1 million per incident.

Xbox To PC Adapter:

Check this bad boy out. I grabbed one of these adapters from X2VGA.com to run an Xbox off of one of the monitors I have laying around. The difference is PHENOMENAL. For people that don’t have an HDTV and want to get in on the HiDef Xbox gaming, this is THE way to go. I was surprised at how damn cool these are.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

3D Prophet 9600 256MB:

Guru3D has the Hercules 3D Prophet 9600 256MB on the review bench. These 256MB 9600 cards are like the Cadillac of the budget boards, but does it really make a difference? Let’s see:

In all fairness, right now there are very little games that need such a massive amount of memory to store their textures in. The only one that I know of is Unreal 2003 which can utilize more than 128 MB texture memory. Future games will probably utilize more texture memory also ... but I doubt that this product will be fast enough for such massive future games.

Athlon64 WaterChill System:

Asetek has some Athlon64 performance numbers posted using their new WaterChill watercooling kit. We recently reviewed a full WaterChill system HERE.

Did you ever wonder what the WaterChill™ could do for you and the new Athlon™ 64? We have tested the new flagship from AMD and overclocked a 2900+ to 3300+ with WaterChill™. Already from the launch of the very first generation WaterChill™, the WaterChill™ CPU Cooler was designed to support the upcoming Athlon™ 64 CPU. Now it is here! And ALL existing WaterChill™ owners can use the WaterChill™ CPU cooler as it is.

VIA Introduces Nano-ITX:

VIA CEO Wenchi Chen Introduces Nano-ITX Mainboard and the Dawn of Digital Intelligence at VTF2003. New tiny Nano-ITX form factor is the future for Totally Connected smart digital lifestyle devices, while Empowered Connectivity looks to creating a whole new market of first-time users. VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today outlined a clear vision for a tri-segmented industry during the opening keynote presentation of the VIA Technology Forum 2003, taking place Wednesday 24 September 2003 in Taipei, Taiwan.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Crossover H20 Kit:

This Crossover Mission II watercooling kit doesn’t look very impressive, but I suppose looks can be deceiving. The ViperLair guys ran into some quality control issues with this system, specifically a leaky block:

The pieces that were included were very good, however the fact that the first sample I received had a leak on the water block itself is not a good sign. This was not an isolated occurrence as The Tech Lounge had the same problem with their first review sample as well. Testing the water cooler before you put it on the CPU is a good idea as the problems we had shows.

DDR2 At What Cost?

DDR2 SDRAM is close but how much will it cost when it gets here? How long will it stay expensive? The EBNews article talks about it and tries to make a little sense of things.

"If the DDR2 price premium is small and goes away quickly, we could see a fairly aggressive ramp," said Pete MacWilliams, Intel senior fellow and director of platform architecture. "If the premium is too high, it will take longer to bring DDR2 into the mainstream." With most DRAM suppliers eager to resurrect profits, the competitive pressure to ramp up production quickly "could have everyone fighting for orders, and that will drive down the DDR2 price,"

Chat Room Crackdown:

Microsoft even admitting this, let alone doing something about it, is big news. Personally I think it is a good move on the part of MS. Thanks Wicker Bill.

Microsoft is closing internet chat rooms because their misuse by spammers, pedophiles and others is damaging the reputation of its MSN service and the internet as a whole. The decision is the latest attempt by Microsoft to increase trust among users of its software. It has vowed to tackle computer viruses that have exploited weaknesses in its Windows operating system and infected millions of computers.

Random [H] Sighting:

You guys like our random [H] sightings…this time around, Kyle in Taipei hanging out with the guys from TweakPC is the random sighting. Well, at least we know he was there in Taipei working instead of slacking off….ummm, O.K. at least we know he’s there.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Computex 2003 Coverage:

Legion Hardware (Day 2 )

T-Break ( Day 2 )

Tech Bits (Day #2 )

Hardware Analysis

Overclockers New Zealand ( Day 1 )

Continuing coverage of the Computex 2003 show from around the net. Make sure to check each link out to see all the different stuff being shown at Computex this year.

Get Your ZZZs:

As always you will want to check out the weekly bizarre bazaar known as ZZZ Online. This weeks edition is up to number 177 and they have more of that “mid air display” that we posted last week. Very, very cool stuff.

There is 2 grills, one at the top and one at the bottom of the display. 2 sheets of very fast air are fanned down from the top grill to the bottom, inbetween these 2 sheets a fog is fanned down. the fog is sandwiched in between the 2 fast flowing air sheets. the fast flowing air sheets sliding alongside the slow moving fog sheet causes what is called a "Laminar effect", and this effect is why the fog (and therefore the image projected onto it) is so crisp and stable.

Cool Case Sighting:

Looking for just the right look for your computer? Maybe you want your system to LOOK like you spent $6000.00 on it…well there is a way now. These cool cases were spotted in Taipei so I thought I’d pass them on to you. Damn, I’ll take two of these kind right here as soon as we figure out where they are being sold!

[H]ardNews - Blair's Early Tech Ed.

Cool USB Gadget:

Migo plugs into a PC USB port, captures a user's entire PC environment and replicates that personal desktop on any other compatible Windows-based computer anywhere in the world. Unlike other flash memory devices that store only limited files, Migo transfers a user's customized desktop — including the desktop background image with personal settings, Internet favorites, e-mail accounts, video clips, presentations, MP3 files, documents and more. With Migo, users can take their personal computing environment with them to work, home, school or on the go.

Room Temp Supercomputers:

A recent theoretical study of the quantum Hall effect (QHE), a type of superconductivity that occurs in semiconductors, suggests a new route to room-temperature quantum computers. The researchers think they have discovered a spin current that is associated with holes rather than electrons in semiconductors. The predicted current would be able to inject spin momentum into quantum dots and would also interact with conventional electron currents, providing a bridge between electronics and spin-based quantum circuits.

Ball Lightning:

Ball lightning - a slow-moving ball of light that is occasionally seen at ground level during thunderstorms - has puzzled scientists for centuries. There have also been reports of ball lightning in aircraft, but the origins of this phenomenon have remained a mystery. Now John Gilman of the University of California at Los Angeles has suggested that one of the properties of ball lightning - the cohesion that keeps the ball together for periods of tens of seconds - can be explained in terms of Rydberg atoms (J Gilman 2003 Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 2283). However, other researchers in the field disagree.

Chip = Octopus Eye:

A University at Buffalo optical engineer has created a silicon chip that mimics the structure and functionality of an octopus retina. Called the o-retina, the chip one day may give sight to autonomous robots used in space and undersea exploration or could be used in hazardous environments, like a nuclear reactor or underground pipe, says creator Albert H. Titus, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.