[H]ardNews 10th Edition - Blair's Tech Ed.

Sony On Dead Pixel Complaints:

Sony has responded to the mass of complaints about dead pixels on the PSP. Sony suggests that owners "try the device for a week or two to see if it continues to bother them". Wow. I shouldn’t be surprised but damn. If I spent $250 on a PSP that had dead pixels I’d return it to the store I bought it from for a replacement, but that is just me.

An informal survey of the dozen-odd PSPs in the GameSpot offices found that half had at least one problematic pixel. While these dots were almost all invisible while playing games, they stood out when displayed against a black or white screen.

Most of you will remember that Sony recalled 5,000 PSPs but later called the flaw a “feature”.

Media Player-less Windows Named:

Microsoft is going to name its new media player-less version of its OS, Windows XP Professional Edition N (or Home). I guess they didn’t like my repeated suggestion of WinXP EU.

"We have some misgivings about the chosen name as we fear it may cause confusion," Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake said on Monday. "We will adopt the commission's name in order to move forward and accelerate the pace of the implementation process."

Robot Military Doctors?

You guys have got to check this one out. The Pentagon is awarding $12 million in grants to develop what is called a "trauma pod" that uses robots to perform full scale surgeries (scalpels, stitches and all) on wounded soldiers on the battlefield.

The researchers who pitched the Defense Department on the idea have prepared a futuristic "concept video" that seems straight out of a teen fantasy game, showing with full color and sound effects the notion that robots in unmanned vehicles can operate on soldiers under enemy fire and then evacuate them.

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Don’t Give Out Your Info:

Apparently people in the UK will give our very personal information if you offer them free tickets to a show. Think I am kidding? Read this story and you will be flat out amazed at how many people forked over their info.

Online Dating Criminal Checks:

I don’t know what was weirder, the fact that Michigan is trying to pass a law requiring online dating sites to state whether they conduct criminal background checks…or the fact that there was a huge Yahoo! Personals ad running on the same page as this story. Heh...too funny.

Sandie Cornillie did a double take when she first heard about a bill that would force online dating sites to say whether criminal background checks have been conducted on their members.

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

Sapphire X850XT 256MB PCI-E:

Legit Reviews has the Sapphire X850XT 256MB PCI-E video card in house for a few rounds of benchmark action. For comparison purposes, you can see our review of the VisionTek X850XT here.

The Sapphire X850 XT is a great card, plain and simple. I honestly did not find anything about this card which I didn't like. The X850 XT retails for around $450, or about $150 less than the cheapest X850 XT Platinum Edition.

Foxconn NF4K8MC nForce4:

Overclocker Café has the nForce4 powered Foxconn WinFast NF4K8MC in house today. While I don’t see overclockers and performance enthusiast running right out to buy this board, it will fit the bill for those of you looking for a straight forward budget board.

The board doesn't have all the bells and whistles such as SLI, dual LAN, and only two DIMM slots but it does have everything else the average computer user would need or want in a system.

Shuttle SB95P V2 XPC:

Overclockers Club has just posted a review of the Shuttle SB95P V2 XPC. Those of you looking for a LGA775 based SFF will certainly like this system. The SB95P V2 snagged a [H]ardOCP Must Have [H]ardware award when we reviewed it here last month.

The Shuttle SB95P V2 XPC was definitely built for the power users who are seeking every ounce of performance. The beefed up power supply unit, PCI-Express, DDR2 memory, and upgraded cooling system makes this box appeal to the power users, gamers, and overclockers alike.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

[H] PSP Sighting:

People have hacked into the hidden web browser in the PSP game WipeOut Pure and gotten it to work to browse the web. Joshua “p0rlln” Karakis sent me this shot of the exploit in action (which also serves as today’s [H]-sighting):

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

Welcome to another edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! Today I thought I would cover forum resources, the things that will help casual readers and forum members alike. If you need Athlon64 overclocking data this is the thread to find it. If you want to know which Intel CPU / motherboard combo is best, check here. If you have an E-Machines M6805 laptop we have a FAQ thread here with over 600 replies. We have guides that cover sizing your WinXP page file. Threads that cover PC security and a networking FAQ. There are Folding FAQs for new folders and we even have a case modding FAQ as well. As you can see, not only are the forums fun to hang out in, the the forums are a great source of information for everyone.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition

Telecom Giants Vs. Hackers:

Hackers beware, the Fingerprint Sharing Alliance is banding together to catch you. According to the report a new collaboration between companies will mean automatically sending each other any information on computer hackers as they observe or experience new attacks. British Telecom, Cisco Systems, EarthLink, MCI, Verizon are just some of the heavyweight companies sharing hacker information.

The Fingerprint Sharing Alliance hopes to help the involved companies, which include British Telecom, Cisco Systems, EarthLink, MCI and NTT Communications, more effectively share information on individuals responsible for launching online attacks. Other organizations involved in the collaboration, which was announced Monday, include Asia Netcom, Broadwing Communications, Verizon Dominicana, XO Communications and the University of Pennsylvania.

Hacking Apple For Cash:

So this guy offers $25,000 to anyone who could infect two Macs owned by his company. Then the deal was revoked one day later. The problem? The guy’s company makes peripherals for Apple products and I don’t think Apple thought to much of this guy’s idea. There is a forehead smacker for you. Honestly, with under 3% of the market share, why would anyone bother writing a virus for Apple computers?

DVForge CEO Jack Campbell called Symantec's report "complete nonsense" and threw down the gauntlet, offering a $25,000 cash prize to any hacker that could infect with Mac OS X viruses two DVForge-owned Macs.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Cooler Master Aquagate Mini Watercooling Kit @ Rojak Pot - AquaXtreme 50Z-DC12 Water Pump @ SystemCooling

Etc.:

D-Link DGL-4300 Gaming Router @ Phoronix - Sony PSP @ Design Technica - Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD @ eCoustics - Icemat Siberia Multi Headset @ HardwareHounds - Logitech Premium USB Headset 350 @ Techage

Cases & Modding:

MGE VIPER Gaming Case @ ExtremeMHz

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

FireFox On Steroids:

If you are a FireFox user, you might want to check out this little FireFox “How-To” that helps beef up your browsing experience.

You may have noticed that the browser will make one request to a web page at a time, as do most web browsers currently on the internet. This is due to Firefox's configuration for the pipelines, which you can take advantage of that by making some simple modifications to its configuration file.

Guide To Blogging:

The crew at The Tech Zone are talking about blogs today. If you don’t know what a blog is, I personally suggest you never find out. If you must know, here is a glamorized look at company blogs.

It is a way for management to talk directly to customers, business partners and every stakeholder (including the board of directors). Blogs provide an opportunity for you to convince them that the positions, directions and actions that you are taking are in the best interest of all concerned.

Honestly, we know that no one reads a CEO’s blog…Why? Because we only want to read the anonymous mailroom clerk’s blog who is dishing up the gossip and dirty deeds that go on behind the scenes…those are the interesting blogs. Am I wrong?

More On AMD’s 05 Roadmap:

I noticed over at the Tech Report that there is a link to a couple graphs showing AMD’s 2005 roadmap at AMDBoard. One of the graphs is the very same roadmap we posted here 3 weeks ago, the other graph does offer a little more info on the upcoming processors for those of you who might have missed it the first time.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Carmack Speaks:

John Carmack has posted another blog update at Armadillo Aerospace. Apparently, while not working on id Software projects or flying rockets, John has been working on cell phone games.

I have a small list of games that I think would work out well, but what I decided to work on is DoomRPG – sort of Bard’s Tale meets Doom. Step based smooth sliding/turning tile movement and combat works out well for the phone input buttons, and exploring a 3D world through the cell phone window is pretty neat. We talked to Jamdat about the business side of things, and hired Fountainhead Entertainment to turn my proof-of-concept demo and game plans into a full-featured game.

Sony Ordered To Suspend Sales:

For the second time, Sony has lost a patent infringement court case filed by a company named Immersion. The judgment to halt sales of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, almost 50 games and two controllers, will not go into effect while the appeal process is taking place but Sony IS paying licensing fees in the mean time. Ouch.

SCE said it will continue U.S. sales as the suspension order--which covers PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles, two game controllers and 47 software titles--will not go into effect before the appeal and because Sony will be paying compulsory license fees to Immersion, an SCE spokeswoman said.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition - Press Releases

Rich Oehler Joins AMD:

AMD announced today that Rich Oehler, a 40-year industry veteran well known for his groundbreaking work in microprocessor, symmetric multi-processing and mission-critical systems design, has joined AMD’s Office of Strategy and Technology reporting to CTO Fred Weber. “It is a real honor to have Rich join the AMD team,” said Weber. “His unique depth of experience in enterprise computing enhances an already immensely talented group focused on strengthening the performance, reliability, availability and scalability features of our 64-bit solutions.”

Microsoft Declares Quarterly Dividend:

Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share. The dividend is payable June 9, 2005, to shareholders of record on May 18, 2005. The ex-dividend date will be May 16, 2005.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition - Weekend Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Logisys One for All VGA Cooler @ OCIA.net - Scythe FCS-50 HSF Review @ Ap0calypse.com - mCubed T-Balancer SL4 @ A True Review

Etc.:

Brothers in Arms Review @ HawaiiGamer - CableCARD Facts @ eCoustics

Modding & Cases:

MGE-XG Extreme Mod Kit review @ Moditory.com

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

More on the ASUS Socket Adapter:

Mark a long time reader sent me a link to Legitreview's look at the same device. Thanks Mark for the extra info, I am glad to pass it along to our fellow readers. You can see Part II here.

Last week ASUS quietly released a press release on the CT-479 motherboard adapter. While the CT-479 is not yet available on the market, and there is no set retail price, ASUS has set the enthusiast and corporate communities abuzz with this socket adapter that allows Intel's 479 pin CPUs to be used on current socket 478 boards..