[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU Cooler @ Big Bruin - Scythe Shogun CPU Heatsink @ Phoronix - SilverStone NT02 CPU Cooler @ Overclockers Online

Etc.:

Vantec ION2 460w Power Supply @ Virtual Hideout - Shake Light Flashlight @ Monster Hardware - Video Connectors Tutorial @ Hardware Secrets - Understanding Video Codecs @ VIA Arena - D-Link DGL-4100 Broadband Gigabit Router @ BoxGods - Compro VideoMate Action Ultra @ Bjorn3D - Thermaltake PurePower 460W PSU @ Techniz - eDimensional AudioFX Force Feedback Gaming Headset @ Adrian’s Rojak Pot - Saitek Lighted Keyboards @ BoxGods

Cases & Modding:

Lian Li PC-V1200 Case @ System Cooling

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

HL2: Lost Coast Update:

There is an update on the status of the Half Life 2: Lost Coast HDR add-on. Valve says that after they release the Lost Coast add-on that they will include HDR in all of their future product releases, including Day of Defeat. There is also a downloadable movie available as well that showcases HDR in action.

We're getting much closer to having Lost Coast ready to release. Originally planned as a section of the Highway 17 chapter of Half-Life 2, Lost Coast is a playable technology showcase that introduces High Dynamic Range lighting to the Source engine. Once Lost Coast is released, we will include HDR in our future product releases. For instance, Day of Defeat: Source will feature HDR lighting for all of its levels the day it is released.

Apple OS X:

For all of you Mac users out there, T-Break has posted a five page review of Apple’s OS X today. Overall a very positive review and certainly worth checking out...even for non-Mac users.

We’ll start with the looks and there’s absolutely no denying that OS X looks extremely elegant and beautiful. While there are some discrepancies in certain applications, such as the toolbar on the Mail client that’s bundled with Tiger, on the whole, we really like the uniform look and feel of OS X.

Chemical Misting Hard Drives:

Engadget has a bit of news on different types of remote security for your laptop and other devices. The “dead on demand” and delete data options are cool but they don’t hold a candle to the “spraying acid on your hard drive” solution. Thanks to Jim Downs for the linkage.

But our favorite (simply because it involves acid) data security solution is Ensconce Data Technology’s “Dead on Demand” hard drive. Configurable triggers such as removal or tampering of the drive, removal of device from a resting GPS point, cellular telephone call, or even a change in temperature will release a “chemical mist” into the drive (not the computer) destroying it layer by layer.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 Launched:

[H]ard|OCP

HotHardware

BitTech

Hexus

ExtremeTech

The Tech Report

3DVelocity

Driver Heaven

T-Break

Lost Circuits

AMD Unveils Athlon 64 FX-57 Processor:

As part of an ongoing effort to deliver the industry’s highest-performing PC technology, AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the immediate availability of the AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 processor, the world’s ultimate PC processor for enthusiasts and hard-core gamers. Providing unparalleled PC performance on 3D games and intense applications, the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 processor allows power-hungry users to experience the next generation of single-threaded games with intense and realistic graphic resolutions.

[H]ardNews 10th Edition - P2P Edition

Not In Kansas Anymore:

Downunder the fair-use defense is useless as so aptly illustrated by this case.

It’s hard to believe, but in Australia you can’t legally back up your music CDs, or even rip a CD you have paid for, so you can convert it into an iPod compatible format. You can’t even legally use your VCR or DVD recorder to record “Lust” or “Horny Housewives” so you can watch these TV programs later. Talk about a nation built on piracy … oops … I mean time shifting.

Patent Absurdity:

The Guardian examines the implications of a U.S. style patent system in Europe.

If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written. If the EU applies it to software, every computer user will be restricted, says Richard Stallman

Shooting Blanks:

CDfreaks reports on the findings of two researchers that find anti-piracy campaigns in the UK seem largely ineffective.

The majority of anti-piracy ad campaigns in the UK focus on damage to the software / film industry as well as that purchasing pirated content on the street supports organised crime. However despite widespread publicity of these ads, most consumers simply overlook them as they don't see it as a great problem.

Avalanche Is Vaporware:

Bram Cohen the creator of BitTorrent has some interesting things to say about Microsoft's Avalanche.

"It isn't a product which you can use or test with, it's a bunch of proposed algorithms. There isn't even a fleshed out network protocol. The 'experiments' they've done are simulations,"

[H]ardNews 9th Edition

Sony DRM:

In a short but pertinent blurb HomeUpgrade asks is Sony obligating OS developers to comply with their music CD digital right management scheme? The linked story at the The New York Times describes the pressure Sony has been exerting on Apple to play along.

It's one thing for music publishers to add copy-protection measures to CDs, but it's quite another to obligate OS developers to make their software compatible with third party DRM.

Google Satellite:

The satellite coverage available via Google Maps has been dramatically increased with such closups as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Buckingham Palace and My House. :p

[H]ardNews 8th Edition - Memory Edition

RAM Rise:

DigiTimes is forecasting that with Samsung's reallocation of fabrication capacity to NAND flash at the expense of DRAM prices will rise.

The sources claim DRAM will be in serious short supply in the second half of the year as two other major players, Hynix Semiconductor and Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation (PSC) will cut DRAM output to allocate capacity to NAND flash production. Contract prices for DRAM stand a good chance of rising 5-10% in July, the sources added.

Kingston Tour:

In case you missed it The Best Case Scenario tours the Fountain Valley California Kingston Plant.

David Sun and John Tu founded Kingston Technology in 1987, and it was their dream to make the best memory products in the world. Their keen engineering expertise and years of hard work has undoubtedly made Kingston the largest memory maker on the block. The plant I was invited to visit in Fountain Valley California produces over 60,000 memory modules in a single day.

TCCD Supply Demystified:

CDRinfo translates a Corsair Press Release on the source of TCCD memory chips.

The Samsung "TCCD" memory chip is the best overclocking IC for the AMD platform. Since speculation began about the TCCD reaching End-of-Life (EOL), the enthusiast community has been concerned about its near- and long-term availability. The purpose of this update is to provide a lead on the current status of this very popular IC.

Geil PR:

Geil has released a new Elite Series Geil ONE TCCD Version Hand-picked (TCCD) 32x8 DDR Chips PC3200 400MHz DDR SDRAM. Capable running at DDR400MHz CAS 1.5-2-2-5 and DDR 600MHz CAS 2.5-4-4-7 and Geil ONE BH Version Hand-picked (BH) 32x8 DDR Chips PC3200 400MHz DDR SDRAM. Capable running at DDR400MHz CAS 1.5-2-2-5 and DDR 500MHz CAS 2.5-4-4-7.

OCZ PR:

OCZ has also launched two new offerings the Gamer eXtreme Series a PC-3500 Gold GX that is aggressively priced, low latency line with a CL 2-2-2-5 and the Value Pro Series a DDR2 PC2-4200 that is competatively priced and runs with 4-4-4 timings.

[H]ardNews 7th Edition - New Tech Edition

Exotic Supers:

ITJungle examines the Super 500 List dominated by exotic supercomputers. Being at any particular position on the Top 500 list is a fleeting thing these days, 5 of the 10 vendors at the top of the list have been pushed down in the past six months.

The semi-annual list of the Top 500 supercomputers was released today at the International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, Germany, and there is a tremendous amount of churn in the rankings as vendors have installed various kinds of supercomputers that have been in the works for years and academic, government, and private research facilities gobble up huge amounts of computing capacity.

Scrambled By Babble:

WiredNews takes us on a tour of AppliedMinds where among other inventions is Babble.

To our left, two employees chat behind a desk. Their conversation is a burbling, unintelligible stream. It's as if someone poured their words into a blender, then hit "puree." That's because their speech has been scrambled by Babble, a gadget designed by Applied Minds, with office furniture company Herman Miller, for creating sonic privacy in workspaces without walls.

The Quantum Front:

Geek News Central discusses D-Wave Systems a computer engineering firm has announced its intention to build a functional quantum computer in three years.

While most designs for quantum computers focus on the properties of quantum entanglement to calculate binary functions, the D-Wave system will use quantum tunneling, which enables particles to hop from one location to another without traversing the intervening space.

Cold Fusion For Real:

The Christian Science Monitor looks at a very reputable, very careful group of scientists at the University of Los Angeles that have actually accomplished cold fusion.

Brian Naranjo, Jim Gimzewski, Seth Putterman have initiated a fusion reaction using a laboratory device that's not much bigger than a breadbox, and works at roughly room temperature.

Lunar Force Fields:

NASA is re-examining a potential technology they ruled out back in the 50's as too unwieldy.

A lunar base would have a half dozen or so inflatable, conductive spheres about 5 meters across mounted above the base. The spheres would then be charged up to a very high static-electrical potential: 100 megavolts or more. This voltage is very large but because there would be very little current flowing (the charge would sit statically on the spheres), not much power would be needed to maintain the charge.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition - AMD vs Intel

Marrakesh Express:

Later this week at Sun's JavaOne tradeshow Marrakesh an Opteron based workstation is scheduled to be revealed, with a target price of $895 and with Solaris going open source, this should be interesting.

Sun for years sold computers only using Sparc processors such as its current UltraSparc IV, but in 2002 began embracing x86 chips such as Intel's Xeon and Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron. Sun didn't design its current Opteron products, but that's changing now with the acquisition of Kealia and the resulting return of Sun's first computer engineer, Andy Bechtolsheim.

Centrino Hardware Control:

If you have a Centrino Notebook have I got the application for you. This handy little freeware ap allows you to easily control the hardware components of your Intel Mobile Notebook.

Prolong the battery lifetime and cool down the system with CPU Voltage Control and ATI Clock Control, - full processor speed control with custom dynamic switching and CPU Speed Control (CPU policy) - monitor the battery charge level and system temperature, - control and monitor the Hard Drive with S.M.A.R.T management, acoustic & advanced power management and Hard Drive temperature monitoring, - reduce noise with Notebook FAN Control.

Light It Up:

Eweek reports that Intel researchers are exploring ways to employ silicon photonics, on chip components that employ light to transmit data.

Silicon photonics could be an ideal because of its potential to offer very high bandwidth—Intel's already got gear running at 10 gigabits per second in its labs—and its ability to be designed directly into the chip itself.

C7-M In China:

Maybe this edition should be AMD vs Intel vs VIA. DigiTimes reports that VIA is set to pounce on the forecasted shortfall in Pentium M chips in the Asian market.

VIA recently introduced its C7-M processor, manufactured on a 90nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process, and the company will target China’s notebook sector once volume shipments begin in July, Tang said. Currently, four China-based notebook vendors will introduce notebook models based on the CPU, Tang noted.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition - Spyware Edition

Fortune 500 Spies:

Yahoo has the lowdown on some major brands that have been caught in the spyware net.

Even Fortune 500 companies have turned to adware: Sprint Corp. for its PCS mobile phones, major banks peddling Visa credit cards, Sony Corp and retailers including Circuit City Stores Inc. And Mercedes-Benz USA had its cars flashing on consumer's computer screens before the company, fielding complaints, put on the brakes.

Spyware That Wasn’t There:

CastleCops reports that the FTC has frozen the assets of SpyKiller.

The FTC alleges defendants sent pop-up and e-mail messages informing consumers that their computers had been remotely “scanned” and that spyware had been “detected” even though defendants had not performed any such scans.

DoubleClick's Crystal Ball:

With Adware shading to Spyware and Spyware shading into Malware, its often easy to just adopt the position to ditch it all, however this site like most other free content runs on those advertising dollars. ZDNet offers up this caution from Bennie Smith DoubleClick's privacy chief.

If any browser manufacturer considered implementing an ad-blocking feature as a default option, "They would be harming their own customer relationships to create a short-term, short-sighted, limited-effectiveness tool," he said. "One that they would probably end up having to withdraw from the market." If enough people started blocking ads, Smith warned that publishers would start charging for content.