Microsoft has released Windows XP RC1 build 2505 for BETA testers. For all of you who signed up
for beta testing will be recieving it in the mail within the next few days, including me. I just
wish that they would remove the product activation.
Friday, June 29, 2001 - 3:53PM
KG7 and NV7 News
The Rojack Pot website has some news about the KG7 and NV7 boards from ABIT.
This is ABIT's new video card based on the nVIDIA GeForce MX400. PCHardware has a review of this
new graphics card, and this card is very overclockable and performs better than some of the nVIDIA
reference cards.
There is a review of the ABIT KT7E at Maximum3D. This board has a blue PCB, and ABIT considers
this their budget KT7 board, and it can run the FSB at 133MHz as well.
Saw this at Hard|OCP, go over to Dell, and complete a survey to show what you think is the better
CPU. Remember not to answer question 3 because it will remove your choice for question 2.
Oh, according to AMDZone, the whole survey is rigged to give Intel all of the results. This is
what AMDZone has to quote from an e-mail:
"Chris -
You're not going to believe this one.
On Dell's survey, the radio buttons are screwed up for Questions 2 and 3. You can only select one
button ACROSS THE TWO QUESTIONS! So, if question 2 you say you most prefer the Athlon, and
question 3 you say you least prefer the Pentium 4, and you answer in that order, than only
Pentium 4 will be registered in the question. Moreover:
That's question 2:
"If you were purchasing a new personal computer for your household today, which one of the
following processors would you MOST prefer and why? (Please select one)"
And this is Question 3:
"If you were purchasing a new personal computer for your household today, which one of the
following processors would you LEAST prefer and why? (Please select one)"
Note my browser, IE5, will only give you one radio button for each NAME attribute. Since both
most and least have the same NAME="most_prefer", despite one question being most and one least,
that only the second one will be recorded in the system!!!
Moreover, look at the 11-point divvy:
Again, both boxes have the same NAME, so only one is being sent, and THERE IS NO W3C STANDARD WAY
TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE TWO IN THIS FORM, IT IS CONSIDERED MALFORMED. THE BROWSER CAN SEND
WHATEVER IT WANTS, OR BOTH, IN ANY ORDER.
I guess you're right. Dell is a bunch of ****-ups. Or a bunch of people who are trying to rig the
**** out of a survey.
>:-#
-----
Steven B. Lewis
Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 2:58PM
New ABIT KT7 series BIOS
There is a new BIOS, 3Rb01, has the latest AWARD BIOS Code, plus fixes items and adds support for
the 1400(133) Thunderbird, and new option: "1200 above" for newer high speed Athlons with the 100MHz
Front Side Bus.
Fixes/Additions in this BIOS:
Update BIOS code to latest AWARD BIOS
Enhance ISA PnP compatibility
Enhance SCSI adapters compatibility
Add 1400(133) Athlon support for KT7A/KT7A-RAID
Add new option "1200 above" for high speed Athlons with 100FSB. KT7/KT7-RAID/KT7A/KT7A-RAID/KT7E
only support 1.4G(100) Athlon with L1 bridges disconnected. Check L1 before you buy a CPU please!
For Creative SBLive 5.1 sound card users, you may try these options while experience sound quality
issue
PCI master read caching, default setting=Disabled
PCI master time-out, Default setting=1
Setting above options to Disabled/3 will lead to
the same result with VIA Latency patch V0.14 and may help SB Live 5.1 sound
issue. If the system experiences low performance after these settings,
enable the "PCI master read caching" please.
Update HPT BIOS to 1.20.0612 for KT7-RAID/KT7A-RAID.
This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while
RAID controller chip not detected.
EDIT -- (06/28/2001 - 6:15PM)
It is best not to flash to this BIOS if you own a KT7/KT7-RAID, as it will run the memory at
100MHz, even when the memory speed is set to HSTCLK+PCICLK.
Wednesday, June 27, 2001 - 2:35PM
1.2GHz AMD powered Notebooks
The Inquirer reports that AMD may be first in with 1.2GHz CPU's for notebook computers.
Quote from report:
"SOURCES CLOSE to AMD in Taiwan say that the firm is set to bring out a 1.2GHz
Athlon Mobile processor shortly after Intel introduces its Tualatin .13 micron microprocessors in
mid-July.
And a set of mobile Durons are also likely to be released soon, attacking Intel on the Celeron
end of the notebook market, the source added."
TheRegister is reporting on how IBM is producing a transistor that is able to hit 210GHz while
drawing 1mA (milliAmp)
Quote from report:
"Still, the headline clock speed is impressive, and IBM, stung presumably by
Intel's announcement of a 0.02 micron transistor, is quick to boast that it will get to 100GHz
four years sooner than "recently-announced competitive approaches".
So how's will it achieve this goal? The transistor is based on a silicon germanium (SiGe)
compound, rather nthan regular chip silicon. IBM has been working with this material, which has
far better electrical properties than ordinary silicon, for some time. Big Blue claims that a
210GHz chip using its new SiGe transistor will draw just 1mA of current and consume less than
half the power of today's chips."
The Inquirer is reporting that Intel is spening more cash than AMD at an alarming rate. Intel
spent around $3.5 billion a quarter while AMD spent $200 million a quarter.
Quote from report:
"We have also been urged by a number of readers to closely examine a post on the
Motley Fool message board which seems to suggest that Intel is burning cash like the UK
is burning cows with foot'n'mouth disease.
Both INTC and AMD tables show the cash flow position in quarterly terms which do, indeed, suggest
that the mighty Intel is burning cash at an alarming rate while AMD just seems to be restricting
the number of paperclips people can use.
We are not talking insignificant amounts of money here. As far as we can gauge it, Intel's
current cash pot and short term investments amounts to around $7 billion, while AMD has round
about $1.6 billion to spare.
But the figures are compelling, showing that La Intella is spending around $3.5 bill a quarter
while AMD banks around $200 mill a quarter."
Saw this at 3DSpotlight, they mention a report on TheStandard about how in Germany a court ruled
on thursday that Hewlett Packard GmbH must pay intellectual-property fees on CD burners
retroactively for three years.
Quote from report:
"The ongoing legal battle seeks to determine whether buyers of the devices must
pay a flat fee to offset losses sustained by authors & artists whose work is duplicated without
their permission. HP is fighting the test case on behalf of all hardware makers.
Negotiations between manufacturers and authors'-rights guilds collapsed earlier this year, after
HP withdrew an initial agreement to pay $5.25 (DM12) on each new CD burner sold."
Saw this on The-Ctrl-Alt-Del. They report on how Unisys apologizes to the unintended consequenses
of the computer age resulting from its invention of the UNIVAC I.
Quote from UniSys's webpage:
"Blue Bell, PA, June 14, 2001 -- Unisys Corporation today issued a public
apology for the many human inconveniences resulting from its invention of UNIVAC I, the world's
first commercial computer, introduced on June 14, 1951.
"UNIVAC was a marvel of its time," said Leo Daiuto, corporate vice president, and vice president
and general manager, Product Development & Technology. "Directly or indirectly, our invention of
UNIVAC led to a whole new industry and a new way of life for all of us. Today, we're still
inventing bigger, faster, more cost-effective enterprise computers. But sadly," Daiuto continued,
"the many benefits of the Computer Age have been accompanied by a number of transaction-based
annoyances -- all unimagined 50 years ago. As the company that started it all, Unisys feels it
only fitting that it mark this historic anniversary with an apology for those inconveniences."
TweakFiles has the VIA 4in1's version 4.32 available for download.
Go get them here:
VIA 4in1 4.32
Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 1:51PM
Post and Get Paid at Icrontic Forums
I find this a little silly, But the owner of Icrontic will pay you 1 penny per post that you have,
to be transferred to your PayPal account. Currently I have 965 posts, so that I will get $9.65.
Quote from Icrontic:
"I have a new cool idea I'm going to impliment into the forums soon where you
actually get PAID to post (no BS.. really). I'll also be giving away prizes once you post a
certain number and stuff. All really cool. I'm planning to have a bunch of forum promotion soon
to spark an interest again. You can go check out the planning stages of the idea
here. Tell me what
you think!"
UPDATE
This is a contest that is going on at the Forums.
Saturday, June 23, 2001 - 1:40PM
NetBSD Ported to the AMD X86-64
Wasabi Systems has ported NetBSD to the x86-64 platform of AMD's according to an article on their
website.
Quote from report:
"AMD x86-64 technology is designed to support applications that address large
amounts of physical and virtual memory, such as high performance servers, database management
systems, and CAD tools. The x86-64 technology seamlessly integrates into the current computing
and support environment, and is designed to enable enterprises to deploy high performance 64-bit
capable systems that also deliver leading-edge performance on the billions of dollars invested in
the current base of 32-bit software. NetBSD is an open source BSD UNIX operating system that
offers full UNIX functionality across the widest range of hardware platforms on the planet.
Wasabi and AMD are building this port as part of an ongoing effort between the two companies to
broaden OS support for AMD microprocessors"
If you go over to Fool.com, you'll see that they have a report on how Intel is having some
problems. And of course because of that, AMD can take advantage of this.
Quote from report:
"If Intel does not find some way to slow down AMD by the end of the year, then
AMD is just going to pass Intel by in performance in 2002 when AMD begins shipping their own
2.0 GHz and faster K7 parts. Just after AMD switches to 0.13 micron, the situation reverts back
to AMD's advantage"
Saw this one at 3DSpotlight, they report on OverClockers Workbench has an article on how ABIT is
producing a board similar to the ST6-RAID with a white PCB.
Quote from OCWorkbench:
"According to Akiba, this board is
similar to ST6-RAID, a 815 B-stepping mainboard. It's a Socket 370/FC-PGA2 mainboard and comes
with 3 DIMM slots supporting PC133SDRAM. 1 AGP, 6 PCI, 1 CNR is the standard. There will be a
ST6E-RAID which includes HPT370 RAID controller.
SoftMenu III is included to allow changing of the FSB frequency in the interval from 50 to
250MHz at 1 MHz intervals. The Vcore is also adjustable from 1.05 and 1.825V at 0.025V
increment.
ABIT ST6E-RAID is retailing at 21,000 Japanese Yen (USD175) while the version without RAID
retails at around 18,000 Japanese Yen (USD150)."
Saw this at The Register. There is a group of people who want Minesweeper removed from WinXP
because they feel it is disrespectful to those who lost thier lives to minesweeping.
I think this is just stupid, you can't do anything these days without offending someone.
Quote from report:
"Windows Minesweeper (Winmine) is an offence against the victims of the mines,
and to those who sacrifice themselves, risking their own life, clearing the lands contaminated
by these implements," says the International Campaign to Ban Winmine (ICBW).
So it wants you to delete the programme and replace it with its own Winflower game. And it wants
Microsoft to substitute the game with something more respectful with its next version of
Windows."
The Inquirer reports that Dell might be using AMD chips in thier laptops.
Quote from report:
"SOURCES CLOSE TO Dell Limerick are telling The Inquirer of a strange twist
in the continuing rumour that it may use AMD microprocessors in some machines it makes.
Dell will make AMD powered laptops, but not for sale to the general public. One of Dell's larger
corporate accounts, apparently, wanted a "reasonably large" number of AMD powered laptops and
to satisfy the customer, the firm said it would make them."
Microsoft oddly decided to change the name of Windows 2002 to Windows.NET. Not less than a month
ago did they decide to keep it as Windows 2002 for product recognition.
Quote from ZDNet report:
"Microsoft on Tuesday solidified its software-as-a-service strategy, officially
naming a forthcoming high-end version of Windows and releasing new tools for software developers.
During a keynote speech at the TechEd 2001 conference in Atlanta, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
also introduced the new Shared Development Process (SDP) program, supporting the company's .Net
software services strategy. If successful, the program's working groups and other features could
help Microsoft establish HailStorm, the first .Net offering, as the standard for delivering
services over the Internet."
Link to report
hereWednesday, June 20, 2001 - 4:57PM
VIA's Word on the VIA 686b Bug
VIA has posted their official statement on the 686B Bug.
Quote from report:
"During the past few weeks, problems were reported on several web sites stating
that one of VIA’s chipset has compatibility issue with Creative SoundBlaster Live PCI Sound card.
After debugging, verifying, and checking compatibility between our VT82C686B and other devices,
we concluded that the problem is not totally related to our chipset. We found that the system
problem will happen only under certain configurations and certain procedures, and only occur
under Athlon processor based systems with VT82C686B chipset and Creative SB Live card. We also
checked whether our chipset has any compatibility issues in other configurations, and the result
was we did not find any such compatibility issues. The configuration is described as follows:
One IDE HDD ATA-100 or one ATA-66 HDD and enable default DMA mode; one IDE DVD-ROM and enable
fault DMA mode; one Creative SB Live PCI sound card; one VGA card; and copy file, W2KSP2.exe
(Win2K service pack2). Consequently, we also developed a new IDE driver to resolve the
compatibility issue with the Creative SoundBlaster sound card, and this IDE driver will be
posted at our website for users who have Athlon based systems using this configuration"
Saw this one at 3DSpotlight. They report on a story on about how scientists found a fungi that
eats CD's
Quote from report:
"Victor Cardenes, of Spain's leading scientific research body, stumbled across
the microscopic creature two years ago, while visiting Belize. Friends complained that in the
hot and sticky Central American climate, a CD had stopped working and had developed an odd
discoloration that left parts of it virtually transparent.
Dr Cardenes and colleagues at the Superior Council for Scientific Research in Madrid discovered
a fungus was steadily eating through the supposedly indestructible disc. The fungus had burrowed
into the CD from the outer edge, then devoured the thin aluminium layer and some of the
data-storing polycarbonate resin"
TheRegister has a report on how AMD is going to top the Athlon out at 1.6GHz for 2001.
Quote from report:
"So says roadmap data posted on Danish (?) Web site ComputerDK. According to
the site's handy little table, the Athlon will, as expected, jump up to 1.5GHz and 1.53GHz
during Q3, but the best AMD can manage for Q4 is 1.6GHz. Q1 2002 will see the Athlon's clock
speed upped to 1.73GHz"
Microsoft has been using FreeBSD to run their Hotmail servers, but they have been denying it.
They were saying that Open Source software was a "cancer".
Quote from the Wall Street Journal:
"Software connected with the FreeBSD open-source operating system is used in
several places deep inside several versions of Microsoft's Windows software, such as in the
"TCP/IP" section that arranges all connections to the Internet. The company also uses FreeBSD
on numerous "server" computers that manage major functions at its Hotmail free e-mail service,
whose registered users exceed 100 million and make it one of the Web's busiest sites.
Microsoft acknowledged its repeated use of open-source code Friday, in response to questions
about the matter. Just two days earlier, it had specifically denied the existence of any such
software at Hotmail.
In recent statements, Microsoft executives have argued that open-source software is dangerous
to companies using it, in large part because of the licensing provisions that accompany the
software. Microsoft Vice President Craig Mundie, for example, said in a recent speech that all
open-source software "has inherent security risks and can force intellectual property into the
public domain."
Apple Tells Satanists They Can't "Think Different"
Saw this one at 3DSpotlight. It is something about how Apple tells some Satanists not to use
Apple's "Think Different" and "Made with Macintosh" on their website.
Quote from story:
"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Here's an intellectual rebel who apparently won't be
the next poster boy for Apple Computer's "Think different" ad campaign: America's late, leading
Satanist.
Apple Computer Inc., which gained fame with its iconoclastic marketing, has told the Church of
Satan it does not want to be associated with it, the group said on Friday.
The "Think different" slogan had until recently adorned a picture of Church of Satan founder
Anton Szandor LaVey, on the group's Web site, but was pulled along with a "Made with Macintosh"
Web badge at the request of the computer company, the group said."
Saturday, June 16, 2001 - 1:50PM
KG7 on Pricewatch
The ABIT KG7-RAID is listed on Pricewatch for $172.00, and is listed for sale at
AJump.com.
Saw this at 3DSpotlight. They mention a report at CNet that says that Microsoft and AOL are
dissolving WinXP talks.
Quote from CNet report:
"During a phone call, lead negotiators for the two companies agreed they
could not resolve the issues that had stalled discussions, said sources familiar with the matter.
An agreement would have guaranteed the AOL software would ship with XP as it has with every
other version Windows released in the past five years.
AOL Time Warner and Microsoft are deeply
divided over a
number of issues, said sources close to the discussions. In earlier versions of Windows, a link
to AOL's online service appeared on the desktop in the "Online Services" folder. But in Windows
XP, Microsoft wants the desktop to startup with as few icons as possible."
TheInquirer is reporting that the Tualatin Pentium!!! in dual configurations can
beat the more expensive Foster XEON's in dual configuration in benchmarks, but Intel doesn't
want you to know that.
Quote from report:
"NOT ONLY do the latest Tualatin microprocessors run cool as cool can be,
but if you bung them in a dual processor configuration they will thrash the pants off dual Foster
Xeons, The Inquirer can reveal.
Sources at La Intella tell us that because of this strange and uncomfortable fact, Intel will
never produce or allow to be produced any such configurations.
One engineer who saw the results of the systems La had put together for herself, told us that
the benchmarks from the dual Tualatin "were quite astonishing".
However, the thrust is now firmly in the direction of the Pentium 4 and the Foster Xeons, and so
the dream configuration will never see the light of day"
TheInquirer has a report on AMD and the Fanless Athlon. It states that AMD possibly is going to
make cool running Athlons and that it is made of pure silicon.
Quote from report:
"Isonics, whose 'Super Silicon' Si-28 wafers promise chips running cooler than
an ice-cool beer at a Fun Lovin' Criminals gig in Antarctica, this week refused to confirm or
deny an AMD connection with its wonder wafers.
Opto-electronic devices for optical circuits are now experiencing thermal management problems.
We are exploring the use of silcon-28 in this rapidly growing area. Recent developments in
semiconductor materials, such as Si-Ge and 'strained silicon' as announced by IBM (NYSE: IBM)
are extensions of existing silicon technology and confirm our belief that silicon will be the
main semiconductor material for at least the next several decades.
Fascinating facts about Super Silicon
Silicon exists in nature as three stable, non-radioactive, isotopes: Si-28 (92 per cent), Si-29
(five per cent) and Si-30 (three per cent). By purification at the sub-atomic level, it is
possible to remove essentially all of the Si-29 and Si-30 leaving isotopically pure Si-28, which
has a more perfect crystal structure."
TheInquirer has an article explaining how DDRAM has beat RDRAM.
Quote from Article:
"One person posted an interesting chipset URL which, he said, essentially
proved that Rambus has lost the battle to DDR memory. You can find that URL
here. It lists a number
of chipsets and displays which memory types they support. According to the guy on SI, this page
proves that no-one can doubt that DDR is the next memory standard.
Rambus and Intel, however, continue to doubt it. On yesterday's Silicon Strategies, that was
amplified by this
story, which says that Rambus' future roadmap will mean its RDRAM architecture is five times
wider by 2005"
Saw this at TheInquirer, they report on how Intel is going to use its Memory Translator Hub
again!!! But this time, it is used to both support DDRAM and RDRAM. Remember the fiasco that
the MTH for SDRAM and RDRAM caused? Appearantly Intel has not learned its lesson.
Quote from report:
"SOURCES AT INTEL have said the Firm plans to introduce a memory translator hub
(MTH) into its up-and-coming 870 chipset for McKinley.
That - it hopes - will allow the 870 to work with both Rambus and DDR but engineers inside the
Firm maintain that it is likely to come a cropper for the same basic reasons that caused two
other versions of this technology to fail.
The decision to intro an MTH, which cost Intel dearly in terms of both prestige and revenue
before, underlines a high degree of internal politics about the future of DDR (double data rate)
memory versus Rambus within the firm.
According to our deep throat, if the MTH works on the 870, it would be a big breakthrough for
Intel, but, he alleged, it could also be a way to establish a track record of failure for DDR at
the Intel Corporation."
AMD is producing a new series of Athlon and Duron processors aimed at power limited applications
called Slim Form Factor parts. The key to these new series of processors is that they are based
on both the new Palamino (Atlon 4) and the older Thunderbird cores and that they will draw a
maximum of 35 watts, and the core voltage modified to ensure consistent power draw
characteristics at any clock speed.
Saw this at The Register. They report on how VIA wants USB 2.0 killed off.
Quote from report:
"VIA president and CEO Wenchi Chen is calling on companies to bury the USB 2.0
connectivity technology.
"Our message to partners is if together we can make this [USB 2.0] disappear, the better it will
be for us," he said as part of his speech to launch VIA's C3 processor at the Computex tradeshow
in Taiwan.
"It is confusing for customers and end users," he continued but admitted VIA was putting a bit
of effort into supporting USB 2.0, just in case."
AnandTech has released its buyers guide for its high end systems. All four of them are AMD
based.
Quote from AnanTech buyers guide:
"Unfortunately for Intel, they've just lost their trump card, SMP support, with
AMD's launch of the 760MP chipset and the Athlon MP processor. Better yet is the fact that the
760MP and Athlon MP were available immediately upon launch as individual components, unlike the
Intel Xeon. Even if the Xeon were easy to get a hold of outside of a complete OEM system, the
Athlon MP is still faster in the vast majority of the benchmarks and is considerably more cost
effective to boot."
Icrontic compares the difference between the NVidia 6.50's and 12.41's. They try to see which
one is better.
Quote from Icrontic's Comparison:
"If you're anything like me, you're very hesitant about installing new drivers
the minute they come out, especially if your current drivers are working just fine. Since the
recent release of Nvidia's latest official drivers, the 12.41's, many people have been wondering
if it is worthwhile for them to upgrade even though they're running a GeForce2. To be honest, I
was curious myself and decided to pit the new 12.41's against the 6.50's, so you won't have
to."
AMDZone reports that JCNews has something about how AMD will start using Slim Force Factor on all
of thier new CPU's. This allows for the use of lower voltages.
Quote from report:
"AMD will be introducing a line of low voltage SFF (Small/Slim Form Factor)
Athlons. Details on speed grades, voltages, and release dates can also be found there. This
quarter, we'll be seeing SFF Thunderbirds at 1.10GHz and SFF Spitfire/Durons at 900MHz. Next
quarter is when the SFF Palomino/Athlons and SFF Morgan/Durons start appearing. Interestingly
enough, the Palomino and Morgan in SFF will have a slightly higher voltage (1.5v) than the
Thunderbird and Spitfire (1.4v), though I believe that the new chips will still use less power
than their older equivalents."
Internet Explorer 6 Build 2488 released to Testers
Saw this on 3D Spotlight, they report that IE 6, build 2488 is going to be released to testers.
Also ieXBeta has the readme notes for it, but as of now, hasn't been released.
On Thursday, Microsoft released build 2481 on Windows XP, may be the last interim build before
Release Candidant 1. Also included is Windows Messenger which is packed with features.
Quote from Yahoo News:
"As expected, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq NM:MSFT - news) on Thursday released
interim Build 2481 of Windows XP (news - web sites) to a core group of its technical beta
testers. The build is likely to be one of the last before Microsoft issues Release Candidate 1
to a far broader group of testers and Preview Program customers in the next few weeks.
The most notable feature in Build 2481 is the inclusion of Windows Messenger, the real-time
communications technologies that Microsoft announced earlier this week.
Greg Sullivan, lead project manager for Windows XP, told eWEEK at that time that Windows
Messenger goes far beyond pure instant messaging, allowing text, chat, video, audio and
telephony services."
Juno and Netzero to merge, Will be called United Online
Juno and NetZero are merging to become the second largest online service, second only to AOL.
This company will be called United Online, and will continue the tradition of free internet
service. My opinion is that I guess NetZero figured that they weren't going to make money alone
on free internet service, so merging with Juno, and Juno's use of your computers idle time to
make money (which you are not allowed to know what they are doing or modify it, lest your account
be cancelled) was most like what drawed NetZero in. Hopefully they won't increase what my
brother has to pay for NetZero's paid service, which is $9.95 a month.
Quote from report at News.com:
"The two survivors will become a single company called United Online, which
will continue to offer free services under the NetZero brand and move its paid services under
the Juno name.
Together the two will reach 7 million active subscribers--people who have logged onto the
service at least once in the last month--giving them a larger base than any other ISP outside of
America Online. Only about a million of those people represent paid subscribers.
"This merger brings together two leaders in the rapidly growing value segment of the Internet
access market," Mark Goldston, NetZero's chief executive, said in a statement. "As the second-
largest ISP in the United States, United Online should represent a very attractive audience for
the nation's largest marketers and advertisers."
FIC's AD11 has been the first motherboard validated for AMD's 1.4GHz Thunderbird.
Go here: AMD to see what info there is
Wednesday, June 6, 2001 - 2:52PM
Netscape to quit Browser Business
Saw this a Yahoo Business News (linked from Icrontic.com). They report on how Netscape is
getting out of the business.
Quote from report:
"NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner Inc (NYSE:AOL - news) is remaking
its pioneering Netscape software business into an Internet media hub brimming with Time Warner
artists and publications, aimed at office workers and Web purists not already using AOL services.
"The browser is a crown jewel. However, six months from now, you won't consider Netscape to be a
browser company," Netscape President Jim Bankoff told Reuters in an interview, referring to its
early role in creating the first popular tool for surfing the Web.
The shift recognises the overwhelming dominance of the Internet Explorer (IE) browser produced
by arch-rival Microsoft Corp (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news), and frees AOL to focus on new media markets
now taking shape on computers, phones and television"
I saw this at AthlonOC, they report on how AMD is launching the 1.4GHz Athlon and the 950MHz
Duron.
Quote from the story:
"SUNNYVALE, CA--June 6, 2000--AMD today announced the 1.4 GHz AMD Athlon™
processor, the world's most powerful PC processor for the performance market, and the 950MHz AMD
Duron™ processor for everyday business and home computing.
The 1.4GHz AMD Athlon processor-based systems with Double Data Rate (DDR) memory continue to
outperform 1.7GHz Intel Pentium™ 4 processor-based systems by up to 40 percent on a variety of
benchmarks, including cutting-edge multimedia, desktop publishing, digital imaging and voice
recognition applications. The AMD Duron processor provides a practical solution for everyday
business and home PC needs by providing up to a 30-percent performance advantage over Intel
Celeron processor-based systems.
Systems featuring AMD's newest processors are available immediately from Compaq Computer
Corporation. AMD expects availability soon from Hewlett-Packard Company, MicronPC and NEC-CI,
among others."
Saw this at 3DSpotlight, they report on how ieXBeta mentions that they have a new build of DirectX
available. However, it is leaked, though. In this build there are over 320 bug fixes since the
last beta build, some of these include performance improvments and stabilities improvements.
I removed the Java timescript from the website (from Yahoo's webpage plugins) with a script I saw
in someone's post at AnandTech. Look at the statusbar below to see it
Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 10:37PM
New Hardware Site
There is a new hardware site that just opened called Bench-House.com.
To go there, click here: Bench-House
Tuesday, June 5, 2001 - 9:34PM
AMD Promises MP Durons
Saw this at The Inquirer, they have a report on how AMD told them that they will be making MP
Durons, but did not say when they would be out.
Quote from report:
"THE FUTURE WILL BRING users of multiprocessing AMD systems that will employ
Durons, an executive of the company said at the launch of its Athlon MP today.
Richard Baker, northern European marketing director, would not be drawn on a date for the
launch of these products but told The Inquirer that such systems would arrive in the future.
These, like the Athlon "MPs" it introduced today, would use the 760MP chipset, he said. He
also said that other mobo manufacturers including Asus, Abit, MSI and Gigabyte would offer
motherboards for the Athlon MPs in the future. He confirmed that Tyan, as reported here some
days back, would also be offering more inexpensive mobos for the platform.
ZDnet is reporting on how AOL might miss the chance to get its software bundled with Windows XP.
Of course that's always great for those of us who don't like AOL.
Quote from report:
"The problem is meeting Microsoft's development schedule for Windows XP, which
is slated to go on sale at retail stores Oct. 25. Microsoft will deliver another test version
of Windows XP this week featuring the new Windows Messenger technology announced Monday. The
first release candidate--or nearly final code before release to manufacturing--is expected
later this month"
AMDZone reports that the Inquirer has a story on how Intel owns approx. 80,000 shares of AMD.
Quote from report at AMDZone:
"The Inquirer has a news that Intel owns 80,000 shares in Advanced Micro Devices.
While it is odd to see, I'm not sure how much a shocker it is. I don't know if this is common
practice or not with top tech companies, but as many recall Microsoft did invest heavily in
Apple about four years ago. Still though, it is sort of like Coke investing in Pepsi (if Pepsi
costed less, and tasted better to the vast majority). At least they invest wisely :). You can
view it your self
here.
Update: Apparently Intel recieved these from patent/royalties payment"
TheInquirer has a report on how at W2KNews claims that Office XP has already been cracked.
Quote from the Inquirer:
"A reader of the newsletter reports that copies of the cracked software are in
wide circulation.
The reader reports that he finds it "amazing" that Microsoft has gone to so much effort to
introduce product activation and contemplate subscription but the software is still easily
pirated.
That doesn't surprise us at The Inquirer one little bit. What worries us more is that
we're still using Winword 2.x and it's as near to perfect as any word processor could be using
the Windows operating system, that is
AMD has launched a new online help system called Ask AMD (Probably like Ask Jeeves) that you
ask a question and it comes back with the most probable answers.
Quote from story:
"The Ask AMD system is our new online technical support service, providing
you with instant answers about AMD's processor products. Choose a search method: Ask, Choose,
or Select. If Chip does not find the right answer, you'll be able to send in an email for one
of our Customer Support Analysts to review and get back"
Earlier today I watched the movie Pearl Harbor. This was a great movie, but isn't
one of those movies you would take your date to. Fourty Minutes of the battle sequence in the
harbor was enough, and if they did the entire 2 hours in this movie, it would have been too
intense for just about anybody. I give this movie a 9 out of 10 for how well it was made.
