Posts by Catweazle

Yes, it's finally out of Beta and into final release.

New features are plentiful, and add both functionality and improved MS Office compatibility. Discussion of this upgrade to the excellent and well known freeware office software suite has been plentiful during the period of Beta release, so there's no need to replicate it here.

Just go download the thing. It's available for all major platforms, after all!

A commercial version in the form of an updated version of the inexpensive Star Office is also available for those who prefer it, and it comes complete with the usual clip art, fonts, commercial spell checker and thesaurus, and support bundle.

The battle between Sony’s Blu-Ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD has been a drawn out one, with nary a sniff of resolution in sight, and has seen likely to plunge consumers back into a situation similar to the VHS v BetaMax videotape battles of the 1980s. But a recent move by HP seems likely to bring some pressure to bear which could quite well lead to a resolution of the matter. Until now expressing support for the Blu-Ray standard, HP have now made it very clear that unless Sony incorporates Mandatory Managed Copy and iHD into Blu-Ray they’ll switch allegiances!

Let’s face it. Hollywood dropped the ball!

In a position to ‘force’ the adoption of one standard over the other from the outset, the movie industry was too busy playing one against the other to settle on anything sensible, and ended up generating a protracted battle with no end in sight. Three of the major studios ended up expressing support for one standard, the other three expressed support for the competing standard, in reality all six major studios are fence-sitting and will be quite happy to produce movies in both formats. Poor consumers!

But this time around it’s not only movie distribution which the battle relates to. The ultra high capacity disk format will also need to meet the needs of console gaming and PC multimedia, and it’s in those fields of activity that the battlefield is to be found. Sony’s Playstation 3 console will include Blu-Ray …

We try to find the interesting news and developments to report to people, but sometimes the industry just doesn’t help us much. Sometimes, it all just seems “ho-hum. Like now! I’ve just returned from a few days at the lake relaxing, and eagerly I scan the news channels for interesting items to report to the people here. It’s really hard to get excited though, isn’t it?

Before I went away a few days ago there were mutterings about ATi’s X1600 series cards being serious competitors to the much lauded NVidia 6600GT ‘cheapie’. Now we find that NVidia have responded by announcing yet another variety of their 6800 series – the 6800GS – to counter the challenge. Ho-hum. We knew that was going to happen, didn’t we? Stands to reason, and the amount of ‘letter variations’ of display cards to be announced recently does little except annoy the hell out of people actually trying to fit some performance into their budget!

We find that ATi have announced a driver revision which ‘boosts’ OpenGL performance. An ATi card has finally ‘beat’ an Nvidia card at Doom3 benchmarks! Ho-hum! It’s new graphics card time again, and just like the last time that happened we all know that driver revisions are going to ‘magically’ boost all sorts of performance issues, benchmark figures are going to bounce around all over the place for a while, and then it’ll all go quiet because someone or other has revealed that the ‘tweaks’ were …

I must admit I'm finding some of this rather odd.

Let's look at it a different way, perhaps? Let's begin by accepting the 'reality' of the Windows/x86 computing world - it's a really flexible one, with an almost infinite number of potential combinations of hardware components and software installations, and it isn't bullet proof. We all know that, right?

So sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, shit happens, even in relation to 'bug fixes'. It's a shame that it does, we all wish it didn't, but in reality it's a much, much smaller problem than the complaints would lead us to believe but, let's face it, complaints are always the loudest voices. and as said, let's face it, we all know it happens.

So we should be aware of it, and that's the job of the IT department isn't it?

Why is it such a problem that twice in 3 months Microsoft has released a 'buggy' patch when the bug only actually affects some systems? It's the job of the IT department to check that it actually DOES work withoput any sign of problems on their equipment isn't it, because, after all, we DO know that sometimes shit really can happen? Given the complexity of system configurations it needs to address, and the nature of Windows itself I'd not only think that 2 security updates in 3 months which cause problems on a few machines is more than we usually see but that it's also …

To the average consumer the ‘Digital home’ has little to do, really, with internet-connected intelligent refrigerators that do the grocery ordering for you, or robotic valets who ready the ‘pipe and slippers’ when you walk through the door. It simply means a way to manage the home entertainment and avoid the ‘remote control rhumba’ that plagues our lives. Finally, Windows Media Center Edition seems to be ‘growing up’ in a way that realistically suits it to the task.

From the outset there were several ‘problems’ in the way of Windows Media Center Edition gaining widespread acceptance and uptake. Firstly, the OS ‘version’ was only made available preinstalled on ‘suitable’ systems. Home builders didn’t (and still don’t) get access to it, although recently some vendors have been able to provide the OS Edition ‘bundled’ with some hardware items such as TV cards. Secondly, the systems which were originally designated as ‘adequate’ for use with Media Center Edition were quite ‘beefy’ in terms of hardware, and initially quite expensive in comparison to everyday office PCs. Thirdly, and perhaps even more importantly, when used as a TV recording and playback device a Media Center PC was only able to provide low quality video playback!

Accordingly, uptake was rather slow from the original release of Windows Media Center a couple of years back, but over the past year sales of Media Center PCs have risen quite substantially, to the point where they are a large factor in the overall recent rise in …

Now that the ATi R520 cards – the X1xxx series – has been officially announced and released there are tests and reviews of them popping up all over the place. The picture emerging is quite a clear one, with performance matching the Nvidia counterparts in all respects except for high levels of antialiasing at extremely high screen resolutions, where the ATi cards pull away a bit.

That’s certainly not the ‘killer’ performance that a lot of people were hoping for. Add to that the fact that ATi’s cards are going to be more expensive than their NVidia competitors, and perhaps we can see some trouble ahead for the Canadian firm which has enjoyed the preference of gamers and enthusiasts for the past year or two.

A bit of history
ATi, of course, gained ‘supremacy’ in the eyes of gamers and 3D hardware enthusiasts when their Radeon 9xxx series of display cards outperformed the flawed Nvidia 5xxx series cards quite considerably. Nvidia regained some lost ground with the 6xxx series cards, when the ATi Radeon X800XT and then the X850XT cards were ‘winners’ in comparison with the Nvidia 6800 Ultra, but all the other cards in the series lagged behind their Nvidia counterparts. The Nvidia 6800GT and 6600GT were the choices and recommendations of preference for people who could afford to pay realistic marketplace prices for a display card for that particular generation of technology.

Nvidia has now had its current generation performance cards, the 7800GT …

A quality power supply unit is a ‘must’ in a modern, high performance PC system. Cheap, generic units don’t supply stable enough voltages for highly demanding components, and introduce greater risk of failure which can put expensive PC components at risk.

Choosing the unit to use can be a nightmare, as there are many, many alternatives to choose from. Thermaltake have introduced a new design in power supply which will suit even the most demanding of situations. Worried because you’ve not had enough power connectors to fit all of your components? Puzzled over where to tuck the unused cables so that they are out of the way? Worried in case the components attached to a particular power ‘line’ are going to cause too much power drain and impact on performance?

The Thermaltake Purepower Power Station 520W could well be the solution you seek, no matter what the requirements of your system are. It is a modular power supply system which provides for all the needs of modern PCs. Let’s look at it in detail.

[img]http://tosh.customer.netspace.net.au/Review/enlarged-1.jpg[/img]

Packaging and contents

The Power Station is a meaty package, comprising the power supply unit itself, a 5.25 drive bay P.S.I. surge unit, a small mini-P.S.T. unit and a wide assortment of cables. There’s no need for it to be in a larger than needed package to look impressive, and thankfully Thermaltake haven’t done so. The entire system fits into a 265mm x 235mm x 140mm package,. …

It's rather staggering to see the amount of misinformation that people base their opinions on.

Whilst I'd agree that it's never been a good idea to purchase Sempron (the newer A64 core based Semprons are far superior to the older Thoroughbred core based Semprons, by the way, although many people are no doubt unaware that different models have even been issued) the comment about '4 times the L2 cache' is not accurate. Compare some Semprons with some A64 chips and you'll see the difference is a factor of 4. Compare others and you'll see it's a factor of 2. AMD alters the amount of L2 cache as part of the process of setting PR levels for their chips, rather than simply altering clockspeed.

'Net burst' is the architecture of the older P4 platform, not the chips which are loosely based on the PentiumM architecture.

And neither Intel nor AMD can be claimed to 'overclock out of the factory'. Whilst jwenting is roughly accurate with his description of how processors are manufactured and tested, his contention that AMD follows some sort of policy of setting tighter 'margins' than Intel is misleading.

All processor cores of a particular type are manufactured in the same production line, regardless of the speed they'lll end up being sold at. They're then tested, and as jwenting has described the 'batches' are sorted according to performance and used in CPU chips with their performance set in accordance with the test results. That's the …

You can't cling to outdated old wives tales forever, I'm afraid. Back in the days of the earliest Athlon XP processors it was fair comment to say that Athlons ran a tad 'hot'. With the original Athlon AMD 'beat' Intel to the 1GHz barrier and beyond, but with a somewhat hotter running chip. Even the first release or two of the Athlon XP processor ran somewhat hotter than the older Pentiums. In some countries (my own Australia a prime example) there were an inordinate number of component 'failures' which resulted from chips being shipped accompanied by heatsink units which were not adequate for local weather conditions, and the company had to adjust its practices accordingly.

Regardless of this factor, I've never seen any evidence to suggest that, in the general run of things, Athlon processors enjoyed any less a MTBF compared with Pentiums.

The release of the Barton core Athlon XP processors saw the situation improve markedly for AMD, and since the release of the AMD Athlon64 and the Pentium Prescott processors the situation has turned a full 180 degrees. Nowadays AMD make the power-efficient cooler running processor, while Intel suffers heat problems. Yes, that's right. If you think that higher temperatures mean a shorter life then choose AMD for sure, because the current Intel Pentiums are hotter running!

It's 'fashionable' and 'elitist' to sneer at AMD processors (that's a general comment, not a personal one) on the basis that they are the 'poor cousin' …

The Inquirer has just published their recommendations for the ‘value points’ in processor purchasing. Their recommendations are quite similar to those promoted by a number of reviewers, but closer inspection leaves me quite unconvinced. The assumptions they make fall somewhat short of the mark in my eyes, and leaves their recommendations more closely allied to cost price than to purchase value. Let’s look at them in more detail, shall we?

Entry level

Like many specialist hardware sites, the Inquirer has sung the praises of the Celeron ‘D’ 336, criticized the Sempron, and touted the Athlon64 3000+ as the entry level chip of choice from AMD. The Celeron, they suggest, will run office applications fine, run some older games, and will provide an upgrade path to dual core Pentium processors to beef up the system later on.

Hang on a minute! That’s not necessarily correct. Seems to me that the argument they’ve used for the Celeron should be the argument used for the Athlon64 instead!

Don’t get me wrong. The Celeron ‘D’ is a pretty good chip, and a considerable improvement on earlier Celeron lines. But it’s not necessarily the path to the future that’s touted here. Not unless you use a motherboard with the i945 or i955 chipsets anyway, because other chipsets won’t accept the dual core processors that are supposed to form the upgrade! A Celeron ‘D’ with a cheapish all-in-one motherboard is a fine system for people who are not going …

There will doubtless be a lot of disappointed gamers, but it seems the Nvidia 6800 Ultra and the ATi Radeon X850XT are the 'end of the road' for AGP gamers. Those who have been waiting for updated and improved cards to arrive have been waiting in vain, it appears.

Although Nvidia announced a while back now that it will not be producing an AGP version of its 7800 series cards, there have been quite a few AGP gamers waiting for the arrival of ATi's R520 series cards. ATi, it was rumoured, had provided for the new cards to be available in AGP format as well as in PCI-E format.

Bad news, I'm afraid! ATi will be releasing AGP versions of the X1300 and X1600 series cards, but the high end X1800 series cards will be PCI-E only! If you want that gaming beast to remain 'cutting edge' then I'm afraid it's time for a motherboard upgrade. PCI-E is the way forward!

It seems ATi have realised that not enough high end cards would be purchased in AGP format to make the adaptation worthwhile to pursue, and I'd have to agree with them. PCI-E motherboard, anyone?

My apologies for the tardiness in elevating this to a 'featured item'.

Although it's quite understandable that people sing the praises of their 'favourite things', the move from IBM processors to Intel on Apple's part is and was never about any semblance of 'World OS domination'. Instead, it's about survival.

IBM were unable to produce a suitable notebook processor for Apple to use in a world where portability and power consumption efficiency are paramount. Apple have made the move to Intel processors to enjoy the benefits of high performance, power efficient portable computing processors. That much has been openly discussed since the announcement was first made.

It also only takes a small leap of intellect to realise that the PC hardware world is rapidly moving in the direction of TPC (trusted platfor computing) for digital rights management. The Intel (and AMD) camp has already progressed down that path, whereas the IBM camp hasn't. Making the move gives Apple a pathway to the future of multimedia content, and makes a lot of sense indeed.

Sorry people, but neither Apple OS nor Linux are any real threat to the dominance of Wintel on corporate desktops in the forseeable future.

It is tempting to think that, as technology improves and access because less expensive, the use of fast internet access will become more widespread. Research, however, shows that this is not happening, and that broadband uptake has slowed dramatically.

John Horrigan, Director of Research with Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that currently 67% of Americans are online, but that only 53% of them have fast internet access. There was a 3% growth in the proportion of internet users with broadband access for past year, as compared to 20% growth during the previous year. Where several years ago heavy internet users were more prevalent amongst dial-up users, and thus easier to convince to switch to broadband, today dial-up users are more likely to be older, less educated and have lower incomes than previously. Horrigan predicts that it will take several years at least to get the next 10% of broadband users online.

On October, 2002 34% of adult internet users were moderately experienced dial-up internet users (online for 1 to 6 years). By May, 2005 the proportion was 23%. On October, 2002, 38% of online users were experienced (online for more than 6 years). By May, 2005 that group comprised 58% of users. New users (online for less than 1 year) were 6% of the online population in October, 2005 and only 4% on May, 2005.

For the first 6 months of 2005, the proportion of the adult population not accessing the internet has held steady …

A plague has swept the online universe of popular game World of Warcraft! Cities have been wiped out. Travel became a dangerous activity indeed. Online gamers returned from a nature call to find themselves amidst desolation!

When Blizzard Software released the version 1.7 Patch for the online game they included a new event to join those already available, but it has had unforseen outcomes. Zul'grub, apparently, is a 20 person raid event in which groups of players can attack a perilous Troll city. Inside the City is Hakkar, God of Blood who has the uncanny ability to infect nearby players at random with 'infected blood'. This causes a large 'hitpoint' loss over a short period of time, and can be transmitted to other characters nearby whilst still 'infectious'. What wasn't forseen, however, was that if players who were affected used a 'hearthstone' to teleport back to their ingame native city, they carried the infectious disease with them to spread!

Hundreds of 'low-level' player characters died when this occurred, many high level characters spread the plague further, and even high level non-player characters became carriers. Chaos reigned in World of Warcraft.

From recent reports, the result has been chaos on many game servers!

Microsoft is currently reorganising itself into three main divisions, in an effort to streamline the processes of decision making and bringing products to market.

The three divisions will be:

Microsoft Platform Products and Services Division
Responsible for Windows products, corporate server products and MSN web services.
Microsoft Business Division
Responsible for software and software based services for business

Entertainment and Devices Division
Responsible for multimedia content and devices to deliver media at work, home or on the move.

As well as the three main divisions, Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will be responsible for developing software based services across all three divisions. Overall it's a restructure that makes a lot of sense. It marks a move from seven main divisions to just three, and should enable more integration and co-ordination in the development cycle. It's a move which seeks to minimise the "head doesn't know what the hand is doing" aspect of operation which has played its own part in product delays and features not being ready for inclusion as planned.

The amalgamation of the OS and web-based activities puts Microsoft in a better position from which to meet the challenges in web-based service delivery posed by companies such as Google and Yahoo.

Jim Allchin, who has overseen much of the development of the Windows OS since the early 1990's, will be retiring following the release of Windows Vista next year. Windows Vista, and the later release of WinFS, …

Along with the increased availability and use of fast internet, the popularity of onlline, browser based games has risen dramatically in recent times. Millions of Games is a new website designed to make the task of finding games an easier one.

'Millions' may be an overstatement, but at the time of writing there were over 2000 games listed on the site, and the number is continually growing. The website is basically an online collection of bookmarks to 'Flash' games which can be either played via web browser or downloaded (sometimes for a fee) to be played offline. Site members submit links to games they've found, and the site offers a searchable and categorised database of the entries members have submitted.

Bejewelled anyone? Stick Cricket?

Anyone interested in the concept can join up and add their own web games favourites to the list.

About MOG

When you begin to understand what Millions of Games is and how it works, you begin to realise that it's pretty cool. What's more, there is nothing else quite like it...

Community tagging (Mogging)
Community tagging or Mogging has become increasingly popular over the last 12 months. We were inspired by a number of tagging sites such as del.icio.us and flickr.com to create a tagging site for casual games. We're big fans of casual games and it just felt that games and tagging should go together. We've been working on MOG since the end of …

Gateway currently holds about a 6% to 8% market share of PC sales in the US, and derives about 80% of its income from PC sales. After a lengthy period of unprofitability, the company has recently shown improvement, but is it enough to maintain its independence as a corporate entity? Cheryl Mayer at News.com thinks not.

Recent changes in direction for the company have see it acquire eMachines, close it's chain of retail stores and adopt the practice of selling its PCs through retail chains instead. Gateway focuses on sales to consumers, and has not had much success in selling to enterprises and other large volume customers. The change in direction saw the company return to profitability earlier this year, but it faces stiff competition from companies such as Dell and HP, and is operating in an environment where there is heavy competition with prices occurring. In particular, the low margins on notebook PCs which are currently in evidence may be reason to suspect that Gateways projections for sales and profits may be somewhat more optimistic than would be justified.

Mayer suggests that Gateway seems safe enough in the short term, but in the longer term would make an attractive purchase for candidates like Acer, Samsung, Lenovo or Sun Microsystems. Can it maintain independence? Are we likely to see the end of the PC that goes "Moo"? Time will tell.

Are you running out of room on that notebook's hard drive? Hitachi Global Storage Technologies have released an 'upgrade kit' that just might be the answer you're looking for. It wouldn't surprise me to see other manufacturer's offer similar kits in future.

[img]http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/binary/com.epicentric.contentmanagement.servlet.ContentDeliveryServlet/hgst/products/Retail%2520Products/images/ts_uk_contents_230x160.jpg[/img]

The Notebook PC Upgrade Kit includes a Hitachi Travelstar hard drive, an upgrade CD which has the Apricorn EZ Gig OO data transfer utility on it to enable you to transfer your existing drive contents to the new drive, and a USB 2.0 external hard drive enclosure (together with necessary cables) to enable you to reuse your original hard drive as external storage. An installation guide is also included.

Should your original hard drive have 'hidden' drive partitions which include system tools, recovery data and so on these will be replicated when the drive is cloned. At default settings the software installation tool will resize partitions to retain the percentage size they occupied on the original drive, but 'Expert' settings in the software allow you to retain the original partition size.

The kit is designed to work with USB 2.0. If your notebook PC only provides USB 1.1 the kit and software will still work, but you will be restricted to the slower data transfer speed of that standard.

Well done, Hitachi. Replacement hard drives, external drive cases, drive cloning software and the like can all be purchased elsewhere separately of course, but including …

Windows Workflow Foundation, Microsoft's framework for managing workflow, is reportedly ahead of schedule and could well be available for Windows Vista next year, rather than not ready until Longhorn Server is released in 2007 as previously believed. WWF will also be made available for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003.

Managing workflow on systems is, of course, a difficult technology to develop and implement. Automatic applications interaction, or system workflow is generally a predictable and somewhat static process. The underlying logic is well defined and consistent. Interaction between the people involved in tasks, or human workflow is far less predictable. People change their minds, generate new ideas, cancel or defer scheduled work, and use less structured information. Software technology which seeks to co-ordinate these two different forms of workflow management is quite complex, of course, and to date has favoured system worflow over human workflow. Windows Workflow Foundation seeks to introduce greater balance to the process, and will form an 'engine' upon which future software applications will be built. Office 12, Version 3.0 of Windows SharePoint Services, the Dynamics ERP, supply-chain and CRM products, and the BizTalk Server "Next" version of the Microsoft integration server will all be built on WWF.

The news that the engine itself could be available for distribution much earlier than expected is welcome indeed. Beta1 was released at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week.

Windows Workflow Foundation, Microsoft's framework for managing workflow, is reportedly ahead of schedule and could well be available for Windows Vista next year, rather than not ready until Longhorn Server is released in 2007 as previously believed. WWF will also be made available for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003.

Managing workflow on systems is, of course, a difficult technology to develop and implement. Automatic applications interaction, or system workflow is generally a predictable and somewhat static process. The underlying logic is well defined and consistent. Interaction between the people involved in tasks, or human workflow is far less predictable. People change their minds, generate new ideas, cancel or defer scheduled work, and use less structured information. Software technology which seeks to co-ordinate these two different forms of workflow management is quite complex, of course, and to date has favoured system worflow over human workflow. Windows Workflow Foundation seeks to introduce greater balance to the process, and will form an 'engine' upon which future software applications will be built. Office 12, Version 3.0 of Windows SharePoint Services, the Dynamics ERP, supply-chain and CRM products, and the BizTalk Server "Next" version of the Microsoft integration server will all be built on WWF.

The news that the engine itself could be available for distribution much earlier than expected is welcome indeed. Beta1 was released at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week.

Glad you read it carefully, Toulinwoek, rather than simply giving it the knee-jerk reaction many people would.

Yes, that is certainly the concern. The move by ESRB to require developers/publishers to audit their catalogues for hidden 'goodies' that would impact on the title's rating is fair enough. The suggestion that game mods will be more closely looked at is a concerning one. Rockstar/Take2 have played their part in creating the controversy. If they want to produce titles that get an 'Adult' rating and are aimed at an Adult market, then fine. But this blatant display of contempt on a promotional website is churlish in the extreme. They've 'elevated' themselves from outrageous to completely unacceptable with this move, and display contempt not only for society's standards but for others in the games development community as well.

Recently, the video games industry has been subject of more scrutiny than ever before. Pressure is mounting which threatens innovation within and surrounding the industry, yet 'rogue' games developer Rockstar Games, the catalyst for much of the negative opinion, continues to thumb it's nose at public opinion.

The website devoted to the upcoming next installment in the controversial game series Grand Theft Auto contains a thinly veiled attack on Rockstar/Take2 Interactive's biggest critic, anti-pornography anti-violence campaigner Jack Thompson. 'Fake' email messages on the site from 'JT' infer that the Miami based lawyer surfs the internet for porn and also encourage readers to visit a fake website (reportedly funded by Rockstar) which encourages deviance and the name of which provides an acronym which spells out some rather extreme obscenity. Additionally, the site provides an fake audio advertisement in which 'Jack' is discovered naked in a young lad's bedroom. Unnecessary, offensive, and inclusions which make one wonder to what lengths Rockstar are prepared to go to generate interest and sales on the strength of controversy. And it makes ME wonder just how much damage to the rest of the video games industry will occur before Rockstar are brought 'down'!

Recently, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has informed all games publishers that they are required to audit all their titles for offensive content, including that contained in hidden 'Easter Eggs' within the games and content in code which is not playable unless 'cheat codes' are used. …

By the way, there is only a Windows Server 2003 Small business version, not a Windows XP Small Business version.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/business/default.mspx

There's now a fuller description here:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions.asp

No, I don't believe these new versions simply integrate the 'Server 2003' products into the line, nor are they Longhorn Server. The supposed new features included make them new product lines.

'Home Premium' and 'Ultimate' won't be made available with Corporate licenses. Many gamers and power users avoided paying for their Windows XP installation by using Corporate installs, and that doesn't look like being as attractive this time around. Windows Vista Pro will merely be the 'budget' business version.

Things don’t get easier, do they? Windows ‘prophet’ Paul Thurrot suggests that there are going to be no less than seven different versions of Windows Vista! Vista will be offered in ‘Home’ and ‘Business’ varieties, with three ‘Home’ versions and four ‘Business’ versions:

Windows Vista Home

Starter Edition.
This will be a cut down version, 32-bit only, and will be made abailable to emerging markets only.

Home Basic Edition
Roughly equivalent to Windows XP Home, this version will be aimed at single PC households.

Home Premium Edition
Adds Media Centre features to the basic Home version, as well as numerous other features. This version could well be the one to be promoted as the ‘Advanced’ version for people to buy, and fulfill the role Windows XP Professional formerly took.

Windows Vista Business

Professional Edition
Domain features, remote desktop, IIS web server, encrypted file system etc. This version is the basic set of features offered for business use.

Small Business Edition
Adds numerous features specifically tailored toward business use. The feature set is targeted toward small business owners and managers.

Enterprise Edition
Another new version with added features targeted towards corporate use.

Ultimate Edition
All the features of Home Premium and Professional Editions plus more. Aimed at gamers, power users, digital media enthusiasts and other ‘niche’ users.

See the report here and keep an eye out for further …

Struggling to understand what all the SLI and Crossfire hubbub is about? Care to have it explained in plain English? Read on, because here’s your chance.

Display card basics

The display card is, quite simply, another computer all of its own. The main processor and system memory in your computer would be completely overwhelmed trying to generate 3D images for display on the monitor, so we use a 3D display card for the job. It has its own graphics processor and graphics memory. It has a line of communication to the main system processor and memory so it can be told what to calculate, it does the job, and it sends the image to the monitor. In a 3D game, the main system processor and memory only really has to keep track of where you are, what you are doing, and what’s already happened! The display card does the job of showing you what it looks like.

Dual card history

The idea of using two cards in tandem originated from a company called 3DFX, who were pioneers in 3D display cards with their ‘Voodoo’ line of products. The Voodoo cards were widely acclaimed, but they were limited in power and available memory. Early games were played in 640x480 screen resolution, because any higher strained the available power and resources too far.

3DFX came up with the idea of connecting two cards together and using the combined computing power of both for faster gameplay and …

A Wiki should be really thought of as a collaborative website development tool. They're far more than a document creation tool, and can include forums, chat, storage and heaps more features.

A new virus has been found and it is targetting all you porn purveyors out there! The trojan named Yusufali-A seeks to help, not harm people by interrupting their depraved activity.

On an infected system, window titles are scanned for keywords such as:

sex
teen
xx
Phallus
jegger
Priapus
Phallic
Penis
Exhibitionism

and others. When a 'trigger' word is detected in the window title, Yusufali-A minimises the window, and display the following message in various languages:

"YUSUFALI: Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for thy fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes. "

If the 'offending' window is left open, Yusufali-A will pop up a further message, with the mouse pointer 'trapped' within the message windows and with 3 buttons displayed - 'Logoff', 'Shutdown' and 'Restart'. All 3 buttons actually log you out. Keyboard control still exists whilst the pop up is active.

Removal is rather simple. See the instructions provided by Sophos. The virus is not malicious and is listed as a 'low' security risk.

Matter of fact it's one of the funniest viruses I've seen yet! STOP LOOKING AT PORN, OKAY!!

Nigel Page, strategist for Microsoft Australia, has clarified the hardware needs for effectively running the upcoming Windows Vista. Speaking at Microsoft’s TechEd conference, he indicated the following in response to questions asked.

Vista, we are told, is much more graphics focused. There is a fundamental shift from bitmap images to vector graphics, much more focus on shifting workload from the CPU to the GPU, and will require a serious display card to be included in the machine. A 128 megabyte display card will be good, and a 256 megabyte or better display card will be ideal.

The graphics capability will need to be accompanied by rather large amounts of system memory. Half a gigabyte of system RAM will be usable for 32-bit computing, although 1 gigabyte would be much better. Double that amount is needed for 64-bit computing. DDR3 RAM will be best for unlocking the speed and power of Vista.

Dual-core processors will benefit from Vista. The new OS version has multi-threading very much in mind.

S-ATA 2 hard drives are going to be needed if the capabilities of the new OS version are to be more adequately utilized. Current SATA hard drives almost all use a PATA to SATA ‘bridge’ which makes them effectively no more capable that PATA drives. They offer little more than tidier cabling. But SATA-2 introduces Native Command Queuing, asynchronous completion (the OS can begin an operation before the previous one is completed) and better DMA …

Nikon seems poised to be the first company to bring 'cordless' digital still cameras to consumers, it seems. The Coolpix P1 and Coolpix P2 cameras will use 802.11 Wi-Fi technology to transfer images to your PC or printer.

The cameras are due to arrive in retail later in September. The 8 megapixel P1 and 5 megapixel P2 will sell for $550 and $400 respectively. Both will offer 3.5X optical zoom, have the capability of transferring images to PC immediately they are taken (handy for laptop users) and be able to connect either directly to a single PC or to a network via a Wireless base station.

When transferring images directly to PC, the camera will store the images in memory until the transfer is complete, at which time camera memory will be freed ready for the next image. 'Immediately' won't be as good as it sounds, however. A full resolution 8 megapixel image will take 8 seconds to transfer, whilst a 5 megapixel image a bit over 4 seconds.

The Kodak 'EasyShare-One' wireless digital still camera is due to be showcased in late September, and will be launched in early October.

A little discussed feature of the upcoming Windows Vista is called 'Freeze Dry', and it's sure to be a blessing for all of us who leave our PCs running rather than shutting everything down when we move away from the keyboard. Have you ever come back only to find that an update has rebooted the system and you've lost the data you were working on? Have you ever clicked 'Yes' to a restart request only to realise you hadn't saved our data? There's no need to worry about that frustrating circumstance any more.

Built on a core of software technology already in Windows XP, the 'Freeze Dry' feature will recognise the application your document is attached to, save the current state of open programs, save your data, and then restore all to as it was before after the reboot.

The feature is so far being touted as a useful one for IT managers. That seems to be a quite limited way to promote it, because the feature will doubtless be useful to just about everybody. In addition to protecting your data, the 'Restart manager' which underpins the feature better manages files which need to be 'locked' during the update process, and reduces the number of reboots needed by controlling the update process more closely.

The next version of Microsoft's graphics API DirectX will definitely be different to its predecessors. To be included in the upcoming Windows Vista, DirectX 10 will be the programming interface previously called Windows Graphics Foundation by its developers.

Those people who follow developments in PC graphics hardware will quickly realise that DirectX 10 is designed for the future. Accomodation for graphics 'features' such as Shader Model 4 and higher shows clearly that the programming interface will cater to graphics hardware not even produced yet. But according to news site The Inquirer, at the Games Developers Conference in Europe Microsoft has informed developers that DirectX 10 will 'cut' backwards compatibility with titles written for DirectX 9 and earlier! Those titles will still be able to be run on the system, but will need to run via an additional software 'layer'. It is a fair assumption that titles running via software will operate more slowly.

If this proves to be correct, of course, it will make Windows Vista less appealing than previously to those people who wish to run their existing library of 3D titles on exisiting machines.

Popular file compression program WinZip is soon to be available in a new and improved version. Gone is the nag screen fin comes a new 'Professional' version with added automation features.

That's right. Two versions! The new 'Standard' version of WinZip has no nag screen, and also has a new Explorer style tree-structured view. There are a couple of new compression methods as well. The 'Professional' version adds a very capable productivity and automation tool to the arsenal. The version is determined by the registration code. Unlock it with a registration code and the code you've purchased determines if it will be the Standard or Professional version.

There are quite a few more new features in addition to the ones mentioned here. WinZip Version 10.0 Beta is now available for download if you want to have a look at it. I'm sure it won't be too long before we see it as a final release.

Those who hold a license for earlier versions will need to purchase Version 10.0. It won't be a free update.

In between Service Packs a lot of 'Hotfix' updates are developed and made available. A number of them get made available via Windows Update as Critical updates because they relate to security issues, but most don't.

Instead, the 'Hotfixes' which relate to specific problems get mentioned or linked in Knowledgebase articles. Quite a few are only made available following a specific request for them to Microsoft Product Support Services. "Only apply it to systems that are experiencing this specific problem" you are told, and "..if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next Windows XP service pack that contains this hotfix."

That's right! They'll be included in the next Service Pack anyway, making the download larger whether you need them or not!

Thanks to website MajorGeeks, you can download a whole bunch of the Hotfixes in a handy zip file right now, forestalling some of the later pain. There are about 120 of the updates included in the archive, and you can download it from here.

Unfortunately there's no installer included. You'll need to install them individually.

Thank goodness my own Nation has been one of the first to offer assistance. It helps alleviate some of the discomfort I've been feeling. From News.com.au

PRIME Minister John Howard has sent a personal message of sympathy to US President George W. Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
My Howard said today Australia was "looking at ways of providing assistance" after Katrina slammed into US Gulf states this week killing possibly thousands of people and wreaking widespread damage.

Mr Howard said in Longford in northern Tasmania that the damage from Katrina had been "horrific".

"I have sent a personal message of sympathy to President Bush, but I want publicly to express on behalf of all Australians our sense of concern and our feelings for the people who have lost so much and have been affected by this terrible natural disaster," he said.

An update.

For the benefit of those people struggling with images of "looters" I'd like to simply urge you to cast those conceptions aside and feel compassion. (No, not singling you out jwenting. There are many people who have the same reaction to the images.)

There's been an excellent article published by the Washington Post which examines the phenomenon which occurs in war zones and disaster areas, and which is all too often simply dismissed as 'looting'. I'd urge everybody to read it, and to feel for the plight of all those people caught up in the disaster.

There is no doubt that the assistance of people around the globe is going to be needed and welcomed, and I'd urge people everywhere to consider the people of these devastated areas.

Katrina's destruction came in one of the nation's poorest regions.

"These three states, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana, all have high rates of poverty," says Susan Glisson, director of the William Winter Center for Racial Reconciliation at the University of Mississippi. "These are the kinds of people who don't have access to insurance, the kind of people who, when a catastrophe hits, don't have a safety net."

Public-policy analysts predicted it will take months or years for the region to rebuild and that some hard-hit families may never fully recover.

"This state does not have the expendable income to bring us right back," said David Sansing, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Mississippi. "Most people in this state live month-to-month."

There comes a time when pontificating, moralising and analysing simply shows shallowness. There comes a time where all that really matters is what you can give. This is one of them.

When the words fail

In the aftermath of this natural disaster surely even the most staid and conservative amongst us are beginning to see the inadequacy of the terms which litter media reporting. "LOOTERS!" scream the headlines, yet when we read the text we see images of people desperate to get food, supplies and clothing.

Tens of thousands of people were left stranded. Efforts to evacuate them are confronted with enormous difficulties and severely strained resources. Most of the people stranded are the ill, the infirm, the poor. People for whom evacuation warnings meant little, because they simply had no means by which they could leave. And they are left in increasingly dire circumstances. The sheer scale of the event leaves authorities bewildered as to how they can rescue the survivors.

In such times it makes little sense to focus on the opportunists. Sure, there are those who would take advantage of any situation, and who have plundered jewellery stores and the like. But for the most part the reports we see describe people who are trying to obtain food and even drinking water as 'looters'. Surely such an emotive and value-laden term does nothing to acknowledge their plight.

Our energies are wasted in focussing attention on the opportunists in such a time. Instead it should be focussed on the desperate needs of those in danger and of those who have lost all in the disaster. But we should remain mindful of the opportunists to come. …

Alternative Web browser Opera is celebrating 10 years of existence in grand style. Pay a visit now to the MyOpera Community while the party lasts to join the revelry and obtain free online registration which will convert the popular browser to the full, advertising free product.

A full featured browser, Opera has long been a favourite of many, many people. The presence of an advertising banner in the freely available version has kept many others away from enjoying the speed and wealth of features it offers.

Many people dismissed the promised next generation Windows Filing System when it was announced in August last year that the feature would not be included in Windows Vista as previously suggested. But it seems that WinFS is very much back on the agenda, and we can expect to hear from Microsoft about it in the near future.

The Beta1 build of WinFS has been prepared, and there are four sessions about the software technology scheduled for the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference to be held in Los Angeles during September.

According to Microsoft Watch, sources inside Microsoft report that plans have been resumed to release versions of WinFS for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, as well as the promised version for Windows Vista which will be made available sometime after the initial release of that upcoming version of the OS.

As more news comes in, it is becoming increasingly obvious that this is a disaster of huge proportions, and that the worst may be yet to come. Authorities still have no idea how to evacuate the people who need rescue, and the infrastructure damage is overwhelming.

From a just arrived message sent by a work colleague, whose home is now underwater near the intial levee breach:

The hardest thing is recognising that we may not have merely lost our house and possessions, but our city as well. I'm not sure whether they'll be able to rebuild New Orleans.

Nope, sad to say that the story has been put back, and other news channels are reporting similar.

Seems the CNN news story reporting that the levee had breached was subsequently withdrawn from view and replaced with the story which had previously been featured, some several hours earlier. Hopefully, it may have been withdrawn as incorrect.

CNN is now reporting that the levee which was holding back Lake Pontchartrain has breached, and that the City is being inundated with a flood that cannot be held back. It appears that 80% of New Orleans will end up under water.

Thoughts, best wishes and prayers go out to the people of the area. I'm sure the world will be watching with anxiety for the people of a place which touches the hearts of many, many folk around the globe with its unique and wonderful culture.

No, benna, a simulcast (webcasting plus broadcasting) was definitely put on the agenda at the recent Edinburgh Television Festival. Webcasting will follow soon after the switch to digital-only broadcasting, which is expected within a matter of months, apparently. The MyBBCPlayer should arrive early next year.

The BBC’s Director General Mark Thompson has announced plans to introduce a BBCPlayer service, which will enable viewers to download and play seven days of programs, and also to simulcast one of the BBC channels. The simulcast will only be made available to UK viewers. It is quite likely that archived content will be sold online also.

Unless broadcasters adapt, Mr. Thompson suggests, they will be unable and unworthy to retain their licenses in years to come.

Britain is expected to switch to ‘digital-only’ broadcasting quite soon. The digital revolution is definitely upon us.

Could this case be related to Google's decision to publish entire libraries worth of books for online without prior consent from or compensation to the copyright holders?

That's a misrepresentation of 'Google Print'. The only books which could be read online via Google print are those which are already in the public domain. For any books which are subject to copyright, only a small extract can be read online.

Elohir, your 'however' is a tad hasty, perhaps. Google image search displays a thumbnail of the image, a representation of the image in context on the web page of origin, and a link to the original web page. You have to go a step further to view the image as stand-alone in full size.

It also clearly displays a warning that the image may be subject to copyright. It's a bit hard to see how Google could possibly be 'redistributing content' when the search result basically tells you where the website is :)