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Science: Premature birth of Earth |
8/29/2002 |
The Earth formed more quickly than we thought.
Scientists think it took shape about 30 million years after the birth of the Solar System.
The formation of the Moon must have occurred during the first 30 million years of the life of the Solar System
Until now, its core was thought to have arisen over the course of 60 million years.
The evidence comes from revised radioisotope dating of meteorites, the remnants of the stuff that made the planets.
The data also has implications for the genesis of the Moon.
The Moon was thought to have arisen after an impact between the burgeoning Earth and a planet at least as massive as Mars.
Full Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2219965.stm |
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US Army tests portable translator |
8/29/2002 |
US soldiers on peacekeeping duties in the future could find that a portable translation device will be an essential part of their equipment.
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a prototype of a speech translator that was road-tested by US Army chaplains in Croatia.
"This project shows how a relatively simple speech-to-speech translation system can be rapidly and successfully constructed using today's tools," said the team from Carnegie Mellon University in a research paper published recently.
The research was commissioned by the US Army, which is increasingly finding itself in peace-keeping roles where communication is key.
Full Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2219079.stm |
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Science: 'Meteorite' hits girl |
8/29/2002 |
The odds against being hit by a meteorite are billions to one - but a teenager in North Yorkshire may have had one land on her foot.
Siobhan Cowton, 14, was getting into the family car outside her Northallerton home at 1030 BST on Thursday when a stone fell on her from the sky.
Noticing it was "quite hot", she showed it to her father Niel.
The family now plan to have the stone analysed by scientists at Durham University.
"I saw it fall from above roof height," Siobhan told BBC News Online.
"It looked very unusual, with a bubbled surface and tiny indentations like volcanic lava.
Full Article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/sci/tech/2218755.stm |
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Science: Can Airbags Save the World, Scientist Asks |
8/29/2002 |
Giant airbags could one day save the world from the disaster of a cosmic collision with a giant comet, according to a scientist in the United States.
Forget nuclear warheads to stop a crash with a comet that could have cataclysmic effects such as the one that is believed to have triggered the demise of the dinosaurs, Hermann Burchard of Oklahoma State University told New Scientist magazine.
Far better to send up a space ship equipped with a massive airbag that could be inflated to several miles wide and used to gently buffet the invading solar body away from a collision course with earth.
"It seems a safe, simple and realistic idea," Burchard told the magazine's latest edition.
However, he admitted there were still numerous details to be worked out including the material for the airbag which had to be light enough to cart into space yet strong enough to bounce the comet off its course to earth.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1383224 |
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AOL to Launch Next Version of Netscape Browser |
8/29/2002 |
America Online, the Internet unit of media behemoth AOL Time Warner Inc. said it plans to launch its new Netscape Web browser on Thursday, marking its latest effort to challenge the dominance of Microsoft Explorer as the standard tool for surfing the Internet.
The software, which has been in user tests since May, promises faster and easier navigation of the Web, although surveys show its market share has been dwarfed by Microsoft Corp.
Research firm WebSideStory issued a study that says that Netscape's global usage share has dropped to 3.4 percent, compared with 96 percent held by Microsoft Explorer, a turnaround from the mid-1990s when Netscape was dominant.
AOL bought Netscape in late 1998, months after it had struck a deal to use Explorer in its online service. The latest version of Netscape is aiming for mainstream users such as AOL's 34-million-plus user base rather than the tech-savvy developers that have gravitated toward Netscape.
The company has not yet decided to replace Explorer with Netscape in its new version of AOL set to be launched this fall, Netscape spokesman Marty Gordon said.
It is currently being tested in some versions of its service and launched a version of its discount Internet service CompuServe with Netscape technology. "We've been testing the browser and it's been gaining great momentum," he said. "We feel we have the wind in our sales. Netscape is alive as well."
Netscape's battle with Explorer has been an uphill one. "The browser war is in fact a massacre," said Geoff Johnston, vice president of product marketing for WebSideStory's StatMarket. The newest versions of Netscape have failed to win over users so far."
Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=search&StoryID=1384719 |
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Intel to Start Selling Itanium 2 in September |
8/29/2002 |
Nowadays it is quite common to start shipping new products a quarter or even more after the announcement. There are several reasons why this happens, the main is to let the potential customers to learn a lot of theoretical information about the newcomer and to analyse all its possible pros and cons before making his choice. Intel announced their second 64-bit CPU, the Itanium 2 in the beginning of July, but decided to postpone the actual commercial launch until September.
The first company to start delivering servers based on those highly-anticipated processors will be Hewlett-Packard. They plan to launch a line of high-performance 4-way Itanium 2 servers based on their own ZX1 core-logic. The company is amazed with the Itanium 2 processors and there is no surprise at all, since Hewlett-Packard’s own developers have been working on this novelty for a number of years. Now the “child” is born, they can witness what it can offer and needless to say that they are delighted.
As always with brand-new architectures, there will be not a lot of Itanium 2 processors. Frankly speaking, the demand on such CPUs is not going to be massive from its first days, so, there is basically nothing to worry about.
As for other vendors, IBM, for example, are also going to unveil their own Itanium 2 based servers in the nearest future, while Dell is still considering its for and against.
Source:
http://xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1030548781 |
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AMD Reveals Athlon XP 2700+ on the 7th October |
8/29/2002 |
According to some Taiwanese sources, AMD will officially reveal its Athlon XP 2700+ processor on the 7th of October. This CPU is the first to implement 333MHz system bus on Athlon platform. It is expected that the novelty will be based on the latest Thoroughbred core stepping 1, just like the current Athlon XP 2400+ and 2600+, and will work at 2.17GHz.
The new and faster processor bus will give substantial performance boost to Athlon XP CPUs. It is also quite clear that since PC2700 (DDR333) DDR SDRAM now becomes very popular among Socket A platforms, improved processors will also make use of increased memory bandwidth.
As it was reported earlier, VIA KT400, NVIDIA nForce2 and SiS746 series of chipsets will definitely support the up and coming AMD processors with 333MHz FSB. Some VIA KT333 powered mainboards will also allow users to install the new CPUs, however, not a lot of vendors guarantee this feature for their products.
Unfortunately, we have no information regarding pricing or availability of the actual devices to share with you.
Source:
http://xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1030550861 |
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Science: Teens Get Hooked on Smoking Within Weeks- Study |
8/29/2002 |
Teens who tried cigarettes got hooked within weeks of starting -- a surprising result that contradicts the common wisdom that it takes years to become addicted, researchers said on Wednesday.
And it only took a few cigarettes a day to get them dependent on nicotine, the international team of researchers found.
"I expected that some kids would get hooked quickly, but I thought that the average kid would have to smoke for a few years to get hooked," Dr. Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts, whose study is published in the September issue of the journal Tobacco Control, said in a statement.
"I thought that kids who got hooked quickly would be the exception to the rule. As it turned out, the kids who did not get hooked quickly were the exception," he added.
"This study has overturned a lot of conventional wisdom."
It only took an average of three weeks for a teen-age girl to become addicted to tobacco, even if she smoked only occasionally, the study found. Half of all boys who got hooked were firmly addicted within six months.
"Some of the kids it was love at first sight. They had one cigarette and they knew it was something they were going to do for the rest of their lives," DiFranza said in a telephone interview.
Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1384212 |
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Science: Early Pot Smokers Become Addicts, U.S. Study Says |
8/29/2002 |
The younger someone is when first trying marijuana, the more likely he or she is to become dependent on illegal drugs later in life, U.S. government researchers said on Wednesday.
They found that 62 percent of adults aged 26 or older who first started using marijuana before they were 15 had also tried cocaine at some point.
More than 9 percent reported they had used heroin and more than half had used prescription drugs for recreational purposes.
Less than 1 percent of those who said they had never tried marijuana reported having tried cocaine or heroin and just 5 percent had abused prescription drugs, the report, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found.
"These findings are of grave concern because studies show smoking marijuana leads to changes in the brain similar to those caused by cocaine, heroin and alcohol," SAMHSA administrator Charles Curie said in a statement.
"Heavy marijuana abuse impairs the ability of young people to retain information during their peak learning years when their brains are still developing," Curie added.
Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=sciencenews&StoryID=1383987 |
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Toshiba, NEC Propose New DVD Format |
8/29/2002 |
Japanese electronics giants Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp said on Thursday they have proposed a cheaper type of high-capacity DVD incompatible with a format advanced by Sony Corp and others.
NEC and Toshiba said they submitted their format to the DVD Forum, an industry group of more than 230 companies that defines DVD format specifications and aims to promote DVD use.
The format would be incompatible with the Blu-ray standard for blue-laser DVDs unveiled in February by Sony, Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co and seven other electronics giants from Japan, South Korea and Europe.
Toshiba and NEC said their format for blue-laser DVDs, set to hit the market next year and able to store huge amounts of data due to blue light's short wavelength, was more compatible with existing red-laser DVDs and would smooth the transition from red to blue.
"Toshiba and NEC support this trend, with a format that provides a cost-effective upgrade path for media vendors, and a backward-compatible solution for the many customers who have built DVD libraries," the two companies said in a news release.
DVD equipment makers have already been hurt by a fragmentation of formats for red-laser DVD recorders, blamed for hindering the take-off of that market.
Toshiba, Japan's biggest chipmaker and a major player in DVD equipment, was one of the few Japanese electronics giants not to join the Blu-ray consortium.
The other members of the Blu-ray consortium are Japan's Hitachi Ltd, Pioneer Corp and Sharp Corp, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc, Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands and France's Thomson Multimedia.
Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=technologynews&StoryID=1385099 |
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Sony / Microsoft Cut Game Console Pricing in Europe |
8/29/2002 |
.S.-based Microsoft and Japan's Sony announced on Wednesday fresh price cuts for their video games consoles in Europe, adding fuel to an already contentious battle for market share.
Within an hour of each other, first Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), a unit of Sony Corp, and then Microsoft said they would cut the suggested retail price of their consoles to around 249 euros ($244.80), from 299 euros.
A Nintendo spokeswoman said the company had no plans now to change the price of GameCube in Europe, already lower at 199 euros. GameCube is the second-best selling console after PlayStation 2 and before Xbox.
"We expected Microsoft to wait for Sony," said Stuart Dinsey, managing editor of trade publication MCV Games Trade Weekly.
Sony, which has a sizeable lead in Europe's video game market with, by some industry estimates, a 65 percent share of all game console sales, is the only manufacturer with the clout to dictate market prices, analysts say.
"When you (Microsoft) are not the market leader, you have to stay competitive some way," Dinsey said in explaining its speedy response, the second cut since April in Europe.
Full Article:
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml;jsessionid=IHXNY1KJ5LDQOCRBAEZSFFA?type=technologynews&StoryID=1382597 |
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Direct X 9 Delayed |
8/28/2002 |
Microsoft and its partners, including ATI, had suggested [Direct X 9]would be introduced in early October, but now we hear it's postponed until the end of November.
But Beta 2 of the API jhas ust become available, even though the only hardware compatible with DirectX 9 is the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro.
Butl even ATI, the only company with a DX 9 part on the market is not allowed to ship DirectX 9 drivers and distribute its cards with DirectX 9. Even hardware reviewers are not able to obtain the fancy DX demos simply because of Microsoft's beta policy.
At its current stage DirectX is in Beta 2 but it's still unclear whether the next revision will still be a beta or final code.
Full Article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5168 |
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RIAA Website Hacked Again |
8/28/2002 |
The RIAA's official website has been hacked, and this time they did it right by defacing the site rather than DoS it, though it does look to be down right now. How long will it be before the RIAA realises that they have really pissed of the public?
Quote from the "news" article on RIAA.org:
RIAA against music sharing? Not anymore!
RIAA to sue music sharers? Not Anymore
With the legal file sharing service kazaa still online, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today announced that it intends to offer the latest albums for download from riaa.org.
As you are probably aware, the RIAA has been pursuing a policy of preventing this activity in recent months
We have recently become aware that this approach is yielding only limited results and in some cases may in fact be harming sales and the artists' revenue stream.
The RIAA wishes to apologise for the heavy-handed manner in which the popular chinese site Listen4Ever was closed down, and would like to present the following items for free download as a token of its goodwill.
Of course the list is relatively small, but please be patient - we expect to offer over 300 next week. We also intend to offer pre-released movies in the coming months.
According to many people, the list of the MP3's that were on the site were actually on the RIAA's servers and many people were able to download them.
Mirror of the Hack / Full Article:
http://music.tinfoil.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=513&mode=thread&order=0&thold=-1 |
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New worm hits KaZaA networks |
8/28/2002 |
Kaspersky Labs has reported the existence of a network worm called Duload, which is spreading across the KaZaA file-exchange network.
The worm is a Windows application written in Visual Basic. Two modifications exist:
Worm.P2P.Duload.a - 18432 bytes
Worm.P2P.Duload.b - 7680 bytes (compressed)
Opening the infected attachment results in Duload duplicating itself to the Windows system directory as "SystemConfig.exe". It modifies the registry so that this file loads each time Windows is started.
The worm makes a folder called Media in the Windows directory and copies itself there under 39 different names such as:
Pamela Anderson And Tommy Lee Home Video.exe
Alicia Silverstone Payboy Nude.exe
Kama Sutra Tetris.exe
Soldier Of Fortune 2 Mutiplayer Serial Hack.exe
The Sims Game Crack.exe
Warcraft 3 Battle.net Crack.exe
The worm then alters the registry to make the Media folder accessible to all other KaZaA network users.
One variant (Worm.P2P.Duload.a) also downloads several Trojan programs which allow remote management of infected computers.
Full Article:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/08/23/1030052966626.html |
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Palm Lies About m130 Color Display, Gets Sued |
8/28/2002 |
"Palm Inc. has admitted it overstated the color display features of its new m130 handheld. Now it faces a consumer class-action lawsuit over the blunder.
The Milpitas, California-based maker of personal digital assistants apologized last week to customers, saying on its Web site that it had discovered the m130 supports about 58,621 color combinations -- not the "more than 65,000 colors" that the company had been advertising since the product came out in March.
"The company is working on a plan to compensate customers," Palm spokeswoman Marlene Somsak said Tuesday. Somsak refused to say whether refunds were being considered but said replacements are not part of the plan since the product is not defective.
In the meantime, she said, the company will "aggressively fight" the lawsuit, which was filed Thursday in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County.
The suit accuses Palm of "unfair competition, and fraudulent, unfair, deceptive and false advertising." The law firm of Sheller, Ludwig & Badey, filed it on behalf of Yansu Ouyang of Castro Valley, Jonathan Lipner of Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania, and any "similarly situated" m130 customers."
Full Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/08/28/palm.lawsuit.ap/index.html
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AMD angered by changes in PC performance benchmarking |
8/28/2002 |
A widely used industry benchmark for PC performance was revised this year to favor Intel Corp.'s Pentium 4 processors, according to archrival Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
An AMD spokesman today confirmed that the Sunnyvale, Calif., chipmaker examined the SysMark 2002 benchmark and concluded that tests had been dropped that favored AMD's Athlon XP processors. "We definitely believe SysMark 2002 is heavily biased toward Intel," the spokesman charged.
SysMark 2002 was developed by an industry consortium, BAPCo, Santa Clara, Calif., which includes Adaptec, Amdahl, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and NEC among its members. AMD joined BAPCo in July with the avowed goal of eliminating in the draft of the SysMark 2003 benchmark the perceived unfair tests, the company spokesman said.
An AMD source said it is probably too late to change the SysMark 2002 benchmark. However, he said AMD wants to call attention to what it believes are tests that are prejudiced against the Athlon processor.
Full Article:
http://www.ebns.com/story/OEG20020827S0021 |
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Hack Into a BMW With Bluetooth? |
8/28/2002 |
"Visteon and BMW are planning to introduce wireless voice-controlled in-car telephone Bluetooth modules as optional extras for all current BMW X5, BMW 3 Series and 5 Series cars from September 2002.
Visteon says the jointly developed voice-controlled system will allow BMW drivers the wireless and hands-free use of mobile phones.
"With this programme and by signing a development contract for further future technologies, BMW has documented the faith it has in Visteon," said Dr. Marlis Basili-Hartmann, Visteon's Global Account Manager for the BMW Group. "We are committed to underpinning our business relations with BMW both now and in the future by supplying innovative, high quality systems and technologies and also by offering excellent customer service."
"Our collaboration with BMW clearly underlines the fact that Visteon chose the correct course of action in setting up a customer-facing organisation," said Dr. Wilfried Janke, Vice President and General Manager, German Customer Business Groups. "The staff at our Munich office ensures that the programme management runs efficiently, benefiting from direct communications with the customer."
Visteon's Bluetooth Interface Module with Visteon Voice Technology extends voice control from vehicle systems to consumer devices.
The so-called integration solution enables data and voice commands to be easily transferred, helping drivers manage their information, entertainment and communication. The hands-free system, featured mainly in telecommunications products until now, integrates the benefits of Bluetooth wireless technology with Visteon's Voice Technology and applies it to automotive applications."
Full Article:
http://techreview.com/offthewire/3001_2782002_2.asp |
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Sticky gecko toes have little hairs to thank |
8/28/2002 |
Tiny little hairs and not any kind of chemical glue help a gecko race up and down vertical surfaces as smooth as glass, researchers reported Monday.
The finding could help scientists invent better adhesives that will work virtually anywhere, the researchers at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, the University of California and Stanford University said.
"We have solved a centuries-old mystery of what makes a gecko's toes so sticky," Lewis and Clark's Kellar Autumn, a biologist, said in telephone interview.
Geckos and their ability to climb and hang virtually everywhere are hardly unknown to science, but biologists had not really understood how they did it.
At first it was assumed they had glue on their toes, but close examination with electron microscopes shows they have millions of tiny hairs called setae.
A seta is only about 100 micrometers long -- about the width of two human hairs. Each seta ends with 1,000 even tinier pads at the tip.
One seta can lift the weight of an ant. A million setae, which could easily fit onto the area of a dime, could lift a 45-pound child and a gecko using all of its setae at the same time could support 280 pounds, the researchers said.
Full Article:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/08/26/science.geckos.reut/index.html |
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Microsoft: WinXP Update Could 'Bomb' Some Computers |
8/28/2002 |
In an attempt to reduce piracy of its software, Microsoft ( Nasdaq: MSFT - news) has announced protective changes to its Windows Product Activation (WPA) service, beginning with WinXP Service Pack 1.
As veteran Microsoft watchers have expected, SP1 will not install if either of what the company calls "two well-known pirated product keys" has ever been used to activate the system. Such systems will also be denied access to Microsoft's Windows Update feature.
According to Microsoft, "the product IDs generated from these product keys are (where X may be any numeric value):
XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX
XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX
Full Article:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=75&ncid=75&e=2&u=/nf/20020827/tc_nf/19188 |
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nVIDIA / Epic to Host Unreal Tournament 2003 Competition |
8/28/2002 |
ATI grasped sponsorship of the QuakeCon big ID software network "shoot me in the head" event and exposed the Radeon 9700 Pro as the "official card" of this event. Apart from that, ATI also managed to become seated on the "right hand" of ID software when that little company showed its up and coming title, Doom 3.
And yes, Nvidia is about to hit back hard. Even though the Nvidia folk are not in official papers that we received two weeks before the event from the organizers, Graphzilla will be at stand 1240 and claims it will unveil the first ever European Unreal 2003 death match tournament.
This will be the first ever showcase of the game that EPIC shows to the European press – and other flown in from around the world -- so the attendees can play the games they want.
On the Geforce 4 TI 4600 – the fastest card on the Nvidia planet, right now.
The good thing is that regular visitors will be able to play in two separate tournaments on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th.
Full Article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5152 |
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Dual-Channel Pentium 4 Chipsets to Come Q4 |
8/28/2002 |
As we have already told you numerous times, three leading chipset makers are going to unveil their dual-channel DDR SDRAM Pentium 4 core-logic devices by the fourth quarter this year. These days Intel, VIA and SiS are sampling their future products and for us it will be useful to summarise everything we know about them so far.
The first one to come is Intel`s Granite Bay also known at the E7205. It will support 533MHz system bus, AGP 8x and dual-channel PC1600/2100 DDR SDRAM memory. Intel decided not to implement PC2700 (DDR333) support this time, as peak bandwidth offered by dual-channel PC2100 is 4.2GB per second, exactly equals to 533MHz Quad-pumped Pentium 4 bus. The North Bridge (or MCH) feature ICH4 I/O controller, supporting USB 2.0 and other necessary features. It was reported that several mainboard manufacturers will release E7205 based products in October, targeting workstations and entry-level servers. It seems that E7205 will be a perfect companion to Intel`s up and coming Pentium 4 3.06GHz with HyperTransport technology enabled.
As a true, but not very lucky, player of this market, VIA also prepares its answer to Intel. It will be called P4X600 and it is going to have even more advanced features against the rival. The P4X600 offers 533MHz processor bus, AGP 8x, dual-channel PC2100 (DDR266) and PC2700 (DDR333) support. As all latest chipsets from the Taipei-based chipset-maker, it utilises VIA VT8235 South Bridge, bringing us USB 2.0 and ATA-133. Mainboards based on VIA P4X600 will appear in the fourth quarter this year.
Full Article:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1030486010 |
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Mozilla 1.1 Released |
8/27/2002 |
"What's New in Mozilla 1.1
Improved application and layout performance
Improved stability
Improved Web site compatibility
Improved CSS, DOM and HTML standards support
Distinct window icons for the different Mozilla applications (artwork contributed by Grayrest).
Mozilla can now trigger MS DUN when started without a connection.
Fullscreen mode for Mozilla on Linux (press F11).
Browser tabs now close left to right (they used to close right to left).
The tab bar now has a button for creating new tabs.
All Search entry points now use your default search engine.
Download Manager has been enabled as the default download view (with many improvements)
Autocomplete in the location bar has more intelligent completion.
The Linux File Picker has improved filtering and a new directory button.
File extensions more accurately handled in downloads and we save the correct files when saving complete Web pages
Drag and drop support has been greatly improved.
View selection source: Context clicking on a selection now lets you view the HTML source for the selected area.
Page info displays more page info with improved General and Media tab content.
New button in prefs for making Mozilla the system default browser on MS Windows
MathML is now enabled for Mozilla on Macintosh (it was already available on Windows and Linux).
Mozilla now takes advantage of Quartz rendering for users of Mac OS X 10.1.5
Better Bi-Di Arabic and Hebrew support including improved layout of Arabic pages on Linux and other platforms without their own Arabic shaping support.
We have new layout performance enhancements targeted at DHTML.
Mozilla now has support for the display of XBM images.
Image and plug-in blocking for Mail & News
Mozilla allows you to view HTML mail messages as plain text.
You can now quote the current message in a Mail compose window with Quote Original under the options menu.
The JavaScript Debugger has gone through a major development cycle. It now sports a palette of nine views which can be rearranged within the main window or docked in separate floating windows. It is also possible to create user-defined views and commands directly with JavaScript. More details are available in the FAQ, newsgroup, or IRC channel.
Chatzilla has improved tab completion and can now join channels with Japanese names."
Release Notes:
http://mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.1/
Download:
Microsoft Windows (95,98,ME,NT,2000,XP)
MacOS 9.x
x86 Linux |
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Tom Pabst Comments on Van's Hardware / Kyle Bennet Situation |
8/27/2002 |
"Now Van Smith is a special customer. After all, it's all my fault that anyone is actually listening to him, because I had given him the largest forum in the hardware community, when I employed him as an editor of Tom's Hardware in April 2000. It didn't take long and I noticed that Van is a fanatic, who believes that Intel and Rambus are strongholds of the devil and that AMD, VIA and others are the holy saviors. There are several stories he wrote that I considered un-publishable and they are still in my drawer. These stories were so bluntly anti-Intel that Tom's Hardware would have lost all its credibility if I would have published them. Most of his other stories required massive editing work before they could go live. Finally, after I had dared to consider Pentium 4 a reasonably good processor late 2000, he got all upset with me and thankfully left us. A year later he started his own website with the highly original name 'vanshardware', in which he insulted me and my staff on multiple occasions, finally forcing me to remove all his former articles from Tom's Hardware, because I considered his name as well as his work a disgrace to my publication. In the process, my webmaster made several mistakes, because he wouldn't follow my orders, which lead to a series of annoying misunderstandings, but finally Tom's Hardware was wiped clean of Van Smith. On his website, he publishes several lies, the most upsetting one for me is that he claims involvement in the THG story that eventually lead to Intel's recall of the Pentium 3 1.13 GHz. Van Smith had NOTHING to do with this story, as not only my staff (and actually Kyle Bennett) can definitely state, but also all the people at Intel, who actually dealt with this issue."
Full Article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/blurb/02q3/020825/index.html |
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M3DZone going down... |
8/27/2002 |
After 4 years of hard work and updating my website everyday, 2 years ago I decided that it was time to join a bigger project. From that point on, we created the Techconnect Network, together with my buddy @dek.
Now, after some very, very long thoughts we have decided to shutdown M3DZone! I know you all think I'm nuts, but believe me, it is better this way. The site isn't what it used to be and it is time that we move on.
But don't worry! We have a little surprise coming up for all of you visitors really soon. Before we will shutdown our site (which will be within one week from now), we will give you the info on our new 'project' (hint, hint!!) ;)
Thanks for the 4 years of trust in us and our site and stay tuned for an update,
Kind regards,
Michiel (Viper) & Alan (@dek)
http://www.m3dzone.com/ |
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AMD Releases Athlon MP 2200+ |
8/27/2002 |
SUNNYVALE, CA -- August 27, 2002 --AMD today introduced the AMD Athlon™ MP processor 2200+, built on AMD’s state-of-the-art 0.13-micron copper process technology, to provide the high performance and reliability demanded by businesses for their servers and workstations. AMD’s 0.13-micron manufacturing technology allows processors to achieve higher performance while lowering power requirements, all on a smaller die size.
Today’s announcement marks the third and final member of the AMD Athlon processor family to transition to 0.13-micron copper process technology. AMD Athlon processors for mobile and desktop systems transitioned to this advanced technology earlier in 2002.
“Business users are demanding higher performance to increase productivity and our 0.13- micron copper process technology allows AMD to make that a reality,” said Ed Ellett, vice president of marketing for AMD’s Computation Products Group. “In addition, IT managers tell us they need longer product life cycles to get them through the tight IT budgets facing many enterprises today. With the AMD Athlon MP processor’s stable Socket A infrastructure, AMD can help lower total cost of ownership and protect a company’s technology investment.”
The AMD Athlon MP processor, AMD’s award-winning multiprocessor, delivers the ideal dual-processor platform for the server and workstation markets. For server customers, the new AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ provides the reliability and stability they need for mission-critical email, exchange, file, print and networking applications. For workstation users, such as engineers, architects and designers, the AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ excels on compute-intensive workstation applications, including digital content creation and computer-aided design.
“AMD Athlon MP processors provided the reliability and the compute-intense power that we needed to render a motion picture such as ‘Scooby Doo,’” said Mark Brown, vice president of technology for Rhythm & Hues. “We used systems powered by AMD Athlon MP processors to meet our intense deadlines, and they performed flawlessly.”
The AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ is compatible with Microsoft® Windows® and Linux operating systems. With its QuantiSpeed™ architecture and Smart MP technology, the AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ can integrate smoothly into existing infrastructures, providing the stability and manageability that IT managers require.
Performance of a system powered by AMD Athlon MP processors is enhanced by the AMD-760™ MPX chipset, which provides high-speed peripheral connections for increased productivity and is compatible with all AMD Athlon MP processors.
Availability
Systems featuring the AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ are expected to be available immediately from more than 34 manufacturers worldwide.
Pricing
The AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ is priced at $224 in 1,000-unit quantities. For additional information on pricing, please visit www.amd.com/pricing.
About the AMD Athlon™ MP Processor
The AMD Athlon™ MP processor is a seventh-generation x86 processor designed for high-performance multiprocessing servers and workstations.
AMD Athlon MP processors are used by leading corporations to increase productivity in areas such as oil and gas exploration, Web-hosting services and motion picture rendering. In addition, many of the world’s most prestigious universities use AMD Athlon MP processors in superclusters for compute-intensive research applications.
A key advantage of AMD’s multiprocessing platform is Smart MP technology, which greatly enhances overall platform performance by increasing data movement between the two CPUs, chipset and memory system. Smart MP technology features dual point-to-point, high-speed 266MHz system buses with Error Correcting Code (ECC) support designed to provide up to 2.1GB per second per CPU of bus bandwidth in a dual-processor system. Smart MP technology also has an optimized Modified Owner Exclusive Shared Invalid (MOESI) cache coherency protocol that manages data and memory traffic in a multiprocessing environment.
The AMD Athlon MP processor features the patented QuantiSpeed architecture, which includes a high performance full-speed cache with hardware data pre-fetch, a fully pipelined superscalar floating point engine, and an exclusive L2 Translation Look-aside Buffer (TLB). The processor also incorporates 3DNow!™ Professional technology, which has 51 new instructions that extend AMD’s 3DNow! technology, enabling smoother, richer and more lifelike images, more precise digital audio and an enriched Internet experience.
The AMD Athlon MP processor is compatible with AMD’s stable Socket A infrastructure, and supports DDR memory technology. It is manufactured using AMD’s 0.13-micron copper process technology in Fab 30 in Dresden, Germany.
Press Release:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~41863,00.html |
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Van's Hardware Calls It Quits |
8/26/2002 |
"Winding Down
Dear Readers,
We appreciate your support for making us one of the biggest and most influential websites in the world. Running the website is taking its toll. Expenses, threats, attacks, conflicts of interest and intimidating phone calls are making it impossible to carry the site forward.
We will not be updating the site any further. We might, however, eventually release COSBI here and let it go for others to mind.
We have met many beautiful people and appreciate your support. It is because of your encouragement that we have continued to write and publish. Thank you and we hope that you will keep in touch with us.
The Smith Family"
http://www.vanshardware.com |
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ATI fears Nvidia will pre-launch the NV30 |
8/26/2002 |
"ATi is planning a grand jamboree at the ECTS show in London this week but is getting the heebie-jeebies about potential spoiling tactics from its biggest living nightmare, Nvidia Ink.
We are expecting to see some old and some new friends at the mysterious yet in some strange manner, military bash come Woden's Day.
The latest nightmare to haunt ATI executives' dreams is their suspicion that Nvidia might paper launch its NV30 graphics chip early – like on the 9th of September – just to throw dust in the face of the R300 technology.
NV30 only taped out on the 10th of August or thereabouts, so there's no conceivable way Nvidia could do much other than brief the world's press on its R300 killer.
But it's good to be out there napalming the opposition and Nvidia sure doesn't want ATI to have a straight run right the way through to Yuletide."
Full Article:
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=5121
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Intel Releases Pentium 4 2.8GHz Processor |
8/26/2002 |
"SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 26, 2002 - Intel Corporation today introduced new versions of the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor - the world's highest performance desktop microprocessor. At speeds now up to 2.8 GHz, the new processors allow consumers to enjoy a richer PC experience with broadband audio and video content, games, music, photos and movies. At the same time, systems based on the high-performance Pentium 4 processor are a valuable investment for a child's education. In business, high-performance PCs can help maximize productivity in multitasking environments.
"The latest Pentium 4 processors, when combined with Intel's newest chipsets and the latest operating systems, make computers higher performing and more capable," said Louis Burns, vice president and general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group. "A consumer can scan photos three times faster and edit photos more than four times faster than they can with an older computer."
The Intel Pentium 4 processor is by far the leading microprocessor for consumers and business users worldwide. With a 512K Level 2 cache, a choice of 400 or 533 MHz system bus speeds, and manufactured on Intel's leading 0.13-micron process, the Pentium 4 processor continues to set new standards for high-performance PCs."
Press Release
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20020826comp.htm |
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Intel Introduces Pentium 4 2.8GHz / Slashes Prices |
8/26/2002 |
Intel will officially announce the Pentium 4 2.8GHz Processor today.
Pricewatch Figures for Pentium 4 Chips are:
546 - Pentium 4 2.8GHz
$249 Pentium 4 2.53GHz
$238 Pentium 4 2.4GHz 533MHz
$234 Pentium 4 2.4GHz 400MHz
$214 - Pentium 4 2.2GHz 400MHz
$217 Pentium 4 2.26GHz 533MHz
$217 Pentium 4 2.26GHz
$162 Pentium 4 2.0GHz Sock 478
$185 - Pentium 4 2.0GHz
$154 Pentium 4 1.9GHz Sock 478
$181 Pentium 4 1.9GHz
$148 - Pentium 4 1.8GHz Sock 478
$169 Pentium 4 1.8GHz
$132 - Pentium 4 1.7GHz Sock 478
$132 Pentium 4 1.7GHz
$117 - Pentium 4 1.6GHz Sock 478
$127 - Pentium 4 1.6GHz
$102 Pentium 4 1.5GHz Sock 478
$100 - Pentium 4 1.5GHz
$118 - Pentium 4 1.4GHz Sock 478
$125 - Pentium 4 1.4GHz
$150 - Pentium 4 1.3GHz
$150 - Pentium 4 1.3GHz |
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Dell to Shift All Graphics Cards Orders to Taiwanese Manufacturers |
8/25/2002 |
"These days average selling prices on computers decline a lot, as a result, profit margins of computer suppliers continually fall down. The only way to increase profitability without affecting the final price is to decrease components and workmanship cost. Since big Asia-based manufacturers offer more beneficial prices, a lot of system integrators now turn to them.
As I have read over AsiaBizTech, Dell Computer is rumoured to have shifted all its graphics cards manufacturing to Taiwan-based manufacturers because the prices they offer are more attractive compared to the costs provided by their former partner Sanmina-SCI. Apparently, MSI, ASUSTeK and Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co) are reported to become the graphics cards suppliers for Dell.
MSI has been manufacturing graphics cards for the number two computer supplier in the world beginning from June 2001 and it seems to proved the latter that Taiwanese computer-component manufacturers can not only offer attractive pricing, but also admissible quality. ASUS is a well-known OEM, who makes mainboards and some other devices for Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other big companies. Foxconn Electronics is said to be one of the major suppliers of Intel core-logic based mainboards both for Intel itself as well as some system integrators and component resellers.
The latter is a new player on the graphics market and I have no information whose GPUs the company will adopt for their graphics cards. Both ASUS and MSI use graphics processors from NVIDIA. Since these two are going to be the major graphics cards makers for the number two computer supplier in the world, it seems to me that Dell has decided not to use a lot of ATI powered cards in their PCs."
Source:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/story.html?id=1030224583 |
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Anand Comments on Bapco AMD/Intel Issue |
8/25/2002 |
"I just thought I'd chime in here now that data seems to be leaking out about this.
Here's where things stand currently:
1) AMD went around to reviewers and distributed the PDF that you've seen posted in this thread. The data AMD produced is verifiable as I have done my own verification of the tests in house.
2) Here's the main problem: SYSMark 2001 ran a certain set of tasks but in the move to SYSMark 2002, a good deal of the tasks that AMD's Athlon was faster at were removed and replaced with tasks that the Pentium 4 was faster at. Both sets of tasks are perfectly valid tests of CPU performance (it's not like BAPCo just stuck in random tasks that don't do anything) but the point that must be made is that the changes were made seemingly without any user-level research to back them up. If there was some research that said "this is how most people use their systems" that caused BAPCo to change their methodology then this wouldn't have been a problem, but without that backing for their decision then it just seems as if BAPCo optimized the benchmark for the Pentium 4.
3) AMD's secondary complaint is that the benchmarks now use much larger datasets (e.g. Excel). This is more of a minor complaint since it penalizes the Athlon XP for having a smaller cache than Intel's Northwood. AMD would not have made the same complaint had their Hammer already been out since the larger datasets would mean that Hammer's on-die memory controller would give it the advantage.
4) I've been working with AMD on analyzing this information, it's very simple to obtain but requires a bit of effort to analyze. Even AMD today sent me an email saying that they had to order some special software in order to fully understand what's going on in the benchmark. It's too early to make any complete conclusions but what can be said is that SYSMark 2002 can no longer be used as a sole measurement of application performance.
It's pretty sad that it has come to this, but what I can envision happening (at least on AnandTech) is a larger set of office application benchmarks just as Modus and Rand have suggested in this thread. I would like to put together our own tests but it is definitely not an easy task; in light of these discoveries I will have to put much more thought into doing just that however.
The good news is that now that AMD is a part of BAPCo, SYSMark 2003 should become a much better and more balanced benchmark. Before, the only real input from a major CPU vendor was coming from Intel (I was always afraid that SYSMark 2003 would be released and it would show an incredibly unrealistic gain with HyperThreading enabled) but now with AMD involved things will hopefully become more balanced. According to AMD, BAPCo is infinitely more responsive to their needs now that they're a part of the organization and they should be having a formal meeting to discuss this issue very soon (if they haven't already).
I'll keep you posted on what's going on as soon as I get the info I need from AMD/BAPCo.
Take care,
Anand"
Source:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=855292 |
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