Slashdot Mirror
Domain: arstechnica.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to arstechnica.com.
Stories · 4,420
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Introduction to 64-bit Computing and x86-64
James writes "Ars Technica has an article up explaining 64-bit computing from the x86 angle, specifically from the angle of AMD's Hammer. The article explains the details in that usual Ars style, and I found it very useful for thinking about what kinds of applications I may want to put to the test on one of these when we get a box in the office. Even non-x86 freaks may appreciate this, since it breaks down some of the basic advantages of 64-bit computing, and just who can expect to see gains in the near future." -
Introduction to 64-bit Computing and x86-64
James writes "Ars Technica has an article up explaining 64-bit computing from the x86 angle, specifically from the angle of AMD's Hammer. The article explains the details in that usual Ars style, and I found it very useful for thinking about what kinds of applications I may want to put to the test on one of these when we get a box in the office. Even non-x86 freaks may appreciate this, since it breaks down some of the basic advantages of 64-bit computing, and just who can expect to see gains in the near future." -
Ultra-Cool Wireless Wearables
moonboy writes "I just saw this story linked to from Ars Technica. Motorola and Frog Design have recently released information about some awesome new prototypes for wearable computing with wireless capability using Bluetooth technology. The wearables group will include a WDA (Wearable Digital Assistant) which will serve as the communications hub, the Wristable, Goggles, Digi-Cam, Comport, Radio-button, and the Intelli-pen. Very cool stuff!" Prototype seems a strong word.... -
350 Megapixel Camera
Remy Hathaway writes "Ars Technica just posted an article on the "MegaCam", a 350 megapixel camera. The original story is from the Honolulu Advertiser." -
Understanding Moore's Law
S. Blocher writes "Ars Technica has a great article up, 'Understanding Moore's Law', that I think most geeks should read. The misrepresentation of Moore's Law in the media has always been a real pet peeve of mine, and this article does a great job of looking at the flipside of the 'bigger and faster' thesis to show how the Law isn't really just about doubling computer power." -
Understanding Moore's Law
S. Blocher writes "Ars Technica has a great article up, 'Understanding Moore's Law', that I think most geeks should read. The misrepresentation of Moore's Law in the media has always been a real pet peeve of mine, and this article does a great job of looking at the flipside of the 'bigger and faster' thesis to show how the Law isn't really just about doubling computer power." -
Larry Page: Google Was an Accident
DarklordJonnyDigital writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Google founder Larry Page has admitted that the Google project wasn't originally intended to be a search engine at all. "It wasn't that we intended to build a search engine. We built a ranking system to deal with annotations." ' Of course, happy accidents have often been the cause for advancement, technologically or otherwise. -
Finally, A Working NES!
vandel405 writes "We've seen the NES PC Conversion, and we've all lusted over the top-loading NES. But, top-loading NES's aren't something you're going to pick up at a garage sale. How can you resurrect your 8 bit console hero? Easy, with this news guide from ArsTechnica! Now you can make your 8Bit NES as reliable as your linux kernel. No more Blow and Pray!" -
SmartDust Sensorwebs 'Real Soon Now'
DeAshcroft writes "EE Times has a piece on progress with the four-year-old DARPA-conceived Smart Dust self-organizing sensor networks. Based on Berkeley's TinyOS and TinyDB open-source projects, the article reports several companies are demonstrating both military and civilian applications. Ars Technica adds background and commentary on issues not discussed in the EET article." -
RIAA Settlement: Possible Consumer Payback
KoopaTroopa writes "Over on Ars Technica they are running a story about the RIAA handing out consumer payments as a settlement to a price-fixing class action. If you bought a recording at retail between Jan. 1, 1995, and Dec. 22, 2000, claim your money." As usual, the lawyers win a lot more than you will, but the process is pretty painless if you'd like to collect part of the settlement money; you may recall this earlier story about the settlement. -
Corruption Scandal Rocks Los Alamos Lab
An anonymous reader writes "In the wake of recent science fraud stories involving Bell Labs and Berkeley National Labs, a new scandal is now brewing at Los Alamos National Lab. Today (Jan 3, 2003), the New York Times is reporting that both the Director and Principal Deputy Director of Los Alamos have submitted their resignations under duress. A more detailed and earlier CBS News report here . POGO has an archive of related documents here. I recommend you visit POGO.org (Project On Government Oversight), a wonderful non-profit organization dedicated to fighting fraud and waste in the US government." -
Understanding Pipelining and Superscalar Execution
Zebulon Prime writes "Hannibal over at Ars has just posted a new article on processor technology. The article uses loads of analogies and diagrams to explain the basics behind pipelining and superscalar execution, and it's actually kind of funny (for a tech article). It's billed as a basic introduction to the concepts, but as a CS student and programmer I found it really helpful. I think this article is a sequel to a previous one that was linked here a while ago." -
Understanding Pipelining and Superscalar Execution
Zebulon Prime writes "Hannibal over at Ars has just posted a new article on processor technology. The article uses loads of analogies and diagrams to explain the basics behind pipelining and superscalar execution, and it's actually kind of funny (for a tech article). It's billed as a basic introduction to the concepts, but as a CS student and programmer I found it really helpful. I think this article is a sequel to a previous one that was linked here a while ago." -
Keyboarding Love Or Keyboarding Pain
flyingember writes "Over on Ars, they've done the ultimate review for anyone who sits at a computer more than someone on AOL does, the IMAK Smart Gloves. These gloves are supposed to both prevent and help ease pain associated with conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Read it to see if our code monkey enjoys the gloves or if they're just something for him to throw at the gawking crowd." -
Understanding the Microprocessor
Citywide writes "Ars has a very thorough technical piece up entitled Understanding the Microprocessor. It's pitched lower than many Ars articles (all of which are a bit over my head, to be honest), but that's why it's worth checking out: it explains the fundamentals is a very clear and useful way. And as the author notes, this kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives." -
Understanding the Microprocessor
Citywide writes "Ars has a very thorough technical piece up entitled Understanding the Microprocessor. It's pitched lower than many Ars articles (all of which are a bit over my head, to be honest), but that's why it's worth checking out: it explains the fundamentals is a very clear and useful way. And as the author notes, this kind of information is really crucial to get a grip on before Hammer arrives." -
Understanding Bandwidth and Latency
M. Woodrow, Jr. writes "Ars has a very eye-opening article on the real causes of bandwidth latency and why we should just drool endlessly over maximum throughput issues. In particular, I think the author's look into the PowerPC 970 and the P4's frontside bus is interesting considering how we're constantly being told by marketers that more speed is always going to translate into massive performance gains. The issue is, of course, far more complex, and this article does a good job of thinking about the problem from an almost platform agnostic point of view." -
Understanding Bandwidth and Latency
M. Woodrow, Jr. writes "Ars has a very eye-opening article on the real causes of bandwidth latency and why we should just drool endlessly over maximum throughput issues. In particular, I think the author's look into the PowerPC 970 and the P4's frontside bus is interesting considering how we're constantly being told by marketers that more speed is always going to translate into massive performance gains. The issue is, of course, far more complex, and this article does a good job of thinking about the problem from an almost platform agnostic point of view." -
Design Philosophy of the IBM PowerPC 970
D.J. Hodge writes "Ars Technica has a very detailed article on the PowerPC 970 up that places the CPU in relation to other desktop CPU offerings, including the G4 and the P4. I think this gets at what IBM is doing: 'If the P4 takes a narrow and deep approach to performance and the G4e takes a wide and shallow approach, the 970's approach could be characterized as wide and deep. In other words, the 970 wants to have it both ways: an extremely wide execution core and a 16-stage (integer) pipeline that, while not as deep as the P4's, is nonetheless built for speed.'" -
Design Philosophy of the IBM PowerPC 970
D.J. Hodge writes "Ars Technica has a very detailed article on the PowerPC 970 up that places the CPU in relation to other desktop CPU offerings, including the G4 and the P4. I think this gets at what IBM is doing: 'If the P4 takes a narrow and deep approach to performance and the G4e takes a wide and shallow approach, the 970's approach could be characterized as wide and deep. In other words, the 970 wants to have it both ways: an extremely wide execution core and a 16-stage (integer) pipeline that, while not as deep as the P4's, is nonetheless built for speed.'" -
IBM PowerPC 970 Architecture
riclewis writes "Hannibal from Ars Technica offers an explanation of some of the internals of the new IBM chip. It's certainly more powerful than anything on the desktop now, but by the time it's released a year from now, it looks to be middle-of-the-pack (which could still be a step up for Apple...) This excitement over the early release of hardware specs kinda reminds me of all the hype surrounding the Sony's Emotion Engine when it was introduced a couple years ago. In fact, some are suggesting the PPC 970 chip might be closely related to the PS3's 'Cell' processor..." -
IBM PowerPC 970 Architecture
riclewis writes "Hannibal from Ars Technica offers an explanation of some of the internals of the new IBM chip. It's certainly more powerful than anything on the desktop now, but by the time it's released a year from now, it looks to be middle-of-the-pack (which could still be a step up for Apple...) This excitement over the early release of hardware specs kinda reminds me of all the hype surrounding the Sony's Emotion Engine when it was introduced a couple years ago. In fact, some are suggesting the PPC 970 chip might be closely related to the PS3's 'Cell' processor..." -
IBM PowerPC 970 Architecture
riclewis writes "Hannibal from Ars Technica offers an explanation of some of the internals of the new IBM chip. It's certainly more powerful than anything on the desktop now, but by the time it's released a year from now, it looks to be middle-of-the-pack (which could still be a step up for Apple...) This excitement over the early release of hardware specs kinda reminds me of all the hype surrounding the Sony's Emotion Engine when it was introduced a couple years ago. In fact, some are suggesting the PPC 970 chip might be closely related to the PS3's 'Cell' processor..." -
Ars Technica on Hyperthreading
radiokills writes "Ars Technica has a highly-informative technical paper up on Hyper-Threading. It's a technical overview of how simultaneous multithreading works, and what problems it will introduce. It also explains why comparing the technology to SMP is Apples to Oranges, in a sense. Starting with the 3 GHz Pentium 4, this tech will be standard in Intel's desktop lines (it's already in the Xeon), so this is important stuff." -
Ars Technica on Hyperthreading
radiokills writes "Ars Technica has a highly-informative technical paper up on Hyper-Threading. It's a technical overview of how simultaneous multithreading works, and what problems it will introduce. It also explains why comparing the technology to SMP is Apples to Oranges, in a sense. Starting with the 3 GHz Pentium 4, this tech will be standard in Intel's desktop lines (it's already in the Xeon), so this is important stuff." -
Slashback: Courseware, Warranties, Subscraption
Slashback brings you word on open courseware, The Big Switch as seen by Tim O'Reilly, another update on the man-made "moon," more on the in-progress clampdown on Chinese Internet searchers, and a disheartening note about hard drive warranties. Get 'em before they disappear completely ;) Read on for the details.But will they distribute diploma blanks as PDF files? perlmunger writes "Linux Journal highlighted this in the 'up front' section of the June 2001 issue (I knew I keep these old issues around for a reason). Apparently, MIT will (finally) be opening their Open Course Ware initiative on September 30th to the public. Looks like a great start from many departments."
Answer: it's a strong possibility. skinfitz writes "Following on from Google returning to China, New Scientist is reporting in this article that Chinese surfers searching Google are finding their Internet connection dropped for five minutes if they enter "politically sensitive" keywords, such as the Chinese president's name! Will this new technology find uses elsewhere? Is this the future of the web?"
My human transporter is still a station wagon. An anonymous reader writes with the text which by now many people have seen regarding the status of the world's most famous unavailable scooter; apparently it's not necessarily as far from available as an automated message from Amazon implied.
"Greetings from Amazon.com.
You recently received an e-mail from us regarding the Segway Human Transporter (also known as "Ginger" or "IT"). This e-mail was sent accidentally by an automated system and the information in it is incorrect.
In fact, there is no new information on Segway's availability. Consumer versions of Segway Human Transporters are currently being piloted in various communities throughout the U.S. The Segway HT is expected to be released to the general consumer market in 2003.
We apologize for the confusion. We will keep your e-mail address on our list of customers who wish to be notified about this item.
Sincerely,
Amazon.com Customer ServiceStrong Opinions softsign writes "Apparently, Tim O'Reilly's recent article addressing the topic of Switchers was so popular and generated so much response that he felt compelled to respond to reader comments in his MacDevCenter column this week. It reads almost like the Apple Switch website, but there are some really insightful emails peppered with Tim's comments. Worth a read."
The moon's been asking for this for years. cscx writes "The mysterious space junk, or apparent "other moon" reported a few weeks ago, now is more likely to be an old Saturn V (from the Apollo program) rocket booster. Bad thing is, there is a 20% chance it could strike the moon sometime next year. More details at MSNBC."
We'll let you you borrow it for a while, sign here. An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has scrapped plans for subscription-based licensing of consumer products following the end of a 12-month trial in several countries including New Zealand. The Story says people were getting confused as to why they had to pay after the 12 months had gone by."
I find your lack of confidence disturbing. Longinus writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Western Digital is going to follow Maxtor's recent decision to cut their warranty of future drives from three years to one, with an extended warranty being offered at an additional price. The article goes on to mention that Seagate is rumored to also be considering such a cut, but nothing official has been confirmed. One can only wonder if this increase in price is to due to corporate cost saving measures or the fact that hard drives are becoming less stable magnetically as they increase in storage space."
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Secrets Of BIOS Tweaking
Sivar writes "While most enthusiasts are familiar with some settings that yield significant performance benefits, many other BIOS settings remain poorly described and may unknowingly play a crucial role in system performance and stability. Ars Technica has an excellent article describing some of the most obscure settings, useful not only for performance, but for tweaking stability and hardware compatibility as well." -
ArsTechnica Posts Mac OS X 10.2 Review
hype7 writes "ArsTechnica have posted their review on Mac OS X 10.2. John Siracusa has been writing the reviews of Mac OS X since way back with the developer previews, and in my experience they've been the most thorough, thoughtful and unbiased reviews of Mac OS X on the web. Well worth a read." He does do a fine job; so if you needed one last fix of looks at Jaguar, here you go. -
Warflying: San Diego
geogeek6_7 writes: "WarFlying over SanDiego reveals hundreds of WAPs, and some very interesting statistics. There is a second write up of the same adventure at the pilot's personal website. All this of course should not be confused with that 1500ft 'WarDriving' effort in Australia." -
Quartz Extreme with Unsupported Video Cards
BandwidthHog writes "This thread over at Ars Technica discusses a simple .plist hack to enable Quartz Extreme on the PCI version of a supported video card, i.e. the original Radeon PCI and Radeon 7000, two of the most popular video cards for those of us running on 'unsupported' OldWorld machines." -
U.S. Computer Security Advisor Encourages Hackers
DarklordSatin writes: "According to this Associated Press article, which I was pointed to by the nice guys over at Ars Technica, Richard Clarke, Dubya's Computer Security Advisor, wants to encourage hackers to find security holes in software. Although he feels that the system only works when the hackers show 'good faith' and disclose the holes to the company before the public, he wants to start offering more legal protection to hackers and that is a very good step in the right direction." As the folks at Ars point out, though, "Naturally, Mr. Clark was using the original, more generalized, definition of "hacker", but I guess saying 'Bush Adviser Encourages Discovery of Software Bugs' just didn't have enough zing." -
Ars Technica Reviews Mozilla
Aglassis writes "This Ars Technica review gives mozilla 1.0 an overall score of 7/10 (9 for Gecko and 6 for the browser). The major detractor was the user interface, since it didn't feel like a Windows application. This was probably due to a poor understanding by the authors of XUL. Overall they say that mozilla would make a good substitute for IE 6 but there is no major reason to switch over." -
802.1X Security Overview
HJ Franzen writes "Ars Technica have what they call a wireless security blackpaper posted that's well worth a read. I wish this was available when I was spec'ing wireless VPN solutions for my campus. The article is pretty detailed and discusses the many ways in which companies are trying to address the fatal flaws in WEP." -
802.1X Security Overview
HJ Franzen writes "Ars Technica have what they call a wireless security blackpaper posted that's well worth a read. I wish this was available when I was spec'ing wireless VPN solutions for my campus. The article is pretty detailed and discusses the many ways in which companies are trying to address the fatal flaws in WEP." -
First, WinModems. Now, WinWiFi.
zulux writes "Microsoft is actively encouraging WiFi (802.11b) hardware manufacturers to strip their devices of costly electronics, and use Microsoft software/drivers to make up the slack. And you thought WinModems were bad!" -
Tool Box PC
Mr. Red Baron writes "A resident geek at Ars Technica has turned his toolbox into a nice little computer. Looks more portable than most LAN party designs I've seen." His webpage has a few more pictures. -
2.4 Megabit Cellular Modem
lew writes: "Ars has a review of a cellular modem that provides 2.4 megabits / second downsteam and 153 kilobits / second upsteam... and it works! Check it out" How much for unmetered service on such a system? :) -
gobeProductive 3.0 - Office XP killer?
Deffexor writes "It appears that gobe (that famous software company that made the invaluable "office suite" for BeOS) has unveiled their v3.0 release of gobeProductive for Windows and Linux. ArsTechnica has an excellent review of why this is such an important "office suite". While gobeProductive isn't as full-featured as OfficeXP, it certainly does garner a whole lot of Bang-for-the-Buck (especially with the FamilyLicense). The author does a great job of summarizing the superiority of gobeProductive in his conclusion when he says,"This review, which is fifteen pages of graphics and text (in the word processor), along with 5 separate sheets chock full of information, only uses 7MB of RAM while running. Microsoft Word XP (WINWORD.EXE), sitting idle with nothing open, uses 11MB of RAM."" Of course, RAM usage doesn't matter as much these days, with the standard RAM installed being above 128 megs, but still good to know. Update by RM, 8:58 US EST: Only the Windows version of gobeProductive v3.0 seems to be available at this time. -
gobeProductive 3.0 - Office XP killer?
Deffexor writes "It appears that gobe (that famous software company that made the invaluable "office suite" for BeOS) has unveiled their v3.0 release of gobeProductive for Windows and Linux. ArsTechnica has an excellent review of why this is such an important "office suite". While gobeProductive isn't as full-featured as OfficeXP, it certainly does garner a whole lot of Bang-for-the-Buck (especially with the FamilyLicense). The author does a great job of summarizing the superiority of gobeProductive in his conclusion when he says,"This review, which is fifteen pages of graphics and text (in the word processor), along with 5 separate sheets chock full of information, only uses 7MB of RAM while running. Microsoft Word XP (WINWORD.EXE), sitting idle with nothing open, uses 11MB of RAM."" Of course, RAM usage doesn't matter as much these days, with the standard RAM installed being above 128 megs, but still good to know. Update by RM, 8:58 US EST: Only the Windows version of gobeProductive v3.0 seems to be available at this time. -
gobeProductive 3.0 - Office XP killer?
Deffexor writes "It appears that gobe (that famous software company that made the invaluable "office suite" for BeOS) has unveiled their v3.0 release of gobeProductive for Windows and Linux. ArsTechnica has an excellent review of why this is such an important "office suite". While gobeProductive isn't as full-featured as OfficeXP, it certainly does garner a whole lot of Bang-for-the-Buck (especially with the FamilyLicense). The author does a great job of summarizing the superiority of gobeProductive in his conclusion when he says,"This review, which is fifteen pages of graphics and text (in the word processor), along with 5 separate sheets chock full of information, only uses 7MB of RAM while running. Microsoft Word XP (WINWORD.EXE), sitting idle with nothing open, uses 11MB of RAM."" Of course, RAM usage doesn't matter as much these days, with the standard RAM installed being above 128 megs, but still good to know. Update by RM, 8:58 US EST: Only the Windows version of gobeProductive v3.0 seems to be available at this time. -
What is .NET?
CyberBry writes "There's a great technical overview of Microsoft .NET over at arstechnica: "In a remarkable feat of journalistic sleight-of-hand, thousands of column inches in many "reputable" on-line publications have talked at length about .NET whilst remaining largely ignorant of its nature, purpose, and implementation. Ask what .NET is, and you'll receive a wide range of answers, few of them accurate, all of them conflicting. Confusion amongst the press is rampant. The more common claims made of .NET are that it's a Java rip-off, or that it's subscription software. The truth is somewhat different."" -
What is .NET?
CyberBry writes "There's a great technical overview of Microsoft .NET over at arstechnica: "In a remarkable feat of journalistic sleight-of-hand, thousands of column inches in many "reputable" on-line publications have talked at length about .NET whilst remaining largely ignorant of its nature, purpose, and implementation. Ask what .NET is, and you'll receive a wide range of answers, few of them accurate, all of them conflicting. Confusion amongst the press is rampant. The more common claims made of .NET are that it's a Java rip-off, or that it's subscription software. The truth is somewhat different."" -
Geek Food: A Cookbook for the Technologically Inclined
thaen writes: "Might want to check out the latest offering from arstechnica.com. Somebody has compiled a 51-page book of recipes written by geeks, for geeks, and originally posted in the arstechnica 'Lounge' forum. Mmmm...the omelette..." I seriously hope that the macaroni and cheese recipe really needs "tabasco sauce", rather than "tobacco sauce", because I can't even imagine... no. Not going to think about it. -
Suggestions for Someone Building an Artist's PC?
albamuth asks: "A friend of mine recently handed me $1000 (in the form of her credit card) and asked me to put together the best artist-friendly PC possible. Though I enjoy reading system guide recommendations put out by the likes of Arstechnica and Sharkyextreme, it seems that most, if not all, of these guides are geared towards gaming purposes. My friend is an artist and was surprised when I approaced with a list of decidedly non-Apple recommendations. I countered that the lousiest new iMac would cost $999 and the reason why "all the other artists" use them is because of brand loyalty. However, now I'm tediously looking through motherboard and monitor reviews for things like Firewire ports and color accuracy, respectively. There's plenty of other things to think about as well: Photoshop vs. GIMP, [slide] scanners, video capture, etc. Though I'm pretty dogmatic on getting an AMD, I would like to hear opinions on hardware/software for a media/arts-oriented box." -
ArsTechnica Compares the P4 and G4e: Part II
Deffexor writes "It looks like Hannibal of ArsTechnica fame has put Part 2 of his original comparison article between Intel's P4 and the Apple/Motorola G4e. In a nutshell, this second article covers the execution core, the AltiVec unit and SSE2, as well as a myriad of other interesting factoids. An interesting read, if not a little technically intense for those of us with less than a CE/EE degree. Have at it boys!" -
ArsTechnica Compares the P4 and G4e: Part II
Deffexor writes "It looks like Hannibal of ArsTechnica fame has put Part 2 of his original comparison article between Intel's P4 and the Apple/Motorola G4e. In a nutshell, this second article covers the execution core, the AltiVec unit and SSE2, as well as a myriad of other interesting factoids. An interesting read, if not a little technically intense for those of us with less than a CE/EE degree. Have at it boys!" -
ArsTechnica Compares the P4 and G4e: Part II
Deffexor writes "It looks like Hannibal of ArsTechnica fame has put Part 2 of his original comparison article between Intel's P4 and the Apple/Motorola G4e. In a nutshell, this second article covers the execution core, the AltiVec unit and SSE2, as well as a myriad of other interesting factoids. An interesting read, if not a little technically intense for those of us with less than a CE/EE degree. Have at it boys!" -
Ars Technica OS X 10.1 Review
Joystickit writes: "John Siracusa over at Arstechnica has posted his review of OS X 10.1. He comes to the conclusion that 10.1 is much improved but still leaves much to be desired. It is an excellent read. He always seems to have the most in-depth reviews. Check it out." John's earlier OS X reviews are excellent as well; seeing what Apple does right and wrong is informative reading no matter what OS you prefer. -
The Mac, Metadata, and the World
Rick Zeman writes: "ArsTechnica has posted yet another compelling article, this time on metadata, its history and the future of metadata storage as seemingly indicated by Apple in OS X. Extensions==Bad!" -
A Hardware Threepack
Johnath writes: "This just happens to be a great time to be a hardware junkie. For those interested in learning more about the metal under their PC's hood, Tom's Hardware has a great intro to PCB manufacturing, Ars Technica has recently written an architectural study of the P4, and ExtremeTech has a decent look at the South Bridge." The circuit board article is really good - explains it better than the textbooks I've seen.