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According to TFA, it has something to do with their new driver model, meaning less driver running in kernel mode.

That somehow ties into virtualizing access to the graphics hardware.

You can read the specifics on this page
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1982033 ,00.asp

P.S. The Printer Friendly page on extremetech leaves out pictures & perhaps more importantly, leaves out their captions.

Wow, did you actually read his comment. He stated quite clearly that he couldn't remember the link to the gummy bear story. Then he asked the reader to check out another link.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,13730,0 0.asp

There's your link to a mathmetician and cryptographer in Japan that has used gummy bears to trick these systems.

And you can't cancel (change) your fingerprint if someone finds out what it is.

And you can't stop the production of gummy bears

I could probably travel the world on a single package of gummy bears and a set of prints lifted from the sides of soda cans, tossed in the trash outside the convenience store.

Just remember though, outlaw gummy bears, and only outlaws will have gummy bears.

Print version here

Annoying "next page" articles...

I picked up their top of the line copperhead because it's a "small" mouse designed for finger gamers. What I got however was an extremely long yet thin mouse which is very difficult to control without jamming it into your palm all night long, the rubber decorative edging was sharp and uncomfortable, the LED distracting etc.

Personally, I like my Copperhead more than my dad's Logitech MX518. Each has 7 buttons and fast response time, the major difference between them is ergonomics. I used to use a MS Intellimouse, 2 actually, but they kept breaking on me; they just would stop responding after 2 years or so. My dad also had one, and his last one died in January. He picked up the aforementioned MX518 as a replacement. When my beloved Intellimouse broke in early April, I tried his out for a week or so... I couldn't stand how tall it is. I got so used to resting my wrist on the desk while using the MS mouse that I had to bend my wrist uncomfortably to use his. I looked at a bunch of reviews and decided to blow some money on the Copperhead. At first I had the same complaints as you about it, but by the end of the first week, I had changed my mind.

The fact that it's thin means that I can move it while resting my wrist on my desk. The fact that it's short means that I can keep my wrist very nearly straight. The LED is covered by my hand so I don't see it... you must have unusually transparent hands. The edging took me the longest to get used to, but now I rest my thumb and ring figer on top of it instead of gripping the sides, and I use those fingers to move it around more than I use my palm to do so. It's more grippy in my hand than either the Intellimouse or the MX518 and the pads are smoother, and the sensitivity-adjustment buttons are easier to reach than on the MX518. It has nice detents on the scroll wheel, and the buttons click VERY nicely (as you ponted out).

I guess it's really a subjective matter on whether or not Razer makes good products. The real test in my mind is if it lasts longer than the 2-year average lifespan I've seen for the Intellimouse.

nobody has the resources to check such things as recording tv or radio programs on your home pc, tape deck, etc.

I am a simple man.

I don't want an operating system with bells & whistles. I don't want an operating system that looks like it has a glass face or real marble or the most incredible anti-aliased font you've ever seen. What I want is an operating system that works and works efficiently.

There's no reason to preach to the choir, I have many machines (most of them Linux) that dual boot to many operating systems but you'll always need Windows because it's kind of the 'industry standard' for some people.

But when I look for an operating system the words 'form','function','marriage' & 'perfect' come to mind but not necessarily in that order. What I mean is, there's a balance I seek such that my hardware isn't stressed just to open a text editor yet the design is simple & friendly to the eye.

I run Windows XP professional & it works. It works well, which is surprising considering my history with the Windows operating system. It can be cut down to a pretty bare point of functionality and I like it.

So, Mr. Gates, why should I upgrade to Vista? Your "feature list" (the same damn thing I've been seeing for the last year) doesn't entice me at all. In fact, it scares me. You know what else scares me? It might not run the games I currently play ... and I'm not even sure it will run on my current hardware. Hell, even IBM doesn't seem to want Vista.

Tons of cash for a bloated operating system? No thanks. I'll settle for Windows XP Professional.

NEC? Sony?
I have owned both and NEC makes a very nice dual layer burner for the price and is very popular. Why not include it in the comparison? (While we are at it, how about Ben-Q? Their prices are rock bottom but I always wondered if the quality was as well...)

Their previous article linked on the first page had a Sony drive but no NEC.
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article2/0,1217,a =143191,00.asp

Do not pass go; go directly to the summary page:
Final Thoughts: What to buy

However, I just found that the Doom 3 engine is multithreading and therefore any game that uses it. A few other games are highlighted in this article from 2004. Now, 2 years later, I think we can assume most (in store) games contain multithreading at some level.

motherboard from abit

The heyday AMD has been having with Intel and their nutbust architecture is coming to an end, mid-July. Picture this, Intel is going to blow out the price floor on AMD and offer better performance, clock per clock, in addition to outclocking the K8 by a healthy margin (~20%). the T6600, an low-end chip is proving to outperform the FX-62 (AMD's bad dog) in pretty much every category worth noting, has full support for X86-64, and has a lower TDP. Comparing price is a joke, the T6600 is going to retail for ~300 USD and the FX-62 is ~900-1000 USD.

ThinGs actually look quite bleak for AMD right now. Intel has hemorrhaged hundreds of Engineering Samples to enthusiast circles and it has been independently confirmed. This isn't just "hype", barring some unforseen miracle, AMD will find themselves in the same position relative to Intel they were a decade ago.

Anybody with half a brain knows this is just mindless PR, most games gain nothing from dual-core processors as it is, aside from driver-level multithreading. The latency between physical cores is such that a SMP system is worthless for loads which are not embarrasingly parallel. AMD should be embarrased they're even trying to sell this crap.

I've exclusively used AMD processors since the 'thunderbird, i.e. K7., Arstechnica did an overview of the new Core architecture recently, and it is a good primer on what is different. http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/core.ar s for performance comparisons, see: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1970194 ,00.asp, http://www.xtremesystems.com/index.php.

This rule becomes more true as you move towards consoles, since there is no way to grab an indie game demo on a quick download for your 360, and hence there is no development for consoles.

Sure, some of them are just old arcade games (like Joust) updated for online play. But games like Outpost Kaloki X looks like a good example of an indie game developer making a name for themselves on the Xbox 360.

Again, I'm not a console gamer. I just read about this in a rather glowing Extremetech opinion article by Loyd Case.

Snap! Ok, here are a few.

RFID Door
RFID board
Instructions on building an extended range reader

Also http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1966062 ,00.asp which tests the FX-62, too, and uses even testbeds.

Why did they pick a review comparing the 5000 to the FX chip? The FX-62 is the upgrade of the 60, not the 5000. Check out this, more even comparison: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1966062 ,00.asp

You can get the specifications for this graphic card here:
http://www.intel.com/products/chipsets/gma950/

And also a nice review here:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1821811 ,00.asp

From everything I have seen, as it stands now
Displayport is compatible with No prior standard.

It does carry audio,and no royalties will be due
to anyone but the Big Deal is Big Business.It supports bidirectional "optional" encryption protection schemes. And No prior standard is supported.

Simply replace everything you own, from the content to the machine.
And... Your display will now have to approve of your content.
Another added level of complexity designed to make things not work, which will likely result in things that do not work.
This is called either Trusted or Protected.
Be very afraid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayPort
"DisplayPort" Could Introduce Protected Displays"
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1813963 ,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532

DisplayPort: Because what we really needed was
  another connector
http://www.hdbeat.com/2006/05/03/displayport-becau se-what-we-really-needed-was-another-connector/

Perhaps Web 2.0 is tired?

No, PHP is tired. It's now all about Ruby, Python, LISP, and the more obscure but no less interesting Lua, Scala, Qi, OCaml, among others, and various derivatives and frameworks.

A new and inovative input device has had some positive reviews floating around the net lately. It's called AlphaGrip and is basically a keyboard mapped onto a large game controller (with a track ball to boot). I ordered one a few days ago so I don't have first hand experiance with it yet but the reviewes come from some reputable sites (linked below). It clames to allow 50-wpm with only 30 hours of training. I'm not so sure about that but I'm willing to find that out for myself. Sorry for the short post but I'm eating a pizza with one hand and typing with the other and I have to be to work in five minutes and my wrist is killing me. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1949084 ,00.asp http://www.alphagrips.com/ product page with live demonstratio0n video

More reviews here and here.

FTFA

TFA actually includes a nice little picture showing you can adjust these settings.

"The deliverables are due this Friday."

Deliverable is an adjective and not a noun according to the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary. Business types frequently put an -able, -ly, or -s at the end of the misused words. Maybe English grammar should be taught to all business students?

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/deliverable

Check this out for some more fun.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0%2C1697%2C136 1717%2C00.asp

It locked up so that I had to reboot and then went into a kernel panic.

I'll accept at face value that you may have legitimately tried it and found it lacking, but it's worth noting that you say you were new to Linux, probably a bit pissed that it didn't work as expected, and that impression has carried with you, whether it is justified or not.

I had no trouble with apt on Linspire. I know others who had no trouble as well. More to your point, here's the ExtremeTech review of Linspire where they cracked it open and installed Gimp using apt right away, no muss-no fuss:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1151523 ,00.asp

I'm willing to admit I may have been wrong about your previous post. Sounds like you did try it. I jumped the gun on that. Sorry. But rememeber that at the time you were new to linux and probably glossed over bits you shouldn't have glossed over or something like that. It's a great case-in-point for just what we are talking about. If you wanted to use Linux without all that trouble, Linspire offers a for-pay alternative. Note that Click-n-Run isn't based on apt anymore (I believe it was way back) so they could quite easily and legally remove those utilites. They didn't. That tells me they aren't trying to lock you into their service plan, but rather trusting that you might just like it if you try it. I still don't see that as shady.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/linux.html

Apple has always allowed resellers to sell dual boot configurations.

It's Microsoft that disallows dual booting. But they might grant a special exception for Macs.

Dual core technology. AMD was the first. 20 dual cores for AMD, 14 dual cores for Intel.

Both are probably going to ship quad cores in early 2007.

Not sure where you're getting your data.

Saying that this "helps the bad guys" (not that you did) misses the point. We know there are bad guys out there. This becomes an awareness campaign.

There are several documented cases of stuff like this happening. Both ATI and nVidia (the graphics card companies) added code to their drivers to cheat -- take "shortcuts" when certain benchmark programs were running -- so the reported frame-rate looked great, while the resulting graphics quality silently fell. Detroit Diesel and six other companies were fined millions of dollars for tuning their engine management code to recognize the operating conditions that were specified in the emissions test -- some combination of RPM, time and load -- and adjusted the timing for minimal emissions and fuel consumption under only those conditions. The rest of the time they optimized for maximum power. It was discovered only when they failed to certify their engines in Europe, where the test conditions were different.

Closer to open source, just a year or two ago an unknown person checked in a subtle change to the kernel source that would have granted root access in the case of a certain error condition. It was caught during a review.

These are real-world hacks. Denial doesn't solve the problem. Only awareness can help smoke them out.

Is it just me or does Michael Robertson have a knack for WAY over hyping everything he does. Lindows/Linspire was supposed to change the Linux desktop world - and frankly Ubuntu has done a better job. SIPPhone doesn't seem to stand up to Skype. And Mp3.com got sold and redone by Cnet. Now this 'ajaxWrite' doesn't seem to be any different than the many other WYSIWYG editors available today.

I think Mr. Robertson should wait until his products/ideas are actually able to do what he says. But then again who does that anymore anyways?

...an old version that works like the current Windows XP GDI+ desktop drawing system exists in Vista only for backwards compatibility with systems that don't have the graphics hardware required for Aero Glass.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1940865 ,00.asp

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/22/pentium_ext reme_edition_965/

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx? i=2725

Actually, no such assumption is made on my part. From what I have seen so far (have you tried the Vista beta yet?) there are a number of usability enhancements beyond mere eye-candy in Vista. FYI, there is a nice article here: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931945 ,00.asp that discusses them. Most of them are targeted at everyday (ie non-techie) users, so they may go unappreciated (and hence be subject to scorn and mockery) by this audience. But the simple fact is, those things matter A LOT to common users -- the very crowd the Linux desktop distributions need to attract to gain any significant market share. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that the "perceived usability" of the Linux desktops closely tracks its increasing operational similarity to Windows.

And yes, Microsoft also freely copies as well -- tabbed browsing in IE7 is an example that quickly comes to mind. I never said that they didn't. But folks around these parts are very quick to castigate MS as a non-innovator when in fact they innovate as much as they copy, and perhaps more.

Lastly, there seems to be the perception around here that innovation == goodness. In the commonly accepted definition of the word, innovation means something new and unique, not necessary better. And for all their faults, you cannot possibly argue, as many on this board do, that Microsoft never introduces anything new or different. That said, you *might* have some success arguing they never introduce anything good ;-)

This page is complete nonsense.

For the first graph, the units for both the horizontal and vertical axes seem to be Watts. Huh? And why would the power draw of an idle processor rise over time? (Maybe as it heats up?)

But the second graph is the real kicker. 6 labels for 12 bars. The significance of the bars, the power draw in watts is simple enough. But what bar is what? The first two Pentiums seem OK - the first bar, above the label, is the idle power, then the bar next to the label is the peak power.

Then, suddenly, we have a Pentium M, which seems to draw 246W at idle and 101W at peak? Come again? The AMD processors look rather strange too, seeming to use a few watts LESS under peak power than at full load.

Maybe it's my lack of sleep and someone can enlighten me?

What on earth does the graph at http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1937997 ,00.asp mean? What are the units and scale used for the X axis?

Have you seen the hardware requirements for Vista? Chances are that the majority of current windows users would have to buy new hardware including a new monitor to support HD DVD through HDMI in full resolution.

Because of this, your argument is largely moot for users choosing between OS X and OS X with existing older hardware.

On a a related note, it looks like DIY Vista Media centres may be DOA because of this HDMI standard.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1935816 ,00.asp http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=4872

"Compared with the AMD Athlon 64 FX chips, AMD Opteron chips are designed with three "HyperTransport" links for input/output and communication between processors, rather than a single HyperTransport link. Each HyperTransport interface provides up to 24GB per second peak bandwidth per processor to reduce I/O bottlenecks"

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1915530 ,00.asp/
(2nd paragraph)

I will surely upgrade to vista when it is released. coz it rocks,i think it is going to have a good 64 bit support. Check this too: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931917 ,00.asp http://www.alieneyes.uni.cc/

The article says that all vista desktops won't turn off anymore from the power button, but only standby (still runs RAM, CPU, etc). Watch the national power usage go up from that, not to mention increased issues with power loss when windows vista is running.

But thats not the worst of it.
Laptops wont hibernate by default when you hit the power button, they will standby instead. Hit the power button on your laptop in the morning and you'd expect it would have juice for after lunch right? Nope, it will run down the battery and when its a couple percent left, then hibernate. Leaving you with a dead battery.
Check the article:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931914 ,00.asp
"On laptops, Sleep Mode works much the same way when you hit the power button or close the lid, except it doesn't take the time to double-save everything to a hard disk. Instead, it monitors battery life in the ultra-low-power Sleep Mode and, when the battery gets low, transfers the RAM contents to the hard disk."
I forsee a TON of people calling about defective batts/laptops because it is dead everytime they try and turn it on.

http://www.extremetech.com/image_popup/0,1694,s=25 534&iid=127863,00.asp

On the list of worst ideas ever
That one hits pretty high

Will be interesting when people's thumb drives die within a month of using this.

Why limit yourself to Windows Vista!?

Windows Me

"Windows Me: PC Health Features Keep PCs Stable, Secure and Reliable -- and Take the Frustration Out of Computing for Home Users" (source)

Windows 2000

"Our primary goal is to improve security and safety for all our customers -- consumers and businesses, regardless of size -- through a balance of technology innovation, guidance and industry leadership," Gates said. "We're committed to continued innovation that addresses the threats of today and anticipates those that will undoubtedly emerge in the future." (source)

Windows XP

"Windows XP is the most secure and dependable operating system we have ever produced." (source)

Windows Vista

"In Vista, it should be much more difficult for unauthorized programs (like Viruses and Trojans) to affect the core of the OS and secretly harm your system." (source)

It's roughly equivalent to the Radeon 9200 in the old Mini, and about 10% as powerful as the x1600 the other new Macs use. In other words...enjoy getting 10fps in World of Warcraft.

Here's some tech specs: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1821808 ,00.asp

Not three.

Standard features: Tiger + iLife '06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet. This is nice because you don't have to get an upgrade to get Airport Extreme and bluetooth.

"All Mac mini models also include an integrated Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM(1), 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, four external USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400 port, optical digital and analog audio in/out, and built-in mono speaker."

Optical out is a nice thing to have standard now, although I'm not sure about the video processor. The GMA950 is not capable of running games (see this Extremetech review). It uses a minimum of 80mb of the memory in the Mac Mini, further reducing what you can use for applications. In short, it's a major step down from the old Mac Minis, and not useful for those who liked running WoW on their Minis.

Low-end model: 1.5Ghz Core Solo 667 mhz fsb, 512mb memory, integrated graphics, 60GB drive, combo drive - $599 US, 699$ CDN reg.

High-end model with Core Duo - 1.67Ghz, 80GB drive + SuperDrive 8x (dual-layer capable) - $799 US, 949$ CDN reg.

They've also updated the iTunes and Frontrow capabilities; now you can stream any movies or music from any computer running iTunes, and it interfaces with the Frontrow software that is included (with a nice little remote).

A bettel looking option is the new universal dock + remote (about 100$) that lets you use a video iPod like a little media device attached to speakers or a TV. Very portable!

Check out these screen shots ( http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1931945 ,00.asp) regarding Windows Vista. The Linux folks have a whole lot of catching up to do, again. While they have been busy bringing the Linux desktop up to modern (ie Windows XP circa 2002) standards MS has been busy raising the bar significantly higher. There are some really nice features that will make the desktop much more friendly for novice users (the crowd LInux needs to capture). The good news is now Vista can be copied too! And since it's alot easier to copy than it is to lead, I expect Linux to catch up again in relative short order.

i have always been intrigued by the meta-mega-heatsink concept and recently my attention was captured by this probably well known copper pipe case mod:-

    http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1915934 ,00.asp

making the copper pipes structurally functional like above and also creating a framework longer than a little more complex than necssary [increasing surface area] and filling themn with water in a design that would naturally cool the computer even under heavy load.

The Cell CPU has a number of cores, all of which are on one chip. Sony owns the rights to make the chip

The cost of making a Blu-Ray player should fall dramatically once cheaper high-speed multimedia chips(a.k.a. Cell) are available.

The new GNOME looks great, but it certainly doesn't match the effects of Vista. Check it out: 3d window stacking, hardware alpha blending with blurring, etc. It'll be a long time before the freedesktop guys get Cairo and XGL working to the compatibility, quality and speed of DirectX. Xorg composite still crashes for me frequently.

Same author, same system, slightly rewritten for PC Mag (original article date was 11/29/05). http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1893732 ,00.asp
I wonder if the guys at ExtremeTech know that their author resold the story he sold them.

He actually comments on this point in the previous article in the series http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1923419 ,00.asp--so you're both right!: "Why are these TVs so bright? Why are the manufacturers putting in bigger lamps and special higher gain screens to make these already way-too-bright TVs even brighter? I know they've all read the earlier articles, so why are they doing this? Sadly, the reason is that in a retail setting, brightness is frequently a deciding sales factor. So, like it or not, the manufacturers have to build their sets to be as bright as possible in order to be commercially successful. I spoke at length about this with Steven Lopez, manager of the Nashua New Hampshire store of Cambridge SoundWorks (a specialty AV chain based in New England). Steven expanded upon what the manufacturers had already told me, "The unfortunate truth to selling TVs on the sales floor is that bright sets attract the mass consumer. The most accurate sets may not be the most appealing. The brightest units simply make the other nearby sets look anemic and old, kind of like the tired CRT they are replacing. Often that's enough to tip the scales in a sale, regardless of the price range involved."

Also, the old Go GPUs had a newer transform and lighting engine. It offloaded the geometry and rendering calculations from the CPU to the GPU, which removes some burden from the CPU and reduces the drain on the battery. You can see here one such heads up comparison between a 7800 Go GTX and 7800 GTX (desktop). The hardware tradeoffs are minimal and very respectable in performance.