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Evergreen's Performa 500 can boost your early Pentium II to 500-MHz Celeron power--but it's costly Early adopters of the Pentium II processor were left in the lurch when Intel raised the bus speed for 350-MHz and faster Pentium II systems from 66 MHz to 100 MHz. Stuck with the older motherboards and chip sets, those users could not take advantage of faster processors. Enter Evergreen Technologies into the breach, offering its Performa 500 upgrade module, which features a 500-MHz Celeron CPU that runs on the 66-MHz bus. The Performa makes for a clean processor upgrade, since you won't have to buy and install the extra parts that assembling your own Celeron CPU upgrade requires. But there's a heavy premium on that convenience--the Performa's $299 price is a bit steep for what you get. Click here for more..

Also, the 2600 case is not over yet.

If Microsoft can't even patch their own servers then how can anyone expect others to do it properly? The best solution (in the long run), is to switch to a server which has less vulnerabilities.

The fact that mHz aren't the ultimate measure of speed can be seen even when comparing PCs to PCs (aka Intel to AMD). In an article in PC World, it was determined that a 1.3GHz outperformed a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 in many cases, despite the lower clock speed. I have worked with a few Macs over the years (although admittedly not many), and while they have generally been slower than most PCs by a hair, the difference is negligible to your average Joe Six-Pack user. Macs and PCs both have their places, and it's useless to try to argue that one or the other is better is every situation.

The fact that mHz aren't the ultimate measure of speed can be seen even when comparing PCs to PCs (aka Intel to AMD). In an article in PC World, it was determined that a 1.3GHz outperformed a 1.5GHz Pentium 4 in many cases, despite the lower clock speed. I have worked with a few Macs over the years (although admittedly not many), and while they have generally been slower than most PCs by a hair, the difference is negligible to your average Joe Six-Pack user. Macs and PCs both have their places, and it's useless to try to argue that one or the other is better is every situation.

The 1.4 ghz athlon has been out for a couple months now... the 1.1 ghz athlon has been out for at least 10 months.

Here is a june 6 pcworld review where an amd 1.4-GHz system is "the fastest system yet tested by PCWorld.com" beating out 5 systems based on the 1.7 ghz p4.

Here is a tech report review of an amd 1.33 vs intel 1.7 where they conclude: "Intel's new entry, the 1.7GHz Pentium 4, performs about like a 1.2GHz Athlon in most situations."

You cant get duel processing power from a pentium 4 like you can with an athlon.

My opinion differs.

One, Dell desktops are generally regarded among the best rated machines for PC hardware reliability. I know people that support a range (over a thousand desktops) of different PC machines day to day, week to week, year to year, and their experiences bear this out:

Dell's are among the most reliable PCs.

Personally, I also like Dell's for their low decibel rating compared to other brands.

Their prices are only low if you're restricting yourselves to Intel processors. Dell's are not dirt cheap to buy in any case. It's just that for the level of hardware reliability and reduced maintenance costs, corporate buyers like them.

If you're willing to venture beyond the safe confines of 5 year track records that corporate buyers rely upon, then much better performance and price deals can be found if you're willing to do some research and testing.

I think Dell is vulnerable sticking to Intel for processors that are overpriced for the delivered level of performance. The technically inclined that support Dells at work buy Athlons for home - at some point they might notice their home Athlons great price performance ratio is augmented with tolerable reliability.

Yes, Dell operates on the slimmest of margins, assembling to order and not enduring the 1.5%/week depreciation that applies to computer inventory that the other firms keep. Maybe their Intel-only policy gets them on the priority list from Intel to compensate for no inventory.

Also, Dell minimizes the amount of high-powered technical staff they keep on hand, so it's little wonder they're bowing out of the small-sized high-knowledge overhead of the Linux market: it's not justified on a purely business level.

While Dell is making the right tactical business decision in this case, the long-term strategic consequences are that they will lose a small but vital share of the high end x86 workstation market to HP, IBM, Compaq and any other company willing to listen to the Linux desktop customer.

Case in point.

My organization is in the middle of evaluating various high-end x86 Linux desktops to replace some aging Suns. Dell was on our first round list, mainly because the corporate PC support people have them on the "approved" list and they're reliabile.

However, Dell's Linux technical support was never thicker than 2 web clicks. So it's no surprise that we're looking only at HP and IBM at the next stage.

We'll probably buy about 200 machines at around $5K apiece, but Dell won't be getting any of that. Given their size, I doubt they'll miss it.

3G wireless networks have been slower than expected, and I expect this "2.5G" trial to be disappointing as well. High-bandwidth wireless is a tough problem to solve.

According to many of the survey participants, they are not willing to "use software that requires me to justify my system changes to Microsoft." Others exclaimed: "They expect me to purchase their products and then get their permission to use them? I don't think so!"

This could be Microsoft's undoing, as "many participants in the informal survey declared they'd just say no to upgrades that require Product Activation. Instead, they vowed to stick with their current version of Office or Windows, or look into software alternatives such as Linux, Macintosh, Sun's StarOffice, Lotus SmartSuite, and Corel WordPerfect Office."

I also wonder how many scenarios like this we'll see:

• Consumer buys a computer for the first time.
• Doesn't realize he/she needs to activate XP, only registers it.
• Computer stops functioning after 30 days.
• Returns computer claiming it's defective.
• Gets a replacement system.
• Repeat scenario again.
• After several attempts, user decides that Microsoft sucks and instead gets a Mac, Linux,... etc. system.

Or even worse, computer manufacturers notice how many sales they're losing (not to mention the countless systems being returned) and decide to load their systems with Linux instead.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

According to many of the survey participants, they are not willing to "use software that requires me to justify my system changes to Microsoft." Others exclaimed: "They expect me to purchase their products and then get their permission to use them? I don't think so!"

This could be Microsoft's undoing, as "many participants in the informal survey declared they'd just say no to upgrades that require Product Activation. Instead, they vowed to stick with their current version of Office or Windows, or look into software alternatives such as Linux, Macintosh, Sun's StarOffice, Lotus SmartSuite, and Corel WordPerfect Office."

I also wonder how many scenarios like this we'll see:

• Consumer buys a computer for the first time.
• Doesn't realize he/she needs to activate XP, only registers it.
• Computer stops functioning after 30 days.
• Returns computer claiming it's defective.
• Gets a replacement system.
• Repeat scenario again.
• After several attempts, user decides that Microsoft sucks and instead gets a Mac, Linux,... etc. system.

Or even worse, computer manufacturers notice how many sales they're losing (not to mention the countless systems being returned) and decide to load their systems with Linux instead.

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

I don't want to my washing machine to be connected to the internet. What I want is to press three buttons and have it do the wash. Why should I have to pay extra for features that are neither needed or wanted for my major appliances???

...as long as everybody get equal search access.

The article mentions peer-to-peer uses similar to Napster. Well, as long as all the computers on the network are peers I don't see anything wrong with this. What I'm getting at is that, as long as the Junior Graphic Designer has the same searching privledges as the Senior Vice President (or higher), then I think this new search application could be useful in finding files on a corporate network.

However, we all know it won't be the case. Management will be the ones with the access and the worker drones will be the ones with their privacies invaded. Is this really a big change from what could already be happening in the workplace? There is enough corporate "spyware" programs available that a new search application shouldn't be the wakeup call for a change in office privacy laws. Check out this link: http://www.pcworld.com/resource/printable/article/ 0,aid,32863,00.asp. Most interesting are the charts that show the increase in employers monitoring employees.

Here's to wishful thinking. Maybe companies will implement this new Altavista corporate search but give everyone equal access. Could help keep things kosher in the office and discourage incidents like this: http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,9375,00. html?printer_friendly=.

redking

http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/04/27/0858200&mode=thre ad
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/17660.html
http://www.geeknews.org/news/fe b00/newsitem090.html
http://www.palmstation.com/ view_article.py?article=1786
http://www.pdabuzz.com/Features/Yopy.html
http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/02/27/1027237&mode=thre ad
http://www.pcworld.com /pcwtoday/article/0,1510,15486,00.html
http://www.ch ip.de/PC2D/PC2DB/PC2DBA/pc2dba.htm?id=323&ress ort=20 (German)
http://www.twomobile.com/new_032200_y opy.html (obviously they didn't credit the source of the pictures and video footage!)
http://ore illy.linux.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/05/magazine/L inuxPDA.html
http://www.handheldmed.com/code/news /yopi1.htm
http://www.gnn.de/0005/7603.html (German)
http://www.p cwelt.de/content/news/newprodukte/2000/05/xn090500 003.html (German)

http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/ eng/product/digital/pda/
http://www.gmate.co.kr

http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/board/linux Discussion about Linux-PDAs (German)
http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/news/linux Linux-PDA news (German)
http://www.theyopy.de German Yopy fan site
http://www.handhelds.org Linux-Development for Compaq iPaq
http://www.yopy.org Another Yopy fan site

Here ya go, it was in a frames page: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,17455 ,00.asp

The real reason, the simputer has been created is, the existing content on the web is not useful for an illiterate person. By producing low cost computers in local language,(in 2 languages at present) it gives an opportunity for content providers to target these groups with specialised content.
More links - Cnet article
Pc World article

BTW, the simputer comes with it's own license called the Simputer Public License. The Indian Institute of Science (IISC) and Encore, organisations behind the Simputer are not selling it & the news, is Manufacturers from other developing countries like venezuela, brazil, et al are keen on producing this Simputer.

It looks much nicer when when one links the printable version of a story. That is, when there is the option.

"AOL will be allowed to continue blocking users of competing instant-messaging services from communicating with users of its market-leading instant-messaging services known as AIM and ICQ.

"Only if AOL extends its instant-messaging services to include multimedia features like videoconferencing would the company be required to allow communications between its users and users of competing services."

And since most people have no use for video-conferencing, this doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

Let's look back at the past Space Station stories :

sound technical base.

pristine organisation.

smart investments 1.

smart investments 2.

... And I did not manage to find the other links. It sadly reminds me of what they said on PC world.

According to those numbers, roughly 22 percent of computers break down each year. That makes them significantly worse on average than VCRs (9 percent), big-screen TVs (7 percent), clothes dryers (7 percent), and refrigerators (8 percent), but about as problematic as vacuum cleaners (22 percent). The only product we found with a problem rate higher than a computer's is the riding lawn mower and lawn tractor, which showed an average problem rate of about 25 percent.

First, it was the software industry, then Intel showed the way with their infamous pentium bug, now, even NASA is whoring like the least .com before an IPO.

I have wondered the same thing, and wrote an essay about how this might turn out.

Incidentally, here's a PC World article about a device that can "paint" color images directly onto your retina.

According to this PCWORLD article, "It is likely to cost less than $2000, according to a Pioneer spokesperson. The drive will replace Pioneer's current DVD-R drive in the company's lineup, which costs around $5000."

PCWorld.com: Should the registration of domain names made from generic English-language nouns such as news and TV be restricted? Browne: I'm not sure why I would be asked this question. Are you saying that only the government can make this decision? Government is the most cumbersome, ineffective, and expensive way to handle any dispute. While I'm not in a position to know all of the particulars of this question, my instinct would be, let's find a private solution to this issue.

PCWorld.com: Should the registration of domain names made from generic English-language nouns such as news and TV be restricted? Browne: I'm not sure why I would be asked this question. Are you saying that only the government can make this decision? Government is the most cumbersome, ineffective, and expensive way to handle any dispute. While I'm not in a position to know all of the particulars of this question, my instinct would be, let's find a private solution to this issue.

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It seems that the original site redirected through an advertising site that is blocked on my host.

Explain this then: Data Loss Threatens Fast Windows Systems

To make it sweeter, you can't even get the patch unless you are an OEM. Imagine, because of licensing and copyright it may be ILLEGAL to run your operating system in a functioning manner.

If you ask me, "Every day is a showstopper" -- if you run windows. At least the Linux workaround mentioned earlier is availiable to the general public. Microsoft... well... they have an "image" to preserve.

It would seem the above links aren't helpful at this time, so here's a few that might shed some light in this already ageing news piece:

- http://www.pcworld.com/news/ar tic le.asp?aid=31482

Also next year, Intel will probably announce an ultralow-voltage 500-MHz chip for subnotebooks that should be extremely battery-friendly. The company demonstrated a processor running at 300-MHz.

- http://www.zdnet.c om/ zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2639424,00.html

When Intel Corp.'s Frank Spindler disclosed that the chip giant is fast tracking the production of a new ultra-low-power chip for notebooks, there was an interested eavesdropper nearby.

- http://cnet. com /news/0-1003-200-3156114.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed. ni

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Intel said it will enhance energy-saving features in processors for laptops and begin shipping new mobile Pentium chips next year as competition intensifies.

As Project Mayo will readily admit, DivX ;-) is mostly used for piracy these days, but their goal is to be something a lot more than that. There was an article a while back in the WSJ about this, and I also did one not too long ago (which you can find here, if you want). While DivX ;-) is just a piracy tool now, thanks to its MPEG roots, it's close to the up-coming digital television broadcast format. If what PM says is true, we ought to expect to see more of DivX ;-) on screens other than PC screens. Sam

For anyone interested in reading some other news and viewpoints on the announcement, check out articles in VNU net, PC World and Cnet.

pc world story

gamers neeed not apply..

Linkage:
http://news.cnet.com/ news/0-1005-200-331625.html?st.ne.fd.mdh
http://goinside.com/97/2/cowpland.html http://www.pcwor
ld.com/news/newsradio/cowpland/cowpland_trans.ht ml

However the reality now is that the Intel 1 Ghz CPI is still sold only on paper why you can already buy 1 Ghz AMD over here in Canada, meaning this has been long on sale in the States as well.

I fear this CPU won't stand much chance against the giants. Intel and AMD have been undercutting each other's prices for several months now, meaning they are ready to sacrifice profits for market share, at least for now. Article on this is here:

http://slashdot.org/articles/99/0 8/22/1728232.shtml

--
Kiro

http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/04/27/0858200&mode=thread
http://linuxtoday.com/stories/17660.html
http://www.geeknews.org/news/fe b00/newsitem090.html
http://www.palmstation.com/ view_article.py?article=1786
http://www.pdabuzz.com/Features/Yopy.html
http://slashdot .org/article.pl?sid=00/02/27/1027237&mode=thread
http://www.pcworld.com /pcwtoday/article/0,1510,15486,00.html
http://www.ch ip.de/PC2D/PC2DB/PC2DBA/pc2dba.htm?id=323&ressort= 20 (German)
http://www.twomobile.com/new_032200_y opy.html (obviously they didn't credit the source of the pictures and video footage!)
http://ore illy.linux.com/pub/a/network/2000/05/05/magazine/L inuxPDA.html
http://www.handheldmed.com/code/news /yopi1.htm
http://www.gnn.de/0005/7603.html (German)
http://www.p cwelt.de/content/news/newprodukte/2000/05/xn090500 003.html (German)

http://www.sem.samsung.co.kr/ eng/product/digital/pda/
http://www.gmate.co.kr

http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/board/linux Discussion about Linux-PDAs (German)
http://www.palmtopmagazin.de/news/linux Linux-PDA news (German)
http://www.theyopy.de German Yopy fan site
http://www.handhelds.org Linux-Development for Compaq iPaq
http://www.yopy.org Another Yopy fan site

That's funny, because all the benchmarks I've ever seen show exactly the opposite - PIII squeaks ahead of Thunderbird (granted, you'd never notice the difference between equally clocked & configured Coppermine and Thunderbird systems... a few percentage points aren't much to get excited about). Perhaps you'd be kind enough to enlighten the rest of us with the particular data you're referring to.

Here's a couple of reviews I've seen that come to mind:

Tom's Hardware
PC World (pre-Coppermine/Thunderbird)

Of course, people actually downloading the whole human genome probable wouldn't worry about this, but couldn't they use a better compression format than .zip? I bet using bzip2 or rar would shave a couple of hundred MBs off of that 753MB file. Also, the differences in compression techniques would be interesting to see on a large group of files mainly consisting of G, A, C, and T. -- demiurge You find a file that appears important and obliterate it from memory!!! Score one for the downtrodden hacker!

• G -- 00
• A -- 01
• T -- 10
• C -- 11

This would only work for the .fa files, but .fa files can contain "N"s also. If you just want to browse the Genome, look through the pieces directory. .

It's not like splicing is anything new - hell we've been making corn that poisons butterflys for a while now - it's not new. Why is this news? What is the nature of the chromosome, is that what makes it so special? What does it do? Anything?

It's not like splicing is anything new - hell we've been making corn that poisons butterflys for a while now - it's not new. Why is this news? What is the nature of the chromosome, is that what makes it so special? What does it do? Anything?

I've got one of those Intellimouse Explorers (the huge silver ones with the superfluous tail light and like three extra buttons; well, what the hell, here's a http://www.microsoft.com/Mouse/explorer.htm link) and sites that won't let you back out are an incredible annoyance. See, two of the buttons on there serve as Forward/Back (respectively) while browsing the web, and after about 20 minutes of using them, I was hooked. You wouldn't believe how simple (and remarkably intuitive) to navigate with your thumb. Now if I could just find a good use for those buttons in Half-Life... I mean, sure, it's easy enough to hold down the back button and select the page before the offending site, but that would require moving my cursor over six or so linear inches of desktop space. Isn't that just a little bit unreasonable? No? Ah well.

I've got one of those Intellimouse Explorers (the huge silver ones with the superfluous tail light and like three extra buttons; well, what the hell, here's a http://www.microsoft.com/Mouse/explorer.htm link) and sites that won't let you back out are an incredible annoyance. See, two of the buttons on there serve as Forward/Back (respectively) while browsing the web, and after about 20 minutes of using them, I was hooked. You wouldn't believe how simple (and remarkably intuitive) to navigate with your thumb. Now if I could just find a good use for those buttons in Half-Life... I mean, sure, it's easy enough to hold down the back button and select the page before the offending site, but that would require moving my cursor over six or so linear inches of desktop space. Isn't that just a little bit unreasonable? No? Ah well.

Here I have a whole bunch of links to further information about wearable computers and "enhanced reality" for anyone interested:

• A Brief History Of Wearable Computing
• Affective Computing
• BBC News: Japan Eyes Wearable PC
• Charmed Technology
• CNET.com: 10 Technologies That Will Take Over - #8
• CNN: Excuse Me, Is That A Monitor On Your Head?
• CNN: MIT 'Cyborgs' Bridge Gap Between Man And Machine
• CNN: Turn On, Jack In, And Geek Out With Wearable PC
• CNN: Wearable Systems May Cut Labor, Save Time
• CNN: Xybernaut Now Has Linux For Wearable PCs
• CNN Poll: Do You Want A Wearable Computer?
• Computer For The 21st Century, The
• ComputerWorld: Wearable Computers - Digitally Attired
• Context-Aware Computing
• CTHEORY: Body Delirium
• DisplayWear Incorporated
• Extreme Computing
• Handykey, Inc. Wearable Computing Page
• Houston Chronicle: Future Phones Home, The
• ICBorg
• Intelligent Information Filters And Enhanced Reality, by Alexander Chislenko
• ISWC- International Symposium on Wearable Computers
• Marvin Elizondo's Wearable Computing Page
• MicroOptical
• MIT-IDEO Wearables Intro
• NetWork Fusion: Armani, Karan, Xybernaut? 02/01/999
• PBS: Scientific American Frontiers Transcripts - Inventing The Future (Aired Fall 1996)
• PC World News: Wearable PC To Debut At Comdex
• PopSci.com Headlines: CyberFashions
• Slashdot Articles: Wearable PCs Under Linux
• Smart Rooms
• TechWearable
• TekGear
• Wearable Computer
• Wearable Computing Intro Page
• Wearable Computing Portal
• Wearable Computing Resource Page
• WearableGear.com
• Wearables Central
• Wearables WebCrawler Search Engine
• Wearables Webring
• WearableTech Corp.
• Wired News: Annotated Reality
• Wired News: Intel Chips In On Future Devices
• Wired News: Waiting For Wearable Wearables
• Wraith Projects
• Xybernaut

Impossible means no one's done it yet.

Okay, since so many people are saying the same things, I thought I'd provide you all with some links talking about the various minidisc data solutions.

PC World - Is Sony's 140MB MiniDisc Drive the Next Betamax?
minidisc.org - Sony MDH-10
minidisc.org - Minidisc Data Product Index
Storewell (norway) - Selling the Sony MMD-140
minidisc.org - What was cool in minidisc (mostly audio)
newstimes.com - Computer News (November 28 1995)

It used to be a lot easier to scare up a lot more hits, but I guess some of that stuff has decayed over time. Amazingly enough, altavista has forgotten it :)

There was at least one other Sony-released Minidisc data drive, but I don't remember much about it. It's not like I have one. I have a Zip 100, because everyone else has one, even though they suck.

If you talk to some of IBM's ethical hackers you will find out that security is usually a joke. Most places are just wide open.

And physical security is a growing issue. So some state department computer was stolen? If you know what you are doing, getting into "secure areas" is apparently pretty easy.

It isn't just a problem for computers, and it won't be goin g away any time soon.

Cheers,
Ben

"...we have a new product called BackslashDot..."

First of all, the concept of Napster is so simple that anyone can do an end run around it and roll their own. This will probably start happening when the Feds start cracking down on music pirates on Napster next month (see article). The pirates will drop in numbers, as many decide they don't want to face the risk of prosecution, and many will start using alternative programs, to stay a step ahead of the feds who are cracking down on Napster. Add these factors to Napster's rising legal costs to defend its existence, and you're looking at major trouble for Napster's survival.

And having rolled my eyes enough times at a barely-coherent Sean (Shawn?) Fanning (Napster's creator) blurting out "The technology can't be stopped!" I say good riddance to the both of 'em.

Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

FireWireWorld.com has a nice analysis of the PC World article here.

Home FireWire/1394 Networking Takes Giant Leap Forward

Friday, March 31st, 2000 [3:00 PM]

PC World is reporting on a research project in Japan that has successfully transmitted 1394 data across 100 meters at 400 Mbps, the current limit to FireWire/1394 transmission speeds. This is significantly faster than was considered possible at those distances, and, more importantly, could lead to home networking. According to PC World:

A Japanese government research project headed by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan has succeeded in sending IEEE 1394 signals--an emerging standard for digital home networks--over a long distance at high speed.

The breakthrough confirms the system's suitability for use as a network around the home and opens up new possibilities for its use beyond the home, the EIAJ says in a statement.

IEEE 1394 interfaces are increasingly being built into home electronics equipment like video cameras, televisions, and PCs, sometimes under the FireWire or iLink [sic] brand names. But most incorporate electrical interfaces that can send the 400-megabits-per-second IEEE 1394 data stream over 4.5 meters through metallic cables only. While this is adequate for connecting a series of devices located close to one another, it is not sufficient for running a network around a typical house.

The Japanese trials, which were headed by Keio University's Yasuhiro Koike, succeeded in sending data at 400 mbps, which is fast enough for digital video, over a distance of 100 meters.

You can find more information in the PC World article, which we recommend.

The FireWireWorld Analysis: This is fantastic news. Home wiring is an important part of the future of FireWire/1394. Home entertainment as well as centralized control of appliances could easily adopt the FireWire/394 standard. This would have huge implications for all areas of FireWire/1394 use as economies of scale would brings more advances more quickly, across the board.

This is one of the most significant developments in FireWire/1394 so far this year.