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2004.11.09: Intel quietly pushing Linux to Asian PC makers
Quote from a story in today's Inquirer:
"...Intel, according to the Wall St Journal, is offering a package called Quick Start Kit for Linux to distributors which includes a number of software drivers to support a range of PC peripherals...."
The Washington Post's Webb's Filter[registration needed] column examines the significance of this move to Microsoft, which stands to be hurt if this development is the start of some trend. Sounds like a nice counterpoint to Ballmer's bomb to prospective Linux OEMing in Asia.

2004.11.09: Intel quietly pushing Linux to Asian PC makers
Quote from a story in today's Inquirer:
"...Intel, according to the Wall St Journal, is offering a package called Quick Start Kit for Linux to distributors which includes a number of software drivers to support a range of PC peripherals...."
The Washington Post's Webb's Filter[registration needed] column examines the significance of this move to Microsoft, which stands to be hurt if this development is the start of some trend. Sounds like a nice counterpoint to Ballmer's bomb to prospective Linux OEMing in Asia.

You mean the "rumors" aren't officially "news" until they appear on /.? Forget what we've been reading since Febuary on http://www.anandtech.com, http://www.tomshardware.com, http://www.theinquirer.net, http://www.arstechnica.com, http://www.hardocp.com, http://www.aceshardware.com, and of course http://www.intel.com, it's not true until it appears on /. ...

PSSST!!! I've heard the rumor that Apple is planning on ditching Motorola's chips for IBM processors in their upcoming Macintoshes. Has anyone elseo heard about something called a "G5"? Some say it might also be 64 bit? Heavens-to-Betsy, let's post it to /.'s FP.

Or is Windows supposed to support IBM chips suddenly? Seriously, am I missing something?

Not everyone is happy with Firefox... See this and this.

On a side note, the NVIDIA SLI PR benchmarks were actually fairly close to those done by Anandtech.

• ZDnet: Patent opponents claim success
• Infoworld: Polish rejection may derail EU patent directive
• The Inquirer: Poland scuppers EU software patents directive
• EDRI: Poland blocks EU Software Patent directive
• NoSoftwarePatents.com: Polish Cabinet Against Software Patents

See also FFII's Breaking News wiki

The Council of Ministers' first reading text had been scheduled for fast-track approval before the end of the year, probably by Agriculture and Fisheries ministers.

thanks to Poland

Not really surprising, as the PIII has been faster than the PIV for awhile. Curiously at the same time, people were also noticing that NT4 was faster than 2000 at server tasks, yet most who reported such at the time were gagged by the no-publishing-benchmarks EULA fine print...

I really don't see where the poster got the idea that the release would be free as in speech. Except maybe free speech in America.

Sun has made no indication that this would be released under a real Free/Open source license. Sun's past history with this sort of thing has been, shall we say... dismal.

Oh, they'll let us see the source. Sure as shit. Probably a clause that makes you "dirty" if you compile it, and sure as all hell it won't allow you to redistribute it, or patches to it. (like Sun's other "child" -- Java)

Heck according to the article I don't see any evidence that the license will be even "open".

Good Job Sun. Your work in promoting linux is amazing.

feh: To damn dull for a Monday.

Did Vivendi put the authentication in there?

It's true, it was Valve's baby, if you remember. Valve made this copy protection and are now not accountable for its strictness - amusing, because the whole point was that strictly, everyone would get it at the same time.

First, Intel motherboards are actually made by Foxconn (Hon Hai), ASUS, FIC or some third Taiwanese company. Second, those same Taiwanese companies make not only motherboards, but complete systems for Dell, HP, or any other major player -- including Apple.

For example, see this few articles:
Foxconn re-brands PCs for integrators
Dell gets Hon Hai to make two million PCs
Hon Hai takes aim at Compaq, HP
Quanta, Hon Hai win Imac contract

If you don't trust TheInq, much better source is Digitimes, but their archives are subscribers-only.

First, Intel motherboards are actually made by Foxconn (Hon Hai), ASUS, FIC or some third Taiwanese company. Second, those same Taiwanese companies make not only motherboards, but complete systems for Dell, HP, or any other major player -- including Apple.

For example, see this few articles:
Foxconn re-brands PCs for integrators
Dell gets Hon Hai to make two million PCs
Hon Hai takes aim at Compaq, HP
Quanta, Hon Hai win Imac contract

If you don't trust TheInq, much better source is Digitimes, but their archives are subscribers-only.

First, Intel motherboards are actually made by Foxconn (Hon Hai), ASUS, FIC or some third Taiwanese company. Second, those same Taiwanese companies make not only motherboards, but complete systems for Dell, HP, or any other major player -- including Apple.

For example, see this few articles:
Foxconn re-brands PCs for integrators
Dell gets Hon Hai to make two million PCs
Hon Hai takes aim at Compaq, HP
Quanta, Hon Hai win Imac contract

If you don't trust TheInq, much better source is Digitimes, but their archives are subscribers-only.

First, Intel motherboards are actually made by Foxconn (Hon Hai), ASUS, FIC or some third Taiwanese company. Second, those same Taiwanese companies make not only motherboards, but complete systems for Dell, HP, or any other major player -- including Apple.

For example, see this few articles:
Foxconn re-brands PCs for integrators
Dell gets Hon Hai to make two million PCs
Hon Hai takes aim at Compaq, HP
Quanta, Hon Hai win Imac contract

If you don't trust TheInq, much better source is Digitimes, but their archives are subscribers-only.

• AMD doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to supply Dell with enough processors for the desktop.

• Subject: Will AMD be shooting itself in the foot again?

• theinquirer.net 1st reported that AMD in a bold move " has signed a deal with Chartered Semiconductor - a Singapore foundry - to make 64-bit processors under licence". Then contituned to elaborate on the story, that " AMD move to Chartered is insurance policy ", where they take help from Nathan Brookwood (senior chip analyst at Insight64.com) totry to make sense of the move.

• AMD doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to supply Dell with enough processors for the desktop.

• Subject: Will AMD be shooting itself in the foot again?

• theinquirer.net 1st reported that AMD in a bold move " has signed a deal with Chartered Semiconductor - a Singapore foundry - to make 64-bit processors under licence". Then contituned to elaborate on the story, that " AMD move to Chartered is insurance policy ", where they take help from Nathan Brookwood (senior chip analyst at Insight64.com) totry to make sense of the move.

• AMD doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to supply Dell with enough processors for the desktop.

• Subject: Will AMD be shooting itself in the foot again?

• theinquirer.net 1st reported that AMD in a bold move " has signed a deal with Chartered Semiconductor - a Singapore foundry - to make 64-bit processors under licence". Then contituned to elaborate on the story, that " AMD move to Chartered is insurance policy ", where they take help from Nathan Brookwood (senior chip analyst at Insight64.com) totry to make sense of the move.

It can't take that long to purchase anything at Micro$oft. Daniel Feussner somehow managed to get nine million dollars worth of software purchased internally for his group which he then flogged on eBay. Of course Feussner later died of ethylene glycol (antifreeze) poisoning so you have to wonder if the programmer who made this mistake will end up having the same thing happen to him.

What's also interesting is that MSN search might be using search results from Google! Link here and here.

Let me get this out of the way:

I'm an idiot who frequently talks out of his own ass.

If I had any money I would have bought AMD when it was at $5. But I still thinks it's a very good buy right now too. In a recent article at /. , http://www.theinquirer.net/ , or http://www.theregister.co.uk/ , One of the Dell bosses was quoted as saying that AMD couldn't meet demand for server chips.

Add to that tidbit the fact that AMD just partnered with ANOTHER foundry, (when their existing one isn't even running near capacity) I think that spells a huge AMD + Dell love-fest soon.

I'd buy some if I could.

Linus was right, then, I guess...

You can see where this is going.

Recapping:

• Microsoft source gets into the wild through negligence on someone's part
• Microsoft starts offering generous Royalty-Free terms on various internet protocols (though many are peeved that the blanket protection seemingly covers protocols not actually owned by MS. In the confusion, people not paying attention will be confused.)
• Microsoft, like HP, Novell and Red Hat before them, and, after all the FUD cloud emanating from the corpse company called SCO, offers indemnification against customers getting blackmailed by Intellectual Property Threats (like what SCO attempted to do to Autozone and Daimler Chrysler).

If you thought it was difficult doing a thorough Theo code audit for security was a formidable task, even given the open source code, then imagine the difficulty of looking through all of the source and wondering if any of it infringes on anyone's claimed "Intellectual Property". There aren't any options to diff and grep to complete such a task, AFAICT. The other half of the comparison remains under lock and key, except to those with rights to the IP.

Linus' policy of requiring signed patch contributions to the Linux source looks more and more like a good and proper defensive measure. I'd feel better if other high profile FOSS projects had systems of signing patches and an examinable web of trust between the major contributors. Go ahead and accept patches, but let each contributor sign them.

The whole issue of IP indemnification reeks of a deliberate strategy to slow the growth of free and open source deployments by sowing doubt into the minds of decision makers considering use of FOSS for their business but must consider risk in their decision (and a limited amount of time and information on which to base a decision).

Transparency should make FOSS less IP infringing quickly compared to closed source, where IP infringements can be compiled away from easy recognition by the IP owners.

Microsoft Gamma Laser Promises 500 PB Discs

Here's an article indicating that Microsoft is developing a gamma laser for data storage. Since the wavelength of gamma lasers is shorter than the wavelength of ultraviolet lasers, the beams are finer and they can pack more data into per square inch. This gives a data rate 1,000,000 times more than the ultraviolet laser discs.

TheInquirer.net reports that the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 beats Intel's "Pentium 4 challenge" of their i915 "Extreme Graphics 2" product line. Let's cut to the important part: "In Doom 3, ATI scores 13.8 FSP, more than double ntel's 6 FPS, on Far Cry 1.3 training ATI scores 24.6 FPS while Intel scores only 10.8, on Splinter cell ATI scores 36.5 while Intel gets 23.6. In Quake 3 results are tight but ATI still wins 112 to 106.7 FPS."

Do they mean 802.11a, b, or g? Certainly not 'a', I hope not just 'b'. I bet they're struggling with heat dissipation and power consumption.

If Intel can get a tri-mode wireless card into a Centrino notebook, why would it be difficult to include their tri-mode wireless chip in a desktop chipset? Is it more difficult to deal with heat dissipation and power consumption when the wireless chip is in the chipset and on the motherboard, rather than on a separate mini-PCI card?

Also, according to an Inquirer.net article, it looks like Intel will be pushing the BTX form factor with these new chipsets. Maybe the improved thermal environment of BTX will solve any problems with heat dissiptation, if they exist.

To get Adobe Acrobat Reader 6 to start faster, you can disable some of the plugins it loads on startup. You can also disable the browser plugin.

XBox 2 PPC, hell that's been known for a while.

So your rebuttal is: "I think, based on this feeling in my gut, that most gamers buying new cards choose ATi cards." ...And you say my link to a hardware survey was a piss-poor way to prove my point? Excuse me while I fall off my chair laughing.

How about some more facts?
"Direct X 9 performance cards - Nvidia took 64% of the market with its GeForce 6800 parts, not an insignificant achievement. At the very low end, ATI took 99% of the market through cards like 9200s. The mid-range, such as Radeon 9700s and GeForce FXs, was pretty evenly split."

So, discarding the "very low end" (obviously gamers wouldn't be buying these cards at this point), we have 9700s and FX selling evenly, and nVidia taking at least a 28%* lead over ATi with the high end.

Care to try again? Facts this time please.

*(assuming ATi accounted for 100% of all non-nVidia cards sold)

Silly open source advo.. Have you not read the memo http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19334 ?Windows is far an away the better product as far as ROI/TCO are concerned...

Oh yeah... sorry, I was being stupid a few seconds ago there.
clicky-clicky

The Vole has learnt a lot about security: Ballmer's quiet arguments

Some interesting quotes:

- Microsoft has admitted that it can't beat hackers all the time, but will do its best.

- Steve modestly said that Microsoft knew more about security than anyone else in the world, but hackers were getting much brighter to [Me: That is modest??]

-He also added that the biggest security problem Microsoft had were customers who did not upgrade their systems.

This is just another reason a single user OS (Windoze) should not be used in a multi user environment.

This is actually the last resort, as the cost of wafer real-estate versus speed increase is low. You rarely do this for raw speed rather for special needs like Servers and the like.

The increase in the speed for a workstation is probably one speed grade at a cost increase of 30% or so.

There is two good articles over on TheInquirer about Intels road map and why they have to go the Increase the cache route for 2005. Worth a read. Part One and Part Two

This is actually the last resort, as the cost of wafer real-estate versus speed increase is low. You rarely do this for raw speed rather for special needs like Servers and the like.

The increase in the speed for a workstation is probably one speed grade at a cost increase of 30% or so.

There is two good articles over on TheInquirer about Intels road map and why they have to go the Increase the cache route for 2005. Worth a read. Part One and Part Two

Are you serious? There are like 50000 models of x86 PC's out there with multiple different options. You can even get x86 hardware that is built as well as Mac hardware from premium vendors such as SGI and others of the sort.

If you made Windows XP run on PPC.... wait it does run on PPC. The fact is that for only $50,000 (if MS is consistant with normal SDK pricing) gets you a Dual Processor G5 running Windows XP.

It doesn't matter what CPU an OS runs on, if nothing else, it's a waste of time to take an OS which is has all of its software distributed in binary form and run it on another CPU. Just ask the Alpha users how much fun it was o track down versions of this or that for Alpha.

The other thing is that Microsoft used to charge SGI (for MIPS), IBM/Motorola (for PPC), and DEC (for Alpha) obscene prices to maintain ports of the Windows NT platform to these architectures. That's why Microsoft doesn't do it anymore.

Microsoft was providing Visual C++ with optimizing compilers for all 4 platforms at one time. My personal opinion says that these compilers didn't get updates as fast as the new ones do. The Microsoft x86 compiler now is amazing and it's because they can focus on one platform. This also means that all the software written using the compiler is a little better as well.

So, do you think it would be wise to buy Windows XP for PPC if you know that the only thing you'll get for the system for a long time is Windows XP, Office, and Visual Studio?

>Last I read, AMD was 6 to 12 months behind Intel in switching fabs over.

I doubt Intel is 12 months ahead. They didn't sell 90nm Prescotts a year ago. Both AMD and Intel are shipping 90nm CPUs now. That's what matters. If one of them produce 80% on 90nm process wafers and the other 30% doesn't really matter to me, as long as I can pick up the CPU I want.

AMD had started shipping 90 nanometre processors during the period and said 50% of wafer starts will use that process technology by the end of 2004.

[Ruiz] also said that the firm has started sampling customers with 90 nano dual core processors, which AMD will ship next year.

Aopen sells cheaper Pentium M mobo

Dothan (the successor to Banias) is currently in many laptops.

This is an intersting development... a P-M mobo for desktops. I personally would love one for a SFF box. But Intel says NO to P-Ms in desktops on a large scale. Wouldnt want to canabalize all those Prescott sales, would we?

You missed his point. It's not a case about stealing either. It's a case about copyright infringment.

Actually, according to this and this, its more likely that they are just slapping a Dell or HP logo on them and shoving them out the door. Maybe not the same exact one, but they buy exclusive rights to a particular design, and that's about it.

Actually, according to this and this, its more likely that they are just slapping a Dell or HP logo on them and shoving them out the door. Maybe not the same exact one, but they buy exclusive rights to a particular design, and that's about it.

in high-performance processor market is, IBM. Currently its PowerPC chips power Macintosh PC and Nintendo console. In Xbox 2 console, IBM succeeded Intel's deal with Microsoft for Xbox. IBM's Power architecture is going to be embedded in massive volume for both Nintendo and Microsoft consoles. Then, another architecture developed with Sony and Toshiba, STI's Cell will power PS3 console and other servers/workstations. IBM fabs will help production of AMD processors in forthcoming generations, too.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14407

It's not final stuff, obviously, but as long as the software interfaces are reasonably stable, there's no problem.

Article in the Inq re M$ spyware associations.

I dunno about your company, but where I work, and a number of other places I know of (friends work there, ex-employment, etc...) there's a lot of stuff on the web-- time cards, change management systems, computer-based training, employee locaterators... and it all requires MSIE. It's either ActiveX, or uses proprietary MSIE broken HTML, or what-have-you, because the webmonkeys that created it know everyone has a Windows box on their desk so they could do it the easy way instead of the right way.

LCDs were losing money, but the company was profitable because they were showing speculative stock market and real estate gains as if they were the company's profits from operations. But it was bogus, a sleight of hand. Sharp didn't make money at all. Ouch. If that's true, the entire Japanese electronics business was, well, a profitless pit. Turns out it was worse than that.

Interesting... this just goes to confirm this story:

LCD makers sell panels below production prices
But makers hope stock mountain crumbling

WHILE MAKERS of panels for LCD monitors and TVs are hoping that distributors and resellers have demolished inventory mountains over the last few weeks, giant manufacturer LG Philips is now selling units for less than it costs to make them, it has emerged.

--snip--

And this one...

LCD oversupply causes price tumble Martin Lynch, 08.30.04, 11:10 AM ET

Demand for LCD panels fell off in the second quarter of this year, leading to an uncharacteristic oversupply scenario, which is expected to continue throughout Q3. But market watcher iSuppli has predicted that demand will rise again by the end of the year.

The analyst found that although there was an increase in large LCD panel unit shipments of 17 per cent over Q1, it still fell short of expectations. This spurred a 6.4 per cent oversupply of panels and led to a series of price reductions as vendors and VARs scrambled to clear stock.

The situation is likely to continue throughout this quarter with the expected opening of eight new fabrication plants. Supply might slow in Q4 but the researcher has claimed the market will be flooded in 2005.

In its quarterly Global LCD Supply/ Demand Forecast, iSuppli said: "We believe the current panel price decreases will boost end-user demand for LCD panels by the holiday season at the end of this year.

"This, accompanied by the cuts in supply that some suppliers have announced, will result in a situation of slight undersupply in Q4 2004, before the industry settles into a period of oversupply throughout 2005."

Mike Farrah, senior business manager for audiovisual and displays at Ingram Micro, said: "We went from constraint in Q1 to oversupply in Q2. All the vendors have had quite a lot of stock and the only way to get rid of it is to cut the price.

"Prices on 17in panels have fallen by 15 to 20 per cent. In Q1, a 17in panel cost dealers ?250; now they can pick one up for ?170.

"On 15in and 17in panels prices will be fairly steady over the next few weeks. The main drop will be seen on 19in and 21in panels. Manufacturers are much more efficient at producing these sizes now."

Panel prices on LCD TVs fell sharply during Q2 but iSuppli maintained that consumer prices are still not low enough to boost demand significantly.

"Key Analyst: Someone we've paid a lot of money to agree with everything we say".

The INQUIRER guide to marketing English

You're using adobe reader 6?

Disable unnecessary plugins

Adobe Reader 6.0 for Windows loads lots of unused plugins on startup. The Inquirer has a great article explaining how you can disable those unneeded plugins and make Adobe Reader load faster. Basically, you need to do the following:

1. Install Adobe Reader 6.0 and notice where it is installed.
2. Navigate to that folder in Explorer, locate the plug_ins subfolder and rename this folder to plug_ins_disabled.
3. Create a new plug_ins folder.
4. Move the files EWH32.api, printme.api and search.api from plug_ins_disabled to plug_ins.

##########

With the files listed, you get half the load time on low-end systems, and a 2-sec load time on high-end ones. Still, you might want to prefer using Acrobat Reader 4.05 on old systems, since it loads in just seven seconds instead of 20.
--the inquire article

It's right in front of the faq but it took me ages to find that one.