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theRegister.co.uk |
Spammer Gets Spammed Big Time A US bulk emailer is
threatening legal action after so-called "anti-spammers" signed him up for lots
of junk mail. TomsHardware |
New CPU Slot 1 to Socket 1 Adaptor
- New Life For the BX Boards Owners of
Pentium III systems based on the Intel 440BX chipset are in a pretty good
position: with very little effort, many of these systems can be equipped with
modern processors running a ...With the help of this adapter, a three-year-old system can literally be brought up to speed. Although it won't be able to compete with today's systems, the performance is nonetheless remarkable... ...boards based on the VIA Apollo Pro 133 or 133A chipsets
are prime candidates for an upgrade with a Pentium III 1.4GHz, since they fully
support a 133MHz FSB. Owners of BX boards should consider the 1.4GHz Celeron
instead, as it utilizes a 100MHz FSB. This means the system won't be running out
of spec, and, as a bonus, you can save some money at the same time. PowerLeap is offering the complete 1.4GHz upgrade package for just under US$160 on its international website, which seems quite reasonable. The adapter itself costs roughly US$80. Combining it with a faster Pentium III seems a lot less attractive, as the price rises disproportionately. You'll need to judge for yourself whether or not the additional cost is justified, based on the application you have in mind. In either case, the upgrade kit consisting of adapter and 1.4GHz CPU offers an enormous performance boost, while at the same time guaranteeing a problem-free and easy installation. And - the price is right! So, with upgrade in hand, err.. computer, you're set for the new year! ZDNet.com |
The Net Marks Its Birthday, Again According to one Net pioneer, the Internt celebrated its "most logical" 20th birthday on New Year's Day--barely three months after its 33rd birthday. A posting this week from Bob Braden on an influential mailing list states that the most logical origin of the Internet is Jan. 1, 1983, "when the ARPAnet officially switched from the NCP protocol to TCP/IP." Braden, who posted the claim on a mailing list of the Internet Engineering Task Force, was a member of the research group that worked on the TCP protocol. There are others who put the age of the Internet much earlier. On Sept. 24, 1999, a group of Internet luminaries gathered at a private estate in the San Francisco suburb of Atherton to mark the 30th anniversary of the Net. Settling on an exact date is likely to prove contentious, and the Internet is not the only technical entity suffering from vintage vagueness. E-mail also lacks an exact date of birth. Ray Tomlinson, the American engineer considered the "father of e-mail," can't quite recall when the first message was sent, what it said, or even who the recipient was. Others have noted that emoticons were regularly used in teletype transmissions during the early 1960s... MobileWise.com |
Wire-Free
Electric Power Mobile devices such as PDAs, laptops, and cell phones are not 100 percent portable simply because they must be recharged in a cradle of some kind - MobileWise takes care of that. The company's new recharging units let you juice up your gadget simply by placing it on top of the base's surface: no plugs required. The patent-pending technology behind this innovation is a chipset - one on the device and one on the base - that senses low power and conducts electricity between the chips. Enabled products should appear on the market in the first quarter of 2003. MobileWise figures that an average size base (12 x 18 inches) will cost around US$160. PCMag.com
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Finally, Affordable Inkjet Cartridges ...No, I'm not talking about the messy refill kits (really only useful for black ink cartridges). I'm referring to the myriad Web sites that have popped up offering discounts on brand-name, refurbished, and generic cartridges. Generic cartridges are the most exciting development—I've seen cartridges that cost less than half of what I would pay for, say, a new black ink cartridge at Staples. A technically adept friend pointed me to Carrot Ink, which offers a $10.95 black ink cartridge compatible with my printer. Staples charges $19.95 for the appropriate Epson replacement. The deal for a color cartridge is even more impressive: $13.95 for Carrot's own brand versus $30 for the Epson cartridge at Staples. Carrot Ink isn't the only site offering such price breaks (by the way, if you block pop-ups, you may never encounter any of these outfits, since many advertise via pop-ups). One of the uglier sites is www.All-Ink.com. Here I saw prices for brand-name cartridges that were roughly half of retail. Some of the sites, like inkprintercartridges.com, offer splashy interfaces you use to select your printer model, but link back to Carrot Ink for the actual products. Some of the better sites, like PrintPal, let you search by the part number of the original manufacturer's cartridge to find a compatible model. Of course, you can still search by printer model number. PrintPal offers some of the lowest prices I've seen (US$7.95 for my coveted Epson color cartridge replacement!). The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and even free shipping for purchases over US$40 (shipping and handling—even for one cartridge—costs $4, so buying in bulk really pays). Carrot Ink, InkCartridge.com, inkprintercartridges.com, PrintPal, and most of the other sites I looked at cover a variety of brand names including Apple, Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark... Verisign.com | NetworkSolutions is Back ...The division of VeriSign® that provides you with domain names has changed its name to Network Solutions®. You may remember we started as Network Solutions and were the first company to provide Internet domain names. The new Network Solutions embodies the fundamental changes we have made to our business in the past year — including improved customer service, upgrades to our product lines, and simplified customer account management — along with the promise of many more improvements to come. We have made these changes because we want to improve the level of service we provide to our customers and make doing business with us easier. Network Solutions remains a wholly owned subsidiary of VeriSign. Be assured you will continue to experience the stability, reliability, and trust you've come to expect. You have my commitment that Network Solutions will provide the highest level of service and deliver the best quality products — now and in the future... NewsFactor.com |
Apple Launches New Browser at Macworld But Still In Decline As part of its new product blitz at Macworld Expo, Apple has unveiled its own Web browser. Called Safari, this new browser is central to Apple's strategy to increase its market share by broadening its software offerings. But IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky said he doubts Apple's tactics will work. He told NewsFactor that the company's market share has declined in each of the last five years. "If the decline ... continues, it is very likely that Linux will take the number two spot in the desktop OS market from Mac by the middle of 2003," he noted. In fact, Kusnetzky said, the company's future prospects appear dim, "unless Apple finds a way to radically change the game."... Reuters |
Old Computers Gain New Appreciation as Collectibles Yesterday's computers, so often dumped for the next new model, have finally come to be treasured as historical artifacts... "Most collectors are geeks, from kids to people who've retired, who share an interest in technology," said Sellam Ismail, a computer historian and consultant who owns more than 1,500 models and runs the semi-annual Vintage Computer Festival (http:/www.vintage.org). "Some people do collect for money. People are trading them actively worldwide." Prices are generally still low -- US$5 to US$100 for
computers that originally cost thousands of dollars from 1971 to the early
1990s. These include the popular Tandy Radio Shack laptops, Kaypro desktops and
"transportables" (which could weigh more than 35 lb (16 kg), and most personal
computers... Prices soared during the dot-com boom, when high-profile collectors like Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen competed fiercely for scarce items, some of them intended for museums. At an auction in 2000, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer
Nathan Myhrvold paid $70,000 for a relay rack, or a set of vacuum tubes, that
belonged to one of the first digital computers, the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator). The gargantuan mainframe computer, designed during
World War II to compute bomb tables, is regarded as the great-grandfather of
American computing and only remnants of it remain, scattered in different parts
of the world. "There's limited data to draw upon, so it takes only a couple of sales to change that," said computer journalist Michael Nadeau, who wrote the book. For example, an IBM 5100, a 50 lb microcomputer released in 1975 with a proprietary operating system, sold recently for $3,000, far above the previous range of $300 to $1,000. Other breakthrough machines such as the Altair 8800 by MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) are worth $2,000 to $3,000 in good condition. In 1975, the computer cost $439 for a kit and $621 assembled. Sphere I, the first desktop computer designed for businesses, is worth $1,000 to $1,5000 in good condition, compared with US$1,345 (assembled) in 1975, Nadeau said. However, common machines are worth much less, even if they are landmarks. The first IBM personal computer in 1981, the 5150, set the microcomputer standard for almost all manufacturers. But it is worth only $50 to $150 for the early 16K motherboard version. All later versions are valued at $18 to $65. "People are concentrating on what they know. That drives a lot of prices now," Nadeau said. "The average collector won't pay a lot. They want it out of nostalgia or they work in a technical field and like to tinker with the systems." Trading is active on the Classic Computer Mailing List (http:/www.classiccmp.org), an online community that has steadily grown since 1997 from the United States and Europe to include the rest of the world... BetaNews.com |
Apple Bridges OS X and Linux with X11 Beta
SixDifferentWays.com | My Favourite 404 Error I stumbled on this last week and thought it was so good it should be shown here:
Lindows.com | Lindows Announces Reseller Program Lindows.com, Inc. is excited to announce the launch of the Reseller Program. The launch marks the beginning of LindowsOS' entry into the retail marketplace making it the first time LindowsOS Membership Edition (www.lindows.com/30) will be available to you, the reseller. Flat per-copy licensing fee – every reseller pays the same $85 per copy... ITWorldCanada.com |
IBM, AMD Team on Chip Technology
The processors developed by IBM and AMD will be aimed at improving microprocessor performance and reducing power consumption, the companies said. The technologies will be based on materials such as high-speed silicon-on-insulator transistors, copper interconnections and low-k dielectric insulation... ...The two organizations will be able to use the jointly developed technologies to manufacture products in their own chip fabrication facilities and in conjunction with select manufacturing partners. The companies expect first products based on the new 65nm technologies to appear sometime in 2005... Lindows.com | Microsoft Presures Companies to Avoid Desktop Linux Summit ..I recently spent some time with a major hardware vendor who talked with excitement about the savings that Linux can bring as they build more affordable computing devices. This company is a big believer in Linux, but they sheepishly confessed that they weren't yet a sponsor of the Desktop Linux Summit (Feb 20-21st, 2003 in San Diego). They explained to me that Microsoft had called them up and told them not to lend their support to this event and discouraged them from attending. At first, I was aghast that Microsoft employees would be spending their time disinviting companies from attending the Summit. But then it got me thinking that it actually was a good indicator. If Linux wasn't ready for the desktop, then MS would be happy to have people spend 2 days in sunny San Diego because they would witness first hand the state of desktop Linux. The opposite of course is true. Microsoft is fearful that attendees will find out that Linux is now no longer just about the server - that it's ready for the desktop. It hasn't been this way in the past, but the stars have aligned and all the pieces have come together (user interface, programs, hardware support, retailers, etc.) to reinvigorate competition in the operating system business. It reminds me of the first MP3 Summit we planned at MP3.com. Before that event, MP3 was a geek novelty. But we invited everyone - yes, even the media companies and the RIAA that were not fond of MP3 - to that first event. After that first conference it was clear we had given MP3 a huge boost in momentum and propelled it into the industry standard it is today... TomsHardware.com | Intel Renames Processor Intel Corp. is
naming its new family of mobile computing technology Centrino. David Deckert | New MS Word Suicide Template
DavidM.net |
Is there a Santa Claus??? I was sending a package to St. Petersburg, Florida and started thinking about how FedEx gives minute by minute tracking information. I began wondering how far a letter addressed to Santa would travel. Would make it out of Michigan? Would it make it all the way? Who would sign for it if I requested a delivery signature? Inquiring minds want to know!
UPDATE It's a bummer, since I've spent most of the year trying to be "nice:" spending numerous hours volunteering for non-profit organizations, including oen that teaches photojournalism to kids in housing projects and another that teaches music to kids. |
t
up to 1.4GHz, despite all socket, core voltage, and BIOS support pitfalls...
