Microsoft plays ‘Big Brother’ with Xbox LIVE
Hexus :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
It seems that XBox Live on the XBox 360 gives away a lot of information about what your doing, and it’s not just your friends that can see what you’re up to…
When we first realised the extent and detail of information that was being shared with other Xbox LIVE users, we did a bit of investigating. With the boss on the other end of the phone, I skipped about through my Xbox 360’s functions, each time challenging the boss to tell me what I was doing. Using Media Connect, he told me just a few seconds after I had started that I was viewing pictures… then playing music… then on the Xbox 360 Dashboard and then that I was in Xbox LIVE Marketplace looking for something to download. The sad thing is, he was right every time!
Swiftech H20-APEX Liquid Cooling System Review
MODTHEBOX! :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Swiftech Storm G4 CPU Water Block Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Content: “Swiftech latest product; the Storm G4 is a beautiful, high performing water block. With the pure jet impingement design, it not only breaks from the custom water block design but also able to increases the water block performance. Besides that, it is universal which is another great feature. However its price is not cheap; as one costs around 80USD. If you are one of those who are into extreme water cooling, the Swiftech Storm G4 is the best commercial water block to date; at least until a newer Storm is mass produced commercially.”
LFS LiveCD x86-6.1.1 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Summary: “Linux From Scratch, a Linux distribution that lives by the quote “Your Distro. Your Rules.” through allowing its users to create their very own custom Linux system based upon their LFS builds and using their step-by-step instructions in their numerous books. Released recently from the LFS community has been version 6.1.1, which largely consists of fixes since the v6.1 release. Part of this release is the new x86-6.1.1 LiveCD with some of the new features being the XFce Terminal improvements, jhalfs 0.2, rsync, sudo, and wireless_tools.”
Thermaltake Pure Power PST 520W (Power Station)
Overclockers Online :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Spire GigaPod III External Drive Enclosure Review @ MVKTech
MVK Tech :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“One of Spire’s latest products on the market to expand a computer storage capacity need is the GigaPod III 3.5″ External Drive Enclosure, also known as GigaPod III SP110-NEB. The GigaPod III SP110-NEB is part of a growing family of external storage solutions that take advantage of USB 2.0’s fast 480Mbps bandwidth. And for anyone who has a hard disk hanging around and regularly needs to move large chunks of data around from PC to PC, this is a relatively inexpensive way of doing it.”
Enigma5’s 2005 Christmas Wish List @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
I don’t even want to know what Santa is doing with that little boy…
Abit Fatal1ty AN8 SLI Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
Pro-Clockers :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
[GeekExtreme] Building a change management lab for a MicrosoftServer environment @ Geekextreme.com
Geek Extreme :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“This is starting to seem like a big headache, right? It is key to remember that the lab does not need to be massive, and that its purpose is to assist you in the administration of the production environment. The headache you are eliminating with the lab is the uncertainty of how the big firewall replacement will go on Saturday, finding out that the server you are planning to run NTop on is not powerful enough to also run BASE before you go live with it.”
OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 2GB Gold GX XTC
techPowerUp! :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Modern games require more and more memory. One gigabyte of system memory has pretty much become today’s standard. Once you turn up the eye candy you are much better off having 2 GB. OCZ is using their new XTC honey-comb heatspreaders on these modules which offer much better thermal properties than the traditional solid heatspreaders. For 1024 MB modules the overclocking works quite well too, we reached up to 240 MHz without any voltage increase.
ABS Stealth ATX Chassis @ Viperlair
ViperLair :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“All in all the Stealth is an awesome case, it looks awesome and is very well built. ABS did their homework and for the most part came up with a perfect case. The two cons I listed are minor and shouldn’t be a major problem for most users. It’s simple elegant design is a sight for sore eyes when so many cases these days look like robots, demons, cars etc. The Stealth goes to the top of my VERY short list of sexy, classy, elegant cases.”
Swiftech Apogee – Universal CPU Waterblock @ SystemCooling.com
SystemCooling :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
snip: “SystemCooling.com is proud to bring you our exclusive review of Swiftech’s latest universal CPU waterblock – the Apogee. Along with the Apogee release, Swiftech has also reconfigured their entire lineup of CPU liquid cooling kits. The H2O-80 Micro, H2O-120 Premium, and H20-220 Apex Ultra liquid cooling kits all now come with the Apogee CPU waterblock.”
The Woes of Laser Technology in Gaming Mice @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“In a brief commentary, Razer confirmed that the current variant of laser technology does indeed work best with smooth surfaces, but similar to Logitech, it’s working on supporting as many tracking surfaces as possible. Instead of altering various settings in the software to remedy the tracking issue, Razer has issued a firmware to distribute more power to the laser, which does improve compatibility.”
Transcend 40GB StoreJet 2.5 Portable HDD Review @ Bjorn3D
Bjorn3D :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
decided a couple of months back that I needed to find a good portable solution to backup data files for when traveling or rebuilding one of my many computer systems. After looking around, I found Transcend’s StoreJet 2.5. The StoreJet is actually an aluminum USB 2.0 case for 2.5′ hard drives, but Transcend also offers it with a 40GB or 80GB HDD already installed. In this review, I’m going to be looking at the 40GB StoreJet.
Corsair Voyager 4GB Thumb Drive @ Techgage
Techgage :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Quote: Thumb drive not providing you enough space for your needs? Corsair’s Voyager thumb drives are very well respected because they are fast and very durable. This one is no exception, except that it offers you a full 4GB of space! Let’s take a look at this spacious drive, and see how it stacks up to the competition.
HP Business Inkjet 1000 Printer Review @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“HP, via independent lab tests (though they were HP commissioned) claims the printer will give a running cost of roughly $0.02 per page (in monochrome mode) and is thus at least as affordable to run as a laser in its class. Since we don’t really trust company claims, we decided to test the Inkjet 1000 through our fairly rigorous tests to determine if what HP claims is true.”
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 HDD – 9th generation emerges
TweakTown :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
QUOTE: “The 7200.9 series has models with the following specifications, 40, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, 300, 400 and 500GB models respectively. This is truly the first drive to support all the HDD requirements from base system all the way to high end storage capacity of the lechers like me out there. What makes this line up unique are the different specifications that accompany each drive.”
Letters, Letters, Letters: How Dare You @ DataFuse.net
DataFuse :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“Ever since we wrote the Xbox 360: 6 reasons why NOT to buy story which is here. People are just sending their lists, it’s quite funny.
So, everybody knows we keep no secrets and we just write whatever comes along, here are some of our readers lists regarding why you should or should not buy the Xbox 360. Enjoy and jump in I’d say. ”
500GB Hard Drive Review: Hitachi vs. Seagate
hardCOREware :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
500GB Hard Drive Review: Hitachi vs. Seagate
We’re halfway there! All of the drive manufacturers have come out with SATA2 versions of their respective 500GB hard drives.
Join us, as we look into which performs better in our wide array of tests; is is Seagate and their 5 year warranty 7200.9? Or Hitachi with the 7K500?
Supplemental Storage vs. Backup Devices @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Snip: “If you’ve been saving copies of all of your critical data to an external hard disk, I strongly urge you to think about copying that data to CD-R or DVD-R, and keeping the disks away from the computer”
Samsung SPH-A900 Cell Phone @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
“Good-bye Motorola, welcome Samsung! That appears to be the bold statement Samsung is making with its newly released, Motorola RAZR competitor, A900. Samsung’s A900, also codenamed Blade, is a direct hit at Motorola’s year old RAZR, still a hot seller and the world’s thinnest RAZR in the market.”
SCOTTeVEST SeV Fleece 4.0 Mobile Techno Junkie Winter Jacket Review
Futurelooks :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
SCOTTeVEST’s are some of the most sought after tech accessories on the market. After all the gadgets are bought, their jackets provide a home for all these gadgets and keep them safe and accessible. Since it’s cold in Canada, we decided to see if the SCOTTeVEST concept could be translated to our favouite material: Polar Fleece.
HEXUS.reviews :: Gigabyte GA-G1975X motherboard
Hexus :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Gigabyte has decided that overclocking should play a large part in the GA-G1975X’s makeup, and a couple of plastic ducts are designed and implemented to cool the hot-running components in and around the CPU socket area.
PCMech: Battle for Technology – Part 1
PC Mechanic :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
We have Tyler authoring this week’s Kudos & Calamities column titled Battle For Technology. This is going to be a two-part series, with this week’s topic covering China and the technology market. Quite an interesting glance at the topic if you’re not familiar with all of the buzz going around about that.
Crucial Gizmo 2GB Flash Drive Review @ techniz.co.uk
Techniz.co.uk :: Tuesday, December 06, 2005
[Designtechnica News] Evaluation: Fuji FinePix E900 Digital Camera
Designtechnica :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Given all these announcements have we reached a point of diminishing returns where the megapixel horsepower race has become meaningless? Is 9MP overkill for the average picture taker and is a $199 4MP model like the Canon A520 with a 4x optical zoom good enough? Nah; boys will be boys and we love our toys. What red-blooded American would buy a 4-cylinder car when a supercharged 8 is rumbling next to it? It’s in our DNA…”
What’s Behind the Microsoft/CableLabs CableCARD Agreement?
Designtechnica :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“The Politics Behind the Agreement: The reason that it has taken so long for Microsoft and CableLabs to come to agreement is that the cable industry simply did not believe that Media Center PC’s were trustworthy when it came to protecting video content. The PC is a relatively open system, one which is easily “accessorized” by new peripherals and software. Once DVD’s Content Scrambling System was cracked, the entire cable industry became very nervous about opening up their content to manipulation by PCs.
Microsoft was told to come up with a software and hardware solution that would sufficiently protect video content against piracy and unauthorized duplication. But Microsoft was concerned that such a solution would make the consumer video viewing experience rather cumbersome and unfriendly, thus being antithetical to its larger goal of pushing consumers to view video on their PCs. ”
Fluence’s AMD Opteron 170 DualCore Overclocking Adventure @ HardwareXL.com
HardExtreme.org :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Quote: “…So I decided to burn in core1 for a few days. So am running cpuburnK7 every night for about 6-7 hours now. Then turn it off for the day and try again in the evening. I’m now at the point I only need 1,45 vcore for both cores to let Prime run for hours on 2600Mhz…so I hope I can run 2700Mhz at vcore 1,520-1,540 So the temperature stays well beneath 50 degrees. I am really happy with this CPU, my aquamark was already 107.000 at 2500Mhz… ”
Tt PurePower Power Station 520W PSU review @ DH
Driver Heaven :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Talk Back: When Will Analog TVs Go Dark?
Designtechnica :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“The first commentary I ever wrote for this website was on what I called ‘the DTV heist.’ That was my characterization of the broadcast television industry holding onto its analog spectrum while occupying a fat new slice of the digital spectrum. Well, the end may finally be in sight for analog broadcasting. Maybe.
Because the planned analog-spectrum auction would bring in big bucks, the analog cutoff is moving through Congress as part of the budget package. The Senate recently voted 52-47 to approve legislation that would set a deadline of April 7, 2009 for the final transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting. One comic sidelight is that the senators were so worried about basketball fans missing the March Madness that they moved the analog cutoff from the year-end dates usually bandied about to just after the end of the college hoops tournament.”
