Tech News December 2005

 

Unreal Tournament 2004 v3369 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Summary: “The alternative gaming OS patron Ryan C. Gordon, or better known as Icculus, has recently finished up work on the v3369 patch for Unreal Tournament 2004 on Linux; and the Mac OS X and Windows 64-bit builds will be pumped out shortly. Beyond the few critical fixes in the Linux build, the retail version of Unreal Tournament 2004 v3369 now include render-to-texture support for implementing such visual effects as detailed shadows for the players as well as vehicles, motion blurs, vehicle headlights, Hellbender license plate, and DM-Morpehus3 scoreboard. These latest implementations in this patch have been much awaited by Linux users with the UT2k4 engine, and these latest render-to-texture objects are the focus of our interest today.”

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How To Avoid Identity Theft @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Although you can recover from having your identity stolen, it is far better to prevent it from happening in the first place. Knowing what criminals can do with your identity is the first best step to protecting your identity. It doesn’t do much good to try and protect your identity from some unknown threat. A criminal that can assume your identity can open and access credit accounts, bank and investment accounts, and generally pretend to be you in many ways. Most identity theft actions result in costing you money, but not all. Identity thieves can use your medical background as well to disclose personal information or just to get fraudulent medical services or drugs. The list of what crooks can do with your identity is nearly endless. That’s why you need to do all you can to protect your identity.

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Steel Sound 5H USB Professional Gaming Headset @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Quote: “Professional gaming products, there are only a few companies that come to mind. One of which is Steelpad. Steelpad has been making professional gaming mouse pads for a while now. We have reviewed a couple of their pads and they were great. Today we have something different from a mouse pad, a gaming headset. The Steel Sound 5H USB gaming headset. Usually when you see a company change from one type of product to another their quality in that product usually is not that of the previous product. That is not true with Steelpad; the Steel Sound 5H is a great professional headset. There are so many features so let’s get into the review!”

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Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC Athlon64 Heatsink
Frosty Tech :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“The Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC heatsink is a mid-level extruded aluminum cooler, and it features the companies signature suspended lower noise fan. The fan design minimizes turbulence and the noise created by air moving over the edges of a traditional fan frame, by removing as much of the fans’ frame as possible. The heatsink is constructed from a simple aluminum extrusion, and aside from the rather odd-looking low noise fan is pretty straightforward. The fan is controlled by an embedded thermistor to control its noise output. The Arctic Cooling Silencer 64 Ultra TC works with all existing socket 754/939/940 AMD Athlon64 processors, and because it lacks any copper components, is a light 448 grams.”

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[News]NZXT Lexa case review @ Xtreme Resources
Xtreme Resources :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“NZXT always had us used to cases that are innovative, practical and different from most of the competition. Ttheir cases always were made with care, good quality components and were very promising to the users. They o­nly recently expanded their products line with a new case, promising excellent performance and attractive design at the same time. This case is very elegant and aesthetically appealing by being completely symmetric, rather than featuring a complex design. Let us have a close look at this new, very promising case from NZXT, the Lexa”

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Matrox DualHead2Go Analog Edition Review @ PCstats.com
PCStats :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“The Matrox DualHead2Go Analog Edition is a device that enables multi-display functionality from mainstream laptops or desktop PCs. It works with a computers’ analog monitor output, and splits the display signal between two external monitors by pretending to be one extra-wide display. The host PCs graphics solution does all the processing, so the device (which looks like a little black box) is pretty compact, lightweight, and quick to set up. The pocket book sized DualHead2Go is compatible with a collection of recent Intel, nVidia and ATI mobile graphics chipsets, at desktop spanning resolutions of exactly 2048×768 (60, 75, 85 Hz) or 2560×1024 (60Hz).”

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Tyan Tomcat K8E-SLI S2866 @ Phoronix
Phoronix :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Summary: “Based upon the K8E S2865, the K8E-SLI S2866 is Tyan’s initial offering when it comes to NVIDIA Socket 939 SLI on the nForce PRO 2200 Chipset. Yes, that is right an nForce Professional 2200 Chipset implementation on a Socket 939 Athlon 64 system and not the nForce4. Presently Tyan has the K8WE (S2895), which is nForce Professional based, and is capable of running in SLI with the Opteron 200 series, but the K8E-SLI is their first time venturing into this new arena. With us today we have the K8E-SLI and we shall see just how well it fares in the world of Scalable Link Interface.”

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Is Microsoft Open XML Really Open? @ The TechZone
The Tech Zone :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Microsoft is trying to allay fears about its strong control over document formats by sharing some new technology called Open XML. But how open is it really?

Microsoft is only doing this because they are facing competition from the likes of Adobe and the emerging OpenDocument standard. Microsoft would certainly prefer for the world to use their proprietary file formats, such as .doc (Word for Windows), .xls (Excel) and .ppt (PowerPoint). As long as most people are using these closed formats, it becomes much more difficult for alternatives, such as OpenOffice.org and StarOffice, and in the broader sense, Linux, to gain traction.

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Antec ATX 12v Power Supply Tester @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Quote: “Ah yes, another product from one of the top makers of PC cases and Power Supplies. Antec would be who I am referring to. It would make sense that Antec would also have a cool power supply tester to go along with all the other cool products that they have in their line up. The Antec power supply tester is a basic one that allows you to test and see if the suspect power supply is dead or not. It does have one unique feature that I have not seen on any power supplies, you’ll have to read on to find out what I am referring to.”

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Facing The Evil Twin @ The Tech Zone
The Tech Zone :: Monday, December 05, 2005
What Is An Evil Twin? They are fake Internet gateways posing as legitimate Wi-Fi hotspots. Supposing you visit the local Internet cafe who has a paid hotspot. You boot up your notebook computer, your Wi-Fi connection software seeks out available networks and gives you an option of two (maybe more) networks you can get online with. One of them is from the Internet cafe, but wait. You see one that says “Free Wi-Fi courtesy of Wi-Fi Hotspots Nation” or whatever. Everyone loves a deal, who do you get on with? If you chose the one from Wi-Fi Hotspots Nation, then you may have connected to the Internet on the Evil Twin’s network.

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News – X-Micro Video MP3 400 Player
Techniz.co.uk :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“The X-Micro Video MP3 400 Players is a very simple and easy to use MP3 Player. This MP3 Player is doing what most people want a portable player to do, pretty simply and quite stylish even able to play video. Although the player itself does not support any extra SD/MMC card slot in. But it was available with the size from 256MB, 512MB and 1GB. It should be more than enough for storing the video and MP3 files. The most important is the great function of the Video MP3 400 Players….”

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Nikao Dragonfire Case Evaluation
Hi-Techreviews :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Take a case and give it chrome accents that highlight dragons and swords and you already have a case that’s an enjoyment to look at and your friends to uh and ah at. The Nikao Dragonfire case may not be the lightest case around but is is roomy enough to work in and the tool-free drive assemby makes building your system go a whole lot faster. Cooling is handled by two 120mm fans with room for one more fan to added. So come on along as we check out the Dragonfire case from Nikao.

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Title : CoolMax CXI Series 600W 120mm Silent Fan PSU @ Techniz
Techniz.co.uk :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“The CoolMax CXI Series 600W 120mm Silent Fan PSU is a very good looking and powerful PSU. The performance of this PSU is very good and stable as you can refer back to the testing and performance section. The operation noise level was very silent as well. There are two SATA power connectors included as well for supporting the SATA hard disk and dual PCI-Express connector to support the SLI technology VGA card…”

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Enermax Liberty 400W Modular Power Supply Review @ Tweaknews.net
Tweaknews :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“Where PSUs have failed me in the past, the Enermax Liberty 400W PSU was a much needed solution. It looks fantastic, works fantastic, and best of all – its modular. Seeing as this is a development still being developed, the Liberty definitely took a step up even from my expectations. Seeing as many people, myself included, consider the power supply as the lifesource of the computer, its important to feel confident in the power supply you purchase.”

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Evercool Ice Man & Sharks Cooler Review @ PC Modding Malaysia
PC Modding Malaysia :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Content: “Both of these Evercool heat pipe CPU coolers are quite good especially Ice Man; HPC-925. They have same retail price; 35USD. With the low price to get such good performance cooler is considered a great deal since most of the heat pipe coolers would set you back around 50USD. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages so it will be dependent on the user to find out which cooler is more suitable for you.”

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Activision’s Call of Duty 2 @ ThinkComputers.org
Think Computers :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Quote: “The Best of E3, Editors Choice, People’s Choice and sequel to the Game of the Year, those are some mighty high accolades for any game. Call of Duty 2 takes you back into the trenches, cities and beachheads of Activision’s top selling World War II First Person Shooter game for another tour of duty as a member of American, British, Russian or German soldiers in a classic shooter that has some big shoes to fill.”

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News – Gun – Game Reviewed.
TekBunker :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Quote – Have you ever imagined what it would be like in the old west? I know I have, along with millions of little boys playing cowboys and indians as children. So the first time I had seen a trailer for GUN, I told myself, “that game is gonna rule”. Well I played and I killed countless bad guys, head shot after head shot they fell by my gun. My trusted steed and I were quite the ass whooping duo. Then 1 hour went by, and boy I tell you the old frontier hopefully wasn’t’t as dull as this frontier.

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Bigbruin.com Review: Thermaltake Swing ATX Mid Tower Case
Big Bruin :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Quote: The cooling performance of the Swing case was quite respectable, and the fact that it allowed the processor to run cooler than a case with many more fans and a perceived better cooling design was a surprise. The Swing ships with one 120mm fan, which did the job, but I would recommend getting a second fan for better airflow, and to keep drives in the drive cage nice and cool.

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Title: Thermaltake Swing (VB6000SNS) at CaseModGod.com
Case Mod God :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Summary: Time for another case review and today we are going to take a look at the Swing case from Thermaltake. This case resembles the look of the Tsunami and Soprano mid tower cases. The Swing has a stylish front panel design which leaves some room for the modders out there. In the time spent writing the review I have already had several ideas that a modder could do to the case to make it their own.

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AeroCool CoolPanel 2 Evaluation @ hi-techreviews.com
Hi-Techreviews :: Monday, December 05, 2005
Take an accessory panel an add to it a 20 in 1 removable card reader, connections for USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, Line In, Line Out, Microphone, SATA and Power SATA. You would say you have a pretty good accessory, but were not done, add in an LCD display with alarms that has the ability to monitor four-fans and monitor four separate temperature probes. Neat stuff huh?

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6 Reasons why NOT to buy the Xbox 360
DataFuse :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“During these last couple of weeks we’ve seen nothing but articles about the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. And every news/tech site around the world has joined this huge fest, where all are full of grace for Microsoft’s latest and greatest. We also stumbled across quite some: 10 reasons to buy the Xbox. … Here’s our top 6 list why not to by the Xbox 360. ”

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Razer Copperhead High Precision Gaming Mouse Review @ Virtual-Hideout
Virtual-Hideout :: Monday, December 05, 2005

Snip: “…perfect 10 out of 10. I didn’t think I’d ever give something a 10 out of 10, but considering my reaction to the mouse (as well as the reaction of a few friends), and after using it for a few weeks constantly without finding a flaw in it’s operation, I feel justified in giving that score.”

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X-Micro Video MP3 400
Hardware Secrets :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“When you stand in the shoulder of a giant – in that case, the almighty iPod – you have to show some talent of you own to be noticed. Every MP3 player in the market keeps on adding features over features to win over some iPod devotees. The X-Micro Video MP3 400 comes fully loaded: it plays MP3/WMA sound files, videos and slideshows, and also functions as a voice recorder and a FM radio turner.”

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Ideazon Zboard & COD2 or AOE III keyset Giveaway – Last Week!
3dXtreme :: Monday, December 05, 2005
The contest rules are as usual, one posted reply to this thread is allowed per day, multiple posts in one day will disqualify. You dont need any other forum posts and is open to contestants worldwide! This contest will run until December 10th 2005 at 12:00am.

The winner gets a ZBoard and a keyset (COD2 of Age Of Empires III) – we have 4 sets to giveaway! LAST WEEK!!

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Paradise|OC checks out the Cooljag JAC68YC Heatsink
Paradise|OC :: Monday, December 05, 2005

“It doesn’t resemble a jet turbine, or a tower… just the stock AMD heatsink. They have taken the stock AMD heatsink and tweaked it a bit. Will a few tweaks grant this heatsink better cooling powers than the stock AMD? That’s what we are here to find out.”

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Explanatory Guide: How To Record & Play Music From A DVD
Designtechnica :: Monday, December 05, 2005
‘Say you’re having a party and you want to have enough music ready for the whole night. Sure, you might have an iPod or digital audio player that you could hook to your stereo, but do you really want all of your friends’ grubby hands all over it? If you have a DVD player and a DVD burner in your computer there’s a simple solution – create an Audio DVD.’

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Holographic Storage: The Uncertain Future @ CoolTechZone.com
CoolTechZone :: Monday, December 05, 2005
“It wasn’t too long ago when Holographic storage was the stuff legends were made off. It discussed how a single DVD sized disc would be able to hold over 1TB of data. Well, we were apparently all wrong. Holographic display is scheduled to debut sometime in 2006 and this poses a host of interesting questions.”

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TechSpot’s Holiday Gift Guide 2005
Tech Spot :: Monday, December 05, 2005
TechSpot’s Holiday Gift Guide 2005 consists of a list of choices that any tech-head will appreciate, complete with stores, prices and little extra info to help your holiday shopping go smoothly. From the obligatory iPod, and gaming videocards, to sleek storage devices, and handheld PCs. Read on for more details.

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Build Your Own PC
PC Mechanic :: Monday, December 05, 2005
People from all walks of life today build their own PCs. Executives, engineers, students, housewives, they all do it today. But, at the same time, pre-built PCs have come down in price quite a bit. Today, one is left to wonder whether it is best to build a PC yourself or to simply buy one off the shelf. I’ll address that here.

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Razer Green Copperhead Gaming Mouse
techPowerUp! :: Monday, December 05, 2005

When we hear Razer, we think of high-performance mice made for gamers. The latest Razer product is the Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse, it has an amazing 2000 DPI laser engine with a response time of 1 ms. Unlike other mice the laser never powers down during game play, so you are ready to frag at any time.

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