June 2001
Hercules Game Theater XP
posted
by Josh on Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 7:15 PM EST
It was only last year when your only choices for true gaming sound cards were either the SB Live or Vortex 2 based sound cards. Quarter 4 of 2000 has been one of the most interesting quarters for the PC Audio industry. We saw cards based on the Forte Media FM801 chipset, Philips Thunderbird Avenger, C-Media CMI8738, and Crystal chipsets emerge into the main stream market. Everyone wanted a piece of the PC Audio industry, companies that made motherboards or video cards only started releasing audio products. Today we’ll take a look at Hercules award winning Game Theater XP. Hercules has been specializing in video cards mostly since being acquired by Guillemot. The Game Theater XP is the first sound card since Hercules was acquired by Guillemot to carry the Hercules brand name.
Check it out at: Sound Card Central
Global treaty--threat to the Net?
posted
by Brad on Monday, June 25, 2001 at 3:15 PM EST
In the works for nearly a decade, the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments is practically unknown outside international policy circles. Nevertheless, it could have broad implications for consumers and businesses by setting new rules for online copyrights, free speech and e-commerce--if it is approved.
Check it out at: ZDNet News
We're back up!
posted
by Josh on Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 3:35 PM EST
After our ISP changing our IP address for our servers unecpectadly, we are back up and running. We were down for approximately 24 hours, and we have also moved here and unleashed our re-design. Keep in mind, we aren't announcing the re-design until Monday, but its here now!
Check it out at:
Site re-design & move
posted
by Josh on Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 12:32 PM EST
We are in the process of finishing up on our re-design and moving the site. We understand that you will encounter some broken links, design problems, etc, and we are working as hard as we can to get everything ready. Please don't report any problems as of yet, because we are aware of most of them. Another more detailed post will follow soon. Thanks!
Check it out at:
Linux Buyers Guide #11
posted
by Robert on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 5:58 PM EST
With Microsoft increasing their squeeze on end users these days, Linux has been gaining popularity. However if you have ever paid attention you have heard that Linux doesn't play well with certain hardware configurations. The people over at The Duke of URL have posted an article that wil guide you right over this hurdle. With the advancements being made recently in the Linux world the timing couldn't be better. Head over and see if you have the hardware to make Linux easy on your're machine.
Check it out at: The Duke of URL
Amperion Extends Broadband Over Power Lines
posted
by Robert on Wednesday, June 20, 2001 at 5:42 PM EST
A new idea for delivering high speed internet access is presently in development. It calls for delivering high speed access to people in remote areas through the use of the existing powerline network provided by your utility provider.This could be very benficial to those that are currently in the waiting pattern for high speed internet access.
Check it out at: Info World
AOLinux: Possibility or Impossibilty
posted
by Robert on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 8:47 PM EST
"Today I read yet again that Microsoft and AOL had a falling out over AOL on XP. In the last paragraph of the New York Times article I was reading, there is a brief mention of AOL's research and development of a GNU/Linux-based AOL operating system. The article noted that the chief executive officer of AOL, Robert Pittman, said that by creating an AOL OS, AOL would be too confrontational with Microsoft."
Check it out at: OS Opinion
CD-R Media Prices to Rise
posted
by Robert on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 8:36 PM EST
Gather up your CD media now as prices are due for an increase throughout this summer. The low prices of late have finaly come to an end :(. Read the full details here.
Check it out at: PCWorld.com
Another Microsoft Security Hole
posted
by Robert on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 8:32 PM EST
"DUE to a "serious" flaw in Microsoft's Index Server 2.0 and Indexing Service -- software that enables full-text searches and indexing in Windows NT 4.x and Windows 2000 -- an attacker may be able to take full control of Web servers running on those operating systems as well as the still-in-beta Windows XP, the company said late Monday."
Check it out at: Info World
Compaq to Boost Linux Sales
posted
by Robert on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 8:30 PM EST
"COMPAQ UNVEILED A series of new programs Monday designed to attract developers to the Linux operating system and create more applications for everything from servers to handheld devices."
Check it out at: Info World
Flat vs Rounded IDE Cables
posted
by Robert on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 8:26 PM EST
There are quite a few discussions and coments on performance that may be lost from rounding you're IDE cables. Some say there is quite a bit of data loos when rounding these cables. System Logic have taken up the charge and tested the theory. The final results are actually surprising.
Check it out at: System Logic
nVidia Based Motherboards
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:46 PM EST
The new motherboards from nVidia are slated to be out next month. This article brings up pricing issues as well as some early bench results.
Check it out at: The Register
Anouncement at Sound Card Central
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:41 PM EST
An anouncement over at SCC states that Tuan Huynh,a.k.a. GT2k, is resigning to move on to greener feilds. Our full support goes out to him in his decision to move on. We also hope that SCC will carry on the great reviews as they have in the past.
Check it out at: Sound Card Central
nVidia Official vs Beta Drivers
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 10:28 PM EST
"With NVIDIA's release of their Official Detonator 12.41 we finally get a fully Direct X 8 optimised set of drivers straight from the horses mouth. If you are the curious type like myself, chances are you have tried so many different set's of "LEAKED" Detonators that it was a good feeling to see something released by NVIDIA themselves. Then if my memory serves me correctly the 12.42 Beta Detonators for Win 9X were leaked to the web less than 24 hours later. This BETA release was rumored to supply higher performance than the official drivers just released by NVIDIA..( go figure ). I have tried each and every release myself and prior to the 12.41's I found the best results on my systems came from the 7.xx series. They fastest set I found were the 7.58 build, even after installing Direct X 8.0, 8a, and finally the leaked version of 8.1. That of course that is only speaking for my configuration, and you will find many different result's posted all over the web."
Check it out at: Computer Chaos
Farewell to Sensei
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 1:22 AM EST
For anyone that has tried Linux this page should have been a must read for you. The page has always been about getting plain english help without the flames that can come from other sources. Now the creator of this great web page is stepping down.
"I was flying back on a plane from Columbus Ohio this morning thinking, how am I going to do this? How am I going to explain that today is my last day working for Internet.com and running Linuxnewbie.org? Well I guess I just did."
Check it out at: Linux Newbie
10 Reasons Computers Crash
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 1:18 AM EST
"It happens to us all - our computer picks a time when we're in the middle of something fun or important, and the crashes. Screaming in frustration we may inflict damage on the keyboard or ourselves while we attempt to overcome the frustration and return to the point we were at."
Check it out at: BoomGames
One Tech's Eclipse Light
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 18, 2001 at 1:16 AM EST
"Would it surprise you guys to know that over 91% of all PC users suffer from eyestrain? How many out of these 72 million people suffering do you suppose are gamers? Facing long nights watching a 21' monitor playing either Counter-Strike or some other cool game demo you just downloaded, it's not surprising to say that most gamers have suffered from CVS (computer vision syndrome) before. How many times have you been on the computer playing some game and you've had to stop, pause, and blink real hard? How many times has your vision gotten so bad that the monitor screen appears blurry and you have to stop, pause, and re-focus. All of these are causes of CVS and can give you headaches, blurred vision, and dry eyes."
Check it out at: Gaming 3D
Official nVidia Drivers for Linux
posted
by Robert on Sunday, June 17, 2001 at 12:00 AM EST
"These XFree86 binary drivers provide optimized hardware acceleration of OpenGL applications via a direct-rendering X Server and support the TNT, TNT2, GeForce 256, GeForce2 GTS, GeForce2 MX, GeForce2 Pro, GeForce2 GTS, GeForce 2 Ultra, GeForce2 Go, GeForce3, Quadro, Quadro2 MXR, and Quadro2 Pro chipsets. AGP and flat panel displays are also supported."
Check it out at: nVidia
Thompson offers digital audio codec
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 2:51 AM EST
" Consumers can download for free a new digital audio codec called MP3Pro, an enhanced version of MP3 software that enables the creation of more compact and better sounding digital audio files."
Check it out at: EETimes.com
Putting a Bad API on a Good OS
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 16, 2001 at 2:45 AM EST
"Is having the Win32 API (Application Programming Interface) available on Linux a good thing? Perhaps in 10 years this will no longer be an issue, but right now the answer is "you bet."
Windows-based apps could be inexpensively ported and would greatly broaden the appeal of Linux to many users. A virtuous cycle would then ensue, and Linux would reach its potential as an operating system for the future."
Check it out at: OS Opinion
Linux Server Share
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 11:20 PM EST
If you've ever wondered about the percentage of Linux servers in widespread use these days, be prepared to wonder a while longer, as significant discrepancies in the information being reported by market research firms Gartner Group, IDC, and AllNetResearch are confusing industry observers even further.
Check it out at: OS Opinion
Microsoft "Smart Tags" Require IQ Test
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 14, 2001 at 11:18 PM EST
A new feature expected in the upcoming release of the dominant browser Internet Explorer from Microsoft, will employ a technology that has Web content creators up in arms -- this one included.
Check it out at: OS Opinion
Four Sites Account for Half of Web Surfing
posted
by Robert on Friday, June 8, 2001 at 11:39 PM EST
"Many thought Internet traffic would resist consolidation because of the seemingly infinite number of possible Web sites. They were wrong."
Check it out at: CNN News
DDR Up To 40% faster than PC133
posted
by Robert on Friday, June 8, 2001 at 11:32 PM EST
"Ok, I could not resist publishing some results from the latest version of MemTach before it is released - or before I've finished Part 2 of the Athlon 1.4 Review.Because they show up to a 41% improvement in bandwidth over PC133!"
Check it out at: CPU Review
RE-Design & New Sites Coming Soon!
posted
by Josh on Friday, June 8, 2001 at 5:19 PM EST
Hopefully with in the next month we will have our two new sites ready, TVDiscussion.com & MOVIEDiscussion.com, along with a re-design of our techsite. We will also be moving our tech-site to an actual domain name, instead of a subdomain. Last but not least, we have ordered one more server! Possibly we will be establishing a new TECHNetwork in coordinace with SCC. If you have any questions, PLEASE post them in our forums!
Check it out at: HyTek Computer
Microsoft Security
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 7, 2001 at 11:01 PM EST
"Microsoft's goal is to make its products more secure through the use of cryptography. The software giant has made its intentions to employ cryptography in an upcoming operating system extremely clear."
Check it out at: OS Opinion
Moving to Linux
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 7, 2001 at 10:53 PM EST
This is part 2 of a two part article that chronicles the growing pains of switching from a Windows desktop to Linux. Part 1 is also there so look at it also.
Check it out at: CPU Review
3DFx Reunion?
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 7, 2001 at 10:40 PM EST
Former 3DFx employs find a new home. The latest details over at Electic.
Check it out at: Electic.com
Understanding Hardware Resources Pt 1
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 7, 2001 at 10:33 PM EST
Understanding hardware resources and conflicts can be a complicated chore. Especially if you haven't a clue what it is refering to. PC 911 have posted part 1 of a two part article that discuses this and will help you to understand what is going on inside your computer.
"Anyone who has ever tried to install a legacy (non plug-and-play) device has learned that device configuration can be a world of confusion for the novice. Fortunately, the entire concept of device configuration can be simplified through the understanding of a few basic terms and concepts."
Check it out at: PC 911
BIOS Optimization
posted
by Robert on Thursday, June 7, 2001 at 7:53 AM EST
A complete BIOS optimization tweak guide. If you are looking to tweak your system for maximum performance this is one place to start. The guide is also downloadable for viewing offline.
Check it out at: Rojack Pot
Guns For Kids
posted
by Robert on Monday, June 4, 2001 at 11:19 PM EST
A very disturbing website if you ask me. However there are some on the web that find this humurous. After all of the violence that we see on TV daily how could this even be taken lightly?
Please post you're opinions here.
Check it out at: Guns For Kids
Top 11 Reasons AOL Raised Their Rates
posted
by Josh on Monday, June 4, 2001 at 5:03 PM EST
11. Customers now get double the unlimited amount of time per month.
10. Faltering internet sector, sagging demand perfect time to raise prices.
9. Guy who says, "You've got mail." renegotiated his contract.
8. Much better deal for customers. Before it was $263.40 for a full year now it's only $262.90 for those same 11 months.
7. Trying to change Americans belief of, "If it costs more, it's better."
6. Now that an @aol.com address cost more to get, it gains that much more prestige.
5. Building up cash reserves for Year 2000 apocalypse.
4. AOL chat rooms getting new carpet.
3. Nuclear warheads are getting expensive.
2. Ted Turner needs to buy his soul back from Satan.
1. The invoice finally came due for all those CDs they sent out years ago.
Check it out at: BBSpot
Gates Says Linux Best OS Ever
posted
by Josh on Monday, June 4, 2001 at 5:02 PM EST
At a hastily convened press conference Bill Gates announced that he personally thinks that "Linux is the best OS ever."
Check it out at: BBSpot
Tyan Thunder Dual Socket A Motherboard
posted
by Robert on Sunday, June 3, 2001 at 7:46 PM EST
"Athlon SMP!" has been the daily mantra chanted by many overclockers and hardware enthusiasts for quite some time now. Hints of reference AMD 760MP chipset boards have been frequent but fleeting and the occasional dubious screenshot or text-only description from someone who claims to have access to such a beast have been met with dwindling enthusiasm and growing skepticism for some time now. Therefore I can probably forgive my fellow chatters who, while we were all sitting around in the #overclockers IRC channel a couple of days ago, responded with "healthy skepticism" when a user (let's call him Bob) wandered in and casually announced something along the lines of "I've got a dual SocketA board and 2 Palomino's and yeah, it's pretty good."
Check it out at: Overclockers Australia
Radeon Monster Cooling
posted
by Robert on Sunday, June 3, 2001 at 1:55 PM EST
For those of you that have or are thinking about a Radeon card, check this out before you attempet to OC it.
"So here i was, with my 32Meg Radeon DDR sitting inside my machine humming away niceley. Then off course came the sudden impulse to overclock the thing. So off i sped to download Power Strip from tweakfiles. Excitedly i tore in to the overclocking then to realise after a quick look in power strip and around on some forums on the web that the Radeon has syncronous core / memory speeds. Basically this restricts what you can do a bit, but not detired i set the clock speed from the deafualt of 164 straigth up to 190 and it was stable, yippie!!!! A few benchmarks later i found the improvent was good but not brilliant so back i went to powerstrip. I clocked up to 192, but it was unstable and shakey. So now i realised that the stock Radeon cooling fan was pathetic, so off i goto the overclocking store."
Check it out at: Overclockingopolis
ATi All in Wonder Radeon 32MB-DDR Review
posted
by Robert on Sunday, June 3, 2001 at 1:42 PM EST
Sound Card Central have posted a new review of the ATi Radeon 32MB-DDR video card.
"When talking about Multimedia Video Cards with built in video capture, it's hard to not hear ATi pop up. That's because ATi has made a name for their All in Wonder line of feature packed multimedia all in one cards. It all started on November 11th, 1996 when ATi announced the original All in Wonder based on the RageII+ with a whopping 4megs of EDO memory that brought the beginning of ATi's highly acclaimed line of Multimedia capture boards. One problem with the All in Wonder's was that 3D Performance always lagged behind the other competitors. With ATi's latest GPU announced last summer, ATi is finally able to bring a card fully featured multimedia card without sacrificing 3D performance."
Check it out at: Sound Card Central
Best of Socket A Coolers Shoot-out
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 2, 2001 at 3:44 PM EST
There are numerous HSF options available on the market these days for Socket A cooling. Whatever you're cooling needs, stock or over-clocked, Technoyard has put the contenders head to head in a shoot-out to see whichis the best of the best.
Check it out at: Technoyard
Launch of Ask AMD.com announced
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 2, 2001 at 3:37 PM EST
AMD launches a new web based self service system to help you, the end user, build, set up , and maintain your AMD based machine.
Check it out at: Electic.com
AMD Dual 760 Chipset Benchmarks
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 2, 2001 at 3:33 PM EST
This is actually the second benchmark of the dual AMD setup based on the 760 platform. For those that have been waiting patiently check it out.
Check it out at: OCForce.com
D-Links latest Product Line
posted
by Robert on Saturday, June 2, 2001 at 3:29 PM EST
"In the past couple of months D-Link has really wowed the computer and networking world by releasing several excellent wireless networking packages. These wireless kits have been grabbing awards left and right for the quality, price and ease of use. As a result D-Link has received a lot of attention and has finally gained some respect as a producer of fine networking products. This has really been a breakout year for D-Link, even though they have been around for quite some time providing some of the best, cost-conscious products. Now, it seems that all eyes are on D-Link and what they will produce in the upcoming months."
Check it out at: AwareMag.com
AMD to Launch Faster CPU's
posted
by Robert on Friday, June 1, 2001 at 9:34 PM EST
"The processor speed wars soon will shift into high gear. Advanced Micro Devices is set to launch next Thursday a 1.4-GHz version of its Athlon processor and a 950-MHz version of its Duron processor, according to various industry sources."
Check it out at: PC World
University Computers Hacked
posted
by Robert on Friday, June 1, 2001 at 9:30 PM EST
"Novice hackers who hone their skills amid a higher education culture known for lax security and free exchange of ideas are now becoming more prevalent. University computer systems also attract experienced hackers. Huge hard drives make it easy to store illicit software and fast Internet access affords the perfect staging ground for devastating attacks on corporate Web sites."
Check it out at: CNN News
Altec LansingAVS 300 Review
posted
by Robert on Friday, June 1, 2001 at 8:43 PM EST
"As the AVS500 was the competition for the Cambridge FPS1500 and 1000’s, the AVS300’s competition is none other then Henry Kloss’s Cambridge PC Works 3 piece speaker system. With an MSRP of $39 there is really no need to buy cheap speakers such as the SB20’s from Creative. The MSRP is listed at $39, but stores and OEM’s usually sell the speakers about $5-10 cheaper."
Check it out at: Sound Card Central
| 
