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Feeling bored on the traditional look of USB flash drives? Try mimobot. Refresh those flash drives with these cool looking one. Watch the video:

View: mimobot site

As I've said, records are made to be broken. Again, the battle for the record of the  smallest is heating-up. This camcorder fits inside a pack of gum. Beat that!

Many camcorders have been billed as the world's smallest, but only one has been small enough to hide inside a pack of gum. The Red Ferret Journal says the Micro Camcorder is the smallest high-resolution, real time digital camcorder ever produced. The camera can record up to 33 hours of video at 15 frames per second via its internal pinhole camera. Hide it inside a pack of gum, and no one will never know you're secretly recording them.

According to its web site, the camstick includes a tiny Micro SD card that can hold 1GB of video and will record video for up to two hours on a single charge. Anything you record will be in 3GP format, which can be played on any PC using programs like RealPlayer or Quicktime.

Read more: Yahoo Tech

The amoeba destroys tissue as it makes its way up into the brain, where it continues the damage, "basically feeding on the brain cells" .

Since I'm a carrier of this damn microscopic thing, I just want to share this scary news to you readers. Not to scare you, but for you to have an insight and to prevent getting infected with this deadly parasite. I was hospitalized for almost two weeks by this invasive amoebiasis inside my intestine. 

Though different from the one featured on the news, still they're on the same family.

Now here's the news:

It sounds like science fiction but it's true: A killer amoeba living in lakes enters the body through the nose and attacks the brain where it feeds until you die.

Even though encounters with the microscopic bug are extraordinarily rare, it's killed six boys and young men this year. The spike in cases has health officials concerned, and they are predicting more cases in the future.

"This is definitely something we need to track," said Michael Beach, a specialist in recreational waterborne illnesses for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"This is a heat-loving amoeba. As water temperatures go up, it does better," Beach said. "In future decades, as temperatures rise, we'd expect to see more cases."

According to the CDC, the amoeba called Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEER-ee-uh FOWL'-erh-eye) killed 23 people in the United States, from 1995 to 2004. This year health officials noticed a spike with six cases — three in Florida, two in Texas and one in Arizona. The CDC knows of only several hundred cases worldwide since its discovery in Australia in the 1960s.

Read more: here

Confirmed by members of Google Group microsoft.public.excel, there is a problem in Excel 2007.

I tried it and I can safely say that Microsoft Excel 2007 has this computation problem or call it bug if you want.

If you try to multiply 850 by 77.1, Excel will display a result of 100000 instead of 65535.


Try this:
Cell A1 Value: 850
Cell B1 Value: 77.1

Then on cell C1, type this simple formula: =A1*B1

The result is 100000. Then on cell D1, type this formula again: =C1+1
Result is 100001 which is wrong. Again on cell D1, type this formula: =C1-1

The result is correct, 65534. Problem indeed.

Visit: Google Group

Windows DreamScene transforms your desktop from a static wallpaper image into a full-motion video. In conjunction with Stardock, we’re pleased to also offer a number of cool, new animated DreamScene desktops, including “Aurora”. Additionally, you can use your own videos as DreamScene desktops or visit Stardock’s Dream.WinCustomize.com website to download Stardock’s DeskScapes (an add-on to DreamScene) as well as a collection of fabulous content created by Stardock and members of the Ultimate community.

View: Release announcement

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981.

Nowadays, many machines are running with 2-4 gigabytes of RAM, and their owners are discovering a problem: When they run 32-bit GNU/Linux distributions, their extra RAM is not being used. Fortunately, correcting the problem is only a matter of installing or building a kernel with a few specific parameters enabled or disabled.

The problem exists because 32-bit Linux kernels are designed to access only 1GB of RAM by default. The workaround for this limitation is vaguely reminiscent of the virtual memory solution once used by DOS, with a high memory area of virtual memory being constantly mapped to physical addresses. This high memory can be enabled for up to 4GB by one kernel parameter, or up to 64GB on a Pentium Pro or higher processor with another parameter. However, since these parameters have not been needed on most machines until recently, the standard kernels in many distributions have not enabled them.

Increasingly, many distributions are enabling high memory for 4GB. Ubuntu default kernels have been enabling this process at least since version 6.10, and so have Fedora 7's. By contrast, Debian's default 486 kernels do not. Few distros, if any, enable 64GB by default.

Read full article: here

A footage compilation of nuclear experiments. Looks great as long as they don't drop one on your house .

Hypens are history, at least for 16,000 words deemed hyphen unworthy. Email (e-mail) and other forms of electronic communication is the culprit.

"When you are sending e-mails, and you have to type pretty fast, on the whole it's easier to type without hyphens. Ordinary people are not very conscious of the fact of whether they are putting hyphens or not."

More: here

A new non-stick gum will be launched commercially on 2008. Developed by British Scientists at the University of Bristol, the said gum can be easily removed from shoes, just in case you stepped on it on sidewalks. It can be easily removed from hair, skin, and clothes as well.

The said gum has a great taste - not to be confused with a brand of coffee :) -, it is easy to remove and has the potential to be environmentally degradable.

They accomplished the "less sticky" Clean Gum by adding polymer to modify the gum's properties compared from todays chewing gums which are made from synthetic latex making today's gums resistant to weather and is strongly adhesive.

Source: Reuters

"You're nothing but a second rate, trying hard, copy cat!" A popular line from a popular actress of the Philippine cinema. It applies also to the continuing rivalry for supremacy on CPU architecture. AMD claims that its rival Intel, is copying its approach on the design of its future products.

Goliath mimics David. From X86-64, Hypertransport to Intel's Quickpath bus, Fusion to Larrabee, and now the built-in memory controller.

Products that are more than a year away, like Nehalem (compare to native quad-core AMD Opteron), and QuickPath (compare to AMD Direct Connect Architecture and HyperTransport) are simply Intel’s admission that AMD was right all along about an integrated memory controller being the key to a superior processor architecture,” AMD said.

Again, from a popular Philippine TV Game Show - Intel, kindly tell this to AMD - "May tama ka!"

More info: Xbit Labs

This transparent toaster allows you to see the bread while it is toasting so you're never surprised by toast that comes out too dark. This idea is based on a transparent heating glass technology. Although the glass does not currently get hot enough to toast bread, the vendor explained with some R&D this application may be possible. The concept was developed by the Inventables Concept Studio.


Product link and more inventions by going to this link.

When AMD introduced 4x4, which was known then by the name "Quad Father" and now known as FASN8, Intel countered 4x4 with V8. Rumor has it that AMD canned its gaming system, but from my previous post, it still has a big chance to see the light of day. 

If FASN8 is still breathing or dead already, Intel doesn't care. It is preparing to unleash yet another beast based on V8. Here it is, Skulltrail.

What is Skulltrail? It is simply a massively massaged Stoakley server board with most of the mods directly affecting gamers. You take a 2S Harpertown system, put in dual Nvidia PCIe chips to allow for 4 true 16x slots, and cut the number of FBD slots from 16 to 4.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE seeks to create a global private race to the Moon that excites and involves people around the world and, accelerates space exploration for the benefit of all humanity. The use of space has dramatically enhanced the quality of life and may ultimately lead to solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems that we face on earth – energy independence and climate change.

The new prize calls upon teams to create autonomous rovers that could land on the moon, travel at least three-tenths of a mile (500 meters) and send video, images and data back to Earth.

The first team to succeed would win $20 million - that is, if the job is done by 2012. After that, the prize drops to $15 million, and if no one is successful by the end of 2014, the money could be withdrawn. If a second team succeeds before the deadline, $5 million would be given as a runner-up prize. Another $5 million would be reserved for bonus tasks - for example, roving for longer distances, taking pictures of old lunar spacecraft, finding water ice or surviving the long lunar night.

More: here and here

A new satellite by Google's image provider is to be launched on Tuesday and to be broadcast live on the Internet at this site.

DigitalGlobe, provider of imagery for Google Inc's interactive mapping program Google Earth, said it's going to use a new high-resolution satellite - WorldView I - to boost the accuracy of images. Together with the company’s existing Quickbird satellite, it will offer half-meter resolution and will be able to collect over 600,000 square kilometers of imagery each day. Read full report here.

A demonstration of ASUS' motherboard that enables desktops to run two AMD Phenom FX proves that FASN8 is still alive and will soon see the light of day as reported here:

AMD’s FASN8 (first AMD silicon next-gen 8-core) platform is primarily aimed at gamers seeking for maximum possible performance, the highest image quality and technological advantage over other systems on the market. AMD said earlier this year that FASN8 machines will be based on two quad-core processors as well as four ATI Radeon HD 2900-series graphics cards. However, according to numerous recent reports, AMD will only release the new dual-socket direct connect (DSDC) platform in 2008, missing crucial holiday sales season.

Diamond Light Source is a new scientific facility in South Oxfordshire on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. This giant machine, called a synchrotron, can be described as a series of "super microscopes". It is housed in a futuristic doughnut-shaped building which covers the area of 5 football pitches. Diamond will ultimately host up to 40 cutting edge research stations, called beamlines, supporting the life, physical and environmental sciences.



Diamond produces x-ray, infrared and ultra-violet beams of exceptional brightness. These highly focused beams of light enable scientists and engineers to probe deep into the basic structure of matter and materials, answering fundamental questions about everything from the building blocks of life to the origin of our planet.

Visit: Diamond website

Though the announcement is still pending with regards to the open sourcing of drivers for ATI graphics cards, Linux.com reports on its site that AMD will make code and specifications for ATI graphics cards available on the Internet.

Many Linux users and developers for sure will be happy upon hearing this great news. Aside from problems Linux users get when installing proprietary softwares like Java and Flash, one of the biggest problem is installing drivers for high-end video cards (SLI and Crossfire).

Linux already have Dell and Lenovo on its side. AMD/ATI on their camp is another win.

Does it mean penguins will consider ATI over Nvidia on their next purchase of video cards?

Creative, are you listening? Provide linux support for your blaster cards!

The ENELOOP battery, developed by Sanyo. It is the first rechargeable battery to combine the advantages of a conventional disposable battery with those of a rechargeable one. Thanks to its exceedingly low self-discharge, the "eneloop" reaches the shops charged, meaning that it is ready for immediate use. Neither does a lengthy storage period present a problem any longer – even after one year, the "eneloop" still has around 85 percent of its charge and, what is more, it can be recharged around 1,000 times before it needs to be replaced.



This makes this rechargeable battery an environmentally friendly alternative to the conventional disposable battery.

View: Eneloop Site

Take a tour at Bill Gates' five acre, 66,000-square-foot uber-house with an assessed value of $53,392,200. Click the image below to go to the source and have an interactive tour:

AMD is set to take the No. 1 spot of the World's Top 500 Supercomputer List. Based on the 29th TOP500 List which was released in Dresden, Germany during ISC07 - for the fourth straight time the no. 1 spot belongs to BlueGene/L System developed by IBM. It is installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.

All of these are about to change. AMD and Sun are working with Texans in TACC Supercomputer project. TACC (Texas Advance Computing Center) won $59 Million from National Science Foundation to build largest supercomputer, and this baby is currently being assembled - plan is to deliver 500 TFLOPS, or almost double the number that Blue Gene/L achieves - with 280.6 TFLOPS.

This monster is consisted of 16,000 AMD Barcelonas, 100TB of RAM and 1.7 PB of storage - all assembled by Sun

The U.S. currently holds the Top 8 Fastest Supercomputers followed by Spain and Germany for the 9th and 10th place respectively.

Russian military officials say this is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever made -- four times stronger than the most powerful bomb used by the US military. The vacuum bomb unleashes a powerful shockwave.



After the explosion, the soil looks like the surface of the moon. According to the report, the main destruction is inflicted by an ultrasonic shockwave and an incredibly high temperature. All that is alive merely evaporates.

The new bomb was much stronger than the U.S.-built Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb - MOAB, also known under its name "Mother of All Bombs". So, Russian designers called the new weapon "Father of All Bombs".

For faster download speeds, download recovery and resuming. These softwares will do the job. Click the provided link to download:


FlashGet v1.9.4.1063 - 100% Clean, free. No adware and spyware. Easy to install and use. Speed up 6-10 times! FlashGet is a leading download manager and has the highest amount of users on the internet. It uses MHT(Multi-server Hyper-threading Transportation) technique, supports various protocols and has excellent document management features. FlashGet is a freeware without any adware or spyware.

Internet Download Manager v5.11 Build 6 - The best way to handle your downloads and increase download speeds . Added full support for Windows Vista, YouTube, Google Video, MySpaceTV, IE7 and Firefox 2

HP/Voodoo's Blackbird 002 is already unveiled. It made the headline of review/news sites as well as blog like this. Watch the video of HP's newly born baby.



Video taken from no other than the Founder of Voodoo and CTO of HP's Global Gaming Business - Rahul Sood's site.

Very Transformer!

The first Philippine President to be convicted on plunder.

Former president Joseph Estrada is guilty beyond reasonable doubt for the crime of plunder and is sentenced to a maximum jail sentence of up to 40 years, the Sandiganbayan Special Division ruled Wednesday.

Read: Transcript of dispositive portion of plunder verdict
Read: Transcript of dispositive portion of perjury verdict
Source: ABS-CBN

'History will be kind to Barcelona,' said Randy Allen, who leads AMD's server business and predicts industry-leading success for the chip.

And speaking of history, here's a list of Historic AMD chips

• 1991 — Longhorn, AMD's reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 80386 processor, runs faster than Intel versions. The effort gets AMD back in the Microsoft-compatible chip business after Intel had shut the door.
  
• 
  
• 1994 — The 486 clone is launched amid a storm of lawsuits between AMD and Intel. AMD makes its chips run faster than Intel's.
  
• 
  
• 1996 — K5, AMD's first shot at a Windows-compatible chip of its own design, doesn't run fast and isn't competitive with Intel's Pentium. The chip's flaws force AMD to buy start-up NexGen Inc., which has a competitive design to Pentium.
  
• 
  
• 1997 — K6, based on the NexGen design,
  
• 
  
• is introduced, putting AMD back in the game again.
  
• 
  
• 1999 — K7, formally known as Athlon, is launched and competes well with Intel's desktop chips. Intel and AMD race to put out the first Windows-compatible chip to run at 1 gigahertz. AMD wins.
  
• 
  
• 2003 — Opteron is AMD's first processor that is directly aimed at advanced servers and the first to process data in 64-bit chunks. After a slow start, it becomes a hit.
  
• 
  
• 2005 — Dual-Core Opteron is launched, and AMD's success in the lucrative server market rises to new heights.
  
• 
  
• 2007 — Code-named Barcelona, AMD's first quad-core processor, debuts.
  
  

Read more: Barcelona's glitzy debut

An unmanned solar-powered aircraft that soared for 54 hours more than 50,000 feet above New Mexico may hold the record for unmanned flight, defense research company QinetiQ announced Monday.

The record is currently 30 hours, 24 minutes in a flight on July 23, the company said.

Though it bested the current record, the plane may not hold onto the record because the flight at the White Sands Missile Range in the New Mexico desert was not witnessed by officials from the World Air Sports Federation, which keeps and certifies records, the company said.

They did it but not officially.

Zephyr is 59 feet long and weighs about 66 pounds - light enough to be launched, by hand, by a team of three. It uses paper-thin silicon panels to draw on the sun's power and stores the surplus in lithium-sulphur batteries, which power it through the night. It could be used for surveillance and communications.

Source: Silicon Valley

Now that AMD has already launched the much awaited "Barcelona" core on its Opteron line-up, benchmarks will soon pop-up on the world wild internet.

Barcelona is a native quad core cpu, while Intel's offering is a two dual core cpu bolted together.

While searching benchmarks between the latest from AMD and Intel, I came across two sites.

On the first, "Intel still king despite AMD Barcelona".

On the second, "AMD: Intel Compiler Benchmark Driven".

So it's up to you readers to decide! I'll gather more benchmarks to see if AMD's claim "Barcelona will knock Intel" is true.

The Spread Firefox movement started on November 9, 2004. It took 99 days to hit the 25 million downloads and in less than six months, the number doubled - 50 million downloads.

One year and it reached the 100 million downloads. Another year again to reach the 200 million downloads.

As of September 2007, Firefox has reached 400 million downloads. It is slowly eating the share of Internet Explorer. Firefox's growth can be attributed to its popularity and an easy to use browser. Firefox supports extensions too.

Download the latest version by clicking the Firefox logo on the side of this blog. >>

Al-Qaida in Iraq has claimed responsibility for attacks using armor-piercing grenades that the U.S. military blamed for the deaths of several soldiers.

CBS News reports that the Russian-made device is light enough to be thrown by a single insurgent standing alongside a road and is equipped with a parachute so that it falls vertically on its target and can take out even armored vehicles.

Here is the video from CBS News:


U.S. commanders also told CBS News the weapons are being used more often in Baghdad and the attacks are difficult to stop because the grenades are often launched by militants disguised as civilians at the side of the road.

Eudora, the once upon a time popular e-mail client used on the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The software was named after Eudora Welty. Qualcomm ceased sales of Eudora. The paid mode commercial versions of Eudora is no longer available as of May 1st, 2007.

Qualcomm donated Eudora to the open-source community, which means that anybody is free to download and use it without paying for the product.

The new version of Eudora is being developed under the code name Penelope and is available on the Web at http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope. Mozilla has said it plans to develop both Eudora and Thunderbird.

Who knows, maybe one of these days instead of developing two programs, Mozilla will combine the two to make it stronger. Fusion - just like what AMD plans for 2009.

Thundora! Sounds good to me.

After many delays, Barcelona will ship on the 10th of this month. Prior to its launch, many things happened inside AMD. Two top executives left the AMD camp and it lost the performance crown to Intel's Core 2. On the server side, the Xeon is slowly eating Opteron's share. AMD claims "Barcelona K10 Will Knock Intel Dead". Really??

After the NDA expires, expect benchmarks of Barcelona against Xeon to
surface on the net.

AMD Zone created a poll to determine if Barcelona can save AMD from
sinking down further.

Here's the link: Poll

HP's new gaming machine, the Blackbird 002,  created a lot of news. HP and Voodoo even placed under the influence of a spell or curse its rival - Dell.



Look at the employees of Dell admiring the latest baby of HP. (Pic courtesy of AMDZone.) Still on the news, HP/Voodoo has figured a way to run CrossFire on a nForce board. And that is a great news for owners of ATi cards. You can now use your cards on nVidia mobo.

I wonder what will be the reaction of nVidia upon hearing this news?

After the sneek peek of Intel's X38 based motherboard from Asus, now a preview of motherboard from AMD's RD790 chip that will support the upcoming Phenom AM2+ processors.

Pics courtesy of Tweaktown. The mobo is from DFI  - Lanparty.



Another AM2+ board based on the RX780 chipset – a cheaper and cut down version of the RD790 with a single PEG slot running at x16 full speed. This upcoming board is from ECS, and goodbye to floppy. ECS finally decided to ditch the FDD (floppy) connector on this board.





Over at OCW, Gigabyte introduced a Quad PCIe 2.0 graphics interface. The GA-MA790-DQ6 supports ATI CrossFire technology support (two x16 or four x8).

Still on game, AMD has unleashed a new gaming microsite to provide gaming news, reviews, forums, monthly contests and prize giveaways.

Gamers will have the ability to access exclusive game content and contests while customizing aspects of the site to fit every user’s preferences. The site is now available on http://game.amd.com and here are some of the cool features worth mentioning:

Gaming: Dedicated news, reviews and other syndicated content such as trailers, screenshots, tips and tricks. Gamers are able to get a “behind-the-scenes” look at AMD, while accessing exclusive game content. A system check is available on the site to ensure that every user currently has the minimum requirements to enable certain games. New drivers and utilities will be updated on an ongoing basis as well.

Community: Section will feature forums and articles on gaming, and hardware by partners, game developers, press and gamers themselves. An editorial focused feel provides users with a comfortable gaming community, enabling ongoing discussion and opinionated conversations.

Contests & Prizes: Monthly contests provide users with the opportunity to win exclusive prizes. For the month of September, gamers that register to the site will be entered into a draw to win two extreme gaming systems powered by AMD, the iBuyPower Gamers Fire 1950 and the CyberPower Gamer Ultra 8800 PRO.

Events: Event page showcases AMD at LAN and gaming-focused tradeshows. Information will be provided on sponsorship opportunities and upcoming LAN support for gamers.

Toolbar Feature: Each registered user will receive access to the “toolbar” feature, giving them customized news based on user preferences (such as game genres), IM chat feature, video player and many other features.

Source: AMD Zone

If you have a city, how will you power it? What are the challenges of powering a city economically and safely? Play, compare, challenge: power a city and join the debate with online energy game.

Energyville, developed using data and content provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit, The Economist Group's research arm, examines the economic, environmental and security trade-offs and opportunities associated with different energy sources. To power Energyville's homes, offices, factories and vehicles, players must balance the same competing demands faced by policymakers, businesses and consumers every day.

The game spans a period from the present day to 2030, with players managing the energy supply for their growing city through random events that affect their choices and highlight the consequences of their actions. Energyville is hosted on http://www.willyoujoinus.com, an energy discussion forum that Chevron created.

Read more: CNN

The HP Blackbird 002 is the first joint effort with Voodoo, the Canadian enthusiast PC maker that HP purchased a year ago.



The Blackbird is an all-black, all-aluminum gaming machine that can be configured however the customer wants. The BIOS (basic input-output system) is completely open, and none of the inner components are proprietary, meaning the customer can buy replacement parts off the shelf of any PC supply store.



Read the review: HP Blackbird 002

Here are some downloads for Vista from Andreas Verhoeven's site.

GlassToasts replaces the "ugly" WindowsXP/Vista style balloon notifications with the Beta 1 style glassy toasts: With this application the balloons in Vista will also have an aero glass look.  Works on Windows XP also.



Download: GlassToasts

3D User Picture replaces the user picture in Vista's startmenu with a pretty 3D animated one. Requires a DirectX 9 capable graphics card.



Download: 3D User Picture

Thumbnail Sizer allows the user to change the size of Vista's Window thumbnails that show when one hovers over the taskbar button for the window.



Download: Thumbnail Sizer, Source Code

A pregnant woman suffered burns after a Nokia battery exploded. The battery along with the handset blew up about 10 minutes after it was put on charge triggering a ball of fire.

According to Nokia, the incident was "isolated," and if it finds that the handset, battery, and charger are original, the 30-year old victim will supposedly be compensated.

The battery that exploded was, however from the firm's BL-D3 series, and not from BL-5C that was recalled a month ago.

Both batteries were manufactured by Japan's Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd.

Full story: Yahoo News

Extends Support to Linux

Microsoft Corp. today released to the Web (RTW) Silverlight™ 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media® Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”

Read more: Press release 

Powered by Intel's high-end X38 chipset, this board features support for the current Core 2 offer, the upcoming 45nm CPUs and 1600 MHz FSB.

It features three PCI-Express x16 slots, six USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA connectors, two Ethernet ports and six SATA 3.0 Gbps connectors, four of which are oriented so as to not 'bother' a long and bulky graphics card.

Drool over these pics courtesy of VR-Zone.

Are humans born warfreak? War is very common in computer games, be it online or offline. Now we are in a new level of war which involves two giant country. They are not only giant in terms of size, they are also giant in technology.

As reported here, the Chinese military successfully hacked last June into a Pentagon computer network prompting Pentagon to shutdown a part of the computer system.

Hackers from numerous locations in China spent several months probing the Pentagon system before overcoming its defences according to people familiar with the matter, the report says.

Not only Pentagon, there are also reports of Chinese infiltration of German government computers.

Will this result in a Cyber World War I?

With the introduction of DirectX 10 and Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) in Windows Vista, it is no longer necessary for an application to maintain a copy of its resources in system memory. Instead, the video memory manager makes sure that the content of every video memory allocation is maintained across display transitions. For compatibility reasons, Windows Vista emulates "device lost" for DirectX versions that are earlier than DirectX 10 to make sure that no application-visible API behavior changes.

More info: Nvidia, Microsoft

Download hotfix: 32bit, 64bit Vista

A Japanese firm called DTS developed a hybrid drive with a twist. Instead of using NAND flash memory, usually 256MB, it opted for 1GB of DDR Ram for the cache of its MCell drives. DTS markets the disc as being a significantly cheaper way to get some of the benefits of solid state drives without the price.

The Mcell is an interesting beast. In terms of size, it fits in the standard 3.5" form factor, but inside it actually contains a 2.5" 5400rpm hard drive, a stick of 1GB DDR2 RAM, and a special chip from DTS that contains a real-time OS and CPU. Don't let the slow RPM fool you. The combination of the write-through cache and the 2.5" disc should afford much quicker access times than with 3.5" 7200rpm drives.

Considering that many 7200rpm SATA hard drives have sustained transfer rates on the order of 60MBps, the MCell can easily outperform it with its 110MBps in random read tests for data sizes of 64KB to 512MB.

The drive will initially be available in 80GB, 120GB, and 160GB sizes, with the 80GB model selling for ¥15,800 ($136.15).

Read more: Ars Technica
More image: Akiba PC Hotline

Sony announced through press release the development of a bio battery which it claims achieves world's highest power output for passive-type bio batteries. It says it is sufficient enough to power music play back on a memory-type Walkman.



Mmmmm, so sweet! But isn't it too big and too thick?

Press release: here

Research firm Neal Nelson reports that AMD Beats Intel in 36 of 57 Power Efficiency Tests. Nelson's firm has a long history of data processing consulting to some of the world's largest computer customers including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, the Internal Revenue Service, McDonalds, WalMart and Federal Express. Nelson's benchmarking laboratory is available to commercial and government users for independent computer performance tests.

You can download the white paper with more details:
Word Format or PDF Format

Also, there is an article published on Anandtech site. The "Low Power Server CPU Shoot-out". Again, AMD came out victorious.

AMD is clearly the leader when it comes to performance per watt using the workloads in this article. What is interesting to note is that AMD's advantage isn't at the processor level, but instead it's related to the fact that they don't use fully buffered DIMMs. Obviously, the measurements we took of each component aren't precise - it's just about impossible to do that (at least without sophisticated equipment). However, we can safely draw the conclusion that there is a lot more to power consumption than the CPU itself.