Picture says it!

If your videocard is DirectX9 certified and Windows Aero is activated you’ll notice the new transparency look. Normally in Windows Vista, the transparency only lasts until you maximize a window. VistaGlazz ensures transparency, even when your windows are maximized.

For those who own AMD X2's, this download is for you.

The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer can help improve some PC gaming video performance by compensating for those applications that bypass the Windows API for timing by directly using the RDTSC (Read Time Stamp Counter) instruction. Applications that rely on RDTSC do not benefit from the logic in the operating system to properly account for the affect of power management mechanisms on the rate at which a processor core's Time Stamp Counter (TSC) is incremented. The AMD Dual-Core Optimizer helps to correct the resulting video performance effects or other incorrect timing effects that these applications may experience on dual-core processor systems, by periodically adjusting the core time-stamp-counters, so that they are synchronized.

Download: here

The letter "i" is very popular these days. It's popular in the tech industry - iPod, iTunes, iPhoto and now introducing i7. :)

Intel unveiled its new Core processor brand, previously codenamed "Nehalem", it will be called Core i7 now.

i7 “does not have any deeper meaning”, according to Intel representatives, is the successor of the Core 2 Duo.



"The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward," said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, sales and marketing group. "Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now."

The new architecture will initially be available in quad-versions only.

Lara Croft is a fictional character and the protagonist of Eidos Interactive's Tomb Raider video game series. Designed by Toby Gard, she has also been featured in movies in which she was portrayed by Angelina Jolie.

Initially, designer Toby Gard focused on creating the settings for Tomb Raider and the main character was essentially an Indiana Jones clone. When this character was deemed unacceptable, Gard placed his attention on designing a new one. One factor that influenced Gard to use a female character was that he noticed his male co-workers often preferred using female characters in Virtua Fighter. The redesigned character was initially a South American woman named Laura Cruz. She eventually evolved into an English woman named Lara Croft. Her name was picked from a phone book for sounding "UK friendly."















The new Lara Croft model is no other than Alison Carroll, a 23-year old professional gymnast who represented Great Britain in the past.

Alison will replace Karima Adebibe, a model from Bethnal Green, London and a self confessed tomboy (pic below).
















Here's the list of Lara Croft Model:

• Alison Carroll (latest)
• Karima Adebibe
• Jill de Jong
• Lucy Clarkson
• Lara Weller
• Nell McAndrew
• Rhona Mitra
• Ellen Rocche
• Vanessa Demouy

This is a "No-Return" DVD Rental. This idea of self-destructing DVD was first introduced in 2003 by Flexplay, the technology was called ED-D.

It is here again. The DVD's will self-destruct within 48 hours after they are removed from their packaging. The DVD's look like regular discs, but they are made with a special glue that is sensitive to oxygen. Once the disc is exposed to air, a chemical reaction causes the glue to darken so the laser in the DVD player can no longer read the disc. Sealed discs can last for about one year.

A post on Phoronix caught my attention. Though I'm too busy to update my blog, I can't let this news pass. Here's what the site says:

Receiving publicity on SlashDot today is word that Foxconn refuses to support Linux. Foxconn is a large OEM motherboard manufacturer, but according to a thread on the Ubuntu Forums, they refuse to support Linux. There is a bug in one of their DSDT tables for their BIOS that's causing installation issues with Linux. The DSDT for Windows is correct, but Foxconn isn't interested in issuing a (simple) update to fix the Linux support. However, this isn't surprising to us. We've known that Foxconn does not wish to support Linux at all. Going back to 2006, Foxconn has told us at Phoronix that they aren't interested in Linux on their motherboards and they have no desire to support it. For more on motherboards under Linux, check out our motherboard reviews.

Over at Distrowatch:

A tech-savvy user at the Ubuntu Forums posted that the BIOS of his G33M-S contains different reference tables for various operating systems, and that the one for Linux "points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation" causing "weird kernel errors, strange system freezing, no suspend or hibernate, and other problems." He goes on to say, "After looking through the disassembled BIOS for the last several hours, rebooting it, and tweaking it more, I'd say this is very intentional. I've found redundant checks to make sure it's really running on Windows, regardless what the OS tells it it is, and then of course fatal errors that will kernel panic FreeBSD or Linux, scattered all over the place."

The world is awaiting the official statement from Foxconn regarding this "sabotage".

A combo of pictures shows (left) a handout image released by Iranian daily Jamejam online edition on July 10, 2008, showing three missiles rising into the air while a fourth remains in the launcher on the ground during a test-firing in an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert, and (right) the same image released by the news website and public relations arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Sepah News, apparently digitally altered to replace the grounded missile and launcher with a fourth successfull
Photo: AFP

The state-run Iranian channel Al-Alam said the missiles test-fired by the Revolutionary Guards included a Shahab-3 with a one-tonne conventional warhead and a range of 2,000km.

But Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official, said: "In terms of capability, they claimed the Shahab-3 could travel 2,000km carrying a one-tonne warhead. This is very unlikely.

"The Shahab-3 normally has a range of 1300km and the range can be extended to 2000km but it would require a much lighter warhead.

"This is typical of Iran to exaggerate the accomplishments of the missiles and its nuclear program."

Several experts on photography agreed that the photograph had been manipulated.

"It's a doctored image," said Gerard Issert, a technician at Granon, one of the largest photo laboratories in Paris.

"Although the missiles weren't all equidistant from the camera, they're the same size in the picture," Issert told AFP in the southern French city of Arles.

A defiant Iran test-fired more missiles today, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Tehran that Washington had beefed up its security presence in the Gulf and would not hesitate to defend Israel and other allies in the region.

The United States believes Iran is covertly developing nuclear weapons, a claim denied by the Islamic republic which insists the purpose of its program is energy.

Source: AFP

AMD then launched the first true native dual-core. Onward to quad-core. When AMD is again aiming for their quad, Intel again glued two dualie to claim the first quad. But AMD is the first to set again "true" quads.

Now AMD have introduced tri-core cpu. So what would Intel do? Combine a single and dual to obtain a tricore? Not an easy thing to do for them. Their current architecture would not allow it.

Since they can't offer a tricore cpu, that market belongs to AMD alone. So to counter it, they provided a marketing promotion at Newegg. Look at the picture below:

In this advertisement, it says that their Core 2 Duo outperforms the tri-core alternative which is obviously the X3 of AMD.

Two heads are better than three, of course Intel's quad is better than the tri-core and dual core, including their dual-core. So it is 4>2>3 thing :)

The Firefox community is the proud new owner of a Guinness World Record — each and every one of you! Mozilla today received confirmation from Guinness World Records that we’ve officially achieved the record for the "largest number of software downloads in 24 hours." From 18:16 UTC on June 17, 2008 to 18:16 UTC on June 18, 2008, 8,002,530 people downloaded Firefox 3!

That's the official statement from Spreadfirefox. And as of the time of writing this post, the stats at SpreadFirefox shows that Firefox has a total of 31,715,253 downloads and my beloved country Philippines have contributed a 195,053 total downloads.

To those who participated in the Download Day, you can download and print your very own personalized Firefox 3 Download Day certificate.

AMD has published two YouTube videos that show off its voxel-based rendering technology.


This video is a shaky-cam clip of a ray-traced Ruby, AMD/ATI’s red-clothed vixen.


This second video is an interview with Jules, talking about technical aspects of OTOY/LightScape technologies. OTOY is JulesWorld’s plug-in that allows cinematic-quality rendering within browsers.

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to stop selling its Windows XP operating system to retailers and major computer makers Monday, despite protests from a slice of PC users who don't want to be forced into using XP's successor, Vista.

Once computers loaded with XP have been cleared from the inventory of PC makers such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., consumers who can't live without the old operating system on their new machine will have to buy Vista Ultimate or Vista Business and then legally "downgrade" to XP.

Microsoft will still allow smaller mom-and-pop PC builder shops to buy XP for resale through the end of January. A version of XP will also remain available for ultra-low-cost PCs such as the Asus Eee PC.

A group of vocal computer users who rallied around a "Save XP" petition posted on the industry news site InfoWorld had been clamoring for Microsoft to keep selling XP until its next operating system, Windows 7, is available. The software maker has said it expects to release Windows 7 sometime in 2009.

Last week, Microsoft said it would provide full technical support for six-year-old Windows XP through 2009, and limited support through 2014.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

The clouds, or 'Flogos', are made of soap and gases, such as helium, which allow them to fly off and retain their puffy texture.



'They will fly for miles,' said Francisco Guerra, the creator of the machine. 'They are durable so they last a while.'

They can fly up to 48km (30 miles) and go as high as 6km (four miles) but normally the little clouds level out at about 150m (500ft).

The clouds can be made in 60cm (2ft) or 90cm (3ft) sizes but a 1.8m (6ft) generator is in the pipeline.

The proto-clouds have also been cleared by the authorities of being a hazard to aeroplanes.

This is just for the residents of India. Go to this website and join the contest and you could win an AMD powered laptop.

Let the Grandmaster help you with this. It's fun and it's rewarding, quite literally. An AMD-powered laptop awaits the ones who clear this challenge.

A model displays the world's smallest, 7cm cubic, karaoke box for one person. Hi-Kara, manufactured by Takara Tomy Co., weighs 150 grams without battery and comes in two colors - white and pink.



It can be connected with another "Hi-kara" so you can enjoy duet. It has an estimated price of $97 and will be available on market this October 2008.

Oblation Run, protesting students greet UP centennial celebration

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Members of a fraternity at the University of the Philippines held their annual ritual of running naked on campus six months early on Wednesday — by official request — to celebrate the state-run school's centennial anniversary. Hundreds of cheering students lined the main campus avenue, jostling for positions with their digital and cell phone cameras.

The "Oblation Run" — named for the university's iconic symbol of a naked man with outstretched arms that symbolizes his selfless offering of himself to the nation — started in 1977 as a gimmick by the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity to promote the screening of a movie about oppressed plantation workers called "Naked Hero." The film had been banned by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Since then, the fraternity has used the stunt to make political statements, from raising AIDS awareness to demanding the resignation of the Philippine president, said Armand Padilla, a fraternity alumnus and organizer of the centennial run.

He said the university's centennial committee requested the fraternity stage the annual nude demonstration as one of the activities to mark the school's 100th foundation year.

The fraternity mustered 100 members and alumni — the largest number of naked runners ever — for the event, he said.

The naked runners, who wore golden masks and wrapped T-shirts around their heads to hide their identities, offered roses to scores of giggling female students who they took their pictures as they jogged about half a mile (1 kilometer) from the student center to the Oblation statue in front of the university's administration building.

A student, who identified herself only as Bang, praised the runners' grit.

"It is not just a show of bodies, but they even carry the principles on the placards they were holding," she said.

Several runners carried placards saying "Serve the People," a rallying call for students of the university, who are called "Scholars of the People" for the state subsidies to their education.

Here's a video of the said event, only here in my beloved country.

Can drinking coffee help you live longer? Some researchers say it's good for our health, some say it has side effects. Better watch this video:

An email sent to me by SpreadFirefox:

Don’t forget to be part of Firefox’s Download Day!

Mark your calendar, wrap a ribbon around your finger or write a little sticky yellow note. Download Day will start on June 17, 2008.

Anthony Lawson from Wilmington, North Carolina broke the world record for longest continuous karaoke-singing. The previous record is 38 hours and 30 minutes.


Lawson set up the singing challenge with his friend, a DJ. It began with Queen’s “We Are The Champions.” 39 hours and two minutes later, and with the allowance of water and regular bathroom breaks, Lawson officially became the champion of continuous karaoke-singing.

Though not breaking his goal of 40 hours, he is now the Karaoke King.

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp ended talks as the Web pioneer agreed to let archrival Google Inc sell search ads on its site, the companies said on Thursday.

Yahoo said it had agreed to let Google put search ads on its site in what it called an $800 million annual revenue opportunity that would boost cash flow by $250 million to $450 million in the first 12 months.

Yahoo's ads and Google's would be pitted against each other in an auction style process that could make a deal easier to pass regulatory approval.

Full story: here

That is Wednesday in this country. Just click the Firefox logo on the right side of this blog. Here's the full info:

NEW YORK (AP) — A new version of the Firefox Web browser is scheduled for release Tuesday with improvements in security, speed and design.

Many of the enhancements in Firefox 3 involve bookmarks. The new version lets Web surfers add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new "Places" feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged and pages they visit frequently but haven't bookmarked.

There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list — similar to what's already available on Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 7 browser.

Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.

Firefox also will start blocking rather than simply warning about sites known to engage in "phishing" scams that try to trick users into revealing passwords and other sensitive information. The new version adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software.

The list of suspicious sites come from Google Inc. and StopBadware.org, a project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities.

Security researchers who need access to problem sites can manually turn the feature off.

Firefox 3 also offers speed and design improvements — the back button is now larger than the forward button, for instance, because people tend to return to a previous page more often, said Mike Schroepfer, the project's vice president of engineering.

Firefox is the No. 2 Web browser behind Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. It comes from Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people, mostly volunteers, collectively develop free products.

Mozilla has been developing Firefox 3 for nearly three years and has been publicly testing it since November for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Its supporters are organizing launch parties around the world next week, and Mozilla is trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.

Microsoft is currently testing Internet Explorer 8, while Opera Software ASA released Opera 9.5 on Thursday.

Source: AP

The International Astronomical Union has decided on the term "plutoid" as a name for dwarf planets like Pluto. The IAU has been responsible for naming planetary bodies and their satellites since the early 1900s.

Here's the official new definition:

"Plutoids are celestial bodies in orbit around the sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune that have sufficient mass for their self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that they assume a hydrostatic equilibrium (near-spherical) shape, and that have not cleared the neighborhood around their orbit."

In short: small round things beyond Neptune that orbit the sun and have lots of rocky neighbors.

The two known and named plutoids are Pluto and Eris, the IAU stated. The organization expects more plutoids will be found.

Read More: Yahoo News

Check out this monster cooler. This is for those who wants extreme air cooling and those who wants to showcase their rig in those cool transparent case.



The Cooler Master V10 uses a rather unconventional design, features six heatpipes and two 120mm fans, one mounted vertically and the other horizontally. The horizontal fan is located above the memory slots to provide additional memory cooling.

Look how big it is when mounted on a motherboard!

What a busy month for me. Classes just opened yesterday which marks the end of long vacation for students here in my beloved country.

To start with, I'm posting a tip on my blog. Starting today, you will see "TnT" as a prefix to all my title post for Tips n Tricks. It doesn't mean "tawa ng tawa" in my own native language.

Let's get started. This tip will open multiple homepage. Most users use a single homepage which appear when they load their browser. What if you are like me who at the start of the day browse my favorite site which is more than 5? So instead of typing the site's address or clicking the bookmarks one-by-one, why not just set those site as your homepage? Everytime you open Firefox, it will load those site automatically.

Here's how to do it:

First, load Firefox. Then click the Tools menu and select Options. See figure below.

The Options window will appear.

Then on the Home Page text box, just type the list of sites you want to load, separate it with a vertical bar or the (|) pipe character. For example, I want my blog, spreadfirefox and blogger to load, I will just type:

http://pinoypureview.blogspot.com|http://www.spreadfirefox.com|http://www.blogger.com

That's it. Everytime you load Firefox or open a new window, those site will automatically load.

How hot are the high-end video cards today? A humorous video on Youtube shows a GeForce 9800 GX2 Graphics Card was able to fry an egg.


I guess it's hotter than an Athlon XP (link here) because the egg was cooked so quickly.

Just enjoy the show, and maybe next time a bacon will be on their testbed. :)

Set a Guinness World Record, enjoy a better web. It's the goal of the Spread Firefox group when Firefox 3 goes final this summer.


"Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We're not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome," the site says.

The official release date for Firefox 3 has not been announced yet, however, Spread Firefox claims to be posting on their site "soon."

View: Download Day 2008

The Ultramobile PC market is heating up and is getting more complicated. First the OLPC, then the Eee PC and now Redfox' new baby is born - the WizBook.


Powered by AMD LX processor, the WizBook is bigger than the Eee PC, which means bigger screen. Not only that, it also has a bigger storage, an 80GB HDD. A PCMCIA slot is also included.

The Wizbook comes in two flavours, the Wizbook 800 which is priced at P16,000 while the 10-inch Wizbook at P19,800 and both with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled.

Tired of seeing those ads on sites (hoping not this blog ^-^) you visit?

Now, here's your chance to change that. Add-art, a new add-on for Firefox replaces those adds with hmmm, art! Add-art works with Adblockplus.


While Adblockplus replaces ads with blank space, Addart connects to an online database of artworks and replaces those space with arts.

The art shows are updated every two weeks and feature contemporary artists and curators. You can learn more of it here.

Opening move: this post is not for minors.

Gary Kasparov, also widely known for being the first world chess champion to lose a match to a computer, when he lost to Deep Blue in 1997 was again shocked by another technology.

This time, a remote controlled helipenis. Yes, you read it right! Kasparov is a leader of the Other Russia movement, a loose coalition of activists opposing Vladamir Putin and the current Russian government.

Kasparov was interrupted by this "thing" during his speech. Better watch the video while it's still there:



Here's the translation courtesy of waxy:
After the security guard swatted it to the ground, Kasparov says, "I think we have to be thankful for the opposition's demonstration of the level of discourse we need to anticipate. Also, apparently most of their arguments are located beneath the belt." Someone in the audience shouts, "Finally the political power shows its face!" Kasparov quickly replies, "Well, if that's its face..." to laughter from the audience.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ladies, take your battle for the environment a little closer to your heart with a solar-powered bra that can generate enough electric energy to charge a mobile phone or an iPod.

Lingerie maker Triumph International Japan Ltd unveiled its environmentally friendly, and green colored, "Solar Power Bra" on Wednesday in Tokyo which features a solar panel worn around the stomach.

A model (C) displays lingerie maker Triumph International Japan's "Photovoltaic-Powered Bra" during an unveiling in Tokyo May 14, 2008. The camisole bra, which the company calls it as "earth and human friendly", features a solar panel which can display messages on the removable small electric board when the cell generates electricity. The bra is also equipped with pads designed to hold beverages so that the usage of cans and plastic bottles can be reduced, the company said.

The panel requires light to generate electricity and the concept bra will not be in stores anytime soon, said Triumph spokeswoman Yoshiko Masuda, as "people usually can not go outside without wearing clothes over it."

But it does send the message of how lingerie could possibly save the planet, Masuda said, adding that the bra should not be washed or sunned on a rainy day to avoid damaging it.

Being eco-friendly is now fashionable in Japan, and the "Solar Energy Bra" follows the company's other green-themed undergarments that include a bra that turns into a reusable shopping bag and one that featured metal chopsticks to promote the use of reusable chopsticks.

"It is very comfortable and I can really feel involved in eco-friendly efforts as well," model Yuko Ishida said.

Animated Optical Illusion! - video powered by Metacafe

This is a very cool animated optical illusion with a concept that dates back over 100 years. This video will explain how the illusion works.

All you need is drill a hole in your existing GSM SIM card.


To effectively unlock the phone, SIMable puts a fake SIM under a subscribers existing SIM card to fool the handset into working with any network.

What a clever idea.

Full instruction: here

Now's your chance to own Tim Burton's Batmobile, well of course if you have the money. :)



This handsome car is powered by a Chevrolet 350 which features a custom chasis and costs $500,000 for the reserve and a 20% deposit is due within 48 hours of the end of the sale.

Nine Inch Nail's newest album is now available as FREE download. The ten tracks 44-minute album entitled "The Slip" is available for free download at www.nin.com (free signup required).

Available in different formats, including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality.

Tweaktown got a first close up look at Gigabyte’s full range of P45 motherboards. The P45-DQ6 motherboard is based on Intel's P45 chipset which sports quad LAN (pic below).



Most new mobo on the market has a dual LAN. I don't know if any user who will buy this mobo can utilize all those port. I mean what's the point? Most device on the network can't utilize the dual LAN featured on most NVidia chipsets, how much more with this quad LAN?

Let's see once this mobo get to the Tech sites for review.

After a series of delays, Microsoft has released the Service Pack 3 for Windows XP late Tuesday. A 316.4 MB download for those who are required to update more than 1 computer, or if you don't want to have use Windows Update the next time you clean install Windows XP.

Microsoft also released an ISO image of Windows XP SP3 standalone update CD which is a 544.9MB download.

Download: Windows XP SP3 Network Install (x86)
Download: Windows XP SP3 Update ISO Image (x86)

HTC unveils its latest mobile device, HTC Touch Diamond, the rumoured iPhone killer. Touch Diamond is said to be the first smartphone to use Windows 6.1. HTC also claim that Touch Diamond is the first in the world to feature a 3D graphical interface called Touchflo 3D.

Touch Diamond is set to be available via European carriers this June and Q3-Q4 for the US market.

Highlights

• 2.8-inch touch screen, with four times the pixels of most phones.


• Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface, responding perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media… all vividly displayed as photos and artwork powered by the 3D graphics processor.


• HTC Weather - providing a constant view of weather at home and abroad.


• Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA internet connectivity.


• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera for quality stills and video.


• 4GB of internal storage to preserve more photos, music, files and exchanged data than ever before.


• Integrated GPS for use with maps software for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience.

Memory maker Super Talent launched a new line of MasterDrive SSD (solid state drive). SSDs offer high performance, low power consumption and light weight combined with reliability that is far superior to hard drives. The only thing that prevents it from mass acceptance is its high price.



MasterDrive DX drives use SLC NAND Flash which Super Talent said can support an impressive sequential read and write speed up to 120 and 70 MB/sec and offers a three year warranty.

EVGA has just taken the wraps off two upcoming products. It is basically a box with a USB port to plug into your computer and a DVI port to plug into a monitor.



The system allows for connection of four monitors at once. It will also give you a lot of monitor when connected to dual-output graphic card.

EVGA.com will give away 15 UV Plus+ to lucky winners. Login or register here.

Fudo of Fudzilla have learned that the RV770 will be up to 1.5 times faster than the RV670.

In the real world, this should mean that if one game gives 50FPS with RV670 that the new chip should be able to get you around 75FPS at the same settings. On average, the new chip will have to be at least 30 percent faster than the old one to make you even consider it, but at least specification-wise there is not anything that you might miss.

Let's us wait for the answer of NVidia to this chip.

I'm addicted to lego when I was still a kid. Though this blog mostly focus on technology, I also post some which is of interest to me. :)



The world's tallest tower of bricks has been built to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Standing nearly 30.5m (100ft) tall, it was built by Legoland visitors with 500,000 bricks and resembles a Viking longboat mast.

This is really the geekiest or weirdest jean. Designed by Erik De Nijs, the pants features a keyboard conveniently placed over the crotch. Aside from that, a pair of speakers are also integrated into the knees, the back pocket for the mouse. 



And not yet satisfied, a joystick controller is also located just behind the front zipper. Just don't slam those keys, or else..... :)

More pics: here

WS4 lets you perform an instant search of your computer. WS4 helps you find and preview documents, e-mail messages, music files, photos, and other items on the computer. Please refer to the Knowledge base article KB940157 for a full description of the technology.

Note The WS4 installation process automatically upgrades previous versions of Windows Search technologies.

Download: Windows Search 4.0 Preview for Windows Vista x86 | x64 Edition
Download: Windows Search 4.0 Preview for Windows XP x86 | x64 Edition
Download: Windows Search 4.0 Preview for Windows Server 2003 x86 | x64 Edition

A special promo - only in Japan!



This upgrade version of Windows Vista Home Premium is bundled with a year’s subscription of Windows Live OneCare and a copy of a Vista tips and tricks book.

Three candidates for hacking. All are road warriors. All are patched. The targets are:

• VAIO VGN-TZ37CN running Ubuntu 7.10
  
• Fujitsu U810 running Vista Ultimate SP1
  
• MacBook Air running OSX 10.5.2
  

First it was the Macbook air, hacked in 2 minutes. Charlie Miller used an undisclosed Safari flaw to break into the MacBook Air through the OS X operating system, and took home $10,000 cash prize.

Then on the third day of the contest, Vista was finally cracked. Shane Macaulay with a little help from co-worker Derek Callaway, used a few hacking tricks to break into the Vista box.

Under contest rules, Macaulay and Miller aren't allowed to divulge specific details about their bugs until they are patched.

The contest ended with Linux running on the Sony Vaio remained undefeated.

Philippine PC manufacturer, Neo, has joined forces with Intel to bring a mini-laptop aimed at educational market. 

It goes by the name Neo Explore and comes with a price tag of P16,920 ($406). With this price, it is also positioned to compete with the Asus Eee PC.

According to Mariel Que, business development manager of Neo, the new PC is a "simple, practical, PC-type gadget that is also ruggedized, durable and lightweight." Despite the fact that the ultra-portable PC is tailored to match the needs of school-age children, it can be used by any person that needs access to the web.

The Neo Explore is powered by an ultra-low-voltage 900 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 512MB RAM, a a 30-gigabyte flash drive for its storage, Ethernet, Wi-fi, a built-in SD/MMC card reader and two USB 2.0 slots.

A popular torrent search engine, Torrentspy, after a long (costly) legal battle has finally decided to close its doors.

The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.

So goodbye then, Torrentspy.

As reported here, Nokia, the mobile handset maker and leader will ship this August the next Nseries model at least in Europe and UK. The rest of the world, well a little bit later.



The successor of N95 is reported to have 16GB of built-in memory, support for microSD card to get an extended storage space of up to 32 GB. It will give users 40 hours of video content or more than 3000 songs in MP3 format. An awesome feature.

"If you have a Firewire port, disable it when you aren't using it".

A security consultant based in New Zealand has released a tool that can unlock Windows computers in seconds without the need for a password.

Adam Boileau first demonstrated the hack, which affects Windows XP computers but has not yet been tested with Windows Vista, at a security conference in Sydney in 2006, but Microsoft has yet to develop a fix.

But now that a couple of years have passed and the issue has not resolved, Boileau decided to release the tool on his website.

To use the tool, hackers must connect a Linux-based computer to a Firewire port on the target machine. The machine is then tricked into allowing the attacking computer to have read and write access to its memory.

With full access to the memory, the tool can then modify Windows' password protection code, which is stored there, and render it ineffective.

Older desktop computers do not come equipped with Firewire ports, which are needed for the hack to work, but many recent models do. Most laptops made in the last few years include Firewire ports.

Full story: here

Play game in a high-tech table worth $10,000. I don't know if you will you spend that amount in this kind of game - if this is really a game. :)

Watch the video and see what Microsoft has to offer. You can also check their site here.

This lamp has no cords or cables as it is powered by gravity. Even if you use it everyday, it has 200 year lifetime.

Gravia is an LED-lit floorlamp energized by people. To light Gravia, the user places a mass approximately 48" above the ground, that, in falling, powers a mechanism, generating electricity. Gravia harnesses the potential energy imparted by the user, rather than relying on any existing electrical infrastructure.

The design goal of Gravia is to provide light in a room (600-800 lumens—roughly equal to one 40 watt incandescent lightbulb), over a period of 4 hours, using people to generate power.

The precedent for this lamp lies within horology—the science of keeping time. Gravia recalls the archetypes of 'grandfather clock', 'hourglass' and 'wind-up clock'. User input provides the potential energy for these devices, and maintains a cycle of timely upkeep for the life of the object.

Gravia is also metaphor for an understanding of social activism. The mechanism of social activism is like a flywheel, where each participant in society is not necessarily required to provide all of the energy to power a movement, but instead, contributes with others, bits at a time to accomplish positive change.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite Saturday designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.

The domestically developed H-2A rocket carrying the satellite, "Kizuna," was launched Saturday evening from the southern island of Tanegashima, according to a live Internet broadcast by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, known as JAXA.



The satellite, equipped with two large multi-beam antennas, separated from the rocket and successfully entered its intended orbit 175 miles from Earth, JAXA said in a statement.

The agency said it hoped to enable data transmission of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second at a low cost across Japan and in 19 different places in Southeast Asia. JAXA developed Kizuna with another government agency, the National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

The cost of the satellite's development, launch and operation is estimated at $480 million, JAXA spokeswoman Asaka Hagiwara said.

Japan has yet to join the lucrative international satellite market, and Kizuna, which should be in operation for five years, is not intended for commercial use. Its large H-2A rocket is one of the most advanced and reliable in the world — Saturday's was its eighth straight successful launch.

Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has achieved several major scientific coups in space — including launching a probe that collected samples from an asteroid.

Japan is racing to catch up with regional rival China, which has put astronauts in space twice since 2003 and was the third country to send a human into orbit after Russia and the United States. Japan has since announced plans to send its first astronauts into space and set up a base on the moon by 2025.

In February 2007, the agency launched its fourth intelligence-gathering satellite amid concerns over neighboring North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Researchers have built a device resembling a knee brace that can generate usable amounts of electrical energy as a person walks. The brace, described in an article in the journal Science, stores the energy lost when a human brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step.



Wearing a device on each leg, an individual can generate up to 5 watts of electricity with little additional physical effort, according to the release. Walking quickly, however, generates as much as 13 watts. At that rate, when the energy is stored in a battery, one minute of walking time could provide enough electricity to sustain 30 minutes of talk-time on a mobile phone.

More: here and here

The AMD Phenom case will soon see the light of day as it's almost finished.

The case, sponsored by AMD, Thermaltake and PlanetAMD64 is set to be displayed at ceBIT in March.

Watch the video:

As of the time of writing this post, TrueCrypt has already reached 4,264,463 total number of downloads which strongly say how popular this software is.

Truecrypt is an open source, on-the-fly data encryption. It's free and available for Windows (Vista, XP, 2000, 2003), Mac OS/X, and Linux.

The latest version is out - v5.0!

Among the new features are the ability to encrypt a system partition or entire system drive (i.e. a drive where Windows is installed) with pre-boot authentication, pipelined operations increasing read/write speed by up to 100%, Mac OS X version, graphical interface for the Linux version, XTS mode, SHA-512, and more.

Download: here

Funneling Foam: M Ship M40 Sportfisher
What’s missing from the hulls makes the boats of M Ship of San Diego unique. Twin channels above the waterline mix air (in orange) with water displaced by the hull to create a foam (dark blue) that lessens resistance to the hull, reducing drag and increasing speed and mileage. The aerated water also stabilizes the boat during turns and narrows the craft’s wake. M Ship has implemented the concept in 8-ft.-long sailing dinghies, Venetian vaporetto ferries and even an 80-ft.-long stealth ship for the U.S. military. Latest to hit the market: the M40 Sportfisher, a 40-ft., $750,000 offshore-fishing boat. Cruising at 30 knots, the vessel can go 350 miles on a 300-gal. tank of fuel.


Shape Shifter: Proteus
It looks like a giant water-strider bug, and for good reason: The 100-ft.-long Proteus, launched in 2006 at a cost of $1.5 million, operates on a similar principle, gliding over the surface instead of pushing through it.




Over and Under: Seabreacher
Imagine a Jet Ski that can roll 360 degrees, plunge underwater and then leap nearly clear of the surface. That’s the idea behind the Innespace Seabreacher, a two-seat, 175-hp watertight speedster that’s capable of 35 knots on the surface and 17 knots below. “Certainly it’s the fastest submersible craft out there,” says Innespace co-founder Rob Innes.


The Hoverwing
$85,000 UH-18SPW Hoverwing, is obviously no ordinary watercraft. It’s not even a boat exactly. At low speeds it’s a hovercraft, skimming along like an air-hockey puck. But above a critical velocity of about 55 mph, its stubby wings generate enough lift to hoist it a few feet into the air.


Sailing on Stilts: Bladerider X8
Sailors need a rudder and centerboard to maneuver their vessels. But why does the rest of the boat have to be in the water? The T-shaped foils of the Australian-designed Bladerider X8 lift the boat several feet above the surface at about 6 to 10 knots, enabling it to reach downwind speeds of more than 25 knots by reducing wave resistance.

More here with video, also here.

EMMELOORD, Netherlands (Reuters) - Motorists nostalgic for the time they could sit tight while attendants braved windswept garage forecourts to fill their tanks may yet see those heady days return -- compliments of a Dutch robot.

Dutch inventors unveiled Monday a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.



A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular petrol pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it toward the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.

"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. If a robot can do that then why can't it fill a car tank, I thought," said developer and petrol station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again."

He hopes to introduce the "Tankpitstop" robot in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year. It works for any car whose tank can be opened without a key, and whose contours and dimensions have been recorded to avoid scratching.

Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby petrol station, said: "Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I'd hope they have good insurance."

This is science. A ten year-old boy makes his own snow with 30 gallon air compressor. The boy managed to make three feet of snow overnight and plans to double it next year. Watch the video.

The Energizer motto - "Keep going....". The Pirate Bay is the same. It keeps on growing, growing and growing. According to Slyck, torrent directory The Pirate Bay has managed to make itself the largest torrent tracker with more than 10 Million peers while managing more than 1 Million torrent file. The Pirate Bay home country, Sweden, has a population of 9.1 million.



Like the energizer bunny, it doesn't want to stop. The Pirate Bay is looking to break the 20 million barrier.

It was last May, 2006 when the servers of the Pirate Bay was raided by Swedish authorities bringing with them the machines and during that time, the Pirate Bay had only 2.1 million peers. It was on the headline on most site in the internet. It seems the publicity it received made it grow more.

Now, The Pirate Bay's server farm is scattered globally. The Pirate Bay's administration thinks that this is a way to make them immune from any future prosecution.

This is the real trailer. Watch how Mac changed the lives of Apple fanatics.



Movie courtesy of Gizmodo.

VR Zone has an exclusive pics of the upcoming Asus EAH3870X2.



This beast has 1GB DDR3 256-bit memory.

Special Features

• New Generation Dual GPU Solution
  
• Exclusive Hottest DX10 Game bundle: Company of Heroes – Opposing Fronts
  
• Exclusive “4 DVI-I Output”
  
• 1GB DDR3 Memory on board
  
• ASUS Splendid: Watching movies on PC is as good as on Top-of-the-line consumer television
  
• ASUS Gamer OSD: Real-time overclocking, benchmarking and video capturing in any PC game!
  
• ASUS Video Security Online: Keep an eye on your home at all times no matter where you are
  
• ASUS Smart Doctor: Your intelligent hardware protection and overclocking tool

Here's a review of the upcoming video card from AMD.

This card reports as a single unified piece of hardware in Windows, which is a better solution than virtually separating the two “twins”. Although it goes by the codename R680, we are dealing with two R670 chips, however, a marketing difference had to be made. Basically, all the characteristics of an ordinary HD 3870 are present, just multiplied by two. That means: 2x320 stream processors, 2x16 ROPs and so on. Just like the other HD 3xxx series models, this card has native support for DirectX 10.1, Shader Model 4.1 and OpenGL 2.0.

Full Review: here

In the introduction we said that if the HD 3870 X2 performed better than the 8800Ultra then, considering price points, its release would effectively be as impressive as the launch of the 8800GT. Well, what we’ve seen today is a clear indication that the R680-based video card is definitely superior to the 8800Ultra, which maintains a street price of well over $600. MSRP of the HD 3870 X2 is set at $449 –a bargain considering the HD 3870, essentially half of the X2, goes for about $230. Now, given AMD’s recent history of availability woes, we don’t expect very many of these cards to be available for $449. Then again, a trip to the major e-tailers doesn’t exactly produce too many results for 8800GT’s at MSRP. All of these things considered, it is hard to gage whether or not the HD 3870 X2 will be successful in the marketplace.

Another review: here

A human being answering your queries. And, as long as an answer can be found online, ChaCha promises that a "guide," reached by sending a text message to 242242 (CHACHA), will respond in an average of 3 minutes, though some answers take 10 minutes or longer.

The service has about 5,000 freelance "guides", and ChaCha is working to make at least 500 are always online.

ChaCha is free for now, but the company plans to start charging $5 to $10 a month after 10 free queries starting in the spring. In contrast, Google's SMS service is free but can troll only for automated information such as phone numbers, stock quotes, currency conversions and weather updates.

"When you first see MacBook Air, it's hard to believe it's a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is," said Jobs.



Yes its true. This Macbook comes with a 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy widescreen TFT LED backlit display with support for millions of colors and with a native resolution of 1280x800. It also has a built-in full-size keyboard with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys, including 12 function keys, 4 arrow keys (inverted “T” arrangement), and embedded numeric keypad.

Truly amazing!

View full specs: here

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

• Radeon™ HD2900 series
  
• Radeon™ HD2600 series
  
• Radeon™ HD2400 series
  
• Radeon™ X1950 series
  
• Radeon™ X1900 series
  
• Radeon™ X1800 series
  
• Radeon™ X1650 series
  
• Radeon™ X1600 series
  
• Radeon™ X1550 series
  
• Radeon™ X1300 series
  
• Radeon™ X1050 series
  
• Radeon™ X850 series
  
• Radeon™ X800 series
  
• Radeon™ X700 series
  
• Radeon™ X600 series
  
• Radeon™ X550 series
  
• Radeon™ X300 series
  
• Windows Vista 32-bit Edition
  
• Windows Vista 64-bit Edition
  
• Windows XP Professional
  
• Windows XP Home Edition
  
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
  
• Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
  

This hotfix resolves the following issues:

• Fix for problems with DirectX and Radeon AGP Graphics cards.
  
• Crysis: DirectX 10 Performance optimizations using Crossfire

Download: XP Pro/Home, XP 64-bit, Vista 32-bit, Vista 64-bit
AMD/ATi Support Page: here

Remember my post titled AMD beats Intel on power efficiency? In that post, research firm Neal Nelson reports that AMD Beats Intel in 36 of 57 Power Efficiency Tests.

Now the same research firm conducted another test, but this time on servers using quad core processors from AMD and Intel. Neal Nelson’s Power Efficiency Benchmark used 4GB, 8GB and 16GB memory for their test.

It is interesting to note that FB-DIMM which is used by Quad-Core Intel Xeon consumes more power compared to DDR-II modules which is used on Quad-Core AMD Opteron servers. So this I think is one of the factors why the Intel Server consumed more power.

These new test results were collected with Neal Nelson's Power Efficiency Benchmark which is a client server test where up to 500 world wide web users from 32 separate computers submit individual transactions to a server running the Apache2 web server software, the MySQL relational database and Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system. The benchmark has a complex multi-user load with a large memory footprint, a high volume of context switches, significant network traffic and substantial amounts of physical disk I/O.

"I am certain that these test results are correct," Nelson said. He added, "I am so certain that I have begun to offer my customers a money back guarantee if their real world experiences do not agree with my benchmark data."

But ZDNet sees it the other way. Read their blog titled Beware of rigged CPU efficiency study.

Very similar in my country where two Giant TV Network wars on TV ratings. lol. It's very hard to tell who's telling the truth.

White paper with detail test results: here

Game performance may be poor on a Windows XP-based computer that is using a dual-core processor especially on AMD dual-core computers.

If you have the following, then download the fix at the bottom of this post:

• Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)-based computer.
  
• The Windows XP SP2-based computer has multiple processors.
  
• The multiple processors support processor power management features. For example, the multiple processors support Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) processor performance states.
  
• The Windows XP SP2-based computer requires Windows XP SP2 to use the processor power management features.

Download fix: here
More info: here

Is this the end of toothbrush? Not really. Scientist have found a way to make cavity causing bacteria to self-destruct.

The ability of Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) to survive in acid is one reason that the species is the main driver of tooth decay worldwide. Past research has shown that this ability has several components including a bacterial enzyme called fatty acid biosynthase M (FabM), which when shut down, makes S. mutans almost precisely 10,000 times more vulnerable to acid damage.

A new type of super-efficient household light bulb is being developed which is brighter and uses less power than energy efficient light bulbs currently on the market.



Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are used in gadgets like cellphones and computers previously are not powerful enough compared to regular bulbs used for lighting.

But Glasgow University scientists said they had resolved the problem by making microscopic holes in the surface of LEDs to increase the level of light they give off.

The process is known as nano-imprint lithography and as of now is time consuming and very expensive. But this means the days of the humble light-bulb could soon be over.

An Australian company named Walletex has created an MP3 player which is as thin as an ATM or credit card. What's more, this player is also waterproof. This 4GB music player costs $100.



Gadgets are getting smarter and smaller these days. :)

The Inquirer's Martin Veitch created a list of what's going to happen in 2008. Let's see if one or two will happen this year. If more than that, I suggest that Martin Veitch take another career. :)

10 - Ruiz out at AMD.
9 - Apple interested in Palm purchase.
8 - Apple debuts 3G iPhone.
7 - Black days for tech as US stocks take a tumble.
6 - Fujitsu mulls Sun buy.
5 - Scott McNealy to lead startup.
4 - Bloggers give up the ghost (slowly go away).
3 - Yahoo caves in and sells out to Microsoft.
2 - Flash notebooks go mainstream.
1 - Apple to use AMD.

You can read more the full details of it here.