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| Thread ID: 22613 | 2002-07-25 12:29:00 | thursday news (damn pc broke again) | tweak'e (174) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 65420 | 2002-07-25 12:29:00 | GameSpyDaily ( . gamespydaily . com/news/fullstory . asp?id=3716" target="_blank">www . gamespydaily . com) has reported that Monolith is looking for beta testers to help with Tron 2 . 0, the upcoming game based on the game used in the movie of the same name . Testers will be selected randomly from those who register to participate between now and August 7 and will be asked to evaluate both solo and multiplayer play . Computer and Video Games ( . computerandvideogames . com/r/?page=http://www . computerandvideogames . com/news/news_story . php?id=77400" target="_blank">www . computerandvideogames . com)has posted details of a playable demo of Operation Flashpoint: Resistance that is expected to be released next week . Resistance is the expansion pack of the successful game . The pack will put you in the shoes of a resistance fighter against the Soviet invasion on the series' fictional island of Nogova, and the demo will consist of two missions that are not included with the retail add-on . Version 0 . 33 of Quake2maX ( . telefragged . com/q2max/" target="_blank">modscape . telefragged . com) is available for download . The new release offers the following changes: OpenGL only (no software mode, no 3dfx) 32-bit color skin/texture support ( . jpg, . tga) Particle Engine Fast intuitive system Dynamically lit Better clientside special effects Stainmaps Infinite blast and blood marks No slowdown like decals Last forever Clientside 3D Chase Camera Accurate aiming system Adjustable viewing distance Adjustable viewing angle Enhanced Crosshair Uses true color tgas Resizeable Pulsing Miscellaneous Special Effects Improved dynanamic lighting & shadows Transparent surfaces lit by world Redone particle effects Railgun types/colors Blood rendering options Spheremapping Cellshading Miscellaneous Gameplay Enhancements Mouse FOV autosensitivity Translucent Console "* . pak" pak loading cvarlist filter parameter Grab you copy of the new version here ( . telefragged . com/q2max/quake2max . 033 . zip" target="_blank">modscape . telefragged . com) . For all those that use Hotmail, you may want to take note of this . A new feature of Hotmail is to delete any sent messages more than 30 days old so if you have any items that you have sent that you want to keep hold of, it could be in your best interests to move than out of the sent items . The BBC is reporting that an asteroid discovered some weeks ago has become the most threatening object yet detected in space . Read below for more: A preliminary orbit suggests that 2002 NT7 is on an impact course with Earth and could strike the planet on 1 February, 2019 - although the uncertainties are large . Astronomers have given the object a rating on the so-called Palermo technical scale of threat of 0 . 06, making NT7 the first object to be given a positive value . From its brightness, astronomers estimate it is about two kilometres wide, large enough to cause continent-wide devastation on Earth . Read the full story here ( . bbc . co . uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2147879 . stm" target="_blank">news . bbc . co . uk) . This Friday is System Administrators' Appreciation Day (http://www . sysadminday . com/) a day devoted to the most under appreciated member of any good organisation . Here's a bit of self-praise from the website: Let's face it, System Administrators get no respect 364 days a year . This is the day that all fellow System Administrators across the globe, will be showered with expensive sports cars and large piles of cash in appreciation of their diligent work . But seriously, we are asking for a nice token gift and some public acknowledgement . It's the least you could do . Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too . ) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us . Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence . Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business So tomorrow, get out there and let your System Admin how much his/her work is appreciated . There is a new virus out that infects WebTVs by shutting them down, rebooting them, and then calling 911 from the PC (Unsure whether or not this wil affect OZ PC in the same way yet) . Here's part of the news report from ABC America: Those reports say that once the infected attachment is opened, the WebTV shuts down, reboots, then calls 911 . Several people have reported this happening and then having a police officer show up at their door . A customer service supervisor at Microsoft confirms that 18 customers have called in to report the suspicious WebTV behavior . WebTVs now go by the name MSNTV, but older brands still have the WebTV branding . According to Microsoft, both units are affected . Read the whole report here ( . abcnews . go . com/sections/scitech/TechTV/techtv_911virus020723 . html" target="_blank">www . abcnews . go . com) . Mandrake Linux ( . mandrakesoft . com/), version 9 . 0 beta 1 has been released for download . This new version of Mandrake includes XFree86 4 . 2, KDE 3 . 0, GNOME 2 . 0, and it's compiled with gcc-3 . 1 . You can grab your copy here (http://www . mandrakelinux . com/en/90beta . php3" target="_blank">www . mandrakesoft . com/), version 9 . 0 beta 1 has been released for download . This new version of Mandrake includes XFree86 4 . 2, KDE 3 . 0, GNOME 2 . 0, and it's compiled with gcc-3 . 1 . You can grab your copy here (http:) . Matrox has published a list of games, current and upcoming, that will or already support the Parhelia's Surround Gaming feature as seen on the demo monitor at the cards launch . Here's part of the list: Providing the ultimate immersive experience for interactive game play, Surround Gaming lets users play games across three displays, with either an ultra-wide field of view (FOV) mode or separate camera views on each display, to fully engage their peripheral vision and provide game critical information . Parhelia users can already choose from over 20 shipping titles supporting Surround Gaming today, and can look forward to another 30 upcoming titles in the near future . Popular shipping titles include best selling games such as: NeverWinter Nights™ by Infogrames and Bioware, Star Wars® Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast™ by Raven Software and LucasArts® Entertainment Company LLC, as well as popular upcoming titles such as Unreal™ Tournament 2003 by Epic Games Inc . and Star Wars® Galaxies™: An Empire Divided by LucasArts® Entertainment Company LLC . Check out the full release over here ( . matrox . com/mga/media_center/press_rel/2002/sgame_support . cfm" target="_blank">www . matrox . com) . -tuner version 1 . 1 . 3 . 1 is out . A-tuner is another nVidia tweaking tool that can change the following four settings in: Anti-Aliasing (including all unofficial modes) Anisotropic Filtering Vsync MipMap LOD (LevelOfDetail) Bias You can download a copy here ( . 3dcenter . de/downloads/atuner . php" target="_blank">www . 3dcenter . de) and see how it compares to others on the market like nvMax and RivaTuner Creative has released new Video Blaster WebCam 5 Drivers bringing them up to version 1 . 02 . 12 . The new version is for Windows 98/98SE/ME/2000 and XP . Grab the drivers here ( . creative . com/scripts/download . asp?Agrmt=slicense . html&file=http://files . asia . creative . com/files/creative/drivers/vb/WebCam5DrvsV1_02 . EXE" target="_blank">asia . creative . com) . nVidia has started the promo campaign for their upcoming NV30 chip . they have briefed journalists on what they can expect in products based on the NV30 under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and there's some info available on the nVidia web site in PDF format . You can read more at the Inquirer ( . theinquirer . net/?article=4590" target="_blank">www . theinquirer . net) . OpenGL 1 . 4 has been approved and the final Specs have been released by The OpenGL Architecture Review Board . nVidia has jumped on the bandwagon quickly and has stated that they will have a new driver with the OpenGL 1 . 4 ICD included within a month for internal testing and public release to follow . Here's a bit on the description of the new spec: Developed to provide more realistic graphics with higher quality, the OpenGL 1 . 4 specification has new core features, including: support for depth textures and shadow textures for real-time shadows and related image-based rendering techniques; automatic texture mipmap generation providing rapid updates and high-quality texture filtering for dynamic textures; and a variety of other enhancements, including multiple draw arrays for higher geometry throughput, window raster position for precise 2D and image rendering, user-defined fog coordinate for advanced fog effects, user-defined secondary color, point parameters, texture level-of-detail bias, texture crossbar, and new frame buffer blending modes and stenciling functions for more flexible shading and rendering effects . The ARB also approved the ARB vertex program extension, which supports programmable vertex processing . You can read more about and download the 1 . 4 specs here ( . opengl . org/developers/documentation/OpenGL14 . html" target="_blank">www . opengl . org) . Infineon Technologies has announced that they have developed a HDD IC that provides transfer rates of up to 1 . 6Gbits per sec . The read-channel integrated circuit (IC) implemented in 0 . 13-micron process technology is designed to achieve data transfer rates on a disk drive of 1 . 6Gbits per second under worst case conditions, the new read channels will help drive manufacturers keep pace with market demand for faster high-density drives used in enterprise data storage systems . Here's a bit more on the new IC: Read channel ICs perform a critical function in translating the information encoded on magnetic hard disks into digital “bits” of data . With the new read channel, Infineon combines more than four and one half years of hard disk read channel development experience and its advanced manufacturing technology to produce a read channel with data rate performance 40 percent greater than currently available components . First silicon was specifically developed for a strategic enterprise customer and is currently being integrated into drives . Infineon will release general engineering samples of the 0 . 13-micron read channel to qualified customers in the fall of this year, and plans to ramp production to support disk drive designs reaching market in the first half of 2003 . You can catch the whole story over at Infineon (http://www . infineon . com) . Cyberlink has released PowerDVD XP 4 . 0 Patch Build 1811, a patch that includes the following changes: Minor technical performance improvements Enhancements to Dolby and SRS audio features Updated support for the latest hardware Fixes the following Error Codes: 89020003, f6f00001, f6f00024 You can download the patch from here ( . cyberlink-usa . com/ftpdload/patch/Patch . 1811 . exe" target="_blank">www . cyberlink-usa . com) . Passmark BurnInTest Professional 3 . 0 Build 1007 has been released with the following changes: Auto-stop timer was changed from a integer to a floating point number in order to allow very short tests . (e . g . 0 . 5min = 30sec) Bug fix in the parallel test . It was reporting errors 100% of the time (this was a new bug introduced in build 1005) Memory Torture Test was introduced (Pro version only) New option to disable the signal pin checking for serial ports and increase the timeout before flagging an error . Bug correction for auto-reboot in Test Passed case . (BurnInTest should have rebooted but didn't) Bug correction for printing problem in Windows 98 . If you're not sure what BurnInTest does, it's a software tool that allows all the major sub-systems of a computer to be simultaneously stress tested for endurance, reliability and stability . BurnInTest tests the CPU, hard drives, CD ROMs, sound cards, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, RAM, network connections & printers . The Pro version can also test tape drives, serial and parallel ports . Grab a copy of the new version here ( . getafile . com/cgi-bin/merlot/get/passmark/bitpro . exe" target="_blank">www . getafile . com) . Asus has released some updated versions of their Motherboard Utilities, PCProbe and Update . Those with ASUS boards will know that PCProbe is a utility to monitor your PC's vital components such as fan rotations, voltages and temperatures and Update is a tool to view, save and update your motherboard BIOS from within Windows . You can grab them from the links below: - PCProbe 2 . 17 . 03 (ftp://ftp2 . asus . com . tw/pub/ASUS/misc/utils/probe21703 . zip) - Update 3 . 31 . 03 (ftp://ftp . asus . com . tw/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/asusupdt3 . 31 . 03 . zip) Overclockers New Zealand ( . overclockers . co . nz) has published a DDR RAM Guide (http://www . overclockers . co . nz/ocnz/misc/ddrguide/f1 . shtml" target="_blank">www . overclockers . co . nz) has published a DDR RAM Guide (http:) . The guide explains the how DDR convention is used to mention the speed the RAM is running while the PC convention is used to denote the bandwidth the RAM provides . The guide features 11 sticks of DDR RAM with the following speed names: FSB Speed DDR Ram speed Name(s) 100 Mhz 200 Mhz PC-1600 or DDR-200 133 Mhz 266 Mhz PC-2100 or DDR-266 150 Mhz 300 Mhz PC-2400 or DDR-300 166 Mhz 333 Mhz PC-2700 or DDR-333 200 Mhz 400 Mhz PC-3200 or DDR-400 DDR memory is getting popular now . However, it is rather hard to know the overclocking limits before buying . Thus we came up with this DDR ram guide . This guide is designed to test the limits of DDR modules on the market and we will update it as time changes . You can check the whole guide out at the link above . CuteFTP version 5 . 0 XP Build 50 . 6 . 10 . 2 has been made available for download . CuteFTP is one of the faster FTP clients circulating the net, with an easy to use interface . There is no word on the changes for this version but if your want to update then grab it from this (ftp://ftp . cuteftp . com/pub/cuteftp/cuteftp . exe) link . ardOCP have got their hands on some ATI Radeon 9700 3DMark 2001SE scores and run em up for everyone to see . Here's what they said: Well, it was bound to happen, someone has posted a few Radeon 9700 scores at MadOnion using the 3Dmark 2001 SE result browser . On a P4 3GHz system the 9700 posted a 15,000+ score . I compared it to my 3GHz Ti4600 system (13449) to give you an idea of performance differences since the systems are so similar . The specs showed final drivers were not used either . Also, Kyle just chimed in that the Nature FPS number seemed to be a bit low compared to what he saw and that the poly count numbers were off as well, so you might not take this to show final boxed performance since this is obviously not a retail card without the launch drivers . These are pretty impressive figures when you consider that the Radeon was run not using the final release drivers . If you want to have a look at the compared scores, check out the marks here ( . hardocp . com/image . html?image=MTAyNzQ2Mjg1NWFzWnJDc0hoeXdfMV8xX" target="_blank">www . hardocp . com 2wuZ2lm) . RivaTuner version 2 . 0 RC 11 . 1 is out for download with the following list of changes: Fixed 'out of free disk space' related database builder crash . Fixed RMB styled context help handler for toolbar buttons under Windows 9x Full Detonator 30 . 30 support . Added databases for the Detonator 29 . 80 and 30 . 30 for both Windows 9x and Windows 2000/XP . Added Direct3D anisotropic filtering optimization options for NV25 based boards for the Detonator 30 . 30 and higher . Now you may limit the maximum degree of anisotropy on per-texturing stage level and boost anisotropic filtering performance in the many applications without major impact on image quality . Added AnisoBoosterOGL patch script for the Detonator 28 . 90 and higher . This patch script allows to boost the OpenGL anisotropic filtering performance optimization algorithm, which has been introduced in the Detonator 28 . 90 . By default the OpenGL driver uses sophisticated polygon rejection algorithm and disables anisotropic filtering for certain textures, filtered by non-primary TMUs, when the driver detects that it has no major image quality impact . Unfortunately, this algorithm is ignored in the applications, which can override default degree of anisotropy . The algorithm is also totally ignored on Quadros . AnisoBoosterOGL patch removes all these limitations and allows to extend the range of applications and boards, which can gain boost from the performance optimization mode . The patch script also allows the OpenGL driver to use the polygon rejection algorithm for the primary texture mapping unit too and boost anisotropic filtering by up to 10% with no major image quality impact . Improved protection against inexperienced users . Now RivaTuner tracks changes in Windows startup registry key and displays warning message when a user tries to move/rename RivaTuner's folder after configuring RivaTuner's startup settings . Revised low level overclocking code for NV2x GPUs, slightly revised DLL reset code . Video refresh is now disabled before resetting the DLL in order to avoid visual artifacts when using Normal/High/Maximum clock frequency generation accuracy modes . Also, now RivaTuner doesn't reset DLL when using 'Low (safest)' clock frequency generation accuracy mode . Improved low level refresh overrider's compatibility with Unreal Engine based games due to CDS_FULLSCREEN flag usage . Added refresh overrider mode control . Now the users can switch between performance/blend/compatibility refresh override modes, which provide different levels of compatibility and cause different performance hits . Improved uninstaller . NVStrap driver can be also uninstalled now with /U command line switch . Download your copy here ( . warp2search . net/download . php?op=viewdownload&cid=4" target="_blank">www . warp2search . net) (scroll to the bottom of the list) . There is a new trailer for Unreal Tournament 2003 ( . ign . com/articles/356/356046p1 . html" target="_blank">pc . ign . com) available for download over at PC . IGN . The movie is in Quicktime format with a water mark and comes in at 9 . 2MB for a minute of viewing demonstrating some of the game's characters, weapons, levels and other features . There is a QT version without the watermark available here ( . shacknews . com/fileshack/dl . x?fname=action/ut2003/movies/ut_2003hq . mov" target="_blank">www . shacknews . com) and a lower res version of the movie in Media Player format at Infogrames ( . 185 . 213 . 150/downloadindex . php?catID=1&platformID=1,11,13" target="_blank">195 . 185 . 213 . 150) . |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 65421 | 2002-07-26 05:37:00 | What do you keep doing to your poor PC tweak'e? :-( | Susan B (19) | ||
| 65422 | 2002-07-26 06:56:00 | HAPPY SYSADMIN DAY! Robo Bruce Godfather :D |
Elwin Way (229) | ||
| 65423 | 2002-07-26 08:44:00 | trying out new modem(internal). Half Life crashed and pc refused to boot into normal mode. safe mode ok. track it down to modem and sound card confliting somehow(funny it was all working fine). had to <bump> the cards around to different pci slots. not an easy thing to do with this setup. a few hours of testing and all is ok. however i have now got anothr modem to test out ;-) | tweak'e (174) | ||
| 65424 | 2002-07-26 08:49:00 | Oi Elwin, you haven't finished your list... :D | Susan B (19) | ||
| 65425 | 2002-07-26 10:45:00 | Tweak'e the age old saying comes to mind. "If it ain't broke then don't try to fix it." |
Sam H (525) | ||
| 65426 | 2002-07-26 10:56:00 | if it ain't broke tweak it! sad thing is i didn't need to tweak it to break it :( |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 65427 | 2002-07-26 11:00:00 | Sam, tweak'e's motto is "Tweak it until it's broke". Now do you understand? :D |
Susan B (19) | ||
| 65428 | 2002-07-26 22:10:00 | Fully. | Sam H (525) | ||
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