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Thread ID: 22657	2002-07-26 11:59:00	friday news	tweak'e (174)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
65768	2002-07-26 11:59:00	The unconfirmed final version of Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 has been leaked . The release notes of the release have been posted here ( . zollonet . com/neowin/sp3/spnotes . htm" target="_blank">www . zollonet . com) and the download and install instructions are available over at Windows Update here ( . download . windowsupdate . com/msdownload/update/v3/static/RTF/en/5211 . htm" target="_blank">www . download . windowsupdate . com) . You can download the version from here (ftp://ftp . cableinet . net/incoming/oqwarrior/ieXbeta/W2Ksp3final/W2Ksp3 . exe), but I would suggest waiting awhile as the link is getting hammered at the moment . As was said at the beginning of the post, it has yet to be confirmed if this is in fact the final RTM . A leaked copy of Microsoft Slideshow, a feature to be integrated into the next Windows codenamed Longhorn, is out . Slideshow is an information bar that keeps track of incoming emails, messages and such . Icrontic has posted up a review of the program which you can see a clip of below: Microsoft Sideshow is a program which is designed to keep the user up-to-date on important information . Not only does it keep track of emails, online contacts, news, weather and the market status but also certain things like the traffic in your area or a certain eBay auction that you’ve got your eye on . But what’s really amazing about this software is the ability to customize it to your OWN needs . Or read the whole thing here ( . icrontic . com/index . php?page=public/software&softwareId=55" target="_blank">www . icrontic . com) . If you want to download Microsoft Sideshow and play around with it, here are a few mirrors: - Mirror 1 ( . lycos . co . uk/oqwarrior/SideShow-WiNBETA . exe" target="_blank">members . lycos . co . uk) - Mirror 2 ( . scooly . net/~cream/SideShow-WiNBETA . exe" target="_blank">www . scooly . net) - Mirror 3 ( . net/WiNBETA/SideShow-WiNBETA . rar" target="_blank">msbetas . net) You will also need this patch to remove the the timebomb: . - Mirror 1 ( . net/WiNBETA/install . bat" target="_blank">msbetas . net) - Mirror 2 ( . terra . es/personal8/tehbomb26/install-VaxoP . bat" target="_blank">www . terra . es) Microsoft has also published a research document (ftp://ftp . research . microsoft . com/pub/tr/tr-2001-83 . doc) about the software, which has some tidbits and screenshots . Here's some bad news for Windows 95/98/98SE and NT users, apparently the new Radeon 9000 and 97000 cards will not work with these operating systems . Here's a copy of a letter from the company on this matter: Dear Customer, Thank you for contacting ATI Technical Support . Radeon 9xxx Specifications The Radeon 9000 series (Radeon 9000 Pro and Radeon 9700) will run on Win XP, Win 2000 and Win Me . It will not work in Windows 98/se/95/NT, therefore there will be no driver support for these operating systems . Please check the online technical specifications for more information about these products: Radeon 9000 Pro: ( . ati . com/products/pc/radeon9000pro/specs . html" target="_blank">www . ati . com) Radeon 9700: ( . ati . com/products/pc/radeon9700/specs . html" target="_blank">www . ati . com) Bit of a shame that at least Windows 98/98SE haven't got support as it still has a huge user base due to the ill tempered nature of ME . Perhaps ATI may buckle under the presure of user backlash . Hot on the heels of their new HDD IC mentioned in yesterdays post, Infineon Technologies has announced this week that they have developed a technology which allows electronics to be woven into fabric, paving the way for devices such as wearable MP3 players . Here's part of the announcement: TOKYO - Infineon Technologies AG has developed a 3 x 3-cm audio module that can be woven into clothing with ribbons of conductive wire, paving the way for a wearable MP3 player . Infineon expects the technology will enable other wearable electronics such as a cellular phones and medical sensors . Infineon said it will not sell clothing with so-called "ambient intelligence," but is pursuing technology that will make such items possible . You can check out the whole report on the technology here ( . eetimes . com/sys/news/OEG20020723S0042" target="_blank">www . eetimes . com) . nVidia has released official performance results for their new nForce2 chipset for AMD platform . The benchmarks are based on results from SPEC Viewperf, Quake3, SYSmark2002 and PCmark2002 . If you look below you can see the performance increases the new chipset produces: In professional SPEC Viewperf benchmarks at 1280x1024 the new chipset managed to prove 10-20% faster than the classical KT333 . In Quake3 (1024x768) the advantage over the rivals made around 10% . As for SYSmark2002 and PCmark2002 tests, nForce2 appeared 8% ahead of the rivals in the first one and 10% ahead in the second one . During the tests they used PC2700 DDR SDRAM . They have also tested the integrated graphics core of the nForce2, which is known to be a modification of GeForce4 MX . Of course, the performance of the newcomer is 1 . 5-2 times higher than that of the predecessor used in nForce 420D and much higher than that of all other integrated solutions tested . If we compare the performance of the integrated nForce2 graphics with that of some external add-on graphics card, GeForce4 MX420 will be the closest of all, as it falls behind the newcomer just a little bit because of the slow SDRAM memory . All in all, the advantages of the new solution over the KT333 chipset is not that tiny, we should say, which is a really pleasing factor, though we don’t know yet how fast the new VIA KT400 will turn out . The new graphics core also proved worthy and acceptable even for gaming . The rumour that began circulating earlier this week about Microsoft making changes to its Product Activation technology in Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) are apparently untrue . The rumour was started by a small technology enthusiast Web site and had Microsoft changing the product keys for all of its customers using volume licensing . These rumours have since spread across the Internet and been embellished in various ways . Microsoft has issued a released denying any such changes to licensing arrangements . Hee is part of what he told to Wininformant: "There is no truth in this rumor," Allen Nieman, the Lead Technical Product Manager for Licensing Technologies at Microsoft told Wininformant Thursday . "We are not changing the way volume licensing customers install or deploy Windows XP . We are not issuing volume licensing customers new product keys . Volume licensing customers are not impacted by any of the changes we are making to activation in SP1 . The only folks impacted by the changes we are making in SP1 are people with illegal copies of Windows . " The Windows Product Activation feature in XP SP1 will get two minor modifications, neither of which will affect any legitimate users . First, Microsoft discovered that the majority of pirated XP copies out there are tied to single volume license product key . So Microsoft alerted the company about the problem, changed their key, and disabled it for use after SP1 . So anyone using this pirated key will be unable to upgrade to SP1 or any future updates via Windows Update . Also, Microsoft is adding a three-day grace period for people that use the same product key to install XP on two different systems; in the past, there was no grace period and the user had to immediately activation via phone in order to use XP on the second system . This will give users some breathing room if disaster strikes and you have to install XP on a new system . It's all a matter of who you believe and in the long run, proof will surface when users get a hold of the service pack . KaZaA Media Desktop 1 . 7 . 2 is out with the following changes: With this new version of KaZaA you get more reliable, more secure software . New Anti-Virus Measures This release includes further protection for users against viruses such as Backdoor . K0wbot . 1 . 3 . B . and Benjamin . Less Vulnerable A rare vulnerability has been discovered and fixed in in which an attacker could crash your KaZaA . Get v1 . 7 . 2 and protect your KaZaA experience . Clearer Communication The new KaZaA installer improves your understanding of what you are installing . Learn about how KaZaA is kept free and install v1 . 7 . 2 Improved Search & Download Performance Improvements in v1 . 7 . 2 mean that digitally rights managed content will now be easier to find and more successful to download . You can download it here ( . kazaa . com/kmd . exe" target="_blank">download . kazaa . com) Intervideo ( . intervideo . com/) have released a new build of WinDVD 4 to bring up to version 4 . 0 . 11 . 083C00 . The patch is so silent that there is no list of changes . The download is available here (http://www . intervideo . com/jsp/WinDVD_Download . jsp" target="_blank">www . intervideo . com/) have released a new build of WinDVD 4 to bring up to version 4 . 0 . 11 . 083C00 . The patch is so silent that there is no list of changes . The download is available here (http:) and will either install as a limited evaluation copy or update your current trial or registered version . For those into tweaking, you can also download the most recent version of WinDVD Tweaker (3 . 42) from here ( . xp-erience . org/out/misc/windvdtweak/winDVDTweaker3 . 42 . zip" target="_blank">www . xp-erience . org) . Microsoft is continuing to push for the drop of support for Windows 98SE and NT4 with the announcement that it will no longer accept WHQL submissions for Windows versions 98SE and NT4 . This announcement marks the next step in Microsoft's continued push to further market Windows XP . You can read the announcement here ( . microsoft . com/hwdq/hwtest/search/results . asp?Type=Announcement&ID=607&Key=Important&Sort=release&fItem=m&Term=&sType=ann&ipage=1" target="_blank">www . microsoft . com) . Ibelite is reporting that Windows XP SP Build 1081 has been released at Beta Place . The new build is 130 . 6MB and includes updated versions of Internet Explorer and Outlook Express . You can download the latest build from here ( . fileconnect . net/modules . php?name=News&file=article&sid=1120" target="_blank">www . fileconnect . net) and remember, you must uninstall any previous versions of the service pack first . ATI Refresh Rate Fix version 0 . 9 . 9 . 7 is out . This program forces custom refresh rates for Direct3D and OpenGL applications such as games under Windows 2000 and XP on ATI based cards . The new version has the following changes: Improved capability with CATALYST drivers . Completely changed translation system . Minor bugfixes . Fixed detection of "Desktop" registry branch . Updated PCI ID's . Grab it here ( . warp2search . net/download . php?op=viewdownload&cid=4" target="_blank">www . warp2search . net) . Microsoft has released a Cumulative Patch For Windows Media Player (KB Q320920) . This patch applies to all known security vulnerabilities and addresses new vulnerabilities as discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-032 . You can download the patch for the appropriate operating system below: - Windows Media Player 6 . 4 ( . microsoft . com/download/winmediaplayer/Update/320920/W98NT42KMe/EN-US/wm320920_64 . exe" target="_blank">download . microsoft . com) - Windows Media Player 7 . 1 ( . microsoft . com/download/winmediaplayer/Update/320920/W982KMe/EN-US/wm320920_71 . exe" target="_blank">download . microsoft . com) - Windows Media Player XP ( . microsoft . com/download/winmediaplayer/Update/320920/WXP/EN-US/wm320920_8 . exe" target="_blank">download . microsoft . com) Xbit Labs has posted details about ASUS's new motherboard based on the VIA KT400 chipset . The board will support DDR400 SDRAM, AGP 8x, V-Link with 533MB/sec bandwidth, the new VT8235 Southbridge chipset supporting new V-Link, ATA/133 and USB 2 . 0 . You can check out a pic of the board and more info over at Xbit ( . xbitlabs . com/news/story . html?id=1027493433" target="_blank">www . xbitlabs . com) labs ( . xbitlabs . com/news/story . html?id=1027493433" target="_blank">www . xbitlabs . com) . MSI have released new version 30 . 00 drivers for their nVidia based video cards . The drivers are for 2000/XP/98SE/ME and can be snagged from the following links: - 2000/XP ( . msi . com . tw/support/dvr_exe/3000xp . exe" target="_blank">download . msi . com . tw) - 98SE/ME ( . msi . com . tw/support/dvr_exe/3000me . exe" target="_blank">download . msi . com . tw) After the claim a couple of weeks ago from Forgent Networks that they were going to start claiming royalties for the JPEG format, the ISO standards body has declared that they will withdraw the JPEG image format as a formal standard if Forgent Networks continues to demand royalties . Richard Clark, JPEG committee member and JPEG . org webmaster, has stated that Forgent's royalty grab, coming after two decades of royalty-free use, means that ISO is obliged to withdraw the specification: "Under ISO terms, formally you can only have a standard you can implement on free or RAND terms . "Reasonable and non discriminatory (RAND) terms are typically published, and the same for everyone . It's clear that Forgent's claims are not RAND . $15 million doesn't sound like free to me, and Forgent is not publishing the terms of their licensing . "ISO will withdraw the standard: JPEG will be no more," he told us . However, ISO itself cannot formally take a stance on the patent, he added . "JPEG have traditionally tried to make it available for free; there is no JPEG LA, like the MPEG LA," he pointed out . You can read more at The Reg ( . theregus . com/content/4/25711 . html" target="_blank">www . theregus . com) .	tweak'e (174)
65769	2002-07-27 01:20:00	<bump> hi mike ;-)	tweak'e (174)
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