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• Get Right 4.0 Beta 4 released
  Time: 17:16 EDT/22:16 GMT Source: Beta Bites Posted By: Alex H

  A new Beta 4 of GetRight 4.0 has been released that fixes some bugs. GetRight allows graceful recovery and resuming if you are disconnected in the middle of saving a file from the web to your PC's hard drive.

  Download the full version of GetRight 4.0 Beta 4 (1.87MB) here or grab the update from Beta - Beta 4 (676KB) here.

   
• Outcast Website Updated
  Time: 17:13 EDT/22:13 GMT Source: Beta Bites Posted By: Alex H

  Just read on Beta Bites that Infogrammes have updated their Outcast website with a new screenshot and Outcast Outakes. Plus, you can see behind the scenes cinematics from the making of Outcast with bloopers and blunders from the actual characters in the game. Best of all though, you can enter the Outcast contest for some major prizes by mailing an Ecard.

   
• Internet Explorer 5.0 Upgrades Coming
  Time: 16:51 EDT/21:51 GMT Source: Netigen Web Posted By: Alex H

  Just read on Netigen Web that WinInfo has posted a small look at the Internet Explorer 5.0 upgrades that Microsoft has planned for a Fall release. First on the list is Internet Explorer 5.0 Service Pack 1 -- a set of fixes for common issues. The SP fixes over thirty known problems though none are particularly serious.

  For new features Windows users will want to turn to MSIE 5.01 -- a new version of IE that includes the bug fixes in SP1 as well as several new features that were originally planned for Windows 2000. So IE 5.01 will be the version of Internet Explorer that's included with Windows 2000.

   
• Lycos Provides Live Webcam View of Last Total Solar Eclipse of the Millennium
  Time: 16:44 EDT/21:44 GMT Source: Yahoo News Posted By: Alex H

  Lycos, Inc. (NASDAQ: LCOS - news), the fastest growing Internet portal and world's largest online community, in cooperation with the datacenter of the ULM University in Ulm, Germany, will provide live video from the EclipseCAM at the Planetarium Laupheim, in Laupheim Germany, giving users real-time access to the total solar eclipse on Wednesday, August 11 beginning at 10:00 a.m. Central European Standard Time (4:00 a.m. EST/1:00 a.m. PST). Lycos.com users across the globe can safely and efficiently view this extraordinary event via the World Wide Web at The Planetarium Laupheim Lycos site located at http://www.lycos.de/webguides/special/sofi99/english.html.

  Two camera-equipped telescopes will cover the total solar eclipse while another camera will take pictures of the surrounding areas as the moon blocks the sun. Online astronomers can choose between ``GIF-Streaming'' and ``Real Video'' video formats.

   
• IBM boosts hard drives for notebooks
  Time: 16:44 EDT/21:44 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  IBM is flexing its muscle as a component supplier by announcing a hard drive for portable computers that has the largest data capacity yet. IBM said today that it has started shipping a 25GB hard drive for notebook PCs, the largest to date. IBM is delivering the drive in limited quantities to Dell Computer and Compaq. 

  Under the aegis of its technology group, IBM has accelerated its push this year to establish itself as a major supplier of components to computer makers. IBM is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard drives, liquid crystal displays, and semiconductors respectively.

  IBM also said today that it has started to deliver an 18GB drive. Typically, the largest hard drive in most notebook PCs today is about 14GB. This matches Fujitsu which has begun shipping a drive with 18GB of data capacity. High-capacity drives enable, among other things, the storage of large music, video, and multimedia files on a computer. For example, the IBM drive can hold about 20 TV-quality movies, the company said.

   

• Hewlett-Packard starts E-speak pilot projects
  Time: 16:42 EDT/21:42 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Hewlett-Packard's E-speak Internet service technology is moving out of the company's labs and into pilot projects, the project's leader said today. HP unveiled the technology in May, describing its plans to spread e-speak to the computers across the Internet that help businesses deliver services to customers. E-speak is a software architecture that includes server-based software applications and programming tools. 

  The E-speak system is intended to give companies a jump-start in building e-commerce applications. E-speak includes basic infrastructure capabilities like messaging, mediation, security, naming, and monitoring for e-services running on or accessed by various devices. E-speak is core to HP's e-services campaign, an effort to make sure HP benefits when companies move sophisticated services and their own business processes to the Internet.

  The e-services plan has helped propel HP's stock price to its recent all-time high, but much of the effort still is in its early stages. Today's announcement is an indication that E-speak is moving out of the confines of HP and one of its initial partners, the Internet Travel Network.

   
• Memory prices climb in August
  Time: 16:41 EDT/21:41 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Memory chip prices are climbing in August after having dropped in May and June, a sign the market may be stabilizing after a brief downturn and further evidence that the "free" PC phenomenon may be contributing to PC growth.

  The market for the 64-megabit variety of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) rose 10 percent from July, according to a report in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a major Japanese business daily. The 64-megabit chip is the most widely used memory chip and succeeds the 16-megabit version for use in the main memory of personal computers.

  Memory prices have been on a roller coaster over the last 10 months. After a number of years of price free-fall, Micron Technology, back in March, reported a jump in earnings for the first time in a year, partly due to a rise in prices. Then, prices plunged again on the spot market. At that time, 64-megabit DRAM chips fell to a record low.

   

• Phoenix announces USB support for Microsoft Windows NT Embedded 4.0
  Time: 16:36 EDT/21:36 GMT Source: USB Workshop Posted By: Alex H

  Phoenix Technologies Ltd. -- the leading provider of system enabling solutions for the connected computing universe -- today announced full USB software support for the Microsoft Windows NT Embedded operating system version 4.0 with its system enabling software and its USBAccess(tm) connectivity solutions.

  Windows NT Embedded 4.0, announced by Microsoft Corp. in February -- with general availability announced yesterday -- delivers new features and design tools to help manufacturers of embedded and specific function devices reduce time to market for new devices, lower development costs and improve the functionality of their solutions. The new features include support for headless operation (in which no mouse, keyboard or display devices are required), diskless operation (in which users can operate from read-only media such as CD-ROMs or FLASH) and remote management capabilities.

  The Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard has been extremely successful, with millions of USB devices on the market today. Now, Phoenix solutions in two areas allow USB capability to be added to embedded systems based on Windows NT Embedded 4.0. Phoenix system enabling software, also known as BIOS, not only supports USB, but also provides additional support and features to complement the Windows NT Embedded 4.0 software. Phoenix's USB protocol firmware, USBAccess, commonly referred to as the 'USB Stack,' enables Windows NT Embedded 4.0-based systems to support USB peripherals.

   

• Mobile Celeron speeds ahead of PII
  Time: 16:31 EDT/21:31 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel set release a 466MHz mobile Celeron - making it 'faster' than the high-end Mobile Pentium II. Intel Corp. is facing a mobile megahertz quandary. The Santa Clara, Calif., chip maker will launch its fastest-yet mobile processors in September -- but they won't be Pentium IIIs. Instead, Intel's mantle of the fastest processor will pass to the 433MHz and 466MHz mobile Celeron chips with 128KB of integrated level 2 cache, due on Sept. 15, according to sources. And there's the rub. That product release will create the unusual situation where cheaper, Celeron-powered notebooks will appear to be faster than top-of-the-line Mobile Pentium II notebooks.

   
• GM forms giant e-commerce unit
  Time: 16:31 EDT/21:31 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  In yet another indication of the growing importance of e-commerce, General Motors Corp. is combining its disparate worldwide efforts to reach buyers on the Web. The world's biggest corporation on Tuesday announced e-GM, a new business unit that will encompass its 100-plus Web sites and its OnStar Service, an onboard navigational and communications system. e-GM also will be responsible for heading up projects and partnerships that could bring a raft of new information services directly into GM makes such as Saturn, Chevrolet, Buick and Oldsmobile.

   
• MyShoppingClub Offers Free MSN Net Access
  Time: 16:23 EDT/21:23 GMT Source: Techweb Posted By: Alex H

  Online shopping MyShoppingClub said Monday that it would give free Internet access from Microsoft with every membership. Joining the Club cost $59 a year or $99 for two years. Internet access through Microsoft Network normally costs $19.95 a month. MSN has been fighting a losing battle to overtake America Online, which boasts 20 million users, compared to 2 million for MSN.

   
• AOL Finds Ally In Juno
  Time: 16:23 EDT/21:23 GMT Source: Techweb Posted By: Alex H

  America Online on Monday signed Juno Online Services to its growing list of instant-messaging ISP allies. Under the terms of the deal, AOL will let Juno's 6.8 million customers to receive instant e-mail from AOL users. Dulles, Va.-based AOL has a subscription base of 17 million users and 28 million AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) registrants. Juno plans to collaborate with AOL and offer a co-branded version of the AIM technology, company executives said. 

  The terms of the deal were not disclosed. New York-based Juno would not say when the service would be available to customers. The company offers free dial-up Internet access and Web mail.

   
• Red Hat IPO Could Launch In Stormy Market
  Time: 16:22 EDT/21:22 GMT Source: Techweb Posted By: Alex H

  Red Hat Software, scheduled for its IPO this week, could be in for a rough ride if the sour IPO market trend continues. Because many IPOs last week underperformed, eight of the 11 companies scheduled to go public Friday on the Nasdaq exchange have delayed their offerings until this week, said Corey Ostman, CTO at Ostman, in Torrance, Calif., a provider of IPO information over the Web. The three companies that were introduced on Wall Street Friday -- Datalink, Internet Gold-Golden Lines, and Tumbleweed Communications -- either closed pennies above or below their offering price.

  Goldman, Sachs & Co., Thomas Weisel Partners, and ETrade Securities certainly are among those anxious to see what Monday's market will bring. All are underwriters for Red Hat, North America's leading distributor of Linux, an upstart open-source OS that has gained acceptance in corporate boardrooms as well as snagged server market share during the past year.

   

• Lucent Strikes Again
  Time: 16:18 EDT/21:18 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H

  Lucent Technologies, moving to strengthen its data networking business, said Tuesday it would buy telecom software maker International Network Services for about US$3.7 billion worth of stock. International Network Services, or INS, makes software used to integrate and manage IP networks -- those that run on Internet protocol, which directs traffic on the World Wide Web. Lucent (LU) said in a statement that it had signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition. Under its terms, each share of INS (INSS) will be converted into 0.8473 shares of Lucent. Based on Lucent's closing Monday stock price of $63.625, the acquisition would be valued at about $3.7 billion, or about $54 an INS share, on a fully diluted basis.

   
• FTC Closes Book on Intel Case
  Time: 16:15 EDT/21:15 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Antitrust case closes quietly, with both sides claiming victory.  After a 60-day period for public comment, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Friday quietly finalized its antitrust settlement with Intel.

  The FTC's commissioners voted 3-1 in favor of accepting a consent decree agreed to between Intel and the FTC in March, shortly before the case was due to come to trial.

  The FTC last year said Intel harmed competition when it refused to do business with three companies--Digital Equipment, Compaq Computer, and Intergraph--unless they agreed to license certain technology patents to Intel on favorable terms.

   
• Play DVDs Almost Anywhere
  Time: 16:13 EDT/21:13 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Discounted X10 gadget lets you watch your PC's DVDs on your television.  X10's DVD Anywhere, a nifty set of devices that let you transmit a television or properly equipped PC's picture and sound over a distance of about 100 feet, is now available through X10's Web site at a 60 percent discount.

  If you have a DVD player on your computer, you can broadcast the picture and sound for more convenient viewing on a television set. Essentially, you can use a computer in your den or office to play a DVD, and watch it on a television in your living room or bedroom.

   
• Digital Music body announces anti-piracy technology
  Time: 16:11 EDT/21:11 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The music industry-led Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) yesterday announced its chosen copyright protection technology for phase one of its hardware specification. And the winner is (rips open gold envelope): Aris Technologies for its 1998 album, MusiCode.

  Aris' watermarking system will now be built into emerging SDMI-compliant devices, such as digital music players from Philips and Matsushita, and future versions of Diamond Multimedia's Rio. It will also ultimately be used to stamp official SDMI-compliant digital music files. During the SDMI's Phase I period, players will essentially play any music track downloaded to them, including those encoded in the MP3 format.

   
• Intel: 133MHz FSB plot to thicken sooner than thought
  Time: 16:09 EDT/21:09 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Sources which in the course of their business have to be very close to Intel are reporting that 600MHz Pentium IIIs and 533MHz Pentium IIIs will arrive on August 23rd at prices of around $675 and $370 respectively.

  According to other sources close to these plans, Intel will release its Vancouver motherboard early September using the 820 chipset to replace the SE440BX-2 Seattle mobo.

  Intel will put jumpers on this mobo to allow machines to be configured to switch between RDRAM modules and PC-133 modules, the source said. The moves, if our sources are correct, will allow Intel another strike against AMD and its famous Athlon processor.

   
• System Shock 2 "OSA" character details
  Time: 16:05 EDT/21:05 GMT Source: Email Posted By: Alex H

  Just got sent an email about the "OSA" character details for the new game from Electronics Arts and Looking Glass Studio. Here is a snippet of the email:

  Electronic Arts and Looking Glass Studios today revealed details about the "OSA" character in the new sci-fi/horror RPG, System Shock 2, which hits stores this week. This character, from the "black ops" division of the military, focuses on infiltration, espionage and intelligence. In a computer RPG first, the OSA character has access to a coherent and exciting psionic powers system that can be used not only to kill enemies, but also to distract, confuse, obtain information from and even control enemies.

  The title features 35 unique psi skills, including Projected Cryokenesis (launches a blast of heat draining energy, perfect for fleshy enemies), Psionic Hypnogenesis (Non-robotic creatures are calm and docile) and Anti-Entropic Field (which protects weapons from breaking or degrading when activated). The psi-powers are divided into five tiers; once the player "buys" into a level, he or she can learn any of the available skills in any order.

  The weapon of choice for an OSA character is the Psi Amplifier. This device allows certain individuals to amplify and project their powers. The Amp inhibits the normal diffusion problems inherent in Psi phenomena and allows the user to effectively channel his character's innate Psi powers to a number of different effects.

   

• IBM joins advanced Linux effort
  Time: 16:00 EDT/21:00 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  IBM has joined the effort to make sure that Linux will be ready to run Intel's next-generation microprocessor. The computing giant has signed onto the Trillian initiative to "port" Linux to Intel's first 64-bit chip, code-named Merced, joining Intel, VA Linux Systems, SGI, Hewlett-Packard, and Cygnus Solutions, according to sources. The move indicates IBM's increasing seriousness toward the upstart operating system.

   

• ActiveWindows Mouse Pads
  Time: 13:16 EDT/18:16 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Bob

  Now with a lower price, don't forget that the first ActiveWindows piece of merchandise is now available to order. The mousepads have just arrived and they look fabulous! The first product in our new range of logos is the ActiveWindows Mouse Pad.

   
• Confessed cracker Mitnick sentenced
  Time: 13:22 EDT/18:22 GMT Source: News Posted By: Bob

  LOS ANGELES--Computer cracker Kevin Mitnick, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to computer and wire fraud charges, was sentenced today to 46 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $4,125 in restitution.

   
• '2300GB on a PC Card' RAM technology: more details
  Time: 09:24 EDT/14:24 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Byron

  More details have emerged regarding the amazing '2300GB on a PC Card' memory technology developed by a Keele University team led by the remarkable Professor Ted Williams.

  The team's system crams 86GB of data storage per square centimetre of physical medium, and uses a magneto-optical system to read, erase and write data within the solid state system. That allows, claim the researchers, a data access rate of 100Mbps.

   
• Novell ships Small Business Suite 5
  Time: 07:54 EDT/12:54 GMT Source: Cool Computing Posted By: Alex H

  I just read on Cool Computing that Novell has shipped Small Business Suite 5. Here is a portion of the press release:

  Novell Small Business Suite 5 helps customers alleviate these problems at the desktop level with the inclusion of a five-user version of Greenwich Mean Time's Check 2000 v. 3.11. This Y2K assessment tool helps identify Year 2000-related issues and then recommends potential fixes. Users of Small Business Suite 5 may purchase additional licenses of Check 2000 v. 3.11 for $44 per user.

  Novell Small Business Suite 5 provides everything a small business needs to take advantage of the Internet. The suite is an ideal solution for small businesses that need remote access, collaboration, faxing and Web serving capabilities to grow their businesses. Some of the tools small business customers will benefit from include:

  - Novell Internet Connection Expert -- A graphical wizard that guides customers through the initial setup and process of connecting to the Internet.
  - BorderManager™ Enterprise Edition 3 Proxy/Caching Services -- An Internet solution that increases productivity by speeding up access to Internet-based information.
  - Netscape Enterprise Server for NetWare® -- A high-performance Web and application server based on open standards.
  - Ragula FatPipe Internet -- A two-modem version of FatPipe Internet that reduces download time by delivering Web pages over multiple modem lines.

   

• Netscape's Browser Share Now 25 Percent
  Time: 07:36 EDT/12:36 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Netscape, a few years ago the undisputed leader in browsers, continues to lose momentum to Microsoft and now holds only a 25 percent share of the browser business, according to one study. Only one out of four people surf the Web using Netscape's Navigator, while in March it was one out of three, according to Geoff Johnston, director of marketing and communications at WebSideStory, a company that tracks Internet traffic. WebSideStory gathers data in real-time from 114,000 Web sites worldwide using the company's HitBox Web traffic analysis software. The results show that 75.3 percent of the hits registered on August 2 were powered by Explorer, and only 24.7 percent by Netscape Navigator.

   
• Asus P3B-F BX Motherboard review
  Time: 07:30 EDT/12:30 GMT Source: Email Posted By: Alex H

  Just received an email from Jarod Lam over on ComputingPros telling me that they have just posted a review of the Asus P3B-F BX Motherboard. Here is a snippet of the review:

  What do you do when you have one of the best selling boards on the market? You capitalize on its brand name and respected performance and quality. That's exactly what Asus did with their latest motherboard, the P3B-F. They didn't just revise their P2B, but made a whole new one from the ground up. If you read our review on MSI's 6163 you heard me mentioning that I would like to see BX boards sporting 6 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot at the most. Well, it looks like my prayers have been answered. Asus comes through with a unique board here that supports up to 6 PCI slots, 1 ISA, 1 AGP. Not only does it have 6 PCI slots but 4 DIMM slots, which also satisfy my other criteria for having the perfect layout. The other item that's being seen with more regularity is the lack of jumpers which is a warm welcome to all motherboard tweakers out there who hate to fiddle with jumpers. They coined their jumperless feature as "JumperFree" and even the voltage can be adjusted from within the BIOS.

   

• Hollywood outfit to use Merced
  Time: 07:08 EDT/12:08 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  In all the K7-Athlon hullabaloo yesterday, Chipzilla snuck out a press release, which named a firm which will be a test site for its IA-64 family of chips. The timing of the release, along with a release which shows huge price reductions on various networking products, is purely coincidental. Digital Domain which created special effects for films Titanic and the Fifth Element, will serve as a test site for Merced, said Intel. It will also adopt PIII and PIII/Xeon processors, Intel said.

   

• SDMI Chooses Tracking Tech
  Time: 05:41 EDT/10:41 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H

  The Secure Digital Music Initiative has taken its first steps toward offering music companies copyright protection over the Net. The group has chosen an audio watermarking technique that will allow hardware manufacturers to start producing SDMI-compliant players. "This decision keeps SDMI on track with its ambitious schedule," said Leonardo Chiariglione, Executive Director of SDMI, in a statement.

   

• ICQ 99B beta v3.16 build 2562 released for public alpha
  Time: 05:04 EDT/10:04 GMT Source: Desktop Watch Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Desktop Watch that Mirabilis have released this new build (2562) for public alpha. Some of the new features include Active List (which enables you to participate in, and to create and manage your own interest communities), E-ICQ (which will enable you to join interest groups and receive information via ICQ about issues related to these groups) also, the long awaited ICQ Enhanced E-mail Check, which will improve your options for checking your incoming E-mail.

  You can download the new version of ICQ from here.

   
• HP, Yahoo to team on corporate intranet services
  Time: 05:04 EDT/10:04 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Yahoo will team with Hewlett-Packard in offering corporate intranet services, the two companies will announce tomorrow. Corporate users will be able to access Yahoo's member service features, offered in conjunction with customized content behind a company's firewall, according to a knowledgeable source. The move comes as the leading portal tries to increase business services and the computer giant looks to emphasize its so-called e-services strategy.

  The initiative will be similar to a May agreement with software maker Tibco, according to the source. Hewlett-Packard issued a press advisory saying an announcement would be made tomorrow at 9 a.m., but wouldn't confirm any details. Yahoo couldn't be reached for comment.

  The partnership comes as Yahoo looks to expand the services it offers to businesses. The industry-leading portal is looking to find a more upscale market for its email, instant messaging, calendar, and address book services, not to mention the audio and video capabilities it acquired with the purchase of Broadcast.com.

   
• MSN, Costco offer low-cost Net access
  Time: 05:02 EDT/10:02 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft has quietly released a low-cost Internet access service with wholesale retailer Costco. The new service, called "Microsoft MSN Internet Access Presented by Costco Online," is being sold as a CD-ROM at Costco for $35.97 and includes three months of Internet access--which breaks down to about $11.99 per month. The CD-ROM, which has been on the shelf at Costco since last week, is only available to Costco's 13.1 million members.

  The initiative comes at the same time Microsoft said it was considering a low-cost access service to compete with America Online. Increasingly, the two giants appear to be on a collision course for domination among consumers online. AOL has distanced itself significantly from its ISP competitors. It has nearly 18 million subscribers that pay $21.95 per month. In addition, about 2 million users subscribe to AOL-owned CompuServe. By comparison, MSN Internet Access has 1.8 million subscribers, according to research firm Jupiter Communications.

   
• Disney quietly shutters family Net guide
  Time: 05:00 EDT/10:00 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Disney Internet Guide, or "Dig," the family-friendly Web search directory created by Disney Online, has quietly shut its doors. Unveiled last June, the directory was touted as the first Web search engine safe for kids and families. Dig was also Disney's first attempt to step into the popular world of Web search engines, which at the time were beginning to be called "portals," sites that aggregate much of what the Web can offer.

  But Dig was launched a week after Disney acquired a 43 percent stake in Web portal Infoseek. Subsequently, the entertainment giant jointly developed another Web portal, Go Network, as a way to drive traffic to its Disney-owned Web content, search engine, and free email. Accordingly, Dig was taken scrapped this past June because Disney management wanted to maintain Infoseek as its primary search brand, according to a Disney spokeswoman.

• ICQ Surpasses 40 Million Users
  Time: 19:59 EDT/23:59 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex R.

  America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL) said today that it has signed up more than 40 million members for its ICQ instant messaging service. AOL said that ICQ membership has tripled since AOL acquired the company in June 1998. AOL said 85 percent of ICQ's members are under 35.

   
• New Hercules TNT/TNT2 Drivers
  Time: 19:47 EDT/23:47 GMT Source: BluesNews Posted By: Alex R.

  Noticed over on BluesNews that Hercules has released new Windows 95/98 drivers for their TNT/TNT2 line of cards.  Click the headline for the download page.

   
• Patch Released for NT "Terminal Server Connection Request Flooding" Vulnerability
  Time: 19:42 EDT/23:42 GMT Source: email Posted By: Alex R.

  Another day, another security patch.  Microsoft has released a patch for NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition for the "Terminal Server Connection Request Flooding."  Basically, this is a DOS attack that can cause the machine to cache/page to the disk endlessly, with no end in sight.

   
• Clinton creates group to "address unlawful conduct" on Net
  Time: 18:54 EDT/22:54 GMT Source: Slashdot Posted By: Alex H

  Ungrounded Lightning Rod writes "President Clinton has issued an exectutive order creating a "Working Group" to "address unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet". The text of the Executive Order is online.. " The text of it looks disturbing-perhaps a legally-qualified person can offer some thoughts, but a trying to change the Internet by fiat doesn't seem the most effective.

   
• Windows 2000 News
  Time: 18:52 EDT/22:52 GMT Source: Email Posted By: Alex H

  Just got an email about this Windows 2000 news. Originally Win 2000 RTM was planed at Oct 6. But now this has been changed. MS will release RC3 at very early Oct for last minute check -- only top bug reported beta testers and OEMs will get this RC3. RTM plans for very late Oct. IE 5.01 and IE 5.0 SP1 are also in Beta.

   
• American Megatrends Designs Firmware and a Driver Pair for Hitachi's SH3 Digital Camera
  Time: 18:47 EDT/22:47 GMT Source: USB Workshop Posted By: Alex H

  American Megatrends Inc. (AMI) today announced it developed firmware and a driver pair used for transferring images from a digital camera to a host PC via an Universal Serial Bus (USB). The firmware, designed to run on Hitachi's SH3 USB enabled digital camera with an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), can be ported to other platforms as well.

  The camera's driver side software is TWAIN compliant and has Microsoft® Still Image (STI) Architecture. The USB enabled digital camera also has a compact flash that stores pictures. ``AMI's development of the firmware and driver pair enables Hitachi's SH3 camera to become a leading product in the digital camera industry,'' said Mark Hemingway, Sales Account Manager at AMI.

   

• Microsoft announce better performance on an AMD today
  Time: 18:39 EDT/22:39 GMT Source: Beta Bites / Press Release Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft Corp. today announced that a broad range of Microsoft® products achieve new levels of performance on systems powered by the new Athlon processor from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD). Microsoft products that run faster on the AMD Athlon platform include the Windows® 98 and Windows NT® 4.0 operating systems, as well as other Windows technologies such as the DirectX® API. Today leading applications such as Windows Media(TM) technologies are optimized to achieve high levels of performance with the AMD Athlon processor, and Microsoft is committed to ensuring that application developers will be able to capitalize on the new AMD Athlon processor. In addition, forthcoming products such as Windows 2000 are poised to take ultimate advantage of the new chip.

   
• Matrox RT2000 (TM) announced today
  Time: 18:36 EDT/22:36 GMT Source: Beta Bites / Press Release Posted By: Alex H

  Matrox® Video Products Group today announced Matrox RT2000(TM), a realtime nonlinear editing solution for corporate and event video artists, that provides an impressive array of professional features at the unprecedented price of $1,295 US. The revolutionary ``Matrox Flex 3D(TM)'' architecture of RT2000 exploits the explosive 3D graphics performance of the award-winning Matrox Millennium G400 accelerator to provide broadcast-quality 3D DVE and 32-bit, uncompressed, animated graphics in a native DV editing environment. MPEG-2 output for DVD, Video CD, and web video streaming applications, along with 1394 and analog video output for tape distribution, rounds out the solution.

   
• PixelFusion and Number Nine Announce Agreement
  Time: 18:30 EDT/22:30 GMT Source: Cool Info Posted By: Alex H

  PixelFusion Ltd., and Number Nine Visual Technology Corp. today jointly announced that they have entered into a relationship whereby Number Nine would utilize PixelFusion's massively parallel FUZION 150 chip to design a high-end 3D graphics accelerator card that is specifically designed to take full advantage of AGP Pro-equipped PCs.

  The new 3D accelerator should be the first graphics add-in card to incorporate Rambus RDRAM memory - a memory that was selected for its throughput characteristics. Current simulation tests show that this architecture will be able to surpass existing ProCDRS-02 benchmark scores by more than doubling the scores of today's most advanced high-end, proprietary 3D workstations.

  The resulting 3D feature set and performance capabilities of the proposed solution would allow PC vendors to deliver the first true Windows NT-based 3D workstation that promises to rival most UNIX or proprietary 3D workstations, yet do so at a fraction of the price.

  A 3D graphics solution of this caliber would allow the PC-OEM to expand their product offering into the fast growing workstation market and allow them to compete effectively against vendors who have traditionally focused on delivering expensive, high-margin workstations that are proprietary in nature. PC vendors will be able to compete on price, deliver systems with superior 3D performance and sell solutions that contribute greater profits to the bottom line. The new accelerator will offer unmatched graphics capabilities for Windows NT professional users in the MCAE, digital content creation, visual simulation, AEC, scientific visualization and video effects markets.

   
• Seagate Introduces New U-series Disc Drives
  Time: 18:28 EDT/22:28 GMT Source: Cool Info Posted By: Alex H

  Seagate Technology Inc. today introduction its third generation of U-series disc drives. The new models extend the U-series by doubling capacity to as much as 17.2 Gbytes and significantly improving performance. The U8 includes the latest in drive component technology, including GMR heads, Seagate G-Force Protection and the Ultra ATA/66 interface.

  Featuring Seagate's exclusive, G-Force Protection, the U8 can withstand up to 350 Gs of shock when not operating and up to 63 Gs of shock when operating - the best in the industry. This breakthrough in shock tolerance was enabled by leading-edge internal drive enhancements and external shock protection components such as the U8's soft SeaShield cover. The U8 also ships with Seagate's DiscWizard software.

  The U8 will be available with capacities of 17.2, 13.0, 8.4 and 4.3 Gbytes. Evaluation units of the U8 are now shipping, with volume OEM availability in September.

   
• Glaze3D Preview
  Time: 18:20 EDT/22:20 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just noticed over on Voodoo Extreme that FiringSquad have posted a preview of Glaze 3D. Here is a snippet of it:

  Bitboys originally intended to get a large manufacturer to make the chips or buy the entire design, but they didn't find any takers. Eventually, they decided to build it themselves. Skip forward to Monday, August 2nd. Bitboys releases an updated Glaze3D spec sheet. The new Glaze3D 1200 sports 600 million dual-textured pixels per second, and the 2400 model clocks in with 1200 million dual-textured pixels per second.

   
• The Bruno MP3 CD player
  Time: 18:11 EDT/22:11 GMT Source: Geek News Posted By: Alex H

  This sleek looking MP3/CD player automatically identifies MP3 or CD-DA, remote capability, 63 memory locations and can read CD or CD-R. Nice for only $299 dollars.

   
• Sony and EA coming for net pirates
  Time: 18:08 EDT/22:08 GMT Source: Geek News Posted By: Alex H

  EA and Sony Computer Entertainment of America have joined together to crack down on Internet pirating, starting with a lawsuit against members of a ring of pirates calling themselves "Paradigm." A computer, hard drives and CDs were impounded by authorities as evidence of the ring, which has worldwide ties in United States, Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Russia, and other locations. Riley Russell, Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for SCEA, was confident in this first step against the rings. "We will work diligently to ensure that these counterfeiters are fully prosecuted and that other who think Internet piracy and 'trading' is acceptable will think again." That means you, Razor 1911, Class, Origin, Hybrid, Divine, Fairlight, and friends.

   
• Real teams with Warner for music downloads
  Time: 18:02 EDT/22:02 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  RealNetworks today became the latest technology firm to join up with a major record company in an online music effort. Warner Music Group--one of the "Big Five" record companies, along with Sony Music, EMI, BMG, and Universal Music--plans to offer songs for download from popular artists via the new version of Real's Jukebox player, released today. The downloads, from artists including Jewel, Edwin McCain, and Vitamin C, will be available on the Trans World Entertainment e-commerce site, the companies said.

   

• PC makers announce Athlon-based systems
  Time: 18:02 EDT/22:02 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Two of the biggest PC makers will put AMD's new Athlon chip in high-end models, bringing competition to this market for the first time. Compaq Computer and IBM today announced computers built around the new processor from Advanced Micro Devices, guaranteeing a spot for the chip at the top of consumer PC lines for the first time. Athlon, formerly known as the K7, is AMD's next-generation processor. Formally released today, the chip outperforms Intel's Pentium III, according to observers, and should allow AMD an opportunity to claw its way into the more lucrative performance computing segment and, next year, into workstations and possibly servers. A Presario model from Compaq with a 600-MHz processor and a monitor will be priced at about $2,000. This will compete with similar computers that use Intel's Pentium III chip.

   

• Digital Signatures for the Palm
  Time: 17:54 EDT/21:54 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H

  In another push toward a paperless world, an application for collecting digital signatures with a Palm handheld was released Monday. Designed for e-business, PenOp's PocketSign is the first electronic signature application for the Palm platform, the company said. According to the company, an electronic signature is now as good as an ink one, and as legally binding. While PenOp hopes businesses will license the application for their field sales agents so that customers can sign forms electronically, the software will also let Palm users sign e-commerce transactions with their handhelds.

   
• Will Hackers Exploit Y2K Confusion?
  Time: 17:51 EDT/21:51 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  As federal officials warn that year 2000 programmers could covertly introduce malicious code or install trapdoors, security experts urge organizations to scan their networks for sabotage before January 1.

  Anita D'Amico, information security practice manager at Applied Vision, recommends that companies conduct repeated vulnerability scans before and after January 1 to establish whether potential problems are caused by a Y2K glitch or by a security breach.

  "If you don't understand what your vulnerabilities are prior to the turn of the century, you may be fooled. You may not have a Y2K problem at all; you may have been hacked," D'Amico says. "If you have a sense of what your vulnerabilities are and start plugging them, you have a shot at isolating your problem."

   

• Microsoft Tackles Win 2000 Problems
  Time: 17:50 EDT/21:50 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft listens to testers and focuses on ease of installation.  After hearing concerns from beta testers, Microsoft has worked for the past several months to make it easier to install Windows 2000, from notebooks to servers. Industry watchers say a smooth installation will be key in persuading corporate users to adopt the new operating system soon after its debut, expected next quarter.

   
• eBay suffers weekend outage
  Time: 17:48 EDT/21:48 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Online auctioneer eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY), which experienced at least a six-hour outage last Friday, was down again over the weekend, according to statements on the company's Web site. Portions of the site were unavailable starting Sunday night, and running through early Monday morning.

   
• MS-DOJ judge sought to avoid 'Vietnam morasses'
  Time: 17:46 EDT/21:46 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  The government's complex antitrust suits against International Business Machines Corp. and AT&T Corp. stretched on for years, but limitations on witnesses, a firm trial date and other measures kept the Microsoft Corp. trial to only 76 trial days, the presiding judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who is presiding over the Microsoft case in Washington, D.C., told a session at the American Bar Association annual meeting that he had studied other long running antitrust cases in order to avoid the "Vietnam morasses" that caused the delays. "Whatever was done in those cases was something I was going to try and avoid," he said.

   
• ActiveWindows Mouse Pads and Competition Reminders
  Time: 14:18 EDT/19:18 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Bob

  Now with a lower price, don't forget that the first ActiveWindows piece of merchandise is now available to order. The mousepads have just arrived and they look fabulous! The first product in our new range of logos is the ActiveWindows Mouse Pad. And also don't forget to enter our DVD-Game Competition to win a copy of Shadoan and a Mouse Mat.

   
• AMD goes public on Athlon
  Time: 09:11 EDT/13:11 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip company Advanced Micro Devices has now released its official statement on the introduction of the Athlon K7. As revealed earlier, it comes in 650MHz as well as 600MHz, 550MHz and 500MHz flavours, and has support from both Compaq and Big Blue. Jerry Sanders III, CEO of AMD, is going to release some sound bites later on today.

  AMD has also opened its main Athlon page for business. Here you will find benchmarks and the like, which demonstrate the processor's technological virtues. There are also some application and technical notes on this page.

   
• Cyrix M3 Athlon Killer strangled at birth by Via
  Time: 09:09 EDT/13:09 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Sources close to Cyrix, Via and IDT Centaur have now given us yet more facts and figures about Via's decision to shut down M3 development and suggested that the Taiwanese company has shot itself in both feet by choosing the WinChip instead. According to the sources, who declined, for obvious reasons, to be named, the architects had succeeded in producing M3 designs with similar performance to AMD's Athlon K7 but at 40 per cent of the die size.

  And Via's decision to lay off engineers has now dissolved a superior team of architects which had succeeded in severely good optimisation, the sources added.

   
• Microsoft to release Windows NT for embedded applications
  Time: 09:04 EDT/13:04 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft plans to release a version of its Windows NT operating system Monday for use in so-called embedded settings. The new version of NT, originally discussed last fall, is targeted at specialized markets, such as manufacturing, networking equipment, and point-of-sale devices. Microsoft plans to sell the software through third-party device makers, often called original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

  Microsoft's latest Windows operating system variant is tailored for use in devices such as network routers and switches, industrial machines, and health care equipment, for example. Copier giant Xerox intends to use the software within its document management systems for corporate offices. 3Com has also pledged to utilize the software within its network switching hardware.

  Windows NT Embedded 4.0 enters a market dominated by numerous small firms, such as Wind River Systems, QNX Software Systems, and Integrated Systems, among others.

   
• Red Hat IPO To Be The Buzz Of Linux Show
  Time: 04:28 EDT/09:28 GMT Source: Yahoo News Posted By: Alex H

  When devotees of the Linux operating system gather for another big trade show this week, the IPO of the biggest company in this quirky community, Red Hat Software Inc., is sure to be the biggest buzz of the show.

  Whether the timing is coincidental or not is unclear, but Red Hat, the biggest distributor of the alternative Linux operating system, is expected to go public Wednesday, the second day of LinuxWorld, depending on the increasingly rocky stock market conditions and the volatile IPO market. `I think the deal will go and will work, provided the market is supportive of the pricing,'' said David Menlow of the IPO Financial Network based in Millburn, N.J. ``It does appear to be the best IPO of the week.''

  Red Hat has filed to raise at least $60 million, via six million shares, at a price range of $10 to $12 a share, with tech banking stalwart Goldman Sachs as the lead underwriter. Sources expect the deal to be priced Tuesday night, and the stock to trade Wednesday under the symbol RHAT on the NASDAQ.

   
• Sidewinder Software 3.02 knocks out Cable Modem
  Time: 04:16 EDT/09:16 GMT Source: ActiveWindows/Newsgroup Posted By: Alex H

  I was just reading on the microsoft.public.mshardware.product newsgroup about how someone's cable modem was knocked out by installing the Sidewinder Software v3.02. If anyone else is having this problem here is a solution posted by Eric Chew MVP:

  Change the I/O Range of the NIC card to like 210 or something like that.  I have found that NIC's with I/O ranges around 300 will stop working after installing the 3.0x Sidewinder software.

   
• RealNetworks Supports SMIL Boston
  Time: 04:00 EDT/09:00 GMT Source: Tech Web Posted By: Alex H

  Streaming media heavyweight RealNetworks showed its support for SMIL Boston, the latest draft of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) standard. RealNetworks' support means that users of the more than 1 million RealSystem G2 authoring tools and more than 50,000 free RealSystem G2 servers will be able to tap into the benefits of the new draft standard. The W3C's SMIL Boston draft standard will let developers deliver systems with television-programming-like features as well as the interactivity of the Web.

   
• MS, Softbank plan wireless Web venture
  Time: 03:53 EDT/08:53 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The mysterious Microsoft wireless Web announcement that didn't happen a couple of weeks ago may be taking shape at last, with the imminent unveiling of what appears to be a pilot service in Japan. According to Japanese paper the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the company will roll with a low-cost wireless service there in the middle of next year.

  The paper says the service, to be run in conjunction with Softbank and Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), will be announced on Wednesday, and will be run via wireless base stations installed on TEPCO's electricity network. That can then operate as an Energis-style backbone.

   

• Cisco to invest $1 billion in KPMG
  Time: 03:53 EDT/08:53 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Internet networking equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO will invest $1 billion in accounting and consulting firm KPMG LLP, the New York Times reported Sunday. Under terms of the deal, KPMG will use the money to hire 4,000 engineers and service professionals over 18 months to develop and deliver Internet-based data, voice and video services to its business and consulting clients, the newspaper said. KPMG will also build six technology centers, the newspaper said. In exchange, Cisco will own a less than 20 percent stake in the accounting firm's U.S. unit.

   
• AMD betting on 650MHz Athlon chip
  Time: 03:50 EDT/08:50 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will at long last become the top performer in the processor market with Monday's release of the 650MHz Athlon chip. The Sunnyvale, Calif., chip maker will finally outdistance its arch rival from Santa Clara, Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC). At least for now.Athlon, on paper, meets or exceeds Intel's Pentium III chip in megahertz, graphics performance and floating point performance.

  Althon will come out at 500MHz, 550MHz, 600MHz and 650MHz, making it the fastest available chip in the PC market. Intel currently offers 450MHz, 500MHz, 550MHz and 600MHz Pentium III chips. Athlon will sport a 200MHz front side bus, versus Intel's 100MHz bus, and an extended multimedia instruction set, which mirrors the Pentium III's Streaming SIMD Instructions, but takes it a step further with five extra extensions aimed at applications such as digital signal processors for soft modems.

  "We knew as a company that we couldn't continue to just fit into the value space long term," said Steve Lapinski, director of product marketing in AMD's computational products division.

   

• Bored? So were We, Until...
  Time: 22:06 EDT/03:06 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  With the slow weekend almost ending, we're as bored as "hell". If you're bored too, we'd like to invite you to join our MSN Community. We've been posting messages and have been chatting with other members of the community lately. Don't miss out on the fun! Join here!

   
• Joke of the Week
  Time: 22:02 EDT/03:02 GMT Source: Newsgroups Posted By: Dennis

  While browsing MS's public newsgroups I came under a real funny post by Chuck Upsdell, here's a quote:

  "Any truth to the rumour that AOL plans to buy the US Postal Service, and then block mail service to anyone who doesn't use *their* IM program?"

  With AOL, it wouldn't surprise me if they did buy the US Postal Service. I bet Ben Franklin, the first Postmaster, would roll in his grave if that happened.

   
• This Week in Review
  Time: 21:21 EDT/02:21 GMT Source: News.Com Posted By: Dennis

  Product delays, executive departures, declining prices, and even debunked rumors lent a bit of life to an otherwise dull August week in high technology.

  Among the notable disappointments, chipmaker Intel surprised the industry by postponing the release of its Pentium III processor for notebooks until October or November, cutting into high-volume holiday sales. Meanwhile, Alan Baratz unexpectedly stepped down as president of Sun Microsystems' software division.

  If you missed last week's news, this is CNet's Week in review, this will get you up to speed on what happened last week.

   
• Shark Multimedia USB Modem and Hub - Review
  Time: 16:12 EDT/21:12 GMT Source: Netigen Web Posted By: Byron

  Universal Serial Bus. USB for short. Companies have been dropping USB devices at PittBull's doorstep for the past two months and there's no sign of letting up. From modems to home networking; You name it. In the first of a series of USB-related reviews he takes a look at Shark Multimedia's two offerings: the Leopard Pocket USB 56K Modem and Pocket USB Hub. [Full Review]

   
• Windows Media Player 6.4 Beta available for download
  Time: 14:19 EDT/19:19 GMT Source: Windows Update Posted By: Alex H.

  We forgot to mention this earlier last week when it came out but Windows Media Player 6.4 Beta is now available for download on the Windows Update Site.

   

• Matrox Unveils Revolutionary 'Flex 3D' Realtime Effects Architecture
  Time: 13:01 EDT/18:01 GMT Source: Yahoo/Press Release Posted By: Alex H.

  Matrox® Video Products Group today announced ``Matrox Flex 3D(TM)'', a realtime mix/effects architecture that exploits the explosive 3D performance of award-winning Matrox graphics accelerator technology to provide an unlimited variety of broadcast-quality 3D digital video effects in realtime. Matrox Flex 3D will be demonstrated, as an integral part of the new Matrox RT2000 realtime-editing product, here at SIGGRAPH '99 in the South Hall, booth H1135.

  ``Flex 3D overcomes the limitations of the pipeline architecture used in today's 3D DVE boxes and boards that can only perform a set of predefined, hardwired effects,'' said Alain Legault, Vice President, Product Development, Matrox Video Products Group. ``With Flex 3D, any effect that can be imagined, can be programmed and added to the editing system without additional hardware. This advanced technology could only have come from Matrox because it leverages the synergy between Matrox Graphics Inc.'s expertise in high-performance 3D graphics and Matrox Video Products Group's mastery of realtime editing system design.''

  Matrox Flex 3D is a fully-programmable, resolution-independent architecture that applies 3D texture mapping to video using a Matrox 3D graphics accelerator chip and graphics memory. Motion video or graphics are treated as source textures and mapped onto polygon-based 3D shapes such as page curls, planes, and particles. Broadcast-quality effects are achieved using special features that are built into the 3D-accelerator chip and exploited through the Flex 3D architecture:

  -- YUV4:2:2 and RGB32 source textures and 32bpp RGBA output maintain true-color integrity. 
  -- Tri-linear and anisotropic filtering ensure high-quality video scaling and perspective. 
  -- Sub-pixel precision guarantees smooth DVEs and transitions. 
  -- Anti-aliasing ensures smooth edges. 
  -- True environment-mapped hardware bump-mapping produces an unlimited variety of realistic effects such as emboss, ripple, shimmer, wave, etc. 
  -- 256 levels of alpha-blending enable multi-layer compositing.

  The fact that Flex 3D is fully programmable means that additional effects can be added via supplementary software. An unlimited variety of brand new effects, that have never been seen before, can be developed and made available over the Internet. Because Flex 3D is resolution independent, it is inherently extensible to future Matrox HDTV products. As 3D graphics chips evolve, the Flex 3D architecture will take advantage of the speed and performance boost to increase the complexity of the effects and the number of layers of video and graphics that can be composited in realtime.

   

• LapLink Puts FTP in Reach
  Time: 12:59 EDT/17:59 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H.

  Moving to the Web with an ad-sponsored giveaway, Traveling Software is releasing LapLink FTP, which is designed to facilitate FTP file transfers.

  FTP, or file transfer protocol, lets you move files between a remote, central server and your computer through the Internet. Freeware, shareware, MP3 files, beta versions of software, and government documents often are distributed on the Web via FTP files. It uses the graphical interface and drag-and-drop approach of Traveling Software's longstanding file transfer program, LapLink.

  While some of LapLink FTP's functions are similar to those of a conventional Web browser, other features go further. You can apply an on-the-fly filter to avoid large downloads, or run a Hot Copy function to run an FTP operation from a hyperlink. However, LapLink FTP has limitations.

  "This is version 1.0, and it's not the first [FTP utility], and it's not the best," says Mark Eppley, chair, CEO, and president of Traveling Software. "But it is one of the best version 1.0s out there. It's got great features. We're working on improvements."

   

• Net tax panel means business
  Time: 12:29 EDT/17:29 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  A federal panel studying whether tax-free sales of CDs, antiques and other goods over the Internet should be a thing of the past is making it clear that it means business. In a high-level conference call late on Friday, a subgroup of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce targeted five issues that the full panel should tackle between now and March 2000 when its recommendations are due on Capitol Hill.

   
• Cyrix: layoffs confirmed at Richardson+Arlington
  Time: 12:29 EDT/17:29 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  Reports reached The Register early today that National/Cyrix fired over 160 employees from Richardson and Arlington late Friday. We will confirm whether or not such layoffs occurred tomorrow, although Mark Hachman at TechWeb reported Friday confirmation of the cuts from NatSemi-Via. There are also some comments about the layoffs here, which suggest the reason for the cheap price Via paid is because it didn't want the technology, just the intellectual property.

  Towards the end of last week, Via said it would buy IDT's Centaur business, as reported here. But, at the same time, we pointed out the cores of Cyrix processors and IDT WinChip processors are completely different. All last week, rumours were circulating that the NatSemi-Via deal was off -- but those were scotched when both inked a letter of intent mid-week.

   
• New HP laptops will pack speedy Pentium IIs
  Time: 12:26 EDT/17:26 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H.

  Hewlett-Packard will announce on Monday new OmniBook notebooks featuring the fastest Intel Pentium II mobile processor. HP's new OmniBook XE2 notebook is targeted at large corporate customers and medium-size businesses. The laptops feature the Intel Pentium II processor for notebooks, running at 366MHz.

  In addition to the Pentium II, the notebooks will have up to a 6.2GB hard drive, 64MB of memory, 13.3-inch display, CD-ROM drive and 56-kbps modem. The units weigh a little more than 6 pounds.

  "HP's strategy with the OmniBook XE2 notebook PC line has been to incorporate the technology its customers need, while maintaining the price points they demand," Paul Morgan-Witts, a marketing manager for HP's mobile computing division, said in a statement.

   
• Microsoft Readies Money 2000 In Three Versions
  Time: 09:22 EDT/13:22 GMT Source: Microsoft Insider Posted By: Alex H.

  Microsoft is planning to release three versions of Money 2000. Here is a break down of the three versions and what is going to be in them:

  Money 2000 Standard

  The Easy Way to Manage Your Money.

  Perfect for managing day-to-day financial tasks like checkbook balancing, budgeting and online banking, and bill-paying.

  - Swift, personalized set-up. Money walks you through it, step-by-step.
  - Task-based design keeps the appropriate Money tools close at hand.
  - Streamlined data-entry for quick, efficient Money sessions.
  - Improved online capabilities for electronic bill-paying and banking.

  Money 2000 Deluxe

  Manage Today's Finances. Plan and Achieve Tomorrow's Goals.

  All the tools of Money 2000 Standard, plus powerful capabilities for financial planning, investing and tax management.

  - Integrated financial-planning features help you save and spend wisely.
  - Tax tools help simplify tax-tracking, management and filing.
  - Investing tools and Money's superior Web integration provide unparalleled access to research, analysis and portfolio-management via Microsoft's own MSN MoneyCentral Web site.

  Money 2000 Business and Personal

  The Easy Way to Manage Your Business and Personal Finances.

  Combines all the features of Standard and Deluxe with business management tools that are indispensable to sole proprietors.

  - Create and customize more than 25 kinds of business reports and charts.
  - Design custom invoices or choose from more than 20 templates.
  - Powerful Schedule C preparation and reporting tools.
  - Easily track reimbursable expenses, time, mileage…and much more.

  There is more information on this upcoming release on the MS Money web page. 

   

• Dungeons and Dragons 2000 coming
  Time: 09:15 EDT/13:15 GMT Source: Geeknews Posted By: Alex H.

  Dungeons and Dragons, the popular 80's role playing game, is making a comeback with a scheduled release of a third edition game coming August 2000. The game was originally released in 1974 and the second edition was printed in 1989, between those years the game was quite popular but has slumped with the arrival of video games and of course the internet. Hard core role playing gamers will be delighted to see the game revamped and rereleased. For the younger generation the game is similiar to Everquest but played out according to rules, statistics and human storytelling. Read the press release here. There will also be a web site dedicated to the third edition to open in the coming months so look for www.3rdedition.com's opening.

   
• MP3 player Apollo back on track
  Time: 09:13 EDT/13:13 GMT Source: Geeknews Posted By: Alex H.

  After a 3 month hiatus Apollo, an MP3 player designed for the best sound quality, is back on track with a new version. Apollo is freeware and supports MP3, WAV, streaming, Winamp visualization,DSP and general plugins. The new version offers bug fixes, better documentation and an Intellimouse wheel can now be used to adjust volume. The latest version can be downloaded from here.

   
• Downloadable postage set to debut
  Time: 09:03 EDT/13:03 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex H.

  The tedium that all small-business owners know of sticking stamps on envelopes or running mailings through a postal meter may soon be replaced by the ease of a few mouse clicks. After months of trials, the U.S. Postal Service on Monday will certify four companies’ “PC Postage” services that allow customers to download official Postal Service postage from the Internet and print it directly onto envelopes and labels.

   
• Vizact Preview
  Time: 07:59 EDT/12:59 GMT Source: BetaBites Posted By: Byron

  Beta Bites has previewed Microsoft's Vizact, the upcoming XML/Active Document tool that works in conjunction with MS Office and IE 5.0. Microsoft's Vizact 2000 is a promising new product that helps high-end and low-end users alike to create time-delayed presentation web pages. Vizact 2000 takes tasks that would normally require multiple applications, including extensive knowledge of DHTML (Dynamic-HTML), and compresses them into a single, simple interface. At a future price of $149, it is disappointing that the special eye-dazzling, attention-drawing effects it provides are only visible in Internet Explorer 5.0. For most Web Developers, this severely limits their audience, and makes Vizact a somewhat undesirable application. On the other hand, it can be an excellent tool for companies to use within their own walls, so that employees may communicate easily and effectively.

   
• Wireless DVD on TV
  Time: 05:47 EDT/10:47 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H.

  One company has a solution for all of those DVD-enabled PCs looking to move to a bigger screen -- a wireless TV transmitter.

  X10's DVD Anywhere Kit can broadcast DVD movies to a television anywhere in a home, a boon for those who don't want to watch Saving Private Ryan on a tiny computer screen.

  The DVD hardware market has been a peculiar phenomenon. Despite the existence of only a dozen or so DVD-ROM movie titles for computers compared to 2,000 for home entertainment players, the outfits for PCs are far outselling the VCR-like models.

   
• Hackers Happy Campers
  Time: 05:46 EDT/10:46 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H.

  It takes countless hours cooped up indoors in front of a computer screen to truly appreciate the giddy mood at this weekend's three-day Chaos Communication Camp. By Friday evening, more than 1,400 hackers, encryptologists, computer visionaries, and assorted geeks had pitched their tents in a scenic lakeside field, and more were on their way.

  An afternoon of workshops gave way to a warm evening of lounging in front of tents, as people pounded away at keyboards and greeted acquaintances they had met only via networks or email. "It's a way to attach faces to email addresses," said John Gilmore, one of the founders of the San Francisco-based Cypherpunks. "It's a way to say, 'Hey, I know this person, we've been collaborating for years. Who are you?'"

   

• Microsoft Flexes Marketing Muscle On YK2
  Time: 05:14 EDT/10:14 GMT Source: Tech Web Posted By: Alex H.

  While many consumers are thinking about millennium vacations instead of millennium bugs, Microsoft is using its marketing savvy to sharpen public opinion about year 2000 compliance. Microsoft said it is conducting the "largest customer campaign in history" and spending $10 million to remind 60 million customers to prepare for the Y2K bug. With only five months before the turn of the century, Microsoft's Y2K e-mail and direct-mail crusade begins in earnest in August. Microsoft focus groups showed many consumer users are planning to wait until December to deal with Y2K issues.

   

• AMD manages to undercut Intel on K7 pricing
  Time: 05:02 EDT/10:02 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  William Henning, over at CPU Review, has performed a price comparison between Intel Pentium IIIs and the up-and-coming Athlon K7. The interesting thing is that the comparison is based on retail and not 1,000 pricing, and it shows that the Athlon is, by and large, cheaper than Pentium IIIs. The one exception is at the 600MHz level, which was going to be the sweet spot for AMD.

   

• Video-game pirates on the loose
  Time: 05:00 EDT/10:00 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H.

  The black market for games has hit $3.2 billion annually, and it's growing, too. Electronic Arts, the world's largest independent video and computer game maker, and Sony Computer Entertainment America, manufacturer of the PlayStation game console, recently filed suit against an Internet "ring" that they allege was distributing pirated copies of Electronic Arts games for the PlayStation. Last week in Los Angeles, authorities confiscated over 1 million unlicensed Pokemon toys. A few weeks earlier, U.S. Customs officials in Elizabeth, N.J., confiscated $250,000 worth of illicit Pokemon plush dolls, figurines, key chains, clocks and other items.

   
• AMD to wrest away speed crown from Intel
  Time: 04:58 EDT/09:58 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H.

  If all goes as planned, chipmaker AMD will finally be able to brag about having the fastest PC chip on the planet. AMD will announce a 650-MHz version of the Athlon processor, formerly the K7, next week and make it available for sale the following week in an accelerated product launch, according to sources at the company.

  The chip will allow AMD to brag that its processors are faster than rival Intel, which recently released a 600-MHz Pentium III. No significant upgrades to the Pentium III line are due until November, according to an Intel spokesman.

  AMD also will release three other Athlon chips running at slower speeds. The company intends to push the chips into the lucrative high-end business market.

• Dungeon Keeper 2 Patch On The Way
  Time: 06:21 EDT/11:21 GMT Source: E-mail Posted By: Byron

  The first DK2 update has been completed, and is currently in the testing phase. Thank you all for being so patient. If all goes well, we will be posting it on the site at the end of next week (the devilish Friday 13th). To whet your appetites, these are some of the extra features that we have added:

  * 5 new levels - 4 Multiplayer/Skirmish levels and 1 new MPD level.
  * Ability to carry on after completing a level.
  * Ability to add computer players to multiplayer games.
  * Numerous multiplayer fixes (ability to kick players out, notification when
  player leaves) making multiplayer much more stable.

  The update will be approximately 10 MB in size, and available from this site (http://www.dungeonkeeper.com), and will also be carried on magazine coverdisks.

   
• New ATi drivers for Rage 128 released
  Time: 03:21 EDT/08:21 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H.

  I read over on Voodoo Extreme that ATi have released some Windows 9x and Windows NT drivers for the Rage 128. The download is 10.7 MB and can be downloaded from here.

   
• Rambus readies RAM RAID
  Time: 03:15 EDT/08:15 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  Rambus will next week unveil 'Chipkill', a method to make high-end server memory fault tolerant. According to a report in the UK's Electronics Weekly, Chipkill will allow Rambus' high-speed Direct DRAM to be used in mission-critical servers.

  The story doesn't reveal any details of how Rambus will add fault-tolerance to its chips -- so we're naturally keen to hear from unnamed 'sources close to the company who can fill us in -- but it's likely to involve building some level of memory cell redundancy into the chip itself -- a kind of 'RAID for RAM', if you like.

   
• IBM slashes hard drive recording speed
  Time: 03:12 EDT/08:12 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  IBM boffins have come up with a way faster method of recording data on magnetic media, the journal Science has reported. The technique uses an ultra high frequency AC current to flip the magnetic poles of electrons in a cobalt-copper-cobalt sandwich.

  Or, as the researchers themselves put it: "Current-induced switching in the orientation of magnetic moments is observed in cobalt-copper-cobalt structures, for currents flowing perpendicularly through the layers. Magnetic domains in adjacent cobalt layers can be manipulated controllably between stable parallel and antiparallel configurations by applying current pulses of the appropriate sign."

   

• MS in porno banner ads row
  Time: 03:09 EDT/08:09 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  Microsoft is being sued for allegedly allowing pornographic banner ads to be displayed on LinkExchange. Boathouse Row Entertainment -- which flogs gridiron cheerleader merchandise -- alleged that banners advertising porn sites appeared on its home page within a month of it signing up to LinkExchange. Microsoft-owned LinkExchange enables companies to place free banner ads on other sites in return for accepting ads on their own sites.

   

• Can SWAT teams rescue Win2000?
  Time: 03:05 EDT/08:05 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H.

  Microsoft is stressing Windows 2000's reliability over its NT 4.0 app support, but the company nevertheless is trying earnestly to make what could be difficult migrations look effortless. Microsoft has sent a handful of SWAT teams to its Rapid Deployment Partner/Joint Deployment Partner (RDP/JDP) beta sites to help some of its biggest Win2000 test accounts port their custom applications from NT Server 4.0 to Windows 2000. Back in Redmond, Wash., all available hands are testing packaged apps for Windows 2000 compatibility.

   
• Novell releases open beta of Web publishing tool
  Time: 02:51 EDT/07:51 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H.

  Novell Inc. today announced an open beta version of its new Web publishing software. Novell Net Publisher, formerly code-named Magellan, is a development tool for securely publishing and managing documents on the Web. It is integrated with Novell Directory Services to provide varying levels of security and control, such as who can publish content to the Web and who has access to the content.

   
• Los Angeles D.A. drops Mitnick case
  Time: 02:49 EDT/07:49 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H.

  The Los Angeles district attorney gave Kevin Mitnick a birthday present Friday, dropping its six-year-old computer hacking case against the convicted hacker. That development could speed the release of the 35-year-old, removing an obstacle that could have prevented Mitnick from going free from federal prison soon after he is formally sentenced Monday in an unrelated federal case. 

   
• Cyrix work force to be slashed by more than half
  Time: 02:49 EDT/07:49 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H.

  More than half the employees at Cyrix will be laid off before new owner Via Technologies acquires it. Cyrix, the microprocessor division of National Semiconductor, said today that Via has directed that 170 employees will be laid off by the time the division comes under Via's the control. Via will then interview the remaining 160 employees for possible jobs within the company.

  Via, a Taiwanese chipset maker that is part of a large industrial consortium, bought Cyrix on June 30 for $167 million as part of a bid to challenge Intel in the market for low-cost PC processors. Earlier this week, the company also bought the processor subdivision of Integrated Device Technologies.

• Patch Available for Exchange Server v5.5 Vulnerability
  Time: 21:03 EDT/01:48 GMT Source: email Posted By: Alex R.

  From the Security Bulletin Hotline... Microsoft has released a patch for the "Encapsulated SMTP Address" Vulnerability in Exchange Server v5.5.  The problem stems from a feature designed to prevent illegal mail relaying on the server.  Apparently however, the feature gave birth to a security problem.

   

• Senate passes 'Cyber-squatting' bill
  Time: 14:50 EDT/19:50 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Dennis

  The Senate passed a bill late Thursday to curb the practice of "cyber-squatting," or buying up Internet domain names to sell them later at exorbitant prices.

  The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would let trademark owners recover statutory damages after proving to a court that their trademarked name was registered by someone wanting to sell it back to its rightful owner, often at an inflated price. The measure, passed by a unanimous voice vote, now goes on to the House.

   
• Auction Site E-bay goes Down
  Time: 14:48 EDT/19:48 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Dennis

  Online auctioneer eBay Inc. has suffered another outage.

  A company spokesman said the site has been down since 4:30 AM PT Friday. eBay did not know when the site would be back up and running, he said.

   
• AOL Recruits ISP's in Messaging Battle
  Time: 14:45 EDT/19:45 GMT Source: News.Com Posted By: Dennis

  AOL enlisted help in the messaging war with Microsoft today by inking deals with fellow Internet service providers EarthLink and MindSpring.

  Under the agreements, both EarthLink and MindSpring said they'll distribute a co branded version of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), making it available to its members.

   
• MSN in low-cost access promo
  Time: 14:20 EDT/19:20 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Byron

  US discount store Costco Online is offering MSN access to the Net at a rock-bottom price. New and existing users can subscribe to MSN in the US for just $11.99 a month, according to the promotion. Access to MSN usually retails at $19.95 a month.

   

• Coming Soon: Service Pack 6 for NT 4.0
  Time: 08:48 EDT/13:48 GMT Source: Win98Central Posted By: Alex R.

  Win98Central ran across the information at Windows TechEdge that states that SP6 is in beta and should be released by the end of this year.

   

• Word Processors Don't Get Along
  Time: 08:41 EDT/13:41 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex R.

  MSNBC commissioned a test of three word processing suites to see if documents in their various formats could be read by the programs.  The results are less than pleasing... some of them even destructive to the test documents.  With all the talk of software fragmentation, this one has apparently lurked for quite a while.  The testing also led to a nasty bug in Corel's WordPerfect 9: saving a document in RTF causes data loss.

   

• Via Acquiring Centaur (IDT's x86 Division)
  Time: 08:34 EDT/13:34 GMT Source: Slashdot Posted By: Alex R.

  Via will acquire the designers of the WinChip series of x86 chips.  This makes two x86 development houses that Via has picked up.  Wonder what they have up their sleeve?  It shall be interesting to watch.

   

• AOL Instant Messenger Warning
  Time: 08:24 EDT/13:24 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  Earlier this morning, I received this "AOL warning" that everyone is interested in. I've posted a screenshot of the message in our MSN Community. You have to join to see it though! So visit our AW Community and join now and view the screenshot! You can visit the community here.

   

• Flying will be safe despite Y2K bug
  Time: 04:02 EDT/09:02 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  The millennium computer bug will not pose a safety risk for airline passengers but may cause irksome inconveniences like flight delays or a long wait for baggage, the world air transport group IATA said Thursday. "It's not a question of safety. It's not a question of planes falling out of the sky," said Nancy Gautier, communications manager at the International Air Transport Association's Year 2000 Project. "The issue is whether we can eliminate all the potential inconveniences that could be associated with Y2K."

   

• IBM to announce storage 'breakthrough'
  Time: 04:02 EDT/09:02 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Scientists at IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) have made an advance in physics that the company says would make it possible for computers to store data 1,000 times faster than they can now. The research, which is years away from being part of a commercial product, will be published in Friday's Science magazine, an IBM spokesman said. The work is a breakthrough that will probably influence the development of data storage research, said the spokesman for the Armonk, N.Y., computer maker.

   

• Microsoft hacker challenge foiled
  Time: 04:00 EDT/09:00 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  An act of God beat both hackers and beta testers to the punch this week when lightning crashed a Microsoft test site. Tuesday, Microsoft began testing a Windows 2000 site that challenges beta testers to find and exploit potential security holes or vulnerabilities in a server running the company's forthcoming operating system. Expected to launch by the end of this year, Windows 2000 is the company's most secure and stable operating system yet, Microsoft says.

• Draken: Order of the Flame update
  Time: 17:40 EDT/22:40 GMT Source: Email Posted By: Alex H

  I just received news from Rich LaPorte from over at Gone Gold that Draken: Order of the Flame has NOT gone gold. He got a phone call from Psygnosis who has confirmed this.

   

• Site News
  Time: 17:40 EDT/22:40 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Alex H

  As you might have noticed, for a while the DVD section hasn't had many, if any news updates to it. I have updated the news today, and you should notice more regular updates to this section from now on. Remember if you have any DVD news or Windows news, then email us. We have some exciting reviews coming up soon. These include a review of the Iomega USB Zip Drive, Dark City DVD review, Dazed and Confused DVD review and much more. Also our new section on MP3's should be up and running by Saturday, but don't hold us to that. Don't forget you can buy an ActiveWindows mouse mat as well!

   

• Mir’s new computer is shut down
  Time: 16:54 EDT/21:54 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex H

  A Mission Control officer monitoring the Mir accidentally shut down the space station’s central computer, prompting the crew to speed up preparations to abandon the orbiter, officials said Monday. The shutdown on Friday didn’t threaten the crew, but did knock the Mir out of alignment with the sun, said Irina Manshilina, a spokeswoman for Mission Control. Mission Control quickly moved to speed up the installation of a new computer that is to control the station after its crew leaves this month.

   

• MP3 music player lawsuits dropped
  Time: 16:52 EDT/21:52 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex H

  Recording industry executives announced Wednesday an end to all litigation over the “Rio” portable MP3 Internet music player, which a Federal appeals court has ruled does not violate anti-piracy laws. In a joint statement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) and Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., the maker of the Rio, said they had reached “mutually satisfactory resolution of outstanding legal issues.”

   

• ActiveWindows Mouse Pads and Competition Reminders
  Time: 16:50 EDT/21:50 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Alex H

  Now with a lower price, don't forget that the first ActiveWindows piece of merchandise is now available to pre-order. The first product in our new range of logos is the ActiveWindows Mouse Pad. We aim to have many other products pop up soon (Assuming these are popular). And also don't forget to enter our DVD-Game Competition to win a copy of Shadoan and a Mouse Pad.

   
• Silicon Graphics faces challenges, regroups again
  Time: 16:49 EDT/21:49 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  It has been less than a year since Silicon Graphics Inc. completed a sweeping restructuring that was to have set it on a new course toward broad new commercial opportunities. But many of its turnaround efforts have already stumbled, and the company -- despite making some of the most advanced computers available -- is preparing to unveil yet another new business strategy next week. Analysts are expressing doubts over Silicon Graphics's ability to parlay its substantial resources into successful commercial products.

   

• MS backs off low-cost Net access report
  Time: 16:47 EDT/21:47 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Update : Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) backed off reports that the company was planning to offer low-cost or even free Internet access as a way to compete with America Online Inc. Spokespeople for the company stressed today that "Microsoft has no new announced strategies" regarding Internet service, but that the company continues to “look at several options.”

   

• WindowsMedia.com Fastest-Growing Audio, Video Guide
  Time: 16:42 EDT/21:42 GMT Source: Internet News Posted By: Alex H

  WindowsMedia.com, part of the MSN network of Internet services, now boasts to be the fastest-growing major audio and video guide on the Internet. The site is listed among the top 50 most visited sites on the Web and has unveiled music download search, a comprehensive online search engine for downloadable music. WindowsMedia.com has seen a 70 percent increase in growth since January, according to the May Media Metrix WorldWide Web Audience Ratings report. WindowsMedia.com has also moved into the top 50 most visited Web sites (by traffic), according to Alexa Internet.

   

• MechWarrior 3 patch (v1.1) released
  Time: 16:14 EDT/21:14 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Voodoo Extreme that a new patch for MechWarrior 3 has been released for the UK, German and French versions of the game. The patch is 3.4 MB and can be downloaded from the following places:

  http://www.3dfiles.com/patches/mechwarrior3.shtml 

   
• Drakan: Order of the Flame has gone gold
  Time: 16:14 EDT/21:14 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Voodoo Extreme that Drakan: Order of the Flame has gone gold. 

   
• Intel To Add Linux Support To LANDesk
  Time: 16:11 EDT/21:11 GMT Source: Tech Web Posted By: Alex H

  Intel said it plans to include free support for Linux PCs and servers within its LANDeskManagement Suite for midsize and enterprise customers. The support will help IT administrators inventory, upgrade, and control Linux systems in their organizations from the same console that manages Windows NT and Novell NetWare servers and Windows desktops, Intel officials said.

  The functionality will be available as a downloadable patch and built into the next version of Management Suite, due within nine months, Intel said. That can help companies tame unruly Linux installations, which employees often manage themselves, said Dave Taylor, director of marketing at Intel's systems management division. "The Linux community was managing desktops out from under central management offices," Taylor said. "Help-desk people had no tools."

   
• Intel Coppermine delay caused by fear of AMD
  Time: 16:02 EDT/21:02 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Reliable sources close to Intel said today that the so-called delay in its first desktop processor using Coppermine was a knee-jerk reaction to AMD's K7 Athlon. However, an Intel representative has denied that claim. According to the source, Intel released its .25 micron Pentium III/600 to soften the market for AMD's up-and-coming launch on August 10 next. The first Coppermine processor was also scheduled to run at a clock speed of 600MHz, but now Intel will, instead, introduce the first Coppermine at 700MHz, swiftly following that introduction with further, faster processors.

   

• Samsung unveils SDRAM-beating SGRAM
  Time: 16:02 EDT/21:02 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Samsung yesterday claimed its latest 32Mb SGRAM part is up to 55 per cent faster than "best of class" 32Mb SDRAM. The new chip, operating at 222MHz, was also described by the company as an "evolutionary alternative" to Rambus Direct DRAM, at least in graphics applications.

   
• Alpha Coppa not a stonking whoppa
  Time: 16:00 EDT/21:00 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  All this year, we have reported that IBM will make copper Alphas for Compaq. Even at Eckhard Pfeiffer's valedictory London showing at the Landmark Hotel, the story still had four legs.

  But the denials of the European director of Compaq's Alpha corporation earlier this week that it had copper samples from IBM may be just that. Denials. Sources close to the Big Q said today that it had received samples from IBM, which are in the Compaq Houston campus as we speak.

   
• IBM to debut 'Gigaprocessor' CPU at Hot Chips
  Time: 15:58 EDT/20:58 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  IBM will next week unveil its latest Power CPU, the chip line that formed the basis for the PowerPC family. The Power4 processor will beat Motorola to the goal of unveiling a multi-core PowerPC chip.

  According to EE Times, Power4 will contain two cores and an L2 cache on a single die constructed using a 0.18 micron process and copper interconnect technology. The chip is scheduled to be unveiled at a paper given at the Hot Chips conference next week.

  Members of the chip's development team said the chip will support a bus speed of greater than 500MHz, and while they would not confirm the chip's clock speed, they did say their goal was a bus speed half the frequency of the clock speed, clearly implying CPU speeds of 1GHz or more.

   
• NT faces RISCy future
  Time: 15:57 EDT/20:57 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Both Intel and Microsoft will have to take a back seat to RISC this year, according to research from IDC. The company also predicts a compound growth rate of over six per cent in the server market.

  Microsoft's NT will continue to be the low end product of choice, but will fail to make the leap to the lucrative mid-range market due to unreliability. Instead, RISC-based machines will continue to dominate.

  IDC says that Linux is also likely to gain ground over the next few years. Despite not being fully standardized, and only accounting for a minority of server sales, the open source product is being recognized as a useful and viable business tool with particular relevance in the appliance server market.

   
• American Express rises after Net strategy unveiling
  Time: 15:53 EDT/20:53 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  American Express shares rose amid expectations that its spending on the Internet will boost earnings growth. Shares of the world's largest credit-card company rose 3, or 2.4 percent, to 126.50. New York-based American Express said it is spending more than $250 million a year to beef up its existing Web sites and introduce new products to increase the use of its cards on the Internet.

  "Online spending will create a surge in card spending, which American Express is uniquely well positioned to benefit from," said Ken Posner, analyst at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, in a report. Posner maintained his "strong buy" rating on the company. "As a result, we see earnings per share growth accelerating from 13 percent to 15 percent over the next five years."

   

• Intel delays Pentium III for notebooks
  Time: 15:51 EDT/20:51 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Intel will delay the release of Pentium III processor for notebooks until October or November, a lag that means laptop makers will lose one to two crucial months of potential sales. Pentium III chips for notebooks, as well as notebooks using the chip, were scheduled for September, according to sources close to the company. Notebook manufacturers, however, have run into problems completing their "qualification," or testing, of the processor. As a result, the chip, and notebooks using it, will not come out until October or November. While the delay is relatively short, it is expected to crimp notebook sales during the key back-to-school and pre-holiday season.

   
• After slow start, Motorola banks on Starfish
  Time: 15:49 EDT/20:49 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Starfish, a maker of software for wireless devices, hasn't yet proven to be as big a catch as Motorola hoped, but hope springs eternal. A year ago, Motorola snapped up Starfish, the brainchild of the flamboyant Philippe Kahn, as the chip and device maker creeps along toward a vision of a world filled with gadgets that can connect to the Internet without wires. Starfish is known for technology that automatically updates and shares data across a range of devices such as a personal computer, pager, cellphone, or a handheld computer.

  Since then, one of Starfish's high-profile efforts to promote connected information appliances has stalled. New technologies have not come out as quickly as expected. "Nothing that Starfish has done has really set the world on fire," said Alan Reiter, president of Wireless Internet & Mobile Computing, a consultancy.

   

• Microsoft eyes low-cost Net access
  Time: 15:46 EDT/20:46 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft has turned up the heat significantly in its fight for Internet dominance today, going after America Online's bread and butter--its membership rolls--with a push to offer low- or no-cost Internet access. Although the software giant is already entrenched in the Internet access space with its MSN Internet service, it still plays second fiddle by a long shot to AOL in the access market. AOL boasts a subscriber base of nearly 18 million users who pay $21.95 per month for the service.

   

• Messenger Users get Warning from AOL
  Time: 14:02 EDT/19:02 GMT Source: News.Com Posted By: Dennis

  In yet another twist to the cat-and-mouse game between Microsoft and America Online, AOL is trying to lure users from Microsoft's instant messaging service as they try to use one of its key features.

  Several users of Microsoft's MSN Messenger have reported receiving an instant message from the AOL Instant Messenger service (AIM), warning them that they are accessing the AOL network using "unauthorized software."

   
• ActiveWindows MSN Community Reminder
  Time: 10:34 EDT/15:34 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  We would like to remind you that we have our official MSN Community. We will be posting some special graphics in the Photo gallery soon. You'll have to visit and sign up to see them though. You can sign up for the community for free by clicking here. We'll be having chats on the message board and hopefully will schedule a special chat in our chat room. We'll keep you updated, but you may want to sign up so your all ready when we do.

   
• Having Problems connecting to AOL IM with Messenger? New Version out, Again
  Time: 10:29 EDT/15:29 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  MSN released v1.0.0.880 early this morning. This version does again restore AOL Instant Messenger compatibility.

   
• MS vs. AOL War expands to Internet Access
  Time: 10:26 EDT/15:26 GMT Source: ZDNN Posted By: Dennis

  Microsoft Corp.'s continuing attempts to loosen America Online Inc.'s grip on millions of instant-messaging customers is the latest skirmish in what promises to be a long, costly war between the No. 1 software maker and the No. 1 online service.

  Microsoft's next target: AOL's dial-up Internet-access business, the $21.95-a-month service for more than 17 million customers that accounts for about two-thirds of AOL's revenue. Microsoft executives are laying plans to hasten the trend toward low-price, or even free, Internet access. The trend threatens AOL much more directly than Microsoft, which has only about two million Internet-access subscribers.

   
• New look PCs, Coming this Fall
  Time: 10:21 EDT/15:21 GMT Source: ZDNN Posted By: Dennis

  Say good-bye to the ho-hum boxy beige PC this fall. At least if Intel Corp. and a handful of PC makers have their way.Later this month, Intel will preview new designs from top-tier PC makers that will ship starting this fall.

   

• Zelda hype continues, Screenshots Released
  Time: 10:20 EDT/15:20 GMT Source: ZDNN Posted By: Dennis

  For the past few weeks we have been talking about the next Zelda title to be on display at Nintendo's Space World Show later this month. Now, thanks to Nintendo Power, we have the first ever screens to show you. Judging from these first few screens, the next Zelda is going to floor us once again - the screens are just bursting with color and artwork. Needless to say, we'll be back with plenty more on Zelda Gaiden as the month continues. Stay tuned. Screen shots. -- Sam Kennedy, videogames.com

   
• Compaq loses top slot in UK Market
  Time: 10:15 EDT/15:15 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Dennis

  Dell sold more PCs than any other vendor in the UK in the second quarter, according to preliminary IDC figures.
  
  Which means the demon of direct sales stole the number one spot in the UK from under the nose of Compaq.
  
  The UK market grew almost 22 per cent against last year’s second quarter. Dell took 19 per cent of the market for the period, showing 43 per cent growth.

   
• Dragon Upgrades NaturallySpeaking
  Time: 04:50 EDT/09:50 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Dragon Systems expects to update its NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software at the end of August, first releasing an American English version, with other language versions shipping by year's end.

  NaturallySpeaking Version 4 will be able to "learn" your voice in about five minutes, according to Dragon representatives. It also lets you control Windows desktop applications by voice commands, has new setup wizards to simplify that process, and enables Web browsing via voice commands.

   
• E.spy 2.0 Beta 7 released  
  Time: 04:50 EDT/09:50 GMT Source: Beta Bites Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Beta Bites that Spastic Software has released a new version of their utility, E.spy. E.spy is a mail notification utility that sits in the system tray and has configurable audio and visual notifications when you have received new mail. Here is some of the new features and bug fixes that are in this version:

  - Fix newmsg count in system tray (icon)
  - Fixed bug with Toolbar, when you click on the
  - Add new account button it would display the Account box twice.
  - Added (Ctrl - a) to the lvmail for select all emails.
  - Added Select All to the right click menu.
  - Added Attach File Directory to the account configuration form.
  - You can now save your attachments whereever you want.
  - Added Reply, Forward and Compose new email(s).
  - Misc bugs fixed.

  E.Spy 2.0 Beta 7 (1.1 KB) can be downloaded from the Spastic Software website here. 

   
• Classic Software Gets Reborn On The Web
  Time: 04:46 EDT/09:46 GMT Source: Techweb Posted By: Alex H

  Once buried in corporate archives, software classics from the 1970s and early 1980s are getting a new life on the Web. A handful of the pioneering developers of groundbreaking applications, such as VisiCalc, Turbo Pascal and C, ThinkTank, Ready! and MORE, are posting original versions that can be downloaded for free.

  In their day, some of these classics were on nearly every corporate desktop. While most have been out of circulation for years, some are still around, but have been upgraded so many times they hardly resemble the original versions.

   
• New TA: Kingdoms Unit released
  Time: 04:37 EDT/09:37 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Voodoo Extreme that Cavedog have released a new unit called "The Rictus", which is an evil fire unit. Here is some more info about the new unit:

  Praise the Necromancer! The master of Taros revealed yet another ally in the war with Elsin and his hated lackeys. Summoned by the Mage King in centuries past to guard his hidden treasures, all but forgotten, the RICTUS has returned again to the Land! All Darien will tremble at the horrible visage of this elemental demon of fire. By secret ritual, demonic fire is channeled into a human host. As the demon burns away flesh, it grows and distorts until reaching its final form: A skull and spine suspended above the earth, and consuming all in it's path with unholy flame. Trapped and bound for centuries, hidden from sunlight for many lifetimes of normal men, the Rictus can again to be loosed upon the land. These creatures can be summoned forth from The Abyss, to terrorize our enemies.

   
• Chinese gov't responsible for cyber attacks
  Time: 04:31 EDT/09:31 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  The Chinese Government has been blamed for cyber attacks on Web sites and Internet service providers supporting the Falun Gong movement

   
• Lycos close to buying Sonique
  Time: 04:29 EDT/09:29 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Web portal Lycos is close to acquiring Net music software Sonique, sources said today. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company is planning to buy Sonique, which was created by privately held Mediascience, for $71 million, sources told CNET News.com. A deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow.

  Neither Lycos nor Mediascience representatives could be immediately reached for comment. Music properties such as Sonique--an online audio player that can handle Microsoft Windows Media files, MP3 files, and audio CDs, among other formats--are in demand as consumers are beginning to adopt the Web as a source for music. Lycos is looking to become one of the most "comprehensive" music destinations on the Web, the company has said.

  The agreement comes about a month after Yahoo was in talks to buy the technology, but that deal fell through. At that time, Lycos also had expressed an interest in Sonique. Lycos began its foray into online music in February when it launched MP3 Search, a service that allows users to find audio files in the MP3 format.

   

• Bullish analyst predicts 75% of Net firms to disappear
  Time: 04:27 EDT/09:27 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  An influential Wall Street analyst said that three-quarters of the companies in the Internet industry will be acquired or fail, speaking against the backdrop of a continuing Net stock slide. Addressing a luncheon, Merrill Lynch's Henry Blodget today remarked that "Approximately 75 percent of the companies out there will be acquired or fail. "Not all trees will grow to the sky. There will be a shakeout," he said. Blodget's comments were reported by Bloomberg. In the past, Blodget has championed the potential of the Internet sector. He gained notoriety for predicting that Amazon.com's stock would reach $400 in 12 months, a target the online bookseller promptly smashed.

   

• Intel to send PIII/450 to gulag
  Time: 04:20 EDT/09:20 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The 450MHz flavour of the Pentium III is set to enter Intel's gulag within the next week or two, sources close to Chipzilla confirmed today. That probably sets a record for the quickest movement of any Intel processor from birth to advanced senility. It also indicates -- quite clearly -- that despite advice from senior chip analysts, Intel is going to play the price game in a bid to upset the AMD Athlon applecart. And we can now confirm, as predicted here last weekend, that Intel has indeed slashed and burned the price of its Celeron family once more.

• Bill Payment Via Palm VII Enabled
  Time: 18:09 EDT/23:09 GMT Source: All Net Devices Posted By: Alex H

  Now you can pay your bills using the wireless Palm VII handheld. Billserv.com has released technology that companies can incorporate into their Web site that enables Palm VII users to gather and pay their bills. The technology also works with sites that aggregate bills, such as CheckFree and TransPoint. In addition, Billserv.com said it will launch what it called a bill-paying portal where consumers can receive and pay bills online. This is the latest in a series of products that enable Net device users to pay bills and exchange money. Recently, Nokia invested in PayPal, which has technology that allows handheld and smart phone users to "beam" payments to each other.

   

• Glaze 3D First Look
  Time: 17:56 EDT/22:56 GMT Source: 3DHardware.net Posted By: Alex H

  Just noticed on 3DHardware.net that they have posted a preview of Glaze3D. Here is a snippet:

  It all began with the Pyramid 3D, a 3D core made for TriTech Microelectronics Inc. This one never hit the shelves though, much because it simply lacked the speed to break through. The Pyramid 3D was still befoe it's age at the time though. In times when the Voodoo1 was the absolute king the core supported hardware bumpmapping for example, and the demonstration images are still some of the best I've ever seen.

  Anyway, the Pyramid 3D didn't even flop, it was what people today call paperware, an this was the first thing that hit my mind when I fisrt read about the Glaze3D. This was somewhere around a year ago, and most people had a bad taste in their mouths after dissapointments like the Riva 128. The Glaze 3D was a slap in the face enough to make some headlines though. Even back then it promised 400Megapixels per second, quad texturing and stuff that people hadn't even the faintest idea of what it could mean back then.

  Time passed, and as always with stuff that is promised but not delivered it all became a joke. Glaze 3D became the 'donut chip' and no one believed the deadline of Q499 that was initially set. Until today, the 2:nd of August. We had already had some small hints of what was coming by mail this summer, but no one actually wanted to believe it. Today we were presented to a set of features that not only makes the T-Buffer look a little paler, but might even make nVIDIA executives sleep badly. A 1.5 million transistor chip that is set to become available for the bulic in Q1 2000 is, according to the Bitboys, able to produce 1.2 Gigapixels per second , quad texturing and all the graphics features you could ever dream of. This is something nVIDIA and 3dfx haven't dared to say about their 20 million transistor monsters coming up around the same time...

   

• New Win9x Vortex 2 Drivers released
  Time: 17:51 EDT/22:51 GMT Source: 3DHardware.net Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on 3DHardware.net that Aureal has released some new Win95/98 drivers for their Vortex 2 cards. Here is what is new:

  Added support for WinDVD Software DVD Player
  Added S/PDIF autodetect feature.
  Fixed an issue that caused a number of DirectSound3D and A3D games to crash
  Fixed some distortion on output
  Fixed some issues relating to Wavetracing Reflections
  Fixed some issues relating to Flatland Rover
  Fixed a Graphic EQ issue
  Fixed an issue with the A3D control panel
  Fixed a memory leak in the direct sound driver
  Normalized the volume between front and rear speakers

  These drivers can be downloaded from here.

   

• ActiveWindows Mouse Pads and Competition Reminders
  Time: 17:39 EDT/22:39 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Alex H

  Now with a lower price, don't forget that the first ActiveWindows piece of merchandise is now available to pre-order. The first product in our new range of logos is the ActiveWindows Mouse Pad 1. We aim to have many other products pop up soon (Assuming these are popular). And also don't forget to enter our DVD-Game Competition to win a copy of Shadoan and a Mouse Mat.

   
• A Palm in the Tool Belt
  Time: 17:38 EDT/22:38 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H

  Newly aided by PalmPilots and Web technology, construction workers may just turn out to be the next breed of Net geeks. Construction companies have turned to the Internet and handheld computers to build structures more efficiently, and are pushing projects through ahead of schedule.

   
• Patch for Office 97 bug still pending
  Time: 17:29 EDT/22:29 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft continues to work on a patch for a widely publicized security hole in its Office 97 software suite that could allow malicious code to take over a user's PC.  The vulnerability, first reported last week, is related to the company's data access software, called Jet, and is found in the company's Excel 97 program, a popular component of Office 97. The hole allows code contained in an Excel 97 worksheet, hidden in a Web page or sent via email, to plant viruses, delete data, or read files, according to the programmer who discovered the problem. Juan Carlos Garcia Cuartango reported his discovery to the NTBugTraq mailing list last week. A so-called workaround is currently available from another member of that list.

   
• L0pht releases Back Orifice 2000 plugin
  Time: 17:27 EDT/22:27 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  The L0pht hacking group has released BOTOOL, a plugin designed to provide easy to use point-and-click interfaces for Back Orifice 2000 (B02K). B02K, which the Cult of the Dead Cow hacking group released last month, is a controversial remote administration application that can be used as a hacking tool.

   
• The other Microsoft trial: software giant vs. IRS
  Time: 17:25 EDT/22:25 GMT Source: Seattle Times Posted By: Alex H

  The mysterious building at 400 Second St. N.W. is unlike any other structure in the District of Columbia. Its main feature is a 4,000-ton block that hovers 55 feet above the entrance, suspended over a long, wide staircase. Passers-by cannot see six tall columns holding up the block through 100 cables hidden in the walls, roof and floor. Also concealed inside the 200-foot-long monolith are three courtrooms.

  The intrigue of the building's design is surpassed only by the virtual secrecy of what goes on behind the granite block walls. Here, last week and for a final few days this week, under an unusual shroud of silence, one of the country's best known and most successful corporations is wrapping up a trial with one of the most powerful and secretive government agencies in the world. In a building identified only by discreet silver letters spelling "United States Tax Court," the company run by the world's richest man is suing the nation's tax man. The only notice of the case of Microsoft vs. the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service is a slip of paper hanging outside a courtroom.

   

• Prices already being slashed on color CE handhelds
  Time: 17:22 EDT/22:22 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Color screens, it turns out, are so far not the answer to all of Microsoft's handheld problems. Prices of handheld computers that are based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system and that feature color displays have fallen dramatically over the last few weeks. Windows CE is a stripped-down operating system for devices like handhelds and TV set-top boxes.

  The cuts are a function of intensified competition, relatively low sales, and expectations for upcoming products, analysts say, as well as a reflection of overall confusion in the market.

  These color, palm-size handheld devices have had a tumultuous first few months. Initial sales of devices from manufacturers like Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, and Everex were delayed amid shortages of the color displays, a feature that differentiates them from previous Windows CE offerings as well as from the more popular monochrome PalmPilot from Palm Computing. Palm uses its own operating system for its handhelds, by far the most popular on the market.

   

• Intel delays release of mobile Pentium
  Time: 17:20 EDT/22:20 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corp. has delayed the introduction of its mobile Pentium III processor, according to sources with dismayed PC makers. The chip, which was to be announced in September at 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz clock speeds, has been pushed back about a month to late October or possibly early November, the sources said. Intel (Nasdaq:INTC) officials confirmed the later launch, but would not commit to a firm date. The Mobile Pentium III will debut sometime after the Microprocessor Forum, which runs October 5-8, but before Fall Comdex, which starts November 15, said Intel spokesman Seth Walker.

   

• Diamond, RIAA agree to drop lawsuits
  Time: 15:17 EDT/20:17 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Bob

  The Recording Industry Association of America has agreed with Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. to halt all litigation over Diamond's Rio MP3 player.

   
• Microsoft Rallies Customers to Prepare Early for Y2K Issues
  Time: 13:16 EDT/18:16 GMT Source: Press Pass Posted By: Alex H

  While many experts still disagree on just how seriously the so-called "millennium bug" will bite, everyone from the Gartner Group to the U.S. Small Business Administration agrees on the merits of early preparation to head off potential computer problems that could occur as the Year 2000 begins. President Clinton recently added his voice to the readiness effort as well, with a clear call to action.

  "In the remaining days of 1999, I hope that the business community redoubles its efforts at remediation," Clinton said. "Preventing problems before they start, and developing contingency plans when necessary, are still the best solutions to the Y2K problem."

  In anticipation of its customers' needs, Microsoft Corp. has issued its own call to action for Y2K preparedness. With just five months to go until Jan. 1, 2000, the company has launched a massive effort to remind its customers that "sooner is better than later" in preparing to meet the challenges of Y2K. Concerned that many PC users won’t take action until December 1999 -- potentially overloading the computer industry’s support facilities -- Microsoft has embarked on a proactive plan to contact an estimated 60 million customers and raise awareness about Year 2000 issues.

   
• AMD to intro non-legacy PC push
  Time: 13:12 EDT/18:12 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chip manufacturer AMD will next year introduce a non-legacy PC initiative. That news emerged during a trip to AMD's Dresden fabrication ("fab") plant. The initiative, starting next year, is aimed at assisting motherboard manufacturers to produce boards devoid of legacy devices such as the ISA bus.

   

• Diamond launches 'Celeron' AGP card
  Time: 13:10 EDT/18:10 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Diamond MM launches faster, cheaper video. A 'Celeron' AGP card? Diamond Multimedia today rolled out its new Stealth III S540 Xtreme AGP graphics accelerator, based on the S3's Savage4 Xtreme chip and featuring the chip company's texture compression technology. The card will be sold at retail for less than $130.00 in the US, and begin shipping in September, the company said. It features 128-bit processing, 166MHz memory clock and engine clock speeds, AGP 4x downward compatible technology and 32MB of SDRAM memory "for amazing graphics performance", the company gushed.

   
• Elsa Erazor III New And Beta Drivers released
  Time: 13:00 EDT/18:00 GMT Source: 3DFiles Posted By: Alex H

  ELSA ERAZOR III, Windows 98 driver for all different versions of ELSA ERAZOR III with beta version of ELSA VideoControl, includes support for video-in (WDM and video for windows based) and video-out. Seperate drivers are available for Windows 95 & 98 that are not beta. The readme says these drivers are based on based on NVidia 208. The download for these is 4 MB.

   
• Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast Patch (v.1.3.5512) released 
  Time: 12:40 EDT/17:40 GMT Source: Gone Gold Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Gone Gold that a new patch (v1.3.5512) for Baldur's Gate expansion, Tales of the Sword Coast has been released. Here is what Version 5512 fixes:

  - Global Variable Bug: It was possible in Tales of the Sword Coast to run out of Global Variables. This would cause many problems including the failure of sub-plots and multiple spawns of NPCs.
  - Sound Volume Reset: Occasionally the sound volume would reset to full volume which could be adjusted, but was not what we had wanted when we shipped. 
  - The Bard Song and Turn Undead modes are now exclusive with other actions. Prior to this, you could use these skills and do other things (like attack) while they were active. This has been addressed.
  - The reset of Thieving skills for Bards and Rangers has been fixed.
  - The price on the Horn of Kazgaroth was fixed. It will now be worth more than 1 Gold Piece, as it should be.
  - Killing Karoug before transformation no longer breaks the Balduran's Island subplots. This would cause the plot to be unfinishable.
  - Various spelling and grammar changes to ingame text.
  - The Demonknight can only exist once. Previously re-visiting Durlag's Tower would cause him to reappear and kill Ike. Now he will stay dead.
  - Multiplayer stability has been increased.
  - The Soultaker is correctly marked as a weapon not a quick item. This prevents an item duplication bug.
  - The graphics on spell scrolls have been resized to fit properly on the page.
  - The color on the Full Shield +2 fixed. It looks pretty again.
  - A general price increase of new items has been implemented to reflect their higher value.
  
  The patch is 6MB and can be downloaded from the following sites: 

  Bioware (The American Version) - http://www.bioware.com/download/BGTalesUS5512.exe 
  Bioware (All other versions) - http://www.bioware.com/download/BGTalesUK5512.exe 

   

• Civilization: Test of Time gone Gold 
  Time: 12:40 EDT/17:40 GMT Source: Gone Gold Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Gone Gold that Civilization: Test of Time has gone Gold.

   
• Hello, Internet - Web Phones are back after false start
  Time: 12:28 EDT/17:28 GMT Source: Business Week Posted By: Alex H

  AT&T has been crushing rivals like Sprint Corp. (FON) in the wireless phone market ever since it introduced its Digital One Rate service with free roaming and no long-distance fees last year. But deep in their corporate offices in Westwood, Kan., Sprint executives are plotting their revenge. As early as next month, Sprint plans to unveil whizzy new wireless phones from Samsung Co. and upstart Innovative Global Solution that will let customers tap into the vast power of the World Wide Web. Sprint is hush-hush about details, but its executives clearly think they've got a blockbuster on their hands. ''When you have something as special as this, it's worth being secretive about it,'' says Andrew Sukawaty, CEO of Sprint PCS, the company's wireless operation.

   
• Compaq hooks up with AltiGen 
  Time: 12:28 EDT/17:28 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Compaq Computer today announced a sales and marketing alliance with AltiGen Communications as the PC maker continues to beef up its services business. The agreement is one in a series of recent deals, where Compaq seeks to plug holes in its product lines and service offerings for specialized market segments, such as telecommunications, manufacturing, and finance.

  Compaq also wants to step up its commitment to the Internet, as emphasized last week by new chief executive Michael Capellas during the second-quarter earnings announcement. The AltiGen agreement would allow the Houston-based PC maker to deliver voice-over-IP services to its customers.

   

• MS Messenger v1.0.0.879 released
  Time: 12:18 EDT/17:18 GMT Source: Beta Bites Posted By: Alex H

  Just noticed over on Beta Bites that a new version of the MSN Messenger has been released. Here is a link to download it.

   
• AT&T to wire Sega's Dreamcast
  Time: 12:12 EDT/17:12 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Embattled video game maker Sega of America Inc. has signed AT&T as the preferred Internet provider for its next-generation Dreamcast system, say sources close to the companies. The console -- due to be released on Sept. 9 -- will come with a 56Kbps modem and use AT&T's (NYSE:T) Worldnet service. As part of the agreement, AT&T and Sega will co-market what will be known as the Sega Dreamcast Network, said the source.

   
• Woodstock.com Sets Streaming Media Milestone
  Time: 12:12 EDT/17:12 GMT Source: Internet News Posted By: Alex H

  e-Media reported Wednesday more than 400,000 viewers logged on to Woodstock.com during the July 23-25 broadcast, receiving more than half a million streams. These numbers make Woodstock 99 the largest live music event ever to be viewed over the Internet.

  In addition, the Woodstock.com streaming was the largest broadband event ever on the Internet, with 30% of viewers choosing streams at 100K and up. Each day, nearly 20% of viewers were logged on at 300K through cable modems, DSL or direct connection to the Internet. At 300K the streams approach television quality.

   
• Diamond, RIAA Settle Internet Music Lawsuit
  Time: 12:09 EDT/17:09 GMT Source: Internet News Posted By: Alex H

  After more than nine months of litigation, Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., maker of the popular Rio MP3 player, and the Recording Industry Association of America Wednesday settled a lawsuit that at one time threatened to stop the device's debut.

  Last October, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against Diamond in San Francisco federal court, claiming that Diamond's Rio player violated the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. The court found in favor of Diamond in June, yet litigation continued about the legality of the Rio player and the openness of the digital music download industry.

  On Wednesday, the parties dismissed their legal actions and said they are mutually satisfied with the resolution of outstanding legal issues. No other details were disclosed.

   

• ActiveWindows MSN Community
  Time: 09:04 EDT/14:04 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  If you haven't heard, MSN released its MSN Communities Beta yesterday. We saw this this morning and we were very excited. We signed up for it this morning. You can visit our public community by clicking on the headline. We would ask that you join our community as you will be up for private mailings that only members can get, and becoming a member is free. Sign up now! We'll see you on! Make sure you check out the Message boards and chat room!

   
• What’s Up With Windows 2000?
  Time: 08:59 EDT/13:59 GMT Source: PC World Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft’s Allchin emphasizes reliability in the next-generation operating system.Jim Allchin, whose job at Microsoft is to get Windows 2000 out the door, sat down with Computerworld last week and talked about the trade-offs the company made in developing Windows 2000 and customer migration issues

   
• Pressure Rising For Single Messaging Standard
  Time: 08:57 EDT/13:57 GMT Source: Avault Posted By: Alex H.

  America Online is winning the technology battle over instant messaging but may lose the war as industry pressure grows for a way to allow the hugely popular service become as universal as e-mail. Reuters is reporting that after several days of fighting software giant Microsoft and others, AOL executives have made their clearest statement to date that they will support an industry organization developing an open messaging standard.

   
• Matrox Gets Down to Business
  Time: 08:56 EDT/13:56 GMT Source: Avault Posted By: Alex H.

  Matrox Graphics today announced that IBM has chosen the award-winning Matrox Millennium G400 16 MB graphics card to power three of its new Intellistation Series models, the Z Pro, M Pro and E Pro. Designed for the business user, Matrox claims the Millennium G400 delivers “stunningly realistic image quality in the most demanding business applications without compromising performance.”

   
• PlayStation 2 Demodulated
  Time: 08:54 EDT/13:54 GMT Source: Avault Posted By: Alex H.

  According to Phil Harrison, vice president of research and development for Sony Computer Entertainment America, the PlayStation 2 will not ship with a modem. Despite the inevitable uproar, Harrison, who is interviewed in the September issue of the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, claims there are good reasons. And here they are, excerpted from his interview:

  If we were to adopt a particular modem strategy today and include it in with the hardware, then by the time we launch it would be obsolete. But by adopting USB, IEEE 1394, also called i-Link by Sony, and PCMCIA PC card interfaces on the machine as standard, consumers can add to their machine the widest variety of connectivity options at the price that's right for them and the performance that's appropriate for the kind of content they're using.

   
• Microsoft, Gilat may be considering joint Net venture
  Time: 08:39 EDT/13:39 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H.

  Microsoft and Israel's Gilat Satellite Networks, a maker of equipment for satellite networks, are mulling a joint venture to provide fast Internet services via satellite, according to reports.

  The venture would compete with one by America Online, the largest provider of Internet services, and General Motors' Hughes Electronics, Ha'aretz reported, citing unnamed sources close to Gilat.

   

• Star Trek: Birth of the Federation patch released v1.02
  Time: 05:05 EDT/10:05 GMT Source: Game Nation Posted By: Alex H.

  Just noticed over on Game Nation that a new patch for ST:BOTF has been released. Here is some info on what the patch fixes:

  Loading a saved multiplayer game will now take longer over the Internet, MSN Gaming Zone and modem. The program would sometimes lose data packets in earlier versions of the game. This resulted in several problems, such as when a guest would be stuck at the Empire Selection screen after the host loaded a saved game. Birth of the Federation now uses DirectPlay's guaranteed send feature, which takes 2-3 times longer than the non-guaranteed send.

  While a saved multiplayer game is loaded, the host will now see the following message: "Sending saved game..." Guests will see "Receiving saved game..."

  Version 1.0.2 should fix the problem of the program not connecting over the Internet after you specify the host's IP address.

  In version 1.0.1, if you steal your second ship and then merge it together with the first stolen ship on the same turn, the game will crash when it processes the turn. (If you merge with a different ship or merge the first ship into the second ship, the game will not crash). This problem has been fixed in version 1.0.2.

  The crash that occurred if a starbase was built and then destroyed in the same turn has been fixed.

   

• WinRAM-Booster v1.0 released
  Time: 04:47 EDT/09:47 GMT Source: Desktop Watch Posted By: Alex H.

  I just noticed over on Desktop Watch that a new program called WinRam-Booster has been released. Here is some info on what the program does:

  WinRAM-Booster Standard and Professional allow you to increase your available RAM for any application with one mouse click, or automatically whenever you start an application. They work by defragmenting your system memory and the swap file, allowing you to recover RAM from the operating system and applications. WinRAM-Booster makes Windows swap unused libraries and DLLs temporarily out to your harddisc, making more room for your games and apps.

  Here is a link to where you can download this program.

   
• Computer Theft Hurts The WELL
  Time: 04:47 EDT/09:47 GMT Source: Wired News Posted By: Alex H.

  A computer loaded with customer credit card numbers has been swiped from GST Whole Earth Networks' San Francisco office.

  Among those vulnerable to credit card fraud are some longstanding members of The WELL, one of the Internet's first online communities. The WELL has no ISP of its own, and many members were grandfathered in to Whole Earth's WeNet service through a series of takeovers.

   
• AOL to put Net terminals into cinemas, shops
  Time: 04:46 EDT/09:46 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  AOL today took a stake in Atlanta, Georgia-based Radiant Systems, a developer of point-of-sale devices.

  The size of AOL's investment wasn't revealed, but the company did say it will be working with Radiant on a series of Net access systems for retail environments. It described the deal as a "multi-year agreement".

   
• Hackers exploit MS design flaws
  Time: 04:42 EDT/09:42 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  Bugs in Microsoft software have given rise to a new class of security problem for which antivirus software is completely ineffective.

  The problem arises because Microsoft decrees that IE can "trust" MS Office 97 programs and it is therefore possible for hackers to slip in something destructive through this route. This design loophole affects Windows 9x and NT, including Windows 2000.

   

• FAST claims world's biggest search engine
  Time: 04:40 EDT/09:40 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H.

  The Norwegian boffins behind a new search engine reckon it will be able to catalogue the entire Internet by next year. They claim alltheweb.com will be capable of searching "all the Web all the time" thanks to the Dell technology powering the service. It took scientists at Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) ten years to develop alltheweb.com which they've already described as the "world's biggest search engine".

   

• Microsoft, Palm support wireless standard
  Time: 04:38 EDT/09:38 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H.

  When it comes to devices, Microsoft and Palm Computing rarely agree on anything. But this week the two companies separately announced support for a messaging standard for wireless devices.

  Both Microsoft and Palm Computing will support the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), a specification for sending and reading Internet content and messages on small wireless devices. Microsoft will incorporate the protocol through its Wireless Knowledge venture, while Palm will license Phone.com's WAP-compatible browser and re-distribute it to licensees of its Palm software.

• AMD to Announce New Athlon Family
  Time: 20:26 EDT/01:26 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex R.

  AMD is expected to announce tomorrow that the Athlon chip is expecting.  Athlon will be the father of three children... a chip for high-end desktops, a chip for high-end servers, and a cheapy chip for low-end desktop solutions.  Like I said, expect that announcement tomorrow.

   

• Sega Tapping AT&T WorldNet as Dreamcast ISP?
  Time: 20:24 EDT/01:24 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex R.

  ZDNet is reporting that Sega is expected to announce tomorrow that AT&T Worldnet has been chosen as the official ISP for the Dreamcast product, which is slated for U.S. release on September 9th.

   

• Fun With Hacking/Cracking Windows 2000
  Time: 20:12 EDT/01:12 GMT Source: Slashdot Posted By: Alex R.

  From the web site with the address that is hard to type because of mental blockage (try typing "slashdot.org" while saying it in your mind as slash-dot-org)... Microsoft has given the world an open invitation to take shots at cracking Windows 2000 with IIS running.  There are, however, some ground rules of engagement.  Most certainly a fun testing environment for all who would like to try their hand at it.  My recommendation?  Microsoft should do this for all of their products... it's fun, and may very well provide better security in the long run.

  Check out this URL for the main site to start cracking, and here's the rules of gameplay.

  P.S. As of this writing, someone may have already nuked the machine.  It seems these URLs are either extremely popular or already cracked and bleeding.

   

• Microsoft's Parent Trap
  Time: 18:05 EDT/23:05 GMT Source: U.S. News & World Report Posted By: Dennis

  People tend to regard parental advice with a bit of suspicion. But Microsoft employees are hanging on Mom and Dad's every word these days, especially when their folks are talking about operating systems software.

  Wonder of wonders, the company that Bill Gates built is attempting to move past its tendency to design products that only a geek could really master, if not love. Instead, it is committing itself to reach out to "normal" people for help in making its Windows operating system easier to use–particularly the new consumer version of Windows due for release next year, code-named Millennium

   
• Does Microsoft's next OS point to strategy shift?
  Time: 16:53 EDT/21:53 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Byron/Dennis

  Perhaps people should remember that its a developers release after all:

  Microsoft's next consumer operating system will meld together bits and pieces of both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, according to those who have seen an early version of the release, a hodgepodge that raises questions about the company's overall strategy for its consumer platform.

  Microsoft has changed its strategy for the future of consumer Windows several times in the last few years, reacting to various hardware advances, delays in the release of its corporate operating system, and personnel reorganizations within the company.

   
• Quake III Test V1.08 released
  Time: 12:03 EDT/17:03 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Voodoo Extreme that Quake Test Version 1.08 has been released. Here is what has been fixed in the new version:

  fixed marks fading properly in fog volumes
  show weapon in fov >90, adjusting position down as needed
  update scoreboard info while at intermission
  print "waiting to play" for tourney spectators
  fixed tied rank with 0 score and spectators
  return to roaming spectator when a followed client quits or spectates
  release windows cursor when running windowed and the console is down
  log all client transitions, item pickups, and kills
  changed joystick axis to act just like arrow keys so they can be bound in the controls menu for strafing. Yes, this does remove slow walking from joystick movement,but it makes everything a lot cleaner.
  fix up PantherXL trackball support
  tournement queuing of spectators to enter the game
  track wins and losses as long as you stay on a tourney server
  spectators are now in fly mode instead of noclip, and use teleporters
  pass serverTime instead of msec for command timing, prevents timescale cheating
  fixed rcon

   

• AMD positions K7 Athlon for enterprise
  Time: 11:54 EDT/16:54 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  A senior executive at AMD has outlined the marketing and positioning the company will use to attack Intel in the mid and high-end server markets.

  Robert Stead, marketing director of AMD Europe, said the company would brand the K7 the Athlon Ultra for the server and workstation market For the high performance PC market, it would be called the Athlon Professional, while the K7 may well move into the value PC area, he said.

   
• Bitboys unveils embedded DRAM 3D graphics chip
  Time: 11:53 EDT/16:53 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Finnish 3D graphics accelerator developer Bitboys yesterday took the wraps off its upcoming Glaze 3D technology, and announced two versions of the chipset, the 1200 and 2400.

  The company claims Glaze offers significant performance improvements over current 3D accelerators by eliminating the key bottleneck within a graphics card: the memory bus.

   

• The 'Shark' takes a bite out of the Web
  Time: 11:51 EDT/16:51 GMT Source: ZDNet Posted By: Alex H

  Leading golfer Greg Norman has launched a new portal style Web site, www.shark.com, aimed firmly at the pockets of high-rolling golfers and well-to-do Web users. The site is managed by Greg Norman Interactive (GNI) a joint venture between Australian Internet media company LibertyOne and Norman's Great White Shark Enterprises. The site is currently being produced out of Florida, with support from LibertyOne in Australia

   
• Intel investing in overseas content, Net infrastructure
  Time: 11:49 EDT/16:49 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Intel invested $50 million more into a project to bring cable Internet service, set-top boxes, and local Internet content to Hong Kong, but the deal is only the tip of the iceberg.

  The company is in the midst of an overseas investment strategy geared at making the Internet more attractive to overseas users by beefing up local infrastructure and laying the groundwork for sites that locals will want to access. In the past year, for instance, the chip company has sunk equity investments into Rediff on the Net, a portal in Mumbai, India, developed by a consulting group that puts together Web sites, StarMedia Network, a Spanish-Portuguese portal in Latin America, and the Chinese equivalent of Yahoo, according to Claude Leglise, vice president of Intel's home product group.

   
• Does Microsoft's next OS point to strategy shift?
  Time: 11:47 EDT/16:47 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft's next consumer operating system will meld together bits and pieces of both Windows 98 and Windows 2000, according to those who have seen an early version of the release, a hodgepodge that raises questions about the company's overall strategy for its consumer platform.

  Microsoft has changed its strategy for the future of consumer Windows several times in the last few years, reacting to various hardware advances, delays in the release of its corporate operating system, and personnel reorganizations within the company.

   

• Symantec: We are not Infected
  Time: 11:26 EDT/16:26 GMT Source: ZDNN Posted By: Dennis

  Internet vandals broke into the servers of network security and utilities firm Symantec Corp. Monday morning, defacing the company's Web site.

  While the vandals claimed to have infected Symantec's network two months ago with a worm, quaintly dubbed Bloworm, the company denied Monday that any worm existed on its systems.

• Kingpin v1.15c released
  Time: 17:50 EDT/21:50 GMT Source: Voodoo Extreme Posted By: Alex H

  Just noticed over on Voodoo Extreme that the Kingpin Beta Page has released a new patch for Kingpin. Here is what the patches fix:

  - fixed some crash bugs 
  - implemented dynamic downloading of the Kingpin player model & skin format (the skin/model files need to exist on the server) 
  - other misc tweaks

   

• Quantex Offering 600MHz for the Price of 550MHz
  Time: 17:26 EDT/21:26 GMT Source: CoolInfo Posted By: Alex H

  Quantex(R) Microsystems, Inc. announced that today they will be shipping the Intel(R) Pentium(R) III processor at 600MHz. Customers who purchase a new Pentium III processor at 550MHz will be upgraded to a Pentium(R) III processor at 600MHz free of charge. This offer is valid on new orders placed between August 2, 1999 and August 9, 1999.

  "Quantex prides itself on offering the latest technology to our customers as soon as it's released. We also want to live up to our reputation of offering the best value, which is why we're extending this free upgrade to our customers," said John Amico, vice president of sales.

   

• PC-USB CD-Rewritable Drive
  Time: 17:23 EDT/21:23 GMT Source: CoolInfo Posted By: Alex H

  QPS Inc. (www.qps-inc.com) Monday announced the introduction of its new Que!(TM) PC-USB CD-Rewritable (CD-RW) Drive. Similar to the successful Que! Drive for the iMAC, the new drive is designed for PC-USB computers. The gray 4x2x8x external drive allows users to easily record, erase and rewrite CDs, and is affordably priced at $299 MSRP. A kit option allows the drive's gray panels to be converted to match different PC colors including dark gray, blue and black.

   

• Excel Driver Opens Office 97 Security Hole
  Time: 17:19 EDT/21:19 GMT Source: Netigen Posted By: Alex H

  A security flaw has been discovered in Microsoft's Office 97 suite that allows a cracker to delete files or manipulate data of an Office 97 user. The problem does not affect Office 2000 according to information on a Microsoft website. It is possible that a malicious coder could create an Excel spreadsheet that exploits a vulnerability in the ODBC database driver to delete files and perform other malicious acts. The issue has been confirmed by Microsoft and a fix is expected as early as Tuesday.

   
• Avoid MS Word, US appelate judges warn lawyers
  Time: 17:17 EDT/21:17 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  MS Word has been condemned by three US Court of Appeals judges for giving an incorrect word count. Rule 32 of the appeal procedure requires briefs to be no more than 14,000 words (and reply briefs 7000 words), but the hapless party to an otherwise irrelevant case in the Northern District of Illinois was castigated for a false certificate to the court that a brief was 13,824 words long. Rule 32 says that headings, footnotes, quotations etc. count toward the word and line limitations.

   
• AMD succeeds in producing copper K6
  Time: 17:15 EDT/21:15 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  The director of AMD's Fab 30 in Dresden said today that the company had succeeded this month in producing a K6 using its copper technology. But success with the K6 in copper is merely a warm up for production of the K7 Athlon, according to Hans Jeppe, who runs the facility, He confirmed that the fab was capable of producing 5,500 wafer starts a week, but declined to say how many of the dies would be good ones. There will be 300 K7 Athlons per wafer at .18 micron.

   

• Intel StrataFlash 'surpasses' Moore's Law
  Time: 17:13 EDT/21:13 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Intel Corporation today announced a 3V 'StrataFlash' memory chip with threefold performance boost over its previous version. Using 0.25 micron lithography, the memory enables both code execution and data storage on a single high-density 128Mb chip. "We surpassed Moore's law with our 2-bit-per-cell multi-level cell technology," boasted Hans Geyer, Intel VP, Flash Products Division.

   
• Palm IIIe 'Special Edition' to debut
  Time: 17:11 EDT/21:11 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  3Com Corp.'s Palm Computing Inc. division on Tuesday will announce a Special Edition version of the Palm IIIe handheld organizer. What makes the Special Edition special? Cosmetics. The device is identical to a Palm IIIe except that its housing and flip lid are clear rather than the traditional gray.

   
• IBM, 3Com in $1 billion pact
  Time: 17:09 EDT/21:09 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  IBM and 3Com announced a cross-licensing agreement valued at more than $1 billion, covering an extensive portfolio of networking and communications technologies.

  The two companies said they will license one another their patent portfolios "to enable each company's development teams to bring products to market faster." IBM and 3Com already make extensive use of each other's technology--including chips, routers, hubs, and modems--and the two companies have high-level ties.

   
• Office 2000 Beta Expiration Notice On PC's That Have Never Had Office 2000 Installed At All
  Time: 09:49 EDT/14:49 GMT Source: Microsoft/E-mail Posted By: Byron

  Important Bug Report: The following applies to some Windows 98 computers with Internet Explorer 5 installed. (No cases have yet been reported for Windows 95. The problem may or may not exist on some Windows 95 computers with IE5 installed.)

  Read The Whole Bug Report & Find Out How To Fix It

   
• Interview with Kevin Mitnick
  Time: 07:57 EDT/12:57 GMT Source: MSNBC Posted By: Alex R.

  MSNBC has an interesting interview with Kevin Mitnick, the cracker who awaits sentencing for his cracking convictions.  Mitnick is trying to have some court documents unsealed in an attempt to prove that the government manipulated evidence in his case... all in an effort to clear his name.

   
• Intel invests in fast Net access for Asia
  Time: 03:22 EDT/08:22 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  Chipmaking giant Intel said today that it is investing in a new joint venture with Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group in an effort to bring high-speed Internet access to Asia.

  Under the deal, Intel's existing joint venture with Pacific century, known as Pacific Convergence, would be folded into a new company, Pacific Century CyberWorks, said Claude Leglise, vice president of Intel's home products group, in an interview.

   

• Intel stops wavering on 100MHz Celeron front side bus
  Time: 03:22 EDT/08:22 GMT Source: The Register Posted By: Alex H

  After humming and hawing throughout the year, Intel has now decided to introduce Celeron processors which will use a 100MHz front side bus (FSB). The first parts to support the faster bus speed will be the 400MHz, 433MHz and 466MHz parts in Q3 of this year, which will depend on the i810 chipset. They will be followed towards the end of this year with the 500MHz Celeron at 100MHz FSB, which Intel will introduce tomorrow in its 66MHz FSB recension.

   
• Sun to unveil chip for Java multimedia
  Time: 03:20 EDT/08:20 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Sun Microsystems plans to introduce a chip designed to enhance Java software and improve video, images, and sound. The company said its new chip, called MAJC (pronounced "magic"), is designed to improve applications using Sun's Java programming language, which lets software run on different computer systems.

• New ICQ Released
  Time: 21:40 EDT/01:40 GMT Source: BetaNews Posted By: Alex R.

  Looks like Mirabilis... er... AOL has released a new version of ICQ v99a Beta.  This brings it up to Build 1800 v2.24.  Wonder if you can use it to talk to folks on MSN Messenger?  Har har har.

   
• Microsoft Releases Messenger 1.0.0.877
  Time: 12:04 EDT/17:04 GMT Source: Netigen Web Posted By: Byron

  Microsoft has released a new build (1.0.0.877) of MSN Messenger that restores AOL support. AOL is trapped in a self-induced PR nightmare that almost everyone expects will end in Microsoft's favor.

   
• Professional Image Enhancement Power at a Hobbyist Price
  Time: 12:02 EDT/17:02 GMT Source: Press Release Posted By: Dennis

  CDH Productions has released Image Explorer Pro version 4.0, an all-in-one Windows 98/95/NT/2000 image and video tool for managing and enhancing your pictures.

  Image Explorer Pro has an advanced image and video file viewer that lets you examine files individually, create a slide show, and create and view thumbnails. Image Explorer Pro's Explorer-like interface makes file maintenance and printing a breeze. You can read and write all of your images in more than 60 formats, and even perform batch conversions from one format to another.

  Using its TWAIN interface, the program can acquire images directly from scanners and digital cameras. With a standard Internet connection, you can e-mail images to your friends. Image Explorer Pro can create animated GIF files, edit your videos and add 3D text and shapes to your pictures. The program's icon editor offers a full range of tools for creating and manipulating Windows icons. There is even a wallpaper manager.

  Image Explorer Pro comes complete with the basic image enhancement tools that a beginner or hobbyist might use, such as cropping, resizing, rotating, flipping, and mirroring. Image Explorer Pro offers a full range of image adjustments that allow you to manipulate brightness, contrast, saturation, perform gamma corrections, and many more . For advanced users, there are more than 60 special effects and filters that let you posterize, picturize, solarize, texturize, add artistic touches, and much more. These advanced functions, usually found only in high-priced image manipulation programs designed for professional artists, let you retouch photos and create artistic effects without the high price or the steep learning curve. Image Explorer Pro even supports Adobe Photoshop compatible plug-ins!

  Business users and artists will appreciate Image Explorer Pro's power and feature-rich design, while hobbyists will enjoy the program's ease-of-use and price.

  Image Explorer Pro version 4.0 costs $50, and may be purchased online at http://www.cdhnow.com. A fully functional trial version of Image Explorer Pro is available at the same address. Group purchases and site licenses are available. For more information, contact CDH Productions, 141 Topsail Greens Drive, Hampstead, NC 28443. E-mail: info@cdhnow.com. Internet: http://www.cdhnow.com

   
• Windows 2000 FAQ
  Time: 10:45 EDT/15:45 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Dennis

  We're currently gearing up to release our Windows 2000 section, with tips and other information to get you ready for Windows 2000, or if you already have it via the Consumer Preview Program, help.

  Our Windows 2000 FAQ hasn't been updated in ages, and we'd like to have you email me at dennisg@activewin.com with questions that you have about Windows 2000, and I'll answer it in the email, and maybe add it on to the updated FAQ.

  There won't be much news for today, as its a weekend, but if your bored come and help me!

   
• Creative Voodoo2 miniGL Beta and Banshee miniGL Beta released
  Time: 04:43 EDT/09:43 GMT Source: Windrivers.com Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Windrivers.com that new miniGL Beta drivers for the Creative Labs Voodoo2 and the Banshee have been released. The Voodoo2 miniGL driver version number is 1.1.2.0025 dated 07/23/99.

   
• Media Player 6.4 Beta released
  Time: 04:43 EDT/09:43 GMT Source: Beta Bites Posted By: Alex H

  Just read over on Beta Bites that a new version of  Media Player by Microsoft has been released on their Windows Update page. To get the beta one to work you will have to uninstall the old version of Media Player and then install the beta version.

  Update by Alex R.: It seems Microsoft has also finally added some new stuff in the Desktop Themes/Screensavers department on Windows Update.  Maybe we can look forward to more, eh?

   
• ActiveWindows Mouse Pads and Competition Reminders
  Time: 04:44 EDT/09:44 GMT Source: ActiveWindows Posted By: Alex H

  Don't forget that the first ActiveWindows piece of merchandise is now available to pre-order. The first product in our new range of logos is the ActiveWindows Mouse Pad 1. We aim to have many other products pop up soon (Assuming these are popular). And also don't forget to enter our DVD-Game Competition to win a copy of Shadoan and a Mouse Mat.

   

• Microsoft beefs up Windows 2000 for servers
  Time: 04:43 EDT/09:43 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Microsoft is developing new networking and security software for server editions of the Windows 2000 operating system. Microsoft soon will test faxing and speech recognition software as well as Proxy Server technology featuring firewall security and Web caching, according to a report by BetaNews.com.

  Microsoft also is building client software for Windows 95 and 98 and NT 4.0 so that users of the older operating systems can take advantage of the new Windows 2000 features, the report said. Furthermore, the company is adding components to its NetMeeting videoconferencing software. Windows 2000 is an upgrade of the company's current Windows NT operating system, which is due out by the end of the year following several delays.

  Microsoft is merely continuing its tradition of adding new features to its operating systems, according to Dwight Davis, an analyst with Summit Strategies. "They're following their standard progression of piling more stuff either into the operating system or as optional add-ons," Davis said.

   
• Microsoft's Gates plans $100 billion in donations
  Time: 04:41 EDT/09:41 GMT Source: News.com Posted By: Alex H

  Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft and the world's richest man, plans to become the biggest charity donor in history with a $100 billion give-away, the billionaire's father told the Sunday Times of London. Gates' father, who manages the William H. Gates Foundation, told the paper his son planned to donate his fortune to help rid the planet of diseases such as AIDS and malaria.

  The charity will announce a series of new funding programs in the next three months. According to the foundation's Web site, through the end of 1998 about $350 million had been committed to various health, education, and community organizations.

  "My son is going to have critics all his life because of his wealth," said the elder Gates. "But I'm optimistic now that we have put to rest any criticism on the basis of his not being sufficiently generous. We've pretty much drowned that out."

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