Blue Oracle - Technology News

Beyond the case mod?

Beyond the case mod?
Dean over at Ausforums has pointed out an unusual case mod to have a look at. Drag this setup to your next LAN and be truly unique. Click Here to view.

[source: Ausforums]

If you can�t beat �em, sue �em

If you can’t beat ‘em, sue ‘em
What’s a CDR drive good for? According to German music licensing company Gema, nothing. Actually, almost nothing – it does have its uses in stealing music and depriving revenue from starving multinational music companies. What's new?

[source: AtomicMPC]

Free stuff is always good stuff.

Free stuff is always good stuff.
Reseller Ratings are giving away a slick AMD Athlon XP 2000+ system. You will have to sign-up for an account to enter though.

[source: Resellerratings ]

Budget video card roundup.

Budget video card roundup.
We would all like to have a GeForce 4 video card in our PC but the harsh reality is that most people can't afford these latest warp factor weapons. The lads over at PC Stats have knocked up a review of sub $250.00 (AUD) video cards which is good if you are considering a budget video card upgrade in the near future.

[source: PC Stats]

Intel Application Accelerator 2.1 Final

Intel Application Accelerator 2.1 Final
Here's a new app I haven't seen before. It's the Intel® Application Accelerator, and it is a new performance software package for Intel desktop PCs. The Intel® Application Accelerator reduces the storage sub-system bottleneck, enabling the processor and other system level hardware to be more productive and efficient. Might be worth a look if you have a P4.

[source: EntCity]

Lian Li PC-68 case

Lian Li PC-68 case
Project K-pro review the new Lian Li PC-68 Aluminium case. With a total of twelve drive bays you shouldn't be running out of room in this case anytime soon. I also want to reiterate the fact how aesthetically pleasing the brushed aluminum on the outside of this case.

See it here: http://kaypro.otakupc.com/default.asp?id=18&mnu=1

Cool cool Blue.

Cool cool Blue.
Virtual Hidout have a review on the cool looking, and nice performing, transparent blue fans from So-Trick Computers. A must have for the elite air-overclocker.

See the review here.

While we are at it, the Bench-House have a review on P4 motherboard chipsets.
Pentium 4 is a product in direct confrontation with AMD Athlon processor series. Performances of P4 "Willamette" core are not on the level that was expected from a leading product, which should hold leadership in the field of CPUs for PC platforms. With emergence of P4 processor with "Northwood" core the situation should get better and Intel should be back in the game finally. P4 was firstly introduced in Socket 423 package and after a while it got the final Socket 478 standard. On the market today, "old" Socket 423 processors can still be found for a very satisfactory price. However, one should have in mind there're less motherboards every day, which support Socket 423 CPU "package". Situation on the motherboard and chipset market with Intel Pentium 4 processor support is very similar to the situation in Socket A sector. Almost all major names are present, such as VIA Technologies, SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems), ALi (Acer Laboratories Incorporated) and, naturally, Intel itself. Hence, we shall make a brief review of chipsets specified for Intel P4 platforms.

Check the article here: http://www.bench-house.com/motherboard/intel/p4_chipsets/p4_chipsets_001.html

VR-Zone have a review on the new Intel P4 2.4Ghz CPU.
The gap is closing for value performance between the Athlon XP and Intel P4's. The P4/2.4Ghz turns out to be excellent for Business apps performance but for gaming performance the P4 is just ahead but the gain isn't enough to persuade gamers to get a more expensive P4. The AMD Ahtlon XP still possess better value.

See the full review here: http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/Intel/P42400/

For those of you who own an aluminium case and want all your drives to match your case, Dan's Data has a review on Lian Li stick-on aluminium drive bezels.
Click here to read the review.

[source: http://www.dansdata.com/ ]

SETI at home - Three years and 1397 possible signs of life

With members numbering over 3.5 million the SETI at home project has been returning steady results over the past three years. The project is closing in on the 1 million year CPU milestone and has produced over 470 million results. The S@H team has started sifting through those results to identify possible final candidates for further investigation. The most recent newsletter points out there are 1397 persistent Gaussian signals which represent the best candidates for Extraterrestrial signals (The Planetary Society has a good explanation on the Gaussian screening in this article). A selection of these final persistent signals will be examined in detail by observation with dedicated radio telescope time.

[source: http://www.arstechnica.com/]

MS has a little Easter present for you.

Well, we have a few more security issues with Windows and IE 5.01 to 6. Might be worth patching these. You can get the patch here.

Peace and good will to all men. (err, and women)

Happy Easter to all, drive safe now!

Time to update your VIA 4in1's and GeForce Detonators again.

VIA 4-in-1 4.38a Driver

A new VIA 4-in-1 driver has been released. Here's what's new in version 4.38:

Add ATA133 feature under WinXP
Update AGP driver (4.10b)
Fixed Memory dump issue under WinNT (dual-p)
Fixed AGP driver uninstall issue

Download VIA 4-in-1 4.38a driver (VIA Arena)

nVIDIA Detonator Driver 28.32

nVIDIA has released Detonator driver version 28.32 for Windows 95/98/ME, Windows XP/2000, and Windows NT. Here are the release notes:

Full Acceleration and support for the GeForce4 and Quadro4 families
nView™ Multi-Display Support (User's Guide available at left)
NVIDIA’s patented Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) – supports all products in single a driver binary
Highly optimized Microsoft® DirectX® 8.1 and OpenGL® 1.3 with NVIDIA extensions pipelines

Download nVIDIA Detonator 28.32 Win9x/ME
Download nVIDIA Detonator 28.32 Win2k/XP
Download nVIDIA Detonator 28.32 WinNT

[source: EntCity]

May the Swartz be with you - Part 2.

Someone over at Ain't It Cool News has managed to view a STAR WARS EPISODE TWO: ATTACK OF THE CLONES early cut and has posted a short review. I don't know what strings you have to pull to get this sort of privilege but this bloke managed to.
He seemed to have the same sort of fears that I had of the film being bad however he says:

This movie is the real deal. It is smart, beautiful (god digital photography is the glory and the future of the world of film, the palette is strikingly dramatically colorful), thrilling and electrical. Essentially it is a pure action adventure science fiction fantasy with a touch of romance. Line up now. This Star Wars is for real.

I hope he is right. Check this link for the review.