OMG! I bought the wrong video card!

[ posted by Liberty, Monday October 29 2007 ]

According to the folks over at Gamespot.com, today's retail release of the nVidia 8800 GT video card comes with some surprises...

...
(article removed; you snooze, you loose.)
...

your computer might be showing the wrong time today

[submitted by John S., October 28 2007]

A note for our United States readers:

In 2007, Daylight Saving Time (DST) doesn't take effect in the US until the first Sunday in November... this is a change from previous years, in which DST ended the last Sunday in October.

You can double-check the current time at TimeAndDate.com.

"DST ends on Sunday, November 4, 2007 at 2:00 AM local daylight time"

Easily Add A Storage Hard Drive to Your Home Network

[posted by Liberty on 23 October 2007]

The 'NetDisk Enclosure' from xiMeta appears to be an easy and cheap way to add a Hard Drive for network-connected storage. The difference between this product and most 'USB HDD Enclosures' you can buy is that you can plug this one into your network using an Ethernet cable instead of having to have it connected directly to a computer using a USB cable. And unlike some other networked drives, this one provides a device that's (supposedly) 'plug-and-play' (no IP config). And it even supports RAID!

Here's the marketing description (slightly modified by me):

NetDisk Enclosure is a single drive Ethernet/USB 2.0 combination enclosure that allows you to use the internal (3.5" IDE) hard drive of your choice. Each model includes advanced 'NDAS' technology for central, simple and secure network storage -- with no IP configuration or server required!

• 3.5" IDE HD Drive Enclosure
• External network storage for home and office
• Fast Ethernet (100-BaseT \ 802.3u 100Base-TX) and USB 2.0 interface
• RAID 0,1, and JBOD
• Use for backup and/or media storage

http://www.ximeta.com/products/ndenclosure1_en.php

http://www.ximeta.com/products/ndenclosure4_en.php

Buy direct: ($80): https://www.ximeta.com/ecommerce2/

You might be interested in the Linksys "NAS" (Network Attached Storage) product instead... The "Linksys Network Storage System with 2 Bays (NAS200)" will let you put in two drives, supports 802.3u 100Base-TX, and sells for $130 -- but be sure to check out the user reviews at amazon.com before you decide.

Dear Epic Games (Re: Unreal tournament 3)

Too Much Free Time - playing every game because it needs to be done


Dennou Kyuusei Uranai

[by Liberty, October 2007                       [2007-10-23_05:09pm]

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~
UT3's release date is November 19, 2007
You can preorder the standard or Collector's Edition now!

(This post is specific to the PC version; but you might want to check out the PS3 version and the XBOX 360 version too.)

If you're wondering if your system is up to it, here's a tip: Bioshock uses the same game engine. So all you have to do is search online for FPS ratings (performance ratings/tests) for Bioshock to get the info you need...
There's a demo available as well, so if you have the time, you could install that and see how it does...

Dear Epic -

According to sources online (why the Press Release or your website doesn't come up in searches is something you might want to look into), the "minimum system requirements" for Unreal Tournament 3 list the following video cards:

[NVIDIA 6200+] or [ATI Radeon 9600+] Video Card

Given the amount of marketing spin and varying degrees of misinformation on the internet, how are most of your potential customers supposed to know what video cards rank _above_ and _below_ these models? It's not like Nvidia and ATI necessarily number their models sequentially. (To add to that, the addition of a single letter or number or symbol to a model number apparently implies large differences in performance -- e.g. [6500 GT] vs [6500 GTS], or e.g. the plus [+] symbol.... )

And what about dual card hardware configurations ("SLI" and "CrossFire")?

Please provide a table of video cards that ranks video cards that meet or exceed this "minimum required" benchmark.

Your customers need to know what components in their price range can reasonably be expected to run your product. And the old days of clear "this card is better than that card" days are long gone...

Links and References

1. > Epic Games guy gives some details
http://www.evga.com/gaming/gaming_news/gn_100.asp

Q. Does Unreal Tournament 3 support EAX? Does it use OpenAL like UT2004?

A. On PC , Unreal Engine 3 uses OpenAL for sound, and takes advantage of the
major 3D sound features available in hardware, or in the OpenAL software driver.

Q. Does Unreal Tournament 3 support HDR rendering with Anti-aliasing?

A. Yes, on Windows Vista. On all PC platforms, we support running with 16-bit-per-component frame buffer (64 bits total).
[But] MSAA anti-aliasing support is only enabled on DirectX 10, because the deferred rendering techniques used by the engine require some capabilities not included in DirectX 9.

2. - UT3 System Score Calculator (only provides a _very_ rough idea, and has no info on how it determines scores):
http://gearsforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=577457
  (laptop = 13.83 ? ; big blue = 6.001 ?)


Recommended System Requirements*:

2.4+ GHZ Dual Core Processor
1 GBytes of System RAM
NVIDIA 7800GTX+ or ATI x1300+ Video Card
8 GB of Free Hard Drive Space
Tim Sweeney of Epic Games has confirmed [30] that the best quality of graphics in UT3 (i.e.: MSAA anti-aliasing) will only be available to players of Unreal Tournament 3 if they are Windows Vista users who also have a DirectX 10 graphics card.

*(src=wiki)
~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

blogger template update

update to this blog's styling:

Time for a Flash-based ("Solid State") Hard Drive?

from "Solid State Disk Drives Are Here" (SanDisk) by Patrick Schmid & Achim Roos; August 13, 2007 at TomsHardware.com

"The time saved when launching applications such as Windows is reason enough for me to purchase one of these drives for my notebook soon. Indeed, real enthusiasts have no option but to invest in a SSD, because the performance is noticeably better than with any other hardware upgrade. For everyone else, I recommend waiting until these products become more affordable, because $400 for a 32 GB SDD is pretty much the cost of a 1 TB hard drive."

> read more (12 pages)

Recommended site: www.SamsungSSD.com

"
64 MB Solid State Drive -- Learn More About Samsung's New SSD W/No Moving Parts! Official Site."

"Leading PC manufacturers are introducing Samsung SSD-based notebooks in the 4th quarter of 2007.

Check back to see where you can buy models driven by the all-Flash SSD. "
(see also http://www.samsung.com/us/business/semiconductor/ )

One thing I noticed was that Dell started offering some thing they referred to obliquely as "Intel Accelerator" or something like that... as it turns out:

"Samsung's 2.5" SATA, 64 GB solid state drive (SSD) is now available with Dell and Alienware notebooks. Alienware has a 128GB SSD configuration with dual 64GB SSD drives, as well as a 64GB SSD combined with a 200GB drive. Dell is offering the Samsung SSD on its XPS™ M1330 ultra-portable, and expects to use it on additional XPS, as well as Latitude™ corporate notebooks and Dell Precision™ mobile workstations soon. "

A quick check on the Alienware site (now owned by Dell) shows the m5550 laptop is now being offered with new drive choices:

You can get a 120 "GB" SATA "1.5 Gb/s" 7,200 RPM drive with 8MB Cache OR, for
$400 more (!) you can get a 32 "GB" SATA Solid State Drive. 32 GB not enough for you? No worries; for a measly $1,000 more than the 320 BillionByte 7200 rpm drive, you can get the 64 "GB" Solid State Drive. ;-)

Footnotes: "GB" means sizes are actually BB (Billion Bytes). The term "1.5 Gb/s" is way to distinguish SATA types and is not an actual reflection of access speed.

[posted by Liberty Miller, Oct 19 2007]

stocks for week of oct 15 to 19, 2007

October 19th marks the 20 year anniversary of 1987's "Black Monday".

• S&P has lost 3.7% since record close on October 9


• Dow has lost 4.2% since record close on October 9


• S&P 500 down for fourth time in 5 sessions (trading days)


• Dow's current losing streak is longest in over two months


• Stocks for today have worst weekly performance (overall drop) since late July


• QID (an EFT that trades at the inverse of the daily performance of the NASDAQ-100 index) is up 4.90% for the day.

My Watchlist:

• SanDisk got hit hard today: Close= $42.71 Loss= -$7.60 Percentage Loss= -15.11%
  
  Shares of Sandisk Corp. dropped Friday after the flash memory drive maker said third-quarter profit fell 18 percent as a result of acquisition charges.


• CSCO : down -3.61 %


• ORCL


• QQQQ


• MRVL


• NVDA : down -5.37 % , but still UP for the week (+5% since Monday, was up almost 10% yesterday)


• SPY  : down -2.62 %


• EMC :


• AAPL

 

mover notes (from business week.com)

3M Co. (MMM) posts third quarter EPS of $1.32, vs. $1.18 a year ago, on 5.4% sales rise. It raises $5.40-$5.60 2007 EPS guidance to $5.54-$5.62, which includes estimated full year 2007 net gain of $0.60-$0.65 per share, due to special items.

Honeywell International (HON) posts third quarter EPS of $0.81, vs. $0.66 a year ago, on 9.8% sales rise. It raises 2007 sales guidance by $300 million to $34.2 billion, EPS guidance to $3.14-$3.16, free cash flow to $3.0 billion.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) posts $0.71 third quarter loss per share, vs. $0.27 EPS a year ago, as narrowed year-over-year gross margin, higher R&D and acquisitions costs offset 23% revenue rise. S&P reiterates hold.

Google (GOOG) reports third quarter EPS (GAAP basis) of $3.38, vs. $2.36 a year ago. Excluding one-time items, EPS was $3.91. Revenue rose 57% to $4.23 billion. The report was better than analysts expected.

SanDisk (SNDK) posts third quarter EPS (non-GAAP) of $0.54, vs. $0.61 a year ago, despite a 38% revenue. rise. It says prices will likely decline "moderately more" in the fourth quarter than in third quarter. It says it may not be able to meet 100% of the strong demand it sees through the fourth quarter holiday season. S&P says while third quarter EPS was below its estimate, upgrades to buy from hold.

NEW YORK, October 19 (newratings.com) - Analysts at Robert W Baird maintain their "neutral" rating on SanDisk Corporation (SNDK.NAS), while raising their estimates for the company. The target price has been reduced from $58 to $52. [Price close for 10/19: $42.71 ; 52-week high: $62.05 ] Likely range: $47 (+10%) to $52.97 (+23.8%)

...

Continue to hold EMC? Purchased @ $19.41; currently $22.38; gain of 15.3% (+$920) ...

---

Windows tip of the day: You may know that [Ctrl]+[Z] is "Undo" ... but did you know that [Ctrl]+[Y] is "Redo" (un-do your last un-do)?

• for most Macs: Undo = CMD+[Z]


• for Windows [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Z] also does redo, because it is the alternate (Shift key) form of [Ctrl]+[Z].


• likewise, for Macs the Redo key combination is CMD+[Shift]+[Z].

rfe: Microsoft Windows Xp > System Restore Utility

Request for Enhancement: Microsoft Windows XP > System Restore utility > Renamed folder list

For some reason, the System Restore utility, when displaying the list of renamed files and folders, does not let the user save the data. You cannot select the text for copying (Ctrl-C), and the list appears in a small box that can not be resized. Any log that may be available is hidden (not indicated) from the user.

Request: Add a button on the System Restore "Renamed Files/Folders" window for [Save ] with the following help text displayed:

"A copy of this list will be saved to your desktop as 'System Restore Renamed Files Log.txt'"

----

Help for System Restore Renamed Folders

"Renamed folders list

In some rare instances, System Restore retores a folder during the restoration process that has the same name as an existing folder. To avoid writing over the existing folder, System Restore renames the folder by adding a numeric suffix to the name.

This screen lists the folders that have been renamed in the process of restoration and their locations on your hard disk. If you would like to record this information, you better grab a pencil and a piece of paper and get writing..."

unfortunate display of incompetence

General Ricardo Sanchez (retired) states "There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetence in strategic leadership among our national leaders."

more >> Sanchez Says Iraq Is A 'Nightmare'

---

from 'opinion by Jack Kelly' (news.yahoo.com):

The Bush administration began the Iraq war with a "catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic" war plan, and never has devised a comprehensive national strategy to fight the war, retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said in a speech to military journalists last week.

The result is that Iraq is a "nightmare" where the best we can do is stave off defeat, LtGen. Sanchez said. The troop surge, he said, "is a desperate attempt by an administration that has not accepted the political and economic realities of this war."

LtGen. Sanchez, who commanded U.S. troops in Iraq from June, 2003 to June, 2004, is the highest ranking Iraq war veteran to publicly criticize the war, so his comments were newsworthy, despite being long on adjectives and short on specifics.