Chad Weirick
Chad Weirick
Recent posts
USB 3.0 is right around the corner, and rather than a minor speed boost, it looks like a serious technology reworking that could help USB 3.0 last well into the next decade.The major features of USB 3.0 are a tenfold speed increase and the obligatory lower power consumption."USB 3.0 is the next logical step for the PC's most popular wired...
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It would appear that Sony is shopping around for companies willing to buy their cell architecture, and Toshiba may be the next owner of the technology and/or the production facilities.The rumored price for the deal: A whopping $870 million.“The speculation comes amid intensifying competition among the world's computer chip makers, including...
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Apple recently removed the word Computer from their corporate name, and this might very well reflect the mindset of those people who are calling the shots: at the end of the day they have far less than 5% market share when it comes to computers, a far cry from their lofty position atop the world of portable media playing devices.Obviously...
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A U.S. Grand Jury has issued subpoenas to Toshiba and their U.S. partner, San Disk, in regards to claims of price-fixing. While these two are both very well known brands here in the U.S., they are only part of the investigation which covers more than 20 companies:“The filing said 23 other companies were also sued for the same reason.NAND...
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It appears that Intel's plans to change their consumer CPU nomenclature (again) have proven a bit too much too soon for some partners, who are more than likely worried that another alteration to naming conventions could throw off some of their less technically oriented customers.On top of those concerns it is also widely believed that the...
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In the past we've reported the Comcast has been disconnecting broadband service to people it loosely defines as 'excessive' users. Comcast defines 'excessive' as homes or businesses that download about 3 motion pictures or roughly 1000 songs a day over an unspecified period of time.Users who violate this typically get a phone call or possibly...
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U.S. Disctrict Court Judge Robin J. Cauthron has issued a permanent injunction against an Oklahoma state law that, if it had ever gone into effect, would have prevented the sale of violent video games to minors.The law was signed last June by Governor Brad Henry, but a temporary injunction was invoked almost immediately to study whether or...
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While most of the world associates China with being on planning & execution end of intellectual property theft and scams/viruses that attempt to steal private/sensitive personal data from infected machines, it seems that one university student is going to attempt to flip the tables on the American software giant Microsoft by accusing them...
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Just two short weeks after Apple refreshed their iPod offerings and released a totally new model, it seems that Apple is modifying the iTunes database to make sure that users don't try to use their products with a competitive software package/service.The modification more or less prevents using an 'updated' iPod with another program that would...
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It looks like the days (literally, just days) of having to pay almost $100 for an iPhone unlocking program are over...more or less. We don't recommend or suggest that you try any hack due to the possibility of damaging your product and, according to some reports, the risk of bodily harm. That said, it is certainly understandable why some...
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A web site belonging to the Republican Party for the 1st Congressional Disctrict of Wisconsin has been hacked, and was spreading a variant of the Storm Trojan virus for an undisclosed length of time before it was finally rectified. While the fact that one of the two primary parties has had a web site hacked is nothing new, the fact that the...
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For years the defense department and even some large corporations have utilized games as a method of teaching people various trade tasks. It appears that miners are perhaps the newest recipients of 'video game' based training.Considering the staggering cost of serious mining equipment (think 7 and 8 figures each), the idea of training and...
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Google has begun challenging various governments (via the U.N.) to adopt a global standard for protecting users' private data.Peter Fleicher, Google's chief privacy officer, has set himself up with quite a serious challenge. Laws in different countries are quite different, as is they degree to which they are enforced. Even here in the United...
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Another one from the rumor mill over at the Inq, but it seems possible that AMD might actually release a three core CPU. At first glance such a story might seem like the wild tales of journalists who are off their meds, but there may actually be a few advantages of losing a core. Consider that Barcelona just debuted at 2.0GHz with...
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Intel has announced that they are planning to acquire Havok, Inc., a company that developed the popular Havok physics software used in many leading games.Havok's technology isn't just limited to games. They also have their hands in numerous other projects including Hollywood movies. Here's a snip from the Intel press release:Havok's modular...
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With Acer's recent announcement that it would acquire Gateway for $710 million, a price many considered to be well above the market value for Gateway, one would think that shareholders would be happy. Oddly enough, that not only doesn't seem to be the case, but quite the opposite: Some shareholders are suing over the acquisition.The law suit...
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After years of legal battles with Novell and various Linux-related entities, SCO has officially filed for bankruptcy protection under Chatper 11. Adding insult to injury is that even had SCO won every single case in the Linux arena, it was recently ruled Novell owned the copyrights to most of the material SCO was suing others over in the...
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Several major players in the flash/NAND memory market are getting together to make a unified specification that could potentially be used for a new type of memory card. The memory card would probably replace the current standard of SD cards and, since Sony is part of the project, Sony's own proprietary Memory Stick. The list of supporters...
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In an attempt to “reclaim his art on the Internet”, Prince is planning on suing various sites that include eBay and YouTube."The man behind hit songs "Purple Rain", "1999" and "When Doves Cry" said on Thursday that YouTube could not argue it had no control over which videos users posted on its site."YouTube ... are clearly able (to) filter...
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The short answer is: yes, Microsoft is updating/changing software in a stealthy fashion. Microsoft's own Nate Clinton has acknowledged that the Redmond juggernaut is indeed updating computers regardless of the preferences set by the user in the 'automatic updates' settings menu.According to Nate, here's what's happening:“So what is happening...
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If you're running a pirated copy of Vista and worried about the Black Screen Of Death (the other BSOD), then rest easy for the next few minutes.Apparently the info that PC World Australia picked up isn't exactly accurate according to Microsoft:“Microsoft was quick to debunk this e-mail warning of a Black Screen of Death. A Microsoft representative...
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If you live in San Francisco and routinely end up in the bus lane, be aware that a new law might foil your time-saving plans:“Not long after hearing about England's newfangled auto-ticketing system comes word that San Franciscans could soon be facing something similar. If signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger, "forward-facing digital...
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