Items tagged with RAS
This week, at ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) Intel unveiled its next-generation Itanium processor, codenamed Poulson. This new octal-core processor is easily the most significant update to Itanium Intel has ever built and could upset the current balance of power at the highest-end of the server / mainframe market. It may also be the Itanium that fully redeems the brand name and sheds the last vestiges of negativity that have dogged the chip since it launched ten years ago… Intel Previews 32nm Itanium "Poulson" Processor...
Read more...
This week, at ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference) Intel unveiled its next-generation Itanium processor, codenamed Poulson. This new octal-core processor is easily the most significant update to Itanium Intel has ever built and could upset the current balance of power at the highest-end of the server / mainframe market. It may also be the Itanium that fully redeems the brand name and sheds the last vestiges of negativity that have dogged the chip since it launched ten years ago. Here's the sneak peak To discuss why, we'll have to flip through some history. From Merced to Tukwila Intel began work on what would become Itanium back in 1994 in a joint venture with HP. The two...
Read more...
Many techs will agree: antivirus programs can be a hassle. Mostly, the issues tend to stem from slower performance and similar issues that result from using an antivirus program. Still, it’s a bit of a lesser of two evils deal: you can risk getting a virus, or you can deal with lags in performance. Usually, you can count on well-known antivirus programs to only touch malicious files, but this isn’t always the case.AVG, a free antivirus scanner, recently created problems for some of its users when it mistook user32.dll, a critical Windows component, for a container for the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. When the scanner activated, it assumed this critical file was a virus and deleted...
Read more...
Although most of us will admit that no one is perfect, Apple fanatics love to poke fun at Microsoft’s many patches designed to fix holey and buggy software. Now, Italian systems engineer Piergiorgio Zambrini has found a bug that can crash the iPhone and other devices such as the iPod and Apple computers. Zambrini isn’t releasing the technical details of the bug right now, but Forbes.com was able to confirm that the bug Zambrini found did in fact crash the latest generation of iPhones. The bug is in the audio portion of Apple’s video format. A person who knows of the bug could potentially incorporate it into a video file and trigger a crash whenever that file is accessed. Most of Apple’s operating...
Read more...
With Windows 7 slated for either late 2009 or early 2008, those of us foolish enough to buy into Microsoft's hype over Windows Vista Ultimate Extras are probably running out of time in which we might see a really useful Extra come down the pipe. The latest set of underwhelming Extras were released last week, so quietly we sure didn't notice. Microsoft announced them in a blog post on the official Windows Vista blog. The new release includes: Microsoft Tinker: Microsoft Tinker is a casual game that provides players with short puzzle game play sessions set in a warm, calming environment. Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker: Based on the positive feedback we received from the release of...
Read more...
Force feedback has become commonplace in today's game controllers. To many, the simulated forces create a more realistic game-play environment. A group of scientists at the University of Tokyo in Japan are on working on a new technology that can potentially allow force feedback-type sensations and controller input without the need of a joystick or other physical input device at all--all feedback sensations and input could be done simply in "mid air." The scientists, Takayuki Iwamoto, Mari Tatezono, Takayuki Hoshi, and Hiroyuki Shinoda, have developed what they call an "Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display." Tactile feedback in "3D free space" is not necessarily a new concept: in the abstract for...
Read more...
Email spam got you down? Is your first name Aaron? A study by Cambridge University security expert Richard Clayton shows that the first letter of your email address has a lot to do with the amount of spam you receive. The study (.PDF), titled "Do Zebras get more Spam than Aardvarks?" analyzed traffic logs from the U.K. ISP Demon Internet. The data analyzed was from the period Feb. 1st - March 27th of 2008. In the study, Clayton noted that those whose local part of their email address (this is the portion to the left of the "@") begins with "A" receive about 50% spam and 50% non-spam. Clayton called this group aardvarks. When the local part begins with "Z" (call them zebras) about 75% is spam.You're...
Read more...
Day two of IDF kicked off with a cheesy, classic Star Trek opening-credits rip-off that concluded with the statement: "The Internet, to boldly go where it has never gone before--in your pocket." Then it was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher's turn to present his keynote on the state of today's and tomorrow's MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). We've got the full scoop from the keynote posted right here... IDF Day 2: Anand Chandrasekher: "MIDs: Platform for Innovation"...
Read more...
Day two of IDF kicked off with a cheesy, classic Star Trek opening-credits rip-off that concluded with the statement: "The Internet, to boldly go where it has never gone before: in your pocket." Then it was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, Anand Chandrasekher's turn to present his keynote on the state of today's and tomorrow's MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices). Chandrasekher says that in June, the number of people who used the Internet was roughly equal to three times the population of the U.S. Chandrasekher also said that we are now at an inflection point in regards to Internet access--although he didn't actually specify if he...
Read more...
J.D. Power and Associates has just released the results of its 2008 Digital Camera Usage and Satisfaction Study, based on responses from over 8,000 digital camera purchasers between April 2007 and March 2008. Not only does the study identify which cameras consumers liked best, but it also gives an indication of what consumers are doing with their cameras and what kind of features they want. The report breaks out digital cameras into four sub-categories: digital single-lens reflex (DSLR), point and shoot, premium point and shoot, and ultra slim. Then each of those categories is evaluated with four criteria--picture quality, performance, operation, and appearance--which are then rolled up into...
Read more...
On Tuesday, Facebook users in the U.S. and Canada awoke to horror - the shutdown of the extremely popular Scrabulous game, in the wake of a lawsuit filed by Hasbro, the parent company of the official Scrabble game. There shouldn't have been much withdrawal pain, though, since after all, Electronic Arts (EA, which handles the digital rights to Scrabble for Hasbro) had already created a beta version of the official game, right?Except for the fact that the servers couldn't handle the increased load from all the Scrabulous refugees, and crashed."We'll be back up shortly," an apologetic error message read. "We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible!"...
Read more...
It seemed obvious, didn't it? With the new in-store activation process, not only would it take longer, it would also be prone to the same sorts of server issues as last year, when customers would go home and be unable to activate. Only this time, it would in the store. Ah, the joys of early adoption.It seems that not only was the process taking a long time, now the servers have crashed, meaning that AT&T is sending people home unactivated. As AT&T said:We have had reports that customers attempting to download new iTunes 7.7 software to their new iPhone may get an error message saying “page not found.” We have reported this issue to Apple. While Apple works to resolve...
Read more...
Back in May Acer teased us with the announcement of its suped-up, hardcore gaming rig, the Aspire Predator. There's still no word on when we'll see this bad boy in the wild; but in the meantime, Acer is teasing us yet again with the announcement of its new 50,000:1 contrast ratio, LCD monitor, the 24-inch Acer G24. That's fifty thousand, like with four zeros. And just like its Predator announcement, there is no word on when the G24 will be available or how much it will cost. Perhaps Acer is taking a high-toned stance on these enthusiast-grade products: If you have to ask how much they cost, then you probably can't afford them. Or perhaps Acer is waiting for the economy to turn around before unleashing...
Read more...
In our excitement over the release of the new Playstation 3 firmware, 2.40, which includes in-game XMB support and trophies, we forgot what we usually recommend to people: don't jump on it (an OS update, a patch, a firmware update) until you see what happens to others who upgrade.One need only look at the XP SP3 fiasco involving Symantec for a good example.Reports have surfaced at the Playstation forums of issues while downloading the firmware, console freezes, and reboot issues. One user, noting the number of issues posted on the forum, decided to post the tongue-in-cheek thread, "Is there anyone who downloaded 2.40 update and had no problems?"Naturally, there are plenty. There are also, it...
Read more...
Dell’s lineup of flat panel displays have proven themselves to be reliable, stylish, and typically right on par price-wise with some of the most inexpensive LCD monitors on the market. They’ve delivered exceptional bang for the buck, and throughout the years, they’ve managed to improve the quality of the screens and the overall feature sets while overall prices have gone down. While this is also true for the rest of the monitor industry, Dell has retained their reputation for reliability, which still sticks with them today. Sure, Dell displays don’t have the raw sexiness of Apple’s Cinema series displays, but they’re typically quite a bit cheaper while offering more functionality.Perhaps the...
Read more...
We’re willing to bet that many of you have wildly varied opinions of Dell. Some no doubt consider them a huge, monolithic corporation who pushes out generic computers without a soul; while others consider them to be pioneers of the low-cost PC movement, who (almost) single-handedly made computers available to nearly every price point. No matter what your opinion of Dell as a company is, it is difficult to find many people in IT circles who dislike their monitor division. Dell’s lineup of flat panel displays have proven themselves to be reliable, stylish, and typically right on par price-wise with some of the most inexpensive LCD monitors on the market. They’ve delivered exceptional bang...
Read more...
Today Dell quietly introduced the new UltraSharp 2408WFP 24" widescreen flat panel display, as you can see it is already available for sale on Dell’s site. Like the 3008WFP we evaluated here, the 2408WFP supports DisplayPort connectivity which will become increasingly more common as the next generation of graphics cards roll in. DisplayPort isn’t the only connectivity option with this monitor, however, as is evident in the picture below... The 2408WFP's input options The Dell 2408WFP features HDMI, DVI, VGA, component, S-Video and composite video connections, in addition to a 9-in-2 media card reader and 4-port USB hub. Dell's UltraSharp 2408WFP Display According to the monitor’s...
Read more...
This morning we’re ringing in the new year with a special treat. We’ve taken Dell’s brand new UltraSharp 3008WFP for a spin around the block and we think you’ll be interested in seeing how she handled. Here's a snip from the piece..."It's easy to see where Dell was going with the introduction of their new UltraSharp 3008 WFP 30" LCD display. Calling upon the input received from previous 30" panel incarnations and marrying these feature requests in with new technologies like a wider color gamut and the bleeding-edge of display interface technologies. As the first DisplayPort-enabled LCD from Dell, the 3008 WFP is claiming that sexy is back. No Justin, not you...
Read more...
Like high-end graphics cards setup in multi-GPU configurations, terabyte desktop drives, and 3GHz quad-core processors, 30-inch wide screen LCDs cater to what we like to call the "enthusiast" niche. And though this niche obviously drives lower volume demand versus the mainstream, you have to remember that the enthusiast end-user is a very influential segment of the market, often times assisting in the definition of what will become mainstream technology tomorrow. Not to mention 30 inches of screen real-estate is a professional workstation designer's nirvana, so perhaps this niche isn't as small as it would appear on the surface. Regardless, though there are fewer...
Read more...
A judge has ruled that a defendent cannot be forced to give up the passphrase for his encrypted hard drive. Without this passphrase, authorities aren't able to decrypt his drive. Now we know why U.K. authorities were asking for a backdoor into Bitlocker-encrypted Windows Vista PCs last year, right?U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled that a man charged with transporting child pornography on his laptop across the Canadian border has a Fifth Amendment right not to turn over the passphrase to prosecutors. The Fifth Amendment protects the right to avoid self-incrimination.Niedermeier tossed out a grand jury's subpoena that directed Sebastien Boucher to provide "any passwords"...
Read more...
At least, unlike the Hannah Montana fiasco, the servers just crashed rather than end users getting the shaft.Ticket sales for the Games were halted after demand proved to be far too much for the database to handle. The ticketing database could supposedly process 150,000 transactions an hour, but in just the first hour, the Games' site had 8 million hits, its hotline had 3.8 million calls, and 200,000 orders were taken from customers.Originally, the Olympics organizers had planned to sell tickets in three phases. Of the 7 million tickets available, 1.6 million were allocated in the first phase, through a lottery earlier in the year. The second phase - which was intended to be a first-come, first-served...
Read more...
Being on the bleeding edge has its pluses and minuses. You get to sample the latest stuff first, but if that same technology advances and it doesn't take your older hardware into account, you may end up with a brick. There was thus some trepidation over the latest wave of features being added to 20th Century-Fox's latest Blu-Ray releases.With the next wave of interactive features having been added to 20th Century-Fox's latest Blu-Ray Disc releases, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and The Day After Tomorrow, there was always a certain level of anticipation that some existing Blu-ray consoles would have trouble, especially the first-generation editions. Surprisingly, it's...
Read more...
