News Posts:

	Gigabit Transfer Rates Over Power Lines | Friday, January 7 2005 Penn State engineers, Pouyan Amirshahi and Mohsen Kavehrad, estimated in a research paper released Wednesday that their system could deliver data at close to one gigabit per second over medium-voltage electrical lines in ideal conditions, with speeds of hundreds of megabits per second available to home users. Their system would uses repeaters placed every one kilometer, (0.62 miles) and requires power lines to have been modified to reduce interference with the data signals. The engineers said their estimates were based on computer models, and that the data speeds available in a real-world version would depend on how many repeaters a power company used. Read the full story here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&n...werline_dc&sid=95573503 Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	US CD Sales Increase in 2004 | Friday, January 7 2005 BBC is reporting that CD sales rose by 2.3% in the U.S. in the year 2004 despite the growing popularity of legal digital music downloads through services such as iTunes. On the other hand, a BBC report from last July noted that pirated CD sales have hit a record high. Sounds like the RIAA should be going after the real pirates, not little Susie or Grandma Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4150747.stm Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Sims 2 Hacks Spread Like Viruses | Friday, January 7 2005 SecurityFocus reports that players sharing house designs through Electronic Arts' Sims 2 Exchange are finding their game behaving oddly: espresso machines mysteriously satisfy all the Sims needs, Sims are suddenly comfortable with open relationships, and the social worker no longer cares how they treat their children. It turns out hacks were spreading invisibly with Sims 2 lots, infecting thousands of downloadable homes, and catching Electronic Arts by surprise. The hackers, who never intended their hacks to be viruses, have even written their own AV scanner to find and control the outbreak. Read the full story here: http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10232 Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Hardware Reviews for Jan 6th | Thursday, January 6 2005 Overclockers New Zealand Gigabyte GV-RX30128D X300 PCI-E VGA "Well, not much can be said about its performance, as it is a budget 3D accelerator. Users will not be able to enjoy newer game at or above 1024*768, as the FSP is consistently below 30FPS..." Read the full story here. InsaneTek Ultra Products Mini External HD Enclosure "Your computer information is one of your most valuable resources, so it is important to consistently back up your information as much as possible..." Read the full story here. ModGuidez SuperPower XP01Q Gaming Case "Looking for a case to bring at your next LAN party? Tonite we take a look at SuperPower's XP01Q Gaming Case..." Read the full story here. PimpRig MonsterGecko PistolMouse FPS "What’s so special about the PistolMouse FPS? The most obvious is that it resembles a Sig Sauer P228. A nice little piece of heat, but not very much stopping power..." Read the full story here. 3DXtreme Mutant Mods Led Fan & Alien Laser Cut Grill "Anyone who is looking to add some individuality to their computer should take a look at Mutant Mods products..." Read the full story here. Hi-Techreviews Logisys SP6002CL - 2.1 + 1 Multimedia Speaker System "Multimedia speaker system are a dime a dozen these days, every electronic store you visit whether it be a brick and mortar store or a click and order store has a 2.1 multimedia speaker ranging in price from $15.00 all the way up $150.00 they will be happy to sell you..." Read the full story here. ipKonfig Corsair TwinX1024 PC4400 CAS 2.5 "For quite some time now we have been reviewing Corsair's top-notch memory and have received much good feedback from readers abroad, and no comments with negative feedback..." Read the full story here. PCUnleash Samsung SCD305 digital camcorder "Another benefit of using the SCD305 is its 180 degrees of rotation. Not only can it shoot pictures using the viewfinder, it can also shoot effectively in many different situations..." Read the full story here. Posted By: Trevor

	iTunes User Sues Apple Over Lock-In | Thursday, January 6 2005 It seems like Apple can also be at the receiving end of a lawsuit, too: Californian Thomas Slattery filed suit against Apple because "Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using the portable hard drive digital music player of their choice". With over 200 million songs sold, and Apple controlling over 80% of the hard drive digital audio player market, is this just a case of someone just trying to cash in on Apple's success? Or is this genuinely an issue of buyer lock-in and monopolistic practices? Read the full story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4151009.stm Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Samsung Shows Off 21" OLED Display | Wednesday, January 5 2005 News.com.com.com.com and Technewsworld.com have posted stories about Samsung's new 21" OLED. There is a projection that OLEDs will be a 2.2 billion dollar a year market by 2008! Nice, no? Read the full story here: http://news.com.com/Samsung+develops+21-inch+OL...041.html and here: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/news/39392.html and see the picture here: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200501/200501040025.html Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Why Microsoft Should Fear Bandwidth | Sunday, January 2 2005 Microsoft should fear increasing bandwidth to the consumer more than any other single factor as a threat to their monopoly. The average user has no desire to be the sysadmin of their machine(s), and telcos and cable companies would be glad to take this task from them -- for a nominal fee, of course, as application service providers. Read the full story here: http://www.everybodyiscrazy.com/index.php?p=17 Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Guide #6 - Speed Up Firefox Loading Page Time and Startup Time | Sunday, January 2 2005 I've written a guide to let people know how to increase Firefox's loading time and how long it takes to load webpages. "...here are two great tips for Firefox, the free, rock-solid, secure browser from the Mozilla Foundation. Apply them both to enjoy the time you save loading Firefox and loading web pages. They really make Firefox faster..." Read the guide here: http://www.uniquehardware.ca/guides/guide06/guide6.1.php Discuss the guide here: http://forums.uniquehardware.ca/index.php?showtopic=203 Posted By: Trevor

	Microsoft Not Worried about Firefox | Friday, December 31 2004 It seems like our friends in Redmond are quite happy about IE. According to this article, they won't be updating it until Longhorn. My favorite quote would be, "We have a very, very innovative set of capabilities that we're putting in the next version. And in the meantime it's an extensible platform, and there will be a set of extensions that Microsoft does as well as others." Oh boy, are they actually working side by side with the virusmakers and phishers? I guess that just gives the MozBoys a year head start. Read the full story here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/2002124782_ie20.html Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	Try Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed for Ten Days! | Tuesday, December 28 2004 "FilePlanet subscribers, take advantage of this exclusive offer. Try both Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided and Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed for ten days!" I'll simplify this... As long as you have an account with GameSpy(free or paid) you can get a Star Wars Galaxies trial along with a Jump to Lightspeed trial. You don't anything but that GameSpy account to get the trial. Get it now, it is worth it (if you are a Star Wars Freak like me)! Try it here: http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/swg_jtls/ Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	JVC Develops Dual Blu-ray-DVD Disc | Tuesday, December 28 2004 "JVC has developed prototype read-only discs that can contain data stored in both the DVD and high-capacity Blu-ray Disc formats. They are the first discs that are able to contain data in both formats, a company spokesperson says. The discs contain three layers. The upper layer is a Blu-ray Disc layer with a capacity of 25GB. Below are two DVD layers with a combined capacity of 8.5GB, JVC says." Whoa! That's neat. Blu-ray and regular in one! Read the full story here: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119057,00.asp Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	2004 MN4 Probably Won't Kill Us | Tuesday, December 28 2004 It's now official. NASA's Near Earth Objects page lists 2004 MN4, the asteroid that's been covered on slashdot recently, as having a 1 in 56,000 chance of hitting earth, and even then only in 2037. It seems that earth was near the edge of the cone of probability of when it could go. As the cone kept closing, the probability of hitting earth grew, but it kept getting closer to the edge. It's now outside the cone, and we can be safe. Read the full story here: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ip?1.8e-05 Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	2004 MN4 Asteroid Odds Crawling Up Again | Monday, December 27 2004 The latest update from NASA now gives 2004 MN4 a 1-in-37 chance (probability of 2.7%) of hitting Earth on April 13, 2029. That's a bump up from the 1-in-46 (2.2%) odds given this weekend and almost a 10x increase in probability from the original 1-in-300 odds announced late last week. Interesting times, indeed. Read the full story here: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2004mn4.html Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	United Spamming States | Sunday, December 26 2004 Security company Sophos has found that 42 percent of all spam sent this year came from the United States. The research was conducted using its global network of honeypots, which are computers designed to attract spam emails and viruses. This new data indicates that United States anti-spam legislation has made little impact in the battle against spam. "When we released the first report back in February, the US had the excuse that the Can-Spam Act had been in existence for only three months," said Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant for Sophos. Read the full story here: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/networks/0,39020345,39182240,00.htm Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

	SCO Targets UK Firms | Sunday, December 26 2004 It seems that SCO is bringing its dodgy 'Linux licenses' over to the UK. Vnunet.com reports that SCO's expansion of their 'Linux licensing programme' makes legal action against UK users 'imminent'. Does anyone know if the ongoing cases in the USA can be used as a defense? Since SCO has yet to prove anything... Read the full story here: http://www.vnunet.com/news/1160236 Questions/Comments? Posted By: Trevor

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