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ERD Commander turns me on
Sometimes, when I'm sitting around trying to think of the things that I feel the tech world needs to know about, I actually have an idea.  A few weeks ago was one such occasion: if you use or support NT, you need to know about ERD Commander, the ultimate NT support tool for systems that Just Won't Boot™.  Check it out.  -Cæsar

Kids under 18: Get your parents' permission!
Poll Technica returns, this time asking you to reveal something quite personal, quite proprietary: what is your favorite id Software game?  Gonzo has already tried voting 400 times for the classic Quake, but I just had to ban his IP. ;)   Hey, last week's results were kinda surprising to me.  Always nice to be proven wrong. -Cæsar

Virtually suspended
Next Generation has an article regarding Sony's success in obtaining a court order to suspend shipments of Connectix's Virtual Game Station.  For those of you who don't know, VGS is a Playstation emulator for G3 Macs.  While shipments have stopped, units already shipped will not be recalled, so if you think you might want it, you should probably buy it soon.  Check out the article here.

/me thinks this does not bode well for the Bleem! emulator, a PC-based Playstation emulator with hardware 3D accelerator support that just started shipping pre-orders yesterday.   Sony had previously been shot down on the Temporary Restraining Order front for both VGS and Bleem, but now that they've stopped VGS, another attempt at Bleem can't be far away.  -Dr. Evil

Bus Locking II: The Revenge
A reader who didn't sign his name pointed us towards this article at The Register which claims that "sources close to" Intel say that the final crackdown on overclocking is imminent.  Of course, the article doesn't say whether those sources were "close to" Intel's PR department or their engineering department.  I have a sneaking suspicion that that'd make a big difference... -Ator

TMJ-RAM, no orthodontics required
Stop flexing your jaw, we're talking about another TMJ, this time "tunneling magnetic junction" RAM, the <echo on>future of memory devices</echo off> (perhaps).  Those slackers over at IBM have done it again.  After finishing off their morning cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, the smarty people at IBM's labs built:

...microscopic magnetic memory cells that could switch on and off as quickly as the fastest microprocessor chips, consume power only when reading and writing, and were almost as small as the tiny capacitors that store data in the most advanced conventional memory chips.

Wowsa!  As it turns out, the feat is related to IBM's infamous "giant magnetoresistance"HD technology.  Here's more at the NY Times.  Thanks to Aaron Thieme for the hookup. -Cæsar

PVRSG delayed?!?! [Updated 10:10]
The EETimes posted this shocker about the further delay of PowerVR's next-gen 3D graphics chip. Since this thing was announced a long, long time ago it's been a prime example of an over-hyped product with impossibly good vendor-supplied specs that has thus far turned out to be complete vaporware. It's now supposed to come out late this summer. I'll believe it when I see it.

BTW, I'm sure you're wondering why I even bothered to post about this. It's because I think that companies who pull what PowerVR pulled deserve to be held up to public ridicule to discourage such behavior in the future. So I'm just doing my civic duty ;p [Update]: Blue's News has a quote from VideoLogic saying that the EETimes report is mistaken. -Hannibal

Head-mounted display coolness
A new company called MicroOptical Corp. is coming out with what's been billed as the first truly practical head-mounted display (HMD). You're supposed to be able to use it with regular eyeglasses; it'll come in both a clip-on and built-in form. It operates by using a small mirror/lens to reflect the screen of a small LCD back into your eye. You can actually see through the projected image if you need to; this allows your eye to easily switch focus between the environment and the image. The image is adjustable so it can appear to float at a comfortable distance away. There are any number of cool applications for this thing. Here's a quote from the article:

"Think in terms of adding information to the normal view," said Holzel, "or superimposing information on the normal view." Such superimpositions, he said, "might be an image of a night-vision camera mounted in a soldier's glasses. A firefighter might use it with a special camera to see through smoke, a diver to see through tepid water, a fighter pilot to aim a missile. Or you can simply watch your personal TV or computer screen on an airline without caring whether the guy in front of you leans his seat back all the way."

Right now the design only calls for one lens of the glasses to hold an image. The article mentions the possibility of using two LCD projectors, one for each eye, to get 3D capabilities. Mmmm...3D. The only problem with this thing is it's not out yet, and when it comes out it'll cost big bucks. But cool toys have a way of getting cheaper. -Hannibal

A few cool sites...
..need some pluggin'.   First up, our own Chomsky lovin' David G. wrote me back when it used to snow about his new joint, geeknews.net.  Who told those freaks to put white text on a black background!  Next up is an on-line magazine run by, uh, wait this can't be right - a bunch of Canadians?!  It's HelloWord.ca, a magazine developed by "21 of the major universities across Canada."   Both sites are worthy of a lookie, even if it takes me forever to throw a link up.   Think of it as Quality Control. -Cæsar

Werd to YellowDogLinux
Send us a copy and we'll review it. I just decided that I want it right now.  I guess I could write them and ask.  Hmm.  -Cæsar

You need a license to undelete?
How ridiculous.  I was surfin' today lookin' for some tools for a forthcoming review (tomorrow, woo!) on a super-cool NT utility, only to learn that, according to this page, Executive Software, makers of Diskeeper, own the rights to the word "undelete."  Are you kidding me?   I wonder if the US will approve my application for the ownership of other special words like save, right-click and highlight.  That's disappointing.   I'm sorry, but the word "undelete" was in the public domain long before Executive Software got their hands on it (in '87). -Cæsar

Hammered and then some
Thanks to the gazillion of you who mailed us yesterday reporting the downpour of "500" errors in the Forum.   The problem had nothing to do with the upgrades that were performed on the Forum and everything to do with the fact that Damage's latest judgement brought more traffic to the site than we can currently handle.  Our ISP whipped out the sly "Sure you pay big $$$, but you need to pay more if you want processes" trick.  *sigh*  Now where are those lottery winnings... -Cæsar

All these choices got you down?
Well good thing for you that Microsoff Linux 98 is coming to the rescue. Coming with comedy in a can that is, as yet another parody site has cropped up brewing with humor at Microsoft's expense. Many funny items fill this faux-MS website, with my favorite being "Visual Emacs 2000 Script Kiddie Edition." For a bucket o' laughs, and a minute twinge of fear of this potentially becoming a reality, click on over. -Panders

Power to the (largest number of) people
Reader DrewBoy points us towards this InfoWorld article that talks about an interesting ecommerce idea at a place calling itself Accompany. Basically, the price of an item sold there is determined by the number of people who place an order for it within a given period of time. Volume discounts. As a hardware enthusiast, I've often found online auctions frustrating because the quality of the stuff they sell is so hit and miss. Maybe a solution like this would have some real potential. However, as InfoWorld points out, "The only catch is that the vendors must be willing to play ball." We shall see... -Ator

Best Buy draws line in sand
Citing the inability to order specific colors from Apple, and the resulting lop-sided inventory counts in their stores, Best Buy has stopped selling the infamous iMac indefinitely. Now, this is not a doom and gloom tragedy here - both sides are talking, and if a suitable agreement is hammered out sales will re-commence. On a personal note, I usually favor the side with more money when it comes to such disputes - sorry Apple. For more, well not much more, click on over to the ZDNet tidbit. -Panders

Who should pay whom?
Here is your opportunity to pay MS to be their guinea pig - OK, we all already do that anyhow.  However, in the case of Windows 2000 beta 3, it's publicly called a beta release.  What's the cost? Only $59.95, which isn't that bad a deal if you're really interested in Win2K. Personally I'm a testing fool, so 60 bucks doesn't scare me off.  What does get me miffed is the "six to eight weeks for delivery" garbage.  Nevertheless, here's the ordering page for Beta 3, along with a list of "What's Included" goodies.  October can't come soon enough! -Panders

Building a better mousetrap mouse
Well, I guess it was about time for MS to once again do something new with their mouse to make us all want to run out and buy a new one.  First it was the ergonomic shape, then it was that nifty little wheel, and now it's the "Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer", an optical ergonomic mouse with a nifty little wheel.   MS does seem to love that "Explorer" word, don't they?  The MS press release has a photo of the new rodent along with the obligatory press release diatribe about how much better your life will be with this new product.

While optical mice have been done before, this one is pretty nifty in that it doesn't require a special mouse pad as do other optical mice.  Plus, the underside and part of the back (they actually call it a taillight, if you can believe that) glow bright red.  I guess if you get bored you can grab it by the cord, swing it over your head, make siren noises and pretend you're a cop.  -Dr. Evil

Want a laptop?  Wait, then wait some more
Jens Boss wrote in with this short little article in the Register talking about all the nifty new chips Intel has coming down the pike.  Their take is that while Intel will have some cool new mobile chips coming out this summer, you should hold off because there will be still niftier (is that a word?) chips coming out in September.  Check out the skinny here. -Dr. Evil

Microsoft, hot off the grill
The Register has posted this article regarding Bill Gates' keynote speech at Comdex/Spring, and it appears somebody was in a very bad mood.   They lay into Bill and Microsoft so hard I almost feel sorry for the megamegacorporation.... almost.  Although the Register certainly got out the torch for this one, their conclusions are very well backed up and make a lot of sense.  It's a great read, just be sure to grab the oven mitts first.  -Dr. Evil

Gates and Torvalds in fight to the death!
Well, OK, I'm exaggerating, more like a verbal competition, but doesn't my idea sound more exciting? This article in PCWeek does some compare and contrast action on Gates' and Torvalds' Comdex/Spring speeches, which were only a half hour apart from one another (I'm sure it was just coincidence, right?).   According to the article, Gates pretty much spent his time plugging new Microsoft stuff and talking about how great it was, while Torvalds answered questions from the audience and generally kept it loose.  They compared Torvalds to the "Gates of old"; I'm pretty sure they meant it as a compliment.  -Dr. Evil

SIMD shootout: K6-III vs. Pentium III
That's right, our own Dr. Damage has locked himself in the benchmarking lab again, and the results, as always, are pretty damn sweet.  This time its a showdown between the latest AMD and Intel have to offer, pitting the K6-III against the Pentium III in a battle for the Single Instruction Multiple Data title belt.  Does AMD's 3DNow kick butt and take names, or does Intel's new SSE instruction set put the smack down? Read the article and find out!  -Dr. Evil

Forum additions
Woo!  More phunkage in the Forum.  In the past few hours I've added several features, a few of which may or may not stay.  First, on the iffy side, I've enabled the e-mail tools, allowing you to e-mail thread pointers to users.  Even more slyly, you can now set the Forum to send ya some e-mail whenever someone replies to one of your threads (you can set this on a per thread basis).   I also added a Linux Forum due to popular demand.  Now just make sure you guys help with all the questions that roll in!  We want to divvy up the Hardware traffic a bit, but there just doesn't seem to be a really logical and convenient way to do it.  Hmmm.   -Cæsar

That didn't take long...
The Voodoo 3 has barely been out a week, but just because the ink on the chip may not have dried yet doesn't mean you can't slap a fan on it.  Next Generation has a news item announcing a heatsink/fan from TennMax designed specifically for the Voodoo 3.  The "Stealth V3 Cooler" as it's called is only 11mm high and attaches to the Voodoo 3 board with "push pins."  Hopefully that's a different kind of push pin than the ones you use to put posters on your wall.  Given TennMax's history of develping coolers for everything from the Voodoo 2 to the TNT, this one isn't much of a shocker, but you have to admire their speed in developing the sucker, er, blower.   Look for it by May 4, at a cost of $23.50.  -Dr. Evil

Storage Review Leaderboard
Those platter lovin' nuts at Storage Review (no, not Steak-n-Shake platters), recently unveiled their new, shinny, hairless Leaderboard.   You can snag a look at the best drives on the market now, and see what they expect to be usurping the leaders in the near future.  If you don't like picking through reviews, this is simply one of the best resources the would-be hard drive buyer can reference. -Cæsar

Life after Service Pack 4
Admins and aspiring Windows NT newbies alike, Panders has a special treat for you: Life after Service Pack 4, an up-to-date report on the post-SP4 hotfix scene (and man, is it hot). It's important stuff.

Refusing to keep up with hotfixes is often a recipe for trouble.  Even if you choose not to apply a hotfix, it is good to understand why.

Some of the most recent hotfixes are absolute necessities. Don't use NT? Read it to find out why you can make good money as an NT sysadmin. ;)  Check it out. -Cæsar

Coup d'Compaq
If you see a black cloud on the horizon it's probably coming from Compaq.  Eckhard Pfeiffer, CEO and Earl Mason, CFO are now the ex-CEO and ex-CFO, thanks to an ouster brought about by Chairman of the Board Benjamin Rosen.  The "resignations" follow an unexpected first-quarter shortfall announced April 9, as well as a class action lawsuit filed on Friday charging Compaq, Pfeiffer and Mason with misleading investors.  News.com has a whole series of articles detailing exactly what happened and who did it, as well as industry analysis of the shakeup.   -Dr. Evil

Linux: It's certifiable!
That's what this article at PC Week says, anyway.  It seems a number of hardware vendors and Linux distributors are going to roll out an independent certification process from KeyLabs Inc.  The purpose of the certification is to ensure that products maintain compatibility across all distributions of Linux.  This would hopefully not only help reduce instances of users ditching Linux because of nasty incompatibility problems, but also keep the market from splintering into small groups where certain software only runs on a certain distribution. The certification program is supposed to be up on KeyLabs' site next month.  Incidentally, these are the same guys who manage the Java certification process.

The article then sort of shoots off into left field to discuss the open source movement in general, and how everybody seems to be trumpeting open source something without actually doing anything about it.  All in all, the second half of the article is pretty insightful as well, I'm just not sure why they didn't make it a second article.  At any rate, it finishes with a great quote from Linus Torvalds; they ask him to define open source software and he replies "Definitive statements on that are not my kind of thing.  I find that a lot of people take what I say way too seriously."  LOL.  -Dr. Evil

Windows 2000: It's all about tweaking
Also in PC Week, an article based on an interview with Jim Allchin, Senior Vice President at Microsoft.  Allchin said that the remaining work necessary on Windows 2000 was "a question of tweaking."   Well, they certainly tweaked a bunch of people off last week when they announced that Beta 3 had been delayed again.  There was also reference made to "the Microsoft mantra of shipping the product when users say its ready..."  OK, so which one of you told them it was OK to ship Windows 98?  Thanks to you, everybody's gonna have to pay for a bugfix update.  I hope you're happy.

There are also some interesting numbers in the article regarding the number of lines of code in the versions of NT from 3.1 (6.5 million) to Win2K B3 (29 million).  Finally there is some discussion of possible problems Novell will face in creating NDS for NT for Windows 2000.  Here's another magic quotation, this one from Ed Muth, program manager at Microsoft, referring to Windows 2000: "Nail down the chickens, we're coming."  Hopefully, this is an obscure attempt to expound on the speed of Windows 2000, and not a declaration of some bizarre fetish.  -Dr. Evil

Red Hat 6.0: Done tweaking
A teeny little news blurb on Infoworld reports that Red Hat Linux 6.0 will be announced April 26 and available May 10.  It will contain a patched version of the 2.2.5 kernel as well as Gnome 1.0 and KDE 1.1.   See, I told you it was a teeny little news blurb.  -Dr. Evil

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