VGA Charts IV
Handy reference on Tom's Hardware Guide to graphics cards and their operating frequencies, memory frequencies, bus width and pipelines.
Nov 5, 2004
Oct 12, 2004
AMD CPU Roadmap
AnandTech has a good article on the AMD roadmap.
XbitLabs shows that the overclocked Sempron 3100+ beats the Pentium 4 3.4GHz in a lot of tests as well as the very best Athlon 64's ! "Thanks to its clock rate, which is higher than that of any Athlon 64, the (overclocked) Sempron 3100+ outperforms the Athlon 64 3400+ as well as both Pentium 4 with a frequency of 3.4GHz!"
XbitLabs shows that the overclocked Sempron 3100+ beats the Pentium 4 3.4GHz in a lot of tests as well as the very best Athlon 64's ! "Thanks to its clock rate, which is higher than that of any Athlon 64, the (overclocked) Sempron 3100+ outperforms the Athlon 64 3400+ as well as both Pentium 4 with a frequency of 3.4GHz!"
Sep 9, 2004
Lots of game demos!
There are a lot of games on the market and what better way to decide which one to spend your hard earned money on than to play a demo?
http://www.demoindex.com/
Demoindex has a very well categorized bunch of game demos, along with screen shots, brief descriptions, lists of top ranked games, game movies and even games for your mobile phone (the link for which takes you to jeumobile.com).
The only crib I have with the whole demo thing is that the files are mostly in excess of 100MB, which makes it a tad difficult to download when your monthly data transfer quota is 400MB!
http://www.demoindex.com/
Demoindex has a very well categorized bunch of game demos, along with screen shots, brief descriptions, lists of top ranked games, game movies and even games for your mobile phone (the link for which takes you to jeumobile.com).
The only crib I have with the whole demo thing is that the files are mostly in excess of 100MB, which makes it a tad difficult to download when your monthly data transfer quota is 400MB!
Sep 8, 2004
Sep 7, 2004
Gmail
Some gmail invites are available. Strangely enough, it seems that now everyone has a gmail account and nobody is interested in my invites!
Sep 6, 2004
Alienware - 4GHz desktop
Alienware powers up a 4GHz desktop says news.com ...
"In addition to the 4GHz Pentium 4 and a liquid-cooling system, the most basic Area-51 ALX desktop comes with 1GB of RAM, a CD-burner, ATI Technology's Radeon X800 graphics card, a 74GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000 rpm hard drive and a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS High Definition sound card.
Pumping up the machine with 4GB of RAM, Nvidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card, twin 74GB Raptor hard drives and a DVD-burner increases the price to about $5,700."
"In addition to the 4GHz Pentium 4 and a liquid-cooling system, the most basic Area-51 ALX desktop comes with 1GB of RAM, a CD-burner, ATI Technology's Radeon X800 graphics card, a 74GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000 rpm hard drive and a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS High Definition sound card.
Pumping up the machine with 4GB of RAM, Nvidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card, twin 74GB Raptor hard drives and a DVD-burner increases the price to about $5,700."
'The Terminal'
Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | Paul Berczeller on the man who inspired Steven Spielberg's Terminal
Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal" is based on a true story..
Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal" is based on a true story..
Sep 3, 2004
Sep 1, 2004
Apple - iMac G5
The new Apple - iMac G5 is seriously cool!
Upto 20" widescreen LCD... drool.
1.8GHz G5... drool.
160GB SATA 7200 rpm drive... drool.
Too expensive for me... but maybe someday...
Upto 20" widescreen LCD... drool.
1.8GHz G5... drool.
160GB SATA 7200 rpm drive... drool.
Too expensive for me... but maybe someday...
Aug 30, 2004
Problems with XP SP2 and AMD ?
Geek News Central Revealing Links & Useful Technical Information
Great. This might explain why SP2RC2 SCREWED UP my laptop!
"In an article posted in the Knowledge Base section of its Web site, Microsoft says that Service Pack 2 may not work with computers running Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit microprocessors. The Redmond, Washington-based company said earlier that owners of such PCs may want to bypass the update completely, but has now come up with a workaround. "
However, the ZDNET article goes on to say that AMD thinks only one application causes this problem with SP2 and I don't have it. In any case I guess I'll be delaying installing anything related to SP2 on either laptop or desktop. Everything's working fine enough...
Great. This might explain why SP2RC2 SCREWED UP my laptop!
"In an article posted in the Knowledge Base section of its Web site, Microsoft says that Service Pack 2 may not work with computers running Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit microprocessors. The Redmond, Washington-based company said earlier that owners of such PCs may want to bypass the update completely, but has now come up with a workaround. "
However, the ZDNET article goes on to say that AMD thinks only one application causes this problem with SP2 and I don't have it. In any case I guess I'll be delaying installing anything related to SP2 on either laptop or desktop. Everything's working fine enough...
The Internet is 35
CNN.com - The Internet at 35: Still evolving - Aug 29, 2004
Says CNN: "Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress."
It's been a long time ;)
Says CNN: "Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress."
It's been a long time ;)
GmailFS - Gmail Filesystem
GmailFS - Gmail Filesystem
"GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium."
'GmailFS supports most file operations such as read, write, open, close, stat, symlink, link, unlink, truncate and rename. This means that you can use all your favourite unix command line tools to operate on files stored on Gmail (e.g. cp, ls, mv, rm, ln, grep etc. etc.)."
Hmm... word fail me.
"GmailFS provides a mountable Linux filesystem which uses your Gmail account as its storage medium."
'GmailFS supports most file operations such as read, write, open, close, stat, symlink, link, unlink, truncate and rename. This means that you can use all your favourite unix command line tools to operate on files stored on Gmail (e.g. cp, ls, mv, rm, ln, grep etc. etc.)."
Hmm... word fail me.
Aug 26, 2004
SillySearches
Phoenyx.net has a list of silly searches that led websurfers to that site. Must read this one! Especially since the webmaster has put up comments on each of them...
Aug 24, 2004
Reiser4 is released.
Check this page for "Reasons why Reiser4 is great for you"...
Quote:
"Reiser4 is the fastest filesystem, and here are the benchmarks.
Reiser4 is an atomic filesystem, which means that your filesystem operations either entirely occur, or they entirely don't, and they don't corrupt due to half occuring. We do this without significant performance losses, because we invented algorithms to do it without copying the data twice.
Reiser4 uses dancing trees, which obsolete the balanced tree algorithms used in databases (see farther down). This makes Reiser4 more space efficient than other filesystems because we squish small files together rather than wasting space due to block alignment like they do. It also means that Reiser4 scales better than any other filesystem. Do you want a million files in a directory, and want to create them fast? No problem.
Reiser4 is based on plugins, which means that it will attract many outside contributors, and you'll be able to upgrade to their innovations without reformatting your disk. If you like to code, you'll really like plugins....
Reiser4 is architected for military grade security. You'll find it is easy to audit the code, and that assertions guard the entrance to every function."
Quote:
"Reiser4 is the fastest filesystem, and here are the benchmarks.
Reiser4 is an atomic filesystem, which means that your filesystem operations either entirely occur, or they entirely don't, and they don't corrupt due to half occuring. We do this without significant performance losses, because we invented algorithms to do it without copying the data twice.
Reiser4 uses dancing trees, which obsolete the balanced tree algorithms used in databases (see farther down). This makes Reiser4 more space efficient than other filesystems because we squish small files together rather than wasting space due to block alignment like they do. It also means that Reiser4 scales better than any other filesystem. Do you want a million files in a directory, and want to create them fast? No problem.
Reiser4 is based on plugins, which means that it will attract many outside contributors, and you'll be able to upgrade to their innovations without reformatting your disk. If you like to code, you'll really like plugins....
Reiser4 is architected for military grade security. You'll find it is easy to audit the code, and that assertions guard the entrance to every function."
Aug 23, 2004
Intel slashes 560 P4 by 35%.
Grrr.... I wouldn't complain if prices dropped gradually over the years (or months). This really puts me off buying new hardware (not that I have any plans for it right now). Sayeth the article: "The price of the 3.40GHz Extreme Edition with 2MB of Gallatin L3 cache, stays stable at $999." Hm... The 560 is the new name for the P4 Prescott 3.6 GHz 800MHz FSB, which is now available for just over $400.
Aug 20, 2004
AnandTech
The ATI Mobility Radeon 9800 is being reviewed by AnandTech! Just when I thought I was at the cutting edge (well, almost) with a Mobility Radeon 9600... Quoting from the article "The MR9800 actually supports all the features of the Radeon X800, as it is simply a cut down version of the chip with some enhanced power management features." And it has 256MB onboard RAM... sigh.
I'd like to see how much better it fares against the 9600...
I'd like to see how much better it fares against the 9600...
Visitors!
I've been checking my visitor statistics and I see people being directed here from search engines - many of them seem to be searching for information on the eMachines M6805 or on widescreen panels. If you are one of them, please do leave a comment on this page and I shall help if I can!
Aug 19, 2004
Hotmail to offer 2GB in September
The Inquirer says that Hotmail may offer 2GB of storage space in September. Attachment size limit will be 20MB. GMail has really put the cat amongst the pigeons!
Smallest flying robot
Epson has developed the world's smallest and lightest micro-flying robot. It has Bluetooth wireless control. The website has a video of the robot flying.
Aug 18, 2004
IE Address Bar Spoofing
Secunia - Internet Explorer Address Bar Spoofing Test Popup
More problems with Internet Explorer... Test to see if your browser is vulnerable to the "Internet Explorer Address Bar Spoofing Vulnerability" on the Secunia site. This link has the details about this vulnerability, which they have categorized as 'moderately critical'.
More problems with Internet Explorer... Test to see if your browser is vulnerable to the "Internet Explorer Address Bar Spoofing Vulnerability" on the Secunia site. This link has the details about this vulnerability, which they have categorized as 'moderately critical'.
Aug 17, 2004
Punishments meted out in our schools
Akash:
- Standing out of the class (English Maam)
- Murga bano (Social Studies Sir) murga in princi office (vice prince)
- Spreading the arms with bricks on both palms and then bending around the knees (PT Sir)
- Do the assignment 25 Times (Maths Sir)
- Extra Homework (Hindi Maam)
- Standing on the desk
- Standing in front of the assembly with ur hands stretched up
- Kneeling down in front of the whole school
- Impositions
- Sitting in between two (studious) girls // this one was the worst
- 10 Laps of the Playfield
- Sit on the ground in front of the black board.
- No games period for 2 weeks.
- Ref. Alok below: Being hit on the knuckles with a ruler. (This is generally a convent school punishment)
- Saying sorry in front of the school during the assembly.
- Being made to sit with kids from 2 classes junior to you.
- Being made to sit alone and answer the Unit test (believe me that hurts)
- Biggest Dhamki :: "Call your parents tomorrow"
- Detention. Bringing two tiffins and doing your homework after school. So when you reach home, you can hit the playgrounds straight away!!
- Probably a unique one: being made to sit on top of the class cupboard and being threatened about not being allowed to go home. (I or II std)
- Suspension from school for a week. (Principal's decision)
- Being hit on the knuckles with a ruler. (almost everyone who taught me in school)
- Having a duster thrown at you (most people in the class would manage to catch it though) (Physics Sir?)
- Being sent to the principal's office and being lectured on what was not expected from me. again, almost everyone who taught me in school)
- Having the teacher run out of the class in tears, and then having a horde of other teachers coming and lecturing the class on behaviour. (one pathetic Maths teacher)
- Bigger dhamki than what Akash mentions above: "I'm coming to see your parents today evening." - Principal. He didn't actually come to my home because I convinced him it wasn't my fault...
- No library access for a week.
- No computer lab access for a week. (a week seems to be the least count for such types of punishment)
- Notes in the diary for parents to sign.
- Come and sit on the front desk.
- Read out the lesson loudly in front of the whole class
- On the right hand corner of the blackboard your name is mentioned in as the BLACK-STARS of the class. These students were the most notorious and their names went to the principal every week. Hmmm to few it was a honor to set their name right in front of everyone !!
Cassini-Huygens: 2 new moons for Saturn!
Cassini-Huygens - News-Press Releases-2004
"With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet."
"With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet."
Aug 9, 2004
Aug 5, 2004
Notebook Forums
Notebook Forums - powered by vBulletin
Requires you to be registered with them for posting or viewing attachments, but you can browse thru the posts without registering or logging in. It doesn't accept free webmail ids for the registration though - rejected my gmail as well as eml email ids.
Requires you to be registered with them for posting or viewing attachments, but you can browse thru the posts without registering or logging in. It doesn't accept free webmail ids for the registration though - rejected my gmail as well as eml email ids.
Aug 2, 2004
APOD: 2000 November 27 - Earth at Night
Astronomy Picture of the Day site atAPOD: 2000 November 27 - Earth at Night
A composite picture of the planet as seen at night.
A composite picture of the planet as seen at night.
Jul 30, 2004
Darwin Awards
This is the Darwin Awards website.
"The Darwin Awards honor those who improve our gene pool... by removing themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is bestowed posthumously."
"The Darwin Awards honor those who improve our gene pool... by removing themselves from it. Of necessity, this honor is bestowed posthumously."
Jul 29, 2004
eMachines M6805 laptop
Yeah, I did get this laptop (finally). It's pretty good, lives up to all the reviews one finds on the web.
Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
Yes, it's a widescreen display, and you don't get to see that too often in India :) Display is crisp, nothing to complain about. The graphics system has an option to stretch the display if the video mode is not 1280x800, this is usually OK but it does distort the aspect ratio.
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Nothing to complain about here either. You can always replace it with Linux.
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 1.800 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™ Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache
No problems with this one! Windows is responsive, games run smooth (thanks to the 9600 too). Games being run - NFS Hot Pursuit II, NFS Underground, Rise of Nations, UT2004, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, Age of Mythology... I haven't yet run any benchmarks to see if it really is comparable to a 3GHz processor. 64bit doesn't mean anything right now, as long as a 64bit Windows version is not readily available. There is a beta, but I've heard there aren't drivers available for it. On the other hand, I can't think of anything that you'd want to do on a laptop as of now that would want a 64bit processor.
On a purely qualitative note, it does seem to be at least as good as the dekstops I use at home and at work (Athlon XP 2600+ and P4 2.4HT). Games are MUCH better on the laptop than on that P4, mainly because the P4 is on Intel integrated graphics, which, of course, the 9600 blows away. The Athlon XP puts up a better fight - it has a 128MB Nvidia 5900.
It also has a lot of boast value, 64-bit, 1600MHz HyperTransport, and all the rest; for those who understand the terms.
Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 60 GB HDD
Optical Drives: CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM)
512 MB is good. I've got the 4200rpm hard disk, but I couldn't really notice much difference in performance from my desktop drives (one is 5400, another is 7200rpm). Then again, I don't really do anything with this machine that would be limited by the HDD... sigh.
CDRW works fine, not noisy at all. In fact, the whole laptop is not noisy, and the fans turn on only once in a while.
Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Used this to transfer data from my cell phone's (Nokia 3650) memory card. Works fine, considering I had to use an infrared dongle to do it with my desktop. Should be good for digital cameras too.
Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM
Rocks! This would be considered to be at higher end for even a desktop in India ;) I've downloaded the Omega drivers, let's see where overclocking can take this system.
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Acceptable. Not too loud, but external speakers are always an option. I'm not an audiophile, so this works just fine for me.
Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Haven't tried it out, but how can it be any different from other modems?
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Haven't tried the wireless. Ethernet works.
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Vertical scroll zone is cool. I get really mad when I don't find it on my friends' laptops now.
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Always on AC power; I'm not really interested in finding out how long the battery lasts and I'm not going to crib if it doesn't last as long as other laptops.
Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d
Big. Because of the screen.
Overall, it has been a pretty nice experience. If you're looking for portability in a laptop, then perhaps this system is not for you. It has MS Works bundled with it, but MS Money is of no use to someone like me, and I've installed Office anyway. NAV comes with a 3 months subscription, I guess I'll replace it with AVG once those 3 months are up. I miss the mouse when gaming, getting used to the touchpad for games is going to be an uphill task. USB ports on the left side of the box really help, as many people have pointed out in reviews all over the web. It's the equivalent of having front USB ports on a desktop case. No PS2 ports, no infrared (I have a dongle tho, so no harm done), no serial port, no parallel port. No need for any of these, come to think of it, everything is USB now (or FireWire).
If anyone has specific questions, please let me know.
Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
Yes, it's a widescreen display, and you don't get to see that too often in India :) Display is crisp, nothing to complain about. The graphics system has an option to stretch the display if the video mode is not 1280x800, this is usually OK but it does distort the aspect ratio.
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Nothing to complain about here either. You can always replace it with Linux.
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 1.800 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™ Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache
No problems with this one! Windows is responsive, games run smooth (thanks to the 9600 too). Games being run - NFS Hot Pursuit II, NFS Underground, Rise of Nations, UT2004, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, Age of Mythology... I haven't yet run any benchmarks to see if it really is comparable to a 3GHz processor. 64bit doesn't mean anything right now, as long as a 64bit Windows version is not readily available. There is a beta, but I've heard there aren't drivers available for it. On the other hand, I can't think of anything that you'd want to do on a laptop as of now that would want a 64bit processor.
On a purely qualitative note, it does seem to be at least as good as the dekstops I use at home and at work (Athlon XP 2600+ and P4 2.4HT). Games are MUCH better on the laptop than on that P4, mainly because the P4 is on Intel integrated graphics, which, of course, the 9600 blows away. The Athlon XP puts up a better fight - it has a 128MB Nvidia 5900.
It also has a lot of boast value, 64-bit, 1600MHz HyperTransport, and all the rest; for those who understand the terms.
Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 60 GB HDD
Optical Drives: CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM)
512 MB is good. I've got the 4200rpm hard disk, but I couldn't really notice much difference in performance from my desktop drives (one is 5400, another is 7200rpm). Then again, I don't really do anything with this machine that would be limited by the HDD... sigh.
CDRW works fine, not noisy at all. In fact, the whole laptop is not noisy, and the fans turn on only once in a while.
Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Used this to transfer data from my cell phone's (Nokia 3650) memory card. Works fine, considering I had to use an infrared dongle to do it with my desktop. Should be good for digital cameras too.
Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM
Rocks! This would be considered to be at higher end for even a desktop in India ;) I've downloaded the Omega drivers, let's see where overclocking can take this system.
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Acceptable. Not too loud, but external speakers are always an option. I'm not an audiophile, so this works just fine for me.
Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Haven't tried it out, but how can it be any different from other modems?
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Haven't tried the wireless. Ethernet works.
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Vertical scroll zone is cool. I get really mad when I don't find it on my friends' laptops now.
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Always on AC power; I'm not really interested in finding out how long the battery lasts and I'm not going to crib if it doesn't last as long as other laptops.
Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d
Big. Because of the screen.
Overall, it has been a pretty nice experience. If you're looking for portability in a laptop, then perhaps this system is not for you. It has MS Works bundled with it, but MS Money is of no use to someone like me, and I've installed Office anyway. NAV comes with a 3 months subscription, I guess I'll replace it with AVG once those 3 months are up. I miss the mouse when gaming, getting used to the touchpad for games is going to be an uphill task. USB ports on the left side of the box really help, as many people have pointed out in reviews all over the web. It's the equivalent of having front USB ports on a desktop case. No PS2 ports, no infrared (I have a dongle tho, so no harm done), no serial port, no parallel port. No need for any of these, come to think of it, everything is USB now (or FireWire).
If anyone has specific questions, please let me know.
Jun 18, 2004
Pondicherry
I'll be making a trip to Pondicherry over the weekend. The plan is to stay in a tree house. Let's see how that turns out...
Jun 17, 2004
eMachines PCs start at $399.99
eMachines M6805 laptop
I'm getting one!
Specifications
Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 1.800 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™
Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache
Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 60 GB HDD
Optical Drives: CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM)
Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d
I'm getting one!
Specifications
Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 1.800 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™
Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache
Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 60 GB HDD
Optical Drives: CDRW/DVD Combo Drive (24x24x24 CD-RW; 8x max. DVD-ROM)
Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d
Jun 10, 2004
May 20, 2004
eVGA.com Monthly Contests
eVGA.com Home Page
The site for today is eVGA's monthly contest site. eVGA is in the graphics card business. I've got myself an eVGA GeForce FX 5900SE card.
The site for today is eVGA's monthly contest site. eVGA is in the graphics card business. I've got myself an eVGA GeForce FX 5900SE card.
May 19, 2004
Memtest86 - Memory Diagnostic Page
Memtest86 - Memory Diagnostic Page
This is one cool utility. Quoting from the page: "Memtest86 is thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are a quick, cursory check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86. "
This is one cool utility. Quoting from the page: "Memtest86 is thorough, stand alone memory test for x86 architecture computers. BIOS based memory tests are a quick, cursory check and often miss many of the failures that are detected by Memtest86. "
May 17, 2004
Here's a nice link ;)
Nigritude Ultramarine
Nigritude Ultramarine is the keyword that has to be searched for in google. If the words Nigritude Ultramarine appear in your page and it happens to be the top result in google then you get a prize. No prizes for guessing why these words "Nigritude Ultramarine" appear so many times on many different pages! If I were to link to all the pages that have Nigritude Ultramarine on them I wouldn't have time to write Nigritude Ultramarine myself! So, Nigritude Ultramarine !!
Nigritude Ultramarine is the keyword that has to be searched for in google. If the words Nigritude Ultramarine appear in your page and it happens to be the top result in google then you get a prize. No prizes for guessing why these words "Nigritude Ultramarine" appear so many times on many different pages! If I were to link to all the pages that have Nigritude Ultramarine on them I wouldn't have time to write Nigritude Ultramarine myself! So, Nigritude Ultramarine !!
May 10, 2004
Feb 18, 2004
A Spot of Blogs - Alok Naik
We sifted through the spoils, looking at each object in wonder. No, they were not spoils of war; they were the spoils of archaeology. And they weren’t spoiled at all, come to think of it. Most of the objects were made of plastic, some were metal. Large boxes with sharp edges, shiny circular pieces of plastic, coiled metal wires, small cylinders which we knew to be writing instruments, shards of glass. Other objects which we couldn’t identify, presumably they had been of use to the late twenty first century humans. The professor would know. He was old; not very old, but old enough to have a lot of knowledge about these things. He had devoted most of his life to it.
The digging site was on the edge of what was supposed to have been a thriving city. The floods and wars had changed that. There were no thriving cities on the planet now, no cities of any kind for that matter. Auto-controlled gun turrets dotted the landscape; and there were news reports once in a while of whole teams of archaeologists being wiped out by them. The offending turret would be deactivated as soon as something like this happened, but there was no known way to destroy them altogether. Legacy of a distant past, you learnt to live with it.
The professor was delighted with what we had collected. “We” being a bunch of students and digging bots. The students did the gross digging; the fine work of excavating the objects of interest was entrusted only to the bots. The professor always maintained that students no longer had the same enthusiasm and interest, that they were getting more and more careless by the day. His teachers probably said the same thing about him. He picked up each artifact carefully, turning it in the fading sunlight to note all the minor details. His voice was an interminable monologue, lecturing upon each find for the benefit of us students.
He termed this site wonderful. It would fill an important gap in the understanding of human culture of the twenty first century. More importantly for us, we could probably write a couple of papers on this and finally graduate. Commercial archaeology was much more lucrative.
“Late twentieth, or early twenty first,” said the professor, “it’s difficult to tell exactly. Their technology was so stagnant at that time.” He was holding up one of the shiny discs. There were twenty or so of them, all in protective plastic casing. “These were a means of storing data at the time, primitive though it may sound,” he droned on. “I have rigged up a device to read them; it is similar to the way they did it in those days. We think these discs were called ‘CD roams’, probably denoting the fact that they were portable.” He wiped the disc with a soft piece of fabric and held it up again for all of us to admire. We dutifully admired it. “Let’s see if it works”, he smiled as he said this and led the way to the device he had ‘rigged up’.
He powered on the device which he had hooked up to an energy cell and a viewer, and then pressed a knob on the front of the device. We all gasped as a section of the device actually moved and slid out of the main box! “Nothing to be afraid of,” smirked the professor. “I just place the disc in the tray like this.” He put the disc onto the section that had moved out and pressed the knob on the front again. The movable “tray” smoothly slid back into the box. “We are coming to the conclusion that these people may actually have been better at mechanical stuff than us,” the professor explained, a bit ruefully. A low pitched whine filled the room. “The plastic disc apparently rotates inside the box, that’s what’s making the sound,” the professor said and disconnected the box. “I think I’ll check it out in the night sometime. But I have a feeling that we are on the edge of some great discovery. The rotation mechanism of the box had set me thinking last week. It’s very similar to the systems we use. Perhaps they were more advanced in their technology than we previously imagined.”
Early next morning we found the professor sitting on a rock, sunk deep in thought. He looked up and smiled sadly as we walked up to him. “Our entire civilization is a sham. A lie,” he said. We were distracted by the sound of a large military vehicle which made its way towards us over the horizon. Within minutes, dozens of armed bots surrounded the professor and marched him into the vehicle.
(To be continued..... :D too lazy to type more...)
The digging site was on the edge of what was supposed to have been a thriving city. The floods and wars had changed that. There were no thriving cities on the planet now, no cities of any kind for that matter. Auto-controlled gun turrets dotted the landscape; and there were news reports once in a while of whole teams of archaeologists being wiped out by them. The offending turret would be deactivated as soon as something like this happened, but there was no known way to destroy them altogether. Legacy of a distant past, you learnt to live with it.
The professor was delighted with what we had collected. “We” being a bunch of students and digging bots. The students did the gross digging; the fine work of excavating the objects of interest was entrusted only to the bots. The professor always maintained that students no longer had the same enthusiasm and interest, that they were getting more and more careless by the day. His teachers probably said the same thing about him. He picked up each artifact carefully, turning it in the fading sunlight to note all the minor details. His voice was an interminable monologue, lecturing upon each find for the benefit of us students.
He termed this site wonderful. It would fill an important gap in the understanding of human culture of the twenty first century. More importantly for us, we could probably write a couple of papers on this and finally graduate. Commercial archaeology was much more lucrative.
“Late twentieth, or early twenty first,” said the professor, “it’s difficult to tell exactly. Their technology was so stagnant at that time.” He was holding up one of the shiny discs. There were twenty or so of them, all in protective plastic casing. “These were a means of storing data at the time, primitive though it may sound,” he droned on. “I have rigged up a device to read them; it is similar to the way they did it in those days. We think these discs were called ‘CD roams’, probably denoting the fact that they were portable.” He wiped the disc with a soft piece of fabric and held it up again for all of us to admire. We dutifully admired it. “Let’s see if it works”, he smiled as he said this and led the way to the device he had ‘rigged up’.
He powered on the device which he had hooked up to an energy cell and a viewer, and then pressed a knob on the front of the device. We all gasped as a section of the device actually moved and slid out of the main box! “Nothing to be afraid of,” smirked the professor. “I just place the disc in the tray like this.” He put the disc onto the section that had moved out and pressed the knob on the front again. The movable “tray” smoothly slid back into the box. “We are coming to the conclusion that these people may actually have been better at mechanical stuff than us,” the professor explained, a bit ruefully. A low pitched whine filled the room. “The plastic disc apparently rotates inside the box, that’s what’s making the sound,” the professor said and disconnected the box. “I think I’ll check it out in the night sometime. But I have a feeling that we are on the edge of some great discovery. The rotation mechanism of the box had set me thinking last week. It’s very similar to the systems we use. Perhaps they were more advanced in their technology than we previously imagined.”
Early next morning we found the professor sitting on a rock, sunk deep in thought. He looked up and smiled sadly as we walked up to him. “Our entire civilization is a sham. A lie,” he said. We were distracted by the sound of a large military vehicle which made its way towards us over the horizon. Within minutes, dozens of armed bots surrounded the professor and marched him into the vehicle.
(To be continued..... :D too lazy to type more...)
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