Vista SP1 RC1 Flies Past Vista RTM and Windows XP SP2

Despite the fact that Microsoft has expressed its official position regarding testing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ahead of its finalization, there is simply too much of a hunger for the service pack.

Performing benchmark tests on development milestones of Vista's first refresh are inherent methods of getting a taste of what SP1 will bring to the table. The Redmond company revealed in the past that it considers irrelevant tests involving a pre-RTM build of Vista SP1. But with the release to manufacturing date of the service pack still to be announced, sometime in the first quarter of 2008, the temptation is too big to get a sneak preview of the refresh.

In an initiative similar to that of the Devil Mountain Sofware company that tested the performance of beta builds of XP SP3 and Vista SP1, Gizmodo has also performed a benchmarking of Vista SP1, but this time the full Release Candidate. Earlier in December, Microsoft opened up the beta testing process of Vista SP1, with the delivery of the first public download, namely Release Candidate 1. Now, there is still no word from Microsoft whether RC1 is the final stage before RTM or if another RC will follow, but the company has given strong indication that Vista SP1 RC1 is close to the service pack's final form.

The new performance tests are essentially a comparison between Vista SP1 RC1, Vista RTM and Windows XP SP3. The tests were performed on a machine with the following configuration: a dual quad-core Penryn HP xw8600 PC, NVidia Quadro FX 4600 graphics (eight processor cores each at 3.16GHz), a 15,000rpm SAS hard drive and 4GB of physical system memory. Vista SP1 RC1 scored the highest, according to the results returned by running the industry-standard PCMark05 benchmark, accounting for 15.28% speed increase, compared to the RTM version of Vista. However, when it came down to network transfers, Vista SP1 RC1 hit a speed bump and copied a 1.37GB folder with 2606 items in almost 16 minutes, whereas Vista RRm did it in 13 minutes and XP SP2 in under 4 minutes.

Source

Sony releases Firmware Update v2.10 for PS3; DivX playback added!

Sony has officially released Firmware Update v2.10 for its PlayStation 3. The update enhances media playback: DivX and VC-1 (WMV) video playback is now available in the Video section of the XMB. Users have been asking for DivX support for a very long time, it’s great to see Sony listen to their customers. The new version also brings the PS3’s Blu-ray drive up to Profile 1.1, meaning various Blu-ray enhancements only available on Profile 1.1 compatible Blu-ray discs will now work on the PS3. A voice changer feature has also been added, enabling users to change the tone of their voice during voice or video chat.

Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista.

The long-awaited Yahoo! Messenger for Windows Vista now has a preview build available for download.

The Vista version sports an entirely redesigned user interface, tabbed chatting, the ability to transfer files of up to 2GB over the Messenger client, and a corresponding Sidebar gadget to boot.

A couple of things are missing from this build, however. Users eager to try out this version will have to do without both voice and video chat, and will also have to deal with poorer performance than the traditional Yahoo! Messenger. There is also no 64 Bit version of the software, although it is unknown if the final build will include a 64 Bit version.

Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 1)
Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 2)
Yahoo! Messenger Preview for Windows Vista (link 3)

Get DivX Pro v6.8 for FREE (Limited Time)

FREE Divx Pro 6.8 download for Windows and/or Mac...

The DivX Play Bundle gives you everything you need to start watching high-quality DivX videos, including DivX ® Video-on-Demand movies. All the tools in DivX Play are also available in DivX Create.

Download here.

Reggie Fils-Aime: Wii shortages "highly unfortunate"

Nintendo US boss speaks out at claims of manufactured supply situation

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo in the US, has hit back at claims that shortages of the Wii console may have been artificially created in order to generate marketing hype.

In an interview with MSNBC Fils-Aime stated: "In absolute terms, it is highly, highly unfortunate that consumers cannot find a Wii to purchase.

Source.

Note: Check on eBay just how much they are selling for. ;)

Windows Live Messenger 9.0.1407.1107 beta

Windows Live Messenger 9.0 is designed as the successor of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 released in its final form at the beginning of November.

The past week, Microsoft began sending out invitations to the private beta testing program of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. Subsequently, on November 27, the Redmond company opened up the beta testing program to a pool of some 5,000 participants.

The screenshots included in this article will let you feast your eyes on the latest version of Microsoft's instant messaging client. As you will be able to see, in this initial beta testing phase, the company has focused little on overhauling the graphical user interface of Windows Live Messenger 9.0. The similarities with Windows Live Messenger 8.5 are evident, but all the goodies this version delivers are of course under the hood.

With Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta, users will be able to sign-in and send messages from multiple locations, as well as enjoy signature, personalized and per contact sounds. Build 9.0.1407.1107 also brings to the table SPIM Reporting, Animated Display Pictures, Link in Personal Status Message, Behind the Scenes Changes and Windows Live Contacts Server.

"This is a beta version of Windows Live Messenger. Beta versions are pre-released versions of software products. Because you're using a beta version of Messenger, you may experience problems signing in and connecting to the Messenger service. If you are having these problems, uninstall messenger Beta, and then install the latest, released version from the Messenger home page," is a fragment of the information accompanying the release of Windows Live Messenger 9.0.






Download here...

Forgotten your password? Google can find it for you. Unfortunately...

When a Cambridge University team wanted to break a hacker's password, they turned to Google - with startling results. But there's a lesson for you too..

There's a certain amount of crowing associated with hacking the blog of a security team - which might be why a hacker, apparently Russian, broke into the blog of the Cambridge University security team at the Light Blue Touchpaper blog.

He did it via some weaknesses in their Wordpress installation, upgrading himself from a plain "can post" user to an admnistrator of the blog using a zero-day (that is, previously unnoted) vulnerability, via SQL injection.

But the interesting part came later, when the team was clearing up. They could see the user, but what password had he used? All they had was the entry in the MySQL database for the password; but that had been loosely encoded (encrypted is too strong a word) using the MD5 hash.

You shouldn't, in theory, be able to extract the original text from an MD5 hash. That would take millions, or at least thousands, of computers running all the time.

But Steven Murdoch began thinking. Who is there out there who has thousands of computers running all the time? Um, everyone. And some might be generating MD5 hashes and putting them on the web...

He took the hash - 20f1aeb7819d7858684c898d1e98c1bb - from the database and stuck it into Google. Lo and behold, it turned out to be "Anthony".

So far, so trivial. Except this: if someone does the same trick on a site that you use, they might be able to get read access to the database. They'll be able to see the username and email associated with the MD5 hash. And, on the assumption that you use that password repeatedly, such a hacker could trawl the web looking for places you log in.

So: want to check the security of your favourite password(s)? First, use the MD5 hashing page here (it's a Javascript function; there's nobody grabbing your password, I'd wager, though if you want to feel safe and have OSX, go to the terminal and type md5 -s mypassword - though use your password, not mypassword.

Second, paste that code into your favourite search engine. If it returns no results - well done! You've evaded that hack, for now.

So, how did you do? (I passed. Phew.)

Hints if you failed: change that password to one which includes both letters and numbers.

And no, we don't know if the junior official at HMRC used MD5.

Source

DirectX 10.1 in Windows Vista SP1.

As Windows Vista brought to the table the exclusive DirectX 10, the first service pack for the operating system will evolve Microsoft's graphics technology to version 10.1.




DirectX 10.1 is already available to over 12,000 testers via the first beta of Vista Service Pack 1, concomitantly with the official release of Build 6001.16659. Although the testing milestones of Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP SP3 Beta, are officially limited in terms of access, a hack is available designed to permit the download of Windows Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 straight from Microsoft, and simultaneously test drive DirectX 10.1.

However, Vista users have to understand that DirectX 10.1, as well as DirectX 10 is a technology intimately connected with the underlying graphics card, such as the upcoming ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series. According to an AMD whitepaper focused on the implementation of DirectX 10.1 in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 Series, the latest application programming interface from Microsoft, manages to "unlock the state of the art in GPU technology."

"DirectX 10.1 maintains the overall structure and programming model of DirectX 10, while providing numerous enhancements. The vertex, geometry, and pixel shader instruction sets have been updated to Shader Model 4.1. The new features of DirectX 10.1 can be divided into three general categories: new shading and texturing capabilities, anti-aliasing improvements, and tighter specifications. The following table highlights some of the key features in each of these categories, as well as some of the benefits they provide," states an excerpt of the ATI whitepaper on DirectX 10.1, via TeamATI.

There is little doubt over at AMD on the evolution represented by the move from DirectX 10 to DirectX 10.1. The fact of the matter is that, Vista SP1 in combination with DirectX 10.1 will bring to the table the next generation of interactive 3D graphics. Vista SP1 is currently planned for availability in the first quarter of 2008, following the launch of Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn. Still, one relevant aspect of DirectX 10.1 is the fact that, in order to enjoy the enhanced shader model, anti-aliasing support, and the increased flexibility of data access, Vista users will not only have to deploy SP1 but also upgrade to DirectX 10.1 ready graphics cards, even though they have moved for less than a year to DirectX 10 compatible hardware.

Source

AdSense: advertising in games will be worth 1 billion by 2010

From sports games to irreverent parodies on platformers, the world of in-game advertising has pretty much grown since video games have been on the rise the past few years. Bernie Stolar, Google's "Dean of Games", talks about the role of advertising in today's gaming industry and how AdSense for Games - an ad serving program run by Google - is planning to take on the in-game advertising scene.

When Google procured AdSense for Games in March 2007, it paved the way for the Internet search giant to gain its own advertising niche in the video game market. Ever since the industry started in the 70's, the demographics have slowly changed. From 15 year old kids playing on the Atari 2600, the median player of a PlayStation 3 console would be around 29 years-old now.

This is what AdSense is taking into consideration, especially with how the market has grown over the years. Stolar relates how his first coin-operated game, Shark Attack, cost him US$ 25,000, while his latest game from Sega cost US$ 25 million. He said it wasn't even possible to make a top-selling PS3 game for under US$ 20 million.

This was the reason why he believes there's a huge potential for the in-game advertising to blossom into a billion dollar industry by 2010 - by talking with major publishers into generating more income through advertising, the possibility for growth was staggering.

He also mentioned that the biggest advantage that AdSense for Games had over its competitors was the fact that, aside from its powerful backing from Google, they had a direct line while working with game producers and developers. He further explained it by saying:

The industry is going online. The whole thing of putting boxes on shelves is changing. There are close to 10 million people on Xbox Live. As soon as Sony straightens out their [online gaming] act, they're going to get to the same place. As a matter of fact, they've already said that all the games they want to do are online games. Yes, we can put games on the shelf that have advertising, but those are going to wind up being static [ads]. The whole thing is going to come to dynamic.

However, the most important thing Stolar has learned after going through so many major gaming companies is that, as a client, you have to be sensitive to the consumer and make sure that the consumer has fun. Take it from him, he says. He's already 60 years old and still enjoys gaming.

The quality of the advertising and how it will affect the consumer is their primary concern so far. This is the reason why they even have a whole review system to ensure nobody gets turned off by any inappropriate advertising in a product.

For more...

Get 500 MS Points for free - XBOX Live

Microsoft is personally thanking everyone after all the birthday wishes sent in by gamers for the fifth anniversary of Xbox Live. Aside from releasing Carcassonne for free, it is also giving away 500 Microsoft Points to every member who's been with them since 2002.

You can avail of these precious Microsoft Points by signing up at Microsoft's Xbox 360 website using your Windows Live ID associated to your Gamertag. The latest you can sign up, however, is until midnight (PST) of November 29.

You'll then have to wait for an e-mail from them with the 25-digit code to activate your Microsoft Points through your Xbox 360 console. Don't expect that e-mail to arrive instantly, though, since the deadline for the e-mail is December 21 of this year. After you get your MS Points, you have until June 30, 2008 to spend it, but if you're anything like us here at QJ.NET, those Microsoft Points will be long gone before then.

So go ahead and check out the website we've provided through the via link below and get to spending those Points.

Check it out!

Unreal Tournament 3 to use Gamespy technology for PC and PS3

GameSpy will be incorporating its multiplayer tech into Epic's Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PS3.

The big question sitting in gamers' minds is whether or not the deal will mean cross-platform console-to-PC fragging for UT3.

GameSpy's technology does allow for cross-platform gameplay between the two platforms, but Epic has said UT3 will not be shipping with such a feature. There is still a possibility of an update down the line that incorporates cross-platform play. GameSpy's features include multiplayer matchmaking, in-game and out-of-game messaging, player statistics, voice-over IP and a leaderboard and ranking system.

GameSpy recently became part of Epic's Integrated Partners Program, which means GameSpy's multiplayer tech would be integrated into Epic's popular Unreal Engine 3. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty from Codemasters and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway from Ubisoft are a few games that will feature PS3-to-PC cross platform play, thanks to the agreement.

UT3 ships on PC in November, while its PS3 counterpart is expected to be pushed back into Q1 2008. An Xbox 360 version is coming next year at an unannounced date, and will instead use Xbox Live for multiplayer.

Source

40Gb PS3 SKU using 65nm afterall :)

Well well, even though it was reported that Sony was using the 90nm (nano metre) Cell processor in the new 40Gb Playstation 3 console units, Sony boss Kaz Hirai confirmed it in fact uses a 65nm processor.

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment boss addressed the issue directly. In an interview posted at Japan's Impress Watch, Kaz Hirai confirmed that the new model uses a 65nm process for the Cell chip.

The system's RSX graphics chip, on the other hand, still uses a 90nm process. However, the shrinkage of the CPU alone was enough to cut the power usage of the system considerably.

Source

What makes this noteworthy is the fact that a smaller die size Cell processor (from 90nm to 65nm) means it generally costs Sony less money to produce these processors, less power consumption (less on power bills overall) whilst bringing down the price retail.

Explains why the ventilation holes on the newer 40Gb SKU is less whilst remaining cooler whilst being quieter at the same time. :)

New iPhone Firmware 1.1.2 Hacked Before Release

When Apple announced the release of the iPhone for the UK, it also announced that iPhone and iPod touch firmware version 1.1.2 would be released at the same time. Released today, firmware 1.1.2 closes the TIFF vulnerability in mobile Safari that was used to jailbreak firmware 1.1.1.

Confirmed by DailyTech, the TIFF vulnerability no longer works. However, despite Apple's effort to lockdown the iPhone and iPod touch, firmware 1.1.2 has already been jailbroken.

Credit go to the people behind AppSnap, the same utility used to jailbreak 1.1.1 devices. According to TUAW, testing of the new jailbreak began several nights ago, when the new 1.1.2 firmware was made available for download not through iTunes, but through Apple's website.

In its current stage, the new jailbreak requires several steps in order to complete, and is by no means release ready and user friendly. AppSnap and jailbreakme.com still remains open for 1.1.1 only, but the new jailbreak is being prepared for the same single tap installation.

According to TUAW's report, firmware 1.1.1 is required in order for the jailbreak to work with 1.1.2, although it is unclear at this point whether or not this will still be a requirement once AppSnap is officially updated.

Those with hacked 1.1.1 devices may wish to hold off from upgrading to 1.1.2 since it does not appear to provide any significant upgrade. The only noticeable change is the inclusion of several international language packs.

Jailbreaking may become a thing of the past if Apple keeps its promise. Apple announced in early October that come February 2008, developers will have an official iPhone SDK. The announcement was well received by the developer community. Currently, third-party applications for the iPhone are done via web applications and are mostly cumbersome to use and slow in nature.

Source

Download Free Windows Vista Enterprise

Microsoft is offering Windows Vista Enterprise as a free download in combination with the Office 2007 Professional System.




While all editions of the Windows Vista operating system can be test driven from anywhere from a month to 120 days, this copy of Vista Enterprise is limited to only 30 days. This coincides with the Initial Grace period of the latest operating system from Microsoft.

The limitation is associated with the whole Vista Enterprise and Office 2007 professional bundle. The marriage of Microsoft's flagship products comes in the church of virtualization. The download Microsoft is providing is in fact nothing more than a pre-configured Virtual Hard disk. The Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD is essentially an installation of Windows Vista Enterprise with Office 2007 Professional deployed on top of the platform.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has made the bundle available for download, but the VHD was updated on November 5. "This VHD contains both the 30 day edition of Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and an evaluation of Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. See how with these new platforms can simplify how people work together, find information and improve business insight, help protect and manage content, and reduce IT costs and improve security. Test drive today to experience how Windows Vista and Office 2007 work better together", Microsoft informed.

All other SKUs of Windows Vista can have their Initial Grace period prolonged up two 120 days via the slmgr -rearm command. The same is not valid for the Enterprise edition of the operating system, which comes to the table with an entirely different activation mechanism. The various editions of the Office 2007 System are also available as stand-alone downloads 60 days trial versions.

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD weighs in at a maximum of 2678.9 MB, coming with no less than 12 archives (238.4 MB each with one exception) and is available for download via this link.

Leopard and Vista - More alike than you think?

When Vista was released the chorus of complaints and criticisms quickly grew from a low hum to a near deafening roar. A little more than a week since Apple released Leopard and that low hum of discontent has already been amplified to the point where it’s starting to hurt my ears.

Within weeks of Microsoft unleashing Vista on the buying public the issues facing those making the switch from XP to Vista were clear and you could sum them up in a few bullet points:

* UAC too intrusive
* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the XP now falling over regularly

Now that Leopard has been in the hands of users for a little under ten days and you can draw up a similar list for Apple’s latest OS:

* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the Tiger now falling over regularly

Dave Winer does a good job of summarizing the problems affecting Leopard:

I’ve given Leopard a chance, but it’s pretty clear, this is not a good operating system release.

I’ve been out of the Mac loop for most of the last decade, just got back in a bit over 2 years ago. I don’t know if early OS releases are generally as crappy as this one, but I wasn’t prepared for where we’re at now. If I had known, I would have waited, instead of upgrading most of my Macs to the new system.

In fact, Winer also goes on to compare Windows to Mac OS X:

Talking with a friend a few days ago, he asked what I thought of Leopard. He had installed the new version, like me, the first day it came out. “I’m not liking it,” I said. He said something that was simple, profound and revealing: “It’s like Windows.” It is. It’s that unpleasant to use. It disappears for long periods of time. Systems that didn’t used to crash now crash regularly. On one system three hard disks were rendered unusable, and I lost a couple of full days restoring them (luckily I had good backups). The user interface is quirky. The new networking interface is a big step backward. The firewall moved and lost features! That’s simply never done, you don’t charge customers to remove features, esp security features. I think Apple doesn’t understand how many people depend seriously on their Macs.

I’m guessing that the root cause for these problems echoes Vista too - a rush to get the OS out of the door. It makes me sad to say it but we as consumers are now having to put up with buying far too many flawed products because companies are rushing to get products out to market and leaving us (the poor saps stuck with the defective product) to road test it properly, I’ll bet that the road to fixes for these problems will be as long and rocky as the one for Vista. Something else that the two operating systems will have in common.

Leopard’s not generating good press for Apple at the moment (actually, when you stop and thing about it for a moment, not much is generating good press for Apple lately) and it might help is affected users were given a timetable of when to expect robust fixes to come down the tubes.

The strange thing is that I’m quite happy with my Mac and Leopard. I’m guessing that this is because I’m still near the bottom of the Mac OS X learning curve and not pushing the OS too hard.

Source

Windows 7, to Take Networking Up a Notch

Microsoft has yet to define Windows 7 (Seven), the successor of Window Vista, when it was announced that it planned to ship the operating system in mid 2010, but the next Windows platform is slowly starting to take contour.

Back in mid 2007, when Msft first started to talk Windows 7, there were approximations made that the reason why Microsoft was failing to provide any palpable details about its next operating system was the fact that the product was still yet to take shape.

Now Msft is promising that while Windows Vista has evolved wireless networking in comparison to Windows XP, Windows 7 will literally blow your mind.

Vista was about making Wi-Fi connections as seamless, manageable and secure as wired networks. The next Windows version is really about taking Wireless networking to the next level by enabling new complete end to end scenarios and experiences that are going to change how windows PCs interact with each other and other devices and nodes over a wireless network

Microsoft revealed in the details for the job of Software Development Engineer.

The Windows Networking Ecosystem Technologies team will center on a range of new development scenarios focused on building new wireless networking capabilities into Windows 7. In this context, Windows 7 will bring to the table virtualised Wireless design to permit connections to multiple networks simultaneously. On top of this, Windows 7 will enhance wireless throughput and latency for Windows to Windows wireless connections.

As a part of this work, you will be working closely on existing and in-works wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11s, 802.11k, 802.11r, 802.11w. This position will provide you the unique opportunity of working on core wireless areas as well as collaborating with several other key Windows technologies to deliver a complete functional end to end scenario. The work will be in both the Windows kernel and user space.

Personal Note: Even though I personally like Windows Vista and can vouch for the beta SP1 available for the latest public Windows Operating System on the market today, I do look forward towards Windows 7 and believe Msft will prosper in the areas they originally hoped to with Vista. I see this upsetting many 'Vista Ultimate' owners but I still rather Msft progress than sit still. Vista will still blossom as Windows XP has and still continues to, so I see this as good news myself.

Sony says the 40GB PS3 is still using 90nm chips

We've all been hearing that Sony's new 40GB PS3 featured a revised design with a 65nm Cell processor and improved cooling, but sadly it looks like those reports were in error.
A Sony spokesperson has told Heise Online that the 40GB model continues to use 90mn processors, but does feature an updated design with a lower power consumption of just 120 to 140 watts, compared to 180 to 200 watts for the older models. Sony says its still planning on moving to 65nm processors in the near future, but for now, it looks like the PS3 is 90nm across the board.

Translated Source

D-Link’s Got a New 802.11n Gaming Router

D-Link’s Xtreme N Gaming Router.

Designed for the best online gaming experience ever, the DGL-4500 is supposedly friendly with any incarnation of the 802.11 spec. According to CrunchGear, the unit promises speeds up to 300Mbps. Gamers can also choose between the 2.4 of 5GHZ band to help them slay opponents all over the world.

Other features include D-Link’s own GameFuel technology, which promises to cut interference from other programs to keep games running smoothly. There’s a also a nifty looking Network Activity Display, which allows users to check Internet, LAN, WAN and other various settings all from one screen.

The new 802.11n router is now shipping for $240USD.

More info.

Major Nelson on XBL protection, Gamerscore cheating

Due to the onslaught of phishing and other identity theft-related cases in the Xbox Live Network (XBL), Major Nelson of Microsoft reiterates the importance of guarding your account information when logging on to XBL.

Using an example of how some Halo 3 player would ask for your XBL ID and password to rank you up or find you all the skulls in the game, the Major reminds everyone not to give out their info, tempting as the supposed benefits might be. His stern reminder reads:

If that "friend" of yours decides not return your account and buys a bunch of Arcade titles and movies on your account, there is nothing we can do except cancel the account since you willingly shared your information.

Cancelled.

As in you can never get it back.

Which means... yep, you guessed it. Goodbye Gamerscore, goodbye game saves, goodbye Gamertag, goodbye Hayabusa Armor. Ouchie.

On a related note, Major Nelson also discussed the consequences of tampering your game saves. Any and all users caught messing with their Achievements and Gamerscore can have their numbers totally wiped out. All of it. And if push comes to shove, Microsoft might even ban those accounts and/or console from XBL.

What's the lesson here? Play by the rules. Earn whatever you can using legit ways. No tampering, no cheating, no problems!

More from the source.

Back to Business.

Those aware would have known (can check into my very few first posts) that I have been waiting for a few months now to begin my government assisted business course initiative which will consist of up to 13 weeks (7 weeks minimum) the aim of this all would be to have myself starting a full time business in the field I so enjoy… Computers; Building, Upgrading, Refurbishing and Servicing as well as starting an E business where I’d sell hardware PC parts online at great prices.

I’m currently in my second day as I type this and I do have a positive output towards how it is going thus far, great teachers, environment is helpful and I’m starting to look at my business structure more effectively. I do look forward to what I can put into this course and what it will give me back in the sense of my business and the decisions I make from what I’ve learned.

I will keep an update on how this all plays out as well as implementing what I learn progressively here on my blog also ;)

Keep checking my blog out for more.

Enable both Aero and Glass in Vista Home Basic

Tips for people who are stuck up with Vista Home Basic OEM version.


Well i've read in most in most articles across the web to enable the Aero in Vista Home Basic.

1) Run "regedit"
2) Navigate to "Hkey_Current_User \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ DWM"
3) Change the value of the entry Composition to 1
4) Change the value of the entry CompositionPolicy to 0.
5) Now restart the computer.
6) Now go to Control Panel > Personalization > Window Color and Appearance.
7) When you are on Aero Standard you should now be able to see a color picker with sliders for choosing the colour of the Glass window decorations.

Well this only enables Aero in Vista Home Basic, not the 'Glass effect' like most people want. I tried to Google ways to get the 'Glass effect' but all give the same hack which never ends in the 'Glass Effect'.

You could always install WindowBlinds 6 ---> It's a shareware thing (not good idea imho).

But there is one free app available called Glass2k. Anyone interested in having 'Glass Effect' in their Vista Home Basic can download this free software from
here.

Microsoft: 88 Million Copies of Vista Shipped

Woah 88 million copies, should note that a majority of those copies were pre-installed OEM versions.

Despite underwhelming consumers and being snubbed by enterprises, Windows Vista's numbers keep growing, with Microsoft Corp. saying Thursday that it has now shipped 88 million copies of the operating system, almost double the number of copies of XP in the same amount of time at its launch.

In late July, Microsoft said it had hit the 60 million shipment mark with Vista.

Microsoft had previously said that it had shipped 20 million copies of Vista in its first month and 40 million copies of Vista in the first 100 days.

Microsoft credited Vista with helping it beat Wall Street expectations and raise financial projections for the rest of the year. The company reported revenue of US$13.76 billion for the first quarter ended Sept. 30, up 27 percent from the same quarter in 2006.

Revenue in its client segment, which includes all consumer versions of Windows, was $4.14 billion, edging out the $4.11 billion in revenue from the Microsoft Business Division where Office is produced.

CFO Chris Liddell credited strong sales in emerging markets, due in part to anti-piracy and legalization programs there.

Client revenues, however, did not top those of the first calendar quarter this year, when Vista was officially launched. Revenues at that time were $5.32 billion.

Three-quarters of the copies sold of Vista were higher-priced 'premium' versions, compared to 59 percent of the copies of Windows -- primarily XP -- available a year ago.

The 88 million figure mostly includes Vista-installed PCs bought by consumers and small businesses, as well as packaged copies of Vista sold in stores or online.

It does exclude the tens of millions of Windows corporate volume licenses. There, many enterprises continue to hold off on deploying Vista, acknowledged CFO Chris Liddell, though he expects them to start deploying it when Vista Service Pack 1's arrival in the first quarter of next year.

Nevertheless, revenue from companies renewing their volume licenses for Windows, which gives them the right to upgrade to Vista, was up 27 percent.

Source

Windows and Halo boost Microsoft

Microsoft has seen strong quarterly profits, thanks to demand for its Windows operating system and its popular Halo 3 video game.

The software giant saw net profit rise 23% to $4.29bn from $3.48bn a year earlier, during its first financial quarter, beating expectations.

Revenue added 27% to $13.76bn over the three months to 30 September.

The firm also raised its yearly forecast. Shares rose 11% in after-hours trade, to more than $35.

Morningstar analyst Toan Tran described the results as a "blowout quarter".

"I think Microsoft is going to have a fabulous second quarter. Worldwide PC demand is still very strong and is going to benefit Windows and Office," he added.

"With the holiday season, we're going to have demand for Xbox 360, and for Halo 3 so the second quarter is shaping up to be fabulous for Microsoft."

Outlook

Revenue from Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system grew 25% from a year earlier, hitting $4.14bn while sales climbed 20% to $4.11bn.

Meanwhile the firm's entertainment and devices arm saw revenue climb to $1.93bn - nearly double that seen in the first fiscal quarter of 2006, helped by the Halo 3 game as well as the Xbox consoles on which the game is played.

Looking ahead the firm raised its forecast for the financial year to $58.8bn in sales from a previous estimate of between $56.8bn and $57.8bn.

The results come the same day that Microsoft announced it had paid $240m (£117m) to buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook.

The deal means Microsoft will sell internet ads for Facebook outside the US.

Source

Samsung Cancels Blu-ray Player, Delays Dual-Mode Unit

Samsung confirmed Wednesday that it was canceling one of its Blu-ray players, while delaying its dual-format model until the end of the year.

The Blu-ray-only BD-P2400 was set to debut at a price point of $649 USD. However, the device was essentially the same as the $100 cheaper BD-P1400, save for the addition of HQV video processing.

In an increasingly muddied market for high-definition players where there appears to be no apparent winner for the foreseeable future, Samsung's move might not be all that surprising. It could be making this move to focus on getting its own dual-format player out, the BD-UP5000. While the player was originally supposed to be released in October, the company now says it will not be released until mid- to late December.

Another reason could be that Samsung wished to ensure its set-top box was BD Profile 1.1-compliant, which is a requirement of all players after October 31. While the unit will not ship with the new code, a firmware update in January will enable playback of discs that fit that profile.

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Nokia N95 8GB now shipping

Finnish fone fabricator Nokia has now begun shipping its updated N95 mobile phone.

The 8GB N95 boasts 8GB of built-in memory, a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative(?) 2-way slide. The N95 also features an all-important 2.8" (240 x 320) QVGA display that works great with GPS, Java games and Internet browsing.

The black, hot and heavy (129 g) N95 8GB is set to cost 560 euros without taxes.(WTF!)

Asus announces Silent Square EVO CPU cooler.

After the Silent Knight II, Asus has unveiled yet another cooler said to be perfect for keeping the temperatures of quad-core CPUs as low as possible. The Silent Square EVO works with Intel LGA 775 and AMD 939/940/AM2 sockets and features a "wave-shaped" double side fin design, a copper base and five copper heat pipes can efficiently transfer the heat to the fins.

The fan with which the Silent Square comes equipped is positioned inside the frame of the heatsink and measures 92×92×25mm. The fan spins its blades at 22dBA. The whole cooler and nothing but the cooler weights in 745 grams. A price tag for the new cooling solution has not been announced.

Eric Traut talks and demos Windows 7 and MinWin.

Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation at the University of Illinois about Microsoft’s virtualisation technology and also mentioned Windows 7 - the next version of Windows after Vista. Believe it or not it was on video. Whilst the presentation is not directly about Windows 7, it does contain a demonstration of MinWin - an internal project to build the most efficient Windows kernel which will in turn be used in Windows 7.

The presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hyper visors. If you think Windows at its core is bloated, think again.

The 8 minute segment has been clipped out which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch.

Full WMV video (1 hour & 6 minutes)

Windows 7 Footage (8 minutes)

Want Vista SP1 Beta but you are not a certified tester?

That's right! There is a hack available that will permit you to access, download and install the official release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 straight from Microsoft.

The first service pack for Vista was initially released in pre-beta stage in mid July 2007, concomitantly with the original preview of Windows XP Service Pack 3. Microsoft subsequently dropped another pre-beta version of Vista SP1 in August and revealed that the first fully-fledged beta for the service pack would be delivered by the end of September. And the fact of the matter is that in the last week of the past month, the beta of Windows Vista SP1 Build 6001.16659 was open to in excess of 12,000 testers.

A public beta of Windows Vista SP1 is expected sometime near the moment Microsoft will make available the first Release Candidate for the service pack, but the company has offered no timetable in this sense. The final version of Vista SP1 is currently planned for launch in the first quarter of 2008, following the release of Windows Server 2008, at the end of February. In this context, in excess of 70 million Vista users are locked out of the beta testing process of Vista SP1. The Beta Build 6001.16659 of the service pack has been leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks but downloading the refresh as a torrent is not even close to an option. However, a hack that will permit users to grab the official Vista SP1 Beta Build 6001.16659 right from the Microsoft Windows Updates server, is.

All you have to do is a little registry hack, as exemplified by GHacks. Open a notepad file and copy paste the following code. Make sure to save the file with a name similar to the one that follows: WindowsVistaSP1_Beta_Hack.cmd. In the file format area of the dialog box do not select .txt but opt for All Files instead.

CODE
@echo off
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d a2c3c14a-9586-4d37-9aaa-79fbd64069d2 /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d a2c3c14a-9586-4d37-9aaa-79fbd64069d2 /f

echo Vista SP1 registry key has been set. Please check for updates in Windows Update.

Then navigate to the location where you saved the file and right click it in order to select the Run as administrator from the contextual menu that will pop up. In this manner you will launch the registry hack with administrative privileges, otherwise the changes that the file is designed to introduce to the Windows Vista registry will fail. Microsoft is delivering the first beta for Windows Vista SP1 through the Windows Update infrastructure and the registry hack will render WU to display the refresh as available for download.

Following the execution of the WindowsVistaSP1_Beta_Hack.cmd and the associated registry alterations, run Windows Update in Vista. You will come across update KB935509 and you have to download and install it. After reboot make your way to Windows Update again and this time grab and deploy update KB937287. After yet another restart you will be able to find a third update – KB938371. The next time you boot into your copy of Vista and access Windows Update you will be able to find Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta.

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Sony and Blu-ray have lost their exclusivity in JB Hi-Fi stores with the announcement that effective from November, the major retailer will start selling HD DVD players and content. The big winner is Toshiba, with JB Hi-Fi Marketing Director Scott Browning conceding that it was the exclusive Paramount content deal with HD DVD that swung him over to the HD DVD format.

Back in February this year at the launch of the Blu-ray Disc Working Group, Browning said that JB Hi-Fi would only sell Blu-ray hardware and software because of the strength of the format.

But in an interview with SmartHouse today Browning said, "We have come to the conclusion that cutting the consumer out of a HD DVD opportunity was not right, as content is critical and the move by Paramount to support HD DVD exclusively influenced our decision. In addition, Toshiba is a strong brand and we are currently...

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IBM, AMD, Nvidia & Intel Talk The Future Of Gaming Processors

Last Thursday in San Francisco, Cadence held a roundtable discussion with high-level staff responsible for some of the most crucial processors in the gaming space.

According to AMD's Feldstein, who led the design for the Xbox 360 GPU, "The great thing about game console chips is that you're not bound by the linear path the PC has to take -- the dictators who say where the PC is going, like Microsoft." Feldstein even said Microsoft behaves differently when it comes to the 360. "You're also looking at a longer time. You're looking at something that has to live for years rather than months. It's a closed environment, you don't have the open factors of PC. It's a great place to prototype and design."

Setting the tone for his comments throughout the session, Intel's Randy Stude, whose company has no current console products since the cease in production of the original Xbox, argued that consoles do not help with innovation. "Throw Moore's Law out of the window when you talk about consoles -- except every five or ten years when one comes out. Moore's Law applies to the PC industry."
However, IBM's Jim Kahle, chief architect of the Cell project which resulted in the processor for the PS3, disagreed totally. "Moore's Law is about density, and density applies to cost. On consoles you're trying to get the cost down."

Peddie then posed the question that Stude argued earlier -- can consoles be considered a place for innovation in processing?

Feldstein said, "360 is where we got our 'go forward' architecture. You can make interesting tradeoffs in these convergence devices. If you don't oversize your system you have a system that attacks the problem -- especially in the game consoles, more entertainment."
Feldstein suggests that since game development has made a major shift to consoles, so too does chip innovation. "If you talk to [software] developers today, their prime target is the console first. This is almost universal. Then they spread it out to the PC. I don't think it was this way five years ago. This year they're starting to go to the consoles first, because it's a more consistent place to play games."

Feldstein talked practicals. "Cost downs are a real pain if you were Intel or AMD doing new processors, because you can't change anything." As processors shrink, "significant parts change. If you're doing an Xbox or a Sony, everything has to be consistent, the last game has to [run] the same as the first game that was bought. NVIDIA and AMD, we're so hell-bent to do the performance and the density and you have to restrain yourself because things have to stay the same." However, when questioned about the AMD GPU's role in the Xbox 360's billion-dollar unreliability issues, Feldstein demurred comment.

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Over 200 Developers Working On Metal Gear Solid 4

Meta Gear Solid 4! One of the biggest games (if not the largest) that will hit the PS3 has over 200 developers working on the title, this game will certainly move many PS3 consoles and with the price drop I'm more than certain the new 40Gb SKU's along with MGS4 is aimed to please even the most harsh critic. Do not forget that Kojima productions also plan on implementing the most with the Dual Shock 3 controller for our gaming pleasure also.

Talking as part of an in-depth interview published on Gamasutra today, Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton has revealed that there are over 200 developers working to complete Metal Gear Solid 4 for PlayStation 3, also commenting on the game's use of DualShock 3.

"But the game is definitely under a lot of pressure, because the way things are turning out, this could be the first "must have" PlayStation 3 title on store shelves. Or, if not the first, then the second or the third. So, in that sense, there's a lot relying on it. People at Sony know that, and we've got literally 200 guys working on this title, day and night, making sure that it's perfect."

"This will be the premiere DualShock 3 supporting game coming out within the next six months. Gran Turismo 5 is, I'm sure, going to be impressive, but we've got some things that I can't talk about that people are going to really dig."

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Drive advance fuels terabyte era.

A single hard drive with four terabytes of storage (4TB) could be a reality by 2011, thanks to a nanotechnology breakthrough by Japanese firm Hitachi.


The company has successfully managed to shrink the read-write head of a hard drive to two thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The smaller head can read greater densities of data stored on the disk.
Hitachi said the advance would fuel the "terabyte era", with a 4TB drive able to hold more than a million songs.

Xbox 360 Arcade Unboxed: It Has HDMI!!

Well it seems a New Xbox 360 SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is going to be replacing the Xbox 360 Core SKU currently available on the market. A warm welcome considering this new SKU will house not only some new revisions hopefully doing away the Red Rings of Death but also a HDMI port for those wanting optimal connectivity to their HDTV units.

Note: Great for those who dislike a lot of cables causing clutter as HDMI passes Video and Sound information through the single cable.

One should be aware these units will make their way into the American and Canadian markets before they hit our shores (here in Australia), here's some more info on the matter.

Thanks to Emanuel, an intrepid tipster who went above and beyond the call of duty, we managed to get a full unboxing of the Xbox 360 Arcade before Microsoft has even been able to send out a press release about the thing. Whenever the console officially lands, you can expect to pick up the hard drive free console for $279.99, which includes a 256MB Memory Card, a Wireless controller, an HDMI port minus the cable, and a disc that includes copies of Xbox LIVE Arcade games Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy, Luxor 2, Pac-Man Championship Demo, and Uno.

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New Features Discovered in XP SP3: Is It Better Than Vista?

The principal reason given for the tremendous under-the-hood changes to Windows unveiled early this year in Vista was the need to overhaul the security model.

Indeed, Vista has proven to be a generally more secure operating system, though some vulnerabilities that apply to ordinary software impact Vista users just as much as any other.

But now, software analysts testing the latest build 3205 of the beta for Windows XP Service Pack 3 are discovering a wealth of genuinely new features - not just patches and security updates (although there are literally over a thousand of those), but services that could substantially improve system security without overhauling the kernel like in Vista.

According to preliminary reports from Neosmart, testers there found evidence that the company is hardening XP's network security with added features.

One of these features had actually been on Microsoft's list for some time, and might actually have caused problems for customers had it been omitted: Network Access Protection (NAP), which is due to be managed by the forthcoming Windows Server 2008. This new service disallows network clients from accessing a WS2K8 server without passing a minimum "health screening," which checks for the presence of updates and service packs (including SP3) and disallows access to failing clients until they upgrade.

When NAP's inclusion in WS2K8 was first confirmed in late August, a Microsoft spokesperson contacted BetaNews to make sure we reported it wasn't just for Windows Server and just for Vista. We assumed that meant it would find its way to XP as well, though the spokesperson declined to be pressed further at that time.

A one-two punch involving a rollout of WS2K8 and XP SP3 in the first half of next year -- which is Microsoft's current plan -- could pave the way for a hardening of endpoint security on Windows networks, at least somewhat. Contributing to that hardening will be the inclusion of new cryptographic algorithms in the kernel, by means of Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (KMCM). Coupled with access policies provided by NAP, admins could theoretically implement a new, second layer of policies for encrypted communications and authentication between network peers, provided by Triple-DES algorithms accessible through the kernel.

In other words, enterprises that previously have had trouble embracing the idea of deploying across-the-board encryption may feel more comfortable trying it out, now that KMCM is a baseline feature. It premiered in Windows 2000, and its first implementation in a Windows client was for the first edition of Vista.

Neosmart also discovered evidence of hardening of Windows' IP stack, including the inclusion of Microsoft's new "black hole router" detection scheme. Way back in 1990, the IETF implemented a way for routers to detect in advance the shortest path to send a large number of datagrams, without having to fragment them too seriously along the way. The plan was referred to as Path Maximum Transmission Unit (PMTU), with the objective being for sending routers to seek receiving routers that mangle fewer datagrams.

As it turned out, some receiving routers that were pegged by sending ones as PMTU members were responding to datagrams with "do not fragment" messages by simply throwing them out. These were referred to as "black hole routers," and have been a perennial plague to streaming operations. The new router detection scheme enables IP routers along the way to flag misbehaving PMTU candidates in advance and steer around them.

This is a feature that Microsoft has updated just last month, and which it might not have had to include with XP SP3 to please customers. So its inclusion is being treated as an indication there are developers at Microsoft who are still willing to treat XP seriously, perhaps extending its viable lifetime well into 2009.

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BitTorrent moves from piracy to video streaming

BitTorrent Inc, which was co-founded by the developer of a software program widely used to share pirated music and video over the Web, plans to start helping media companies stream videos over the Internet.


The company unveiled the service on Tuesday (Oct 9), six years after its chief executive, Bram Cohen, created the BitTorrent peer-to-peer file-sharing technology.


BitTorrent is one of two key technologies used for trading files over the Web. The other, Gnutella, works using software programs including Limewire and MP3 Rocket.


While the BitTorrent software has been notorious as a tool for piracy, Cohen said he spent three years working to find ways to commercialize the technology.


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Blog Action Day!

As some of you have noticed over the months that I've been blogging here, I've never really discussed anything about the environment. Well today I was part of the Blog Action Day, where I blogged something about what matters to me concerning the environment. My blog was about Blackle.

Please check it out and comment on it here or there if you wish.

Images of 40Gb PS3 (Available Thursday in Australia)

Curious to see what the new PS3 40GB looks like? Here are actual, photographed in detail, shots of an unveiling of the new 40GB PS3.

One observation I made was that it seems the 40Gb revision may be using a 65nm (Nano Metre) Cell and RSX chipsets, for those who are unaware the Cell is the CPU and the RSX is the GPU used inside the PS3.

Vista is getting better...slowly ;)

A lot has been written about how Microsoft released Windows Vista too early and with too many bugs to make is a feasible platform for people looking for a relatively hassle-free platform.

If you liked being at the cutting edge then I’m sure you’d be happy to live with the bugs, but if happened to be looking a stable work platform, the general opinion was that it was best to stick with XP for a while. Now though, things are changing. Vista is getting better … slowly.

Vista is getting better ... slowlyOver the past few weeks we’ve not only seen a beta for the long awaited SP1 fall into the hands of a small pool of beta testers (of which I’m one), we’ve also seen a fair few compatibility, performance and reliability releases, specifically KB938979, KB938194 and KB941649.

I’ve installed all these updates onto several systems in the lab and what I’m noticing is that while KB938979 and KB938194 resulted in very litter overall benefit (the main benefit came from KB938979 and the fix to the “estimated time remaining” when copying or moving large files bug, but this was more of an annoyance rather than a critical problem), I’m seeing considerable improvement to both performance and reliability after installing SP1 and KB941649 on all systems. In particular, Vista startup times are improved considerably and overall reliability is infinitely better. What’s even better is that there’s no sign on a downside to applying these patches.

Several cynics have commented on the timing of these releases and wonder if they have anything to do with the imminent release of Mac OS X Leopard. While it’s easy to entertain such theories, I don’t put too much stock in them. It takes time to identify and fix issues, especially within a complex OS such as Vista. We’re not yet at the year mark since Vista went RTM so it’s still early days. Should Microsoft have been faster and more aggressive in releasing patches is a point worth debating, but that’s history now, what matters is that we’re starting to see real progress being done in bringing Vista up to scratch. Some areas are still waiting to be fixed (for example, I can easily replicate the network transfer speed bug on a fully patched SP1 beta version of Vista), I’m pleased with the progress I’m seeing.

While I’ve been highly critical of Vista as it was when it went RTM back in November of 2006, With the bundle of patches already released and Vista SP1 now on the horizon, I’m starting to see light at the end of the dark tunnel that I’ve been in for the past eleven months … and I’m hopeful that it’s not a train coming in the opposite direction!

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My Note: I've seen some major stability changes with Vista SP1 and I must say that there is a considerable improvement, those of you who are Beta testing know what I mean when I say that. :)

40Gb PS3 $699.00AUD RRP!

Well it seems that there was weight to my previous articles about a new PS3 surfacing. Even with the claims of JB Hi-fi store staff, some people just wanted to wait upon Sony to verify the claims. The funny thing was, Sony would deny any reports of a new 40Gb revision unit until October 5th where they now have not only confirmed but you can take a quick look at the unit (click on source for more).

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KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NEW 40GB & OLD 60GB PS3



The fact that this unit no longer supports PS2 game playback may upset many more than the issue of this unit not playing Super Audio CD's or known as SACD (didn't really take off) as Sony has always been about keeping their backwards compatibility catalogue. Playstation has around 15 years of gaming under their belts and 7-8 years were in the PS2 generation, fact is games are still in production for the PS2. One should note ALL PS1 games are compatible with the console.

Some other hardware features not found in this model when compared to the 60Gb & 80Gb (American and Japanese versions) configurations is that this has 2USB points and no card readers...

This console in my honest opinion is more for those not concerned with playing PS2 games but wanting a cheaper entry unit into Sony's next gen gaming. I am considering this purchase and hoping I can still pick one up for at least $650.00AUD as I stated in my last post on the matter.

It's one of the cheapest Blu-ray movie players on the market, plays High definition games, free online multiplayer, Wi-fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth, Mozilla Internet browser, Linux capabilities (can install Linux O/S distros) and an observation I made, it may also be using the new 65Nano Metre Cell & RSX chipsets which could explain why Sony have used less ventilation holes on this unit than its older 60/80Gb variations.

A good buy in my opinion!

Ten Tips for Buying TVs

A very imformative piece, I found this great for myself and for others when asking advice!

1) Right Connection – The first question Silver says shoppers should ask is whether the superstore or specialty retail store has a delivery service that will properly connect and calibrate your TV. “Ask if they understand how to make HDMI work, because ideally you should be getting that, but it’s still novel, still buggy,” Silver says.

2) Lighting Matters - Though it may be difficult depending on the shopping environment, make sure you can view the set in lighting similar to your home’s lighting. Is your room usually bright? Go LCD. Dark? Try plasma or a projector. In between? Microdisplays, especially for value in screen size delivered per dollars spent, Silver says.

3) Where’s the View? – Speaking of microdisplays, or rear-projection TVs (RPTV), there is a catch, Silver notes: limited viewing angles. LCDs and RPTVs don’t have as broad viewing angles as plasma, so make sure you can control the angle both horizontally and vertically if you’re considering those technologies, he says. “Room lighting and viewing angles are absolute considerations, and you can’t recover from a mistake there.”

4) Have Discs, Will Travel – Don’t rely on what the stores are displaying for movies; bring your own demo material. Suggestions: something real, something familiar. A digitized Pixar movie like Cars or Toy Story is easy to make look great, Silver says, but doesn’t offer real-life brights, darks and dynamic range of colors the human eye sees every day. “Charlotte Gray with Cate Blanchette, go to the very last chapter where there are bright scenes, dark scenes—challenging scenes. The original Matrix is spectacular in HD DVD, and Kingdom of Heaven is good in Blu-ray,” Silver says.

5) Sweet Concert, Man – Another telling piece of demo material? Concert DVDs. “They’re notoriously tough because they’re dark, and it’s not film-based, it’s video,” he adds. “Dark scenes in a concert shouldn’t be full of little wormy things moving around.”

6) Be Suspect of Specs – We can give you chart after chart of manufacturer specifications, but Silver says let your eyes be the true denominator. If you have five sets lined up in a row, look for the best black levels and truest colors, even if you’re weighing 720p-resolution HDTVs against 1080p models.

7) A la Mode – TVs are shipped in “torch” mode, according to Silver, where blues are accentuated and colors in general are oversaturated. Combat this by making sure your TV’s menu includes modes “that have the words pro, theater, movie and warm.”

8) Go Big – Silver’s simple rule on what size TV: The biggest you can afford. “We believe a big picture is 35-millimeter film,” he says. “Take all the rules you’ve ever heard [for measuring the ratio of screen size to viewing distance] and throw them away. I guarantee your screen at home is too small.”

9) Good Memory – Different content sources produce pictures that need varying levels of adjustment to look good on your TV, so check that it has discrete memory per input. That means your set will remember what settings go with what connection, whether it’s cable, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Xbox 360 and more.

10) Darkness Rules – Since Silver can’t stress enough the importance of black levels in an image, we’ll say it again, this time with an analogy. He says to think about it like the differences of black levels in photography of daily newspapers compared with those of a monthly magazine.

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Australian 40GB PS3 unoffically confirmed (Confirmed by JB Hi-Fi store staff)

Australian 40GB PS3 unoffically confirmed (UPDATE: Confirmed by JB Hi-Fi store staff)

We've had word come through from a great source outside Sony that the 40GB PS3 is definitely on its way to Australia, and the release timing fits well with the Best Buy leaks discussed by the mothership.

The docs we've seen put the 40GB PS3 at $699, with a release date of October 11. If you haven't taken a closer look at the specs just yet because you didn't expect it to come this way, America's FCC revealed plenty of the more subtle hardware changes. -Seamus Byrne

(UPDATE - Wed, 4.59pm: A reader called up their friendly neighbourhood JB Hi-Fi and had the price and date confirmed by two separate members of the floor staff. So we're willing to call next Thursday a very safe bet for a new PS3. -SB)
Posted on October 3, 2007 12:30 PM

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PlayStation Home: 10 minutes Of New Video Footage

If you check out my previous post on Sony's 'Home' service which is much like Second Life I discussed some really neat features the service has on offer and also my take on the array of options and possibilities.

Well here is new footage of the PlayStation Home Avatar customization options and also new footage of the apartment wallpaper options a brief look at Home Square and a look a the proximity sound feature for video displays in home.

Video 1

Video 2

Thoughts and opinions...

Bungie Leaving Microsoft!? (RUMOR)

A huge rumor is floating around that Halo developer Bungie may be seperating from its owner Microsoft. However it is based on a email someone claims to have received from "A friend of mine who has someone close that works at Bungie". According to the email Microsoft is letting Bungie split as a thank you for the billion $ Halo franchise, with Microsoft keeping the rights to it. This rumour seems way too crazy to be true, as the loss for Microsoft would be huge. It's in the news and it's causing uproar all over the internet as it's doing the rounds.

seattlepi

The email is as follows :

"So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week.
You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft gets to keep all rights to the Halo franchise, but as today Bungie no longer part of Microsoft. Ask anyone who works there to search the global address book, they're no longer in there. Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today but if they wait till the 10/6 the impact wont effect the quarterly results. However today is the actual official date and the day the NDAs expire, however you still didn't hear this from me."

"Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn't like how MS is constantly trying to "handle" everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They'll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)"

"What a way to say thank you."

Considering that Microsoft owns Bungie (they paid $50m USD for Bungie)I'd take this with two grains of salt.

PlayStation 3 getting holiday makeover!

Well this one has been through the rumor mill however it seems that this may have some legs to stand on.



From arstechnica.com:

In the meantime, you can see what Sony has done: the company has focused on reducing the cost of building the PS3 while also closely watching how sales of lower-priced units are doing. The time is ripe for a new PS3 model to hit the scene, and we strongly believe that the company is about to launch a $399 PS3 in time for the holiday season. We've been hearing rumors to this effect for some time, but now the evidence of a new PlayStation 3 configuration is almost undeniable: an FCC filing details a new model number for the system.

What this new model number means is impossible to know for sure; the FCC filing leaves out pictures to "avoid premature release of sensitive information prior to marketing or release of the product to the public." The product description tells us that there is no difference in the wireless configuration, CPU, or Bluetooth aspects of this new PlayStation 3. The information that details the differences has been conveniently left out of the released paperwork, for the aforementioned reason.

We also have a date to pin this information to: our sources tell us that the $399 PlayStation 3 hardware will launch on, or before, November 16. We're confident in this information, as our sources in this area have always given us accurate information in the past. The "sensitive information" in the FCC filing will go public 45 days from September 4, unless something changes.

In the race for supremacy Sony has fallen behind against the XBOX 360, many people have held back mainly due to price of the Sony Playstation 3 whilst others are not impressed with the games currently available.

One thing is for certain, I hope these PS3's (if the hype is true) will hit the shores of Australia sometime early next year as I'd honestly love to pick one up @ around the $650AUD mark like I did the XBOX 360 when that too retailed for $400USD ($650AUD).

More as it happens...

iPhone issues after software upgrade as promised.

An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.

It was announced earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device "permanently inoperable".

Thousands of owners hacked their iPhones to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run "unsupported" programs.

Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.

What is truly upsetting is legitimate customers (who have not hacked their iPhones in any way) are also having problems. Many are blogging about it whilst others are posting on Apple's forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music.

People diss Microsoft for the things they do but at least MS have a different stance with hackers/pirates.

Comments are welcome.

Funny : Dog swallows Wiimote

Not exactly noteworthy news but I love the Wii and this made me laugh...

A family in the US town of Loveland became concerned when their dog started vomiting blood - something that the first aid chief on our floor will tell you "ain't quite right."

So naturally the dog was whisked off to the vet, where X-Rays revealed what appeared to be an old TV remote.

Vet-induced vomiting revealed that there were pieces of TV remote inside the dog's stomach, but there was something else in the pooch's tummy as well...

"The Vet started massaging the dogs belly and it just came flying out of the dog," said Marie Becknell. "I knew what it was right away by the color and shape of it. It was my son's video game remote." Yep, the dog had swallowed the boy's Wii Remote.

We're sure you'll agree that this is one talented dog, but instead of having him run around the living room, hilariously flailing the bat in Wii Sports, the family had the Remote removed.

"The dog spent the night at the Vet and boy's punishment for leaving the controller out was two weeks allowance to replace the Wii remote," said Mrs. Becknell. Don't him leave the SixAxis lying about...

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One has to ask, did the family have to move the dog around to play the games or see that the Wiimote still worked :)

Adobe Continues Blu-ray Support.

Adobe has announced that the latest version of their popular PC video editing software - Adobe Premiere Elements 4 - supports Blu-ray content. Adobe first announced Blu-ray support with the Apple OS-X version of this software, and has continued that support for this newest release. The software will optimize your video to Blu-ray standards in order to guarantee the highest video quality. Adobe Premiere Elements 4 is available now.

For even more on this.

Perform a Full Manual Defrag of Your HDD under Vista.

If you have tried doing a defragmentation of your hard disk under Windows Vista, you would have noticed that the defrag utility does not really give you any detailed information about your hard disk fragmentation level, show you the defragmentation progress while defragging and in certain situations even defragment when you ask it to.

This guide shows you how you can perform a full defrag of your hard disk under Vista and get at least a basic report on your hard disk fragmentation before and after defragmentation.

What's Happening Here

There are a number of changes between Windows Vista's defragmenter and XP's defrag tool. In general, Vista's defragger is designed for the average user and is thus tuned for automatic behind-the-scenes work: by default, the defrag utility is scheduled to run weekly. It defragments all the partitions on all your hard disks automatically. Unlike the Windows XP defragmentation tool however, it will only defragment files with fragments smaller than 64 MB on NTFS file systems. The lack of any useful user interface in the Vista defrag utility is consistent with this design decision of having an automated defragger running behind the scenes without user intervention.

Before you get too upset, let me say that this is a generally useful setting for the average user. Let's face it, if you are reading this, you are not an average user. Many users I know don't defragment their hard disks. They don't even know the concept, let alone how to get it done or what use it may serve. The default Vista setting is sensible for such users - a weekly schedule is more than adequate: too frequent and the constant defragmentation causes additional wear and tear on the hard disk for very little additional gain. And for most people, not moving file fragments if they are more than 64 MB is a good compromise - it speeds up the whole defragging process, and the fragments are large enough so that in most cases they don't cause significant slowdowns in the system.

Manual Defragmentation

There are of course reasons why you might want to override this default mechanism. For example, a full defragmentation of the hard disk may speed up certain hard disk backup operations. If you're doing it on a large scale with many computers, the time savings when backing up a properly defragged hard disk compared to one where the files are broken into many fragments may be significant. Another possible reason might be if you are capturing video on your computer and don't want any frames to be skipped; if the disk is fragmented without a contiguous free space for the entire video file, the hard disk head may have to skip over occupied sectors in the middle of recording, causing your recording software to skip frames.

To get Vista's defragger to give you some information about your hard disk, and to control which hard disk or partition it defragments, you will need to use the command line defragmentation utility. It will still not give you any feedback while defragmenting, just as the GUI version of the defragmenter will not, but at least you can get information on the fragmentation level of your hard disk, control whether to defragment even if the file fragments are larger than 64 MB, and control which partition or hard disk to defragment.

To use the command line defrag tool in Windows Vista, you have to run the Command Prompt as an administrator. In Vista, this is not automatic even if you are logged in as the administrator. Click the Windows button (previously the Start button in earlier versions of Windows), the All Programs menu item and the Accessories menu item. Right click the "Command Prompt" button and select "Run as administrator". A command prompt window will appear. Everything you run in this Window will be run with administrator rights.

1. To view a file fragmentation analysis of (say) your C: drive, type:

defrag c: -a -v

The "-a" parameter tells the defragger to perform a fragmentation analysis. The "-v" option tells it to be verbose in its report. If you want a report on drive D: or some other drive, substitute that drive letter in place of c:.

Be aware that defrag may tell you that you have no fragmented files even if you have some. On NTFS partitions, the reporting function of defrag does not consider fragmented files with fragments greater than 64 MB as fragmented. If you need truly detailed information, you may have to consider getting a third party defragmenter such as those listed on the Free Defragmentation Utilities page on thefreecountry.com.

2. To defragment a particular drive, say C:, type:

defrag c: -v -r

The "-r" option tells the defragmentation utility to treat files that are fragmented with 64 MB fragments or larger as though they are not fragmented. This partial defragmentation is the default for "defrag", and it's the only way the GUI defragmenter in Vista works.

You can also force the defragmenter to defragment everything. That is, even if the file fragments are larger than 64MB, the Vista defragmenter will still attempt to put the file into contiguous sectors. To do this, run the defragger with the following options:

defrag c: -v -w

As you have probably have guessed, "-w" tells the Vista defrag tool to do a full defragmentation. All file fragments will be consolidated where possible.

Source

I should point out something not mentioned within the source from where this came, that Microsoft has corrected this issue with Windows Vista SP1-Beta.

Vista SP1 is now available for download on Connect.

For those who have made it into the beta program on Connect,

Build 6001.16659.070916-1443 has been posted in both x86 and x64 versions!

Source: In-House

vista service pack 1 is now available for download on connect

Windows Vista SP1 Beta (6001-16659-070916-1443) Client and ClientN for X86 and X64 English

9/24/2007

9,625.54 MB

6001.16659.070916-1443_x86fre_Client_en-us-FB1CFRE_EN_DVD.iso

6001.16659.070916-1443_amd64fre_Client_en-us-FB1CXFRE_EN_DVD.iso


EXE Files:

Wave1_Windows6.0-KB936330-X64.exe 1,778.91 MB
Wave1_Windows6.0-KB936330-X86.exe 1,308.64 MB

More Info

HDMI...

I was roaming the AVS forums (check useful links) and came across a great post concerning the various versions of HDMI and thought I'd post it here for the lazy.

Cutting through the confusion about the digital audio/video connector.


No, HDMI doesn’t stand for Hard to Distinguish Multiple Iterations, although that’s how it has shaken out. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface is one of the more confusing and misunderstood features of HDTVs.


HDMI is the highest quality connection available for audio and video products, and it can support features including “Full HD” 1080p resolution and Dolby TrueHD that other connectors cannot. Moreover, HDMI is single-cable digital connector that sends audio and video signals, replacing eight or more audio and video cables.

The problem? HDMI comes in various versions—1.1, 1.2 and 1.3a—and you’re not guaranteed compatibility even within the same version. (All versions of HDMI, however, support 1080p resolution.)

More info on HDMI

Halo 3 is coming!

People, Halo 3 is almost upon us!

The Covenant control Earth. The Flood is unleashed and on the loose. With the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, Master Chief is the only one that can save the human race. Master Chief, the last of his kind, is a warrior born for combat, bred for war … and humanity’s only hope.

More info on Halo 3

One game I got to go and buy, in just a few days.

Finish the Fight!


Click me!

Sony's 'Home' has been delayed! Yay! (not).

Well some rather bad news I'd like to bring some attention towards.

If you look down the page a little you'll see my blog concerning 'Home' which is going to be Sony's version of 'Second Life.' There's more on that and how I vision 'Home' much like 'Second Life' to benefit people such as myself and many others...

Go down and have a read for more on that! :)

Anywho, back to the bad news:

PlayStation Home, PS3's online social networking "thing", will not release this year as planned, Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has confirmed in his Tokyo Game Show keynote this morning.

Unlike E3, where the application was shown up and running, Hirai merely showed the Home logo on the Makuhari Messe stage and said that the service had been pushed back to "truly meet the needs and feedback of the users." Home was originally scheduled for a "Fall" launch this year, as announced by SCEE dev boss Phil Harrison at GDC this March.

During a Q&A session after his speech, Hirai said the delay wasn't down to technical problems, but was because Sony wants Home to be a worldwide service and to have functionality suitable for people in different regions.

He thinks it can be satisfactory to all kinds of users when it launches, he said, adding, "We want to make sure we have a full range of services."

PlayStation Home is an avatar-based, MMO-style networking application for PS3 users, allowing console owners to have their own virtual spaces, trophy cabinets for their game achievements, and so on. Players will be able to access features like downloadable content and play games with friends through Home.

Source.

Although I'm sad to see this has been delayed I do understand that Sony probably needs to prepare for all this. Despite what Sony say here I truly believe this delay will allow us the user a far better and stable infrastructure with 'Home'.