Legit Reviews News History
Tech Industry may suffer due to Katrina & costly oil
No matter what social class you are the current $3 a gallon gas prices are causing you to notice how you are spending your money. Now that more Americans are starting to pinch pennies and save money demand for technology devices is sure to decrease. Analysts believe that corporate demand for technology may be pinched by fuel costs and Hurricane Katrina, but the eventual rebuilding of New Orleans could take up some of the slack. Just think of all the PC's that are under water right now or that have been stolen.
Companies are expected to have to dig even deeper to pay for energy -- from gasoline to heating oil to airline fuel -- in coming months after Katrina shut more than 90 percent of daily crude oil production from the U.S. Gulf Coast, normally the source of about a quarter of U.S. oil output.
"Every buck that they are forced to spend elsewhere is that much less money (spent) on other issues," said Barry Ritholtz, chief market strategist at the Maxim Group. "With technology it may not fall dollar-for-dollar, but you have to think that it's going to pinch a little bit." Experts said the higher costs could force companies to delay signing contracts for software, medical equipment or networking hardware, and could make some firms choose between installing new systems and hiring staff.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 09:41 PM
Wednesday Reviews from Around the Web
My personal computer used for terrorism? Could that really happen? Well, Dr. Robert Ing has some suggestions to make sure it DOESN'T happen to you in his article, "PC Users Could Be Weakest Link In Fight Against Terrorism," at BonaFideReviews. Find this and other reviews at the Legit Forums!
A terrorist has two prime objectives; to obtain information and to disable a target at any cost. A personal computer user could unknowingly assist a terrorist in accomplishing these objectives but it doesn't have to be this way.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 01:02 PM
Study Rejects Link Between Mobile Phones And Cancer
Worried that talking on your cell phone will give you cancer in the head? Sit back and breath a sigh of relief as you should be okay for at least the first ten years of use. One of the largest and most rigorous studies ever into the alleged links between cancer and the use of mobile phones has failed to find any connection between the two--at least for the first ten years of use.
According to the study, published on line by the British Journal of Cancer and conducted by scientists at the world-renowned Institute of Cancer Research in London, there is no link between a type of brain cancer called acoustic neuroma and the number of years that mobiles had been used, the time since first use, the total hours of use or the total number of calls.
The study was carried out in five countries ? Britain, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, all countries that established mobile networks early on and have a high mobile phone penetration ? on 678 people with acoustic neuroma and compared their use of mobile phones over a 10-year period with a group of 3,553 people who had not developed the condition.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 09:28 AM
NASA to send robotic penguin to moon for exploration
We all know that the space shuttle program is having a mid-life crisis, but it seems that NASA keeps on coming up with new ideas. It now seems that NASA wants to send a "Space Penguin" to the moon. While still in the concept stage, the explorer could be launched as early as 2009, said Karleen Seybold, a senior systems engineer for Raytheon. Since Raytheon is a military defense technology company it wouldn't suprise the LR staff if the Space Penguins come equiped with lasers too.
The unmanned lunar device, in development for two years, is 3 feet tall and weighs approximately 230 pounds. It "hops" by reigniting small propulsion engines. The Penguin, unveiled at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2005 Conference, can make a single jump of about six-tenths of a mile and could be adapted to make additional jumps, possibly over greater distances.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 09:16 AM
Microsoft Investigates Critical New IE Hole Found By badpack3t
Microsoft is "aggressively investigating" an Internet Explorer hole that could allow hackers to take control of Windows XP machines. Microsoft is not aware of attacks that try to use the reported vulnerabilities or of any customer impact, but is trying to make a patch. This is not the first time a flaw has been found in IE, but the person who found the flaw (Ferris) said that "It's not like any other flaw in IE?it's definitely different".
The hole, if left unpatched, could allow remote attackers to take control of Windows XP machines running Service Pack 2 and Internet Explorer 6 using silent attacks that are launched from malicious Web pages. The remotely exploitable hole can be used to compromise fully patched Windows XP SP2 computers and there is no way to block attacks, according to Tom Ferris, the independent researcher who found the vulnerability.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 09:09 AM
Micron: JEDEC specs of FB-DIMM should be available by year-end
It looks like It's full steam ahead for FB-DIMM memory (Fully-Buffered Dual Inline Memory Module). The new technology uses existing DDR2 modules. It allows for upto up to six channels of eight dual-layer FB-DIMM modules each. This allows for upto 192GB of memory to be addressed by a single memory controller!
Micron is currently sampling FB-DIMM products to select customers and these products should begin to appear in production systems in the first half of 2006, according to Terry Lee, executive director of advanced technology and strategic marketing for Micron?s system memory group.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 08:04 AM
Google To Offer Print Ads
Google is expanding its lucrative Internet advertising network into the print world in a bold attempt to capture traditional ad dollars. The print ads will feature full pages of Google-facilitated ads with the URL of an online version of the page at the top. Fine text also appears at the top saying "Ads by Google," and "Google advertisers offer these products and services" at the bottom. However, there is no Google logo that will appear in the print ads. Magazines were contacted by Google two and a half months ago.
The search king, which makes 99 percent of its revenue from Internet ads, is quietly testing the waters of print advertising sales, according to executives at several companies that have bought the ads. Google recently began buying ad pages in technology magazines, including PC Magazine and Maximum PC, and reselling those pages--cut into quarters or fifths--to small advertisers that already belong to its online ad network, dubbed AdWords.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 05:26 AM
DRAMeXchange: Memory spot prices continue to drop
Memory spot prices continue to drop due to weak demand in the market. PC-2700 (333MHz) has dropped nearly 4% over the past week.
Except for 8Gbit NAND flash parts, spot prices for all types of memory were down within a range of 4% for the last week of August (23-30) amid weak demand in the market and limited transactions. However, even though 8Gbit NAND flash prices were up, the increase was minimal at 0.9% Spot prices for DDR, DDR2 and SDRAM, suffered the biggest drop, with 512Mbit DDR-333 suffered the largest drop at 3.87%.
Posted by | Wed, Aug 31, 2005 - 05:14 AM
Apple iTunes is coming to cell phones
Apple Computer and Motorola plan to unveil a cell phone with Apple's iTunes software next week, the New York Times reported Tuesday. On Monday Apple invited members of the press to the Moscone Center in San Fancisco for a briefing on Sept 7th and now we know why. Looks like iTunes is coming to a phone near you in the near future. I personally use a Treo 650 with Real Player for all my current MP3 needs!
The report said having iTunes software on the phone would allow people to transfer songs from their personal computer to the phone and listen to them. "It's a deluxe music player now on your cell phone," Roger Entner, the telecommunications analyst briefed on the announcement, told the Times. Entner works for market research firm Ovum and said an industry executive told him about the new product. Apple, Motorola and Cingular declined to confirm or deny the report, the newspaper said. But Apple said Monday it would hold a major music-related news event on Sept. 7 in San Francisco, according to the Times.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 09:29 AM
ATI Tech Slashes Outlook
ATI Technologies (ATYT) warned Monday that fiscal fourth-quarter revenue -- and potentially profits -- will fall far short of its previous prediction as a result of slower-than-expected sales of its chips for desktop computers and a huge inventory writedown. In reaction, investors hammered the stock. In after-hours trading, shares of ATI were off $1.62, or 14%, to $9.72. The move marked the second time in three months that ATI has slashed its fourth-quarter outlook. During closed trading times the stock rebounded and is currently trading at $11.04 per share. I bet ATI is itching to get the R520 launched!
The graphics-chip maker now expects to post sales of $465 million to $480 million in the current quarter, down from a previous range of $550 million to $580 million. Meanwhile, the company expect to post gross margins in the single digits as a percentage of sales, due to the write-off of $60 million to $70 million in inventory. Previously, the company had predicted that its gross margins would come in at about 29% to 30% of sales. ATI didn't give the impact of the lowered guidance on its bottom line. However, the company said operating expenses should come in as expected at about $143 million to $148 million, excluding stock-based compensation costs, implying that it will post an operating loss of about $100 million or more for the quarter.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 07:55 AM
NASA Woes: Hurricane Katrina hits shuttle tank facility
NASA has had really bad luck with their shuttle fuel tanks and things do not seem to be getting any better. Hurricane Katrina has damaged the Michoud Assemly plant, which may halt production of the already buggy fuel tanks and cause further delays of NASA's space program.
Hurricane Katrina is howling its way through Louisiana and has caused damage at NASA?s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the site where space shuttle external tanks are assemble ?There is water leakage and potential water damage in the buildings, but there?s no way to tell how much at this point,? Evan McCollum, a Lockheed Martin Space Systems spokesman in Denver, told Space.com. The facility features one of the world?s biggest manufacturing plants (43 acres, or 17.4 hectares, under one roof) and a port with deep-water access for the transportation of the large external tanks by barge across the Gulf of Mexico, around Florida and up to Kennedy Space Center.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 06:16 AM
Creative Zen Neeon Ships with a Virus!
Slashdot has a post that claims the Creative Zen Neeon MP3 player has been shipping with a virus! Creative has released a statement in order to help consumers identify affected products. (Its translated, so it doesn't flow very well for us English-speakers). I'm sure everyone is wondering... how did this pass Quality Assurance?
An anonymous reader writes "Engadget reports about 3700 Creative Zen "Neeons" shipped with a virus. The virus in question was the W32.Wullik.B@mm worm. Creative released a statement today to help consumers pinpoint the possibly effected devices."
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 06:10 AM
File-sharers move from BitTorrent to eDonkey
File-sharers have moved away from the popular BitTorrent system following legal action, say experts. The study by the Cambridge-based Internet analysis firm CacheLogic found that eDonkey is now roughly on par with BitTorrent in the United States, China, Japan and Britain. It is the dominant peer-to-peer file-sharing network in South Korea, which has the world's highest percentage of high-speed Internet use, and also in Italy, Spain and Germany.
While the use of BitTorrent has fallen, file sharers have moved to an alternative network called eDonkey. This is a decentralised file-sharing network, where files are not stored on a central server but are exchanged directly between users based on the peer-to-peer principle. In countries such as the UK, Japan and China, eDonkey was as widely used as BitTorrent, found CacheLogic. In others like South Korea, it has become the most popular way of swapping content.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 06:09 AM
ATI to launch five new chipsets for AMD M2 platform in 2006
It is common knowledge that in 2006, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) will change their socket design to the M2 940-pin socket for all single- and dual-core desktop processors. What we didn't know it that ATI Technologies is working on FIVE new chipsets for the AMD Socket M2 K8 platform in 2006. The upcoming chipsets will be manufactured at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the sources noted. It looks like 2006 will be a very busy year for reviewers!
ATI is preparing the RD580 and RD580C for the high-end segment, with the chipsets supporting ATI?s crossfire dual-graphics card technology, the source indicated. The two solutions will compete against Nvidia's nForce4 SLI (scalable link interface) series. According to ATI?s roadmap, volume production is slated for the end of this year, but sources stated the company will need to adjust its roadmap and bring it in line with AMD?s M2 launch schedule. For the OEM and SI (system integrator) markets, ATI will offer the RX485 and RS485 parts, which are upgrade versions of its current RX480 and RS482 solutions, with production also slated for the end of this year, according to the roadmap. The integrated RS485 will be based on ATI?s Radeon X300 graphics chip. The company will also release the RS690, which will be an upgrade version of the RS485, with more advanced performance in the graphics core, according to the sources. Volume production of the RS690 is scheduled for the second quarter of 2006, the sources added.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 06:02 AM
Tuesday Reviews Around the Web
Corsair just published a detailed Application Note on performance impact of changing memory size from 1GB to 2GB. Find this and other articles in the LegitForums!
We were very eager to run testing on Battlefield 2, as current user feedback indicated that this game performed much better with larger amounts of memory. As expected, the increase in memory array size from 1 GByte to 2 GByte had a very substantial performance impact on this game. We found that this to be the case regardless of processor platform, as well as regardless of screen resolution.
Posted by | Tue, Aug 30, 2005 - 05:51 AM
Intel Viiv platform PCs said to cost US$1,000-1,500
The Intel marketing machine has left the IT industry looking forward to the Viiv systems coming out in 2006. We are just now finding out prices and the complete sytems are looking to run US$1,000-1,500.
Taiwan PC and chipset makers expect high prices for Intel Viiv PCs, slated for launch next year, will initially make it difficult for the platform to find traction in the market, limiting the threat to Taiwan chipset vendors, according to Taiwan-based PC makers. The makers noted that Intel will face some issues trying to get the market to adopt the Viiv platform, including higher quotes for using Microsoft Window Media Center OS and insufficient software support for digital audio and video capabilities. The selling prices of Viiv-based system will be US$1,000-1,500, whereas mainstream PCs cost US$299-499, the makers said.
Posted by | Mon, Aug 29, 2005 - 11:02 PM
Monday's Reviews Around the Web
WindowsAtoZ analyzes a serious question in their article, "Security: What's the Big Picture?" Find this and other reviews by visiting our fourms!
Just the other day the creators of the huge Zotob worm that we've all heard about were arrested. Turns out it was two people in Turkey that are 18 and 21 years old. This is a huge victory for the computer security field because most of the time these virus writers are never caught. It's also not surprising how young these virus writers are considering their generation grew up around computers. Software makers (hint hint Microsoft, but not just Microsoft) need to step up their security features included in their software. Microsoft attempts to improve on this area, but they simply do not know how to efficiency implement it. For example, when Windows XP first came out, it included a firewall built-in, which was a good idea, but it was horribly implemented. The firewall was not turned on by default, which was pointless because the average users wouldn't know how to enable it.
Posted by | Mon, Aug 29, 2005 - 01:57 PM
Windows Vista: Palladium (NGSCB) delivery is still to be determined
Many of our readers may remember Microsoft's hardware-based security plan called Palladium as the evil software that was going to invade ones privacy. It now seems that Pallidium is not dead and how it will be used is still to be determined. We now know that Microsoft's Secure Startup is a hardware fix that works in conjunction with Windows Vista (aka: Longhorn). Windows Vista uses a chip called the Trusted Platform Module, or TPM, which offers protected storage of encryption keys, passwords and digital certificates. More info will come out closer to the launch of Vista!
Microsoft is talking up support for hardware-based security in Windows Vista, though only a sliver of the company's original plan will make it into the operating system. Three years ago Microsoft unveiled Palladium, renamed Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) after the original name became tainted with controversy over privacy and fair-use issues and because another company claimed rights to the Palladium name. The technology was to be part of the next Windows release.
Posted by | Mon, Aug 29, 2005 - 10:24 AM
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Posted by | Mon, Aug 29, 2005 - 06:24 AM
Suspected Zotob Makers Arrested
The FBI says two men were nabbed in Turkey and Morocco, and charged in relation to the Zotob and earlier Mytob and Rbot worms. Looks like the FBI won this round!
Farid Essebar, 18, a Moroccan national born in Russia and known by the moniker "Diabl0," was arrested by Moroccan authorities, while Atilla Ekici, aka "Coder," a 21-year old resident of Turkey, was grabbed by Turkish police.
The two are believed to be behind the Zotob attacks that began last week, quickly infected thousands of machines worldwide, and brought down some corporate and media networks running vulnerable Windows 2000 PCs. They are also suspected of being behind Mytob, which harks back to February 2005, and Rbot, an IRC-controlled bot which debuted in August 2004.
Posted by | Mon, Aug 29, 2005 - 06:00 AM
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