Tech Talk

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

China rerouting search traffic to Baidu
2007-10-24 03:46:00
Slashdot It!Reports have surfaced that China is redirecting traffic from foreign search engines operated by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to homegrown Baidu .com.According to various reports online, some online users in China attempting to access Google.com, Microsoft's Live.com and Yahoo.com search sites have been redirected to China-based Baidu.com. Blog site TechCrunch reported that Chinese traffic to Google's blog search engine was being rerouted to Baidu. TechCrunch later published another article saying a similar situation was observed with the other two search giants.Vivian Wong, a manager at CB Richard Ellis in Shanghai, said visits to the three search engines showed Baidu's home page instead.Beijing-based David Feng wrote in his blog on Thursday that he was able to gain access to both Google and Yahoo, but not Microsoft's Live.com or Yahoo-owned search engine AltaVista.However, Ori Elraviv, chief executive of Dragon Ports in Beijing, said he had no problems getting through...
More About: Traffic , Search

The PS3 put to good use
2007-10-23 12:40:00
Slashdot It!According to a news article in Wired, they say that astrophysicist Replaces Supercomputer with Eight PlayStation 3s. This really puts the PS3 into good use. It is cheaper then a Supercomputer but it is as powerful as an supercomputer.They are using it for solving a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star.Quote:"Suffering from its exorbitant price point and a dearth of titles, Sony's PlayStation 3 isn't exactly the most popular gaming platform on the block. But while the console flounders in the commercial space, the PS3 may be finding a new calling in the realm of science and research.Right now, a cluster of eight interlinked PS3s is busy solving a celestial mystery involving gravitational waves and what happens when a super-massive black hole, about a million times the mass of our own sun, swallows up a star."Via WiredGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.t...
More About: Good

Apple's Earning
2007-10-23 10:00:00
Slashdot It!In terms of relations with its users and business partners, the quarter that ended Sept. 30 wasn’t a particularly easy one for Apple. There were complaints and lawsuits about the cost of replacing the iPhone’s battery, the surprise $200 price cut, and the software update that “bricked” untold numbers of unlocked phones. Negotiations with Hollywood and the European iPhone partners were awkward and protracted and in the case of NBC ended in an impasse. Consumers who bought the new entry-level skinny iMacs are still complaining about low-quality screens and an unresolved software glitch that’s causing random freezes.But in terms of sales and profitability, the consensus among analysts is that the fiscal fourth quarter was a terrific quarter for Apple, buoyed by back-to-school specials, switchers fleeing Vista, and a flood of hot new products. The line on Apple heard most often on the Street — in a cliche borrowed from the automotive industry — is that Steve Jo...
More About: Earning

Canada to tax legal digital music downloads
2007-10-23 09:52:00
Slashdot It!Canadians may soon pay a small tax on every legal music store download, says a new measure (PDF) sanctioned by the Copyright Board of Canada . Requested by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the tax would apply at least 2.1 cents to every individual song download and 1.5 cents per track for complete albums. Subscription download and streaming services would themselves be charged between 5.7 and 6.8 percent of a user's monthly fees. Minimum fees would also apply for every larger download or subscription.The surcharge would help compensate artists for piracy, according to SOCAN's reasoning. The publishing group draws similarities between this and a 21-cent fee already applied to blank CDs in the country; the right to copy a song from an online store demands the same sort of levy applied to copying a retail CD, SOCAN argues.The tax may have a significant impact for online stores such as iTunes and Canada-based Puretracks, which will h...
More About: Downloads , Digital Music , Legal

Microsoft Wants 100 Companies, but to What End?
2007-10-23 09:00:00
Slashdot It!Start your engines, entrepreneurs. Or, if they're already started ... take off the parking brake. If Microsoft 's CEO Steve Ballmer is to be believed, then it's a good time to flip a startup. During his Q&A at the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday he made the ballsy claim that the company is prepared to purchase 20 companies a year, for the next five years.However juicy the proposition may sound, one should still take heed. One thing Ballmer didn't state in his froth was a solid direction for all these purchases. He merely went on to say that the buys will be "good acquisitions . . .and they're of strategic importance." If we're keeping score, that potentially means that Microsoft is prepared to spend a lot of money over a five year stretch on companies that it hasn't seen yet, that will ultimately provide services or products that it hasn't identified yet.This type of move isn't unheard of (Yahoo and Google are snapping up companies left and right), but we were hopin...
More About: Companies

EA wants 'open gaming platform'
2007-10-23 08:33:00
Slashdot It! Games are exploiting the increasing power of games consoles Rival gaming systems should make way for a single open platform, a senior executive at Electronic Arts has said. Gerhard Florin said incompatible consoles made life harder for developers and consumers."We want an open, standard platform which is much easier than having five which are not compatible," said EA's head of international publishing.He said the web and set-top boxes would grow in importance to the industry."We're platform agnostic and we definitely don't want to have one platform which is a walled garden," said Mr Florin.EA currently produces games for more than 14 different gaming systems, including consoles, portable devices and PCs."I am not sure how long we will have dedicated consoles - but we could be talking up to 15 years," Mr Florin added. By Darren WatersTechnology editor, BBC News websiteBattlefieldGames are exploiting the increasing power of games consolesR...
More About: Gaming , Open , Platform

Lian Li PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case @ Benchmark Reviews
2007-10-23 06:46:00
Slashdot It!There's a good reason as to why Lian Li has been at the very top of the computer chassis industry for the past seven years; they have upheld a tradition of producing well designed products. Just as popular for their craftsmanship, the Lian Li company has a history of ingenious application of aluminum in their products. Benchmark Reviews has inspected the all new PC-B25B Black Aluminum Mid-Tower ATX Case , and we offer a public view of our results.ARTICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?opt ion=com_content&task=view&id=106&Itemid=1 Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

World's Most Energy-Efficient Desktop HDD
2007-10-23 04:53:00
Slashdot It!Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is today delivering the world’s most energy efficient desktop hard disk drive (HDD) – the Deskstar™ P7K500. Hitachi GST has implemented a set of power-saving technologies to reduce the P7K500’s active and idle power consumption by up to 40 percent over the previous generation. As a result, the P7K500 achieves best-of-breed power consumption on its one-disk model and significant power savings on its two-disk model, both with 7200 RPM performance and Serial-ATA interface. Hitachi GST’s new hard drive is designed for commercial and consumer PCs in capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB*. The P7K500 is up to 59 percent more power efficient than comparable 250GB hard drives in its class, based on available specifications.The industry-leading power specifications offered on the Deskstar P7K500 support “green” initiatives that are aimed at producing power-friendly PCs and give significant advantage to PC manufacturers wishing to...
More About: Desktop , Energy , Efficient

Digit-Life Review: MSI P6N SLI - Motherboard Based on NVIDIA nForce 650i SL
2007-10-23 03:50:00
Slashdot It!"This motherboard is a classic example of a plain ATX product. While it doesn't have top notch "goodies" like an integrated Wi-Fi adapter, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, or a bunch of SATA RAID ports, it can still serve as a good foundation for a powerful and rich computer system. One may say that MSI P6N SLI is a motherboard for those who on the one hand can afford buying more expensive products, but on the other hand are not going to overpay for features they won't use."Article: http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/mainb oard/msi-p6n-sli-nforce650i-sli.htmlGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Life , Review , Motherboard

Windows 7
2007-10-22 16:39:00
Slashdot It!If I told you there was a public presentation and arguably demonstration of Windows 7, you probably wouldn’t believe me. Which is why I had to share this video with you.Thanks to DigitalDud on Channel9 for noting, on October 13 last week, Microsoft’s distinguished engineer Eric Traut gave a presentation at the University of Illinois about Microsoft’s virtualization technology and also mentioned Windows 7 - the next version of Windows after Vista. And 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 whole presentation (WMV) goes for approximately 1 hour and includes a very deep look into hypervisors. I’ve clipped out the 8-minute segment which Eric focuses on Windows 7 specifically to make it easier to watch. Because Eric goes into a lot of detail as well as background info...

Chewontech's First anniversary
2007-10-20 16:30:00
Slashdot It!In celebrations of Chewontech's first anniversary, we had teamed up with 2 sponsors to provide you with 4 prizes. They are the CoolIT USB Beverage Chiller, CoolIT RAM Fan, CoolIT PCI Cooling Booster and the SwiftTech H20-80 micro CPU Liquid Cooling Kit.First Prize- SwiftTech H20-80 micro CPU Liquid Cooling Kit (Worth $215.00 )Second Prize(US Citizens Only)- USB Beverage Chiller (Worth US$29.99 )Third Prize(US Citizens Only)- PCI Cooling Booster (Worth US$24.99 )Fourth Prize(US Citizens Only)- RAM Fan (Worth US$19.99 )Requirements: Register at the forums and post one post in the forum topicRules:1. GRAND PRIZE TO BE ACCEPTED AS AWARDEDThe decision of the Contest judges is final, and the prize must be accepted as awarded. No portion of any prize is transferable. The prizes are not redeemable for cash and no substitute for any portion of any prize is offered. Should a prize winner be unable to claim a prize as awarded, his or her entry will be forfeited and another winner...
More About: Anniversary

Google's profit soars
2007-10-20 16:27:00
Slashdot It!Google, whose shares have risen more than $100 in the last month, said net income in the third quarter surged 46 percent compared with the period a year earlier. Sales rose 57 percent, topping Wall Street’s already bullish forecasts.The results show that Google is growing roughly twice as fast as the overall online advertising market, which itself is booming, and that it is expanding far more quickly than any large Internet company. Google said its net income grew to $1.07 billion, or $3.38 a share, up from $733 million, or $2.36 a share, a year earlier. Net revenue rose to $4.23 billion. Excluding commissions paid to advertising partners, a widely followed measure of the company’s performance, revenue was $3.01 billion, about $70 million higher than analysts expected. Profit , excluding items like stock-based compensation, was $1.24 billion, or $3.91 a share, higher than the $3.78 a share forecast by analysts.In recent weeks, Google stepped up its plans to sell ads o...
More About: Soar

AMD reports loss
2007-10-20 16:26:00
SlashdSlashdot It!Advanced Micro Devices posted its fourth consecutive quarterly loss but showed progress in curbing its expenses and capturing a share of strong demand for personal computers.A.M.D. reported a net loss of $396 million, or 71 cents a share, on revenue of $1.63 billion for the third quarter. That contrasts with earnings of 27 cents a share on sales of $1.33 billion in the same period last year. But the loss was smaller than the $600 million the company reported in the second quarter.Had AMD really lose to Intel? I think so. Unless AMD's new quad core for the desktop would take off. Even if it takes off, Intel would crash it instantly by pushing down the price of current chips and launch more quad core chips or even a few eight cpres.Via New York TimesGet paid to blogot It!Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Loss , Ports

Nokia's N810 attracted quite a lot of attention
2007-10-20 13:26:00
Slashdot It!According to my blog post about the Nokia N810, I went to research the internet and found that this rumor is very hot. Here are reasons why I say it is hot.It was hot after Engadget took up the news article. Nokia also confirmed that the N810 is real in it's press release. It reached the 12 hottest tread in Google's tread and close to 100 blog topics on it. Would it succeed? Most likely.Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Attention , Tent

The RIAA Attacks Usenet
2007-10-20 09:34:00
Slashdot It!Basking in glory after orchestrating a record punishment for a petty file-sharer in the US, the RIAA takes its legal campaign to the next level. Many may want newsgroups to stay under the radar but it’s too late - major labels have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Usenet .com and it won’t be going away.In an ideal world, people would not talk about Usenet. In an ideal world there would be no such things as copyright infringement lawsuits. Sadly, we do not live in an ideal world.Today we simply have to talk about Usenet and we have to talk about lawsuits.Major record labels - Arista, Atlantic, BMG, Capitol, Caroline, Elektra, Interscope, LaFace, Maverick, Sony BMG, UMG, Virgin, Warner Bros. and Zomba have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Usenet.com.According to Billboard, the complaint filed in the District Court in New York states that Usenet.com provides access to millions of copyright infringing files and, with a nod towards the Grokster ...
More About: Attacks , Tacks , Riaa , Attack

DRM-Free music the same price as DRM music
2007-10-20 09:32:00
Slashdot It!It's been a while since Apple launched iTunes Plus, its version of DRM-free tracks sold through the iTunes Store. Only EMI tracks were sold as 256kbps, DRM-free AAC files through the iTunes Store in May, and in June, EMI reported that the iTunes Plus tracks were selling well. Since then, however, we haven't heard much news about it. But according to people familiar with the matter, we will tomorrow.Apple plans to expand iTunes Plus to include certain indie music labels starting Wednesday, October 17 (or sometime this week, at least). This tiny step is encouraging for those of us who like freedom with our music, but it sucks that more of the larger labels are still holding off from hopping on board. This expansion won't include all independent music labels just yet, although we're optimistic that more will be included in the future.The bigger news on the iTunes Plus horizon, however, is that Apple plans to drop the price of all iTunes Plus tracks. Currently, each trac...
More About: Music , Free Music , Free , Price

Nokia's posts a higher profit
2007-10-19 14:08:00
Slashdot It!Nokia had posted an higher profit then what the analysts' predicted. However, the average selling price of phones in the third quarter fell to $116.30, from $127.65 in the second quarter and below $126.23 forecast by analysts.Which might mean that Nokia is targeting the lower end market today. With the hot upgrade to the N800. Nokia is strengthening it's position in the mobile phone market. Via CnetGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Profit , Posts , Higher

eBay posts large quarterly loss on Skype write-down
2007-10-19 12:23:00
Slashdot It!eBay had posted an larger loss then expected. The reason is due to the Skype write-down. However, excluding the write-down, eBay had posted $564 MillionQuote"Excluding the write-down and other one-time items, eBay's adjusted profit was $564 million, or 41 cents per diluted share, representing a 53 percent rise over a year ago.Revenue rose 30 percent to $1.89 billion, topping the current range of quarterly Wall Street forecasts."Had eBay really overpaid for Skype? Even so, if eBay had turned it into an cash cow in time, it might still be a profitable business after all.Via CnetGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Write , Ebay , Loss , Posts

Sony Ericsson sells half of UIQ to Motorola
2007-10-19 10:39:00
Slashdot It!Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson is selling half of its smartphone software unit UIQ to U.S. rival Motorola , Sony Ericsson's president, Miles Flint, told reporters in London on Monday.The Swedish-Japanese handset maker acquired UIQ from British mobile software maker Symbian last year for an undisclosed sum, and would not comment on the price of the latest deal. Speaking to Reuters after the news conference, Flint said UIQ--which has a long-term goal to take the market top spot from Nokia's S60--would be operated as an independent entity."It's not a merger, it's not a joint venture. We are creating a platform which can be shared by a number of operators," Flint said, adding that the next stage would be to bring in a third member, although he would not put a time frame on the search process."The intention is to bring in more over time," he said.To illustrate investment put into UIQ since it changed owners, Sony Ericsson said it had trebled its headcount to 350.But Flin...
More About: Half

No more copyrighted clips on YouTube
2007-10-19 09:33:00
Slashdot It!Youtube is finally doing something about the piracy in their video system. They rolled out the system that stops people from uploading the content without permission. But the content provider got to provide Youtube the content. But the another opinion is more sensible. Google allows them to upload and place advertisement space in return.Quote"The filtering tools are designed so the owners of copyrighted video can block their material from appearing on YouTube, which has become a pop culture phenomenon in its 2-year existence.They also give the owners of copyrighted video the option to sell ads around their material if they want the clips remain available on YouTube.YouTube has been working with Google engineers ever since to develop the tools needed to flag copyrighted video, said David King, a YouTube product manager.Google and YouTube executives began promising the new copyright protection technology six months ago.YouTube now needs the cooperation of copyright owners ...
More About: Clips

Comcast Caught Filtering Political E-Mails
2007-10-19 05:49:00
Slashdot It!Most Comcast internet customers seem to have horror stories, but in my humble opinion this one is a doozie and may even suggest threats to freedom of speech more significant than the jailing of a court stenographer.I'm working on a campaign headquartered at www.afterdowningstreet.org that seeks to draw attention to the Downing Street Minutes and to lobby Congress to open an investigation into whether the President has committed impeachable offenses. According to a recent Zogby poll, 42 percent of Americans favor impeachment proceedings if the President lied about the reasons for war, and according to a recent ABC News / Washington Post poll, 52 percent think he did. But this story is nowhere to be found in the corporate media. So, our website attracts a lot of traffic.In addition, July 23rd is the three-year anniversary of the meeting on Downing Street that produced the now infamous minutes, and we are organizing events all over the country on that day. Or, we're tryin...
More About: Political , Caught , Politic , Erin

Antec P190 Casing
2007-10-18 16:42:00
Slashdot It!Here is the video review of the Antec P190 Casing Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Here comes the A380 in Singapore
2007-10-18 15:37:00
Slashdot It! Finally with so many delays, Airbus finally shipped the A380 to Singapore Airline. It reached Singapore at 6.40pm, 17 October. PM Lee was there to personally welcome the plane. Singapore was prepared for the A380 before other airports. But the question remains if Boeing would fall into the trap that Airbus had went into. It announced an 6 month delay earlier ago.Via ChannelNewsAsiaGet paid to blog http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Asus Eee PC starts at $299
2007-10-18 15:10:00
Slashdot It!Asus had launch an new PC that is similar to the $100 laptop. The price $399 would bring you a 7 inch notebook with 1GB RAM, 8GB SSD, webcam and 3.5h battery life.Asus is not getting very specific on the shipping date for the Asus Eee PC. The Asus Eee PC is scheduled to be available in the North America within a few weeks.But would people who want to buy the UMPC turn to the cheap laptop that Asus had launched? Would it spoil the market for the UMPC? One thing is for sure that the UMPC makers got to buck up and make sure that they drop the price of the UMPC to ensure that they can beat the laptopsVia I4UGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

Here comes the N810 Internet tablet
2007-10-18 15:05:00
Slashdot It!Here comes the N810 Internet Tablet that features an full QWERTY Keyboard. A picture revealed by the FCCMore pictures via Internet Tablet TalkGet paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

50,000 Gphones shipping out
2007-10-18 09:38:00
Slashdot It!As confirmed by a UBS analyst. He says that HTC is helping Google to build the phone. As expected, Google would do software instead of hardware. Would it overshadow the iPhone launch or even the iPod Touch? They are just going to smack their brand on the phone itself. If everything is confirmed, the Gphone is going to come sometime in 2008. Can't wait for it!!Quote"Google (GOOG) is making a mobile operating system that could work on any mobile device.Should the HTC/Google partnership turn out to be true, consumers can expect their Gphones sometime in 2008.Via Fortune Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Shipping

Linux still winning in the server market
2007-10-18 07:31:00
Slashdot It!Claims made by Microsoft that Linux violates its software patent have not affected sales of Linux-based hardware, according to Dell's CEO Michael Dell.Speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Dell said his company has seen Linux uptake for servers increase faster than Windows server products, despite Microsoft's claims.He said: "On the server side Linux continues to grow nicely, a bit faster than Windows. We're seeing a move to Linux in critical applications, and Linux migration has not slowed down."However, for those customers who might be concerned about whether Microsoft's claims of patent violation could result in legal action, Dell added that there were "certainly mechanisms if customers are concerned about patents".In May, Microsoft claimed free and open source software violated more than 230 of its patents but hasn't provided more detailed information following the statement.Dell's chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis, claimed that though the two ...
More About: Market , Server , Winning , Serve

Apevia X-Jupiter Jr G Mid Tower ATX Case @ Benchmark Reviews
2007-10-17 15:51:00
Slashdot It!The Apevia X-Jupiter JR G may not be the king of mid range, mid-tower cases, but is it truly a prince? Read on to find out just what we thought of the Apevia X-Jupiter JR G. The X-JUPITER JR is a mid tower that shares the same look and some functions of the X-JUPITER Full Tower but with a much more affordable price. For those who like the style of X-JUPITER case but has the space and budget concern, this is the one. Sturdy construction with tool free design and ample space make your installation easy. Besides the top connections for USB 2.0, firewire and audio, this case also comes with a LCD showing the temperature of whatever the sensor attached to, and a fan speed controller to balance the noise and cooling. Today at Benchmark Reviews we take a close look at the Apevia X-Jupiter JR G and let you know if it truly is a Prince!ATRICLE URL: http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?opt ion=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=1 Get paid to bloghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Case

Intel beats estimates, shares jump 5%
2007-10-17 10:52:00
Slashdot It!Intel Corp., citing a strong market for personal computers, reported big increases in third quarter revenue and profit exceeding analysts' projections.Shares of Intel jumped nearly 5 percent after-hours immediately following the announcement, after closing down slightly at $25.48.Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, said third-quarter earnings reached $1.9 billion, a 43 percent increase over the same period last year, and earnings per share were 31 cents, up 41 percent from the same period last year.Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had forecast earnings per share of 30 cents.The company reported revenue of $10.1 billion in the third quarter, a 15 percent increase over the same quarter last year.Analysts had estimated that revenue would be $9.62 billion.Intel's third-quarter gross margin was 52.4 percent, up from 46.9 percent in the second quarter.The company also offered fourth quarter revenue guidance of between $10.5 billion and $11.1 billion, ahead of what ...
More About: Beats , Jump , Estimates

Intel to unveil OLPC chips in Shanghai next April
2007-10-17 10:42:00
Slashdot It!Intel plans to unveil a new microprocessor for the One Laptop Per Child notebook and other ultra-low cost laptop PCs at the Intel Developer Forum in Shanghai next April , an executive said Monday.No current Intel microprocessors fit the requirements of the OLPC, which uses a processor from Advanced Micro Devices, so Intel will design a new architecture specifically for the ultra-low cost laptop category, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager of the mobile platforms group at Intel."OLPC is a new category that will allow many, many people in many places to have access to the Internet," he said. "It's a category for itself. It will grow, it will not be a cannibalization of an existing [product] category."The OLPC Project started as an attempt to build a $100 laptop for children in poor nations, but the laptop from the group, named the XO, will likely end up costing nearly double that amount at first. The organizers of the effort, led by academics and researche...
More About: Chips