Logo by Tom Purves

4:37 PM
More battery info
Want to learn more about rechargable batteries?  Read the NiCd battery FAQ.   It explains battery technology and charging issues very well.  The most important thing you should take away is that overcharging is what destroys your rechargables, usually not the memory effect.

Hitachi MPEG camera
These have been going for $1499 at Onsale, but just recently the minimum bid dropped to $999 (probably because nobody was buying them).  That's a nice deal at that price, although, yes, it's still quite expensive and you really ought to know what you need it for before you buy it.  The bidding is good til Monday.

3:46 PM
NiCD's vs Alkalines in digicams
Been having a lot of fun with this camera...what a deal!  Anyway, The Konica Q-mini is shaping up quite nicely, although I notice they are out over at Surplus Direct.  You can still bid on them at Surplus Auction, though.  The AC Adapter/Rechargable Battery Pack came with 3 NiCd's AA's rated at 1000 mAh!  That's basically the measure of how much life a battery has...that's the highest I've ever seen for NiCd.  My NiMH batteries are rated at 1200 mAh.  I'm really glad I bought these, because I haven't been able to find them anywhere since.

Anyhow, read a little down in this article from John Dvorak for a short and sweet explanation as to why NiCd's are so much better that alkalines for digital camera use.  The internal resistance of alkalines is really a problem for high current draw applications.

5:34 PM
It's here!
Surplus Direct really came through...the camera came here right on time.  I've been taking pictures all afternoon.  I'm very satisfied with the image quality, although close-ups are a bit of a hassle since you must use macro mode to manually focus your shot.  Manually focusing anything on a 1.8" LCD screen is hard.  Hooking up the camera's video out to the TV let me do a much better job of seeing what I was focusing on.

1:08 PM
StarCraft news
According to Blizzard, StarCraft is expected to go gold by the end of the month, which, if it's true, means you should see it in stores about a week thereafter.   I sure don't want to have to wait until March 15!

12:58 AM
Quake 2 CTF released
Speak of the devil!  Zoid's Capture The Flag mod has been released.   Get it here from ftp.idsoftware.com.  I recommend checking Redwood's for a big list of sites since id's server might be a bit overloaded.

10:40 PM
Quake 2 point release out
Includes bug fixes, cooperative play, and 8 new deathmatch maps.   Also lays the foundation for the upcoming CTF mod from Zoid, if I remember correctly!

ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/quake2/q2_312.exe

2:28 PM
Logo contest
Just a reminder to everybody, the logo contest is still running...details are in the February 16th news section.  E-mail your entries to me (the link is at the bottom of the page).  I'm tentatively expecting to end the contest this Monday.   We've got a lot of great entries so far...keep them coming!

1:29 PM
REALLY longer life batteries
Duracell announced a new line of batteries called Duracell Ultra that are supposed to provide as much as a 50% increase in battery life over current alkalines.   High conductivity coatings and internal improvements are supposed to improve the cells efficiency at high currents.  Sounds interesting.

Nando Times story

11:48 PM
CMOS vs CCD imaging: more than you ever wanted to know
Well, seeing as how I've recently become interested in digital cameras, I've recently become even more interested in how these suckers actually work, and why CMOS is worse than CCD technology.  Sound Vision Incorporated is a major proponent and manufacturer of CMOS based imaging products, and their supplier for the actual CMOS sensor is Vision.  Links to very detailed papers from Vision's website are here.  The EDN article on CMOS sensors is great, but you have to register to gain access.  Here's another great article on CCD sensors.

7:38 PM
Intel740 2D benchmarks
Jon Peddie Associates has benchmarks on their web site of the 2D performance of the Intel740 chip.  It's certainly no slouch in the 2D arena, I'll tell you that!  Even if this chip isn't a killer 3D solution, it certainly sweeps a great deal of low-end performers right out of the running.

5:06 PM
More on the Konica Q-Mini
Been looking more at this camera.  The image quality is superb, with slight difficulty, but not much, in indoor low-light conditions.  One catch is that it doesn't come with the AC adapter and rechargable battery pack, so you probably want to get that unless you plan on using AA's for the rest of your life or you have a decent set of rechargables and don't need AC power.  The size is nice...slightly smaller than the DSC-Fx series but a little thicker.  The included 2MB flash card only allows for 11 pictures in Fine quality mode.  Might get a bigger one eventually if I really feel the need.  I also read a comment that said the LCD viewfinder doesn't update really quickly.  I can probably live with that.

Shots are taken the instant you hit the shutter button.  No lag time.  Very important.  Has filter threads so you can attach filters.

Anyhow, the camera is good enough to win the Editor's choice from PC Magazine.   Popular Photography apparently gave it the highest ranking also.  It's gotten consistently high marks from every other review I've read.  Considering the lowest price I've seen is $400, at $250 the camera is an absolute steal.  I'm getting it.

By the way, the camera is identical to the Canon Powershot 350.  The PowerShot has a couple of extras (I think the AC adapter and batteries are included).

3:19 PM
Konica Q-Mini
OK, now this looks nice.  Surplus Direct is selling the Konica Q-Mini for only $249.  Unlike the Toshiba PDR-2 and the Panasonic Palmcam PV-DC1000, this camera gets really high marks from PCMag for image fidelity.  Temptation strikes!

2:33 PM
56K standard
I never got around to mentioning it here, but the ITU did approve a 56K standard (most of it being taken from K56flex) and both sides have been working to implement the standard, known as V.90.  My friend bought an X2 modem that is NOT flash upgradable...I wonder if this will make his modem totally inoperable?

12:44 PM
8MB vs. 12MB Voodoo 2
A lot of people are arguing about this, and it seems even Diamond is arguing its decision to produce an 8MB configuration instead of 12MB.  But I've said repeatedly that I do not want an 8MB card...I want a 12MB card.

So why get a 12MB configuration instead of 8MB?  What you get in that 12MB configuration is an extra 2MB of texture memory per TMU (Texture Mapping Unit).   Obviously, this lets you store more textures and avoid thrashing textures to main memory.  So what's the big deal?

The key here is that game designers must target or specifically support 4/4/4 memory configurations explicitly if you want to see some real benefits.  A big part of what is lacking between PC 3D accelerators and 3D accelerators in the arcade is that arcade configurations have a LOT of texture memory.  This not only allows them to create more detailed environments with more individual textures to customize every object, it also lets them use higher resolution textures for very sharp and refined details.   Otherwise that extra 2/2 MB will be acting more like extra memory that comes in handy sometimes for reducing texture thrashing rather than real texture memory (an oversimplification, but what the hell!).

Now the problem is that most game companies are not going to up and abandon 2 or 2/2 configurations, since that is the configuration most people have.  The question is...will they bother to add extra support for 4/4 MB configurations?  I suspect the most you can reasonably expect is higher detail textures.  Unless, that is, consumers make a big enough hubbub about this so that it becomes a major selling point for the game.

Phew.  Now what are the odds of that happening?  Well, I can dream, can't I?

10:36 PM
Minidisc links
I remember when Minidisc players first came out...I wanted one really badly.  Not only because it could store high-quality audio, but also because there was reputedly supposed to be a Data Minidisc that would store 140MB of data.  Well, that drive never materialized quickly enough for me to get one, but Minidiscs are still around and Sony seems to be making a big advertising push recently to get them into the hands of consumers.

Here's an interesting page that alz pointed me to:  The Minidisc Community Page.   In case you don't know anything about them, Minidisc's are essentially rewritable magneto-optical disks like the really expensive drives for your PC, only in a smaller and more consumer oriented format.

The audio compression used in Minidisc players is supposed to be very similar to the MPEG Layer II standard.  Now I've come across the actual article describing the compression used here!   It's called ATRAC.  Cool!

12:01 AM
Hercules Thriller 3D testing
Been playing with this card all day, and all I have to say so far is...umm...unstable?  I'm going to try to sort it out with Hercules and make sure it's not the system I'm testing it in or something weird like that.

2:26 PM
Hercules Thriller 3D
Well, the Thriller 3D finally arrived today!  Expect a review very soon!

1:09 PM
Microsoft Outlook 98 Beta 2
I just installed Outlook 98 Beta 2 on my system.  Now, normally I'd probably stay away from this beta software because it's not anything I particularly need and I really could care less about the new features.  However, in this case, I was forced to... because I was unable to go back and edit any outgoing letters sitting in my Outbox.  Upon double-clicking the letter, Outlook 97 would crash badly.  I know I was able to do it before, so what I think happened is that Outlook 97 is unable to deal with the huge size of the mail storage file, which has grown to over 80MB!  Anyhow, Outlook 98 fixes the problem and looks pretty nifty, too.   Hope it's not too buggy!

Outlook homepage

Speaking of whoopass digicams...
The ultra-cool award goes to the upcoming Sony DSC-MD1, which uses Data Minidiscs to store pictures!  You get a maximum of 1000 pictures per disc in highest quality mode!  You can make voice annotations with each picture, and, to top it all off, the DSC-MD1 functions as a normal portable MiniDisc player and recorder. When you aren't taking pictures, listen to your favorite mix of songs!

Of course, all this isn't cheap...the DSC-MD1 is going to come in around $1000.   And it looks even bigger than the Mavica.  But if you ever wanted both a digital camera and a minidisc player, this is one product that will seriously tempt your wallet.

Some Sony DSC-MD1 pictures

2:21 AM
New name, new logo
OK, so I've been thinking about the new name...and I think I like "The Silicon Edge" the best.  Maybe with a small caption "Live on the bleeding edge."  Now all I really need is a nifty logo/banner to go at the top of the page.  Any graphic design Photoshop geniuses feel like lending a hand?   Dimensions should be around 480 pixels wide x 100 to 200 pixels tall.  You can send entries to me as attachments...my e-mail address is at the bottom of the page.   You'll get full credit, of course!

12:47 AM
More Digital Camera info
Unfortunately, the bidding prices for the Panasonic Palmcam at Onsale are rising into what I would call the unacceptable range.  The Toshiba PDR-2 is a reasonable price, but from all the reviews I've been reading, it really gets bad marks for image quality.  Another problem is that the PDR-2 transfers its images via a PC Card interface.  Great for notebook users, but practically useless for desktop owners.   So there will be some hidden costs even though the base price of the PDR-2 is nice.

Now the camera I really want is the DSC-Fx series from Sony.  Good picture quality, flash, ultra-portable at 10 ounces, a very responsive LCD viewfinder (looks like watching a TV), fast image cycle time, good low-light pictures, swivel lens...the list goes on and on.  The Palmcam has an LCD viewfinder, but apparently it updates rather slowly and needs about 20-30 seconds to process and store each snapshot!

I'm starting to think that if I'm going to get a digital camera, I shouldn't half-ass it.  On the other hand, the DSC-F1 is a hefty bundle of cash...$449!  You do get a free IrDA adapter kit if you buy the DSC-F1, though.

Actually, the model I'm really interested in is the DSC-F3.  Unfortunately, it's only available in Japan!  Go here for some good info straight from Japan about both the DSC-F1/F2/F3 series.  What makes the DSC-F3 so attractive and different from the DSC-F1?  First off, it's got 8MB of internal storage instead of 4MB, which means it can store up to 60 pictures in the highest quality mode.  Awesome!  The DSC-F3 apparently uses a smaller CCD device (1/4" instead of 1/3") but nobody can tell the difference.  It can actually record very short movie clips!  The lens is 46mm instead of 35mm, making it better for portrait shots and what not.  Last but not least, because the exchange rate against the yen right now is pretty strong, prices are quite reasonable for the DSC-F3...coming out to about the same price as the DSC-F1 here!  I see prices around 47,000-52,000 yen on the Web...I'm not sure how competitive that is, but those prices comes out to about $400 on our end.

Only problem is, how the heck do I get one of these cameras sent here from Japan?   Any readers here from Japan?  Help and or advice would be appreciated!   Scroll all the way to the bottom to mail me!