|
|
The race is still on to try and break the RSA challenge. I was running an rc5-client from http://zero.genx.net a while back, but they seem to have discontinued their effort. Well, I didn't really mess around with that key cracking stuff any more after that, but apparently DESCHALL is making some good progress. You can contribute your own idle CPU cycles to the effort by downloading a client, which gets keys to try out from the master keyserver. It certainly seems kind of cool to be able to make your computer a piece of some massive conglomeration of computational power, doesn't it. Wow! 5:11 PM I don't know how late I actually am with this news but there is a post-SP3 OOB (Out of Band) hot fix available for NT. It was supposedly fixed in SP3 but in fact the fix in SP3 only protects against WinNuke and not against OOB attacks from other platforms. 12:33 AM The motherboard is a Tyan Titan Pro with two sockets. The chips are dual PPro 166's with 512K cache. I was originally going to go for the dual PPro 150 setup but you would not BELIEVE the deal I got on these chips. I barely believe it myself. Any PPro with 512K is really expensive, but at the price I got each one for, you'd think I was paying for a Pentium 166. Anyhow, I've been playing with it for the last few hours (obviously!). The setup went completely smoothly, no problems. I turned it on after checking and double-checking, and BAM!, everything worked. I have two massive heat sinks on there with a little thermal compound too. I started up NT, everything seemed OK. Messed around a little, then decided to go for the upgrade to multiprocessor. I tried to run UPTOMP, which is a utility that comes with the NT Resource kit to upgrade to the multiprocessor kernel without reinstalling. The damn thing didn't work...I couldn't point it to the Service Pack 3 extracted files at any time. Finally, I decided to try pointing it to the original CD-ROM, and as expected, I hosed my system. The fix for that was to make another installation of NT in order to access the NTFS partition that the original installation was on and then manually copy the correct files from Service Pack 3 to the correct place.
Oh yeah, while I was in NT for that brief second before I trashed it and during the installation,
I discovered my CD-ROM wasn't working. I'd get some weird garbage that only vaguely resembled
the name of what was actually on the CD. Turning down the PIO mode for the CD-ROM fixed that
problem; apaprently the motherboard had auto-detected it too high.
Once I got that fixed, I started to fool around in NT and 95. I was getting some pretty serious
errors, like hard lockups, not even a bugcheck. I noticed playing a video seemed to make
it happen almost 80% of the time. So I naturally I tried it in VGA mode and everything
was working fine. Not good, but better than a faulty motherboard or chip. I switched out
my video card (Graphics Blaster 3D) with my old Stingray 64/Video. Voila, no more crashing!
I am uncertain as to why the GB3D makes my system unstable, but it does, no question about it.
This application gets updated quite often, but I thought I'd mention this revision because it adds a spectrum analyzer. Very slick interface. Go to the WinAmp homepage or download the latest version directly by clicking here.
According to Zanshin's GLQuake Dojo, things are looking good for a beta test of the full OpenGL driver by 7/1. Can't wait for this one if the hype is true (nothing more alluring than the promise of free speed, is there?) 8:13 PM Dunno how many of you can actually make use of this, but go to http://www.pmatrix.com and click on goodies. 6:41 PM That's with a $30 rebate, but aren't they all! Anyways, PC Connection is apparently selling Memorex 10-packs for $60. Do the math, you get the picture. Sounds pretty good, although I don't know much about the quality of Memorex discs. I like TDK and Taiyo Yuden (greens)...they seem to work with the widest variety of equipment.
According to a post on news.3dfx.com, NECX Direct is selling the Righteous 3D for only $154.95! Considering how quickly their prices fluctuate, you might want to cash in your chips...the price may not stay that low for long!
Direct link: http://necxdirect.necx.com:8002/cgi-bin/auth/:guest/cat_q?key=0001202 On a related note, the V2.0 drivers for the Righteous 3D have been released. The list of changes and download links is here. According to Nick Pandher of 3Dfx: The previous beta two patch (the patch that included Cyrix support) was missing a performance enhancement, this has been added once again. Woohoo! It's only for 1 1/2 months, but the pay is decent. Now maybe I can afford some of that fun stuff I keep dreaming about. I've got my eye on Dual PPro 150's + Titan Pro motherboard from KRex Direct for $659. 1:29 AM A new demo for 3Dfx has been released. It was supposedly meant for inclusion in some type of game, but the game got cancelled. Anyway, it's supposedly very cool, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet (I miss my T3 connection!). Let me know your impressions. 3Dfx reference drivers, V2.09: http://www.3dfx.com/software/download_vgd3d.html
Glide 2.31:
I'll let you know how the performance is on these drivers as soon as I get a chance to check
them out. Yep, this competitor from Videologic comes out around 9 months later than Voodoo and it's still slower than a 3Dfx card. Not too good. The upgrade offer sounds good if you just want free games, but quite frankly, if you have a 3Dfx it will be more of a downgrade than an upgrade. Not to mention all the wacky goings-on and benchmark faking problems that Videologic has had with their Direct 3D drivers. Tell me about it! :-)
Reports are coming in that the Libretto in the US is going to retail at $1999 and the Super Port Replicator will be around $300. The street price of the Libretto is expected to be around $1849.
If you are familiar what the Libretto is going for in Japan, it doesn't seem like the US
model is too hot of a deal. You can buy the Libretto in HK for around $1200-1300 US.
If I ever manage to get a hold of enough money to buy that thing, it'll probably be
from one of those import dealers. Yeah, Sega finally caved and dropped the price of their system to $149. You know, for what is basically considered the worst video game system ( an opinion which I am not inclined to disagree with), I don't think people are even willing to pay $149, much less $199, which is what it used to cost.
The Libretto is a great little laptop weighing in at only 1.8 pounds, but featuring a 75 MHz Pentium processor, 810MB HD, 16MB RAM expandable to 32MB, built-in sound, and an active matrix 640x480 screen. Awesome! It's one of those things I really want but can't afford. It's about the size of a VHS tape, so if you aren't really into complete portability and/or the idea of something that small, you might want to pass. For some of us, though, it's the coolest thing ever. Learn more about it. No work on the price yet here, but in Hong Kong I hear they are running as low as 1200-1300 dollars.
I got a beeper yesterday from SmartBeep (I don't think they have a URL, sorry). I got a year of service at $1.99/month and I paid 25.00 for activation. IF you do those two things, you get a free used pager and 6 months voicemail free. So it was only about 53 bucks for a year of service and a pager! You can't beat that deal with a stick!
Naturally, they were quite busy when I got there. | |||||||||||||||||||||
