Number 270 - November 2005

Tech News
by Sue Crane, VP & Editor, Big Bear Computer Club, CA Sue.crane@charter.net, www.bbcc.org
AMD's Antitrust Suit Against Intel    Advanced Micro Devices complaint accuses Intel of maintaining its monopoly in the PC processor market by illegally coercing customers around the world into using its products. The 48-page complaint alleges that Intel used illegal subsidies to win sales, and in some cases threatened companies with "severe consequences" for using or selling AMD products. Meanwhile, hoping to win the support of U.S. legislators and average computer users, AMD is publishing full-page ads in 7 U.S. newspapers, explaining why it filed suit and encouraging readers to read the full text of its 48-page complaint The AMD complaint is available online at http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/AMD-Intel_Full_Complaint.pdf. Coming soon: 30Gb on a 1-inch drive    A Japanese university has shown a prototype 10GB 1-inch hard disk drive that packs data on the disk surface more densely than existing hard drives with an areal density--the number of bits per unit of disk surface area--of 138 gigabits per square inch. The drive uses perpendicular recording technology to achieve its higher areal density, The Japanese researchers project they will be able to boost the areal density of 1-inch disks to about 500-gigabits per square inch in 2007. This could enable 1-inch drives to have capacities as high as 30GB a few years from now. Currently, the highest-capacity 1-inch drives on sale store a maximum of 6GB of data. >B>Court Rules against File-Swapping    In a unanimous decision justices ruled: companies that build businesses with the active intent of encouraging copyright infringement should be held liable for their customers' illegal actions. The decision will likely reshape the Internet landscape in which file swapping has become commonplace. Man vs. SuperComputer    Michael Adams, United Kingdom's strongest chess player, is the latest player to take on a supercomputer. Adams and the Hydra computer will play up to 6 games for a prize fund of $150,000. Some experts are already predicting that Hydra will win the contest. But correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel, who recently beat Hydra 2-0 in a correspondence match, has predicted that Adams could secure a 3-3 draw. According to the team that developed Hydra, it can calculate 200 million moves per second and see up to 40 moves ahead. Tired of waiting for Windows XP?    Giga-byte Technology has stumbled upon a faster way to boot up PCs based on the Windows XP operating system.    iRam is a PC add-in card with four DDR DRAM memory slots, designed to be used as a PC drive. iRam uses DRAM to store information, data can be retrieved up to 60 times faster. The iRam holds up to 4Gb of DRAM in four memory slots. The card fits into a standard PCI slot, which provides power, and it uses a SATA (Serial ATA) connection for data transfer. If the PC is unplugged, the iRam has an on-board battery for emergency power that can last up to 12 hours. The iRam will be available in July. Laptop Batteries Recalled    Batteries in some notebook computers from Fujitsu Siemens can overheat, with a risk of fire. The company has recalled the batteries in some	of its Amilo notebook computers, and will replace affected batteries free of charge. No IE7 for Win 2K    According to an unnamed employee, Microsoft will not be releasing IE 7 for Windows 2000 as this would involve a lot of work for an operating system that is in the later stages of its lifecycle and some of the security work in IE 7 relies on operating system functionality in XP SP2. Win 2K users argue that Microsoft is committed to provide extended support to Windows 2000 through 2010. Microsoft was also criticized for building a Web browser that cannot run independently of the operating system. IE 7 will be available in beta this summer, offering improved security features, basic tabbed browsing and improved standards support, including support for CSS 2 and PNG transparencies. Digitally Enhanced Photos May Be "Too Good"    Kacie Powell, a photographer for Centre College in Danville, Ky., tried to get some digital photo shots printed at Wal-Mart, but employees said they looked "too professional." She ended up signing an affidavit that included pictures of college employees who were authorized to print her pictures. When a colleague whose portrait was included among the authorized photographers went to Wal-Mart with some candid shots from graduation, she got turned down too. Photo Labs, fearful of being sued by professional photographers, are in a tough spot: should they anger their customers or risk a lawsuit? Don't be surprised if your digitally enhanced personal photos are turned down by WalMart and other fast-photo labs. Do the walls have ears?    The experimental system--which consists of a series of sensors under a baby's mattress and a camera mounted on a wall--will monitor a child's heart rate, temperature and movement; stream video of the infant; and even take pictures. Captured data is sent to a parent's PC. In another experiment, researchers have tagged all of the items in a person's house with RFID sensors that effectively will tell a remote computer whether the occupant has moved a spoon or turned on the television. Though it might sound Orwellian in the abstract, the system is being designed to provide relatives or professional caregivers information on the daily habits of the elderly. $100 Computer    A little-known company called Novatium plans to offer a stripped-down home computer for about $70 or $75. Adding a monitor doubles the price to $150, but the company will offer used displays to keep the cost down. Porn gets its own domain    The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that oversees Internet addresses has approved a new online neighborhood specifically for pornographic Web sites: the .xxx domain. Proponents say this will help parents screen out the porn sites for their children, but other groups argue that it's not a reliable safeguard until its mandatory.    There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Number 270 - November 2005