Net taxes could arrive by this fall
I have a feeling when this bill arrives it won't be anything like the proposal. Also, this is going to make many politicians very unpopular.

The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.

State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.

At the moment, states and municipalities are frequently barred by federal law from collecting both access and sales taxes. But they're hoping that their new lobbying effort, coordinated by groups including the National Governors Association, will pay off by permitting them to collect billions of dollars in new revenue by next year.


Read all about here, courtesy of news.com

Eric

More Sam, Fewer Complaints
Spam has becomes like "white noise", after a while you just don't notice it anymore...

NEW YORK — Spam messages are increasingly plaguing e-mail inboxes, but more Americans are accepting them as a fact of life, a new study finds.

Thirty-seven percent of U.S. e-mail users say they are getting more junk in their personal e-mail accounts, and 29 percent see an increase in their work accounts. About half say they have not noticed a change, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said in its study, released Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 28 percent of Internet users now say that spam is not a problem at all, up from 16 percent in June 2003.

"It's maybe starting to become part of life online," said Susannah Fox, associate director with Pew. "Once something's part of life online, people feel that they should just stop complaining about it and move on, even though people are still annoyed by it."

Read all about it here courtesy of chron.com

Eric

Top 100 Gadgets for 2007 according to PC World
Must be nothing new for 2007 will be coming out, we are barely into June with a Top 100 List

Our editors rank the best PCs, HDTVs, components, sites, and services. Plus: the products we're looking forward to next year, and which technologies are rising and falling.

1. Google Apps Premier Edition Review | Vendor Site
2. Intel Core 2 Duo Review | Check Prices
3. Nintendo Wii Review | Check Prices
4. Verizon FiOS Vendor Site
5. RIM Blackberry 8800 Review | Check Prices
6. Parallels Desktop Review | Check Prices
7. Pioneer Elite 1080p PRO-FHD1 Check Prices
8. Infrant Technologies ReadyNAS NV Check Prices
9. Apple Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Review | Check Prices
10. Adobe Premiere Elements 3 Review | Check Prices

Read all about it here, courtesy of pcworld.com

Eric

Is DX10 all that?
In a word...no.

NVIDIA has really done a lot to propagate DirectX 10 as the next saving grace for gaming but in reality we’re not sure that’s going to happen – at least not with the first PC title to come out to use Microsoft’s latest API. Lost Planet: Extreme Condition started off last year as an XBOX360-only title from Capcom and thanks to NVIDIA is seeing the light of day on the PC.

There’s been quite of bit of controversy over the release of this demo from the ATI camp – mainly because it claims it was never given code ahead of time to write in optimizations into its drivers. Regardless of that, what we’re looking at in this article is mainly the chief claims from the Microsoft camp of how DX10 will add a lusher gaming environment to games.

Lost Planet has full Shader Model 4.0 support which means you have to have a DX10-class card , Windows Vista, and the DX10 demo to run the game in that mode. What we believe we’re seeing here is the early growing pains of an API to develop and mature. As we can see in the screenshots below, there isn’t any visible difference between running the game in DX9 versus DX10. This could be caused by a few factors:

1. The developer’s knowledge of the API and how to properly implement it is limited
2. The Publisher didn’t want to sink more money into developing all the extra “eye candy”
3. As with all APIs, things take awhile to mature

We tend to lean towards the 3rd option as being the most highly probable. We saw similar issues when Shader Model 3.0 came out and ATI’s X800-series was behind the technology curve with that. NVIDIA jumped all over it with all sorts of huge claims; however we’re just now seeing games come out that can substantially task Shader Model 3.0.

So much of what we see in the release of this demo is purely hype on NVIDIA’s part in an effort to bolster support and sales of its G80-class GPUs. While there’s nothing wrong with that (we love Capitalism), we felt we needed to show these screenshots to present things in a more proper light without the marketing spin.

In addition, the jury is still out on ATI’s R600 performance with this particular title as it was released with much – if any – input from them. We’re confident that now the “cat is out of the bag” AMD will ramp its next driver release to have better optimizations for Lost Planet. But in the end, we feel this game will be used as nothing more than a benchmarking utility as the gameplay doesn’t lend itself to the PC market – in fact, it’s still setup natively to use an XBOX 360 controller; which you can get for the PC.

Read all about it here, courtesy of bootdailey.com

Eric

Ubisoft CEO says Sony PS3 needs price cut
Reeling from the worst quarterly loss in years, and the battery fiasco - Sony needs to "right the ship" before it's "bread and butter" product sinks them further.

NEW YORK/LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sony Corp. risks losing its iron grip on the video game console market with its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) and needs to significantly lower the price on its high-end machine to woo buyers, Ubisoft Entertainment SA's (UBIP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research chief executive said on Wednesday.

"For sure Sony will have a different market share ... lower than before," said Yves Guillemot, chief executive of Ubisoft, Europe's second-largest game publisher, at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York.

Guillemot expects the extent of the decline to be linked to pricing on the PS3. The high-end unit sells for $600 in the United States, $200 higher than the top-end Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research and $350 above Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research Wii.

"They have to decrease the price quite significantly," he said, declining to elaborate. The fortunes of the machine also depend on whether Sony can sell consumers on its next-generation Blu-ray DVD technology, since the PS3 includes a Blu-ray player.

Read all about it here, courtesy of reuters.com

Eric

FireFox becoming more bloated like it's IE competitor?
More is less in this case. More bloat = less appeal.

When Firefox launched in beta release five years ago, it burst on the open-source browser scene like a young Elvis Presley -- slim, sexy and dangerous.

Since then it has attracted millions of users, generally set the agenda for browser development and unseated Microsoft's Internet Explorer as the de facto monopoly in the field. But, with Firefox 3.0 poised for release later this year, the "IE killer" is in danger of morphing into an early Fat Elvis, if increasing numbers of die-hard fans turned reluctant critics are any guide.

Anecdotal reports of problems, from sluggishness to slow page loads and frequent crashes, have begun circulating in web forums, along with increasingly loud calls for Firefox to return to its roots. The alleged culprit: bloat, the same problem that once plagued Mozilla, the slow, overstuffed open-source browser spawned by Netscape that Firefox was originally meant to replace.

"Remember when (Firefox) was the 'light' browser, and if you wanted to load it down that was your choice? Let's go back to that," summed up one reader in a Wired News poll this month aimed at identifying the most urgently needed Firefox fixes.

Read all about it here, courtesy of wired.com

Eric

Malware Hijacks Windows Update
Another nasty piece of malware that infects PCs and is completely un-detectable...yay

Virus writers may be able to smuggle malicious files onto a computer using Microsoft's security patch updates, experts say.

At least one program is in circulation that can hijack a key component of Windows Update to introduce malicious software that could be used to hijack a computer.

The method bypasses users' firewall, allowing files to download undetected.

Microsoft said it was aware of reports of the attack.

Using BITS to download malicious files is a clever trick because it bypasses local firewalls Elia Florio, Symantec

Security expert Frank Boldewin said on his website reconstructer.org that he had recently noticed an e-mailed trojan - a type of program or message that looks benign but conceals a malicious payload - which was exploiting a Windows program known as the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).

BITS is used by Microsoft to download security patches and updates to Windows machines. Because it is part of the operating system, it is able to bypass local firewalls while it downloads.

Mr Boldewin found the trojan was piggybacking on BITS to download malicious files. He published "proof of concept" code to illustrate how it went about it.

Read all about it here courtesy of news.bbc.com

Eric

Google patents in game advertising
I worte about this very topic some time ago. My opionin on this idea is still the same, it a bad idea no matter how you look at it.

A United States patent filed by Google and published this March has revealed details of extensive in-game advertising strategies that are apparently under consideration by the company.

The patent summary reads, "Information about a person's interests and gaming behavior may be determined by monitoring their online gaming activities (and perhaps making inferences from such activities). Such information may be used to improve ad targeting." It then goes on to describe fairly specific scenarios where in-game ads might be used to not only generate revenue, but to track and target consumers using information databases.

"User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterize the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterize the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)."

Read all about it here, courtesy of shacknews.com

Eric

Operation FastLink Nets 50th Conviction
For every one pirate caught, there is another 10000 still out there.

San Francisco

Department of Justice crackdown on online piracy has recorded its 50th felony conviction, the agency announced.

Christopher E. Eaves, 31, of Iowa Park, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement for his involvement in the Apocalypse Crew, an online organization offering downloads before music was released to the public, the DOJ said. Eaves' plea, part of the DOJ's Operation FastLink, came Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Eaves is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 10. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The 50th conviction "represents a milestone never before achieved in any online piracy prosecution," Alice Fisher, assistant attorney general in the DOJ's criminal division, said in a statement.

Operation FastLink is an ongoing DOJ crackdown against the organized piracy groups responsible for most of the initial illegal distribution of copyrighted movies, software, games, and music on the Internet. Operation FastLink has resulted in more than 120 search warrants executed in 12 countries; the confiscation of hundreds of computers and illegal online distribution hubs; and the removal of more than $50 million worth of software, games, movies, and music from illegal distribution channels.

Read all about it here, courtesy of news.yahoo.com

Eric

ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT
Does this $399 video card have what it takes to compete with NVIDIA’s 8800 series?

The Bottom Line

“A day late and a dollar short.” Cliché but accurate. The Radeon HD 2900 XT is late to the party and unfortunately is bringing with it performance that cannot compete. The GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB is $50 cheaper, performs better, and draws a lot less power than the 2900 XT.

This is as good as it is going to get for a while from ATI. The GeForce 8800 GTX will still dominate at the high end of the video card market. Of course we do not know about DX10 games yet, and there is no way to make any predictions how that comparison will turn out. As it stands right now the Radeon HD 2900 XT, in our opinion, is a flop. ATI needs to get its act together quickly. It needs to push out the mainstream cards soon and it needs to deliver a high end card that can actually compete at the high end of the market.

Read all about it here, courtesy of hardocp.com

Eric

10 Emerging Technologies that Flopped
Here are some gems of geekdom that never got off the ground.

With the launch of this new site dedicated to covering emerging technologies, we look forward to some of the innovative and useful products and applications that we'll be testing and analyzing.

But one cannot understand successful technologies without also understanding the failures. With that in mind here is our list of ten emerging technologies that never quite got out of the door. And for this list we've decided to focus on technologies that have yet to prove successful, leaving out products like the Newton or Push, that failed at first but are now successful in their second incarnations as smart phones and RSS feeds respectively.

So here's our list of 10 Emerging Technologies that Flopped. Comment here and let us know which technologies and products would make your list of flops.

Read all about it here, courtesy of etech.eweek.com

Eric

Why Apple Should Acquire AMD
This is an interesting and thought provoking read. It makes sense to me.

Let’s face it. AMD is having quite a bit of financial problems in its race against Intel to grab more market share. Although AMD has done well, and I respect them for what they have accomplished considering the sheer difference in size between the top two chip makers, they need to be put out of their misery by a company that can either take AMD out of the Intel vs. AMD race or have enough capital to give it a significant boost.

To put another dent into AMD’s lackluster performance (financial and otherwise), the ATI acquisition isn’t working out too well either. ATI is behind NVIDIA in its race against to take on the graphics market. What can I say? Things just aren’t looking rosy for AMD at this point, hence my recommendation for the acquisition.

As much as I would like to recommend private equity groups for AMD’s takeover, it’s not worthwhile. I doubt they are going to add any significant value to the company (other than injecting the company with more capital perhaps) and at worst, they are just going to drive the company into more debt with acquisition fees and other such hassles. Not to mention, the semiconductor business isn’t exactly a lucrative market to be in, as the AMD scenario appropriately depicts.

Read all about it here, courtesy of cooltechzone.com

Eric

Computer Submerged in Mineral Oil
I have so many lube and virus jokes, but none really would be appropriate for this. At any rate, it's a cool idea.

We built this system because with all the oil cooled projects out there, no one built a system that looked good and functioned well! After seeing all the other projects, we had a lot of ideas of how we could do it better and more easily. Many projects used vegetable oil, which would go rancid after a short time. The mineral oil does not have this problem, and is completely clear. We also wanted to use an appropriate enclosure -- the Toms Hardware system used a clear acrylic case, and they had to painstakingly seal each rear connector to keep the oil from leaking. We wanted to put the ports on top to solve that problem the simple way. Other people have built systems in aquariums before, but they were always oversized and square. When we found the Eclipse System 6 Aquarium, we were excited to see an aquarium that was absolutely perfect in size -- you couldn't go any smaller. In addition, we had questions about performance and long term effects. Our initial tests, which we go over below, answer the questions about cooling performance. We'll post a follow up to this page in a few months to let you know how a system like this performs in the long term.

Read all about it here, courtesy of pugetsystems.com

Eric

XP vs. Vista- A Tale of Framesrates
Somewhere I remember Microsoft claiming Vista would be the new gaming plateform of choice. I think not.

This article is not to slam Vista and label it as a poor gaming operating system. However, we will say that at the current time, gaming is not what it could be on Vista. Given all of the variables, it’s hard to dismiss the fact that Vista is the common denominator. Many (including us) have pointed at poor driver support being the Achilles heel of Windows Vista. In this case, we used two different graphics drivers and got essentially the same results: worse performance in Vista. If we then say, “Okay, maybe it’s not the graphics drivers,” then at what else do we point the finger? Chipset drivers? Hard drive access? RAM? Though we’ve seen upgraded chipset drivers improve system stability, it’s rare that we see it improve gaming performance.

Read all about it here, courtesy of hardocp.com

Eric

Top 11 Signs Your Presidential Candidate Is Not a Geek
A little Friday fun to lighten up the the end of the week...

Signs Your Presidential Candidate is Not a Geek
11.	Blames violence, prostitution, poverty, migraine headaches, rug burn, syphilis, and diaper rash on video games.
10.	Thinks Ubuntu is the new President of Nigeria.
9.	Prefaces web sites with the word "the," like "the Google," "the MySpace," or "The YouTube."
8.	The candidate's web site makes copious use of the tag.
7.	Calls his or her National Security plan, "The Matrix."
6.	Uses an aol.com e-mail address.
5.	Thinks Firefox is one of those "pokey men my kids play with."
4.	Thinks DRM is an old school rapper
3.	Praises Ted Stevens as a "guru of emerging technologies."
2.	Still uses MSN as their home page.
1.	Thinks a Blackberry is a yummy flavor for a pie.

Read all about it here, courtesy of bbspot.com

Eric

NVIDIA 8800 Ultra and SLi
Nvidia is competing against itself and losing with the 8800 Ultra

On November 8th, 2006 NVIDIA launched a new GPU generation known as the GeForce 8 series. Specifically, the chip was known internally to NVIDIA as G80 but to you and me we know it as the GeForce 8800 GTX. When the GeForce 8800 GTX was introduced it had a suggested retail price of $599. You can currently find GeForce 8800 GTX cards online from $529 all the way up to $939 for an overclocked and water-cooled BFGTech GeForce 8800 GTX.

As a quick refresh the GeForce 8800 GTX utilizes 128 stream processors and 768 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 384-bit memory bus. The core, which is the ROPs and everything else, runs at 575 MHz on the 8800 GTX; the stream processors run at 1.35 GHz. The memory runs at 900 MHz (1.8 GHz) which provides 86.4 GB/sec of memory bandwidth on the 8800 GTX.

The only performance difference with the new GeForce 8800 Ultra are higher core, stream processor and memory clock speeds explained below.

GeForce 8800 Ultra

The “GeForce Ultra” branding is back, and we are happy to see it once again. We have fond memories of highly clocked GeForce based Ultra cards over the years. The Ultra name has always been synonymous for just flat out fast performance and higher clock speeds. As such, that is exactly what the GeForce 8800 Ultra is, a faster GeForce 8800 GTX. The core architecture is exactly the same, 128 streaming processors and 768 MB of GDDR3 memory on a 384-bit bus.

While the architecture is the same, there are a couple of things NVIDIA has tweaked with this new GPU. The GPU itself is actually a newer refined revision compared to the GeForce 8800 GTX GPU, though still built on 90nm process. NVIDIA has done some tweaking internally, concerning timing tuning and other minor things to coax a little more performance but yet keeping the power utilization in check. In fact, according to the specifications the maximum load power draw has been reduced by a few watts compared to the 8800 GTX even running at the faster clock speeds.

Read all about it here, courtesy of enthusiast.hardocp.com

Eric

Dell to use Ubuntu on Linux PCs
It's about time a major PC maker gives consumers a real choice in operating systems.

Computer maker Dell has chosen Ubuntu as the operating system for its range of Linux computers for consumers.

Fans of Linux hope that the move will persuade more mainstream PC users to abandon Microsoft Windows and opt for the open-source operating system.

London-based firm Canonical, the lead sponsor of the Ubuntu project, will ensure the software works on Dell PCs.

Ubuntu includes software like office programs, e-mail, a browser, instant messaging software and a media player.

Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and chief executive of Dell, is himself an Ubuntu user. He has the operating system installed on a high-end Dell Precision M90 laptop he uses at home.

Read all about it here, courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

Eric

Corsair's Ultra Rugged Flash Drive
For those times when it's just a man, his laptop and the great outdoors...

Flash Survivor^TM is an extremely durable, water resistant, drop-tested flash USB memory drive. By design it is perfect for transporting valuable data such as personal files, photos and applications without having to worry about damage or loss of data due to the elements.

All Flash Survivors are:

• Encased in extremely strong CNC-milled, anodized aircraft-grade aluminum.
• Water resistant to 200M through the use of a EPDM waterproof seal.
• Protected from vibration or impact damage through the use of a molded shock dampening collar.
• Plug-&-Play with any USB 2.0 certified peripheral computer port
  (backward compatible with USB 1.1).
• Protected by a 10 year Limited Warranty.

There are two models of Flash Survivor:

• Flash Survivor GT – providing fast data transfer using performance IC-paired memory and controllers.
• Flash Survivor – delivering the industry leading price / performance solution in a rugged USB drive.
  

Read all about it here, courtesy of corsair.com

Eric