NVIDIA® GeForce® 9500 GT GPU

Official Page

Articles and Reviews:

• TweakTown
• HardSpell
• HardwareZone

Hardware 2.0 “Best Kit List” for Aug/Sep 08

Every two months I wait for this entry of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. It is a list of the best high-end, mid-range, and budget components currently available.

Here is for Aug/Sept 2008: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2284&page=1

Archive:

June/July 2008: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1940&page=1
April/May 2008: http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1631

Cheers to all!

AMD's SB750: Enabling Higher Phenom Overclocks?

See this Anandtech article:

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3360

The web has been alive with rumors of an upcoming update to AMD's 7-series chipsets that will somehow unlock the true overclocking potential of its Phenom processors. The rumor goes something like this: an updated South Bridge (SB750) will improve communication with Phenom, removing a previous bottleneck and improving the maximum overclock possible. We can't begin to explain the many issues with the various rumors, but we have to allow that somewhere buried deep in these rumors there is a morsel of truth.

A look at the recent Firefox 3 vulnerability.

A look at the recent Firefox 3 vulnerability by ZDNet's Nathan McFeters -- True to form, Billy Rios promised a more in depth look at the MSFA2008-35 vulnerability which is another protocol handler flaw in Firefox 3. As previously reported here, this was another protocol handler flaw that led to arbitrary remote command execution, and is especially dangerous since it can be deployed widely through the use of [...]

see also MFSA2008-35

Use BootVis to improve XP boot performance.

Revisiting this good old piece of software. 8)

Microsoft Windows XP was designed to optimize the boot process so users can boot their machines and access the operating system as quickly as possible. For the most part, XP is successful. There is, however, almost always room for improvement, and BootVis.exe, a free Microsoft utility, can help you get the best boot performance possible from an XP system.

[The article/guide]

[Download Here]

OC Extreme! Forums

http://ocxt.forum.st/

This forum was constructed to serve as a "temporary" community for CNVF members.

Convergenceforums.net is currently under-construction. OC Extreme! Forums will go offline as soon as the real Convergence Forums becomes online again.

Please be informed that this site is not in any way connected with Net25, and Convergence Forums. Cheers too all!

Coolermaster Hyper Z600 (RR-600-NNU1-GP)

Official Page

Installation instructions (in PDF)

Reviews:

• FrostyTech
• X-bit Labs
• Overclockers Club
• SilentPCReview

In Action (photos courtesy of overclock3D.net, SPCR, and X-bit labs):

Intel FCLGA4-S Core 2 Extreme Reference Heatsink

The Review by FrostyTech

AMD CEO Ruiz out; Can Meyer turn it around?

AMD CEO Ruiz out; Can Meyer turn it around? by ZDNet's Larry Dignan -- Updated: AMD CEO Hector Ruiz has stepped down and the chipmaker has named chief operating officer Dirk Meyer as its new leader. The news comes amid the latest financial miss for AMD–a second quarter loss that missed estimates by a wide margin. Meyer’s job: Restore credibility. According to an AMD statement, Ruiz will become executive chairman. Ruiz [...]

Firefox v3.0.1

What’s New in Firefox 3.0.1

Firefox 3.0.1 fixed several issues found in Firefox 3.

• Fixed several security issues.
• Fixed several stability issues.
• Fixed an issue where the phishing and malware database did not update on first launch.
• Under certain circumstances, Firefox 3.0 did not properly save the SSL certificate exceptions list.
• Updated the internal Public Suffix list.
• In certain cases, installing Firefox 2 in the same directory in which Firefox 3 has been installed resulted in Firefox 2 being unstable. This issue was fixed as part of Firefox 2.0.0.15.
• Fixed an issue where, when printing a selected region of content from the middle of a page, some of the output was missing (bug 433373).
• Fixed a Linux issues where, for users on a PPP connection (dialup or DSL) Firefox always started in "Offline" mode (bug 424626).

Gigabyte GA-EP45T-EXTREME

The official page.

Hybrid-Silent Pipe is all-copper thermal solution design which combines Air cooling with Liquid Cooling to enable effective heat removal from the North Bridge, South Bridge and CPU area.


PDF Manual


The Review by Hardware Zone.


More photos (courtesy of Hardware Zone):

Breed: Alienware’s First 3D Animated Short

The official page.

Confirmed: Apple files suit against Psystar.

Confirmed: Apple files suit against Psystar by ZDNet's Adrian Kingsley-Hughes -- I don't have a lot of information on this yet but it seems that Apple has grown tired of Apple-clone Psystar and has filed suit against the Florida company at the federal district court for the northern district of California.

Zalman CNPS9700 LED

Official Page


Installation Instructions (in Flash):


Reviews:

• Frosty Tech
• X-bit Labs
• Hardware Secrets
• BccHardware

In Action (photos courtesy of Hardware Secrets and BccHardware):

Gigabyte 3D Rocket II (GH-PCU23-VE)

Official Page

Installation instructions (in PDF)

Reviews:

• Frosty Tech
• TweakTown
• Overclocker Cafe
• bit-tech.net

In Action (photos courtesy of TweakTown and bit-tech.net ):

Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme

Official Page

Installation instructions for LGA-775 and Socket AM2/AM2+ .

Reviews:

• Overclockers Online
• X-bit Labs
• Anandtech
• bit-tech.net

In Action (photos courtesy of O2):

Cracking Open the Apple iPhone 3G.

The iPhone 3G disassembly walkthrough courtesy of TechRepublic:

http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-13636_11-210341.html?tag=nl.e101

Motus Games, Harry Potter Demo.

Interact with magical objects, ghosts and portraits in every room, corridor and courtyard at Hogwarts—all faithfully recreated from the movies. Levitate objects, duel with friends, battle foes, and bring Voldemort to his knees with the power of our Darwin™ Controller.

Visit www.motusgames.com for more information.

Noob.Killer by Leerz.

Official Website: Pepah Games Online
As posted in Convergence Forums:

Noob.Killer by Leerz

OFFICIAL LINKS: [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link] [link]

[Alternate Download Link]

DjVu Digital Document Format.

Just in case you encounter an e-book with the *.djvu extension, use this document reader.

--

DjVu (pronounced "déjà vu") is a digital document format with advanced compression technology and high performance value. DjVu allows for the distribution on the Internet and on DVD of very high resolution images of scanned documents, digital documents, and photographs. DjVu viewers are available for the web browser, the desktop, and PDA devices.

Official Website: http://djvu.org/

Download at SourceForge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=114927

Microsoft to push XP SP3 via Auto Update on July 10/11.

if you haven't got SP3 in your genuine Windows XP installation... see it soon via AU.

--

Microsoft to push XP SP3 via Auto Update on July 10 by ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley -- Microsoft is going to release Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 via its Automatic Update (AU) service on Thursday July 10, company officials confirmed this week.

Midori (Operating System)

from wikipedia:

Midori is the code name for an internal Microsoft operating system rumored to be a new operating system kernel to replace Microsoft Windows. Midori has been reported to be a possible commercial successor to the Singularity operating system, a research project started in 2003 to build a highly-dependable operating system in which the kernel, device drivers, and applications are all written in managed code.

See the related articles:

Goodbye, XP. Hello, Midori.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1466

On the road to Midori: RedHawk, MinSafe and Sapphire.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1477&tag=nl.e539

Microsoft Midori Is a Secret Post-Windows Operating System.
http://gizmodo.com/5021126/microsoft-midori-is-a-secret-post+windows-operating-system

MS Updates - Week 2 - July 2008.

I got these via automatic update today.

--

1. KB951748 - Security Update for Windows XP
A security issue has been identified that could allow a remote attacker to misrepresent a system action or behavior unbeknownst to users on Microsoft Windows systems. You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

2. KB890830 - Microsoft® Windows® Malicious Software Removal Tool
This tool checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month.

3. KB951978 - Script output is not displayed as expected when you run VBScript or JScript scripts in Windows Vista Service Pack 1, in Windows Server 2008, or in Windows XP Service Pack 3.

--

Just to add, as I was searching for more info, I found out that some users of Zone Alarm encountered "NO Internet" and "Privacy / Ad Blocking" problems after installing KB951748. See the following pages :

http://forum.zonealarm.com/zonelabs/board/message?board.id=cfg&message.id=52790

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20759839-MS-update-KB951748-and-ZoneAlarm-PROBLEM

Zone Alarm blocks internet access with the internet zone set to high security. Internet access works at medium setting.

Approximately 800 vulnerabilities discovered in antivirus products.

Approximately 800 vulnerabilities discovered in antivirus products by ZDNet's Dancho Danchev -- In what appears to be either a common scenario of “when the security solution ends up the security problem itself”, or a product launch basing its strategy on outlining the increasing number of critical vulnerabilities found in competing antivirus products, the IT/Security consulting firm n.runs AG claims to have discovered approximately 800 vulnerabilities within antivirus [...]