Bell Labs succeeds at transmitting 3.28Tbps over 300km:
There wasn't a link, so I grabbed the whole story from slashdot:
Dave-V writes: "Scientists
at Bell Laboratories said they have set a world's record by transmitting
3.28 trillion bits of data per second over 300 kilometers of fiber
optic cable. The research arm of Lucent Technologies said it was
the industry's first demonstration of long distance, triple-terabit
data transmission. Researchers achieved those speeds using Lucent's
experimental optic fiber, called TrueWave. Bell Labs scientists
said they used three 100-kilometer fiber spans to transmit 40
gigabits over each of the 40 wavelengths of light (colors) in
the conventional C-band frequency range and 40 Gbits/s over each
of the 42 channels in the long-wave L-band range."
Well that's just beats the pants off the 300 bps tin-can-and-a-string
system I got goin... Thank you slashdot!
3/17
- Friday 15:15
From the "Pisses you off, but they're not going to tell
you about it" department: The
Register is reporting a story that's all over the news about
how an individual allegedly from eastern-europe managed to steal
485,000 credit-card numbers, along with their accompanying expiration
dates, names and addresses from an unidentified e-commerce site
and post them on a (US) government server for others to access.
What's enfuriating is that no-one will reveal the e-commerce site
from which the data was stolen! and card-memebers are not being
notified! That's great! ain't it!
Related links: MSNBC has a story
here.
From the MSNBC article,
"The Internet retail site from which
the data was stolen has also since been identified, but Macken declined
to name it." - oh, it'll come out... sooner or later
we'll know...
3/17
- Friday 11:09
Home page updated: I re-did the category graphics above
and made this fancy little box around the date/time of each post.
If you notice any problems or typos, please let
me know...
3/17 - Friday 08:07
Echelon
crashes: Ars points
out this
article on the Sydney Morning
Herald about how the US government (NSA) digital eavesdropping
system appearantly went down for four days. And it appearantly wasn't
running Microsoft software... Well this is obvious, since it's been
running for a few years without a major crash like this... ha ha...
By the way, I took full advantage of the down-time to transmit illegal
thoughts and
CPU Stuff: iXBT Hardware
has some excellent stuff on CPU's: They recently posted this
in-depth preview of Intel's upcoming cash-cow, the Willamette.
There's also this
review of the Pentium3 500E FC-PGA - the little brother of the
550E - they're both great choices if you're into overclocking. They
also have this
handy-dandy CPU-Naming Guide which is a really good who's-who
of CPU's. So if you want to know what the difference is between
Merced and McKinley, and you don't have time to wait around for
me to tell you (),
go check it out. I'll put this stuff in the links
area so you can get to it whenever you need to...
3/16 - Thursday 21:42
School's Out: I finished my last final today. Feels GREAT
to be done. Too bad I have to go back in a week and a half... But
soon I'll be done for good. If you want to aks me a question and
get a reply before June, I suggest you do it before March 27 when
school starts back up.
Shoutcast: You guys tried
this? Pretty darn cool. You just go there and click "tune in"
and in 2 seconds, you've got techno! It's run by NullSoft
(the guys who made winamp) -
now owned by AOL, but it seems
legit.
And what's up with this crap? There are links on this page where
the guy says "I'm sick of my friend doing this and this"
where the links crash your machine. I was using my Win98 box and
I got a BSOD and then I had to reboot. Pretty lame. I found the
link to his site, but
he's taken down the old posts... anyway...
I got 3 new posters yesterday... The
Messenger, RONIN
and Event
Horizon (I wanted the international
version, but they didn't have it...) Thank you Iconographics!
I usually order from PosterNow
(formerly ConcertPoster) but Iconographics
had the EXACT posters I wanted and cheap... The ones I got were
excellent! Two of them were the double-sided kind. I'm not a professional
collector or anything, but I do like movie posters. Movieposter
has a lot of posters - I haven't ordered from them... yet... The
internet is pretty cool though... Iconographics
is in Alabama and PosterNow
is in Germany... Needless to say, shipping takes a month...
Anyone hear anything significant about "smart URLs" -
I thought I heard rumblings last week about "smart links"
basically eliminating dead-lniks... sounds like pre-IPO hype-EO
to me, but could be cool. I'm just too lazy to update my links page.
Ole' Tom is at it again:
He has an article
on RAMBUS RAM. He gives you all the information about RAMBUS
you would ever want to know... then he proceeds to tell us how crappy
3dfx is and how NVidia
brand RAMBUS is the best .
Domain names for sale: I'm selling some domain names that
I no longer have time to develop
2spot.com
Aepheus.com
Blackfrost.com
Caena.com
I know they're not great and 2 of them are made-up-words, but they're
not bad. I wish they were crappier
so an IPO would swoop in and
buy them but oh well...
I'd just like to recoup some of the money I've put into them:
3/13 - Monday 20:28
Just finished two finals today. I have more computer-science to
do, but it feels good to get those out of the way.
My friend Jeremy sent me this link: http://www.crl.com/~georgeb/presario.html.
If you need drivers for a Compaq
presario laptop - it will save you. Remember I posted a link to
Driverguide.com - another
place where you can get hard (read impossible) -to-find compaq drivers.
I need to put these links somewhere...
This is some stuff from the weekend:
The slashdot brings us news that the US government reportedly engages
in 'economic spying' on European countries. Read the full
article here.
ZDNet
News has a great article about UCITA.
As end-users, UCITA will
effectively remove all of our rights when it comes to software.
"I'm damn opposed! Damn damn damn opposed!"
3/11 - Saturday 10:12
Want a $99 flatscreen machine? You
gotta see this! These guys have modified a Netpliance I-Opener to
run LINUX! Now with this set-up you have to install LINUX to
a hard-drive on a separate machine and then attach the hard-drive.
But I wonder if you could just get an external USB floppy (like
this or this)
or a ZIP or something and just use that! n theory, you could probably
install Windows on this bad-boy...I got this news from Slashdot,
of course.
The Register is reporting on how Intel has stepped-up it's censoring
of it's P3 processor forums. Now any discussion of AMD processors
are being removed. They also tell how links to benchmarks other
than their own are being replaced by links to Intel benchmarks.
What's the point of having a discussion board? Read the
Register story.
3/10 - Friday 11:41
Microsoft announced their upcoming console-gaming system, named
"X-Box" yesterday. Rumors about this have been around
for months now... Read
the Register story here. Gamespot
has a good write-up with links to movies of Bill Gates making
the announcement and technology demos.
Sniff... Sniff... Do I detect the faint smell of failure? Bellingham
is (er...)downwind from Redmond,
so we get that odor around here on occasion.
3/9 - Thursday 15:25
I stand corrected: I guess the SECC2 (cartridge) version
of the P3 550E (the chip that's gaining popularity as the overclocker's
choice) is cheaper than the socketed version: see for yourself:
SECC2 $215 FC-PGA $230 (Atacom).
Tech-review
says the FC-PGA is $219.
I added the Weekly CPU prices links (above right). I don't know
how long I'll keep those there, but it's kinda-nice to check if
you're in the market for a new CPU.
3/6 - Monday 21:52
HardOCP comes around: In this
article, this HardOCP guy gallantly proclaims what I told you
two months ago: If you want a speedy CPU on the cheaps, get a P3
550E. He seems to have some sort-of love-affair with the Slot-1
version. I think I would recommend the socketed (FC-PGA 370) version
since you don't have to pay for the cartridge, just to tear it apart,
but if you want to run a Slot-1 motherboard, I guess that's the
way to go. You pretty much can't go wrong with a 825+MHz CPU (with
256k of full-speed L2 cache) for
$219. Yeah, you need more expensive RAM, but c'mon? How cheap
are you?
I hope those guys at HardOCP
know I'm just jokin' with 'em... I do it cus I love!
Can someone please answer this question for me!?
When did the Moto-cross/Monster-Truck-Rally announcer-guy turn
from spaz-hype "SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!" to the grumbly-low
"I'm evil.. Be there..." voice? Do you know what I'm talking
about?... Anyway...
PS: Don't know what FC-PGA
370 is? Words like socketed,
and HardOCP getting you down?
Don't know the difference between "Slot-1"
and your a.. um... Never fear. 2e (that's me) is here to help. A
new web-site with answers to all your nerd-wanna-be questions is
on the way...
And HEY!
HEY!
No-one has written me about the new look! Do you like it? Don't
like it?! Hey, I'm lonely! The only email I got today was from a
Swedish gentleman who thought TweakCentral had overcharged his credit
card. I did, but not as Tweak Central, we're non-profit! Ssshhh!
3/5 - Sunday 13:47
Here's the new look I had in-mind. I know... the graphics aren't
too hot, but hopefully this new layout will make it so you can find
what you want in less than 30 seconds: that's my goal.
Let me know how you like the new look: I don't know what people
think of my site, all I know is that some people think that I'm
"tech-support" - I'm glad to help! Boy it would be nice
if there was a site you could go to and get all the help, information
and links you need!... Hmmm!
3/5 - Sunday 10:37
I'm sorry I've neglected the site again... but I've been busy with
school.
I've got a few ideas brewing. I think I have a new design for this
site and where I want to go with it. And I have a new site in-mind
which is a little more where I want to expend my energy. Maybe a
site to help those who need a little help being all-the-nerd they're
capable of being.
I'm waiting for the domain, so I'll keep you posted!
I should have some time to get the ball rolling during spring break,
so expect some changes around the 18th.
2/29 - Tuesday 9:11
I also got Boba-Fett and Darth-Vader Pez-dispensers, so you can
screw-off...
Poor old Tom. Biased as ever: read it here.
Then read Kyle's (Hard OCP) response.
(Tom doesn't like 3dfx) and during the past 3 years, his site has
kinda gone down-hill: I don't even go there anymore - why should
I? All that's there now, are manufacturer press-releases (woo hoo!)
and news from 1997.
PS Happy Leap-day everyone!!! ... eh
2/28 - Monday 21:16
Totally off the subject (what?): I found an Ayrton
Senna poster at the mall today - I'm a happy camper! (For those
of you who don't know, Ayrton
Senna was the best formula-one
driver that has ever lived). And I collect (not seriously) posters,
so...
And if you have a problem with non-tweak related news, you can
kiss my ass, today's my birthday!
"Well, there's never been much about Tweaks on this site..."
you say? I said it's my birthday! Kiss my Ass! I'll fix it tomorrow!
2/26 - Saturday 1:36
I found a pretty cool Tweak site: Tweak
Master Central. Some people say "Master" is my middle
name, but it's usually followed by some smart-ass comment. It's
definitely worth a look - it puts this site to shame. He's got a
great files area.
2/25 - Friday 12:45
Some stuff I just have to share:
Wired
news article on GoHip.com (don't go there) and how it, to quote
the article: According to Internet security
firm Finjan Software, Internet search engine GoHip is distributing
an ActiveX control download that automatically modifies several
components on a user's PC -- including one that adds a GoHip signature
to every piece of outgoing email. That's cool. I don't know
what possesses these people to behave in this way...
My advice: Turn off Active-X, save it for sites you trust (like
Microsoft! HA! ).
France unhappy with Echelon?Wired
news story: Oh, so someone who matters (well, not really, it's
france ) gets
upset at Big-Brother and what happens? Probably nothing. Let me
remind you that certain elements of the US government are above
the law and are not to be questioned.
New cooling
material invented that could replace heatsinks and fans:
Michigan State University professor, Mercouri Kanatzidis, has invented
a material that has better cooling properties than current materials
(ie peltiers) by adding cesium. This could result in chips running
cooler, and as we all know, chips (like race-car engines )
like it cold, and can run faster. Read the
EETimes story. Apparently, current technology doesn't offer
enough cooling to justify the costs: this new technology could increase
cooling dramatically, while increasing costs only 20%.
Sorry for not updating the site as much... I've been busy with
school, of course. I think lately all I've been doing is regurgitating
news from other sites (it's not like I "break" any stories
or do any reporting...) so I might try to focus more on what people
come to this site for (pr0n) and let the real news-people handle
the news. Let me know what you think...
DRAM prices down:EETimes
article (2/18/2000) - I didn't expect this, but DRAM prices
are back down to (and below?) their previous low-prices from back
in September 1999. I picked up a 64Meg PC100 SDRAM DIMM from crucial
for $78 after shipping. A bit better than the $100+ prices we had
for a while. The EETimes article points to Intel having trouble
producing enough of their top-end (750+MHz) cpu's for RAM being
so available?
),
go check it out. I'll put this stuff in the 
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