There’s an old adage in the IT world that no one ever gets fired for buying IBM. The problem was that it never said anything against firing IBM, especially if they botch things badly.
The story that the new BitTorrent client uTorrent 2.0 is “network friendly” is making the top headlines on the Web and mailing lists. The only problem with this story it that it has no actual data to back up its assertions. I took the time yesterday to run some tests on the new uTorrent 2.0 beta build 16850 which supports the new “friendly” BitTorrent UTP. Based on my initial testing, the claim that the new BitTorrent client is network friendly appears to be false.
Comcast has announced that they will begin to test a new monitoring system called Comcast Constant Guard that looks for botnets on their network. Infected customers will get a “service notice” that pops up messages on the subscriber’s web browser telling them they are infected with resources (mostly preventative solutions) to help clean the computer.
This mini-ITX system based on Intel’s next generation Clarkdale dual-core “Westmere” 32nm CPU with a 45nm GPU and memory controller on the same CPU package has a system idle power consumption of 27.6 watts. That seems pretty outrageously efficient for a system that performs about as well as a quad-core Q9600 2.66 GHz processor. This is probably the first x86 CPU with a built in graphics controller and it is using a 32nm Westmere core which is a die shrunk Nehalem core with some modest architectural enhancements.
Now if we had switcheable graphics support on the desktop, then we’d have a gaming system that could idle at 27.6 watts compared to a normal gaming system that idles at 110 watts because the GPU can’t be turned off. It would probably be the most energy efficient gaming system in the world.
As most of us have heard by now, the FCC announced yesterday their intention to create a new “5th principle” of nondiscrimination on the Internet. While there are some serious questions as to whether this is a wise mandate for wireless Internet services, such a principle applied to wired Internet services could be a good thing if it allows for reasonable discrimination.
It seems like the blogosphere and news media is eating up the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) ten best and worst cell phones when it comes to “radiation”. After reading the usual responses from readers, it seems like a lot of people are needlessly concerned about the EWG’s cherry picked report when they should be listening to the American Cancer Society.
This is a VERY cool new motherboard from DFI. It features a P45 chipset motherboard along with an NVIDIA Ion motherboard and Intel Atom CPU on a single board with an integrated gigabit Ethernet switch. It comes with a USB and audio KVM switch as well. The system allows you to shut down or suspend your high performance P45 system and leave the NVIDIA ION chipset and Intel Atom CPU running in low power mode. The video quoted 30 watts which isn’t all that low power unfortunately.
Only downside to this that I can see is the $399 list price. Hopefully more motherboard makers will build a product like this and get the price to come down. What I want is a P55 chipset motherboard and the next generation PineTrail-D Atom system as the second system.
I’m not exactly sure why a debate over whether broadband should be capable of online gaming erupted, but it appears to be a misunderstanding in which some entertainment software executives were needlessly upset. The whole furor came about as AT&T made mention of the word “gaming” once in their FCC filing on how broadband should be defined. AT&T merely pointed out that Satellite broadband technology can’t support online gaming.
The Windows SMBv2 zero-day vulnerability (disclosed vulnerability with no software fix) appears to be more dangerous than initially thought. The vulnerability does not affect the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) version of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, but it does affects Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The danger is no longer just a system crash or reboot, it can lead to a full system compromise.
In the absence of a patch, Microsoft released some instructions for disabling SMBv2. For your convenience, I’ve packaged two REG files that you can download that enable and disable SMBv2 in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. So until a software patch is available, you need to disable SMBv2 double clicking the disable-SMBv2.reg file and then rebooting. The workaround does not break your ability to serve files, but it does reduce your SMB file serving speeds down to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 levels which would result in a moderate decrease in performance. When the patch becomes available and you have applied the patch, just run the enable-SMBv2.reg file and reboot.
This is a great story on wired.com on the “good enough revolution“. To those of us who prefer quality, it will make you sad. Here’s a real zinger though.
“Jonathan Berger, a professor of music at Stanford University, recently completed a six-year study of his students. Every year he asked new arrivals in his class to listen to the same musical excerpts played in a variety of digital formats—from standard MP3s to high-fidelity uncompressed files—and rate their preferences. Every year, he reports, more and more students preferred the sound of MP3s, particularly for rock music. They’ve grown accustomed to what Berger calls the percussive sizzle—aka distortion—found in compressed music. To them, that’s what music is supposed to sound like.”
OK, this is where I’m shaking my head and the music enthusiasts are rolling in their grave. That twangy sound of a quick-and-dirty MP3 encoder always drove me nuts. Now comes word that the youngsters heading into college have grown to actually prefer the sound of crappy encoding. I suppose this isn’t all that different from the old timer’s preference to that old analog hiss, and it’s somewhat predictable. Any kind of sound, even if it didn’t belong to the original sound effectively adds flavor to it and becomes part of the music. So now if I prefer the sound of pure uncompressed 44.1 KHz 16-bit CD audio, or better yet 96 KHz 22-bit audio, then I must be an old fart. I’m still shaking my head trying to wrap my fingers around that concept.