Pirate Bay Says It Can’t Be Sunk, Servers Scattered Worldwide
The world’s most notorious BitTorrent tracking site, The Pirate Bay, won’t be going to Davy Jones’ Locker, even if its four operators are convicted of facilitating copyright infringement, one of the defendants said in an interview Friday with THREAT LEVEL.
Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, one of the four Swedes charged in Sweden on Thursday, said in a telephone interview that the site has set up a clandestine, double-blind operation with its servers spread throughout the world — and out of reach of the Swedish authorities.
“The Pirate Bay is not in Sweden,” the 29-year-old Kolmisoppi said.
Where are the servers?
“It’s a distributed system. We don’t know where the servers are. We gave them to people we trust and they don’t know it’s The Pirate Bay,” Kolmisoppi said. “They then rent locations and space for them somewhere else. It could be three countries. It could be six countries. We don’t want to know because then you’ll have a problem shutting them down.”
The Pirate Bay allows users to search for and access indexed torrents, which contain the information needed to download data containing copyright-infringing content like movies, music, software and other material from users of the service. The Bay, he said, operates like the search engine Google, which also points the way to copyrighted works on the internet.
“We’re just a general-purpose search engine and torrent-tracking system. You can put whatever you want on the Pirate Bay,” Kolmisoppi said. “We don’t participate in how the people communicate with each other. We only participate in bringing the possibility to communicate and share files.”
The Bay has been on the entertainment industry’s and police authorities’ watchlists for years.
In June, 2006, a police raid shuttered it for three days after the authorities confiscated its servers, which were later moved. The raid sparked street protests in Sweden, and garnered the site an international presence after the mainstream media began reporting on it.
The four charged in Stockholm are Hans Fredrik Neij, Per Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstroem and Kolmisoppi. According to charges lodged in Stockholm, the four are accused of “promoting other people’s infringements of copyright laws.”
“I think they’re lame,” he said of the charges.
Prosecutor Hakan Roswall was not immediately available for comment.
None of the defendants, Kolmisoppi said, have prior convictions, meaning even if they are convicted, they won’t likely be jailed for the two years the charges potentially carry.
“As a worse-case scenario for us, we get a fine,” Kolmisoppi said. “They can say we have to shut down the site, don’t host it in Sweden. But they can’t say it won’t be accessible in Sweden or anywhere. They can’t do anything about it, no matter what happens.”
He also disputes that the company is generating millions in profit, as the authorities allege.
“It’s so stupid to say we’re making a profit,” he said “We’re spending hours and hours of our own time to do this. If we were making millions, we wouldn’t have day jobs. And even if we did make millions, it would not change the fact that this is not illegal.”
Kolmissoppi said his day job is “developing a micro payment system.”
No court date has been set.
by wired
Reference: The Pirate Bay (often abbreviated TPB) is an Internet site that bills itself as “the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker” and also serves as an index for .torrent files that it tracks. ThePirateBay.org is ranked 154 (as of January 20, 2008) in the Alexa ranking list and ranked 258 (as of February 1, 2008) by Quantcast.
The Pirate Bay was started by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyr?n (’The Pirate Bureau’) in early 2004, but since October 2004 it has been a separate organization. The site is currently run by Gottfrid Svartholm (”anakata”), Fredrik Neij (”TiAMO”) and Peter Sunde (”brokep”).
On May 31, 2006, the site’s servers, located in Stockholm, were raided by Swedish police, causing it to be offline for three days. Later it came online with new hosting in the Netherlands – The Pirate Bay has since taken measures to ensure a restoration time of hours rather than days. On June 14, 2006 the Swedish newspaper SvD reported that The Pirate Bay was back in Sweden due to “pressure from the Department of Justice [in the Netherlands].” Upon reopening, the site’s number of visitors doubled, the increased popularity attributed to greater exposure through the recent media coverage. This has in turn increased the advertising revenues to the founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij. According to speculations by Swedish newspaper SvD, the advertisements generated about 75,000 USD per month directly after the raid.
The raid, alleged to be politically motivated and under pressure from the MPAA, was reported as a success by the MPAA in the immediate aftermath, but with the site being restored within days and the raising of the debate in Swedish culture, The Pirate Bay and other commentators considered it “highly unsuccessful”.
Swedish prosecutors have announced that charges will be filed before the end of January 2008 against five individuals concerned.
On January 31, 2008, Swedish prosecutors filed charges against four of the individuals behind The Pirate Bay.
Torvalds: Linux ready to go green
The infrastructure and tools required to make Linux a green operating system are now in place, according to Linus Torvalds, who was in Melbourne this week attending Australia’s largest Linux conference.
In an interview at the linux.conf.au conference, Torvalds admitted that Linux was lagging behind on power-management and energy-diagnosis tools.
“It is an area we were pretty weak in a few years ago and just building up the infrastructure took a long time, but now we are at a point where we have most of it done,” said Torvalds.
“That doesn’t mean we are done. Now we have an infrastructure in place… we have the tools to measure power and notice when the power is higher and why that is, which is pretty important. Before, it used to be a black box,” said Torvalds.
Linux safe with or without Linus
Speaking about the future of Linux, Torvalds said he is pleased that there is no more pressure on the kernel due to its stability and the community of people helping to keep it maintained.
“We are still working on a lot of stuff, especially with new hardware. But I think, on the whole, a lot of the basics are there. What we work on is better maintainability, improving code so we can add features more easily,” Torvalds said.
When asked about retirement, Torvalds said he has no intention to move on and, even if he did, users would be “unlikely to notice”, as the operating system has such a strong support community.
“The question comes up but it is not something I really worry about. There are other people who could take over what I do. I would like to think that they would be worse at it, but it is not like [Linux] would go away or be in trouble,” said Torvalds.
Celebrating the death of DRM music
Torvalds also revealed he is glad to see the apparent demise of music protected by digital rights management (DRM). In an interview last year, Torvalds said he believed DRM was a “lot of hot air”, a comment that he said has now been proved right.
“I think I have been vindicated somewhat. DRM is so anti-consumer that I don’t see it really ever taking off,” said Torvalds.
Torvalds’ comments come just weeks after Sony BMG said it will begin selling music without any copy protection. EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal have also already begun dropping DRM in the US.
by zdnet
Reference: Linux is a a family of Unix-like computer operating systems that are based on the Linux kernel. The Linux kernel is implemented in so called Linux distributions that can be used on a personal computer or on a server. Examples of such distributions are Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS.
Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free software and open source development; typically all underlying source code can be freely modified, used, and redistributed by anyone.
The name “Linux” comes from the Linux kernel, started in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The system’s utilities and libraries usually come from the GNU operating system, started in 1983 by Richard Stallman. The GNU contribution is the reason for the alternative name GNU/Linux.
FBI wants instant access to British identity data
Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists.
The US-initiated programme, “Server in the Sky”, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the “war against terror” - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.
Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world’s most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects.
The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police.
The plan will make groups anxious to safeguard personal privacy question how much access to UK databases is granted to foreign law enforcement agencies. There will also be concern over security, particularly after embarrassing data losses within the UK, and accuracy: in one case, an arrest for a terror offence by US investigators used what turned out to be misidentified fingerprint matches.
Britain’s National Policing Improvement Agency has been the lead body for the FBI project because it is responsible for IDENT1, the UK database holding 7m sets of fingerprints and other biometric details used by police forces to search for matches from scenes of crimes. Many of the prints are either from a person with no criminal record, or have yet to be matched to a named individual.
IDENT1 was built by the computer technology arm of the US defence company Northrop Grumman. In future it is expected to hold palm prints, facial images and video sequences. A company spokeswoman confirmed that Northrop Grumman had spoken to the FBI about Server in the Sky. “It can run independently but if existing systems are connected up to it then the intelligence agencies would have to approve,” she said.
The FBI told the Guardian: “Server in the Sky is an FBI initiative designed to foster the advanced search and exchange of biometric information on a global scale. While it is currently in the concept and design stages, once complete it will provide a technical forum for member nations to submit biometric search requests to other nations. It will maintain a core holding of the world’s ‘worst of the worst’ individuals. Any identifications of these people will be sent as a priority message to the requesting nation.”
In London, the NPIA confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky but said it was “too early to comment on what our active participation might be”.
The FBI is proposing to establish three categories of suspects in the shared system: “internationally recognised terrorists and felons”, those who are “major felons and suspected terrorists”, and finally those who the subjects of terrorist investigations or criminals with international links. Tom Bush, assistant director at the FBI’s criminal justice information service, has said he hopes to see a pilot project for the programme up and running by the middle of the year.
Although each participating country would manage and secure its own data, the sharing of personal data between countries is becoming an increasingly controversial area of police practice. There is political concern at Westminster about the public transparency of such cooperation.
A similar proposal has emerged from the EU for closer security cooperation between the security services and police forces of member states, including allowing countries to search each other’s databases. Under what is known as the Prum treaty, there are plans to open up access to DNA profiles, fingerprints and vehicle registration numbers.
by Guardian
Reference: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as both a federal criminal investigative body and a domestic intelligence agency. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes, making the FBI the de-facto lead law enforcement agency of the United States government. The motto of the bureau is “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”.
In fiscal year 2006, the FBI’s total budget was approximately $8.7 billion, including $495 million in program increases to enhance counter-terrorism, counterintelligence, cyber crime, information technology, security, forensics, training, and criminal programs.
It was established in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation (BOI), and the name was changed to the FBI in 1935.
The FBI Headquarters are in Washington, D.C., and the FBI also has 56 field offices located in major cities throughout the United States as well as over 400 resident agencies in smaller cities and towns across the nation, and more than 50 international offices, called “Legal Attaches”, in U.S. embassies worldwide.
Fox to allow DVD copying on Apple’s iTunes
Also in Apple’s movie rental deal yesterday with Fox: Apple will license its FairPlay copy-protection technology to the studio for DVD movie releases. This will allow DVD purchasers to easily — and legally — copy movies to their computers for playback on iPods and iPhones.
The copy protection on DVDs was cracked long ago, but it’s still not easy for the average consumer to copy a disc and transfer it to iTunes. Having one-click DVD copying, like iTunes has done for CDs for years, could well be the killer app for Apple’s video products, including the Apple TV. (Update: According to Gizmodo, the files won’t be ripped from the DVD; instead, Fox will include iTunes-formatted versions of the movie on the disc.)
Up until now, the only way to legally get a movie on your Apple TV was to buy it from the iTunes store. If this trial is successful, we could see other movie studios sign on quickly. Odds are good that Disney, the media company in which Apple CEO Steve Jobs is the largest individual shareholder, will get the same deal when the movie-rental store launches in January.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (spelled from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation), also known as 20th Century Fox, is one of the six major American film studios. Located in the Century City area of Los Angeles, California, USA, just west of Beverly Hills, the studio is a subsidiary of News Corporation, the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch. The company was founded in 1935, as the result of a merger of two entities, Fox Film Corporation founded by William Fox in 1915, and Twentieth Century Pictures, begun in 1933 by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Raymond Griffith and William Goetz.
iTunes is a digital media player application, introduced by Apple on January 10, 2001 at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, for playing and organizing digital music and video files. The program is also an interface to manage the contents on Apple’s popular iPod digital media players as well as the iPhone. Additionally, iTunes can connect to the iTunes Store (provided an internet connection is present) in order to purchase and download digital music, music videos, television shows, iPod games, audiobooks, various podcasts, feature length films, and ringtones.
iTunes is available as a free download for Mac OS X, Windows Vista, and Windows XP from Apple’s website. It is also bundled with all Macs, and some HP and Dell computers. Older versions are available for Mac OS 9, OS X 10.0-10.2, and Windows 2000. iTunes is not available for other operating systems, such as Linux, although there are iTunes substitutes created for Linux such as Amarok.
KDE 4.0 to be Released in January
The KDE Release Team has decided to release KDE 4.0 this coming January. The release was originally planned for mid-December. The KDE developers want to solve a couple of essential issues before releasing. Having solved some of those issues, among which were glitches in the visual appearance, and in Konqueror, the KDE community hopes to have a KDE 4.0 that will live up to the high expectations for it. Read on for more details.
Meanwhile, the progress towards KDE 4.0 is astonishing. Most parts, such as the KDE Development Platform and a lot of applications are considered stable and well-usable.
Some parts of the desktop experience do not yet meet the KDE community’s quality standards and expectations for a stable release. There are also some issues which need to be addressed upstream, for example a bug in certain codecs of xine that cut off audio fragments prematurely. The developers are confident to be able to release a more polished and better working KDE 4.0 desktop in January. The changed plans involve releasing on January 11th, 2008.
At the same time, the release team’s call for participation is repeated. To make KDE 4.0 a success, your effort is needed. An overview of current showstoppers can be found on Techbase, KDE’s knowledge platform.
This is also a call to the wider Free Software community, and also to companies working with KDE. If you have the resources to contribute, assistance in fixing the remaining bugs is most welcome.
KDE Reference: KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a free software project which aims to be a powerful system for an easy-to-use desktop environment. The goal of the project is to provide basic desktop functions and applications for daily needs as well as tools and documentation for developers to write stand-alone applications for the system. In this regard the KDE project serves as an umbrella project for many standalone applications and smaller projects that are based on KDE technology, such as KOffice, KDevelop, Amarok, K3b and many more.
KDE was founded in 1996 by Matthias Ettrich, who was then a student at the Eberhard Karls University of T?bingen. At the time, he was troubled by certain aspects of the UNIX desktop. Among his qualms were that none of the applications looked, felt, or worked alike. He proposed the formation of not only a set of applications, but rather a desktop environment, in which users could expect things to look, feel, and work consistently. He also wanted to make this desktop easy to use; one of his complaints with desktop applications of the time was that his girlfriend could not use them. His initial Usenet post spurred a lot of interest, and the KDE project was born. The name KDE was intended as a word play on the existing Common Desktop Environment, available for Unix systems. CDE was an X11-based user environment jointly developed by HP, IBM, and Sun, through the X/Open Company, with an interface and productivity tools based on the Motif graphical widget toolkit. It was supposed to be an intuitively easy-to-use desktop computer environment. The K was originally suggested to stand for “Kool”, but it was quickly decided that the K should stand for nothing in particular. Additionally, one of the tips in certain versions of KDE 3 incorrectly states that the K currently is just meant to be the letter before L in the Latin alphabet, the first letter in the word Linux (which is where KDE is usually run).
Matthias chose to use the Qt toolkit for the KDE project. Other programmers quickly started developing KDE/Qt applications, and by early 1997, large and complex applications were being released. At the time, Qt did not use a free software license and members of the GNU project became concerned about the use of such a toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications. Notably, KDE was removed from Debian because the project interpreted the GPL as not allowing KDE to be linked to Qt. Two projects were started: “Harmony”, to create a Free replacement for the Qt libraries, and the GNOME project to create a new desktop without Qt and built entirely on top of free software.
In November 1998, the Qt toolkit was licensed under the free/open source Q Public License (QPL). This same year the KDE Free Qt foundation was created which guarantees that Qt would fall under a variant of the very liberal BSD license should Trolltech cease to exist or no free/open source version of Qt be released during 12 months. But debate continued about compatibility with the GNU General Public License (GPL). In September 2000, Trolltech made the Unix version of the Qt libraries available under the GPL, in addition to the QPL, which has eliminated the concerns of the Free Software Foundation. Starting with the release of Qt 4.0, it is available as free software for the Unix, Mac and Windows platforms, indicating that the next major version of KDE applications and libraries will have native support on these platforms.
Both KDE and GNOME now participate in freedesktop.org, an effort to standardize Unix desktop interoperability, although there is still some competition between them.
Watercooling Motherboard MSI HydroGen. New Generation Style.
The block is made in Germany as an all copper design where the water travels all the way from one end the other. This is completely unlike any previous design that we’ve seen before which has just featured simply a single in-out from a single block on a single chipset or power regulation components by the CPU. This means that you can run a system completely passively as there’s no need for some airflow over the heatpipes like with other boards and the amount of flow reducing 90 degree turns is kept to an absolute minimum.
What’s more, there are no barbs included, just simple threaded sockets. This means watercooling enthusiasts can for once use exactly the same barb size as the rest of their system, keeping a more optimal water flow.
It looks like finally a motherboard company has listened to enthusiasts’ actual needs, however there’s no word on the warranty situation, or how it performs without being plugged into a water supply - the pipes are empty after all.
MSI claims up to 20 percent more power efficiency and up to six times longer life because of the continually reduced component temperature. We expect this also means there should be some better potential overclocking too - providing the BIOS (and new X48 chipset) is up to it.
A tentative and early price of €379 may put a lot of people off, but if you’re serious about it consider how much it costs for an entire watercooling kit in addition to finding a non-heatpiped board to fit it. From the pictures below, the awesome professional CNC milled piece might say enough to watercoolers to spend the money. Even if you’re not a watercooler, we’ve discovered that MSI is working on its own kit to work in conjunction with it, but is remaining extremely tight lipped as to how this is progressing.
It’s essentially no different than the BFG Tech 8800 GTX waterblock we looked at last year, or the Asus Maximus boards, so are you sold or do you think companies should leave watercooling to the niche high end? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
(bit-tech.net)
Defenition:
In computers, water cooling is a method used to lower the temperatures of computer processors, and sometimes other components such as graphics cards, using water rather than air as the cooling medium. Processor speeds have increased dramatically in recent years. As a result, the heat given off by processors has also increased, as has the noise associated with equipment, such as fans, used to keep them running at a safe temperature. Because water can conduct heat about 30 times faster than air can, a water cooling system allows the processor to run at higher speeds while drastically reducing system noise. Some industry experts predict that water cooling systems will become standard for personal computers in the near future.
Here’s a simple example of a water cooling system: A pump circulates the water through a water block (a device similar to a heat sink) attached to the processor; there, heat from the processor transfers to the water. The heated water continues on to a radiator at the back of the computer case and is replaced with cool water. The heat from the water in the radiator dissipates into the air surrounding the computer. When the water has cooled to the ambient temperature, it is cycled through the system again.
Water cooling is increasingly used to deal with the special requirements of the data center. Because data centers are often assigned the most convenient available space, rather than a space that is specially designed, servers may be contained in too small an area or one that cannot be adequately ventilated. Furthermore, some data center technologies, such as blade servers (which are densely structured), put increased stress on the data center’s cooling system.
Water cooling brings its own issues to the data center, however, as well as benefits. Additional plumbing is often required. Water cooling can limit the flexibility of data center design because systems connected to plumbing cannot be easily rearranged. The combination of electronic systems and water also complicates disaster recovery planning (DRP). For example, administrators need to know in advance how they will deal with potential problems, such as rust or leakage. A common fear of combining electrical systems and water is another road block to acceptance of water cooling.
Despite the inherent challenges, many industry experts predict that water cooling is the inescapable future of the data center. According to Robert E. McFarlane, president of the Interport Division of New York-based Shen, Milsom and Wilke Inc., “Paranoia is the reason there’s so little water-cooled equipment on the market. We tend to get married to the technologies that we know and are comfortable with, but it’s getting to that point where you just can’t cool these densities without carrying it in liquid form.”
Water cooling is nothing new — automobiles and mainframe computers have used water cooling systems for many years. However, water cooling is being used in some new and innovative applications, such as environmentally friendly air conditioning systems for buildings.
Water cooling is sometimes referred to as liquid cooling, because various other substances are sometimes used instead of, or in addition to, water.
The Most Complete List of Social Bookmarking Sites (Type Structured).
On a social bookmarking system or network, users store lists of Internet resources that they find useful. These lists can be accessible to the public by users of a specific network or website. Other users with similar interests can view the links by topic, category, tags, or even randomly.
Other than web page bookmarks, services specialized to a specific subject or format — feeds, books, videos, shopping items, map locations, wineries, etc. — can be found.
s - Social Network Site
b - Social Bookmarking Site
b^ - Social Bookmarking With Links Forwarding
e - Some Errors With The Site
f - Social Feed Sites
v - Social serVices Site (private bookmarks, scripts, widgets etc..)
u - Unknown Social Site Type
| http://2centsnews.com |
s |
| http://30daytags.com |
e |
| http://43things.com |
u |
| http://a1-webmarks.com |
b |
| http://allmyfavorites.net/td> |
v |
| http://ambedo.com |
v |
| http://backflip.com |
b^ |
| http://bibsonomy.org |
b |
| http://blauerbote.com |
b |
| http://blinkbits.com |
b+s+e |
| http://blinklist.com |
v |
| http://blinkpro.com |
v |
| http://bloghop.com |
b |
| http://bloglines.com |
f |
| http://blogmarks.net |
e |
| http://blogmemes.com |
s+e |
| http://blogmemes.net |
b+s |
| http://blogpulse.com |
u |
| http://bluedot.us |
s |
| http://blummy.com |
v |
| http://bmaccess.net |
b |
| http://bookmark-manager.com |
v |
| http://bookmarktracker.com |
v |
| http://buddymarks.com |
b^ |
| http://bumpzee.com |
s |
| http://chipmark.com |
u |
| http://citeulike.org |
u |
| http://clipclip.org |
b |
| http://clipmarks.com |
u |
| http://cloudytags.com |
b^ |
| http://complore.com |
b |
| http://connectedy.com |
b |
| http://connotea.org |
b |
| http://corank.com |
u |
| http://de.lirio.us |
b |
| http://dealigg.com |
u |
| http://dealoid.com |
b^ |
| http://del.icio.us |
b |
| http://digg.com |
s |
| http://diigo.com |
b |
| http://dotnetkicks.com |
s |
| http://dzone.com |
s |
| http://esnips.com |
u |
| http://excites.com |
b |
| http://ez4u.net |
b |
| http://fanpop.com |
u |
| http://fark.com |
u |
| http://favoor.com |
u |
| http://favorites.live.com |
v |
| http://feedmarker.com |
b |
| http://feedmelinks.com |
b |
| http://folkd.com |
b |
| http://fungow.com |
u |
| http://furl.net |
b |
| http://getboo.com |
v |
| http://gibeo.net |
u |
| http://givealink.org |
b |
| http://goowy.com |
u |
| http://gravee.com |
u |
| http://grupl.com |
b |
| http://hanzoweb.com |
b |
| http://hugg.com |
s |
| http://hyperlinkomatic.com |
u |
| http://i89.us |
b |
| http://icerocket.com |
u |
| http://icio.de |
b |
| http://igooi.com |
e |
| http://iloggo.pl |
u |
| http://indiamarks.com |
s |
| http://indianpad.com |
s |
| http://jaiku.com |
u |
| http://jeteye.com |
u |
| http://kaboodle.com |
u |
| http://kick.ie |
s |
| http://kinja.com |
s |
| http://kopikol.net |
b |
| http://librarything.com |
u |
| http://lifelogger.com |
u |
| http://lilisto.com |
v |
| http://linkagogo.com |
b |
| http://linkarena.com |
b |
| http://linkatopia.com |
b |
| http://linkblog.com.br |
b |
| http://linkfilter.net |
b^ |
| http://linkroll.com |
b |
| http://linkswarm.com |
u |
| http://listible.com |
u |
| http://listmixer.com |
u |
| http://ma.gnolia.com |
s |
| http://maple.nu |
b^ |
| http://markaboo.com |
b |
| http://meme-stream.com |
b |
| http://memestreams.net |
s |
| http://metafilter.com |
s |
| http://mister-wong.com |
b |
| http://my.xilinus.com |
b |
| http://mybloglog.com |
v |
| http://mybookmarks.com |
v |
| http://myhq.com |
v |
| http://myjeeves.ask.com |
v |
| http://mylinkvault.com |
v |
| http://mypip.com |
v |
| http://myprogs.net |
v |
| http://mystickies.com |
v |
| http://myvmarks.com |
b |
| http://myweb.yahoo.com |
b |
| http://netscape.com |
b |
| http://netvouz.com |
b |
| http://networkmenus.co.uk |
v |
| http://newscloud.com |
s |
| http://newsvine.com |
s |
| http://nextaris.com |
u |
| http://nowpublic.com |
s |
| http://onlywire.com |
v |
| http://otavo.com |
b |
| http://oyax.com |
b |
| http://philoi.com |
b |
| http://plugim.com |
s |
| http://plum.com |
s |
| http://popurls.com |
v |
| http://rawsugar.com |
s |
| http://reader2.com |
u |
| http://recipe-buzz.com |
s |
| http://reddit.com |
b |
| http://rojo.com |
s |
| http://rollyo.com |
u |
| http://sandbox.sourcelabs.com/livemarks |
b |
| http://saysaid.com |
b |
| http://searchles.com |
s |
| http://segnalo.com |
b |
| http://shadows.com |
u |
| http://shareddish.com |
s |
| http://shoutwire.com |
s |
| http://simpy.com |
b |
| http://sitetagger.com |
b |
| http://sk-rt.com |
s |
| http://slashdot.org |
s |
| http://socialogs.com |
s |
| http://sphere.com |
u |
| http://spotback.com |
s |
| http://spotplex.com |
s |
| http://spurl.net |
b+e |
| http://squidoo.com |
s |
| http://stanmx.com/sabrosus |
b |
| http://startaid.com |
b^ |
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If You want to update this list, change or add something, please, comment this post.
Call Of Duty 4
(I apologize for that that have not specified a source for this info. The main artcle is http://www.2old2play.com/News/Call_of_Duty_4___The_Beta_First_Impressions )
For the past month and a half the gaming community has been chomping at the bit to get a look at anything that has to do with Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare.
This past week we got the chance to do just that when Infinity Ward opened up their Beta for COD4 to a select group of people in the press, as well as some lucky members of the CharlieOscarDelta.com community.
Here is what we saw and what we thought about the game that a lot of people are calling the Halo Killer.
The Call of Duty 4 Beta is only a touch of what you’ll see in the final version of the game when it’s released on Monday November 5th, but what you are able to see is going to make your mouth water for more of the tasty goodness. ( cashadvances )
Graphics
If you are looking for a crisp clear brightly colored game look the other way, because that is not what you are going to find in Call of Duty 4.
The graphics in the game are extremely gritty to give the gamer a feel of being in a real warzone. Everything looks drab and washed out, in a good way; it makes you feel like you are actually immersed into a modern day warzone.
All the buildings are broken and cracked so they look like they will fall over in the slightest breeze, with the help of an M16A4 bullet, or when the next chopper hovers over the top of them waiting to pick off the unsuspecting enemy.
The foliage is really where this game shines. It has to if you are going to be able to pull off being a sniper and wearing a ghillie suit.
Many times in game we would be running along trying to make it to a point of entry or cross a road without getting our heads taken off, only to be sniped down by someone camouflaged to the nines and hiding in the bushes.
All in all the graphics definitely compliment the game play and game style very well. Don’t be surprised though if you have to squint at your screen to spot an enemy on the other side of the map, they blend in that well.
Controls
The control scheme is very similar to that of Call of Duty 2 with a few subtle differences. So subtle in fact that if you have played a lot of COD 2 you shouldn’t have much of a problem picking up the controls for 4 in a short amount of time.
Most of the buttons are set up in the same place as they were in 2 with a few new additions. When sniping you can hold your breath with the left thumb stick as you could before, but when you aren’t scoped in this is the sprint button. Players can now sprint across open areas for short distances in order to help them better avoid getting gunned down when they click or hold down the left thumb stick.
The other addition is one that involves your kill streaks and you some of your perks, but we’ll get to those in a little bit. Let’s just say that one click of the button can cause a lot of damage to the other team and put a smile on your face as you watch the destruction.
All in all the controls have a smooth and familiar feel to them and you won’t be disappointed in how your movements flow from your fingers the screen.
Game types
There are four game types in the beta, and they all have their own areas of appeal. Here they are: Free for all, Team Death Match, Search and Destroy, Domination.
Free for All – Exactly what it sounds like. Players pick a load out and head out onto the battle field and try to prove they are the best of the best, (in that particular game).
Team Death Match – The tried and true staple for all shooters is back in COD 4 and it is just as much fun, if not more so, then it has ever been. Be prepared to feel like you are surrounded and constantly feel like you need to check your six as you battle it out in teams of up to six vs. six.
Search and Destroy – A new spin on the old version of Search and destroy from COD 2 in which one, player, from the attacking team, must pick up the bomb at the beginning of the match and then move towards the A or B objective, with the help of his or her team, where they must plant the bomb. After the bomb is planted the attacking team must then defend that area for 30 seconds.
If the defending team kills all of the attacking team’s members or defuses the bomb they win, if the bomb goes off then the attacking team wins. Each game is first to 4 wins and you only have one life so be careful when you stick your head around a corner.
Domination – This game type is a lot like Call of Duty 3’s war. There are three areas on the map, (A, B, C), which players must capture and hold for points. The more areas you hold the more points you will acquire and the quicker the round will be over.
Sounds easy right? Well it’s not. Each team ideally has six players each so you have to spread yourself out in order to attack or defend each territory making it easier for the attacking team to put all their effort into capture the area you are defending.
This game type is that will take the tactical side of what has been a more of a run and gun series to a new level of strategy and teamwork. So if you like to work and as a team and develop different strategies this will be the game type for you and your friends.
Create a Class
Taking a page from the Rainbow six series and other more tactical shooters Call of Duty 4 has added a new customizable option to its game play. The newest option allows players to create your own player class and customize your load out to compliment your own playing style.
Each player has five customizable slots to set up for different maps or game types. If you don’t want to spend the time setting up the custom classes, which we highly recommend you do, then you can choose from standard setup ala Call of Duty 2 with set weapons, grenades, and other goodies
The possibilities are endless for any type of play style.
Weapons and Special Grenades – Players will have the choice of a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and a special grenade.
Primary Weapon – Players can choose from Assault Rifles, Sub Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, or Sniper Rifles. There are five to seven choices in each area to choose from so you shouldn’t have any problem finding something you like.
After you pick your weapon you can also pick attachments that will help you get the enemy in your sites a little faster or help you aim a little straighter.
An example of this is the red dot site which puts a red dot, not a laser, on wherever you are aiming to help you get a better feel for where your bullets are going to end up.
Side Arm – Just like most other shooters you are allowed to take a pistol out with you onto the battlefield. There are four to choose from and they each have their pros and cons, but we’ll let you figure that out for yourself.
If you want to be sneaky you can hook up a silencer to the end of your pistol in order to get that stealth shot to the back of your head on your unsuspecting buddy.
Special Grenades – There are three types of special grenades. An upgrade from the older Call of Duty games where you only had smoke grenades. The three types are: Flash Grenade, Stun Grenade, and Smoke.
Each grenade serves a different purpose and can be helpful or deadly its own way. So choose carefully you don’t want to bring a smoke grenades to a room breaching party.
Perks - These are special abilities that let each player further customize your load to compliment your game play style. You are limited to three perks for each one of your customizable class slots.
Here is what you have to work with and get ready to put your thinking cap on because there are a lot of options:
Category 1 Perks:
Bomb Squad - Ability to seek out enemy explosives
C4 x 2 - Remote detonation explosive
Claymore x 2 - Trip activated explosive mine
RPG-7 x 2 - Rocket Launcher with 2 rockets
Special Grenades x 3 - 3 special grenades. No smoke
Category 2 Perks:
Juggernaut - Increased health
Sleight of Hand - Faster reloading
Sonic Boom - Higher explosive weapon damage
Stopping Power - Increased bullet damage
UAV Jammer - Undetectable on enemy radar
Category 3 Perks:
Deep Impact - Deeper bullet penetration
Extreme Conditioning - Sprint for longer distances
Last Stand - Pull out your pistol before dying
Martyrdom - Drop a live grenade when killed
Steady Aim - Increased hip-fire accuracy
Dead Silence - Movements make less noise
Modifiers
Ever wanted to call in an airstrike, find out exactly where the enemy is located or have a badass helicopter crew slice through the opposition? Well now is your chance and all you have to do is string together some kill, without dying, to be able to hook up your team with a little extra help to win the war.
This is where the D-Pad comes into play as all of your modifiers can be enabled by hitting right on the D-Pad after they have been activated. Also if you are in middle of launching a modifier and fall to your death don’t worry you can still use that option after you re-spawn, so all your efforts weren’t in vain.
3 Kill Modifier – UAV – The UAV enables you to see exactly where the opposing team is located so that you can advance on their position and take them down in which ever fashion you see fit.
5 Kill Modifier – AirStrike – Death from above is what this modifier is bringing to the battle field if you correctly determine where the enemy is or will be on your handy map that pops up to help you send in your planes anywhere on the map.
Friendly fire is turned off for the Beta so don’t worry about blowing up your own team, but you might want to practice letting your team know when you are about to launch one, because once friendly fire is enabled a lot of people could be really pissed off or happy depending on your aim.
7 Kill Modifier – Helicopter Support – This option lets you call in support from above that hangs around for a little while and can help you rack up some serious kills in a hurry.
The Helicopter hangs out above the map firing at the enemy whenever they come into view, and will do so until it is taken out. So when you see an enemy copter fly onto the screen you better run and hide or get someone with an RPG to take that thing out, or you’ll be in for a world of hurt.
Leader boards – Call of Duty 4 has added leader boards to its repertoire where you can track your final score for each match, how many wins and losses you’ve accrued kills and deaths, and also how well you can keep your sites on the target in the accuracy section.
Party System – I’m sure this will be fixed in the final version, but as of right now you can only have six people in your party if you want to get into a game. Add a seventh person and you lose all your options to start a match. Other than that the system is very promising and a little reminiscent of the Halo 2 & 3 party system.
Could it be that someone actually listened to the gamers and followed in the footsteps of Bungie to create a party and matchmaking system that actually works. Well we’ll just have to see when the final version hits shelves.
Pros
Great potential for a Match Making system that works, fast and furious game play, realistic battlefield action that is very immersive, the weapons seem to be on point there really isn’t anything that is super overpowered or underpowered except maybe the sniper, more options than you can shake a stick at and this is only the beta, the perks add a whole new level to the game, and the new melee is awesome (you whip out a knife).
Cons
In a couple of the games when the action was building to a crescendo with explosions going on all over the screen the game froze and everyone on my FL had to re-boot. With some much going on, on the battlefield will this be the rule more so than the exception, only time will tell.
The party system has the potential to be great, but as it stands right now is a little jacked up and need some tweaking. We’re not sure if the developers set it up this way for the Beta or if it is something that can be adjusted in time for the final release. Right now it’s a pain getting together with a group of more than six friends.
The Conclusion
This game has the potential to be one of the best games of the year. The game play is fast and furious, the visuals are beautiful, and the customization will add to the longevity of the games life.
Will it be the Halo killer I doubt it, but it will give the folks at Bungie a run for their money.
So if you have the chance to play the Beta do so, you won’t regret it in the least. If you can’t get your hands on the code you need to reserve your copy for rental or buying as soon as possible, because this is one that’s going to be hard to find come November 5.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, announced on April 25, 2007 for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, will be the ninth installment in the Call of Duty video game series and the first not to be set during World War II. It is currently due to be released worldwide on November 5, 2007.
Gameplay
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will introduce a variety of game play styles into the single player campaign completely new to the Call of Duty series. The game moves away from the standard three country-specific campaign style, and allows the plot to play through more like a film style plot with interlaced story lines from the perspective of the player as a member of the US 1st Force Recon and a member of the British 22nd SAS Regiment. There is also a variety of cameo-style missions where you play as various other soldiers such as an AC-130 Gunship gunner, or as one part of a two man sniper team behind enemy lines in a flashback style mission.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will focus on the variation of modern warfare as an infantry soldier by allowing the player to control soldiers in a vast amount of different scenarios, straying away from the constant “at eleven” action of previous Call of Duty titles and allowing for both heavy intensity fire fights and slower paced drama styled intensity. The developer, Infinity Ward, has so far told about a handful of such levels including where the player will be the gunner of an AC-130 gunship and the pilot of a AH-1 SuperCobra helicopter providing air support.
The series’ move to modern warfare has also introduced a variety of new modern weapons and technology to be introduced to the Call of Duty franchise. Such showcased weapons and attachments include M203 grenade launchers, IR laser pointers for use in conjunction with night vision goggles, silenced MP5SD submachine guns, and the FGM-148 Javelin portable anti-tank guided missile among many others.
Plot
A Russian nationalist by the name of Zakhaev is set on returning his homeland to the Soviet times. Zakhaev knows the United States would never allow this to happen, thus he funds a coup in the Middle East, organized by his ally Al-Asad, to draw attention away from Russia. The two men and their seconds-in-command gain the nickname The Four Horsemen. However, the British and US governments have been monitoring Zakhaev’s activities and discover his real intentions. The story is told from a perspective of a British 22nd SAS Regiment operative in Russia and American 1st Force Recon in the Middle East.
The game also features a flashback mission set 15 years ago in the Chernobyl Zone of Alienation, which features a new incarnation of Captain Price from 22nd SAS Regiment, the only character to appear in both of the first two games of the series. He needs to assassinate Zakhaev, but his mission fails because his Captain gets wounded and he has to get out him of the Zone of Alienation.[3] Whether this new Price will be confirmed to be a relative of the WWII era Price remains to be seen. It is also believed that the assasination attempt had left Zakhaev with only one arm.
The game features following as playable characters:
Lieutenant Price, 22nd SAS Regiment (15 years ago)
Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish, 22nd SAS Regiment (present)
Sergeant Paul Jackson, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment (later Staff Sergeant as part of 1st Force Recon Co., U.S.M.C.) (present)
Their names are seen in mission info which is seen in published gameplay footage of the game. Further characters are unknown.
Multiplayer
Hardcore Mode
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has been announced to have a new mode called Hardcore Mode. In multiplayer, users can choose to play standard game types such as Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch and others, or choose to play them in Hardcore Mode. In Hardcore Mode, damage received and inflicted increases, the heads-up display (HUD) is removed – the mini-map, ammo counter, and other on-screen indicators – and friendly fire is enabled.
Classes
For multiplayer, it has been confirmed that Call of Duty 4 will include a class system which has five preset classes with default weapon load outs and perks assigned to them as well as allows users to create five custom classes where the user can customize their weapon load out and three perks to assign to their soldier. The five default classes include Assault, Spec Ops, Light Machine Gunner, Demolitions, and Sniper class. Create a class will be unlocked through the user’s first few games after gaining enough Experience Points (XP) and ranking up to his first few ranks. Only two of the classes are available to a first time player; the rest are unlocked as he gains more experience online and gains higher rank.
Perks
Another introduction in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer includes Perks. Perks are special abilities which allow users to further customize their character to their personal play style. The amount of perks available in multiplayer has not been announced however it has been confirmed that the player will be limited to three multiplayer perks at a time which can be assigned via Create a Class.
Perks List:
Category 1 Perks:
Bomb Squad - Ability to seek out enemy explosives
C4 x 2 - Remote detonation explosive
Claymore x 2 - Trip activated explosive mine
RPG-7 x 2 - Rocket Launcher with 2 rockets
Special Grenades x 3 - 3 special grenades. No smoke
Category 2 Perks:
Juggernaut - Increased health
Sleight of Hand - Faster reloading
Sonic Boom - Higher explosive weapon damage
Stopping Power - Increased bullet damage
UAV Jammer - Undetectable on enemy radar
Category 3 Perks:
Deep Impact - Deeper bullet penetration
Extreme Conditioning - Sprint for longer distances
Last Stand - Pull out your pistol before dying
Martyrdom - Drop a live grenade when killed
Steady Aim - Increased hip-fire accuracy
Dead Silence - Movements make less noise
Double Tap - Greater rate of fire when using automatic weapons
Attachments:
Grenade Launcher
Vertical Grip
Laser Sight
Infrared Laser
Open Red Dot Sight
Cylinder Red Dot Sight
ACOG Scope
There may be other attachments. Only one attachment can be attached to your weapon at a time in multi-player.
Setting
The game’s main setting is the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Some locations seen in the trailers may be Cairo, Chernobyl, Prypiat, and Azerbaijan. The developers have indicated they may also utilize additional locations, according to Game Informer magazine.
Call of Duty 4 is not set in an existing conflict, according to Grant Collier, one of Infinity Ward’s co-leads:
We wanted an enemy that is going to give the player a stand up fight. When people hear modern warfare, is that driving in a Humvee until an IED blows your tire off, then people shoot at your Humvee and you shoot back at them and they run away? Strangely enough, that’s not Infinity Ward-style combat. So we are creating a robust enemy that is going to give the Western powers a run for their money. They use high technology just like we do.
Mozilla may separate from Thunderbird, its stand-alone e-mail client, the company’s CEO has disclosed.
In a posting to her blog Wednesday, CEO Mitchell Baker said that Mozilla’s first priority is, and will continue to be, its open-source browser, Firefox. “As a result, Mozilla doesn’t focus on Thunderbird as much as we do browsing and Firefox and we don’t expect this to change in the foreseeable future,” said Baker.
Thunderbird’s community, which includes a large number of unpaid programmers, should be cut loose “to determine its own destiny,” she said.
The e-mail app, which was just updated to version 2.0.0.5 last week, is Mozilla’s answer to Microsoft Outlook and Entourage, and other stand-alone e-mailers such as Mail, which is bundled with Mac OS X. Like Firefox, it’s free to download, and comes in editions for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
A Choice of Fates
Baker laid out three possible fates for Thunderbird, including creating a new non-profit organization similar to the Mozilla Foundation to focus on the e-mail program; building a new subsidiary of the Foundation just for Thunderbird; and releasing Thunderbird into the wild as a community-only project. The latter was the path taken by SeaMonkey, the name for what was once called Mozilla Suite, when the latter was dropped by Mozilla in 2005.
“We don’t know the best answer yet,” Baker said. “And we don’t expect to without a broad public discussion and involvement.”
From the comments left on Baker’s blog, that discussion may not be polite.
“I see it as a bad idea for the Mozilla ecosystem as a whole,” said a user identified only as Dean. “Already there have been misgivings from some developers about the Foundation/Corporation’s dedication to Mozilla as a platform.”
“This is a crazy,” said another used, tagged as Benoit.
Some Backing
Others, however, backed Baker, and took up sides on which option would be the best for the e-mail program. Scott MacGregor and David Bienvenu, the Mozilla employees who lead Thunderbird development efforts, voted for option No. 3. “We believe, creating a separate independent company focused on the Thunderbird mission is the best way for us to take care of our users, while having the most flexibility to grow and support our mission,” said MacGregor in an entry at his own blog. “Our vision is to create an independent company responsible for developing future versions of Thunderbird.”
Although neither Baker or MacGregor mentioned Web-based mail in their missives, users weren’t as hesitant to blame the likes of Gmail, Windows Live Mail and other free online services for Thunderbird’s woes. One in particular put it succinctly: “I don’t know what I’ll be using in a couple of years but my safest bet would be some other Web mail application and not a desktop e-mail client,” said a user who called himself John Q Public.
Mitchell did not hint at a timetable for making a decision or when internal Thunderbird development and support would stop. Likewise, Mozilla did not comment on those issues or what, if any, impact Baker’s message will have on Thunderbird 3.0, a major update that until today presumably was still in the works.
Mozilla to push Thunderbird out of the nest
In a blog entry written yesterday, Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker discusses plans to create a new organizational structure for Thunderbird so that Mozilla can focus exclusively on the Firefox web browser.
Thunderbird 2.0 flies the coop
Mozilla’s CEO is concerned that the organization can’t give Thunderbird the attention it needs without degrading its efforts to continue building and supporting the Firefox ecosystem. The top priority, Baker says, should be “delivering the web, mostly through browsing and related services.” What Thunderbird needs now, according to Baker, is “a separate organization focused on Thunderbird [that] will both be able to move independently and will need to do so to deepen community and user involvement.”
Mozilla wants to give the Thunderbird project more autonomy and create an independent organizational structure that is better equipped to the needs of the Thunderbird community. Baker hopes that placing the responsibility for managing Thunderbird in the hands of an independent body will create new potential for innovation and help the project achieve broader community involvement.
In order to facilitate public discussion, Baker articulates the benefits and challenges of three potential organizational models. Mozilla could create a nonprofit Thunderbird Foundation, establish a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation just for Thunderbird, or push Thunderbird back into the community and help the Thunderbird developers create their own independent services and consulting company.
Commercial software companies tend to broaden their focus and expand vertically into other markets as they grow, but Mozilla is moving in the other direction and increasingly embracing greater specialization. On the surface, Mozilla’s decision to spin-off Thunderbird as an independent project may seem counterintuitive, but when one takes a closer look at the community dynamics and the relationship between Firefox and Mozilla, the reasoning begins to make more sense. Mozilla—both the foundation and the corporation—exists to serve as a vehicle for moving development forward by coordinating the efforts of a globally dispersed community, and interfacing with other organizations and corporate entities that have a vested interest in empowering Mozilla to achieve its goals or leveraging the resulting technologies.
Baker recognizes that, despite considerable overlap in agenda and underlying technology, Thunderbird and Firefox both have their own distinct communities with very different needs. Nothing of tangible relevance is gained by maintaining both projects within the same organizational infrastructure, and nothing is lost by pushing Thunderbird out of the nest, especially since an independent Thunderbird would likely still have access to Mozilla’s considerable financial resources. Mozilla is already providing funding to other closely aligned external projects that are leveraging Mozilla technologies and there is nothing that would preclude similar provision of funding for Thunderbird.
Establishing a separate foundation or creating a Mozilla subsidiary for Thunderbird would increase the flexibility of both projects by allowing them to each focus on their own agendas, operate in a manner most conducive to their own individual growth, and establish their own partnerships with external organizations. Mozilla has ensured a sufficient level of transparency in the process of organizational transition by starting the debate out in the open and involving the community. I think we can look forward to seeing exciting new opportunities for Thunderbird emerge as it becomes independent and flies out of the nest.
AMD quad-core Barcelona coming in August
Advanced Micro Devices in August will begin selling its quad-core “Barcelona” Opteron processors, models that answer Intel’s current products but soon will face stiffer competition.
The first Barcelona models, formally called Quad-Core Opteron, will run at clock frequencies up to 2GHz and will be available in standard and low-power versions. Faster models, both of the standard and more power-hungry special-edition ilk, will arrive in the fourth quarter, the company said. The first servers using the chips will come in September.
“AMD has prioritized production of our low-power and standard-power products because our customers and ecosystem demand it, and we firmly believe that the introduction of our native Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor will deliver on the promise of the highest levels of performance-per-watt the industry has ever seen,” Randy Allen, corporate vice president of AMD’s server and workstation division, said in a statement.
AMD successfully carved a significant niche for itself in the server market with the release of the 64-bit Opteron processor family, gaining share against Intel’s Xeon with better performance, lower power consumption and a faster transition to a dual-core design.
But Intel fought back in 2006. Its dual-core Xeon 5100 “Woodcrest” model fixed the performance problems midway through the year. Then, squeezing two of those silicon chips into a single electronics package gave Intel its Xeon 5300 “Clovertown” quad-core model toward the end of 2006.
AMD’s Barcelona puts four cores on a single slice of silicon, an approach AMD calls “native quad-core,” and the company has argued that Barcelona will outperform the Xeon 5300. The only problem: that comparison soon will become obsolete.
Intel’s second-generation quad-core server processors, “Harpertown” a server member of Intel’s “Penryn” family, will arrive this year, too, with the promise of better performance, lower power consumption and lower manufacturing costs by virtue of a manufacturing process with 45-nanometer features. AMD is only just now moving to a 65-nanometer process.
For decades, typical computer processors had a single processing engine, but dual-core models with two engines began arriving this decade as a way to try to improve performance without consuming inordinate amounts of power and producing corresponding amounts of waste heat. Now chipmakers have moved to quad-core and octo-core models; Sun Microsystems plans to debut its 16-core “Rock” chip in 2008.
Putting multiple cores on a chip isn’t a miracle cure, though. For one thing, it’s hard to adapt software for the chips–especially software for PCs.
For another, a chip with four cores consumes more power than an otherwise comparable model with two, so multicore chips typically run at lower clock frequencies to keep power consumption down. Current dual-core Opteron chips run as fast as 2.8GHz.
A faster clock frequency will let a processor execute a given task more quickly, but multiple cores will let it do more jobs at once.
Also this year, AMD plans to release a quad-core chip for PCs. It and high-end dual-core models will sport a new “Phenom” brand.
If you’re not super excited by technical chip jargon like “advanced branch prediction” and “sideband stack optimizer,” you might want to skip this one over, but for you chipheads out there, AMD has just unveiled the nitty gritty specs behind their forthcoming Barcelona quad-core processors. Built on a 65nm SOI process, the new chips will take the place of AMD’s Opteron line, and will power workstations and servers sometime mid-2007 before the technology trickles down to consumer versions of the chips. AMD couldn’t help but take a little pot-shot at Intel for their quad-core systems, which they claim are just two dual-core CPUs packed together, but we’re pretty sure most consumers are going to be more concerned with performance, price and performance per watt than semantics. AMD hasn’t provided any benchmarks yet, but we’ll all be watching closely, since they’re currently playing catchup to Intel on most of those fronts.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (abbreviated AMD; NYSE: AMD) is an American manufacturer of semiconductors based in Sunnyvale, California. The company was founded in 1969 by a group of former executives from Fairchild Semiconductor, including Jerry Sanders, III, Ed Turney, John Carey, Sven Simonsen, Jack Gifford and three members from Gifford’s team, Frank Botte, Jim Giles and Larry Stenger. The current chairman and CEO is Dr. Hector Ruiz and the current president and chief operating officer is Dirk Meyer.
AMD is the world’s second-largest supplier of x86 based processors and the world’s second largest supplier of graphics cards and GPUs, after taking control over ATI in 2006. AMD also owns a 37% share of Spansion, a supplier of non-volatile flash memory.
AMD started as a producer of logic chips in 1969, then entered the RAM chip business in 1975. That same year, it introduced a reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080 microprocessor. During this period, AMD also designed and produced a series of bit-slice processor elements (Am2900, Am29116, Am293xx) which were used in various minicomputer designs.
During this time, AMD attempted to embrace the perceived shift towards RISC with their own AMD 29K processor, and they attempted to diversify into graphics and audio devices as well as EPROM memory. It had some success in the mid-80s with the AMD7910 and AMD7911 “World Chip” FSK modem, one of the first multistandard devices that covered both Bell and CCITT tones at up to 1200 baud half duplex or 300/300 full duplex. While the AMD 29K survived as an embedded processor and AMD spinoff Spansion continues to make industry leading flash memory, AMD was not as successful with its other endeavors. AMD decided to switch gears and concentrate solely on Intel-compatible microprocessors and flash memory. This put them in direct competition with Intel for x86 compatible processors and their flash memory secondary markets.
AMD has a long history of litigation with former partner and x86 creator Intel.[1]
In 1986 Intel broke an agreement it had with AMD to allow them to produce Intel’s micro-chips for IBM; AMD filed for arbitration in 1987 and the arbitrator decided in AMD’s favor in 1992. Intel disputed this, and the case ended up in the Supreme Court of California. In 1994, that court upheld the arbitrator’s decision and awarded damages for breach of contract.
In 1990, Intel brought a copyright infringement action alleging illegal use of its 287 microcode. The case ended in 1994 with a jury finding for AMD and its right to use Intel’s microcode in its microprocessors through the 486 generation.
In 1997, Intel filed suit against AMD and Cyrix Corp. for misuse of the term MMX. AMD and Intel settled, with AMD acknowledging MMX as a trademark owned by Intel, and with Intel granting AMD rights to market the AMD K6 MMX processor.
In 2005, following an investigation, the Japan Federal Trade Commission found Intel guilty on a number of violations. On June 27, 2005, AMD won an antitrust suit against Intel in Japan, and on the same day, AMD filed a broad antitrust complaint against Intel in the U.S. Federal District Court in Delaware. The complaint alleges systematic use of secret rebates, special discounts, threats, and other means used by Intel to lock AMD processors out of the global market. Since the start of this action, AMD has issued subpoenas to major computer manufacturers including Dell, Microsoft, IBM, HP, Sony, and Toshiba.
AMD Quad-Core Processor Barcelona
