NockPoint - Slashdot User

Submission + - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS - cheap DirectX10 card

Submitted by

Tim Reilly

on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @12:37PM

Tim Reilly writes: "It's happy time again! Those who waited for the cheaper version of NVIDIA 8800 GTX can now rejoin. The new GeForce 8600 GTS not only costs $200, it also comes with a new video processor that takes over all decoding job of HD DVDs .

Performance-wise, it soundly beats the GeForce 7600 GT and even beats/matches the GeForce 7950 GT at 1024x768. Excellent mid-level DirectX 10 card.

Here's an excerpt from the review :

For those who are interested in HD DVD decoding, you will also be happy to know that the GeForce 8600 GTS comes with a new video processor (VP2) that allows the CPU to completely offload the processing of H.264 a new content to the GeForce 8600 GTS. This means much lower CPU utilization than even the GeForce 8800 GTX, whose VP1 processor can only do motion compensation and deblocking.

So, if you have been waiting for an affordable DirectX 10 graphics card, the Sparkle GeForce 8600 GTS is definitely something you should consider. Priced around $200, it offers you an affordable DirectX 10 graphics solution with a taste of the GeForce 8800 GTX's processing power. Add full H.264 decoding capability to the list and you have a really attractive card crying out for a new home in your PC!"

Submission + - Oil Production Peak Looms

Submitted by anthemaniac on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @12:36PM

anthemaniac writes: Oil prices are rising again and 'will move inexorably higher' in the face of 'a stormy geopolitical climate' according to one analyst. We're all used to seeing oil prices rise and fall because of global politics and big-business policies, of course. But what if the amount of oil that can be produced reaches a peak? Talk about a stormy geopolitical climate. That's just what a new Swedish study predicts might happen next year. Fredrik Robelius, a physicist and petroleum engineer, analyzed the production rates of 333 existing giant oil fields known and concludes the global production peak will occur between 2008 and 2018. Caltech physicist David Goodsteinagrees with the methodology and also thinks the peak is near. But the controversial prediction doesn't take into account new extraction technologies and other possible discoveries, critics say.

Submission + - Chemical ban in Washington Beginning of the End

Submitted by

Frosty Piss

on Tuesday April 17, 2007 @12:35PM

Frosty Piss writes: "Although since 2005, the chemical industry has spent more than $220,000 in Washington State lobbying against a it, Gov. Chris Gregoire is scheduled to sign the legislation today to ban flame retardants called PBDEs in Washington furniture, televisions and computers. Why the big spending? Because at a time when the federal government is largely ineffectual in its regulation of long-used but potentially dangerous industrial chemicals, a ban here could be the beginning of the end for PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers across the nation. 'The industry that makes deca and PBDEs is freaking out because they lost so severely in Washington state and other states will follow,' said Laurie Valeriano, policy director for the Washington Toxics Coalition, an environmental group. 'It really is a message from Washington state and policymakers that we won't accept chemicals that build up in our bodies and our children.' Reads more at the Seattle Post Intellegencer."

Canadian DMCA Coming This Spring 153

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday April 16, 2007 @03:36PM from the riding-the-band-wagon dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian government is reportedly ready to introduce copyright reform legislation this spring, provided that no election is called. The new bill would move Canada far closer to the U.S. on copyright, with DMCA-style anti-circumvention legislation that prohibits circumvention of DRM systems and bans software and mod chips that can be used to circumvent such systems."

Submission + - Xbox destroys disks

Submitted by morie on Monday April 16, 2007 @03:26PM

morie writes: The dutch consumer program "Kassa" got Microsoft to acknowledge that even normal use of an Xbox 360 will result in damage to your games, DVDs or CDs (English story here). Up until now, Microsoft had always responded to the complaints by blaming scratches on wrong use of the equipment. The problem turned out to be a design problem in the drive.

"Kassa" did recieve over a thousend complaints adressed to Microsoft. In the show (streaming video, dutch, start min 17), they admitted there was a problem and said they would arrange for replacements, but they did not want to take full responsibility.

Submission + - Teardown of Prius Reveals Toyota Design Philosophy

Submitted by

MarsGov

on Monday April 16, 2007 @02:19PM

MarsGov writes: "A group of automotive engineers recently tore down a Toyota Prius to dissect the design techniques and choices that went into the vehicle. The results are becoming available at AutomotiveDesignLine and at TechOnline's Under The Hood — search for "Prius" at both of these links — and will be also published as a paper supplement to the May 14th issue of EE Times. There's even a video."

Submission + - Unix-Linux printing

Submitted by

E. Stride

on Monday April 16, 2007 @01:19PM

E. Stride writes: "Interoperability is easier than separating systems your systems and isn't something you should be afraid of, says one expert. Find out how to set up printing between Unix and Linux using Linux's LPR utility and Unix's SMIT in this tip."

Submission + - Web art turned to plagiaristized gold.

Submitted by Moraiat on Monday April 09, 2007 @12:25AM

Moraiat writes: Plagiarism on the internet is tricky business. For some, it's quite profitable. Todd Goliath (Goldman) of David and Goliath Tees has had much of his art discovered to be copied, derived, or blatantly traced(SomethingAwful.com). Shmorky's (Dave Kelly) art was recognized as duplicated by Goliath and the outcry from the online community has been rapidly intensifying over the course of a day. The main story can be found on SomethingAwful's forum, progress is added as the story develops. The artwork in question, the original, and the overlay of it being visibly "traced" (Image) can be found, posted by the real artist, can be found on his forum post.
Other artists are joining Kelly in his plight, Goldman's been copying others' work for many years, only now someone is standing up to him. Goldman's art is self-proclaimed to be random, zany, stupid, and in your face. His self-biography can be seen here.

Hacker Replaces iPod HDD With Flash Memory 125

Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 08, 2007 @11:45PM from the and-now-i-can-drop-it dept.

Via a Wired Blog, an anonymous reader wrote with a link to a post on the Geek Technique website. There, post author Mark Hoekstra details how to replace an iPod's HDD with flash memory. It's not an inexpensive procedure, as 16 Gigs of flash memory is still a mite expensive, and the post is not a 'how-to'. Just the same, the project took painstaking work and is well worth recognizing. "I guess I can say I found ways of eliminating almost every hard drive out of almost every hard drive based iPod thereby eliminating all moving parts. The only one left is the iPod video which would only need a slightly different adapter. But next to that I've got a gut feeling that one's being upgraded to flash memory by Apple themselves any time soon."

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