Friday, January 4, 2002

RH7.2 and Emu10k1 Problem Solved -- 9:14 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ever since I upgraded to Red Hat 7.2, I've had problems with weird distortion through my SoundBlaster Live! Some times it would just be minorly annoying. Other times it would be awful. After perusing the emu10k1 chip's Bugzilla database (the emu10k1 is the brains behind the SB Live!), someone reported that using the i586 RPM for the kernel instead of the i686 one fixed the problem. Lo and behold, it does. I haven't noticed any other problems yet. It's a good thing too . . . I was almost considering Windows again *shudder*.

Congress and CD Copy-Protection -- 7:22 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) is asking the RIAA to explain why it is adding copy-protection to CDs, while still collecting royalties on blank media. This would appear to be in violation of 1992's Audio Home Recording Act. Ooooh, if only the RIAA would become open to lawsuits over this . . . Thanks Slashdot.

Unreal Tournament 2 Announced -- 7:04 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Blue's News got word from Infogrames confirming that Unreal Tournament 2 is in production by Digital Extremes. Here's the announcement:

Infogrames confirms Unreal Tournament 2 in the making by Digital Extremes. As rumored all week online, the co-creators of Unreal and Unreal Tournament are currently working on the sequel to the infamous 1999 Game of the Year.

Late next week, in conjunction with the February issue of PC Gamer, Infogrames will officially announce the game and detail all the news currently available at this point in development. The cover story includes an in-depth interview with the development team at Digital Extremes, specifics about the gameplay and globally exclusive artwork to be seen only in PC Gamer.

OSX Q3A 1.31 Beta Patch -- 3:30 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

id's Graeme Devine updated his .plan with word that there is a beta version of the 1.31 patch for Quake III Arena / Team Arena available for the Mac OS X. You need to have 1.30 installed already. Here's a list of the fixes:

• stereo sound
• works every time on powerbooks
• mouse stays accelerated when you quit
• some dual monitor stuff

You can snag it from id's FTP site (975K).

UPDATE! He just updated his .plan again with news of a newer build, which you can download from id's FTP site.

NV-25 Next Month -- 2:24 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamespot UK got confirmation from NVIDIA that their new GPU, code-named NV-25, will be announced in about a month. Here's some guesses at what the new chip might bring to the table:

NV-25 may move to six pixel pipelines, up from the four of the NV-20, which would boost overall performance. The clock speed of the core and memory are also expected to be boosted, also adding to performance.

Nvidia may be planning to add a second vertex processing unit, a device which boosts the realism of 3D objects; the Xbox GPU already has two such units. Nvidia officials have said that the PC GPUs will outstrip Xbox's performance in the first half of this year.

Thanks Evil Avatar.

Serious Sam SE == Gold -- 2:15 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Blue got word that Croteam's new shooter, Serious Sam: Second Encounter, has gone gold. For my money, the best part of the Serious Sam games is the ability to play them all the way through in co-op mode. It give me flashbacks of co-op Doom back in the day. Now if I only had a machine fast enough to run it decently . . .

Oh yeah, there's also a bunch of new screenshots for your gazing delight.

Thursday, January 3, 2002

More Cellphone Wackiness -- 11:37 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

After a little more research, I have discovered that I can already use my Motorola StarTac ST7868W to get email or update AvantGo with my Handspring Visor. Apparently it can act as a modem or a fax all by itself. All I need is a cable like this and a digital signal for my phone. Now I just have to get one of these cables and give it a spin.

This situation is rather different for me. Usually I do research until I'm blue in the face. This phone was almost an impulse buy (although I had researched the StarTac line in general) and it just keeps getting better. Maybe there's a lesson in that for me.

Forgotten Star Wars Heroes -- 9:12 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

UGO takes a look at some of the lesser Star Wars heroes. It includes a few that even the most die-hard Star Wars fan might be unaware of. The article's language might be a bit strong in places, but it's a nice and wierd look back at the movies we all know and love. Thanks Slashdot.

Titan Computer Update -- 1:54 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

I made a post on the Haus of Shogo today about a recent decision made by Titan Computer, the publisher of the Linux version of Shogo, to get out of the Linux game publishing business. Check it out for my brief take on the whole situation.

3G Products Trickling Out -- 9:44 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Reuters is reporting that the first of the products using the so-called 3G cellular technology are hitting the market. 3G is also known as CDMA 2000 1x (my new phone supports CDMA 1900 and 800). The chief benefit of this technology is a theoretical 153 kilobit/sec transfer speed. While this all sounds very cool, the big cellular companies (like Verizon) are announcing 3G upgrades rolling out this year. When translated that means that some major markets will have the technology by the end of the year. Maybe. The possibilities are very cool, but it's going to be a long road ahead. Thanks Ars Technica.

Past Two Days' News

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