IBM caps seem to be a tad LeAkY

Had a problem with a 6578-TAU randomly re-booting then slipping into a boot loop. I suspected a hardware problem since the symptoms persisted with a new hard drive and a fresh install of the O/s. Then I found your post...and sure enough I've got some swollen capacitors with residue on the caps and all.

I've tried to research the ECAs online. Do you know if IBM is still willing to fix the problem? I can't imagine they are especially considering the sale of thier PC division. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

Regards,
Steven H

[We've had one other report about this. IBM in that case swapped out the board without any questions. Ed.]

Oh, oh, here comes another.

"We've had one other report about this. IBM in that case swapped out the board without any questions"

At work I've had two server boards replaced one in and one out of warranty. For desktops we had about 75 boards replaced, about 25% out of warranty. Last one about two weeks ago.

The magic words leaking caps seems to start the ball rolling, if the desktops were higher end with on site service they will even give you free onsite service for out of warranty computers, for units without onsite service they just shipped us the boards and I did the swap myself.

It's been handled much better then the Fujitsu hard drives were.

Name supplied

Dell

I just read your article about how bad things are at Dell Computer. I own 2 Dell computer systems and i'm very pleased with both of them. I bought the first one in 1999 and the second one in December 2002 and I consider myself as slightly above average when it comes to computers and i've been able to solve any problems that have come up with either of them. I haven't had to call Dell's tech support for anything so I can't say what it's like, but i've heard that it's not a pleasant experience and i'm sure that could be said for the other computer companies also.

Nobody likes to have problems with their computer and when you do have a problem you are automatically in a bad mood so some of the complaints that you hear might not be as bad as they are described by computer owners who don't have any knowledge of how to solve the simplist problems with their computers.

They get frustrated and do a lot of complaining about companies like Dell computer when the root of a lot of the problems is their own lack of knowledge!!

James H., Charleston, SC

AMD Overcocking

Dear Staff,

I was interested in the article on problems with AMD 64 overclocking and looked at the thread you linked to. As far as I can see everyone there has had very much success in extreme overclocking and the thread seems to be about a problem with the program Prime95 for testing the stability of the system. They say that needs to be rewritten to work with the new AMD processors. The very impressive and reproducible overclocking reported is a testament to the excellent deal you can get buying a Winchester now.

I myself bought a Winchester 3000+ and had no problem to overclok that to 4000+ (1.8GHz up to 2.46 GHz) using a good, silent heatsink fan.

Best regards,
Chris

Hotmail

I've had the exact same problem trying to access my hotmail account as described in your article. The only difference is that it is a @hotmail.com address; everything else sounds the same. I only received the 250MB mailbox a few days ago, and I've had the account for about 6-7 years.

Additionally, up until a couple of weeks ago I had been using an old (and free) version of Hotmail Popper to access my account from within Thunderbird. However Microsoft have now withdrawn HTTP email support for non-paying customers.

Coincidentally(?) though, about a day after MS withdrew HTTP access to Hotmail accounts, Google started providing free POP access for my GMail account. I'd be happy except for the fact that I've already received more spam to my 6 month old GMail account than I have in 6+ years on Hotmail! This is despite my never having given out my GMail address publicly, whilst public appearances of my Hotmail address has been prolific to say the least.

The interesting thing is that 99% of the GMail spam appears to have been targeted at me purely by bruteforcing my username, since the subject almost always starts with a random username that is very similar but not quite the same as my own.

Maybe it wasn't such a bright idea to limit usernames to a minimum of 6 characters and only allowing 'a'-'z', '0-9' and '.'.

Chris

Hon Hai, way aye

I scratched my head reading this one? The press is outraged, and their determined to make this story to prevent any future 'victims'.

We have one major company being portrayed in a conspiratorial relationship with another major company. Now I only read the link supplied by the Inq but on the surface it doesn't appear to make much sense. Granted, it's intended to have little to do with the facts and everything to do with the injustice upon a fellow colleague, and the end of the world. But if costs become too high, regardless of how they are absorbed they'll be passed on to the consumer. Intel is in very serious competition with AMD, it just doesn't make good business sense to me?

One statement that not surprisingly wasn't elaborated on has Joyce Kuang, the victim, stating regret over the public's 'criticism and misunderstanding' over her employer's stance. I also found it laughable the sorry state of Kuang. To quote the DigiTimes, apparently sympathetic to her cause, "Gou [Hon Hai's Chairman] has effectively frozen Kuang's assets of approximately NT$30 million." And the ATJ's signature drive is entitled "Don't think the next little shrimp won't be you?!" I can't believe any non-journalist will take them serious.

So now the ATJ is gonna team up with media from other countries to send 'protest letters' to some of Hon Hai's major OEM contractors. As the DigiTimes says, "the letters will remind these international companies of the need to carefully choose "OEM partners," and ask them not to place orders with businesses that ignore human rights and impinge of press freedom." Well, presumably this won't be done behind closed doors so it won't be a conspiracy of revenge :)

Steve

Edock of the Ebay

You might want to check out whats been happening over on the current EBAY promotion.

Basic idea is EBAY release a set of clues which will lead you to an item 'hidden' in their listings.

While EBAY have been giving some rather obscure clue (and some incorrect ones e.g. MISTLETOE and HARD ANAGRAM meant you had to search for STEEL - that well known anagram of mistletoe) most of the items have been won in a very short time (seconds after they were placed)

Transpires that people are cheating by using a NULL search. If you go into the advanced search options and basically don't fill in any fields apart from "exclude items by seller" - any made up name will do. Then select the "Buy it now", currency pounds, listings starting within the last hour and order by "time newly listed". Just by continually refreshing the page items that match the winning format can be quickly checked as they are listed. Using Opera the refresh can even be made automatic.

All winning items so far have been listed without a picture/green camera on the sort results page. The sellers have a high feedback in one line but 0 registered feedback in the next line.

I just tried this and got the winning result for the IPOD competition - I viewed at position 700 though, hitting refresh then showed that 1000+ views had then been registered on the page which should give a clue as to how prevelant this is..

Ever so slightly cocked up competition that has now come down to "whoever happened to refresh at the right time".

As a slight aside there are also hundreds of Scam auctions appearing that contain what looks like winning pages. These are using keywords that match possible answers to the clues that have been put out - worth checking out the ebay forums

Name supplied

Samson and Dellopteron

Hi Mike,

Your [Charlie's] article was extremely popular on the AMD message board. The repost rate was so high that the Yahoo spam robot expunged all direct links to your article, and all tinyurl links to your article within 30 minutes.

May I suggest you assign a new article number to this on a daily basis? For example your article number is 20265. Tomorrow you could give it the next number on your list and perhaps we could post the link again. Please remember to reassign the article number on a daily basis for a fortnight. Upon reflection you could reassign the article number on a 30 minute basis.

Thanks,
Keith

Linux and its famous Lead

"Linux now has an insurmountable lead"

That strikes me as slightly overoptimistic. IIS already holds only a tad more than 43% of the Internet server market against more than 48% for Apache. As much as I like the underpenguin, trumpeting a delay in Redmond's plans as a victory for Linux is jumping the gun a bit too fast. Unix may be on the decline, Sun may be having issues, but both contenders are still out there, and Linux is only starting to get respect from the corporate market.

I may be wrong, and I would be happy if I was (anything to see IIS disappear), but I don't think the delay in delivery of a 64-bit OS from Microsoft is going to hurt it any more than the dismal security of IIS (along with the lack of long-term stability of Windows) already does.

Pascal

Apples and Pairs

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20146
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19615
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=18704

1: Microsoft's XBox Next developer's kit uses IBM G5 chip.
2: XBox Next will use stripped down Windows OS.
3: In '06, we will see XBox Next PC -- a full PC version of the XBox.
4: Longhorn arrives in '06.
5: Longhorn PC users will be able to play on Xbox Live.
6: XBox Next peripherals will be PC compatible.

Since there will be a full PC version of XBox Next in '06, which I assume will use a full version of Windows OS, presumably Longhorn derived, what would keep Billy from releasing just Windows for Mac? They already do an Office for Mac. If they release a Windows for Mac, then they wouldn't have to port all of their other software/applications to MacOS.

When MS first licensed the windows tech from Apple, what were the T&C's? MS could not do a version for Apple hardware? Was there a time limit?

Also, could this be part of the Longhorn delay? XBox Next PC is to be released in '06, as is Longhorn. Longhorn users will be able to play on XBox Live along with XBox Next players. Perhaps part of the reason that Longhorn has been repeatedly delayed and stripped down, is so that Longhorn and XBox Next can be released at the same time and be compatible. So, why not release Longhorn for x86, XBox Next, and Apple (IBM) G5?

just a few thoughts.

Mike R

Dual Cores in the Krown

To judge whether we need dual cores for better performance, we need to think about those applications which demand higher performance.

Servers? Dual core's definitely a benefit. Games? Not so much now, but with the coming of PS3, we can be sure games will be designed multithreaded. Broadband? A little bit... e.g.: file sharing apps can be a CPU hog with a wide pipe (I've got 6Mbps).

Actually, I think broadband is the missing link here. IMO, the FTC dropped the ball allowing Cisco to gobble up its competitors. It would have been far better if during the downturn there were many vendors selling their wares at cost, feeding the next wave of ubiquitous broadband.

That is the way Capitalism is supposed to work: the collapse of one bubble nourishes the next, just as burning the remains of last years crops fertilizes next year's fields.

Certainly, you understand what I'm getting at. After all, you're in the "Here's something that might interest you..." business.

How about we automate that? How about when we view a page, the browser highlights revelant papers, articles, etc. that we've recently viewed? How about the browser learning our interests and caching pages indicated by such learning as long as possible?

By arguing that dual core is no longer necessary, what you are essentially saying is that computation is not really needed except when directed by a human in the course of running one particular application.

That's wrong. People like to be entertained. And that requires a response disproportionate to their input.

John Evans

Dell. Again

I recived my rejection letter yesterday evening, even after 3 phone calls to dell yesterday advising me that my order was being processed and there was no problem.

I work for a major corporate software developer who purchases hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of dell kit, several people in my organisation have been let down by dell on this offer....importantly some of them aer responsible for our decision to purchase dell equipment, and have advised that will be reluctant to do so in the future, as they don't want to do business with a company who would let there customers down so badly.

I can't understand why Dell allowed themseleves to take more orders than they had parts for, i suspect those who asked for extras such as and extra processor, hard disks etc will recive there orders.

This was just away of attracting customers and i believe dell never had any intention of release the servers at the £99 price.

Name supplied

Identity Cards

Don't automatically assume the people on mainland Europe like all these ID's nor the blasted retina scans and fingerprints (and DNA next one fears) in ID's.

In Holland the people hated ID's for the longest time for instance because it reminded them of the German occupation when Germans had checkpoints all over and introduced IDs, the words 'ausweis bitte' made the dutch cringe for many years, now of course more and more people forget and some but not many I think even fall for the old 'terrorist are out to get ya' line.

Still, even in countries that had a national ID law for some time there is still resistance to the totalitarian aspect and images it calls forth.

BTW, now that bush forced the Europeans to add chips with biometrics to their passports it seems the Americans themselves get cold feet, I read on CNN that they suddenly realized that when you have a chip that can broadcast over 30 meters that you carry an American passport you might call the attention of the people you brought your special flavour of freedom crashing on your head, something they do not look forward to for some reason, go figure.

I myself feel thoroughly wrapped in a suffocating straightjacket due to the increased demand on ID in areas where before all worked perfectly well without the demand, and it is a good part of the bleakness of my bleak outlook for the future. The only consolidation is that over history this ID rave came and went many times (even 2004 years ago the romans had a go at it I understand)

Name supplied

VAT 69

Hmm, let's assume that the extra 2.5Billion available to Gordon B represents VAT (the UK government actually loses money in income tax or corporation tax on software bought by businesses as it is tax deductible). Since the rate of VAT is 17.5% then the total increased revenue Microsoft is predicting is £2.5B/17.5*100 = £14.3 Billion revenue for the software companies - presumably Microsoft in this case. So rally round UK software users and enable the government to build 9 new hospitals etc and enable Bill to buy another planet.

John Miller