Flames over Prescott flares and French Fries

Is Intel's Prescott P4 too hot to handle?

Hi,

imo you have deserved a flame for this article. ;-)

The article states: "When the 3.2 GHz Prescott was overclocked to 3.57 GHz, the temperature of the Shuttle power supply hit 94 degrees Celsius, which killed it." It continues to outline problems with the CPU esp. when overclocking it.

Since when is running a processor outside of its specs a valid means of judging whether its use is problematic?

I am not an Intel fan at all (I'm using AMD processors for years), but this is unfair, unprofessional nonsense.

It's already clear anyway that if gamers want to get the most of their systems by overclocking them, AMD processors are the way to go, and if they can shell out the money for an Intel Prescott CPU + mobo, they sure can afford an AMD 64 socket 939 CPU giving them finally equivalent memory bandwith with AMD CPUs.

Also for a gamer overclocking the graphics hardware is much more effective than overclocking the CPU.

As I said already: I am not a friend of Intel, but calling that article "biased" would be the euphemism of the month.

Kind regards

D.Mali

Port 25

Bell South set to block Spam Port 25

Your article states that "BELLSOUTH IS SET to follow Comcast's lead". This is not exactly true. Cox Communications, has been blocking a range of ports for some time now. Below is a paste from their support page detailing their blocked ports. The page can be found here.

Just search for "port block".

Reasons For Filtering Ports
Protecting our customers - Certain ports are filtered to protect our customers. We can protect against certain common worms and from dangerous services on our customers' computers that could allow intruders access.

Protecting our upstream bandwidth - Upstream bandwidth to a cable plant is limited. If customers overuse their upstream bandwidth by running high-traffic servers or becoming infected with a worm or virus, it can degrade the service of other customers on that node.

Protecting the rest of the Internet - Some filters prevent our customers from attacking other computers on the Internet. In addition to being in our best interests for protecting our bandwidth, it is our responsibility to prevent abuse of our network.

Port Transport Protocol Direction Reason for Filtering
25 TCP SMTP Both* SMTP Relays
80 TCP HTTP Inbound Web servers, worms
135 UDP NetBios Both Net Send Spam/Pop-ups, Worms
136-139 UDP, TCP NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighborhood
445 TCP MS-DS/ NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighhood
1433 TCP MS-SQL Inbound Worms, Trojans
1434 UDP MS-SQL Inbound Worms, SQLslammer
1900 UDP MS-DS/ NetBios Both Worms, Network Neighborhood
27374 TCP Subseven Both SubSeven Trojan

*SMTP is only permitted outbound to Cox-provided SMTP servers

M Mccolum

Memory and 64-bit Processors

Microsoft Media Center for Windows XP64 unlikely

"Just what are we going to do with all the memory that 64-bits will support - a theoretical limit of 16TB?"

actually 2^64 makes 18446744073709551616 possible combinations (bytes).
that makes 18014398509481984 KBytes, or...
17592186044416 MBytes, or even
17179869184 GBytes, or if you prefer
16777216 TeraBytes, or if you'd rather...
16384 PetaBytes, or finally
16 EtaBytes (or is that Exabytes?), or getting into real numbers...

0.015625 ZetaBytes or even maybe
0.0000152587890625 YottaBytes

16 EtaBytes is the same as saying "hey dude, my computer has 536,870,912 modules of 32GB each!!" (that may very well be more memory that all memory in existance put toghether...)

Here's how i memorize it: KMGTPEZY since Kappa & Mega are old news, you get GTPEZY get it? GT-PEZY? GT + Pezy (the little bear & friends cartoon?...)

Just my tree cents...

David C

PC World

Let me get this straight. You just publicly admitted that not only do you shop for PC components at PC World but that you would actually go out and pay real money for a 20GB hard drive in this day and age.

Sorry buddy, but you just lost all your geek cred in one fell swoop.

Daniel Salzedo

Dell and iPods

This one

Let me get this straight......spend $200 for an iPod, then trade it in for a $100 credit on a different player.

Anyone stupid enough to be taken in by this ruse doesn't deserve an iPod.

Personally, I think such an "offer" indicates just how STUPID Dell thinks Windows users really are. The next question is how many of them are smart enough to understand they've been insulted.

Lee

Microsoft and China and Stuff

Dear Mike "Newdesk" Magee,

A few comments on the Inquirer articles "Bill Gates visits China over Linux worries" and "Microsoft's Ballmer: Governments should be software neutral".

First some quotes from the Inq: "Steve, Microsoft's CEO, told the Korean press, the report said, that it's in the best interests of governments to be open to all kinds of software, whether it's Open Source or Microsoft software."

Firstly, it's nice to see the Korean press (the Inquirer?) is on a first name term with Monkey-Man... :-)

That aside, the statement by him is the Chimborazo (http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/img_chimbarozo.html) of hypocrisy. Open to all kinds of software??! That's exactly what those governments are doing and they are voting with their feet. Apparently, the Microsoft definition of open is "selecting Microsoft software". Heck, their PR department could probably even dig out a quote from the Bible/Koran which tells people to buy their wares and that free software is evil.

You also had an article on "Microsoft floats new OS upgrade options". I say, in a not too distant future, MS will start calling the continuous flow of patches/fixes upgrades. (They are innocuously sounding "updates" for now) Well, if it's an upgrade, they can charge for it! There are probably hundred people working at MS right now, to find creative ways of making customers pay for those updates. It must be a painful thorn with a festering wound in the side of Microsoft's corporate side, that they currently can't charge for those updates. Hey, they have done something similar with telephone support in the past, so why not this?

Cheers,

Sandor

Farrell and Apple: The debate continues

Hi Nick,

I'm pleased that you've stopped using childish terms like "SnApple" and "reassuringly expensive" when referring to Apple and Apple's products.

However, I don't understand why you're so biased against Apple and incorrectly report the facts, leave out important details, and put a totally unsubstantiated negative spin to an (for once) honest admission by Apple that they got their inventry planning wrong.

You report this as if Apple was waiting with new gear until the poor customers first bought all their old crap and cleared out their inventory.

This is not the case. In Apple's public statement in the iMac section of the Apple Store they clearly state that they "are no longer accepting orders" for the old iMacs and that they will sip the new iMacs in September. For some time now, resellers here have not been able to get iMacs, because there are apparently not enough of them.

This will hurt Apple (and the resellers) because if you want an iMac from the Apple store now, you can't get one. You have to wait until September, and even then, there probably won't be enough to meet demand. This means that your average consumer here in Europe may have to wait until October. (US domestic always gets shipped first). This then means about 3 months of low or zero iMac sales. I just checked with our distributor, and they have only a few iMacs left (about 40 in total) of which only one 20" and one 15".

How can you cynically imply that this is a sinister plot by Apple to clear out old inventory?

Instead you should be praising Apple for being so forthright about making an inventory planning mistake. They even included an apology.

You state: " The firm said that the next-generation box will not be in the shops until September, although it was supposed to be with us now." When did Apple ever say that wer'e supposed to have them now? Everybody speculated that the WWDC was a good time to introduce them. Apple never claimed that it was going to do so. Your statement is just plain false.

You then state : " The company said it had not planned to release the new iMacs until it had got rid of the old ones." Well, while it is probably true, all companies do this, or they have to heavily discount their "old" products. However I don't think anyone at Apple would have publicly stated this. I have not seen this statement anywhere. I suspect that your statement is just plain false. If it is true, you should have cited the source of such a statement.

You then go on: But people have not been buying the current iMacs in enough volume and Apple has a bit of a back catalogue of the earlier machines, it's reported. Now the company admits it had not expected sales to slow as much as they did, and it has moved to plan B which involves releasing it in September anyway."

While it is true that iMac sales have slowed, especially since many people were waiting for the new iMacs to be introduced at the WWDC, there is probably not much of a back catalogue. If there was, there would be lots of "special offers". I for one, would like to buy a cheap 20" iMac. Also, the Apple store has stopped selling them. Would they do this is there was a back catalogue? Seems silly to me. Your statement is again, fictitious and most likely inconsistent with reality.

If you wanted to write a cynical article, you could use this info and speculate about how the lack of 3 months of iMac sales will affect Apple's bottom line and what it will to to shareholder value. At least that would have been truthful and reassuringly negative.

Regards,

Maarten

Beastie Boys and Macrovision

Dear Mike,

This statement is being issued to address some concerns that were voiced in Tamlin Magee's June 21st article "Beastie Boys CD user protected, fans angry" regarding the copy protection of some music CDs, the new Beastie Boys CD in Europe in particular.

Macrovision does NOT install any spyware, shareware, malware or any self-replicating code of any kind onto a user's PC.

When playing a (Macrovision CDS-200) copy-protected CD for the first time, playback software components may be installed, if needed. This software is used to enable the on-disc music player to load an on-screen user interface and to play back the audio. For further information, please contact: cds-info@macrovision.com.

Sincerely,

Macrovision CDS Info team

No retail XP64 = No Technical Support

Hello,

No retail XP 64 means no technical support from MS. That's why people are upset about it. All OEM versions of MS OSes are supported by the OEM, not by MS. So that's why MS loves to sell OEM versions, since they then don't have to worry about providing any support to the end user. And since there are bound to be lots of compatibility issues, etc. with the new OS, they probably don't want to hear from their customers about these things. Best to let the OEMs do all of that hard support work for them.

Isn't it amazing how Microsoft gets the hardware manufacturers to do Microsoft's technical support for free? Next thing you know, they'll be having the OEMs develop the OS too, then Microsoft can just sit back and rake in the cash while doing absolutely nothing. "Our job isn't to squeeze money from your pockets or make this hard for you, we want to make it very easy" says Brian Marr. If by "not squeezing money" he means "selling the OS through a channel by which we have no accountability whatsoever for the quality of the software, so we'll cut the price a bit" and by "very easy" he means "easy for us, since we will provide no technical support to you, unless you fork over big wads of cash" then it could be considered true.

Fredric Echols

Nvidia contributing to global warming

Two GeForce cards stuff

With Two Geforce cards you'll need a 1KW PSU, airconditioning unit and three phase feed into your house then...

If you water cooled them you just need a round of UT2004 and the jacuzzi plumbed in will be piping hot ready for an evening dip,

Next headline: Nvidia contributes to global warming in two ways: CO2 emissions at the Power station and direct heating of the atmosphere - of course we all know that isn't going to happen - they simply don't make enough of them for that...

;-)

P.

Velvet Revolver: Sheesh!

Nick,

Velvet Revolver is a made up band with a group of 'stars' from other popular bands, mostly metal, or what passes for metal nowadays. Being a fan of the genre, and liking several of the bands whose members now make up Velvet Revolver, I am in a good position to judge their merit.

Lets just say I would rather consume vast amounts of semi-rancid wombat feces than inflict this talentless corporate pablum on myself. The only reason it sells is that it is heavily promoted, and the droning masses of bleating, wall following, wide eyed foals that make up the consumer culture can't think enough to question this crap.

But don't take my word for it, if you don't have anything better to do, and your dentist is to busy to perform voluntary gum surgery on you, go ahead and download it. It is better than removing your eyes with a rusty pickle fork, but not by much.

To sum up, crap. No wonder it will do well, I weep for our culture.

(yeah, feel free to run it as a letter)

Charlie Demerjian

French Fries are Belgian

Dear Nick,

i would like to make a comment concerning your article "US 'patriotic computer' mostly Asian" on The Inquirerer. in your last sentence, you suggest French Fries have nothing to do with Belgium and as a Belgian, i must object to this.

There are strong indications that the concept of making fries and selling them as such in a "frituur", often a sort of shed on a square, originated in Belgium in the late nineteenth century.

Also, the term "French Fries" in the english-speaking world is actually a misunderstanding: during the first world war British, American and Canadian soldiers were present in Belgium (in the region of Ieper (or Ypres in french)) where they became acquainted with fries. because french was at that time the only language used in the Belgian army, it was spoken a lot and so the foreign soldiers, some of them even thinking they were in France, started calling our fries "french fries".

please note that french is an official language in Belgium, spoken as first language by nearly 5 million Belgians in Brussels and Wallonie (south part of Belgium), so you see, not all french-speaking people are french...

Although i do not like the term "French Fries", i don't mind Anglophones using it (i have given up trying to change this), but stating that French Fries have nothing to do with Belgium is totally unacceptable and a disgrace to truth.

yours sincerely,

dimitri