Tech Round Up

AMD's RD790 chipset to lack RAID 5 support - AMD has stripped RAID 5 support from the SB700 south bridge that will accompany its upcoming high-end RD790 chipset

Intel Prepares X38 Express Launch - The X38 Express will succeed the aging 975X Express as Intel's flagship enthusiast chipset. It will support PCI Express 2.0, dual 16-lane PCI Express x16 slots, and DDR3 memory. Motherboards based on the X38 Express chipset should show up in retail in early September, according to motherboard vendors

Intel Xeon X3210 2.13GHz Quad-Core Tested - If you are simply looking for a Quad-Core at the best price, you cannot go wrong with this one. It retails for $260 - $270 and offers four cores at a very respectable clock speed.

The GeForce GF9800 will be as quiet as a mouse - GeForced money making chip designed Nvidia has worked in silence and solitude and managed to tape out its upcoming high-end-oriented G92 chip on schedule. The 65nm part is set to power the high-end models of the GeForce 9 series and will bring PCI-Express 2.0 support for Nvidia cards

DirectX 10.1 Requires No New GPU - Microsoft's Sam Glassenberg said that "DirectX 10.1 fully supports DirectX 10 hardware. No hardware support is being removed. It's strictly a superset. It's basically an update to DirectX 10 that extends the hardware functionality slightly."

Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 8.3.1.1009 - Installs Windows INF files to properly configure many Intel motherboard chipsets

Recuva v1.03.100 - From the makers of CCleaner. Recuva (download) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players.

Office 2007 SP1 preview received by testers, leaked on the web - The name of the release - Microsoft Office 2007 SP1 v12.0.6207.1000 suggests it is the real thing so Microsoft might get more unofficial feedback on the Technical Preview.

BitTorrent Anime Downloaders Identified, $3500 Bill in the Mail - A company that distributes Japanese animated cartoons has tracked down thousands of BitTorrent users it accuses of breaching their copyrights and has successfully forced their ISPs to reveal their identities. Next step - threatening letters: "Pay Us $3,500 or Else"

Three Indicted On Software Piracy Charges - The U.S. Department of Justice indicted three Florida men for selling millions of dollars worth of counterfeit software through several web sites. The men operated BuysUSA.com, CDSalesUSA.com, AmericanSoftWareSales.com, TheDealDepot.net, and BestValueShoppe.com.

Bug brings down Skype network - Users of Skype are able to log on and use the free service again after a software bug hit the popular program.

Compact disc hits 25th birthday - Exactly 25 years ago the world's first compact disc was produced at a Philips factory in Germany. Makes me wonder what will be the storage medium of choice two decades from now...

The Dirty Dozen Credit Card Traps - Everyone in the industry wants to sell you a credit card. Don't be fooled by the offers.

U.S. gives Israel another $30,000,000,000 - US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns has signed a deal that will provide Israel with $30bn of military aid over the next 10 years.

German Scientists Declare Speed of Light Broken - According to modern physics, the speed of light is a fundamental, unbreakable limit. Yet two physicists are now claiming they have done just that, and propelled a stream of photons faster than the speed of light. Günter Nimtz and Alfons Stahlhofen of the University of Koblenz, Germany, have been researching a phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling The two scientists say they have now tunneled photons "instantaneously" across a distance of up to one meter.

2008/2009 BMW M3: Production Model Revealed - This powerplant pumps out 420hp and 295 lbs-ft of torque from its 4.0 liters of displacement

Laser Espionage Microphone (video) - Video on how to make a simple laser listening device which can hear inside buildings hundreds of yards away. Very cool!

Huge Iceberg Rotates in Water (video) - This would be a bad place to go swimming!

Pirate's Computer (pic) - check it out

Great New Hi-Res Images from The Dark Knight - A slew of photos from The Dark Knight