Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Microsoft under fire for ODF glitch in Excel

Microsoft has come under fire for spreadsheet interoperability issues in its latest release of Office 2007 SP2, but the company said it is an issue inherent in ODF (Open Document Format) 1.1.

The software giant released last week the second service pack for Office 2007, which provides support for documents saved in the ODF 1.1 format.

However, Rob Weir, chief ODF architect at IBM posted a report on his blog saying SP2 had problems reading some ODF spreadsheets saved by OpenOffice.org and lost data by "silently stripping out formulas" from cells. The resulting spreadsheet displays "the last value that the cells had", said Weir.

Insect legs

Insects such as water striders are able to walk effortlessly on water because of the fact that their legs are super hydrophobic.

Now, scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and at Japan's Riken Institute are one step closer to discovering what makes the structure of these legs so unique.

In nature, organisms such as caterpillars, water striders and the lotus achieve super hydrophobia through a two-level structure - a hydrophobic waxy surface made super hydrophobic by the addition of microscopic hair-like structures: these structures may be covered by even smaller hairs, greatly increasing the surface area of the organism and making it impossible for water droplets to stick.

Turbines come to Kansas

German industrial giant Siemens announced this week that it intends to build a new production facility for wind turbines in the state of Kansas.

Initially, 400 new jobs are expected to be created in the plant, which will be located in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Construction of the 300,000-square-foot nacelle production facility is scheduled to begin in August 2009.

A nacelle is mounted on top of the tower and supports the rotor.

Incredible bulk

Materials researchers at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured.

Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins to conduct electricity.

A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high-energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles, as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.

Sensory spin-out

Cambridge CMOS Sensors Limited (CCMOS) – a spin-out from Cambridge University’s Department of Engineering – has licensed technology from Warwick University that, it claims, will allow it to develop gas sensors that offer a significant improvement over those currently in use in portable instrumentation.

First off, the sensors under development will be able to operate at high temperatures of up to 500oC, while consuming very low power – below 30mW. They will alsohave a fast thermal response time – this will be in the millisecond range as opposed to the seconds range that current state-of-the-art products offer.

Hogenkamp cruises to Salsomaggiore title

Richel Hogenkamp from the Netherlands claimed her first ITF Junior Circuit crown at the Grade 2 International Tournament of Salsomaggiore last week. The third seed had been losing finalist on three occasions since first appearing on the Junior Circuit in October 2006, but never looked like faltering in Italy, as she picked up her maiden title without dropping a set.

With top seed Lesley Kerkhove (NED) and second seed Valeriya Savinykh (RUS) both eliminated in the first round, the path was clear for Hogenkamp to make an impact. After opening convincingly with a 75 60 win over Despina Papamichail (GRE), she then went on be beat Irina Khromacheva (RUS) 62 61 and Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR) 63 60 to book her spot in the last four, where she had the advantage of being the only remaining seeded player. By this stage a clear favourite for the title, Hogenkamp eased past Zsofia Miko (HUN) 62 62 to set up a final match against Slovenian Nastja Kolar.

North/Central America Final Qualifying in Boca Raton

At the North/Central America & Caribbean final qualifying event for the World Junior Tennis Competition and Junior Davis Cup & Junior Fed Cup by BNP Paribas, in Boca Raton, USA, the following team qualified for the Finals in the Czech Republic and Mexico:

Qualifying for the finals in the Czech Republic:

WJTC Boys

1. United States
2. Mexico

WJTC Girls

1. Canada
2. United States

Inventor: SSL not to blame for security woes

At the RSA Conference last month in San Francisco, Taher Elgamal was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award--only the third recipient of the award since its inception in 2004.

Red tape keeps Conficker on medical devices

WASHINGTON--The Conficker Internet virus has infected important computerized medical devices, but governmental red tape interfered with their repair, an organizer of an anti-virus working group told Congress on Friday.

Rodney Joffe, one of the founders of an unofficial organization known as the Conficker Working Group, said that government regulations prevented hospital staff from carrying out the repairs.

Joffe, who also is the senior vice president for the telecom clearinghouse Neustar, told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that over the last three weeks, he and another Conficker researcher identified at least 300 critical medical devices from a single manufacturer that have been infected with the computer virus.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

RIM, HP team up on BlackBerry services

BlackBerry-maker RIM and HP have teamed up for a new set of services aimed at the smartphone platform.

As part of the partnership, HP debuted its Operations Manager for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

The HP Operations Manager software, typically used to keep an eye on the likes of mainframes and file servers, will now be extended to allow IT departments to monitor the company's BlackBerry estate from mail servers to databases, Microsoft Active Directory and server operating systems, as well as BES software itself.

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'

British sea power

Government plans to scope out English and Welsh waters for their potential to host wave and tidal energy devices is seen as long overdue by some in the marine energy sector.

The scheme was announced by Lord Philip Hunt, the minister of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, on 30 April at the British Wind Energy conference in Bath.

‘The marine energy sector has reached a pivotal stage with more and more devices ready to go into the water,' he said. ‘The screening exercise in English and Welsh waters is a significant step forward in our plans to harness the power of our seas and secure a renewable and low carbon energy supply.'

Video ad winner does Linux no favor

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and when the Linux Foundation announced a contest to produce a TV advertisement for Linux they meant well. It's just a shame the results don't end up doing Linux any favors. At all.

The problem with asking amateur film makers to make ads is that you get amateur results, unfortunately. And so, like watching your father dance at a wedding, it just ends up being embarrassing. Leaving aside the number of entrants who were so enthusiastic about the competition that they forgot the rule limiting the videos to 60 seconds, you have to wonder how some of the entries are meant to persuade people to use Linux.

Manchester waste deal

Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA) has signed a 25-year £3.8bn waste and recycling contract with Viridor Laing that will trigger a £640m construction programme, creating a network of recycling facilities over the next five years.

These will include abiological treatment plant with anaerobic digestion, a materials recovery facility and a combined heat and power plant.

Greater Manchester's network of 25 household waste recycling centres will also be upgraded.

MRI pressure

A pressure group that goes by the name of the MRI Alliance is demanding that the European Commission amends the Physical Agents (EMF) Directive, which, if adopted into national legislation, would drastically curtail the use of MRI scanners in hospitals.

The EMF Directive, adopted by the European Union (EU) in 2004, and due to come into force on national statute books in 2012, contains limits to occupational exposure of electromagnetic fields.The Directive was originally set to become law in 2008, but this was postponed due to pressure from the MRI community.

Equity investment

Private-equity investment in the UK reached just £2bn in the first quarter of 2009, according to the Centre for Management Buy-out Research (CMBOR) at Nottingham University, with two thirds of this total from just one deal.

This compares to £1.3bn in the fourth quarter of 2008 - the lowest quarter for more than 13 years.

CMBOR, a provider of research and analysis on the private-equity market, sponsored by Barclays Private Equity, also reported that deal numbers declined to just 61 in the first quarter, from 92 in the fourth quarter and 152 in the same period in 2008.

Administration file

Visteon UK has filed for administration with the UK High Court under the insolvency act and has been placed under the control of administrators from KPMG.

The UK business has not been profitable since its incorporation in 2000 andits reported losses since total £669m. Various restructures were attempted but none were successful.

Visteon UK includes plants in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield. Employing approximately 600 people, the plants manufacture automotive interiors, climate and powertrain components.

Energy reduction

A Hertfordshire-based company has developed a drying system that could save millions of pounds in energy costs.

Elstree-based Secomak linked up with engineers at Hertfordshire University to devise the Powerstrip system, which can dry a range of products, including bottles, cans, jars, fruit, vegetable and consumer goods.

The aim of the collaboration is to achieve a big reduction in energy consumption without compromising performance.

Palladium power

Two Brown University chemists have created a meansof producing palladium nanoparticles that could prove useful to developers of fuel cells.

The scientists produced the palladium nanoparticles with about 40 per cent greater active surface area than commercially available palladium particles, and the nanoparticles remained intact four times longer.

Palladium is far cheaper than another popular fuel cell catalyst, platinum, and it is also more abundant.

Knee indicator

Cardiff University spin-out Demasqrecently revealed details of its novel bone and soft-tissue medical-imaging software, which aims to provide doctors with more detailed images of the knee than conventional technology.

Theso-called Degenerative Knee Indicator (DKI) software will be launchedin the UK and the US this year. In parallel, Demasq is generating additional products for a range of other imaging applications.

Demasq, the company, was established through a partnershipbetween university IP commercialisation companyBiofusion and Cardiff University andits products are based on the workof Prof Hechmi Toumi, a specialist at the muscle-bone-tendon unit of the university's School of Biosciences.

Apps to dominate CTIA Wireless 2009

We've barely unpacked our bags from GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and we're on the road again to Las Vegas for CTIA Wireless, the U.S. tradeshow and conference held every spring where the biggest and most influential players in the U.S. mobile market gather.

Conficker tracking - all's quiet, so far

April 1, 6:35 a.m. PDT: McAfee says its Avert Labs is seeing Conficker-infected hosts attempting to call their "master" to get instructions, but those calls are not getting through. "This could be deliberate and the infected hosts may try again later, perhaps over the weekend when people aren't watching as closely," McAfee spokesman Joris Evers says. Hear more on this podcast. And for more technical details on what the worm is doing, McAfee Avert Labs has an updated blog posting.

Black Hawk ballistic

Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay the US government almost £3m to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the army.

Sikorsky manufactures the helicopters, or variations of them, for the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps, as well as for other countries.

Under Sikorsky’s contract with the US Army, the company was required to install armour plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure the helicopters could withstand combat.

Black Hawk ballistic

Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay the US government almost £3m to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the army.

Sikorsky manufactures the helicopters, or variations of them, for the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps, as well as for other countries.

Under Sikorsky’s contract with the US Army, the company was required to install armour plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure the helicopters could withstand combat.

Black Hawk ballistic

Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay the US government almost £3m to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the army.

Sikorsky manufactures the helicopters, or variations of them, for the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps, as well as for other countries.

Under Sikorsky’s contract with the US Army, the company was required to install armour plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure the helicopters could withstand combat.

Powerful connections

ABB has won an order worth $550m (£385m)from Eirgrid, the Irish transmission system operator, to connect the Irish and UK power grids.

The transmission link will run underwater for 186km and underground for 70km, with minimal environmental impact. The only visible parts will be the converter stations at each end that switch AC to DCand back.

ABB will be responsible for system engineering, including design, supply and installation of the sea and land cables, and both converter stations.

Powerful connections

ABB has won an order worth $550m (£385m)from Eirgrid, the Irish transmission system operator, to connect the Irish and UK power grids.

The transmission link will run underwater for 186km and underground for 70km, with minimal environmental impact. The only visible parts will be the converter stations at each end that switch AC to DCand back.

ABB will be responsible for system engineering, including design, supply and installation of the sea and land cables, and both converter stations.

Black Hawk ballistic

Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay the US government almost £3m to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the army.

Sikorsky manufactures the helicopters, or variations of them, for the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps, as well as for other countries.

Under Sikorsky’s contract with the US Army, the company was required to install armour plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure the helicopters could withstand combat.

Powerful connections

ABB has won an order worth $550m (£385m)from Eirgrid, the Irish transmission system operator, to connect the Irish and UK power grids.

The transmission link will run underwater for 186km and underground for 70km, with minimal environmental impact. The only visible parts will be the converter stations at each end that switch AC to DCand back.

ABB will be responsible for system engineering, including design, supply and installation of the sea and land cables, and both converter stations.

Black Hawk ballistic

Sikorsky Aircraft has agreed to pay the US government almost £3m to resolve fraud allegations in connection with its contract for the manufacture of Black Hawk helicopters for the army.

Sikorsky manufactures the helicopters, or variations of them, for the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marine Corps, as well as for other countries.

Under Sikorsky’s contract with the US Army, the company was required to install armour plates in the Black Hawk to the left of the pilot and to the right of the co-pilot that were ballistically tested to ensure the helicopters could withstand combat.

HP introduces Nehalem-based ProLiant servers

On Monday, HP launched a new range of ProLiant servers based on Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processor, the 5500.

The ProLiant G6 range of 11 rack, blade and tower models targets datacenter capacity, virtualization and datacenter economics, the company said.

HP introduces Nehalem-based ProLiant servers

On Monday, HP launched a new range of ProLiant servers based on Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processor, the 5500.

The ProLiant G6 range of 11 rack, blade and tower models targets datacenter capacity, virtualization and datacenter economics, the company said.

Powerful connections

ABB has won an order worth $550m (£385m)from Eirgrid, the Irish transmission system operator, to connect the Irish and UK power grids.

The transmission link will run underwater for 186km and underground for 70km, with minimal environmental impact. The only visible parts will be the converter stations at each end that switch AC to DCand back.

ABB will be responsible for system engineering, including design, supply and installation of the sea and land cables, and both converter stations.

HP introduces Nehalem-based ProLiant servers

On Monday, HP launched a new range of ProLiant servers based on Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processor, the 5500.

The ProLiant G6 range of 11 rack, blade and tower models targets datacenter capacity, virtualization and datacenter economics, the company said.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

HP introduces Nehalem-based ProLiant servers

On Monday, HP launched a new range of ProLiant servers based on Intel's Nehalem-based Xeon processor, the 5500.

The ProLiant G6 range of 11 rack, blade and tower models targets datacenter capacity, virtualization and datacenter economics, the company said.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

Microsoft, TomTom settle patent disputes

Microsoft and TomTom announced on Monday that they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

Microsoft, TomTom settle patent disputes

Microsoft and TomTom announced on Monday that they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

Malicious sites jump 200 percent

The threat from Web-based malware is growing at a rapid pace, with nearly 200 percent more malicious sites identified this month, according to a new report from MessageLabs.

Released Tuesday, the MessageLabs Intelligence Report revealed that 2, 797 new Web sites hosting malicious content including spyware, were blocked by the security vendor in March, a 200 percent jump over the previous month.

The rise, which was the highest since October 2008, was largely due to a spike in the number of images containing injected scripts. Such images were also found in e-mail messages during the month, said MessageLabs, now a Symantec company.

Microsoft, TomTom settle patent disputes

Microsoft and TomTom announced on Monday that they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

Microsoft, TomTom settle patent disputes

Microsoft and TomTom announced on Monday that they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

Microsoft, TomTom settle patent disputes

Microsoft and TomTom announced on Monday that they have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits.

As part of the deal, TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage for the software maker's mapping-related patents as well as the file management patents that Microsoft claimed were infringed by TomTom's use of the Linux kernel. Microsoft will also get access to the TomTom patents that were cited in TomTom's countersuit against Microsoft, although Microsoft won't be making any payment to TomTom.

AMD Phenom II 810, 805, 720 & 710 AM3 CPUs

Manufacturer:AMD

AMD Phenom II X4 810

UK Price (as reviewed):£144.56 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$181.49 (ex. Tax)

AMD Phenom II X4 805

UK Price (as reviewed):£149.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$204.08 (ex. Tax)

AMD Phenom II X3 720

UK Price (as reviewed):£118.89 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$156.95 (ex. Tax)

No word on made-in-Asia 32nm Intel chips

Intel has pledged to suit up its manufacturing facilities in the United States to support 32-nanometer processing, but it is not clear if the chipmaker has plans to invest in similar capabilities in Asia.

In a telephone briefing with regional media Wednesday, Stephen Smith, Intel's vice president and director of digital enterprise group operations, reiterated the company's roadmap, including its plans to roll out the first processors based on 32-nm technology by the fourth quarter of 2009.

Britain buys more games than Japan

In the world of sales figures, America and Japan have commonly been seen to dominate the market - which is why so many games nowadays seem to cater to those markets. There's nothing but big muscles and spiky hair - not a Brogue-wearing businessman in sight.

Or, at least, that used to be the case. Japan it seems is no longer the market leader it once was, with the UK growing it's gaming market to become the nation with the second-biggest gaming market ever.

Intel unveils 32nm process technology

You probably thought that a 45nm transistor was pretty small, but Intel has announced that it’s taken its silicon technology even further into the realms of the infinitesimal today, as the company has just demonstrated the world’s first 32nm processors and announced massive plans for the technology.

The company plans to spend a whopping $7 billion US over the next two years on building the four 32nm fabrication plants, creating 7,000 high-skill jobs in the US. One is already up and running in Oregon, where another plant is scheduled to be running by the end of 2009. Meanwhile, two further fabs will be built in Arizona and New Mexico in 2010.

HP document disclosure vulnerability

You might be sure that your PC is locked down against attacking crackers, but how often do you update your printer's firmware? If you're a user of HP devices, the answer may well be “not often enough."

According to an article by The Register's John Leyden yesterday, HP is warning customers that certain models of laser printers are vulnerable to a remote exploit which can allow access to the internal settings – including the ability to view and download copies of previously printed files. While the vulnerability isn't likely to result in an opening for further attacks against an internal network, the privacy implications push the severity up a notch.

Asus to launch mATX Republic of Gamers Gene mobos

We have learned that Asus will launch the "Gene" series - the company's latest addition to its Republic of Gamer (RoG) family of motherboards - in a few weeks time.

Unlike all current Republic of Gamer motherboards, the Gene series will use the micro ATX form factor and fit below Formula and Extreme, which currently signify DDR2 and DDR3 respectively. We have also heard murmurs that these labels are likely to change in the future, though.

Dead Rising 2 announced

Capcom has unveiled the much anticipated sequel to Dead Rising recently and has impressed fans and proved its commitment to the PC Gaming Alliance by confirming a PC version of the game.

Dead Rising 2 will continue the major themes of the first Xbox 360 exclusive, those being zombies, chainsaws and the combination of the above.

The story for the sequel though will move on and away from that of the first game, this time casting players as a totally new character who has become trapped in a Las Vegas casino as the zombie infection starts to spread out of control.

Large Hadron Collider delayed again

The Large Hadron Collider could be restarted at the end of September a year after the world's largest particle accelerator was knocked off line by an electrical malfunction.

LHC operations were suspended last September after a transformer malfunction in its cooling system allowed a helium leak just nine days after the project became operational. An investigation concluded that the malfunction was caused by a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator's magnets.

OLPC to laptop makers: Use our design

The One Laptop per Child initiative seems to have found that imitation isn't simply a form of flattery, it's grounds for a new business model.

Speaking at the TED 2009 conference, OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte said that the future of the initiative--which set out to put simple, durable, low-cost laptops in the hands of schoolchildren in developing nations--is to become, in essence, more commonplace, to "build something that everyone copies," according to Ethan Zuckerman, blogging from TED.

Biofuel flight

Japan Airlines (JAL) has become the first airline to conduct a demonstration flight using a sustainable biofuel primarily refined from the energy crop camelina.

It was also the first demo flight using a combination of three sustainable biofuel feedstocks, as well as the first one using Pratt & Whitney engines.

The approximately 1.5hr demo flight using a JAL-owned Boeing 747-300 aircraft, carrying no passengers or payload, took off from Haneda Airport, Tokyo.

Kaspersky denies leaks after SQL hack

Russian antivirus vendor Kaspersky Labs's US website was hacked over the weekend, exposing the company's customer database, but Kaspersky has denied data was compromised and says the vulnerability wasn't critical. An unidentified hacker reported over the weekend that he was able to access a complete profile of the company's databases, revealing its clients' names, activation codes, list of bugs the company tracks and client email addresses. The hacker claimed to have hacked Kaspersky Labs's databases using an SQL injection attack, which exploits a vulnerability in an application's database layer. The method has become a popular means to gain information via web-facing applications or as a way to use popular websites to spread malicious software. Microsoft's UK website came under a similar attack in 2007 when hackers used an SQL injection to inject HTML code which seemingly defaced its web pages. The Kaspersky hacker, who published their finding on the Hackersblog.org website, has since said that confidential data would not be released. "[The] Kaspersky team doesn't need to worry about us spreading their confidential stuff. Our staff will never save or keep any confidential data. We just point our fingers to big websites with security problems," they reported. Kaspersky Labs has admitted that a subsection of its usa.kaspersky.com domain was vulnerable last Saturday when a hacker "attempted an attack on the site". "The site was only vulnerable for a very brief period, and upon detection of the vulnerability we immediately took action to roll back the subsection of the site and the vulnerability was eliminated within 30 minutes of detection. The vulnerability wasn't critical and no data was compromised from the site," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

AMD still insisting on its ACP rating

AMD is yet again pushing its Average CPU Power (ACP) ahead of Thermal Design Power (TDP) measurements and certainly doesn't consider its own TDP ratings to be comparable to Intel.

AMD's, Nigel Dessau, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, tweeted yesterday to another hack: "No two people measure TDP the same way. How valid is the compare?"

According to his official blog, Dessau tries to state AMD's position as one of being green and of energy efficiency. He claims AMD is going down this route in order to better educate IT managers into making informed decisions about power budgets and all the rest of it.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Kaspersky suffers database crack

A cracker by the name of “unu” has claimed that the website of anti-virus vendor Kaspersky is wide open to attack from SQL injection – and that it's possible to get a complete copy of the site's database containing personal information on the company and its customers.

As reported by The Register on Sunday, the digital miscreant – who posted the results of his attack to website Hackers Blog – the claim is that a simple manipulation of the URL on the

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

OLPC to open-source hardware

If you've liked the things that the One Laptop Per Child project has brought to notebook design, but didn't fancy spending your hard-earned on a a design straight from the Fisher Price Research Laboratories, take heart: Nicholas Negroponte has announced that the hardware design is to be released under an open-source licence.

Announced by Negroponte, the founder and CEO of the One Laptop Per Child project, at the TED 2009 conference – and reported by CNet this weekend, the plan comes after the original $100 laptop – or $200 as it eventually became – found itself being copied in the form of the ultra-low-cost PC, or netbook.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Opera creates new JavaScript engine

After its embarrassing showing in the next-generation browser speed tests carried out by ZDnet last week, Opera is keen to reassure users that it won't be accepting the results lying down.

According to a report over on CNet, Opera is planning a replacement for the Futhark JavaScript engine that featured in the build of Opera 10 Alpha that was tested as part of ZDNet's benchmark suite with a shiny new engine dubbed Carakan – and it should boost the performance considerably.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

Apple to allow iPhone multitasking?

The iPhone OS might just finally be getting true multitasking features with the rumour that Apple will be relaxing its ban on third-party background tasks.

Reported over on MacRumours, many are taking the lack of the announced “Push Notification” functionality in the latest firmware release for the company's popular touch phone as an indicator that the current restrictions on background tasks could be lifted in the near future.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

At least 90% of all psychology studies are flawed

Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, a criminal psychologist from Texas A&M International University, has said that at least 90 percent of all psychological studies are scientifically flawed.

"I'll be honest with you, the quality of research in psychology generally is not very good," said Dr. Ferguson during an interview with Gamespot. "Maybe 90 to 95 percent is very bad. The way that we study questions, the way that we support our hypotheses are not very scientific, quite frankly. And social science is kind of an oxymoron, to some extent.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

OCZ Apex 120GB SSD

Manufacturer:OCZ
UK Price (as reviewed):£344.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$376.99 (ex. Tax)

With SSDs looking like they’re on the rise this year, it’s certainly starting to get a whole lot more interesting in the world of storage. While most of us will continue to stick with cheaper and more voluminous mechanical drives like Samsung’s excellent Spinpoint F1 1TB hard drive for the time being, those looking for the speed boost that an SSD can bring to the general use of your PC now have a lot more options.

Intel research: Fast radios, flashy chips, low power

Intel is concentrating on integration rather than acceleration, according to the fifteen papers it will be presenting at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference next week in San Francisco.

Among the various inventions, the company is showing off a low power, high speed data demodulator that can shift around 3Gbps at 50 milliwatts, based around seven-bit analogue to digital converters built in 45nm CMOS. That's intended for use on the new 60GHz band, where it'll be able to move a DVD in around 15 seconds.

XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB XXX Edition

Manufacturer:XFX
UK Price (as reviewed):£116.85 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$159.55 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 670MHz
Shader clock: 1,600MHz
Memory Clock:1,950MHz (effective)
Memory: 512MB GDDR3
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

Strictly speaking we’ve not looked at Nvidia’s 9800 GT before, following its somewhat covert launch last July to replace the ludicrously popular 8800 GT. However, you’ll forgive us the lack of coverage in this case because the 9800 GT

XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB XXX Edition

Manufacturer:XFX
UK Price (as reviewed):£116.85 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$159.55 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 670MHz
Shader clock: 1,600MHz
Memory Clock:1,950MHz (effective)
Memory: 512MB GDDR3
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

Strictly speaking we’ve not looked at Nvidia’s 9800 GT before, following its somewhat covert launch last July to replace the ludicrously popular 8800 GT. However, you’ll forgive us the lack of coverage in this case because the 9800 GT

Home Theatre PC Buyer's Guide - Q1 2009

First Choice: J&W Minix 780G
UK Pricing:£96.54 (Inc. VAT)
US Pricing:$179.20 (ex. Tax)

Based on the excellent AMD 780G chipset, our current little favourite is still the J&W Minix motherboard. This little wonder was the base for Nick's Mod of the Year winning Chiaroscuro and has tonnes of functionality compressed into its 17x17cm PCB. The feature set includes four SATA, HDMI, DVI, VGA, eSATA, S/PDIF and a PCI-Express x16 (x4 electrical) - everything you'd expect from a high end board, and more.

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ

Manufacturer:HIS
UK Price (as reviewed):£68.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$64.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 750MHz
Memory Clock: 2,000MHz (effective)
Memory: 512MB GDDR3
Warranty: Three years (parts and labour)

With all our recent coverage of ultra high end graphics launches like the Nvidia Geforce GTX 295, GeForce GTX 285 and ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2,

Icy Box IB-NAS4220-B Network Storage

Manufacturer:Raidsonic
UK Price (as rReviewed):£97.51
US Price (as reviewed):$137.46

While expensive network storage solutions have been available to businesses for many years, consumer NAS boxes are becoming a far more common and more affordable method of file storage and backup for personal or family use. Considering the sheer inexpense of drives a terabyte and above these days, the usefulness of either personal data redundancy, a central storage for the house network, or a very low power BitTorrent download box - all these are appealing prospects, and for under £100, we see if Raidsonic's Icy Box IB-NAS4220-B is worth the money over that upgrade.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK Tri-Channel DDR3

Manufacturer:G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed):$209.99

Specification

• Kit: 3 x 240-pin DDR3 Double Sided DIMM
  
• Module Size: 6GB Triple Channel Kit (3 x 2GB)
  
• Module Code: F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK
  
• Rated Speed: 1,600MHz
  
• Rated Timings: 8-8-8-24
  
• Rated Voltage: 1.6-1.65V
  

G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK Tri-Channel DDR3

Manufacturer:G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed):$209.99

Specification

• Kit: 3 x 240-pin DDR3 Double Sided DIMM
  
• Module Size: 6GB Triple Channel Kit (3 x 2GB)
  
• Module Code: F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK
  
• Rated Speed: 1,600MHz
  
• Rated Timings: 8-8-8-24
  
• Rated Voltage: 1.6-1.65V
  

G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK Tri-Channel DDR3

Manufacturer:G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed):$209.99

Specification

• Kit: 3 x 240-pin DDR3 Double Sided DIMM
  
• Module Size: 6GB Triple Channel Kit (3 x 2GB)
  
• Module Code: F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK
  
• Rated Speed: 1,600MHz
  
• Rated Timings: 8-8-8-24
  
• Rated Voltage: 1.6-1.65V
  

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 OCX 1GB

Manufacturer:BFG Tech
UK Price (as reviewed):£367.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$405.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 702MHz
Shader Clock: 1,584MHz
Memory Clock: 2,664MHz (effective)
Memory: 1GB GDDR3
Warranty: Ten years (parts and labour) in Europe

Just a few short weeks ago, Nvidia launched the GeForce GTX 285 and while it’s the fastest single GPU-based graphics card we’ve ever tested, we felt that it was priced in a rather awkward manner. Nvidia set its price point at not that much less than the flagship GeForce GTX 295, which means there isn’t that much wiggle room for partners.

G.Skill F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK Tri-Channel DDR3

Manufacturer:G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed):$209.99

Specification

• Kit: 3 x 240-pin DDR3 Double Sided DIMM
  
• Module Size: 6GB Triple Channel Kit (3 x 2GB)
  
• Module Code: F3-12800CL8T-6GBHK
  
• Rated Speed: 1,600MHz
  
• Rated Timings: 8-8-8-24
  
• Rated Voltage: 1.6-1.65V
  

Scythe Fenris Wolf

Manufacturer:Scythe
UK Price (as reviewed):£134.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$167.79 (ex. Tax)

As we’ve looked at more and more cases in past year there’s been a continued vein of support within our forums for a case that keeps it simple, in terms of both looks and features, while still delivering the excellent build quality and value for money bit-tech readers expect.

It’s the reason the P182 is still so enormously popular amongst our forumites and is a feat that hasn’t really been repeated since. Yes, we’ve looked at some awesome cases, but there’s still part of us that yearns for the balance of well executed simplicity, performance and affordability – we can’t all stretch to an ATCS 840 after all.

First Look: SilverStone Raven RV01

Manufacturer:SilverStone
UK Pricing:£171.35 (inc VAT)
US Pricing:$249.99 (ex Tax)

SilverStone’s latest prestigious case breaks the established mould of case design by rotating the motherboard tray to hold your expansion cards vertically. The cooler of your graphics card is therefore pointed directly up at the roof exhaust. This seems the most logical orientation for a high-end PC, as cold air can be sucked in through the floor and passed up (aided by fans and thermodynamics) to be exhausted out of the top.

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 2GB

Manufacturer:Sapphire
UK Price (as reviewed):£259.97 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$339.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 625MHz
Memory Clock: 1,986MHz
Memory: 2,048MB GDDR3
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

We had a brief look at Sapphire's ATI Radeon HD 4850 X2 in November when the card launched, but at the time there was no official driver support from AMD – the company simply provided us with a pre-release hotfix driver that wasn't available for download. This driver had some issues where performance dived through the floor and then we learned that official AMD support wasn't forthcoming until at least Catalyst 9.1.

Lian Li PC-888

Manufacturer:Lian Li
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around £420 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around $500 (ex. Tax)

When you celebrate an anniversary you might go out for a few drinks, perhaps a meal, pop open a bottle of champagne and make a toast to the occasion. Not Lian Li though, who has a history of celebrating its anniversaries by producing chassis that take the humble PC case and turn it into something unique and memorable.

Lian Li PC-888

Manufacturer:Lian Li
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around £420 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around $500 (ex. Tax)

When you celebrate an anniversary you might go out for a few drinks, perhaps a meal, pop open a bottle of champagne and make a toast to the occasion. Not Lian Li though, who has a history of celebrating its anniversaries by producing chassis that take the humble PC case and turn it into something unique and memorable.

Lian Li PC-888

Manufacturer:Lian Li
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around £420 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around $500 (ex. Tax)

When you celebrate an anniversary you might go out for a few drinks, perhaps a meal, pop open a bottle of champagne and make a toast to the occasion. Not Lian Li though, who has a history of celebrating its anniversaries by producing chassis that take the humble PC case and turn it into something unique and memorable.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (341m) down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (341m) down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (341m) down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (341m) down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Lian Li PC-888

Manufacturer:Lian Li
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around £420 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): TBC - Around $500 (ex. Tax)

When you celebrate an anniversary you might go out for a few drinks, perhaps a meal, pop open a bottle of champagne and make a toast to the occasion. Not Lian Li though, who has a history of celebrating its anniversaries by producing chassis that take the humble PC case and turn it into something unique and memorable.

Ericsson to lay off 5,000 workers

The telecoms infrastructure firm Ericsson is to lay off 5,000 workers, after its results for the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a 31 percent year-on-year drop in profits.

The results came out on Wednesday, with profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 totaling 3.9bn Swedish kronor (341m) down from SEK 5.6bn in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Ericsson blamed the drop on restructuring charges and a "dramatic drop in the contribution" from Sony Ericsson, which is Ericsson's handset-manufacturing joint venture with Sony.

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Dawn of War II beta launches

If you're a hardcore fan of THQ and Relic's Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War strategy games then we've got good news. You'll be pleased to know that the official multiplayer beta for Dawn of War II has now launched on Steam - providing you own the original standalone expansion, Soulstorm anyway.

The even better news though is that, even if you don't own Soulstorm then you can still get in on the beta for cheap - Valve has slashed the price of the standalone

Red Hat version 5.3 released

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 became globally available on Wednesday, with the new enterprise OS featuring virtualization improvements, support for Intel's Core i7 architecture and inclusion of the Open Java Development Kit from Sun.

When interviewed in October 2008, Red Hat global chief executive Jim Whitehurst said virtualization was one of the company's key priorities. "Virtualization should be part of the operating system, not a separate layer," he said at the time.

Red Hat version 5.3 released

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3 became globally available on Wednesday, with the new enterprise OS featuring virtualization improvements, support for Intel's Core i7 architecture and inclusion of the Open Java Development Kit from Sun.

When interviewed in October 2008, Red Hat global chief executive Jim Whitehurst said virtualization was one of the company's key priorities. "Virtualization should be part of the operating system, not a separate layer," he said at the time.

EA: "We want to make quality games"

EA's CEO John Riccitiello has re-iterated that he is trying to lead the company away from it's reputation of making cheap and cheerful cash-ins and repetitive sports games and more towards innovative, quality titles.

That said, he does admit that the company need to make a profit too - but he doesn't believe there needs to be a distinction between profit and quality.

"Some of my greatest beliefs regarding gaming are that our art form is today - or certainly has the potential - to be recognised as the peer of the best of Hollywood movies. I want to help others see that.

Logitech's income drops 70 percent

More bad news for anyone employed in the tech sector, with peripherals manufacturer Logitech announcing a whopping 70 percent drop in net income – and a series of job cuts to bring things back in line.

According to figures quoted by BetaNews yesterday, the company is facing a massive slump in income for the last financial quarter – not helped by some acquisition initiated before the scale of the global economic slowdown was apparent.

AMD also cuts processor prices

Within hours of Intel cutting its processor prices, AMD has responded by trimming the prices for its new 45nm Phenom II CPUs.

Although the prices haven't affected AMD's official price list, Novatech and Newegg have reduced the price of both the 940 and 920 processors.

In the UK, the Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition was selling for around £220 including VAT and Novatech is now selling a boxed retail Phenom II X4 940 for under £190. Meanwhile, the 920 was selling for about £190 and Novatech now has it down at £160.

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P and DS4 mobos

Manufacturer:Gigabyte

Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4

UK Price (as reviewed):£185.98 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$244.99 (ex. Tax)

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD4P

UK Price (as reviewed):£203.42 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$259.99 (ex. Tax)

Some of us want a brand-spanking new Core i7 system, but nearly all of us don't want to pay over the odds for a motherboard - that's something which has become quite a barrier of entry into the world of Nehalem. At £200 and under, these Gigabyte boards reset the trend just a bit by making X58 motherboards close to affordable, but by no means cheap - they are at least

Bush leaves behind a mixed technology legacy

news analysis Months after being sworn in as president, George W. Bush sat down with reporters and his wife, Laura, for a technology-themed event: a relaunch of the Whitehouse.gov Web site, which previously had been rather dilapidated.

Bush and his aides proudly demonstrated the new features, including photo essays, better access for the disabled, and a kids' area with details about the First Pets. The president said the Web site would let Washington become "more accessible" and let Americans "participate in the process."

Fake reviews prompt Belkin apology

Fake positive reviews of Belkin products were actively solicited by one of its employees, the company admitted on Sunday.

Belkin, a networking and peripheral manufacturer, apologized for the worker's actions, which sought to artificially boost Belkin's status on Amazon while denigrating existing bad reviews.

On Friday, The Daily Background website revealed how someone, apparently Belkin business-development representative Mark Bayard, had used the Mechanical Turk service to ask users to write positive reviews of a Belkin product at a rate of 65 US cents (45p) per review. The requests made it clear that writers need have no experience of, nor even own, the product in question. Mechanical Turk is an online clearing-house for small jobs that cannot be done by machine, such as writing product descriptions. It is, coincidentally, run by Amazon.

Intel cuts prices by up to 48 percent

Intel on Monday cut the prices of many of its mainstream processors, with some of the cuts lopping off as much as 48 percent.

The prices of five different versions of the Intel Core 2 Quad processor were cut by as much as 40 percent, with the 3GHz Q9850 dropping from $530 (380) to $316. Meanwhile the 2.33GHz Q8200 dropped in price by 16 percent, from $193 to $163.

The Pentium Dual Core processor line also saw price cuts, with the 2.5GHz E5200 chipset having a cut of 24 percent from $84 to $64.

IBM accused of mainframe monopoly

A complaint alleging that IBM has abused its position in the European mainframe market was filed with the European Commission on Tuesday.

The complaint from T3, a small US supplier of mainframes, said IBM has "a history of abusing its monopoly power in the mainframe industry", according to a statement from T3.

IBM is accused of engaging in a range of anti-competitive actions, including "preventing the sales of competing mainframe hardware products by tying the sale of its operating system to its mainframe hardware". IBM is further accused of "withholding patent licenses and certain intellectual property to the detriment of mainframe customers".

Melbourne school considers thin for 4,500+ PCs

The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) this week said that the first half of 2009 would see the university evaluate whether to commit to a thin client solution for thousands of university workstations.

"We'd have about 4,500 PCs in what we call student laboratories," executive director of IT services Allan Morris told ZDNet.com.au. "Many of those would be candidates for thin client." Other PCs which would come into consideration were those in the libraries.

HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB IceQ4+ Turbo

Manufacturer:HIS
UK Price (as reviewed): £229.00 (inc. VAT) - expected
US Price (as reviewed):$291.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 770MHz
Memory Clock: 4,000MHz
Memory: 1GB GDDR5
Warranty: Three years (parts and labour)

When AMD released the ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB, it was the first time in a long time where we've actually seen the larger frame buffer size make a real difference in games. The original Radeon HD 4870 was a fantastic product and the 1GB version was arguably even better – the increased price was well worth swallowing in order to pocket the sometimes significantly enhanced gameplay experience.

G.Skill Titan 256GB SSD

Manufacturer:G.Skill
UK Price (as reviewed): TBC
US Price (as reviewed):$499.00 (ex. Tax)

We’ve said before in the past that the rise of the SSD as a replacement to the conventional mechanical drive is inevitable, but still some way off. Affordable SSDs might have the performance in the read stakes, but their poor JMicron drive controllers have so far proved disappointing when you look at write performance, and while Intel’s X25 series of SSDs are able to produce excellent read and write speeds their price is extremely prohibitive.

MSI Click BIOS - Evaluating UEFI

Manufacturer:MSI

Those who own and use computers of a fruitier nature have had UEFI BIOS’ for a while, in effect making this seem normal. However, in terms of us more other folk who like to build our own - we've been limited to the old school sixteen colour array for as long as anyone can remember. The typical old school BIOS some of us have grown to know inside out has changed very little since its invention, but for the last year at least MSI has been one of the few companies at the forefront of changing that.

MSI Click BIOS - Evaluating UEFI

Manufacturer:MSI

Those who own and use computers of a fruitier nature have had UEFI BIOS’ for a while, in effect making this seem normal. However, in terms of us more other folk who like to build our own - we've been limited to the old school sixteen colour array for as long as anyone can remember. The typical old school BIOS some of us have grown to know inside out has changed very little since its invention, but for the last year at least MSI has been one of the few companies at the forefront of changing that.

MSI Click BIOS - Evaluating UEFI

Manufacturer:MSI

Those who own and use computers of a fruitier nature have had UEFI BIOS’ for a while, in effect making this seem normal. However, in terms of us more other folk who like to build our own - we've been limited to the old school sixteen colour array for as long as anyone can remember. The typical old school BIOS some of us have grown to know inside out has changed very little since its invention, but for the last year at least MSI has been one of the few companies at the forefront of changing that.

MSI Click BIOS - Evaluating UEFI

Manufacturer:MSI

Those who own and use computers of a fruitier nature have had UEFI BIOS’ for a while, in effect making this seem normal. However, in terms of us more other folk who like to build our own - we've been limited to the old school sixteen colour array for as long as anyone can remember. The typical old school BIOS some of us have grown to know inside out has changed very little since its invention, but for the last year at least MSI has been one of the few companies at the forefront of changing that.

MSI Click BIOS - Evaluating UEFI

Manufacturer:MSI

Those who own and use computers of a fruitier nature have had UEFI BIOS’ for a while, in effect making this seem normal. However, in terms of us more other folk who like to build our own - we've been limited to the old school sixteen colour array for as long as anyone can remember. The typical old school BIOS some of us have grown to know inside out has changed very little since its invention, but for the last year at least MSI has been one of the few companies at the forefront of changing that.

Razer Mako 2.1 speakers

Manufacturer:Razer
UK Price (as reviewed):£241.49 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$354.98 (ex. Tax)

Contrary to what Richard says every time a set crosses his desk, speaker systems are one of the most fun things to review. Mainly all it involves is playing your favourite games, watching some high-quality videos and listening to some music. Then you fiddle with the settings, try the other connectors and try it all over again.

Razer Mako 2.1 speakers

Manufacturer:Razer
UK Price (as reviewed):£241.49 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$354.98 (ex. Tax)

Contrary to what Richard says every time a set crosses his desk, speaker systems are one of the most fun things to review. Mainly all it involves is playing your favourite games, watching some high-quality videos and listening to some music. Then you fiddle with the settings, try the other connectors and try it all over again.

Razer Mako 2.1 speakers

Manufacturer:Razer
UK Price (as reviewed):£241.49 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$354.98 (ex. Tax)

Contrary to what Richard says every time a set crosses his desk, speaker systems are one of the most fun things to review. Mainly all it involves is playing your favourite games, watching some high-quality videos and listening to some music. Then you fiddle with the settings, try the other connectors and try it all over again.

Razer Mako 2.1 speakers

Manufacturer:Razer
UK Price (as reviewed):£241.49 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$354.98 (ex. Tax)

Contrary to what Richard says every time a set crosses his desk, speaker systems are one of the most fun things to review. Mainly all it involves is playing your favourite games, watching some high-quality videos and listening to some music. Then you fiddle with the settings, try the other connectors and try it all over again.

Nvidia (Zotac) GeForce GTX 285 1GB

Manufacturer:Nvidia
UK Price (as reviewed):£294.99 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$349.99 (ex. Tax)

Core Clock: 648MHz
Shader Clock: 1,476MHz
Memory Clock: 2,484MHz (effective)
Memory: 1,024MB GDDR3

With the launch of the GeForce GTX 295 last week, Nvidia has started to roll out its 55nm GT200b GPUs onto the market. Today the company is rolling another new graphics card – the GeForce GTX 285 – but unlike the GTX 295, the 285 utilizes just a single GT200b GPU.

Belkin N1 Vision

Manufacturer:Belkin

ADSL2+ Version
UK Price (as reviewed):£113.42 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): NA

Cable/DSL Version
UK Price (as reviewed):£92.38 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$122.98 (ex. Tax)

Spare a thought for the humble router. Following the meteoric rise of home broadband, and the subsequent increase in home wireless networks it now seems that nearly every broadband enabled home has one of these wondrous boxes, sitting behind sofas or shoved behind the TV, busily delivering your precious packets of data from the wilds of the internet to the safety of your home network.

Shuttle X27-D Atom dual-core barebones SFF

Manufacturer:Shuttle
UK Price (as reviewed):£205.00 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):$214.99 (ex. Tax)

Another year and leading SFF manufacturer Shuttle seems to continually exist in the background, yet has stepped away from its usual XPC line to devise a smart design using the latest tech. Surprisingly using the even smaller mini-ITX form factor, the X27-D is based on Intel's Atom 330 dual-core processor. This is basically two 1.6GHz Atom dies strapped to the same package and inside the case features the mini-ITX motherboard and 60W DC-DC PSU.

In-Win Commander 750W PSU

Manufacturer:In-Win
UK Price (as reviewed): £102 (inc. VAT) MSRP
US Price (as reviewed):$169.99 (ex. Tax)

In-Win is a Taiwanese company with offices in Los Angeles stateside, The Netherlands and even the UK. In-Win Style is the retail division which has been running since 2005 although the company has barely marketed these products in the past and the company is still predominantly driven by its OEM/ODM business.

Palit Revolution 700 (Radeon HD 4870 X2)

Manufacturer:Palit
UK Price (as reviewed):£373.74 (Inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed):NA

Core Clock: 750MHz
Memory Clock: 3,800MHz (effective)
Memory: 2GB GDDR5
Warranty: Two years (parts and labour)

Thanks to ATI/AMD’s fairly lenient approach to board partner card design, we’ve seen plenty of custom cooled Radeon HD 4850 and HD 4870s since RV770’s launch back in the summer. There have been plenty of cards using custom PCBs to help keep costs down and in some cases improve the card’s power delivery system.