Sapphire Adds New GeForce 9400GT Cards

Although NVIDIA's new low-profile GeForce 9400 graphics card has been officially announced for quite some time now, one of its add-in-board partners decided to keep its customers waiting for a while. However, the company has officially launched its version of the new GeForce graphics card earlier today, offering four new models, based on the same GPU.

As we mentioned in our previous articles, NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400 card has been designed to accommodate the graphics requirements of entry-level users who don't spend their entire budget on just one video card. In addition, the GeForce 9400 GT features several NVIDIA technologies and supports Microsoft's DirectX 10 API. Furthermore, this is also one of the few NVIDIA cards that have been developed using a 55nm process technology, which AMD has been adopting for quite some time now.

Back to Sapphire's latest GeForce cards, the four new models have been designed to deliver a maximum of 1GB of DDR2 memory. However, two of them will be equipped with only 512MB DDR2 memory on a 128-bit memory interface. There is another way you can differentiate the four models from one another, as the two 1GB DDR2-enabled cards are equipped with a passive cooling solution. All four of them are based on PCI-Express 2.0 interface and have the same clock settings as the reference model, with 550MHz for the GPU and 800MHz for the memory.

In addition to the new GeForce 9400GT models, Sparkle can also offer four GDDR3-equipped cards, all of which have only 512MB of memory. In total, Sparkle has 12 graphics cards, based on the same 9400GT GPU. So we could say that if you are an entry-level user and you are searching for a new low-profile graphics card, you should find what you are searching for in Sapphire's product lineup.

Source: http://microsoftarticles.blogspot.com/

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.NET Framework 4.0 and Dublin

At the end of September 2008, Microsoft unveiled that the next versions of Visual Studio and .NET Framework would span across not only the client and server operating systems but also across services and devices. Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 are expected to drop either in late 2009 or by the first half of 2010, even though Microsoft failed to confirm a delivery deadline. As far as the next iteration of its runtime environment is concerned, Microsoft is cooking .NET Framework 4.0 while planning a synchronization with the evolution of Windows Server, namely Windows Server Dublin.

“Updates to the next versions of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) are focused on reducing complexity for developers by providing better support for Web 2.0 technologies like REST, POX and ATOM, and increasing performance and scalability in the process. In fact, early tests show these improvements to WCF and WF are, at a minimum, enabling 10X the perf and scalability - and to think we’re still fine tuning here! Second, 'Dublin' makes it easier to deploy, manage and scale these next-generation applications,” explained Steven Martin, Director, CSD Product Management Microsoft.

Windows Server "Dublin" is a collection of enhanced capabilities added to the Windows server platform which will expand to also take Internet Information Services (IIS) to the next level. The end purpose of the improvements planned for the Windows Application Server is to permit developers to handle composite applications in a much simpler way than they can today. Microsoft is in fact looking to streamline processes including installation and management as well as the scalability of composite solutions.

“We will deliver a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and 'Dublin' technologies at the Professional Developers Conference in October 2008; this will allow us to begin receiving broader feedback from customers and partners. We are committed to driving and prioritizing our development efforts based upon customer and partner feedback; the feedback from this CTP and other customer programs will help inform us as to the exact timing of our beta and RTM,” Microsoft indicated via the Dublin NET 4 Overview whitepaper.

.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.

Source: http://microsoftarticles.blogspot.com/

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Call of Duty: World At War Xbox 360 Beta Is Now Open

Call of Duty: World at War is definitely shaping up to be a great title. Although the developer of the game, Treyarch, was severely disapproved when it announced that it would have the shooter franchise back to World War II, after the huge success of the latest title which took place in contemporary times, CoD 4: Modern Warfare, the game does look pretty good.

We have already posted our impressions of the PC multiplayer beta stage, and now it seems that the team at Treyarch decided to make the Xbox 360 version of the beta stage open to everyone. Everyone who has an Xbox Live Gold membership, of course, but Silver subscribers might get the chance to play it after a few days. Before this, a special token was required to download the multiplayer client and join in on the battles of CoD., token which you received if you were a registered user on the official CoD website.

“The Xbox 360 Multiplayer Beta went public this morning on Xbox Live Marketplace. Now all your friends and neighbors can join in the online mayhem and see how deadly you've become during your time fighting during the exclusive Beta period,” read the official announcement on the CoD website.

This is definitely great news for the people who wanted to see if the game was worth buying this very busy holiday season. One of the key features for the previous title was the very well built multiplayer mode and the fact that it was very balanced, offering players a great experience. This new title promises to bring an even greater online experience, mainly because it will feature more modes of play and that the factions involved will be very individualized.

For those of you who don't know, CoD: World at War is the fifth title in the franchise, and the first one not to be developed by Infinity Ward, the creators of the series. Its action will follow the events in the Pacific Ocean during the Second World War and the battles in Berlin. It promises to give players a unique look on the battles of WWII and hopes that it will clear the name for all war based shooters which have really been saturating the market for a while now.

Considering the multiplayer mode and the fact that Treyarch tried really hard to offer an even more motivating single player story, this game looks very promising in the eyes of gamers.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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Download CrossOver for Linux, Free of Charge

Believe it or not, CrossOver, a software that lets Linux and Mac OS X users install popular Windows applications and games, is free for download (yes, FREE)... but only for one day! That day is yesterday (October 28th, 2008), so you better go grab the serial number right now from the CodeWeavers website. Hurry up, because the code you will receive can be unlocked until 23:59 (Midnight) Wednesday, October 29th, Central Standard Time (CST). The software has a limit of 1 copy per customer.

How did this happen? Long story short, three months ago, Jeremy White (CodeWeavers CEO) launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, to "force" George W. Bush into achieving a major political or economic goal. Jeremy White stated that if one of the six goals would be accomplished, he would give his CrossOver application for free to customers worldwide, for one day. Well, this happened on October 14th, when the average price of gasoline dropped below $2.79 per gallon.

"My fellow Americans. As you probably know by now, we recently succeeded in reaching one of our Lame Duck Presidential Challenge Goals. Of course, we reached it in perhaps the worst way possible - by destroying the world economy. And while ostensibly President Bush was to get the credit/blame for meeting our goals, the bottom line is that I cannot help but feel personally responsible for the greatest financial collapse since the 1930s." - said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers CEO.

Below is a list of the applications and games that can be installed via the CrossOver software:
· Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
· Adobe FrameMaker 7
· Adobe Photoshop 6 / 7 / CS / CS2
· Cortona VRML Client
· Dreamweaver MX
· EndNote 7.0
· EndNote 8
· Flash MX
· Flash Player
· Internet Explorer 6.0
· iPIX Netscape Plugin Viewer
· Lotus Notes 5
· Lotus Notes 6.5.1
· Microsoft Excel Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Office 97 / 2000 / 2003 / 2007 / XP
· Microsoft Outlook 2003
· Microsoft Project 2000 / 2002 / 2003 · Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Visio 2002 / 2003
· Microsoft Word Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Oracle JInitiator 1.1
· Quick View Plus
· QuickBooks
· Quicken
· Quicken 2007 or 2008
· QuickTime 7
· Shockwave Player 8.5
· Superscape Viscape Universal
· VP3 for QuickTime 5
· Windows Media Player 6.4 / 9
· EVE Online
· Guild Wars
· Half-Life
· World of Warcraft

Linux users can grab the CrossOver Office and Games installers right now from here.
Source: http://linuxarticle.blogspot.com/2008/

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Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Is here

The successor of Firefox 3.0 has entered the Beta development stage as of October 14, 2008. In this context, Mozilla has made available for download Firefox 3.1 Beta 1. The next iteration of the open source browser, codenamed Shiretoko, is making headway in terms of development, having already passed through a couple of Alpha phases. With the 3.1 Beta 1 release, Mozilla is touting various improvements across the browser, including enhancements delivered to performance, web compatibility, and speed.

“This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.1,” revealed Samuel Sidler, Quality Assurance Engineer at Mozilla. Even though it is nothing more than a development milestone, Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is available in no less than 36 languages for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Mozilla has added a plethora of features to Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 in comparison to the Alpha 2 release. In this regard, the draft specification for Geolocation was implemented along with support for the @font-face CSS property. However, one of the most relevant enhancements is the TraceMonkey new JavaScript engine, which is yet to be turned on by default. Mozilla informed that users would have to navigate to about:config, and then set javascript.options.jit.content to True, after which a browser restart is required.

Sidler added that “new features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include: Web standards improvements in the Gecko layout engine; added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties; a new tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab you're switching to; improved control over the Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search; support for new web technologies such as the < video > and < audio > elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, web worker threads, SVG transforms and offline applications”.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Linux is available for download here.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Mac Version Now Available for Download

The first Beta for Mozilla's Firefox 3.1 has been released to the public. Beta 1 adds one of the coolest features ever to hit the popular web-browser – a new tab-switching shortcut, bringing an enhanced Mac-feeling to the browsing experience.

First of all, everyone should note that Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. Although the beta includes a host of new features, and performance improvements, it is highly recommended that you read the release notes, as well as the known issues before installing it.

And now for the good stuff. Among the new additions in Firefox 3.1 Beta is added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties. The newly-added support for “CSS @font-face” allows users to specify a true type font file that includes a specific font they want to use to render a web page. This was one of the most widely-request features in Firefox, according to the development team. The Mac version, as well as the Windows one, includes @font-face support. Firefox for Linux, however, doesn't, but adding support is underway and “will be done by Firefox 3.1 final,” according to Mozilla.

Also worth noting is that Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is the first beta from Mozilla to include support for the

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Absolute Linux 12.1.09 Released

Two days ago, Paul Sherman, developer of Absolute Linux, announced the immediate availability of the Absolute Linux 12.1.09. This version comes right after the 12.0.8 release, which was baked and delivered on October 11th. Absolute Linux 12.1.09 fixes three bugs and updates one package.

Let's take a look at the bug fixes:
· The first bug fix is for the TiLP package, which had some permissions set incorrectly for the /usr/share/applications directory. This caused to render useless .desktop files for the regular user accounts.
· The second bug fix resolves the desktop file type association for .gz files.
· Last but not least, the linking problem between Mozilla Thunderbird mail client and Mozilla Firefox web browser (the mailto function in Firefox and url function in Thunderbird) was fixed in this release.

Moreover, Absolute Linux 12.1.09 updates the "absolute" theme in the gtksourceview2 package, so you can use even more visible colors for the mouse cursor.

Absolute Linux is a lightweight modification of the Slackware Linux distribution. It makes maintenance and configuration much easier, has common applications installed and configured. Absolute Linux allows you to play audio CDs, DVDs and movies "out of the box," and is easy to configure and use. Highlights of Absolute Linux include:
· icewm/ROX_Filer as a window/file manager combination;
· Time-saving utilities;
· Preconfigured shortcuts/menus;
· Desktop-oriented software;
· Customized installer;
· Manuals, HOWTOs and other useful documentation.

Absolute Linux includes applications such as:
· Pidgin (multi-protocol instant messenger)
· Avidemux (video editor)
· Azureus (P2P client)
· Mozilla Firefox (web browser)
· Mozilla Thunderbird (mail client)
· OpenOffice.org (office suite)
· Scribus (desktop publisher)
· Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF viewer)
· Bibletime (Bible study application)
· Deluge (BitTorrent client)

If you want a fast, lightweight, Slackware-based Linux operating system for your personal computer, you can download Absolute Linux 12.1.09 right now from here.
Source: http://linuxarticle.blogspot.com/

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