Category: News

Understanding Intel and AMD multicore Multiprocessor CPU / processor system

For gaming, hi-end graphics and server you need to use multicore, multiprocessor system. How multiprocessor system works?

This guide provides good information:

Even to the casual observer, it is apparent that the time of multicore computing is upon us. In fact, this shift occurred several years in the past. The first general purpose CPU to feature Chip Multi-Processing (CMP) was the IBM POWER4, which debuted in 2001. Today, there is not a high performance processor family without a shipping multicore design. Even our video game consoles are shifting in that direction. The Xbox 360 feature 3-way symmetrical CMP, while the CELL processor uses up to 8 SIMD Processing Elements. With the shift towards multicore systems, it is more important than ever to understand the additional complexities of multi-processor systems over traditional uni-processor machines.

Multicore designs bring almost all the difficulties that previously belonged to high-end MP systems to our desktops, laptops and consoles. Before the shift to CMP, shared memory system design was an esoteric art.

Read more…

Howto: Find out if my dog is going blind

I was just thinking that if Moti is going to be blind or what.. :(

To be frank I’ve no idea howto verify this. The only solution is finding a vet and takes dog to a vet, IMHO.

Online I can find some help but it is better to seek the advice of your vet or other qualified pet care provider before you decide on any treatment to any problem you may have.

Gmail, Yahoo mail and rediffmail offering unlimited email INBOX storage

First it was rediffmail to offer unlimited storage. Next it was Yahoo’s turn.

Google announced today that soon customers of their Gmail service will have their storage size increased to “infinity plus one.” The announcement comes shortly after Yahoo’s announcement that their Yahoo mail customers would be given unlimited storage.

Yahoo announced that:

As Yahoo! Mail approaches its 10-year anniversary, I’m the lucky one who gets to announce that we will begin offering everyone unlimited email storage starting in May 2007

I rate service as follows:
=> My own personal mail server
=> Gmail
=> Yahoo
=> Rediffmail

MP3 – MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 history : How MP3 Was Born

Most of us use mp3 file almost everyday. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3 file. It is nothing but audio files to play on computer and other devices. It is compression format so that large audio file such as .wav stored in small size w/o losing quality.

So how MP3 was born:

Karlheinz Brandenburg often is cited as the inventor of the music format. But he credits many for a discovery that has upended the music business. Karlheinz Brandenburg doesn’t like being labeled the “inventor” of MP3. He points out that the most popular format for digital music on the Internet is the work of at least a half-dozen core developers and many others who made important contributions. Even folk-rock singer Suzanne Vega inadvertently played a walk-on role in the creation of MP3. “I know on whose shoulders I stand and who else contributed a lot,” says Brandenburg, now director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau, Germany.

=> Read more : How MP3 Was Born

PS: Wikipedia has more information about MP3 history

Your WordPress blog may get hacked if you are using 2.1.1 version

I’ve updated my blog few days back. But in case if you are still running 2.1.1 makes sure you get updated version.

This morning we received a note to our security mailing address about unusual and highly exploitable code in WordPress. The issue was investigated, and it appeared that the 2.1.1 download had been modified from its original code. We took the website down immediately to investigate what happened.

It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.

Read more

Now read gmail from BlackBerry mobile phone

I’ve google email apps account for one of my domain.

Google has now introduced this new feature. It allows me to read mail on my BlackBerry. It’s new and it’s fast.

a) All you have to do is visit this site : m.google.com/a from the BlackBerry browser

b) Download the free application

c) And you can access mail from BlackBerry itself.

Cool Features

=> It has the same mail interface that I use on Firefox browser

=> My account stays synchronized whether I access it from computer or from BlackBerry

=> I can easily view attachments such as photos, documents and .pdf files

The Best Question and Answer (Q & A) Site / Service

Q & A, generally meaning Questions & Answers.

The concept is very simple everyone knows about something. There are also lots of people without any knowledge. So both type of people comes together for knowledge sharing for fun and education.

This article puts Yahoo Answers, Amazon’s Askville, and rival question-and-answer services to the test.

From the article:
That’s one lesson I took away from my recent survey of the growing collection of social question-and-answer websites, where members can post questions, answer other members’ questions, and rate other members’ answers to their questions–all for free.

But it takes a lot of sifting to get truly useful information from these sites. Each boasts a core of devoted members who leave thorough and well-documented answers to the questions they deem worthy. And most of the sites have systems for rating the performance or experience of answerers, which makes it easier to assess their reliability, while also inspiring members to compete with one another to give the best answers. But not all of the Q&A sites do this equally well; after all, the companies that run these sites are selling advertising space, not information.

Final Result
1. AnswerBag
2. Askville
3. Live QnA
4. Wondir
5. Yahoo Answers
6. Yedda

Read more at What’s the Best Q&A Site?

PS3 first impression

It is not available in India. But it is launched in Japan. Japanese gamer Teruma Naito from Oda City was one of the lucky few to bag a PlayStation 3. Here he gives his impressions of launch day and his early experience with the console:
The news footage of more than 1,000 people lined up outside the first shop to sell the PS3 in Tokyo was phenomenal.

I have never seen anything like that before in Japan. Such was the competition that apparently people were going to the length of paying homeless people up to 10,000 yen (£45) to line up on their behalf

The PS3s internet capabilities are impressive. By using the analogue sticks to move the mouse pointer, I was pretty much able to do everything from view videos on YouTube, download photos and videos attached to my e-mails and even do on-line banking and complete a money transfer.