Wednesday, May 16, 2001
For Your Information (FYI)
- Melvin Tong @ 3:26 pm PST
Due to High-Bandwith, most downloads/files will be offline until further notice. Thanks for supporting NFS Xtreme.com.
Regards,
Melvin Tong
Webmaster
Sony Chooses Transmeta, Again..
- Melvin Tong @ 3:17 pm PST
Sony plans to sell a second Transmeta-based notebook in the United States, the consumer electronics giant will announce Wednesday.
Last fall, Sony became the first company to bring to the United States a notebook with a Transmeta processor. The first unit, the Vaio PCG-C1 PictureBook, used Transmeta's 600MHz Crusoe.
Sony's second such notebook, the Sony Vaio PCG-C1VP PictureBook, uses a 667MHz Crusoe and will ship next month in the United States for $2,000. The unit has been shipping in Japan for several months.
Sony's new PictureBook comes with an 8.9-inch active-matrix screen, a 15GB hard drive, 128MB of SDRAM and 8MB of graphics memory. The unit is 1.06 inches thick, 9.8 inches long and 6 inches wide. It weighs 2.2 pounds
Approval Given For '.biz,' '.info' Domain Names
- Melvin Tong @ 3:11 pm PST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Internet's governing body approved plans Tuesday to make two new Internet suffixes available, giving Web site owners an alternative to the crowded ".com" top level domain space.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, said it had finalized agreements to integrate the domains ".biz" and ".info" into its addressing system.
NeuLevel Inc., of Sterling, Virginia, will restrict .biz addresses to commercial businesses, while Afilias, a consortium of 18 domain registrars, will make .info available to the general public for any purpose.
ICANN selected seven new domain names to join the likes of .com, .org and .net last November. Agreements with the operators of the remaining five domains -- .aero, .coop, .museum, .name and .pro -- are expected shortly, ICANN said.
ICANN's accreditation means both companies can begin the process of making addresses available.
NeuLevel and Afilias will allow trademark holders to reserve addresses first, to discourage "cybersquatting," or the practice of snapping up addresses with the intention of reselling them. Coca-Cola Co., for example, would be permitted to reserve "coke.biz" and "coke.info" before other applicants.
Afilias plans to make its addresses active starting in early August, ICANN said, while NeuLevel's .biz address will be active in October.
Sony, AOL In Alliance For PlayStation 2 Consoles
- Melvin Tong @ 3:07 pm PST
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Sony Corp.'s game-making unit and AOL Time Warner Inc. unveiled an alliance on Tuesday that will let users of its PlayStation 2 game console access the Web, chat and e-mail using the AOL service, executives told Reuters.
The non-exclusive pact helps Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. market its games among that base as it gears up for battle against Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox -- expected to hit the markets this fall. More details of the Xbox launch are expected this week at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.
"Part of the (AOL alliance) is to strengthen Sony PlayStation 2's marketing drive for the fourth quarter," said Billy Pidgeon, analyst at Jupiter Media Metrix. (AOL Time Warner is the parent company of CNN.com.)
It also builds upon the world's largest Internet and media company's efforts to enable its 29 million members access to its services through devices beyond the personal computer.
"This is a natural evolution in PlayStation 2's strategy," said Kaz Hirai, president and chief operating officer of Sony's Computer Entertainment, in an interview. "It's an important first step taking PlayStation 2 into the online and broadband environment."
PlayStation 2, launched last March, has shipped more than 10 million machines as of last month. In April, Sony said it would begin selling an upgraded version of the game console that will let users plug in a broadband-ready hard disk drive unit, letting the console link to the Web at several times the speed of current connections and allow richer game content, including that from the newest casino online.
Microsoft's Xbox is expected to have a built-in 8-gigabyte hard drive and a high-speed Internet jack.
"We will wait to see the actual announcement, but I think (Xbox's hardrive) capacity is much smaller than the hard disk drives we are thinking about," Hirai said.
Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Potent Telescope Pair Penetrates Shroud of Venus
- Melvin Tong @ 5:47 pm PST
(CNN) -- Penetrating the thick clouds of Venus, two advanced observatories on Earth have teamed up to give a close-up glimpse of the shrouded planet. The observations, made by the two largest radio telescopes in the world, should help scientists determine whether the volcanic mountains on Venus have changed shape since a NASA orbiter mapped the planet in the early 1990s.
Underneath a bright veil of white clouds, Venus could prove as geologically active as Earth, churning and warping on the surface from volcanic processes, astronomers said.
Radar echoes picked up by the veteran Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and a new telescope in West Virginia should provide much better precision in measuring the altitudes of the planet's mountains than did the Magellan spacecraft, which capped off a four-mission by plunging into the venusian atmosphere in 1994.
"Having a really big telescope like the new Green Bank Telescope will be a real boon to radar studies of the solar system," said astronomer Donald Campbell, citing numerous possible celestial subjects such as asteroids near Earth and Titan, the large moon of Saturn.
Campbell, a Cornell University researcher, is heading up the Venus survey, the first since Magellan to cover large areas of the planet's surface. It will resolve features as small as 3,000 feet (1 km).
The new detailed images were released last week by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, which operates the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. The scientific photo shoot was the first for the new telescope, the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.
The 330-feet (100-meter) telescope collaborated for its debut with the 1,000-feet (305-meter) Arecibo observatory, the largest telescope of any kind in the world.
Home Improvement Goes Undercover On Space Station
- Melvin Tong @ 5:40 pm PST
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (AP) -- Astronaut Bill Shepherd was stunned -- and frustrated -- when he moved into the international space station last fall and discovered the kitchen table would not be arriving any time soon.
Shepherd did what any self-respecting home mechanic would do. He built his own table, out of space station scraps.
The home improvement project, however, turned into as stealth an operation as Shepherd had ever tackled as a Navy SEAL.
"We didn't want too much help from the ground," Shepherd explained recently from his NASA office. "So we figured if we got the thing going and it looked like it would be useful and a reasonable addition to the real estate up there, the ground would not object."
The ground was Russian Mission Control.
Expectations High For 3G
- Melvin Tong @ 5:17 pm PST
LONDON, England -- According to the mobile phone industry, 3G will revolutionize the way we use our phones, giving us capabilities we never dreamed of.
Industry officials are betting that demand for these extra wireless services will be huge. But what exactly is 3G and what will it mean for mobile users?
3G stands for "third generation," or the next generation of mobile phones being developed. It refers to the technology behind the handset -- the signals that transmit voice, data and multimedia services to the phone.
"We don't think that consumers should be that bothered about the technology as such, it's really what the technology can do for them that makes it exciting," says Steve Walker, marketing director for Ericsson UK.
"Really what we're talking about is taking mobile telephony beyond just voice, which is basically what it's used for today, and giving people a whole range of new exciting services down to their mobile phone," Walker says.
With 3G our handsets will become a combination of phone, personal organizer, remote computer link portable radio, television -- you name it, your phone will probably be able to do it, faster and clearer.
3G is different from its predecessors because it uses packet technology, breaking up signals into tiny bits to allow them to carry more information.
Phone companies are making huge investments in 3G, buying licenses, developing wireless networks and creating a global standard.
Microsoft Polishes Xbox for Big Video Game Expo
- Melvin Tong @ 5:08 pm PST
SEATTLE, Washington (Reuters) -- It's 7:55 a.m. at Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox video game console division, and a bleary-eyed employee is rolling up a blanket after a night on the couch.
This is crunch time for the world's biggest software maker as it prepares for its first foray into the console market and puts the finishing touches on Xbox demonstrations for this week's E3 video game industry expo.
It is there that Microsoft must put up or shut up, where it must prove that it has what it takes to challenge Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd. in the multibillion dollar video game market.
"As much as we plan, it's always a scramble because everyone wants things to look the best for the show," Ed Fries, Microsoft vice president of games publishing, said after a recent walk through offices that look more like college dormitories, with beanbag chairs strewn about and mountain bikes leaning up against cubicles.
"I hope what we show will really bring out the character of Xbox games," Fries said.
Microsoft's hardware and initial launch titles will debut together and the company will announce vital Xbox news -- when it will go on sale and for how much. But its presence at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles is as much about building "street cred" as it is about nailing down launch details.
"E3 is the turning point for us. That's when everything really starts to focus on the games themselves," Robbie Bach -- whose business card reads "Chief Xbox Officer" -- said in an interview.
Border Agents Use High-Tech Gadgets Against Drugs
- Melvin Tong @ 5:03 pm PST
SAN YSIDRO, California (AP) -- A beat-up Honda Accord lurches in stop-and-go traffic at one of the largest border crossings from Mexico. As it stands yards from the inspection booths -- but technically inside the United States -- an inspector with a large black Labrador walks toward the car. The dog suddenly stops sniffing, and sits.
Careful not to agitate the driver, the inspector points the car toward a covered parking lot, where a huge recreational vehicle with a metal arch idles. Without even peeking through the window, inspectors soon will know there are several bags of drugs hidden in the car.
New gadgets, like the X-ray system enclosed in that metal arch, are becoming essential tools for agents who patrol the nation's borders in the face of ever-growing traffic fueled by trade agreements like NAFTA.
"Technology has been a driver for us for the last 25 years," said Edward W. Logan, U.S. Customs Service special agent in charge for Southern California. "We've been on the pointy end of the sword dealing with this explosion in trade."
On the average, almost two cars cross into San Ysidro from Tijuana, Mexico, every second of every day. They can spend up to 90 minutes sitting in traffic lanes as agents search for contraband.
As the cars wait, agents walk through the lanes carrying black devices the size of bricks. Called "busters," they are dragged along a car to measure the density of the metal, revealing hidden spaces where smugglers can stash drugs or even people.
Fiber-optic camera
In hard-to-reach places like a gasoline tank, an inspector uses a long, fiber-optic camera, similar to those used in exploratory surgery, to check for drugs.
The mobile truck X-ray facing the Honda Accord moves slowly down the length of the vehicle, barraging it with X-ray transmissions. On a black and white screen, three dark blocks glow against the gray metal of the Accord's chassis, suggesting a drug stash. Another three blocks appear in a check of the other side.
When it comes to retrieving the evidence, no high-tech gizmo works better than a sharp metal pole. Stabbing it into the car's quarterpanels, fenders, upholstery and dashboard, agents stack up more than 80 pounds of marijuana.
The X-ray truck is new this year at the San Ysidro border station. At nearby Otey Mesa, California, where tractor-trailers pass into the country, a 90-foot-long gamma ray scanner is used on many of the more than 3,000 semis that travel through each day. The scanner's two large vertical bars move along the length of each trailer, firing gamma rays to provide inspectors with a silhouette of what's inside.
Thursday, December 28, 2000
Problems....
- Melvin Tong @ 4:00 pm PST
I'm back home and my modem is spoiled... :(
I can't update my site for some time now until my modem is fixed. I'm at my dad's office now. If you have any questions, email me. Bye and cya!
Tuesday, December 26, 2000
At The Airport...
- Melvin Tong @ 5:27 pm PST
Hey, I'm now in Hong Kong's airport using one of the free internet access computer. The flight is at 6pm and I should be back before midnight. Bye! I know, I know... the site is not updated! I will be busy sleeping when I'm home.
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