Saturday, November 6, 1999

RealNetworks, Microsoft Use GUIDs -- 6:40 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Slashdot pointed me to this article in Wired which shows that not only RealJukebox uses and transmits GUIDs (globally unique identifiers) but so does RealPlayer as well as Microsoft's Windows Media Player. Neither RealPlayer nor Media Player scan your hard disk and report that information like RealJukebox did, but both of them send your GUID to the server you are requesting a media stream from. This is only getting uglier . . .

GeForce DDR for $299 -- 10:33 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A number of manufacturers (Creative Labs and now Hercules/Guillemot) have announced GeForce boards with 32M of DDR RAM for a MSRP of $299. Wow. Crawl, get your credit card ready!

Savage 2K Preview -- 10:25 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

VoodooExtreme has posted a preview of S3's Savage 2000. It is not a "hands on" preview but discusses the specs and features of the chip and what it might mean to the 3D card market.

Pondering the Imponderable -- 10:11 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

OK, if regular memory is too slow and there are other bandwidth issues keeping the GeForce from hitting its 480 mpixels/sec and the Savage 2000 from hitting its 600 mpixels/sec, how in the world will 3dfx really be able to get 1000 mpixels/sec? Since 3dfx has yet to a) make use of the AGP bus, b) produce a chip capable of 32-bit color, and c) come up with a decent OpenGL ICD, I really wonder if they can do it.

The only way I can see them actually getting 1000 mpixels/sec is if they use embedded memory. I guess we'll know more by Comdex. Believe it or not, I'm actually hoping 3dfx pulls it off. To survive, they have to pull it off. By the time Napalm is released, NVIDIA's NV15 will be announced. It wouldn't surprise me if the NV15 had a fillrate (pure speculation) of about 750 mpixel/sec. If Napalm can't do 1000 mpixels/sec, it will neither be substantially faster than NV15, nor will it have hardware T&L. The plot thickens . . .

Friday, November 5, 1999

Rant -- 7:36 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

If I see that "Punch the Monkey" ad again (and it's a JAVA ad at that) one more time, I'm going to throw up. Too bad it won't let you punch the advertiser.

The Master comments: Oh, goody. And we now get even MORE of these wonderful frippin' Java banners courtesy of UGO, since Blue's News has joined the UGO network...

Micro$oft IS a Monopoly! -- 6:57 pm CST, Update by The Master

Microsoft Nailed! today, with Judge Jackson's ruling on the U.S. vs. Microsoft Anti-Trust lawsuit. I'm still blown away by M$'s attitude that what they do is okay. Take a look at Microsquash's announced pricing on Windows 2000 if you need proof of monopoly power. A $200 jump in price for a friggin' UPGRADE is monopoly power kids, no holds barred. Thanks ZDNet.

FOLLOWUP: Article on CNN in the same line, but a bit more detailed. Also a link to the full findings.

A.T. adds: It'll be interesting to see what will follow from here. This is a damning loss for Microsoft. Will the judgment have any impact on end-users? Time will tell.

sCary and Q3 -- 3:55 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

sCary has posted some answers to questions his readers posted regarding the latest build of Q3A he played at id recently. All of it seems like great news, except for the revelation that CTF will not be in the demo. Rats.

Todd Hollenshead .Plan -- 2:22 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Todd Hollenshead, id's CEO, updated his .plan with the news that the "tin box" edition of Quake III Arena contains the same stuff as the regular box does. Only 30,000 will be made. He also reiterates that the posted release dates on several retailers' sites are pure speculation. Q3A will be done "when it's done."

Downtime -- 1:14 pm CST, Update by The Master

Sorry about the downtime folks. We had a little snafu here and the wires came just a bit loose. I will try to get this kind of thing corrected so it never happens again. Oh, well...

New Slave Zero Demo -- 9:04 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Someone at Accolade must have heard my grumbling the other day. I was complaining about how Slave Zero had gone gold, yet there was only a pre-beta demo available. Well, I can gripe no more. They've released a new demo, presumably based on the gold (final, shipping) code. The new demo weighs in at almost 66 megs and is available from the official Slave Zero site (very slow right now), AVault, and the various mirrors that are FilePlanet.

Past Two Days' News

The Haus is powered by:

All original information on this website is copyright © TheHaus.Net, 1999-2005. The use of original images, text, and/or code from this website without expressed written consent is prohibited. The authors of this site cannot be held responsible for any damage, real or imagined, which comes from the use of information presented on this site. All trademarks used are the properties of their respective owners. This site is not to be used as a floatation device (but if you try, I want a video tape of it).