Thursday, December 19, 2002

DirectX 9.0 Released -- 11:15 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Microsoft has released the DirectX 9.0 End-User Runtime. The usual caveats apply--it cannot be uninstalled. I never upgrade DirectX until I get a game that requires it. By that time, the early adopters have ironed out the inevitable bugs. Thanks Blue's News.

UT2K3 2166 Patch Released -- 9:50 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Epic has released the 2166 patch for Unreal Tournament 2003. Demo recording and playback has been added. For the rest of the additions and fixes, check out the changelog. The patch is for the Windows version and weighs in at 12.3M. I assume the patch for the Linux version will be coming soon.

UPDATE! The 2166 patch for the Linux version of UT2K3 is now available as well. Get it through the auto-updater. I know I did!

Pondering the Imponderable -- 1:05 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Continuing my series of "Things that have little to do with this website, but I find them funny nonetheless," I present to you Ray Ratto's column on ESPN.com, writing what the judge really should have said about Bond's 73rd home run ball. Anybody who looks for legal precedent in the All-England Summarize Proust competition is OK in my book.

Quick quiz: What was the criterion used to determine the winner of the All-England Summarize Proust competition? The first with the answer wins a free blow to the head!

The Master comments: Okay, I read that at work. I'm quite certain my co-workers think I have lost my mind. But I needed a laugh :-)

I Want My VDSL! -- 11:09 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

HardOCP linked to an article on How Stuff Works that describes VDSL technology. VDSL uses the fiber optic cables that have been run all over the place to increase the "last mile" bandwidth significantly, to the tune of 52Mbps! The top speed for cable or ADSL is about 8-10Mbps. This service is actually being tested by Qwest. Now THAT'S fast!

The Master comments: Yeah, but it's moot. That kind of last-mile throughput would kill ISPs, since there are nearly no ISPs with that much upstream bandwidth. Throughput in broadband terms almost never has anything to do with last-mile bandwidth.

MP3 Buffer Overrun in Winamp, WinXP -- 10:13 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Winamp and Windows XP have some pretty serious buffer overrun problems with MP3s with malformed ID3v2 tags. Both could allow remote code execution. The WinXP version is more troubling, because the file wouldn't have to be played. The directory containing the file would just have to be browsed. Thankfully, there's a new version of Winamp available and a patch from Microsoft to fix those problems. Thanks Slashdot.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

RealPlayer Fixes: This Time For Sure! -- 7:47 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Real has finally released patches that actually fix the buffer overrun problems in RealPlayer. Affected products are RealOne Player and RealOne Player v2 for Windows, RealOne Player for Mac OS X, RealOne Enterprise Desktop Manager, and RealOne Enterprise Desktop. You can download the update from Real's site.

The Two Towers Delivers -- 3:41 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

Just got back from the first showing of The Two Towers and can safely say that if you loved the first movie, you'll love this one too. If you didn't see the first or read the book, watch Fellowship of the Ring first. And go early: the movie starts off with a bang.

Linux AV Project -- 9:48 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony announced a joint effort to create a Linux-based platform for home electronics. I assume this will be something like Microsoft's Windows Media Center. Best of all, the code will be released under the GPL! Hopefully this will mean some polished home entertainment software will finally hit the Linux scene. Thanks Blue's News.

Past Two Days' News

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