Category: Computers
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Network traffic: BitMeter to replace DU-meter
I have been testing DU-meter as a way to display the network traffic around my computer. It shows a nice little graph to present the network traffic in a very usable/understandable way like here: This graph is updated in real-time which means that color bar allow you to recognize incoming or outgoing traffic, but this…
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Vista: Time for 64 bits
While Vista will soon be available in a 64-bit version (and that GNU/Linux went down this path several months ago), it is time to ponder the following question: “Do we need to go 64 bits?” And the answer is surprisingly simple if you look at it. Currently, PC are more and more often equiped with…
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AntiGravity: Toilets flush and Microsoft
There is no end to jokes about what Microsoft did wrong (they’re the number one target for many jokes and many grievances, just from their being #1 software company). Today, I want to point you to an excellent little paper by Steve Mirsky published in his excellent column in Scientific American magazine. In the October…
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Public-Key cryptography ready to shatter?
Public-Key Cryptography is a very common technique used to protect sensitive information by encoding it in such a way that decoding relies on the extreme difficulty of some mathematics techniques (like finding the root factors of a prime integer). Today, a large part of our security is relying on this (including most of the secure…
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KNOPPIX: Linux to save a Windows install
I had recently a significant problem while trying to upgrade a Windows 98 installation to Windows 2000 pro. Everything turn ugly (I clicked to fast on a button and could not provide drivers for my motherboard, the installation went bad in the middle of the update of system parameters), leaving the system in a very…
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Exploding batteries kill Sony profits
The last figures have now been published: Sony finished counting the beans after several months of news of exploding laptop PC batteries and of worldwide product recalls. instead of 130 billion yens, they forecast to dive into a loss of about 50 billion yens. It is left to be seen what impact it will have…
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Windows Vista drivers are coming
Windows Vista is not yet available (still in beta test under the name of RC2), but both major 3D graphic card technology providers announced the availability of their new drivers under the WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certification. ATI, on the 26th September NVidia, on the 19th October This announces that your graphic card, either…
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Fujitsu and Hitachi caught in the Sony battery fiasco
This time, this is Hitachi who announces a global recall of its Sony-manufactured batteries. Only 16,000 this time, after Fujitsu (287,000 units this week), Dell (more than 4 millions in August) or Apple. Â Â Acer (one of the world’s largest laptop PC manufacturer who let a number of others re-brand their machines) is allegedly talking…
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Total recall for Sony Li-Ion batteries
After several weeks of companies lining up to recall portable PC using Sony Lithium-Ion batteries (Dell, Apple, Lenovo/IBM, toshiba, etc.), the Japanese manufacturer decided to move boldly: In order to avoid further spontaneous combustions and explosions, all laptop PC batteries using the Lithium-Ion technology from Sony are subject to a worldwide recall. There were already…