Morgan Nicol, founder of Ritchey International has branched out in a new direction, founding Oval, dedicated to producing top end components like the new carbon fiber aerodynamic fork, created and patented by Lance Armstrong's go-fast guru John Cobb. Look for the Oval aero fork to make its first appearance in this years Tour De France and be available at retail later this year. Oval also has nice new bars and stems.
Giant's imminent TCR carbon
Photo: © Cyclingnews
Giant is just rolling out their TCR Compact Carbon Fiber frame as used by the ONCE-Eroski team. Developed and built in Taiwan, this wicked-looking TCR carbon fiber sports FSA carbon fiber cranks and superlight wheels with carbon fiber rims. Giant should be shipping the TCR Compact carbon fiber this spring.
FSA carbon stem
Photo: © Cyclingnews
Speaking of FSA, big Tim Campen, Full Speed Ahead's USA sales and marketing manager showed cyclingnews.com the new K-Force Lite carbon fiber road stem. 120 grams with carbon fiber and CNC 7000 series aluminium and titanium hardware, this will eventually mate with a K-Force Lite carbon fiber road handlebar. Plus, FSA is especially proud of their peloton presence this year with the French Bonjour squad, but their top quality product is 100 percent Taiwan made.
Trigon's tidy stays & BB
Photo: © Cyclingnews
Trigon carbon fiber had the most advanced array of carbon fiber products at the Taipei show. The new trend coming to high end road bikes for 200
April 2002 Archives
www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis. Sems like a very good technical review for both moutain and road bikes.
Domain Names Registrars - Dotster. It is hard to believe, but there is actually a website that is a portal for domain registration and other low cost web hosting services. I'm going to try dotster to see if this works better than the $35/year that network solutions charges. Wish me luck. You'll see geekfishing.net shortly come up!
BikerBob - Bike Shop, Bike Deals, Trail Info, and Bicycle News A deep MTB bikeshop
BeyondBikes.com - Your high-end bike source. A great high end bike shop like downhill zone in Seattle. This one is in San Diego right in Rancho
Mountain bike action -- Ask RC. Probably the best Q&A from an expert on mountain biking. Very readable and he updates it alot!
Audio Survey - Mail Order Survey Results. This was one of the virst survey sites that I used for buying audio video equipment. I mainly use www.bizrate.com now though and the pricegrabber.com ratings.
=== AX - lightness ===. These are truly ridiculous light saddles. probably torture chambers, but what the heck, we are talking a 75 gram seat!
Tom's Hardware Guide CPU Guide: The Final Battle: P4/2400 vs. Athlon XP 2100 (2400 ) - Intel Pentium 4 vs. AMD Athlon XP The chapter on memory is clearly of a political nature, because ultimately, Intel has committed itself to DDR technology after RDRAM was massively boycotted by the market. With the continually increasing clock speeds, especially with the Intel platform, one thing is obvious: the single-channel DDR technology (DDR266) cannot offer enough bandwidth to achieve optimal system performance. A System with Rambus memory or dual-channel DDR helps, but the latter is certainly not in sight. So the only thing that's left for the power user is the possibility of switching to the RDRAM platform. In any case, as our benchmark results show, DDR266 memory slows down the entire system with clock speeds of 2.5 GHz, at the very latest. Even the Pentium 4/2400, which we ran with 133 MHz FSB, showed an indisputable increase in speed when used in combination with 533 MHz RDRAM memory. Highly confidential roadmap documents, which are revealed to only the closest of partners, prove that the manufacturer will already be introducing a chipset with Dual DDR support at the end of this year. This is supposed to provide the bandwidth required for P4 CPUs with clock speeds starting from 3 GHz.
Tom's Hardware Guide CPU Guide: The Final Battle: P4/2400 vs. Athlon XP 2100 (2400 ) - Limited Quantities: Rambus Boards from Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and QDI It's already an established fact that when Intel launches the 850E chipset in May, only a very few board makers will be offering the corresponding mainboards. The manufacturers estimate that this niche market is not as lucrative, so they are concentrating on the DDR platform. Only Asus, Gigabyte and QDI will have boards available, and MSI will monitor the market demand first before making a decision. For this underlying reason, mostly boards with the Intel 845D chipset will be produced for the mass market. It remains to be seen if the SiS 645DX chipset, which is of good quality and costs less, will be accepted.
Tom's Hardware Guide CPU Guide: The Final Battle: P4/2400 vs. Athlon XP 2100 (2400 ) - New RDRAM With 32 Bit, Bundled With Motherboards There are some new developments with RDRAM, which will be available in two different versions in the future: the standard 16-bit will be offered, as will a 32-bit version, which will differ mechanically from previous modules. Asus plans to be the first manufacturer to offer 32-bit memory (Kingston) bundled with its P4T533 motherboard in May. Samsung and Infineon will forgo production of 32-bit modules entirely after PC1066. Infineon will go so far as to offer only PC800 modules for 400 MHz.
J & N Computer Services. A good example of someone that I'll probably buy from to create a homebrew server circa 2002.
The Ethereal Network AnalyzerEthereal is a free network protocol analyzer for Unix and Windows. It allows you to examine data from a live network or from a capture file on disk. You can interactively browse the capture data, viewing summary and detail information for each packet. Ethereal has several powerful features, including a rich display filter language and the ability to view the reconstructed stream of a TCP session.
Tom's Hardware Guide Graphics Guide: Tom's VGA Charts - Introduction The VGA charts give you a performance overview for the most widespread collection of graphics cards and 3D chips on the market! Here, we bring you VGA charts from 30 different graphics cards. Interesting stuff shows how fast the GEForce 4 cards are and how good the GeForce 3 still is.
AT&T Cable Services Channel Lineup - King/Snohomish Washington. Basically accurate cable lineup. Only mistakes are that channel 2 is now PAX and Discovery channel analog is now 8.
net stumbler dot com. Another great tool for 802.11
80211Planet - Insights: 802.11 Cantennas Done Up Homebrew Style. A very cool article about antennas
Use a Surplus Primestar Dish as an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networking Antenna Use a Surplus Primestar Dish as an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networking Antenna
Primestar was recently purchased by Direct TV who is phasing out all the Primestar equipment. This means that the dishes are being trashed, and are available for other uses such as the one I describe here. It is easy to make a surplus Primestar dish into a highly directional antenna for the very popular IEEE 802.11 wireless networking. The resulting antenna has about 22 db of gain, and is fed with 50 ohm coaxial cable. Usually LMR400 or 9913 low loss cable is used if the source is more than a few feet from the antenna. The range using two of these antennas with a line of sight path is around 10 miles at full bandwidth. I must stress the line of sight part though. Leaves really attenuate the signal.
Lake MXZ300 Winter Shoes Lake MXZ300 Winter Shoes ... $179.95 ** SALE $149.88. Wow, check this out. This or the Gaerne Polar Road at recommended at www.icebike.com
Icebike Home Page. One of my favorite sites for riding in the cold and wet. Took most advice for gear from here. Try it!
Camelbak Rogue Brand New 2002! Hydration System$39 for the Rogue. Seems like the lowest price I've seen.
Camelbak Rogue Brand New 2002! Hydration System Need another one of htese. It is $38 here.
Bicycling : Daily : Product Of The Day!. A good 131 gram light road stem, but what's its internal size?
Bicycling : Daily : Product Of The Day!. Just note the Deda Elementi 215 since that is what Lance rides and it is only $80. There is also the Deda Elementi Newton which is supposed to be very stiff.
Bicycling : Daily : Product Of The Day!. The coolest road bar is the Easton EC 90. Does need a new 26.0mm stem though :-(
BeyondBikes.com - Your high-end bike source. I just love this custom builder they have on beyondbikes.com for doing an Ellsworth!
SatCom PASSPort™ Products SatCom Electronics has recently introduced variations of the SatCom PASSPort antenna system including a flat satellite antenna for the home and apartment(HDBS model) and a version for use in RV's, boat and buses(MDBS model). The MDBS-AA2000 is equipped with a microprocessor control with intelligent satellite auto acquire algorithm to ensure the most reliable power-on-demand performance. The SatCom PASSPort HDBS-2000 for home is the permanent mount version of the unique flat-panel antenna designed to receive both DIRECTV™ and DISH Network™ programs. An enhanced version of the Digital Satellite Seeker, the DSS-2000, will also be available. The DSS-2000 contains built-in intelligence that can discriminate between the targeted satellite and other satellite.
Road Saddles Selle Italia SLR San Marco Colnago Pinarello Era Pro Link, Trans Am, Aspide saddle Some truly lightweight saddles.
Mountain Bike - Daily Bread - Gear Queer The most expensive saddle race continues
Until recently, the leader of the most expensive saddle race was the very comfortable, $180 Fizik Aliante. That was until I came across the $275 Selle San Marco Era Composite. Tubular titanium rails, carbon/Kevlar shell and superlight foam covered by a nylon weave. Claimed weight is 128 grams, though on our scale, it weighed 140 grams. If that's too much cash for you, try the $100, 160 gram Aspide. While you're at the SSM site, check out the ERA R1, a saddle/post combo that allows on-the-fly fore/aft adjustment. www.sellesanmarco.com
Excel Sports Boulder Fizik Aliante. The other saddle is the Fizik Aliante
Excel Sports Boulder. Wow $200 for a Era Compoasite saddle. Need to look for reviews of it.
Cycle clothing and cycle accessories from Probikekit.com - for all your cycling needs. Another great discount place inthe UK besides Total Cycle
Selle San Marco Era Composite saddle. Wow, how cool a 128 grame carbon saddle that weights 128gm.
2001 Washington State Elementary Chess Championship - Welcome!. The state chess tournament Alex is in.
Motherboards.com - Pentium 4 Chips. A good place to see how pricing works. Yikes, the latest ones, like the 2.2GHz today costs $595, but then drops to $205 with the 1.8GHz. Will likely get a 533MHz system then in the fall when the prices will drop.
Motherboards.com - Pentium 4 Chips. A good place to see how pricing works. Yikes, the latest ones, like the 2.2GHz today costs $595, but then drops to $205 with the 1.8GHz. Will likely get a 533MHz system then in the fall when the prices will drop.
Motherboards.com - Abit TH7-2 RAID P4 Socket 478 Intel® 850 (ICH2) RAMBUS. This looks like the best motherboard to get for the new Pentium. Has RAID on board. Will have to wait for the 850E to ship and the new Pentium 4/2666A with 133/533 bus though.
Pentium 133 and RDRAM 533 much faster than single channel DDROK, to make the decision harder, even though RDRAM is "obsolete" and the main path is DDR, RDR 533 is a better choice for performance...
As of today, we have already tested the processors that Intel won't be bringing you until the fall of this year, at the earliest. Above all, this is related to the models Pentium 4/2666 and Pentium 4/2533, which are the first CPUs to offer support for 533 MHz Rambus. Our benchmark results clearly prove that if Intel changes the FSB and memory clocks (to 133 MHz and 533 MHz, respectively), this will put it quite a distance ahead of its competition from AMD, as well as its own series of processors. In the Office Performance category, the Pentium 4/2666 with 533 MHz RDRAM soars about 50% above the fastest AMD Athlon XP 2000 (VIA KT333 platform and DDR333). In MPEG-2 video encoding, the Pentium 4/2666 is approximately 25% ahead of the AMD Athlon XP 2000 (VIA KT333 platform). What's more, the P4 2666/533 achieves higher benchmark results than a P4 3000/400 in some categories.
Here, we'd like to make a general observation about the benchmark tests: used together with a 533 MHz memory clock, the performance of the Pentium 4 increases accordingly in all categories. By comparison, the growth in performance for the AMD processors, in conjunction with the VIA KT333 chipset, is relatively small. This fact is partially due to the DDR333 memory modules that we used, which did not work in CL2.0 mode. So, now it can already be determined that, in the future, AMD processors (Athlon XP/MP) will not make such big leaps in performance .
Tom's Hardware Guide Mainboard Guide: SiS 645DX - Is This The Best Chipset For The P4? - Memory Problem: DDR333 Is Still Rare on the Market. OK, in buying a new system, the big question is, the new Pentium 2500 will be 133 FSB and have incredible memory throughput for video but use RDRAM which looks like a dead end. The alternative is to wait for the 850E or get the 845Sis which supports DDR333 that ahs 2.7GB/s vs. RDR 3.2GB in dual mode.
Buy the right software
Here's a quote from them. I'm assuming that I get a fireware on the motherboard for Grace's computer...
The MOST important decision you are going to make when you get started in digital video editing is picking the right software for you. As you probably know, there are several very inexpensive NLE software titles that come bundled with FireWire cards for $100 or less. We feel most of these are not a good choice. We recommend that you pick one of these 3 programs for getting started:
Pinnacle Studio 7.
This is the latest version of Pinnacle's very intuitive and easy to use Studio software. What makes this program such a good choice for beginning editors is the simplicity. Everything is drag & drop. Studio 7 can automatically scan and capture your footage for you. Studio 7 integrates some very powerful programs into it's bag of tricks. You get TitleDeko for your titling, Hollywood FX for some very cool 3D transitions, Quicktracks for creating your sound tracks and Smart Capture. Smart Capture is super cool. It lets you capture low-resolution proxy files of your video – saving you TONs of disk space. You do all your editing using these proxy files, then when you are ready to go, Smart Capture goes back and captures only the footage you are using in your production in FULL DV resolution. Another very big plus for beginners is that Studio 7 gives you both storyboard and timeline based editing.
Ulead Media Studio Pro 6.5
This isn't the low end Video Studio software; it is the full-featured program. I've been a huge fan of MS Pro since version
The Electronic Mailbox - Windows XP tips & tricks for NLE. Some tips for using XP for DV editing.
Videoguys makes an EIDE RAID Controllers suggestion
If you have a fasttrak or any other IDE Raid controller and you are dropping frames or simply not getting the performance you expect, try this great tip. Your computer will act like you've increased your CPU Power, Windows will open faster, your system will be more stable, your RAID will benchmark at dramatically higher throughput, and you will no longer drop any frames!
go in to your Bios
Advanced
PCI Configuration
PCI Latency Timer
CHANGE IT FROM 32 TO 64
The Sports Authority - Coach's Corner. A Good online guide to buying a baseball mitt
Mountain Bike - Bikes. A good piece about trail bikes. Specialized does well again.
Monkey's Audio - a fast and powerful lossless audio compressor. OK, got things working, butnow I'm ripping things. Seems like Monkey's lossless compression is a good idea. Also going to try variable bit rate MP3 to see if that is as good.
TMPG Enc Net. Reportedly the very best MPEG2 Encoder there is and it's free!
VCDHelp.com. Wow a site that will help you make VCDs and DVDs. The next step for me!
Stealth P2P network hides inside Kazaa - Get rid of Kazaa ASAP!
By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 1, 2002, 5:35 PM PT
A California company has quietly attached its software to millions of downloads of the popular Kazaa file-trading program and plans to remotely "turn on" people's PCs, welding them into a new network of its own.
Brilliant Digital Entertainment, a California-based digital advertising technology company, has been distributing its 3D ad technology along with the Kazaa software since late last fall. But in a federal securities filing Monday, the company revealed it also has been installing more ambitious technology that could turn every computer running Kazaa into a node in a new network controlled by Brilliant Digital.
The company plans to wake up the millions of computers that have installed its software in as soon as four weeks. It plans to use the machines--with their owners' permission--to host and distribute other companies' content, such as advertising or music. Alternatively, it might borrow people's unused processing power to help with other companies' complicated computing tasks.
Brilliant Digital CEO Kevin Bermeister says computers or Internet connections won't be used without their owners' permission. But the company will nevertheless have access to millions of computers at once, almost as easily as turning on a light switch.
"Everybody will get turned on in more or less a simultaneous fashion," Bermeister said. "This will be an opt-in program...We're trying to create a secure network based on end-user relationships."
The Brilliant Digital plan is the most ambitious yet from a string of companies that have tried to make money off the millions of people who are downloading and using free file-swapping programs such as Kazaa, MusicCity's Morpheus or LimeWire.
Nearly all of the file-swapping programs now routinely come bundled with so-called adware or spyware--programs that automatically pop up advertisements while people surf the Web or that keep track of where someone surfs, information that can then be sold to marketing companies. Despite growing concerns about this bundled software, usage and downloads of the file-swapping programs are at an all-time high.
But Brilliant's plan, by tapping into the computer resources of the file-swappers themselves, has fallen into a new realm where start-ups such as Kontiki and Red Swoosh are just starting to gain traction. Those companies are trying to use peer-to-peer technology to distribute content more quickly online, but they face a battle convincing people to install their software and become distribution points.
Brilliant, by contrast, already has potentially tens of millions of computers in its network, simply by piggybacking on top of Kazaa.
According to CNET Download.com, a popular software aggregation site owned by News.com publisher CNET Networks, the Kazaa software--and by extension the Brilliant software--was downloaded more than 2.6 million times last week alone. Brilliant has been distributing the core technology for its peer-to-peer service along with Kazaa since February, Bermeister said.
The Brilliant network is based on a piece of software called "Altnet Secureinstall," which is bundled with the Kazaa software. That technology can connect to other peer-to-peer networks, ad servers or file servers independently of the Kazaa software and can be automatically updated to add new features, according to Brilliant's filing.
When the software is "turned on," computers running the Brilliant software will form a new peer-to-peer network separate from but connected to Kazaa, the filing said. A few computers with fast connections will form the early core of the network and be asked to join first. Other ordinary computers and Net connections will be invited later, Bermeister said.
Brilliant's software will be able to understand and respond to searches inside Kazaa, since it is based on the same technology. But if it is successful, Brilliant will be able to host content and run "distributed computing" applications over the new network that is entirely separate from Kazaa or other file-swapping networks based on the same technology.
Working behind the scenes
Brilliant and Bermeister have played a central role in many of the events shaping the file-swapping world in the past few months.
Bermeister began distributing his company's 3D advertising software along with the Kazaa software last year. That's how he got to know the founders of Kazaa BV, the Dutch company that created the file-swapping technology originally used by Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokster.
When the Kazaa BV founders decided they didn't want to be in the network business, Bermeister introduced them to a former associate in Australia, Nicola Hemming. Her new company, Sharman Networks, bought the Kazaa software and continues to distribute it.
Bermeister is now drawing on his association with the Dutch programmers for his new venture. Brilliant has created a new company for the peer-to-peer service, called Altnet. It has licensed the Dutch programmers' technology from their new venture, called Blastoise. According to Brilliant's annual report, filed Monday, the Dutch programmers have taken a 49 percent stake in Altnet.
Brilliant has been subpoenaed in the record labels and big movie studios' copyright infringement lawsuit against Kazaa BV. No suit has been filed against Brilliant or Sharman Networks, however.
The immediate plans for Altnet, Brilliant and the new peer-to-peer network remain unclear.
Bermeister said the company had been testing the technology along with ad giants DoubleClick as a way to serve ordinary Web ads more quickly. Under this plan, an ad that a person sees on a Web site might be hosted by a nearby computer running Brilliant's Altnet instead of on a central ad server, as now typically happens with DoubleClick.
Brilliant's CEO was quick to note that people would be asked before their computers were used for this or other purposes. He said the software would show a pop-up box explaining the network's function and giving people a chance to turn it off. People who allow their computers to be used will be compensated somehow, possibly with gift certificates or free videos, the company's filing said.
However, people who accept "terms of service" already distributed with Brilliant's and Kazaa's software are already agreeing to let their computers be used without any payment at all.
"You hereby grant (Brilliant) the right to access and use the unused computing power and storage space on your computer/s and/or Internet access or bandwidth for the aggregation of content and use in distributed computing," the terms of service read. "The user acknowledges and authorizes this use without the right of compensation."
Anybody who declines this provision is not able to install the Kazaa file-swapping software. Brilliant's software can be disabled or removed after installation without affecting Kazaa's performance, however.
A representative for Sharman, which distributes the Kazaa software, could not be reached for comment.
Privacy-rights advocates contacted for comment expressed some concern about the way the Altnet software has been distributed and about whether the millions of people who already have it installed on their computers will be tech-savvy enough to know what they're agreeing to when and if Brilliant does ask to use their computers.
"A lot of the people most likely to use this software are teenagers or college students. There's a lack of sensitivity about privacy in that age group," said Larry Poneman, CEO of Privacy Council, which helps companies manage privacy issues. "Do they really want to be commandeered and have their machines do things that aren't necessarily in their best interest?"
Fixed DMA on Hard Drive
Thank goodness for the Internet! I finally deleted the checksum entries per the note about doing this in the registry. It reidentified the hard disk. I guess I was getting CRC errors before. Anyway, now I'm Ultra DMA Mode 4 on the main hard drive and Mode 2 on my CDRW and Mode 5 on my two ATA/100's. Now if only I could figure out why my Promise mirroring is causing all kinds of disk errors!
Windows XP and unsticking PIO Mode Here is another piece about this. Will try this next after an uninstall.
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives can revert to using PIO mode, despite being set to use "DMA if Available." This article explains how to make Windows XP redetect the DMA capabilities of the drives.
This behaviour occurs with the following conditions:
Windows XP is the operating system
A CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, which is known to support DMA mode now works only in PIO mode.
The drive controller is set to use "DMA if available" but reports to be only in PIO mode.
DISCLAIMER
Notorious Networks, its employees, associates and owners can make no warranty about the effectiveness of this workaround. We are not be liable for any damages to software, hardware, data, or finances, that may take place due to the application of this procedure.
RESOLUTION
NOTE: This procedure involves editing the Registry. This should only be attempted by expert users or computer professionals. Editing the registry can cause the computer to become unusable.
Open RegEdit
Find the following KEY
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000x
The last four digits will be 0000, 0001, 0002, 0003, and so on.
Under each key, delete all occurences of the following values:
MasterIdDataChecksum
SlaveIdDataChecksum.
Reboot the computer. Windows will now redetect DMA settings.
DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP. I can't get my boot drive on my P3V4x into Ultra DMA mode anymore. STaty stuck in PIO. Tried to toggle the setting, but it won't stick. It used to work under Windows 98.
www.firmware.fr.st. Wow, yet another firmware page. I can't believe this goes on and on.
The firmware forum - -. I think that my firmware is bad on my Lite-on CDRW. The stuff from the internet is now making coasters. The discussion on the LIte-on forum seem to all say this. Amazingly, there is actually an entire forum and website on firmware flashing so I'll check here.
LiteonitWell, taking the mirror off my hard drives has improved stability. I haven't had a single chkdsk problem since I got rid of the hardware mirroring, but now my CDRW keeps breaking. Am installing the latest firm called R32XS0R.zip updated 02-04-2002 in the hopes that it will help. Also uninstalled Nero and deleted the CD from the machine drive and cleared out the registry entry that has LowerFilters in it. We'll see if that helps. The bug is that I can't read the CDRW when I've got a raw CDR in it. It says, "inaccessbile function"
So there is something wrong with the driver set I think in XP. I hope I don't have to completely reinstall XP!
DNS Lookup. A popular place to lookup names and TCP/IP addresses from the Internet DNS