June 29th

Death By... Potato Chip?

It had to happen.  We all knew it was coming. Potato chips (or Potatoe chips if you are George Dubya) are toxic.  And so are French fries, and all other good, starchy, fried foods. Is this just another round of fat fear?  Nope.  These things are really, actually toxic.  It's not clear to me how food scientists missed this for so long, but researchers in Sweden found that potato chips, French fries, and even baked breads, contain high levels of a chemical called acrylamide. 

What the hell is acrylamide, and how did it get into your potato chips?  Acrylamide is a small molecule related to plastics.  In fact, it is a "monomer" which can be chemically linked end to end to form long molecular polymers (polyacrylamide).  This polyacrylamide is used routinely in labs around the world to separate proteins in a process known as "polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis". And if you have ever used acrylamide to do this, one of the first things you would have noticed was all the warning notices on bottles of acrylamide.  It is not only a known cancer causing chemical (carcinogen), but also a known neurotoxin. Indeed, the neurotoxic effects of acrylamide ingestion or inhalation may be permanent. 

How does this stuff end up in potato chips and fries?  Apparently, it is produced while cooking starchy foods at very high temperatures, as in the case of deep frying.  It seems that starches are converted to acrylamide at very high cooking temperatures. And the amounts of acrylamide in a single bag of potato chips can be equivalent to 500 times the amount allowed in drinking water. When tested, even tortilla chips and breakfast cereals were found to contain high levels of acrylamide. Researchers suggest that such high levels of a known carcinogen in common foods may account for much of the incidence of stomach and intestinal cancers around the world. 

One thing is clear, the basic research into what chemicals are in our foods is not nearly complete. For such high levels of such a toxic compound to have escaped scrutiny for so many years in so many common foods is an indictment of the food safety organizations in our country and abroad. Obviously, they need to do much better.

                                Dr. John

ICNR

June 28th

Palladium and the "Fritz Chip"

You all should know about Senator Fritz Hollings, and his tireless attempts to make PCs incapable of copying music files or running "unauthorized content".  The Trusted Computing Platform Alliance" or TCPA, is a hardware and software based system for preventing computers from doing many of the things they are now capable of.  Microsoft, AMD, Intel and many other companies say they are now working very hard to integrate TCPA features into hardware and software, including future versions of Windows.

At the heart of TCPA is a new chip added to motherboards, which have been affectionately dubbed "Fritz chips" after the good Senator.  But there is a double meaning here, since you can expect computers based on TCPA technology to go on the fritz far more often than their non-TCPA counterparts.  Eventually, Intel and AMD say they will incorporate TCPA into future processors. Lucky us.

Palladium is the software end of the business, and will be built-into future versions of Windows. The basic idea is that the Fritz chip will constantly check the machine state, and the "authorizations" for the OS and each application on the machine.  The OS will only boot if nothing is "amiss", that means no "unauthorized components or content".  The spin they are putting on this draconian move is that "PCs won't necessarily get faster, just more secure".  

Is that what computer owners want?  Slower computers that can't copy MP3 files without paid authorization?  I don't think so, and I doubt that talk about "secure computing" will change many minds.  So the question is, will folks run out to buy a "Fritz chip" computer, or will they shop around for Fritz-less options?  My guess is the later.  However, most computer users are far from techno-savvy, so if they get bombarded with propaganda about TCPA making their computers secure from hackers, maybe the IT industry will be able to bamboozle large numbers of casual computer users.  But the relatively smaller community of power users will certainly not go quietly into this good fight. So the next question is, will there be "Fritz-less" computer manufacturers that specifically sell only systems that have no TCPA components or operating systems?  What will become of Linux as Microsoft moves completely to "Palladium", especially if the internet becomes TCPA-ified?

The bottom line is this.  Computer and software makers are desperate to lock down the ability of modern computers until they are nothing more than paid content providing systems. This is not what computers were made for, they were made to be multifunctional, programmable devices with almost unlimited capabilities. Capabilities that the MPAA (motion picture assoc. of America) and RIAA (recording industry assoc. of America) want eliminated ASAP.

Finally, will TCPA create a black market for Fritz-less motherboards, or will it just make the last, fastest, Fritz-less computers the most popular on earth?  I can imagine a big run on the last round on non-TCPA hardware as soon as it becomes known that all motherboards after a certain date must have the Fritz chip installed.

                                Dr. John

TCPA

The Register

June 25th

Help Destroy Microsoft... Buy an X-Box!

A report over at the Red Herring indicates that Microsoft could lose as much as $750 million this year subsidizing X-Box sales. Apparently, MS loses about $150 per console sold, but Bill thinks this bleeding wound is worth the cost. However, while contemplating this odd business behavior, it struck me that this could be Microsoft's "A-Billese" heel.  What if everyone in the US went out and bought an X-Box tomorrow, and then threw them in the garbage can? (otherwise you might buy games for it, further supporting Bill's evil scheme).  At $150 a pop, that would put the hurt on Bill to the tune of $35 to $40 billion dollars, which would nearly wipe the poor boy out. This seems to be a small price to pay to wrest the computer industry from Bill's greedy hands, and return it the The People.  So I suggest that everyone do their part to eliminate this scourge on computerdom... buy an X-Box and chuck it! :)

                                 Dr. John

The Red Herring

Matrox Parhelia Reviewed

Scott over at The Tech Report has a review up on Matrox's new Parhelia video card. It has quite an impressive set of features, including the ability to drive 3 monitors in spanning mode for wide-screen gaming. But does it hold up to the Radeon 8500 and GeForce 4600 cards in speed?  Check out the review to find out.

The Tech Report

June 24th

Microsoft; Getting Desperate for Money?

Microsoft is pushing hard to get customers to pay up front for future software updates.  In what can only be described as an ad campaign from Hell, Microsoft warns (why do they always seem to threaten, rather than cajole?) their customers that they had better sign up and pay for "Update Advantage", otherwise they will have to pay even more for upgrades when they actually come out. Microsoft is also enlisting their distributors to get the message out to customers to pay now, or regret it later.  And there is a deadline.  If you don't pay up by July 31st, the deal is off. This is how the letter we got from one of our distributors ends:

Act Today! After July 31, it's too late!

I've never in my life observed such a blatant use of monopoly power in the software industry, especially considering that Microsoft has been found guilty of antitrust laws.  Microsoft feels it has enough power and leverage to threaten customers with increased prices if they don't pay up front for future updates, and to me, this is tantamount to coercion, or forced compliance. 

I predict that one outcome of this money grab will be that even more home users will switch to "cracked" versions of Microsoft software.  Of course, businesses can't do that, so they have to count beans for the next month, and figure out what to do.  Pay less now for future software you don't even know that you will want, or wait and see if you want it, and pay more.  For businesses using MS software, this could be a big deal.  I can't believe that all businesses will just cave on this and pony up with the dough for Bill, and I wonder if more and more small companies with good IT teams might not just can Microsoft altogether, and go for Linux servers and boxes.  Staroffice is pretty darn good, and "MS Office emulators" for Linux are coming online. Let's all cross our fingers and hope that Bill's money grab backfires, and ends up driving more companies away from Microsoft software.

                                 Dr. John

New VIA 4.40 4in1 Drivers Ready

There may not be a huge change, but VIA has updated the AGP portion of their unified chipset drivers for VIA-based motherboards. The new version, 4.40, is an incremental update, with the AGP driver going from 4.10b to 4.20a. The inf file has also been updated. VIA recommends that users of Windows 98SE and NT stick with the 4.38 unified driver, but that Windows 2000 and XP users should update to the new 4.40 version. I tested the new AGP driver on a Windows 2000/SPK2 system here, and I did not see any performance difference.  

                                 Dr. John

VIA

June 21st

Bill Teel: "Rambus Victim of Conspiracy!"

Our good buddy, Bill Teel of FedHacker (Fredhager.com), has the real scoop on the Rambus story.  Bill, an investment advisor who coincidentally has been pushing Rambus stock for 2 years, says that Rambus Inc is the victim of an evil conspiracy devised by all memory manufacturers. He says that a 1992 Infineon marketing presentation proves the conspiracy theory.  

But isn't this the same piece of paper that Bill has trotted out multiple times over the last year? It certainly is, and there's nothing new to the fact that memory makers were wary about Rambus and their move into the memory market as a royalty collector.  (Hell, just imagine what some of Microsoft's internal memos must look like!!)  I think it's going to be a tough row to hoe trying to make a single internal marketing memo from 10 years ago, by one memory company into a conspiracy, but what the hey, Bill can't twist a fact with the best of the spinmeisters.

Mr. Teel is living in a self-created world of imagination, where Rambus is completely innocent of any wrongdoing, and the whole world is conspiring against them.  It's a sad world to peer in on, but when "analysts" like Teel keep pumping out the spin, we can't help but look in, and shake our heads in pity. Get a life Bill, and while you're at it, read the complaint against Rambus filed by the FTC. Read the whole thing, don't just skim it. Then come back and tell me Rambus Inc is innocent.

                                Dr. John

June 20th

Rambus Again? Won't it Ever Die?

Rambus Inc. has been laying low lately, licking their self-inflicted wounds after a spate of bad court days.  But that didn't stop the Federal Trade commission from (finally) filing anti-trust charges against the little IP company that tried to corner the memory market, but couldn't. The FTC complaint was filed against Rambus yesterday, alleging that Rambus deceived the memory standards body, JEDEC, by using the standards meetings to tailor and amend their pending patent applications for SDRAM and DDR DRAM.  These allegations are 2 years old, so the move by the FTC seems long overdue.

But the memory makers whom Rambus is trying to force royalty payments out of are now in trouble with the DoJ. The Department of Justice subpoenaed Micron, Samsung and Infineon for information on pricing on memory modules over the last six months.  At issue are charges of both dumping (selling below cost to drive competitors out of the market), and price fixing (colluding with other companies to artificially inflate prices). It is not clear which companies are the target of the probe, and which have been subpoenaed merely for information.

One industry that has been doing particularly well after Enron's fall is the paper shredder manufacturing industry.  Apparently, Rambus has been giving them a boost as well, inasmuch as part of the FTC antitrust case alleges that Rambus employees deliberately destroyed documents related to the JEDEC standards meetings at issue. The entire FTC complaint (which is quite long, but a is also a very detailed overview of what Rambus actually did) can be found here.  

It's a sad day in memory land, and I can't help but think that the times will get even worse if sales remain slow, and the court cases go against these companies that are already hurting from the computer sales slump.

                                Dr. John

June 18th

0.13 Micronot

It's all your fault. You aren't buying new PCs and graphics cards, so the companies that make the requisite chips can't afford to move to the 0.13 micron fabrication process. It's expensive to make a change in the chip fabrication equipment and process used to make new chips.  Really expensive. So if you can't sell your existing chips, it's not going to be feasible to make such expensive upgrades to your factories.  Many companies just rent fabrication space, but even for them, a large team of engineers will need to work for many months to develop a new, smaller chip design that works.  So, for example, NVidia will be making it's next generation graphics chip based on 0.15 micron fabrication, because it will be easier to scale their designs to that size.  Intel took over a year to get their 0.13 micron process working well, with good yields.  AMD is still struggling to make the 0.13 transition. But the bottom line is simple. If PC sales remain very slow, there will be little incentive to take a quick plunge to 0.13 microns. 

                                Dr. John

EE Times

June 17th

Lindows Computers Now Available!

In an odd move, Wall Mart (everyone's favorite place to buy computer hardware) has decided to sell low-cost PCs with Lindows pre-installed. That's right, not Windows, but Lindows, the Windows-emulating version of Linux.  The major reason this seems so odd to me is that Lindows is still in Beta.  It is much improved over it's first few incarnations, but it is still half-baked.  I'm not sure you will get very far selling computers, even really cheap computers, with a Beta OS installed.  Should be interesting to see how well they sell.

                                Dr. John

The Register

Lindows

June 13th

ATI's New Drivers: Catalyst

ATI Radeon owners rejoice.  The new driver initiative at ATI has produced a greatly improved driver/utility suite for ATI's Radeon line of video cards, named 'Catalyst'. From the accounts we've read, they are a nice improvement. You can check them out over at the Tech Report.

June 13th

More Windows Security Bugs?

Everyone has lost count of Windows security patches issued this year (except Mike Magee, who counts over 40 so far).  The question I have is, why are businesses relying on Microsoft to produce secure operating environments? They have the worst track record in the industry.  Linux is much cheaper, and more reliable, and more secure.  Is convenience that much more important?  I understand why gamers aren't switching to Linux to run their 3D action games, but I can't comprehend the general acceptance of Windows as the de-facto standard for business operating systems.  Couple the lack of security with the fact that MS is trying to force all it's customers to a yearly licensing fee model, I can only think that Linux will become more and more attractive as a server alternative. With companies like Lindows attempting to bring MS Office functionality to Linux, there does appear to be a realistic route for businesses to move away from MS operating systems.  It would be a wonderful irony if MS had to drop the price on Windows in order to stay competitive with Linux.

                                  Dr. John

3D Mark 2001 Bug?

It is the day of the bug.  Now there are stories floating the web that say there is a bug in MadOnion's 3D benchmarking program, 3D Mark 2001se.  The explanations I've seen are far from enlightening, but apparently GeForce4 cards give erroneously high benchmark results under some conditions.  A fix is in the works.

The Inquirer

June 11th

New Detonators Today

NVidia has said they will release the new Detonator drivers for their line of GeForce cards later today. The new version, 29.42, should be available for download sometime today.  Will there be a noticeable improvement in performance? Probably not, but we'll know for sure soon!

NVidia driver page

Microsoft as Monopolistic as Ever

Just when I thought Microsoft had given up on browbeating PC makers with their constant drivel about us not being allowed by law (their law) to sell PC without an MS operating system, they fire off another round of obnoxious mailers.  Yesterday we received a bizarrely worded mailer that supposed lays down the (MS) law on selling PCs without OSs.  It's entitled "The Bare Facts About Selling PCs Without Preinstalled Operating Systems".  So you expect the rest of the mailer to tell OEMs that doing so somehow violates some license agreement with Microsoft.  But of course, OEMs don't have licensing agreements with MS, they just sell licenses and OEM operating systems along with their PCs. So the rest of the mailer goes off on a tangent about the 3 (and only 3) ways a customer can obtain a FULL operating system license. 1) buy a new PC with Windows installed, 2) Buy the full retail version at a store, or 3) buy a license from an OEM when purchasing a computer (sounds pretty much like #1 to me).  

But what really seems odd, besides the misleading title of the mailer, is that MS is not making a distinction between OEM versions of Windows that are pre-installed on new systems, and the much more expensive retail versions.  Previously, MS had made a big stink about how the OEM version of Windows that comes pre-installed on new PCs could not be moved to a newer system when the old one dies.  It was a bald-faced attempt to con customers into throwing a perfectly good operating system away when they junk an older PC.  But now MS appears to have backed off that bold decree. The plain fact of the matter is, MS can't tell you squat about what to do with a legal copy of Windows, and if you want to buy a new PC without an operating system and install your OEM copy, go right ahead, and don't forget to thumb your nose at Bill while you're at it.  

                                  Dr. John

June 10th

AMD Thoroughbred Ready, but Not Overclockable

Reviews of the AMD "Thoroughbred" Athlon XP are out, suggesting that the new CPUs will be available to the public in 2 to 3 weeks time.  This long-awaited die shrink of the Athlon family finally gets AMD processors down to 0.13 microns, thus increasing yields, while also decreasing price and heat output.  The chip will debut at 1.8GHz (PR=2200+), which even by PR standards is not as fast as the Pentium 4 running at either 2.4GHz, or 2.53GHz.  So Intel still holds the speed king position, and has plenty of headroom for increasing the speed of the new 0.13 micron P4 line.  However, AMD's new CPUs would not overclock, suggesting to many that even with the die-shrink, AMD has hit the speed limit on the Athlon line.  All the more reason to hurry the release of the "Opteron", AMD's answer to Godzilla, er... I mean the Northwood Pentium 4. 

But there appear to be some snags in the rollout of the Opteron, which may not make it to market until late Fall. That's an awful long time to remain the underdog. Possible reasons for the delay include a difficult transition to the new 0.13 micron process (low yields), problems with chipset development for new Opteron-capable motherboards, and delays in an operating system that can handle the 64-bit architecture of the Opteron (read Microsoft's Windows XP-64). Let's hope that AMD can clear these hurdles, and stay on track for a Fall release.

                                  Dr. John

June 7th

More Rumors that Hammer will be Delayed

According to reports coming out of Computex 2002, AMD is having trouble moving to the 0.13 micron manufacturing process. This would delay both the Thoroughbred, and the 'Opteron' processors.  This could really hurt AMD, now that Intel has 0.13 micron processors to market.  It was not an easy transition for the mighty Intel, so it will probably be even tougher for AMD to pull off smoothly.  As such, don't expect the Thoroughbred for several more months (August/September?), and don't expect the Opteron until December/January, or later.

                                  Dr. John

June 5th

ATI's R300 to Debut This Summer

ATI's new R300 video chip is nearing completion, and is rumored to be far advanced over NVidia's GeForce 4 chip. The new ATI chip may be called the "Radeon 3", and will be a Direct X 9 capable processor. It had been thought that ATI would debut it's R250 chip this Spring, but that seems to have been pushed back to Summer, when the R300 will also debut. The R250 is said to be 1.5 times faster than the Radeon 8500, which means that the R300 may be twice as fast. This would put the hurt on NVidia, whose next part isn't scheduled until late Fall. If ATI can pull off the debut of the R300 4 months or more before NVidia is ready, ATI will have the first major advantage over NVidia in years. The scuttlebutt in the industry is that NVidia's forays into the chipset business have hurt it's graphics chip endeavors, allowing ATI to leapfrog them. Indeed, the rumors are circulating that NVidia may exit the now crowded and less-lucrative chipset market, to concentrate on the video chip and console markets.

                                  Dr. John

June 4th

Rambus Back in the News

The IP company that everyone loves to hate, Rambus Inc, is back in the news as their appeal of the Rambus vs. Infineon case comes to the docket of the Federal Appellate Court. Rambus is appealing their loss of the case, which they filed against Infineon. But in a wonderful twist of karma, the litigant, Rambus, had the tables turned on them, and the jury found them guilty of fraud.  Not your usual court proceedings. So Rambus thinks maybe it can find a more IP-friendly judge to hear the case, and in their hope of hopes, overturn the jury's decision. Let's just hope their hopes are dashed again, as the prize they eye is royalties on all DDR memory modules sold in the world.  Pretty big stakes for a little snake of a company.  We can always hope their legal fees exceed their royalty payments.

Anyone out there using Rambus DRAM with their Pentium 4?  Drop me a line if you feel it has improved your system's overall performance relative to DDR DRAM.

                                  Dr. John

EBN

June 3rd

Computex 2002

It's that time of year again, when geeks head East to old Taipei, Taiwan. So far the Opteron (read Athlon 5 or "Hammer") processor from AMD has gotten all the attention. But rumors that the sample Hammer chips that have shipped to motherboard makers are all locked at a measly 800MHz have folks wondering how fast the Opteron will run when it debuts. AMD says it did this to prevent "speculation" on the actual speed that Opterons will run at. My question is whether AMD will use the Performance Rating system, or will use GHz to describe the Opteron CPU models.

                                  Dr. John

June 2nd

Microsoft Likely to Get Off Scott Free

The recent developments in the remedy phase of the Microsoft antitrust trial are an almost certain indication that the judge is pro-MS, and will just slap Bill's wrists and tell him to be good. The States which did not opt into the government's settlement with Microsoft wanted to introduce a Microsoft email memo to Bill which clearly indicated that MS was punishing OEMs that offered the Linux operating system. But the judge denied the motion saying that the memo was more prejudicial than substantive.  Considering that these tactics are precisely what MS is on trial for, the judge's comments seem almost irrational. But heck, when you're the judge, you don't have to make sense, because you're in charge.

                                  Dr. John

Copyright 2002, KickAss Gear