| Nvidia 9600 GT gets rave reviews
Despite the name, the GeForce 9600 GT is a 65nm GPU that is similar to the very popular GeForce 8800 GT (G92). It's also interesting that at the sub-$200 level Nvidia is now pushing–and nearly all of the first cards reviewed are using–512MB of graphics memory. Nvidia clearly believes the more demanding games now require that much memory. Most Radeon 3850s have 256MB, though you can get cards with 512MB. The verdict: The GeForce 9600 GT not only leapfrogs right over its direct competitor, the Radeon 3850, but also offers performance similar to (and in a few cases better than) the higher-priced GeForce 8800 GT and Radeon 3870. Rich Brown at CNET Reviews, which gave the Asus EN9600 GT an Editors' Choice, notes that it is the only sub-$200 card out there that lets you play most games at 'medium or better quality settings.' Newegg already lists more than a dozen 9600 GT cards–most of them with 512MB–ranging in price from $180 to $210.
Time to Dump IE?
The tight ties to Windows means that the slightest IE security issue becomes an OS-wide panic. It's not just IE, either: Windows Media Player, Outlook Express, and even DirectX, are all, in my opinion, overly integrated and give hackers too much access to core PC functions. But corporate users don't spend a lot of time playing with DirectX-based games, listening to Windows Media Player, or checking e-mail with Outlook Express. They do spend a lot of time in IE, and the more they surf the more they're vulnerable to its eccentricities. That's why more than a few corporations, not to mention individual users, are looking at alternativesany alternativeto the built-in browser. Browsing the Alternatives
Despite dire predictions from Netscape (now a unit of America Online, which, weirdly, continues to bundle IE with its software), the market for non-Microsoft browsers didn't go away.
Surprise Result: Fray Posters Love Slate
But the real triumph of the iPod should be credited to Apple's marketing department. Apple is one of the best at the "lifestyle" products game. There was no technological revolution, but it sure felt like one. That's mission accomplished in the product development biz. And again the genius of the iPod's visual design was to make it easily distinguishable at first sight. Back in the winter of '01-'02, anyone could immediately spot the trend setters. It was all about those white headphones. Of course, those white headphones signify something quite different to other fraysters. Describing his daily morning commute with zombie-like iPod listeners' "long white wires filtering down to the nearest pocket, staring off into some spot on the bus where there is no gaze coming back, looking nothing less than already defeated and depressed by the day ahead of them," Ted_Burke rails against the anti-social behavior induced by the device, declaring: "I neither own an Ipod, nor wish to get one." Shuffle over to the Culturebox Fray for other testimonials to the iPod's influence and contribution to societal ills.
Wigan 2 - 0 Derby
After two promotions and a Carling Cup final appearance, Jewell could have reasonably expected a warm welcome once he exited the tunnel and made his way into the dug-out prior to kick-off. But again, he could have been any other manager on any other day as the home faithful barely acknowledged their former hero. Jewell maintains he did the right thing in quitting 24 hours after saving the Latics from relegation on the final day of last season, that he had taken them as far as he could. The 43-year-old insisted he needed a fresh challenge, and there can be no doubt that in pitching up at doomed Derby in November, he has taken on a mammoth task. The Rams are all but down, and already the talk is with regard to next season's plans and a promotion push once they return to the Championship.
S.F. park to host massive music festival
The inaugural Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival will launch with all the subtlety of a rocket ship. With a lineup that includes headliners Radiohead, Tom Petty and Jack Johnson, this three-day festival has the potential to be one of the biggest concerts in Bay Area history. The event is set for Aug. 22-24 at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Radiohead will headline the first night, with Petty and Johnson batting cleanup on, respectively, Aug. 23 and 24. Those are the only three names that have yet been announced. The festival is being put together, in part, by the same folks that present the mammoth Bonnaroo Festival each summer in Tennessee. The event, perhaps the most ambitious in the park's rich history of hosting concerts, will feature five performance stages and the programming will represent a wide range of styles, from rock and blues to hip-hop and reggae to soul and jazz.
Happy Friday: News About Economy Just Gets Worse
Friday's reports were just the latest in a string of worrisome news about the growing threat of recession and inflation. "Over the last three to four weeks, there have been a string of economic releases that were dramatically weaker than expected," said John Canavan, a market analyst at Stone and McCarthy Associates. "The implications are quite negative for the economy." The only bright spot: futures traders are now speculating that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by three-quarters of a point at its March 18 meeting instead of the half point that was expected previously. .
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