On The Net - Computing News

with Chris Goh

New chip signals big changes

If you're planning to buy a new Pentium 4 computer, be aware that Intel are introducing a new chipset that will change the architecture of IBM-compatible PCs significantly.

It will make the old PCI cards redundant within 18 months and AGP video cards inside a year. It's been eight years since we've seen such a dramatic change in PC architecture. I'd strongly advise anyone buying a new computer to make sure that they purchase a PC with the new chipset to avoid the investment becoming redundant within a year.

Personally, I'm going to wait for the chipset to mature into its next stage.

To make decisions harder, Intel is changing its naming conventions for PCs, making it harder to figure out which machine has the faster chip. The two new chipsets are the 915 and 925x (which will mean nothing to many), and will be embedded on new motherboards that show tremendous potential. PCI and AGP will be replaced with PCI Express. A simpler explanation: the cards that allow you to plug in a monitor, memory, video capture cards, internal modem etc, will all use a new standard. So if you're upgrading your PC, the old cards will not work in the new one, making upgrading difficult.

A number of vendors are looking at special connectors for upgrades and some motherboard companies have released boards that support both standards, but the trade off is that the PC will not be running at its best.

More details next week.

HotNews

The Salvation Army has a new bus roaming the streets of Sydney from 4pm to midnight. It's no ordinary bus - the $100,000 solar-powered bus, donated by Mitsubishi, houses five laptop PCs with wireless Internet access. The StreetNet project aims to help homeless youth so they are not left behind by the digital divide.

Behind Olympics glory there's always a commercial power play. The IOC banned all athletes, coaches and their entourage from posting Olympics-related material on the Internet, unless it's on a personal website set up well before the Olympics, and features only approved media images. The IOC is protecting its multi-billion dollar licensing agreements with assorted media agencies.

Attention Apple G4 PowerBook owners! Apple has recalled its lithium rechargeable batteries sold between January 2004 and now because they may short-circuit and pose a fire hazard.

A 'Virtual Girlfriend' for mobile phones is about to be launched in Hong Kong (where almost 100% of the population has a mobile phone). Like a Tamagotchi (remember them!?) you have to look after your 'girlfriend', sending her virtual gifts, which coincidentally, are only available through the service provider (guess where they make their money). Apparently it's going to be a hit, which goes to show that either people are too rich or they really don't have a life.

You know your nation's Internet connection is fragile when a ship dropping its anchor can cause a whole region to lose its Internet connection. The Indian state of Nagaland was taken offline when the anchor cut a submarine cable.

Google had 6.5 million shares traded within the first 13 minutes of its debut on the sharemarket. By close of trade, 19.6 million shares changed hands and the final closing price of US$100.33, a considerable rise on the initial opening price of $85.

HotSites

www.macupdate.com

When I mention Apple sites, I know that the majority of dedicated Mac fans already have them bookmarked and have been using them for the last couple of years (their computer literacy levels are always impressive). But then I thought, why not - let's look at Mac sites this week. MacUpdate is an excellent software portal for Mac users with great reviews and a broad range of software categories.

www.osxaudio.com

I reckon the guy who created this website - a sound engineer at the Sydney Opera House - is one of the best web developers around. This site offers quality information about the sound potential of the Mac.

kbase.info.apple.com/index.jsp

This is Apple's knowledgebase and has a comprehensive list of Apple products, issues, troubleshooting, updates, downloads and custom setups. A must for any Apple enthusiast.