Tuesday, September 30, 2003


"The briQ is a small footprint, single board PowerPC Linux network appliance computer that can be used alone, as an embedded system, or within a multiple bay chassis for a high density server or cluster solution." available : 800MHz G3*, 500MHz G4 CPUs, and fits inside an existing 5.25" drive bay! link
new minesweeper arcadey type game it's vaguely fun. and a funny weebl and bob bobby bobby bobby
E-Spying Could Be Illegal, "Loading a program onto someone else's computer without their authorisation is patently illegal." Someone tell that to Gator, and all that other rubbish. (read the artcile).
Taxing times for e-waste, monitor mountain keeps on growing. So why doesn't some nice charity send them off to some 3rd world country. For example the average income in the Ukraine is about $700 annually, a computer is still very much a luxury. See Joshes post below

Monday, September 29, 2003

project ikea box : pictures and details.

(Click to see a bigger pic)
The Apple G5's are in John Lewis store in Liverpool, the pic shows them next to other G4's and above, the 23" Apple cinema display next to the smaller 20" (?) apple display. They are �1550 and �1850 for the 2 base specs, although they weren't able to tell me the specs yet, but I'm sure you can find them on apple.com. The bigger pic shows an eMac as well. I always wondered what size they were compared to the G4s and nobody seemed to show any proper pictures.
mondays always seem busier than the weekend for PC news, probably because everybody's at home and not working. anyway this article says AMD have the first 64bit PC and apple don't, as AMD has 64bit software support, whereas Apple don't (yet). while we're on the subject, ars technica write up some stuff from theinq, about Intel's future rumoured CPUs, with some interesting comments about Microsoft. In Ukraine computer crashing (smashing) has become some kind of competition with pictures here.
Milky Way Eats Up Sagittarius, poor Sagittarians what are they going to do. Personally I like Mars bars, Milky Ways are pretty good too espcially the white ones.

Sunday, September 28, 2003


"France's 20 year old Minitel network has been given a new lease of life by hooking it up to the internet," bbc news.

Get your matrix revolutions trailers here - and if that wasn't fun enough for you, get your truck crashing program here.

Saturday, September 27, 2003

I can't believe the BBC would write such erm.. informed stuff..
Processors compared

Apple, Intel and AMD have all just launched high-powered processors.

Apple�s PowerPC G5 is ideal for archiving and preparing images in relatively inexpensive equipment.
AMD's Athlon 64 aims to prepare people to convert from 32- to 64-bit computing for greater efficiency. Intel's Itanium 2 is also a 64-bit chip, used in high-demand business servers.



And now my version:

Apple, Intel and AMD have all just launched high-powered processors.

Apple�s PowerPC G5 is ideal for storing information.
AMD's Athlon 64 and Intel's Itanium 2 are 64-bit chips. A pc is good for wordprocessing. the itanium can search databases. one day space invaders will be converted to 64 bit, then you have a good reason to buy an athlon.

Thursday, September 25, 2003


VIA EPIA CL10000 Review on-line at Epiacenter.com. I think it's probably the first on-line review of the CL10000. You can also see my other reviews, if you haven't already: EPIA M10000, EPIA 800. (for a list of all the other VIA EPIA Reviews on the internet see epialinks.tk)

PS - If you think these are small, check out Nano-ITX from VIA, check out the awesome pics at mini-itx.com. (check out this pic showing the cpu size difference 15mm x 15mm and still 1GHz!) Update: there's some more pics here and some more here.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

Verisign are being "naughty" and taking over the internet when you type things like www.sdahfjkasdghj.com you get taken to a verisign page. Seagate and Lindows OS are doing a similar thing but you get the choice whether you want it or not, and you can always format it if Lindows OS doesn't work out for you. Sounds pretty cool getting "Linux" on a hard drive for free, but then again, if 10% of the population start using Lindows OS without even knowing about it, won't that make the world a more confusing place - wouldn't it just be better if everybody was using Windows 2000?
Microsoft Takes Windows XP To 64 Bits For AMD. Goofy quote for the week... "I don't think this is a very big deal," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. "People seem to be able to do what they need to do with 32-bit processing." I bet that one will come back to bite him.
Which is the better cpu buy? AMD Duron 1.6GHz $99.00 OEM with no heatsink / fan or AMD Athlon XP1900+ $115.88 retail box with heat sink fan and 3 year warantee ? Prices from pricespy nz. Both have a real clock speed of 1600 (I think) 16 x 100 and 12 x 133. What are the other specs? What cores / caches do these chips have? What real differences will it make?

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

Athlon 64 Reviews
HardOCP (vs P4 3.2GHz 2mb L3 EE), Lost Circuits, Gamers Depot, PC Stats, AMDMB, UKGamer (just 2 pages of info), Hexus, Legit Reviews, Overclockers Australia, Hardwareluxx (wrong language), sudhian (vs P4 EE), tech-report (vs P4 EE), aces hardware (vs P4 EE + overclocking)


to summarise (from HardOCP) "Bottom line? The Good - The Athlon64 3200+ and FX 51 deliver the best overall performance we've seen from any CPU line to date." - the 64 3200+ (2GHz) even beats the 3.2GHz P4 EE (with it's 2mb L3 cache) in a number of benchmarks!

and a Shuttle Athlon 64 case review thingy. (here).
* AMD webcast later on today to launch the Athlon 64 - 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT)
* Unicorn Jelly very good light entertainment.
well i can't even get here now. it's thinking for about 20 seconds then it gives me a time-out. then i need to refresh. i can get to blogger etc just not to nelsoncolne.blogspot.com - hmmm maybe it's because matt's trying to load a load of javascript off my webserver that's running on 512/128k up broadband! oh well i've still not got access even though i've fuzzucked up the template. don't worry i'll put it back...

Monday, September 22, 2003

* another cheap laptop on ebay for sale.
* don't forget - tomorrow Athlon 64 launch day so expect a load of reviews to go on-line.
ok so now you can 'permalink'! which means just right click the hash (next to the name of the person whos entry you want to link to) and copy the url into your html.. if that seems useful to you. Coor I thought making that work was going to be a nightmare.


WHOA! these dudes also claim to have the world's fastest computers. holy cow look at this page shows the SPECint performance completely WIPING the floor with all other computers, including the G5. note the clever "creative WEAPON" jib at apple's promo vid for the G5 :) crikey, even this laptop with a 3.2GHz P4 EE (512k L2, 2mb L3) beats the G5 in Spec performance :)
* Hush Technologies make an ATX version of their silent PC, to support P4 and AMD systems.
* �675 including VAT, that's how much the new Athlon 64 FX-51 @ 2.2GHz costs from overclockers.co.uk. holy cow!
Microsoft goes after Google, to build technology that would eventually surpass Google. "Our ability to innovate is predicated on our ability to own the platform,", "Search engines are doing a good job but not a perfect job," We are the borg, Resistance is futile you will be assimimilated.
"Apple Computer, Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba" sued over hard-drive (under) capacity. "Hard drive capacities are described in adverts in decimal notation, but the computer reads and writes data to the drives in a binary system." Hey Josh didn't you compain abou this a while ago. Sounds like a money making venture for lawyers. Why not sue the right people to start with, the hard drive manufatures? Seagate Maxtor Western Digital Samsung :)

Sunday, September 21, 2003

Email Banned Staff not to use, good call, or backwards step?
* Apple MAC G5 vs G4 vs PC.
* Pics of the big G5 supercomputer cluster here
* My VIA Epia M10000 review is now on epiacenter.com.
Hi, really this looked way prettier in my head. And there was this amazing really cool links menubar, which of course its all there on the page.. what do you mean you can't see it. You've obviously not had enough tango today. No really Ben and Josh said it was ok.
Right, those inverse coloured links. You aint been there. When the whole screen has no inverse coloured links, you've finished playing the flyswat game.
Its amber, not orange.

Saturday, September 20, 2003

pentium 4 EE (2.5mb cache) benchmarked at aceshardware.com (although you can't read it anymore, as it's under NDA) and is 2 - 15% faster depending on app. don't know what it's faster than by that amount coz i haven't looked yet. but there you go! :) ps - cheap good laptop for sale on ebay.co.uk.

Here's a quote about the performance that is possibly under NDA if you've signed up to the NDA... dunno. "As we expected the 2 MB L3-cache can not do any wonders for Games, which are somewhat cacheable but also need streams of new data (memory intensive). The best result is a 14% in Comanche, which is of course quite impressive, as it means the L3-cache pushes the 3.2 GHz to the level of a 3.7 GHz Pentium 4. Quite a few games give only a 5-6% performance increase. Whether or not the P4 3.2 GHz will be an interesting option for hard core games will depend on the pricetag."
20 tonne load of potatoes spilt across the A49 in Leebotwood near Church Stretton.
"the lorry driver was trapped for a short while and suffered minor ankle injuries."
Very fortunate driver, it could have been much worse.
(ok that's the last post from me for a while honest)
Brazilian homeless get bank accounts
"My aim is to rent a small house, furnish it, and have a little corner of my own, where I can live and be a member of society. Both me and my rabbit," says Luiz, affectionately stroking Wilbur.
ooh blogger looks pretty.
on thursday some people got some virus delivered. Some linux people had a flame war about who was to blame, and ..
I guess I missed it.
Viruses Like Some Operating Systems More Than Others
David Pogue from the NYTimes explains a little bit about how unix (specifically macos x) has sensible ideas about how security should work in preventing the viruses that microsoft can't stop 'for another two to three years,' because we designed cr*p in the 90s and we want to charge you a second time for finally getting it right.
[originally posted by S.Waller and it took a fair bit of searching to find the original]

Friday, September 19, 2003

* new distributed computing project said to take up to 3 months to do one "unit", and a 7.57mb download!
* BBC may use P2P to get their archive of stuff out there!. cool.
* Intel want to re-do "ATX" with BTX, are you sure they don't mean BMX? Anyway, they want to move the CPU down to the bottom, and front of the case so a fan can be blowing fresh cool air onto it...
* Britian passes an anti-spam law! cool! except it probably means we'll get MORE spam, not less!. doh!
* face the wrath of the law if your website is crap bbc news.
* AMD Quad Opteron coolers look like G5 coolers, except there's twice as many processors under them - and they're probably faster too ;) the inq.
* they're still trying to revive the amiga platform - now with a mini-itx amiga board!.

Thursday, September 18, 2003


SilentPCReview review the very cool looking Mini-ITX P4 motherboard. over here. The Inquirer have pictures of new Shuttle systems supporting the Athlon 64 CPU over here.
Feedback Please I've tried to make the design of this simpler and nicer again. What do you think about it? What are your thoughts about the colour scheme etc?

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

added clay kitten shooting to the games list on the left, plus some previously mentioned games.
Duron 1.6GHz �33 inc vat ! that's cheap innit
"Burns demonstrated consumer products that are available today or will be in the near future. This included a high-definition video stream running on a previously unannounced desktop processor, the Intel� Pentium� 4 processor Extreme Edition 3.20 GHz supporting Hyper-Threading Technology1, with an additional 2 Megabytes of cache. This new processor will be targeted at high-end gamers and computing power users."

Whoah! see hexus.net / or The Inq for more details. the normal P4 has 512k L2 cache - so this should make a fairly big difference to performance I would have thought!
macuser tested the 1.6ghz G5 this month, in one test it's 0.5 seconds quicker than a 1.25ghz G4 - then with a G5 patch, it then becomes 3 seconds faster than a 1.25ghz G4, in a test that takes the G4 23 seconds.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

er, i've changed the colours and design of this blog slightly. i think it's kind of better. still a fairly naff template to be honest, and it wouldn't really let me change the width of the bit on the left, which was a pain. (here you can see what it used to look like courtesy of google's cache).

i think it was last week that apple introduced some new iMacs (up to 1.25GHz), this week they introduce new 12" (1GHz) ,15" (1.25GHz) ,17" (1.33GHz) Powerbooks and a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse.

also, "netbox cubit" are now hoojum with swanky small P4 and Via systems, with the case available seperately for �150.
"Clad in a blue leotard and wielding a saw, a man claiming to be the UK's first wheel clamp vigilante is offering his services to motorists."
Superhero takes on clampers.

Monday, September 15, 2003

who killed apple computer? here
Tech-Report AMD Opteron/Xeon/P4/XP benchmarking. This shows a good mix of benchmarks, sometimes the Opteron (1.4ghz) wins, other times the P4 and XP3200 win...
[previously mentioned] sudhian 2ghz Opteron vs P4 3.2 / XP3200 | the inq. 2ghz. | legionhardware 1.8ghz Opteron.
this looks like a nice DVD +/- writer, up to 8x DVD+ writing, 40x CD writing, 12x DVD reading, also has a black front option, and 2yr swap out warranty. nice

Saturday, September 13, 2003


My Via Epia M10000 Review is on-line now - at JillaJang, if you spot any errors, or have any questions, let me know. (you can read my review of the Epia 800 on epiacenter.com)
fun game. here. massive 14mb satellite photo of WTC. stealth dancing quicktime needed people dancing behind other people without the people knowing. tis funny :)

Friday, September 12, 2003

vs
"Apple Computer Inc. is being sued by Apple Corps. The parent company for music legends, The Beatles, has begun legal proceedings against Apple Computer, citing breach of contract for the suit, according to Fox News." according to yahoo news.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

2ghz Opteron beats P4 3.2Ghz and XP3200 in nearly everything.
this is an interesting webblog i like it. it's got some good links (i think) which i want to check out when i go home. maybe i could take some flexi and go home early? hmmm. nah i think i'll just work till 4pm and go home then. does anyone know about rss feeds? i read somewhere, maybe on blogger.com that rss feeds are available, and maybe i could get one of them and integrate it (or put it) on the front of jillajang, so that when people visit jillajang (here) they can read the latest post from this place....
little pc in a cardboard cube.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

does anybody actually use linux? apart from it being free, is there any point using it? can i get dreamweaver and / or frontpage / word and other programs like photoshop / fireworks to work in linux? as a desktop replacement operating system?
throwaway digital camera, that you use and then take to the processors who print the pictures and give you a cd. sounds like a fairly stupid idea to me especially since you can buy a normal throwaway camera, take it to the processors, get your pictures printed and put on a cd...
hack for new Durons 1.6 Gig and faster enables the rest of the cache, [update: pic of the 1.4 and 1.6ghz duron can be seen here] and AMD intros more 2ghz Opterons. there's also a funny little cartoon about apple here.
Intel launches Itanium 2 low-power 1GHz CPU For Dual-Processor Servers Interesting Intel and low power consuption, mere 1.5 MB cache, wow. 1 to 1.2 GHz appears to be a sweet spot for intel and PIII like cpus.

Monday, September 08, 2003

can you believe google.com is 5 years old (today apparently)! half-life 2 makers, say the 5 year wait was worth it - it certainly looks good.

Sunday, September 07, 2003

if you don't mind a 27mb download then watch this simply amazing japanese "drift" video (extremely powerful sports cars producing lots of smoke and crazy stunts and stuff). there's also this 61mb drift video but I think the first one's probably better, although this second one still is very cool :)
global rich list - how rich are you? probably richer than most people, so these folks reckon you should give some of you dosh away...

Saturday, September 06, 2003


this is my new "venus 668" case, with via epia m10000 in :) there's more pics on my site here!

Friday, September 05, 2003

epiacenter.com show a roadmap of via epia systems, including talk of 1.1, 1.2, 1.3ghz machines and DUAL PROCESSOR machines all still in a 17cm x 17cm package!
Apple G5 many high quality pictures.


My new Via Epia M10000 Nehemiah motherboard/cpu/vga/snd - 5.1/lan - 10/100 all in one thing with 1ghz CPU, that's gonna be my new computer. (when the ram (ddr) and case (this one) arrive!) want to see other reviews? visit epialinks.tk
mini-itx pentium-m hooray! maybe one day we will be able to readily buy pentium-m systems and passively cool them. (and have a very fast pc too!)

Thursday, September 04, 2003

have apple started shipping 2ghz machines yet? AMD's 2ghz Opteron is out, and the 2.2ghz Opteron is on it's way, as well as the 2.2ghz Athlon64-FX - So when will Apple release quicker cpus? normally it takes them at least 6 months before they change their computers, so how will the compete with the Athlon64/Opteron?
well, there's another critical update to windows, released yesturday, which could lead to someone reading your memory from accross a network it's all the NT operating systems that are effected (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003) so get your patch now otherwise next month there may be a new virus / worm going round... :)

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

so with DVD-writers starting at �79 (exc vat) at ebuyer.com, and 4x Sony DVD writers starting at �99 (exc vat) at microdirect.co.uk - who's gonna be the first to get one? they seem like a pretty neat way of backing up gigs of data, and as well as including the ability to read/write dvds they can also write CDs too...
it's a marvelous waste of time, and an RSI inducer play it here.
Athlon 64-FX beats 3/2ghz P4 in almost every way!

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

alternate weirdo pc options: 1U 19" Rack Quad 800 MHz - 550 mm deep �1169 inc vat, Gigabyte GA-6VTXD 2 x FCPGA VIA 694T ATX - Motherboard �75 inc vat (although you'd probably find it hard to find cpus unless it took the new tualatins...) Pentium 4 170x170mm board, mini-p4 barebones, mini c3-800 barebones, p4 mini-hifi thing, and not so odd a p4 shuttle, or one with dual nic. as previously mentioned: tiny pentium-m pricing and availability unknown. update micro ATX Pentium available $353, just need to add a Pentium-M 1.7ghz (for 4 times the specInt of a P4-M 2.2ghz) if you can find one.

Monday, September 01, 2003

Interesting AMD Athlon 64 Info: here, and to summarise: 2 Athlon64 CPUs will be launch on the 24th Sept: Athlon64, 2ghz (pr3200) 754pin single channel ddr, and Athlon FX-51, 2.2ghz (no pr rating) 940pin dual channel ddr (basically a rebadged Opteron). They say performance from looking at the Opteron can "blow the P4 out of the water in some tests", and that's just in 32bit code, so presumably 64bit code will run even faster...
matt / aenon raises some interesting questions... what is the best computer you can buy at the moment, with the best value for money? This Opteron 1.8ghz review shows the 1.8ghz Opteron performs similarly to a 3.0Ghz P4. But what about these computer options? (case, motherboard, CPU)

Small Form Factor Via Epia System: Motherboard+CPU from �70-�123 Case about �80
Total: �200 Pros: Small, quiet, low power consumption, includes 5.1sound, vga etc. Cons: Slow performance. No AGP.

Small Form Factor Shuttle: Case and motherboard about �200 + Any AMD CPU, eg: XP2400 OEM �55inc at ebuyer.
Total: �255 Pros: Small, includes gfx, sound, AGP slot etc Cons: Expensive

Normal AMD Midi Tower PC: Case about �76, Motherboard "A7N8X Deluxe SKT A NForce2 Chipset Motherboard VER: 2.0" �89 inc Ebuyer.com, CPU: XP2400 OEM �55inc at ebuyer.com.
Total: �220 Pros: Lots of choice, expandable etc, best value for money. Cons: Large, probably noisey.

Normal Intel Midi Tower PC: Case about �76, Motherboard "ASUS P4PE/l/Black Pearl Skt478 3GHz+ ATX Motherboard Sound/LAN/USB" �92 inc Ebuyer.com, CPU: P4 2400/533 �137 inc at ebuyer.com.
Total: �305 Pros: Lots of choice, expandable etc. Cons: Large, probably noisey, EXPENSIVE CPU, confusing (3 different types of CPU 400/533/800mhz FSB - need to buy matching motherboard etc)

Single Opteron Midi Tower PC: Case about �76, Motherboard "Asus SK8N (Socket 940) Motherboard" �164 inc, CPU: AMD Opteron 142 1.6GHz 1MB Cache �267 inc at overclockers.
Total: �507 Pros: 32/64bit capability etc. Cons: Large, probably noisey, VERY EXPENSIVE CPU and Motherboard, not much choice.

Dual Opteron Midi Tower PC: Case about �76, Motherboard "MSI K8D Master-F (Socket 940) Dual Motherboard" �361 inc v., CPU: 2 x AMD Opteron 242 1.6GHz 1MB Cache �403 inc at overclockers.
Total: �1243 Pros: 32/64bit capability etc. Cons: Large, probably noisey, rediculously EXPENSIVE CPU and Motherboard, not much choice, NO AGP, questionable benefit from dual CPUs, special case may be required to fit motherboard, special power supply also required.

Future systems not considered (as pricing and availability are not yet available): Athlon 64, these are basically Opteron CPU's but cut down, and aimed at the consumer / desktop PC market, so it would probably be worth waiting till these CPUs (sept 23rd?) and motherboards are available, as they will probably offer Opteron like performance or possibly faster (if they start at 2ghz) but be priced much more competitively than the Opteron CPUs. I would expect them to be around similar prices to P4 CPUs.

Other systems not considered Apple.com. why? because it is not possible to buy the CPU/motherboard/Case and add your existing parts that may not need replacing, eg 40/80gb HD, CDRW, DVD-ROM, RAM, etc.