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|  | Grassroots effort led by major ISP
Friday, March 30, 2007
Apparently Australia (where I live) is number seventeen of thirty developed countries in broadband penetration and twenty-fifth in the world in available Internet broadband. The USA is ranked twelfth on that list. I have long been amazed at the speed of broadband available to homes in the US and at the cheap cost of the services available there. I currently pay $120 per month for 60GB at 8Mbps/348kbps speed. That is a huge improvement over last year when we paid $150 for 20GB at around 2.5Mbps. But accompanying my latest bill was a brochure from my ISP, Australia's largest telecommunications and Internet provider, Telstra. They have started a campaign asking for their customers and potential customers to lobby the government to change regulations which make it unprofitable to improve Australia's broadband infrastructure. Most rural communities in Australia are stuck on dial-up with no option for broadband connection in the foreseeable future. Telstra's Broadband Australia Campaign, dubbed BACk Telstra, is collecting registrations of support online and asking people to contact their local government officials, calling for the regulations to be reviewed. I think that it's crucial for all developed countries to ensure that everyone has access to affordable high speed broadband, whether they are in a major city or in the middle of no where. Access to the Internet in today's world is almost as important as an education in the opportunities it provides, because it has become relied upon as a crucial means to communicate, educate and conduct business. |   |
| My new toy's on order
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The news that flooded my inbox yesterday was repeated on every mobile/tablet/UMPC/ultramobile/gadget website out there. To quote DailyTech.com: "OQO has announced that it is now shipping its tiny model 02 UMPC. The tiny device is capable of running Windows XP or Windows Vista and can serve as a communications center thanks to a number of wireless technologies built-in to the device. The model 02 is based around a VIA VX700 chipset which features a UniChrome Pro II IGP graphics core with the Chromation Video Engine. Processor choices include a 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz VIA C7M ULV processor while the device can be had with 512MB or 1GB of DDR2 memory. Storage can be had in the form of a 30GB or 60GB HDD." I had mine on order last Friday. I have been contemplating where I will set up the docking station. I've also been thinking about looking for a good but free diary/calender program to install on it. I also want to check out how well it works as a portable media player. It even has HDMI output. I think John is also keen to try MAME software on it - although a lot of retro games are available in other forms now as well. I can't wait! | |
| Smart phone company joins growing list of UMPC manufacturers
Thursday, March 29, 2007
"It's been a long time in coming, but after HTC's long, gradual feature buildup all the way from the very first Pocket PC phone in 2002, they're finally putting the "computer" in High Tech Computer by making the jump to ultraportable PC-maker. That's right, HTC's first foray into the UMPC market, the Shift (codename Shangri-La), is officially announced today." Engadget.com go on to list the specs which include a "VIA CPU" (I would assume a C7-M ULV). They also note that the sample they played around with was running Windows Vista, with Aero. The new offering from HTC features a slid out keyboard and the ability to tilt the screen, using the keyboard as a base. | |
| VIA to make a push for thin client market share in India
Thursday, March 29, 2007
ITVARNews.net reports: "Seeing a good growth opportunity, Taiwan based VIA Technologies is getting aggressive in order to tap the Thin Client market in India. The company plans to boost growth of Thin Client market and introduce new line of energy efficient VIA PC-1 motherboards through establishment of a nation wide distribution and service network." Director, Channel Sales for VIA in India, Sanjay Peer is quoted in the article and he explains “India is the fastest growing economy after China and with its world class software industry it is emerging as leading power in the global IT industry. We are seeing exciting new innovations that marry India's world-class software expertise with our processor platforms. We wish to work much more closely with our local partners in vertical markets in the future.” | |
| Take a tour of VIA's latest EPIA model, the EPIA EX
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
VIA's series of EPIA Mini-ITX mainboards have feature sets designed to cover quite a broad spectrum of market sectors such as network clusters, industrial PCs, thin clients and point of sale machines. The latest series, the EPIA EX targets the consumer electronics market, with more multimedia and peripheral support than any previous model. Consolidating at the silicon level, it is the first EPIA board to feature the new CX700M2 all-in-one chipset. Its memory support and wide variety of peripheral support also increases the options available for designers. Take a tour of the new board in this article, which includes details about the features and PCMark test results compared to a C3 based EPIA board. | |
| News on v5.0 of the VIA Enhanced Xine player
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Both Xine and VIA developers have been working hard to bring you VeXP, the VIA-enhanced Xine Player. Now VeXP 5.0 is released - a program for Linux distributions including Fedora Core 4, based on the Xine multimedia player. It uses hardware-specific acceleration in decoding and display to have better MPEG2/MPEG-4 playback performance. VeXP 5.0 supports various media types: AVI, ASF, H.264, CDDA, DVD, MP3, VCD, RM and WMV9. VeXP is able to reduce more than 50% of the normal CPU loading with specific hardware such as the VIA CX700(M/M2) chipsets, featured on various VIA EPIA mainboards.The VeXP 5.0 package differs from previous versions. It contains: - Enhanced xine-lib 1.0.0 and xine-ui library
- API modules
- Full Sample code
- Full Reference Application
- Documentation:
- VeXP 5.0 User Guide v1.0
- VeXP 5.0 API Reference v1.0
- VeXP 5.0 Demo Code Quick Reference v1.0
- readme
End users will benefit from the much improved experience in video playback and a reduction of system power consumption due to the lower CPU utilization. You can grab a copy at SourceForge.net. The code is open in VeXP to program MPEG hardware. Linux developers are encouraged to obtain the CX700 (M/M2) driver source code package and download the VeXP package to build on other distributions. The API module is provided with full sample code and documentation. This will allow users who are interested in multimedia file playback, VOD, PVR, and so on to minimize the development time. Drivers used in VeXP 5.0 for CX700(M/M2) chipsets under Fedora Core 4 are: | |
| How to Safely Dispose of your Old PC
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
"Computers are one of those things which have its novelty wear off pretty fast. Upgrade is not always a viable solution. As your system grows old, most of its components are no longer compatible with the latest available on the market. After a few years or so, you’ll usually find yourself heaps of computer relics in the corner of your garage, and wondering what you are going do with them." You should see our garage. It's like a museum to old computers! Throwing them straight in the garbage bin is not an option folks. They might not look like it but they contain hazardous waste that will pollute ground water if it ends up on a tip. Technibble.com gives some advice on how to safely dispose of your old PC parts. | |
| HD DVD and Blu-ray Ripping Guide
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tweaktown.com reports: "It’s really quite amazing how quickly Advanced Access Content System (AACS - HD content protection for HD DVD and Blu-ray discs) got defeated, especially considering how much money the industry and Hollywood movie studios putting into protecting their HD movie content. It might not be a hack like regular DVD decryption DeCSS, but it seems very unlikely that this workaround will ever stop working as it means that all current HD DVD and Blu-ray players would either need a firmware upgrade or become obsolete when it comes to playing newer movies." | |
| Linux UniChrome Frame Buffer Display Driver updated
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Three new packages have been released. They all support CLE266, CN400, CN700, CN800, CN896, CX700(M/M2), VN800, VX700(M/M2), PM880, PN880, PM800, PN800, P4M800CE, and P4M800Pro. There is an application note for Fedora Core 6.0 and Mandriva 2007 as well as the driver binary and source code. The binary and source code have been specifically built and tested with Fedora Core 4/5/6, Mandriva 2007.0, SuSE 10.2, Ubuntu 6.10 and also tested with kernel version 2.6.20. | |
| A blast from the past
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
On a regular basis we head on over to Taiwan to discuss things that are happening with VIA Arena and the community. It's always great to get together with colleagues and hammer out our personal opinions. The Taiwan office is a treasure trove of history. It is amazing to see the shells of cases that I built for trade shows six years ago collecting dust on spare desks. Last week when I was there I stumbled across this beauty. It is the shell of a system that was used at QuakeCon in 2002. Originally containing a VIA P4PB Ultra, this metallic black/blue VIA 1st Mainboard case was covered in dust and almost unrecognizable hidden in a corner. I was pleased to find that it cleaned up well. All the girls in the office commented on how beautiful it is. These newer employees had never seen a case so impressive. As a thank you to one of our long term forum members, Zardoc, we are shipping this case to him. The case features the original VIA 1st Mainboard logo that was used by VPSD to promote their DDR line of P4 boards some six years ago. The system was built for promotional purposes by Falcon North West and is unique. Zardoc has (almost) single handedly run the VIA P4 mainboard section of the forums for years so we can think of no better place for the case to be shipped off to. Enjoy Zardoc. | |
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| Most recent blog entries |  |
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| | The Force Unleashed | | Console Haven
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