DigitMemo.com

A new Vista SP1 beta handed out to beta testers.

Mike Walker: To give you guys a sneak peek at the SP1 build. I just installed Vista SP1 with zero issues. The upgrade process seamless and took approx. an hour. There was only one concern however. My box was waiting for about 20 minutes to shut down. Other than that, all goodness.

I have noticed a huge difference in performance of my machine, it’s like someone injected an espresso into my Vista! This is my first day using so I’ll be sure to check back in to let you guys and gals know how things are going.
Some of these new features that are under the covers that screen shots will not be able to show you:

Click for more on Vista SP1 v.658 First Impressions »

IBM Blue Gene takes the crown…again

A system created by IBM and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore Lab hits 478.2 trillion calculations per second. IBM and the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., took top supercomputer honors.

The IBM Blue Gene/L system installed at the DOE research facility, runs at 478.2 teraflops or 478.2 trillion calculations per second, earning it the most powerful system on the Top 500 Super Computer list, which is published twice annually by the University of Mannheim, Germany, the University of Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center’s Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory. It was released at the International Supercomputer Conference’s in Reno, Nev.

Click for more on IBM Takes Top Supercomputer Honors Again »

The planned launch of Intel’s Penryn processors on Monday is the first blow in a one-two punch that might stagger AMD heading into 2008.

Just a few months after the launch of AMD’s quad-core Barcelona chips, Intel is hitting back with Penryn, now known as the Xeon 5400 family of processors. A total of 15 server chips are set to launch Monday as well as a new Core 2 Extreme desktop processor, with Penryn chips for mainstream desktops and notebooks scheduled to launch in the first quarter of next year.

Penryn is essentially a shrink of the Core architecture that brought Intel out of the woods in 2006. But these are also the company’s first chips to use Intel’s 45-nanometer manufacturing technology, and they will usher in the first change to the basic properties of the transistor since the 1960s.

Click for more on Penryn released: Intel Unveils 16 45nm Processors »

Canadian-hosted torrent site is the next to fall in a series of takedowns

The world-wide crackdown on torrent sites has brought down another major torrent hub. After being forced to close its doors to Canadian users in September due to pressure from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA), Demonoid.com survived for only slightly more than a month before being having forced offline entirely today.

The previously bustling homepage has been replaced by a single line of text; bereft of much in the way of details, but leaving little doubt as to the fate of the website:

The CRIA threatened the company renting the servers to us, and because of this it is not possible to keep the site online. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your understanding.

Click for more on Demonoid.com Shut Down Again »

Handheld makers saw their market contract substantially for the fifteenth consecutive quarter, down about 70% from its peak in 2002.

Playing in the handheld market today - with “handheld” being defined as a PDA without cellphone capability - isn’t much fun. Once again, the shipment volume of such devices declined significantly in the third quarter of this year.

IDC estimates that 728,894 PDAs shipped globally during the period, which is down 39.3% from 1.20 million in Q3 of 2006. Looking back over the past four years, third quarter shipments have shown a steady decline from about 2.3 million in Q3 2003. By Q3 2004, shipments were down to 2.0 million, one year later the number slipped to 1.7 million. In fact, in Q3 2004 Palm shipped more than 736,000 PDAs - more than the global market volume in Q3 2007.

Click for more on PDA market still shrinking dramatically with no end in sight »

Trend Micro’s security software spans over a huge repertoire of operating systems and Internet browsers, and now it has become the first to bring similar Web safety tools to the PS3.

Trend Micro Web Security for PS3 launches today, and according to Trend Micro it is the first product of its kind for a gaming console.

Click for more on Antivirus for Playstation 3 from Trend Micro »

The new data centers in Chicago and Dublin are being built on an accelerated schedule; Chicago will be up and running by April.

Prepping for growth in the Internet era can be costly, as Microsoft is finding out. The software company is ponying up more than $1 billion for two new data centers near Chicago and Dublin, Ireland, Microsoft confirmed this week.

These new investments only add to the hundreds of millions of dollars Microsoft’s already spending on server farms around the world to keep pace with online competitors like Google and to make sure it has the capacity to handle a growing online world, which daily checks millions of e-mails, downloads millions of software updates, and shares millions of photos. In each data center, there might be “tens of thousands” of machines, according to Microsoft. The Chicago facility will sprawl over more than 12 acres and draw tens of megawatts of power.

Click for more on Microsoft Spending $1 Billion On New Data Centers »

Keep entertained all day long

For some people online flash games are a passing distraction to fill the hours between lunch and home time. For others online flash games are a passionate hobby that keeps them up until the early hours while they try and beat their last score.

Whatever your reason for playing them, we love them so much, we’ve put together a list of the top 10 best flash games ever, in no particular order. From very simple puzzles to complex plaformers, these should keep you entertained all day long. Click here and prepare to be distracted.

@live.com Email registration is officially opened and a new live suite launched. 

Windows Live received a comprehensive, Google-like, update to attract more Windows users and convince them to take some of their online activities to Microsoft’s servers. Microsoft itself calls the new Windows Live a “free and fun upgrade for the online and Windows experiences” and promises that the new services “simplify” the digital lives of Windows users. The company claims that more than 400 million users worldwide are using Windows Live already.

Click for more on Microsoft refreshes Windows Live »

If you ever have the opportunity to illegally change your grades, think of these two California students - they’re facing up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for exactly that crime.

29-year-old John Escalera and 28-year-old Gustavo Razo were indicted on October 25 for hacking their way into the California State University, Fresno computer system and changing their grades.

According to the charges, Escalara worked in CSUF’s information technology department and was able to slip into the grading database fairly easily.  He allegedly used the password of his supervisor to gain access to some of the university’s most sensitive data banks.

Click for more on Two students charged with hacking into system, changing grades »