Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

Techno Page
By Harendra Alwis
E-mail : technopage_lk@yahoo.com

Buying and selling in the IT world
The world economy and Information Technology have become interdependent to the extent that neither can survive without the other. It need not be emphasised how IT has revolutionised 'buying' and 'selling' in the modern world. The virtual world within cyber networks hosts countless Internet companies - indeed a new market component that has the capacity to reach literally billions of potential customers anywhere in the world. It has been stressed over and over again that we need to look at our business and economic environment more carefully because these changes and our ability to adapt, hold the very key to survival and growth.

Let me draw your attention to just one aspect of the cyber economy that has affected us all, which manifests most notably in the discussion about piracy, which took place during the past few months on Techno Page.

Has the Internet created a society, which expects everything to be made available for free? If you really scratch your head hard enough, you will see that all the free e-mail accounts, free web hosting and freeware that bombards us on the Internet may have put us in a mindset that we have found hard to escape. We expect everything for free now, which is part of the reason why FOR EXAMPLE we cry out for pirated software.

When we buy a car, we pay royalties for the right to use its design, the various patented gadgets fitted in it and even for the manufacturer's badge on it! But I haven't heard anybody complain about it. Then again, just because we need to get from A to B, and just because we can drive, we don't just steal a car for that purpose do we? (At least, most of us don't... I hope...). So why cry foul when asked to pay (hefty amounts) for the software we use?

Have you ever thought about how computers are changing the way we think, communicate and act in society? Write in with your ideas to technopage.

Virtual keyboards
Canesta, a San Jose, California, manufacturer of electronics, says its chipset could allow other companies to incorporate virtual keyboards into PDAs, smart phones and other portable devices as early as the end of this year. Writing sentences on PDAs still requires a lot of patience and practice. Some older models require people to enter data with a proprietary scrawl, while newer models use tiny keyboards that require very skillful and strong thumbs. And full-size keyboards just don't go well with the latest devices. Even though these (handheld) devices are capable of sophisticated applications there's really no way to reasonably use those applications, especially those that require entering data, like e-mail.

Canesta's chipset projects an image of a full-size keyboard on any flat surface. It also emits an infrared beam that detects the position and motion of a typist's hands. Tapping on the image of a key produces the corresponding character on the device. The keyboard doesn't demand a lot of force, easing strain on wrists and digits. To get users comfortable with the technology, Canesta's chipset also produces an old-timey click sound.

Ergonomically, virtual keyboards solve the problem of sore thumbs that can be caused by typing on the tiny keyboards of various gadgets like PDAs and cell phones.

Canesta is working with at least one company, Nec, which is evaluating the system for applications in its Tablet PCs and virtual keyboards will likely be available in time for Christmas.
Source: Wired News
Sent in by Sidath

NVIDIA edges out ATI Radeon 9800 PRO!
NVIDIA announced their plans to release their new 256MB DDR GeForceFX 5900 Ultra (NV35). The new card was showcased by two upcoming games, which have been optimised for NVIDIA cards, Unreal Tournament 2004 and DOOM 3 (both games to be released during September/October).

Tomshardware.com tested the above mentioned NVIDIA 256MB GeForceFX 5900 Ultra against the also announced ATI 256MB Radeon 9800PRO using Unreal Tournament 2003, Splinter Cell and a tech DEMO of the highly anticipated DOOM 3 as the benchmarks. The PC on which this was tested had an Intel P4 3.06Ghz Processor, Intel i850E Motherboard and 512 Megs of RAM.

The results show that the GeForceFX has over a 10% to almost a 30% performance increase than the ATI 256MB Radeon and has taken the lead. NVIDIA has also signed a deal with Intel, who will in the future produce NVIDIA's chips. This means in the future NVIDIA will have even better quality and faster GPUs (Graphics Processing Units).

Meanwhile, ATI was showing Half-Life 2 (the official one, not an expansion). Half-Life 2 is set to release in August this year and features state of the art graphics on par with DOOM 3 and the best facial animation in any game up-to date.

Also in August, a brand new version of Counter Strike will be released called 'Counter-Strike: Condition Zero'. This will have highly updated visuals, a brand new single player mode and a collection of new maps and visually updated old maps (like de_dust and cs_assault) and 3 new Counter-Terrorist teams and 2 new Terrorist teams.

Don't believe me about NVIDIA being faster? Then check it out for yourself at www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20030512/index.html

Also a 5MB video of Half-Life 2 and an 8.6 video of DOOM 3 can be downloaded from www.gametrailers.com
Sent in by
Sajith Jayaweera

Command and conquer fan site
A command and conquer fan site was launched recently at http://cncsl.8m.com and it's most definitely the first command and conquer fan site done in Sinhala. It is a 'must see' for those who have misunderstood the concept of C&C. It also offers downloadable stuff like maps, winamp skins, wallpaper, ring tones and even C&C poems.
Sent in by
Kashan

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