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Sources indicated that Intel will drop the Pentium name without making a major announcement, but simply transition to processor names such as "Intel D 920" or "Intel 672" without introducing a new brand. Apparently, the transition is planned to begin in the immediate future. The company declined to comment on the possibly fading Pentium brand.

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While an unofficial version of the software is now available on Aas' personal Web site, until Mozilla approves it, the developer recommends those with Intel Macs use Apple's Rosetta technology to run the normal PowerPC Mac OS X version of Firefox. Rosetta is a transcoding tool that allows programs written for PowerPC to run on Intel machines.

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We’ve received some information regarding Apple's newest portable, the MacBook Pro, and with it a hidden message for would-be hackers. We were made privy to a text dump from the System Profiler of one of the new MacBooks and, naturally, couldn’t wait to sort through its contents. What we didn’t expect to see was a warning from Apple to those that would hack OS X, presumably to those wanting it to run on beige-box PCs

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Following the success of our digital line-up over the last seven years, which has resulted in more than 95% of Nikon’s UK business being within the digital area, Nikon Corporation has made the decision to focus management resources on digital cameras in place of film cameras. This decision will allow Nikon to continue to develop products that match the demands of an increasingly competitive market place.

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Immediately available is a software download of Google Local for mobile, which enables BlackBerry users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses and get driving directions on their BlackBerry handsets. Both applications will be free to download, RIM said.

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The three companies invested about $400 million in the first phase of the partnership, which began in 2000 and resulted in the Cell, a high-powered chip that runs game consoles. The renewed partnership will focus on fundamental research for next-generation chip technology at 32 nanometers and smaller.

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Based on previous measurements of interstellar dust by both the Ulysses and Galileo spacecrafts, Westphal expects to find approximately 45 grains of submicroscopic dust in the collector, a mosaic of tiles of lightweight aerogel forming a disk about 16 inches in diameter - nearly a square foot in area - and half an inch thick. Though those searching for pieces of Wild 2's tail will easily be able to pick out the thousands of cometary dust grains embedded in the front of the detector, finding the 45 or so grains of interstellar dust stuck in the back of the detector won't be so easy.

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It also voiced concern that Microsoft would try to seek royalties from companies that sell and support Linux for using the technology, potentially posing a threat to the free software community. Under the terms of the Free Software Foundation's General Public License, Linux cannot be distributed if it contains patented technology that requires royalty payments.

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Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, high-powered microwaves, and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare depends not only on using the electromagnetic spectrum, but also upon favorable political and budgetary wavelengths too.

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Using computer models, the team showed that the Magellanic Clouds could warp the shape of the Milky Way, but only if they were moving through a thick halo of hypothetical dark matter. Dark matter can’t be directly observed because it neither emits nor reflects visible light or other electromagnetic radiation. However, its presence has been inferred from the gravitational effect it has on visible matter such as stars and galaxies. Astronomers believe that dark matter may make up as much as 90 percent of the mass in the universe.

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Google's DRM will make its first appearance as part of a new video downloading service. Page revealed that customers will be able to buy TV shows from CBS, NBA basketball games and a host of other content with Google serving as the delivery broker for the video. This move mimics other technology companies - most notably Apple - which have struck deals with large media houses to send video over the web for a fee.

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Matsushita, the world's largest consumer electronics maker known for its Panasonic brand, said the factory would be built next to an existing plant in Amagasaki in western Japan and start operations next July. The company will spend 180 billion yen ($1.57 billion) on the factory, which will hit full capacity by March 2009, when it will be able to churn out the equivalent of 500,000 42-inch panels a month, or 6 million per year.

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AppArmor lets an administrator create a profile that describes which files a given application may use. The software then enforces that profile. Consquently, if a remote attacker takes over that application, it's more difficult for the attacker to use the application for malicious purposes, such as taking over the entire computer.

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The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), pronounced "JIF", was designed by CompuServe and the official specification released in June of 1987.

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http://httpd.apache.org/ If the internet is an information superhighway, you might wonder what the digital Tarmac is made of - the answer is Apache. Apache is a web server system developed by another open source community, and currently about 68 per cent of websites on the internet are powered by it. If you are ever asked what type of server is needed to host your website, just say Apache and sit back as others marvel at your technical knowledge.

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Consumers, confused over the brewing battle between next-generation DVD technologies, are not alone: top U.S. electronics retailers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas called the war "nightmarishly unfriendly" and "stupid."

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Apple had a minimal presence at CES and Jobs prefers to unveil his company's latest products--tightly kept secrets, if Jobs has his way--at the Macworld convention in San Francisco. And, of course, expect a surprise from Jobs. For years now, Jobs has appeared to conclude his keynote, only then to say, "Oh, and one more thing ...."

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Starting in the first quarter, the satellite TV company will offer programs from NBC and its cable networks, USA, Sci Fi and Bravo, within hours after they air, commercial free, for 99 cents, through the new DirecTV Plus DVR. The 2Go service will let customers transfer programs from their DirecTV Plus DVR to a wide variety of portable media players.

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Astronomers think Pluto’s colder than expected temperature reading involves interactions between nitrogen ice on the planet’s surface and the nitrogen gas that makes up its atmosphere.

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The software giant said in a statement it had "completed development of a security update to fix the vulnerability" that it discovered last week. The update is being finalized and the company hopes to release it on January 10.

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The company said it has contacted the affected customers and is offering to enroll them free-of-charge in a credit-monitoring service so that customers can discover if there is any irregular activity on their account. "We regret this situation has occurred and realize this may cause concern for our associates and customers," said Stephen Weisz, the president of Marriott Vacation Club.

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More than 120 pages of proposed rules, released Thursday, governing the future of space tourism touch on everything from medical standards for passengers to preflight training. They spell out qualification and training requirements for the crew, and mandate training and informed consent for the "space flight participants"--known in more earthly terms as passengers.

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Closely held NTP, a patent holding company, successfully sued RIM for patent infringement in 2002. It later won an injunction, stayed pending appeal, to halt sales of RIM's BlackBerry device and service in the United States. With the court appeal process largely exhausted, RIM has moved closer to a possible shutdown in the United States. A U.S. judge in Virginia is considering NTP's request to lift the stay, which would halt RIM's service in the country.

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At first glance, the AOpen i945Ga-PHS socket 775 Intel Pentium 4 motherboard is a pretty well rounded platform, it even supports HDTV component output (Y, Pb, Pr) by default! Based on the Intel's i945G Northbridge, the AOpen i945Ga-PHS motherboard supports Socket 775 Pentium 4/D/XE and Celeron processors running with a 533/800/1066 MHz FSB. The four DDR2 memory slots can accommodate up to 4GB of PC2-6400 unbuffered DDR-2 RAM, while running in a dual channel configuration.

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Gigabyte's GV-RX18L256V-B Radeon X1800 XL videocard is a pretty nice single-slot PCI Express x16 videocard! The Radeon X1800 XL GPU is clocked at 500 MHz, and backed by 256MB of Samsung GDDR3 memory that hums away at 1 GHz. The videocard supports video In/Video Out (VIVO) and High Definition Television (HDTV) output. Other goodies included with the package are a DVI-to-analog converter, an S-Video cable, a VIVO cable, a Component output cable and for some reason, a molex splitter cable. The software bundle consists of Xpand Rally, Counter Strike Condition Zero, Power Director and PowerDVD.

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If you have seen the massive, heatpipe-based cooler on the 7800 GTX 512 cards, then the cooling solution on the WinFast PX7800 GTX TDH MyVIVO Extreme is nothing new to you. Leadtek's WinFast PX7800 GTX Extreme was actually the first non-Quadro card to use this cooler, as this card was out weeks before the GTX 512s hit the shelves. The cooler was first seen on NVIDIA's Quadro FX.

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The AOpen i945Ga-PHS is a very good all round board. The problems with it all center around the PCI-E 16x slot and use of a video card. Using the onboard video takes the layout and jumper issue out of the equation making the board have very few flaws. The reality of the issue is that most folks do use add in cards, especially on HTPCs or gaming PCs which brings these issues to the front of the line for an Excedrin headache.

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Officially, the Corsair TwinX1024-4000PT is designed to run mainly on highly overclocked systems and is rated for up to 250 MHz with 3-4-4-8 timings (at a voltage of 2.8V). If you are running with lower latencies, we can tell you that the TwinX2048-4000PT will only run as tight as 2.5-3-3-6. The 2GB TwinX2048-4000PT DDR500 RAM kit is rated to run at speeds of up to 250 MHz, who says you had to sacrifice speed for higher capacity?

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We have reviewed product from SuperTalent in the recent past and it has proven to be a quality product that won't break the bank. Today we are looking at a kit of DDR500 ram with nice timings of Cas 2.5. It's hard to compete for the enthusiast dollar these days and making overclockable ram with tight timings is a great place to start. Let's find out if SuperTalent's latest enthusiast offering can keep up with some high quality well established memory...

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The Asus A8N-VM CSM motherboard looks like the perfect workstation/HTPC motherboard at first glance; onboard graphics with analog and DVI-D monitor outputs, and nVidia PureVideo High Definition MPEG-2/WMV9 Playback acceleration. The A8N-VM CSM supports all Socket 939 AMD Athlon64/FX/X2 processors on the market, and is built around two recent nVidia chipsets, the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 & nForce 430. Onboard features include IEEE 1394a, a 5.1 channel HDA (Azalia)/AC97 audio controller, Gigabit LAN and of course analog and DVI-D Geforce 6-series onboard video. Expansion is possible through PCI Express x16 and PCI Express x1 slots for high bandwidth devices and two 32 bit PCI slots for legacy devices.

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The Gigabyte GV-NX66T256DE videocard is not just another run of the mill GeForce 6600GT with 256MB of DDR2 memory, this card is unique. The GV-NX66T256DE is cooled by fully passive means, and incorporates a couple of unique attributes to lower ambient case temperatures too. The 'Silent-Pipe II' cooler, as it is called, bridges the GPU to two separate heat exchangers. The videocard also supports both S-Video and component output via a break-out box, and comes with a DVI-to-analog converter for good measure.

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A bleeding edge part like the MSI 512MB Geforce NX7800GTX has an equally shocking enthusiast-level price tag... equivalent to the cost of a pretty decent Dell PC in fact. At the moment there are only a handful of manufacturers offering retail 512MB version Geforce 7800GTX videocards for sale. MSI Computer is one vendor with a card out in time for X-mas, and it has put together a good package that includes a full copy of the game "Colin Mcrae Rally 2005." Luckily for you, PCSTATS has managed to bring this monster 512MB card into the labs so you can see first hand what to expect!

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A lot of people, and manufacturers (AMD) have steered clear of DDR2 due to the high latency, regardless of speeds the latency canceled out any performance gain so it just wasn't worth it to switch to DDR2. That is all starting to change with much higher speeds and latency dropping with each new product DDR2 is finally coming into it's own.

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The driver was also a pain, especially when learning the rules about turning Crossfire on and off the easiest ways. If you always want it on, no worries. Otherwise it's not always tick the box and hit Apply. The reviewer's guide even says (and we paraphrase), "please check benchmark results to be sure it's on". With no indication that it's on other than experienced performance, HEXUS learned early on not to trust the checkbox too much. The ATI driver team will work on that I'm sure, but it frustrated. Comparatively, we've never had any such issues with SLI, although it's had longer to mature.

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Gigabyte, purveyor of high-quality motherboards and recognised partner for both ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards, was keen to jump on the X1800 XL bandwagon. Without further ado, then, let's take a look at the company's GV-RX18L256V-B graphics card. Better known to you as an ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB, does it have what it takes to be a consideration for purchase?, and, more importantly, is it the must-have PCI-Express graphics accelerator this side of £300? Let's find out.

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While Nvidia have been enjoying the success that is the 7800GTX and 7800GT, ATI were left with their older generation X800 series as their prime offering, and while the X800 was a quality series of chips (and still is), the power of Nvidia's latest efforts could not be ignored. If you were looking for a high end videocard in the past month or two, it would have been hard to deny Nvidia's 7800GTX. Much to the ATI fanbase's approval, however, it wasn't too long after that ATI finally let loose their latest series, that of course being the Radeon X1K series. Today, we check out two revisions from the X1K series, the X1800XT and X1800XL, from ATI vendor HIS.

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To make the long story short, it would't be wise of me not to recommend this card. Everyone who is seeking a cheap upgrade yet wants decent performance should give PowerColor X800 GTO16 a considerate and detailed look. Whether you're a gamer, enthusiast or graphics editor you should not look beyond what Tul offers with this rebranded XL video card. This board is packed with features (including dual DVI links) and great performance. At $179 USD it's simply a steal. The only gripe I have is lack of VIVO capability -- only TV out.

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In recent reviews at Bigbruin.com we have taken a look at Corsair DDR rated at PC4000 and PC4400 speeds, but this time we're going to take things down a little and look at some PC3500. The Corsair 2048MB XMS PC3500LL Pro Dual Channel DDR Kit provides a nice, big 2GB of dual channel DDR rated to run at 438 MHz DDR with timings of 2-3-2-6 1T.

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We haven’t seen anything from GeCube around the labs in a while but now that a new card has made its way to our door step, we are glad to find that it’s a brand spanking new X1800XT. As we’re in the holiday season, we have to say... "Hang on, I deserve something for myself..." We don’t doubt that the X1800XT is going to make its way on to a lot of wish lists and the question is which one is right for you.

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The biggest cost is expected to be moving the Defense Department, at almost $289 million, followed by the Justice Department at approximately $263 million. Other agencies switching airwaves include the Energy Department, Federal Aviation Administration and NASA, among others.

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A greater threat is that ISPs may try to restrict the customer's side by denying access to machines based on their hardware or software configuration. And far from banning that, the government may be encouraging it. Back when he was head of cybersecurity, White House terrorism advisor Richard Clarke even said it should be made mandatory to quarantine malware.

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Galileo will also be more exact than GPS, with precision of about three feet, compared to about 16 feet with GPS technology, ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina said. With Galileo, for example, rescue services will be able to direct ambulances on which lane to use on the highway, he said.

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One of the things that helped prolong the lives of the rovers was the repeated removal of the dust that gathered on the solar panels of each of the robots. Occasional wind events cleared dust from the wing-like panels, thereby increasing the amount of energy yielded by the solar collectors to power the robots.

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Gorenstein also said that because the cell phone user's location is only available to police when a call is in progress, and because the location information is only a rough estimate, such tracking is permissible under the Fourth Amendment. That amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, prohibits "unreasonable" searches and monitoring. The Justice Department has argued that it should be allowed to monitor Americans without having to show "probable cause"--that is, at least some evidence of criminal behavior. Instead, federal prosecutors say, all police need to claim is that the information obtained might in some way be "relevant" to a criminal investigation.

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The adjustments will reduce forces in Iraq below the base-line level of 138,000 -- which has provided the guideline for most of the year -- by spring 2006. There were 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq as elections approached, Rumsfeld said. A statement issued by the U.S. military said one brigade -- the 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division -- would not be deployed to Iraq, and a second brigade scheduled to deploy to Iraq -- the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division -- would remain in Kuwait as a "call forward" force for support if necessary.

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Measuring less than 3-feet across, Stardust’s heat-thwarting reentry capsule will barrel through the atmosphere faster than any human-made spacecraft has ever come in before, said Tom Duxbury, Project Manager for Stardust at JPL. Skyrocketing across the Western U.S. and shooting over Nevada toward its Utah landing, the canister will light up the night sky for a brief period. The fireball should be visible from San Francisco perhaps up to and beyond Portland, Duxbury said.

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The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts. By next March a central database installed alongside the Police National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global positioning satellites.

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The European Union's executive arm said it may fine Microsoft up to $2.37 million (2 million euros) a day unless it complies with an order to provide interface documentation to allow rivals' group servers to work with the company's ubiquitous Windows operating system.

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The Texas attorney general said on Wednesday he added a new claim to a lawsuit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment accusing it of violating the state's laws on deceptive trade practices by hiding "spyware" on its compact discs. The original lawsuit was filed by Attorney General Greg Abbott in November against the company for violating state anti-spyware laws by embedding software in its CDs and media player to monitor users' habits.

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Under the terms of the deal, Maxtor shareholders will receive 0.37 share of Seagate stock, the equivalent of $7.25 a share. That is a 60 percent premium over the price of Maxtor's shares, which closed Tuesday at $4.52. When the deal is completed Seagate investors will own about 84 percent of the combined company and Maxtor shareholders about 16 percent.

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The 5,000 DNA letters spell out the genetic code of its mitochondria, the structures in the cell that generate energy. The research, published in the online edition of Nature, gives an insight into the elephant family tree.

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A toxic waste spill from a zinc smelter, the second environmental disaster to hit China in weeks, halted water supplies from a southern river for eight hours and threatened cities downstream, state media said on Wednesday. China is still reeling from an explosion at a chemical plant in the northeast last month which poisoned drinking water for millions and sent a toxic slick heading for neighboring Russia.

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Ion-trap technology uses electric and magnetic fields to isolate a charged particle from its environment -- a prerequisite for exploiting the temperamental quantum properties of electrons. Although ion traps are just one technology for building a quantum computer, they have the longest history -- the first trap was built in Monroe's lab in 1995 -- and they've advanced the furthest.

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The temporary plateau and slight decline of the P2P population represents a normal cyclical pattern associated with the file-sharing community. Various reasons, such as returning or departing college students, broadband penetration, computer and MP3 player sales, all have an impact on the strength of the P2P community. While the behavior of these factors may result in a minor decline or stagnation, the overall trend has been unprecedented growth. Indeed, the month of November 2005 represents one of the strongest months yet with a total of 9,465,000 total connected users - third only to August and July with 9,620,000 and 9,496,000 total connected users.

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This analysis suggested that around 1800 genes, or roughly 7% of the total in the human genome, have changed under the influence of natural selection within the past 50,000 years. A second analysis using a second SNP database gave similar results. That is roughly the same proportion of genes that were altered in maize when humans domesticated it from its wild ancestors.

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Some of the airwaves would be given to public-safety organizations such as police, fire and rescue workers who have had trouble communicating during major crises such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Current law requires stations to switch to airing only digital broadcasts when 85 percent of the country can receive the new signals, or by Dec. 31, 2006, whichever comes later. Experts have said that could take a long time, prompting lawmakers to seek a more certain date.

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The radiation from the source would be lethal to a human in just 30 seconds, and was too strong to be approached even in a protective suit. So White Sands officials called Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to see if their robot could help. "We called these guys and they came down and worked their magic," says Larry Furrow, a White Sands spokesman.

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The premier KBO is actually Pluto, considered by most astronomers to be a member of the region rather than a true planet (though many say its historical and cultural significance as a planet suggest it should have dual status). In October, Pluto was found to have two small satellites in addition to its large moon Charon.

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"I would not bet on North America continuing with CDMA." CDMA (code division multiple access) technology was invented by San Diego-based Qualcomm, and the company delivers virtually all chips needed in CDMA networks and mobile phones used by some 500 million consumers mostly in the Americas and Asia.

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The system cannot take into account the intricacies of the plot, but Sharda says it can nonetheless get the revenue category spot-on 37 per cent of the time, and correct to within one category either side 75 per cent of the time. This is enough to make the system a "powerful decision aid", Sharda says.

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The small star has a surface temperature of about 25,200 °C - hotter than Sirius, which is about 10,500 °C. It is also so dense that its gravity slows down the light leaving its surface, stretching it into longer, redder wavelengths. STIS measured this "gravitational redshift" to calculate the white dwarf's mass, which is about the same as the Sun's.

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The trick is to look for subtle distortions in the images caused by gravitational lensing, in which the shapes of very distant galaxies are warped by dense concentrations of matter between us and the galaxies. The matter, which is not visible, bends the light with its gravity, and that reveals its presence.

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According to an Associated Press (AP) account of today’s press event, Branson has worked a deal with New Mexico that involves a 20-year lease on the spaceport, a facility that is price tagged at $225 million to build. Virgin would make yearly payments of $1 million for the first five years, putting in more money in following years to cover the cost of the project by the end of the lease, the AP reported.

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The twin cores mean users can perform several tasks at the same time. For instance, one core could update a spreadsheet while the other displays a graphics-heavy presentation without slowing down. Meanwhile, lower power usage is becoming more important as users demand longer battery life and ever-slimmer laptops, which pose an engineering challenge since smaller machines are less able to dissipate the processor's heat.

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Toshiba said in a statement it would not launch the products until the last details on copy protection management systems, called AACS, or advanced access content system, were finalized.

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At a general assembly meeting of Ecma in Nice, France, on Friday, the Geneva-based organization established a technical committee to make formal standards from Microsoft's XML-based Office file formats. The committee will have responsibility for enhancing the standard "while maintaining backward compatibility" and to handle maintenance of the specification. A first edition is slated for completion by the end of 2006, according to Ecma.

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The spacecraft was designed to bring the first-ever asteroid samples back to Earth for analysis. But recent data suggest that, during a landing attempt on 26 November, it did not fire metal pellets into the 600-metre-long asteroid Itokawa to draw up material for collection. Now mission controllers have little hope the spacecraft will be able to get back to Earth - even without its quarry - because of continuing problems with its fuel thrusters.

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Currently the undisputedly best bang for the buck in 3D Rendering appears to be nVdia's n7800 GT series. Slightly scaled down from the more than $100 (on average) more expensive GTX offering, the more plebeian "GT" still offers blistering fast performance, besting essentially everything in the ATI camp - with perhaps the exception of the RADEON X1800. Moreover, the cards are SLI enabled, which in some applications effectively doubles the frame rates. Amongst the various manufacturers that are partnering with nVidia, ASUS carries a slightly modified version of the reference design, using a blue PCB, a chrome side bar and - noteworthy here, Infineon memory instead of the dominant Samsung components. Bundled with a number of proprietary software utilities like video security and game face, plus a few games and the ubiquitous video editing and DVD software, the Extreme n7800GT is something definitely worth looking at.

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The EVGA e-GeForce 7800 GTX BlackPearl 512MB is faster out of the box than the XFX, overclocks further and does it all quieter, cooled by a decent and easy-to-fit watercooling kit. The choice of fittings and tubing diameters means that it should be an easy integration into an existing watercooling setup, too. So what's not to like, from what's current the fastest retail consumer graphics card on the planet?

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once again OCZ is pushing the possibilities and doing it in style. This latest product may fall into the Gamer line of products but it definitely meets my expectation of any kit in the Platinum line. The new XTC heatspreaders effectively kept the modules cool throughout our testing as we pushed this kit past the PC-4000 (DDR500) rating without an increase in voltage.

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The main focus of today's review is EVGA's e-GeForce 6800 GS (P/N: 256-P2-N386-AX), based on NVIDIA's NV42 chipset. The NV42 chipset has 12 pipelines, 5 vertex shaders, and a core/memory clock speed of 425MHz/1000MHz respectively. Thus, this essentially makes the 6800 GS an overclocked GeForce 6800 with a 30% boost in core speed and memory clock 43% higher.

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What we have in our lab this week is a PowerColor X1800 XT video card. Starting from R300, Tul (the owner of PowerColor brand) has been ATi's very active partner. They make top to bottom cards at a competitive price. It's been around two-three weeks since first X1800 boards appeared on the market. Due to the lack of components, Tul got in a bit late into the game with their X1K series (especially XL which we haven't received at the time of the launch). If you look around however, you'll find quite a few PowerColor X1800 cards -- either XT (256/512 version) or XL

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Secret weapons come in all shapes in sizes; some consist of throwing stars to the head while others are simpler more effective alternatives. In the case of the Corsair TwinX2048-4000 we get two times the normal memory, enhanced bandwidth for overclocking and no messy cuts that cause you to bleed profusely. In short the best of both worlds.

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Today I will be reviewing a PC3500 low latency dual channel memory kit from OCZ which is claiming effortless DDR433 speeds while set at the lowest 2-5-2-2 memory latency timings. Let see if this memory does what it claims and whether we can push it further to get even more value for your dollar.

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The GeForce 7800GTX 512MB versions are here, and you'd better believe that 35 FPS from a single videocard in FEAR with 4x AA and 16x AF enabled, at 1600x1200, is a breeze with one of these bad boys! All this performance packed into a videocard that takes up an extra PCI slot, but is also quieter than the original GeForce 7800GTX's. Shocking performance capabilities, and shockingly quiet at that. MSI Computer is once such vendor with a 512MB version Geforce 7800GTX videocard out in time for X-mas, and it has put together a good package that includes a full copy of the game "Colin Mcrae Rally 2005." Luckily for you, PCSTATS has managed to bring this monster 512MB card into the labs so you can see first hand what to expect!

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The EVGA video card is equipped with the same 24 pipelines and 8 vertex shaders found on the standard 7800 GTX, but comes with a significantly faster core/memory clock speed of 550MHz/1700MHz respectively and 512MB of GDDR3 memory. Thus, the 7800 GTX 512MB is basically an insanely faster EVGA GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB with double the memory capacity. The EVGA card's core is clocked 100 MHz higher than stock and the memory went up by whopping 500 MHz DDR. However specification wise, the N545 memory might have a +200 MHz edge over ATI's X1800 XT, but the core is at a -75 MHz disadvantage.

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The Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT videocard comes packing 512MB of GDDR3 memory (256MB exclusively for each core), and conforms to the PCI Express x16 formfactor. With two GPUs the card is able to support up to four monitors simultaneously; two DVI and two analog! Make no mistake, the Gigabyte GV-3D1-68GT is aimed directly at the hardcore gamer - both in terms of its performance goals and price.

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A survey of home PC users found 81 percent lacked at least one of three critical types of security, but the number of consumers using firewalls and updated antivirus software is improving, according to a report released Wednesday. The vast majority of consumers surveyed were found to lack at least one of three types of critical security--a firewall, updated antivirus software or anti-spyware protection, according to a report by America Online and the National Cyber Security Alliance.

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The term is defined as "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player". The word is derived from a combination of "broadcasting" and "iPod".

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William Lee at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and his colleagues followed patients with acute liver failure who were in a coma. Of the 275 people with paracetamol poisoning, 8 per cent received a liver transplant, 65 per cent survived without one and 27 per cent died.

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According to IMlogic, the worm, dubbed IM.Myspace04.AIM, has arrived in instant messages that state: "lol thats cool" and included a URL to a malicious file "clarissa17.pif." When unsuspecting users have responded, perhaps asking if the attachment contained a virus, the worm has replied: "lol no its not its a virus", IMlogic said.

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Methane-producing microbes have been discovered in two extreme environments on Earth - buried under kilometres of ice in Greenland and living in hot, dry desert soil. The findings lend weight to the idea that similar organisms may have lived on Mars. Live microbes making methane were found in a glacial ice core sample retrieved from three kilometres under Greenland by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, US. It is the first time such archaea have been found at that depth, says Buford Price, one of the research team, which published its results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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The U.S. software firm, which was also fined about $32 million, said it would appeal the decision by South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) but did not plan to make good on a threat to withdraw its Windows operating system from the country. The ruling, which resembles a 2004 European Commission decision, held Microsoft breached antitrust laws by selling a Windows version that incorporated its instant messaging software.

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The agency said on Wednesday, however, that Hayabusa had touched down on the asteroid, nearly 300 million km (190 million miles) from Earth, but may have failed to shoot a 5 gram (0.18 oz) metal ball toward the surface to collect into a capsule the debris unleashed as a result of the impact.

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They found that 53% of the 126 largest galaxies within 1 billion light years of the Milky Way appear asymmetrical, suggesting they have undergone recent mergers.

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In a second session, a couple of months later, each partner was asked to raise a contentious issue within their relationship, such as money or in-laws. Their stress was measured using blood tests and questionnaires. Most of the couples’ wounds had healed within five days of the first session. But the 30-minute arguments in the second session caused a day’s delay in healing.

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Robert Byers, who brought the suit, said the power supply and central processing unit in the Xbox 360 overheat, affecting heat-sensitive chips and causing the console to lock up. Microsoft spokeswoman Molly O'Donnell on Monday said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

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To critics of Wikipedia--which, in a spin on the open-source model, lets anyone create and edit entries--the news was further proof that the service has no accountability and no place in the world of serious information gathering. "Wales, in a recent C-SPAN interview...insisted that his Web site is accountable and that his community of thousands of volunteer editors...corrects mistakes within minutes," former Robert Kennedy aide John Seigenthaler wrote in USA Today. "My experience refutes that...For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin."

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Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, plans to invest more than $1 billion to strengthen its operations in India, Chairman Craig Barrett said Monday. "We will grow our local operations, boost venture capital investments and work closely with the government, industry and educators," Barrett said.

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With this new platform, games could evolve from a one-way medium for previewing and promoting music to a multimedia bazaar where music and other content can be bought and sold -- even updated -- interactively. But just like the Internet before it, these new doors open to a maze of questions about business models and digital rights management.

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Prior to testing, the group fasted for 4 to 6 hours, and abstained from caffeine and nicotine for at least 24 hours. Then they were then given either a cup of strong coffee - containing 100 milligrams of caffeine - or a caffeine-free placebo drink. After 20 minutes all participants underwent fMRI scans while carrying out a memory and concentration test. A few days afterwards the experiment was repeated under the same conditions but each received the other drink.

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Yesterday wasn't a stellar day for the game industry's public image. First, the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) gave the industry a cumulative 10-year grade of D-plus, citing increases in sex and violence in games and a content ratings system "beyond repair." That was followed later in the day by US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) announcement of her intention to introduce federal legislation regulating the sale of violent games to minors. Game industry groups were predictably quick to respond.

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RIM said in a statement that it would continue efforts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The company also reiterated that it has prepared a software upgrade that can be used to work around the disputed patents. The dispute between RIM and NTP goes back four years. In 2001, NTP filed a suit against RIM claiming that the BlackBerry infringed on its patents. In 2002, a jury found in favor of NTP and awarded the company $23.1 million in damages.

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Today, instead of subscribing to the channels they want to watch, cable and satellite TV consumers must buy packages that include a standard set of channels. The new report, not yet released, contradicts an FCC report published in November 2004, under then Chairman Michael Powell. The earlier report concluded that a la carte and tiered pricing models, such as a family tier, would result in higher cable prices.

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The XCP and SunnComm technologies were unwittingly installed by millions of music customers when they used the Sony CDs in their Windows-based computers. Researchers found that the XCP technology was designed to include many of the qualities of a "rootkit." According to the EFF, the software was developed to conceal its presence and operation from the computer's owner. Once installed, the code degraded system performance, opened new security vulnerabilities, and installed updates through an Internet connection to Sony BMG's servers, EFF alleges.

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One of SOHO’s most important contributions is data that led to the discovery that a series of eruptions of ionized gas (coronal mass ejections) from the Sun blasts a "highway" through space where solar energetic particles flow. These particles disrupt satellites and are hazardous to astronauts outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field.

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The original dispute between VeriSign and ICANN arose after VeriSign introduced a new service called Site Finder in September 2003, directing Internet users who mistyped domain names to a VeriSign site that allowed consumers to choose from a list of alternative names. VeriSign planned to make money by selling advertisements on the site.

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Just one problem: It's not true, at least for many online retailers. Contrary to what the recent blitz of media coverage implies, Cyber Monday isn't nearly the biggest online shopping or spending day of the year. It ranks only as the 12th-biggest day historically, according to market researcher comScore Networks. It's not even the first big day of the season.

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On a previous, much closer pass by Enceladus, Cassini detected that the south pole of Enceladus is spewing out a vast plume of water vapour that stretches hundreds of kilometres from the moon's surface and keeps Saturn's E-ring topped up - but it has now captured the first images of this activity. On Sunday, 27 November, Cassini was positioned so that the Sun was behind the moon, causing one side of Enceladus to be illuminated as a fine crescent, with its volcanic plumes backlit.