If you have an old collection of PC MS-DOS games that has been sleeping at the bottom of a drawer, you may have two approaches: A/ you prefer to forget the old pixels and buy new games, B/ you were so found of those that you want to play even on your newest PC. However, it is difficult because most of these run only in a DOS box, but are so unusable because of the speed of the processor and the limited compatibility of the sound and graphics.
Now DOSBox.com offers a real solution with a free emulator.
Usable for MS-Windows, most Linux boxes, some Apple OS and OS/2.
It is always a bit difficult to actually think about doing backups. Either you spend too much time thinking about it or you forget about it. For Windows, I found a nice free utility program: FileHamster from MOGware.
This small utility will allow you to automatically backup every single file you save or modify. FileHamster will create a full history track of your activity without even the need to think about it. It acts immediately (you don’t have to wait for a daily backup), and keeps everything. Of course, you need some free disk space, but it’s so much of a relief…
After more than 10 years, Turok comes back and you are ready to kill dinosaurs in a video game. The solo mission of this FPS may feel a bit short, but it’s fun enough to be thrilled while killing lizards on your PC screen.
Like all Internet reviewers, I hate this title because of the strain it puts on the writer just to put the name down on the keyboard. However, it has received a number of reviews. Let’s see some of them:
After appearing on gaming consoles, Assassin’s Creed arrived on PC and it seems that the effort was made to ensure that contrary to the previous habit of bad ports from console to PC, it supported well the transfer from one platform to the next (test 1, test 2).
Notice 2: Recently, a 3D test has shown that the DirectX 10 rendering was over-simplified by Assassin’s Creed (with undue performance gains at the cost of image quality). There is a patch planned in the short term to correct this.
Some abstract images of sand. Shot in Lagoa do Peixe (Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) in 2008. To me, they looked a little like some satellite photos of the planet Mars.
Click on the thumbnails if you want to access the 1280*1024 versions
Those photos can be used freely for your own wallpaper (on your own computer).
Intel has several Developer forums per year in the world. In Spring 2008, they went to Shanghai in order to reveal the future of computers, mobile data and processors. Oddly enough, I also was in Shanghai at the same time.
I observed not the forum itself, but people going to the Forum (located in the Shanghai International Convention Center). Some of them were cramed in the Sofitel Jin Jiang Oriental Pudong (Tong Jin Jiang Pudong Hotel). Man! Do they think that the attendees are dumb? Any person (probably identified by his/her westerner/caucasian appearance) staying more than 30 seconds in the lobby would be met by some Intel-appointed people asking “are you here for the Intel forum?” and immediately trying to help you to the shuttles.
This is nice, I suppose, if your lost. But it seems that the Intel people were guessing that any IDF participants would have to be too dumb to see the buses stopped in front of the hotel doors.
Was it an evaluation of the mental capacity of developers or of journalists?
Actually, this is DRAM manufacturers that have these nightmares. While prices have been regularlyfalling down for months (consumers love it), the financial results of most of the manufacturers are falling through the floor. It has been quite long in the making, but we can expect that there will be some consolidation when some manufacturer close their DRAM activity or sell to the competition within 2008.
Prices may keep plumetting but sales are stabilizing, and this could be the end of it in 2008.
The most powerful super-computer in Europe (and the 13th in the World), MareNostrum, is located in Barcelona, Spain, and has been installed in an old chapel. This gives us the most beautiful supercomputer in the world (this is nearly computer soft-pron photo).
Your good old laptop PC went back to meet its maker and you can’t accept the idea of dumping it into the next waste basket (not even considering recycling, would you really want to part in such a harsh way?). Let’s not forget some of the few uses that you can still have from the old mate:
What broke down:
You still can…
The screen is all dead and went black
…attach a desktop display and convert it to a small desktop PC.
The screen is all dead and went black
…install Linux, an SSH_server or PC_Anywhere and recycle it into a autonomous file server with low power consumption.
The motherboard is resting
…scrap the 2.5″ disk drive and put it into a nice little USB box to have a new external backup solution.
The battery is out of juice
…plug the power cord and convert it to a small desktop PC.
The keyboard is broken
…install Linux and recycle it into a autonomous file server with low power consumption.
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If you have an old collection of PC MS-DOS games that has been sleeping at the bottom of a drawer, you may have two approaches: A/ you prefer to forget the old pixels and buy new games, B/ you were so found of those that you want to play even on your newest PC. However, it is difficult because most of these run only in a DOS box, but are so unusable because of the speed of the processor and the limited compatibility of the sound and graphics.
