News for Sunday, 17 October 2004

Both articles describing how to improve the cooling system of a Radeon 9600XT before overclocking it, are now available in English.
Proceed by steps:
First article: "How to cool a Radeon 9600XT"
Second article: "Extreme overclocking of a Radeon 9600XT"

Thank to a nice article from STRyk, you will learn how a USB device from Serato can allow you to scratch audio files the same way than with turntables and vinyl’s; transforming your Apple laptop into a perfect DJ's tools. That's the way to impress your friends, or to start a new career.

Karim is telling us about a problem he was facing with his brand new G5 20":

Some CD/DVD stay stacked in the iMac CD/DVD drive, and there is no way to get them out when following the standard ejection procedure proposed from AppleSupport web site. It seems that some CDs or DVDs are thinner than the average, and remain blocked into the drive while being ejected. The only efficient solution to solve this problem is to switch off your iMacG5, place it horizontally with the LCD side facing the table (add a soft tissue in between to preserve the display from any scratches), then reboot the iMacG5, and press the eject button from the keyboard. One reported case is happening with Install CD of TechTools Pro 4.

Other website have also reported some problems with some CDs/DVDs, and especially with the one from TechTools.
However, nothing similar was reported with the PBG4 which is having exactly the same optical drive. So it is probably the non-fully vertical position of the iMac G5 which is creating this problem when using some CDs/DVDs.

Laurent has also used the Do It Yourself program to change the PSU of his iMacG5.
As reported by other users, I have called AppleCare, and less than 10 days later, I have received the box via UPS. Inside the box (labeled For sale to Apple Authorized service providers only), there was a step-by-step procedure explaining perfectly how to perform the PSU exchange, the "Delta"-branded PSU and even a screw driver in case you do not own any.
Ok for me, opening the iMacG5 was not something new, I have done it already twice, to install a 250GB HD, and to add 2x512MB of DDR-RAM.
anyway, it is not difficult, you have to be patient and proceed by step in the defined order. It took me less than 15 minutes to switch off the iMacG5, perform the PSU exchange, plug it back and start writing you this report.
Now, I simply have to pack the defect PSU, set a meeting with UPS to send it back.
Anyway it is quite amazing how the iMacG5 is silent (except when performing long CPU intensive task, even though nothing compare to other computers)

Thanks to MacGregor, Macplus has published a test of an iMac G5 17" 1.8 GHz. According to their results, this model is 5.4x faster than the "old" iMac G4 700MHz.

Bertrand has taken this photo from Micrologic, an Apple Reseller in Canada.

Some Mac users will have the chance to enjoy their iMacG5 this week-end!

The online store Amazon has already proposing pre-order for MacOSX Tiger for a price sets to 129.99$.

The expected shipping date is March, 31st 2005.
[Update] Tiger is not available anymore on pre-order from amazon.com... Apple has probably called them...

We were all waiting for this news!! Mac et Video have released the software which will allow you to flash the firmware of your Pioneer DVD burner from DVR104 to DVR108 models!

http://www.macetvideo.com/flashitkit2
PS: We have tested successfully this software to update a DVR-108 with the region-free firmware 1.

Xserve clusters seem to be trendy to set calculation farms, and cheap in comparison with dedicated solutions.
Nevertheless, a part of the power potentially delivered is lost because of the network in charge of providing each server with data to process and getting the results of the calcutations.
A company, Small-Tree, proposes nowadays Infiniband cards for the mac platform. Infiniband is a specific network infrasructure optmized link machines all together. Data is brought simultaneously on several channels, decrasing latency as much as possible. In addition, this solution frees the processors for the network-related tasks, increasing the power available for the calculations.
The release of such a product demonstrates how Apple is up-to-date in the field of networks and servers.

Two new books have been added on the French iTMS, and they might become a starting point for a scandal in France. Indeed, they were both written by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, which has been classified as a sect by a very concerning report of the National Assembly (Trans: the French Parliament).
Hardmac was not created to debate that kind of topic, but being focused on the Mac and therefore Apple, we think that such a choice might bring them a few problem with the government...
As a conclusion, we'll just quote L. Ron Hubbard:

"The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion."