News for Monday, 28 November 2005

A new firmware (version 1.37) is available for the Pioneer 110 burners.
It improves the different kinds of burning and supports more media.
Direct links for download:
Firmware 1.37 for the DVR 110D
Firmware 1.37 for the 110
The .exe files are in fact archives files, which can be expanded using Stuffit Expander.
You will then be able to flash the burners with DVRFlash 2.2.
Zone-free versions of the firmware 1.37 are available on the website of the Dangerous Brothers:
http://tdb.rpc1.org/

Thanks to Mrick for the info:

NeoOffice 1.2 alpha is out.
New features :
- CPU and RAM usage has been reduced
- based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 code
- compatible with the OpenDocument format(OpenOffice 2) on read-only
- better character support
- better support for international keyboards
- improved performances
- many bug fixes
- copy/paste improvement
- printing of EPS images

http://www.planamesa.com/neojava/en/download.php

In case you want to try the Safe Sleep mode on your Mac, a scripts suite named "Suspend Now" can do that on a simple click.
There is a script to activate the Safe Sleep, another one to secure the virtual memory and a third one to add this option to the Apple menu.
Suspend Now

Laptoplogic.com ran a test comparing two hard disks aimed at the laptop market, the Hitachi 7K100 and the Seagate 7200.1, which share some common, interesting performances: 2.5", 100 GB and 7200 rpm.
As always in this kind of face off, no big winner. In terms of pure speed, the Hitachi does a bit better... but it's noisier. It overheats a bit but its power consumption is lower, and it's cheaper.
If you want to read a comprehensive account of this test:
http://www.laptoplogic.com
PS: The lastest Powerbooks come with 5400 rpm Seagate hard disks.