Oscot Daily
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The Story: Oscot recently upgraded a team members PC. The Oscot Team was very meticulous in researching both the competitors and off-the-shelf hardware in order to build the best machine for your money. Here we have outlined for you a direct hardware list of our Ultra custom built machine, one of HP’s highly acclaimed Blackbird machines, and Dell’s XPS 720 system for a side by side comparison. We will refer to the custom built PC as “Ultra” (case model), the HP as the “Blackbird”, and Dell’s XPS 720 as “XPS” for the purposes of this documentation. The HP and Dell were spec’d out to match as much as possible direct from the vendor. They were ALL chosen with no monitors. The custom built Ultra PC has no mouse and keyboard, but with the money we’re saving you, you’ll manage. | Case Specs:
• (2) AeroCool Xtreme Turbine-Black 120mm Case Fan (Replaced with (2) Thermaltake A2018 1200mm fans)
• Ultra USB 2.0 MD3 5.25" Multi Function Panel Blk
• Ultra 750w X2 Power Supply/120mm Titanium UV Side
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• Full-System Air Cooling
• Separate Thermal Chambers
• Heat Sinks and Pipes
• Discreet Wiring
• 900 Watt Power Supply
| • 750 Watt or 1KW Power Supply - SLI, ATX2.0, EPS12V, SSI industry compatibility
• Externally available: 2 Optical (5.25), 1 9-in-1 Media Card reader (2 x 5.25) & 1 Floppy (3.5)
• 7-slot BTX motherboard | Processor:
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHZ, 8MB L2 Cache Total, 1066 MHZ FSB (link)
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• Quad Core - Intel(R) Core2(TM) Quad-Core 2.4GHz Q6600 ( link )
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• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHZ, 8MB L2 Cache Total, 1066 MHZ FSB ( possible link match )
| Video:
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 512 DDR3 PCI Express with dual DVI (link)
| • NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM ( link ) | • nVidia GeForce 8800 GT 512MB ( link , a possible video card) | Motherboard:
• Asus Gaming Series "Republic of Gamers" Formula Maximus Motherboard ( link )
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• ASUS Striker Extreme 680i ( link )
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• Foxconn X38A LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard ( link, a possible video card)
| Memory:
• OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Vista Upgrade 2GB Module/4GB Kit ( link )
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• 4 GB 1066MHz CORSAIR PC2-8500 DDR2 SDRAM SLI Ready ( link )
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• 4GB Corsair Dominator DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz OC'd to 1066MHz-4 DIMMs ( link )
| Hard Drives: • 320GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA |
• 320GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA
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• 160GB 7200rpm SATA
• 1TB 7200rpm SATA
| Drives: • Plextor PX810a 18x DVDRW Black Retail ( link ) • Asus Black 16x DVD-ROM/48x CD ROM ( link ) |
• Super multi-drive, slim slots with Lightscribe (DVD +/-R/RW+/-DL )
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• Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
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Some users have encountered a problem with their iTouch’s while trying to use ZiPhone’s jailbreaking application. We followed the video posted on their website, http://www.ziphone.org/2008/02/ziphone-works-on-itouch-too.html . If you were the fortunate one's that were able to get it to work on your iTouch here's how you delete Ziphone's Blog Icon: On 1.1.3 and above hold down on the icon and the black x comes up and click it and hit delete. If you need the 1.1.4 file. Upon following the instruction on the video that seemed easy enough, I now had an iTouch that would do nothing else but…  Here is an instructional video to guide you through what is written here.
There is a way to restore your iTouch to the original firmware.
First you must turn off your now useless iTouch by holding the power button and the home button at the same time. It should shut off in less than 10 seconds. Once off, wait for 5 seconds and press both buttons again. This time booting your iTouch into “Restore Mode”.
NOTE: you don't have to wait 5 seconds to press the buttons again, you can simply continue to hold them down and it will go directly into restore mode. Also, I never unplugged my iPod/iTouch from my computer. Note from user Beau McG.: Beau powered down my iPod and my pc. Unplugged the ipod. Rebooted the pc, connected the iPod, turned it on in restore mode. 
Once in restore mode, your iTunes may open automatically if your settings are set to do so when your iPod/iTouch is plugged into your pc/mac. If not just open iTunes and you should see the following. |
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Symantec announced yesterday a new rootkit found attacking the MBR (master boot record) in Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, and Server 2000. This rootkit overwrites the Master Boot Record of the hard disk and uses rootkit techniques to hide itself. If you become infected, the only way to clean out the infection is to unfortunately wipe your pc’s hard drive clean and start over. There are some preventative measures that can be taken, however. The first is making sure you have proper anti-virus and anti-rootkit protection. AVG offers some great products that can help you accomplish this task free, easily, and efficiently. Another preventative measure is to verify if your pc’s BIOS has a “MBR write-protection” feature. If the feature is available, the best mode of protection is to enable it. Just remember that if you need re-install Windows for any other reason, you have to disable it in order to do so. |
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The OSCOT favorite of 2008’s Consumer Electronic Show is Bug Labs “Lego of Gadgets”. This amazing device allows you to add multiple modules in order to make it “your own”. Better yet, an effort to make it the exact device you need at that moment. With the ability to add modules (components) that give you an LCD screen and a digital camera, this is not only convenient, it provides flexibility on the go. It’s greatest ability comes with the end user being able to program your own software for your gadget . For the more novice individual, you can simply download software that’s readily available to you, and put it to it’s intended use if it fits your purpose. Watch for this item’s popularity to explode as the market embraces its technology. |
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Since it’s release in November of 2007, Microsoft has been actively trying to manage and promote it’s Home Server operating system into the homes of multi pc users. Although some support for x64 bit Vista systems was not available before, they are readily available now. Home Server now detects which connector versions are running and prompt you to update either the connector or the server so that they can now communicate effectively. Other features include: - When adding a hard drive to Windows Home Server, a user is now presented with an option to use the hard drive for backing up the home server.
- When adding/editing a user in the Home Server Console, in addition to enabling remote access for that user, there is now a drop down list box that allows you to specify whether the user will have access to the computers tab, the shared folders tab, or both tabs when logged in with Windows Home Server Remote Access.
- If the backup database on the home server has a consistency error, you can now use the backup database repair wizard to attempt to correct this error. The repair wizard can be launched through the Backup Settings page in the Windows Home Server Console.
Check out Microsoft’s Home Server Blog for more updates as they are released. |
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