Icrontic is proud to introduce our brand new “Open Source Evangelism” series. This regular feature will pit commercial applications against free and open source software (FOSS) to see which one comes out on top.
Today we will be taking a look at Pidgin, a popular Open Source alternative to commercial instant messaging clients.
Water cooling was once a serious do-it-yourself hobby involving a lot of courage, hard work and patience. When we took a look at the Thermaltake Prowater recently, we were amazed just how accessible water cooling had become. It is no longer necessary to be a hard core enthusiast to enjoy the performance and silence associated with water cooling.
Today we’ll be taking a look at another compact, all-in-one water cooling kit—but this time from Swiftech. Founded back in 1994, Swiftech is a name very familiar to enthusiasts; especially those that have dabbled in water cooling over the years. Interestingly, Swiftech started as a company specializing in high-end UNIX imaging systems for its first few years and then moved into large heatsinks and thermo-electric coolers. It’s quite a shift, but hey, we’d much rather be playing with TECs than working with UNIX servers too! Since 1999, Swiftech has been growing steadily and then went public in 2005.
The kit we’ll be taking a look at today is the Swiftech Compact H2O-120; a very compact kit that hopes to make watercooling accessible to the average consumer. There are a few key features that really set the H2O-120 apart from other water cooling kits. First and foremost is Swiftech’s “Apogee Drive” pump, which literally combines the Apogee water block and the MCP350 pump. They didn’t just stop there either, they included a 120mm radiator with a built-in reservoir. In Swiftech’s words—”Water cooling has never been this easy!”
Let’s take a closer look at the H2O Compact and see how it fares in the Icrontic labs.
Icrontic is proud to offer the Office Hours series of articles. Each week we’ll take a look at a common problem in Windows or often-used software and nail down a quick fix for it. This week, the good doctor explores how to fix a Windows Installer Service that has gone on the blink.
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RiDATA, owned by RiTEK, has been a manufacturer of optical storage devices like CDs and DVDs since 1989 and recently ventured into the world of flash memory. This year they released the Ultra-S Plus line of 2.5″ form-factor solid-state drives. Today, I’m looking at the highest capacity model: the 128GB drive.
It is a mutually-parasitic relationship between tech sites and the PR companies that represent the firms we cover. Online publications — like Icrontic — are made or broken by the ability to create compelling new content enticing to the reader. In a similar respect, PR firms are sustained by the ability to widely disseminate material on the topics we write about.
These interests seemingly put the parties at odds: PR firms live to create a raft of press for their client, and publications dream of the traffic that results from being the only press for a sensational new product. Even with ostensibly disparate goals, the governance of mutualism binds and drives both parties forward in their goals. And as with any delicate ecosystem, a tremendous shift in the equilibrium threatens the welfare of everyone.
To that end, TechCrunch’s recent decision to violate any embargo to which they agree is both disingenuous and an insult to readers.
An idea that has been trying to take hold for some time is the concept of a home theater PC. Such a computer promises the ability to store, mange, and play movies, music and pictures of all sorts. This multimedia hub should ultimately unite our audio equipment, DVD players, CD players, Blu-ray players, consoles and digital multimedia into a single, easy package that’s operable with a remote control. To see if I could meet all of these goals, I set out to make an “HD Home Theater PC” that I could connect to a 52” HD ILA 1080p television and digital home theater sound system.
Charging an establishment with the dissemination of child pornography should not be done lightly. Pornographic material containing minors is a despicable and reprehensible tack that should be snuffed out with the strongest beatstick the law can muster. The serious implications that such an allegation carries notwithstanding, the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation recently decided to level just such an accusation against Wikipedia. Rather unfortunately for the IWF, the grossly misappropriated charges were both unreasoned and telling of a systemic flaw in the IWF’s processes.
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Two weeks ago, I took a look at the NZXT Tempest case which was described as “an enthusiast’s steel tower.” NZXT has also sent us their Guardian 921 case, which I’ll be looking at today.
NZXT calls the Guardian 921 “Power for Gamers,” which I assume means that they consider this the right case for the gaming enthusiast. For many gamers, this case would indeed do the job well, but it comes with features that might make gamers scratch their heads.
The Chill Pill
When it comes to portable media, the sad truth is that speaker quality generally goes out the window as speaker sizes decrease. Today’s small laptops prove this trend, as recent releases like the MacBook Air contain only a single speaker beneath the keyboard. While these solutions are inexpensive and gentle on battery life, they leave something to be desired when used for anything beyond system sounds.
While manufacturers have, in part, circumvented this issue with the prevalence of headphone jacks, what about situations where you don’t want to (or can’t) use headphones? Small Dog Electronics’ Chill Pill speakers were created for that purpose, and today Icrontic will be taking a look at them.
As we draw into the blustery month of December, we enter a period of reflection before we move to embrace the coming year. While the new year will be all about righting wrongs and changing our habits, we’ll take this time of giving and considering to look back and snicker at all the firms who booked passage on the failboat in 2008.
Icrontic is proud to offer the Office Hours series of articles. Each week we’ll take a look at a common problem in Windows or often-used software and nail down a quick fix for it. This week, the good doctor explores how to suppress the login screen to automatically log a user into a Windows XP-based system.
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It is said that P2P traffic accounts for nearly half of the bandwidth consumed on the Internet. It is believed by some that this usage is a fraction of what is possible were it not for the ease in which TCP traffic is managed for the sake of QoS. With the announcement that makers of BitTorrent intend to use UDP — a relatively unmanaged counterpart — some believe that core infrastructure of the Internet will be crushed once this traffic escapes local ISPs.
Icrontic is proud to offer the Office Hours series of articles. Each week we’ll take a look at a common problem in Windows or often-used software and nail down a quick fix for it. This week, the good doctor discusses the uselessness of the ubiquitous blue screen of death and the futility in troubleshooting one.
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It’s the holiday season, and that means it’s time to send yourself spiraling into crushing debt made possible by the power of plastic. While you could responsibly commit to a reasonable budget, we know that the seductive potential of a $600 PC that isn’t terrible may be too much for your feeble will. If you’re looking for a little rationalization to pull the trigger, chalk it up to aiding our abyss of an economy.
While Tuniq is becoming a popular name in cooling, their name does not typically jump to mind when considering power supplies. All the same, this new-comer to the PSU market is hoping to make quite a splash. In a relatively short period of time, Tuniq has cranked out seven higher end power supplies ranging from 550W to 1200W. Tuniq recently sent us a 550W model from the Potency line, so let’s see how it fared in the lab!
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