Digit Magazine January 2002

93 Pages·5.2 MB·

by  Digit

■■ eeddiittoorriiaall
Is Microsoft’s Domination
Really unjust?
T
he last couple of years have witnessed the growth of Linux from
an operating system that started out as the plaything of a small group
of programmers to one that is taken seriously all over the world.
Linux is the best operating system around. Linux is proof of the
power of communities. Linux stands for Freedom of choice. So claim
its ardent supporters.
Unlike the Macintosh operating system, Linux doesn’t face the
challenge of convincing people to switch to a more expensive and
proprietary hardware platform. Neither has it been stopped in its
tracks by limited hardware support, as was the fate of BeOS. For Win-
dows 98 users the differences in stability should itself have been suf-
Karan Manral
ficient reason to switch over. But even though Linux is virtually free,
Assistant Editor
people haven’t been convinced to make the shift.
“Developers have So what is really holding up this operating system in its quest for
wasted several popularity with regular desktop computer users?
opportunities to The answer lies in the little details.
prove that Linux What is popularly referred to the ‘Linux Libraries Dependency
is not just for Hell’, makes installing new applications a tiresome process. Many
geeks and they popular Windows applications are still not available on Linux and
will now find it the few world-class Linux applications have their own quirks. Con-
even more sider GIMP, which could really challenge Photoshop if the interface
difficult to make wasn’t so clumsy. Issues such as this make the transition to Linux
progress against extremely inconvenient for Windows users.
Newer distributions are as easy to install as Windows and the Linux
Windows XP”
user interface itself has made great progress over the last year. How-
ever, there’s not much innovation directed at making it easier to use
for people unfamiliar with computing. The developers have wasted
several opportunities to prove that Linux is not just for geeks and
they will now find it even more difficult to make progress against the
latest Microsoft products. The traditional instability of the Windows
desktop OSes has been largely eliminated in Windows XP.
If Linux is to become more popular, its applications need to com-
pete with the best that Windows has to offer both in the features
offered, and in usability. The only way to seriously challenge Windows
is by concentrating on making Linux even more easy to use. This
would go a long way in ensuring that Linux moves beyond being an
operating system that so many love but very few choose actually to
use.
[email protected]
contents ■
■ magazine
2
60
0
0
A new experience?
2 Is Windows XP really a big step
forward in operating systems?
Find out what Microsoft 78
Y has in store for you
R
Nab that Virus!
The key to avoiding
A
virus infections lies in
exxcited pabout understanding how
U they work.Get an
insight into their
modus operandi
N
A
88Linux for your
Mom
J
If you think the
Tux is tough to
like,come see his
friendlier side
46
Choosing the right processor
It’s tough to find the perfect processor.In a blistering test
drive,we rip the 15 top processors apart
INSIDE
FEATURES
28
Avtar Saini on processor technology
30
10 technologies to invest in
38
How to make kids love computing
127
42
Toys of the rich and geeky
TEST DRIVE
73
Agent 001 shares MP3 Player secrets
PC gaming essentials
INSIGHT
We pick the 15 most
76
challenging game titles that Inside the Xbox
92
money can buy How to become a remix artist
96
Using your PC to develop for
different platforms
98
Tracing offensive e-mail
107
40+ tips to master the Internet
ARCADE
130
Tips to win in Max Payne
136
10 Cyber crimes people commit
6 JANUARY2002
107
88
Tips that help you
See the
master the Internet
friendlier side
of Linux
92
A guide for aspiring remix
artists
30
10 technologies that you
can’t live without
76
Find out what’s inside Xbox,
Microsoft’s all-new gaming console
98
Hit back against e-mail abuse:
60 Catch the culprits!
Windows XP: Tried,
tested and explained
Reviewed this month
HARDWARE 68 Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
S
ACi Acclaim Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz
R ASUS A7V266-E Intel Pentium III 700 MHz
NEWS FEED 14 Canon S600 AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz
A
DELL Precision 530 Intel Pentium III 1.13 GHz
LETTERS 24
L Hewlett-Packard Scanjet 2200C SOFTWARE 68
DROOLMAAL 34
IBM NetVista X40 CyberLink PowerDVD XP 4.0
U
TEST DRIVE - REVIEWS 68 Logitech Wingman Attack eScan Pro Edition
G MSI Starforce GeForce3 MS-8822 Express WebPictures
QUICK START 102
Pine Excalibur GeForce2MX-400 PGP Desktop Security 7.0.3
E Q&A 103 Samsung Samtron 56V Space Searcher 1.01
R BOOKS AND CDs 132 Sony DDU1621 Ulead WebRazor Pro 2.0
PROCESSORS 46 GAMES 132
WIDE ANGLE 136
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ Return to castle Wolfenstein
DIGIT DIARY 138 AMD Athlon XP 1500+ Lock and Load
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ BOOKS 134
BACKBYTE 140
AMD Duron 900 MHz Macromedia Dreamweaver 4 for
AMD Athlon 1.13 GHz Windows and Macintosh
Intel Celeron 1.2 GHz The Illustrator 9 WOW! Book
Intel Celeron 800 MHz The Photoshop 6 WOW! Book
Intel Pentium III 800 MHz CD TITLE 134
To subscribe to Digit, fill out the
subscription form available online at AMD Duron 1.1 GHz Ayurveda: the mantra of Niramaya
www.thinkdigit.com/subscribe Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz
7 JANUARY2002
contents ■
■ digit interactive
Mindware Playware
Software
Arena: Top Demo
Rogue Spear:Ghost Recon
Take command of an elite squad of military personnel, The
Ghosts, equipped with the latest cutting edge weaponry
(not just machismo!). Play your way through a series of
missions, ranging from demolitions to search and rescues,
on to all out firefights.
Bryce 5
Create breathtakingly realistic 3D
landscapes with this powerful
animation software
Extras
Monthly Special:
Musicmakers
An all-new Extras section, for
SoundForge 5.0 that extra gaming frenzy! Check
Try out this award-winning digital out the full version of the origi-
audio editor. nal Caesar game, intelligent
bots for challenging single
PCDJ Silver player Counter-Strike gaming
and other add-ons.
Music
The PCDJ Silver is a
Get jiggy with it,
pumped up MP3 player
or go into a trance
which allows you to
with Amok Vibes
compose your own
(group members
music by remixing
being “me and myself,
MP3 tracks
the unique Amok”).
Groove to Latin House,
Video Workshop
Deep and Hard House, Big Beat, Drum n’ bass,
FruityLoops 3.3 Hands On Trip hop and
This software synthesizer more. 5
Speeding up your PC
and sequencer allows you Full
Movies
to create audio loops
E-Books
PLUS
Get high on trailers of Harry
GoZilla Free 4.1, Opera 6.0 beta 1, Zbrush v1.23b
Potter and the Sorcerer’s
stone and Ice Age.
Wondering how your modemworks?
■■Check out these Modem FAQs
Gallery
5
Bookmarks Want a great looking desk-
Whitepapers top? Try out these wallpa-
■■Web sites that will help you
pers, screensavers and
on DDR SDRAM solve your PC problems
themes to add some spice to
Test Drive
your everyday computing.
■■Read the full-length reviews Charge up your Winamp player with these nifty skins.
of every major processor tested
in our first ever processor Droolmaal
comparison test 10 An up-to-the-minute configuration just
Tips
isn’t enough—you need a great l
for the gaming
enthusiast
8 JANUARY2002
contents ■
■ digit interactive
Inside the CDs
Software
Bryce 5
Create breathtakingly realistic 3D
landscapes with this powerful anima-
tion software
PLUS
GoZilla Free 4.1, Opera
6.0 beta 1, Zbrush v1.23b
FAQs
Wondering how your
modem works?
■■Discover the answers in
CD these Modem FAQs
Special
In Bookmarks
Musicmakers ■■Web sites that will help
you solve your PC prob-
lems
PCDJ Silver
Compose your own music with
this pumped up MP3 player Hands On
■■Our video workshop
plus FruityLoops 3.3 this month shows you
SoundForge 5.0 how you can speed up the
performance of your PC
Arena: Top Demo
Rogue Spear: Ghost Recon
Take command of an elite squad of military personnel
equipped with the latest cutting edge weaponry (not just
machismo!). Play your way through a series of missions,
ranging from demolitions to search and rescues, on to all
out firefights.
Music
Get jiggy with it, or go into a trance with
Amok Vibes (group members being “me
and myself, the unique Amok”). Groove to
Latin House, Deep and Hard House, Big
Beat, Drum n’ bass, Trip hop and more.
Gallery
5
Want a great looking desktop? Try
out these wallpapers, screensavers
and themes to add some spice to
Full E-Books your everyday computing.
and Droolmaal..
Funky new products that sizzle...
contents ■
■ online
get your taste of digit online at http://www.thinkdigit.com
Reviews Opinion
Get different points of view on the
Drooling for the hottest technology issues
latest gizmos?
Take a look at
over 70 reviewsof
products evaluated
by our Test Centre.
Workshops Web Exclusives
15 must-have EXTRA: Kidsware
PC games This lot of software, games
The FULL story: and Web sites will get your
Read the kids excited about learning
complete game on a computer
reviews online
Online forums
Get buying advice
from our Undercover
Agent.Visit the new
Looking for computing tutorials?
Our workshops show you how to get forums on January 5,
the job done 2002
10 JANUARY 2002
service ■
■ colophon
VOLUME 2,ISSUE 1 Write Back ADVERSISERS INDEX
Chairman and Publisher Got some feedback on the magazine or CLIENT . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGE
Jasu Shah
our companion Web site? Have something
Associate Publisher and Amkette . .Inside Back Cover
Editor Maulik Jasubhai to say about an article we published?
Assistant Editor Karan Manral Base Corporation . . . .22,23
Editorial We’d love to hear from you at
Writers Anil Patrick R., Sriram Sharma, Dell Computer
[email protected]
Vidyaramanan S., Avina Lobo,
Corporation Ltd. . .4,5,12,13
Prashant Masrani
Features Editor Sveta Basraon
Hewlett Packard
Copy Editors Anshul Chauhan, Complain about your missing copy
Julian Vongeyer, Roopa Sukumaran Cover CD not working properly? . . .Inside Front Cover,57,59
Design
Renew your subscription
ArtDirector Marshall Mascarenhas Hindustan Times . . . . . . .29
Design Swaroop Biswas, Shivasankaran Report a change in mailing address
C. Pillai, Shyam Shirsekar, Solomon Order a back issue Hi-Tech Printer
Lewis, Neeta Wadiker, Mahesh Benkar,
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Need assistance on any of these issues?
Photographers Mexi Xavier, Jiten
Gandhi Contact our offices listed below or e-mail Customer Service at ICFAI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
Test Centre [email protected]
Invensys . . . . . . .Back Cover
Head Marco D’Souza
Deputy Head Hatim Kantawalla Pager:9623-987273 (Mumbai), 9624-329229 (Pune, Hyderabad Kobian . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
Reviewers Dipayan Choudhury, Aliasgar and Bangalore)
Pardawala, Yatish Suvarna, Mitul Mehta Microstar . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Co-ordinatorGautami Chalke
Multimedia Monarch Video Vision . . .63
Get Featured
Co-ordinator V.Ravi Shankar
Vision Multimedia . . . . . .95
Designer Kabir Malkani, Jo-Ann PRODUCT TESTING
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Programmers Liu Ai Chin our Test Centre at
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Head Audience Development
are the undisputed stamp of excellence for that the information and prices pro-
Sarang Dash
Customer Service Namita Shetty technology products in India. vided are correct, there may be
VP, Sales & Client Marketing If you are a winner and are interested in some variation due to differences in
Sandip Maiti
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Client Marketing Executive
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11 JANUARY 2002
pulse ■
■ news
hypethesis Oceanic Talk
Northwood
Expecting an mouthpiece. The
■ What is it?
urgent call? buzzer and a flashing
Northwood is the core
There’s not light alert the diver of
around which the new Intel
much you can do if an incoming call. The
Pentium 4 processors will
you’re 30 feet under- person receiving the
run. They will be based on
water admiring the call underwater bites
the new 0.13-micron die
lush aquatic life. But on the mouthpiece to
Tualatin core (116 mm), with
that’s history now. A receive the call and
copper inter-connectors, will
new phone devised hears the conversation
run at speeds of more than 2
by France Telecom through sound vibra-
GHz and will replace the cur-
has made it possible tions that reverberate
rent Pentium 4 processors. ILLUSTRATION:Mahesh Benkar
for divers to receive in the diver’s skull
■ What’s the fuss about?
calls from a landline or a The buoy contains a GSM towards his ear. The diver can
Northwood comes with a
mobile phone without hav- unit which picks up the sig- also talk back and use a dial-
more compact socket type—
ing to surface. The phone, nals and relays it down the ing pad to call anybody on a
the socket 478, also called
which comes with a long wire to the phone. fixed or wireless phone. Con-
mPGA478. Its small size
wire, is attached to a buoy This phone has a dial pad, nectivity now extends to the
allows for a higher density of
on the surface of the water. a light, a buzzer and a special oceans.
pins attached on the proces-
sor. This entails a shorter dis-
Rip In Peace?
tance from each other and to
the socket and hence, fewer
errors when instructions are
transmitted. Michael Jackson, based on the work of TTR Data Shield to lock up ordi-
It will use 64-bit, 3.2
Natalie Imbruglia, Technologies, Israel. SafeAu- nary CD audio files. But it
GBps FSB running at a 100
and the Fast and the dio gives some of the digital includes a separate audio
MHz quadpumped clock
Furious are some of the first code on the CD “grossly erro- player that allows digital ver-
speed. This means that it can
artistes to employ CDs that neous values”, adding bursts sions of songs to be played.
handle four times as many
use copy protection. A copy- of hiss to the audio signal. These songs cannot be played
instructions per clock cycle.
prevention mechanism called The error-correction codes on through common media play-
Also, its L2 cache will be
key2audio has been used on ers such as Windows Media or
enlarged (from 256 KB) to a
Michael Jackson’s forthcom- Winamp. Nor can the digital
standard size of a 512 KB.
ing single, ‘You Rock My files be played on anything
World’. This causes a comput- other than a Windows OS.
snapshot
er’s CD-ROM drive to incor- Interestingly enough, you can
rectly interpret the stored beat the protection by play-
data. Key2audio alters an ing a CD on a standard CD
audio CD making it incom- player, taking the output to
patible with CD-ROM, CD-R the line-in jack on the com-
and CD-RW drives. Similarly, puter, and recording each
the SafeAudio system devel- track into a WAV file. Once a
oped by Macrovision, pre- WAV, the song can easily be
vents one from ‘ripping’ the CD, which normally cor- converted to an MP3 using
music CDs to create digital rect these errors, are distorted. any of the programs available
copies on a computer hard So error correction fails, leav- on the Net. It’s more time
disc or for downloading to a ing tiny gaps in the music. consuming compared to a rip-
Source:www.internetindicators.com portable player. SafeAudio is Universal uses Cactus per, but it works.
■Linux breaks 100-Petabyte ceiling ■AMD now in Indian branded PCs ■Bug found in Intel Itanium processor ■The cost of a pirated version of Windows XP in
14 JANUARY2002
beindian redalert
Mailing station “I’m in a harry”
How do you send e-mail You’re a goner if your PC’s
without a PC? It’s simple. You managed to get this one.
take a certain device, plug it Goner is a powerful new
in any telephone jack and Windows computer virus
send and retrieve e-mail from busy wreaking havoc and
your account. This device, for affecting over 17 countries,
out of which the US, the UK
and France have been the
worst affected. The e-mail is
named ‘Hi’ with a message
that reads, “How are you?
ASilicon Valley start-up more layers of circuitry than When I saw this screensaver I
will try to popularise current chips and as a result, immediately thought of you.
one of the more resemble microscopic cubes I’m in a harry (sic). I promise
intriguing ideas of our time: instead of the existing chips you’ll love it.” It has an
which you have to pay three-dimensional semicon- which are much flatter. attachment called
Rs 5,990, is called an iStation ductors. The chips will be substan- ‘Gone.scr’, a screensaver
and is manufactured by California-based Matrix tially smaller than competing which displays a small dialog
iNabling Technologies from has received strategic funding products. Matrix claims that box which fools the user into
Bangalore. If you want to from Sony, Eastman Kodak their technique will allow believing that a program is
print an e-mail, plug iStation and Microsoft, to release them to produce 64 MB flash running, while in the back-
in a printer and fire the print; memory chips that contain memory cards that would sell ground, the system files are
You can even send mail in many more layers of circuitry for around $10 (current 64 being deleted. The e-mail
your native language. The than ordinary chips. As a MB cards cost $38). sends itself to the addresses
iStation weighs 770 grams result, Matrix’ chips resemble It seems likely we will see in the Outlook Address Book.
and comes equipped with a microscopic cubes rather these chips in devices rela- Goner can even disable anti-
256 KB capacity, an in-built than two-dimensional planes. tively soon, considering the virus software in a computer.
modem, and a backlit LCD. The chips will apparently fact that Toshiba, Sony and Watch out.
It’s available in two mod- incorporate some design Eastman Kodak are among
Patch work
els: Premier P1001 (Rs techniques taken from digital the investors.
5,990) and Classic C1001 (Rs flat panels. Matrix has bor- The transition to three Microsoft has released a
7,990). The Classic model rowed many of its concepts dimensinal chips is driven security patch for Internet
has a printer and a PC port. for building vertical chips primarily out of a fear that Explorer 5.5 and 6.0 to plug
iStation permits up to five from the flat-panel display Moore’s Law will hit a wall. a hole that could allow hack-
users to use a single unit, industry, which has perfected Designers will have to come ers to steal passwords and
each having their own pri- the art of mass-producing lay- up with other ways to allow trick people into download-
vate e-mail IDs. ered silicon films. The chips chips to continue to become ing virulent files. The patch
will be built using many more powerful. eliminates a wide range of
previously known security
problems and plugs three
Cool for laptops
new holes. One problem
affecting only IE 6.0, allows
an attacker to alter HTML
Micro-fans devel- fans have polyester or even a chip satisfactorily. But information in a way as to
oped at Purdue metal blades, which are they could be put to work trick IE to open a damaging
University, “attached to tiny patches of in combination with rota- executable file without ask-
Indiana, could help in piezoelectric ceramic”. tional fans especially in ing the person for confirma-
developing smaller and When an alternating cur- spaces that are not reached tion. Another bug allows the
faster laptops and let manu- rent is applied, the ceramic by the latter. Engineers also hacker to gather personal
facturers stash in more expands and contracts and claim that the piezoelectric information from the local
chips in devices than are the blades move back and fans consume far less power system. A hacker could read,
currently possible. These forth like a Chinese fan. as compared to a rotational but not change, any file on
fans, say the engineers, imi- However, there is scepticism fan. Interestingly, being the computer user’s system
tate the motion of a that the airflow achieved by noiseless, they can also be that can be opened in a
Chinese fan. These micro- a ceramic fan will not cool used in cell phones. browser window.
Thailand:$2.70 ■nVidia employees accused of insider trading ■Microsoft officially launches Xbox ■Java-based phones making presence felt in Asia ■Bleem shuts down
15 JANUARY2002