Seagate Drive Taps ESATA for XTreme Speed.
PC World.com 20081006
USB 2. 0 is the most popular connection technology for external devices, with FireWire (either 400 or 800) a close second. However, if you really want extreme speed, eSATA is the way to go, as Seagate Technologies new FreeAgent XTreme drive proves. I tested the 640GB model (ST306404FPA2E3-RK, $179. 99). The drive includes the unit itself, a one-piece power supply, a quick start guide (basically an illustrated what to plug in where sheet), plus one USB 2. 0 and one Firewire 400 cable. No eSATA cable is provided. Installation is simple: plug it in, connect the appropriate cable, turn on the drive, and youre ready to go. The drive is compatible with Windows Vista SP1 as well as Windows XP SP2, SP3. Going to ExtremesThe drive rotates at 7200rpm and was preformatted in NTFS. Windows XP SP3 reported 596. 2GB of space available. I tested the drive using HD Tach 3. 0 from Simpli Software Inc. Using its thorough Long Bench test (which uses 32KB blocks for reads and writes across the entire drive), the drive registered a burst speed of 32 MB/sec. , an average read speed of 30. 3 MB/sec. , and CPU utilization of 23% when connected to the USB port, roughly on par with the Buffalo DriveStation Combo 4 I reviewed in July -- a 1TB external drive with the same three connectors plus FireWire 800. Using version 2. 55 of the HD Tune benchmark test, the drive recorded an average transfer rate of 29. 8 MB/sec. , an average access time of 15. 2 milliseconds, and a burst rate of 24. 5 MB/sec. , using 13. 1% of the CPU. Performance improved when I connected the drive to the FireWire 400 port. HD Tach reported a higher burst speed (42. 1 MB/sec. ) and a 32% improvement in read speed (to 40. 0 MB/sec. ), using just 1% of the CPU. HD Tune results showed similar improvement: an average transfer rate of 38. 0 MB/sec. , average access time of 15. 0 milliseconds, and a burst rate of 35. 3 MB/sec. using just 1% of the CPU. eSATA is still not a standard feature of most PCs, and it wasnt built in to the motherboard on my test machine, so to get the fastest possible speed, I installed a Promise SATA300 TX4302 card ($90). The card connected to my Dell system using a standard PCI slot and came with two internal and two external 3 GB/sec. ports, and (thankfully) all the cables needed to connect up to four drives. Only one external port was used during testing. Using this configuration, HD Tach reported a burst speed of 100. 3 MB/sec. and a read speed more than double that of the FireWire 400 test (81. 6 MB/sec. ), with just 2% of the CPU used. The HD Tune test was equally strong: an average transfer rate of 76. 8 MB/sec. , average access time of 15. 0 milliseconds, and a burst rate of 61. 6 MB/sec. using just 4. 4% of the CPU. To compare its speed with another recently released external drive, I re-tested the Buffalo DriveStation using the same Promise card. Results were only slightly slower for HD Tach, which reported 96. 7MB/sec. burst speed, an average read speed of 71. 4 MB/sec. , and CPU utilization of 4%. With HD Tune, the results were roughly equal: average transfer rate was 75. 0MB/sec. , average access time was 14. 0, and CPU use was 5. 6%. Management UtilitiesThe drive measures 6. 9 x 1. 3 x 6. 8 (HWD) and weighs just 3. 1 pounds. It can sit flat on your desktop or you can use the snap-on stand to operate it in an uprig ...
Bruselas tambien rechaza conceder poder policial a las operadoras de Red.
El Mundo.es 20081006
BRUSELAS. - La Comisión Europea (CE) ha respaldado el informe del Parlamento Europeo que descartaba otorgar "poder policial" a los operadores de Internet, pese al rechazo a dicho texto manifestado por el presidente francés, Nicolás Sarkozy, quien también ocupa la presidencia de turno de la UE. Entre otros puntos, el informe aprobado a finales de septiembre por la Eurocámara establece que las operadoras no pueden restringir el acceso de los internautas ni los derechos fundamentales de los ciudadanos sin una autorización judicial previa, recordó el portavoz de la Comisión Martin Selmayr. El Pleno del Parlamento Europeo descartó que las empresas operadoras deban ponerse en contacto con los usuarios cuando éstos cometan actos ilícitos en internet, como la descarga de contenidos protegidos, algo que había sido presentado en el Parlamento Europeo antes del verano por el conservador británico Malcolm Harbour, en un paquete de medidas conocidas como las enmiendas torpedo. El Ejecutivo comunitario ha mostrado ...
¿No encuentras restaurante? Preguntaselo a Firefox.
El Pais.com 20081009
Mozilla ha lanzado Geode, un sistema de geolocalización para su navegador Firefox que espera incorporar en su versión 3. 1. El sistema permite localizar determinados puntos de interés cercanos a la ubicación física del usuario. De momento, el proyecto es experimental y puede ser utilizado, por ejemplo, para encontrar restaurantes. Aunque el vicepresidente de Mozilla encargado del proyecto Geode, Mike Shaver, cree que la aplicación se desarrollará más: Las personas tienen que comer, pero hay cosas más importantes. Con la localización intentamos ofrecer a la gente una información adicional, asegura Shaver que también ha explicado que los usuarios tendrán en todo momento el control de la información que desean dar sobre su propia localización. Para poner en marcha el proyecto ha sido necesaria la colaboración de Skyhook, una empresa que es capaz de ubicar un ...
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