Unless you’re a hardware enthusiast, you may have missed the fact that Intel significantly lowered the price on it’s quad-core CPUs this weekend. A quad-core CPU has four processing units on one chip (this first quad-core from Intel is actually two dual-core CPUs on the same chip). With the price drop, a quad-core CPU can now be purchased for just a little more than a high-end dual-core. Four CPUs for the price of two. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Well, not so fast. Unlike clock speed increases, multiple cores don’t scale linearly. While a 2ghz CPU is twice as fast as the same CPU at 1ghz, a quad-core CPU is not four times as fast as a single core. Like most desktop technology, quad-core CPUs have migrated from the server market. Comparing server performance using round numbers, a dual-core CPU offers about a 50% performance over a single core (not 100%), and there are diminishing returns. A quad-core CPU is only about 25% faster that a dual-core CPU.

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A reminder about some major laptop battery recalls over the last year:

• IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad Battery Recall for most 9-cell batteries sold between November 2005 and February 2007, and for batteries manufactured by Sony between February 2005 and September 2006.
• Apple iBook and Powerbook G4 Battery Recall for most batteries sold from October 2003 through August 2006 with specific laptop computer models.
• Dell Latitude, Inspiron, Precision, and XPS Notebook Battery Recall for some batteries sold between April 2004 and July 2006.
• Acer Travelmate Battery Recall purchased between May 2004 and November 2006.
• Toshiba Portege, Qosmio, Satellite, Tecra Battery Recall for specific models.
• HP Mobile Battery Recall for some Pavilion, Presario, and Compaq models.
• Fujitsu Lifebook Battery Recall specific models purchased between June 2005 and October 2006.
• Sony Vaio Battery Recall specific battery models purchased December 2004 through October 2006.
• Gateway Notebook Battery Recall for specific models purchased between September 2005 and October 2006.

The batteries have been identified by the manufacturers as having the potential to catch fire or explode. Although the chances are low, it worth a couple of minutes to click a link above and see if your laptop is affected.

No, it’s not a commercial for switching from dial-up to broadband. It’s the potential speed increase for existing cable Internet customers using a new standard DOCSIS 3.0. Download speeds of 160mps and upload speeds of 120mps are possible.

South Korea and Singapore are already deploying the new technology, and at least one US cable company (Comcast) plans to start next year. It will be rolled out first in areas where it competes with FiOS (fiber optic Internet). It’s estimated that by 2011 , DOCSIS 3.0 will be available to 40% of US cable customers.

160Mbps downloads move closer for US cable customers [ArsTechnia]

GeekSquad, the well marketed, much advertised, but seldom recommended tech support team at BestBuy is no stranger to bad publicity. A GeekSquad agent was recently caught video taping a client in the shower. Prior to that they were sued for using unlicensed software by Winternals.

Now it seems current and former agents are joining the chorus. GeekSquadSecrets.com (registration required) has some interesting information. For example, a new “agent”, Johnny Utah. He’s not an agent at all, but is simply a remote connection to techs in The Philippines and Malaysia. Plunk down $199 to have a virus or other malware removed, only to have the tech connect it to a remote connection, walk away and then collect your money?

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Business 2.0 is a technology business magazine published by Time. It periodically reminds readers the importance of backups, and publishes an annual list of the “101 Dumbest Moments in Business.”

On Monday, April 23, the magazine’s editorial system crashed, wiping out all the work that had been done for its June issue. Good thing they have a backup server. Oops! The backups server had never been needed before, and now that it was being called upon, it was discovered that no backups existed. It hadn’t been functioning properly.

Not all was lost. The text had been sent to the legal department, but all the layout and artwork was gone. Luckily, it’s a monthly magazine, and they still had a week until deadline. They will be able to get the issue to press.

Moral of the story? A backup plan is not enough. Periodically test it, to make sure it works. They may also have to make room in their annual list of 101 102 Dumbest Moments in Business.

Business magazine fails to heed its own tech advice [iht.com]

Step 1: Identify Your Networking Needs
This is a very important step that you will ideally perform before purchasing the ingredients listed on the previous page. As noted above, the key considerations are:

a. How many wired Ethernet ports, if any, will you need?

b.Where will these Ethernet ports need to be located? (In other words, where will the PCs and other equipment that will be plugged into these Ethernet ports be located?)

c.Where will the router and high-speed modems be located?

View: Full Story @ informationweek.com

So, you’re getting tired of your processor’s and graphics card’s stock coolers and you start thinking, “What next can I try?”. The answer is simple - get an after-market replacement cooler! But which one, you may wonder.

The most common option is to get an air cooler. Air coolers are cheaper and easier to install, but their performance will suffer as dust accumulates, necessitating periodical cleanings. Noise from their fan can also be a really big problem, especially if you are looking for cutting-edge performance which is only possible with insanely fast (and noisy) fans.

But what if we want great cooling performance without the noise? Is that even possible? Yes, it is. Go water-cooling!

View: Full Story @ techarp.com

The Energy Star program is set to release the first revision to the specification for PCs since 1992, which was practically the Bronze Age of the PC industry. Energy Star stickers are familiar to those who have shopped for household appliances over the last few years; it designates appliances or electronics that meet certain specifications for energy efficiency.

The Energy Star program–a joint project of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy–is most important to government and corporate buyers, Abelson said. The government is required to purchase Energy Star-labeled products, and corporations can receive tax breaks for purchasing Energy Star products. Plus, the power saved by using efficient products really adds up when looking across a large network of PCs, allowing those organizations to cut on power bills or expand their hardware at the same cost.

The new specification targets two areas: the power supply and the amount of power used in “idle mode,” said Noah Horowitz, a senior scientist at the nonprofit National Resources Defense Council, which helped the Energy Star program come up with the technical requirements for the new specification.

View: Full Story @ News.com

Earlier today Slashdot pointed me to a CBC article citing unnamed sources at Microsoft decrying the state of “craplets” on PCs. Just what are craplets? It’s a cute nickname for all of the software an OEM installs on your new Windows PC before it arrives on your doorstep. Think: 2 or 3 ISP sign-up applications, instant messengers out the wazoo, and software for updating all of this software. And a lot more. Check out the CBC article for more basic details on what craplets are and why they make people, including Microsoft, angry.

Why do we get craplets on our machines? The answer, as you probably could already guess, is that OEMs make money from crapware (a collective term for all craplets). Companies like RealNetworks or JASC Software will pay to have their applications (say, PaintShop Pro) pre-installed on a PC. It’s even more lucrative, sources tell us, when these applications can be established as default handlers for as many file types as possible. It’s advertising, OEM-style.

This is also partially how Microsoft got into trouble back in the days of Netscape vs. IE. Telling OEMs what to do turned out not to be as kosher as Microsoft thought, and they got a hand upside the head for it. Microsoft now complains that this puts them in the position of not being able to do anything about crapware.

View: Full Story Via: ArsTechnia

Notebook PC users who upgrade to Microsoft’s Windows Vista may have to disable some of the new operating system’s flashy graphics features to avoid seeing a decrease in battery life compared to when running Windows XP.

The drop will come from the extra power needed to run the high-end processors, graphics cards, and memory capacity required to support Vista. Microsoft has designed the new OS to deliver novel visual effects such as the translucent “Aero” windows on the desktop interface and to offer improved performance as a digital media hub. The business version of the OS was released last month, with the consumer version due out next month.

“Vista demands more computer resources for a given application than XP does. So you need a heavier battery, or you will have shorter battery life because of the greater demand for watts,” said Phil Hester, chief technology officer of Advanced Micro Devices, in remarks made at the company’s annual analyst day in New York last week.

View: Full Story Via: PC World