Category Archives: News Bits

Intel Desktop Board DX79SR,Updated DX79SI

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Expected Price $300

Intel initially revealed the X79 chipset it was said to feature additional SAS ports which over time were meant to be additional SATA ports, but in the end the chipset arrived with no extra storage interfaces at all. Even though Intel was expected to remedy this with a later chipset revision, this doesn’t appear to be the case anymore, but Intel has decided to issue a revised version of its DX79SI motherboard with additional connectivity in a couple of areas.

Early pictures of the DX79SI from last year showed the board with a total of 10 SATA ports, but in the end the board only arrived with six, to many potential buys disappointment. The DX79SR has at least in part remedied this by sporting an extra Marvell SE9128 SATA controller which adds two more SATA 6Gbps ports.

The rear I/O has also been changed slightly with the addition of two more USB 3.0 ports courtesy of a four port host controller, although we’re not sure who the manufacturer is. Again, this was a feature missing on the DX79SI which it had space for. Intel has also done some minor changes to the PCB layout, there are no longer any lane switches between the first and second PCI Express x16 slots and many of the capacitors appear to have been changed.

The DX79SR will ship with an internal Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 2.1 module that attaches to one of the USB 2.0 headers. Sadly it’s limited to 150Mbps Wi-Fi and if you have a chassis with no plastic parts or large enough holes to the outside world so to speak, it’ll be hard to get any kind of signal with this module. Intel also includes a mouse pad and a thermal probe with the board. The DX79SR is set to replace the DX79SI entirely and it should end up costing around US$300 (S$375) at launch which should be later this month.

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Kim Dotcom Releases Political Scandal Song

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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom just released a new song on YouTube.

The track is not about Megaupload this time, but about a recent political scandal in New Zealand.

Two weeks ago Dotcom revealed he donated NZ$50,000 to John Banks for his 2010 mayoral election campaign in Auckland.

The juicy part is that Dotcom says Banks advised him to split this amount in two so the donations can be made anonymously. Clever, but the problem is that election rules say the origin of a donation has to be declared when the recipient is aware of it.

Banks, the current minister for Small Business, denies the allegations, and also says he can’t recall some of the previous encounters with Megaupload’s founder.

More on the scandal here, and check out the track below.

Maruti Swift Outsells the Alto in April,Becomes Largest Selling Car

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The Maruti Suzuki Alto is no longer the largest selling hatch in India (April 2012 Period Image is Loading.....Only). For About 8 Years Alto was the largest seller in Indian hatch market but now lost the title to swift.In the month of April the Swift sold a total of 19484 units as compared to 17842 units of the Alto. Maruti Suzuki in all sold 90255 units in April 2012, retaining its position as the largest automobile manufacturer in India.

The Swift was first launched in India in 2005 and since then it has created a niche for itself. Maruti launched the all new Swift last year and the hatch since then regularly has been the second highest selling car in the country but in April it managed to sell even more than the Alto. The 2011 Swift is more spacious, build quality has improved, so has the ride quality and the handling remains as sure footed as before. Dynamically the Swift is probably the best hatch in the country along with the Volkswagen Polo. But the reason for the Swift becoming the largest selling car in India is it being excellent value for money and because the engines are refined and efficient.

Image is Loading.....In April the sales of the Alto declined by 30 percent whereas the Swift’s sales grew up by 83 percent for same. “Last year diesel vehicle sales grew by over 37 percent while there was a 14 percent decline in the sales of petrol cars. There is a huge pressure to sell petrol vehicles even with the high discounts. There is a tremendous shift towards diesel vehicles and we were caught flat-footed last year. This year we are increasing our diesel capacity by over 65 per cent,” said Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India. The top management in Maruti Suzuki however is not sure of Swift’s prospects in retaining this position in the future. “April was just a freak month and Alto will most certainly be back at the top,” commented I. V. Rao, Managing Executive Officer, Engineering, MSIL.

UK Pirate Party Breaks Election Record

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Pirate Parties are gaining momentum around the world.In Germany and Austria Pirates have good chance of entering the national parliament in Image is Loading.....the next election, and in the UK things are picking up steam as well.

In this weeks local elections Pirate Party leader Loz Kaye picked up 5% of the vote, beating the Lib Dems.

This result in Manchester is a record for the UK Pirates, but not one that is supposed to last long according to the party.

“This is just the start. We would like to thank all the people who got in touch with us and our candidates, our supporters and activists who worked on these elections and especially those people who put their trust in us and chose to vote Pirate,” they write.