Let's just start out by saying that these speakers can really rock. I was able to achieve volume levels that rivaled my home theater system, this wasn't surprising since the Klipsch speakers are backed by a 400 watt amp. You don't need any SPL meters to tell you that these speakers can play much louder than any other multimedia speaker system. What was most pleasing was that the little satellites were able to soak up this power without maxing out until the insanely loud volumes. By insanely loud, I mean volumes SPL's where you would have to shout into the ear of the person next to you, like at a concert.

During extensive quality testing procedures, Western Digital has identified a hardware issue that affects a very specific group of WD Caviar 5400 RPM EIDE hard drives. This issue could cause the hard drives to fail to power-up after six to 12 months of full-time use. The affected drives were manufactured between August 27, 1999 and September 24, 1999 and range in capacity from 6.4 GB to 20.5 GB. None of Western Digital's WD Expert, WD Enterprise, and WD Performer hard drives are affected. As part of our ongoing commitment to quality, we are providing a drive utility that identifies the affected WD Caviar hard drives. Even though this issue affects a small number of WD Caviar drives, we highly recommend that you test your drive using this utility.

Affected Model Numbers:

         WD64AA 
         WD68AA 
         WD84AA 
         WD100AA 
         WD102AA 
         WD135AA 
         WD136AA 
         WD170AA 
         WD172AA 
         WD200AA 
         WD205AA 

There is no need to test any model other than those listed above.
Drive testing procedures and utility for PC-compatibles.

*** Joins: Zoid (~Zoid@xxxxxxxx.axion.bconnected.net)
<Zoid> Wanna know my overriding decision for no grapple?
<Zoid> No instant weapon switching--no grapple. Grapple worked in Quake because you could
       chase--switch, launch, switch fire. You can't in Q2.
<Zoid> I didn't like how the grapple turned out in Q2. You couldn't chase grapple
       monkeys--they were just gone if you didn't kill them immediately.
<Zoid> That's not what I wanted.
<Zoid> I have never liked the idea of an offhand grapple (you all know that).
<Zoid> This decision wasn't made lightly.
<Zoid> I built CTF and there was a grapple in it because I like playing it.
<Zoid> Remember guys, I make these games because I like to play them.
<Zoid> I'm taking it out because I do NOT want it to turn into Q2CTF.
<Zoid> The flags is what makes CTF so fun.
<Zoid> I'm changing the formula because I don't like Q2CTF.
<Zoid> I never play Q2CTF anymore.
<Zoid> It isn't about selling games, Biffy.
<Zoid> And I watched 'high level' CTF games.
<Zoid> You usually had one or two guys on the good team who did NOTHING BUT GRAPPLE
<Zoid> NOTHING
<Zoid> Just get PS and grapple monkey everywhere.
<Zoid> That is _not_ the game I want to happen.
<Zoid> I'm taking extreme care in building my maps.
<Zoid> I want to make the best CTF maps ever.
<Zoid> I've spent months tweaking them.
<Zoid> I never wanted CTF to be _about the grapple_.
<Zoid> I wanted CTF to be about CTF!
<Zoid> And, to me, QWCTF is perfect
<Zoid> With the instant weapon switching and speed, it works.
<Zoid> I don't think the grapple worked in Q2CTF.
<Zoid> Because I make the games based on my decisions. I'm here now because I'm curious
       to hear your reactions.
<Zoid> I'm planning to leave the grapple code in there for mod makers. There's a perfect,
       client side predicted grapple written already.
<Zoid> But, at this time, we're looking not to have it in Q3CTF.
<Zoid> Damn, wish I could release some screenshots.
<Zoid> :/
<Zoid> soon
<Zoid> I never intended people to get across q2cff1 in 12 seconds.
<Zoid> That was a bug. :P
<Zoid> We'll have at least eight [CTF maps], I hope more.
<Zoid> The new team overlay stuff is going to make positional assaults easy.
<Zoid> You will know where everyone is.
<Zoid> I would really love to get some sort of CTF test in the next test release. I'll talk to the
       powers that be.
<Zoid> *I* am not making a game to appeal to newbies.
<Zoid> *I* am making the game I want to play, everyday.
<Zoid> That's something I didn't want. "CTF is CTF because of the grapple." I want CTF to be
       CTF because of the flags.
<Zoid> Yes, a major factor in the removal of the grapple for Q3 is due to weapon changes.
<Zoid> I loved some of the stuff l-fire added. Sudden death was cool. :)
<Zoid> The matchmode will just be some changes to the 1on1 mode.
<Zoid> We want to keep Q3 pretty simple tho. I don't want every feature possible. We want to
       keep Q3 simple and reliable. :)
<Zoid> We're planning on some simple stuff like "you go def, you go off" to each of the bots
       and stuff.
<Zoid> I'd like to get CTF in a test. No finalization yet tho.
<Zoid> q3feedback@idsoftware.com is the addy. You are not guanerteed a reply, but we read
       them all.
<Zoid> I have not made another McKinley yet
<Zoid> No techs are present--just powerups.
<Zoid> I shy away from asymmetrical maps. I got my ass bit on q2ctf4 : (
<Zoid> I got lucky on smelter.
<Zoid> Smelter was built in one night and about four litres of coke.
<Zoid> :)
<Zoid> I'd like to do a plus/minor 5 to 15 seconds on all timed spawns.
<Zoid> Ya, the maps will be designed around the fact there isn't a grapple.
<Zoid> I don't have a ferrari to give away to the best CTF players tho. :(
<Zoid> I've been playing with the new build John made today
<Zoid> he took out the double hop delay
<Zoid> I'm bunny hopping like a mad man
<Zoid> Turn off the grapple on your Q2CTF servers and see how it plays. I'd be curious.
<Zoid> We need a "your connect sucks ass" icon.
<Zoid> Someone hand Mystic a clue. He's messaging me with "You make Q3? There's a CTF
       mod, right?" :)
<Zoid> Mystic: Sorry to do that, but I'm not going to answer simple stuff like that in private.
<Zoid> No flag dropping!
<Zoid> Weapons and ammo MAYBE. We're thinking about it
<Zoid> That team chat screen was temp
<Zoid> I've done much better with it
<Zoid> I love you guys. <sniff> You make this all worthwhile <tear drop> <sniff>
<Zoid> See ya, guys.
*** Parts: Zoid (~Zoid@xxxxxxxx.axion.bconnected.net)

"The commodity SDRAM supply could remain short during the upcoming holiday season when PC sales peak,"

Buying spree roils DRAM spot mkt. By Jack Robertson Electronic Buyers' News

(09/10/99, 04:34:01 PM EDT)

In a frenzied week for the DRAM spot market, panic buying sent commodity 64-Mbit SDRAM chips as high as $12.50-( 64mb SDRAM uses 8 chips, and 128 uses 16 chips) nearly three times the pricing level of only eight weeks ago.

Ron Bechtold, vice president of the DRAM division at Hitachi Semiconductor (America) Inc., San Jose, attributed surging prices to buyers who had grown accustomed to using commodity channels while DRAM supplies were plentiful, but who then became nervous when a firmer market dried up the spot surplus.

"Spot buyers panicked last week," said Michael Hassan, general manager of Dana-Elec Inc., an Irvine, Calif., module maker. "When offices opened Tuesday morning after the Labor Day holiday, the price of 8-Mbit x 8 64-Mbit SDRAM had jumped from $9.50 to $11.50 from close of business the previous Friday. It just went up from there."

What happens next is anyone's guess.

A.A. LaFountain, an analyst at Needham & Co., New York, said the tightening supply of commodity 8-Mbit x 8 SDRAM could continue as manufacturers shift their product mix to the higher-margin 16-Mbit x 4 and 32-Mbit x 2 SDRAM configurations required by the booming server market.

"The commodity SDRAM supply could remain short during the upcoming holiday season when PC sales peak," LaFountain said, adding that demand could tail off in the first quarter of 2000 as the market experiences its traditional early-year slump.

A few observers believe the recent price spike resulted from the DRAM industry's conversion from SDRAM to Direct Rambus DRAM, although that speculation was widely dismissed. Avo Kanadjian, senior vice president of memory marketing for Samsung Semiconductor Inc., San Jose, said his company was able to ramp up production of Direct RDRAM and SDRAM chips in parallel. He attributed the tighter DRAM memory to a jump in demand.

"There was a major impact when value [sub-$1,000] PCs suddenly moved from 32 Mbytes to 64 Mbytes [of main] memory," Kanadjian said. However, Hitachi's Bechtold fears that if commodity SDRAM prices continue to rise, low-cost PC makers "might de-populate the memory back to 32 Mbytes. There is so little margin on these PCs that OEMs can't afford high memory costs," he said.

Stephen Marlow, vice president of memory operations for the Semiconductor Group of Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc., Irvine, said some of the SDRAM price increase is due to lower yields as producers shift to next-generation 0.18-micron manufacturing processes. Marlow added that some 64-Mbit production was lost when a number of suppliers, including Toshiba, began shifting output from commodity 64-Mbit DRAMs to the 128-Mbit generation.

A possible effect that bears watching is the fluctuating premium between SDRAM and costlier Direct RDRAM, which could narrow if SDRAM prices continue skyward. Subodh Toprani, vice president and general manager of the logic products division at Rambus Inc., Mountain View, Calif., claims higher SDRAM tags could help speed the transition to Direct Rambus. However, Bechtold cautioned that suppliers could behave in a quite contrary manner. "With higher SDRAM prices, manufacturers will be motivated to put as much production as possible into a chip that's now giving a good return," he said. "They might be less inclined to divert production from SDRAMS to make the riskier Direct Rambus."

Prices are continuing to go up as of 9/16/99. The cost of the 8x8 chips (it takes 16 chips to make a 128mb SDRAM) are going for $15.25 overseas today. This means a 128mb DIMM would cost $244.00 just for the chips alone. Speculation on the street is that prices could hit $17-$18 by next week. The reason MemMan is either more or less expensive then other companies, has to do with the average price at which we own our product. EX: If we ran out of 128mb DIMMs today, we would need to purchase more at a much higher price then our current inventorty cost . If our prices are more expensive that others, in most cases it means the lower price company still has old inventory at a lower price. As soon as they run out, they will need to buy at a higher price.

The subwoofer is simply awesome and the satellites bring out more of the high end than any other multimedia speaker I have tested. ...and at the risk of gushing, the Promedia's really show how big a difference there can be.