Just 1 day after Intel announced reducing their fourth-quarter revenue estimate by about $1 billion, AMD today launched its first 45-nanometer Opteron server processor, code named Shanghai.

This long-awaited 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron came almost a year late since Intel launched their server processor using 45nm semiconductor fabrication process. Anyway, at least now AMD is on par with Intel.

Performance enhancement of the new processors compared to previous generations of AMD Opteron processors are as the following :-

• 35% increase in power efficiency (consume 75 watts of power)
• 30% greater performance
• 3x L3 cache (now 6MB!)
• Higher clock speed. (2.3 GHz – 2.7 GHz)

As expected, the price of Shanghai also won’t come cheap, they will be selling in price range US$377 – US$989 for the 2000 series and US$1,165 – US$2,149 for the faster 8000 series.

On an unrelated note, the current on-going economy crisis has so far hit the 2 computer chip manufacturer really hard, driving Intel’s stock price to 12-year low while AMD’s is heading 18-year low! Is it time to grab some bargain? Hehe…

The speed of Google rolling out a new product or a new version of existing product is just unimaginable. They really put up a lot of effort by keeping their promise to “Release Early, Release Often” in application development.

Yes, as the title of this post says, GMail now allows you to make phone calls over the Internet or to speak in person via video directly from your Gmail account! All you need is a computer, a broadband internet connection, a GMail account and, for video calls, a web camera.

This new feature is not enabled by default and you need to install Gmail voice and video
chat plugin developed by Google, which also means it’s not a 3rd party plugin. Just follow the following steps to activate this awesome feature and start using it :-

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GMail Now With Voice And Video Chat!

Microsoft demonstrated the next version of Windows OS, Windows 7, for the first time at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this morning. Many screen shots and new features were revealed!

Windows 7 Desktop

Show Desktop button at bottom right

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Pre-beta Microsoft Windows 7 Unveiled!

Ok, it’s time for WordPress upgrade again but don’t get panic because it’s just a minor upgrade. In fact, there is only 1 file affected in this upgrade, which is wp-includes/class-snoopy.php.

WordPress team is again very impressive in fixing vulnerabilities. After just a few hours a vulnerability in the Snoopy library was announced they’ve come out with a fixed version. Top notch support!

If you are currently using WordPress 2.6.2, there are only 2 files to be replaced :-

• 1. wp-includes/class-snoopy.php
• 2. wp-includes/version.php

Just download from the link I provided, then replace the 2 files on your server.

If you are using other older versions, then you’ll have to download the full WordPress 2.6.3 upgrade package and run the upgrade process.

Happy blogging!

I came across a piece of creative design by French designer John Nouanesing quite some time ago. It’s a window design with Microsoft Windows 3.1 painted on it.

When the window is opened.

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Microsoft Windows 3.1 Window

In case you still have not noticed, Google had entered the web browser market by releasing their first ever web browser, Google Chrome, yesterday.

I’m always excited whenever Google launches any software, therefore I’ve installed Google Chrome immediately after reading this fascinating news yesterday even though the software is still under Beta version.

Well, what makes Google Chrome different from other web browsers?
Let me list out Google Chrome’s features that other traditional browsers don’t have :-
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Google Chrome Web Browser Brief Review