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Well it may not be classified as a virus but it’s painful to remove from Windows… after installing Outlook XP, opening messages was slow as a snail on sandpaper and guess what? messenger was to blame… (thanks to all the posts in the MS knowledge base). So if you’re using Outlook and have performance issues, disable Instant Messaging in ‘Tools > Options’ and you’ll be doing yourself (and your PC) a favour.

The guys over at the Firing Squad have a head-to-head comparison and review of the nForce2 audio versus the Creative Labs Audigy 2 sound card. If you’re in the market for a new sound card be sure to check this article!

As excellent the nForce2 audio may be, EPOX our m/board manufacturer kindly did not provide us with a digital SPDIF out bracket and plug; an optional component apparently hard to sought. Since my Boston Accoustics speakers have a digital in connection, I went on to make my own as described in this article. After asking the neighbour for larger drill bits, loosing a few nuts & bolts in the ducted heating vent of my room and burning my finger with the soldering iron, the project was finished. The digital sound from the nForce is trully superb; and now I know why I’m in software development…

As we go about living our lives worrying about tomorrow’s weather, we’re totally unware of the effects of solar winds, flares, intense x-rays and electromagnetic radiation our planet has to cope with on a daily basis. Generated by our sun 150 million km away, solar flares are massive explosions on the surface of the sun, equivalent of millions of megatons-sized hydrogen bombs exploding all at once. Solar flares produce a burst of radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to x-rays and gamma-rays.

Luckily for us, our planet’s magnetic shield, the magnetosphere, and our upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, absorbs much of these potentialy devestating effects, and so we go on worrying about the rain, snow, wind and temperature.

For all of you intersted in a solar forecast, vist Spaceweather for a up-to-date
report on the activities of our star. The US space environment center is another great resource for solar events and alerts.

I’ve been doing some reading about nForce2’s built-in audio (since it was on the 8RDA+ m/board anyway) and it turns out that it’s a high quality audio solution, coming close the SB Audigy 2 itself. After reading this review at 3D Sound Surge, I’ll be removing my trusty Phillips Acoustic Edge sound card in favor of the nForce2… The Acoustic Edge has been a great card (not without it’s problems though) but lack of good driver support has forced me to put it back in it’s box… anyone looking for a good sound card?

It was an interesting weekend with all the PC upgrades going on… It’s been a while since the last upgrade so this time I’m investing a little more on the m/board hoping it will take me throught the next 6-8 months (!?). The new components are:

* EPOX 8RDA+ m/board
* Lian-Li PC-60 aluminium case
* Artic Silver 3 heat paste
* ThermalTake copper shim for the Athlon
* Lite-on CDRW 52×24x52 drive
* CoolerMaster IDE cables
…and still waiting on the ThermalTake Volcano 11 cooler

Now all I need is an ATI Radeon 9800 and an Athlon 3000+ just to make it a complete picture

We had the clearest of nights for a long time last night; too good of an opportunity to be missed in fact so I went out to the backyard with my scope. Jupiter was high up in the North-East, only a few degrees next to M44 the beehive cluster, the Eta Carinae nebula was beautiful (even as naked-eye!) and Scorpio was rising from the East. Its amazing what a clear sky reveals; intricate details of the Eta Carinae nebula as I’ve never seen before.

The Eta Carinae star in the heart of the nebula itself, is the most luminous and mysterious star known in our galaxy. Between 1837 and 1856 it increased dramatically in brightness to become the brightest star in the sky except for Sirius, then later Eta Carinae faded to become a dim star invisible to the naked eye. Since the 1940’s, it has begun to brighten again, becoming visible to the naked eye. Observations indicate that Eta Carinae is an unstable star and it could explode as a supernova at any time.