sordnk weblog

Apple today has unexpectedly released the new iPhone 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 3G/3GS and iPod touch. This is not the same version which runs on the newly announced Apple iPad (OS 3.2). To update to iPhone OS 3.1.3 Firmware, all you will have to do is to connect your iPhone with your computer via usb and start iTunes. You should now see a message as shown below. Simply click on “Download and Install” button to get on to the new iPhone OS 3.1.3 firmware.

Note: Do not update your iPhone to OS 3.1.3 yet if your phone is currently jailbroken or unlocked on firmware 3.1.2. Wait for the new jailbreaking and unlocking tools before updating your device or you may loose the capability to jailbreak or unlock your device in the future. You have been warned!

Change log for iPhone 3.1.3 is as follows:

• improves accuracy of reported battery level on iPhone 3GS
• resolves issue where 3rd party apps would not launch in some instances
• fixes bug that may cause an app to crash when using the Japanese Kana keyboard

UPDATE 1: iPhone 2G and iPod touch 1G/2G(older models) can be jailbroken and unlocked(iPhone 2G only) on the latest iPhone 3.1.3 firmware. Follow the step by step guide posted here or here to jailbreak/unlock iPhone 2G, and here for iPod touch 1G/2G.

UPDATE 2: Redsn0w 0.9.4 is LIVE! Download links and jailbreaking instructions can be found here.

UPDATE 3: Sn0wbreeze 3.1.3 -V1.3 is LIVE! Follow the guide posted here to jailbreak iPhone 2G, 3G and iPhone 3GS (older bootrom only) on iPhone 3.1.3 firmware. iPhone 3G and 3GS can then be unlocked using ultrasn0w or blacksn0w. iPhone 2G can be unlocked using the guide posted here.

UPDATE 4: PwnageTool 3.1.5 for Mac OS X is now LIVE! Follow our complete step by step guide posted here to jailbreak and unlock iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS and iPod touch 1G, 2G on iPhone OS 3.1.3.

Download iTunes 9.0.3 for Windows and Mac
Download iPhone 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 2G
Download iPhone 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 3G
Download iPhone 3.1.3 firmware for iPhone 3GS

The first bit of “Fusion” that AMD is releasing today is an in-house designed software utility that was described to us as being able to “turn a mainstream PC into a lean, mean gaming machine.”

Essentially, this Fusion Gaming tool is a utility that automates many of the tweaks that hardcore enthusiasts carry out in order to free up system resources for the purpose of maximizing gaming performance. The utility works by temporarily disabling background services and processes, freeing up memory and CPU cycles in an effort to make games run more smoothly.

AMD demonstrated the application to us clicking the gigantic “Fusion” button on a Windows Vista desktop, which immediately shut down usually active applications such as Skype, Google Talk, as well as many other background services. The utility will not, however, override any applications that have a shutdown or save dialog, meaning that clicking the button will still allow Microsoft Word to prompt if you wish to save before closing.

This utility would be of great use to those who use shared computers, whose family members may have installed many unwanted, useless programs that clog up the system. Those with prebuilt machines with preloaded bloatware may also find that the Fusion button does wonders to free up system resources. AMD told us that the software is careful not to disable any crucial services that might make the system unstable, but does carry with it a disclaimer that it may disable security and antivirus software – though the utility setting does allow for custom settings so that the user may fine tune to his or her liking.

Besides just reducing system overhead, the Fusion tool also helps to boost performance by incorporating other tweaking tools, such as Auto-Tune for both CPU and ATI GPU, overclocking with AMD Overdrive. AMD also introduced a “Hard Drive Acceleration” setting, which enables the SATA mode of performance over quiet.

The AMD Phenom X4 9550 Black Edition processor used as part of the demo went from a stock 2.6 GHz to 2.8 GHz, which is a conservative and safe measure for mainstream users. Those wanting to go a bit more hardcore can set more aggressive settings.

The enthusiast user, however, likely won’t find as many advantages in using the tuning utility. The extreme PC gamer will already run a tight ship with tweaked settings and a lean OS free of excess processes.

While not being marketed as such, the tuning tool may also be applied in the other applications when pure speed isn’t the main goal. AMD said that users can set up profiles where the goal is to achieve low power consumption or decreased noise output for applications such as a home theater PC.

Regardless, the AMD Fusion tool makes isolating the full power of the system easier than ever, and is the first demonstration of the chipmaker’s new company direction.

Those with AMD and ATI systems can download a beta version of the utility , found on the new AMD Fusion site. Be sure to share your findings in the comments below!

Hynix Semiconductor has announced the world’s first 1 Gigabit GDDR5 graphics DRAM. The chips are also the fastest yet, which should help to enable a new generation of high performance graphics cards.

The new graphics memory is built on a 54 nm process technology and is capable of operating at a record setting speed of 7 Gb/s. When used along with a 32-bit memory bus, the memory can process up to 28 Gigabytes of data per second and when used along with a 512-bit memory bus, a bandwidth of up to 448 GB/s should be possible.

For comparison, Qimonda had announced volume production of 512 Mb GDDR5 memory rated at up to 4.5 Gb/s back in May 2008 and Samsung had announced 512 Mb GDDR5 memory rated at 6 Gb/s late last year. The ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics card series of products were the first to ship using GDDR5 memory, which used Qimonda’s 512 Mb GDDR5 memory running at 3.6 Gb/s.

The new GDDR5 memory from Hynix is also is designed to be more energy-efficient than that of the previous generation of GDDR5 memory, requiring only a 1.35 V power supply instead a 1.5 V power supply. Compared to the currently popular GDDR3 memory, GDDR5 memory running at 1.5 V already offered an approximate 20-percent improvement in power consumption. A reduced power consumption could mean less generated heat and increased battery life for notebooks that use the memory.

The new Hynix graphics memory conforms to the JEDEC standard, with Hynix planning to start volume production in the first half of 2009. According to Samsung, it is expected that “GDDR5 memory chips will become the de facto standard in the top performing segment of the market by capturing more than 50 percent of the high-end PC graphics market by 2010.” Intel’s upcoming Larrabee GPU is also expected to use GDDR5 memory when it is released in late 2009 or 2010.

With USB 2.0 ports becoming a common as dirt—you’ll find them in everything from mobile phones to DVD players these days—you know the time has come to move on to a new version. And that’s just what the USB 3.0 Promoter Group announced today.

USB 3.0 will support data rates as high as 5.0 Gb/sec—rendering the new standard 10 times faster than USB 2.0. Having already dubbed USB 2.0 as “Hi-Speed USB,” however, the group had to come up with a brand-new superlative for USB 3.0. After much discussion, they finally settled on “SuperSpeed USB” (perhaps holding “Ludicrous Speed” in reserve for USB 4.0).

“SuperSpeed USB is the next advancement in ubiquitous technology,” said Jeff Ravencraft, USB-IF president and chairman. “Today’s consumers are using rich media and large digital files that need to be easily and quickly transferred from PCs to devices and vice versa. SuperSpeed USB meets the needs of everyone from the tech-savvy executive to the average home user.”

Although USB 3.0 will use a different cable, it will use the same types as connectors and will therefore be backward-compatible (good thing, considering that more than two billion USB devices were shipped in 2006 alone, according to the USB Implementers Forum). Six signals will be carried on a USB 3.0 cable (four for a SuperSpeed data path and two for a non-SuperSpeed data path). USB 2.0 cables carry just two signals for low-speed (1.5Mb/s) and full- and high-speed data paths (12- and 480Mb/s, respectively). The USB 3.0 bus will provide 50 percent more power for unconfigured or suspended devices, and 80 percent more power for configured devices.

The USB 3.0 Promoter Group anticipates that SuperSpeed USB discrete controllers will hit the market in the second half 2009, with the first consumer products appearing in 2010. The group expects that data-storage devices such as flash drives, external hard drives, digital cameras and camcorders, and digital media players will be among the earliest USB 3.0 products.

All it takes is a minor error in the Windows Registry or a virus infection, and your operating system can become unbootable. But with a properly configured USB flash drive on hand, you’ll always have a compatible replacement no further away than your pocket or keychain. In addition, the flash drive can also provide a secure browser and virus scanner, and lets you take your favorite DVD burning and Office software with you wherever you may go.

All that’s needed is a bootable USB Flash drive with at least 256 MB of storage capacity and a Windows Setup CD. Using the program Bart PE Builder (Freeware), you can install Windows XP on the flash drive, along with other software as needed (and as available space permits).
Compact

Bart Lagerweij’s free utility, PE Builder, condenses the original setup data for Windows XP into a slender operating system that is ready to run from a CD or a USB flash drive. This compact, portable version of Windows includes all the important system tools for dealing with a PC emergency. You can even add other programs to this collection, such as the media writing tool Nero Burning ROM or an anti-spyware package such as Ad-Aware SE Personal, during the installation process.

Acknowledgements: This document describes how to create a bootable USB key, what the differences are and why some machines only boot on some of the keys around, but not all.
This document is provided as is, of course. Feel free to use the info provided here, but don’t blame me, if it doesn’t work. Feedback however is allways appreciated. I can’t be made responsible for data loss or other damages in any way.
Background
Since floppy drives get optional in many computers and more and more machines have the ability to boot from USB, it get’s more interesting to have an USB key instead. Also because it’s smaller and not that wulnerable. Also the pricing of these small items get more and more interesting. The USB Keys are formatted with FAT and thus accessible by nealy all operating systems around.
Hardware
The following USB keys have been tested and verified, that these can be bootet, once prepared:

* Dazzle Zio! MMC/SD-Card Reader
* Dell 16MB and 64MB USB Key

Dazzle Zio!
Technology
USB Keys can be formatted in two ways:

* Superfloppy
* Harddisk (including MBR)

This is the reason, why some bootable USB keys not boot on every system. Some computers BIOS simply only understand one of the formats, not both, and if you use Windows and plug your key in, you won’t notice the difference. Using Linux it get’s pretty clear. Looking at the different formats shows, that the superfloppy formatted key is formatted as one big storage device (/dev/sda is mounted). The harddisk formatted key, which has a MBR, can have multiple partitions (/dev/sda1 etc.).
Getting DOS on the key
Before making your USB key bootable, be aware, that your USB Key will be deleted completely. So a backup would come in handy.
- Using DOS or Windows 98 you need to install drivers first, to access the USB key. For DOS there is DUSE and for Windows 98 you will find the drivers on the Memorykey Tools site. As soon as these drivers are in place, you simply format the key with “format /s M:” (replacing M: with the drive letter, that you USB key got assigned.).

* For Windows 2000/XP there are a couple of tools you can use.

o The easiest is the MBRTool, that the Memorykey Tools site used to provide. I still keep a copy around of it here. The tool formats your key in harddisk mode and installs a FreeDOS kernel on there (with FAT32 support). Downside of this tool is, that it seems to have trouble with USB keys at the size of 256MB or bigger.
o Another solution is the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. This tool seems to work with bigger storage keys, but needs a floppy or the files from a floppy in a directory to copy on the usbkey, to make it bootable.

* On Linux you just need to load the usb-storage module.

o To format the drive in superfloppy format, you simply do:

mkdosfs -I /dev/sda

o Formatting in harddisk requires more steps, if it’s not allready formatted that way:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

to erase the start of the USB Key. After that you can do a “fdisk /dev/sda” and create a new FAT partition (FAT16 is suitable). To install a MBR and format the key afterwards, do

install-mbr /dev/sda –force
mkdosfs -I /dev/sda1

o Now the USB key is ready to be loaded with systemfiles. If you use FreeDOS, MS-DOS, IBM-DOS or DR-/Novell-DOS is up to you.

Since install-mbr is Debian specific, you might do this on other systems:

dd if=/dev/hda of=mbr bs=512 count=1
dd if=mbr of=/dev/sda

Repartition your USBkey using fdisk to clean up the partition table using fdisk and format your partition afterwards with

mkdosfs -I /dev/sda1

/dev/hda would in this case be your harddisk, /dev/sda would be your usb key.
References

* Linux Magazin - Edition 13/2003 (german)
Lot’s of the info here came from a very nice article in this magazine. Unfortunately it’s in german and not available on the net.
* Memorykey Tools - Here you’ll find Windows 98 drivers for the Dell USB Key.
* http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ - This site provides a modular design for bootdisks. very nice to use, when you want to build a rescue system on your USB key.
* HP has another Windows based tool for formatting USBkeys. And since HP does expire pages now and then, I keep a copy around here.

Links

* RUNT - Slackware stripped down to a 128 MB USBkey.
* Damn Small Linux - 50 megabytes of penguin power. Debian/Knoppix outbreak, 50 MB big, includes X.
* Knoppix - This howto describes how to get Knoppix on a USBkey (incl. X).

FC Universitatea Craiova (Campioana unei mari Iubiri) is one of the most famous football clubs from Romania. They became the first Romanian footbal team to reach the semifinals of a European tournament, respective UEFA Cup in 1984 .

History

The football history in the city of Craiova began in the year 1921, when the first teams were founded; “Craiovan Craiova” and “Rovine Grivita Craiova“.

In the year 1940, the two teams from Craiova merged, resulting in one of the most successful Romanian football teams in the Interwar period; “FC Craiova” , which was also the first team from the city of Craiova winning the Romanian championship in the season 1942-1943. However the title was not officialised by the Romanian Football Federation because of the war.

Finally in 1948 “Universitatea Craiova” took life at the initiative of a group of students and professors, a team which latter would become one of the most popular and successful teams from Romania.

Craiova Maxima

The 1982/1983 season has been, without doubt, the best in the history of “The Champion of a Great Love” a nickname used for Universitatea by the media, because of the tremendous love and immense passion that always surrounded the team. That magnificent side stayed fresh for long time in the memory of Romanian fans, regardless their sympathy for other clubs.

That season, under the management of Constantin Otet and Nicolae Ivan, Universitatea Craiova reached the semifinals of the UEFA Cup defeating big names of European football like AC Fiorentina (runners-up in Italian Serie A), Girondins Bordeaux (France), and FC Kaiserslautern (Germany). In the first European Cup semifinal ever played by a Romanian club, Universitatea played against Benfica Lisbon (Portugal), two times European Champions and three times European Champions finalists. After two draws the Portuguese side advanced to the final on aggregate away goals. Ilie Balaci and Rodion Camataru were among the great players of Craiova Maxima, but also Stefanescu, Crisan, Geolgau, Beldeanu, Donose, Lung etc.

Craiova after 1991

In 1991 Universitatea Craiova won for the last time the Championship and the Romanian Cup, under Sorin Cartu as coach. In the last years Craiova became a middle-table team, with rather poor performances. At the end of the season 2004-2005 they have been relegated in the second football division for the first time in the history. Anyway, Craiova promoted the next year in Liga I.

National performances

• 4 times winners of the Romanian Championship: 1974, 1980, 1981, 1991
• 5 times Second Place: 1973, 1982, 1983, 1994, 1995
• 7 times Third Place: 1967, 1975, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1993
• Romanian Cup : 6 times Romanian Cup Winners: 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1991, 1993
  • 1977 • 2 - 1 with Steaua Bucure?ti
  • 1978 • 3 - 1 with Olimpia Satu-Mare
  • 1981 • 6 - 0 with Politehnica Timi?oara
  • 1983 • 3 - 1 with Politehnica Timi?oara
  • 1991 • 2 - 1 with FC Bac?u
  • 1993 • 2 - 0 with Dacia Unirea Br?ila
• 5 times Romanian Cup runners-up: 1975, 1985, 1994, 1998, 2000

International performances

• UEFA Cup semifinalist in 1983

• participated in 4 editions of the European Champions’ Cup, Quarter-Finalist in 1981.

• participated in 14 editions of the UEFA Cup