Microsoft announced DirectX 10.1, an update to Windows Vista’s version of DirectX (the platform that handles graphics and other multimedia tasks, typically those related to gaming). 10.1 will be a software update to 10.0 and, in most cases, will work on the same hardware that supported DirectX 10. 10.1 adds some small improvements to 3D rendering quality, 32-bit floating-point operations (as opposed to 16-bit) and required support of 4x Full-scene anti-aliasing.
If your current hardware supports DirectX 10, it will work under DirectX 10.1, though it may not support all of the new features. For example, the Nvidia GeForce 8800 and AMD/ATI Radeon 2900 graphics cards will probably not support the whole feature set.
Photo by Gamerscoreblog under Creative Commons
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Developers |
no comments
The date has finally been cast down: August 27. That is the day Windows Home Server, the hotly anticipated new operating system for home media sharing and backup, will be released. While I doubt you’ll be able to walk into stores and grab a copy, online stores that stock OEM (PC manufacturer) versions, like Newegg, may have it for sale not long after. I’d love to finally know how much the damn thing costs.
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Home Server, Server, Windows |
no comments
Microsoft has released a Halo 3 for Windows Live Spaces, letting you show off your unbrideled enthusiasm for the blockbuster game coming in less than six weeks. Go here to pick it up, or to get the Xbox theme and make a Live Space Master Chief would be proud of. If he wasn’t from the future. And fictional. And carrying a giant gun.
Yeah, he might shoot you. Maybe you should just keep it to yourself.
But seriously, it’s a cool theme. Check it out.
(via Xbox 360 Fanboy)
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Spaces, Windows, General |
no comments
Unless you have to, it is many times advantageous to “warm boot”, or rather warm reboot, Windows. In a warm reboot, Windows restarts, but the computer doesn’t, skipping the whole pre-Windows boot screen/BIOS/startup sequence. You an easily specify a warm boot in both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Just hold down SHIFT on your keyboard before clicking “Restart” in Vista, or before clicking OK in the restart dialog in XP. Enjoy the extra 20 seconds!
Technically, the use of the term “warm boot” is a bit misused here, but the small amount of time saved by not re-running the BIOS can be worth it.
(via Digg)
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
XP, Vista, Windows |
7 comments
Windows Live ID authentication is now available for all websites with today’s 1.0 release, which means websites can allow users to login with their Live IDs. LiveSide now lets you login with your Live ID thanks to a Community Server Live ID plugin written by Nick, letting you associate a Live ID with a LiveSide login and use Live ID when logging in there. You need to sign in at LiveSide, not elsewhere, because of the restrictions of non-authenticated sites, but it looks like its a pretty good convenience nonetheless.
The release of Live ID to websites means InfoCard (or CardSpace, or Information Card, depending on the current phase of the mean) is available to websites as well. You can sign into Live ID sites with your Information Card, storing a name and user picture, though it will support more information soon.
Sample implementations of the Live ID authentication are available for ASP.NET (C#), Java, Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby. We gonna see a WordPress plugin soon? I hope so.
August 17th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Windows |
3 comments
