Assorted Techie News 25th Aug

• nightzip

  25 Aug 06, 13:51

  Intel prepares to introduce 'Tulsa'
  
  Stephen Shankland
  CNET News.com
  
  August 23, 2006, 10:10 BST
  The top-end Xeon processor promises a 70 percent performance boost over Intel's current server chips
  
  http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/chips/0,39020354,39281576,00.htm
  
  Plane passenger tells security penis pump is bomb
  
  Embarrassment leads to disorderly conduct rap
  
  By Lester HainesPublished Thursday 24th August 2006 13:11 GMT
  
  A passenger who rather ill-advisedly told security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport that part of his penis pump was a bomb faces a possible three years' jail on a felony disorderly conduct rap, The Chicago Sun-Times reports.
  
  Mardin Amin, 29, was en route to Turkey on 16 August with his dear old ma and two small children when a female security operative extracted a "small, black, squeezable rubber object" from his backpack. Since he was standing next to his mum, Amin decided to whisper out of the corner of his mouth that it was a "pump". The guard misheard it as "bomb", with inevitable consequences.
  
  That, at least, was the version offered yesterday by Amin's defense attorney, Eileen O'Neill-Burke, in the Cook County courtroom where the pneumatic defendant sought to clarify the misunderstanding. As "snickering police officers watched the court proceedings", O'Neill-Burke explained: "He told her it's a pump. He's standing with his mother. Of course he's not going to shout this out."
  
  The guard, however, insisted Amin had said "bomb". On the basis of this testimony, Judge Gerald Winiecki declared there was enough evidence for the case to move forward, and Amin is accordingly due back before the beak on 13 September.
  
  After the hearing, a "mostly jovial" Amin - who works for a "janitorial service" - insisted he'd never use the word "bomb" while passing through airport security. Regarding the offending device, he added: "It's normal. Half of America they use it." ®
  
  It was a "bomb".
• nightzip

  25 Aug 06, 13:59

  Intel Bangalore office to close or downsize big time
  
  Can't trust 'em
  
  By Charlie Demerjian: Thursday 24 August 2006, 11:32
  
  MORE WORD has reached us about Intel Bangalore, where we hear the fear is that the office might be shut.
  We told you about this a while ago, but now there is a little more to add.
  
  The official word is that there are lots of projects failing, high attrition rates and, most laughably, low ethics. While we have doubts about all three of these, we do know that a lot of the problems come from management giving impossible tasks to new teams, and other related oversight issues.
  
  Senior Intel people have asked to study the costs of closing the Bangalore office, but it is not 100 per cent dead yet. Possibilities include moving it, downsizing it, or both.
  
  In either case, it looks like the employees are going to suffer for (mis)management problems. Our sympathies go out to them.
  
  
• nightzip

  25 Aug 06, 14:10

  Commodore brand reappears on high-end PCs
  
  Memory lane
  
  By Fuad Abazovic in Leipzig: Thursday 24 August 2006, 18:28
  
  IF YOU remember Commodore 64 that means you are not a teenager any more.
  We certainly spent a piece of our life playing with that machine in the dawn of PC gaming.
  
  Now, the Commodore brand sits on a range of high-end PCs equipped with Nvidia's 7950 GX2 card and an AMD FX 60. Commodore is now a Dutch company and is testing the waters to see is there a market for such a PC with this legendary brand on it.
  
  The company picked a nice looking case packed some high-end hardware to beef up ye olde Commodore logo.
  
  We we're able to try out the the old games on the beast.