Microsoft have finally finished their 64-bit Windows XP Professional x64 Edition for 64-bit processors like AMD Athlon 64. This version is now released to manufacturing (RTM) and the final build number is 1830. People who have MSDN subscription can already download it. Others will have to wait until the end of April. If all goes well you will be able to swap 32-bit Windows XP Pro for 64-bit x64 Edition for free. When I get the final version I will try to benchmark it against 32-bit version as soon as possible. I’m sure it will do even better now and I hope it will be easier to get more and higher quality 64-bit optimized software and drivers by then. You can check out the old benchmark of release candidate 2 in this post.

About two weeks ago I have repored how Firefox web browser is the most popular on Slovenian computer news site Slo-Comp.net. It looks like Firefox has also become number one browser on a much larger technology oriented page Ars Technica. 40% of all the readers use Firefox now and percentage of those using old and insecure Internet Explorer dropped to only 30%. So, professionals already know which is the best browser to use. How about you? Switch to Firefox now, before it is too late.

Read more here:

• Ars Technica traffic report shows Firefox making strides on Windows, OS X
• “The real news is the ascendancy of Firefox”

The long awaited day is finally here. After some setbacks (including a complete security rebuild) the version 2005.0 of Gentoo Linux distribution is finally out. One of the main changes in this release is the transition to Linux kernel 2.6. The biggest disappointment for most of the people is probably the fact that Graphical Installer is not included in this release. Sorry folks, let’s hope we see it in 2005.1. You can download the suitable CD image from any FTP/HTTP mirror or use BitTorrent.

Source: beejays world - Gentoo-Linux 2005.0 is out

If you use KDE desktop for Linux or have used it before, then take some time to complete two part KDE Desktop Usability Survey. Tell them what you like about KDE and what you don’t like. The results will be shared with KDE developers and they will help them make KDE even more user friendly.

In the middle of the night time shifted for one hour forward, as it does every year because of daylight saving time. The original idea of so called summer time was to make better use of daylight. I don’t mind about this as I like starlight more. They say that we also save energy by daylight saving time. I think this was more true in the past and today savings are next to zero. Because of all this and because time shifting disturbs my natural biorhythm I would very much like to see DST gone. Heck I also think we should use Universal Time (UTC or GMT) all over the world and get rid of time zones. But I guess this would be too much for most of the people.

On 16 March Greece has become the 16th Member State of European Space Agency (ESA). Cooperation between ESA and the Hellenic National Space Committee goes back to early 1990s. Greece formally applied to join ESA in September 2003. I hope Slovenia also becomes ESA Member State sometime in the future. There sure is something our science could offer to help advance space exploration. Materials science maybe? Sensor electronics? Something else?

Read the press release here:
Greece becomes 16th ESA Member State

A couple of days ago Mozilla Foundation has released version 1.0.2 of the web browser Firefox and e-mail client Thunderbird. This is a maintenance release that makes both extremely popular internet applications even safer and more stable. They have also released version 1.7.6 of the Mozilla Suite, for those of you who like the Suite more.

You can download them here:
Firefox 1.0.2 - ED2K
Thunderbird 1.0.2 - ED2K
Mozilla Suite 1.7.6 - ED2K

I have already been writing about Free Software Magazine and I’ll keep you posted about new free issues. Now we got another free magazine in PDF format. This one is called TUX (after the cute Linux penguin mascot) and is dedicated to the new Linux user. In every digital issue they will try to explore one aspect of modern Linux desktop. You can expect informative columns with rich, graphical content and covers everything for home, work, and play. Easy to understand tutorials, insightful hardware and software reviews, enlightened opinion, useful tips and tricks, and in-depth exploration of the tools computer users need every day will all be in this new magazine. To learn more about it read this editorial.

The first issue - March 2005 is already out. Free subscription is required to download the PDF. For a list of topics in this issue visit this page. I will also release this issue and any future ones on eMule Content Database page. The link to the release will follow later.

UPDATE: ED2K links for download with eMule, aMule or similar are available here.

ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft is still orbiting around the red planet Mars and watching it closely using its High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). A couple of days ago the orbiter has sent us some pictures of interesting hourglass-shaped craters. They are filled with flow features most likely formed by glaciers or “block” glaciers. Take a look at this photo:

For more information visit this page:
Hourglass shaped craters filled with traces of glacier

The release 2005.0 of my favorite Linux distribution - Gentoo has been delayed because of some last minute major issues. But it looks like the release is almost ready now. Both x86 and AMD64 versions are now prepared and ready to get mirrored on servers around the world. Before it goes public they need to check if everything works as stated in the installation handbook. My friend Boris is also waiting for this release and I think he will finally be able to install Gentoo 2005.0 sometime next week. On the other hand I’ll just update the link to the new 2005.0 profile, maybe make some other adjustments and simply update everything using emerge as usual. Portage is so great!

Read more here:
Gentoo-Linux 2005.0 for x86 complete
Gentoo/AMD64 2005.0 release almost finished

A couple of moments ago ski jumping world cup has finished in Planica, Slovenia. Planica is a famous home for world records and this time it has been broken four times in the flying competition. The new world record is 239m now and belongs to Björn Einar Romören from Norway. Rok Benkovič (it is his 19th birthday today) landed at 226m which is a new Slovenian national record. Another great day in Planica. Too bad I couldn’t be there. Maybe next year…

KDE Worldwide is a web page where you can see where do contributors to KDE come from. There is a world map that shows a dot (or a name on the larger version) for every registered KDE developer, artist, documentation writer, translator and so on. The page has a new maintainer now and new submissions are processed again. So, if you are still not on the map make sure to fill in the form. You can find me in Slovenia (between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia), Bohinjska Bistrica (geographic latitude 46.3° and longitude 14.0°) under the name of Jure Repinc.

The final version of K Desktop Environment 3.4.0 is here at last. I’ve been using beta and release candidate versions compiled from CVS for quite some time and I must say it is runinng great.

There are a lot of new features in this version. I especially like the new RSS and Atom feed aggregator and reader Akregator. KPDF is also much nicer now. It is faster and allows you to select and copy text or graphics. The new KDE also supports vector desktop backgrounds or wallpapers in SVG format. You can read more about KDE 3.4.0 in its public announcement.

To download source code or binaries visit this page:
KDE 3.4.0 Info Page

In January 2005 Firefox, together with Mozilla, became the most frequently used web browser on one of the most popular Slovenian computer related web pages, Slo-Comp.net. You can see the usage history of Internet Explorer and Gecko based browsers in this recently produced graph. They also monitor the browser type of each post in their forum and they say that Firefox usage in this area is even five times greater then that of IE. And Firefox keeps increasing its share…

It looks like AOL’s AIM instant messaging service has joined Microsoft’s MSN Messenger when it comes to not respecting privacy of your conversations. AOL has recently changed terms of service for AIM and now they say they have the right to read all your chats and use all your messages as they like. This is intolerable. So now is the time you start using some open and standard instant messaging service like Jabber. I have already switched and now I have no worries about privacy and no more problems with blocking my favorite clients from the network. Also no more viruses that spread easily through MSN. There are many public servers for Jabber and quite a lot of clients for multiple operating systems. Jabber is the future of instant messaging.

Read more here:
Diary of CrazyFrench - IM and privacy