Life on Mars

The software that NASA uses to browse the images sent back by Spirit from Mars has been made available to download. The Maestro software is available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. Once you've downloaded it - at varying sizes around 30-40MB depending on your platform - you then have to download the Mars data separately. ...more

A vote for Labour on IT, but not a landslide

Labour's second term in office will have a positive effect on the IT industry, according to readers of our sister publication Computer Buyer. Of the 187 votes cast in the July poll on the Computer Buyer Web site, 51.89 per cent supported the efforts of the Labour government, although it was a close run thing, with the poll swinging against the Government until the final week. ...more

SiS completes its Athlon 64 support

Chip producer Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) has announced the release of the SiS755FX chipset, which is claimed to be the first chipset with full support for the 939pin AMD Athlon 64 FX CPU and its 1GHz HyperTransport interface. Coupled with the SiS South Bridge Chipset SiS964, SiS755FX completes an entire system for the Athlon 64. Built around SiS's HyperStreaming and integrated with the AMD 1GHz HyperTransport technology as well as 8/16-bits connection technology, SiS says it can transmit up to 8GB/sec to the Front Side Bus (FSB). ...more

eBay drops Passport

Microsoft has lost its most prominent partner in the Passport user authentication service. The online auction service eBay has told its users that from the end of next month it will cease to support Passport as a means to log in. The announcement leaves Microsoft's own MSN based services such as MSN and Hotmail as the only major web properties using Passport as a means of identification. ...more

UK games chart: European Assault encamps at the top

EA's WWII first person shooter has successfully defended the summit of this week's ELSPA UK games chart. THQ's action game for the PS2 and Xbox, Destroy All Humans!, has done its best to dislodge the latest Medal of Honor, but it only reaches the number two spot, up from four. The multi-format racing game, Juiced, stays at number three. ...more