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Show Notes
Episode 2 features a new segment: listener mail! Jordan, Cyril, Scott, and Geoff answer emails about everything from Nvidia and ATI to guilty web pleasures. We discuss the latest Eee PC news, the TR hardware survey, the GeForce 9600 GT graphics card from Nvidia, the Samsung Spinpoint F1 hard drive, and much more!

Send in listener mail and we'll answer on the podcast: jdrake@techreport.com.

Listener Mail:

Is AMD/ATI on its way out? (0:02:32) - from Cliff (Hoser on the forums):

"With nVidia buying Ageia recently, what do you think AMD/ATi will be able to do to keep them competitive in the graphics market share? This recent take-over should boost sales of nVidia products especially in the mid-range market. With their financial troubles this looks like it could be the start of some devastating blows to drop them out of the graphics market all together."

Is TR falling prey to peer pressure? (0:06:55) - From Arba:

"At the same time as the Phenom was (finally) released last November, TechReport also reviewed an engineering sample of an Intel QX9770. TR has also included benchmarks from this product in two or three subsequent reports since then.

However, three months after that initial report on the QX9770, that product is still not on the market. In fact it's still weeks if not months from being on the market. Furthermore, the QX9770 has had its own erratum published and changes are already being applied to the silicon. Hence, this wasn't just a paper launch, or even a vapor launch, it was a phantom launch, since what TR reported on doesn't exist anymore and will never make it to market in the shape you reported.

In reality, Intel's submission of a test sample, and your report on it, was nothing more than an attempt to steal attention from AMD's shipping product with a long to be unavailable Intel prototype.

Could you address in your next podcast TR's policy on reporting and reviewing Paper, Vapor and Phantom launches, and the ethics of doing something just because every other hardware site did?"

Guilty Pleasures? (0:14:56) - From Kraft75:

"When simply surfing online, do you guys have any guilty pleasures? Any ebaums closet fans? Any 'Desktop Tower Defense' addicts? Now"s the time to come clean... :)"

Staff guilty pleasure picks:

Geoff - Professional Cycling - Velo News - Bike Snob NYC

Scott - Web Comics - OOTS (Order of the Stick) - PVP (Player vs. Player)

Cyril - Web Comics and Forums - Achewood - xkcd - Penny Arcade - Something Awful

Jordan - Tech Blogs - TechEBlog

Tech News:

Eee PC upgrades = exciting future (0:19:16) - Read more... - Update #1... - Update #2...

The TR Hardware Survey (0:26:05) - Read more...

Phenom compatibility, TLB workaround options exposed (0:32:05) - Read more...

Tech Topics:

Samsung Spinpoint F1 review (0:40:11) - Read more...

Scott talks about the GeForce 9600 GT, CrossFire X, and three-way SLI (0:46:01) - Read more about the 9600 GT... - Read more about three-way SLI

AMD's 780G chipset (1:02:09) - Read more...

That's all, folks! Check back on March 22 for the next TR podcast.