[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

VIAArena Photo Contest:

Here is a simple way to win a mainboard, go to VIAArena and submit a picture of you and your friends getting st00pid. Sounds easy enough…now, I know how most of you guys are out there…but I don’t think they are taking nude submissions, you might want to at least ask first.

To WIN a Soltek SL-KT400A-L mainboard all for yourself, enter this simple competition. Take picture of your or your friends PC gaming or work desk. The funniest and/or most interesting entry will win. You might want to deliberately change or add things for the photo, or you might just have an interesting work station already. You or another person can be in the photo if you want, but there doesn't have to be any person in the photo. The best photo to be submitted via email to john.gatt@viaarena.com by Friday 13th June 2003, will have their photo made available for download in the Fun Downloads section and be awarded a Soltek SL-KT400A-L*, kindly donated by Soltek Headquarters, Taipei.

eBay Found Guilty:

eBay found guilty, ordered to pay $35 million in damages. OUCH!!! What can you say to that? This is a serious blow to eBay for sure. Thanks Fam.

The willful infringement ruling opens the door for the judge to hold eBay liable for triple damages, or $105 million, said Neil Smith, an attorney specializing in intellectual property law at Howard Rice in San Francisco. The judge may also issue an injunction against eBay to prevent the company from continuing to use the patented invention, a method for using a credit card to lock in an offer to purchase items online, Smith said.

Got Hot Flashes?

Hotflashing your BIOS when all else fails is a time honored tradition that most of us have done at one point or another. Overclocked Café has a guide to hot flashing your dead board, for those of you who need to flash a dead board. While I have done ot personally a million times, with very few “incidents”…I strongly caution those who have never tried it. Sometime paying the $10 to get a new BIOS from your board manufacturer is the best alternative.

So, whether you can stay clear of corrupting your BIOS by following a few simple directions, the possibility still exists to end up with a corrupt chip due to any number of reasons. The plain and simple fact is this: don’t flash your BIOS unless you need to and do so, and then, understand that it’s at your own risk.