XP SP2 available

The direct download version Windows XP’s Service Pack 2 is now available from Microsoft’s download site for those not wishing to wait until it gets pushed to desktops through the autodownload feature of Windows Update on the 25th.

The race for space heats up

It looks like a second party has announced an official attempt at the Ansari X-Prize, which will give $10 million dollars to the first team able to get a rocket able to carry three people 100km into space twice within two weeks.

We’ve all seen video of Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne and their first test launch, and we now know the first of their two required official flight attempts will be conducted on October 4th, which happens to be the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik.

A second team, the da Vinci Project has now announced that they will make their first of two official flights on October 2nd. The rocket, the Wild Fire, is interesting in that it’s launched from a helium balloon platform.

DirectX 0.9c

Microsoft has released the latest update to it’s DirectX multimedia technologies in the form of the 0.9c End-User Runtime package.

For those looking to get the best performance out of your gaming and graphical programs with Windows XP, it’s recomended that you upgrade with the new DirectX, then find the latest version of your video card drivers and install them as well to take advantage of the latest updates.