smaller rant
"Ctrl" + "+" will increase the text size in Opera by 50% (VS 10% in Firefox). For smaller increment use +... Haven't used IE in 2 years, but I remember about a menu option being somewhere...
I'll save you some trouble about the Firestream though. It is a "coprocessor" that is run alongside CPU to offload heavy parallel calculations/floating point calculations, and, though based on the exact same GPU as a comparable (in this case 4800-series) Radeon or even FireGL (professional 3-D graphics accelerator for rendering scenes, like CAD and Digital Content Creation, in this case 2008 model scheduled to release in Aug sometime).
Actually, with their newest numbering system, AMD/ATi have really improved understanding of the whole thing. 1-st # is the series line, second is the performance group of the series, and last 2 are to distinguish between the cards in the performance group. So 4850 is worse than 4870, 3870 better than 3850 better than 3670 better than 3650 and so on. When choosing between the series though (say 4670 VS 3850) - that is where you need to do some homework :-). In any case a lot better that choosing between X1900, X1900Pro, X1900XL, X1900XT, X1900XTX, X1900LE, X1900SE......... What a nightmare...
For your hard-earned 30 pounds sterling (it's a good thing you brits don't actually use that particular metal for trading, a paycheck would weigh a ton) you will get no performance increase whatsoever. Like replacing a 5-speed manual tranny with a 6-speed one on a VW Beetle - you won't use the 6-th gear anyway, so don't bother :D
I'd take a brand-new 1978 Corvette over the 2008 one any day though. Looks so much sexier, well worth dropping the few hps here and there. Cavalier is the budget POS car, while the 'Vette is the one you use for racing.
Remember, if Microsoft made cars, this year's model would arrive the next year, as opposed to previous year :D
Looks like the driver for linux does work with an on-cd (gasp) driver (woohoo!). No clue as to what the 3d acceleration is though, so I'll have to wait awhile for someone to review the damned thing then decide the next card to buy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
