Who will be crowned England Champions?

The decisive match between Chelsea and Manchester United, which took place on Saturday 26 April, saw Chelsea’s home record of 101 unbeaten games extended to 102, with a 2-1 win over the Red Devils.

This victory has kept the Blues chances of winning the title alive, since in case United had won the match, they would have been 6pts ahead, and with a greater goal difference, they would have kept the title which they won last season. A draw for both teams would have given a slight advantage to Man U, but by losing at Stamford Bridge, they have now made Chelsea the most favorites to be crowned champions.

Here are the last 2 matches for each team, which will decide the fate of the FA Premierleague to be champions:

Chelsea: Newcastle and Bolton

Man U: West Ham and Wigan

Any mistake by either team will prove to be too costly indeed, since they are now both at the same number of points and games played, with Man U having a better goal difference, and thus still at the number 1 position.

Not to forget this week’s return legs of the Champions League, where Man U will host Barcelona at Old Trafford (0-0 1st leg), and Chelsea will play against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge (1-1 1st leg).

So another question here: Which teams will be in the final at Moscow??

So enjoy the matches and may the best team win…

Microsoft Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008 is the most recent release of Microsoft Windows’s server line of operating systems. Released on February 27, 2008, it is the successor to Windows Server 2003, released nearly five years earlier. Like Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 is built on the Windows NT 6.0 kernel.

System requirements for Windows Server 2008 are as follows:

	Minimum	Recommended
Processor	1 GHz (x86) or 1.4 GHz (x64)	2 GHz or faster
Memory	512 MB RAM (may limit performance and some features)	2 GB RAM or higher Maximum (32-bit systems): 4GB RAM (Standard) or 64GB RAM (Enterprise and Datacenter) Maximum (64-bit systems): 32GB RAM (Standard) or 2TB RAM (Enterprise, Datacenter and Itanium-Based Systems)
Video adapter and monitor	Super VGA (800 x 600)	Super VGA (1024 x 768 ) or higher resolution
Hard drive disk free space	10 GB	40 GB or higherNote: Computers with more than 16GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation, and dump files
Drives	DVD-ROM	DVD-ROM or better
Devices	Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution monitor, keyboard and mouse	Super VGA (1024 x 768 ) or higher-resolution monitor, keyboard and mouse
Others	Sound card, speakers, and headphones	Sound card, speakers, and headphones

Windows Server 2008 is built from the same code base as Windows Vista; therefore, it shares much of the same architecture and functionality. Since the code base is common, it automatically comes with most of the technical, security, management and administrative features new to Windows Vista such as the rewritten networking stack (native IPv6, native wireless, speed and security improvements); improved image-based installation, deployment and recovery; improved diagnostics, monitoring, event logging and reporting tools; new security features such as Bitlocker and ASLR; improved Windows Firewall with secure default configuration; .NET Framework 3.0 technologies, specifically Windows Communication Foundation, Microsoft Message Queuing and Windows Workflow Foundation; and the core kernel, memory and file system improvements. Processors and memory devices are modeled as Plug and Play devices, to allow hot-plugging of these devices. This allows the system resources to be partitioned dynamically using Dynamic Hardware Partitioning; each partition having its own memory, processor and I/O host bridge devices independent of other partitions.

Windows Server 2008 is the first Windows operating system to ship with Windows PowerShell, Microsoft’s new extensible command line shell and task-based scripting technology. PowerShell is based on object-oriented programming and version 2.0 of the Microsoft .NET Framework and includes more than 120 system administration utilities, consistent syntax and naming conventions, and built-in capabilities to work with common management data such as the Windows Registry, certificate store, or Windows Management Instrumentation. PowerShell’s scripting language was specifically designed for IT administration, and can be used in place of cmd.exe and Windows Script Host.

In previous Windows versions, if the operating system detected corruption in the file system of an NTFS volume, it marked the volume “dirty”; to correct errors on the volume, it had to be taken offline. With self-healing NTFS, an NTFS worker thread is spawned in the background which performs a localized fix-up of damaged data structures, with only the corrupted files/folders remaining unavailable without locking out the entire volume and needing the server to be taken down.

Hyper-V is a hypervisor-based virtualization system, forming a core part of Microsoft’s virtualization strategy. It virtualizes servers on an operating system’s kernel layer. It can be thought of as partitioning a single physical server into multiple small computational partitions. Hyper-V will include the ability to act as a Xen virtualization hypervisor host allowing Xen-enabled guest operating systems to run virtualized. Hyper-V is not currently part of Windows Server 2008, but will ship within three months after Windows Server 2008 is released, as both a standalone product and as part of special “with Hyper-V” editions of Windows Server 2008. Both will only support the x86-64 architecture.

Most editions of Windows Server 2008 are available in x86-64 (64-bit) and x86 (32-bit) versions. Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems supports IA-64 processors. The IA-64 version is optimized for high workload scenarios like database servers and Line of Business (LOB) applications. As such it is not optimized for use as a file server or media server. Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit Windows server operating system. Windows Server 2008 is available in the editions listed below, similar to Windows Server 2003.

• Windows Server 2008 Standard Edition (x86 and x64)
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition (x86 and x64)
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter Edition (x86 and x64)
• Windows HPC Server 2008
• Windows Web Server 2008 (x86 and x64)
• Windows Storage Server 2008 (x86 and x64)
• Windows Small Business Server 2008 (Codenamed “Cougar”) (x64) for small businesses
• Windows Essential Business Server 2008 (Codenamed “Centro”) (x64) for medium-sized businesses
• Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems

For more details please visit the Microsoft website concerning Windows Server 2008.

NVidia GeForce 9800 GX2

The NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 is a über-powered, dual GPU-based graphics card that powers extreme HD gaming and provides a complete, high def entertainment experience for the PC.

With two on-board GPUs, a GeForce® 9800 GX2-based graphics solution is bar-none the fastest graphics card available, and when paired with a 7 Series NVIDIA nForce® motherboard, creates the latest in a line of powerful NVIDIA gaming platforms. Be blown away by scorching frame rates, true-to-life extreme HD gaming, and picture-perfect Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

Unreal Tournament 3 image captured on NVIDIA GPU. Provided by Epic.

Lightning speed graphics performance The dual-GPU engine has 256 screaming fast stream processors and a 1GB framebuffer, allowing it to perform 30 to 50% faster across games than the previous performance leading GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU.

Picture-Perfect HD Extreme HD game play, unsurpassed movie picture quality, and elegant design are at your fingertips with the GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card. Now you can be right in the middle of the action – whether you’re fragging the enemy or watching an HD movie, your experience will be ultra-realistic.

Features to up the ante Combine a pair of these multi GPU graphics cards with an nForce® 790i motherboard for Quad NVIDIA SLI® technology and get the world’s fastest gaming PC. Plus, an ESA-enabled control panel provides a state-of-the-art interface and HybridPower™ technology gives you optimal power savings.

Features:

• PCI Express 2.0 Support
  Designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.
• NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD Technology
  The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.
• Dynamic Contrast Enhancement & Color Stretch
  Provides post-processing and optimization of High Definition movies on a scene-by-scene basis for spectacular picture clarity.
• HDMI Output
  Integrated HDMI™ connector enables sending both high-definition video and audio signals to an HDTV via a single cable.
• NVIDIA HybridPower™ Technology
  Lets you switch from the GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card to the motherboard GeForce GPU when running non graphically-intensive applications for a silent, low power PC experience.
• Quad NVIDIA SLI® Technology
  Industry leading Quad NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 4-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.
• Enthusiast System Architecture
  The new ESA-enabled NVIDIA control panel provides a state-of-the-art interface for performance tuning and monitoring of your GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card on NVIDIA nForce 790i platforms.

Specifications:

With two on-board GPUs, a GeForce® 9800 GX2-based graphics solution is bar-none the fastest graphics card available, and when paired with a 7 Series NVIDIA nForce® motherboard, creates the latest in a line of powerful NVIDIA gaming platforms. Be blown away by scorching frame rates, true-to-life extreme HD gaming, and picture-perfect Blu-ray and HD DVD movies.

Unreal Tournament 3 image captured on NVIDIA GPU. Provided by Epic.

Lightning speed graphics performance The dual-GPU engine has 256 screaming fast stream processors and a 1GB framebuffer, allowing it to perform 30 to 50% faster across games than the previous performance leading GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU.

Picture-Perfect HD Extreme HD game play, unsurpassed movie picture quality, and elegant design are at your fingertips with the GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card. Now you can be right in the middle of the action – whether you’re fragging the enemy or watching an HD movie, your experience will be ultra-realistic.

Features to up the ante Combine a pair of these multi GPU graphics cards with an nForce® 790i motherboard for Quad NVIDIA SLI® technology and get the world’s fastest gaming PC. Plus, an ESA-enabled control panel provides a state-of-the-art interface and HybridPower™ technology gives you optimal power savings.

• PCI Express 2.0 Support
  Designed for the new PCI Express 2.0 bus architecture offering the highest data transfer speeds for the most bandwidth-hungry games and 3D applications, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing PCI Express motherboards for the broadest support.
• NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD Technology¹
  The combination of high-definition video decode acceleration and post-processing that delivers unprecedented picture clarity, smooth video, accurate color, and precise image scaling for movies and video.
• Dynamic Contrast Enhancement & Color Stretch
  Provides post-processing and optimization of High Definition movies on a scene-by-scene basis for spectacular picture clarity.
• HDMI Output
  Integrated HDMI™ connector enables sending both high-definition video and audio signals to an HDTV via a single cable.
• NVIDIA HybridPower™ Technology²
  Lets you switch from the GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card to the motherboard GeForce GPU when running non graphically-intensive applications for a silent, low power PC experience.
• Quad NVIDIA SLI® Technology³
  Industry leading Quad NVIDIA SLI technology offers amazing performance scaling by implementing 4-way AFR (Alternate Frame Rendering), for the world’s fastest gaming solution under Windows Vista with solid, state-of-the-art drivers.
• Enthusiast System Architecture
  The new ESA-enabled NVIDIA control panel provides a state-of-the-art interface for performance tuning and monitoring of your GeForce 9800 GX2-based graphics card on NVIDIA nForce 790i platforms.

¹ Feature requires supported video software. Features may vary by product.
² Requires NVIDIA HybridPower™- enabled motherboard.
³ NVIDIA SLI certified versions of GeForce PCI Express GPUs only. A GeForce 9800 GX2 must be paired with another GeForce 9800 GX2, regardless of graphics card manufacturer.

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Stream Processors	256
Core Clock (MHz)	600 MHz
Shader Clock (MHz)	1500 MHz
Memory Clock (MHz)	1000 MHz
Memory Amount	1G
Memory Interface	512-bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec)	128
Texture Fill Rate (billion/sec)	76.8