Content and news by Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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Rob's Recent Content

IE7 toolbar mayhem

I wanted to see if IE7 was any better than that screenshot of IE6, how would it cope with a user that simply clicked ‘yes/allow/next/accept’ to everything that was presented to them. In addition, I wanted to see how the User Account Control reacted to this, and in the end, could I restore IE7 to it’s former glory.

It would be a sad state of affairs if someone actually installed all these toolbars unknowingly, but the fact is that it IS possible. IE7 should really add a limit to how many toolbars can be installed at a given time, or just make the security better. That would make way too much sense though.

Published on October 9, 2006

Wii to have upgradable Linux OS

There’s bits and pieces of information floating around that revolve around Iwata Asks interviews on Nintendo’s website. What I found interesting was the tidbit about the updatable operating system: ‘Wii is the first system from Nintendo that we can continue to be involved in (via operating system updates) after the customer buys it.

What’s that sound? Its another reason to get excited about the Wii! I can see a lot of hacks in the Wiis future. An upgradable OS is a huge benefit to the consumer, and should be a feature of any console, really.

Published on October 9, 2006

Review Roundup for Oct 9

    Cooling
  • Apack Zerotherm GX700 Aluminum Videocard VGA Cooler – TweakNews
  • CoolerMaster Eclipse CPU Cooler – Virtual-Hideout
  • CoolerMaster NotePal P1 – OCIA
  • Sytrin KuFormula SHF1 Ultra – Phoronix

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • Battlefield Home – Network Security – Big Bruin
  • Samsung 225BW LCD – XYZ Computing
  • Tech Reports October 2006 system guide – Tech Report
  • Win a Super Talent 1GB MEGA Screen MP3/FM/Recorder Player – Bjorn3D
Published on October 9, 2006

Turtle Beach Ear Force X2 Xbox 360 Headset

If you play on Xbox Live often and are sick of using the flimsy headset you received with your console, then you are in luck. Turtle Beach released their X2 headset earlier this year, and it proves to be a very worthy upgrade to the headset you have now.

Published on October 9, 2006

64% of Online Gamers are Women

You wouldn’t realize it while playing with most of the jerks that play Halo 2, but 64% of the nation’s 117 million online gamers are actually women, according to Nielsen Entertainment’s third annual Active Gamer Benchmark Study, released this morning.

This could have been more interesting if they mentioned which games women played, but it does not. No doubt sites like Pogo.com have a huge chunk of that market though. I am curious to see how they came up with such a number.

Published on October 8, 2006

Hackers Find Use for Google Code Search

The company’s new source-code search engine, unveiled Thursday as a tool to help simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information and even proprietary code that shouldn’t have been posted to the Internet, security experts said Friday.

Could this have been avoided? Filters could be in place but there’s always ways around them. int sarcasm() { cout << "So, if you want to swipe code for a keygen and call it your own, now you know where to go." return 0; }

Published on October 8, 2006

10 extremely cool workplaces

Physical space matters. It’s easier to be productive, creative and happy at work in a colourful, organic, playful environment than in a grey, linear, boring one. And I’m not talking about the outside of the building. Many companies have buildings that are sleek, modern, architectural glass-steel-and-cement sculptures on the outside – and cubicle wastelands on the inside. These companies need to remember that most employees tend to work inside the building.

Ok, this is no joke, these are some seriously cool workplaces. I particularly like the trailer myself.. very cool setup.

Published on October 7, 2006

Online racist gets three years

A man who posted racist messages on a website in memory of murdered black teenager Anthony Walker was jailed for more than three years today. Neil Martin, 30, emailed at least six comments to the website – less than a week after Anthony was killed with an ice axe in a racist attack in Huyton, Merseyside, last year.

This was not only a huge racist, but also a pervert as police found child pornography on his PC. Three years could be considered a bit light here.

Published on October 7, 2006

The Rise And Fall (And Rise?) Of AOL

AOL — the company that was once at the forefront of the Internet revolution — is now at a crossroads. Will the company that was among the first to popularize online chat be able to reinvent itself in order to click with the savvier user of today? Or will it fade away, written off as a company that couldn’t keep up with the ever-changing world of technology?

AOL… how we love/loathe thee. This is an interesting article to check out for a brief history and for a simple look at what could be in store.

Published on October 7, 2006

One boob == 963,000 FCC complaints

In April, May, and June of 2002, for instance, only 141 people in the entire country filed an FCC complaint. In the same three months of 2003, 351 people objected. Then, in 2004, something remarkable happened: 272,818 people filed complaints in a single quarter. Had television suddenly started peddling prime-time pornography?

That’s quite the surge! It’s just too bad something so ridiculous affected TV in such a huge way. Surprisingly, I haven’t noticed any of my shows being “cleaned”. I didn’t even notice a difference in the quoted Everybody Loves Raymond, which I usually never missed. Either way, this article is quite interesting, so give it a read.

Published on October 6, 2006

Even more 8800 information

DailyTech has been keeping quite busy with the 8800 rumor-mill, and is doing a great job of getting people excited. First off, we have information regarding HDR. As we all know, it is a GPU hog but the 8800s try to remedy this by offering 128-Bit HDR processing, as opposed to 64-Bit processing on current top-end GPUs. Not only this, but 16x AA will be available on a single card. I’d be hard pressed to see any new game on the market run with 16x AA on a single GPU, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

Stats of the 8800GTX and GTS are revealed also and are somewhat surprising. The GTX rolls in with a 575MHz core and 900MHz memory clock. The memory bus width has been bumped from 256-Bit straight up to 386-Bit, so we should be seeing some incredible gains here. Surprisingly it will use GDDR3 memory, but will supply a staggering 768MB worth.

With this information, it’s hard to jump on a GPU purchase right now unless you are on a strict budget. These look like they will be full worth waiting for.

Published on October 6, 2006

Freedb.org in safe hands now…

Even if I shall no longer be actively associated with freedb, I shall continue casting a critical glance on freedb’s future. The decision in favour of MAGIX has given us a new prospect of further development, offered a congenial and comfortable atmosphere during difficult negotiations, and provided the newly implemented hardware with generous capacities.

It’s good to hear that Freedb is stable once again. It’s one service that many use but don’t even realize. If it were gone, it would no doubt make a huge impact. You can read the full letter published on the website.

Published on October 6, 2006

Pi to the 100,000th digit

Akira Haraguchi, 60, needed more than 16 hours to recite the number to 100,000 decimal places, breaking his personal best of 83,431 digits set in 1995, his office said Wednesday. He made the attempt at a public hall in Kisarazu, just east of Tokyo.

This sounds humorous, but it’s hard to laugh because it’s so freaking incredible. I can barely remember a peeps phone number, let alone Pi up to 100K digits. I have to wonder what his regular practice sessions were like… if any. Regardless, that’s one jaw dropping feat.

Published on October 6, 2006

Guild Wars Nightfall Debuts to Mass Acclaim

October 5, 2006 (BELLEVUE, WA) – With the October 27, 2006 release of Guild Wars Nightfall drawing close, nearly half a million players around the world got their first taste of one of the year’s most-anticipated games in last weekend’s World Preview Event. Players spent an average of 8.5 hours each over the course of the weekend, announced ArenaNet, developer of the award-winning Guild Wars franchise, amassing more than four million total hours of game play.

500,000 players and the average playtime is 8.5 hours? That’s one huge group of hardcore gamers if I’ve ever seen one! You can view the full release on the official site.

Published on October 6, 2006

Pre-orders for Dark Messiah now available

Dark Messiah Might and Magic, an action-RPG published by Ubisoft and developed by Arkane Studios, is powered by an enhanced version of the Source Engine, the award-winning game technology created by Valve for Half-Life 2 and its next generation games. Named most anticipated RPG of the year by leading publications around the world, Dark Messiah Might and Magic challenges players to ferocious single-player and multiplayer combat set in the Might and Magic universe, one of the gaming industry’s most successfully and longest-running fantasy game franchises.

So yes, jump on Steam and slap down $49.95 if you are interested. This game has huge potential, so I look forward to the release. It comes out later this month and you can expect our review shortly afterwards.

Published on October 6, 2006

Logitech announces first PS3 peripheral

Logitech today unveiled the Logitech ChillStream controller for PlayStation 3, the company’s first product designed specifically for Sony’s next-generation gaming platform. Logitech’s patented ChillStream technology includes a built-in 40 mm fan that circulates up to 3.41 cubic feet of air every minute, while generating very little noise.

This will retail for around $40.00, so it should prove somewhat competitive to Sonys official pads. It’s unknown whether this pad will have the motion sensor capabilities of the official controller, or even a rumble for that matter though. We shall find out soon enough…

Published on October 6, 2006

Review Roundup for October 6

    Memory & Storage
  • G.Skill F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ – Technic3D
  • OCZ Platinum 7200 EPP – Bjorn3D

    Displays & Video Cards
  • ATI R300: Open v. Closed Drivers – Phoronix
  • ATI TV Wonder 650 TV Tuner – Motherboards.org
  • RD790 and more 4 video cards together? – Madbox PC

    Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
  • 10 Reasons YouTube Can Survive and Prosper – Digital Trends
  • ATI dives into stream computing – Tech Report
  • Buying Cheap Laptops – DV Hardware
  • Kororaa 0.3 XGL + AIGLX LiveCD – Phoronix
  • Mystique 632 Halloween Giveaway – Neoseeker
  • RedPower In Dash Radio/DVD/CD/MP3 Player with 3.5″ TFT – Big Bruin
Published on October 6, 2006

Virus infected memory?

By coating 30-nanometre-long chunks of tobacco mosaic virus with platinum nanoparticles, it’s possible to create a transistor with very fast switching speed. Millions of these transistors could eventually be used in a memory chip to replace flash memory in mp3 players and digital cameras, for example.

This is a new spin on things… a virus pre-installed! The speed difference is evident though, so something like this may not be such a far stretch.

Published on October 5, 2006

Power and the NVIDIA "G80"

The marketing material included with the card claims NVIDIA requires at least a 450W power supply for a single GeForce 8800GTX, and 400W for the 8800GTS. Top tier vendors in Taiwan have already confirmed with DailyTech that GeForce 8800 cards in SLI mode will likely carry a power supply “recommendation” of 800W. NVIDIA’s GeForce 7950GX2, currently the company’s top performing video card, carries a recommendation of 400W to run the card in single-card mode.

There will be no more “wimpy” PSU’s if you wish to SLI a few 8800 cards… regardless of whether it’s the GTX or GTS. 800W for just the GPUs is hardcore, no matter which angle you look at it. In that instance, your -only- real choice for absolute safety would be a 1.1KW power supply. Ouch.

Published on October 5, 2006

HP employees charged with felony

While California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has been saying for a few weeks that he had enough evidence to indict HP’s former chairwoman Patricia Dunn, some had questioned if he ever would do so. That’s settled today as Lockyer filed felony charges against Dunn and four others, including HP’s senior lawyer Kevin Hunsaker and some of the investigators who took part in the spying process.

It looks as though none of the five employees involved are going to get off easy. Dunn herself faces up to six years in jail according to TechDirt. News.com has more info on recent happenings, and makes mention of the others facing up to 3 years. I’m not impressed by the spying, but this much jail time could be deemed a tad harsh.

Published on October 5, 2006

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