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Test Your Accessories and Hotwire a PSU In Five Steps
Do you need to test your accessories but your worried what that water cooling system or TEC cooler may do once inside your case? Test it outside your case in 5 simple steps using our guide an a spare power supply and save yourself and your system needless problems by checking out that accessory first.
Finally… a hotwire you won’t get in trouble for! This is all relatively simple information, but a good primer if you’ve never "hotwired" a power supply before.
Source: Techware Labs
OCZ Unveils PC2-9200 Reaper HPC Series
Sunnyvale, CA—April 3, 2007—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced a high-speed version of the new OCZ Reaper HPC memory line, a PC2-9200 rated kit, making it the world’s fastest memory that takes advantages of the heatpipe design to effectively offload heat and increase performance and stability. This unique Reaper HPC (Heat Pipe Conduit) heatspreader is engineered to deliver superior silent heat dissipation over traditional heatspreaders.
Source: OCZ Press Release
The MySpace Presidential Race
To be honest, I’m not sure which part of this article disturbs me the most, suffice it to say, it makes me want to run screaming.
MySpace has more registered members than Mexico has people. If it was a country it would be the eleventh largest in the world. So while it may be a major marketing event for MySpace to say it’s holding a presidential primary next January, you can be sure the candidates will take it seriously.
The MySpace primary will be held on January 1 & 2, 2008, before any of the official state primaries. Every user will be asked to vote for their favorite candidate.
Most of the candidates already have MySpace pages. See, for example, Hillary Clinton (7,468 friends), John Edwards (16,921 friends), Rudy Guiliani (private profile), John McCain (3,596 friends) and Barack Obama (89,465 friends). See all of the candidates here.
Source: TechCrunch
MyCyberTwin from an Evil Parallel Universe
People can spend most of their time online, but it is very difficult to spend all of it there. Sometimes people have to work, go to school, or eat. Or sleep. And who will be there to chat with everyone while you are away? Until now there was no answer for this difficult problem. Now, there is MyCyberTwin.
The company, which is based in Australia, creates an online “clone†of users based on a 79 question personality quiz and hundreds of additional training questions. Once it’s complete, a chat bot is created for that user, which has it’s own web page, can be embedded into MySpace or another website, or can log into Microsoft Messenger on your behalf and pretend to be you.
No it doesn’t come with a goatee and a sash.
Source: TechCrunch
Contest 4 Now Underway
We’ve posted our final 2nd Birthday contest, this time sponsored by ASUS. Up for grabs is either a Commando or Crosshair motherboard, but part of the RoG family. What do you need to do to win? Here is an excerpt:
We want your dirty laundry for this one. The contest is simple, because just about everyone has been in this situation at one time or another. The task is an easy one — write 200 – 500 words describing your experiences with a tech product that you purchased and wound up hating. Whether it was a product that simply didn’t work, worked poorly or burst into flames, we want to hear about it.
That’s all it takes! Good luck to all who enter.
Source: Contest Page
Blu-ray Disc Specification Change Threatens Current Players
The Blu-ray Disc Association has mandated that all players of the format released after October 31 must adhere to a specific feature set that is currently not standard for today’s hardware. All Blu-ray Disc players after the fall date must support BD Java, a programming language for Blu-ray Disc media used mainly to deliver picture-in-picture for in-movie commentary and special features.
It appears that this will only hurt those who own players without upgradeable firmware. It’s strange why this wasn’t taken care of a long time ago though, since HD-DVD had their act together from the start.
Source: Daily Tech
Apple TV Now Running Full-blown OSX
A devoted Apple hacker named “semthex” has apparently created a modified OSX kernel and released it to the public. The truly amazing news is that the modified kernel is being distributed under the terms of Apple’s own Apple Public Source License, with source code to follow.
This doesn’t appear to be a simple process, but it sounds like a fun project regardless. It should only be a matter of time before we see Windows and Linux running off it as well.
Source: Daily Tech
Designers Work to Rescue a Dying Art Form — the Album Cover
The album cover — once a crucial part of any band’s identity — has been dying a slow death for decades. For the most part, music fans put up with the shrinkage of album art from expansive vinyl records to hand-size plastic jewel cases. But with the music experience moving almost exclusively online, album art has suffered another compression — this time all the way down to thumbnail images.
It’s true.. the album cover seems to be dying. It’s hard to find a cool looking CD in the store, but they are still out there… somewhere. The article points to the idea of digital covers, but I’d rather see covers that require a thought process and talent before I look at some digital animation.
Source: Wired
5 Ways Best Buy Ruined Geek Squad
Very few Geek Squad Agents have extensive computer knowledge before they are hired. Many Agents are hired simply because the hiring manager liked their personality. What little training we have we get from watching our fellow Agents work or from studying on our own. Geek Squad provides some great training material, but Best Buy makes sure the Agents never have time to read it.
If you like to dislike Best Buy as much as I do, this is great way to add fuel to the fire.
Source: Consumerist
Google Mail Infinity + 1
Greg Tomkins, an engineer at Google, is credited with coming up with the “infinity plus one” idea. “I was out in the yard when my kids ran up to me yelling at each other. My son said to my daughter, ‘I hate you to infinity.’ She replied, ‘I hate you to infinity plus one.’ And right then I knew I had the solution to competing with unlimited storage,” said Tomkins.
Yes, this is all in the name of humor. Who needs more than 3GB of space that GMail already offers though? Seriously.
Source: BB Spot
JO’s Investigation of the Pirate Bay Raid Is Done
a total of 186 servers were confiscated from PRQ’s server rooms. This led to that a big number of companies and a lot of small and large websites lost their servers and in many cases their primary livelihood. Both the police and the prosecutor were charged for official misconduct, but none of the charges led to an investigation. The judge came to the conclusion that during the circumstances it was justified to confiscate all of the servers.
Imagine your server was in the same room as the Pirate Bay, and it was confiscated for a week or more for no reason. That’s what the article touches on… and it’s sad to those who suffered that fate. It’s hard to believe no charges are being laid.
Source: Nordic Hardware
Compiz and Beryl Merger
It isn’t official yet, but Compiz and Beryl are merging. For the last few weeks I have been following the mailing list discussions on this topic. A lot of the work has been started. It is sort of unofficially announced, so I feel now is as good a time as any to comment.
There is a lot of skepticism floating around this potential merger, and for good reason. This article explains a lot of the authors thoughts and it’s hard to disagree with him. While I don’t believe a 3D desktop is important to Linux at all, it would be nice to see something come together that blows every other OS GUI out of the water visually.
Source: Linux Tech Daily
15 Of The Worst Videogame Box Covers
Considering how the whole purpose of those covers was to convince us that the game inside was the most awesomest thing in the history of ever, it’s a little weird that so many of them looked about as exciting and radical as a pile of crap with a hair in it. We thought we’d take a little romp through history and share a few of our favorites.
1UP has been posting some great “roundups” lately and this one is no exception. My personal favorite is the Ghost House game for the Master System, which actually shows a picture of a hand holding the cartridge.
Source: 1UP
Google In Bidding To Buy DoubleClick
Google has thrown its hat into the ring against Microsoft and (reportedly) Yahoo and AOL. Most of the stories quote a Wall Street Journal piece that is only available to subscribers. Google’s entry into the bidding may boost the price for the remaining pieces of DoubleClick (parts of the company having already been sold off) to $2 billion, twice what its current owners paid for the whole thing.
I am shocked that Google wants to own more of the ad market! (Sarcasm in case I was too subtle).
Source: Slashdot
MPAA Names Top 25 Movie Sharing Universities
The MPAA may be gearing up for an RIAA-inspired assault on US colleges and universities. Last week the group announced its support for the “Curb Illegal Downloading on College Campuses Act (2007),” and MPAA head Dan Glickman said that his organization would work with school administrators to put an end to movie piracy on campuses, which Glickman says costs the industry $500 million annually.
If this is a competition, Columbia University in NY has the demanding lead. I am not sure how useful these lists are though. It seems that the largest Universities rank higher and vice versa.
Source: Ars Technica
Steve Jobs Announces (some) DRM-free iTunes
Steve Jobs just announced that starting next month on you can buy higher quality 256Kbps AAC encoded DRM-free versions of iTunes songs for $1.29. Upgrades to songs you’ve already bought will be available at the $0.30 price difference. Currently EMI is the only publisher participating, accounting for about 20% of the songs available.
It figures there would be a pricing difference. Still, it’s a good choice for single tracks, but a total waste of money for a complete album. You could purchase the album, rip at a higher bit rate, and it cost less. Not surprisingly, this deal excludes anything from The Beatles.
Source: Slashdot
Seagate Working On 10K RPM Drives?
Seagate is readying a 10.000rpm hard drive to compete directly with Western Digital Raptor hard drives, they feel that the demand for this disks for the desktop market is big enough and that also the cost of producing such a hard drive is low enough.
Though it could be considered a rumor right now, it does seem like a natural progression. I am interested to see if we will see larger densities than what Western Digital offers right now.
Source: Chile Hardware
EMI to Announce DRM-Free Music?
EMI will announce on Monday that it will be freeing much of its catalog from the shackles of DRM. The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the matter,” reports (sub. required) that Apple CEO Steve Jobs will be present at the announcement in London and that the music will be sold through the iTunes Store and possibly other online outlets.
At first this would seem to be a cruel April fools joke, but it’s been confirmed by the Wall Street Journal. This is an incredible decision on EMIs part. We can only hope that this will set an example and other companies will follow suit…
Source: Ars Technica
Xbox 360 Elite HDMI Output Details Revealed
HDMI audio output remains crippled with the Xbox 360 Elite. The Xbox 360 Elite, even when connected to HDMI will not output uncompressed multi-channel audio. Xbox 360 HD DVD users hoping to enjoy the full glory of lossless HD DVD audio formats via HDMI should look elsewhere.
It’s hard to tell whether or not this was an early April Fools joke, but it wouldn’t be much of a good one so I am leaning towards no. I am not sure how tempting an HDMI Xbox is going to be if it doesn’t deliver lossless audio. It might not matter to most, but the console is selling for a premium, so why wouldn’t they adopt a newer standard?
Source: Daily Tech
PlayStation 3 To Emulate Xbox 360
Following Sony’s decision to replace the PS2 emulator chip on European PS3 units with software emulation, a leaked memo to Phil Harrington (President, Sony Worldwide Studios) has revealed plans to emulate competing console units.
This is an interesting prospect. I’m still not sure I’d want to trust emulation of this scale on any console, but it would be cool to see regardless.
Source: AcceleNation
Don’t Buy an HDTV Without Reading This First
Navigating the minefield in consumer electronics is a confusing proposition even for the seasoned gadget geeks so I created this survival guide to help you make a wise decision. I’ll explain the various types of HDTVs as well as cabling and testing the color depth of your display.
If you are in the market for an HDTV, this is a great primer to read through. Lots of info packed into a single page.
Source: ZDNet Blogs
Beat the Office 2007 Blues
MS screwed up really badly with Office 2007, it forced a pointless UI on users without the usual option to use the older one. Why? Damn good question, and I have no clue as to the answer. More importantly, they put in a pointless new file format to lock out competition. This one means headaches for anyone using the new suite.
I don’t agree with all of the comments made here because I personally like the new look of Office 2007. I do agree wholeheartedly that the new file format is a pain. I’ve only used it a few times but have run into bizarre issues each time. It doesn’t help that you can’t share the files unless your friend/business partner has Office 2007 as well.
Source: The Inquirer
Power From The Air?
How much money could you make from a technology that replaces electrical wires? A startup called Powercast, along with the more than 100 companies that have inked agreements with it, is about to start finding out. Powercast and its first major partner, electronics giant Philips, are set to launch their first device powered by electricity broadcast through the air.
This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. Small electronics are the the ones in question though. Imagine -never- having to recharge your cell phone. This was posted a few days ago, so it’s not an April Fools.
Source: CNN Money
PC Makers to Microsoft: “Vista Is Not a Seller. You Suck”
This may feel like Groundhog Day for you and Steve Ballmer, but according to computer and component manufacturers, Vista is not the hotcake that they were hoping for. The not-so-shiny-shiny-anymore OS is not helping sales at all and some companies may end with a whole bunch of unsold stuff in their warehouses.
This is a tough situation. I am vocal about not being a fan of Vista, as I run into bizarre issues every time I use it. Apparently, I am not the only one, if people are deliberately trying to avoid it.
Source: Gizmodo
Yet Another Novell Linux Ad
We posted a few weeks ago about a few Novell “I Love Mac” spoof ads… which were actually quite humorous. Well, there is another. Although this is a culmination of poor acting, it gets the point across.
Source: YouTube