- Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 Mobile Platform
- AMD Launches Ryzen PRO 7000 Series Mobile & Desktop Platform
- Intel Launches Sleek Single-Slot Arc Pro A60 Workstation Graphics Card
- NVIDIA Announces Latest Ada Lovelace Additions: GeForce RTX 4060 Ti & RTX 4060
- Maxon Redshift With AMD Radeon GPU Rendering Support Now Available
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Women share game industry advice
The day started with a keynote address by Bonnie Ross, director of production for Microsoft Games Studio publishing. She addressed the issue of some of the differences she’d seen over the years in how men and women deal with the fragile work/life balance, something that has come to the forefront of industry human resources issues recently, especially after well-publicized complaints and lawsuits by employees of Electronic Arts.
This is great a good read to see a womans perspective on things. I agree with most of it also, which is a rarity. Great stuff.
Water-Cooled Football players
It is really just water cooled football players. The system, which can cool up to 12 players at a time, will flow chilled goodness through the pads of the football players. See, football isn’t that barbaric, they have some pretty sweet tech, too.
Hmm, I think I could use something like this while I am benchmarking!
DVDs to get chipped?
DVDs will soon be tracked with embedded radio transmitter chips to prevent copying and piracy, according to the company which makes movie discs for Warner, Disney, Fox and other major studios. The technology, which can also be used for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs, will allow movie studios to remotely track individual discs as they travel from factories to retail shelves to consumers’ homes.
This is probably only be beginning of whats to come. If they can RFID commercial DVD’s, then you can bet blank media is on the agenda.
Review Roundup for September 18
- Cooler Master Mystique 632 – Overclockers Online
- Genius Navigator 535 Agama – Cooling-Station
- Raidmax Smilodon – 3D Gameman
- Sena Treo650 Lateral Case – Gideon Tech
- Thermaltake Mozart TX VE1000SWA – TweakNews
Cases & Enclosures
- Asetek WaterChill Complete WaterCooling Kit – Virtual-Hideout
- Coolermaster X Dream P775 Cooler – Technic3D
- Dangerden Watercooling – DNR Hardware
- Evercool VC-RG Geforce 6800 & 7800 VGA Cooler – Xtreme Computing
- Titan Amanda TEC Cooler – Think Computers
Cooling
- Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF – HotHardware
- Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF – Legit Reviews
- Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-5300 2GB – InsaneTek
- OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 2GB Special Ops Urban Elite – Think Computers
- Seagate 500gb eSATA External Hard Drive – ClubOC
- Seagate Barracuda ES 750GB Hard Drive – XYZ Computing
Memory & Storage
- ASRock 775Dual-VSTA & AM2V890-VSTA – Phoronix
- Foxconn and Gigabyte: Opposite ends of the Intel P965 mobo spectrum – Tech Report
- Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H – HardCoreWare
Motherboards & Processors
- Corepad Magna – BurnoutPC
- Enermax Galaxy 850W EGA850EWL – Bjorn3D
- Internet Multimedia Super-Slim Keyboard – Think Computers
- OCZ GameXStream 700w ATX PSU – Overclock3D
- Sennheiser HD 201 – DV Hardware
- SteelPad QcK+ – techFEAR
- Ultra Cable Sleeving Kit – Modders-Inc
- USB Web Camera with Telescope – DragonSteelMods
- Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter – Think Computers
- Zboard Merc Keyboard – Red & Blackness
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- CrossFire and SLI dongle-less/bridgeless performance analysis – Hexus
- GeForce 7950 GT: Point-of-View versus XFX – Hardware Info
Displays & Video Cards
- Back to School Party Room Guide – Futurelooks
- Giveaway: Cooler Master Elite 330 – Overclockers Online
- Fedora Core 6 Test 3 – Phoronix
- “Kinc reaches 16,000 points with 3DMark06” – Nordic Hardware
- Toshiba Satellite Pro P100 – DV Hardware
- Webcam Buyer’s Guide – The Tech Zone
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
FVWM-Crystal 3.0.4
FVWM-Crystal is an eye-candy, functional and ultra-fast desktop environment for GNU/Linux, based on FVWM. Crystal can be used even on very old machines, thus it is a noticeable alternative to popular desktop choices like XFCE or Fluxbox.
So yes, this only applies to a small amount of of viewers. But this is a great looking window manager for Linux. After reading through this article, I gave it a try and was impressed. It’s still not my cup of tea compared to KDE, but it’s a good competitor to the other minimal DE’s out there.
Rob Levin, lilo of FreeNode, Passes
The founder of the ultra-popular Freenode IRC network was struck by a car on the 12th and fell into a coma. He passed early yesterday at his local hospital. Sadly, the person driving the vehicle is nowhere to be found. You can read numerous comments and additional information over at Slashdot. We at Techgage give our deepest thoughts to his family in this difficult time.
25 Worst Websites
People say hindsight is 20/20. When it comes to the Web, hindsight is more like X-ray vision: In retrospect, it’s easy to see what was wrong with dot coms that tried to make a business out of giving stuff away for free (but making it up later in volume), or to make fun of venture capitalists who handed millions to budding Web titans who had never run a lemonade stand before, let alone an enterprise.
Luckily, we did not make the list this time around. MySpace, BonziBuddy and Hampsterdance did though.
Top Ten Requests for Future iPod Games
For the 5th+ iPod generation Apple has just introduced downloadable games and so far they offer 9 games for $4.99 each. Looking back in the classic era of computer gaming we remember some real gems that would fit right into the “keep it simple stupid” philosophy of the iPod. So, let’s have some fun and suggest 10 classic games that would specifically work well with the iPod scroll wheel interface.
On the list is Bomberman, Luner Lander and even Neverball. Quite a solid list, but I still couldn’t picture myself playing these in an iPod.
Is open source getting to Microsoft?
Microsoft’s decision to not enforce patents on Web services standards underscores the growing acceptance of core open-source tenets. The software giant on Tuesday published the Microsoft Open Specification Promise, a document that says that Microsoft will not sue anyone who creates software based on Web services technology, a set of standardized communication protocols designed by Microsoft and other vendors.
Open source has definitely affected Microsoft, but I highly doubt it will ever get the better of them. It’s reassuring to know that they don’t intend to sue people for writing software based off web services… this should prove a win/win in the end.
Vista to Create 50,000 Jobs in Europe
A Microsoft-sponsored study found that Vista will be a boon to European economy, as it ‘will create more than 50,000 technology jobs in six large European countries and will lead to a flood of economic benefits for companies there,’ News.com reports. Europe will see a total of 1.2 mln paychecks thanks to the new operating system.
Though I am not one to immediately buy into Microsoft-based studies, this would prove incredible, really. Maybe there is some good to Vista after all.
Payday suck? Reprogram the ATM!
Police are looking for a man who broke the bank – literally.
Last month, a man reprogrammed an automated teller machine at a gas station on Lynnhaven Parkway to spit out four times as much money as it should.
It took a full nine days before someone actually noticed… or at least “admitted” to seeing it happening. You have to wonder how many others benefited off this but kept quiet.
Firefox and Thunderbird updated
Here are the specific fixes for Firefox… rather small:
- Fix for a potential buffer overflow vulnerability when loading a hostname with all soft-hyphens
- Fix to prevent URLs passed from external programs from being parsed by the shell (Linux only)
- Fix to prevent a crash when loading a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) script that uses an “eval” statement
- Fix to restore InstallTrigger.getVersion() for Extension authors
- Other stability and security fixes
It’s highly recommended to upgrade, and you may already be up to date if you are using a version not handled by your OS. You can read the notes and information here.
8 year old teaches others how to game
The brown-eyed second grader, Victor De Leon III, has been tutoring gaming greenhorns in Halo 2, an Xbox game in which the player fights to save Earth from destruction, for $25 an hour. That’s a ton of money, considering most of his peers have no income beyond their tooth-fairy stash.
Who’s kidding who here? $25 per hour is a lot for most anyone… let alone an $8 year old! This kid has quite the future ahead it seems.
The mismatched ‘Mythbusters’
Each week, Messrs. Hyneman and Savage conduct experiments to determine whether a given myth can be busted, confirmed, or deemed plausible. Viewers around the world now sleep soundly, knowing a rolling stone does gather moss but can’t grow it, air resistance prevents a penny thrown from the Empire State Building from becoming a deadly weapon, and, yes, water will stop a bullet.
If you love this show as much as I do, check out this article. It’s interesting that Hyneman never enjoyed talking in front of the camera at all, but that seems kind of apparent as he’s not exactly a chatterbox now. Good read.
Chineses computers to decide death sentences?
The Chinese government is not happy with how easily corrupted its judges are, and so it is reducing their power a little bit – crimes will now be fed into a computer which will determine a ‘fair punishment.’ This includes putting someone to death.
It’s nuts that the legal system anywhere has become so corrupted that computers need to be queried for such information. Doesn’t sound that safe to me… computers err just like humans in decision making!
Intel Announces Serial Flash Memory Availability
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 14, 2006 – Intel Corporation today announced that Intel® Serial Flash Memory (S33) products are shipping to meet the memory requirements of a range of applications, including digital TVs, DVDs, PCs, modems and printers. Intel’s serial flash is based on an industry-standard package, pin-out and command set to simplify board design and save board space.
You can read the full press release here.
Majesco makes debut on Steam
EDISON, NJ, September 14, 2006 – Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of digital entertainment products and content, and Valve, creators of the Steam broadband gaming platform, announced an agreement to deliver Majesco’s PC games via Steam. Beginning today, BloodRayne 1 & 2 and Advent Rising are available for download, while the critically acclaimed title, Psychonauts, from Double Fine Productions, will be offered in early October.
I’m not a massive fan of Steam overall, but it’s great to see some wicked support. The prices for these games are not too shabby either, so check em out!
Review Roundup for September 15
- NZXT Apollo – Phoronix
- Spire Pininfarina – Overclockers Online
Cases & Enclosures
- Titan Amanda TEC Cooler – Think Computers
- Zalman Reserator 1 Plus WaterCooling – Virtual-HIdeout
Cooling
- OCZ Secure Digital Dual- USB and SD in One Memory Card – XYZ Computing
- OCZ Ultra-Slim Mini-Kart USB 2.0 Flash Drive – ModTheBox
- Super Talent 2.5″ Flash IDE 8GB Solid State Drive – PC Stats
Memory & Storage
- A4 Tech X-750F Laser Mouse – GameApex
- Auzentech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS Connect Sound Card – Big Bruin
- NMediaPC Mute Power MP-400 Power Supply – ModTheBox
- QPAD|CT Gaming Surface – techPowerUp!
- Sennheiser PMX 70 – DV Hardware
- Vantec IDE to USB Adapter – OC Mod Shop
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- D3DGear V.1.66 (Software) – 3D Chip
- GeForce 7950 GT 512MB Shootout – Guru3D
- NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT – Hardware Info
- NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT – Hexus
- NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT – Tech Report
- NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT – Technic3D
- XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme – HotHardware
- XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme – Legit Reviews
- XFX GeForce 7950 GT 570M Extreme – Motherboards.org
- XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT – Bjorn3D
- XFX GeForce 7950 GT XT – Neoseekers
Displays & Video Cards
- High End Digital Camera Buyer’s Guide – Digital Grabber
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Office 2007 beta 2 refresh today
Microsoft will release a Technical Refresh build (4407.1005) for Office 2007 Beta 2 today. The UI is at lockdown after about 1000 changes to the ribbon and a new silver scheme. Anything after this will be bug fixes. B2TR is compatible with Windows Vista RC1 and comes in 5 languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese.
Pricing for the retail versions are also listed, being $399 for the standard and $679 for the full-blown Ultimate. Expensive, but I have to admit Office 2007 is one application that has recently impressed me. Whatever Microsoft is doing wrong with Vista, they seem to be doing right with Office.
Wii to launch Nov. 19
According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nintendo is going to announce today that the Wii will go on sale on November 19th in North and South America, at a cost of $250. It will come bundled with Wii Sports and channels for such things as viewing photos, as well as news and weather.
Sounds like a great deal for $250! I can’t wait for this one…
Earthlink to receive $11 Million from Nevada mass-spammer
A Nevada bulk email firm has been ordered to pay Earthlink $11m for spamming the ISP’s customers. Earthlink won the judgment in a CAN-SPAM suit filed in a federal court in Atlanta against KSTM LLC. Time for a CANned quote from Larry Slovensky, Assistant General Counsel for EarthLink: “This judgment should be fair warning that if you spam, we will sue.” Go get ’em, guys!
Well, I didn’t have to wait too long for another owned spammer story. Still, even as crazy as $11M sounds… it’s a wonder how much this actually hurts the spammers. Would be interesting to look inside those pocketbooks.
Google and Intuit team up
In a move that seems like a win-win for both companies, Google and Intuit are partnering to give small business owners the ability to create AdWords ad campaigns, get their businesses listed on Google Maps, and selling products via Google Base. Under the terms of a deal announced today, small businesses buying QuickBooks 2007 will have access to a number Google features from within the software.
What’s to come actually sounds pretty good. All of it is a bonus if you are a Quickbooks user to begin with, and enjoy upgrading to the latest software each year. Too bad it also comes with Google Desktop… who really needs that for a business?
IBM uses Cell in servers
Today IBM announced a new line of high-powered QS20 Blade Servers intended for use in seismic research, encryption, digital image rendering and military surveillance applications. Each QS20 will include two nine-cored Cell Processors clocked at 3.2Ghz apiece, which were developed by IBM along with Sony and Toshiba for Sony’s upcoming Playstation 3 console, among other things.
The primary uses that come to mind are medical or hardcore multi-media rendering, so it’s not for those without deep pockets. According to the article, each Cell CPU has 9 cores. 18 cores for a server sounds good!
Microsoft won case against Hotmail spammer
Paul Fox, whose e-mail messages were intended to direct traffic toward his pornographic download site, was this week forced by a court order to pay Microsoft 45,000 pounds, or $84,177, for breaching the terms and conditions of its free Hotmail service. Those terms explicitly prohibit the delivery of spam to its customers.
I cannot get enough of these stories! $84K may be pennies to Microsoft, but that no doubt sets the spammer back quite a bit. Even with all of the spammer cases seen lately, I personally haven’t seen a decline to my inbox of any sort. So, we need more of this… a lot more.
Calif. AG to file charges against HP
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer may file criminal charges within a week in its investigation of tactics used by Hewlett-Packard in an inquiry into boardroom leaks, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
Yet again, not a surprise, but this could hit HP where it hurts. This won’t only affect people on the board, but also the hired contractors. Grab the popcorn, this will get interesting.