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HL2 Episode 2 Gameplay Movie #3
Valve just doesn’t want to stop! We posted #1 and #2 last night, but apparently that’s not enough to whet an appetite.
The third of five new gameplay movies from Half-Life® 2: Episode Two is now available. This cut of gameplay footage features vehicle-based fighting and some of the more open style of combat featured in EpTwo. Targeted for release in Q1 2007 on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, Half-Life 2: Episode Two will also include Team Fortress 2 and Portal.
As always, the video is in WMV HD format, and weighs in at 124MB.
Right-Click, Save As – 124MB
Interview with Magnatune Records
Magnatune is the non-evil record label who gives away 128 kbps mp3s of all their artist’s songs for free. You can then choose (or not) to purchase DRM-free higher quality versions at a price you set and they allow you to share their purchased songs with 3 friends. The label splits revenues 50/50 with their (carefully picked) signed artists, while these artists keep all of the rights to their music with a non-exclusive contract.
We need more of this! The site isn’t chock full of artists yet, but its well done. You can preview a CD prior to listening, and then purchase the album by download. If you, like me, would rather own the actual disc, you can do that also. You can even pay what you -want- for it… between $5 – $18. The reason? 50% goes straight back to the artist. Lets see this catch on!
Vista pricing finalized
Microsoft Corp. announced on Tuesday U.S. prices for Windows Vista, the long-awaited new version of the operating system that sits on more than 90 percent of the world’s personal computers. Microsoft, the world’s biggest software maker, also reconfirmed its plan to target a general launch of the product in January after making it available to large-volume business customers in November.
Not surprisingly, the leaked prices revealed last week by Amazon are right on the money. For the creme of the crop, Ultimate Edition will set you back $399. For the modest Home Premium, it’s an easier to stomach $239.
The Beautiful Chaos of 1,000 Trackmania Racers
This 3-minute video of 1,000 runs of the same Trackmania Sunrise road course, overlaid on each other, turns the game into a gorgeous picture of an ordered system tending toward chaos. The pack starts out in perfect shape and becomes a glorious mess by the end of the course. Plus, it’s just beautiful stuff.
This is far from being tech news, but this is some cool tech! I am unsure how this was accomplished, but the video includes a literal 1,000 cars driving throughout the same track at the same time. It turns out to be an enjoyable watch, so give it a look.
Vista is close… but no cigar
“RC1 is in the best shape of anything they have shipped for Vista, but in the old nomenclature I would call this at best a Beta Three and not a Release Candidate One,” said Mike Cherry, lead Windows analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a newsletter in Kirkland, Wash. “I am always skeptical of a plan that is so good that you know that you are only going to have a single release candidate and then get to golden or release quality code. Instead I think they will do a second release candidate at a minimum and finish up or release to manufacturing sometime in December.”
Even with the vast improvements over the past few months, it looks like Vista is just not meant to hit its January launch date. Surprising? No. It is quite hard to get excited for a buggy operating system at this point.
Top 100 games of the 21st Century
Next-Gen has ranked the top 100 PC games released since January 2000, based wholly on unit sales. Revenues, aggregate review scores, commentary, franchise information and more are included.
We are aware it’s not the end of the 21st Century yet, but no harm in getting a head start on things! This is a great list… and should take a good half-hour to read if you are going to skim it all. First place? The Sims of course. Half-Life 2 landed itself at 17 and Halo at 20.
Facebook Changes Provoke Uproar Among Users
Hundreds of protest ‘Groups’ formed, the largest of which have over 10,000 members, and sites like this student portal sprung up to pour scorn on the recent changes. The biggest gripe is the new “News Feed” on every page that tracks recent changes, activities, and comments made by everyone the user is connected to, such as a change in a users relationship status.
Is this a surprise? Facebook has got to be one of the worst social networking sites for things like this… though it’s even worse now. When will people realize that typing out your life on any website is not the smartest thing to do?
Intel Announces Restructuring
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 5, 2006 – Intel today announced plans for restructuring following an analysis of the company’s structure and efficiency. As a result of the restructuring, the company expects to generate savings in costs and operating expenses of approximately $2 billion in 2007. In 2008 the company expects savings from this restructuring to grow to approximately $3 billion annually.
You can read the complete press release right here.
Review Roundup for September 6
- Apack Zerotherm BTF80 Aluminum Heatpipe Intel/AMD Processor Cooler – TweakNews
- OCZ Tempest CPU Cooler – XS Reviews
Cooling
- Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB USB U3 Flash Drive – Overclockers Club
Memory & Storage
- ECS 945G-M3 Viiv – Viper Lair
Motherboards & Processors
- Anyreal DPF-8800 8-inch Digital Photo Frame – Think Computers
- be quiet! Straight Power (Quad Rail) 550 Watt PSU – TweakPC (German)
- CoolMax CUG-600B Green Power 600W – Big Bruin
- Razer Barracuda™ HP-1 8 Channel Gaming Headphones – Modders-Inc
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Diamond Viper X1600 PRO 512 MB – HardOCP
- NVIDIA Launches The GeForce 7950 GT & GeForce 7900 GS – techARP
Displays & Video Cards
- Apple MacPro Video Tour – Digital Trends
- ATI X1950XTX Event in Brazil – MadBoxPC (Spanish)
- “How to Protect Your Eyes While Gaming” – Laptop Gamers
- “Guide To Reinstalling Windows XP” – Digital Grabber
- Motherboard Tray Mod – Virtual-Hideout
- PDA & Handheld Computers Buying Guide – The TechZone
- “The Trials and Tribulations of Buying Your Term Papers Online” – Futurelooks
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Valve Releases two new EP2 Gameplay Videos
It feels like Valve is on a serious trailer rampage here, which is why they threw two new videos at us at once this time around.
The first of five new gameplay movies from Half-Life 2: Episode Two are now available. In addition to revealing some of the new locations featured in Episode Two, these movies also demonstrate some of the technical updates made to the Source Engine, such as the new particle system and soft shadowing effects. Half-Life 2: Episode Two is targeted for release in Q1 2007 for release on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and will include Team Fortress 2 and Portal.
It’s going to be difficult to wait until early next year for this one. It looks even more amazing with each new video! As always, these are in WMV HD format.
- Right-Click, Save As – 157MB
- Right-Click, Save As – 91.4MB
Google to Give Data To Brazilian Court
Google Inc., which refused in the past year to hand over user search data to U.S. authorities fighting children’s access to pornography, said yesterday that it was complying with a Brazilian court’s orders to turn over data that could help identify users accused of taking part in online communities that encourage racism, pedophilia and homophobia. The difference, it says, is scale and purpose.
It seems that Google really had no choice at all in this matter, but at least it’s a worthwhile case. The continual moral of the story is that you have no privacy online, so it’s best to use it with that mindset.
Upgrading to Vista? You may want to reconsider
While our upgrade experience was fairly good, we recommend that administrators opt instead for a clean install, teamed perhaps with Vista’s Windows Easy Transfer utility for carrying over files and settings from the previous install. Not only is a clean install much faster than an upgrade, our tests show, but the significant changes in how Windows Vista handles software installation bring the possibility of compatibility issues that might not be immediately apparent.
I have always thought this was common sense, but apparently not. Fresh install means a smooth running system. If after a fresh install you run into a problem, you can’t very well blame it on the fact of upgrading ;-)
Dell bumping up AMD usage to 50%
Market sources say that about 20 million Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processors will be used in Dell’s servers, desktop PCs and notebooks between the fourth quarter of 2006 and the fourth quarter of 2007. Dell will use four million AMD CPUs in its notebook line while sixteen million AMD CPUs will appear in Dell’s desktop and server products, according to the sources.
Well this answers the question as to whether Intel’s Conroe will or will not end AMD’s reign. I’ve always been a fan of choice, so I am glad to see Dell finally listening to the customers. No doubt the lawsuit had everything to do with this, but who cares. People are going to have -choice-!
E-mail spam getting craftier: Subliminal messages!
The spam contains an animated GIF with four frames. One of the frames (which contains the actual spam message) remains visible for 17 seconds. The other three frames are displayed for 10ms or 40ms, and each of those contains a little random noise and the word BUY in random positions.
This is actually quite hilarious because it’s far too easy to spot the ‘hidden text’. This may be due to a limitation in the GIF file format, I’m not sure. Good for a laugh at a petty attempt though.
New Wi-Fi Law in California
California legislators have passed a law which will force makers of wireless internet equipment to include guidance on keeping data secure on wireless connections. The law now awaits signature by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. From 1 October 2007, manufacturers must place warning labels on all equipment capable of receiving Wi-Fi signals, according to the new state law.
I’m impressed that there is a new law I actually agree with wholeheartedly. Though this isn’t important for geeks or anyone else out there reading this, it’s great for those who are not knowledgeable about PC’s or computer security in general. Bring it on!
The Return of The ATI Linux Blog
After a short break, the Phoronix Redblog is back and ready to roll! This comeback is due to the amount of messages received asking for the blog’s return and the overwhelming help users continue to request… Getting back on track with the ATI fglrx Linux content, since the 50-day trial ended on July 20 there have been two driver releases — 8.27.10 and 8.28.8. The fglrx 8.27.10 drivers had introduced X.Org v7.1 support, Radeon X1000 series TV-out support, Fedora Core packaging support, and a few small fixes…
It’s good to see this back up and action! You can see what it’s all about right here and subscribe to the RSS if you want to keep up to date.
Review Roundup for September 5
- Spire Pininfarina – TweakNews
Cases & Enclosures
- Corsair Dominator TWIN2X2048-8888C4DF – Hexus
- Western Digital 500GB – Computing On Demand
Memory & Storage
- GIGABYTE GA-965P-DQ6 – HardOCP
Motherboards & Processors
- Apevia BeastPower PFC680W-BL PSU – Think Computers
- Logitech MX Revolution – Hardware Info
- Razer Barracuda HP1 Gaming Headphones – Virtual-Hideout
- Sandisk Sansa E250 2GB MP3 Player – Xtreme Computing
- SteelPad QcK Heavy – techPowerUp!
- XTracPads Ripper XL – DragonSteelMods
Peripherals & Power Supplies
- Albatron 7300GT – Overclockers Online
- Albatron 7300GT – Red & Blackness
- ATi X1650 Pro and X1300 XT – MadBoxPC (Spanish)
- Galaxy 7300GT w/ Passive Cooling – Technic3D (German)
- Sparkle Calibre P790+ 512 MB SLI – Guru3D
- Viewsonic N3260w 32″ Widescreen HDTV – XYZ Computing
Displays & Video Cards
- “Building A KICKASS Gaming Rig Part 1 of 3” – 3D Gameman
- Dell XPS 700 – BIOS Magazine
- LG Fusic – Digital Trends
- SiSoftware Sandra 2007 Professional – techFEAR
- “Why It’s Difficult To Build PCs For The Less Tech Savvy” – Hardware3D
Complete Systems, Competitions & Etcetera
Steve Irwin killed
Crocodile Man, Steve Irwin, is dead. He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said. It appeared that he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest, Queensland Police Inspector Russell Rhodes said.
He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas where he had been filming an underwater documentary when it occurred. Ambulance officers confirmed they attended a reef fatality this morning at Batt Reef off Port Douglas.
Tech news it isn’t, but Steve was known the world over for his great documentaries. Who could count the amount of times you’ve heard someone mimic “Crikey!”. Sad day indeed.
PCI GPU’s not dead!
VisionTek has released the first PCI graphics card since the NVIDIA GeForce FX5200 and ATI Radeon 9250 was available in PCI. The new VisionTek Radeon X1300 256MB PCI provides users that lack AGP or PCI Express expansion capabilities with a new upgrade path. Based on the ATI Radeon X1300 graphics processor, the VisionTek Radeon X1300 256MB PCI features four pixel shaders and two vertex shaders. It also features a 450 MHz core and 533 MHz memory clock.
It’s great to see another PCI GPU being released, but the thing costs $129.99US! That’s rather expensive considering what it is. It has great TV/Video support though, so that will be it’s main selling feature… not gaming.
Things You Didn’t Know About… Death
The practice of burying the dead may date back 350,000 years, as evidenced by a 45-foot-deep pit in Atapuerca, Spain, filled with the fossils of 27 hominids of the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
What better way to start off the week than with a morbid top 20 list? “Zoroastrians in India leave out the bodies of the dead to be consumed by vultures.” Twisted stuff.
On a Mac? Which torrent program to use?
Sadly, the number of user-friendly, appealing BitTorrent clients available for the platform are very few in comparison to the number of those available for Windows. In this article we will highlight the most popular Mac BitTorrent applications and compare their features.
There are not many torrent programs to choose from for Linux either, but it’s good to see some quality ones for Mac. Azureus takes the crown, not surprisingly, though Tomato Torrent comes in a close second place.
Madden sells over 2M copies
It might be one of the most self-congratulatory press releases to come around these parts lately (PDF), but video game mega-publisher Electronic Arts apparently has some reason to shout and dump an ice-filled cooler of Gatorade all over itself: apparently Madden NFL 07 sold more than two million copies during its first week of release, the best first-week performance in the game franchise’s 17-year history.
For a sports title, this is incredible! 2,000,000! Kudos to EA for that one. In related news, stay tuned to our review of the game happening next week.
Pictures that lie?
The photo on the right isn’t exactly what it appears to be–nor are the other images that follow in this photo gallery. All were manipulated beyond straightforward cropping of edges or lightening shaded areas. Often they have a key element inserted or deleted.
Here is some good material to enjoy over your morning coffee/tea/beer. 24 pictures are displayed that have been doctored since they were originally taken. It just proves how easy it is to be fooled!
FairUse4WM Cracks Windows Media DRM
Only days after Microsoft patched the FairUse4WM DRM hack, the creators of the program have released an update that once again breaks the restrictions on protected WMA and WMV files. The utility works by stripping the DRM information from protected windows media files allowing users to freely manipulate the files and play them back as they see fit.
Great. Fantastic. Awesome. That’s all I can say about this since I despise DRM. Though, I have to wonder who actually still use WMA’s? Regardless, it’s good to see such a tool around. Not to thwart Microsoft, but DRM in general has got to go.
Browzar not all it’s cracked up to be
The application Browzar has been branded “adware” by many because it directs web searches to online adverts. Some technical experts also say Browzar, which claims to leave no trail of webpages visited, does not work. Browzar’s developers say they are examining the feedback but strongly deny that it is adware.
This is not how I would personally define ‘spyware’ or ‘adware’, but it’s shady regardless. Before you consider downloading it, you should read this article to see why people are up in arms.