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Misc Pics (21 Comments) (link)  Friday, 25-July-2014  14:18:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg Thanks to mpot and TonyR this week! Friday Afternoon (3 Comments) (link)  Friday, 25-July-2014  13:12:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg iiNet have a blog post outlining their opposition to Mandatory Data Retention. At the end of this month, iiNet will front a Senate Committee reviewing telecommunications laws concerning interception and access to communications data or metadata, which could include introducing mandatory surveillance and data retention on the communications activities of the entire Australian population. Our statement to the Committee is summarised, in part below. Coverage here and here. TomsHardware have a list of PSU Brands vs Manufacturers. Do you think that all power supplies are manufactured by the brand on the label? Think again. We show what makes a good PSU and reveal who builds them. You can actually find lots of quality (instead of just scrap metal) behind some of the budget labels. EA are giving away The Sims 2 on Origin, along with all 18 expansions. Ultimate Collection includes the base Sims 2 game along with "every single The Sims 2 expansion pack and stuff pack." The list of content that entails, as a result, is comically long: There have been eight expansion packs (which add new functionality and major features) and ten stuff packs (which, as you might guess, contain various stuff--primarily clothing and furniture) released since The Sims 2's launch in 2004. Discussion here. Techspot wonder if virtual desktops & GPU acceleration are the future of computing. While we've long moved away from the early days of the mainframe and thin clients, there are some areas of computing where we're seeing a push back to similar architectures. We'll take a look at some of the more common advantages and disadvantages of virtual desktops, offer our general impressions on using them, and make some educated guesses as to whether virtual desktops truly are the future of computing or if they will likely remain a niche technology. Telstra will be turning off 2G in 2016, with more info here. Telstra will close down its 2G network before the end of 2016, and is expected to reuse the spectrum for 4G technology once the network's existing customers are migrated onto 3G and 4G. In a blog post titled "It's time to say goodbye old friend", Telstra's group managing director of networks Mike Wright said the 2G GSM network had been in place for more than 20 years and had been surpassed by newer technologies. Microsoft have a new video explaining Quantum Computing. An introduction to the mind-bending world of quantum computing. Friday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 25-July-2014  12:31:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: ASUS Z97-PRO Motherboard on HWSecrets. MSI Z97 MPOWER MAX AC (LGA 1150) on eTeknix. ASUS Z97I-PLUS mini-ITX on Techgage. ASUS Maximus VII Formula on OCAholic. Intel Pentium Anniversary Edition & OC Guide on TechSpot. Core i7-4790K "Devil's Canyon" overclocking revisited on TechReport. MSI A88X-G45 Gaming Assassin's Creed Edition on PCPerspective. Gigabyte Z97-D3H Motherboard on Modders-Inc. ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer Motherboard on ThinkComputers. Storage: SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD on Vortez. Western Digital Red 6TB and Red Pro 4TB on PCPerspective. Seagate Desktop 4TB, 5TB and 6TB HDDs RAID Report on Tweaktown. SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD (480GB) on HWHeaven. Thecus N2520 2-Bay NAS on eTeknix. Crucial MX100 256GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix. Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Enterprise SSD on LegitReviews. Corsair Voyager Air 2 1TB Mobile Storage Device on Tweaktown. Cooling: CRYORIG C1 Top-Down CPU Cooler on NikKTech. NZXT Kraken X31-X41-X61 AIO Water Cooler Roundup on PureOC. Audio Visual: NEC MultiSync EA244UHD 24-Inch 4K Monitor on HotHardware. CM Storm Resonar headset on Vortez. Video Cards: Sapphire Radeon R9 290 Vapor-X 4 GB on TechPowerUp. Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 3GB OC on LegitReviews. HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost 2GB OC on Tweaktown. Gigabyte GeForce GTX Titan Black WindForce on Guru3D. GeForce GTX 660 Ti vs. GTX 750 Ti on OCAholic. Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Vapor-X OC on Tweaktown. Cases: DeepCool STEAM CASTLE on Vortez. BitFenix Neos Mid-Tower on eTeknix. Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower on ThinkComputers. Raidmax Scorpio V on OCClub. Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid Tower on NeoSeeker. Deepcool Steam Castle on OCAholic. Misc: Tt eSports Poseidon Z Mechanical Keyboard on TechWareLabs. Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro Ultrabook on Tweaktown. H. R. Giger Tribute PC (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 23-July-2014  21:13:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg Here's an amazing mod from MNPCTech, a tribute to H. R. Giger who passed away in May 2014: click for the thread! GIGABYTE Contests (1 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 23-July-2014  16:11:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg GIGABYTE have posted the results of their recent CATZILLA OC contest. GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced the winners of the GIGABYTE CATZILLA OC Contest hosted on HWBOT.org. With $1,000 and two GIGABYTE Z97 series motherboards up for grabs, the GIGABYTE CATZILLA OC Contest invited the overclocking community to push their hardware to the limit by running the custom made CATZILLA benchmark skin on their GIGABYTE 9 Series motherboard. Meanwhile there's another contest here in our Forums, where you can win a motherboard or some mystery prizes. Each benchmark will award 10 points to the highest score, 8 to the second, 6 to the third, 4 to the fourth and 2 to the fifth. Prize 1 will go to the top scoring individual, with additional prizes going to a prize draw for any individual who submits scores in all 3 benchmarks. click for the thread! Wednesday Afternoon (4 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 23-July-2014  15:06:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg This Friday is SysAdmin Day, when System Administrators hopefully get appreciated for what they do behind the scenes. System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay, SAD or SAAD, is an annual event created by system administrator Ted Kekatos. The event exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrated on the last Friday in July. After teaching the rest of the world how a viral marketing campaign should be done, Weird Al Yankovic is now #1 in the charts for the first time in his career. The exposure Yankovic earned via mobile and social networks leaped an astounding 3,391% between the weeks of July 7-13 and July 14-20.According to Kontera, the Amobee Brand measurement company for web analytics, Yankovic’s video exposure in that period obliterated not just Mraz’s, but that of every other major music star. His closest competition, Beyonce, had roughly half as much exposure as the satirist. Discussion continues here. Copyright infringing households in the UK will now get warnings and nothing else, thanks to new laws. From the beginning of 2015, up to four warnings will be sent annually to individuals suspected of online piracy, although if these warnings are ignored no further action will be taken. The scheme is called Creative Content UK (previously known as the 'voluntary copyright alert programme' or Vcap) and is a significant step back from plans outlined in the Digital Economy Act 2010, which would have seen persistent pirates have their internet access cut. On a related note, |Renegade| spotted some 8TB HDDs from Seagate, with 10TB on the way. Seagate, after hinting in May that it would release 8TB and 10TB hard drives in the next 12 months, has started delivering early samples of its 8TB hard drive to “major customers” (i.e. enterprise customers). Curiously, while Western Digital hit 6TB last year by filling its drives with helium, Seagate appears to be pushing the 3.5-inch spinning disk storage envelope by simply increasing areal density. Western Digital, incidentally, despite being the first to 6TB, hasn’t announced anything new since November 2013. Maybe helium wasn’t quite ready for prime time? NVIDIA's Shield gaming tablet has arrived, with preview info on Tech Report, HotHardware, PC Perspective, HWCanucks, Hexus and Techgage. Just under a year since the release of the Shield Portable, Nvidia has announced a second member of the Shield family. As expected, it's the Shield Tablet, an Android slate with an emphasis on gaming. Like the Shield Portable before it, the Shield Tablet will sell direct from Nvidia, not from a partner company. The Shield Tablet extends Nvidia's Android gaming focus to a new form factor, making it one of the first tablets anywhere with a fairly pure gaming mission. Anthony spotted this strange move from Microsoft, blocking Google search on certain Lumia phones. If you buy a Lumia 630 or 930 Windows Phone and want to use Google as your default search engine, you're out of luck: Microsoft has disabled that capability in those phones. For better or worse, you're stuck with Bing. Will this come back to bite Microsoft? mpot sent word of some iOS backdoors which seem to bypass encryption on Apple devices. When your backup is encrypted, you will need to enter the password when enabling or disabling encryption or when restoring from the backup, but according to Zdziarski, there is a iOS service called mobile file_relay, can be accessed remotely or through a USB connection to bypass the backup encryption. Looks like Apple have denied the claims already, though. I may not have my flying car yet, but maybe I can have a hoverbike, thanks Ben! Wednesday Midday Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 23-July-2014  12:54:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg Motherboard & CPU: Intel Core i7 4790K – Haswell gets a refresh on Bjorn3D. MSI Z97M Gaming on OCAholic. Gigabyte Z97X-SOC FORCE Motherboard on MadShrimps. Intel Pentium G3258 (Haswell) 20th Anniversary CPU Gaming Performance on Tweaktown. Audio Visual: TDK A12 TREK Micro Wireless Speaker on NikKTech. Kingston HyperX Cloud Pro Gaming Headset on HWHeaven. Storage: Western Digital Red Pro 4TB NAS WD4001FFSX Consumer HDD on Tweaktown. Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Encrypted SSD on Tweaktown. Intel SSD 2500 Pro 240GB Solid State Drive on HotHardware. Plextor M6S PX-256M6S 256GB SSD on NikKTech. Intel P3700 NVMe SSD Installed In a Win 8.1 Consumer PC on TheSSDReview. Misc: BitFenix Fury 550G Alchemy-Sleeved Power Supply Preview on BenchmarkReviews. Lantronix SLB Remote Branch Office Manager on Tweaktown. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 vs. ASUS Matrix Platinum video cards on HWSecrets. iOttie Easy Flex Wireless Qi Standard Charging Car Mount on ThinkComputers. Tuesday Morning Reviews (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 22-July-2014  09:42:11 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Audio: Superlux HD668B Headphones on Benchmark Reviews Tt eSPORTS SYBARIS Wired And Wireless Gaming Headset on NikkTech Ozone Onda Pro Headset on Funky Kit Keyboard & Mouse: ThermalTake Level 10 M Hybrid Mouse on PureOverclock Cooler Master Quick Fire Rapid-i Mechanical Keyboard on Madshrimps Videocard: HIS R9 280 IceQ X2 OC 3GB GDDR5 Video Card on Madshrimps AMD Radeon R9 280X Round-up on Legion Hardware Case: Silverstone Raven RV 05 on ocaholic Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full-Tower Case on Legit Reviews BitFenix Shadow Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown NZXT Phantom 240 Mid-Tower Chassis on TweakTown Fractal Design Core 3500 Computer Case on Benchmark Reviews Storage: Patriot STELLAR 64GB USB/microUSB 3.0 OTG Flash Drive on Overclockers Club Seagate Desktop HDD 5TB ST5000DX000 on TweakTown Corsair Voyager Air 2 on HardwareHeaven Toshiba Nearline MG04ACA500A 5TB SATA III HDD on Nikktech Crucial MX100 512GB SSD on FunkyKit SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB SATA SSD on Custom PC Review Kingston DataTraveler microDuo 32GB USB Flash Drive on APH Networks Synology DS414j Budget-friendly 4-bay NAS Server on Madshrimps OCZ RevoDrive 350 on Vortez Samsung 845DC Pro SSD 800 Gigabyte on ocaholic Western Digital Red 6TB NAS Consumer HDD on TweakTown Lexar JumpDrive P10 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on Funky Kit Toshiba HG6 SSD Review (512GB) on Hardware Heaven Crucial MX100 256GB SSD on TweakTown Plextor M6S PX-256M6S 256GB SSD on Nikktech Cooling: Thermaltake NiC C5 CPU Cooler on Tech Powerup Noctua redux Series on Vortez Aerocool Air Force 120mm Fans on Funky Kit Be Quiet! Dark Rock 3 CPU Cooler on NikkTech Arctic Accelero Hybrid II-120 GPU Cooler on Techgage Enermax Liqtech 120X AiO Liquid CPU Cooler on Think Computers Powersupply: SilverStone Strider Gold S ST85F-GS 850W Power Supply on APH Networks Rosewill Capstone Modular 1000W on Tech Powerup Tablet/Portable: Xiaomi Mi Pad 7.9 Android Tablet on PC Perspective LG G3 Mobile Phone on Techspot Misc: Kingston HyperX Impact 2x4GB DDR3-1600 1.35V Memory on Funky Kit Valiant Hearts: The Great War PC Game on TweakTown Monday Afternoon (7 Comments) (link)  Monday, 21-July-2014  12:20:51 (GMT +10) - by aftahours Catch of the Day have recently informed their customers to update their passwords after a security breach that happened 3 years ago. In a belated disclosure released late on Friday, daily deals website Catch of the Day sent a message to customers revealing it was hacked in May 2011 in an incident that revealed customer data, including passwords and credit card details. Good news for Cyclists - Google Maps for mobile now lets cyclists avoid (or head for) the hills with an inbuilt elevation chart for each route entered. The update plots elevation against distance, allowing you to compare the amount of climbing you’ll have to do. It shows multiple routes in the same search display, so you really can judge one against the others. Electronic DNA perhaps could become the secure login of the future. Unique habits can be used to prove users' identity – but may also reveal if they are drunk, or have had sex, researchers say. Public transport users in Sydney that use the Opal Card system may be getting watched and tracked by Transport NSW, with NSW Police having access on information on a users' travel history with a warrant. Transport NSW has now defended the practice, saying that it "may only disclose information to a law enforcement agency that is necessary for law enforcement purposes, for the investigation of an offence, for the enforcement of criminal law or to assist in locating a missing person". Amazon has officially announced their Kindle Unlimited service, providing endless reading and listening for $9.99 a month. Dubbed a “Netflix for books” by our own Darrell Etherington, the service offers over 600,000 books for free reading on Kindle and Kindle-enabled devices as well as thousands of audiobooks from Audible. Michael sent in this interesting read about how this person met with Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka, and, showed and handed over an old pre-release Genesis ROM version of Sonic back to its creator. Naka looked happy. A few clicks later, and the file was on a USB drive, and then, in the hand of the father of Sonic. The early version of a classic game this man had worked on—one that had been illegally copied many years ago and distributed through illicit means since—was now back in the hands of its creator. Sverker Johansson is responsible for writing over 2.7 million articles on Wikipedia over the last seven years, which works out to be 8.5% of all the content on the site. His claims to authorship are contested however, as they were created by a computer generated software algorithm, otherwise known as a bot. Johansson has named his Lsjbot. A bit of useless information - if you fold a piece of paper in half 103 times, it will get as thick as the universe. The myth: You can’t fold a paper in half more than eight times.* The reality: Given a paper large enough — and enough energy — you can fold it as many times as you want. The problem: If you fold it 103 times, the thickness of your paper will be larger than the observable Universe: 93 billion light-years.

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