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October 2013 |
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 31-October-2013 15:03:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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WD have some new HDDs on the way. “We are on track to launch our new seven-disk helium-based sealed-drive this quarter to a select group of customers who value the total cost of ownership savings delivered by this innovative product,” said Stephen Milligan, chief executive officer of Western Digital. At present, Western Digital itself and its subsidiary HGST utilize proven 800GB platters inside their five-disc capacity-optimized hard drives. In case the same platters are used for helium-filled HDDs, then WD will be able to offer 5TB – 5.5TB capacities to customers needing maximum storage space per drive. In case the company decides to use new-generation enterprise-grade platters with higher aerial density, then 6TB capacity point is possible.
Seagate meanwhile have a new disk interface for cloud providers. Yesterday Seagate introduced its Kinetic Open Storage Platform, and I’m simply blown away by it. It’s a truly elegant design, “as simple as possible, but no simpler”. The physical interconnect to the disk drive is now Ethernet. The interface is a simple key-value object oriented access scheme, implemented using Google Protocol Buffers.
NASA have fired up the Orion Crew Module for the first time. NASA's first-ever deep space craft, Orion, has been powered on for the first time, marking a major milestone in the final year of preparations for flight. Orion's avionics system was installed on the crew module and powered up for a series of systems tests at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week.
If your new Dell laptop smells like a cat toilet, you're not alone - thanks mpot. I am sorry about this, you can clean the laptop air vents using the can of compressed air, if the issue still persists, I would suggest you to contact the local technician and they will help you further.
Toyota have lost a court case over killer firmware. So what happens when an automaker decides to wing it and play by their own rules? To disregard the rigorous standards, best practices, and checks and balances required of such software (and hardware) design? People are killed, reputations ruined, and billions of dollars are paid out. That's what happens.
Google's self-driving cars on the other hand are apparently better than us at driving. One of those analyses showed that when a human was behind the wheel, Google’s cars accelerated and braked significantly more sharply than they did when piloting themselves. Another showed that the cars’ software was much better at maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle ahead than the human drivers were. “We’re spending less time in near-collision states,” said Urmson. “Our car is driving more smoothly and more safely than our trained professional drivers.”
Samsung meanwhile have been reprimanded for fake web comments. Though Samsung said it had“ceased all marketing activities that involve the posting of anonymous comments,” the FTC – after finding Samsung indeed hired a “large number of hired writers and designated employees” to trash-talk competition in web comments – has now decided to slap the Galaxy maker with a $340,000 fine.
H.264 might have just become the new default codec for the web. Cisco staged a major coup Wednesday by announcing a new initiative that is meant to turn H.264 into the default codec for real-time communication on the web: the company open-sourced its H.264 codec implementation and also announced the release of a plugin that will allow third-party developers to use H.264 without the need to pay any licensing costs. One of the first apps to make use of this is none other than Mozilla’s Firefox.
The EFF have a video demanding the NSA stop watching us. This video harnesses the voices of celebrities, activists, legal experts, and other prominent figures in speaking out against mass surveillance by the NSA.
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 30-October-2013 16:21:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Microlab H21 Bluetooth Powered Bookshelf Speaker on BenchmarkReviews.
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
HiFiMAN RE-600 In-ears on TechPowerUp.
Tt eSports Level 10 M Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
Zetta Z12 Intelligent Security Camcorder on NikKTech.
Cases:
SilverStone ML05 on OCaholic.
Aerocool Dead Silence Orange on Funkykit.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker Mid-Tower on NeoSeeker.
NZXT H230 on Modders-Inc.
CPU & Motherboard:
Intel Core i5-4670K vs Core i5-2500K Gaming-Performance on OCaholic.
Gigabyte Z87X-UD5H LGA 1150 on CustomPCReview.
ASRock FM2A88X EXTREME6+ on HWSecrets.
ASRock Z87M Extreme4 on OCaholic.
GIGABYTE GA-6LXSV Haswell Xeon Server Motherboard on Tweaktown.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Hands-on Preview: Microsoft Surface 2 Windows 8.1 RT Tablet on HotHardware.
LUXA2 H1 and H5 Mobile Mounts on ThinkComputers.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Android Tablet on MegaTechNews.
Video Cards:
Sapphire R9 280X Toxic on OCClub.
AMD Radeon HD 7970 CrossFire benchmarked at 7860x1440 on Tweaktown.
AMD Radeon R9 280X Roundup: ASUS, MSI and Sapphire on PCPerspective.
Cooling:
Cooler Master JetFlo 120 PWM Fan on LanOC.
Cooler Master JetFlo Series Fans on Modders-Inc.
Thermaltake Commander F5 Fan Controller on PureOC.
Input Etc:
Mionix Avior 8200 Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Topre's Type Heaven mechanical keyboard on TechReport.
Genius All-in-One Camera Mouse on FunkyKit.
In Win BATMAT mousepad on PureOC.
Power Supply:
Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 700W on LegitReviews.
NZXT HALE82 V2 700W on TechPowerUp.
SilverStone CP06 SATA Power Connectors on Tweaktown.
Storage:
LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt 10TB DAS on Tweaktown.
Toshiba MQ01ABD100 2.5'' 1TB Hard Disk Drive on MadShrimps.
Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo 8TB on Tweaktown.
Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 2 CPU cooler on LanOC.
Misc:
TRENDnet TL2-G244 24-Port Gigabit Layer 2 Switch on Tweaktown.
G.Skill Ripjaws F3-1600C9D-16GRSL 2x8GB DDR3 Laptop RAM on APHNetworks.
Batman: Arkham Origins Benchmarked: GPU & CPU Performance on TechSpot.
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS Battle Dragon Bag on OCClub.
Photography Gallery
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Monday, 28-October-2013 21:32:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 28-October-2013 14:49:37 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
AMD R9 290X on Anandtech.
AMD Radeon R9 290X on [H]ardOCP.
AMD Radeon R9 270X On Linux on Phoronix.
Gigabyte R9 280X OC 3 GB on TechPowerUp.
HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo Boost Clock 3GB on MadShrimps.
HIS Radeon R7 260X 2GB IceQ X2 on TweakTown.
4K Gaming Showdown – AMD R9 290X & R9 280X Vs Nvidia GTX Titan & GTX 780 on eTeknix.
GeForce GTX 770 Graphics Cards Roundup on Xbit Labs.
Storage:
Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech.
ASUSTOR AS-202TE 2-Bay Consumer NAS on TweakTown.
Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB Na'Vi Limited Edition SSD on Funky Kit.
QNAP TurboNAS TS-420 NAS Server on NikKTech.
Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD on Computing on Demand.
Crucial M4 SSD 128GB on Computing on Demand.
Cases:
NZXT Source 530 Full Tower on eTeknix.
Cooler Master Cosmos SE on eTeknix.
Cooler Master N600 on Funky Kit.
Cooler Master Cosmos SE on PureOverclock.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 on ThinkComputers.
Microcool Banchetto K Open Air Test Bench on Pro-Clockers.
Aerocool Mechatron on techPowerUp.
Cooling:
Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme CPU Cooler on PC Perspective.
Kingwin FPX-002 Digital Fan Controller on TweakTown.
Power Supplies:
be quiet! PowerZone 1000W on PureOverclock.
Antec HCG-750W PSU on Rbmods.
Audio:
Tt eSPORTS Level 10 M Gaming Headset (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
Tt eSports Cronos Headset on Vortez.
Misc:
Gigabyte Uranium Wireless Mouse and Ghost Station on eTeknix.
Asus P9X79-E WS Workstation Motherboard on Techgage.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Smartphone on HardwareHeaven.
Corsair Vengeance Pro PC3-23400 8GB Dual Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown.
Apple OS X 10.9 Mavericks on TechReviewSource.
Google's decided to build a giant floating office off the coast of San Francisco and possibly another in a harbour off Portland, Maine. Thing is... They didn't get the proper permits. “Google has spent millions on this. But they can’t park this barge on the waterfront without a permit, and they don’t have one,” an insider told CBS. To get a permit, Google must prove that activity on the barge could not be done on land.
Speaking of web companies building cool things, Amazon's building a 5 story office building that looks like a trio of bubbles. A Seattle design review board has approved Amazon's plan to build what promises to be a stunning, five-story office building distinguished by three intersecting spheres. Amazon also will build a 38-story tower on the same block.
Japan is planning to fire off their new space cannon at an asteroid, to see what it is made of. The Hayabusa-2, which will launch the weapon, will then land on the surface and take samples of the newly-disturbed soil as part of a project searching for organic materials or for any sign of water. "The Hayabusa-2 project is progressing as planned," a JAXA spokesman said.
For all the single iPhone-toting folks out there, Siri is your new wingman (or woman). The Youtube prankster Stuart Edge has a video on using Siri to help land dates, check it out here.
A 12 year old Canadian boy has been arrested in conjunction with attacks committed by the hacker group Anonymous. The fifth grade student was acting on behalf of activist hacker group Anonymous, but his actions were not politically motivated – he was trading the information in exchange for video games, the court heard.
Gizmodo has a pretty cool guide on how to get more out of your Raspberry Pi - like building a supercomputer with some lego.
Following up on the automated drone deliveries by the courier company Flirtey, it looks like the company has hit a few snags. Rules for flying drones in Australia stipulate that a pilot must be in command at all times via remote control, that the pilot must keep the drone within his or her line of sight and that the drone stay about 30 meters away from people (other than the pilot) at all times. It must also be kept away from populous areas unless a special license has been issued.
It's Friday again! And scroll down if you missed Wednesday's ones, after we had to skip last Friday due to Telstra-related shenanigans.
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Midday
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Friday, 25-October-2013 12:35:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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BusinessInsider have some images showing the size of the NSW bushfires compared to cities of the world. To scale, here’s what the Blue Mountains bushfires look like this morning, and just how big they are in comparison to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, New York, Hong Kong and London.
3D printing continues to have an impact, with the technology being used to make medical tools in Haiti. Some of their first projects are simple medical devices, such as umbilical cord clamps, which they are currently prototyping (on their fourth iteration). These medical devices would be 3D printed for direct use in local clinics with on-demand manufacturing. Hyper-local manufacturing will bypass inefficient and corrupt import systems that are currently the only option available.
In another cool use of technology, an Indian man who was lost as a child found his way home via Google Earth. In 2011, using vague memories and Google Earth imagery, Saroo identified his home town. Using the ruler feature in Google Earth, he mapped out a search radius by making an educated guess about how far he traveled by train. After countless hours of scouring this area of Google Earth imagery, he came upon a proverbial needle in a haystack. Saroo spotted one vague landmark that led him to the next, helping him unlock a five-year-old child’s memories. He eventually spotted a neighborhood, street and tin roof that looked familiar.
PCPerspective consider 20nm and beyond and the future of next-gen graphics. We can look back and when we plot the course of these graphics companies, they have actually outstripped Moore in terms of transistor density from generation to generation. Most of this is due to better tools and the expertise gained in what is still a fairly new endeavor as compared to CPUs (the first true 3D accelerators were released in the 1993/94 timeframe).
OCClub report from the recent NVIDIA press event. Since the G-Sync monitors are designed to refresh with your frame rates, dips in FPS no longer affect your experience – it's all buttery smooth through and through. Words only go so far though. Seeing it in person was truly eye-opening. We were shown a live demonstration comparing a regular monitor to a G-Sync monitor with both an NVIDIA-made demo and the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot.
Here's a timewaster: PuzzleScript. PuzzleScript is an open-source HTML5 puzzle game engine. There's an tutorial game here and a gallery of other games here.
Thursday Evening Reviews
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Thursday, 24-October-2013 18:54:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Toshiba Q Series Pro 256GB SSD on CustomPCReview.
Thecus N5550 NAS on TechPowerUp.
SSD Charts 2013: 45 SSDs - Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB on OCaholic.
Drobo 5D Five-Bay Direct Attached Storage on Tweaktown.
Synology DiskStation DS114 NAS on HWHeaven.
Samsung 840 Evo 120 Gigabyte on OCaholic.
Samsung XP941 NGFF M.2 PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 on TheSSDReview.
Synology DiskStation DS414 on LegionHW.
MyDigitalSSD 128GB mSATA SuperCache 2 Caching SSD on TheSSDReview.
Mach Xtreme MX-ES SLC 32GB Flash Drive on eTeknix.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASUS Gryphon Z87 on OCaholic.
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP on eTeknix.
Gigabyte Z87X-UD4H on OCClub.
Audio Visual:
Microlab MD312 Bluetooth Wireless Portable Speaker on BenchmarkReviews.
Plantronics RIG Gaming Headset on FutureLooks.
SteelSeries 5Hv3 Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
3M SPR1000 Streaming Projector Powered by Roku on MissingRemote.
ASUS ROG Orion for Consoles Gaming Headset on HWHeaven.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Best Tablets of 2013: Fall Edition on TechSpot.
Asus Transformer Book T100 convertible notebook on TechReport.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on TechReviewSource.
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on HotHardware.
Power Supply:
Cougar CMX v.3 850W on LegitReviews.
XFX Pro 750W XXX Edition Semi-Modular on eTeknix.
Cooler Master V Series 850W on TechPowerUp.
Corsair GS800 (800W) Non-Modular on eTeknix.
Memory:
Kingston 8GB HyperX Predator KHX26C11T2K2/8X Memory Kit on PureOC.
Corsair Vengeance LP Low Voltage 8GB 1600 MHz on PureOC.
Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB DDR3-1600 Na'Vi Limited Edition on FunkyKit.
Cases:
In-Win H-Frame Mini-ITX on SOTechDesign.
Corsair Carbide Air 540 on OCClub.
Fractal Design ARC XL Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
SilverStone Raven 4 B-W Full-Tower on Tweaktown.
Corsair Carbide 330R on Guru3D.
Cooler Master Cosmos SE fulltower on OCaholic.
Software:
Rocksmith 2014 Edition Video Review on HWHeaven.
Day One: Garry's Incident on OCClub.
Misc:
Peerless AV LCT420A Single Arm LCD Desktop Mount on eTeknix.
Thermaltake Commander F5 Fan Controller on Techgage.
Gaming Mice Roundup 2013: Corsair, Steelseries, Gigabyte, Logitech and Razer on TechSpot.
Mid-week Misc Pics
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Wednesday, 23-October-2013 14:38:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Oh alright, then. :) Thanks to mikloise and Toje this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Wednesday Midday
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Wednesday, 23-October-2013 12:43:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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In case you're thinking that you're downloading some magical pre-release leaked version of GTA V for the PC, you're probably not, and it's probably a bad idea. Be wary: Rockstar Games has still not said anything official about a PC version of Grand Theft Auto V - but that's not stopping "leaked versions" popping up online. While the 18GB file looks legitimate enough, it is - of course - a virus-packed scam.
Techgage have info on NVIDIA's Surround 4K technology. ust a couple of years ago, 2560x1600 seemed like a monster resolution (and to be fair, it still is), but compared to 4K, it's paltry: 4.2 megapixels vs. 8.3 megapixels. Introduce 4K 3x1 into the mix? We're talking a ridiculous 24.9 megapixels.If what we might as well call 25 megapixels doesn't have the oomph required to get the point across, consider this: The final resolution is 11520x2160.
NVIDIA also announced G-Sync, to address v-sync issues with conventional refresh rates. G-Sync essentially functions by altering and controlling the vBlank signal sent to the monitor. In a normal configuration, vBlank is a combination of the combination of the vertical front and back porch and the necessary sync time. That timing is set a fixed stepping that determines the effective refresh rate of the monitor; 60 Hz, 120 Hz, etc. What NVIDIA will now do in the driver and firmware is lengthen or shorten the vBlank signal as desired and will send it when one of two criteria is met. More info here, here and here.
But AMD don't want to be overshadowed: Journalists (including TR's Scott Wasson) are gathered in Montreal this week for an Nvidia event. It so happens that AMD is right next door to the Nvidia venue, armed with one of its upcoming Radeon R9 290X graphics cards—and it's taken the opportunity to release some internal benchmarks comparing that card to Nvidia's GeForce GTX 780. Coverage on Tech Report and LegitPR.
NASA have been using lasers for data transmission - to the moon! NASA's Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) has made history using a pulsed laser beam to transmit data over the 239,000 miles between the moon and Earth at a record-breaking download rate of 622 megabits per second (Mbps). LLCD is NASA's first system for two-way communication using a laser instead of radio waves. It also has demonstrated an error-free data upload rate of 20 Mbps transmitted from the primary ground station in New Mexico to the spacecraft currently orbiting the moon.
Tweakhound have a Windows 8.1 tweak guide. Welcome to the 5th of my operating system tweak guides, Tweaking Windows 8.1. Like the Windows XP (first version created in 2002!), Vista, Seven, and Eight guides before it, the aim of this guide is to make your Windows experience a little better.
Renegade spotted a new heat-transfer material being used by a new UK startup. This initial offering, from the Cinderford-based company, is called the VPC Type-001. It uses pretty standard components, which you might find in many PCs, except for one important thing - a water cooling system utilising a “revolutionary heat transfer material” called VersarienCu.
Tuesday Afternoon Reviews
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Tuesday, 22-October-2013 14:43:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
SilverStone Tundra TD02 AIO Liquid Cooler on OCIA.
Thermaltake Commander F5 Fan Controller on ThinkComputers.
Cooler Master NotePal XL Laptop Cooler on MadShrimps.
Thermaltake NiC-F4 on OCClub.
Deepcool GamerStorm Lucifer CPU Cooler on PureOC.
Video Cards:
Asus R9 270X DirectCU II Top on LanOC.
MSI Radeon R9 270X HAWK on OCaholic.
MSI GeForce GTX 780 Lightning 3GB Overclocked on Tweaktown.
MSI Radeon R9-280X TwinFrozr Gaming OC on Guru3D.
Club3D Radeon R7 260X royalKing on HWHeaven.
Cases:
S2Innovation Axiom Pro on Pro-Clockers.
Raidmax Vampire Gaming Tower on Pro-Clockers.
S2 Innovation AXIOM Pro Dust-Proof Midi Tower on NikKTech.
Zalman MS800 Plus on TechPowerUp.
Corsair Carbide 330R Quiet Mid-Tower on Modders-Inc.
Audio Visual:
Tt eSPORTS Cronos Gaming Headset on HWHeaven.
Bitmore e-Storm LabyrinthX Bluetooth Wireless Speaker on BenchmarkReviews.
a.m.p SP1 portable Bluetooth speaker on TechPowerUp.
Creative Sound Blaster EVO Zx on Vortez.
Misc:
AtGames Sega Genesis Classic Game Console on MegaTechNews.
RavPower Wireless FileHub and Power Bank on Tweaktown.
Steelcase Leap chair on TechReport.
TYLT Vu Mobile Device Wireless Charger on Tweaktown.
Kingston HyperX Beast KHX21C11T3K2/16X 2x8GB memory on APHNetworks.
CM Storm Quickfire Stealth Mechanical Keyboard on Modders-Inc.
Microsoft Windows 8.1 on TechReviewSource.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 22-October-2013 10:37:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The AggCave is now connected via ADSL2, about three times as fast as the ADSL1 previously. It almost makes 5 days of dialup worth it..
Portable & Prebuilt:
HP Chromebook 11 on TechReviewSource.
LG G2 Smartphone: Snapdragon 800 Powered on HotHardware.
Apple iPhone 5s on TechSpot.
Sony VAIO Pro 13 Ultrabook Native PCIe SSD on TheSSDReview.
UK Gaming Computers Flagship Minos Mini PC System on eTeknix.
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus on TechReviewSource.
Nextbook Premium 8 HD Tablet on TechWareLabs.
Alienware X51 R2 Desktop Gaming System on LegitReviews.
ASUS Transformer Book T100TA Windows 8.1 Bay Trail Tablet on HotHardware.
Power Supply:
Antec High Current Gamer 750M 750W on ThinkComputers.
Corsair RM Series 750W on TechPowerUp.
Storage:
ASUSTOR AS-304T 4-Bay NAS on Tweaktown.
Synology DiskStation DS214 NAS on Tweak.dk.
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD on CustomPCReview.
ASUSTOR XBMC NAS Software and Media Remote Control on Tweaktown.
iStarUSA BPN-DE230SS Trayless HDD Cage on Tweaktown.
Synology DS214 NAS on Vortez.
Patriot Aero 1TB Wireless Hard Drive on eTeknix.
Mach Xtreme Technology MX-ES SSD on Vortez.
SanDisk X210 256GB Business Class SSD on Tweaktown.
VisionTek GoDrive 7mm 240GB on PureOC.
Something that sounds very science fiction-y, a computer prototype has been desinged by IBM - And it's running on electronic blood. The “electronic blood” is pumped through the computer and carries power as it pulls heat. The goal is to house a one petaflop computer (currently the size of half a soccer field) in something that will fit on a desk by 2060.
Apple has had a few details leak ahead of it's big reveal for tomorrow. An information page detailing software Apple includes with its iPhone 5S showed off an updated look for the icons of Apple's iLife and iWork -- something that cropped up earlier this week -- along with a note that Apple's making Garageband for iOS free.
Check out what you can expect in Apple's big event here.
iMessage's supposedly uncrackable security is not as secure as some may think, according to Quarkslab. More worryingly, in the presentation "How Apple Can Read Your iMessages and How You Can Prevent It," the researchers also showed that iMessages can be intercepted and instantly changed via a man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack. The message interception allows a third-party attacker to seamlessly change the sent message before it arrives — and with the sender impersonated, the iMessage recipient is none the wiser.
The New York Times have a piece on the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. It was here, one breezy day in 2006, according to legend, that Jack Dorsey ordered burritos with two co-workers, scaled a slide and, in a black sweater and green beanie, like a geeked-out Moses on Mount Sinai, presented his idea for an Internet service that would allow users to update their current status and share what they were doing.
Baristas may be replaced soon, by a coffee-making robot. Not a coffee person? Fear not, Briggo will make you a hot chocolate, iced chocolate, iced chai latte or just steamed milk if that's your thing. "What we've created is in essence a small food factory that absolutely replicates what a champion barista does," Mr Nater said.
For any military types, the new Zumwalt-class stealth destroyer may pique your interest. Originally envisioned for shore bombardment, the ship's size and power plant that can produce 78 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 78,000 homes - make it a potential platform for futuristic weapons like the electromagnetic rail gun, which uses a magnetic field and electric current to fire a projectile at seven times the speed of sound.
Urban Digital Media Contest
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Saturday, 19-October-2013 12:29:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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New OCAU sponsors Urban Digital Media have a new competition where you can win a media player. The prize will be a ATV510b with Linux-XBMC pre-installed. We will also install some third party addons for you to try. These are not normally installed on a standard box.
Check the thread for more info!
Saturday Midday Reviews
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Saturday, 19-October-2013 12:21:59 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Intel Core i3 4130 on Phoronix.
MSI Z87 XPower on Legion Hardware.
Graphics Cards:
AMD Radeon R9 270X on Techgage.
MSI R9 270X HAWK 2 GB on techPowerUp.
MSI R9 270X Gaming on TweakTown.
HIS Radeon R9 270X IceQ X2 Turbo Boost on Benchmark Reviews.
Storage:
Silicon Power Armor A30 1TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on NikKTech.
Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD on Guru3D.
Kingston SSDNow V300 240GB on PC Stats.
Lexar JumpDrive P10 32GB USB3.0 Flash Drive on eTeknix.
Synology DiskStation DS214 NAS on HardwareHeaven.
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB RAID 0 SSD on TweakTown.
Cases:
Cooler Master N600 on Ocaholic.
Corsair Obsidian 750D on Legit Reviews.
Fractal Design Define R4 on TechwareLabs.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 on TweakTown.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 on PureOverclock.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker on OCC.
Cooler Master Silencio 352 on HCW.
Input etc:
AZiO Levetron Mech 5 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on Futurelooks.
Leap Motion Controller LM-010 on Benchmark Reviews.
iPin Mobile Laser Presenter for iPhone on Funky Kit.
Gigabyte Aivia Uranium Wireless Laser Mouse on APH Networks.
Steelseries Apex Gaming Keyboard on Funky Kit.
Audio:
Asus Echelon Headset on Vortez.
Speedlink Jugger 2.1 Speakers on Vortez.
Tt eSPORTS Cronos Gaming Headset on LanOC.
TteSports Level 10M PC Gaming Headset on eTeknix.
The Nexus 5 has made a rather quiet and brief appearance on Google Play for a cool $350. The device appears next to the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 along with the caption "Capture the everyday and the epic in fresh new ways." Google lists the price as "starting at $349." However, when the link to the smartphone is clicked on -- the new page doesn't load.
Australia may soon be the first country in the world to see commercial courier deliveries by drone, as early as March next year. From March next year and pending regulatory approval, students will be able to order books from Zookal via an Android smartphone app and have one of six Flirtey drones deliver them to their door in Sydney. As the drone arrives, students will be able to track it in real-time on a Google map.
A couple in Tulsa, USA have been charged with starving their child due to their Second Life addiction caused the parents to even reschedule their childs doctors appointments around in-game events. When local police arrived at the house, Knapp reportedly asked them if they were there because their daughter died. They were found playing Second Life.
There is now a 3d printer app that allows you browse projects on the go. The free app allows users to browse the repository for featured, popular, new and recently made items. There's also the ability to like projects and add them to collections for closer inspection later.
Oracle has released a massive patch - over 127 security issues were fixed across all the company's products. Of these, 51 are fixes for Java SE, and all but one of those will allow remote exploitation of a computer without authentication. Oracle recommends the patch be applied as soon as possible, as many of the vulnerabilities cross product family lines, and its products are interdependent.
NVIDIA has recently announced FLEX, a unified GPU PhysX - And it's pretty spectacular. Check out the demo video here.
isoHunt, the popular file sharing platform, will be shutting down within the week due to their defeat in court. Isohunt, the decade-old and immensely popular BitTorrent search engine, will shut down within the week as part of an agreement with the MPAA. In a ruling posted by Wired, site founder Gary Fung and several film companies set the terms of a long-running copyright infringement suit, which Fung essentially lost in March.
The word from the aggcave is that there will be no misc pics today due to some internet connection fail. Keep an eye out in the next couple of days.
MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2013
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Friday, 18-October-2013 12:12:02 (GMT +10) - by booj
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MSI's annual Master Overclocking Arena tournament gets underway shortly in Taipei, Taiwan.
Today and tomorrow, sixteen overclockers from around the globe, including Australia's JJJC and SniperOZ will be competing to become the MOA 2013 World Champion. This year there are two competitions: the MOA Classic Battle and MOA Freestyle battle. There will be $27,000 USD in cash prizes up for grabs. Probably the highest ever awarded in an overclocking competition!
OCAU's Yamunsa is currently in Taipei and will be reporting live in this thread
There will be a live video stream thanks to Overclocking TV and Yamunsa will be providing regular updates, score and pics. If you are curious about extreme overclocking, then this will be a great opportunity to check it out.
More info can be found at the official MOA website
Good luck to the Aussies!!
Wednesday Afternoon Reviews
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Wednesday, 16-October-2013 13:17:23 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Graphics Cards:
AMD Radeon R9 280X Video Card Review w/ ASUS, XFX and MSI on Legit Reviews.
HIS R9 280X iPower IceQ X² Turbo and R9 270X IceQ X² Turbo on Legion Hardware.
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X Vapor-X on Benchmark Reviews.
MSI R9 270X Hawk on OCC.
Asus Matrix R9 280X Platinum on LanOC.
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X 3GB Toxic on TweakTown.
Asus R9 280X DirectCU II TOP on techPowerUp.
Sapphire Radeon R9 280X Toxic on ThinkComputers.
HIS Radeon R9 280X IceQ X2 on Benchmark Reviews.
HIS Radeon R9-280X IceQ X2 Turbo on Guru3D.
Storage:
Thecus N4510U Rackmount NAS on TweakTown.
Kingston mS200 120GB mSATA SSD on Legit Reviews.
Cases:
Corsair Graphite 230T on techPowerUp.
Corsair Graphite 230T on Vortez.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 915F on TweakTown.
Cooler Master HAF Stacker 935 on Modders-Inc.
Cooler Master CM 690 III Mid Tower on eTeknix.
Cooler Master N-200 on PureOverclock.
Power Supplies:
Seasonic M12II 750W EVO on TweakTown.
Enermax Triathlor 700W on eTeknix.
Cooling:
CMStorm SF-17 Gaming Notebook Cooler on TweakTown.
XSPC Raystorm 750 EX240 Watercooling Kit on PC Perspective.
XSPC Raystorm 750 EX280 WaterCooling Kit on NikKTech.
Portables & Phones:
Gigabyte P25W Gaming Laptop on TweakTown.
Acer Aspire E1-572-6870 notebook on TechReviewSource.
LG G2 Review: The battle of the Android flagship handsets on Techspot.
Misc:
Asus Z87 Motherboard Roundup on HardwareHeaven.
CM Storm Reaper mouse on Vortez.
Kingston 16GB HyperX Na'Vi Edition DDR3 on Vortez.
Mozilla Firefox has a 64-bit variant, called Waterfox, thanks Renegade. Waterfox is a high performance browser based on the Mozilla Firefox source code. Waterfox is specifically for 64-bit systems, with one thing in mind: speed.
Techpowerup has a story on the ASUS Open Overclocking Cup finals held in Moscow this year, with Vlad "slamms" of ASUS Russia as judge. Head over here to read more about it.
Senator Stephen Conroy has released his first speech since resigning as the communications minister when Kevin Rudd was reinstated as leader of the Labor Party, and it's all about the NBN. “[The rollout targets] were always ambitious," he said on Friday at a lunch in Sydney held by the Australian Computer Society. "We wouldn't have been so aggressive if we'd known how tough it was for the company.
PCSTATS have released a beginner friendly guide on how to fix broken / cracked laptop LCD screens, for a fraction of the cost of your local computer store. In this Beginners Guide, PCSTATS will show you how we repaired a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad notebook with a cracked LCD screen (see the damage below). We'll address laptop screens that "go dark" or "flicker on and off randomly", later in the guide.
Google 4 Doodle is drawing to a close, and the final 32 are now up for voting. Students from across Australia were invited to submit entries of their interpretation of the Google logo representing this year's theme, "If I was an explorer I would ..."
The record for the fastest wifi in the world has been raised from 40GB/s, to a whopping 100gb/s, thanks to a combined team from Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics (IAF) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Maile Carnegie has had her first interview as the new Google Australia New Zealand managing director, from her past role, her current job, and the NBN. ''I look at the energy around the NBN. At the moment it's focused around cost. I'd love to talk about the benefits and how we can change the rhetoric, from cost to disruption.''
Forum Projects
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Monday, 14-October-2013 22:20:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's some interesting projects and reviews from people in the forums:
There's some quite nasty new ransomware doing the rounds. It's largely being spread via email attachments claiming to be from the ATO or a Bank, though members of the Zeus botnet have had the virus pushed to them directly. The virus is totally functional regardless of UAC or whether the logged in user is a local administrator, and has been reported on WinXP through 7 64-bit.
MJ and mpot sent word of a D-Link router backdoor, with more info on Slashdot here. It seems that thttpd was modified by Alphanetworks who inserted the backdoor. Unfortunately, vulnerable routers can be easily identified by services like shodanHQ. At least these models may have vulnerable firmware: DIR-100, DI-524, DI-524UP, DI-604S, DI-604UP, DI-604+, TM-G5240.
Wired report that the world's internet organisations are keen to distance the internet from the USA. In a statement, the group called for "accelerating the globalization of ICANN and IANA functions, towards an environment in which all stakeholders, including all governments, participate on an equal footing". That's a distinct change from the current situation, where the US department of commerce has oversight of ICANN. In another part of the statement, the group "expressed strong concern over the undermining of the trust and confidence of Internet users globally due to recent revelations of pervasive monitoring and surveillance".
The BBC have a story about the whacky world of John McAfee. He's the man who went on the run after his neighbour was found dead, face-up, with a bullet in his head. He's the man who jump-started the multibillion-dollar anti-virus industry. And now he thinks he can make you invisible on the internet.
Some more Dr Who episodes, thought lost, have turned up - this time, in Nigeria. The black and white story sees Patrick Troughton's second Doctor battle robot yeti in the London Underground. Also recovered is a complete version of Troughton's six-part story The Enemy of the World. It is thought to be the largest haul of missing episodes recovered in the last three decades.
PCPro have an interesting one about the possible convergence of Mac and iPhone platforms - according to Ubuntu guru Mark Shuttleworth. When Apple announced the iPhone 5s, it called the processor 'desktop-class', and I don’t think that was an accident – it was sending what we think is a very clear signal that it will converge the iPhone and the MacBook Air. "There’s no point talking about the desktop performance of your CPU unless you plan to make a desktop device with that CPU."
Toshiba may become a new power in the consumer SSD market, according to TheSSDReview. We have four memory manufacturers fighting it out to be the top dog in SSD performance and value; Samsung, SanDisk, Micron and Intel. SK Hynix recently purchased the LAMD controller, however, also suffered a massive fire in its China plant which saw memory prices jump a record 42% before leveling off. SSD pricing is the key to success and any of the top five has the ability to affect and control SSD market pricing as the main component of the SSD is memory. Toshiba realized this and quietly introduced their retail Q Series SATA 3 SSD to, not only online retail outlets but also, brick and mortar retail chains.
Sunday Night Reviews
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Sunday, 13-October-2013 22:24:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Silverstone NT06-PRO Low Profile CPU Cooler on FutureLooks.
Prolimatech Armageddon Blue Series CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Cooler Charts: 37 Models tested - update Antec KühlerH2O 920 on OCaholic.
GamerStorm Assassin CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Silverstone NT01-Pro Heatsink on FrostyTech.
BeQuiet Shadow Rock 2 CPU Cooler on Tweaktown.
Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte Z87M-D3H on HardCoreWare.
Intel Core i7 4960X Ivy Bridge Extreme Edition On Linux on Phoronix.
ASRock Fatal1ty Z87 Professional on OCaholic.
MSI Z87 MPOWER MAX on Vortez.
Audio Visual:
SteelSeries Flux In-Ear Pro Headset on MegaTechNews.
V-MODA BoomPro Microphone C-BP-BLACK on BenchmarkReviews.
Sony Alpha NEX-5T camera on TechReviewSource.
Cases:
SilverStone Raven RV04 on SilentPCReview.
SilverStone Fortress FT04 on SilentPCReview.
Akasa Galileo Ultra-slim Fanless Thin ITX on SilentPCReview.
Primochill Wet Bench on PureOC.
Cooltek U3 on TechPowerUp.
Corsair Obsidian 750D on HotHardware.
Corsair Obsidian 750D Full-Tower on PCPerspective.
Video Cards:
ASUS Radeon R9 270X Direct CU II TOP 2GB on eTeknix.
Gigabyte Radeon R9 270X WindForce OC 2GB on eTeknix.
AMD Radeon R9 270X & Sapphire TOXIC R9 270X on LegitReviews.
MSI Radeon R9-270X Gaming on Guru3D.
Sapphire Toxic R9 270X on LanOC.
AMD Radeon R9 270X 2GB Reference on Tweaktown.
MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming on NinjaLane.
AMD Radeon 7000 and Radeon R200 Series Mixed CrossFire Testing on LegitReviews.
HIS Radeon R7 250 iCooler 1GB on HWHeaven.
Networking:
D-Link DIR-868L Wireless AC1750 Dual-Band Cloud Router on LegitReviews.
ASUS RT-AC66U AC1750 Wireless 802.11AC Router on MissingRemote.
Misc:
Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-2400 16GB CL10 Black Mamba and Venom Red on FunkyKit.
Devolo dLAN LiveCam Starter Kit surveillance on NikKTech.
SilverStone LS01 LED Case Lights on APHNetworks.
Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK barebones on MissingRemote.
Sunday Morning Reviews
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Sunday, 13-October-2013 01:41:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
SteelSeries APEX [RAW] Gaming Keyboard on NikKTech.
Razer Tartarus Membrane Gaming Keypad on BenchmarkReviews.
Tt eSPORTS VOLOS Gaming Mouse on ThinkComputers.
Logitech TK820 Wireless All-in-One Keyboard on HotHardware.
Cooler Master CM Storm Mech Aluminum Keyboard on eTeknix.
Razer Ouroboros Wireless Gaming Mouse on CustomPCReview.
Tt eSPORTS VOLOS Gaming Mouse on NeoSeeker.
Thermaltake MEKA G-Unit Illuminated Mechanical Keyboard on BenchmarkReviews.
Mionix Avior 8200 Gaming Mouse on RBMods.
Power Supply:
Cougar CMX V3 Series 850W on TechPowerUp.
Antec Neo Eco 520W Semi-Modular on eTeknix.
SilverStone Strider Gold 650W on OCIA.
Thermaltake Toughpower DPS 850-Watt 80 PLUS Gold on Tweaktown.
Antec HCG-750M 750-Watt 80 PLUS Bronze on Tweaktown.
Prebuilt & Portable:
Asus M51AC-US015S desktop on TechReviewSource.
ASUS G750JX-DB71 Gaming Notebook on PCPerspective.
Motorola Droid MAXX smartphone on LanOC.
Motorola Moto X smartphone on TechReviewSource.
Storage:
SSD Charts: 64 SSDs - Samsung 840 Evo 120 Gigabyte on OCaholic.
Seagate NAS 4TB HDD Enterprise on Tweaktown.
Kingston 16GB UHS-I Ultimate SDHC/SDXC Card on FunkyKit.
Seagate's NAS HDD 4TB on TechReport.
HGST Ultrastar 7K4000 3.5-inch 4TB 7200 RPM HDD on MadShrimps.
OCZ Vertex 450 128GB Solid State Drive RAID on ThinkComputers.
Thanks to Tabris and Blinky this week!
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Interesting Forum Threads
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Thursday, 10-October-2013 18:31:50 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a few interesting threads from the forums. Remember, OCAU has official Twitter, Facebook and Google+ pages. If you can add us via the various services it's much appreciated and helps us get the word out, and keep you up to date. :)
HWBOT Revision 6: Series and Divisions, OC Competitions in Overclocking & Hardware.
Haswell delid in Overclocking & Hardware.
4500 Low Clock 3D11 Physics Challenge in Overclocking & Hardware.
Maximum internet privacy - efficiently in Newbie Lounge.
History & Evolution of Viruses & Malware in Business & Enterprise Computing.
Job hopping in IT - do you? in Business & Enterprise.
Make Windows Live Messenger Work Again using Messenger Reviver 2 in General Software.
GTAV OCAU Social Club in Game Consoles.
Awesome Retro Gaming Moments in Retro & Arcade.
F1 2013 in PC Games.
Animal found - help identify in Pets & Animals.
Massive canyon discovered on Greenland in Science.
Little Dog robot learns superior locomotion in Science.
Mercedes drives itself in Motoring.
NSW RTA No more printing of driver licenses in Motoring.
Would you consider travelling without your wife/partner/family? in Lifestyle.
Stavs [succeeds at] natural Body Building in Sport, Fitness & Health.
If work was paying, what IT certifications would you do? in Career, Education & Finance.
$1.1m not enough to retire on for Gen Y in Career, Education & Finance.
Senate Action on Health Law Moves to Brink of Shutdown in Politics & Policies.
Female physicists still underpaid, underresourced in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
The Silk Road (eBay for buying drugs) shut down by FBI in Current Events & Serious Discussion.
Thursday Afternoon
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Thursday, 10-October-2013 13:57:50 (GMT +10) - by Grec
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Mark 'Chopper' Read has died at age 58 from liver cancer. Read's Twitter bio tells you nearly all you need to know about a man who was unashamed of the hard life he had led. "23 Years 9 Months Jail. Stabbed. Bashed. Shot. Run Over. 60 serves of shock treatment. Certified 3 times. Author. Artist. Actor."
Ocaholic have 11 nVidia graphics cards tested with latest 331.40 Beta drivers, bench marked on some of the latest games. Check out the stats here.
Executive Producer Joshua Howard of Crytek Studios has been interviewed on the upcoming online shooter WARFACE, check out the HD video on Youtube . Also, it seems the community at large wanted the women characters to be unrealistic, read more over on Eurogamer. They're that way because a male-dominated audience asked for them to be. And while Crytek recoiled at the "considerably more extreme" requests, applying an authenticity filter to rule out things such as high heels, impractical open-chested combat fatigues exposing plenty of cleavage were kept in.
For anyone that's never been to Melbourne, you can now go - from the comfort of your computer chair. Seems someone strapped some camera gear to two pedestrians, and there's now a live stream going of their journey. Check out Melbourne Remote Control Tourist!
Regarding the leaked Galaxy Round pictures from yesterday, the phone has now been officially released and confirmed. The phone will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean on a 2.3GHz quad-core processor, complete with 32GB or 64GB of internal memory under the hood. The Round will also sport a 13-megapixel rear-facing shooter and a 2MP front-facing for video chat, as well as a 2,800 mAh battery.
Amazon is now taking on PayPal allowing their Amazon accounts to login and pay using their account's balance, dubbed the 'Login and Pay with Amazon'. For Amazon, that means a (unknown) cut in the sales margin by acting as middleman. For businesses, it means an easy implementation of a widely used system (a "set of widgets and APIs" are all that's needed to get the pay service running on your site). And for customers -- all 215 million active Amazon account holders -- it means their Amazon login will now work across the web
Googles lifted some details on it's new Chromebook11, with some impressive features for such a low price. Unlike Windows and Mac laptops, Chromebooks rely heavily on continuous internet connections to run Gmail, Google Drive and other online services. Many apps don't run directly on the device but over the internet. The devices also have relatively little storage, as documents, photos and other files are supposed to be stored online.
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 10-October-2013 13:50:54 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Gigabyte G1 Sniper A88X Gaming Motherboard on Ninjalane.
Asus X79 DELUXE Motherboard on Hardware Secrets.
ASRock Z87E-ITX on Custom PC Review.
Graphics Cards:
AMD Radeon R9 270X & R7 260X on Neoseeker.
AMD Radeon R7 260X Versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost on Legit Reviews.
AMD Radeon R9 280X Graphics Card on Techgage.
MSI GeForce GTX 770 Gaming OC Edition on ThinkComputers.
Asus GTX 670 Direct CU Mini on LanOC.
Storage:
OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD on Custom PC Review.
SanDisk Extreme II 120GB RAID 0 SSD on TweakTown.
OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD on eTeknix.
OCZ Vertex 450 256GB SSD on APH Networks.
Corsair Force LS 240GB SSD on TweakTown.
HGST Travelstar 5K1500 1.5TB SATA III HDD on NikKTech.
Mach Xtreme Technology MX Express Driverless PCIe 2.0 x2 SSD on The SSD Review.
QNAP TS-669 PRO 6-Bay SMB NAS on TweakTown.
Cases:
In Win GT1 Mid Tower on eTeknix.
Lian Li PC-10N on LanOC.
NZXT H630 on Vortez.
Fractal Design ARC XL on OCC.
Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 on pcgamers.net.au
NZXT Phantom 530 on techPowerUp.
Cooler Master N400 on APH Networks.
Audio:
Razer Kraken 7.1 Surround Sound USB Gaming Headset (Video Review) on HardwareHeaven.
CM Storm Pulse-R Gaming Headset on Vortez.
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 9-October-2013 13:53:29 (GMT +10) - by Grec
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Classic gamers, rejoice: Amiga Games is going to be coming to iOS 7 later this year in time for the holiday season, according to an official release. Originally introduced in the late 1980s, the Commodore Amiga PC offered a variety of 16-bit games. ranging from Captain Planet and Lemmings to Shadow of the Beast
Two months before Edward Snowden blew the whistle on PRISM, The Attorney-General's Department prepared a secret briefing about PRISM in March and yet did nothing to reassure the public. Snowden's revelations showed that the US government had in place a global spying system which taps deep into millions of individuals' lives via social media platforms and email. It prompted questions about how widely the US government was sharing the information with its allies, including Australia.
Quick update regarding the Silk Road busts, police have now started targeting the dealers and users of the infamous website. Since alleged owner Ross Ulbricht's indictment last week, eight people in three different countries have been arrested in association with Silk Road. Authorities claim all these people were dealing drugs on the site.
There's been an apparent leak of images regarding the new Samsung Galaxy Round - And it's curved. The account, which has leaked images of devices in the past, posted an image that's believed to be the Samsung Galaxy Round. The device resembles the Galaxy S4, but it has slight dip in the middle that causes the phone to curve along a vertical axis (think of it curving sort of like a hot dog bun or curving a piece of paper that's situated in portrait mode).
Speaking of bendy phones, LG is releasing flexible phone batteries soon - And by flexible, it can be tied into a knot. LG is unveiling the first of its kind series of bendable or modifiable batteries. The company announced Tuesday that its LG Chem branch was successful in creating three new types of batteries -- curved, stepped, and cable.
Panasonic's pulling out of the Plasma TV market soon, planning an exit by March 2014. Panasonic had previously hinted that its retirement from the plasma business was nigh, telling CNET that its latest high-end plasma would likely be the last generation of plasma TV development the company would undertake.
CSIRAC, one of the worlds first computers, is now on display at the Melbourne museum after having been delivered via truck. Head here for a video on CSIRAC, and for a brief interview with Jurij Semkiw, a 60-year veteran of computing in Australia.
LG has also had it's new Nexus phone details leaked in a hefty 281-page service manual. The folks at Android Police have gotten their hands on a hefty, near-final draft of a 281-page service manual for the forthcoming device, which still technically bears the LG D821 model number. Really though, LG isn’t fooling anyone here. The document is chock full of diagrams and images (some of the device in various states of dis-assembly) that depict a very familiar-looking phone sporting some Nexus 7-like branding on its rear end.
Visit the forums to watch the conclusion of a certain bet between Asher and 007*.
And today's time waster is a amusing iPhone "Text in Progress" prank from Miscellaneous Mischief - Check it out here. They’ve built a little single serve website called “Infinite Text-In-Progress” that helps you trick your iPhone-toting friends into thinking they’re receiving a text. All it takes is a tiny animated gif that matches the text-in-progress symbol for the iPhone.
AMD R9 Series Graphics Card Reviews
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Tuesday, 8-October-2013 23:14:07 (GMT +10) - by booj
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AMD have taken the veil off of their "new" series of graphics cards. Here are a few reviews from around the web.
Anandtech: Asus R9-280X Direct CuII TOP & XFX R9-280X Double Dissipation.
Bit-tech: R9-260X, R9-270X & R9-280X.
eTeknix: R9-280X, R9-270X , R9-260X & Sapphire R9-280X.
Guru3D: R9-260X, R9-270X & R9-280X, Asus R9-280X DCuII & Gigabyte R9-280X Windforce.
[H]ardOCP: Asus R9-280X Direct CuII TOP.
Hardware Canucks: XFX R9-280X Double Dissipation.
Hardware Heaven: Asus R9-280X Direct Cu II TOP.
Hot Hardware: R9-260X, R9-270X & R9-280X.
PC Perspective: R9-260X, R9-270X & R9-280X.
techPowerUp: R9-260X, R9-270X & MSI R9-280X Gaming.
Techspot: R9-260X & R9-270X.
The Tech Report: R9-260X & R9-270X & R9-280X.
Toms Hardware: R9-260X, R9-270X & R9-280X.
TweakTown: R9-260X.
Vortez: R9-270X.
An interesting study from the University of South Florida has shown that red light cameras increase the number of accidents at intersections by 28%. The 2008 study found that they increase crashes and injuries as drivers attempt to abruptly stop at camera intersections. If used in Florida, cameras could potentially create even worse outcomes due to the state’s high percent of elderly who are more likely to be injured or killed when a crash occurs.
Whilst we're looking at studies, another from the London School of Economics and Political Science has found that piracy may be helping the entertainment community, rather than hurting it. While the entertainment industry lobbyists continue to state that piracy is hurting the industry, it isn’t uncommon to hear that it is actually doing the opposite. Author Neil Gaiman for example, noticed that when he was pirated, sales of his books went up. After releasing his book “American Gods” for free and letting new readers discover him, his sales spiked by 300% the following month.
Internet freedom is on the decline, according to 2013 Freedom on the Net report. Iran, Cuba, China and Syria were ranked as countries with the greatest restrictions. China, which blocks millions of websites and employs thousands-strong armies of censors, “led the way in expanding an elaborate technological apparatus for system internet censorship, while further increasing offline coercion and arrests to deter freedom of expression online.”
The New York Time have a fascinating read on the birth of the iPhone, how Jobs prepared before the launch, and Andy Grignon's story, a lead engineer at Apple - Thanks Owen for submitting this one. The auditorium where Jobs was rehearsing was off limits to all but a small group of executives. Jobs was so obsessed with leaks that he tried to have all the contractors Apple hired — from people manning booths and doing demos to those responsible for lighting and sound — sleep in the building the night before his presentation. Aides talked him out of it.
Fox News have unveiled their news room - And for some strange reason, it reminds me of Star Trek. In a video that could be mistaken for a College Humor or Saturday Night Live parody, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith walks viewers through the network's new setup, which includes workstations with 55-inch touchscreen monitors. In the video, journalists swipe through pages and apps, presumably collecting information for live reporting. "We call these BATs," Smith notes. "Big area touchscreens."
IO9 have some jaw dropping footage of Earth flying by during expeditions 28 and 29. Check out the HD version here, and head on over to the forums to discuss here. Check out the lightning in the first 20 seconds, thanks BlueRaven.
Monday Afternoon Reviews
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Monday, 7-October-2013 15:47:17 (GMT +10) - by booj
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Motherboards & CPUs:
Intel Core i7-4770K vs AMD FX-4170 Gaming-Performance on Ocaholic.
All Core i3 Models on Hardware Secrets.
MSI Z87-G43 on eTeknix.
Storage:
SanDisk X210 Business Class 512GB SSD on TweakTown.
Seagate Desktop SSHD 2TB hybrid drive on Tech Report.
Corsair Force Series LS 240GB SSD on The SSD Review.
RaidSonic ICY BOX IB-WRP201SD 4 In 1 WLAN Storage Station on NikKTech.
Cooling:
Thermaltake Commander F5 Fan Controller on TweakTown.
Raijintek Aidos CPU Heatsink on Frostytech.
Raijintek Aidos CPU Heatsink on techPowerUp.
Cases:
Corsair Obsidian 750D on Madshrimps.
Corsair Obsidian 750D on TweakTown.
Fractal Define XL R2 on LanOC.
Fractal Node 304 White on LanOC.
NZXT H230 Black on Legit Reviews.
Power Supplies:
Corsair RM750 on HardwareHeaven.
Cougar CMX V3 850W on PureOverclock.
OCZ Fatal1ty 750W on HardwareHeaven.
Cooler Master V850 850W on ThinkComputers.
Input etc:
Logitech G602 Wireless Gaming Mouse on techPowerUp.
Thermaltake MEKA G-Unit Mechanical Keyboard on OCC.
Misc:
Samsung Galaxy Gear on TechReviewSource.
Crucial Ballistix Sport XT DDR3 1866MHz 16GB Memory Kit on eTeknix.
CM Storm Pulse-R Aluminum Gaming Headset on Benchmark Reviews.
The infamous online black market, known has the Silk Road, has been shut down by the FBI. The only currency the Silk Road took was the Bitcoin - the value of which has been falling since the bust. An online marketplace founded in 2011, Silk Road facilitated commerce in illegal goods and services, including drugs, counterfeit currency and hacking services, with payments processed in the digital currency Bitcoin. Perhaps not coincidentally, the price of Bitcoin fell to about $US119 on Thursday, down from $US145 at the end of September.
Japan has started a pro hacker campaign, in order to hire more for their cyber security program. Japan needs about 80,000 more information security engineers than it currently has, while more than 160,000 of the 265,000 already involved in the service need further education, a government panel of experts on information security said in a long-term strategy it compiled in June to enhance the nation's capacity to deal with cyberwarfare.
Five of the new PlayStation 4 games have been shown at the Sydney EB Expo, ahead of the November 29 launch date for the console. Last night, we got some hands-on time with five PlayStation 4 games that will be available around the time of launch. (inFAMOUS Second Son is more of a Feb 2014 game). It was a surprisingly eclectic bunch, ranging from obligatory “AAA” sequels to bizarro indie concoctions.
Facebook has decided that finding housing in the Silicon Valley is pretty hard - So they've decided to build a $120 million 394-unit housing community within walking distance of Facebook's offices. Surprisingly a spokesperson for the company said employee retention was not the goal of this little venture."We're certainly excited to have more housing options closer to campus, but we believe that people work at Facebook because what they do is rewarding and they believe in our mission," she said.
Russia has announced that during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, they plan to have the FSB security service monitor ALL forms of communication from both spectators and athletes alike. Government procurement documents and tenders from Russian communication companies indicate that newly installed telephone and internet spying capabilities will give the FSB free rein to intercept any telephony or data traffic and even track the use of sensitive words or phrases mentioned in emails, webchats and on social media.
A Texas based company has released it's own ARM-based processors into the Arduino market, aimed at tinkerers, experimentalists, and hardware hackers. Because ARM chips are nearly universal in the smartphone market that Intel has been struggling to penetrate, they're a top competitive concern for Intel, and TI's move means it might not be Intel's Pentium-derived Quark chips that hobbyists end up with when looking for their next widget.
Speaking of hacking, Adobe's had the source code for Adobe Acrobat, Cold Fusion and other products stolen. In a blog post, Adobe Chief Security Officer Brad Arkin wrote:“Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. At this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems.”
Some good news for all Doctor Who fans, 106 long lost episodes have been uncovered in Ethiopia. It was feared the BBC ¬programmes from the 1960s – featuring the first two doctors William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton – had vanished for all time after the Beeb flogged off a load of old footage. But after months of ¬detective work the tapes have been unearthed at the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency. Doctor Who marathon, anyone?
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano has been taking photos from more than 420km above the Earth's surface, and the results are pretty spectacular. Check out his Twitter feed here for more photos.
Thanks to mpot and Kondaments this week! Remember daylight saving kicks in this week for affected states.
     
     
     
     
     
And if you're after more, check out this Wiki page which lists ALL "misc pics" news posts from the archive.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 4-October-2013 13:55:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Military thriller writer Tom Clancy has died aged 66. As well as a successful writer, Clancy also became closely associated with the world of video gaming. In the 1990s he founded Red Storm Entertainment, later bought by Ubisoft, which developed games based on Clancy's ideas. Blockbuster video game titles bearing his name included Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. Discussion here.
OCClub have a guide to overclocking an Intel 4770K, while PCStats cover repairing a notebook screen. PCSTATS will be fixing a cracked LCD screen on a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad notebook, the general procedures outlined here work for any notebook though.
Apparently last month in Norway the most popular new car was the Tesla S electric car. The figures illustrate strong interest in electric cars in a country ranked among the world's top ten petrol exporters. Norway has encouraged electric car sales with tax incentives, congestion charge exemptions, access to public transport lanes and free parking.
Owen sent word of some possible benchmarking shenanigans in Samsung's Galaxy Note 3. After a good bit of sleuthing, we can confidently say that Samsung appears to be artificially boosting the US Note 3's benchmark scores with a special, high-power CPU mode that kicks in when the device runs a large number of popular benchmarking apps. Samsung did something similar with the international Galaxy S 4's GPU, but this is the first time we've seen the boost on a US device. We also found a way to disable this special CPU mode, so for the first time we can see just how much Samsung's benchmark optimizations affect benchmark scores.
After a slightly embarrassing glitch, the Deep Impact comet mission has been lost. "Basically, it was a Y2K problem, where some software didn't roll over the calendar date correctly," said A'Hearn. The spacecraft's fault-protection software (ironically enough) would have misread any date after August 11, 2013, he said, triggering an endless series of computer reboots aboard Deep Impact. However it did complete its primary and secondary missions.
Here's a very cool on-board video from an eagle! More footage here.
Here's some yummy threads from our Geek Recipes forum:
Thursday Afternoon Reviews
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Thursday, 3-October-2013 17:33:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Storage:
Seagate Business Storage 1-Bay 3TB NAS on NikKTech.
WD My Cloud 2TB on Techgage.
Sony VAIO Pro 13 Touch Ultrabook on TheSSDReview.
Western Digital My Cloud on FutureLooks.
Motherboard & CPU:
MSI Z87 XPOWER on PCPerspective.
ASUS Maximus VI Extreme LGA 1150 on HardOCP.
Memory:
Mushkin Blackline 997123R 16GB on OCClub.
Patriot Viper 3 Series 8GB DDR3-2400 CL10 on FunkyKit.
Portable & Prebuilt:
HTC One Mini phone on TechSpot.
Google Nexus 7 (2013) Tablet on Tweaktown.
Samsung Galaxy S4 Smartphone on Tweaktown.
Cases:
Lian Li PC-D8000 mega cube on TechPowerUp.
Anidees A14 microATX on Vortez.
Cooler Master CM 690 III mid-tower on Guru3D.
Phanteks Enthoo Primo tower on HWCanucks.
Corsair Obsidian Series 750D Full Tower on HardOCP.
Power Supply:
Antec High Current Pro 850W on Ocaholic.
Antec High Current Platinum HCP-850 850W on LegitReviews.
Antec High Current Pro Platinum 850W on HardOCP.
Software:
Battlefield 4 Beta Gameplay and Performance Preview on Tweaktown.
ARMA III Video Card Performance and IQ on HardOCP.
Misc:
Asus RP-N53 Dual-Band Wireless N600 Range Extender on eTeknix.
Asus Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 soundcard on HardcoreWare.
GIGABYTE Force K7 Gaming Keyboard on TechPowerUp.
Wednesday Night
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Wednesday, 2-October-2013 20:39:00 (GMT +10) - by Grec
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Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is continuing the process of retiring soon. At the employee meeting yesterday Ballmer said this farewell wasn't about him, it was about the company. "It's about a company that is important, it's forward thinking, it's innovative," he said. Check out the link for a video of his farewell speech.
There has been a recent language study on Facebook of what we talk about - and according to the University of Pennsylvania, the vast majority of us are stereotypes. In general, women's Facebook talk centers around shopping, clothes, hair, and running away to Bermuda. (Actually, that last one may merely have been my own observation.) Men, on the other hand, talk about sports, war, gaming, sports, war, war gaming ... and breasts. More or less.
The launch of Grand Theft Auto V online has brought the usual day one launch issues, with players complaining of being locked out and connection issues. Rockstar Games itself predicted a buggy arrival for its game's online counterpart and said it bought new servers ahead of time to support the predicted demand, but on Tuesday players looking to commit online break-ins and heists were all but locked out.
Minecraft has recently been blamed for a 9 year old child bringing a steak knife, a sledgehammer, and a handgun to school. The boy's father reports that the gun could never be fired, as its firing pin had been removed, but that didn't stop the 9yr old from knowing where the firearm - and the magazine full of bullets - could be found.
Gizmodo has an amazing time lapse of Iceland - for some stunning footage, head here.
Whilst we're on the subject of giant frozen wastes, three bottles of rare, 19th century scotch has recently been recovered from, and then returned to, Antarctica. Bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, the Mackinlay bottles were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic 1907 Nimrod excursion to the Antarctic.
The 24th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland has seen the presentation of the International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance, which focus on the framework for assessing state surveillance in the context of international law and human rights norms. In summary, the Principles are legality, legitimate aim, necessity, adequacy, proportionality, judicial authority, and due process. They also consider user notification, transparency, public oversight, integrity of communications and systems as well as safeguards, both for international cooperation and against illegitimate access.
A Driver fix for CrossFire + Eyefinity/4K frame pacing issues will be coming this fall according to Raja Koduri, the new head of graphics hardware and software development at AMD. Koduri said that AMD is working on a fix for CrossFire and single-large-surface display configurations, like Eyefinity and tiled 4K monitors, for current Radeon graphics cards. He said AMD plans to deliver a driver with the fix this fall.
Wednesday Morning Reviews
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Wednesday, 2-October-2013 00:09:23 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Cooling:
Silverstone Argon AR01 Heatsink on Frostytech.
be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 CPU Cooler on HardwareHeaven.
XSPC Memory WaterBlock & Side Plate Set on ThinkComputers.
be quiet! Shadow Rock 2 CPU Cooler on PureOC.
BeQuiet! Shadow Rock 2 CPU cooler on Ocaholic.
Noctua 120mm NF-S12A (ULN, FLX, PWM) Fan on OCClub.
Video Cards:
ASUS GTX 760 DirectCU Mini OC on Vortez.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 760 OC 4GB V1 Review + SLI on Ocaholic.
Memory:
Kingston 10th Anniversary HyperX 16GB 2400MHz on OCClub.
Patriot Viper 3 DDR3-2400 8GB Memory Kit on ThinkComputers.
ADATA XPG V2 RAM DDR3-2400 8GB Memory Kit on BenchmarkReviews.
Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x8GB DDR3-1866 CL9 1.5V on Ocaholic.
Motherboard & CPU:
Gigabyte Z87X-D3H LGA1150 Motherboard on OCIA.
Overclocking The Ivy Bridge Extreme Core i7 4930K on NinjaLane.
Gigabyte F2A85XN-WIFI on LegitReviews.
Software:
F1 2013 (PC) on HWHeaven.
Grand Theft Auto V Review: A Triple Dose of Satirical Fun on HotHardware.
Cases:
Corsair Obsidian Series 350D on LanOC.
Corsair Carbide 330R on OCClub.
Fractal Design Node 304 White SFF Chassis on MissingRemote.
Silverstone Fortress FT04 on TechSpot.
Input Etc:
Tt eSPORTS Meka G-Unit Illuminated keyboard on LanOC.
DIATEC Filco Red Majestouch-2 Soft Linear Action Keyboard on MadShrimps.
Tesoro Colada G3NL keyboard on Ocaholic.
Genius Speed Wheel 6MT Racing Wheel APHNetworks.
TTesports Meka G-unit mechanical keyboard on RBMods.
Tesoro Colada G3NL on Ocaholic.
Corsair Vengeance K95 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on LegitReviews.
Power Supply:
Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 700W PSU on PCPerspective.
Cougar PowerX 550W on TechARP.
Audio Visual:
Bitmore Universal Bluetooth* Wireless Audio Adapter on BenchmarkReviews.
Zeiss Cinemizer OLED 3D VR Video Glasses on HotHardware.
Tesoro Kuven 7.1 Virtual Surround Gaming Headset on NikKTech.
AMD & NVIDIA 4K Gaming with the ASUS PQ321Q on OCClub.
Misc:
Vantec 3-Port USB 3.0 Hub w/ Gigabit Ethernet on Tweaktown.
HP Envy Touchsmart 15 notebook on TechReviewSource.
Tuesday Afternoon
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Tuesday, 1-October-2013 13:47:22 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Steam recently announced SteamOS, Steam Machines and a new Steam Controller for gaming. As we’ve been working on bringing Steam to the living room, we’ve come to the conclusion that the environment best suited to delivering value to customers is an operating system built around Steam itself. SteamOS combines the rock-solid architecture of Linux with a gaming experience built for the big screen. It will be available soon as a free stand-alone operating system for living room machines. There's a thread discussing SteamOS here and some editorials about it all here on TechCrunch and here on TechReport.
John McAfee has emerged from his secret billionaire hideout with a gadget to shield you from the NSA. The gadget might sound like something straight out of a Bond movie, but McAfee wants to build it and sell it for less than $100. "There will be no way [for the government] to tell who you are or where you are," McAfee says. Effectively, it works by creating small private networks that act as a dark web that's inaccessible to others. More here.
There's another challenge happening in the forums: a Low Clock 3D11 Physics Challenge. The objective is simple- produce the highest 3D11 physics score with a fixed cpu clock. It will have classes as follows: Ivy-E, Sandy-E, Haswell, Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, all AMD hex cores or higher, all other AMD(ambient), all other Intel(ambient), Intel sub-zero and AMD sub zero.
Wired reckon that leaving your laptop plugged in all the time is bad for the battery. In order to squeeze as much life out of your lithium-polymer battery, once your laptop hits 100 percent, unplug it. In fact, you should unplug it before that. Surely the laptop's power management should be dealing with all that?
Venerable science mag PopSci have turned off their comments system online, apparently for the good of science itself. Another, similarly designed study found that just firmly worded (but not uncivil) disagreements between commenters impacted readers' perception of science. If you carry out those results to their logical end--commenters shape public opinion; public opinion shapes public policy; public policy shapes how and whether and what research gets funded--you start to see why we feel compelled to hit the "off" switch.
I didn't even know the ban existed, but China is now allowing game console sales for the first time in 13 years. Gamers in China have won a key victory they've been after for years: the ability to buy consoles. China's State Council, the country's top decision maker, announced on Friday that companies could eventually start selling game consoles across China. In order to get the hardware on store shelves, however, the companies would need to have their devices approved by the Ministry of Culture. It's not clear what might cause a particular console to be banned from sale.
Kotaku have an article on the death of LucasArts. The once-revered studio responsible for the production and distribution of Star Wars video games shut down in April, and although the name lives on for licensing purposes, the developers are gone. Promising games have been canceled, staff have been scattered, and Star Wars is now in the hands of Electronic Arts, where it will be used for a Battlefront reboot and an action-adventure game helmed by the studio Visceral.
Tuesday Morning Reviews
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Tuesday, 1-October-2013 01:20:19 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Cooler Master CM Storm Pulse-R Aluminum Gaming Headset on eTeknix.
Creative Airwave wireless speaker on Vortez.
Ozone Rage 7HX Headset (White) on FunkyKit.
Asus Xonar U7 sound card on Guru3D.
Power Supply:
Thortech Thunderbolt 1200W Semi Modular on eTeknix.
Corsair RM Series 850W on TechPowerUp.
OCZ Fatal1ty Series 750W on PureOC.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Bitmore Qi Wireless Samsung Galaxy S3 Charging Kit on BenchmarkReviews.
Asus N550JV-DB72T laptop on TechReviewSource.
HP Envy Rove 20 tablet on TechReviewSource.
Nokia Lumia 1020 41 Megapixel Camera Phone on LegitReviews.
Storage:
ASUSTOR AS-304T 4-bay NAS Server for Home Office on MadShrimps.
Adaptec (by PMC) ASR-8885 12Gb/s PCIe RAID Adapter on TheSSDReview.
Buffalo LinkStation 420 8TB "Cloud" Storage on Tweaktown.
Synology DiskStation DS213j 2-Bay NAS Server on BigBruin.
TerraMaster F2 NAS 2 NAS Appliance on Tweaktown.
HGST Travelstar 7K1000 1TB SATA III HDD on NikKTech.
Corsair Force LS Series 240GB SSD on LegitReviews.
Kingwin EZ-Dock 2 USB 3.0 Docking Station on Tweaktown.
Asustor AS-304T Atom-powered NAS on LegionHW.
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