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October 2014 |
Thanks to HyRax1, aftahours, takai and EvilGenius this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Data Retention Bill Introduced to Parliament
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Friday, 31-October-2014 13:09:55 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Government have introduced the Data Retention bill to Parliament. Malcolm Turnbull's speech is here. The bill will require companies providing telecommunications services in Australia, carriers and internet service providers to keep a limited, prescribed set of telecommunications data for two years. The bill amends the Telecommunications Interception and Access Act 1979 (interception act), and the Telecommunications Act 1997 (telecommunications act). Coverage here and here. Telstra and Optus have apparently welcomed the legislation, but Electronic Frontiers Australia are concerned about misuse by copyright trolls, and the AFP confirm that targeting illegal downloaders is definitely something that will be aided by this. The Opposition has confirmed that it will move to delay the debate and passage of the legislation until 2015 to allow proper scrutiny.
Discussion continues in this thread.
Friday Afternoon
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Friday, 31-October-2014 13:05:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A research company says that female gamers outnumber males, on PCs. For all practical purposes it's a 50/50 split, but once you get into decimal places, female PC gamers do slightly outnumber males. Women represent 50.2 percent of PC gamers across all genres, including social (Facebook, Kongregate), versus 49.9 percent for men. The scales dip slightly further toward women when it comes to the RPG genre, with 53.6 percent of the market made up of women, while men represent 46.5 percent. In the FPS and MMO genres, however, 66 percent of players are men.
The AFP has expressed concerns about camouflaged internet. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has said that the anonymous nature of the internet continues to be a concern for the law-enforcement agency, and that it is reliant on global partnerships with law-enforcement agencies around the world to continue to effectively tackle crime online.
PS4 users might want to hold off on firmware updates, with reports of widespread bricking. Version 2.00, codenamed "Masamune," boasted a number of notable feature updates including uploading gameplay videos to YouTube, sharing games with friends over the Internet and system themes. However, the update has been tainted by widespread reports that putting the system into standby mode (now dubbed "Rest Mode") prevents the console from reawakening. Both of the consoles in our office encountered the same issue. Bugs with YouTube functionality have also been reported.
HardOCP have been playing with GeForce GTX 980 SLI. What do you get when you take two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 video cards, configure those for SLI, and set those at your feet for four weeks? We give our thoughts and opinions about actually using these GPUs in our own system for four weeks with focus on performance, sound profile, and heat generated by these cards.
A few people sent word that YouTube seems to now support 60FPS.
Motherboard:
MSI Z97 Gaming 9 AC Motherboard on Modders-Inc
ECS Z97-PK Deluxe mATX Motherboard on Legit Reviews
Supermicro X10DRi-T (Intel C612) Server Motherboard on TweakTown
ASUS X99-A Motherboard on Hardware Secrets
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 Motherboard on PureOverclock
ASRock X99 WS Motherboard on ThinkComputers.org
ASRock X99 Extreme11 Motherboard on The SSD Review
Storage:
LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2 6TB External Desktop Storage Device on TweakTown
Seagate 1200 SSD 400GB SAS 12Gb/s on NikKTech
LaCie D2 Thunderbolt 2 128GB SSD Storage Upgrade Kit on TweakTown
SanDisk Ultra II 480GB SSD on TweakTown
Corsair Voyager Air 2 Mobile Wireless Storage 1 TB on Madshimps
Network:
D-Link DIR-880L Wireless AC1900 Gigabit Cloud Router on Legit Reviews
Linksys WRT SE4008 Eight-Port Gigabit Switch on TweakTown
Audio:
SteelSeries Siberia V3 on LanOC
ROCCAT Kave XTD Stereo Gaming Headset on Benchmark Reviews
Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Headphone on ModSynergy
Corsair Gaming H1500 on Hardware Heaven
Videocard:
HIS Liquid-Cooled R9 290X Hybrid IceQ on Techspot
PowerColor R9 285 TurboDuo OC on Ocaholic
Sapphire R9 285 Dual-X OC Video Card on Techware Labs
ASUS GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX OC Video Card on TweakTown
GALAX GeForce GTX 980 SOC on Guru3D
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4G on Ocaholic
HTPC:
Pivos XIOS XS Entertainment Center on Madshrimps
Steiger Dynamics Maven Core HTPC on PC Perspective
Cooling:
NZXT Kraken X41 Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.org
Fractal Design Core 3300 Mid-Tower Chassis on eTeknix
RAM:
Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB 1866MHz DDR3 Memory Kit on FutureLooks
Func MS-2 Mouse on Ocaholic
PSU:
Seasonic Platinum Series 1050W on Tech Powerup
Corsair HX1000i Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Portable:
NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet on Overclockers Club
Moto X (2nd Gen) Smartphone on Hot Hardware
Wednesday Night
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Wednesday, 29-October-2014 23:33:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Telstra have shut down GameArena, as promised last month. The website itself hasn’t been fully functional for a while now, but it’s sad to see the final nails being put into the coffin. I think most of us reading this site have, at one time or another, played games using GameArena’s servers. I know I have. An email sent to Telstra through retail communications stated that GameArena.com.au “no longer fits in Telstra Media’s strategy”. If you go to the domain now you just get a message about Google Play.
iiNet will be expanding their free WiFi to Victoria. The telco pushed go on the first three wi-fi regions - in the Melbourne, Ballarat and Bendigo CBDs - today, adding to the list of cities across the country where the ISP has been contracted to roll out free wi-fi networks under various digital economy-boosting schemes. I used the free WiFi in Adelaide a few weeks ago and it was pretty cool to be exploring the city and not using up my mobile data allowance.
If you're feeling like a flashback, there's a History of Linux article from a hacker's (as in tinkerer's) perspective on LinuxUser. The original code of Linux was written for fun, or in Eric Raymond’s phrase, to ‘scratch the itch’ of Linus Torvalds, and later to satisfy the enthusiasm and programming itch of an assortment of hackers and hobbyists who, for the most part, had grown up in the age of the ZX80 and the BBC Micro, Acorns and Apricots, for which the code was often available – and hackable.
Tweaktown have an android smartphone showdown posted, covering the Galaxy S5, Note 3, Xperia Z2, G3 and Nexus 5. We pit five of the best phones on the market against one another, in a battle of the flagship Android smartphone showdown. Who takes the benchmark crown?
This only applies to US citizens but it's interesting anyway - a Pentium 4 class action suit. A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit alleging that Intel manipulated the performance benchmark scores for its first-generation Pentium 4 processors and that HP aided and abetted Intel’s allegedly unlawful conduct. Intel and HP deny any liability and all claims of misconduct and Intel contends that the performance benchmarks challenged by Plaintiffs fairly measured the performance of the Pentium 4 processor.
If you've been following the Rosetta mission to land a probe on a comet in November, you might enjoy this video which is a cross between a promo for the mission, a scifi trailer and an inspirational film. Based in humanity’s future, it is not clear what powers the master and apprentice possess, but they obviously have powers way beyond our comprehension, making the cutting edge CGI beautiful to watch.
Tuesday Night Reviews
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Tuesday, 28-October-2014 23:55:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Input Etc:
Tt eSport PoseidonZ keyboard on ocaholic.
Roccat Kave XTD mouse on HWHeaven.
Audio Visual:
Y-Cam Bullet HD 1080 (2nd Generation) camera on Vortez.
Tt eSports Verto headset on TechnologyX.
Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
HMDX Craze Bluetooth Earbuds on LegitReviews.
Gigabyte FORCE H3X Headset on PureOC.
Gigabyte Force H3X Gaming Headset on eTeknix.
Storage:
SanDisk Ultra II 240 GB SSD on Guru3D.
Intel 530 Series 480GB SSD on Tweaktown.
QNAP HS-251 Fanless NAS on TechPowerUp.
Transcend MTS800 M.2 2280 SATA SSD 128GB on TheSSDReview.
Cases:
Silverstone Fortress FT05 on BenchmarkReviews.
Phanteks Enthoo EVOLV on ThinkComputers.
DeepCool Steam Castle Micro ATX on NikKTech.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on MegaTechNews.
Alienware Area-51: Triangular, Tri-SLI GTX 980, Haswell-E prebuilt machine on HotHardware.
ECS LIVA Windows Based Mini PC on PCPerspective.
PC Specialist Vortex 440 System prebuilt PC on eTeknix.
Apple iPhone 6 Plus Smartphone on Tweaktown.
Cooling:
SilverStone SST-AR06 Low-profile CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Cooler Master Nepton 240M all-in-one watercooler on ocaholic.
Video Cards:
HIS Radeon R9 290X Hybrid IceQ 4GB (Liquid Cooled) on LegionHW.
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 G1 on ThinkComputers.
Misc:
Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR4 memory on Vortez.
D-Link DHP-339AV PowerLine 3-Port Network Kit on ModSynergy.
Asus Maximus Vii Hero Motherboard on TechWareLabs.
Chieftec A135 Series APS-850CB PSU on ocaholic.
Monday Afternoon
(2 Comments)
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Monday, 27-October-2014 17:11:39 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Woz is now a UTS professor. Apple co-founder Steve 'Woz' Wozniak has joined University of Technology Sydney as an adjunct professor, joining the university's 'Magic Lab.' The appointment marks the first time Wozniak, who is widely credited for designing the Apple I and II computers, has accepted an adjunct appointment at any university.
Senator Ludlum meanwhile is rapping about data retention.. really. The full video is here. Greens senator Scott Ludlam has appeared in a rap video taking on the Coalition's data retention laws. Guardian Australia reproduces the music without comment or judgment. Ludlam raps on what he sees as a 'fascist fuckfest of Orwellian proportions' and threatens to 'smack down their laws'.
A solar car built by Australian students has broken the speed record for electric vehicles, thanks JC. With a speed of 106.966 kilometres an hour, a solar car known as eVe is now officially the fastest electric vehicle over a distance of 500 kilometres in the world - and it was built entirely by undergraduate engineering students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia.
Gunna spotted this one about plans for an internet levy in Hungary. Hungary’s Economy Minister Mihály Varga has on Tuesday submitted to Parliament a draft on changes to the tax regime to be implemented in 2015. An amendment of the telecom law is also included, according to which the telecom tax would be extended to Internet services. The tax will be proportionate to data traffic and every gigabyte started will cost 150 forints.
Google has launched a new email client, Inbox. Today, Google has launched a hybrid new email service called ‘Inbox’ that blends communication along with lifestyle integration. Think of Gmail mixed with Google Now and a dash of Siri. Accordingly, the Google Inbox is designed to focus on what really matters.
The Queen has published her first tweet, which is very exciting. Signing herself Elizabeth R., for regina or queen, she welcomed visitors to a new Information Age gallery focused on the evolution of modern communications at the Science Museum in London.
It seems the lawyers chasing people for downloading Dallas Buyers Club are not bothering with Optus and Telstra. Online pirates on the Telstra and Optus networks can breathe easy for now, while those downloading illegal copies of movies over iiNet and smaller providers may soon receive an invoice for up to $5000 if an unusual legal case in the Federal Court is successful.
Mpot sent in this response from FTDI about bricking chips last week: "The recently release driver release has now been removed from Windows Update so that on-the-fly updating cannot occur. The driver is in the process of being updated and will be released next week. This will still uphold our stance against devices that are not genuine, but do so in a non-invasive way that means that there is no risk of end user’s hardware being directly affected." More info here and here.
Tolkien fans will enjoy this new in-flight safety video from Air New Zealand, thanks AirQ.
Storage:
Silicon Power Armor A30 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive on NikkTech
Silicon Power Mobile OTG X20 USB 2.0 Flash Drive on Madshrimps
Silicon Power Marvel M70 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown
Transcend ESD400 Portable USB 3.0 SSD on TweakTown
Thecus N2310 Network Attached Storage on APH Networks
Network:
Buffalo AirStation AC433 WMR-433 Travel Router on TweakTown
D-Link DSP-W110 Wi-Fi Smart Plug on TweakTown
Case:
BitFenix Shadow Mid-Tower Chassis on eTeknix
In Win D-Frame Mini on Techspot
Cooltek Coolcube Maxi on ocaholic
Audio/Visual:
ASUS Xonar U5 on Vortez
LUXA2 E-One Aluminum Headset Holder on Think Computers
Takstar HD5500 Headphones on techPowerUp
Rikomagic MK902 Network Media Player on NikKTech
Keyboard/Mouse:
KUL ES-87 Mechanical Keyboard on Mikesgear
Cougar 700M Aluminum Gaming Mouse & Speed Mouse Pad on PureOC
Mionix Naos 8200 & Sargas 400 on ocaholic
Motherboard:
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5 (LGA 1150) Motherboard on eTeknix
MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC on Hardware Heaven
MSI X99S SLI PLUS On Linux on Phoronix
Misc:
Falling Skies: The Game (PS3) on Gaming Nexus
Cooler Master Nepton 280L AIO CPU Cooler on Legit Reviews
Deepcool DQ1000 Quanta Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666MHZ 16GB Quad Channel Memory Kit on Bjorn3D
Thanks to primalnuke and t1mbot this week!
     
     
     
     
     
Windows Bricking Fake FTDI Chips?
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Friday, 24-October-2014 14:14:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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A recent Windows Update driver is bricking certain USB serial chips, affecting Arduino users and others, thanks mpot. It's not immediately clear how or why the drivers are acting this way. It's possible that they're somehow detecting counterfeits and deliberately reprogramming them. It's also possible that the drivers are sending the same commands to both good and bad parts, and these commands just happen to cause bad things in counterfeit parts while being harmless on the real ones. We've asked FTDI for comment but received nothing as yet.
Here's some more info: real vs fake chips on zeptobars, some early coverage on Hackaday and adafruit, discussion on EEVblog's forums and slashdot. There's also a telling twitter conversation with the manufacturer.
Friday Afternoon
(7 Comments)
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Friday, 24-October-2014 13:01:25 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Hollywood are apparently coming to get Aussies, or at least, ones on certain ISPs who downloaded a certain movie recently. THE makers of the film Dallas Buyers Club are hunting Australians who downloaded or shared the movie illegally. They’ve filed a discovery order in the Federal Court in a bid to get names and contact details from five Aussie telcos: iiNet, Internode, Dodo, Amnet and Adam Internet.
But there's good news close to home too, with Australian World of Warcraft servers on the way soon. Next Tuesday there will be an extended period of maintenance. When the servers come back online, you’ll find the Oceanic servers you were playing on are now entirely relocated to Sydney, Australia, and you can enjoy your beautiful new low ping.
I'm always mildly paranoid about using public WiFi, but this guy takes it to a new level. The waitress serves us our coffee and hands us the WiFi password. After Slotboom is connected, he is able to provide all the visitors with an internet connection and to redirect all internet traffic through his little device. There's another article suggesting some ways to more safely use public WiFi.
Here's an interesting one about ethernet in cars. A move toward Ethernet reflects the fact that in-vehicle electronics are becoming more sophisticated to support autonomous driving, exterior and interior cameras, embedded displays and infotainment systems. By 2020, many cars will have 50 to 60 Ethernet ports and even entry-level vehicles will have 10, according to a study by research firm Frost & Sullivan. (Premium vehicles will likely have more than 100 Ethernet nodes by then.)
PCPerspective checked out performance in Civilization: Beyond Earth. Beyond Earth is definitely going to be more CPU-bound than the other games that we tend to use in our benchmark suite, but the fact that this game is new, shiny, and even has a Mantle implementation (AMD's custom API) makes interesting for at least a look at the current state of performance. Both NVIDIA and AMD sent have released drivers with specific optimization for Beyond Earth as well. LegitReviews posted their results also.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 24-October-2014 01:56:58 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Tt eSPORTS Captain Dracco Gaming Headset on ThinkComputers.
Tesoro Kuven Devil A1 7.1 Virtual Gaming Headset on Tweaktown.
Bass Egg VERB Bluetooth Vibration Portable Speaker on NikKTech.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer AM3+ Motherboard on BenchmarkReviews.
Supermicro X10SRH-CLN4F Haswell server board on SOTechDesign.
Low-cost CPU Duel: Sempron 2650 vs. Celeron J1800 on HWHeaven.
ASRock X99 OC Formula on ocaholic.
ASUS X99 Deluxe on OCClub.
MSI X99S Gaming 9 AC on PCPerspective.
Video Cards:
MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G on Bjorn3D.
Gaming at 4K: Gainward GeForce GTX 970 SLI Performance on TechSpot.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Offers Great Linux Performance on Phoronix.
Power Supply:
Dark Power Pro 10 850W on ThinkComputers.
Enermax Revolution XT 530W Semi-Modular on eTeknix.
be quiet! Straight Power 10 CM 800W on TechPowerUp.
Cooler Master V1200 Platinum 1200W Modular on eTeknix.
Thermaltake Toughpower DPS 750W Modular on eTeknix.
Input Etc:
OCUK Cherry MX Keycaps and Rubber O-Ring Mod on eTeknix.
ASUS Echelon Keyboard on Vortez.
Gamdias APOLLO Extension Optical Gaming Mouse on Bjorn3D.
Storage:
SanDisk Ultra 2 SSD on HardwareHeaven.
Buffalo MiniStation Air 2 Wireless Mobile Storage Drive on Tweaktown.
SanDisk Extreme Pro 480GB Solid State Drive on eTeknix.
Seagate Enterprise Capacity 2TB 2.5 HDD v3 2TB on Tweaktown.
Samsung XS1715 1.6TB 2.5-inch NVMe PCIe Enterprise SSD on Tweaktown.
Crucial MX100 512GB & Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSDs on SilentPCReview.
Portable & Prebuilt:
Preview: ASUS G751 Gaming Notebook on HotHardware.
Intel NUC mini-PC on LanOC.
CyberPower PC FANG Battlebox-I 970 System on eTeknix.
Cooling:
Thermalright Macho Zero Passive CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
NZXT Kraken X31 all-in-one watercooler on OCAholic.
Deepcool GF120 Cooling Fan on APHNetworks.
Cooler Master Nepton 240M CPU Cooler on Techgage.
DeepCool GamerStorm GF120 fan on Vortez.
Deepcool Maelstrom 240 Liquid Cooler on NeoSeeker.
Cooler Master's Nepton 240M liquid cooler on TechReport.
Cases:
Silverstone Grandia GD10 HTPC Chassis on eTeknix.
Silverstone Fortress FT05 on LegionHW.
BitFenix Pandora Micro ATX chassis on Guru3D.
Fractal Design Core 2500 on ocaholic.
Fractal Core 3300 ATX Mid Tower on Modders-Inc.
Thermaltake Core V71 on TechWareLabs.
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 22-October-2014 14:50:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a few more reviews and projects from people in the forums:
Wednesday Morning
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Wednesday, 22-October-2014 10:42:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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The Minister for Justice has released a report into identity theft in Australia. In 2011-12 more Australians reported being a victim of identity crime than victims of robbery, motor vehicle theft, household break-ins or assault. New figures in a Commonwealth Government report released today show that each year between 750,000 to 900,000 people fall victim to identity crime resulting in financial loss.
Mozilla will be turning off SSLv3 in Firefox due to the POODLE attack. In late September, a team at Google discovered a serious vulnerability in SSL 3.0 that can be exploited to steal certain confidential information, such as cookies. This vulnerability, known as “POODLE”, is similar to the BEAST attack. By exploiting this vulnerability, an attacker can gain access to things like passwords and cookies, enabling him to access a user’s private account data on a website.
The Nokia mobile phone brand will be going away soon, with Microsoft changing it over to Microsoft Lumia. Microsoft has been slowly redirecting some Nokia pages over to Microsoft.com, and many would probably have guessed that Microsoft Lumia was a safe bet to replace the Nokia brand on devices. While the Nokia brand will of course live on, given that the Finish company still exists as a standalone entity (it launched HERE maps for Android just today), it’s a notable development nonetheless.
It sounds like they will also have a smartwatch soon, thanks mpot. According to Forbes, Microsoft could launch the device within the next few weeks, with a focus on health. According to the report, the device will passively track its user's heart rate, and give the company a platform for building health and other apps on.
It turns out that publically threatening to kill Gabe Newell will get your game dropped from Steam. It seems Maulbeck (using the ill-chosen Halloween-themed name "Mike Murderbeck") was a little upset that Steam's promotional carousel referred to Paranautical Activity as being an Early Access title, shortly after it had been reclassified as a full release.
Mpot also sent in this story about cities building their own gigabit networks. More than two dozen cities in 19 states announced today that they're sick of big telecom skipping them over for internet infrastructure upgrades and would like to build gigabit fiber networks themselves and help other cities follow their lead. The Next Centuries Cities coalition, which includes a couple cities that already have gigabit fiber internet for their residents, was devised to help communities who want to build their own broadband networks navigate logistical and legal challenges to doing so.
Here's an interesting one about Siri and an autistic boy. That Siri. She doesn’t let my communications-impaired son get away with anything. Indeed, many of us wanted an imaginary friend, and now we have one. Only she’s not entirely imaginary.
RAM:
Crucial DDR4-2133 DRx4 RDIMM Memory on TweakTown
Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3-1866-CL10 1.50V on ocaholic
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 on HardwareHeaven
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 3300MHz DDR4 on Legit Reviews
Storage:
Kingston HyperX Fury 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech
Toshiba TransMemory Pro EXII 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on TweakTown
Thecus N2560 Dual-bay SOHO NAS on Techgage
Western Digital My Passport Pro 2 TB Portable (Thunderbolt) Hard Disk Drive on Techarp
Samsung 845DC PRO 800GB Enterprise SSD on TweakTown
Kingmax M.2 2242 SATA SSD Review (128GB) on The SSD Review
Toshiba 2.5-inch 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive on eTeknix
Seagate Enterprise Performance 15K HDD v4 450GB Enterprise on TweakTown
Crucial MX100 512GB & Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSDs on Silent PC Review
Videocard:
ASUS STRIX GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card on eTeknix
GeForce GTX 970 cards from MSI and Asus on Techreport
Palit GeForce GTX 980 Super Jetstream on Guru3D
ZOTAC GTX 780 AMP! Edition Graphics Card on Techware Labs
ASUS STRIX GTX 980 OC 4 GB on techPowerUp
PSU:
Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
be quiet! Straight Power 10 700W on PureOverclock
Software:
Windows 10 Technical Preview on Techreport
Windows 10 Hands-On on Technology X
Borderlands: Pre-Sequel Preview on Techgage
Systems:
ECS LIVA Mini PC Kit on Madshrimps
Lenovo Erazer x510 Gaming PC on Hot Hardware
Motherboard:
MSI X99S Gaming 7 on ocaholic
GIGABYTE GA-X99-SOC Force Motherboard on TweakTown
Case:
Antec ISK 600 on Techpowerup
Deepcool Steam Castle Case on ThinkComputers.org
Cooling:
Cooler Master Nepton 240M Liquid Radiator on Benchmark Reviews
Thermalright Silver Arrow IB-E on ocaholic
Cooler Master Nepton 240M on Guru3D
Misc:
Intel Pentium G3258 on Technology X
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on Techspot
MadCatz R.A.T. TE (Tournament Edition) Gaming Mouse on eTeknix
Photography Gallery
(1 Comments)
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Monday, 20-October-2014 20:39:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in our Photography Gallery forum.
Microsoft have withdrawn another buggy update. The update released as described in Microsoft Security Advisory 2949927 added SHA-2 hash algorithm signing and verification for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. It was one of three proactive security feature updates released on Tuesday in addition to the eight patches of Windows and Office. Meanwhile Apple have released 144 security patches of their own.
Apple are apparently not interested in making a touchscreen Mac. But if you want to see what's inside the new 5K Retina iMac, IFIXIT have opened one up. Think of the most colorful and radiant display you’ve ever seen. Now, discard that memory and stare at Apple’s newest iMac Intel 27” with Retina 5K Display. We're not talking 1080p or 4K, we're talking about 5K—millions and millions of pixels on a 27-inch display. Will the addition of a high-resolution display affect the repairability of the newest iMac Intel 27”? Let’s find out!
While our politicians debate the NBN, South Korea is preparing to roll out 10Gbps broadband. SK Broadband will introduce its new 10 gigabit per second Internet service at the Oct. 20 Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunications Union to be held at Busan’s BEXCO Center, in partnership with the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National Information Society Agency.
A few people sent in this bizarre lock. I'm not really into the whole "lockpicking as a hobby" thing, but that's pretty cool.
From drayzen: There's a pretty cool game I've backed on Kickstarter called Human Resources, being made by the guys that made Planetary Annihilation. Unfortunately it's looking like it's going to fall short of its funding goal, which is both surprising and disappointing as it looks great! Maybe some OCAU backers could help get it across the line...?
Portable:
Maingear Pulse 15 Gaming Laptop on Techspot
LG G3 vs Samsung Galaxy S5 on LanOC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M on PC Perspective
Apple iPhone 6 Plus Smartphone on TweakTown
PSU:
Chieftec Navitas 1250W GPM-1250C on ocaholic
Deepcool DQ750 Quanta Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Cooling:
Gelid SpeedTouch 6 Fan Controller on eTeknix
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate AIO CPU Cooler on HardOCP
Misc:
Lenovo ThinkStation P300 Tower Workstation on TweakTown
Logitech G502 PROTEUS CORE on Vortez
Crucial DDR4-2133 DRx4 RDIMM Memory on TweakTown
Linksys SE4008 Router on HardwareHeaven
Storage:
SanDisk Optimus Eco SSD RAID on TweakTown
QNAP SilentNAS HS-251 2-Bay NAS on eTeknix
Silicon Power Marvel M70 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on APH Networks
Audio/Visual:
SteelSeries Siberia V3 Headphones on Vortez
Compro TN900W Camera on vortez
Elgato Game Capture HD60 on Gaming Nexus
Motherboard:
ASUS X99-A Motherboard on ocaholic
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 LGA 2011-v3 Motherboard on HardOCP
Thanks to EvilGenius, mpot and axe this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Afternoon
(9 Comments)
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Friday, 17-October-2014 13:32:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Google have unveiled Android 5.0 Lollipop. As previewed at Google I/O, Lollipop is our largest, most ambitious release on Android with over 5,000 new APIs for developers. Lollipop is designed to be flexible, to work on all your devices and to be customized for you the way you see fit. And just like Android has always been, it’s designed to be shared.
There's also some new hardware to go with the new OS. The Internet giant on Wednesday introduced the Nexus 9, a tablet with an 8.9-inch display manufactured by Taiwanese hardware maker HTC, the Nexus 6, a smartphone with a 6-inch display made by Motorola Mobility, and the Nexus Player, a streaming media player by Asus and the first device running Android TV.
Apple have released OS X 10.10 Yosemite. iOS continues to dominate Apple’s business in terms of unit sales, revenue, and profits. Last year, some Apple watchers had openly wondered whether Apple would even bother updating the look of OS X. And yet for the past several years, Apple has loudly and publicly insisted that it remains committed to the Mac as a strong, independent platform. Yosemite aims to fulfill that commitment—but in an interesting way.
They too have new hardware including a 5K Retina iMac display. The good news is that this iMac is everything you’ve been hoping for if you’ve been waiting patiently for Retina iMacs since the first Retina MacBook Pro was introduced back in 2012. At around 217 PPI, the screen has the same pixel density as the 220 PPI 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. Looking at that laptop's screen tells you most of what you need to know about this one, though obviously it's physically much larger.
Tweaktown spent a little time overclocking GTX 980s in SLI. With our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 4GB SLI video card setup running perfectly, we overclock it to see just how much performance we can get out of it.
They also have a guide to overclocking the i7 5960X. Today Steve looks at overclocking Intel's first 8-core desktop CPU, the Core i7 5960X. If you need some help getting started with X99, take a look.
HotHardware meanwhile looked at Android performance on Intel x86 tablets. For the past few years, Intel has promised that its various low-power Atom-based processors would usher in a wave of low-cost Android and Windows mobile products that could compete with ARM-based solutions from its major competitors. And for years, we've seen no more than a trickle of hardware, often with limited availability and/or questionable pricing. Now, that's finally beginning to change.
An Australian team has set new records for quantum computing accuracy. Two research teams working in the same laboratories at UNSW Australia have found distinct solutions to a critical challenge that has held back the realisation of super powerful quantum computers. The teams created two types of quantum bits, or "qubits" – the building blocks for quantum computers – that each process quantum data with an accuracy above 99%. The two findings have been published simultaneously today in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
Brendan is doing some gaming for charity. Our first event is for Make-a-Wish Australia will take place in the form of a marathon with the launch of the World of Warcraft expansion: Warlords of Draenor (queue collective groan). The idea is to level from 90-100 in marathon fashion, stream it live on twitch tv and youtube with commentary and giveaway items (items pending).
Portable:
Patriot Fuel+ 2200 mAh Mobile Rechargeable Battery on ocaholic
ConnecteDevice Cookoo 2 Watch on Madshrimps
MSI GS70 Stealth Pro (GTX 970M) on HardwareHeaven
ASUS ZenFone 5 Smartphone on Hardware Secrets
Motherboard:
ASUS Maximus VII Impact mITX Intel Z97 Motherboard on Legit Reviews
MSI X99S MPower Motherboard on ocaholic
ASRock Z97 Extreme6 Motherboard on Techreport
ASUS AM1M-A Motherboard on Hardware Secrets
ASRock X99 WS Workstation Motherboard on PureOverclock
Cooling:
Cooler Master Hyper D92 on Overclockers Club
Noctua IndustrialPPC and Redux Fan Roundup on OCC
Case:
SilverStone Fortress FT05 Mid-Tower Chassis on Techgage
NZXT S340 Mid Tower Case on ThinkComputers.org
XFX Type-01 Series Bravo case on Techreport
Storage:
Thecus N2310 NAS on Legion Hardware
IronKey Workspace W700 Secure Flash Drive on The SSD Review
Thecus N7710-G 7-Bay NAS with 10 GbE on Silent PC Review
Samsung 850 Pro (1TB) SSD on Guru3D
Thecus N8810U-G 8-Bay 10GbE Rackmount NAS on TweakTown
Keyboard/Mouse:
Tesoro Tizona G2N Mechanical Gaming Keyboard and G2N-P Numpad on TweakTown
Cooler Master Mizar Gaming Mouse on Benchmark Reviews
Razer BlackWidow Chroma on ocaholic
Misc:
FSP Aurum PT Series 1200W PSU on Techpowerup
SteelSeries Siberia V3 Headphones on Vortez
Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 3200MHz DDR4 Memory Kit on Legit Reviews
Alien: Isolation (PC) on Gaming Nexus
Devolo dLAN 500 WiFi Network Kit on NikKTech
Forum Projects
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Wednesday, 15-October-2014 14:00:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Here's a few reviews and projects from people in the forums:
Wednesday Midday
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Wednesday, 15-October-2014 12:42:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There is a zero-day vulnerability targeting many versions of Windows, thanks scon. More coverage here. Russian hackers exploited a bug in Microsoft Windows and other software to spy on computers used by NATO, the European Union, Ukraine and companies in the energy and telecommunications sectors, according to cyber intelligence firm iSight Partners. Discussion here.
iiNet say the Government's data storage plan lacks safeguards. The Abbott government intends to make telcos and internet companies store customers’ private data for two years – but industry players say the government has declined to mandate or even spell out any special security arrangements to ensure consumer privacy is protected.
Tech Report have info on a firmware update which improves Samsung's 840 EVO SSD. Samsung's 840 EVO SSD is afflicted by a bug that slows read performance with older data. We have new information on the cause of the issue and an early look at the Performance Restoration tool that addresses it.
Mark Zuckerberg has donated $25M to fight Ebola. The gesture from one of Silicon Valley's richest citizens comes as the CDC is facing increasing concern over the disease. More than 8,000 cases of Ebola have been reported over the course of this latest outbreak.
Gizmodo have a good article about something that's bothered me for a while - Australia's upload speeds. My phone can shoot more megabytes worth of video data in one second than it takes me to upload to YouTube in one minute. Shooting in 4K, and then uploading that? Forget about it. If I capture one 13-megapixel photo and want to share it with a friend over email, that’s another entire minute of waiting. And the phone can capture 10 in the space of a second. This is all, to be honest, pretty silly.
Wednesday Midday Reviews
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Wednesday, 15-October-2014 12:11:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Audio Visual:
Rollei CarDVR-120 GPS 1296p Car Camera on NikKTech.
Func HS-260 headset on OCAholic.
Cases:
Thermaltake Urban T81 Full Tower on Futurelooks.
Cooltek UMX2 on TechPowerUp.
Corsair Graphite 780T Full Tower on LegitReviews.
In Win D-Frame Mini on LegionHW.
Fractal Design Core 2300 on BenchmarkReviews.
Motherboard & CPU:
ASRock X99 Extreme4 on HWSecrets.
Supermicro X10DAi (Intel C612) Workstation Motherboard on Tweaktown.
ASRock X99 OC Formula on Guru3D.
Cooling:
Deepcool Maelstrom 240 AIO Liquid CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Thermaltake Frio Extreme Silent 14 Dual CPU Cooler on eTeknix.
Misc:
Digital Storm Bolt II: Devil’s Canyon Inside prebuilt gaming system on HotHardware.
Func MS-2 mousing surface on HWHeaven.
BitFenix Fury 750G Semi-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix.
AMD Radeon R9 285 Tonga Performance On Linux on Phoronix.
Tuesday Afternoon Reviews
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Tuesday, 14-October-2014 16:41:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Video Cards:
ASUS Strix GTX 970 OC on TechnologyX.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming 4 GB on TechPowerUp.
XFX R7 250E Core Edition on LanOC.
Motherboard & CPU:
GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H Motherboard on PCPerspective.
ASRock X99 OC Formula on TheSSDReview.
ASRock X99 Extreme4 on Vortez.
Intel Core i7-5960X SLI Gaming Performance Scaling on OCaholic.
Input Etc:
Razer DeathAdder Chroma Gaming Mouse on LegitReviews.
Tt eSPORTS Team DK Edition Gaming Peripherals on ThinkComputers.
COUGAR 700M Aluminum Gaming Mouse on MadShrimps.
Audio Visual:
Using the Acer XB280HK 28-inch 4K Monitor on Tweaktown.
VisionTek Connect Dual Head USB 3.0 Display Adapter on Tweaktown.
Storage:
ICY DOCK storage solutions on Techgage.
SSD toolbox software roundup on Tweaktown.
Software:
Alien: Isolation PC game on Techgage.
Alien: Isolation on TechSpot.
Misc:
Apotop Wi-Copy wifi router/storage on Phoronix.
Scythe Mugen MAX CPU Cooler on NikKTech.
D-Link DHP-309AV PowerLine AV 500 networking on ModSynergy.
Google Hypochondriacs will be happy to know that Google are testing live video chats with doctors, via their web search. The trial, which is only being offered to a small number of users, is currently free to users as part of Google's Helpouts live video chat advice service.
Samsung is claiming their 60GHz Wi-Fi technology will be able to reach data speeds of up to 4.6Gbps or 575MB/s. Theoretically, Samsung points out, a 1GB movie would take "less than three seconds" to transfer between devices. That's assuming a best case scenario where everything else is working perfectly, but even so, it's pretty awesome.
98,000 Snapchats have been leaked from snapsaved.com last week. On Sunday, a collection of almost 98,000 files (totaling more than 13GB of photos and videos), apparently from Snapchat users, were posted to The Pirate Bay less than 24 hours after someone claiming to be the perpetrator said he had changed his mind and decided not to publish the photos.
From forum member philscomputerlab: Phil is my name, or philscomputerlab at OCAU. I'm heavily into retro PC gaming and there is this PC game: Far Cry from 2004, now celebrating its 10 year anniversary. I made a video covering the game and outlining how to get it going, and tweak it, on modern computer. Forum discussion here.
There an interesting article on Gizmodo on How Computer Chips Work. A modern microprocessor is a tremendously complicated entity, and it has taken decades of work by thousands of people to get it where it is today. It’s nearly impossible to cover all the bases, but I’m going to try anyway. And get a bucket of popcorn ready — because this is going to be long.
A senate inquiry hears calls for a crackdown on 3D printed guns. The ACC said it had not yet been informed of any cases of criminals using 3D printed guns in Australia. However the agency did concede that decreased costs and advances in technology could see 3D printed firearms becoming more of an issue in the coming years.
The RSPCA, councils and other law-enforcement agencies can obtain reporter Ben Grubb's internet and phone metadata but Telstra won't release it to him. Here he details his 15-month fight for access.
New lithium ion batteries have been developed by Nanyang Technology University that can reach a 70 percent charge in two minutes. The trick is using titanium dioxide nanotubes for the anode (the negative pole) instead of graphite; they both speed up the battery's chemical reactions while offering 10,000 charging cycles instead of the usual 500.
Cooling:
Enermax ETS-N30 CPU Cooler on Tech Powerup
EK Supremacy EVO Clean CSQ CPU Water Block on TweakTown
Evercool Venti Heatpipe CPU Cooler on Bigbruin.com
Scythe Mugen Max SCMGD-1000 CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD4 LGA2011-3 ATX Motherboard on Futurelooks
Gigabyte X99 SOC FORCE on Vortez
PSU:
Corsair HXi Series Fully Modular 1000W Power Supply on PC Perspective
SilverStone Nightjar NJ520 520W Power Supply on APH Networks
Videocard:
Core i7 4770K vs AMD FX-8350 with GTX 980 vs GTX 780 SLI at 4K on TweakTown
NVIDIA GTX 980 3-Way and 4-Way SLI Performance on PC Perspective
GeForce GTX 980 cards from Gigabyte and Zotac on Tech Report
Misc:
Xiaomi Mi Power Bank (10400 mAh) on Techarp
Elephone G3 Smartphone on Madshrimps
Netgear AC750 WiFi Extender on Hardware Heaven
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz 32GB Memory Kit on Legit Reviews
SanDisk Extreme UHS I and Extreme Plus microSDXC U3 Memory Card on TweakTown
Tt eSport Verto Stereo Headset on Ocaholic
Aorus Thunder M7 Gaming Mouse on eTeknix
AMD FX-9590 Processor on Modders-Inc
Cooler Master Elite 130 Case on Hardware Secrets
Thanks to EvilGenius and axe this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Alch sent in that under new anti-terrorism legislation, AFP will be allowed to secretly search suspect's homes. The proposal would allow the AFP “to identify and collect information about other suspects involved in terrorist activity, the proposed location of and methodology for any planned attack, and the means of communication among suspects”.
Words with Friend's addicts asked Zynga what it knew about them and got more than they expected. In August, when Zynga changed its privacy policy, I actually read it. It was explicit about the information Zynga might collect; it ranged from the player’s profile photo and email address to the websites they’ve visited and “the amount of time spent on particular pages.” At the end of the policy, it said that any player who wanted to see what Zynga knew about them could request their file by emailing zynga[at]privacy.com.
Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 gaming performance has been analyzed and compared. We will basically be showing you which operating system is giving you the highest frame rates when playing recent games. To do so we’ve used the same set of benchmarks we’re testing graphics cards with.
AMD CEO Rory Read has stepped down, with former Senior VP and General Manager - Dr. Lisa Su, taking the top job.
Tweaktown compare a $300 AMD CPU and motherboard combo against a $1000 Intel combo at 4K on a GTX 780 and GTX 980 SLI. What these articles are showing, is that a $300-ish CPU and motherboard combo from AMD can compete in the same 10-20% margin that Intel's offering is providing.
Google are using camels as desert street view vehicles. Google spokeswoman Monica Baz says the camel, reportedly named Raffia, was an apt way of documenting the beautiful shifting sands of Abu Dhabi's Liwa Oasis.
CNet have a chat with a "DDoS troll". DDoS attacks are a way to keep corrupt corporations honest, according to an anonymous member of DerpTrolling, who gives us an inside look at the self-proclaimed gods of the Internet.
British police are complaining that devices being held in custody are continuously getting remotely wiped. Mr Munro, who analyses hundreds of laptops, tablets, phones and other devices for corporate clients, said: "When we seize a device for digital forensics, we put it immediately into a radio-frequency shielded bag, which prevents any signals from getting through. "If we can't get to the scene within an hour, we tell the client to pop it in a microwave oven.
Keyboard/Mouse:
Gamdias Zeus Laser Gaming Mouse (GMS1100) on Techarp
Tesoro Lobera and Gandiva on Hardware Heaven
Zowie FK1 Mouse on Hardware Heaven
Case:
AZZA Z Mini-ITX Case on ThinkComputers.org
Silverstone Raven RV05 Case on Hardware Asylum
Thermaltake Core V51 on Ocaholic
Corsair Graphite 730T Full-Tower Chassis on Techgage
NZXT Phantom 240 on Tech Powerup
Storage:
Micron M600 mSATA SSD Review (256GB) on The SSD Review
QNAP TS-451 Turbo NAS Server on Benchmark Reviews
Synology DS415+ on Hardware Heaven
Apotop S3C 256GB Low-Cost SSD on TweakTown
Netgear ReadyNAS RN716X 10GbE NAS on TweakTown
Synology DiskStation DS415+ on Legion Hardware
Motherboard:
MSI X99S MPower Motherboard on Think Computers
MSI X99S Xpower AC on Bjorn3D
EVGA X99 Classified motherboard on Bjorn3D
Biostar A68N-5000 (mini-ITX +A4 APU) on Hardware Heaven
ASRock X99 Extreme6 Intel LGA 2011-3 Motherboard on OCInside
ASUS Maximus VII Formula Z97 Motherboard on PC Perspective
Asus ROG Crossblade Ranger on Vortez
Cooling:
Reeven Steropes RC-1206 on OCC
Sapphire R9 270X Toxic Vs NZXT Kraken Cooling on eTeknix
Evercool Venti HPQ-12025 CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Videocard:
ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Strix on Guru3D
HIS R9 290X iPower IceQ X2 Turbo 4GB GDDR5 Video Card on Madshrimps
Phone:
Apple iPhone 6 Plus on Hot Hardware
Kogan Agora 4G Budget Smartphone on Techspot
Misc:
Lenovo ThinkStation P300 Tower Workstation on TweakTown
Intel Pentium K Anniversary G3258 Processor on Vortez
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition (Xbox) on Gaming Nexus
Blackbox M10 SE Active Noise Cancelling Headphones on NikKTech
Australia's second lunar eclipse this year is happening tonight. The eclipse means that our planet’s Moon will almost disappear from view, as the light it usually reflects from the Sun will be blocked by the Earth. What you will see is a blood red globe, as light bends around Earth’s atmosphere on its way from Sun to Moon.
mpot sends in news regarding Belkin routers having issues connecting to the internet this morning. While their devices were connecting to their Wi-Fi networks and their modems were connecting to their ISPs, the router and modem seemed to be suffering from communication breakdown. After dealing with angry customers all day, Belkin said late Tuesday afternoon it had solved the problem and restored internet service to all of its customers.
HP appears to be planning on splitting itself into two companies, one focused on PCs and Printers and the other on corporate hardware, software and services. HP also has about $20 billion in debt and over $14 billion in cash and investments. It will be interesting to see how management splits those between the two companies..
Samsung is spending $14.7 billion on a new chip facility in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, creating 150,000 jobs, equal to about of a third of the city's population. The plant in Pyeongtaek will make either logic or memory chips, Samsung Electronics said, adding that a final decision had not been made yet.
Investigative Journalist Nicky Hager's house has been raided by police to apparently flush out the hacker that downloaded Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater's e-mails. Five police officers arrived early in the morning with a search warrant and spent more than 10 hours searching the property. Mr Hager said he spoke to the officer over the phone, who told him he was a witness in the case, rather than a suspect.
Windows 95 has been loaded onto Android Wear. There's a video of it running here. It turns out that Android Wear isn’t as far off from normal Android as I thought – with some caveats, it’s possible to install plain Android apps manually. So I published a video of Minecraft Pocket Edition on my watch, which became somewhat popular. I’ve made a few more videos since then, my most popular one (currently) being a demo of Windows 95.
Kano has released a DIY Raspberry Pi-based computer kit, that teaches kids how to code and assemble their own very own Kano. Based on Linux, Kano OS is kid-friendly through and through, with a leveling system that rewards users as they modify games like Snake, Pong, and even Minecraft. You can change the way games behave by experimenting with "Kano Blocks," which look like puzzle pieces to the user, but actually spit out real Python code based on what you do with them.
Bearded iPhone users are complaining their facial hair is getting caught in their iPhone 6. Jokers are having a field day, with the Twitter account of the Atlanta International Fashion Week speculating that it may be an elaborate plot against hipsters for whom facial hair has become de rigeur. Another user tweeted: "Congrats, Apple, for finally getting hipsters to shave."
The 2014 Noble Prize for Physics has been awarded to an American and two Japanese Scienctists for inventing the blue LED - the missing piece that now allows manufacturers to produce white-light lamps. The arrival of such lamps is changing the way homes and workplaces are lit, offering a longer-lasting and more efficient alternative to the incandescent bulbs pioneered by Joseph Swan and Thomas Edison at the end of the 19th century.
Alongside Telstra, Optus have also now announced the launch of its new 700MHz and 2600MHz spectrum to bring 4G services to even more locations around the country over the next six months. While many mobile devices on the market currently support the 2600MHz spectrum, only four are currently compatible with 700MHz - specifically the iPhone 6, the Samsung Galaxy S5, the LG G3, and the HTC One (M8).
Telstra have also announced that phishers are already trying to trick customers into handing over personal details by emailing them saying they need to update their billing details as a result of the introduction of 700MHz based 4G services, also offering a free iPhone 6 Plus to the first 100 customers that re-enter their billing details.
Facebook are now using your last known location to target ads specifically to your location, right down to the shop you just walked past. Facebook says it will not identify the users by name to advertisers. And if location services aren’t enabled on the phone, the location-based ads won’t appear, Facebook says.
A $100 million program has been launched to improve the 6000 mobile black spots around Australia that have been identified by the Federal Government.
Cooling:
Noctua A-series NF-A9, NF-A8 & NF-A4x10 5V on Vortez
Noctua NH-D15 CPU Cooler on OCInside
Keyboard:
Tesoro Lobera Supreme Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on eTeknix
Tesoro Tizona Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on OCmodshop
Cooler Master NovaTouch TKL keyboard on Techreport
PSU:
Chieftec A-80 Series 650W Non-Modular Power Supply on eTeknix
Be Quiet! Pure Power L8 730W Power Supply Unit on NikKTech
Motherboard:
MSI X99S XPower AC Motherboard on Guru3D
Asus Rampage V Extreme on Hardware Secrets
X99 Charts: 10 Boards - MSI X99S MPower on Ocaholic
Misc:
Short Peace (PS3) on Gaming Nexus
VisionTek mSATA mini to USB 3.0 Adapter on TweakTown
Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4-2400 32GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on TweakTown
Giada D2308U Mini-PC on Madshrimps
GeForce GTX 980M & GeForce GTX 970M on Hot Hardware
Cooltek Antiphon Airflow on Ocaholic
Storage:
WD Red 6TB NAS Enterprise HDD on TweakTown
OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB PCI-E Solid State Drive on ThinkComputers.org
Keyboard/Mouse:
AORUS Thunder K7 Keyboard on Pure OC
XTracGear Ripper XXL (2014) Mousing Surface on APH Networks
ROCCAT TALK FX on Benchmark Reviews
RAM:
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2800 C16 on Ocaholic
Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 32GB 1866MHz Quad Channel DDR3 Memory Kit on eTeknix
Videocard:
Gainward Phantom GeForce GTX 970 4GB Graphics Card on eTeknix
Gigabyte AMD Radeon R9 285 WindForce OC Video Card on Madshrimps
Motherboard:
ASRock Fatal1ty X99M Killer Motherboard on Hardware Secrets
Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H Motherboard on TechnologyX
Cooling:
Reeven Okeanos RC-1402 Dual-Tower CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Raijintek Morpheus GPU Cooler on eTeknix
Reeven Ouranos RC-1401 CPU Cooler on TweakTown
Storage:
MyDigitalSSD BP4e mSATA SSD Review (512 GB) on The SSD Review
Angelbird SSD wrk 512GB SSD on TweakTown
Silicon Power Marvel M70 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive on NikKTech
Case:
Silverstone Fortress FT05 Case on Techspot
Azza Z mITX Case on PureOC
Misc:
Apotop Wi-Copy on Ocaholic
Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W on Vortez
HiFiMAN HE-560 Release Versionp on techPowerUp
Dell XPS 18 Portable All-in-One on Hot Hardware
Assassin's Creed Unity Hands-On Preview on Gaming Nexus
Tronix Contest
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Monday, 6-October-2014 13:37:51 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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There's another contest in the forums - this time Tronix are giving away some external batteries. We will be giving 5 lucky winners their choice of 1 product from our external battery range and all you have to do is just fill a form! And write a review. :)
A couple of people pointed out some worrying clauses in the Windows 10 preview privacy agreement. “If you open a file, we may collect information about the file, the application used to open the file, and how long it takes any use [of] it for purposes such as improving performance, or [if you] enter text, we may collect typed characters, we may collect typed characters and use them for purposes such as improving autocomplete and spell check features,” the privacy policy states. More here, and discussion of Windows 10 continues in this thread.
JPMorgan Chase have had a major data breach, thanks mpot. More info from Chase here. ll told, 76 million households and 7 million small businesses were affected, the bank wrote in a 8-K filing Thursday to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Some people are calling it the worst breach in history.
HWSecrets played around with RAID 0 SSD arrays. We set up a RAID 0 array with two 120 GiB SSDs to see which is the best stripe size configuration, and also the gain in performance you should expect over a single drive.
Sniper spotted this cool 3D printed hand. A little girl from Scotland who was born with no fingers on her left hand has become the first child in the UK to have a prosthetic hand made using a 3D printer.
An American resort has been fined by the FCC for jamming the WiFi of guests. So, as the FCC explains in a press release and consent order [PDF] released today, Marriott staff at the facility made it impossible for people in the vicinity to use personal hotspots, portable routers, and the like. This is a big no-no: a violation of Section 333 of the Communications Act. A clever visitor to the convention center — likely someone irritated at being knocked off his portable router over and over again — discovered the deauth behavior and reported it in March 2013 to the FCC.
Gizmodo have some info on Telstra's 4GX. In the next couple of months, you’ll be hearing more and more about a new technology that Telstra is switching on around the nation at the start of 2015. 4GX is just a fancy name for the telco’s new 700MHz mobile network frequency, but that’s not the only thing you need to know about it. Telstra is set to switch on its 700MHz frequency allocation on January 1, 2015 — that’s the date that it is officially allowed to use the spectrum, as part of the agreement it made with the Federal Government when it purchased it at the Digital Dividend auctions.
Monday Morning Reviews
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Monday, 6-October-2014 01:03:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Power Supply:
GOTTA WYSIWYG Boost Portable Chargers on Tweaktown.
be quiet! SFX Power 2 300W PSU on eTeknix.
Storage:
QNAP SilentNAS HS-251 NAS Server on NikKTech.
OCZ Intrepid 3600 Enterprise SSD on Tweaktown.
ICY DOCK ICYCube MB561U3S-4S 4 Bay External HDD Enclosure on ThinkComputers.
Micron M600 M.2 SATA SSD 256GB on TheSSDReview.
Quanta MESOS CB220 Continuous Availability NAS on Tweaktown.
Audio Visual:
Mpow Mbox Portable Bluetooth Speaker on Tweaktown.
Tesoro Kuven.pro True 5.1 Gaming Headset on LegitReviews.
SteelSeries Siberia RAW Prism headset on LanOC.
Input Etc:
Cooler Master Storm Devastator Keyboard/Mouse Set on APHNetworks.
Tt eSPORTS Ventus Ambidextrous Laser Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.
CM Storm NovaTouch TKL Premium Keyboard on Modders-Inc.
GAMDIAS ZEUS Laser Gaming Mouse on TechARP.
Cougar 700M Gaming Mouse on BenchmarkReviews.
Misc:
Gigabyte's X99-UD4 motherboard on TechReport.
Lenovo Y50 Touch Gaming Notebook on PCPerspective.
G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 16 GB 3000 MHz Kit (4x 4GB DDR4) memory on TechPowerUp.
Gamer Storm Maelstrom 240 CPU liquidcooler on OCClub.
In affected states, Daylight Savings starts this weekend, at 2am on Sunday morning - which becomes 3am. If you find your forum timestamping has gone out of whack, adjust the settings in UserCP.
Thanks to MV, Owen and Goyroy this week!
     
     
     
     
     
     
Friday Morning
(1 Comments)
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Friday, 3-October-2014 11:40:10 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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PaGeY sends word of a USB firmware vulnerability that is now in the wild. Don't plug strange USB sticks into your computers. Don't do it. A pair of hackers just made public the code for super scary malware that takes advantage of a fundamental flaw in USB firmware. They didn't do this to be mean, but you can be sure some evil hackers will use it to be mean.
Police in Dubai will be getting Google Glass soon. The spokesman confirmed a report in Dubai's 7 Days newspaper that software developed by Dubai police would enable a connection between the wearer and a database of wanted people. Once the device "recognized" a suspect based on a face print, it would alert the officer wearing the gadget.
Next time you want to re-enact the beginning of a Mission Impossible episode, you can use a self-destructing SSD. Text message is just one way the data held on Secure Drives' devices could be erased. Removing the drive from a PC, failing too many PIN prompts, a low battery level, or activating a "tap-to-destroy" function on a touchscreen "token" accessory will also see the data irrecoverably deleted. The drives even have their own built-in GSM access. If the signal goes quiet for too long, the drive is destroyed.
TechSpot are doing a "History of the PC" series, and it seems they're up to part 3. The only remarkable thing about the product that revolutionized the personal computing business was the fact that IBM built it. If any other company of the era built and marketed the IBM Personal Computer Model 5150, it might be looked back on with fondness but not as a product that changed an industry.
Friday Morning Reviews
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Friday, 3-October-2014 10:52:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Motherboard & CPU:
Supermicro X10DRC-T4+ (Intel C612) Server Motherboard on Tweaktown.
GIGABYTE GA-X99-Gaming G1 WiFi Motherboard on LegitReviews.
ASUS X99 DELUXE (Intel LGA 2011-3) on TechPowerUp.
Input Etc:
COUGAR 700M Gaming Mouse on NikKTech.
Corsair Gaming K70 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on LegitReviews.
Cougar 700M Black Edition Laser Gaming Mouse on Tweaktown.
Tt eSPORTS MetalCaps 38 Piece Mechanical Keycap Set on PureOC.
Roccat Tyon Mouse on HWHeaven.
EpicGear AnurA mouse on OCaholic.
Video Cards:
AMD FX-8350 powering GTX 780 SLI vs GTX 980 SLI at 2560x1440 on Tweaktown.
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Gaming OC on Guru3D.
4K Showdown - Intel X79 vs. X99 with ASUS GeForce GTX 980 4GB Quad SLI on Tweaktown.
GeForce GTX 980 2 and 3-way SLI on Guru3D.
Cooling:
EVGA Hydro Copper GTX 980 Water Block Early Performance Testing on PCPerspective.
Enermax Liqtech 240 on TechPowerUp.
Coolermaster Hyper D92 Heatsink on Frostytech.
Nanoxia Deep Silence 3 on OCaholic.
LEPA LV12 CPU Cooler on ThinkComputers.
Cases:
Xigmatek Aquila mATX cube on TechPowerUp.
Phanteks Enthoo Luxe on OCClub.
Cooler Master Elite 110 on OCaholic.
AZZA ‘Z’ CSAZ-103 Mini-ITX on BenchmarkReviews.
Corsair Carbide 240 AIR on MadShrimps
Portable & Prebuilt:
iconBIT Toucan 4K Android Mini-PC on MadShrimps.
Motorola Moto G (2014) smartphone on TechSpot.
Dell's Venue 8 2014 Tablet Runs Android Powered By Intel on HotHardware.
Storage:
Toshiba Canvio AeroMobile Wireless External SSD on Tweaktown.
SanDisk Ultra 128GB SDXC and 64GB microSDXC Memory Cards on Tweaktown.
QNAP TS-653 Pro NAS on LegionHW.
Samsung SE-218GN Slim External DVD Writer on Tweaktown.
Audio Visual:
Grain Audio PWS.01 Packable Wireless Speaker on NikKTech.
Tesoro Kuven Gaming Headset on Vortez.
Misc:
Super Flower Leadex Gold 650W Modular PSU on eTeknix.
G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4-2400 16GB Quad-Channel Memory Kit on Tweaktown.
Wednesday Afternoon
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Wednesday, 1-October-2014 14:45:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg
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Back on broadband! Not that I really missed it or anything. *twitch*
Tony and mpot sent word that Telstra payphones are going to become Wifi hotspots. This will form part of the $100 million Wi-Fi hotspot network Telstra announced in May. The company will build 8000 of its own hotspots while partnering with retail stores and local governments to get 2 million hotspots around the country over five years. After the trial period, the Wi-Fi hotspots will only be free for Telstra fixed-line internet customers with others paying a fee to use it.
Tech Report cover NVIDIA's Dynamic Super Resolution. One of the more intriguing capabilities Nvidia introduced with the GeForce GTX 970 and 980 is a feature called Dynamic Super Resolution, or DSR, for short. Nvidia bills it as a means of getting 4K quality on a 2K display. How good is it? We take a look.
They also have some more info on Windows 10 which was announced this morning. Yes, the next version of Windows is called Windows 10—and Microsoft gave the first public demo of it at a press event this morning. The company also announced the Windows Insider Program, as part of which folks will be able to grab a Technical Preview build of the new OS starting tomorrow. This time, it isn't an April Fools. :)
Here's an interesting one from AirQ, about mining Bitcoin with pencil and paper. I decided to see how practical it would be to mine Bitcoin with pencil and paper. It turns out that the SHA-256 algorithm used for mining is pretty simple and can in fact be done by hand. Not surprisingly, the process is extremely slow compared to hardware mining and is entirely impractical. But performing the algorithm manually is a good way to understand exactly how it works.
Australian startup Euclideon have hit the headlines again with their voxel rendering tech. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Euclideon's technology is that, for now, it runs only on the CPU. Dell said the current implementation produces 2000x1000 frames at around 32 FPS on a six-core processor. He claims there's "no reason" the technology can't be sped up using, for instance, OpenCL on a GPU, but there are "lots of software ways" to improve performance yet. Jumping straight to GPU optimization would be "admitting defeat," in his view.
Techgage are overclocking the GeForce 970 and 980. We’ve established that NVIDIA’s Maxwell-based graphics cards are impressive, but can they continue to impress when it comes to overclocking? As it turns out, yes – yes they can. Given their ability to push clocks far beyond stock, we’ve even decided to take up a challenge: Can an overclocked GTX 970 match a stock GTX 980? HardOCP had a pretty good go at it too.
SiliconAngel posted an article in the forums about rebadged flash cards. As I'm sure you know, there’s a lot of rebadging and fakery in the CF card market. What I didn’t personally realise was some scammers aren’t using cards with insufficient capacity or just heavily damaged, some of them are using quite good cards that they’re rebadging as premium range ones.
Case:
Rosewill Legacy U3 Aluminum MicroATX Tower on Silent PC Review
Aerocool Dead Silence Cube on Ocaholic
Raijintek Agos Mid-Tower Chassis on eTeknix
Corsair Carbide Air 240 mATX Case on Legit Reviews
BitFenix Pandora on techPowerUp
Storage:
WD Red Pro 4TB Enterprise NAS HDD on TweakTown
Samsung 850 Pro 256GB SSD on TweakTown
Micron M600 SATA & M.2 Solid State Drive on Hot Hardware
Mach Xtreme MX-ES Ultra SLC USB 3.0 Flash Drive (64GB) on The SSD Review
Micron M600 SSD Review (256GB/1TB) on The SSD Review
Micron's M600 solid-state drive on Tech Report
Micron M600 SSD on PC Perspective
Micron M600 SSD on TweakTown
Videocard:
XFX R7 250E Core Edition on Neoseeker
XFX R7 250E on OCC
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Linux Performance on Phoronix
ASUS GTX 980 4GB in Single, SLI, 3-Way SLI and 4-Way SLI on TweakTown
Sapphire Dual-X R9 280 OC Edition on Ocaholic
Keyboard/Mouse:
Tt eSPORTS Poseidon ZX Illuminated Mechanical Gaming Keyboard on TweakTown
Attitude One Rapira One Gaming Mouse on eTeknix
Genius GX Gaming Maurus X Optical Mouse on APH Networks
Thermaltake Tt eSPORTS METALCAPS 38-Key Set on TweakTown
Cooling:
Cooler Master Hyper 612v2 on Ocaholic
Cooler Master Hyper D92 CPU Cooler on Modders-Inc
Cooler Master Hyper 612 V2 Cooler on HardwareHeaven
Alphacool NexXxoS Cool Answer 360 DDC/XT Watercooling Set on NikkTech
Scythe Mugen Max Cooler on Neoseeker
Silverstone AR06 on Hardware Heaven
PSU:
Enermax Revolution X't 430W on Tech Powerup
Seasonic Platinum Series 1050W & 1200W Power Supply on PC Perspective
Audio:
SteelSeries H Wireless Gaming Headset on Techgage
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism on LanOC
Turtle Beach Earforce Z22 & Z60 Amplified PC Gaming Headset on TechnologyX
Motherboard:
ASUS X99-DELUXE Motherboard on Hardware Secrets
Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H Motherboard on Madshrimps
Misc:
Allocacoc PowerCube Extended USB Powerboard on MikesGear
Limefuel Rugged L150XR 15,000mAh Battery Pack on TweakTown
The Mi 10,400 mAh Power Bank Teardown on Tech ARP
Intel Pentium J2900 & Asrock Q2900-ITX on Techspot
G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4-2400 16GB Memory Kit on Think Computers
Microsoft have announced they are skipping Windows 9 and going straight to Windows 10. It’s time for a new Windows. This new Windows must be built from the ground-up for a mobile-first, cloud-first world. This new Windows must help our customers be productive in both their digital work and their digital life. This new Windows must empower people and organizations to do great things.
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