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Topics - W1nTry

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21
Advances in leaps and bounds? perhaps:

Quote
Samsung introduces its Exynos 5250 processor
Sets the bar at 2GHz
By Chris Martin
Wed Nov 30 2011, 12:28

KOREAN HARDWARE GIANT Samsung has announced its latest processor, the Exynos 5250 that is based on the ARM Cortex A15 design.

The dual-core processor is designed for high-end tablets and will run at 2GHz. It is fabbed on a 32nm process and is set to appear in devices in the second half of 2012.

Samsung Exynos 5250

"The ARM Cortex-A15 brings unparalleled performance to our Exynos processor family and the exploding mobile marketplace," said Dojun Rhee, VP of system LSI marketing at Samsung. "The advanced low-power, high-performance processor technology of the new Exynos 5250 continues to deliver an unprecedented level of performance for users to enjoy a completely new mobile experience."

Samsung claims the new chip can process nearly twice the number of instructions per second as the ARM 1.5GHz Cortex A9 chip. The Exynos 5250 will be able to support up to 2560x1600 resolution displays and will have four times the graphics capabilities of the Cortex A9.

To support this high resolution the chip has a doubled memory bandwidth of 12.8GB/s compared to existing chips, which also aids data processing speed. To help with power efficiency the Exynos 5250 also has an embedded Displayport (EDP) interface that is compatible with panel self-refresh technology (PSR). It allows a static image on the screen to be refreshed from a memory buffer instead of using processor cycles. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2128941/samsung-introduces-exynos-5250-processor

22
News / Microsoft Earnings
« on: October 21, 2011, 03:32:56 PM »
Just fyi

Quote
Microsoft posts record earnings despite netbook cannibalization
By Peter Bright | Published about 18 hours ago

Microsoft has released its earnings statement for the first quarter of its financial year 2012, and it's been another bumper quarter for the software giant. Revenue of $17.37 billion is a first quarter record, up 7 percent year-on-year, and beating analyst estimates of $17.2 billion. Operating income was $7.2 billion, net income was $5.74, and earnings per share were 68˘, year-on-year increases of 1 percent, 6 percent, and 10 percent, respectively. The big gains came from business sales of Office, Microsoft's various server applications, and to a lesser extent, continued strong performance from Xbox 360.

Windows and Windows Live division posted revenue of $4.87 billion, up 2 percent on the same period last year. Windows 7 continues to sell well, hitting total sales of 450 million in September. The overall PC market grew by between 1 and 3 percent, and OEM licenses grew by 4 percent, year-on-year, with that growth stronger in emerging markets than developed ones. The business PC market grew by 5 percent, to some 35 million PCs, with sales of licenses to business customers growing by 6 percent. The overall consumer market was flat. Sales of traditional PCs to consumers were up sharply, by 14 percent. However, these gains were offset by a similarly sharp reduction in sales of netbooks, a market that Microsoft says is being "cannibalized." Looking forward, the company is counting on Ultrabooks to boost Windows sales.

Revenue from the Microsoft Business Division rose 8 percent year on year to $5.62 billion. No problems with the consumer market here: revenue from consumer Office sales grew 7 percent year on year. Multiyear license revenue (Software Assurance) was up 9 percent. Business transactional revenue was up by 3 percent, again driven by growth in developing markets. Particular highlights for the group were sales of Lync, up 25 percent; SharePoint and Exchange, both up "double digits"; and Dynamics, up 17 percent year-on-year. Office 365 has had a successful start, gaining as many new customers in the first ten weeks of availability as its predecessor, BPOS, achieved in two years. The group is also enjoying greater cross-selling; 80 percent of customers buying Exchange are also buying SharePoint and Lync.

Server and Tools earned $4.25 billion, up 10 percent on last year. Windows Server and System Center both experienced "double digits" growth, SQL Server revenue increased by almost 20 percent, and Enterprise Services revenue grew by 17 percent.

Online Services continues to lose money. Revenue was up 19 percent year-on-year to $0.63 billion, and the division's loss was down: $0.49 billion this quarter, compared to $0.56 billion in the same period last year. Bing's market share continues to creep upwards, with US market share of 14.7 percent, up by 3.5 points from Q1 2011. Including the Bing-powered Yahoo! share, Bing was used for 27 percent of search traffic in the US. Revenue from online advertising was up nearly 21 percent, driven by this growth in the search share.

Microsoft and Yahoo! both recognize that there are continued difficulties in making a financial success of this partnership. Speaking about Microsoft's rejected takeover bid for Yahoo! in 2008 at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that that "sometimes you're lucky" that these bids fail. However, Microsoft says that the two companies are "partnering closely" to resolve the difficulties. All this amid continued rumors that Redmond might yet try to buy the search and content company, possibly in a joint bid, or that cofounder Jerry Yang might put together a private equity bid to take over the company.

Entertainment and Devices Division revenue was $1.96 billion, up 9 percent on last year. The strong performance is all down to Xbox. The Xbox 360 console has been the best-selling console for nine months straight, and more than 3 million copies of Gears of War 3 were sold in the first week of its release. Also in this division is Windows Phone. Microsoft continues to avoid providing sales figures or any other concrete information about its smartphone platform. Last quarter saw the well-received Mango update, and the current quarter will see a range of new Mango-focused phones hitting the market—including Nokia's first Windows Phone devices. Redmond also said that it had signed an agreement with Samsung to increase the level of development and marketing collaboration between the two companies.

All in all, it was a strong quarter for the company. Enterprise and business sales are growing vigorously, and new products such as Office 365 and Lync appear to be gaining traction in the market. Perhaps the biggest concern is the performance of the Windows division, and the "cannibalization" of netbook sales. Though unstated, the poor netbook performance is a result of strong tablet sales, and Microsoft won't have a credible tablet operating system until the release of Windows 8. Ultrabooks may partially counteract the tablet attack, but PC vendors have expressed doubts over the Ultrabook strategy. Either way, the results show just how important Windows 8 will be to Microsoft's future.

From next quarter, Skype's revenue will be included in Microsoft's earnings. With the purchase meeting the approval of regulators around the world, we might finally learn just what it is that Redmond intends to do with the VoIP provider.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/10/microsoft-posts-record-earnings-in-1q-fy2012-in-spite-of-netbook-cannibalization.ars

Guess the redmond giant ain't slowing for noone

23
Peripherals / Bias lighting, your eyes will thank you for it
« on: August 30, 2011, 11:10:08 AM »
How many of us game in a dark room with none but our monitors glaring a plethora of colours, intensity and shadow effects? *W1nTry raises hand*. If you game with the lights on ALL the time, you clearly have a room all to yourself, if not and you're like me and you game in the dark have you ever giving thought to bias lighting?
To be fair I game with a night light on all the time now (so I can see peripherals like the keyboard or where my cables to my headset are on the console). So maybe i've been inadvertently doing this, but I digress. I came across this article on ars (a fav of mine) and I think many who suffer devious eye aches and potentially headaches as a result of gaming may benefit from this article, have a go at it:

Quote
Bias lighting and your computer monitor: $13 for more comfortable gaming
By Ben Kuchera | Published a day ago
Bias lighting and your computer monitor: $13 for more comfortable gaming

It's hard to stare at a computer monitor for hours after dark, with the rest of the lights turned off in your home or office. Still, this is how many of us play games, myself included. When Antec offered to send the soundscience halo 6 LED bias lighting kit—which is a long official name—I had nothing to lose. If it didn't work, I could write a short, snarky post dismissing it as hokum. If it did work, my eyes would be more comfortable.

The $13 product came in a small box, and it took under a minute to install. You simply remove the adhesive backing from the 14.5 inches of LED lighting, attach to the back of your monitor, and connect the cable to an empty USB port. The strip lit up, I sat down, and began an epic six-hour gaming session for my Deus Ex: Human Revolution review.

Before I share my thoughts, I wanted to check out if other people were using similar solutions. Timothy J. Seppala writes for Sound and Vision, and he's often who I turn to when it comes to setting up new displays or purchasing monitors. When I purchased my last television, a Panasonic plasma screen, he told me about the pluses of bias lighting, and when I asked his thoughts on this story, he seemed a trifle annoyed I was only just now adding lighting hardware to my setup. This is a man who gives people test patterns the way my grandmother gives people lemon candies.
That hardware itself is just over a foot long, and features around four feet of cable to connect to your PC

"It works because it provides enough ambient light in the viewing area that your pupils don't have to dilate as far. This makes for less eyestrain when a flashbang gets thrown your way or a bolt of lightning streams across the screen," he told Ars. "Because the display is no longer the only object emitting light in the room, colors and black levels appear richer than they would in a totally black environment. Bias lighting is key in maintaining a reference quality picture and reducing eye-strain."
This is how the screen looks with a game playing. The ambient light increases relative contrast on the screen, making colors appear brighter and blacks deeper

After doing more research I found this is why movie theaters aren't completely dark, and the effect is more pronounced when viewing a 3D image, due to the dimmer screen. I was surprised at the results: my eyes did feel better after long sessions on the computer, and even the muscles of my face felt more relaxed. The next night I tried my marathon session without the lights and found I was right back to strained eyes and discomfort by the end of my gaming. It's always possible there's a placebo effect at play here, but after trying both ways, the results were both immediate and strong: the lighting helps.

The effect isn't an industry secret, and you can try this yourself if you have a set of LED lights to attach to the back of your monitor. Antec's product is easy to use, works well, and is inexpensive. This only makes sense if you do heavy computing or gaming at night, but for those who are active on their computers at that time or want to improve the lighting conditions in their home office, there are certainly worse ways to spend $13.

And let's be fair if you can spend 300 USD on a video card, a few extra $ can't hurt to help STOP the hurt on your eyes.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2011/08/bias-lighting.ars

24
Laptops / Razor Gaming Laptop
« on: August 26, 2011, 04:06:19 PM »
I vaguely remember seeing a 'first look' on one of the many tech sites I may visit, however seeing as now we have a more solid look, I figured the gaming laptop junkies that don't already know about this would appreciate it being put here:

Quote
Razer bucks trends with $2,800 gaming laptop, complete with innovative UI
By Ben Kuchera | Published about 4 hours ago



Razer bucks trends with $2,800 gaming laptop, complete with innovative UI

Razer took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal refuting the idea that PC gaming is dead, and reaffirming the company's love for PC games. The company also promised an announcement today, something that would show just how much Razer loved PC gaming. Many people expected a new mouse or peripheral, but the reality is much more impressive: Razer is launching its own gaming laptop, complete with what the company is calling the "Switchblade User Interface." This includes 10 dynamic keys and an LCD screen to the right of the keyboard that doubles as a multitouch panel.

"Today, there hasn't been a single PC laptop that anyone has been passionate about for the longest time. It's not because there's no innovation, but [because] the big PC guys just don't want to innovate anymore," Min-Liang Tan, the CEO and Creative Director of Razer, told Ars.

So the company gave the finger to market research, focus groups, and arguably common sense to create a gaming laptop that's amazingly thin and light, with some very idiosyncratic design decisions. Some people are going to love it, other people will turn their noses up at it, but we're all going to be talking about it.

When's the last time anyone has been able to claim that about a gaming laptop?
Let's take a look at the specs

    2.8GHz Intel® CoreTM i7 2640M Processor
    8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory
    17.3" LED Backlit Display (1920x1080)
    NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M with NVIDIA® OptimusTM Technology
    2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory
    Built-in HD Webcam
    Integrated 60Wh Battery
    320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
    Wireless Network 802.11 b/g/n Compatible
    16.81" (Width) x 10.9" (Depth) x 0.88" (Height); 6.97lbs (Weight)



It will ship in the fourth quarter of 2011 for $2,799.99.
Details on the touchscreen and dynamic buttons
Razer

This seems like a crazy move in a market that seems to reward bland design and budget pricing. Tan told Ars the company has never been interested in market research and focus groups, both of which he admits would indicate there is no market for something like the Razer Blade. He also points to the fact that everyone said the same thing about the company's line of gaming mice when they were launched. "So, in short, there's no market if you ask the guy in the suit, but we've designed something that we have always wanted for ourselves—we don't care about the market at large—we do care about the PC gamer," he explained. "If we designed based on the 'market' you wouldn't see many of the things that we have launched."

Razer has hired some impressive talent, including the team behind OQO, and engineers from Apple, Dell, and others. They've been operating in stealth mode for three years, working on a number of projects that were ultimately canned for not meeting Razer's standard. The Razer Blade is going to be the team's grand coming-out party, and it's certainly a standout product in the gaming PC market.

"The hardest thing was convincing a manufacturing partner to consider our designs," Tan said. "No one wanted to do it. They all said there's no market, it's too expensive, no one wants this. Gamers would want something big, thick, and cheap."

To its credit, the Razer Blade is none of those three things.

"We had to buy our own manufacturing capabilities to even get to this point, as no one wanted to make specific components for us, so we essentially acquired some of the key assets. We bought an entire ODM recently in Taiwan because we wanted to be able to control all facets of design. That's how important it is to us," he told Ars.
The laptop is incredibly thin and light for a gaming system
Razer



The design is striking. The screen that doubles as a touchpad isn't below the keyboard as you see with most laptops, it's on the side to simulate a proper mouse and keyboard set up. The screen will be able to share information from the game, and the images on the buttons are dynamic based on the game. Imagine being able to keep all your spells for an MMO there, complete with icons that show the effect? Depending on the included software, you might be able to create your own macros and assign them custom icons, too. As long as support is robust, the possibilities are exciting.

We've seen and played many gaming laptops, but they tend to be heavy bricks. Razer has created something truly portable, with design that's immediately striking. The price definitely makes this a luxury item, but it's been way too long since we've seen a gaming laptop show this level of style and design.

The Razer Blade bucks most trends in terms of retail gaming products, but so what? The company is taking a strong stance and betting both on the idea that PC gamers are interested in something both light and powerful, and that they'll be willing to pay for it. It's a gamble, but an exciting one.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/razer-to-release-stylish-2800-gaming-laptop-complete-with-dynamic-buttons.ars

Yuh gotta admit, the thing DAMN sexi!

25
PC Gaming / How to ruin your port of a PC Game in 5 easy steps!!!
« on: August 02, 2011, 04:23:47 PM »
For many of us who started our gaming life on the PC, this article will ring an alarmingly high number of bells... and on a certain level its nothing but laughable...

Quote
Ars Guide: How to ruin your PC port in five easy steps
By Ben Kuchera | Published about 20 hours ago
Ars Guide: How to ruin your PC port in five easy steps

It's hard to be a PC gamer these days. This is true even though many independent developers are cranking out great games. Success stories are common, and there are new games released almost daily that play with gaming tropes and conventions like they're toys. It's not just indies; when you look at EA's accounting on its latest earnings call, the company has the PC earning more money than the 360 or PS3, at least when looking at the non-GAAP accounting figures.

PC gaming is alive and well, but it seems as if companies almost want their PC ports to fail on the most powerful gaming platform. We've compiled a list of a bunch of ways that companies can make sure their PC games annoy gamers, and if you bundle up all these "features" you may also see a loss of sales and increased piracy! So, how do you make sure your PC game pales next to its console sibling? Let's find out.

Add customer-hostile DRM

PC gamers openly attacked Spore when it was released with activation limits, but Ubisoft has to be the king of annoying paying customers. It has recently been announced that Driver: San Francisco will require the player to be online to play the game.

Ubisoft claims this is a win for the company. It has seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success," a company representative told PC Gamer. The always-on requirement has been dropped from other games from Ubisoft in the past after the players complained, but it looks like it may be here to stay.

It's also worth pointing out that Ubisoft's servers have been hacked in the past, making certain games unplayable. Ubisoft may claim that piracy has been diminished, and we certainly can't argue with that assertion given that the company doesn't share usage data, but this is bad news for people who just want to play the games and don't have their systems hooked up to an always-on Internet connection.

SecuROM, activation limits, and always-on Internet connection requirements—there are multiple ways companies can choose to punish customers who pay for their games. In the past we've even talked to soldiers who are kept from playing certain games by these strategies.

Diablo 3 will also require a persistent Internet connection, and Blizzard's Rob Pardo agrees that it's kind of a pain in the butt. "I want to play Diablo 3 on my laptop in a plane, but, well, there are other games to play for times like that," he told 1up.

Just so we're clear, when you're bored on a plane, and you have your laptop, and you want to play the game you bought in order to fight boredom, Blizzard's official recommendation is that you play someone else's game. That's pride, right there.

Don't let players adjust their settings

This one can drive you crazy. PC gamers like to play with their mouse settings, adjust the amount of detail in the characters or environment, and change the audio mix between the music and the sound effects. We want to adjust the resolution, the aspect ratio, and even the field of view settings. The more options given to PC gamers, the better. While some engines support more options than others, there is a minimum amount of tweaking that should be available when we jump into the game.

For an example of how badly PC gamers can get screwed on this issue, we can take a look at Bulletstorm when it was launched. Not only was mouse smoothing turned on as a default, but there was no way to turn it off. You had to find the configuration files, which were encrypted for some insane reason, and then install a third-party program to be able to turn off mouse smoothing and get the game feeling like it should on the PC.

"Possibly we should separate .ini files: some encrypted, some (visuals, mouse, etc.) open to rape. Oops, I mean edit." Adrian Chmielarz, People Can Fly's creative director, said via Twitter when we brought this up. That's an infuriating answer from someone on a team that thought it was a good idea to lock PC gamers into mouse smoothing. Aim assist was also turned on by default, because it's necessary on the console for people playing with controllers. On the PC, it's turned on because no one put any thought into the idea of optimizing the game's controls for the PC.

Release it long after the console version

Here's a good way to make sure your PC game gets the attention it deserves: launch it alongside the console version. Everyone was talking about From Dust when the Xbox Live Arcade version was released, and many people noted that they would love to play the game on PC. It would be great to take advantage of that enthusiasm, but of course Ubisoft pushed the release of the game back a month. That's annoying, but releasing PC versions some time after the console versions is unfortunately routine.

It's a pain in the butt for everyone. It's rare the news outlets re-review the PC version, and by the time the PC version is out, more games have come along to grab the attention of the gamers and the press. When you launch a game on all platforms at once, you can really grab the sales momentum and the conversations on gaming fora and boost the sales of all versions. Pushing the release of the PC version back makes it feel like an afterthought, and it's damaging to everyone involved.

If you want to be depressed, go to Google and simply type "PC version delayed," and you can see how often this happens.

Forget that most PC gamers aren't using a gamepad

We would like to use our mouse and keyboard setups to control your game, because that's what's in front of us when we're playing said game. There is no left bumper on my keyboard, nor is there one on my mouse. It doesn't take long to change the prompts in your game or to make your menus usable with a mouse. Please make the effort.

It's always a good idea to support gamepads, because many games are improved by them, but your default settings should be optimized for a mouse and keyboard. That means menus work with a mouse, and that means when I'm playing a tutorial the command prompts don't assume I'm using a gamepad. When these areas are ignored or passed over, it seems like you already think I'm playing the game on the wrong platform, and that you put zero effort and thought into the version of the game I purchased.

Ugh. That may be accurate.

This can also be a part of the section above that concerns adjusting the game's settings, especially in the case of Bulletstorm, where the game was clearly set up for a game pad and the options needed to fix that were encrypted and hidden from players. Classy.

Force players to log into yet another thing

This is something that continually drives me crazy, and it's only getting worse. You sit down at your computer, log into Steam, launch the game, and then you need to set up another account or log into another service before the game launches. You better set up a dedicated password for each service, as well, because it seems as if everyone in the world has either been hacked or is about be hacked. Everyone wants your personal information, and it seem as if no one has a good way to keep that data safe.

Even without the hacking aspect of things, I don't want to set up an EA account to play a game on Steam. Now my EA account is an Origin account, and I may or may not be able to re-download my EA games if I delete them, because EA and Valve are butting heads over this and that. I bet when you played Grand Theft Auto IV you were looking forward to creating an account on the Rockstar Games Social Club, right? I have a great time playing Section 8: Prejudice, but for some reason the game forces you to use Games for Windows Live, and when I log onto that useless service to play the game it boots my wife from the 360 if she's watching a movie on Netflix. What does Games for Windows Live get me that Steam, the service I used to buy the game, does not? Nothing. It only adds an extra layer of complexity and annoyance. It's a net loss.

I do not want to set up an account somewhere, I regret that you think I should be forced to because I made the mistake of buying your product, and in most cases you lose more than you gain by using all these goofy publisher-specific clubs or services or accounts. Please, for all that is holy... STOP IT.
Why does all this matter?

People want to play PC games. In fact, they want to love PC games. In many cases companies take a giant, virtual dump all over the PC versions of their games, and then feign innocence when they're asked about why gamers don't buy PC games in large numbers. EA is betting much of its short-term future on the success of The Old Republic and Battlefield 3, and those two games are either PC exclusives or feature the PC as the lead platform.

It only takes a little extra work to make your PC games play on the PC, and make gamers happy. It's worth doing so, if only because it gives you a way of standing out in the crowded market—indies have long crowed about their lack of DRM to great success—and it helps your chances that someone will actually pay for your product.

We want to give you our money, developers and publishers, so please stop punishing us for doing so.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/ars-guide-how-to-ruin-your-pc-port-in-five-easy-steps.ars

I KNOW EVERY PC gamer on GATT has faced at LEAST 1 of these problems AT least ONCE. These crimes are SO bad that if you don't have a sense of humour you'd have either GIVEN up PC gaming or suffered a stroke by now... the times we live in

26
Trading Grounds / Looking for Xbox RROD Xbox 360
« on: July 31, 2011, 12:23:31 AM »
This is EXACTLY what it sounds like, i'm looking for anyone who has a RROD'ed xbox 360 to take off your hands. Preferably one bought in 2008-9.

27
This is an interesting article and I really do wonder which is true...

Quote
The One Supplement Everyone Needs
From SouthBeachDiet.com

Here's some surprising news: According to the National Institutes of Health, Americans spend almost $20 billion per year on vitamins and supplements, up a whopping $6 billion since 1999. Even more surprising? Almost all of them have little or no effect on your health. "For years there has been heated debate within the medical community about supplements helping to reduce the risk of certain diseases, but scientific studies have repeatedly failed to support these claims," says Dr. Arthur Agatston, preventive cardiologist and author of The South Beach Diet® and The South Beach Heart Health Revolution.

Indeed, research from reputable institutions has shown that most supplements cannot prevent or treat diseases. For example, in one study from the U.S. Preventive Task Force (the leading panel of private-sector experts in prevention and primary care), researchers systematically reviewed the efficacy of vitamins A, C, and E; multivitamins with folic acid; and antioxidant combinations said to prevent cancer and/or cardiovascular disease. Their findings demonstrated that while these vitamins won't harm you, they won't help you, either. Furthermore, the Task Force concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend taking supplements containing these nutrients. This research bolsters the outcome of numerous earlier studies, including the groundbreaking Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, January 2000, which found no benefit of vitamin E supplementation in heart-disease patients.
Should You Be Taking a Daily Multivitamin?

The disappointing results of studies on vitamin supplements and their purported health benefits come as no surprise to Dr. Agatston: "I've been following the scientific evidence closely for many years and have always understood that supplements are not the magic bullet for improving health or preventing disease — eating a good variety of vegetables and fruits, along with healthy fats, such as omega-3s and olive oil, is still the optimal way to get the natural vitamins and nutrients that prevent heart attacks, strokes, cancers, and other chronic diseases."

That said, research has shown that one supplement will make a difference: fish oil. Study after study — including the landmark GISSI-Prevention Study, which found that a daily dose of fish oil substantially decreased the risk of sudden death in heart-attack survivors — consistently demonstrates that fish oil helps prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, decreases sudden death from heart attack, and may even stave off Alzheimer's disease.

In addition, fish oil, which contains two omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids (EPA and DHA), has been shown to reduce the inflammation that is a predictor of heart disease — and that's a result which may help avert the risk of deadly heart attacks or strokes. "A certain amount of inflammation in the body is good because it helps blood to clot and wards off infection," explains Dr. Agatston. "But too much inflammation may cause plaque in the arteries to rupture, leading to a blood clot that could cause a heart attack or stroke. To prevent cardiovascular disease and minimize dangerous levels of inflammation in the body, the one supplement that adult men and women should be taking is fish oil."

I miss my morning multivitamin quite regularly... with information such as this... makes me wonder if i'm missing anything at all. Sound off Health Conscious GATTers

28
Software, Security, Programming and Internet / MS-DOS turns 30!!!
« on: July 28, 2011, 04:52:44 PM »
 :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

It's what the title reads:

Quote
MS-DOS turns 30 years old
Ancient history for many readers
By Inquirer staff
Thu Jul 28 2011, 16:01

BACK IN THE MISTS OF TIME when personal computers were first invented, there was a primitive command shell and program loader that most people used to make them work. It was called MS-DOS and it turned 30 years old this week.

If you vaguely remember MS-DOS and its variants like PC-DOS and DR-DOS, or you're a bit curious, our sister IT news web site V3.co.uk has revived some memories and related the story for you.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2097743/ms-dos

29
Came across an interesting article that sought to determine the relationship between the widespread availability of information via google and wiki and the deterioration or improvement of memory function. I for one have a saying (about my tertiary educations), "university made me dumb". Why you may ask? I considered myself much more creative and able to 'think outside the box' BEFORE I did my first degree IN Engineering. However the structure of the courses led me down a path of 'DO IT THIS WAY OR ELSE' for the sake of making the grade. That aside however, I do have to admit that with the ease of access of SO much information, it gives me the 'feeling' that I don't NEED to remember specifically as much as say when I was in primary school where they made you feel that you NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING. So without further delay, have a gander at the article and let us know what you think, how google and wiki have affected your intepretation of 'NEED TO COMMIT TO MEMORY' and if you feel NOW that you actually know LESS than you ought to without the internets....

Quote
Study: why bother to remember when you can just use Google?
By Kyle Niemeyer | Published about 20 hours ago
Study: why bother to remember when you can just use Google?

In the age of Google and Wikipedia, an almost unlimited amount of information is available at our fingertips, and with the rise of smartphones, many of us have nonstop access. The potential to find almost any piece of information in seconds is beneficial, but is this ability actually negatively impacting our memory? The authors of a paper that is being released by Science Express describe four experiments testing this. Based on their results, people are recalling information less, and instead can remember where to find the information they have forgotten.

The authors pose one simple example that had me immediately agreeing with their conclusions. Test yourself: how many countries have flags with only one color? Regardless of your answer, was your first thought about actual flags, or was it to consider where you would find that information? Without realizing it (even though I knew the content of the paper), I found myself mentally planning on opening up my Web browser and heading for a search engine.

This concept of relying on external sources of information is not new to the computer age. In group environments, people develop what’s known as transactive memory, which is the sum of information held by the group (one of the authors of the current paper, Daniel Wegner, is the Harvard psychologist who first proposed the concept in 1985). Think of it like a group of experts working as a team, where each person has their own area of expertise—when you need some information you don’t have, you just go to the person who does.

The authors argue that easy access to information via the Internet forms another transactive memory source. However, in this case, access to this source may actually hurt our memory.

In the first experiment, the authors gave participants a mix of easy and hard trivia questions, then tested their response time to colored computer and non-computer words through a modified Stroop task. The task relies on having a term printed in color; if the term itself is interesting, subjects have a harder time naming the color. They found that, when given harder questions, people took longer on computer-related words, suggesting they thought about computers when needing information.

The second experiment tested whether people remember information if they expect to have easy access to it later. Subjects were asked to remember a bit of notable trivia and type it into a computer; half were informed that the information would be saved. People who didn’t believe they would need information (because it was saved) recalled less than if they thought they would need to remember it. In other words, we may unconsciously make little effort to remember something we know we can look up in the future.

In experiment three, the researchers wanted to see if people recalled the location where information could be found. Again using trivia, they had the subjects type a tidbit into a computer, then either erased it, saved it to a generic location, or saved it to a specific location. Later, the participants were asked to recall the trivia statements, whether they had been saved, and if so where. According to the paper, people have better recall of things they believe will be erased. But they were even better at remembering whether it was saved or erased—even though people didn’t remember where it was saved, just that it was.

The final experiment tested if people recall where to find information more than the information itself. Similar to experiment three, participants were given trivia statements and told where they would be saved, then were tested on both the content of the statements and the save locations. Overall, people remembered the locations where the information was saved more than the information itself. If they remembered the trivia, however, its location was forgotten.

The results from all four experiments suggest that people expect computerized information to be continuously available, and actually remember less when they know they’ll have access to it later. We also seem to remember where we can find information instead of the information itself.

Our memory appears to be adapting to technology, for better or worse. Some argue that the changes to our brains caused by instant access to information are damaging and similar to addiction, but other results suggest that actively searching online can actually strengthen some brains. Most wouldn’t consider typical group transactive memory to be damaging, but beneficial—who’s to say these developments aren’t also a good thing? With access to unprecedented amounts of external knowledge, perhaps this now unused capacity of our brains can be used in other ways?

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/07/study-why-bother-to-remember-when-you-can-just-use-google.ars

P.S. Reminds me of an episode of 'the outer limits' where a person woke up to a new world where everyone was connected to a central database and could pull data wirelessly straight to their brains, thus eliminating the need to remember, the outcome, the central repository was destroyed and everyone save the 'outsider' in the plot had to LEARN everything from scratch.

30
PC Gaming / Top 10 FREE MMORPGs
« on: July 01, 2011, 05:37:50 PM »
Found this online, while racking up free bing points, it's a youtube video giving (subjectively) the top 10 best FREE mmorpgs out there, worth a look if this is your style:


31
Yes you read right... the game that wrecks marriages, relationships and even kills REAL PEOPLE... is now FREE up till level 20 which for all intents and purposes is enough to get you started and HOOKED on the path to self destruction... have a read:

Quote
World of Warcraft is now free until level 20, core games drop in price
By Ben Kuchera | Published about 2 hours ago

Remember when D.A.R.E. officers would warn you against the evil drug dealers who would give you the first hit for free in order to get you addicted? Well, think of Blizzard as a dealer who is extending that offer to the first 20 hits. Starting now, World of Warcraft has become free to play until you hit level 20.

"We've removed the previous 10- and 14-day trial time restrictions, and players who are interested in trying out World of Warcraft can now play the base game for free up to a maximum character level of 20, including draenei and blood elf characters—all they need is a Battle.net account and an Internet connection," Blizzard explained in a statement. If you ran through a previous 14-day trial, you can go back to your character and continue to play from the point you left the game if you'd like, but the level cap will be set at 20.

After that? Blizzard has some inexpensive ways of getting you into the game.

    ...players will be able to get both the original World of Warcraft and the game’s first expansion set, The Burning Crusade, for only $19.99 as part of the new digital Battle Chest now available in the online Blizzard Store. In addition, anyone who owns the original World of Warcraft, regardless of when they purchased the game, will automatically be able to access all of the content and features from The Burning Crusade expansion at no additional cost.

You're going to see this more frequently as companies find ways to sell you content through the games, using the title as a platform instead of a product. Valve recently moved Team Fortress 2 into the world of free-to-play, and even fighting games are becoming aggressive in post-launch monetization—although in that case there was no drop in the price for the game.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/world-of-warcraft-is-now-free-until-level-20-core-games-drop-in-price.ars

Where was this 4 years back when I mistakenly paid 500tt for this game for my brothers... (mistakenly because I knew not I was giving them pandora's box)

32
Microsoft Xbox / Trenched to become "Iron Brigade" on XBLA
« on: June 28, 2011, 05:26:54 PM »
It's been a WHILE since i've played a Tower Defense of ANY kind, but THIS may be the trick to take a whack at it again:

Quote
XBLA Trenched brings mechs, co-op to tower defense
By Ben Kuchera | Published a day ago

The world of tower defense games is more varied than it may look, with interesting takes on the genre being released with some regularity. Anomaly showed us what would happen if we were the invading army, and now Trenched on the Xbox Live Arcade turns the standard cursor you would normally use to place your units into a giant, customizable weapons platform.

If I'm allowed a moment of understatement, this is a very nice addition to the game play.

The game takes place in an alternate reality World War I, and you patrol each map with your mech as you take out the waves of bad guys, laying down your turrets and other battlefield goodies. You also have to stomp over to the fallen enemies to pick up the "scrap," the material used to buy new defenses and upgrades.

This gives you both a direct and indirect interaction with the enemies, and the game comes to life in multiplayer, with more enemies coming at you as you increase the player count. As you fight, you'll be earning money to buy upgrades, and new weapons and items to use to customize your mech. Finding the right combination of parts and effective defense placement are both important if you want to get ahead.

The game does have a few problems, as I found it tricky to keep track of where the enemies were coming from. Some waves are announced on your heads-up display, while others aren't, for no apparent reason. I would go out to fight a swarm of the bad guys, only to find another group of enemies chewing on the building I was supposed to be protecting, without much of a peep from the game. A top-down map would have been useful in some situations.

Even with these minor annoyances, the game is a great time, especially when you invite friends along for the ride. This is a game that feels good, and puts enough hooks into the standard tower defense formula to keep you playing. For $15, this is a game you need to be playing.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/xbla-trenched-brings-mechs-co-op-to-tower-defense.ars

33
PC Gaming / PROUN, NO NOT P0RN
« on: June 28, 2011, 05:24:10 PM »
Came across an article for a simple yet addictive PC game that is slightly FREE (know that words grabs attention on GATT) and is still Pay-for. Have a read:

Quote
Proun: a beautiful, pick-your-price PC racer that you need to play
By Ben Kuchera | Published about 7 hours ago

The music in Proun is kind of annoying. There, I have found something negative to say about the game. My job here is done.

Proun is an odd duck: a PC release that can you play for free—or you can pay whatever you want to unlock an extra track—and it looks like nothing else currently on the market. You play a sphere that's attached to a very long cylinder, and you race across it, moving back and forth to avoid obstacles in your path. That's the entirety of the game, and you can play each track in a matter of minutes. The real joy comes in unlocking the faster speeds and seeing just how quickly you can react. We've embedded a video below—you're going to want to see this game in action.



What's striking about Proun is how it makes you feel. The game is epic without being loud, it's sleek without being cold, and it's joyful without being cute. It's a happy game that's not afraid to bloody your nose if you're not paying attention. The tracks feel both expertly designed and effortless.

My only problem is that I want more of it, and RockPaperShotgun was nice enough to point to another track you can add to the game. Let's hope that more are released, and the game grows with the audience. At the absolute minimum you need to give this a try, and I think you'll find it worth a few dollars from your wallet.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/proun-is-a-beautiful-pick-your-price-pc-racer-that-you-need-to-play.ars

Will DL and have a go at it later. Try to give a firsthand review.

34
For those that live in the gaming world as we do here on GATT, the hacking of Sony's PSN is undoubtedly the most high profile case in recent history. However if you've been keeping track, the hacking has not stopped.... not by a long shot. Whether it be Anonymous, or lulzsec, fact is, emails, names, passwords, personal data is now floating around the world wide web like NEVER before. As responsible 'power users' as alot of us are, this is a grave concern, because the last thing we want is to see a 3000USD charge for a nigerian face lift in Zimbabwe. Moving forward I will try to update this thread with the most current exploits of the 'known' hacking groups, as well as whomever may surface in future.

Quote
Lulzsec teams up with Anonymous to target governments and banks
Launch of Operation Anti-Security
By Dean Wilson
Mon Jun 20 2011, 11:47

NINJA PIRATE HACKER GROUP Lulzsec has joined forces with the hacktivist group Anonymous in a global operation targeted at governments and banks.

The duo launched Operation Anti-Security today, declaring "unremitting war" on the "freedom-snatching moderators" of the internet. They vowed to fight both the government and what they called "whitehat security terrorists", persumably referring to genuine security outfits like Sophos, which has been highly critical of Lulzsec as being immature and lacking "moral spine".

Lulzsec and Anonymous called on others to support their efforts, suggesting hacking government and banking websites. They particularly encouraged the use of the word "Antisec" as digital or physical graffiti in order to spread the message behind attacks.

Both groups have gained both support and criticism for a number of recent hacks, but this is the first time they have teamed up to take down a target. They revealed that their top priority is to steal and leak classified government information, particularly emphasising the banking industry. They also promised to break through any attempts to censor them.

Lulzsec has been extremely active over the past few weeks, hacking Sony and several other gaming companies, using Distributed Denial of Serivce (DDoS) attacks against the US Senate, International Monetary Fund and CIA web sites, and uploading 62,000 email addresses and passwords it acquired.

There appeared to be no real purpose behind those attacks other than the fun of it, but there is a clearer objective with Operation Anti-Security, targeted at those that oppose internet freedom. It's understandable why this has gained the support of Anonymous, which has been a primary supporter of the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks.

Lulzsec also targeted the FBI-linked Infragard Connecticut web site, which is now offline. It used SQL injection, a relatively simple form of hacking, to compromise over 1,000 passwords belonging to FBI-affiliated members, claiming that many of these people reuse the same password frequently. It chose not to reveal these passwords to the public. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2080140/lulzsec-teams-anonymous-target-governments-banks

Quote
Sega hack took 1.29 million users' details
Latest hacked game firm confesses to losses
By Dave Neal
Mon Jun 20 2011, 09:15

GAMES COMPANY Sega has contacted users following a hacker attack last Friday and informed them that it is doing all it can be protect their information.

In an e-mail sent to Sega Pass users the company said, "Over the last 24 hours we have identified that unauthorised entry was gained to our Sega Pass database. We immediately took the appropriate action to protect our consumers' data and isolate the location of the breach. We have launched an investigation into the extent of the breach of our public systems."

The firm revealed that the attack could have affected as many as 1.29 million of its Sega Pass members and taken some of their personal information. However, credit card and banking information appears to have been untouched.

"1,290,755 customers' information including Sega Pass members name, email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords were obtained," it said.

Currently a note on the Sega Pass site puts off new members, and, you could say, any current ones. "Hi", it says, "SEGA Pass is going through some improvements so is currently unavailable for new members to join or existing members to modify their details including resetting passwords. We hope to be back up and running very soon. Thank you for your paitence (sic)."

While some might have thought that it was ninja pirates from Lulzsec that were responsible for the attack, this apparently was not the case. In fact Lulzsec offered to help Sega in its time of trouble.

"Contact us. We want to help you destroy the hackers that attacked you," the group said in tweet, "We love the Dreamcast, these people are going down." µ
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2080069/sega-hack-129-million-users

Clearly NOONE is safe, you should be very careful what passwords you use as hard as it can become to manage several at a time.

35
Storage / SSD move over Phase Change is coming
« on: June 16, 2011, 01:32:28 PM »
It's an interesting read and one of the ways forward in the storage biz

Quote
Smaller is better

PHASE-CHANGE MEMORY is, possibly along with Memristors, one of the holy grails of future memory technology. The original promise of non-volatile, lightning-quick RAM has over the course of time been replaced with a more down-to-earth approach - a fast storage medium akin to SSD drives.

This is precisely what a team of University of California San Diego (UCSD) researchers has been working on. Using kit from Micron Technology, the team has built a prototype phase-change memory (PCM) storage array called the "Onyx". Similar to an SSD drive, Onyx is a data storage device and the first benchmarks of it show how it outperforms commercially available server-grade SSDs by as much as 120 per cent in small block operations.

Onyx is a PCIe card equipped with phase-change memory from Micron Technology and a FPGA controller. The Onyx prototype can currently store a total of 10GB of data although only 8GB are usable, while the remainder is reserved for error correction - yes, that's 20 per cent. Still, the team has put the Onyx on the test bench and compared it to an 80GB FusionIO drive, which is just about the fastest SSD silicon out there.

According to the published data, preliminary tests on the prototype have yielded better than expected results, that is, a victory over FusionIO and its enterprise solution in small block writes. The Onyx soundly whacks FusionIO in read throughput and it performs even better when dealing with smaller blocks. When it comes to writes, the Onyx dominates the smaller block sizes but falls behind its competitor overall when large block writes are also factored in. The thing is, though, we're talking about first generation silicon, as opposed to the more mature NAND Flash SSDs that already abound.

The team promises that there is plenty of room with this phase-change technology for growth and higher performance.

To put things in perspective, the first generation of Onyx technology can deliver 1.1GB/s of read throughput and 470MB/s of write throughput. It also has lower CPU overhead than a regular SSD, which will either free up the CPU for other tasks or lower overall system power consumption. The team expects a second generation of PCM prototypes to come out within the next six to nine months with better results. µ

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/boffin-watch-blog/2079311/phase-change-memory-makes-debut#ixzz1PSfHVaAC
The Inquirer - Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/boffin-watch-blog/2079311/phase-change-memory-makes-debut

36
Software, Security, Programming and Internet / PDF
« on: June 02, 2011, 11:29:13 AM »
As the name suggests this is a thread about PDFs and applications that we use daily to deal with them. The more seasoned men will either use a native app such as Adobe Acrobat. For those that don't have the cash printing/saving to pdf is as simple as 'save as' in the later installments of MS Office or Open Office. However that still leaves alot of headache for other tasks, say printing a image you drew to pdf, or if you have older versions of Office or if you have a pdf and want to MANIPULATE it.

So below is a collection of a few little tools I've come across (whether by chance or intent) over my years dealing with the open yet proprietary document standard:

Cutepdf writer - This is a staple in my normal PC setups regardless of what machine i'm using. It appears like a printer on your PC so you can 'print' to it regardless of the app you may be using. It's open source so its FREE. It used to come in 2 parts a gpl ghostscript driver and a printer overlay, I believe now it's an AIO installer.


PDFTK Builder - I only found this little gem today actually, it's again open source, so its FREE and what it allows you to do is basic layout manipulation of pdf document/s. So you can rotate individual pages, collate several pdfs into 1 big one. Split pdfs and a few other neat tricks. Comes in handy for reorganising a final document.


Open Office pdf plugin - I've not tried this myself, but basically it allows you to perform edits of basic types of pdf documents, cheers.


Here are some ONLINE PDF conversion options and tricks - I've used zamzar before and I can attest it WORKS!

Being a big fan of open source software, my free PDF creator of choice is the appropriately named "PDF Creator"

http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/

If anyone has any more diy type solutions or other FREE or affordable resources please do feel free to add it here, i'll add it to the first post as time goes along. Particularly pdf apps for smart phones! Cheers







37
Game Theory / The Death March
« on: May 27, 2011, 08:35:11 AM »
I know you're thinking at a glance of the topic... someone has a game idea and it's called death march.. well truth be told, you could make a 'sims' like game out of what you're about to read, but otherwise its much farther from the truth. The 'Death March' isn't a game, an idea for a game or anything remotely cool. It IS in actuality the term used to refer to the slave driver like work life of present day game developers. Now for those that work (many of us) or those that are studying for degrees, certs, etc. we ALL know the pressure one feels when you're 'under the gun'. You have a big project due, an assignment, lab work, physical, whatever it may be, you're WORKING ur ass off and you have a clock running. Noone here I believe will EVER boast how they LOVE working under the gun and that STRESS is healthy for you. Sure I have said and will still claim I work best under pressure, however that doesn't account for LONG, REPEATED, EXTENSIVE pressure. As the saying goes "Pressure does buss pipe". I came across an article on Ars Technica explaining the dangers of the game development industry from a work ethic point of view. My cousin works for RockStar and Shiv works for Blacktivision ala sledgehammer (yes the team making the new COD MW3). It would be great for them to share some of their experiences in that industry first hand with us, but that could take some time given their SCHEDULES... right away it paints the picture for us doesn't it.

I am going to post excerpts and highlight some disturbing points made have a gander:
Quote
The death march: the problem of crunch time in game development
By Andrew Groen | Published about 8 hours ago

Horror stories are constantly surfacing about the lengths game developers sometimes have to go in order to ship a game on time. The worst involve up to 85-hour work weeks—12 hours a day, seven days a week—which is more than double the century-old 40 hour per week standard. Extended periods of crunch can last up to a year, with sustained 60-hour weeks. This practice has earned a markedly less innocuous name than "crunch time." It's called "the death march."

In some cases it's nearly dehumanizing: the closure of All Points Bulletin developer Real Time Worlds in September of last year left more than 185 employees out of a job. They were welcomed to the end of a particularly long crunch period by pink slips rather than profit sharing and bonuses.

In an industry that is steadfastly focused on fun, it seems counter-intuitive that video gamers should be the ones who have to worry about the sagging quality of life of those who make the games. No kid should ever have to wonder if Santa Claus is cracking the whip too hard on his elves to make the Christmas Eve shipping deadline, but despite widespread outrage over revelations from ex-employees describing poor conditions, the status quo remains largely unchanged and unchallenged.

WOW... imagine working at KFC, working double, triple shifts, giving the best service and after a year of being employee of the month they hand you a pink slip... thats kind of a parallel. Continue:
Quote
This is one of the principle factors perpetuating the use of crunch by management. The vast majority of employees working in the development of video games are salaried employees and do not receive overtime for additional hours spent at the office. A recent poll of over 350 industry professionals taken by developer-focused website Develop, showed that 98 percent of those polled received no compensation for their overtime work

I raised an eyebrow at this next particular piece:

Quote
Why should you care?

You work hard at your job, and you don't always get to go home right when the clock strikes five, either. So why should you take time out of your day to sympathize with game developers? After all, they're adults. If they don't like their situation they can move on, right?

Well, the problem is that it's just not a very effective way to manage a project, and often it's the quality of the games that suffer. This is not a new revelation; as far back as 1909 studies have shown that the 40-hour work week actually provides more output over a long period of time than when employees work longer hours.


In an article published by the International Game Developers Association, 20 year development veteran Evan Robinson notes that studies show that regularly being awake for more than 21 hours impairs the mind as much as having a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08... that's also the point where it becomes illegal to drive a car.

"It's ironic," Robinson wrote. "Most software companies will fire an employee who routinely shows up drunk for work. But they don't think twice about... people who are impaired to the point of legal drunkenness due to lack of sleep. In fact, they will demand that these people work to the point of legal impairment as a condition of continued employment."

So rather than potentially having fun and having a few (as is VERY customary in good ole T&T) you can get as impaired by working. I honestly have experienced this before, once whilst in university I had concurrent labs running and assignments due like WHOA. I was awake for 36 hours of which at least 24 was in DEEP CONCENTRATION and thinking, troubleshooting, calculations, the works. After which I had to drive home. Highway, exhaustion... I felt like I was gonna pass out every second and it was NOT a good experience, very akin to drinking heavily whilst in a down mood... even tho seemingly unrelated, the feeling was the same.

I ask you GATTers what do you think about this unhealthy practice? This is clearly NOT a good thing, WHY? because think of the quality of the games we enjoy IF the team developing it got proper sleep. If you want to read the whole article here is your link: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/05/the-death-march-the-problem-of-crunch-time-in-game-development.ars

I do encourage you to read it, its very relevant to us all as gamers.





38
Sick Sad World / For the caffeine junkies
« on: May 13, 2011, 05:01:49 PM »
I don't like coffee (save on an odd occasion where you get it fresh brewed in the mountains of south america or such) however I know alot of caffeine lovers and addicts out there, for those that JUST HAVE TO HAVE IT, first thing on a morning, like a certain jamaican dancehall artist has his 'whitening soap' NOW there is CAFFEINE SOAP! yes you heard right, so now before you even leave the house, or think to go to the kitchen and grab a cup, you could step into the bath and have a fix!

Imho this is just too much... for some though it's prolly sheer brilliance...

Here's an excerpt:
Quote
Getting your caffeine buzz started in the shower
By Eric Bangeman | Published a day ago

As the Ars team convenes for two days of meetings in Chicago, we're reaching back into the past to bring you some of our favorite articles from years gone by.

Ah, sweet, sweet caffeine. Whether your chosen delivery device is a Triple Red Eye from Starbucks or a liter of Mountain Dew, nothing beats the gentle jolt into full wakefulness provided by the humble C8H10N4O2 molecule. Oral delivery by means of caffeinated liquids has long been the preferred method of getting one's caffeine buzz on. In a cruel twist of fate, some people are unable to brew a pot of coffee, order a latte, or figure out how to open a can of Mountain Dew right after waking up, due to that very same lack of caffeine.

What's a caffeine-loving geek to do? Enter Shower Shock. In the search for ever-more-efficient ways to ingest caffeine, someone came up with the bright idea of adding caffeine to soap. That way, all you need to do is to stumble out of bed and into the shower, wash with a bar of caffeine-infused soap, and you're well on your way to full wakefulness.

And the full article: http://arstechnica.com/staff/upstairs/2011/05/getting-your-caffeine-buzz-started-in-the-shower.ars

39
Processors / Intel develops 3D transistors
« on: May 05, 2011, 02:26:33 PM »
Before I even started this new topic I wondered: 'Don't we have tonnes of topics in here and maybe we could reduce it to Intel, AMD, ARM, (soon to be Nvidia) to better place articles like this... either way this is an Intel win and it's pretty damn cool. As the topic suggests, Intel after a decade of research has figured out how to build transistors with even more 'depth' than previous layering approaches. Warning the articles out there can my mind numbingly technical, however Ars has a nice simplified version and more importantly what it means for the future of microprocessors. Here's an excerpt:
Quote
Transistors go 3D as Intel re-invents the microchip
By Jon Stokes | Last updated: about 5 hours ago

At an event today in San Francisco, Intel announced one of the most important pieces of semiconductor news in many years: the company's upcoming 22nm processors will feature a fundamental change to the design of the most basic building block of every computer chip, the transistor.

Intel has been exploring the new transistor for over a decade, and the company first announced a significant breakthrough with the design in 2002. A trickle of announcements followed over the years, as the new transistor progressed from being one possible direction among many to its newly crowned status as the official future of Intel's entire product line.

In this short article, I'll give my best stab at explaining what Intel has announced—the so-called tri-gate transistor. Semiconductor physics are not my strong suit, so corrections/clarifications/comments are welcome. Also, this explanation focuses solely on the "3D" part of today's announcements. Other features of the 22nm process, like high-K dielectrics and such, are ignored. (So if you see a funny term on a slide and you don't know what it means, either ignore it or hit one of the Related Links for more info.)

But before we dive into what's new about Intel's transistor design, we first have to review how traditional transistors work.

In effect without going deeper into the article, they found a way to increase conductivity/ or reduce power consumption. Read the article: http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/05/intel-re-invents-the-microchip.ars/ to get a better understanding. And note, this new development is OUTSIDE of simple traditional shrink the process to improve speed and power. This is a complimentary discovery that will add up to 50% power savings or 30%+ frequencies ABOVE the process shrinks. Study dat.

40
The 'inner child' just JUMPED after reading this article:

Quote
Super Soaker introduces a new wrinkle to squirt guns: magazines
By Ben Kuchera | Last updated about 17 hours ago



It has been a long time since we've seen something new and interesting in the world of squirt guns. Hasbro has come up with a new way of keeping extra water ready for quick reloads when you're in the field, trying to soak your children (or parents, as the case may be) as efficiently as possible. With the new line of Super Soaker water guns you don't need to find a house or go inside to a sink: you simply remove your empty magazine and slam a new one in. It's like a squirt gun action film.

There are a number of guns that use the magazines, and the design is pretty cool. You fill the magazine up with water using a wide opening in the front, and close it with a large, easy-to-grasp screw top. It's easy to open, takes seconds to refill, and is simple to close again. There is a string attached to the top that connects to a porous ball inside the magazine, so the cap can't be lost.

There are two openings at the top of the magazine with a pressure-operated stopper. When the magazines are not in a gun, there will be no leakage, no matter how rough you are. The guns don't need any fiddling to get them to accept a new magazine; you can slam it right in there like you are in an action movie.



The magazine

In practice, the system works very well. The magazines hold a decent amount of water, aren't very heavy, and you can strap a bunch of them to your belt using the clip on the side. The practical uses of a discrete container of water that can be easily replaced in a water-battle are easy to see, but it's also just plain fun to go dry, grab another magazine, slam it in, and keep firing.

While there are multiple water guns that use this new magazine system, we had a chance to play with the Thunderstorm, which retails for $15, takes four AA batteries, and turned out to be a wonderful toy. The battery-powered nature of the gun means that you don't have to pump, and the water comes out in one steady, strong stream. You can get good distance, soak someone very efficiently at short-to-medium ranges, and at that price, you can afford to get two for dual-wielding.

Keep in mind that when you first begin to fire it takes a second for the water to stream out; it's not instantaneous as with a classical Super Soaker. This is more than made up for by the fact that the stream is continuous until you take your finger off the trigger.

The extra magazines carry a retail price of $4, and it's a good idea to stock up if you want to instill fear in the hearts of all who attempt to douse you on the field of watery battle. There is nothing like being attacked by a man wearing a bandolier covered in extra water cartridges for his fully-automatic, battery-powered water gun. It's a look that says you can't be bargained with. You can't be reasoned with. You don't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And you absolutely will not stop, ever, until the other person is completely soaked.

If I could walk out to the closest toy store and get me a few of these (at THOSE prices) I SOOOOOO WOULD  :awesome:

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