Tech News
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Club 3D HD 7870 jokerCard Tahiti LE 2 GB @ TechPowerUp
Published: Friday, January 4, 2013 | By: DennisDuring the days of the GTX 500 series I turned down a GTX 560 for review because I thought they were talking about the GTX 560 Ti (which the site had already reviewed). Come to find out my shortsightedness cost me a popular card launch and taught me that I needed to pay a little more attention.
Or "to" attention in this case, their monthly fees are quite affordable these days. Its just a matter of keeping our accounts in the green.
Well it would seem my "attention account" was overdrawn once again and I totally missed the "new" Radeon HD 7870 based on the Tahiti core.
Towards late-November, AMD made a halfhearted attempt at launching a new performance-segment GPU that strikes a price-point right in between the Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition and the Radeon HD 7950, and that's putting it mildly. There was confusion over specifications and name until the very last minute. AMD finally decided not to make a reference-design card which left the decision to its partners, most of whom decided against releasing the SKU so as not to disturb their swelling HD 7870 GHz Edition and HD 7950 inventories. To make matters worse, AMD chose the brilliant SKU name of "Radeon HD 7870."
TechPowerUp has a scoop on the Club jokerCard that comes with a brilliant black PCB and Do Not Disturb door hanger for those long gaming sessions when you want to be left alone.
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Azio Levetron Mech5 - Mechanical Gaming Keyboard @ PureOverclock
Published: Friday, January 4, 2013 | By: DennisIt may sounds like the name of a new electric razor or blender for your favorite adult drink but the Azio Levetron Mech5 is neither, it's a mechincal keyboard. (read: the title) Now before you close the browser and move on you should know that the Mech5 isn't an ordinary gaming keyboard but more of a command center with a straight deck of keys located in the center.
And it is good
Today we will be taking a looking at one of Azio’s newest gaming keyboards on the market, the Azio Levetron Mech5 mechanical keyboard. The Mech5 is Azio’s most innovative mainstream mechanical gaming keyboard available today. As of the last few years, mechanical keyboards have gotten really popular and we are seeing many competitors releasing their own designs in an attempt to capitalize on this new craze. Azio designed the Levetron Mech5 to be completely modular, so fit and finish will be an important aspect to keep in mind; however, let’s not forget that functionality is just as important when it comes to mechanical gaming keyboards. So today we are going to put the Azio Levetron Mech5 to the test and see how it stacks up.
Even if this keyboard is junk and repeats the letter "A" with every keypress I'm still impressed because its different. Would I buy one? prolly not but if you had one of these at your next LAN I'd be suprised if nobody wanted to check it out.
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How to turn your DSLR into a full spectrum ‘super camera’ @ ExtremeTech
Published: Thursday, January 3, 2013 | By: DennisI remember doing this with an old webcam. The process was pretty simple and required that you remove the IR filter and replace it with a visible light filter. In my case I used the fully exposed color film negative and cut a filter from it to fit my USB camera lens. You may think the negative was completely blacked out but it transmitted IR light quite well.
(You can test this by placing the film negative over your IR tv remote and changing the channel)
The results were quite amazing and reminded me of a really messed up black and white photo. You can also take some rather amazing night photos using supplemental IR lights and a tripod. Be careful though, people have been known to see thru certain types of swimsuits using IR cameras giving you x-ray vision (and maybe landing you in trouble).
As both a techie and a photographer I love pushing the envelope of what is possible in digital photography. One of the most interesting intersections of these the interests has been the observation that images don’t need to be limited to visible light. Several years ago I had a Nikon D70 converted to be sensitive to infrared — allowing me to capture some amazing images of Cambodian temples and moody landscapes.
This article takes things a little further and with a much more expensive camera, My little USB camera was pretty much worthless after the conversion since it took too long to put the old lens back in. Then again that is why I used a USB web cam over something more expensive.
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Make 2013 the year you switch to Linux @ PCWorld
Published: Thursday, January 3, 2013 | By: DennisHere is a fun story that talks about the advantages of Linux over other operating systems including Windows and OSX. Of course, you can always look at the number one reason as the purpose of any article and this one is no surprise.
1. Windows 8
For years Windows users have been able to coast along contentedly in a familiar paradigm, but with Windows 8 that's all changed. A mobile-style interface without a Start button is now the reality facing Windows users who upgrade, and it's not necessarily an easy transition. Linux—and especially Ubuntu—now offers what may well be a more comfortable alternative.It is no secret that I have been using Linux for years and currently have a Slackware system running my network. Despite this I refuse to run any Linux distro as my primary desktop due to poor application penetration, Yes, that is right, my primary reason for using Windows is because I'm an application snob and like what is currently available and have no trust over the Linux variants.
I suspect that when (and if) Linux becomes a "go to" OS the application options will become better. That is also assuming distro directors can agree on a standard way to install applications and can get past their e-peen "my distro is better than yours" arguments.
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Xbox 720 processor production tipped @ Slashgear
Published: Wednesday, January 2, 2013 | By: DennisHere is some interesting news about the Xbox 720.
This tip comes from the folks at SemiAccurate, a blog whose name playfully dismisses the fact that they’re not always right with their own tips. The information they’ve got keeps with the possibility that the Xbox 720 will be revealed this year by noting chip production (processors, that is) as officially “taped out” for the console’s innards.
When they (and we) say “taped out”, it refers the final design being completed and sent off to production for a bit of electronics, especially in regards to circuits. Here this refers to the so-called “Oban chip” that will be powering the Xbox 720 when it’s released either late 2013 or early 2014.Of course, take this info with your daily grain of salt since it is likely to change, I mean just look at what happened with the Intel Roadmap leak.
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Happy New Year - The Best Products of 2012
Published: Tuesday, January 1, 2013 | By: DennisHappy new year everyone!,
May all of your 2012 failures be forgotten and hopes for your 2013 wishes to come true.
Things here will be a little quiet until CES time. I have quite a few things to wrap up before the big trip. Several of you have asked. "What was the best product I reviewed in 2012?". Well, I'm gonna tell you it is a tough decision but I have narrowed it down to three.
1) The Best Case: Cooler Master Cosmos II Ultra Tower Case
Not only was this the first review of 2012 but also the poster child for excessive chassis design. I loved it!
2) The Best Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Motherboard
Sadly I was only able to review a small handful of Asus products this past year but of them I had the most fun with the X79 Rampage board. Truth be told this review was "late" with other sites posting their reviews in 2011 but I'm not going to split hairs here.
3) The Best Product: Gigabyte Z77X UP7 Overclocking Motherboard
Great motherboards are a rare find these days and while there are boards that are equally capable the Z77X-UP7 was one of a kind and highly sought after by the overclocking community and hardware enthusiasts alike. I can only hope that the tradition will continue with the next generation.
Take care, and stay safe
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Want to Run Linux on Your Microsoft Surface? @ TechGage
Published: Monday, December 31, 2012 | By: DennisI have spoke many times on the Ninjalane Podcast about how much I love my Asus Slate tablet PC and thus far have not tried reloading the OS or tweaking the system in any way, mostly because it just works.
Well, one of the other reasons for this is that to reload the OS you have to rely on the USB ports to give you keyboard access and provide external storage for the OS. Not exactly an easy thing to do.
It would seem that running Linux on my Slate might be possible but on a Windows8 Slate that simply isn't the case.
Microsoft’s Surface tablet is an interesting specimen for a couple of reasons, but one of the biggest is that it’s a tablet that features a desktop OS (although the RT edition is very scaled-down). Because of this, some had hoped that installing another OS on it would be fairly simple. After all, we’re all familiar with Windows’ boot-loaders at this point. As it turns out, however, accomplishing this is easier said than done. The reason? You guessed it: SecureBoot.
Darn that SecureBoot, but if you think about it, SecureBoot is a good thing for most everyone since it does make the OS a little less susceptible to bad hacking. I guess Linux falls into that category.
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ECS to see decrease in self-brand motherboard shipments in 2012
Published: Friday, December 28, 2012 | By: DennisNot good when the "budget" guys are reporting a loss in sales.
Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is expected to ship about four million motherboards for own-brand sale in 2012, decreasing from six million units shipped in 2011, but its ODM shipments of 12 million in 2012 will remain unchanged from 2011, according to supply chain makers.
ECS will come back to the Taiwan retail market with own-brand motherboards by launching several models, including Thin Mini-ITX, Q77H2-TI and B75H2-TI, in January 2013, the sources noted.
ECS has had decreasing notebook ODM orders but is likely to receive increasing orders from Intel for Classmate PCs and StudyBooks, the sources indicated, because Intel has obtained orders from emerging markets including China, Turkey, Thailand, India and countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America for shipments in 2013. ECS is a major ODM for the products, the sources said.Check the article for the whole scoop but it looks like the downturn claimed another victim.
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The Excat Date When Our Digital World Ends
Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012 | By: DennisDecember 4th of the Year of Our Lord 292,277,026,596
That is when the Unix date field will reach its limit and it will all come crashing down, or start over.
btw that is about 7,900,000,000 years from now.So the Y292,277,026K will be real at one point. I'm almost certain that, by then, we would have abandoned Unix at that point—but you never know. This mother was invented 43 years ago and it's still the best, most solid operating system ever created. Good enough to survive the entire Universe according to the Big Rip theory, which predicts everything will be over when the Universe reaches an infinite scale 20 billion years from now.
Can you imagine a world without Unix? Microsoft can, according to inside sources this was in a recent memo. "I want everyone on Windows 8 by the end of the year or the bunny gets it."
Of course if you believe that, you have watched way too much South Park.
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Just how big are porn sites? @ ExtremeTech
Published: Thursday, December 27, 2012 | By: DennisSome of the biggest websites are not tech related but rather entertainment based with the sole purpose of serving up our human need for, sex. Many in the hardware industry may argue that shopping and news sites are bigger but when it comes to making money on the web there is no substitute to pr0n.
This article describes what it takes to run a pr0n site, from a hardware standpoint. Overclockers may want to overt their eyes.
While it’s difficult domain to penetrate — hard numbers are few and far between — we know for a fact that porn sites are some of the most trafficked parts of the internet. According to Google’s DoubleClick Ad Planner, which tracks users across the web with a cookie, dozens of adult destinations populate the top 500 websites. Xvideos, the largest porn site on the web with 4.4 billion page views per month, is three times the size of CNN or ESPN, and twice the size of Reddit. LiveJasmin isn’t much smaller. YouPorn, Tube8, and Pornhub — they’re all vast, vast sites that dwarf almost everything except the Googles and Facebooks of the internet.
Consider this, Sony gets railroaded for rebooting a popular movie series with the sole purpose of making millions "overseas". In the pr0n industry they re-make movies all the time and we all know how they will end but yet nobody complains.
I wonder why that is. Oh wait.
