Tech News
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Kickstarter is a HUGE Funded Honeypot for Scammers
Published: Thursday, September 6, 2012 | By: DennisI have been reading some interesting things related to Kickstarter lately, disturbing things that have done nothing but make me really distrust the service as being a valid way to make money, at least for the honest person.
Darren and I have discussed Kickstarter on the Ninjalane Podcast and at the time we both agreed that Kickstarter could be a great way to get your project off the ground when funds are limited. The only cost to you?, when you're project is funded and complete you simply give your backers something in return. But what if the project starter, after getting their project funded, decided to disappear, leave the country, lose internet access, or simply die? Well logic tells us that you're not going to get that thing you paid good money for.Or worse yet you actually get something you backed but turned out to be nothing like what you had expected. Penny-Arcade explored that notion and one of them ended up dead.
CNN has posted a look into Kickstarter what happens if the project starter doesn't come thru.
But as the popularity of the site, and others like Indiegogo, increases, users have been asking: What happens when I donate to a project but then the recipient never follows through?
This week, the site said that while that rarely happens, there's not much they can do about it when it does.
"Kickstarter does not investigate a creator's ability to complete their project," a team of Kickstarter's top officers said in a blog post. "Backers ultimately decide the validity and worthiness of a project by whether they decide to fund it."I do believe that Kickstarter was founded on the principle that people are generally honest and often do the right thing, but then again this is the Internet generation fueled by the polar opposite.
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Will your body be the battery of the future? @ ET
Published: Thursday, September 6, 2012 | By: DennisStraight from the mind of the Matrix.
The average human, at rest, produces around 100 watts of power. This equates to around 2000 kcal of food energy, which is why your recommended daily intake of calories is around 2000 kcal. Over periods of a few minutes (or a few hours in the case of trained athletes), we can comfortably sustain 300-400 watts — and in the case of very short bursts of energy, such as sprinting, some humans can output up to 2,000 watts.
As humans move around they tend to "waste" a lot of energy in the form of body heat and kinetic energy. What if you could harvest that energy to charge one of your many mobile devices? Of course that is assuming you walk around enough to generate the power needed but it could be possible.
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NL: Review Block - Motherboards and Video Cards
Published: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 | By: DennisJust what every growing hardware enthusiast needs, more motherboards and video cards. Of course it is a little known fact that the more video cards you have running in your system the more lady friends you will hook up with on the weekends. The hotness of these ladies is proportional to the GPU level at the time of launch.
I'm sure there is a mathematical formula describing the relationship of hotness to GPU level along with a factor modifier for cash vs credit but I'll be dammed if I know what it is.Motherboards
- ASUS Maximus V Formula @ Ocaholic
- ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Champion Motherboard Review
- ASRock X79 Extreme11 Intel LGA 2011 @ techPowerUp
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H LGA 1155 Motherboard Review @ HardOCP
- Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Review @ APH Networks
Video Cards
- GTX 660 Ti 5-Way Roundup (ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Galaxy, MSI) @ Hardware Canucks
- Sapphire HD 7750 1GB Low Profile Review @ Custom PC Review
- Sapphire 7970 Vapor-X @ PureOverclock
- Sapphire HD7770 Videocard @ RbmodsAll of these cards are "modern" and offer different levels of support for multi GPU configurations. Consult the user submitted reviews on Newegg for a laugh and read professional sites for the real, hard hitting, information on multi GPU compatibility with your system.
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Tale of the Dead Staples Omnitech Shredder - Why Not Fix it Yourself? @ PCStats
Published: Monday, September 3, 2012 | By: DennisThings have changed over the past 50 some years, to the point where things you buy tend to fall into one of two categories. 1) The item lasts for a long time and is user serviceable to extend its life, and 2) The item is inexpensive, built cheap and not designed to last for very long.
These trends in product design often go against everything the average consumer wants from their purchases. For instance the consumer doesn't want to spend a lot of money and is upset when their cheaply made product quits working. Along the same lines you have products that last for a really long time, like cars, and offer no reason for people to upgrade or replace them. In the end, shredder company = rich, car company = bankrupt.
PCStats has posted a short editorial talking about their quest to defy the laws of modern consumerism and fix a throw away product like a paper shredder.
Funny thing I would have tried to fix it too.
If your consumer electronics break, what's stopping you from trying to fix it yourself? A few weeks ago our inexpensive $50-dollar Omnitech OT-EMC7A micro cut paper shredder from Staples.ca gave up the ghost and stopped working. Being out of warranty, I took a stab at fixing the wee beastie.
Consumerism today is all about buy buy buy. When you are done with the item you have to decide if you will simply throw the item away, give it to someone, "sell" it to someone or recycle it. Personally I find it difficult to sell an item that has lost its usefulness and hate the idea that 1000's of dead paper shedders are sitting in a pit somewhere out of the public eye. Recycling is the "popular" choice but I see the option as greedy on the side of the recycler. Here I am giving them something, that I cannot claim on my taxes, that they use to make money from before throwing most of it into the landfill.
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Happy Labor Day!!
Published: Monday, September 3, 2012 | By: DennisI trust that everyone had a good labor day weekend? I spent a good amount of time lounging around and the rest overclocking some GSKill TridentX memory modules. The whole experience has made it clear that I really need to build me a new test bench, and soon.
Going thru the inbox right now, look for some "new" review and hardware news shortly.
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Powercolor HD 7990 Devil 13 6 GB @ techPowerUp
Published: Friday, August 31, 2012 | By: DennisSeveral people have come to me saying that this card might be the best thing since the last great invention after someone figured out you could slice bread.
And that is saying a lot!
PowerColor is only making a small number of these awesome cards so be sure to buy early before they are gone. (then wait 6 months when used ones hit ebay)
PowerColor's HD 7990 Devil 13 is the first dual-GPU HD 7990 that reaches our labs. This huge triple slot, triple fan card comes with fully enabled Tahiti XT GPUs, running in an internal CrossFire configuration. As a result the Devil 13 is the fastest AMD-based graphics card we ever tested.
I esp like this quote from the review.
All data in this review was obtained after I repaired a major design error of the card. When I received it, the card ran extremely high temperatures, reaching beyond 100°C, causing instability and black screen hangs. The fan would also run at 100% almost instantly. This is caused by screws with integrated stop that resulted in too little mounting pressure between GPU and heatsink, clearly an engineering oversight.
They used a series of washers to apply more spring pressure to the heatsink and get better contact. My guess is that it wasn't an engineering oversight but rather an issue during assembly.
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"Pirateat40" Makes Off $5.6M USD in BitCoins From Pyramid Scheme
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 | By: DennisThis comes from the desk of "I told you so"! I am often reminded that Pyramid Schemes are all around us and are often called may things to disguise what they actually are. When I was first introduced to BitCoins I will admit I was curious because of how the money was generated but quickly lost interest after finding out that the money really has no backing aside from modern monetarily standards.
For instance think about this "What would happen if EVERYONE sold their BitCoins?" Well the people who sold first would get real money and as more people sold off their stockpiles the price would drop to the point where the coins would be worth nothing. Bottom line, early adopters win, (sound familar?)
Some duped investors have taken to trying to hunt down the pesky pirateat40. There are rumors that he is based in Texas. But short of extracting some good old fashioned (and wholly illegal) vigilante justice, it's unclear what the scammed can do. Bitcoin Ponzi schemes are growing more frequent -- one lawsuit in California [Scribd] has already taken up the issue. But it remains to be seen how seriously the courts will take the cyber-currency, given that it's founded on a rather anti-nation premise.
And of course, the onus for these losses largely rests on those who sent someone named "pirateat40" actual money, and failing to recognize the classic signs of a Ponzi scheme -- inflated interest rates, shadowy management, and unrealistic promises.While BitCoin money has value because people don't cash in vigilante justice still will land you in jail where BitCoins are not honored nor will get you any special treatment. #Food4Thought
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MSI Big Bang Z77 Mpower Review /w Guru3D
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 | By: DennisEver wonder what would happen if a mfg took a pretty good motherboard, messed with a few things, and re-released it as a "one up" better version of the same thing? Wonder no longer MPower is here!
Today we test the Z77 MPower version, which as you'll notice is a pleasant upgrade from their Z77A-GD65 motherboard -- yet with an improved CPU VRM, more friendly warranties and a new black and yellow color-scheme which merges the Lightning series graphics cards and these motherboards a little closer together. Have a peek at what was just released, this is the MSI Big Bang Z77 MPower motherboard. You just have to be impressed by the overall looks ...
MPower was one of the highlights of the MSI Computex show and designed to be an alternative to the high-end motherboard offerings that unify the product lines into a common visual representation. With the Z77 MPower we can see design queues taken from the lightning line with a black PCB and yellow accents on the various motherboard heatsinks
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GIGABYTE Launches Flagship Z77X-UP7 Motherboard
Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 | By: DennisNow this is how you build a bawls out enthusiast motherboard!
A New Legend is Born
City of Industry, California, August 28, 2012 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched their latest overclocking powerhouse Z77X-UP7 motherboard, featuring the industry’s most robust 32+3+2 power design with Ultra Durable 5 high current capable components including 60A rated IR3550 PowIRstages chips from IR."With the Z77X-UP7 and its 32+3+2 power phase design featuring Ultra Durable 5 technology, we have created the very best CPU power design of any motherboard available today," commented HiCookie, GIGABYTE In-house Overclocking Expert. "Not only does this help extreme overclockers to reach 7GHz+ on their Intel Core i7-3770K CPUs and take down benchmark records, but it also provides System Integrators with a platform cool and stable enough to withstand the rigors of an always-on, overclocked water cooled system for their customers."
This guy some with 32 power phases (likely a dual 16 PWM design) and options to run 4-way SLI/Crossfire with a PLX Bridge chip or a single card with full 16x bandwidth direct from the CPU. OC Touch buttons are on board for the low level overclocker and you get the super sharp Orange and Black color scheme.
If anything I need this board to complete my Gigabyte OC board collection, AND to overclock the *bleep* out of my 3770K!
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MSI Master Overclocking Arena 2012 Qualifications have Ended
Published: Sunday, August 26, 2012 | By: DennisYep you read that correctly. All of the qualification events have ended and the winners from each event will all get a chance to compete at the world wide finals in Taipei. The contestants were chosen based on how well they did across 3 benchmark stages and the top combined stores were given invites to the finals.
The first Qualifier was for the Americas and was the one that I dedicated an entire month to complete in. Sadly I didn't qualify for a spot in the finals but Splave walked away with the first overall taking first place in all three stages.
- MOA 2012 Americas Qualifier
The second qualifier was for the European region and featured the same benchmarks but introduced the first time that Ivy Bridge was allowed in a competition. Xtreme Addict and T0lsty shared the top spot.
- MOA 2012 EMEA Qualifier
The third qualifier rounded out the world stage and encompassed APAC (Asia Pacific). I.R.I.S. took the top spot having missed first place in only a single benchmark. The same benchmarks and rules applied however the scoring results got progressively better towards the end of the HWBot based qualifying competitions.
- MOA 2012 APAC Qualifier
The fourth and final qualifier, Lords of Overclocking, was hosted by Futuremark and would decide who would get the last three seats. LOA concluded on August 23rd and according to the contest page at futuremark.com dRweRz and Coldest shared the top two spots with Perica_barii getting the third and final spot.
- MSI Lords of Overclocking 2012 @ Futuremark
HWBot claims that the MOA finals will be held on September 28th at the National Taiwan University Sport Center in Taipei Taiwan. It will be interesting to see how the competition unfolds and what hardware they will be required to use.
