Tech News
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DARPA Seeking to Build (Friendly) Terminators
Published: Tuesday, April 10, 2012 | By: DennisIt was bound to happen sooner or later, Terminator robots will soon be among us. Maybe these will be iRobot style with the three laws or flat out "stand them up and knock them down" cyborgs from the future attempting to kill the mother of the leader who defeated them. The jury is still out but the fact remains, it will happen.
The government is looking for a few good robots. But never fear, this year's DARPA Robotics Challenge isn't a casting call for positronic killing machines—instead, teams are being asked to design robots capable of driving a vehicle, using power tools to bash through walls, and even replace a cooling pump, for a $2 million grand prize.
Up to $34 million in total will be eligible in contracts and funding, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Tuesday.
The goal, DARPA said, is to produce a robot capable of assisting humans in dangerous or degraded environments, using unmodified tools designed for humans.I wonder if they will have rubber skin or go straight for human flesh?
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Intel Z77 Chipset Launch Day
Published: Monday, April 9, 2012 | By: DennisIt is the much anticipated launch of the Intel Z77 chipset for the LGA 1155 socket processors. As many of you already know this is the Sandy Bridge platform that was made popular by the P67 and Z68 chipsets from last year.
Many of these reviews are just "pre"-views since the real reason for the Z77 release has yet to be launched.
Currently we have a Gigabyte Z77X USD3H in the lab and will be posting our article a little later today so be sure to come back and check it out.
photo from TPUReviews from around the web
- ECS Z77H2-AX Golden motherboard preview
- MSI Z77-GD65 @ Bjorn3D
- ECS Golden Board Z77H2-AX LGA 1155 Preview @ techPowerUp
- Gigabyte Z77X-UD3H Intel Z77 Motherboard Review @ ThinkComputers
- Z77 motherboards from Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI @ TR
- Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H @ HW-Journal
- GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UD5H WiFi & GA-Z77X-UD3H Motherboard Reviews @ Legit Reviews
- Funky Kit Review: ASRock Z77-Professional Motherboard
- OC3D: ASUS P8-Z77V Pro Sandy Bridge Review
- Z77 Motherboard Round-Up: MSI, ASUS, Gigabyte, Intel @ HotHardware
- ASRock Z77 Extreme 6 @ PureOverclock
- MSI Z77A-GD65 @ PureOverclock
- Intel Z77 Series Chipset Launch Roundup @ HardwareHeaven
- Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard Review (with OC GTX680)That ECS board is pretty crazy huh? Reminds me a little of the Chaintech Zenith ZNF3-150 board we reviewed back in '03
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NL: Review Block - Cases and Coolers 4/6/2012
Published: Friday, April 6, 2012 | By: DennisAs some of you may have noticed I have been slacking on the news lately and now I'm paying for it. There is a rather long list of reviews from around the web that include a few CPU coolers, an couple of memory reviews (which are quite rare these days) and a long list of cases.
Coolers
- Enermax ETD-T60-TB CPU Cooler Review @ HardwareLOOK
- Noctua NH-L12 Cpu cooler @ Rbmods
- OC3D: NZXT HAVIK-120 Review
- Enermax ETD-T60-VD CPU Cooler Review on Technic3D
- Cooler Master Hyper 612 PWM @ LanOC Reviews
Memory
- Exceleram Rippler ERB300A 4 GB PC3-12800 CAS 6 1.65 V DDR3 @ techPowerUp
- VisionTek Ultimate 16GB DDR3-1866 @ PureOverclock
Cases aka Chassis
- Lian Li PC-V353 Case Review on Technic3D
- Corsair Carbide 300R Case Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Aerocool Strike X GT Black Gaming Tower @ Pro-Clockers
- Unboxing the NZXT Switch 810 Full Tower Case @ ThinkComputers
- Fractal Design Define R3 Arctic White @ HW-Journal
- Computing on Demand: Review: SilverStone GD06 Home Theater PC Case
- SilverStone Precision PS07 Micro-ATX Case Review @ OCIA
- Arctic Freezer i30 CPU Cooler @ Bjorn3D
- NZXT Phantom 410 white System Enclosure reviewed in Metku
- Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Midi Tower Review @ NikKTech
- BitFenix Raider Mid-Tower Gaming Case Review
- SilverStone Temjin TJ04 @ ocaholicMore to come
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Asus X79 Sabertooth Motherboard @ Bjorn3D
Published: Friday, April 6, 2012 | By: DennisWe have a new review up of the "classic" Sabertooth P67 motherboard that started the trend of Thermal Armor, be sure to check it out.
If you are looking for a Sabertooth board "without" a full set of armor and quad channel memory controllers make sure to give this board a look.
The Asus Sabertooth X79 is the Asus offering that represents high quality and high life expectancy parts via the TuF components. Lets see how well it performs with its excellent MTBF components.
Notice the fan on the South Bridge and no heatpipe connecting it to the PWM? ya....
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Foxconn Nano PC nT-i1500 Barebone Review @ Madshrimps
Published: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 | By: DennisThose of you who have been following Foxconn (besies anything related to the Apple i(andything)) will have noticed that they have started to migrate away from channel motherboards to AIO barebones systems and multimedia PCs. the Nano PC nT-i1500 is one such product that will likely change how the mainstream uses a desktop PC.
Foxconn has brought us to the table the latest generation of Intel Atom CPUs, by using the small Nano PC chassis which features about the same layout inside as the barebones we have tested from them in the past. The system power consumption is very low, temperatures are good in load and the noise generated is decent. Only thing that needs to be fixed to make this product fully functional is the VGA driver which in its current state offers low performance in both 2D and 3D environments, and Intel does not offer any support for x64 OSes.
Foxconn has always had their hands in barebone system design and found them to be quite profitable since customers buy them as a white box and can rebrand them anyway they wish.
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Blackle vs. Google Monitor Power Consumption Tested @ PCSTATS
Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: DennisOk so as a designer I have nothing against black web designs, they do look badass but also scream "I am a dated bastard you had better like something here!". Along the same lines it stands to reason that LCDs have to spend less power displaying black designs since most of the lights will be turned off.
Is the search page, Blackle.com, really an energy efficient alternative to Google? The theory is websites with black background save energy. PCSTATS finds out if this is a blatant green washing, or an earnest energy saving tweak for something we use every day.
By the looks of it an all black design is more power efficient and LCDs use less power than CRTs but does changing your site from white to black save you more power than simply trashing the CRT??
uhhh, no.
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MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning review @ Guru3D
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012 | By: DennisOne of the first HD 7970's to feature a completely custom PCB the MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning. I almost bought one of these the other day but when I came to my senses they had sold out at Newegg.
We review the MSI Radeon HD 7970 Lightning. What a product to look at, the R7970 lightning has a very rare design, comes with only the best components, has voltage monitoring headers, comes pre-overclocked (extensively at 1070 MHz) and allows to be voltage tweaked at many levels.
To pursue Eyefinity they have made the card Eyefinity6 compatible, by use of four DisplayPort connectors and two single link DVI connectors you can get six monitors running. Though realistically nobody does that as you have that ugly bezel from left to right smack down in the middle of you field of view.
There's another feature though, to give the product a little more 'niche' MSI implemented a small add-on board that is called a GPU-reactor which functions as a power supply module which, when installed on the back of the GPU.What really surprises me is that we are not seeing more companies take such a radical approach to custom video card PCBs, Yes they are a little more expensive and people "other" than overclockers will buy them. it's just a matter of cost.
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Female Ninjas in Iran: Who Knew
Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: DennisHere is an interesting story, and what is more interesting is that the group is suing Reuters for defamation.
In February, Reuters sent Caren Firouz to photograph an all-women ninjutsu gym in the town of Karaj. His photos (which we also ran) appeared in a slideshow on Reuters' website. Now, Iranian state-run outlet PressTV says that several of those ninjas are suing Reuters for defamation. The Reuters story, according to PressTV, "accused [the women] of being assassins" whom the state is training "to kill any possible foreign invaders." There's no reason to think that these female athletes are actually state-run killers.
I guess it's true, when someone says "Ninja" people really do assume there is someone hiding in the shadows waiting to kill them, regardless if they run a hardware website or simply have a super cool motorcycle.
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Internet Hoax Wrapup
Published: Monday, April 2, 2012 | By: DennisThere were a couple of stories posted last week that actually turned out to be a hoax. The first was the Tacocopter, that totally awesome service that would deliver a taco via GPS. While it would seem that many sites discredited the startup from the beginning I had high hopes and figured they would clean it up in post.
Oh, of course not. Not even close. Tacocopter isn’t a real app or startup. The technical, safety and legal hurdles facing such a taco-delivery system are near insurmountable in today’s environment — as our resident flying drone expert, Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson, was quick to point out when Gadget Lab became just a bit too enthusiastic about the possibility of window-side delivery service. (We’re located on the third floor.) Source Wired
The next internet hoax was the failed attempt to bring down the internet using Operation Blackout, again I held my hopes high so that I could justify my day of yardwork. Sadly I could be seen slaving away trimming trees, cleaning flowerbeds and running a power rake over the yard, and for nothing.
Well at least my yard will look good this year.
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Operation Blackout - What it means to you and how to cope
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012 | By: DennisAs I write this many people are living in fear that the Anonymous threat supported by Operation Blackout will actually succeed. If it does then all DNS traffic on March 31st will cease to function and bring the world to a screeching halt. No more Facebook, No more Twitter, No more online games
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This could be just an empty promise supported by an idle threat that was never intended to succeed. Either way Operation Blackout is a concern and should be addressed. To help you I have compiled a list of The top 17 things you may have to do if Anonymous brings down the Internet. Be sure to check it out.
On a more serious note I have to wonder about their timing. Anyone who has bought a domain name will know it takes a couple days for the domain to populate around the internet. It stands to reason that if the master DNS servers get overloaded the local DNS caches will continue to function for a couple days and likely ride out the attack. Next you have to consider the day they plan to do this, a Saturday?. It is a busy day off for most, a day of leisure. Wouldn't it make more sense to do this on a Monday? Finally, if a hacking group was planning something why bother telling the world about it? Doesn't that water down your threats?
Food for thought
One thing is for sure I'll be doing a few of the things on my list regardless if the Internet is up or not
