Tech News

• digg is Dead! - at least to Ninjalane and the rest of the Internet

  Published: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 | By: Dennis

  A few weeks ago I posted a thread in the Ninjalane Message Forum asking people if I should keep the "digg this" social button on each article page and I got some interesting results.
  
  Unanimous of those was that removing the "digg this" button would not be the end of the world, in fact, some people actually offered me money to remove it. 
  
  Yes real American dollars, greenbacks, cash!  or maybe that was a dream, I'm not sure.  Either way the "digg this" button has been removed so any of you digg'ers, all 0 of you, will have to find another outlet to get your stories off.

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• Websites Wikipedia, Reddit, Others Go Dark Wednesday to Protest SOPA, PIPA

  Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I don't normally get animated about bills like this because by the time they get passed they are so watered down that they cannot be enforced.  However, I don't think that will be the case with SOPA and PIPA, both bills have backings from large industries who are basically struggling to survive. 

  Do not try to look up "Internet Censorship" or "SOPA" or "PIPA" on Wikipedia, the giant online encyclopedia, on Wednesday. SOPA and PIPA are two bills in Congress meant to stop the illegal copying and sharing of movies and music on the Internet, but major Internet companies say the bills would put them in the impossible position of policing the online world. 

  The biggest issue I see with these bills is how it will embrace anti-competition processes.  In the early days one of the quickest ways to get to the top was to make sure your competition wasn't there.  Sometimes that ment attacking the company physically or creating campaigns that targeted that company to ensure the public would no longer trust them.  

  With SOPA or PIPA there isn't anything to stop, say a rival hardware review site, from saying that their competition is pirating, log a complain and basically get that site blocked and or taken down without any recourse for appeal.  I believe that is one of the issues still being discussed but it still brings up questions as to how far the bills will go to police the internet. 

  The story goes on to mention that the source of the piracy isn't always within the US but from foreign countries who find it easy to copy and redistribute US based software and technology.  Sadly those are who need to be targeted and a US internet bill wouldn't apply.

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• How to build a digital pinball machine in Metku

  Published: Sunday, January 15, 2012 | By: Dennis

  This might be one of the coolest mods I have ever seen, at least since the advent of a mame machine.  The mod consists of matching 3 video panels together to create a digital pinball machine complete with sounds and realistic switches,

  Check it out.

  So what is a digital pinball machine? In short, it is a digital recreation of the original ones that you may have played in arcades, gas stations etc. I chose the shape of the machine to be
  somewhat similar to the original ones but there is no reason to do so if more creative approach is needed.

  I'm glad they opted to run it without the legs since they really didn't look sturdy at all.

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• Made it back to the Labs safe and sound

  Published: Saturday, January 14, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Well as you may have guessed CES 2012 has concluded and I am finally back in the Labs trying to get things sorted out.

  There is some stuff I need to get caught up on around the house after which I can get to adding some more CES coverage and finally posting Episode 13 of the Ninjalane Podcast.

  Stay tuned 

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• CES:2012 TechReport Round-up - Get along little doggies

  Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Busy Day for me yesterday so no daily post for Day 2  (yet). In the meantime check out what TechReport has been up to.

  - Nvidia and Asus aim for $249 Tegra 3 tablet
  - Thermaltake brings rubber domes back in style
  - OCZ, Marvell scale Kilimanjaro with PCIe SSD
  - Lenovo's Yoga bends over backward to please us

  Another big day of running around and catching up with folks.  Stay tuned.

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• Some CES 2012 Stories

  Published: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 | By: Dennis

  More CES News from around the web, hardware related at least

  - CES 2012: Digital Experience @ ThinkComputers
  - x86 Everywhere: Intel Announces Medfield Phones @ HotHardware
  - CES 2012: EVGA SR-X Dual Socket 2011 Motherboard @ Legit Reviews
  - 7-series mobos abound at Gigabyte @ TR
  - TechwareLabs Event Coverage:  CES2012 Monster Press Conference
  - CES 2012: MSI’s Z77 Motherboards & Graphics Upgrade System @ Hardware Canucks
  
  There isn't a wide range of Review site media at CES this year, which kinda explains the sudo lack of news.  Stay tuned, more to come.
   

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• Sapphire Radeon HD 6970 2GB Dual Fan Review @ Hardware Canucks

  Published: Sunday, January 8, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Even though the next generation of AMD HD graphics has been released and has proven to be faster than the 6900 series but not fast enough to justify a totally ignoring the previous generation.

  Especially when they are a custom design from Sapphire.

  The HD 7970 may be the graphics card everyone is talking about but it only just became available in somewhat limited quantities and pricing is far beyond the reach of most consumers. But while the Southern Islands-based cards will take over AMD’s flagship range, lower end cards still provide great performance at a fraction of the cost.  That's where Sapphire's HD 6970 Dual fan enters the equation. 

  Of course the only real issue with a dual fan cooler on a GPU is that it won't vent to the outside, and that is why we have good case cooling.

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• NL: Review Block - Cases Roundup Style

  Published: Sunday, January 8, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Being that this is CES week the news postings will be a little on the light side.  Hopefully I can make up for it in CES news.

  Until then here are a few cases from the news box.

  - Antec's P280 enclosure
  - Cooler Master Cosmos II Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage
  - SilverStone Grandia DG06 HTPC Chassis Review @ MissingRemote

  Be sure to check out our own reviews of the Antec P280 and Cooler Master Cosmos II for comparison.

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• ASRock Extreme9 X79 Motherboard Review @ SSD Review

  Published: Friday, January 6, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I hate to admit it but the latest ASRock X79 motherboard does look really good both in terms of overall look and the UEFI interface. 

  Today we are going to test the new X79 Extreme9 ASRock Motherboard in a variety of high powered benchmarks. This new high end enthusiast-class motherboard looks to set the tone for the high powered X79 overclocking segment and we are testing to see if it can live up to its reputation as the “Overclocking King”. Let’s fire up the test bench, and see what she has!

  ASRock is claiming that this board is the overclocking king which might just be marketing but the board appears to have all fo the required components and appears to look the part so only time will tell.

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• Fit for fan update - which cooler fit on the motherboard ?

  Published: Friday, January 6, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Ever wonder if a certain cooler will fit on a motherboard? Overclocked inside has created another JavaScript guide that does just that.

  The interactive fit for fan guide is a new development, which contains some AMD Socket AM3/AM3+, Socket AM2/AM2+, Socket 939, Socket 754, also older Socket A motherboards and some HSFs for each Socket.

  The guide is somewhat limited in that it doesn't cover memory height limitations or mounting hardware but if you are curious about physical dimensions be sure to check it out.

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