Tech News
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The Calm Before the CES Storm 2013
Published: Monday, January 7, 2013 | By: DennisI had the opportunity to troll around some of the Mfg suites this morning and discovered three things from three companies.
1) Thermaltake still has it when it comes to "always" having something to show, even if they are prototypes secured by super glue.
2) Be Quiet is going to start selling their coolers in the US and they are worried about how much noise they will make. (Just a little joke there)
3) MSI won a CES Innovation award for the GTX 680 Lightning. The very same card that enthusiasts lust over and yet cannot use out of the box without MSI factory sponsoring.
So far this CES adventure is looking up I only hope I can make all of my meetings without losing my shirt in taxi fare.
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Asustor AS-606T NAS @ techPowerUp
Published: Monday, January 7, 2013 | By: DennisI am not sure how enthusiast a NAS box can be but if you love your storage but cannot administer a real fileserver the Asustor might be what you need.
Asustor is a new company with the purpose of providing top solutions for network attached storage and video surveillance. We are lucky to have one of their first products for review: the AS-606T NAS server. It is designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) or enthusiast users that need a lot of storage space and a ton of features.
These will be similar to what QNAP was doing back in the day but under the Asus brand with a few minor updates.
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Ubisoft probes sudden rash of hijack attacks on gamers' accounts
Published: Sunday, January 6, 2013 | By: DennisIf any of you rushed out to buy Far Cry 3 you may want to check your uplay account and make sure it didn't get hacked. Call it luck or karma but it would seem ubisoft in their mad rush to create something that people want added a few easter eggs allowing russian script kiddies to get in and hijack your stuff.
Additionally, many users deny using so-called 'trainers' (cheat programs) which might have been emailing credentials back to base so there's not a lot to go on at the moment. One of the biggest problems with PC gaming is the amount of logins required to play the games - anyone purchasing Ubisoft's Far Cry 3 through Steam will still need to load UPlay to play it. It's quite possible that password reuse is rampant in gaming circles right now, which certainly doesn't help.
Oh and the best part of this whole thing is the recommendation from ubisoft to link your uplay account to facebook, that way if your uplay account gets hacked you can login with facebook and reclaim your stuff.
or on the flip side, once you link your accounts this gives the hacker a direct link to your facebook profile and lose both accounts, and become advertisement fodder for ubisofts facebook campain. I say, make sure your password is secure, use legit software and don't play Far Cry 3 until they allow you to play it on steam without the need for uplay.
Then again I suspect everyone who rushed out to buy the game already beat it or has stopped playing so all of this may be for moot.
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Six gadget trends to look for at CES
Published: Friday, January 4, 2013 | By: DennisAnnual trek to Vegas for CES is only a few days away and here we have the large news sites already trying to scoop up all the media coverage. In the past CES was over and done (from a media standpoint) before the doors opened so I'm wondering what this year will be like.
If the show sets the tone for the year's technology, 2013 will be about watching TV on your 5-inch smartphone while your self-driving car ferries you to work. Companies will continue to try to connect everything to the Internet -- lights, power outlets, cars, cameras, kitchen appliances -- and allow you to control them from a mobile device.
There have been some big changes at this year's conference. Longtime headliner Microsoft has dropped out of CES, and mobile devices are increasingly saving their big announcements for the Mobile World Congress event in February. But hopefully the void is filled by exciting discoveries and gadgets we can't predict.Some editors have said this will be the last CES as we know it and I suspect they may be right. Microsoft is sitting this one out, (likely due to the uproar they expected from Windows 8) and I halfway expect there to be several empty booths and less occupied space.
Time will tell.
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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
