Tech News

• Hacks Decimate Diablo III Debut @ HotHardware

  Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Lots of chatter about Diablo III and for good reason between failures to launch, fat guys complaining and hotties being out of the country you have to wonder if they sold any copies at all.

  One of the biggest issues is with hacking and Hothardware is hot on finding out why.

  Diablo 3 players don't need any more bad news. The game is already staggering from a debut marred by enormous lag spikes, dropped games, and auction house errors. Now, widespread allegations of hacking are taking further chunks out of Blizzard's hide. This time though, there's an added twist: A significant number of those hacked claimed to be using Blizzard Authenticators. This has led to counterclaims that the victims must be lying, as well as a great deal of confused discussion over whether or not such a thing is even possible.
  
  To that end, there's something all of you need to understand up front. The Authenticator that Blizzard sells is not guaranteed proof against having your account hacked...

  Makes you wonder why WOW never got this kind of press.  oh wait...

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• Bill Gates, fellatio and media, and how all three relate to a profile of Gates

  Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Ok so this is not related to computer hardware directly but today I caught myself asking the question.  "Where is that video showing Bill Gates saying that 640k would be enough for anyone?"  A quick google search returned a variety of sites quoting the quote and all of them were pointing at this article at wired.

  Earlier this week, in a column on Bill Gates, fellatio and media, and how all three relate to a profile of Gates in last week's Time magazine, this column daringly offered free software into the millennium to anyone who remembers one thing Bill Gates ever said. We were taking issue with the notion advanced in the magazine that Mr. Gates is shaping this or the next century as a visionary leader, as opposed to just selling lots of software.
  
  Within minutes of the column's postings, the first challengers had emailed, all offering the same quote.
  
  "I've got one for you," messaged a hacker from Cambridge. "Some years back, Gates said '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.' Where do I pick up my software?" 

  So I am guessing the video I saw was a fake or as the FBI says when they want to cover up the truth. "I must have mis remembered".  Either way the wired article is hella funny and the quotes at the end are to die for.

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• Crysis 3 Studio Reminds You It Still Owns Your Copy Of The Original Crysis

  Published: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I was an early adopter when it came to laying the first Crysis and bought one of the first copies to hit the shelves.  It would seem to have been a good decision on my part since later editions came with a key activation scheme that would limit how many times you could install it.

  to celebrate the release of the game Crysis 3, the studio has raised the activation limit on the original Crysis from 5 to 50. It seems like a nice gesture, but it doesn't really make any sense—why not just remove the limit entirely? The game is nearly four years old and cracked copies are easy enough to obtain, and it seems like they aren't that worried about piracy, since otherwise I don't imagine they'd make the limit so high. But the real slap in the face is that, when you get down to it, this is still them restricting your legitimate use to their arbitrary terms.

  I never liked activation installs since it limits how you can use your software and opens up a list of privacy issues.  On the flip side it does prevent the piracy of legit software by forcing legit owners to crack the copies they paid for once their activations run out.

  Or better yet download and run the cracked copies and bypass the whole purchase program to begin with.

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• Ivy Bridge PCI-Express Scaling with HD 7970 and GTX 680 @ techPowerUp

  Published: Monday, May 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  With the advent of PCI Express 3.0 and Ivy Bridge some people are left wondering if PCIe3.0 is really something you must have or can you slowly move into it as you upgrade.

  TechPowerUp has published a scaling article to discover just that

  Today's latest graphics cards come with support for PCI-Express 3.0, which promises twice the bandwidth, while still being compatible with older motherboards and graphics cards. In our article we analyze differences in PCIe performance on Intel's Ivy Bridge with GeForce GTX 680 and Radeon HD 7970, using 20 games at five resolutions, each at all three PCIe generations and x4, x8 and x16 link width.

  When I created the Multi GPU Index I looked at similar things and tried to determine if a full 16x really mattered or if 8x would be enough.  The results were mixed but indicated that more is better but the technology update from 1.1 to 2.0 was the most important aspect.

  Be sure to check out the vintange photo of an early DFI SLI enabled motherboard with the movable jumper blocks, brings back memories.

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• NL: Review Block - Two Motherboards you must see!!

  Published: Monday, May 21, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Here are a couple of motherboard reviews for you to check out.  The first is an Asus Z68 LGA 1155 motherboard for Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors.  I have a similar board in the lab and will be posting a mini writeup in the next couple days.

  The second motherboard is the Gigabyte X79 G1 Assassin 2 for the LGA 2011 super Sandy Bridge extreme.  This board is designed for gaming and comes with the onboard components to support that intention.

  Motherboard Reviews
  - ASUS P8 Z68-V/GEN3 @ LanOC Reviews
  - GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 Motherboard Review @ Techgage

  Gaming motherboards were never much for hardcore overclocking but I suspect Gigabyte might start following the ROG model going forward.

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• NZXT Switch 810 Full-Tower Chassis Review @ Techgage

  Published: Friday, May 18, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I have to be honest when I say the NZXT Switch 810 might be the worse chassis I have ever used.  The panels are thin, there is way too much plastic, the top panel vents are difficult to operate and the plastic fan covers use push clips to attach to the main bezels, if you bump these wrong the panels fall off.

  I'm sure NZXT ment well with the design, and some review sites seem to love the chassis but in my opinion they tried a little too hard.

  Techgage on the other hand really enjoyed the case and the points they made were valid.

  From cases to cooling, NZXT has something for everyone - and for every budget. With this review, we're taking a look at the company's Switch 810 full-tower chassis, designed for those who want solid design, big space, effective cooling, and can appreciate other smaller features not often seen on the competition's products.

  Look for a capsule review of this chassis in the next couple of weeks, it could have been done sooner but I wanted to make I used the case for awhile before doing the write up.

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• Poll: Facebook is a fad

  Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | By: Dennis

  I have been telling people this all the time but it would seem people are blinded by their friends and flash games to realize that once the polish wears off things won't be the same.

  Facebook has more 900 million users as it prepares to launch a new IPO this week. But a fair number of people aren't too excited about the popular social network.
  

  Half of the 1,000 people polled by the Associated Press and CNBC called Facebook a passing fad. A majority of those surveyed (51 percent) have a favorable impression of the company, while 23 percent have an unfavorable opinion.

  But in light of the upcoming IPO, the survey focused more on Facebook's value as an investment.

  Until things go south I'll spend some time making sure the Ninjalane Facebook page is up to date as it would seem 900 million people is a great way to spread the word.

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• NL: Revierw Block - GTX 680 VIdeo Cards

  Published: Friday, May 18, 2012 | By: Dennis

  The GTX 680 has been out for awhile and, as of this news posting, the cards are still in short supply.  That doesn't stop hardware sites though.

  Video Card Reviews
  - MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III OC 2 GB @ techPowerUp
  - OC3D: Gigabyte GTX680 Windforce Review

  Here we have a couple of custom cards from MSI and Gigabyte, sadly they are both basted on the reference design but do feature custom coolers to keep excess heat under control.

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• GIGABYTE eSports LAN Party

  Published: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 | By: Dennis

  Calling all LAN party eSports enthusiasts!!  

  City of Industry, California, May 14, 2012– GIGABYTE TECHNOLGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today announced its first North America eSports event, the GIGABYTE eSports LAN (GESL) which will take place on June 15-17th, 2012 at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA. (Better known as Cal Poly Pomona).
  
  GIGABYTE introduced the G1-Killer Series of gaming motherboards with the LGA 1366 Intel X58 platform with unique features like onboard Qualcomm Killer networking and Creative audio. With the latest LGA 1155 Intel 7-series launch, GIGABYTE has added new members to the G1-Killer family, the G1.Sniper 3 and the Micro-ATX form factor G1.Sniper M3. Equipped with the latest Intel Z77 Express Chipset, the G1.Sniper 3 motherboard harnesses the outstanding performance of the new 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors using an exclusive “All Digital” VRM design. GIGABYTE 3D Power and GIGABYTE 3D BIOS (Dual UEFI) mean that G1.Sniper 3 and G1.Sniper M3 motherboards ensure exceptional power delivery and absolute control. 

  This actually looks like a really fun event to both promote the new Gigabyte G1 Killer Series motherboard and help raise awareness with game developers to build more LAN friendly games.

  (That last part I made up, but it sounded good )

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• 15 Current Technologies A Child Born Today Will Never Use

  Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | By: Dennis

  My how technology changes and reading this list makes me think back to some of the tech that I used as a kid which is now gone.  Rotary phone? ya forget about it, VCR? Nope got rid of that 10+ ago.  However there are still things around that migh have gone away.  CD player, yep you can buy them and most boom boxes still have them, AM radio, yep, Landline phone, I doubt that will go away any time soon.

  When reading this list I get the impression that we have a fanboy on our hands and while there may be some truth to what they are saying I believe the timeline is off.

  As my newborn son grows to match the size of a mid-tower desktop, a large-screen TV and eventually a server rack, I can’t help but think about all the gadgets he won’t even remember using that were so important to his dad. I’m not talking about long dead-and-buried technologies such as the VHS recorder or the 35mm camera. Rather, I’m thinking about devices and concepts most of us use today that will fall out of mainstream use so soon that he either won’t remember them, or will only have very hazy memories of having lived with them.

  I guess the key here is that he says "mainstream use", still that is no excuse for saying that Microsoft has all the answers.  

  oh, another reaffirming fact? one of their other articles is claiming why you should be using google+, I almost fell out of my chair laughing.

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