Tech News
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Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion
Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | By: DennisSeems good, no?
May 10 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) agreed to buy Internet telephone company Skype for $8.5 billion in cash in its biggest deal ever, as the technology giant seeks to plug a hole in its mobile offerings.
Buying loss-making Skype would have no immediate impact on Microsoft's finances, but would make clear its intention to compete with rivals such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Google Inc (GOOG.O).I was slow to join the Skype horde but did finally get an account this year so I could chat with some friends in Taiwan who had lost access to Live Messenger.
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Ninjalane Subscriptions Page - Question for you
Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 | By: DennisAfter upgrading to Firefox 4 I realized that the RSS feed link is no longer accessible in the address bar which brings up the question. Should I have a separate subscriptions page with the various Ninjalane RSS feeds? or would just one link to the main RSS be enough??
If you have any comments, suggestions or want to simply flame me for not posting any tech news lately sound off in the forums and let me know how you feel.
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Easily distracted people may have too much brain
Published: Monday, May 9, 2011 | By: DennisHere is a fun article. As with most studies like this take the results with a grain of salt.
They assessed each person's distractibility by quizzing them about how often they fail to notice road signs, or go into a supermarket and become sidetracked to the point that they forget what they came in to buy. The most distractible individuals received the highest score.
The team then imaged the volunteers' brains using a structural MRI scanner. The most obvious difference between those who had the highest questionnaire scores – the most easily distracted – and those with low scores was the volume of grey matter in a region of the brain known as the left superior parietal lobe (SPL). Specifically, the easily distracted tended to have more grey matter here.With enough training and practice anyone with a "scatter brain" can learn to focus, the problem is I don't think many people are bothered by it, or even know they have a problem.
Oh look over there, a shiny new motherboard and Core i7 980x that hasn't been overclocked yet!!
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Sapphire Pure Black P67 Hydra @ Phoronix
Published: Friday, May 6, 2011 | By: DennisSapphire has been doing a great job at branching out and exploring new ways to extend their brand, which may not always involve AMD. Case in point, Intel chipset enabled motherboards.
On paper this board looked great but as we indicated in our review of the Sapphire Pure Black P67 we had vdroop issues that caused stability issues under overclocking. Its still not a bad board and plays some nice music when it first boots up.
When talking about Sapphire Technology on Phoronix it is usually about their vast selection of Radeon graphics cards for which they are very well known and are one of AMD's premiere AIB partners. Recently, they have also expanded to offer a limited selection of high-end AMD and Intel motherboards. Being from Sapphire, these motherboards are not some budget motherboards with nothing to separate them from its competitors, but are rather well designed and very innovative boards. As the first Sapphire motherboard being reviewed under Linux at Phoronix, we are looking at their interesting Sandy Bridge offering: the Sapphire Pure Black P67 Hydra.
They go on to talk about how the Lucid Hydra isn't supported under Linux which is rather unfortunate especially considering that you also have to install the Lucid driver to make it work under Windows as well.
The Lucid concept is great but it might take some time before people figure out how to use it, and use it well.
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NL: Review Block - Memory Follow up - seems I forgot some
Published: Friday, May 6, 2011 | By: DennisA couple days ago I posted a review block of some memory modules and wouldn't you know it, there are even more in the news inbox.
Seems memory is coming back!
- Crucial 8GIG DDR3 1333 Memory Kit @ GeekInvaders
- G.Skill RipjawX F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL Memory Kit @ Bjorn3D
- ADATA DDR3 1600 Gaming Series 12GB (X58) Memory Kit Review @ KitguruThese seem to be the big boy kits for those of you wanting to get the most from your Windows 7 web browsing experience.
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Intel launches 22nm node with 3D transistors
Published: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | By: DennisThis should really speed things up!
Intel has formally unveiled its 22nm chip manufacturing process, and with it a new type of transistor.
In shrinking the manufacturing process every two years, Intel has approached the limits of Moore's Law, that the number of transistors in a given chip area will double every two years. To be more precise, they can continue to shrink the process, but the benefits in terms of power and performance become less as electrical leakage increases.Check out the article to find out how they solved the problem.
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NL: Review Block - Memory to remember - 5/4/2011
Published: Wednesday, May 4, 2011 | By: DennisSandy Bridge specific memory comes in all sorts of different configurations including some pretty insane timings. (and not good ones either)
- Crucial Ballistix Sport PC3-12800 8GB Kit Review
- TechwareLabs Review: Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3-2133 RAM KitThe Crucial modules are really interesting since they have a very minimal heatspreader and CAS 10 timings, yes CL10!!
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HIS Radeon 6870 IceQX Review @ XSReviews
Published: Tuesday, May 3, 2011 | By: DennisI have been looking at getting a few more Radeon HD 4850 video cards to support the Multi GPU Index efforts and keep eyeing some of the HIS brand cards on Ebay. You know the cards with the MASSIVE blue cooler.
If the owners were not so proud of them I might actually pull the trigger.
Just to keep things fresh and prevent you all from getting bored with all the headset reviews we’ve been putting out recently, here’s something a bit more internal,a GPU from HIS. This is the IceQX variant of their HD 6870 Graphics card from AMD.
At least they are honest.
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ASUS P6X58-E WS Workstation Motherboard @ Pro-Clockers
Published: Tuesday, May 3, 2011 | By: DennisI do love these workstation style motherboards, they are the no BS approach to what a motherboard should be when you take away the gaming component.
The ASUS P6X58-E WS is today's sample, and is designed to be the center of your workload, providing you with all the power and reliability needed to run a workstation. Similar to the Sabertooth P67 we recently reviewed, this new motherboard is built with all the highest quality components to insure a long and reliable operating lifespan. Rather, it is the long days in the office or the long dark night sitting behind the monitor in which ASUS is hoping to be the rock to get that next project done.
The board isn't quite on the same level as the Rampage III Extreme, but then again its not supposed to be.
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AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Launch Day
Published: Tuesday, May 3, 2011 | By: DennisFunny thing, all of the comments about this release say the same thing. "Where the hell is Bulldozer?!?"
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Processor Review @ Hardware Canucks
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU Review @ Legit Reviews
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition processor reviewed at TR
- AMD Phenom II X4 980 @ PureOverclock
- TechwareLabs Review: AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition CPU-ProcessorSo it has 980 in the name, do you suppose it is fast as a Core i7 980? Not likely.
