Bern spotted that Monty Python have an official YouTube channel now. And what's even more, we're letting you see absolutely everything for free. So there! Hooray for the internet!
At the other end of the coolness spectrum, the Australian film and TV industry is suing iiNet 'for allowing piracy'. The action against iiNet was filed in the Federal Court today by Village Roadshow, Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Disney and the Seven Network. Discussion here.
The game Half-Life is apparently only 98c (USD) on Steam for the next 24 hours (or less, now). More info here.
NASA is testing deep space internet. "This is the first step in creating a totally new space communications capability, an interplanetary Internet," Adrian Hooke, NASA's manager of space-networking architecture, technology and standards, said in a statement. Just the thing for browsing MySpace. Or Spacebook.
Meanwhile there's a crazy mutant space spider attacking the International Space Station. Or at least, there will be, if they don't find the one they lost recently. The spider was one of two orb-weavers taken into space for a three-month research mission.
Youngpro and Nehalem
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(link) Thursday, 20-November-2008 16:25:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Not to be outdone, youngpro has some Core i7 overclocking results as well. This time it's using the stock aircooler, but the results are impressive:
Microsoft will offer free anti-malware in 2009. News just in from Microsoft - the company is to offer no-cost anti-malware to Windows users and phase-out sales of Windows Live OneCare subscription. Code-named “Morro,” the product, which is scheduled for release during the second half of 2009, will offer protection against viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojans.
Police in Ontario are using games to warn about the effects of drink driving. Yesterday GamePolitics reported that police in Australia and Winnipeg engaged in a bit of game bashing by relating stolen cars and reckless road behavior to driving games. Today, the Peterborough Examiner reports that cops in Ontario are using a driving game in a positive way to help educate high school students about the dangers of drunk driving.
Mininova is testing a new technology to allow ads within downloaded movies. The new advertising technology, Hyper MP, inserts small clickable ads into the corner of the screen. Aside from the ads, there are no limitations to the video content. Hyper MP is currently being tested on an amateur feature length comedy titled “Battle Therapy”.
Kanguru have released a flash drive that uses eSATA as well as USB. Kanguru has developed a new breed of flash drive eliciting one of those 'Why hasn't someone thought of this before?' moments. "We’ve combined the fastest connectivity with the most universal connection for the best of both worlds,” said Nate Cote, VP of Product Management at Kanguru Solutions. “The ultra-fast transfer speed, high capacity and small size combine to make it a great portable solution for users that want the next generation of unbelievable performance."
Apple has prevailed over Psystar, with a court dismissing all claims. This legal saga began last July when Apple first sued Psystar for illegally selling copies of Leopard installed on their own hardware. In response, Psystar initiated a counterclaim where it accused Apple of having a monopoly in the OS X market and running afoul of anti-trust laws. Essentially, Psystar’s defense was hinged entirely on its anti-trust allegations, and now that that has been thrown out of court, don’t expect Psystar to be in business too much longer.
The new Macbook might be faster, but it still cannot play Crysis. Finally, someone with more money that I have (I want a new MacBook Pro, but haven't yet convinced myself to shell out the dough to replace my old yet trusty G4 12" Powerbook) has put the new MBP and those shiny graphics chips to the test, and drummed up some real benchmarking numbers in Boot Camp. It turns out to be PC World, strangely enough. And the verdict? Well, it's not quite so great. The good news is that the MacBook Pro is faster than ever, and graphics have significantly improved. And trust us, any improvement over the old chips is a step in the right direction.
Here is an insight into how NASA get their climate data, and how they modify it. The next day the data was adjusted yet again. The Hudson Bay data is removed (but NW Canada was "re-heated" to its original level). The Siberian hot spot was reduced, and the global anomaly stands - for now - at a whopping 0.25°C lower than their original announcement. NASA acknowledges the changes, but other than that provides no details nor any explanation whatever. The older versions of the maps are removed from their site.
NASA have inadvertently sent something else into its own little orbit. Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper suffered an astronaut blunder after she mistakenly let go of her tool bag in space after a grease gun inside of her backpack-sized bag exploded. "Uh, we have a lost tool," Stefanyshyn-Piper said as she watched the bag float away. NASA astronauts will now track the bag for the next few days, watching to make sure it doesn't impact the ISS.
There's something else floating around out there-packets! The EPOXI spacecraft, which carried the Deep Impact probe to Comet Talent 1 in 2005, had its software reconfigured after delivering the payload to work as a test bed for NASA's new Disruption-Tolerant Networking protocol. As the craft dropped back toward Earth for one of the gravity assists that will ultimately sling it back toward the comet in 2010, it transmitted simulated images of the Martian moon Phobos using the new protocol. The trial turned EPOXI into one of 10 nodes in a test network (the other nine were on Earth), to verify the reliability and robustness of the new networking architecture.
Twitter has harpooned the fail whale in favour of a caterpillar and an ice cream cone. Meanwhile, some users bemoaned the apparent demise of the Fail Whale that surfaces when too many people use the service at one time, although Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the whale isn't quite dead yet. "The whale was related to over-capacity performance issues," Stone said in an e-mail to Wired.com. "Twitter has successfully moved to a more reliable state and the so-called Fail Whale has become an endangered species."
Nanotechnology has been used to create the worlds thinnest speaker. The new carbon material, which is 1/1000th the width of a human hair can produce sound with the "same quality of conventional speakers" but does not require magnetic drivers or any moving parts at all. This means that it can fit almost anywhere.
Do you want a cool and tasty lamp? There was once a television series called Land of the Giants. The plot is the epitome of what old-timey daytime television was all about: “A space flight crashes on earth, but it is not the same earth the ship was from. They have arrived to a land of giants.” Apparently the designers at Jellio would like one to believe that it is okay to be perpetually stuck in a kiddie version of that make believe world.
In a nice dose of building porn, here's a sizeable erection. The Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, is at 160 stories and counting, with the tower due to be complete next September. But it's not the only tower under construction in Dubai, not by a longshot. No, the city appears to be sprouting up from the ground like a bunch of weeds, with as many cranes as buildings. And now, The Big Picture has nearly 30 amazing shots of the city in transition. Hit the jump for another of my favorites and then head over to The Big Picture for the rest.
Aaron Heibert from Tom's Hardware has compiled a report based on Corsair's recent research in to the performance benefits of using 6GB of DDR3 as opposed to 3GB of DDR3 and Microsoft Windows Vista (x64). Results indicate that it is essential for enthusiasts to opt for 6 GB, rather than 3 GB, if they are looking for the best possible experience, and of course, to move to a 64-bit operating system to support the large memory configuration.
I'm sure many, if not most of us, have seen the movie Minority Report and the futuristic computer system interface used in that movie.... Futuristic no more as one of the science advisors from the Steven Spielberg film -- along with a team of other zany visionaries have created a real world implementation of the computer systems seen in the movie. Dubbed g-speak, the mind bending OS combines "gestural i/o, recombinant networking, and real-world pixels," to deliver what the creators call "the first major step in [a] computer interface since 1984."
Sony has just unveiled a 12.25 megapixel CMOS camera sensor. You're probably wondering what is so special about this news given that such megapixels have been around for some time now in digital cameras. Well.....that is true, however, this particular CMOS sensor is for mobile phone cameras. Tokyo, Japan –Sony Corporation today announced the commercialization of "IMX060PQ", a new type 1/2.5 CMOS image sensor "Exmor™" for use in camera enabled mobile phones that leverages Sony's proprietary formation technology to realize the industry's smallest unit cell size (1.4µm), and the industry's highest pixel count*1 (12.25 effective megapixel resolution).
It seems that some Australian ISP's want to become media companies. Executives from several of Australia's largest internet service providers have over the past few months expressed their desire to become media companies in their own right.
World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King is barely one week old but that didn't stop Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime from saying that "Blizzard is already thinking about what to include in the massively popular MMO's next expansion". Obviously it's far too early to go into any specifics as to what the contents might be. He did, however, say, "[W]e will continue making expansions as long as we have players that want to play World of Warcraft -- we want to keep them entertained."
And speaking of WoW, a 15-year old Swedish boy has collapsed after a marathon World of Warcraft gaming session. The boy, along with six of his friends, had just purchased the newest WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King and began playing the game Saturday afternoon. According to the Times Online, the boy eventually collapsed because of the lack of sleep and food.
Thermaltake has launched a new series of psu's called Thermaltake TR2 QFan. The TR2 QFan series' claim to fame is limited to one area, and it's not even really a feature. What's so special? The series starts with a modest 300W unit, and ranges up to 500W in 50W increments.
Everying old is new again, with Fujifilm releasing a new polaroid camera. Fujifilm announced today that it will be releasing its Instax 200 instant film camera (and the instant color film, of course) to the U.S. market in late December. The camera, which has been available in Asia and Europe for several years, produces 3.9×2.44-inch instant photos and will sell for $69.99. The Polaroid-esque film is the kind that develops before your eyes (not the peel-apart kind) and will sell for $28.99 a 20-pack.
Australia is in the grip of an e-waste epidemic. Environmentalists and the Federal Opposition have accused the Federal Government of dragging its feet on a national response to Australia's e-waste epidemic, following the opening of the southern hemisphere's first automated e-waste recycling plant in Sydney today.
Technology is now being used to combat 'classic' piracy. The hijacking of giant Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star has focused the world's attention on piracy. In the past five years, the number of piracy attacks around the world has fallen from 452 incidents in 2003 to 282 in 2007. But it is a different story off the coast of Somalia; pirate attacks have increased by 100% in the past year. The Sirius Star is the biggest tanker ever to be hijacked, with a cargo of 2m barrels of oil worth more than $100m.
Good Old Games is now offering Unreal Tournament DRM free. With the phrase now appended to read, "I'd rather get a root canal while playing a DRM'ed game [than date/know/look at you]," the time is right to take a stand against DRM -- and also brush the dust off a few classic games in the process. So, if you haven't already, definitely point your web browser in Good Old Games' direction. Especially now that the totally DRM-free service has added Epic's Unreal series to its ranks.
Yet another controversial flash game has appeared on the internet. Online casual gaming is once again in the spotlight this week with UK newspapers expressing outrage at online title Billy Suicide which, as the name suggests, sees players attempt to prevent the game’s protagonist ending his life. The storm follows hot on the heels of recent controversial titles such as Kaboom: The Suicide Bombing Game and Little Hooliganz.
You won't be able to play it on an iPhone though. The best selling phone in America, Apple's iPhone, could be the last of the smartphones to get Flash. At a slew of press events over the last few days, Adobe unveiled a new version of mobile version of Flash -- a leaner, faster, smart phone-aimed version of Flash 10. The new version is optimized for ARM processors like the one used in the iPhone.
Microsoft feared Mac OS X and Vista comparisons even back in 2005. "You won't have to worry about Vista if you buy one of Apple Computer's Macintosh computers, which don't run Windows," Mossberg had written. "Every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system, called Tiger, is better and more secure than Windows XP, and already contains most of the key features promised for Vista."
Snow Leopard, Apple's new OS, is rumoured to be out as soon as Q1 2009. Apple's Director of Engineering of Unix Technologies Jordan Hubbard spoke at LISA '08 last week. LISA (or Large Installation System Administration Conference) is a technical conference targeted at engineers and system administrators. This year's conference invited Apple's Jordan Hubbard to speak about the evolution of Mac OS X from large servers to embedded platforms. While technical readers may find the content of Hubbard's presentation slides (PDF) quite interesting, the most surprising revelation is a more specific target date for Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard): 1st Quarter 2009.
Interesting Forum Threads
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(link) Wednesday, 19-November-2008 12:49:40 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Here's a quick snapshot of what people are up to in the forums:
Experts are warning that next Monday (24th) will see a peak in malware levels. Security researchers have deemed November 24 "black Monday" following predictions it will herald this year's peak in the spread of information-stealing malware. PC Tools said its internal monitoring systems registered a dramatic spike in viruses around November 19 last year, three days before the American Thanksgiving holiday and about the time when many people were shopping online for Christmas presents. Based on this data, Kurt Baumgartner, the company's chief threat analyst, has predicted November 24 will be the worst day of the year for computer attacks.
The world is getting safer for soldiers, with the development of a new camera. Dubbed the I-Ball the wireless device is robust enough to survive being thrown onto a battlefield. The I-Ball's internal camera gives a 360 degree view, with images being sent from the instant it is launched. It is thought the new technology would enable soldiers to see into potential danger spots without putting themselves at risk of ambush.
USB 3.0 is a step closer with complete specifications being released. It seems like everything uses USB today from cell phone chargers to keyboards, mice, printers, and cameras. What many really want are faster USB connections. The USB 3.0 Promoters Group announced yesterday that the USB 3.0 specification was finally complete. The specification is a sort of roadmap that allows manufacturers to build controllers and products utilizing the USB 3.0 standard. The specification has now been turned over to the USB Implementers Forum, the managing body for USB specifications.
For Mac users there's a new trojan making the rounds. When visiting certain sites, the user is alerted that there is a "Video ActiveX Object Error" and is told that their "Browser cannot play this video file." The alert instructs the user to download the "missing Video ActiveX Object." If the user clicks OK, a disk image called "cleanlive.dmg" downloads (which may change in the future). Depending on the user's browser settings, this disk image may mount and installation may automatically start.
Dell has outfitted several of its computers with the new i7 chip. A baseline configured Studio XPS desktop starts out at $950 and comes equipped with Intel's Core i7 920 clocked at 2.66GHz. The sub-$1000 configuration also includes a 3GB triple-channel DDR3-1066 memory kit and a 500GB hard drive. A 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 provides casual gaming chores, with the option to upgrade to a 512MB HD 4850 for $200 more.A 16X DVD burner and the standard assortment of ports complete the feature-set. For those with a little more jingle in their pocket, up to 1.28TB of storage can be configured in a RAID 0 array, along with a speedier CPU in the Core i7 940 clocked at 2.93GHz.
If you own an iPhone, check out Zooz Control. So the dudes over at ZoozMobile decided to help the PC achieve a similar control system by linking your games to the iPhone's touchscreen and accelerometer. By downloading the free PC host software, and the (currently free) Zooz Control Lite app for your iPhone, you can use your handset as a very expensive, yet highly intuitive controller for your PC games.
Anti-piracy lawyers are now suing people for sharing gay porn. After going after thousands accused of sharing video games in the UK, lawyers Davenport Lyons are now branching out into other areas. This week sees them start going after those it accuses of sharing the movie “Army F**kers”, hardcore gay porn featuring ‘farm boys’ and Gestapo officers. Accusing the wrong people this time could prove very costly indeed.
Two years ago Microsoft and Novel signed a patent pact. Was it worth it? In exchange for Microsoft distributing to its customers certificates for Novell’s SuSE Linux, Novell basically conceded that its implementation of Linux violated Microsoft patents and agreed its customers needed patent-enforcement protection. (That’s not how Novell or Microsoft likes to portray the arrangement, but that’s what it boiled down to, in essence.) Since the agreement was forged, a lot has happened.
There is a Tron sequel in the works. Tron - quite possibly the best example of a movie that could benefit from a legitimate sequel - is finally getting one. And who knew? A few dedicated - and better informed - film buffs maybe. But for the rest of us sci-fi supporters, certainly on this side of the Pond, it remained a secret. It is being directed by Joseph Kosinski, a little known director currently working on a remake of Logan's Run. He replaced Steve Lisberger, director of the original, but Lisberger is staying on as a co-writer for the sequel.
What exactly did the Phoenix Rover discover on Mars? For this week's Photoshop contest, I asked you guys to show us what the Mars Phoenix really discovered that government didn't want us to know about. Well, apparently Mars is a popular destination for politicians, terrorists, Bigfoot and assorted other bizarre life forms. If most of this stuff did exist on Mars, the Men in Black would break down crying because their lives are meaningless and the government would shut down NASA immediately and return the money to taxpayers. Hit the jump for the top three, the Gallery of Champions and... the truth.
It seems that Nvidia's plans of blowing Radeon HD4870x2 performance crown out of the water will have to be put on hold until January, 2009. The dual GT200 55nm cardis likely to end up faster than the fastest ATI and Nvidia will also bet on its better SLI optimisation, all in order to return the performance crown that it needs back so badly, says Fuad Abazovic of Fudzilla.
Meanwhile Nvidia is keen for the likes of Dell, Asus and Lenovo to start designing a desktop supercomputer based around Nvidia's four Tesla C1060 cards along with a quad core processor and 16 GB of memory. Depending on the application performed, Nvidia claims that a Tesla PC will be about 250 times faster than a regular desktop PC. However, we need to be fair and mention that this number also depends on the system the PC is compared to. For example, a PC equipped with an Nvidia SLI system or two of ATI’s Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards can compete with a Tesla PC in the Teraflops department.
Sometime ago we read that a company by the name of Danamics, out of Nørresundby, Denmark was working on a liquid metal based CPU cooler. Today they have finally released the world's first commercially available Danamics LM10 liquid metal based CPU cooler. The pricey cooling solution uses a electromagnetic pump and liquid metal to provide thermal performance that Danamics tells us "exceeds most watercoolers in a single device".
According to an article on Ars Technica the USB 3.0 specification have been finalized. The new standard isn't expected to start headlining on motherboards until the latter half of 2009 (at the earliest), with compliant devices hopefully appearing sometime in 2010.
Word from Intel is that more efficient Core 2 Quads are on their way to a store near you. For a bit there it was looking like AMD would be the first to introduce a quad core processor to market with a TDP of just 65W. However, just when AMD thought they were onto a good thing with this chip, Intel are said to be striking back with not one, but three upcoming Core 2 Quad processors which also have a TDP of 65W.
Today Dell has unveiled their new line of XPS systems based on the Core i7 platform. Adding to its successful XPS line of gaming desktops, Dell introduces its new XPS 730x gaming system to the line-up. The new ‘x’ denotes the cross over from Core 2 to Intel’s new Core i7 platform along with Intel’s new X58 chipset.
Silicon Graphics Inc. have showed off their Molecule concept computer based on Intel's Atom microprocessor. If someday brought to market, a single-rack system based on the Silicon Graphics Molecule concept computer would offer the computing power and memory bandwidth of more than 750 high-end PCs, SGI said, yet it would consume less than half the power and less than 1.4 percent of the physical space.
On Monday, Mushkin Inc. have released 16 triple-channel memory kits designed specifically for the new Intel Core i7 platform. The flagship offering of the new memory kits is the XP3-12800 7-8-7, allowing end users to extract higher performance at 1600MT/s than competitors’ products while staying within safe operating voltages.
A woman who met and married her husband in Second Life found him cheating in Second Life and has now met someone else in World of Warcraft. Using the virtual world's own special currency, she hired an online private detective to investigate his adultery. The mind boggles.
Chinese pirates have taken on the Blu-Ray craze. The pirates are apparently ripping high-def movies (cracking Blu-ray's AACS and BD+ encryption in the process) and re-encoding them using AVCHD, which offers a 720p picture. Because of the reduction in resolution, file sizes are smaller and can be burned to regular DVDs instead of the more costly Blu-ray discs, netting a tidy profit.
Digit-Life looked at single-core performance from Intel and AMD. For this purpose we'll use two LGA775 and Socket AM2+ motherboards -- Biostar TPower I45 (IP45A-A7P) and ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe/WiFi-AP -- that allow disabling all CPU cores but one in BIOS.
Dramas continue for Qantas, managing to crash planes when not even flying them. The planes were being towed at the carrier’s Australian heavy maintenance base at Avalon Airport when they crashed into each other about 9.30am today (AEDT), the Herald Sun reported.
Check out this amazing datacentre. This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain. And it is real. Discussion here.
LegionHW have some Core i7 overclocking. Today we are doing a little Intel Core i7 overclocking with the new ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard. The results were impressive, and achieving them could not have been much easier. Those considering the new Core i7 920 processor will no doubt be very interested in our findings.
Scott sends word of a 64-bit Flash player for Linux from Adobe. Well, YouTube, Homestar Runner, and badgerbadgerbadger all work, so there's 90% of it. Discussion here.
NASA is celebrating the International Space Station's 10th Birthday. Now the largest spacecraft ever built, the orbital assembly of the space station began with the launch from Kazakhstan of its first bus-sized component, Zarya, on Nov. 20, 1998. They've also been restoring lunar images thanks to digital technology.
I'm sorry to have to report the death of an OCAU member, tkdwarrior, who drowned in the severe storms in Brisbane on the weekend. I'd spoken to him a few times about fishkeeping, he seemed like a nice guy. At 20 years old, much too young. People are expressing their condolences in this thread. RIP.
Tuesday Night Reviews
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(link) Tuesday, 18-November-2008 20:58:24 (GMT +10) - by BlaYde
Dell is refusing to honour sales of a half-price computer. Bargain hunter websites, such as OzBargain, and PC user forums, including Whirlpool and Overclockers Australia, lit up on Friday with word that Dell was offering a $799 Vostro 220ST computer on its website for $240. The desktop computer included an Intel dual-core processor, 2GB of internal memory, 160GB of hard-drive space and a 20-inch LCD monitor. The same computer was offered days earlier, on Monday, for $350 as part of another deal, which Dell also pulled out of.
Online rental company Netflix is phasing out HD-DVDs. Netflix consumers will have one month before the rental service stops renting HD DVDs. Online movie rental company Netflix sent an e-mail to its subscribers informing them they would no longer be able to rent HD DVDs. "Effective December 15, 2008, we will no longer carry HD DVDs," a message to subscribers said. "At that time, we will automatically replace any HD DVD titles in your queue with standard DVDs when available. You don't have to do anything."
Yet another country is censoring Google. Dozens of fashion models and public figures, such as sports star Diego Maradona, are currently at war with Google over how search results are handed out. While the question as to whether or not certain search results should be censored if they contain a person’s name is answered, Argentine Judges have handed down orders to temporarily abbreviate search results. These restraints mean that Google has to censor searches from Argentinean sites that contain the plaintiff’s names.
The co-founder of Yahoo and CEO Jerry Yang is standing down. His departure follows lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has seen its share price collapse to about $10. Earlier in the year he fought off a hostile takeover bid from Microsoft which offered $33 a share. The BBC was told that Mr Yang made the decision to leave as chief executive officer last month. No names were given as to who will succeed him.
The computer giant Apple is almost 25 years old. To mark the awesome inevitability of January 24, 2009 following January 24, 1984 after exactly one quarter-century, tech pundits will bloviate, Apple-bashers will execrate, and Jobsian fanboyz will venerate the munificence that flows unabated from The Great Steve. The din will be deafening.
With all that experience, you think they'd be able to get it right the first time. If you are one of the early adopters who rushed out to purchase a MacBook/MacBook Pro, only to realize that the new Trackpad was a bit buggy, then you may be in for a treat. That's because Apple just released the much anticipated Trackpad fix for unrecognized clicks.
Jef Raskin, an early Apple entrepreneur, has a vision about future OSs. Imagine you are flying high above a wide plain. Far below, vague rectangular shapes cover the ground in every direction. Swooping down, you find that these are not fields or even city blocks, but words and images. Bold labels are stamped on the ground and flying lower you can make out activity beside each one. Off to your left flow the pages of a report you've been writing, while to your right a newly arrived email is springing up.
And in another look at our crazy world, here are 10 gadgets that have no business using a jet engine. Ever since we started putting high-powered engines into jets, there has been a long line of skilled but misguided lunatics eager to rip them out to use in their stupid and dangerous contraptions. Simply put, we are fascinated by speed—whether it is the latest military super aircraft or a flaming toilet blazing down the road at 110kph. A jet engine attached to anything is sure-fire entertainment—as the following ten gadgets will demonstrate.
Three Reviews from Windwithme
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(link) Tuesday, 18-November-2008 13:02:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg
Three reviews from windwithme recently, packed full of photos and overclocking info etc as usual. check 'em out:
How easy is it to remove parts of your digital past? A whole industry -- known as online reputation management -- has grown up around helping individual clients and corporate clients suppress negative information online by creating more positive and search-engine-friendly postings. But what if you don't just want something massaged, manipulated or suppressed? What if you want it gone? Is it possible for an ordinary person to get some damaging tidbit entirely erased from the Web?
But if you want a new identity, you only need to pay £80. The details packaged and sold online include names, addresses, passport numbers and confidential financial data such as credit card numbers. With six out of 10 people now managing finances online, experts say the public needs to do more to prevent e-crime.
And it could happen to anyone, with privacy breaches occurring once a week. [H]undreds of credit card receipts from a Bondi Junction chemist are strewn across Mascot Oval; names and dates of birth for 3500 customers of a Sydney restaurant are inadvertently attached to a mass email; detailed financial records for Aussie Home Loans customers are dumped in an unsecured bin; and, most worrying, a Tax Office CD of documents about 3122 taxpayers vanishes after reaching a courier. And those losses of personal information, all from last month, were the ones made public.
Google had an embarrassing slip up when it linked to a known malware site. Search giant Google is known for its "do no evil" approach. It goes to great lengths to protect the environment and it blocks sites on lists of known malware sites from being searched. However, security researchers made an alarming discovery of a major slip-up for Google. The site had allowed a known malware site to buy text ads and was placing these ads on its partner pages through its Google AdWords service.
IT policy could spur economic growth, according to analysts. As staffers on Capitol Hill know all too well, the growth of technology has created an economy increasingly reliant on energy consumption, as BlackBerrys, laptops, and other devices become everyday necessities. The right policies, however, can make IT growth a part of the energy solution rather than the problem, IT representatives said Monday at a forum, in a congressional office, hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
But Blizzard doesn't seem to care, as they are immune to the falling economy. Speaking to VideoGamer.com hours before the midnight launch of expansion Wrath of the Lich King at HMV Oxford Street last week, Blizzard executive Paul Sams said the MMO genre has the "opportunity to be touched less" than rival entertainment, like film, as long as the product is "priced fairly".
The Dark Knight is set to become the most pirated film this year. This week, in another round of leaks, DVD-rips of ‘The Dark Knight’ found their way to BitTorrent. Unsurprisingly, given the commercial success of the movie, these were downloaded well over a million times in just a few days. From the looks of it, Batman will crush Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Transformers, as it will easily become this year’s most pirated movie.
Left 4 Dead is debuting tomorrow in America. he second Left 4 Dead television commercial starts its run on network and cable television tomorrow - Tuesday, November 18- the same day Valve's zombie thriller launches on the Xbox 360 and PC at retail outlets in North America. The title will be available at retail outlets in the rest of the world this coming Friday, November 21.
There's also a new game for the iPhone: My Little Tank. You have your choice of seven tank colors (that whirring sound you hear is General George Patton spinning in his grave when you choose the pink tank). You can control My Little Tank with an onscreen virtual d-pad, by swiping the screen with your finger to move the tank, and accelerometer-based directional tilt. You can listen to the built-in soundtrack, or pick your own music to enjoy while playing.
Here are some free applications to help boost productivity. You're busy. We're busy. Everybody's busy. Thankfully, busy people are also creative software developers. And we've tapped into their treasures to find you five awesome, "keep your life together" applications. Forever say goodbye to the yellow sticky notes adorning your computer display. These free programs will ensure that you never miss a critical appointment, important task, or billing date.
If you've ever gone wardriving, then this scooter is for you. Geek Wheels boasts just about everything you’d need for a long- or short-haul journey. Underneath the seat rests the scooter’s processing “brain”, which consists of a 1.2GHz VIA CPU and 1GB of memory. It also has a 2GB SSD for the OS and other software. Just next to the wing mirror is an 8in LCD touchscreen which will display TV picked up by the scooter’s on-board “stealth” TV antenna. Since you mustn’t watch and drive, the scooter’s been fitted with a DVR.
A Google Android phone has been hacked to act as a garage door remote. Brad Fitzpatrick has hacked his HTC G1 Android smartphone to use it as a secure remote which can open his home's garage door as he gets close to it. Using Wi-Fi, the mobile phone automatically fires up an HTTP request to his home server as soon as it's near enough, which triggers the opening as well as other functions in the house.
All original content copyright James Rolfe.
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