Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo Review
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MLG 2011 Pro Circuit is Biggest Season in E-Sports History
The 2011 Pro Circuit has just finished for Major League Gaming, and with it comes some good news. MLG has announced it had more than 3.5 million unique stream viewers, setting the record for the most viewers in an e-sports season. The championships were held the weekend of November 18th, in Providence, Rhode Island, and there was an all-time high of 241,000 peak concurrent online viewers. That included fans from 175 countries, which is yet another e-sports record. You can view some more stats in the included picture, but some of the highlights include: an average watch time of over three hours per visitor, 20,000 in-person spectators at the event in Anaheim, California, and more male viewers ages 18 to 24 than several TV networks in an average quarter hour. Overall, those are some pretty nice numbers for MLG, and just shows how e-sports are growing in the United States.
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New Xbox 360 Dashboard Update Launching in Next Few Hours
I know some of the Xbox 360 owners out there have been waiting for the latest dashboard update to hit, but it looks like it will miss today's scheduled launch. Early this morning, Xbox Live's Major Nelson announced the new Xbox 360 dashboard update has been "slightly delayed," with an announcement coming later concerning the launch. A little bit ago, Major Nelson announced the update should be rolling out to the first batch of Xbox Live members over the next few hours, so it seems the delay was not that long of one. This update, in case you need a reminder, will add a heavy dose of Metro styling to the Xbox 360 dashboard, making it look similar to Windows Phone 7. There are always a wealth of new features included in every new dashboard update, but some of the services (Verizon and Xfinity) have been pushed back to a later date. Hopefully with the new dashboard now starting to roll out, we should see more updates concerning the status of those services.
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Antec Offers USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 Connector
Antec has announced that users that have purchased a P280 or Eleven Hundred series case that don't have a need for USB 3.0 are in luck. Antec will provide an internal USB 3.0 to USB 2.0 connector free of charge to those that find themselves with a motherboard that doesn't support the latest generation of USB. This will allow those users to take advantage of the two USB 3.0 ports found on the case itself. The connector can be obtained by contacting Antec support through the website or by calling 1-800-22ANTEC in the US. Users need only to provide proof of purchase for either case to receive the connector.
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Violent Games Affect Brain Function
Before getting to the news, this research does not really come down on either side of the ‘Are video games bad for kids?’ debate.
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine have recently released their findings into how violent video games can affect a young man’s brain. Starting with 28 men, aged 18-29, who had little exposure to violent video games, two groups of 14 were formed. One group served as the control and did not play video games for two weeks, while the others played a shooting game for 10 hours at home for one week, and did not play the next week. Before the experiment began, and after one and two weeks had passed, the researchers performed fMRI scans on the men to measure the activation of certain areas of the brain.
The men who had played the video games for a week had shown reduced activation in parts of the brain linked to emotional control and aggressive behavior. This was found after the week of gaming, but the exam the following week showed activation levels returning to those of the control group, though still not the same.
This indicates there is a long-term effect on brain functions by violent video games. However, this research does not explicitly link violent behavior to video games. Continued gaming could possibly lead to behavioral changes, but such a conclusion is beyond this study.
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Cooler Master Releases Mobile Accessories
Cooler Master is broadening its reach into a new market, mobile accessories, to go along with current markets such as cases and cooling. The Wake Up Folio is a cover for the iPad 2, and will protect both the screen and the case from scratches and other marks. Closing the cover will also put the iPad to sleep, providing an interesting power saving feature. The Wave Stand is an aluminum stand able to accommodate a multitude of tablets for a variety of viewing angles. The Power Fort 5600mAh is a mobile battery pack that can be charged through a USB connection. The Power Fort will then be able to charge your smartphone or tablet while on the go when you find yourself unable to get to a wall outlet. All of these accessories are available for purchase at the Cooler Master online store.
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Graphene to Pick Up Brain Signals
Many people, from science fiction writers and readers, to actual scientists and medical doctors, are interested in seeing electronics that are compatible with living organisms. One reason for the interest is to integrate prosthetics into a person’s nervous system, to enhance control. Researchers at Technische Universitaet Muenchen have recently published the results of an experiment with graphene.
Graphene is effectively a two-dimensional piece of carbon with extraordinary properties. Using vapor deposition and standard etching processes, the researchers were able to make 16 graphene solution-gate field-effect transistors on copper foil. The current through these transistors is affected by their environment, so signals between brain cells can be detected.
The experiment was only a proof of concept, so we cannot expect cyborgs on the street yet, but there is great promise in this technology. Already its performance is comparable to that of ultra-low noise silicon devices, which have the benefit of decades of development. The next steps will be to improve the noise performance further and to get this technology working on other substrates, such as those already used in implants.
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Bethesda Aware of Issue Some PS3 Gamers Experience with Skyrim
The latest patch for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim hit consoles and PC last week, but it seems the problems some PS3 gamers are having still were not fixed. Namely, the PS3 version of Skyrim can suffer from some pretty horrible framerate lag, which can drop all the way down to zero to render the game unplayable. This is a major problem for any PS3 gamer with the issue, because they cannot play the game once that happens. The issue seems to stem from numerous save files over a long playthrough, say the 50 hour plus range, and the PS3's smaller memory size. The issue could affect 360 and PC Skyrim players as well, but the PS3 has a lot less memory than either of the other two platforms. Bethesda has updated its blog post saying it is aware of the issue and has contacted some PS3 gamers to get a better understanding of the problem. The upcoming 1.3 patch is too far along in development to address it, but future patches will, hopefully, alleviate the problem for PS3 gamers.
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Rabbit in the Fog
Researchers at Osaka University have developed a 3D projection system that you can walk around and even pet. Projectors shine images onto a stream of fog, as the water mist scatters the light, allowing us to see a rabbit floating in the air. Of course, a 3D-virtual-floating-purple rabbit isn’t enough for the Japanese, so the researchers integrated an IR system so users can interact with the projection, provided they are wearing IR lights.
The hope is to use this technology in medicine by showing patients organs as the doctor explains what they will be doing.
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Good Old Games Massive Holiday Sale Nearly Upon Us
Good Old Games has quite the selection of classic game titles, plus it will start to offer some newer ones as well. This is the holiday season though, and that means it is time for some holiday sales. GOG.com's holiday sale is nearly here, and to kick things off, it will be offering The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings at 40% off. GOG will also throw in a copy of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition at no extra cost, so this is a good time to try out one of the best RPG series around. That sale will only last for 48 hours starting on Thursday, December 8th, but then on Saturday the 10th, GOG.com will be offering game codes for a variety of games. Masters of Orion I + II and Realms of Arkania I + II are the main ones, plus there will be codes for other games up for grabs. All you need to do to get a code is follow GOG.com on Facebook or Twitter, or be signed up at the site's forums. Monday, December 12th, will have Empire Earth: Gold Edition be given away for free to anyone who adds it to their cart until Wednesday, December 14th. Monday will also have nearly every game on GOG.com drop in price by 50% until January 2nd, 2012. All in all, this sounds like a great way to pick up some classic games for a cheap price this holiday season.
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Another Silicon Replacement Appears
Silicon has been at the heart of our electronics for decades, but all good things must come to an end. In the case of silicon, the end is well known though, as there are physical limits we cannot push past, without comprising the capability of the electronic we want to make. A commonly talked about replacement is graphene, a one-atom thick plane of carbon, but now another challenger is appearing; molybdenum disulfide or molybdenite. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne has recently created a molybdenite based integrated circuit to prove it can surpass silicon.
While layers of silicon are limited to be no thinner than two nanometers thick (any smaller and it will oxidize), molybdenite can be just three atoms thick and still function in a chip. Molybdenite transistors can also be turned on and offer faster than silicon transistors, and allow for a more complete standby mode.
Increased performance at smaller scales while consuming less power; sounds pretty good. As with many new technologies though, they are more capable than some may first suspect. Molybdenite can also be used in flexible electronics and the material itself isn’t very uncommon in the Earth.
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Kepler-22b: The Newly-Discovered Planet that May Support Life
A newfound planet called the Kepler-22b is an alien world that's almost like our own planet Earth. Confirmed by NASA's deep-space exploring Kepler spaceship and discovered by the Kepler space telescope, scientists believe the planet's surface lies close to an agreeable temperature of 72 degrees. Kepler-22b resides in the habitable zone of its host star, which makes it an ideal distance to support the existence of liquid water. While the Kepler-22b is 600 light years away and its radius 2.4 times bigger compared to Earth, its star bears a resemblance to our solar system's sun. "We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks' planet," says NASA director Pete Worden. Two promising planet discoveries were made previously, although these were later disputed, as both were eventually declared unfit for sustaining life. With the Kepler-22b's just-right temperatures though, this discovery marks an important step in what could be the confirmation of possible extra-terrestrial life.
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