CM QuickFire Pro Mechanical Keyboard Review
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Crytek Thinks Next-Gen Consoles that Block Used Games is 'Awesome'
If you have been following the rumors on the next-generation consoles, you should know both Sony and Microsoft are (supposedly) going to block used games from playing. While the technology is still unknown as to how exactly the used games will be blocked, both companies could include it. Crytek's director of creative development Rasmus Hoejengard would love to see an anti-used game implentation in the next-gen consoles and calls the idea "awesome" from a business perspective. He says no other software industry has used sales and would be happy if Sony and Microsoft block it. However, despite his desire to see used games blocked, Hoejengard hopes the next consoles offer easy design options for games. He would not like something overly complex, but rather something that allows for prototypes to be up and running swiftly. Good scalability available for everyone would also be nice, since then all games could acheive a desired graphical quality.
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PowerColor Releases HD7870 Eyefinity 6
PowerColor has released the only HD7870 series GPU that is able to support up to six monitors simultaneously using Eyefinity, the HD7870 Eyefinity 6. The card is able to do this through optimization of the Eyefinity technology and the inclusion of six mini display ports. The card has a core speed of 1000MHz and 2GB of GDDR5 that operates at 1200MHz. In addition to supporting up to six monitors, the Eyefinity 6 also features AMD PowerTune technology, allowing clock speeds to be increased as needed. AMD ZeroCore Power technology places the card into an extremely energy efficient state when in idle mode, consuming almost no power.
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Thermaltake Announces 10 Year Warranty for Frio Extreme
Thermaltake released the Frio Extreme at the beginning of this year, and touted it as "the supreme air cooler of the Frio Series." It features a dual tower design with aluminum fins, six heatpipes, and two 140mm fans. Thermaltake hopes that it has added extra appeal to the cooler, as well as helping customer feel reassured in their purchase, by now adding a 10 year warranty to the Frio Extreme. All Frio Extreme coolers purchased after January 1, 2012 will receive the warranty and will allow buyers to receive a replacement in the event of a defect. If a Frio Extreme isn't available, Thermaltake will substitute a comparable air cooler.
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Amazon France Outs Resistance: The Trilogy
Someone over at Amazon must be pushing the wrong button, as a week has passed since God of War: Ascension was revealed early. Today, thanks to Amazon France, we know about Resistance: The Trilogy that has a tentative release date of May 16th, 2012 in Europe. It makes sense for Sony to package the three Resistance PlayStation 3 games into one bundle, so if this listing (and date) prove true, PS3 gamers should be kept plenty busy this summer. Amazon France lists the price at 60 Euros, which should translate fairly well to $60 in the United States. Surprisingly, Sony has been gearing up for another announcement tomorrow, which was thought to be All-Stars Battle Royale, Sony's take on Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. If the reveal is actually for Resistance: The Trilogy, maybe Amazon should have a better system in place to prevent these kinds of spoilers.
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Increasing Power Causes Lasers to Blackout
When there is not enough light in a room, a normal and simple solution is to turn on another light, because two lights are brighter than one. This may be true for your regular light bulb, but not for lasers. Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology, Princeton University, Yale University, and ETH Zurich have discovered that when turning up the power for one laser in a coupled pair can cause both to go dark.
Light can act like a wave, so two beams of light can interfere with each other, and even cancel out. That is not all of what is happening here though, as the blackout is also being caused by the amplification occurring in the lasers. The lasers work by pumping energy into a material, causing electrons to jump to a higher energy level. When the electrons fall, a photon is emitted. It turns out that with coupled lasers, this effect can be reduced by the increase of energy in one of the lasers.
While this is definitely an unusual phenomenon, the researchers are confident it may prove useful in the future. Microlasers will likely be introduced into computers and other electronics at some point, and this effect may allow for some interesting possibilities.
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Canceled, Developer Reassembles and Announces Free-to-Play MMOFPS
Well, it has finally happened. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has been canceled. The news broke just a little while ago and I am sure many of you, myself included, are disappointed it came to this. GSC Game World, developer of the series, has officially closed its doors as well. However, all is not lost as members of the development team formed a new studio last month called Vostok Games. The team announced development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is "frozen," as Vostok was unable to secure the rights to continue making it. Vostok will still carry the idea of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series on in a new free-to-play MMOFPS tentatively called Survarium, which will be a PC-exclusive slated for a launch by the end of the next year. A spiritual successor may not be what the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. faithful were hoping for, but at least it will be something. Best of luck to Vostok Games with its new endeavor, and I look forward to seeing progress on the new title.
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Breaking the Limit in Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion can be described as the power of the Universe, as it is what occurs at the core of every living star. Creating an artificial star-core on Earth though has been proving difficult because getting atomic nuclei that normally repel each other so close together requires a lot of energy. To complicate things, sometimes adding more energy causes the entire process to crash to a halt. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have found a possible explanation and solution to the density limit.
There are multiple ways to stimulate nuclear fusion, and what may be the most popular uses plasma in a tokamak reactor. This design has super-hot and super-dense plasma contained within the reactor’s walls. Unfortunately there is something called the density limit whereby adding more energy to the plasma, to increase its density, can cause the plasma to collapse. The researchers at PPPL believe they have discovered what causes this behavior.
Within the plasma islands can form, due to impurities that take away some heat from the plasma. These islands have been known to exist for years, but no one did an in-depth analysis of how they could impact the plasma, and cause the density limit. Before the PPPL researchers even completed all the math involved with these islands, they had found the equations that define the density limit.
Armed with this knowledge, the researchers are going to work on testing their theory at the Alcator C-Mod tokamak of MIT, where one of the researchers is from, and the DIII-D tokamak at General Atomics. If this theory is confirmed, it could allow for plasmas with much higher densities, and potential self-sustaining fusion reactions.
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Updates on Grim Dawn's Kickstarter Appear - Over Halfway to Goal
The Kickstarter page for Grim Dawn keeps on trucking along, with the goal less than $100,000 away from being reached. Crate Entertainment has taken to the page to post some updates, which cover everything from a new introduction, music, and a new reward tier. First up is the new introduction on the main page of the Grim Dawn Kickstarter. The team over at Crate changed things up to better reflect the game and also show off some new images. Some of the images tease unannounced parts of the game, so keep it tuned for more information on those. The developer has also added a new musical selection entitled "Cult of Ch'thon." It is a "moody piece" that will surely help set the tone for that part of the game, and you can also check out earlier music on the Grim Dawn website. Lastly, there is a new reward tier that is aimed at people wanting a second copy of Grim Dawn to give to a friend or family member. It is a $32 donation and essentially gives you two versions of the $18 reward at a discount.
There are 23 days remaining for Grim Dawn to meet the goal on Kickstarter. Every little bit will help Crate Entertainment develop this game, so open your wallet to help the team out!
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Exobots for Space Exploration
Researchers at Penn State are considering what it will take to explore the Universe and discover extraterrestrial life. Instead of sending manned vehicles to cross the cosmos or relying on massive receivers to catch a glimmer of a signal, they recommend using robots. Specifically exobots, which are self-replicating and autonomous robots with the ability to learn.
The researchers are thinking with the assumption that if there is intelligent life out there, it is likely similar to us, in the ways that matter for space exploration. They have limited resources and a dysfunctional government, so they will not be sending out broadcasts for the entire galaxy to listen to. The researchers believe they too would come to the conclusion that a fleet of exobots would be the best way to explore the vastness of space, amongst other things. While ultimately the robots would be used to hunt for life beyond the Solar System, they could start with some important chores around the Earth. Finding and tracking asteroids and other debris around the planet would be a good place to start. There are over 1,200 near Earth asteroids that could be a hazard to us, so monitoring their orbits could alert us to an impending threat, hopefully soon enough to do something.
Before averting a Hollywood-style apocalypse though, the exbots will have to be built and the researchers suggest a good place to do that would be on the Moon. The hardest part to any space mission is getting it off of the ground. Earth has a reasonably strong gravitational field and it has to be overcome for every launch. By building the exobots on the Moon though, where there is 1/6 the gravity and plenty of untapped resources, the gravity issue is mostly overcome. In fact, the exobots could harvest material from dead satellites or debris from old satellites still orbiting the planet, where the gravity will be even less, and possibly the materials will be better.
Of course, this research is somewhat speculative, as we do not have the exobots now, or a blueprint for them. This research is something worth remembering though, as one day we will have the ability to make these exobots and push far past our planet.
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Asus G55VW Gaming Laptop Armed with an Ivy Bridge Processor
Asus has been consistently churning out solid gaming laptops with its sleek G-series notebooks, and the Ivy-Bridge powered G55VW-DS71 model promises to continue that fine tradition. The first to appear in Asus' G55 lineup, the G55VW's specifications include a quad-core Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM at the helm, and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 660M 2GB GDDR5 GPU to match the speedy processor. The G55 form-factor has enough space to accommodate a 750GB hard disk, 12GB DDR3 memory, a DVD burner, and two additional drive bays should you wish to install an SSD. The 3.85kg G55VW also includes a Thunderbolt port, one USB 3.0 and three USB 2.0 ports, along with an 8-cell battery.
Its estimated $1,475 price tag makes it an attractive option for gamers looking for a reasonably-priced gaming laptop, while its high-end brothers should be in the pipeline soon for those looking for something more powerful. The Asus G55VW can be pre-ordered now, with an expected release date by the end of April.
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