Thecus N2310 NAS Server Review
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Dishonored 2-Years Later Review
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Humble Indie Bundle 11 Review
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Blizzard Announces 'Technical Alpha' for Heroes of the Storm
Blizzard's MOBA Heroes of the Storm was playable at BlizzCon 2013, but soon others will get to play it on their own PCs. After a lot of internal testing, Blizzard has announced that the first public testing phase will begin soon. The purpose of this initial phase, which Blizzard is calling the "Technical Alpha", is to help the developer "better examine how [its] infrastructure and tech will function across a much broader spectrum of machines and connection types." Heroes of the Storm is very much a work in progress, with a lot of the features not even implemented yet, not to mention placeholder sounds, interface elements, and even graphics. Nevertheless, there will be absolutely no Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), which means you can share videos, screenshots, and any impressions you have with the world.
Access to the Technical Alpha will be extremely limited at the start, but expand over time as Blizzard has always done with its alpha and beta tests. Currently, only players in the United States will be eligible, and signing up is as simple as checking the Heroes of the Storm opt-in box found on the Beta Profile Settings page of your Battle.net Account. If you're a Blizzard fan and/or MOBA fan, what are you waiting for?
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Sprint Sued by the US Government
In an interesting legal case, the United States government has filed a complaint against Sprint for charges that occurred for wiretaps. When the United States requests information that can be used in investigations by authorities, it is usually gathered from wiretaps. Companies, such as Sprint, have to pay for the equipment that enables the wiretapping to occur, and are reimbursed by the United States government at a later time. The government claims that Sprint overcharged agencies, such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, more than $21 million that is directly related to equipment bought by the company. Sprint, according to the complaint, improperly inflated its charges by 58 percent over the course of approximately three and a half years, spanning from January 1, 2007 to July 31, 2010.
Sprint is officially stating that the invoices submitted to the government for reimbursement of incurred charges are all lawful. Even so, the government is seeking triple damages along with unspecified civil fines.
Source: CNET
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Kickstarter Hits Pledging Milestone
Announced by Kickstarter, the incredibly popular crowdfunding platform has received a total of $1 billion in pledges by 5.7 million people for various creative projects. At the beginning of this year, the platform announced that it had roughly $480 million in pledges coming from around 3 million people during last year, with 2013 bringing in almost half of the $1 billion announced today. Kickstarter has announced some interesting facts behind the service, revealing that pledges have occurred from 224 countries across the world, that the most popular day for pledges is Wednesday, that the first half of any given month receives the most money in pledges, and that the United States Is the most generous support for projects. With the growth that Kickstarter is experiencing, it should be interesting to see the amount of startups that turn to the crowdfunding platform for product and service support.
Source: Kickstarter
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Dishonored II Reveal Coming at E3 2014?
If the leaked image is accurate, a Dishonored II "full reveal" is coming at E3 2014 – as if there was any doubt the highly acclaimed stealth action-adventure game Dishonored would be getting a sequel. The image, which appears to be of a PowerPoint slide, doesn't say much except for the title Dishonored II, the E3 2014 reveal date, and a hashtag of "#DarknessOfTyvia", which may indicate that the full game name is "Dishonored II: Darkness of Tyvia." Either way, the good news is that the Arkane Studios logo can be seen in the lower-left corner, which means it's a good bet the Dishonored developer is returning for the sequel.
E3 2014 takes place June 10-12, 2014, so we may have a while until we learn more, but hopefully there's at least a teaser trailer released before then.
Source: All Games Beta
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Important Step to Bringing Photonics to Computers
The march of progress for electronics has been following Moore's Law for some time now, faithfully doubling the number of transistors on a chip every two years. That march may be halted in the future though, as power consumption and other factors limit our ability to shrinking the components further. One alternative to electronics that could pick up the march is photonics, and researchers have recently made a great step towards that end, as reported by the Optical Society.
Researchers have been building photonic devices for some time, but these devices are often custom built, using processes and techniques that prevent mass production. Now researchers have managed to build a modulator and tunable filter using IBM's advanced CMOS process. This same process has been used to create silicon electronics for years, and this is the first time the researchers are aware of it being used to create silicon photonics that rival electronics for energy efficiencies. The modulator can be used to translate an electrical signal to an optical one while the tunable filter can select a single frequency from multiple.
The researchers believe these devices could be used for chip-to-chip communications, where the chips could take advantage of the 10 times higher bandwidth density of the optical devices. As one optical link can carry multiple frequencies, it can carry multiple, discrete channels, whereas electrical signals each require their own wire. The work is to be presented at the OFC Conference and Exposition in San Francisco from March 9-13.
Source: The Optical Society
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Top-Down Images of All Fifteen Titanfall Maps Leaked
Titanfall launches in North America on March 11, but a lot of information has leaked out since the Titanfall Beta ended a couple weeks ago. While the beta only featured two maps (Fracture and Angel City), the game's full roster of fifteen maps has been leaked in the form of top-down images. These images not only show the overall top-down view of the maps, but also point out "key locations" in each one. The environments are certainly varied, with both indoor and outdoor locales, though curiously not one snowy environment... DLC, anyone?
Source: All Games Beta
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Capcom Announces 'Edition Select Mode' for Ultra Street Fighter IV
With Ultra Street Fighter IV being the fifth entry in the Street Fighter IV (SFIV) series, there are bound to be players that haven't been happy with their favorite characters being changed just for balancing purposes with the introduction of new characters. Well, Capcom is going to placate those users with the addition of Edition Select Mode, which allows players to choose any character from any version of SFIV (Vanilla SFIV, Super SFIV, Super SFIV AE, Super SFIV AE ver. 2012, and Ultra SFIV).
The only caveat is that it appears Edition Select Mode will only be available in offline play. The official announcement doesn't say that, but an entry on Capcom's Japanese site seems to indicate that point, if the translations are accurate. The reasoning is because of the aforementioned balancing issues. Nevertheless, if you have a friend to play with locally, it should provide for some interesting match-ups.
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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Video Game Arriving April 29
Activision has announced that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game will arrive in North America on April 29, 2014 for Windows PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, and 3DS. Those who pre-order the PlayStation or Xbox versions of the game from GameStop will receive the exclusive Web Threads Suit Pack. Activision included PC in the list of eligible pre-order bonus platforms, but GameStop does not have the PC version currently listed, plus the PC version will only be available digitally in North America, so I cannot say with 100% certainty that the PC will get that pack. The first game is available on Steam, so it's likely this one will arrive there as well (and hopefully with the pre-order bonus).
The Web Threads Suit Pack contains four Spidey suits available at launch: Iron Spider Suit, Cosmic Spider-Man Suit, Venom-like Black Suit, and Spider-Man Noir Suit. Each suit offers unique combat bonuses, but specifics were not provided. Check out the image attached below to see what each suit looks like.
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Samsung Announces Chromebook 2 Laptops
Samsung released the initial Chromebook in 2012, and having bought one very soon after release I was very satisfied with my purchase. Samsung today announced the Chromebook 2 as an encore, and a pair of models will be available in April. An 11.6" model will weigh just 2.43 pounds at an MSRP of $319.99 and the 13.3" model will weight 3.09 pounds at a cost of $399.99. Both laptops will be powered by Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processors with the 11.6" powered by a 1.9GHz CPU and the 13.3" featuring a 2.1GHz chip. Each laptop will also have 4GB of DDR3L RAM, 16GB of solid state storage, one USB 2.0 port, one USB 3.0 port, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The smaller laptop has a battery life of eight hours and the larger will be slightly longer at eight-and-a-half hours. The smaller laptop will have a resolution of 1366x768 while the larger screen will boast a full 1080p resolution.
Source: Ars Technica
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ADATA Announces SSD Firmware Update
ADATA has announced the availability of a firmware update for solid state drives based on the LSI SandForce 2200 SSD controller. ADATA SSD models that will be impacted by the update include SX910, SX900, SP900, SP800, S511, S510, and S396. Firmware version 5.2.5 "optimizes TRIM completion behavior and SATA stability, and improves disk recovery in instances of unsafe or improper shutdown." Users should navigate over to the ADATA website and select their SSD from the dropdown to obtain the update.
Source: Press Release
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Microsoft Continues Push for Windows XP Upgrades
Although Microsoft has already announced that support for Windows XP will cease to exist come April 8, 2014, as well as the unavailability of Microsoft Security Essentials at the same time, the company is continuing its efforts of getting users off of the aging operating system. Microsoft has announced that users of Windows XP are going to be offered a free data migration tool from Laplink, due to a partnership between both companies, known as PCmover Express for Windows XP. The application will transfer emails, files, music, videos, user profiles, and settings from a Windows XP computer to a Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 machine.
Microsoft has also announced that users of the Home and Professional editions of Windows XP, starting on March 8, 2014, will receive a notice about official support ending via Windows Update.
Source: Windows Experience Blog
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Samsung to Include Plenty of Freebies for Galaxy S5
The Samsung Galaxy S5, which was announced by Samsung at the Mobile World Congress last month, will now ship with plenty of freebies, according to Samsung. Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone will include over $500 worth of credits, freebies, and subscriptions when the phone ships in April of this year. Some examples of the freebies that are being offered for the Samsung Galaxy S5 include three months of Bitcasa 1TB storage, three months of Evernote Premium, three months of premium account service for LinkedIn, six months of The Wall Street Journal, and one year of premium service for Run Keeper. Samsung is marketing the included freebies as Galaxy Gifts, and is hoping that the bundled package will entice customers to purchase the latest flagship smartphone offered by the company.
Source: CNET
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Social Media can Impair Rationality
Perhaps I am just an old soul, but I tend to get my news and information by more traditional means, while many people around me are kept informed by social media. It is definitely true that social media has the ability to quickly disseminate information, but what happens once we have that information? According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, we cease to act rationally due to social proof.
Humans are social beings, so we are constantly looking for social cues of one form or another, to inform our actions and opinions. It used to be that you would have to look at people or a crowd of people to collect social information. Now with Twitter, Facebook, and other social media systems, we can rapidly acquire large amounts of social information in an instance. When combined with social proof, this can lead to some awkward situations. Social proof is the phenomenon where someone trusts those around him or her, assuming that these other people possess greater knowledge. Of course that may not be the case, but with the power to see up-votes, retweets, etc. immediately, social proof can have a significant impact on us, as we trust the crowd instead of verifying the information.
Last year a rumor spread so rapidly on Twitter that it caused the value of the Euro to drop a small, but meaningful amount, even though that rumor was false. What might be the impact next time a rumor spreads, and no one bothers to check it?
Source: University of Copenhagen
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Hardware Roundup: Monday Edition
We're into the month of March already, and there's plenty to keep you occupied this Monday. There's a review on the ASUS Maximus VI Formula motherboard, which features plenty of high-end components and a pretty hefty price tag to boot. We also have some peripherals for you to check out, like the Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-Unit Illuminated mechanical keyboard and the full suite of Corsair Vengeance gear from Digital Storm. If storage is what you need, then the Toshiba 1TB 2.5" SSHD is for you, as it pairs 8GB of NAND flash with a 1TB 5400RPM HDD. We finish off with a chance to win a Nomad ChargeKey cable.
Motherboards
ASUS Maximus VI Formula @ PC Perspective
Storage/Hard Drives
Toshiba 1TB (MQ01ABD100H) 2.5" SSHD @ Madshrimps
Keyboards/Mice
Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-Unit Illuminated Mechanical Keyboard @ ThinkComputers
Corsair Vengeance Gaming Gear From Digital Storm! @ Bjorn3D
Miscellany
Win a Nomad ChargeKey! @ ThinkComputers
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SOE Details EverQuest Next Landmark's Free-to-Play Business Model
David "Smokejumper Georgeson, Director of Development for the EverQuest Franchise at Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), outlined SOE's five-phase plan for EverQuest Next Landmark, the "world-building" portion of free-to-play MMORPG EverQuest Next. Landmark is currently in Phase 1, which Georgeson refers to as the "Founder's Pack" era. The game is currently in Alpha, but the only way to gain access is to purchase either the $99.99 Trailblazer Pack or $59.99 Explorer Pack.
Phase 2 is going to start "in the latter part of Alpha," and kick off SOE's microtransactions. SOE plans on starting small with just character outfits and resources. Outfits are merely cosmetic, while buying resources will essentially be a "time shortcut to let people build more easily." The latter is already stirring controversy amongst players who would rather resource gathering remain solely a gameplay mechanic.
Phase 3 is where the real "time shortcut methods" are added, and is intended to be an ongoing phase, with the start also being around the end of Alpha. As a "theoretical example" of what a time shortcut would entail, Georgeson explained, "Let's say you have to craft a recipe in order to make a 'power up my pick' potion so you can gather resources more quickly. The time shortcut option would be available as a button on your Collections sheet, so you could just buy that potion effect immediately instead of needing to craft it first." He ensures us that shorcuts will not affect game balance and they can always be avoided if you want to spend the time and effort.
Lastly is Phase 5, occurring at the end of Closed Beta, which will involve the addition of some "bigger-ticket [microtransaction] items." These will include "cosmetic pets, sound/music packs for your claims, name/gender changes, extra claim flags, and more." However, in a later reply, Georgeson explains that almost everything can be earned within the game, with only a few cosmetic items (like outfits) being microtransaction-only.
So there you have it – the five-phase business plan for EverQuest Next Landmark. However, everything is of course subject to change, and Georgeson is clear that there will likely be additions and subtractions as it moves forward. Georgeson explains that SOE is fully invested in the free-to-play model and understands that it means the studio has "to entertain you before you decide whether to pay [..] or not."
Source: Official Forums
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