Friday night topic: the unwritten rules of tipping
When you think about it, giving extra money to folks who do certain jobs is kind of a weird tradition. Yet we practice it regularly. What's weirdest about tipping is that it seems to follow an unwritten set of conventions that we're largely supposed to know, apparently by osmosis.
Generally speaking, I'm happy to tip, and I fall mostly on the generous side. I usually give 20% of the check (and I ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Watch Dogs trailer shows PC eye candy
When the last Watch Dogs trailer came out in March, I expressed some disappointment about the game's looks. Well, another clip turned up on YouTube this morning, and this one is all about the eye candy in the game's PC release. I have to say, it looks better than I thought:
...
Read more...
Read More ...
Researchers demo new method of creating quantum logic
A pair of research teams at the Max Planck Institute in Germany and Harvard University have demonstrated a new type of quantum logic gate and switch that could form the basis of quantum computers, according to this report at Popular Mechanics.
The big advance, it seems, is establishing a reliable way to put a rubidium atom into the mind-bending state of superposition, where it is both "on" and "off." Not only that, but the researchers have managed to create a mechanism for propagating this state ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Deal of the week: Savings on graphics, memory, storage, and Battlefield
What's this? A deals post that isn't brimming with cheap SSDs? Do go on.
North of the border, NCIX's Go Go Gizmo Savings event has a deluge of PC hardware deals. Among my favorites are Adata's XPC 16GB DDR3-1600 ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Windows 8.1 Update failing for many users
Microsoft released a big Windows 8.1 update earlier this week. Dubbed simply Windows 8.1 Update, the patch contains a myriad of little tweaks designed to improve the UI for desktop users. It sounds like a prudent update to the operating system, but I can't say for sure, because the installer keeps failing on me—and I'm not the only one. As InfoWorld reports, numerous users are having problems applying Windows 8.1 Update. Microsoft's support forum is loaded with posts complaining about issues, and so is Twitter.
Folks seem to be getting hit with a few different error codes. One report even claims the update failed after a clean OS reinstall. ...
Read more...
Read More ...
You can get your own Google Glass specs on April 15
Dying to try Google Glass? Until now, the only way to get your hands on Google's $1500 cyborg specs was to fill out a form and wait for a spot to open up in the Glass Explorer Program. For a limited time next week, however, Google plans to let people in without a waiting period. Here's the skinny, according to the Glass Google+ account:
Too bad for folks who live outside the states—Google says it's "just not ready yet to bring Glass to other countries." And, you know, ...
Read more...
Read More ...
For Valve, is the Steam controller both a blessing and a curse?
As excited as we may be about Steam machines democratizing PC gaming in the living room, there's no question Valve's new platform will encounter some obstacles on its road to success. Valve will have to persuade other developers to support a new platform, for starters, and it will be forced to work with hardware makers, particularly AMD and Nvidia, to ensure SteamOS gets top-notch driver support. On top of that, Valve will need to convince PC gamers to step out of their comfort zone and embrace a wildly different operating system without support for many familiar apps and games.
At the Game Developers Conference last month, I became aware ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Thursday Night Shortbread
The Pick 6
- Reuters: 'Heartbleed' computer bug threat spreads to firewalls
and beyond and Google to sell Glass to public next week
- DigiTimes: Intel to launch Haswell refresh
CPUs and 9-series chipsets in early May
- VR-Zone: AMD launches 'Jaguar'-based AM1 desktop platform
- iFixit's Samsung Galaxy S5 teardown
- G4Games: Firefox OS 2.0 UI gets exposed, looks pretty
- Softpedia: Nvidia releases first Linux driver with overclock features
Read More ...
Here's a list of major services affected by the Heartbleed bug
OpenSSL's Heartbleed bug has made worldwide news this week, and for good reason: it compromised the security of a huge portion of the web (including TR). Because the bug potentially exposed passwords to prying eyes, many have called on users to update their passwords as soon as possible. But which passwords need updating? Which sites have yet to fix the bug, and which ones were never affected in the first place?
To help ease the confusion, the folks at Mashable have put together a handy, non-exhausitve list of major online services, including banks, and where they stand with respect to the Heartbleed ...
Read more...
Read More ...
PC shipments fell again last quarter, but U.S. market fared better than others
It's that time again. Research firms Gartner and IDC
have both posted their shipment figures for the PC market in the first
quarter. As always, the two companies don't strictly agree on the
details—but they do corroborate each other on some points.Globally, Gartner says 76.6 million PCs were shipped in Q1 2014, a 1.7% decline over the same quarter a year ago. IDC pegs the global shipment figure at 73.4 million and the decline at a steeper 4.4%. Either way, both firms say we can thank Windows XP's demise for stymieing further shrinkage. "All regions indicated ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Behind the scenes with Intel's SSD division
In early March, Intel gathered industry analysts and members of the tech press in Folsom, California to talk SSDs. The city is home base for Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, otherwise known as NSG, which is responsible for the development and testing of Intel solid-state drives. The NSG had a story to tell about how its design and validation work produces extremely reliable SSDs. We got hard numbers on failure rates, details about efforts to make SSDs more dependable, and a peek behind the scenes at the Folsom facility.
We were also let in on a little secret—an easter egg, if you will. Remember the Intel 730 Series we reviewed in February ? You know, the one ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Rumor points to bigger Maxwell GPUs with integrated ARM cores
The rumor mill is buzzing this morning with details about an upcoming graphics card based on Nvidia's Maxwell architecture. Czech site Tyden has published information about the GeForce GTX 880, which will reportedly be based on GM204 silicon. According to "various sources," the GTX 880 will boast 3200 shader processors, a 950MHz Boost clock, and 5.7 TFLOPs of horsepower. The site also claims the card will feature a 256-bit path to 4GB of GDDR5 memory running at 7.4 GT/s.
The memory interface width is the first hints that the GTX 880 is not a top-of-the-line product. Tyden suggests Nvidia is also prepping a beefier Maxwell chip dubbed GM210. That GPU seems to ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Exotic 3M fluid enables two-phase, immersion-cooled supercomputer
Immersion cooling isn't a new idea. It's been deployed in servers, and I once came across an entire desktop rig plunged in a fish tank full of mineral oil. I haven't seen anything quite like the proof-of-concept "supercomputer" put together by 3M, Intel, and SGI, though. The Ice X system is loaded with Xeon E5-2600 processors and cooled by a special 3M Novec Engineering Fluid that doesn't require pumping.
The official press release offers little insight into the server's compute horsepower. However, it does provide some interesting details on the two-phase cooling system, which submerges hot-swappable modules in the non-conductive 3M ...
Read more...
Read More ...
Available Tags:Windows 8 , Windows , Google , Steam , SSD ,
No comments:
Post a Comment