ASUS Z97-Deluxe & Z97-A Review
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Noctua to Provide Free Mounting Upgrade Kits to Consumers
Noctua has long been providing its customers with SecuFirm2 mounting kits for novel platforms free of charge. The company has announced that it will continue this tradition, as consumers who own older Noctua heatsink models can upgrade their product with the NM-I2011 kit at no additional cost. The NM-12011 kit, which is compatible with most Noctua retail coolers since 2005, allows older Noctua heatsink models to support Haswell-E's LGA2011-3 socket. The Noctua CEO, Mag. Roland Mossig, noted that the company is pleased to extend its offer of providing its customers with NM-12011 kits free of charge, so that they can upgrade to the Intel Haswell-E platform.
In order to receive the NM-IPS2 spacers, which are only required for the NH-L12, or NM-I2011 kit, consumers must request the free mounting upgrade from Noctua and provide the company with a proof of purchase of both an eligible Noctua CPU cooler and either an LGA2011-3 mainboard or LGA2011-3 CPU.
Source: Press Release
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COUGAR Launches Two Gaming Mouse Pads
COUGAR, a leading brand in eSports and computer peripherals, has just launched two new gaming mouse pads, the CONTROL and SPEED. The company has engineer both gaming mouse pads in such a way that they can be used with regular mice or high-performance mice, making them perfect for casual and professional users alike. Both CONTROL and SPEED mouse pads are available in three different sizes and feature an optimized 4mm thickness, a right angle wave structure and anti-slip natural rubber base, and durable surfaces. The CONTROL mouse pad incorporates a three-dimensional textured surface that provides a smooth and precise mouse targeting experience. Meanwhile, the SPEED mouse pad comes with a high-definition textured surface that allows for fast and extra smooth mouse sliding movements.
Source: Press Release
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Analysis of Interstellar Dust Begins
Several years ago, NASA's Stardust mission took to space to collect particles from a comet's tail and possibly interstellar dust, before sending them back to Earth. There have already been many studies published about the particles from the comet's tail, but we are only starting to see analyses done of the much more special interstellar dust grains. Among those institutions studying the dust is Berkeley Lab.
While on its way to the comet, Wild 2 the Stardust spacecraft exposed its collector to space, with the hope of catching some dust particles that may be from outside the Solar System. As you can guess, such particles would be very rare and would provide unique insight into our little corner of the galaxy. To that end, the researchers have examined seven grains that may be interstellar dust using non-destructive techniques. Three of these were found in the aerogel while the other four left pits and residue on the aluminum foil. The two larger grains found in the aerogel surprised the researchers as they had a fluffy composition, like a snowflake, which is counter to the expectation of interstellar particles being dense. They also contained the mineral olivine, which would suggest they came from the disks or outflows of other stars. Three of the particles found in the foil contained sulfur compounds, which are not believed to exist in interstellar dust. Further study will be needed to explain the presence of these compounds.
While the current analyses of these grains will prove very informative, the most important examinations are still in the future. Those are to determine if these grains are indeed from outside the Solar System, but as the experiments would destroy the precious grains, tests are being done on analogs first.
Source: Berkeley Lab
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Overwhelm, Outscore, or Outlast Your Opponents in Crytek's Arena of Fate
Crytek's free-to-play MOBA Arena of Fate is playable at Gamescom, but for those that can't make it to Cologne, Germany, Crytek released an official Gameplay Trailer. Red Riding Hood narrates the trailer, explaining the rules of the game as she battles alongside teammates Achilles, Robin Hood, Lionheart, and Alice. They battle against Fenrir, Jack the Ripper, Frankenstein, some witch, and I'm not sure who or what the fifth character is.
Source: Crytek
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Old School Meets Near-future in Co-op Platform Shooter Hollowpoint
Paradox Interactive has announced a new shooter from Scotish developer Ruffian Games (Crackdown 2) called Hollowpoint, which combines 2D side-scrolling action with 3D targeting. In the near-future world of Hollowpoint, Mega Corporations hire Organizations made up of skilled Operatives to do their dirty work in all-out corporate warfare. Players build and control their own Organization, taking on missions alone or with up to three friends.
Destroying enemies earns experience for each Operative, which in turn awards skill points that can be used to upgrade abilities via a Tech Tree. Since there is a cap to the number of skill points an Operative can earn, you'll have to choose wisely to create a squad with varying abilities. Destroying enemies also earns you Credits, as does completing missions. Credits can then be spent on Asset Packs from the Market, which can contain new Operatives, weapons, equipment, powerups, and upgrades. "Asset Packs come in various different forms, with some focused entirely on one type of Asset, with others being a mix. The more Credits you spend on a Pack the more likely you are to get more valuable Assets to apply to your Organization."
Hollowpoint will be arriving on PC (via Steam) and PlayStation 4 (via PSN) sometime in 2015.
Source: Press Release and Official Site and PS Blog
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Thousand-Robot Swarm Created
One of the many interesting phenomena in Nature is swarming, whereby individual organisms, like ants, cells, and fish, will act together to achieve something no single individual could. This behavior is something many have been trying to replicate with robots, as a means to improve their effectiveness and to test their AI. Researchers at Harvard University have recently created the first thousand-robot swarm and gotten it to form human-specified shapes.
The swarm consists of 1024 robots called Kilobots, for obvious reasons, and each of these devices are just a few centimeters wide and stand on three thin, rigid legs. Two vibrating motors are used to get the robots sliding over a surface while infrared light is used for communication. This simple design kept the robots cheap, but also increased the chance of errors, but fortunately the algorithm driving them is smart enough to detect and actually correct the errors. In fact the algorithm has been proven to allow the robots to complete the task given to it. To get the robots started, they are given the image to recreate and four are then used to designate the origin of the image. Next the arbitrary mass of Kilobots starts moving one by one along the edge, until they reach the next point to fill in the image.
This is the first time a swarm consisting of a thousand robots has been tested and is an important milestone for distributed robotics. In the future we may see robots swarms being used for cleanup, rescue efforts, and even as chauffeurs as self-driving cars would be an example of distributed robotics.
Source: Harvard University
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Corsair Announces Two New DDR4 Memory Lines: Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum
Corsair has announced the availability of two new product lines of high-speed DDR4 memory: Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum. Both lines use the new XMP 2.0 profile with support for the upcoming next-generation Intel X99 platforms and Intel Core i7 Haswell-E processors. DDR4 memory delivers twice the bandwidth as DDR3 with 2133 MT/s speeds while using a lot less power (1.2 volts compared to 1.5 and 1.65 volts), which in turn generates less heat. For now, DDR4 is limited to 8GB modules with a maximum of 32GB on standard four-slot motherboards, but by 2015, DDR4 will support 16GB modules with a maximum of 128GB on eight-slot motherboards.
The specifications for both the Vengeance LPX and Dominator Platinum DDR4 lines are as follows:
- Unbuffered DDR4 SDRAM in 288-pin DIMM
- Capacities at launch: 8GB (2x4GB), 16GB (4x4GB), 32GB (4x8GB) and 64GB (8x8GB)
- Speeds at launch: 2666MHz, 2800MHz, and 3000MHz
- Intel XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) support
The Dominator Platinum line, like its DDR3 brethren, "have a striking industrial design for good looks, patented DHX technology for cooler operation, user-swappable colored 'light pipes' for customizable downwash lighting, and Corsair Link compatibility for real-time temperature monitoring."
Both lines will be available worldwide at the end of August, and of course come with a limited lifetime warranty.
Source: Press Release
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Tesoro Announces Kuven.pro Gaming Headset
Tesoro, a company that I had previously associated with gaming keyboards, has announced its next gaming accessory, the Kuven.pro 5.1 gaming headset. The headset uses four drivers in each ear to deliver a true 5.1 experience that "immerses the player into the battlefield by providing realistic, directional audio." The Kuven.pro was named after Kuven, the helmet of Greek god of the underworld Hades, which granted the wearer invisibility. Tesoro described the rationale behind the name as it "allows its wearers to gain the advantage over their enemies by letting gamers pinpoint enemy movements, such as footsteps, before the enemy sees them." Users can customize each of the four drivers on each side of the headset and also presents the option of virtual 7.1 surround sound. A unidirectional noise cancelling microphone and purple LED illumination round out the headset. It will be available sometime this month at an MSRP of $109.
Source: Press Release
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Overkill Working on Shooter Based on The Walking Dead
Overkill Software, the team behind team based first person shooters Payday and Payday 2, have announced that the next game in development from the company will be an FPS based on the comic book turned TV show The Walking Dead. A three minute trailer was released, but doesn't reveal much about the game though it does feature some words from creator Robert Kirkman. Overkill has teased a tie-in with the Payday series saying, "When Washington falls, what will Dallas do? If you own PAYDAY 2, you can answer this question in OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead." The game has been given a 2016 release date so you will have to get your Walking Dead fix from other mediums until then.
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Silicene's Stability Shown
Carbon and silicon share many properties because they are in the same family of elements. This also means that the structures one element can form, the other likely can as well. Silicene is the silicon equivalent to graphene and now an international team of researchers has successfully demonstrated its stability in open air, as reported by the Institute of Physics.
Like graphene, silicene is an atom-thick sheet of silicon atoms in a hexagonal pattern, but it is tricky to make and can be destroyed by oxygen. To grow silicene, a silicon wafer has to be heated in a vacuum chamber, so the silicon atoms can come off of the wafer and deposit on a substrate, typically silver. If too many layers of silicene stack up, the material will degrade back into silicon, which is a more stable structure. Also if it is exposed to oxygen, the formation of the layers can be destroyed. The researchers however successfully built up 43 layers of silicene and exposed it to open air for a full day, before it degraded. It appears the oxygen in the air did react with the top layer to form a thin oxidation layer, which actually protected the stack.
The hope is that one day silicene and other 2D forms of silicon will be used in electronics. In particular the material may be used to create silicene-based MOSFETs.
Source: Institute of Physics
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Determine the Fate of the American Colonies in Assassin's Creed Rogue
Last week, Ubisoft officially announced Assassin's Creed Rogue, the last-gen AC counterpart to Assassin's Creed Unity. At the time, we simply got a CGI trailer, but with Gamescom upon us, a gameplay trailer was inevitable. Well, Ubisoft has actually treated us with two gameplay trailers: "River Valley Land Gameplay Walkthrough" and "Arctic Naval Gameplay Walkthrough". As you may have surmised from the names, the former focuses on the ground game, while the latter shows off the naval combat, including Rogue's new ship, the Morrigan.
Source: UbiBlog [1] and [2]
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Join The Shadow Council and Influence Recently Announced Might & Magic Heroes VII
It's been a long road for the Might and Magic series, which dates all the way back to 1986 and saw the turn-based strategy Heroes spin-offs kick off in 1995. After acquiring the IP in 2003 when publisher 3DO filed for bankruptcy, Ubisoft rebooted the franchise with Heroes of Might and Magic V in 2006, making it the first Heroes game to be in 3D. Fast forward a few years and we now have a new installment: Might & Magic Heroes VII. Being developed by German studio Limbic Entertainment in Unreal Engine 3.0, Heroes VII promises to be the most beautiful Heroes game yet, complete with a weather system and dynamic lighting effects. But while nice visuals are always a good thing, the Heroes games have always been all about the gameplay.
Heroes VII will feature six unique factions at launch with over 60 hours of gameplay in the massive single-player campaign alone. Then add upon that the virtually unlimited replayability of Skirmish and Duel modes, with both Hotseat local multiplayer and competitive LAN play. As of now, four of the six factions have been unveiled: Haven, Academy, Stronghold, and Necropolis. The remaining two factions will actually be decided by the community via The Shadow Council. Any person with a Uplay account can log into the official website and become a member of The Shadow Council for free, allowing your voice to be heard through votes, developer chats, and more.
As with previous entries in the series, Might & Magic Heroes VII is coming exclusively to PC.
Source: Press Release and UbiBlog and Official Site
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Tractor Beam Created in Water
A classic technology of science fiction is the tractor beam, which by some means is able to hold and move a remote object without directly touching it. Such functionality has been reproduced optically, but that only works on relatively small objects. Now researchers at the Australian National University have discovered that it is possible to create a tractor beam using water waves quite easily.
Normally one would expect that water waves would push objects away, or leave them where they are. At certain amplitudes and frequencies though, the researchers found that the ping pong ball they were testing with would move against the waves. According to advanced particle tracking tools, the waves were generating flow patterns on the surface of the water that would move the ball around. Different patterns would result in different movements.
Presently, there is no mathematical theory to explain these observations, but we can already envision applications. This could be used to manipulating floating objects and even trap and confine oil spills to certain regions.
Source: Australian National University
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Bing Makes Searches Conversational
Bing has just implemented a new feature in which users can now interact with their searches in a whole new way, allowing them to participate in conversations with the Microsoft search engine. The feature retains the context of previous searches, and by doing so, is able to understand searches that relate to the original topic. For example, if a Bing user searches information about who the current President of the United States is, Bing will provide Barack Obama as the answer. If a user continues to ask follow-on questions, such as who he is married to or how tall he is, Bing will recognize that President Obama is the subject based on the prior search and will continue providing relevant information on him.
Source: Bing Blog
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