IT-Code-News: HardOCP

Showing posts with label HardOCP. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 25/05/2016

AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.5.3
AMD has released brand new Crimson Edition 16.5.3 drivers for all you Radeon owners out there. According to AMD, these drivers offer support for Overwatch, Total War: Warhammer and Dota 2 (with Vulkan API). The new drivers also have CrossFire profiles for Overwatch and Total War: Warhammer. Also fixed in this driver release:

Fallout 4™ may experience minor stuttering in AMD Crossfire™ technology mode
Radeon Settings may be removed from the system if the Radeon Software installer is launched while Radeon Settings is open.
Radeon Settings "Additional Settings" option may intermittently fail to launch.
Users in Quad AMD Crossfire technology configurations may be unable to re-enable AMD Crossfire mode when using the global AMD Crossfire option in the "Gaming" tab and toggling it from on to off.
Some game textures in The Division™ exhibit flickering in AMD Crossfire™ mode.
Intermittent stability issues with Intel Skull Canyon NUC (NUC6i7KYK) using AMD XConnect™ Technology are no longer observed.
Safe unplugging for AMD XConnect™ Technology no longer results in a random BSOD.

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Insanely Odd Yahoo CEO Cover Photo of the Day
Holy cow, what in the world was Variety thinking when the gave this cover photo the green light? Obviously I haven't read the article yet but what about Marissa Mayer's tenure as CEO of Yahoo would make you think of an image like this? Oh well, I guess the trick worked, here I am posting about it.

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100 CDs vs. Hydraulic Press
I've heard of data compression but this is ridiculous. This gives a new meaning to "compact discs." Ahhh, so many jokes, so little time.

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Congress Is Really Bad At Cybersecurity
Two bipartisan lawmakers decided to do something to help out all the technically illiterate members of congress by sending an email with security tips to help them avoid falling victim to scammers. Something tells me this isn't going to help much but at least someone is trying. This would probably work better if they sent a super scammy "click here for your free subscription" email, at least that way we know they'd at least click on it.

The political capital is constantly facing network attacks and hacks from outside hackers and nation states -- and that's before the CIA wages its own wave of targeting intelligence committee members. Most lawmakers have never heard of PGP or even SSL, let alone used it (and most lawmakers still don't). For some, it's an endemic problem that bleeds into the political world -- which might explain why some of its cybersecurity legislation is so ill-conceived and badly thought-out.

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Amazon No Longer Gives Price Drop Refunds
Remember when you could get a refund from Amazon if there was a price drop on an item you recently purchased? Well, thanks to all the apps out there that automatically apply for the refunds, Amazon is no longer offering after-purchase refunds.

Amazon has been known to give refunds if the price of an item drops after a purchase and the customer notifies customer service. But it appears that Amazon stopped providing these refunds earlier this month, except for televisions, according to price-tracking companies and customer postings on Reddit.

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Intel NUC NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon Mini PC
Nate and his band of merry men over at Legit Reviews have Intel's NUC NUC6i7KYK Skull Canyon mini PC in house for a little review action today. Built around Intel's Core i7-6770HQ 'SkyLake' quad-core processor, this thing could be the foundation for an itty-bitty badass build.

If you are a big fan of the Intel NUC mini-PC series, but didn't think they had enough power for your needs, we have a special treat for you. We've spent the past week playing around with the Intel NUC code named 'Skull Canyon' that features the latest 6th Generation Intel Core i7-6770HQ 'SkyLake' quad-core processor and Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (GT4e). This is the first Intel NUC to feature a mighty Intel Core i7 processor and it also sports cutting edge technologies like Thunderbolt 3, two m.2 slots for running SSDs in RAID, support for six USB 3.0 ports, DDR4 memory and more.

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Geek Squad Employee Was Paid FBI Informant
At this point this is all defense attorney allegations versus repeated denials from the FBI but, what isn't in dispute, this Geek Squad employee got paid for turning this guy in to the authorities for having suspicious content on his hard drive.

A doctor in California claims that there are real secret agents in the Geek Squad, and that a paid FBI informant turned him in after finding suspicious material on his hard drive in 2012. While the FBI doesn't deny that the Geek Squad employee did contact them about the contents of the defendant's hard drive and that they did pay him, the Bureau insists that it didn't employ informants working in the Geek Squad repair center to comb users' computers for porn.

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Star Wars Chase Scene Using Drones
If you have a spare five minutes, you really have to watch this video. Star Wars fan or not, just watching these drones fly is extremely impressive.

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The Game of Thrones Intro Made Using Mold
This is definitely one of the coolest videos you will see all day. The best part is that you don't have to be a Game of Thrones fan to appreciate the video.

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Running Steam On PS4 Linux
For those of you that haven't seen this yet, some guy got Steam running on a PS4. Personally, I would rather see PlayStation exclusive games running on Steam, but that's just me.

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NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 368.22 WHQL Drivers
The folks at NVIDIA send word that the brand new GeForce Game Ready 368.22 WHQL drivers are out now. These drivers bring full support for Blizzard's Overwatch (available tomorrow) World of Tanks, and War Thunder. Hit the link above for the new drivers and this link for release notes.

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Oculus Rift Update Enables Full-Scale Piracy
It must suck to release an update designed to remove Vive compatibility but you end up enabling full-scale piracy instead. Maybe Oculus should hire this guy to make sure this doesn't happen again in the future.

On May 22, Oculus released an update that introduced "platform integrity checks" which, among other things, closed the loophole allowing Revive to make Rift games compatible with Vive. Revive's developer, however, has found a workaround that bypasses Oculus' ownership check completely.

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Available Tags:AMD , Radeon , Yahoo , CEO , Amazon , Intel , Steam , PS4 , Linux , NVIDIA , GeForce , WHQL ,

Monday, May 23, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 24/05/2016

What To Expect From Computex 2016
Computex will be taking place May 31–June 4 this year. Expect Broadwell-E X99 motherboards, AMD Polaris updates, and AIB versions of the GTX 1080.

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A Future Without Windows Is A Dystopian Nightmare
This guy hates the idea of systems like Chrome OS and thinks they will lead us into an age of locked-down computing. Is he right?

Imagine a future where the world is divided between builders and users. Builders create the applications and content that users consume. Today, we live in a world where most people are users, even if they have Windows or Mac OS. But at least with those desktop platforms, there's the opportunity to take the reins and start coding an app, building your own website from scratch or installing software that's not been endlessly sandboxed and prescreened for you. With Chrome OS, you're a passive player who cannot take full control of your device or your experience.

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Court: Google Doesn't Have First Amendment Right To Drop Site From Search Results
Can a spammy company sue Google for dropping its sites by accusing them of being anti-competitive? A court in Florida may be entertaining the idea, although the case is young and the author's points may be greatly exaggerated.

Google's web spam team decided that e-ventures was spamming as well, and removed its website. The company sued under a variety of theories, but mainly claims that it did nothing that violated any of Google's stated rules -- and furthermore that Google was misleading in some of its public statements about what it will and won't remove from the web, as well as how it alerts people to those removals. Google hit back with two responses in a motion to dismiss. First, it said that it's protected under CDA 230 for removing content and second that the choices it makes on how the search results are ranked are protected by the First Amendment. Somewhat surprisingly, the district court has rejected both of these arguments.

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Gran Turismo Sport Gameplay Trailer
It's not Gran Turismo 7, but GT Sport will serve as the franchise's debut on PS4. Apparently, a lot of people are disappointed with the graphics.

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Nvidia GTX 1080 Pre-Orders Sell Out In Minutes
If you managed to snag a GTX 1080 pre-order—congratulations, I guess. You can hit the link in the article for stock information.

Retail availability is set to occur on May 27th this coming Friday but several e-tailers started their first round of pre-orders today. Despite only popping up for a few minutes, Amazon, Newegg and Best Buy all sold out of their pre-orders within minutes. This went for all brands like MSI, ASUS, EVGA, Gigabyte, Zotac and PNY. I guess when they are all reference model Founders Edition, it doesn't matter too much which card you buy.

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Overwatch Animated Short "Hero"
Blizzard has released their final Overwatch animated short, which stars Soldier: 76.

Soldier: 76 is pure chaotic-goodness, the gold-hearted, grizzled vet who will never abandon his mission. His origin trailer debuted in July (it's below) and positions him as a pivotal figure in the Overwatch story: commander of the good guys, distrusted or taken for granted by the citizens, doomed in a raid on Overwatch HQ and now believed dead. Soldier: 76's gravelly nihilism may be an action-movie trope, but there's still enough optimism to keep him in the business of saving children and blowing the bullies away. Verdict: Good dude and a sweet trailer.

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Oculus Kills App That Let Vive Owners Play Rift Exclusives
A recently released update prevents exclusives from running on non-Oculus hardware. Previously, a "compatibility layer," Revive, allowed the HTC Vive to run Oculus software.

Those who purchased software via the Oculus store who now own software they can no longer use are frustrated. Many comments in the Reddit thread on the subject point out how taking steps to ensure Oculus games don't run on non-Oculus software flies in the face of a statement Oculus founder Palmer Luckey made back in December: "If customers buy a game from us, I don't care if they mod it to run on whatever they want."

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Windows 7 Updating Is Still Broken
This guy put Microsoft's new Convenience Rollup (CR) for a spin and found that things didn't go as well as he'd hoped. The CR was recently released for Windows 7 users as a more practical way of updating the OS.

Based on the feedback I received on Twitter yesterday, this issue–where Windows Update just sits there saying "Checking for updates…" but not actually doing anything—is common in Windows 7. Naturally, I've been largely unaware of this since I long since moved in turn to Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and now Windows 10. But for the subset of those several hundred million people who do in fact use Windows 7 every single day and need to reinstall the OS from time to time, this is obviously a problem. For those who need to update the OS on multiple machines, it's a freaking nightmare.

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iPhone 7 Plus Leak Shows Dual-Camera Module, 256GB Storage Option
I suppose it is amusing how Apple insists on selling 16GB versions of devices that can do things like shoot 4K video.

In addition to showing the dual-camera module, the Weibo images claim to show a 256GB memory chip, suggesting that Apple for the first time will introduce a higher storage variant with the iPhone 7 lineup. What's notable, though, is that the images show 16GB, 64GB, and 256GB chips, perhaps implying that the 128GB model will be replaced all together with the new 256GB model. Judging by this leak, however, the 16GB model is here to stay.

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Destroying An Indestructible USB Cable
Now I know for a fact that some of the editors at The Verge have too much time on their hands. Did anyone really think a USB cable would last against cutting tools?

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1996 Sega Test Department Training Video
In today's episode of "Gosh, I'm Starting to Feel Kind of Old," we revisit Sega's past and what it might have been like to be a game tester in the '90s.

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Microsoft Purging Terrorist Content From Its Services
I thought this kind of thing was standard practice, but apparently Microsoft is only making it official now. Here's a form you can use to report extremist content from services such as Xbox Live—no, someone insulting your mom on CoD doesn't count.

Microsoft is officially prohibiting users from posting anything that incites terrorist acts on its services, including Xbox Live, Outlook consumer version and document-sharing website Docs. In a blog post, the tech giant explained that it's taking these steps, because it has "a responsibility to run [its] various internet services so that they are a tool to empower people, not to contribute, however indirectly, to terrible acts." For Bing, however, the company will only remove links to websites if the authorities demand it. Search engines don't host content, after all, and Microsoft has to respect people's "right to access information."

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Available Tags:Windows , Google , Nvidia , GTX , Windows 7 , iPhone , USB , Sega , Microsoft ,

Thursday, May 5, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 06/05/2016

Someone Just Invented Parachutes For Drones
This is one of those inventions that is so obvious that it is astounding that no one came up with this idea before. At least now when your drone malfunctions, gets out of range or is shot down, it won't hurt anyone on the ground. Hat tip to Railhaus for the heads up on this one.

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This Is What Happens On The Internet In 60 Seconds
Were you aware that 150 million emails are sent every minute on the internet? Do you know what else happens in the same amount of time? 2.4 million searches are performed on Google. Do you know how much porn is consumed...wait...where the hell is porn on this stupid infographic?

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Corsair RMi Series 650W Power Supply
The Corsair RMi Series 650W power supply scored high marks in this review at techPowerUP today. While there were a few things the reviewer wasn't too thrilled with, the positives far outweighed the negatives, resulting in the PSU getting a "highly recommended" award.

Corsair hit the competition really hard with the new RMi and RMx units. The RM650i, which I evaluated today, performed amazingly in almost all the tests I conducted. Its overall performance is among the highest in its category, well over its main competitor, EVGA's SuperNOVA 650 G2. So far, EVGA was the only company brave enough to provide a ten-year warranty with its high-end offerings, a clear advantage to anyone looking for some peace of mind, but Corsair decided to match EVGA's offer, and from now on, all all AXi, HXi, RMi, and RMx units will also feature a ten-year warranty.

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Windows 10 Updates Ruin Everything
Windows 10 updates ruin everything, including pro-gaming streams. The look on this guy's face when the update started in the middle of his match was hilarious. Thanks to Jeff Tank for sending this one in.

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Google's Self-Driving Car In GTA V
This is greatness! You guys better hurry up and watch this video before the powers that be at Google see it and use a copyright notice to get the video taken down (not that they would ever do something like that).

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Broadcasting Concerts In Virtual Reality?
Depending on the pricing and how this is done, I think a virtual reality concert could be the next best thing to actually being there. It would definitely be better than just watching it on television.

There are no details yet on which musical acts you'll be able to see via NextVR, but the company promises a "regular supply of world-class live music shows." As with NextVR's previous broadcasts, these will be available via Samsung's Gear VR via the Oculus Home app, with other platforms coming soon. The company says the first of its musical VR events will take place this summer, with a full schedule for the following year to come. NextVR has previously partnered with Coldplay to produce a small demo clip for its app, but this is major step up for the company.

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Hackers Selling 272M Gmail, Yahoo, And Outlook Accounts
I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that hackers are selling user names and passwords for 272 million email accounts or the fact that it's being sold for less than a dollar. We're not talking less than a dollar for each account, it's less than a buck for all 272 million user names and passwords.

Hundreds of millions of hacked user names and passwords for email accounts and other websites are being traded in Russia's criminal underworld, a security expert told Reuters. The discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts included a majority of users of Mail.ru (MAILRq.L), Russia's most popular email service, and smaller fractions of Google (GOOGL.O), Yahoo (YHOO.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) email users, said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

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Half of American Teenagers Feel Addicted To Their Phones
Only half of the teens in the U.S. feel addicted to the phones? That number seems low. The other half were probably too busy using their phones to respond to the poll.

Half of teenagers in the United States feel addicted to their mobile phones, with most checking the devices at least every hour and feeling pressured to respond immediately to messages, a survey released on Tuesday found. Its survey is the latest indication of American families struggling to balance mobile devices in an age of ever-evolving technology. It also underscores the ongoing debate over Internet addiction and its consequences.

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Fallout 4 - Far Harbor Official Trailer
Bethesda just released a new trailer for the upcoming Fallout 4 - Far Harbor DLC and it looks pretty interesting. According to the trailer notes, Far Harbor will be available for current generation consoles and the PC on Thursday, May 19th. Thanks to acegoober for the heads up!

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Tim Cook's Failed Apple Pitch
Tim Cook is being taken to task in this Bloomberg article on the current state of Apple. The author of the article feels that Apple has been misjudging its own business, which has led to a $250 billion decline in Apple's market value over the last thirteen months.

Apple CEO Tim Cook insisted last week that everything was great with his company despite its first quarterly revenue decline since 2003. He and Apple's chief financial officer used the word "optimistic" 10 times during a conference call with analysts. Then the company's share price pessimistically fell for eight consecutive market days -- something that hasn't happened to Apple in nearly 18 years.

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Teens React To The Original DOOM
It's hilarious watching teenagers playing the original DOOM. There is some mild NSFW language in this video but, if you are a fan of the original game, you have to see how these kids react to a game that is a half decade older than they are.

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IBM Offering Access To Its Quantum Computer
Interested in quantum computing? IBM is offering access to a five-qubit quantum processor to anyone that is interested. Simply sign up here, and then use the web service called "Composer" to create an algorithm by dragging and dropping different quantum logic gates. What are you waiting for? Sign up and give it a try.

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GIGABYTE X99P-SLI LGA 2011v3 Motherboard Review
GIGABYTE has put out a refreshed X99 motherboard offering an updated USB 3.1 controller and Thunderbolt compatibility. While Skylake is the new hotness and comprises the bulk of Intel's current mainstream lineup, the HEDT segment remains popular and many consider a 5820K and X99 build a viable alternative to Skylake and Z170.

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Available Tags:Windows , Everything , Apple , IBM , GIGABYTE ,

Thursday, April 28, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 28/04/2016

NZXT Manta Mini-ITX Enclosure
If you have plans to build a mini-ITX system such as a LAN box, HTPC, or Steam Machine, the crew at PC Perspective recommend giving their review of the NZXT Manta mini-ITX case a look. According to the review it has very high build quality, excellent cooling capacity for mini-ITX and the fans are quiet.

The NZXT Manta is a mini-ITX enclosure that boasts better than average room for components and cooling, and is packaged in a rather unusual, rounded design. There is a reason for the Manta's somewhat bulbous appearance, and it's part of a recent trend in mini-ITX enclosure design; bigger is better. While you might think that mITX is all about fitting components into the smallest enclosure possible, there have been some recent examples of cases which expand the chassis to micro-ATX sizes (or above).

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My God-Awful Year With the Apple Watch
If you know anyone that has an Apple Watch, this guy's story is going to sound awful familiar. The oddest thing I find about the iWatch is that it turns basic things you can do with one hand on a phone into a two-handed operation. It kind of sucks that both hands are occupied just doing basic stuff.

Wearing the Apple Watch for nearly a year did change something in me though, but it's the opposite effect that was probably intended: the Watch's constant low-level notifications made me realize that there's nothing really worth being notified about. Being able to feel every text, email, and whatever else, made me see how useless they mostly were.

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Doctor Ready To Perform First Human Head Transplant
Not that I doubt this doctor's abilities but it scares me to think he got the idea for head transplant surgery "from a Spider-Man comic book." He even has code names for the human head transplant, one is HEAVEN (head anastomosis venture) and the other is Gemini.

His attachment to Spider-Man's Peter Parker, another dweeb, lured him deep into the comic book world of Marvel, with its dose of futuristic medicine. That fateful day, he bought Issue 51 of Marvel Team-Up, in which Dr. Strange boasts to Spider-Man and Iron Man, "I myself have surgically rejoined severed neurolinkages…. The nerve endings have been fused, the healing process begun." This marked Canavero's first encounter with the idea of spinal cord fusion. And he wanted more.

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It's Time For Android and Chrome OS To Merge
What do you guys think about this? It makes a lot of sense and combining resources would be good for all involved. What are the down sides to merging Android and Chrome OS?

The plan has seemingly been in the works for years. Ever since Chrome OS boss Sundar Pinchai replaced Android creator Andy Rubin in 2013 at the helm of the mobile OS, we've been predicting that the two software monoliths would someday collide. Google initially developed both operating systems in parallel, but now that Android is the most widely used operating system in the world (and Chromebook's accounting for less than 3 percent of global PCs), the pressure is on Google to fold Chrome into Android.

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Blizzard Comments On Shutdown Of Unauthorized WoW Server
Here's the response that everyone has been waiting for. Plain and simple, Blizzard had to protect its trademarks and intellectual property. If the company let this server do it, they'd have to let everyone do it. Here's an excerpt from the rather lengthy blog post:

Why not just let Nostalrius continue the way it was? The honest answer is, failure to protect against intellectual property infringement would damage Blizzard's rights. This applies to anything that uses WoW's IP, including unofficial servers. And while we've looked into the possibility – there is not a clear legal path to protect Blizzard's IP and grant an operating license to a pirate server. We explored options for developing classic servers and none could be executed without great difficulty. If we could push a button and all of this would be created, we would. However, there are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers, not to mention the ongoing support of multiple live versions for every aspect of WoW.

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MPAA Says Pirate Sites Will Take Advantage of Set-Top Box Proposals
The Motion Picture Association of America is afraid that pirates are going to build a black market business if the set-top box market in the United States is opened up. Really? Why would crooks need approval from the FCC to make illegal black boxes. They do that now already.

Earlier this year the Federal Communications Commission promised to "tear down anti-competitive barriers" by opening up the set-top box market in the United States and freeing consumers from $20 billion a year in rental charges. The proposals have spooked content owners, not least the MPAA who fear that pirate sites will take the opportunity to build a "black market" business.

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DARPA Ground X-Vehicle Technologies Concept Video
DARPA's Ground X-Vehicle Technology program has given the greenlight to eight organizations to develop new technologies that, according to the article, would make future fighting vehicles more mobile, effective, safe and affordable. I don't want to make fun of the video below but you guys have to watch it. I think we all played that game back in the 80's.

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Cybercriminals Earned $100K Just By Sending A DDoS Threat Email
Raise your hand if you've ever seen a movie or TV show that involves a ransom. Now, in every single on of those movies, how do the bad guys get caught? When it comes time to pick up the money! Seriously, who the hell is handing over money to these people (bitcoin or not)?

A group called the Armada Collective are reaping the rewards of cybercrime by threatening jittery businesses with the idea of a DDoS attack -- without actually doing more than sending an email or two. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, while taking no technical expertise beyond knowing how to flood a website with traffic and causing it to crash, may not be sophisticated -- but can still cause serious damage.

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AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.4.2
AMD has released brand new Crimson Edition 16.4.2 drivers for all you Radeon owners out there. In addition to Crossfire profiles for Elite Dangerous and Need for Speed, these drives add AMD Xconnect™ technology. Here's a list of known issues as weoo as resolved issues:

The Division™ may experience flickering in AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
DOTA2™ toggling between borderless fullscreen and exclusive fullscreen can sometimes cause flickering or corruption when in AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
Some DirectX® 9 applications cannot disable AMD Crossfire™ technology mode through Radeon Settings.
GPU clocks on some products may remain in high states after recovering from an application crash.
A small subset of AMD Radeon™ R9 380 users may be experiencing slower than expected fan speeds.
Power efficiency toggle in Radeon Settings is showing up for some unsupported products.
The check for software updates feature in Radeon Settings may not find the latest available update.
Some games may fail to show up in Radeon Settings gaming tab.
The Radeon Settings option may sometimes disappear as a shortcut from the right-click context menu on desktop after a software upgrade.
Steam®VR Performance Test may experience flickering in AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
Stuttering or corruption observed while playing Fallout 4™ on some graphics products in AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
Corruption in Hitman™ when using AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
Stuttering or freezing in some loading scenes while playing Hitman™ using AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.
Negative scaling seen on Hitman™ when using AMD Crossfire™ technology mode.

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AMD Radeon Pro Duo Announcement
AMD has released the AMD Radeon Pro Duo's full specifications today with photographs. We have covered the AMD Radeon Pro Duo announcement here and have a break down of all the info available to us with our thoughts on the "World's Fastest Graphics Card" thrown in for good measure.

AMD is taking the veil off of the "World's Fastest Graphics Card" today known as the AMD Radeon Pro Duo. This $1,499 video card seems to have a rather different focus. We will share with you all the specifications on and pictures of the AMD Radeon R9 Pro Duo. We will talk about what this dual-Fiji GPU video card may have to offer.

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Google, Ford, Uber Join Coalition To Further Self-Driving Cars
Google, Uber, Ford and others are banding together to form a coalition to promote self-driving cars. I'm not sure if they are going for the whole Justice League or Avengers thing but, at the very least, they should get super secret decoder rings.

Alphabet Inc's Google unit, Ford Motor Co, the ride-sharing service Uber and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market. Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co GEELY.UL, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles."

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YouTube Is Working On 6 Second 'Bumper' Ads
The idea of a six second "bumper" ad sounds like a good idea. It is shorter than the average 15 - 30 second ads and almost the same length as the wait to "skip" an ad so maybe people will actually watch the whole thing.

That's why today we're announcing Bumper ads – a new six-second video format, sold through the AdWords auction on a CPM basis. Bumper ads are ideal for driving incremental reach and frequency, especially on mobile, where "snackable videos" perform well. Given the succinct nature of the format, we've seen Bumper ads work best when combined with a TrueView or Google Preferred campaign.

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Available Tags:Apple , Chrome OS , Android , Chrome , WoW , Server , AMD , Radeon , YouTube ,

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 28/04/2016

Available Tags:Apple , Chrome OS , Android , Chrome , WoW , Server , AMD , Radeon , YouTube ,

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 27/04/2016

Corsair H80i v2 High Perf Liquid CPU Cooler Review
Make sure you guys take a moment to read our evaluation of the Corsair H80i v2 high performance liquid CPU cooler today. Does this all-in-one CPU cooler have what it takes to cool your burning hot processor? Hit the link above to find out!

Corsair's original All-In-One H80i was a great CPU cooling unit, so we have high hopes for the H80i version 2. Push / Pull two-speed PWM fans come stock with this kit's newly designed water block and tubing configuration. We also have a new 49mm radiator and Corsair has some cosmetic updates as well that make this AIO very good looking.

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Study Says Wikipedia Is Basically A Corporate Bureaucracy
A new study claims that Wikipedia is basically a corporate bureaucracy. The researchers examined 15 years of what they called "positively drool-worthy" data to reach their conclusion.

To find out, he and Indiana University undergraduate Bradi Heaberlin decided to examine the emergence of social hierarchy and online behavioral norms among the editors of Wikipedia. They examined 15 years of Wikipedia data, involving tens of thousands of individuals, from 2001 to 2015. Their conclusion: "[It] looks like a university system, or like General Electric, or AT&T," said DeDeo.

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Fallout 4 Prank Call
This Fallout 4 prank call is pretty funny. It's actually amazing the guy was able to keep these people on the line as long as he did. The sad part is that, you can tell by the way they reacted that these social services people probably put up with way worse than this on a daily basis.

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AMD Polaris 10 Allegedly Performs Close To A GTX 980 Ti
The crew at WCCFTech have posted what they claim are leaked specs showing the upcoming AMD Polaris performing close to a GTX 980 Ti. The info provided in the article, and the graph below, were all obtained from a source close to a source that is familiar with AMD's plans...or something like that. So, it's probably best to take what you see here with a grain of salt.

Ongoing Discussion

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Google Beaten To The Punch by AT&T On Super-Fast Broadband
Isn't competition a great thing? A little pressure from Google and now everyone is offering up gigabit service or lowering their prices. Well, not "everyone," but it is getting a lot better.

Google Fiber has yet to bring its super-fast broadband service to the city of Atlanta. But Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. know it's coming, and they're offering the 1 gigabit Internet speed Google promised -- and signing up new customers. It's been six years since Google announced it would lay a fiber network to compete with cable providers and telephone companies. Although it's now in only four markets, competitors are lowering rates and building faster lines to keep customers from defecting to the technology giant.

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ASUS Announces Beyond VR Ready Program
ASUS today announced ASUS Beyond VR Ready, a distinctive mark of compatibility and confidence for consumers keen to gear up for the virtual-reality (VR) gaming revolution. ASUS has worked closely with leading industry partners, to ensure a wide range of ASUS motherboards, graphics cards and systems work seamlessly with the new generation of fully-immersive VR headsets and accessories.

The testing and configuration program involved ASUS and partner engineers cooperating on the optimization of firmware and drivers for superior VR compatibility and performance — and the creation of the ASUS Beyond VR Ready logo indicates products tested to deliver a reliable and immersive VR experience. The Beyond VR Ready badge will be applied to ASUS products already tested for compatibility with the Oculus Rift® virtual-reality (VR) headset and will include other VR headsets like the HTC Vive® once they arrive to market. The ASUS VR Ready website is live today, at ASUS Beyond VR Ready and will be continually updated with the introduction of new products.

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Embeddeding Traffic Lights In Sidewalks So Smartphone Users Don't Have To Look Up
Have things really come to this? Embeddeding traffic lights in sidewalks so idiots don't have to pay attention to their surroundings? What ever happened to thinning the herd through natural selection? Oh well, at least I learned what the word "smombies" meant.

The city has attempted to solve that problem by installing new traffic lights embedded in the pavement — so that pedestrians constantly looking down at their phones won't miss them. "It creates a whole new level of attention," city spokeswoman Stephanie Lermen was quoted as saying. Lermen thinks the money is wisely spent: A recent survey conducted in several European cities, including Berlin, found that almost 20 percent of pedestrians were distracted by their smartphones. Younger people are most likely to risk their safety for a quick look at their Facebook profiles or WhatsApp messages, the survey found.

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U.S. Wants Its Own Secure And Self-Destructing Messaging App
The U.S. government wants to create a secure messaging service? Will they have to build a backdoor into the program so that other U.S. agencies will have direct access to it or will they be exempt?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency within the Department of Defense historically known for creating the Internet itself, has published a call for companies to submit proposals to build a robust messaging platform that the military could use for secure communication of everything from intelligence to procurement contracts. "Troops on the ground in denied communications environments would have a way to securely communicate back to HQ and DoD back office executives could rest assured that their logistics system is efficient, timely and safe from hackers," according to the DARPA proposal.

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Chinese Tech CEO Says Apple Is Outdated
You know things are getting rough for Apple when even China thinks Apple's style is outdated and product design is obsolete. What is the world coming to when China doesn't want to copy your products anymore because they are outdated and obsolete?

Jia is chief executive and chairman of Chinese conglomerate LeEco (formerly LeTV), which is best known for being the "Netflix of China," but has a product range that includes smartphones, televisions, mountain bikes and, most recently, electric vehicles. Last week LeEco launched the self-driving, smart LeSEE supercar, designed to rival Tesla's Model X. In the latest evolution of the "LeEco ecosystem," Jia hopes to sell content, including movies, TV shows and music to LeSEE drivers.

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BLACKROOM: A New FPS From Romero & Carmack
It looks like this Kickstarter for BLACKROOM is what John Romero and Adrian Carmack were hinting at last week with that odd Star Wars style teaser trailer. The gang is trying to raise $700,000 and it looks like they are off to a decent start. Here's the Kickstarter trailer:

John Romero and fellow id Software co-founder Adrian Carmack proudly announce BLACKROOM™, a visceral, varied and violent shooter that harkens back to classic FPS play with a mixture of exploration, speed, and intense, weaponized combat. Use fast, skillful movement to dodge enemy attacks, circle-strafe your foes, and rule the air as you rocket jump in the single- and multiplayer modes.

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Does 'Piracy' Make Copyright Infringers Sound Cool?
Maybe I'm just getting old but I don't think that the word "piracy" makes copyright infringers sound cool. In fact, these days you really don't want to be associated with "piracy" in any way, shape or form. Am I wrong on this? What do you guys think?

According to the IFPI's head of anti-piracy, calling illegal downloading "piracy" has become somewhat of a hindrance. Those confronted with the term are more likely to romanticize the topic, Graeme Grant suggests, but can simply changing the name of something really change the beast?

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Available Tags:CPU Cooler , CPU , Wikipedia , AMD , GTX , Google , ASUS , Smartphone , CEO , Apple ,

Sunday, April 24, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 25/04/2016

Running Windows 10 Mobile On An In-Car Display
Sorry officer, I was just trying to finish up this Excel sheet.

If you own a car with an HDMI port in your display, you might be able to hook up a Windows 10 Mobile phone and have it work on that screen. Windows Central reader Matthew Johnson alerted us to his experiment on Twitter with a Pioneer in-car display. As you can see from the image, connecting the phone to its HDMI-in port seems to work. Johnson notes that the display is not a touchscreen, so he can't actually access Windows 10 Mobile directly on his car, but it does show that Windows 10 Mobile's Continuum feature could be used in some vehicles with the right hardware inside.

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Feds Drop iPhone Unlocking Case After Perp Remembers His Password
I think this is the best one yet. So did the defendant actually momentarily "forget" his passcode, or did a fed give him that idea?

Feng's phone is an iPhone 4s running iOS 7, an older version with far less protections than the iOS 9 iPhone 5c in the San Bernardino case. That means it's so old it could have been unlocked using a widely-available $200 forensic tool, completely negating the need to ask Apple for help. The All Writs Act, a 227-year-old law that was used to compel Apple's cooperation in both cases, requires that the government first exhaust all other possible methods. But in the New York case, it seems the government overlooked several possibilities—including, apparently, asking Feng for the passcode after he was convicted.

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Merchants See Dip In Fraud Thanks To Chip Cards
Chip cards seem to be making a positive difference. Counterfeit transactions have supposedly decreased as much as 18% from merchants who have updated their systems.

Among the 25 merchants who were suffering the most instances of counterfeit fraud at the end of 2014, five that began processing credit and debit cards equipped with the new EMV technology saw those infractions fall 18.3% as of the final quarter of 2015, says Stephanie Ericksen, vice president of risk products at Visa. Meanwhile, five of those merchants who were not yet equipped to handle chip-enabled cards saw an increase in fraudulent transactions of 11.4%. "We're seeing EMV is having a positive impact on counterfeit fraud,'' Ericksen says. "Merchants who implement chip, their counterfeit fraud is going down, while those still finalizing plans, their counterfeit fraud is going up.''

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Consumer Complaints About Broadband Caps Are Soaring
This article shines a light on Comcast, which is being accused of protecting legacy TV revenues from Internet video with its new pricing plans.

Consumer complaints to the Federal Communications Commission about broadband data caps rose to 7,904 in the second half of 2015 from 863 in the first half, notes a new report by the Wall Street Journal. The Journal filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the agency to obtain the data on complaints, which have spiked as a growing number of fixed-line broadband providers apply caps and overage fees to already pricey connections. According to the Journal, the FCC has received 10,000 consumer complaints about data caps since 2015.

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Xbox 360 Production Has Ended
After being around for over a decade, Microsoft has finally pulled the plug on the good ol' 360.

Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has announced Microsoft will no longer be making Xbox 360 consoles. "Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft," wrote Spencer. "And while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country."

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CERN Releases 300TB Of Large Hadron Collider Data
CERN has begun releasing data dumps for all of you wannabe particle physicists or data hoarders out there.

CERN just dropped 300 terabytes of hot collider data on the world and you know you want to take a look. Kati Lassila-Perini, a physicist who works on the Compact Muon Solenoid (!) detector, gave a refreshingly straightforward explanation for this huge release. "Once we've exhausted our exploration of the data, we see no reason not to make them available publicly," she said in a news release accompanying the data. "The benefits are numerous, from inspiring high school students to the training of the particle physicists of tomorrow. And personally, as CMS's data preservation coordinator, this is a crucial part of ensuring the long-term availability of our research data."

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Amazon Prime Video Now Has Four Times As Many Movies As Netflix
Netflix, however, has more shows, and you could also argue for its value when you look at its exclusive content, most of which is pretty well rated.

Research last month showed that since January 2014, the number of titles available on Netflix in the US has shrunk by 31.7%. This was particularly pronounced in movies, where Netflix's selection had gone down by over 2,000 titles. Netflix now actually has 4 times fewer movie titles than Amazon Prime Video, one of its major competitors (which recently rolled out a standalone option), according to research by Barclays.

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Opera Bakes Free, Unlimited VPN Directly Into Desktop Browser
Something tells me that a free VPN can't possibly be good, particularly in regard to privacy.

The launch is the result of Opera's acquisition of North American VPN company SurfEasy last March. The two companies kinda integrated back in September with version 32 of the Opera browser, but users were prompted to install the SurfEasy extension. It's also worth noting here that other third-party providers, such as perennial favorite TunnelBear, have long provided VPN add-ons for Opera. But by making it a default feature, Opera goes some way toward making privacy a core facet of the browser.

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Galaxy Note 6 Could Feature 5.8" Curved Display, 4,000 mAh Battery
I still think curved displays like the Edge are gimmicky, but I do like the sound of that battery. The Note 6 is also expected to be IP68 water resistant and possibly include an iris scanner.

The other interesting tidbit in this leak is the battery size of the Note 6. The source doesn't exactly know the battery capacity but suggests a 4,000 mAh battery might power the device. With a larger body, it wouldn't exactly be hard to fit in a 4,000 mAh battery inside the Note 6, especially if Samsung makes the device thicker than its predecessor (a move that helped the company fit the large batteries inside the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge).

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Amazon Blocking Non-Prime Members From Buying Certain Video Games
I like how Amazon's response to this is to just buy a Prime membership.

Amazon has extended its "Prime-Exclusive Items" initiative to block non-Prime members from being able to purchase certain video games. The change was spotted by customers this morning, with the PS4 versions of GTA 5, Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin's Creed Syndicate now only available to Prime members, along with the PS4 and Xbox One versions of FIFA 16, Far Cry Primal, Battlefield Hardline and more. If you aren't a member of Amazon Prime, you will now see a box with a blue border on the right of the page "identifying the item as Prime-Exclusive", and will not be able to add the item to your basket.

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Gearbox Confirms Borderlands 3 Will Be Its Next Game
Wait, you mean it won't be Aliens: Colonial Marines 2?

"It's no secret, obviously there's going to be another Borderlands," Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford said. Battleborn art director Scott Kester said he will be the art director on Borderlands 3. "We don't even know if we're going to call it that. We could call it Borderlands 4 for all we know," Pitchford added. Gearbox chief creative champion Mikey Neumann, who also provides the voice of beloved mechanic Scooter, will be writing it.

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Latest Windows 10 Preview Includes Updated Start Menu, Windows Ink
The latest insider preview is a "major" one for PC. Aside from Start Menu improvements and Ink, tablet mode and search functionality have also been updated.

We have merged the most used apps list and the All apps list into a single view and elevated it to the top level of the UI to reduce clicking and scrolling. You can now access all your apps with one click on the Start menu. We have also moved important functionality such as Power, Settings, and File Explorer so that they are always visible in the left rail in the Start menu, and updated the Recently added section so that it will now show 3 entries instead of just 1, and can be expanded to see the entire list of new apps.

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DOOM Will Have Advanced Video Features
Most of you will remember that we were more than a bit surprised last week when we realized there was no tab or menu for advanced video features in the DOOM Open Beta (here). Well, Bethesda must've heard our cries because today they posted a detailed list of advanced features that will be in the retail game at launch.

Manually Lock Framerate (un-locked by default)
Lights Quality
Chromatic Aberration Toggle
Shading Quality
Post Process Quality
Particles Quality
Game F/X Quality
Decal Quality
Directional Occlusion
Reflections Quality
Depth of Field Toggle
Decal / Texture Filtering
Motion Blur Quality / Toggle
Sharpening Amount
Lens Flare Toggle
Lens Dirt Toggle
Texture Atlas Size
Show Performance Metrics
Resolution Scaling
UI Opacity
Film Grain
Rendering Mode
FOV Slider
Simple Reticle
Show First-person Hands Toggle
Use Compute Shaders
Vsync (support or triple buffering)

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Thermaltake Core W100 Super Tower Chassis Review
The W100 SUper Tower Chassis is not small and it is not cheap. It even comes fully unassembled. It does however look to fit the needs of the most hardcore water cooling enthusiasts however. The W100 is likely the most versatile case we have ever reviewed in terms of fan and radiator compatibility.

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Available Tags:Windows , iPhone , His , Xbox , Amazon , Opera , Galaxy , Thermaltake ,

Thursday, April 21, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 22/04/2016

Your Social Media Habits Could Be Destroying Democracy
I think the headline of this article is a bit melodramatic. First of all, dumb people have been voting without knowing the issues forever. And then there is that whole popular vote versus Electoral College thingy. So, while social media might be adding to the problem, I don't agree that it is "destroying democracy." Brain cells? Yes. Democracy? No.

A study released this week may help confirm what you probably suspected. That endless stream of hashtags, emojis, listicles and Onion articles isn't necessarily making you any smarter. And in some cases it could hamper your political judgment.

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The Evolution Of 'Alien' Video Games
From the 1982 Alien game that looked like a Pac-Man clone to the surprisingly good Alien: Isolation game in 2014, this article runs you through the complete evolution of Alien games.

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Google Funding Scripts Focused On Computer Science
Any writers out there? Starting today, as part of its Computer Science Education in Media program, Google is teaming up with The Black List to offer financial grants of fifteen thousand dollars to screenwriters to make a script that will help change the current image of computer science.

Google will distribute up to $15K to each of three screenwriters (one feature writer, two writers of episodic pilots) for the purpose of supporting those writers for six months as they work on future feature screenplays and/or teleplays. Each fellowship recipient must agree that six months following receipt, they will provide a designated representative of Google with a sample of his/her new work along with a report addressing how the grant has been used to advance his/her work and/or impacted his/her career.

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Amazon Unintentionally Paying Scammers
If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, if scammers put this much energy into a real job, they'd be millionaires by now. It makes me wonder how these guys aren't easily caught though. You have to have a real bank account for Amazon to place payments in and someone had to open that account. Right?

Amazon created Kindle Unlimited, a Netflix for books, that's delivering indie authors revenue and readers. But it turns out that the way it works may have created an opportunity for scammers to steal earnings from real writers producing genuine works. On the bright side, Amazon isn't spying on Kindle users as they read. That's a tiny bit of good news in the discouraging tale about hacking a monthly pool of a few million dollars that means a lot to e-book writers but works out to small change for a company that broke $100 billion in revenue for the first time last year.

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4K View Of Planet Earth
This view from the International Space Station is awe inspiring. NASA needs to start making these longer and more loop friendly so you can just kick back and relax while the video plays over and over. And no, just because this is a great "whoa, dude, chill" video, this wasn't meant as a reference to today being 4/20.

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The World's First Standing Computer Desk Chassis
I was just a matter of time before Lian Li turned one of its desk cases into a standing desk chassis. Everything looked fine until I got to the $1,500 price tag. Yikes!

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Chinese Budget VR Headset Hits The Market
At first I wanted to laugh at this Chinese VR headset but, after reading the specs, it doesn't look too bad for what it is...a knock off. This thing has a quad core 2.2GHz processor, Adreno 530 GPU, paired with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage all packed inside that Nintendo looking controller. It has a pair of 1,200 x 1,080 panels with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 5000mAh battery that last three hours and runs Android 6.0 with a hefty $525 price tag. It will be interesting to read the reviews on this thing.

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GTX 1080 Shroud in the Wild
This picture have been making the round for the last day or two, but just now was the first time I had seen it out on the Web. Rumor site Video Cardz has this to say about the upcoming GTX 1080 and GTX 1070.

What you're looking at is supposedly the new finished look of GeForce GTX 1080 cooler shroud. It's the same design we already saw with previous leak, although this one is painted, equipped with a fan and plastic cover for heatsink. I mean if someone went through all the trouble to design this just for laughs, I think he should be hired by NVIDIA.

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Give Your Loved One a Shocker
This was making the rounds a couple of years ago, but is back as a "real" project on IndieGoGo again. You are saying to yourself, "Who the hell needs an alarm clock any more now that you own a smartphone?" But if you are a lazy bastard this might be right up your alley. Long story short, if you don't get out of bed, it shocks you....yeah, with electricity. Now to make it where you can't take the Shock Clock off. Why do I feel like this should be on a As Seen on TV endcap?

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Vibrant Gorilla Glass
Anyone with a smartphone knows that Gorilla® Glass is the bomb! Tough as nails and stays in good repair for a long time. And now you can print on it with Vibrant Gorilla Glass. Of course, if Gorilla Glass is covering a screen, printing on it is likely not a good idea. Of course if Vibrant Gorilla Glass is too expensive for you, you can just tape a picture to back of your regular glass like I did when we were kids and poor. Here is some real Gorilla Glass.

With Vibrant Corning Gorilla Glass, device manufacturers can now expand their options for device design by adding multi-color, high resolution, photo-quality images to the industry's leading cover glass solution, Corning Gorilla Glass.

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Log-in on your Keyboard
Are you sitting at your PC sometimes and get that feeling that you should be typing on a log? Me either. However, if someone somewhere has that sort of loggy keyboard need, LAN OC has your covered, or at least your keyboard.

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This is Why We Can't Have Nice Games
Microsoft is finally shutting down Xbox 360 production after being for sale for over a decade. It is crap like this that is holding back the gaming industry in terms of moving graphics and technology forward. Good riddance shitbox.

Xbox 360 means a lot to everyone in Microsoft. And while we've had an amazing run, the realities of manufacturing a product over a decade old are starting to creep up on us. Which is why we have made the decision to stop manufacturing new Xbox 360 consoles. We will continue to sell existing inventory of Xbox 360 consoles, with availability varying by country.

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HardForum Threads You Can't Read
Here are mildly interesting or somewhat entertaining threads you can't read unless you are logged in. So get off your lazy ass and register!

Useless thread. - This one is horrible. Thanks to Highwind for wasting our time.
The Letter Game - 36,281 posts and still going strong, yes you can too can play.
Word Association Game - 69,040 post.....damn.
I'm not one for saying all of today's kids are stupid...but... - Get off my lawn!
slither.io - This will ruin your day.
My Canary Died - Maybe this one isn't so funny...or maybe it really is.

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Facebook Pays You
Well, when you read "You Might Be Able To Make Money From Your Facebook Posts," you should really be reading that as, "Someone that is not you, might be able to make from from their Facebook posts." Because let's face it, the trash you post on Facebook should likely not ever be read by anyone else. Tip jar? That is some funny stuff.

Options included adding a virtual tip jar so that fans can tip the user, earning money through branded content, a donation option that would let fans contribute to a charity of the user's choosing, and a call to action button (i.e. buy tickets, etc.), among other choices.

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DX11 vs DX12 Intel CPU Scaling and Gaming Framerate
Last week we set our sights on seeing how well the new DX12 API is able to distribute workloads across multiple CPU cores on a new AMD processor. Today we are going to continue, except this time we will be using an Intel Haswell-E processor that has a lot of cores available for DX12 usage. A couple new GPUs in the mix as well.

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Hitman 2016 Performance Video Card Review
Hitman (2016) supports the new DirectX 12 API. We will take this game and find out if DX12 is faster than DX11 and what it may offer in this game and if it allows a better gameplay experience. We will also compare Himan performance between several video cards to find what is playable and how AMD vs. NV GPUs compare.

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FSP HYDRO G 650W Power Supply Review
While FSP may not be a PSU brand that is on the tip of your tongue, we have been reviewing FSP computer power supplies now for 8 years, and the fact of the matter is that these units have been getting better and better over time. Where does the new Hydro G 650W fit into that progression?

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Available Tags:Google , Amazon , GTX , Keyboard , Facebook , Intel , CPU , Gaming ,

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 13/04/2016

Project Nightonomy: Autonomous Vehicle Testing in the Dark
Ford has just completed a test of its LIDAR-equipped Fusion Hybrid autonomous car in complete darkness at the company's proving grounds in Arizona. While the researchers have to be happy with the way the car performed, that guy with the night-vision goggles on probably had the most fun. Imagine freaking out all your neighbors by driving home in complete darkness with no lights.

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The First VR Surgery Will Be Broadcast This Week
I can see something like this being hugely beneficial to medical students or for training purposes. If you have Google Cardboard, you can download an app and watch the first live VR stream of the surgery on Thursday.

On 14 April, Ahmed – a surgeon, cancer specialist, and co-founder of virtual and augmented reality firm Medical Realities – is going to cut off a tumour from the colon of a London man in his 70s. That's a routine operation with no particular risk attached. But unlike any other operation, when Ahmed and his team remove the cancer, a 360-degree camera rig mounted over the operating table will capture the doctors' every movement in 4K and livestream it globally in VR.

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Game Assigns Character Gender Based On Steam User ID
Assigning your game character's gender based on your Steam User ID seems silly. Why not just randomly reassign your character's gender every time you log in to play the game? Now that would be funny.

"We understand this is a sore subject for a lot of people. We understand that you may now be a gender that you don't identify with in real-life. We understand this causes you distress and makes you not want to play the game anymore," Newman said. "Technically nothing has changed, since half the population was already living with those feelings. The only difference is that whether you feel like this is now decided by your SteamID instead of your real life gender."

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Noctua NH-L9x65 Low Profile Heatsink Review
If your current system build is tight on space, you might want to check out this Noctua NH-L9x65 low profile heatsink review at FrostyTech before you spend your hard earned money.

Noctua's low profile NH-L9x65 heatsink stands just 64mm tall and has a very compact footprint of only 95x95mm. The NH-L9x65 is designed to cool some fairly intensive Intel sockets, along with the full spectrum of AMD processors and APUs. Compact CPU coolers can be a little tricky to install, but Noctua long ago laid down the framework of an excellent motherboard mounting system,, so the NH-L9x65 is a breeze to work with.

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Tesla Model X Recalled For Potentially Unsafe Rear Seats
Tesla has issued a recall for the Model X after discovering a flaw in the locking hinge for the recliner in the third row of seats. The company discovered the flaw during testing and there hasn't been any public incidents reported. A company spokesman said Tesla decided to "err on the side of putting our customers' safety first" and issue the recall.

The issue is the locking hinge that lets the third row seats fold forward. In 15 tests for the US market, there were no problems discovered. But, when Tesla did a 16th test to get ready for the European market – and that test is slightly different – that latch in the third-row seats failed and the seat flopped forward, said Jon McNeil, Tesla's president of sales and service. Tesla then did subsequent tests to confirm the failure and, once confirmed, Tesla decided to institute this recall.

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Best Buy's Geek Squad Swapping Beetles For The Toyota Prius
Best Buy sent out a press release announcing the company's switch from the VW Beetle to the Toyota Prius. Oh yeah, they redesigned the Geek Squad logo too. No other updates announced. The company still makes employees wear that odd shirt, tie and badge combo though.

Best Buy announced today the dispatch of nearly 1,000 Toyota Prius c hybrids nationwide to serve as our new Geekmobile vehicles. The new Geekmobile, boldly bearing the updated logo, better reflects today's new Geek Squad — the nationwide tech-support task force that is continually expanding its services to keep pace with ever-changing technology.

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Facebook Bots Are a Tough Sell After Microsoft Tay's Racist Tirade
Sheesh, I can't believe a few racist rants has everyone scared of using bots now. All jokes aside, I just don't see why everyone is pushing so hard for chat bots in the first place. The only people that like using them are the same people trying to get the bots to do and say crazy things.

Companies are wary. Putting a brand's message in the hands of a robot carries risks—as evidenced by Microsoft Corp.'s Tay bot, which started spewing racist, sexist and offensive commentary on Twitter last month. The Tay incident should give companies pause, said Matt Johnson, director of invention and strategy at GoKart Labs, which works with Target Corp. and National Geographic. The consequences when a customer has a bad experience with a brand, even if it's a bot, can be severe, he said. "It can bite you back really hard."

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ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum Review
If a GPU upgrade is in the cards for you, make sure you read our evaluation of the ASUS GeForce GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum before you go shopping. This card offers great performance, a high quality design and currently has a price below MSRP. Well, what are you waiting for? Hit the link and get reading!

Today we review the ASUS GTX 980 Ti MATRIX Platinum, a gaming enthusiast centered video card which boasts enthusiast air cooling and an enthusiast overclock on air cooling. This high-end video card features DirectCU II cooling, making it the perfect comparison to the MSI GTX 980 TI LIGHTNING in class, price, performance and cooling.

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Google Drops Free Fiber Option In Kansas City
Remember that Google Fiber option in Kansas City that allowed you to pay a one-time construction fee and you'd get free internet after that? Well, it looks like Google is dropping that option in favor of a 100Mbps option for $50 per month starting in May. Existing customers get to keep their free service until the original 7 year agreement expires.

Ever since Google began providing the residents in Kansas City the option of signing on for its Fiber service in 2011, the tech company has offered a hard-to-refuse deal: pay a one-time installation fee, and you get internet access for free – in some cases up to seven years. But it looks like the almost-free ride is over.

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Man Tests Real Hoverboard
I will be so upset if this turns out to be fake. Personally, I don't think it is fake because this is the same guy that invented those water-powered jet pack hover thingies a few years ago but, you never know. This guy must have balls of steel to be riding something like this around. At least with the water jet pack if something goes wrong you'd just land in the water. On this thing, it's just splat!

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MPA: We've Reached A Turning Point On Piracy
It's nice to see the European arm of the MPAA acknowledge that, not only has progress been made in the fight against piracy, a turning point has been reached as well. It kinda makes you wonder how much things would change if there was even greater availability of digital media at a lower price point.

The president of the MPAA's European operation says he believes a turning point has been reached on piracy, with service providers and search engines beginning to understand they all have a role to play. However, it's also clear that Hollywood is fearful of opening up content across Europe, which in itself could contribute to piracy.

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20 Of The Worst PC Setups
It's time once again for ThinkComputer's monthly Worst PC Setups feature. The picture below is my personal favorite. No cases for your new internet cafe? No problem, these jugs should do the trick!

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Thermaltake Pacific RL240 Water Cooling Kit Review
In a world now filled with All-In-One CPU coolers, Thermaltake takes it old school with a water cooling kit that has everything you need from A to Z. If cutting your hose to length and perfecting the layout and presentation of your cooling loop appeals to you, Thermaltake makes it easy with a one stop shop.

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Available Tags:Steam , Toyota , Facebook , Microsoft , ASUS , GeForce , GTX , Google , Thermaltake ,