NVIDIA GTX 680 Review
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Asetek Uses Liquid Cooling to Overclock Your Laptop's Processor and GPU
Serious PC enthusiasts usually stay away from laptops as primary systems because of the form-factor's extremely limited cooling capabilities. But what if you could install an aftermarket liquid cooling solution that promises your overclocking efforts won't result in enough heat to boil water on your laptop? That's what Asetek's slim form-factor liquid cooling technology aims to do, with an interconnected system designed to cool both the CPU and GPU at optimal levels depending on which component needs it most. A liquid cooled cold plate replaces the traditional heat pipe heat sinks for less thermal resistance.
Asetek was able to successfully overclock a stock Intel Core i7 2920XM 3.5 GHz CPU and dual AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPUs running at 680MHz into stable clock speeds of 4.4GHz for the CPU and 800MHz for the two Radeons. It would be interesting if Asetek also released the temperature readings as well, but perhaps future demonstrations might include those. As indicated the video below, this technology could be geared more towards massive notebooks with cutting-edge mobile hardware. Is this the cooling solution that mobile overclockers have been waiting for? We'll find out once Asetek releases this intriguing cooling technology in the near future.
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Bethesda Remains Silent Amidst Prey 2 Cancellation Rumors
Is Prey 2 getting axed? The hero-blasting-aliens FPS has not been generating much fanfare lately, and recently it's been speculated that the game is no more. A source from the Netherlands cites that Bethesda will be officially announcing the game's cancellation next week. While this may just be nothing more than hearsay, it doesn't help that Prey 2 developer Human Head Studios' scheduled talks at the Game Developers Conference were cut weeks before the event. Bethesda has opted not to comment for the meantime, which is a shame considering how fast it responded to Doom 4's supposed cancellation.
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Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins Discusses 'Retake Mass Effect' and Child's Play
I think that everyone can agree donating to charity is a great cause. However, how you choose to donate to charity can be a problem, especially if it is in the form of a petition. Recently the "Retake Mass Effect" petition was gathering support to show BioWare the desire for a new ending to Mass Effect 3, with part of the donations going to the Child's Play charity. Child's Play was started by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade and is one of the most well known charities around with plenty of events donating to it. The problem with "Retake Mass Effect" donating part of its contributions to Child's Play is just how it was done. Last night, Jerry Holkins posted about the "Retake Mass Effect" petition and made a necessary proclamation: "Child’s Play cannot be a tool to draw attention to a cause. Child’s Play must be the Cause."
The "Retake Mass Effect" petition has stopped taking donations due to Dr. Ray Muzyka's recent announcement, but questions had been sent to Penny Arcade about how exactly "Retake Mass Effect" was connected to Child's Play. People were asking how much needed to be raised in order for a new ending to be created and even for the return of their donations. Penny Arcade was simply overwhelmed, which prompted Jerry Holkins to respond. I do not think anyone at Penny Arcade wants something like this happening ever again, so just be careful the next time you want a petition started.
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Liquid-Like Thermoelectric Material Explained
Thermoelectric materials, which can convert heat to electricity, have been in use for decades, but there has been renewed interest of later. A lot of energy is lost as waste heat in many systems, and recapturing that energy could go a long way to making many devices more energy efficient, including cars and computers. One of these materials, a combination of copper and selenium, was used by NASA forty years ago, but the space program did not know why it worked so well. Now researchers at the California Institute of Technology have found the answer.
Even though copper and selenium are both metals and solids at room temperature, in this combination the copper acts like a liquid. In between the selenium atoms, which form the solid structure of the material, the copper atoms flow freely, as though they were in a liquid state. It is this phenomenon which actually makes the combination one of the best bulk thermoelectric materials known to man. While the crystal structure the selenium atoms form conduct electricity, the liquid-y copper atoms impair heat conductance. Thermoelectric materials require a heat difference to generate a current. The resistance the copper atoms add keeps the entire material from heating up evenly, which would ruin its thermoelectric properties.
With this knowledge, it may be possible to design new thermoelectric materials for a variety of situations. Of course working with partially liquid materials is not easy; something the NASA engineers learned forty years.
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ZeniMax Applies for 'Dawnguard' Trademark
The other day, a new trademark ZeniMax Media filed at the end of February was noticed by several sites. The trademark is for something called "Dawnguard," and it is for "computer game software for use with computers and video game consoles; downloadable computer game software offered via the Internet and wireless devices." Now, this does not mean Dawnguard is one of the two announced DLCs (so far) for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but it does have a certain ring to it. It could also be the second DLC since the name "Redguard" was trademarked by ZeniMax as well. Redguard is, of course, the name of a race of people in The Elder Scrolls universe, but also part of The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, a spin-off game set several centuries before The Elder Scrolls: Arena.
As for Dawnguard, it could center on the Mythic Dawn cult that was featured promiently in TES IV: Oblivion and received a side quest in Skyrim. Perhaps the Mythic Dawn make their return in the town of Dawnstar, but at this point everything is pure speculation until Bethesda and ZeniMax come clean. Who knows, Redguard and Dawnguard could both refer to that The Elder Scrolls MMO pegged to be revealed in May. Whatever the case may be, it looks like ZeniMax has something up its sleeve. If the two trademarked names are indeed DLCs for Skyrim, just remember both are 360-exclusive for a month.
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Mod Your Inkjet Into a Bioprinter
Researchers at Clemson University have made an interesting discovery with their inkjet printer. At several other labs, inkjet printers have been used to print cells into specific patterns on different substrates, but they had never noticed a side effect the process was having on the cell membranes. For a few hours after being printed, there are defects in the membrane just large enough to fit molecules in that would not fit otherwise.
Initially the researchers just wanted to visualize changes to the cytoskeletion of a cell when forces are applied to it. This printing method was used to deposit the fluorescent molecules into the cells that are needed to observe any changes. One of the reason bioprinters are used in research is because of their ability to work on thousands of cells in just a matter of minutes. With this discovery, we may see more laboratories using bioprinters in the future.
If you would also like a bioprinter (and really, who wouldn’t) the protocol for modding an HP DeskJet 500, along with a video demonstrating some of it, you can follow this link from the Journal of Visualized Experiments: Creating Transient Cell Membrane Pores Using a Standard Inkjet Printer.
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Patch Inbound for Mass Effect 3 Face Import Bug
One of the problems plaguing Mass Effect 3 gamers has been a bug importing Commander Shepard. When you created your Shepard in Mass Effect 1, if you did not change any part of his/her appearance in ME2, you then encountered a major problem in Mass Effect 3. The face codes the game uses to determine appearance had changed, so the ME1 face code is different than the ME3 face code. There is no issue if you had changed the face in ME2 and then import to ME3, but gamers who did not change the appearance in ME2 were left with a Shepard that looked nothing like the past versions. This is a problem for some because over the course of the series, you become attached to how your Shepard looks and any changes are quite upsetting. A workaround was available to pull off a similar appearance, but now BioWare is reporting the bug has been fixed and a patch is inbound. However, the patch is not ready to launch just yet, and BioWare is remaining mum on when exactly we will receive it. It sounds like the face import fix is part of a larger patch, but it is anyone's guess as to what else will be included.
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Magnetic Invisibility Achieved
Last year researchers had proposed a theoretical device capable of hiding objects from a magnetic field. This magnetic invisibility cloak or antimagnet was to be comprised of both superconducting and ferromagnetic materials. Now the same researchers at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona have successfully made the antimagnet.
Many materials are paramagnetic, which means they are not naturally magnetic, but when in a magnetic field become magnetic. Superconductors are like this but to an extreme as an external magnetic field will enter the material and an identical but opposite field will be produced. If the superconductor is in the shape of a cylinder (like the superconductor in an MRI machine), this will prevent external magnetic fields from reaching whatever is inside. However, the external magnetic field is pulled in towards the superconductor, an affect that makes the superconductor visible, if not what it hides.
What the researchers proposed last year and built recently was a device that has layers of superconducting and ferromagnetic materials. This combination of perfect paramagnetism and permanent magnets successfully prevents a magnetic field from reaching whatever is within the cylinder, but does so without disrupting the external field. For as much as the superconductor pulls the external field towards itself, the permanent magnets push it away. The most immediately obvious use for a magnetic cloak is in medicine. Sensitive implants could be hidden from strong magnetic fields, like those of a MRI machine. The last thing a patient or doctor would want to see is a pacemaker being ripped out of someone.
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Resident Evil: Revelations Producer Says Survival Horror Market Too Small
When the Resident Evil games debuted long ago, they helped to popularize the survival horror genre. It was pretty much you and the zombie horde, and while you may have had some guns, limited ammo made every shot a commodity. Recently, the Resident Evil games have been including more and more action, first with Resident Evil 4 and 5, and now with Resident Evil: Revelations on the 3DS and Operation Raccoon City for the PC and consoles. Some people may not like the change, but according to Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata, the survival horror market is too small to compete against big action titles. He feels the stylings of RE4 and RE5 should be followed and even taken a "step further," but does not necessarily say Resident Evil needs to become like Call of Duty. Kawata admitted there is room for the old survival horror approach, but does not see much success in that field. Resident Evil 6 is already taking a step towards more action with the ability to move while shooting, so perhaps Kawata is on to something. Whether or not the fans agree with it is something else.
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Unmanned Refueling for Unmanned Boats
Though perhaps not as well-known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or the robots used to inspect and detonate suspicious objects, the military also has Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) that travel on the water. These smaller vessels are very useful for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance gather, but can be a hassle to refuel.
Current refueling systems require someone make the connection between the USV and refueling ship by hand. In rough seas, this can be incredibly dangerous. The Naval Research Laboratory, with Clemson University, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) have developed robotic refueling systems that will make the process faster and safer. The testing was done on both autonomous and human-controlled version with sea conditions ranging from calm seas to wave heights as high as three feet. A high rate of success was demonstrated so it may not be too long before this refueling system hits the field. Also, we may see this method adapted for use in other military robots, such as UAVs and High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles, or HMMVs.
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Huge Total War: Shogun 2 Patch Lands, Tons of Content Added
Late last night, a simply massive patch for Total War: Shogun 2 arrived. It weighs in around 5GB and coincides with the launch of the standalone expansion Fall of the Samuari. However, this patch is for the base game too, and adds a veritable smörgåsbord of new content and fixes. There are now 40v40 unit battles available in multiplayer and custom battle, reduced save game file size, Steam Cloud support, 22 new maps, improved load times, and more fixes than can be comfortably shown on our main page. Suffice to say, practically every aspect of the game has been tweaked or fixed in some way, and the changes will apply to every mode of the game. These fixes will also apply to Fall of the Samuari, so no matter the version you have, you will be able to benefit from the patch. Check out the source for the full patch notes.
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Organic Rechargeable Batteries for Cloudy Days
For all the benefits for wind and solar power, both have a fatal flaw to their operation; they are intermittent. At night solar panels are useless and when the wind does not blow, turbines will not spin. For either technology to be implemented into large-scale power grids, battery systems will have to be used, that will keep the power output constant at all times. We are not talking about banks of rechargeable AA batteries though, but specially designed batteries likely taking up hundreds of square feet. At that size, conventional lithium-ion batteries will not do because of how expensive they will be, but researchers may have found a much cheaper alternative.
As reported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), researchers have found a way to use lignin as a cathode. Lignin is the second most common polymer on the planet because it, like the most common cellulose, is found in plants. Getting at it is not even very difficult, as lignin is part of the 'brown liquor' waste product of paper processing. By combining lignin with polypyrrole, a material capable of holding a charge is made.
Naturally, more work has to be done before we found lignin batteries anywhere. One issue that will need to be fixed is that they lose charge while they sit unused. However, it may be possible to use a lignin derivative to fix this issue, or make other optimizations.
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Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition Coming to iPad
The Baldur's Gate games are some of the most popular RPGs ever made, with millions of gamers everywhere experiecing the classic tale. Unfortunately, we have not had a new Baldur's Gate game released in quite some time, but luckily the folks at Overhaul Games have us covered. It was just last week the announcement came for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, an upgraded version of the original game set to arrive this summer. Today, Overhaul Games is proud to announce Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition for the iPad, which will also arrive this summer. BG:EE runs on an "upgraded and improved" Infinity Engine and will include the original game, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion, and brand new content including a new adventure and party member. This way you can play the game from your PC just like back in 1998, or load it up on your iPad for some portable enjoyment. Baldur's Gate II will also be receiving the Enhanced Edition treatment, but both games will be a separate release.
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Lablets for Security Science
One way to keep your local data safe is to encrypt it. As this is based in mathematics, it is possible to quantify the strength of different encryption algorithms. Computer security requires more than just data encryption though, but these other requisites are not so easy to measure, except when they do not exist. For this reason, the NSA has awarded grants to North Carolina State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Carnegie Mellon University to create 'lablets' to work on the Science of Security (SoS).
Vulnerability prevention, detection, and fortification are areas of security that require more work and study as the methods currently used are very simple. This allows for creative persons to discover holes to exploit. The researchers will work on systems to improve these methods, but are going to be considering more than just computer science. Control theory and game theory will be called upon to learn more about what will happen during an attack on present systems, as well as the interactions between the attackers and defenders.
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