Velocity Micro Outlet Store
You ever want a $16.50 Core 2 Duo E6300? Or how bout a $70 P975 Badaxe motherboard? Check out the new Velocity Micro Outlet and you can bid on these and I think there are going to be some deals to be had.
Featured
XFX 790i 3-Way SLI Motherboard ReviewNVIDIA has released their highly anticipated DDR3 chipset, the 790i Ultra SLI and we take a look at this new piece of silicon from the green team in the form of the XFX 790i Ultra SLI.
Thermaltake's DuOrb and V1 CPU CoolersThermaltake has come to market with two new coolers. One is a new rub on an old design, and the other looks like something you might find on a forward-looking fighter craft. But of course, how do these things work? Let's find out.
Getting the Best Buy on a Power SupplyBest Buy has certainly stepped up its game in the last few years when it comes to better servicing the DIY computer builder or upgrader. But is Best Buy doing you a service or disservice by selling you its own computer power supply?
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Gameplay Performance and IQThe PC version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, has finally shipped a month after the console version. We've tested Vegas 2, backed by Unreal Engine 3 on six of today's best video cards. What kind of gameplay experience should you expect on which GPU!
Announcements
[H]ard News
Saturday May 17, 2008
[H] Gaming News
New game releases for week of 5/18 @ ShackNews
Resistance 2 for PS3 preview @ GameSpy
PS3 “trophies” (similar to XBL achievements) in June rumors @ CVG
Top 5 things I learned from video games @ 1up
C&C: Red Alert 3 Hell March HD Trailer @ GameTrailers
New Left 4 Dead in-game movies @ Rock Paper Shotgun
Race Driver: GRID has gone gold on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC @ GamersHell
Google 's Privacy Filter Is Equine Friendly
We love finding fun things on Google Street View. This time we have a shot from New York City’s Central Park where Google’s privacy algorithm blurs out the face of the horse and leaves the (presumably) human driver’s face alone. If the link above changes, you can see an archived version here. I have a feeling that the comments won’t be kind to certain actresses.
AOL Shifting Toward Niche Audiences
AOL has been busy launching specialized web sites that target specific demographics, such as parents or country music fans. Execs believe that the consumer market is fragmenting and want to put themselves in front of as many pieces as they can. According to the article, traffic is up but ad revenue is flat so the jury is still out on the success of this venture.
Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research, warned that all of AOL's niche offerings may not attract the total numbers they're seeking. "There's no way they can possibly anticipate all the ways consumers will want to bend and shape their own content," Epps said. But she credited AOL for trying. "They need to do something different. They need to keep innovating and experimenting and sometimes fail (in order to) find things that do work."
Office Open XML Converters for Mac in June, Microsoft Says
Users anxiously awaiting the Open XML converters for Office 2008 for Mac should be good to go next month, if Microsoft stays true to their word. Without these converters, Office users that are on a version prior to the 2008 release are unable to open Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents or save existing files as Open XML. The converters have been available for Windows since October 2007.
In February, Microsoft delayed the release of Open XML converters that would let Office 2004 for Mac users work with documents produced by Office 2007 on Windows and Office 2008 on the Mac. At the time, Microsoft said it would release the converters in late June.
HP to Launch Teen PC Products in Fall
HP announced Friday that they will introduce a new line of devices this fall that will be “designed by teens, for teens.” There’s no word on what those devices may be so stay tuned. Should be interesting to see what the next generation of geeks can come up with.
…the company is hoping to define a new generation of products with the help of its teen council. And some of those products might include gaming. (HP) referenced the company's acquisition of computer game company Voodoo two years ago during his talk.
Wii Fit Taking Heat for Calling Kids Fat
Not even a month after the Wii Fit hit European shelves, it is already under fire by obesity experts. Experts are concerned that the game can damage children’s body image by labeling them “fat” or “underweight,” based on their Body Mass Index (BMI).
Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum called for children to be banned from playing the game, claiming the BMI measurement was misleading… "BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used. A child's BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit.”
[H]ardware Round-Up: Armed Forces Day Edition
Cooling
CoolIt Dual Drive Bay VGA cooler NV Reference Series @ Bjorn3D
ThermoLab Nano Silencer CPU cooler @ TweakTown
Thermaltake V1 CPU cooler @ SPCR
Motherboards
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 @ Xbit
ASUS Rampage Formula X48 @ HardwareCanucks
Cases & Enclosures
Lian Li PC-A77 @ 3DGameMan
Mountain Mods U2-UFO CYO @ TechPowerUp
Memory
G.Skill vs Crucial: DD3 showdown @ Hexus
OCZ Reaper HPC PC2-8500 4GB kit @ Virtual-Hideout
One-Fifth of US Households Not on Net
Researchers discovered that 20 million US households lack internet access. Age and education are factors in this “digital divide,” according to the research. This shouldn't be much of a surprise since the forums are full of support stories about people that shouldn’t have a computer or internet access.
"Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document," said John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, in a statement. "These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer."
NSF Funds Research Into How Email Chain Letters Spread
The National Science Foundation, along with Google and others, paid for research to see how email chain letters spread. What they found was that these letters take a much more circuitous route than what they expected. Maybe that’s why we still get forwarded email from mom suggesting a gas boycott that was scheduled eight years ago. 
One surprising finding was that messages often took meandering routes between people who knew each other, often through as many as 100 intermediaries.
Debian, Ubuntu Digital Keys Vulnerable to Brute-Force Crack
We talk a lot about Windows and Apple vulnerabilities simply because they tend to be in the forefront of the news and the vast majority of readers are using those platforms. Now Debian and Ubuntu users can join in on the hand-wringing fun with this recent announcement about a “serious and scary” vulnerability in Debian and Ubuntu systems that can be exploited.
HD Moore, best known as the exploit researcher who created the Metasploit penetration testing framework, called the vulnerability in Debian and Ubuntu systems "ugly" and said it will be a big job for administrators to find every flawed key, then reissue them.
Firefox 3 RC1 Is Available for Download
Looks like QA is all done because Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is now available for download. Go forth and get it from this link if you're ready to check it out.
Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available in more than 45 languages as a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes new features as well as dramatic improvements to performance, memory usage and speed.
Hookers and Xbox Story Bogus
Gamerush reports that they confirmed the popular “13-year-old boy goes on spending spree” story that made the rounds this week is fake. It was great for a laugh though, regardless of how true it actually is.
“Newark doesn’t have hookers, or a motel. We don’t know how the story got started,” Cromer said.
GTA IV Sales Set World Record
Time to add another accolade to GTA IV’s impressive list: Guinness World Record Holder. Guinness confirmed that the US$310 million that Take-Two’s game made in the first 24 hours blows away any other opening day numbers in game, film, and book releases. Yes, that’s 310 million dollars in just 24 hours.
The figures easily push the Rockstar game above all other entertainment record holders, including Halo 3 with $170 million in day one sales, Spiderman 3 with $60 million, and Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million.
IT Jobs Vary Depending on Geography
It’s no surprise that certain cities offer more IT employment opportunities than others. What are surprising are patterns that were discovered in the availability of those jobs in different US regions. If you haven’t been able to score that sweet developer’s gig, maybe you just need to relocate to one of the software development hot spots.
Of all of the promises of wireless advances—that workplaces will one day be unwired and employees will be able to work from anywhere at any time—they have done little to change the fact that it still matters where someone lives when he or she is looking for a job. In fact, it can matter quite a bit.
Microsoft Announces Winners of "Robots Among Us" RFP
Moving the technology toward these so-called “social robots” are researchers in a variety of disciplines engaged in the growing field of human-robot interaction (HRI). To explore some of the challenges in realizing the potential of HRI, Microsoft Research launched the “Robots Among Us” request for proposals (RFP) last October with the bold declaration, “The robots are coming!” Eight winners will receive a share of more than US$500,000 awarded under the program. Winning research proposals were selected from 74 submissions from academic researchers from 24 countries. The research projects explore a broad range of devices, technologies and functions as robots begin to work with and alongside human beings.
ASUS introduces VENTO TA-D Series of Chassis
Catering to users who require a chassis with exceptional ventilation and considerate design features for user-friendly installation, ASUS, producer in top-notch computer chassis, has today released the new VENTO TA-D Series Chassis. Comprised of the TA-D1, TA-D2, TA-D3 and TA-D5 (released in April this year), this series of chassis utilizes a sturdy yet aesthetically pleasing design that incorporates various innovations with considerate design for easy installations.
Friday May 16, 2008
Yahoo Seeks to Conceal Parts of Shareholder Suit
You know, it just doesn’t look good when you try to conceal parts of a lawsuit brought against you by your shareholders. Especially so soon after botching that whole MS merger in the first place. It will be interesting to read what Yahoo is trying to hide, don’t you think?
In a letter sent Friday to the judge overseeing the case in Delaware, a lawyer for the shareholders argued Yahoo is trying "to whitewash embarrassing documents" because the company thinks the information will damage the board's efforts to repel a challenge by activist investor Carl Icahn.
HP Fixing XP SP3 Problems
According to this report, HP is working with Microsoft to fix problems people are having with Windows XP SP3. It seems that AMD based PCs are stuck endless rebooting because, after the update is applied, these PCs look for an Intel drive at boot up (which isn’t there) causing the endless boot cycle.
The main problem, as Johansson and others see it, happened because HP, and possibly other OEMs, used the same images for AMD-based PCs that were used with Intel-based hardware. The result for customers with those AMD machines when the SP3 service pack was applied turned out to be a number of problems, including endless rebooting.
Motion Pro II Racing Simulator
If you like speed but hate the tickets (and have a spare $25k) then the Motion Pro II is for you. Hit their media page for full videos of this thing in action.
Go Mod Something!
The weekend is here and that means it is time to Go Mod Something! You can go crazy and build a custom cube from scratch or just lay down some wicked carbon fiber vinyl on your case to give it an awesome new look. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you go mod something. Need to steal an idea or two? Do what I do and hit up the Case Mod Gallery.
Senators OK $1B To Fight Online Child Porn
A U.S. Senate panel has unanimously approved a bill allocating $1B over eight years to fight online child pornography. The story says that the bill encourages authorities “to use and create special software designed to nab child pornography swappers on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.”
All told, the bill would allocate more than $1 billion over the next eight years for a broad array of efforts aimed at tackling Internet crimes against children. It calls for hiring 250 new federal agents at the FBI, the Immigrations and Custom Enforcement Agency, and the U.S. Postal Service dedicated to child exploitation cases; for beefing up personnel, equipment, and educational programs designed to combat Internet crimes against children.
Gaming News
Blizzard Evaluating WoW Graphics Overhaul @ Shacknews
Obesity Experts 'Aghast' By Wii Fit @ Wired
SCEA Announces Fall 2008 Game Line Up @ The Earth Times
Sony's Gamer's Day Kicks Off @ Kotaku
[H]ard|OCP [H]otDeals
Welcome to Friday’s edition of [H]ard|OCP [H]otDeals! Let’s kick things off with 2GB of OCZ Platinum PC6400 for only $29.99. Save a total of $60 off this XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI for a final price $199.99. You can get a nice deal on this XFX 8800GT Zalman Edition for $139.99. If you want an ATi card instead you can get this Radeon 3850 512MB card for $94.99 and then slap it all in this Antec New Solution black & silver case for $104.99 and get free shipping. If you don’t feel like building your own system, remember that Velocity Micros is giving all [H] readers FREE SHIPPING all week, so you might want to take them up on that before the deal expires. Round out your new system with a RatPadz GS or XT and get $5 off and free shipping anywhere in North America.
Gears of War 2 Four Player Co-op Confirmed
According to Shacknews, four player co-op for Gears of War 2 has been confirmed (drop in – drop-out). You can read the Shack’s initial Gears Of War 2 impressions here and watch that video showing of a bunch of new gameplay features again.
Gears of War creator Cliff "CliffyB Bleszinski has confirmed that the much-anticipated sequel will feature four-person cooperative play. Bleszinski had teased the feature earlier in the week, but at the time declined a confirmation.
Overstock.com Takes Stand Against NY Sales Tax
First it was Amazon that stood up to NY, now Overstock.com is taking a stand against the state’s sales tax too. The online giant says it will no longer accept NY's advertising until the state internet tax is repealed.
"We love New York," said the site's chairman and CEO, Patrick Byrne, "but New York's new tax law required us to choose between New York customers and New York ad businesses. In the end, we chose our customers. The governor and legislature of New York should understand that a tax is a price that a government charges for a service, and when the price of anything is raised, people (including us) buy less of it."
PC Club & ClubIT Back in Business?
Deep from within the bowels of PC Club comes even more rumbling. We have been told that PC Club is “open and in business.” A holding company is coming in with supposed long-term investment aspirations with no major restructuring on the horizon. All stores have reportedly checked in for re-opening, but obviously it is a little touch and go with their entire store staffs being previous dismissed. We were told that any previous employees that do return to their jobs are “fully reinstated as if there were no changes.”
While the ClubIT retail Web presence is not currently operational, we have been told that it will return as well. ASAP. More details to come!
UPDATED with official PR from PC Club.
OLPC Nonprofit Now Teamed With Microsoft
I posted the press release earlier today but I really wanted to get your opinion on this story. Are you guys for or against Windows XP on the OLPC or does it even better?
Microsoft and the laptop organization announced Thursday that the nonprofit's green-and-white "XO" computers now can run Windows in addition to their homegrown interface, which is built on the open Linux operating system. That had been anticipated for months, but it amounts to a major shift.
[H]ardware Round-Up
Cases & Modding
Lian Li PC-A09B Classical Series Mid-Tower @ BmR
Cooling
Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler @ Overclockers Club
Motherboards
DFI LanPartyDK X38-T2R @ Ninja Lane
Video
Albatron GeForce 9600GT-512X @ Legit Reviews
VisionTek Radeon HD3870X2 OC @ Neoseeker
Georgia Law Aims to Lure Video Game Makers
When you think of states that are friendly to the gaming industry, Texas, Washington and California all come to mind but, if the governor of Georgia has his way, you’ll be able to ad his state to the list.
"The new incentives will put Georgia among the top five states in the U.S., in terms of financial competitiveness for entertainment projects," Ken Stewart, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said in a statement. "We expect to see an increase in the number of industry jobs and overall economic impact for the state in the coming years."
RIAA Defendant Awarded $108K In Attorneys Fees
Things just keep getting worse and worse for the RIAA. Decisions being overturned, losing cases and having to pay defendants attorney fees. What’s next? They’ll have to give back all the money they coerced out of college students?
RIAA nemisis Tanya Andersen has achieved another milestone victory. She fought Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA to a standstill, forcing it to drop its spurious file sharing case against her, and now an Oregon court has awarded her close to $108,000 in fees and costs.