NCsoft Accused of Patent Infringment

by Nathaniel Ed on December 31st, 2008 at 7:10 pm EDT - 451 views

MMO giant, NCsoft, has been accused of infringing on patents put in place by Worlds.com. Worlds.com believes that NCsoft’s products infringe on their “System and Method for Enabling Users to Interact in a Virtual Space” patent. Paraphrasing some of the things that NCsoft is being accused of, NCsofts products, including:

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Pirates Sentenced to 1-6 Years

by Taylor Flatt on December 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pm EDT - 275 views

Earlier this week, the Chinese counterfeiting gang that stole 2 billion dollars worth of Microsoft phony software was sentenced to 1 1/2 years to 6 1/2 years which is quite tough considering earlier Chinese court cases. The software was found in 36 different countries and multiple languages which isnt suprising considering the speed that things fly on the web.

Although, Microsoft and the RIAA along with governments, are cracking down on these “pirates” they will never see the end of the road. Not only are there millions of pirates, but most do it because of one simple fact. That fact is the price of software and games today. You used to be able to go out and buy a $39 game, but now it is $59-69 and same goes to software which is hiking up the ladder. This is game will continue to go on for years to come and will only end in hard feelings and trillions of dollars spent trying to quell this uprising. Something more drastic needs to be done if they think they will make any head way into stopping this.

Source: AP

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5 Reasons Why IE Fails

by Taylor Flatt on December 31st, 2008 at 12:57 am EDT - 2,196 views

 Internet Explorer, the gateway to the internet, or so it was back in the day is anything but now. Currently, there are several decent browsers that can get you to the same place faster, safer and easier. With an unbiased approach, I will look into the reasons why IE has and is beginning to fail. From CSS interpretations to memory usage IE has gone downhill.

Over the years Microsoft has prided itself in bringing technology and service to use who aren’t as fortunate to have the resources to do it ourselves. However, over the years, it seems that Microsoft has strayed from this path and has gone down a more adventitious avenue seeking more fame than actual usability and safety.

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Deneb Soon to be Released?

by Chris Willhite on December 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am EDT - 235 views

While AMD’s Phenom processor might not have been as big a hit as they expected, this only made them more determined. The new core code named “Deneb” features a 45nm manufacturing process using immersion lithography, fourth-generation strained silicon, ultra-low-k dielectrics, and high-k/metal gates.

AMD was supposed to have Deneb available sometime in the second half of 2008 but has been delayed and is rumored to be released Jan 8th 2009 based on a leaked roadmap. It is, however, still unclear whether or not the initial release of Deneb will feature two integrated memory controllers for DDR2 and DDR3 or if the DDR3 controller is going to be added at a later date (AM3 in March?).

Also related, some mad skillz over at PC Perspective have been able to get the new Phenom over 5Ghz on dry ice and 4Ghz on air cooling. It’s also been reported that the new core has been pushed just over 6Ghz on liquid nitrogen. Who knows, maybe Deneb will be the overclocker’s choice for this year. We won’t know for sure until Deneb is actually released but AMD seems to be bouncing back at Intel.

More on the 45nm core at AMD’s site. Image courtesy of regmedia.

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Sony PS3 Production Price Drops

by Joel Borhart on December 30th, 2008 at 11:14 am EDT - 245 views

As time progresses, technology costs usually go down.  Supply and demand, as the amount of the product goes up, the price goes down, and new technology lowers the price of older goods or makes them obsolete.  These factors have lowered the production price of Sony’s PS3.

New models of the console reduce prices with each new release.  The newest integration of hardware in the PS3 has reduced the number of components to about 2,820 from 4,048.  The new cost of each PS3 for Sony is now only $448.73, compared to $690.23 of the first model.

For those who have a PS3 or want one, you will notice they cost around $400 for consumers.  This means Sony has been selling them at a loss, hoping to make the money up in games and royalties.  Because of this reduction of price for Sony, this may bring on more game development or more advances in the ability of the console.

Source: WSJ

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New Mac Ready HP Home MediaServer

by Nathaniel Ed on December 29th, 2008 at 11:18 pm EDT - 220 views

Today HP released their lastest product, called the HP MediaSmart Server, which is the company’s home media server, and is compatible with both PCs and Macs. This new product will allow users to access various files from any computer in the user’s network. It also makes this info available on the internet as well.

What’s New?
Based on that of the Windows Home Server by Microsoft you are also able to do much more with it. This includes things such as hosting an iTunes library, making it available to any computers hooked into the network. You can also schedule backups of digitized files from computers on the network.

The package also includes HP Photo Publisher, which allows the user to upload photos onto the web, on websites such as Snapfish, Picasa, and Facebook. It is also compatible with Time Machine, which allows Mac users to use the product as a backup drive.

Pricing
HP MediaSmart Server ex485 with a 750 gigabyte hard drive – $599
HP MediaSmart Server ex487 with a 1.5 Terabyte hard drive – $749.

It will be available for preorder January 5th, 2009. Picture above courtesy of MacWorld.

Source: MacWorld

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Google, Microsoft, Apple sued

by Taylor Flatt on December 29th, 2008 at 10:25 am EDT - 410 views

The tech giants are being sued for infringement upon icons used in various programs. These include,

• Google – Chrome
• Microsoft – Vista, IE 8
• Apple – iPhone, Safari, Mac OS X

Cygnus Systems, the suers, are looking to score with this lawsuit. They claim to have had this patent since March 2008.  However, they have been applying for it since 2001 but first applied for it 1998. This raises the question, will they (Google, Microsoft, Apple), attempt to settle and get this out of the way, or will they fight it to the end?

That much has yet to be seen. The case was filed in the US District’s Court in Arizona where the CEO of the company, Gregory Swartz, lives. Gregory is seeking to prevent any further infringment upon these preview icons, thumbnails, used by these and other companies. This is leading it to consider accusing other companies and adding them to the stand as defendants to help prevent this and get them all in one swoop.

We will see how this turns out and hopefully it turns out to favor the little guy who seems to have the rights to these icons.

Source: CNet 
Image Courtesy of us-japan.org.

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Windows 7 Beta leaks

by Taylor Flatt on December 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am EDT - 322 views

Windows 7 Beta has been leaked to the internet as of this last weekend. A bunch of torrent sites have just picked up on it and the torrents are running wild.  With thousands of seeders, people who has downloaded and are now contributing to the upload rate, and thousands of leechers, people who have not downloaded it completely and are “leeching” on the seeders, one has to wonder how this happened.

It seems like Microsoft has a real problem with leaks with a lot of their good and “secret” stuff always being leaked. It might just be me, but I believe it might be on purpose to increase the hype and then get user feedback so then it can be a polished product when it does come out. So then, when people complain, they could simply say it wasn’t meant for release yet. Oh well, I suppose we will just never know.

I hope, however, that Microsoft does upgrade their IE standards to a more recent compatibility like those of Chrome and Firefox so we don’t have to make certain code changes to make everything appear right. In some cases, admins have to make 2 seperate sites and redirect based on browsers because IE has its own little world and all the other browsers are close enough together to not really throw a fit. This, I hope, will come coupled with the new system.

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New Network Affiliation

by Taylor Flatt on December 27th, 2008 at 6:38 pm EDT - 220 views

We are proud to announce our affiliation with the Multiplayer Network (MPN). We are now the official tech news source for their network of websites. We are looking forward to working with the MPN Staff and bringing them our expertise and community envolvement.

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Internet News Surpasses Newspaper

by Taylor Flatt on December 27th, 2008 at 4:36 pm EDT - 433 views

A new Pew study has been released describing a more electronically centered world. Now, roughly 20% more people get their news from the internet.  With both TV and Newspaper viewership declining there seems to be a slow but steady switch from TV and Newspapers to a more readibly accessable source, the Internet.

Not only is this logical, but it is obvious why this is happening. The Internet is a convient tool used by all for a [pretty] cheap price where you can find just about anything you want.  For the price of connectivity, it is only logical to get your fair share of news (from thousands of sources, rather than a couple).

With the common joe now able to write their opinion and view on things, you are not only getting white and black from the newspaper or tv, but you are getting all different shades of media from main and secondary news sources. The Internet is beginning to look like it will be the end all be all of the media world.

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