Skip The PC Store, Custom Build Your Computer

by Bradley Wint on January 31st, 2009 at 4:24 pm EDT - 1,466 views

In these economical times, many of us are now forced to actually give a hand in trying to figure ways to cut back on spending. Some people have even gone the ridiculous lengths to sit in the dark just to save on electricity. However, I think there are many ways to save money without affecting your personal lifestyle. Simply cut down on the expenses you don’t need, focus on what you need and what makes economical sense in the long run, as well as choosing cheaper alternatives without sacrificing quality. 

This leads me to talk about purchasing computers. No matter how bad times seem, we may need to purchase a new computer at some point in time, which recently happened to me. Most of us may be accustomed to just heading to the store, or visiting an online alternative and purchasing a pre-manufactured system from one of the leading developers such as Apple, Dell, HP and others. However, did you ever sit down to think how expensive this is as a homeowner? Over the last 10 years, I have purchased 4 computers (high end ones for their time period), and have spent quite a lot on it. 

Read the full post »

- 0 Comments

The Imaging Source Announces New Products

by Nathaniel Ed on January 31st, 2009 at 3:48 pm EDT - 384 views

The Imaging Source, an international manufacturer whos products include video converters, industrial cameras, and frame grabbers recently announced their newest line of products: a series of PCI-Express frame grabbers. They are deployed for applications in which require analog video signals to be processed by a PC. The analog video signals are: PAL, CCIR, NTSC, and RS-170.

Other devices compatible with them are ultrasound and X-Ray machines.

The frame grabbers ship with Windows drivers, the SDK ‘IC Imaging Control,’ and ‘IC Capture,’ which is the end-user application software. IC Capture software is a program that allows the setting of all frame grabber parameters, the acquisition of images and sequences, and the display of live video stream.

Further details can be found here.

Source: NeonDrum (courtesy of Liz Hartney)
Image courtesy of The Image Source.

- 0 Comments

Google Hacked?

by Taylor Flatt on January 31st, 2009 at 11:26 am EDT - 1,557 views

Saturday, all searches on Google resulted in errors saying the site may contain harmful material and that you should pick another website. Webmasters, including ourselves, were going crazy when we noticed this glitch. However, Google has since fixed the “glitch” and is going to be releasing an official statement soon.

There was a fault. We don’t know the nature of it yet. Everything has been solved. We are still making initial enquiries

a Google spokesperson told BBC News. These kinds of “faults” are something that Google isn’t really well known for which has surprised us all. Although they have fixed it, everyone is wanting to know, What happened? Let us hope something worse doesn’t happen if they were truly hacked or if it was just a simple mistake.

Update: Google attributes the fault to human error. The error occured for about 40 minutes when Google accidently flagged all sites as dangerous. Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience had this to say, “What happened” Very simply, human error. We will carefully investigate this incident and put more robust file checks in place to prevent it from happening again”.

Source: BBC
Image courtesy of BBC

- 0 Comments

Google Earth Pot Bust?

by Nathaniel Ed on January 30th, 2009 at 10:09 pm EDT - 573 views

Apparently in Zurich, Switzerland, Swiss police were using Google’s Google Earth to find the address of a pair of farmers who were suspected of being involved in a drug ring, however, they found more about the farmers than they intended. The bust resulted in 16 arrests and 1.2 tons of marijuana confiscated [two acres worth], plus 900,000 ($775,795.19) Swiss Francs worth of valuables and cash.

I think that this is hilarious. I don’t think that having marijuana is all that bad of an offense, however it’s hilarious that the same technology that the U.S. government wants to stymie  because it could compromise security, is also able to help the Swiss government. Maybe our [The United States] police force will take a hint and use this to their advantage.

Sources: MSNBC, PC World
Image courtesy of PC World.

- 2 Comments

House Says “No” to DTV Delay.

by Chris Willhite on January 29th, 2009 at 2:38 pm EDT - 731 views

After the Senate passed a bill with the intention of delaying the switch to ditigal television on February 17th, the House of Represenatives shot it back down. The Senate passed the bill unanimously to delay the switch with the reasoning that “our nation is not yet ready to make this transition at this time” as Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller put it.

The House needed to have 2/3 majority to pass the bill but fell short which means the switch to all digital may still go through in February. It all depends on if the House attends a debate on the matter and changes its’ mind.

I honestly can’t wait for the digital switch. Not because I enjoy digital television over the air (I rarely watch our satellite let alone broadcast TV) but because freeing up the airwaves of analog signals could lead to newer, faster, and better wireless technologies. How long have we been using 2.4Ghz now? Yah, America can go without a little TV for a bit. After all, it’s their fault if they didn’t prepare.

Source: ArsTechnica
Image courtesy of Schoolhouse Rock.

- 9 Comments

Future of Gaming – Where are we headed?

by Andreas Rothbauer on January 27th, 2009 at 9:31 pm EDT - 3,189 views

In these tough economic times when many people use the entertainment industry as an escape from the brutal reality and are looking for affordable family entertainment I thought it was time to reflect on the gaming industry and where we are going.  I am sure many of you have probably grown up with the NES and other 8 bit consoles – so have I. Looking back at those days of playing the Super Marios, Zeldas and constantly blowing on the dusty cartridges to get them to work makes me miss my first gaming experiences and the epic struggle of trying to play or should I even dare say beat some of those superhard video games from the early 90s. However, I loved every minute of it and doing it with friends were some of the best times I’ve ever had.

Today, video games take on a new but just as important of a role in our lives as adults. As mentioned before, money is hard to come by in this day and age and many people don’t even have jobs anymore. Still, families are seeking entertainment and the unlikely suspect of a video game console has stepped up to deliver just that. What was once a geeky and negatively looked upon activity has spread into nearly every living room and TV show in the United States and even the entire world – newly elevated to pop-culture: the Nintendo Wii.

Read the full post »

- 0 Comments

Burnout Paradise – New Trailer And Other Info

by Bradley Wint on January 26th, 2009 at 9:55 pm EDT - 313 views

The Burnout Paradise team has created a lovely trailer to highlight some of the cool stuff coming in The Ultimate Box. Check it out below. Make sure to hit the High Quality button to see it in its full luster. The Ultimate box comes out on February the 6th, but if you pre-order from the EA UK Store, you can get it earlier on the 3rd.

The box is now available for £29.99. It will also be available from the US EA Store very soon. The PC version will be available worldwide while the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will be limited to the European and Asian regions.

Check out the video below.

Read the full post »

- 0 Comments

GTA Update Breaks Mods

by Chris Willhite on January 25th, 2009 at 11:49 am EDT - 441 views

A new GTA IV update released apparently breaks ASI support which allows users to load in custom mods or scripts. The memory offsets that the new patch did also break compatibility with the mods themselves. 

Fortunately there are some workarounds to get you’re mods loaded, however, all of the exsisting mods need to be updated to work with the new game version before you can load them in.

Here is a list of workarounds to get your mods loaded, courtesy of GTA4HQ.

• GTA IV Magic Patcher
• GTA IV ASI Loader
• XLiveLess 0.94b
• SparkIV 0.6.0

Don’t worry about waiting long for the new mods either, a new version of aru’s C++ Script Hook should get modders updating your favorite mods pretty soon.

Source and more information: GTAHQ.net
Image courtesy of Rockstar Studios

- 0 Comments

ACES Studios shut down

by Nathaniel Ed on January 24th, 2009 at 11:13 am EDT - 508 views

Microsoft announced Friday that ACES Studios, the creator of the Flight Simulator series, will be closing it’s doors, as an implication of Microsoft’s 5,000 worker layoff.

Is this the end?
Apparently it isn’t. A Microsoft spokeswoman Kelda Rericha said that Microsoft remains committed to it’s long running franchise.

We are committed to the Flight Simulator franchise, which has proven to be a successful PC-based game for the last 27 years. You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great Live experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time.

Well, Flight Simulator is probably the longest running Microsoft franchise, since it’s first Flight Simulator was shipped in 1982. I find it hard to believe that they would just kill off a gem like Flight Simulator. Apparently they will keep Flight Simulator alive in some form or another. Only time will tell the true future of Flight Simulator.

Source: PC Magazine
Image courtesy of Cnet

- 0 Comments

Hackers Rumor Steve Jobs Death

by Taylor Flatt on January 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am EDT - 537 views

Hackers made their way into the world renowned Wired.com and posted an article that Steven Jobs had died after going into cardiac arrest in his California home. The story was then leaked to multiple social networks which only makes the embarrassment worse. However, the article was posted under a writer, John Abell, who is known to write about Steve’s health. John had this to say about the article,

A widely-circulated URL… that purports to be a Wired.com story about Steve Jobs’ health is a hack job. I’ve written a number of stories about Jobs health hoaxes… but the true author of this crude fake, which hit far closer to home, remains a mystery.

With all the rumors running their courses around the internet, it is no surprise that something like this would come up. However, it was a cruel joke that was completely unethical. No matter who you are for, PC or Mac, everyone has to agree that both Gates and Jobs are great men with powerful ideas and smooth preserve.

Read the full post »

- 1 Comment