Half Life 2 - mods, mods and more mods

Subject: General Tech | March 3, 2006 - 12:00 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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If you thought that Valve did a great job on the engine and physics behind Half Life 2, but got the actual game a little wrong, use the SDK and build your own.  Tech Connect Magazine has assembled over 9 of their favorite mods, so drop by and see if you need to cancel your plans for the weekend.

"Whether Half Life 2 was your favourite or most loathed game of 2004/2005, the promise for

user-created content that the Source engine and Software Development Kit deliver cannot be

Batten down your wireless hatches

Subject: General Tech | March 3, 2006 - 11:47 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Securing your Wireless Network is not very hard, and with this guide from Digital Grabber, it just got even easier.  They take you through all the steps, from encrypting the signal, to changing the routers IP address slightly, to make it harder to find and get into.

"The days of buying a wireless router and just hooking it up without turning on any of the

security features are long gone. Only a fool would leave their network wide open.

What is with the kids these days

Subject: General Tech | March 2, 2006 - 11:57 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The TV news would have you believe that kids today do nothing but shoot bad guys on the computer, and pirate software and music.  Well at least one 14 year old is working to disprove that theory by finding a critical hole in Gmail, according to this story in The Inquirer.

"He was attempting to mail some javascript code from his yahoo account to my gmail when he came

across this vulnerability.

Audio Recording on the go

Subject: General Tech | March 1, 2006 - 07:02 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Futurelooks trys out the Gemini iKey USB audio recorder, a nifty little audio capture device.  It will take any line signal, and store it to another attached device of your choice.  With on the fly encoding, you get several choices of fiel type to capture the audio as, it is definatly worth a look.

"So what exactly is an iKey? The iKey is an Audio Recording Product from Gemini Sound Products

Corporation. The iKey can take any Line Level audio signal and convert it to an MP3 or WAV audio

file.

Huge tracts of mousing land

Subject: General Tech | March 1, 2006 - 02:29 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Think Computers is thinking big with this review of the Corepad Deskpad XXL.   The thing is huge, about 3 feet by 1.5 feet, with a smooth, even surface.  Make sure your desk can handle this thing, you don't want to be mousing right off the side in the middle of a firefight!

'Are you one of those people that love a big mouse pad? Then BOY have I got something for you to

check out for review today.

Gentoo Lives!

Subject: General Tech | March 1, 2006 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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New for 2006 is the Gentoo LiveCD.   This time the installer is GUI based, although it is still Linux, so easy installation is a relative term.  Read the review at TECHGAGE, and see if you'd like to take this distro for a spin.

"A new version of Gentoo has been released, so I am going to take a quick look at it to see what's

new. Alongside this new release, there is a LiveCD version available in which you can install

Gentoo from within a GNOME desktop.

Virtual Spring Cleaning for your PC

Subject: General Tech | February 28, 2006 - 11:43 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Tech Zone takes you through an easy process to clean and speed up your PC.  Call it WinRot or senility, as an OS install ages, it begins to develop idiosyncrasies and will slow down in some tasks, follow this guide and it will be running like the day you first got it.

"It seems that the longer you own your computer, the slower it gets! It isn't getting slower just

because it is older.

5.1 surround headphones ... midnight gamers best friend

Subject: General Tech | February 27, 2006 - 02:10 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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I find it hard to believe that headphones can duplicate 6 discrete channels directly into your ears.  However, TECHGAGE reviews the Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA Headset, and they have found that it can be done, within limits.  Along with very comfortable ear peices, the headphones come with a amp/equalizer that lets you switch between channel settings, from regular 2 channel to 5.1.

"Can't set up a 5.1 speaker setup, but want true surround sound?

Does playability outweigh prettification?

Subject: General Tech | February 24, 2006 - 11:42 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Moditory has published a review of Darwinia, a very unconventional game.  While the RTS and tech tree basis of the game will be familiar, and the graphics will take you back about 10 years, the game play is king in this game.  There is much to explore in how they have set this game up, and you can get it very easily if you use Steam.

"Gameplay is sometimes overlooked in the gaming industry. Today a lot of stress is put on graphics

and now sound.

Quantum Weirdness for your computer

Subject: General Tech | February 24, 2006 - 11:29 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Quantum Computing seems to get weirder the more is learned about it.  While the idea that a quantum computer could go arrive at an answer without hitting the intermediate steps needed for normal processing, the idea that it can answer a question not even asked is definately new.   Try Boing Boing's quick run down, and if you want to know more, there are links everywhere.

"Utilizing two coupled optical interferometers, nested within a third, Kwiat's team succeeded in

counterfactually

Win a Centurion 532 from CoolerMaster & PC Perspective - 3 days left to enter

Subject: General Tech | February 24, 2006 - 08:02 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Here's the hard part:

1. Be a member of the PC Perspective Forums - join if you are not already!


2. Send an email to cmcontest@pcper.com with your name, address, phone number and forum account name


3. Post a reply in this thread that you have sent in an email (Important, only those users who BOTH send an email and reply at least once in this thread will be ent

In honour of Turin, put your mouse on Skatez

Subject: General Tech | February 23, 2006 - 02:19 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Corepad Mouse Skatez are replacment pads for the bottom of your mouse.  Some are made specifically for the MX series of mice, and others are simply teflon strips to be applied overtop of the existing pads on other mice.  Read the review at Think Computers.

'Mice are becoming more and more expensive, and with lots more features packed into them. One

thing I noticed is that the standard feet of these so-called professional gaming mice or high-end

mice are a bit lacking.

The dangers of using your clipboard as short term memory

Subject: General Tech | February 23, 2006 - 11:56 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Inquirer has posted a combined clipboard and Internet Explorer vulnerablilty, and they have also posted a way to avoid the problem.  The contents of your clipboard can be grabbed, via scripting, and displayed on the web.  This little trick will only work in IE, not Firefox, and if you visit the link from the Inquirer that shows the problem, there is at least one pop-up window to greet you.

"A WARNING RECEIVED highlights what appears to be a real Explorer danger that text copied onto the

clipboar

X-Mystique is an upgradable audio card

Subject: General Tech | February 22, 2006 - 03:15 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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PenStar Systems has posted a how and why on upgrading the OPAMPS on the new X-Mystique audio card.  If you do go ahead and mod it, you may be very impressed by the quality of sound you can get from the analog outputs.

"The X-Mystique's primary claim to fame is that it is the first add-in soundcard that can encode a

Dolby Digital 5.1 signal.

Finally, the plans for my hoverboard have arrived

Subject: General Tech | February 22, 2006 - 12:05 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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So, you are tired of hearing about the fact that you never go outside, and never do anything more physical than cart a laptop to a LAN party?  Well, thanks to the watchful members of MAKE:Blog, there is something outswide worth doing!   A link has appeared with a shopping list and instructions on how to build your own hoverboard.  Sorry, the leafblower is not included.

"If you watched this week's show, you'll have seen that Jason succeeded in building a fully

working Hove

VIA Announces VIA Vinyl(TM) VT1708 High Definition Audio Codec, Delivering Premium Performance Audio

Subject: General Tech | February 22, 2006 - 11:11 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Taipei, Taiwan, 22 February 2006 - VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, today announced the VIA Vinyl VT1708 High Definition (HD) Audio Codec with premium quality and features for expanding PC audio requirements.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Someone has to go first to disprove the rumours

Subject: General Tech | February 21, 2006 - 12:01 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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PC Mechanic has posted a top 4 list of common PC Myths and Misconceptions.  They are quite funny and, believe it or not, quite common.  If you have fallen prey to any of them, take heart, because somebody had to lead the way, and discover if SATA worked or not.  That's life on the bleeding edge, more often than not.

"The internet is a great medium for getting information and help on all sorts of subjects.

The 8 Horsemen of Vista

Subject: General Tech | February 20, 2006 - 11:50 AM | Jonathan Hung
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engadget is reporting 8 flavours of Windows Vista. It appears Microsoft is sticking with their "Home-Professional-Enterprise" product model. I'm curious to see what the feature difference is for the "Vista Home Premium" and the "Vista Business" boxes. I hear "Vista Ultimate" comes with a posse.

"Wow, ok, Bill, since you're reading this and all, we've got to tell you a little something about product branding.