More of Duke Nukem Forever's competition breaks down and releases a game

Subject: General Tech | February 9, 2007 - 12:17 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R is only 6 years old, compared to DK Forever's 10, but it was in the running for most delayed game ever.  No longer, it would seem; according to this preview at bit-tech.  It is always possible a brand new game engine will appear before the end of March and cause a delay, but it looks like this game is going to make it.

General Purpose GPU

Subject: General Tech | February 9, 2007 - 12:03 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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The Inquirer reports on a project by AMD/ATI to make dedicated server CPUs a thing of the past.  For certain types of calculation, a GPUs particular structure allows it to beat the pants off of a CPU ...

Intel and USAID Commit to Broaden Technology Access in Emerging Markets

Subject: General Tech | February 8, 2007 - 12:59 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 8, 2007 - Intel Corporation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are working together to broaden access and usage of information and communications technology (ICT) in developing communities around the world.

Bugs for Firefox, something old and something new

Subject: General Tech | February 8, 2007 - 12:28 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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CNET reports on 2 vulnerabilities found in Firefox.  The first is found in Firefox version 1.5.0.9 but fixed by 2.0, it uses a combination of the built in pop-up blocker and XMLHttpRequest to relay info about the system to a remote server.  You can find the full description of the flaw by following the link to SecuriTeam on CNet.

A Wii was harmed in the making of this review

Subject: General Tech | February 7, 2007 - 12:42 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Still aren't sure if the Wii is a groundbreaking gaming system from a farsighted company, or just a silly excuse to 'accidentally' whack your friends in the head with the nunchaku?  [H]ard|OCP has published a full review covering their thoughts about this new console and a few issues they ran into.  They discovered it isn't possible use a projector to game without buying additional equipment and they also figured out how to kill a Wii.  At least the TV survived intact.

"Nintendo is back with a vengeance and is going toe to toe with the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Can the Wiimote nunchaku continue to successfully fend off the competition or is it just a whole lot of flailing?"

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Gaming

• Tokobot Plus: Mysteries of the Karakuri @ Strategy Informer
• Dreamlords Intro Trailer @ Strategy Informer
• Savage 2: A Tortured Soul @ Strategy Informer
• Back on Top! Can Wii be Nintendo's Ultimate Weapon? @ OCModShop
• Supreme Commander Demo @ Strategy Informer
• Wii & DS WWE titles revealed @ Strategy Informer
• KillZone 2 at GDC 2007? @ Strategy Informer
• EB sells Burger King games for $8? @ Strategy Informer
• Maelstrom Terrain Trailer @ Strategy Informer
• The Professor's Brain Trainer: Memory @ Strategy Informer
• Hotel Dusk: Room 215 Walkthrough @ OCModShop
• Dark Messiah of Might & Magic coming to the Xbox 360? @ Strategy Informer
• More Project Gotham Racing 4 details @ Strategy Informer
• Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Trailer @ Strategy Informer
• The Destiny of Zorro Revealed @ Strategy Informer
• The Hottest Games Coming in 2007 @ Bjorn3D
• World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade @ Strategy Informer
• Battlestations Midway (XBOX 360) review @ GH
• Jack Thompson Faces Disciplinary Hearing @ Slashdot

You already knew it was true, here comes the proof

Subject: General Tech | February 7, 2007 - 12:16 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Video games are good for you!

FPSes and other visually complex games are good for your eyes, says this story on CNET.  Thanks to the speed of the game and the number of things you have to keep track of, you push the part of your brain governing image processing to it's limits, and this exercise carries over into the other parts of your life.  I don't think it will be a good enough excuse to get you out of eating your carrots.

There's somethign about BitLocker

Subject: General Tech | February 6, 2007 - 12:05 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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New with Vista is an encryption program called BitLocker.  Before you go hiding all of your secrets and guilty pleasures in a BitLocker protected folder, you might want to take a careful read of this story at The Register.  It turns out 2 of the 3 protection schemes won't even work, as there are not really any motherboards currently for sale with a TPM compatible BIOS.  XP's encryption never managed to stop anyone determined to get at the data, and neither will Vista.  That isn't all bad news th

A breath of fresh audio

Subject: General Tech | February 5, 2007 - 03:27 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
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Creative has a competitor, the C-Media Oxygen HD chip, aka CMI8788.  The Tech Report has published a huge review of the chip focusing on 2 cards, Auzentech's X-Meridian and Sondigo's Inferno.  Everything is covered in the review, not only the performance of positional audio in games, the CPU utilization is compared to the X-Fi as well as some serious work with Rightmark's Audio Analyser.