General Gaming Article |
- LulzSec Takes On The CIA
- Future Tense: Maximum Users
- 15 Standards, Conventions & Technologies Killed by the PC
- Windows Phone App of the Week: Glympse
- LulzSec Creates Phone Request Line
- AMD Catalyst 11.6 Drivers Now Available for Download
- Chromebooks Available Today
- Where Does Spam Come From?
- How to Livestream Your Games to the Web
- Patriot Pitches G2 Series DDR3 as Fusion and FX Friendly
| Posted: 15 Jun 2011 05:53 PM PDT
Well, um, they did. Around 3 P.M. Pacific Time, the group Tweeted "Tango down – cia.gov – for the lulz." Cnet's reporting that about 20 minutes after the post, the CIA's public-facing website was indeed down for the count and returning error messages. We're penning this article about two hours after the initial tweet, and the website seems to be back up and running. It remains to be seen whether or not LulzSec's backsides are in jeopardy, as RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS suggested they would be if the group attacked the CIA head-on. One thing's for certain; between LulzSec's hack of the US Senate's servers over the weekend and this CIA smack down, expect the government to take a long, deep look for the masterminds behind the monocle-sporting man in the black high-top hat. Oh, LulzSec took down magnets.com, too. Why? Because "they wouldn't tell us how magnets worked," the group Tweeted. |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2011 04:05 PM PDT The "maximum" in MaximumPC means doesn't just mean the fastest speed or the highest ratings—it means more than best. It means pushing the envelope to be the best possible. As geeks and nerds, we are always striving for the best possible, because we're never satisfied with where we are or what we have. We want more. That's everything you need to know about the forward thrust of technology—the unsatisfied human desire to have more, better, and different. In the long stumbling, bumbling, fumbling history of our weird little species, we have invented so many marvelous tools to expand the power of our muscles, but only one tool to expand the power of our brains—the computer. In all of its different forms—smartphones, tablets, netbooks, laptops, desktop machines, mainframes, networks, a vast global communication system—the computer gives us access to almost all the knowledge in the world. But even more important than this enormous information-wealth, the computer also gives us the ability to process this data, to manipulate it, to fiddle it and diddle it and create astonishing new ways of looking at our world, each other, and ourselves. The computer allows us to achieve insights into who we are and what we're up to that would otherwise be impossible. As a species, for the first time in history, we have the opportunity to be more accurately informed and make wiser decisions than ever before. Too often, we forget that the most important component in any system is the user. We forget that we are the authors of our own choices. Even worse, we forget that we actually have a choice. As individuals, and as a culture, we become what we dream. We become what we speak. We become the conversation we live in. Star Trek was never just about the adventures of Kirk and Spock in the magnificent starship Enterprise—it was, despite all the limitations of time and money and television, an inspired attempt to ponder the question, "What does it mean to be human?" Like all the best and most inspiring science fiction, Star Trek was a promise that life as it is today is not the way life has to be tomorrow. We can be more. Star Trek shows us a time that is worth living in—and one of the most important pieces of that time is a joyous recognition of the diversity of human experience. It is a vision of a future that works for everyone, with no one and nothing left out. It's worth noting here that Star Trek is the inheritor of some of the grandest traditions in science fiction. Before there were Star Trek conventions, there were science fiction conventions—the oldest is the Worldcon, the World Science Fiction Convention at which the Hugos are awarded, the highest honor available in the science fiction community. The Hugos are named after Hugo Gernsback who published the first science fiction magazine in the world, Amazing Stories, in 1926. He pretty much created science fiction fandom with the letters column of Amazing and later on with a correspondence club called The Science Fiction League (1934). All this fannish interaction resulted in the very first Worldcon, held in New York City in 1939. One of the fannish traditions that began at the Worldcon and other conventions is that "the ceiling constitutes an introduction." Those first fans were geeks and dorks and nerds of the first order, but they accepted each other's geeky, dorky, nerdiness because they recognized each other as kindred souls. Some of those kindred spirits included Isaac Asimov, Lester Del Rey, Fred Pohl, Cyril Kornbluth, Murray Leinster, Donald A. Wollheim, E.E. "Doc" Smith, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Bloch, Damon Knight, and too many others to list here. If science fiction as a genre represented an escape from the ordinary, then science fiction conventions represented an escape to a place where it wasn't strange to be extraordinary. The fannish community quickly recognized itself as a place where being "weird" was the new normal. There were no exclusions. Throughout its history, the science fiction community has always been a decade ahead of the rest of the world in its embrace of change. The community included African-Americans while the rest of the nation was still struggling with its prejudice. The community began to address the issues of women's rights before the rest of the nation knew it was an issue. The SF community included its gay and lesbian and transgendered members while the rest of society was still embarrassed to admit that such things existed. That's the tradition that got passed on to Star Trek fandom and all the other fandoms as well. It is a tradition that continues today at Comic-Con, the largest fan convention in the United States. And it is a tradition that we, as geeks and dorks and nerds, would do well to remember. We can't afford to throw anyone away. There's too much work to do. Coming back to MaximumPC and the readership of this magazine—I believe we are the leading edge of the user community. I believe that we are the people that others look up to. We set the example, because we're the experts on what works and what doesn't work. Other people look to us because they know we work hard to have our machines be the very best. It's time to include the space between the chair and the keyboard in that commitment too. The most important component in any computer system is the person using it. If we are going to be committed to excellence in our machines, then we should extend that commitment to ourselves as well. We should aspire to be the best we can too, by being the people we want to be. Generous, confident, respectful, compassionate, thoughtful, pragmatic, friendly—all the ways of being that demonstrate we are joyously human and humane. (Sometimes, I like to use the Star Trek test. What would McCoy think? What would Spock say? And listening to them both, how would Kirk finally act? Sometimes it works. I do have some experience with those characters.) Unfortunately, and all too often, in our online interactions—in the games we play, in the comments we leave, in the tweets we send, in the things we post on Facebook—all too often, we devolve back to a cringe-worthy chimpanzee level of behavior. Perhaps we assume that anonymity and distance are a safe retreat from accountability. Perhaps we think that when we turn off our machines, we escape the consequences of our worst behaviors. Perhaps we believe that it doesn't count, so it's okay to flame another person. But whatever the thinking or the assumption or the belief that produces the behavior, whether we've been just a little half-assed or completely ass-whole, too often we behave as if the internet is a license. No. It is not. To be blunt, it is not acceptable to call someone "nigger" or "spic" or "kike" or "retard" or "fag" or "raghead" or "lame" or anything else that disrespects that person's humanity. If it's not acceptable to do it in person, it's not acceptable online either. When we stumble that way, we fall into personal failure. Online rudeness isn't just a shallow and ugly misuse of the possibilities of our amazing technology, it's also an individual's tacit admission of his own essential weakness and insecurity. Rudeness is what desperate people use as a substitute for power. It doesn't work. In fact, it's self-destructive, because instead of creating connection to others, disrespect makes connection impossible. It further alienates everyone and it is an appalling step backward from the greater possibilities. The damage we do to ourselves and to our community is that we add another pebble to the avalanche of mistrust. We make it that much harder to create partnership. We make it harder to build that better world we all want to live in. We betray the commitment to building a future that includes all of us. Here's my request. Yes, it's unrealistic, idealistic, and impossible, but here's my request anyway: Take a stand against online rudeness. When you see it, interrupt it. If you've used any of those words listed above or others like them, please stop. If you hear people around you using them, take a stand—ask them to stop. Say, "That doesn't work for me." I believe it isn't enough to dream of change. We have to be the change. It happens one person at a time. It happens in the little things even more than the big. It happens in the way we treat each other. I write science fiction. What excites me the most about the future are the adventures and discoveries we will share together. The key word in that sentence is together. |
| 15 Standards, Conventions & Technologies Killed by the PC Posted: 15 Jun 2011 02:56 PM PDT If it's obsolete, chances are the personal computer played a rolePity the poor 8-track tape. It never really sounded very good, it malfunctioned more often than any other music delivery system we can remember, it degraded quickly, and its oddball format forced record companies to add or remove songs and even break songs in two in order to fill the excess tape. In the end, there's no wonder 8-track remained in vogue for less than a decade and was killed – completely and absolutely killed – by newer and better technologies like the cassette and the compact disc. But whereas some technologies die fully and completely, most simply whither and hang around like unwanted party guests. Look, for example, at the venerable fax machine. An idea that's way past its prime and has been replaced virtually everywhere, it nevertheless continues to exist in a few select locations, generally to serve businesses and situations where hard copy signatures are required. What evil entity has driven the fax machine to the brink of oblivion and soon, we expect, to its demise? The same contraption that's utterly ruined the careers of so many other once-essential, once-treasured devices and concepts – the personal computer. Like a runaway train, the PC eventually obliterates everything that lies in its path, no matter how long it takes to get there. Let's take a gander at some of its more memorable victims. |
| Windows Phone App of the Week: Glympse Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:53 PM PDT With the proliferation of modern smart phones, location based services use bleeding-edge technology to accomplish old-school problems. Mapping tools from the likes of Microsoft and Google will allow you to search for specific restaurants or businesses based on your current location while Foursquare and Facebook Places both make use of location data from your mobile phone to share places you've visited with your social networks. The downside to these services is the many people who have legitimate concerns about sharing their location and habits with the faceless hordes on the Internet.
Glympse is a location sharing service which protects your privacy by limiting access to only people you invite. Glympse shares your real-time location only with those you've invited. Invitations for Glympse also expire after a set amount of time, protecting the privacy of even the most paranoid. Tracking is done with either a web-based application or a corresponding smart phone application. If both users have Glympse on their smart phone it can even allow you to see your location in relation to your friend, making it easy to find each other in a crowd.
Glympse is a free service, and the application is available from the Windows Phone Marketplace.
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| LulzSec Creates Phone Request Line Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:41 PM PDT
LulzSec claims to have run DDoS attacks against eight sites suggested by users so far. The group has not said whether those attacks also involved accessing private information on servers. Callers to the new US-based phone number are treated to a recording in a heavy French accent instructing them to leave a message. The number is tied to the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area, but it's unlikely that indicates anything about LulzSec's physical location. We might get a chuckle from LulzSec's antics, but at what point does it go too far? |
| AMD Catalyst 11.6 Drivers Now Available for Download Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:23 PM PDT
AMD promises performance gains in a handful of titles with its new Catalyst 11.6 driver package, including:
Catalyst 11.6 also adds a handful of new features, such as Steady Video, Image Stabilization brought to you by YouTube, and decode acceleration of MPEG-4 part 2 content in Microsoft video player applications (through MFT support) for all Radeon HD 6000 cards. |
| Posted: 15 Jun 2011 01:19 PM PDT
The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is arguably the more polished of the two, and the bill of materials backs that up. The 3G version runs $499.99 and the Wi-Fi only device is $429.99. Acer's option backs off on the price, costing only $4.29.99 for the 3G equipped Chromebook. The Wi-Fi only edition is $349.99. Users that buy the 3G Chromebooks will get 100MB of free cellular data per month with the option to buy more. Chrome OS is a browser-based system needing an internet connection to leverage web apps. Without that, it's just a fancy paperweight. Google is also selling the devices in bulk with a subscript deal. Interested parties are encouraged to contact Google's sales department. Would yo consider buying a Chromebook?
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| Posted: 15 Jun 2011 12:38 PM PDT
Typically our electronic exchanges flow from person to person, one real email address to another. But the sad fact is, the vast majority of messages sent don't have anything to do with managing relationships, workloads, or weekend plans. Spaaaaaaam! According to Dave Marcus at McAfee Labs, 80-90 percent of email floating between servers is spam. Luckily, much of what's aimed for us is deflected. Email programs employ filters to direct messages with suspicious links and attachments away from our inboxes, which is good because these messages have the potential to infect our computers or dupe us into coughing up personal information. We know all this. But there's another flavor of suspicious email that doesn't betray its malicious intent as openly: the single line of gibberish. Is it an email verification technique? Is there something coded into the message that could harm my computer? Did someone let their two year old loose on the Internet? So we decided to look into it. What are those nonsensical emails trying to do to us anyway? In order for spammers to even attempt something nefarious, they need to reach an actual human. No brilliant Facebook imitation email will do any good without a real person with a Facebook account entering in their information. So step one in any would-be scam is to verify that an address leads to a pair of eyes. Sure, an email that bounces back to the spammer didn't make it to a real recipient. But spam folders hide a lot of email from our eyes that don't get bounced back either. So a non-ricocheted message doesn't guarantee a human either. Man, spammin' is so hard! The sender also doesn't get any information if you just open an email—thankfully, reading a note doesn't ping the spammer with a "verified account" message. In fact, the only way for a sender to get a receipt is to request one. Some mail programs allow senders to add a receipt request to a message, which—only if you decide to play along—will notify the sender that you got their mail. That would be the most obvious set up, um, ever. Hey, can you click this box if you opened this message because I'd like to steal your identity. Yes? Rad! What the nonsense message is likely fishing for is a reply—something like, Hey, your message came through garbled. Is there something I can help you with? At least that's what Dave Marcus from McAfee Labs thinks is up. "They could be testing out the company's spam filters, but I think they're just looking to get you to respond to it." A response means a real person. Most likely, spammers are hoping for a holler back from the uninitiated—the ones that worry an important message was damaged in the mail. Hey, it happens in real life... Spam Bustin'If you're getting emails that contain nothing but gibberish, feel free to ignore them. The message will remain benign unless you play along. But for taking on spam as a whole, here are a few tips to keep you safe and your inbox clean: 1. The email program you use matters. "Gmail is really good at filtering spam email out," says McAfee's Dave Marcus. Hotmail, not so much. It's all about the algorithm. 2. Recognize that current events are used as lures. "When there's a high interest news event, spammers will pretend to have videos with bin Laden getting shot," says Marcus. "When you click through, malware will be installed or the site will drop a bot on your machine." The aim is identity theft. 3. Don't open unsolicited emails. If you abstain completely, you wont be tempted to click on some awesome-sounding-but-evil link or attachment. 4. Type links directly into your browser instead of clicking them in-email. If an unknown sender floats you a link for Japan relief aid, you're better off just searching the same thing in your web browser. At least then you're in the driver's seat. Gizmodo is the world's most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd. |
| How to Livestream Your Games to the Web Posted: 15 Jun 2011 10:51 AM PDT How you can become the next online gaming sensation—for free!So you want to be a video star? You'll have to work on your gaming skills first—you wouldn't want to disappoint your future legions of YouTube fans with a 0-64 record in StarCraft II. Wait, what? Videogame streaming (and commentary) is a huge deal nowadays, and it's a lot easier to get in on the action than you might think. And don't forget bragging rights: Wouldn't you want to show all of your friends just how well you can wield a zergling? Or a portal gun? Or a desert bus adventure?
You don't need any flashy hardware or capture cards to stream your screen (and game) online. In fact, you can have your "I Rock at TIE Fighter" channel up and running within half an hour, at most. 1. Set up UstreamFor livestreaming, we prefer Ustream (www.ustream.com), a free service that offers an effortless method for transforming a live recording of your desktop or laptop PC into an online broadcast. You don't have to worry about customizing a special player, or futzing around with hosting your feeds in some crazy way, or setting up your own server, or doing much beyond hitting the giant, obligatory Go Live button. For those who don't yet have an account, you'll start by hitting up the main Ustream site and going through the standard sign-up process. Once you're activated and logged in, click your account name in the upper-right corner of Ustream's homepage. On the following page, click the "Create a show" button in the upper-left corner (below).
Voila. You're now in your new show's settings screen. Adjust your options to suit your preferences within the various tabs on the left side of the screen: Show Info, to manage the basics like name, category, and pictures; Design, to set up the look and feel of your streaming broadcast; and Settings, to change your broadcast's privacy and chat settings (among other options). Within the Settings window, make sure you click the Advanced Settings drop-down list at the bottom of your screen. Once you've done that, click the "Download the Flash Media Encoder XML file". This is your golden ticket to the online cinema, so make sure you remember where you saved it to on your hard drive. Very important stuff. And that's it! Don't start broadcasting your show just yet; we've only cracked the surface of what you have to do to get your new gaming stream up and running! 2. Capture Your VideoYou'll need a copy of the free VH Capture (www.hmelyoff.com) to begin. Unfortunately the official site is frequently down, so hit up Google and snag a copy from a download site that you trust. Install the app, then pull up the oddly named folder (Hmelyoff Labs) where it sits in your Start Menu, and click through to the subfolder of that (VHScrCap). Run the Config shortcut, which will pull up… a blank window. You'll want to click the "Create new one" button within the "VH Screen Capture Driver instance selection" window—we'll be establishing the parameters that the app uses to record your screen in the next few windows. If you're curious how this is all going to make it to Ustream, we'll later use a separate program to serve as the bridge between the "feed" created by VH Capture and the web service. After you've clicked the "Create new one" button, you'll want to select the Capture tab that appears on the subsequent VH Screen Capture Driver window. Click the Track Screen option. That's it! You might be tempted to fiddle around with the other settings in the misguided belief that you'll be able to specify exact portions of the screen that VH Screen Capture will pull from. Don't bother; your settings won't matter, as we'll be cropping and dicing the recorded feed in a subsequent program.
Click over to the Settings tab (above). Within this screen, you'll want to set your frame rate to a high number (try 60), as you'll want to have the highest-quality stream feeding over to the second program in our chain—that's where the compression will hit. Feel free to adjust settings for displaying the mouse or clicks as you see fit. Once you're done fiddling, make sure you leave this program open on its Options screen. We're on to Step 3. 3. Bridge the GapGrab Adobe's free Flash Media Live Encoder (adobe.ly/NQWU), install it, and fire up the application. When it loads, you'll want to start by clicking the File menu, then Open Profile, and then selecting the Flash Media Encoder XML file you previously downloaded from Ustream.
You'll then want to find the Video section within the Flash Media Live Encoder's configuration screen (above). Click the drop-down list next to the Device entry and select VH Screen Capture, or VHScrCap, as the device that Adobe Flash Media Encoder pulls from. If everything is going to plan, a vision of your desktop should pop up in the preview window above the app's configuration options. Select the ever-awesome H.264 codec as your encoding format, and then click the tiny wrench icon to the right of the selection box for Advanced Encoder Settings (below). StarCraft II recording veterans tend to adopt profiles that use more keyframes—a one- or two-second keyframe. That's because a keyframe is a recording of the screen as it looks at a particular time; anything up until the next keyframe is rendered as a differential adjustment to the underlying static keyframe image. Or, to put it another way, you'll have less blur and incorrect coloration if you set keyframes to a faster (lower) interval. Also, change your profile from Baseline to Main.
If you're planning to stream a windowed game for whatever reason, now's the time to set your input size and cropping options. This part of the setup is pretty self-explanatory: Input size allows you to isolate the particular portion of your original stream that Flash Media Live Encoder should use, and the cropping options allow you to drill down to a pixel-perfect rendition of whatever dimensions you set. Before you start your streaming, two key steps remain: Set the size of your output "streamed" video under the Output Size option—this is exactly what's going to be sent over to Ustream. Select the Bit Rate as well: So long as your setup can handle it, higher bit rates directly translate to a higher-quality final product. And finally, if you want your game's audio to be broadcast to Ustream, click the Device menu under the Audio portion of the app and select the option that's either Stereo Mix or What U Hear, depending on the specifics of your card. If neither exists, you can always select your standard microphone jack, hook up a headset, and provide some thrilling audio Ready? Click the big green Start button. 4. Broadcast to UstreamHead on back to Ustream and click the giant Go Live button in the upper-right corner. Once your official Broadcast Live window pops up, you'll notice that you can't really adjust settings like video quality or audio quality on the web app itself. That's because Ustream, in this instance, is merely the switch that turns your live broadcast on and off. All quality settings are being handled by Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder, which should already be running in the background as you read this.
Click Start Broadcast to do just that (above), and then sit back and watch your rise to Internet superstardom begin. And do send us an autograph when you strike it big! Final caveats: You'll notice that we haven't dabbled too much in numerical specifics—what to set for your stream's bit rate, the size of the video itself, what your frame rate should be, etc. Sadly, the best numbers to slap in these fields can vary by a number of key factors, not the least of which is the speed of your computer and the speed of your Internet connection. The name of the streaming game is experimentation, and only you can ultimately determine the specific settings that work best for your configuration. We can show you how to stream; it's up to you to make it look good. |
| Patriot Pitches G2 Series DDR3 as Fusion and FX Friendly Posted: 15 Jun 2011 08:45 AM PDT
Patriot says its G2 series is specifically intended for AMD 9-series platforms. It's available in 4GB (2x2GB) and 8GB (2x4GB) capacities at speeds of 1333MHz and 1600MHz. "AMD has done an outstanding job catering to the do-it-yourself crowd and the next-generation 9-series platform should be no different. Our Patriot Memory G2 series, AMD Edition modules are the perfect fit for the adventurous overclocker and users seeking system performance," says Les Henry, Patriot Memory's Vice President of Engineering. These are low profile memory kits with low or enhanced latencies, including:
All G2 Series memory kits will ship later this month. No word on price. Image Credit: Patriot Memory |
We've always known Maximum PC readers hold mastery over the technical realm – but new evidence shows that at least one may hold mastery over all things mental as well. Just a few hours ago, in response to news that those affable LulzSec hackers 
Lulz Security (or LulzSec if you're in a hurry) has decided to ask the masses what it should hack next. The group that cracked Sony Pictures, Nintendo, The US Senate, The Escapist, and more have set up a 
When it comes to driver updates, computer users typically fall into one of two categories. There are the conservative types who prefer to wait a few days to make sure the new drivers don't break anything, and there are those who can't install the new drivers fast enough to take advantage of the new features, performance boosts, and bug fixes. If you fall into the latter category and own an AMD Radeon videocard, get to clicking because there's a new Catalyst package available.
It's June 15th, and that can only mean one thing: 
For better or worse, long gone are the days when memory kits were marketed based on frequency and timings alone. Now we have memory kits marketed for specific platforms and processors, a trend that's underscored by Patriot Memory's new "Gamer 2 (G2) Series, AMD Edition" aimed at -- *drum roll* -- gamers putting together an AMD-based system.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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