General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Review

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 05:44 PM PDT

This ultraportable isn't for sissies

Last month we reviewed Samsung's Series 9 ultraportable notebook and found that, while it offered an exceedingly svelte and fashionable form factor, there was a performance trade-off to all that stylishness. Lenovo's 13-inch ThinkPad X1 represents a completely different approach to ultraportability.

We're not suggesting that the X1 eschews aesthetics. In fact, it takes the ThinkPad's classic matte-black look-and-feel and jazzes it up with a few cosmetic updates, such as an edge-to-edge glossy screen, an island keyboard, blue-LED keyboard backlighting, and angled edges. But still, the overall motif is no-nonsense. There's no mistaking that this is a business notebook.

Gorilla Glass protects the edge-to-edge screen on the X1 from suffering nicks and scratches.

The X1's build quality is all business, as well. The notebook might be just an inch thick, but it's no dainty flower. It weighs 3 pounds, 13.3 ounces without the power supply, and it feels solid, making Lenovo's claims of mil-spec compliance wholly believable. The edge-to-edge LCD screen is topped with Gorilla Glass, meant to withstand the rigors of regular use.

The X1's CPU is also pretty burly—for this class. The Core i5-2520M runs at a 2.5GHz base clock, with Turbo potential up to 3.2GHz. Not surprisingly, it handily trounced the 1.4GHz Core i5-2537M in Samsung's Series 9, by more than 90 percent in three out of four content creation benchmarks. It gave the 2.13GHz Core i7-640LM in our zero-point notebook a pretty sound beating too, for that matter. The one anomaly was in Quake III, which is essentially a CPU test these days. Our only explanation for why the X1 performed 30 percent worse than our zero-point here is that it's hurt by its single-channel RAM. All 4GB are on one DIMM, and there isn't a slot for a second. We've found that, for the most part, the large caches in Core 2 and Core ix chips keeps memory bandwidth from being a problem, but certain things, such as the very old Quake III, are sensitive to it. The improved prowess of Sandy Bridge's graphics processor shined through in our Quake 4 benchmark.

We're happy to see that Lenovo didn't let space concerns keep it from equipping the X1 with a 2.5-inch hard dive—in this case, a 320GB, 7,200rpm model. This allows for cheaper and more capacious upgrade options than a 1.8-inch drive would. We're sorry, however, that there's no optical drive in the mix, particularly when thinner and lighter ultraportables have managed that feat.

The X1's battery life was strong in our tests. The notebook played a looped video file for three-and-a-half hours on power-saving mode before pooping out. We were even more impressed with how quickly the battery recharged—more than 80 percent in 30 minutes, thanks to Lenovo's Rapid Charge technology.

Yes, the ThinkPad X1 is a serious machine for serious ultraportable computing, although its ultraportability is on the heftier side and its computing doesn't include optical duties.

$1,400, www.lenovo.com

Future Tense: Filemaking For Pros

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 05:22 PM PDT

James Burke, who made the marvelous TV shows Connections and The Day The Universe Changed (worth buying or renting!) once demonstrated that one of the most important inventions in the history of information technology was the vertical array of storage shelves—the filing cabinet. Why? Because it allowed for a visual system of organization. It was the first database. It made it possible to access information a lot more quickly than spelunking through a stack of scrolls or books.

The computer, of course, makes it possible to have far more complex databases than will fit on a single wall, and provides near-instantaneous information retrieval. One of the first and most important (and possibly the most overlooked or taken for granted) uses for personal computers—after word processors and spreadsheets—was database handling.

At the very beginning, there was dBase II—it was both a database system and a programming language. It was so versatile that it wasn't just the industry leader in database software, it was the industry. dBase II owned the database market for more than a decade, because users needed to build their own specific applications for handling customer lists, billing, record collections, whatever. And unlike WordStar and Lotus 1-2-3, dBase is still around today. The .dbf format remains an industry standard. But most users don't buy database software anymore.

dbase

What has happened is that database functionality has been subsumed into a host of other products. You don't need to do it yourself anymore. Outlook and Gmail handle your address book. Windows Media Player and VLC and Media Monkey manage your music and video collections. Calibre manages your ebook library. PaperPort keeps track of all your scanned files and .pdf documents and everything else it can index. InfoSelect and OneNote are free form managers of all kinds of things, odd little paragraphs, quotes you want to remember, great rants, limericks, websites, even pictures and sound clips.

So the average user doesn't need to create his own databases anymore. Somebody has already written the software for managing a comic book collection or cataloging a home inventory or tracking investments, or keeping recipes. There's a lot of software available, even a lot of freeware. But what do you do if you have a need so specialized there is no software for it? What do you do when you need to track a specific set of data.

Most people default to a spreadsheet. Excel is very good for a quick and dirty database. I've used it that way myself. And you can import many database formats into Excel and back out again. So you can fiddle and diddle and massage your information that way. But Excel has its limits too. What do you do if you need to go beyond a simple Excel table? What if you need relational functions, or you need to include pictures or sound clips or videos?

In 1991, a marvelous Windows-based relational database program called Approach hit the market. The Approach database won over 30 awards the first year, including "best of show" at Comdex. Where dBase was primarily a programming language for accessing and manipulating data files, Approach was a database engine with a graphic user interface. It was easy to use. You could declare a few data fields, drag and drop elements to create personalized layouts, and go to work immediately, adding and adjusting as necessary.

Unfortunately, Approach was sold to Lotus in 1994 and became part of the Lotus SmartSuite. And then IBM bought Lotus and promptly neglected it, allowing the whole package to sink into obscurity almost immediately. Approach isn't officially abandonware but it might as well be. There hasn't been an upgrade in more than a decade.

lotus

Fortunately, there is a much more powerful alternative, Filemaker Pro. It began as Nutshell, a DOS-based program, evolved to a GUI-based program for the Macintosh, and eventually ended up as Claris, a subsidiary of Apple.

The Windows version was first published in 1992 and in 1995 Claris changed its name to Filemaker, Inc. specifically to focus on their best-selling product. Since then, they have released increasingly powerful upgrades approximately every two years. Filemaker is now up to Filemaker Pro 11. There are Advanced and Server editions too.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't anything else on the market as convenient as Filemaker Pro for quickly creating a flat-file or relational database. And despite the inevitable accretion of new features over the past 15 years, the program is still easy for a beginner to get into. You declare the fields in your database, drag and drop them onto the layout, resize fields and fonts to your looking, assign colors, specify behaviors, add buttons or triggers to run scripts, create checkboxes or radio buttons or drop-down calendars, create container fields for pictures, and so on. And with the Advanced edition, you can even compile your database into a standalone application for distribution.

Data types include text, number, date, time, timestamp, container, calculated, and summary. (There is no Boolean data type, but you can fake it well enough with a text field and radio buttons that access a "yes/no" category list.) Individual fields can hold up to 2 gigabytes of data, so you can store a whole novel in a text field, if you wanted to. But like Notepad, text fields do not maintain formatting. (My request for a future release is an enhanced text field that stores text in .rtf or .doc format.)

A calculated field can contain dozens of nested "if-then" statements as well as all kinds of math functions and text concatenations. Likewise, scripts can be nested to accomplish almost any task, no matter how complicated. Fields can be self-validating, and can show up as edit boxes, pop-up menus, drop-down lists, checkboxes, radio buttons, calendars, and more. Conditional formatting is also available. Filemaker Pro 11 can access databases up to 8 terabytes in size. (Of course, first you'll need an 8 terabyte drive....in 2013, or thereabouts.)

fpro

Filemaker Pro has event-driven scripts, built out of many small functions. It's kind of like assembling Lego bricks. Each little brick is simple in itself, but you can assemble a multitude of them to produce marvelous structures. Once you get the hang of it, thinking that way, it's fairly easy to create a very powerful interface, data structure, and program behaviors.
Scripts can respond to a variety of different events. To make Filemaker Pro do something interestingly arcane (like having a button change color depending on the specific state of a record) sometimes requires a little thought—Where do you find the state of the record? Where do you store it? What triggers the script?—but with a little jiggling, a little juggling, you can make Filemaker Pro 11 do just about anything you want.

The advantage of being able to create your own database is that you can make it work the way you want, and adjust it as your needs change. You get to determine your own interface, any special fields you need, what your reports should include, and how you want them to look.

Not everybody needs to create their own databases, but for many people Filemaker can be an essential tool. I use it to catalog my own ever-growing bibliography (including book covers), to create a much more powerful to-do list manager than anything else I've found, to catalog my CD collection (including album covers), to compile quotes for a quotebook, for tracking and generating passwords, for managing auctions, and most spectacularly (when the Assistant Director flaked out) I used it to create a detailed shooting schedule for a feature length script in less than two days. And once, just for the fun of it, I even used it to create a political babble-generator.

Filemaker Pro is a powerful database environment, rationally priced and easy to use. You'll likely end up finding new applications for it, far beyond your original needs.

How to Dual-Boot Into the Speedy Joli OS

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 02:59 PM PDT

Having your computer run Windows 7 is great. Having your computer dual-boot into Windows 7 and a speedy thin client like Joli OS? Even better.

Google's Chrome OS has gotten a lot of ink lately, and for good reason: It's easy to install, zippy, and—insofar as thin-client operating systems go—powerful. But as ubiquitous as Chrome is in the news these days, it isn't the only web-based operating system in town. Jolicloud, or as Jolicloud developers prefer to call it these days, Joli OS, has been making low-powered netbooks, PCs, tablets, and web browsers more productive since 2009.


Jolicloud, aka Joli OS, is a free, cloud-based OS that gives you lightning-fast access to al your favorite online apps and services.

Savvy users who opt to install Joli OS as a secondary operating system to complement their existing Windows 7 installation will find that booting into the thin client is so fast that they've already logged on, fired off an email, and moved on with their lives in the time it would take for Windows 7 to load to its boot screen. Setting up your PC to dual-boot into Windows 7 and Joli OS couldn't be easier, with the whole process taking no more than 45 minutes and a single download. Here's how it's done.

Step 1: Download Joli OS

If you're going to install Joli OS, you'll have to download it first. The thin client's developers offer the operating system in a variety of flavors. The easiest way to install Joli (and the one we're going to use for this tutorial), is the Keep Windows option, presented prominently on the Jolicloud download page (above). Click it and download the OS's installation package to your desktop.

Step 2: Install Joli OS

It's time to get this thin-client installation show on the road. Double-click the Joli OS Installer and tell Windows to back off when it warns you that it doesn't recognize the package's publisher. After taking a few moments to extract, the package will greet you with an installation dialog.

Click the Get Started button (above, top). You'll be asked to select a username and password for your Joli OS installation (above, bottom). Select something easy to remember, while at the same time giving truck to the importance of strong password protection. Once you've noodled out your new thin client's login credentials, click Next.

By default, the installation package will want to set up shop on your C: drive. If you're OK with the location and partition size suggested, click Next. If they rub you the wrong way, click the option to change the configuration (above). Your PC can rock a Joli OS installation with as little as 4GB of space. Once you've wrangled the installation settings you're after, click Next. Joli OS will install to your system, prompting you to go for a coffee. If you choose to do so, you'd better make it a quick one—after repeated installations, we've found the whole process to average less than five minutes in length.

Step 3: Reboot Your PC

Once the installation process is complete, you'll be prompted to reboot your system. Do so. Thanks to some behind-the-scenes magic and GNU Project's GRUB bootloader, you'll find that you're now rocking a dual-boot system that asks which OS—Joli or Windows 7—you want to boot into at startup. For the sake of this tutorial, use your keyboard's arrow keys to select Joli OS (below), and hit Enter.

You'll be rewarded with a Joli OS splash screen, followed shortly thereafter by a dialog and progress bar explaining that your Joli OS installation is being completed. In hindsight, we're sure the Joli OS devs would agree that this would be a way better place to go and grab a cup of java than during the unpacking process. As svelte an OS as Joli is, the last leg of its installation took a surprisingly long time to complete. That said, your patience will be rewarded with one of the best dual-boot thin-client experiences currently available. Once the installation process is complete, Joli OS will automatically restart your system, booting back into the OS so that you can get down to business.

Step 4: Set Up Joli OS

Whether you decided to take a coffee break or not, sooner or later your Joli OS installation will be complete and ready to use. Remember those login credentials we had you decide on back in Step 2? It's their time to shine: Once Joli OS has restarted, enter them in the field provided. You'll then be asked to either log into your existing Jolicloud account, or create one (below). For existing Jolicloud users, logging in will connect your Joli OS installation to your account, allowing any of the preferences, settings, or documents that you've created with other iterations of Joli OS to sync with your new hardware-bound version of the operating system. For users that are new to Jolicloud and Joli OS, creating an account is not only a requirement for rocking the thin client on your computer, it is also a fantastic way to access all of your personal information, documents, and preferred applications everywhere you go, via the Jolicloud website, a dedicated Chrome app, thumbstick installations, and hardware dedicated to the operating system.

You'll then be asked to describe what kind of hardware you've installed the OS to, as well as your computer's brand and model. This assists Joli OS in serving you the best drivers and updates for your particular rig. It could also come in handy later, should you decide to utilize the OS in multiple locations and need to differentiate between which installation is which.

Step 5: Enjoy!

Now that you've installed your Joli OS thin client, you're ready to reap the benefits of what a dual-booting super rig like yours now has to offer. For heavier tasks, like hardcore gaming, and photo manipulation, there's no question that Windows 7 is the right platform for the job. If all you're interested in is a bit of word processing, web browsing, or catching up on your email, you'll find Joli OS more than capable. What's more, Joli OS's low power requirements make it perfectly suited for road warriors looking to stay productive on a cross-country flight with nothing more than the charge in their laptop's battery, or for those of us who don't have the patience to wait for our computers to boot into a more robust OS.

Step 6: Just In Case

If for any reason you ever decide that Joli OS isn't for you, getting rid of it is even easier than installing it. Simply boot into Windows with an Administrator account, navigate to your Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Uninstall. Locate Jolicloud in the list of applications and uninstall it as you would anything else. Boom: Your rig is back to being a mono-boot beast.

Amazon Pulling Plug on California Associates Program, Blames Taxes

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 02:39 PM PDT

azIt's getting to be a highly predictable pattern. A state starts working on a bill that would force Amazon to pay sales tax up front on its sales in said state. Amazon then starts playing hardball by cancelling business deals and ending associate programs, and that's what's happening in California today. 

A new bill in the California legislature would force Amazon to pony up sales tax to the state, and Bezos is not pleased. In an email sent out to members of the Amazon Associates Program, the retailer says the program will be terminated in California effective the day this law goes into effect, if it does. The Associates Program is a way for people to make money for linking to products that users end up buying.

This arrangement makes the point of sale more murky, and has become a target for local governments hungry for fresh sources of income. Traditionally, companies only had to pay sales tax when they had a physical presence in a state. it seems this issue isn't going away, and California is a mighty big arena to take the tax fight to. Do you think Amazon should be paying sales tax? 

Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Evernote

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 02:03 PM PDT

If by some chance you are unfamiliar with Evernote, you should sell that rock you've been living under and visit our Evernote Cheat Sheet. Evernote is a must-have app for every smart phone platform on the market, but if you are a Windows Phone user you've probably been making do with OneNote and Windows Live Skydrive up to this point as Evernote has only released their Windows Phone app in the last week or so.

  

Smart phones are intended to make our lives more organized, ease communication, and remind us of important things we might otherwise forget. Evernote uses cloud-based technology to synchronize your text, voice, and image based notes between all your devices and makes them accessible via the web. Images containing text go through an OCR process, rendering the recognized text searchable. The Windows Phone app also makes use of the phone's GPS and location services to allow you to save a note based on your current whereabouts.

Evernote applications are free, as is the basic cloud service. Premium accounts are available for $5 per month or $45 per year, and bump the monthly usage limit from 60MB to 1000MB.

 

Evernote is also available in the Android Market and the iTunes App Store. Be sure to check back next week for another Windows Phone 7 App of the Week!

IHS iSuppli: Don't Hold Your Breath Waiting for DDR4

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 09:03 AM PDT

Feel free to load up on DDR3 memory without worrying about it going obsolete in the next 12 months, or even 24 months. According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, DDR3 modules, which currently claim between 85-90 percent of the memory market, will remain the dominant DRAM type for at least three more years before it starts to give up ground to faster, next-generation DDR4 modules.

"DDR3 has been the main DRAM module technology shipped in terms of bits since the first quarter of 2010, gaining adoption quickly in the PC ecosphere as the market's primary driver," said Clifford Leimbach, analyst for memory demand forecasting at IHS. "Not only is DDR3 the dominant technology today in the three PC channels for original equipment manufacturers, the PC white-box space and the upgrade market, DDR3 is also the chief presence across all PC applications, such as desktops and laptops, as well as their subcategories in the performance, mainstream and entry-level computing sectors."

By the end of 2011, IHS iSuppli predicts DDR3 will account for 89 percent of the 808 million DRAM module units shipped, up from 67 percent one year ago and 24 percent in 2009. In 2012, DDR3 will account for 92 percent of all memory and then peak at 94 percent in 2013 "before it heads down an irreversible cycle of decline that starts in 2014." By 2015, IHS iSuppli predicts DDR4 will account for the majority of DRAM with a 56 percent market share.

Razer Rolls Out Transformers 3 Themed Peripherals

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 08:36 AM PDT

Razer isn't new to movie tie-ins by any means, having released an assortment of Tron-themed gaming gear. Now it's Transformers' turn to tango with Razer with a range of Transformers 3 peripherals, including themed DeathAdder mice in four different colors, themed dual-sided Vespula mouse mat, and customized laptop sleeves.

You can declare your allegiance to the Autobots by picking up a DeathAdder in red with blue LED (Optimus Prime) or yellow (Bumblebee), or dance with the Decepticons with a silver (Megatron) or purple (Shockwave) mouse. Each one runs $70 and sports the same specs as the non-theme DeathAdder.

The Vespula mouse mat runs $45 and includes an Autobot "speed" surface on one side for a smoother, faster-paced swiping action, and a Decepticon "control" surface on the other side for ultra-precise movements.

Finally, the laptop sleeves come in four different colors (red, yellow, silver, and purple) and fit up to 15-inch laptops. They're made of a hard, flexible plastic shell with a padded inner lining and run $50 each.

Razer Transformers 3 Product Page

Image Credit: Razer

Kaspersky: Cybercriminals Have Spent $250,000 Spreading TDSS Botnet

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:35 AM PDT

The security gurus over at Kaspersky crunched some numbers and determined that cybercriminals are spending big bucks promoting the TDSS botnet, TDL-4. In just the first three months of 2011, TDL-4 has helped infect more than 4.5 million computers around the world, requiring an investment of around a quarter of a million dollars from cybercriminals, Kaspersky says.

Kaspersky arrived at that figure based on the notion that malware writers pay third parties to spread their foul files. According to Kaspersky, partners are paid from $20 to $200 dollars for the installation of 1,000 malicious programs.

"We don't doubt that the development of TDSS will continue," Kaspersky quotes the experts who carried out the investigation. "Malware and botnets connecting infected computers will cause much unpleasantness -- both for end-users and IT-security specialists. Active reworkings of TDL-4 code, rootkits for 64-bit systems, the launch of a new operating system, use of exploits from the Stuxnet arsenal, use of P2P technologies, proprietary 'anti-virus' and much much more make the TDSS malicious program one of the most technologically developed and most difficult to analyze."

Kaspersky classifies TDSS as "the most sophisticated threat today," noting it "has a powerful rootkit component, which allows it to conceal the presence of any other types of malware in the system." Kasperskyk says TDL-4 contains an updated algorithm encrypting the protocol used for communication between infected computers and botnet command and control servers, making it far more dangerous than previous versions. This particular variant is also a bootkit, meaning it infects the MBR to launch itself.

Much more on the topic here.

Image Credit: Fat Joe

BullGuard Fetches VB100 Award from Virus Bulletin

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 06:07 AM PDT

Security software maker BullGuard on Tuesday dropped us a line to let us know its BullGuard Antivirus 10 software received a VB100 award from Virus Bulletin, an independent testing lab that we ourselves reference when reviewing AV software. Virus Bulletin's latest AV comparative focuses on performance in Windows Server 2008, giving BullGuard a score of 9 out of 10 based on fast scan times, no stability problems, and exceptional protection.

BullGuard caught Virus Bulletin's entire collection of 'in-the-wild' and polymorphic viruses, 99 percent of trojans, and 99.78 percent of worms and bots.

"Detection rates were uniformly excellent, with stunning coverage of the RAP sets, and the core certification sets were handled admirably too," said John Hawes, Technical Consultant and Test Team Director at Virus Bulletin. "BullGuard thus comfortably earns a VB100 award, its history showing only sporadic entries but solid pass rates, with three passes from three entries in the last year, five from five entries in the last dozen tests."

In our own evaluation of BullGuard Internet Security 10 -- the fully fleshed out version of BullGuard Antivirus 10 -- we awarded the suite a 7 out of 10 verdict, noting excellent behavioral-based scanning and customizable alerts as high points, and dinging the product for its impact on system performance. You can read our review of this and several other Internet security suites here.

MasterCard Blames Temporary Outage on ISP, Not Hackers

Posted: 29 Jun 2011 05:45 AM PDT

Hackers are trying to take credit for bringing down MasterCard's website yesterday, a plausible claim given the recent hackathon that's been sweeping through cyberspace. However, the world's second largest consumer payment network blamed the temporary downtime on its telecommunications service provider, while insisting that no card user accounts are in jeopardy.

"We can confirm that MasterCard's corporate, public-facing website experienced intermittent service disruption, due to a telecommunications/Internet Service Provider outage that impacted multiple users," MasterCard spokesperson James Issokson told MSNBC.com. In an earlier statement, Issokson ensured, "It is important to note that no cardholder data has been impacted and that cardholders can continue to use their cards securely."

On Twitter, hacking group "Ibom Hactivist" tried to take credit for bringing down MasterCard.com and tweeted, "MasterCard.com DOWN!!!, thats what you get when you mess with @wikileaks @Anon_Central and enter community of lulz loving individuals :D" The tweet references two high-profile hacking groups, including Anonymous and Lulz Security, the latter of which recently disbanded.

While MasterCard isn't willing to credit hackers with taking down its site, hackers were successful in doing so back in December after the firm blocked WikiLeaks from using its network to collect payment from donors, Boston.com reports. Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of MasterCard's decision to block payments.

Image Credit: MasterCard
Posted by Shri Krishna

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