General Gaming Article |
- Pirate Bay Plans On Taking To The Sky To Avoid Server Seizure
- Linux 3.3 Kernel Released, Gives Android A Hearty Welcome Back
- GPU-Z v0.6.0 Hits The Web With New Radeon 7000, GTX 600 Support
- Satechi Turns a Single USB Port into a Dozen with Power
- Wing Commander Catches Flight in Fan Made Followup
- Newspapers Still Struggling to Monetize the Web
- FAA May Change Strict Gadget Policy on Airplanes
| Pirate Bay Plans On Taking To The Sky To Avoid Server Seizure Posted: 19 Mar 2012 10:58 AM PDT
From the Pirate Bay blog: With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we're going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war. I'm not exactly sure if government fighters shooting down private law-evading server drones counts as an act of war -- it depends on the countries and companies involved, I guess -- but it sure is a novel idea. The Pirate Bay calls the rigged drones "Low Orbit Server Stations" (LOSS) and admit they're still working on the technology, but claim to be able to "get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away." Thoughts? |
| Linux 3.3 Kernel Released, Gives Android A Hearty Welcome Back Posted: 19 Mar 2012 10:42 AM PDT
KernalNewbies.org sums things up: For a long time, code from the Android project has not been merged back to the Linux repositories due to disagreement between developers from both projects. Fortunately, after several years the differences are being ironed out. Various Android subsystems and features have already been merged, and more will follow in the future. This will make things easier for everybody, including the Android mod community, or Linux distributions that want to support Android programs. Cue the acoustic guitar and "Kumbaya" singing. In all seriousness, being able to run an Android system off the core Linux kernel will make things much less of a headache for developers. Check out KernelNewbies.org's notes on Linux 3.3 for a full list of changes, complete with quick and technical explanations. |
| GPU-Z v0.6.0 Hits The Web With New Radeon 7000, GTX 600 Support Posted: 19 Mar 2012 10:16 AM PDT Want to know all the deep, dirty and highly technical details about your graphics card that the Windows Experience Index refuses to share with you? Hardcore system tweakers have been turning to TechPowerUp's GPU-Z for just that kind of info for a while now, and today the application got a fresh new coat of paint. GPU-Z v0.6.0 adds, amongst other things, support for many of the new Radeon 7000 hitting the streets -- and support for GTX 600 cards that will supposedly be hitting the streets soon. (Maybe even this week?)
Here is a full list of changes as reported by TechPowerUp:
The website offers both standard- and Republic of Gamer-themed versions of GPU-Z for your GPU identification pleasure. As we've mentioned before, it's both free and awesome, so be sure to check it out. |
| Satechi Turns a Single USB Port into a Dozen with Power Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:41 AM PDT
Credit goes to Tom's Guide for the heads up on the Satechi UH-12P USB 2.0 Hub with Power's availability. Its regular price is $40 though it's currently going for $30, which isn't offensive if you can use something like this. The USB hub is uniquely designed with two switches that control the first and second set of six USB ports with blue LED indicators. It comes with a power supply so it can charge your devices without sucking juice from your notebook. In addition, the USB power strip supports Plug-n-Play (duh), is hot swappable and hot pluggable, and chains up to 127 USB devices. If this sounds like something you can use, you can grab one here. Image Credit: Satechi |
| Wing Commander Catches Flight in Fan Made Followup Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:02 AM PDT
It's called Wing Commander Saga, and though it's not officially sanctioned by or endorsed by Chris Roberts (who produced Wing Commander), Origin, or Electronic Arts, none of them are doing anything to shut the project down. "They have not contacted us and we have not discussed it with them," the project's founder clarified in a statement. "We are thankful that they are permitting us to do this, but no endorsement of Saga by these entities should be implied from that." Fair enough. Legalities aside, Saga has the potential to be an awesome followup. It's certainly much bigger and more involved than what you would expect from a fan made game. It's being built using an enhanced Freespace 2 engine with features like autopilot, carrier landings, enhanced graphics and effects, and more. There are dozens of characters, about 70 cut scenes with 90 minutes of pre-rendered footage, a whopping 55 missions, and much more packed into a 8-9GB installation (download size will be 3-4GB) due for release on March 22, just three days from now. Want more? Check out the trailer embedded below and read this related interview with Gnomes Lair. Image Credit: WCSaga.com |
| Newspapers Still Struggling to Monetize the Web Posted: 19 Mar 2012 06:09 AM PDT
Pew Research issued a new report on the state of news media in 2012 and what it found is that newspapers are losing $10 in print advertising for every dollar they make in online advertising. "Even as online audiences grew, print circulation continued to decline," Pew Research noted in its report. "Even more critically, so did ad revenues. In 2011, losses in print advertising dollars outpaced gains in digital revenue by a factor of roughly 10 to 1, a ratio even worse than in 2010. When circulation and advertising revenue are combined, the newspaper industry has shrunk 43 percent since 2000." Put simply, "the news industry is not much closer to a new revenue model than a year earlier and has lost more ground to rivals in the technology industry," Pew Research says. That's a problem, particularly when, according to Pew Research, more than four in 10 American adults own a smartphone and one in five own a tablet, both of which are being used to consume online content. Do you still read paper newspapers or do you get all your news online? Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons |
| FAA May Change Strict Gadget Policy on Airplanes Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:45 AM PDT
The rules on gadget use are pretty strict, and perhaps sorely outdated. According to a report in The New York Times, the FAA plans to examine the use of mobile electronics on airplanes, including tablets, eReaders, and other devices. Smartphones, it sounds like, won't be included in the new testing. "With the advent of new and evolving electronic technology, and because airlines have not conducted the testing necessary to approve the use of new devices, the FAA is taking a fresh look at the use of personal electronic devices, other than cellphones, on aircraft," Laura J. Brown, deputy assistant administrator for public affairs for the FAA, told NYT. The last time the FAA tested personal electronic devices was in 2006, a time that predates the iPad, Android tablets, and eReaders like the Kindle. It's a pretty involved process. A spokesman for Virign America tells NYT that under current guidelines, an airline is required to test each version of a particular devices on separate flights with no passengers. So in order to approve the Kindle, each airline would have to test each version separately -- first generation Kindle, second generation Kindle, and so on -- which explains why the FAA doesn't want to green light smartphones just yet. It's both time consuming and expensive. One solution NYT came up with is for airlines to work together making a single plane available, funded by hardware and software makers with a vested interested in changing these regulations. |
Whether it involves magnet links, Swedish domain names or founders fleeing to other countries, the digital buccaneers over at the Pirate Bay have never been one to back away from a fight with authorities. Tensions have been rising after SOPA/PIPA and the MegaUpload take down, and Pirate Bay's operators have been feeling the pressure. As such, they recently unveiled a new plan designed to protect against government seizure: combining cheap radio equipment, low-cost computers and flying drones to create airborne servers.
After a small delay, 
Satechi's 12-port USB hub with power adapter isn't an item you can't live without, but it sure does have the potential to make life a little easier if you own a bunch of USB powered gadgets. The device looks like a power strip but is lined with a dozen LED USB 2.0 ports to connect your digital camera, flash drive, external hard drive, tablet, smartphone, or whatever else you might need to pull files from and/or charge.
Any old-school PC gamer worth his salt has spent some time dogfighting in space in Wing Commander, or at least is familiar with the series that first took flight in 1990. Heck, even Mark Hamill (better known as Luke Skywalker) lent his voice acting talents to the third installment, Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. If you have fond memories of flying through space in the 1990s, you'll be happy to know that fans of the franchise are nearly finished with a massive followup.
Think about the last time you read a newspaper article. Was it in print or online? Many people, particularly Maximum PC readers, consume most of their content online. The move from reading paper newspapers to online stories is a fundamental shift in news consumption that's been taking place for the past several years, and according to new research, newspapers are doing a poor job at cashing in.
There's a lot you're not supposed to do on an airplane these days, like run up and down the aisle yelling "Bomb!," join the mile high club, visit the cockpit, and other things that can get you arrested. None of that is going to change. But in the near future, you may be able to use your tablet or eReader during taxi, takeoff, and landing if the Federal Aviation Administration deems that a game of Angry Birds won't muck with a plane's flight system and send it crashing to the ground.| 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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