General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Nvidia Stacks Two Cheap LCD Panels to Quadruple Display Resolution

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 08:30 PM PDT

Cascaded Display PartsCompany focusing on head-mounted displays

Developers of head-mounted displays (HMDs) could benefit from Nvidia's recent efforts sometime in the future. Nvidia was able to quadruple display resolution by stacking two cheap LCD panels on top of one another.

Called cascaded displays, the technique involved the use of two 7-inch 1280x800 LCD monitors. The LCD panels were removed from the casings and the backlight removed from one panel. Both panels were then placed slightly offset, about a quarter-pixel, on top of each other with a quarter-wave film placed between them. The reason the panels were offset, according to the company, is that it acts like a "shutter" for a cluster of four pixels. This is how the resolution is quadrupled. In addition, both panels are able provide refresh rates over 60Hz. 

During its research Nvidia created its own HMD prototype, and special software to take advantage of the cascaded displays, and provided screenshots that compared how a game would look on a conventional LCD HMD and a Cascaded LCD HMD. The result was that text and details were a lot clearer when used the cascaded displays than a conventional one.

Cascaded Display screenshot

According to Nvidia's research paper, the technique is an alternative to the "brute force solution of addressable pixel count" that results in 4K monitors and even mobile displays. 

If you want to know about cascaded displays in full detail then check out Nvidia's research and YouTube demo. 

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21 Back to School Tech Gifts

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 03:41 PM PDT

Smart Buys for Your Back to School Student

Summers never seem to last long enough, and before you know it, you're surfing the web for research rather than the ocean waves for fun. It's a bummer, but only if you let it be. Rather than slip into a deep depression as you count down the number of days until next summer, try focusing on the good things that come with going back to school, like new tech gear!

Whether you're going off to college or starting a new year in high school, now is the time to pitch the folks on a new laptop, tablet, or any other must-have tech item that will help you become a better student. The back to school shopping season is the perfect time to stock up on gadgets, both because you'll often find new hardware on sale, and also because it's a little easier to convince the parental units that a Chromecast is an economical investment that no student should be without. "It's Economics 101, dad!"

Since there's still time to catch some rays, we thought we'd do you a solid by researching 15 of the best tech gifts so you can enjoy what's left of your break. Then, when you're ready, browse our gallery below to check out which electronic gear made the grade!

Windows 8 Market Share Stands Pat as Windows 7 Gains Ground

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 11:21 AM PDT

Windows 8 UltrabookWindows 8 may have hit a brick wall

Not much has happened in the Windows space this summer, though what little movement there's been indicates that users are still trending more towards Windows 7 than Windows 8/8.1. The combined share of Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 in July was 12.48 percent, down a sliver from 12.54 percent in June and 12.64 percent in May. All of those figures are up slightly from the 12.24 percent share Window 8/8.1 held in April when support for XP ended, but nothing to brag about.

Meanwhile, Windows 7 continues to inch forward month after month. Here's how the market share numbers have been playing out for Windows 7 since April of this year, according to data from Net Applications:

  • April: 49.27 percent
  • May: 50.06 percent
  • June: 50.55 percent
  • July: 51.22 percent

That's a 2 percent bump since Microsoft yanked support for Windows XP. And speaking of which, the legacy operating system is still installed on about a quarter of PCs around the world at 24.82 percent, which is down from 26.29 percent in April.

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China Bans Symantec and Kaspersky From List of Approved Antivirus Vendors

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 10:29 AM PDT

KasperskyAs the AV world turns

The Chinese government decided to delist security firms Symantec and Kaspersky from its list of approved vendors, thereby blacklisting each company's antivirus products. It's the latest in what appears to be an ongoing effort to lessen the reliance on foreign technology. Only five AV products are now on the list, all of which are from China -- Qihoo 360 Technology, Venustech, CAJinchen, Beijing Jiangmin, and Rising.

"We are investigating and engaging in conversations with Chinese authorities about this matter," Kaspersky spokesman Alejandro Arango told Reuters. "It is too premature to go into any additional details at this time."

According to Reuters, China is fearful of using products that come outside of its borders due to the potential for spying, especially after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the whistle on widespread surveillance efforts, both here and abroad.

In recent weeks, China banned its government from using Windows 8 due to security concerns. Other U.S. firms such as Cisco and IBM have also had a hard time promoting their products in China.

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Titanfall Update Promises "Yummy" Optimizations to Boost Performance

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 10:06 AM PDT

TitanfallLots of bandwidth tweaks await Titanfall in the latest update

Respawn has put the finishing touches on its fifth title update for Titanfall, and with it comes a ton of optimizations intended to improve online play. The update applies to all platforms and also includes numerous bug fixes, as well as more robust multi-GPU support specific to the PC. Respawn said it worked with Nvidia so that the second GPU would no longer sit idle.

"Lots of yummy bandwidth optimizations as well as various delicious framerate optimizations have been lovingly hand-crafted and squeezed into the game," Respawn said.

A couple of tweaks specific to the PC include a fix for 120/144hz monitors to use the desktop refresh rate for max frames per second when VSync is disabled or when in windowed mode, and a fix for weapon fire rate being different when running greater than 60fps.

You can find more information in the release notes.

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HP's 14-inch Slatebook Running Android is Now Available for $430

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:20 AM PDT

HP SlatebookAndroid-based laptop could be held back by high price tag

For those interested in a laptop running Android, the HP Slatebook is now available on Amazon for $430. It's a 14-inch notebook running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean and powered by an Nvidia Tegra 4.0 processor running at 1.8GHz, 2GB of DDR3L RAM, and 16GB solid state drive. The configuration is along the lines of a Chromebook, though the pricing is in the low-end spectrum of Windows laptops.

That may ultimately be a deal killer, especially since there's more you can do with a Windows laptop that costs about the same. Nevertheless, HP is banking on there being customers who find appeal in running all of their Android apps on a notebook as opposed to a smartphone or tablet PC.

The 14-inch display boasts a 1920x1080 resolution and 10 points of capacitive touch. Other features include 802.11n Wi-Fi, two USB 2.0 ports, a single USB 3.0 port, HD webcam, Bluetooth, and a 3-cell battery good for up to 9 hours run time. It measures 13.54 inches (W) x 9.45 inches (D) x 0.63 inches (H) and weighs 3.71 pounds.

Intrigued? Find out more on Amazon.

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Comcast Offers Low Income Families Six Months of Free Internet Service, Will Forgive Old Debts

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 09:00 AM PDT

ComcastFree broadband service to those who qualify

Just in time for the back-to-school season, Comcast today announced it will hook up any new qualifying family who has not yet applied for Internet Essentials with up to six months of complimentary service. Families who are approved between today and September 20th, 2014 will receive the full six months of free service, even if they owe a past due balance, which Comcast is willing to wipe away.

The latter is part of an amnesty program for certain low income families who could quality for Internet Essentials, but have a past due balance. If the bill is more than a year old and they're now eligible for the program, Comcast will offer amnesty for the debt for the purpose of connecting to Internet Essentials, as long as the customer meets all other eligibility requirements, the company said.

"Internet Essentials is about transforming lives and inspiring a new generation of leaders to be digitally ready to access the information and tools all students need to succeed in the 21st century," said David L. Cohen, Comcast Executive Vice President. "By offering six months of free Internet Essentials service, along with an amnesty program, we hope to convince even more families that there is no better school supply than having broadband Internet at home. With it, kids can do their homework and parents can be more connected to their children's teachers and schools."

Comcast's broadband adoption program has been in place since 2011. It's connected more than 350,000 families, or about 1.4 million low income Americans, and is available in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

Internet Essentials runs $10 per month. There are never any price increases, activation fees, or equipment rental fees. At present, speeds check in at 5Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream.

Image Credit: Flickr (Mike Mozart)

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Newegg Daily Deals: G.Skill Sniper 8GB DDR3-1600, Intel Core i3 4330, and More!

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 08:09 AM PDT

G.Skill RAMnewegg logo

Top Deal:

Have you ever seen Photoshop take its sweet little time loading a picture? The progress bar casually heads towards its destination with all the all urgency of an inmate making that final walk down Death Row. Want to put a pep in its step? One way to do that is by adding more RAM. Don't short yourself, especially at today's prices. Even better is today's top deal for an 8GB kit (2x4GB) of G.Skill Sniper DDR3-1600 Desktop Memory for $77 with free shipping (normally $85 - use coupon code: [EMCPCGW32]).

Other Deals:

Intel Core i3-4330 Haswell Dual-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 54W Desktop Processor for $130 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCPCGW26])

WD Re 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive for $90 with free shipping (normally $105 - use coupon code: [EMCPCGW97])

Cooler Master HAF 932 Advanced - High Air Flow Full Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 for $110 with free shipping (normally $140 - use coupon code: [EMCPCGW36]; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory for $81 with free shipping (normally $90 - use coupon code: [EMCPCGW34])

Thousands of Mozilla Developer Network Email Addresses, Passwords Exposed

Posted: 04 Aug 2014 07:55 AM PDT

MDN email IDs and passwords exposed

Remained exposed for around 30 days

Mozilla on Friday notified users of its Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) about the "accidental disclosure" of over 76,000 email addresses and around 4,000 "salted" passwords. These MDN user credentials remained exposed to the public for around a month until one of the outfit's web developers discovered their presence on a server accessible to the general public around a couple of weeks back.

"The issue came to light ten days ago when one of our web developers discovered that, starting on about June 23, for a period of 30 days, a data sanitization process of the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) site database had been failing, resulting in the accidental disclosure of MDN email addresses of about 76,000 users and encrypted passwords of about 4,000 users on a publicly accessible server," the company said in a blog post Friday. "As soon as we learned of it, the database dump file was removed from the server immediately, and the process that generates the dump was disabled to prevent further disclosure. While we have not been able to detect malicious activity on that server, we cannot be sure there wasn't any such access."

"The encrypted passwords were salted hashes and they by themselves cannot be used to authenticate with the MDN website today. Still, it is possible that some MDN users could have reused their original MDN passwords on other non-Mozilla websites or authentication systems. We've sent notices to the users who were affected. For those that had both email and encrypted passwords disclosed, we recommended that they change any similar passwords they may be using."

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Danish Researchers Set New Fiber-Optic Data Transfer Record

Posted: 03 Aug 2014 11:46 PM PDT

46Tbps fiber-optic transfer

Technical University of Denmark (DTU) researchers achieve 43Tbps using a single laser

Between 2009 and 2011, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) was on a record-breaking binge. It all began with DTU breaking the 1Tbps (terabits per second) fiber-optic data transmission barrier using a single laser in March 2009, only for researchers at the Danish institute to outdo themselves over the next two years with yet more impressive efforts of 5.1Tbps and 9.5Tbps, respectively. Their dominance ended in 2011, though, when Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology took the record away from them.

According a press release issued by the university late last month, researchers at DTU have set a new record by managing to achieve data transfer speeds of 43Tbps (or around 5.4 terabytes) using a single laser. The previous record, set by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2011, was 26Tbps. DTU managed this feat by using a new kind of seven-core optical fiber from Japanese company NNT.

All said, there's nothing here for us ordinary consumers to get excited about.

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