General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: Storage and RAM Edition!
- Capcom Says Most Street Fighter V Server Issues Now Resolved
- Linksys Now Taking Pre-Orders for EA7500 Maxstream MU-MIMO Router
- Mark Cuban Gives Apple 'Standing Ovation' for Fighting FBI's Encryption Order
- John McAfee Says He'll Decrypt the Controversial iPhone
- PDF Freeware Hacks
| Newegg Daily Deals: Storage and RAM Edition! Posted: 19 Feb 2016 11:20 AM PST Top Deal: Life if full of waiting, isn't it? You go the DMV to renew your license and have to wait (a really long time). At Disneyland, you stand in line and wait (also a really long time). Same for the grocery store and numerous other places. And to add insult to injury, that aging hard drive in your PC isn't getting any faster. Why not swap it out for an SSD and kill those long wait times that come from transferring large files? One cost effective option is today's top deal for a Crucial MX200 2.5-inch 500GB SATA 6Gbps (SATA III) Micron 16nm MLC NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $135 with free shipping (normally $155 - use coupon code: [ESCEGFN68]). With read and write times of 555MB/s and 500MB/s, respectively, you'll enjoy snappier all around performance and less time waiting. That's a win. Other Deals: Samsung 850 EVO 2.5-inch 250GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) for $73 with free shipping (normally $88 - use coupon code: [ESCEGFN22]) Seagate 2TB Expansion Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [EMCEGFN69]) Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2400 (PC3 19200) Desktop Memory Model for $70 with free shipping (normally $82) Toshiba 5TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Desktop Internal Hard Drive Retail Kit for $150 with free shipping (normally $170 - use coupon code: [ESCEGFN25]) |
| Capcom Says Most Street Fighter V Server Issues Now Resolved Posted: 19 Feb 2016 11:04 AM PST K.O.'d by server issues Street Fighter V didn't have the smoothest launch in the world. One of the problems is that users reported a myriad of issues with Capcom's servers—painfully slow matchmaking, outright outages, and disconnects were some of the complaints. Capcom was quick to roll out several fixes, but for many, the problems persisted. Now Capcom is saying that it has a pretty good handle on things and that most of the issues users have run into thus far should no longer be a problem. "As many of you know, there were some issues with theStreet Fighter V servers but we're happy to report that the majority of those issues have now been resolved," Capcom said. "That said, we know there is still a lot left to optimize and not everyone's experience has been the same so I'll be checking in each day here to give everyone an update on how things are progressing," According to Capcom, the matchmaking woes have been resolved—users should be able to find online matches in either Ranked or Casual mode without waiting long. Issues with the Battle Lounge have also been addressed. There are still some bugs that need squashed. One is a UI quirk that makes it seem as though match results are not being sent to the server, when in fact they are. The Street Fighter V team is also working to improve the replay search, along with a handful of other annoyances. |
| Linksys Now Taking Pre-Orders for EA7500 Maxstream MU-MIMO Router Posted: 19 Feb 2016 10:13 AM PST Ships next week If you're in need of a high-end router, Linksys hopes you'll consider its new EA7500 Maxtream model, one of several it debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this year. The EA7500 is a dual-band AC1900 router with MU-MIMO support. There's a bit to digest there, starting with the AC1900 rating. As all router makers do these days, Linksys adds up the total theoretical maximum bandwidth of all available bands—in this case, the EA7500 supports speeds of up to 600Mbps on the 2.4GHz band and up to 1,300Mbps on the 5GHz band, hence the AC1900 rating (802.11ac; 600+1,300). There's a caveat—you can't combine the two bands into a single connection and reach the combined speeds. However, since all router makers are now using this method to advertise their models, it makes it a little easier to tell at a glance which ones are supposed to be the fastest. The other big feature is Mulit-User MIMO. This is a relatively new Wireless-AC technology that allows the router to communicate with and transfer data to and from more than one wireless device at the same time. The vast majority of routers on the market are Single-User MIMO (SU-MIMO). These only communicate with one wireless device at a time, though it's almost undetectable because of how fast it switches between all the gear on your network. Where MU-MIMO can be helpful is with transferring large amounts of data and/or streaming to numerous devices—there should be less buffering, lag, and general hiccups. Some of the other feature highlights include beamforming support, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports (one each), four GbE LAN ports, and Smart Wi-Fi (you can access and tweak your network using a freely available mobile app). The Linksys EA7500 is available to pre-order now for $200, down from its retail price of $220. It will begin shipping at the start of next week. |
| Mark Cuban Gives Apple 'Standing Ovation' for Fighting FBI's Encryption Order Posted: 19 Feb 2016 09:41 AM PST Dallas Mavericks owner dishes an assist to Apple Apple finds itself at the center of a controversy, one that pits the rights of U.S. citizens to privacy versus the government's power to access data on the grounds of national security. For what it's worth, Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire star of Shark Tank, Mark Cuban, is on Apple's side. More on that in a moment. This is a deep and delicate topic, one that mainly laid dormant until former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of which the U.S. government (and its partners around the world) spy on citizens, and now it's beginning to boil over as the FBI tries to force Apple build a version of iOS that would allow the agency to brute-force its way into the iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Is the government going too far? Therein lies the debate. The FBI would like to take a peek inside the aforementioned iPhone. It would, except that it's locked/encrypted with a passcode, and after 10 incorrect guesses, the data would be wiped. To avoid that scenario from playing out, the FBI used the All Writs Act of 1789 to get a court to order Apple to give "reasonable technical assistance" to bypass or outright disable the auto-erase function, enable the FBI to submit as many passcodes as it takes, and remove the delay between passcode attempts. The code to accomplish the order doesn't exist. Apple could build an updated version of iOS that would comply with the court order, but Apple's reluctant to do so because it amounts to a backdoor that would leave millions of iPhone devices at risk. Apple's stance is garnering a ton of attention in the media and from various celebrities, politicians, and other high profile individuals. Donald Trump made remarks disparaging Apple's decision to fight the FBI on this, while Google's Sundar Pichai and now Mark Cuban have both voiced support for Apple. "Here is my response to Apple's refusal: Amen. A standing ovation. They did the exact right thing by not complying with the order," Cuban states on his blog. "They are exactly right that this is a very, very slippery slope. And while the FBI is attempting to be very clear that this is a one off request, there is no chance that it is. This will not be the last horrific event whose possible resolution could be on a smart phone. There will be many government agencies that many times in the future, point to Apples compliance as a precedent. Once this happens, we all roll down that slippery slope of lost privacy together." Cuban also took issue with the FBI using a law that was written over two centuries ago to get a court to try and force Apple's hand. "The issue is not Apple's. It is not even the FBI's. The issue is that as often happens, technology speeds past our ability to adapt or create new laws that match the onslaught of daily technological change," Cuban added. Interestingly, Cuban goes on to essentially say that he's not opposed to Apple thwarting its own security scheme, but isn't in favor with how it's being ordered to do so. His concern—and that of many others—is that the FBI is creating a legal precedence that could later be abused. Cuban suggests passing a new law, one that could be used to compel a company like Apple to remove certain security and encryption features under a specific set of circumstances, those being:
The whole situation is a lot to wrap one's mind around. Of course, we may not to have to think about it if the FBI just takes John McAfee up on his offer. |
| John McAfee Says He'll Decrypt the Controversial iPhone Posted: 19 Feb 2016 05:34 AM PST On Thursday, McAfee security firm founder John McAfee wrote an op-ed article about the security issues surrounding Apple, the FBI, and the controversial iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters in December. Essentially, he wants to offer his services to the government, free of charge, in exchange for Apple not having to provide a backdoor into its iOS platform. "I will, free of charge, decrypt the information on the San Bernardino phone, with my team," he writes. "We will primarily use social engineering, and it will take us three weeks. If you accept my offer, then you will not need to ask Apple to place a backdoor in its product, which will be the beginning of the end of America." McAfee's offer arrives just days after Apple CEO Tim Cook presented customers with a public letter stating that his company has no plans to make a new version of iOS to install on an iPhone recovered during an investigation. He said that if this modified platform fell into the wrong hands, it would allow anyone to gain access to whatever is stored on an iPhone that's in his/her physical possession. Cook said that by building a version of iOS that would bypass security, the company would essentially be creating a backdoor. And even though the government swears that this "tool" would only be used in this specific case, Cook couldn't guarantee the safety of every iPhone customer. He says that the tool would be similar to a master key that's capable of opening "hundreds of millions" of locks. This week, reports surfaced that the FBI is demanding that Apple provide means for the agency to access encrypted data stored on an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters. The FBI is using the All Writs Act of 1789 to push Apple into providing the government wants, which is for the company to disable the iPhone feature that will wipe the phone if someone enters the incorrect password ten times. There are reports that the government wants to gain access by using "brute force." As it stands now, not even Apple can break into the terrorist's iPhone thanks to the way iOS is engineered. As with any iPhone, only the people who know the passcode can gain access to the device—presumably just the phone's owner. The FBI has been trying to gain access to the iPhone's contents for months. Apple is unwilling to fork over a tool even though it handed over all the information it could retrieve from the cloud, and other industry giants like Google and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are seemingly backing the iPhone maker. "We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good," Tim Cook said in his open letter. "Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the US government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create." In McAfee's letter, he said that his team is made up of the best hackers "on the planet," with talents that "defy normal human comprehension." Around 75 percent of the group are social engineers while the rest are hardcore coders. He indicated that the FBI's team isn't this good because the government won't hire anyone with a 24-inch purple Mohawk. "I would eat my shoe on the Neil Cavuto show if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone," McAfee says. |
| Posted: 19 Feb 2016 12:00 AM PST
Master PDFs with these free tools
The PDF (portable document format) file format was developed back in the early 1990s by Adobe. These now-ubiquitous files are used for all types of documents, from tax forms and bank statements to newsletters and product manuals. Rather than sending paperwork via snail mail, a PDF makes it easy to transfer documents as an attachment to an email. Once a PDF is received, it needs to be opened by a PDF reader. Adobe provides its free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which for all of its criticisms of slow speeds, generally works. The Windows 10 OS includes Microsoft Reader baked in so that PDFs can be opened without additional software, or hassle. This dedicated software viewer is limited in that the user can only open and view the document, nothing else. For the professional who wishes to manipulate, or even create a PDF, Adobe offers Acrobat Pro DC (where DC stands for Document Cloud), which has a price of $450 to own, or $15 per month as a subscription. Such pricing works for a business that frequently has the need to work with PDFs; however there are plenty of times that an individual power user requires the tools to do some basic PDF edits. With the collection of software tools in this article, we will equip you to become a PDF hacker- using free software. PDF creationThere are plenty of times when being able to create a PDF can be useful, such as when you need to email your resume or an invoice. A PDF is significantly harder for someone at the other end to alter, which enhances the security. This also ensures it will print correctly, even if the recipient doesn't have the font installed on their system (you mean everyone doesn't have all the Tolkien fonts installed?). The simplest way to do this is to create the document in a word processing program. In Microsoft Word 2007 and later, the document can be saved as a PDF using the "Save As" command. For the pure freeware approach, LibreOffice Writer can accomplish the same feat. Keep in mind that it's a separate command, and PDF does not come up as a file format in the "Save As" dialog box. Rather, go to "File" > "Export as PDF" to show the dialog above. There are some options to choose from, but the defaults work fine. Using a word processor to create a PDF is a covers most bases, but there are times when you need to save a PDF through another type of program, such as a dedicated desktop publishing platform. For those cases, you can use a "Virtual PDF printer." There are plenty of options in this category. Bullzip PDF Printer is a good freeware option that's quick and easy to install. When you want to create a PDF, simply "print" the document and select Bullzip PDF Printer as the software printer, rather than a physical printer, and the document is converted and saved as a PDF. Adding a signature to a PDFPDFs are often used for documents that need a signature. The old-school method for doing this is to print it out, sign it physically, rescan it, convert it back into a PDF, then send it back. While this is fine for an occasional document, it's pretty easy to streamline the process by adding a digital signature to the PDF. For this, we use Nitro Free PDF Reader. This software is a light-running and good alternative to Adobe's Acrobat Reader, with some premium tricks up its sleeve. One of its most useful features is the ability to insert a signature into a document. To do this, first start with the signature written on paper. It then needs to be digitized. The quality will be best if you use a flatbed scanner, as it captures the detail without distortion, but in a pinch a smartphone camera can be used, as we did for this example. With the signature captured, it should be cropped down to size, and saved as a JPEG file. This can be done in using image-editing program; we used Paint.net for ours. Next, open the PDF that needs the signature in Nitro Free PDFReader. Hit the QuickSign button on the top menu bar, and select the "Create New Signature" option. In the QuickSign dialog box, select the "Browse" button to load a graphics file. If this is a shared computer or if there are other security concerns, you can use the option to password-protect the signature. With the signature uploaded, hit save, and it will be available to insert into documents. You can insert and position the signature anywhere you like in the document, and you can resize it by dragging on the corners. When the position and size are as you want them, double click, as shown above. The signature is now on the PDF; note that its background is transparent, which allows the document background to show. When you save the PDF, it will be the signature will be saved into it. Encrypting a PDFFor sensitive information, a PDF can be password-protected. This is useful when sending important health or tax information as an email attachment, storing it on the cloud, or on a flash drive with inherent potential for loss While no security is perfect, adding a password at least adds another layer of protection. For this task, we'll use PDFill PDF Tools 12.0. Open the program and choose option 3, "Encrypt and Decrypt Options." In the Encrypt and Decrypt dialog, you can set a user password and an owner password, and set the encryption level to either 40- or 128-bit. You can also fine-tune when a password will be required. When the encrypted PDF is opened, the user will be presented with a password prompt. Adding text to a PDFThere are times when text needs to be added to a PDF, but most free PDF readers don't offer this feature, instead using it as a carrot to nudge users toward a paid version of the software. This hack isn't great for large quantities of text, but it's fine when inserting just a few words on a line. The first step is to open the PDF in the Nitro Free PDF Reader. Select the "Type Text" button, located in the menu across the top of the screen. A text box will appear that will allow you to enter text to placed anywhere on the PDF. You can select font style and size, and alignment. As this process is can't be undone, it's best to use a copy of the original PDF for your updates. Adding pages to a PDFThere are times when pages need to be added to a PDF, and you either don't have the original document, or the page being added was created in a different program than the bulk of the PDF. Whatever the reason, it's handy to be able to add pages. We turn again to PDFill PDF Tools 12.0, this time selecting item 1, "Merge PDF Files." In the Merge PDF Files dialog, PDFs can be added one at a time via the "Add a PDF File" button. The files can be added in any order, and then reordered using the "Move Up" and "Move Down" commands. When the files are in the desired order, create a new PDF using the "Save as..." button. Reordering the pages on a PDFAs with adding to a PDF, there are are times when it may need to be shortened or have a few pages removed. Rather than recreating the document, it is simple to get the unwanted page(s) out. Unlike some of the less radical commands previously described, now we are getting into serious PDF surgery, so use this feature with caution. In PDFill PDF Tools, select task 2, "Split or Reorder Pages." The Split, Reorder or Delete dialog allows you to, well, split, reorder, or delete pages in your PDF. The split function can be used to break your PDF into smaller files. With the right freeware, and the hacks above, PDFs can go from immutable concrete to malleable plastic. For the occasional manipulation, these software tools can get the job done, free and easy! |
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