General Gaming Article |
- Facebook to Finally Announce Music Streaming Service in September
- Future Tense: Unintended Consequences
- Apple Wants Prototype MacBook Back
- Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Tasks
- OCZ's RevoDrive Hybrid Mixes HDD, SSD And PCIe To Create Face-Meltingly Fast Speeds
- How to Repair a Faulty Windows Installation Without Reformatting
- Oops! Acer Ultrabook S3 Price, Specs Prematurely Leaked By Italian Retail Site
- Google Bringing Offline Mode Back To Gmail, Docs and Calendar
- Global Internet Speedup Initiative Kicks Web Surfing into High Gear
- Violent Videogames Blamed for Negative Brand Reception, Too
| Facebook to Finally Announce Music Streaming Service in September Posted: 31 Aug 2011 03:24 PM PDT
The date of September 22 is being floated for an announcement, which coincides with the Facebook F8 conference. There are already ways to connect music services with Facebook Connect, but the site would benefit from keeping people logged on while they listen. This would give Facebook more data, and more opportunities to serve ads. Facebook has not been negotiating to become a music retailer itself, much to the dismay of record labels. So the streaming option would likely be standalone. We assume there would be social listening features built in. Perhaps users will be able to listen simultaneously to the same track. Would you use a Facebook music service? If there is a fee, what is fair? |
| Future Tense: Unintended Consequences Posted: 31 Aug 2011 03:04 PM PDT
Please. If we accomplish nothing else in the next twelve hundred words, could we at least stop mispronouncing it? Without fail, every August anniversary of the first atomic war (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), the commentariat trots out the usual Monday morning afterthoughts about the rightness or wrongness of President Truman's 1945 decision to use nuclear weapons. Regardless of which side of the argument you take today, we also have to consider the circumstances under which the decision was made and the thinking of the moment. With the victory in Europe secured, Americans wanted the war in the Pacific to end as well. The nation was emotionally exhausted. The prospect of an invasion of Japan was daunting. Some military planners estimated a half million casualties or more. Soldiers who had fought their way across Europe were already being shipped to the Pacific theater. Marines who had island-hopped all the way from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima knew how ferocious the Japanese soldiers were, and many did not believe they would survive an assault on the home islands of Japan. From Truman's perspective, the decision to use the bomb was dictated by circumstances. On the one hand, he could invade Japan in a long expensive, brutal, and bloody campaign that would cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and untold Japanese troops and civilians as well—a campaign that could go on for another year or two or three. On the other hand, he could use the bomb and demonstrate to the Japanese that continued resistance was suicidal, forcing them to surrender. Truman is quoted as saying that if he did not use the bomb, he would one day have to answer a million American mothers asking, "If you had a weapon that could have ended the war and saved my son's life, why didn't you use it?" That's the generally agreed-upon history of the decision. But there was another factor as well that doesn't get talked about very much. It's this simple. Very few people on the planet understood the human dimension of nuclear weapons. The first atomic test at Alamagordo in July of 1945 gave Robert Oppenheimer, Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, and the other scientists who had created the bomb, their first inkling that what they had unleashed was going to transform the world. By all reports, it was a very uncomfortable realization. Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita. "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." And this is my point. Not one of those people involved in the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki understood what nuclear weapons really meant to the world. They had a lot of theory, they had the stats, they had the predictions—but they had no personal experience of the reality of nuclear weapons, so they saw everything filtered through everything they had experienced in the past. To the military, the bomb was just a bigger and better boom—a more efficient way to destroy a city than sending hundreds of planes dropping incendiaries to create an all-consuming firestorm. The idea that you could destroy a city a city with a single bomb, that people would suffer radiation burns and radiation sickness—that was the stuff of science fiction. Except the science fiction writers of the time hadn't even begun to consider the terrifying possibilities. It wasn't until the fifties that the realities of nuclear war became a science fiction theme in novels like Pat Frank's Alas Babylon. Only after human beings had actual experience of the reality. The military justified the decisions to destroy Hiroshima and then Nagasaki as part of the cold calculations of war. President Truman justified his decision (partly) based on the emotional exhaustion of the nation and the consequences of not using the bomb. But whatever the reasons and justifications for the decisions to proceed—those decisions were also made in an experiential vacuum, because few people at the time could reliably predict or understand the vast future of unrecognized consequences that would inevitably occur. Before Hiroshima, each global conflict was worse than the last, each had an exponentially higher death toll. Today, we still have wars, but not on the same scale. We've stopped raising the ante on ourselves. Some military strategists say that's because the realities of nuclear warfare are now so well known and understood that those consequences inspire genuine terror in politicians and military leaders alike, a very different understanding of the consequences than existed in 1945. Now…what does any of this have to do with your phone, your laptop, your tablet, your gaming machine, or your desktop computer? Everything. Today, we build new technologies because we can—because engineers and researchers see opportunities things that are newer, cheaper, faster, better, different. Even the lay person can see the possibility that a cell phone or an iPod or a tablet will provide an advantageous access to information and communication. But even as we build those things, we're still looking in the rear view mirror—we're designing them out of our experience of the past, so we can do more of the things that we did in the past, only better. What we keep on forgetting is that what comes along for the ride, every time, are the unrecognized and unintended consequences. And those consequences are almost always transformative. Things get changed—often drastically. And in ways that are unpredictable before the event and look inevitable only afterward. The cumulative effect of little things can be the most dramatic. One automobile is no big deal. A billion automobiles is a pollution problem. One light bulb is nothing much. A billion light bulbs is an energy problem. One computer is interesting. A billion computers is a network, and that's an opportunity for thieves and hackers and malware of all kinds. It's also an opportunity for instantaneous global communication, for political and social movements, for viral uprisings and flash mobs. Even though we have been building and using personal computers for 35 years, we are still in the infancy of the information revolution. We still have only a glimmering of how technology is ultimately going to change our lives. Even ten years out, we cannot foresee the changes we are about to experience—the cultural and economic and emotional and personal effects that the hyper-liquidity of information will create, not to mention what happens when our cars can drive themselves, when Skyping is commonplace, when cameras are so ubiquitous that privacy disappears, when personal biology is augmented by implants of all kinds, when software agents are managing all the myriad details of memory. Already today, we're seeing transformations. The internet has changed global politics. Twitter produces virtual flash crowds—and real ones too. The tablet is making the internet a portable interface. Smartphones and YouTube have validated Andy Warhol's prophecy—"In the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes." Do something above and beyond the call of ordinary stupidity and you'll not only get a million hits, you'll even get a web-redemption from Daniel Tosh. And all of this is still only the beginning. Tanith Lee, in her wonderful book The Silver-Metal Lover, postulated a world where body-modding was commonplace, where sexuality was fluid, where the cultural moment shifted so fast that there was no continuing culture at all. Authors like Frederik Pohl and Damon Knight wrote of walled communities that locked themselves into specifically defined and limited cultures. Still other authors have written of worlds where cultural phenomena rise and fall in a matter of hours—along with fortunes. That last one may have been the most prescient. Before the internet, back in the days of fanzines, a good flame war could last months, even years. Today, it's rare that an online flame war goes for more than a week before the participants either give up, go away, or move on to the next topic. The unintended consequence of all of our computer technology has been a dramatic acceleration of the pace of life. We are bombarded daily with more information than we can assimilate and it is coming in at ever-increasing rates. Email, social networks, Twitter, advertising, television—everything. We are advancing both the scale and pace of all of our economic and social interactions—and we're doing it without any serious recognition of the ultimate limitations of the human mind and body. There are going to be consequences, both for the individual and for society at large. We will experience the effects medically, socially, emotionally, and personally. Increased rates of autism, irrational and delusional behavior, extremists of all flavors, greater investment in conspiracy theories, a general increase in neuroses and superstitions, and that impending sense of doom that feeds into end-of-the-world manias—all of these and more have been postulated as consequences of our unstoppable headlong rush into an accelerated world. Fat Man and Little Boy transformed our world, and not necessarily for the better—the risks of nuclear disaster, nuclear terrorism, even nuclear war, are still with us. The technology revolution will be even more transformative and possibly even more dangerous. It's the unintended and unrecognized consequences that will have the greatest impact on all of us. The future is going to be very exciting—and like that famous Chinese curse, we are going to be living in interesting times. Perhaps we will also be smart enough to use our new technologies to make ourselves more humane. What do you think? What would you predict?
————— David Gerrold is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author. He has written more than 50 books, including "The Man Who Folded Himself" and "When HARLIE Was One," as well as hundreds of short stories and articles. His autobiographical story "The Martian Child" was the basis of the 2007 movie starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet. He has also written for television, including episodes of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Twilight Zone, and Land Of The Lost. He is best known for creating tribbles, sleestaks, and Chtorrans. In his spare time, he redesigns his website, www.gerrold.com
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| Apple Wants Prototype MacBook Back Posted: 31 Aug 2011 02:49 PM PDT
The laptop has the internal components for a 3G SIM card, but it appears to be non-functional. More interesting is the antenna design, which takes some cues from the MagSafe power connector. It attaches to the screen bezel with a series of magnets. Frega posted about the machine on the Anandtech forums after buying it, but users seemed uninterested. He says this led him to believe it was not particularly rare. Under the aluminum shell, the device has red circuit boards, clearly marking it as an Apple prototype. Frega attempted to sell the device on eBay recently after realizing some collectors may be interested. The bidding reached over $70,000 before Apple shut it down. Now Frega has received a letter asking for the computer to be returned. Do you think he should return it to Apple? |
| Windows Phone 7 App of the Week: Tasks Posted: 31 Aug 2011 01:04 PM PDT Windows Phone 7 is one of the better mobile platforms for getting work done. The fact that Microsoft owns much of the business and enterprise technology products is obviously a large contributing factor. Microsoft's Exchange, SharePoint, and Office products are all integrated into Windows Phone 7 to some level. Strangely though Microsoft left out a business tool that can be integral to managing your daily schedule, this being some sort of task management or to-do list utility.
The aptly-named Tasks for Windows Phone 7 is a task management application for your Windows Phone. Sadly synchronization tools or services are unsupported, though the Tasks team promises they will be made available in the next release. What Tasks does offer is a beautiful and efficient user interface that gives you all the information you need to keep your priorities in order. Using the standard panoramic UI that Windows Phone users have become familiar with, Tasks offers visibility of your tasks based on schedule or associated projects or categories. New tasks can be created with pictures or voice memos in addition to more typical data such as an email address or the URL of a website.
Tasks is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace. |
| OCZ's RevoDrive Hybrid Mixes HDD, SSD And PCIe To Create Face-Meltingly Fast Speeds Posted: 31 Aug 2011 11:12 AM PDT If you're looking for the blazing-fast read/write speeds of a solid state drive combined with the massive storage capacities of traditional models, OCZ just announced a hybrid drive with your name on it. The RevoDrive Hybrid does more than just mash-up a 100GB SSD and a 1TB HDD, it also tosses PCIe transfer technology into the mix, allowing it to achieve data transfer speeds much faster than the SATA-sporting Seagate hybrids on the market.
How fast is fast? OCZ claims the RevoDrive Hybrid achieves 910MB/s sequential read rates and 120,000 IOPS with 4K random writes. A large part of that efficiency comes courtesy of the software packed into the hard drive. We'll let OCZ explain it: The drive comes bundled with Dataplex caching software which dynamically manages the use of the 100GB SSD with the 1TB HDD for superior overall storage performance. This combination creates an environment where the most frequently used "hot" data stays on the ultra-fast SSD, while the "cold" data remains on the larger capacity HDD. Advanced caching algorithms learn user behavior and adapt storage policies to ensure optimal performance for each individual user, maximizing productivity for the most demanded programs and applications. Sounds pretty spiffy. If the RevoDrive Hybrid strikes your fancy, you can pick one up for $500. To help sweeten the pot, it's backed by a three year warranty. |
| How to Repair a Faulty Windows Installation Without Reformatting Posted: 31 Aug 2011 11:03 AM PDT Corrupted system files don't have to ruin your dayNothing will put a crimp in your computing style quite like a Windows error. Although Microsoft's OS has gotten exponentially more stable over the years, it's still very possible for Windows system files to become corrupt, which can cause your system to slow down, freeze, or (in the worst case) refuse to load your operating system at all. When you encounter a Windows error, your first instinct may be to back up your data, grab the ol' installation disk, and weep silently as you press the Reformat button. We're here to tell you there's another way. Still back up your data, of course, but by following this guide, you might well be able to repair your Windows install without dropping the nuke. Note: Though these guides are written for Windows 7, a very similar process will work for Vista or XP. Method 1: Repair Windows Even If You Can't Get To Your DesktopThe first method will allow you to repair corrupt system files, even if the problem is so severe that you can't boot all the way to your desktop. For this method, you'll need a Windows installation DVD, so track down yours or borrow one from a friend—it doesn't matter if the DVD's version matches your license, as long as it's the correct bit count. Step 1: Insert the Install Disc and RebootIf your system won't boot into Windows, you'll need to boot from somewhere else—in this case, the installation DVD. Your computer should be set up to boot from your optical drive before your hard drive, but if it's not, you can always change the boot priority in the BIOS. When the system starts up, make sure you press a key when prompted to boot from the Windows installation disc. When you do, you'll see the familiar Windows installation language-selection screen (image below).
Step 2: Get to the Command PromptThe recovery tool we're going to use is run from the command prompt, which can (thankfully) be accessed through the Windows installation disc. To get there, don't click Install Now in the middle of the screen, but instead click Repair Your Computer in the lower left. Click Next on the first menu that pops up.
The next menu will have two radio buttons. Make sure the first one is selected, and note that in the text box, your System drive might not have the drive letter C. If that's the case, make a note of the drive letter used. Click Next, and on the following screen (image above), select the bottom option, marked Command Prompt. Step 3: Scan Your SystemFinally you're ready to scan your system files for errors. To do that simply run the following command: sfc /scannow /offbootdir=[DRIVELETTER]:\ /offwindir=[DRIVELETTER]:\windows Substitute the drive letter you noted earlier for [DRIVELETTER]. There should be no square brackets in the command (image below).
Windows will now attempt to find and repair any errors in your system files. If the scan finds errors, you may need to repeat the steps in this guide until it finds no more errors. To restart your computer, enter the exit command, then click the Restart button. When you're ready to try booting into Windows again, remove the install disc and restart one final time. Method 2: Reinstall Windows Without Losing Any DataIf you are still able to get to your desktop, you've got additional options. You can still use the command prompt to scan as in the previous method, but there's another way that may be more thorough: reinstall Windows. Wait, didn't we say you wouldn't have to reformat? We did, and you don't. It's possible to do an in-place, nondestructive reinstall of Windows, which will restore all your system files to pristine condition without damaging any of your personal data or installed programs. All you'll need is a Windows install DVD and your Windows CD key. Hopefully you still have your key written down somewhere, but if you don't, you're not out of luck. You can use a program like ProduKey, available for free, to quickly recover your Windows product key from the registry. Important: Before continuing this process, note that it can cause problems with your installed programs, so don't do it just for fun, and make sure to back up your important data and create a restore point before continuing. Step 1: Do Some Prep WorkBefore you can get started, there's one important consideration: You can't repair a Windows 7 SP1 install with a pre-SP1 install disc. The ideal solution is to borrow a newer install disc with SP1 included (or download it, if you have access to a TechNet account), but it's also possible to uninstall SP1. To do this, open the Control Panel, select Uninstall a Program, and then choose the option to view updates (image below). You can right-click the Service Pack update to uninstall it.
Step 2: Insert the Install DiscWe're once again using the Windows install disc, but this time we're not going to boot from it. Simply insert the disc, and when the autorun menu pops up, choose to run setup.exe. Once again, you'll find yourself staring at the Windows 7 install screen. This time, do click the Install now button (image below).
Step 3: Reinstall WindowsFinally, it's time to get down to business. After the installer gets past the Copying Temporary Files… screen, you'll be asked about getting updates for installation files. Go ahead and do this, as long as your computer's network connection is still working. When the installer asks what sort of installation you'd like to perform (image below), ignore your natural instinct to choose Custom, and instead click Upgrade. Sure, you're not technically upgrading from one version of Windows to another, but we do want to do the kind of nondestructive install that the update option performs. Think of it as upgrading from a broken version to a non-broken version, if you must.
After that, all that's left is to sit through the usual Windows 7 installation process, with its multiple reboots and endless progress bars. When it's done, you'll have to reactivate Windows by entering the product key that you found or wrote down earlier. All that's left to do is to let Windows install any security updates or service packs that it's missing, and reboot. All your system files should now be fully restored! |
| Oops! Acer Ultrabook S3 Price, Specs Prematurely Leaked By Italian Retail Site Posted: 31 Aug 2011 10:48 AM PDT Rumors and whispers abound about the upcoming Ultrabook line of notebooks – you know, the ones that Intel hopes will be MacBook Air killers – but despite all the talk, we haven't seen any hard facts as far as components or price points go. That may have changed today, thanks to a new product page on an Italian retailer's site that appears to have gone up a bit prematurely.
The product page was first found by Notebook Italia, whose words are legible thanks to a quick arrangement with Google Translate. The purported Acer Ultrabook S3 packs an Intel Core i5-2467M, 4GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive and an additional 20GB SSD into its slim n' fit half-inch-thick frame. Not too shabby. MonClick lists the price as 786 euros, which converts to $1,135 in American currency. That's slightly higher than Intel's highly pushed sub-$1000 price tag, but remember that this is an Italian retailer; the cost of the notebook could be reduced when it hits US shores. Acer (along with Asus) is expected to have some Ultrabook announcements for our consumption at this year's IFA 2011. Acer's official IFA conference takes place on Friday, so prepare yourself for a flood of Ultrabook news over the next couple of days. |
| Google Bringing Offline Mode Back To Gmail, Docs and Calendar Posted: 31 Aug 2011 10:20 AM PDT
Gmail Offline is available right now as a Chrome extension, Product Manager Benoît de Boursetty said on the Gmail Blog. The extension's based on the offline-capable Gmail tablet app. After installing the extension, if you're working in Gmail and your connection craps out, clicking on the "Gmail Offline" button on Chrome's "New Tab" page lets you continue browsing your correspondence. Offline mode for Calendar and Docs is rolling out over the next week. Working with Google Calendar and Google Docs offline starts by clicking on the gear icon in the black Google nav bar while working with Calendar or Docs, then selecting "Set up docs offline" from the drop-down menu. After agreeing to allow the files to sync with your computer, you're prompted to install an extension for the app. Currently, you can't do much more than view appointments or documents when working offline, but de Boursetty promises that the team is hard at work at making it possible to edit files offline. |
| Global Internet Speedup Initiative Kicks Web Surfing into High Gear Posted: 31 Aug 2011 09:03 AM PDT
Here's the deal. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) feed Internet data to your PC and other connected devices based on the location of your Domain Name System (DNS) server. In many cases, your DNS server is far removed from the location of your PC, so it's not entirely tuned for performance. The Global Internet Speedup improves upon the current architecture by routing page requests based on the location of the user and not just the user's OpenDNS or Google Public DNS server. It's a simple solution that uses open Internet standards among OpenDNS, Google, and leading CDNs to deliver faster webpage load times and quicker downloads. "We're very excited to team with Google and the world's leading CDNs on such a significant improvement to the speed of the Internet," said OpenDNS CEO David Ulevitch. "The initiative we've partnered on is based on open standards that any other network can adopt, making this technology available to anyone. We're proud to be leading the charge together with the world's leading Internet companies and CDNs and we're stoked to be delivering speed improvements to our more than 30 million users and thousands of enterprise businesses." You may have already guessed the 'gotcha,' which is that you need to be using DNS servers belonging to OpenDNS or Google Public DNS, and accessing websites powered by a participating CDN for this initiative to have any effect whatsoever, at least for now. And on that note, a couple of handy links: How To: Boost Your Web Browsing Performance Like an IT Pro Using DNS |
| Violent Videogames Blamed for Negative Brand Reception, Too Posted: 31 Aug 2011 08:38 AM PDT
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin came up with that conclusion, and noted that women in particular are sensitive to ads in violent games. "Although violent video games are very popular and can reach a young, highly engaged audience, their effectiveness as an advertising medium is questionable," said Jorge Peña, assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies and one of the study's authors. "Our study demonstrates that featured violence diminishes brand memory and primes more negative attitudes toward the brand." Researchers carried out the study by dividing participants into two groups. One group played through a violet game with avaters brandishing guns and shooting it up in rooms covered in blood. The other group weaved their way through the same avatars, only they were weaponless and the rooms were soaked in water. "Brand recall and recognition, and attitudes were significantly lower for participants who navigated violent videogames compared to those who navigated the non-violent videogames," according to the study. "Women that played the violent videogames developed even more negative brand attitudes than women exposed to the non-violent videogames (11.29 percent decrease in brand liking). This could be attributed to women typically having less experience playing violent videogames, or men -- who typically play more violent videogames -- being desensitized to the violence and not noticing it." Does the study hold any merit? That's something advertisers would be wise to look into as spending on in-game advertising is expected to be a billion dollar industry next year. |
The rumors have been swirling for months, but according to CNBC, a Facebook music platform is set to launch in 
First of all, it is pronounced noo-klee-ar. Not noo-koo-lur. 
A North Carolina man is in the hot seat as Apple legal representatives are asking him to return a MacBook prototype he purchased on Craigslist several months ago. Carl Frega purchased the laptop for parts to use in his computer repair business, but realized soon after that it was 
Google placed its bets on a cloud computing-filled future with the Chromebook, a nifty little line that advance's Google's goal to have everybody's data available anywhere, anytime. While it's a wonderful concept, accessing the Web anywhere, anytime requires Internet access that's available anywhere, anytime. Frankly, we're not quite there yet. Google admitted this fact (and helped make Chrome OS and Google Apps a little more useful) with today's announcement of the return of an offline mode for Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar.
Your Internet experience may feel faster than what it was a couple of days ago, and if so, that's by design. How so? If you're wearing a tin foil hat, it's probably because the government needs to stack up more evidence against you and decided to boost your connection speed. Bummer. For everyone else noticing a speed gain, it could be the result of the Global Internet Speedup initiative.
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