| Clever Modder Created a Functioning 128GB Floppy Disk Posted: 29 Feb 2016 10:28 AM PST Long live the floppy!  I still own several 3.5-inch floppies and even some 5.25-inch disks. They're mostly game installs for old school adventure titles, but in my basement they sit, these boxed up relics of a bygone era. After seeing what a modder did with this old floppy disks, I'm tempted to dig them out and convert them into 128GB disks. A YouTube user who goes by the handle Dr. Moddnstine posted a pair of must-watch videos for anyone who remembers what computers were like in the 1990s. He took an old 1995 IBM Aptiva PC with a non-working 486 foundation (he surmised it was the motherboard) and rebuilt it into a Skylake machine while respecting the vintage looks of the system. Along the way, he decided to salvage the 3.5-inch floppy drive, but in a unique way. Rather than have it continue to read 1.44MB floppy disks, he tore it apart and noticed that the notches on the edge connector of an old ribbon cable lined up neatly with an SD card. Armed with that knowledge, he cut the cable and modded it into a microSD card reader. He then modded a few floppy disks to serve as caddies for 128GB microSD cards, which are easily removable when/if needed. When inserted into the floppy drive, the system recognizes the full capacity of his storage media—very clever! You can check out a worklog of his mod on Imgur, plus be sure to check out his pair of YouTube videos below: Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Faster Raspberry Pi 3 Gains Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Still Just $35 Posted: 29 Feb 2016 09:45 AM PST Fresh out of the oven  In celebration of its fourth birthday, The Raspberry Pi Foundation has cooked up a new version of its highly popular Raspberry Pi mini PC with a giant assist from fellow chef Broadcom. The newly released Raspberry Pi 3 is quite the treat—it's faster that previous models, more functional, and backwards compatible. The Raspberry Pi 3 is powered by Broadcom's new BCM2837 SoC. Baked inside is a 1.2GHz 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU, a pretty sweet upgrade over the 900MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-A7 found in the Raspberry 2. According to The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the 33 percent jump in clockspeed combined with architectural improvements makes the Raspberry Pi 3 50-60 percent faster than its predecessor in 32-bit mode, and about 10 times faster than the original Raspberry Pi. That speed doesn't come at the cost of compatibility. Though the SoC is new, it's the same basic architecture as the BCM2835 and BCM2856 SoCs found in previous models. In addition to being faster, Raspberry Pi 3 sports a BCM43438 wireless combo chip that gives it Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support. One of Raspberry Pi's designers, James Adams, spent the second half of 2015 building prototypes with the wireless module and the end result is a form factor that's virtually unchanged from the Raspberry Pi 1 Model B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B—all that changed is the location of the LEDs, which were relocated to the other side of the SD card socket to make room for the antenna. "All of the connectors are in the same place and have the same functionality, and the board can still be run from a 5V micro-USB power adapter. This time round, we're recommending a 2.5A adapter if you want to connect power-hungry USB devices to the Raspberry Pi," Raspberry Pi Foundation said in a blog post. Despite the upgrades, the price is the same—Raspberry Pi 3 is on sale now for $35. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| HTC Starts Taking Pre-Orders for Vive VR Headset, Ships in April Posted: 29 Feb 2016 09:13 AM PST Officially a two-horse race  After all the hype and anticipation, you can finally place a pre-order for HTC's Vive headset today, just as the company promised last week. The cost, as stated previously, is $799, with the first batch of headsets slated to ship in April of this year. There's also an estimated $30 shipping charge for orders placed in the U.S., which brings the total to $829. What that gets you is the Vive headset, a pair of wireless controllers, two base stations, a link box, earbuds, an updated head strap with integrated phone functionality, two games (Job Simulator and Fantastic Contraption), and Tilt Brush by Google. What's not included in the cost is a PC. Like Rift, the Vive requires a fairly powerful system. To see if yours is already up to snuff, Valve released a StreamVR Performance Test that can determine if your hardware is able to run VR content at 90 frames per second. According to the hardware specifications of that test, Valve recommends: - CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 or better / AMD FX-8350 or better
- RAM: 4GB or more
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 or better / AMD Radeon R9 290 or better
- OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10
It will be interesting to see how the Vive sells in pre-sale compared the Rift, which is $200 cheaper. Even though the Vive costs more, the inclusion of two wireless controllers and room sensors add to the value proposition. Having Valve in HTC's corner is also a major selling point. If you're interested in pre-ordering a Vive, go here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Rig of the Month: Power Cell Posted: 29 Feb 2016 12:00 AM PST |
