Tag Archive | "Technology"
How EA and Spore are causing piracy, the DasmX86Dll issues, removing SecuRom and some great DRM free alternatives
Speaking of SecuRom - I'm not quite sure why software companies continue to insist that DRM of this type (or any type) is worth it. I wonder how much money EA stuck into this? The game was available on the torrents before it's official launch and yet here's EA and far to many other companies shoveling money down the DRM hole. And it's doubly a problem because of their refusal to see this as an issue. If the game sells well, EA says "See! DRM isn't that big a deal, people don't care and we're still selling games." If the game's sales are hurt by DRM they fall back on "Pirates are killing our bottom line!" Seriously? Games will get pirated, sure. But you're much more likely to sell copies if they're not crippled in the first place by software that does nothing to stop the pirates and everything to annoy legitimate users.
Continue reading...Now you have to pay to help debug modern games – Call Of Duty: World At War I’m lookin’ at you!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
This is a disturbing trend I've been noticing, most recently with Call of Duty: World At War. You have to now put up money for a game you may not want, just to help the game developers debug their beta release.
Continue reading...Can I interest you in a 120mm terminally guided top attack mortar projectile? It’s by SAAB!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Here's a quick video essay to introduce you to the Strix - a 120mm, terminally guided, top attack mortar projectile. This thing will happily find and destroy it's target, even main battle tanks (MBTs) day or night from up to 7 klicks away. All you need is a standard 120mm mortar!
Continue reading...Book Review: You Call This the Future? by Nick Sagan
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The new book by Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan), You Call This the Future?: The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined and Science Promised, is characterized by explanations of some of the fascinating technologies envisioned in classic science fiction along with explorations of the progress modern science has made towards achieving those visions. Classic science fiction references appear side-by-side with summaries of state of the art scientific research.
Continue reading...Designing the Singularity: Intel receives the Overreaching Statement Award.
Friday, August 22, 2008
"We're making steady progress toward Ray Kurtzweil's singularity," says Justin Rattner, CTO of Intel. THE Singularity, that's what he's talking about. You know, the point where machine intelligence jogs past human intelligence and brings us to a new era where combined computer cognition is the equivalent of a minor deity.
Continue reading...The planet Mars enters the ’90s with it’s new web cam
Friday, August 22, 2008
That's right, the ESA has gotten into the web cam business with a simple little camera pointed at none other than Mars! While I feel the whole "look at my webcam" thing has blown over some time ago, this one is worth a gander.
Continue reading...As if Blackberry Thumb wasn’t bad enough, now we have Blackberry Nose.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Over the last few days I've noticed a curious phenomonon. Perhaps it's brand new, perhaps it's just made it past that filter that hangs out between my eyes and my brain. There seem to be a growing number of people who are on the old side of young, say in their mid forties, who are peering at their Blackberries from a distance of about 27 nanometers.
Continue reading...eVGA’s GTX 260 (896 megs of superclocked video goodness) relatively cheap
Friday, July 25, 2008
eVGA's GTX 260 video card is now available from NewEgg at the low, low price of $279.99. I just happen to have here a mail in rebate form (pdf) that will also get you $30 off of that price. So if you can wait for the rebate to process your total cost will have been $249.00. But wait, there's more! Use coupon code VGA724X25 and chop another $25 off of the price. Now you're talking at $225. You've got to buy this by the 31st of July to take advantage of the mail in rebate.
Continue reading...Readyboost for Linux – a quick how to on getting more speed from a USB flash drive
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Readyboost for Vista is a feature added to the OS where you can encourage your limping Vista install to jog a bit faster by essentially using a smallish USB drive as disk cache. There's also some Vista Voodoo with Superfetch going on there. While Ubuntu (the distro that I use) and other distros don't really use Superfetch, you can still get an advantage using the disk cache functionality - particularily if you're running on a system that doesn't have a ton of RAM available.
Continue reading...Apollo 14 astronaut says “aliens are real”, pats Mulder on the back comfortingly
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Edgar Mitchell is not only an astronaut, but someone who's interested in paranormal phenomena. While on Apollo 14, in addition to doing cool back flips and science stuff, he conducted private ESP experiments with friends back on Earth.
Continue reading...Japan – Then: Godzilla. Now: Dissolving buildings.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A new way to demolish those pesky, unwanted skyscrapers. Gut 'em and glut 'em.
Continue reading...Avatars United. Where your MMO selves go to hang out
Friday, July 11, 2008
Just about all of us have played MMOs or been involved in some sort of virtual world like Second Life. You play in these worlds for a year or two, meet some interesting people, upgrade your system and then wander off to the newest and shiniest MMO to come out. What about those friends you've left behind though? How will they find you in your latest incarnation? If of course, you want to be found. If you do want to be found, you're going to want to go check out Avatars United.
Continue reading...Top 10 reasons to hate the iPhone 3g
Friday, July 11, 2008
APC has a great article up on the top 10 reasons to hate the new iPhone 3g. As much as I kind of want to, I really don’t hate the new iPhone. In fact, I’d love to have one.
Continue reading...Alien Civilization found! And it’s not from a Russian paper, so it must be true!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
We all know about Abell 1835 IR1916 (not pictured above). That galaxy that just happens to be the furthest and thus oldest galaxy ever seen by Hubble. It’s just about 13.25 million light years away – far even compared to driving through Texas, and this galaxy’s been around for about 97% of the time the [...]
Continue reading...
- How to fix your Windows MBR with an Ubuntu liveCD
- Every single Led Zeppelin song in DRM free MP3 format for $9.99
- Ubuntu tricks - how to mount your Windows partition and make it read/writable
- PSP Firmware hits 3.90 - If you've got the slim (or 2000) you can now Skype with it
- Rip DVD Movie on Mac OS X
- "and so gull baiting has become a hot game among dolphins"
- Get USB devices mounted on your Virtualbox XP machine in Gutsy (Ubuntu 7.10)
- How to find your UUID's for devices in Ubuntu (and other Debian based distros)
- 5 steps to create a PDF printer (print to PDF) in Ubuntu
- How to clone your bootable Ubuntu install to another drive
- Using Hamachi to remotely control your Windows and Linux boxes (1152)
- Sony’s round computer (591)
- “and so gull baiting has become a hot game among dolphins” (469)
- How to fix your Windows MBR with an Ubuntu liveCD (304)
- Rip DVD Movie on Mac OS X (206)
- Boriska, boy genius says he’s from Mars, knows of a switch behind the Sphinx’s ear. (194)
- It’s Good To Be a Super Hero Now (186)
- Linux and Flash – cut the crap already! (183)
- Female Characters In Gaming: Past, Present, and Future (182)
- Got a band but can’t afford to shoot a video? Use public CCTV cameras and then demand the footage! (165)
- New India Search Engine and Directory Is Comprehensive
- DC Comics New 52
- Rating The “Burton” Factor in Tim Burton’s Filmography
- Top Fast Food Product Placements In Cinema History
- Comic Review Quickies – 01/12/11
- Comic Review Quickies – 01/05/11
- Looking Back at the Awesome of 2010
- Have You Seen These Actors and Actress?
- Sort Through Crap Apps With AppGeek
- Guild Wars 2 Forum Website Launches
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
28 Comments