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notthatwillsmith writes "What's at Comic-Con this year? Watchmen, Iron Man, Transformers, Lego Batman (and Robin) and a whole lot more. Maximum PC's own Norman Chan snuck around the show before doors opened and got killer shots of everything from the Nite Owl's ship (including interior shots) to a life-size Jabba the Hutt to Lego Batman & Robin. Also at Comic-Con, Maximum PC is auctioning a killer modded PC for Penny-Arcade's Child's Play charity. The mod for sale? A PC built into a replica of Batman's Utility Belt. You can meet the creator of the rig, Bruce Webb, or submit a bid to purchase the machine at the Maximum PC booth. 100% of the proceeds will go to Child's Play, so bid high if you're in San Diego!"
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_invades_comiccon_early_access_photos_and_first_niteowl%E2%80%99s_ship_licking

notthatwillsmith writes "Maximum PC sat down with John Carmack at E3 and talked about everything from id's upcoming post-apocalyptic shooter, Rage, to the pitfalls of simultaneous development on multiple platforms and the reason DirectX 10 (and 11) are unnecessary. Oh yeah, Carmack also let slip that Doom 4 is coming, it will use id Tech 5, the same engine that powers Rage. All that, plus new Rage screenshots and a tantalizing glimpse into the post-PS3/Xbox360 world according to Carmack."
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/e3_2008_the_john_carmack_interview_rage_id_tech_6_doom_4_details_and_more

notdagreatbrain writes "Maximum PC has the scoop on AMD/ATI's new 4870 graphics card, based off of the RV770 GPU. "Do ATI's new graphics cards deliver 75% of a GeForce GTX 280's power for a fraction of the price? We went into the lab to find out. The short answer is "yes". The Radeon 4870 runs nearly as fast as a GTX 280 in most benchmarks for about 60% of the cost. Running two 4870 boards together in Crossfire delivers performance that beats a single GTX 280 board for the same cash outlay. The performance you get from a single 4870 card is quite impressive, especially when you consider that it's half the price. When you look at the scores the Radeon 4870s chalked up in Crossfire mode, you may even be tempted to pony up for a pair of 4870s, but think before you leap.""
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ati_nvidia_youre_a_dinosaur

notthatwillsmith writes "Intel and Nvidia's not-so-private dispute has moved beyond mere verbal tussling and may impact system-building options in the near future. Maximum PC has the scoop on the conflict, which could present gamers with a tough choice: will they pick Intel's next-gen Nehalem CPU or SLI support for multi-GPU rendering. Is Nvidia intentionally dragging its feet on an SLI chipset for Nehalem in order to put a dent in what would be Intel's crowning achievement for 2008?"

Acererak writes "In an interview with Maximum PC, Seagate's CEO Bill Watkins lets it fly against the solid-state-drive manufacturers: they're stealing from him, and he'll sue anyone — big or small — to maintain his patents. Watkins goes on to paint Seagate's future roadmap in the flash memory space: enterprise SSD drives will come in three to four years, and Seagate is looking at a two-to-three year timeframe before consumer hybrid drives are ready. You can thank Windows Vista for that one. Seagate also plans to continue 60-percent capacity increases over the next five to six years no matter which storage technology wins: magnetic, hybrid, or solid-state."
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/bill_watkins

Despite never actually releasing the Phantom console, it looks like Phantom Entertainment (the company formerly known as Infinium Labs) may actually ship its sofa-friendly mouse/keyboard combo controller, the Lapboard, sometime this decade. The Lapboard is currently scheduled for a mid-June release at a price of $130, with the included laser mouse. Might this be enough to recoup the $73 million Infinium squandered on the Phantom console?

Jeff writes "In 1953, Watson and Crick discovered DNA via x-ray diffraction. A snapshot of today's news demonstrates the impact of its discovery: The Senate voted to ban DNA discrimination by health insurers, Tyrannasaurus Rex was linked to chickens, a murderer was linked to a stabbing, a convicted rapist was freed, paternity claims against the late James Brown are to be tested, DNA will prove if minors in a Texas religious sect parented children, National Geographic announced the entire human race emerged from one Eve whose clan almost perished to drought and a Canadian nonprofit lets visitors share genes with friends on Facebook."

notthatwillsmith writes "Maximum PC put the new crippled tri-core Phenom's through the benchmark wringer, comparing the three-core Phenom to its quad-core sibling, as well as Intel's comparably priced quad core CPUs. Tri-core beats the old Athlon 64 architecture hands down, but how does it compare to Intel's offerings?"

txter writes "OSWeekly.com author Matt Hartley discusses how you can create your own Ubuntu with better customizations. He states, "This is something that I have been toying with as an idea — creating my own distribution, based on the Ubuntu core, but making sure some basics that continue to go ignored are covered. In this quest, I have been led down an interesting road of discovery. Here are some of the tools that I think might be helpful, should you decide to take this path."
http://www.osweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=&task=view&id=2758

NA writes "Seeing as Slashdot has reported on the court issues with TorrentSpy I thought you'd want to know that TorrentSpy has closed down the site (by their own choice) permanently. See http://www.torrentspy.com/"

CPUNerdcore writes "AMD has released the mid-range Phenom X4 9850, the first Phenom without the performance-crushing TLB bug, and the first benchmarks are in. The short version? It's better, but even at the sub-$250 pricepoint, it can't beat Intel's Core 2 Quads."
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/amd_s_new_x4_quad_core

Unsurprisingly, all the creditors have objected to SCO's plan to reimburse York for the failed 'emergency' deal. Surprisingly, Novells tiny seven page objection (PDF) is hilarious and very readable. They don't hold back at all, saying that 'all that happened is that the Debtors spent money needlessly on a proceeding that was, to all intents and purposes, stillborn had it not been for the stubbornness of the Debtors' management and the avarice of York,' and that it was 'another really bad deal they have chased in ceaseless pursuit of their dreams of a litigation bonanza.' As far as Novell is concerned, 'the Motion reflects not sound business judgment, but a total lack of any judgment at all,' which is probably why 'York walked from the proposed deal when its original blitzkrieg for approval of the sale turned into the prospect of a real, fair auction on a reasonable schedule.' And they top it off by concluding with the line, 'for the reasons explained above, the Court should deny the Motion as the Debtors' worst and least supported idea yet in these cases.' One can only wonder how SCO will respond to this.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080326180944670

notthatwillsmith writes "It's easy to determine which GPU manufacturer builds faster chips using benchmarks, but testing image quality has traditionally been more challenging. To determine whether ATI or Nvidia GPUs deliver better visual quality, we set up a series of blind tests to subjectively measure gaming, video, and photo rendering quality across a wide range of subjects. The results were interesting, and entirely unexpected."

notthatwillsmith writes "We just posted our Mom-friendly guidelines to help users save money and shop more safely for computers, consumer electronics, gadgets, and other gear online. From extended warranties to software scams, this is what you need to know to avoid getting screwed when doing your holiday shopping."
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/dont_get_screwed_when_shopping_for_computers

notthatwillsmith writes "We just posted our first ever comprehensive list of the top PC technologies of all time. We covered all the hardware and software that shaped the modern PC over the last 20+ years, with a natural leaning toward high-end gaming hardware."
http://maximumpc.com/