49461541
submission
Dputiger writes:
Tor Mail, Lavabit, and Silent Circle all killed their email services in the past week, leaving something of a service gap for users concerned with privacy protections. Other popular products, like Hushmail, have a history of turning over data when asked. Extremetech discusses two EU-based alternatives, as well as the reasons for not using email for private communications — it's too difficult to secure.
49185743
submission
Dputiger writes:
Imagination Technologies is mostly known for its mobile GPU products, but the company owns a specialized raytracing vendor as well. The Caustic R2500 is the first high-end dedicated ray tracing unit to ship and it offers much higher performance than typical software solutions for a relatively cheap (by workstation standards) price.
48904659
submission
Dputiger writes:
The H.265 / HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec) promises to deliver equal or better quality than H.264 at substantial bandwidth savings, but so far, there's been no way to confirm the projected results. This article examines the performance of an early alpha version of the open source x265 encoder against x264, and while it's very early days for the new standard, it delivers some substantial bandwidth savings. Source code should be available later today at x265.org.
48778913
submission
Dputiger writes:
In the wake of activist Aaron Swartz's suicide, MIT launched an investigation into the circumstances that led to his initial arrest and felony charges. It's now clear that the move was nothing but a face-saving gesture. Moments before the court-ordered release of Swartz's Secret Service file under the Freedom of Information Act, MIT intervened asking the judge to block the release. Supposedly this is to protect the identities of MIT staff who might be harassed — but government policy is to redact such information already.
47947989
submission
Dputiger writes:
AMD has announced that it's launching a new FX processor with a 225W TDP and a 4.7GHz base clock / 5GHz Turbo speed. We decided to see how an overclocked FX-8350 would compare if set to the same clock speeds courtesy of a phase-change cryo cooler. The performance gains are significant in some areas, but this is definitely an uphill battle.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/159619-5ghz-showdown-overclocked-5ghz-amd-haswell-ivy-bridge
45465195
submission
Dputiger writes:
AMD has held a huge advantage in Bitcoin hashing performance for years, even against top-end Nvidia cards like the GTX Titan. This article examines the performance difference between the two companies, tests a new, CUDA-optimized kernel, and discusses why even the GTX Titan can barely beat AMD's $149 HD 7790. It's not just core counts — AMD's underlying GPU architecture has several advantages over Nvidia in this area.
43822621
submission
Dputiger writes:
Nvidia's latest GTX Titan puts a renewed focus on multi-monitor gaming, but how does it compare against other cards at half the price? Field of view adjustments, the impact of bezels, and single-card performance at multiple detail levels are all covered, as is the price of multi-screen setups.
38259133
submission
Dputiger writes:
The MegaUpload debacle, growing concerns over user privacy when using cloud services, and the hack against Wired contributor Mat Honan all point to a growing need for a cloud user's bill of rights.
This article proposes such a bill and discusses five current events that illustrate the need for increased protections. My goal was to balance a user's right to access personal data and understand how that data is used against the fair needs of companies that provide cloud services and the government's ability to conduct legal investigations.
35639131
submission
Dputiger writes:
Companies like Autodesk release software updates every year at several thousand dollars each, but if you work in this field, are you better off sticking with a relatively recent suite and buying new hardware — or should you spring for the updates? The answer — especially with 3ds Max 2012 — might surprise you.
31203387
submission
Dputiger writes:
I've written a substantial preview of Diablo III that includes a substantial consideration of how the game's underlying mechanics and mathematical models have evolved since Diablo II. I was a major modder back when D2 was new and our mod team spent a huge amount of time fixing the balance flaws and bugs in the game's first releases.
