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Comment The linked story is ripped off from my site... (Score 4, Informative) 168

by notthatwillsmith (#32391676) Attached to: How Google Can Make Android Truly Tablet-Worthy
This linked story is copied in its entirety from my site, Tested.com. While they have posted a link to the author's profile on the story, the content is copyright Tested. The link to the original story is http://www.tested.com/news/5-ways-google-can-make-android-truly-tablet-worthy/355/.
Google

Building Left 4 Dead Maps With Google Sketchup 44

Posted by Soulskill from the always-best-to-face-zombies-on-familiar-turf dept.
notthatwillsmith writes "If you're a fan of Left 4 Dead and you've ever wanted to build a zombie-filled map of your hometown, office or grocery store, Maximum PC just posted a how-to that shows you how to convert photos of real-world locations into ready-to-play L4D 1 or 2 maps. It's everything you need to know in order to kill zombies with your friends — in the comfort of your own backyard."
Games

Submission + - Build Your Own Left4Dead Map With Google Sketchup

Submitted by notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: Do you love Left4Dead? Ever wanted to build a zombie-filled map of your hometown, office, or grocery store? Maximum PC just posted a how-to that shows you how to convert photos of real world locations into ready-to-play L4D 1 or 2 maps. It's everything you need to know in order to kill zombies with your friends, in the comfort of your own backyard.
Hardware

Submission + - First Look at the Level 10 Concept PC Case

Submitted by
notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: "Maximum PC just posted an exclusive hands on with Thermaltake's unique Level 10 case. This concept design features individual compartments for different components (each with dedicated cooling) all mounted on a black steel frame. The case looks like a prop from 2001, rendered in black steel instead of white plastic. It's absolutely unlike anything I've ever seen before."
First Person Shooters (Games)

Submission + - From Doom to Dunia: The History of 3D Engines

Submitted by notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: It's difficult to think of a single category of application that's driven the pace of desktop hardware development further and faster than first-person shooters. Maximum PC examined the evolution of FPS engines, examining the key technologies that brought games from the early sprite-based days of Doom to the fully 3D rendered African savannah as rendered by Far Cry 2's Dunia engine. It's truly amazing how far the state of the art has moved in the last 16 years!
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Build Your Own Multi-Touch Tabletop "Surface&# 1

Submitted by notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: We've all seen the nifty demos of Microsoft's Surface PC, but you may not have known that you can build your own multi-touch tabletop PC today. Maximum PC details the process, showing how you can build the cabinet and combine that with a standard PC, a decent projector, about $350 worth of assorted hardware (cameras, lenses, mirrors, and screens), and a handful of free apps to build your own Surface-like PC--without giving Microsoft $10,000.
The Internet

Submission + - State of the Browser Union: 9 Browsers Compared

Submitted by notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: Counting public betas and release candidates, there are a whopping nine different web browsers out today with enough market share to be considered mainstream. Maximum PC explains the differences between the browsers, future and present, so that you can make a more informed decision about the primary tool you use to browse the web. From the rendering engines used to the features that set the different browsers apart, this is a comprehensive, blow-by-blow battle between Safari 3, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Opera 9.6, Google Chrome, Firefox 3.1, IE 8, Safari 4, and Opera 10.
Data Storage

Submission + - History of Storage: From Punch Cards to Blu-ray

Submitted by notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: Maximum PC just posted a comprehensive visual retrospective about data storage, starting with the once state of the art punch card and moving through the popular formats of yesteryear, including everything from magtape to Blu-ray discs. It's amazing how much data you could pack on a few hundred feet of half-inch magnetic tape!
Security

Submission + - SPAM: Lenovo Service Disables Laptops With Text Message

Submitted by
narramissic
narramissic writes: "Lenovo plans to announce on Tuesday a service that allows users to remotely disable a PC by sending a text message. A user can send the command from a specified cell phone number — each ThinkPad can be paired with up to 10 cell phones — to kill a PC. The software will be available free from Lenovo's Web site. It will also be available on certain ThinkPad notebooks equipped with mobile broadband starting in the first half of 2009. 'You steal my PC and ... if I can deliver a signal to that PC that turns it off, hey, I'm good now,' said Stacy Cannady, product manager of security at Lenovo."
Link to Original Source
Operating Systems

What Normal Users Can Expect From Ubuntu 8.10 511

Posted by timothy from the abnormal-users-can-expect-whatever-they-want dept.
notthatwillsmith writes "With Ubuntu 8.10 due to be released in just a few days, Maximum PC pored through all the enhancements, updates, and new features that are bundled into the release of Intrepid Ibex and separated out the new features that are most exciting for Linux desktop users. Things to be excited about? With new versions of GNOME and X.Org, there's quite a bit, ranging from the context-sensitive Deskbar search to an audio and video compatible SIP client to the new Network Manager (manage wired, Wi-Fi, VPN, and cellular broadband connections in one place)."
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Oil-Immersion Cooled PCs Goes To Retail

Submitted by
notthatwillsmith
notthatwillsmith writes: "Everyone's seen mods where someone super-cools a PC by submersing it in a non-conductive oil. It's a neat idea, but most components aren't designed to withstand a hot oil bath; after prolonged exposure materials break down and components begin to fail. Maximum PC has an exclusive hands-on, first look at the new Hardcore Computer Reactor, the first oil-cooled PC available for sale. Hardcore engineered the Reactor to withstand the oil, using space-age materials and proprietary oil. The Reactor's custom-manufactured motherboard, videocards, memory, and SSD drives are submersed in the oil, while the dry components sit outside the bulletproof tank. The motherboard lifts out of the oil bath on rails, giving you relatively easy access to components, and the overall design is simply jaw-dropping. Of course, we'd expect nothing less for a machine with a base price of $4000 that goes all the way up to $11k for a fully maxed out config."
Image

Researchers Claim To Be Able To Determine Political Leaning By How Messy You Are 592

Posted by samzenpus from the dirty-liberal dept.
According to a study to be published in The Journal of Political Psychology, you can tell someone's political affiliation by looking at the condition of their offices and bedrooms. Conservatives tend to be neat and liberals love a mess. Researchers found that the bedrooms and offices of liberals tend to be colorful and full of books about travel, ethnicity, feminism and music, along with music CDs covering folk, classic and modern rock, as well as art supplies, movie tickets and travel memorabilia. Their conservative contemporaries, on the other hand, tend to surround themselves with calendars, postage stamps, laundry baskets, irons and sewing materials. Their bedrooms and offices are well lit and decorated with sports paraphernalia and flags — especially American ones. Sam Gosling, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, says these room cues are "behavioral residue." The findings are just the latest in a series of recent attempts to unearth politics in personality, the brain and DNA. I, for one, support a woman's right to clean.

Comment Re:Misleading Article, Product Not "Launched" Yet (Score 1) 151

by notthatwillsmith (#25350553) Attached to: Microsoft Quietly Previews PC Advisor Repair Tool
I think it's always a bad idea to respond to criticism here, but what the hell.

Microsoft called this a Preview Release. Which I probably should have explicitly spelled out. I assumed that the fact that I said it was sent to a limited number of WEP members in the lede was enough, but clarity is always good.

There isn't an NDA attached, nor is the software described as Beta in any place. Beta implies to me that it's not feature complete, but I wouldn't interpret the sentence in the email you mentioned the same way, especially after filling out the survey, which didn't ask about my PC's crash history at all, only general questions about my preferences re: Windows vs. Mac.

TFA (as you so eloquently put it) is not an editorial or a review, simply a report about what this application does. In the course of the article I explain what this app does and how that compares to similar applications. I certainly didn't sugarcoat anything, but I don't feel like it was anti-MS. Reading it again, I see how you might see bias if you're looking for bias, but it certainly wasn't my intent to do anything more than report the facts.
Wii

Nintendo's Iwata Says Old Console Cycle Dead 245

Posted by Zonk from the wiimote-through-the-heart dept.
1up is reporting on comments from Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, who has offered up the opinion that the four-year console cycle is a thing of the past. Instead, he says, companies should look to iterate on their hardware when an opportunity presents itself. "Launches should depend on when it can signify a major shift in entertainment, or when they have done everything possible with the current hardware. He also says that scheduling the successor to current hardware on a 4-year life cycle without paying attention to changes in the market 'appears to be too inflexible an approach to us.' This isn't to say that the company doesn't have eyes on the future. 'We need to forecast what the future will be like with the expected evolution of new technologies which are available at any given time, and try to identify the so-called 'sweet spot' of technology over the next few years,' he said."

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