August 22nd, 2014 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

As usual the table of contents document is available here for crowd-sourcing. Thanks so much for helping, guys 

 

https://docs.google....dit?usp=sharing

 

News

 

Valve is the most desirable employer in the gaming industry

Source 1: linustechtips OP: lots of unexplainable lag

Source 2: gamespot

- survey of 2,200 companies

- respondents ranked working at Valve above having their own company

- outside of all the awesome games, Valve is privately owned

- don’t have to answer to shareholders, don’t have to release a product unless it is actually great

- employees don’t have bosses, can take as much vacation time as they want

- desks are on wheels to encourage constant discussion and collaboration

- may not be quite as amazing as everyone thinks

- structure is not universally praised

- one former employee said Valve is “like high school”

- though there aren’t formal “bosses” there is a hidden power structure (kinda has to be)

- on the survey Valve was followed by “My Own Company, Activision/Blizzard, Bioware, and Ubisoft”

 

Digital distribution finally reigns the PC market

Source 1: linustechtips OP: DuckDodgers

Source 2: arstechnica

- digital distribution accounts for 92% of PC game sales in 2013

- not surprising considering so many titles are only available digitally

- also Steam sales

- as recently as 2010 only 48% of PC game purchases were made digitally

- could be attributed to free to play titles with microtransactions - can get really expensive

- games like DOTA2 and League drove heavy increases to overall PC game spending and pushed it above console spending for the first time in recent memory

- very different than consoles where downloads only make up about 20%

- last month EA revealed that full game downloads make up only 10 to 15 percent of their console sales

 

More news about high prices of DDR4

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Blueprint

Source 2: linustechtips OP: X1XNobleX1X

- Australian site PCCasegear and UK site Scan.co.uk both released pre-order prices on some Corsair DDR4 products

- Vengeance 2666mHz prices on the two sites are comparable (UK price is about 425 AUD [Australian Dollars] including VAT, Australian is 399 AUD before tax)

- Dominator platinums are pretty darn expensive at 629 AUD for a 4x4GB 2800mHz kit or 559 AUD for a 2666 mHz kit

G.Skill to introduce 3000mHz DDR4 for cheaper than comparable DDR3

Source 1: linustechtips OP: LukaP

Source 2: overclock3d

- Ripjaws 4 3000mHz 16GB kit of DDR4

- 1.35v so temps should be lower than comparable DDR3 kits of this speed which operate around 1.65v

- less strain on memory controllers and processors

- priced at 360 GBP, 8GB kits of DDR3 at that speed are 320 GBP

- High primary timings might be less of a concern than we thought with secondary timings playing a much more important role

 

Kitguru and others push out an AMD R7 240GB SSD review

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Brainless906

Source 2:

- it’s a rebranded OCZ drive

- priced at ~$160 for the 240GB model

- it’s a little faster than the 840 evo but also quite a bit more expensive (~$50)

- nice addition for people looking to make an “all-AMD” system

- it uses A19 NAND, has the barefoot 3 controller, and a 4 year warranty

- if they plan to push out an R9 series that might be interesting

 

https://twitter.com/AMDRadeon/status/502938330334384128

Freesync monitors sampling next month and arriving early next year

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: TechFan@ic

Source 2: techreport.com

- Information from new AMD "Gaming Scientist"; Richard Huddy.

- "Multiple" (unnamed) vendors are preparing displays based on the technology.

- He'd be surprised if FreeSync compatibility added more than $10-20 to a display's material cost

 

LG to unveil 3 new monitors including curved 34” 21:9

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Notional

Source 2: guru3d

- curved 34” 21:9, new 4k monitor, and new 144hz gaming monitor

- 34UC97 has a 34” AH-IPS panel, 5ms GTG, 3440x1440, display port, 2 HDMI, 2 Thunderbolt, Vesa mount, and USB3

- 31MU97 is a 31” Digital Cinema 4k monitor with 4096x2160, LG’s exclusive True Color Pro calibration software and that supports 99% of the Adobe RGB color space

- 24GM77 is a 24” 144hz gaming monitor with Dynamic Action Sync (DAS) which drastically reduces input lag, less than a 1ms response time, includes Black Stabelizer and Motion 240, but does not seem to include Adaptive Sync (og G-Sync)

 

HTC One M8 available with Windows Phone on Verizon

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Dietrichw

Source 2:

- runs Windows Phone 8.1

- same hardware as the Android version

- camera setup is the same as the Android version

- only real difference is that it’s only available on Verizon in the US

- $99 on contract

- Linus’ thoughts on the device so far

 

Microsoft allows malicious apps in the Windows Phone Store

Source 1: linustechtips OP: jmaster299

Source 2: BGR

- store is crammed with fake versions or popular paid apps

- Microsoft claims all of the apps in their store are manually approved by an employee

- apps including VLC, iTunes, Adobe Flash, Firefox, Candy Crush Saga, and others

- charge the user and provide a link to where they can download the free app

- some actually send the user to malware-infested downloads

- eg. iTunes one charges $8.99 and description states that it “helps user to know how to download and use iTunes”

- store even pollutes system search with some of these fake apps

- in March or 2013 Microsoft hosted a “keep the cash” promotion where they paid developers $100 for each completed app, up to $2000 per developer

- any trace of this has been removed, only available through archives

- Microsoft takes a cut of every app sale, so these scams are putting money in their pockets

- in April 2014 Microsoft announced that they have over 400,000 apps combined between the Windows Phone Store and the Windows store, but that total includes these scams

 

[Rumour] Star Wars trilogy coming to Blu Ray

Source 1: linustechtips.com  OP: geforceftw

Source 2: technobuffalo.com

- All claims are by comicbook.com

- Disney is working on the project of bringing the unaltered trilogy to Blu-ray.

- Project is taking longer than expected due to damage to the negatives.

- Still not confirmed by Disney.

 

Google’s driverless cars can keep up with flow of traffic, exceeding speed limit X

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Victorious Secret

Source 2: bbc.co.uk

- Can go up to 10mph (16kmph) over the speed limit.

- The UK will allow driverless cars on public roads from 2015.

- The cars have travelled on more than 700,000 miles of open road, mostly in California.

- To begin with they will be limited to 25mph (40km/h) to help ensure safety.

- The White House said it wanted all cars and light trucks to be equipped with technology that could prevent collisions. (See topic below)

- There is currently a debate whether to allow cars to abandon controls including a steering wheel and pedals and rely completely on the vehicle's computer.

 

Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications coming soon

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: ionbasa

Source 2: pcmag.com

Source 3: washingtonpost.com

- Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications tech.

- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), found that V2V tech could stop up to 592,000 crashes per year, saving more than 1,000 lives.

- Could allow for things such as left-turn assist (warn users not to make that left turn in front of an oncoming vehicle) and intersection movement assist (warn drivers that they are likely to have an accident if they proceed through an intersection).

- Planned release in 2016.

- The NHTSA wants people’s input on V2V, you can give feedback at www.safercar.gov/v2v/resources

 

Tesla Drive Unit and Battery Warranty increased to 8 years

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: samcool55

Source 2: teslamotors.com

- No limit on the number of owners during the warranty period.

- Infinite milage

- Warranty extension will apply retroactively to all Model S vehicles.

- Elon Musk (summary): “It will have a moderately negative effect on Tesla earnings in the short term but it’s the right thing for Tesla vehicle owners at this early stage of our company, I am confident that it will work out well in the long term.”

 

New Reddit, Imgur, Twitch, FARK and StackExchange research partnership

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: AlexGoesHigh

Source 2: theverge.com

Source 3: derp.institute

- Will help researchers collect and study data collected on the site.

- Initiative is called the Digital Ecologies Research Partnership (DERP).

- DERP is also requiring that any research that it helps support is released in an open and public manner.

- DERP can serve as a single, simple source for researchers to start working with these sites and should be able to get researchers the information they need.

- Researchers at Stanford, Columbia, MIT, and other universities are working with DERP’s data.

 

New undersea cable will be wrapped in steel wire and polyethylene protective yarn to prevent damage

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Hebdomad

Source 2: slate.com

- Video in source 2. (Ad warning)

- Sharks have been known to bite undersea cables.

- Records of shark bites start in 1987.

- Google is now wrapping it’s undersea cables in polyethylene protective yarn and steel wire.

- Cable in question called “FASTER”:

- Cable will allow for speeds of up to 60TB/s and will cost $300 million.

- The six-company consortium funding the cable is comprised of China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit, Google, KDDI and SingTel.

 

Get Firefox now, or later you won’t have a choice

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Builder

Source 2: robert.ocallahan.org

- Robert O’Callahan blogs about the issues with letting Chrome dominate the market

- “Google controls Android, which is winning; Chrome, which is winning; and key Web properties in Search, Youtube, Gmail and Docs, which are all winning.”

- Google is already forcing people into using Chrome through exclusive features eg. offline support for docs

- “Other bad things are happening that I can't even talk about.”

- “So if you want an Internet --- which means, in many ways, a world --- that isn't controlled by Google, you must stop using Chrome now and encourage others to do the same. If you don't, and Google wins, then in years to come you'll wish you had a choice and have only yourself to blame for spurning it now.”

- claims Firefox is the best alternative as they aren’t controlled by a big company interested in creating a monopoly like Microsoft, Apple, or Google

 

EA not giving out Sims 4 copies to reviewers X

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Mindtrickz

Source 2: kitguru.net

Source 3: twitter.com @ DanStapleton

- EA will not be giving out review copies of the game before launch.

- Many pre-release videos and conversations have shown that Sims 4 may actually be a step backwards from Sims 3

- Removed feature(s): pools, toddler phase, careers like police and medicine, buildings can now only have a maximum of two levels, open world aspect (There will be loading screens between areas, and only 25 lots per world).

 

Rapid Fire
Facebook offering bounties for finding bugs in the Oculus Rift

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Dietrichw

Source 2: theverge.com

- Facebook is incorporating Oculus in it’s bug finding program.

- Individual security researchers who report bugs to Facebook may be financially rewarded.

- The minimum reward is $500, and there is no cap on the maximum.

- Facebook paid out $1.5 million in bug bounties last year.

- Most of the bugs are in the messaging system for Oculus developers and parts of the website.

- Facebook’s security engineer Neal Poole says: “Oculus bugs are not much different from bugs found in the social network”.

 

Comcast’s unfair "Unreturned Equipment" Fees

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Johners

Source 2: buzzfeed.com

- Steps customer took in source 2.

 

User modifies their windows load screen to show the LTT intro

Source 1: YouTube (WARNING: Sound)

- shows LTT intro with music

- rather than “Linus Tech Tips” it shows “glorious PC gaming master race”

 

ASUS teases new smartwatch

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Dietrichw

Source 2: engadget.com

- Image in Source 2.

- More information expected on Sept 3 at the IFA show (consumer electronics unlimited) in Berlin.

- [Rumours = grapevine] $99-$149, 300mAh-400mAh

 

Hitchhiking robot makes its way across Canada

Source 1: linustechtips OP: qwertywarrior

Source 2: hitchbot

- named “Hitchbot”

- made its way from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Victoria BC by hitchhiking

- over 4,000 miles total

- journey was chronicled through Twitter and instagram

- was made in Toronto and can interact with people (though language skills are limited)

- states on the site that trips abroad are a possibility, but for now they are keeping it within Canada

 

Witcher 3 Gameplay

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Morpheus

Source 2: https://www.youtube.com (game play vid)

- 35 minutes of gameplay uploaded.

 

Addetector makes sure you never mistake a sponsored story for a real one

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Victorious Secret

Source 2: theverge.com

- Identifies sponsored posts that are presented as regular content (articles etc.)

- A red warning bar at the top of the page is displayed as a warning.

- Works on close to 50 sites, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, BuzzFeed, several Gawker Media sites, two Vox Media sites and The Verge.

 

Man builds working hard drive inside of Minecraft

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Markus

Source 2: wired.com

- Can hold a single kilobyte of data.

 

Ubisoft to stop developing for 360 and PS3 next year

Source 1: kitguru.net

- Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, said: What we see is that this year is still fine for the PS3 and 360. But next year because they are selling very quickly, we’ll move to the new hardware. After 2015, it will be hard for us to create games for those systems.”

 

Netflix now paying Time Warner cable for direct access and faster streams

Source 1: linustechtips.com

- 4th of the big 4 US providers to do so (comcast, AT&T and Verizon did before)

- deal happened in June, implementation has been rolling out this month

- Netflix is still arguing before the FCC and in the court of public opinion that these agreements violate the spirit of network neutrality

 

App that remotely locks your phone and allows you to call one number

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Freaky_spider

Source 2: technobuffalo.com

- Can be used by parents to force a child to call them to get the number.

- Still allows calls to the emergency services and a list of predetermined numbers.

- Called “Ignore No More”.

- Costs $1.99

- Virtually impossible” to remove once installed

 

Plans to offer Google accounts to children under 13

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Victorious Secret

Source 2: wsj.com

- Google is trying to establish a new system that lets parents set up accounts for their kids, control how they use Google services and what information is collected about them.

- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA imposes strict limits on how information about children under 13 is collected.

 

Google’s new music streaming service to be called “YouTube Music Key”

Source 1: linustechtips.com OP: Dietrichw

Source 2: vancouversun.com

- offers ad-free playback

- ability to store songs and videos for offline use

- audio-only interface for when you want music on in the background

- $9.99 per month

- expected to also rebrand “Google Play All Access” to “Google Play Music Key”

 

Oracle 32 core chip - the Sparc M7

Source 1: linustechtips OP: Victorious Secret

Source 2: enterprisetech.com

- Ships sometime in 2015

- over 10 billion transistors on the die.

- It will be etched using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp’s 16 nanometer FinFET 3D transistor manufacturing node.

 

Chinese theaters testing system of onscreen text messages during movies

Source 1: linustechtips OP: snowComet

Source 2:

- it has been named “bullet screen”

- they censor comments, excluding sensitive words and swearing

- each message costs about 0.1 yuan, or approximately 10 cents

- “The inspiration behind the idea appears to be that it mimics that of watching a movie on mobile media, which is how most Chinese people watch films, with people sending messages about what they like or dislike about the movie.”

- a film must be approved for bullet screen by the writer in their contract with the producer

- some have complained that it interrupts concentration and harms independent thinking

- others, especially young people, find it exciting and interactive

Edited August 23, 2014 by looney
Fixed your copy pasta for night-theme users

[PillowSmoke]

first!

[Phllips]

yay!

[Phllips]

first!

ples no...

[PokémonTrainerFour]

Would love to watch, I need to get caught up in fact, but I can't even focus on these anymore.

[The Gaige]

Time for the fun!!!!!!!!!!

 

[joshnoodle]

Wan Show Timestamps completed as of 3:05PST. Backup (in case of deletion by troll) available here.

[Guest]

Wait, you guys host your own website, but you don't host your  own e-mail server?

Thinking about is really depressive. If enthusiasts who work on aggregating news for enthusiasts can't be bothered to set up system to avoid Google rummaging through their e-mail for every scrap of usable information, then how apathetic is the general populace? Damn...

[steffen_anywhere]

#16:10MASTERRACE

[taavi]

Luke, whats the problem with Chrome and Youtube videos?

[Microwavesaw]

I have switched to opera. im satisfied.

[VulsaviiK]

Is there anything HyperX doesn't sponsor?

 

Although, if they sponsor Linus, I feel a little better buying HyperX stuff. That said, they sponsor my favourite e-sports teams, but sponsoring linus is like, super-mega bonus points

[Stagea]

I think Tesla is just aligning with the competition (though they're not exactly at the same price bracket).

 

Battery Warranties:

Nissan (Electric): 8 years/100,000mi with 70% minimum capacity assurance at 5 years/60,000mi

Chevrolet (Electric): 8 years/100,000mi

 

Plug-in Hybrids and Hybrids can have longer battery warranties, since they can afford to shallow-cycle batteries

[TAK]

.

[Cookie Monster]

Why did Linus have an ant when he was younger?

[critsalot]

The problem with firefox is they are almost like google now. They decided to implement browser *DRM* . 

[Builder]

The problem with firefox is they are almost like google now. They decided to implement browser *DRM* . 

That's because they're standards focused and it was an HTML standard. I'm sorry, do you even understand what they did?

 

Also, woot my anti-Chrome rant was featured on the WAN show and now that's twice...I really wasn't expecting it.

[PortentousLad]

Oh Linus you pseudo Whovian it was the Sontaran Empire!

[SparkySamZa]

The custom Windows boot intro, anyone know how to add the sound to it ?

[PoisonGryphon]

Linus talking about the rad reminds me of dell server room. Each rack has an individual row a fans that spin up and down to temps.

[ClownFace1511]

Can someone make a donation box and can everyone chip in some money to get linus some air con.... Linus the heat is making you delirious GET AN AIR CONDITIONER YOUR GONNA COOK YOURSELF ALIVE!

[delanyinspiron6400]

Because you talked about the rad running with fans and controlling it without a PC...

 

I personally use a product from a german company, called "Aquacomputer", the product is called "Aquaero XT",

it's a liquid cooling control station, which "can" live in a PC but doesn't have to, I control 16 Fans with it at the moment

but more are possible and you can adjust stuff because of the air temperature or the water temperature!

 

They make awesome pumps and rads too

[charlocharlie]

There is no link in the doc for the cheap Windows 9 upgrade. : \

[Tassadar]

Just started contributing : ). Been subbed for almost 5 years. Don't want to disable adblock but want to give money

[iamthecpu]

i have a smart watch and i see the same amount of battery life degradation without it. I have a Samsung Galaxies S5 for refrence