Jozi

Riding bikes is second best thing you can do with your pants on :)

Msi gtx 670pe/oc and sabertooth z77.

Earlier this month Finland’s largest ever Internet piracy case ended with four men being found guilty of copyright infringement and two being exonerated. The case involved a so-called ‘topsite’ called Angel Falls and had an interesting twist. During the trial it was revealed that evidence gathered by a local anti-piracy group and the IFPI was also handed to a “senior MPAA executive” who tampered with the evidence before handing it to the police.
 
More than five years ago an investigation was launched into ‘Angel Falls’ a system of servers used by the so-called ‘warez scene’ for storing and distributing copyright content.
 
Following an undercover investigation, in 2007 rightsholders filed an official complaint and two months later the site was raided by authorities in Oulu, Finland. A total of 15 servers were discovered containing a range of copyrighted material including music, movies, TV shows, video games and software.
 
Represented by anti-piracy group CIAPC (known locally as TTVK), rightsholders said that the individuals running the Angel Falls topsite had caused damages to their businesses totaling six million euros. The developing copyright case was to be the largest in Finland’s history.
 
Earlier this month the trial concluded. Four men were found guilty and two were cleared as per our earlier report. However, according to Herkko Hietanen, a defense lawyer in the case from the Turre Legal lawfirm, the case had a somewhat interesting feature.
 
During the trial an IFPI investigator was called upon as a witness, but during his testimony something unusual came to light.
 
“After his presentation the defense counsels pointed out how the information shown on the video of his investigations did not match with the printed log files,” Hietanen informs TorrentFreak.
 
The video, a screencast of the investigation, showed a particular username accessing an Angel Falls FTP server. However, the corresponding text log for the same event showed a completely different username.
 
“When the IFPI investigator was asked about this he acknowledged that the names did not match. He said that the Finnish anti-piracy people and IFPI had collected the information together, but there was also an MPAA executive in the room while the evidence gathering took place,” Hietanen explains.
 
The IFPI investigator was then asked to reveal the name of the MPAA executive. He declined, but did offer an explanation for the inconsistencies in the evidence.
 
In an apparent attempt to hide the identity of one of their spies, the MPAA executive edited the evidence gathered during the session.
 
“The IFPI investigator handed over the evidence material to the MPAA senior executive who then changed the text file before the anti-piracy organization handed over the evidence to the Finnish police,” Hietanen says.
 
No one from the MPAA informed the defense that the edits had been made and the tampering was revealed at the worst possible time – during the trial. This resulted in the prosecutor ordering a police investigation into the changes that had been made.
 
“Police then proceeded by comparing the ‘work copy’ that the IFPI investigator produced with the material that police and the defending counsels had received. Police found out that the material had differences in over 10 files,” Hietanen reveals.
 
Considering the effort that had gone into the case, the outcome was somewhat of a disappointment. Two men were completely cleared and the four who were found guilty escaped with suspended jail sentences. The six million euros in damages claimed by the rightsholders was reduced to just 45,000 euros.
 
The fate of the MPAA investigator is unclear, but since his username was revealed in court it seems likely that if he used the same one on other sites, that will no longer be possible.
 
 
 
http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-executive-tampered-with-ifpi-evidence-in-internet-piracy-case-130427/

Jay “Saurik” Freeman, a well-known hacker in the iOS and Android community, has reported that his developer’s Google Glass has been successfully ‘rooted’.
  The news of Freeman’s success in hacking Google’s latest consumer hardware comes just a few days after another hacker, Liam McLoughlin, also claimed to have cracked the Glass’ OS. 
According to Freeman, it took him about two hours while eating dinner with his friends to find the Glass’ exploit. 
 

 
“It took me two hours while I was having dinner with friends at the time,” he reported to Forbes.  “The implementation from B1inary is for normal Android tablets and phones, I learned how it worked and then did the same thing on Glass… which was quite simple.”
 
Having the ability to root the Google Glass could open up new possibilities to owners, especially in regards to protecting one’s privacy.  For people who want to store their data locally, instead on Google’s cloud server, rooting their headsets may enable that option.  Moreover, rooting may also allow the Glass to swap hands, since Google has specifically stated that if a Glass owner tries to sell the early test unit the device will be “bricked” and no longer functional.
 
A consumer-ready version of Glass is expected to debut some time in 2014, so it’s possible that Freeman’s exploit on the dev model may not be applicable for the consumer product.  Still, Google tend to be more flexible than Apple in that it will allow people and OEMs to gain root access—per the proper consent of course.
      http://vr-zone.com/articles/hackers-successfully-rooted-google-glass-and-it-only-took-a-few-hours/19842.html  
 

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2030073/the-pirate-bay-admits-to-north-korean-hosting-hoax.html

IBM’s solar collector can meet global energy requirements if built across 2% of the Sahara’s land area. A highly advanced cooling network, seen in the likes of the Aquasar supercomputer, makes it possible.

 
 
Solar power has always been a very promising alternative to our current energy sources; its supply is predictable and plentiful (at least in some parts of the world), but most importantly, clean and renewable. Numerous countries have started to appreciate this, most notably Spain with its rapidly expanding concentrated solar plants. However, to achieve widespread adoption, there are two major obstacles that need to be tackled first: low conversion efficiencies, which currently lie at around 20% if conventional photovoltaic (PV) cells are used, and high costs. IBM believes it has overcome these with its High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system.
The HCPVT system utilizes a concentrating parabolic dish to focus the sun’s rays onto an assembly of triple-junction PV modules at its center; this is unlike your standard solar concentrator, which focuses the rays onto a tube of water. A power equivalent to that of 2,000 suns is effectively transmitted to the modules, and the result is a system that can convert 80% of the solar energy it captures into useful energy. An exceptional 30% of the solar energy is converted into electricity, as the PV cells operate more efficiently under concentrated sunlight. The other 50% is stored as thermal energy by means of a highly advanced cooling network, currently used in the Aquasar supercomputer, which not only prevents the modules from melting, but also makes the system feasible and much more cost-effective.

How far we’ve come from those tiny solar cells on our calculators!
 
The cooling network is comprised of micro water channels that pass through the PV cells at a proximity of tens of microns to their constituent chips; the direct heat transfer to the water is 10 times as effective as air cooling, ensuring that the cells are kept cool. Simultaneously, the thermal energy that would normally be dissipated back to the atmosphere is stored in the cooling water, and can then be used for other purposes, such as air conditioning or providing clean drinking water.
IBM envisions its solar solution being adopted in remote villages around the world to provide basic necessities such as electricity and water, but more ambitiously as a main source of energy in the desert regions of Africa and the Arabian Gulf. If sufficient solar collectors are installed, this clean energy could eventually be distributed to neighboring regions as well. With its low cost design, which is three times lower than comparable systems, giving a cost per kilowatt-hour of 10 cents (equivalent to coal power station costs), this vision may very well be realized.
    http://vr-zone.com/articles/harnessing-the-power-of-2-000-suns-using-technology-developed-for-supercomputers/19809.html 
 
 

Exciting...  Will discuss on live stream tomorrow

IBM’s solar collector can meet global energy requirements if built across 2% of the Sahara’s land area. A highly advanced cooling network, seen in the likes of the Aquasar supercomputer, makes it possible.

 
 
Solar power has always been a very promising alternative to our current energy sources; its supply is predictable and plentiful (at least in some parts of the world), but most importantly, clean and renewable. Numerous countries have started to appreciate this, most notably Spain with its rapidly expanding concentrated solar plants. However, to achieve widespread adoption, there are two major obstacles that need to be tackled first: low conversion efficiencies, which currently lie at around 20% if conventional photovoltaic (PV) cells are used, and high costs. IBM believes it has overcome these with its High Concentration PhotoVoltaic Thermal (HCPVT) system.
The HCPVT system utilizes a concentrating parabolic dish to focus the sun’s rays onto an assembly of triple-junction PV modules at its center; this is unlike your standard solar concentrator, which focuses the rays onto a tube of water. A power equivalent to that of 2,000 suns is effectively transmitted to the modules, and the result is a system that can convert 80% of the solar energy it captures into useful energy. An exceptional 30% of the solar energy is converted into electricity, as the PV cells operate more efficiently under concentrated sunlight. The other 50% is stored as thermal energy by means of a highly advanced cooling network, currently used in the Aquasar supercomputer, which not only prevents the modules from melting, but also makes the system feasible and much more cost-effective.

How far we’ve come from those tiny solar cells on our calculators!
 
The cooling network is comprised of micro water channels that pass through the PV cells at a proximity of tens of microns to their constituent chips; the direct heat transfer to the water is 10 times as effective as air cooling, ensuring that the cells are kept cool. Simultaneously, the thermal energy that would normally be dissipated back to the atmosphere is stored in the cooling water, and can then be used for other purposes, such as air conditioning or providing clean drinking water.
IBM envisions its solar solution being adopted in remote villages around the world to provide basic necessities such as electricity and water, but more ambitiously as a main source of energy in the desert regions of Africa and the Arabian Gulf. If sufficient solar collectors are installed, this clean energy could eventually be distributed to neighboring regions as well. With its low cost design, which is three times lower than comparable systems, giving a cost per kilowatt-hour of 10 cents (equivalent to coal power station costs), this vision may very well be realized.
    http://vr-zone.com/articles/harnessing-the-power-of-2-000-suns-using-technology-developed-for-supercomputers/19809.html 
 
 

Personally I would chooce Acer Aspire E1-571 over that macbook just because of that price difference.  
http://vr-zone.com/articles/the-best-windows-laptop-is-apparently-a-mac/19799.html  

HTC is offering its flagship smartphone the HTC One in China with a microSD card slot, according to its own advertising, contradicting earlier claims by the company that it was unable to include one, leaving many around the world without the feature.
  The HTC One comes in two versions, a standard 32GB model and a 64GB one for developers. That is not enough space for many, however, and what seems like a standard feature on Android phones, room for a microSD card, was never employed.   HTC claimed the reason for this was because of the phone's unique, gap-free design, which did not allow for such expansion. In fact, that is also the alleged reason users cannot remove the battery.     Chinese users are getting half their prayers answered, however, as it looks like HTC is allowing microSD card expansion, likely due to being forced to provide dual-SIM support. The trade-off is that the phone is no longer “gap-free,” but has a removable back. However, this still will not allow access to the battery.   Many customers outside China, however, might feel a little cheated that they are not getting this basic feature. While Apple got in trouble in China for its different warranty policies, it seems HTC might instead be in trouble with the rest of the world.     http://vr-zone.com/articles/htc-one-in-china-to-have-microsd-card-slot-despite-previous-htc-claim/19812.html 
 

AMD has been criticized by some tech publications over Radeon HD 7000 series posing higher frame-latency over NVIDIA GeForce chips, even in cases where AMD's chips offer higher frame-rates. "Frame latency" or "frame time" was purported as a metric of the same importance as frame-rates, in graphics card reviews. Various essentially identical methods were used to show that AMD Radeon GPUs yield higher frame latency (time taken for frames drawn by the GPU to make it to the display) than NVIDIA GeForce ones, even in cases where AMD's chips offer higher frame-rates. AMD has apparently made a significant breakthrough in improving frame latency.

In January, AMD made its first official response to early tests that showed Radeon GPUs to pose higher frame latency. In its defense, AMD stated that frame-latency issues are not a hardware design flaw, and can be ironed out by optimizing drivers to the redesigned memory controllers on GPUs based on its Graphics CoreNext architecture. Sources told us that AMD is ready with its first prototype drivers that fix frame latency issues. These drivers are pre-alpha, and are made available to select industry partners, with an adequate level of competence and expertise, since a week now. After AMD takes feedback from these partners, the company will begin rolling out the first beta drivers, followed by WHQL-signed ones.
 
http://www.techpowerup.com/183129/AMD-Makes-a-Breakthrough-in-Improving-Frame-Latency.html

AMD has been criticized by some tech publications over Radeon HD 7000 series posing higher frame-latency over NVIDIA GeForce chips, even in cases where AMD's chips offer higher frame-rates. "Frame latency" or "frame time" was purported as a metric of the same importance as frame-rates, in graphics card reviews. Various essentially identical methods were used to show that AMD Radeon GPUs yield higher frame latency (time taken for frames drawn by the GPU to make it to the display) than NVIDIA GeForce ones, even in cases where AMD's chips offer higher frame-rates. AMD has apparently made a significant breakthrough in improving frame latency.

In January, AMD made its first official response to early tests that showed Radeon GPUs to pose higher frame latency. In its defense, AMD stated that frame-latency issues are not a hardware design flaw, and can be ironed out by optimizing drivers to the redesigned memory controllers on GPUs based on its Graphics CoreNext architecture. Sources told us that AMD is ready with its first prototype drivers that fix frame latency issues. These drivers are pre-alpha, and are made available to select industry partners, with an adequate level of competence and expertise, since a week now. After AMD takes feedback from these partners, the company will begin rolling out the first beta drivers, followed by WHQL-signed ones.
 
http://www.techpowerup.com/183129/AMD-Makes-a-Breakthrough-in-Improving-Frame-Latency.html

The new fluid simulation algorithm simulates liquids using Position Based Dynamics (PBD), which is the same framework that is used to generate the eye candy found in cloth and deformables simulation.
According to PhysXInfo, PBD’s iterative solver is better at maintaining incompressibility than traditional SPH (Smoothed-particle Hydrodynamics). Furthermore, PBD “has an artificial pressure term which improves particle distribution and creates nice surface tension-like effects.†It also allows user to inject energy back to the fluid via “vorticity confinement.â€
http://vr-zone.com/articles/new-fluid-simulation-algorithm-makes-water-actually-look-real/19780.html

"The Never Settle Reloaded promotion has been a tremendous success for AMD, with scores of new customers claiming their free copies of amazing games like BioShock® Infinite, Crysis® 3 and Tomb Raider® each and every day. But it comes as no surprise to us that the one piece of feedback we keep hearing is: “MORE GAMES, PLEASE!†We hear you. Actually, we did a little more than that… we took your feedback to heart and added a new game! That game is the sublimely nostalgic Far Cry® 3 Blood Dragon, which today joins the Never Settle Reloaded promotion as the fifth and newest title."

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2013/04/11/fc3bd-nsr/

You should try install it to SSD. SSD might not give straight performance boost to fps, but it will reduce load times.
5400rpm drive might struggle to play the game and save data at the same time.
Some ppl have problems (fps drops, lags) with bf3 when they record with fraps to same drive as the game is installed.
I don't know that cpu so I can't say if it is part of the problem. Win8 can also mess up gaming performance.

Difference is like night and day.

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/soldier/Jozzii/stats/261072134/

I joined :)