In the next update to Valve’s Steam client, which distributes and manages Personal computer games, and is probably the best digital distribution setup around (other software companies wish they had a setup half as good), Valve will be throwing cloud computing into the mix. Called Steam Cloud, the update will let you store profiles, keybindings and all of your save games on the web, in addition to social networking features like calendars and stuff. The cloud storage is free. Why is this a massive deal?
A game company is taking the lead with two very hyped developments in how we consume software—digital distribution and cloud computing. Steam was already groundbreaking in the way it eliminated physical media from the large software equation on a mass level, and and Steam Cloud does something similar, bringing cloud computing to the masses. (It’s been so successful Steam sales are about to overtake box sales for Valve.)
Google does this to an extent with Google Docs but by integrating it with the Steam client, Valve takes it a tiny further—it doesn’t matter whose Personal computer you’re on, all of your stuff is there, waiting. Ironically, as much as Microsoft’s trying to fend off the cloud, Xbox Live presents a pretty awesome opportunity to dive into it and do something similar—they already do with respect to software distribution. [Maximum Computer]
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VIA Nano Processor Announced, Prepare Ultraportable for Ludicrous Speed Last January we saw tech conglomerate VIA announce its line of Isaiah processors. These clever chips were designed to revolutionize mobile computing through a mix of lightning fast computing speeds and low power consumption. Today it has announced a new…
Last January we saw tech conglomerate VIA announce its line of Isaiah processors. These clever chips were designed to revolutionize mobile computing through a mix of lightning fast computing speeds and low power consumption.
This day it has announced a new processor family and dubbed it Nano. Guess what kind of computers the processors are designed for? The very first 64-bit superscalars and speculative out-of-order processors ever made by the Bejing Taipei based company should provide owners of ultraportables some insane boosts in performance and function.
Now you’re probably wondering why you should care.
Envision now if you would, an utraportable personal like state, the Asus Eee PC. Small computer, great cost, performs reasonably well … for something of that size. Now imagine the same personal with VIA’s Nano processor. Now the computer is running Photoshop without a hiccup. Now the personal is playing Blu-ray movies without a snag. Now the personal is running Crysis at a frame rate that’s actually playable.
The new Nano processors will run up to four times faster yet consume the same amount of power as the Isaiah chipsets VIA currently offers. The Lab can’t wait to get ahold of a super small lappy running one of these processors inside. Imagine, fragging fools in Crysis on a new OLPC. Ah, the dreams of geeks.
Apparently, a video showing real, live space aliens will be shown to the media on Friday by completely not-crazy Jeff Peckman. The Denver resident is pushing to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to deal with interacting with the interstellar visitors that he claims are all over the place. Think the video might be a fake? You wish! It was totally verified by an instructor at the Colorado Film School, an institution that’s apparently the expert in videos of aliens.
The video shows “an extraterrestrial’s head popping up outside of a window at night, looking in the window, that’s visible through an infrared camera.” That all sounds well and good to me, but I wonder just how convincing any video can be in today and age. When an amateur special effects creator can make an incredibly convincing UFO video in his spare time, I highly doubt that some fuzzy night vision footage of an alien peeking in someone’s bedroom window is going to win over skeptics.
Also, just look at Peckman’s eyes! If those aren’t crazy eyes, I don’t know what are. Those eyes alone are enough to convince me that he’s full of it and his video is a fake. [Rocky Mountain News]
SanDisk has unchained their new Extreme III PRO-HG Duo cards and they’re tearing ass all over the place with superfast 30MBps read and write transfer speeds. For those of you keeping track, SanDisk’s non-HG Extreme III’s can only muster 18MBps speeds. Naturally, the PRO-HG will be aimed squarely at users with high end cameras and camcorders who don’t mind dropping $90 and $150 on a 4GB or 8GB card. Available starting in June. [SanDisk via Electronista]
Looking at new computational methods for tomography—a technique used by medical scanners to create 3D images—University of Antwerp researchers have built a budget supercomputer using four Nvidia 9800 GX2 graphics cards (a total of eight GPUs with 1,024 stream processors) as its super-calculating soul, which “perform as fast as 350 modern CPU cores.”
This kind of setup works really well for tomography because the number-crunching can be done in parallel and is highly vectorized—the same kind of stuff the medical community and Air Force were eye-balling the PS3 for, since the Cell uses a similar kind of architecture.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t be so great for more general computing stuffs that can’t be crunched in parallel (multiple processors working at once). Either way, watch the video, gigaflops to terabytes, it’s the nerdiest thing you’ll see this week. [FASTRA, Thanks Toji]
The Chinese Olympic Committee for the 2008 Games has revealed that all tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies will include RFID-enabled microchips with spectators’ passport information and home and e-mail addresses, among other sensitive personal info.
This high-level precaution is in response to the increasingly sensitive security issues surrounding the games, due largely in part to the host’s controversial positions on human rights and freedom of speech.
The Bean Vac is yet another kitchen gadget aimed at emptying your pocketbook and cluttering your kitchen counter-top. The name and product illustration clearly show it is targeted at the coffee nerd, who will presumably appreciate this vacuum storage box…
The Bean Vac is yet another kitchen gadget aimed at emptying your pocketbook and cluttering your kitchen counter-top.
The name and product illustration clearly show it is targeted at the coffee nerd, who will presumably appreciate this vacuum storage box for its capability to prevent oxidization. The product blurb also recommends using it with other confections, including cookies.
There are a few troubles here. Cookies and other baked goods don’t stale because of air or lack of moisture: a loaf of bread will harden even if frozen or packed in a tight plastic bag. Staling is caused by a crystallization in the bread. The total moisture remains the same but water migrates into crystals where it is locked away from your tongue.
The other problem? It seems that this vacuum sucks. All but one buyer comment on the site states that it won’t hold a seal (the satisfied customer is named “CookieMom. See above). The silicone ring which keeps the air out fails after several hours in every case. So in effect you’re buying a $40 Mason Jar. And hideous $40 Mason Jar which needs batteries.
In the next update to Valve’s Steam client, which distributes and manages Personal computer games, and is probably the best digital distribution setup around (other software companies wish they had a setup half as good), Valve will be throwing cloud computing into the mix. Called Steam Cloud, the update will let you store profiles, keybindings and all of your save games on the web, in addition to social networking features like calendars and stuff. The cloud storage is free. Why is this a massive deal?
Apparently, a video showing real, live space aliens will be shown to the media on Friday by completely not-crazy Jeff Peckman. The Denver resident is pushing to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission to deal with interacting with the interstellar visitors that he claims are all over the place. Think the video might be a fake? You wish! It was totally verified by an instructor at the Colorado Film School, an institution that’s apparently the expert in videos of aliens.
SanDisk has unchained their new 
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