[H]ard|OCP

E-tailers Snagged in Marketing 'Scam' Blame Customers

Remember this group of companies that was just recently busted scamming customers out of billions of dollars? Well, they have an explanation…it’s all your fault.

Now, the bad news: the marketers--Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty--are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members of the U.S. Senate have called a "scam," "robbery" and "theft."

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Two More Awards for Intel Solid-State Drives

The Intel X25-M Solid-State Drive (SSD) received two more awards this week including a Consumer Electronics Association CES Innovations Award. The X25-M was also named a Gold Medal Winner as Editor Best in the Hardware Storage Category by Penton Media's Windows IT Pro. Introduced in July, the Intel X25-M is the industry's first SSD on 34nm NAND flash memory manufacturing process - delivering the same or better performance over its 50nm version, at a fraction of the cost.

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Seagate Real World Science Conference

Some 250 young people in the North West were challenged this month to consider pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—collectively referred to as the STEM subjects—at the Seagate Real World Science Conference. The inspiring one-day, hands-on, interactive conference is organised annually by Seagate and was held on Thursday 19 November at Lumen Christi College, Derry. Year 10 pupils from Buncrana, Claudy, Strabane, Dungiven and Limavady attended the event along with students from schools based in the city.

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Beware of Black Friday Deals that Aren’t

Ah Black Friday: the day where it seems that every store is open early to entice the bargain-hunting masses not in a tryptophan-induced coma to come and buy their stuff at usually unbelievable prices. However, CNET warns readers not to believe the hype and to do your due diligence to confirm whether a deal is true or not.

Why don't stores offer a couple of truthful ads? Something like this: "Look, we've got three Samsung 40-inchers for $599.99. We won't make any money on them. But we're advertising them so that you can get excited. We promise there will be three of them and we'll sell them to the first person who comes in and guesses the middle name of our handsome salesman, Brad. We think that's fairer than having y'all fight, bite and claw outside our front door. Life is random. So are our deals."

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[H]ardware Roundup

Cases

NZXT M59 mid-tower @ BmR

Thermaltake SD100 mini-ITX HTPC chassis @ Legit Reviews

Memory & Storage

Patriot Viper series DDR3-1600 XMP-ready triple-channel 6GB kit @ OCIA

OCZ Colossus 3.5" SSD @ PCPerspective

Motherboards & Processors

Next gen P55 motherboards @ HardwareZone

AMD Athlon II X3 435 & X2 240e @ LostCircuits

Power Supplies

Ultra X4 500W @ HardwareSecrets

Ultra X4 1200W @ jonnyGURU

Video

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD5970 @ Rage3D

ATI Catalyst 9.11 Windows 7 driver analysis @ TweakTown

Gaming [H]eadlines

Game releases for 11/22-11/28 @ Shacknews

PlayStation Network to move to tiered service? @ GameSpot

Steam banning "grey market" Modern Warfare 2 keys @ VE3D

iPhone/iPod Touch game roundup @ bit-tech

Left4Dead 2 gets patched @ 1UP

Hackers Break Into Climate Change Research Center, Leak Email

What an inconvenient truth! Hackers broke into a prominent climate change research center in the UK and leaked internal memos and documents that is fanning the flames in the debate over man-made climate change. Al Gore was not available for comment.

In one leaked e-mail, the research center's director, Phil Jones, writes to colleagues about graphs showing climate statistics over the last millennium. He alludes to a technique used by a fellow scientist to "hide the decline" in recent global temperatures. Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing.

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Next Round of Particle Smashin’

NewScientist takes a look at the future of particle colliders, now that the LHC is switched on. Wait, this means that there might be a future after 2012? Dagnabit, that movie lied to me!

The Large Hadron Collider is by no means the last of the particle smashers. A group at CERN recently explored the various scenarios that might emerge from the atomic debris in Geneva – and how they would shape what colliders we build next. We draw out the key points about each of the scenarios.

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Magic Mouse Drivers for Windows Now Available

Do you have a hankering to use Apple’s Magic Mouse and its multitouch capability but don’t want to switch to a Mac? Well, someone heard your plaintive cries and hacked Apple’s recent Bluetooth update in order to make Windows drivers for the Magic Mouse. Oh, joy! Rapture!

So you like Apple’s fancy Magic Mouse? Its a beautiful piece of engineering with an insane price tag of $70. Problem is, even at $70, it only works on Macs leaving Windows users in the dust. But thanks to a hidden update here is how you get this little guy to work in Windows XP (32 bit) to Windows 7.

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Playstation 3 Used by Feds to Bust Pedophiles

Federal officials have been buying up the old-style PS3 (the fat ones) and loading up Linux on them because they’re highly effective at cracking passwords on confiscated computer equipment from alleged pedophiles. They say there’s no after-hours Street Fighter 4 going on though because there are no controllers attached. Riiiight.

"Bad guys are encrypting their stuff now, so we need a methodology of hacking on that to try to break passwords," Claude E. Davenport, an agent in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Center, told the Scripps reporter. "The Playstation 3 -- its processing component -- is perfect for large-scale library attacks."

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First Dangerous iPhone Worm in the Wild

Dutch sites XS4ALL and security.nl are reporting that there is a dangerous iPhone worm out in the wild that’s attacking phones that are cracked with Jailbreak software. Follow the jump for the Google-translated link or go here for the Slashdot article.

After obtaining a copy of the malware it was discovered that the jailbroken phones, which are exploited through openSSH with a default password, scan IP ranges of mobile internet providers for other vulnerable iPhones, phone home to a C&C botnet server, are able to update themselves with additional malware and have the ability to dump the SMS database as well.

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Teen Gets Prison Term for Scientology DDOS Attack

I’m going to reserve comment on this story and just let you guys do it. Dmitriy Guzner, an 19-year-old New Jersey man, was sentenced to a year and a day of prison time and ordered to pay $37,500 in restitution to the Church of Scientology for his role in a DDOS attack on the church’s website in January 2008. Hmm…

Guzner took part in a series of distributed denial of service attacks that knocked the Church of Scientology's Web site offline for several days. The DDOS attacks began Jan. 19 and proceeded to knock the Scientology.org Web site offline by hitting it with several bursts of up to 220Mbit/sec. in unwanted Internet traffic.

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ASUS Launches EAH5000 Series Graphics Cards

ASUS launched the new ASUS EAH5000 Series, a lineup of three graphics cards that cater to a wide spectrum of needs including extreme overclocking, fast-paced gaming and daily computing. Equipped with ASUS' exclusive Voltage Tweak technology, the ASUS EAH5970/G/2DIS/2GD5 and EAH5770/2DI/1GD5 graphics cards enable users to boost GPU voltages via the SmartDoctor application to enjoy up to a 31%* improvement in performance. The ASUS EAH5770/2DI/1GD5 and EAH5750 FORMULA/2DI/1GD5 feature highly effective cooling solutions capable of up to 13%* better heat dissipation, and boast ASUS' exclusive Xtreme Design—an effective marriage of hardware, software, and material choices—that delivers the performance, reliability and safety DIY users need to enjoy stable and smooth daily computing.

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Dell Announces Poor Quarterly Report, Stock Falls

Dell announced its quarterly earnings yesterday and let’s just say that the happy train stopped before it got to their station. The company dropped 54% in net income and 15% in revenue in this quarter, which was lower than analysts’ forecast. I guess dudes aren’t getting a Dell anymore.

The numbers show that Dell isn't fully benefiting from the industry's fledgling recovery, even though the company is seeing improvement in some areas. "We are already seeing more client activity in the last 30 to 60 days than we have in a long time," Michael Dell, the company's CEO, said on a conference call with analysts.

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Tesla Preparing to Go Public?

Electric car maker Tesla is preparing to go public, according to MSNBC. The IPO is expected "any day" so if you think this much maligned company has what it takes to deliver a return on your investment, get your broker on the horn. According to the article, this IPO would be the 1st US automaker to go public since Ford in 1956. Wow.

Tesla's IPO would follow the successful debut of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems, whose shares rallied 50 percent on their first day of trading on Sept 25. Analysts have said that the success of A123, the first green technology IPO this year, would encourage more venture capital-backed green companies to go public.

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Windows 8 Planned for 2012

Microsoft showed their "Release Cadence" roadmap at PDC09, which confirmed that the next major OS release is code named "Windows 8" and is scheduled for a 2012 release date. No other details were revealed but I guess those of you trying to extend XP’s usefulness past Windows 7 will have a long road ahead.

The schedule suggests Microsoft doesn't expect a radical delay in its OS releases and that it intends to resume a regular schedule for releases. Windows Vista's three-year delay from its original 2004 target stemmed from a decision to largely scrap existing work after security and modernization concerns prompted Microsoft to base Vista on Windows Server 2003's code.

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Wired’s Evan Ratliff Found After 25 Days

Wired writer Evan Ratliff wanted to see if he could really disappear despite a $5000 bounty on him. So he started the "Vanish" experiment and managed to elude searchers for 25 days before being caught. Wired has the story and it's pretty neat.

The idea for the contest started with a series of questions, foremost among them: How hard is it to vanish in the digital age? Long fascinated by stories of faked deaths, sudden disappearances, and cat-and-mouse games between investigators and fugitives, I signed on to write a story for Wired about people who’ve tried to end one life and start another. People fret about privacy, but what are the consequences of giving it all up, I wondered.

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FCC Lists 7 Biggest Barriers to Broadband Adoption

Ars Technica tells us about a recent document from the FCC that outlines the seven biggest barriers to widespread broadband adoption. Though no solutions are presented by the FCC, this list probably confirms some of the concerns that you may have, if you’ve given this subject any thought.

Here are the seven party poopers in the order that the FCC lists them. We've added some solutions that various advocates have proposed or the industry has already implemented to help fix these conundrums.

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New York Testing Emergency Alert System on Gaming Networks

Imagine you’re in a heated game of Madden on Xbox Live and you’re about to score the game winning field goal when an emergency alert interrupts your game with a warning that a rabid lemming invasion is sweeping across your state. Would you be annoyed or thankful? NY is testing their emergency broadcast systems on gaming networks right now so if you’ve seen these alerts, let us know what you thought.

Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo operate online networks that allow players to compete against each other over the Internet. Under the state's plan, authorities would tap those networks to broadcast warnings about natural or man-made disasters. Singleton had few details, but confirmed that the plan is in the testing phase.

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Sony Hypes New Online Service, Links Gadgets to DLC

Sony plans on launching a new online service next year that aims to connect their vast media empire with their vast consumer electronics empire. This is part of their turnaround strategy to stop the $1 Billion loss each fiscal year and bring Sony back. Time will tell.

"That's the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else," Hirai said in an interview at Tokyo headquarters. "That I think is where our core competence lies, and that's a differentiator for Sony." The online service will include games, movie downloads and other interactive entertainment, which will be accessible on Sony products, such as Bravia TVs, Cyber-shot digital cameras and Reader electronic books.

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Office 2010 Beta FAQ

If you want to try out the beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 but aren’t sure where to start, PCWorld has a handy FAQ just for you. Have fun!

Because this is the last available-to-all milestone for the new suite,Microsoft's geared up to get the beta into the hands of a very large group. "Instead of tens of thousands who tried the Technical Preview, now we're talking about millions and million of people," Takeshi Numoto, the corporate vice president for Office, said in an interview Wednesday.

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The Story Behind the FAA Flight-Plan System Crash

eWeek has an article about Thursday’s crash of the FAA’s flight-plan filing system and the background behind the system. I’m amazed but not surprised that a single router managed to take down the national system. I’ve seen some wild outages caused by a single rogue network device back in my network engineering days.

When the router went offline, only the system maintainer—government telecommunications contractor Harris—knew that the backup card was not immediately available, and that one technician, who hadn't come to work yet that day, had the key to the storage closet where the part was kept. So the FAA had to wait until this technician was able to come to the site in Salt Lake City to replace the faulty card inside the router, reconfigure the software, and get the communications backbone back up and running so that the nation's air traffic could get back to normal.

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Cooler Master Launches HAF 932 AMD Edition Chassis

Cooler Master is pleased to introduce the HAF 932 AMD Edition. Featuring an exciting AMD-inspired design and the same award-winning features and performance, the HAF 932 AMD Edition gives users another breathtaking option to base their performance PCs on. The HAF 932 AMD Edition begins with a bold racing red color scheme that is sure to grab the attention of anyone in the vicinity. This is accompanied by a see-through acrylic side panel that sports none other than AMD’s dragon – an awe-inspring figure that represents the synthesis of power, strength and wisdom.

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Lexar Media Expands Gaming Line with M2, SDHC Offerings

Lexar Media announced the expansion of its line of gaming solutions with the Lexar® Gaming Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) and Gaming Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC™) memory cards. Designed to take the gaming experience to the next level, the cards enable users to reliably save and store gaming data and multimedia content on popular gaming consoles.

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YouTube Pulls API Access from Popcorn Hour

Anyone that used to use Popcorn Hour and other set-top boxes to watch YouTube on their TV are in for surprise. YouTube isn't too thrilled with companies that circumvent the rules and continue to violate its Terms of Service agreement. Here is a statement from Google:

Since July of 2008, YouTube's Terms of Service has restricted implementations for televisions based on our APIs. YouTube has been in active discussions with various developers on how best to implement YouTube on set top boxes and TVs. There are several companies, however, that have deployed solutions, like video scraping technology, to circumvent the rules and violate YouTube's Terms of Service. Companies that have negotiated agreements to use our APIs, like TiVo, Sony, Panasonic and PS3 are not impacted.

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[H]ardware Round-Up II

Cases & Modding

Cooler Master CM Storm Scout Case (German) @ Technic3D

Cooler Master Sileo 500 Case @ NinjaLane

ETC.

Ozone SMOG Gaming Mouse @ Guru3D

Video

Sapphire HD 5970 Cfx and HIS HD 5970 CFx @ Driver Heaven

Smoking Near Apple Computers Voids Warranty

This is the first time I have ever heard of something like this. Residue from secondhand smoke in your Apple computer voids your warranty?

The Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to "health risks of second hand smoke".

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E-Mail of the Day…the Steve Jobs Edition

What do you say when an angry iPhone app developer writes you a long e-mail complaining of an issue they have with Apple? If you are Steve Jobs, you write this:

Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

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Dancing Christmas Robots

Here is a cute video of robots dancing to Christmas songs. The autonomous robots learned to dance at a geometric rate. They will become self-aware at 2:14 a.m. eastern time on December 25th. Thanks to Arnold for the link.

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Turn Your Pistol Into An Assault Rifle

I know, I know, this pistol-rifle system doesn’t turn your semi-automatic pistol into a real assault rifle but it is close. Besides, it is actually pretty damn cool and it looks bad ass.

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