[H]ardNews 7th Edition

The [H]orde Takes The Lead:

It is with great pleasure that we can officially announce after almost 240 days, our DC folding team has retaken first place. We would like to personally congratulate everyone who works so [H]ard to make this team so successful. This team is truly a family, one that I am proud to be a part of. You can be part of it too! Although we have the lead, we are still trying to find a cure for some horrible illnesses, so why not come help us out? If you have any questions stop by our DC subforum and our experts will be happy to help you get going. Once you are up and running why not come and say hello! You could also participate in our latest race. And yes, there is a prize involved. Folding is a wonderful cause, a great competition, and above all great fun. Once you join up, please come and celebrate with us!

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

CES Preview:

CES is right around the corner. Take a look at what to expect at this years Consumer Electronics Show.

The annual convention, which is known for displaying everything from enormous flat-screen televisions to tasers and robotic dogs under the bright lights of Las Vegas, will also play host to a number of more buttoned-down products in 2006, including a new crop of notebook PC products.

Ten Failed Tech Trends:

We’ve spent a good amount of time today talking about what has been great and downright cool from 2005. Why not spend a minute looking at the flops of the year as well.

The science fiction writer, Theodore Sturgeon, who when confronted with the notion that 90% of science fiction is crud, famously replied that "90% of everything is crud." That little sound bite has become known as Sturgeon's Revelation. Case's corollary to Sturgeon's Revelation is that 90% of technology trend predictions are wrong. We're the first to admit that we can be wrong, too. So in the spirit of fun and mea culpa, we look at some trends that seemed very real a year ago. Note that these aren't all trends we predicted, but they were all written about by starry-eyed technology writers like us. Let's take a look at them, shall we?

[H]ardNews 5th Edition - Mini Mods & Ends

Cooling:

Evercool GT-365 Review @ OCModShop

Cases & Modding:

Sunbeam Silent Storm ATX Chassis Review @ Virtual-Hideout

Etc:

PowerColor X800 GTO 16 PCIe @ SystemCooling - Hiper Type-R HPU-4B580 @ MVKTech - VR-Fidelity USB Speakerphone @ ThinkComputers.org - Revoltec Alu Book External Drive Case @ DriverHeaven

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Moviegoers Still Not Going:

For the third year in a row, the sales of movie tickets are still down. Hmmm, I wonder why people aren’t going to the movies?

"The industry has to consider whether or not American audiences are sending a message about the quality of the movies they are getting — or just the way and the place in which they get them," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, a firm that analyzes box-office trends. "You can bet that producers, writers, directors and studio heads are all huddling intensely to consider what this means and change their behavior to keep it from continuing."

You mean to tell me it might not be piracy, and just really crappy movies keeping people away!? Wow, who knew?

MS Antispyware Expiration:

Just in case you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget that the program will expire at midnight. Go get the new version now!

If you have been using the beta version of Microsofts Antispyware. You will get a notice telling you it expires today.

Amazon Phishing Scam:

I realize everyone here is smart enough to not be fooled by this crap. However, I still want you guys to read this to bone up on the latest technique that is making its rounds today.

You have received this email because we have strong reason to believe that your Amazon account had been recently compromised. In order to prevent any fraudulent activity from occurring we are required to open an investigation into this matter. To speed up this process, you are required to verify your Amazon account by following the link below.

[H]ardNews

[H]appy New Year!!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! Thank you all very much for helping to make this one of the best sites and communities around. We look forward to the fresh start of 2006 and are excited to bring you new and thought provoking information. Stay tuned, a lot of great things are soon to come. Also, as a [H] PSA, if you are going to be drinking this holiday, please don’t drink and drive. If you are traveling, please be extra cautious on the roads. Once again, thank you so much and have a Happy (and safe) Holiday!!

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Looking Forward

A Look Ahead:

I am sure we’ll spend a great deal of time reliving the famous (and infamous) of 2005 today. Why not take a peek into the crystal ball and see what is in store for 2006?

With 2005 winding down, it's time to look into the crystal ball and see what the future holds in various areas of high-tech.

Intel Leaps Forward:

It looks like Intel is gearing up to make 2006 a year to remember.

Intel Inside, a slogan embedded in the public's mind thanks to clever commercials with quirky celebrities such as The Blue Man Group, isn't going away. The company will retain a marketing program with that name to help helps PC makers like Dell and HP advertise products that use its chips.

It also looks like Intel will be getting the jump on the new Power Mac as well.

Forbes 2006:

Forbes also has their predicitions on what they feel 2006 will bring us in the tech world.

Forbes editors and writers take a look ahead at technology in 2006. Click on the authors to read what they think will be the big trend, hear their unconventional wisdom, be cautioned against misplaced assumptions, check the watch list and get a bold prediction.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition - End O' The Year Roundups

Forbes Company of the Year:

This years honor goes to no other than the hard drive mammoth Seagate.

Everything is being disruptive and disrupted," he says. "Disk drives have been a $20 billion market for five years. All of a sudden you're going to see phenomenal growth--an extra $10 billion to $15 billion."

Shacknews GOTY:

Head on over and say hello to our good friends at the Shack. While you are there, take a look at what you guys voted as Games of the Year.

It's the final day of the year and to close out 2005 we present the game of the year award winners as voted on by thousands of Shackers. There were close results, there were blowouts, and there is an unexpected overall Game of the Year winner.

Top 10 Gadgets of 2K5:

I bet you are wondering what are some of the coolest, most innovative gadgets were made in the last year? Well look no further!

It's not exactly the world's biggest secret that we cover our fair share of gadgets here at infoSync World - and of course we have our own personal favourites for 2005. Curious?

You can also take a look at Cnet’s take. Oh, and don't forget about what Wired thinks.

Software Flaws Abound:

Everyone needs to check out the numbers of all the software flaws found in 2005. This year we came in at a lean 5,198.

According to US-CERT, researchers found 812 flaws in the Windows operating system, 2,328 problems in various versions of the Unix/Linux operating systems (Mac included). An additional 2,058 flaws affected multiple operating systems. There may well have been more than 5,198 flaws discovered this year; these were only the ones reported to US-CERT.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

nVidia Year in Review:

Keeping in line with my support for all you nostalgia buffs, and those of you with no short term memory, check out this comprehensive look back at the last year of nVidia.

In continuation of our previous piece entitled ATI AYiR 2005(A Year in Review), where we looked at ATI's features implemented this year into their drivers as well as thoroughly examining the frame-rate performance, today we have turned the tables yet again and today are taking another look at NVIDIA's gains this year...

50 Best Firefox Extensions:

Anyone one who uses Firefox will certainly want to check this out. This very nicely organized list of extensions will turn your normal day usage into power browsing in no time.

Extensions are small add-ons that add new functionality to Firefox. The list has been classified on the basis of some broad categories and work on the latest version of the Firefox Web Browser 1.5. Firefox latest version allows easy update of these extensions than ever before with a few clicks. You need to check that similar functioning extensions may not work with each other. You probably use many of them, and may find some new good extensions here...

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

Intel 975X Express Vs. nForce4 X16 SLI:

Legion Hardware has an interesting match up between an Intel 975X Express and a nForce4 X16 SLI motherboard. Which chipset / motherboard is right for you? Hopefully this review will help you figure that out. Here’s a quote:

So which is the better option for building a seriously powerful gaming system, the Intel 975X Express or the NVIDIA nForce4 X16 SLI? For those that want to use multi-GPU technology it’s a no brainer as the options are limited.

Google Talk Targeted In Lawsuit:

Google Talk is the target of a patent infringement lawsuit filed by a company that seems to have no other service or product other than its patent portfolio. Thanks to Joe Alpert for the link.

You've probably never heard of Rates Technology Inc. (RTI), and that wouldn't be surprising since the company has no products and offers no services. By all appearances, RTI is a company that was set up to collect licensing fees and pursue settlements related to the company's patent portfolio.

History Of New Year’s Celebrations:

Since it is almost New Year’s Day, I thought a little history behind the celebrations would be cool.

New Year's Day is the first day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar. In modern times, it is January 1. In most countries, it is a holiday. It is still celebrated as a holy day on January 14 by those who still follow the Julian calendar such as followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches known as Old Calendarists.

[H]ardNews 5th Edition - [H]ardForum [H]appenings

[H]ardForum [H]appenings:

Welcome to the TGIF edition of [H]ardForum [H]appenings! First of all, Friday means Folding, if you aren’t Folding for a cure then you NEED to be!! If you need to know why we DC hit this thread up. If you have the desire to Fold but your hardware is lacking, check out the distributed computing parts swap thread and get that box running. So now you have the desire, the hardware but you just don’t know “HOW” to get Folding, this thread will tell you everything you need to know. We need everyone folding that we can get… and besides, it is so simple to do, even I fold for the [H]orde. Now that we have Folding taken care of, let’s talk about the hot topic of the day, ABIT’s recent financial trouble is being discussed in the motherboards forum. Post your thoughts and feeling on the matter. Moving right along to the Deal of the Day, how about this Firefly DVD box set for $19? That’s a damn good deal if you are into the series or just watched Serenity and want to see the series. Runner up in the DotD department is this 300GB 7200rpm hard drive for $59.99 with rebates involved. As always, have fun in the forums, we’ll see you in there!

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Inside The Apple PowerMac Quad G5:

Ever wanted to know what it takes to cool a quad core PowerMac G5? You wouldn’t believe me if I told you so you are just going to have to take a look for yourself. Thanks to Rob Perkins for the linkage:

Here is the new Quad processor from the PowerMac G5. Note the dual cooling pumps and massive heat exchanger. Even the Voltage regulator has a huge heatsink. Keeps my room warm at night.

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition - Mods & Ends

Cooling:

DangerDen 12v Water Pump @ R&B Mods - Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro @ TechPowerUP! - Titan Eagle Universal VGA Cooler @ ThinkComputers - PC Power and Cooling Turbo-Cool 1KW @ XYZ Computing

Etc.:

Enermax Laureate EB305C 3.5" External HDD Enclosure @ SystemCooling - The Thumb Drive RAID Experiment @ BigBruin - Enermax Liberty 400w Modular PSU @ Driver Heaven

Cases & Modding:

Silverstone SST-LC10B HTPC Case @ Viperlair - Thermaltake Swing Midtower Case @ OCIA