Feb 27

Microsoft Slashes Xbox 360 Gamerscore for Cheaters

Posted in: Games, gaming, Microsoft, Today's Chili, xbox 360, xbox live

This article was written on March 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

I really believe that the Xbox 360 is such a strong gaming system because of the community that is built around the Xbox LIVE service. It gives you the opportunity to play games online with or against millions of other people. But understandably people have found ways to circumvent the system to collect an unreasonable number of achievements.

StripClubDj was previously number one in the world for having the highest Gamerscore, which increases as you earn more achievements. Out of the 196 games played there were over 137,000 points that could be earned. More than 122,000 of those points were racked up resulting in an 88% completion rate with most of the games being tagged as fully completed.

As it turns out, and as many expected, StripClubDj wasn’t playing fairly. Microsoft has issued a punishment to that user and any other members who they believe are cheating. This is what they’ll find on their account now:

  • Their gamerscore reset to zero
  • Be unable to regain all previously earned achievements
  • Be labeled as a “cheater” for the community to view

Yep, the account has essentially been reset and labeled as a cheater. But to ensure the cheaters don’t try and recover the unfairly acquired achievement points Microsoft is making it impossible to regain past achievements. StripClubDj’s profile on Xbox.com, which you have to be a member to view, now looks like this:

xbox 360 stripclubdj

So why would Microsoft go this route instead of just banning the user? Here’s their reasoning:

We believe in players reforming themselves, which is why gamerscore correction only applies to previously earned achievements.  This allows these players to earn achievements like other “fair” players without having to get banned from LIVE.  However, any user who violates the LIVE Terms of Use is subject to having their gamertag banned.

That’s one small step for gamers, and one giant kick in the butt for cheaters!

Xbox Gamerscore Cheating [via Major Nelson & Digg]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 27

Transphorm promises brickless laptop chargers, power savings aplenty

Posted in: charger, Google, Today's Chili

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. A mysterious startup company operates in secret for a number of years, raises millions in funding from some of the biggest players in the industry (in this case, Google and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers), and announces a breakthrough technology that promises to change everything. In this case the startup is a company called Transphorm, and the breakthrough is a gallium nitride technology that promises to improve AC/DC transformers. While that might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world, the company’s CEO says that it could not only drastically reduce the electricity wasted by electronics that currently rely on silicon components, but significantly reduce the size of the components as well. One prime example there is laptop charger bricks, which Transphorm says could be reduced or even completely eliminated by building the necessary components right into the laptop itself. The company also sees a huge opportunity with electric cars, and especially data centers, which is one of the first markets it will be targeting. Of course, complete details are still fairly light at the moment, but the company is promising to unveil its first products in just two weeks, and you can be sure we’ll be watching.

Transphorm promises brickless laptop chargers, power savings aplenty originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

Robot Marathon Ends With Extremely Close Finish

Posted in: Robots, Robots Robotics, Today's Chili

fivebipedalm.jpg

It might not be the fastest race in the world, but after more than two days of running, at least the competitors are determined. As we reported on Thursday, bipedal robots competed in a marathon (all 26.2 miles of it) in Osaka, Japan. Now, 54 hours and 57 minutes into the race, we finally have a winner after a surprisingly heated competition in the last few laps. Robovie-PC, constructed by Vstone, the Japanese robotics company that organized the Robo Mara Full, managed to finish first after 422 laps of the 100-meter track.

With only a few laps to go, Robovie-PC Lite, made by the same corporation as the winning Robovie-PC, froze up after establishing a commanding lead. It was only in the the last moments of the race that Robovie-PC was able to pass the temporarily disabled machine and seize the first-place position. Soon after, Robovie-PC Lite managed to work itself back onto the track and make up a good deal of the lost time, finishing only a second behind its robotic brother.

These little guys won’t be replacing human runners anytime soon, with an average speed of just under one half of a mile per hour, but organizers say the electrically-charged winners have demonstrated their prowess in durability and maneuverability over a very challenging exercise. 

[via PhysOrg, The Guardian]

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Feb 27

OCZ’s consumer-grade Vertex 3 SSD gets benched, SandForce SF-2281 helps it spank competition

Posted in: roundup, SSD, Today's Chili

We thought OCZ’s Vertex 3 Pro was some flaming hot stuff, but solid state storage reviewers have mind-boggling news — the plain ol’ Vertex 3 will bring the same completely ludicrous 550MB / sec read speeds (plus even faster 525MB / sec writes) at a down-to-earth price. Previews found the Vertex 3’s new SandForce SF-2281 controller and Micron 25nm flash memory chips edged out even its own enterprise-grade cousin in nearly every test — with a few anomalies here and there — and were reportedly too fast to achieve full performance with any SATA 6Gbps controller save the one in Intel’s new Cougar Point chipset. Best of all, they claim that OCZ’s targeting a price of just $250 for the 120GB version, or $500 for the 240GB drive benched here. That’s still a chunk of change, but considering current-gen 120GB SSDs still cost over $200 street, it sounds like OCZ and SandForce are setting a bar that will drive down prices across the board. We can’t wait.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Legit Reviews
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Storage Review

OCZ’s consumer-grade Vertex 3 SSD gets benched, SandForce SF-2281 helps it spank competition originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

Windows Live Local Virtual Earth Gives You A Cars View

Posted in: Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 07, 2006 by CyberNet.

Windows Live Local Virtual Earth Gives You A Cars View

We have all seen the bird’s eye view perspective that some mapping applications have, but have you ever see mapping software that will actually show you what it is like while you are driving? This is definitely a first for me and surprising it was Microsoft that has brought it to us and not Google.

The image above was actually taken when I was ‘walking’ through the San Francisco, California area. Currently, the only two cities that have been imaged are San Francisco, California and Seattle, Washington. The only difference between the walking mode and driving modes is that each has a different skin that is applied to the window. I like the walking mode the best because it is a cleaner interface.

Overall I am very impressed with this feature and it must have taken quite some time for them to complete. They appear to have been driving around with four different cameras attached to the top of a vehicle that was constantly taking pictures. The Web interface was designed to always show you what the view would be in front of you, to the right of you, and to the left of you. The image above was cropped to fit this site so you don’t get the full effects of the different views.

Microsoft did a really nice job on this and it is something that you really have to experience for yourself. Check it out by following the link below.

Preview The New Windows Live Local Car/Walking View

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 27

Oscar.com offers ‘all access’ pass to the Academy Awards, for a cost

Posted in: app, ipad, iPhone, ipod touch, IpodTouch, Today's Chili
Sure, you could just watch the Oscars for free along with a bowl of popcorn and your favorite Twitter commentary, but the folks behind the Academy Awards are hoping you’ll try something even more “interactive” this time around. Those that head to Oscar.com this evening will be treated to a few different live cameras that are freely available to everyone, but to really see to everything you’ll have to fork over $4.99 for the “all access” pass. That will give you access to a number of “exclusive viewing opportunities,” including multiple 360 degree cams that you can control, and numerous cameras along the red carpet, backstage, and at the Governors Ball afterwards. And if that’s not enough, you can also download the Oscar Backstage Pass app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch — it’ll run you an additional $0.99.

Continue reading Oscar.com offers ‘all access’ pass to the Academy Awards, for a cost

Oscar.com offers ‘all access’ pass to the Academy Awards, for a cost originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 14:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

This Week’s Best YouTube Videos: An Angry Birds Cake, Long Stabby Things, and More

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, videos, YouTube

Angry Cake Birds

Some of this week’s best YouTube videos featured children doing things that many adults wish they could do: in one case, it’s a little girl being honest about wanting a career before she gets married, in another case it’s a little girl singing a Lady Gaga tune better than Lady Gaga (in my opinion, anyway.) Who says kids don’t have talent? 
Also this week: an Angry Birds cake – and not just any Angry Birds cake, a playable Angry Birds cake. You know, just in case you want to smash some pigs before the wedding ceremony. Some aussie newscasters discuss the best home defense techniques, and more.
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Feb 27

RegexRenamer: Bulk File and Folder Renaming Using Regex

Posted in: Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on June 17, 2010 by CyberNet.

regexrenamer.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
We have covered all kinds of bulk file renaming tools here, but the free RegexRenamer is one of my new favorites. As you can see in the screenshot above it has a very clean interface, but that is largely because it relies on you understanding how regular expressions (a.k.a. regex) work. I’m confident that you’ll enjoy this little tool as much as I do if you’ve used regular expressions enough to know how to form them.

Can’t remember all the regex syntax? No problem. Hold down the Shift key and right-click anywhere in the “Match” or “Replace” boxes. You’ll then be prompted with a menu that can be used to get some of the syntax you may have otherwise forgotten.

The one thing that everyone always asks about these file renamers… “does it show live previews of what the output will be?” Yes, it does. As you adjust any of the renaming fields the preview column will update accordingly. Aside from that it also includes a bunch of other features:

  • Realtime regex validation, filename preview, conflict detection
  • File filtering by glob or regex (operate on a subset of files in a directory)
  • Flexible case-changing (change entire filename, or just the section matched by a regex)
  • Customizable sequential numbering (set start, padding, interval, reset)
  • Rename files in place, move & rename, copy & rename, backup before renaming
  • Support for network drives & network paths, renaming folders
  • Options to preserve file extension (only operate on filename), show/hide hidden files
  • Rename into subfolders (replace “file.txt” with “subdir\file.txt”)
  • Complete documentation including examples, regex tutorial & quick reference guide

RegexRenamer Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Feb 27

Man builds machine to push phone buttons from half a world away (video)

Posted in: diy, hack, Hacks, remote control, RemoteControl, Today's Chili, video

If your ambition was to travel the world, and your job to push the buttons of three cellphones located in South Korea, you might go insane. That seems to be what happened to Mok Young Bak, at least, when he invented the crazy contraption depicted in the video above. Called the Caduceus, it’s a telepresence machine that does just one thing — it controls every single button on each of those three phones with a series of servo motors and actuator cables, and moves a pendulum-like webcam so he can clearly see each screen from wherever he happens to be. That way, he can enjoy tourism while leaving his livelihood within reach, at least so long as concerned neighbors don’t assume the terrible din is, say, a killer robot assembly line, and insist that police investigate.

Man builds machine to push phone buttons from half a world away (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feb 27

Most Important Laptops…Ever!

Posted in: Laptops, Notebooks, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Modern laptops continue to get more powerful and smaller in size, but we can’t forget about the predecessors that led to the notebooks that we have today. PCWorld put together an article outlining the top-10 most important laptops of all time where they outline the significance of each one. So what laptops made the list?

  1. First True Laptop: Epson’s HX-20 (1981)
    This shipped with a flattering 50-hour battery, 614 Hz dual processors, 16K of RAM, and only weighed 3.5lbs! The LCD only showed four-lines of text at a time, which probably made gaming a little difficult. :)
    Epson HX-20
  2. First Popular Laptop: Tandy’s TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)
    Used four AA batteries to stretch out 18-hours of battery life, which wasn’t bad for a cost of just $800! There has been no confirmation, but this is supposedly the last system that shipped using code actually written by Bill Gates.
    Tandy TRS-80 Model 100

  3. First Portable PC Running a 386 Processor: Compaq’s Portable 386 (1987)
    If you had the $12,000 to drop on this sucker you would walk away with a 20MHz chick magnet that had the 386 processor in it. Of course you better be in shape to lug this 20lbs machine around.
    Compaq Portable 386
  4. First Convertible Tablet: GRiD Systems’ 2260 (1992)
    Looks like Tablet PC’s have been around a little longer than you thought!
    Grid 2270
  5. First Thin-and-Light Notebook: DEC’s HiNote Ultra (1994)
    A whopping 4MB of RAM, 340MB hard drive, trackball mouse, Windows 3.11, and just a mere 3.5lbs standing in at an inch thick.
    DEC HiNote
  6. First Notebook With a Touchpad: Apple’s PowerBook 520 (1994)
    Relief from the trackball mouse initially came from an Apple! I remember getting my hands on a touchpad when they were first developed (it was a Gateway laptop with trackball and touchpad), and my initial thought was how that would be successful. It seemed to be so inconvenient to use until you really started to get used to it.
    PowerBook 520
  7. First Laptop to Use a Lithium Ion Battery: Toshiba’s Portege T3400 (1995)
    Out with the Nickel-Metal Hydride and in with the Lithium Ion! You no longer had to worry about completely draining the battery because of the "memory effects" that plagued so many people. The introduction of the Lithium Ion battery 12-years ago brought a 4-hour battery life…which isn’t all that different than what we get today.
    Toshiba Portege
  8. First Wireless-Enabled Laptop: Apple’s iBook (1999)
    External wireless cards are virtually non-existent these days since it is built-in to nearly every electronic device we use. I can hardly count all of the times I almost snapped my wireless card off of my laptop since it protruded so much out the side. :)
    iBook
  9. First Gaming Notebook: WidowPC’s Sting 917X2 (2005)
    This dual-core AMD X2 laptop might not be the battery lover you would like, but it sure makes going to LAN parties a little easier. Of course there still isn’t really a laptop that can match the gaming performance of a nice desktop.
    Widow PC
  10. First Serious PC Killer: Apple’s MacBook Pro (2006)
    Now that this can run both Windows and the Mac OS (using Boot Camp), it is quickly becoming the notebook choice for many users.
    MacBook Pro

So there you have it…the top 10 most important laptops that have ever been released. For the most part I would say that I agree with them, but what I’m really looking forward to is hearing what you have to say about your experience with the older-generation notebook computers.

Drop a comment below and let us know what your first laptop computer was and what you thought about it!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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