Adam West has passed away, but now we get to see him impact on today’s game marketing. Godspeed Adam! I still have that signed Batman picture you gave me when I was seven years old.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Shameless Bethesda Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Marketing
Monthly Archives: August 2017
Germans Lead Autonomous Driving Race
Statista reports that when you stand back and look at the big picture of autonomous driving patents, the Germans are leading the way by a fairly large margin. Six of the top ten patent holders are German. Google rounds out the top ten with Tesla not in sight. Of course while the number of patents is one way to judge the market, certainly what is actually patented is important as well.
Many of these companies are already testing their tech on designated proving grounds for self-driving vehicles, but for people outside the industry it’s hard to judge who is leading the autonomy race.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Germans Lead Autonomous Driving Race
How To Disable Intel ME Courtesy of the NSA
I know there are a lot of folks that do not like Intel Management Engine and whatever they think it might do on their computers. The simple fact is though that it is a needed component for years now. Positive Technologies has laid out everything you need to keep enough of Intel ME around to initialize and launch the Intel processor, and then shut down the process once that has all taken place. And it seems that the HAP NSA program might be responsible for this all. If you are willing to get your hands a bit dirty, you can now turn Intel ME off once booted.
Closing thoughts – So we have found an undocumented PCH strap that can be used to switch on a special mode disabling the main Intel ME functionality at an early stage. We can prove this by the following facts: Binary analysis of Intel ME firmware, as described in this paper. If we remove some critical ME modules and enable HAP mode, Intel ME does not crash. This proves that HAP disables ME at an early stage. We are quite sure that Intel ME is unable to exit this mode because we have not found code capable of doing so in the RBE, KERNEL, and SYSLIB modules.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – How To Disable Intel ME Courtesy of the NSA
Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana Are Going To Work Together
Amazon and Microsoft announced on Wednesday that they’ve been working on a partnership to allow their respective voice assistants, Alexa and Cortana, to speak to one another. From a report: Starting later this year, owners of Amazon Echos and other Alexa-powered devices will be able to say: “Alexa, open Cortana” to start querying Microsoft’s voice assistant. Owners of devices running Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system will be able to summon Alexa via Cortana in a similar manner. Why would customers want that — especially with the relatively clunky nature of the necessary voice command? The companies say that each voice assistant has its strengths — features like Microsoft Outlook and Exchange email integration for Cortana and smart-home controls or shopping for Alexa — and that customers of both companies would benefit from an integration. It’s not clear if the two assistants will share voice data in an effort to make each digital assistant smarter. But there is the hope that someday these artificial agents are intelligent enough to route requests to the best virtual assistant for the task without a specific “Alexa” or “Cortana” command.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana Are Going To Work Together
Here's How To Disable Intel Management Engine And Slam Its Alleged Back Door Shut
A team of researchers from Positive Technologies have dug into the innards of Intel Management Engine (ME) 11 and have found a way to turn the feature off. If you aren’t familiar with ME, it’s a separate processor that is tucked away inside Intel CPUs that allows companies to manage the computers on their networks. Essentially, it allows the
Source: Hot Hardware – Here’s How To Disable Intel Management Engine And Slam Its Alleged Back Door Shut
PSVR’s crazy ‘Headmaster’ soccer heading game is on PC
With VR going mainstream, families are going to be looking for titles that won’t give their kids nightmares. One of the best of those, Headmaster, has only been available on Sony’s PlayStation VR until now, but today it arrives to the Oculus Rift and…
Source: Engadget – PSVR’s crazy ‘Headmaster’ soccer heading game is on PC
How to Teach Kids to Stick Up for Their Marginalized Peers
The parents I come across want to raise children who’ll fight injustice. They take their kids to rallies. They start talking about race, gender, sexual orientation and physical ability early and often. They introduce books that explore the fight for equality. And kids do get it—they have a remarkable concern for…
Source: LifeHacker – How to Teach Kids to Stick Up for Their Marginalized Peers
Goodbye, Robin Hood Gardens
What a long strange trip it’s been
Source: TreeHugger – Goodbye, Robin Hood Gardens
The Concourse Don’t Ever Be This Guy | The Slot Ivanka Backs White House Decision to Block Rule Desi
The Concourse Don’t Ever Be This Guy | The Slot Ivanka Backs White House Decision to Block Rule Designed to Prevent Pay Discrimination | Splinter CNN’s Ratings Thirst Bluntly Called Out by Hurricane Harvey Survivor | Very Smart Brothas Polite White People Are Useless |
Source: LifeHacker – The Concourse Don’t Ever Be This Guy | The Slot Ivanka Backs White House Decision to Block Rule Desi
Cassini Stared Into Saturn's Polar Abyss, and It's Creepy As Hell
As Cassini’s tour of Saturn to a close, NASA’s getting a bit nostalgic. Yesterday, the space agency released a photo of Saturn’s North pole the doomed spacecraft took on April 26th—the day it started its Grand Finale. It’s almost poetic to have a photo of Cassini staring into the void before it perishes within it.
Source: Gizmodo – Cassini Stared Into Saturn’s Polar Abyss, and It’s Creepy As Hell
Today's Best Deals: Gaming PCs, Stranger Things, One-Day Watch Sale, and More
Amazon’s one-day gaming PC sale, a bunch of discounted watches, and Stranger Things action figures lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.
Source: LifeHacker – Today’s Best Deals: Gaming PCs, Stranger Things, One-Day Watch Sale, and More
Game of Thrones Cut a Scene That Would've Explained That Winterfell Twist, But in a Crappy Way
The season finale of Game of Thrones had plenty of twists and turns, even if many of them were expected. One of the biggest took place in Winterfell at the culmination of the Arya-vs.-Sansa conflict—inarguably the season’s worst storyline—but seemingly came out of nowhere. As it turns out, the show cut a key scene…
Source: Gizmodo – Game of Thrones Cut a Scene That Would’ve Explained That Winterfell Twist, But in a Crappy Way
Alexa and Cortana Are on Speaking Terms
As Google and Apple (and Samsung) scramble to build the smartest, do-anything personal assistant for your phone, Amazon and Microsoft have elected to take a different route: They’re working together rather than competing. The news arrived in the form of a joint announcement from both companies, and the New York Times is reporting
Source: Gizmodo – Alexa and Cortana Are on Speaking Terms
Google Assistant is coming to more speakers and appliances
Last May, Google opened up its AI Assistant’s software development kit to the wider world of third-party smart devices, including blenders, smart locks and web cameras. At the IFA in Berlin, Google has just announced that even more gadgets will be ab…
Source: Engadget – Google Assistant is coming to more speakers and appliances
There’s an all-electric Mini coming, but we have to wait until 2019
It’s almost time for this year’s Frankfurt International Motorshow, but there must be something in the air, because car makers seem to be jumping over each other to reveal their new products days or even weeks before doors open to the press. Last week, Ferrari jumped the gun with its new entry-level Portofino. Yesterday, Bentley did the same for its new Continental. Today, it was Mini’s turn. It’s bringing what we think is a thinly veiled concept to the show, called (imaginatively) the Mini Electric Concept. We say thinly veiled, because there’s a production Mini electric vehicle due in 2019.
“With its characteristic go-kart feeling and powerful electric motor, the MINI Electric Concept is great fun to drive while also being completely suitable for everyday use—and producing zero emissions to boot. That’s how we at MINI envisage electric mobility in tomorrow’s world,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, which is responsible for MINI, Rolls-Royce, and BMW Motorrad.
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Source: Ars Technica – There’s an all-electric Mini coming, but we have to wait until 2019
ASUS Unveils ROG Chimera Gaming Notebook: 17.3-inch FHD at 144 Hz with G-Sync
This year at IFA there is a lot of laptop and notebook announcements. Most of them will be geared towards Intel’s new 8th Generation notebook processors that were announced last week, but there is still plenty of room for large and beefy gaming machines to take to the stage. In this category comes the ASUS ROG Chimera, a new laptop geared towards ‘twitch’ gamers that specialize in games that reward quick reactions.
Underpinning the laptop is going to be the display. For ‘twitch’ gaming, resolution and quality are arguably less important than smooth and quick gameplay, so the ROG Chimera comes in with a 144 Hz display combined with G-Sync variable refresh rate compatibility. The display is only a 1920×1080 resolution in a 17.3-inch form factor, which is moving away from the trend of higher resolution screens coming to laptops. Some might point to standalone monitors that can have higher resolutions than this, although finding one in a 17.3-inch form factor is going to be difficult. We suspect that this is a TN panel – when we get around to ASUS’s booth later in the show we’ll take a look.
Other hardware in the system comes via Intel’s Core i7-7820HK, the quad core mobile part that allows overclocking (ASUS states up to 4.3 GHz), and a GTX 1080 8GB mobile graphics module with a maximum boost of 1974 MHz. The keyboard incorporates a full keypad, and from what we can see a number of USB ports and video outputs. At this point ASUS is being cagy at the rest of the specifications, barring support for Xbox Wireless, so we’ll update this post when we get something more or some hands on time. Pricing and launch were not discussed.
Main image from Andrew Freedman, Laptop Mag
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- Lenovo Launches Legion Branded Gaming Laptops
- EVGA Rolls Out SC17: High-End Gaming Laptop Designed for Overclocking
Source: AnandTech – ASUS Unveils ROG Chimera Gaming Notebook: 17.3-inch FHD at 144 Hz with G-Sync
Terrifying Video Shows Hippos Rescuing a Wildebeest From the Jaws of a Crocodile
While on safari in northeastern South Africa, a retired couple witnessed a harrowing scene involving a crocodile and a rather unfortunate wildebeest. But just when things appeared most grim for the reptile’s next meal, something completely unexpected happened.
Source: Gizmodo – Terrifying Video Shows Hippos Rescuing a Wildebeest From the Jaws of a Crocodile
Essential customers hit with deceptive phishing emails
Source: Engadget – Essential customers hit with deceptive phishing emails
Facebook snags hit Latino YouTube shows for its Watch video tab
Facebook is steadily adding shows to its recently launched Watch video tab for mobile, desktop, and TV. Last week, it nabbed a docuseries based on viral blog Humans of New York, which already boasts a massive following on the social network. The same…
Source: Engadget – Facebook snags hit Latino YouTube shows for its Watch video tab
Chip Hell Flashes Vega 56 BIOS with Vega 64 BIOS
Long story short is that kdtree over at ChipHell as successfully BIOS flashed a Vega 56 card with the Vega 64 BIOS, however it did NOT allow him to get access to the stream processors in order to “unlock” those. However it did give him enough room to run the Vega 56 at Vega 64 clocks.
As you can see above, this put the Vega 56 very close to a stock clocked Vega 64.
Discussion
Source: [H]ardOCP – Chip Hell Flashes Vega 56 BIOS with Vega 64 BIOS