Mike Chin's blog

Wikipedia EN Blackout Protest against SOPA and PIPA bills in US legislature

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:23:53 +0000

Wikipedia is protesting against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out English Wikipedia for 24 hours. SOPA and PIPA represent two US bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively. Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but in Wikipedia's opinion, do so in a way that infringes free expression while harming the Internet.

"They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won't have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn't being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won't show up in major search engines. And, SOPA and PIPA build a framework for future restrictions and suppression."

Wikipedia (and SPCR) urges US citizens to call your government representatives and tell them you oppose SOPA, PIPA and any similar legislation. For more information, please visit Wikipedia's SOPA and PIPA page

SPCR discussion on SOPA & PIPA

Intel 6-series Chip (SB) Flaw

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:57:43 +0000

It's annoying news for Sandy Bridge sellers, buyers... and Intel. Intel announced today that a major flaw was found in "the 6 Series chip, code-named Cougar Point, and implemented a silicon fix. In some cases, the Serial-ATA (SATA) ports within the chipsets may degrade over time, potentially impacting the performance or functionality of SATA-linked devices such as hard disk drives and DVD-drives. The chipset is utilized in PCs with Intel's latest Second Generation Intel Core processors, code-named Sandy Bridge. Intel has stopped shipment of the affected support chip from its factories. Intel has corrected the design issue, and has begun manufacturing a new version of the support chip which will resolve the issue. The Sandy Bridge microprocessor is unaffected and no other products are affected by this issue." Click on Read More for more.

Hot ASUS Eee Slate video demo from CES 2011

Fri, 7 Jan 2011 17:17:59 +0000

That tablets would pop up all over CES 2011 like daisies in the spring was no surprise to anyone aware of the iPad. The tablet market is expected to reach 50 million units this year, and virtually every major electronics/computer brand has at least one to vye for a piece of the pie. Industry giant Asus has three and possibly the most compelling of them for the "serious" computer user who wants one is the Eee Slate EP121-1A010M 12.1-Inch Tablet PC. As of yesterday, it was the most highly viewed computer accessory product in Amazon's catalog over the past few days. Read more to view our demo video of the Asus Eee Slate from CES.

Lenovo's exciting IdeaPad U1

Wed, 5 Jan 2011 02:53:11 +0000

This afternoon's preview show event at CES2010 was deluged with journalists surging from one overcrowded display to another. One of the hottest tables was where Lenovo was showing a sample of its IdeaPad U1, an Intel driven Windows 7 mini-laptop with nicely curved corners whose screen detaches effortlessly into an Android-based iPad look-alike. Full details will be released tomorrow, and company reps could only provide pricing in China, where it is set at 3500CNY (US$530) for the tablet alone, and ~8000CNY(US$1200) for the combo. An earlier version was shown at CES 2010, with the tablet running Linux when undocked. The new version looks slick, fully functional, and could be a real crowd pleaser for those who want both a tablet and a notebook. * Discuss this news in the SPCR forums. *

AMD Fusion APUs Arrive

Tue, 4 Jan 2011 22:55:33 +0000

As expected, AMD officially launched its Fusion APU platform today, the day before the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, just in time to counter Intel's Sandy Bridge barrage. The press release announcing AMD Fusion APU Era Begins lauds the graphics portion of its APU, which has...

* DirectX 11-capable graphics
* Massive parallel processing to speed application performance
* The UVD3 video acceleration block found in the new AMD Radeon™ HD 6800 Series GPUs

Gigabyte preceded AMD's announcement yesterday in unveiling the E-350 APU (Zacate) powered GA-E350N-USB3 mini-ITX all-in-one motherboard. This is obviously aimed at the base of the pyramid, unlike the Intel i5-2500K we posted our examination of 36 hours ago, but the new AMD APUs look like they have the potential to transform the sector. We expect a lively heating up of rivalry between the industry's biggest processor companies this CES. * Discuss this news in the SPCR forums. *

AMD HD 6900 Series Launch

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 15:34:20 +0000

AMD PR has done a good job: Reviews of the Radeon 6950 and 6950 graphics card dominate today's tech news as tech web editors trot out their findings in accordance to AMD's NDA schedule. We wonder if such a concentrated salvo is better for market awareness than a slightly less intense but longer lasting barrage, given the apparently short attention span of Joe Public. Perhaps it's all just about mind-share at any given point in time. A quick scan at most of the reviews suggest the 6970 reaches parity with the nVidia GTX 570 but fails to catch the GTX 580, which remains the fastest single-chip video card on the market. The HD 6950 appears to have hit the value sweet spot, providing all the features like triple monitor support, 2GB memory and the architecture of the new Cayman chip at $299, a price point where there is no direct competition. Hit read more for the review links.

SuperTalent Introduces USB 3.0 Virtual PC

Fri, 3 Dec 2010 20:51:44 +0000

Ma Labs today announced they will begin offering Ceedo Personal with Super Talent's USB 3.0 Express RAM CACHE flash drives. Ceedo is a software virtualization and delivery platform that creates managed application workspaces – a set of applications that can be run on any Windows PC without installation, and then managed remotely. Combining Ceedo Personal with the 4-channel USB 3.0 Express RAM Cache flash drive (16, 32 and 64 GB versions) allows you to create a Windows Virtual PC environment that is FAST, flexible and totally portable — your personal virtual PC in a wee USB stick. When used on a USB 3.0 port, the speeds approach those of standard SATA SSDs. *Discuss this news in the SPCR Forums.*

AMD SB800 Fan Controller Features ignored by MB Makers

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:41:14 +0000

"AMD's SB800-series fan speed controller has the sort of functionality enthusiasts want in spades", apparently, and "motherboard makers need only to connect fan and diode traces to the south bridge and implement the necessary BIOS hooks to give users access to fan control variables. But none have." More on these ignored fantastic features in the AMD chipset, in a rant by Geoff at The Tech Report. * Discuss this news in the SPCR forums.

Western Digital's 3TB GreenPower drive

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:53:08 +0000

Western Digital's announcement yesterday of its new 3TB GreenPower drive brought many issues in the storage sector into sharp relief. A 3TB HDD by itself is not unique. Seagate's 3TB FreeAgent external hard drive has been available since the end of June, some four month ago. That begs the question of why Seagate has yet to release the bare 3TB drive.

80 Plus Fakes; Gigabyte in Tibet

Thu, 7 Oct 2010 16:12:07 +0000

Hardware Secrets discovered that there are some power supplies in the market carrying fake 80 Plus badges. In other news, Gigabyte proudly opened the world’s highest altitude motherboard RMA center in Lhasa, 11,975 feet above sea level. Discuss this news in the forums.

News: Sandybridge, Bulldozer and UEFI

Tue, 5 Oct 2010 19:51:24 +0000

Microprocessor industry analyst David Kanter recently posted a detailed analysis of Intel's upcoming Sandy Bridge Microarchitecture at Real World Technologies, describing it as the "most ambitious and aggressive microprocessors designed at Intel." It touches on the Atom as well as the new AMD Bobcat and Bulldozer microprocessors as well. Well worth a read.

Meanwhile, work on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface is happening on many fronts to break free of legacy limitations of the BIOS. UEFI may feature on motherboards released before the end of the year. A succinct summary by AMI's Brian Richardson.

Discuss this news in the forums.

Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love

Mon, 8 Mar 2010 15:52:07 +0000

Ad blocking isn't wrong, Ken Fisher writes, but it can deal a severe financial blow to Web sites, especially tech sites where a large percentage of readers have blockers installed. This applies to SPCR as well as Ars Technica, which has been experimenting with technology to block content for readers with ad blockers, a new twist in this online struggle. And, just a day later, a counterpoint from Techdirt's Mike Masnick who argues, Don't Blame Your Community: Ad Blocking Is Not Killing Any Sites. || These articles have provoked lively debate and a wide range of responses in the SPCR forum discussion.

Link at Working News Blog 117 brings major Japanese traffic to SPCR

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:27:05 +0000

A link at the web site Working News Blog 117 (mirrored on several other Japanese sites) has brought a huge wave of visitors from Japan over the past day. The link to SPCR's power section is part of a discussion about a recently released Enermax 80 PLUS Gold power supply. We recently took delivery of one of these: an Enermax Modu 87+ 500W sample, which will be tested soon; a review this PSU should be posted in a few days. Discuss this news in the SPCR forums.

MadShrimps pits Clarkdale vs Phenom II + 785G

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:26:34 +0000

In a relevant "classic" match, MadShrimps compares two similarly equipped systems based around the midrange Intel Core i3-661 and AMD's fastest but still cheaper quadcore, Phenom II X4-965. Results are intriguing. Discuss this news in the SPCR forums.

Most Common Ways to Kill a PC

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:51:45 +0000

PCStat's article on the topic, based on a survey of their readers, says that despite your best intentions, computer hardware's worst enemy is YOU. An interesting read for any computer devotee. *Discuss this news in the SPCR forums.*