This blog is dead

In case anyone is still reading my blog, I just wanted to let you all know that this blog is officially shutdown.

I no longer have the time to post blog updates as much as I would like.

Thanks for all the feedback. Hopefully I can return to blogging at some point in the future.

How Did You Get Into Computers?

For the technology-enthusiast crowd, I pose a somewhat simple question to you: How Did you Get Involved with Computers?

There are several reasons that I could think of that someone would venture into this area:
1. Employment/salary opportunities
2. Never having to buy a pre-built computer again
3. For the general knowledge
4. To understand how the different components interact.

I know there are many others, and I know me personally I got involved because of a failed power supply just a few years ago. Until then, I just followed the crowd. Now I’m a computer enthusiast and always want to be.

So what is everyone else’s stories? Anything odd that got you into the technology field or just researching computers in general?

SecureROM, GTA IV, and You

In case you haven’t heard, GTA IV is confirmed to have SecureROM copy protection. The software will be installed automatically when you install the game.

There seems to be a couple of misconceptions about what SecureROM actually is:
1. SecureROM is NOT a rootkit. A rootkit masks processes that could be malicious. After the game is uninstalled, SecureROM does not stay running on your computer (unless you have another game using this copy protection) and only stores a settings file and a registry entry. If you are concerned with this, you would really be concerned with how much junk is left after uninstalling a program.

2. SecureROM is NOT to prevent people from pirating a game. What people fail to realize is the main purpose for a company to be in business is to maximize profits (Microeconomics 101). The purpose of this particular copy protection (at least the GTA IV limits) is to prevent the general, uninformed, non-technical people from copying the disk illegally and giving it to all of their friends for free. GTA IV is $50 (give or take) per copy, multiply that by the number of people that received the code and you will see how much profit Rockstar Games just lost. People that want to pirate a game will always be able to pirate the game, one way or another.

3. If you are not wanting to purchase a game with DRM (Digital Rights Management), you are out of luck. In case you don’t know what DRM is, it is a mechanism to control what people can and can’t do with software. Almost all games released in the past couple of years have included some sort of copy protection, even Playstation 2, Xbox 360 and other console games. If you don’t believe me, go try to backup on your PS2 or Xbox 360 games and then try to play the game in your system (without a modchip!). That is DRM!

4. Not purchasing a game because it includes SecureROM or any other form of DRM is not going to make companies listen to you. Companies really don’t care honestly. All they want to do is maximize profits (again classic Microeconomics). They don’t care what the consumer thinks of the software that is included with the disk, hence why customer service is not stellar.

5. Any form of copy protection DOES cost the company money. The reason it is included is so they make some sort of profit, otherwise the company would go bankrupt. The copy protection company is also out to make money.

Anyways, to recap, copy protection is not the enemy, it just prevents people from using the software in certain ways.

I know I’m probably going to get LOADS of hate mail for this one.

AMD overclocks Phenom II to 5GHz!

I know that sounds insane, and it is, but AMD has managed to overclock a Phenom II X4 to 5GHz.

Now the obvious question is, what exactly is the point? Not everyone is going to reach that speed so there is no reason for them to advertise it. I’m guessing at least one person has tried this and failed (after this announcement).

Still doesn’t help AMD’s market share though.

And Nehalem Launches…

That’s right, Nehalem (otherwise known as Core i7) has officially launched today and is available at many locations throughout the world. Unfortunately, you will have to pay the premium prices for these parts, which include DDR3 RAM, a new motherboard supporting the 1366 socket and the CPU.

If you look around though, you might actually find competitive release prices:

Newegg’s Prices

ZipZoomFly’s Prices

Microcenter’s Prices

MWave’s Prices

At the time of this posting, it appears that MWave has the cheapest Core i7 parts available. Whether this remains to be true, only time will tell. Good luck to everyone trying to purchase these parts tomorrow (you can buy them right now, which is the 16th, but the major demand will be tomorrow on the 17th), if you can find them.

Missing person, Hilary McGann

No, I do not know this person, but was forwarded the link by a friend of mine. I really hate to see people go missing like this, so I thought I would venture away from my typical technology style and post a small blog on this. Here is a link to the page I’m referring to

If anyone has info on the person, please make sure you contact the available numbers: (402) 212-8504 or (402) 215-4440

Windows 7 To Not Support Hybrid GPU’s

Yes, that is right, Windows 7 will not support hybrid GPU’s. I’m not sure why Microsoft doesn’t want to support this, seems like a great idea to me. The only thing I could think of is it would be a hassle trying to get the right drivers to work and everything like that.

So much for the multi-GPU experience in Windows 7. But I’m guessing most manfacturer’s are probably going to enable it anyways.

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Screenshots and More

Well, in my previous blog post, I mentioned I wouldn’t be trying out the leaked pre-beta of Windows 7. It looks like I didn’t have to. Most of the new features were posted in this article. Granted it is just a pre-beta, but still.

I really can’t wait to see this operating system out in public beta.

Windows 7 is Going to Rock

I don’t usually do too many posts about Microsoft, but honestly, I think Windows 7 is going to rock. Why you ask? There are several reasons.

1. Apple is catching on them.

2. The Mac-PC ads. People are starting to believe the ads.

3. Not a whole lot of adoption of Windows Vista.

Now, you may say it will never take off, but looking at the news a leaked copy of Windows 7 is already on select torrent websites. It has already had several thousand downloads (and I imagine it will amass a lot more). Seems to me like this operating system might be quite popular.

I can’t speak from personal experience since I think it is unethical to pirate an operating system or anything for that matter. Though, from various screenshots, it looks like Windows 7 is going to do fine.

Lots of Graphics Cards, Lots of Choices, Hard to Choose

It is a real good time to be in the market for a new graphics card. You can get a graphics card that will do everything you want for very little money (around $150 or so). Last year, you would have had to pay upwards of $300 to get the performance you are getting now.

There is one problem with this though, ATI and NVIDIA are bringing out graphics cards faster than ever. For example, ATI just released the HD 4830. I have no problem with this graphics card, but just the amount of new cards coming out every few months is getting daunting.

The other day I was ready to purchase a graphics card and was stuck trying to figure out which card preformed better, a 9800GT, HD 4850, or HD 4830. Obviously, the 4830 will perform lower, but how lower? That is a problem both ATI and NVIDIA aren’t educating people on. I mean really, does anyone really know the actual performance difference (without looking at a benchmark chart, that is cheating) between an 8600GT and 8600GTS or a 9800GT versus an HD 4670?

This is getting very confusing very fast and it’s only going to get worse in the next couple of months with further releases.