Weekend tech reading: Home automation checklist, are game downloads getting too big too fast?

Matthew DeCarlo

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The problem with growing download sizes Digital distribution has been good for PC gaming. The convenience, sales, and increased exposure for small developers have made our hobby significantly more accessible. The increase in download sizes over the last few years, however, is starting to make some games a little less accessible. Big-budget games now come in tens of gigabytes, and while increased data use is a natural part of evolving technology, internet speeds for a lot of people aren't keeping up. PC Gamer

Intel's 5th generation unlocked Broadwell desktop, socketed processors to arrive in mid-2015 Intel's 5th generation Broadwell processors are launching for the desktop market in mid-2015 as reported in a slide shown by chief reporter of HKEPC, Lam Chi-Kui. The slide does not provide any additional information but confirms that socketed processors will be available in the Broadwell lineup for the current LGA 1150 boards and will be launching in June 2015 which points to a Computex announcement. WCCFtech

Microsoft, once an antitrust target, is now Google's regulatory scold Not long ago, Microsoft was the scourge of European antitrust regulators. It was fined once, twice, three and four times. Finally, after Microsoft paid more than $3 billion, Europe left it alone. Now, Google is firmly in Europe's cross hairs: Antitrust regulators on Wednesday formally accused the company of abusing its dominance. And Microsoft is relishing a second act in Brussels, playing the role of scold instead of victim. The NY Times

Home automation systems - a consumer checklist The Internet of Things (IoT) concept has gained a lot of traction over the last couple of years. One of the main applications of IoT lies in the home automation space. Consumers have many options in this space, but none of them have the right combination of comprehensiveness, economy, extensibility and ease of use. We provided an introduction to IoT / home automation back in 2012, and the space has rapidly evolved since then. AnandTech

This emulator turns an Arduino Uno into an Apple II The Apple II holds a special place, not just as a piece of computing history, but also in the hearts of lots of the people that used it back in the day. Alongside machines like the TRS-80 and, at least over here in Britain, the BBC Model B -- which was one of the inspirations behind the Raspberry Pi -- it's one of the machines we grew up with, and for a lot of us, it’s the machine we cut our teeth on when we were kids. Makezine

Statistics will crack your password When hackers or penetration testers compromise a system and want access to clear text passwords from a database dump, they must first crack the password hashes that are stored. Many attackers approach this concept headfirst: They try any arbitrary password attack they feel like trying with little reasoning. This discussion will demonstrate some effective methodologies for password cracking and how statistical analysis of passwords can be used in conjunction with tools to create a time boxed approach to efficient and successful cracking. Praetorian

How a small studio's chance at the big time died at Microsoft's doorstep One week in early February, three top employees from the independent game studio Darkside Games flew to Redmond, Washington for a secret meeting with Microsoft. Over the course of the meeting, which lasted two days, Darkside’s leadership tried to convince the mega-corporation to give them a few more million dollars, according to two people familiar with the situation. Kotaku

Every indie developer should read this It's OK to develop videogames outside of the business frameworks that we’ve built around games. Being a hobbyist does not make your work inferior. Being a hobbyist does not mean you are playing at being a developer. Being a hobbyist does not mean you are of less worth or less serious about what you do. There are no videogame tourists. There is no minimum level of required commitment. You don't have to make games to support yourself making games. Rob Remakes (also, Videogames Inc.: Unraveling the corporate ownership of game developers)

The crazy-tiny next generation of computers When Prabal Dutta accidentally drops a computer, nothing breaks. There's no crash. The only sound you might hear is a prolonged groan. That's because these computers are just one cubic millimeter in size, and once they hit the floor, they’re gone. "We just lose them," Dutta says. "It's worse than jewelry." To drive the point home, Dutta, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, emails me a photo of 50 of these computers. They barely fill a thimble halfway to its brim. Medium (also, Why a digital bee brain is piloting a drone w/ video below)

Android's 10 millisecond problem: The Android audio path latency explainer Many mobile apps that are critically dependent on low latency audio functionality such as some games, synthesizers, DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations), interactive audio apps and virtual instrument apps, and the coming wave of virtual reality apps, all of which thrive on Apple's platform (App Store + iOS devices) -- and generate big revenues for App Store and iOS developers are largely non-existent on Android. SuperPowered

Farewell, beloved Rat Farewell, beloved Rat. You've been a faithful companion, constantly perched next to my right hand and always eager for the next opportunity to dart across my desktop. I will miss you terribly. More than any other mouse, you really get me. Your pliable body is molded just for my grip, a perfectly shaped and weighted handful to accommodate my odd-sized mitts. You indulge other eccentricities, like my need to scroll sideways in Excel... The Tech Report

Moving to Mars On a clear, cold day in March, 1898, a converted seal-hunting ship named the Belgica gave up struggling against the pack ice of the Bellingshausen Sea and resigned itself to the impending Antarctic winter. The ship was carrying a scientific expedition with an international crew, rare in that phase of polar exploration: nine Belgians, six Norwegians, two Poles, a Romanian, and an American, the ship's doctor. The New Yorker

Meet George -- 1958's one-of-a-kind analog computer -- Vintage Computer Festival East The Vintage Computer Festival East is a once-a-year museum exhibit in Wall, New Jersey that shows off vacuum tube and transistor computers from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. While our own John Timmer visited the museum several years ago, we were long overdue to check back on the exhibition. VCF's newest addition made the trip well-worth it. Ars Technica

Wikimania Over 200 times a second, half a billion times a month, somebody clicks on Wikipedia. It's the greatest argument-settler wrought by man, or at least the fastest, perfectly suited to our era of instant gratification. When it debuted 14 years ago, the online encyclopedia was a novelty, its accuracy hit or miss. Now it's one of the world's busiest websites, its reliability vastly improved, but not quite perfect. CBS

The clone that wasn't Could you design a brand-new game using only a deck of classic playing cards? It’s a cool idea -- repurposing familiar components in an original context. But the design for the game that would become Donsol was born out of necessity, the mother of invention. A pack of cards was all the creators had on hand. Boing Boing

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My usual internet consumption averages between 700GB and 1.5TB a month. Game that is 60GB in size like GTAV is too small to make any difference. I live in Europe.
 
Yes games are getting too big too fast. I have a 5mbps connection and it took consecutive DAYS to download GTA V. Why didn't I buy a physical copy? I don't know, but I should have.
 
I was shocked at the 68GB GTA V download size. Took a couple of hours, but I managed. Can't imagine having to deal with that on a slow connection. But it's how digital media is being handled now and won't change anytime soon. Just one of those technology evolution things.
 
I didn't download the PS4 version of GTA because it is 50gb in size,there is no way I would download the PC one either.
I have a 4mbps line speed and a 200gb cap.

It's getting out of hand,Mortal Kombat is a 30gb+ download just for the game then you will have to download a 15gb "patch" and I hear that there's a game coming out that is 100gb.
 
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Are games getting too big too fast? It's a matter of perspective. Gamers keep asking for larger more beautiful games from top studios. You can't have beauty and content without size.

On the other hand, I understand the frustration some have with downloading large games. It took me all of 30 minutes to download DA: Inquisition. I could have run to GameStop and back twice in that time. Literal days for other people is ridiculous.
 
Gotta say this is something call of duty handles well. It lets you install either SP or MP or Zombie/whatever3rdmode. Would wish other games would do that too especially battlefield where pretty much everyone would love to delete the SP.
 
My situation with the mighty RadeonHD 4890 and slow 256kb/s download speed these days:

gameselection.png
 
Gotta say this is something call of duty handles well. It lets you install either SP or MP or Zombie/whatever3rdmode. Would wish other games would do that too especially battlefield where pretty much everyone would love to delete the SP.

Pretty much everybody except not everybody. Multi-player games are fun but they aren't the only reason for playing games. No games aren't getting too big too fast. Geesh, who comes up with these questions? What do we want them to do, start making SH$@ games like Microsoft did with an operating system that affects 90% of the world because *queue violin music* my connection is too slow(boo hoo hoo), my videocard is too slow(boo hoo hoo). Why would anybody complain about more content that is higher quality?

If the download is too big for you and your gonna cry about it, keep playing your pre-2014 games. Don't ruin it for everybody like Microsoft did with Windows 8. Im sorry for you that your internet sucks. Mine doesn't. Bring on the 100GB game downloads. And get out of my way. :)

Seriously, unless you have bandwidth caps, start downloading the game over Steam. If it takes 3 days, it takes 3 days, then you got it.

Any game developer that starts pandering like a little ***** to the least common denominators on the planet(like Microsoft did with Windows 8) Im gonna boycott(like I did with Windows 8).

And then there's always ordering the physical Blu-Ray(or multi-set DVD) discs. There is a path for all to the joys of even the biggest games.
 
For me downloading GTV 5 just isn't viable, my line speed is too slow and I have a monthly cap so it's a physical copy or nothing. It's not problem for me because I always buy a physical copy but the price of the game is a problem, I'm damned if I'm gonna spend $60 on a video game, I'll wait until the price drops to at least $30 before I start eyeing it up, for me that should happen in about 6 months time and I don't mind the wait.
 
Another way of putting the question of whether games are becoming too big too fast is are internet speeds keeping up with consumer demand? We have had that question for a long time in the US where the major ISPs like TWC and others refuse to increase speeds for no good reason. So if the question does truly become one of internet speeds, then I would have to say they are not keeping up with consumer demand in the US. The last major release of Star Citizen took some three hours to download on my 15 mbps line.
 
Pretty much everybody except not everybody. Multi-player games are fun but they aren't the only reason for playing games. No games aren't getting too big too fast. Geesh, who comes up with these questions? What do we want them to do, start making SH$@ games like Microsoft did with an operating system that affects 90% of the world because *queue violin music* my connection is too slow(boo hoo hoo), my videocard is too slow(boo hoo hoo). Why would anybody complain about more content that is higher quality?

If the download is too big for you and your gonna cry about it, keep playing your pre-2014 games. Don't ruin it for everybody like Microsoft did with Windows 8. Im sorry for you that your internet sucks. Mine doesn't. Bring on the 100GB game downloads. And get out of my way. :)

Seriously, unless you have bandwidth caps, start downloading the game over Steam. If it takes 3 days, it takes 3 days, then you got it.

Any game developer that starts pandering like a little ***** to the least common denominators on the planet(like Microsoft did with Windows 8) Im gonna boycott(like I did with Windows 8).

And then there's always ordering the physical Blu-Ray(or multi-set DVD) discs. There is a path for all to the joys of even the biggest games.

How is this a reply to me? Nothing you wrote has anything to do with my post.

"If the download is too big for you and your gonna cry about it" Excuse me, what?!
 
This is only a problem in America where our average internet speeds are worse than most 3rd world countries.
 
How is this a reply to me? Nothing you wrote has anything to do with my post.

"If the download is too big for you and your gonna cry about it" Excuse me, what?!

The first two lines of my response was directly related to one thing you said. Everything after that is a response to the question asked by the website. Sorry for the confusion.
 
I get 40 down for 80$ a month, seems pricey for 40 down but it really makes games download in no time compared to my old 8 mbps.
 
On the other hand, I understand the frustration some have with downloading large games. It took me all of 30 minutes to download DA: Inquisition. I could have run to GameStop and back twice in that time. Literal days for other people is ridiculous.
Yep, it takes me half to a full day to download a 6GB game. It would take a full week to download a 60GB game.
 
I get 40 down for 80$ a month, seems pricey for 40 down but it really makes games download in no time compared to my old 8 mbps.

Sounds like you would be
Are games getting too big too fast? It's a matter of perspective. Gamers keep asking for larger more beautiful games from top studios. You can't have beauty and content without size.

On the other hand, I understand the frustration some have with downloading large games. It took me all of 30 minutes to download DA: Inquisition. I could have run to GameStop and back twice in that time. Literal days for other people is ridiculous.

You could have also, fixed yourself a sandwich, brushed your teeth, took out the trash, and a myriad of other things for that 30 minutes while your game downloaded. If you sat there staring at the screen screaming, "HURRY UP DAMMIT!", then you were only causing yourself the pain and grief of a 30 minute download. Come on people. Some of you sound like crack addicts.

Whether something is ridiculous or not is truly relative to the person you are speaking to. Not an absolute fact. I wouldn't have a problem downloading a game over a few days myself. I've started downloads on Steam and then went on living my life pretty much forgetting about the download. When I came back later it was there waiting for me.

As you rightly point out, if you can get the game faster by ordering it from Amazon or buying it locally and you have to have it immediately then that is what you should do. Everybody goes to bed happy.
 
I got an invite to an Elder Scrolls Online weekend where the download was 80GB. I could manage it with my 240mb connection speed but didn't want to move that much space off my SSD.
My friend is on an 8mb connection and didn't even bother. It would have taken a week.
I wonder how many DVDs it would need, if bought in a shop.
 
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