Weekend tech reading: US anti-piracy bill to cost taxpayers millions

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Anti-piracy bill set to cost taxpayers $47m to 2016 PROTECT IP, the U.S. government’s legislation to target individuals and domains connected with allegations of copyright infringement, is set to cost millions of dollars to enforce. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, PROTECT IP -- which is designed to benefit US-based entertainment companies -- will cost the taxpayer a cool $47m between 2012 and 2016. TorrentFreak

HP's $99 TouchPad tablet selling out in retailer fire sale Some retailers sold out remaining Hewlett-Packard TouchPad tablets in just a few hours on Saturday after heavily discounted prices attracted buyers to the last remaining units of the soon-to-be defunct tablet.The TouchPad models cleared out by early morning at the Best Buy and Staples stores in New York City's Union Square, salespeople at the stores said. PCWorld

Battlefield 3 PC version won’t have in-game server browser The tables have turned. A day after we gladly reported that console gamers would be getting this great PC feature called “server browser”, we can now report that PC gamers won’t have an in-game server browser. DICE’s Alan Kertz has confirmed that in order to switch servers, you have to exit Battlefield 3, and use Battlelog to find another server and join. BF3Blog

Windows 8 app store will change Windows software forever Windows 8 is coming, and apparently its bringing a Windows 8 app store with it. Speculation that began with hints of an app store in leaked builds of Windows 8 earlier this year have been all but officially confirmed in a blog post from the President of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live divisions, Steven Sinofsky. PCWorld

Crazy: 90 percent of people don't know how to use CTRL+F This week, I talked with Dan Russell, a search anthropologist at Google, about the time he spends with random people studying how they search for stuff. One statistic blew my mind. 90 percent of people in their studies don't know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page! The Atlantic

PS Vita specs list arrives, makes hardware fanboys happy Sony has announced the hardware specs for the PS Vita, the upcoming successor to the company’s handheld PSP, and the details (see below) have confirmed most fans’ hopes instead of their fears. The heart of the system is an ARM-developed Cortex A9 chip with four cores.. Geek.com

Intel Atom graphics troubles are DirectX related If you remember, yesterday we wrote about Intel delaying its Cedar Trail Atom processors to November, well Intel got in touch with us saying that it had only officially said it would launch Cedar Trail in the second half of this year, so technically it's not late. VR-Zone

Best study ever: Wasting time online boosts worker productivity Spending time online updating your Facebook page, clicking through I Can Has Cheezburger and ogling Robert Pattinson may rot your brain, but new research suggest that it could also make you more productive at work. LA Times

AT&T VP: iPhone 5 coming in early October, prepare to get ‘really, really busy’ One of our high-level AT&T sources just informed us that an AT&T Vice President has confirmed to several employees that the iPhone 5 is slated to launch in early October. Boy Genius Report

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: Valve’s goal is cross-platform play On the Gamescom 2011 PC Games spoke with Valve head Gabe Newell. PC Games (text is translated, but video is in English)

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https://www.techspot.com/news/45168-weekend-tech-reading-us-anti-piracy-bill-to-cost-taxpayers-millions.html

 

[slh28]

Those PSP specs do look impressive, especially the OLED screen. Price seems very good considering how much unsubsidized smartphones cost. Let's just hope there's some decent games!

 

[gwailo247]

"DICE?s Alan Kertz has confirmed that in order to switch servers, you have to exit Battlefield 3, and use Battlelog to find another server and join."

I guess I should be happy I don't have to reboot the computer while I'm at it.

 

[TomSEA]

I'm still teaching people how to use Ctrl+P, C and V for print, copy and paste.

 

[Raswan]

gwailo247 said:
"DICE?s Alan Kertz has confirmed that in order to switch servers, you have to exit Battlefield 3, and use Battlelog to find another server and join."

I guess I should be happy I don't have to reboot the computer while I'm at it.

How retarded of an idea is this? Seriously?

 

[TrueBooleanFals]

I concur raswan, WTF are they smoking? I have to completely log out of BF3... to switch servers, that's a load of BS. So, what is stopping the consolers from rage-quitting? I don't like having to open my browser to play a game that should have an icon on my desktop to play... to much like BFH and BFP4F.

I use ctrl+f all the time! especially when searching for some decent porn... or looking for specific phrases in an Army Regulation. Have you read those thing!? So many over 700 pages long! I don't have time for that.

 

[ramonsterns]

Where do I start?

Make the people who don't care about the profits of already rich industries pay to make sure their profit threshold does not go below what they wish it was rather than what would keep them afloat, and in the process milking more money of would be customers who prefer to make sure they're getting what they are going to pay for? Sounds like a good idea. I can't wait to pay for a $50 PC game only to find out the story mode is only 6 hours long and the multiplayer barely works, then be unable to return it! (I'm looking at you, Front Mission Evolved.)

I've been warning everyone I can about BF3. All this, "focused on PC" non-sense is nothing but a ruse to get PC players to hand over their money. BF3 is like any other console shooter ported over to the PC, EA has been lying their socks off for more than half a decade, expect nothing they say to hold true.

I guess the "Law of Windows" will hold true, then. Buy one, skip one, Buy XP, Skip Vista, Buy 7, Skip 8. Let's hope W8 bunks over and dies so Microsoft can get back to making stable operating systems instead of gimmicks marketplaces and tunring computers into cellphones.

 

[treetops]

Windows 8 is so last week what about windows 9?

The politicians can always agree on one thing, to vote the way of the lobbyists who paid them millions to get them elected. Score one for the entertainment industry at the cost of the american tax payer. What the hell really were paying for the enforcement of a law that most people don't even want enforced. I'd bet my life that if it went up to vote the people would strike down that 46 million dollar lobbyist scandal.

 

[DeliciousPie]

This is my favourite part of the translated page:

"Mhhh! Well apparently she knows just play the console on the kacklappen! I know (me included) so people react abnormally and are aiming that sausage is really whether there someone playing with mouse and keyboard!"

 

[Guest]

Having played the Alpha, I can tell you that the In-browser setup is ALOT better than the server browser in Bad Company 2, BF2 etc...
You can fully administrate your profile from the Battlelog, and there are way more options for the server sorting. You can sort by ping <100, 4 spots free, game mode, map all at once rather than one or the other. Takes about 12 seconds from browser to in game on a Phenom X4 965, 4GB 800mhz and an old Samsung F1.
This was a smart move by DICE!

 

[Cota]

"Battlefield 3 PC version won?t have in-game server browser"

***** ***** ******** *** ****** ********'* *********.

There i just saved the admin some time.

 

[ramonsterns]

Guest said:
Having played the Alpha, I can tell you that the In-browser setup is ALOT better than the server browser in Bad Company 2, BF2 etc...
You can fully administrate your profile from the Battlelog, and there are way more options for the server sorting. You can sort by ping <100, 4 spots free, game mode, map all at once rather than one or the other. Takes about 12 seconds from browser to in game on a Phenom X4 965, 4GB 800mhz and an old Samsung F1.
This was a smart move by DICE!

EA Defense Force is a go!

 

[Benny26]

Windows 8 still aint looking or sounding convincing for me.