Radeon Technologies Group Q&A is happening here on March 3rd 10AM-5PM central time The Q&A is open to all topics dealing with anything under the Radeon Technologies Group (the Radeon division of AMD). Some big secrets could be unveiled this Thursday, so bring your best questions! Likely topics of discussion will most likely include Vulkan, FreeSync, GPUOpen, Polaris (in part), Fury X2, VR, DirectX 12, and anything else you're curious about. Reddit (also, AMD looking into External GPU standardization)
Who needs Apple when the FBI could hack terrorist iPhone itself The Federal Bureau of Investigation has put the onus on Apple Inc. to break into the iPhone 5c carried by San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook. In fact, the feds almost certainly could do it themselves. Security experts say there are many ways the FBI could hack the iPhone now at the center of a standoff between Apple and the U.S. government. Bloomberg (also The beginning of the end for encryption schemes?)
Microsoft's push for a unified cross-platform gaming experience backfires Over the past few years, Microsoft has made a few attempts to build bridges to the PC gaming community. More often than not, though, those efforts have ended with unhappy customers and the perception that Redmond is out of touch with PC gamers. For some time now, it's felt like Microsoft and the PC gaming community have reached an uneasy peace. Over the past week, though, it feels like we've gone from zero to "WTF?" again at a rapid pace. The Tech Report
Silicon Valley has not saved us from a productivity slowdown American middle class wages haven't been rising as rapidly as they once were, and a slowdown in productivity growth is probably an important cause. In mature economies, higher productivity typically is required for sustained increases in living standards, but the productivity numbers in the United States have been mediocre. Labor productivity has been growing at an average of only 1.3 percent annually since the start of 2005, compared with 2.8 percent annually in the preceding 10 years. The NY Times
When two trucks go to war This video showcases a mod for Euro Truck Simulator 2 that turns a humble 90 km/h-capped truck into a monster racer doing 560 km/h. That's roughly half the speed of sound in case you're wondering. I enjoy the sedateness of driving in ETS2. It's humdrum in a good way and requires only low-level attention and skill (until you suddenly remember your turn at the last minute). It can be a way to drift into a slightly meditative/sleep-ready state. Bold and Dashing
Bitcoin's capacity issues no 'nightmare', but higher fees may be new reality While bitcoin may not be facing a "nightmare" scenario as indicated by the media, digital currency users are now paying higher-than-average fees and waiting longer for transactions to confirm due to an unknown disruptive network user. The incident has sparked a flurry of questions about the nature of the increased transaction load on the network as it comes amid the ongoing debate over scaling the bitcoin network. Coindesk (also, The looming problem that could kill bitcoin & What happened at The Satoshi Roundtable)
Video capture & edit guide I have mentioned in a few of the reviews I have written that I have changed the process by which I capture and edit gameplay video. Since I mentioned it and it may be a topic some of you are interested in or curious about, I thought it would be a good idea to put something together about it. Originally I used NVIDIA ShadowPlay (external link) to capture video. It is a fairly useful utility included with the GeForce Experience software suite from Nvidia, but it does have some drawbacks. Overclockers Club
Is Amazon Prime really worth it? Amazon Prime is Amazon's deluxe subscription model that initially only offered free two-day shipping on select items when it started. However, it has since expanded quite a bit into a slew of varied services that run the gamut from books to movies to, yes, additional shipping perks. This gradually increasing range of services was precipitated by a price hike in 2014 from $79 per year to $99 per year. Android Authority (also, Is paying for antivirus a waste of money?)
China tries its hand at pre-crime China's effort to flush out threats to stability is expanding into an area that used to exist only in dystopian sci-fi: pre-crime. The Communist Party has directed one of the country's largest state-run defense contractors, China Electronics Technology Group, to develop software to collate data on jobs, hobbies, consumption habits, and other behavior of ordinary citizens to predict terrorist acts before they occur. Bloomberg
KB3140743 issues appear: Failed downloads and installs, BSODs, slow system & more As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If a machine is doing its job, reliably and without error, then common sense dictates that you just shouldn't mess with it. This is doubly true for computers and quadruply true for government computers. This lends itself to an obvious question: what's the government computer most in need of an upgrade? Windows Report
Incredible 3D printer can make bone, cartilage, and muscle A team of biomedical researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine has just completed an invention 10 years in the making. It's a 3D printer that can craft relatively simple tissues like cartilage into large complex shapes – like an infant's ear. Using cartridges that are brimming with biodegradable plastic and human cells bound up in gel, this new kind of 3D printer builds complex chunks of growing muscle, cartilage, and even bone. Popular Mechanics
Scientists gear up to drill into 'ground zero' of the impact that killed the dinosaurs This month, a drilling platform will rise in the Gulf of Mexico, but it won't be aiming for oil. Scientists will try to sink a diamond-tipped bit into the heart of Chicxulub crater – the buried remnant of the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs, along with most other life on the planet. They hope that the retrieved rock cores will contain clues to how life came back in the wake of the cataclysm... Science
What one year of space travel does to the human body Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko have done a lot this past year. In the 340 days they spent on the International Space Station, the American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut orbited Earth 5,440 times, conducted hundreds of experiments, and floated out in space in bulky suits, secured only by a tether, to maintain one of humanity's most sophisticated pieces of engineering. The Atlantic
Join us on the hunt for the government's oldest computer As the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." If a machine is doing its job, reliably and without error, then common sense dictates that you just shouldn't mess with it. This is doubly true for computers and quadruply true for government computers. This lends itself to an obvious question: what's the government computer most in need of an upgrade? Muckrock.com
The DROWN Attack DROWN is a serious vulnerability that affects HTTPS and other services that rely on SSL and TLS, some of the essential cryptographic protocols for Internet security. These protocols allow everyone on the Internet to browse the web, use email, shop online, and send instant messages without third-parties being able to read the communication. DROWN Attack
EA's Ultimate Team earning around $650 million a year "The extra content business is $1.3 billion a year. Half of that is roughly our Ultimate Team business" The Ultimate Team modes in EA's FIFA, Madden and NHL franchises are now earning around $650 million in annual revenue - half of all sales generated by the extra digital content released to accompany the publisher's games. Games Industry
These engineers are developing artificially intelligent hackers Could you invent an autonomous hacking system that could find and fix vulnerabilities in computer systems before criminals could exploit them, and without any human being involved? That's the challenge faced by seven teams competing in Darpa's Cyber Grand Challenge in August. The Guardian