How DLC actually helps games Reading the comments on my current survey about how publishers have violated gamers' trust, it is clear that business practices around downloadable content have left a bad taste in many gamers' mouths. "On-disc or day 1 DLC is just greedy." wrote one gamer, expressing a popular opinion that DLC is part of the nickel and diming infecting modern gaming. "I paid for a $60 game, I expect all features to be available at launch. I shouldn't have to spend another $30 on top of that to ensure a complete gaming experience," wrote another gamer. Kotaku (also, The latest Counter-Strike anti-cheat measure? inspecting players' homes)
Intel NUC5i5RYK review: A Broadwell-U UCFF PC for enthusiasts The Intel NUC category has been an interesting product line to analyze, as it provides us with insights into where the traditional casual / home use desktop market might end up. UCFF (ultra-compact form factor) PCs have had an excellent reception in the market, both from home and business users. Intel kickstarted the market with the Sandy Bridge NUCs a couple of years back. Since then, we have had NUCs based on Ivy Bridge, Haswell and even Bay Trail. Anandtech (also, Understanding Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810: Performance preview)
The software revolution In human history, there have been three great technological revolutions and many smaller ones. The three great ones are the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the one we are now in the middle of -- the software revolution. The great technological revolutions have affected what most people do every day and how society is structured. The previous one, the industrial revolution, created lots of jobs because the new technology required huge numbers of humans to run it. Sam Altman (also, How to keep a piece of the pie after the robots take our jobs)
The PlayStation company: why Sony should ditch almost everything else It's funny how times change. Twenty years ago, the PlayStation was a skunkworks product that a renegade faction within Sony had just fought to get released. Now here we are in 2015, and Sony CEO Kaz Hirai -- a former boss of the PlayStation division -- has announced that the company is essentially going to stop trying to grow its consumer electronics businesses beside the PlayStation 4. The PlayStation isn't only Sony's last great product; it might as well be Sony's only product. The Verge
Magic Leap Logically, I know there isn't a hulking four-armed, twisty-horned blue monster clomping in circles in front of me, but it sure as hell looks like it. I'm sitting behind a workbench in a white-walled room in Dania Beach, Florida, in the office of a secretive startup called Magic Leap. I'm staring wide-eyed through a pair of lenses attached to what looks like metal scaffolding that towers over my head and contains a bunch of electronics and lenses. It's an early prototype of the company’s so-called cinematic-reality technology... MIT Technology Review
Virtual reality took me inside the mind of a schizophrenic The hallway was grey. Two "Exit" signs glowed red on either side of me. Elevator doors opened and I stepped through, standing in the middle of a group of people, all going up to the 10th floor. I had a job interview waiting for me at the top of the building. But as the elevator slowly creeped up floor after floor, voices began whispering, my thoughts drifted, and faces glared at me with anger and disappointment. The Daily Dot (also, Virtual-reality porn is coming, and your fantasies may never be the same)
AMD's Fiji GPU to be the only new chip in upcoming Radeon 300 series lineup AMD is soon going to release their high-performance Radeon 300 series lineup featuring the Fiji GPU powered graphics cards. While it was known that Fiji would be the flagship chip of the lineup, it is now being reported by Sweclockers that Fiji would also be the only new chip in the Radeon 300 series family while the rest of the cards will feature the current GCN cores based on the GCN 1.1 and GCN 1.2 architecture. WCCFTech
The art of the tutorial: When to hold a player's hand, when to let it go Earlier this month, my Twitter feed flared up briefly with complaints about the "hand-holdy" quality of tutorials in many modern games. It subsided pretty quickly, but I thought it raised some interesting questions: Who do you build tutorials for, exactly? How have developers changed their approach to tutorial design now that games which envelop players with barely any attempt at guidance... Gamasutra
Tens of thousands of home routers at risk with duplicate SSH keys A setup mistake has apparently left hundreds of thousands of home routers running the SSH (Secure Shell) remote access tool with identical private and public keys. John Matherly used Shodan, a specialized search engine for querying Internet-connected devices, and found more than 250,000 devices that appear to be deployed by Telefónica de España sharing the same public SSH key. PCWorld
New NIST tools to help boost wireless channel frequencies and capacity Smartphones and tablets are everywhere, which is great for communications but a growing burden on wireless channels. Forecasted huge increases in mobile data traffic call for exponentially more channel capacity. Boosting bandwidth and capacity could speed downloads, improve service quality, and enable new applications like the Internet of Things connecting a multitude of devices. NSIT.gov
Cable channels speed up tv shows to cram in more ads Anyone who’s watched a syndicated TV show on basic cable is already familiar with some methods of trimming the fat off of shows -- shorter opening credits, sped-up closing credits that may overlap on-screen ads or the next show -- but what you may not have noticed is that some cable networks are actually speeding up shows and movies to squeeze in more commercials. Consumerist
Where do we stand 30 years after the founding of the Free Software Foundation? There is a growing concern about government surveillance. At the same time, those of us who live and breathe technology do so because it provides us with a service and freedom to share our lives with others. There is a tacit assumption that once we leave the store, the device we have in our pocket, backpack, or desk is ours. Opensource.com
Samsung investigating 840 Evo slowdowns, prepping another fix Last month, we reported that some Samsung 840 EVO SSDs are still experiencing slow read speedswith old data. The issue was supposedly fixed with a firmware update issued in October, but some patched drives continue to exhibit the problem, including one of our own. Late Friday afternoon, Samsung issued the following statement on the matter... The Tech Report
If software looks like a brain and acts like a brain -- will we treat it like one? Long the domain of science fiction, researchers are now working to create software that perfectly models human and animal brains. With an approach known as whole brain emulation (WBE), the idea is that if we can perfectly copy the functional structure of the brain, we will create software perfectly analogous to one. Ars Technica
