The 3D podcast with Nvidia

The 3D podcast with Nvidia

Posted on 29th May 2011 at 10:48 by Podcast with 10 comments

As the final part of our 3D week, Clive, Joe and James sit down to discuss 3D with Nvidia's senior EMEAI PR manager, Ben Berraondo.

The team pose Ben a range of questions about everything from why people should be using 3D to whether or not it?s just a gimmick and what we can expect to see from 3D in the future. We also discuss what?s holding 3D back from catching on in the mainstream.

Ben also takes the time to actually explain how game developers go about adding 3D to their games and what Nvidia does to help them and make sure their implementation is tip top. It was also interesting to hear about how 3D technology isn?t just about gaming, but can also be used to help people who have problems with their vision.

The debate about how long we'll have to wait for glasses-free 3D also raises its head, with Ben predicting that it?ll be a good five or seven years before you?ll be able to ditch your special glasses.

As ever, the bit-tech podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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The Caucus: Obama Meets House G.O.P. on Debt

At President Obama?s invitation, House Republicans met with him on Wednesday and had a ?very frank? airing of their views on reducing the federal debt, saying that the president must agree to deep spending cuts without tax increases, and drop his ideas for increasing spending to stimulate the economy.

?We had a very frank conversation,? House Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, said as lawmakers left the White House meeting. ?I thought it was productive. I?m looking forward to more serious conversations about how we reduce the deficit and the debt to get our economy going again and creating jobs.?

Though Friday?s monthly jobs report is expected to show continued high unemployment, the second-ranking House Republican, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, said Republicans told Mr. Obama that they oppose any proposals to spend more money to jump-start the economy.

?The discussion really focused on the philosophical difference on whether Washington should continue to pump money into the economy or should we provide an incentive for entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow,? Mr. Cantor said. ?The president talked about a need for us to continue to quote-unquote invest from Washington?s standpoint, and for a lot of us that?s code for more Washington spending, something that we can?t afford right now.?

From the start of the administration, stimulus measures have included both spending and the sort of tax incentives for small businesses that Republicans typically support. Most of these measures run out after this year, and many economists and bipartisan budget groups have recommended that the White House and Congress continue to provide assistance at least through 2012 before taking significant steps to rein in the projected growth of annual budget deficits as the population ages and health care costs rise.

But ahead of the White House meeting, Mr. Boehner released a letter signed by 150 conservative economists, including many officials of past Republican administrations, calling for immediate and deep spending cuts.

Mr. Cantor said Republicans invited Mr. Obama to work with them to overhaul the tax code. In that endeavor and in the ongoing deficit-reduction negotiations that the president initiated, Mr. Cantor added that Mr. Obama should give up ?any notion that we?re going to increase taxes.?

Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the sponsor of the House Republicans? budget who has been on the defensive along with his colleagues for its proposal to remake and reduce Medicare, said he had described the plan to Mr. Obama ?so in the future he won?t mischaracterize it.?

?It?s been misdescribed by the president and many others,? said Mr. Ryan, who objects to descriptions of the plan as a voucher system.

The plan would provide future Medicare beneficiaries with a subsidy to buy coverage from private insurance companies, though the amounts would be held far below projected costs of health care.

The meeting followed the House?s overwhelming rejection of a measure to increase the nation?s $14.3 trillion debt limit, which must be raised by Aug. 2. Republicans staged that vote, they said, to make the point to Mr. Obama that Congress will not raise the borrowing limit without a companion package of long-term spending cuts greater than the increase
in the debt ceiling ? as much as $2 trillion if the limit is set at an amount sufficient to cover the nation?s financial obligations through election year 2012.

Mr. Obama is to meet with the House Democratic minority on Thursday about budget matters.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=76d0c7c6d3b46938c8d19e301a487e9d

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Nvidia releases GeForce 275.33 WHQL drivers

Nvidia's first official GeForce 275 family drivers have been branded with Microsoft's seal of approval today. The WHQL-certified GeForce 275.33 release adds support for the newly released (non-Ti) GTX 560 and wields performance improvements, bug fixes, as well as new features over previous releases.

Compared to v270.61, 275.33 offers 4% to 15% more frames when playing titles including Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bulletstorm, Civilization V, Crysis 2, and Portal 2 with a GeForce 400 or 500 series card. Additionally, dual-core processors gain up to 12% more performance during certain high load situations.

Speed-wise, there doesn't seem to be any major changes from 275.27 beta released two weeks ago -- unless you play The Witcher 2. Nvidia notes that last month's preview driver can cause a "significant performance drop" because of a 3D Vision-related bug, but the issue is resolved in 275.33.

Desktop: Windows XP 32-bit | Windows XP 64-bit | Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit
Mobile: Windows Vista/7 32-bit | Windows Vista/7 64-bit

If you own a retail copy of the RPG, you can also gain a hefty 30% boost by installing patch 1.1, which removes the SecuROM DRM. For those of you who follow our performance reviews, we plan to publish our testing of The Witcher 2 this week (as early as this evening), so keep your eyes peeled.

Performance aside, the 275 family introduces automatic SLI and antialiasing profile updates from Nvidia -- a separate feature from the 270 line's driver update notifications. There are also various desktop scaling and 3D Vision features, including a new interface for the former and more profiles for the latter.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/44047-nvidia-releases-geforce-27533-whql-drivers.html

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The 3D podcast with Nvidia

The 3D podcast with Nvidia

Posted on 29th May 2011 at 10:48 by Podcast with 10 comments

As the final part of our 3D week, Clive, Joe and James sit down to discuss 3D with Nvidia's senior EMEAI PR manager, Ben Berraondo.

The team pose Ben a range of questions about everything from why people should be using 3D to whether or not it?s just a gimmick and what we can expect to see from 3D in the future. We also discuss what?s holding 3D back from catching on in the mainstream.

Ben also takes the time to actually explain how game developers go about adding 3D to their games and what Nvidia does to help them and make sure their implementation is tip top. It was also interesting to hear about how 3D technology isn?t just about gaming, but can also be used to help people who have problems with their vision.

The debate about how long we'll have to wait for glasses-free 3D also raises its head, with Ben predicting that it?ll be a good five or seven years before you?ll be able to ditch your special glasses.

As ever, the bit-tech podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/d_jPttQ3dZ0/

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Hardware 24 - A Computex-Free Zone

Hardware 24 - A Computex-Free Zone

Posted on 1st Jun 2011 at 15:37 by bit-tech Staff with 2 comments

Paul is joined by Harry and Clive to talk about the latest in the world of PC hardware. This was before Paul jetted off to Computex 2011, so we're debating everything from Nvidia?s naming scheme to Intel?s latest chipset.

For example, why has Nvidia called its latest GPU the GeForce GTX 560? Surely that?s just confusing, what with the GeForce GTX 560 Ti? Also, what?s with the non-standard clock speeds for the GTX 560? The Zotac GeForce GTX 560 1GB Amp! is within the reference range of frequencies and yet it's faster than a stock-speed GTX 560 Ti 1GB, despite its supposedly lesser rank in Nvidia?s range.

We also moan about how this makes our jobs a lot harder, as it?s difficult to recommend one GPU over another without getting into some very techy discussion. Even we struggled to stay interested as we delved into GPU architectures, the merits of having more resources versus higher frequencies and which card is right for certain sizes of monitor. Sheesh. Maybe in future we?ll just avoid the issue and continue to recommend the MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr II/OC.

We also talk about Intel?s latest Z68 chipset. The hybrid graphics via Lucid Virtu isn?t great at the moment, but Smart Response is better.

Harry also likes the look of Intel?s 3D Tri-gate transistors, claiming that ?they will bring the rain? to AMD? in the face.? Also, here?s a much better explanation of Moore?s Law than we could manage.

Please leave any questions here, or email us at podcast@custompc.co.uk.

As ever, the bit-tech podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/UcFKfpXnEsY/

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City Room: Weiner Can't Rule Out That Twitter Photo Is of Him

Representative Anthony D. Weiner said on Wednesday that he could not be sure whether he was the subject in a lewd photo sent from his Twitter account that shows a man in his underpants from the waist down.

But Mr. Weiner, who has been under pressure for days to answer questions about the controversy, reiterated that he had not sent the photo from his Twitter account.

?This was a circumstance where someone committed a prank on the Internet,? he said in an interview with Luke Russert of MSNBC. ?I didn?t send? that picture out.

Mr. Weiner added, however, that he could not ?say with certitude? if he was the person in the photo.

Mr. Weiner?s comments came a day after he lashed out at reporters who were pressing him to answer questions about the controversy, which was sparked after a college student who follows him on Twitter received a lewd photo from Mr. Weiner?s account.

Initially, Mr. Weiner said his account had been hacked; his spokesman later said that the congressman had hired a lawyer to ?explore the proper next steps.?

He refused to elaborate on Tuesday when confronted by reporters about whether he had sent the picture and why he had not yet asked law enforcement to investigate.

At the beginning of the weekend, Mr. Weiner?s Twitter-related photo-sharing account sent a sexually suggestive photo of a man from the waist down, wearing only boxer briefs, to Gennette Cordova, a student at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Wash. Mr. Weiner?s office said his account had been hacked, and the congressman quickly took the photo down.

His office issued a statement Sunday reiterating that the Twitter post was not from Mr. Weiner, saying, ?Anthony?s accounts were obviously hacked,? and Ms. Cordova also dismissed the Twitter post in a response she wrote for The Daily News, stating: ?There have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question.?

The story, however, did not fade away.

On Monday, Mr. Weiner?s spokesman, Dave Arnold, said: ?We?ve retained counsel to explore the proper next steps and to advise us on what civil or criminal actions should be taken. This was a prank. We are loath to treat it as more, but we are relying on professional advice.?

Even as Mr. Weiner tried to put the incident behind him, more questions arose, and a media frenzy swelled around his seeming reluctance to answer them. Mr. Weiner and his office refused to explain why he?d sought legal help, rather than going to the F.B.I. or the police. And, until recently, he refused to comment on whether the lewd picture was, in fact, of him.

Twitter, which does not comment on individual user accounts for privacy reasons, refused to confirm if his account had been hacked.

Mr. Weiner is a known technophile, and prior to this incident, had harnessed Twitter for political gain, using the social-media platform as yet another outlet for his combative, in-your-face and frequently funny persona.

He has more than 51,000 followers on Twitter ? some of whom began following as news of the incident spread ? and he also follows 198 people. Though many of those he follows are celebrities or political in nature, he also follows are a fair amount of ordinary folks, including Ms. Cordova.

In May, he sent out a Tweet thanking the people who followed him, and asking if they?d like for him to follow them back. ?Use #WeinerYes,? he wrote.

Here is an excerpt of a transcript of Mr. Russert?s interview with Mr. Weiner provided by MSNBC:

RUSSERT: The picture that went over Twitter to Gennette Cordova from your account, is that you?

REP. WEINER: Let?s keep in mind what happened here. I was pranked, I was hacked, I was punked whatever it is ? someone sent out a picture. I?m an easy name to make fun of, and I think that?s what happened there. It?s a terrible thing that this poor woman got dragged into it. She says she knows nothing about it, and I obviously don?t know anything about it. I didn?t send the picture.

RUSSERT: That?s not a picture of you?

REP. WEINER: You know, I can?t say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted. One of the reasons that I?ve asked a firm that includes an internet security arm is to take a look into what the heck happened here to make sure it doesn?t happen again. But let?s kind of keep in mind why this is so silly. You know, someone committed a prank on me. Someone somehow got access to my twitter account, and right away put up a picture that made fun of the name Weiner and that?s what happened.

RUSSERT: But Congressman, you would remember if you were to take a photograph of yourself like that.

WEINER: Well you know one of the reasons we?ve asked an internet security firm to come in is to see if something was manipulated, maybe something was dropped in. We don?t know for sure what happened here. But let?s try to take a step back. This is a circumstance where someone committed a prank on the internet. Where someone spoofed me, made fun of me, whatever. We are taking taking it seriously in as much as we want to make sure that it doesn?t happen again, but this story has become a little bit out of control, to the point where people are asking me and asking people who follow me on Twitter, personal questions, people are asking me what other things are on your database?

RUSSERT: Well fair enough, but you will not flat out say that that photograph is not you?

REP. WEINER: Here?s what I will say ? I will say that we are trying to figure out exactly what happened ? whether a photograph was manipulated that was found on my account. Whether something was dropped into my account, whether a photograph was partially in my account.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=022b6bb25f226c2808efba9e3b3f9db3

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Shaquille O?Neal Announces Retirement Exclusively on Twitter

Tapping Quantum Effects for Software that Learns

In a bid to enable computers to learn faster, defense company Lockheed Martin has bought a system that uses quantum mechanics to process digital data. It paid $10 million to startup D-Wave Systems for the computer and support using it. D-Wave claims this to be the first ever sale of a quantum computing system.

The new system, called the D-Wave One, is not significantly more capable than a conventional computer. But it could be a step on the road to fuller implementations of quantum computing, which theoreticians have shown could easily solve problems that are impossible for other computers, such as defeating encryption systems by solving mathematical problems at incredible speed.

In a throwback to the days when computers were the size of rooms, the system bought by Lockheed, called the D-Wave One, occupies 100 square feet. Rather than acting as a stand-alone computer, it operates as a specialized helper to a conventional computer running software that learns from past data and makes predictions about future events. The defense company says it intends to use the new purchase to aid identification of bugs in products that are complex combinations of software and hardware. The goal is to reduce cost overruns caused by unforeseen technical problems with such systems, Lockheed spokesperson Thad Madden says. Such challenges were partly behind the recent news that the company's F-35 strike fighter is more than 20 percent over budget.

At the heart of the D-Wave One is a processor made up of 128 qubits?short for quantum bits?which use magnetic fields to represent a single 1 or 0 of digital data at any time and can also exploit quantum mechanics to attain a state of "superposition" that represents both at once. When qubits in superposition states work together, they can work with exponentially more data than the equivalent number of regular bits.

Those qubits take the form of metal loops rich in niobium, a material that becomes a superconductor at very low temperatures and is more commonly used as the magnets inside MRI scanners. The qubits are linked by structures called couplers, also made from superconducting niobium alloy, which can control the extent to which adjacent magnetic fields, representing qubits, affect one another. Performing a calculation involves using magnetic fields to set the states of qubits and couplers, waiting a short time, and then reading out the final values from the qubits.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=d8a2c196b965b3e19f08270714f1bcac

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City Room: Weiner Can't Rule Out That Twitter Photo Is of Him

Representative Anthony D. Weiner said on Wednesday that he could not be sure whether he was the subject in a lewd photo sent from his Twitter account that shows a man in his underpants from the waist down.

But Mr. Weiner, who has been under pressure for days to answer questions about the controversy, reiterated that he had not sent the photo from his Twitter account.

?This was a circumstance where someone committed a prank on the Internet,? he said in an interview with Luke Russert of MSNBC. ?I didn?t send? that picture out.

Mr. Weiner added, however, that he could not ?say with certitude? if he was the person in the photo.

Mr. Weiner?s comments came a day after he lashed out at reporters who were pressing him to answer questions about the controversy, which was sparked after a college student who follows him on Twitter received a lewd photo from Mr. Weiner?s account.

Initially, Mr. Weiner said his account had been hacked; his spokesman later said that the congressman had hired a lawyer to ?explore the proper next steps.?

He refused to elaborate on Tuesday when confronted by reporters about whether he had sent the picture and why he had not yet asked law enforcement to investigate.

At the beginning of the weekend, Mr. Weiner?s Twitter-related photo-sharing account sent a sexually suggestive photo of a man from the waist down, wearing only boxer briefs, to Gennette Cordova, a student at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, Wash. Mr. Weiner?s office said his account had been hacked, and the congressman quickly took the photo down.

His office issued a statement Sunday reiterating that the Twitter post was not from Mr. Weiner, saying, ?Anthony?s accounts were obviously hacked,? and Ms. Cordova also dismissed the Twitter post in a response she wrote for The Daily News, stating: ?There have never been any inappropriate exchanges between Anthony Weiner and myself, including the tweet/picture in question.?

The story, however, did not fade away.

On Monday, Mr. Weiner?s spokesman, Dave Arnold, said: ?We?ve retained counsel to explore the proper next steps and to advise us on what civil or criminal actions should be taken. This was a prank. We are loath to treat it as more, but we are relying on professional advice.?

Even as Mr. Weiner tried to put the incident behind him, more questions arose, and a media frenzy swelled around his seeming reluctance to answer them. Mr. Weiner and his office refused to explain why he?d sought legal help, rather than going to the F.B.I. or the police. And, until recently, he refused to comment on whether the lewd picture was, in fact, of him.

Twitter, which does not comment on individual user accounts for privacy reasons, refused to confirm if his account had been hacked.

Mr. Weiner is a known technophile, and prior to this incident, had harnessed Twitter for political gain, using the social-media platform as yet another outlet for his combative, in-your-face and frequently funny persona.

He has more than 51,000 followers on Twitter ? some of whom began following as news of the incident spread ? and he also follows 198 people. Though many of those he follows are celebrities or political in nature, he also follows are a fair amount of ordinary folks, including Ms. Cordova.

In May, he sent out a Tweet thanking the people who followed him, and asking if they?d like for him to follow them back. ?Use #WeinerYes,? he wrote.

Here is an excerpt of a transcript of Mr. Russert?s interview with Mr. Weiner provided by MSNBC:

RUSSERT: The picture that went over Twitter to Gennette Cordova from your account, is that you?

REP. WEINER: Let?s keep in mind what happened here. I was pranked, I was hacked, I was punked whatever it is ? someone sent out a picture. I?m an easy name to make fun of, and I think that?s what happened there. It?s a terrible thing that this poor woman got dragged into it. She says she knows nothing about it, and I obviously don?t know anything about it. I didn?t send the picture.

RUSSERT: That?s not a picture of you?

REP. WEINER: You know, I can?t say with certitude. My system was hacked. Pictures can be manipulated, pictures can be dropped in and inserted. One of the reasons that I?ve asked a firm that includes an internet security arm is to take a look into what the heck happened here to make sure it doesn?t happen again. But let?s kind of keep in mind why this is so silly. You know, someone committed a prank on me. Someone somehow got access to my twitter account, and right away put up a picture that made fun of the name Weiner and that?s what happened.

RUSSERT: But Congressman, you would remember if you were to take a photograph of yourself like that.

WEINER: Well you know one of the reasons we?ve asked an internet security firm to come in is to see if something was manipulated, maybe something was dropped in. We don?t know for sure what happened here. But let?s try to take a step back. This is a circumstance where someone committed a prank on the internet. Where someone spoofed me, made fun of me, whatever. We are taking taking it seriously in as much as we want to make sure that it doesn?t happen again, but this story has become a little bit out of control, to the point where people are asking me and asking people who follow me on Twitter, personal questions, people are asking me what other things are on your database?

RUSSERT: Well fair enough, but you will not flat out say that that photograph is not you?

REP. WEINER: Here?s what I will say ? I will say that we are trying to figure out exactly what happened ? whether a photograph was manipulated that was found on my account. Whether something was dropped into my account, whether a photograph was partially in my account.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=022b6bb25f226c2808efba9e3b3f9db3

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IE9 surges 60% on Windows 7 in May

With all the Windows 8, Xbox, and Zune intrigue bouncing around, it has been easy to let Internet Explorer 9 slip to the back of our minds, but we shouldn?t let it fade.

Microsoft is rolling out the browser via Windows update as we speak, and as it is set to replace IE8, it will likely become the world?s most popular browser in due time.

The Redmond giant has released a new statistic today on IE9 that is worth ruminating on for at least one moment:

Worldwide, IE9 usage share on Windows 7 averaged 12.2% for the month of May ? a 60% increase from April.

But that number is only for Windows 7, what about the rest of the market? According to the same source, NetMarketShare, Internet Explorer 9 controlled some 4.19% of the total browser market in May. Clicky Web Analytics has the number just around 5%.

But both NetMarketShare and Clicky have the same trend in mind: up. Take a look:

Microsoft has to be happy with those graphs, but they might not always be so smooth in the future. Once the company has emptied its clip by using Windows Update to push adoption, it?s going to have to lean on other means. And yet, it will not be toothless, and 5% of the market in just a few months is nothing to sneeze at.

In the same post Microsoft claims that its anti-IE6 plans continue apace:

[W]e continue to see positive momentum in people upgrading to a modern browser with the share of IE6 and IE7 worldwide dropping almost another point in May. Our website ie6countdown.com continues to get great traffic with more than 1.5 million unique visitors and 2.8 million page views since its launch in March.

Whether you like IE9 or not, we all hate IE6, and its decline is the Internet?s gain. Let?s hope that its collapse accelerates.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/06/01/ie9-surges-60-on-windows-7-in-may/

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