Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Posted on 18th Feb 2011 at 10:18 by Podcast with 3 comments

This week's bit-tech and Custom PC podcast is brought to you by Clive, Antony and Paul.

First on the agenda is the continuing Intel Sandy Bridge saga, and what motherboard manufacturers are doing to sort it out. We also comment on MSI's returns strategy, which the company announced on Wednesday.

Next we make some time to talk about the gorgeous Silverstone FT03. It's a pretty peculiar case due to its inverted design, but it's always refreshing to see manufactures taking a different approach.

Finally, Antony gives us a sneaky look at the CPU cooler group test from the latest issue of Custom PC, which went on sale at newsagents yesterday. Make sure you pick up a copy if you want to see which new CPU coolers offer the best combination of cooling and value.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, although there's a slightly different twist on it this week. The lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Mionix Propus 380 mousepad, which will provide the perfect tracking surface for whichever mouse you choose to use.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware 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/~3/9YDeYBokO2k/

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Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Posted on 18th Feb 2011 at 10:18 by Podcast with 3 comments

This week's bit-tech and Custom PC podcast is brought to you by Clive, Antony and Paul.

First on the agenda is the continuing Intel Sandy Bridge saga, and what motherboard manufacturers are doing to sort it out. We also comment on MSI's returns strategy, which the company announced on Wednesday.

Next we make some time to talk about the gorgeous Silverstone FT03. It's a pretty peculiar case due to its inverted design, but it's always refreshing to see manufactures taking a different approach.

Finally, Antony gives us a sneaky look at the CPU cooler group test from the latest issue of Custom PC, which went on sale at newsagents yesterday. Make sure you pick up a copy if you want to see which new CPU coolers offer the best combination of cooling and value.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, although there's a slightly different twist on it this week. The lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Mionix Propus 380 mousepad, which will provide the perfect tracking surface for whichever mouse you choose to use.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware 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.

EnvisionStar Hosting

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/9YDeYBokO2k/

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Thoughts on The Arctic Cooling GCM

This isn?t really a review, and I can?t label it as such, if only because Arctic Cooling?s GCM isn?t really the type of device we usually cover. Still, when it landed in the office I just couldn?t help myself. It looked so cheap and nasty that the other guys in the office recoiled from it in melodramatic disgust. I had to write about it.

You?ve seen gizmos like the GCM before, probably. It wouldn?t be out of place on the prize rack of a fairground attraction, or in a machine at that really run-down arcade that your parents never let you go to. The packaging is emblazoned with bold claims that try to sell the GCM to you on a sheer value factor ? 80 games in 1? Wowee! ? all of which strengthens the impression that it?s going to be rubbish.

But, hey, at least it comes with its own Arctic Cooling batteries!

Of course, you can tell from the moment you turn it on and first hear those tiny, tinny speakers squeak into life that the 80 games it offers are going to be terrible; the lowest, cheapest emulations of the franchises and games that the creators feel they can get away with. You know that they?re going to be full of simplistic knock-offs at best, if they work at all.


Still, if you?re anything like me, you can?t help but hope a little. Maybe one of those games could actually be quite good, eh? Or maybe it?ll be just entertaining and cheap enough for it to be worth shoving the GCM into the bottom of your rucksack and keeping it for an absolute last resort ? those times when your DS, PSP, iPod Touch, Gameboy Color and mobile phone are all out of battery life. And your solar charger is broken. And you?ve not got a book. Then the GCM might sputter its way towards usefulness, maybe.

As soon as I picked up the GCM, however, all these ideas scuttled out of my head and it suddenly dawned on me what the others knew intuitively ? that there is no way the GCM could ever be good at anything, ever, for whatever reason. It?s too light and flimsy to even make a good paperweight, too bulky to fit into a pocket and too flimsy to feel satisfactory in your hands.

The GCM seems to sum up everything bad about mass production; vomited onto the market thoughtlessly and crudely because ? and I'm guessing this is the extent of any executive approval it might have received ? ?someone must want to buy this crap.?

And, seriously, it?s so badly made and designed that it makes broken glass look like a solid product. The sensitive Reset and Main Menu buttons are on the shoulders, right where your fingers normally rest. Even the screen rattles.


And the games? Sheesh. There are 80 of them, but they're all even worse than you might have feared ? mostly boring one-button affairs with no depth or excitement, in which bland Mii-like avatars drift floatily around boring backgrounds and respond to your button presses after a half-second delay. There are a few titles in the mix, such as the obligatory Breakout clone and Schmup, which work OK, but even they lack enough lustre or speed to encourage more than the first five-minute fiddle.

Most of the included games don?t even work, in fact. The GCM has got more bugs than an ant farm, and it crashes regularly too. One time I tried to boot up Jet Girl, one of the less obnoxious titles in the Racing Games category, but got nothing more than a 12 second loading screen followed by a burst of numbers running across the screen. A moment later the Fencing game loaded up instead. In French.

The GCM is really a joke, and its punchline must be the price. £40 for this pile of cheap, worthless trash? It?s one thing for the GCM to fulfil expectations by turning out to be a poorly built and cheaply produced pocket-toy full of games you wouldn?t play if you had to. It?s something altogether to charge such an outrageous RRP ? you could have a nice meal for two for the cost of this bloody thing!

As I predicted earlier, the GCM is indeed the type of product you?d expect to see in an oversized gumball machine outside a hairdresser in the bad part of town. No wonder this isn?t a proper review; there just isn?t a score low enough.

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Facebook App Reveals Your Social Cliques

Socializing online and in the real world may be edging ever closer, but one stark difference remains: it's much easier to juggle different groups of friends offline than it is online. A new tool developed at Stanford University addresses the problem by automatically working out a person's different and overlapping friendship groups by analyzing the history of their Facebook or Gmail account.

The tool?called SocialFlows?is available as a Facebook app. Once a Facebook user connects it with their account, they can extract their social groups in two ways. The researchers' software can either work from the images a person was tagged in over the last two years, or from the pattern of e-mail recipients recorded in the last two years via a Gmail account.

Once SocialFlows has processed the necessary data, it suggests different groups of contacts or friends, some overlapping. An interactive interface allows the user to add, remove, or reshuffle the groups and then save them to either Facebook or Gmail as contact lists or new groups.

Putting different types of contacts into different groups?family or coworkers, for example?can be useful to people who want to control what they share, and with whom, online, explained Diana MacLean, a member of the MobiSocial Lab at Stanford where she and colleagues created SocialFlows.

"The current solution is friends lists," said MacLean at the Intelligent User Interfaces conference earlier this week. "That does give some granular control over who gets to see our data, but they're very tedious to create and even more tedious to maintain over time." As people acquire new contacts, they must keep adding them to groups or perhaps create new ones, and there is currently no way to transfer groups between services, she pointed out.

Social sites actually have all the data they need to tackle these problems, said MacLean. "Your social topology is captured latently in your communication data." SocialFlows is an attempt to tap into that. The algorithm behind the tool first creates many small groups by linking people who have often appeared in the same photo as the SocialFlows user, or who have been recipients of the same e-mail. Larger groups are then assembled by merging groups that are similar. Some groups become nested inside others, as when the data reveals a pattern of connections between a subset of people within a larger group.

MacLean and colleagues conducted a user study in which 19 volunteers were asked to use SocialFlows on their e-mail to generate and fine-tune groups that could help them achieve specific tasks, for example, notifying close friends in their home town of an upcoming visit, or inviting guests to a birthday party. Study participants also performed the same task using Gmail's contact manager.

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Planned Parenthood Financing Is Caught in Budget Feud

For the last several weeks, those on opposite sides of a sharp cultural divide have engaged in dueling rallies, virtual conferences, online petitions and phone banks as crucial Congressional votes drew near. At stake is more than $75 million that Planned Parenthood receives to provide family planning assistance to low-income women, money that its opponents say only frees up funds for abortions.

Now, in a surprise step that has set off deep alarm among advocates for women?s health, the newly conservative House of Representatives has proposed cutting the entire $317 million program of aid for family planning, known as Title X, in a 2011 spending bill that is expected to pass by the weekend. A proposed amendment to the bill would also bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds for any purpose. The amendment was the subject of an emotional three-hour debate on Thursday night.

The fight will shift to the Senate, where the Democrats retain a small majority. It is unlikely they will agree to cut all financing for Planned Parenthood, let alone the broader federal aid for contraception that serves five million low-income women, said Susan Cohen, director of governmental affairs for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization. But more legislation in the House aimed at Planned Parenthood is in the offing, putting the organization in its most precarious political spot in decades.

Planned Parenthood?s role as a major abortion provider has long provoked fierce opposition, but this month its opponents broadened their attacks, seeking to discredit the organization by linking it to the sexual exploitation of minors. A group called Live Action, which has repeatedly taken aim at Planned Parenthood and receives support from conservative foundations, released undercover videotapes in which clinic employees are seen answering questions from a man posing as a sex trafficker. Planned Parenthood says the tapes are misleading, that an errant staff member was fired and that its affiliates reported the encounters to law enforcement.

Seizing on those videotapes, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, a Republican and a longtime foe of abortion who is the chief sponsor of a House bill to cut off financing for Planned Parenthood, said that the organization had ?a pattern of apparent fraud and abuse? and that ?the time has come to deny any federal funding to Planned Parenthood.?

In an e-mailed Valentine?s Day appeal, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, described the House budget and Mr. Pence?s proposals as ?the most dangerous legislative assault on women?s health in Planned Parenthood?s 95-year history.?

With a total budget of some $1.1 billion, more than a third of which comes from the federal, state and local governments, Planned Parenthood offers family planning, H.I.V. counseling, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screening and other services as well as abortions, mainly to low-income women. Congress has long barred the use of federal money for abortion, but it provides more than $75 million a year to Planned Parenthood affiliates to support family planning for low-income women. Millions more in federal dollars are provided for sex education and, indirectly, through Medicaid and other programs.

Planned Parenthood and its supporters are working to bolster defenses in the Senate. They hope that the Title X program ? including a share for their group ? will be restored as the two sides of Congress compromise on a spending bill. But supporters like Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a leader of the abortion rights caucus, fear that protection of family planning could ?get lost in the larger issue of the budget.?

In the covert videos that were widely released on the Internet, clinic employees answer questions from a man, posing as a sex trafficker, about obtaining care for under-age prostitutes. A coalition including the Family Research Council, the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America and others created a Web site called ?Expose Planned Parenthood? that has used Internet press conferences, appeals to sympathetic pastors, vigils and floods of phone calls to ratchet up the pressure on Congress.

Planned Parenthood has worked to respond in kind. In what Stuart Schear, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called ?most intense short-term campaign, we have ever run,? the group has prompted tens of thousands of its supporters to call or e-mail Congress and organized petitions and rallies. One hundred members of Congress signed a letter attacking Mr. Pence?s proposals as harmful.

Planned Parenthood calls the videotapes ?misleading? and ?dirty tricks,? taking advantage of its culture of confidentiality. Yet the organization said it would immediately retrain all employees on requirements for reporting any threats to minors.

?These charges make me so angry,? said Judy Tabar, president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, which runs 19 clinics in Connecticut and Rhode Island, offering 70,000 patients birth control, cancer screening and other medical services and, for fewer than 10 percent of visits, abortions.

?What we do every day is prevent more unintended pregnancies than anyone else in the country,? she said in an interview at her office in New Haven. ?We have a huge impact on the lives of women and families.?

Anti-abortion protesters have gathered outside the clinic a few times a week since the 1980s. A police raid on this clinic when it first opened in 1961, for violating a Connecticut law that barred distribution of contraceptives even to married couples, led to a landmark Supreme Court case declaring such laws an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

Ms. Tabar said many critics mischaracterized Planned Parenthood?s activities, which overwhelmingly involve family planning and preventive medicine. While clinics must obey local laws and use common sense when they suspect the abuse of minors, she said, they try to preserve a nonjudgmental atmosphere. ?People tend to come to us at a very vulnerable time,? she said, in turmoil over new relationships, possible pregnancies or fears of disease.

Those opposed to Planned Parenthood and the broader family planning program, its supporters say, have not offered realistic alternatives for poor women.

For every dollar spent on contraception for low-income women, the government saves four dollars in medical costs within the next year by averting unwanted pregnancies, said Ms. Cohen of the Guttmacher Institute.

In an e-mailed response, Lila Rose, the president of Live Action, did not say how Planned Parenthood?s birth control services could be replaced but wrote: ?The answer for poor women is not a corporation that is happy to help sex traffickers and that has enabled the sexual abuse and exploitation of countless girls and young women.?

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Planned Parenthood Financing Is Caught in Budget Feud

For the last several weeks, those on opposite sides of a sharp cultural divide have engaged in dueling rallies, virtual conferences, online petitions and phone banks as crucial Congressional votes drew near. At stake is more than $75 million that Planned Parenthood receives to provide family planning assistance to low-income women, money that its opponents say only frees up funds for abortions.

Now, in a surprise step that has set off deep alarm among advocates for women?s health, the newly conservative House of Representatives has proposed cutting the entire $317 million program of aid for family planning, known as Title X, in a 2011 spending bill that is expected to pass by the weekend. A proposed amendment to the bill would also bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funds for any purpose. The amendment was the subject of an emotional three-hour debate on Thursday night.

The fight will shift to the Senate, where the Democrats retain a small majority. It is unlikely they will agree to cut all financing for Planned Parenthood, let alone the broader federal aid for contraception that serves five million low-income women, said Susan Cohen, director of governmental affairs for the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization. But more legislation in the House aimed at Planned Parenthood is in the offing, putting the organization in its most precarious political spot in decades.

Planned Parenthood?s role as a major abortion provider has long provoked fierce opposition, but this month its opponents broadened their attacks, seeking to discredit the organization by linking it to the sexual exploitation of minors. A group called Live Action, which has repeatedly taken aim at Planned Parenthood and receives support from conservative foundations, released undercover videotapes in which clinic employees are seen answering questions from a man posing as a sex trafficker. Planned Parenthood says the tapes are misleading, that an errant staff member was fired and that its affiliates reported the encounters to law enforcement.

Seizing on those videotapes, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, a Republican and a longtime foe of abortion who is the chief sponsor of a House bill to cut off financing for Planned Parenthood, said that the organization had ?a pattern of apparent fraud and abuse? and that ?the time has come to deny any federal funding to Planned Parenthood.?

In an e-mailed Valentine?s Day appeal, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, described the House budget and Mr. Pence?s proposals as ?the most dangerous legislative assault on women?s health in Planned Parenthood?s 95-year history.?

With a total budget of some $1.1 billion, more than a third of which comes from the federal, state and local governments, Planned Parenthood offers family planning, H.I.V. counseling, treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, cancer screening and other services as well as abortions, mainly to low-income women. Congress has long barred the use of federal money for abortion, but it provides more than $75 million a year to Planned Parenthood affiliates to support family planning for low-income women. Millions more in federal dollars are provided for sex education and, indirectly, through Medicaid and other programs.

Planned Parenthood and its supporters are working to bolster defenses in the Senate. They hope that the Title X program ? including a share for their group ? will be restored as the two sides of Congress compromise on a spending bill. But supporters like Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a leader of the abortion rights caucus, fear that protection of family planning could ?get lost in the larger issue of the budget.?

In the covert videos that were widely released on the Internet, clinic employees answer questions from a man, posing as a sex trafficker, about obtaining care for under-age prostitutes. A coalition including the Family Research Council, the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America and others created a Web site called ?Expose Planned Parenthood? that has used Internet press conferences, appeals to sympathetic pastors, vigils and floods of phone calls to ratchet up the pressure on Congress.

Planned Parenthood has worked to respond in kind. In what Stuart Schear, vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, called ?most intense short-term campaign, we have ever run,? the group has prompted tens of thousands of its supporters to call or e-mail Congress and organized petitions and rallies. One hundred members of Congress signed a letter attacking Mr. Pence?s proposals as harmful.

Planned Parenthood calls the videotapes ?misleading? and ?dirty tricks,? taking advantage of its culture of confidentiality. Yet the organization said it would immediately retrain all employees on requirements for reporting any threats to minors.

?These charges make me so angry,? said Judy Tabar, president of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, which runs 19 clinics in Connecticut and Rhode Island, offering 70,000 patients birth control, cancer screening and other medical services and, for fewer than 10 percent of visits, abortions.

?What we do every day is prevent more unintended pregnancies than anyone else in the country,? she said in an interview at her office in New Haven. ?We have a huge impact on the lives of women and families.?

Anti-abortion protesters have gathered outside the clinic a few times a week since the 1980s. A police raid on this clinic when it first opened in 1961, for violating a Connecticut law that barred distribution of contraceptives even to married couples, led to a landmark Supreme Court case declaring such laws an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

Ms. Tabar said many critics mischaracterized Planned Parenthood?s activities, which overwhelmingly involve family planning and preventive medicine. While clinics must obey local laws and use common sense when they suspect the abuse of minors, she said, they try to preserve a nonjudgmental atmosphere. ?People tend to come to us at a very vulnerable time,? she said, in turmoil over new relationships, possible pregnancies or fears of disease.

Those opposed to Planned Parenthood and the broader family planning program, its supporters say, have not offered realistic alternatives for poor women.

For every dollar spent on contraception for low-income women, the government saves four dollars in medical costs within the next year by averting unwanted pregnancies, said Ms. Cohen of the Guttmacher Institute.

In an e-mailed response, Lila Rose, the president of Live Action, did not say how Planned Parenthood?s birth control services could be replaced but wrote: ?The answer for poor women is not a corporation that is happy to help sex traffickers and that has enabled the sexual abuse and exploitation of countless girls and young women.?

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Facebook?s Known Issues Page: Helps with Facebook problems (kinda)

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Have more info on this story?
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Every now and then people want to report something broken on Facebook. However after the report has been sent there is never a reply confirming if Facebook received our feedback or whether they plan to do something about it. Unlike the Twitter customer service team which is fantastic. I have had real people respond to my concerns within 24 hours.

Having 500 Million users could be the reason why Facebook is not responding, to much feedback for it to handle perhaps? But there is some solace from the empty pit of darkness and no responses; The Known Issues Page. It?s sort of a middle ground. It updates its Status regularly discussing the current problems it?s aware of.

But from what I have deduced it is a very one way process, with often hundreds of comments from its users not being responded to. Many people are bewildered and left to help each other.

However the worst part is there seems to be very few updates when and if the issues are resolved. Normally what happens is that when the issue is perceived as fixed, the users leave comments and talk to each other on the corresponding  Status Update. Having an official response would be better.

If your error is recent then great stuff, it will be mentioned on the front page. But if your problem is old or not brought to its attention by masses of complaints, then praying for the Tooth Fairy is your best bet to finding out if it is known to Facebook and if they are doing something about it. The Search proves no valuable results and there isn?t even a discussions tab with a list of problems that would be easier to browse. Googling is more reliable.

This is really disappointing. From a service that pioneered the meaning of the social web, why is Facebook not practicing what it preaches? Why is this still a one way debate? Millions of people are left wondering what is going on and with the billions it?s suppose to be generating in revenue one would think they would get better at communicating with their users.

About the Author

Fatema is the West Coast editor of TNW she is based in San Francisco. Fatema writes about startups and entrepreneurs. Email her Fatema@thenextweb.com and Follow her on twitter @FatemaYasmine

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/2011/02/18/facebooks-known-issues-page-helps-with-facebook-problems-kinda/

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Facebook?s Known Issues Page: Helps with Facebook problems (kinda)

Story Toolbox

Have more info on this story?
Contact us!

Every now and then people want to report something broken on Facebook. However after the report has been sent there is never a reply confirming if Facebook received our feedback or whether they plan to do something about it. Unlike the Twitter customer service team which is fantastic. I have had real people respond to my concerns within 24 hours.

Having 500 Million users could be the reason why Facebook is not responding, to much feedback for it to handle perhaps? But there is some solace from the empty pit of darkness and no responses; The Known Issues Page. It?s sort of a middle ground. It updates its Status regularly discussing the current problems it?s aware of.

But from what I have deduced it is a very one way process, with often hundreds of comments from its users not being responded to. Many people are bewildered and left to help each other.

However the worst part is there seems to be very few updates when and if the issues are resolved. Normally what happens is that when the issue is perceived as fixed, the users leave comments and talk to each other on the corresponding  Status Update. Having an official response would be better.

If your error is recent then great stuff, it will be mentioned on the front page. But if your problem is old or not brought to its attention by masses of complaints, then praying for the Tooth Fairy is your best bet to finding out if it is known to Facebook and if they are doing something about it. The Search proves no valuable results and there isn?t even a discussions tab with a list of problems that would be easier to browse. Googling is more reliable.

This is really disappointing. From a service that pioneered the meaning of the social web, why is Facebook not practicing what it preaches? Why is this still a one way debate? Millions of people are left wondering what is going on and with the billions it?s suppose to be generating in revenue one would think they would get better at communicating with their users.

About the Author

Fatema is the West Coast editor of TNW she is based in San Francisco. Fatema writes about startups and entrepreneurs. Email her Fatema@thenextweb.com and Follow her on twitter @FatemaYasmine

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/2011/02/18/facebooks-known-issues-page-helps-with-facebook-problems-kinda/

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What I'm Playing - Blood Bowl Legendary Edition

Despite its occasional eccentricities, I rather liked the original Blood Bowl computer game. The races all had their own characteristics, so every game had different challenges, and the sense of humour and style fitted the world of the ultra-violent American Football game. Best yet, it brought back memories of playing the board game on which it's based. Legendary Edition adds 11 new races to the game, plus new pitches, rules and a Story mode, so I got myself a copy a few weeks ago.

One of the biggest novelties of BB:LE is the new Story mode, so that?s where I started. It?s a bit of a disappointment, though, as it hangs together a few random games with some Blood Bowl back-story. The story is delivered in a few screens of text, rather than via the fun videos that lifted the original game, and while it raised a chuckle every now and then, the overall result wasn't that impressive.


The Story mode basically seems to be a quick way to get some familiarity with the many races of BB:LE. It forces you to participate in a match between two races, with you choosing which of the two to control. However, my Story game crashed after two games, and as I already knew everything about the original nine races, I just played a few exhibition matches with the new races to get a feel for them.

Some of the new races seem arbitrarily different, rather than genuinely distinct, though. There?s little difference between the Necromantic and the Undead, for example, as only a few player-types are different. I tried the Nurgle too, but quickly became bored with the team?s ploddiness, while the Vampire and Ogre races both comprise two types of player, so held little appeal. In the end, I settled for my trusty Orcs, as this race has a great blend of power and speed. However, this is what?s great about BB:LE ? the teams play so differently that there?s something for everyone.


Having had a great team in the original game, I'd forgotten that I really do need a Goblin for speedy bursts into the End-Zone, though, and that Black Orcs need to be powered up with Block and Mighty Blow to be truly formidable. Perhaps that would?ve been a better place to spend my cash than a lumbering Troll. This is the beauty of the game ? it requires plenty of thought, both in terms of actions in the game and how you build your team.

Some of the annoyances of the original game are still present, though, which I suspect is partly down to the original board game?s rules. I still don?t understand why a team should receive subsidies to spend on pre-match perks if the opposition team has a higher value, for example. Also, I still can?t get my head round the real-time nature of the game. Yep, that?s right, I play BB:LE as a turn-based strategy game. But it?s still a fun game that challenging and addictive.

I?ve tried Dark Elves, but found them toothless (what?s the point of the Witch Elf?) while I found Dwarves horrendously slow and dull. However, I'd be interested in your thoughts on this as well. If you?ve played Blood Bowl or BB:LE, which players do you use, and why?

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Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Posted on 18th Feb 2011 at 10:18 by Podcast with 1 comments

This week's bit-tech and Custom PC podcast is brought to you by Clive, Antony and Paul.

First on the agenda is the continuing Intel Sandy Bridge saga, and what motherboard manufacturers are doing to sort it out. We also comment on MSI's returns strategy, which the company announced on Wednesday.

Next we make some time to talk about the gorgeous Silverstone FT03. It's a pretty peculiar case due to its inverted design, but it's always refreshing to see manufactures taking a different approach.

Finally, Antony gives us a sneaky look at the CPU cooler group test from the latest issue of Custom PC, which went on sale at newsagents yesterday. Make sure you pick up a copy if you want to see which new CPU coolers offer the best combination of cooling and value.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, although there's a slightly different twist on it this week. The lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Mionix Propus 380 mousepad, which will provide the perfect tracking surface for whichever mouse you choose to use.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware 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 game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter