Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Gaming 29 - The Post-Pub Podcast

Posted on 17th Jul 2011 at 08:23 by Podcast with 11 comments

Custom PC veteran Phil Hartup and PC Pro's Mike Jennings join Joe and Paul for a late-night, post-pint rant. This episode of the podcast, perhaps because it's sponsored by alcohol, stumbles along with vague coherency through topics such as BioShock Infinite and Just Cause 2.

Mass Effect 2 is obligatorily drawn into the discussion too, as is tradition.

Boozy fumes aren't enough to stop us tackling the thorny issues, however - Phil explains why he expects Battlefield 3 will be a shoddy console port, while Joe shoots down the defence that 64-player multiplayer is something to be proud of.

*hic*


On top of that, Phil brings us a report on how APB: Reloaded is faring after being brought back from the dead, while Joe orates further on his favourite topic of the moment; Frozen Synapse.

As always, we've also got our weekly competition, which this time gives you a chance to win yourself a copy of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood on the PC and Raving Rabbids on the Nintendo 3DS. You can also find out who won the last competition and bagged themselves a Roccat Vire Gaming Headset.

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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Obama Ends ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? Policy

Enactment of the repeal will come in 60 days, on Sept. 20. The two-month waiting period is called for in the legislation passed late last year that ended ?don?t ask, don?t tell,? the 17-year-old law that banned openly gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from military service.

?As of Sept. 20, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country,? Mr. Obama said in a statement. He signed the certification, along with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about 3:30 p.m. in the Oval Office.

The certification comes after an extended preparation period, sought by military leaders and Pentagon officials, many of whom were initially reluctant to end the policy in the middle of two wars. Pentagon officials said they would use the 60-day period to review the possibility of extending some limited health, housing and legal benefits to same-sex couples.

The 60-day period is in the legislation because of the late Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, who as his price for supporting the bill in May 2010 demanded that the measure return to Congress for a two-month review period. It is unclear to what extent Congress will review the law and whether any hearings will be held.

In the meantime, Pentagon officials said that more than 1.9 million of 2.2 million active-duty and reserve service men and women had been trained in preparation for the end of the policy. They said the training sessions lasted from 45 minutes to 75 minutes and were conducted in groups of 50 to 250 service members. The sessions included a PowerPoint presentation, the ubiquitous communication tool of the military, as well as discussions of hypothetical situations.

For example, one hypothetical situation posed the question of what a commander should do about two junior male service members in civilian clothes seen kissing and hugging at a shopping mall, or how to handle reports that a service member has been seen ?hanging around? a gay bar.

In the case at the shopping mall, the answer is that if the kissing and hugging ?crosses acceptable boundaries? for the commander?s unit for members of any sexual orientation, a correction should be made. In the case of the gay bar, the answer is that commanders cannot place an establishment off limits simply because it caters to a gay clientele.

At least one gay rights advocate in the military said he was generally pleased with the training, even though it had slowed down enactment of the new law. ?While S.L.D.N. has been critical of this protracted process, at the end of the day I think it will result in more buy-in and stability and certainty,? said Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and the executive director for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Pentagon officials said they would be looking in the next two months at ?gray areas? that might allow them to extend some benefits to same-sex married couples in the military. But under current law, particularly the Defense of Marriage Act, the Pentagon is prohibited from giving federally financed benefits to those couples.

Those benefits include base housing, health insurance, certain death benefits, legal counseling and access to base commissaries and other stores.

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Don?t think you?ll use Google ? It?s only a matter of time?

Slowly rebuilding something as massive as a Google social network is a total pain in the ass. I have requests for invites from friends-of-friends from high school clogging my inbox. And every Google page I turn to: Gmail, Calendar and Google Search has these little pop-up notifications in the top-right corner, beckoning for me to check my Google+ activity.

My willpower has never felt so exhausted. Right now, the process of building Circles are dizzying. But will it be worth it in the long run to sit down and take the time to get it right? Yes. Undoubtedly yes. It?s so obvious people are making Google free commercials saying so. And if you have any reservations, watch this:

Hat tip to @NickFoden for the great find.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/google/2011/07/22/dont-think-youll-use-google-its-only-a-matter-of-time/

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Romney Seeing Smaller Pool for Donations in Second Run

Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is not only raising less money than he did four years ago, but so far he has been relying more heavily on a smaller group of donors, asking many of them to write checks now for the maximum donation that they can give during primary season. While that has given Mr. Romney a considerable lead in fund-raising over other Republican candidates ? he raised $18.5 million during the three months ending June 30, four times more than anyone else ? it also means he will have to quickly expand his universe of large donors to maintain that pace.

Out of 263 state-level finance chairmen and bundlers ? those who raise money on behalf of a candidate ? who appeared in Mr. Romney?s campaign filings in 2008, more than half do not appear to have given him any money so far this year, according to an examination of filings with the Federal Election Commission. Those staying on the sidelines include some of the heaviest hitters in national Republican fund-raising, underscoring one of Mr. Romney?s central challenges: convincing a skeptical Republican establishment that he is their best bet to make Mr. Obama a one-term president.

?I haven?t decided yet. I want to see what the whole field looks like,? said James B. Francis Jr., a Texas financier who was a national finance co-chairman of Mr. Romney?s 2008 campaign but has not signed up for a second tour of duty.

?A presidential campaign is like a child: every one of them is different,? added Mr. Francis, who headed the network of ?Pioneers? that helped George W. Bush break fund-raising records in his first run for president. ?They have different dynamics, they act differently.?

Mr. Romney has until now faced only minimal competition for the allegiance of major Republican donors. But that could change quickly: Gov. Rick Perry of Texas ? home to a significant portion of big Republican donors ? is inching ever closer to entering the race. Both men made trips to California this week to court potential donors, with Mr. Perry presenting himself as the party?s best alternative to Mr. Romney.

While Mr. Romney?s campaign team is already laying plans to go head-to-head with Mr. Perry should he enter the race, Romney advisers said they did not view the fund-raising situation as a sign of weakness. Rather, they emphasized the slow development of the Republican primary: Mr. Romney, like other candidates, entered the race much later this year and has kept a determinedly low profile.

?There is a lot of potential out there that hasn?t been motivated to be tapped,? said Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets and a member of Mr. Romney?s national finance team. ?I think that?s pretty common for a campaign, especially this early. People aren?t as focused. Maybe it?s the environment, maybe it?s because so many candidates are running.?

Mr. Johnson said that many of the donors he had reached out to in recent weeks were now willing to take a second look at Mr. Romney, in part because other Republican candidates, like former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and former Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, have had difficulty gaining traction in national polls.

?It clarifies the argument,? said Mr. Johnson, who supported Senator John McCain of Arizona in the race for the Republican presidential nomination four years ago. ?Competition makes you better. And I?m confident that Romney will prevail.?

Mr. Romney is not the only candidate fighting to hold on to his biggest donors: Just one-fifth of Mr. Obama?s bundlers have so far signed on to the president?s re-election campaign, reflecting both burnout and disillusionment. But Mr. Obama has been able to recruit dozens of new bundlers to replace them, while drawing in additional millions of dollars from an enormous network of small donors.

Griff Palmer and Derek Willis contributed reporting.

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The Mechanics of Blast Injuries

Scientists have discovered a mechanism underlying the type of brain injury that soldiers often suffer as a result of roadside explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work could point the way toward early treatment for these acute blast injuries by identifying potential drug targets.

Two new papers from the Disease Biophysics Group at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, led by Kevin "Kit" Parker, use tissue-engineering techniques to model the physical and biochemical effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the brain and blood vessels. Parker says the work represents a first step toward a "TBI on a chip" that could be used to screen for drugs to treat blast-injured soldiers before long-term damage sets in.

TBI induced by blasts from improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades is the most common injury among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even mild TBI is an insidious injury, because it damages the brain in ways that aren't immediately apparent and that physicians currently can do little to treat. It's commonly believed that the injury damages the brain by stretching neurons to their breaking point, ripping small holes in the cell membrane that eventually kill the cells. But Parker says his team found that it wasn't necessary to harm the membrane to induce TBI-like injuries in the cell.

Both papers focus on integrins, a type of cell-membrane protein that translates the mechanical forces of injury into internal changes in the cell. The researchers subjected cells to brief, abrupt forces. Such systems have been used in the past, but Parker's team used forces that weren't powerful enough to physically rip the cell. They found that this could cause the same kinds of structural changes in both neurons and blood vessel cells as those seen in the brains of people with TBI.

David Hovda, who directs the Brain Injury Research Center at University of California Los Angeles, says the studies will lead people who have been working on TBI to think about these injuries in a new way. He also believes that the findings could potentially apply to people with other kinds of brain injuries, although the difference between blasts and other traumas is currently controversial. However, Hovda says that like other studies on isolated cells, they may or may not really capture what's happening in the brain. "Trauma is the most complicated form of injury, and the brain is the most complicated organ," he says. He says that more studies and autopsies on wounded soldiers must be conducted to understand the effects of blasts in human brains.

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Blog - Tweets 'n' Twenties

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Posted on 8th Jul 2011 at 14:20 by Podcast with 11 comments

It's been a while since our last podcast so James, Paul, Antony and Harry had plenty to talk about when they took their seats in the studio this week.

First on the agenda was James and Paul's trip to Computex in Taiwan, where they got to see what the industry had planned for the next six months. Certain things were of particular interest to us though such as the LGA2011 boards being shown at the exhibition.

The other big slice of news that's hit since our last podcast is the launch of AMD's new desktop Lynx processors. The APUs (as AMD calls them) are potentially interesting for those looking for a low cost rig that's also capable of gaming.

Finally, we sneak in a little discussion about Intel's new 50-core maths co-processor card and attempt to answer a reader question about thermal compound.

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a brand new Corsair VX550W PSU.

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

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/EUee9PuDJKs/

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Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

Posted on 8th Jul 2011 at 14:20 by Podcast with 11 comments

It's been a while since our last podcast so James, Paul, Antony and Harry had plenty to talk about when they took their seats in the studio this week.

First on the agenda was James and Paul's trip to Computex in Taiwan, where they got to see what the industry had planned for the next six months. Certain things were of particular interest to us though such as the LGA2011 boards being shown at the exhibition.

The other big slice of news that's hit since our last podcast is the launch of AMD's new desktop Lynx processors. The APUs (as AMD calls them) are potentially interesting for those looking for a low cost rig that's also capable of gaming.

Finally, we sneak in a little discussion about Intel's new 50-core maths co-processor card and attempt to answer a reader question about thermal compound.

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a brand new Corsair VX550W PSU.

Hardware 25 - What, no Tanks?

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.

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

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/EUee9PuDJKs/

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Automakers Hope to Make Money on Used EV Batteries

At $10,000 a piece, electric-car batteries are too expensive to throw out or recycle into scrap materials. And even after a decade of use, when they can't perform well enough to meet the vehicle's demands, they could still be valuable for other uses. Nissan and GM have both recently announced ways they might make some money from them.

Many issues remain unresolved, not the least of which is whether the automakers would need to buy back the batteries from car owners, or whether dealers would simply lease the battery rather than sell it, which would allow the car company to reclaim it for secondary uses later on.

This week, GM announced a new system that came from its partnership with power electronics and automation giant ABB. The system pairs a battery designed for the Chevrolet Volt with a commercial inverter for interfacing with the power grid. The system employs five to 10 used batteries and could provide a few hours of backup power for homes or small businesses. It could also be used by utilities to help keep the electrical grid working smoothly. Meanwhile, Nissan, as part of a joint venture with the Japanese industrial company Sumitomo, recently announced a system that uses solar panels to charge up batteries. The batteries could then be used to charge electric vehicles, such as the Nissan Leaf, even at night. The system already supplies power to seven charging stations at Nissan's headquarters in Japan, and the company plans to eventually sell smaller charging systems.  

But how long the used batteries would last is still in question. The GM-ABB system is being designed to deliver 15 years of use for utilities who want backup energy storage, which can be used to smooth out fluctuations on the grid caused by the variability in power output from solar panels and wind turbines. Over the next few years, GM plans to extensively test the batteries, as well as the electronics that would connect the system to the grid. Pablo Valencia, GM senior manager for battery life-cycle management, says GM will add more battery cells than the system really needs as a way of ensuring that it can deliver adequate energy for 15 years. He thinks the system can last that long because most of the loss in energy capacity happens in the first few years, "then it levels off."

According to battery researchers, as electrodes and electrolytes age, they undergo changes in structure and chemistry that can make their performance harder to predict. That's one reason that warranties on electric-car batteries are limited to eight years. Although lab tests give researchers some idea of how long the batteries will last, no Volts have been on the road long enough to adequately test the batteries' durability.

The economic benefits of reusing the batteries aren't clear, either. Pamela Fletcher, global chief engineer for the Volt, says it's too early to say which options GM might find viable. One challenge is that since the latest EVs just went on sale, their used batteries won't be available in large numbers for eight to 10 years. If the cost of new batteries decreases significantly over that time, as expected, it will be harder for used batteries to compete. Although the used batteries will already have been paid for, there will still be costs involved: they'll have to be removed from the cars and repackaged for grid use, and automakers may also need to pay the car owners for the batteries. 

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=506a4779dd10bd3390b3d03b18588004

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The Mechanics of Blast Injuries

Scientists have discovered a mechanism underlying the type of brain injury that soldiers often suffer as a result of roadside explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The work could point the way toward early treatment for these acute blast injuries by identifying potential drug targets.

Two new papers from the Disease Biophysics Group at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, led by Kevin "Kit" Parker, use tissue-engineering techniques to model the physical and biochemical effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the brain and blood vessels. Parker says the work represents a first step toward a "TBI on a chip" that could be used to screen for drugs to treat blast-injured soldiers before long-term damage sets in.

TBI induced by blasts from improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades is the most common injury among soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even mild TBI is an insidious injury, because it damages the brain in ways that aren't immediately apparent and that physicians currently can do little to treat. It's commonly believed that the injury damages the brain by stretching neurons to their breaking point, ripping small holes in the cell membrane that eventually kill the cells. But Parker says his team found that it wasn't necessary to harm the membrane to induce TBI-like injuries in the cell.

Both papers focus on integrins, a type of cell-membrane protein that translates the mechanical forces of injury into internal changes in the cell. The researchers subjected cells to brief, abrupt forces. Such systems have been used in the past, but Parker's team used forces that weren't powerful enough to physically rip the cell. They found that this could cause the same kinds of structural changes in both neurons and blood vessel cells as those seen in the brains of people with TBI.

David Hovda, who directs the Brain Injury Research Center at University of California Los Angeles, says the studies will lead people who have been working on TBI to think about these injuries in a new way. He also believes that the findings could potentially apply to people with other kinds of brain injuries, although the difference between blasts and other traumas is currently controversial. However, Hovda says that like other studies on isolated cells, they may or may not really capture what's happening in the brain. "Trauma is the most complicated form of injury, and the brain is the most complicated organ," he says. He says that more studies and autopsies on wounded soldiers must be conducted to understand the effects of blasts in human brains.

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Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=443c1fd06ddadb9a0dcd05ce8c615aef

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