Introversion Complete Pack

Great games at a great price.

Darwinia
Darwinia Soundtrack
DEFCON
DEFCON Soundtrack
Multiwinia
Uplink
£4.79http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4603

United Nations Space Command helping in Syria

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-28-bbc-news-mistakes-halo-unsc-logo-for-un

Skyrim gets mounted combat in new update

 • News • Eurogamer.net http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-24-skyrim-gets-mounted-combat-in-new-update

Would an Apple TV kill the console business?

Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-18-would-an-apple-tv-kill-the-console-business

IT'S ALIIIVE

so I've finally completed my home setup (for the time being).

Is Facebook about to buy Opera?

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/45795/facebook-browser-opera-software-buyout

Intel creates a UK research lab with Imperial College and UCL - The Inquirer

Intel creates a UK research lab with Imperial College and UCL - The Inquirer

SkyHD | Dolby Digital sound problems

I didn't realise that the audio description features causes issues. I was wondering why mine wasn't working properly.

SkyHD | Dolby Digital sound problems

New gadgets! Onkyo TX-NR616 & Wharfedale DX-1

Just finished wiring these up yesterday and they are simply awesome for the price! 

Wharfedale-DX-1

Onkyo TX-NR616

Edit: After about two years of use these are still amazing. Living in flats, the sub has mostly been on the lowest setting but even on this it has a decent punch to it. Blu-ray movies via my dedicated Panasion player sound simply amazing. 

The speakers come with black grills but to be honest I couldn't stick them on as these speakers are just so good looking without! 

Onkyo Firmware Update TX-NR616 (18-05-2012)

TX-NR616
(Version 1070-5105-0200)

• Corrects problem of video output not working after unit has had the Network standby enabled, then the unit has been placed in standby for an extended time period;
• Improves update functionality.

http://www.uk.onkyo.com/en/articles/firmware-update-tx-nr616-18-05-2012-81061.html

Game Of Thrones Theme on eight floppy drives

I didn't quite know what to expect when I clicked on the link but this scores some major geek points in my book:

Milestone for wi-fi with 'T-rays'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18072618

Retirement of CCIP Certification - The Cisco Learning Network

Retirement of CCIP Certification - The Cisco Learning Network

ROUND 1 : ADSL Nation XTE-2005 Vs BT I Plate

Sync speeds on the Sky Sagem phase 3 router before the I Plate:

Sync speed with the I Plate installed:

Line stats:

Take note for the noise margins (SNR margin's) and the Downstream line attenuation. 

Picture of the I Plate installed with a microfilter attached to the faceplate and a Sky TV splitter on the phone side of the microfilter.  

So there we have it, a very slight increase on what was already a good ADSL2+ line to start with.I was advised that the DLM had increased the impulse noise protection (to 2 symbols) and delay to 16ms as there was small amounts of errors passing on the line during certain times of the day. High sync speeds are great but not if the data passing on the line is unreadable by your router.

As the I Plate has a RF3 filter in I am retesting to see how this effects the line over 4-10 days. I've noticed with Sky that my SNR margins are always kept relatively low which would suggest pushing the line for a high sync speed.

It would be nice to get the line down to 8ms on the delay (interleaving!) and INP down to 1 symbol but only if the line behaves. This would make the line even better for gaming, which is already pretty amazing on this connection compared to my old Talk Talk Business (formerly Freedom2Surf) line which I had a lot of love for. That was a long line with an attenuation of around 47dB so you needed the INP / interleaving on that line more so.

You hear a lot of gamers saying that fastpath is the best approach but it almost never is these days. For gaming, if you lose any data passing on the line, the game either has to guess what is happening or re-request the data from the server which is another round trip instead of a shorter 'save' time made by the INP / delay.

AnandTech - A First Look at Thunderbolt on Windows with MSI's Z77A-GD80

AnandTech - A First Look at Thunderbolt on Windows with MSI's Z77A-GD80

Microsoft backs Hybrid Memory Cube tech

Microsoft backs Hybrid Memory Cube tech - from Bit-tech

Mod Gods - More Of The Best PC Mods Ever

This is what the 'old' bit-tech used to be all about. I love the ORAC design and remember it also having an awesome project log. Mod Gods - More Of The Best PC Mods Ever

ADSL Nation XTE-2005 Vs BT OpenReach I Plate

I've just had these in the post but will be testing these [See pic] over the next few days on my home connection.

Nokia Lumia 900 review - The Inquirer

I really like the new Windows Phone 7 OS. Pricing compared to an iPhone is good and it's probably more stylish if you ask me with better games (Xbox live support) Nokia Lumia 900 review - The Inquirer

MIPS launches Aptiv to challenge ARM - The Inquirer

MIPS launches Aptiv to challenge ARM - The Inquirer

McAfee launches upgraded network security product - The Inquirer

McAfee launches upgraded network security product - The Inquirer

Project Sputnik: Dell's Ubuntu-based XPS13 laptop for developers

Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/08/project-sputnik-dell-ubuntu-developers/

AVG on Ubuntu!

Huh, I didn't know AVG had a version out for ubuntu!

See link

Electronic Arts Attending Ubuntu Developer Summit

Looks like EA are starting to take note of the linux market. Looks like the old OpenGL Vs Direct X (3D) battle might be on for another spot light face-off.

Article (OMG UBuntu):  here

AnandTech - The Samsung Galaxy S III Preview

AnandTech - The Samsung Galaxy S III Preview

Cisco Visio Stencils

Here you can find a collection of Cisco produced stencils for your MS Visio diagrams.

New Sky EPG 2012 – Should you let your customers loose on your betas?

New Sky EPG 2012 – Should you let your customers loose on your betas?

High Court orders ISPs to block The Pirate Bay

High Court orders ISPs to block The Pirate Bay

Next week: The government solves unemployment and crime by having a police office escort every citizen about their day to day lives in order to prevent them from commenting crimes...

Total waste of time really as uses who have gone out of there way won't mind looking into VPN's and proxies to get around this.

Recently I've really stopped buying all first hand movies

Google Developers Blog: SPDY performance on mobile networks

Google Developers Blog: SPDY performance on mobile networks: Michael Ben Matt By Matt Welsh, Ben Greenstein, and Michael Piatek, Mobile Web Performance Team SPDY is a replacement for HTTP, ...

AnandTech - NVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 690: Dual GK104 Flagship Launching May 3rd

AnandTech - NVIDIA Unveils GeForce GTX 690: Dual GK104 Flagship Launching May 3rd

Hardware Acceleration Support for HD2 ICS Roms

I don't have one any more but this was an awesome phone and so fun to play around with multiple OS's on. 

XDA Developers:  http://www.xda-developers.com/android/hardware-acceleration-support-for-hd2-ics-roms/

Internet speeds drop around the world according to Akamai, adoption rate up

Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/30/internet-speeds-drop-around-the-world/