I havn’t posted a fanboyish post about AMD in awhile and, to be honest, miss it a little. So here is another post about the greatest company in the whole wide world$!!!!!!!!! Their stock is at a new low of $4.21/ share. If i had a million bucks right now I would go invest in them, but I dont have that kind of pocketchange lying around, sorry AMD. They recently also got a new CEO and finally got rid of Hector Ruiz. That guy hasnt bee doing much good for AMD recently, kudos to AMD for getting rid of him. aPple (<- lowercase first letter to deote disrespect for them) is rumored to be ignoring intel centrino motevina chipsets. Normally I would not give any attention to apple since..they are the spawn of satan. But i hate intel more, so even if they switched to nvidia chipsets id be plenty happy. Also in other news. TSMC (a TAIWANESE COMPANY W00t) is developing 40nm and 45nm production simultaneously, and will be ready by 09!!!! This is a major leap forward for GPU, as it represents the first time that GPU will be produced at a smaller node than CPUs. (cite: TomsHardwareGuide). Intel will still be using 45nm for awhile. TSMC is the foundry that ATi
and nvidia both have contracted to produce their gpu chips. This also means that GPU performance is starting to be more important than CPU performance (w00t AMD/ATi merger, and a bit to hector). In addition, AMD’s Shrike mobile platform will debut next year, I can not wait for it!! Amd still has not decided to build their NewYork fabrication facility. They have 1 more year to decide or the 1.x billion USD in funding will be off…..
DIE YOUR MONOPOLISTIC BASTARD!! DIE
….the table. AMD must focus their resources on certain products now more than ever because of their debt. I hope this new ceo, Dirk Meyer (isit?), will be able to make AMD turn around into profitability again. Good luck.!
Hey guys, today’s review come courtesy from my friend guneden! Look forward to more of his posts in the future!
Soul Calibur 4 (PS3 version) review
by Guneden (Gun-Eden)
Soooo…after playing like 4 hours of this game i gotta say its “not as good as it could’ve been”. The first thing i noticed was the use of in-game graphics for the opening, which is not quite what i expected, as the in-game graphics arnt superb considering it IS ps3….plus its extremely short, showing random people that have nothing to do with each other whatsoever facing off against each other (darth vader meeting Mitsurugi in the middle of a volcano area? (What the heck?) If u guys are wondering…NO lightsabers cannot chop through katanas in this game just cause bandai namco says so. Anyways i proceeded with story mode (not like theres any story to begin with and its so made-up complicated anyways) and found instead of the 9-stage somewhat coherent story we get in SC3, it has been chopped to 5 consecutive battles with a little cutscene at the end. Not that im complaining, cause who cares about the SC storyline anyways? (if you’re interested i’ll just sum it up to “everyone beats the crap out of either knightmare, Algol, or Siegfried and gets the soul edge/calibur”)
Unfortunately for me, they have taken away the long strategy rpg thing from SC3 and replaced it with a survival tower of sorts, with the option of ascending or descending.
At the behest of a friend, I will update the blog with a post. Since i have no real motivation on what to blog about,
mine doesnt have the ultra branding
I’ll simply review my laptop.
The HP TX2524CA is a tablet pc featuring AMD’s Puma Platform (I believe).
Specs:
2.0Ghz Turion X2 Rm-70 Processor 65nm
Integrated HD3200 Graphics Processor
4GB Ram
320Gb HDD
12.1″ Wacom Penabled Touch screen
Windows Vista Home Premium
Lightscribe DVD Drive
Built in 2mp webcam.
8 in 1 card reader.
Altec Lansing Speakers
For a laptop which costed me $1100CAD, I think these specs are pretty decent. I realize I could have purchased it elsewhere, but the inconveniences did not warrant the money savings. To keep this post short, i will only point out what this laptop is good at, and bad at.
Cons:
Warm!! On my custom power savings mode (5-10% MAX CPU power consumption) The laptop is still about 40c. On HP recommended i find its around 55-65c. On High performance its around 60-90c depending on what your doing. Gaming on high performance takes the laptop to 89c !! I bought a few laptop cooling pads which i am trying out.
Processor is not the fastest thing in the world. It is not by any means a SLOW processor, it is just that things could go faster with intel parts or simply Turion X2 Ultra. (Which costs about another 200$ extra)
The Wifi adapter is too new. Altough not really a con, i simply cannot use Linux Distro Backtrack 3 because it does not yet support draft-n chipsets. This is preventing me from attempting to crack a WEP AP.
Windows Vista Home premium. This OS is such a resource hog. On my personal ULTRA power saver mode (10% CPU power conumption MAX) it takes up 25% cpu just idling. On High performance, it takes 10%CPU at idle.
Battery life is not the greatest either. Max battery life on my custom super slow web browsing and chatting only mode is about 2hrs.
Pros
Penabled Wacom Touchscreen is awesome. The touchscreen kicks the crap out of the synaptics touchpad. It is super convenient to use when a mouse isnt available.
The Turion X2 processor is plenty capable. 1080p decoding is a breeze and Photoshop CS3 are all easily done on HP recommended power mode. When I dock it with my cooling pad, I run it on high performance and its just fantastic. I also simply love the Turion Sticker (which just smashes the shitass centrino sticker). You may argue that the C2Ds are faster but simply put, I.Dont.Care. The Turion X2 is fast enough for photo editing and gaming and thats good enough for me.
HD Decoding with the integrated ATi HD3200 is great. It also handles Vista Aero perfectly with 0 lag, unlike its predecessor.
Fantastic Wifi adapter. I have only compared this laptop with my Aunt’s Macbook Pro, and my wifi adapter is simply better. At the same place, I can get a wifi signal and logon while my Aunt’s macbook pro cant. The Draft-N support is also a nice touch. (i know im contradicting myself with the above stated con)
Very portable. At 12.1″, this tablet is incredibly portable. I have held it and used it in slate mode for 1.5hrs and have had no problems with it at all.
The 4gb ram is awesome. Photoshop CS3 runs like a charm. 320gb Hdd is a great amount of room for a laptop of this size.
The build of this laptop feels sturdy to me. The design is also very nice and sleek, although it gathers quite a bit of fingerprints.
Conclusion:
Performance 7/10 – To be honest, the processor is not lightning fast. I can live with it though.
Visual Computing 9/10 – I absolutely love the Smooth HD decoding capability and 3d gaming capabilities.
Portability 8/10 – It is a bit heavy compared to other tablets, but thats also what i like about it.
Other Hardware 9/10 – The standard 4gb ram and 320gb HDD is just fantastic.
Overall 8.3/10
Any who that concludes the review of this laptop. Anyone else wanna review their laptops? Be honest.
So… Soul Calibur 4 has been released today. Having owned Soul Calibur 2 and 3 (not the first games; my gaming history is not that long), I’ve come to know and love the characters and gameplay of this franchise. I’ve played some other fighting games such as Tekken, Dead or Alive, and Virtua Fighter, but none come close to Soul Calibur in my opinion (Tekken = PS3 Exclusive; DoA = frustrating; VF = wtf complicated). Although the newest iteration of Soul Calibur is packed with goodies, the most surprising upgrades I’ve noticed are the characters themselves – especially the females. Ivy Valentine, for example, is the notorious chain-whip-wielding character whose top-heavy figure would put a porn star to shame. That was in Soul Calibur 2 and 3. Now, Namco (the developer) has decided that her chest was too small and ballooned the size of her D-cups to a… well, I don’t know bra sizes too well but they’re pretty damn big. The same goes for other characters Taki, Setsuka, etc. who have also undergone miraculous transformations – since when did plastic surgeons exist hundreds of years ago?
Personally, I don’t mind a few tweaks here and there, but these boob jobs seem a little impractical given how much these characters move and jump around (extreme breast physics?) but in the end, we all know that sex sells. I still haven’t played the new game however, so my opinion on this matter may change later on
Randy Pausch died yesterday, finally succumbing to his terminal pancreatic cancer peacefully in his own home. For those who do not know him, he was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He helped bridge the departments of computer science and arts, bringing the age of virual realities and designs that we see today. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2006. After he was diagnosed, he gave his famous “last” lecture, a very motivating and enlightening speech about all facets of life. Even if you arn’t interested in computer science, I encourage everyone to listen to him and hopefully take something significant away from it.
The Florida-based company Psystar challenged the might of Apple back in April by offering “Mac Clones” (as well as some “Clone” Mac servers), which were basically custom-built PCs preloaded with Mac OS X. Despite being in direct violation of Apple’s End User License Agreement, the company went forward with its operations; Psystar was even willing to face Apple in court if necessary, stating that Apple’s terms themselves are a violation of US monopoly laws. Their $399 basic Open Computer consists of a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics, 2GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB 7200RPM drive, four USB ports and a 20x DVD+/-R Drive – Leopard will cost an additional $155. Authentic Macs are easily twice the price so this was quite appealing to customers as a much more cost-effective way to own a Mac. Unsurprisingly, Apple has sued Psystar last week for copyright infringement, and violation of Apple’s licenses and trademarks as well as demanding a recall of all Open Computers sold. While I agree that Apple’s way of restricting their OS to Macs is a little unfair, it would be stupid for anyone, much less a company, to directly violate their EULA – especially with a ‘bring-it-on’ attitude. I respect their efforts (take that, Apple!), but Psystar was digging its own grave right from beginning.
As of date, the Psystar headquarters has gone up for sale, while the company has remained tight-lipped about the whole situation.
This one is about Americans, it is pretty funny but i wouldnt call it hysterical. This one is about wearing a pantyhose over your head as a fashion statement This one is about society and how people are so afraid of making disabled people feel prejudiced even when its perfectly reasonable . This one is about terrorist response in Australia, they dress up as a cliched “terrorist” and then as an american tourist. Look at the difference in response
Actually more like 15 minutes in photoshop, but heres a quick teaser of the graphical work I have in store for the blog. As you can see it’s a shoddy job as my scanner is no where near good quality and I basically just went gradient happy in CS3. But if you squint it kinda looks nice!! Anyways I’m slowly getting used to the small differences between cs3 and cs2 so expect WAY better quality as I relearn how to do shadowing, multiple layering, and filters.
…till I become 18. It got me thinking, what can I do in a few hours that I can’t do now? Well, I can vote – but I don’t recall there being an election of any sort anytime soon; I can gamble (whoopie -_-); I can enter those 18-or-older contests – none of which seemed unsuitable for minors; I can also watch porn (o rly?); I can get my own credit card (don’t want to deal with the fucking ridiculous interest rates yet). I’m still one year away from the legal drinking age, have yet to attain at least a Novice Driver’s License, and on the brink of entering the apparently difficult first year of university…it’s not that amazing if you ask me. So I ask you, what else is there to do? Comments plz.
