hash – Page 16 – Tech Today w/ Ken May

PSA: Classic Bethesda titles available DRM-free on GOG

Bethesda Softworks is mining its library of good, old games and offering many of them up without any digital protections on GOG starting today. Eleven titles from the venerable Doom , Quake , Fallout , and Elder Scrolls series are now available on the service, and are being offered at discounts if you buy them in bundles before September 2. Here are the details. The Elder Scrolls Bundle : 33% off if purchased together Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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PSA: Classic Bethesda titles available DRM-free on GOG

Intel introduces its smallest socketed form factor yet: the 5×5

If you think mini-ITX is too big but don’t like the soldered down processor of the Intel NUC , the chip giant has come up with a new form factor that splits the difference: 5×5. Measuring, er, 5.5 inches by 5.8 inches (compared to the 4.5″×4.4″ of the NUC, and the 6.7″×6.7″ of mini-ITX), the new offering in many ways slides directly in between the form factors that bookend it. Like mini-ITX, it has an LGA socket compatible with Intel’s Core-branded processors. But like the NUC, it uses SODIMM memory, M.2 drives , and an external power supply. It also sacrifices mini-ITX’s PCIe slot. 2.5″ SATA drives are also an option, though they will increase the system height a little. So while the 5×5 leans much closer to the NUC spec list than the mini-ITX one, that processor and socket make a world of difference. The NUC processors top out at 28W for the Broadwell Core i7-5557U. Even that’s something of an outlier; every other current generation NUC uses a 15W or 6W chip. The 5×5, however, will have two thermal targets: 35W and 65W. Though 65W systems will be a little taller to accommodate a larger heatsink, support for any Intel Core processor with a TDP up to 65W makes the system a lot more versatile. For example, the Broadwell Core i7-5775C is a 65W part. This powerhouse chip includes 128MB of eDRAM, and as a result it’s surprisingly credible at gaming. This is a chip that can play Bioshock Infinite at 1920×1080 in high quality at 30 fps, Tomb Raider in low quality at 64 fps, and Dirt Showdown in medium quality at 46 fps. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Intel introduces its smallest socketed form factor yet: the 5×5

Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years

While Comcast has started deploying 2Gbps fiber-to-the-home service to certain parts of its territory, much of its network is going to be stuck on cable for years to come. But customers outside the fiber footprint will still be able to buy gigabit Internet service after Comcast upgrades to DOCSIS 3.1, a faster version of the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification. Comcast said in April that DOCSIS 3.1 will be available to some of its customers in early 2016 and eventually across its whole US footprint. Last week, Comcast said it wants to complete the whole upgrade within two years. “Our intent is to scale it through our footprint through 2016,” Comcast VP of network architecture Robert Howald said in an interview with FierceCable . “We want to get it across the footprint very quickly… We’re shooting for two years.” It could take up to three years, the story said. Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Comcast planning gigabit cable for entire US territory in 2-3 years

Windows 10 won’t run games with SecuROM DRM, says Microsoft

While Windows 10 is largely good news for gamers , it turns out that those with a collection of older games laden with DRM copy protection software are going to have a hard time getting them up and running on the new OS. In an interview with Rocket Beans TV (as translated by Rock, Paper, Shotgun ) at this year’s Gamescom, Microsoft’s Boris Schneider-Johne explained that that Windows 10 won’t be able to run games that use SafeDisc and SecuROM technology. “Everything that ran in Windows 7 should also run in Windows 10,” said Johne, “There are just two silly exceptions: antivirus software, and stuff that’s deeply embedded into the system needs updating—but the developers are on it already—and then there are old games on CD-ROM that have DRM. This DRM stuff is also deeply embedded in your system, and that’s where Windows 10 says, ‘Sorry, we cannot allow that, because that would be a possible loophole for computer viruses.’ That’s why there are a couple of games from 2003-2008 with SecuROM, etc. that simply don’t run without a no-CD patch or some such.” This isn’t a bad thing for most people, though. While SafeDisc has hit the headlines before thanks to security issues in Windows— introducing access vulnerabilities into the OS , for example—it’s SecuROM that is the most famous, and the most hated of all DRM software. Developed by Sony DADC, SecuROM took a heavy-handed approach to DRM, limiting the number of installs and activations end-users had access to, as well as requiring users to check in online to keep the game running. SecuROM even counted certain hardware changes as a change of computer, forcing another activation. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Windows 10 won’t run games with SecuROM DRM, says Microsoft

People in rough neighborhoods trade HIV meds instead of taking them

The social environment of an area, including factors such as poverty, stress, and living conditions, contributes to the disease burden. A recent study published in AJPH shows that patients from a disordered environment don’t stick to their medication schedule, even for a potentially lethal condition like HIV. As the researchers found, residents of highly disordered neighborhoods will sell or trade their antiviral medication rather than taking it and adhering to their drug plans. Poverty, a condition often associated with specific geographic regions or neighborhoods, is linked to many poor health outcomes. People living in poverty often lack access to nutritious food, good healthcare, strong social support, and other structural advantages that can ensure better health. Neighborhood disorder theory focuses on the role of economic disadvantage as a driver of adverse health outcomes among residents of poor neighborhoods. In previous studies, neighborhood disorder has been linked to increased HIV risk-taking behavior, which helps explain why HIV infections tend to cluster in areas with higher poverty and other forms of risk taking. For this study, researchers interviewed 503 socioeconomically disadvantaged HIV-positive substance users, approximately half of whom were selling or trading their antiviral medication to other HIV positive individuals who didn’t have access to regular antiviral medication. Participants were from neighborhoods in urban Miami that have high and persistent levels of both HIV infections and poverty. Additionally, environmental risk factors were examined for these neighborhoods, such as prevalence of HIV and poverty levels. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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People in rough neighborhoods trade HIV meds instead of taking them

My browser visited Drudgereport and all I got was this lousy malware

Millions of people visiting drudgereport.com, wunderground.com, and other popular websites were exposed to attacks that can surreptitiously hijack their computers, thanks to maliciously manipulated ads that exploit vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and other browsing software, researchers said. The malvertising campaign worked by inserting malicious code into ads distributed by AdSpirit.de, a network that delivers ads to Drudge, Wunderground, and other third-party websites, according to a post published Thursday by researchers from security firm Malwarebytes. The ads, in turn, exploited security vulnerabilities in widely used browsers and browser plugins that install malware on end-user computers. The criminals behind the campaign previously carried out a similar attack on Yahoo’s ad network , exposing millions more people to the same drive-by attacks. Malvertising is a particularly pernicious form of attack because it can infect people who do nothing more than browse to a mainstream site. Depending on the exploit, it can silently hijack computers even when visitors don’t click on links. Some browser makers have responded by implementing so-called click-to-play mechanisms that don’t render Flash or Java content unless the end user actively permits the plugin to run on a particular site. Some users have resorted to ad blockers, which have the unfortunate side effect of depriving publishers of much-needed advertising revenue. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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My browser visited Drudgereport and all I got was this lousy malware

Facebook user gets away with nearly a full day of trolling Target commenters

Mike Melgaard 9 more images in gallery While Facebook facilitates plenty of interaction between big companies and their customers, its interface doesn’t scale incredibly well once company-page comments creep into the hundreds (or more) per day. In particular, “comments by users” on a company page are relegated to a sidebar that is pretty hard to parse. On Sunday, one intrepid Facebook user took advantage of that to sneak onto a company page and mess with commenters before the company could get wise to it—and lucky for us, he screencapped the whole thing. This week’s case came from American retailer Target, whose Facebook feed began to blow up with unhappy comments over the weekend after the company announced plans to remove gender-specific signs in departments such as Toys and Entertainment. The retailer didn’t get around to individually responding to commenters, but that didn’t stop a user from creating a new account on Sunday, giving it a Target-styled bullseye icon and pretending to be an official company spokesperson. That user, Scottsdale, Arizona, resident Mike Melgaard , went on to respond to at least 52 negative comments left on Target’s official Facebook page with an account named “Ask ForHelp,” but rarely were his responses helpful . Melgaard heaped on sarcastic smiley faces, grammatical criticisms, and jokes about doing away with all gender-specific labels at the store (including bathrooms and changing rooms). It’s hard to pick a favorite among the jokes—we’ve posted a few of its safe-for-work screencaps above—but our favorite might be when he got into a multiple-comment conversation with one complainer, which he ended with a phony exclamation that it was his “first day, and this is just really frustrating dealing with all of this!” Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Facebook user gets away with nearly a full day of trolling Target commenters

Xbox streaming on Windows 10 has a hidden “very high quality” setting

In reviewing Windows 10’s new “Streaming from Xbox 10” feature , Ars’ Sam Machkovech complained that “streamed Xbox One games look significantly worse through Windows 10, even at the highest-quality setting.” Apparently, though, Sam wasn’t actually testing the “highest quality” setting available in the streaming app. That’s because there’s a newly uncovered “very high quality” option that can be unlocked by tinkering with some of the Xbox app’s configuration files. Reddit user OomaThurman has publicized the method for unlocking this hidden quality setting, which involves editing the “userconsoledata” file in your Xbox app folder. You can activate the new higher-quality setting by setting the “IsInternalPreview” flag from “false” to “true,” a naming convention that strongly suggests this feature is part of an early test that will be formally rolled out to all Windows 10 users in the future. We’ll be trying out this hidden feature for ourselves soon, but the folks at Digital Foundry already found a marked jump in quality when using the “very high” setting, saying it “appears to transmit full 1080p imagery.” Comparison shots published by Digital Foundry show a noticeable increase in sharpness of details like faces, hair, and edges, which are much closer to the “source” image with the new setting. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive

At the Flash Memory Summit in California, Samsung has unveiled what appears to be the world’s largest hard drive—and somewhat surprisingly, it uses NAND flash chips rather than spinning platters. The rather boringly named PM1633a, which is being targeted at the enterprise market, manages to cram almost 16 terabytes into a 2.5-inch SSD package. By comparison, the largest conventional hard drives made by Seagate and Western Digital currently max out at 8 or 10TB. The secret sauce behind Samsung’s 16TB SSD is the company’s new 256Gbit (32GB) NAND flash die , twice the capacity of 128Gbit NAND dies that were commercialised last year by various chip makers. To reach such astonishing capacities, Samsung has managed to cram 48 layers of 3-bits-per-cell (TLC) 3D V-NAND into a single die. This is up from 24 layers in 2013, and then 36 layers in 2014. A diagram that goes some way to explaining what 3D NAND is. Historically, like most computer chips, NAND flash has been planar—that is, the functional structures on the chip are (for the most part), laid down on a single two-dimensional plane. In a similar way to how logic chips are moving towards 3D transistors ( FinFETs ), Samsung (and more recently Toshiba and Intel) has been forging ahead with 3D NAND . Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Samsung unveils 2.5-inch 16TB SSD: The world’s largest hard drive

Snapdragon 820 is official: A look at its GPU (and how much the chip matters)

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 and 808 will continue to be its flagship chips for the rest of this year, but, as we’ve written, the 810 in particular has been problematic for the company. It had a gift for generating both heat and bad press , and, while the Snapdragon 808 didn’t suffer from the same problems, it was less of an improvement over older 800-series chips. As this has been happening on the technical side, things have been looking less rosy on the financial side. Qualcomm’s outlook for Q4 of 2015 ( PDF ) sums it up nicely: there’s “increased concentration” at the high end of the market, pushing out phones that use Snapdragon SoCs (the huge worldwide success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus can be at least partially blamed); “lower demand” for high-end Snapdragons from one of Qualcomm’s major customers (read: Samsung, which is using its own chips in high-end Galaxy phones); and lowered sales of “certain handset models” in China using high-end Snapdragons. Some of this could be attributed to the 810 specifically, but a lot of it would be happening no matter how good the chip was. Most of the money in consumer electronics is in high-end, high-margin products, but Apple controls an overwhelming amount of that market , and the company only uses Qualcomm’s modems, not the (presumably more expensive and profitable) Snapdragon SoCs. The wider smartphone market continues to grow, but companies like Xiaomi and Motorola are willing to sell to good-to-great phones for one-third to one-half of what you’d pay for a flagship, and those phones often use lower-end, less-profitable Qualcomm SoCs or chips from an upstart like MediaTek or a newly competitive Intel. Read 15 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Snapdragon 820 is official: A look at its GPU (and how much the chip matters)