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Windows XP Users, It’s Time To Move On

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Windows XP has stood the test of time quite well and has remained one of the most popular versions of Windows for over a decade. Many personal users and businesses are still using Windows XP right now, but that needs to change, and soon.

Why? Microsoft will be killing ALL support for XP on April 8th 2014. How does that affect you? The main reason is security or lack thereof. If Microsoft isn’t providing routine security patches to the operating system then it can quickly become vulnerable to attack. There’s no doubt that once the deadline passes, Windows XP will likely become a breeding ground for malicious code like viruses and spyware since XP will basically have a target on it’s back for not having official support. For this reason alone it’s worth it to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 and unfortunately for some users that may mean buying a new PC.

Of course there are other reasons to upgrade as well including driver support, live technical support from Microsoft, newer applications that won’t run on XP, website compatibility,  and not to mention the fact that a newer PC running Windows 7 or 8 will likely be many times faster. Although Windows 8 got off to a rocky start because of criticism over it’s user interface design, it’s probably one of Microsoft’s fastest versions of Windows.

So don’t wait till after the deadline to make your changes, start the upgrade now or at least put together a game plan, especially if you’re a business.

Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend

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Leonids

The Leonid meteor shower is an annual mid-November event and will be peaking this weekend November 16 and 17. Unfortunately at the same time, there will be a full moon which will flood the sky with light and lessen the chances of seeing most of the shower, and this year is expected to have low activity, only about 10 to 20 meteors per hour, if that.  For best viewing chances, the “traditional” times are midnight to dawn. This year, it’s being said that 5am ET Sunday will be the peak time to check it out.

Leonids get their name from the constellation Leo and are associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. When the comet passes the solar system every 33.3 years, and gets closest to the sun, it leaves a trail of debris behind. The Earth then comes in contact with that debris, which creates the meteor shower.

 

Awesome Paper Art by Alia Design

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Alia is an artist who creates amazing things with paper. The art is called quilling. Quilling is a craft that involves cutting paper into strips and shaping the pieces into arcs, curves, and coils. Those shapes are then glued into place by hand to make these beautiful designs.

Both the subject matter and style of my work are a departure from traditional quilling. All of my pieces focus on geek culture, employing unique techniques and design elements I developed myself. Though my personal choice of theme falls into the geek realm, I love collaborating to do custom orders of any subject matter! -Alia

Alia sells her artwork on her Etsy page, check it out to buy one of these or a custom order. AliaDesign

Teardown of the Playstation 4 (Video)

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This video is of Sony engineering director Yasuhiro Ootori tearing down the Playstation 4. Ootori leaves out no details as he takes the PS4 down to it’s motherboard and reveals the true guts of the system. The Playstation 4 was designed with the game programmers in-mind, that’s been the mission of the PS4 from the very beginning.

Even though the Playstation 3 was extremely powerful during it’s release, it was notoriously difficult to create games for, and that’s a problem since great games are what really make a console shine. The hardware capabilities of the Playstation have a lot of promise, especially with the inclusion of GDDR5, and it’s likely that we won’t see games utilizing the full power of the system until a few years from now but there’s still plenty to be excited about right now as trailers for some pretty rad PS4 exclusives begin to hit the web.

Thanks to WIRED for the video.