GeekwithEnvy

Computers

Blizzard Pushes Out Battle.net Desktop App Beta

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BlizzardDesktopApp
(Screenshot Source: GWE)

We recently got a hold of Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net Desktop App Beta. The app is set to replace the “launcher” which came separately with each Blizzard title. The desktop app will keep each Blizzard title up-to-date, allow you to add game-time, and will also offer a place to catch up on the latest Blizzard news. The app has a nice clean look and will be much better then having separate software for each game.

In order to be eligible for beta software from Blizzard, you must opt-in through your battle.net account.

Apple Developer Center Slowly Back Online

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Apple Dev Progress

It’s been over a week now since Apple’s Developer Center has gone offline. This is all thanks to an intruder that hacked his way into the developer center last Thursday. Apple has since promised to completely rebuild everything and to slowly bring things back online. They have created an status page that shows the progress of their developer system and as of today, about half of it has come back online.

Here’s the actual statement that was sent out to developers via email.

Last Thursday, an intruder attempted to secure personal information of our registered developers from our developer website. Sensitive personal information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, however, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some developers’ names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed. In the spirit of transparency, we want to inform you of the issue. We took the site down immediately on Thursday and have been working around the clock since then.

In order to prevent a security threat like this from happening again, we’re completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database. We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon.

 

 

AMD Does 5 GHz

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AMDFXLogo

Using eight cores built on AMD’s Piledriver architecture, the FX-9590 is the world’s first processor to reach 5GHz that will be available to consumers from a chipmaker.  The 5GHz barrier has been broken before in labs and basements where extreme cooling techniques were applied to CPUs but not in a boxed chip thats available to the public.

The FX 9590’s frequency will range between 4.7 to 5GHz and will utilize AMD’s AM3+ socket. The processor will be built on a new 32 nanometer die and have 8MB of L2 and L3 cache. The chips power consumption is considerable at 220W but that’s to be expected with a chip like this, especially early on. AMD has always had great pride in producing a lot of bang with a small amount of power and it’s my guess that power consumption will likely get better. It’s also important to note that AMD’s power management will likely keep the CPU “Cool n’ Quiet” when there isn’t a large demand for power from the system.

The new chip isn’t cheap as it will cost you around $900 to pick up and although early benchmarks indicate that the performance is solid, it may not be the ultimate processor we are looking for AMD to release. Still, 5GHz is impressive and well, awesome.

How To Securely Wipe a Flash Drive

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Road Kils Disk Wipe ScreenShot
Screenshot of Road Kils Disk Wipe

Sometimes we just want to make sure that our data is wiped clean, not just deleted, but completely wiped out. There are many great ways to do this for hard-disk drives which we have covered earlier, but what about flash drives like USB sticks? Flash memory is not usually covered by software applications that securely erase hard-disk drives.

There is a great application out there that will get the job done and that’s Roadkil’s DiskWipe. The app is available for almost all Windows versions. Windows 9x/ME, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, Windows XP, Vista,Windows 7, and Windows 8.

  • Once you download and extract everything, go ahead and run the program as administrator.
  • Next, select the drive you want to securely erase and choose then choose method you want to use. This application offers up two classic ways of wiping out data, the first is to fill the drive with zeros (zero-out), the second method is will just enter random data.
  • Once you have chosen your wipeout method, input the number of passes. The higher you go in passes, the harder it is to retrieve the old data your trying to protect.
  • Click Erase.

After the process is complete, your ready to go and the drive is ready for new data. Remember, that depending on the size of the drive it could take a while to perform a wipe. The number of passes will also determine erase time as well as the speed at which the drive operates. (usb 2.0,usb 3.0 )

 

Best Buy Does iPad Trade in Deal

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iPad4

You still have one day left (7-13-13) to head to Best Buy where they are offering $200 or more in trade-in value when you trade in your iPad 2 or 3rd generation iPad.  You can opt to receive the trade-in on a gift card or use it to buy a 4th generation iPad.If your tablet is in really good condition you can get even more money.

I would check online pricing for your iPad on Amazon and eBay just to be sure you’re getting your maximum value. You should also take the connivence of getting your cash immediately into consideration as well.

It’s likely that BestBuy is trying to clear out some of it’s inventory ahead of the release of the anticipated iPad 5 this fall.