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Cubemen 2 on the Way to Wii U

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An outstanding indie-game, Cubemen 2, is going to be making it’s way to the Wii U. The game is already available for PC, Linux, Mac and iOS and has be very successful. You can battle against up to six (6) others, regardless of platform, or against the AI in a RTS style action game that includes many modes like capture the flag and skirmish.

The game boasts over 4000 user created levels that you can download and play or even create your own. In Cubemen 2 you can also personalize your units the way you want for a truly customized experience. This will be a great addition to the Wii U which is a solid piece of hardware in need of great software titles like this.

“I’m really proud to be able to announce this,” said Nic Watt, Creative Director at Nnooo. “We’ve spent the last few months working with both Nintendo and 3 Sprockets, the game’s developer, to make this a reality. Cubemen 2 is an amazing game and a great fit for Nintendo players. We can’t wait to see how creative they are, whether in tactical multiplayer online or in the new levels they build.”

Cubemen 2 is expected to be released late 2013 / early 2014 as a downloadable title on the Wii U in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Price to be announced.

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How To Straighten Bent Pins on a CPU

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Computer processor (CPU)

So you’ve somehow managed to bend the pins on your CPU, don’t freak out! There are few things you can do to try to fix this.

Yes, in my early days of tinkering and building my own PCs I did end up bending a pin or two. Hopefully, once you’ve done it you’ll learn to never do it again.

  • The first thing you want to do is get a credit card, not to buy a new CPU of course, but to help you straighten out the pins on the chip. A gift card, drivers license or similar sized card may work as well.
  • Make sure the card slides between the pins easily but still comes in contact with the pins. You don’t want it to be too thin or it won’t straighten out the pins.
  • Slide the card through the rows of pins that are affected from both top to bottom and side to side. This will ensure that the pins are straightened from every side.
  • Once your sure everything looks good, carefully attempt place the CPU into the socket. Don’t force it into place or you will likely bend more pins! If you have any trouble, take out the CPU and re-align your pins.
  • If the pins are are in really bad shape you can use an empty mechanical pencil tip to place over the pin and stand it upright.

That’s all you should need to do!

*It’s important to note that after several attempts the pins can break and no one wants that, so make sure you do your best to align them in the first few attempts.

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 )

 

Featured App: Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers

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Magic2014 Art

Magic 2014 – Duels of the Planeswalkers is now available. It released on 6-25-2013 and is available on many platforms including Playstation Network, the App Store (iPad), Google Play, the Amazon App Store, Xbox Live Arcade, and PC on Steam. You can pick up the game for $9.99 or play the trial version for Free.

Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers features 10 brand new decks, 15 new encounters, 10 new puzzle challenges, and an all-new Sealed Play mode, that allows players to open booster packs and build decks to play against the AI and other players. Magic 2014 players also get a first look at cards from the Magic 2014 – Core Set, including the highly anticipated Slivers cards, creating even more seamless integration between the online and offline games.

If you haven’t played Magic: The Gathering then honestly, you’re missing out on a great trading card game. In fact, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is the original trading card game. Yes, that’s right, MTG was the very first of it’s kind and it was invented by Richard Garfield, Ph D. and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993.

The physical card game is so much fun to play as it offers up a great challenge and it’s a great way to get together and get gaming with your friends, but the digital game is just as good. It’s not often that a video game can match it’s real-life counterpart but the Magic series has done just that.

If your new to the game in general, don’t fear the unknown! Download the game and Magic 2014 will ease you in by showing you everything you need to know to get dueling.