Seems Microsoft will never mollify its critics. Or at least the author of “The Hidden Shadow”. The brief 600-word narrative details a reporter getting skittish over government surveillance, and decides to encrypt his “major investigative piece” with TrueCrypt.
After deleting and repeatedly overwriting his unencrypted copies, the reporter finds himself served with a search warrant, and agents stream into the reporter’s home. One of the government lackeys uses Windows 7’s ability to save previous versions of folders to render the precaution useless:
He located the Documents folder, opened its Properties window, and clicked on the “Previous Versions” tab. Just as he …read more

From the main site, Jeanne reports on the 2009 Spike TV Video Game awards, specifically the nominees. With easily over twenty awards up for grabs however, let’s concentrate on the most “important” ones:

Game of the Year

Assassin’s Creed 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Left 4 Dead 2
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves

Studio of the Year

Infinity Ward
Naughty Dog
Rocksteady Studios
Valve

Best Music Game

DJ Hero
Guitar Hero 5
LEGO Rock Band
The Beatles: Rock Band

What are your picks for this year? Given my passion for Valve’s recent work, I’ll let my bias speak for the first two categories: Left 4 Dead 2 and Valve for the win! Oh, …read more

Even With Unlimited Funds, Reason Applies
Any discerning computer parts shopper knows its not really about buying the most expensive parts, but getting the parts that maximize your money.
This applies even when you’re working with an unlimited budget. Even if you’ve budgeted several thousand dollars for your dream gaming PC, it still makes sense not to spend on what you really don’t need, right?

Last November 18 saw the launch of the Wind Top AE2220. The all-in-one touchscreen PC features a starting SRP of $749, a 21.5″ display with 1920 x 1080 resolution, and an integrated Nvidia GeForce 9300 GPU. MSI’s marketing promises that this product is “35% more energy efficient than a traditional PC” and has “the power to run full HD movies, resource-hungry applications, sophisticated 3D games”.

That depends on what they mean by “traditional PC”, and I doubt this rig can run Left 4 Dead 2 at the integrated display’s native resolution. However, the Wind Top is promising as an HTPC, as …read more

Straight from SmartFish’s PR: Pay $50, and we’ll deliver you a mouse that’s the most ergonomic yet! The basis of this promise is that the ErgoMotion Laser Mouse features a swivel mount, which adjusts automatically to your mouse hand:
The ErgoMotion Mouse is redefining what a true ergonomic product should be by actually reducing your risk of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). How? By adding motion! The ErgoMotion Mouse utilizes a patented motion-base that adapts to your natural hand and wrist positions while you work. The mouse will rock, swivel or pivot with your movement so your hand and wrist are never …read more

They say Black Friday was so named because Philadelphia city officials usually braced themselves for “massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks” as people take advantage of the day off to shop until they drop for the holidays. In any case, those problems are non-existent when you shop online, and Dell has a lot of Black Friday deals for shoppers looking for a computer for themselves or loved ones.

According to research by warranty firm SquareTrade, you really get what you pay for, with premium-priced laptops lasting longer than their cheaper counterparts on average. Good news for those who’ve spent money for specs, bad for buyers trying to eke by on affordable netbooks; from the survey of 30,000 portables, netbooks have a 5.8% chance of failing within the first year.

Another notable trend becomes clear when comparing brands. Here’s the list of nine different brands, ranked from most reliable to least, in terms of malfunction rate:

Asus
Toshiba
Sony
Apple
Dell
Lenovo
Acer
Gateway
HP

Looks like Asus‘ marketing department have a new talking point to advertise, while Apple has …read more

Yesterday saw the release of the OCZ Colossus, a new high-performance SSD line with capacities of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. If you’ve considered tapping the speed benefits of solid state disks for your PC (SSDs are basically high-capacity thumb drives plugged directly into a desktop or laptop motherboard), but always found the current capacities a limitation, salvation is here!

The OCZ Colossus uses the standard 3.5″ SATA chassis, meaning it’s an easy plug-in for contemporary desktops. Unfortunately, that’s too big for most laptops, which usually accept only 2.5″ drive modules. The relative heftiness of the Colossus has something to do …read more

Oh wow, Leica recently came out with the camera in the UK! Quick, save up 9,500 euros so you can buy it!

Wait, what? Almost ten-thousand European simoleons for a camera? There’s a reason why professional photographers spend good money on cameras, lenses, and accessories like flash. It’s because these pricey gadgets truly make for a better picture.
Now don’t get me wrong; No one should ever doubt the image quality achievable through technology from Leica (better known to the average geek as the lens provider for the Panasonic Lumix line). But why would you that much for a camera that has …read more

Yesterday saw Dell start shipping the Dell Adamo XPS, which they market as the world’s thinnest laptop. This ultra-thin gadget is 10.3mm thick at its heftiest point, and tapers down to 9.7mm. Average thickness is thus just under a centimeter at 9.99m. Aesthetically it stands out, thanks to its unique configuration, which sees the keyboard portion actually embedding itself into the display when the laptop is shut. The hinge placement unfortunately seems to make it hard to use the Adamo XPS on uneven surfaces, and definitely limits this laptop’s lap potential, though it does allow some natural cooling.

Complete spec list …read more