Hey guys, just giving a heads up for those of you who want to get the inside scoop on BlizzCon, but didn't have the ability or the desire to fly and buy tickets or to pay $40 for the "luxury" of third-rate coverage from DirecTV. WoW Radio has been giving the best coverage to issues regarding Blizzard for the past 5 years or so, and this year they are going to once more bring the best coverage to those who tune in, regardless of what hurdles DirecTV has put in their way.
Tune in at www.wcradio.com, and I hope to see you guys on the IRC at irc.mmoirc.com:6667 #wowradio.
P.S. Today (8/19/2009) at 8pm PT (GMT -8) there's a special variety show going on with hosts Gnomewise, Octale, and Eriyanna live from Anaheim where they will be going over the year in review in celebration of WoW Radio's 5th anniversary.
News has just come out that the ability of fansites to make audio recordings of BlizzCon panels has now been taken away by Blizzard due to DirectTV demanding video and audio exclusivity. I have heard no evidence of Blizzard trying to contest this, and we're now at a point where the decision being handed down a mere 10 days from the convention has likely cost fansites a high amount of money that had been spent on recording equipment and the means to transport that equipment. Where prior it had just been a five minute video restriction, now all recording of events during BlizzCon 2009 by participants has been banned in entirety.
Note to Blizzard: You can still make this right. I'm not trying to stir up any trouble. I just find it in bad taste what has occurred.
Decided to bring this over from the Bethesda forums where I originally posted it.
NOTE: The fan fix more widely known of for the Radeon HD 4850 is not an adequate solution to the issue hereby addressed. This issue is one where the basic plastic cover on most single-slot models of the 4850 actually serves to trap dust against the heat sink until all cooling value is lost and the card begins to overheat drastically to the point of damaging the card itself.
NOTE: The following is not advisable if you don't know what you're doing or if you have what is more colloquially known as "butterfingers". This is not advisable if you value any manufacturer's warranty you may have, and I hereby take no responsibility for you destroying your expensive graphics card by mucking this up.
***THIS TECHNICALLY VOIDS YOUR WARRANTY***
***THIS IS NOT TO BE ATTEMPTED BY THE INEXPERIENCED***
***DO NOT CRY IF YOU SCREW UP***
***KEEP ALL PARTS SAFELY STORED TO REASSEMBLE IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG, AND PRAY YOU CAN GET BY THE MANUFACTURER***
The easiest way to fix a stock single-slot 4850: Remove the plastic cover.
The plastic cover on the 4850 is nice and pretty and all, but it serves as a trap for large amounts of dust which accumulates in a short period of time. After an alcoholic beverage, I became bold enough to say to hell with things and decided to dissect my videocard. Removing the heatsink by (WITH POWER OFF) unplugging the card fan and unscrewing all the screws on the bottom of the card with a small NON-MAGNETIC screwdriver. With the heat sink in hand, I noticed that the plastic cover was easily attached with a separate set of small screws. Taking these out, some of which were hidden just under the corners of the cushioning tabs on the heat sink, and storing them safely in a small pill bottle, I removed the plastic cover. With it removed, I noticed it had caused a vast quantity of dust to accumulate against the heat sink, and screwing up the airflow. I cleaned it out, CAREFULLY aligned it back with the card, and screwed the heatsink back onto the card. Reconnecting the power to the card, I plugged my PSU back in and hit the switch. Since removing the cover, I went from ~75*C at 100% fan speed to ~50* at 50% fan speed.
If you attempt to try this, good luck, and be steady. Hope this helps you. :)
"According to Pardo, Blizzard is only “about a third of the way through” the single player campaign and is currently focusing on the story and all those pretty cinematics that keep us entertained between battles."
"The highly anticipated RTS Starcraft 2 will be split into three distinct stand-alone titles, each featuring a different race in order to keep the “epic” scale of Starcraft 2’s storyline intact."
"Pardo does mention that Blizzard will have something nice to satiate StarCraft deprived gamers at the end of this year."
Game a third of the way through back in June...
Three title release...
Something nice in December...
With the past few years, things haven't particularly looked to be going well for Microsoft. The release of Windows Vista and the subsequent failure of it to find any real market, the structural flaws in the X-Box 360 that led to multi-billion dollar firefighting efforts by the Redmond giant, as well as the economic crisis that only now seems to really be boiling over and will likely continue to hurt their business by postponing business systems upgrades to the point where they're deemed an absolute necessity. All this and more has seen fit to stack up into a truly formidable obstacle for Microsoft to overcome.
Yet these obstacles haven't entirely been out of Microsoft's control. Windows Vista was the product of a development cycle that was smacked around and readjusted several times, and which heavily suffered from the 2003-2004 worm outbreak which forced developers to be focused on closing exploitable areas within Windows XP which had taken the brunt of the beating. As well, the issues with the X-Box 360 were entirely the result of Microsoft attempting to cut costs of hardware tests by undercutting the normal levels of product evaluation. The issues with systems overheating en masse was entirely of their fault, and I feel they did well to grit their teeth and act in the interests of their customers.
So the question of which I'm curious is if Steve Ballmer can bring Microsoft out of their current situation. With no offense meant to the man, his war-room style strategies have seemed to only make Microsoft as a company out to be more a brute strength conglomerate megalith (though the factual nature of it being exactly that is a given by the way of business itself) rather than serving to improve upon public perceptions. He has come off as a rather unstable and angry chief executive due to things which have leaked out regarding his opinions of Google and Linux, regardless of whether these evaluations of character are correct. Yet such is the nature of the media beast, and it cannot be helped but by proof contrary. As such, Microsoft is left in a position where it had until very recently yet to really reach out to improve the view of itself as a whole. Where you have had branch projects like the X-Box 360 and the Zune working so hard to convey some sense of community, Microsoft at its core has remained rather gray and stalwart compared to its competitors such as Apple.
Yet recently there has been some activity out of Redmond in this regard. While the Mojave Experiment sort of buzzed the tower in terms of its effectiveness, the 'I'm a PC' advertisement that brings people together has been vastly more effectively. Whether authentic or artificial, it seems like there might be a bit of humanity returning to Microsoft's appearance, even if just a minute sparkle in the eye. While there is still a long way to go in this regard, which could honestly be helped ENORMOUSLY by them redesigning their sites to be more user-friendly versus the typical navigational Hell that seems almost to be a Microsoft trademark at this point, there seems to be at least the prospect in mind of them getting back a portion of their former glory, though this is something which could easily vanish like dust in the wind.
Through the year, bits and pieces of information have been coming out regarding the next pillar release in the Windows family. Windows 7 as it so creatively named has been discussed as being a turnaround from the relative disappointment of Vista, attempting to bring forth and focus upon resource management, stability, and compatibility; all things which were and continue to be frequent complaints in respect to Windows Vista. The authenticity of these claims is yet unknown due to the limited exposure to the currently alpha-stage product, yet there are whispers among the woodwork that there may be a beta for the new operating system as soon as this mid-December. I for one would be delighted if I could gain access into the beta, as I'm really looking forward to seeing if Microsoft has managed the turn-around they so desperately need.
Now, a lot has been said recently regarding SecuROM, Sony's little DRM software they saw to recycle after their previous brilliant idea in the market, XCP, was ruled as being completely and utterly illegal. Yet there's something not commonly known which I feel could very well crush, kill, or cripple Sony's DRM, and thereby render it in the same way as XCP from the legal front. It's something Microsoft knows quite a bit about, and something which intimately involves Microsoft via the effect.
The information? Sony's DRM software cripples Microsoft's Zune MP3 player software.
Now, you're going to ask me how this info could kill SecuROM, I know you are. Well, it just so happens that Sony has their own line of music players, and so are a competing company directly to Microsoft in that regard. So by SecuROM attacking and disabling features of the Zune software, it's actually acting in what could be construed legally as a rather /bad/ business practice.
The question is: Does Microsoft know about it, or would they act if they did?
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
