Development of male youth in jeopardy due to video games and pornogprahy

Despite being one of the wealthiest nations in the world, the American school system is also one of the lowest ranking of any in the developed world, but is the government to blame or are there other factors that influence how the youth of America develops. That said, a doctor by the name of Phillip Zimbardo and his assistant Nikita Duncan claims that video games and pornography is the one of the main catalyst in the destruction of American youths—males in particular.

The discussion of how video games and pornography are influencing the way American males develop as human beings is as touchy of a topic as it can get. A recent article by gamesindustry.biz clarifies that Zimbardo claims video games and pornography create an “arousal” and “addiction” that make males “risk-averse [and causes them] to shy away from dealing with relationships, school, or work.”

Zimbardo uses examples from recent tragedies that were correlated with gaming to make his argument. One example was the death of Seungseob Lee due to 50 hours of playing Starcraft continuously. Another example is the killing massacre that was carried out by a Norwegian male named Anders Behring Breivik—who played a lot of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

The doctor and his assistant don’t directly blame technology for the problems in male youths, but rather the “misuse” of it.

“Technology is not the issue. Rather, it’s the misuse of technology. There’s a general overuse of video games and porn – especially in social isolation – which is not balanced out by other activities like exercise, face-to-face socialization with peers, or individual time with any kind of male mentor,” Zimbardo was quoted in an interview TED.com.

There’s no doubt that the correlation between video games and porn is present when it comes to troubled youth, but does that mean causation?

Zimbardo continued on in his interview with TED.com to say that “prescription drugs, illegal drugs, and overstimulation from enticing images and games” changes the brains of male youths, and the consequence is that they get “left behind socially, sexually, and financially.”

It seems that Zimbardo and his assistant has a particular section of men – the video game loving and pornography watching ones – all figured out. What about you? Where do you place the significance of video games and pornography in how it shapes young men?

Eurocom announces availability of 6-core Intel processors for laptop

Do you fancy a huge, 17” mobile workstation with a powerful, top-of-the-line desktop-grade processor stuffed into it? If your answer is yes, then you might want to consider flying down to Canada and picking up one of these notebooks from Eurocom.

The D900F Panther Workstation, which is Eurocom's mobile workstation laptop, is now offering Intel's 6-core i7-980X processor, codenamed Gulftown, as one of the available processors available for customization on purchase, making it one of the first computing systems to feature the 980X in a laptop.

For those requiring a more professional-grade processor, Eurocom is also offering the laptop with Intel's new Xeon W56xx processors, which, coincidentally, also happen to boast 6 processing cores. And as far as customization goes, the D900F Panther Workstation supports up to 24GB of memory (DDR3), 4 hard disks, a choice between Nvidia's GeForce GTX 285M or Quadro 2800/3800 video card, along with RAID, if required.

Of course, it being a desktop replacement notebook (and a mighty fine one at that), don't expect the D900F to weigh anything less than 5kg: this is a notebook which is meant to be set atop a desk and left there for as long as needed, and not for carrying around to meetings or watching videos while on the move.

Source: X-bit labs

CUPP Announces Demo Hybrid PC With ARM and x86 Processors

Intel's and AMD's x86 processors have long dominated desktop and mobile computing, but mostly because of Microsoft's decision to have Windows run only on x86 and no other architecture. However, there is much the ARM architecture has to offer for general-purpose computing, especially when one talks into account the low energy requirements of such processors.

Unfortunately, ARM has one huge obstacle to face in getting its processors onto the desktops and notebooks of today: the lack of support for Windows. With easily more than 80% of the world running on Microsoft's OS for their desktop or mobile computing needs, the situation has reached a point where anything which is not supported by Windows is often dismissed as having little practical value.

That situation is set to change with CUPP Computing's new prototype machine, though. The company's prototype, also dubbed as the Computicator, features a unique platform which combines both a conventional x86 processor (Intel Core 2 Duo, in this case) and a Texas Instruments OMAP 3430 ARM Cortex A8-based processor clocked at 720MHz and integrated with 512MB of RAM. To top off the package, the Computicator comes with a single 320GB hard disk and a 16-inch display, giving it a laptop-like appearance.

But the real draw of CUPP Computing's Computicator is the device's ability to run two operating systems concurrently without virtualization, a feat which has yet to be achieved in current desktop computing standards. By imputing a certain keyboard command, the system will be able to instantly switch between Windows 7 Professional and Ubuntu LXDE (sometimes known as Lubuntu) on the fly, without the need for rebooting, no doubt due to the unique ability of the Computicator to operate two different architectures concurrently.

As the device is still a prototype, there is no mention of any availability date. However, it does set the stage for some major changes in the desktop computing market, especially where the CPU is concerned. Will CUPP Computing's innovation be the push that ARM needs to make a presence into an area where x86 still rules supreme? Only time will tell.

Source: bit-tech

TGS 2009 Le Motion Controller de Sony confirm au printemps

Sony a confirmé l'arrivée de son Motion Controller au printemps 2010 sans plus de détails sur son prix ou sa date précise de sortie. Parallèlement, on découvre une première liste de jeux compatibles avec l'engin dont la version Director's Cut de Resident Evil 5 et LittleBigPlanet. Eyepet, Flower, High Velocity Bowling, PAIN sont également mentionnés.

PAIN PS3

Resident Evil 5 : Gold Edition PS3

EyePet PS3

High Velocity Bowling PS3

Flower PS3

Asus reveals two budget friendly P8Z77-V motherboard models

If you like many others have found Asus range of P8Z77-V motherboards a bit on the expensive side, then the new P8Z77-V LK and P8Z77-V LX models might be what youve been waiting for, as both of these just announced models will end up just below the P8Z77-V LE in Asus range of Z77 motherboards. Weve seen LX and LE boards in the past from Asus, but the LK is a new budget model we havent seen in previous generations.

Were not entirely sure what Asus is trying to achieve by offering so many models as right now we have no less than seven P8Z77 SKUs if we include the Premium, plus two mini ATX, one ITX, the Sabertooth, the WS and soon to be two Maximus V boards with a potential third launching at Computex. Thats no less than 15 models in total and as youll see with these two new additions, only very minor features differ.

The P8Z77-V LX is the new entry level model and it has a smaller PCB at 305x218mm and gone are fancy features like heatsinks on the MOSFETs. Still, its not quite the scrape of the barrel, although Asus hasnt really included any extra features either. You get the standard six Intel SATA ports, two x16 PCI Express slots that can operate in dual x8 mode, two x1 PCI Express slots and three PCI slots. Theres no TB_Header on this board, as it doesnt have the required x4 PCI Express slot, something it shares with the P8Z77-V LE. No extra USB 3.0 controllers are to be found here either, so you have to make do with a header for two internal USB 3.0 ports, as well as six USB 2.0 ports.

The rear I/O isnt terrible with a PS/2 port, four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, three audio jacks, optical S/PDIF out and a D-sub, DVI and HDMI port. Price wise this board comes in at around US$140, not an incredible saving compared to the P8Z77-LE, but it might get cheaper over time.

For an extra US$5-10 you could pick up the P8Z77-V LK which has a slightly larger PCB at 305x224mm, yet is still smaller than the P8Z77-V LE at 305x244mm. The overall feature set of the P8Z77-V LK is similar to the P8Z77-V LX, but here you get angled SATA connectors which a bonus compared to the P8Z77-V LE, although no extra SATA controller is present. The slot layout has also been improved by adding a x4 PCI Express slot in lieu of a PCI slot, but we cant spot a TB_Header on this model. Asus has also kitted out the P8Z77-V LK with an ASMedia USB 3.0 host controller for a total of six USB 3.0 ports and a small heatsink on part of the MOSFETs.

Around the back you get a PS/2 port, two USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, six audio jacks, an optical S/PDIF and a D-sub, DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI connector. The only thing you lose out compared to the P8Z77-V LE is an eSATA port, but price wise this board is about $10-15 cheaper than the P8Z77-V LE and if you dont need the extra eSATA and SATA ports, wed go for the P8Z77-V LK out of the two. One other thing that we noticed is that neither of these two new models features Asus TPU, USB BIOS Flashback or USB Charger+, so youre trading off some features for cost. Both models should be available as of now.

Source: Asus