All About Anything

Bitcoin, the online currency that looks to revolutionize how we look at money in an online environment, is rising in popularity. However, in order to create Bitcoins, you have to mine them first, meaning that you give up a certain amount of computational power in order to process the creation of Bitcoins (similar to Folding@Home). In fact, Bitcoin mining is such a huge thing right now, that the entire mining network is faster than most of the world’s fastest supercomputers combined.

All central processing unit series have a so-called flagship CPU, and for the Haswell collection, that highest-end chip is called Core i7-4770K.

Video streaming giant Netflix believes that making content available is the best way to beat online piracy, and the company has data to back this up. Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos reveals that ISPs are noticing a drop in BitTorrent traffic every time they launch in a new territory. “The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options,” Sarandos says.

Now that you’re all about dressing up and heading out to your local Avengers movie opening – Iron Man 3 coming up quick(!) – you’ll want to know how to make a prop that’s above and beyond the pale. This week a custom-made and home-made Thor’s Hammer has appeared amongst the DIY ranks, bringing with it 80,000 volts of electricity to boot. All it takes is some foam and teeny tiny tesla coil!

Following a string of high-profile security breaches Twitter has sent out a warning to press agencies to prepare for even worse hacking attempts. This comes just days hackers managed to get hold of the Associated Press' Twitter account.

Game piracy isn’t just something that affects big studios, and it can have a huge impact on smaller teams; that’s why the coders behind Game Dev Tycoon decided to release their own cracked version, albeit with a moral lesson hardcoded for pirates. Fully expecting a cracked copy of the game to surface shortly after the $7.99 Game Dev Tycoon was released, Greenheart Games pipped the pirates to the post and added a torrent of their own. However, what downloaders didn’t realize was that the cracked version had a bug the authentic one didn’t: players would inevitably run into the effects of game theft.

If you haven’t heard, Apple CEO Tim Cook is auctioning off a coffee date with him, with all the money going to charity. After almost two days of bidding, with 18 days left to go still, the highest bid so far as surpassed the $500,000 mark, even though the auction listing puts a $50,000 estimated value on the coffee meeting with the Apple big wig.

Microsoft‘s next-generation Xbox gaming console, which the company just confirmed the other day, is the latest to be involved in the rumor hype, and we certainly haven’t seen a shortage of speculation making its way around. Today, it’s been rumored that Microsoft will be emphasizing sharing features with the Xbox 720, and will even be taking a page out of the PS4 book by including their own “Share” button on the Xbox 720 controller.

The controversial CISPA bill recently passed through the House of Representatives with flying colors, and it’s now in the Senate, where it will then be passed on to the President if the bill passes in the Senate. However, many groups and organizations are almost positive that the bill will be vetoed in the Senate, including the American Civil Liberties Union.

Google’s Glass may be sleekly comfortable enough to wear all day long, but the battery may well not be, with users taking advantage of the headset’s potential for impromptu photography finding it chews through power at a rate of knots. Real-world trials of Glass by early user Robert Scoble suggest video recording with the headset’s integrated camera could drain the battery completely in as little as 30 minutes.

After making a run for it from Sweden to Greenland, and then finding that Greenland really didn’t want a bunch of pirates plundering its waters, Iceland seems happy to have the Pirate Bay. So, time to update your bookmarks: ThePirateBay.is is TPB’s new home.

Whatsapp is a very popular messaging service but for all its popularity it's probably one of the least secure apps on our smartphones. Whatsapp has been plagued for a very long time with privacy and security concerns and now you can add one more to that list.

Net Applications claims that, worldwide, Microsoft's various versions of Internet Explorer are the most used among PC owners, StatCounter begs to differ, claiming that its date shows Google's Chrome as the number one PC browser.

A group of researchers from both Taiwan and Mexico have developed a new design for an LED streetlamp that will limit light pollution all the way down to 2%. Currently, LED streetlamps can leak as high as 20% of their light into areas they weren’t intending to target. These new streetlamps will only shine light in areas they are configured to light up, and will only leak a tiny amount of light into the night sky or surrounding objects.

The Justice Department is toying with the definitions of “legal,” according to the folks over at CNET, which say the Electronic Privacy Information Center provided them with documents detailing a bypass of the Wiretap Act. Says the report, the Justice Department has sent out letters to a variety of ISPs absolving them of repercussions for intercepting Internet communications.