Friend steals $1.4m MMO avatar, accidentally sells it online for $552

Jak Connor | Gaming | Nov 26, 2019 1:07 AM CST

Imagine lending out a game character you have worked hard on to a friend, and then for him to turn around and try and sell it back to you.

Friend steals $1.4m MMO avatar, accidentally sells it online for $552

While this might sound like some silly game avatar that is basically worth nothing at all, it's quite the contrary. A man in China has spent more than $1.4 million on developing his character in the Chinese MMORPG, Justice Online. This man lent out his character to a friend who then attempted to sell it back to the man for $55,138 or 388,000 yuan. The man declined to be extorted, which prompted the now-former friend to turn around and sell it on the game's marketplace owned by NetEase.

The former friend sold the character on the marketplace for just $552 or 3,888 yuan. He said that this low price was due to an extremely long gaming session and was just a typo. Upon learning what happened, the owner of the account sued his former friend and NetEase. The case was taken to a judge and settled, with the account being returned to the original owner, but not before the owner was required to pay the purchaser of the account $12,789 in damages, or 90,000 yuan.

Continue reading: Friend steals $1.4m MMO avatar, accidentally sells it online for $552 (full post)

Rick and Morty Season 4 shorts: Elon Musk, Beth vs Summer & Netflix

Jak Connor | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Nov 26, 2019 12:34 AM CST

Season 4 of Rick and Morty is off to a blast, and what's a better way to relive enjoying the season than some short clips showing some best moments.

Rick and Morty Season 4 shorts: Elon Musk, Beth vs Summer & Netflix

Before I continue, the clips included in this article are spoilers if you haven't seen any of the episodes of season 4. I would advise watching those episodes first before viewing, but if you can't contain yourself here, they are. First off, we have Mr. Poopybutthole taking on his students in an absolutely epic fighting scene that shows off that Mr. Poopybutthole still has it.

Next, we have Summer vs. Beth. This clip is from the second episode and is a clear reference to Captain America: Civil War's airport fight scene. Moving on to the next clip, we have Elon Tusk, which is a reference to Elon Musk, and who is also guest voiced by Musk. That clip is from the last episode, and so is the final one titled 'Netflix'. Here we see Morty present his movie heist idea to Netflix, and they absolutely love it. Remember Rick's shy pooping? Here's an explanation of what that actually means.

Continue reading: Rick and Morty Season 4 shorts: Elon Musk, Beth vs Summer & Netflix (full post)

G.SKILL's new 256GB DDR4 RAM kits for new Threadripper, Core-X CPUs

Anthony Garreffa | RAM | Nov 26, 2019 12:08 AM CST

AMD and Intel both unveiled their new HEDT processors and respective platforms, with our review on AMD's new third-gen Ryzen Threadripper 3970X right here and Intel's new Core i9-10980XE processor here. But you'll need a bunch of new RAM, right? That's where our friends at G.SKILL come in.

G.SKILL's new 256GB DDR4 RAM kits for new Threadripper, Core-X CPUs

G.SKILL has just announced the latest in their ever-growing family of high-performance, quad-channel, ultra-capacity DDR4 RAM kits which range up to a huge 256GB for the new TRX40 and X299 motherboards. The new 256GB options come in 2666MHz, 3200MHz, and 3600MHz for AMD's new TRX40 platform while you'll be able to go up to 3800MHz and even 4000MHz with Intel and X299.

The huge 256GB kits are offered with 8 x 32GB DIMMs, but they don't have the same low latencies as the 64GB kits. You can grab yourself G.SKILL's new 256GB of DDR4 for HEDT platforms with the DDR4-3200 kit coming in at CL16-18-18-38 and 1.35V in 256GB, or the DDR4-3600 kit at CL18-22-22-42 and 1.35V.

Continue reading: G.SKILL's new 256GB DDR4 RAM kits for new Threadripper, Core-X CPUs (full post)

Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker script LEAKED, sold on eBay

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Nov 25, 2019 11:46 PM CST

If you can even believe it -- or maybe it's guerrilla hyping from Disney because of the issues Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is having before its release (word is, it's not great) -- the script for the latest movie in the Star Wars saga leaked and was sold on eBay.

Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker script LEAKED, sold on eBay

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker saw its script leaked and then found its way onto eBay, after one of the acts left it under their bed and was found by a cleaner. The script was given to someone else, and then it was put on eBay but an eagle-eyed person at the company sat this, and purchased it versus it going out to someone in the public before its big debut and spoiling J.J. Abrams' new movie.

J.J. Abrams recently said during a chat with Good Morning America: "One of our actors, I won't say which one - I want to, but I won't - left it under their bed and it was found by someone who was cleaning their place. And it was given to someone else, who then went to sell it on eBay. And someone at the company said 'You know there's a script that looks like it's a legit script that's for sale on eBay?' And so they got it back before it sold".

Continue reading: Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker script LEAKED, sold on eBay (full post)

Black Mirror becomes reality: Massachusetts police tests robot dog

The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad is playing around with using robot dogs in the line of fire, leasing out the autonomous Spot robot from Boston Dynamics in some new trials.

Black Mirror becomes reality: Massachusetts police tests robot dog

Radio station WBUR and the ALCU are reporting that the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad borrowed Boston Dynamics' Spot robot dog, using the AI-driven bot between August and November. The Massachusetts State Police bomb squad won't exactly explain what they used Spot for, but did note it was used as a "mobile remote observation device" that kept an eye on devices and specific locations.

Could we see a gun-toting robot dog in the future, given that the Massachusetts State Police bomb squad are testing Boston Dynamics scarily good technology? No. Boston Dynamics have a specific license in place that restricts Spot from being used for any task or job where it would "harm or intimidate people". As an AI-powered quick-moving surveillance and diagnostics device? Perfect.

Continue reading: Black Mirror becomes reality: Massachusetts police tests robot dog (full post)

Cerebras CS-1 packs 400,000-core CPU, 1.2 trillion transistors for AI

It looks like we have finally found a system that can actually run Crysis -- the new Cerebras CS-1 system that is a new system for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. So while it might not run Crysis, it is a powerhouse for AI developers.

Cerebras CS-1 packs 400,000-core CPU, 1.2 trillion transistors for AI

Cerebras CS-1 is actually quite small considering its processing power, with the 26-inch-tall PC packing an insane 400,000 cores and an even crazier 1.2 trillion transistors. The 400,000-core processor is called the Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) which has a trillion transistors, 18GB of on-chip SRAM, and an interconnect speed of up to 1PB/sec (yeah, petabytes per second).

The exciting WSE processor is absolutely huge, where next to a keyboard it looks fake even -- but this 1.2 trillion transistor processor indeed packs 400,000 processing cores. Cerebras Systems founder Andrew Feldman explains: "The CS-1 is the industry's fastest AI computer, and because it is easy to install, quick to bring up and integrates with existing AI models in TensorFlow and PyTorch, it delivers value the day it is deployed. Depending on workload, the CS-1 delivers hundreds or thousands of times the performance of legacy alternatives at one-tenth the power draw and one-tenth the space per unit compute".

Continue reading: Cerebras CS-1 packs 400,000-core CPU, 1.2 trillion transistors for AI (full post)

Cyberpunk 2077 developer not worried about Half-Life: Alyx

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 25, 2019 9:25 PM CST

Valve surprised everyone with the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx last week, where it will be competing with our hearts at nearly the same time in 2020 with CD PROJEKT RED's huge release of Cyberpunk 2077 -- but is CDPR worried? Nope.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer not worried about Half-Life: Alyx

Cyberpunk 2077 launches in April 2020 and is built for traditional mouse/keyboard gameplay on the PC, and controller gameplay on consoles where Valve's big release of Half-Life: Alyx is exclusive to VR. No controllers. No keyboards. No mice. It's all in a virtual world and CDPR isn't intimidated by this at all.

In a recent earnings call, CD PROJEKT RED management discussed the announcement of Half-Life: Alyx, with CDPR saying: "Of course we've seen the Half-Life VR announcement. I think it was a surprise for everybody ... VR remains an extremely niche-y niche of the market. It's very, very small".

Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 developer not worried about Half-Life: Alyx (full post)

Black Friday 2019: Walmart offer $450 back on iPhones, Samsung phones

Walmart has a gigantic incentive for an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smartphone upgrade for Black Friday sales, offering up to $450 in eGift cards.

Black Friday 2019: Walmart offer $450 back on iPhones, Samsung phones

If you purchase and then activate an Apple iPhone XS or Samsung Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10+, or Galaxy Note 10+ you'll receive a $450 eGift card from Walmart. If you go for the slightly lower-end iPhone XS Max or iPhone XR you'll get a $400 eGift card, while the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and Samsung Galaxy S10e and Galaxy Note 9 will all see you with a $300 eGift card.

Walmart is running the deal between November 28 and December 1, so you'll only have a few days to make your decision. The Black Friday prices apply between those dates with the varying levels of eGift cards, are available in-store only, and require a new phone plan through either AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon.

Continue reading: Black Friday 2019: Walmart offer $450 back on iPhones, Samsung phones (full post)

Black Friday sales: PS4 with 3 games for $199, Xbox One S for $149

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 25, 2019 8:30 PM CST

Black Friday 2019 sales are kicking off, with Microsoft seeing its Xbox One S 1TB All-Digital Edition Console discounted to just $149 -- while Sony has its PlayStation 4 available for $199 and includes 3 kick ass games bundled with it.

Black Friday sales: PS4 with 3 games for $199, Xbox One S for $149

The Xbox One S comes with 1TB of storage and is disc-free but at $149 you can't complain, while the Blu-ray drive inside of the PlayStation 4 comes at $199 but includes 3 games. The 3 games aren't exactly crap either, with the PS4 bundle one of the best sales for Black Friday including God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition, and The Last of Us Remastered -- all including a PS4 for $199.

You can grab the 4K-capable Xbox One X console with the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Deluxe Edition for $350 -- a discount of $150. Not too bad at all if you wanted the fastest console on the market, and a new game to boot... oh and the 4K Blu-ray playback is a great bonus.

Continue reading: Black Friday sales: PS4 with 3 games for $199, Xbox One S for $149 (full post)

Tesla Cyberquad ATV ships as an add-on for Cybertruck

Anthony Garreffa | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Nov 25, 2019 7:50 PM CST

Tesla shook the world with the announcement of its electric pickup truck in the new Cybertruck, but Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also unveiled the all-electric ATX as well. Tesla has already sold over $10 billion worth of Cybertruck's in the last few days.

Tesla Cyberquad ATV ships as an add-on for Cybertruck

The new Cyberquad is a two-person ATV that can drive up into the Cybertruck, with the four-wheeler ATV utilizing the Cybertruck's impressive adaptive suspension that leans back for easier loading of the Cyberquad. Tesla even includes a charging station on the bed of the Cybertruck for the Cyberquad ATV.

Tesla hasn't unveiled any hard details on the Cyberquad, but we do know that you will be going off-road with an all-electric ATX that I'm sure is going to be a blast to ride -- and once finished, ride back up into your Cybertruck to charge and transport to/from home.

Continue reading: Tesla Cyberquad ATV ships as an add-on for Cybertruck (full post)