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Comet makes its closest approach to Earth, will leave for 200 years
A famous comet recently made its closest approach with Earth and won't make another approach for the next 200 years.
Comet 67P became famous after a European mission called Rosetta started orbiting the comet after journeying towards it for 10 years. The Rosetta spacecraft orbited the comet very closely for 2.5 years, taking measurements and capturing valuable information. Additionally, the Rosetta mission featured a small probe landing on the surface of the comet. The small probe Philae landed on the comet in December 2014, marking the first time a human-made probe has landed on a comet.
As for its close approach to Earth, Comet 67P came within 39 million miles from Earth at 7:50 pm EST, Friday, November 12. The comet was visible for amateur astronomers with telescopes, but unfortunately, due to its orbit, the comet won't be coming back to our planet for the next 200 years. EarthSky reports that the celestial ice ball won't approach Earth again until 2214. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.
Continue reading: Comet makes its closest approach to Earth, will leave for 200 years (full post)
Child genius starts college at 12-years-old, aims for at NASA at 16
There are very few children like Alena Wicker, who has been accepted into college at the age of 12 and is aiming to be working at NASA by 16.
12-year-old Alena Wicker has been accepted to Arizona State University (ASU), and according to an interview with Phoenix TV station KPNX, Wicker has always dreamed of becoming an engineer, "I always dreamed of being an engineer because, throughout my life, I liked building." Wicker had a talent for numbers, science, and building at a young age, and according to her mother, Daphne McQuarter, "At 4 years old she said, 'I'm going to work at NASA and I'm going to go up there.' She would point to the stars."
Wicker will soon be attending Arizona State University and be double majoring in planetary science and chemistry. As Wicker makes her way through her courses, she will attempt to begin working at NASA as soon as she can. While she may not get accepted into NASA at the age of 16, as that is quite young, she certainly will be on the agency's radar when she becomes a little bit older. Wicker will definitely be going places.
Continue reading: Child genius starts college at 12-years-old, aims for at NASA at 16 (full post)
NASA reveals images of Pluto's dark side taken by space probe
A NASA spacecraft snapped some images of the dark side of Pluto while it was making an approach with the dwarf planet back in 2015.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft turned around to take some images of Pluto's dark side while it was passing by the dwarf planet in 2015, and after some post-processing, the images revealed some interesting information about the side of Pluto that wasn't illuminated by the Sun. Tod Lauer, a member of the New Horizons team, said, "When you look back at Pluto's dark side, you turn around and look almost right at the Sun, and it's pretty damn bright".
Lauer continued and said, "It's like driving in a car with a dirty window, looking into the Sun without a sun visor, trying to read a street sign." Pluto's main moon named Charon, is much smaller than our moon and resides much closer to the planet. For these reasons, the moon provides faint illumination to the surface of Pluto that is facing away from the Sun. After cleaning up the image by removing parts of it that were overexposed, the researchers found that the south pole of the dwarf planet was less bright than the north pole - something that wasn't expected at all.
Continue reading: NASA reveals images of Pluto's dark side taken by space probe (full post)
Jeff Bezos predicts the future, humans will be born in space
Billionaire Jeff Bezos has given a prediction for the future of human civilization. He says humans will eventually be born in space.
During the Ignatius Forum in Washington DC, Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos said that humans will eventually be born in space and visit Earth as tourists. According to Bezos, humans will build colonies in space, and these colonies will give birth to humans who have never been on Earth before. "Over centuries, many people will be born in space. It will be their first home," said Bezos.
Additionally, Bezos says that people will live within these space colonies and visit Earth the same way people go and visit countries or locations such as Yellowstone National Park or Disneyland. Here's what Bezos said, "They will be born on these colonies, live on these colonies, then they'll visit Earth the way you would visit, you know, Yellowstone National Park." If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.
Continue reading: Jeff Bezos predicts the future, humans will be born in space (full post)
iPhone 14 concept: second display, Air Charge tech, looks beautiful
Apple's next-generation iPhone 14 will arrive in 2022 with fresh rumors that it will be a "complete redesign", while a new concept of the iPhone 14 teases an alternate look at what Apple could do.
The new video was posted by ConceptsiPhone, showing a sleek new iPhone 14 with a dual-screen design which is giving me some serious HipTop vibes (man, I loved the HipTop). The second display slides out from beneath the main display, with a new A16 Bionic chip inside, Face ID and Touch ID technologies of course, and a new "Air Charge" technology for wirelessly charging your iPhone 14 from a distance... oh yeah.
I don't think Apple would do this style of radical redesign with a secondary, slide-out display but with their main competitor, Samsung, having multiple generations of awesome foldable smartphones... Apple needs to do something big with the iPhone 14.
Continue reading: iPhone 14 concept: second display, Air Charge tech, looks beautiful (full post)
NVIDIA gimping below 60FPS on GeForce NOW, paying 'Priority' members
NVIDIA's cloud gaming service GeForce NOW has multiple tiers, with the free tier offering a "Basic Rig" while the "Priority" tier comes with 1-month and 6-month access to "Premium Rigs" with "RTX ON". NVIDIA explains that you receive "Priority Access to Gaming Servers" with "up to 1080p to 60FPS".
Well, that "up to 60FPS" is at the center of this nes with some gamers noticing that GeForce NOW under the Priority tier is pitting out games capped at 50FPS and even something like Cyberpunk 2077 down to 45FPS.
A post on Reddit had a Redditor asking NVIDIA customer support for his GeForce NOW membership, about Guardians of the Galaxy is capped at 50FPS, locked in the menu. NVIDIA said this is intentional, with NVIDIA explaining "its capped at 50fps so its not a bug". Cyberpunk 2077, as explained by NVIDIA support are "capped at certain FPS" noting Cyberpunk 2077 is capped at 45FPS.
Continue reading: NVIDIA gimping below 60FPS on GeForce NOW, paying 'Priority' members (full post)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: 5nm GPU, 24GB GDDR6X, 3x faster than RTX 3090
NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace GPU architecture and next-gen GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards are going to be monsters, with new rumors on the flagship AD102 GPU which would power the new flagship GeForce RTX 4090.
The new leaks are from Greymon55 on Twitter, who said the new AD102 GPU would be made on 5nm TSMC with 18,432 CUDA cores with GPU clocks somewhere in the 2.3GHz to 2.5GHz range. FP32 compute performance would be gigantic, topping somewhere around 85 TFLOPs to 92 TFLOPs -- which when compared to the RTX 3090 and the Ampere GA102 inside -- has 35.5 TFLOPs, then we're talking 2.5x the performance of the RTX 3090.
NVIDIA would use the same 24GB of GDDR6X but clocked at 21Gbps on a 384-bit memory bus, the newer PCIe 5.0 x16 connector and a TDP range of a yeah-you're-going-to-need-to-buy-a-new-PSU-probably-maybe 450W to 650W of power. Previous rumors have pegged power consumption in the 500W+ range, but if we have a card that is over twice the power of the RTX 3090... then bring if the hell on.
Continue reading: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: 5nm GPU, 24GB GDDR6X, 3x faster than RTX 3090 (full post)
Best early Black Friday deals you can get now, Windows 10 for only $7
On the calendar, Black Friday is Friday, Nov. 26 -- the day after Thanksgiving. But the big sales have already started at many e-shops and websites. Godeal24 has begun publishing lists of what you can expect to see on sale. In many cases, their goods are already labeled Black Friday offers.
Below we've compiled some of the best early Black Friday deals available on Godeal24, along with some information about upcoming Black Friday sales so you can prepare and score a great deal before it sells out. You can get the best offers on Windows 10, Office suites, and other new products.
Windows 11 is the latest operating system offered by Microsoft. For higher productivity, Windows 11 is here to be the best operating system of the future.
Continue reading: Best early Black Friday deals you can get now, Windows 10 for only $7 (full post)
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT: 5nm + 6nm GPU, 32GB GDDR6, RTX 3090 killer
AMD's next-gen RDNA 3 architecture will power the new Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs with the new Navi 31-based GPU being a monster MCM (multi-chip module) design that will see Team Red take a huge leap over Team Green.
The new MCM-based GPU design has already been deployed in AMD's recently-launched CDNA 2-based MI200 accelerators powered by the "Aldebaran" MCM GPU. But for gamers, we'll have to wait for the Navi 31-based Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card which leaker Greymon55 has teased on Twitter.
AMD's new flagship Navi 31 GPU will have WGPs (Work Group Processors) that will see the end of CUs (Compute Units) with RDNA 3 and the MCM-based GPUs. Navi 31 will have 2 x IPs: the GCD (Graphics Core Die) which will be made on TSMC's new 5nm process, as well as an MCD (Multi-Cache Die) which is made on TSMC's new 6nm process node. We've heard recently that AMD had taped out its new Navi 31 MCM GPU die.
Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT: 5nm + 6nm GPU, 32GB GDDR6, RTX 3090 killer (full post)
Grand Theft Auto 6 tease in new GTA 3 remaster isn't what you think
Rockstar updated GTA 3's infamous Francis International Airport billboard with a new image. Too bad it's probably not for GTA 6.
Rockstar Games is known for adding in teases and Easter eggs hinting at the next GTA game. The most famous one is when Rockstar confirmed Vice City's location in GTA 3 with a sign that said "See you in Miami". That sign has been updated for the new GTA 3 remaster...but it probably is not advertising the next big sequel.
The new Shoreside Vale sign does show a beach but it's not Miami. It's Chumash Beach from Grand Theft Auto V. It's very likely that Grove Street Games (or even Rockstar) are teasing the upcoming GTA V Expanded & Enhanced re-release instead of the next mainline game.
Continue reading: Grand Theft Auto 6 tease in new GTA 3 remaster isn't what you think (full post)
Hot Coffee is in every version of San Andreas...it's just turned off
Every version of San Andreas contains files, animations, and content from the infamous Hot Coffee mini-game, one modder has said.
Rockstar Games recently pulled the GTA Definitive Edition trilogy remaster from the Rockstar Games PC launcher. The move was made after dataminers discovered lots of files in the source code including cut music tracks, developer notes, and files for San Andreas' Hot Coffee content.
San Andreas' Hot Coffee stirred up massive controversy in the 2000s (Hot Coffee was a mini-game where you had explicit sexual intercourse with a woman, complete with nudity, position changes, and view changes, which earned San Andreas an Adults Only rating before it was censored). Rockstar was sued for allegedly hiding the sex game inside of San Andreas.
Continue reading: Hot Coffee is in every version of San Andreas...it's just turned off (full post)
Iconic Vice City characters appear freakish in new GTA remaster
The new GTA trilogy Definitive Edition remaster collection has been lampooned for its portrayal of popular in-game characters, and today we take a closer look at some of Vice City's icons.
Vice City is one of the better looking games in the new Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition remasters. The NPC models though? Not so much. Some characters look okay, including mob boss Sonny Forelli, but others are downright freakish (Candy Suxxx, Love Fist guy, etc). And other icons like Lance Vahn look much different than their debonair PS2 days. This is almost like a Ricky and Morty alternate universe or maybe Vice City Boomer Stories--everyone looks older, weirder, and just...off.
We used the Vice City appearance change cheats to get in the skins of NPCs like Candy Suxxx, Lance Vahn, Hilary King, Ken Rosenberg, Phil Cassaday, Sonny Forelli, and Ricardo Diaz. The results are interesting to say the least.
Continue reading: Iconic Vice City characters appear freakish in new GTA remaster (full post)
Valve Steam Deck hardware: AMD 'Aerith' SoC with Zen 2 + RDNA 2 tech
Valve's new handheld Steam Deck has been detailed in a new teardown by the team at Valve during their recent Steam Deck Development Live Stream. Check it out:
In the new detailed Valve Steam Deck unveiling, we find out that AMD's custom "Aerith" SoC is used with a 4-core, 8-thread CPU based on the older-gen Zen 2 architecture with CPU clocks betrween 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz. Next to that we have an RDNA 2-based GPU with 8 Compute Units and GPU clocks of between 1.0GHz and 1.6GHz.
AMD's custom Aerith SoC has a TDP of between 4W and 15W, with Valve asking for developers to enable a frame rate limiter of some sort for the Steam Deck -- while confirming that the company has not pushed any artificial power limit on what the Aerith SoC can use. But if you are outside, Valve has said that the Steam Deck will thermal throttle with the TDP reduced in order to keep the GPU clocks high.
Continue reading: Valve Steam Deck hardware: AMD 'Aerith' SoC with Zen 2 + RDNA 2 tech (full post)
SK Hynix teases HBM3 with 12-Hi 24GB stack layout, 6400Mbps speeds
The world of consumer graphics cards shifted away from HBM to GDDR6 pretty quickly, with flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs rocking ultra-fast Micron GDDR6X memory. But the world of HBM didn't stop, and now SK Hynix is showing off their 24GB HBM3 memory clocked at 6.4Gbps.
During the recent OCP Summit 2021, ServeTheHome spotted some of that delicious new HBM3 memory from SK Hynix and snapped a photo of it. It was pretty fast of SK Hynix to display it since the company only announced its new HBM3 memory less than a month ago now -- and it's as thin as a piece of A4 paper, too.
We don't have the final specification of HBM3 from JEDEC just yet, but SK Hynix has already bumped the initial spec from 5.2Gbps to 6.4Gbps -- and that's a good thing. We should see next-gen accelerators and other HBM3-powered products, with some absolutely brutally-fast memory bandwidth. Hell, the 12-Hi stack on a 1024-bit memory interface can drive 819.2GB/sec per stack... with multiple stacks, we're looking at memory bandwidth numbers never before seen.
Continue reading: SK Hynix teases HBM3 with 12-Hi 24GB stack layout, 6400Mbps speeds (full post)
ZOTAC is giving away GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 3070 Ti Resident Evil GPUs
ZOTAC is running a new campaign that starts today and runs through until December 17, 2021 where you can win a wicked ZOTAC GAMING Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Limited Edition Graphics Card or Mini PC hardware.
The new ZOTAC "Escape to Win" Mini Game isn't hard to enter, and you can win some pretty damn good prizes -- the grand prize of course, being huge. In what I think is the longest name ever given to a graphics card, you can win one of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti AMP Extreme Holo Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Edition.
Not only can you win one of the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti AMP Extreme Holo Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Edition graphics cards, but there's also the ZOTAC ZBOX MAGNUS ONE Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City Edition. This is a full Mini PC that crams a powerful Intel Core i7 processor and ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card into a Mini PC that is just 8.3 litres.
Continue reading: ZOTAC is giving away GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 3070 Ti Resident Evil GPUs (full post)
Raptoreum crypto CPU mining: loves AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs and large L3 cache
If you were hoping to upgrade to a new AMD Ryzen 9 5900 or Ryzen 9 5950X processor -- or even AMD's next-gen Zen 4-based desktop CPUs... you might be able to, and it'll be because of CPU miners.
It looks like the GPU shortage has seen crypto miners move to other cryptocurrencies -- including Raptoreum (RTM), which can be mined on the CPU and absolutely loves the large L3 cache on an AMD Ryzen 9 processor. The AMD Ryzen 9 3000 series and Ryzen 9 5000 series CPUs have large L3 cache which is perfect for Raptoreum CPU mining.
Even the now older-gen AMD Ryzen 9 3900 and 3900X are popular CPUs for Raptoreum mining because of their high L3 cache. Both of those CPUs beat Intel's just-launched Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" CPU, but the newer Zen 3-based Ryzen 9 5950X is a Raptoreum mining beast -- beating out every other CPU.
Continue reading: Raptoreum crypto CPU mining: loves AMD Ryzen 9 CPUs and large L3 cache (full post)
Here's why GTA 6 is taking so long, as explained by Take-Two
Strass Zelnick, the CEO of Rockstar's parent company, gives perspective on why GTA 6 is taking so long.
GTA 6 is reportedly in development hell right now and may not release until 2025. The game has apparently been rebooted multiple times, and the departure of key Rockstar talent like Leslie Benzies in 2016 and more recent GTA co-writer Dan Houser in 2020 has disrupted GTA 6's progress.
Despite these hurdles, there's another reason GTA 6 is taking so long to develop: Rockstar has an obligation to deliver on fan expectations. GTA V and GTA Online have raised the bar and fans are eager for the next big hit. That's according to Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick who is in favor of letting a franchise "rest" in between big mainline releases while also giving the dev teams enough time to make something fantastic.
Continue reading: Here's why GTA 6 is taking so long, as explained by Take-Two (full post)
Over half of Take-Two's 62 game pipeline is new IPs
Take-Two Interactive, the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and BioShock, is betting big on new IPs.
Right now Take-Two's new games pipeline is bigger than its ever been before. The company's myriad of developers plans to release 62 new games in the next 3 years, many of which are mobile games, mid-line titles, and big heavy-hitting AAA releases. There's everything from sequels like BioShock 4, Borderlands 4, and new NBA 2K games to brand new franchises and IPs that haven't been established before (one of these new IPs, Volt, has already been cancelled).
In a recent virtual conference, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick confirms that 56% of the slate--or 35 games--are based on new IPs.
Continue reading: Over half of Take-Two's 62 game pipeline is new IPs (full post)
The PS5's most-played game wasn't made by Sony
The PlayStation 5 is officially one year old...but most next-gen console owners aren't playing Sony's first-party games.
Today Sony celebrated the PS5's first anniversary with a look back over the last 12 months. The PlayStation Blog post was mostly a fluff piece touting various milestones like the release of games, announcements of products that won't be here for a while, and Jim Ryan saying that "we're just getting started" while somehow also saying the next-gen PSVR headset has been revealed (it hasn't).
The most interesting part of the article was a top 10 of the most-played PS5 games. It turns out Fortnite is leagues more popular than any first-party Sony game, which makes sense considering its free-to-play...but more premium games like Cold War, FIFA, NBA 2K, and even Assassin's Creed Valhalla beat out Sony's first-party games like Miles Morales and Demon's Souls.
Continue reading: The PS5's most-played game wasn't made by Sony (full post)
GTA trilogy remaster PC version yanked because it had original music
The new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has been taken offline with the Rockstar Launcher on PC being in "maintenance" for the last 12 hours...right after dataminers discover interesting things in the source code.
Dataminers have uncovered a goldmine of content nestled in the new GTA trilogy remaster's source code. Apparently the original music were actually included in the PC install of San Andreas in OGG-VORBIS audio format, but were switched off in the consumer build. The music is there but gamers simply can't play the songs in-game. Music licenses are costly and if misused can land companies in court so it's likely this is the main reason the PC version of the trilogy remains offline.
There's also snippets of developer communication in the code. It's not uncommon for game developers to leave notes peppered through the source code to help unravel the rat's nest of garbled language that can ensue while making a game. Some of these notes are pretty hilarious and could have been made by the remastered trilogy's new developer, Grove Street Games (formerly War Drum Studios who had helped Rockstar make mobile ports and re-releases of GTA titles).
Continue reading: GTA trilogy remaster PC version yanked because it had original music (full post)





















