Telemarketers and refs, lookout... robots coming for your jobs

Whether we want it or not, the transition from human workers to robots is expected to cause mayhem among a number of different industries.

The following industries are expected to face the highest likelihood of being replaced, according to a 2013 study from Oxford University - telemarketers (99 percent), umpires and referees (98.3 percent), cooks (96.3 percent), manicurists and pedicurists (94.5 percent), and roofers (89.7 percent).

It seems careers that require a mix of creativity, negotiation skill and strong communication will be safer than other positions - and there are plenty of concerns about how acceptable humans will be to jobs being carried out by robots.

Continue reading: Telemarketers and refs, lookout... robots coming for your jobs (full post)

A configuration tool for The Witcher 3 released, allows better visuals

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | May 25, 2015 3:09 AM CDT

CD Projekt Red has been taking some serious flak over the downgrade of graphics in The Witcher 3, but modder "MelekTaus" has released a new configuration tool that lets you change the graphical effects very easily, without having to do it in-game and having no idea what you're changing, or their affects to the graphics.

Hunter's Config can be downloaded right here, with support for SweetFX. In order to install it, you need to follow these steps:

Continue reading: A configuration tool for The Witcher 3 released, allows better visuals (full post)

US struggling to counter Islamic State's clever social media strategy

Michael Hatamoto | Internet & Websites | May 24, 2015 11:30 PM CDT

The Islamic State continues vicious attacks in Iraq and Syria, taking over new territory while also suffering setbacks - and the fight continues on another front: the Internet.

The US State Department's Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) tries to monitor how IS uses the Internet for its own purposes, though has struggled to counter its evolving online strategy. Secretary of State John Kerry has hired Richard Stengel, former Time managing editor, to help create a new strategy to publish the harsh reality of citizens living under IS control.

Here is what Stengel told the Houston Chronicle: "You say the Caliphate is heaven on earth? We're going to show you pictures where sewers don't work. You're winning on the battlefield? Here's a satellite picture of you guys retreating."

Continue reading: US struggling to counter Islamic State's clever social media strategy (full post)

The ThermalTHOR modder is back again with another incredible entry

Chris Smith | Modding | May 24, 2015 10:06 PM CDT

Suchao Prowphong is no newbie to master mods, showcasing his amazing ThermalThor hammer mod in mid 2014 to the public.

The ThermalTHOR modder is back again with another incredible entry

Hailing from Thailand, this full-time farmer is certainly nothing to scoff at and has titled his new entry 'Core X 2 furious' - it is becoming apparent that Prowphong certainly loves his action movies.

Complete with two different Intel i5 CPUs and a great white color scheme, the only other Thermaltake CaseMOD entry we have covered so far with such a setup is Stuart Tonk's (AUS) dual Intel Xeon entry.

Continue reading: The ThermalTHOR modder is back again with another incredible entry (full post)

NASA discovers a new galaxy which is as bright as 300 trillion suns

NASA has just found a new galaxy that is shining as brightly as, wait for it... 300 trillion suns. That's a lot of zeroes: 300,000,000,000,000 suns. One sun is bright, but 300 trillion? Ugh, I need some new sunglasses.

The discovery has been so large for NASA that they've had to create a new classification for it, and the 19 other galaxies they discovered. These new galaxies are extremely luminous infrared galaxies, or ELIRGs for short. NASA has said that the new ELIRGs are "the most luminous galaxy found to date". NASA scientists spotted the ELIRGs with their Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope.

The ELIRGs that NASA found are located 12.5 billion light years away, which is why it's so damn bright. NASA JPL scientist Chao-Wei Tsai says that it "may be from the main growth spurt of the galaxy's black hole".

Continue reading: NASA discovers a new galaxy which is as bright as 300 trillion suns (full post)

Intel's next-gen Xeon platform will support 6-channel DDR4 RAM in 2017

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | May 24, 2015 7:25 PM CDT

I really have to stop reading about Intel's upcoming Xeon platforms, as I'm just going to disappoint myself that I'll never own one. The chipmaker is teasing its next-gen Xeon Skylake platform: Purley. The new architecture is going to be quite the leap over the current generation, with support for 6-channel DDR4, up from the quad-channel DDR4 support we have today.

Skylake Purley will be one of the biggest updates to the Xeon platform in quite a long time, with Skylake EX Purley supporting not just 6-channel DDR4, but up to eight processors that support 28 cores per chip, too. We also have the AVX 512 instruction set that will include the 100G OmniPath interconnect.

The OmniPath interconnect is something you've probably never heard of before, which is something that will be called Storm Lake. The PCH itself will be codenamed Lewisburg, with it sporting updated Ethernet controllers. The TDP that Skylake EX Purley processors will have will be between 45W and 165W, with CPUs slotting into something called Socket P. Another major update to the platform will see the number of PCIe slots increased to 48, with x4, x8 and x16 divisions allowed, which is a big upgrade to the platform.

Continue reading: Intel's next-gen Xeon platform will support 6-channel DDR4 RAM in 2017 (full post)

The UK's Richi Bowzer brings his best mod to the global stage

Chris Smith | Modding | May 24, 2015 6:05 AM CDT

Hailing from the United Kingdom, master modder Richi 'rchiileea+richi' Bowzer has been selected as one of seven modders to go head to head with other big names that TweakTown has already covered in Thermaltake's caseMOD invitational competition - check out Stuart Tonks (AUS) and Fabio Moma (JP).

The UK's Richi Bowzer brings his best mod to the global stage

Looking a little different from most mods you will see in this day and age, Bowzer quotes his expansive computer history as part of his modding know-how, stating "how old am I? well old enough to know you can run a AMD K2 without a heat sink for a few minutes, and to also know a small company called abit only released mobos with German translated manuals" all while navigating through a dial-up connection.

With the theme of this case being titled as 'Illusionist', Bowzer has gone about integrating the Thermaltake Core X9 case on offer with a fancy painted color scheme coupled with a cool 16GB of Avexir Blitz 1.1 RAM.

Continue reading: The UK's Richi Bowzer brings his best mod to the global stage (full post)

The $10,000+ Apple Watch Editions are now being shipped

Anthony Garreffa | Wearable Computing & Fashion | May 24, 2015 4:52 AM CDT

If you're not a celebrity or part of the 1%, you probably haven't received your Apple Watch Edition yet. Sure, you might have slapped down over $10,000 for Apple's first wearable, but consumers are only beginning to receive their expensive new Watch in the last few days.

Now that it's here, we have an unboxing video that you can check out above, which shows off the external packaging Apple has used. For $10,000+, the packaging is virtually identical to that of the stainless steel Apple Watch, except for the 18-karat gold casing and unique band on the side of the Watch.

Inside of the Apple Watch Edition box, we have the colored leather-covered box that features the MagSafe connector, with a color-matched cleaning cloth with the word 'Edition' embossed into the material. The very first time you boot up the Watch Edition, a description onf the Watch's hardware materials will appear, as you can see in the image above.

Continue reading: The $10,000+ Apple Watch Editions are now being shipped (full post)

Leaked benchmarks on AMD Radeon R9 390X see it beating the Titan X

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | May 24, 2015 1:37 AM CDT

As we get closer to the official announcement and launch of the Radeon R9 390X from AMD, all we have to enjoy for now are leaked benchmarks that show the "Fiji XT" card beating out the GeForce GTX Titan X, barely.

With its super-fast HBM, the AMD Radeon R9 390X beats out the NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X, the unreleased and expected GTX 980 Ti, and every other single GPU solution from NVIDIA in the average scores from 19 benchmarks according to a leaked look at the next-gen card from AMD.

When it comes to power consumption, it looks like AMD's next-gen Fiji architecture and High Bandwidth Memory aren't enough to save it from the perils of high power consumption. The leaked benchmarks show that the R9 390X uses 289W of power, which is just 3W away from the R9 290X which is quite the consumer of power. Comparing this to the Titan X which uses 256W, and the GTX 980 Ti which uses 235W, AMD is once again consuming a large amount of power in order to beat NVIDIA.

Continue reading: Leaked benchmarks on AMD Radeon R9 390X see it beating the Titan X (full post)

Sony hiring for its 'next generation gaming system', is this the PS5?

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | May 23, 2015 11:15 PM CDT

We've heard previous rumors of the PlayStation 5 in that it would be a cloud-based console, with the producer of Tekken teasing that it wouldn't be a physical console at all. Now we're seeing job postings from Sony, teasing the PS5 once again.

On the official Sony PlayStation page, the Japanese giant is looking for a "Senior Game Programmer", with the job description reads: "We have an exciting opportunity at Sony Computer Entertainment of America (PlayStation). We seek a senior game programmer to assist us in developing a game used for R&D purposes related to our next generation gaming system. For someone passionate about gaming this is a very rare opportunity. After reviewing the below job profile, if this is you, please apply!"

The PS4 has enjoyed 19 months on the market so far, but most games are not being rendered at 1080p let alone 1080p 60FPS. I think Sony would cannabalize PS4 sales with a new console, but if it introduced the PS5 with a discrete GPU and told consumers and gamers that it was capable of 4K 60FPS and 1080p 120FPS, for $499, it would sell very well. Project Morpheus, Sony's virtual reality headset, is going to need much more grunt than the PS4 is capable of to deliver a great VR experience, so bring on the PS5.

Continue reading: Sony hiring for its 'next generation gaming system', is this the PS5? (full post)