ASUS Shrinks Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II

Without much fuss, ASUS slipped out a revision of its Radeon HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics card. The revision breaks away from the common board design between the HD 7950 and HD 7970 DirectCU II models, and uses newer, compact PCB and cooler. The revision could ready ASUS for future price cuts of the GPU.

The new board design will be applied to both the standard and TOP variants. Its most notable feature is the reduced length, which appears to be down by an inch, if not more. Its unclear if there are any casualties of this design change. The cooler appears to be just a compacted version of the original, that looks a little less rough on the edges. According to one source, the new cooler features denser aluminum fin stacks, and uses six heat pipes to transport heat, instead of five on the original design. A secondary heatsink runs the entire length of the obverse side of the PCB, drawing heat from memory, MOSFETs, and other hot ancillary components, and cools them under the air-flow of the main heatsink.

The display output configuration is also changed, with the revision featuring two dual-link DVI apart from one-each of HDMI 1.4a and standard-size DisplayPort 1.2; in comparison to the original featuring two mini-DisplayPorts, and just one dual-link DVI. Apart from the design changes mentioned, both the base and TOP models of the new HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics cards retain the clock speeds of the originals. The base model ships with 800 MHz core, 5.00 GHz (effective) memory; while the TOP model ships with 900 MHz core and 5.00 GHz (effective) memory.

The revised ASUS HD 7950 DirectCU II graphics cards will initially sell at the same prices as those of the originals, although its expected that the revisions will give ASUS a better cushion against falling prices.Based on the 28 nm "Tahiti" silicon, the Radeon HD 7950 from AMD features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 3 GB of memory, and support for the DirectX 11.1 API.

Asus teases new tablet

Its no big secret that Asus is going to be unveiling new tablets at Computex, but now the first details are starting to trickle out. Asus Tech in Style website has put up a trio of pictures of what is said to be a new tablet that doesnt look anything like the models Asus has shown so far. The question is, is this Asus new 3D tablet, or is it an Atom powered MeeGo device?

The pictures dont reveal too much in terms of what were looking at, but judging by the fact that Asus and Intel are hosting a webinar later this week talking about MeeGo, wed at least daresay that Asus is planning an Atom Z670 powered tablet running MeeGo, be it this one or some entirely different device. Asus has also been talking about a 3D capable tablet in the past, but wed doubt this is it.

The design is quite interesting, as the tablet is very slim; however, it has a slightly thicker part around the back, towards the middle suggesting that this is where most of the hardware components requiring cooling are located. This is actually quite a clever design, as it means that the tablet is nice and thin where you hold it, while theres still sufficient room to cool the various components inside it.

The third and final picture is something of an enigma though, as apparently it features a "clip". Theres also what appears to be a latch switch here and a lens for a camera. The overall colours scheme is black, silver and a metallic brown and from whats show on the pictures it looks like a rather stylish device.

Asus is also running a teaser countdown on its Facebook page titled "Break the Rule: Pad or Phone?" Make what you want of that, but the first picture posted there doesnt give away a thing, apart from the fact that were looking at a square device with rounded corners. A new picture will apparently be posted every two days from now until Computex.

Source: Tech in Style, Asus Facebook page

the bard goes to harlem “black caesar”

Let’s get one thing straight about writer-director Larry Cohen(who we always seem to come back to every few months around here)’s 1973 mini-opus Black Caesar : this is most assuredly not a blaxploitation film in any traditional sense.

Oh, sure, it was marketed to the African American audience. And yes, a formerly-trod-upon black guy getting his revenge on “The Man” is a central theme here. And yeah, it’s got a kick-ass soul music soundtrack (in this case supplied by the one and only James Brown himself). And okay, it stars none other than Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, and features D’Urville Martin in a supporting role as a crooked preacher.

So fair enough, it’s got all the trappings of your classic blaxploitation flick. But right there, bubbling away just underneath the surface, hiding in plain sight, there’s an unstoppable rhythm that grinds away more ferociously than the vocal stylings of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. An undeniable trajectory that guides the plot along like a force of nature. We know it’ll all end either in tears or in a bittersweet “victory” that stings more than it soars, yet we can’t turn away despite the fact that the fate of the film’s central protagonist, one Tommy Gibbs (Williamson, in the role that made him a household name), is written in the stars. Yes, friends, this is classic Shakespearean tragedy as its finest — albeit in truncated form and set in Harlem.

When we join the story, our guy Tommy is a hard-working shoeshine kid in the 1950s who helps out the local hoods by setting a guy up to get whacked and running a payoff over to a local crooked cop. When the payoff envelope he delivers turns up a little light, the aforementioned morally compromised police officer, one Captain McKinney (the great Art Lund) takes it out on Tommy and busts his leg with his nightstick. And that right there is his biggest mistake, because Tommy Gibbs never forgets, and he never lets a grudge go.

As he lays in bed with leg in a cast, he begins to hatch his master plan, his rise to the top — he learned all he needed to know about the world when McKinney’s billy club whacked him, and he knows without a doubt that the name of the game is power. First he’s gonna get McKinney and every other white asshole just like him to bow down before him, and then he’s gonna bring ‘em all down at the precise moment he’s got them eating out of his hand.

Next thing we know it’s 20 years later and Tommy’s making his mark as a hit man for the mob who’ll take on the jobs nobody else wants. the Italian “family” bosses don’t trust him, of course, but when he’s given a block of his own in Harlem that none of them want, he makes it work, and soon he’s expanding his territory — and taking over theirs. Tommy Gibbs soon becomes known as the “Black Godfather,” and as his influence grows, the same guys who first gave him a chance begin to view him as a threat. It’s only a matter of time before Tommy gets too big for his britches and is brought down hard.

Along the way, though, he becomes the undisputed heavyweight champion of the Harlem crime world — but not without paying a price. Oh, sure, he gets McKinney, and every other bent lawman and politician, right where he wants them, and soon the guys who used to give him his marching orders are all taking the same from him. But the first person to see Tommy for the monster he’s become is none other than his own mother. When Tommy offers her everything she ever wanted and then some, she turns him down flat. When his estranged father re-enters the picture later, the results are no different. And his single-minded determination to “make it” manages to alienate his wife (there’s a particularly gritty scene that marks one of the few times I’ve actually seen a film portray spousal rape? as the horrendous violation ) and drive her into the waiting arms of his best friend.

Needless to say, by the time our Mr. Gibbs finally has everything he wants — or more precisely everything he thought he wanted — he’s alone and finds he’s really got nothing. There’s been one thing driving him on all these years, though, one thing that he can still take care of before the curtain drops on his classically-structured tragedy — he can finally get even with McKinney, personally. Tommy’s a very sharp guy and senses that he’s on the way out, but before he goes, he’s going to take the symbol of all his former oppression and victimization down with him, goddamnit!

Okay, so this isn’t a particularly original set-up in and of itself (“be careful what you wish for, you just might get it” and all that) — but the the oldest stories are still the best. As I stated at the outset, Black Caesar is genuinely Shakespearean in its structure (and Shakespeare got it from the Greeks — remember Oedipus, the very first tragedy?), but Cohen does a terrific job of serving us up a story we’ve seen a thousand times before in a way that’s fresh, exciting, and for its time, frankly even a little bit revolutionary. the characters here, even down to the smallest supporting parts, are interesting and involving, even if they’re only there to serve as convenient plot devices. The dialogue is uniformly smart and realistic throughout, the actual Harlem filming locations are well-portrayed, Williamson is flat-out superb in the title role (equal parts compelling, repulsive, sympathetic, and alienating — we can always relate to his portrayal of Tommy even when we can no longer condone any of his actions), and at no point do you feel like there’s no way this could happen. This is a thinking person’s exploitation flick, and folks with a background in classical literature are going to feel more intrigued than insulted or pandered to by it. There’s nothing wrong with telling the same old story very well, after all, and that’s exactly what Black Caesar does. Sure, at the end of the day you could make the argument that it’s essentially a Cliff’s Notes version (right about 90 minutes) of The Bard transposed into an urban ghetto environment, but that’s actually a pretty cool thing, especially when done with? professionalism and passion — both of which are on display here in ample quantities throughout. Frankly, while Larry Cohen can usually be counted on to crank out a competent piece of work, this is as close as I’ve ever seen him come to genuinely inspired moviemaking.

Black Caesar is available on DVD from MGM as part of its Soul Cinema line (of course). It’s (again, of course) essentially a bare-bones release that offers nothing by way of extras apart from the original theatrical trailer, but the anamorphic widescreen transfer looks great, especially considering its age, and the 2.0 stereo sound does the admittedly killer soundtrack pretty solid justice. It’s also playing for free all month on Impact Action On Demand on most cable and satellite systems.? So do yourself a favor and check it out — I’ve got a feeling that no less an authority than William Shakespeare himself would be more flattered than insulted by it.

Armed man scares off Internet cafe robbers

People go to Internet cafes to surf the internet, chat, YouTube, play video games, and more often than not it’s a safe place to carry about any tasks requiring an Internet connection. However, two armed gunmen recently attempted to rob a busy Palms Internet Café—not realizing that they were not the only one in the building with a firearm.

The café’s surveillance cameras recorded the two thieves scrambling for their lives as a patron unleashed his own gun. Despite being armed, the thieves decided to hightail without returning fire.

The two masked men stumbled and tripped over themselves as they made their way out the door. Luckily, it appears (from the YouTube video) that no one was seriously injured from the robbery attempt—maybe a scrape or two on the robbers during the getaway.

Supposedly, this was not the first robbery attempt that the Palms Internet Café had. About a year ago, three armed men entered the café and robbed patrons of some cash, and unlike the recent event, there were no armed patrons to shoo away the uninvited guests.

ATi Claims X850XT PE Crossfire Faster than 6800U SLI

ATI claims that its Crossfire will be compatible with all games. All games should get performance increase while this should not be the case with Nvidia SLI platform. Compared with two 6800 Ultra in SLI, ATI's Crossfire should end up about 10 per cent faster in 3DMark05, about 30 percent in Splinter cell C.T game and more than 60 percent in NFSU2. The results are gathered from testing SLI and Crossfire platforms on 1600x1200 resolution, with 4X FSAA and 8X aniso, Athlon 64, 1GB DDR 400 memory, RD480 motherboard with 8.151 driver. ATI used two X850 XT Crossfire cards versus Asus SLI Deluxe board, 71.89 drivers, and two 6800 Ultra cards in SLI.

nathan schiff round-up “weasels rip my flesh”

As a movie viewer, there’s a certain kind of moment that I absolutely live for. It’s not a “damn, this is incredibly good” moment, although those are okay, too. And it’s not a “holy shit, this is awful!” moment, although I’m partial to those, depending on my mood, as well. No, friends, what I prize above all, and it happens all too rarely, are those “dear God, what the fuck am I watching???????????” moments. You know what I mean — those instances where a flick is just so ineptly realized, bizarrely thought-out (assuming it’s thought out at all), or utterly incomprehensible that you feel the person or persons responsible for said film are? either a) brain damaged, b) transported here from not just another planet but an entire other dimension , c) haven’t even seen, much less learned anything from, any other movies, or d) any combination thereof. Rest assured — Long Island zero-budget autuer Nathan Schiff’s 1979 super-8 debut “feature,” Weasels Rip My Flesh, is jam-packed with more of these type of instances than any and all known laws of science would dictate that its meager 67-minute runtime could possibly allow for.

Where to even begin? Well, how about some background on Schiff himself. At the time of this film’s amazingly slapdash, flying-by-the-seat-of-its-pants production, he was a high school senior whose sole “qualification” — not that any are necessary — for directing a monster movie was that — well — he loved monster movies and had a super-8 camera. And, apparently, if the title of his little opus is any indication, he was a pretty big Zappa fan, as well. I guess that never hurts, right? Proceeding with (a whole lot) more balls than brains, he cast friends and relatives in all the parts,? made some papier-mache creature costumes, and headed out to his parents’ back yard and other nearby locales to shoot a story about — radioactive slime from Venus that crashes to Earth in a space probe and infects a rabid weasel that turns into a huge mutant creature with a taste for flesh n’ blood.

Oh, sure, there’s more to it than that — but not much more. Two government agents are investigating the case, a mad scientist is experimenting with the weasel’s blood, the sidekick-type agent gets some of said weasel blood injected into him by aforementioned mad scientist and turns into some kind of half-man/half-weasel thing that really looks more like a walking carrot, before it turns mutant the weasel bites a local madman-type who proceeds to assault a drunken college girl — but shit, none of that matters. What matters here is watching how Schiff uses his total budget of $400 (yes, you read that right).

We’ve got a lab that doesn’t look anything like a lab, a couple of monsters that would get laughed off the stage at a special education elementary school production, props haphazardly assembled in extremely — uhmmm — creative ways (look for syringes in a beer stein among other delights), all in service of a script that was completely ad-libbed (characters appear and disappear without explanation in several instances). It all looks — and more importantly feels — like the product of some desperate, lunatic mind with no awareness of its own inabilities or limitations.

All of which means, of course. that I love it to pieces — and yet if Schiff had his way I’d probably never even have seen it. In his defense, he knew he was just making stupid, outlandish stuff here. The whole idea was to show the finished product to the very same friends and family who helped him make it and they’d all sit back and have a good laugh. But somehow, just somehow, a good 30-plus years before YouTube or other “viral” video sensations, this thing got around. It started being shown at regional horror-movie and science fiction-geek get-togethers (they didn’t even really call them conventions or film festivals back then) around the East Coast at first, and from there it just sort of took off. VHS dubs of the original 8mm print made their way westward in the early days of home video, word of mouth about this (admittedly minor) cult phenomenon spread,? and Schiff himself eventually managed to negotiate an (again,admittedly minor) distribution deal for an official videotape release. And rather than shy away from what you or I might consider a youthful cinematic indiscretion, if not an outright embarrassment, our guy Nathan just sort of ran with it for awhile. He would go on to make two other super-8 oddities, 1980′s Long Island Cannibal Massacre and 1985′s They Don’t Cut The Grass Anymore, both of which we’ll take a look at here in the next few days. The “stars” of this film, Fred Borges (the mad doctor) and John Smihula (the lead investigator) would form the backbone of his “stock company” of players. And whaddaya know? 33 years later, here we all are, still talking about this thing.

All of which isn’t to say that Nathan Schiff is an especially good filmmaker or anything of the sort. His movies, this one especially, positively reek of amateurism at best, utter cluelessness at worst. And yet there’s an authentically mad vision here that just plain can’t be denied, as well as an earnestness that adds a welcome dash of charm. This is moviemaking on nothing but gumption alone, and if you can’t respect that, then I got no time for ya.

Image Entertainment released Weasels Rip My Flesh, as well as Schiff’s two subsequent efforts, on DVD in 2003 under their “Cult Cinema Collection” banner. It’s presented full-frame (of course) with mono sound, and while both video and audio have been remastered to what I assume is the best extent possible, it still looks pretty damn grainy and you can still hear the camera running in the background fairly frequently. Extras include a hastily-assembled “trailer” for the film, a decent 15-or-so-minute interview with Schiff, a selection of some other super-8 short films he shot, interviews with Borges and Smihula, and a feature-length commentary with Schiff that’s actually pretty interesting despite the fact that he speaks in almost painful monotone. All in all they do a nice job of padding out what would otherwise be an admittedly paltry release, and you definitely get your money’s worth by the time all is said and done.

You may not end up seeing the entirely accidental grandeur of Weasels Rip My Flesh, it’s true. To say it’s not for all tastes would be an understatement of almost criminal proportions. Yet even if you just can’t get past the ineptitude of its homemade severed limbs and copious amounts of red Karo-syrup blood, its premise is so mind-numbingly weird, and its execution so aggressively incompetent in all respects, that even if you just have no heart at all and hate this thing, you’ve still gotta admit that it’s like absolutely nothing else you’ve ever seen — even if, like me, you think that you’ve pretty much seen it all. Whether it’s “good” or “bad” almost doesn’t even matter. Nathan Schiff’s $400 went further than he ever could have dreamed.