TechEye |  |
- Nvidia denies AMD boycott
- Intel makes robot from 3D printed parts
- Snowden not in bed with Putin
- Apple tries to be cool and buys Beats
- Iranian hackers used Facebook socks
| Posted: 29 May 2014 02:48 AM PDT Nvidia has denied AMD's claims that its GameWorks program prevents AMD from working with game developers on GPU optimisations. The allegations were made in a Forbes article yesterday. Tech report asked Cem Cebenoyan, Director of Engineering for Developer Technology at Nvidia if the story was true and he said it was total rubbish. Cebenoyan said that Nvidia had never precluded people from working with its competition or taking suggestions from its competition or getting access to builds. He said that it was not really Nvidia's business as to who has access to its games developers partners' builds. His assumption was that all the competitors have equal access in terms of getting pre-release game builds. Pre-release game builds are normally shared with GPU manufacturers prior to launch and nothing in the GameWorks licensing terms precludes that type of collaboration, Cebenoyan said. Developers are not allowed to share Nvidia's GameWorks middleware code, hich, when that code is integrated into a game engine, may mean AMD doesn't get access to that portion of a game's source code. Cebenoyan conceded that AMD was "concerned" about not having the code for Nvidia's GameWorks modules. However, he seems to believe that shouldn't hinder AMD's optimisation efforts. He said that in all the games Nvidia worked with, it did not need the source code to a game to optimise for it. Nvidia driver engineers almost never have looked game source code. So that's not really the operating model. Prior to the establishment of the GameWorks licensing model, AMD would not have had access to the code for games with Nvidia middleware anyway. AMD moaned about code samples disappearing from Nvidia's website, Cebenoyan pointed out that the samples were still there, but someone just failed in navigating the website. Nvidia doesn't intend to remove them - indeed, the company says it wants to add more of them. However the question then is why do certain Nvidia-backed titles, such as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Arkham Asylum, and Watch Dogs, perform so comparatively poorly on AMD gear. Cebenoyan said that Nvidia spent shedloads of time on those titles. However Cebenoyan hinted that AMD's claims were all projection and that its own developer relations efforts impeded Nvidia's work with game developers. "We know of real examples where we have actually explicitly been forbidden from seeing builds—forget source code, even just binary builds—of games that include high-end effects," Cebenoyan said. "The full game with all of the effects, the important PC ultra-quality settings, was hidden from us until say a few weeks before launch, something like that. These were things that were contractually obligated," Cebenoyan said.        |
| Intel makes robot from 3D printed parts Posted: 29 May 2014 02:46 AM PDT Fashion bag maker Intel is going to release a kitset for a walking, talking robot to match its nice handbags. The robot will be made from 3D-printed parts that will be available to consumers later this year, if they are willing to assemble it. It will cost about $1,600. The company's Chief Executive Brian Krzanich was accompanied by "Jimmy" on stage at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. The white 2-foot tall robot shuffled onto the stage, introduced itself and then waved its arms and then we think Jimmy came on. Intel describes Jimmy as a research robot, but the company intends to make 3D-printable plans available without charge for a slightly less advanced version, and partners will sell components that cannot be 3D-printed, such as motors and an Intel Edison processor, in kits. Apparently the robot can sing, translate languages, send tweets and serve a cold beer. Owners of the robots will be able to program them to perform unique tasks. They can then share the programs with other owners as downloadable apps. Chipzilla thinks that the price for the robot kits will fall below $1,000 within five years.     |
| Posted: 29 May 2014 02:34 AM PDT Whistleblower contractor Edward Snowden has told a US television interviewer that he is not in bed with the Russian government and had given Moscow no intelligence documents after nearly a year of asylum there. Snowden told NBC News he had no relationship with the Russian government at all. He was not supported by the Russian government. He's not taking money from the Russian government and he's not a spy. However former NSA director Keith Alexander said it was unlikely Russian security services have not squeezed Snowden for secrets and Snowden was being manipulated by Russian intelligence. Snowden, who said he would like to come back to the US, said he destroyed classified materials before transiting to a Moscow airport, where he was prevented from onward travel. "I took nothing to Russia, so I could give them nothing," he told NBC. Snowden briefly criticised the crackdown on freedom of expression under Russian President Vladimir Putin. Describing himself as a defender of privacy and civil liberties, he said it was "frustrating" to "end up stuck in a place where those rights are being challenged in ways that he considers deeply unfair. Secretary of State John Kerry invited Snowden to "man up and come back to the United States" where he can be locked up for trillions of years. Of course Snowden said he would not simply "walk into a jail cell," and that if his one-year asylum in Russia, which expires on August 1, "looks like it's going to run out, then of course I would apply for an extension."     |
| Apple tries to be cool and buys Beats Posted: 29 May 2014 02:32 AM PDT Fruity inventor of the rounded rectangle, Apple, has just written a $3 billion cheque to buy the music outfit Beats. The company will bring recording mogul Jimmy Iovine and rapper Dr. Dre into Apple into the cargo cult as part of the acquisition of the music streaming and audio equipment company. Apple is treated with suspicion in the music industry and it is thought that Iovine and Dre might help that . Jobs' Mob wants to do more on subscription services, a market expected to eclipse song downloads in the long run. Iovine's music industry relationships could make the notoriously difficult licensing negotiations for a future streaming service more likely. It is the biggest deal that Apple has signed, normally Apple buys companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars rather than billions, and Beats does not have that many customers. But iTunes sales are falling and Pandora and Spotify are giving it a good kicking. Apple is also gaining a line of high-end headphones popular with a young urban demographic, bumping up its "cool" factor. But industry executives say the company was most impressed with Beats' five month-old music service. The best part of the deal as far as Apple is concerned though is getting hold of Iovine who is best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records, a rap music pioneer that branched out to include acts like Lady Gaga and U2.     |
| Iranian hackers used Facebook socks Posted: 29 May 2014 02:31 AM PDT Iranian spooks were involved in a three year hacker campaign using Facebook socks and a fake news website to spy on military and political leaders in the United States, Israel and other countries. ISight Partners, which uncovered the operation, said the hackers' targets include a four-star U.S. Navy admiral, US lawmakers and ambassadors, members of the US Israeli lobby, and personnel from Britain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. It is not clear what data had been stolen by the hackers, who were looking for passwords to government and corporate networks. iSight Executive Vice President Tiffany Jones told Reuters that the fact the programme went for so long indicated that they had some success. The hackers created six "personas" who appeared to work for a fake news site, NewsOnAir.org, which used content from the Associated Press, BBC, Reuters and other media outlets. They then built eight personas who purported to work for defence contractors and other organizations. The next part of the plan was to set up false accounts on Facebook and other online social networks for these 14 personas, populated their profiles with fictitious personal content, and then tried to befriend the victims. iSight said it was the most elaborate cyber espionage campaign using "social engineering" that has been uncovered to date from any country. The hackers would approach high-value targets by first establishing ties with the victims' mates, classmates, colleagues, relatives and other connections over social networks. They then sent content that was not malicious, such as links to news articles on NewsOnAir.org, in a bid to establish trust. Later they would send links that infected PCs with malicious software, or direct targets to web portals that ask for network log-in credentials. The hackers used the 14 personas to make connections with more than 2,000 people, the firm said, adding that it believed the group ultimately targeted several hundred individuals. Facebook has removed all of the offending profiles found to be associated with the fake NewsOnAir organisation.     |
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