After deleting and repeatedly overwriting his unencrypted copies, the reporter finds himself served with a search warrant, and agents stream into the reporter’s home. One of the government lackeys uses Windows 7’s ability to save previous versions of folders to render the precaution useless:

He located the Documents folder, opened its Properties window, and clicked on the “Previous Versions” tab. Just as he thought, there were five previous versions of the folder – daily “shadow copies” made by the operating system as part of the System Restore mechanism. As these snapshots were prepared silently in the background and stored on a hidden disk volume, few users were aware of them. Agent Trallis was smiling. The good guys from Redmond were going to make his job easy again.

C’mon now Mr. author! I doubt anyone using TrueCrypt would remain unaware of Windows 7’s ability to save old copies of data—a feature that can be disabled by the way. Maybe the reporter in “The Hidden Shadow” was guilty of overconfidence in his counter-intelligence abilities, a narrow-mindedness that’s similar to the outlook of those who think anything Microsoft is necessarily bad.

In any case, this is a great heads-up for anyone using Windows, and with secrets to keep. Make sure to disable those Previous Versions!

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Game of the Year

• Assassin’s Creed 2
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Left 4 Dead 2
• UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves

Studio of the Year

• Infinity Ward
• Naughty Dog
• Rocksteady Studios
• Valve

Best Music Game

• DJ Hero
• Guitar Hero 5
• LEGO Rock Band
• The Beatles: Rock Band

What are your picks for this year? Given my passion for Valve’s recent work, I’ll let my bias speak for the first two categories: Left 4 Dead 2 and Valve for the win! Oh, as for the Best Music Game, I’ve always doubted the “greatness” of theme-games, so it’s really a contest between DJ Hero and Guitar Hero 5. Given the six-string instrument’s more classic feel, and the fact that I’ve never played DJ Hero, the fifth Guitar Hero installment should win the award.

What about you? What are your picks for this year, biases and all? For the rest of the awards, visit the event page at spike.com.

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Any discerning computer parts shopper knows its not really about buying the most expensive parts, but getting the parts that maximize your money.

This applies even when you’re working with an unlimited budget. Even if you’ve budgeted several thousand dollars for your dream gaming PC, it still makes sense not to spend on what you really don’t need, right?

Take for instance the sub-$2000 gaming PC shared by Tom’s Hardware forum member tecmo34. While it spends top dollar on what’s now the most powerful consumer-level graphics card on the planet (the ATI Radeon HD 5970), it’s still content to spend “just” $290 for the Intel Core i7 920, not spending a thousand on the higher-end i7 975.

That’s because in terms fo performance, you get more by spending on the 2.66GHz i7 920, then simply overclocking it to clock speeds close to the i7 975’s 3.33GHz. Ultimately, extreme gaming performance depends more on your video card, not on your processor, no matter what Intel’s marketing tells you. At the same time, why would you bother spending top dollar on a Blu-Ray burner, when a $30 DVD rewriter is all you need for now?

Extreme Enthusiast Gaming Build

Without further ado, here’s tecmo34’s Extreme Enthusiast Gaming Build:

	Component	Item	Cost
	CPU	Intel Core i7-920 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor	$289
	Motherboard	ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 ATX Intel Motherboard	$289
	RAM	OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory	$164
	Heatsink Fan Assembly	XIGMATEK Intel Core i7 compatible Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler	$45
	Solid State Disk	Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2XXX 2.5″ 80GB SATA II	$290
	Hard Disk	SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 1TB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive	$85
	GPU	SAPPHIRE 100280OCSR Radeon HD 5970	$625
	PSU	Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power “compatible with Core i7″ Power Supply	$120
	Optical Drive	Sony Optiarc DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B	$32
	Case	Antec Twelve Hundred Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window	$150
	Thermal Paste	Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound	$7
Total			$2096

There you have it, “only” $2096 for the most powerful PC gaming hardware money can buy. You can spend a whole lot more on parts that are technically more powerful, but the law of diminishing returns plays more of a role beyond this level. The build above obviously doesn’t include a display, other peripherals, and even the OS, so let’s cover that below.

Display

With such a powerful gaming build at your disposal, it’s an utter waste to settle for small displays that have a resolution less than 1920 x 1080. Heck, the 5970 is powerful to drive six different displays. I am not kidding.

Anyways, if your budget was nearly drained by the build above, there’s nothing wrong with settling for “just” the Hanns·G HG-281DPB, a $300 27.5″ display with a resolution of—you guessed it—1920 x 1080. To maximize the video card however, you need to get at least two.

However, if you really want to go all the way, while still maximizing your money, then why not get an LED TV? Paying $2800 for a computer monitor sounds a bit extreme, but there’s no easier way to equip your setup with a large display.

Peripherals

If you do opt for the LED TV display above, you’d better get a wireless mouse keyboard combo like the Logitech Pro 2800 Cordless Desktop ($65), so that you can keep yourself an appreciable distance away from the TV. For a more conventional mouse-keyboard setup however, the Logitech Black Internet 350 USB Keyboard and Microsoft D66-00066 Black Wired Optical Mouse cost $12 each.

Operating System

Without a doubt, you should get Windows 7. Unless you need advanced network management and file encryption functionality, there’s no reason to opt for the pricey Ultimate Edition. With 6GB of RAM in the build above, you’ll need Windows 7 Professional edition, 64-bit ($140).

Suggestions

Got anything to add here? Feel free to leave ‘em below.

Source

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That depends on what they mean by “traditional PC”, and I doubt this rig can run Left 4 Dead 2 at the integrated display’s native resolution. However, the Wind Top is promising as an HTPC, as it’s compatible with the standard VESA wall mount, like your typical HDTV. It can also play BluRay discs and burn DVDs, and the lowest-end model features 4GB of DDR2 RAM and a 320GB hard disk. While the multi-touch interface (courtesy of Windows 7) is unproven and thus won’t win me over, the inclusion of a wireless mouse and keyboard makes the sub-$800 price tag seem even more reasonable.

Complete specs below for the new MSI Wind top AE2220 series is available at MSI’s US website.

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The ErgoMotion Mouse is redefining what a true ergonomic product should be by actually reducing your risk of Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). How? By adding motion! The ErgoMotion Mouse utilizes a patented motion-base that adapts to your natural hand and wrist positions while you work. The mouse will rock, swivel or pivot with your movement so your hand and wrist are never in a fixed position, creating the most comfortable and healthy mousing experience ever!

There’s also no pesky wire to trip up your mouse hand movements, as the ErgoMotion Laser Mouse is wireless and comes with a nano USB receiver. Available starting today, the mouse is available from SmartFish’s website and Amazon.com for $50.

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New Lower Price on Dell Netbooks! Now starting at only $279 + free standard shipping.

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Another notable trend becomes clear when comparing brands. Here’s the list of nine different brands, ranked from most reliable to least, in terms of malfunction rate:

1. Asus
2. Toshiba
3. Sony
4. Apple
5. Dell
6. Lenovo
7. Acer
8. Gateway
9. HP

Looks like Asus‘ marketing department have a new talking point to advertise, while Apple has another reason to stick its nose up at Dell. I’m also sure Sony would like to mention being second in reliability while pimping its stylish VAIO lines.

The most depressing trend noted, while somewhat obvious, is still a bit depressing: From an average of 7.2% after 12 months of ownership, the average rate of “total failure” rises to 19.7% after 24 months, and steadily rises to 31% by the third year.

Great info from Squaretrade, relevant to makers and consumers alike. What I’d like to see though is a survey on the reliability of desktops. In any case, do you own a laptop? How reliable (or not) has it proven to be?

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The OCZ Colossus uses the standard 3.5″ SATA chassis, meaning it’s an easy plug-in for contemporary desktops. Unfortunately, that’s too big for most laptops, which usually accept only 2.5″ drive modules. The relative heftiness of the Colossus has something to do with its built-in RAID 0 architecture, implying that there are actually multiple SSDs working in tandem inside the unit to boost read and write speeds.

Unfortunately, you have to pay to play. Prices are $438, $820, and $1530 for the 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB variants respectively. The 1TB version retails for a whopping $3837, according to XBitLabs.

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Wait, what? Almost ten-thousand European simoleons for a camera? There’s a reason why professional photographers spend good money on cameras, lenses, and accessories like flash. It’s because these pricey gadgets truly make for a better picture.

Now don’t get me wrong; No one should ever doubt the image quality achievable through technology from Leica (better known to the average geek as the lens provider for the Panasonic Lumix line). But why would you that much for a camera that has average capabilities, all because it’s covered with leather and carries the name of a luxury brand?

In any case, technical specs for the 35mm, non-digital Leica M7, extremely-expensive edition or not, are available here. And if you really want to waste your money, availability info is here, from leicarumors.com:

The LEICA M7 Edition ‘Hermes’ will be available in the UK from December 2009 from authorised Leica dealers including the Leica Store Mayfair (www.leica-storemayfair.co.uk), at a suggested retail price of GBP8,550.

Photo source: flickr/stranger_than_Tokyo

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Complete spec list straight from Dell:

What do you think? Personally the 1.4 GHz processor worries me, but I bet people will buy this for the aesthetics, rather than performance. The Dell Adamo XPS is available from Dell.com, for $1799.

Introducing The World’s Thinnest Laptop. The New Adamo XPS at 9.99mm Thin.

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