Area-51 ALX Desktop

Let the Bragging BeginThe new Area-51® ALX is Alienware's most powerful desktop, giving you the most bone-shaking, body-quaking performance in the universe. With the highest overclocked CPUs, the most extreme graphics and new aggressive design, you'll be the deadliest force that’s known and feared by all other gamers. Go ahead — the bragging rights are now yours.

The Fastest Speeds Possible

Accelerate your gaming speed to heart-stopping levels with Intel®Core™ i7 975 Extreme processors, pre-overclocked by Alienware's experts for ultimate power. Get the advantage of CPUs pushed up to two or three additional bin speeds — as high as 3.86GHz. With the highest overclocked speeds around, you'll be amazed by what you can do.

The Ultimate Visual Experience™Conquer and destroy any competition with the most powerful graphics in the universe. ATI CrossFireX™ and NVIDIA® SLI graphics deliver higher frame rates at HD resolutions, all while maxing out game settings. Choose the GPU brand that best fits your needs. Then add a second graphics card to experience a new level of spectacular performance — all of it cooler and quieter, thanks to the liquid-cooled configuration.

ATI CrossFireX - Dominate any game with the ultimate multi-GPU performance gaming platform, enhanced by the latest Microsoft DirectX technology.


NVIDIA SLI - Don’t dial back game settings; crank ’em up. With NVIDIA SLI graphics and Microsoft DirectX technology, you will experience your digital media like never before.

Multi-GPU Support - Add a second graphics card to increase your gaming performance by up to 100%, while enjoying more vivid images and faster transitions. With dual graphics cards, you can power up to four independent digital displays. Stay deep within your game on a main monitor and still keep up with your other tasks.

Unmatched Visual Immersion - Build your system with the best gaming GPUs and still have room for the other essentials of an immersive experience, including crystal clear sound and optimized networking.

Your Command CenterAlienware Command Center provides intuitive, user-friendly access to exclusive applications, including AlienFX® lighting effects, Alienware thermal controls and AlienFusion power management. Updates and new releases download directly into Command Center, creating a constantly evolving tool for personalizing your system.

AlienFX Lighting — Choose from an array of 20 colors — up to an amazing 64 million lighting color combinations — to customize the effects across several distinct zones.

Designed for Total DominationThe power of the Alienware Area-51 ALX is undeniable — inside and out. Take command immediately with Alienware's all-new, anodized aluminum case design that includes motorized vents for managing your thermals and intimidating the competition.

Active Venting — This Alienware-exclusive feature helps your system stay cooler in the heat of battle. Controlled through Alienware's Command Center, the series of motorized vents can be programmed to allow greater airflow in high-performance situations.

Easy, Lighted Access - Look inside the Alienware Area-51 ALX, and you'll see why it's easier than ever to make this desktop your own. You can access most of the core components without any tools for faster upgrades. And the chassis includes two-zone, internal theater lighting — powered by rechargeable batteries — so you can service the system even when the A/C cord is unplugged.


Liquid Cooling - Eliminate distractions with high-performance CPU liquid cooling, which is more than twice as quiet as the standard heatsink and fans on other PCs. The efficient cooling also increases the reliability of your overclocked settings.

Tech Spec

Processor

Intel® CoreTM i7 990x (4GHz/12MB cache)
Intel® CoreTM i7 990x (3.46GHz/12MB cache)
Intel® CoreTM i7 960 (3.2GHz/8MB cache)

Operating System

Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-Bit
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Memory2


Up to 12GB2 Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333Mhz - 3 DIMMS
Up to 6GB2 Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1866Mhz - 3 DIMMS
Up to 12GB2 Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600Mhz - 3 DIMMS

Hard Drive Help Me Choose

Up to 2000GB3 SATA II hard drive (7200RPM)
Up to 1280GB3 SATA II hard drive (10000RPM)
Up to 512GB3 Solid State hard drive

Optical Drive

Single Optical Disc Drive Options

16X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
24X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
6X Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW)

Dual Optical Disc Drive Options

Drive 1: 16X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Drive 2: Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Drive 1: 16X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Drive 2: 6X Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Drive 1: 24X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Drive 2: Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Reader (BD-ROM, DVD±RW, CD-RW)
Drive 1: 24X Dual-Layer Burner (DVD±RW)
Drive 2: 6X Dual Layer Blu-ray Disc™ Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW)

Video CardHelp Me Choose

2048MB AMD RadeonTM HD6870
2048MB AMD RadeonTM HD6950
NVIDIA® GTX580 GeForce®

Ports

Front I/O Ports

(3x) High-Speed USB 2.0
(1x) eSATA
(1x) Firewire IEEE 1394
(1x) Microphone In
(1x) Headphone/Speaker Out

Rear I/O Ports

(1x) eSATA
(1x) RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet
(6x) High-Speed USB 2.0
(1x) Firewire IEEE 1394
(1x) Microphone In
(1x) Line-In
(1x) Front Left/Right Speakers
(1x) Center Speaker
(1x) Rear Left/Right Speakers
(1x) Side Left/Right Speakers
(1x) SPDIF Digital Output (TOSLINK)
(1x) SPDIF Digital Output (Coax)
(2x) PS/2 (mouse/keyboard)

HDTV Tuners Options

Internal PCI-e Digital/Analog TV Tuner (Optional)

Power

Alienware™ 1100 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply

Chassis

Motherboard and Chassis Form Factor

ATX Motherboard, Full-Tower Chassis

System Dimensions

557.6 mm (22") - Height
595.5 mm (23.4") – Height - Vent Open
656.3 mm (25.8") – Depth
277.1 mm (10.9") – Width
15.4mm (0.6") - Deployed Rear Foot Height Adder
Average Weight - 38 kgs (84 lbs.)

Motherboard

Alienware™ Approved Intel® X58 ATX Motherboard

Processor Cooling

High-Performance Liquid Cooling

Exclusive ALX Chassis Features

Anodized Aluminum Chassis Finish
Motorized Front Door

Friendster to delete users' content by May 31

Attention, Friendster users: You have until May 31 to save your account contents including photos, testimonials, and blogs —or else you'll lose them in the social network's upcoming major reformat.

Friendster, a pioneer social networking site launched in 2002, issued the warning as it prepares a "new and improved version" in the coming weeks.

"Your Friendster account will not be deleted. You will still have the same email login and password in the new Friendster. Also, your list of friends will be preserved, along with your basic profile information. However, all the photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shoutouts, blogs, forums and groups that you may have now will no longer be part of your account by May 31, 2011," it said in its help forum.

To be preserved are the user's list of friends, along with basic profile information, wallet, and games.

But to help the user save his or her account content, Friendster offered an application to help download or export photos and blogs securely to third party sites, such as Flickr or Multiply.

Dubbed the Friendster Exporter, the app will be rolled out gradually and is now available for users inSingapore.

Users in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia can expect the app to be available in a few days after April 14, it added.

It said that the app will be available to all Friendster users before the end of April 2011.

Relaunching Friendster

Friendster was acquired in December 2009 by MOL Global, the parent company of Asia’s leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad.

Friendster said that it and MOL have been combined to create Asia's largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL's offline retail channel partners and payment platform with Friendster's large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia.

But MOL CEO Ganesh Bangah explained that the new Friendster aims not to compete with, but instead to complement, Facebook.

Complementing Facebook

He noted that, while Facebook is a site where people can communicate with and find out what their real-life friends are doing, Friendster will be the place where people can meet new friends and play games and enjoy music with them. The pioneering social network will continue to innovate and be at the forefront of the social networking scene, he said in an article on ZDNet Asia.

Friendster said that its "new and improved" version will be focused on entertainment and fun, and will have new features to better enable users to connect with friends or engage new friends with similar interests.

"Our improved site is designed to create new profiles that allow you to connect differently with people and do things differently than other networking sites. Basically, the new site will complement your existing online presence in other social networking sites," the company said.

Popular in Asia

A July 15, 2010 article in the Global Post said that, while Friendster lost users in the United States to MySpace and Facebook in the mid-2000s, the social network exploded in the Philippines, where nearly half of its userbase is located.

It said that Friendster later spread to Malaysia and Indonesia.

Now, roughly 80 percent of Friendster’s 116 million users live in Southeast Asia, the report said. — TJD, GMA News

WD TV Live Hub

The WD TV Live Hub media centre puts all your personal entertainment right on the 1TB hard drive, so it's easily accessible. Enjoy music, videos, photos or even the stuff you love to watch on the Internet – an Ethernet connection makes it a cinch to get connected to your wired network, while Full HD playback lets you enjoy spectacular picture quality on your HDTV.

Product Features

Load up the high-capacity drive with all your media to create your own personal media jukebox. With just a few clicks, you can play your home movies, share vacation slideshows, and play your music on the big screen and sound system in your living room.

• Access popular Internet content from the comfort of your living room via wired network connection
• Full HD 1080p video playback makes this Hub the perfect partner for your compatible HDTV
• Use the programmable remote control to make your entertainment choices using animated navigation menus
• Play almost any type of media file; the WD TV Live Hub supports a wide variety of the most popular file formats including HD camcorder video formats (no need to spend time transcoding)
• Store all your media on the 1TB hard drive, and the Live Hub finds and categorizes it all and displays it in one easy-to-view menu system
• Copy, move or delete files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, your camcorder, or a camera to the Live Hub built-in drive using the on-screen menus
• Stream any file on the WD TV Live Hub media center to a WD TV Live Plus or WD TV Live media player or any DLNA/UPnP compatible TV, Blu-ray Disc player, or game console
• Powerful enough to handle multiple streams so you can stream a movie in one room, while viewing photos on your TV upstairs
• Cool, quiet and ultra-compact design
• Supports a wireless network connection to your home network with an optional USB wireless adapter (sold separately)
• HDMI 1.4, composite video and component video output 
• An optical audio output sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience

CLICK HERE FOR MORE..

Messi Facebook page draws over 6 million

Following tens of millions of other social media fans worldwide,Barcelona midfield star Lionel Messi set up a Facebook page on Wednesday.

In contrast to his electronic peers, however, within just a few hours his page had attracted more than six million followers.

Such popularity warranted a speedy response from the Argentina international.

"Welcome to everyone and thanks for all the messages you have been sending me. Now we shall be closer with Facebook," said the two-time world footballer of the year, whose followers come from all corners of the globe.

Messi, 23, was later hoping to help propel Barcelona towards the Champions League semi-finals with Barca taking on Ukraine's Shakhtar Donetsk at the Nou Camp Wednesday.

Assuming the three-time winners advance they will likely face La Liga rivals Real Madrid, 4-0 up from their first leg with Tottenham- a semi-final which will doubtless attract a welter of further posts from player and fans alike.

Greed and technology tempt insider trading culprits

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rooting out one dishonest investment banker amongst the hundreds who sign confidentiality agreements for a merger is virtually impossible despite the checks and balances banks put in place.

On Wednesday, U.S. federal prosecutors accused two men of running a 17-year conspiracy to trade on corporate merger secrets stolen from three of the nation's most powerful law firms, including venerable Silicon Valley firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC.

The charges come amid a broad government crackdown on insider trading, including the criminal trial of Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and last month's charges that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration chemist traded on insider information about drug approvals.

Questions also have surfaced about David Sokol, a former top deputy to Warren Buffett who quit Berkshire Hathaway Inc last week amid questions over his trading in stock of a company Berkshire later agreed to buy.

Despite clear rules governing non-disclosure of inside information, investment bank's large compliance departments, and code words used to conceal merger partners' identities, insider trading cases still continue to happen.

"You can't legislate human behavior. People will act as people will do," David Lazarus, senior managing director, co-founder, EdgeRock Realty Advisors, said at the Reuters Global Mergers and Acquisitions Summit in New York.

"The greed of humans and the way it's structured in the U.S. is a good thing because it's the way of capitalism, but there's always those people who will go over the line," Lazarus said.

In any given merger auction, for example, several hundred people ranging from investment bankers and lawyers to corporate executives and public relations consultants and event planners may know private information that could move the stock market.

"You have three advisors with five people teams. Another 10 at the firms who know they're working on it. You have a couple of law firms. Eleven bidders you sent books to. The universe gets to 250 people pretty damn quick. It's very, very hard to manage that kind of information," Lazarus said.

"The way info flows these days: computers, emails, fax, texts -- very, very hard to manage these processes in a way that they can stay confidential," Lazarus said.

Still, every firm, boss and co-worker needs to be vigilant to make sure sensitive information remains private, bankers said.

"When people come to me and say 'Gee, I'm thinking of investing,' or I see someone trade a lot of stocks in my group, my antenna goes up because I don't do it," said Jackson Hsieh, vice chairman of UBS investment banking group.

"People start spending in unusual ways, buying certain things, basic stuff, you have to ask questions -- what happened? You married a rich wife? You inherited it?" Hsieh said.

"It's a small percentage but it does happen. People do stupid things," Hsieh said.

Corporations, banks and law firms have long had rules in place about the disclosure of proprietary information. Compliance departments also oversee the stock trades of employees and ethics training happens for new and existing employees, bankers said.

"We all have very, very careful procedures," said Garrett Moran, chief operating officer of the private equity group at Blackstone Group LP "You just don't do a trade unless you ask your compliance department in advance."

"I think it's really a question of executing on policies, people being more vigilant, educating junior bankers in the right way, making sure people don't get arrogant or view their role in transactions in a different way than they have historically or how policies would dictate," said Brad Whitman, co-head of FIG M&A at Barclays Capital.

"Confidentiality and conflicts and Chinese walls and all that are taken incredibly seriously. It could destroy your reputation in the market. It's staying focused and making sure no one is trying to elevate themselves above their clients or our institutions," Whitman said.

Another insider trading case in 2009 included an executive at the Blackstone Group, who was charged with masterminding a $3.6 million scheme.

"These stories are incredible -- that someone would put themselves above the clients and above the firm and I think just mis-assessing. Their judgment is just way off," Whitman said.

New Google +1 Feature "Check It Out"

Google has implemented a new feature on its search engine which will allow users to share recommendations with their friends and contacts, very much like the Facebook 'likes' feature.

According to Google, +1 is shorthand for "this is pretty cool" or "check it out!" The new Google +1 feature will let users who are logged in to their Google account recommend search results to their chat buddies or contacts.

Visitors to Google search will also be able to view search results that have been recommended by their friends. All the recommendations made via +1 will be public, Google said, adding that users will be able to manage their recommendations from the Google Dashboard.

“The beauty of +1’s is their relevance—you get the right recommendations (because they come from people who matter to you), at the right time (when you are actually looking for information about that topic) and in the right format (your search results),” Robert Spiro, a product manager at Google, said in a statement.

The search engine giant said that soon the +1 feature will be able to incorporate recommendations from connections on social networking platforms like Twitter. In order to start +1'ing, users would need to create a Google Profile or update their existing one. The new feature is still at an experimental stage and will be rolled out slowly in English on Google.com.

10 gadgets you should actually get rid of (or not)

If you haven’t been to the New York Times‘ website recently, a visit today will show that the most popular story is Sam Grobart’s “Gadgets You Should Get Rid Of (Or Not).”

In the piece, Grobart outlines several consumer electronics that you may or may not need, from digital cameras to books. But in reading it, I found myself disagreeing with several of his suggestions, which are meant for a broad (but fairly educated) audience — after all, the Timesis among the most popular news outlets in the world.

So I feel compelled to respond with my own take, as an editor immersed in the gadget world for the last three years. I agree with the basic premise that we need fewer gadgets than ever; which gadgets we give up, that’s a different matter entirely.

His takes, with my responses:

1. The desktop computer.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it…laptops have all the necessary computing power the average user needs.”

Nusca’s take: Agree. I gave up my desktop in 2005, and haven’t looked back. (I currently pipe my MacBook Pro’s visuals into a Dell IPS monitor, complete with external keyboard and mouse.) Gamers and other users with computing-intensive applications are exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of users no longer need the bulk.

2.) Broadband Internet.

Grobart’s take: “Keep it,” because a 3G mobile broadband connection may offer connectivity, but it fails at video streaming, data caps and coverage.”

Nusca’s take: Agree, but for different reasons. I do think a large portion of computer users — those who use them occasionally — could get by on 3G, video streaming be damned, but the data caps and spotty coverage give me pause. Broadband is more Internet than most homes need, but 3G isn’t enough.

3. Cable TV.

Grobart’s take: “Depends. While you may and should hold on to a good broadband connection at home, it is debatable whether you need to pay for cable TV.”

Nusca’s take: Keep it, unequivocally. While I advocate cutting the cord in principle, my colleagues at CNET Reviews have demonstrated that the reality is not nearly as easy as it sounds. This isn’t about sports or movies — this is about simplicity. And setting up TV service without calling the cable company is about as easy as setting up a home network with Windows 95.

4. Point-and-shoot cameras.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it. Yes, a dedicated camera will probably take a better picture than the small lens and image sensor of a smartphone, but it will not be that much better.”

Nusca’s take: Depends. For candid photos around town and of the kids, a current-generation smartphone handles this task, despite some quibbles about resolution. But if you’re still getting photos printed and framed, you might consider a proper point-and-shoot. (I still use them to cover events.) World travelers will likely go the dSLR route, anyway.

5. Camcorder.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it…that camcorder you have now is probably the last one you will own.”

Nusca’s take: Keep it, assuming it’s a Flip-type model. Grobart says digital SLR cameras now handle HD video with aplomb, rendering conventional shotgun-style camcorders useless, but most folks aren’t willing to shell out for such expensive (and bulky) cameras. If you’ve got a conventional camcorder, ditch it — most cheaper models don’t offer much better quality than the Flip and its counterparts, and handheld comfort isn’t enough to justify a second gadget.

6. USB thumb drive.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it. File sharing does not require hardware anymore. In almost any case you can think of, you can move files around digitally via the Internet.”

Nusca’s take: Keep it. While Internet sharing is indeed a large part of the daily grind — I send myself documents through the cloud all day — connectivity problems and speed (large photos, home videos, applications) aren’t worth taking the time to upload to the cloud, just to bring back down again. Always-on connectivity might work for the office, but it’s not always efficient at home.

7. Digital music player.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it (probably). Do you have a smartphone? Then you have a music player.”

Nusca’s take: Agree for most of the population. Only gym rats would consider a small player like the Apple iPod nano, and even then, a smartphone just as easily sits in the cupholder of your treadmill. The only exception are outdoors runners, who need to shed weight.

8. Alarm clock.

Grobart’s take: “Keep it…setting and resetting smartphone alarms may require a dive into one submenu too many.”

Nusca’s take: Lose it. Modern smartphones can offer shortcuts into said menus, and unless you’re attached to the babbling brook setting, your phone will wake you just as effectively. Plus, overseas travelers rely on them, since a U.S. alarm clock won’t stay accurate plugged into a wall in Europe.

9. GPS device.

Grobart’s take: “Lose it…your smartphone can do the same thing, if not more, for half that price, or even free.”

Nusca’s take: Keep it, for the same reason that Grobart said to keep your alarm clock: simplicity. Sure, top-of-the-line smartphones have navigation capability, but it’s a mess of menus — not something you want to deal with when you’re driving around lost. In due time this will be corrected, but the GPS thing is still far too early to ditch your cheap, windshield-mounted unit.

10. Books

Grobart’s take: “Keep them (with one exception)…consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries.”

Nusca’s take: Depends on your use case. If you’re a public transit rider, an e-reader is a godsend, doing away with the weight and bulk of a traditional bound book. For beachgoers, paperback books can handle sand and sun and humidity without giving you heart palpitations. For armchair readers, an e-reader works just as well — provided you can find the stuff you want to read.

That’s my take. What’s yours?