Friday Tech Roundup (20 July 2012)

Raspberry Pi selling like raspberry hotcakes

The tiny Raspberry Pi computer, which has already been put to use in such diverse applications as exploring space and playing Quake 3, has now had its order cap lifted. 4,000 devices are being made every day to keep up with demand, which has so far been outstripping supply at a ferocious pace. Last Saturday the foundation behind the tiny computer announced than an official camera board was on its way, with a 5-megapixel camera device expected within a few months.  A bunch of enterprising young (very young!) programmers are doing a 48-hour Raspberry Pi coding marathon this weekend, which you can keep track of here.  For more information about Raspberry Pi, check out their site.

Steam officially coming to Linux

Valve deployed their official ‘Steam’d Penguins’ blog post on Tuesday from their Linux team, which is now apparently eleven members strong. The team have successfully ported Steam to Ubuntu in what they describe as a state “with all major features available”. Their next goal is the native support of Left 4 Dead 2 on Ubuntu because, well, you have to start somewhere.  The game is currently running on Ubuntu but apparently not in a desirable state, as the team mention the need to work to improve the framerate as a top priority. For more information on the Steam’d Penguins, check out their introductory blog post.

Microsoft Office 2013 customer preview is ready

Microsoft are apparently confident enough in Office 2013 to send it out for consumers to try, and you can now do so by clicking here. The new office promises what Microsoft are describing as “touch everywhere” controls and Windows 8 portability, along with a cripplingly cheerful promotional video that makes the Office 2013 suite look like about as much fun as a picnic, or a walk along the beach. Manipulate that spreadsheet data from anywhere – whether you’re sitting on a wall at your expensive university, or pausing in delight as a butterfly stops to rest on your outstretched finger, there’s never been a better way to enjoy documents. Thanks Ars.

Fanless “totally silent” Sandy Bridge desktop coming from SilentMaxx

Those lucky Germans get everything – first it’s the deliciously confusing currywurst, and now it’s the apparently completely silent Sandy Bridge e-Desktop from SilentMaxx. With a Core i7 3820 powered by a TwinMax CPU cooler and a passively cooled HD 7970 as well an SSD, it’s no wonder this thing runs as quietly as it apparently does. Seriously, look at that CPU cooler. What is that I don’t even. (Via TechPowerUp)

ASRock develops first web-based BIOS update tool

Sick of flashing your BIOS with a USB drive? Well, back in the day you had to use a floppy disk and a command line! Things are actually pretty good now, but hey, they can always improve: ASRock have announced that they’ll be releasing a web-based BIOS updater which only needs to be pointed to a working internet connection that uses the motherboard’s ethernet controller. The updater then phones home ET-style to the ASRock site to query for a new version, and automatically downloads, installs and updates itself. ASRock writes that upcoming motherboards “could” ship with this feature, and “select current ones could get this feature via a BIOS update” (which, presumably, will be with a USB drive). Thanks TechPowerUp.

GTX 660 to arrive mid-August

The new GeForce card is expected to roll out sometime between August 13 and 19, according to a report by SweClockers. The same report also lists the card as being based on the 28 nm GK104 GPU, with either 1,344 or 1,152 CUDA cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface with 1.5GB of actual memory. Nvidia will be hoping for the card to hit a nice balance between price and performance, expected (or at least widely hoped) to come in at under $300 US.  More at Videocardz.

Supercomputers mimicking the common cold in attempt to cure it

Australian scientists – universally acknowledged as the best scientists – have apparently been harnessing the power of technology to make supercomputers that mimic the movement and behaviour of the common cold in an attempt to better understand it. “This is the first time we’ve had enough computational capacity to actually model the entire virus,” claims Michael Kuiper of Melbourne University. Rhinovirus, which is the virus that causes the common cold, has never been modelled before, and so basically nobody has any idea how it works. Exciting! As somebody infected with the common cold right now, I’m hoping scientists can figure this out before tonight. Via the Sydney Morning Herald.

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