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Well, at least we all know what it would take to get Mark Zuckerberg to marry his girlfriend of nine years: she had to graduate from Med School and he had to be worth over a Billion dollars. Both criteria were met. 
The couple were married in their backyard in a ceremony the 100 guests thought was supposed to be celebrating Priscilla Chan’s graduation. Congratulations to Mr.& Mrs. Zuckerberg.
Rovio looks like they are wanting to prove that the company is capable of sustaining its hold on the world gaming scene with the announcement we reported last week of the upcoming Amazing Alex franchise. This week, Rovio has created a new teaser website to introduce a brand new racing themed webgame called Angry Birds Heikki to be released on June 18th.
Researchers have been given approval to drill into a supervolcano close to Naples, Italy after several years of denying permission to drill. Fears of the drilling range from creating local earthquakes all the way to starting a global catastrophy. Drilling will begin in several months (probably on December 21st, we’re all going die)
The project’s organizers originally intended to bore a 4-kilometer-deep well in the area of the caldera late in 2009, but the plan was put on hold by then-mayor Rosa Russo Lervolino after scientists expressed concerns about the risks.
In an uncharacteristic show of reflective honesty, Microsoft published a blog post outlining a brief history of its operating systems: the good and the bad. It’s strange though; I could have sworn there was an operating system between XP and Vista that may have had a problem or two.
"The user interface of Windows has evolved and been transformed over the course of its entire 27-year history," and then takes a tour of the interface from Windows 1 to Windows 8.
Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best solutions. A Kickstarter project has produced a simple, yet effective device using your smartphone to produce sharp, clear scanner images. It’s called the Scanbox, and will be available soon for purchase.
Let’s suppose you are at a party with your chainsaw and someone needs to remove a bottle cap. What to do? Well fortunately the guy in the video has the answer. Don’t try this one at home folks….or anywhere else for that matter.
If you didn’t know, there will be a solar eclipse on Sunday in a very limited swath from China to the Midwest of the US. If you are in the lucky zone and the weather is cooperating you may get to see the event live, which only occurs in 18 year cycles. For the majority of you who are not in the zone, check online for a site that will be streaming the event live.
For the lucky folks in its path, the full eclipse starts Sunday in Medford, Ore., at 6:26 p.m. PT, and ends in Lubbock, Texas, at 8:40 p.m. CT. As a consolation prize, a partial eclipse will be viewable everywhere from San Francisco to Buffalo early on Sunday evening.
A class action suit was filed in federal court on Thursday against Facebook for invasion of privacy of 800 million users to the tune of $15 Billion. The suit alleges that Facebook continued tracking its member’s internet use even after logout from Facebook. It’s unclear whether the suit had an effect on Facebook’s IPO, which barely sustained its initial offering price through its first public trading day.
This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications.
Just several weeks before the release of Windows 8 Release Preview, Microsoft has decided to simplify the desktop area and completely restyle the visual appearance with the removal of Aero. It seems that Microsoft heard the complaints from the beta testers and decided to make a few crucial changes prior to the upcoming release.
With the latest refresh, however, the company has pushed its modernistic philosophy even further to reveal a spartan (yet functional) interface that draws less attention to the chrome elements and allows the user to focus more on content.
The sequel to the 2010 hit Epic Mickey that took many by surprise because of its dark overtones, is being showcased on an intro video. The new release will be called Disney Epic Mickey: The Power of Two and will be previewed at the E3 trade show next month. A release date has not been announced.
Amazon’s second Kindle Fire tablet, an updated model with a 10-inch display, will launch in the third quarter this year according to a recent report. Backing away from its earlier reports placing the 10-inch Kindle Fire’s launch date in the second quarter, Digitimes on Friday cited market rumors in claiming that Amazon’s next tablet will launch in the third quarter. The site also reports that the launch of Amazon’s purported 8.9-inch tablet has been suspended.
May 29th marks the date of the rescheduled launch of Diablo 3’s Real-Money Auction House. Blizzard has gone all out to insure an especially smooth launch, streamlined interactions and a controlled trading environment. Play the video at your own risk…..this sailor must have just hit port.
Players from the age of Diablo II will remember hacks, duplication techniques, and evil in many forms when it came to trading items between players. In Diablo III no such evil shall exist, or so Blizzard hopes.
Beginning May 20th. Microsoft is bringing back the ‘buy a PC and get a free Xbox’ promotion. If you are looking to buy a new PC in the near future, this summer will prove to be the best time for a deal with a cheap upgrade to Windows 8 along with a free Xbox to boot. Nice promotion Microsoft. 
Starting on May 20, the promotion is valid on both desktops and laptops sold through a variety of U.S. retailers including NewEgg, Fry’s Electronics, HPDirect, Best Buy, Dell and Microsoft stores. The promotion is also valid in Canada at Staples, The Source, Future Shop, Dell and Best Buy
With less than one half of a second until liftoff, the flight of SpaceX Dragon capsule powered by the Falcon 9 rocket was aborted by an on-board computer. NASA had completed the countdown all the way to Liftoff when the on-board computer detected a problem in one of the Falcon 9’s engines. The historic flight and subsequent docking with the International Space Station is rescheduled for May 22nd.
Apple Corp., in conjunction with several other high level tech companies are rumored to be negotiating with the Russians to create a technology research community that would eventually rival Silicon Valley.
Today is Friday and you know what that means! It is time once again for the [H]ard|OCP Week in Reviews! For anyone that might have missed them, we like to take a quick look back on the hardware evaluations and articles we posted earlier in the week. We kicked the week off with an epic head to head battle pitting the GeForce 680 & 670 vs. Radeon 7970 & 7950. Next up, we featured an evaluation of the MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA1155 motherboard followed by our Corsair Vengeance K60 keyboard and M60 mouse review. Finally, we wrapped up the week with a look at the XFX ProSeries 1000W PSU.
I know everyone is sick of hearing about Facebook's IPO today but this is definitely quote of the day:
"This is like kissing your sister," said John Fitzgibbon, founder of IPO Scoop, a research firm. "With all the drumbeats and hype, I don't think there'll be barroom bragging tonight."
ETC.: AMD Trinity A10-4600M Laptop APU @ Legit Reviews
Intel Glamor Acceleration Compared To SNA, UXA @ Phoronix
Memory/ Storage: Kingston Wi-Drive 16 GB @ techPowerUP!
Video: XFX Radeon R7750 Black Edition DD @ LanOC
Our evaluation of the XFX ProSeries 1000W PSU is now online for your viewing pleasure. Without giving too much away, this is easily one of the best power supplies we've reviewed to date. Hit the link above to see why.
XFX has a tremendously impressive track record here at HardOCP when it comes to enthusiast class PSUs. To date, four XFX PSU reviews, three Gold and one Silver Editor’s Choice Awards. Its new 1KW ProSeries PSU features no wires! No not like that, but rather on the inside. Let’s see if SolidLink Technology is award worthy.
A PC the size of a thumb drive, comes with Android 4.0 and costs under $75? How can you go wrong with that? Thanks to CanesVenetici for the link.
The Model MK802 is available from AliExpress for $74, or even less if you order in bulk. The little computer looks like a portable storage device, but it has a 1.5 GHz Allwiner A10 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. It ships with Google Android 4.0 software, but theoretically you should be able to install Ubuntu or other operating systems.
If you are in need of a low profile cooler, you might want to check out this review of the Prolimatech Samuel 17 at VR-Zone. With a score of 8.5 out of 10, I think it is safe to say they really liked it.
Today however we will have a look at the Samuel 17, a product from Prolimatech designed with a different purpose in mind; to be capable of delivering the highest possible overall performance while being only 45mm tall. How does Prolimatech’s David compare against the numerous Goliaths currently available? We will find out in this review.
VIA Technologies, a leading innovator of power efficient computing platforms, today announced the VIA AMOS-3002, an ultra compact, fanless system designed around the tiny VIA EPIA-P900 Pico-ITX board. Leveraging the digital prowess of the combined 1.0GHz VIA Eden™ X2 dual core processor and the VIA VX900H media system processor (MSP) on the VIA EPIA-P900 board, the VIA AMOS-3002 offers a powerful, rugged and HD-ready industrial-class PC that combines all the benefits of high performance 64-bit computing in an ultra compact system. The highly integrated, all-in-one VIA VX900H boasts ruthless hardware acceleration of the most demanding codecs, including MPEG-2, WMV9 and H.264, in resolutions up to 1080p across the latest display connectivity standards, including native HDMI support, for next generation multimedia-intensive applications.
Attention citizens: We will have our "six strikes" system in place by the end of 2011! Errr, wait...how about July 2012? No? It will be here eventually! Thank you for your patience. Sincerely, the RIAA/MPAA
"The dates mentioned in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) are not hard deadlines but were intended to keep us on track to have the Copyright Alert System up and running as quickly as possible and in the most consumer friendly manner possible," a spokesperson told us. "We do not intend to launch until we are confident that the program is consumer friendly and able to be implemented in a manner consistent with all of the goals of the MOU. We expect our implementation to begin later this year."
And the award for best "fake a fire drill to hack computers" idea goes to Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick. "Project Icebreaker?" Really? This is so stupid, I honestly expected the story to be fake. 
It is alleged by George Rose, Chief Legal Officer at Activision, that the order to hack ‘comes from Bobby directly’, in what was internally dubbed ‘Project Icebreaker’, an attempt to uncover potential ‘dirt’ that could be used against West and Zampella.
Call of Duty "Hacker" Jailed @ Kotaku
Dragon's Lair Kinect Now Available @ Shacknews
Torchlight II Weekend Stress Test @ Blue's News
Looking for better temps out of your shiny new Core i7-3770k? You could always do what this guy did and pop the top on your processor, apply new thermal compound between the CPU die and the IHS, just to see what happens. 
UPDATE: We have a bit of an update to this post. While breaking in a new i7-3770k system, we noticed that both Real Temp and Core Temp were giving us temperature values on our test system that were just flat out wrong. So, we reached out to ASUS and this is what the company had to say:
CoreTemp is in serious need of updating at this point for full compatibility with Ivy Bridge as is RealTemp (both latest releases do not include E1 stepping compatibility). Our TurboV is very good at monitoring the correct temps and voltages, but if you need third party verification we highly suggest the latest version of Aida64 Extreme (1938 beta or later) as they fully support Ivy Bridge and all current Z77 boards (not just from us). Besides working with the manufacturers, they also work directly with Intel to ensure proper readings and the stability test is actually quite good also.
This is probably the coolest LEGO window display you will see all day. The set up is fairly simple but still pretty damn neat, even if you aren't a fan of Star Wars or LEGOs.
ETC.: ASUS RT-N66U 450mbps Router @ Hardware.Info
PLU ML-87 Mechanical Keyboard Cowcotland
Memory/ Storage: Crucial Adrenaline SSD Myce
Motherboards: ECS Elitegroup Z77H2-AX Golden Board @ eTeknix
ZOTAC D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme @ Vortez
Well, there it is. Facebook went public, the stock is up a bit and Zuckerberg and crew are billionaires. Maybe now people can start talking about something else.
The stock rose to $42.05 on the Nasdaq Stock market on Friday morning. CEO Mark Zuckerberg rang the opening bell from Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Surrounded by cheering Facebook employees and wearing his signature hoodie, the 28-year-old pushed the button that signals the opening of the stock market in New York.
Another review of the Sapphire Radeon 7770 Vapor-X has popped up on the internet today. This time, it is the folks at PureOverclock doing to reviewing. Here's a quote from the review:
Flagship gaming cards garner most of the hype, but it's the mainstream cards that often more quietly bring in the profits. Not to miss out on that opportunity, Sapphire now has the Sapphire Radeon 7770 Vapor-X for the masses. It certainly looks stylish, and the price is competitive. Nvidia doesn't have any Kepler products in its lineup to compete at this price point for the time being, so affordable graphics cards are ripe for the picking for Team AMD.
