Intel’s Haswell could be last interchangeable desktop microprocessors As personal computers become smaller, their flexibility is decreasing. According to a media report starting from code-named Broadwell generation of processors, Intel Corp. will only offer mainstream desktop chips in BGA packaging, which will eliminate upgrade options as well as increase risks for PC makers. Both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices supply two different desktop platforms these days, making a very clear difference between mainstream and high-end desktop. X-bit Labs

John McAfee, unhinged: his bizarre breaks from reality On November 12, Belizean police announced that anti-virus software tycoon John McAfee was wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Gregory Faull, his neighbor on a tropical island. The police launched a manhunt in the tiny Central American nation, which is still ongoing. As the news broke, I was just finishing up a six-month investigation into McAfee’s life for a Wired magazine feature planned for the January issue. In light of the murder and ensuing manhunt, Wired published the feature early, and at expanded length, as a 13-chapter e-book. Wired

Why Microsoft beats Apple Today, those old rivals Microsoft and Apple both look like inexpensive stocks. Microsoft could be the better value. Not only is it cheaper than Apple relative to its earnings per share, but Microsoft's business also has greater strengths, and better prospects, than the market appreciates. Granted, when these two have gone head-to-head in the past, Microsoft has come off worse -- in tablet computers, music players and smartphone software. Apple desktops and laptops also have gained market share in the past decade, albeit from a small base. WSJ

Dr. Nakamats, the man with 3300 patents to his name One of the oldest chestnuts about inventions involves a 19th-century patent official who resigned because he thought nothing was left to invent. The yarn, which periodically pops up in print, is patently preposterous. "The story was an invention," says Yoshiro Nakamatsu. "An invention built to last." He should know. Nakamatsu -- Dr. NakaMats, if you prefer, or, as he prefers, Sir Dr. NakaMats -- is an inveterate and inexorable inventor whose biggest claim to fame is the floppy disk. Smithsonian

Windows Phone team: This is no way to treat early adopters When Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7.8 in June, I knew it was too good to be true. At the time, it seemed like Microsoft was throwing a bone to disappointed early adopters who would not be able to upgrade their existing handsets to Windows Phone 8. Today, it just seems like a slap in the face. Windows Phone 7.8 was announced at the tail end of the Windows Phone Summit in June, the event at which Microsoft launched Windows Phone 8. WinSuperSite

What has changed As I read this post in the WSJ about the changing nature of VC funding of consumer web companies, I thought that we may be looking at the symptoms and not the disease. As the WSJ notes, VC funding of consumer web and mobile companies is down 42% in this first nine months of 2012 (vs the first nine months of 2011). And the big falloff is not in seed rounds, which are still getting done, but in follow-on rounds, which are not. So what has changed in the past couple years? A lot, actually. AVC

Scientists see promise in deep-learning programs Using an artificial intelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizes patterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields as diverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification of promising new molecules for designing drugs. The advances have led to widespread enthusiasm among researchers who design software to perform human activities like seeing, listening and thinking. The NYT

Kickstarting inequality I’m not a huge fan of kickstarter. There, I said it. I know that makes me unpopular. I’m not a fan for a number of reasons, but ultimately, if people are happy to fund games that way, then good luck to them. And of course, anything that serves as a kick in the vulnerables to big evil publishers will always get my vote. There are lots of reasons to like kickstarter, but those are commonly discussed. So let me lay out briefly, my reservations, and then expand on one I find never mentioned. Cliffski

Skeuomorphism and the user interface Skeuomorphism is something that users have come to expect in apps for iPhone, iPad and even the Mac these days. It’s easily recognisable, and Apple has mainly been responsible for bringing simulacra back to user interface design in the past few years with iOS, and then extending that to the desktop with OS X Mountain Lion. Let’s start by clearing up some confusion and common mistakes about some recent terminology that’s being thrown around. Realmac Software

In living color: Ars reviews the hacker-approved Philips Hue LEDs Philips LED-powered Hue lights are awesome. Even after a couple of weeks of almost non-stop fiddling, the programmable multicolored bulbs continue to surprise me, though probably not in the ways that Philips originally intended. It's taken an alarmingly short amount of time for me to grow to consider them an indispensable component of my home office. I'm even starting to incorporate them around the rest of the house too. Ars Technica

Megaupload shutdown hurt box office revenues In common with every file-sharing service, Megaupload was used by some of its members to host copyright-infringing movies. For this reason the MPAA was one of the main facilitators of the Megaupload investigation, which ultimately led to the shutdown of the company in January. The movie industry was quick to praise the government’s actions, but a new report suggests that Megaupload’s demise actually resulted in lower box office revenues. TorrentFreak

South Pacific Sandy Island 'proven not to exist' A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth and Google Maps, does not exist, Australian scientists say. The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia. But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea. BBC

What they don’t tell you about being a game developer So I’m in an interesting position. Malevolence, while not my first game by a long shot, is my first released game, and I’ve been lucky enough to have it gather a lot of attention (for an indie title) early on in its creation. From what people tell me, this does not normally happen. This has led me to want to write this new thought piece, which goes into all of the things that they don't tell you about being a game developer. Alex Norton

Think you have a big screen TV? Check out these monster video walls In honor of National Big Screen TV Day, aka Black Friday, we thought we’d share a couple massive screens unveiled by GE and by Stony Brook University that you can drool over. Now that CNN-sized interactive displays have become fairly commonplace, GE has upped the ante, unveiling a 180-degree, 40-foot, interactive video wall in its Toronto Customer Experience Center (CEC). ExtremeTech

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