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Benchmarking performance in a virtualized world

The central concept behind benchmarks was historically pretty simple. What's the horsepower of some vendor's "Big Iron"? After all, most systems--the important ones, anyway--were the big boxes sitting in a data center someplace doing important stuff like booking orders or counting money.

They cost a lot. They were based on proprietary architectures that made low-level technical comparisons between vendors difficult. And they were a core part of an enterprise's business.

This was largely the environment that spawned the benchmark business. Ideally, buyers would run their own tests, using their own applications, but this was difficult … Read more

Video game industry sales slip, but remain strong

Led by hot demand for the Xbox 360, the video game industry scored its third best-selling May, trailing only 2009 and 2008. Revenue was down compared with a year ago due to lower console prices, according to the latest figures released Thursday by The NPD Group.

For the month, total revenue from gaming consoles, hardware, and software slipped 5 percent to $823.5 million, compared with $865.7 million a year ago. Video game hardware took the hardest hit, dropping 20 percent to $241.5 million from $303 million a year ago. Though sales were strong, lower hardware prices added … Read more

eBay acquires RedLaser bar code scanning app

eBay announced Wednesday that it has purchased a start-up called RedLaser, an iPhone application that scans product bar codes for price comparison and product search purposes, as well as "related technologies" from RedLaser parent company Occipital. As part of the acquisition, the RedLaser app--which has been downloaded by more than 2 million iPhone users--has transitioned from paid to free in Apple's App Store.

A price wasn't disclosed.

Though RedLaser's app will remain intact, the technology behind it will be integrated into numerous eBay products so that a prospective buyer can scan a bar code and … Read more

preGAME 19: Halo: Reach

This week on preGAME we're getting an exclusive First Look at Halo: Reach, almost two months before the game hits stores! In the studio today is Bungie Community Director Brian Jarrard, who will show us some of the single-player campaign as well as the revamped four-player co-op mode Firefight.

But first, we'll take a few moments to finally put E3 2010 to rest and go over a few things we thought were missing from the show. We'll also chat about the new Xbox 360 slim and figure out why the new console can't red-ring even if it wanted to. … Read more

Mars cave opening found by 7th graders

Summer vacations for a class of California seventh graders might pale in comparison to the class trip they recently took to Mars.

At least that's what astronomers might say after the class' discovery of an opening into a cave on the Red Planet.

The science class from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, Calif., found the opening while working on a research project with the Mars Space Flight Facility run out of Arizona State University in Tempe.

"The students developed a research project focused on finding the most common locations of lava tubes on Mars," said their teacher, … Read more

New Xbox 360 won't red-ring even if it wants to

Even if your new slim Xbox 360 console malfunctions, you won't be getting the now-infamous "red ring of death" error. That's because Microsoft has actually eliminated all of the red LEDs from the system's internal make-up. Instead, any sort of problem with the console will now be displayed using various combinations of green lights, GameSpot reports.

While we're relieved to witness the end of those dreadful red flashing lights, we're still skeptical about the new 360's reliability. Microsoft made a point to mention the new system's "whisper quiet" operation, … Read more

The 404 601: Where we try to Kinect the dots (podcast)

Our reluctant guest on today's episode of The 404 Podcast is Jeff's FIFTH Xbox 360 that's finally succumbed to the infamous "red ring of death." Luckily, the little guy is still covered for another month under Microsoft's original 3-year warranty, but everyone else might want to hold off on buying one because ads for the new Xbox 360 "Slim" are causing a stir at this week's E3 proceedings.

The most noticeable difference is obviously the Alienware-esque design, replete with sharp angles, built-in Wi-Fi, and a 250GB hard drive. Critics are also … Read more

Red Bull Racing takes to the beach

Red Bull Racing pulls off another spectacular feat by driving a Formula 1 car on the sand at Juanillo Beach Cap Cana in the Dominican Republic.

In this Web video, team manager Tony Burrows explains the modifications that were made to the RB5 to run it on the sand.

No strangers to extremes, Scuderia Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi, in January, drove a Red Bull Racing showcar on the frozen waters of northern Quebec.

preGAME 17: E3 2010 preview

This week on preGAME, we gear up for gaming's biggest show of the year, E3. On today's episode we'll run down every last prediction and anticipated game we're looking forward to at E3 2010, from each of the three major press conferences to the individual titles themselves.

First up for debate is Microsoft. It sounds like we'll finally get an official name for Project Natal, as well as some game announcements made for the motion-capturing hardware. We also think we'll see an Xbox 360 Slim announced at the company's press conference; maybe there'… Read more

Digital City 83: Yankee Stadium bans iPads; new laptop CPUs; losing it over 'Lost'

Don't bother taking your iPad to Yankee Stadium--it's banned the device, along with other laptops. Also, Intel announces new ULV chips; Asus bundles Kindle software on laptops; and [Spoiler Alert] we skip out on the "Lost" island for the last time.

Also, for reasons too complex to go into here, we end up discussing, and digging up the opening sequence from, the '80s sci-fi TV cult classic "Automan" (it's basically Desi Arnaz Jr. meets "Tron").

Our current video game obsession is Red Dead Redemption, and not satisfied to merely play the … Read more