The server that all the free web hosting accounts has been updated, The upgrade was needed due to we where running short on disk space causing the suspension of creating new free hosting accounts for 2 weeks.
Now we have our upgrade we can create new free hosting account again! Service back to normal.
Current members will also probably notice their account running faster aswell due to the upgrade.
Pushing the PC gaming boundaries
Games like Crysis can demand high-specification hardware
The PC remains a big player in the games market but in recent years its cutting edge has been blunted. The vast majority of games are still played on PCs rather than consoles; typically casual games played on cheap desktop machines or online games, such as World of Warcraft.
The industry is currently experiencing a renaissance in innovation as the trinity of new hardware, developer ambition and tools come together to improve experiences.
The introduction of chip technology with four cores, effectively quadrupling processing power, graphics cards using DirectX 10 tools and developers keen to push powerful machines to the limit are resulting in games which set new graphical benchmarks.
In some cases these machines are desktop behemoths; near supercomputers in a box that are delivering game experiences beyond the wildest dreams of console owners.
The latest games, like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3, are taking advantage of quad core processors, and twin graphics cards. These are the play things of hotrod PC gamers - the enthusiasts who see their machines as customisable dragsters delivering the pinnacle of performance.
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Michael O’Dell |
“PC gamers see themselves as the elite gamers,” said Michael O’Dell, who runs the professional gaming group Team Dignitas and manages Birmingham Salvo, a team in the Championship Gaming Series.
“High end games PCs are important to the professional players and hard core because the extra processing power can make that millisecond of difference between success and failure, and whether you win prize money or not.”
For the hardcore the extra grunt of the most powerful desktops improve the FPS (frames per second) in FPS (First Person Shooter) games.
“My gamers are always moaning about their FPS (frames per second). They always want more and some of the newest games are very demanding on the hardware.”
For these gamers, whose reaction times put them in the superhuman category, more frames per second means a smoother experience.
So how much more powerful are these high-end PCs than the latest generation of consoles?
“It’s absolute nonsense to think that consoles are at the cutting edge,” said Roy Taylor, vice president of content relations at Nvidia, the world’s biggest manufacturer of graphics cards.
“As good as consoles are, they are so far behind the PC gaming experience that there is no comparison.
Unreal Tournament 3 will help hardware sales |
“In terms of raw processing power, the high-end PCs are at least three times more powerful.”
Nvidia provides the graphics grunt for the PlayStation 3, while rival ATI provides the imaging hardware for the Xbox 360.
Mr Taylor points out that the latest graphics cards can draw twice as many pixels, twice the screen resolution, as a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.
The latest games are employing DirectX 10 tools developed by Microsoft, which are used by developers to get the best out of the high-end and middle-range graphics cards.
Mr Taylor said the new tools and the new hardware had given developers a library of effects to play with.
Nvidia’s latest high-end graphics cards, the 8800 series, can easily produce graphical effects that tax the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, such as motion blur, depth of field and volumetric smoke.
Mr Taylor said: “Fog, smoke or mist in games until now have been flat and don’t respond to objects. Volumetric effects mean they are dynamic - a helicopter can now displace cloud or smoke, or a character can step through the fog realistically.”
But these sorts of effects come at a price.
A quadcore Intel machine with twin graphics cards and four gigabytes of ram - at the high end of the PC gaming experience - can cost more than £2,000 “$4000″, six times the price of an Xbox 360.
Nvidia’s flagship graphics card, the 8800 Ultra, costs more than £400 “$800″ although a cut-down version, the 8800 GT, costs from £120 “$240″, about the same price as a Nintendo Wii.
Rival ATI also sends a high-end graphics card which supports DirectX 10, costing from about £120 “$240″.
PC gamers love to “mod” their machines |
Hardcore PC gamers also specialise in customising their “rigs”, with unique cases and intricate cooling systems.
The gaming experience they deliver can be exceptional.
Playing Crysis with the screen resolution set at 1920×1200 with all effects switched up to very high and anti-aliasing turned on, the game is breathtaking to look at and puts consoles titles like Gears of War and Call of Duty 4 into the shade.
“We worked really closely with Intel and Nvidia and even had engineers from Nvidia on site for the last year,” said Bernd Diemer, a producer on Crysis at developers Crytek.
“We wanted to be an early adopter. When we started Crysis the current hardware wasn’t available or being planned. There was no DX10 or the latest graphic cards. They were not even on the drawing board.”
They went to a special effects company in Hollywood to create a render movie of how Crysis could look - and that movie has been the benchmark for the firm.
“We got pretty close. In some areas we even surpassed it,” said Mr Diemer.
He said PCs gave gamers the “best possible experience”.
Crysis boasts realistic breakable environments - a goal of developers for many years.
“In some areas we have managed to set a new standard. We’ve managed to push it a bit further,” he said.
Crysis is at the forefront of a wave that is delivering blockbuster titles to PCs and making console owners envious of their PC gaming friends.
“The PC is finally back up where it belongs,” said Mr Diemer.
He added: “The innovation is happening on the PC; but that’s always been the case.”
Source - BBC News
Million Dollar Tips to Explode Your Website Success
Using the information below can make the difference between a successful website and one that languishes. Polish your site with some of the techniques below and watch the difference it can make.
Include RSS feeds that update with fresh content frequently and search engines will reward your site with a higher ranking.
Avoid using too many graphics or flash introductory pages; it can cause your page to take a long time to load. In today’s fast paced society visitors want the facts and information quickly. A substantial delay may cause visitors to click away before your page opens and go to a competitor’s page.
Design the site for your visitors, not for the search engines.
Host your website with a reliable hosting company. Your down time will be at a minimum and loading times will be reduced.
Do not use an unusual font; some browsers may not support it. Use a common font such as Verdana, Times New Roman, or Arial. Make sure the font size is readable and looks good on your page.
Make sure your website is consistent in it’s theme. Don’t try to be a website for everything and everyone. If your website is about dog care, include a nice variety of dog-care and related products. Don’t throw in foreign exchange or apartment search information.
Use the bold feature sparingly. Bolding text can be a valuable tool for drawing attention to a product or service.
If you bold every word in your paragraph, or heaven forbid, on your site, nothing stands out. Use it in moderation to highlight a few keywords here and there.
Include your contact information in your website. There is some debate about the best way to do this. Some people say you should provide contact information only on your index page, others recommend that you include it on every page.
Respond to requests in a timely manner, generally within 24 hours or less. Anything beyond makes people a bit leery about the legitimacy of your business and service. They want to know there is a live, eager person tending the store. Make sure you check for messages or questions on a daily basis.
Using the information above can enhance the performance of your website. Not only will it give people a reason to come visit, it can give them a reason to return. And traffic, whether it is a first time or tenth time visit is the object of the game.
Ambassadors of Funk:
In 1992, the World 1-1 theme was sampled by the Ambassadors of Funk for the song Supermarioland. It reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart.
the song along with other super mario themed songs were released as a single and a album called “Super Mario Compact Disco”
Lyrics:
Welcome, and enter the center
Of my Super Mario adventure
My girl is trapped on the other side of town
So I’m movin’ in leaps and bounds
Folks around my way think I’m strange
But there’s a villian to blame
Even my ma, she thinks I’m crazy
But I’ve got to rescue Daisy (let’s go!)
C’mon! C’mon!
There ain’t
Th-th-there ain’t
Th-th-there ain’t no place like Super Mario Land (let’s go!)
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High end games PCs are important to the professional players 