Archive for May, 2007
Folding@Home breaks 1,000 TFLOP
Posted by Tosh in F, PS3, PS3 software, ZGame Profiles on May 31st, 2007
The Folding@Home project has reached over 1,000 TFLOP. The PS3 alone accounts for 7/10th of that. Keep in mind that these stats change all the time. But pretty impressive. The PS3 Donor name is actually #1. Check out this link.
Our PS3Blog.net Folding@Home team is currently ranked 661 of 68067, not bad for only 91 people on our team at the moment. Keep those PS3′s folding, it’s for a good cause.
It’s very simple to join our team. Once you’ve launched the Folding@Home program, just press the triangle button to bring up the Options panel, select “Identity”, and then select “Join an exiting team”. After that, just enter PS3Blog.net’s team number 55054. And that’s it, your now part of the team.
Even PC users can join the team. I have my work PC running the folding@home software as well. You can download the PC version here.
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Posted by Blackstaffer in Off-Topic on May 31st, 2007
I know that this is totally off-topic, but I don’t care! I’m a big big Star Wars fan and have been looking forward to both the live-action TV series that’s coming up, and also the computer-animated one. To be honest, I’ve always brushed aside the animated one in my mind, thinking that live-action is where it’s at. But after seeing this video, I’ve totally changed my mind. It looks great! From what I understand, the animated series is due to premiere in the fall of 2008. I can’t wait, and I hope it’s in HD!
Guitar Hero III Preview
Posted by Blackstaffer in G, PS3 software on May 31st, 2007
IGN has a small preview of Guitar Hero III (GH3) for the PS3. First off, you’ll be happy to know that the controller will be wireless and will also be very similar to the 360′s guitar controller, also wireless.
The interesting thing for me was that when Activision bought RedOctane, they didn’t get the source code to Guitar Hero II in the process. Activision has given the GH3′s reigns over to an internal studio – Neversoft. But they didn’t get any source code, so they have to write the whole game from scratch. Which sounds both strange and like a lot of work. Which makes me wonder how they could get the game out in time for this Christmas. Something sounds fishy…
At any rate, the game will feature more original tracks than ever (as opposed to cover versions). Hopefully they’ll also improve the song selections. I much preferred the song list is GH1 over that in GH2.
Resistance Update Delayed Until June 7th
Posted by Gary in PS3 software, R on May 31st, 2007
It seems as though the two new maps and global servers that we were supposed to get by the end of May (today), won’t be available until June 7th. The maps are ready to go but it seems SCEA needed more time to make sure the global servers were ready to handle 1000s of people all heading for the damn LAARK! 
SCEA’s Greg Phillips:
The map pack has completed the approval process, and the content update is in the final day of testing worldwide.
The DLC, itself, is on track and ready to go as promised by Insomniac back in March. The reason for the delay is we (SCEA) needed a little extra time to get the global servers locked in and ready for thousands of players to come knocking. We would rather have a short delay and continue to deliver on our over the top, online experience.
So, on June 7th get ready to invade the new maps and LAARK someone in Europe from the confines of your couch on the West Coast. Of course, you can still expect other enhancements to the online experience.
I can wait another week.
A question for you Resistance players in North America. Do you guys have the same problems that we Europeans do with scumbags that surround/camp re-spawn points in Team games and kill you as soon as you re-spawn? Again and again and again. It seems to be the same clans and people that stoop to what I class as cheating.
It’s even worse when it happens in Grimsby and you’re human with the opposing team as Chimera.
It usually happens when people quit from the team leaving you outnumbered. I seriously hate people that do that (re-spawn campers and quitters) and I often send them a message after the game saying as much with a few choice words thrown in.
I also dislike people that constantly use the LAARK. I’ve faced people that only use that weapon during games and when I’ve caught them LAARKless, I’ve had no problem taking them out.
You don’t even need to be hit by a rocket from the LAARK to be killed!!!
Oh yeah, Chimera are superior to Humans. 
256GB Solid-State SATA
Posted by Blackstaffer in PS3 on May 30th, 2007
A company called PQI is readying a 256GB solid-state SATA storage device. No spinning discs, and no read heads, longer life, lower power requirements. Sounds too good to be true? Well, they haven’t announced a price yet, so we don’t know. 
But I wonder how well one of these would work in a PS3. At first I thought that it might help with the noise and heat issues surrounding the PS3. I know my friends who have a 360 say my PS3 is very quiet in comparison, but I find my PS3 way too loud. (I pitty 360 owners in that respect.) But then I got to thinking about it, and I’m doubtful. I don’t hear the hard drive in the PS3, and I doubt that it contributes any significant heat to the chasis (or does it?). So the only benefit I can see in using this drive in a PS3 (besides the obvious improvement in storage space) is a reduction in electricity usage. While that’s always a good thing, what I really want is a solution to decrease the amount of noise coming from my PS3.
Ah well.
Which is faster: Blu-Ray or DVD?
I was reading Business 2.0 this month, when I noticed this quote:
gamers complained that the speed of the Blu-Ray drive was too slow when doing what drives in consoles are supposed to do: load games.
Now, this is nothing new. Many other magazines and journalists have said the same thing.
But has anyone actually tested this?
I suspect not. I’ve definitely never seen any of these business writers cite any tests or evidence to back this up. If anything, it’s probably based on abstract high level spec sheets that skip over important considerations such as CLV vs CAV (angular velocity measurements vs linear velocity measurements) and layer switch issues.
OK, guys. Let’s do some digging. This shouldn’t be too hard to do:
- Find a good optical drive benchmarking tool that will test this kind of thing. Needs to run under Linux so that it can be used on the PS3 and on a PC.
- Identify some good tests discs. Will want to test both single layer and dual layer DVD and blu-ray test discs. I wonder if there is a big performance drop when using dual layer discs rather than single layer? Is there a speed hit when doing seeks from one layer to another? The latter should show up on a random access test.
- Get a PS3 with Linux set up on it to do the Blu-Ray tests.
- Get a Linux PC to do the DVD tests. Linux is preferable since hopefully both PS3/Blu-Ray and PC/DVD test machines can use the exact same benchmarking application.
- Run the tests several times to get a good sample.
- Post Results
Does anyone else think that this would be an interesting test to run? Can anyone provide some technical tips to refine this strategy? Will anyone volunteer to help do any of this?
BTW, I know that the game, “Oblivion” has better load times on the PS3, but that is merely one anecdote. I’m hoping to gather more general benchmarks.
Business 2.0 Article
GameSpot Comparison of Blu-Ray/DVD speed by specs (no actual benchmarks)
Warhawk Beta
Posted by Blackstaffer in PS3 software, W on May 29th, 2007
Sorry about the lack of updates, people. I’m too busy playing, thinking about, talking about, and getting killed in the Warhawk Beta.
I’m not allowed to talk about it publicly, but I think it’s safe to tell you that I’ll be buying this game when it’s released.
Video – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Posted by Blackstaffer in PS3 software, S on May 28th, 2007
Even though I’m a big fan of Star Wars, I’ve never really been into stuff like Star Wars books or Star Wars games. This game might change all that. It just looks too cool:
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