The TR Podcast 124: Vector victor, NUC, Fluke

	Date: December 2, 2012 Time: 1:08:52 Hosted by Jordan Drake Co-Hosts: Scott Wasson, Geoff Gasior, and Cyril Kowaliski Download: MP3 (49.7MB) | M4A (67.7MB) Subscribe: RSS (MP3) | RSS (M4A) iTunes (MP3) | iTunes (M4A)
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Show notes
After a week's delay for turkey consumption, we are back on the TR Podcast with a short and sweet show. Things kick off with two listener mail questions, after which we move right on to an exciting and imaginative new novel written by our own Cyril Kowaliski. The team discusses Cyril's inspiration for the story, potential advances in biomedical research, how we techies view the future, and a lot more. You can get your own e-copy of the book for just $2.99 on Amazon—and TR gets a cut of the proceeds.

Then, Geoff's new favorite indie game—a side-scrolling ninja extravaganza—goes under the microscope. That prompts a discussion of stealth versus slaughter in modern action games like the new Hitman: Absolution. Scott is up next with his review of the intriguing Intel NUC, and finally, Geoff lays out two brand new SSDs that have passed through his benchmarking gauntlet.

Send in listener mail, and we'll answer on the podcast. - jdrake@techreport.com

Follow us on Twitter - Scott - Jordan - Geoff - Cyril - The Tech Report

Listener mail/tweets:

CPU temps and fan speeds - from The Raven - (0:01:20):

"Hi Jordan and other guys in techreport. I'm a new listener of your podcasts and i can say those were perfect and useful. I have a problem with my cpu's fan. I have a AMD phenom II X2 555 Black Edition and I am running it in stock frequency with no overclock or voltage changes. But, there is a problem with my fan. When the cpu is in load it raise up to the speed of about 4500 RPM and more and some times up to 5200 rpm with maximum 55 degrees.i tried to enable AMD Cool n Quiet and rest the bios and clean the dust of fan and heatsink but nothing changed.and its normal speed is 3500 rpm and i think that is too much."

Best monitor size? - from Jay - (0:06:35):

"Love your show and what you guys talk about. I am looking for a new monitor so I can get DVI and 1080 in games. With windows 8 out and touch screens coming out do you see LED and LCD monitors going down in price? After you get past 22 inch monitors does the size matter for resolution and graphics for games?"

Tech discussion:

• Cyril wrote a novel! Introducing 'Fluke: Langara's Prize' (0:10:18) - Read more - Get the eBook

  Marked by the ninja - (0:23:14) - Read more

  Review: Intel's Next Unit of Computing - (0:29:24) - Read more - NUC heat quirk

  Two SSD reviews from Geoff - (0:51:10) - Samsung 840 series - OCZ Vector

That's all, folks! We'll see you on the next episode.