PC Curb

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4 has just been released. This update is a more stable and secure version than previous releases. Every Firefox user is encouraged to update.

Three of the most obvious changes include the ability to save sites into your favourites with one click, removal of pop-ups when using the password remember feature and the power to check a websites identity/legitimacy by clicking on its favicon.

Top features:

One-Click Bookmarking
Instant Web Site ID
Improved Performance
Full Zoom
Smart Location Bar
Password Manager
Platform-Native Look & Feel

Mozilla Firefox 3.0.4 has been added to PC Curb’s new freeware downloads section.

Whether it is because Christmas is around the corner or not, there seems to be a lot of great PC games being released lately and a few more coming out soon. Some of the most anticipated games of the year are coming out and this is great news for PC gamers. Sometimes game companies withhold the delivery of particular games to the PC platform because they feel piracy is greater and there is more profit to be made in other consoles such as Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Due to this reason this is a great time to take advantage of the great titles being released as it might be awhile before anymore make it so this platform.

Undoubtedly, not everyone will be purchasing these or any games and may choose to pirate them instead. This is contributing to the reason why game developers are neglecting PC releases.

No matter how you get the game, everyone is going to have to have one problem in common and that is system specifications. Computer hardware outdates very quickly and upgrades can be expensive. A lot of the games mentioned in this post require up-to-date hardware (primarily graphics card) unless you want to run them on low graphic detail.

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway

PC Release October 7, 2008.

Developed by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway is the next deliverance in this popular series. With lots of improvements to AI, weapons and graphics, this game is more focused on working as a team than in previous versions.

Far Cry 2

PC Release October 21, 2008.

Far Cry 2 is developed by Ubisoft and is a sequel to the original Far Cry released in 2004. It is still a first-person shooter but is an entirely different game with a stronger concentration on realism.

The game begins with a long car ride before your character is released which initiates a linear style of missions. It is a bit disppointing to see no on-screen SAI (situation awareness indicator) although a map can be accessed by pressing ‘5’ by default.

The game makes up for the lack of SAI in graphics and weapons. A new system is available which let’s you purchase weapons with money you earn throughout the missions. These purchased weapons are more reliable than retreiving weapons from dead enemy, which are prone to jams and bad accuracy.

Dead Space

PC Release October 20, 2008.

Dead Space is a brand new survival-horror game in the third-person shooter format. This game involves fighting an alien infestation onboard a ship that has turned the crew members into alien-like creatures. The game features no HUD (heads up display) and instead shows information on the back of your character. While playing, your character will experience zero gravity moments which will allow you to jump from wall to wall and shoot aliens at the same time. You will also be able to blow body parts off them, preventing the ability to walk whilst remaining alive.

Call of Duty: World at War

PC Release November 12, 2008.

As hinted in a previous post, Call of Duty: World at War will be released soon and is quite different from previous CoD releases. The main concern is Treyarch has developed it (as opposed to Infinity Ward) and it has taken a step backwards to World War 2 times despite the popularity of CoD4 being modern combat.

Fallout 3

PC Release October 28, 2008.

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game, it’s the 3rd installment in the Fallout series. A new health and radiation system will be implemented with this release. The ability to measure the radioactivity of objects will be possible and is relevant to the fact the game is set in 2277 and 200 years after a fictional nuclear war. A new weapons system will make it possible for weapons to decay over time and cause loss of accuracy and rate of fire.

Grand Theft Auto IV

PC Release 21 November, 2008. (delayed to December 02 for US)

As speculated in a previous post, GTA IV will finally be reaching the PC platform. It was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms on 29 April 2008 which means PC gamers have had to wait a shocking 6 months longer than everyone else before they can even try it.

The T-Mobile G1 was released on 22nd October in some countries and 30th October for the rest. This new smartphone manufactured by HTC is unique to its competitors because it is the first device running Android. Android is a software platform and operating system developed by Google and can be used on a number of mobile devices. Android is free to use and is open source so anyone can download the source code and begin modding the software however they like.

This open source approach will see thousands of custom mods developed for the device as developers begin reskinning and adding their own applications. There will be a lot more freedom to do things which are impossible with Apple products, such as the iPod or iPhone. Users will also be able to download applications from the Android Marketplace, similar to the Apple Store on the iPhone.

As part of the Android Open Source Project, you can now download the entire source code from here. However, you should take note that you will NOT be able to build Android source files if you are not running Linux or Mac OS.

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During the installation of software, it is usual for a program to automatically configure itself to initiate once you boot your system. This may cause programs to completely open or open and minimize to the system tray without you even knowing. The more programs that open when the computer is booted, the longer it will take before you can use your computer properly. Some of these processes are needed for your computer to run (like drivers etc) however the rest are not needed and slow your computer down.

Using CCleaner, it is very simple to disable programs that start with Windows. As long as you are careful to only remove programs that you know are not crucial to the running of your PC, CCleaner can easily disable them. It is also good to use CCleaner as it may be tricky to configure every program by itself and some programs don’t even give the end user the choice of disabling at start up. Use the following steps to do so:

Open CCleaner > Tools > Startup.

Once here just select a process, click ‘disable’ located at the bottom. Just incase you want to change your mind in the future it is a good idea to only disable such processes instead of deleting them. Here is an example below:

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If you have recently upgraded your CPU and noticed the temperatures are quite high or higher than what others are experiencing with the same CPU, there are a few things to check first.

• Make sure you are using  a reliable program to monitor temps like Speedfan or CPU-Z found here.

• Your heatsink has poor contact with the CPU and isn’t providing adequate cooling.

• Too much or not enough thermal paste.

• Haven’t pushed all the pins on the heatsink down.

• Some CPUs simply run hot. Either from a poor quality batch or some other reason.

• You are overclocking too much.

Simply upgrading the cooler and quality of thermal paste will make a major difference to the temperature in which your CPU operates at. Coolers which operate with heat pipes keep your CPU cooler as they disperse the heat better. You can also choose to run liquid cooled setups, but they are generally expensive and dont make that much of a difference from a good Heat pipe fan cooled CPU cooler.

Amongst different components in a computer, the CPU is one of the most important to keep cool. The central processing unit is the place where all your activites are processed. This might be as simple as running a word processor to running a high detail game. This is why it needs high priority to be cooled most efficiently. CPUs are one of the most expensive parts to a computer.  Extra care should always be taken to make sure there is no overheating present, else you could find yourself having to replace it.

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