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Scientists map world first 3D image of cancer-spreading protein
Scientists at Griffith University's Institute for Glycomics released the world's first 3-D image of a protein that is linked to the spread of cancer. Where before scientists had to guess what the structure looked like, now they have a clear 3-D model meaning they can see how it works and develop targeted medicines to stop it before the protein can make matters worse. It was mapped using a technique called X-Ray crystallography and the team, lead by the institute's Director Professor Mark von Itzstein, notes that the image is so well defined that it shows both the structure of the overall protein as well as atomic-level details.
Seagate's 7mm Momentus Thin 2.5-inch hard disk for slim, high-capacity laptops: a world's first
Any advancement in commercial storage is big news 'round here so we're stoked to learn of a new ultra-thin hard disk from Seagate meant to slake our jones for super-slim portable computing. Seems that Seagate's already sampling a 7-mm high disk as part of its Momentus Thin series of drives scheduled to be launched at CES in January. Impressive, especially when you consider that just about every 2.5-inch SATA disk we cover measures in at 9.5-mm high. Although Seagate doesn't give specifics, we assume the drive will be spinning a single platter. And knowing that dual-platter 2.5-inch disks currently max out at 640GB (or 320GB per platter), we expect Seagate to at least match that single-platter capacity, but probably improve upon it via a boost in areal density. Feel free to offer your guess in comments until all is revealed on January 5th.
Buffalo SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external hard drive reviewed, fast
Was anybody else surprised to see that Buffalo (fine purveyors of USB hardware, including kitschy dice speakers, and teeny, tiny thumb drives) was able to start pushing USB 3.0 hardware out the door so quickly? The fine citizens of TweakTown definitely were -- and now they've gone and given HD-HXU3 external hard drive a thorough going over. The verdict? They've likened performance to that of an internal drive -- not disappointing in the least. Physically, this guy is constructed "very well, much better than any of the enclosures that are sold without a drive" that the reviewer has tested. The only sticking point? The price seems a little steep -- and since USB 3.0 will soon be ubiquitous anyways, perhaps you want to hold out a minute before investing. But if the latest and greatest is your bag, this ain't a bad place to start. Hit the source link for the full story.
Buffalo now shipping SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external hard drive
Yes, you've heard it right, kids! Buffalo's wild'n'wooly USB 3.0 external hard drive (the HD-HXU3) is now shipping. Available in 1TB($200), 1.5TB ($250), and 2TB ($400) designations, the package includes Memeo AutoBackup and a one year warranty. It's also backwards compatible to USB 2.0, but never mind that -- the company is concurrently releasing its dual-port USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface Card (IFC-PCIE2U3). Welcome to the future, indeed. PR after the break.
Buffalo ships world's first USB 3.0 hard disk drives this month
It's fine to announce USB 3.0 gear, but it's another thing entirely to actually put it up for retail. Buffalo's making the boast today that its HD-HU3 series of USB 3.0 hard disks will be the "world's first!!" to ship. Since a USB 3.0 device is pointless without a controller to support it, Buffalo will also make NEC's ¥5,300 (about $60) IFC-PCIE2U3 2-port PCI Expressx1 host controller available with its hard drives when they ship late October in Japan, almost a month before Freecom's disks hit the market. The 1TB and 1.5TB drives will cost ¥20,000 (about $225) and ¥25,300 (about $284), respectively, with a ¥46,600 (about $523) 2TB disk coming sometime later. Imagine it, soon you'll be able to take advantage of those USB 3.0 cables you bought back in April. Controller after the break.[Via Engadget Japanese]
World's first camera goes on public display in Macau
If you thought the golden anniversary of Olympus' Pen camera was something, get a load of this. From now until August 23rd, an elaborate exhibition entitled 'The Invention of Photography and the Earliest Photographs' will showcase some of digital imaging's earliest tools, including the planet's oldest camera. The wooden sliding box shown above will undoubtedly be the centerpiece of the Macau-based expo, though it will be surrounded by 250 photography antiques and 180 old photos, which were collections lent by the Nicephore Niepce Museum and 12 other museums, cultural institutions and private collectors around the world. Anyone planning on making the trip over? Make sure you take a few snapshots with your 90s-era point-and-shoot, cool?
Samsung's 4Gb chip promises 32GB DDR3 memory modules for PCs and laptops
Oh Samsung, you and your world's firsts. We like to tease but your latest breakthrough is truly notable: the world's first 4Gb (bit, not Byte) DDR3 DRAM PC memory chip based on relatively frugal 50-nm processes. Two things here: 1) the new chips consume 40% less power than previous DDR3 memory modules, and 2) the chips pave the way for 32GB (Byte, not bit) DIMM modules. The first modules will come in capacities of 16GB (containing 32 of the new 4Gb chips) for servers, 8GB DDR3 DIMMs for desktops, and 8GB SO-DIMMs for laptops. When, is the question Samsung fails to answer. The question to you is this: you're not still buying full-spec'd DDR2-based laptops are you?
Should Oceanic realms get their own progression?
MMO Champion's got the tip on the Oceanic first kill of Illidan by a guild called Not Steamboat on Aman'thul. I'd actually call Archimonde the last boss in the game right now, although for the current Burning Crusade storyline, Bou is right-- Illidan is it, at least until the Sunwell.But the kill brings up another interesting point with regards to Oceanic players. While they're often grouped with the US servers (unlike the EU or Asian servers, Oceanic and US servers are in the same place and subject to the same maintenance), are Oceanic servers that different that we should acknowledge a kill like this? This isn't like in China, where Burning Crusade just released. These Oceanic players have had access to Illidan just as long as an EU guild like Nihilum has. Why should we care if they kill Illidan? Sure, it's an accomplishment (just like every boss kill is, no matter how small or big), but is there even such a thing as "Oceanic first"?Sanctus emailed Boubouille to argue just that and say that Oceanic servers should be considered separate, in terms of progression, from US and EU servers. He says that Oceanic players have to deal with the aforementioned maintenance schedule problems, as well as huge lag. So what do you think? If this issue of Oceanic progression as compared to the rest of the world hadn't come up, I wouldn't have mentioned this Illidan kill at all-- in my opinion, there is no such thing as "Oceanic first," because Oceanic players play on, more or less, the same realms that US players do. So should Oceanic realms be considered separately when comparing guild progression? Or should they be held to the same schedule and timeline for "first kills" as the rest of us?
Archimonde down, Nihilum beats TBC
And here I thought Nihilum was going to take a break. But no! They have just defeated Archimonde, the final boss of Mount Hyjal, which means that they have cleared every PvE encounter currently available in WoW. Um...good job, guys! (This was, of course, another world first.) What's next?MMO-Champion has Archimonde's loot table. Here's what Nihilum got.
Illidan slain by Nihilum
This should mark an end to this string of world-first posts, and hopefully the poor raiders of Nihilum can get some sleep now. Illidan has now been defeated: the Black Temple is cleared. But how did the fight go? Do you actually kill Illidan, or is it more like the Majordomo Executus fight from MC? At the moment, I don't know, because they haven't uploaded any pictures or information to their site -- no loot, no fight shots, no kill shot. But I'm sure these details will surface soon, and when they do, I'll update this post. For now, I offer one more "congrats" to Nihilum, the current champions of WoW raiding.Update: loot, via World of Raids; apparently there were also 2 Tier 6 chest tokens. Also, if you look at the killshot above (click for a bigger version), Illy certainly looks dead...
Illidari Council down
Warning: this post relates what is popularly known as a "world-first" kill. If you are not interested in a certain high-end European raid guild that shall not be mentioned destroying enemies you may not have heard of, read no further. Right. Still here? OK then.A mere 15 hours after their last kill, the current superstars of WoW PvE have vanquished the one remaining obstacle between them and the big man himself, Illidan. Yes, the Illidari Council is no more. This means they have tonight and tomorrow to try to take down Illy before the raid resets on Wednesday morning (right? Wednesday for EU raids?).What's the secret to their success, you may ask? Well, Kungen claims "Key to success is 4 rogues in all raids." That's good to hear, as it may assuage some Rogue concerns over being edged out in PvE. According to their site they're working on Illidan as I type this, so good luck, guys, and congrats once again. Check out their site for a nice gallery of Illidan killing everybody, and here's the loot from the Council. [via MMO-Champion and World of Raids]
Nihilum takes down Mother Shahraz
Nihilum have scored another in their seemingly endless string of world-firsts: the Black Temple boss Mother Shahraz. Dang, guys. Give old North America a chance, huh? Nah, I'm just kidding -- congratulations once again, of course! This only leaves two encounters left undefeated in the Black Temple: the Illidari Council, and Illidan himself.As with the Essence of Souls, nobody really seems to know much about the fight, although the boss appears to be a six-armed demon. And like EoS, they got their loot, with no bugs to get in the way there. Here's what dropped: [via MMO-Champion and World of Raids]
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Kael'thas Sunstrider
Nihilum has released the video clip of their world-first Kael'thas Sunstrider kill. This means they have completed Tempest Keep: The Eye. Congrats to them, and thank goodness the GM gave them all the Black Temple attunement items! Nihilum has also mentioned that they will be releasing multiple videos of boss encounters over the next few days, so stay tuned for more!
Another world first: Curse slays Azgalor!
After a perfectly executed 30-minute wipe fest, Curse has downed Azgalor - the fourth boss of Hyjal. This means that there is only one more boss in their way: Archimonde himself. Unfortunately, since everyone died, the corpse despawned, which resulted in no loot. Hopefully a GM will be on later to rectify their issue. Congratulations to Curse! Good luck with Archimonde!
Curse, Forte jump in to pick up a world first each
The world first kills continue. First, Nihilum brought their PTR skillz out to the live servers, and rocked four bosses in one night. Then, they dropped three more just for fun. And now, other guilds are getting in on the action.Curse reports that Forte from EU Kazzak took out Anetheron in Mount Hyjal on Saturday evening, winning them the world first on that one. Then, on Sunday, Nilhilum (on EU Magtheridon) and Curse (on EU Vek-nilash) both headed into Hyjal, and downed Anetheron and Kaz'rogal-- and this time, Curse picked up the world first on Kaz.MMO Champion has more, including deets on all the kills (and the fact that Curse also picked up Supremus and High Warlord Naj'entus in the Black Temple-- with only 22 players in the raid!), and screenshots for every kill. So grats to Curse, Forte and especially Nihilum on all their achievements this weekend.What does all this mean for us casual players? While usually a world first kill means not much more than a tip of the hat, so many kills like this in one weekend might be a sign that Blizzard is getting serious about making the endgame more friendly to casual players. If these hardcore guilds can burn through this content so quickly, it's probably not long before we see more casual guilds moving up the ladder behind them, right?
Nihilum - Taking down even more bosses
There are a couple of hazards of being a blogger on this side of the pond. The first being that, when you consider one of the largest raiding guilds currently tearing through raid content is in the EU, there's quite a bit of time lag between when they take bosses down and when I sit down to run news postings. The second thing is that in the case of a guild like Nihilum, they've trained on the PTRs for quite some time and are thereby completely ready to tear through these fights and rack up the official Live Server World First kills in nothing flat. This said, as if to answer my progression post yesterday, Nihilum returned to Black Temple on the heels of their last string of accomplishments and took down three more bosses. First they turned their collective might toward Teron Gorefiend who dropped some quite tasty goodies. From there, they chewed up Gurtogg Bloodboil and spit him out. (again, not without snagging some sweet loot first!) From there, Nihilum headed for (and successfully tore down) the Shade of Akama for lots more nifty purple goodness, and another live server World First. While they did not finish the Essence of Souls event (pictured) they are hoping to return and knock that out in short order.Now some of the reactions I got in mail the last time I posted a progression post for Nihilum raised an interesting question to me. If a guild goes on the PTR and learns the strategies there does that somehow lessen their world first accomplishment on live servers? It seemed like several people felt that the accomplishments were diminished due to having been done prior on the PTRs. Personally, I've got mad respect for those who blaze the trails -- whether on the PTRs or on Live servers, although I am nostalgic for when it was a bit more of a surprise as to who would do so. (One of the few downsides of the job, I suppose. heh)[via Nihilum]
Death Wish downs Astromancer Solarian for world first
Looks like we've got a new player on the World First scene. Death Wish, of Cho'Gall-H, has downed High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep. Loot was a pally healing belt and a magic damage wand. It appears that Solarian is the last boss before Kael'Thas Sunstrider, so there's a good chance we'll be seeing the blood elf prince go down soon. Grats, Death Wish, and may all your hits be crits!
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Samsung's R55 sports "world's first" HHD
Just over a month since releasing their HHD to OEMs, out pops an 80GB Hybrid Hard Drive in Samsung's venerable M55 lowly R55 laptop. They're calling it an "industry first" even though we all know damn well that LG announced leaked their HHD-equipped R400 laptop back in March sporting Samsung's own MH80 hybrid. While Samsung is quick to tell us about all the efficiencies and robustness gained with the introduction of that 256MB of flash memory, they remain alarmingly quiet about the price differential when compared to traditional disks. Flash ain't cheap. So thanks for the update Sammy, but we're still curious about the pain for the perk.Update: It's the R55, not the M55. Post updated.[Via PC Joint]
World first: Magtheridon downed by Nihilum
Right after Blizzard fixed a bug in the Magtheridon encounter we see the world first kill of Magtheridon by Nihilum (a Horde guild on Magtheridon EU). Killing Magtheridon allowed them to complete the attunement quest to enter the Eye (25 player raid in Tempest Keep), home to Kael'thas Sunstrider. Congrats, Nihilum, and may more firsts follow![Via World of Raids]
Gullerbone hit 70 before you did
The forums are abuzz this morning with news of a world-first level 70. In just 28 hours, Gullerbone, of the EU Archimonde server took his mage named Gawell from 60 to 70 in the Outlands. Our friends over at World of Raids managed to get an interview with Gullerbone shortly after the event. The beginning of the interview is below, click the read link for more, and then come back and let us know what you think about Gullerbone's dogged determination to get this world first. [WoR]Teza: Can you introduce yourself quickly in a few words? Gullerbone: I am french and 24 years old, a member of Millenium (french guild) since 1-2 months and I was the one playing the mage called Gawell for this exp rush, eventually I will reroll shaman to complete my PvP arena team. [WoR]Teza: Whats your played time from 60 to 70? Which zone were you in when you reached lvl 70? Gullerbone: It took me 28 hours to get from 60 to 70, and dinged 70 at 4:04 am (CET) on Januar 17. I was in Netherstorm (subzone: Mana forge) when i reached lvl 70. [WoR]Teza: What was your preparation? How did you make it in such a short time? Gullerbone: Cau (the 1st european lvl 60) and I planned the exp route step by steps, trying everything to make sure it was the most approriate, the groups organization with the guild Millenium and their members. Each member rotated using a definite order to help me to grind on mobs, mostly with AE, surrounded with several guildmates healers, tanks, pullers etc...
