We''re excited to announce the availability of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), a prerelease version of the next-generation operating system from Microsoft. Thanks to everyone who participated in the Beta testing period; your feedback was invaluable in helping the Microsoft engineering team make Windows 7 the best Microsoft operating system to date.

Test-drive Windows 7 RC today. Then show your colleagues and customers how Windows 7 can improve management, security, reliability, and performance.

Partners: If you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now. Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 RC starting May 5, 2009.

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This is almost as good as Brett Favre coming out of retirement again and playing for the packers. Just think of all the time you could save getting your coffee without having to go to the coffee house and it''s still hot. They even have a beta group for those that want to test it out. You can check it out and signup here.

In response, McDonalds has announced that they''re working on a McNugget dispenser that can be put in place of the DVD drive called the "iButtnugget".

Can you say over reacted? I can see the guys point that he needs some sleep but this is a tad excessive. I wonder if he checked the receipt to see how much she paid for it and went into a rage? All he had to do was take it back or mash it up into itty bitty PS3 meatballs but NOOOOO, the gaming industry takes another black eye for someone''s rage issues. I can already see the parents reaction. Kids will be banned from playing this game and they won''t get that PS3 they wanted for Christmas (and that''s a bad thing???). There will be congressional hearings about the rating system on video games. Uncle Creepy will play his version of "7 mins in heaven" with me except there''ll be alot more screaming. In short, the apocalypse.

The topper on the cake for this little goat rodeo we call a family is that the man was sentenced to life in prison today. For those you having trouble with remembering your own birthday, today is April Fool''s day. The interwebs is abuzz with deciding whether this is a hoax or not. I''ll let you decide.

On the plus side, maybe this could increase the KOF membership since it means that there will be less consoles and more PC gaming. At least until someone decides to go postal on their Chihuahua for turning their WoW character into a gay troll.

AMD has released a new piece of crapware called Fusion. This software is targeted at gamers who are too lazy to try this on their own (myself included) and actually admit to owning an AMD processor (which isn''t many). The concept behind it is simple really. It shuts down unnecessary background processes in order to maximize gaming performance. Any time you take away something from the processor, it gives it more free time to do the task at hand or hopefully improve gaming performance. Wives, take note because the same concept applies to husbands. Take something away and he has more incentive to get the honey-do list done.

Now you may be asking yourself, how much performance improvement? Well, I don''t have exact numbers. So we''ll just have to take AMD''s word that it''ll make an improvement in the performance. According to a June article on xbit, they were hoping for a 20% performance increase. Whether they hit that or not is another story (I''d hit it). The best way would be to check your FPS while in the game (download fraps). Anyone wanna run a test and provide the results?

Personally, I put more confidence in the existence of the tooth fairy since you can buy that 20% improvement (or more) with Intel and not have to run extra software.

There''s one small glitch; Intel doesn''t have any boards that will support the new socket. At least not yet. The X58 chipset is expected in October. So shortly after the new proc gets unveiled, the boards will follow?? Whoops!! Ok, who licked the cats'' butt on that one?? And for those of you still trying to figure this out, it means that you will have to buy a new mobo. The Nehalem proc is not "drop-in" compatible with the older sockets.

So let me break this down, old skool, for everyone that''s wondering. The Nehalem is the new processor with a built-in memory controller. This means that they will be doing away with the front-side bus (or FSB for short). Dry those eyes and cowboy-up little buckaroo because it means good things for all the l33t gamers (and the porno fiends) out there. It means that the new systems will be wicked faster. Now you may be asking yourself, self, how wicked fast? Well, there was a recent comparison done between the Penryn Quad core 3.2GHz and the Nehalem 2.66GHz. In this little comparison, the Nehalem went on to marry the prom queen and win the Nobel prize while Penryn was left to mop up puke and lung butter at the local mall. The performance came out anywhere from 30% to 100% better than Penryn but don''t take my word for it, Check out the results for yourself.

So this begs the question, will AMD ever catch up? Let''s just say I have a better chance of Ed McMann rolling up in my driveway with a giant check!

Now you may be wondering what does this have to do with me, a noob gamer with a l33t rig?? Well Douche-nozzle, the answer is everything. A gaming system only runs as fast as the slowest part in it. So if the hard drive is the slowest piece in your "l33t" rig, you''re gonna see performance improvement if you put this SSD in your system.

Engadget provides a writeup of the results:

Now that all the SSD efficiency drama has mellowed out a bit, the guys over at Hot Hardware got their hands on an OCZ Core Series SATA II 64GB SSD and already pitted it against a WD VelociRaptor. The early numbers are impressive: The OCZ averaged read speeds of over 140MB/s and was writing at 87MB/s while the WD topped out at around 136MB/s read and 134MB/s write times. When it comes to applications and random-access times, though, the OCZ SSD scored some crazy fast times. In Windows Defender, gaming, photo import, and Vista startup tests, the SSD was getting things done at as much as 5 times the speed of the VelociRaptor. Sure, the tests are incomplete, but the future is undoubtedly bright for solid state storage once prices roll into realistic range.

This minimod unlocks all DX10 graphics features in Crysis 1.1, even if you have DX9 hardware and a DX9 OS like Windows XP. You heard right, this mini-mod unlocks all dx10 graphical features even if you have DX9 Hardware (ati 1950, nvidia 7900...) and an DX9 OS (windows xp...). All you have to do is switch every option in the advanced graphics menu to high! Thats all!

Installation:

Copy the extracted folder named "CVarGroups" and ovewrite all original files that should be in: c: Program Files, Electronic Arts, Crytek, Crysis, Game, Config, CVarGroups

With the new files from the download. Then Start the Game and make sure that all advanced graphic settings are on HIGH!!