Articles by Mark Tyson

Cases, cooling, and power specialist Silverstone has uploaded the official product pages and manual for the upcoming FLP01 chassis. This beige desktop caught our eye last year as it seems perfect for sneaky sleeper PC builds – facilitating the easy DIYing of outwardly antiquated systems packed cutting edge internals.Image […]

A high school student created a Doom (1993) port inside a PDF file. Ading2210 created DoomPDF, inspired by the recent release of Pdftris—Tetris (1985) in a PDF and a version of Breakout (1976) ported to a PDF container several years ago. Like PDFtris, DoomPDF relies on the support of the document file format for Javascript. Still, this time, those interested in playing must fire up a Chromium-based browser to satisfy their curiosity.Ading2210 comments that the JS specification for Adobe Acrobat is extensive, supporting things you would expect to be well beyond its scope, like 3D rendering and monitor detection. Modern browsers might only support a subset of features for security, but there are still ways to port and run games.In the case of DoomPDF, Ading2210 explains that C code was compiled to run inside a PDF using an “old version of Emscripten that targets asm.js instead of WebAssembly.” This means the code can run in the limited JS environment of a browser PDF engine. Inputs are sensed via the Chromium PDF engine’s support for text fields and buttons, with movement, map, and weapons controls all present. Nevertheless, implementing this doomgeneric source port involved some visual and framebuffer challenges.(Image credit: Future)In our screenshot, taken shortly after firing up DoomPDF, the PDF renderer’s visuals are moderately detailed but suffer from low color depth and a lack of contrast. The developer explains that previous PDF games have used more straightforward individual text fields that can be toggled on and off to create individual pixels. However, 320 x 200 pixels would require the rapid toggling control of 64,000 such fields, which is said to have been infeasible.Instead of text field boxes for pixels, Ading2210 used a separate text field for each row in the game screen with ASCII characters used to create six grey shades. This rendering method’s performance is claimed to be playable at around 80ms per frame (approx. 12.5 FPS).DoomPDF is free software licensed under the GNU GPL v2. Doom has infamously been ported to many weird and wonderful devices/platforms, including lawnmowers, air hockey tables, keyboard keycaps, and even Notepad.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

Hong Kong Customs recently stopped a truck containing a mixed load of undeclared electronic components with an estimated market value of $1.8M (HK$14M). The news of this discovery, published earlier today, caught our eye because the haul included approximately 670,000 chips and about 80,000 components, including CPUs, RAM chips, and motherboards. This appears to be a massive amount of electronics; however, the overall market value estimate indicates that most items were very cheap bits and pieces.As the press release is not very specific about its breakdown of seized components, we pixel-peeped the high-resolution photo shared by the customs authority (embedded above). On the table, there appears to be a tray of Intel CPUs, a selection of RAM DIMMs, some assorted PCBs, smartphone components, (brilliant?)watch components, and spools of tape or cabling. We think these were taken out to represent the contents of the many unpacked boxes. At least one box appears to be packed with HyperX Fury memory modules.In this $1.8M smuggling case, investigators say undeclared electrics “were found mixed with other properly declared goods inside the [truck] container” last Wednesday. Of course, the 47-year-old man driving the truck is suspected of being connected to this smuggling case. He has been released on bail pending further investigations.(Image credit: Hong Kong Customs)As a reminder, Hong Kong (and Macau) are unique administrative regions of China with zero VAT on consumer goods. That’s great for residents and tourists, but mainland visitors, usually faced with 13% VAT, might be tempted to bring some local HK delights home and forget to declare them to customs.The extra 13% profit margin smugglers might think they can make from these grey imports must be balanced against the likelihood of getting caught. Hong Kong Customs are pretty sharp. For example, they have previously detected smugglers just for their bloated appearance.Those caught will also face the prospect of having their smuggled goods seized. However, the legal sting in the tail is a fine of up to HK$2M ($257,000) and enduring up to seven years behind bars.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

The classic Tetris game has been packaged into a PDF and dubbed Pdftris. The classic falling blocks puzzler is claimed to be playable in most desktop browsers and, indeed, we successfully loaded and played the game in Firefox on PC simply by clicking the above link. A security analyst named Thomas Rinsma is the brains behind this new PDF-based browser game.Here’s a working game of Tetris inside a PDF. Even has keyboard controls (by typing WASD in an input box). Plus, upon game-over you can “save” your score by printing the page ;)https://t.co/YrOInaHOUYShould work in most browsers (built for pdfium/PDF.js). pic.twitter.com/n4CPcitzz9January 5, 2025Background details on the project aren’t extensive, as the GitHub project page ReadMe entry is empty. However, Rinsma was happy to chat with users on the Hacker News feed about the development project.Rinsma indicates that he was inspired to port a game to run in a PDF after he “realized that the PDF engines of modern desktop browsers (PDFium and PDF.js) support JavaScript with enough I/O primitives to make a basic game like Tetris.”The security analyst and self-confessed aficionado of “strange loops and weird machines” also explained that it wasn’t that easy to get his Tetris game to run correctly in both engines. However, he discovered that “showing/hiding annotation ‘fields’ works well to make monochrome pixels.” Moreover, if you try the game with the on-screen buttons and would prefer to use keys, then Rinsma made it so that keyboard control can be achieved by typing in a text input box below the game area.Rinsma humbly admits that his Tetris in PDF code is “quite janky.” However, he suggests it at least serves as a reminder of the power and flexibility of PDF scripting.(Image credit: Future)Those interested in prying inside the Pdftris code don’t need specialist or esoteric development tools. Just choose to download the 60KB PDF, and open it in a text editor and you will find the file is “all ASCII.”There is some source code available, too, with greater readability and comments inserted. You can see that on the aforementioned GitHub project page, specifically here.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Rinsma noted that Pdftris isn’t working on Adobe’s Reader “likely because it’s not compliant in several ways.” Other non-browser Pdftris possibilities like Foxit Reader might work, he mused, as he believes it supports the necessary scripting for the gaming action.It would be great to get some color, shading, and sound in a future release of Pdftris but we don’t know if this project will be developed much further. In some ways, it is basically a proof of concept.While Pdftris is certainly an eyebrow-raising mashup of the gaming and document rendering worlds, developers have dragged far duller apps into the gaming realm, particularly Microsoft Excel. Microsoft’s spreadsheet can even host a 3D raytracing gaming engine (with the help of VBA). […]

The legal arguments over $750M worth of Bitcoin buried in a Welsh dump have ended unhappily for a man who lost his crypto HDD in the trash 12 years ago. On Thursday, Judge Keyser KC of the British High Court ruled James Howells’ case had no reasonable chance of success at a trial. Therefore, the court sided with the council and struck out Mr Howell’s legal action, in which he had hoped to gain legal access to the dump for excavation or get £495M ($604M) in compensation from the council.We last wrote about Mr Howells’s trials and tribulations in October last year, when he, backed by a consortium, decided to sue the local council “because they won’t give me back my bin (trash) bag.” At that time, the lost 8,000 Bitcoins were valued at $538M; today, they would be worth over $750M.Howells’ unfortunate predicament began in August 2013, when he discovered his girlfriend had taken his old laptop hard drive, which contained a wallet with Bitcoins he had mined back in 2009, to the council dump. However, Howells admits he put the device in the trash after clearing some old office bits and pieces. According to Howells, you can read precisely what happened in an excerpt from the ruling, reproduced below.A series of unfortunate events (Image credit: Future)There are two major legal problems concerning this treasure in the trash. First, under UK law, anything you throw in the garbage to be collected by the council becomes the council’s legal property. Second, Howells’ case falls foul of the UK’s six-year statute of limitations. Although the lost Bitcoins were known about in 2013, Howells only decided to sue the council in 2024.The BBC shared some post-judgment comments from Howells in a report yesterday. In them, he admitted he was “very upset” about the decision. His statements didn’t address that the council now owns the HDD/data. However, he had some interesting arguments to counter the six-year statute of limitations mentioned by the judge.Howells told the BBC that he had been “trying to engage with Newport City Council in every way which is humanly possible for the past 12 years.” This could reasonably explain the delay in legal action. He also suggested that if he had made it to trial, “there was so much more that could have been explained” and that it would have made a difference in the legal decision.A distraught Howells repeated his offer to share the $750M crypto treasure with the council and donate 10% to the local community.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Even if Howells successfully accessed the Welsh landfill site, securing the errant Bitcoins would remain a long shot. Howells and his consortium have narrowed down the HDD’s location to approximately 100,000 tonnes of old waste out of 1.4M tonnes thought to be composting at the site. There is also the question about the condition of the drive, which could have been subject to high pressures and liquid contamination for several years.Previously, we reported that the would-be BTC rescuers estimated an 80% chance that the precious HDD data would be retrievable. Howells and the consortium were ready to spend about $13M on an excavation and search project lasting up to 36 months. […]

Nvidia caught the imaginations of many technology enthusiasts on Tuesday with its show-closing, ‘just one more thing’- style reveal of the Project Digits AI supercomputer. However, seasoned graphics chip designer Raja Koduri and disruptive AI server startup Tiny Corp were not enchanted by the small golden box or blinded by Jensen’s shimmering jacket. They have both publicly scorned Nvidia’s Grace Blackwell AI Supercomputer.At first glance, the purported provision of 1 PFLOPS of performance in such a tiny device might seem like a vision of the future, even if it is priced at $3,000. As told by the Nvidia CEO, we might believe that Project Digits is akin to AI alchemy in a box, but all that glisters isn’t gold. The spec of the headlining GB10 Superchip, the “1 PFLOP FP4 AI Compute,” is a somewhat deceptive hint to Raja Koduri and Tiny Corp (founded by American security hacker George Hotz, AKA geohot).Koduri’s Project Digits takedown is what you probably could describe as a gentle geeky joke with a sprinkling of cynicism. The graphics chip design icon posted, “Divide flops by 4 and multiply dollars by 2. A CES (20+25)² tip for staying grounded,” poking fun at the green team.Divide flops by 4 and multiply dollars by 2A CES (20+25) ² tip for staying groundedJanuary 7, 2025Koduri later elaborated that – in contrast to the big FP4 claims – by his calculations, the FP16 performance of the Project Digits AI supercomputer wasn’t that impressive. Koduri estimated that the FP16 performance of the upcoming GeForce RTX 5070 and even the $250 Intel Arc B580 “seems close” to what a Project Digits machine could muster.You may remember last year’s news coverage involving Tiny Corp and its TinyBox project. In brief, Tiny Corp and its founder were very publicly displeased with AMD’s drivers. However, its plan to democratize AI acceleration by using (AMD) gaming GPUs instead of even more costly pro/enterprise alternatives was perhaps too bold. The firm managed to grab the attention of AMD publicly, and even Dr. Lisa Su and the red team were quite gracious despite the startup’s abrasive posturing and demands.An AI swindle?Fast forward to CES 2025, and Tiny Corp hasn’t lost its abrasive edge. “People are begging to get swindled by a $3,000 box that says AI on the side. We always get asked if we’ll launch something at that price point. We won’t,” grumbled Tiny Corp before advising its casual followers to “Just buy a gaming PC.”People are begging to get swindled by a $3,000 box that says AI on the side. We always get asked if we’ll launch something at that price point. We won’t.Just buy a gaming PC.January 7, 2025Earlier in the day, Tiny Corp had become seemingly irritated by the Project Digits announcement. “This is marketing. FP4 is unusable, it’s 500 TFLOPS of FP8. tinybox green has 4 PFLOPS of FP8, 8x more powerful.”Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Nvidia’s Project Digits won’t be available until May when it is expected to roll out for around $3,000. TinyBox computers, starting from $15,000, are available for the ‘red’ model with 738 FP16 TFLOPS and “mediocre” driver quality (another barb cast at AMD). […]

The public complaints of a Ukrainian Facebook user have led to the uncovering of an elaborate Chinese sanctions-swerving scheme. Militarnyi reports that the deception aimed to funnel important glide bomb and kamikaze drone components to Russia undercover as car parts from a Taiwanese brand.On Friday, Ukrainian activist Vadim Labas posted about how he was irritated to find out Taiwan’s TRC was supplying what was, in effect, weapons parts to Russia. However, he shared an update on Monday as investigations revealed that a Chinese company had faked the TRC brand to swerve sanctions.Labas explains that friendly Taiwanese and Ukrainians living in Taiwan unearthed a ‘double operation’ to circumvent sanctions and discredit the named Taiwanese manufacturer. After publicly apologizing to TRC in this update post, he described the elaborate scheme used by China’s KST to dodge sanctions with its servo drives.(Image credit: Vadim Labas)These servo drives are claimed to be an essential component for producing both UMPK glide bombs and Shahed kamikaze drones. The parts in question are made by the Chinese factory KST Digital Technology Limited, says Labas. It is a sanctioned company. However, it ‘sold’ these servos to a fake company in China called Kaiffeng Zhendaqian Technology (KZT). The parts were subsequently sold to another Chinese company, Unihui International Limited. During this transaction, the parts were also ‘rebranded’ indicating they came from Taiwan’s TRC.Another Chinese company, Shenzhen Biosen Bio-Tech Co., then transferred the parts and documentation to Omni Trade and Dymir Trade, two firms described by the source as “Russian proxies.” Interestingly, Dymir Trade is said to be a freshly set-up clone of Dymir, which is under sanctions. The final act of deception in this lengthy obfuscating process was to ship the glide bomb and kamikaze drone components to Russia labeled as spare parts for civilian automobiles.Readers won’t be surprised to hear that Taiwan’s TRC finds news of its brand being faked to ship weapons parts as “incomprehensible.” In a statement to Taiwan’s CNA, an exec from TRC denied the firm had produced the parts in question and that legal action was being considered to protect the company’s name, rights, and interests.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. […]

This weekend, a video podcast showcased the MicroFrame computer used to demo QDOS to Bill Gates. Key players from Seattle Computer Products were interviewed about creating the first DOS and how it became MS-DOS on IBM PCs, which sparked Microsoft’s rapid growth and prosperity. Moreover, viewers can see the S-100 Intel 8086 PCB removed from the MicroFrame.In Unaligned 38: the creator of DOS, embedded above, host Robert Scoble chatted with Tim Paterson and Jim Harding, who worked at Seattle Computer Products together in the early 80s. They worked in the roles of Design Engineer and Sales Engineer, respectively. Scoble also has an illustrious tech history and is probably best known for duties as Microsoft’s technology Evangelist in the early 2000s (during the Windows XP era).An interview with Paterson dominates the first segment of the video. His role in the MS-DOS story is pivotal as he wrote the operating system 86-DOS, which was sometimes referred to as QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Another important feather in Paterson’s cap is that he designed the S-100 board, creating one of the first Intel 8086 computer systems. Of course, this was before the IBM PC era (the first IBM PC, with 8088 CPU, arrived in August 1981).

#38: the creator of DOS – YouTube

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According to Paterson, IBM approached Microsoft to prepare software products to launch the first PC. Microsoft was happy to prepare programming languages for IBM but suggested the firm seek out Digital Research (the makers of the already popular CP/M) for its OS.Scoble takes over the story at this point and asserts that Gary Kildall (Digital Research founder and CP/M creator) wouldn’t accept IBM’s volume OS licensing price of $25 per machine. For example, the podcast participants thought CP/M cost one or two hundred dollars. In addition to the monetary issue, there was wrangling over NDAs and problems with missed meeting(s).Frustrated with Digital Research, Paterson said that IBM went to Microsoft for an OS. In stark contrast with Digital Research, Microsoft would readily sign any piece of paper to seal the IBM deal, suggests the QDOS author. It is fascinating to hear slightly new angles on this legendary foundational deal that led Microsoft to become the colossus it is today.(Image credit: Robert Scoble: Unaligned)The old S-100 hardware appears to be in great shapeIf you skip ahead in the video to around the one-hour mark, you can see Jim Harding showing off a MicroFrame system that was thought to be the model used by Seattle Computer Products to demonstrate QDOS to Bill Gates. The MicroFrame shown belonged to Tim Paterson’s brother.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Harding pulls out an S-100 card from the MicroFrame and tells the host that it houses an Intel 8086, which packs 29,000 transistors. He also praises ex-colleague Paterson’s assembly programming skills for squeezing every last bit of performance from the computing power of the day.Last year, an original 5.25-inch floppy release of version 0.1 C of 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products was imaged and shared on the Internet Archive. If the above story has inspired you to check out this ancient DOS, you can test it using the disk image and an emulator. Alternatively, you can sit back and watch someone else demo the MS-DOS ancestor on YouTube. […]