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A game like World of Warcraft requires several thousand servers to operate the hundreds of online realms within its ecosystem. Earlier this year, Blizzard Entertainment auctioned off several of those server blades "used during World of Warcraft's early days."

A Reddit post brought up the subject again recently, and contains a few pictures of a server blade used for the European server Sunstrider from February 27, 2005 to August 24, 2010. There's little doubt that countless gamers spent thousands, if not millions, of hours playing during that time frame. A special clear enclosure reveals the innards of the server, which contains 6 gigabytes of RAM (DDR-400MHz). It did not come with the original hard drives. … Read more

The dominance of Apple and Google mobile browsers is leading to a situation that's even worse for Web programming than the former dominance of Internet Explorer, a standards group leader warned today.

Daniel Glazman, co-chairman of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) group overseeing the formatting and effects standard called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), said that programmers are overlooking other browsers when they use newer CSS features--even when those other browsers support the features.

The result is that those other browsers--Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera, chiefly--might have to essentially masquerade themselves as other browsers. When that happens, the "… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Most of us live in an apartment of about 1,000 square feet or less; Amped Wireless says it new router can cover an area 10 times larger.

The company showed off at CES 2012 the new R10000G High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Router. Powered by a 620MHz processor, dual high-power Wi-Fi 600mW amplifiers, and dual high-gain 5dBi antennas, this new router is set to deliver up to 10,000 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage.

To put things in perspective, most regular routers have a wireless output power of 50 milliwatts (mW); the R10000G is 600mW.

Amped Wireless says … Read more

There's good sound, and there's high-end sound; the difference is in the details. Case in point: the little Cruise USB digital-to-analog headphone amplifier from Alpha Design Labs by Furutech.

The Cruise sounds clear, clean and remarkably transparent. Regarding the details, connectivity comes in two flavors, there's a 3.5 mm analog stereo line input and 24/96 USB digital input. The Cruise can run off its external AC power supply, internal rechargeable lithium ion battery, or USB power from your computer. Furutech claims the battery is good for 80 hours of playback time.

High-end gear has to look the part, and again the Cruise scores. It may be a little thing, but it feels solid. Mirror-polished, nonmagnetic stainless-steel end caps flank a curvy, high-gloss carbon fiber body. Resting on my desktop the Cruise absolutely looks the part; it's the real deal. … Read more

I've been a big fan of Samsung's laptop designs, going back to the QX401 last year. While I had spent extensive time with the sleek Series 9 and diminutive Series 3, I was away on vacation when the Series 7 was first introduced. Now that one has arrived at CNET's offices, it seemed like a good time to do a quick first take, based on my first few minutes with the laptop.

Sleek metal: clean cut, brushed lines, very solid. The Series 7 is more impressive than I expected, more along the lines of an Apple MacBook Pro, and the way the HP Envy looked to our eyes for the first time. It's also a wide laptop, but that keyboard goes edge to edge. … Read more

Hackers supportive of the Occupy Wall Street protests today released personal information of former Citigroup and Goldman Sachs executive Robert Rubin who was U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Clinton when the banking reform Glass-Steagall Act was repealed.

The CabinCr3w, hackers aligned with the Anonymous group of online activists and the protests, have been releasing personal data of the CEOs of Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and other bankers. They also released information on a New York police officer accused of unprovoked and excessive use of pepper spray on people at the protests, which began September 17 in New … Read more

WASHINGTON--A Federal Trade Commission official says that industry hasn't yet done enough to implement Do Not Track and that legislation to mandate it may still be necessary.

"I don't think we're quite there yet," Julie Brill, a Democratic FTC commissioner, said this week at a conference organized by the Online Trust Alliance.

As interest-based advertising, sometimes called behavioral advertising, has spread, so has interest in some form of Do Not Track mechanism inspired by the federal Do Not Call Registry. Developers have added tools to Chrome, Firefox, and Safari to implement different versions of Do … Read more

Mango may have been bitten by its first big bug.

Users who have upgraded to the version 7.5 of Microsoft's Windows Phone are complaining that their keyboards randomly disappear or fail to appear when needed. Both Twitter and the XDA Developers forum have received a swarm of messages from Mango users reporting the glitch.

Apparently, people will either touch the input field only to find that the keyboard fails to pop up or be typing an e-mail or IM or other text, and the keyboard will suddenly vanish. The issue appears to be affecting a fair number of … Read more

Hackers released personal information about the head of Citigroup today in retaliation for the arrest of protesters during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations this weekend.

The data on Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's chief executive officer, includes phone numbers, address, e-mail address, family information, and some legal and financial information. It was released by CabinCr3w, which is affiliated with the Anonymous online activist group that has been involved in the monthlong protests.

"During Occupy Wall Street, protesters had made way to CitiBank to withdraw their funds and close their accounts," CabinCr3w wrote in a statement. "They were met … Read more