Why it matters: The EVGA RTX 3090 Ti Kingpin is one of the first graphics cards on the market equipped with two 16-pin power connectors, allowing overclockers to push it further than other 3090 Ti models. It also features a 360mm AIO with an extra fan dedicated to cool the VRM and ships with a 1600W power supply included in the hefty price tag. EVGA's RTX 3090 Ti Kingpin is now available, three months after the launch of Nvidia's flagship Ti model GPU . This graphics card is the company's highest-end SKU designed mainly for extreme overclocking, as evidenced by the onboard voltage monitoring headers and a BIOS switch with Normal, OC, and LN2 settings. The Kingpin has a hybrid cooling solution consisting of a 360mm AIO liquid cooler and an extra fan on the card itself to cool the monstrous 24-phase VRM. It also ships with a built-in OLED display, which allows you to monitor voltages, temperatures, clocks, and more. EVGA's flagship features dual 16-pin power connectors, … [Read more...] about EVGA RTX 3090 Ti Kingpin launches with two 16-pin power connectors, $2,500 price tag, comes with “free” 1600W PSU
I’ve been getting tons of ‘wrong number’ spam texts, and I don’t hate it?
The text that arrived at 3:51PM on Monday, March 28th, seemed innocent at first. “Mr. Steven,” it read, “I am very sorry, after our communication and understanding during this period of time, I feel that we are not suitable in some ways.” That’s odd, I thought, must be a wrong number. But who was this mysterious Mr. Steven? What was the nature of the disagreement? What the heck did Mr. Steven do to offend this person? I was intrigued — but not enough to respond. Several weeks later, I received another text, this time from someone named “Amy” asking about “a location for coffee.” A couple days after that, “Irene from Vietnam” reached out to ask if I was still living in New York. And then “Sophia” texted, calling me “Laura” and asking about a party we both attended over the weekend. These “wrong number” texts are clearly the work of some fraudster, but honestly I don’t really mind. To me, they’re more sublime than annoying, hinting at a possible missed connection or mistaken … [Read more...] about I’ve been getting tons of ‘wrong number’ spam texts, and I don’t hate it?
How do painkillers kill pain? It’s about meeting the pain where it’s at
Without the ability to feel pain, life is more dangerous. To avoid injury, pain tells us to use a hammer more gently, wait for the soup to cool or put on gloves in a snowball fight. Those with rare inherited disorders that leave them without the ability to feel pain are unable to protect themselves from environmental threats, leading to broken bones, damaged skin, infections, and ultimately a shorter life span. In these contexts, pain is much more than a sensation: It is a protective call to action. But pain that is too intense or long-lasting can be debilitating. So how does modern medicine soften the call? As a neurobiologist and an anesthesiologist who study pain, this is a question we and other researchers have tried to answer. Science’s understanding of how the body senses tissue damage and perceives it as pain has progressed tremendously over the past several years. It has become clear that there are multiple pathways that signal tissue damage to the brain and sound … [Read more...] about How do painkillers kill pain? It’s about meeting the pain where it’s at
tiktok: Why TikTok asked an Italian football club to take down a tweet
Maybe you have an opinion about TikTok or perhaps you don’t have one. The app has been quite a rage across the world as it has changed the way a lot of people consume content on social media. TikTok was quite a hit in India as well before the government banned the app. Worldwide, however, TikTok remains the most popular app in the world. In April 2022, TikTok was the most popular app in the world with 176 million downloads. Overall, the app has about 3.5 billion downloads. Since 2018, no app has soared to the heights TikTok has managed to do. So it’s natural that people would want to be on TikTok as the reach is immense. However, TikTok wasn’t too happy when a football club actually created an account on the platform. It’s not as if TikTok didn’t want the football club to be on the platform but didn’t like the way the announcement was made. Venezia Football club — currently plying trade in Italy’s second division known as Series B — created its TikTok account and made a … [Read more...] about tiktok: Why TikTok asked an Italian football club to take down a tweet
Steam survey: one in five users now on Windows 11, Intel retakes CPU share from AMD
What just happened? Valve's monthly Steam survey has landed. We're usually more interested in which graphics cards are found in participants' PCs, but the interesting parts of June's results come from the operating system and CPU sections. In the case of the former, it seems the initial pushback against Windows 11 is easing as the OS passes the 20% user-share milestone. Several recent reports have shown that Windows 11 is slowly but surely making gains on its predecessor, and more Steam users are embracing the newer operating system with its gaming-focused features: Windows 11 was found on 19.59% of users' PCs in May, a figure that climbed to 21.23%, or more than one in five, during June. Windows 10 (64-bit), meanwhile, was down -2.63%. Most popular Windows versions among Steam survey participants: more people started using Windows 7 last month! Moving onto CPUs, June was another month in which Intel beat AMD as team blue jumped up 1.28%. AMD chipping away at its … [Read more...] about Steam survey: one in five users now on Windows 11, Intel retakes CPU share from AMD