Month: October 2016

Enlarge / The future of computing? (credit: DOE)

Many Ars readers love to argue the details of different computer architectures. Cache implementations, pipelines, and other minutiae are all put under the microscope and declared wanting by someone (and excellent by others). From my perspective, all commercial computer architectures are the same, and you have to leave the world of silicon to find radically different computers.

And radical is what we have received from groups of Japanese and American researchers. They have used light pulses, circulating in a fiber optic racetrack, to create a computer that is very scalable—and seemingly pretty fast.

Isolation is bad

The computers we play with every day use logic gates. These gates set every bit in memory by performing a series of logic operations. To solve a problem, we first have to design an algorithm that will generate a solution. Then, that algorithm has to be translated into a series of logic operations that can be fed to the computer. There are, of course, numerous ways to optimize—dividing the problem across multiple CPUs, for instance—but at heart, it's all the same logic. It has the great benefit of being universal. Any computation is possible; you just might still be waiting for the solution when the Universe dies.

Early Tuesday, Chinese smartphone OEM Xiaomi unveiled its most ambitious smartphone ever, the Xiaomi Mi Mix. If you think smartphone design has stagnated, one look at this will tell you there is so much more that could be done with the familiar form factor. Xiaomi has created a phone with bezels so small it has a 91.3 percent screen-to-body ratio, which the company says is the "highest on any smartphone to date." That means it can fit a 6.4-inch screen in a body that has "similar dimensions" as the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.

The corners of the 6.4-inch "edgeless display" are actually round, which allows them to creep that much closer to the bezel. Xiaomi hasn't talked about its display technology or manufacturer, but we have to wonder if the company is using Sharp's "free form" IGZO technology. More display oddities: it has an 17:9 aspect ratio with a resolution of 2040×1080. This allows Xiaomi to fill out more of the phone with display, and—since this is Xiaomi's first device to use on-screen navigation buttons—gives a 16:9 display area for content. At 6.4", that's only 360 pixels per inch. 360ppi still qualifies for "retina display" density if you're Apple, but current-gen smartphones hit upwards of 500ppi.

The days of living on virtual easy street are coming to an end for many Grand Theft Auto Online cheaters. That's because Rockstar has begun resetting in-game balances for players with "illegitimately gained in-game money" in their online accounts. Many GTA Online players are waking up to a message notifying them that "we have determined that your account illegitimately gained in-game money via mods, cheats, or other actions. We've adjusted your account and updated your balance."

Over at the GTA Forums, member Viper-Venom reports that "every single person I know who has a modded account has had their money reset to $0." That includes players who gained up to $20 trillion by simply using mods to create and collect huge piles of cash in their in-game instance. Players with smaller balances seem to have less chance of being affected, based on reports, but the balance resets appear to be going out in waves, meaning modders who have yet to be affected aren't necessarily safe.

It's not just modders that are being affected—some players that used in-game glitches to artificially inflate their bank accounts are also reporting that their balances have been reset. Those who simply picked up the odd illegitimate money pile generated by other modders don't seem to be affected as of yet, however.

Enlarge

There are times when World of Final Fantasy does nothing but annoy you. Its visuals are so saccharine you can practically feel your teeth decaying and your brain melting as you play; the voice acting is performed at a pitch only dogs can hear; and the fan service is so heavy handed that it frequently undermines the awkward story the tries to tell. And yet, for some reason, it's hard not to love the darn thing.

Admittedly, there's a certain element of nostalgia attached to World of Final Fantasy, the way in which it revives series tropes almost verbatim and combines them with a classic cast of characters (look, there's Squall! And Celes! And Cloud!). But it's been done with skill and elegance. Once you've plugged your ears and resorted to subtitles, the characters quickly grow on you, and the rampant pace with which the (admittedly shallow) plot progresses means you're never stuck for places to explore and events to uncover. This is Final Fantasy boiled down to its core components with a touch of Pokémon thrown in for good measure—and it works beautifully.

World of Final Fantasy revolves around capturing "Mirages," beasts that roam the wild in packs or as individuals. Taking on the role of twin siblings Lann and Reynn, you catch Mirages by weakening them in battles and trapping them in Prisms (which are definitely not Pokéballs, no siree), after which they become tame and can be used to fight alongside you. Used often enough in battle, the Mirages' skills and experience is accumulated so that the they can "Transfigure" into bigger, stronger editions of themselves.

Capturing Mirages is combined with the usual dungeon crawling, item harvesting, talking to NPCs, exploration of towns and villages on a pseudo open-world map, and a turn-based battle system (Active Time Battle) full of glorious menus that will be familiar to anyone that's played a pre-PlayStation 2 Final Fantasy game. As a result, playing World of Final Fantasy for anyone old enough to know who Terra or Tifa are is a pure nostalgia trip. There's nothing particularly new or exciting, but World of Final Fantasy does an excellent job of blending proven concepts into a cohesive whole.