Articles by Mark Tyson, News Editor

Mark's enthusiasm for computers dampened at an early age by the rubber-keyed Sinclair Spectrum 48K and feelings of Commodore 64 envy. However, in the mid-80s, hope in a digital future was rekindled by the purchase of an Atari 520 STe. Since that time Mark has used a multitude of computers for fun and professional endeavors. He often owned both Macs and PCs but went cold on the former after OS9 was killed off, and warmed to the latter with the introduction of Windows XP.

Early work years were spent in artwork and reprographics but in the late noughties, Mark started to blog about computers, Taiwanese food culture, and guitar design. This activity led to a full-time position writing about breaking PC tech news for HEXUS, for the best part of a decade. When HEXUS was abruptly closed, Mark helped with the foundation of Club386, before finding a new home at Tom's Hardware.

When not wearing through the keycap legends on his PC keyboards, Mark can be found wandering the computer malls of Taiwan's neon-lit conurbations and enjoying local and international cuisine.

Articles by: Mark Tyson

$500,000 gold RTX 5090 is now worth $830,000 thanks to rocketing commodity prices — Asus ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition was actually a savvy investment, worth over 50% more than at inception

By Mark Tyson published 10 March 26

Asus’ special one-off ROG Astral RTX 5090 Real Gold Edition has been a great investment, and is currently worth an estimated $830,000 based on its scrap gold value alone.

Thermal Grizzly scammed out of $46,000 by Alibaba metals suppliers — company spread the risk across two copper and aluminum suppliers, only for both to send cheaper, fake materials

By Mark Tyson published 9 March 26

Thermal Grizzly (TG) has been stung by fake materials sellers based in China, with nearly $50,000 down the drain.

3D printer that can mine Bitcoin uses excess heat for temperature control — throttled ASICs use printing bed as a heatsink

By Mark Tyson published 9 March 26

The creator of a 3D printer that mines Bitcoin took part in an interview on the Home Mining Podcast at the weekend.

Car powered by 500 disposable vape batteries boasts 18-mile range, 35mph top speed, USB-C charging port — early 2000s Reva G.Wiz gets a makeover

By Mark Tyson last updated 8 March 26

A TechTuber has successfully built and tested a vape battery-powered car.

Classic tiny LEGO computer brick design from 1979 made into full-scale working computer — Mac Mini implanted into this 10:1 scale inflated reimagining

By Mark Tyson published 8 March 26

A Dutch designer has crafted a 10:1 scale working model of the classic wedge-shaped LEGO computer brick Part 3039p23 with a Mac Mini M4 inside.

Memory bit flips cause up to 15% of Firefox crashes, asserts Mozilla engineer — figure inferred from 470,000 auto-submitted crash reports

By Mark Tyson published 8 March 26

A Mozilla engineer has shared survey data and calculations suggesting that up to 15% of Firefox crashes are due to a bit flip.

PC processors entered the Gigahertz era today in the year 2000 with AMD's Athlon — AMD hit marketing gold with its 1 GHz Athlon, beat Intel by a nose

By Mark Tyson published 7 March 26

Today in the year 2000, AMD shipped an undisputable milestone processor, its 1 GHz Athlon CPU. Thus, the Gigahertz PC era was born on Monday, March 6, 2000.

AI vibe-coded operating system is so bad it can't even run Doom — Vib-OS can't connect to the internet, browser app is an image viewer [Updated]

By Mark Tyson published 5 March 26

A new vibe-coded operating system performed as woefully as expected during a 9-point check process.

Gemini API key thief racks up $82,314 in charges in just two days, victim 'facing bankruptcy' — affected devs call for basic guardrails against 'catastrophic usage anomalies'

By Mark Tyson published 4 March 26

A Google Gemini user has taken to Reddit 'in a state of shock and panic' after getting an $82,314 bill.

Drones attack several AWS Middle East region data centers amid Iran war, leading to outages — service health been disrupted after power cut due to fire risk

By Mark Tyson published 3 March 26

Amazon’s data center business in the Middle East has been adversely impacted amid the 2026 Iran Conflict.

Paper files, photographs, magazines and digital media twist together to form an RNA strand, representing how tomorrow’s data — from family photos to entire archives — could be stored in DNA.

New DNA HDD can be ‘erased and overwritten repeatedly’ — University of Missouri researchers aiming for next-gen thumb-drive-sized storage

By Mark Tyson published 3 March 26

The University of Missouri (Mizzou) is developing a 'DNA hard drive,' which 'moves the field closer to a practical, rewritable system.'

Starlink Mobile teases ‘5G speeds from space with 100x the data density’ — V2 satellites are being sent into orbit to power the upgrade

By Mark Tyson published 2 March 26

Starlink’s official social media channels are boasting about an incredible performance update on the way to mobile customers.

Cave-inspired 3D printed Japanese home touted as earthquake resistant — two-story house first of its kind to be granted seismic compliance certificate

By Mark Tyson published 2 March 26

Construction of the first government approved two-story 3D printed home has been completed in Japan. The design is 'cave-inspired.'

Amiga Workbench Simulator helps you pick your ultimate retro desktop — TAWS recently updated with refinements to OS 3.2, AmiBench presets

By Mark Tyson published 1 March 26

TAWS - The Amiga Workbench Simulation has been updated with refinements to Workbench 3.2, AmiBench, and more.

‘200,000 living human neurons’ on a microchip demonstrated playing Doom — Cortical Labs CL1 video shows the gameplay and explains how the neurons learn the game

By Mark Tyson published 1 March 26

Australia’s Cortical Labs has demonstrated its 'body in a box' CL1 biological computer playing Doom.

AMD’s K6-III ‘Sharptooth’ debuted this week in 1999 with on-die L2 cache to savage the Intel Pentium II — it also held the line against the Pentium III

By Mark Tyson published 1 March 26

AMD launched its first processors with on-die L2 cache this week in 1999, heralding the beginning of the Super Socket 7 era.

Tsukhime Trial Edition destroyed in shipping

Ultra rare floppy disk game twisted and slashed into shards by US Customs or DHL checkers — ruined Tsukihime 1999 demo was one of only 50 ever produced

By Mark Tyson published 28 February 26

An important Windows 9X era video gaming artifact appears to have been deliberately destroyed.

Atmospheric Water harvesting tech from Atoco

Device that can extract 1,000 liters of clean water a day from desert air revealed by 2025 Nobel Prize winner — claimed to work in desert air with 20% humidity or lower, delivering off-grid ‘personalized water’

By Mark Tyson published 28 February 26

Stand-alone device claimed to pull 1,000 liters (about 264 US Gal) of drinkable water a day from air with as little as 20% humidity.

Buffalo ending USB Blu-ray drive production

Japanese firm stops production of Blu-ray disc drives — Buffalo says there will be no successors to its current trio of portable USB-attached drives [Updated]

By Mark Tyson published 27 February 26

Further signs that the Blu-ray tide is going out, never to return, come from Japanese peripherals maker Buffalo.

Ambitious developer showcases slick triple-level Quake-like game stored in tiny 64KB executable — every game asset tucked inside what could be a ‘rounding error’ in modern app payload terms

By Mark Tyson published 24 February 26

Developer Daivuk has released QUOD, a 64KB ‘boomer shooter’ with an uncanny resemblance to id Software’s seminal FPS title, Quake.

218-pound PC built inside a cast-iron Victorian radiator — cooling an RTX 5090 'probably out of the question'

By Mark Tyson published 24 February 26

Cast-iron Victorian radiator gaming PC build finalized and tested by Billet Labs.

Portable USB DVD writer with SATA dock deal

Portable USB DVD writer with 2.5-inch SATA and SD card dock slashed by 30% to $21 — optical drive can read and write CDs at 24X, and DVDs at 8X

By Mark Tyson published 23 February 26

Deals Optical drives can still be handy in 2026, though desktop and PC laptop makers very rarely offer them. Here's a USB-attached device that is also a SATA dock, and more, for under $21.

AI energy efficiency comparisons ‘unfair’ bleats Sam Altman, citing amount of energy needed to evolve, then train a human — one ‘takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat during that time before you get smart’ he argues

By Mark Tyson published 22 February 26

AI energy efficiency comparisons ‘unfair’ bleats Sam Altman, citing amount of energy needed to evolve, then train a human

Computer History Museum unveils comically large-scale rendition of the 1986 Apple Macintosh Plus — 'Big Mac' celebrates 50th Apple anniversary towering all-in-one's keyboard looks disproportionately huge today

By Mark Tyson published 22 February 26

Museum teases a 'Big Mac' that will be part of its Apple at 50 celebrations next month.

28 vintage computer systems accessible online

You can log into 28 vintage computer systems in your browser for free, thanks to the Interim Computer Museum — Experience legendary OSes, architectures, programming languages, and games

By Mark Tyson published 22 February 26

Experience legendary OSes, architectures, programming languages, and games via a new online portal.

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