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

Financial Modelling World Cup, winner highlighted

‘LeBron James of Excel spreadsheets’ celebrates 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championships win — beat 256 other spreadsheet whizzes to claim the $60,000 first prize in Las Vegas tournament

By Mark Tyson published 21 December 25

The 2025 Microsoft Excel World Championships final in Las Vegas has been won by Irishman Diarmuid Early.

Massive two-year project recovers 144 previously undumped Sega Genesis game ROMs from the mid-1990s — lost Garfield and Flintstones games among the notable finds

By Mark Tyson published 21 December 25

A massive, multi-year project to recover Sega Channel games from the mid 1990s has been a resounding success, with many exclusives saved.

Search pioneer AltaVista’s star shone bright with a clean and minimal UI 30 years ago — engine lost momentum after multiple ownership changes and the embrace of the web portal trend

By Mark Tyson published 21 December 25

Pioneering search engine AltaVista opened its service to the public 30 years ago.

Russia has reportedly improved the range of its jam-proof optical drones to over 40 miles — purported Chinese-Russian collaborative production imagery reveals dramatically increased tethered drone range

By Mark Tyson published 21 December 25

Imagery of spools carrying 65km (~40.4 miles) of optical fiber, for FPV drone control, have been shared on Russian social media channels.

Google killed the 25-year-old Sega Dreamcast PlanetWeb 3.0 web browser this week — big G's services no longer respond to this quarter-century-old software

By Mark Tyson published 20 December 25

The Sega Dreamcast’s ancient pack-in internet browser was killed by Google earlier this week.

12 years ago, a whiskey-fuelled rant coined the iconic term HODL with a drunken mispelling — Bitcoin investment strategy would have turned $523 into over $87,000, a 16,666% gain

By Mark Tyson published 20 December 25

On December 18, 2013, a cryptocurrency investor felt compelled to pen a message rallying his fellow shellshocked troops on the Bitcointalk forums. Thus, the 'HODL' strategy was born.

Nvidia-led NitroGen is a generalist video gaming AI that can play any title — research also has big implications for robotics

By Mark Tyson published 20 December 25

NitroGen is 'an open-source foundation model trained to play 1000+ games.'

North Korean infiltrator caught working in Amazon IT department thanks to lag — 110ms keystroke input raises red flags over true location [Updated]

By Mark Tyson published 18 December 25

A North Korean imposter was uncovered, working as a sysadmin at Amazon U.S., after their keystroke input lag raised suspicions with security specialists at the online retail giant.

AI-designed Linux computer with 843 components boots on first attempt — dual-PCB Project Speedrun was made in just one week and required less than 40 hours of human work

By Mark Tyson last updated 17 December 25

LA-based startup Quilter has outlined Project Speedrun, which marks a milestone in computer design by AI.

Boy breaks 50 of his father's Samsung M.2 NVMe SSDs worth nearly $4,000 — 25,600 GB of storage ruined by ten-year-old oblivious to global NAND crisis

By Mark Tyson published 16 December 25

Tragic images showing 50 mangled M.2 SSDs has been shared on social media. It looks like a naughty boy was the culprit.

Starlink VP confirms ‘dangerously close’ Chinese launch incident — close call saw satellite pass within 200 meters of Starlink travelling at over 17,400mph

By Mark Tyson published 15 December 25

There was a notably 'dangerously close' approach between a newly launched Chinese satellite and Starlink-6079 a few days ago.

The largest playable Tetris game ever created

2,800 RGB drones turned into the world's largest-ever game of Tetris — Red Bull Tetris world final lights up Dubai night sky

By Mark Tyson published 15 December 25

Thousands of RGB drones lit up the Dubai Frame to create the largest ever playable Tetris game.

Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons

id Software released its first game 35 years ago today, John Carmack’s breakthrough side-scroller engine — Commander Keen title brought smooth scrolling to PCs

By Mark Tyson last updated 14 December 25

35 years ago today, Commander Keen in Invasion of the Vorticons - Episode 1: Marooned on Mars was released by a dev team including John Carmack and John Romero.

New fabric speakers use flexible electronics to be thin, light, and flexible — AIST Japan's latest breakthrough; audiophile ready, or only suitable for cloth ears?

By Mark Tyson published 14 December 25

Thin, light, and flexible electronics technology commercialized in new ‘Fabric Speaker Portable’ product.

Russian media finally admits Putin is under fire from angry citizens, but it's for the recent Roblox ban — Kremlin says kids have written 63,000 complaint letters, half said they wanted to leave Russia due to the ban

By Mark Tyson published 14 December 25

There's been a Russian youth uprising, with tens of thousands of kids writing to say they want to emigrate because Roblox has been blocked.

The General Purpose Interface Bus (GPIB), which would become IEEE 488

53 years later, bus standard launched by HP in 1972 gets stable Linux driver — General Purpose Interface Bus has blistering 8 MB/s of bandwidth

By Mark Tyson published 14 December 25

HP's GBIP interface will finally receive stable drivers for Linux (6.19 kernel release), 53 years after its debut.

Bust of Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of bitcoin, erected in the Graphisoft Park in Budapest. The statue made of bronze and aluminum alloy by Tamás Gilly and Réka Gergely was inaugurated on September 16, 2021 at the initiative of the Hungarian Crypto Academy. (Budapest, District III, Záhony Street) - cropped to 16:9

Bitcoin creator Satoshi disappeared on this day 15 years ago, leaving a final public message — 'I've moved on to other things,' true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto entity remains unknown

By Mark Tyson published 13 December 25

The presumed pseudonymous Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, disappeared without a trace on this day in 2010.

Electronics shown in destroyed missile wreckage

AMD, Intel, and TI are ‘merchants of death’ says lawyer representing Ukrainian civilians — five new suits complain that Russian drones and missiles continue to use high-tech components from these brands

By Mark Tyson published 13 December 25

Five lawsuits were filed in Texas this week, putting some of the biggest names in PC tech under an uncomfortable spotlight, as their components are still being found in Russian weaponry.

Intel fails to get EU antitrust ruling overturned in longstanding 16-year AMD competition case — chipmaker sees $1.2 billion fine reduced to $278 million

By Mark Tyson published 11 December 25

Intel lost its challenge to overturn an EU antitrust ruling on Wednesday, meaning it now faces a fine of $278 million.

Revamped Nvidia Grace Hopper platform bargain

Dev gambles on 'obviously fake' $8K Grace Hopper system, scores $80,000 worth of hardware on Reddit for one-tenth of the cost — buyer's haul includes 960GB of DDR5 RAM worth more than what he paid for the entire rig

By Mark Tyson published 11 December 25

This used Nvidia Grace Hopper system price seemed unbelievable. But it required a lot of cleaning and intricate work to get it running smoothly.

UC Berkeley Ph.D. candidate busted repeatedly sabotaging rival student's computer, causing $46,000 in damages — hidden camera sting catches perp causing "sparks to fly out of the laptop," student arrested on three felony counts

By Mark Tyson published 11 December 25

PhD student rivalry extends to repeated physical laptop damage, hidden camera shows.

Nvidia Dawn and Dusk demo PC resurfaces alongside its original FX 5950 Ultra graphics card — state-of-the-art dream machine made gamers' hearts race in 2004

By Mark Tyson published 10 December 25

The Dawn and Dusk demo PC, an enchanting artifact dating back to when Nvidia was very firmly a gaming-first company, has resurfaced many years on.

Two more perps apprehended over smuggling of $160 million of Nvidia chips to China — DOJ says H100 and H200 shipments were relabelled with a fictional brand to dodge export controls

By Mark Tyson published 9 December 25

Several suspects have been apprehended for allegedly violating export control laws regarding the supply of Nvidia H100 and H200 AI chips to China.

This scratch-built, period-correct Portable Commodore 64 is a love letter to an alternate Commodore history — Noki's cleverly designed homage to the era merges Commodore, Apple, and Raspberry Pi

By Mark Tyson published 8 December 25

An industrial designer with a love for old computers has created a working prototype of a Commodore 64 laptop.

New computing platform is ‘Made for Making’ — Caligra c100 Developer Terminal targets creators with distraction-free ‘computer for experts’

By Mark Tyson published 7 December 25

The Caligra c100 Developer Terminal is a brand-new computer platform with retro-licious metal wedge case and productivity focused Linux OS.

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