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

Leading phone repair and insurance firm collapses after paying crippling ransomware demand — Cutting 100+ employees to just eight wasn’t enough

By Mark Tyson published 2 August 25

The Einhaus Group was once a familiar name, with its services available through 5,000 retail outlets in Germany and an annual revenue of around 70 million Euros.

Microsoft data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming

Power usage in Wyoming AI data center could eclipse consumption of the state's human residents by 5x — tenant of colossal investment remains a mystery

By Mark Tyson published 30 July 25

Plans are afoot to create a massive new data center in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with power demands many multiples of the state's population.

ChatGPT agent casually brushes aside ‘I am not a robot’ captcha — 'so now I’ll click the 'verify you are human' checkbox to complete this verification' it declared without a hint of irony

By Mark Tyson published 29 July 25

A Redditor has demonstrated the ability of the recently launched ChatGPT agent to casually swat away a captcha, so that it can complete its assigned task(s).

‘World’s smallest Intel Core Ultra-powered Mini PC’ crown claimed by fanless Aaeon PICO-MTU4-SEMI — just 43mm high and 0.44 liters in size

By Mark Tyson published 29 July 25

The tiny new Aaeon PICO-MTU4-SEMI is claimed to be the “world’s smallest Intel Core Ultra-powered Mini PC.”

A starling can be used to 'save' a PNG image

Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s

By Mark Tyson published 28 July 25

A music and science lover has demonstrated the capacity of birds to store and retrieve digital image data.

Zalman's jet engine-inspired CPU cooler hits the shelves — striking design lands in Korea for less than $60

By Mark Tyson published 28 July 25

Korean cases and cooling specialist Zalman Technologies has released the jet-engine inspired Zet5 CPU cooler to retail.

Yesterday's flagship beaten by today's turnip

Crazed modder discovers RTX 5050 is actually faster than a 1080 Ti — ends up overclocking Nvidia's plucky budget card to 3300MHz, swipes top six scores in 3DMark Time Spy with 28% clock speed increase

By Mark Tyson published 28 July 25

Plans to 'overclock a GTX 1080 Ti hard enough to embarrass Nvidia’s new RTX 5050' didn't go quite as expected.

Lib Work's 3D printed house, made primarily from soil

Eco-friendly 3D-printed house uses soil, not cement — building still scores top earthquake resistance rating

By Mark Tyson published 27 July 25

Japanese company advances 3D house building materials, relying on soil as its primary constituent.

Apple M1 Pro chips upcycled into hair clip geek-chic jewelry

Apple M1 Pro, once a flagship, now a $12 hair clip — discarded Apple silicon upcycled into geek-chic hair clip jewelry

By Mark Tyson published 26 July 25

A silicon enthusiast is taking their obsession to another level by marketing a new line of CPU jewelry.

BLUR Basecamp 75+ keyboard with potato-mode façade announced — the appeal is literally difficult to see

By Mark Tyson published 26 July 25

A retro video game artifact has been brought to life for your desk.

Raja Koduri's mission to deliver high bandwidth memory for GPUs has taken a turn that could enable 4TB of VRAM on AI cards — joins Sandisk to advise on SSD tech that could feed AI accelerators

By Mark Tyson published 25 July 25

Raja Koduri continues to push his high bandwidth vision for computing but this time it's flash, namely HBF

First AMD Strix Halo handheld gaming PC confirmed — GPD teases Ryzen AI Max+ 395 handheld in performance video

By Mark Tyson published 24 July 25

GPD has teased an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395-powered handheld.

Geekerwan tests AMD Threadripper Pro 9995WX cooled by a BMW M4 radiator and pump

Someone cooled AMD's $11,699 Threadripper Pro 9995WX with a BMW M4 radiator and some fans from a Toyota Highlander — 1,200 liters per hour pump still can't match liquid nitrogen, though

By Mark Tyson published 24 July 25

Geekerwan tested an AMD Threadripper Pro 9995WX CPU cooled by a BMW M4 radiator and pump.

Luxury PC company Maingear launches '90's style Retro95 beige PC — company known for flashy rigs with custom cooling and automotive paint brings old-school aesthetics to modern hardware

By Mark Tyson published 23 July 25

Maingear launches its Retro95 beige desktop, hoping to tempt in fans of retro PCs who, despite themselves, crave modern processing power.

Months after Elon Musk's DOGE crusade to wipe it out, LTO tape storage is bigger than ever — a record 176.5 exabytes shipped in 2024, the fourth consecutive year of growth

By Mark Tyson published 23 July 25

Tape storage shipments have enjoyed their fourth consecutive year of growth, increasing 15.4% according to the most recent data.

Knights of Old added two new MAN vehicles to the fleet in 2022

158-year-old company forced to close after ransomware attack precipitated by a single guessed password — 700 jobs lost after hackers demand unpayable sum

By Mark Tyson published 22 July 25

The 158-year established Knights of Old transportation company has collapsed in the wake of a ransomware attack, with 700 jobs lost.

Tiny GPD MicroPC 2 smashes crowdfunding goal – sequel to 2019 original improves mobile productivity yet remains under 500g

By Mark Tyson published 22 July 25

GPD has launched the MicroPC 2, a refreshed version of its ‘true pocket sized’ productivity powerhouse, to crowdfunding.

MacBook Pro trackpad can double as a weighing scale, and the source code is free — creator hacks trackpad to weigh items, claims Force Touch system 'pretty accurate',

By Mark Tyson published 21 July 25

A new app called TrackWeight uses the Apple laptop Force Touch trackpad pressure sensors for weighing scale duties.

AI coding platform goes rogue during code freeze and deletes entire company database — Replit CEO apologizes after AI engine says it 'made a catastrophic error in judgment' and 'destroyed all production data'

By Mark Tyson published 21 July 25

A browser-based AI-powered software creation platform called Replit is reported to have gone rogue and deleted a live company database.

Abel founder claims Meta offered $1.25 billion over four years to AI hire — 'person still said no' despite equivalent of $312 million yearly salary

By Mark Tyson published 21 July 25

Social media chatter suggests that Meta offered a potential AI hire $1.25 billion.

A Bitcoin whale just sold $9.5 billion in crypto that was originally acquired for $54,000 in 2014 — recent 80,000 BTC transaction nets an 18 million percent return

By Mark Tyson published 20 July 25

We are in a frisky season for the so-called Bitcoin whales, as another remarkable crypto-cash-in, valued at $9.5 billion, has been spotted.

Steam Stickers can be bad for your (data) health

Sending a Steam sticker 'burned through a month of mobile data in five minutes' complains unhappy gamer

By Mark Tyson published 20 July 25

A Steam Chat user who “burned through a month of mobile data in 5 minutes” blames Valve's animated stickers.

Reference Circuit Books crafted by Ian Dunn

PCB reference books with pages made from actual USB-C powered PCBs are now available at $37 each

By Mark Tyson published 19 July 25

An enthusiast has created some Reference Circuit Books where the ‘pages’ are PCBs.

Severance keyboard phase-shifts from sci-fi to sci-fact with launch of a new Kickstarter campaign — MDR Dasher keyboard starts at $599 and is estimated to ship from November

By Mark Tyson published 19 July 25

Atomic Keyboards is on the verge of launching its MDR Dasher Keyboard on Kickstarter, featuring three distinct configurations.

Felix86 emulator on RISC-V platforms can now run Steam x86 and games.

Steam gaming finally comes to RISC-V — AAA titles like The Witcher 3 and Crysis now playable thanks to revamped emulation tool

By Mark Tyson last updated 18 July 25

Linux developers have managed to get Steam games running on RISC-V-powered platforms using a refined x86 emulator.

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