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

Oklahoma man charged with supplying over one hundred 3D-printed machine gun conversion kits to a person he thought was an al-Qaida operative — suspect allegedly shipped a range of firearms parts intended for terrorist attacks

By Mark Tyson published 11 October 25

A resident of Tulsa, Oklahoma is facing a potential 20 years in prison, for supplying another individual hundreds of 3D printed gun components.

Converted school bus turned into mobile retro computing museum — historic array includes Sinclair (Timex) ZX Spectrum 48K and Commodore 64

By Mark Tyson published 11 October 25

A father and son duo have converted an old school bus into a computer gaming museum.

Concerns grow after spate of social media posts showing SpaceX Starlink satellites burning in the sky — we are currently seeing a ‘couple of satellite re-entries a day,’ says respected astrophysicist

By Mark Tyson published 9 October 25

An astrophysicist interview underlines the growing risk of satellites, from the increasingly crowded skies, falling to Earth.

Legendary Microsoft developer reveals the true story behind the most famous product activation key of all time — infamous Windows XP 'FCKGW' licensing key was actually 'a disastrous leak'

By Mark Tyson published 9 October 25

Legendary Windows dev confirms the infamous XP-era 'FCKGW' volume licensing key was just a leak, not a hack.

SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL Wireless half price deal

Our best-pick SteelSeries 'HyperMagnetic' Apex Pro TKL Wireless gaming keyboard is half price — reduced to an all-time low of $125 for Prime Day

By Mark Tyson published 7 October 25

Deals SteelSeries has cut the price of its top-end wireless TKL keyboard in half for the Amazon Prime Big Deals Day.

Asus reveals how $500,000 ROG Astral RTX 5090D was made — world's most expensive GPU is hewn from 5KG of pure gold

By Mark Tyson published 7 October 25

Video reveals the goldsmithing work behind Asus ROG's one-off $500,000 RTX 5090D real gold graphics card.

Developer recreates classic shoot 'em up Zaxxon as a UEFI firmware — isometric arcade game coded in x86 assembly for no-OS represents 'total freedom from big tech'

By Mark Tyson published 6 October 25

A Zaxxon remake, coded in x86-64 Assembly language, is now available as a UEFI application.

Swiss lab where researchers are working to create computers powered by mini human brains revealed in new report — mini brain organoids revealed, developers say 'we shouldn't be scared of them'

By Mark Tyson published 6 October 25

A new report details a tour of a Swiss lab, where researchers are working to develop computers powered by mini human brains.

The transistor was patented 75 years ago today — the age of silicon and software began with a three-electrode circuit element using semiconductor materials

By Mark Tyson last updated 5 October 25

75 years ago, the three Bell Labs scientists behind the invention of the transistor would, at last, have the U.S. Patent in their hands.

A laser system to scare away wild birds and animals

Japanese tech giant deploys laser drones to protect chickens — drones are hoped to prevent the spread of avian flu

By Mark Tyson published 5 October 25

NTT has designed a laser drone system to protect poultry farms from potential spreaders of avian flu.

Ukraine’s rotating barbed wire drone barriers discovered by Russians — motorized barriers tear and slice the fiber-optic lines that jam-proof drones leave in their trail

By Mark Tyson published 5 October 25

Remote controlled fiber optic-tethered drones may have met their match with a new Ukrainian innovation.

Ultra-rare unreleased Pentium 4 with 4.0 GHz clock speed discovered — CPU-Z confirms it is an Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 980

By Mark Tyson published 4 October 25

A rare Intel engineering sample from the twilight of the Pentium 4 era has surfaced on social media.

AOL's dial-up internet service killed with a final modem screech after 34 years — America Online goes offline this week, but other dial-up services still exist

By Mark Tyson published 4 October 25

AOL's 34-year established dial-up service was finally shuttered this week.

Classic Snake game now playable in your browser URL address bar — JavaScript remake uses Unicode Braille characters to render the game

By Mark Tyson published 4 October 25

A new version of Snake, coded to run in your browser’s URL address bar, makes playing it on your old Nokia brick feel luxuriously high-res and futuristic.

Crazy Google Japan keyboard design switches keys for dials — the Gboard Dial Edition shows why the software team isn't allowed to design hardware

By Mark Tyson published 4 October 25

Google Japan’s Gboard team have designed and open-sourced a revolutionary new physical keyboard that boldly eschews keys in favor of dials.

Passive-aggressive iPhone 17 pro Max cooling

Monstrous SSD cooling solution strapped to iPhone 17 Pro Max delivers unparalleled performance — clocks 90% stability in 3D Mark Stress Test, jury still out on hideous aesthetics

By Mark Tyson published 2 October 25

A smartphone performance enthusiast has shown pictures of their PC SSD cooler-boosted iPhone 17 Pro Max on Reddit.

Undersea cable attacks drive sea drone development — Stark's Vanta unmanned vessels could be an affordable solution to protecting vital infrastructure

By Mark Tyson published 2 October 25

Anglo-German autonomous systems specialist Stark has demonstrated its first unmanned surface vessels (USVs) - sea drones.

ORNL shows off its next-generation 3D printing system

'Next-gen 3D printing' enables printing with two different materials at once — faster, lighter, and more precise multiplexing nozzle tech demoed by U.S. gov't scientists

By Mark Tyson published 30 September 25

A 'next-generation 3D printing system' has been demonstrated by scientists from the ORNL.

Wee Beastie Super Mini Fishtank PC on Kickstarter

Wee Beastie crowdfunding project promises 4.75L fish tank SFF PC packing a 'desktop' RTX 4070 — $699 design features modded 12GB GPU mounted on a circuit board

By Mark Tyson published 30 September 25

Compact new 4.75-liter Mini PC packs a 'desktop' RTX 4070 with 12GB VRAM for improved gaming and AI.

Mobile RTX 2070 with shunt mod nearly eclipses desktop performance — 60W boost provides 15% performance uplift

By Mark Tyson published 29 September 25

A PC enthusiast reports successfully shunt modding his Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Mobile GPU for a ~15% performance uplift.

Famed gamer creates working 5 million parameter ChatGPT AI model in Minecraft, made with 439 million blocks — AI trained to hold conversations, working model runs inference in the game

By Mark Tyson published 29 September 25

CraftGPT puts a functioning AI chatbot on a computer built inside Minecraft.

High-power microwave system downs 49 drones in one shot – weaponized electromagnetic interference erases drone swarms en masse

By Mark Tyson published 28 September 25

US electronics warfare specialist Epirus recently demonstrated its new flagship Leonidas weapon at a live fire trial in Indiana, disabling 'all 61-of-61 drones.'

First AirPods-controlled game uses undocumented Apple sensor for motion control — reverse-engineered spatial audio hardware enables 'RidePods - Race with Head' motorbike racing game

By Mark Tyson published 28 September 25

The first game that uses Apple’s AirPods as a motion controller has hit the App Store.

Enthusiasts bond twelve 56K modems together to set dial-up broadband records — a dozen screeching boxes achieve record 668 kbps download speeds

By Mark Tyson last updated 27 September 25

Can you stream YouTube via dial-up? You'll need at least four bonded 56K modems. But what if you have 12?

Modder takes hacksaw and hot glue to original Xbox to create a gaming handheld — ‘portable monstrosity’ has exposed spinning DVD in the center and plenty of duct tape, but works as intended

By Mark Tyson published 27 September 25

James Channel challenged himself to transmogrify the 'biggest, heaviest, power-hungry console anybody had ever seen' into a handheld. He did it. Duct tape and hot glue were very useful.

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